Berbische, June.
Several opportunities have lately offered to me of making boat
excursions, with Colonel Gammell and others of the officers, to New
Amsterdam, and I have had the honor of being presented to Governor and
Madame Van Battenburg, of whose hospitable and polite attentions I
cannot express myself in sufficient terms of praise. They have kindly
invited me to take up my abode at the government-house, during my stay
in the colony, but I have to lament that my duties at the hospital will
not allow me to avail myself of so flattering and agreeable an
accommodation.
The government-house is, beyond all comparison, the handsomest and most
spacious edifice I have yet seen in South America. It is built near to
the river, with one front commanding the water; the other the town.
A few days ago I joined a small party from the fort, in an excursion to
some of the planters’ estates up the river Kannye, and was particularly
gratified in viewing the rich plantation of Mynheer Ongre. We set off at
an early hour, in order to have the day before us, and arrived at this
gentleman’s abode just as he was sitting down to his Dutch breakfast of
very excellent crab soup, some fine fish, a tongue, and a variety of
other good things. It is the custom of the Dutch to take coffee in bed,
or as soon as they rise, and to make a more substantial breakfast of
soups and solids about ten o’clock. After partaking of this repast, we
were conducted about the estate, which is rich and well-cultivated,
yielding abundance of coffee and cocoa, and some cotton. The annual
produce of coffee is estimated at 140,000lb. weight, and of cocoa
10,000lb. Two hundred slaves are employed upon the estate, calculated at
the value of from 50_l._ to 100_l._ each. The house is handsome and
spacious, the plantation extensive, and the coffee logis upon a very
large scale: the whole exhibiting the appearance of fertility and
opulence. Having visited the fields of coffee, and the cocoa plantation,
we next went to the logis, where we saw the cocoa seeds exposed for
drying, preparatory to their being made into chocolate; and, also, great
quantities of coffee undergoing the last process, previous to their
being sent to market. I observed that what is commonly used as cocoa, in
England, is only the shell or outer covering of the seed—the kernel, or
better part, being used for making the chocolate.
At another estate we were regaled with fruit, and several pines were put
into the boat, when we were going away. Here we also pulled from the
trees a number of calabashes of uncommon size, to take home with us to
use by way of bowls and platters. We likewise gathered some roots of
jalap from under the hedges, and observed the ipecacuanha growing in the
fields. Thus, you find, that however shut from the world, we can neither
want fruit, food, nor physic; for the hedges, the fields, and the
gardens amply supply them all: drink, clothing, and condiment we also
collect from the trees, the plants, and the bushes; and, in the
calabash, bountiful nature has even furnished us with plates, basins,
and dishes.
Although we had not the usual incitements of a sumptuous dinner and a
splendid ball, we were not unmindful that the 4th inst. was a day of
rejoicing. The troops fired a _feu de joie_; and a royal salute sounded
through the thick woods both from the fort, and an armed schooner which
was lying in the river. Bumpers were filled to His Majesty’s health, and
we were merry and happy as you, who were revelling in all the luxuries
of London. One treat was added to our feast, which, even in that
all-supplying place, you would fail to meet with, and which I know would
have much pleased you; viz. the report of the cannon through the deep
woods around us, with the loud shrieks of parrots, monkies, and the
other wild inhabitants, on hearing it: and, above all, the enchanting
echo which was returned to us across the river. I had listened each
night with delight to the solemn reverberations of the evening gun, and
was quite prepared to watch the effect of a more heavy firing. It was
grand, and wanted only the stillness of evening, and the placid rays of
the moon to render it sublime. On escaping from the fort, the sound
seems first to cross a part of the water, and roll softly through the
island of trees, at the river’s mouth: from thence it traverses the
remainder of the wide stream, and on reaching the thick woods of the
opposite shore, it suddenly echoes, as if abruptly repulsed into the
water. Afterwards it breaks through the forest, and is heard in rumbling
undulation, as if again interrupted in its course, till at length its
awful reverberations steal their hollow way through the distant woods in
deep and heavy-rolling thunder.