Georgetown, Guyana

“ Guyana achieved independence from the UK in 1966 and became a republic in 1970. In 1989 Guyana launched an Economic Recovery Program, which marked a dramatic reversal from a state-controlled, socialist economy towards a more open, free market system. Results through the first decade have proven encouraging. ”

“ Not only in her grassy lawns and wooden houses, her stern morality and her altruistic treatment of the aborigines, does Georgetown remind the Anglo-Saxon wanderer that the differences between his own and Latin-American civilization are many, significant as well as trivial. ”

“ Guyana Americans are law- abiding people who contribute to American society as good citizens while respecting the values of our society.
Guyana joins the United States in promoting political and economic freedoms; combating poverty, crime, disease, and drugs; and promoting security, regional stability, and prosperity. ”

“ As this side of the Island cannot have a fishery, it may probably be thought expedient to indulge it with some particular privileges; and as all the judicial and civil, as well as a good part of the commercial business will be transacted here, it will make it at least equally flourishing with the other county towns.
“Georgetown is recommended to be built on the point of land called Cardigan Point, there being a good harbour for ships of any burthen on each side of Cardigan river on the north, or on Montague river on the south side ”

“ All sorts of mechanics are sure of steady employment at wages from one to two dollars per day, according to their skill. Seamstresses and domestics are much needed and will find full employment. Any emigrant who can command a small capital, can open a shop, or set up various kinds of business to good advantage. Georgetown, the capital, situated at the mouth of the river Demarara, is a place of about twelve [Pg 12] thousand inhabitants, and furnishes abundant employment in all those branches of business usually carried on in a commercial town. ”

“ The resolution recognizes the 40th anniversary of Guyana's independence and extends best wishes to that nation for peace and further progress, development, and prosperity.
Guyana has been a real friend, Madam Speaker, to the U.S. and an ally in the fight against terror. The friendship between our two nations has been strengthened by large numbers of folks who have migrated to the United States. Here the Guyanese diaspora makes significant contributions to both the U.S. and Guyana. ”

“ The sitting-rooms in Georgetown open through to each other, so that the wind, let it come which way it will, may blow through the whole house. For though it is never absolutely hot in Guiana—as I have before mentioned—nevertheless, a current of air is comfortable. ”

“ The diplomatic question as to the boundary—the results of which are stated above—was passed out of the hands of the colony; see the account of the arbitration under Venezuela.
The last two months of 1905 were marked by serious disturbances in Georgetown, and in a lesser degree on the east and west banks of the Demerara river. On the 29th of November the dock labourers employed on the wharves in Georgetown struck for higher wages, and large crowds invaded the principal stores in the city, compelling men willing to work to desist and in some cases assaulting those who opposed them. ”

“ As in Georgetown, they created a vast interest, and were considerably annoyed by the crowds of natives which followed at their heels, many of whom carried baskets of fruit on their heads and constantly importuned them to buy some of their wares. ”

“ There is now no limit to the ambition of the inhabitants of Port Elizabeth. On the way to Cape Town we called at Mossel Bay, a picturesque little seaport lying midway between Algoa and Table Bays. Georgetown, thirty-six miles away, is the prettiest place in the Cape Colony. The Kinyena Forest, which stretches away to the bay, is one of the few really large forests in South Africa. In it elephants and rhinoceri still roam, and buffaloes, leopards, and every variety of antelope are found, while from its thickets come most of the hard-wood lumber used for the wagon-making districts of the colony. ”

“ There are no other towns of any size in the Gambia. A trading station called Georgetown is situated on McCarthy’s Island, so named after Sir Charles McCarthy, the governor of Sierra Leone, who in 1824 was captured and beheaded by the Ashanti at the battle of Essamako. ”

“ But neither Jamaica, nor Demerara, nor Barbadoes, possesses a correct epitome of itself in Kingston, Georgetown, or even Bridgetown; each of these three seaports has a character of its own, distinct from, and in some respects opposed to, the colony at large. This is due to many causes; and most of all to the "mixed multitude" of trade, the camp-followers of enterprise, who, under whatever banner they congregate, acknowledge in heart and life no flag but that of individual self-interest. These are they who muster strongest in the generality of colonial towns, especially seaports ”

“ As the Calcutta put out to sea ten thousand musical West Indian voices [225] on the Georgetown wharves joined with the light cruiser's band in the strains of "Auld Lang Syne." Probably never in the history of this important British outpost in South America has patriotic sentiment held more undivided sway or the fact been made more clear that the hearts of its flourishing inhabitants still turn faithfully to the old country. Its people are looking to England at the moment with some hope, as well, of that co-ordination of Imperial resources of which British Guiana stands so much in need. ”

“ These show the pains I have taken with the government of Louis Philippe, King of France, in order to open a new line of commercial communication between Cayenne and French Guyana and the republics of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela.
But I have always thought that our America, by the intelligence of its people, was to make a great social and commercial change; and I have always thought that this change would operate by means of its gigantic and navigable rivers. This conception is corroborated by the announcement of the discovery of the gold regions of Carabaya. ”

“ The distance between the leafy shades of the Choultry Plain and the busy native town of Madras, known in my time as Blacktown, but now called Georgetown, is not great; yet there could be no greater contrast of scene as one passes from one to the other. The luxuriant herbage gives place to narrow streets thronged with busy humanity. The only tree that remains faithful is the cocoanut palm, which springs from the tiny enclosed yards and lifts its crown high up into the brilliant sunshine and humid sea-breeze. ”

“ Penang itself is an island, and as we swing round to the capital town, Georgetown, on the inner or land side, we see an astonishing mass of green, with a great hill clothed almost to the summit rising behind the town. ”

