Captain Singleton

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Title: The Life, Adventures and Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton
Author: Daniel Defoe
Commentator: Edward Garnett
Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6422]
This file was first posted on December 10, 2002
Last Updated: June 20, 2013
Language: English
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CAPTAIN SINGLETON
By Daniel Defoe
With An Introduction By Edward Garnett
[Transcriber's Note: In the print copy, the following words and those of
the title page are written in intricate, illuminated calligraphy.]
A TALE WHICH HOLDETH CHILDREN FROM PLAY AND OLD MEN FROM THE CHIMNEY
CORNER
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY
THE LIFE ADVENTURES AND PIRACIES OF THE FAMOUS CAPTAIN SINGLETON
PREFACE
That all Defoe's novels, with the exception of "Robinson Crusoe," should
have been covered with the dust of neglect for many generations, is a
plain proof of how much fashions in taste affect the popularity of the
British classics. It is true that three generations or so ago, Defoe's
works were edited by both Sir Walter Scott and Hazlitt, and that this
masterly piece of realism, "Captain Singleton," was reprinted a few
years back in "The Camelot Classics," but it is safe to say that out of
every thousand readers of "Robinson Crusoe" only one or two will
have even heard of the "Memoirs of a Cavalier," "Colonel Jack," "Moll
Flanders," or "Captain Singleton." It is indeed distressing to think
that while many scores of thousands of copies of Lord Lytton's flashy
romance, "Paul Clifford," have been devoured by the public, "Captain
Singleton" has remained unread and almost forgotten. But the explanation
is simple. Defoe's plain and homely realism soon grew to be thought
vulgar by people who themselves aspired to be refined and genteel. The
rapid spread of popular education, in the middle of last century, was
responsible for a great many aberrations of taste, and the works of the
two most English of Englishmen, Defoe and Hogarth, were judged to be
hardly fitting for polite society, as we may see from Lamb's Essay on
Hogarth, and from an early edition of Chambers's "Cyclopaedia of English
Literature" (1843), where we are told: "Nor is it needful to show how
elegant and reflective literature, especially, tends to moralise, to
soften, and to adorn the soul and life of man." "Unfortunately the
taste or _circumstances of Defoe led him mostly into low life_, and his
characters are such _as we cannot sympathise with_. The whole arcana
of roguery and villany seems to have been open to him.... It might be
thought that the good taste which led Defoe to write in a style of such
pure and unpretending English, instead of the inflated manner of vulgar
writers, _would have dictated a more careful selection of his subjects_,
and kept him from wandering so frequently into the low and disgusting
purlieus of vice. But this moral and tasteful discrimination seems to
have been wholly wanting," &c. The 'forties were the days when critics
still talked learnedly of the "noble style," &c., "the vulgar," of
"sinking" or "rising" with "the subject," the days when Books of Beauty
were in fashion, and Rembrandt's choice of beggars, wrinkled faces and
grey hairs, for his favourite subjects seemed a low and reprehensible
taste in "high art." Though critics to-day still ingenuously confound an
artist's subject with his treatment of it, and prefer scenes of life to
be idealised rather than realised by writers, we have advanced a little
since the days of the poet Montgomery, and it would be difficult now
to find anybody writing so confidently--"Unfortunately the taste or
circumstances of Defoe led him mostly into low life," however much the
critic might believe it. But let us glance at a few passages in "Captain
Singleton," which may show us why Defoe excels as a realist, and why
his descriptions of "low life" are artistically as perfect as any
descriptions of "higher life" in the works of the English novelists.
Take the following description of kidnapping:--
"The woman pretending to take me up in her arms and kiss me, and
play with me, draws the girl a good way from the house, till at
last she makes a fine story to the girl, and bids her go back to
the maid, and tell her where she was with the child; that a
gentlewoman had taken a fancy to the child and was kissing it, but
she should not be frightened, or to that purpose; for they were
but just there; and so while the girl went, she carried me quite
away.--Page 2.
Now here, in a single sentence, Defoe catches for us the whole soul
and character of the situation. It _seems_ very simple, but it sums up
marvellously an exact observation and knowledge of the arts of the gipsy
child-stealer, of her cunning flattery and brassy boldness, and we can
see the simple little girl running back to the house to tell the nurse
that a fine lady was kissing the child, and had told her to tell where
they were and she should not be frightened, &c.; and this picture again
calls up the hue and cry after the kidnappers and the fruitless hopes of
the parents. In a word, Defoe has condensed in the eight simple lines of
his little scene all that is essential to its living truth; and let the
young writer note that it is ever the sign of the master to do in three
words, or with three strokes, what the ordinary artist does in thirty.
Defoe's imagination is so extraordinarily comprehensive in picking out
just those little matter-of-fact details that suggest all the other
aspects, and that emphasise the character of the scene or situation,
that he makes us believe in the actuality of whatever he is describing.
So real, so living in every detail is this apocryphal narrative, in
"Captain Singleton," of the crossing of Africa by a body of marooned
sailors from the coast of Mozambique to the Gold Coast, that one would
firmly believe Defoe was committing to writing the verbal narrative of
some adventurer in the flesh, if it were not for certain passages--such
as the description of the impossible desert on page 90, which proves
that Defoe was piecing together his description of an imaginary
journey from the geographical records and travellers' tales of his
contemporaries, aided perhaps by the confused yarns of some sailor
friends. How substantially truthful in spirit and in detail is Defoe's
account of Madagascar is proved by the narrative of Robert Drury's
"Captivity in Madagascar," published in 1729. The natives themselves,
as described intimately by Drury, who lived amongst them for many years,
would produce just such an effect as Defoe describes on rough sailors in
their perilous position. The method by which Defoe compels us to accept
improbabilities, and lulls our critical sense asleep, is well shown in
the following passages:--
"Thieving, lying, swearing, forswearing, joined to the most
abominable lewdness, was the stated practice of the ship's crew;
adding to it, that with the most unsufferable boasts of their own
courage, they were, generally speaking, the most complete cowards
that I ever met with."--Page 7.
"All the seamen in a body came up to the rail of the quarter-deck,
where the captain was walking with some of his officers, and
appointing the boatswain to speak for them, he went up, and falling
on his knees to the captain, begged of him in the humblest manner
possible, to receive the four men on board again, offering to answer
for their fidelity, or to have them kept in chains, till they came
to Lisbon, and there to be delivered up to justice, rather than, as
they said, to have them left, to be murdered by savages, or devoured
by wild beasts. It was a great while ere the captain took any notice
of them, but when he did, he ordered the boatswain to be seized, and
threatened to bring him to the capstan for speaking for them....
Upon this severity, one of the seamen, bolder than the rest, but
still with all possible respect to the captain, besought his honour,
as he called him, that he would give leave to some more of them to
go on shore, and die with their companions, or, if possible, to
assist them to resist the barbarians."--Page 18.
Now the first passage we have quoted about the cowardice, &c., of the
Portuguese crew is not in keeping with the second passage, which shows
the men as "wishing to die with their companions"; but so actual is
the scene of the seamen "in a body coming up to the rail of the
quarter-deck," that we cannot but believe the thing happened so, just as
we believe in all the thousand little details of the imaginary narrative
of "Robinson Crusoe." This feat of the imagination Defoe strengthens
in the most artful manner, by putting in the mouths of his characters
various reflections to substantiate the narrative. For example, in the
description, on page 263, of the savages who lined the perilous channel
in a half-moon, where the European ship lay, we find the afterthoughts
are added so naturally, that they would carry conviction to any judge or
jury:--
"They little thought what service they had done us, and how
unwittingly, and by the greatest ignorance, they had made
themselves pilots to us, while we, having not sounded the place,
might have been lost before we were aware. _It is true we might
have sounded our new harbour, before we had ventured out; but I
cannot say for certain, whether we should or not; for I, for my
part, had not the least suspicion of what our real case was;
however, I say, perhaps, before we had weighed, we should have
looked about us a little._"
Turning to the other literary qualities that make Defoe's novels great,
if little read, classics, how delightful are the little satiric touches
that add grave weight to the story. Consider the following: "My good
gipsy mother, for some of her worthy actions, no doubt, happened in
process of time to be hanged, and as this fell out something too soon
for me to be perfected in the strolling trade," &c.(p. 3). Every other
word here is dryly satiric, and the large free callousness and careless
brutality of Defoe's days with regard to the life of criminals is
conveyed in half a sentence. And what an amount of shrewd observation is
summed up in this one saying: "Upon these foundations, William said he
was satisfied we might trust them; for, says William, I would as soon
trust a man whose interest binds him to be just to me, as a man whose
principle binds himself" (p. 227). Extremely subtle is also this remark:
"_Why, says I, did you ever know a pirate repent?_ At this he started a
little and returned, _At the gallows_ I have known _one_ repent, and
I _hope_ thou wilt be the second." The character of William the Quaker
pirate is a masterpiece of shrewd humour. He is the first Quaker brought
into English fiction, and we know of no other Friend in latter-day
fiction to equal him. Defoe in his inimitable manner has defined surely
and deftly the peculiar characteristics of the sect in this portrait. On
three separate occasions we find William saving unfortunate natives
or defenceless prisoners from the cruel and wicked barbarity of
the sailors. At page 183, for example, the reader will find a most
penetrating analysis of the dense stupidity which so often accompanies
man's love of bloodshed. The sketch of the second lieutenant, who was
for "murdering the negroes to make them tell," when he could not make
them even understand what he wanted, is worthy of Tolstoy. We have not
space here to dwell upon the scores of passages of similar deep insight
which make "Captain Singleton" a most true and vivid commentary on the
life of Defoe's times, but we may call special attention to the passage
on page 189 which describe the sale of the negroes to the planters; to
the description of the awakening of the conscience of Captain Singleton
through terror at the fire-cloud (page 222); and to the extraordinarily
picturesque conversation between William and the captive Dutchman (page
264). Finally, if the reader wishes to taste Defoe's flavour in its
perfection let him examine carefully those passages in the concluding
twenty pages of the book, wherein Captain Singleton is shown as
awakening to the wickedness of his past life, and the admirable dry
reasoning of William by which the Quaker prevents him from committing
suicide and persuades him to keep his ill-gotten wealth, "with a
resolution to do what right with it we are able; and who knows what
opportunity Providence may put into our hands.... As it is without
doubt, our present business is to go to some place of safety, where we
may wait His will." How admirable is the passage about William's sister,
the widow with four children who kept a little shop in the Minories,
and that in which the penitent ex-pirates are shown us as hesitating in
Venice for two years before they durst venture to England for fear of
the gallows.
"Captain Singleton" was published in 1720, a year after "Robinson
Crusoe," when Defoe was fifty-nine. Twenty years before had seen "The
True-Born Englishman" and "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters"; and
we are told that from "June 1687 to almost the very week of his death in
1731 a stream of controversial books and pamphlets poured from his
pen commenting upon and marking every important passing event." The
fecundity of Defoe as a journalist alone surpasses that of any great
journalist we can name, William Cobbett not excepted, and we may add
that the style of "Captain Singleton," like that of "Robinson Crusoe,"
is so perfect that there is not a single ineffective passage, or indeed
a weak sentence, to be found in the book.
EDWARD GARNETT.
The following is a list of Defoe's works: "New Discovery of Old
Intrigue" (verse), 1691. "Character of Dr. Samuel Annesley" (verse),
1697. "The Pacificator" (verse), 1700. "True-Born Englishman" (verse),
1701. "The Mock Mourners" (verse), 1702. "Reformation of Manners"
(verse), 1702. "New Test of Church of England's Loyalty," 1702.
"Shortest Way with the Dissenters," 1702. "Ode to the Athenian
Society," 1703. "Enquiry into Acgill's General Translation," 1703. "More
Reformation" (verse), 1703. "Hymn to the Pillory," 1703. "The
Storm" (Tale), 1704. "Layman's Sermon on the Late Storm," 1704. "The
Consolidator; or, Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World in the
Moon," 1704. "Elegy on Author of 'True-Born Englishman,'" 1704. "Hymn
to Victory," 1704. "Giving Alms no Charity," 1704. "The Dyet of
Poland" (verse), 1705. "Apparition of Mrs. Veal," 1706. "Sermon on the
Filling-up of Dr. Burgess's Meeting-house," 1706. "Jure Divino"
(verse), 1706. "Caledonia" (verse), 1706. "History of the Union of
Great Britain," 1709. "Short Enquiry into a Late Duel," 1713. "A General
History of Trade," 1713. "Wars of Charles III.," 1715. "The Family
Instruction" (two eds.), 1715. "Hymn to the Mob," 1715. "Memoirs of
the Church of Scotland," 1717. "Life and Death of Count Patkul," 1717.
"Memoirs of Duke of Shrewsbury," 1718. "Memoirs of Daniel Williams,"
1718. "The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of
York, Mariner," 1719. "The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe," 1719.
"The Dumb Philosopher: or, Great Britain's Wonder," 1719. "The King of
Pirates" (Capt. Avery), 1719. "Life of Baron de Goertz," 1719. "Life and
Adventures of Duncan Campbell," 1720. "Mr. Campbell's Pacquet," 1720.
"Memoirs of a Cavalier," 1720. "Life of Captain Singleton," 1720.
"Serious Reflections during the Life and Surprising Adventures of
Robinson Crusoe," 1720. "The Supernatural Philosopher; or, The Mysteries
of Magick," 1720. Translation of Du Fresnoy's "Compleat Art of Painting"
(verse), 1720. "Moll Flanders," 1722, "Journal of the Plague Year,"
1722. "Due Preparations for the Plague," 1722. "Life of Cartouche,"
1722. "History of Colonel Jacque," 1722. "Religious Courtship," 1722.
"History of Peter the Great," 1723. "The Highland Rogue" (Rob Roy),
1723. "The Fortunate Mistress" (Roxana), 1724. "Narrative of Murders at
Calais," 1724. "Life of John Sheppard," 1724. "Robberies, Escapes,
&c., of John Sheppard," 1724. "The Great Law of Subordination; or, The
Insolence and Insufferable Behaviour of Servants in England," 1724. "A
Tour through Great Britain," 1724-6. "New Voyage Round the World,"
1725. "Account of Jonathan Wild," 1725. "Account of John Gow," 1725.
"Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business" (on Servants), 1725. "The
Complete English Tradesman," 1725; vol. ii., 1727. "The Friendly Demon,"
1726. "Mere Nature Delineated" (Peter the Wild Boy), 1726. "Political
History of the Devil," 1726. "Essay upon Literature and the Original
of Letters," 1726. "History of Discoveries," 1726-7. "The Protestant
Monastery," 1726. "A System of Magic," 1726. "Parochial Tyranny," 1727.
"Treatise concerning Use and Abuse of Marriage," 1727. "Secrets of
Invisible World Discovered; or, History and Reality of Apparitions,"
1727, 1728. "A New Family Instructor," 1728. "Augusta Triumphans," 1728.
"Plan of English Commerce," 1728. "Second Thoughts are Best" (on Street
Robberies), 1728. "Street Robberies Considered," 1728. "Humble Proposal
to People of England for Increase of Trade, &c.," 1729. "Preface to
R. Dodsley's Poem 'Servitude'" 1729. "Effectual Scheme for Preventing
Street Robberies," 1731.
Besides the above-named publications a large number of further tracts by
Defoe are extant, on matters of Politics and Church.
THE LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF CAPTAIN SINGLETON
As it is usual for great persons, whose lives have been remarkable, and
whose actions deserve recording to posterity, to insist much upon their
originals, give full accounts of their families, and the histories of
their ancestors, so, that I may be methodical, I shall do the same,
though I can look but a very little way into my pedigree, as you will
see presently.
If I may believe the woman whom I was taught to call mother, I was
a little boy, of about two years old, very well dressed, had a
nursery-maid to attend me, who took me out on a fine summer's evening
into the fields towards Islington, as she pretended, to give the child
some air; a little girl being with her, of twelve or fourteen years old,
that lived in the neighbourhood. The maid, whether by appointment or
otherwise, meets with a fellow, her sweetheart, as I suppose; he carries
her into a public-house, to give her a pot and a cake; and while they
were toying in the house the girl plays about, with me in her hand, in
the garden and at the door, sometimes in sight, sometimes out of sight,
thinking no harm.
At this juncture comes by one of those sort of people who, it seems,
made it their business to spirit away little children. This was a
hellish trade in those days, and chiefly practised where they found
little children very well dressed, or for bigger children, to sell them
to the plantations.
The woman, pretending to take me up in her arms and kiss me, and play
with me, draws the girl a good way from the house, till at last she
makes a fine story to the girl, and bids her go back to the maid, and
tell her where she was with the child; that a gentlewoman had taken
a fancy to the child, and was kissing of it, but she should not be
frighted, or to that purpose; for they were but just there; and so,
while the girl went, she carries me quite away.
From this time, it seems, I was disposed of to a beggar woman that
wanted a pretty little child to set out her case; and after that, to
a gipsy, under whose government I continued till I was about six years
old. And this woman, though I was continually dragged about with her
from one part of the country to another, yet never let me want for
anything; and I called her mother; though she told me at last she was
not my mother, but that she bought me for twelve shillings of another
woman, who told her how she came by me, and told her that my name was
Bob Singleton, not Robert, but plain Bob; for it seems they never knew
by what name I was christened.
It is in vain to reflect here, what a terrible fright the careless hussy
was in that lost me; what treatment she received from my justly enraged
father and mother, and the horror these must be in at the thoughts of
their child being thus carried away; for as I never knew anything of the
matter, but just what I have related, nor who my father and mother were,
so it would make but a needless digression to talk of it here.
My good gipsy mother, for some of her worthy actions no doubt, happened
in process of time to be hanged; and as this fell out something too soon
for me to be perfected in the strolling trade, the parish where I was
left, which for my life I can't remember, took some care of me, to be
sure; for the first thing I can remember of myself afterwards, was, that
I went to a parish school, and the minister of the parish used to talk
to me to be a good boy; and that, though I was but a poor boy, if I
minded my book, and served God, I might make a good man.
I believe I was frequently removed from one town to another, perhaps as
the parishes disputed my supposed mother's last settlement. Whether I
was so shifted by passes, or otherwise, I know not; but the town where
I last was kept, whatever its name was, must be not far off from the
seaside; for a master of a ship who took a fancy to me, was the first
that brought me to a place not far from Southampton, which I afterwards
knew to be Bussleton; and there I attended the carpenters, and such
people as were employed in building a ship for him; and when it was
done, though I was not above twelve years old, he carried me to sea with
him on a voyage to Newfoundland.
I lived well enough, and pleased my master so well that he called me his
own boy; and I would have called him father, but he would not allow it,
for he had children of his own. I went three or four voyages with him,
and grew a great sturdy boy, when, coming home again from the banks of
Newfoundland, we were taken by an Algerine rover, or man-of-war; which,
if my account stands right, was about the year 1695, for you may be sure
I kept no journal.
I was not much concerned at the disaster, though I saw my master, after
having been wounded by a splinter in the head during the engagement,
very barbarously used by the Turks; I say, I was not much concerned,
till, upon some unlucky thing I said, which, as I remember, was about
abusing my master, they took me and beat me most unmercifully with a
flat stick on the soles of my feet, so that I could neither go or stand
for several days together.
But my good fortune was my friend upon this occasion; for, as they were
sailing away with our ship in tow as a prize, steering for the Straits,
and in sight of the bay of Cadiz, the Turkish rover was attacked by two
great Portuguese men-of-war, and taken and carried into Lisbon.
As I was not much concerned at my captivity, not indeed understanding
the consequences of it, if it had continued, so I was not suitably
sensible of my deliverance; nor, indeed, was it so much a deliverance
to me as it would otherwise have been, for my master, who was the only
friend I had in the world, died at Lisbon of his wounds; and I being
then almost reduced to my primitive state, viz., of starving, had this
addition to it, that it was in a foreign country too, where I knew
nobody and could not speak a word of their language. However, I fared
better here than I had reason to expect; for when all the rest of our
men had their liberty to go where they would, I, that knew not whither
to go, stayed in the ship for several days, till at length one of the
lieutenants seeing me, inquired what that young English dog did there,
and why they did not turn him on shore.
I heard him, and partly understood what he meant, though not what he
said, and began then to be in a terrible fright; for I knew not where to
get a bit of bread; when the pilot of the ship, an old seaman, seeing me
look very dull, came to me, and speaking broken English to me, told me
I must be gone. "Whither must I go?" said I. "Where you will," said he,
"home to your own country, if you will." "How must I go thither?" said
I. "Why, have you no friend?" said he. "No," said I, "not in the world,
but that dog," pointing to the ship's dog (who, having stolen a piece
of meat just before, had brought it close by me, and I had taken it
from him, and ate it), "for he has been a good friend, and brought me my
dinner."
"Well, well," says he, "you must have your dinner. Will you go with me?"
"Yes," says I, "with all my heart." In short, the old pilot took me home
with him, and used me tolerably well, though I fared hard enough; and I
lived with him about two years, during which time he was soliciting his
business, and at length got to be master or pilot under Don Garcia de
Pimentesia de Carravallas, captain of a Portuguese galleon or carrack,
which was bound to Goa, in the East Indies; and immediately having
gotten his commission, put me on board to look after his cabin, in
which he had stored himself with abundance of liquors, succades, sugar,
spices, and other things, for his accommodation in the voyage, and laid
in afterwards a considerable quantity of European goods, fine lace and
linen; and also baize, woollen cloth, stuffs, &c., under the pretence of
his clothes.
I was too young in the trade to keep any journal of this voyage, though
my master, who was, for a Portuguese, a pretty good artist, prompted me
to it; but my not understanding the language was one hindrance; at least
it served me for an excuse. However, after some time, I began to look
into his charts and books; and, as I could write a tolerable hand,
understood some Latin, and began to have a little smattering of
the Portuguese tongue, so I began to get a superficial knowledge of
navigation, but not such as was likely to be sufficient to carry me
through a life of adventure, as mine was to be. In short, I learned
several material things in this voyage among the Portuguese; I learned
particularly to be an arrant thief and a bad sailor; and I think I may
say they are the best masters for teaching both these of any nation in
the world.
We made our way for the East Indies, by the coast of Brazil; not that it
is in the course of sailing the way thither, but our captain, either
on his own account, or by the direction of the merchants, went thither
first, where at All Saints' Bay, or, as they call it in Portugal, the
Rio de Todos los Santos, we delivered near a hundred tons of goods, and
took in a considerable quantity of gold, with some chests of sugar, and
seventy or eighty great rolls of tobacco, every roll weighing at least a
hundredweight.
Here, being lodged on shore by my master's order, I had the charge
of the captain's business, he having seen me very diligent for my own
master; and in requital for his mistaken confidence, I found means to
secure, that is to say, to steal, about twenty moidores out of the
gold that was shipped on board by the merchants, and this was my first
adventure.
We had a tolerable voyage from hence to the Cape de Bona Speranza; and
I was reputed as a mighty diligent servant to my master, and very
faithful. I was diligent indeed, but I was very far from honest;
however, they thought me honest, which, by the way, was their very great
mistake. Upon this very mistake the captain took a particular liking to
me, and employed me frequently on his own occasion; and, on the other
hand, in recompense for my officious diligence, I received several
particular favours from him; particularly, I was, by the captain's
command, made a kind of a steward under the ship's steward, for such
provisions as the captain demanded for his own table. He had another
steward for his private stores besides, but my office concerned only
what the captain called for of the ship's stores for his private use.
However, by this means I had opportunity particularly to take care of my
master's man, and to furnish myself with sufficient provisions to make
me live much better than the other people in the ship; for the captain
seldom ordered anything out of the ship's stores, as above, but I snipt
some of it for my own share. We arrived at Goa, in the East Indies, in
about seven months from Lisbon, and remained there eight more; during
which time I had indeed nothing to do, my master being generally on
shore, but to learn everything that is wicked among the Portuguese, a
nation the most perfidious and the most debauched, the most insolent and
cruel, of any that pretend to call themselves Christians, in the world.
Thieving, lying, swearing, forswearing, joined to the most abominable
lewdness, was the stated practice of the ship's crew; adding to it,
that, with the most insufferable boasts of their own courage, they were,
generally speaking, the most complete cowards that I ever met with;
and the consequence of their cowardice was evident upon many occasions.
However, there was here and there one among them that was not so bad
as the rest; and, as my lot fell among them, it made me have the most
contemptible thoughts of the rest, as indeed they deserved.
I was exactly fitted for their society indeed; for I had no sense of
virtue or religion upon me. I had never heard much of either, except
what a good old parson had said to me when I was a child of about eight
or nine years old; nay, I was preparing and growing up apace to be as
wicked as anybody could be, or perhaps ever was. Fate certainly thus
directed my beginning, knowing that I had work which I had to do in the
world, which nothing but one hardened against all sense of honesty
or religion could go through; and yet, even in this state of original
wickedness, I entertained such a settled abhorrence of the abandoned
vileness of the Portuguese, that I could not but hate them most heartily
from the beginning, and all my life afterwards. They were so brutishly
wicked, so base and perfidious, not only to strangers but to one
another, so meanly submissive when subjected, so insolent, or barbarous
and tyrannical, when superior, that I thought there was something in
them that shocked my very nature. Add to this that it is natural to an
Englishman to hate a coward, it all joined together to make the devil
and a Portuguese equally my aversion.
However, according to the English proverb, he that is shipped with the
devil must sail with the devil; I was among them, and I managed myself
as well as I could. My master had consented that I should assist the
captain in the office, as above; but, as I understood afterwards that
the captain allowed my master half a moidore a month for my service, and
that he had my name upon the ship's books also, I expected that when
the ship came to be paid four months' wages at the Indies, as they, it
seems, always do, my master would let me have something for myself.
But I was wrong in my man, for he was none of that kind; he had taken
me up as in distress, and his business was to keep me so, and make his
market of me as well as he could, which I began to think of after a
different manner than I did at first, for at first I thought he had
entertained me in mere charity, upon seeing my distressed circumstances,
but did not doubt but when he put me on board the ship, I should have
some wages for my service.
But he thought, it seems, quite otherwise; and when I procured one to
speak to him about it, when the ship was paid at Goa, he flew into the
greatest rage imaginable, and called me English dog, young heretic, and
threatened to put me into the Inquisition. Indeed, of all the names
the four-and-twenty letters could make up, he should not have called me
heretic; for as I knew nothing about religion, neither Protestant from
Papist, or either of them from a Mahometan, I could never be a heretic.
However, it passed but a little, but, as young as I was, I had been
carried into the Inquisition, and there, if they had asked me if I was
a Protestant or a Catholic, I should have said yes to that which came
first. If it had been the Protestant they had asked first, it had
certainly made a martyr of me for I did not know what.
But the very priest they carried with them, or chaplain of the ship,
as we called him, saved me; for seeing me a boy entirely ignorant of
religion, and ready to do or say anything they bid me, he asked me some
questions about it, which he found I answered so very simply, that
he took it upon him to tell them he would answer for my being a good
Catholic, and he hoped he should be the means of saving my soul, and he
pleased himself that it was to be a work of merit to him; so he made me
as good a Papist as any of them in about a week's time.
I then told him my case about my master; how, it is true, he had taken
me up in a miserable case on board a man-of-war at Lisbon; and I was
indebted to him for bringing me on board this ship; that if I had been
left at Lisbon, I might have starved, and the like; and therefore I
was willing to serve him, but that I hoped he would give me some little
consideration for my service, or let me know how long he expected I
should serve him for nothing.
It was all one; neither the priest nor any one else could prevail with
him, but that I was not his servant but his slave, that he took me in
the Algerine, and that I was a Turk, only pretended to be an English boy
to get my liberty, and he would carry me to the Inquisition as a Turk.
This frighted me out of my wits, for I had nobody to vouch for me what I
was, or from whence I came; but the good Padre Antonio, for that was his
name, cleared me of that part by a way I did not understand; for he came
to me one morning with two sailors, and told me they must search me, to
bear witness that I was not a Turk. I was amazed at them, and frighted,
and did not understand them, nor could I imagine what they intended to
do to me. However, stripping me, they were soon satisfied, and Father
Antony bade me be easy, for they could all witness that I was no Turk.
So I escaped that part of my master's cruelty.
And now I resolved from that time to run away from him if I could, but
there was no doing of it there, for there were not ships of any nation
in the world in that port, except two or three Persian vessels from
Ormus, so that if I had offered to go away from him, he would have had
me seized on shore, and brought on board by force; so that I had no
remedy but patience. And this he brought to an end too as soon as he
could, for after this he began to use me ill, and not only to straiten
my provisions, but to beat and torture me in a barbarous manner for
every trifle, so that, in a word, my life began to be very miserable.
The violence of this usage of me, and the impossibility of my escape
from his hands, set my head a-working upon all sorts of mischief, and in
particular I resolved, after studying all other ways to deliver myself,
and finding all ineffectual, I say, I resolved to murder him. With this
hellish resolution in my head, I spent whole nights and days contriving
how to put it in execution, the devil prompting me very warmly to the
fact. I was indeed entirely at a loss for the means, for I had neither
gun or sword, nor any weapon to assault him with; poison I had my
thoughts much upon, but knew not where to get any; or, if I might have
got it, I did not know the country word for it, or by what name to ask
for it.
In this manner I quitted the fact, intentionally, a hundred and a
hundred times; but Providence, either for his sake or for mine, always
frustrated my designs, and I could never bring it to pass; so I was
obliged to continue in his chains till the ship, having taken in her
loading, set sail for Portugal.
I can say nothing here to the manner of our voyage, for, as I said, I
kept no journal; but this I can give an account of, that having been
once as high as the Cape of Good Hope, as we call it, or Cabo de Bona
Speranza, as they call it, we were driven back again by a violent storm
from the W.S.W., which held us six days and nights a great way to the
eastward, and after that, standing afore the wind for several days more,
we at last came to an anchor on the coast of Madagascar.
The storm had been so violent that the ship had received a great deal of
damage, and it required some time to repair her; so, standing in nearer
the shore, the pilot, my master, brought the ship into a very good
harbour, where we rid in twenty-six fathoms water, about half a mile
from the shore.
While the ship rode here there happened a most desperate mutiny among
the men, upon account of some deficiency in their allowance, which came
to that height that they threatened the captain to set him on shore, and
go back with the ship to Goa. I wished they would with all my heart,
for I was full of mischief in my head, and ready enough to do any. So,
though I was but a boy, as they called me, yet I prompted the mischief
all I could, and embarked in it so openly, that I escaped very little
being hanged in the first and most early part of my life; for the
captain had some notice that there was a design laid by some of the
company to murder him; and having, partly by money and promises, and
partly by threatening and torture, brought two fellows to confess the
particulars, and the names of the persons concerned, they were presently
apprehended, till, one accusing another, no less than sixteen men were
seized and put into irons, whereof I was one.
The captain, who was made desperate by his danger, resolving to clear
the ship of his enemies, tried us all, and we were all condemned to die.
The manner of his process I was too young to take notice of; but the
purser and one of the gunners were hanged immediately, and I expected it
with the rest. I do not remember any great concern I was under about it,
only that I cried very much, for I knew little then of this world, and
nothing at all of the next.
However, the captain contented himself with executing these two, and
some of the rest, upon their humble submission and promise of future
good behaviour, were pardoned; but five were ordered to be set on shore
on the island and left there, of which I was one. My master used all his
interest with the captain to have me excused, but could not obtain it;
for somebody having told him that I was one of them who was singled out
to have killed him, when my master desired I might not be set on shore,
the captain told him I should stay on board if he desired it, but then
I should be hanged, so he might choose for me which he thought best. The
captain, it seems, was particularly provoked at my being concerned in
the treachery, because of his having been so kind to me, and of his
having singled me out to serve him, as I have said above; and this,
perhaps, obliged him to give my master such a rough choice, either
to set me on shore or to have me hanged on board. And had my master,
indeed, known what good-will I had for him, he would not have been long
in choosing for me; for I had certainly determined to do him a mischief
the first opportunity I had for it. This was, therefore, a good
providence for me to keep me from dipping my hands in blood, and it made
me more tender afterwards in matters of blood than I believe I should
otherwise have been. But as to my being one of them that was to kill
the captain, that I was wronged in, for I was not the person, but it was
really one of them that were pardoned, he having the good luck not to
have that part discovered.
I was now to enter upon a part of independent life, a thing I was indeed
very ill prepared to manage, for I was perfectly loose and dissolute
in my behaviour, bold and wicked while I was under government, and now
perfectly unfit to be trusted with liberty, for I was as ripe for any
villainy as a young fellow that had no solid thought ever placed in his
mind could be supposed to be. Education, as you have heard, I had none;
and all the little scenes of life I had passed through had been full
of dangers and desperate circumstances; but I was either so young or so
stupid, that I escaped the grief and anxiety of them, for want of having
a sense of their tendency and consequences.
This thoughtless, unconcerned temper had one felicity indeed in it, that
it made me daring and ready for doing any mischief, and kept off the
sorrow which otherwise ought to have attended me when I fell into any
mischief; that this stupidity was instead of a happiness to me, for it
left my thoughts free to act upon means of escape and deliverance in my
distress, however great it might be; whereas my companions in the misery
were so sunk by their fear and grief, that they abandoned themselves to
the misery of their condition, and gave over all thought but of their
perishing and starving, being devoured by wild beasts, murdered, and
perhaps eaten by cannibals, and the like.
I was but a young fellow, about seventeen or eighteen; but hearing what
was to be my fate, I received it with no appearance of discouragement;
but I asked what my master said to it, and being told that he had used
his utmost interest to save me, but the captain had answered I should
either go on shore or be hanged on board, which he pleased, I then gave
over all hope of being received again. I was not very thankful in my
thoughts to my master for his soliciting the captain for me, because I
knew that what he did was not in kindness to me so much as in kindness
to himself; I mean, to preserve the wages which he got for me, which
amounted to above six dollars a month, including what the captain
allowed him for my particular service to him.
When I understood that my master was so apparently kind, I asked if I
might not be admitted to speak with him, and they told me I might, if my
master would come down to me, but I could not be allowed to come up to
him; so then I desired my master might be spoke to to come to me, and he
accordingly came to me. I fell on my knees to him, and begged he would
forgive me what I had done to displease him; and indeed the resolution
I had taken to murder him lay with some horror upon my mind just at
that time, so that I was once just a-going to confess it, and beg him
to forgive me, but I kept it in. He told me he had done all he could to
obtain my pardon of the captain, but could not and he knew no way for me
but to have patience, and submit to my fate; and if they came to speak
with any ship of their nation at the Cape, he would endeavour to have
them stand in, and fetch us off again, if we might be found.
Then I begged I might have my clothes on shore with me. He told me he
was afraid I should have little need of clothes, for he did not see how
we could long subsist on the island, and that he had been told that the
inhabitants were cannibals or men-eaters (though he had no reason for
that suggestion), and we should not be able to live among them. I
told him I was not so afraid of that as I was of starving for want of
victuals; and as for the inhabitants being cannibals, I believed we
should be more likely to eat them than they us, if we could but get at
them. But I was mightily concerned, I said, we should have no weapons
with us to defend ourselves, and I begged nothing now, but that he would
give me a gun and a sword, with a little powder and shot.
He smiled, and said they would signify nothing to us, for it was
impossible for us to pretend to preserve our lives among such a populous
and desperate nation as the people of this island were. I told him that,
however, it would do us this good, for we should not be devoured or
destroyed immediately; so I begged hard for the gun. At last he told me
he did not know whether the captain would give him leave to give me a
gun, and if not, he durst not do it; but he promised to use his interest
to obtain it for me, which he did, and the next day he sent me a gun,
with some ammunition, but told me the captain would not suffer the
ammunition to be given us till we were set all on shore, and till he
was just going to set sail. He also sent me the few clothes I had in the
ship, which indeed were not many.
