Though the Arrowouka Indians live in perfect friendship and harmony with us, and indeed with most of their neighbours, they yet sometimes go to war when provoked, as I have just observed; in these combats they use bows and arrows, and the club called abowtow[7]; but they do not eat their prisoners like the Caribbee Indians, who even devoured the negroes whom they killed at the insurrection in Berbicè. Notwithstanding these people live at a greater distance from the sea than the Warrows, &c. yet they have canoes, sometimes fourscore feet in length, in which they paddle down the rivers. The Arrowouka Indians particularly are great herbalists, and for all external accidents have recourse to simples, with which the woods of all Terra Firma abound.——But to proceed:
On the 25th I was seized with a fever, and blooded in the foot, in which the orifice being struck too deep, for struck it was as they bleed the horses, I again became lame; during which time Colonel Seyburg arrived from the Java Creek to recover, he being at last also taken very ill.
In the mean time Colonel Fourgeoud, while he was just ready to renew his operations, having already sent a small detachment to the Jew Savannah for intelligence, received letters from the Hague, with express orders to [[194]]abandon the expedition immediately, and with his few remaining troops to sail for Holland without delay.
In consequence of these commands on the 27th, the transport ships were put in commission, and all the officers and privates received their clearance, which made them very happy; and indeed all at Paramaribo were alive with joy, except some of the inhabitants and myself.
On the 14th of February, ill as I was with a bad foot, a sore arm, the prickly heat, and all my teeth loose with the scurvy, I found means to scramble out on crutches, with a thousand florins in my pocket, which having divided between Fourgeoud and Mrs. Godefroy for the redemption of the black boy Quaco, and my mulatto, I returned home without a shilling in my purse; yet for this small sum of 500 florins, so inadequate to 1800 which I owed that lady, she was induced generously to renew her persuasions of carrying Joanna and the boy with me to Holland. This, however, Joanna as nobly as firmly refused, declaring, “that, independant of all other considerations, she could never think of sacrificing one benefactor to the interest of another; and that her own happiness or even mine, which was dearer to her than life, should never have any weight, till the debt of her liberty was paid by me, or by her own industry, to the utmost fraction, and which she did not despair to see one day compleated.” She added, “our separation should only be for a time, and that the greatest proof I could ever shew her of my real esteem, was now to undergo this little trial of fortune like a man, without [[195]]so much as heaving a sigh in her presence;” which last she spoke with a smile, next embraced her infant, then turned suddenly round, and wept most bitterly.—At this moment I was called to Mr. de la Mare’s, who was just dead, where my melancholy having surpassed all description, I at last determined to weather one or two painful years in her absence; and in the afternoon went to dissipate my mind at a Mr. Roux’s cabinet of Indian curiosities; where, as my eye chanced to fall on a rattle-snake, I will before I leave the colony describe this dangerous reptile.
The rattle-snake of Surinam is sometimes eight or nine feet long, and very thick about the middle, tapering towards the neck and tail. The head is dreadfully deformed, being flat and broad, with two large nostrils near the snout, and a large scale or knob like the alligator above his eyes, which are jet-black and sparkling; at the extremity of the tail are several thin horny shells joined together, which are very dry, and which, when irritated, the animal shakes, sounding much like a rattle, from which it derives its name. These shells augment, it is said, in the proportion of one every year, by which it is supposed its age may be ascertained. This whole snake is covered over with scales, which on the ridge of the back it erects. The colour is a dirty orange mixed with dark-brown and black spots, which last are also on its head, appearing like velvet, and marked in a very conspicuous manner; the belly is ash-coloured, with transverse [[196]]scales like most other serpents. When this animal is intent on mischief, it lies coiled like a rope, with the tail a little in motion, which having rattled, it launches forth upon its prey, making no farther reach than its own length; this done, it coils a second time, and again projects itself. The bite of the rattle-snake is accounted fatal, at least is thought very dangerous over all America; but with regard to the fascinating qualities of its eyes, such as the story of its causing mice, squirrels, and birds to run into its mouth, I reject them as fables; the supposed charm consisting in nothing more than this, that the poor animals, finding themselves surprized by the impending danger, are seized with such a trepidation and fear, that even the use of their limbs forsakes them, and they are rivetted to the place till they die, or in the act of leaping they are seized by their enemy[8].
The Green Butterfly of South America.
The Rattle Snake & Dypsas of Guiana.
London, Published Decr. 1st, 1791, by J. Johnson, St. Paul’s Church Yard.