Chapter XXX: Page 381 (10)

Having now fully compleated my commission, I, with my detachment, marched back for the Casseepore Creek, directing my course through the ruined fields of Gado-Saby, which were at present choked up to a perfect wilderness. Hence we kept first to the south-west, and then due south, after which we slung our hammocks near a former encampment. It is to be observed, that at this time all the marshes were nearly dry, on account of the hottest season I ever remember; while the fœtid smell occasioned by the quantities of dead warrapa fish, that had been deserted by the water, was an intolerable nuisance. From amongst these putrid fishes, our negro slaves nevertheless selected the most tolerable, which, fried in the evening, served them for a delicate morsel.

The morning following we again marched south-west by west, when we slung our hammocks not above four miles from the Cassepore Creek; and on the 26th (keeping south-south-west) we arrived in the grand camp, much fatigued and emaciated, myself with a swelled face or erysipelas; when I gave in my journal to Lieutenant-Colonel de Borgnes, who commanded [46]: and I believe, upon my honour, that had we been ordered to remain twenty years on this expedition, with a possibility of saving our lives, the different diseases, plagues, and torments, would still have accumulated and varied without end.

A detachment of fifty men was next sent out to reconnoitre at Jerusalem, &c.; and on the 6th of December the long-expected relief, consisting of three hundred and fifty men, arrived in the river Surinam from Holland, after a voyage of nine weeks and three days, of which they spent a fortnight at Plymouth.

By these the unfortunate account was brought, that Captain Jochem Meyer (who had on board a considerable sum of money for our troops) was taken by the Moors, and carried with his crew to Morocco, where they were condemned to be slaves to the emperor [47]; and that the ship Paramaribo, Captain Spruyt (being one of the vessels that carried over the sick in the beginning of August) was wrecked and entirely lost in the channel, on the rocks of Ushant; but that, by the exertions of some French fishing-boats, the crew and troops had all been saved, and carried into Brest, whence they had taken a fresh passage for the Texel; after which the Prince of Orange (who was ever distinguished for benevolence, and doing good and humane actions) ordered the officers and private men, above one hundred in number, to receive the following sums, by way of defraying their loss, viz. each marine received about four, the subalterns thirty, the captains forty, and Major Medlar, who commanded, fifty pounds sterling. However, by this shipwreck, I lost all my three chests of sweetmeats and pickles, besides parrots, butterflies, monkies, &c. intended as presents to my friends in Europe, which indiscriminately went to the bottom, to my no small mortification.

Having now for above a month been lodged in a paltry hut, beaten by the wind and showers of rain (which began to set in unexpectedly); and being informed, that notwithstanding the arrival of the relief, we were still to stay some time longer in the woods, which broke many hearts; I, on the 12th of December, earnestly set about building for myself a comfortable house, and which was finished, without either nail or hammer, in less than six days, though it had two rooms, a piazza with rails, and a small kitchen, besides a garden, in which I sowed, in pepper-cresses, the names of Joanna and John; while my next-door neighbour, who was my friend Captain Bolts, made shift to keep a goat, and thus we lived not altogether uncomfortably. Others kept hens and ducks, but not a cock was to be seen in the camp; for these, having first had all their tongues cut out to prevent their crowing (though to no purpose) had been since condemned to lose their heads. In short, our gentlemen built a row of very curious houses indeed, all projecting from the beech; while, on the opposite side, above a hundred green huts being constructed to receive the new-come troops, the whole together formed no contemptible street, though it must be confessed its inhabitants were little better than scare-crows.

What was most remarkable in my own habitation, however, was its entry, which was not by the door, nor yet by the window, but only by the roof, where I crept in and out, allowing absolutely no other admittance; and by this contrivance alone I was effectually guarded from those frequent visitors who smelt my pancakes, and used to make too free with my eggs and bacon, besides interrupting me while I was drawing, writing, or reading. Upon the whole, I must acknowledge, that this encampment was agreeable enough (more so as being on elevated ground), had it not been for the pestilential damps and mephitic vapours that exhale constantly from the earth, and had already sent numbers to the other world.

During this short space of tranquillity I constructed in miniature my cottage in which I lived at the Hope, on an oblong board of about eighteen inches by twelve, which being entirely made of the manicole-tree and branches, like the original, was esteemed a master-piece; and this I sent as a present to my friend Mr. de Graaff at Paramaribo, who since placed it in a cabinet of natural curiosities at Amsterdam. As I am upon this subject, I am tempted to present the reader with a view of two of my habitations, the one that at the Hope, where I spent such happy days; and the other temporary, such as in the woods we constructed to be sheltered from the weather:—the first may be considered as the emblem of domestic felicity; the second of rustick hardship and fatigue.

The troops of the Society of Surinam, who had been encamped at the Wana Creek (the rainy season prematurely setting in) now wisely broke up, and on the 26th passing by us, rowed down the river Cottica on their way to the plantations in the Pirica Creek; but as for us, we were as usual condemned to linger in the Cassipore camp, while Fourgeoud still kept snug at Paramaribo. With the above officers we received intelligence that a few more rebels had been taken at the Marawina; while we ourselves daily continued to send out patroles to the right and left, but met with nothing to capture.

