On the 3d of March we received a visit from several officers of the Society, or West India Company’s troops, accompanied by a number of other gentlemen, to welcome our arrival in the colony. Nor were they satisfied with paying us merely a compliment in words, but regaled us with a large quantity of excellent fruits and other refreshments. They came in very elegant barges or tent-boats, adorned with flags, and attended by small bands of music. The vessels were rowed by six or eight negroes, who were entirely without cloaths, except a small stripe of check or other linen cloth, which was passed between their thighs, and fastened before and behind to a thin cotton string tied round their loins. As the colonists generally make choice of their handsomest slaves for this office, and to attend them at table, &c. the rowers, who were healthy, young, and vigorous, looked extremely well, and their being naked gave us a full opportunity of observing their skin, which was shining, and nearly as black as ebony. This scene was however contrasted by the arrival of two canoes filled with emaciated starving wretches, who clamorously solicited relief from the soldiers, and were ready to fight for the possession of a bone. The day following our Commander in Chief was visited by a Mr. Rynsdorp, who introduced to him two black soldiers, manumized slaves, who composed part of a corps of three hundred which had been lately formed. These men were exhibited by Mr. Rynsdorp as specimens of that valiant body, which but a short time before had most gallantly distinguished itself by the protection it had afforded to the colony. Whilst we still remained at anchor before the fortress Amsterdam, I received a polite invitation from one Mr. Lolkens, a planter, to whom I had been recommended, to accept the use of his house and table on our arrival at Paramaribo, the capital of the colony. On the 8th we once more went under way, and after the usual ceremonies on both sides on leaving the fortress, sail’d up the river Surinam with drums beating, colours flying, and a guard of marines drawn up on the quarterdeck of each vessel. Having at length reached Paramaribo, we finally came to an anchor within pistol-shot off the shore, receiving a salute of eleven guns from the citadel Zealandia, which was returned by all the ships of our small fleet. After being confined nearly the whole of sixty-three days within the limits of a small vessel, and upon an element to which few of the troops had been accustomed, it would not be easy to describe the pleasure we experienced on finding ourselves once more on land, and surrounded by a thousand agreeable circumstances.