“ Georgetown, fourteen miles from Coloma, was the present end of our journey. This is a small and sombre collection of log-houses in the midst of a dark pine forest. There are few objects more pleasing and picturesque than a log-house standing by itself in an open clearing; but twenty or more of them together, in formal rows, are anything but attractive. Their dark rough walls drink up all the sunshine. They are as much out of place as an Indian or trapper in a great city, and have an air of melancholy about them, as if they pined for their native solitudes. ”

“ They are not only in Georgetown, but all over the island of Penang, and on the main-land. Some of them have been here for many years, and either brought wives from China, or married Malay ones; they have no intention of going back to China but will end their days in Penang. The most of these old settlers are rich, and have fine houses, with magnificent gardens filled with fruits and flowers; but there are plenty of poor settlers who cultivate the soil, and live in modest huts among their market-gardens and pepper-fields. ”

“ In Georgetown, the capital of Demerara, there is a large shed, open on all sides, built for them by order of Government. Hither the Indians come with monkeys, parrots, bows and arrows, and pegalls. They sell these to the white men for money, and too often purchase rum with it, to which they are wonderfully addicted.
Government allows them annual presents in order to have their services when the colony deems it necessary to scour the forests in quest of runaway negroes. Formerly these expeditions were headed by Charles Edmonstone, Esq., now of Cardross Park, near Dumbarton. ”

“ The large room was for ordinary Indian men, one of the smaller ones for married couples, and the third for “captains,” certified river-pilots, and other personages of importance—for your Englishman never forgets caste, even among aboriginal tribes. Here any Indian has the right, and is expected, to come and stay, free of expense, while in Georgetown, buying his own food and cooking it himself in a simple kitchen behind the building. ”

“ Economy ———-
Economic overview: In 1995, Guyana, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, posted its fifth straight year of economic growth of 5% or better, with the advance led by gold mining and by production of rice, sugar, and forestry products for export. Favorable factors include recovery in the key agricultural and mining sectors, a more favorable atmosphere for business initiative, a more realistic exchange rate, a sharp drop in the inflation rate, and the continued support of international organizations. ”

“ Chief among the manufactories are several large flour mills—Georgetown flour was long noted for its excellence. There is a very large fish-market here. Georgetown was settled late in the 17th century, was laid out as a town in 1751, chartered as a city in 1789, merged in the District of Columbia in 1871, and annexed to the city of Washington in 1878. ”

“ For instance, it is the Essequebo and its tributary the Rupununi which ought to form a natural highway across British Guiana to Brazil. But the cattle-track, just opened to Georgetown from the Colony’s lowland savannahs near the Brazilian border, studiously avoids the Essequebo, which it touches only at Kurupukari, there crossing the river and leaving it for good. Again, the Essequebo and its tributary the Cuyuni should form the main avenue of approach from British [30] Guiana to Ciudad Bolivar on the Orinoco, in the heart of Venezuela. ”

“ The distance to be crossed scarcely exceeds a hundred miles; but the nature of the country was utterly unknown, and, indeed, with the exception of a few independent tribes of Indians along the banks of the rivers, it is entirely uninhabited by man. The whole civilized population of the republic, both White and Indian, is collected on the Pacific slope of the country, Greytown being the only settlement of any size on the Caribbean Coast, which, in the days of Spanish rule, was the favorite haunt of, the English, Dutch, and French bucca-neers ”

“ Of these islands the population perhaps numbers 1,500,000, mostly blacks, and mulattoes, with a small percentage of white officials and merchants. The larger islands of Jamaica with 900,000 people, Barbados with 200,000 and Trinidad with 300,000 are the only ones worth visiting for business purposes, as merchants in these places have trading connections with residents of the smaller localities. Kingston in Jamaica, Georgetown in Barbados, and Port of Spain in Trinidad are the only large cities, and have good hotels and prosperous business houses. ”

“ D. G. Brinton, Races and Peoples, page 268. "Related to the Caribs stand a long list of small tribes ... all inhabitants of the great primeval forest in and near Guiana. They may have characteristic differences, but none worthy of mention are known. In bodily appearance, according to all accounts, these relatives of the Caribs are beautiful. In Georgetown the Arauacas [or Arawaks] are celebrated for their beauty. They are slender and graceful, and their features handsome and regular, the face having a Grecian profile, and the skin being of a reddish cast. ”

“ Speaker, this hands-on approach characterized Leo Ryan's work here in Congress, where he served on the Foreign Affairs Committee. In early 1978, concerns had been raised about U.S. citizens being held against their will in Guyana ”

“ From the standpoint of the race little or nothing has been gained by the English conquest and colonization of Jamaica. Jamaica has merely been turned into a negro island, with a future, seemingly, much like that of San Domingo. British Guiana, however well administered, is nothing but a colony where a few hundred or few thousand white men hold the superior positions, while the bulk of the population is composed of Indians, Negroes, and Asiatics. Looked at through the vista of the centuries, such a colony contains less promise of true growth than does a State like Venezuela or Ecuador. ”

“ A pillar was erected with the inscription, "James, King of England and this island," but nothing was done in the way of a settlement until immediately after Warner commenced planting in St. Kitt's. The most intimate connection existed between Barbados and Guiana from the earliest times, as in fact it does to the present day, for Captain Powell, the commander of the little company of pioneers, sent to his Dutch friend, Groenwegel, in Essequebo, for a party of Arawak Indians to teach the new-comers how to plant provisions, cotton, and tobacco. ”

“ It is difficult for one who has recently visited the West Indies to imagine that it was ever necessary for Jamaica to import coolie labourers. The negro to-day is willing to work for any man who will treat him decently and pay him fairly and regularly. But necessary it was a few years back, and in Jamaica are to be found to-day many East Indians who thrive in the island, and do much useful labour in a characteristically unostentatious manner. ”