had the mortification to see them pull away without a possibility of overtaking them, or returning.

In this distress I had now nothing left but to perish, it being impossible to swim against the stream, especially as I was incumbered with my clothes. I struggled, however, but sunk twice to the bottom in the attempt; and must inevitably have been drowned, had I not caught hold of a projecting paling that was erected in the river for the purpose of catching fish. To this I remained sticking fast; when a Dutch carpenter, who observed me from the top of the sugar-mill, called out, that the English captain was trying to kill himself. On this news a dozen stout negroes immediately leapt into the river, and having dragged me safe ashore (under the direction of my good friend Medlar, who was inclined to believe the report) lifted me upon their shoulders to carry me home.

The disappointment, the danger, the anger, vexation, and shame (for there was no contradicting them) had by this time wound up my passions to such a height, and made such an impression on my spirits, that I became perfectly mad, and had almost perpetrated the act of which I was accused; since, on crossing over a small bridge, I actually gave a sudden twist, and, from their shoulders, threw myself with a jerk headlong over the balustrades once more into the water. Here a second time I was picked up by the negroes; and now the suspicion being confirmed that I intended suicide, I was put to my hammock, with two sentinels appointed to guard me during the night, while several of my friends were shedding tears around me. Having, however, drank some mulled wine, I enjoyed a sound nap till morning; when appearing calm and perfectly composed, my words, to my great joy, began to be credited, and the apprehensions of my companions were dispelled.---Such was the danger to which I was exposed by the unkind and inhospitable behaviour of this Frenchman, who nearly obliterated the memory of this transaction by his many succeeding instances of unprecedented barbarity.

The following day, however, by one of my negroes and a small canoe, I sent my letter to Paramaribo. Seeing now

about noon a melasses-boat at anchor before the Hope, in which was broiling in the sun an English soldier and two negroes, I made the first come ashore, and entertained the poor fellow with a bowl of punch and a good meal of eggs and ba con, to his great surprize, he not having expected this kindness, or to be accosted in his own country language at this place. What were this man's grateful acknowledgments, whose name was Charles Macdonald, will be seen in the sequel of my work.

'I now, obtaining my friend Medlar's concurrence, took a trip on the 18th to Paramaribo; where I found my boy ba thing in Madeira wine and water (which is often practised in Surinam), while his mother was happy, and perfectly recovered. Having seen them well, and presented Joanna with a gold medal, that my father had given my mother on the day of my birth, also thanking Mrs. Lolkens for her very great kindness, I immediately returned to the Hope, where I arrived on the 22d of December.

The poor negro whom I had sent before me with a letter had been less fortunate than I was, having his canoe overset in the middle of the river Surinam, by the roughness of the water. With great address, however, he kept himself in an erect posture (for this man could not swim), and by the buoyancy and resistance of the boat against his feet, he was enabled just to keep his head above the water, while the weight of his body kept the sunk canoe from moving. In this precarious attitude, he was picked up by a man-of-war's boat; who, taking away the canoe for their trouble, put him ashore at Paramaribo. He kept the letter, however surprizing, still in his mouth, and being eager to deliver it, he accidently ran into a wrong house; where, being taken for a thief (for refusing to let them read it), he was tied up to receive 400 lashes; but, fortunately, was reprieved by the intercession of an English merchant of the name of Gordon, who was my particular friend, and knew the negro. Thus did the poor fellow escape drowning, and being flogged, either of which he would have undergone, sooner than disclose what he called the secrets of

his massera.---Query, How many Europeans are possessed of equal fidelity and fortitude?"

Fourgeoud continued to pursue his usual system of severity. A soldier was shot by a court martial, and two young officers were sent to Europe under arrest. His frequent excursions into the woods had obtained him the title of the wandering Jew. At last, however, he permitted Stedman to follow him, with some other officers who were actually in want, at a time when 15 hogsheads of fine claret, and 15,000 florins, were waiting his commands at Paramaribo. On the 25th of January, 1775, a great number of Indians arrived in town, which gave captain Stedman an opportunity of secing and describing these people, who are the aborigines of the country. They are divided into casts or tribes. They are in general of a copper colour, and are yet a happy people, being uncontaminated with European vices. This consideration leads our author to the speech of an Indian, in reply to a sermon preached by a Swedish minister at an Indian treaty, held at Covestogue, of which the principal substance was as follows:

"Do you then really believe, that we and our fore-fathers are all, as you would teach us, condemned to suffer eternal torments in another world, because we have not been taught your mysterious novelties? Are we not the work of God? And can the Almighty not manifest his will without the help of a book? If this is true, and God is just, then how is it consistent with his justice to force life upon us without our consent, and then condemn us all to eternal damnation, because we did not meet with you. No, sir, we are convinced that the Christians are more depraved in their morals than we Indians, if we may judge of their doctrines by the general badness of their lives."

