I have already stated that on the 24th of August I gave in a hopeless request to the Governor for my boy’s emancipation; and on the 8th of October I saw with equal joy and surprize the following advertisement posted up, “That if any one could give in a lawful objection why John Stedman, a Quaderoon infant, the son of Captain Stedman, should not be presented with the blessing of freedom, such person or persons to appear before January 1st, 1777.”—I no sooner read it, than I ran with the good news to my good friend, Mr. Palmer, who assured me, “that the above was no more than a form, put in practice on the supposition of my producing the bail required, which undoubtedly they expected, from my having so boldly given in my request to the Governor of the colony.”—Without being able to utter one syllable in reply, I retired to the company of Joanna, who, with a smile, bid me “never to despair, that Johnny certainly one day would be free;” nor did she ever fail in giving me some consolation, whatever desperate were my expectations.
About this time we were informed, that in the Utrecht paper an impertinent libel had appeared against the good [[312]]Fourgeoud, ridiculing him for his embassy to the Owca and Serameca negroes: which gentleman, though he had no assistance from these allies to expect, and his troops now melted down almost to nothing, nevertheless scorned to keep those that could stand upon their feet inactive. Thus, having provided the few remaining privates with new cloathes (the first they had received since 1772); besides new sabres, bill-hooks, &c. he sent them all once more up, accompanied only by the subalterns, to be encamped at the mouth of the Cassipore Creek, in the upper parts of the Cottica river; the staff officers and captains being ordered soon to follow: and on the 7th we were treated by our commander, for the first time, with a sirloin of good roast-beef, which, however, was sent him from Amsterdam, prepared as I have already described. At the dessert was a kind of fruit called in Surinam pomme de canelle, or cinnamon-apple: it grows on a shrub in most gardens at Paramaribo, and has something the appearance of a young artichoke, being covered with a kind of green scales. The skin of this fruit is half an inch thick, and the pulp like clotted cream mixed with brown sugar: it is very sweet, but not much esteemed by many palates, being rather too luscious; the seeds, which are black, hard, and large, are contained in the pulp or creamy substance.
Having now prepared myself once more for actual service, and again received a profusion of wine, spirits, and refreshments of every kind, to carry with me to the [[313]]woods, from different friends at Paramaribo; I left my dear mulatto and her boy to the care of that excellent woman Mrs. Godefroy, in order the following day to set out on my seventh campaign, and help, if possible, to compleat that business we had so long and so ardently undertaken, for the safety and welfare of this valuable colony, and its lawful inhabitants of every denomination; while happily my health and my spirits were at this time once more just as vigorous and as strong, with all my limbs as perfectly sound, as the very first day that I landed, with Colonel Fourgeoud and his regiment of marines, in Terra Firma. [[314]]
[1] At Demerary, so late as October, 1789, thirty-two wretches were executed in three days, sixteen of whom suffered in the manner just described, with no less fortitude, and without uttering one single complaint. [↑]
[2] The above unhappy people were poisoned by their slaves about six years after this happened. [↑]
[3] For minute particulars I cannot do better than refer the curious to Mr. Belknap’s History of New Hampshire; where he describes the insurrection of the American Indians, which are almost perfectly similar to those of the African negroes. [↑]
CHAP. XXVIII.
The Rebels fly for Protection to Cayenne—Third March to Gado-Saby—A second Re-inforcement of Troops arrive from Holland—Shipwreck of the Transport Paramaribo—March to Rio Comewina—Dismal Picture of Distress and of Mortality—The Peace of the Colony restored.