On the 10th of November, in company with several other gentlemen, I now once more set out in a tent barge for the encampment at the Casseepore Creek; and this day the whole colony was full of smoke, the woods having taken fire near the sea side by some unknown accident. On our passage we met Colonel Texier, who came from the post Vredenburgh, at the Marawina, with a detachment; and assured us, that since the blow we gave to the rebels at Gado-Saby, they were mostly fled to the other side of that great river, where they found refuge amongst the French, who were settled in Cayenne; he had, however, taken a woman, and lieutenant Keen took two men, and killed two more, while the two new black volunteer companies supported the honour of their colours, which they had received with so much ceremony from the governor, by occasionally bringing in captives from the sea shore behind Paramaribo, in which they were assisted by the Indians, who had voluntarily fought and defeated the enemy [[315]]there, more than once. Thus every thing promised fair to crown our endeavours with success, and finally to re-establish safety and tranquillity in the colony.
On our passage we stopped at the estate Saardam, the proprietor of which (by a late marriage) was our Lieutenant Colonel Des Borgnes. I found here an American sailor who came to load molasses, and having an inclination to try the skill of the new planter (and his overseer) in rum, I desired the tar to colour a couple of gallons of kill-devil made at the very same plantation, and bring them ashore as rum brought from Antigua. He did so, and they gave him in exchange for it a six gallon keg of the very same spirits; declaring it was much better than their own, and then drank the contents in punch, to my very great entertainment. The sailor said he should colour the six gallons also, and did not doubt of loading his boat to the water’s edge before he reached Paramaribo.—Such, in all countries, is the force of prejudice.
Having been very well entertained at Saardam, we set forward, and arrived safe in the encampment at the Casseepore Creek, in Cottica River, on the 13th; where, in stepping ashore, being without shoes and stockings, I narrowly escaped being bitten by a land-scorpion. This insect is of the size of a small cray-fish, and has an oval body; its colour is like that of soot, and it is jointed in moveable rings: it has eight legs, divided by joints, and two jointed claws projecting from the head, appearing like part of the body, with such small eyes that they are [[316]]hardly perceptible: the tail is formed by seven globular divisions like beads, which terminate in a double sting; this it bends over its back, to protect its young ones from the attacks of other insects: for to the creature’s back the young resort, after being hatched from eggs like pin-heads, in a small web spun by the female. The sting of the land-scorpion is not accounted fatal, but occasions a violent pain, and throws the patient into a fever: it is said they change their skins, as crabs do their shells. The scorpions generally frequent old trees and old furniture, and are often found amongst dry rubbish and faded grass.
Almost the first accidents that I saw here was a poor fellow, a marine, going to bathe in the river, who was instantly snapt away by a large alligator. I no sooner beheld him sink and disappear, than having stripped, I actually dived after the poor man, by the help of a long oar, which a negro held perpendicular under water for the purpose, constantly taking care to keep all my limbs in motion. However I found him not, and tugging the oar as a signal to pull it up, the fellow, by miscomprehension, pushed both it and myself down with such violence, that we did not rise again to the surface till near the middle of the stream, which carried down the oar, while I regained the shore by swimming and very great exertion.
On the 20th, being now once more ordered to march on discovery to Gado-Saby, I set out at six o’clock in the morning, with two subaltern officers, three serjeants, [[317]]seven corporals, and fifty privates, besides a surgeon, and the noted free negro Gousary (whom we lost for three or four hours) and encamped near the banks of the same creek, not having been able to advance above six miles due west from its mouth.
On the 21st we marched north for about seven or eight miles, without meeting with one drop of water to alleviate our burning thirst, it being at this time in the very heart of the dry season, which this year was more scorching than I ever remembered it before.
Having now changed my course to the north-east, and passed the quagmire, about noon the following day we marched dry through the late fatal marsh, and an hour after we kept due west; when, falling in with a large field of yams, we demolished it; then proceeding forward, I encamped in the old settlement Cofaay, almost choked for want of water, not having met with any thing like it from the moment we sat out. Here, however, the negro slaves found means to procure us some, which, though stagnant and stinking like a kennel, we drank, straining it through our shirt-sleeves.
During this march, I nevertheless took notice of the following trees, not yet described, viz. the canavatepy, and the berklack, which are extremely fit for domestic use. The first is beautifully striped, black and brown, and has much the appearance of that usually called brazil, while it diffuses a smell in working not inferior to that of a carnation. The second is a pale red or pink colour, and is [[318]]equally good for almost every purpose. I was this day also presented with a singular kind of fruit, called here the marmalade box, being about the size of a large apple, rather oval, and all covered over with down. This fruit in the beginning is green, and when ripe it turns to a brown colour: the husk is hard, and by a certain motion opens in halves like a walnut, when the pulp appears like that of a medlar, being a sweet brown substance, and adhering to large kernels, which the inhabitants suck off with avidity; and from this it derives the above name. As I took no particular notice of the tree, I am sorry not to have it in my power to give any account of it whatsoever.
The 23d I marched east from Cofaay, with a view of obtaining some fresh accounts of the rebels; and proceeded by a path of communication through cultivated fields, but fell in with nothing, some delightful views, and a large herd of warree hogs, excepted, which from the gnashing of their teeth and their stamping the ground before we saw them, we had actually mistaken for a straggling party of the enemy, and had consequently fresh-primed, and prepared to engage them.
About noon we returned to Gado-Saby, where, sitting down to rest from our fatigue, a tall old rebel negro appeared suddenly in the very midst of us, with a long white beard, a white cotton sheet tied about his shoulders, and a broken cutlass in his hand. Seeing this venerable apparition, I instantly started up, and forbidding my [[319]]people to fire at him, I civilly desired him to approach me, pledging myself that no person under my command should dare to hurt him; but that he should have every thing for his relief that I could afford.—He answered, “No, no, massera!” with the utmost deliberation, and shaking his head in an instant disappeared; while two of my men (contrary to my orders) fired after him, at the distance of perhaps six paces only, yet both missed their object, to my great satisfaction, he being a poor forsaken creature, that had been left behind the rest, gleaning a precarious subsistence from his own deserted fields which we had formerly destroyed. What renders the negroes so difficult to hit with a ball is this, that they never run straight forward, but zig-zag, like the forked lightning in the elements.