He was finally conveyed to the
canoe, and then to the place where we had suspended our hammocks. There I
cut his throat; and after breakfast was over commenced the dissection.
Now that the affray had ceased, Daddy Ouashi played a good finger and thumb
at breakfast: he said he found himself much revived, and became very
talkative and useful, as there was no longer any danger. He was a faithful,
honest negro. His master, my worthy friend Mr. Edmonstone, had been so
obliging as to send out particular orders to the colony that the Daddy
should attend me all the time I was in the forest. He had lived in the
wilds of Demerara with Mr. Edmonstone for many years, and often amused me
with the account of the frays his master had had in the woods with snakes,
wild beasts and runaway negroes. Old age was now coming fast upon him; he
had been an able fellow in his younger days, and a gallant one, too, for he
had a large scar over his eyebrow caused by the stroke of a cutlass from
another negro while the Daddy was engaged in an intrigue.
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