dead at their leisure in the water, while they were unable to return the fire more than once, their situation preventing them from re-loading their musquets. Their gallant commander, being imprudently distinguished by a gold-laced hat, was shot through the head in the first onset. The few that scrambled out of the marsh upon the banks were immediately put to death in the most barbarous manner, except five or six, who were taken prisoners and carried alive to the settlement of the rebels.'

The melancholy fate of these men was afterward ascertained by Col. Fourgeoud; who, having penetrated to a rebel village in what was called the rice country, found their skulls stuck on stakes; under which their mouldering bodies lay above ground. He was also informed, by a rebel prisoner, that these men had one by one been stripped naked by revolted negroes, and for the amusement of their wives and children had been flogged to death.

In consequence of this event, the regiment to which our author belonged was not only detained, but early in July embarked in sugar barges; such, says he, as are used by the colliers on the Thames,' excepting only that they were 'roofed over with boards, which gave them the appearance of so many coffins; and how well they deserved this name I am afraid will too soon appear by the number of men they buried.' These barges were all armed with swivels, blunderbusses, &c. and stationed on different rivers in the colony: two of the barges, with four subalterns, two serjeants, three corporals, and 32 soldiers, were put under our author's command, besides to negroe rowers, and a pilot, for each barge. On this occasion, the liberality of Capt. Stedman's friends at Paramaribo furnished him with a good supply of wine, beer, spirits, sugar, hams, ongues, coffee, &c.

On the 3d of July 1773, Capt. S. and his detachment left Paramaribo, with instructions to cruise up and down Rio Cottica, between the Society posts, La Rochel at Patamaca, and Slans Welveren above the last plantation, to prevent the rebels from crossing the river, to seize or kill them if possible, and protect the estates from their invasions.' The same evening, the detachment came to anchor off the battery of the fortress New Amsterdam, of which Capt. S. gives an engraving, as well as a particular description. Of his farther progress, we shall extract the following account in his own words:

On the fourth of July, in the morning, we weighed anchor; and having doubled the Cape, rowed with the flood till we arrived before Elizabeth's Hope, a beautiful coffee plantation, where the proprietor, Mr. Klynhams, inviting us on shore, shewed us every civility in his power, and loaded my barge with refreshing fruits, vegetables, &c. He told us that he pitied our situation from his heart, and foretold

the

the miseries we were going to encounter, the rainy season being just at hand, or indeed having already commenced, by frequent showers, accompanied with loud claps of thunder. "As for the enemy," said he, "you may depend on not seeing one single soul of them; they know better than to make their appearance openly, while they may have a chance of seeing you from under cover: thus, Sir, take care to be upon your guard-but the climate, the climate will murder you all. However," continued he," this shews the zeal of your commander, who will rather see you killed, than see you eat the bread of idleness at Paramaribo."-This pleasant harangue he accompanied with a squeeze by the hand. We then took our leave, while the beautiful Mrs. Dutry, his daughter, shed tears at our departure.This evening we anchored before the Matapaca Creek.

I here created my two barges men of war, and named them the Charon and the Cerberus, by which names I shall distinguish them during the rest of the voyage; though the Sudden Death and Wilful Murder were much more applicable, as will be seen. We now con tinued rowing up the river Cottica, having passed, since we entered Rio Comewina, some most enchantingly beautiful estates of coffee sugar, which line the banks of both these rivers, at the distance of one or two miles from each other.

and

'My crew having walked and drest their dinner ashore on the plantation l'Avanture, we anchored, on the evening of the 5th, before Rio Pirica.

On the following day we rowed still further up the river Cottica, and went on shore on the estate Alia. At all the above plantations we were most hospitably received, but we met with fewer plantations as the river grew narrower.

On the 7th we continued our course, and having walked ashore on the estate Bockkestyne, being the last plantation up the river Cottica on the right, except one or two small estates in Patamaca, at night we cast anchor at the mouth of Coopman's Creek. This day the Charon was on fire, but happily it was soon extinguished.