At last, on the 29th, six barges came to an anchor before our encampment, with part of the fresh troops that were arrived from Holland for our relief; which I could not help viewing with compassion, and not without a cause, many of them being already attacked with the scurvy, and other loathsome diseases. We however sent for bricks, and built an oven to bake fresh bread, &c. and did all that was in our power to comfort them: having received also a supply of wine for my own use, I gave a hearty welcome to all the officers, to cheer their spirits; but this ill-fated liquor had an effect far different from what I intended on one of our captains, P——t by name, who, from some misunderstanding, challenged me to fight him instantly. Having retired to some distance from the camp, and drawing our sabres, he burst out into an immoderate fit of laughter, and throwing away his weapon, desired me “to cut away; but that for his part he had such a real regard for me, that he felt it was impossible for him to make any resistance:” after which, catching me in both his arms, he gave me so hearty an embrace, that he had nearly stifled me, and I could not without the greatest difficulty get disentangled. Being recovered from my surprize, I could not help smiling in my turn; and after a friendly reprimand re-conducted my valiant opponent to the company, where we closed the year with the greatest mirth and conviviality.

A confounded tumble through my hammock having ushered in the morning of 1777, we went to the commanding officer of the camp, to pay him the compliments of the season; where I was shown the philander, or Mexican oppossum, here called awaree, which had been just taken alive, and with all its young.

I have already mentioned the murine oppossum; thus shall now only describe such peculiarities as I was able to remark, and which were indeed but few in number, the animal being in the bottom of an empty hogshead when I saw it, its biting preventing me to take it in my hand.—In the first place, it was much larger than the former, this being the size of an over-grown Norway rat: the colour was a yellowish grey all over, and the belly and limbs a dirty white; the muzzle was more blunt than that of the murine oppossum, with long whiskers; its eyes not black but transparent, with a black ring round the iris; the tail extremely long, thick, and hairy, particularly near the root, and its smell was very offensive. This oppossum had a pouch under its belly, formed by the folding of the skin, which is hairy within as well as without; from this pouch I saw the young ones (five or six in number) several times run out, when the mother was not disturbed, and as often run into it upon the smallest noise, or shaking the hogshead.—As I pitied the poor creature, after its having been so long tormented, I suddenly kicked up the hogshead, when the oppossum with all its young escaped, and ran swiftly up a very high tree before Colonel Seyburg’s cottage, and there it hung by the tail to one of the branches; but as it is a dreadful destroyer of poultry, and the Colonel apprehended that it would kill every one of his fowls, he ordered it, to my sorrow, to be shot down, with all its young ones.—The Virginian oppossum I never saw; and my only further remark on this shall be, that its activity very much surprized me, as many writers have denied it this quality. For further particulars, I refer the reader to the murine or mouse oppossum above-mentioned, as in most circumstances these two animals perfectly agree.

Among the destroyers of poultry, there is another animal in this country, known by the name of quacy-quacy: some call it the racoon, but which properly is the coatimondi, or Brasilian weasel; though many people, with some degree of propriety, compare it to a fox, as it is often able to carry away a goose or a turkey, and is also extremely cunning. This creature is sometimes near two feet long, the body shaped like that of a dog, and commonly black, or rather dark brown, though many are of a bright bay colour: the tail is long, hairy, and annulated with black, and a deep buff; the breast and belly are a dirty white; the head is a light brown, with long jaws, and a black snout that projects upwards for near two inches, and is moveable like that of the tapira; the eyes are small, the ears are short and rounded, while on each side a curved stripe connects them and the muzzle; the legs of the coati are short, especially the foremost; the feet are very long, with five toes on each, and long claws, while the animal, like the bear, always walks on the heel, and stands on those behind. No quadrupeds (the monkies not excepted) are better climbers on the trees, where these creatures commit dreadful ravages amongst birds-nests, every small animal which they can conquer becoming their prey. In the poultry-yards in particular they commit great devastations, on which account every contrivance that can be invented is put in practice to destroy them.

As I am upon the subject of animals, before I leave the woods I must describe another creature, which inhabits them, and which (though more than twice the size of the last) lives chiefly on ants; this is the great ant-eater, or ant-bear, called also the tamanoir, and by the Spaniards the osa palmera. The body of this animal is covered over with very long shaggy hair; on the back and belly it is black, and on the neck and sides a grey or yellowish white; the head is extremely long and slender, of a light bay colour, with very small eyes; the ears are short and round, and the mouth (which has no teeth) just large enough to admit its tongue; the tail is of an enormous size, with very long black hair, something like that of a horse: with this extraordinary tail, when asleep (which is generally in the day time, or during a hard shower of rain) the animal covers itself like a squirrel; at other times he trails it along, and sweeps the ground. The limbs are slender, but covered with long hair; the hindmost legs being shortest and black, with five claws; those before are of a dirty white, with but four claws, the two middle claws being of an extraordinary length.

