Demarara, April 23.
On this day last year my foot first pressed the soil of South America;
and when I take a retrospect of all that has passed; review the trials
which I have had to sustain; and reflect what numbers have perished
around me, I feel highly sensible how much I have cause of thankfulness,
in being still blessed with health and strength, to perform the various
duties of my appointment.
With much anxiety I look to St. Domingo, and it would be a peculiar
satisfaction to me, could I know that my comrades upon that station have
arrived as happily at the end of the first year as myself: but, from
reports of the dreadful fatality in that quarter, I tremble for the fate
of my friends; and, being now upon the eve of joining them, the idea
that they may have fallen among the many victims of that inhospitable
region, weighs upon my heart in accumulated heaviness.
The date of my letter also reminds me, that at this time, last year, the
wet season was setting in upon the coast of Guiana. This year, we had a
considerable fall of rain, about the beginning of the present month,
from which many imagined it to be commencing; but the showers proved to
be only those of a lunar period, and the weather has since been dry and
pleasant.
The rainy season usually begins somewhat earlier in these colonies, than
in the islands: in the dry months, also, this coast is more frequently
refreshed with showers. These mostly occur about the periods of
spring-tides, and are not wholly suspended even in the arid month of
March: so that instead of suffering from long-continued drought, no part
of the year can be considered as a dry season, otherwise than
comparatively with those months which are almost incessantly wet.
With only the same proportion of rain, the coast of Guiana, from the
flatness of the country, and the nature of the soil, will appear to be
less dry, than the islands, where the land is more hilly and irregular,
and so disposed as to favor either the percolation, or the passing off
of the water. Here we have one wide and level surface of clay, and the
water that falls lies upon the roads, and the fields, until the thirsty
atmosphere drinks it all up again; hence the wet, from every shower,
continues to be visible long after it has reached the ground, or it
remains to be increased by new torrents.
From this circumstance, strangers arriving here from Europe, or the
islands, particularly if they should expect a total absence of showers
during the dry months, might be led to imagine that, in these colonies,
there is only one continued wet season throughout the year.
Of late I have been honored with visits from several of the medical
gentlemen of the colony, with a view of ascertaining the effect of the
remedies used in the military hospitals, and particularly of mercury, in
the yellow fever.
Among them was Dr. E. from whose conversation and remarks I derived
peculiar gratification. He is a man of talents and observation, and has
profited of an extensive experience. In speaking of the yellow fever, he
said that the medical men, who reside in the interior of the islands and
settlements of the West Indies, have scarcely a better opportunity of
knowing the real character of that disease, than those “who practise
medicine in the country villages of England.” He considers those only to
be well acquainted with this dreadful malady, who have the opportunity
of seeing it among Europeans, or Americans newly arrived within the
tropics. It had been his lot to witness it but too frequently, from
being employed among the sailors of the trading vessels upon the river;
and it appeared that he had observed with accuracy, and made himself
well acquainted with the nature of the disease.
The doctor’s experience had taught him to place very little reliance
upon bark, mercury, or any of the remedies commonly employed; but he
thought that he had witnessed the most decided benefit from the Indian
method of using hot and cold bathing; and he stated, that, where the hot
bath could not be conveniently provided, he had found equal advantage
from ordering the head and neck to lie washed with hot water, and
immediately afterwards dashing three or four buckets of cold water upon
the patient. “The very sudden relief obtained from this remedy,” added
the doctor, “is often equally astonishing and effectual.”
I have lately taken a ride to make some visits at Mahaica, and at
various estates upon the coast; and, in the course of my excursion, I
waited upon Mr. Mackenzie, one of my fellow-travellers upon our late
expedition up the river; at whose residence I had the high gratification
of exploring a rich garden of herbs, plants, flowers, and fruits.
It may surprise you to know that in a country where vegetation is so
rapid, and so much under control, as upon this prolific coast, a
well-cultivated garden should be so extremely rare, as to appear quite a
novelty: but it too commonly happens that those who court the smiles of
fortune, by planting the tropical fields, attend only to the cultivation
of sugar, coffee, and cotton, which are often seen growing up to the
very doorway, or almost creeping in at the windows of the dwelling, not
the smallest spot being reserved for garden, pleasure-ground, or
orchard. But the intelligent and accomplished proprietor of Lusignan has
a mind superior to the little penuriousness which, neglecting the
agreeable and ornamental, devotes only to the lucrative, and sacrifices
the common comforts of life to the sole purpose of amassing a few
additional dollars. Here the cotton is kept at a proper distance from
the house, and the immediate environs are laid out in gardens, or
enriched with fruits, shrubs, and other useful, or decorative trees.
Around the dwelling luxuriate, in a generous soil, the fruitful
bread-tree, the cucumber-tree, the cocoa-nut, the stately
mountain-cabbage, the grenadillo, the water-lemon, grapes of different
species, mangos, figs, cherries, almonds, star-apples, pines, and a
multitude of other fruits; together with a great variety of the more
rare, and beautiful plants and flowers of these regions.
All the advantages of an European garden it was here proved may be
equalled, or far exceeded in this bountiful soil, which so rapidly, and
abundantly returns the labour bestowed upon it. A long walk, finely
shaded with grenadillos, the fruit of which hung in profusion over our
heads, had been planted only a few months before. The young shoots of
figtrees, whose parent branches are cut away every year, were quite
loaded with fruit, and the grapes hung, in heavy clusters, from single
stems; all the other parts of the vines being pruned away. Indeed, so
prolific are the plants, and so luxuriant their growth, that to ensure
an abundant produce it seems only necessary to commit seeds and shoots
to the earth, and to cut out, from time to time, the greater part of the
wood of the trees.
Amidst the flowers I observed many that were of far more pleasant odour
than those I had commonly met with in this country, and which had led me
to believe that nature had very sparingly scattered her perfumes, among
the plants of this coast: if, therefore, I had not chanced to see the
garden I am speaking of, I might have left the colonies, impressed with
an idea that the flowers of Guiana were wholly devoid of that delicious
fragrance, for which those of Europe are so highly esteemed.