Part 22

At first entering the Bush, the march was continued for a great distance, nearly knee-deep in water: when further advanced, the troops had to scramble through the thickets, or follow each other, by a confined path, in Indian file; and, after the harassing march of the day, to lie down at night, on the bare ground, under the trees, the officers suspending their hammocks from bough to bough in the open air. They had, moreover, to carry the whole of their provisions, arms, ammunition, and every other necessary required for the success of the enterprise, upon their backs.

But for the assistance given by the Indians, the brigands would, probably, never have been subdued; perhaps not found! The expertness of these men, in such a pursuit, is peculiar, and beyond all that could be imagined, by those who live in crowded society. They not only hear sounds in the woods, which are imperceptible to others, but judge, with surprising accuracy, of the distance and direction from whence they proceed. The position of a fallen leaf, or the bending of a bramble, too slight to be noticed by an European eye, conveys to them certain intelligence respecting the route taken by those, whom they pursue. From constant practice and observation, their organs of sense become highly improved, and they hear with an acuteness, and see with a precision truly surprising to those who are unacquainted with their habits, and their vigilance. With such guides, the corps moved in confidence, and was conducted with safety. Seven encampments of the brigands were discovered, and completely routed; some of which had existed during fifteen years, concealed in the profoundest gloom of the forest.

The following was the mode usually observed in establishing these places of residence and resort. Having fixed upon the spot most convenient for their purpose, a circular piece of ground was cleared of its wood: in the centre of this, they built huts, and formed the encampment, planting around the buildings, oranges, bananas, plantains, yams, eddoes, and other kinds of provisions; thus, in addition to the trees of the forest, procuring themselves further concealment by the plantations which save them food. The eddoes were found in great plenty, and seemed to constitute their principal diet. Round the exterior of the circular spot was cut a deep and wide ditch, which, being filled with water, and stuck, at the sides and bottom, with sharp-pointed stakes, served as a formidable barrier of defence. The path across this ditch was placed two or three feet below the surface, and wholly concealed from the eye by the water being always thick and muddy. Leaves were strewed, and steppings, similar in their kind, made to the edges of the ditch, at various parts, as a precaution, to deceive any who might approach, respecting the real situation of the path. But the proper place of crossing was found out by the sagacity of the Indians, who soon discovered that to attempt to pass at any other part, was to be empaled alive.

It was found that the brigands had eight of these encampments, or points of rendezvous in the woods, one of which is supposed still to remain undiscovered. After much fatigue in endeavouring to find it, the search was relinquished, in the idea that some of the prisoners, either by indulgence or torture, would be induced to make it known: but this expectation has only led to disappointment. All the means used have failed, and the prisoners, faithful to their cause, have suffered torture and death without betraying their forest-associates.

The cruel severities inflicted upon these miserable blacks have been such as you will scarcely believe could have been practised by any well-ordered government: for, however strongly punishment was merited, the refinement of torture, with which it was employed, ought never to have been tolerated in any state professing to be civilized. Humanity shudders at the bare recital of it.

Most of the ringleaders were taken, and brought to Stabroek, where they were afterwards tried and executed, the majority of them suffering with a degree of fortitude and heroism worthy a better cause. One in particular, named Amsterdam, supported the extreme of punishment with a firmness truly astonishing. He was subjected to the most shocking torture, in the hope of compelling him to give information regarding the remaining encampment—but in vain! He despised the severest suffering, and nothing could induce him to betray his late companions, or to make known their yet undiscovered retreat.

He was sentenced to be burnt alive, first having his flesh torn from his limbs with red-hot pincers; and in order to render his punishment still more terrible, he was compelled to sit by, and see thirteen others broken upon the wheel and hung; and then, in being conducted to execution, was made to walk over the thirteen dead bodies of his comrades. Being fastened to an iron stake, surrounded with the consuming pile, which was about to be illumined, he regarded the by-standers with all the complacency of heroic fortitude, and exhibiting the most unyielding courage, resolved that all the torture ingenuity or cruelty might invent should not extort from him a single groan; or a syllable that could in any way impeach his friends.

