i m N A R R A T I V E OF A N
C if A P. The Colonel, in a word, was now quite the; r e veffe of
XXIY. what he had been before* and upon the whole fb-very
agreeable in- his manners,~ that I wdui# rie'vieri Wifli to
fpend my time in better company ; but hpw I fhould become
at once the favourite o f both thefe rival1 eorrw
ihanders, was a feciet I could never yet dlfbover,; unlefs if
might proceed from a def i reof gaining mfe from dacli
other, as they ftill continued mutual enemfes!: be that as
it may, I refolved to preferve. the moft inflexible neutra*
lity, as I alfo did between them and the -^S^erhSf, whOi1^
I Was invited next day, and dined not oh -fait-beef, but
found as ufual a truly magnificent entertainment^ -
Thus I continued daily yifithjg
Godefroy, the Demellys, the-Gordons, the'Mac- Neyls,
See. I alfo fpent a very agreeable day with the- black,
Mrs. Sampfbn, or Zublyy who was: novr a widow.
I was prefent too at a mulatto ball, coinpofed however
not of Raves, but of free independant if^ e fis^ i-H ^ th e
mufic, the lights, the country dances, the fupper, and,
above all, the dreffes were-fo fuperby and their behaviOtir
fo decent and genteel, that the whole might ferve as a.
model for decorum and etiquette to fome o f the fairer
and more polifhed inhabitants.
On the 20th, obferving a number o f Indians and black
people o f both fexes fwimming at the back of Fort Ze-
landia, young Donald Mac Neyl and myfelf com pleated
the groupe, by dripping and getting, in among them ;
and I muft confefs I never beheld more furpriling feats
of
E X P E D I T I O N T O S U R I N A M . 1S9
IN K
o f activity in the water, than were performed by, the ne-
groes, who-fought a Jfram battle^ by plunging or rather
tumbling like porpoifes, when they ftruck each other,
with their legs, as they never ufed their hands; while
theTndians, who were o f the. Arrowouka nation, fwam
and dived like amphibious animals-
Being fufficiently refreffied, we fat down upon the
beach, near' the'twenty-one gun battery, where I had an
opportunity o f examining the features and figure of one
o f their young females, as flie approached us, like Venus
rifing^ out o f the fea. Thefe people being very different
from all the-other Indian nations that I have already de-
feribed,' I- fhall embrace the opportunity o f fulfilling my
promife, and giving a particular account o f them.— In
the firft place, the fkin o f the young woman who was
now emerging clean from the river, and divefted o f ar-
notta-paint, appeared much fairer than the copper-co-
lour o f the' other Indians; neither were her limbs deformed
by thofe ftrait-laced bracelets or cotton-bands fo
much in ufe with the reft; nor did her hair hang down,
but was neatly plaited clofe round the crown o f her head,
and fattened in the centre with a broad filver plate*.
Her only drefs confifted, both during the time fhe bathed
and after, of a fmall fquare apron made of beads, as I
have mentioned before: in every other refpe6t fhe was
perfectly naked: nor could a finer figure be imagined—
0 This, at other tinges, they fuppiy by a fltell, a fifh-bone, or the tooth of a.
tiger, &c. ' .
eredt.
CHAP.
XXIV.