Solomon well observes, “that as cold water is to a thirsty soul, so are good tidings from a distant country;” and this news, on its first arrival, had indeed the most reviving effect on me: but when reflection taught me how impossible it was for me to obtain such a sum of money, and while I was employed in giving all the presents I had received (except the ham and the dog) to Joanna’s relations at Fauconberg, who loaded me with adorations and caresses, I exclaimed, with a bitter sigh, “Oh! that I could have but found a sum sufficient to purchase every one of their freedoms!” I now found myself, though exceedingly weak, however so much better, that on the next day I went down so far as the estate Bergshove, whence the administrator, a Mr. Gourlay, humanely caused me to be transported to Paramaribo in a decent tent-barge with six oars; but relapsing, I arrived just alive on the evening of the 19th, having past the preceding night on the estate called the Jalosee, apparently dead.
I cannot leave the river Comewina without presenting the reader with a view of Magdenberg, from the Tempatee; and a peep at Calais, from the Hope, at the mouth of the Cosaweenica Creek.
Being now in a comfortable lodging at Mr. de la Mare’s, and attended by so good a creature as Joanna, I recovered apace; and on the 25th was so well, that I was able to walk out for the first time, when I dined with Mrs. Godefroy, [[72]]Mr. de Graav not being in town to concert matters relative to the emancipation of Joanna, who had now once more literally saved my life. At this table there was never wanting all the wholesome and refreshing nourishment that I stood in need of, with the best of fruits and wines. Among the articles conducive to the restoration of health, are reckoned in this country all the different kinds of pepper which it affords, and the no less efficacious acid of limes. Among the first are the cica pepper, the lattacaca, and the dago-peepee, as they are called in Surinam; for the negroes name each thing from the resemblance it bears to another: but these are known in Europe by the names of Cayenne, Pimento, and Capsicum. The first is properly called Cayenne from the French settlement of that name in Guiana; but the name cica or chica is derived from its round shape and size, resembling the insect called chiga or chigoe, already described; the next resembles rats excrements, &c. All the above species, besides some others, grow on low green shrubs, they all equally excoriate the mouth, have all the same fiery qualities, and when ripe are of a scarlet or rather a blood colour. The Europeans seldom eat any thing without it; but the blacks, and especially the Indians, swallow it I might say by handfuls, not only as a relish, but as a remedy in almost every disease.
The limes grow on beautiful trees like lemons, but the leaf and the fruit are much smaller; they are rather a brighter yellow than the lemons, have a fine thin shell, [[73]]and are extremely full of the richest acid that I know, which has a particularly fine flavour, and is a great blessing to the sick soldiers and sailors in this colony, who have them for the trouble of gathering; so that it is not uncommon to see the tars employing their leisure time in picking and carrying large hampers full to their vessels. In Surinam there are whole hedges of lime-trees, and all round Paramaribo they grow wild. It is much to be lamented that, among other articles of luxury, this fruit cannot be transported to Europe; but whole casks of this juice are frequently sent over, and they are also pickled and preserved in large jars by the inhabitants.
At the dessert, among many other excellent fruits, I observed one which is here called the mammee apple: it grows on a tree about the size of an orange-tree, with a grey-coloured bark; the wood is whitish, and coarse; the leaf very thick, polished, and of a triangular form, without fibres. This fruit is nearly round, and is about five or six inches in diameter, covered with a rusty coarse skin: the pulp has the colour and consistency of a carrot, enclosing two large stones with bitter kernels, but the fruit is of a delicious taste, sweet mixed with acid, and a smell superior in fragrance to almost any other fruit in the colony. There were also nuts of two species, usually called pistachios, and by the negroes pinda; one kind of them resembles small chesnuts, and these grow in bunches on a tree. The others are produced by a shrub, and grow under ground; both have sweet oily kernels: of the last there are two [[74]]in one pod; they are agreeable eating raw, but still better when roasted in hot ashes. To illustrate the above descriptions, I present the reader with the plate annexed, where A is a sprig of limes in full ripeness; B, the Cayenne or cica pepper; C, the pimento pepper or lattacaca; D, the capsicum called dago-peepee; E, the mammee apple when it is fully ripe; F, the leaf above, of a beautiful green; G, the leaf below, of a yellowish green; H, the pistachio nut in the husk; I, the ground pistachio in its dried state; K, one of the kernels belonging to the latter.
The whole of the above were taken from nature, though upon a small scale; yet I flatter myself they will be found more perfect copies of the originals than some of Mad. Merian’s, with all their boasted reputation.—I cannot dismiss this subject without a few other remarks on the incorrectness of this lady’s drawings. For instance, her leaf of the lime-tree is evidently too round; and if by her palisade branch, in plate XI. she means the manicole-tree, I must declare I never discovered such a leaf among the many thousands I have helped to cut down. Her cotton twig, and especially the pod containing the cotton, are also no true representation of those which are produced in Surinam.
Blake Sculpt.
Limes, Capsicum, Mammy Apple &c.
London, Published Decr. 2nd, 1793, by J. Johnson, St. Pauls Church Yard.