Two days after this, we were all carried on shore together; the rest
of my fellow-criminals hearing I had a gun, and some powder and shot,
solicited for liberty to carry the like with them, which was also
granted them; and thus we were set on shore to shift for ourselves.
At our first coming into the island we were terrified exceedingly with
the sight of the barbarous people, whose figure was made more terrible
to us than it really was by the report we had of them from the seamen;
but when we came to converse with them awhile, we found they were not
cannibals, as was reported, or such as would fall immediately upon us
and eat us up; but they came and sat down by us, and wondered much at
our clothes and arms, and made signs to give us some victuals, such as
they had, which was only roots and plants dug out of the ground for the
present, but they brought us fowls and flesh afterwards in good plenty.
This encouraged the other four men that were with me very much, for they
were quite dejected before; but now they began to be very familiar with
them, and made signs, that if they would use us kindly, we would stay
and live with them; which they seemed glad of, though they knew little
of the necessity we were under to do so, or how much we were afraid of
them.
However, upon second thoughts we resolved that we would only stay in
that part so long as the ship rid in the bay, and then making them
believe we were gone with the ship, we would go and place ourselves, if
possible, where there were no inhabitants to be seen, and so live as we
could, or perhaps watch for a ship that might be driven upon the coast
as we were.
The ship continued a fortnight in the roads, repairing some damage which
had been done her in the late storm, and taking in wood and water; and
during this time, the boat coming often on shore, the men brought us
several refreshments, and the natives believing we only belonged to the
ship, were civil enough. We lived in a kind of a tent on the shore, or
rather a hut, which we made with the boughs of trees, and sometimes in
the night retired to a wood a little out of their way, to let them
think we were gone on board the ship. However, we found them barbarous,
treacherous, and villainous enough in their nature, only civil from
fear, and therefore concluded we should soon fall into their hands when
the ship was gone.
The sense of this wrought upon my fellow-sufferers even to distraction;
and one of them, being a carpenter, in his mad fit, swam off to the ship
in the night, though she lay then a league to sea, and made such pitiful
moan to be taken in, that the captain was prevailed with at last to take
him in, though they let him lie swimming three hours in the water before
he consented to it.
Upon this, and his humble submission, the captain received him, and, in
a word, the importunity of this man (who for some time petitioned to be
taken in, though they hanged him as soon as they had him) was such as
could not be resisted; for, after he had swam so long about the ship,
he was not able to reach the shore again; and the captain saw evidently
that the man must be taken on board or suffered to drown, and the whole
ship's company offering to be bound for him for his good behaviour, the
captain at last yielded, and he was taken up, but almost dead with his
being so long in the water.
When this man was got in, he never left importuning the captain, and all
the rest of the officers, in behalf of us that were behind, but to
the very last day the captain was inexorable; when, at the time their
preparations were making to sail, and orders given to hoist the boats
into the ship, all the seamen in a body came up to the rail of the
quarter-deck, where the captain was walking with some of his officers,
and appointing the boatswain to speak for them, he went up, and falling
on his knees to the captain, begged of him, in the humblest manner
possible, to receive the four men on board again, offering to answer for
their fidelity, or to have them kept in chains till they came to Lisbon,
and there to be delivered up to justice, rather than, as they said, to
have them left to be murdered by savages, or devoured by wild beasts. It
was a great while ere the captain took any notice of them, but when he
did, he ordered the boatswain to be seized, and threatened to bring him
to the capstan for speaking for them.
Upon this severity, one of the seamen, bolder than the rest, but still
with all possible respect to the captain, besought his honour, as he
called him, that he would give leave to some more of them to go on
shore, and die with their companions, or, if possible, to assist them
to resist the barbarians. The captain, rather provoked than cowed with
this, came to the barricade of the quarter-deck, and speaking very
prudently to the men (for had he spoken roughly, two-thirds of them
would have left the ship, if not all of them), he told them, it was
for their safety as well as his own that he had been obliged to that
severity; that mutiny on board a ship was the same thing as treason in a
king's palace, and he could not answer it to his owners and employers
to trust the ship and goods committed to his charge with men who had
entertained thoughts of the worst and blackest nature; that he wished
heartily that it had been anywhere else that they had been set on shore,
where they might have been in less hazard from the savages; that, if he
had designed they should be destroyed, he could as well have executed
them on board as the other two; that he wished it had been in some other
part of the world, where he might have delivered them up to the civil
justice, or might have left them among Christians; but it was better
their lives were put in hazard than his life, and the safety of the
ship; and that though he did not know that he had deserved so ill of any
of them as that they should leave the ship rather than do their duty,
yet if any of them were resolved to do so unless he would consent to
take a gang of traitors on board, who, as he had proved before them
all, had conspired to murder him, he would not hinder them, nor for the
present would he resent their importunity; but, if there was nobody left
in the ship but himself, he would never consent to take them on board.
This discourse was delivered so well, was in itself so reasonable, was
managed with so much temper, yet so boldly concluded with a negative,
that the greatest part of the men were satisfied for the present.
However, as it put the men into juntos and cabals, they were not
composed for some hours; the wind also slackening towards night, the
captain ordered not to weigh till next morning.
The same night twenty-three of the men, among whom was the gunner's
mate, the surgeon's assistant, and two carpenters, applying to the chief
mate told him, that as the captain had given them leave to go on shore
to their comrades, they begged that he would speak to the captain not to
take it ill that they were desirous to go and die with their companions;
and that they thought they could do no less in such an extremity than
go to them; because, if there was any way to save their lives, it was
by adding to their numbers, and making them strong enough to assist one
another in defending themselves against the savages, till perhaps they
might one time or other find means to make their escape, and get to
their own country again.
The mate told them, in so many words, that he durst not speak to the
captain upon any such design, and was very sorry they had no more
respect for him than to desire him to go upon such an errand; but, if
they were resolved upon such an enterprise, he would advise them to take
the long-boat in the morning betimes, and go off, seeing the captain had
given them leave, and leave a civil letter behind them to the captain,
and to desire him to send his men on shore for the boat, which should be
delivered very honestly, and he promised to keep their counsel so long.
Accordingly, an hour before day, those twenty-three men, with every
man a firelock and a cutlass, with some pistols, three halberds or
half-pikes, and good store of powder and ball, without any provision but
about half a hundred of bread, but with all their chests and clothes,
tools, instruments, books, &c., embarked themselves so silently, that
the captain got no notice of it till they were gotten half the way on
shore.
As soon as the captain heard of it he called for the gunner's mate, the
chief gunner being at the time sick in his cabin, and ordered to fire at
them; but, to his great mortification, the gunner's mate was one of the
number, and was gone with them; and indeed it was by this means they got
so many arms and so much ammunition. When the captain found how it was,
and that there was no help for it, he began to be a little appeased, and
made light of it, and called up the men, and spoke kindly to them, and
told them he was very well satisfied in the fidelity and ability of
those that were now left, and that he would give to them, for their
encouragement, to be divided among them, the wages which were due to the
men that were gone, and that it was a great satisfaction to him that the
ship was free from such a mutinous rabble, who had not the least reason
for their discontent.
The men seemed very well satisfied, and particularly the promise of the
wages of those who were gone went a great way with them. After this, the
letter which was left by the men was given to the captain by his boy,
with whom, it seems, the men had left it. The letter was much to the
same purpose of what they had said to the mate, and which he declined to
say for them, only that at the end of their letter they told the captain
that, as they had no dishonest design, so they had taken nothing away
with them which was not their own, except some arms and ammunition, such
as were absolutely necessary to them, as well for their defence against
the savages as to kill fowls or beasts for their food, that they might
not perish; and as there were considerable sums due to them for wages,
they hoped he would allow the arms and ammunition upon their accounts.
They told him that, as to the ship's longboat, which they had taken to
bring them on shore, they knew it was necessary to him, and they were
very willing to restore it to him, and if he pleased to send for it, it
should be very honestly delivered to his men, and not the least injury
offered to any of those who came for it, nor the least persuasion or
invitation made use of to any of them to stay with them; and, at the
bottom of the letter, they very humbly besought him that, for their
defence, and for the safety of their lives, he would be pleased to send
them a barrel of powder and some ammunition, and give them leave to keep
the mast and sail of the boat, that if it was possible for them to make
themselves a boat of any kind, they might shift off to sea, to save
themselves in such part of the world as their fate should direct them
to.
Upon this the captain, who had won much upon the rest of his men by what
he had said to them, and was very easy as to the general peace (for it
was very true that the most mutinous of the men were gone), came out
to the quarter-deck, and, calling the men together, let them know the
substance of the letter, and told the men that, however they had not
deserved such civility from him, yet he was not willing to expose them
more than they were willing to expose themselves; he was inclined to
send them some ammunition, and as they had desired but one barrel of
powder, he would send them two barrels, and shot, or lead and moulds to
make shot, in proportion; and, to let them see that he was civiller to
them than they deserved, he ordered a cask of arrack and a great bag
of bread to be sent them for subsistence till they should be able to
furnish themselves.
The rest of the men applauded the captain's generosity, and every one
of them sent us something or other, and about three in the afternoon the
pinnace came on shore, and brought us all these things, which we were
very glad of, and returned the long-boat accordingly; and as to the men
that came with the pinnace, as the captain had singled out such men as
he knew would not come over to us, so they had positive orders not to
bring any one of us on board again, upon pain of death; and indeed both
were so true to our points, that we neither asked them to stay, nor they
us to go.
We were now a good troop, being in all twenty-seven men, very well
armed, and provided with everything but victuals; we had two carpenters
among us, a gunner, and, which was worth all the rest, a surgeon or
doctor; that is to say, he was an assistant to a surgeon at Goa, and was
entertained as a supernumerary with us. The carpenters had brought all
their tools, the doctor all his instruments and medicines, and indeed we
had a great deal of baggage, that is to say, on the whole, for some of
us had little more than the clothes on our backs, of whom I was one;
but I had one thing which none of them had, viz., I had the twenty-two
moidores of gold which I had stole at the Brazils, and two pieces of
eight. The two pieces of eight I showed, and one moidore, and none of
them ever suspected that I had any more money in the world, having been
known to be only a poor boy taken up in charity, as you have heard,
and used like a slave, and in the worst manner of a slave, by my cruel
master the pilot.
It will be easy to imagine we four that were left at first were joyful,
nay, even surprised with joy at the coming of the rest, though at first
we were frighted, and thought they came to fetch us back to hang us;
but they took ways quickly to satisfy us that they were in the same
condition with us, only with this additional circumstance, theirs was
voluntary, and ours by force.
The first piece of news they told us after the short history of their
coming away was, that our companion was on board, but how he got
thither we could not imagine, for he had given us the slip, and we never
imagined he could swim so well as to venture off to the ship, which lay
at so great a distance; nay, we did not so much as know that he could
swim at all, and not thinking anything of what really happened, we
thought he must have wandered into the woods and was devoured, or
was fallen into the hands of the natives, and was murdered; and these
thoughts filled us with fears enough, and of several kinds, about its
being some time or other our lot to fall into their hands also. But
hearing how he had with much difficulty been received on board the ship
again and pardoned, we were much better satisfied than before.
Being now, as I have said, a considerable number of us, and in condition
to defend ourselves, the first thing we did was to give every one his
hand that we would not separate from one another upon any occasion
whatsoever, but that we would live and die together; that we would kill
no food, but that we would distribute it in public; and that we would
be in all things guided by the majority, and not insist upon our own
resolutions in anything if the majority were against it; that we would
appoint a captain among us to be our governor or leader during pleasure;
that while he was in office we would obey him without reserve, on pain
of death; and that every one should take turn, but the captain was not
to act in any particular thing without advice of the rest, and by the
majority.
Having established these rules, we resolved to enter into some measures
for our food, and for conversing with the inhabitants or natives of the
island for our supply. As for food, they were at first very useful to
us, but we soon grew weary of them, being an ignorant, ravenous, brutish
sort of people, even worse than the natives of any other country that we
had seen; and we soon found that the principal part of our subsistence
was to be had by our guns, shooting of deer and other creatures, and
fowls of all other sorts, of which there is abundance.
We found the natives did not disturb or concern themselves much about
us; nor did they inquire, or perhaps know, whether we stayed among them
or not, much less that our ship was gone quite away, and had cast us
off, as was our case; for the next morning, after we had sent back the
long-boat, the ship stood away to the south-east, and in four hours'
time was out of our sight.
The next day two of us went out into the country one way, and two
another, to see what kind of a land we were in; and we soon found the
country was very pleasant and fruitful, and a convenient place enough
to live in; but, as before, inhabited by a parcel of creatures scarce
human, or capable of being made social on any account whatsoever.
We found the place full of cattle and provisions; but whether we might
venture to take them where we could find them or not, we did not know;
and though we were under a necessity to get provisions, yet we were loth
to bring down a whole nation of devils upon us at once, and therefore
some of our company agreed to try to speak with some of the country,
if we could, that we might see what course was to be taken with them.
Eleven of our men went on this errand, well armed and furnished for
defence. They brought word that they had seen some of the natives, who
appeared very civil to them, but very shy and afraid, seeing their guns,
for it was easy to perceive that the natives knew what their guns were,
and what use they were of.
They made signs to the natives for some food, and they went and fetched
several herbs and roots, and some milk; but it was evident they did not
design to give it away, but to sell it, making signs to know what our
men would give them.
Our men were perplexed at this, for they had nothing to barter; however,
one of the men pulled out a knife and showed them, and they were so fond
of it that they were ready to go together by the ears for the knife. The
seaman seeing that, was willing to make a good market of his knife, and
keeping them chaffering about it a good while, some offered him roots,
and others milk; at last one offered him a goat for it, which he took.
Then another of our men showed them another knife, but they had nothing
good enough for that, whereupon one of them made signs that he would
go and fetch something; so our men stayed three hours for their return,
when they came back and brought him a small-sized, thick, short cow,
very fat and good meat, and gave him for his knife.
This was a good market, but our misfortune was we had no merchandise;
for our knives were as needful to us as to them, and but that we were in
distress for food, and must of necessity have some, these men would not
have parted with their knives.
However, in a little time more we found that the woods were full of
living creatures, which we might kill for our food, and that without
giving offence to them; so that our men went daily out a-hunting, and
never failed in killing something or other; for, as to the natives, we
had no goods to barter; and for money, all the stock among us would not
have subsisted us long. However, we called a general council to see what
money we had, and to bring it all together, that it might go as far as
possible; and when it came to my turn, I pulled out a moidore and the
two dollars I spoke of before.
This moidore I ventured to show, that they might not despise me too much
for adding too little to the store, and that they might not pretend to
search me; and they were very civil to me, upon the presumption that I
had been so faithful to them as not to conceal anything from them.
But our money did us little service, for the people neither knew
the value or the use of it, nor could they justly rate the gold in
proportion with the silver; so that all our money, which was not much
when it was all put together, would go but a little way with us, that is
to say, to buy us provisions.
Our next consideration was to get away from this cursed place, and
whither to go. When my opinion came to be asked, I told them I would
leave that all to them, and I told them I had rather they would let me
go into the woods to get them some provisions, than consult with me, for
I would agree to whatever they did; but they would not agree to that,
for they would not consent that any of us should go into the woods
alone; for though we had yet seen no lions or tigers in the woods, we
were assured there were many in the island, besides other creatures
as dangerous, and perhaps worse, as we afterwards found by our own
experience.
We had many adventures in the woods, for our provisions, and often met
with wild and terrible beasts, which we could not call by their names;
but as they were, like us, seeking their prey, but were themselves good
for nothing, so we disturbed them as little as possible.
Our consultations concerning our escape from this place, which, as I
have said, we were now upon, ended in this only, that as we had two
carpenters among us, and that they had tools almost of all sorts with
them, we should try to build us a boat to go off to sea with, and that
then, perhaps, we might find our way back to Goa, or land on some more
proper place to make our escape. The counsels of this assembly were
not of great moment, yet as they seem to be introductory of many more
remarkable adventures which happened under my conduct hereabouts many
years after, I think this miniature of my future enterprises may not be
unpleasant to relate.
To the building of a boat I made no objection, and away they went to
work immediately; but as they went on, great difficulties occurred,
such as the want of saws to cut our plank; nails, bolts, and spikes, to
fasten the timbers; hemp, pitch, and tar, to caulk and pay her seams,
and the like. At length, one of the company proposed that, instead of
building a bark or sloop, or shallop, or whatever they would call
it, which they found was so difficult, they would rather make a large
periagua, or canoe, which might be done with great ease.
It was presently objected, that we could never make a canoe large enough
to pass the great ocean, which we were to go over to get to the coast
of Malabar; that it not only would not bear the sea, but it would never
bear the burden, for we were not only twenty-seven men of us, but had
a great deal of luggage with us, and must, for our provision, take in a
great deal more.
I never proposed to speak in their general consultations before, but
finding they were at some loss about what kind of vessel they should
make, and how to make it, and what would be fit for our use, and what
not, I told them I found they were at a full stop in their counsels of
every kind; that it was true we could never pretend to go over to Goa on
the coast of Malabar in a canoe, which though we could all get into
it, and that it would bear the sea well enough, yet would not hold our
provisions, and especially we could not put fresh water enough into it
for the voyage; and to make such an adventure would be nothing but mere
running into certain destruction, and yet that nevertheless I was for
making a canoe.
They answered, that they understood all I had said before well enough,
but what I meant by telling them first how dangerous and impossible
it was to make our escape in a canoe, and yet then to advise making a
canoe, that they could not understand.
To this I answered, that I conceived our business was not to attempt our
escape in a canoe, but that, as there were other vessels at sea besides
our ship, and that there were few nations that lived on the sea-shore
that were so barbarous, but that they went to sea in some boats or
other, our business was to cruise along the coast of the island, which
was very long, and to seize upon the first we could get that was better
than our own, and so from that to another, till perhaps we might at last
get a good ship to carry us wherever we pleased to go.
"Excellent advice," says one of them. "Admirable advice," says another.
"Yes, yes," says the third (which was the gunner), "the English dog has
given excellent advice; but it is just the way to bring us all to
the gallows. The rogue has given us devilish advice, indeed, to go
a-thieving, till from a little vessel we came to a great ship, and so we
shall turn downright pirates, the end of which is to be hanged."
"You may call us pirates," says another, "if you will, and if we fall
into bad hands, we may be used like pirates; but I care not for that,
I'll be a pirate, or anything, nay, I'll be hanged for a pirate rather
than starve here, therefore I think the advice is very good." And so
they cried all, "Let us have a canoe." The gunner, over-ruled by the
rest, submitted; but as we broke up the council, he came to me, takes
me by the hand, and, looking into the palm of my hand, and into my face
too, very gravely, "My lad," says he, "thou art born to do a world of
mischief; thou hast commenced pirate very young; but have a care of
the gallows, young man; have a care, I say, for thou wilt be an eminent
thief."
I laughed at him, and told him I did not know what I might come to
hereafter, but as our case was now, I should make no scruple to take the
first ship I came at to get our liberty; I only wished we could see one,
and come at her. Just while we were talking, one of our men that was at
the door of our hut, told us that the carpenter, who it seems was upon a
hill at a distance, cried out, "A sail! a sail!"
We all turned out immediately; but, though it was very clear weather,
we could see nothing; but the carpenter continuing to halloo to us, "A
sail! a sail!" away we run up the hill, and there we saw a ship plainly;
but it was at a very great distance, too far for us to make any signal
to her. However, we made a fire upon the hill, with all the wood we
could get together, and made as much smoke as possible. The wind was
down, and it was almost calm; but as we thought, by a perspective glass
which the gunner had in his pocket, her sails were full, and she stood
away large with the wind at E.N.E., taking no notice of our signal, but
making for the Cape de Bona Speranza; so we had no comfort from her.
We went, therefore, immediately to work about our intended canoe; and,
having singled out a very large tree to our minds, we fell to work with
her; and having three good axes among us, we got it down, but it was
four days' time first, though we worked very hard too. I do not remember
what wood it was, or exactly what dimensions, but I remember that it was
a very large one, and we were as much encouraged when we launched it,
and found it swam upright and steady, as we would have been at another
time if we had had a good man-of-war at our command.
She was so very large, that she carried us all very, very easily, and
would have carried two or three tons of baggage with us; so that we
began to consult about going to sea directly to Goa; but many other
considerations checked that thought, especially when we came to look
nearer into it; such as want of provisions, and no casks for fresh
water; no compass to steer by; no shelter from the breach of the high
sea, which would certainly founder us; no defence from the heat of the
weather, and the like; so that they all came readily into my project, to
cruise about where we were, and see what might offer.
Accordingly, to gratify our fancy, we went one day all out to sea in her
together, and we were in a very fair way to have had enough of it;
for when she had us all on board, and that we were gotten about half
a league to sea, there happening to be a pretty high swell of the sea,
though little or no wind, yet she wallowed so in the sea, that we all of
us thought she would at last wallow herself bottom up; so we set all
to work to get her in nearer the shore, and giving her fresh way in the
sea, she swam more steady, and with some hard work we got her under the
land again.
We were now at a great loss; the natives were civil enough to us, and
came often to discourse with us; one time they brought one whom they
showed respect to as a king with them, and they set up a long pole
between them and us, with a great tassel of hair hanging, not on the
top, but something above the middle of it, adorned with little chains,
shells, bits of brass, and the like; and this, we understood afterwards,
was a token of amity and friendship; and they brought down to us
victuals in abundance, cattle, fowls, herbs, and roots; but we were in
the utmost confusion on our side; for we had nothing to buy with, or
exchange for; and as to giving us things for nothing they had no notion
of that again. As to our money, it was mere trash to them, they had no
value for it; so that we were in a fair way to be starved. Had we had
but some toys and trinkets, brass chains, baubles, glass beads, or, in
a word, the veriest trifles that a shipload of would not have been worth
the freight, we might have bought cattle and provisions enough for an
army, or to victual a fleet of men-of-war; but for gold or silver we
could get nothing.
Upon this we were in a strange consternation. I was but a young fellow,
but I was for falling upon them with our firearms, and taking all the
cattle from them, and send them to the devil to stop their hunger,
rather than be starved ourselves; but I did not consider that this might
have brought ten thousand of them down upon us the next day; and though
we might have killed a vast number of them, and perhaps have frighted
the rest, yet their own desperation, and our small number, would have
animated them so that, one time or other, they would have destroyed us
all.
In the middle of our consultation, one of our men who had been a kind
of a cutler, or worker in iron, started up and asked the carpenter if,
among all his tools, he could not help him to a file. "Yes," says the
carpenter, "I can, but it is a small one." "The smaller the better,"
says the other. Upon this he goes to work, and first by heating a piece
of an old broken chisel in the fire, and then with the help of his file,
he made himself several kinds of tools for his work. Then he takes three
or four pieces of eight, and beats them out with a hammer upon a stone,
till they were very broad and thin; then he cuts them out into the shape
of birds and beasts; he made little chains of them for bracelets and
necklaces, and turned them into so many devices of his own head, that it
is hardly to be expressed.
When he had for about a fortnight exercised his head and hands at this
work, we tried the effect of his ingenuity; and, having another meeting
with the natives, were surprised to see the folly of the poor people.
For a little bit of silver cut in the shape of a bird, we had two cows,
and, which was our loss, if it had been in brass, it had been still of
more value. For one of the bracelets made of chain-work, we had as much
provision of several sorts, as would fairly have been worth, in England,
fifteen or sixteen pounds; and so of all the rest. Thus, that which when
it was in coin was not worth sixpence to us, when thus converted
into toys and trifles, was worth a hundred times its real value, and
purchased for us anything we had occasion for.
In this condition we lived upwards of a year, but all of us began to be
very much tired of it, and, whatever came of it, resolved to attempt
an escape. We had furnished ourselves with no less than three very
good canoes; and as the monsoons, or trade-winds, generally affect that
country, blowing in most parts of this island one six months of a year
one way, and the other six months another way, we concluded we might be
able to bear the sea well enough. But always, when we came to look into
it, the want of fresh water was the thing that put us off from such an
adventure, for it is a prodigious length, and what no man on earth could
be able to perform without water to drink.
Being thus prevailed upon by our own reason to set the thoughts of that
voyage aside, we had then but two things before us; one was, to put to
sea the other way; viz., west, and go away for the Cape of Good Hope,
where, first or last, we should meet with some of our own country ships,
or else to put for the mainland of Africa, and either travel by land,
or sail along the coast towards the Red Sea, where we should, first or
last, find a ship of some nation or other, that would take us up; or
perhaps we might take them up, which, by-the-bye, was the thing that
always ran in my head.
It was our ingenious cutler, whom ever after we called silversmith, that
proposed this; but the gunner told him, that he had been in the Red Sea
in a Malabar sloop, and he knew this, that if we went into the Red Sea,
we should either be killed by the wild Arabs, or taken and made slaves
of by the Turks; and therefore he was not for going that way.
Upon this I took occasion to put in my vote again. "Why," said I, "do we
talk of being killed by the Arabs, or made slaves of by the Turks? Are
we not able to board almost any vessel we shall meet with in those seas;
and, instead of their taking us, we to take them?" "Well done, pirate,"
said the gunner (he that had looked in my hand, and told me I should
come to the gallows), "I'll say that for him," says he, "he always looks
the same way. But I think, of my conscience, it is our only way now."
"Don't tell me," says I, "of being a pirate; we must be pirates, or
anything, to get fairly out of this cursed place."
In a word, they concluded all, by my advice, that our business was to
cruise for anything we could see. "Why then," said I to them, "our first
business is to see if the people upon this island have no navigation,
and what boats they use; and, if they have any better or bigger than
ours, let us take one of them." First, indeed, all our aim was to get,
if possible, a boat with a deck and a sail; for then we might have saved
our provisions, which otherwise we could not.
We had, to our great good fortune, one sailor among us, who had been
assistant to the cook; he told us, that he would find a way how to
preserve our beef without cask or pickle; and this he did effectually
by curing it in the sun, with the help of saltpetre, of which there was
great plenty in the island; so that, before we found any method for our
escape, we had dried the flesh of six or seven cows and bullocks,
and ten or twelve goats, and it relished so well, that we never gave
ourselves the trouble to boil it when we ate it, but either broiled it
or ate it dry. But our main difficulty about fresh water still remained;
for we had no vessel to put any into, much less to keep any for our
going to sea.
But our first voyage being only to coast the island, we resolved to
venture, whatever the hazard or consequence of it might be, and in order
to preserve as much fresh water as we could, our carpenter made a well
athwart the middle of one of our canoes, which he separated from the
other parts of the canoe, so as to make it tight to hold the water and
covered so as we might step upon it; and this was so large that it held
near a hogshead of water very well. I cannot better describe this well
than by the same kind which the small fishing-boats in England have to
preserve their fish alive in; only that this, instead of having holes to
let the salt water in, was made sound every way to keep it out; and it
was the first invention, I believe, of its kind for such an use; but
necessity is a spur to ingenuity and the mother of invention.
It wanted but a little consultation to resolve now upon our voyage. The
first design was only to coast it round the island, as well to see if we
could seize upon any vessel fit to embark ourselves in, as also to take
hold of any opportunity which might present for our passing over to the
main; and therefore our resolution was to go on the inside or west shore
of the island, where, at least at one point, the land stretching a great
way to the north-west, the distance is not extraordinary great from the
island to the coast of Africa.
Such a voyage, and with such a desperate crew, I believe was never made,
for it is certain we took the worst side of the island to look for any
shipping, especially for shipping of other nations, this being quite out
of the way; however, we put to sea, after taking all our provisions and
ammunition, bag and baggage, on board; we had made both mast and sail
for our two large periaguas, and the other we paddled along as well as
we could; but when a gale sprung up, we took her in tow.
We sailed merrily forward for several days, meeting with nothing to
interrupt us. We saw several of the natives in small canoes catching
fish, and sometimes we endeavoured to come near enough to speak with
them, but they were always shy and afraid of us, making in for the
shore as soon as we attempted it; till one of our company remembered the
signal of friendship which the natives made us from the south part of
the island, viz., of setting up a long pole, and put us in mind that
perhaps it was the same thing to them as a flag of truce to us. So we
resolved to try it; and accordingly the next time we saw any of their
fishing-boats at sea we put up a pole in our canoe that had no sail, and
rowed towards them. As soon as they saw the pole they stayed for us, and
as we came nearer paddled towards us; when they came to us they showed
themselves very much pleased, and gave us some large fish, of which we
did not know the names, but they were very good. It was our misfortune
still that we had nothing to give them in return; but our artist, of
whom I spoke before, gave them two little thin plates of silver, beaten,
as I said before, out of a piece of eight; they were cut in a diamond
square, longer one way than the other, and a hole punched at one of the
longest corners. This they were so fond of that they made us stay till
they had cast their lines and nets again, and gave us as many fish as we
cared to have.
All this while we had our eyes upon their boats, viewed them very
narrowly, and examined whether any of them were fit for our turn, but
they were poor, sorry things; their sail was made of a large mat, only
one that was of a piece of cotton stuff fit for little, and their ropes
were twisted flags of no strength; so we concluded we were better as
we were, and let them alone. We went forward to the north, keeping the
coast close on board for twelve days together, and having the wind at
east and E.S.E., we made very fresh way. We saw no towns on the shore,
but often saw some huts by the water-side upon the rocks, and always
abundance of people about them, who we could perceive run together to
stare at us.
It was as odd a voyage as ever man went; we were a little fleet of three
ships, and an army of between twenty and thirty as dangerous fellows as
ever they had amongst them; and had they known what we were, they would
have compounded to give us everything we desired to be rid of us.
On the other hand, we were as miserable as nature could well make us to
be, for we were upon a voyage and no voyage, we were bound somewhere and
nowhere; for though we knew what we intended to do, we did really not
know what we were doing. We went forward and forward by a northerly
course, and as we advanced the heat increased, which began to be
intolerable to us, who were on the water, without any covering from heat
or wet; besides, we were now in the month of October, or thereabouts,
in a southern latitude; and as we went every day nearer the sun, the sun
came also every day nearer to us, till at last we found ourselves in the
latitude of 20 degrees; and having passed the tropic about five or six
days before that, in a few days more the sun would be in the zenith,
just over our heads.
Upon these considerations we resolved to seek for a good place to go on
shore again, and pitch our tents, till the heat of the weather abated.
We had by this time measured half the length of the island, and were
come to that part where the shore tending away to the north-west,
promised fair to make our passage over to the mainland of Africa much
shorter than we expected. But, notwithstanding that, we had good reason
to believe it was about 120 leagues.
So, the heats considered, we resolved to take harbour; besides, our
provisions were exhausted, and we had not many days' store left.
Accordingly, putting in for the shore early in the morning, as we
usually did once in three or four days for fresh water, we sat down and
considered whether we would go on or take up our standing there; but
upon several considerations, too long to repeat here, we did not like
the place, so we resolved to go on a few days longer.
After sailing on N.W. by N. with a fresh gale at S.E., about six days,
we found, at a great distance, a large promontory or cape of land,
pushing out a long way into the sea, and as we were exceeding fond of
seeing what was beyond the cape, we resolved to double it before we took
into harbour, so we kept on our way, the gale continuing, and yet it
was four days more before we reached the cape. But it is not possible
to express the discouragement and melancholy that seized us all when
we came thither; for when we made the headland of the cape, we were
surprised to see the shore fall away on the other side as much as it had
advanced on this side, and a great deal more; and that, in short, if we
would venture over to the shore of Africa, it must be from hence, for
that if we went further, the breadth of the sea still increased, and to
what breadth it might increase we knew not.
While we mused upon this discovery, we were surprised with very bad
weather, and especially violent rains, with thunder and lightning,
most unusually terrible to us. In this pickle we run for the shore, and
getting under the lee of the cape, run our frigates into a little creek,
where we saw the land overgrown with trees, and made all the haste
possible to get on shore, being exceeding wet, and fatigued with the
heat, the thunder, lightning, and rain.
Here we thought our case was very deplorable indeed, and therefore our
artist, of whom I have spoken so often, set up a great cross of wood on
the hill which was within a mile of the headland, with these words, but
in the Portuguese language:--
"Point Desperation. Jesus have mercy."
We set to work immediately to build us some huts, and to get our clothes
dried; and though I was young and had no skill in such things, yet I
shall never forget the little city we built, for it was no less, and we
fortified it accordingly; and the idea is so fresh in my thought, that I
cannot but give a short description of it.
Our camp was on the south side of a little creek on the sea, and under
the shelter of a steep hill, which lay, though on the other side of
the creek, yet within a quarter of a mile of us, N.W. by N., and very
happily intercepted the heat of the sun all the after part of the day.
The spot we pitched on had a little fresh water brook, or a stream
running into the creek by us; and we saw cattle feeding in the plains
and low ground east and to the south of us a great way.
Here we set up twelve little huts like soldiers' tents, but made of the
boughs of trees stuck in the ground, and bound together on the top
with withies, and such other things as we could get; the creek was our
defence on the north, a little brook on the west, and the south and east
sides were fortified with a bank, which entirely covered our huts; and
being drawn oblique from the north-west to the south-east, made our city
a triangle. Behind the bank or line our huts stood, having three other
huts behind them at a good distance. In one of these, which was a little
one, and stood further off, we put our gunpowder, and nothing else, for
fear of danger; in the other, which was bigger, we dressed our victuals,
and put all our necessaries; and in the third, which was biggest of all,
we ate our dinners, called our councils, and sat and diverted ourselves
with such conversation as we had one with another, which was but
indifferent truly at that time.
Our correspondence with the natives was absolutely necessary, and our
artist the cutler having made abundance of those little diamond-cut
squares of silver, with these we made shift to traffic with the black
people for what we wanted; for indeed they were pleased wonderfully with
them, and thus we got plenty of provisions. At first, and in particular,
we got about fifty head of black cattle and goats, and our cook's mate
took care to cure them and dry them, salt and preserve them for our
grand supply; nor was this hard to do, the salt and saltpetre being very
good, and the sun excessively hot; and here we lived about four months.
The southern solstice was over, and the sun gone back towards the
equinoctial, when we considered of our next adventure, which was to go
over the sea of Zanguebar, as the Portuguese call it, and to land, if
possible, upon the continent of Africa.
We talked with many of the natives about it, such as we could make
ourselves intelligible to, but all that we could learn from them was,
that there was a great land of lions beyond the sea, but that it was a
great way off. We knew as well as they that it was a long way, but our
people differed mightily about it; some said it was 150 leagues, others
not above 100. One of our men, that had a map of the world, showed us
by his scale that it was not above eighty leagues. Some said there were
islands all the way to touch at, some that there were no islands at all.
For my own part, I knew nothing of this matter one way or another, but
heard it all without concern, whether it was near or far off; however,
this we learned from an old man who was blind and led about by a boy,
that if we stayed till the end of August, we should be sure of the wind
to be fair and the sea smooth all the voyage.
This was some encouragement; but staying again was very unwelcome news
to us, because that then the sun would be returning again to the south,
which was what our men were very unwilling to. At last we called a
council of our whole body; their debates were too tedious to take notice
of, only to note, that when it came to Captain Bob (for so they called
me ever since I had taken state upon me before one of their great
princes), truly I was on no side; it was not one farthing matter to me,
I told them, whether we went or stayed; I had no home, and all the world
was alike to me; so I left it entirely to them to determine.
