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 [259]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 [260]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 [261]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 [262]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 [263]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 tree1, 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 [264]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, [265]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 [266]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. [267]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, [268]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 [269]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. [270]

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.

[271]

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. [272]

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 [273]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 [274]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 [275]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, [276]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. [275*]

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 [276*]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 [277]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 [278]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.

On the 7th of January we marched again; and this day having caught one of those beautiful large butterflies of which I made mention during my cruize in the river Cottica, I will here attempt to give a more particular description of it, though I know nothing about their names. This fly measured, in the extension of the wings from tip to tip, about seven inches; the colour of both the superior and inferior wings is of such a vivid and splendid [279]blue, as can only be compared to the azure sky in a bright day, to which not the purest ultramarine coloured sattin can approach: the under side is of a lovely brown variegated with spots. I cannot help repeating, that its skimming and hovering with such a magnitude, and such a hue, among the different shades of green, had the most enchanting effect. Of the antennæ, head, thorax, and abdomen, I shall only say that they were dark coloured. This fly, if I mistake not, is, according to the division of Linnæus, of the Danai species. I never saw the chrysalite or aurelia; but the caterpillar, which is of a yellowish grey colour, is as thick as a large man’s finger, and about four inches long. The annexed drawing I have improved from one of Miss Merian. Various and innumerable indeed are the butterflies with which the forests of Guiana abound; some people, in fact, who make fly-catching their business, get much money by it; and having arranged them in paper-boxes, with pins stuck through them, send them off to the different cabinets of Europe. Doctor Bancroft mentions, touching them with spirits of turpentine as necessary to preserve them, but fixing a piece of camphor in the box with the flies is quite sufficient.

This evening we encamped near the Patamaca Creek, where the poor negro woman cried bitterly, and scattered some victuals and water at the root of a tree by way of libation, as being the spot where her husband was [280]interred, who had been shot in some former skirmish by the Europeans.

Here Captain Fredericy and myself, walking without the skirts of the camp in a sandy savannah, discovered the fresh footsteps of a large tiger with her young, at which time they are extremely ferocious: we thought it prudent therefore to make a sudden retreat. I measured the diameter of the dam’s claws printed in the sand, which were nearly of the dimensions of an ordinary pewter-plate.

Having marched a few hours longer the succeeding morning, we at last arrived at the Society post La Rochelle in Patamaca; such a display of meagre, starved, black, burnt, and ragged tatterdemallions, and mostly without shoes or hats, as I think were never before beheld in any country. They could be compared to nothing but a gang of gypsies, while their leader was not unlike Bampfield Moore Carew, and myself at best like the forlorn Crusoe in his worst condition, with my only check shirt and the one-half of my trowsers, the rest being torn away. Here we found a set of poor wretches ready to enter the woods which we had just left, and destined to undergo in the same manner the severest misery that ever was inflicted on sublunary beings. I have already mentioned the prickly heat, ring-worm, dry gripes, putrid fevers, biles, consaca, and bloody flux, to which human nature is exposed in this climate; also the musquitoes, Patat and Scrapat lice, chigoes, cock-roaches, [281]ants, horse-flies, wild-bees, and bats, besides the thorns, briers, the alligators, and peree in the rivers; to which if we add the howling of the tigers, the hissing of serpents, and the growling of Fourgeoud, the dry sandy savannas, unfordable marshes, burning hot days, cold and damp nights, heavy rains, and short allowance, the reader may be astonished how any person was able to survive the trial. Notwithstanding this black catalogue, I solemnly declare I have omitted many other calamities that we suffered, as I wish to avoid prolixity, though perhaps I have been already too often guilty of it. I might have mentioned indeed lethargies, dropsies, &c. &c. besides the many small snakes, lizards, scorpions, locusts, bush-spiders, bush-worms, and centipedes, nay, even flying lice, with which the traveller is perpetually tormented, and by which he is constantly in danger of being stung; but the description of which cursed company I must defer to another opportunity.

The reader may form some conception of the famished state in which we came hither, when I inform him, that the moment of our arrival, observing a negro woman supping on plantain broth from a callibash, I gave her half-a-crown, and snatching the bason from her hands, I devoured the contents with a greater relish than I have ever tasted any delicacy before or since during my whole existence. I now observed to Colonel Fourgeoud, how pitiable it was, not to regale his remaining soldiers with vegetables and fresh beef or mutton, besides providing [282]them with hats, stockings, shoes, &c.; but he replied, that Hannibal had lost his army at Capua by too much indulgence. In short, he quoted not only Hannibal but Horace for his example, according to the advice given in a certain pamphlet,

Ibit eo quo vis qui Zonam perdidit;

and appeared fully convinced, that no persons will behave so desperately in action as those who are tired of their lives.

On the 11th, the other party which had left Wana the day before ourselves, arrived, having, according to custom, neither taken nor seen any thing.

On the 12th, one of the rebels with his wife came to La Rochelle, and surrendered themselves voluntarily to the commander in chief. This day Fourgeoud acquainted me now himself, that I was at liberty to go and refit at Paramaribo when I thought proper. This proposal I gladly accepted, and that moment prepared for my departure, with some other officers, leaving behind us himself and a band of such scare-crows as would have disgraced the garden or field of any farmer in England. Among these was a Society captain, named Larcher, who declared to me he never combed, washed, shaved, or shifted, or even put off his boots, till all was rotted from his body. At last arrived the happy hour, when, taking leave of my tattered companions, I and five more, with a [283]tent-boat and six oars, rowed strait down for Paramaribo, still in good health and in a flow of spirits, and at the very summit of contentment.

At Devil’s Harwar I met a cargo of tea, coffee, biscuit, butter, sugar, lemons, rum, and twenty bottles of claret, sent me by my friends, directed to La Rochelle, which I again, notwithstanding the barbarous usage that I had so lately met with, gave all in a present to poor Fourgeoud, twelve bottles of wine excepted, which we drank in the barge to the healths of our wives and mistresses; nor could I help pitying Colonel Fourgeoud, whose age (he being about sixty) and indefatigable exertions claimed the attention of the most indifferent: for during this trip, though but few rebels were taken, he had certainly scoured the forest from the river Comewina to the mouth of the Wana Creek, dispersed the enemy, and demolished their habitations, fields, and gardens, and thus cut them off from all prospect of support.

On the evening of the 13th, we supped at the estate Mondesire, and thence kept rowing down all night and day, shouting and singing till the 15th at noon, when, the tide serving, we went on shore at the fortress Amsterdam; whence crossing the river, we arrived before Mr. De Lamar’s door at Paramaribo. I stept ashore among a croud of friends, who all flocked round to see and to welcome me to town.

I next sent for my inestimable Joanna, who burst [284]into tears the moment she beheld me, not only for joy at my still existing (for it had been reported that I was no more) but also from seeing my very distressed situation.—Thus ended my second campaign, and with this I put an end to the chapter. [285]