CHAP, differs from the former in having, twenty toes, the head
.E xm ., being thicker in proportion, and the tail fmaller, which
is variegated with bands of black and yellowifla. white.—
A leffer fpecies ftill is called the fourtnilliery which,• how?
ever, never came within m,y obferyation.'—Rut to proceed.
On the 3d, fix more barges with troops came up from
Paramaribo, which coippleated the' number o f .three hundred
and fifty men arrived from Holland. Amongft thefe,
being informed thefe was. a Captain Charles- "Small, come
from the Scots Brigade, this gentleman having exchanged
with poor Enfign Macdonald (who was. font over fick)
I inftantly fcuHed down (he river alone in a canoe- to meet
him, and offer him my affiftance. I had no -fponer got
on board his barge, than I found him fufpended, in> a
hammock with a burning fever. He, not knowing xne
on account o f my drefs, which was no better than that o f
the moft ragged failor, alked me*what I,wanted; but
when he faw in me his poor friend Steelman, changed
from a flout fprightly young fellow, to a miferable debilitated
tatterdemallion, he grafped me by the hand, without
uttering a word, and burft into tears,: which agitation,,
while it increafed his illnefs, ffiewed the goodnefs of his
heart to me, more than any thing he could have uttered
on the fubjedt.— “ D—n your blabbering, Charles 1” ;faid
I ; “ turn out of this ftinking cockle-fhell; I’ll prefently
u cure thee;”— and getting him hoifted into my canoe, I
brought him an fhare to my own habitation, but with
§ the
the greateft difficulty, - being, obliged to thruft him CHAP,
through a crevice made on purpofe, as the hole in the , _
roof was not calculated even for any healthy perfon’s
admittance, myfelf excepted. Having here flung his
hammock near to ray o wn, and boiled Tome water, I
treated him with warm grog and a toafted bifeuit, and
h e ' became much better from that very moment. He
now acquainted me that one of his men was drowned
On the paffage; and. that Colonel Fourgeoud having entertained
the officers' with a ball after their landing, at
which one of his.cooks, and a-cpuple o f meagre marines,
had been the fidlers, ;hje concluded his illnefs to . be the
confeqpencp pf too much dancing. A little after this, Colonel
fourgeoud himfelf appearing in perfonin the camp
amongft us, he fopp, however, entertained us with mufick
o f a different kind.;, which was. no lefs than the difeourag-
ing news, that by the newly-arrived corps o f officers fe-
veral of us had loft our rank (both in the regiment and in
the army) after parching above four years in a burning
fun, toiling ourfelves almoft to death,- and fubfifting upon
ftinking mfeat and black rulk. To add to this grievance,
while the afeove^gentlemen ufurped our preferment, we
were, inftead of*being relieved,’ ordered to continue in
the woodsV in'order to teach them their duty.
During the above unpleafing probation, the major’s
duty again fell to my fhare; which was at this time extremely
difagreeable, being obliged daily to chaftife the
men,- many pf: whom pilfered the magazine' to alleviate
U u 2 I hunger,