192  SELLING  LATIN  AMERICA

in  the  possession  of  Spain  and  was  under  its
control  until  1624.  The  Dutch  in  1648,  after
the  close  of  their  war  with  Spain,  and  through
one  of  their  mercantile  companies,  obtained  a
trading  port  in  what  afterwards  became
known  as  Dutch  Guiana.  Following  their
move,  the  English  under  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,
acquired  their  present  possession,  establishing
a  town  now  known  as  Surinam,  the  English
afterwards  giving  a  portion  of  this  territory
to  the  Dutch  in  exchange  for  their  holdings  in
North  America.  About  the  same  time  the
French  established  a  colony  at  Cayenne,  and
later  on  came  near  being  embroiled  in  a  war
with  Brazil  over  the  boundary  line,  which
was  finally  amicably  adjusted.
These  three  European  colonies,  the  only
ones  by  the  way,  in  South  America,  British
Guiana  being  the  most  westerly,  French
Guiana  the  eastern  and  Dutch  Guiana  between ­
  the  others,  have  for  their  northern
boundary  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  Venezuela  is
the  western  neighbor  of  British  Guiana.
Brazil  touches  each  of  these  colonies  as  their