With the first pair of pincers, the executioner tore the flesh from one of his arms. The sudden infliction of pain caused him to recede, in a slight degree, from the irons; and he drew in his breath, as if to form it into a sigh, but he instantly recovered himself—his countenance indicated self-reproach, and he manifestly took shame for having betrayed even the slightest sense of suffering; then, resuming more, if possible, than his former composure, he patiently waited the approach of the next irons, and, on these being brought towards him, he steadfastly cast his eye upon them, inclined a little forward, and with an unshaken firmness of countenance, deliberately met their burning grasp! From that moment he showed himself capable of despising the severest pain. Not a feature was afterwards disturbed, and he preserved a degree of tranquillity implying absolute contempt of torture and of death.

Finally, when the destructive pile was set in flames, his body spun round the iron stake, with the mouth open, until his head fell back, and life was extinguished. I am told, by a gentleman who had the melancholy task to attend the execution, that the most horrid stench continued for many hours, to issue from the roasting body, and was extremely offensive throughout the town, penetrating so strongly into the houses to leeward, as to make many persons sick, and prevent them from taking food during the remainder of the day.

Another of the chiefs, or captains, who was taken, is still in confinement at the fort, under sentence of death. His execution has been delayed in the hope of learning, from him, the situation of the yet remaining encampment; but, hitherto, to no purpose; and from his present conduct, it may be expected that he will die as firm and dauntless as his comrade Amsterdam.

LETTER XLIII.

La Bourgade, May 21.

I have already informed you that the barrack allotted to the medical officers is a very commodious house, situated near to the hospital; but I gave no account of the furniture; nor did I describe what we here esteem a comfortable dwelling. Let me, therefore, tell you that our mansion is built wholly of wood, and is of the simplest construction. Being set upon low pillars, it is so raised from the ground as to leave sufficient space for dogs and small pigs to pass under it. Chimnies and fire-places are not required. The windows are mere holes in the sides, and are neither closed with plate glass, nor well-fitted sashes, but hung with heavy shutters on the outside, to protect us in time of rain. No fine stucco covers the walls, nor are the rooms hung with rich paper or tapestry. No painted cloth, or soft carpet spreads the floor, nor do any rich cornices, or figured compositions decorate the ceiling. Above, below, and at the sides, all is plain wood: the walls, the ceilings, and the floors are alike of naked boards; many of them so loosely joined together as to allow free admission to air and light. Sitting in the parlour, we see through the openings into the bed-room above; and to the pigs routing below. The roof is also of wood, and open to the bed-chambers, which are hung only with the well-spun tapestry of industrious spiders. An old bench, or form, with three or four chairs of rough wood, and a coarse deal board, laid upon a pair of cross legs by way of a table, complete the furniture.

Thus accommodated, you will be amused to hear that we have had company to visit us at our dinner-table: a party from one of his majesty’s ships of war, who were led, by curiosity, to see how the “_soldier-officers_” were accommodated on shore. They did not express themselves violently envious of our comforts; but were much diverted in forming conjectures as to what might have been the remarks of some of our foppish friends in London, could they have glanced an eye upon our humble banquet, and the general order of our _manege_. A piece of hard salt beef graced one end of the table, a heavy lump of salt pork the other, and salt-meat soup supplied the place of the rich _plateau_ in the middle. Such is our daily repast, and such was our feast; for we gave to our visitors the most sumptuous fare of the larder. Fresh animal provisions are dainties we can seldom procure, and if it were not for the daily allowance dealt out to us by government, we should be confined to a diet of yams and plantains, like the slaves. During the passage from England, and while we were lying at Barbadoes, we disregarded our salt allowance; nor did we, till now, duly estimate the value of a government ration; but it is here become of the greatest importance, and forms, to us, as well as to the soldiers, the principal supply.

We often despatch negroes to the distant plantations upon the coast, or the borders of the river, in search of fowls, ducks, roasting pigs, or any other fresh provisions; but they so commonly return empty-handed, that we have been led to suspect them of idleness or neglect, and have been induced to make the experiment ourselves, by going in a boat to different estates up the river, with a view of purchasing poultry or other stock. But we have been equally unsuccessful; sometimes failing altogether, and at others procuring only a single chicken, or a sucking pig to serve a mess of six persons for the week. It happened once that we met with a whole litter of young roasters to the number of six, when we thought ourselves in high good fortune; but as we had no convenient means of keeping them fat or in condition, we were unable to economize the use of them, and from eating pig every day till they were all consumed, we became so entirely satiated with this kind of food, as to make it doubtful whether we shall ever be able to enjoy it again.

