Note 1 — CHAP. X.

On the 14th, at five o’clock in the morning, I was awaked by the sound of Up! up! up! when the rain still continuing, the half of the officers and men were sick, and I rose from my hammock soaked as in a wash-tub; having secured the lock of my firelock, in imitation of the rangers, with a piece of the bark of a palm-tree, and swallowing a dram, with a piece of dry rusk biscuit, for my breakfast, we again marched on. But I ought not to forget mentioning the negroes, who had the whole night slept in the water on the ground, and yet were in better health than any of the Europeans. Had we now been attacked by the enemy, we must inevitably have been all cut to pieces, being disabled from resisting with our firearms, in which not only the priming but even many of the cartridges were completely wet; this might have been prevented by having cased and waxed down our arms, as is practised by the buccaneers of America; but these were trifles not to be thought of: one thing, however, now happened which threatened to be no trifle, and that was, that the provisions were gone, and those we expected to meet us in the creek not arrived, having by some mistake been neglected. By this accident we were now reduced, officers and men without exception, to subsist on one rusk biscuit and water for our allowance for twenty-four hours, to keep us from starving1: while it is to be remarked, that Monsieur Laurant, our hero’s French valet-de-chambre, who had charge of the provision, was blown down to Baram’s point, and another time sunk with all the provisions; which produced the impertinent remark from some of the soldiers, that the devil had mistaken him for his master. In the midst however of this distress, we were again presented by one of the rangers with a large bird, called here boossy-calcoo, being a species of wild turkey; of this fortunate acquisition it was resolved in the evening to make broth, each throwing a piece of his rusk biscuit into the kettle, and (standing round the fire) beginning to ladle away as soon as the broth began to boil, which had another virtue, viz. notwithstanding its being put over at six o’clock in the evening, at twelve o’clock at midnight the kettle was just as full as the first moment we had begun supper, though the broth was rather weaker I must acknowledge, the heavy rain having dashed into it without intermission. During this severe storm we were as destitute of huts as the night before, but I availed myself once more of my English petticoat trowsers, which, loosening from my middle, I hung about my shoulders, and continuing to turn round before the fire (like a fowl roasting on a string) I passed the hours with rather more comfort than my miserable coughing companions. All I can say of the bird above mentioned is, that I thought it differed little from the common turkeys, which here frequently weigh above twenty pounds.