Add MS 69464 C

C. Sketch plan of southern British Guiana, with 'concession' territory marked; 1904. Signed 'M. Hint', and dated '15/6/04'. Scale [1:1111600]. Scale bar of 50 English miles (= 72mm). Map is oriented with North at the top. The map shows the 'concession' territory in British Guiana, marked in red, an area bounded by the Cuyuni river to the north, the Wenamu to the west, the Mazaruni to the east, and the boundary with Venezuela to the south-west. A small square representing 40 square miles is marked by hatch-lines in the north-west corner of this square, which a note in the lower left-hand corner of the map indicates is to represent 'mineral prospection'. Mining concessions were granted by the British from 1887 after they had made a formal declaration of sovereignty over the territory within the so-called Schomburgk line, the boundary with Venezuela. The considerable gold mining industry declined after the mid-1890s as a result of the border dispute between British Guiana and Venezuela. After arbitration, the claim was settled largely in British favour: the Schomburgk line was almost entirely kept as the border, and appears as such on this map, although it proved impossible because of the nature of the terrain to mark a boundary between the head of the Wenamu and the summit of Mount Roraima, and a further compromise had to be made. The revival of the mining industries in the 1900s was fostered by German interests and included diamonds and bauxite as well as gold. For further details of the border dispute, see Vere T. Daly, A short history of the Guyanese people (1975), pp. 275-281, and Leslie Bethell (ed.), The Cambridge History of Latin America, Vol. IV, c.1870-1930 (Cambridge, 1986), pp. 92-93.

Ink and watercolour on paper. 240 x 245mm., but ragged tear along upper edge resulting in loss of text suggests that the map may originally have shown the whole of British Guiana, and have measured approx. 360 x 245mm.

Maps and Plans: M. Hint, [mineral prospector?], of British Guiana: British Guiana: Sketch map by M. Hint of southern part of British Guiana: 1904.