LETTER XLVIII.
Several opportunities have lately offered to me of making boat excursions, with Colonel Gammell and others of the officers, to New Amsterdam, and I have had the honor of being presented to Governor and Madame Van Battenburg, of whose hospitable and polite attentions I cannot express myself in sufficient terms of praise. They have kindly invited me to take up my abode at the government-house, during my stay in the colony, but I have to lament that my duties at the hospital will not allow me to avail myself of so flattering and agreeable an accommodation.
The government-house is, beyond all comparison, the handsomest and most spacious edifice I have yet seen in South America. It is built near to the river, with one front commanding the water; the other the town.
A few days ago I joined a small party from the fort, in an excursion to some of the planters’ estates up the river Kannye, and was particularly gratified in viewing the rich plantation of Mynheer Ongre. We set off at an early hour, in order to have the day before us, and arrived at this gentleman’s abode just as he was sitting down to his Dutch breakfast of very excellent crab soup, some fine fish, a tongue, and a variety of other good things. It is the custom of the Dutch to take coffee in bed, or as soon as they rise, and to make a more substantial breakfast of soups and solids about ten o’clock. After partaking of this repast, we were conducted about the estate, which is rich and well-cultivated, yielding abundance of coffee and cocoa, and some cotton. The annual produce of coffee is estimated at 140,000lb. weight, and of cocoa 10,000lb. Two hundred slaves are employed upon the estate, calculated at the value of from 50l. to 100l. each. The house is handsome and spacious, the plantation extensive, and the coffee logis upon a very large scale: the whole exhibiting the appearance of fertility and opulence. Having visited the fields of coffee, and the cocoa plantation, we next went to the logis, where we saw the cocoa seeds exposed for drying, preparatory to their being made into chocolate; and, also, great quantities of coffee undergoing the last process, previous to their being sent to market. I observed that what is commonly used as cocoa, in England, is only the shell or outer covering of the seed—the kernel, or better part, being used for making the chocolate.
At another estate we were regaled with fruit, and several pines were put into the boat, when we were going away. Here we also pulled from the trees a number of calabashes of uncommon size, to take home with us to use by way of bowls and platters. We likewise gathered some roots of jalap from under the hedges, and observed the ipecacuanha growing in the fields. Thus, you find, that however shut from the world, we can neither want fruit, food, nor physic; for the hedges, the fields, and the gardens amply supply them all: drink, clothing, and condiment we also collect from the trees, the plants, and the bushes; and, in the calabash, bountiful nature has even furnished us with plates, basins, and dishes.
Although we had not the usual incitements of a sumptuous dinner and a splendid ball, we were not unmindful that the 4th inst. was a day of rejoicing. The troops fired a feu de joie; and a royal salute sounded through the thick woods both from the fort, and an armed schooner which was lying in the river. Bumpers were filled to His Majesty’s health, and we were merry and happy as you, who were revelling in all the luxuries of London. One treat was added to our feast, which, even in that all-supplying place, you would fail to meet with, and which I know would have much pleased you; viz. the report of the cannon through the deep woods around us, with the loud shrieks of parrots, monkies, and the other wild inhabitants, on hearing it: and, above all, the enchanting echo which was returned to us across the river. I had listened each night with delight to the solemn reverberations of the evening gun, and was quite prepared to watch the effect of a more heavy firing. It was grand, and wanted only the stillness of evening, and the placid rays of the moon to render it sublime. On escaping from the fort, the sound seems first to cross a part of the water, and roll softly through the island of trees, at the river’s mouth: from thence it traverses the remainder of the wide stream, and on reaching the thick woods of the opposite shore, it suddenly echoes, as if abruptly repulsed into the water. Afterwards it breaks through the forest, and is heard in rumbling undulation, as if again interrupted in its course, till at length its awful reverberations steal their hollow way through the distant woods in deep and heavy-rolling thunder.