On the 12th we arrived safe at Magdenberg, viz. Fourgeoud, the officers, and the barges with the privates. From the Hope, the estates now began to appear thinner; and after passing Goet-Accord, about ten or twelve miles farther upwards, not a cultivated spot was to be seen, the plantations having been all laid in ashes by the rebels in 1757, as I have already mentioned, a small place excepted, just below Magdenberg, which is, I think, called the Jacob, and where a few negroes are kept to cut timber. The river above Goet-accord becomes very narrow, being lined on each side with impenetrable brush-wood, like the river Cottica, between Devil’s-Harwar and Patamaca; and the Tempatee Creek, which may be considered as the source of the whole river Comewina, becomes also much narrower. Magdenberg, which is about a hundred miles from Paramaribo, was formerly an estate, but has now not a vestige of cultivation left, a poor old orange-tree excepted, and is at present neither more or less than a barren desolate mountain. Here we found the surface of the earth in some places covered with a kind of strata, that had the appearance of mother-of-pearl, and lay scattered in small scales, about the size of an English shilling. In many places of Surinam are found the marks of fossils and ores, as I have already hinted. Indeed, iron ore is common, and I have no doubt but gold and silver mines might be met with if the Dutch would be at the expence, and persevere in making the discovery. I have already mentioned the Marawina diamond, and white and red agate, which are often seen in the upper parts of the river Surinam. On this mountain we also found the air cooler and more pure, and of course more healthy than in any other part of the colony. On the 17th the news reached us, that the transport ship, the Maria Helena, with the remaining two divisions of one hundred and twenty men, commanded by Captain Hamel, had also arrived in the river Surinam on the 14th instant. Thus the reinforcements together consisted of two hundred and forty men, and, on the 5th day of March, they all arrived in heavy barges at Magdenberg, where I may now say that Colonel Fourgeoud’s whole forces were assembled. The same day one hundred negro slaves also arrived, to carry the loads when we should march. One of the new negroes being missed from on board a military barge, and marks of blood discovered in it, the commanding officer, a Mr. Chatteauview, and a sentinel, were both put under an arrest to be tried for murder. On the same eventful day also, two of our captains fought a duel, in which one of them received a wound in his forehead.