EXPEDITION TO SURINAM, S73 



formerly I left upon my plate^ I flioiild have ardently chap. 

 thanked God for it. 



When fpeaking of ingenuity^ I ought not to forget 

 a number of pretty bafkets which were made by the 

 negroes in the camp, and which, they having taught me 

 to conftrucSt, I alfo made to amufe myfelf, and fent them 

 as prefents to feveral friends at Paramaribo, Thefe bafkets 

 were compofed of a kind of ftrong ligneous cord that is 

 found in the bark of the cabbage-tree, and, as Dr. Ban-" 

 croft expreffes it, confifts of a web -like plexus, which is 

 divided crofs-wife in long, hard, poliflied threads, brown 

 and as tough as whalebone. Thefe threads are drawn 

 from it, and the filaments or fibres are made ufe of as 

 withies are ufed in England. For holding fiili at ombre 

 or quadrille, nothing can be better or more beautiful ; 

 but thofe that are large for holding fruit, vegetables, &c. 

 are quite different, and made of a kind of bulrufli, called 

 %varimbQ^ which is firft fplit and deprived of its pithy 

 fubftance : the thin nebees make alfo no bad balkets. 

 The negroes here be fides made curious nets, and even 

 hammocksj of the filk grafs plant. 



This is a fpecies of wild aloe that grows in the woods : 

 the leaves are indented and prickly, and contain longi- 

 tudinally very ftrong and fmall wd^ite fibres, ¥/hich are 

 bruifed and beaten to, hemp. With this v/e made 

 ropes ftronger than any in Europe, Thefe would anf¥/er 

 perfedly for the rigging of iliips and other purpofes, had 

 it not been difcovered that they are fconer liable to rot 

 ' VoL^ L N n , in 