Beef, veal, and mutton are luxuries beyond our reach. This settlement does not supply them in sufficient quantity for the ordinary consumption; we do not therefore expect them, except by way of an occasional feast. The great additional demand for fresh provisions, since our arrival, has likewise taken off all the surplus of smaller stock, and left scarcely a spare duck, or chicken in the colony.

In one of our provision-hunting excursions to the western coast, we had the good fortune to meet with Captain Dougan, whom we found to be residing there, in command of the remnant of the black corps, which was raised last year for the expedition against the Bush-negroes. From this gentleman we experienced every mark of polite and friendly attention. In our conversation we discovered that he was the son of the gentleman whom I had seen at “Profit;” and, on his learning that I had visited his father, we became at once as intimate as old acquaintances. But this was not required to call forth the captain’s hospitality, for he had previously insisted upon our dining, and passing the remainder of the day with him; which we did, and he gave us an excellent dinner, with plenty of good wines, and a most cordial welcome. Cassada cake and roasted plantains were served instead of bread, and with our fowls we had a sauce prepared from the cassada juice, which loses its poisonous quality by boiling and evaporation, and becomes somewhat like the essence used under the name of soy.

On taking our leave, in the evening, we received many polite and liberal invitations to repeat our visit; had our boat loaded with fruit, and were desired to send for a further supply whenever it might be acceptable. The estate was rich in oranges and plantains, beyond all we had visited; and so universally were the fields intersected with rows of fruit-trees, that whichever path we pursued, the eye looked down a fine avenue, loaded and yellow with fruit.

You will be pleased to hear that although we are still sadly annoyed with musquitoes during the day and the evening, our nights are passed, at our new home, in quiet and comfort. In Carlisle Bay, and at Stabroek, notwithstanding I slept with the door and windows open, I always felt heated and restless in bed; and, too commonly, rose with a painful and spotted skin in the morning. At La Bourgade I am free from these inconveniences. I lie upon a hard mattress, without any bedding under it, covered only with a thin cotton sheet, and protected by my friendly musquito curtain. Even with the door and windows shut, I can remain without feeling myself unpleasantly heated; and, surrounded with my netting, I can regard the hosts of musquitoes and other insects, buzzing about me, without the fear of their disturbing my repose.

From the situation of these colonies with respect to the sun and the ocean, and from the territory being a continued flat, we are scarcely ever without a free and steady breeze, which creates an equable temperature, and renders the climate peculiarly uniform. At six in the morning the thermometer is usually between 74 and 77 degrees, and at noon it has seldom varied more than from 81 to 84. It being now the wet season, much rain commonly falls during the night; and, frequently, very heavy showers in the course of the day; such as quickly find their way through all the garments of those who happen to be exposed to them: the most violent thunder-storms of England are scarcely sufficient to give you an idea of their force and rapidity.

LETTER XLIV.

Demarara, May 25.

The hospital at La Bourgade being now established, and placed under proper regulations for the accommodation of the sick, I shall proceed, without delay, to the settlement of Berbische in order to make the necessary hospital arrangements for that colony.

With grief I find that we are likely to have an ample opportunity of prosecuting our inquiries respecting the state of the viscera after yellow fever: but, that we may not be deceived by appearances, we purpose, likewise, to examine the bodies of those who may be destroyed by other maladies, whereby we shall be enabled to judge more accurately what are the real changes induced by that disease.

Among the late sufferers we have had the misfortune to lose our superintending cook, at the hospital. He was a man of peculiar strength, voice, and appetite. The sick on board ship used to complain that he ate up almost the whole of their food: when he spake, his voice was as the roaring of thunder; and in point of muscular strength, he was quite Herculean. The attack was severe, and he quickly fell a sacrifice, experiencing all the inveterate symptoms of the fever, with the exception only, of the yellowness of the skin,—that uncertain mark from which the name of the disease has been, erroneously, taken. The disorder was early marked with uncommon restlessness and anxiety, an indescribable sensation at the region of the stomach, and an almost incessant vomiting of a black fluid resembling the grounds of coffee.

Among the distressful scenes it has lately been my lot to witness, I chanced to be at Stabroek a few mornings ago, at the time of the execution of the captain of the Bush-negroes whom I mentioned to you in a former letter. He died faithful to his cause, and no information could be obtained from him regarding the encampment said to be still remaining in the woods. He was sentenced to be suspended by the neck for a short time, and then taken down, while yet alive, to have his head severed from his body. The executioner was a negro, who, without any feelings of compunction, or of sorrow for his countryman, exulted in the adroitness with which he took off the head at a single blow.

