I still continued in perfect health, but I was much stung by different

insects, and torn by a thousand thorns or maccaws, particularly one

species, which are strong black prickles of several inches long, that

break short in the wound; they project like the back of a porcupine, on

a kind of low or dwarf palm-tree, called the cocareeta, whose large

branches diverge from the earth like the fire of a Fúzz from a bomb.

Another inconvenience to be met with throughout all the low and marshy

places in the forest, is a kind of roots called matakee, and more

vulgarly trumpets, on account of the form, resembling the windings of

that instrument, which rise above ground like nebees, three or four

feet high, continuing thus to an almost endless length, and so thick

that, like our brambles, no dog can get through them; over these

matakees it is extremely difficult to walk, as they every moment catch

hold of the feet, and frequently trip up the body, unless at every

footstep care is taken to step clear over them, which for short-limbed

men is an absolute impossibility. With this inconvenience we were

troubled throughout the whole march; but we had no opportunity of

falling in with any kind of good roots, vegetables, or fruits for food,

except a few maripas, which are a species of nuts that grow on a tall

palm-tree, and are very much like the Avoira that I have already

described, only larger, and less of an orange colour, the stone and

kernel being exactly the same.

We marched again with better weather, and arrived before noon at

Jerusalem, near the mouth of Cormoetibo Creek, where I had formerly

halted during my cruise. Here Colonel Fourgeoud, with his drooping

soldiers, was arrived just before us; and here we made our appearance,

in such a shocking situation as will scarcely admit of description. It

is sufficient to say, that the whole little army was exhausted by

famine and fatigue, a very small number excepted; while several, unable

to walk at all, had been carried upon poles by negro slaves in their

hammocks: and during all this time we had discovered nothing. One thing

is to be considered, that while the old gentleman himself went through

all the above-mentioned hardships, (to which he seemed as invulnerable

as a machine of iron or brass) we had the less reason to complain of

bad usage. In short, having as usual plunged in the river, to wash off

the mire and blood occasioned by the scratches, and having taken a

refreshing swim, I looked round for my negroes to erect a comfortable

hut; but in this I was disappointed, as they were employed by Mr.

Rughcop to build his kitchen, although he had as yet nothing to dress

in it. This piece of unpoliteness I for once overlooked; and the

rangers having made me a nice bed of manicole-branches on the ground,

(there being no trees in the place to sling a hammock) and having

lighted a blazing fire by the side of it, I lay quietly down next to

them on my green mattress, where, in a clear moonshine night and no

rain, I fell sound asleep. But about two hours before day-break I

awaked, when the fire was out, the moon was down, and I almost dead

with the cold dew and the damp that exhaled from the earth, being so

stiff and benumbed that I had scarcely strength to crawl on hands and

feet, and awake one of my sable companions; he, however, having kindled

a new fire, I recruited so as at six o’clock to be able to rise, but

with such excruciating pain in one of my sides that I could not avoid

groaning aloud; but to prevent Fourgeoud and the others from hearing, I

hid myself in the skirts of the wood; the pain however still

augmenting, I soon was prevented from breathing without the greatest

difficulty, and at last fell down behind the rotten trunk of an old

cabbage-tree. In this situation I was discovered by one of the negro

slaves who was going to cut rafters, and who, supposing me dead, ran

instantly back, and alarmed the whole camp. I was taken up and carried

in a hammock, by the care of a Captain Medler, under proper cover, and

one of the Society surgeons instantly sent for to attend me. By this

time I was surrounded by spectators, and the pain in my side became so

acute, that, like one in the hydrophobia, I tore my shirt with my

teeth, and bit whatever chanced to come near me; till being rubbed by a

warm hand on my side with a kind of ointment, the complaint suddenly

vanished like a dream, and I felt myself completely recovered.

To prevent a relapse, however, the first use that I made of my strength

was to cut a cudgel, with which I swore to murder the Berbice ruffian,

Geusary, who had the management of the slaves, if he did not

instantaneously employ them to build for me a comfortable hut, let who

would order the contrary, my life being the dearest thing I had to

regard; and following him close at his heels, with my cudgel clubbed

upon my shoulder, I had the satisfaction to be well housed in the space

of two hours. I must not omit, that Colonel Fourgeoud, during the

crisis of my illness, had made me an offer of being transported to

Devil’s Harwar; but this I refused.

On the 18th the news arrived, that poor Campbell died on the preceding

day; and now Major Rughcop himself was sent down extremely ill, being

the eleventh sick officer during this short campaign. Being now almost

starving for want of provisions, we were most opportunely supplied by a

quantity of fish, particularly the jackee, already described as

changing to a frog; and the warappa, which is of the same size, and

equally good, both being very rich and fat; these fish were so

plentiful in the marshes, where they were left by the retreating

waters, that our negroes caught many with their hands, but mostly by

striking at hazard in the mud with their bill-hooks and sabres; after

which, grasping with their fingers, they brought up pieces and half

fishes in great abundance. Another fish they also caught in the creek,

called coemma-coemma, which is from one to three feet long, exceedingly

sweet, but not near so delicious as the jackee, or warappa, which two

last the negroes generally smoak-dry or barbacue, and which I was glad

to eat without either bread or salt. The barbacuing consists in laying

the fish upon twigs of wood above the fire, where, by the smoak, they

dry to a consistency that gives them no disagreeable taste, and will

preserve them for several weeks together: thus prepared, they require

no further dressing.

On the 20th we detached a captain, with twenty privates and twenty

rangers, to reconnoitre the demolished village of Boucou: on the

following day Major Rughcop died; and now Colonel Fourgeoud resolved to

march himself to Boucou, leaving me the command of four hundred men,

white and black, two hundred of whom were sick in their hammocks; but

of that number I transported thirty to die at Devil’s Harwar, while I

sent sixty rangers with leave down to Paramaribo. These latter went

away declaring, that Fourgeoud’s operations were only calculated to

murder his own troops instead of the enemy’s. Such is the nature of the

negroes, that where they know nothing is likely to be done, they will

not march; it is indeed extremely difficult to maintain proper

discipline among them, and when they expect to see the enemy, nothing

can possibly keep them back. It is amazing to observe, with what skill

one negro discovers the haunts of another: while an European discerns

not the smallest vestige of a man’s foot in the forest, the roving eye

of the negro-ranger catches the broken sprig, and faded leaf trod flat,

without ever missing it; but when he finds the marks of the enemy being

near, he can then no longer be restrained. This undoubtedly is

inconsistent with modern tactics, but indicates that spirit of liberty,

which in antient times alone completed the valiant soldier; and such

was at this time the native and natural spirit of a people, who had but

yesterday been slaves.

On the evening of the 21st, I availed myself once more of being

commandant, by sending two barges for provisions, the one to La

Rochelle and the other to Devil’s Harwar, which last brought back a box

with Boston biscuit, sent me from Paramaribo.

On this day two slaves were put in confinement, accused of having taken

pork from the magazine; and I was addressed by the troops to inflict an

exemplary punishment, the common soldiers despising the negro slaves,

as in their imagination greatly below themselves, and stupidly

considering them as the causes of their distress. Having found a large

piece of pork in their custody, yet having no proof that was sufficient

to establish the theft, I found myself greatly at a loss to distribute

justice with satisfaction to both parties; the Europeans unmercifully

accusing, and the poor slaves vindicating their starved companions in

such a clamorous style, that the whole camp was in an uproar. The first

persisted that the latter had stolen it, and the others that they had

saved it from their allowance, to take to their families. Affecting,

therefore, the stile of a despotic prince, I ordered first a ring to be

formed of the plaintiffs, and next the prisoners to be let within it. I

then, with a stern and loud voice, commanded a block and a hatchet to

be brought. It was with heart-felt satisfaction that I found this

solemn apparatus, and the apprehension that we might commit a rash and

criminal action, soon dispelled every feeling of resentment in the

soldiers, and I was implored by the very accusers to shew mercy.

Obdurately stopping my ear, however, to all intreaty from either side,

I made a strong negro slave take up the hatchet, and instantly chop the

pork into three equal pieces; when, giving one share to the

prosecutors, another to the malefactors, and the third to the

executioner for having so well done his duty, the farce was ended to

general satisfaction, and I heard no more of robberies or complaints.

On the 24th in the evening, two officers of the Surinam Society troops

arrived from Devil’s Harwar, recovered from their late indisposition.

One of them, calling himself Le Baron de Z—b—h, and being infected with

the esprit de corps, on his arrival seemed determined to espouse

Captain Meyland’s cause, abruptly alledging, that I had disgraced him

by epithets unbecoming his dignity. I was amazed, and being conscious

of my innocence, endeavoured to explain the matter in a friendly

manner, in which I was seconded by a Mr. Rulagh, one of my officers;

but the German, instead of being appeased, grew more outrageous, and

plainly told me that he insisted on satisfaction. I never had less

inclination to battle in all my life, I therefore left him without a

reply, and walked towards my hut in the most gloomy mood imaginable. It

was not long, however, before I felt my indignation suddenly re-kindle,

when, armed with my sabre and pistols, I returned, fully determined to

end the quarrel in the moon-shine. But now, finding the Baron retired

to his hammock, I dispatched Mr. Rulagh with a summons, desiring he

would tell him, that if he did not instantly turn out to fight me, I

should come in, cut down the clews of his hammock with my knife, and

treat him as I thought his pride and insolence deserved. Upon this

appeared a figure that will never be effaced from my memory.

The Baron was more than the middle size, extremely thin and sallow, his

meagre visage ornamented with a pair of enormous red whiskers under the

nose, while a white queue near three feet long adorned his graceful

back. He was in his under-waistcoat, and walked on stocking soles,

which were black silk, darned with white worsted; these hanging down

upon his heels, discovered his miserable spindle shanks; while on his

head he wore a striped worsted night-cap of all colours, also in many

holes; and over his breech his valour was displayed by his colours,

which hung out, but the blazon of which I must not attempt to describe.

Such was the figure that now, with all humiliation, offered to give me

a buss, and intreated my forgiveness, pretending not to have understood

me; which last I having granted with a loud laugh and a dram of brandy,

he faced about, and by the quick step re-entered his den.

On the 26th Colonel Fourgeoud, with his party, returned from his trip

to Boucou, having surrounded three straggling rebel negroes unarmed, as

they were cutting a cabbage-tree for their subsistence. While one of

them, called Passup, had escaped, another was taken alive, and a third,

with his thigh shot to shivers by a slug cartridge, was first lashed

hands and feet, and thus, carried by two negroes on a pole, in the

manner of a hog or a beer-barrel, bearing all the weight of his body

upon his shattered limbs, which were dropping with blood, without a

plaister or a bandage to cover the wounds, and with his head hanging

downwards all the time; in which manner the unhappy youth, for he had

not the appearance of being twenty, had been brought through thick and

thin for above six miles distance from the camp, while he might just as

well have been carried in one of the spare hammocks of the soldiers. I

was shocked and surprised at this act of barbarity in Fourgeoud, whom I

never had observed to be cruel in his cooler moments to an individual;

indeed I must do him the justice to say, quite the reverse, unless he

was opposed, as I must own he sometimes was by me; but on this occasion

he was so flattered with this trophy of victory, that every spark of

feeling and humanity was extinct. The body being laid on a table, I

implored one of the surgeons, called Pino, to dress his wounds; on

which, that he might seem to do something, he put just as many round

patches as the slugs had made holes, declaring he could never recover,

and singing Dragons pour boire during the operation.—Poor negro! what

must have been his feelings! The fever increasing, he begged for some

water, which I gave him myself clean out of my hat, when he said,

“Thank ye, me Masera,” sighed, and, to my inexpressible satisfaction,

instantly expired. His companion, called September, was more fortunate,

for Fourgeoud, in hopes of making some discoveries, regaled and treated

him with more distinction than he did any of his officers; while

September, looking as wild as a fox newly caught, was put in the stocks

during the night; and his companion was interred by the negro slaves,

with those marks of commiseration which his unhappy fate demanded from

every human being. According to their custom, they spread his grave

with the green boughs of the palm-trees, and offered a part of their

scanty allowance by way of libation. The following day Mr. Stoelman,

the militia captain, being arrived, to stay one day only in the camp, I

took the opportunity to remind Colonel Fourgeoud of what he had told me

concerning his unbecoming insinuations, which I begged him now to

repeat in that gentleman’s hearing, as I was determined to have this

matter cleared up, and to obtain that satisfaction to which I thought

myself entitled. But the gallant Colonel was not easily brought to

proof.—He now imputed all the blame to Major Rughcop, who was dead, and

requested of me to say nothing more about it. I left him with contempt,

and shook hands with my supposed adversary; and then, to his

inexpressible surprize, told him all that had happened. The consequence

was, that in less than two hours the captain quitted Fourgeoud and

Jerusalem in disgust, and was followed by the remaining rangers.

