The weekly Anglo-African., 1860-05-05

manners and treat their slaves humanely. |
But the planters learned nothing by ex-
perience-and indeed, the terrible narra-
tons of Stedman were confirmed by those |
of Alexander, so lately as 1881. Of
course, therefore, in colony comprising
eighty thousand blacks to four thousand
whites, other revolts were stimulated by
the success of this one. They reached
their highest point in l772, when an insur-
rection on the Cottica river, led by ne
gro named Baron, almost gave the finish
ing blow to the colony; the only adequate
protection being found in body of slaves
liberated expressly for that purpose-a
dangerous and humiliating precedent.
ave have been obliged to free three or four
hundred of our stoutest negroes to defend
u.s." says an honest letter from Surinam in
the Annual Register for September 5,
1772. Fortunately for the safety of the
planters, Baron presumed too much upon
his numbers, and injudiciously built
fastness, from which he was finally elected
by twelve hundred Dutch troops, though
the chief work was done, Stedman thinks,
by the "black rangers" or liberated slaves.
Checked by this defeat, he again drew
back into the forests, resuming his guerril-
la warfare against the plantations. Moth
ing could dislodge him; bloodhounds were
proposed, but the moisture of the country
made them useless; and thus matters stood
when Stedman came sailing, amid orange
blossoms and music, up the winding Surf
nam.
Our young officer went into the woods
in the condition of Falstaff, "heinonsly un-
improved" Coming from the unbounded
luxury of the plantations, he found him.
self entering "the most horrid and impen-
etrable forests, where no kind of refresh
ments was to be had he being provision
ed only with salt pork and peas. After
wall of sorrow for this inhuman neglect,
he bursts into gush of gratitude for the
private generosity which relieved his wants
at the last moment by the following list
of supplies: "24 bottles best claret, II
ditto Madeira, 10 ditto porter, IL ditto
cider, II ditto rum, 2 large loaves white
sugar, gallons brandy, 6 bottles musca-
del, gallons lemon Juice, 2 gallons ground
coffee, 2 large Westphalia hams, 2 sailed
bullocks' tongues, bottle Durham mus
tard, 6 dozen spermaceti candles" The
hams and tongues seen, indeed, rather a
poor. half-pennyworth to this intoleralle
deal of sack; but this instance of Surinam
privation in those days may open some
glimpse at the colonial standards of COM
fort. "From this specimen" moral zes our
hero, "the reader will easily percei, ., that,
if some of the inhabitants of Surinam show
| themselves the disgrace of the creation by
their cruelties and brutality, others, by
their social feelings, approve themselves an
ornament to the human species. With
this instance of virtue and generosity, /
therefore conclude this chapter"
But the troops soon had to undergo
worse troubles than those of the commits
S0rl0t. The rainy season had just set in.
"As for the negroes" said Mr. Klynhaus,
the last planter with whom they parted
"You may depend on never seeing soul
of them, unless they attack you off guard
but the climate, the climate, will murder
you all" Bringing with them constitu-
tons already impaired by the fevers and
dissipation of Paramaribo, the poor boys
began to perish loag before they began to
fight Wading in water all day, hanging
their hammocks over water at night, it
seemed moist existence, even compared
with the climate of England and Holland.
1t was ''invent shovel and be magis-
trate," even more than Andrew Maxwell
found it in the United Provinces. In fact,
Raynal evidently thinks that nothing but
Dutch experience in hydraulics could ever
have cultivated Surinam.
The two gun-boats which held one di-
vision of the expedition were merely old
sugar-barges, rooted over with boards, and
looking like collins. They were pleasant
ly named the "Charon" and the "Cerbe-
rus" but Stedman thought that the "Sud-
den Death" and the "Wilful Murder"
would have been titles more appropriate.
The chief duty of the troops consisted in
laying at anchor at the intersections of
wooded streams, waiting for rebels who
never came 1t was dismal work, and the
raw recruits were full of the same imagin-
airy terrors which have haunted other he
roes less severely tested the monkeys
never ratified the cocoa-nuts against the
trees, but they all heard the axes of Ma
room wood-choppers; and when a sentinel
declared, one night, that he had seen ne
gro go down the river in canoe, with his
pipe lighted, the whole force was called to
arms against freely. In fact, the insect
race brought by far the most substantial
dangers. The rebels eluded the military,
but the chigres, locusts, scorpions, and
bush-spiders were ever ready to come half
way to meet them; likewise serpents and
alligators proffered them the freedom of
the forests and exhibited hostility almost
excessive. Snakes twenty feet long hung
their seductive length from the trees; ia
guars volunteered their society through al
most Uncomfortable marshes; vampire bats
perched by night with lulling endearments,
upon their toes. When Stedman describes
himself as killing thirty-eight mosquitoes
at one stroke, we must perhaps pardon
something to the spirit of martyrdom. But
when we add to these the other woes of his