NARRATIVE, OF A FIVE YEARS’ EXPEDITION, AGAINST THE REVOLTED NEGROES OF SURINAM, in Guiana, on the Wild Coast of South America; from the year 1772, to 1777: elucidating the History of that Country, and the description of its productions, viz. Quadrupedes, Birds, Fishes, Reptiles, Trees, Shrubs, Fruits, & Roots; with an account of the Indians of Guiana, & Negroes of Guinea. By CAPTN. J. G. STEDMAN. illustrated with 80 elegant Engravings, designed from nature, by the Author. ——Vol. I.—— “O Quantum terræ quantum Cognoscere Cœli, Permissum est, pelagus quantos apperimus in usus! Nunc forsan grave, reris opis; Sed læta recurret Cum ratis et Caram Cum mihi reddet solenne! Quis pudor heu nostros tibi tunc audire labores; Quam referam visas tua per Suspiria gentis!” Valerius Flaccus. London. Printed by J. Johnson, St. Pauls Church Yard, & J. Edwards, Pall Mall, 1796. TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS GEORGE PRINCE OF WALES, THIS ARTLESS NARRATIVE IS, WITH ALL HUMILITY, INSCRIBED, BY HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS’s MOST DEVOTED, AND MOST OBEDIENT, HUMBLE SERVANT, J. G. Stedman. Tiverton, Devonshire, January 1, 1796. THE PREFACE. This Work being perhaps one of the most singular productions ever offered to the Public, I think it right to give the Reader a short sketch of what he is going to peruse.—I have endeavoured to arrange matters in some degree like a large garden, where one meets with the sweet-smelling flower and the thorn, the gold-bespangled fly and loathsome reptile, the richest glowing plumage and the darkest shades; the whole so variegated as to afford, I hope, both information and amusement, without racking or depressing the spirits, and damping the mind; not indeed in the modern pomp and brilliancy of style, but in a simple tale, where TRUTH is the chief ornament.