On the 29th, Captain de Borgnes was made major in Rughcop’s place; but

no new subalterns were created, Fourgeoud declaring he had no more

materials to fabricate them with: which in part might be true amongst

the serjeants; but two brave youths, both gentlemen’s sons, who had

entered as volunteers, and gone through every danger and fatigue,

remained unnoticed in the ranks, the one named Sheffer, the other

Meyer;—such ever was, and ever will be, too frequently, the consequence

of wanting friends and fortune.

“Et genus et virtus nisi cum re vilior alga est.”

CHAP. XI.

The Troops march back to the Wana Creek—The Rebels pass near the

Camp—Pursued without Success—Great Distress for Want of

Water—Mineral Mountains—The Troops arrive at La Rochelle, in

Patamaca.

On the 30th of November, 1773, the whole of the troops broke up

together, and leaving Jerusalem, we once more marched back to the Wana

Creek, but did not keep exactly the track that had brought us thither:

Colonel Fourgeoud, however, revoking his former orders, now allowed his

remaining party to sling their hammocks under cover, of which indeed

he, at this crisis, condescended to set them the example; thus were we

at least more comfortably lodged, but, I am sorry to add, not more

comfortably victualled, while the old gentleman himself wanted for

nothing that was good.

We continued our march for three days successively, with good weather;

but I was every night awaked out of my sound sleep by a sentinel, who

was sent by the colonel’s orders to disturb me, with a charge of having

whistled or spoke.

On the 3d we arrived once more at the Wana Creek. Here, after a

fatiguing march, I flattered myself with the hope of recruiting my

exhausted strength and spirits by a quiet night’s rest; but was once

more awoken, though so sound was my sleep, that the sentinel was

obliged to shake me three or four times by the shoulder. I then started

up, denying the charge; but Fourgeoud himself, sitting upright in his

hammock, now swore, in a tremendous voice, that he was determined to

hang and quarter whoever should dare to disobey his orders, the dark

and gloomy woods resounding with his bellowing threats. A deadly

silence succeeded this storm throughout the camp, till I happened to

break it, by bursting out into an immoderate fit of laughter, in which

I was instantly accompanied by so many others, that he began to roar

like thunder, without being able to distinguish one person’s voice from

another. In this music he was seconded by a large toad, called here the

pipa, to which monster he actually gave shelter in his hut, and which

kept croaking every night, with such a voice as could only be exceeded

by Fourgeoud himself, or by that of his countryman, a Swisserland bear.

Morpheus I now invoked to befriend me again, but to no purpose, such

was the impression which these several roarings had left on my

mind;—and in this gloomy temper I shall describe this hateful gloomy

animal, the colonel’s dear companion, viz. the pipa, the largest of all

the toads in South America, if not in the world.

The pipa is an animal supposed by some to partake of both the nature of

the frog and the toad. It is the most hideous of all creatures upon

earth, covered over with a dark brown scrophulous skin, very uneven,

and marked with irregular black spots; the hinder feet of the creature

are webbed, and the toes longer than those before: thus it can both

swim and leap like a frog, in which it differs from other toads. Its

size is often larger than a common duck when plucked and pinioned; and

its croaking, which takes place generally in the night, inconceivably

loud. But what is most remarkable in this monster, is the manner of its

propagation: the young ones being hatched till they become tadpoles, in

a kind of watery cells on the back of the mother, in which the embrio’s

existence first commences; for on the back she is impregnated by the

male, and thence issues this most extraordinary birth.

Toads are not venomous, as is generally imagined, and are even

tameable: as, for instance, Mr. Awcott fed one for many years, and

Colonel Fourgeoud kept his as a domestic favourite during the whole

time of our campaign at Wana Creek; indeed I myself have since lodged a

tame frog. That the last mentioned animals are eatable as far as their

thighs, I also know by experience: but their taste is extremely

insipid.

To return at once to my hammock and journal,—The croaking of this pipa;

the hammering of another, which produces a loud and constant sound of

tuck, tuck, tuck, from sun-set to sun-rise; the howling of the baboons;

the hissing of the snakes, tigers, &c.; to which add the growling of

Fourgeoud, and sometimes heavy rains into the bargain, made the night

very uncomfortable and gloomy indeed. The rising sun, however,

dispelled my resentment; and having taken a sound nap during the day, I

was as well after it, and as well pleased, as the forest of Guiana

could make me.

On the morning of the 4th, I discovered a couple of fine powesas on the

branches of a high tree near the camp, and requested liberty from the

chief to shoot one of them, which however was bluntly refused me, on

pretence that the enemy might hear the report of my musquet, though by

the way, if it be not a solecism so to express myself, they knew better

where we were than we did ourselves. A little after, however, a large

snake appearing on the top of another tree, it was ordered to be shot

immediately, whether from fear or antipathy I know not. On the

discharge of the musquet the animal fell to the ground, quite alive,

and slided instantly into a thicket near the magazine. Upon this

occasion I had an opportunity of remarking the uncommon intrepidity of

a soldier, who creeping in after the reptile, brought it out from among

the brambles, superstitiously pretending that he was invulnerable to

its bite. However this may be, the snake, which was above six feet

long, erected its head and half its body successively to attack him,

and he as often knocked it down with his fist, and at last with his

sabre severed it in two pieces, which ended the battle; for doing which

he was regaled by Fourgeoud with a dram of rum.

Lest I should be accused of introducing a word which is probably new

and unintelligible to my readers, I will beg leave to add, that the

powesa, or peacock-pheasant of Guiana, is a beautiful bird indeed,

about the size of a common turkey, to which it bears a resemblance both

in appearance and taste. Its feathers are a shining black, except on

the belly; its legs are yellow, and also its bill, except near the

point, where it is blue and arched. Its eyes are lively and bright, and

on its head it is crested with a brilliant plume of black frizzled

feathers, which give it a noble appearance. These birds cannot fly far;

and being easily tamed, may be reared for domestic purposes: at

Paramaribo they are frequently sold for more than a guinea a piece.

Another bird peculiar to Guiana, called by the French the agame, and in

Surinam camy-camy, I will also take this opportunity to describe.—It

is, like the former, nearly the size of a turkey, but totally different

in its formation and plumage; its body, which has no tail, being

perfectly the shape of an egg: it is also black, except on the back,

where it is of a grey colour, and on its breast, where the feathers are

blue and long, hanging down like those of the heron. The eyes are

bright, the bill is pointed, and of a blueish green, as are also its

legs. The vulgar name of this bird in this country is the trumpeter, on

account of the sound it frequently makes, which bears some distant

resemblance to that of a trumpet, but whence that sound proceeds is not

in my power to certify: some suppose it is made by the nose. Of all the

feathered creation this bird is the most tameable, and the greatest

friend to man, whom it follows, caresses, and even seems to protect

with the attachment of a dog. I have seen many of them kept on the

estates, where, like the powesa, they are reared for domestic uses, and

feed among the turkeys and other poultry.

On the 6th I received six gallons of rum from Paramaribo, four of which

I gave as a present to Fourgeoud.

About six in the evening two of our slaves, who had been out to cut

manicoles, brought intelligence that a gang of rebels had passed not

above a mile from the camp, headed by a Captain Arico, with whom they

had spoken on the banks of the Cormoetibo Creek, but could net tell

which way they steered their course, so much had they been terrified.

On this information we received orders to pursue them by break of day;

and the next morning, at five o’clock, all was ready, and we again

broke up, leaving a detachment with the stores, and repaired to the

spot whence the intelligence proceeded. Here we saw a large palm or

mawrisee tree [22], floating in the river, and moored to the opposite

shore by a nebee, which plainly indicated that Arico, with his men, had

crossed the creek, which they do by riding astride on the floating

trunk, the one behind the other, in which manner they are ferried over,

(sometimes with women and children) by those who are the best swimmers.

Notwithstanding this plain evidence, the faith of our colonel,

Fourgeoud, now began to waver, and he averred that it was no more than

a stratagem of the rebels, who, he said, had come from the place to

which we supposed them gone, and who had only tied the tree across the

river to deceive us.

To this opinion neither myself nor the other officers could subscribe;

but no arguments would prevail with him, and we marched directly from

them, viz. east, instead of crossing and pursuing them west, as the

rangers would certainly have done: thus we kept on till it was near

dark, though the bread was forgotten, and the whole day not a drop of

water to be obtained, marching through high sandy heaths or savannahs.

After inclining a little to the right, we were just upon the point of

making a camp, when a negro called out that we were come to the Wana

Creek. This in my ears was a welcome sound; and giving him a calebash,

and the best part of a bottle of my rum, I desired him to run to the

creek, and make me some grog, and this he did; but the poor fellow,

never having made grog before, poured in all the spirits and but very

little water, doubtless thinking, that the stronger it was the better;

which beverage I swallowed to the bottom, without taking time to taste

it, and I became instantly so much intoxicated that I could hardly keep

my feet.

On the 9th we found ourselves returned to our old camp, from a

fruitless cruise, when Colonel Fourgeoud set the captive negro

September at liberty, who followed like a shepherd’s dog attending a

flock; but our commander in chief was indefatigable, and not only

crossed and reconnoitred the west side of the creek himself, but

filling our knapsacks, we the next morning set out in the same track we

had kept the eighth, he still persisting that he should overtake the

enemy. Having thus marched till towards dark, we altered our course,

and passed the night in an old camp of the rebel negroes, having again

passed the whole day without water.

The following day we still proceeded, but neither enemies nor water

were to be found: the men and officers now began to be extremely faint,

and some were already carried in their hammocks. It was by this time

indeed insufferably hot, being in the very heart of the dry season. In

this dilemma we dug a hole six feet deep, in the bottom of which a ball

cartridge being fired, a little moisture began to trickle forth, but so

slow and so black, that it proved not to be of the least use.

We still marched on, and encamped in an old weedy field, where the

rebels some time before had cultivated plantations. During the night it

was truly affecting to hear the poor soldiers lament for want of drink,

but to no purpose; for in spite of all this misery, Fourgeoud still

persisted in going forward even the third day, building his hopes on

meeting with some creek or rivulet to alleviate this general distress.

In this he was however mistaken; for having again, on the 12th, marched

over burning sands till about noon, he dropped down himself, amongst a

number of others, a miserable spectacle, for want of means to slake

their raging and intolerable thirst. It was happy that in this

situation we were not attacked by the negroes, as it must have been

impossible to make any resistance, the ground being strewed with

distressed objects that appeared to be all of them in raging fevers.

Despair now seemed to be impressed even upon Fourgeoud’s countenance,

as he lay prostrate on the earth, with his lips and tongue parched

black; and in this condition, though so little deserving of it, he

again attracted my pity.

During all this, some of the soldiers still devoured salt pork, while

others crept on all fours and licked the scanty drops of dew from the

fallen leaves that lay scattered on the ground. I now experienced the

kindness of which a negro is capable when he is well treated by his

master, being presented by one attending me with a large calibash of as

good water as ever I drank in my life; and this he met with, after

unspeakable difficulty, in the leaves of a few wild pine-apple plants,

from which it was extracted in the following manner:

The plant is held in one hand, and a sabre in the other, when at one

blow it is severed from the root, through the thick under parts of the

leaves. It is then held over a cup or calibash, and the water flows

pure, cool, and to the quantity sometimes of a quart from each plant.

This water has been caught in the time of the rains by the channeled

leaves of the plant, and conveyed to their proper reservoir. Some other

negroes found means to relieve themselves by the water-withy, but this

was not sufficient to assist the dying troops. The water-withy is a

kind of very thick nebee of the vine species, which grows only in very

sandy places, this being slashed with the sabre in long pieces, and

suddenly held to the mouth, produces a limpid stream, and affords a

pleasing, cool, and healthy beverage, of great service in the parching

forests of Guiana.

As Providence had graciously sent me this supply, I could not for my

soul resist the impulse of sharing my relief with poor Fourgeoud, whose

age and natural infirmities pleaded greatly in his favour; and who,

being now refreshed, saw himself at last obliged to return, without any

further hope of overtaking the enemy. But so exhausted was the party,

that many were carried on long poles in their hammocks by the slaves.

