Part 21

The fire-flies were, scarcely, less numerous; but, notwithstanding the annoyance we suffered by their flying against us, they inflicted no pain. They neither tormented us with bites, nor stings; but in such myriads did they dart and play about us, that it appeared as if we were walking in an atmosphere filled with moving stars. One piece of coffee, in particular, had its whole surface so illumined by these insects, as to convey the idea of the field being overspread with fire. After going into the boat, and proceeding towards the middle of the river, both fire-flies and musquitoes forsook us; and we were pleasantly rowed down to the town by four of Mr. Osborn’s contented slaves.

LETTER XLI.

Stabroek, May 8.

General Whyte and part of the detachment which accompanied him, are returned to Demarara, leaving the 93d regiment, in garrison, at Berbische; that colony having capitulated upon the same terms as Demarara and Essequibo. The commerce is to be directed to the ports of England; in return for which she offers protection and defence. All that concerns the military proceedings is to rest with the English; but, in whatever regards the civil administration, the settlements are to preserve the established laws and form of government, until the end of the war; and the present Dutch governors are not to be removed.

Under these conditions most of the Dutch soldiers, who were in the garrison, have consented to enlist into our service, and to act conjointly with our troops in defence of this coast. We thus acquire the aid of a corps well seasoned to the country, and ready, at all moments, to act in concert for the general benefit of the settlements.

It is likewise intended to strengthen the garrison by forming a corps of negroes to be called “The South American Rangers.” This will be a valuable addition to our force, as these men are not subject to the debilitating effects of climate, but are active in the greatest heat; and are capable of supporting the most fatiguing duties under the direct rays of a vertical sun.

Surinam, belonging to the Dutch, borders Berbische, on our right, and a little further up the coast is the French colony of Cayenne. With such restless neighbours about us, we shall require to be watchful and alert. On our left we approach the river Oronoko, and what is termed the Spanish main: and not far from the coast of Essequibo is the Spanish island of Trinidad. From this quarter we hope to procure beef: from the other we expect only blows.

A communication is to be opened directly with the Spaniards, in order to negotiate for the purchase of cattle from the woods; which, we are told, they will be glad to sell at six or seven dollars per head.

We are now very much in want of fresh animal provisions; for, since the time of our arrival, I have only been able to procure two or three small sheep, for the use of the hospital. But, as the guardian of the sick, I owe much gratitude to the gentlemen of the colony, for some liberal presents of beef and mutton, which their humanity has induced them to send to the hospital for the comfort of the suffering soldiers. Two neighbouring gentlemen, in particular, Mr. T. Cuming, and Mr. Waterton, have the prayers of the sick, and the best acknowledgments of their attendants. Occasionally they have sent us an ox, or a sheep; or have shared, with the sick, the best provisions of their table.

Fruits are given to us from various estates, not only by gallons and bushels, but by cartloads and boat-loads, at a time; and, by these generous aids, we have been able to improve the comforts of the sick, beyond all that money could have effected.

A few days ago I had the opportunity of being present at a more regular sale, or market of slaves than I had seen before, and here I witnessed all the heart-rending distress attendant upon such a scene. I saw numbers of our fellow-beings regularly bartered for gold, and transferred, like cattle, or any common merchandise, from one possessor to another. It was a sight which European curiosity had rendered me desirous to behold, although I had anticipated from it only a painful gratification, I may now say——_I have seen it!_ and while nature animates my breast with even the feeblest spark of humanity, I can never forget it!

The poor Africans, who were to be sold, were exposed, naked, in a large empty building, like an open barn. Those, who came with intention to purchase, minutely inspected them; handled them; made them jump, and stamp with their feet, and throw out their arms and their legs; turned them about; looked into their mouths; and, according to the usual rules of traffic with respect to cattle, examined them, and made them show themselves in a variety of ways, to try if they were sound and healthy. All this was distressful as humiliating, and tended to excite strong aversion and disgust: but a wound, still more severe, was inflicted on the feelings, by some of the purchasers selecting only such as their judgment led them to prefer, regardless of the bonds of nature! The urgent appeals of friendship and attachment were unheeded; sighs and tears made no impression; and all the imploring looks, and penetrating expressions of grief were unavailing. Hungry commerce corroded even the golden chains of affection; and sordid interest burst every tie of the heart asunder. The husband was taken from the wife, children were separated from their parents, and the lover was torn from his mistress: the companion was bought away from his friend, and the brother not suffered to accompany the sister.

