General Defcription of Guiana—of the Colony"of Surinam
in particular—Accounts o f its- eaPlieft ftifcoHery— is
poffejfed by the Engltfh—by the Dutch—Murder of the
Governor, Dord Somelfdyk—The Settlement taken by the
French, and ranfomed.
T H E difcovery of Guiana, by fame called " the Wild
6i Coaft,” has been: Icpg (though with uncertainty)
attributed to the Spanilh commander ^afp.Nunes, who,
in the year 1504, after difcoyering Cuba, tp he an iftand,
landed on the continent of South America, penetrated'af
far as between the riyers Oroonoko and Amazon-, and
comprehended that country in the extenfive tracft of
land, to which, in contfadi&ion to Cuba and the adjacent
iflands, he gave the name of Terra F i&ma.
This country, the lengthef which is about iaao, and
the breadth about 680 geographical miles, is fituated
between eight degrees twenty minutes north, and three
degrees fouth latitude, and between fifty and feventy
degrees twenty minutes weft longitude from the meridian
of London, in the N. E. part of South America. Its
boundaries are marked by the rivers Viapary or Oroonoko
on the, N. W. and by the Maranon or river Amazon
on the S. E. — The N. E. is wafhed by the Atlantic
Ocean; and the river Negris, or Black river, terminates its
extent on the S. W. which form it into a kind of ifland,
and feparate it from New Grenada, Peru, and the Brazils.
Though fituated, like Guinea, under the Torrid Zone,
9 the
E X P S E> I T I O IJ, , T O S U^R I N A M. * 3I
|he heats in Guiana are much more fupportable than c h a p .
thole on that pari p f the" African coaft. The fcorching \ **•_
fays, of the lun are in ‘Guiana dauy tempered^by cooling' x-
-breezes from the vyhile/in Guinea tWintenfe heat is
increased by the wind "blowing continually over the land,
and in its paftage traverfing numerous bandy* deiarts.
The eafterlv or trade wipds. wnicn ^enerarlA'pIow ’be-
tween the Tropics, are extremely jerreihing io the coaft
of .Guiana, "between the houjFor eignt or ten . in the
'morning, and fix o’clock, in jheeromjagJ when fthly^aft;
io operate, and a zepWr;l#fcarcel y ever heard to" whifper
during the might. ^Tfiefe^anc3sJ are .fucgeedea by thick
fo g f anayapours .exhaled,from,tne earth, which render
the mights in this amntry not .only veny chilly, but" extremely
damp and unhealthy. Tne length of the «days
and .nights,-(m Guiana. neyer®yaries fnuch more rhari
fpffy n n p ir^ . duniig. the cqurte of theyear,* as tne fun
always fifes aboutyKs in the morning,* ana Teif* at ?fhe
fame hour in the evening.,
‘"The rainy ancr dry feafons which divide tne year, as
jccijld. Jana warm weather divide it in Europe, may' be
termed the winter ami mmther, of"this country. Them
is lioweyer one remarkable difference hetween the European
feafons and thofe ip Guiana», wnlcfi is,'That Guiana
has .annually two winters and. tywa mmmer%AvhicK’ arfe
each other by the .appellation of the
, the rains, are. lefs
violent ih the tWo lattef fHafdns, 'or the heat lefs intenfe,
but from an ‘ opinion,,y«i^h prevailed, that their pe- I
xiod of duration is but about half as lohg as that of the
vol. I. e 4 ^former.