As his last resource, our commander now detached the Berbicean negro,

Gausarie, by himself, to try if he could bring him any intelligence

while we continued our retreat. As we returned by our former footsteps,

and of consequence approached the pit we had dug yesterday, I was

convinced that by this time it must contain clear water. I therefore

dispatched my boy Quaco to the front, to fill one of my gallon bottles

before it should be changed to a puddle, and this he did; but being met

on his return by Colonel Fourgeoud, he with the butt end of his gun

relentlessly knocked the bottle to pieces, and doubling his pace,

placed two sentinels at the pit, with orders to preserve the water all

for himself and his favourites. But at this moment subordination being

extinguished, the two protectors were forced headlong into the pit,

followed by several others, who all fought to come at the water, which

being now changed to a perfect mire, was good for nothing. Having slung

our hammocks in an old rebel camp, a dram of kill-devil was distributed

to each without distinction; but, as I never used this fluid, I offered

my share to my faithful negro who had given me the water: this being

observed by old Fourgeoud, he ordered it to be snatched out of the poor

man’s hand, and returned into the earthen jar; telling me, “I must

either drink it myself, or have none.” I was exceedingly exasperated at

this mark of ingratitude, and finding means to procure that very

evening a whole bottle, I gave it to the slave.

Near midnight, accidentally good water was discovered—Good God! what

joyful news!—how sweet the taste! surpassing any wine; and such as I

shall ever gratefully remember!—Now all drank heartily, and Fourgeoud

ordered a warm supper to be boiled for himself, but not so much as a

fire to be lighted for any other person, forbidding even the cutting of

a stick; thus were we forced to eat our salt beef and pork raw.

However, having tied my small allowance to a string, I hung it quietly

over the side of his kettle, to have it dressed; but his black cook

chancing to drop a log of wood upon another in his eagerness to assist

me, alarmed the hero, when I was obliged to drop my luncheon into the

kettle, and take to my heels.

The old gentleman now insisting that some person had cut sticks against

his orders, I quietly stepped up to his hammock in the dark, to

undeceive him, and softly assured him that the whole camp was fast

asleep; when he, on pretence of not knowing me, suddenly gave a loud

roar, and with both his hands caught hold of me by the hair of the

head. I escaped, and got fairly under cover, while he called, “Fire at

him! fire at him!” to the infinite amusement of the whole camp, who lay

in their hammocks convulsed with laughter. Having found out Quaco, I

instantly sent him back to bring my luncheon; and such was his

diligence, that he actually brought me back a piece of beef at least

ten times as large as what I had left, with which I had once more the

satisfaction to regale the poor slaves: and thus ended this horrid day.

The 13th we once more returned to the Wana Creek, fatigued beyond the

power of description with these fruitless sufferings.

Here the old gentleman regaled his friends with my rum in my presence,

and without offering me a single drop. Here also I found a letter from

the island of Ceylon in the East Indies, where my friend and relation,

Mr. Arnoldus De Ly, being governor of Poind-de-Gale and Maturee, I was

invited to come and find my fortune ready made, but which for the

present my evil stars prevented my accepting, as it would have been

dishonourable to leave the service at this juncture.

The following day the negro Gausarie returned from his expedition,

reporting that he had discovered nothing.

Captain Fredericy, who had marched on the 20th ult. with forty men,

white and black, from Jerusalem, not having been heard of since, it was

apprehended he had met with some dreadful accident, and, in

consequence, on the 15th, two captains, two subalterns, and fifty men,

were dispatched to the river Marawina for some intelligence.

The post at the Marawina, which is called Vredenburgh, consists of

houses surrounded with palisades in a kind of square, which are all

built of the manicole-tree, with which the woods of Guiana so much

abound. On the outer side are a guard and four sentinels, and the fort

itself is defended by several cannon. It is situated in an opening, on

the banks of the river, where is placed a large flag, and where the

garrison communicates with the French post on the opposite shore, both

being situated at but little distance from the mouth of the Marawina.

To give the best idea of this spot, I shall present the reader with a

view of it, as also of our situation at the Wana Creek, which, however

beautiful on paper, was a dreadful post to many unfortunate sufferers.

In the annexed Drawing, three camps are distinctly exhibited; those of

Colonel Fourgeoud and of the deceased Major Rughcop, on both sides of

the Wana Creek, and that which was lately the rangers, directly

opposite to its mouth.

The barges, &c. were ordered on the same day to bring up provisions,

and take down the sick; but at this very time the whole camp was

attacked by that dreadful distemper the bloody flux, which is both

infectious and epidemical, and daily carried numbers to their grave. An

emetic, or some other medicine, administered at random, were the only

relief in our power, as there was not a proper surgeon on the spot, all

of them being engaged at the hospitals in Comewina and in Paramaribo.

The poor slaves were peculiarly unhappy, who, as I have stated, having

but half allowance, lived for months on the produce of the

cabbage-tree, seeds, roots, wild berries, &c. and to this circumstance

may be attributed the first introduction of this dangerous disease into

the camp. So starved indeed were these wretched negroes, that they tied

ropes or nebees about their naked bodies, which is a practice of the

Indians when their abdomens are shrunk with hunger, as they find by

experience, or at least fancy, that the pain occasioned by want of food

is relieved by the compression. I, however, with a few others, escaped

the infection, but I was laid up with a miserable bad cold and swelled

foot; which disease is called the consaca, and is not unlike our

chilblains in Europe, as it occasions a very great itching,

particularly between the toes, whence issues a watery fluid.

The negroes are very subject to this complaint, which they cure by

applying the skin of a lemon or lime, made as hot as they can bear it.

I have frequently had occasion to mention our provisions, viz. salt

beef, pork, rusk, biscuit, and water, for our allowance, which were

dealt out regularly every five or six days; the two former having

perhaps made the tour of the world, after leaving Ireland, and were

even so green, so slimy, so stinking, and sometimes so full of worms,

that at other times they would not have remained upon my stomach; but I

have not described our furniture. This, however, will not occupy much

time, as it consisted only of a square box or chest for each officer,

to carry his linen, fresh provisions, and spirits, when he had either.

These boxes served not only as cupboards, but as chairs and tables in

the camp. On a march they were carried on the head of a negro: I must

observe, moreover, that we had no light after six o’clock in the

evening, that of the moon excepted, when all was solemn and melancholy

beyond description.

I had not so much as a trencher, bason, spoon, or fork: for the first

and second I made a negro’s calibash serve me; a fork I wanted not, and

a spoon but seldom: instead of that article, therefore, I used a folded

leaf, agreeably to the practice of the slaves; and as for a knife, each

person carried one in his pocket. I at last contrived to make a lamp by

breaking a bottle; in which having melted some pork, it produced a

quantity of oil, and a slip of my shirt served for a wick. Necessity is

proverbially ingenious, and in such a situation every nicety is

forgotten. Indeed, could I now have had what formerly I left upon my

plate, I should have ardently thanked God for it.

When speaking of ingenuity, I ought not to forget a number of pretty

baskets which were made by the negroes in the camp, and which, they

having taught me to construct, I also made to amuse myself, and sent

them as presents to several friends at Paramaribo. These baskets were

composed of a kind of strong ligneous cord that is found in the bark of

the cabbage-tree, and, as Dr. Bancroft expresses it, consists of a

web-like plexus, which is divided cross-wise in long, hard, polished

threads, brown and as tough as whalebone. These threads are drawn from

it, and the filaments or fibres are made use of as withies are used in

England. For holding fish at ombre or quadrille, nothing can be better

or more beautiful; but those that are large for holding fruit,

vegetables, &c. are quite different, and made of a kind of bulrush,

called warimbo, which is first split and deprived of its pithy

substance: the thin nebees make also no bad baskets. The negroes here

besides made curious nets, and even hammocks, of the silk grass plant.

This is a species of wild aloe that grows in the woods: the leaves are

indented and prickly, and contain longitudinally very strong and small

white fibres, which are bruised and beaten to hemp. With this we made

ropes stronger than any in Europe. These would answer perfectly for the

rigging of ships and other purposes, had it not been discovered that

they are sooner liable to rot in the wet. This kind of hemp is so very

much like white silk, that the importation is forbidden in many

countries, to prevent imposition by selling it for the same; and the

fraud is more difficult to be detected when it is artfully mixed with

silk. By the Indians this plant is called curetta, and in Surinam

vulgarly Indian soap, as it contains a saponaceous, pulpy substance,

which answers for washing as common soap, and is employed for that

purpose by the negroes and many others. Another plant much resembling

this, is by the black people termed baboon knifee, as it sometimes cuts

through the skin to the very bone, of which I myself had some proofs in

this wilderness, but without any ill consequence.

In the manner I have already related the time was spent during this

period, in which the whole camp was destitute of stockings, shoes,

hats, &c. Colonel Fourgeoud walked a whole day barefooted himself to

furnish an example of patience and perseverance, and to keep the few

remaining troops from murmuring. In this respect I had fairly the

advantage of all the company, my skin being (the swelled foot or

consaca, and a few scratches excepted) perfectly whole from my habit of

walking thus, while not a sound limb was to be found among the rest,

whose legs in general were broken out in dreadful ulcers, with a

discharge of pus. I have already in part accounted for this

inconvenience, and shall still farther account for it, by observing,

that while the stockings and shoes of these unhappy people remained,

they were never off the feet of many wearers, who, after marching

through water, mud, and mire, in this filthy condition, rested during

the night in their hammocks, where, in fair weather, before morning

this filth was dried upon their limbs, and in consequence caused an

itching and redness on the skin, which by scratching broke out in many

places; these wounds soon became scrophulous, and ended in open sores

and ulcers, which, from the want of care and proper application, often

changed to mortification and intolerable swellings, by which some lost

their limbs, and others even their lives when they were not saved by

amputation. Such were the causes, and such the effects of the evils we

had to struggle with; but they were far from the whole of our

wretchedness, and might be called only the precursors of what we had

still to undergo.

At this time a compliment of a fine ham and a dozen of port-wine being

sent me by Captain Van Coeverden, I gave all in a present to poor

Fourgeoud, who was emaciated with fatigue, except four bottles which I

drank with the other officers; and next day, the 29th, I had the honour

to be ordered on a patrol with Colonel des Borgnes and forty privates

once more, to try if we could not take the negroes who had crossed the

creek three weeks before.

Having dropped down the river with a barge, in which we lay all night,

we landed the following morning, and marched N. E.; after which, being

without a compass, we soon lost our way, and having crossed a large

sand-savanna, slung our hammocks in the skirts of a thick and obscure

wood. On the 31st we again set out the same course, in hopes of meeting

with the marks of some former path cut upon the trees by some of our

troops; but were mistaken, for having got into a marsh, where we waded

till noon up to our chins, at the hazard of being drowned, we saw

ourselves under the necessity of returning the same way we came,

perfectly soaked and in rags; and after a forced march encamped once

more on the banks of Cormoetibo Creek, in such a heavy shower of rain

during the whole night as I did seldom remember, which caused so much

confusion and hurry, each striving to build his shed, and get under

cover first, that I got a broken head, but persevering was one of the

first in slinging my hammock; above which spreading green boughs, and

under which having lighted a comfortable fire, I fell most profoundly

asleep in the middle of the smoke, which saved me from the stings of

the musquitoes.

While speaking of insects, I ought not to forget that this evening one

of the negro slaves who had been looking for dry wood, presented me, to

my great surprize, with a beetle no less than three or four inches in

length, and above two in breadth, called in Surinam the rhinoceros, on

account of its proboscis or horn, which is hooked, forked, and thick as

a goose-quill; on the head it has many hard polished knobs; the limbs

are six; the wings are large, and the whole animal is perfectly black,

being the largest of all the beetle kind in America.

In Guiana is also another species of these insects, called the

cerf-volant, or flying hart, from its extuberances resembling the horns

of a stag: both these beetles fly with an uncommon buzzing noise, and

are so strong, that but very few birds dare to attack them. One of the

greatest plagues however we met with in the forest, was a fly as large

as a common bee the stings of which were almost equally powerful; the

negroes call it the cow-fly; this I can best I think compare to what is

called the hippoboscus or horse-fly in Great Britain.

Having slept most soundly for six or seven hours, in spite of the

rains, the smoke, the musquitoes, and my broken head, I turned out

perfectly refreshed at five, and at six we commenced the year 1774, by

marching up along the banks of the Cormoetibo till mid-day, when we

arrived once more at the grand encampment at the mouth of the Wana

Creek, from, as usual, a fruitless cruize.

On the 3d, to our joy returned also Captain Fredericy, with his party,

bringing in a captive negro in chains, called Cupido; and relating that

a poor soldier of the Society troops, on receiving his pardon, when on

his knees to be shot, was gone out of his senses.

