At length poor Fourgeoud took a part in the conversation, myself and Serjeant Fowler acting as his interpreters, by hallooing, which created more mirth than I had been witness to for some time: he promised them life, liberty, victuals, drink, and all they wanted. They replied, with a loud laugh, that they wanted nothing from him; characterized him as a half-starved Frenchman, who had run away from his own country; and assured him that if he would venture to pay them a visit, he should return unhurt, and not with an empty belly. They told us, that we were to be pitied more than they; that we were white slaves, hired to be shot at and starved for four-pence a day; that they scorned to expend much more of their powder upon such scarecrows; but should the planters or overseers dare to enter the woods, not a soul of them should ever return, any more than the perfidious rangers, some of whom might depend upon being massacred that [[114]]day, or the next; and concluded by declaring that Bonny should soon be the governor of the colony.
After this they tinkled their bill-hooks, fired a volley, and gave three cheers; which being answered by the rangers, the clamour ended, and the rebels dispersed with the rising sun.
Our fatigue was great; yet, notwithstanding the length of the contest, our loss by the enemies fire was very inconsiderable, for which I promised to account; and this mystery was now explained, when the surgeons, dressing the wounded, extracted very few leaden bullets, but many pebbles, coat-buttons, and pieces of silver coin, which could do us little mischief, by penetrating scarcely more than skin deep. We also observed, that several of the poor rebel negroes who were shot, had only the shards of Spa-water cans, instead of flints, which could seldom do execution; and it was certainly owing to these circumstances that we came off so well, as I have mentioned before; yet we were nevertheless not without a number of very dangerous scars and contusions.
Inconceivable are the many expedients which these people employ in the woods, where in a state of tranquillity they seemed, as they boasted, to want for nothing, being plump and fat, at least such as we had an opportunity of observing. It should be noticed, that game and fish they catch in great abundance, by artificial traps and springs, and preserve them by barbacuing; while their [[115]]fields are even overstocked with rice, cassava, yams, plantains, &c. They make salt from the palm-tree ashes, as the Gentoos do in the East Indies, or frequently supply the want of it with red pepper.
We here found concealed near the trunk of an old tree a case-bottle filled with excellent butter, which the rangers told me they made by melting and clarifying the fat of the palm-tree worms: this fully answers all the purposes of European butter, and I found it in fact even more delicious to my taste. The pistachio or pinda nuts they also convert into butter, by their oily substance, and frequently use them in their broths. The palm-tree wine they have always in plenty; they procure it by making deep incisions of a foot square in the fallen trunk, where the juice being collected, it soon ferments by the heat of the sun; it is not only a cool and agreeable beverage, but sufficiently strong to intoxicate. The manicole or pine-tree affords them materials for building; they fabricate pots from clay found near their dwellings; the gourd or callebasse tree procures them cups; the silk grass plant and maurecee-tree supplies materials for their hammocks, and even a kind of cap grows naturally upon the palm-trees, as well as brooms; the various kinds of nebee supply the want of ropes; fuel they have for cutting; and a wood called bee-bee serves for tinder, by rubbing two pieces on each other; it is also elastic, and makes excellent corks; candles they can make, having plenty of fat and oil; and the wild bees afford them wax, as well as excellent honey. [[116]]
Cloaths they scorn to wear, preferring to go naked in a climate where the warmth of the weather renders every kind of covering an useless incumbrance.
They might breed hogs and poultry, and keep dogs for hunting and watching them, but this they decline, from the apprehension of being discovered by their noise, as even the crowing of a cock may be heard in the forest at a considerable distance.———I shall now once more proceed.
The rebels of this settlement being apparently subdued and dispersed, Colonel Fourgeoud made it his next business to destroy the surrounding harvest; and I received orders to begin the devastation, with eighty marines and twenty rangers. Thus I cut down all the rice that was growing plentifully in the two above-mentioned fields; this being done, I discovered a third field south of the first, which I also demolished, and made my report to Fourgeoud, with which he appeared highly satisfied. In the afternoon Captain Hamel was detached, with fifty, marines and thirty rangers, to reconnoitre behind the village, and to discover, if possible, how the rebels could pass to and fro through an unfathomable marsh, whilst we were unable to pursue them. This officer at length perceived a kind of floating bridge amongst the reeds, made of maurecee-trees, but so constructed, that only one man abreast could pass it. On this were seated astride a few rebels to defend the communication, who instantly fired upon the party, but were soon repulsed by the rangers, who shot one of them dead, but he was carried away by his companions. [[117]]
On the morning of the 22d, our commander ordered a detachment to cross the bridge and go on discovery, at all hazards. Of this party I led the van. We now took the pass without opposition; and having all marched, or rather scrambled over this defile of floating trees, we found ourselves in a large oblong field of cassava and yams, in which were about thirty houses, now deserted, being the remains of the old settlement called Cofaay. In this field we separated into three divisions, the better to reconnoitre, one marching north, one north-west, and the third west. And here, to our astonishment, we discovered that the reason of the rebels shouting, singing, and firing, on the night of the 20th, was not only to cover the retreat of their friends, by cutting off the pass, but by their unremitting noise to prevent us from discovering that they were employed, men, women, and children, in preparing warimboes or hampers filled with the finest rice, yams, and cassava, for subsistence during their escape, of which they had only left the chaff and refuse for our contemplation.
This was certainly such a masterly trait of generalship in a savage people, whom we affected to despise, as would have done honour to any European commander, and has perhaps been seldom equalled by more civilized nations. [[118]]