Map of the colony of Berbice

Title Leupe: Kaart van Rio Berbice en Rio Canje, met de namen der plantagen en derzelver eigenaars enz.

In Berbice, as in the other Wild Coast colonies, the areas in the lower reaches and on the adjacent coast became increasing more important to the plantation industry in the late-eighteenth century.

This anonymous general map from one of the first years following the British occupation of 1781 and the subsequent French interim administration until 1784 shows how, precisely there, in the brief period of foreign rule more than twenty new estates were designated.

Given this gradual economic shift it was inevitable that also the administrative centre of power would eventually move to the estuary, and in 1785 that was exactly what the Society directorate decided to do.

However, the plan was not implemented until 1790 which is why it is not reflected in this map.

North is lower left.

Scale-bars of 2000 Rhineland rods. / 2 German miles of 15 per degree = [approximately 1 : 106,000].