Colonel Fourgeoud being finally determined to break up this campaign,

sent out a party of sixty men to cruize on the way to Patamaca before

him.

I now washed my shirt, the last I had, in the Wana Creek (but was

obliged to keep swimming till it was dried by the sun) my letter, sent

for linen, having never reached Paramaribo, and what I had brought with

me being torn to rags.

On the 4th of January, at six o’clock in the morning, all were ready to

decamp. Thus having sent down the barges with the sick to Devil’s

Harwar, we at last crossed Cormoetibo Creek, and marched first directly

south for Patamaca, over steep mountains covered with stones and

impregnated with minerals. This again contradicts Dr. Bancroft’s

observations, these mountains not being above twenty miles from the

ocean, though he asserts that no hill is to be found at near fifty

miles from the sea. In the evening we encamped at the foot of a high

hill, where we found a small rivulet of good water, and a number of

manicole-trees, the two chief requisites. It is curious, and indeed

beautiful, to behold, in the space of an hour, a green town spring up

as it were from nothing, and a little after all the fires lighted, on

which the men are boiling their hard fare, while others are employed in

drying their cloaths; though, as I have stated, this last was by no

means a general rule, the greater number preferring to let them rot on

their bodies.

This night, however, the whole camp was disturbed by a diarrhœa,

occasioned by drinking the water we found here, which indeed was very

pure, but was so impregnated with minerals, that it tasted almost like

that of Bath or the German Spa. This is a circumstance which I think

indicates that these mountains contain metals, if the Dutch would go to

the expence of searching in their bowels.

On the 5th we marched the same course again over mountains and dales,

some of which were so excessively steep that one or two of the slaves,

not being able to ascend them loaded, threw down their burdens, and

deserted, not to the enemy, but found their way to their masters

estates, where they were pardoned; while others tumbled down, burthen

and all, from top to bottom.

This evening we found our quarters ready-made, and lodged in the

wigwams or huts that were left standing, when the rice country was

destroyed, and Bonny with his men put to flight; in that where I lay I

found a very curious piece of candle, which the rebels had left behind,

composed of bees-wax and the heart of a bulrush.

Bonny’s own house, where Fourgeoud lodged, was a perfect curiosity,

having four pretty little rooms, and a shed or piazza inclosed with

neat manicole palisades.

The whole corps appearing on the 6th excessively fatigued, Fourgeoud

ordered a general day of rest, only detaching Captain Fredericy with

six men, as he knew the country best, to reconnoitre the banks of the

Claas Creek, a water that issued from near this place in the upper

parts of Rio Cottica. They were hardly marched when the eye of our

chief by chance falling on me, he ordered me instantly to follow alone,

and return with a report of what I could discover on the other side the

creek. I overtook the party soon, when after a short march we were in

water up to our very arm-pits; Fredericy now ordered a retreat, but

desiring him to wait for me, I took off all my cloaths, and with only

my sabre in my teeth, swam by myself across the Creek, where having

ranged the opposite shore, and finding nothing, I again swam back,

after which we all returned to the camp.

At noon, making my report to Colonel Fourgeoud, he was astonished

indeed at this desperate action, which in fact he had not expected; but

I was not less amazed when he took me by the hand, entertaining me with

a bottle of wine, and ordering Monsieur Laurant to set some bacon-ham

before me, to find, however incredible it may appear, that the one was

actually sour, and the other creeping with live worms; while my own

provisions, now his, which were fresh, were withheld me. This meanness

so much exasperated me, that, starting up, I left Fourgeoud, his valet,

his wine, and his reptiles, with that contempt which they deserved,

alleviating my hunger with a piece of dry rusk biscuit and a barbacued

fish, called warappa, which I got from a negro.

On the 7th of January we marched again; and this day having caught one

of those beautiful large butterflies of which I made mention during my

cruize in the river Cottica, I will here attempt to give a more

particular description of it, though I know nothing about their names.

This fly measured, in the extension of the wings from tip to tip, about

seven inches; the colour of both the superior and inferior wings is of

such a vivid and splendid blue, as can only be compared to the azure

sky in a bright day, to which not the purest ultramarine coloured

sattin can approach: the under side is of a lovely brown variegated

with spots. I cannot help repeating, that its skimming and hovering

with such a magnitude, and such a hue, among the different shades of

green, had the most enchanting effect. Of the antennæ, head, thorax,

and abdomen, I shall only say that they were dark coloured. This fly,

if I mistake not, is, according to the division of Linnæus, of the

Danai species. I never saw the chrysalite or aurelia; but the

caterpillar, which is of a yellowish grey colour, is as thick as a

large man’s finger, and about four inches long. The annexed drawing I

have improved from one of Miss Merian. Various and innumerable indeed

are the butterflies with which the forests of Guiana abound; some

people, in fact, who make fly-catching their business, get much money

by it; and having arranged them in paper-boxes, with pins stuck through

them, send them off to the different cabinets of Europe. Doctor

Bancroft mentions, touching them with spirits of turpentine as

necessary to preserve them, but fixing a piece of camphor in the box

with the flies is quite sufficient.

This evening we encamped near the Patamaca Creek, where the poor negro

woman cried bitterly, and scattered some victuals and water at the root

of a tree by way of libation, as being the spot where her husband was

interred, who had been shot in some former skirmish by the Europeans.

Here Captain Fredericy and myself, walking without the skirts of the

camp in a sandy savannah, discovered the fresh footsteps of a large

tiger with her young, at which time they are extremely ferocious: we

thought it prudent therefore to make a sudden retreat. I measured the

diameter of the dam’s claws printed in the sand, which were nearly of

the dimensions of an ordinary pewter-plate.

Having marched a few hours longer the succeeding morning, we at last

arrived at the Society post La Rochelle in Patamaca; such a display of

meagre, starved, black, burnt, and ragged tatterdemallions, and mostly

without shoes or hats, as I think were never before beheld in any

country. They could be compared to nothing but a gang of gypsies, while

their leader was not unlike Bampfield Moore Carew, and myself at best

like the forlorn Crusoe in his worst condition, with my only check

shirt and the one-half of my trowsers, the rest being torn away. Here

we found a set of poor wretches ready to enter the woods which we had

just left, and destined to undergo in the same manner the severest

misery that ever was inflicted on sublunary beings. I have already

mentioned the prickly heat, ring-worm, dry gripes, putrid fevers,

biles, consaca, and bloody flux, to which human nature is exposed in

this climate; also the musquitoes, Patat and Scrapat lice, chigoes,

cock-roaches, ants, horse-flies, wild-bees, and bats, besides the

thorns, briers, the alligators, and peree in the rivers; to which if we

add the howling of the tigers, the hissing of serpents, and the

growling of Fourgeoud, the dry sandy savannas, unfordable marshes,

burning hot days, cold and damp nights, heavy rains, and short

allowance, the reader may be astonished how any person was able to

survive the trial. Notwithstanding this black catalogue, I solemnly

declare I have omitted many other calamities that we suffered, as I

wish to avoid prolixity, though perhaps I have been already too often

guilty of it. I might have mentioned indeed lethargies, dropsies, &c.

&c. besides the many small snakes, lizards, scorpions, locusts,

bush-spiders, bush-worms, and centipedes, nay, even flying lice, with

which the traveller is perpetually tormented, and by which he is

constantly in danger of being stung; but the description of which

cursed company I must defer to another opportunity.

The reader may form some conception of the famished state in which we

came hither, when I inform him, that the moment of our arrival,

observing a negro woman supping on plantain broth from a callibash, I

gave her half-a-crown, and snatching the bason from her hands, I

devoured the contents with a greater relish than I have ever tasted any

delicacy before or since during my whole existence. I now observed to

Colonel Fourgeoud, how pitiable it was, not to regale his remaining

soldiers with vegetables and fresh beef or mutton, besides providing

them with hats, stockings, shoes, &c.; but he replied, that Hannibal

had lost his army at Capua by too much indulgence. In short, he quoted

not only Hannibal but Horace for his example, according to the advice

given in a certain pamphlet,

Ibit eo quo vis qui Zonam perdidit;

and appeared fully convinced, that no persons will behave so

desperately in action as those who are tired of their lives.

On the 11th, the other party which had left Wana the day before

ourselves, arrived, having, according to custom, neither taken nor seen

any thing.

On the 12th, one of the rebels with his wife came to La Rochelle, and

surrendered themselves voluntarily to the commander in chief. This day

Fourgeoud acquainted me now himself, that I was at liberty to go and

refit at Paramaribo when I thought proper. This proposal I gladly

accepted, and that moment prepared for my departure, with some other

officers, leaving behind us himself and a band of such scare-crows as

would have disgraced the garden or field of any farmer in England.

Among these was a Society captain, named Larcher, who declared to me he

never combed, washed, shaved, or shifted, or even put off his boots,

till all was rotted from his body. At last arrived the happy hour,

when, taking leave of my tattered companions, I and five more, with a

tent-boat and six oars, rowed strait down for Paramaribo, still in good

health and in a flow of spirits, and at the very summit of contentment.

At Devil’s Harwar I met a cargo of tea, coffee, biscuit, butter, sugar,

lemons, rum, and twenty bottles of claret, sent me by my friends,

directed to La Rochelle, which I again, notwithstanding the barbarous

usage that I had so lately met with, gave all in a present to poor

Fourgeoud, twelve bottles of wine excepted, which we drank in the barge

to the healths of our wives and mistresses; nor could I help pitying

Colonel Fourgeoud, whose age (he being about sixty) and indefatigable

exertions claimed the attention of the most indifferent: for during

this trip, though but few rebels were taken, he had certainly scoured

the forest from the river Comewina to the mouth of the Wana Creek,

dispersed the enemy, and demolished their habitations, fields, and

gardens, and thus cut them off from all prospect of support.

On the evening of the 13th, we supped at the estate Mondesire, and

thence kept rowing down all night and day, shouting and singing till

the 15th at noon, when, the tide serving, we went on shore at the

fortress Amsterdam; whence crossing the river, we arrived before Mr. De

Lamar’s door at Paramaribo. I stept ashore among a croud of friends,

who all flocked round to see and to welcome me to town.

I next sent for my inestimable Joanna, who burst into tears the moment

she beheld me, not only for joy at my still existing (for it had been

reported that I was no more) but also from seeing my very distressed

situation.—Thus ended my second campaign, and with this I put an end to

the chapter.

CHAP. XII.

Description of the town of Paramaribo and Fort Zealandia—Colonel

Fourgeoud’s march to the river Marawina—A Captain wounded—Some

Privates shot—Strange Execution in the Capital—Account of Fort

Somelsdyk—Of the Hope in Rio Comewina.

Being once more arrived at Paramaribo, it will not be improper to

introduce in this place some account of that beautiful town. Before I

commence the description however, I must observe, that being long

accustomed to walk bare-footed, I could not bear the confinement of

shoes and stockings for some time, they heated and even swelled my feet

so much, that, dining on the 16th of January with my friend Kennedy, I

was actually obliged to throw them off at his house, whence he was so

kind as to send me home in his whisky. I have already mentioned that

Paramaribo is situated on the right side of the beautiful river

Surinam, at about sixteen or eighteen miles distance from its mouth. It

is built upon a kind of gravelly rock, which is level with the rest of

the country, in the form of an oblong square, its length is about a

mile and a half, and its breadth about half as much. All the streets,

which are perfectly straight, are lined with orange, shaddock,

tamarind, and lemon-trees, which appear in everlasting bloom; while at

the same time their branches are weighed down with the richest clutters

of odoriferous fruit. Neither stone nor brick is made use of here for

pavement, the whole being one continued gravel, not inferior to the

finest garden walks in England, and strewed on the surface with

sea-shells. The houses, which are mostly of two, and some of three

stories high, are all built of fine timber, a very few excepted; most

of the foundations are of brick, and they are roofed with thin split

boards, called shingles, instead of slates or tiles. Windows are very

seldom seen in this country, glass being inconvenient on account of the

heat, instead of which they use gauze frames; some have only the

shutters, which are kept open from six o’clock in the morning until six

at night. As for chimnies I never saw one in the colony, no fires being

lighted except in the kitchens, which are always built at some distance

from the dwelling-house, where the victuals are dressed upon the floor,

and the smoke let out by a hole made in the roof: these timber houses

are however very dear in Surinam, as may be evinced by that lately

built by Governor Nepven, which he declared had cost him above £.15,000

sterling. There is no spring water to be met with in Paramaribo, most

houses have wells dug in the rock, which afford but a brackish kind of

beverage, only used for the negroes, cattle, &c. and the Europeans have

reservoirs or cisterns, in which they preserve rain-water for their own

consumption; those of nicer taste let it first drop through a

filtering-stone into large jars or earthen pots, made by the native

Indians on purpose, which they barter at Paramaribo for other

commodities. The inhabitants of this country, of every denomination,

sleep in hammocks, the negro slaves excepted, who mostly lie on the

ground; the hammocks used by those in superior stations are made of

cotton, ornamented with rich fringe; these are also made by the

Indians, and sometimes worth above twenty guineas; neither bedding nor

covering is necessary, except an awning to keep off the musquitoes.