"There cannot indeed be a more laudable undertaking, than the endeavour to engraft divine truths on the pure minds of these innocent people, so worthy of instruction; but I fear, and it is too observable, that the words of one good man will have but little effect, when the practice of the far greater number of Moravian preachers settled amongst them on the banks

of the Seramica river, where they endeavour to convert the negroes as well as the Indians, is in direct contradiction to his life and precepts.

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Polygamy is admitted among them, and every Indian is allowed to take as many wives as he can provide for, though he generally takes but one, of whom he is extremely jealous, and whom he knocks on the head the moment he receives a decided proof of her incontinency. These Indians never beat their children on any account whatever, nor give them any education, except in hunting, fishing, running, and swimming; yet they never use abusive language to each other, nor steal; and a lie is totally unknown among them. To which I may add, that no people can be more grateful when treated with civility; but I must not forget that, on the other hand, they are extremely revengeful, especially when, as they suppose, they are injured without just provocation.

The only vices with which to my knowledge they are acquainted, if such amongst them they may be called, are excessive drinking when opportunity offers, and an unaccountable indolence: an Indian's only occupation, when he is not hunting or fishing, being to lounge in his hammock, picking his teeth, plucking the hair from his beard, examining his face in a bit of broken looking-glass, &c.

The Indians in general are a very cleanly people, bathing twice or thrice every day in the river, or the sea. They have all thick hair, which never turns grey, and the head never becomes bald; both sexes pluck out every vestige of hair on their bodies, that on the head excepted; it is of a shining black, which the men wear short, but the women very long, hanging over the back and shoulders to their middle; as if they had studied the scriptures, where it is said that long hair is an ornament to a woman, but a disgrace to a man.

The Guiana Indians are neither tall, strong, nor muscular: but they are straight, active, and generally in a good state of health. Their faces have no expression whatever, that of a placid good-nature and content excepted; and their features are beautifully regular, with small black eyes, thin lips, and very white teeth. However, all the Guiana Indians VOL. I.

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disfigure themselves more or less by the use of arnatto or rocow. This, it must be allowed, is extremely useful in scorching climates, where the inhabitants of both sexes go almost naked. One day, laughing at a young man who came from the neighbourhood of Cayenne, he answered me in French, saying, "My skin, sir, is kept soft, too great perspiration is prevented, and the musquitoes do not sting me as they do you: besides its beauty, this is the use of my painting red.Now what is the reason of your painting white ?" [meaning powder in the hair] "You are, without any reason, wasting your flour, dirtying your coat, and making yourself look grey before your time."

The only dress worn by these Indians consists of a slip of black or blue cotton worn by the men to cover their nakedness, and called camisa; something like that of the negroes. For the same purpose, the women wear an apron of cotton, with party-coloured glass beads strung upon it, which they call quciou. Both sexes wearing these belts or girdles so low, that they almost slide down over their buttocks, and make their bodies appear wonderfully long.

In the inland parts, many Indians of both sexes go quite naked, without any covering whatever. The Indian women also, by way of ornament, often cut small holes in their ears and their lips, in the first of which they wear corks or small pieces of light wood, and through their lips they stick thorns, and sometimes all the pins they can lay hold of, with the heads inside against the gums, and the points like a beard dangling down upon their chins. Some wear feathers through their cheeks and through their noses, though this is but seldom.--But the most unaccountable ornament in my opinion is, that the girls at ten or twelve years old work a kind of cotton garter round their ancles, and the same below the knee; which being very tight, and remaining for ever, occasions their calves to swell to an enormous size by the time they are grown women, and gives their limbs a very odd and unnatural appearance. They also wear girdles, bands, and bracelets, of various coloured beads, shells, and fish-teeth, about their necks, across their shoulders, or round their arms, but generally