In a word, they saw plainly there was nothing to be done where we were
without shipping; that if our business indeed was only to eat and drink,
we could not find a better place in the world; but if our business was
to get away, and get home into our country, we could not find a worse.
I confess I liked the country wonderfully, and even then had strange
notions of coming again to live there; and I used to say to them very
often that if I had but a ship of twenty guns, and a sloop, and both
well manned, I would not desire a better place in the world to make
myself as rich as a king.
But to return to the consultations they were in about going. Upon the
whole, it was resolved to venture over for the main; and venture we did,
madly enough, indeed, for it was the wrong time of the year to undertake
such a voyage in that country; for, as the winds hang easterly all the
months from September to March, so they generally hang westerly all the
rest of the year, and blew right in our teeth; so that, as soon as
we had, with a kind of a land-breeze, stretched over about fifteen or
twenty leagues, and, as I may say, just enough to lose ourselves, we
found the wind set in a steady fresh gale or breeze from the sea, at
west, W.S.W., or S.W. by W., and never further from the west; so that,
in a word, we could make nothing of it.
On the other hand, the vessel, such as we had, would not lie close upon
a wind; if so, we might have stretched away N.N.W., and have met with a
great many islands in our way, as we found afterwards; but we could make
nothing of it, though we tried, and by the trying had almost undone us
all; for, stretching away to the north, as near the wind as we could, we
had forgotten the shape and position of the island of Madagascar itself;
how that we came off at the head of a promontory or point of land, that
lies about the middle of the island, and that stretches out west a great
way into the sea; and that now, being run a matter of forty leagues to
the north, the shore of the island fell off again above 200 miles to the
east, so that we were by this time in the wide ocean, between the island
and the main, and almost 100 leagues from both.
Indeed, as the winds blew fresh at west, as before, we had a smooth sea,
and we found it pretty good going before it, and so, taking our smallest
canoe in tow, we stood in for the shore with all the sail we could make.
This was a terrible adventure, for, if the least gust of wind had come,
we had been all lost, our canoes being deep and in no condition to make
way in a high sea.
This voyage, however, held us eleven days in all; and at length, having
spent most of our provisions, and every drop of water we had, we spied
land, to our great joy, though at the distance of ten or eleven leagues;
and as, under the land, the wind came off like a land-breeze, and blew
hard against us, we were two days more before we reached the shore,
having all that while excessive hot weather, and not a drop of water or
any other liquor, except some cordial waters, which one of our company
had a little of left in a case of bottles.
This gave us a taste of what we should have done if we had ventured
forward with a scant wind and uncertain weather, and gave us a surfeit
of our design for the main, at least until we might have some better
vessels under us; so we went on shore again, and pitched our camp
as before, in as convenient manner as we could, fortifying ourselves
against any surprise; but the natives here were exceeding courteous,
and much more civil than on the south part of the island; and though we
could not understand what they said, or they us, yet we found means to
make them understand that we were seafaring men and strangers, and that
we were in distress for want of provisions.
The first proof we had of their kindness was, that as soon as they saw
us come on shore and begin to make our habitation, one of their captains
or kings, for we knew not what to call them, came down with five or six
men and some women, and brought us five goats and two young fat
steers, and gave them to us for nothing; and when we went to offer them
anything, the captain or the king would not let any of them touch it,
or take anything of us. About two hours after came another king, or
captain, with forty or fifty men after him. We began to be afraid of
him, and laid hands upon our weapons; but he perceiving it, caused two
men to go before him, carrying two long poles in their hands, which they
held upright, as high as they could, which we presently perceived was
a signal of peace; and these two poles they set up afterwards, sticking
them up in the ground; and when the king and his men came to these
two poles, they struck all their lances up in the ground, and came on
unarmed, leaving their lances, as also their bows and arrows, behind
them.
This was to satisfy us that they were come as friends, and we were glad
to see it, for we had no mind to quarrel with them if we could help it.
The captain of this gang seeing some of our men making up their huts,
and that they did it but bunglingly, he beckoned to some of his men to
go and help us. Immediately fifteen or sixteen of them came and mingled
among us, and went to work for us; and indeed, they were better workmen
than we were, for they run up three or four huts for us in a moment, and
much handsomer done than ours.
After this they sent us milk, plantains, pumpkins, and abundance of
roots and greens that were very good, and then took their leave, and
would not take anything from us that we had. One of our men offered the
king or captain of these men a dram, which he drank and was mightily
pleased with it, and held out his hand for another, which we gave him;
and in a word, after this, he hardly failed coming to us two or three
times a week, always bringing us something or other; and one time sent
us seven head of black cattle, some of which we cured and dried as
before.
And here I cannot but remember one thing, which afterwards stood us in
great stead, viz., that the flesh of their goats, and their beef also,
but especially the former, when we had dried and cured it, looked red,
and ate hard and firm, as dried beef in Holland; they were so pleased
with it, and it was such a dainty to them, that at any time after they
would trade with us for it, not knowing, or so much as imagining what it
was; so that for ten or twelve pounds' weight of smoke-dried beef, they
would give us a whole bullock, or cow, or anything else we could desire.
Here we observed two things that were very material to us, even
essentially so; first, we found they had a great deal of earthenware
here, which they made use of many ways as we did; particularly they had
long, deep earthen pots, which they used to sink into the ground, to
keep the water which they drunk cool and pleasant; and the other was,
that they had larger canoes than their neighbours had.
By this we were prompted to inquire if they had no larger vessels than
those we saw there, or if any other of the inhabitants had not such.
They signified presently that they had no larger boats than that they
showed us; but that on the other side of the island they had larger
boats, and that with decks upon them, and large sails; and this made us
resolve to coast round the whole island to see them; so we prepared and
victualled our canoe for the voyage, and, in a word, went to sea for the
third time.
It cost us a month or six weeks' time to perform this voyage, in which
time we went on shore several times for water and provisions, and found
the natives always very free and courteous; but we were surprised one
morning early, being at the extremity of the northernmost part of the
island, when one of our men cried out, "A sail! a sail!" We presently
saw a vessel a great way out at sea; but after we had looked at it with
our perspective glasses, and endeavoured all we could to make out what
it was, we could not tell what to think of it; for it was neither ship,
ketch, galley, galliot, or like anything that we had ever seen before;
all that we could make of it was, that it went from us, standing out to
sea. In a word, we soon lost sight of it, for we were in no condition
to chase anything, and we never saw it again; but, by all that we could
perceive of it, from what we saw of such things afterwards, it was some
Arabian vessel, which had been trading to the coast of Mozambique, or
Zanzibar, the same place where we afterwards went, as you shall hear.
I kept no journal of this voyage, nor indeed did I all this while
understand anything of navigation, more than the common business of a
foremast-man; so I can say nothing to the latitudes or distances of any
places we were at, how long we were going, or how far we sailed in
a day; but this I remember, that being now come round the island, we
sailed up the eastern shore due south, as we had done down the western
shore due north before.
Nor do I remember that the natives differed much from one another,
either in stature or complexion, or in their manners, their habits,
their weapons, or indeed in anything; and yet we could not perceive that
they had any intelligence one with another; but they were extremely kind
and civil to us on this side, as well as on the other.
We continued our voyage south for many weeks, though with several
intervals of going on shore to get provisions and water. At length,
coming round a point of land which lay about a league further than
ordinary into the sea, we were agreeably surprised with a sight which,
no doubt, had been as disagreeable to those concerned, as it was
pleasant to us. This was the wreck of an European ship, which had been
cast away upon the rocks, which in that place run a great way into the
sea.
We could see plainly, at low water, a great deal of the ship lay dry;
even at high water, she was not entirely covered; and that at most she
did not lie above a league from the shore. It will easily be believed
that our curiosity led us, the wind and weather also permitting, to
go directly to her, which we did without any difficulty, and presently
found that it was a Dutch-built ship, and that she could not have been
very long in that condition, a great deal of the upper work of her stern
remaining firm, with the mizzen-mast standing. Her stern seemed to be
jammed in between two ridges of the rock, and so remained fast, all the
fore part of the ship having been beaten to pieces.
We could see nothing to be gotten out of the wreck that was worth our
while; but we resolved to go on shore, and stay some time thereabouts,
to see if perhaps we might get any light into the story of her; and
we were not without hopes that we might hear something more particular
about her men, and perhaps find some of them on shore there, in the same
condition that we were in, and so might increase our company.
It was a very pleasant sight to us when, coming on shore, we saw all
the marks and tokens of a ship-carpenter's yard; as a launch-block and
cradles, scaffolds and planks, and pieces of planks, the remains of
the building a ship or vessel; and, in a word, a great many things
that fairly invited us to go about the same work; and we soon came to
understand that the men belonging to the ship that was lost had saved
themselves on shore, perhaps in their boat, and had built themselves a
barque or sloop, and so were gone to sea again; and, inquiring of the
natives which way they went, they pointed to the south and south-west,
by which we could easily understand they were gone away to the Cape of
Good Hope.
Nobody will imagine we could be so dull as not to gather from hence that
we might take the same method for our escape; so we resolved first, in
general, that we would try if possible to build us a boat of one kind or
other, and go to sea as our fate should direct.
In order to this our first work was to have the two carpenters search
about to see what materials the Dutchmen had left behind them that might
be of use; and, in particular, they found one that was very useful,
and which I was much employed about, and that was a pitch-kettle, and a
little pitch in it.
When we came to set close to this work we found it very laborious and
difficult, having but few tools, no ironwork, no cordage, no sails; so
that, in short, whatever we built, we were obliged to be our own smiths,
rope-makers, sail-makers, and indeed to practise twenty trades that we
knew little or nothing of. However, necessity was the spur to invention,
and we did many things which before we thought impracticable, that is to
say, in our circumstances.
After our two carpenters had resolved upon the dimensions of what they
would build, they set us all to work, to go off in our boats and split
up the wreck of the old ship, and to bring away everything we could; and
particularly that, if possible, we should bring away the mizzen-mast,
which was left standing, which with much difficulty we effected, after
above twenty days' labour of fourteen of our men.
At the same time we got out a great deal of ironwork, as bolts, spikes,
nails, &c., all of which our artist, of whom I have spoken already, who
was now grown a very dexterous smith, made us nails and hinges for our
rudder, and spikes such as we wanted.
But we wanted an anchor, and if we had had an anchor, we could not have
made a cable; so we contented ourselves with making some ropes with the
help of the natives, of such stuff as they made their mats of, and with
these we made such a kind of cable or tow-line as was sufficient to
fasten our vessel to the shore, which we contented ourselves with for
that time.
To be short, we spent four months here, and worked very hard too; at the
end of which time we launched our frigate, which, in a few words, had
many defects, but yet, all things considered, it was as well as we could
expect it to be.
In short, it was a kind of sloop, of the burthen of near eighteen
or twenty tons; and had we had masts and sails, standing and running
rigging, as is usual in such cases, and other conveniences, the vessel
might have carried us wherever we could have had a mind to go; but of
all the materials we wanted, this was the worst, viz., that we had no
tar or pitch to pay the seams and secure the bottom; and though we did
what we could, with tallow and oil, to make a mixture to supply that
part, yet we could not bring it to answer our end fully; and when we
launched her into the water, she was so leaky, and took in the water so
fast, that we thought all our labour had been lost, for we had much ado
to make her swim; and as for pumps, we had none, nor had we any means to
make one.
But at length one of the natives, a black negro-man, showed us a tree,
the wood of which being put into the fire, sends forth a liquid that is
as glutinous and almost as strong as tar, and of which, by boiling, we
made a sort of stuff which served us for pitch, and this answered our
end effectually; for we perfectly made our vessel sound and tight, so
that we wanted no pitch or tar at all. This secret has stood me in stead
upon many occasions since that time in the same place.
Our vessel being thus finished, out of the mizzen-mast of the ship we
made a very good mast to her, and fitted our sails to it as well as we
could; then we made a rudder and tiller, and, in a word, everything that
our present necessity called upon us for; and having victualled her, and
put as much fresh water on board as we thought we wanted, or as we knew
how to stow (for we were yet without casks), we put to sea with a fair
wind.
We had spent near another year in these rambles, and in this piece
of work; for it was now, as our men said, about the beginning of
our February, and the sun went from us apace, which was much to our
satisfaction, for the heats were exceedingly violent. The wind, as I
said, was fair; for, as I have since learned, the winds generally spring
up to the eastward, as the sun goes from them to the north.
Our debate now was, which way we should go, and never were men so
irresolute; some were for going to the east, and stretching away
directly for the coast of Malabar; but others, who considered more
seriously the length of that voyage, shook their heads at the proposal,
knowing very well that neither our provisions, especially of water,
or our vessel, were equal to such a run as that is, of near 2000 miles
without any land to touch at in the way.
These men, too, had all along had a great mind to a voyage for the
mainland of Africa, where they said we should have a fair cast for our
lives, and might be sure to make ourselves rich, which way soever we
went, if we were but able to make our way through, whether by sea or by
land.
Besides, as the case stood with us, we had not much choice for our way;
for, if we had resolved for the east, we were at the wrong season of the
year, and must have stayed till April or May before we had gone to sea.
At length, as we had the wind at S.E. and E.S.E., and fine promising
weather, we came all into the first proposal, and resolved for the coast
of Africa; nor were we long in disputing as to our coasting the island
which we were upon, for we were now upon the wrong side of the island
for the voyage we intended; so we stood away to the north, and, having
rounded the cape, we hauled away southward, under the lee of the island,
thinking to reach the west point of land, which, as I observed before,
runs out so far towards the coast of Africa, as would have shortened our
run almost 100 leagues. But when we had sailed about thirty leagues, we
found the winds variable under the shore, and right against us, so we
concluded to stand over directly, for then we had the wind fair, and our
vessel was but very ill fated to lie near the wind, or any way indeed
but just before it.
Having resolved upon it, therefore, we put into the shore to furnish
ourselves again with fresh water and other provisions, and about the
latter end of March, with more courage than discretion, more resolution
than judgment, we launched for the main coast of Africa.
As for me, I had no anxieties about it, so that we had but a view of
reaching some land or other, I cared not what or where it was to be,
having at this time no views of what was before me, nor much thought of
what might or might not befall me; but with as little consideration as
any one can be supposed to have at my age, I consented to everything
that was proposed, however hazardous the thing itself, however
improbable the success.
The voyage, as it was undertaken with a great deal of ignorance and
desperation, so really it was not carried on with much resolution or
judgment; for we knew no more of the course we were to steer than this,
that it was anywhere about the west, within two or three points N. or
S., and as we had no compass with us but a little brass pocket compass,
which one of our men had more by accident than otherwise, so we could
not be very exact in our course.
However, as it pleased God that the wind continued fair at S.E. and by
E., we found that N.W. by W., which was right afore it, was as good a
course for us as any we could go, and thus we went on.
The voyage was much longer than we expected; our vessel also, which had
no sail that was proportioned to her, made but very little way in the
sea, and sailed heavily. We had, indeed, no great adventures happened
in this voyage, being out of the way of everything that could offer to
divert us; and as for seeing any vessel, we had not the least occasion
to hail anything in all the voyage; for we saw not one vessel, small
or great, the sea we were upon being entirely out of the way of all
commerce; for the people of Madagascar knew no more of the shores of
Africa than we did, only that there was a country of lions, as they call
it, that way.
We had been eight or nine days under sail, with a fair wind, when, to
our great joy, one of our men cried out "Land!" We had great reason to
be glad of the discovery, for we had not water enough left for above two
or three days more, though at a short allowance. However, though it was
early in the morning when we discovered it, we made it near night before
we reached it, the wind slackening almost to a calm, and our ship being,
as I said, a very dull sailer.
We were sadly baulked upon our coming to the land, when we found that,
instead of the mainland of Africa, it was only a little island, with no
inhabitants upon it, at least none that we could find; nor any cattle,
except a few goats, of which we killed three only. However, they served
us for fresh meat, and we found very good water; and it was fifteen days
more before we reached the main, which, however, at last we arrived at,
and which was most essential to us, as we came to it just as all our
provisions were spent. Indeed, we may say they were spent first, for we
had but a pint of water a day to each man for the last two days. But, to
our great joy, we saw the land, though at a great distance, the evening
before, and by a pleasant gale in the night were by morning within two
leagues of the shore.
We never scrupled going ashore at the first place we came at, though,
had we had patience, we might have found a very fine river a little
farther north. However, we kept our frigate on float by the help of two
great poles, which we fastened into the ground to moor her, like poles;
and the little weak ropes, which, as I said, we had made of matting,
served us well enough to make the vessel fast.
As soon as we had viewed the country a little, got fresh water, and
furnished ourselves with some victuals, which we found very scarce here,
we went on board again with our stores. All we got for provision was
some fowls that we killed, and a kind of wild buffalo or bull, very
small, but good meat; I say, having got these things on board, we
resolved to sail along the coast, which lay N.N.E., till we found some
creek or river, that we might run up into the country, or some town
or people; for we had reason enough to know the place was inhabited,
because we several times saw fires in the night, and smoke in the day,
every way at a distance from us.
At length we came to a very large bay, and in it several little creeks
or rivers emptying themselves into the sea, and we ran boldly into the
first creek we came at; where, seeing some huts and wild people about
them on the shore, we ran our vessel into a little cove on the north
side of the creek, and held up a long pole, with a white bit of cloth
on it, for a signal of peace to them. We found they understood us
presently, for they came flocking to us, men, women, and children, most
of them, of both sexes, stark naked. At first they stood wondering
and staring at us, as if we had been monsters, and as if they had been
frighted; but we found they inclined to be familiar with us afterwards.
The first thing we did to try them, was, we held up our hands to our
mouths, as if we were to drink, signifying that we wanted water. This
they understood presently, and three of their women and two boys ran
away up the land, and came back in about half a quarter of an hour, with
several pots, made of earth, pretty enough, and baked, I suppose, in
the sun; these they brought us full of water, and set them down near the
sea-shore, and there left them, going back a little, that we might fetch
them, which we did.
Some time after this, they brought us roots and herbs, and some fruits
which I cannot remember, and gave us; but as we had nothing to give
them, we found them not so free as the people in Madagascar were.
However, our cutler went to work, and, as he had saved some iron out
of the wreck of the ship, he made abundance of toys, birds, dogs, pins,
hooks, and rings; and we helped to file them, and make them bright for
him, and when we gave them some of these, they brought us all sorts of
provisions they had, such as goats, hogs, and cows, and we got victuals
enough.
We were now landed upon the continent of Africa, the most desolate,
desert, and inhospitable country in the world, even Greenland and Nova
Zembla itself not excepted, with this difference only, that even the
worst part of it we found inhabited, though, taking the nature and
quality of some of the inhabitants, it might have been much better to us
if there had been none.
And, to add to the exclamation I am making on the nature of the place,
it was here that we took one of the rashest, and wildest, and most
desperate resolutions that ever was taken by man, or any number of men,
in the world; this was, to travel overland through the heart of the
country, from the coast of Mozambique, on the east ocean, to the coast
of Angola or Guinea, on the western or Atlantic Ocean, a continent of
land of at least 1800 miles, in which journey we had excessive heats to
support, unpassable deserts to go over, no carriages, camels, or beasts
of any kind to carry our baggage, innumerable numbers of wild and
ravenous beasts to encounter with, such as lions, leopards, tigers,
lizards, and elephants; we had the equinoctial line to pass under, and,
consequently, were in the very centre of the torrid zone; we had nations
of savages to encounter with, barbarous and brutish to the last degree;
hunger and thirst to struggle with, and, in one word, terrors enough to
have daunted the stoutest hearts that ever were placed in cases of flesh
and blood.
Yet, fearless of all these, we resolved to adventure, and accordingly
made such preparations for our journey as the place we were in would
allow us, and such as our little experience of the country seemed to
dictate to us.
It had been some time already that we had been used to tread barefooted
upon the rocks, the gravel, the grass, and the sand on the shore; but as
we found the worst thing for our feet was the walking or travelling on
the dry burning sands, within the country, so we provided ourselves with
a sort of shoes, made of the skins of wild beasts, with the hair inward,
and being dried in the sun, the outsides were thick and hard, and would
last a great while. In short, as I called them, so I think the term very
proper still, we made us gloves for our feet, and we found them very
convenient and very comfortable.
We conversed with some of the natives of the country, who were friendly
enough. What tongue they spoke I do not yet pretend to know. We
talked as far as we could make them understand us, not only about our
provisions, but also about our undertaking, and asked them what country
lay that way, pointing west with our hands. They told us but little to
our purpose, only we thought, by all their discourse, that there were
people to be found, of one sort or other, everywhere; that there were
many great rivers, many lions and tigers, elephants, and furious wild
cats (which in the end we found to be civet cats), and the like.
When we asked them if any one had ever travelled that way, they told
us yes, some had gone to where the sun sleeps, meaning to the west, but
they could not tell us who they were. When we asked for some to guide
us, they shrunk up their shoulders as Frenchmen do when they are afraid
to undertake a thing. When we asked them about the lions and wild
creatures, they laughed, and let us know that they would do us no hurt,
and directed us to a good way indeed to deal with them, and that was to
make some fire, which would always fright them away; and so indeed we
found it.
Upon these encouragements we resolved upon our journey, and many
considerations put us upon it, which, had the thing itself been
practicable, we were not so much to blame for as it might otherwise be
supposed; I will name some of them, not to make the account too tedious.
First, we were perfectly destitute of means to work about our own
deliverance any other way; we were on shore in a place perfectly remote
from all European navigation; so that we could never think of being
relieved, and fetched off by any of our own countrymen in that part of
the world. Secondly, if we had adventured to have sailed on along the
coast of Mozambique, and the desolate shores of Africa to the north,
till we came to the Red Sea, all we could hope for there was to be taken
by the Arabs, and be sold for slaves to the Turks, which to all of us
was little better than death. We could not build anything of a vessel
that would carry us over the great Arabian Sea to India, nor could we
reach the Cape de Bona Speranza, the winds being too variable, and the
sea in that latitude too tempestuous; but we all knew, if we could cross
this continent of land, we might reach some of the great rivers that run
into the Atlantic Ocean; and that, on the banks of any of those rivers,
we might there build us canoes which would carry us down, if it were
thousands of miles, so that we could want nothing but food, of which we
were assured we might kill sufficient with our guns; and to add to the
satisfaction of our deliverance, we concluded we might, every one of
us, get a quantity of gold, which, if we came safe, would infinitely
recompense us for our toil.
I cannot say that in all our consultations I ever began to enter into
the weight and merit of any enterprise we went upon till now. My view
before was, as I thought, very good, viz., that we should get into the
Arabian Gulf, or the mouth of the Red Sea; and waiting for some vessel
passing or repassing there, of which there is plenty, have seized upon
the first we came at by force, and not only have enriched ourselves with
her cargo, but have carried ourselves to what part of the world we had
pleased; but when they came to talk to me of a march of 2000 or 3000
miles on foot, of wandering in deserts among lions and tigers, I confess
my blood ran chill, and I used all the arguments I could to persuade
them against it.
But they were all positive, and I might as well have held my tongue; so
I submitted, and told them I would keep to our first law, to be governed
by the majority, and we resolved upon our journey. The first thing we
did was to take an observation, and see whereabouts in the world we
were, which we did, and found we were in the latitude of 12 degrees 35
minutes south of the line. The next thing was to look on the charts, and
see the coast of the country we aimed at, which we found to be from 8 to
11 degrees south latitude, if we went for the coast of Angola, or in 12
to 29 degrees north latitude, if we made for the river Niger, and the
coast of Guinea.
Our aim was for the coast of Angola, which, by the charts we had, lying
very near the same latitude we were then in, our course thither was due
west; and as we were assured we should meet with rivers, we doubted not
but that by their help we might ease our journey, especially if we could
find means to cross the great lake, or inland sea, which the natives
call Coalmucoa, out of which it is said the river Nile has its source
or beginning; but we reckoned without our host, as you will see in the
sequel of our story.
The next thing we had to consider was, how to carry our baggage, which
we were first of all determined not to travel without; neither indeed
was it possible for us to do so, for even our ammunition, which was
absolutely necessary to us, and on which our subsistence, I mean for
food, as well as our safety, and particularly our defence against wild
beasts and wild men, depended,--I say, even our ammunition was a load
too heavy for us to carry in a country where the heat was such that we
should be load enough for ourselves.
We inquired in the country, and found there was no beast of burthen
known among them, that is to say, neither horses or mules, or asses,
camels, or dromedaries; the only creature they had was a kind of
buffalo, or tame bull, such a one as we had killed; and that some of
these they had brought so to their hand, that they taught them to go and
come with their voices, as they called them to them, or sent them from
them; that they made them carry burthens; and particularly that they
would swim over rivers and lakes upon them, the creatures swimming very
high and strong in the water.
But we understood nothing of the management of guiding such a
creature, or how to bind a burthen upon them; and this last part of our
consultation puzzled us extremely. At last I proposed a method for them,
which, after some consideration, they found very convenient; and this
was, to quarrel with some of the negro natives, take ten or twelve of
them prisoners, and binding them as slaves, cause them to travel with
us, and make them carry our baggage; which I alleged would be convenient
and useful many ways as well to show us the way, as to converse with
other natives for us.
This counsel was not accepted at first, but the natives soon gave them
reason to approve it, and also gave them an opportunity to put it in
practice; for, as our little traffic with the natives was hitherto upon
the faith of their first kindness, we found some knavery among them at
last; for having bought some cattle of them for our toys, which, as
I said, our cutler had contrived, one of our men differing with his
chapman, truly they huffed him in their manner, and, keeping the things
he had offered them for the cattle, made their fellows drive away the
cattle before his face, and laugh at him. Our man crying out loud of
this violence, and calling to some of us who were not far off, the negro
he was dealing with threw a lance at him, which came so true, that, if
he had not with great agility jumped aside, and held up his hand also
to turn the lance as it came, it had struck through his body; and, as it
was, it wounded him in the arm; at which the man, enraged, took up his
fuzee, and shot the negro through the heart.
The others that were near him, and all those that were with us at
a distance, were so terribly frighted, first, at the flash of fire;
secondly, at the noise; and thirdly, at seeing their countryman killed,
that they stood like men stupid and amazed, at first, for some time; but
after they were a little recovered from their fright, one of them, at a
good distance from us, set up a sudden screaming noise, which, it
seems, is the noise they make when they go to fight; and all the rest
understanding what he meant, answered him, and ran together to the place
where he was, and we not knowing what it meant, stood still, looking
upon one another like a parcel of fools.
But we were presently undeceived; for, in two or three minutes more,
we heard the screaming roaring noise go on from one place to another,
through all their little towns; nay, even over the creek to the other
side; and, on a sudden, we saw a naked multitude running from all parts
to the place where the first man began it, as to a rendezvous; and, in
less than an hour, I believe there was near 500 of them gotten together,
armed some with bows and arrows, but most with lances, which they throw
at a good distance, so nicely that they will strike a bird flying.
We had but a very little time for consultation, for the multitude was
increasing every moment; and I verily believe, if we had stayed long,
they would have been 10,000 together in a little time. We had nothing
to do, therefore, but to fly to our ship or bark, where indeed we could
have defended ourselves very well, or to advance and try what a volley
or two of small shot would do for us.
We resolved immediately upon the latter, depending upon it that the fire
and terror of our shot would soon put them to flight; so we drew up all
in a line, and marched boldly up to them. They stood ready to meet us,
depending, I suppose, to destroy us all with their lances; but before
we came near enough for them to throw their lances, we halted, and,
standing at a good distance from one another, to stretch our line as far
as we could, we gave them a salute with our shot, which, besides what we
wounded that we knew not of, knocked sixteen of them down upon the spot,
and three more were so lamed, that they fell about twenty or thirty
yards from them.
As soon as we had fired, they set up the horridest yell, or howling,
partly raised by those that were wounded, and partly by those that
pitied and condoled the bodies they saw lie dead, that I never heard
anything like it before or since.
We stood stock still after we had fired, to load our guns again, and
finding they did not stir from the place we fired among them again; we
killed about nine of them at the second fire; but as they did not stand
so thick as before, all our men did not fire, seven of us being ordered
to reserve our charge, and to advance as soon as the other had fired,
while the rest loaded again; of which I shall speak again presently.
As soon as we had fired the second volley, we shouted as loud as we
could, and the seven men advanced upon them, and, coming about twenty
yards nearer, fired again, and those that were behind having loaded
again with all expedition, followed; but when they saw us advance, they
ran screaming away as if they were bewitched.
When we came up to the field of battle, we saw a great number of bodies
lying upon the ground, many more than we could suppose were killed or
wounded; nay, more than we had bullets in our pieces when we fired; and
we could not tell what to make of it; but at length we found how it
was, viz., that they were frighted out of all manner of sense; nay, I do
believe several of those that were really dead, were frighted to death,
and had no wound about them.
Of those that were thus frighted, as I have said, several of them, as
they recovered themselves, came and worshipped us (taking us for gods or
devils, I know not which, nor did it much matter to us): some kneeling,
some throwing themselves flat on the ground, made a thousand antic
gestures, but all with tokens of the most profound submission. It
presently came into my head, that we might now, by the law of arms, take
as many prisoners as we would, and make them travel with us, and carry
our baggage. As soon as I proposed it, our men were all of my mind; and
accordingly we secured about sixty lusty young fellows, and let them
know they must go with us; which they seemed very willing to do. But
the next question we had among ourselves, was, how we should do to trust
them, for we found the people not like those of Madagascar, but fierce,
revengeful, and treacherous; for which reason we were sure that we
should have no service from them but that of mere slaves; no subjection
that would continue any longer than the fear of us was upon them, nor
any labour but by violence.
Before I go any farther, I must hint to the reader, that from this time
forward I began to enter a little more seriously into the circumstance
I was in, and concerned myself more in the conduct of our affairs; for
though my comrades were all older men, yet I began to find them void of
counsel, or, as I now call it, presence of mind, when they came to the
execution of a thing. The first occasion I took to observe this, was in
their late engagement with the natives, when, though they had taken a
good resolution to attack them and fire upon them, yet, when they had
fired the first time, and found that the negroes did not run as they
expected, their hearts began to fail, and I am persuaded, if their bark
had been near hand, they would every man have run away.
Upon this occasion I began to take upon me a little to hearten them
up, and to call upon them to load again, and give them another volley,
telling them that I would engage, if they would be ruled by me, I'd make
the negroes run fast enough. I found this heartened them, and therefore,
when they fired a second time, I desired them to reserve some of their
shot for an attempt by itself, as I mentioned above.
Having fired a second time, I was indeed forced to command, as I may
call it. "Now, seigniors," said I, "let us give them a cheer." So I
opened my throat, and shouted three times, as our English sailors do on
like occasions. "And now follow me," said I to the seven that had not
fired, "and I'll warrant you we will make work with them," and so it
proved indeed; for, as soon as they saw us coming, away they ran, as
above.
From this day forward they would call me nothing but Seignior Capitanio;
but I told them I would not be called seignior. "Well, then," said the
gunner, who spoke good English, "you shall be called Captain Bob;" and
so they gave me my title ever after.
Nothing is more certain of the Portuguese than this, take them
nationally or personally, if they are animated and heartened up by
anybody to go before, and encourage them by example, they will behave
well enough; but if they have nothing but their own measures to follow,
they sink immediately: these men had certainly fled from a parcel of
naked savages, though even by flying they could not have saved their
lives, if I had not shouted and hallooed, and rather made sport with the
thing than a fight, to keep up their courage.
Nor was there less need of it upon several occasions hereafter; and I do
confess I have often wondered how a number of men, who, when they came
to the extremity, were so ill supported by their own spirits, had
at first courage to propose and to undertake the most desperate and
impracticable attempt that ever men went about in the world.
There were indeed two or three indefatigable men among them, by whose
courage and industry all the rest were upheld; and indeed those two or
three were the managers of them from the beginning; that was the gunner,
and that cutler whom I call the artist; and the third, who was pretty
well, though not like either of them, was one of the carpenters. These
indeed were the life and soul of all the rest, and it was to their
courage that all the rest owed the resolution they showed upon any
occasion. But when those saw me take a little upon me, as above, they
embraced me, and treated me with particular affection ever after.
This gunner was an excellent mathematician, a good scholar, and a
complete sailor; and it was in conversing intimately with him that I
learned afterwards the grounds of what knowledge I have since had in all
the sciences useful for navigation, and particularly in the geographical
part of knowledge.
Even in our conversation, finding me eager to understand and learn, he
laid the foundation of a general knowledge of things in my mind, gave
me just ideas of the form of the earth and of the sea, the situation of
countries, the course of rivers, the doctrine of the spheres, the motion
of the stars; and, in a word, taught me a kind of system of astronomy,
which I afterwards improved.
In an especial manner, he filled my head with aspiring thoughts, and
with an earnest desire after learning everything that could be taught
me; convincing me, that nothing could qualify me for great undertakings,
but a degree of learning superior to what was usual in the race of
seamen; he told me, that to be ignorant was to be certain of a
mean station in the world, but that knowledge was the first step to
preferment. He was always flattering me with my capacity to learn; and
though that fed my pride, yet, on the other hand, as I had a secret
ambition, which just at that time fed itself in my mind, it prompted in
me an insatiable thirst after learning in general, and I resolved, if
ever I came back to Europe, and had anything left to purchase it, I
would make myself master of all the parts of learning needful to
the making of me a complete sailor; but I was not so just to myself
afterwards as to do it when I had an opportunity.
But to return to our business; the gunner, when he saw the service I
had done in the fight, and heard my proposal for keeping a number of
prisoners for our march, and for carrying our baggage, turns to me
before them all. "Captain Bob," says he, "I think you must be our
leader, for all the success of this enterprise is owing to you." "No,
no," said I, "do not compliment me; you shall be our Seignior Capitanio,
you shall be general; I am too young for it." So, in short, we all
agreed he should be our leader; but he would not accept of it alone, but
would have me joined with him; and all the rest agreeing, I was obliged
to comply.
The first piece of service they put me upon in this new command was
as difficult as any they could think of, and that was to manage the
prisoners; which, however, I cheerfully undertook, as you shall hear
presently. But the immediate consultation was yet of more consequence;
and that was, first, which way we should go; and secondly, how to
furnish ourselves for the voyage with provisions.
There was among the prisoners one tall, well-shaped, handsome fellow,
to whom the rest seemed to pay great respect, and who, as we understood
afterwards, was the son of one of their kings; his father was, it seems,
killed at our first volley, and he wounded with a shot in his arm, and
with another just on one of his hips or haunches. The shot in his haunch
being in a fleshy part, bled much, and he was half dead with the loss of
blood. As to the shot in his arm, it had broke his wrist, and he was by
both these wounds quite disabled, so that we were once going to turn him
away, and let him die; and, if we had, he would have died indeed in a
few days more: but, as I found the man had some respect showed him, it
presently occurred to my thoughts that we might bring him to be useful
to us, and perhaps make him a kind of commander over them. So I caused
our surgeon to take him in hand, and gave the poor wretch good words,
that is to say, I spoke to him as well as I could by signs, to make him
understand that we would make him well again.
This created a new awe in their minds of us, believing that, as we could
kill at a distance by something invisible to them (for so our shot was,
to be sure), so we could make them well again too. Upon this the young
prince (for so we called him afterwards) called six or seven of the
savages to him, and said something to them; what it was we know not, but
immediately all the seven came to me, and kneeled down to me, holding up
their hands, and making signs of entreaty, pointing to the place where
one of those lay whom we had killed.
