EXPEDITION TO SURINAM. 



347 



a few plantations lower clown, feme days beforcj a poor chap.. 

 negro W2.s fent with a letter from his proprietor to the " . 



manager there—this lad, not liking the contents, gave 

 the meiTenger four hundred laflies, telling the innocent 

 man, at the fame time, to carry that for the anfwer to his 

 m after. 



But to return to my French hoft, (who was, in this 

 alone excepted, as polite, hofpitable, and well-bred a 

 man as ever I would wifli to converfe with) I muft men- 

 tion fome particulars of his remarkable oeconomy, viz. 

 a Weft-India rabbit, called in Surinam coney coney, and 

 by the Indians puccarara, but properly the agouti, I faw 

 one day come roafted to the table. Of this, he and I 

 eat one quarter. Next day it made its appearance a la 

 crapodine, that is, with fait and pepper on the gridiron. 

 The third day the remaining half entered in the form 

 of a French fricafee ; and a fourth, the laft quarter was 

 converted into what I call meagre foup. 



This I relate as a fai5t ; and though the planter, his 

 overfeer, his dog, and his two cats, could not weigh 

 fourteen ft'one amongft them all, no family in Surinam 

 could be more healthy or contented.— As an inftance of 

 abftemioufnefs, the overfeer, Mr. Bodewyn, declared 

 that he never had fought a battle, fired a mufqnet, mount- 

 ed a horfe, or taken any illicit freedom ; though he ac- 

 knowledged he was every day dreffed and fliaved by the 

 foft hand of a young negro female. 



Nothing could be better than the oranges and china 



Yy s 



apples 



