212 n a r r a t i v e o f a N ,
CHAP* a Do&or Van Dam, as* well as a Do6tor Riflamvan Arne-
i— -j r*can’ to attend1 him, forbidding all o&her communic^tion^
that ofian;old negro woman, his mamfervant, black
b°Y excepted,, and by thefe means I apparently prefenvedl
his life Jr
On the 20th, Lieutenant CouritvJ'e~Randwyk came
down alfo indifpofed with EnfigniCotnej «and*atlaflhnay
: poor old fliipma te Lieutenant Hamer, who had bqenkept
at Devil’s Harwar near four months, till,, overcome by
difeafe, he- obtained'leave ;tQf he tranfported to Par am a-
- ribo..:
On the aad, thg governor feat, me--a. cot-ten-t wig,. which
I copied ; and as I cannot. hiaver a .better.opportunity^ L
will now proceed to a: defeription of - that pfefuLplant,
which has. only bepn cultivated.in Surinam from ahn^t
th e . year t735,, but not with advantage till ahont, the
years 1750 or 1752. There are Several fpecies., of ^be-
• cotton-tree, but I lhall confine myfelf to that whiclyis.thdf’'
mofi: common ^ndthe rnoft.ufeful inphis.colony. This.
Ipeeies }pf cotton, which grows upon, a -tree about fixjfor
r eight feet high, bears -before it .is. a* y ^ , . old,
duces. twp crops.annually^ each ofabout.^ejQtyohnCes.
in weight; .the leaves are Something like thofe of the
vine,; of. a bright green,- and the .fibres, of a cinnamon
colour. The cotton-balls,, fome of which are as large, as,.
a final! hen’s egg, and divided in three, parts, grow on a
very dong Italic, and. in a. triangular pod,, which is firft
*k v ’i ' produced;
E X P E D I T I O N TO S.URIN AM. 213
produced, ia' y^l^aw| flower,, and,when ripe opens, of chap.
itfelf, and fuift^o’fqs the l^lobhlar contents as i white as w 1 IX‘
flakes;^%t|f^ow; ,in. the m ^ d j | ^ t h ^ | a r e contained ' S |f
fmall black- feeds, forpipd not unlike thofe that are ufually
’ ^01$!d ins>gr^p^s'4 The Got^op^ill; pfqfper inl.n^y||)Tthe
■ tipplca^ddds^andj P ^ o d 'ifts^ ^ ^p lp rp fit, if. the, crops -are
* not -fp&ileddiy ^ toe long.rainy feafon^ bei^g]dultiy(ateA
; with-very, little ‘trouble!: and uxpe^ypal l indeed thaf js.
required-is, to plant,thcfeeds; at a littl&yjiftaijce from each
other, when each feefe,' as, I have'Taid,,-produces the! firft-
year i t ^ p u t in thegropncL, feed's
l from thet:pplp,,is the work oflone man pnly^by the^elp., ■
. ©f a machine made for the purpofe’^\after'-which theqot-
ton has undergone all the neceflary procell, and is put in
hales o f between three and fqur hundrqdpouads yyejght
, each for-tranfportation, which bales , ought, to»;be well
moiftened at the time of flowing it, to prevent th^ cotton
from fticking to the canvas^;,In- the year before my arrival
in- -Surinam, .near three thoufand bal^s„of.,cotton '
-Were exported from this colony to Amfterdam.and Rotterdam
alone,, which produced about forty „thoufand
pounds fterhng. • The - beft eftates- make twenty-five-
thoufand - pounds' weight. The average- prieesu.have-
been from, eight pence no twenty^, o pence per, pound..
The raw. material is., fpun in the Weft Indies by a rock:
and fpindle, and extremely-fi-ngwhen, by, the negro
girls, it is knit into ftockings,. &c. one pair. of. which.are
sometimes,.