In this state of wet and obscurity, at ten o’clock at night, we came to the Jacob, being just afloat and no more; for Bolts and I had no sooner leaped on the beach, than the boat sunk with all that was in her, the slaves luckily swimming ashore. Alas! amongst the wreck, was my poor box, with my journal, and all my paintings, which had cost me above two long years so much labour, care, and attention. I was truly distressed at this loss, when a skilful negro dived several times to the bottom, and at last brought up my little treasure, which, though thoroughly soaked, I was very happy to have again in my hands. Thus ended our shipwreck, when having drank some warm grog and slung our hammocks, we all fell asleep round a good fire, by which I made shift to dry myself, and, what was of more consequence, my papers.
The following morning we again set out, and rowed for [[64]]Magdenberg, but about half-way our voyage was once more obstructed by an enormous tree which had accidentally fallen across the Creek, so that we could neither drag the boat over nor under it. Thus we were again obliged to return to the Jacob, whence we now proceeded to Magdenberg on foot, through thorns, roots, brambles, and briars, and where we finally arrived wet and bloody; and my ancle, which had been nearly well, fresh wounded to the bone, the skin and flesh being quite torn away by the numberless obstructions to our steps.
Here we were acquainted that Mr. Orleigh, one of the two officers that I had sent up to Magdenberg from the Hope on the 23d, was no more. Thus died almost all our gentlemen, who had been during the last month upon the hopeless Hope, from which now scarcely one single private returned in health; and this, I am firmly of opinion, was greatly owing to the dry and burning month of June, when the sun suddenly scorched them, after marching and even sleeping in cold watery swamps, and constant heavy showers during the rainy season. However, I hitherto escaped by the strength of my constitution and good spirits, which I determined by every possible means to keep from depression, by laughing, whistling, singing, and (God forgive me!) sometimes swearing, while all the rest were sighing, bewailing, and dying around me. [[65]]
CHAP. XIX.
The Troops march to Barbacoeba, in the River Cottica—Frenzy Fever—Gratitude in an English Sailor—Description of the Government of Surinam—Some Account of the Emigrant Americans during the late War—Scene of unprecedented Generosity.
The rainy season being again approaching, Colonel Fourgeoud, having selected all the remaining healthy people, who now amounted to but one hundred and eighty in number, on the 3d of July, 1775, proceeded on his march for Barbacoeba, in the river Cottica; which spot he appointed for the general rendezvous, previous to the grand attack on the rebels. Of this party I had the honour to be one: but on the surgeon’s declaring that I should run the hazard of losing my foot if I marched in the woods, I was ordered to remain at Magdenberg, with liberty, if I soon recovered, to join Fourgeoud, and make the best of my way to Barbacoeba. My limb, indeed, was now so swelled, and my wound so black with the mortification, that an amputation was dreaded by Mr. Knollaert, Fourgeoud’s surgeon, and I could not even stand without excruciating pain.—I shall bear the mark of it as long as I live.
During this confinement I received daily presents from Philander and the other negroes, as I was always kind to [[66]]them. Among these was a dish of mountain-cabbage. This is the most esteemed of all the various sorts which grow, as I have mentioned formerly, on the different species of palm-trees; this tree grows sometimes near fifty feet high, the trunk of a brown colour, hard, ligneous, divided into short joints, and pithy within, like the elder: it is thick in proportion, streight and tapering like the mast of a ship; near the top the tree assumes a fluted form and a green colour, occasioned by the husky tegument that forms the branches; which, near the summit, diverge in a horizontal direction, like the crown of a pine-apple or ananas. These branches are covered over on both sides with strong pinnated leaves about three feet long, of a deep green colour, and sharp pointed, but folded and confusedly intermixed, not gracefully drooping like those of the manicole or cocoa-nut trees. The seed is inclosed in a brownish kind of spatha, that arises from the center of the branches, and hanging downwards consists of small roundish nuts, not unlike a bunch of dried grapes, but much longer in proportion to their circumference. If the cabbage is wanted, the whole tree must be cut down, when it is divested first of its branches, and next of that fluted green husky tegument that forms them; after this the heart or cabbage is taken out, white, and about two or three feet long: it is as thick as a man’s arm, and round like a polished ivory cylinder; it is composed of a kind of tender longitudinal white flakes, like silk ribbands, ready [[67]]to form the succeeding green tegument, but so close that they form a crisp solid body. This, when eaten raw, is in taste something like the kernel of an almond, but is more tender and more delicious; when cut in pieces and boiled, it eats like cauliflower: it may be also peeled in the above-mentioned long thin flakes, and then it makes an excellent sallad; but too much of it, whether eaten raw or dressed, is unwholesome, as it is apt to occasion a diarrhœa. It is in the cavity, after the cabbage is removed from it, that a black beetle deposits its spawn, from which the palm-tree worms are produced, which feed on the remaining tender substance when it begins to rot, till they acquire the size already mentioned; though those in the manicole tree, and other trees of the palm species, grow not so large, are less sweet, and are also differently shaped.
The maureecee tree, by the French called latanie, is certainly the tallest of all the palm-tree species; or, indeed, of any species in the forest of Guiana. And I can aver, that I have seen some of these trees whose lofty summits appeared to rise no less than a hundred feet from the surface of the earth, while the circumference of their trunks was about ten or twelve feet where thickest; the trunk of this tree is largest at about one-fourth of its height from the root, whence it tapers not only upwards but downwards also: this singularity has perhaps escaped all other writers. It is of a light brown or grey colour, and divided in joints all the way upwards to its branches, when (but at a great height, and near the top) it diverges in long [[68]]green arched branches, naked till near their extremity, when these again diverge or digitate in long broad leaves of a pale green colour, and disposed in an orbicular manner with great regularity, not unlike sun-beams, or a lady’s fan expanded. As the young branches spring up from the centre at the summit, the old ones fade at the bottom and hang downwards, shrivelled and dangling in the wind. From the heart of the green leaves the Indians draw out long white fibres or threads, as they do from the silk-grass plant: these, being equally strong, serve as cords when twisted to firing their bows, to make nets, or to be used as threads; from the middle of the branches appears the seed, hanging down also in the form of a large rope of onions. I have seen many prints representing palm-trees, but I must take the liberty to say that most of them are impositions on the public, having either been executed from fancy, or from a very bad description; but I can assure my readers, that all those which I represent were taken from nature, and on the spot: I speak of the cocoa-nut tree, the manicola, the mountain-cabbage, and the maureecee trees, whose branches and leaves are all extremely different from each other; and I have not confounded the species, as they are in too many publications. The two first the reader has already seen; and the two others I now offer to his view, where A is the trunk of the mountain-cabbage-tree; B one of its branches, separated from the rest, and C the seed or husky spatha inclosing it; D is the trunk of the maureecee-tree, and E one of its branches dropping [[69]]down. F is the beetle that produces the maureecee worms, G, which are not so large nor so delicious as those produced by the mountain-cabbage. Having had no opportunity of shewing in what manner the Indians and Africans ascend trees, by figure H I have represented a negro climbing a young maureecee-tree, to which they do not cling with their arms and legs, but taking the trunk between their hands, they place the soles of their feet against it, and thus walk up in a most astonishing manner; by this method they save their skin from the bark, but it must certainly require very great strength, activity, and practice.
