Georgetown

Georgetown (formerly the Dutch Stabroek), capital of British Guiana, is situated on the right bank of the Demerara River, not far from its mouth. It is handsomely built, and consists of wide, clean streets, intersecting at right angles; the brightly painted wooden houses, with their Swiss eaves developed into handsome verandahs, are generally raised on piles a few feet above the unhealthy soil, and embosomed in trees, of which the cabbage-palm and cocoa-nut are the chief. Some of the streets, with their long colonnades of palms, are traversed by wide trenches or canals, with bridges at the cross streets. The principal public edifices are the government building, the cathedral, the Queen's College, and a museum and library. There are botanical gardens, several hospitals, an icehouse, and two markets. Water for ordinary purposes is supplied from a canal, the mains being laid through most of the principal streets; and artesian wells, besides tanks for the storage of rain, have to some extent supplied the lack of drinking-water. There is a short railway to Mahaica, and a telephone exchange has been established in connection with the government telegraph system. There is a good harbour, with a lighthouse, and defences erected within recent years; the foreign trade is virtually that of the colony (see GUIANA, BRITISH). Pop. (1891) 53,176, including many coolies and scarcely 5000 whites. See also GAMBIA, PENANG.