Chapter XV: Page 378 (8)

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.