After the execution I sat a short time with the officers, at the barrack of the 99th regiment; when another painful scene was exhibited to our observation, in the flogging of a party of negroes, before the fiscal’s door, upon the public street.

On one of them being released from the stakes, to which he had been tied down, with his face to the earth, during his punishment, I thought that I recognised his features, and upon going out to ascertain the fact, discovered him to be one of the carpenters, who had been set apart to work, under my direction, at the hospital. It happened, too, that he had distinguished himself by his industry, and was the man with whom I had most conversed, on account of his speaking English, and being able to explain my instructions to his fellow-workmen.

You will believe that I felt an interest regarding him, and that I was anxious to learn by what offence he had brought upon himself the severe punishment which we had witnessed. To this end, in company with Major Say and other officers, I followed the bleeding slave to his home, where we learned that the alleged crime, for which he had been punished, was—striking a white man; although, in fact, it appeared to have been a refusal to get up from his bed, at 9 o’clock at night, to work for an European inhabitant of the town, after labouring at the hospital during the whole of the day. It was further hinted by those about him, that something of pique or prejudice, on account of the poor man expressing himself pleased with his employment at the British hospital, might possibly have operated in deafening the ear of justice against him.

A Dutchman who chanced to be present at the time we were making inquiries, in the carpenter’s shop to which the negro belonged, told us, with an air of confidence, that he had been punished for striking _him_, and cutting his elbow with a _large chisel_; showing us the very instrument with which the wound had been made, and the precise spot whereon the offence had been committed, at the same time exhibiting his arm supported in a sling. All this being so circumstantially stated, four of us, Major Say, the surgeon of the 99th, another officer and myself, begged to see this frightful wound which had been cut in the elbow: some objections were offered, on the ground of disturbing the dressings, unsewing the bandages and the like: but as Mr. Blackader promised to replace all these in fit order, we persisted in the request; and the Dutchman finding that we were urgent, and rather inclined to be peremptory, at length submitted: but the coat was said to fit inconveniently tight; the shirt sleeve to be tied in a hard knot; and other little difficulties and delays were thrown in the way. Still we determined to subdue them all; and when, at last, we succeeded, lo! instead of the many bandages, and complex dressings which we had been taught to expect, we could neither find a plaster, nor the wound. Instead of a deep cut from a chisel, a slight bruise only appeared upon the elbow, the skin being neither cut, nor broken. This strengthened our suspicions that the slave had been unfairly treated; and by prosecuting the inquiry we learned the following history.

The Dutchman had gone to the carpenter’s shop in the evening in search of a carpenter to do some work at a house in the town; and finding this negro sleeping in the room over the workshop, ordered him to get up and accompany him. The poor fellow pleaded that it was night, that he had toiled through the whole of the day, and further that he was directed, by the commandant, to work only at the hospital, until that was completed. The Dutchman, nevertheless, insisted upon his going. The slave unhappily refused. Words ensued; and the white man, seizing the black by the hair of his head, dragged him down into the workshop; where, in the scuffle, the Dutchman happened to receive a bruise of the elbow.

The following morning a complaint was made to a public officer, high in power, stating that the negro had struck the Dutchman, and wounded him; and it being an offence utterly unpardonable for a black man, under any circumstances, to lift his hand against a white one, the miserable slave was sentenced, without further inquiry, to receive the punishment we had witnessed.

We could not feel satisfied that the proceedings had been conducted with a due regard to justice, we therefore waited upon the person who had decreed the punishment, to inquire more into the merits of the case; and were told by him, that the negro had been punished “for striking a white man, with a _heavy stick_, and a _large nail_ in it, and therewith cutting a deep wound in his elbow.” As this account differed from that of the Dutchman himself, we asked this man of power, if the sentence had been pronounced barely upon the man’s own report. Certainly not, he replied; the deposition was also sanctioned by the testimony of _four respectable_ witnesses who appeared in evidence, having seen the negro strike the white man with the _great stick_ with a _great nail_ in it.

We then used the freedom of asking if he had taken the trouble to look at this wounded elbow _himself_. He had, he said, “and a sad cut it was.” If we had not been stricken dumb with the reply, we might have exclaimed, “Alas! unhappy blacks! what hope have ye of justice, if not only private, but also public punishments be thus awarded?”