Some people indeed lie on bedsteads; in that case they are surrounded,

instead of curtains, with gauze pavilions, which admit the air freely,

and at the same time keep off the smallest insect. The houses in

general at Paramaribo are elegantly furnished with paintings, gilding,

crystal chandeliers, china jars, &c.; the rooms are never papered or

plaistered, but beautifully wainscoted with cedar, Brazil, and mahogany

wood.

The number of buildings in Paramaribo is computed at about one thousand

four hundred, of which the principal is the governor’s palace, whence

there is a private passage through the garden which communicates with

Fort Zealandia.—This house, and that of the commandant, which has

lately been burnt, were the only brick buildings in the colony. The

town-hall is an elegant new building, and covered with tiles; here the

different courts are held, and underneath are the prisons for European

delinquents, the military excepted, who are confined in the citadel of

Fort Zealandia. The Protestant church, where divine worship is

performed both in French and Low Dutch, has a small spire with a clock;

besides which there is a Lutheran chapel, and two elegant Jewish

Synagogues, one German, the other Portuguese. Here is also a large

hospital for the garrison, and this mansion is never empty. The

military stores are kept in the fortress, where the Society soldiers

are also lodged in barracks, with proper apartments for some officers.

The town of Paramaribo has a noble road for shipping, the river before

the town being above a mile in breadth, and containing sometimes above

one hundred vessels of burthen, moored within a pistol shot of the

shore; there are indeed seldom fewer there than fourscore ships loading

coffee, sugar, cacao, cotton, and indigo, for Holland, including also

the Guinea-men that bring slaves from Africa, and the North American

and Leeward Island vessels, which bring flour, beef, pork, spirits,

herrings, and mackarel salted, spermaceti-candles, horses, and lumber,

for which they receive chiefly melasses to be distilled into rum. This

town is not fortified, but is bounded by the river on the S. E.; by a

large savannah on the W.; by an impenetrable wood on the N. E.; and is

protected by Fort Zealandia on the east. This citadel is only separated

from the town by a large esplanade, where the troops parade

occasionally. The fort is a regular pentagon, with one gate fronting

Paramaribo, and two bastions which command the river; it is very small

but strong, being made of rock or hewn stone, surrounded by a broad

fosse well supplied with water, besides some out-works. On the East

side, fronting the river, is a battery of twenty-one pieces of cannon.

On one of the bastions is a bell, which is struck with a hammer by the

sentinel, who is directed by an hour-glass. On the other is planted a

large ensign-staff, upon which a flag is hoisted upon the approach of

ships of war, or on public rejoicing days. The walls are six feet

thick, with embrasures but no parapet. I have already spoken of its

antiquity.

Paramaribo is a very lively place, the streets being generally crouded

with planters, sailors, soldiers, Jews, Indians, and Negroes, while the

river is covered with canoes, barges, &c. constantly passing and

repassing, like the wherries on the Thames, often accompanied with

bands of music; the shipping also in the road adorned with their

different flags, guns firing, &c.; not to mention the many groupes of

boys and girls playing in the water, altogether form a pleasing

appearance; and such gaiety and variety of objects serve, in some

measure, to compensate for the many inconveniencies of the climate.

Their carriages and dress are truly magnificent; silk embroidery, Genoa

velvets, diamonds, gold and silver lace, being daily worn, and even the

masters of trading ships appear with buttons and buckles of solid gold.

They are equally expensive at their tables, where every thing that can

be called delicate is produced at any price, and served up in plate and

china of the newest fashion, and most exquisite workmanship. But

nothing displays the luxury of the inhabitants of Surinam, more than

the number of slaves by whom they are attended, often twenty or thirty

in one family. White servants are seldom to be met with in this colony.

The current money, as I have already stated, are stamped cards of

different value, from five shillings to fifty pounds: gold and silver

is so scarce, that the exchange premium for specie is often above ten

per cent. A base Dantzic coin called a bit, value something less than

sixpence, is also current in Surinam. English and Portuguese coin are

sometimes met with, but mostly used as ornaments by the Mulatto,

Samboe, Quaderoon, and Negro girls. The Negro slaves never receive any

paper money, for as they cannot read they do not understand its value;

besides in their hands it would be liable to many accidents, from fire

or children, and particularly from the rats, when it becomes a little

greasy.

This town is well supplied with provisions, viz. butcher’s meat, fowls,

fish and venison. Vegetables in particular the country abounds with;

besides the luxuries peculiar to this climate, they import whatever

Europe, Africa, and Asia can afford. Provisions, however, are

excessively dear in general, especially those imported, which are

mostly sold by the Jews and masters of ships. The first enjoy

extraordinary privileges in this colony; the latter erect temporary

warehouses for the purpose of trade, during the time their ships are

loading with the productions of the climate. Wheat flour is sold from

four pence to one shilling per pound; butter two shillings; butcher’s

meat never under one shilling, and often at one shilling and six pence;

ducks and fowls from three to four shillings a couple. A single turkey

has cost me one guinea and a half; eggs are sold at the rate of five,

and European potatoes twelve for six pence. Wine three shillings a

bottle. Jamaica rum a crown a gallon. Fish and vegetables are cheap,

and fruit almost for nothing. My black boy, Quaco, has often brought me

forty oranges for six pence, and half a dozen pine-apples for the same

price; while limes and tamarinds may be had for gathering. House-rent

is excessively high. A small room unfurnished costs three or four

guineas a month; and a house with two apartments on a floor, lets for

one hundred guineas yearly. Shoes sell for half-a-guinea a pair; and a

suit of cloaths, with silver binding, has cost me twenty guineas.

The wood with which the houses are generally built deserves also to be

noticed, viz. the Wana, and the Cuppy. The Wana is a light durable

timber of a coarse grain, and does not take the best polish; it is of a

very pale red, approaching mahogany, and mostly used for doors and

cupboards, also for boats and barges. This tree grows to a considerable

height [23].

The Cuppy-tree resembles the wild chesnut, is hard, knotty, and

durable; it is sawed into boards, and used to enclose the houses for

fences, instead of brick and stone walls; the timber is of a brown

colour, and takes a good polish.

For a better idea of this town, I shall refer the reader to the annexed

plan; and proceed to give some further account of its inhabitants.

The whites or Europeans in this colony, and who reside principally in

town, are computed at five thousand, including the garrison. The negro

slaves at about seventy-five thousand. The military mount guard every

morning at eight o’clock, in the fortress; but the safety of the town

is entrusted to the burghers or militia, who keep watch during the

night. At six o’clock in the morning, and the same hour in the evening,

the morning and evening guns are fired by the commanding ship in the

harbour; at the evening signal, all the flags are instantly lowered on

board the different vessels; their bells are set a ringing, whilst the

drums and fifes beat the tattoo through the town. The watch is then

set, and no negro of either sex is allowed to appear in the streets or

on the river, without a proper pass signed by his owner; without this

he is taken up, and infallibly flogged the next morning. At ten at

night, a band of black drums beat the burgher, or militia retreat,

through the streets of Paramaribo.

At this time the ladies begin to make their appearance, who are

particularly fond of a tête-à-tête by moon-light, when they entertain

with Sherbet, Sangaree [24], and wine and water; besides the most

unreserved and unequivocal conversation concerning themselves, as well

as the peculiar qualifications of their husbands, and the situation of

their female slaves, whom they propose the acceptance of to the

gentlemen they converse with at so much per week, according to their

own estimation. Sometimes placing half a dozen of them in a row, the

lady says, “Sir, this is a callebasee, that is a maid, and this is

not”—thus are they not only unreserved in their conversation, but also

profuse in their encomiums upon such gentlemen as have the honour of

their instructive company, and whose person or figure meets with their

approbation.

They are also rigid disciplinarians, as the backs of their poor slaves,

male and female, sufficiently testify. Thus every country has its

customs, and from these customs exceptions are to be made; for I have

known ladies in Surinam, whose delicacy and polite conversation would

have graced the first circles in Europe. Besides the amusements of

feasting, dancing, riding, and cards, they have a small theatre, where

the inhabitants of fashion act plays for their own amusement, and that

of their friends. As they are elegant in their dress, so they keep

their houses extremely clean. They use the finest linen, exquisitely

well washed with Castile soap; its whiteness can only be compared to

mountain snow, and would make the best bleached linen in Europe appear

like canvass. Their parlour floors are always scoured with sour oranges

cut through the middle, which gives the house an agreeable fragrance:

the Negro girls taking one half in each hand, keep singing aloud while

they rub the boards. Such is the town, and such are the inhabitants of

Paramaribo, the capital of Surinam; and the character will apply to the

natives of all the Dutch settlements in the West Indies. But to return

to my narrative. Being once more reconciled to shoes, I visited Colonel

Westerloo on board a West-India ship, bound for Holland. This

gentleman, who had relieved me at Devil’s Harwar when I was ill, was

now himself in a most miserable condition, having lost the use of his

limbs. In this debilitated state, it was doubtful whether any thing but

the air of his native country would recover him. Several officers were

now under the necessity of selling their effects to procure a

subsistence, not being able either to procure their pay or allowance

from Fourgeoud. I felt this hard usage the less, from the kindness I

experienced from my numerous friends.

On the 28th of January, as I was walking in the morning by the river

side, I saw a fish brought ashore, that deserves to be mentioned for

its size and goodness, being sometimes near two hundred pounds weight

[25]. It is here called grow-muneck, or grey friar, and is said to be

of the cod genus, to which it bears some resemblance in shape and

colour, the back being a dark olive brown, and the belly white; it was

soon cut up into large slices, several of which I purchased, and sent

as presents to my friends; as it was, in my opinion, even superior to

turbot. It is an inhabitant of the sea, but is sometimes to be met with

in the rivers. The negroes here are the only fishermen, and are

regularly trained up to this profession by their masters, who make them

pay a certain sum weekly. If they are expert and industrious, they soon

acquire money for themselves, and some even become rich; but, on the

contrary, if they are indolent, and do not fulfil their weekly

engagements, they are certain to be punished very severely.

This custom is also common to many other trades, and by perseverance

and sobriety they are actually enabled to live happily. Thus I have

known slaves in Surinam, who have bought slaves for their own use. Some

purchase their freedom from their masters, whilst others keep their

money, preferring to be the slave of an indulgent master; being, so

long as they continue slaves, free from all duties and taxes, which, in

case of manumission, they become liable to. A particular instance of

this kind was a negro blacksmith, named Joseph, who being offered his

liberty upon account of his long and faithful services, positively

refused it, chusing rather to be the slave of a worthy master. This man

had several slaves of his own, kept a decent house, with handsome

furniture, and some plate; and when visited by his humane master or

mistress, entertained them with Sangaree, port or claret. I must,

however, acknowledge this to be a very singular instance; and observe,

that although a few live comfortably at Paramaribo, the greatest number

are wretched, particularly those governed by a lady, who have many

wales to show, but not the smallest indulgence to boast of.

Among the slaves, those of the class called Quaderoons are in general

much respected for their affinity to Europeans; a Quaderoon being the

offspring of a white and a mulatto, and they are very numerous in this

colony.

Here one not only meets with the white, the black, and olive, but with

“The Samboe dark, and the Mulatto brown,

The Mæsti fair [26], the well-limb’d Quaderoon.”

These boys are generally placed out to some good trade, such as

cabinet-makers, silversmiths, or jewellers; whilst the girls are

employed as waiting-women, and taught the arts of sewing, knitting, and

embroidery, to perfection: they are generally handsome, and take much

pride in the neatness and elegance of their dress.

