The weekly Anglo-African. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1859-1861, 1860-05-12

slight satisfaction of burning Bonny's own
house, two-story wooden hut, built in the
fashion of our frontier guard-houses. They
often took single prisoners-some child,
born and bred in the woods, and frightened
equally by the first sight of white man
and of a cow-or some warrior, who, on
being threatened with torture, stretched
forth both hands in disdain, and said, with
Indian eloquence-"These hands have
made tigers tremble" AS for Stedman, he
still went bare-footed, still quarrelled with
his colonel, still sketched the scenery and
described the reptiles, still reared gree-gree
worms for his private kitchen, still quoted
good poetry and wrote execrable, still
pitied all the sufferers around him, black,
white, and red, until finally he and his
comrades were ordered back to Holland in
1776.
Among all that wasted regiment of
weary and broken-down men, there was
probably no one but Stedman who looked
backward with longing as they sailed
down the lovely Surinam. True, he bore
all his precious collections with him-par-
rots and butterflies, drawings on the backs
of old letters, and journals kept on bones
and cartridges. But he had left behind
him a dearer treasure; for there runs
through all his eccentric narrative single
thread of pure romance, in his love for his
beautiful quadroon wife and his only son.
Within month after his arrival in the
colony, our susceptible ensign first saw Jo-
anna, slave-girl of fifteen, at the house
of an intimate friend. Her extreme beau
ty and modesty first fascinated him, and
then her piteous narrative-for she was
the daughter of planter, who had just
gone mad and died in despair from the dis
covery that he could not legally emanci-
pate his own children from slavery. Soon
after, Stedman was dangerously ill, was
neglected and alone; fruits and cordials
were anonymously sent to him, which
proved at last to have come from Joanna,
and she came herself, ere long, and nursed
him, grateful for the visible sympathy he
had shown to her. This completed the
conquest; the passionate young English
man, once recovered, loaded her with pres
ents, which she refused-talked of purchas
ing her and educating her in Europe,
which she also declined, as burdening him
too greatly-and finally, amid the ridicule
of all good society in Paramaribo, sur
mounted all legal obstacles and was united
to the beautiful girl in honorable marriage.
He provided cottage for her, where he
spent his furloughs, in perfecthappiness, for
four years.
The simple idyl of their loves was I'M
broken by any stain or disappointment,
and yet always Swallowed with the deepest
anxiety for the future. Though treated
with the utmost indulgence, she was legal
ly slave, and SO was the boy of whom
she became the mother. Colo, her uncle,
was captain among the rebels against
whom her husband fought. And up to the
time when Stedman was ordered back to
Holland, he was unable to purchase her
freedom, nor could he, until the very last
moment, procure the emancipation of his
boy. His perfect delight at this last tri-
umph, when obtained, elected some satire
from his white friends "While the we'll
thinking few highly applauded my sensi-
bility, many not only blamed, but publicly
derided me for my paternal affection,
which was called weakness, within"
''Nearly forty beautiful boys and girls
were left to perpetual slavery by their pa
rents of my acquaintance, and many Of
them without being SO much as once in
quired after at all"
| But Stedman was true-hearted fellow,
if his semitic did sometimes run to ro-
domontade: he left his Joanna only in the
hope that year or two in Europe would
repair his ruined fortunes, and he could
return to treat himself to the purchase of
bis own welded wife. He describes, with
unaffected pathos, their parting scene
though, indeed, there were several success
sive partings-and closes the description in
a manner worthy of that remarkable COM
bination of enthusiasm which characterized
him. "My melancholy having surpassed
all description, l at last determined to
weather one or two painful years in her
absence; and in the afternoon went to dis
sipate my mind at Mr.. Roux' cabinet of
Indian curiosities where as my eye CHANGED
to fall on rattlesnake, 1 will, before
leave the colony, describe this dangerous
reptile"
1t was impossible to write the history of
the Maroons of Surinam except through
the biography of our Ensign, lat last pro-
NOTED Captain,) because nearly all we
know of them is through his quaint and
picturesque narrative, with its profuse IL
lustrations by his own hand. 1t is not
fair, therefore, to end without chronicling
his safe arrival in Holland, on June Sd,
1777. 1t is remarkable fact, that, after
his life in the woods, even the Dutch look
ed slovenly to his eyes. "The inhabitants,
who crowded about us, appeared but dis
gushing assemblage of Informed and ILL.,
dressed rabble-so much had my preiudi-
ces been changed by living among Indians
and blacks: their eyes seemed to resemble
those of pig; their compilations were like
the color of foul linen; they seemed to have
no teeth, and to be covered over with rags
and dirt This prejudice, however, was
not against this people only, but against
all Europeans in general, when compared
to the sparkling eyes, ivory teeth, shining
sk;n and remarkable cleanliness of those