Barlow sc.
The Tamandua, & Coati-Mondi.
London, Published Dec.r 2nd, 1793, by J. Johnson, St. Pauls Church Yard.
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 [[330]]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 [[331]]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 [[332]]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,