To give the reader a more lively idea of these people, I shall describe

the figure and dress of a Quaderoon girl, as they usually appear in

this colony. They are mostly tall, straight, and gracefully formed;

rather more slender than the Mulattoes, and never go naked above the

waist, like the former. Their dress commonly consists of a sattin

petticoat, covered with flowered gauze; a close short jacket, made of

best India chintz or silk, laced before, and shewing about an

hand-breadth of a fine muslin shift between the jacket and the

petticoat. As for stockings and shoes, the slaves in this country never

wear them. Their heads are adorned with a fine bunch of black hair in

short natural ringlets; they wear a black or white beaver hat, with a

feather, or a gold loop and button: their neck, arms, and ancles are

ornamented with chains, bracelets, gold medals, and beads. All these

fine women have European husbands, to the no small mortification of the

fair Creolians; yet should it be known that an European female had an

intercourse with a slave of any denomination, she is for ever detested,

and the slave loses his life without mercy.—Such are the despotic laws

of men in Dutch Guiana over the weaker sex.

But to change the subject.—The tyranny of our commander, Colonel

Fourgeoud, seemed daily to increase. Lieutenant Count Runtwick, who was

to proceed for Holland with Colonel Westerloo, being sick, was ordered

to remain in Surinam, for having only said that he had been ill treated

by him. As a specimen of his justice, I will only observe, that all the

officers had now subsisted a whole year upon a private soldier’s

allowance of salt provisions, a few weeks at Paramaribo only excepted.

This accommodation cost me thirty pounds; but I have already mentioned

he kept back our money, and why should he not our allowance also, it

not being the part of a good soldier to inquire after trifles?

On the 1st of February we, however, received notice that henceforth we

should pay nothing, provided we could fast; but that if we could not,

ten pounds yearly was to be the ne plus ultra of the expences for our

salt beef and pork.

On the 2d I received intelligence that Lieutenant Colonel Becquer,

scorning any longer to partake of Fourgeoud’s bounty, had suddenly

given up the ghost, by which in rotation I became possessed of his

vacant company. This was some compensation for so much trouble and

fatigue. But to counterbalance this good fortune, a certain lady, whose

husband had shewn me extraordinary civilities, now made me an offer,

which I could not with honour accept; besides, I had been sworn at

Highgate. But persisting in my refusal of her favours and golden

presents, I at last felt the effects of a woman’s hatred and revenge.

Her husband, who had lately been so much my friend, and whose honour I,

in this instance, so much respected, was suddenly perverted into a

bitter enemy. I bore their frowns with resignation, conscious of my own

rectitude, in not committing a trespass of which too many others would

have made a boast. Shortly after, however, this gentleman again became

my friend, even more than before this affair happened, having been

perfectly undeceived.

On the 6th, a poor drummer of the Society brought me a present of some

alligato, or more properly avogato pears and oranges, for having

supported him, he said, in Holland against my servant, who had knocked

him down. This trait of gratitude afforded me more pleasure than the

coolness of my late friend had given me pain.—The avogato pear grows on

a tree above forty feet high, and not unlike a walnut-tree: the fruit,

which is about the size and colour of a large pear, viz. a pale green,

is the most exquisite, in my opinion, of any in the colony, or even in

the world; the inside is yellow, and the kernel is inclosed in a soft

rind like a chesnut. The pulp is so salubrious and nutritious, that it

is often called the vegetable marrow, and is frequently eaten with

pepper and salt: nor can I compare it to any thing so well as a peach,

melting in the mouth in the same manner, not so sweet indeed, but

incomparably more delicious.

The oranges in Surinam are of three different species; the sour, the

bitter, and the sweet, all being originally imported from Spain or

Portugal. The sour oranges are an excellent cure for sores and running

ulcers, so common in this climate, but painful in the operation; for

which reason they are only used for the negroes, who it is supposed may

bear any thing. The bitter are only used for preserving: the sweet,

which have a luscious taste and exquisite flavour, may be eaten freely,

without any pernicious effects, which is not the case with that kind

called the China apples, which I shall afterwards describe. The trees

that bear all these species are truly beautiful, and never without

fragrant blossoms or fruit throughout the year.

On the 16th, the news arrived that Colonel Fourgeoud, with the

remaining troops, having marched from La Rochelle, had been attacked by

the rebels; and amongst others Captain Fredericy, marching in the

front, had been shot through both thighs. This brave officer, clapping

both his hands on the wounds, and sitting in water up to his breast to

conceal the bleeding, and prevent his misfortune from discouraging the

troops, remained in this situation until the surgeon had dressed them,

when he was carried in his hammock by two negroes.

Nothing, indeed, could exceed the zeal which both this officer, and

Fourgeoud’s adjutant, Captain Vangewrike, shewed during the whole

expedition; continually upon service, whether their constitutions could

bear it or not. But honour was the only advantage they derived from a

five years assiduous and extraordinary attendance. In my opinion,

Colonel Fourgeoud never recompensed them according to their merit;

while he treated the subalterns, and even some field officers, worse

than ever I did my corporals.

I now made another offer to join him in the woods; but instead of

permission, he sent me orders to hasten to L’Esperance, in English the

Hope estate, as I shall henceforth call it, situated in the upper part

of Rio Comewina, there to take the command of the whole river during

his absence; which being new to me, I repaired to this post with the

greater satisfaction.

Having provided myself with a compleat camp-equipage, and purchased

provisions, I was soon ready to depart for my new station. But before I

leave Paramaribo, I must remark, that during my stay there no less than

nine negroes had each a leg cut off, for running away from their

masters. This punishment is a part of the Surinam administration of

justice, and is performed at the desire of the proprietor, and was

executed by a Mr. Greuber, the surgeon of the hospital. During this

inhuman operation, the poor sufferers very deliberately smoaked their

pipe of tobacco. For this service the surgeon received about six pounds

a limb: but, notwithstanding his great abilities, four of them died

immediately after the operation. A fifth destroyed himself, by plucking

away the bandages and bleeding to death during the night. These

amputated negroes are common in this colony, and are employed in rowing

the boats and barges of their masters. Others are seen deprived of an

arm; and this is the forfeit for daring to raise it against an

European.

I embarked on the 17th of February for the Hope, in the river Comewina,

on board a decent tent-boat rowed by six negroes, having once more bid

adieu to my beloved Joanna. In the evening I passed the Sporksgift

estate, in the Matapica Creek; the next day I arrived at Arentrust in

Comewina, having passed the Orelana Creek and the fortress Somelsdyk,

which is about sixteen miles above Fort Amsterdam, and forms the

separation between that and the river Cottica, commanding the two

opposite shores by the fire of its cannon. This fortress was built in

the year 1684 by Governor Somelsdyk, whose name it still bears. It is

built in the form of a pentagon, having five bastions mounted with

artillery; it has a fosse, and is well provided with military stores:

though it is not large, it is well defended, especially by its low and

marshy situation. Not far above this, to the right, is a fine creek,

called Comete-Wana.

On the 19th, about noon, I reached the Hope; having found this river

still more charming than the river Cottica, both being bordered with

beautiful estates of coffee and sugar, the first of which abounds

principally near its mouth. About half way up both these rivers are

also in each a Protestant church, where the plantation people resort to

hear divine worship: the expence of the parson, &c. being paid by the

planters.

The estate L’Esperance, or the Hope, where I now took the command, is a

valuable sugar-plantation, situated on the left side of the Comewina,

at the mouth of a rivulet called Bottle Creek, and almost opposite to

another creek called Cassivinica: the Bottle Creek communicating with

the Comewina and Pirica, as the Wana Creek does with Cormoetibo and

Rio-Marawina.

Here the troops were lodged in temporary houses built with the

manicole-tree; but the situation was so low and marshy as at

spring-tides to be entirely under water. The officers were all crowded

in one apartment of the same construction; while the planter’s fine

house, which might have been serviceable for the pleasure and health of

these gentlemen, was made use of by nobody but the overseer of the

estate.

About a cannon-shot higher up the river is the estate Clarenbeek; where

I went, on the 22d, to examine the state of the hospital, and where I

found the troops more disagreeably quartered than at the Hope, owing

chiefly to the amazing number of rats with which this place was

infested, destroying the men’s clothes and provisions, and running over

their faces by dozens as they lay in their hammocks. The only mode of

remedying this horrid inconvenience, was to break holes in the bottoms

of quart bottles, and then string them like beads upon the lashings of

each hammock, both at head and foot: when this was properly done, their

polish rendered it impossible for the rats to reach the canvas.

Here the crowded hospital afforded a melancholy spectacle, by the

miserable objects it presented. Humanity suffers so much from such

scenes, that I felt myself happy upon my return to the Hope. My orders

here were much the same as they had been at Cottica, viz. to protect

the estates from the enemy: the parole or watchword was regularly sent

me by Colonel Fourgeoud. One of the Berbice negro captains, before

mentioned, named Ackeraw, here discovered an old decrepid slave called

Paulus, belonging to this estate, to be his brother. He acknowledged

him with cordial affection, and treated him with much kindness: the

scene of their meeting was of course very interesting. In my walks

round this plantation, I had an opportunity of observing several

curious birds, which I shall now embrace the opportunity to describe.

The queese-queedee, so called on account of its note, is about the size

of a thrush, and of a brown colour, except the breast and belly, which

are of a beautiful yellow: it is very mischievous, and an unwelcome

guest upon the plantations. The wild pigeons are also common here. I

shot one that was very large, and resembling what is called the

ring-tail pigeon of Jamaica. Its back and sides were of an ash colour;

the tail a lead colour; the belly white; the neck reflecting a

changeable green and purple; the iris and feet of this pigeon were red.

I have also seen the dwarf pigeons here walking in pairs. They are

about the size of an English sparrow, and rather of a lighter colour. I

take these to be the picui-nima of Marcgrave. The eyes were bright,

with a yellow iris, and upon the whole these diminutive creatures are

very pretty. They are called steen-duyfie by the Dutch, because they

are frequently found amongst stones and gravel. [27]Turtles are also

found in Guiana, but seldom near the plantations, as they delight

chiefly in the deepest recesses of the forest. They build their nests

in trees of the thickest foliage, where I have found them, and even

stroked them with my hand, without their attempting to fly away. They

are little different from those in Europe in point of colour, but

rather less, and their wings of a more considerable length than those

of any other dove or pigeon whatever.

I became daily more charmed with my situation; I was at liberty to

breathe freely, and my prospects of future contentment promised amply

to compensate for my past hardships and mortifications. Respected as

the prince of the river; caressed by the neighbouring planters, who

plentifully supplied me with presents of game, fish, fruit, and

vegetables, I was scarcely the same man, and had very few wishes

unsatisfied.

One day (the 5th of March) during my residence here, I was surprised by

the waving of a white handkerchief from a tent-boat that was rowing up

the river; when, to augment my happiness, it unexpectedly proved to be

my Mulatto, accompanied by her aunt, who now preferred Fauconberg

estate, four miles above the Hope, to residing in the town; and to this

plantation I immediately accompanied them.

Here Joanna introduced me to a venerable old slave, her grandfather,

who made me a present of half a dozen fowls. He was grey-headed and

blind, but had been comfortably supported for many years through the

kind attention of his numerous offspring. He told me he was born in

Africa, where he had once been more respected than any of his Surinam

masters ever were in their country.

It will no doubt appear surprising to many of my readers to find me

mention this female slave so often, and with so much respect; but I

cannot speak with indifference of an object so deserving of attention,

and whose affectionate attachment alone counter-balanced all my other

misfortunes. Her virtue, youth, and beauty gained more and more my

esteem; while the lowness of her birth and condition, instead of

diminishing, served to increase my affection.—What can I say farther

upon this subject?—Nothing; but content myself with the consolation

given by Horace to Phocius, the Roman soldier:

“Ne sit ancillæ tibi amor pudori, &c.”

“Let not my Phocius think it shame

For a fair slave to own his flame;

A slave could stern Achilles move,

And bend his haughty soul to love:

Ajax, invincible in arms,

Was captiv’d by his captive’s charms.

“Atrides ’midst his triumph mourn’d,

And for a ravish’d virgin burn’d;

What time the fierce barbarian bands

Fell by Pelides’ conquering hands,

And Troy (her Hector swept away)

Became to Greece an easier prey.

“Who knows, when Phillis is your bride,

To what high rank you’ll be allied?

Her parents dear, of gentle race,

Shall not their son-in-law disgrace.

She sprung from kings, or nothing less,

And weeps the family’s distress.”

On the 6th of March I returned to the Hope, loaded with fowls,

aubergines, brocoli, agoma, and a few Surinam cherries. The aubergines

are a species of fruit which grows in the shape of a cucumber; they are

of a purple colour without, and white within; they are cut in slices

and eaten like sallad, sometimes stewed: they are very good and

wholesome. The leaves of the tree which bears this fruit are large and

green, covered with a purple-coloured down. The agoma is a bitterish

vegetable: the brocoli as in Europe, but scarce. The cherries are

ribbed, very sour, and unless very ripe fit only for preserving.

