ates, and
mostly from the neighborhood of the white man, to enjoy a savage freedom
of ignorance and idleness, beyond the reach of example and sometimes of
control. But on the condition of the negro I shall dwell more at length
hereafter; at present it is the state of property with which I have to
do. What are the districts which together form the county of Berbice?
The Corentyne coast--the Canje Creek--east and west banks of the Berbice
River--and the west coast, where, however, cotton was formerly the chief
article produced. To each of these respectively the following passages,
quoted in order, apply:--

"'The abandoned plantations on this coast,[181] which, if capital and
labor could be procured, might easily be made very productive, are
either wholly deserted, or else appropriated by hordes of squatters, who
of course are unable to keep up at their own expense the public roads
and bridges; and consequently all communication by land between the
Corentyne and New Amsterdam is nearly at an end. The roads are
impassable for horses or carriages, while for foot passengers they are
extremely dangerous. The number of villages in this deserted region must
be upward of 2500, and as the country abounds with fish and game, they
have no difficulty in making a subsistence. In fact, the Corentyne coast
is fast relapsing into a state of nature.'

"'Canje Creek was formerly considered a flourishing district of the
county, and numbered on its east bank seven sugar and three coffee
estates, and on its west bank eight estates, of which two were in sugar
and six in coffee, making a total of eighteen plantations. The coffee
cultivation has long since been entirely abandoned, and of the sugar
estates but eight still now remain. They are suffering severely for want
of labor, and being supported principally by African and Coolie
immigrants, it is much to be feared that if the latter leave and claim
their return passages to India, a great part of the district will
become abandoned.'

"Under present circumstances, so gloomy is the condition of affairs
here,[182] that the two gentlemen whom your commissioners have examined
with respect to this district, both concur in predicting "its slow but
sure approximation to the condition in which civilized man first found
it."'

"'A district[183] that in 1829 gave employment to 3635 registered
slaves, but at the present moment there are not more than 600 laborers
at work on the few estates still in