It was a long time before I or any of us could understand them; but one
of them ran and lifted up a dead man, pointing to his wound, which was
in his eyes, for he was shot into the head at one of his eyes. Then
another pointed to the surgeon, and at last we found it out, that the
meaning was, that he should heal the prince's father too, who was dead,
being shot through the head, as above.
We presently took the hint, and would not say we could not do it, but
let them know, the men that were killed were those that had first fallen
upon us, and provoked us, and we would by no means make them alive
again; and that, if any others did so, we would kill them too, and never
let them live any more: but that, if he (the prince) would be willing
to go with us, and do as we should direct him, we would not let him die,
and would make his arm well. Upon this he bid his men go and fetch a
long stick or staff, and lay on the ground. When they brought it, we saw
it was an arrow; he took it with his left hand (for his other was lame
with the wound), and, pointing up at the sun, broke the arrow in two,
and set the point against his breast, and then gave it to me. This was,
as I understood afterwards, wishing the sun, whom they worship, might
shoot him into the breast with an arrow, if ever he failed to be my
friend; and giving the point of the arrow to me was to be a testimony
that I was the man he had sworn to: and never was Christian more
punctual to an oath than he was to this, for he was a sworn servant to
us for many a weary month after that.
When I brought him to the surgeon, he immediately dressed the wound in
his haunch or buttock, and found the bullet had only grazed upon the
flesh, and passed, as it were, by it, but it was not lodged in the part,
so that it was soon healed and well again; but, as to his arm, he found
one of the bones broken, which are in the fore-part from the wrist to
the elbow; and this he set, and splintered it up, and bound his arm in a
sling, hanging it about his neck, and making signs to him that he should
not stir it; which he was so strict an observer of, that he set him
down, and never moved one way or other but as the surgeon gave him
leave.
I took a great deal of pains to acquaint this negro what we intended
to do, and what use we intended to make of his men; and particularly
to teach him the meaning of what we said, especially to teach him some
words, such as yes and no, and what they meant, and to inure him to
our way of talking; and he was very willing and apt to learn anything I
taught him.
It was easy to let him see that we intended to carry our provision with
us from the first day; but he made signs to us to tell us we need not,
for we should find provision enough everywhere for forty days. It was
very difficult for us to understand how he expressed forty; for he
knew no figures, but some words that they used to one another that they
understood it by. At last one of the negroes, by his order, laid forty
little stones one by another, to show us how many days we should travel,
and find provisions sufficient.
Then I showed him our baggage, which was very heavy, particularly our
powder, shot, lead, iron, carpenters' tools, seamen's instruments, cases
of bottles, and other lumber. He took some of the things up in his hand
to feel the weight, and shook his head at them; so I told our people
they must resolve to divide their things into small parcels, and make
them portable; and accordingly they did so, by which means we were fain
to leave all our chests behind us, which were eleven in number.
Then he made signs to us that he would procure some buffaloes, or young
bulls, as I called them, to carry things for us, and made signs, too,
that if we were weary, we might be carried too; but that we slighted,
only were willing to have the creatures, because, at last, when they
could serve us no farther for carriage, we might eat them all up if we
had any occasion for them.
I then carried him to our bark, and showed him what things we had here.
He seemed amazed at the sight of our bark, having never seen anything
of that kind before, for their boats are most wretched things, such as
I never saw before, having no head or stern, and being made only of the
skins of goats, sewed together with dried guts of goats and sheep, and
done over with a kind of slimy stuff like rosin and oil, but of a most
nauseous, odious smell; and they are poor miserable things for boats,
the worst that any part of the world ever saw; a canoe is an excellent
contrivance compared to them.
But to return to our boat. We carried our new prince into it, and helped
him over the side, because of his lameness. We made signs to him that
his men must carry our goods for us, and showed him what we had; he
answered, "Si, Seignior," or, "Yes, sir" (for we had taught him that
word and the meaning of it), and taking up a bundle, he made signs to
us, that when his arm was well he would carry some for us.
I made signs again to tell him, that if he would make his men carry
them, we would not let him carry anything. We had secured all the
prisoners in a narrow place, where we had bound them with mat cords, and
set up stakes like a palisado round them; so, when we carried the prince
on shore, we went with him to them, and made signs to him to ask them if
they were willing to go with us to the country of lions. Accordingly he
made a long speech to them, and we could understand by it that he told
them, if they were willing, they must say, "Si, Seignior," telling
them what it signified. They immediately answered, "Si, Seignior," and
clapped their hands, looking up to the sun, which, the prince signified
to us, was swearing to be faithful. But as soon as they had said so, one
of them made a long speech to the prince; and in it we perceived, by his
gestures, which were very antic, that they desired something from us,
and that they were in great concern about it. So I asked him, as well as
I could, what it was they desired of us; he told us by signs that they
desired we should clap our hands to the sun (that was, to swear) that we
would not kill them, that we would give them chiaruck, that is to say,
bread, would not starve them, and would not let the lions eat them.
I told him we would promise all that; then he pointed to the sun, and
clapped his hands, signing to me that I should do so too, which I did;
at which all the prisoners fell flat on the ground, and rising up again,
made the oddest, wildest cries that ever I heard.
I think it was the first time in my life that ever any religious thought
affected me; but I could not refrain some reflections, and almost tears,
in considering how happy it was that I was not born among such creatures
as these, and was not so stupidly ignorant and barbarous; but this soon
went off again, and I was not troubled again with any qualms of that
sort for a long time after.
When this ceremony was over, our concern was to get some provisions,
as well for the present subsistence of our prisoners as ourselves; and
making signs to our prince that we were thinking upon that subject, he
made signs to me that, if I would let one of the prisoners go to his
town, he should bring provisions, and should bring some beasts to carry
our baggage. I seemed loth to trust him, and supposing that he would
run away, he made great signs of fidelity, and with his own hands tied a
rope about his neck, offering me one end of it, intimating that I should
hang him if the man did not come again. So I consented, and he gave him
abundance of instructions, and sent him away, pointing to the light of
the sun, which it seems was to tell him at what time he must be back.
The fellow ran as if he was mad, and held it till he was quite out of
sight, by which I supposed he had a great way to go. The next morning,
about two hours before the time appointed, the black prince, for so I
always called him, beckoning with his hand to me, and hallooing after
his manner, desired me to come to him, which I did, when, pointing to a
little hill about two miles off, I saw plainly a little drove of cattle,
and several people with them; those, he told me by signs, were the man
he had sent, and several more with him, and cattle for us.
Accordingly, by the time appointed, he came quite to our huts, and
brought with him a great many cows, young runts, about sixteen goats,
and four young bulls, taught to carry burthens.
This was a supply of provisions sufficient; as for bread, we were
obliged to shift with some roots which we had made use of before. We
then began to consider of making some large bags like the soldiers'
knapsacks, for their men to carry our baggage in, and to make it easy
to them; and the goats being killed, I ordered the skins to be spread
in the sun, and they were as dry in two days as could be desired; so we
found means to make such little bags as we wanted, and began to divide
our baggage into them. When the black prince found what they were for,
and how easy they were of carriage when we put them on, he smiled a
little, and sent away the man again to fetch skins, and he brought two
natives more with him, all loaded with skins better cured than ours, and
of other kinds, such as we could not tell what names to give them.
These two men brought the black prince two lances, of the sort they use
in their fights, but finer than ordinary, being made of black smooth
wood, as fine as ebony, and headed at the point with the end of a long
tooth of some creature--we could not tell of what creature; the head was
so firm put on, and the tooth so strong, though no bigger than my thumb,
and sharp at the end, that I never saw anything like it in any place in
the world.
The prince would not take them till I gave him leave, but made signs
that they should give them to me; however, I gave him leave to take them
himself, for I saw evident signs of an honourable just principle in him.
We now prepared for our march, when the prince coming to me, and
pointing towards the several quarters of the world, made signs to know
which way we intended to go; and when I showed him, pointing to the
west, he presently let me know there was a great river a little further
to the north, which was able to carry our bark many leagues into the
country due west. I presently took the hint, and inquired for the mouth
of the river, which I understood by him was above a day's march, and, by
our estimation, we found it about seven leagues further. I take this to
be the great river marked by our chart-makers at the northmost part of
the coast of Mozambique, and called there Quilloa.
Consulting thus with ourselves, we resolved to take the prince, and as
many of the prisoners as we could stow in our frigate, and go about
by the bay into the river; and that eight of us, with our arms, should
march by land to meet them on the river side; for the prince, carrying
us to a rising ground, had showed us the river very plain, a great way
up the country, and in one place it was not above six miles to it.
It was my lot to march by land, and be captain of the whole caravan.
I had eight of our men with me, and seven-and-thirty of our prisoners,
without any baggage, for all our luggage was yet on board. We drove the
young bulls with us; nothing was ever so tame, so willing to work, or
carry anything. The negroes would ride upon them four at a time, and
they would go very willingly. They would eat out of our hand, lick our
feet, and were as tractable as a dog.
We drove with us six or seven cows for food; but our negroes knew
nothing of curing the flesh by salting and drying it till we showed them
the way, and then they were mighty willing to do so as long as we had
any salt to do it with, and to carry salt a great way too, after we
found we should have no more.
It was an easy march to the river side for us that went by land, and
we came thither in a piece of a day, being, as above, no more than six
English miles; whereas it was no less than five days before they came
to us by water, the wind in the bay having failed them, and the way, by
reason of a great turn or reach in the river, being about fifty miles
about.
We spent this time in a thing which the two strangers, which brought the
prince the two lances, put into the head of the prisoners, viz., to make
bottles of the goats' skins to carry fresh water in, which it seems they
knew we should come to want; and the men did it so dexterously, having
dried skins fetched them by those two men, that before our vessel came
up, they had every man a pouch like a bladder, to carry fresh water in,
hanging over their shoulders by a thong made of other skins, about three
inches broad, like the sling of a fuzee.
Our prince, to assure us of the fidelity of the men in this march,
had ordered them to be tied two and two by the wrist, as we handcuff
prisoners in England; and made them so sensible of the reasonableness of
it, that he made them do it themselves, appointing four of them to bind
the rest; but we found them so honest, and particularly so obedient
to him, that after we were gotten a little further off of their own
country, we set them at liberty, though, when he came to us, he would
have them tied again, and they continued so a good while.
All the country on the bank of the river was a high land, no marshy
swampy ground in it; the verdure good, and abundance of cattle feeding
upon it wherever we went, or which way soever we looked; there was
not much wood indeed, at least not near us; but further up we saw oak,
cedar, and pine-trees, some of which were very large.
The river was a fair open channel, about as broad as the Thames below
Gravesend, and a strong tide of flood, which we found held us about
sixty miles; the channel deep, nor did we find any want of water for a
great way. In short, we went merrily up the river with the flood and
the wind blowing still fresh at E. and E.N.E. We stemmed the ebb easily
also, especially while the river continued broad and deep; but when we
came past the swelling of the tide, and had the natural current of the
river to go against, we found it too strong for us, and began to think
of quitting our bark; but the prince would by no means agree to that,
for, finding we had on board pretty good store of roping made of mats
and flags, which I described before, he ordered all the prisoners which
were on shore to come and take hold of those ropes, and tow us along by
the shore side; and as we hoisted our sail too, to ease them, the men
ran along with us at a very great rate.
In this manner the river carried us up, by our computation, near 200
miles, and then it narrowed apace, and was not above as broad as the
Thames is at Windsor, or thereabouts; and, after another day, we came
to a great waterfall or cataract, enough to fright us, for I believe the
whole body of water fell at once perpendicularly down a precipice
above sixty foot high, which made noise enough to deprive men of their
hearing, and we heard it above ten miles before we came to it.
Here we were at a full stop, and now our prisoners went first on shore;
they had worked very hard and very cheerfully, relieving one another,
those that were weary being taken into the bark. Had we had canoes or
any boats which might have been carried by men's strength we might have
gone two hundred miles more up this river in small boats, but our great
boat could go no farther.
All this way the country looked green and pleasant, and was full of
cattle, and some people we saw, though not many; but this we observed
now, that the people did no more understand our prisoners here than
we could understand them; being, it seems, of different nations and of
different speech. We had yet seen no wild beasts, or, at least, none
that came very near us, except two days before we came to the waterfall,
when we saw three of the most beautiful leopards that ever were seen,
standing upon the bank of the river on the north side, our prisoners
being all on the other side of the water. Our gunner espied them first,
and ran to fetch his gun, putting a ball extraordinary in it; and coming
to me, "Now, Captain Bob," says he, "where is your prince?" So I called
him out. "Now," says he, "tell your men not to be afraid; tell them they
shall see that thing in his hand speak in fire to one of those beasts,
and make it kill itself."
The poor negroes looked as if they had been all going to be killed,
notwithstanding what their prince said to them, and stood staring to
expect the issue, when on a sudden the gunner fired; and as he was a
very good marksman, he shot the creature with two slugs, just in the
head. As soon as the leopard felt herself struck, she reared up on her
two hind-legs, bolt upright, and throwing her forepaws about in the air,
fell backward, growling and struggling, and immediately died; the other
two, frighted with the fire and the noise, fled, and were out of sight
in an instant.
But the two frighted leopards were not in half the consternation that
our prisoners were; four or five of them fell down as if they had been
shot; several others fell on their knees, and lifted up their hands to
us; whether to worship us, or pray us not to kill them, we did not know;
but we made signs to their prince to encourage them, which he did, but
it was with much ado that he brought them to their senses. Nay, the
prince, notwithstanding all that was said to prepare him for it, yet
when the piece went off, he gave a start as if he would have leaped into
the river.
When we saw the creature killed, I had a great mind to have the skin of
her, and made signs to the prince that he should send some of his men
over to take the skin off. As soon as he spoke but a word, four of them,
that offered themselves, were untied, and immediately they jumped into
the river, and swam over, and went to work with him. The prince having a
knife that we gave him, made four wooden knives so clever, that I never
saw anything like them in my life; and in less than an hour's time they
brought me the skin of the leopard, which was a monstrous great one, for
it was from the ears to the tale about seven foot, and near five foot
broad on the back, and most admirably spotted all over. The skin of this
leopard I brought to London many years after.
We were now all upon a level as to our travelling, being unshipped, for
our bark would swim no farther, and she was too heavy to carry on our
backs; but as we found the course of the river went a great way farther,
we consulted our carpenters whether we could not pull the bark in
pieces, and make us three or four small boats to go on with. They told
us we might do so, but it would be very long a-doing; and that, when
we had done, we had neither pitch or tar to make them sound to keep the
water out, or nails to fasten the plank. But one of them told us that as
soon as he could come at any large tree near the river, he would make
us a canoe or two in a quarter of the time, and which would serve us
as well for all the uses we could have any occasion for as a boat; and
such, that if we came to any waterfalls, we might take them up, and
carry them for a mile or two by land upon our shoulders.
Upon this we gave over the thoughts of our frigate, and hauling her into
a little cove or inlet, where a small brook came into the main river,
we laid her up for those that came next, and marched forward. We spent
indeed two days dividing our baggage, and loading our tame buffaloes
and our negroes. Our powder and shot, which was the thing we were most
careful of, we ordered thus:--First, the powder we divided into little
leather bags, that is to say, bags of dried skins, with the hair inward,
that the powder might not grow damp; and then we put those bags into
other bags, made of bullocks' skins, very thick and hard, with the hair
outward, that no wet might come in; and this succeeded so well, that in
the greatest rains we had, whereof some were very violent and very long,
we always kept our powder dry. Besides these bags, which held our chief
magazine, we divided to every one a quarter of a pound of powder, and
half a pound of shot, to carry always about us; which, as it was enough
for our present use, so we were willing to have no weight to carry more
than was absolutely necessary, because of the heat.
We kept still on the bank of the river, and for that reason had but very
little communication with the people of the country; for, having also
our bark stored with plenty of provisions, we had no occasion to look
abroad for a supply; but now, when we came to march on foot, we were
obliged often to seek out for food. The first place we came to on the
river, that gave us any stop, was a little negro town, containing about
fifty huts, and there appeared about 400 people, for they all came out
to see us, and wonder at us. When our negroes appeared the inhabitants
began to fly to arms, thinking there had been enemies coming upon them;
but our negroes, though they could not speak their language, made signs
to them that they had no weapons, and were tied two and two together as
captives, and that there were people behind who came from the sun, and
that could kill them all, and make them alive again, if they pleased;
but that they would do them no hurt, and came with peace. As soon as
they understood this they laid down their lances, and bows and arrows,
and came and stuck twelve large stakes in the ground as a token of
peace, bowing themselves to us in token of submission. But as soon as
they saw white men with beards, that is to say, with mustachios, they
ran screaming away, as in a fright.
We kept at a distance from them, not to be too familiar; and when we did
appear it was but two or three of us at a time. But our prisoners
made them understand that we required some provisions of them; so
they brought us some black cattle, for they have abundance of cows and
buffaloes all over that side of the country, as also great numbers of
deer. Our cutler, who had now a great stock of things of his handiwork,
gave them some little knick-knacks, as plates of silver and of iron,
cut diamond fashion, and cut into hearts and into rings, and they were
mightily pleased. They also brought several fruits and roots, which we
did not understand, but our negroes fed heartily on them, and after we
had seen them eat them, we did so too.
Having stocked ourselves here with flesh and root as much as we could
well carry, we divided the burthens among our negroes, appointing about
thirty to forty pounds weight to a man, which we thought indeed was load
enough in a hot country; and the negroes did not at all repine at it,
but would sometimes help one another when they began to be weary, which
did happen now and then, though not often; besides, as most of their
luggage was our provision, it lightened every day, like Aesop's basket
of bread, till we came to get a recruit.--Note, when we loaded them we
untied their hands, and tied them two and two together by one foot.
The third day of our march from this place our chief carpenter desired
us to halt, and set up some huts, for he had found out some trees that
he liked, and resolved to make us some canoes; for, as he told me, he
knew we should have marching enough on foot after we left the river, and
he was resolved to go no farther by land than needs must.
We had no sooner given orders for our little camp, and given leave to
our negroes to lay down their loads, but they fell to work to build our
huts; and though they were tied as above, yet they did it so nimbly as
surprised us. Here we set some of the negroes quite at liberty, that is
to say, without tying them, having the prince's word passed for their
fidelity; and some of these were ordered to help the carpenters, which
they did very handily, with a little direction, and others were sent
to see whether they could get any provisions near hand; but instead of
provisions, three of them came in with two bows and arrows, and five
lances. They could not easily make us understand how they came by them,
only that they had surprised some negro women, who were in some huts,
the men being from home, and they had found the lances and bows in the
huts, or houses, the women and children flying away at the sight of
them, as from robbers. We seemed very angry at them, and made the prince
ask them if they had not killed any of the women or children, making
them believe that, if they had killed anybody, we would make them kill
themselves too; but they protested their innocence, so we excused them.
Then they brought us the bows and arrows and lances; but, at a motion of
their black prince, we gave them back the bows and arrows, and gave them
leave to go out to see what they could kill for food; and here we gave
them the laws of arms, viz., that if any man appeared to assault them,
or shoot at them to offer any violence to them, they might kill them;
but that they should not offer to kill or hurt any that offered them
peace, or laid down their weapons, nor any women or children, upon any
occasion whatsoever. These were our articles of war.
These two fellows had not been gone out above three or four hours, but
one of them came running to us without his bow and arrows, hallooing and
whooping a great while before he came at us, "Okoamo, okoamo!" which,
it seems, was, "Help, help!" The rest of the negroes rose up in a hurry,
and by twos, as they could, ran forward towards their fellows, to know
what the matter was. As for me, I did not understand it, nor any of our
people; the prince looked as if something unlucky had fallen out, and
some of our men took up their arms to be ready on occasion. But the
negroes soon discovered the thing, for we saw four of them presently
after coming along with a great load of meat upon their backs. The case
was, that the two who went out with their bows and arrows, meeting with
a great herd of deer in the plain, had been so nimble as to shoot three
of them, and then one of them came running to us for help to fetch them
away. This was the first venison we had met with in all our march, and
we feasted upon it very plentifully; and this was the first time we
began to prevail with our prince to eat his meat dressed our way; after
which his men were prevailed with by his example, but before that, they
ate most of the flesh they had quite raw.
We wished now we had brought some bows and arrows out with us, which we
might have done; and we began to have so much confidence in our negroes,
and to be so familiar with them, that we oftentimes let them go, or the
greatest part of them, untied, being well assured they would not leave
us, and that they did not know what course to take without us; but one
thing we resolved not to trust them with, and that was the charging our
guns: but they always believed our guns had some heavenly power in them,
that would send forth fire and smoke, and speak with a dreadful noise,
and kill at a distance whenever we bid them.
In about eight days we finished three canoes, and in them we embarked
our white men and our baggage, with our prince, and some of the
prisoners. We also found it needful to keep some of ourselves always on
shore, not only to manage the negroes, but to defend them from enemies
and wild beasts. Abundance of little incidents happened upon this march,
which it is impossible to crowd into this account; particularly, we
saw more wild beasts now than we did before, some elephants, and two or
three lions, none of which kinds we had seen any of before; and we
found our negroes were more afraid of them a great deal than we were;
principally, because they had no bows and arrows, or lances, which were
the particular weapons they were bred up to the exercise of.
But we cured them of their fears by being always ready with our
firearms. However, as we were willing to be sparing of our powder, and
the killing of any of the creatures now was no advantage to us, seeing
their skins were too heavy for us to carry, and their flesh not good to
eat, we resolved therefore to keep some of our pieces uncharged and only
primed; and causing them to flash in the pan, the beasts, even the
lions themselves, would always start and fly back when they saw it, and
immediately march off.
We passed abundance of inhabitants upon this upper part of the river,
and with this observation, that almost every ten miles we came to a
separate nation, and every separate nation had a different speech,
or else their speech had differing dialects, so that they did not
understand one another. They all abounded in cattle, especially on the
river-side; and the eighth day of this second navigation we met with
a little negro town, where they had growing a sort of corn like rice,
which ate very sweet; and, as we got some of it of the people, we made
very good cakes of bread of it, and, making a fire, baked them on the
ground, after the fire was swept away, very well; so that hitherto we
had no want of provisions of any kind that we could desire.
Our negroes towing our canoes, we travelled at a considerable rate, and
by our own account could not go less than twenty or twenty-five English
miles a day, and the river continuing to be much of the same breadth
and very deep all the way, till on the tenth day we came to another
cataract; for a ridge of high hills crossing the whole channel of the
river, the water came tumbling down the rocks from one stage to another
in a strange manner, so that it was a continued link of cataracts from
one to another, in the manner of a cascade, only that the falls were
sometimes a quarter of a mile from one another, and the noise confused
and frightful.
We thought our voyaging was at a full stop now; but three of us, with
a couple of our negroes, mounting the hills another way, to view the
course of the river, we found a fair channel again after about half a
mile's march, and that it was like to hold us a good way further. So
we set all hands to work, unloaded our cargo, and hauled our canoes on
shore, to see if we could carry them.
Upon examination we found that they were very heavy; but our carpenters,
spending but one day's work upon them, hewed away so much of the timber
from their outsides as reduced them very much, and yet they were as fit
to swim as before. When this was done, ten men with poles took up one
of the canoes and made nothing to carry it. So we ordered twenty men to
each canoe, that one ten might relieve the other; and thus we carried
all our canoes, and launched them into the water again, and then fetched
our luggage and loaded it all again into the canoes, and all in an
afternoon; and the next morning early we moved forward again. When we
had towed about four days more, our gunner, who was our pilot, began to
observe that we did not keep our right course so exactly as we ought,
the river winding away a little towards the north, and gave us notice
of it accordingly. However, we were not willing to lose the advantage of
water-carriage, at least not till we were forced to it; so we jogged on,
and the river served us for about threescore miles further; but then
we found it grew very small and shallow, having passed the mouths of
several little brooks or rivulets which came into it; and at length it
became but a brook itself.
We towed up as far as ever our boats would swim, and we went two days
the farther--having been about twelve days in this last part of the
river--by lightening the boats and taking our luggage out, which we made
the negroes carry, being willing to ease ourselves as long as we could;
but at the end of these two days, in short, there was not water enough
to swim a London wherry.
We now set forward wholly by land, and without any expectation of more
water-carriage. All our concern for more water was to be sure to have a
supply for our drinking; and therefore upon every hill that we came near
we clambered up to the highest part to see the country before us, and
to make the best judgment we could which way to go to keep the lowest
grounds, and as near some stream of water as we could.
The country held verdant, well grown with trees, and spread with rivers
and brooks, and tolerably well with inhabitants, for about thirty days'
march after our leaving the canoes, during which time things went pretty
well with us; we did not tie ourselves down when to march and when to
halt, but ordered those things as our convenience and the health and
ease of our people, as well our servants as ourselves, required.
About the middle of this march we came into a low and plain country,
in which we perceived a greater number of inhabitants than in any other
country we had gone through; but that which was worse for us, we found
them a fierce, barbarous, treacherous people, and who at first looked
upon us as robbers, and gathered themselves in numbers to attack us.
Our men were terrified at them at first, and began to discover an
unusual fear, and even our black prince seemed in a great deal of
confusion; but I smiled at him, and showing him some of our guns, I
asked him if he thought that which killed the spotted cat (for so they
called the leopard in their language) could not make a thousand of those
naked creatures die at one blow? Then he laughed, and said, yes, he
believed it would. "Well, then," said I, "tell your men not to be afraid
of these people, for we shall soon give them a taste of what we can do
if they pretend to meddle with us." However, we considered we were in
the middle of a vast country, and we knew not what numbers of people
and nations we might be surrounded with, and, above all, we knew not how
much we might stand in need of the friendship of these that we were now
among, so that we ordered the negroes to try all the methods they could
to make them friends.
Accordingly the two men who had gotten bows and arrows, and two more
to whom we gave the prince's two fine lances, went foremost, with five
more, having long poles in their hands; and after them ten of our men
advanced toward the negro town that was next to us, and we all stood
ready to succour them if there should be occasion.
When they came pretty near their houses our negroes hallooed in their
screaming way, and called to them as loud as they could. Upon their
calling, some of the men came out and answered, and immediately after
the whole town, men, women, and children, appeared; our negroes, with
their long poles, went forward a little, and stuck them all in the
ground, and left them, which in their country was a signal of peace, but
the other did not understand the meaning of that. Then the two men with
bows laid down their bows and arrows, went forward unarmed, and made
signs of peace to them, which at last the other began to understand; so
two of their men laid down their bows and arrows, and came towards them.
Our men made all the signs of friendship to them that they could think
of, putting their hands up to their mouths as a sign that they wanted
provisions to eat; and the other pretended to be pleased and friendly,
and went back to their fellows and talked with them a while, and they
came forward again, and made signs that they would bring some provisions
to them before the sun set; and so our men came back again very well
satisfied for that time.
But an hour before sunset our men went to them again, just in the same
posture as before, and they came according to their appointment, and
brought deer's flesh, roots, and the same kind of corn, like rice, which
I mentioned above; and our negroes, being furnished with such toys as
our cutler had contrived, gave them some of them, which they seemed
infinitely pleased with, and promised to bring more provisions the next
day.
Accordingly the next day they came again, but our men perceived they
were more in number by a great many than before. However, having sent
out ten men with firearms to stand ready, and our whole army being in
view also, we were not much surprised; nor was the treachery of the
enemy so cunningly ordered as in other cases, for they might have
surrounded our negroes, which were but nine, under a show of peace; but
when they saw our men advance almost as far as the place where they were
the day before, the rogues snatched up their bows and arrows and came
running upon our men like so many furies, at which our ten men called
to the negroes to come back to them, which they did with speed enough
at the first word, and stood all behind our men. As they fled, the other
advanced, and let fly near a hundred of their arrows at them, by which
two of our negroes were wounded, and one we thought had been killed.
When they came to the five poles that our men had stuck in the ground,
they stood still awhile, and gathering about the poles, looked at them,
and handled them, as wondering what they meant. We then, who were drawn
up behind all, sent one of our number to our ten men to bid them fire
among them while they stood so thick, and to put some small shot into
their guns besides the ordinary charge, and to tell them that we would
be up with them immediately.
Accordingly they made ready; but by the time they were ready to fire,
the black army had left their wandering about the poles, and began to
stir as if they would come on, though seeing more men stand at some
distance behind our negroes, they could not tell what to make of us;
but if they did not understand us before, they understood us less
afterwards, for as soon as ever our men found them to begin to move
forward they fired among the thickest of them, being about the distance
of 120 yards, as near as we could guess.
It is impossible to express the fright, the screaming and yelling
of those wretches upon this first volley. We killed six of them, and
wounded eleven or twelve, I mean as we knew of; for, as they stood
thick, and the small shot, as we called it, scattered among them, we had
reason to believe we wounded more that stood farther off, for our small
shot was made of bits of lead and bits of iron, heads of nails, and such
things as our diligent artificer, the cutler, helped us to.
As to those that were killed and wounded, the other frighted creatures
were under the greatest amazement in the world, to think what should
hurt them, for they could see nothing but holes made in their bodies
they knew not how. Then the fire and noise amazed all their women and
children, and frighted them out of their wits, so that they ran staring
and howling about like mad creatures.
However, all this did not make them fly, which was what we wanted, nor
did we find any of them die as it were with fear, as at first; so we
resolved upon a second volley, and then to advance as we did before.
Whereupon our reserved men advancing, we resolved to fire only three men
at a time, and move forward like an army firing in platoon; so, being
all in a line, we fired, first three on the right, then three on the
left, and so on; and every time we killed or wounded some of them, but
still they did not fly, and yet they were so frighted that they used
none of their bows and arrows, or of their lances; and we thought their
numbers increased upon our hands, particularly we thought so by the
noise. So I called to our men to halt, and bid them pour in one whole
volley and then shout, as we did in our first fight, and so run in upon
them and knock them down with our muskets.
But they were too wise for that too, for as soon as we had fired a whole
volley and shouted, they all ran away, men, women, and children, so fast
that in a few moments we could not see one creature of them except some
that were wounded and lame, who lay wallowing and screaming here and
there upon the ground as they happened to fall.
Upon this we came up to the field of battle, where we found we had
killed thirty-seven of them, among which were three women, and had
wounded about sixty-four, among which were two women; by wounded I
mean such as were so maimed as not to be able to go away, and those our
negroes killed afterwards in a cowardly manner in cold blood, for which
we were very angry, and threatened to make them go to them if they did
so again.
There was no great spoil to be got, for they were all stark naked as
they came into the world, men and women together, some of them having
feathers stuck in their hair, and others a kind of bracelet about their
necks, but nothing else; but our negroes got a booty here, which we were
very glad of, and this was the bows and arrows of the vanquished, of
which they found more than they knew what to do with, belonging to the
killed and wounded men; these we ordered them to pick up, and they
were very useful to us afterwards. After the fight, and our negroes had
gotten bows and arrows, we sent them out in parties to see what they
could get, and they got some provisions; but, which was better than all
the rest, they brought us four more young bulls, or buffaloes, that
had been brought up to labour and to carry burthens. They knew them, it
seems, by the burthens they had carried having galled their backs, for
they have no saddles to cover them with in that country.
Those creatures not only eased our negroes, but gave us an opportunity
to carry more provisions; and our negroes loaded them very hard at this
place with flesh and roots, such as we wanted very much afterwards.
In this town we found a very little young leopard, about two spans high;
it was exceeding tame, and purred like a cat when we stroked it with our
hands, being, as I suppose, bred up among the negroes like a house-dog.
It was our black prince, it seems, who, making his tour among the
abandoned houses or huts, found this creature there, and making much of
him, and giving a bit or two of flesh to him, the creature followed him
like a dog; of which more hereafter.
Among the negroes that were killed in this battle there was one who had
a little thin bit or plate of gold, about as big as a sixpence, which
hung by a little bit of a twisted gut upon his forehead, by which we
supposed he was a man of some eminence among them; but that was not all,
for this bit of gold put us upon searching very narrowly if there was
not more of it to be had thereabouts, but we found none at all.
From this part of the country we went on for about fifteen days, and
then found ourselves obliged to march up a high ridge of mountains,
frightful to behold, and the first of the kind that we met with; and
having no guide but our little pocket-compass, we had no advantage of
information as to which was the best or the worst way, but was obliged
to choose by what we saw, and shift as well as we could. We met with
several nations of wild and naked people in the plain country before we
came to those hills, and we found them much more tractable and friendly
than those devils we had been forced to fight with; and though we could
learn little from these people, yet we understood by the signs they made
that there was a vast desert beyond these hills, and, as our negroes
called them, much lion, much spotted cat (so they called the leopard);
and they signed to us also that we must carry water with us. At the last
of these nations we furnished ourselves with as much provisions as we
could possibly carry, not knowing what we had to suffer, or what length
we had to go; and, to make our way as familiar to us as possible, I
proposed that of the last inhabitants we could find we should make some
prisoners and carry them with us for guides over the desert, and to
assist us in carrying provision, and, perhaps, in getting it too. The
advice was too necessary to be slighted; so finding, by our dumb signs
to the inhabitants, that there were some people that dwelt at the foot
of the mountains on the other side before we came to the desert itself,
we resolved to furnish ourselves with guides by fair means or foul.
Here, by a moderate computation, we concluded ourselves 700 miles from
the sea-coast where we began. Our black prince was this day set free
from the sling his arm hung in, our surgeon having perfectly restored
it, and he showed it to his own countrymen quite well, which made them
greatly wonder. Also our two negroes began to recover, and their wounds
to heal apace, for our surgeon was very skilful in managing their cure.
Having with infinite labour mounted these hills, and coming to a view
of the country beyond them, it was indeed enough to astonish as stout a
heart as ever was created. It was a vast howling wilderness--not a tree,
a river, or a green thing to be seen; for, as far as the eye could look,
nothing but a scalding sand, which, as the wind blew, drove about in
clouds enough to overwhelm man and beast. Nor could we see any end of
it either before us, which was our way, or to the right hand or left;
so that truly our men began to be discouraged, and talk of going back
again. Nor could we indeed think of venturing over such a horrid place
as that before us, in which we saw nothing but present death.
I was as much affected at the sight as any of them; but, for all that,
I could not bear the thoughts of going back again. I told them we had
marched 700 miles of our way, and it would be worse than death to
think of going back again; and that, if they thought the desert was not
passable, I thought we should rather change our course, and travel south
till we came to the Cape of Good Hope, or north to the country that lay
along the Nile, where, perhaps, we might find some way or other over to
the west sea; for sure all Africa was not a desert.
Our gunner, who, as I said before, was our guide as to the situation
of places, told us that he could not tell what to say to going for the
Cape, for it was a monstrous length, being from the place where we now
were not less than 1500 miles; and, by his account, we were now come a
third part of the way to the coast of Angola, where we should meet the
western ocean, and find ways enough for our escape home. On the other
hand, he assured us, and showed us a map of it, that, if we went
northward, the western shore of Africa went out into the sea above
1000 miles west, so that we should have so much and more land to travel
afterwards; which land might, for aught we knew, be as wild, barren,
and desert as this. And therefore, upon the whole, he proposed that we
should attempt this desert, and perhaps we should not find it so long
as we feared; and however, he proposed that we should see how far our
provisions would carry us, and, in particular, our water; and we should
venture no further than half so far as our water would last; and if we
found no end of the desert, we might come safely back again.
This advice was so reasonable that we all approved of it; and
accordingly we calculated that we were able to carry provisions for
forty-two days, but that we could not carry water for above twenty days,
though we were to suppose it to stink, too, before that time expired.
