During the earlier period of this country’s history, one or another of the Dutch colonies which once occupied the space that is now Guyana, came under periodic attack from French or English raiders. The end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries were particularly difficult times for the local Dutch, who never knew which flotilla bearing their enemies might be rounding the bend of a river on any given day.
At this period, these invaders did not stay; they were privateers really, in other words licensed pirates who were financed by investors in their home countries to sail out across the ocean and plunder their foes. In the case of France, King Louis XIV himself invested money in some of the corsairs, as they were known there. In circumstances where his treasury was under pressure, it was a cheap way of fighting those countries with whom he was at war, since he didn’t have to bear the whole expense of fitting out the ships and could make a profit by taking a cut of the spoils.
It was not until 1781 onwards, when privateers in this part of the world had long since faded into oblivion, that the French and the British actually occupied Guyana – without a shot being fired, it
