CHARLES WATERTON, ESQ. lix 



He was very peremptory in his orders. I was 

 one day conversing with him concerning the interior 

 of the country, when an English gentleman came to 

 lodge a complaint against a Dutch lawyer, for de- 

 taining in his possession certain monies which he 

 ought to have delivered up. " Are you quite right, 

 Sir, in your story?" said the governor to the 

 English gentleman. "I am, an't please your Ex- 

 cellency," answered he. " Then go and bring him 

 hither," rejoined the governor. He returned with 

 the lawyer in about half an hour. " Did you re- 

 cover the money for this gentleman?" asked the 

 governor. " I did," answered the lawyer. " Then 

 why do you not give it to him?" "Because 

 because" and here he stammered in great agita- 

 tion ; when the governor sternly asked him, " Do 

 you see that lamp-post in front of the window?" 

 " I do." " Then," remarked the governor, " I '11 

 have you hanged on it, by Saturday night, if you 

 do not refund the money." The lawyer paid the 

 money on the following day. 



But death cut the governor short ere he had half 

 finished his labours. On my return from Europe 

 (whither I had gone for the recovery of my health), 

 I found him buried under the flag-staff at the Fort, 

 in accordance with his own directions. 



Whilst I was in the forests, I wrote the following 

 tribute to his memory, and sent it to the editor of 

 the Guiana Chronicle : 



And what did they call him Old Hercules for ? 

 Is not Agamemnon generally the name for a com- 

 mander-in-chief ? I don't know much about these 

 things : but the reason he was surnamed Hercules 