So that we concluded that, if we did not come at some water in ten days'
time, we would return; but if we found a supply of water, we could then
travel twenty-one days; and, if we saw no end of the wilderness in that
time, we would return also.
With this regulation of our measures, we descended the mountains, and it
was the second day before we quite reached the plain; where, however,
to make us amends, we found a fine little rivulet of very good water,
abundance of deer, a sort of creature like a hare, but not so nimble,
but whose flesh we found very agreeable. But we were deceived in our
intelligence, for we found no people; so we got no more prisoners to
assist us in carrying our baggage.
The infinite number of deer and other creatures which we saw here, we
found was occasioned by the neighbourhood of the waste or desert, from
whence they retired hither for food and refreshment. We stored ourselves
here with flesh and roots of divers kinds, which our negroes understood
better than we, and which served us for bread; and with as much water as
(by the allowance of a quart a day to a man for our negroes, and three
pints a day a man for ourselves, and three quarts a day each for our
buffaloes) would serve us twenty days; and thus loaded for a long
miserable march, we set forwards, being all sound in health and very
cheerful, but not alike strong for so great a fatigue; and, which was
our grievance, were without a guide.
In the very first entrance of the waste we were exceedingly discouraged,
for we found the sand so deep, and it scalded our feet so much with
the heat, that after we had, as I may call it, waded rather than walked
through it about seven or eight miles, we were all heartily tired and
faint; even the very negroes laid down and panted like creatures that
had been pushed beyond their strength.
Here we found the difference of lodging greatly injurious to us; for, as
before, we always made us huts to sleep under, which covered us from the
night air, which is particularly unwholesome in those hot countries. But
we had here no shelter, no lodging, after so hard a march; for here were
no trees, no, not a shrub near us; and, which was still more frightful,
towards night we began to hear the wolves howl, the lions bellow, and
a great many wild asses braying, and other ugly noises which we did not
understand.
Upon this we reflected upon our indiscretion, that we had not, at least,
brought poles or stakes in our hands, with which we might have, as it
were, palisadoed ourselves in for the night, and so we might have slept
secure, whatever other inconveniences we suffered. However, we found
a way at last to relieve ourselves a little; for first we set up the
lances and bows we had, and endeavoured to bring the tops of them as
near to one another as we could, and so hung our coats on the top of
them, which made us a kind of sorry tent. The leopard's skin, and a few
other skins we had put together, made us a tolerable covering, and thus
we laid down to sleep, and slept very heartily too, for the first night;
setting, however, a good watch, being two of our own men with their
fuzees, whom we relieved in an hour at first, and two hours afterwards.
And it was very well we did this, for they found the wilderness swarmed
with raging creatures of all kinds, some of which came directly up to
the very enclosure of our tent. But our sentinels were ordered not to
alarm us with firing in the night, but to flash in the pan at them,
which they did, and found it effectual, for the creatures went off
always as soon as they saw it, perhaps with some noise or howling, and
pursued such other game as they were upon.
If we were tired with the day's travel, we were all as much tired with
the night's lodging. But our black prince told us in the morning he
would give us some counsel, and indeed it was very good counsel. He told
us we should be all killed if we went on this journey, and through this
desert, without some covering for us at night; so he advised us to march
back again to a little river-side where we lay the night before, and
stay there till we could make us houses, as he called them, to carry
with us to lodge in every night. As he began a little to understand our
speech, and we very well to understand his signs, we easily knew what he
meant, and that we should there make mats (for we remembered that we saw
a great deal of matting or bass there, that the natives make mats of)--I
say, that we should make large mats there for covering our huts or tents
to lodge in at night.
We all approved this advice, and immediately resolved to go back that
one day's journey, resolving, though we carried less provisions, we
would carry mats with us to cover us in the night. Some of the nimblest
of us got back to the river with more ease than we had travelled it the
day before; but, as we were not in haste, the rest made a halt, encamped
another night, and came to us the next day.
In our return of this day's journey, our men that made two days of
it met with a very surprising thing, that gave them some reason to be
careful how they parted company again. The case was this:--The second
day in the morning, before they had gone half a mile, looking behind
them they saw a vast cloud of sand or dust rise in the air, as we see
sometimes in the roads in summer when it is very dusty and a large drove
of cattle are coming, only very much greater; and they could easily
perceive that it came after them; and it came on faster as they went
from it. The cloud of sand was so great that they could not see what it
was that raised it, and concluded that it was some army of enemies
that pursued them; but then considering that they came from the vast
uninhabited wilderness, they knew it was impossible any nation or people
that way should have intelligence of them or the way of their march;
and therefore, if it was an army, it must be of such as they were,
travelling that way by accident. On the other hand, as they knew that
there were no horses in the country, and that they came on so fast, they
concluded that it must be some vast collection of wild beasts, perhaps
making to the hill country for food or water, and that they should be
all devoured or trampled under foot by their multitude.
Upon this thought, they very prudently observed which way the cloud
seemed to point, and they turned a little out of their way to the north,
supposing it might pass by them. When they were about a quarter of a
mile, they halted to see what it might be. One of the negroes, a nimbler
fellow than the rest, went back a little, and came in a few minutes
running as fast as the heavy sands would allow, and by signs gave them
to know that it was a great herd, or drove, or whatever it might be
called, of vast monstrous elephants.
As it was a sight our men had never seen, they were desirous to see it,
and yet a little uneasy at the danger too; for though an elephant is a
heavy unwieldy creature, yet in the deep sand, which is nothing at all
to them, they marched at a great rate, and would soon have tired our
people, if they had had far to go, and had been pursued by them.
Our gunner was with them, and had a great mind to have gone close up to
one of the outermost of them, and to have clapped his piece to his
ear, and to have fired into him, because he had been told no shot would
penetrate them; but they all dissuaded him, lest upon the noise they
should all turn upon and pursue us; so he was reasoned out of it, and
let them pass, which, in our people's circumstances, was certainly the
right way.
They were between twenty and thirty in number, but prodigious great
ones; and though they often showed our men that they saw them, yet they
did not turn out of their way, or take any other notice of them than, as
we might say, just to look at them. We that were before saw the cloud of
dust they raised, but we had thought it had been our own caravan, and so
took no notice; but as they bent their course one point of the compass,
or thereabouts, to the southward of the east, and we went due east [?
west], they passed by us at some little distance; so that we did not see
them, or know anything of them, till evening, when our men came to us
and gave us this account of them. However, this was a useful experiment
for our future conduct in passing the desert, as you shall hear in its
place.
We were now upon our work, and our black prince was head surveyor, for
he was an excellent mat-maker himself, and all his men understood it, so
that they soon made us near a hundred mats; and as every man, I mean of
the negroes, carried one, it was no manner of load, and we did not carry
an ounce of provisions the less. The greatest burthen was to carry
six long poles, besides some shorter stakes; but the negroes made an
advantage of that, for carrying them between two, they made the luggage
of provisions which they had to carry so much the lighter, binding it
upon two poles, and so made three couple of them. As soon as we saw
this, we made a little advantage of it too; for having three or four
bags, called bottles (I mean skins to carry water), more than the men
could carry, we got them filled, and carried them this way, which was a
day's water and more, for our journey.
Having now ended our work, made our mats, and fully recruited our stores
of all things necessary, and having made us abundance of small ropes
of matting for ordinary use, as we might have occasion, we set forward
again, having interrupted our journey eight days in all, upon this
affair. To our great comfort, the night before we set out there fell a
very violent shower of rain, the effects of which we found in the sand;
though the heat of one day dried the surface as much as before, yet it
was harder at bottom, not so heavy, and was cooler to our feet, by which
means we marched, as we reckoned, about fourteen miles instead of seven,
and with much more ease.
When we came to encamp, we had all things ready, for we had fitted our
tent, and set it up for trial, where we made it; so that, in less than
an hour, we had a large tent raised, with an inner and outer apartment,
and two entrances. In one we lay ourselves, in the other our negroes,
having light pleasant mats over us, and others at the same time under
us. Also we had a little place without all for our buffaloes, for they
deserved our care, being very useful to us, besides carrying forage and
water for themselves. Their forage was a root, which our black
prince directed us to find, not much unlike a parsnip, very moist and
nourishing, of which there was plenty wherever we came, this horrid
desert excepted.
When we came the next morning to decamp, our negroes took down the tent,
and pulled up the stakes; and all was in motion in as little time as it
was set up. In this posture we marched eight days, and yet could see no
end, no change of our prospect, but all looking as wild and dismal as
at the beginning. If there was any alteration, it was that the sand
was nowhere so deep and heavy as it was the first three days. This we
thought might be because, for six months of the year the winds blowing
west (as for the other six they blow constantly east), the sand was
driven violently to the side of the desert where we set out, where the
mountains lying very high, the easterly monsoons, when they blew, had
not the same power to drive it back again; and this was confirmed by our
finding the like depth of sand on the farthest extent of the desert to
the west.
It was the ninth day of our travel in this wilderness, when we came
to the view of a great lake of water; and you may be sure this was a
particular satisfaction to us, because we had not water left for above
two or three days more, at our shortest allowance; I mean allowing water
for our return, if we had been driven to the necessity of it. Our water
had served us two days longer than expected, our buffaloes having found,
for two or three days, a kind of herb like a broad flat thistle, though
without any prickle, spreading on the ground, and growing in the sand,
which they ate freely of, and which supplied them for drink as well as
forage.
The next day, which was the tenth from our setting out, we came to the
edge of this lake, and, very happily for us, we came to it at the south
point of it, for to the north we could see no end of it; so we passed by
it and travelled three days by the side of it, which was a great comfort
to us, because it lightened our burthen, there being no need to carry
water when we had it in view. And yet, though here was so much water,
we found but very little alteration in the desert; no trees, no grass
or herbage, except that thistle, as I called it, and two or three more
plants, which we did not understand, of which the desert began to be
pretty full.
But as we were refreshed with the neighbourhood of this lake of water,
so we were now gotten among a prodigious number of ravenous inhabitants,
the like whereof, it is most certain, the eye of man never saw; for as
I firmly believe that never man nor body of men passed this desert since
the flood, so I believe there is not the like collection of fierce,
ravenous, and devouring creatures in the world; I mean not in any
particular place.
For a day's journey before we came to this lake, and all the three days
we were passing by it, and for six or seven days' march after it,
the ground was scattered with elephants' teeth in such a number as is
incredible; and as some of them have lain there for some hundreds of
years, so, seeing the substance of them scarce ever decays, they may lie
there, for aught I know, to the end of time. The size of some of them
is, it seems, to those to whom I have reported it, as incredible as
the number; and I can assure you there were several so heavy as the
strongest man among us could not lift. As to number, I question not but
there are enough to load a thousand sail of the biggest ships in the
world, by which I may be understood to mean that the quantity is not
to be conceived of; seeing that as they lasted in view for above eighty
miles' travelling, so they might continue as far to the right hand, and
to the left as far, and many times as far, for aught we knew; for it
seems the number of elephants hereabouts is prodigiously great. In one
place in particular we saw the head of an elephant, with several teeth
in it, but one of the biggest that ever I saw; the flesh was consumed,
to be sure, many hundred years before, and all the other bones; but
three of our strongest men could not lift this skull and teeth; the
great tooth, I believe, weighed at least three hundredweight; and this
was particularly remarkable to me, that I observed the whole skull was
as good ivory as the teeth, and, I believe, altogether weighed at least
six hundredweight; and though I do not know but, by the same rule, all
the bones of the elephant may be ivory, yet I think there is this just
objection against it from the example before me, that then all the other
bones of this elephant would have been there as well as the head.
I proposed to our gunner, that, seeing we had travelled now fourteen
days without intermission, and that we had water here for our
refreshment, and no want of food yet, nor any fear of it, we should rest
our people a little, and see, at the same time, if perhaps we might
kill some creatures that were proper for food. The gunner, who had more
forecast of that kind than I had, agreed to the proposal, and added, why
might we not try to catch some fish out of the lake? The first thing we
had before us was to try if we could make any hooks, and this indeed put
our artificer to his trumps; however, with some labour and difficulty,
he did it, and we catched fresh fish of several kinds. How they came
there, none but He that made the lake and all the world knows; for, to
be sure, no human hands ever put any in there, or pulled any out before.
We not only catched enough for our present refreshment, but we dried
several large fishes, of kinds which I cannot describe, in the sun, by
which we lengthened out our provision considerably; for the heat of
the sun dried them so effectually without salt that they were perfectly
cured, dry, and hard, in one day's time.
We rested ourselves here five days; during which time we had abundance
of pleasant adventures with the wild creatures, too many to relate. One
of them was very particular, which was a chase between a she-lion,
or lioness, and a large deer; and though the deer is naturally a very
nimble creature, and she flew by us like the wind, having, perhaps,
about 300 yards the start of the lion, yet we found the lion, by her
strength, and the goodness of her lungs, got ground of her. They passed
by us within about a quarter of a mile, and we had a view of them a
great way, when, having given them over, we were surprised, about an
hour after, to see them come thundering back again on the other side of
us, and then the lion was within thirty or forty yards of her; and both
straining to the extremity of their speed, when the deer, coming to the
lake, plunged into the water, and swam for her life, as she had before
run for it.
The lioness plunged in after her, and swam a little way, but came back
again; and when she was got upon the land she set up the most hideous
roar that ever I heard in my life, as if done in the rage of having lost
her prey.
We walked out morning and evening constantly; the middle of the day we
refreshed ourselves under our tent. But one morning early we saw another
chase, which more nearly concerned us than the other; for our black
prince, walking by the side of the lake, was set upon by a vast, great
crocodile, which came out of the lake upon him; and though he was very
light of foot, yet it was as much as he could do to get away. He fled
amain to us, and the truth is, we did not know what to do, for we were
told no bullet would enter her; and we found it so at first, for though
three of our men fired at her, yet she did not mind them; but my friend
the gunner, a venturous fellow, of a bold heart, and great presence
of mind, went up so near as to thrust the muzzle of his piece into her
mouth, and fired, but let his piece fall, and ran for it the very moment
he had fired it. The creature raged a great while, and spent its fury
upon the gun, making marks upon the very iron with its teeth, but after
some time fainted and died.
Our negroes spread the banks of the lake all this while for game, and at
length killed us three deer, one of them very large, the other two very
small. There was water-fowl also in the lake, but we never came near
enough to them to shoot any; and as for the desert, we saw no fowls
anywhere in it but at the lake.
We likewise killed two or three civet cats; but their flesh is the worst
of carrion. We saw abundance of elephants at a distance, and observed
they always go in very good company, that is to say, abundance of them
together, and always extended in a fair line of battle; and this, they
say, is the way they defend themselves from their enemies; for if lions
or tigers, wolves or any creatures, attack them, they being drawn in a
line, sometimes reaching five or six miles in length, whatever comes in
their way is sure to be trod under foot, or beaten in pieces with their
trunks, or lifted up in the air with their trunks; so that if a hundred
lions or tigers were coming along, if they meet a line of elephants,
they will always fly back till they see room to pass by the right hand
or the left; and if they did not, it would be impossible for one of
them to escape; for the elephant, though a heavy creature, is yet so
dexterous and nimble with his trunk, that he will not fail to lift up
the heaviest lion, or any other wild creature, and throw him up in the
air quite over his back, and then trample him to death with his feet. We
saw several lines of battle thus; we saw one so long that indeed there
was no end of it to be seen, and I believe there might be 2000 elephants
in row or line. They are not beasts of prey, but live upon the herbage
of the field, as an ox does; and it is said, that though they are so
great a creature, yet that a smaller quantity of forage supplies one of
them than will suffice a horse.
The numbers of this kind of creature that are in those parts are
inconceivable, as may be gathered from the prodigious quantity of
teeth which, as I said, we saw in this vast desert; and indeed we saw a
hundred of them to one of any other kind.
One evening we were very much surprised. We were most of us laid down
on our mats to sleep, when our watch came running in among us, being
frighted with the sudden roaring of some lions just by them, which, it
seems, they had not seen, the night being dark, till they were just upon
them. There was, as it proved, an old lion and his whole family, for
there was the lioness and three young lions, besides the old king, who
was a monstrous great one. One of the young ones--who were good, large,
well-grown ones too--leaped up upon one of our negroes, who stood
sentinel, before he saw him, at which he was heartily frighted, cried
out, and ran into the tent. Our other man, who had a gun, had not
presence of mind at first to shoot him, but struck him with the butt-end
of his piece, which made him whine a little, and then growl at him
fearfully; but the fellow retired, and, we being all alarmed, three of
our men snatched up their guns, ran to the tent door, where they saw the
great old lion by the fire of his eyes, and first fired at him, but, we
supposed, missed him, or at least did not kill him; for they went all
off, but raised a most hideous roar, which, as if they had called for
help, brought down a prodigious number of lions, and other furious
creatures, we know not what, about them, for we could not see them;
but there was a noise, and yelling and howling, and all sorts of such
wilderness music on every side of us, as if all the beasts of the desert
were assembled to devour us.
We asked our black prince what we should do with them. "Me go," says he,
"and fright them all." So he snatches up two or three of the worst of
our mats, and getting one of our men to strike some fire, he hangs the
mat up at the end of a pole, and set it on fire, and it blazed abroad
a good while; at which the creatures all moved off, for we heard them
roar, and make their bellowing noise at a great distance. "Well," says
our gunner, "if that will do, we need not burn our mats, which are our
beds to lay under us, and our tilting to cover us. Let me alone," says
he. So he comes back into our tent, and falls to making some artificial
fireworks and the like; and he gave our sentinels some to be ready
at hand upon occasion, and particularly he placed a great piece of
wild-fire upon the same pole that the mat had been tied to, and set it
on fire, and that burnt there so long that all the wild creatures left
us for that time.
However, we began to be weary of such company; and, to be rid of them,
we set forward again two days sooner than we intended. We found now,
that though the desert did not end, nor could we see any appearance of
it, yet that the earth was pretty full of green stuff of one sort or
another, so that our cattle had no want; and secondly, that there
were several little rivers which ran into the lake, and so long as the
country continued low, we found water sufficient, which eased us very
much in our carriage, and we went on still sixteen days more without yet
coming to any appearance of better soil. After this we found the country
rise a little, and by that we perceived that the water would fail us;
so, for fear of the worst, we filled our bladder-bottles with water.
We found the country rising gradually thus for three days continually,
when, on the sudden, we perceived that, though we had mounted up
insensibly, yet that we were on the top of a very high ridge of hills,
though not such as at first.
When we came to look down on the other side of the hills, we saw, to
the great joy of all our hearts, that the desert was at an end; that the
country was clothed with green, abundance of trees, and a large river;
and we made no doubt but that we should find people and cattle also; and
here, by our gunner's account, who kept our computations, we had
marched about 400 miles over this dismal place of horror, having been
four-and-thirty days a-doing of it, and consequently were come about
1100 miles of our journey.
We would willingly have descended the hills that night, but it was
too late. The next morning we saw everything more plain, and rested
ourselves under the shade of some trees, which were now the most
refreshing things imaginable to us, who had been scorched above a month
without a tree to cover us. We found the country here very pleasant,
especially considering that we came from; and we killed some deer here
also, which we found very frequent under the cover of the woods. Also we
killed a creature like a goat, whose flesh was very good to eat, but it
was no goat; we found also a great number of fowls like partridge, but
something smaller, and were very tame; so that we lived here very well,
but found no people, at least none that would be seen, no, not for
several days' journey; and to allay our joy, we were almost every night
disturbed with lions and tigers; elephants, indeed, we saw none here.
In three days' march we came to a river, which we saw from the hills,
and which we called the Golden River; and we found it ran northward,
which was the first stream we had met with that did so. It ran with a
very rapid current, and our gunner, pulling out his map, assured me that
this was either the river Nile, or run into the great lake out of which
the river Nile was said to take its beginning; and he brought out his
charts and maps, which, by his instruction, I began to understand very
well, and told me he would convince me of it, and indeed he seemed to
make it so plain to me that I was of the same opinion.
But I did not enter into the gunner's reason for this inquiry, not in
the least, till he went on with it farther, and stated it thus:--"If
this is the river Nile, why should not we build some more canoes, and go
down this stream, rather than expose ourselves to any more deserts and
scorching sands in quest of the sea, which when we are come to, we shall
be as much at a loss how to get home as we were at Madagascar?"
The argument was good, had there been no objections in the way of a kind
which none of us were capable of answering; but, upon the whole, it
was an undertaking of such a nature that every one of us thought it
impracticable, and that upon several accounts; and our surgeon, who was
himself a good scholar and a man of reading, though not acquainted
with the business of sailing, opposed it, and some of his reasons, I
remember, were such as these:--First, the length of the way, which both
he and the gunner allowed, by the course of the water, and turnings
of the river, would be at least 4000 miles. Secondly, the innumerable
crocodiles in the river, which we should never be able to escape.
Thirdly, the dreadful deserts in the way; and lastly, the approaching
rainy season, in which the streams of the Nile would be so furious, and
rise so high--spreading far and wide over all the plain country--that
we should never be able to know when we were in the channel of the river
and when not, and should certainly be cast away, overset, or run
aground so often that it would be impossible to proceed by a river so
excessively dangerous.
This last reason he made so plain to us that we began to be sensible of
it ourselves, so that we agreed to lay that thought aside, and proceed
in our first course, westwards towards the sea; but, as if we had been
loth to depart, we continued, by way of refreshing ourselves, to loiter
two days upon this river, in which time our black prince, who delighted
much in wandering up and down, came one evening and brought us several
little bits of something, he knew not what, but he found it felt heavy
and looked well, and showed it to me as what he thought was some rarity.
I took not much notice of it to him, but stepping out and calling the
gunner to me I showed it to him, and told him what I thought, viz.,
that it was certainly gold. He agreed with me in that, and also in what
followed, that we would take the black prince out with us the next day,
and make him show us where he found it; that if there was any quantity
to be found we would tell our company of it, but if there was but little
we would keep counsel, and have it to ourselves.
But we forgot to engage the prince in the secret, who innocently told so
much to all the rest, as that they guessed what it was, and came to us
to see. When we found it was public, we were more concerned to prevent
their suspecting that we had any design to conceal it, and openly
telling our thoughts of it, we called our artificer, who agreed
presently that it was gold; so I proposed that we should all go with
the prince to the place where he found it, and if any quantity was to be
had, we would lie here some time and see what we could make of it.
Accordingly we went every man of us, for no man was willing to be left
behind in a discovery of such a nature. When we came to the place we
found it was on the west side of the river, not in the main river, but
in another small river or stream which came from the west, and ran into
the other at that place. We fell to raking in the sand, and washing it
in our hands; and we seldom took up a handful of sand but we washed
some little round lumps as big as a pin's head, or sometimes as big as a
grape stone, into our hands; and we found, in two or three hours'
time, that every one had got some, so we agreed to leave off, and go to
dinner.
While we were eating, it came into my thoughts that while we worked at
this rate in a thing of such nicety and consequence, it was ten to one
if the gold, which was the make-bait of the world, did not, first or
last, set us together by the ears, to break our good articles and our
understanding one among another, and perhaps cause us to part companies,
or worse; I therefore told them that I was indeed the youngest man in
the company, but as they had always allowed me to give my opinion in
things, and had sometimes been pleased to follow my advice, so I
had something to propose now, which I thought would be for all our
advantages, and I believed they would all like it very well. I told them
we were in a country where we all knew there was a great deal of gold,
and that all the world sent ships thither to get it; that we did not
indeed know where it was, and so we might get a great deal, or a little,
we did not know whether; but I offered it to them to consider whether it
would not be the best way for us, and to preserve the good harmony
and friendship that had been always kept among us, and which was so
absolutely necessary to our safety, that what we found should be brought
together to one common stock, and be equally divided at last, rather
than to run the hazard of any difference which might happen among us
from any one's having found more or less than another. I told them, that
if we were all upon one bottom we should all apply ourselves heartily to
the work; and, besides that, we might then set our negroes all to work
for us, and receive equally the fruit of their labour and of our own,
and being all exactly alike sharers, there could be no just cause of
quarrel or disgust among us.
They all approved the proposal, and every one jointly swore, and gave
their hands to one another, that they would not conceal the least grain
of gold from the rest; and consented that if any one or more should
be found to conceal any, all that he had should be taken from him
and divided among the rest; and one thing more was added to it by our
gunner, from considerations equally good and just, that if any one of
us, by any play, bet, game, or wager, won any money or gold, or the
value of any, from another, during our whole voyage, till our return
quite to Portugal, he should be obliged by us all to restore it again
on the penalty of being disarmed and turned out of the company, and of
having no relief from us on any account whatever. This was to prevent
wagering and playing for money, which our men were apt to do by several
means and at several games, though they had neither cards nor dice.
Having made this wholesome agreement, we went cheerfully to work, and
showed our negroes how to work for us; and working up the stream on both
sides, and in the bottom of the river, we spent about three weeks' time
dabbling in the water; by which time, as it lay all in our way, we had
gone about six miles, and not more; and still the higher we went, the
more gold we found; till at last, having passed by the side of a hill,
we perceived on a sudden that the gold stopped, and that there was not
a bit taken up beyond that place. It presently occurred to my mind, that
it must then be from the side of that little hill that all the gold we
found was worked down.
Upon this, we went back to the hill, and fell to work with that. We
found the earth loose, and of a yellowish loamy colour, and in some
places a white hard kind of stone, which, in describing since to some
of our artists, they tell me was the spar which is found by ore, and
surrounds it in the mine. However, if it had been all gold, we had no
instrument to force it out; so we passed that. But scratching into the
loose earth with our fingers, we came to a surprising place, where
the earth, for the quantity of two bushels, I believe, or thereabouts,
crumbled down with little more than touching it, and apparently showed
us that there was a great deal of gold in it. We took it all carefully
up, and washing it in the water, the loamy earth washed away, and left
the gold dust free in our hands; and that which was more remarkable was,
that, when this loose earth was all taken away, and we came to the rock
or hard stone, there was not one grain of gold more to be found.
At night we all came together to see what we had got; and it appeared
we had found, in that day's heap of earth, about fifty pounds' weight of
gold dust, and about thirty-four pounds' weight more in all the rest of
our works in the river.
It was a happy kind of disappointment to us, that we found a full stop
put to our work; for, had the quantity of gold been ever so small, yet,
had any at all come, I do not know when we should have given over; for,
having rummaged this place, and not finding the least grain of gold
in any other place, or in any of the earth there, except in that loose
parcel, we went quite back down the small river again, working it over
and over again, as long as we could find anything, how small soever; and
we did get six or seven pounds more the second time. Then we went into
the first river, and tried it up the stream and down the stream, on the
one side and on the other. Up the stream we found nothing, no, not a
grain; down the stream we found very little, not above the quantity of
half an ounce in two miles' working; so back we came again to the Golden
River, as we justly called it, and worked it up the stream and down the
stream twice more apiece, and every time we found some gold, and perhaps
might have done so if we had stayed there till this time; but the
quantity was at last so small, and the work so much the harder, that we
agreed by consent to give it over, lest we should fatigue ourselves and
our negroes so as to be quite unfit for our journey.
When we had brought all our purchase together, we had in the whole three
pounds and a half of gold to a man, share and share alike, according to
such a weight and scale as our ingenious cutler made for us to weigh it
by, which indeed he did by guess, but which, as he said, he was sure
was rather more than less, and so it proved at last; for it was near
two ounces more than weight in a pound. Besides this, there was seven
or eight pounds' weight left, which we agreed to leave in his hands, to
work it into such shapes as we thought fit, to give away to such people
as we might yet meet with, from whom we might have occasion to buy
provisions, or even to buy friendship, or the like; and particularly we
gave about a pound to our black prince, which he hammered and worked by
his own indefatigable hand, and some tools our artificer lent him, into
little round bits, as round almost as beads, though not exact in shape,
and drilling holes through them, put them all upon a string, and wore
them about his black neck, and they looked very well there, I assure
you; but he was many months a-doing it. And thus ended our first golden
adventure.
We now began to discover what we had not troubled our heads much about
before, and that was, that, let the country be good or bad that we were
in, we could not travel much further for a considerable time. We had
been now five months and upwards in our journey, and the seasons began
to change; and nature told us, that, being in a climate that had a
winter as well as a summer, though of a different kind from what our
country produced, we were to expect a wet season, and such as we should
not be able to travel in, as well by reason of the rain itself, as of
the floods which it would occasion wherever we should come; and
though we had been no strangers to those wet seasons in the island
of Madagascar, yet we had not thought much of them since we began our
travels; for, setting out when the sun was about the solstice, that is,
when it was at the greatest northern distance from us, we had found
the benefit of it in our travels. But now it drew near us apace, and we
found it began to rain; upon which we called another general council, in
which we debated our present circumstances, and, in particular, whether
we should go forward, or seek for a proper place upon the bank of our
Golden River, which had been so lucky to us, to fix our camp for the
winter.
Upon the whole, it was resolved to abide where we were; and it was not
the least part of our happiness that we did so, as shall appear in its
place.
Having resolved upon this, our first measures were to set our negroes to
work, to make huts or houses for our habitation, and this they did very
dexterously; only that we changed the ground where we at first intended
it, thinking, as indeed it happened, that the river might reach it upon
any sudden rain. Our camp was like a little town, in which our huts were
in the centre, having one large one in the centre of them also, into
which all our particular lodgings opened; so that none of us went into
our apartments but through a public tent, where we all ate and drank
together, and kept our councils and society; and our carpenters made us
tables, benches, and stools in abundance, as many as we could make use
of.
We had no need of chimneys, it was hot enough without fire; but yet
we found ourselves at last obliged to keep a fire every night upon a
particular occasion. For though we had in all other respects a very
pleasant and agreeable situation, yet we were rather worse troubled with
the unwelcome visits of wild beasts here than in the wilderness itself;
for as the deer and other gentle creatures came hither for shelter
and food, so the lions and tigers and leopards haunted these places
continually for prey.
When first we discovered this we were so uneasy at it that we thought of
removing our situation; but after many debates about it we resolved to
fortify ourselves in such a manner as not to be in any danger from it;
and this our carpenters undertook, who first palisaded our camp quite
round with long stakes, for we had wood enough, which stakes were not
stuck in one by another like pales, but in an irregular manner; a
great multitude of them so placed that they took up near two yards in
thickness, some higher, some lower, all sharpened at the top, and about
a foot asunder: so that had any creature jumped at them, unless he had
gone clean over, which it was very hard to do, he would be hung upon
twenty or thirty spikes.
The entrance into this had larger stakes than the rest, so placed before
one another as to make three or four short turnings which no four-footed
beast bigger than a dog could possibly come in at; and that we might not
be attacked by any multitude together, and consequently be alarmed in
our sleep, as we had been, or be obliged to waste our ammunition, which
we were very chary of, we kept a great fire every night without the
entrance of our palisade, having a hut for our two sentinels to stand
in free from the rain, just within the entrance, and right against the
fire.
To maintain this fire we cut a prodigious deal of wood, and piled it up
in a heap to dry, and with the green boughs made a second covering over
our huts, so high and thick that it might cast the rain from the first,
and keep us effectually dry.
We had scarcely finished all these works but the rain came on so fierce
and so continued that we had little time to stir abroad for food, except
indeed that our negroes, who wore no clothes, seemed to make nothing of
the rain; though to us Europeans, in those hot climates, nothing is more
dangerous.
We continued in this posture for four months, that is to say, from the
middle of June to the middle of October; for though the rains went off,
at least the greatest violence of them, about the equinox, yet, as the
sun was then just over our heads, we resolved to stay awhile till it
passed a little to the southward.
During our encampment here we had several adventures with the ravenous
creatures of that country; and had not our fire been always kept
burning, I question much whether all our fence, though we strengthened
it afterwards with twelve or fourteen rows of stakes or more, would have
kept us secure. It was always in the night that we had the disturbance
of them, and sometimes they came in such multitudes that we thought
all the lions and tigers, and leopards and wolves of Africa were come
together to attack us. One night, being clear moonshine, one of our
men being upon the watch, told us that he verily believed he saw ten
thousand wild creatures of one sort or another pass by our little camp,
and ever as they saw the fire they sheered off, but were sure to howl or
roar, or whatever it was, when they were past.
The music of their voices was very far from being pleasant to us, and
sometimes would be so very disturbing that we could not sleep for it;
and often our sentinels would call us that were awake to come and look
at them. It was one windy, tempestuous night, after a rainy day, that
we were indeed called up; for such innumerable numbers of devilish
creatures came about us that our watch really thought they would attack
us. They would not come on the side where the fire was; and though we
thought ourselves secure everywhere else, yet we all got up and took to
our arms. The moon was near the full, but the air full of flying clouds,
and a strange hurricane of wind to add to the terror of the night; when,
looking on the back part of our camp, I thought I saw a creature within
our fortification, and so indeed he was, except his haunches, for he
had taken a running leap, I suppose, and with all his might had thrown
himself clear over our palisades, except one strong pile, which stood
higher than the rest, and which had caught hold of him, and by his
weight he had hanged himself upon it, the spike of the pile running into
his hinder haunch or thigh, on the inside; and by that he hung, growling
and biting the wood for rage. I snatched up a lance from one of the
negroes that stood just by me, and running to him, struck it three
or four times into him, and despatched him, being unwilling to shoot,
because I had a mind to have a volley fired among the rest, whom I could
see standing without, as thick as a drove of bullocks going to a fair. I
immediately called our people out, and showed them the object of terror
which I had seen, and, without any further consultation, fired a full
volley among them, most of our pieces being loaded with two or three
slugs or bullets apiece. It made a horrible clutter among them, and in
general they all took to their heels, only that we could observe that
some walked off with more gravity and majesty than others, being not
so much frighted at the noise and fire; and we could perceive that some
were left upon the ground struggling as for life, but we durst not stir
out to see what they were.
Indeed they stood so thick, and were so near us, that we could not
well miss killing or wounding some of them, and we believed they had
certainly the smell of us, and our victuals we had been killing; for we
had killed a deer, and three or four of those creatures like goats the
day before; and some of the offal had been thrown out behind our camp,
and this, we suppose, drew them so much about us; but we avoided it for
the future.
Though the creatures fled, yet we heard a frightful roaring all night
at the place where they stood, which we supposed was from some that were
wounded, and as soon as day came we went out to see what execution we
had done. And indeed it was a strange sight; there were three tigers and
two wolves quite killed, besides the creature I had killed within our
palisade, which seemed to be of an ill-gendered kind, between a tiger
and a leopard. Besides this there was a noble old lion alive, but with
both his fore-legs broke, so that he could not stir away, and he had
almost beat himself to death with struggling all night, and we found
that this was the wounded soldier that had roared so loud and given us
so much disturbance. Our surgeon, looking at him, smiled. "Now," says
he, "if I could be sure this lion would be as grateful to me as one
of his majesty's ancestors was to Androcles, the Roman slave, I would
certainly set both his legs again and cure him." I had not heard the
story of Androcles, so he told it me at large; but as to the surgeon, we
told him he had no way to know whether the lion would do so or not, but
to cure him first and trust to his honour; but he had no faith, so to
despatch him and put him out of his torment, he shot him in the head and
killed him, for which we called him the king-killer ever after.
Our negroes found no less than five of these ravenous creatures wounded
and dropped at a distance from our quarters; whereof, one was a wolf,
one a fine spotted young leopard, and the other were creatures that we
knew not what to call them.
