On the 16th we continued our march due E. upon a ridge or elevated ground. These ridges, if I mistake not, run generally in this country E. and W. as do also most of the marshes and swamps. Having advanced rather a less distance than we did the day before, we were ordered early to sling our hammocks, and to sleep without any covering, to prevent the enemy from hearing the sound of cutting the trees; nor were any fires allowed to be lighted, nor a word to be spoken, while a strict watch was kept round the camp. These, in fast, were all very necessary precautions; but if we were not discovered by the enemy, we were almost devoured by the clouds of gnats or musquitoes, which arose from a neighbouring marsh: for my own part I suffered more here than I had even done on board the fatal barges in the upper Cottica, as we could make no smoke to drive them away. In this situation I saw the poor men dig holes with their bayonets in the earth, into which they thrust their heads, stopping the entry and covering their necks with their hammocks, while they lay with their bellies on the ground. To sleep in any other position was absolutely impossible.
By the advice of a negro slave, I however enjoyed my rest.—“Climb,” said he, “massera, with your hammock to the top of the highest tree that is in the camp, and there go sleep; not a single musquito will disturb you, the swarm will be sufficiently attracted by the smell of [[91]]the sweating multitude below.”—This I immediately tried, and slept exalted near one hundred feet above my companions, whom I could not see for the myriads of musquitoes below me, nor even hear them, from the incessant buzzing of these troublesome insects.
This was the principal distress of the night; while, during the day, we had frequently been attacked by whole armies of small emmets, called here fire-ants, from their painful biting. These insects are black, and very diminutive, but live in such amazing multitudes together, that their hillocks have sometimes obstructed our passage by their size, over which, if one chances to pass, the feet and legs are instantly covered with innumerable of these creatures, which seize the skin with such violence in their pincers, that they will sooner suffer the head to be parted from their body, than let go their hold. The burning pain which they occasion cannot, in my opinion, proceed from the sharpness of their pincers only, but must be owing to some venomous fluid which they infuse, or which the wound imbibes from them. I can aver that I have seen them make a whole company hop about, as if they had been scalded with boiling water.
On the 17th we continued our march still due E. till nine o’clock, when we altered our course to the N. and had to scramble through great quantities of those mataky roots, or trumpeters already described, which proved that we were descending into the low grounds, and indeed the soil soon became very marshy; fortunately, however, though it was now the wet season, we had as yet very little rain. [[92]]
This evening we encamped about four o’clock. Colonel Fourgeoud being seized with a cold fit of the ague.
As I was slinging my hammock between two large branches, but not so high as the preceding night, my eye chanced to fall upon what I conceived to be the leaf of a tree, but which appeared to move and crawl up the trunk. I called several officers to see it: when a gentleman of the Society exclaimed, “C’est la feuille ambulante.” That is the walking leaf. Upon closer examination it proved to be an insect, whose wings so perfectly represent a leaf, that by many it has been mistaken for a vegetable production. This seemed to be a species of grasshopper, but covered over with four wings of an oval form, and about three inches in length, the two uppermost so folded together as to appear exactly like a brown leaf, with all the fibres, &c.
I now returned to my hammock; where, reflecting on all the wonders of nature, while the silver-moon glittering through the verdure added beauty to the scene, I fell into a profound sleep, which I enjoyed till near midnight, when we were all awaked in pitch darkness and a heavy shower of rain, by the hallooing and shouting of the rebel negroes, who discharged several muskets; but as the shot did not reach our camp, we were extremely astonished, the darkness rendering it impossible to form any just idea of their meaning. This disturbance continuing till near day-break, made us expect every moment to be surrounded, and keep a very sharp look-out.
In the morning early we unlashed our hammocks, and [[93]]marched due N. towards the place whence we conjectured the hallooing noise to have proceeded, being all much fatigued for want of rest, especially Colonel Fourgeoud, who could hardly support himself, so much was he weakened by the ague. We had not marched above two miles, I having the van-guard, when a rebel negro sprang up at my feet from under a shrub, where he had been asleep; but as we had orders not to fire upon stragglers, he escaped, running with almost the swiftness of a stag amongst the brambles. I no sooner made report to the old hero, than, swearing he was a spy, which I believe was true, he shook off his illness, and quickened his pace with redoubled vigour: but our pursuit was to no purpose, at least this day; for about one o’clock we got into a bog, from which we could hardly extricate ourselves, and were forced to return to our last night’s encampment, missing two privates of the Society troops, whom we supposed to have perished in the marsh.
This day we saw great quantities of arnotta-trees, with which this part of the forest abounds. In the evening a slave presented me with a bush-spider of such magnitude, that putting him into a case-bottle above eight inches high, he actually reached the surface with some of his hideous claws, whilst the others were resting upon the bottom. No creature can be more dreadfully ugly than this enormous spider, which the people of Surinam erroneously call the tarantula. The body is divided in two, the posterior part oval, and the size of an Orlean-plum; the fore-part square, with a figure somewhat [[94]]resembling a star upon it. This monster has five pair of thick legs, with four joints in each; is entirely black or dark brown, and covered over, legs and all, with thick and long black hair, like some caterpillars, while each leg is armed with a crooked yellow nail, and from the head project two long teeth with inverted pincers, resembling the claw of a crab, with which it seizes its prey; while its bite, if not fatal by the venomous liquid infused into the wound, always occasions a fever. It has eight eyes like most spiders, and feeds on insects of every species; nay, it is even asserted, that young birds do not escape it, out of which this spider sucks the blood: its web is small but very strong. Upon the whole, it is such a hideous creature, that the very sight of it is sufficient to occasion a tremor of abhorrence, even in persons most accustomed to inspect the deformities of nature. Innumerable indeed are the pests and dangers to which one is hourly exposed in the woods of this tropical climate; and though it is my present business only to make mention of such as I met with in this march, and which must appear new to the reader, yet a recapitulation of the names only of our numerous plagues may not be improper to refresh the memory of those who have a heart to sympathize with our sufferings. I have already mentioned the musquitoes, monpieras, patat and serapat lice, chigoes, cock-roaches, common ants, fire-ants, horse-flies, wild bees, and spiders; besides the prickly heat, ring-worm, dry-gripes, putrid fevers, boils, consaca, bloody-flux, thorns, briars, [[95]]alligators, snakes, tigers, &c.; but I have not yet spoken of the bush-worms, large ants, locusts, centipedes, scorpions, bats, and flying-lice, the crassy-crassy, yaws, lethargy, leprosy, and dropsy, with a thousand other grievances that continually annoyed our unhappy troops;—a particular description of which I must delay till a more suitable opportunity occurs for introducing them into this narrative.
Such were the pests that we had to struggle with in this baneful climate, whilst our poor men were dying in multitudes, without proper assistance, unpitied, and frequently without a friend to close their eye-lids, neither coffin nor shell to receive their bones, but thrown promiscuously into one pit, like heaps of loathsome carrion.