The great ant-eater is a very bad walker, resting always on the heel of his awkward long feet, like the coati and bear; but he is a better climber, and so good a fighter, that no dog will hunt him, since whatever animal he catches between his fore claws (nay even the jaguar or tiger) he will not release while he has life. His food, as I have said, consists of ants, which he takes in the following manner:—when he comes to an ant-hillock, he unfolds his slender tongue, which is about twenty inches long, most exactly resembling a worm; this being covered over with a clammy matter or saliva, the ants get upon it in great numbers, and by drawing it into his mouth, he swallows thousands all alive, and renews the operation, till no more are to be found, when he marches in quest of another mountain, and in the same manner destroys the unwary inhabitants. He also climbs in quest of wood-lice and wild honey; but should he meet with little success in his devastations, he is able to fast a considerable time without the smallest inconvenience. It is said that the great ant-bear is tameable, and that then he will pick crumbs of bread, and small pieces of flesh; also that when killed, he affords good food to the Indians and negroes, the last of which I have seen devour his flesh with pleasure. Some ant-bears measure, from the snout to the tip of the tail, no less than eight feet.—See the two last-described animals in the plate annexed.

A small species of ant-bear, called the tamandua, is also found in Surinam, though not very common. This differs from the former in having twenty toes, the head being thicker in proportion, and the tail smaller, which is variegated with bands of black and yellowish white.—A lesser species still is called the fourmillier, which, however, never came within my observation.—But to proceed.

On the 3d, six more barges with troops came up from Paramaribo, which compleated the number of three hundred and fifty men arrived from Holland. Amongst these, being informed there was a Captain Charles Small, come from the Scots Brigade, this gentleman having exchanged with poor Ensign Macdonald (who was sent over sick) I instantly sculled down the river alone in a canoe to meet him, and offer him my assistance. I had no sooner got on board his barge, than I found him suspended in a hammock with a burning fever. He, not knowing me on account of my dress, which was no better than that of the most ragged sailor, asked me what I wanted; but when he saw in me his poor friend Stedman, changed from a stout sprightly young fellow, to a miserable debilitated tatterdemallion, he grasped me by the hand, without uttering a word, and burst into tears: which agitation, while it increased his illness, shewed the goodness of his heart to me, more than any thing he could have uttered on the subject.—“D—n your blubbering, Charles!” said I; “turn out of this stinking cockle-shell: I’ll presently cure thee;”—and getting him hoisted into my canoe, I brought him on shore to my own habitation, but with the greatest difficulty, being obliged to thrust him through a crevice made on purpose, as the hole in the roof was not calculated even for any healthy person’s admittance, myself excepted. Having here slung his hammock near to my own, and boiled some water, I treated him with warm grog and a toasted biscuit, and he became much better from that very moment. He now acquainted me that one of his men was drowned on the passage; and that Colonel Fourgeoud having entertained the officers with a ball after their landing, at which one of his cooks, and a couple of meagre marines, had been the fidlers, he concluded his illness to be the consequence of too much dancing. A little after this, Colonel Fourgeoud himself appearing in person in the camp amongst us, he soon, however, entertained us with musick of a different kind; which was no less than the discouraging news, that by the newly-arrived corps of officers several of us had lost our rank (both in the regiment and in the army) after parching above four years in a burning sun, toiling ourselves almost to death, and subsisting upon stinking meat and black rusk. To add to this grievance, while the above gentlemen usurped our preferment, we were, instead of being relieved, ordered to continue in the woods, in order to teach them their duty.

During the above unpleasing probation, the major’s duty again fell to my share; which was at this time extremely disagreeable, being obliged daily to chastise the men, many of whom pilfered the magazine to alleviate hunger, having been without the article of bread for seven days, the oven being dropped to pieces. Amongst others, one poor fellow was nearly flogged to death for having borrowed one of the colonel’s Bologna sausages; for, let it be remembered, that our commander in chief, whatever might be the distress and hardships of the rest, never forgot to support his own dignity, by at least half a dozen of stout negroes loaded with bacon hams, Bologna sausages, bullocks tongues, tea, coffee, sugar, Madeira wine, Holland’s gin, &c.—

Courage may prompt, but, ebbing out his strength,
Mere unsupported man must yield at length:
Shrunk with dry famine, and with toils declin’d,
The drooping body will desert the mind;
But built anew with health-conferring fare,
With limbs and soul untam’d, he tires a war.

At length, on the 8th, a barge arrived, not only with a supply of salt beef and rusk, but a bullock and two hogs, as a present from Mr. Felman, who, accompanied by his lady, &c. came actually on a visit to Fourgeoud, in this very strange encampment. The above animals being immediately killed, they were distributed among four hundred people; so that it may well be conceived the shares, though sweet, were not very large, after which the company walked about to view our different habitations. Being arrived at my dwelling, Fourgeoud led them round and round, but seeing no door to get in, he called out, “Nobody at home?” When I instantly thrust my head through the thatch, with a pancake in my hand, and offered to haul in the ladies; but this they civilly declined. I never saw Fourgeoud laugh so much in my life. As soon, however, as he was able to recover his gravity, he exclaimed, “Sacre Dieu! Il faut être Stedman,—il faut être original comme lui;” and re-conducted the company to his own apartment, where he gave me an invitation to follow them. Indeed, when Captain Small and I went out, we generally spent our time in a beautiful savannah, where we had erected a green shed, to be free in conversation, and called it Ranelagh; here we caroused and cracked a bottle in private, till we could crack no longer, having lived so well that in a little time more than a week my cheese and bacon hams quite disappeared, and not a drop of wine or rum was left in the flasks.—After this he, as well as I, were obliged to live on short allowance; while Small had the satisfaction, however, to see his ship-mates do the same: who, not being acquainted with the œconomy necessary in a forest, had made all their flour into plum-pudding, and were already obliged to break their teeth on a piece of rye rusk.

