British Guiana never suffers from those violent storms and hurricanes with which other tropical regions are visited. Along the whole coast, vessels can ride at anchor in perfect safety, at all seasons of the year. The whole shore is a bed of deep soft mud, and can be approached by vessels without danger.
The latitude of the coast, along which the settlements are situated, is about seven degrees, north. The longitude of Georgetown, the capital, is about fifty-seven degrees west from Greenwich. Its direction from the city of New York is considerably east of south. The distance is about two thousand miles, or twenty days' sail, very nearly the same distance as New Orleans.
Situated under the tropic, Guiana enjoys a perpetual summer. The thermometer generally ranges from 78° to 84°. The trade winds, which blow constantly from the coast, render the climate comfortable and salubrious. The year is divided into four seasons, two rainy and two dry. The short rainy season usually commences about December, and lasts four weeks: the long rainy season begins in June, and lasts till the middle of August. But as regards these seasons there is a good deal of variation. In the rainy season, the rain falls violently during the forenoon, but the afternoons are clear and pleasant. During the dry season occasional showers occur.
The only portion of this fertile country which has yet been settled and cultivated, is a narrow strip extending along the coast, and a little distance up the mouths of the principal rivers, together with some islands at the entrance of the Essequebo. The plantations are generally about half a mile wide, fronting on the sea, and extending back two, three, four or five miles. This series of adjoining plantations forms the only cultivated part of the country, which thus resembles a long string of villages half a mile apart.
The soil of the plantations, which is very deep and rich, is divided by canals into separate fields. The same fields are cultivated in constant succession, and no manure is ever used. The canals not only serve to drain and irrigate the land, but also to convey the canes, when cut, to the sugar-house. Sugar and coffee are principally cultivated. There are a few cotton plantations, and some devoted to the cultivation of the plantain, which, with a rich variety of other vegetables, such as the sweet potato, the banana, yams, the casava, &c., furnish a large part of the food of the inhabitants. There are also large cattle farms. Cattle are abundant, and beef is cheap.
The uncultivated tracts abound with a vast variety of useful plants and trees. Many of the trees furnish excellent timber. There are in the colony several steam mills employed in the manufacture of lumber.
II. FORM OF GOVERNMENT, ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE, CIVIL DIVISIONS, POPULATION, SOCIAL EQUALITY.
British Guiana is a colony, conquered some forty years since from the Dutch, belonging to Great Britain. It is what is called a crown colony, and all its laws are made, or revised in England.