On the 8th, we again kept rowing upwards, and at eleven o'clock A. M. cast anchor off the fort Slans Welveren, which was guarded by the troops of the Society. Here I stepped on shore, with my officers, to wait on Captain Orzinga, the commander, and delivered three of my sick men into his hospital; where I beheld such a spectacle of misery and wretchedness as baffles all imagination: this place having been formerly called Devil's Harwar, on account of its intolerable unhealthiness-a name by which alone I shall again distin guish it, as much more suitable than that of Slans Welveren, which signifies the welfare of the nation."

On the following day, the two barges reached their stations, where the officers and men soon became very sickly:

Here all the elements now seemed to unite in opposing us; the water pouring down like a deluge, the heavy rains forced themselves, fore and aft into the vessel, where they set every thing afloat; the air was infested with myriads of musquitoes, which, from sun-set to sun-rising, constantly kept us company, and prevented us from get

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ting

ting any sleep, and left us in the morning besmeared all over with blood, and full of blotches. The smoak of the fire and tobacco, which we burnt to annoy them, was enough to choak us; and not a foot-step of land could we find, where we might cook our salt provisions in safety. To all this misery may be added, that discord broke out between the marines and the negroes, with whom, as promises or threats had as yet no weight, I was obliged to have recourse to other means. I tied up the ringleaders of both parties; and after ordering the first to be well flogged, and the latter to be horsewhipped for half an hour, after due suspence and expectation, I pardoned them all without one lash. This had equally the effect of the punishment, and peace was perfectly re-established; but to prevent approaching disease was totally out of my power. Not all the golden rules in Doctor Armstrong's beautiful poem upon health could avail in this

situation.'

Here, however, by the advice of an old negroe, Capt. S. began the practice of repeatedly bathing in the river every day, and of going not only thinly dressed, but barefooted; to which, besides the agreeable coolness and cleanliness of the practice, he in a great degree ascribes the preservation of his life.

We cannot minutely notice the different events which occurred to our author and his detachment, while they remained on board the Charon and Cerberus barges; where, in about seven weeks, all the officers, and two-thirds of the men, being either dead or sick, Capt. S. and his barges were ordered to the Devil's Harwar, still more remarkable for its unwholesome situation. He reached it on the 27th of August; and on the 29th he was informed that the rebels had burnt three of the neighbouring plantations, and cut the throats of all the white inhabitants: while the sickly and debilitated state of the few who were alive of his own detachment made it probable that they were soon to experience a similar fate; which they, however, escaped, only because the revolted negroes did not attack them. On the 4th of December, when not one man of the author's original detachment remained capable of doing duty, a reinforcement with provisions, medicines, and a surgeon, arrived from Paramaribo; and he (Capt S.) being himself extremely ill was permitted to go thither, where he arrived on the 14th of that month, and continued until the 25th of October following. His health being then re-established, he went to join Col. Fourgeoud, who had some months before entered the woods near Cottica in pursuit of the negroes; having under his command not only his own regiment, but a considerable body of the Society's troops and of the Black Rangers. These last appear to have been on every occasion the most active, zealous, and useful of all the troops employed by the Dutch against the revolted negroes; between whom and the

Black

Black Rangers an extraordinary degree of animosity subsisted, notwithstanding their common descent from Africa. This fact we consider as decisive evidence in favour of the measure lately adopted by the British government, of raising and keeping up a number of black regiments in the West India iflands; where, the climate being congenial to them, they will be infinitely more healthy and serviceable than European soldiers, without proving (as we believe) less faithful.

Various expeditions were now undertaken to discover and destroy the different settlements which the rebels had made, în the most intricate and inaccessible situations that could be found within the wilds of Surinam :-expeditions which lasted' several years, and were attended with uncommon sufferings to the officers as well as to the soldiers; who were often compelled to wade through deep swamps and moraffes, and frequently exposed to the most violent rains, as well as to the severest fatigues, hunger, and sickness; sometimes also assailed by the rebels, who, climbing unperceived to the tops of palm trees, fired on their enemies, and then, sliding down with surprising agility, disappeared.'-As an exemplification of the warfare in which our author was so long engaged, we shall extract his account of the destruction of Gado-Saby, one of the principal' of the rebel settlements. (Vol. ii. p. 105.) .