In one part of the building was seen a wife clinging to her husband, and beseeching, in the strongest eloquence of nature, not to be left behind him. Here was a sister hanging upon the neck of her brother, and, with tears, intreating to be led to the same home of captivity. There stood two brothers, enfolded in each other’s arms, mutually bewailing their threatened separation. In other parts were friends, relatives, and companions, praying to be sold to the same master; using signs to signify that they would be content with slavery, might they but toil together.

Silent tears, deep sighs, and heavy lamentations proved the bitter suffering of these poor blacks, and told that nature was ever true to her feelings. Never was a scene more distressful. Among these unhappy, degraded Africans scarcely an unclouded countenance could be seen. Every feature was veiled in the gloom of woe; and their grief was poured forth in all the sadness of affliction.

A host of painful ideas rushed into my mind at the moment; and all the distorted images of this abhorrent traffic presented themselves to my recollection. The many horrors and cruelties, which I had so often heard of, appeared in their worst shapes before me; and my imagination was acutely alive to the unmerited punishment sometimes inflicted, the incessant labour exacted, the want of freedom, and all the catalogue of hardships endured by slaves. I endeavoured to combat the effect of these impressions by directing my mind to opposite images. The kind treatment of negroes under humane masters occurred to me; I recollected the comfort and harmony of the slaves I had lately seen at “Profit.” I contemplated their exemption from care, and the many anxieties of the world; and I remembered the happiness and contentment expressed in their songs and merry dances: but all in vain! The repugnant influence would not thus be cheated. With such distress before my eyes, all palliatives were unavailing. The whole was wrong, and not to be justified. I felt that I execrated every principle of the traffic. Nature revolted at it; and I condemned the whole system of slavery under all its forms and modifications.

When purchased, the slaves were marked by placing a bit of string, or of red or white tape round their arms or necks. One gentleman, who bought a considerable number of them, was proceeding to distinguish those he had selected, by tying a piece of red tape round the neck; when I observed two negroes, who were standing together entwined in each other’s arms, watch him with great anxiety. Presently he approached them, and, after making his examination, affixed the mark only to one of them. The other, with a look of unerring expression, and with an impulse of marked disappointment, cast his eyes up to the purchaser, seeming to say——“And will you not have me, too?” then jumped, and danced, and stamped with his feet, and made other signs to denote that he, also, was sound and strong, and worthy his choice. He was, nevertheless, passed by unregarded; upon which he turned to his companion, his friend, brother, whichever he was, took him to his bosom, hung upon him, and, in sorrowful countenance, expressed the strongest marks of affliction. The feeling was mutual: it arose from reciprocal affection: his friend participated in his grief, and they both wept bitterly. Soon afterwards, on looking round to complete his purchase, the planter, again, passed that way, and not finding any one that better suited his purpose, he hung the token of choice round the neck of the negro whom he had before disregarded. All the powers of art could not have effected the change that followed. More genuine joy was never expressed. His eye became enlivened: grief and sadness vanished, and flying into the arms of his friend, he caressed him with rapture, then skipped, and jumped, and danced about, exhibiting all the purest signs of mirth and gratification. His companion was not less delighted, and a more pure and native sympathy was never exhibited. Happy in being reassociated, they now retired apart from the crowd, and sat down, in quiet contentment, hugging and kissing the red signal of bondage, like two attached and affectionate brothers—satisfied to toil out their days, for an unknown master, so they might but travel their journey of slavery together.

In the afternoon of the same day I chanced to be present when another gentleman came to purchase some of the slaves, who were not sold in the morning. After looking through the lot, he remarked that he did not see any who were of pleasant aspect; and going on to make further objections, respecting their appearance, he was interrupted by the vendor, who observed that, at that moment, they were seen to great disadvantage, as they looked worse, “_from having lost their friends and associates in the morning_.” Ay, truly, I could have replied—a very powerful reason why they are unfit for sale this afternoon! If to be of smiling visage were necessary to their being sold, it were politic not to expose them for long to come. Still, some were selected, and the mark of purchase being made, the distressful scene of the morning was, in a degree, repeated.

Only a few of the most ill-looking now remained, who were meager, and of rough skin; not thoroughly black, but of a yellowish, or dirty brown colour; of hungry, unhealthy aspect, feeble, of hideous countenance, and, in general appearance, scarcely human. These remained to a future day, and would, probably, be sold, not to the planters, but to the boat-women, tailors, hucksters, or some of the inferior mechanics, or shopkeepers of the town, at a price somewhat lower than that demanded for the more robust, and well-looking; and, alas! though least able to bear fatigue, these feeble beings would be subjected to a far more heavy slavery than those of stronger frame; for it is, commonly, seen that the labour exacted by the poorer orders of people, from their few and weakly slaves, is more severe than that required by the opulent planter from his regular, and better-appointed gang.

