Pearl Key Lagoon lies in latitude 12° 10' N., longitude 82° 54' W. The village is situated about four miles from the entrance of the Lagoon, or Lake, into the sea. The village contains thirteen houses; the inhabitants generally speak English, and are more civilized and hospitable than the neighboring tribes. This place is the centre of trade for the whole coast, and is often visited by English traders.

I was hospitably received by Edward Patterson, a native of Curracoa, who had resided here many years. He had three wives living with him, all enjoying peace and good will towards each other. Patterson gave me a hearty welcome to his house, and provided me a room in it to retail my goods. He furnished his table with the best food the country produced, cleanly cooked in English style. Two days after my arrival here my mate and the two seamen arrived from the wreck of the sloop. They informed me that a large number of Indians had encamped near the wreck and commenced plundering the vessel, and they considered it unsafe to remain there any longer. They repaired the sloop's boat, put their clothing and some light goods on board, and after a few days' hard rowing reached this place, with health and strength much exhausted. Two or three days after a small English schooner arrived here, and I gave the captain two hundred dollars to carry me to the wreck and bring back all the goods we could save from it. We sailed the next day, and arrived there two days after. We found the shore white with cotton, the Indians having cut open the bales and carried away the sacks, leaving the cotton loose on the beach, which the winds had scattered all along the shore for a great distance. They had emptied two pipes of Catalonia wine on the ground and carried away the casks; also emptied some cases of Holland gin and filled the bottles with rum, cut many holes in the vessel to get out the iron, and committed many other depredations. On inquiry I found that most of the goods had been carried to Governor Clemente's house, about thirty miles up the Waa-waa river. We employed some Indians to carry us in their canoes to the governor's residence, there being no roads for travelling by land in the country. When we arrived at his excellency's dwelling we found a collection of forty or fifty Indians assembled there, raving with intoxication; a hogshead of rum placed in the middle of the house, with the bung taken out and the Indians filling their calabashes by pouring it out of the bung-hole, wasting one-half in pouring it out. The governor's invitation to spend the night with him was readily accepted. He promised me he would restore all my goods that could be found about his premises. The next day I found one pipe of gin and one hogshead of rum unopened, which he consented to restore to me. Here a difficulty arose: the distance from his house to the landing place at the river was about one and a half miles, and no way of conveyance except rolling the casks. I requested the governor to furnish me men, and I would pay them liberally for their services in conveying the goods to the landing place. He said he could not compel them to assist me. My mate and two men I had brought with me succeeded in rolling the casks to the shore after a tedious job of one and a half days. I found sixteen barrels of salt belonging to me about the premises, which we undertook to roll to the landing, but the governor pursued us with his axe and broke the staves of the casks, when we abandoned them. I then picked up all the remaining goods I could find belonging to me, sent them on board the canoes, and putting my mate and seamen on board as sentries for the night, took lodgings at the governor's house. In the morning my attention was drawn towards the governor's nine wives, who were seated round a fire outside of the house, eating their breakfast in perfect harmony. From appearance their ages were from sixteen to sixty years. I afterwards learned that eight of the Indians had died from the effects of the liquor which they had stolen from the wreck.

The governor and his gang had destroyed and robbed me of about eighteen hundred dollars' worth of property, for which I could not obtain any redress. We embarked in our canoes and proceeded to the schooner, where we took the goods on board, and the next day landed them at the Lagoon. My property being all collected together, I fitted up my store and received calls from all parts of the country, having that load-stone Rum to attract them.

Among the visiters who came to console me in my unfortunate situation, was a Sookerman, named Hewlett, who brought me a present of two pine-apples, for which I offered him twelve and a half cents in payment, he refused it, saying, "I was a poor cast-away thing, and all Indians must help me." I placed a bottle of gin upon the table and invited him and his comrade to drink, which they readily accepted, remaining with me until near night, when they had emptied the bottle; then taking an empty bottle from his pocket, he had the modesty to ask me to fill it for him to carry home. I was selling gin at this time for fifty cents per bottle. Pine-apples are considered of little value in this country, being worth from one to two cents apiece.