'At ten o'clock, (says he,) we met a small party of the rebels, with each a green hamper upon his back; they fired at us, dropped their bundles, and taking to their heels ran back towards their village. These we since learned were transporting rice to another settlement for their subsistence, when they should be expelled from Gado-Saby (the name of this settlement) which they daily expected, since they had been discovered by the gallant Captain Meyland. The green hampers, which they call warimbos, were very curiously plaited with the manicole leaves. And when our men cut them open with their sabres, there bust forth the most beautiful clean rice that I ever saw, which was scattered and trampled under foot, as we had no opportunity of carrying it along. A little after this we perceived an empty shed, where a picquet had been stationed to give notice of any danger, but they had precipitately deserted their post. We now vigorously redoubled our pace till about noon; when two more musket shot were fired at us by another advanced guard of the enemy, as a signal to the chief, Bonny, of our approach, Major Medler and myself, with a few of the van-guard, and a small party of the rangers, at this time rushing forward, soon came to a fine field of rice and Indian corn: we here made a halt for the other troops, particularly to give time for our rear to close up, some of whom were at least two miles behind us; and during which period we might have been cut to pieces, the enemy, unknown to us, having surrounded the field in which we were, as we were afterwards informed.

In about half an hour the whole body joined us, when we in stantly proceeded by cutting through a small defile of the wood, into

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which

which we had no sooner entered, than a heavy fire commenced from every side, the rebels retiring, and we advancing, until we arrived in the most beautiful field of ripe rice, in the form of an oblong square, from which the rebel town appeared at a distance, in the form of an amphitheatre, sheltered from the sun by the foliage of a few lofty trees; the whole presented a coup-d'ail romantic and enchanting beyond conception. In this field the firing was kept up, like one continued peal of thunder, for above forty minutes, during which time our black warriors behaved with wonderful intrepidity and skill. The white soldiers were too eager, and fired over one another at random, yet I could perceive a few of them act with the utmost coolness, and imitate the rangers with great effect; amongst these was now the once-daunted Fowler, who being roused from his tremor by the firing at the begining of the onset, had rushed to the front, and fully reestablished his character, by fighting like a brave fellow, by my side, until the muzzle of his musket was split by a shot from the enemy, which rendered it useless; a ball passed through my shirt, and grazed the skin of my shoulder; Mr. Decabanes, my lieutenant, had the sling of his fusee shot away: several others were wounded, some mortally, but I did not, to my surprize, observe one instance of immediate death-for which seeming miracle, however, I shall presently account. (The Negroes had not a sufficiency of leaden bullets.)

This whole field of rice was surrounded and interspersed by the enemy with the large trunks and roots of heavy trees, in order to make our approach both difficult and dangerous; behind these temporary fortifications the rebels lay lurking, and firing upon us with deliberate aim, whilst their bulwarks certainly protected them in some measure from the effects of our fire, we having vast numbers of these fallen trees to scramble over before we could reach the town: but we still advanced, in defiance of every obstacle, and while I admired the masterly manoeuvres of their general, I could not help pitying them for their superstition. One poor fellow, in particular, trusting to his amulet or charm, fancied himself invulnerable; he mounted frequently upon one of the trees that lay near us, discharged his piece, descended to re-load, and then with equal confidence and the greatest deliberation returned to the charge in my full view; till at last a shot from one of my marines, named Valet, broke the bone of his thigh, and he fell crawling for shelter under the very same tree which had supported him just before; but the soldier instantly advancing, and putting the muzzle of his musket to the rebel's ear, blew out his brains, while several of his countrymen, in spite of their spells and charms, shared the same fate.

Being now about to enter the town, a rebel captain, wearing a tarnished gold-laced hat, and bearing in his hand a torch of flaming straw, seeing their ruin inevitable, had the resolution to stay and set the town on fire in our presence, which, by the dryness of the houses, instantly produced a general conflagration, when the firing from the woods began gradually to cease. This bold and masterly manecuvre not only prevented that carnage to which the common soldiers in the heat of victory are but too prone, but also afforded the enemy an opportunity of retreating with their wives and children, and

carrying