Such were the names of the negro warriors, and their settlements.
I now shook hands with Captain Hannibal, while my mind being occupied with the hopes of victory unstained by cruelty, and being very much fatigued, I soon fell profoundly asleep.
On the 20th in the morning, no one could awake in a more beautiful day and better spirits than I did, until they were damped by observing that at so critical a time, and even in the moment before the conflict, instead of that kind treatment which it would have been prudent to have shewn to those from whose exertions we were to expect a happy period to our sufferings, there was even then such discouragement of the subaltern officers and private men as involuntarily drew from me the reflection—That (if possible to avoid it) princes and ministers should never invest any one individual with unlimited authority, especially in a foreign country, without being perfectly well acquainted with the rectitude of their moral principles and disposition; no men being fit to command but those who are possessed of manly feelings, and whose valour is tempered with humanity; [[102]]since ’tis a truth that sterling bravery is incompatible with a cruel heart.
At six o’clock we advanced N. E. by N. towards the marsh, my melancholy evaporating with the rising sun.
About eight o’clock we entered this formidable swamp, and soon found ourselves above our middle in water, well prepared nevertheless for the warm reception we expected from the opposite shore, as the former party had so fatally experienced. After wading above half a mile, our grenadiers rapidly mounted the beach with cocked firelocks and bayonets fixed; the main body instantly followed, and also mounting the beach, the whole formed without the smallest opposition. We now beheld a spectacle sufficient to shock the most intrepid, the ground strewed with skulls, bones, and ribs still covered with human flesh, and besmeared with the blood of those unfortunate men who were killed with Captain Meyland.—That officer had indeed found means to bury them, but the rebels had dug them up for the sake of their cloaths, and to mangle the bodies, which, like ferocious animals, they had torn limb from limb. Amongst these, the fate of Meyland’s nephew, a promising young man, was peculiarly affecting. He came from the mountains of Switzerland in quest of military preferment, and met his fate in a marsh of Surinam just after his landing. His bravery was equal to that of his uncle, his intrepidity, voluntarily exposing himself to danger, knew no bounds.—Such is the enthusiasm of military ambition. [[103]]
“And ’tis most true, while Time’s relentless hand
With sickly grasp drags others to the tomb;
The soldier scorns to wait the dull command,
But springs impatient to a nobler doom.
“Tho’ on the plain he lies, outstretch’d and pale,