GUIANA

[Conquest of Cayenne, 1809.] Manuscript Petition to King George III, signed by Thomas Sevestre, surgeon of HMS Confiance, asking permission to 'enjoy the Privileges' of a Portuguese order. With seal of Portuguese ambassador Sousa Coutinho.

Author: 
Conquest of Cayenne, 1809 [French Guiana conquered by the Portuguese under British leadership]; Sir Thomas Sevestre (1784-1842) [Sir James Lucas Yeo (1782-1818)]
Publication details: 
Certified correct in London on 31 March 1810.
£250.00

The Conquest of Cayenne - part of Britain’s strategy of using its naval power to attack French colonial interests in the Napoleonic Wars - is described in the fifth volume of William James’s ‘Naval History of Great Britain’ (1827). Britain was only able to contribute HMS Confiance, but its captain James Lucas Yeo was put in charge of the whole expedition, and he and his crew performed with distinction (see Yeo’s entry in the Oxford DNB).

[ West Indies: signatures of four British Governors: Sir Edward Brandis Denham of British Guiana; Sir Thomas Reginald St Johnston, Leeward Islands; Sir William Charles Fleming Robertson, Barbados; Sir Alfred Claud Hollis, Trinidad and Tobago.

Author: 
Sir Edward Brandis Denham, Governor of British Guiana; Sir Thomas Reginald St Johnston, Leeward Islands; Sir William Charles Fleming Robertson, Barbados; Sir Alfred Claud Hollis, Trinidad and Tobago
Publication details: 
No place. Three of the signatures are dated from January 1932, the other two are undated.
£350.00

The five signatories are: Sir Alfred Claud Hollis (1874-1962), Governor of Trinidad and Tobago, 1930-1936, and author of a historical account of Spanish Trinidad; his wife Enid Mabel Hollis (née Longman), Lady Hollis (1888-1939); Sir Edward Brandis Denham (1876-1938), Governor of British Guiana, 1930–1935, and Jamaica, 1935–1938; Sir Thomas Reginald St Johnston (1881-1950), Governor of the Leeward Islands, 1929-1936; Sir William Charles Fleming Robertson (1867-1937), Governor of Barbados, 1925-1932. On one side of a 13.5 x 16.5 cm leaf of cream paper torn from an autograph album.

[Printed book.] A Soldier's Sojourn in British Guiana by Lt. Thomas Staunton St. Clair 1806-1808. Edited by Vincent Roth.

Author: 
Lt. Thomas Staunton St. Clair [Vincent Roth, ed.; The Daily Chronicle Ltd, Printers and Publishers, Georgetown, Demerara, British Guiana]
Publication details: 
The Daily Chronicle Ltd. Printers and Publishers, Georgetown, Demerara, British Guiana. 1947.
Upon request

[iii] + 281 + [viii] pp., 8vo. With illustrations in text and occasional annotations by the editor. Stapled, in illustrated card wraps with illustrated endpapers. On aged paper, with front cover, endpapers and first two leaves loose. The book is, as the editor explains in his foreword ('Georgetown, 1946'), extracted from Staunton's 'A Residence in the West Indies and America, with a Narrative of the Expedition to the Island of Walcheren' (London: Richard Bentley, 1834).

[Printed British parliamentary paper, 1913.] British Trade in Certain Colonies. Reports on British Trade in British West Africa, Straits Settlements, British Guiana, and Bermuda. Furnished to the Board of Trade by the Honorary Correspondents [...]

Author: 
[British parliamentary reports on British trade in British West Africa, Straits Settlements, British Guiana, and Bermuda, 1913.]
Publication details: 
London: Published by His Majesty's Stationery Office. Printed by Darling and Son, Ltd, London. 1913.
£95.00

Folio, 59 pp. Stitched. In original blue printed wraps. Good, on lightly-aged paper, in lightly-worn wraps. Title ends: '[...] by the Honorary Correspondents of their Commercial Intelligence Branch in those Colonies. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of His Majesty.' Title-page carries shelf-mark and stamp of the Bibliotheque du Palais de la Paix. Scarce.

Typed Letter Signed "F.S. van B. Stafford", to Dr. Eric Dingwall, "Assistant Honorary Keeper of the Printed Books, British Museum, London", about the corrupt practices of merchants in the colony. With related typescript.

Author: 
(Mrs) F.S. van B. Stafford [British Guiana; Guyana]
(Mrs) F.S. van B. Stafford [British Guiana; Guyana]
Publication details: 
Trent House, Main Street, Georgetown, B[ritish] G[uiana], 10 June 1947.
£225.00
(Mrs) F.S. van B. Stafford [British Guiana; Guyana]

One page, folio, fold marks, good condition. She has approached Dingwall as someone who could help make conditions in British Guiana better known in England. She refers to the enclosure of "Resolutions" from public meetings, identifying herself as the wife of a King's Counsel "who has acted as a judge on the Supreme Court Bench of this Colony." They need help to take on the merchants who are standing in the way of improving the standard of living. "The extreme poverty of the working classes of this Colony makes it imperative that steps be taken to bring down the cost of living . .

Anonymous part of long autograph letter regarding the setting up of a syndicate to be named 'Guiana Rivers Ltd', addressed to 'My dear Joan'.

Author: 
[GOLD MINING IN GUYANA]
Publication details: 
9 March 1930; 'Trent House | Main Street | Georgetown'.
£120.00

10 pages on 5 8vo leaves. In good condition, but with a few large blots. The first part of a letter by a writer who appears to be English. Straight out of B. Traven. The author wants Joan to join him and Gwen in partnership with Hamerly. 'Hamerly is down here from one of his expeditions & we became friendly through his having lived & travelled widely in the Paraguayan Chaco.

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