I had expected to find the ship where I left it; but it had already stood off in such a way that we did not arrive there till the night was far advanced; so that they did not discharge their booty until the next day, the morning of the 19th of the month. During the whole of this day they made no progress, although they used their oars, as their sails were useless for want of wind. This delay disquieted me very much, because I wished as soon as possible to know my fate. “Would they leave me at Cayenne?” I said to myself. “Will they carry me to Surinam? Will they take me to Barbadoes? or even as far as New England?” And, as I was occupying myself with these inquiries, lying in my berth, which I was not able to quit on account of my great weakness and the seasickness, which afflicted me terribly, some one came to tell me that they had sent on shore three of our soldiers, with one old Indian, captured in the canoe of the Aroüas, of which I have already spoken. I was a little surprised; and, on asking the captain the reason, he told me that it made so many useless mouths the less. “And why,” said I, “do you not do the same towards all the other prisoners?” “It is,” said he, “because I am waiting for a good ransom for the rest of you.” He would have given a much truer excuse if he had said, that, wishing to make a descent on Cayenne, he was afraid that some of his people might be captured, in which case he wished to have some with whom to make an exchange, which did in reality happen, as we shall see in the end. The wind having freshened a little in the evening, we continued our voyage through the whole night, and before noon approached Cayenne, off a high rock named Connestable, and which is five or six leagues distant. They had already learned of the disaster which had befallen Oyapoc,--perhaps by a note which a young Indian had written, or perhaps through some inhabitants of Aproakac, who had come to take refuge at Cayenne. But they were ignorant of all the circumstances; and the public, as it commonly happens in such cases, set in circulation many reports, each one more false than the last. Some said that every person at Oyapoc had been massacred, and that I, in particular, had suffered a thousand cruelties. Others published that there were many ships there, and that Cayenne would be obliged to submit to the same fate. What seemed to give a little sanction to the last news was, that the ship which had captured us carried with it three boats, which, with the long-boat, made five vessels. All having sails and looming up, at a distance caused them to make a formidable appearance to those who were on shore.