On the prince of Orange’s anniversary, the 8th of March, I invited some

company to drink his health, whilst Colonel Fourgeoud kept scouring the

bushes; but the sum of his operations amounted only to having some of

his men shot by the negroes, some lost in the woods; whilst the rebel

Cupido escaped with all his chains. Of two men he sent me for the

hospital at Clarenbeek, one was terribly cut by the rebels.

I received a present of a haunch of venison on the 17th from a Mr.

D’Onis; and one of my slaves presented me with a lizard called

sapagala, which is less in size and less agreeable food than the

iguana, which I have already described, and which the Indians call

wayamaka. Of this last dainty I did not partake, but gave it to the

overseer, while with the venison I entertained all my officers.

Of the deer species there are two kinds; the stag or largest, called

the bajew, is about the size of the English roebuck, with short

curvated horns; the eyes are bright, and full of fire; the tail short;

the hair a reddish brown, except the belly, which is white. These

animals, when pursued, run with amazing strength and velocity. They are

frequently seen near the plantations, where they commit great

devastations among the sugar-canes; they are often shot by the negro or

Indian huntsmen, which the planters keep on purpose. Hunting is

impracticable as a sport to Europeans in this country, owing to the

thickness of the woods. The deer are sometimes taken alive in crossing

rivers, which they often take to when over-heated, or to escape their

enemies. The flesh of this stag is neither fat, tender, nor juicy,

being much inferior to the European venison, though greatly esteemed by

the inhabitants of Surinam. The other species the negroes call

boosee-cabritta; the Indians wirrebocerra. These are much smaller, and

more nimble in leaping; their colour a yellowish brown, covered with

small white spots; their eyes lively and piercing; their ears narrow

and short; they have no antlers; their limbs are small, but nervous and

strong; and their flesh more delicate than any other venison I ever

tasted.

On the 21st, having visited Mr. and Mrs. Lolkens at Fauconberg, we,

after dinner, walked to a brick-manufactory, called Appe-cappe, which

lies in the neighbourhood, and belongs to Governor Nepveu; where they

make as good brick, and as expeditiously, as in Europe. It is also a

profitable business, not being common in Surinam. This I only relate as

a proof of the abundant advantages of this country; where, moreover,

the wood for burning the bricks may be had for cutting, if the

inhabitants chuse to be industrious. We were here, however, so pestered

with clouds of insects, called monpeira, that I was glad to take my

leave, and return to the Hope. The monpeira are the smallest kind of

gnats, but equally troublesome with the larger species called

musquitoes. They fly so thick and close together, that they appear like

a cloud of black smoke: they are so small that numbers of them stick in

the eyes, whence they cannot be extracted without pain, and even

danger.

I always visited by water, having at the Hope an elegant tent-boat,

with half a dozen negroes at my command, who also shot and fished for

me. Upon the whole, I was here so happy and so much respected, that I

could almost have engaged never more to change my situation.

CHAP. XIII.

A Sugar Plantation described—Domestic Happiness in a

Cottage—Further Account of Fourgeoud’s Operations—Dreadful

Cruelties inflicted by some Overseers—Instance of Resentment in a

Rebel Negro Captain.

I have already said that I was happy at the Hope; but how was my

felicity augmented, when Mr. and Mrs. Lolkens came to visit me one

evening, and not only gave me the address of Messrs. Passalage and Son

at Amsterdam, the new proprietors of my Mulatto, but even desired me to

take her to the Hope, where she would be more agreeably situated than

either at Fauconberg or Paramaribo. This desire was unquestionably most

readily complied with by me; and I immediately set my slaves to work,

to build a house of manicole-trees for her reception.

In the mean time I wrote the following letter to Messrs. Passalage and

Son.

“Gentlemen,

“Being informed by Mr. Lolkens, the administrator of the estate

Fauconberg, that you are the present proprietors; and being under

great obligations to one of your Mulatto slaves named Joanna, who

is the daughter of the late Mr. Kruythoff, particularly for having

attended me during sickness; I in gratitude request of you, who are

her masters, to let me purchase her liberty without delay: which

favour shall be ever thankfully acknowledged, and the money for her

ransom immediately paid, by

Gentlemen,

Your most obedient servant,

John Gabriel Stedman,

Captain in Colonel Fourgeoud’s

Corps of Marines.”

This letter was accompanied by another from my friend Lolkens, who much

cheared my prospects by the assurance of success.

Having dispatched these letters to Holland, I had now the opportunity

of observing the whole process of a sugar-plantation; of which I shall

endeavour to give an accurate description.

The buildings usually consist of an elegant dwelling-house for the

planter, outhouses for the overseer and book-keeper, besides a

carpenter’s lodge, kitchens, store-houses, and stables, if the

sugar-mills be wrought by horses or mules; but on the Hope these are

not requisite, as the wheels move by water, stored in canals during the

spring-tide by means of sluices, which being opened at low water pour

out like a deluge, and set the machinery in motion. A sugar-mill is

built at the expence of four thousand, nay sometimes seven or eight

thousand pounds.

A particular description of its construction might be too tedious. I

shall only observe, that the large water-wheel moves perpendicularly,

and corresponds with another large wheel placed in an horizontal

direction, and this again acts upon three cylinders or rollers of

cast-iron, supported underneath by a strong beam, so close together

that when the whole is in motion, they draw in and squeeze as thin as

paper, whatever comes between them. In this manner the sugar-cane is

bruised, to separate the juice or liquor from the trash.

Those mills that are wrought by cattle are constructed, upon the same

principles, only the horses or mules answer the purpose of the

horizontal wheel, by dragging round a large lever. If the water-mills

work the fastest, and be the cheapest, yet as they must wait for the

tides, they can only work part of the day; whereas the cattle-mills are

always ready whenever the proprietor finds it convenient to use them.

Adjoining to the mill-house is a large apartment, also built of brick,

in which are fixed the coppers or large cauldrons to boil the liquid

sugar. These are usually five in number; opposite to these are the

coolers, which are large square flat-bottomed wooden vessels, into

which the sugar is put from the cauldrons to cool before it is put into

hogsheads, which are placed near the coolers upon strong channeled

rafters, that receive the melasses as it drops from the sugar, and

convey it into a square cistern placed underneath to receive it. The

distillery joins this apartment, where the dross or scum of the boiling

sugar is converted into a kind of rum, mentioned before, and known by

the name of kill-devil. Every estate in Surinam keeps a tent-boat and

several other craft, for the conveyance of their produce; they have

also a covered dock, to keep them dry and repair them.

The sugar estates in this colony contain five or six hundred acres; the

parts for cultivation being divided into squares, where pieces of cane,

about one foot long, are stuck into the ground in an oblique position,

in rows straight and parallel. They usually plant them in the rainy

season, when the earth is well soaked and rich. The shoots that spring

from these joints are about twelve or sixteen months in arriving at

maturity, when they become yellow, and of the thickness of a German

flute, and from six to ten feet in height, and jointed, forming a very

beautiful appearance, with pale green leaves like those of a leek, but

longer and denticulated, and which hang down as the crop becomes ready

for cutting. The principal business of the slaves during the growth of

the canes is pulling up the weeds, which would otherwise impoverish

them.

Some sugar estates have above four hundred slaves. The expence of

purchasing these, and erecting the buildings, frequently amounts to

twenty or five-and-twenty thousand pounds sterling, exclusive of the

value of the ground.

But to give the reader a clearer idea of the sugar-cane, which is

supposed to be a native of Guiana, I refer him to the annexed plate,

where he may view it in the different stages, though on a smaller scale

than nature; A being its first appearance above the ground; B the cane

come to half maturity; C the same with drooping leaves, when fully

ripe; D a piece cut off at one end, and broken off at the other.

We shall now examine its progress through the mill: here it is bruised

between the three cylinders or rollers through which it passes twice,

once it enters, and once it returns, when it is changed to trash, and

its pithy substance into liquid, which is conducted as extracted,

through a grooved beam, from the mill to the boiling-house, where it is

received into a kind of wooden cistern.

So very dangerous is the work of those negroes who attend the rollers,

that should one of their fingers be caught between them, which

frequently happens through inadvertency, the whole arm is instantly

shattered to pieces, if not part of the body. A hatchet is generally

kept ready to chop off the limb, before the working of the mill can be

stopped. Another danger is, that should a poor slave dare to taste that

sugar which he produces by the sweat of his brow, he runs the risk of

receiving some hundred lashes, or having all his teeth knocked out by

the overseer.—Such are the hardships and dangers to which the

sugar-making negroes are exposed.

From the above wooden cistern the liquor is let into the first copper

cauldron, filtering through a grating to keep back the trash that may

have escaped from the mill; here, having boiled some time, and been

scummed, it is put into the next cauldron, and so on till in the fifth

or last it is brought to a proper thickness or consistency to be

admitted into the coolers: a few pounds of lime and allum are thrown

into the cauldrons to make it granulate; thus it is boiled gradually

stronger and stronger, until it reaches the last cauldron. When it is

put into the wooden coolers the sugar is well stirred, and scattered

equally throughout the vessels; when cold it has a frozen appearance,

being candied, of a brown glazed consistency, not unlike pieces of high

polished walnut-tree. From the coolers it is put into the hogsheads,

which, upon an average, will hold one thousand pounds weight of sugar;

there it settles, and through the crevices and small holes made in the

bottoms it is purged of all its liquid contents, which are called

melasses, and, as I have said, are received in an under-ground cistern.

This is the last operation, after which the sugar is fit for

exportation to Europe, where it is refined and cast into loaves. I

shall only farther observe, that the larger the grain the better the

sugar, and that no soil can be more proper for its cultivation than

Guiana, the richness of which is inexhaustible, and produces upon an

average three or four hogsheads per acre. In 1771, no less than

twenty-four thousand hogsheads were exported to Amsterdam and Rotterdam

only, which, valued at six pounds per hogshead, though it has sometimes

sold for double, returned a sum of near one hundred and fifty thousand

pounds sterling, besides the vast quantity of melasses and kill-devil;

the first computed at seven thousand hogsheads, and sold to the North

Americans for twenty-five thousand pounds; the second, which is

distilled in Surinam, and used chiefly by the negroes, valued at as

much more, which produces no less than two hundred thousand pounds per

annum [28].

The kill-devil is also drank by some of the planters, but too much by

the common soldiers and sailors, and, when new, acts as a slow

pernicious poison upon an European constitution. On the contrary, it

never hurts the negroes, but is even necessary and wholesome,

especially in the rainy seasons, when they are sometimes indulged with

a single dram per day by their masters, though this custom is far from

being general. There is no part of this salutary plant useless; the

chaff refuse, and leaves of the cane, being used for manure and fuel.

All the estates are closely surrounded by the uncultivated forest,

whence the herds of wild deer often commit very great ravages, when the

pieces being surrounded by armed negroes, and dogs set in to disperse

them, they are frequently shot. From what I have said upon this subject

alone, the reader may form an idea of the riches with which this

country abounds; which, nevertheless, did not seem to stimulate its

enemies during the late war to attempt the possession of it: but I must

say, I doubt whether Surinam, in the hands of any other nation than the

Dutch, would not cease to be of its present consequence, the Hollanders

being indisputably the most patient, persevering, industrious people

that inhabit the globe.

Notwithstanding, however, the immense wealth that the West Indies in

general afford, it will ever be my opinion that the Europeans might

live as comfortably, if not more healthily, without them; the want of

sugar, coffee, cotton, cacao, indigo, rum, and Brazil wood, might be

amply supplied by honey, milk, wool, Geneva, ale, English herbs,

British oak, &c.

And now once more to resume my narrative:—I have already mentioned that

my slaves were employed in preparing an house for the reception of my

best friend, which was about six days in completing. It consisted of a

parlour, which also served for a dining-room; a bed-chamber, where I

also stowed my baggage; a piazza or shed to sit under before the door;

a small kitchen detached from the house, and a poultry-house, the whole

situated on a spot by itself, commanding an enchanting prospect on

every side, and surrounded with paling to keep off the cattle. My

tables, stools, and benches, being all composed of manicole boards, the

doors and windows were guarded with ingenious wooden locks and keys,

that were presented me by a negro, and were the work of his own hands.

My house being thus far finished and furnished, my next care was to lay

in a stock of provisions from Paramaribo, viz. a barrel of flour,

another of salted mackarel, which in this country are delicious, they

are imported from North America; hams, pickled sausages, Boston

biscuit; also wine, Jamaica rum, tea, sugar, a box of spermaceti

candles; also two charming foreign sheep and a hog, sent me by Mr.