In short, so early as the 12th, one hundred and fifty of these newly-arrived people were already ordered to march; when, by the way of seasoning them, besides heavy accoutrements and a hammock, they had orders each man to carry a stuffed knapsack on his back. Of this party, my friend Small happened to be one, who being as corpulent as Sir John Falstaff, and I having accoutred him in the above manner, the poor fellow could hardly walk at all; till declaring to Fourgeoud that I must roll him along like a hogshead, he got leave to be disengaged from a part of his unweildy encumbrances.

Every thing being ready, this loaded detachment now faced to the right, and set out, with Colonel Fourgeoud at their head, for the river Marawina: and while I must here acknowledge that this chief was now become to myself as civil as I could expect or desire, yet justice compels me to add, that to all others he remained just as inflexible a tyrant as ever I had known him; which character he unhappily seemed to think incompatible with his rank.

During their absence, I crossed the water, and cut down a cabbage-tree on the other side of the river Cottica, not only for the cabbage, but for the sake of the groe-groe worms, with which I knew it would swarm in about a fortnight.

Straying here through the woods with my black boy Quaco, I met with the following trees, still left for description, viz. the cedar, the brown-heart, and the bullet-tree. The first, though it bears that name, is different from the cedars of Lebanon, which grow in a pyramidical form. The Surinam cedar, however, grows also to a great height, but is principally esteemed because the wood is never eaten by the worms or other insects, on account of its great bitterness; it has also a most agreeable smell, and is therefore used in preference to most others for making chests, cupboards, lockers, and all sorts of joinery; besides which, it is employed in making the tent-barges and other boats. The colour of the timber is a pale orange: it is both hard and light, and from the trunk exudes a gum (not unlike the gum Arabic) which is transparent, and diffuses a most agreeable flavour.

The brown-heart is in hardness of the same consistency as the purple-heart, and the green-heart already mentioned, and is shaped into heavy timber for the same purposes, such as constructing sugar-mills, &c.: the colour of this wood is a beautiful brown.—The other is the bullet-tree; this tree grows sometimes to sixty feet, but is not so thick in proportion as many others: the bark is grey and smooth, the timber brown, variegated or powdered with white specks. No wood in the forest is equal to this in weight, being heavier than sea-water, and so very durable, that when exposed to the open air neither rain or sun have any effect on it; for this reason, besides its other various uses, it is split into shingles to roof the houses, instead of slates or tiles, which, as I formerly mentioned, would be too heavy and too hot. These shingles are sold for £. 4 sterling a thousand at Paramaribo, and continue sometimes twenty-four years before they are renewed.

I ought to mention also a kind of mahogany, which is found in the woods of Guiana, called the ducolla-bolla, and which is of a superior quality to any which is imported here, being of a deeper red colour, and of a finer, more equal, and compact grain; also of greater hardness and weight, and thus capable of receiving a more elegant polish.

About this period the whole camp was infested with a kind of wood-lice, so called in Surinam, but with more propriety they might be termed white ants, resembling them almost in every particular, except that the ants dwell in the ground, and these build their nests on the trunks of trees: these nests, being black, round, and irregular, are not unlike the woolly head of a negro, but sometimes as large as the half of a hogshead, and composed of a rust-coloured incrustated earth, which is extremely hard, and impenetrable to the weather. In this mass, which internally consists of innumerable cross roads, each the size of a goose-quill, they live together in myriads, whence they sally forth, and commit their depredations, unequalled by any other infest in Guiana, piercing through the hardest wood, leather, linen, or whatever comes in their way. They also frequently get into the houses by an incrusted covered road made against the wall, resembling the half of a sliding pencil, which is with its windings sometimes several hundred feet long: if this is not destroyed upon its first appearance (which must be done by arsenick or the oil of turpentine) as they crumble every thing to dust, whole dwellings will be entirely demolished, and come down to the ground in rubbish. These insects (notwithstanding their fetid abominable smell) are reckoned a very good food for poultry, who are said to thrive on them even better than on Indian corn. I ought not to forget their extreme industry in repairing their habitation when injured, and their wonderful power of propagation, which (let ever such numbers be destroyed) brings them in a very short time to their former unaccountable multiplicity.