We had several more of these gentlefolks about after that, but no such
general rendezvous of them as that was any more; but this ill effect
it had to us, that it frighted the deer and other creatures from our
neighbourhood, of whose company we were much more desirous, and which
were necessary for our subsistence. However, our negroes went out every
day a-hunting, as they called it, with bow and arrow, and they scarce
ever failed of bringing us home something or other; and particularly we
found in this part of the country, after the rains had fallen some time,
abundance of wild fowl, such as we have in England, duck, teal, widgeon,
etc.; some geese, and some kinds that we had never seen before; and we
frequently killed them. Also we catched a great deal of fresh fish out
of the river, so that we wanted no provision. If we wanted anything, it
was salt to eat with our fresh meat; but we had a little left, and we
used it sparingly; for as to our negroes, they could not taste it, nor
did they care to eat any meat that was seasoned with it.
The weather began now to clear up, the rains were down, and the floods
abated, and the sun, which had passed our zenith, was gone to the
southward a good way; so we prepared to go on our way.
It was the 12th of October, or thereabouts, that we began to set
forward; and having an easy country to travel in, as well as to supply
us with provisions, though still without inhabitants, we made more
despatch, travelling sometimes, as we calculated it, twenty or
twenty-five miles a day; nor did we halt anywhere in eleven days' march,
one day excepted, which was to make a raft to carry us over a small
river, which, having swelled with the rains, was not yet quite down.
When we were past this river, which, by the way, ran to the northward
too, we found a great row of hills in our way. We saw, indeed, the
country open to the right at a great distance; but, as we kept true to
our course, due west, we were not willing to go a great way out of our
way, only to shun a few hills. So we advanced; but we were surprised
when, being not quite come to the top, one of our company, who, with two
negroes, was got up before us, cried out, "The sea! the sea!" and fell
a-dancing and jumping, as signs of joy.
The gunner and I were most surprised at it, because we had but that
morning been calculating that we must have yet above 1000 miles on the
sea side, and that we could not expect to reach it till another rainy
season would be upon us; so that when our man cried out, "The sea," the
gunner was angry, and said he was mad.
But we were both in the greatest surprise imaginable, when, coming to
the top of the hill, and though it was very high, we saw nothing but
water, either before us or to the right hand or the left, being a vast
sea, without any bounds but the horizon.
We went down the hill full of confusion of thought, not being able
to conceive whereabouts we were or what it must be, seeing by all our
charts the sea was yet a vast way off.
It was not above three miles from the hills before we came to the shore,
or water-edge of this sea, and there, to our further surprise, we found
the water fresh and pleasant to drink; so that, in short, we knew not
what course to take. The sea, as we thought it to be, put a full stop
to our journey (I mean westward), for it lay just in the way. Our next
question was, which hand to turn to, to the right hand or the left,
but this was soon resolved; for, as we knew not the extent of it, we
considered that our way, if it had been the sea really, must be on the
north, and therefore, if we went to the south now, it must be just so
much out of our way at last. So, having spent a good part of the day in
our surprise at the thing, and consulting what to do, we set forward to
the north.
We travelled upon the shore of this sea full twenty-three days before
we could come to any resolution about what it was; at the end of which,
early one morning, one of our seamen cried out, "Land!" and it was no
false alarm, for we saw plainly the tops of some hills at a very great
distance, on the further side of the water, due west; but though this
satisfied us that it was not the ocean, but an inland sea or lake, yet
we saw no land to the northward, that is to say, no end of it, but were
obliged to travel eight days more, and near 100 miles farther, before
we came to the end of it, and then we found this lake or sea ended in a
very great river which ran N. or N. by E., as the other river had done
which I mentioned before.
My friend the gunner, upon examining, said that he believed that he was
mistaken before, and that this was the river Nile, but was still of the
mind that we were of before, that we should not think of a voyage into
Egypt that way; so we resolved upon crossing this river, which, however,
was not so easy as before, the river being very rapid and the channel
very broad.
It cost us, therefore, a week here to get materials to waft ourselves
and cattle over this river; for though here were stores of trees, yet
there was none of any considerable growth sufficient to make a canoe.
During our march on the edge of this bank we met with great fatigue, and
therefore travelled a fewer miles in a day than before, there being such
a prodigious number of little rivers that came down from the hills on
the east side, emptying themselves into this gulf, all which waters were
pretty high, the rains having been but newly over.
In the last three days of our travel we met with some inhabitants, but
we found they lived upon the little hills and not by the water-side; nor
were we a little put to it for food in this march, having killed nothing
for four or five days but some fish we caught out of the lake, and that
not in such plenty as we found before.
But, to make us some amends, we had no disturbance upon all the shores
of this lake from any wild beasts; the only inconveniency of that kind
was, that we met an ugly, venomous, deformed kind of a snake or serpent
in the wet grounds near the lake, that several times pursued us as if
it would attack us; and if we struck or threw anything at it, it would
raise itself up and hiss so loud that it might be heard a great way.
It had a hellish ugly deformed look and voice, and our men would not be
persuaded but it was the devil, only that we did not know what business
Satan could have there, where there were no people.
It was very remarkable that we had now travelled 1000 miles without
meeting with any people in the heart of the whole continent of Africa,
where, to be sure, never man set his foot since the sons of Noah spread
themselves over the face of the whole earth. Here also our gunner took
an observation with his forestaff, to determine our latitude, and he
found now, that having marched about thirty-three days northward, we
were in 6 degrees 22 minutes south latitude.
After having with great difficulty got over this river, we came into a
strange wild country that began a little to affright us; for though the
country was not a desert of dry scalding sand as that was we had passed
before, yet it was mountainous, barren, and infinitely full of most
furious wild beasts, more than any place we had passed yet. There was
indeed a kind of coarse herbage on the surface, and now and then a few
trees, or rather shrubs. But people we could see none, and we began
to be in great suspense about victuals, for we had not killed a deer
a great while, but had lived chiefly upon fish and fowl, always by the
water-side, both which seemed to fail us now; and we were in the more
consternation, because we could not lay in a stock here to proceed upon,
as we did before, but were obliged to set out with scarcity, and without
any certainty of a supply.
We had, however, no remedy but patience; and having killed some fowls
and dried some fish, as much as, with short allowance, we reckoned would
last us five days, we resolved to venture, and venture we did; nor
was it without cause that we were apprehensive of the danger, for
we travelled the five days and met neither with fish nor fowl, nor
four-footed beast, whose flesh was fit to eat, and we were in a most
dreadful apprehension of being famished to death. On the sixth day we
almost fasted, or, as we may say, we ate up all the scraps of what we
had left, and at night lay down supperless upon our mats, with heavy
hearts, being obliged the eighth day to kill one of our poor faithful
servants, the buffaloes that carried our baggage. The flesh of this
creature was very good, and so sparingly did we eat of it that it lasted
us all three days and a half, and was just spent; and we were on the
point of killing another when we saw before us a country that promised
better, having high trees and a large river in the middle of it.
This encouraged us, and we quickened our march for the river-side,
though with empty stomachs, and very faint and weak; but before we came
to this river we had the good hap to meet with some young deer, a thing
we had long wished for. In a word, having shot three of them, we came to
a full stop to fill our bellies, and never gave the flesh time to cool
before we ate it; nay, it was much we could stay to kill it and had not
eaten it alive, for we were, in short, almost famished.
Through all that inhospitable country we saw continually lions, tigers,
leopards, civet cats, and abundance of kinds of creatures that we did
not understand; we saw no elephants, but every now and then we met with
an elephant's tooth lying on the ground, and some of them lying, as it
were, half buried by the length of time that they had lain there.
When we came to the shore of this river, we found it ran northerly
still, as all the rest had done, but with this difference, that as the
course of the other rivers were N. by E. or N.N.E., the course of this
lay N.W.N.
On the farther bank of this river we saw some sign of inhabitants,
but met with none for the first day; but the next day we came into an
inhabited country, the people all negroes, and stark naked, without
shame, both men and women.
We made signs of friendship to them, and found them a very frank,
civil, and friendly sort of people. They came to our negroes without
any suspicion, nor did they give us any reason to suspect them of any
villainy, as the others had done; we made signs to them that we were
hungry, and immediately some naked women ran and fetched us great
quantities of roots, and of things like pumpkins, which we made no
scruple to eat; and our artificer showed them some of his trinkets that
he had made, some of iron, some of silver, but none of gold. They had so
much judgment as to choose that of silver before the iron; but when we
showed them some gold, we found they did not value it so much as either
of the other.
For some of these things they brought us more provisions, and three
living creatures as big as calves, but not of that kind; neither did we
ever see any of them before; their flesh was very good; and after that
they brought us twelve more, and some smaller creatures like hares; all
which were very welcome to us, who were indeed at a very great loss for
provisions.
We grew very intimate with these people, and indeed they were the
civillest and most friendly people that we met with at all, and mightily
pleased with us; and, which was very particular, they were much easier
to be made to understand our meaning than any we had met with before.
At last we began to inquire our way, pointing to the west. They made us
understand easily that we could not go that way, but they pointed to us
that we might go north-west, so that we presently understood that there
was another lake in our way, which proved to be true; for in two days
more we saw it plain, and it held us till we passed the equinoctial
line, lying all the way on our left hand, though at a great distance.
Travelling thus northward, our gunner seemed very anxious about our
proceedings; for he assured us, and made me sensible of it by the
maps which he had been teaching me out of, that when we came into the
latitude of six degrees, or thereabouts, north of the line, the land
trended away to the west to such a length that we should not come at the
sea under a march of above 1500 miles farther westward than the country
we desired to go to. I asked him if there were no navigable rivers that
we might meet with, which, running into the west ocean, might perhaps
carry us down their stream, and then, if it were 1500 miles, or twice
1500 miles, we might do well enough if we could but get provisions.
Here he showed me the maps again, and that there appeared no river whose
stream was of any such a length as to do any kindness, till we came
perhaps within 200 or 300 miles of the shore, except the Rio Grande, as
they call it, which lay farther northward from us, at least 700 miles;
and that then he knew not what kind of country it might carry us
through; for he said it was his opinion that the heats on the north of
the line, even in the same latitude, were violent, and the country more
desolate, barren, and barbarous, than those of the south; and that when
we came among the negroes in the north part of Africa, next the sea,
especially those who had seen and trafficked with the Europeans, such as
Dutch, English, Portuguese, Spaniards, etc., they had most of them been
so ill-used at some time or other that they would certainly put all the
spite they could upon us in mere revenge.
Upon these considerations he advised us that, as soon as we had passed
this lake, we should proceed W.S.W., that is to say, a little inclining
to the south, and that in time we should meet with the great river
Congo, from whence the coast is called Congo, being a little north of
Angola, where we intended at first to go.
I asked him if ever he had been on the coast of Congo. He said, yes, he
had, but was never on shore there. Then I asked him how we should get
from thence to the coast where the European ships came, seeing, if the
land trended away west for 1500 miles, we must have all that shore to
traverse before we could double the west point of it.
He told me it was ten to one but we should hear of some European ships
to take us in, for that they often visited the coast of Congo and
Angola, in trade with the negroes; and that if we could not, yet, if
we could but find provisions, we should make our way as well along the
sea-shore as along the river, till we came to the Gold Coast, which, he
said, was not above 400 or 500 miles north of Congo, besides the turning
of the coast west about 300 more; that shore being in the latitude of
six or seven degrees; and that there the English, or Dutch, or French
had settlements or factories, perhaps all of them.
I confess I had more mind, all the while he argued, to have gone
northward, and shipped ourselves in the Rio Grande, or, as the traders
call it, the river Negro or Niger, for I knew that at last it would
bring us down to the Cape de Verd, where we were sure of relief;
whereas, at the coast we were going to now, we had a prodigious way
still to go, either by sea or land, and no certainty which way to get
provisions but by force; but for the present I held my tongue, because
it was my tutor's opinion.
But when, according to his desire, we came to turn southward, having
passed beyond the second great lake, our men began all to be uneasy,
and said we were now out of our way for certain, for that we were going
farther from home, and that we were indeed far enough off already.
But we had not marched above twelve days more, eight whereof were taken
up in rounding the lake, and four more south-west, in order to make for
the river Congo, but we were put to another full stop, by entering a
country so desolate, so frightful, and so wild, that we knew not what to
think or do; for, besides that it appeared as a terrible and boundless
desert, having neither woods, trees, rivers, or inhabitants, so even the
place where we were was desolate of inhabitants, nor had we any way to
gather in a stock of provisions for the passing of this desert, as we
did before at our entering the first, unless we had marched back four
days to the place where we turned the head of the lake.
Well, notwithstanding this, we ventured; for, to men that had passed
such wild places as we had done, nothing could seem too desperate to
undertake. We ventured, I say, and the rather because we saw very high
mountains in our way at a great distance, and we imagined, wherever
there were mountains there would be springs and rivers; where rivers
there would be trees and grass; where trees and grass there would
be cattle; and where cattle, some kind of inhabitants. At last, in
consequence of this speculative philosophy, we entered this waste,
having a great heap of roots and plants for our bread, such as the
Indians gave us, a very little flesh or salt, and but a little water.
We travelled two days towards those hills, and still they seemed as
far off as they did at first, and it was the fifth day before we got to
them; indeed, we travelled but softly, for it was excessively hot; and
we were much about the very equinoctial line, we hardly knew whether to
the south or the north of it.
As we had concluded, that where there were hills there would be springs,
so it happened; but we were not only surprised, but really frighted, to
find the first spring we came to, and which looked admirably clear and
beautiful, to be salt as brine. It was a terrible disappointment to us,
and put us under melancholy apprehensions at first; but the gunner, who
was of a spirit never discouraged, told us we should not be disturbed at
that, but be very thankful, for salt was a bait we stood in as much need
of as anything, and there was no question but we should find fresh water
as well as salt; and here our surgeon stepped in to encourage us, and
told us that if we did not know he would show us a way how to make that
salt water fresh, which indeed made us all more cheerful, though we
wondered what he meant.
Meantime our men, without bidding, had been seeking about for other
springs, and found several; but still they were all salt; from whence
we concluded that there was a salt rock or mineral stone in those
mountains, and perhaps they might be all of such a substance; but still
I wondered by what witchcraft it was that our artist the surgeon would
make this salt water turn fresh, and I longed to see the experiment,
which was indeed a very odd one; but he went to work with as much
assurance as if he had tried it on the very spot before.
He took two of our large mats and sewed them together, and they made a
kind of a bag four feet broad, three feet and a half high, and about a
foot and a half thick when it was full.
He caused us to fill this bag with dry sand and tread it down as close
as we could, not to burst the mats. When thus the bag was full within
a foot, he sought some other earth and filled up the rest with it, and
still trod all in as hard as he could. When he had done, he made a
hole in the upper earth about as broad as the crown of a large hat, or
something bigger about, but not so deep, and bade a negro fill it with
water, and still as it shrunk away to fill it again, and keep it full.
The bag he had placed at first across two pieces of wood, about a foot
from the ground; and under it he ordered some of our skins to be spread
that would hold water. In about an hour, and not sooner, the water
began to come dropping through the bottom of the bag, and, to our great
surprise, was perfectly fresh and sweet, and this continued for several
hours; but in the end the water began to be a little brackish. When we
told him that, "Well, then," said he, "turn the sand out, and fill it
again." Whether he did this by way of experiment from his own fancy, or
whether he had seen it done before, I do not remember.
The next day we mounted the tops of the hills, where the prospect was
indeed astonishing, for as far as the eye could look, south, or west, or
northwest, there was nothing to be seen but a vast howling wilderness,
with neither tree nor river, nor any green thing. The surface we found,
as the part we passed the day before, had a kind of thick moss upon
it, of a blackish dead colour, but nothing in it that looked like food,
either for man or beast.
Had we been stored with provisions to have entered for ten or twenty
days upon this wilderness, as we were formerly, and with fresh water, we
had hearts good enough to have ventured, though we had been obliged to
come back again, for if we went north we did not know but we might meet
with the same; but we neither had provisions, neither were we in any
place where it was possible to get them. We killed some wild ferine
creatures at the foot of these hills; but, except two things, like to
nothing that we ever saw before, we met with nothing that was fit
to eat. These were creatures that seemed to be between the kind of a
buffalo and a deer, but indeed resembled neither; for they had no horns,
and had great legs like a cow, with a fine head, and the neck like a
deer. We killed also, at several times, a tiger, two young lions, and a
wolf; but, God be thanked, we were not so reduced as to eat carrion.
Upon this terrible prospect I renewed my motion of turning northward,
and making towards the river Niger or Rio Grande, then to turn west
towards the English settlements on the Gold Coast; to which every one
most readily consented, only our gunner, who was indeed our best guide,
though he happened to be mistaken at this time. He moved that, as our
coast was now northward, so we might slant away north-west, that so, by
crossing the country, we might perhaps meet with some other river that
run into the Rio Grande northward, or down to the Gold Coast southward,
and so both direct our way and shorten the labour; as also because, if
any of the country was inhabited and fruitful, we should probably find
it upon the shore of the rivers, where alone we could be furnished with
provisions.
This was good advice, and too rational not to be taken; but our present
business was, what to do to get out of this dreadful place we were in.
Behind us was a waste, which had already cost us five days' march, and
we had not provisions for five days left to go back again the same way.
Before us was nothing but horror, as above; so we resolved, seeing the
ridge of the hills we were upon had some appearance of fruitfulness,
and that they seemed to lead away to the northward a great way, to keep
under the foot of them on the east side, to go on as far as we could,
and in the meantime to look diligently out for food.
Accordingly we moved on the next morning; for we had no time to lose,
and, to our great comfort, we came in our first morning's march to very
good springs of fresh water; and lest we should have a scarcity again,
we filled all our bladder bottles and carried it with us. I should also
have observed that our surgeon, who made the salt water fresh, took the
opportunity of those salt springs, and made us the quantity of three or
four pecks of very good salt.
In our third march we found an unexpected supply of food, the hills
being full of hares. They were of a kind something different from ours
in England, larger and not as swift of foot, but very good meat. We shot
several of them, and the little tame leopard, which I told you we took
at the negro town that we plundered, hunted them like a dog, and killed
us several every day; but she would eat nothing of them unless we gave
it her, which, indeed, in our circumstance, was very obliging. We salted
them a little and dried them in the sun whole, and carried a strange
parcel along with us. I think it was almost three hundred, for we did
not know when we might find any more, either of these or any other food.
We continued our course under these hills very comfortably for eight or
nine days, when we found, to our great satisfaction, the country beyond
us began to look with something of a better countenance. As for the west
side of the hills, we never examined it till this day, when three of our
company, the rest halting for refreshment, mounted the hills again to
satisfy their curiosity, but found it all the same, nor could they see
any end of it, no, not to the north, the way we were going; so the tenth
day, finding the hills made a turn, and led as it were into the vast
desert, we left them and continued our course north, the country being
very tolerably full of woods, some waste, but not tediously long, till
we came, by our gunner's observation, into the latitude of eight degrees
five minutes, which we were nineteen days more in performing.
All this way we found no inhabitants, but abundance of wild ravenous
creatures, with which we became so well acquainted now that really we
did not much mind them. We saw lions and tigers and leopards every night
and morning in abundance; but as they seldom came near us, we let them
go about their business: if they offered to come near us, we made false
fire with any gun that was uncharged, and they would walk off as soon as
they saw the flash.
We made pretty good shift for food all this way; for sometimes we killed
hares, sometimes some fowls, but for my life I cannot give names to
any of them, except a kind of partridge, and another that was like our
turtle. Now and then we began to meet with elephants again in great
numbers; those creatures delighted chiefly in the woody part of the
country.
This long-continued march fatigued us very much, and two of our men fell
sick, indeed, so very sick that we thought they would have died; and one
of our negroes died suddenly. Our surgeon said it was an apoplexy, but
he wondered at it, he said, for he could never complain of his high
feeding. Another of them was very ill; but our surgeon with much ado
persuading him, indeed it was almost forcing him to be let blood, he
recovered.
We halted here twelve days for the sake of our sick men, and our surgeon
persuaded me and three or four more of us to be let blood during the
time of rest, which, with other things he gave us, contributed very much
to our continued health in so tedious a march and in so hot a climate.
In this march we pitched our matted tents every night, and they were
very comfortable to us, though we had trees and woods to shelter us in
most places. We thought it very strange that in all this part of the
country we yet met with no inhabitants; but the principal reason, as we
found afterwards, was, that we, having kept a western course first,
and then a northern course, were gotten too much into the middle of the
country and among the deserts; whereas the inhabitants are principally
found among the rivers, lakes, and lowlands, as well to the south-west
as to the north.
What little rivulets we found here were so empty of water, that except
some pits, and little more than ordinary pools, there was scarcely any
water to be seen in them; and they rather showed that during the rainy
months they had a channel, than that they had really running water in
them at that time, by which it was easy for us to judge that we had a
great way to go; but this was no discouragement so long as we had but
provisions, and some seasonable shelter from the violent heat, which
indeed I thought was much greater now than when the sun was just over
our heads.
Our men being recovered, we set forward again, very well stored with
provisions, and water sufficient, and bending our course a little to
the westward of the north, travelled in hopes of some favourable stream
which might bear a canoe; but we found none till after twenty days'
travel, including eight days' rest; for our men being weak, we rested
very often, especially when we came to places which were proper for our
purpose, where we found cattle, fowl, or anything to kill for our food.
In those twenty days' march we advanced four degrees to the northward,
besides some meridian distance westward, and we met with abundance of
elephants, and with a good number of elephants' teeth scattered up and
down, here and there, in the woody grounds especially, some of which
were very large. But they were no booty to us; our business was
provisions, and a good passage out of the country; and it had been much
more to our purpose to have found a good fat deer, and to have killed
it for our food, than a hundred ton of elephants' teeth; and yet, as
you shall presently hear, when we came to begin our passage by water, we
once thought to have built a large canoe, on purpose to have loaded it
with ivory; but this was when we knew nothing of the rivers, nor knew
anything how dangerous and how difficult a passage it was we were likely
to have in them, nor had considered the weight of carriage to lug them
to the rivers where we might embark.
At the end of twenty days' travel, as above, in the latitude of three
degrees sixteen minutes, we discovered in a valley, at some distance
from us, a pretty tolerable stream, which we thought deserved the name
of a river, and which ran its course N.N.W., which was just what we
wanted. As we had fixed our thoughts upon our passage by water, we took
this for the place to make the experiment, and bent our march directly
to the valley.
There was a small thicket of trees just in our way, which we went by,
thinking no harm, when on a sudden one of our negroes was dangerously
wounded with an arrow shot into his back, slanting between his
shoulders. This put us to a full stop; and three of our men, with two
negroes, spreading the wood, for it was but a small one, found a negro
with a bow, but no arrow, who would have escaped, but our men that
discovered him shot him in revenge of the mischief he had done; so we
lost the opportunity of taking him prisoner, which, if we had done, and
sent him home with good usage, it might have brought others to us in a
friendly manner.
Going a little farther, we came to five negro huts or houses, built
after a different manner from any we had seen yet; and at the door of
one of them lay seven elephants' teeth, piled up against the wall or
side of the hut, as if they had been provided against a market. Here
were no men, but seven or eight women, and near twenty children. We
offered them no incivility of any kind, but gave them every one a bit of
silver beaten out thin, as I observed before, and cut diamond fashion,
or in the shape of a bird, at which the women were overjoyed, and
brought out to us several sorts of food, which we did not understand,
being cakes of a meal made of roots, which they bake in the sun, and
which ate very well. We went a little way farther and pitched our camp
for that night, not doubting but our civility to the women would produce
some good effect when their husbands might come home.
Accordingly, the next morning the women, with eleven men, five young
boys, and two good big girls, came to our camp. Before they came quite
to us, the women called aloud, and made an odd screaming noise to bring
us out; and accordingly we came out, when two of the women, showing us
what we had given them, and pointing to the company behind, made such
signs as we could easily understand signified friendship. When the men
advanced, having bows and arrows, they laid them down on the ground,
scraped and threw sand over their heads, and turned round three times
with their hands laid up upon the tops of their heads. This, it seems,
was a solemn vow of friendship. Upon this we beckoned them with our
hands to come nearer; then they sent the boys and girls to us first,
which, it seems, was to bring us more cakes of bread and some green
herbs to eat, which we received, and took the boys up and kissed them,
and the little girls too; then the men came up close to us, and sat them
down on the ground, making signs that we should sit down by them, which
we did. They said much to one another, but we could not understand them,
nor could we find any way to make them understand us, much less
whither we were going, or what we wanted, only that we easily made them
understand we wanted victuals; whereupon one of the men, casting his
eyes about him towards a rising ground that was about half a mile off,
started up as if he was frighted, flew to the place where they had laid
down their bows and arrows, snatched up a bow and two arrows, and ran
like a racehorse to the place. When he came there, he let fly both his
arrows, and comes back again to us with the same speed. We, seeing he
came with the bow, but without the arrows, were the more inquisitive;
but the fellow, saying nothing to us, beckons to one of our negroes to
come to him, and we bid him go; so he led him back to the place, where
lay a kind of deer, shot with two arrows, but not quite dead, and
between them they brought it down to us. This was for a gift to us, and
was very welcome, I assure you, for our stock was low. These people were
all stark naked.
The next day there came about a hundred men to us, and women making the
same awkward signals of friendship, and dancing, and showing themselves
very well pleased, and anything they had they gave us. How the man
in the wood came to be so butcherly and rude as to shoot at our men,
without making any breach first, we could not imagine; for the people
were simple, plain, and inoffensive in all our other conversation with
them.
From hence we went down the banks of the little river I mentioned, and
where, I found, we should see the whole nation of negroes, but whether
friendly to us or not, that we could make no judgment of yet.
The river was no use to us, as to the design of making canoes, a great
while; and we traversed the country on the edge of it about five days
more, when our carpenters, finding the stream increased, proposed to
pitch our tents, and fall to work to make canoes; but after we had begun
the work, and cut down two or three trees, and spent five days in the
labour, some of our men, wandering further down the river, brought us
word that the stream rather decreased than increased, sinking away
into the sands, or drying up by the heat of the sun, so that the river
appeared not able to carry the least canoe that could be any way useful
to us; so we were obliged to give over our enterprise and move on.
In our further prospect this way, we marched three days full west, the
country on the north side being extraordinary mountainous, and more
parched and dry than any we had seen yet; whereas, in the part which
looks due west, we found a pleasant valley running a great way between
two great ridges of mountains. The hills looked frightful, being
entirely bare of trees or grass, and even white with the dryness of the
sand; but in the valley we had trees, grass, and some creatures that
were fit for food, and some inhabitants.
We passed by some of their huts or houses, and saw people about them,
but they ran up into the hills as soon as they saw us. At the end of
this valley we met with a peopled country, and at first it put us to
some doubt whether we should go among them, or keep up towards the hills
northerly; and as our aim was principally as before, to make our way to
the river Niger, we inclined to the latter, pursuing our course by the
compass to the N.W. We marched thus without interruption seven days
more, when we met with a surprising circumstance much more desolate and
disconsolate than our own, and which, in time to come, will scarce seem
credible.
We did not much seek the conversing, or acquainting ourselves with the
natives of the country, except where we found the want of them for our
provision, or their direction for our way; so that, whereas we found
the country here begin to be very populous, especially towards our left
hand, that is, to the south, we kept at the more distance northerly,
still stretching towards the west.
In this tract we found something or other to kill and eat, which always
supplied our necessity, though not so well as we were provided in our
first setting out; being thus, as it were, pushing to avoid a peopled
country, we at last came to a very pleasant, agreeable stream of water,
not big enough to be called a river, but running to the N.N.W., which
was the very course we desired to go.
On the farthest bank of this brook, we perceived some huts of negroes,
not many, and in a little low spot of ground, some maize, or Indian
corn, growing, which intimated presently to us, that there were some
inhabitants on that side less barbarous than what we had met with in
other places where we had been.
As we went forward, our whole caravan being in a body, our negroes, who
were in the front, cried out, that they saw a white man! We were not
much surprised at first, it being, as we thought, a mistake of the
fellows, and asked them what they meant; when one of them stepped to me,
and pointing to a hut on the other side of the hill, I was astonished to
see a white man indeed, but stark naked, very busy near the door of his
hut, and stooping down to the ground with something in his hand, as if
he had been at some work; and his back being towards us, he did not see
us.
I gave notice to our negroes to make no noise, and waited till some more
of our men were come up, to show the sight to them, that they might be
sure I was not mistaken; and we were soon satisfied of the truth, for
the man, having heard some noise, started up, and looked full at us, as
much surprised, to be sure, as we were, but whether with fear or hope,
we then knew not.
As he discovered us, so did the rest of the inhabitants belonging to the
huts about him, and all crowded together, looking at us at a distance, a
little bottom, in which the brook ran, lying between us; the white man,
and all the rest, as he told us afterwards, not knowing well whether
they should stay or run away. However, it presently came into my
thoughts, that if there were white men among them, it would be much
easier to make them understand what we meant as to peace or war, than
we found it with others; so tying a piece of white rag to the end of a
stick, we sent two negroes with it to the bank of the water, carrying
the pole up as high as they could; it was presently understood, and two
of their men and the white man came to the shore on the other side.
However, as the white man spoke no Portuguese, they could understand
nothing of one another but by signs; but our men made the white man
understand that they had white men with them too, at which they said the
white man laughed. However, to be short, our men came back, and told us
they were all good friends, and in about an hour four of our men, two
negroes, and the black prince, went to the river-side, where the white
man came to them.
They had not been half a quarter of an hour, but a negro came running to
me, and told me the white man was Inglese, as he called him; upon which
I ran back, eagerly enough, you may be sure, with him, and found, as
he said, that he was an Englishman; upon which he embraced me very
passionately, the tears running down his face. The first surprise of his
seeing us was over before we came, but any one may conceive it by the
brief account he gave us afterwards of his very unhappy circumstances,
and of so unexpected a deliverance, such as perhaps never happened to
any man in the world, for it was a million to one odds that ever he
could have been relieved; nothing but an adventure that never was heard
or read of before could have suited his case, unless Heaven, by some
miracle that never was to be expected, had acted for him.
He appeared to be a gentleman, not an ordinary-bred fellow, seaman, or
labouring man; this showed itself in his behaviour in the first moment
of our conversing with him, and in spite of all the disadvantages of his
miserable circumstances.
He was a middle-aged man, not above thirty-seven or thirty-eight, though
his beard was grown exceedingly long, and the hair of his head and
face strangely covered him to the middle of his back and breast; he was
white, and his skin very fine, though discoloured, and in some places
blistered, and covered with a brown blackish substance, scurfy, scaly,
and hard, which was the effect of the scorching heat of the sun; he was
stark naked, and had been so, as he told us, upwards of two years.
He was so exceedingly transported at our meeting with him, that he could
scarce enter into any discourse at all with us that day; and when he
could get away from us for a little, we saw him walking alone, and
showing all the most extravagant tokens of an ungovernable joy; and even
afterwards he was never without tears in his eyes for several days,
upon the least word spoken by us of his circumstances, or by him of his
deliverance.
We found his behaviour the most courteous and endearing I ever saw
in any man whatever, and most evident tokens of a mannerly, well-bred
person appeared in all things he did or said, and our people were
exceedingly taken with him. He was a scholar and a mathematician; he
could not speak Portuguese indeed, but he spoke Latin to our surgeon,
French to another of our men, and Italian to a third.
He had no leisure in his thoughts to ask us whence we came, whither we
were going, or who we were; but would have it always as an answer to
himself, that to be sure, wherever we were a-going, we came from Heaven,
and were sent on purpose to save him from the most wretched condition
that ever man was reduced to.
Our men pitching their camp on the bank of a little river opposite to
him, he began to inquire what store of provisions we had, and how we
proposed to be supplied. When he found that our store was but small,
he said he would talk with the natives, and we should have provisions
enough; for he said they were the most courteous, good-natured part of
the inhabitants in all that part of the country, as we might suppose by
his living so safe among them.
The first things this gentleman did for us were indeed of the greatest
consequence to us; for, first, he perfectly informed us where we were,
and which was the properest course for us to steer; secondly, he put
us in the way how to furnish ourselves effectually with provisions; and
thirdly, he was our complete interpreter and peacemaker with all the
natives, who now began to be very numerous about us, and who were a
more fierce and politic people than those we had met with before; not so
easily terrified with our arms as those, and not so ignorant as to give
their provisions and corn for our little toys, such as, I said before,
our artificer made; but as they had frequently traded and conversed with
the Europeans on the coast, or with other negro nations that had traded
and been concerned with them, they were the less ignorant and the
less fearful, and consequently nothing was to be had from them but by
exchange for such things as they liked.
This I say of the negro natives, which we soon came among; but as to
these poor people that he lived among, they were not much acquainted
with things, being at the distance of above 300 miles from the coast;
only that they found elephants' teeth upon the hills to the north, which
they took and carried about sixty or seventy miles south, where other
trading negroes usually met them, and gave them beads, glass, shells,
and cowries, for them, such as the English and Dutch and other traders
furnish them with from Europe.
We now began to be more familiar with our new acquaintance; and first,
though we made but a sorry figure as to clothes ourselves, having
neither shoe, or stocking, or glove, or hat among us, and but very few
shirts, yet as well as we could we clothed him; and first, our surgeon
having scissors and razors, shaved him, and cut his hair; a hat, as I
say, we had not in all our stores, but he supplied himself by making
himself a cap of a piece of a leopard-skin, most artificially. As for
shoes or stockings, he had gone so long without them that he cared not
even for the buskins and foot-gloves we wore, which I described above.
As he had been curious to hear the whole story of our travels, and was
exceedingly delighted with the relation, so we were no less to know, and
pleased with, the account of his circumstances, and the history of his
coming to that strange place alone, and in that condition which we found
him in, as above. This account of his would indeed be in itself the
subject of an agreeable history, and would be as long and diverting as
our own, having in it many strange and extraordinary incidents; but we
cannot have room here to launch out into so long a digression: the sum
of his history was this:--
He had been a factor for the English Guinea Company at Sierra Leone,
or some other of their settlements which had been taken by the French,
where he had been plundered of all his own effects, as well as of what
was entrusted to him by the company. Whether it was that the company
did not do him justice in restoring his circumstances, or in further
employing him, he quitted their service, and was employed by those
called separate traders, and being afterwards out of employ there
also, traded on his own account; when, passing unwarily into one of the
company's settlements, he was either betrayed into the hands of some of
the natives, or, somehow or other, was surprised by them. However, as
they did not kill him, he found means to escape from them at that time,
and fled to another nation of the natives, who, being enemies to the
other, entertained him friendly, and with them he lived some time; but
not liking his quarters or his company, he fled again, and several times
changed his landlords: sometimes was carried by force, sometimes
hurried by fear, as circumstances altered with him (the variety of which
deserves a history by itself), till at last he had wandered beyond all
possibility of return, and had taken up his abode where we found him,
where he was well received by the petty king of the tribe he lived with;
and he, in return, instructed them how to value the product of their
labour, and on what terms to trade with those negroes who came up to
them for teeth.
As he was naked, and had no clothes, so he was naked of arms for his
defence, having neither gun, sword, staff, or any instrument of war
about him, no, not to guard himself against the attacks of a wild beast,
of which the country was very full. We asked him how he came to be so
entirely abandoned of all concern for his safety? He answered, that to
him, that had so often wished for death, life was not worth defending;
and that, as he was entirely at the mercy of the negroes, they had much
the more confidence in him, seeing he had no weapons to hurt them. As
for wild beasts, he was not much concerned about that, for he scarce
ever went from his hut; but if he did, the negro king and his men went
all with him, and they were all armed with bows and arrows, and lances,
with which they would kill any of the ravenous creatures, lions as
well as others; but that they seldom came abroad in the day; and if
the negroes wander anywhere in the night, they always build a hut for
themselves, and make a fire at the door of it, which is guard enough.
