CHAPTER XIX. What happened to them at Surinam, and how Candide acquainted with Martin. OUR travellers' first day's journey was very pleasant; they were elated with the prospect of possessing more riches than were to be found in Europe, Asia, and Africa together. Candide, in amorous transports, cut the name of Miss Cunegund on almost every tree he came to. The second day, two of their sheep sunk in a morass, and were swallowed up, with their lading; two more died of fatigue; some few days afterwards, seven or eight perished with hunger in a desert; and others, at different times, tumbled down precipices, or were otherwise lost; so that, after travelling about a hundred days, they had only two sheep left of the hundred and two they brought with them from El Dorado. Said Candide to Cacambo: "You see, my dear friend, how perishable the riches of this world are; there is nothing solid but virtue." "Very true," said Cacambo; "but we have still two sheep remaining, with more treasure than ever the King of Spain will be possessed of; and I espy a town at a distance, which I take to be Surinam, a town belonging to the Dutch. We are now at the end of our troubles, and at the beginning of happiness." As they drew near the town, they saw a negro stretched on the ground with only one-half of his habit, which was a kind of linen frock, for the poor man had lost his left leg and his right hand. "Good God," said Candide in Dutch; "what dost thou here, friend, in this deplorable condition?" "I am waiting for my master, Mynheer Vanderdendur, the famous trader," answered the negro. "Was it Mynheer Vanderdendur that used you in this cruel manner?" "Yes, sir," said the negro; "it is the custom here. They give a linen garment twice a year, and that is all our covering. When we labour in the sugar-works, and the mill happens to snatch off a finger, they instantly chop off our hand; and when we attempt to run away, they cut off a leg. Both these cases have happened to me; and it is at this expense that you eat sugar in Europe; and yet when my mother sold me for ten patacoons on the coast of Guinea, she said to me: |
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