The following day we were introduced, on the parade, to the Lieutenant Governor, General Hardenbrook, and spent the evening at his lady’s card assembly, where I must acknowledge I was charmed with some very sweet faces, fresh as the rose and the lily, while they were no less entertained with our grotesque appearance, though [[393]]we had now borrowed the assistance of powder and pomatum.
On the 18th the troops were finally cleared with, and paid their remaining arrears, and those who chose it permitted to return to their former regiments. Some of the privates had from thirty to forty pounds to receive, which, sailor-like, having earned it like horses, they spent like asses. Among others, a young fellow of my company, whose late regiment chanced to be quartered in the very same town, hired three post-chaises to carry him the length of one street only, ordering a couple of drunken fiddlers in the first, his knapsack in the second, and placing himself in the third, supported by a brace of the frail sisterhood: he was, however, unfortunately shipwrecked in his course, being run foul of by the major de place, who, having broken the fiddles, and set the ladies adrift, towed the roaring adventurer himself, after a hard tug, to the quarter-guard, where he came to an anchor in the bilboes, till the gale of his dissipation was quite spent, and he had got rid of all his cargo. In a similar manner went most of the money which had been earned with so much danger, hardship, and fatigue.
Now came the time to keep my long-made resolution of bidding a lasting farewell to Colonel Fourgeoud’s regiment; from which, on the 10th day of August, I obtained my free dismission, having requested it, immediately after my debarkation, from the Prince of Orange, who at the same time honoured me with a fresh Captain’s [[394]]commission in the Honourable General Stuart’s regiment, which I had left in September 1772; while from that date to this very day my full pay had amounted to little more than four hundred and fifty pounds sterling, having regularly been stopped out of this sum ten pounds per annum for the putrid beef, pork, rusk-bread, and hard pease, that so miraculously had kept soul and body together.
Let me not, however, be considered as wishing to cast a reflection on the Dutch nation in general, who indeed omitted nothing for our preservation and encouragement during this long and painful service: a people whose virtues have been for ages as conspicuous as their valour—one man alone was the cause of all our sufferings.
Having now exchanged my blue coat for a scarlet one, bought a very handsome horse, and put Quaco in a brilliant livery, I for the last time entertained my ship-mates, with whom, without exception, I drank an everlasting friendship: then taking my final farewell of them all, I the next morning set out to rejoin the old Scotch regiment, where I was received with the strongest marks of joy and unfeigned friendship by the corps.
Blake Sculpt.
Europe supported by Africa & America.
London, Published Decr. 1st, 1792, by J. Johnson, St. Paul’s Church Yard.
Going now to take my leave of Surinam, after all the horrors and cruelties with which I must have hurt both the eye and the heart of the feeling reader, I will close the scene with an emblematical picture of Europe supported by Africa and America, accompanied by an ardent wish that in the friendly manner as they are represented, [[395]]they may henceforth and to all eternity be the props of each other. I might have included Asia, but this I omitted, as having no connection with the present narrative: we only differ in colour, but are certainly all created by the same Hand. Thus, if it has not pleased fortune to make us equal in rank and authority, let us at least use the superiority we possess with moderation, and not only proffer that happiness which we have to bestow on our equals, but let us extend it with chearfulness to the lowest of our deserving dependants.