We inquired of him what we should next do towards getting to the
seaside. He told us we were about one hundred and twenty English leagues
from the coast, where almost all the European settlements and factories
were, and which is called the Gold Coast; but that there were so many
different nations of negroes in the way, that it was ten to one if
we were not either fought with continually, or starved for want of
provisions; but that there were two other ways to go, which, if he
had had any company to go with him, he had often contrived to make his
escape by. The one was to travel full west, which, though it was farther
to go, yet was not so full of people, and the people we should find
would be so much the civiller to us, or be so much the easier to fight
with; or that the other way was, if possible, to get to the Rio Grande,
and go down the stream in canoes. We told him, that was the way we had
resolved on before we met with him; but then he told us there was a
prodigious desert to go over, and as prodigious woods to go through,
before we came to it, and that both together were at least twenty days'
march for us, travel as hard as we could.
We asked him if there were no horses in the country, or asses, or even
bullocks or buffaloes, to make use of in such a journey, and we showed
him ours, of which we had but three left. He said no, all the country
did not afford anything of that kind.
He told us that in this great wood there were immense numbers of
elephants; and upon the desert, great multitudes of lions, lynxes,
tigers, leopards, &c.; and that it was to that wood and that desert that
the negroes went to get elephants' teeth, where they never failed to
find a great number.
We inquired still more, and particularly the way to the Gold Coast, and
if there were no rivers to ease us in our carriage; and told him, as to
the negroes fighting with us, we were not much concerned at that; nor
were we afraid of starving, for if they had any victuals among them, we
would have our share of it; and, therefore, if he would venture to show
us the way, we would venture to go; and as for himself, we told him we
would live and die together--there should not a man of us stir from him.
He told us, with all his heart, if we resolved it, and would venture, we
might be assured he would take his fate with us, and he would endeavour
to guide us in such a way as we should meet with some friendly savages
who would use us well, and perhaps stand by us against some others, who
were less tractable; so, in a word, we all resolved to go full south for
the Gold Coast.
The next morning he came to us again, and being all met in council, as
we may call it, he began to talk very seriously with us, that since
we were now come, after a long journey, to a view of the end of our
troubles, and had been so obliging to him as to offer to carry him with
us, he had been all night revolving in his mind what he and we all might
do to make ourselves some amends for all our sorrows; and first, he
said, he was to let me know that we were just then in one of the richest
parts of the world, though it was really otherwise but a desolate,
disconsolate wilderness; "for," says he, "there is not a river but runs
gold--not a desert but without ploughing bears a crop of ivory. What
mines of gold, what immense stores of gold, those mountains may contain,
from whence these rivers come, or the shores which these waters run
by, we know not, but may imagine that they must be inconceivably rich,
seeing so much is washed down the stream by the water washing the
sides of the land, that the quantity suffices all the traders which the
European world send thither." We asked him how far they went for it,
seeing the ships only trade upon the coast. He told us that the negroes
on the coast search the rivers up for the length of 150 or 200 miles,
and would be out a month, or two, or three at a time, and always come
home sufficiently rewarded; "but," says he, "they never come thus far,
and yet hereabouts is as much gold as there." Upon this he told us that
he believed he might have gotten a hundred pounds' weight of gold since
he came thither, if he had employed himself to look and work for it; but
as he knew not what to do with it, and had long since despaired of being
ever delivered from the misery he was in, he had entirely omitted it.
"For what advantage had it been to me," said he, "or what richer had
I been, if I had a ton of gold dust, and lay and wallowed in it? The
richness of it," said he, "would not give me one moment's felicity, nor
relieve me in the present exigency. Nay," says he, "as you all see, it
would not buy me clothes to cover me, or a drop of drink to save me from
perishing. It is of no value here," says he; "there are several people
among these huts that would weigh gold against a few glass beads or
a cockle-shell, and give you a handful of gold-dust for a handful
of cowries." N.B.--These are little shells which our children call
blackamoors' teeth.
When he had said thus he pulled out a piece of an earthen pot baked hard
in the sun. "Here," says he, "is some of the dirt of this country, and
if I would I could have got a great deal more;" and, showing it to us,
I believe there was in it between two and three pounds weight of
gold-dust, of the same kind and colour with that we had gotten already,
as before. After we had looked at it a while, he told us, smiling, we
were his deliverers, and all he had, as well as his life, was ours;
and therefore, as this would be of value to us when we came to our own
country, so he desired we would accept of it among us; and that was the
only time that he had repented that he had picked up no more of it.
I spoke for him, as his interpreter, to my comrades, and in their names
thanked him; but, speaking to them in Portuguese, I desired them to
defer the acceptance of his kindness to the next morning; and so I did,
telling him we would further talk of this part in the morning; so we
parted for that time.
When he was gone I found they were all wonderfully affected with
his discourse, and with the generosity of his temper, as well as
the magnificence of his present, which in another place had been
extraordinary. Upon the whole, not to detain you with circumstances, we
agreed that, seeing he was now one of our number, and that as we were a
relief to him in carrying him out of the dismal condition he was in, so
he was equally a relief to us, in being our guide through the rest of
the country, our interpreter with the natives, and our director how to
manage with the savages, and how to enrich ourselves with the wealth
of the country; that, therefore, we would put his gold among our common
stock, and every one should give him as much as would make his up just
as much as any single share of our own, and for the future we would take
our lot together, taking his solemn engagement to us, as we had before
one to another, that we would not conceal the least grain of gold we
found one from another.
In the next conference we acquainted him with the adventures of the
Golden River, and how we had shared what we got there, so that every man
had a larger stock than he for his share; that, therefore, instead of
taking any from him, we had resolved every one to add a little to him.
He appeared very glad that we had met with such good success, but would
not take a grain from us, till at last, pressing him very hard, he told
us, that then he would take it thus:--that, when we came to get any
more, he would have so much out of the first as should make him even,
and then we would go on as equal adventurers; and thus we agreed.
He then told us he thought it would not be an unprofitable adventure if,
before we set forward, and after we had got a stock of provisions, we
should make a journey north to the edge of the desert he had told us of,
from whence our negroes might bring every one a large elephant's tooth,
and that he would get some more to assist; and that, after a certain
length of carriage, they might be conveyed by canoes to the coast, where
they would yield a very great profit.
I objected against this on account of our other design we had of getting
gold-dust; and that our negroes, who we knew would be faithful to us,
would get much more by searching the rivers for gold for us than by
lugging a great tooth of a hundred and fifty pounds weight a hundred
miles or more, which would be an insufferable labour to them after so
hard a journey, and would certainly kill them.
He acquiesced in the justice of this answer, but fain would have had us
gone to see the woody part of the hill and the edge of the desert, that
we might see how the elephants' teeth lay scattered up and down there;
but when we told him the story of what we had seen before, as is said
above, he said no more.
We stayed here twelve days, during which time the natives were very
obliging to us, and brought us fruits, pompions, and a root like
carrots, though of quite another taste, but not unpleasant neither, and
some guinea-fowls, whose names we did not know. In short, they brought
us plenty of what they had, and we lived very well, and we gave them all
such little things as our cutler had made, for he had now a whole bag
full of them.
On the thirteenth day we set forward, taking our new gentleman with us.
At parting, the negro king sent two savages with a present to him of
some dried flesh, but I do not remember what it was, and he gave him
again three silver birds which our cutler helped him to, which I assure
you was a present for a king.
We travelled now south, a little west, and here we found the first
river for above 2000 miles' march, whose waters run south, all the rest
running north or west. We followed this river, which was no bigger than
a good large brook in England, till it began to increase its water.
Every now and then we found our Englishman went down as it were
privately to the water, which was to try the land; at length, after a
day's march upon this river, he came running up to us with his hands
full of sand, and saying, "Look here." Upon looking we found that a good
deal of gold lay spangled among the sand of the river. "Now," says he,
"I think we may begin to work;" so he divided our negroes into couples
and set them to work, to search and wash the sand and ooze in the bottom
of the water where it was not deep.
In the first day and a quarter our men all together had gathered a pound
and two ounces of gold or thereabouts, and as we found the quantity
increased the farther we went, we followed it about three days, till
another small rivulet joined the first, and then searching up the
stream, we found gold there too; so we pitched our camp in the angle
where the rivers joined, and we diverted ourselves, as I may call it,
in washing the gold out of the sand of the river, and in getting
provisions.
Here we stayed thirteen days more, in which time we had many pleasant
adventures with the savages, too long to mention here, and some of them
too homely to tell of, for some of our men had made something free with
their women, which, had not our new guide made peace for us with one of
their men at the price of seven fine bits of silver, which our artificer
had cut out into the shapes of lions, and fishes, and birds, and had
punched holes to hang them up by (an inestimable treasure), we must have
gone to war with them and all their people.
All the while we were busy washing gold-dust out of the rivers, and our
negroes the like, our ingenious cutler was hammering and cutting, and
he was grown so dexterous by use that he formed all manner of images. He
cut out elephants, tigers, civet cats, ostriches, eagles, cranes, fowls,
fishes, and indeed whatever he pleased, in thin plates of hammered gold,
for his silver and iron were almost all gone.
At one of the towns of these savage nations we were very friendly
received by their king, and as he was very much taken with our workman's
toys, he sold him an elephant cut out of a gold plate as thin as a
sixpence at an extravagant rate. He was so much taken with it that he
would not be quiet till he had given him almost a handful of gold-dust,
as they call it; I suppose it might weigh three-quarters of a pound; the
piece of gold that the elephant was made of might be about the weight of
a pistole, rather less than more. Our artist was so honest, though the
labour and art were all his own, that he brought all the gold and put
it into our common stock; but we had, indeed, no manner of reason in the
least to be covetous, for, as our new guide told us, we that were strong
enough to defend ourselves, and had time enough to stay (for we were
none of us in haste), might in time get together what quantity of gold
we pleased, even to an hundred pounds weight each man if we thought fit;
and therefore he told us, though he had as much reason to be sick of the
country as any of us, yet if we thought to turn our march a little to
the south-east, and pitch upon a place proper for our headquarters,
we might find provisions plenty enough, and extend ourselves over the
country among the rivers for two or three years to the right and left,
and we should soon find the advantage of it.
The proposal, however good as to the profitable part of it, suited none
of us, for we were all more desirous to get home than to be rich, being
tired of the excessive fatigue of above a year's continual wandering
among deserts and wild beasts.
However, the tongue of our new acquaintance had a kind of charm in it,
and used such arguments, and had so much the power of persuasion, that
there was no resisting him. He told us it was preposterous not to take
the fruit of all our labours now we were come to the harvest; that we
might see the hazard the Europeans run with ships and men, and at great
expense, to fetch a little gold, and that we, that were in the centre
of it, to go away empty-handed was unaccountable; that we were strong
enough to fight our way through whole nations, and might make our
journey afterward to what part of the coast we pleased, and we should
never forgive ourselves when we came to our own country to see we had
500 pistoles in gold, and might as easily have had 5000 or 10,000, or
what we pleased; that he was no more covetous than we, but seeing it
was in all our powers to retrieve our misfortunes at once, and to make
ourselves easy for all our lives, he could not be faithful to us, or
grateful for the good we had done him, if he did not let us see the
advantage we had in our hands; and he assured us he would make it clear
to our own understanding, that we might in two years' time, by good
management and by the help of our negroes, gather every man a hundred
pounds weight of gold, and get together perhaps two hundred ton of
teeth; whereas, if once we pushed on to the coast and separated, we
should never be able to see that place again with our eyes, or do any
more than sinners did with heaven,--wish themselves there, but know they
can never come at it.
Our surgeon was the first man that yielded to his reasoning, and after
him the gunner; and they too, indeed, had a great influence over us, but
none of the rest had any mind to stay, nor I neither, I must confess;
for I had no notion of a great deal of money, or what to do with myself,
or what to do with it if I had it. I thought I had enough already, and
all the thoughts I had about disposing of it, if I came to Europe, was
only how to spend it as fast as I could, buy me some clothes, and go to
sea again to be a drudge for more.
However, he prevailed with us by his good words at last to stay but for
six months in the country, and then, if we did resolve to go, he would
submit; so at length we yielded to that, and he carried us about fifty
English miles south-east, where we found several rivulets of water,
which seemed to come all from a great ridge of mountains, which lay to
the north-east, and which, by our calculation, must be the beginning
that way of the great waste, which we had been forced northward to
avoid.
Here we found the country barren enough, but yet we had by his direction
plenty of food; for the savages round us, upon giving them some of our
toys, as I have so often mentioned, brought us in whatever they had;
and here we found some maize, or Indian wheat, which the negro women
planted, as we sow seeds in a garden, and immediately our new provider
ordered some of our negroes to plant it, and it grew up presently, and
by watering it often, we had a crop in less than three months' growth.
As soon as we were settled, and our camp fixed, we fell to the old
trade of fishing for gold in the rivers mentioned above, and our English
gentleman so well knew how to direct our search, that we scarce ever
lost our labour.
One time, having set us to work, he asked if we would give him leave,
with four or five negroes, to go out for six or seven days to seek his
fortune, and see what he could discover in the country, assuring us
whatever he got should be for the public stock. We all gave him our
consent, and lent him a gun; and two of our men desiring to go with him,
they took then six negroes with them, and two of our buffaloes that
came with us the whole journey; they took about eight days' provision of
bread with them, but no flesh, except about as much dried flesh as would
serve them two days.
They travelled up to the top of the mountains I mentioned just now,
where they saw (as our men afterwards vouched it to be) the same desert
which we were so justly terrified at when we were on the farther side,
and which, by our calculation, could not be less than 300 miles broad
and above 600 miles in length, without knowing where it ended.
The journal of their travels is too long to enter upon here. They
stayed out two-and-fifty days, when they brought us seventeen pound and
something more (for we had no exact weight) of gold-dust, some of it in
much larger pieces than any we had found before, besides about fifteen
ton of elephants' teeth, which he had, partly by good usage and partly
by bad, obliged the savages of the country to fetch, and bring down to
him from the mountains, and which he made others bring with him quite
down to our camp. Indeed, we wondered what was coming to us when we saw
him attended with above 200 negroes; but he soon undeceived us, when he
made them all throw down their burdens on a heap at the entrance of our
camp.
Besides this, they brought two lions' skins, and five leopards' skins,
very large and very fine. He asked our pardon for his long stay, and
that he had made no greater a booty, but told us he had one excursion
more to make, which he hoped should turn to a better account.
So, having rested himself and rewarded the savages that brought the
teeth for him with some bits of silver and iron cut out diamond fashion,
and with two shaped like little dogs, he sent them away mightily
pleased.
The second journey he went, some more of our men desired to go with
him, and they made a troop of ten white men and ten savages, and the two
buffaloes to carry their provisions and ammunition. They took the same
course, only not exactly the same track, and they stayed thirty-two days
only, in which time they killed no less than fifteen leopards, three
lions, and several other creatures, and brought us home four-and-twenty
pound some ounces of gold-dust, and only six elephants' teeth, but they
were very great ones.
Our friend the Englishman showed us that now our time was well bestowed,
for in five months which we had stayed here, we had gathered so much
gold-dust that, when we came to share it, we had five pound and a
quarter to a man, besides what we had before, and besides six or seven
pound weight which we had at several times given our artificer to make
baubles with. And now we talked of going forward to the coast to put an
end to our journey; but our guide laughed at us then. "Nay, you can't go
now," says he, "for the rainy season begins next month, and there will
be no stirring then." This we found, indeed, reasonable, so we resolved
to furnish ourselves with provisions, that we might not be obliged to
go abroad too much in the rain, and we spread ourselves some one way and
some another, as far as we cared to venture, to get provisions; and our
negroes killed us some deer, which we cured as well as we could in the
sun, for we had now no salt.
By this time the rainy months were set in, and we could scarce, for
above two months, look out of our huts. But that was not all, for the
rivers were so swelled with the land-floods, that we scarce knew the
little brooks and rivulets from the great navigable rivers. This had
been a very good opportunity to have conveyed by water, upon rafts, our
elephants' teeth, of which we had a very great pile; for, as we always
gave the savages some reward for their labour, the very women would
bring us teeth upon every opportunity, and sometimes a great tooth
carried between two; so that our quantity was increased to about
two-and-twenty ton of teeth.
As soon as the weather proved fair again, he told us he would not press
us to any further stay, since we did not care whether we got any more
gold or no; that we were indeed the first men he ever met with in his
life that said they had gold enough, and of whom it might be truly said,
that, when it lay under our feet, we would not stoop to take it up. But,
since he had made us a promise, he would not break it, nor press us to
make any further stay; only he thought he ought to tell us that now was
the time, after the land-flood, when the greatest quantity of gold was
found; and that, if we stayed but one month, we should see thousands of
savages spread themselves over the whole country to wash the gold out
of the sand, for the European ships which would come on the coast; that
they do it then, because the rage of the floods always works down a
great deal of gold out of the hills; and, if we took the advantage to
be there before them, we did not know what extraordinary things we might
find.
This was so forcible, and so well argued, that it appeared in all our
faces we were prevailed upon; so we told him we would all stay: for
though it was true we were all eager to be gone, yet the evident
prospect of so much advantage could not well be resisted; that he was
greatly mistaken, when he suggested that we did not desire to increase
our store of gold, and in that we were resolved to make the utmost use
of the advantage that was in our hands, and would stay as long as any
gold was to be had, if it was another year.
He could hardly express the joy he was in on this occasion; and the fair
weather coming on, we began, just as he directed, to search about the
rivers for more gold. At first we had but little encouragement, and
began to be doubtful; but it was very plain that the reason was,
the water was not fully fallen, or the rivers reduced to their usual
channel; but in a few days we were fully requited, and found much more
gold than at first, and in bigger lumps; and one of our men washed out
of the sand a piece of gold as big as a small nut, which weighed, by our
estimation--for we had no small weights--almost an ounce and a half.
This success made us extremely diligent; and in little more than a month
we had altogether gotten near sixty pound weight of gold; but after
this, as he told us, we found abundance of the savages, men, women, and
children, hunting every river and brook, and even the dry land of the
hills for gold; so that we could do nothing like then, compared to what
we had done before.
But our artificer found a way to make other people find us in gold
without our own labour; for, when these people began to appear, he had
a considerable quantity of his toys, birds, beasts, &c., such as before,
ready for them; and the English gentleman being the interpreter, he
brought the savages to admire them; so our cutler had trade enough,
and, to be sure, sold his goods at a monstrous rate; for he would get an
ounce of gold, sometimes two, for a bit of silver, perhaps of the value
of a groat; nay, if it were iron and if it was of gold, they would
not give the more for it; and it was incredible almost to think what a
quantity of gold he got that way.
In a word, to bring this happy journey to a conclusion, we increased our
stock of gold here, in three months' stay more, to such a degree that,
bringing it all to a common stock, in order to share it, we divided
almost four pound weight again to every man; and then we set forward
for the Gold Coast, to see what method we could find out for our passage
into Europe.
There happened several remarkable incidents in this part of our journey,
as to how we were, or were not, received friendly by the several nations
of savages through which we passed; how we delivered one negro king
from captivity, who had been a benefactor to our new guide; and now our
guide, in gratitude, by our assistance, restored him to his kingdom,
which, perhaps, might contain about 300 subjects; how he entertained us;
and how he made his subjects go with our Englishmen, and fetch all our
elephants' teeth which we had been obliged to leave behind us, and to
carry them for us to the river, the name of which I forgot, where
we made rafts, and in eleven days more came down to one of the Dutch
settlements on the Gold Coast, where we arrived in perfect health, and
to our great satisfaction. As for our cargo of teeth, we sold it to the
Dutch factory, and received clothes and other necessaries for ourselves,
and such of our negroes as we thought fit to keep with us; and it is to
be observed, that we had four pound of gunpowder left when we ended our
journey. The negro prince we made perfectly free, clothed him out of our
common stock, and gave him a pound and a half of gold for himself, which
he knew very well how to manage; and here we all parted after the most
friendly manner possible. Our Englishman remained in the Dutch factory
some time, and, as I heard afterwards, died there of grief; for he
having sent a thousand pounds sterling over to England, by the way of
Holland, for his refuge at his return to his friends, the ship was taken
by the French and the effects all lost.
The rest of my comrades went away, in a small bark, to the two
Portuguese factories, near Gambia, in the latitude of fourteen; and I,
with two negroes which I kept with me, went away to Cape Coast Castle,
where I got passage for England, and arrived there in September; and
thus ended my first harvest of wild oats; the rest were not sowed to so
much advantage.
I had neither friend, relation, nor acquaintance in England, though it
was my native country; I had consequently no person to trust with what
I had, or to counsel me to secure or save it; but, falling into ill
company, and trusting the keeper of a public-house in Rotherhithe with a
great part of my money, and hastily squandering away the rest, all that
great sum, which I got with so much pains and hazard, was gone in little
more than two years' time; and, as I even rage in my own thoughts to
reflect upon the manner how it was wasted, so I need record no more; the
rest merits to be concealed with blushes, for that it was spent in all
kinds of folly and wickedness. So this scene of my life may be said to
have begun in theft, and ended in luxury; a sad setting-out, and a worse
coming home.
About the year ---- I began to see the bottom of my stock, and that
it was time to think of further adventures; for my spoilers, as I call
them, began to let me know, that as my money declined, their respect
would ebb with it, and that I had nothing to expect of them further than
as I might command it by the force of my money, which, in short, would
not go an inch the further for all that had been spent in their favour
before.
This shocked me very much, and I conceived a just abhorrence of their
ingratitude; but it wore off; nor had I met with any regret at the
wasting so glorious a sum of money as I brought to England with me.
I next shipped myself, in an evil hour to be sure, on a voyage to Cadiz,
in a ship called the ----, and in the course of our voyage, being on the
coast of Spain, was obliged to put into the Groyn, by a strong southwest
wind.
Here I fell into company with some masters of mischief; and, among them,
one, forwarder than the rest, began an intimate confidence with me,
so that we called one another brothers, and communicated all our
circumstances to one another. His name was Harris. This fellow came to
me one morning, asking me if I would go on shore, and I agreed; so we
got the captain's leave for the boat, and went together. When we were
together, he asked me if I had a mind for an adventure that might make
amends for all past misfortunes. I told him, yes, with all my heart; for
I did not care where I went, having nothing to lose, and no one to leave
behind me.
He then asked me if I would swear to be secret, and that, if I did not
agree to what he proposed, I would nevertheless never betray him. I
readily bound myself to that, upon the most solemn imprecations and
curses that the devil and both of us could invent.
He told me, then, there was a brave fellow in the other ship, pointing
to another English ship which rode in the harbour, who, in concert with
some of the men, had resolved to mutiny the next morning, and run away
with the ship; and that, if we could get strength enough among our
ship's company, we might do the same. I liked the proposal very well,
and he got eight of us to join with him, and he told us, that as soon as
his friend had begun the work, and was master of the ship, we should
be ready to do the like. This was his plot; and I, without the least
hesitation, either at the villainy of the fact or the difficulty of
performing it, came immediately into the wicked conspiracy, and so it
went on among us; but we could not bring our part to perfection.
Accordingly, on the day appointed, his correspondent in the other ship,
whose name was Wilmot, began the work, and, having seized the captain's
mate and other officers, secured the ship, and gave the signal to us.
We were but eleven in our ship, who were in the conspiracy, nor could we
get any more that we could trust; so that, leaving the ship, we all took
the boat, and went off to join the other.
Having thus left the ship I was in, we were entertained with a great
deal of joy by Captain Wilmot and his new gang; and, being well prepared
for all manner of roguery, bold, desperate (I mean myself), without the
least checks of conscience for what I was entered upon, or for anything
I might do, much less with any apprehension of what might be the
consequence of it; I say, having thus embarked with this crew, which at
last brought me to consort with the most famous pirates of the age, some
of whom have ended their journals at the gallows, I think the giving
an account of some of my other adventures may be an agreeable piece
of story; and this I may venture to say beforehand, upon the word of a
pirate, that I shall not be able to recollect the full, no, not by far,
of the great variety which has formed one of the most reprobate schemes
that ever man was capable to present to the world.
I that was, as I have hinted before, an original thief, and a pirate,
even by inclination before, was now in my element, and never undertook
anything in my life with more particular satisfaction.
Captain Wilmot (for so we are now to call him) being thus possessed of a
ship, and in the manner as you have heard, it may be easily concluded
he had nothing to do to stay in the port, or to wait either the attempts
that might be made from the shore, or any change that might happen among
his men. On the contrary, we weighed anchor the same tide, and stood out
to sea, steering away for the Canaries. Our ship had twenty-two guns,
but was able to carry thirty; and besides, as she was fitted out for
a merchant-ship only, she was not furnished either with ammunition or
small-arms sufficient for our design, or for the occasion we might have
in case of a fight. So we put into Cadiz, that is to say, we came to an
anchor in the bay; and the captain, and one whom we called young Captain
Kidd, who was the gunner, [landed,] and some of the men who could best
be trusted, among whom was my comrade Harris, who was made second mate,
and myself, who was made a lieutenant. Some bales of English goods were
proposed to be carried on shore with us for sale, but my comrade, who
was a complete fellow at his business, proposed a better way for it;
and having been in the town before, told us, in short, that he would buy
what powder and bullet, small-arms, or anything else we wanted, on his
own word, to be paid for when they came on board, in such English goods
as we had there. This was much the best way, and accordingly he and the
captain went on shore by themselves, and having made such a bargain
as they found for their turn, came away again in two hours' time, and
bringing only a butt of wine and five casks of brandy with them, we all
went on board again.
The next morning two _barcos longos_ came off to us, deeply laden, with
five Spaniards on board them, for traffic. Our captain sold them good
pennyworths, and they delivered us sixteen barrels of powder, twelve
small rundlets of fine powder for our small-arms, sixty muskets, and
twelve fuzees for the officers; seventeen ton of cannon-ball, fifteen
barrels of musket-bullets, with some swords and twenty good pair of
pistols. Besides this, they brought thirteen butts of wine (for we, that
were now all become gentlemen, scorned to drink the ship's beer), also
sixteen puncheons of brandy, with twelve barrels of raisins and twenty
chests of lemons; all which we paid for in English goods; and, over and
above, the captain received six hundred pieces of eight in money. They
would have come again, but we would stay no longer.
From hence we sailed to the Canaries, and from thence onward to the
West Indies, where we committed some depredation upon the Spaniards for
provisions, and took some prizes, but none of any great value, while I
remained with them, which was not long at that time; for, having taken a
Spanish sloop on the coast of Carthagena, my friend made a motion to me,
that we should desire Captain Wilmot to put us into the sloop, with a
proportion of arms and ammunition, and let us try what we could do; she
being much fitter for our business than the great ship, and a better
sailer. This he consented to, and we appointed our rendezvous at Tobago,
making an agreement, that whatever was taken by either of our ships
should be shared among the ship's company of both; all which we very
punctually observed, and joined our ships again, about fifteen months
after, at the island of Tobago, as above.
We cruised near two years in those seas, chiefly upon the Spaniards;
not that we made any difficulty of taking English ships, or Dutch,
or French, if they came in our way; and particularly, Captain Wilmot
attacked a New England ship bound from the Madeiras to Jamaica, and
another bound from New York to Barbados, with provisions; which last was
a very happy supply to us. But the reason why we meddled as little with
English vessels as we could, was, first, because, if they were ships
of any force, we were sure of more resistance from them; and, secondly,
because we found the English ships had less booty when taken, for the
Spaniards generally had money on board, and that was what we best knew
what to do with. Captain Wilmot was, indeed, more particularly cruel
when he took any English vessel, that they might not too soon have
advice of him in England; and so the men-of-war have orders to look out
for him. But this part I bury in silence for the present.
We increased our stock in these two years considerably, having taken
60,000 pieces of eight in one vessel, and 100,000 in another; and being
thus first grown rich, we resolved to be strong too, for we had taken a
brigantine built at Virginia, an excellent sea-boat, and a good sailer,
and able to carry twelve guns; and a large Spanish frigate-built ship,
that sailed incomparably well also, and which afterwards, by the help
of good carpenters, we fitted up to carry twenty-eight guns. And now we
wanted more hands, so we put away for the Bay of Campeachy, not doubting
we should ship as many men there as we pleased; and so we did.
Here we sold the sloop that I was in; and Captain Wilmot keeping his
own ship, I took the command of the Spanish frigate as captain, and my
comrade Harris as eldest lieutenant, and a bold enterprising fellow
he was, as any the world afforded. One culverdine was put into the
brigantine, so that we were now three stout ships, well manned, and
victualled for twelve months; for we had taken two or three sloops from
New England and New York, laden with flour, peas, and barrelled beef and
pork, going for Jamaica and Barbados; and for more beef we went on
shore on the island of Cuba, where we killed as many black cattle as we
pleased, though we had very little salt to cure them.
Out of all the prizes we took here we took their powder and bullet,
their small-arms and cutlasses; and as for their men, we always took the
surgeon and the carpenter, as persons who were of particular use to
us upon many occasions; nor were they always unwilling to go with us,
though for their own security, in case of accidents, they might easily
pretend they were carried away by force; of which I shall give a
pleasant account in the course of my other expeditions.
We had one very merry fellow here, a Quaker, whose name was William
Walters, whom we took out of a sloop bound from Pennsylvania to
Barbados. He was a surgeon, and they called him doctor; but he was not
employed in the sloop as a surgeon, but was going to Barbados to get a
berth, as the sailors call it. However, he had all his surgeon's chests
on board, and we made him go with us, and take all his implements with
him. He was a comic fellow indeed, a man of very good solid sense, and
an excellent surgeon; but, what was worth all, very good-humoured and
pleasant in his conversation, and a bold, stout, brave fellow too, as
any we had among us.
I found William, as I thought, not very averse to go along with us, and
yet resolved to do it so that it might be apparent he was taken away
by force, and to this purpose he comes to me. "Friend," says he, "thou
sayest I must go with thee, and it is not in my power to resist thee if
I would; but I desire thou wilt oblige the master of the sloop which I
am on board to certify under his hand, that I was taken away by force
and against my will." And this he said with so much satisfaction in his
face, that I could not but understand him. "Ay, ay," says I, "whether
it be against your will or no, I'll make him and all the men give you
a certificate of it, or I'll take them all along with us, and keep them
till they do." So I drew up a certificate myself, wherein I wrote that
he was taken away by main force, as a prisoner, by a pirate ship; that
they carried away his chest and instruments first, and then bound his
hands behind him and forced him into their boat; and this was signed by
the master and all his men.
Accordingly I fell a-swearing at him, and called to my men to tie his
hands behind him, and so we put him into our boat and carried him away.
When I had him on board, I called him to me. "Now, friend," says I, "I
have brought you away by force, it is true, but I am not of the opinion
I have brought you away so much against your will as they imagine.
Come," says I, "you will be a useful man to us, and you shall have very
good usage among us." So I unbound his hands, and first ordered all
things that belonged to him to be restored to him, and our captain gave
him a dram.
"Thou hast dealt friendly by me," says he, "and I will be plain with
thee, whether I came willingly to thee or not. I shall make myself
as useful to thee as I can, but thou knowest it is not my business to
meddle when thou art to fight." "No, no," says the captain, "but you may
meddle a little when we share the money." "Those things are useful to
furnish a surgeon's chest," says William, and smiled, "but I shall be
moderate."
In short, William was a most agreeable companion; but he had the better
of us in this part, that if we were taken we were sure to be hanged, and
he was sure to escape; and he knew it well enough. But, in short, he
was a sprightly fellow, and fitter to be captain than any of us. I shall
have often an occasion to speak of him in the rest of the story.
Our cruising so long in these seas began now to be so well known, that
not in England only, but in France and Spain, accounts had been made
public of our adventures, and many stories told how we murdered the
people in cold blood, tying them back to back, and throwing them into
the sea; one half of which, however, was not true, though more was done
than is fit to speak of here.
The consequence of this, however, was, that several English men-of-war
were sent to the West Indies, and were particularly instructed to cruise
in the Bay of Mexico, and the Gulf of Florida, and among the Bahama
islands, if possible, to attack us. We were not so ignorant of things as
not to expect this, after so long a stay in that part of the world; but
the first certain account we had of them was at Honduras, when a vessel
coming in from Jamaica told us that two English men-of-war were coming
directly from Jamaica thither in quest of us. We were indeed as it were
embayed, and could not have made the least shift to have got off, if
they had come directly to us; but, as it happened, somebody had informed
them that we were in the Bay of Campeachy, and they went directly
thither, by which we were not only free of them, but were so much to the
windward of them, that they could not make any attempt upon us, though
they had known we were there.
We took this advantage, and stood away for Carthagena, and from thence
with great difficulty beat it up at a distance from under the shore for
St. Martha, till we came to the Dutch island of Curacoa, and from thence
to the island of Tobago, which, as before, was our rendezvous; which,
being a deserted, uninhabited island, we at the same time made use of
for a retreat. Here the captain of the brigantine died, and Captain
Harris, at that time my lieutenant, took the command of the brigantine.
Here we came to a resolution to go away to the coast of Brazil, and from
thence to the Cape of Good Hope, and so for the East Indies; but Captain
Harris, as I have said, being now captain of the brigantine, alleged
that his ship was too small for so long a voyage, but that, if Captain
Wilmot would consent, he would take the hazard of another cruise, and
he would follow us in the first ship he could take. So we appointed our
rendezvous to be at Madagascar, which was done by my recommendation of
the place, and the plenty of provisions to be had there.
Accordingly, he went away from us in an evil hour; for, instead of
taking a ship to follow us, he was taken, as I heard afterwards, by
an English man-of-war, and being laid in irons, died of mere grief
and anger before he came to England. His lieutenant, I have heard, was
afterwards executed in England for a pirate; and this was the end of the
man who first brought me into this unhappy trade.
We parted from Tobago three days after, bending our course for the coast
of Brazil, but had not been at sea above twenty-four hours, when we were
separated by a terrible storm, which held three days, with very little
abatement or intermission. In this juncture Captain Wilmot happened,
unluckily, to be on board my ship, to his great mortification; for we
not only lost sight of his ship, but never saw her more till we came
to Madagascar, where she was cast away. In short, after having in this
tempest lost our fore-topmast, we were forced to put back to the isle of
Tobago for shelter, and to repair our damage, which brought us all very
near our destruction.
We were no sooner on shore here, and all very busy looking out for a
piece of timber for a topmast, but we perceived standing in for the
shore an English man-of-war of thirty-six guns. It was a great surprise
to us indeed, because we were disabled so much; but, to our great good
fortune, we lay pretty snug and close among the high rocks, and the
man-of-war did not see us, but stood off again upon his cruise. So
we only observed which way she went, and at night, leaving our work,
resolved to stand off to sea, steering the contrary way from that which
we observed she went; and this, we found, had the desired success, for
we saw him no more. We had gotten an old mizzen-topmast on board, which
made us a jury fore-topmast for the present; and so we stood away for
the isle of Trinidad, where, though there were Spaniards on shore, yet
we landed some men with our boat, and cut a very good piece of fir to
make us a new topmast, which we got fitted up effectually; and also we
got some cattle here to eke out our provisions; and calling a council of
war among ourselves, we resolved to quit those seas for the present, and
steer away for the coast of Brazil.
The first thing we attempted here was only getting fresh water, but we
learnt that there lay the Portuguese fleet at the bay of All Saints,
bound for Lisbon, ready to sail, and only waited for a fair wind. This
made us lie by, wishing to see them put to sea, and, accordingly as they
were with or without convoy, to attack or avoid them.
