On the 3d of December, Major Medlar’s party returned, after fourteen days absence, with a captive rebel woman and her boy about eight years old, taken in a small field of bitter cassava. The poor woman was pregnant, and under great alarms, but was tenderly treated by Medlar, who was always a humane and well-disposed gentleman. He had, however, unluckily lost two of his best men, one Schoelar, a corporal, the other called Philip Van den Bos, a private marine, who having inadvertently eaten a few roots of the above bitter cassava were poisoned, and died during the same night with the most excruciating pain and convulsions: the antidote is said to be Cayenne pepper and spirits, neither of which were at that time to be procured.

The black woman confirmed the account that Bonny had been wounded; she also told us the poor starved negro we had found was called Isaac, and had been left for dead. That one Captain Arico had formed a new settlement near the sea, called Fissy-Hollo; while Bonny, she assured us, maintained the strictest discipline amongst his troops: he was, she said, absolutely despotic, and had executed two of his men but three days before we took Gado-Saby, viz. during the night of the 17th August, when we heard the firing and shouting, only upon suspicion of having hinted some few words in favour of the Europeans, and were the heads which we found stuck [[174]]on the stakes. She further assured us, that none of his people were trusted with arms, until they had first served him some years as slaves, and given him unquestionable proofs of fidelity and resolution. But these, she observed, were but few in number, when compared to his numerous vassals, who were bound to do without murmuring whatever he thought proper to command them; yet that he still was more beloved than he was feared, on account of his inflexible justice and manly courage.

On the 4th December, this poor woman and her boy were sent to Paramaribo, with Ensign de Cabanus, who had taken them: he had at the same time nearly seized a young girl about fifteen, who by her great agility, and being stark naked, slipped out of his hands:

——“Fugit ocior aurâ

Illa levi: neque ad hæc revocantis verba resistit:

Nympha, precor, Peneia, mane: non insequor hostis.

Nympha, mane.”——

Ovid.

It being proved at the court that the above woman had been forcibly carried off by the rebels, though many years before, the poor creature was pardoned, and joyfully returned with her child to her master’s plantation. It is remarkable, that when the boy saw the first cow or horse he almost fell into convulsions with terror; nor could he bear to be touched by any white person, whom [[175]]he never had seen before, and whom he constantly called Yorica, which in his language signifies the devil.

About this time a dead sea-cow, or manatee, by the French called Lamantin, floating past Jerusalem, the negro slaves fell upon it, like so many crows upon a carrion, swimming round it, some with a rusty knife, some with a bill-hook, and each carrying off a slice for his dinner; at last they dragged the stinking animal on shore, of which I instantly took a drawing. This manatee was exactly sixteen feet long, almost shapeless, being an enormous lump of fat, tapering backwards to a fleshy, broad, horizontal tail. It had a thick round head, a flattish snout, large nostrils, with strong bristles both on its nose and chin, small eyes, and auditory holes instead of ears. Instead of feet, it had two excrescences or fleshy fins, like those of the sea-turtle, projecting near its head; with these it swims, and moves awkwardly to eat the grass on the banks of the rivers, being an amphibious animal. The colour was a greenish black; the skin was hard and uneven, covered with large knobs, circular wrinkles, and with a very few stiff hairs thinly scattered. It had grinders but no fore-teeth, and a very short tongue. The sea-cow or manatee is, like the whale, a viviparous animal, the female suckling its young by the help of its swimmers. They are very numerous in the river Amazons; their flesh, it is said, resembles veal, and is very good food. This was, however, too far advanced in a state of putridity, for me to taste it. It had the marks of being [[176]]twice shot, which must have been by the rebels on the 27th, when we heard the report of two muskets at a distance.