EXPEDITION TO SURINAM. 367 



repealed on December the 4thj on receiving the tidings CHAP. 



XiV 



that my Joanna was delivered of a ftrong and beautiful ^_ j 

 boy. That very morning I difpatched another letter 

 to Mr. Lode at Amfterdam, to obtain her manumiffion, 

 couched much in the fame terms as that which I had 

 written to his predecelTor Mr. Paffalage, only praying for 

 difpatch, as I was now uncertain how much longer the 

 expedition was to laft ; in w^hich requeft I was again 

 feconded by my new friend Mr. De Graav, as I had been 

 before by Mr. Lolkens ; after which I entertained the fick 

 with a dozen of old Rheniili, received from the former 

 gentleman, which had been in his cellar from one thou- 

 fand feven hundred and twenty-fix. 



Walking round the plantation the morning of the loth 

 with my gun, I found the whole of the flaves on the 

 eftate in a mutiny, on account of the cruel ufage inflicted 

 by the managers : happily for all parties the interference 

 of the military fbon ended this matter to mutual fatisfac- 

 tion. Thefe frequent diflurbances, which I have at dif- 

 ferent times mentioned, plainly indicate the inclination 

 of the negroes to break out in an open rebellion ; and 

 this would certainly have been more often attempted, had 

 they not been awed by the trooDS. The fime mornin^y J 

 brought home two birds, the one called torenian^ the 

 other a fpecies of grafs^fnipe. The foreman, or hana- 

 quaw., is a fliining black bird, as large as a pullet, with 

 grey legs, and a bill of a dark brown colour; it is very 

 good eating, and eafily difcovered in the trees (where it 



perches 



