Being now once more arrived in town, and wishing to be no longer troublesome to any body, I hired a very neat small house by the water-side, in which we lived nearly as happy as we had done at the Hope.
The first person that visited me here was the American Captain Lewis, of the Peggy, who, to my great concern, told me, that poor Macdonald, the grateful sailor, had died on the homeward passage, after being twelve days at sea; and desired him in his last words to return me, with his good wishes, the mother-of-pearl cork-screw I had formerly given him. He farther acquainted me also, to my sorrow, that three English vessels had been captured by the American Revenue privateer sloop, which lay at this time, with her prizes, in the road before Paramaribo; one of which, belonging to Ireland, was valued at above £. 50,000 sterling.
Having been waited on by a number of planters and [[346]]others with congratulations on our success against the rebels; amongst the rest appeared the celebrated Gramman Quacy, who came to shew me his fine coat, gold medal, &c. which he had received as a present from the Prince of Orange, in Holland. This man, being one of the most extraordinary characters of all the negroes in Surinam, or perhaps in the world, I cannot proceed without giving some account of him; the more so, as he has made his appearance once or twice already in the course of this history.—This African (for he was born on the coast of Guinea) by his insinuating temper and industry, not only obtained his freedom from a state of slavery, but by his wonderful ingenuity and artful conduct found the means of procuring a very competent subsistence.
Having got the name of a lockoman, or sorcerer, among the lower slaves, no crime of any consequence was committed, especially at the plantations, but Gramman Quacy, which signifies Great-man Quacy, was instantly sent for to discover the perpetrators, which he so very seldom missed, owing, in fact, to their faith in his sorceries, added to his penetrating look[1] and authority among them, that he has often prevented farther mischief to their masters; and, for these services, occasionally received very capital rewards. The corps of rangers, and all fighting free negroes, are under his influence; to whom he sells his obias or amulets, in order to make them invulnerable, [[347]]and, of course, to engage without fear: by which deceit he has most certainly done much good to the colony, and at the same time filled his pockets with no inconsiderable profit to himself; while his person by the blacks is adored and respected like a God. The trash of which his amulets are made costs him in reality nothing; being neither more nor less than a collection of small pebbles, sea-shells, cut hair, fish-bones, feathers, &c. the whole sewed up together in small packets, which are tied with a string of cotton round the neck, or some other part of the bodies of his credulous votaries.
But besides these, and many other artful contrivances, he had the good fortune, in 1730, to find out the valuable root known by the name of Quaciæ bitter, of which he was actually the first discoverer, and from which it took its name: and, notwithstanding this medicine is now less in repute in England than formerly, it is highly esteemed in many other parts of the world for its efficacy in strengthening the stomach and restoring the appetite. It has, besides this valuable property, that of being a powerful febrifuge, and may be successfully used when the bark is nauseated, as is frequently the case.
In 1761, it was made known to Linnæus by Mr. d’Ahlberg, formerly mentioned; and the Swedish naturalist has since written a treatise upon it. By this drug alone Quacy might have amassed riches, were he not entirely abandoned to indolence and dissipation; the consequence of which is, a complication of loathsome distempers, [[348]]of which the leprosy is one: and that disorder is, as I have already stated, absolutely incurable. Nevertheless his age, though he could not exactly ascertain it, must have been very great, since he used frequently to repeat that he acted as drummer, and beat the alarm on his master’s estate, when the French commodore, Jacques Cassard, put the colony under contribution, in the year 1712.
Having taken a portrait of this extraordinary man, with his grey head of hair, and dressed in his blue and scarlet with gold lace, I, in the annexed plate, beg leave to introduce it to the reader.
This very same week we had indeed a fresh proof of the good effects of Gramman Quacy’s animating obias or amulets, a captain of the rangers, named Hannibal, bringing in the barbacued hands of two rebel negroes, which he had himself encountered and shot; and one of these hands proved to be that of the noted rebel Cupido, formerly taken, in 1774, and brought to Colonel Fourgeoud in the forest, but from whom he had since that time, though loaded with chains, found means to run away.
Blake Sculpt.