EXPEDITION TO SURINAM. 323 



fmall kitchen, belides a garden, in which I fowed, in c H" A P. 

 pepper-crefles, the names of Joanna and John ; while my ^^__^_J_^ 

 next-door neighbour, who was my friend Captain BoltSy 

 made fliift to keep a goat, and thvis we lived not alto- 

 gether uncomfortably. Others kept hens and ducks, but 

 not a cock was to be feen in the camp ; for thefe, having 

 firft had all their tongues cut out to prevent their crow- 

 ing (though to no purpofe) had been lince condemned to 

 lofe their heads. In fliort, our gentlemen built a row of 

 yery curious houfes indeed, all projecting from the beech ; 

 while, on the oppolite lide, above a hundred green huts 

 being conftrudled to receive the new-come troops, the 

 whole together formed no contemptible ftreet, though it 

 muft be confelTed its inhabitants were little better than 

 fcare-crows. 



What was moft remarkable in my own habitation, 

 however, was its entry, which was not by the door, nor 

 yet by the window, but only by the roof, where I crept 

 in and out, allowing abfolutely no other admittance ; and 

 by this contrivance alone I was efFedlually guarded from 

 thofe frequent vifitors who fmelt my pancakes, and ufed 

 to make too free with my eggs and bacon, beiides inter- 

 rupting me while I was drawing, writing, or reading. , 

 Upon the whole, I muft acknowledge, that this encamp- 

 ment was agreeable enough (more fo as being o\\ elevated 

 ground), had it not been for the peftilential damps and 

 mephitic vapours that-exhale conftantly from the earth, 

 and had already fent numbers to the other world. 



T t a During 



