856 
¢¢ Enough !’—you will say. 
s¢ Give me no more of slaves, nor 
of slavery !’—For the present I 
obey, and, leaving the dusky Afri- 
cans, proceed to introduce you to 
the copper-coloured Indians ; thus, 
Jeading you to the opposite extreme 
of human life, and placing you 
amdng those of our species, who 
spurn alike the shackles of slavery, 
and the slavish trammels of society. 
I have lately had an opportunity of 
seeing several parties of the wild 
and naked inhabitants of these 
woods—men who rauge at large, in 
the fullest freedom of nature ; nei- 
ther suffering their liberty to be 
effaced by bondage, nor abridged by 
civilization. Being one day at the 
town of New Amsterdam with the 
acting surgeon of the garrison, we 
took a walk down to the bush,* on 
the border of the creek or river 
Kannye. Nigh to the water we 
“met with a party of Indians, and 
observing that they made no attempt 
to avoid us, we went so near to 
them as to mixin_the group. We 
found them engaged in various pur- 
suits; and remarked that none of 
their occupations suffered any in- 
terruption from our presence. A 
woman and her son, who were in 
the river, continued to bathe before 
us, and seemed greatly to enjoy the 
water. Some were cutting wood 
for fring—some collecting the bush- 
water + with a calabash, for the 
purpose of drinking,or of cooking-- 
some, with their pot of baked clay, 
upon the fire, were stewing crabs, 
together with capsicum and cassada 
juice into pepper-pot—and some 
were eating the raw tops of the 
mountain-cabbage. ‘T'o the latter 1 
¥ 
< 
i - 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1806. 
held forth my hand implying a 
desire to partake of their repast. 
They immediately gave me a part ; — 
and seemed pleased on observing me 
eat of it. A better sallad I never 
tasted. It was very crisp and white 
—much superior to the best lettuce — 
er endive; and, in flavour, some- 
what resembling the filbert. Per- 
ceiving that they were not incom- 
moded by our society, we remained 
a considerable time attentively 
watching their proceedings; but 
their curiosity was not commensur. 
ate with our own, for they scarcely 
looked at us, or appeared to be, in 
any degree, interested concerning 
us. With indifference they saw us 
approach—they regarded us with 
indifference whilst we remained— 
and with indifference they witnessed 
our departure, 
Two days after, I saw a much 
larger party of Indians, who came 
to the government house to: ask for 
rum, as a compensation for cutting 
down timber: and the same even- 
ing, on walking towards the creek 
with some of the-oflicers, we met 
with a still more numerous body of 
these inhabitants of the forest, who 
had been employed by the governor 
to eut down wood preparatory to 
clearing the land near the town for 
cultivation. They were busied in 
packing up all their little store of im- 
plements and. utensils, in order to — 
return to their native abode in the 
woods. Bows and arrows, appara. 
tus for preparing cassada, the clay. 
cooking vessel,’ hammocks, cala. 
bashes, and crab-baskets, constitut. 
ed their whole list of stores and fur. 
niture. All these were light in 
structure, or made of light materj- 
als, 
* Upon this coast the forest is termed the Bush, 
} The rain-water which ladges inthe low parts of the forest. 
