276* NARRATIVE OF AN 



CHAP, ed Paramaribo, and what I had brought with me being 



vr 



torn to rap;s. 



On the 4th of January, at fix o'clock in the morn- 

 ing, all were ready to decamp. Thus having fent down 

 the barges with the fick to Devil's Harwar, we at laft 

 croffed Cormoetibo Creek, and marched firft direcSlly 

 fouth for Patamaca, over fteep mountains covered with 

 ftones and impregnated with minerals. This again con- 

 tradicts Dr. Bancroft's obfervations, thefe mountains nat 

 being above twenty miles from the ocean, though he 

 afTerf s that no hill is to be found at near fifty miles from 

 the fea. In the evening we encamped at the foot of a 

 high hill, where we found a fmall rivulet of good 

 water, and a number of manicole-trees, the two chief 

 requifites. It is curious, and indeed beautiful, to be- 

 hold, in the fpace of an hour, a green town fpring up as 

 it were from nothing, and a little after all the fires light- 

 ed, on which the men are boiling their hard fare, while 

 others are employed in drying their cloaths ; though, as 

 I have ftated, this lafl was by no means a general rule, 

 the greater number preferring to let them rot on their 

 bodies. 



This night, however, the whole camp was difturbed 

 by a diuretic complaint, occafioned by drinking the water 

 we found here, which indeed was very pure, but was fo 

 impregnated with minerals, that it tailed almoft like that 

 of Bath or the German Spa. This is a circumflance 

 which I thii^k indicates that tiieie mountains contain 



metalsj 