To another pest we were also frequently subjected in this camp, and this was no less than clouds of flying lice, which covered our clothes sometimes so thick, that they absolutely gave them the appearance of grey cloth. This was owing to the shedding of their wings, which, being four in number; they generally left behind them after they alighted, and being thus without the means of flying off again, they remained on our jackets; except however thus covering us all over, they caused us no other inconvenience. It is the opinion of some naturalists, that these flying lice are no other than the above-mentioned wood-lice, which when they become old get wings, leave their nests, and fly about, like some other ants, both in Europe and in America.

About this time the discipline was peculiarly strict in the camp, so that whoever made the very least noise was most severely punished, nay, threatened to be shot; and even the sentinels were ordered to challenge rounds and patrols by no other sound than whistling, which was answered in the same manner.

On the 18th, one of these being condemned to be flogged for speaking loud, I however found means (Fourgeoud not being yet returned) to get him pardoned, after he was already stripped. The following day, nevertheless, evinced that I could punish when things were carried too far; for seeing a large piece of boiled pork (about two pounds weight) flying past me with great velocity, and finding it was thrown by one marine to another, while they had got a quarrel, I instantly ordered them to pick it up, and (having cut it in two) I stood over them myself till they swallowed every morsel of it in my presence, sand and all, without either bread or drink: which they since declared was such a punishment as surpassed my conception, and they should remember it to the end of their lives.

On the 23d, I received from town a well-timed supply of wine and fresh provisions; and the same day Colonel Fourgeoud, with his detachment, arrived from the Marawina. During this trip, our active commander had again discovered and destroyed fifty-nine houses, besides three fields of provisions. This certainly gave the finishing blow to the rebel negroes, since, having no further supply on this side the water, they entirely abandoned it, and went to settle in the French colony Cayenne. In this hard though necessary service the men had suffered prodigiously, especially those newly arrived; numbers of whom were carried in hammocks on poles, while near thirty were left sick at the Marawina, and my friend Small was at least one stone lighter.

At this time, in the camp hospital, above one hundred were also dangerously ill. Nothing was heard but sighs and the shrieking of the strix or Guiana owl, which for ever kept them company during the dismal nights. Cramps, so common in Surinam, also infested those that were able to do duty; and there reigned a general melancholy all around.

————“The circling sky,
The wide enlivening air, is full of fate;
And, struck by turns, in solitary pangs
They fall, untended and unmourn’d.”

Here one man was to be seen covered over with bloody boils from head to foot; there another led along by two of his comrades in a deep lethargy, who, in spite of pinching and pricking, dosed into eternity; a third, swelled by the dropsy, and imploring the surgeon in vain to tap off the water (who generally answered that it was too late) was left to expire by suffocation. In the hospital some were observed clasping their hands, and praying aloud to God to be relieved; while others lay at their side in a frenzy fever, tearing their hair, blaspheming Providence, and cursing the day that they were born.—In short, all was dreadful beyond description, by the pen of a Milton excepted.

————“Sad noisome dark,
A lazar-house it seem’d, wherein were laid
Numbers of all, diseas’d: all maladies
Of ghastly spasm or racking torture; qualms
Of heart-sick agony, all feverous kinds,
Convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs;
Demoniac frenzy, moping melancholy,
And moon-struck madness; pining atrophy,
Dropsies, and asthmas, and joint-racking rheums:
Dire was the tossing, deep the groans; despair
Tended the sick, busiest from couch to couch.
And over them triumphant Death his dart
Shook, but delay’d to strike, though oft invok’d
With vows, as their chief good and final hope.”

From day to day mortality now gained ground, while by some accident, to compleat the distress, part of the camp got on fire; but this was fortunately extinguished without any material ill consequences, by the activity and exertions of the poor negroes.

On the 26th my misery, however, drew towards an end, when, to my astonishment, and without my asking it, Colonel Fourgeoud gave me a leave of absence, if I chose it, to accompany him, and stay henceforth at Paramaribo; which, without hesitation, I most joyfully accepted. Thus, having made my friend Captain Small a present of my house, my Ranelagh, and all my fresh provisions, besides entertained him and some other officers on a dish of mountain-cabbage, and my groe-groe worms, which were just come to perfection, besides a hearty glass of wine, I took my last adieu from them all; and at midnight, with Colonel Fourgeoud, rowed down the River Cottica in an elegant barge with ten oars, in company with two more of his officers.—And now farewell once more, ye shady woods, thou pleasing gloomy forest, pregnant with so many wonders, and so many plagues, and which, in the opinion of so many sufferers, even surpassed the ten plagues of Egypt! [48]

————“I have sent among you the pestilence after the
manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword—
I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your
nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.”

The boat being shoved off, Colonel Fourgeoud now declared to us, that having ransacked the forest in every direction, and driven the rebels over the Marawina in Cayenne, he was determined no more to return to the woods, but in a few weeks to draw the long and painful expedition to a conclusion.

Now, reader, it remains with you to acknowledge that I have not led you about the bush, but through it, with indefatigable perseverance: the more so, when it is to be considered that in the middle of the above hurry and distress, under which so many have sunk, I have often been deprived of pen, ink, and paper to make proper annotations; which last defect I have even more than once supplied by writing with a pencil on my cartridges, or on a bleached bone: had this not been unavoidably the case, more accuracy and many more remarks might with justice have been expected, which one need never be at a loss to make in a country so replete with different objects for speculation.

