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look very comfortable, for in the room where we should sleep was nothing but mud. Every morning there would be a couple of sheep stuck in the mud, and usually dead. But there	was no	choice	- we lay down	in the mud,	which was	stiff
enough to hold us up,	got a	sheep	for a pillow,	and slept	fine for	not a
mosquito came near us. It rained	nearly every	day, so with	the mud	being
plastered together with molasses and sugar our clothes were stiff. I have never spent fourteen days in a more uncomfortable manner.
It is really a pretty country. The woods are swarming with an unbelievable mass of beautiful birds, deer, and snakes. I saw some wild musk ducks, and some storks - the first I have seen since I left home. There are many Indians here, and they are very handsome. They go naked like the Negroes - the women's aprons are beautifully embroidered with beads. It does not seem to hurt or shame the white ladies	in the least	to	look at all these	naked
people. They have no kind of vehicle, so they use, instead, boats rowed by six or eight such naked Negroes.
The Hollanders here are paying the Indians to find runaway Negroes, and they are very efficient at running	them down.	One	slave ran	away from the
plantation where we were and they	found him after	two day's	search.	They
brought him on board the ship, for	we were to take him to	the fort	to be
punished. They had his	hands	tied behind his back,	and a rope	around his neck
by which they pulled him along like a poor animal. When he came to the ship he begged them to loosen his hands a little, as they hurt so, but his master would not allow it. They threw him into a canoe and tied him hard and fast for fear he would jump in the water and drown himself. His punishment consisted of two hundred strokes with the terrible whip, which often caused death. But he got over it, came back, and while we were there with the ship, ran away the second time and without a doubt, reached the English boundary, for they had not found him yet when we left. (Poor devil!)
While we were still lying here one day we had a Negro aboard to help us. Toward night lots of snakes always swam across the river to the side where were moored.	The Negro saw a large	bluish	snake coming, and he went out	in	the
water to	meet it. He took it up	in his	hand, and the snake did	not try	in	the
least to go aside from him. Usually they run at the least alarm. Although it was a poisonous snake he let it crawl all over his naked body. He stuck his finger in	its mouth and	it	didn't bite him.	At last he	broke	the poisonous
fangs	out	with a nail, and	let it go on the	ship, as he	said it would catch
rats.	We	were so scared	of	it we didn't dare	go to sleep in our	bunks, but we
never	saw	it again. The	snake was five or six	feet long.
In	the beginning of April,	to out	great joy we left Nicaya	River.	We	had
at first	intended to run into Barbadoo	to get some bread, but	it was too	far
too the east, so we made St. Vincent instead. South of this island we got in a terrible sea. We could hardly keep the water out of the ship with both pumps. It creaked and groaned in the old hull so we thought she would go down every minute, but we reached the harbor at St. Vincent all right. But now we were determined to leave the ship, and we ordered it condemned. Still we were fools enough to let the captain persuade us to go with him again, and we left the next day.
St. Vincent is a very pretty island. It belongs to England, and has the strongest fort I have ever seen. We ran now with the trade winds in among the West Indian islands and arrived at last at St. Croix and St. Thomas. This was the first time I had seen them since I was on the steamer Betsy. We kept in a
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