Prologue: This essay is a chapter from an historical novel I am writing about the Oregon Trail. The essay was inspired by the book and passions of Captain John Stedman (1744-1797). He was part of a volunteer expeditionary force sent to Surinam from Holland; the expedition was an attempt to suppress a maroon uprising, an uprising that was never quelled, his personal deployment spanned five years. Captain Stedman’s entries and drawings provided the basis for the publication, ‘Narrative of a Five Years’ in 1796. It recorded the expedition’s campaigns against the Black Slaves who were in revolt against their Slave masters in Guiana, off the Atlantic coast of South America.