Having rowed all night, and breakfasted at the new cordon (which was begun to be cut not far from our former post Devil’s Harwar) on a dram and a biscuit, we came about noon to the estate Lapaix, where we dined with the planter, Monsieur Rivieres; after which Fourgeoud, with his adjutant, proceeded on their voyage to town, while I with another officer went to the sea-side at the back of the plantation to shoot snipes and curlews.

On our march thither and back again, passing two posts of the Society, the flag was hoisted, refreshments offered us, and every other civility shewn us that was in the power of the commanding officers. In shooting, however, we had very little sport, except that of killing some snipes, which flew in such clouds that they almost darkened the sky; so that by only firing from time to time above our heads at random, we brought down scores at every shot, but they were of such a diminutive species, that they were scarcely worth the picking up. We might have here killed birds of greater size, such as spoon-bills, cranes, red curlews, and wild ducks of many kinds, had we not unluckily been cut off from the banks on which they were scattered, by the sea overflowing the quicksands betwixt us and them. They afforded us, nevertheless, a most delightful view, the beech appearing at a distance like a sheet of scarlet and purple, embroidered with every other colour.

The shoveler or spoon-bill (which has some affinity to the cranes) is about the size of a goose: the legs are not very long, and it is web-footed but for a little way between the toes: the feathers are a beautiful rose-colour, though they are white when young; but the bill is truly remarkable in this bird, being flat, much broader before than at any other part, and circular, in some degree resembling a spoon, from which it takes its name. They are said to feed on frogs, rats, and lizards, yet fish is evidently their principal nourishment, from their frequenting the sea-side, and having a fishy taste when they are killed.

The crane or jabiru of Surinam, I can best compare to a stork, of which it has much the appearance, but is larger. The body of this bird is milk white, but the prime feathers of the wings and tail are black: the limbs and toes are excessively long; but I observed one peculiarity which distinguishes it from all other birds, viz. that it frequently sits upon the heel: the neck and bill are of an uncommon length, the latter being strong, and a little hooked at the point. The head of the crane or jabiru is perfectly black, on account of which, among the Dutch, it obtained the appellation of a negro-cop. It frequents the coast, like the others above mentioned, and lives entirely on fish: this bird is easily tamed. I have seen a couple of them in the poultry-yard belonging to Colonel Fourgeoud.—(See both these species of sea-fowls in the plate annexed, where the last is represented sitting in the posture I have described.)

To delineate the different species of wild ducks that are in Surinam with any degree of accuracy, is a talk which I acknowledge to be far beyond my reach. Suffice it therefore to say, that in general they are not very large, but adorned with the most splendid tints and most beautiful plumage that can be imagined, particularly those they call the cawereerkee, the sookooroorkee, and the annakee, which last are the smallest. No water-fowl of any kind, without exception, can be more delicate eating than all those I have just mentioned; while some of them are tameable, and frequently seen amongst the poultry on the plantations.

Having the following day the opportunity of a boat, I prosecuted my voyage down the Cottica River till I came to Paramaribo, where in fine spirits and perfect health (however strange) I arrived that very same evening, and where I was most heartily welcomed by my many friends with the warmest congratulations on my still existing, after having escaped so many dangers, and been so long deprived of every comfort—torn by thorns, stung by insects—starved, tormented, emaciated, and wounded—often without clothes, health, rest, money, refreshments, medicines, or friends;—and after having lost so many of my brave companions, who lay buried in the dust.——Thus ended my seventh and last campaign in the forest of Guiana.

CHAP. XXIX.

Some Account of a remarkable Negro.—The Troops prepare for
Europe.—Description of a Coffee Plantation.—Plan of Reform for the
Increase of Population, and universal Happiness.—One more Instance
of horrid Barbarity; and Example of Humanity.—The Regiment embarks.

Being now once more arrived in town, and wishing to be no longer troublesome to any body, I hired a very neat small house by the water-side, in which we lived nearly as happy as we had done at the Hope.

The first person that visited me here was the American Captain Lewis, of the Peggy, who, to my great concern, told me, that poor Macdonald, the grateful sailor, had died on the homeward passage, after being twelve days at sea; and desired him in his last words to return me, with his good wishes, the mother-of-pearl cork-screw I had formerly given him. He farther acquainted me also, to my sorrow, that three English vessels had been captured by the American Revenue privateer sloop, which lay at this time, with her prizes, in the road before Paramaribo; one of which, belonging to Ireland, was valued at above £. 50,000 sterling.

Having been waited on by a number of planters and others with congratulations on our success against the rebels; amongst the rest appeared the celebrated Gramman Quacy, who came to shew me his fine coat, gold medal, &c. which he had received as a present from the Prince of Orange, in Holland. This man, being one of the most extraordinary characters of all the negroes in Surinam, or perhaps in the world, I cannot proceed without giving some account of him; the more so, as he has made his appearance once or twice already in the course of this history.—This African (for he was born on the coast of Guinea) by his insinuating temper and industry, not only obtained his freedom from a state of slavery, but by his wonderful ingenuity and artful conduct found the means of procuring a very competent subsistence.

