In 1835, a year after the abolition of slavery in British Guiana, the colonial authorities began to import the first indentured labourers, a shipload of 430 starving Portuguese from the famine-ravaged island of Madeira. Despite the warnings of the Governor of Madeira that they’d be branded like slaves, a total of 31,0000 Madeirans left for BG. Today, they make up a not insignificant proportion of the Guyanese population.
Over the next week or so, I shall be exploring the links with this island, now famous as winter resort, and as a destination for cruise ships.