La Bonne Mere

'This property went through all the phases of misfortune which befell outlying estates after the Emancipation of the slaves.' It belonged to the same proprietor as Goedverwagting (Mr Lebelmondier [sic]), who manfully struggled against difficulties until at last the Adminstrator General had to step in. About 1856 it was sold to Mr George Lillie and Mr W. Jones; Mr Jones, an attorney for various sugar estates, then became sole owner, after the capital costs deterred Mr Lillie. $15,000 was sepnt on a draining engine, but 'an unfortunate allottment of Madras "Coolies" (who became little better than hospital birds) soon prodiuced adverse balance sheets.' The estate was handed over to Humphrey C. Ewing 'in an amicable arrangement', who then brought in Mr Wilkie. By 1883 the estate was run by the trustees of the late Mr Ewing and Mr Wilkie.

Registered under Trois Ami[e]s in Berbice in 1817 and under La Bonne Mere in Demerara in 1826.

Walter Rodney (ed.) Guyanese Sugar Plantations in the late nineteenth century, a contemporary description from the ‘Argosy’ (Release Publishers, Georgetown Guyana, 1979) pp. 68-69. Walter added a footnote [p. 95] on the 'Madras Coolies', observing that 'most Indentured Indians were from the North and came via Calcutta. In 1883 it was estimated that only 5% of the Indian population in British Guiana spoke Tamil. These were the so-called "Madrasis" of Guiana. There was a strong planter prejudice against this South India labour, based on the questionable assertion that they were not sturdy and would become "Hospital birds" - as the text describes them.'