We find it extremely difficult to procure a sufficient number of workmen and labourers, in this colony, for the services required. Although the wages are extravagantly high, an extraordinary number of hands, for any emergency, cannot be obtained, without having recourse to a system of coercion.

A few days since a soldier was admitted into the hospital with the direful malady of the country, called “yellow fever.” The disease had made great progress before he was brought to us, and he died on the sixth day after his admission. The body was examined, with a view to ascertain the changes produced by the disease, but the appearances were not precisely such, as from conversing with the colonial practitioners, and reading a variety of authors, we had been led to expect. The stomach was found to be the organ which exhibited the strongest marks of derangement. The inner coat was surcharged with blood, appearing very red, and at one spot near the upper orifice it was of a livid hue, and its texture so weakened, that the finger was passed through it, by only a slight degree of pressure.

The name commonly given to this disorder seems to be highly inaccurate. Our patient, although several days ill, had no yellowness of the skin, until a few hours before he died. If, therefore, his dissolution had occurred only a short time sooner; or if he had recovered previous to the period when this change of colour took place, we could not, with any correctness, have called the fever he had suffered a _yellow_ fever, although he had undergone all the characteristic symptoms of the disease so termed, except the casual one from which it has been improperly named. Moreover, affixing to a disease a name derived from a symptom, and particularly a symptom which is not always present, is calculated to deceive, and may be of dangerous tendency, by rendering the practitioner unsuspicious of the real nature of the disorder, until it be too late to arrest its destructive progress.

LETTER XLII.

Demarara, May 16.

Since I last addressed you I have experienced a sad disappointment, in having to make my congé to the general, on his return to the islands. After all my expectations of being soon at St. Domingo, I am left behind with instructions to continue in the direction of the medical department of these colonies, until our detachment shall be relieved from the staff of the Charibbee Islands.

Instead of my being permitted to proceed to head quarters, it is found requisite that the branch of the hospital staff, serving here, should be augmented. I have made out a return of the medical establishment, which seems necessary for these colonies, and still hope that we may soon be relieved, and allowed to proceed to our original destination.

In consequence of the sick list becoming numerous, we are compelled to employ the medical officers of the regiments in the duties of the general hospital.

I have great pleasure in remarking to you, that General Whyte has been particularly attentive to the comfort of the sick, and the accommodation of the hospital department. In every thing proposed for the benefit of the suffering soldiers, we have always been happy enough to meet with his full and ready acquiescence. It has only been necessary to point out what was required, and every attention was immediately given to the representation. You will believe that this has been highly gratifying to me, and the more so, when I add that the measures proposed have not been indifferently acceded to, but examined with a degree of attentive consideration, not less honorable to the general than satisfactory to myself.

It is also with much pleasure that I am enabled to add that Colonel Hislop, who succeeds to the command, is a man of great humanity and benevolence, and that we have every prospect of finding him desirous to follow a good example in promoting the comfort and well-being of those who are in sickness.

Before he left us, General Whyte gave orders that a large cotton logis at La Bourgade should be fitted up as an hospital, and that a house near to it should be appropriated to the use of the medical officers. Thus have we the satisfaction of seeing the sick, and the whole of the department, very conveniently accommodated; the patients being lodged in a spacious and well-aired building; and their attendants having commodious quarters immediately near to them, with proper offices, and what is of consequence in this climate, a large cistern for fresh water adjoining.

Here we are stationed, as a distinct department, quiet, and secluded, free from the noise and hurry both of the town and the fort, and nearly equidistant from the one and the other. The public road, from the fort to the town, passes close by the gates; and within less than a hundred yards from the road is the sea, or rather the opening of the river, so that the sick are readily brought to us on either side, by land, or by water. Perhaps another situation, equally commodious for the purposes of the medical department, could not have been found in the colony.

I have already changed my quarters from Stabroek to our new home at La Bourgade; but it does not seem probable that I shall long remain stationary, for I have received instructions to proceed to the colony of Berbische, to make arrangements for the hospitals there, as soon as I shall have brought these at La Bourgade into a proper establishment.

I now suffer considerably from the “prickly heat,” but this would be very supportable were it not for the still greater torment of musquitoes, ants, centipedes, jack-spaniards[10], and the multitudes of other insects biting, buzzing about our ears, crawling upon every thing we touch, and as it were filling and vivifying the whole atmosphere around us.

