It was about the year 1626 that a Mr. Van Peire, a wealthy, merchant of Flushing, first sent ships to sail up the Berbice river, and began to establish a trade with the native Indians. But as early as 1580, the Zealanders had attempted to fix themselves on the banks of the Oronoko and Pomeroon rivers; and the same enterprising merchant, who began to explore the Berbice in 1626, had obtained permission to establish factories, and to traffic with the natives on these coasts in 1602. The Spaniards, however, becoming jealous of the Hollander, drove Van Peire and his factories from their immediate neighbourhood, and it was while in quest of a more quiet settlement that they sailed up the Berbice.

Van Peire's ships landed a number of adventurers, at a considerable distance from the mouth of the river, where they built a small fort for their security, while conducting their trade with the Indians.

These adventurers were no doubt considered by Van Peire as his servants, or factors, as they received all their support and supplies from his ships. It was much about the same time (1626) that some English ships sailed up the Surinam River, took possession of its banks, and there established themselves; and it is evident that this colony must have been in great favour at home, for so early as 1675, not fifty years from the first settlement, when it was transferred to the Dutch, more than 2000 British colonists left it, and proceeded to Jamaica, then esteemed the true Land of Promise, and the most important of all the foreign possessions which England had ever acquired.

On Saturday, the 28th of February, 1835, about five o'clock in the evening, we left Scarborough Bay, and, as hidden rocks are numerous along the shore for a considerable distance, caution was necessary in steering to the westward. The gentle trade-wind drove us steadily along, and, as the current was also in our favour, we glided softly through the waters. As long as daylight served, the sailors amused themselves with catching king-fish; this they did with long lines cast out from the stern of the ship, and hooks baited with thin slices of fat pork. They appeared to be very plentiful, for frequently every hook was occupied, and I am sure there were more than a dozen lines in requisition. The run from one island to the other did not take more than an hour and a half, but the whole night was consumed in sailing along the northern shore of Trinidad. There was much thunder and lightning, and heavy showers of rain during the night; but when the sun rose on Sunday, the first of March, the scene which burst upon our wondering sight was one of the most sublime and beautiful in nature. We were close under the land, at the western extremity of the main island; in the foreground were bleak and barren rocks, undermined by hollow caverns, and clothed at their summits with all that luxuriance of flower and forest-tree which gives so much beauty and brilliancy to West Indian scenery.

The degree of civilisation of any people corresponds with the exaltation of the idea which is the most prevalent among that people. The prominent idea of savages is the necessity of providing for the supply of the commonest bodily wants. The first steps in civilisation, therefore, are somewhat refined methods of treating the body. When, by combination of labour and other exercises of ingenuity, the wants of the body are supplied with regularity and comparative ease, the love of pleasure, the love of idleness, succeeds. Then comes the desire of wealth; and next, the regard to opinion. Further than this no nation has yet attained. Individuals there have been, probably in every nation under heaven, who have lived for a higher idea than any of these; and insulated customs and partial legislation have, among all communities, shown a tendency towards something loftier than the prevalent morality. The majesty of higher ideas is besides so irresistible, that an involuntary homage, purely inefficacious, has been offered to them from of old by the leaders of society.

It is true that it is better to live for honour than for wealth: but how much better, depends upon the idea of honour. Where truth and justice are more than hollow words, the idea of honour is such as to exclude all fear, except of wrong-doing. Where the honour is to be derived from present human opinion, there must be fear, ever present, and perpetually exciting to or withholding from action. In such a case, as painful a bondage is incurred as in the pursuit of wealth. If riches take to themselves wings, and fly away, so does popularity. If rich freights are in danger afar off from storms, and harvests at home from blights, so is reputation, from differences of opinion, and varieties of views and tempers. If all that moralists have written, and wise men have testified, about the vanity and misery of depending on human applause be true, there can be no true freedom in communities, any more than for individuals, who live to opinion.

On Monday, the 17th of March, 1834, I left the island of Barbados, and on Friday, the 21st of the same month, landed at Georgetown, in the colony of British Guiana. When the trade-winds blow from the north of east the passage has been made in sixty hours, or in less time, but in general it occupies three or four days.

The colony or province now called “British Guiana,” comprehends the whole of that territory on the coast of the South American continent which was originally colonized by the Dutch; and what is rather singular, the Dutch now possess the only small portion of the same continent that was first colonized by the English, viz. Surinam.

Under its new and now recognised appellation of “British Guiana,” are comprehended the three distinct Dutch settlements or colonies, upon the banks of the rivers Berbice, Demerary, and Essequibo; a tract of country extending from the equator to nearly ten degrees north, and stretching along the Atlantic Ocean for 200 and 300 miles; from the banks of the Great Oronoko on the west, to the borders of the before-mentioned river or colony of Surinam on the east.

The eastern boundary is the most southerly; and at the extreme west, the soil deposited from the waters of the Oronoko causes the land to trend considerably to the north. Georgetown, the capital city of the province, stands on the banks of the river Demerary, near its mouth, and is as nearly as possible in the centre, between the two extreme points.

Society in America is as much in a transition state about religion as France and England are about politics. The people are in advance of the clergy in America, as the English are in advance of such of their political institutions as are in dispute. Discouraging as the aspect of religious profession in America is on a superficial survey, a closer study will satisfy the observer that all will be well; that the most democratic, of nations is religious at heart; and that its superstitions and offences against the spirit of Christianity are owing to temporary influences.