124 TKAVEL, ADVENTURE, AXD SPORT. 



paternal country had exhibited fewer of the atrocities 

 of the time than any of her conquering generals, and 

 who had probably laid up some memories of personal 

 kindness, for his nature was generous and noble, had 

 sent him a present of beer and fresh provisions by a 

 French coaster. The ruffian to whom it was intrusted, 

 and who had evidently been an eleve of the new 

 school of rights and wrongs, disdained to carry such 

 comfort to an Aristocrat; he therefore, with his 

 crew, revelled on the beer and provisions, and then, 

 that the vexation of the affair might not be lost to 

 the unfortunate prisoners, came to the fort for the 

 purpose of boasting how he had plundered them. 



The provisions were gone, but this drunken knave's 

 boast threw a sudden light on their operations. It 

 was clear that they had friends at Surinam, and the 

 only question now was how they were to reach them. 

 Still the difficulties were enormous. None of the 

 exiles knew anything of navigation. None of them 

 knew anything of the vast extent of coast which lay 

 between them and the Dutch settlements. The few 

 schooners which approached the fort always anchored 

 a league down the river. They had no boat to reach 

 one of these vessels ; no arms to take it, and no pro- 

 visions to put on board. In this dilemma there was 

 but one resource, a small canoe, which took the guard 

 daily down the river to a redoubt at its mouth. But 

 the canoe lay constantly under the eye of a sentinel ; 

 and a confidential person in the fort told them, that 