As I am to note all occurrences, I must not omit the following, although it may seem to border upon the incredible. A few days ago I was applied to by the wife of a colonist to request that I would _make some complaint_ to her husband, against the slaves of the house, very _humanely_ urging as a reason for imposing upon me so _grateful_ a task, that she wished “_to get them a good flogging_!” I trust that neither you, nor any of our fair friends, on the European shore of the Atlantic, will condemn my want of gallantry in resisting the solicitation. It was not even contended that any specific fault had been committed to justify the punishment, but this was _to be invented_, and merely because some idle whim, some fit of caprice, or ill humour had led the mistress, of these poor slaves to wish them “_a good flogging_!”

You have probably read that in the woods of these colonies there are numbers of men called “Bush-negroes.” These are mostly runaway slaves who have revolted from their masters, and having collected together in the forest, have there formed themselves into bodies, under certain captains or leaders; and have established various habitations and encampments in the thickest parts of what is termed “the Bush;” where they now live in all the bad habits of savage nature; and are become mere hordes of brigands or marauders.

They are negroes of the worst description, cruel, blood-thirsty and revengeful: men whose crimes in European, and all well-ordered states, would have been punished with death. Many have murdered white inhabitants, massacred their masters, or revolted in combination, plotting the destruction of the planters, in order to take the colony into their own possession; but being frustrated in their designs, have saved themselves from punishment, by flying into the hidden recesses of the forest; from whence they issue only to ravage and plunder.

They had subjected themselves to a sort of regular discipline under their captains and lieutenants, and the lower orders of them (for there are distinctions even among runaway slaves) were compelled to toil in the night, by going out of the woods, in parties, to steal plantains and other provisions from the estates; but the labour to which they were exposed, by this night duty, was so much more severe than that required of them, in their common round, as slaves upon the plantations, that some of them have been known to desert back from the woods, and return to a state of slavery, after having fled from their masters to live in idleness, as they had expected, with their brethren in “the Bush.”

I wish I could repeat to you, as eloquently as I heard it related, the very interesting detail of an expedition sent into the woods against these Bush-negroes, last year, under the command of Major M‘Grah, and Captain Dougan. Many persons had been robbed, and had their property otherwise injured by their predatory excursions; indeed the whole colony was disturbed, and, from the increasing number of these sanguinary hordes, was threatened with eventual destruction. It was resolved therefore that a body of troops should be sent into the woods to search for their places of resort, and to endeavour to subdue or exterminate them. A party of the Dutch soldiers of the garrison was, accordingly, equipped for this duty; and marched in due military order into the forest.

But this was not the species of force calculated for such an enterprise: from not having observed all the minute precautions required, in this new and hazardous warfare, they were surprised and defeated by the blacks; and very few of the soldiers escaped, most of them being killed, and their scalps, or bodies, fixed against the trees, to serve as examples of what others were to expect who should venture on a similar service[11].

The government and the colonists having discovered, from fatal experience, that the Bush-negroes were more formidable than had been imagined; and finding that regular European troops were not the best fitted for this kind of duty, raised a corps of blacks from among the most faithful of the slaves; and also engaged in their interest a party of Indians from the woods, who, happily for the planters, hold the Bush-negroes in great abhorrence.

Well provided and equipped, this second expedition, commanded as above mentioned, separated into two parties, and boldly advanced into the forest to form a combined attack. Upon their march they passed the dead bodies of the Dutch soldiers, tied to the trees at the sides of a narrow path. Not deterred by this horrid scene, they proceeded onward, having the sagacious Indians on their flanks; by whose acuteness and penetration they discovered the various situations, where the different companies of the brigands had taken up their residence, and, by well-concerted attacks, defeated and routed them wheresoever they met them. As an encouragement to the able and new-raised troops, a premium was offered for every right hand of a Bush-negro that should be brought in; and, when they returned from the woods, they appeared with seventy black arms displayed upon the points of their bayonets, causing a very singular and shocking spectacle to the beholders. Three hundred guilders each had been fixed as the price, but it was found necessary to reduce the premium, lest the slaves should kill their prisoners, or even destroy each other to obtain it.

The exertion and fatigue required in such a movement cannot well be conceived by those who are accustomed only to regular and systematic warfare: nor is it probable that such a service could have been supported in this climate by European soldiers. In addition to all the difficulties of making their way through the unknown and almost impenetrable woods, they knew not where to find the enemy’s posts; and were, at every minute, liable to be fallen upon by surprise.