This reissue of an 1894 pamphlet, with an excellent introduction by Guyanese historian Clem Seecharan, celebrates Joseph Ruhomon as the first Indian intellectual in British Guiana, now Guyana. He wrote at a time, Seecharan notes, when "self-deprecation was an instinct, . . . (and so) the construction of this essay was an admirable accomplishment". This work, Seecharan adds, "belongs to the Caribbean intellectual tradition".