Having got the name of a lockoman, or sorcerer, among the lower slaves, no crime of any consequence was committed, especially at the plantations, but Gramman Quacy, which signifies Great-man Quacy, was instantly sent for to discover the perpetrators, which he so very seldom missed, owing, in fact, to their faith in his sorceries, added to his penetrating look [49] and authority among them, that he has often prevented farther mischief to their masters; and, for these services, occasionally received very capital rewards. The corps of rangers, and all fighting free negroes, are under his influence; to whom he sells his obias or amulets, in order to make them invulnerable, and, of course, to engage without fear: by which deceit he has most certainly done much good to the colony, and at the same time filled his pockets with no inconsiderable profit to himself; while his person by the blacks is adored and respected like a God. The trash of which his amulets are made costs him in reality nothing; being neither more nor less than a collection of small pebbles, sea-shells, cut hair, fish-bones, feathers, &c. the whole sewed up together in small packets, which are tied with a string of cotton round the neck, or some other part of the bodies of his credulous votaries.

But besides these, and many other artful contrivances, he had the good fortune, in 1730, to find out the valuable root known by the name of Quaciæ bitter, of which he was actually the first discoverer, and from which it took its name: and, notwithstanding this medicine is now less in repute in England than formerly, it is highly esteemed in many other parts of the world for its efficacy in strengthening the stomach and restoring the appetite. It has, besides this valuable property, that of being a powerful febrifuge, and may be successfully used when the bark is nauseated, as is frequently the case.

In 1761, it was made known to Linnæus by Mr. d’Ahlberg, formerly mentioned; and the Swedish naturalist has since written a treatise upon it. By this drug alone Quacy might have amassed riches, were he not entirely abandoned to indolence and dissipation; the consequence of which is, a complication of loathsome distempers, of which the leprosy is one: and that disorder is, as I have already stated, absolutely incurable. Nevertheless his age, though he could not exactly ascertain it, must have been very great, since he used frequently to repeat that he acted as drummer, and beat the alarm on his master’s estate, when the French commodore, Jacques Cassard, put the colony under contribution, in the year 1712.

Having taken a portrait of this extraordinary man, with his grey head of hair, and dressed in his blue and scarlet with gold lace, I, in the annexed plate, beg leave to introduce it to the reader.

This very same week we had indeed a fresh proof of the good effects of Gramman Quacy’s animating obias or amulets, a captain of the rangers, named Hannibal, bringing in the barbacued hands of two rebel negroes, which he had himself encountered and shot; and one of these hands proved to be that of the noted rebel Cupido, formerly taken, in 1774, and brought to Colonel Fourgeoud in the forest, but from whom he had since that time, though loaded with chains, found means to run away.

In returning the visits of my friends, I paid one to Mr. Andrew Reynsdorp, who shewed me the loop and button of his hat, which being diamond, had cost him two hundred guineas—such is the luxury of Surinam. But even this is exceeded by the magnificence of M. d’Ahlbergh, who, when I waited on him, besides a gold snuff-box set with brilliants, value six hundred pounds sterling, made me remark two silver bits (small pieces of money) set in gold, and surrounded with diamonds, with this inscription:

“Soli Deo Gloria. Fortuna beaticum, &c.”

Having signified my surprize at this peculiar attention and respect to two sixpences, he declared to me that they were all the money he had in the world when he first came to Surinam from his own country, Sweden.—“Did you work?” said I.—“No.”—“Did you beg?”—“No.”—“You did not steal, sir?”—“No: but, entre nous, I whined and acted the enthusiast, which sometimes is very necessary, and I found preferable to the other three.”—To which I answered, “Sir, your candid confession brings back to my remembrance your usage of your negro slave, Baron, after having promised him his manumission in Amsterdam, and fully proves what you have just asserted.”—One instance more of the extravagance and folly of the inhabitants of this colony, and I have done: Two of them disputing about a most elegant and expensive carriage that was imported from Holland, a law-suit ensued immediately, to determine who was to possess it, during which time the coach was left uncovered in the street till it fell to pieces, and was totally destroyed.

On the 10th of February, most of our officers being now arrived at Paramaribo from the camp, Colonel Fourgeoud entertained the whole with a feast, as he was pleased to call it, at the head-quarters; an old stable lanthorn, with broken panes of glass, hanging over our heads, which I expected every moment to drop into the soup. And here he acquainted us, with evident marks of satisfaction, that he had at last put a final end to the expedition; having, notwithstanding there was so little blood-shed, perfectly accomplished his aim in rooting out the rebels, by destroying TWENTY-ONE TOWNS or VILLAGES, and demolishing TWO HUNDRED FIELDS with vegetables of every kind, on which they depended for subsistence: also, that the intelligence was now confirmed, that the negroes were to a man fled over the River Marawina, where they and their friends were settled, and protected by the French colony of Cayenne, who not only gave them shelter, but supplied them with every thing they wanted. On which good news we all heartily congratulated him, and drank further prosperity to the colony of Surinam with three cheers; the future safety of which now depended on the new cordon or path of circumvallation, defended by the troops of the Society, and the corps of black soldiers or rangers.

