EXPEDITION TO SURINAM. 



79 



twelve hundred, which I mufl acknowledge to be a very C H A R 

 fine company in all refpeas. As for what they pleafe 

 to call their militia, they are, a few gentlemen excepted, 

 who command them, fo ftrange a colle6lion of ill-dif- 

 ciplined rabble, that they can fcarcely be mentioned as 

 fighting men* 



With refpedl to the new-raifed corps of manumitted 

 flaves, though in number they amounted but to three 

 hundred, they indeed proved ultimately of as much 

 fervice to the colony as all the others put together 

 Thefe men were all volunteers, and in general ftout 

 able young fellows, fele6led from the different planta- 

 tions, the owners of whom received for them their full 

 value in money. None were accepted but thofe who 

 were reputed to be of unexceptionable chara6ter. It 

 muft, however, be obferved, that what we Europeans 

 call a good chara6ler, was, by the Africans, looked on. 

 as deteftable, particularly by thofe born in the woods, 

 whofe only crime conlifted in revenging the wrongs 

 done to their forefathers. I have been an ocular wit- 

 nefs to aftonifhing proofs of the fidelity of thefe en- 

 franchifed Haves to the Europeans, and their valour; 

 againfb the rebel negroes. 



Their chief leaders are three or four white men, called: 

 Conductors, to whom they pay the ftridieft obedience 



* Blood-hounds w&xt alfo propofed, to difcover and attack the rebel negroes in. 

 die woods, but never adopted, from the difficulty of their proper training, &c. 



one 



