NAVIGATION

The first trading posts on the wild coasts of South America in the upper Amazonian basin were set up in the early 17th century by the British and the Dutch. The former paradoxically in Suriname, and the latter in what was later to become British Guiana. In the early days the colonists had drawn slave labour from among the native Arawak and Carib Indian population. In the 1700’s slavery was confined to Negroes imported from Africa many of whom successfully escaped into the jungle.
It was not until 1834 that the British colonies emancipated their slaves. The French followed in 1848, but it was 1863 before the Dutch fell into line. Over the preceding three centuries more than 10 million slaves had been imported into the Americas alive.