212 NARRATIVE OF AN 



CHAP, a Do6lor Van Dam, as well as a Dodlor Riffam, an Ame- 



IX 



^ ^ rican, to attend him, forbidding all other communication, 

 that of an old negro woman, his man fervant, and a 

 black boy excepted, and by thefe means I apparently 

 preferved his life. 



On the 20th, Lieutenant Count de Randwyk came 

 down alfo indifpofed with Enlign Coene, and at laft my 

 poor old ftiipmate Lieutenant Hamer, who had been kept 

 at Devil's Harwar near four months, till, overcome by 

 difeafe, he obtained leave to be tranfported to Parama- 

 ribo. 



On the 22d, the governor fent me a cotton twig, which 

 I copied ; and as I cannot have a better opportunity, I 

 will now proceed to a defcription of that ufeful plant, 

 •which has only been cultivated in Surinam from about 

 the year 1735, but not with advantage till about the 

 years 1750 or 1752. There are feveral fpecies of the 

 cotton-tree, but I ftiall confine myfelf to that which is the 

 moft common and the moft ufeful in this colony. This 

 fpecies of cotton, which grows upon a tree about fix or 

 eight feet high, bears before it is a year old, and pro- 

 duces two crops annually, each of about twenty ounces 

 in weight; the leaves are fomething like thofe of the 

 vine, of a bright green, and the fibres of a cinnamon 

 colour. The cotton-balls, fome of which are as large as 

 a fmall hen's egg, and divided in three parts, grow on a. 

 very long ftalk, and in a triangular pod, which is firft 



produced 



