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they, with a smile, wished me joy of what, with their usual good-humour, they were pleased to call my conquest; which, one of the ladies in company assured me, while it was perhaps censured by some, was applauded by many, but she believed in her heart envied by all.-A decent wedding, at which many of our respectable friends made their appearance, and at which I was as happy as any bridegroom ever was, concluded the

ceremony.

On the 21st of March, 1773, our lieutenant-colonel Lantman died, and a number of our officers lay sick. The remains of the deceased officer were interred with military honours, in the centre of the fortress Zealandia, where all criminals are imprisoned, and all field officers buried. At this place I was not a little shocked, to see the captive rebel negroes and others clanking their chains, and roasting plantains and yams upon the sepulchres of the dead; they presented to my imagination, the image of a number of diabolical fiends in the shape of African slaves, tormenting the souls of their European perse cutors. From these gloomy mansions of despair, on this day, seven captive negroes were selected, who being led by a few soldiers to the place of execution, which is in the Savannah, where the sailors and soldiers are interred, six were hanged, and one broken alive upon the rack, with an iron bar.

Having testified how much I was hurt at the cruelty of the above execution, and surprized at the intrepidity with which the negroes bore their punishment, a decent looking man stepped up to me, Sir," said he, " you are but a newcomer from Europe, and know very little about the African slaves, or you would testify both less feeling and surprize.

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"Not long ago, (continued he) I saw a black man suspended alive from a gallows, by the ribs, between which, with a knife, was first made an incision, and then clinched an iron hook with a chain; in this manner he kept alive three days, hanging with his head and feet downwards, and catching with his tongue the drops of water (it being the rainy season) that were floating down his bloated breast. Notwithstanding all. this he never complained, and even upbraided a negro for crying while he was flogged below the gallows, by calling out

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to him-You man?-De cay fasy? Are you a man? you behave like a boy. Shortly after which he was knocked on the head by the commiserating sentry, who stood over him, with the butt end of his musket.

"Another negro, (said he,) I have seen quartered alive; who, after four strong horses were fastened to his legs and arms, and after having had iron sprigs driven home underneath every one of his nails on hands and feet, without a motion, he first asked a dram, and then bid them pull away, without a groan; but what afforded us the greatest entertainment, (continued he) were the fellow's jokes, by desiring the executioner to drink before him, in case there should chance to be poison in the glass, and bidding him take care of his horses, lest any of them should happen to strike backwards. As for old men being broken upon the rack, and young wo men roasted alive chained to stakes, there can nothing be more common in this colony."-I was petrified at the inhuman detail; and breaking away with execrations from this diabolical scene of laceration, made the best of my way home to my own lodgings.'

Whenever the fugitive negroes attacked a plantation colonel Fourgeoud's troops were instantly prepared for service; but, when the alarm subsided, they were ordered to leave the colony. This state of unpleasant uncertainty was at last terminated, by the intelligence that an officer of the Society's troops had been shot dead by the rebels, and his whole party, consisting of about 30 men, entirely cut to pieces. By this time the marines from being a corps of the finest and healthiest young men that ever sailed from Europe, with ruddy fresh complexions, were now changed to the sallow colour of a drum-head. The civilities of the men, and the kindness of the ladies also, combined to render Surinam a real Capua to these brave fellows.

We now seriously prepared for victory or death, on board the wooden walls of the colony, which consisted of half a dozen crazy old sugar barges, such as are used by the colliers in the Thames, being only 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.

It is a painful circumstance, that the narrative of my travels must so frequently prove the record of cruelty and barbarity: but once for all I must declare, that I state these facts merely in the hope that it may, in some mode or other, operate for their future prevention. Before my departure, I was informed of a most shocking instance of depravity, which had just occurred. A Jewess, impelled by a groundless jealously, (for such her husband made it appear) put an end to the life of a young and beautiful Quadroon girl, by the infernal means of plunging into her body a red-hot poker. But what is most incredible, and what indeed will scarcely be believed in a civilized country, is, that for this most diabolical crime the murderess was only banished to the Jew-Savannah, a village which I shall afterwards describe, and condemned in a trifling fine to the fiscal or town-clerk of the colony.

'Another young negro woman, having her ancles chained so close together that she could scarcely move her feet, was knocked down with a cane by a Jew, and beaten till the blood streamed out of her head, her arms, and her naked sides. So accustomed, indeed, are the people of this country to tyranny and insolence, that a third Israelite had the impudence to strike one of my soldiers, for having made water against his garden-fence. On this miscreant I took revenge for the whole fraternity, by wresting the offending weapon out of his hand, which I instantly broke into a thousand pieces on his guilty naked pate.

In the evening, having entertained some select friends in my house, I bade farewell to my Joanna, to whose care I left my all; and herself to the protection of her mother and aunt, with my directions for putting her to school until my return: after which, I at last marched on board, with four subalterns, two serjeants, three corporals, and 32 men under my command, to be divided into two barges, and bound for the upper part of the river Cottica.

The two barges were all armed with swivels, blunderbusses, &c. and provided with an allowance for one month: their

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