chap. ^ oTjc refflained within the bounds ©f prudence, (when I
^ ,t found myielf upbraided by my mefs-mates for taking
care of my .own- oflfeprkigjtigSfosWO do»? faid.they»
•*< Stedmae, and .never fear. If pur children' are Haves,
u they are provided fo r; and if theydie, what care we,
u fhotdd they be d—n’d in the bargain l Therefore keep
« your fighs in ybur own belly, and your mPney in your
« pocket, my boy, that’s all.”—Ï repeat this in their own
.language, >to (hew how much my feeling muff have been
h u rt and difgufted with fimilar cOnfblation.
'Ihe following morning, awaking by day-break In my
hammock, the firft thing that Ffaw, when looking tip,
was a {hake about two yards long, hanging With its
head downwards like a rope, arid firaight above my face,
from which he was not one foot diftance, whale hisTaii
was twifted ®ound die i afters under the thatch. Obferv*
ing his eyes bright as Hots, and his forked tongue >iri c i tation,
I was fo diftrefled that I fcarcdy had power to
avoid him, which however I did, by running «at ; alter
which, I heard a ruffling in the dry thatch, where the
negroes attempted to kill him, hut in vain, he having ef-
caped, and thus I cannot fay what fpecies he belonged to.
Being now by myfelf, and rather fiartled by this unwelcome
gueft, I fhut up my houfe, and lodged and rneffed
with my friends the Major, Heneman, and Macdonald.
On vifting my boxes, I now found that great depredations
had been committed by the ants, which are throughout
all Guiana fo very numerous, and of fo many different
yent fpecies, <that once I had a pair of new cotton ftock-
jngs, jperfe&y defrayed by them .in one night only.
Thpfe which froquent the eftates are generally fmall, but
very troublefome, The.oply way poflibly to keep them
from the refined fugar, is by hanging the loaf to the
ceiling on a nail, and making a ring of dry chalk around
it, yery t f ick, which crumbles down the pioment the ante
attempt to pafs it, I imagined that placing.. my Elgar?
boxes in the middle o f a tub, and on {tone, furrounded
with deep water, would have kept back this formidable
enemy, but to no purpofe: whole,armies of tljglighterfort
(to my aftonifhment) maifhe^ pyfr t^e furfacje,, apd
a very ffjw of them were drowned. The main body con?
ftantly fcaled the rock, and in fpite pf all made
their entry through the key-holes; after which, the only-
way to clear the garrifon is to expofe it to a hot fun, whic^.
the invaders cannot hear, and all march off in/afe,w.mir
the ants provide for wintpr, as^ript fpnly
Dr. Bancroft and many others, but even Kiitg Solomon,
reports, is found to be an error by the raoft mo»
dern inveftigation. In Surinam, indeed, there is no
.winter; hut where there is, the ants lie dormant, during
Which torpid ftate they want 110 food,
My friend Captain Van Coeverden, at this time, marching
in the woods, fuffered a much worfe depredation at
Paramaribo, where not the arits, but the negro-flaves,
had broken open his boxes, and robbed him of all his
heft effeits, and near twenty guineas in,mpneyw
yoL. I. 3 A On