Berbische, July 1796.
I am too sensible, my friend, that in my noting communication regarding
our late excursion, I was led into minutiæ, which might be more tedious
than entertaining: but as my pen was my companion in the deep woods, and
as I thought to you, while marking each circumstance on the spot, where
it occurred, I knew not what part to suppress, and therefore hazarded a
severe trial of your patience by imposing upon you the task of perusing
the whole; yet not without a hope that, as the mode of travelling, and
every thing connecting with the journey, differed, totâ facie, from what
is common in Europe, the novelty might in some measure compensate the
wearisome narration.
You will readily conceive the avidity with which our comrades demanded
an account of our proceedings. They crowded round us upon our arrival,
besieging us with vollies of interrogatories, and eagerly listening to
our recitals. Every one had something new to ask, and from the varied
forms of nearly similar questions, the two or three first days were
mostly spent in repeating the details of our excursion.
We were equally solicitous to learn the news from the Islands, and from
England, but were disappointed in all our inquiries, no intelligence
having reached the colony during our absence. Since our return a vessel
has arrived from Barbadoes, with the happy tidings that our troops have
subdued the brigands and the Charibs of Grenada and St. Vincent, and
that these islands are restored to order and tranquillity.
I should not omit telling you that I had an opportunity a few days since
of seeing one of the race of enormous snakes, which you read of as
infesting these colonies. It was killed near the town of New Amsterdam,
was twelve feet long, and about the thickness of a man’s thigh. To the
Europeans who were present, it appeared a very large and hideous
reptile; but neither the colonists, nor the negroes considered it of
extraordinary size, for we learn that they are sometimes seen more than
twice as large, and upwards of thirty feet in length.
I wish I could relate to you a conversation which I heard at the
governor’s lately on the subject of mermaids. It was maintained that
these lady-like animals, of fabulous note, do really exist in the
Berbische river, and I experienced some surprise, when I heard the
governor, who is a sensible and intelligent man, give his sanction to
the opinion. Often (it was insisted) _very_ often had they been seen;
and on my asking the gentlemen who advanced the assertion, if it was by
their own eyes, they replied, “No! but repeatedly by Indians, by
negroes, and by whites;” and they seemed to think it established beyond
a doubt, that these scaly _poissardes_ did actually inhabit the waters
of this country. One of them, it was said, had been taken alive, by an
Indian, who was carrying it to Savonette as a present to M. Heynemann;
but from the prejudices of his nation, whose superstition protects these
animals, the man was compelled, by others of the Indians, to return her
to the river, lest the enraged mother should haunt them with every
species of ill.
A planter who was present, observing that the officers were still
unconfirmed in their faith, added a species of testimony which he seemed
to think even the most incredulous could not resist. “Nothing,” said he,
“is more certain than that mermaids do exist in the rivers of Guiana,
for I know a navy officer who has not only seen them alive, but who
actually ate of one, which had been cooked and served up for the table.”
This he considered as “confirmation strong;” but as neither this
gentleman nor any of the others had seen or eaten of these fish-ladies
themselves, however it might border upon a breach of politeness, it was
no contradiction of the assertions made by them, not to be convinced by
the same reports, which had confirmed their belief: we therefore
continue ... to doubt!