A Sookerman practices as a physician in sickness, but always abandons his patient before the approach of death; he tells fortunes, can discover thieves, and when the hurricane months are near approaching, he resorts to some hill with his cutlass in his hand, which he waves in the air to prevent the gales from destroying their crops of vegetables. He collects an annual tax from all the inhabitants of his district, for his services in cutting the breeze as they call it. If they refuse to pay his tax the laws of the country allow him to seize upon any property he can find, not excepting a man's dinner-pot. If a gale of wind happens to sweep over the country and destroy their crops, he screens himself by saying, "Some rascals have neglected the payment of their tithes." He cannot see a woman in child-bed, or the woman or child under nine months after the birth of it. He is prohibited from seeing any dead corpse, as he imagines the sight of either of these would cause his immediate death. The Sookerman makes all his journies in canoes, accompanied by some of his friends. When they approach any village, he lays down in the bottom of his canoe, and a sail is covered over him to protect his eyes, while some of his comrades visit the houses of the villagers to ascertain whether there are any of those dread sights in their houses. When his wife shows signs of pregnancy she retires to a house built in the woods, where she must remain nine months after her accouchment, before she can return to her husband.

My landlord, Patterson, informed me that he knew a Sookerman who landed at a village in a canoe, without sending a messenger before him to discover the object of his danger; it being stormy weather he landed in great haste and ran to the nearest house for a shelter, and opening the door quickly, the first object he saw was a woman holding a child in her arms. The shock was so great that he fell down on the threshhold of the door and died the third day after.

Two miles from the village where I had located myself was another settlement called Bigman Bank, a village of some renown, being the residence of General Bigman and Admiral Walkin. Soon after I had my store arranged to receive company I was visited by a number of young ladies from Bigman's Bank who were considered the belles of the village. The Indians residing in villages on the sea-coast imagine themselves far superior to the inland tribes. They form the same opinion that a fopish city dandy does of a country farmer, supposing him to be destitute of common sense because he does not put all his earnings on his back and cheat the tailor and shoemaker out of more.

After the young ladies were all seated in the house, my friend Patterson introduced me to them, and requested me to fill some glasses with gin and pass them round, saying, "They had never drank any gin before, and did not know the strength of it, that we should soon see sport." After remaining some time and drinking freely, they attempted to depart, when one of them, named Betsey Young, a girl possessing a pleasant and beautiful countenance found herself unable to walk, and her comrades took her on their backs and departed apparently much mortified as I was myself. After they returned to their homes Betsey's mother gave her a severe reprimand for her intoxication. The next morning she bent the top of a small tree to the ground, tied a handkerchief to it and putting one end round her neck let the tree straighten up, which hung her in the air. Soon after her mother discovering her unfortunate situation cut her down and restored her to life. A few months after she became one of the king's wives.

I was visited by a respectable Frenchman, named Ellis, residing thirty miles up a river called Waa-waa-han, which empties into the Lagoon a few miles from this place. The Musquito king had given him a tract of land seven miles in length, bounded on the river, a well cultivated plantation, producing coffee, sugar-cane, corn, yams, sweet potatoes, all kinds of tropical fruits, and bread-stuffs in abundance. He owned twenty or thirty slaves, and cultivated a good garden. He informed me that he had fought for my country in the Revolution, under Count de Grass. His nearest neighbor, named Gough, resided twelve miles from him, who had a grant of land extending twelve miles along the river, and owned a few slaves, but paid little attention to cultivation. I found Mr. Ellis a very honest man, and a true friend to me. He kept a mulatto woman as his wife, whose name was Fanny. He sent many orders to me to bring out such articles as he wanted. He told me that one evening he was making out an order for goods and asked his wife if she wanted any thing added to the order. She answered by saying, "Tell Captain Dunham to fetch me out one man-goose and one woman-goose." Mr. Ellis often sent me garden vegetables, cucumbers, water-mellons, tropical fruits, &c.