In South America, British Guiana occupies a large extent of country between the rivers Orinoco and Amazons, giving access to numbers of tribes of aborigines who wander over the vast regions of the interior. The Indian population within the colony of Demerara and Essequibo, is derived from four nations, the Caribs, Arawacks, Warrows, and Accaways. It is acknowledged that they have been diminishing ever since the British came into possession of the colony. In 1831 they were computed at 5096; and it is stated “it is the opinion of old inhabitants of the colony, and those most competent to judge, that a considerable diminution has taken place in the aggregate number of the Indians of late years, and that the dimunition, although gradual, has become more sensibly apparent within the last eight or ten years.” The diminution is attributed, in some degree, to the increased use of rum amongst them.[54] There are in the colony six gentlemen bearing the title of “Protectors of Indians,” whose office it is to superintend the tribes; and under them are placed post-holders, a principal part of whose business it is to keep the negroes from resorting to the Indians, and also to attend the distribution of the presents which are given to the latter by the British government; of which, as was noticed with reprehension by Lord Goderich, rum formed a part. It does not appear[55] that anything has been done by government for their moral or religious improvement, excepting the grant in 1831, by Sir B. D’Urban, of a piece of land at Point Bartica, where a small establishment was then founded by the Church Missionary Society. The Moravian Mission on the Courantin was given up in 1817; and it does not appear that any other Protestant Society has attended to these Indians. In 1831, Lord Goderich writes,[56] “I have not heard of any effort to convert the Indians of British Guiana to Christianity, or to impart to them the arts of social life.”