78 NARRATIVEOFAN 



CHAP, are feafoning to the climate, or during their dangerous 

 and fatiguing duty in the woods and fwamps. Befides 

 this number, a reinforcement of three hundred more 

 was now fent them from the town of Amfterdam ; but 

 of thefe poor wretches fcarcely fifty were landed fit for 

 fervice; the remainder, owing to the inhumanity of their 

 leader, Mr. N., having participated in a fate little better 

 than that of the poor African negroes in the vefll^l of 

 the inhuman Captain C — gw — d, who, in 1787, threw 

 132 living flaves into the fea to perifh. The unhappy 

 creatures, under the command of Mr. N. were ftarved 

 and tormented by unnecefiary feverity ; and his lieute- 

 nant, unable to continue a witnefs of the tyrannical pu- 

 nifliments he infli£led, leaped from the cabin window, 

 and terminated his exiftence. 



The military in Surinam are compofed of feveral very 

 good and experienced officers, and well inured to the 

 fervice, but for their private men 1 cannot fay much ; 

 they are, in fadt, little better than the outcafts of all na- 

 tions : they are of all ages, fhapes, and fizes, and feem 

 by chance wafted together from all the different corners 

 of the globe. Notwithfiianding this, however, it has 

 often been found that they behave well in action, and 

 have on many different occafions, by their bravery, been 

 lof infinite fervice to this fettlement *. 



Here is aifo a fmall corps of artillery, being part of the 



* A 'corps of European chafTeurs, or rifle-men, was fince added to thefe troops, 

 after the manner sf the light infantry in England, 



twelve 