In Dr. Firmyn’s works, Colonel Fourgeoud and his troops are twice mentioned as the saviours of the colony; and by the Abbé Reynal they are noticed as a very brave and valiant corps: compliments to which they are with truth entitled. And what cannot but redound to his honour, is, that at the time he imposed such hardships on his own troops, he never deliberately put a rebel negro captive to death, nor even, if he could avoid it, delivered them into the hands of justice; well knowing, that while it was his duty to expel them, nothing but the most barbarous usage and tyranny had driven these poor people to this last extremity. Indeed I myself, whom during the first three years he persecuted with unremitting severity, must do him the justice to say, that he was indefatigable in doing his duty; and that, though confused, I believe him at bottom to have been an undaunted and very BRAVE OFFICER.

He further acquainted us, that the vessels, with a fresh supply of provisions from Holland, had been cast on the lee-shore in the Texel Roads, one of them having her upper cabin stove away, with the second mate and three of her men washed overboard; he added, however, that part of the stores had been saved, and loaded on board two bilanders, which were this very day arrived in the River Surinam. And now, so much in particular was I become his favourite, that he even made me his confidant; and declared, that he proposed keeping the last arrived troops, however fast they were dying away (and who had lately lost a man by straying in the woods) encamped for many months after our departure. He then began to tell me what officers he meant, if possible, to ruin on their return, and which, by his recommendation, he intended to promote: but here I took the liberty to stop him short, by declaring, upon my honour, that those very gentlemen should be apprised by myself of their impending danger, if he persisted in carrying this cruel plan in execution. This at least had the effect to end the disagreeable conversation: when, in my turn, I added, “Sir, permit me farther to put you in remembrance of these very troops you have just mentioned, in regard to their truly distressed situation at the Casseepore Creek; while their surgeon is gaining gold watches and diamond rings by curing fashionable diseases among the gentry at Paramaribo.” To which he replied, “Vous êtes un brave garçon;” and promised to take my hints into consideration.

I was now invited once more by Captain Mackneal to spend a few days on his coffee estate, Sporksgift; but though I was prevented on this occasion from accepting the invitation, I will take this opportunity to describe that useful berry, which, not being a native of Guiana, it is said was first planted in Surinam by the Count de Neale, though others ascribe it to one Hansbach, a silver-smith, in 1720 [50].

The coffee-berry is the produce of an elegant tree, which is seldom allowed to grow higher than a man can reach, in order to facilitate the gathering of it. The bark of this tree is light brown, and the leaves like laurel, having a beautiful polish; with these it is thickly covered, the branches diverging from near the surface of the earth to the summit. The berries, which are oval, are first green, and gradually change their colour, till they are ripe, when they acquire a bright crimson hue, like that of a cherry. In each of these berries are two kernels resembling beans, lying flat upon each other. Of these a good tree is said to produce three or four pounds weight at each crop; for this tree, like most other vegetable productions in this luxuriant climate, bears two crops every year.

To give the curious a better idea of this useful plant, I present him with a sprig of it, copied from nature in the annexed plate;—in which the figure A refers to the wood, where it was cut off; B is the upper side of the leaf; C the lower side of the same; D is the berry just beginning to change; E the same in full perfection, being of a beautiful crimson; and F the kernels or beans as they appear when they are divested of their husk, and ready for exportation.

The buildings on a coffee estate are, first, the dwelling house, which is usually situated for pleasure near the banks of a river; and for convenience adjoining to it are erected the outhouses for the overseer and book-keeper, with store-houses and small offices: the other necessary buildings are a carpenter’s lodge, a dock and boat-house, and two capital coffee-lodges, the one to bruise and separate the pulp from the berries, the other to dry them; the rest consist of negro-houses, a stable, hospital, and warehouses, which altogether appear like a small village. The coffee-lodge alone sometimes costs five thousand pounds sterling, and sometimes more. But to give a more complete idea of the whole apparatus, I must refer to the plate, where all the buildings, fields, paths, gardens, floodgates, and canals are marked, and explained by the necessary references. The plan, as exhibited in this plate, is intended to unite at once elegance, convenience, and safety. It is elegant, as being perfectly regular; convenient, as having every thing at hand and under the planter’s own inspection; and safe, being surrounded by a broad canal, which by floodgates lets in the water fresh from the river, besides a draw-bridge, which during the night cuts off all communication from without.

I shall now proceed to the planting-ground, which is divided into large square pieces, in each of which are generally two thousand beautiful coffee-trees, growing at eight or ten feet distance from each other. These trees, which begin to bear at about the age of three years, are in their prime at six, and continue to produce fruit till they are thirty; the manner of supplying them being from good nurseries, which no coffee estate is ever without, having already mentioned that they afford two crops every year, which is about Midsummer and Christmas.

At the times of harvest, it is not unpleasing to see the negroes picking the crimson berries among the polished green, where all ages and sexes are employed to fulfil their task with ardour, when the youth who having first filled their baskets, wantonly run naked, and play amongst the luxuriant foliage.