. However, this audacity did not save him, for he was captured
soon afterwards, Charbon managing to escape into the forest. Alone the
boy wandered about for six or seven days, until, again becoming
desperate from hunger, he returned to the same plantation, to fall into
the hands of the negroes. He was stripped of his clothes, put in the
stocks, flogged, and threatened with death, but was finally spared on
account of his youth, and because the rebel chief, "King" Coffee, wanted
a secretary to write letters to Governor Hoogenheim, proposing terms.

Meanwhile the poor Governor hardly knew what to do. He sent to Surinam
and Demerara for assistance, but while awaiting this the military
officers informed him that the fort was untenable against even a single
assault. The wooden palisades were so rotten that a strong man could
pull them down easily, and then the building was of wood and could
easily be fired. He was ultimately obliged to destroy it and retire down
the river, where he at first took possession of the lowest plantation,
Dageraad, hoping to remain there until assistance arrived. But even here
the rumours of an attack by the rebels made the people clamorous to be
allowed to leave, and Hoogenheim had to retire to the mouth of the
river, where there was a small guard-house, or signal station, near the
site of what is now New Amsterdam. Thus the last hold on the plantations
was given up, and the whole colony abandoned to the negroes.

A month passed before the first arrival from Surinam. All that time the
Governor and a few whites waited day after day, sometimes almost in
despair. The vessels had, at the request of their captains, been allowed
to leave, carrying with them some of the people, while others had gone
off to Demerara. This desertion was almost necessary, as the food supply
was very limited and of a poor quality--cowards were useless, and
therefore no objection was made to their departure. Hoogenheim was at
last somewhat relieved by the arrival of the English brigantine _Betsy_
with a hundred soldiers from Surinam, and with this small contingent he
at once began to retrace his steps with a view to recover the colony. He
went back to Dageraad, and in a day or two after was attacked by seven
hundred negroes, who fought from early morning to noon, when they
retired after suffering a great loss in killed and wounded. It was after
this battle that young Charbon arrived with a letter bringing "greetings
from Coffe