of the Surinam, and is built upon a kind of gravelly rock, level with the rest of the country. It is in the form of an oblong square, and is about a mile and a half in length. All the streets are straight, and are lined with orange, shaddock, tamarind, and lemon trees, which bear an abundance of odoriferous flowers and fruit. The streets are not paved, but are one continued and excellent gravel walk, rendered hard by having the surface strewed with sea-shells. The houses, some of which are two and others three stories high, are nearly all built of timber, and roofed with thin boards called shingles. Instead of glass for the windows, frames covered with gauze are sometimes used; and sometimes there are only shutters. None of the houses have chimneys, for no fires are lighted except in the kitchens. These are always at a little distance from the dwellings: and in them the food is cooked upon the floor, and the smoke is let out by a hole in the roof. Most of the houses have wells, but these yield only a brackish kind of water, which is seldom used for drinking, except by the negroes and cattle. All the Euro

peans have reservoirs or cisterns, in which they preserve rain-water for their own consumption.

Most of the houses at Paramaribo are elegantly furnished with paintings, gilding, glass chandeliers, china jars, &c. The rooms are never either papered or plastered, but are beautifully wainscotted with cedar, mahogany, or Brazil-wood. The number of buildings is computed at about one thousand four hundred, and of these the principal is the governor's palace. When Captain Stedman was here, this edifice, and that of the commandant of the place, were the only brick buildings in the colony. The town-hall was an elegant structure, covered with tiles. In this the different courts of justice were held, and underneath it were prisons for European delinquents.

Paramaribo is a very animated place. The streets are generally crowded with planters, sailors, soldiers, Jews, Indians, and negroes; while the river is covered with

canoes, barges, and other vessels, many of which have bands of music on board. The shipping also in the road, adorned with their different flags, form a very pleasing appearance. All this gaiety and variety of objects serve, in some degree, to compensate for the inconveniences of the climate. The carriages and dress of the inhabitants are truly magnificent. Silk embroidery, Genoa velvets, diamonds, gold and silver lace, were, at this time, daily worn; and even the masters of trading ships appeared with buttons and buckles of solid gold. The inhabitants were equally expensive at their tables, where every delicacy that could be procured was served up in plate and china of the finest workmanship.

Butchers' meat, fowls, fish, and venison, were very abundant in Paramaribo; and the country abounded in vegetables; but provisions in general were excessively dear. Wheat flour was sold from fourpence to one shilling a pound; butter at two shillings; and butcher's meat was never under a shilling a pound. Fish and vegetables, however, were cheap, and fruit could be had almost for nothing. Forty oranges could be purchased for sixpence; pine-apples for a penny each, and limes and tamarinds might be had for gathering. House-rent was excessively high: a small room, unfurnished, would cost three or four guineas a month; and a house, with two apartments on a floor, could be let for a hundred guineas a year.

The Europeans of this colony reside principally in the town. These, in the year 1773, were computed at five thousand persons, including the garrison; and the negro-slaves were about seventy-five thousand.

Paramaribo is not fortified, but it is defended by the river on the south-east; by a large morass on the west; by an impenetrable wood on the north; and on the north-east it is protected by a citadel, called Fort Zelandia. When Captain Stedman was here, there was no passable road for carriages to a greater distance from the town than about three English miles. The

woods abounded in macaws; but these birds, in Surinam, are called ravens, from their proportion in size to the parrots, which are here considered a kind of tropical

crows.

Fourth Day's Instruction.

GUIANA CONTINUED.

Continuation of CAPTAIN STEDMAN'S Narrative of an Expedition in Surinam.

IT is requisite now to speak of those insurrections of the negroes of Surinam, which had occasioned the voyage to this colony of Captain Stedman, and the troops that he had accompanied.

From the earliest periods some fugitive negroes had taken refuge in the woods. By degrees their numbers increased; and, by pillaging the estates, they had obtained possession of lances and muskets. With these, in addition to their usual weapons, they had been enabled to commit incessant outrages and depredations on the coffee and sugar estates.

Many of the rebel negroes had settled near the upper parts of the rivers Copename and Seramica. Previously to the arrival of Captain Stedman, several additional revolters had settled among the woods, near the river Cottica, and were commanded by a desperate negro, named Baron. At length they became so formidable, that, in the year 1772, a general massacre of the planters in the country was feared. Many of the planters, consequently, fled from their estates, and crowded into the town of Paramaribo for protection. The position occupied by the rebels was peculiarly strong, because, like an island, it was surrounded by a broad and almost

unfordable marsh or swamp, which prevented all communication, except by private paths, overflowed with water, and known only to themselves. This position, which was called Boucou, and was between the river Cottica and the sea, was also defended by strong pallisadoes driven into the ground, and by loaded swivel guns. It had been attacked, and with great loss had been taken by the troops of the colony, previously to the arrival of the present expedition; but Baron, and a considerable number of his men, had escaped into the woods.

Colonel Fourgeoud, after he had been some time at Paramaribo, set out in a barge to inspect first the situation of the rivers Comewina and Cottica, and subsequently to explore the river of Surinam. In the mean while Captain Stedman, and most of the troops, remained at Paramaribo, in a state of inaction. At this place, and at several estates in the neighbourhood, he was witness to numerous acts of cruelty, practised by the overseers of the plantations upon the negro slaves, which filled him with horror and indignation.

While he was at Paramaribo, Captain Stedman became attached to a young, beautiful, and amiable mulatto slave, whose name was Joanna, the daughter of a respectable person of the colony, and whom he shortly afterwards married.

The troops had not been long in Paramaribo, before great numbers of them were attacked by fever. They had been a corps of the healthiest young men that had ever sailed from Europe; but their complexions were now sallow, and they were daily sinking into the grave. The hospitality of the country, and the almost incessant dissipation, which was the consequence of this hospitality, were to them the most deplorable misfortunes they could have experienced.

Much uncertainty had prevailed respecting the necessity of employing these troops against the rebels, as it was supposed that the latter had been so much

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reduced in number as to be no longer formidable. circumstance, however, occurred, which rendered it necessary to call the troops into immediate action. A strong party of rebels had suddenly attacked a lieutenant, whose name was Lepper, and had cut to pieces him and his whole company, consisting of about thirty men. The intelligence of this melancholy event, threw the whole colony into the utmost consternation; and all the officers and men, under the command of Colonel Fourgeoud, were ordered to be in readiness at a moment's warning for actual service.

Though by sickness and death they had been reduced in number, from five hundred to about three hundred and fifty, they were embarked, in the beginning of July, in half a dozen old sugar barges. Each of these was armed with swivel guns, blunderbusses, and other weapons, and was furnished with a month's provisions; and each had a sloping roof formed of boards, which gave it the appearance of an immense coffin. One of them was sent to a place called Jew's Savanna, and the others were directed to cruise about the upper parts of the rivers. The command of two of the barges was given to Captain Stedman. Each of the latter had a pilot, and was rowed by ten negro slaves; and on board the two, there were sixty-three persons, besides himself and a negro boy. His orders were to cruize up and down the Cottica, for the purpose of preventing the rebels from crossing that river, of attacking them wherever it was possible to do so, and protecting the estates from their invasion.

The rainy season had now commenced, and there were frequent showers, accompanied by loud claps of thunder. The barges, to which Captain Stedman had given the names of the Charon and Cerberus, were rowed up the Cottica. They continued their progress for several days, and passed many beautiful coffee and sugar estates, on the banks of that river. At length they arrived at the mouth of Cormoetibo Creek, a place