I came across this book of reminiscences about Guyana authored in 1898 by Henry Kirke as a result of an internet email thread and the advent of digitizing technology now being used to preserve works in danger of being lost from the record. This particular edition was digitized by a Microsoft initiative out of the collection of the University of California of all places.

Somewhere down the line, I happened to be copied on an email being circulated by Guyanese keeping in touch with each other via the net. The note originally from “Ravi” to his friend Charlie very nicely sets up the book and the anecdote about his finding:

Charlie
Yesterday afternoon, while waiting for my order of special duck, boneless spare ribs, and BBQ pork low mein to be prepared at a local strip mall Chinese restaurant (and yes, I like my pig!), I stumbled upon a gem of a book in the second hand bookstore next door.

It’s an original, 1898 ex-library copy of the memoir of an Englishman, Henry Kirke, who lived in then British Guiana for 25 years in the late 1800’s and who served in various official capacities, including being the Sheriff of Essequibo and Demerara respectively.

Now, I didn’t know that there were ever sheriffs in British Guiana but now the origin of the name Sheriff Street starts to make a bit more sense.

One of the duties of the sheriff was to carry out the sentences issued by the courts which included death by hanging and some of these are recorded in the most gruesome of details.

But the book is fascinating in many other regards because, apart from offering a lot of insight into how the British passed their time in the colony, it highlights in no considerable detail the daily lives of the various ethnic groups in Guyana and their relationships with each other and is not without humor.

It’s also filled with interesting snippets of information (e.g., do you know the origin of the words, Demerara, Essequibo, and kiskadee?). Having nearly finished reading it last night, I have to say that Kirke comes over as being an individual who performed his duties efficiently but was not devoid of a conscience and even seemed to have fairly progressive views for the times on a number of issues.

Of course, one of the first things I did after getting home was to go online to abebooks.com to see what an original copy might be worth. It turns out that the book was republished in paperback in 2008 and you can get a copy for about ten dollars.

The original 1898 version (in the best of conditions) would set you back a couple of hundred bucks if you really wanted to have it. Mine had a few cracks to the binding that I repaired with paper glue but is otherwise in very good condition, even including the original but slightly torn fold out map.

I was so excited about my find that I told the young guy at the counter that I was from Guyana and he thought I was talking about Papua-New Guinea!

Anyway, the best thing about it (and the reason for this very long message) is that I’ve just discovered that the ENTIRE CONTENTS of the book, from cover to cover and with a clickable index, is available online at Google books and so you can all share in this wonderful discovery with me! 🙂
http://books.google.com/books?id=8l9DAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source
Ravi

***
The writer’s excitement at his find, the interest by others on the thread and the fact that SchoolNet Guyana in which I’m involved is working towards digitizing Guyanese material, all spurred me to do a bit of digging myself and I found that the book is available for download free of charge on the Internet Archive at:
http://www.archive.org/details/twentyfiveyearsi00kirkrich

In this work, Henry Kirke spins a narrative of reminiscences of his experiences, the places he travelled to across the country, characters he encountered and changes over twenty-five years from 1872 to 1897.

The book is largely anecdotal, but embedded in Kirke’s story telling, there is much to be gleaned by anyone interested in the circumstances and forces that molded us.

The reminiscences meanders through a variety of topics and paints verbal pictures as varied as the climate, the incessant sound of frogs, mosquitoes, houses and tree lined streets, interesting characters, Georgetown Club, swizzle sticks, pepperpot on the stove, jumbies, sugar estates, the Argosy weekly newspaper, plant and animal life, the beauty of the land, insights into colonial administration and the choosing of Bartica as a gateway town.

Outside of his job at different points as a jurist, colonial administrator and sheriff, Kirke was a multifaceted individual with gifted observational proclivities which combined the talents of a naturalist, sketch artist, outdoorsman, and natural storyteller with a great ear for dialect.

Though he comes through as an open minded man of his time with a great appreciation of the country and sympathetic in many ways, the book does in instances reflect an unabashed ease with a patronizing colonial mind-set in relation to a generalized class of recently freed slaves, indentured labourers and natives, which is offending by today’s standards.

Nevertheless the book is instructive in its portrayal of the situation as it was at the time and a record of our collective past.

As it turns out, the book is much better known than I first thought, and has been used as a reference for many others about the period and the history of British Guiana/Guyana.

With uncanny prescience, Henry Kirk seemed to sense that his words would serve as a record of the place and time to future generations centuries later. His opening brief to the reader is as follows:
“IN one of her interesting books, Mrs. Oliphant refuses to include under the head of “literature” Reminiscences and Recollections, as she says that they are only written to gratify the vanity of garrulous old men, and are of no value from a literary point of view.

This may be true, but at the same time it cannot be denied that even the worst written and most stupid book of reminiscences may contain some valuable facts, and anecdotes may therein be treasured up which may prove of great value to the future historian or sociologist.

How much do we not owe to the many diaries and reminiscences written by Englishmen and Frenchmen during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries? So, despite Mrs. Oliphant’s strictures, and disregarding the fact that some “indolent reviewers,” if they condescend to notice this book, may put me down as a garrulous and vain old man, I shall proceed to write down my “Recollections of British Guiana” as it was during my connection with the colony from 1872 to 1897, in the hope that my readers, gentle or otherwise, may find something therein both to amuse and instruct them.”