AP. all, had been carried upon poles by negro Haves in their
I f hammocks: ^nd during all this time we had difcovered
nothing. One thing *is to be eonfidered, that ;while ihe
old gentleman himfelf went through albthe above-men^
tioned hardihips, (to which he foemed as invulnerable as
a machine of iron or brafs) we had the lefs reafon to
complain of bad triage. In fliort, having as ufual plunged
in the river, to waft off the mire and blood oecafioried by
the foratches, and having taken a refrelhing fwim, I
looked round for my negroes to eredfc a comfortable h u t;
but in this I was difappointed, as they were employed by
Mr. Rugbcop to build his, kitchen, although he i had as
yet nothing to drefs in k. This piece of unpoliteriefs I for
once overlooked; and the - rangef^: having j made / no®..-a
nice bed of manicole-branches on the ground, (there
being no trees in the place to fling a hammock) and
having lighted a blazing fireby the fide of it,. I lay quietly
down next to them on my green mattrefss, where, in a clear
moonlhine night and no rain, I fell found afleep. But
about two hours before day-break I awaked, when the
fire was out, the moon was down, and I almoft dead with
the cold dew and the damp that exhaled from the earth,
being fo ftiff and benumbed that I had.fcarcely .ftrength
to cyawl on hands and feet, and- awake: one of my fable
, companions ; he, however, having kindled :& new fire;
I recruited fo as at fix o’clock to be able to rife, but. with
fuch excruciating pain in one of my fides that I could
not avoid groaning aloud; but to prevent Fourgeoud
3 and
and the others from hearing, I hid myfelf in the fkirts of CHAP,
the wood ; the pain however ftill augmenting, I foon was _L_ ,
prevented from breathing without thegreateft difficulty,
arid at laft feUklbwn behind the rotten trunk of an old cab-
bagfe-tree. Imthis. fitu'ation I was difcovered by one of
the negro flayjes. who was-going to cut rafters, and who,
fuppofing paedead, ran inftantly back, and alarmed the
whole camp. I was taken up and carried in a hammock,
by the care of a Captain Medler, under proper cover, and
one of the Söciètyffurgeöns inftantly font for to attend me.
By this time I was furrounded by fpedtators, and the pain
in my fide became fo acute, that, like one in the hydrophobia,
Ï tore my fliirt with my teeth,, and bit whatever
chanced-to come near.me; till being rubbed by a warm
hand on my fide with a kind of ointment, the complaint
fuddenly vanrihed like a dream, and I felt myfelf completely
recovered.
To prevent a relapfe, however, the firft ufe that I made
pf my ftrength was to cut a cudgel; with which I fwore
to murder the Berbice ruffian, Geufary, who had the
management of the flaves; if he did ,not inftantaneoufly
employ them to build for me a comfortable hut, let who
would order the contrary, my life being the deareft thing
I had to regard; and following him clofe at his heels, with
my cudgel clubbed upon my Ihoulder, I had the fatis-
fadtion to be well houfed in the fpace of two hours. I
muft not omit, that Colonel Fourgeoud, during the crifis
Vol. I. K k of