This service being accomplished, I went ashore, and made my report to Colonel Fourgeoud; after which I went to visit Joanna and her boy, whom, to my great joy, I found very much recovered.
The following day I was again sent on board, to make the necessary arrangements for the voyage; and on the 20th I dined with Colonel Fourgeoud, where, to my [[242]]surprize, I found two species of fish, which I have never mentioned; the one is called the haddock, being much like ours, but rather larger and whiter coloured: the other the separee, which a little resembles the skait. At the dessert was a fruit called in Surinam zurzacka, which I believe by the English is called the sour-sap. It grows upon a tree of a moderate size, with a grey bark, and leaves like those of the orange-tree, but set in pairs; the fruit is of a pyramidical form, heavier than the largest pear, and all covered over with inoffensive prickles: the skin is very thin, the pulp a soft pithy substance as white as milk, and of a sweet taste, mixed with a most agreeable acid, in which are seeds like the large kernels of an apple. Another species of small zurzacka grows in this country, something resembling hops, but is of no use whatever. We had also the fruit called sabatille, which grows on a large tree, the leaves like those of the laurel. This fruit is the size of a peach, very round, and of a brown colour, covered over with a soft down: when cut in two, the pulp is not unlike marmalade, in which are found the seeds; it is such a luscious sweet, that to many palates it is even disagreeable.
On the 21st we once more received our clearance, but in card money, by which we all lost very considerably; however, I instantly went to Mrs. Godefroy, and again gave her all the money that was in my pocket, being no more than £. 40. This excellent woman now renewed her entreaties that I should carry my boy and his mother [[243]]with me to Holland, but to no purpose; Joanna was perfectly immoveable, even to a degree of heroism, and no persuasion could make the least impression upon her, until her redemption should be made complete by the payment of the very last farthing. In this situation we affected to bear our fate with perfect resignation, though what each of us felt in particular may much more easily be imagined than described.
The regiment’s colours were now carried on board on the 23d in great state, which put a final close to the expedition, but without receiving any honours from Fort Zealandia, not a single gun being fired, nor even the flag hoisted on the occasion, to the great mortification of Colonel Fourgeoud, though in effect it was chiefly owing to his own neglect, as he had never given the Governor official notice of his intended departure. The baggage was also sent on board the ships; and a gentleman of the name of Van Heyst entertained the marines at his private expence with three hundred bottles of wine, fruit, &c.
I have often remarked the hospitality and generosity of these people, which I now also once more experienced, receiving various presents of fruits and preserves from my numerous friends, to refresh me at sea while on the voyage; amongst the preserves were the female pappayas, the male bearing no fruit. This grows on a grey trunk, near twenty feet high, straight, and pithy within, the top being covered with a crown, and only fourteen or sixteen diverging leaves, extremely large and digitated. The fruit grows close to the trunk; the flower or blossom has [[244]]a most delicious fragrance. When ripe, it is the size and shape of a water-melon, and turns from green to yellow, but its pulp is more firm and solid: the inner pulp is soft and slimy, filled with innumerable seeds. This fruit at full maturity is cut in pieces and boiled, when it eats like English turnips; but they use it principally for confectionary and sweetmeats, when young, and with its blossoms being both extremely delicate and wholesome. I had also sent me some fine preserved ginger; this is the root of a kind of reedy stalk, that never exceeds two feet in height, with long, narrow pointed leaves. These roots are tuberous, flattish, small, and clustered in many different shapes, not unlike pig-potatoes, and of nearly the same colour in the inside, but fibrous, acid, hot, and aromatic; the smell is highly fragrant: it is well known to be not only an agreeable preserve, but in many cases an excellent medicine.——But to proceed.
On the 24th of July, the sails being bent to the yards, we at last proceeded in corps to take leave of his Excellency the Governor of the colony, who, while he still received us with the greatest politeness, yet gave our hero to understand, that were his colours now to be sent on board, they should most certainly be saluted with those honours which indisputably were their due. After which he sent the whole corps of Society officers to the head-quarters in state, to wish us a prosperous voyage to Holland; and in this contest of etiquette his Excellency most assuredly led the van; for hinting which, however, to some of Fourgeoud’s favourites, I had nearly engaged myself once more [[245]]in a serious quarrel. Our men, who had been on board since the 18th, being now joined by their officers, the poor remains of this fine regiment were thus finally embarked, and in the highest flow of spirits, expecting to set sail the following day for Europe; while (one alone excepted) every countenance wore the appearance of happiness and joy; and nothing indeed could equal the exultation of the few surviving troops, when the next morning the orders were issued for the ships to weigh anchor and put to sea.
But it was by fate ordained that their eager hopes and expectations once more should be blasted: for on the very moment of departure, a ship entered the river with dispatches, inclosing an order for the regiment immediately to re-enter the woods, and remain in the colony until relieved by fresh troops to be sent out from Holland for that purpose. The SINCERE THANKS of his Serene Highness the Prince of Orange were now read to the men from the quarter-deck of each vessel, “for the manly and spirited conduct they had displayed during so long a trial, and so many great and unprecedented hardships;” but as they concluded with orders for the troops to disembark, and remain in this dreadful service, I never saw dejection, disappointment, and despair so strongly marked: while at this moment I, who but just before had been completely miserable, was now in turn the only one who was not depressed with sorrow. [[246]]
In the midst of this gloomy scene, the men were ordered to give three cheers, which the marines on board one of the vessels absolutely refused to comply with: Colonel Seyburg, and unluckily myself, were in consequence ordered to compel them; which he undertook, with a cane in one hand, and a loaded pistol cocked in the other. Knowing his temper to be fiery and irascible, what did I not feel at this moment? I suddenly leapt into the boat that lay along-side, where, after haranguing those few that leaned over the gunwale, I promised the ship’s crew twenty gallons of Holland’s gin if they would only begin the melancholy chorus. Then mounting again the quarter-deck, I acquainted the Colonel that all were now ready and willing to obey his commands; we then re-entered the boat, and in shoving off had the satisfaction to receive three hearty cheers from the sailors, in which joined a few marines, but with such languid looks and heavy hearts as cannot be described.
At this time however the Prince of Orange’s goodness of heart appeared in a conspicuous light, as he ordered all private accounts due by the troops to surgeons and physicians to be paid by the treasury; which, however trifling it may appear, was no trifle to many of the officers, &c. and evinced an attention in his Serene Highness which is not always to be found in princes, while all knew his sorrow for the hard lot of his soldiers, but which could not yet be dispensed with, consistent with the general good. [[247]]
If our disembarkation distressed the troops, it afforded joy to most of the colonists; as indeed a petition, signed by the principal inhabitants, had been presented to Colonel Fourgeoud but two days before, “praying that our regiment might stay some time longer, and give the finishing stroke to the rebels, as we had so gloriously begun, and persevered in routing and harassing them;” which indeed was certainly true, for our regiment, in conjunction with the Society and rangers, had demolished most settlements the rebels possessed in the colony, and had driven them to so considerable a distance, that their depredations, and the desertion of slaves, were incomparably less than upon our arrival; and this was assuredly much better than the Dutch making a shameful peace with them, as had been done with the rebels of the Owca and Sarameca settlements before, yet which would probably again have been the consequence had we not landed in Guiana.