Читать книгу Through British Guiana to the summit of Roraima онлайн

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Near Matope, on a hill-shoulder on the right bank of the river, stand the ruins of the house in which the government gold officer of the district used to live in the days of the big gold rushes. He must have had a charming abode. We explored remains of a lovely garden terraced in the hill-side. Beautiful clumps of feathery bamboo framed delicious views of sky, river, and forest, adream in the golden sunlight; whilst bougainvillea, oleander, and petrea made the foreground a riot of colour. But Nature in tropical climates pursues her task of blotting out the works of man with surprising swiftness. The house, a wooden structure of the usual Creole type, had fallen to pieces inside under the influence of wood-ants, and its three stories were filled with a glorious alamander-bush, thrusting its golden blossoms everywhere, filling all the deserted space, and forcing its way out over the roof.

Doubtless one day in the far-distant future these lovely reaches of river will be colonized. Plantations of limes, coffee, and rubber will replace the all-enveloping forests, and managers’ houses will crown the little hills. Although so close to the equator, the sun in British Guiana has little of its eastern fierceness and the climate is wonderfully healthy, if elementary principles of hygiene and sanitation are observed. Once away from the mosquito-ridden coastal swamps, our experience has always been that we can expose and exert ourselves in a way that would be impossible in the East, and I believe that on these inviting hills white men, with wives and children, could live in health and comfort. Communications are needed; motor-roads to run through the forest connecting the settler with civilization and his neighbours. One pioneer, Mr. G. B. Withers, has cleared and planted with rubber the hills on the Mazaruni opposite the Penal Settlement, and has constructed a motor-road through the forest to connect his estate with the Agatash Lime Plantation on the Essequebo above Bartika. No metalling was necessary, since the forest floor, once cleared of stumps, makes an admirable surface. All the big forest trees have been left standing, only the “under-bush” being removed, for shade thus prevents the swift upspringing of vegetable growth which would occur in any place exposed to the direct rays of the tropical sun. Cool even at midday, with hats and helmets removed to enjoy the delicious shade, to drive along these cleverly-aligned gradients is a treat indeed; and one dreams of the transformation which might be wrought by motor transport in this unopened land.