Kennedy from his estate Vriedyk, besides two dozen of fine fowls and

ducks presented me by Lucretia, my Joanna’s aunt; while fruit,

vegetables, fish, and venison, flowed upon me from every quarter as

usual.

On the 1st of April 1774, Joanna came down the river in the Fauconberg

tent-boat, rowed by eight negroes, and arrived at the Hope: I

communicated to her immediately the contents of my letter to Holland,

which she received with that gratitude and modesty in her looks which

spoke more forcibly than any reply. I introduced her to her new

habitation, where the plantation slaves, in token of respect,

immediately brought her presents of casada, yams, bananas, and

plantains, and never two people were more completely happy. Free like

the roes in the forest, and disencumbered of every care and ceremony,

we breathed the purest ether in our walks, and refreshed our limbs in

the limpid stream: health and good spirits were now again my portion,

while my partner flourished in youth and beauty, the envy and

admiration of all the colony.

Colonel Fourgeoud now intending to quit the woods, and encamp at

Magdenberg, a post near the source of the Comewina, I sent a large

barge with provisions, escorted by an officer and twenty men, to that

place; and upon reviewing my remaining marines, they did not amount to

twenty men, besides a small detachment at Calis, near the mouth of

Cassivinica Creek. Higher up the same creek, at an estate called Cupy,

were also posted an officer and a few soldiers.

On the morning of the 4th, I was witness to a very wonderful battle

between two snakes, the one about three feet long, the other no more

than fourteen inches; when, after a severe contest of near half an

hour, during which time the many wreathings and twistings were truly

curious, the largest gradually shifting his gripe, at length caught the

smallest by the head, and absolutely swallowed him alive.

My negro boy about this time throwing out some red-hot embers, I was

surprized to see the frogs eat them with avidity, without receiving any

visible damage from the fire, which most probably they had mistaken for

the fire-fly. I saw another frog in the sugar-mill, feasting upon a

regiment of ants, which are here very numerous, licking them up with

his tongue as they marched before him. Another of these animals slept

every day upon one of the beams of my cottage, which it regularly left

every night; this was called yombo-yombo by the negroes, from its great

power in leaping: it is very small, almost flat, a fine yellow, with

black and scarlet specks; it is frequently found in the upper stories

of houses, where it arrives by climbing up the walls. We thought it a

pretty little animal, and would allow nobody to hurt it.

On the morning of the 8th, between six and seven o’clock, whilst we

were interring one of my serjeants, we heard the report of several

minute guns towards the river Pirica; in consequence of which, I

immediately detached an officer and twelve men to give assistance. They

returned next day with an account that the rebels had attacked the

estate of Kortenduur, where, having pillaged some powder, the

plantation slaves being armed by their master, had bravely beaten them

back before my assistance could be of use.

A small detachment from Colonel Fourgeoud at Wana Creek arrived at the

Hope on the 11th, with September, the negro prisoner, who related that

the rebels had spoken to Fourgeoud, and even laughed at him, having

overheard him giving his orders, viz. not to fire on them, but to take

them alive: and that amongst those lost in the woods was the unlucky

Schmidt, who had lately been so unmercifully beaten, and of which he

had never yet recovered.

About the 13th, the spring floods broke down the dams, and laid our

whole post under water, except the spot where I had pitched my cabin,

which remained dry, but unfortunately by this accident the officers and

men were up to the knees in water. My worthy friend Mr. Heneman, the

volunteer, arrived at this time from Colonel Fourgeoud’s camp at Wana

Creek, with a barge full of men and ammunition; he was now entered a

lieutenant in my company: he informed us, that the remaining troops

were marching for Magdenberg in Upper Comewina, there to go into

quarters. This poor young man was much emaciated with misery and

fatigue, I therefore introduced him at his first landing to the care of

Joanna, who was a most incomparable nurse, and under whose care he felt

himself extremely happy.

On the 14th, Colonel Fourgeoud with his troops being arrived at

Magdenberg, the officers and privates of the Society, and the rangers

to the amount of near two hundred men, were sent down in barges to be

stationed on different parts of the river Pirica. Some landed at the

Hope to refresh, and behaved so very disorderly, as to oblige me and my

officers to knock them down by half dozens, to keep the peace till they

departed the same day, after which I dispatched a tent-boat and eight

oars to row the commander in chief with some of his favourites to

Paramaribo, from which place he at last permitted the much-injured

Count Rantwick to sail for Holland.

On the 16th, the greatest part of the sheep belonging to this estate

were unfortunately poisoned by eating duncane, but mine, amongst some

others, luckily escaped. I am sorry to say I have not particularly

examined the duncane, as it is called by the negroes. All that I can

say is, that it is a shrub with a large green leaf, something like that

of the English dock; it grows spontaneously in low and marshy places,

and is instant death to whatever animal eats of its leaves; the slaves

therefore should be obliged carefully to root it out from the grass

savannas or meadows where cattle graze, since sheep and bullocks are

said to be remarkably fond of it, though contrary to nature, as most

animals know, it is said, instinctively how to distinguish their food

from their poison. But the sheep in question not being the natural

inhabitants of Guiana, may for that reason be admitted as an exception

to this general rule. This baneful plant had inadvertently been

permitted to grow in a negro’s garden, to which the sheep got access by

breaking down the fence, which occasioned this unpleasant catastrophe.

In this garden I saw several other roots and plants that deserve to be

noticed. The yamesy, or yam, a well-known root in the West Indies,

delights in a fat soil; this grows in Surinam sometimes to the weight

of two or three score pounds, and an acre will produce an astonishing

quantity [29]; its taste is very agreeable, either boiled or roasted,

easy of digestion, and very wholesome. The inside is of a whitish

colour, without it is of a deep purple approaching towards black; its

shape is very irregular. The yams are cultivated by cutting them in

pieces like potatoes; they are planted a few feet distant from each

other, and in about six or eight months they arrive at maturity; they

are known to be fit for use when the top or leaves begin to lose their

verdure, till then they are of a deep green colour, and creep along the

ground like ivy, with ligneous shoots. The yam is amongst the principal

food of the slaves throughout the West Indies, and is alone sufficient

to supply the want of bread; also being capable of preservation for

almost a year, it is often transported, and used upon long voyages, and

frequently brought to England. Another small root I found here, known

in Surinam by the name of naapjes, and which is eaten in the same

manner as the yams, but is infinitely more delicious; both the one and

the other serve here for food, as potatoes, carrots, or parsnips do in

England.

The maize or Indian corn, which I also saw in this garden, grows on

high perpendicular stalks, with long pale green leaves; the grain is of

a shining yellow colour, as large as marrow-peas, and closely set

together, round ears that are the size of the largest European carrot.

This grain is cultivated in great quantities in Surinam; it is not only

used for their poultry and cattle of every species, but is also ground

into meal, of which the Creoles make excellent puddings and cakes,

which are of a nourishing quality. With this they sometimes eat the

young pods of the ocro, or althea plant, which grows upon a very small

shrub, with oblong leaves, and which when boiled, as Dr. Bancroft

expresses it, are of a mucilaginous, slimy, and lubricative texture,

which ropy or glutinous quality, however disgusting in appearance,

makes a very rich sauce when properly seasoned with Cayenne pepper.

The same evening that proved so fatal to the sheep, as I was walking

out with my gun, as usual, I shot a bird called here the subacoo; it is

a species of the grey-heron, its bill and legs of a greenish black, and

very long, the last appearing as if jointed by large scales of a hard

and horny substance, and the claws on each middle toe are denticulated.

This bird, though apparently the size of a common fowl, was so very

light, that an English house-pigeon would have easily counterbalanced

it; when dressed we found it to have a fishy flavour.

I have for some time been happily silent upon the subject of cruelty;

and sorry I am, at a time when all appeared harmonious and peaceable,

to be under the necessity of relating some instances, which I am

confident must inspire the most unfeeling reader with horror and

resentment. The first object which attracted my compassion during a

visit to a neighbouring estate, was a beautiful Samboe girl of about

eighteen, tied up by both arms to a tree, as naked as she came into the

world, and lacerated in such a shocking manner by the whips of two

negro-drivers, that she was from her neck to her ancles literally dyed

over with blood. It was after she had received two hundred lashes that

I perceived her, with her head hanging downwards, a most affecting

spectacle. When, turning to the overseer, I implored that she might be

immediately unbound, since she had undergone the whole of so severe a

punishment; but the short answer which I obtained was, that to prevent

all strangers from interfering with his government, he had made an

unalterable rule, in that case, always to double the punishment, which

he instantaneously began to put in execution: I endeavoured to stop

him, but in vain, he declaring the delay should not alter his

determination, but make him take vengeance with double interest. Thus I

had no other remedy but to run to my boat, and leave the detestable

monster, like a beast of prey, to enjoy his bloody feast, till he was

glutted. From that day I determined to break off all communication with

overseers, and could not refrain from bitter imprecations against the

whole relentless fraternity. Upon investigating the cause of this

matchless barbarity, I was credibly informed, that her only crime

consisted in firmly refusing to submit to the loathsome embraces of her

detestable executioner. Prompted by his jealousy and revenge, he called

this the punishment of disobedience, and she was thus flead alive. Not

having hitherto introduced the Samboe cast, I take this opportunity, by

here representing the miserable young woman as I found her to the

attention of the sympathizing reader.

A Samboe is between a mulatto and a black, being of a deep

copper-coloured complexion, with dark hair, that curls in large

ringlets. These slaves, both male and female, are generally handsome,

and chiefly employed as menial servants in the planters’ houses.

At my return to the Hope, I was accosted by Mr. Ebber, the overseer of

that estate, who with a woeful countenance informed me he had just been

fined in the sum of twelve hundred florins, about one hundred guineas,

for having exercised the like cruelty on a male slave; with this

difference, that the victim had died during the execution. In answer to

his complaint, so far from giving him consolation, I told him his

distress gave me inexpressible satisfaction.

The particulars of this murder were as follow: during the time that

Captain Tulling commanded here, which was a little time before I came

to the Hope, it happened that a fugitive negro belonging to this estate

had been taken upon an adjoining plantation, and sent home, guarded by

two armed slaves, to Mr. Ebber; which fugitive, during the time Ebber

was reading the letter that accompanied him, found means to spring

aside, and again escaped into the forest. This incensed the overseer so

much, that he instantly took revenge upon the two poor slaves that had

brought him, tying them up in the carpenter’s lodge. He continued

flogging them so unmercifully, that Captain Tulling thought proper to

interfere, and beg for mercy; but, as in my case, his interference

produced the opposite effect: the clang of the whip, mixed with their

dismal cries, were heard to continue for above an hour after, until one

of them expired under the cruel lash, which put an end to the inhuman

catastrophe. A law-suit was instantly commenced against Ebber for

assassination. He was convicted, but condemned to no other punishment

than to pay the afore-mentioned hundred guineas, which price of blood

is always divided between the fiscal and the proprietor of the deceased

slave; it being a rule in Surinam, that by paying a fine of five

hundred florins, not quite fifty pounds per head, any proprietor is at

liberty to kill as many of his own negroes as he pleases; but if he

kills those of his neighbour, he is also to pay him for the loss of his

slave, the crime being first substantiated, which is very difficult in

this country, where no slave’s evidence can be admitted. Such is the

legislature of Dutch Guiana, in regard to negroes. The above-mentioned

Ebber was peculiarly tyrannical; he tormented a boy of about fourteen

called Cadetty, for the space of a whole year, by flogging him every

day for one month; tying him down flat on his back, with his feet in

the stocks, for another; putting an iron triangle [30] or pot-hook

round his neck for a third, which prevented him from running away among

the woods, or even from sleeping, except in an upright or sitting

posture; chaining him to the landing-place, night and day, to a dog’s

kennel, with orders to bark at every boat or canoe that passed for a

fourth month; and so on, varying his punishment monthly, until the

youth became insensible, walking crooked, and almost degenerated into a

brute. This wretch was, however, very proud of his handsomest slaves,

and for fear of disfiguring their skins, he has sometimes let them off

with twenty lashes, when, for their robberies and crimes, they had

deserved the gallows. Such is the state of public and private justice

in Surinam. The wretch Ebber left the Hope upon this occasion; and his

humane successor, a Mr. Blenderman, commenced his reign by flogging

every slave belonging to the estate, male and female, for having

over-slept their time in the morning about fifteen minutes.

The reader will, no doubt, imagine, that such cruelties were

unparalleled; but this is not the case, they were even exceeded, and by

a female too.