It sprung up a fresh gale in the evening at S.W. by W., which, being
fair for the Portugal fleet, and the weather pleasant and agreeable,
we heard the signal given to unmoor, and running in under the island of
Si---, we hauled our mainsail and foresail up in the brails, lowered the
topsails upon the cap, and clewed them up, that we might lie as snug as
we could, expecting their coming out, and the next morning saw the whole
fleet come out accordingly, but not at all to our satisfaction, for they
consisted of twenty-six sail, and most of them ships of force, as well
as burthen, both merchantmen and men-of-war; so, seeing there was no
meddling, we lay still where we were also, till the fleet was out of
sight, and then stood off and on, in hopes of meeting with further
purchase.
It was not long before we saw a sail, and immediately gave her chase;
but she proved an excellent sailer, and, standing out to sea, we saw
plainly she trusted to her heels--that is to say, to her sails. However,
as we were a clean ship, we gained upon her, though slowly, and had we
had a day before us, we should certainly have come up with her; but it
grew dark apace, and in that case we knew we should lose sight of her.
Our merry Quaker, perceiving us to crowd still after her in the dark,
wherein we could not see which way she went, came very dryly to me.
"Friend Singleton," says he, "dost thee know what we are a-doing?" Says
I, "Yes; why, we are chasing yon ship, are we not?" "And how dost thou
know that?" says he, very gravely still. "Nay, that's true," says I
again; "we cannot be sure." "Yes, friend," says he, "I think we may be
sure that we are running away from her, not chasing her. I am afraid,"
adds he, "thou art turned Quaker, and hast resolved not to use the hand
of power, or art a coward, and art flying from thy enemy."
"What do you mean?" says I (I think I swore at him). "What do you sneer
at now? You have always one dry rub or another to give us."
"Nay," says he, "it is plain enough the ship stood off to sea due east,
on purpose to lose us, and thou mayest be sure her business does not
lie that way; for what should she do at the coast of Africa in this
latitude, which should be as far south as Congo or Angola? But as soon
as it is dark, that we would lose sight of her, she will tack and stand
away west again for the Brazil coast and for the bay, where thou knowest
she was going before; and are we not, then, running away from her? I
am greatly in hopes, friend," says the dry, gibing creature, "thou wilt
turn Quaker, for I see thou art not for fighting."
"Very well, William," says I; "then I shall make an excellent pirate."
However, William was in the right, and I apprehended what he meant
immediately; and Captain Wilmot, who lay very sick in his cabin,
overhearing us, understood him as well as I, and called out to me that
William was right, and it was our best way to change our course, and
stand away for the bay, where it was ten to one but we should snap her
in the morning.
Accordingly we went about-ship, got our larboard tacks on board, set the
top-gallant sails, and crowded for the bay of All Saints, where we came
to an anchor early in the morning, just out of gunshot of the forts;
we furled our sails with rope-yarns, that we might haul home the sheets
without going up to loose them, and, lowering our main and fore-yards,
looked just as if we had lain there a good while.
In two hours afterwards we saw our game standing in for the bay with all
the sail she could make, and she came innocently into our very mouths,
for we lay still till we saw her almost within gunshot, when, our
foremost gears being stretched fore and aft, we first ran up our yards,
and then hauled home the topsail sheets, the rope-yarns that furled them
giving way of themselves; the sails were set in a few minutes; at the
same time slipping our cable, we came upon her before she could get
under way upon the other tack. They were so surprised that they made
little or no resistance, but struck after the first broadside.
We were considering what to do with her, when William came to me. "Hark
thee, friend," says he, "thou hast made a fine piece of work of it
now, hast thou not, to borrow thy neighbour's ship here just at thy
neighbour's door, and never ask him leave? Now, dost thou not think
there are some men-of-war in the port? Thou hast given them the alarm
sufficiently; thou wilt have them upon thy back before night, depend
upon it, to ask thee wherefore thou didst so."
"Truly, William," said I, "for aught I know, that may be true; what,
then, shall we do next?" Says he, "Thou hast but two things to do:
either to go in and take all the rest, or else get thee gone before they
come out and take thee; for I see they are hoisting a topmast to yon
great ship, in order to put to sea immediately, and they won't be long
before they come to talk with thee, and what wilt thou say to them when
they ask thee why thou borrowedst their ship without leave?"
As William said, so it was. We could see by our glasses they were all
in a hurry, manning and fitting some sloops they had there, and a large
man-of-war, and it was plain they would soon be with us. But we were
not at a loss what to do; we found the ship we had taken was laden with
nothing considerable for our purpose, except some cocoa, some sugar, and
twenty barrels of flour; the rest of her cargo was hides; so we took
out all we thought fit for our turn, and, among the rest, all her
ammunition, great shot, and small-arms, and turned her off. We also took
a cable and three anchors she had, which were for our purpose, and some
of her sails. She had enough left just to carry her into port, and that
was all.
Having done this, we stood on upon the Brazil coast, southward, till we
came to the mouth of the river Janeiro. But as we had two days the wind
blowing hard at S.E. and S.S.E., we were obliged to come to an anchor
under a little island, and wait for a wind. In this time the Portuguese
had, it seems, given notice over land to the governor there, that a
pirate was upon the coast; so that, when we came in view of the port, we
saw two men-of-war riding just without the bar, whereof one, we found,
was getting under sail with all possible speed, having slipped her
cable on purpose to speak with us; the other was not so forward, but was
preparing to follow. In less than an hour they stood both fair after us,
with all the sail they could make.
Had not the night come on, William's words had been made good; they
would certainly have asked us the question what we did there, for we
found the foremost ship gained upon us, especially upon one tack, for we
plied away from them to windward; but in the dark losing sight of them,
we resolved to change our course and stand away directly for sea, not
doubting that we should lose them in the night.
Whether the Portuguese commander guessed we would do so or no, I know
not; but in the morning, when the daylight appeared, instead of having
lost him, we found him in chase of us about a league astern; only, to
our great good fortune, we could see but one of the two. However, this
one was a great ship, carried six-and-forty guns, and an admirable
sailer, as appeared by her outsailing us; for our ship was an excellent
sailer too, as I have said before.
When I found this, I easily saw there was no remedy, but we must engage;
and as we knew we could expect no quarter from those scoundrels the
Portuguese, a nation I had an original aversion to, I let Captain Wilmot
know how it was. The captain, sick as he was, jumped up in the cabin,
and would be led out upon the deck (for he was very weak) to see how it
was. "Well," says he, "we'll fight them!"
Our men were all in good heart before, but to see the captain so brisk,
who had lain ill of a calenture ten or eleven days, gave them double
courage, and they went all hands to work to make a clear ship and
be ready. William, the Quaker, comes to me with a kind of a smile.
"Friend," says he, "what does yon ship follow us for?" "Why," says I,
"to fight us, you may be sure." "Well," says he, "and will he come up
with us, dost thou think?" "Yes," said I, "you see she will." "Why,
then, friend," says the dry wretch, "why dost thou run from her still,
when thou seest she will overtake thee? Will it be better for us to be
overtaken farther off than here?" "Much as one for that," says I; "why,
what would you have us do?" "Do!" says he; "let us not give the poor man
more trouble than needs must; let us stay for him and hear what he has
to say to us." "He will talk to us in powder and ball," said I. "Very
well, then," says he, "if that be his country language, we must talk to
him in the same, must we not? or else how shall he understand us?" "Very
well, William," says I, "we understand you." And the captain, as ill as
he was, called to me, "William's right again," says he; "as good here
as a league farther." So he gives a word of command, "Haul up the
main-sail; we'll shorten sail for him."
Accordingly we shortened sail, and as we expected her upon our lee-side,
we being then upon our starboard tack, brought eighteen of our guns to
the larboard side, resolving to give him a broadside that should warm
him. It was about half-an-hour before he came up with us, all which
time we luffed up, that we might keep the wind of him, by which he was
obliged to run up under our lee, as we designed him; when we got him
upon our quarter, we edged down, and received the fire of five or six
of his guns. By this time you may be sure all our hands were at their
quarters, so we clapped our helm hard a-weather, let go the lee-braces
of the maintop sail, and laid it a-back, and so our ship fell athwart
the Portuguese ship's hawse; then we immediately poured in our
broadside, raking them fore and aft, and killed them a great many men.
The Portuguese, we could see, were in the utmost confusion; and not
being aware of our design, their ship having fresh way, ran their
bowsprit into the fore part of our main shrouds, as that they could
not easily get clear of us, and so we lay locked after that manner. The
enemy could not bring above five or six guns, besides their small-arms,
to bear upon us, while we played our whole broadside upon him.
In the middle of the heat of this fight, as I was very busy upon the
quarter-deck, the captain calls to me, for he never stirred from us,
"What the devil is friend William a-doing yonder?" says the captain;
"has he any business upon, deck?" I stepped forward, and there was
friend William, with two or three stout fellows, lashing the ship's
bowsprit fast to our mainmast, for fear they should get away from us;
and every now and then he pulled a bottle out of his pocket, and gave
the men a dram to encourage them. The shot flew about his ears as thick
as may be supposed in such an action, where the Portuguese, to give them
their due, fought very briskly, believing at first they were sure of
their game, and trusting to their superiority; but there was William, as
composed, and in as perfect tranquillity as to danger, as if he had been
over a bowl of punch, only very busy securing the matter, that a ship of
forty-six guns should not run away from a ship of eight-and-twenty.
This work was too hot to hold long; our men behaved bravely: our gunner,
a gallant man, shouted below, pouring in his shot at such a rate, that
the Portuguese began to slacken their fire; we had dismounted several of
their guns by firing in at their forecastle, and raking them, as I said,
fore and aft. Presently comes William up to me. "Friend," says he, very
calmly, "what dost thou mean? Why dost thou not visit thy neighbour in
the ship, the door being open for thee?" I understood him immediately,
for our guns had so torn their hull, that we had beat two port-holes
into one, and the bulk-head of their steerage was split to pieces, so
that they could not retire to their close quarters; so I gave the word
immediately to board them. Our second lieutenant, with about thirty men,
entered in an instant over the forecastle, followed by some more with
the boatswain, and cutting in pieces about twenty-five men that they
found upon the deck, and then throwing some grenadoes into the steerage,
they entered there also; upon which the Portuguese cried quarter
presently, and we mastered the ship, contrary indeed to our own
expectation; for we would have compounded with them if they would have
sheered off: but laying them athwart the hawse at first, and following
our fire furiously, without giving them any time to get clear of us and
work their ship; by this means, though they had six-and-forty guns, they
were not able to fight above five or six, as I said above, for we beat
them immediately from their guns in the forecastle, and killed them
abundance of men between decks, so that when we entered they had hardly
found men enough to fight us hand to hand upon their deck.
The surprise of joy to hear the Portuguese cry quarter, and see their
ancient struck, was so great to our captain, who, as I have said, was
reduced very weak with a high fever, that it gave him new life. Nature
conquered the distemper, and the fever abated that very night; so that
in two or three days he was sensibly better, his strength began to come,
and he was able to give his orders effectually in everything that was
material, and in about ten days was entirely well and about the ship.
In the meantime I took possession of the Portuguese man-of-war; and
Captain Wilmot made me, or rather I made myself, captain of her for
the present. About thirty of their seamen took service with us, some of
which were French, some Genoese; and we set the rest on shore the next
day on a little island on the coast of Brazil, except some wounded men,
who were not in a condition to be removed, and whom we were bound to
keep on board; but we had an occasion afterwards to dispose of them at
the Cape, where, at their own request, we set them on shore.
Captain Wilmot, as soon as the ship was taken, and the prisoners stowed,
was for standing in for the river Janeiro again, not doubting but we
should meet with the other man-of-war, who, not having been able to
find us, and having lost the company of her comrade, would certainly be
returned, and might be surprised by the ship we had taken, if we carried
Portuguese colours; and our men were all for it.
But our friend William gave us better counsel, for he came to me,
"Friend," says he, "I understand the captain is for sailing back to the
Rio Janeiro, in hopes to meet with the other ship that was in chase of
thee yesterday. Is it true, dost thou intend it?" "Why, yes," says I,
"William, pray why not?" "Nay," says he, "thou mayest do so if thou
wilt." "Well, I know that too, William," said I, "but the captain is a
man will be ruled by reason; what have you to say to it?" "Why," says
William gravely, "I only ask what is thy business, and the business
of all the people thou hast with thee? Is it not to get money?" "Yes,
William, it is so, in our honest way." "And wouldest thou," says he,
"rather have money without fighting, or fighting without money? I mean
which wouldest thou have by choice, suppose it to be left to thee?" "O
William," says I, "the first of the two, to be sure." "Why, then," says
he, "what great gain hast thou made of the prize thou hast taken now,
though it has cost the lives of thirteen of thy men, besides some hurt?
It is true thou hast got the ship and some prisoners; but thou wouldest
have had twice the booty in a merchant-ship, with not one quarter of the
fighting; and how dost thou know either what force or what number of
men may be in the other ship, and what loss thou mayest suffer, and what
gain it shall be to thee if thou take her? I think, indeed, thou mayest
much better let her alone."
"Why, William, it is true," said I, "and I'll go tell the captain what
your opinion is, and bring you word what he says." Accordingly in I went
to the captain and told him William's reasons; and the captain was of
his mind, that our business was indeed fighting when we could not help
it, but that our main affair was money, and that with as few blows as we
could. So that adventure was laid aside, and we stood along shore again
south for the river De la Plata, expecting some purchase thereabouts;
especially we had our eyes upon some of the Spanish ships from Buenos
Ayres, which are generally very rich in silver, and one such prize would
have done our business. We plied about here, in the latitude of ----
south, for near a month, and nothing offered; and here we began to
consult what we should do next, for we had come to no resolution yet.
Indeed, my design was always for the Cape de Bona Speranza, and so to
the East Indies. I had heard some flaming stories of Captain Avery,
and the fine things he had done in the Indies, which were doubled and
doubled, even ten thousand fold; and from taking a great prize in
the Bay of Bengal, where he took a lady, said to be the Great Mogul's
daughter, with a great quantity of jewels about her, we had a story told
us, that he took a Mogul ship, so the foolish sailors called it, laden
with diamonds.
I would fain have had friend William's advice whither we should go, but
he always put it off with some quaking quibble or other. In short,
he did not care for directing us neither; whether he made a piece of
conscience of it, or whether he did not care to venture having it come
against him afterwards or no, this I know not; but we concluded at last
without him.
We were, however, pretty long in resolving, and hankered about the Rio
de la Plata a long time. At last we spied a sail to windward, and it was
such a sail as I believe had not been seen in that part of the world a
great while. It wanted not that we should give it chase, for it stood
directly towards us, as well as they that steered could make it; and
even that was more accident of weather than anything else, for if the
wind had chopped about anywhere they must have gone with it. I leave any
man that is a sailor, or understands anything of a ship, to judge what
a figure this ship made when we first saw her, and what we could imagine
was the matter with her. Her maintop-mast was come by the board
about six foot above the cap, and fell forward, the head of the
topgallant-mast hanging in the fore-shrouds by the stay; at the same
time the parrel of the mizzen-topsail-yard by some accident giving way,
the mizzen-topsail-braces (the standing part of which being fast to the
main-topsail shrouds) brought the mizzen-topsail, yard and all, down
with it, which spread over part of the quarter-deck like an awning; the
fore-topsail was hoisted up two-thirds of the mast, but the sheets were
flown; the fore-yard was lowered down upon the forecastle, the sail
loose, and part of it hanging overboard. In this manner she came down
upon us with the wind quartering. In a word, the figure the whole ship
made was the most confounding to men that understood the sea that ever
was seen. She had no boat, neither had she any colours out.
When we came near to her, we fired a gun to bring her to. She took no
notice of it, nor of us, but came on just as she did before. We fired
again, but it was all one. At length we came within pistol-shot of one
another, but nobody answered nor appeared; so we began to think that
it was a ship gone ashore somewhere in distress, and the men having
forsaken her, the high tide had floated her off to sea. Coming nearer
to her, we ran up alongside of her so close that we could hear a noise
within her, and see the motion of several people through her ports.
Upon this we manned out two boats full of men, and very well armed, and
ordered them to board her at the same minute, as near as they could, and
to enter one at her fore-chains on the one side, and the other amidships
on the other side. As soon as they came to the ship's side, a surprising
multitude of black sailors, such as they were, appeared upon deck, and,
in short, terrified our men so much that the boat which was to enter her
men in the waist stood off again, and durst not board her; and the men
that entered out of the other boat, finding the first boat, as they
thought, beaten off, and seeing the ship full of men, jumped all back
again into their boat, and put off, not knowing what the matter was.
Upon this we prepared to pour in a broadside upon her; but our friend
William set us to rights again here; for it seems he guessed how it was
sooner than we did, and coming up to me (for it was our ship that came
up with her), "Friend," says he, "I am of opinion that thou art wrong
in this matter, and thy men have been wrong also in their conduct. I'll
tell thee how thou shalt take this ship, without making use of those
things called guns." "How can that be, William?" said I. "Why," said he,
"thou mayest take her with thy helm; thou seest they keep no steerage,
and thou seest the condition they are in; board her with thy ship upon
her lee quarter, and so enter her from the ship. I am persuaded thou
wilt take her without fighting, for there is some mischief has befallen
the ship, which we know nothing of."
In a word, it being a smooth sea, and little wind, I took his advice,
and laid her aboard. Immediately our men entered the ship, where we
found a large ship, with upwards of 600 negroes, men and women, boys and
girls, and not one Christian or white man on board.
I was struck with horror at the sight; for immediately I concluded, as
was partly the case, that these black devils had got loose, had murdered
all the white men, and thrown them into the sea; and I had no sooner
told my mind to the men, but the thought so enraged them that I had much
ado to keep my men from cutting them all in pieces. But William, with
many persuasions, prevailed upon them, by telling them that it was
nothing but what, if they were in the negroes' condition, they would
do if they could; and that the negroes had really the highest injustice
done them, to be sold for slaves without their consent; and that the
law of nature dictated it to them; that they ought not to kill them, and
that it would be wilful murder to do it.
This prevailed with them, and cooled their first heat; so they only
knocked down twenty or thirty of them, and the rest ran all down between
decks to their first places, believing, as we fancied, that we were
their first masters come again.
It was a most unaccountable difficulty we had next; for we could not
make them understand one word we said, nor could we understand one word
ourselves that they said. We endeavoured by signs to ask them whence
they came; but they could make nothing of it. We pointed to the great
cabin, to the round-house, to the cook-room, then to our faces, to ask
if they had no white men on board, and where they were gone; but they
could not understand what we meant. On the other hand, they pointed to
our boat and to their ship, asking questions as well as they could, and
said a thousand things, and expressed themselves with great earnestness;
but we could not understand a word of it all, or know what they meant by
any of their signs.
We knew very well they must have been taken on board the ship as slaves,
and that it must be by some European people too. We could easily see
that the ship was a Dutch-built ship, but very much altered, having been
built upon, and, as we supposed, in France; for we found two or three
French books on board, and afterwards we found clothes, linen, lace,
some old shoes, and several other things. We found among the provisions
some barrels of Irish beef, some Newfoundland fish, and several other
evidences that there had been Christians on board, but saw no remains of
them. We found not a sword, gun, pistol, or weapon of any kind, except
some cutlasses; and the negroes had hid them below where they lay. We
asked them what was become of all the small-arms, pointing to our own
and to the places where those belonging to the ship had hung. One of
the negroes understood me presently, and beckoned to me to come upon the
deck, where, taking my fuzee, which I never let go out of my hand for
some time after we had mastered the ship--I say, offering to take hold
of it, he made the proper motion of throwing it into the sea; by which
I understood, as I did afterwards, that they had thrown all the
small-arms, powder, shot, swords, &c., into the sea, believing, as I
supposed, those things would kill them, though the men were gone.
After we understood this we made no question but that the ship's crew,
having been surprised by these desperate rogues, had gone the same way,
and had been thrown overboard also. We looked all over the ship to
see if we could find any blood, and we thought we did perceive some in
several places; but the heat of the sun, melting the pitch and tar upon
the decks, made it impossible for us to discern it exactly, except in
the round-house, where we plainly saw that there had been much blood. We
found the scuttle open, by which we supposed that the captain and those
that were with him had made their retreat into the great cabin, or those
in the cabin had made their escape up into the round-house.
But that which confirmed us most of all in what had happened was that,
upon further inquiry, we found that there were seven or eight of the
negroes very much wounded, two or three of them with shot, whereof one
had his leg broken and lay in a miserable condition, the flesh being
mortified, and, as our friend William said, in two days more he would
have died. William was a most dexterous surgeon, and he showed it in
this cure; for though all the surgeons we had on board both our ships
(and we had no less than five that called themselves bred surgeons,
besides two or three who were pretenders or assistants)--though all
these gave their opinions that the negro's leg must be cut off, and
that his life could not be saved without it; that the mortification had
touched the marrow in the bone, that the tendons were mortified, and
that he could never have the use of his leg if it should be cured,
William said nothing in general, but that his opinion was otherwise, and
that he desired the wound might be searched, and that he would then
tell them further. Accordingly he went to work with the leg; and, as
he desired that he might have some of the surgeons to assist him, we
appointed him two of the ablest of them to help, and all of them to look
on, if they thought fit.
William went to work his own way, and some of them pretended to find
fault at first. However, he proceeded and searched every part of the leg
where he suspected the mortification had touched it; in a word, he cut
off a great deal of mortified flesh, in all which the poor fellow felt
no pain. William proceeded till he brought the vessels which he had cut
to bleed, and the man to cry out; then he reduced the splinters of the
bone, and, calling for help, set it, as we call it, and bound it up, and
laid the man to rest, who found himself much easier than before.
At the first opening the surgeons began to triumph; the mortification
seemed to spread, and a long red streak of blood appeared from the wound
upwards to the middle of the man's thigh, and the surgeons told me the
man would die in a few hours. I went to look at it, and found William
himself under some surprise; but when I asked him how long he thought
the poor fellow could live, he looked gravely at me, and said, "As long
as thou canst; I am not at all apprehensive of his life," said he, "but
I would cure him, if I could, without making a cripple of him." I found
he was not just then upon the operation as to his leg, but was mixing
up something to give the poor creature, to repel, as I thought, the
spreading contagion, and to abate or prevent any feverish temper that
might happen in the blood; after which he went to work again, and opened
the leg in two places above the wound, cutting out a great deal of
mortified flesh, which it seemed was occasioned by the bandage, which
had pressed the parts too much; and withal, the blood being at the time
in a more than common disposition to mortify, might assist to spread it.
Well, our friend William conquered all this, cleared the spreading
mortification, and the red streak went off again, the flesh began to
heal, and matter to run; and in a few days the man's spirits began to
recover, his pulse beat regular, he had no fever, and gathered strength
daily; and, in a word, he was a perfect sound man in about ten weeks,
and we kept him amongst us, and made him an able seaman. But to return
to the ship: we never could come at a certain information about it, till
some of the negroes which we kept on board, and whom we taught to speak
English, gave the account of it afterwards, and this maimed man in
particular.
We inquired, by all the signs and motions we could imagine, what was
become of the people, and yet we could get nothing from them. Our
lieutenant was for torturing some of them to make them confess,
but William opposed that vehemently; and when he heard it was under
consideration he came to me. "Friend," says he, "I make a request to
thee not to put any of these poor wretches to torment." "Why, William,"
said I, "why not? You see they will not give any account of what is
become of the white men." "Nay," says William, "do not say so; I suppose
they have given thee a full account of every particular of it." "How
so?" says I; "pray what are we the wiser for all their jabbering?"
"Nay," says William, "that may be thy fault, for aught I know; thou wilt
not punish the poor men because they cannot speak English; and perhaps
they never heard a word of English before. Now, I may very well suppose
that they have given thee a large account of everything; for thou seest
with what earnestness, and how long, some of them have talked to thee;
and if thou canst not understand their language, nor they thine, how can
they help that? At the best, thou dost but suppose that they have not
told thee the whole truth of the story; and, on the contrary, I suppose
they have; and how wilt thou decide the question, whether thou art right
or whether I am right? Besides, what can they say to thee when thou
askest them a question upon the torture, and at the same time they do
not understand the question, and thou dost not know whether they say ay
or no?"
It is no compliment to my moderation to say I was convinced by these
reasons; and yet we had all much ado to keep our second lieutenant from
murdering some of them, to make them tell. What if they had told? He did
not understand one word of it; but he would not be persuaded but that
the negroes must needs understand him when he asked them whether the
ship had any boat or no, like ours, and what was become of it.
But there was no remedy but to wait till we made these people understand
English, and to adjourn the story till that time. The case was thus:
where they were taken on board the ship, that we could never understand,
because they never knew the English names which we give to those coasts,
or what nation they were who belonged to the ship, because they knew not
one tongue from another; but thus far the negro I examined, who was the
same whose leg William had cured, told us, that they did not speak the
same language as we spoke, nor the same our Portuguese spoke; so that in
all probability they must be French or Dutch.
Then he told us that the white men used them barbarously; that they beat
them unmercifully; that one of the negro men had a wife and two negro
children, one a daughter, about sixteen years old; that a white man
abused the negro man's wife, and afterwards his daughter, which, as he
said, made all the negro men mad; and that the woman's husband was in a
great rage; at which the white man was so provoked that he threatened
to kill him; but, in the night, the negro man, being loose, got a great
club, by which he made us understand he meant a handspike, and that when
the same Frenchman (if it was a Frenchman) came among them again, he
began again to abuse the negro man's wife, at which the negro, taking up
the handspike, knocked his brains out at one blow; and then taking the
key from him with which he usually unlocked the handcuffs which the
negroes were fettered with, he set about a hundred of them at liberty,
who, getting up upon the deck by the same scuttle that the white men
came down, and taking the man's cutlass who was killed, and laying hold
of what came next them, they fell upon the men that were upon the
deck, and killed them all, and afterwards those they found upon the
forecastle; that the captain and his other men, who were in the cabin
and the round-house, defended themselves with great courage, and shot
out at the loopholes at them, by which he and several other men were
wounded, and some killed; but that they broke into the round-house after
a long dispute, where they killed two of the white men, but owned that
the two white men killed eleven of their men before they could break
in; and then the rest, having got down the scuttle into the great cabin,
wounded three more of them.
That, after this, the gunner of the ship having secured himself in the
gun-room, one of his men hauled up the long-boat close under the stern,
and putting into her all the arms and ammunition they could come at, got
all into the boat, and afterwards took in the captain, and those that
were with him, out of the great cabin. When they were all thus embarked,
they resolved to lay the ship aboard again, and try to recover it. That
they boarded the ship in a desperate manner, and killed at first all
that stood in their way; but the negroes being by this time all loose,
and having gotten some arms, though they understood nothing of powder
and bullet, or guns, yet the men could never master them. However, they
lay under the ship's bow, and got out all the men they had left in the
cook-room, who had maintained themselves there, notwithstanding all the
negroes could do, and with their small-arms killed between thirty and
forty of the negroes, but were at last forced to leave them.
They could give me no account whereabouts this was, whether near the
coast of Africa, or far off, or how long it was before the ship fell
into our hands; only, in general, it was a great while ago, as they
called it; and, by all we could learn, it was within two or three days
after they had set sail from the coast. They told us that they had
killed about thirty of the white men, having knocked them on the head
with crows and handspikes, and such things as they could get; and one
strong negro killed three of them with an iron crow, after he was shot
twice through the body; and that he was afterwards shot through the
head by the captain himself at the door of the round-house, which he had
split open with the crow; and this we supposed was the occasion of the
great quantity of blood which we saw at the round-house door.
The same negro told us that they threw all the powder and shot they
could find into the sea, and they would have thrown the great guns into
the sea if they could have lifted them. Being asked how they came
to have their sails in such a condition, his answer was, "They no
understand; they no know what the sails do;" that was, they did not so
much as know that it was the sails that made the ship go, or understand
what they meant, or what to do with them. When we asked him whither they
were going, he said they did not know, but believed they should go home
to their own country again. I asked him, in particular, what he thought
we were when we first came up with them? He said they were terribly
frighted, believing we were the same white men that had gone away in
their boats, and were come again in a great ship, with the two boats
with them, and expected they would kill them all.
This was the account we got out of them, after we had taught them
to speak English, and to understand the names and use of the things
belonging to the ship which they had occasion to speak of; and we
observed that the fellows were too innocent to dissemble in their
relation, and that they all agreed in the particulars, and were always
in the same story, which confirmed very much the truth of what they
said.
Having taken this ship, our next difficulty was, what to do with the
negroes. The Portuguese in the Brazils would have bought them all of us,
and been glad of the purchase, if we had not showed ourselves enemies
there, and been known for pirates; but, as it was, we durst not go
ashore anywhere thereabouts, or treat with any of the planters, because
we should raise the whole country upon us; and, if there were any such
things as men-of-war in any of their ports, we should be as sure to be
attacked by them, and by all the force they had by land or sea.
Nor could we think of any better success if we went northward to our own
plantations. One while we determined to carry them all away to Buenos
Ayres, and sell them there to the Spaniards; but they were really too
many for them to make use of; and to carry them round to the South Seas,
which was the only remedy that was left, was so far that we should be no
way able to subsist them for so long a voyage.
At last, our old, never-failing friend, William, helped us out again, as
he had often done at a dead lift. His proposal was this, that he should
go as master of the ship, and about twenty men, such as we could best
trust, and attempt to trade privately, upon the coast of Brazil, with
the planters, not at the principal ports, because that would not be
admitted.
We all agreed to this, and appointed to go away ourselves towards the
Rio de la Plata, where we had thought of going before, and to wait for
him, not there, but at Port St Pedro, as the Spaniards call it, lying
at the mouth of the river which they call Rio Grande, and where the
Spaniards had a small fort and a few people, but we believe there was
nobody in it.
Here we took up our station, cruising off and on, to see if we could
meet any ships going to or coming from the Buenos Ayres or the Rio de
la Plata; but we met with nothing worth notice. However, we employed
ourselves in things necessary for our going off to sea; for we filled
all our water-casks, and got some fish for our present use, to spare as
much as possible our ship's stores.
William, in the meantime, went away to the north, and made the land
about the Cape de St Thomas; and betwixt that and the isles De Tuberon
he found means to trade with the planters for all his negroes, as well
the women as the men, and at a very good price too; for William, who
spoke Portuguese pretty well, told them a fair story enough, that the
ship was in scarcity of provisions, that they were driven a great way
out of their way, and indeed, as we say, out of their knowledge, and
that they must go up to the northward as far as Jamaica, or sell there
upon the coast. This was a very plausible tale, and was easily believed;
and, if you observe the manner of the negroes' sailing, and what
happened in their voyage, was every word of it true.
By this method, and being true to one another, William passed for what
he was--I mean, for a very honest fellow; and by the assistance of one
planter, who sent to some of his neighbour planters, and managed the
trade among themselves, he got a quick market; for in less than five
weeks William sold all his negroes, and at last sold the ship itself,
and shipped himself and his twenty men, with two negro boys whom he had
left, in a sloop, one of those which the planters used to send on board
for the negroes. With this sloop Captain William, as we then called him,
came away, and found us at Port St Pedro, in the latitude of 32 degrees
30 minutes south.
Nothing was more surprising to us than to see a sloop come along the
coast, carrying Portuguese colours, and come in directly to us, after we
were assured he had discovered both our ships. We fired a gun, upon her
nearer approach, to bring her to an anchor, but immediately she fired
five guns by way of salute, and spread her English ancient. Then we
began to guess it was friend William, but wondered what was the meaning
of his being in a sloop, whereas we sent him away in a ship of near 300
tons; but he soon let us into the whole history of his management, with
which we had a great deal of reason to be very well satisfied. As soon
as he had brought the sloop to an anchor, he came aboard of my ship,
and there he gave us an account how he began to trade by the help of a
Portuguese planter, who lived near the seaside; how he went on shore and
went up to the first house he could see, and asked the man of the house
to sell him some hogs, pretending at first he only stood in upon the
coast to take in fresh water and buy some provisions; and the man not
only sold him seven fat hogs, but invited him in, and gave him, and five
men he had with him, a very good dinner; and he invited the planter on
board his ship, and, in return for his kindness, gave him a negro girl
for his wife.
This so obliged the planter that the next morning he sent him on board,
in a great luggage-boat, a cow and two sheep, with a chest of sweetmeats
and some sugar, and a great bag of tobacco, and invited Captain William
on shore again; that, after this, they grew from one kindness to
another; that they began to talk about trading for some negroes; and
William, pretending it was to do him service, consented to sell him
thirty negroes for his private use in his plantation, for which he gave
William ready money in gold, at the rate of five-and-thirty moidores per
head; but the planter was obliged to use great caution in the bringing
them on shore; for which purpose he made William weigh and stand out
to sea, and put in again, about fifty miles farther north, where at a
little creek he took the negroes on shore at another plantation, being a
friend's of his, whom, it seems, he could trust.
This remove brought William into a further intimacy, not only with the
first planter, but also with his friends, who desired to have some of
the negroes also; so that, from one to another, they bought so many,
till one overgrown planter took 100 negroes, which was all William
had left, and sharing them with another planter, that other planter
chaffered with William for ship and all, giving him in exchange a very
clean, large, well-built sloop of near sixty tons, very well furnished,
carrying six guns; but we made her afterwards carry twelve guns. William
had 300 moidores of gold, besides the sloop, in payment for the ship;
and with this money he stored the sloop as full as she could hold with
provisions, especially bread, some pork, and about sixty hogs alive;
among the rest, William got eighty barrels of good gunpowder, which
was very much for our purpose; and all the provisions which were in the
French ship he took out also.
This was a very agreeable account to us, especially when we saw that
William had received in gold coined, or by weight, and some Spanish
silver, 60,000 pieces of eight, besides a new sloop, and a vast quantity
of provisions.
We were very glad of the sloop in particular, and began to consult what
we should do, whether we had not best turn off our great Portuguese
ship, and stick to our first ship and the sloop, seeing we had scarce
men enough for all three, and that the biggest ship was thought too
big for our business. However, another dispute, which was now decided,
brought the first to a conclusion. The first dispute was, whither we
should go. My comrade, as I called him now, that is to say, he that was
my captain before we took this Portuguese man-of-war, was for going to
the South Seas, and coasting up the west side of America, where we could
not fail of making several good prizes upon the Spaniards; and that
then, if occasion required it, we might come home by the South Seas to
the East Indies, and so go round the globe, as others had done before
us.
But my head lay another way. I had been in the East Indies, and had
entertained a notion ever since that, if we went thither, we could not
fail of making good work of it, and that we might have a safe retreat,
and good beef to victual our ship, among my old friends the natives of
Zanzibar, on the coast of Mozambique, or the island of St Lawrence. I
say, my thoughts lay this way; and I read so many lectures to them all
of the advantages they would certainly make of their strength by the
prizes they would take in the Gulf of Mocha, or the Red Sea, and on the
coast of Malabar, or the Bay of Bengal, that I amazed them.
With these arguments I prevailed on them, and we all resolved to
steer away S.E. for the Cape of Good Hope; and, in consequence of this
resolution, we concluded to keep the sloop, and sail with all three, not
doubting, as I assured them, but we should find men there to make up
the number wanting, and if not, we might cast any of them off when we
pleased.
We could do no less than make our friend William captain of the sloop
which, with such good management, he had brought us. He told us, though
with much good manners, he would not command her as a frigate; but, if
we would give her to him for his share of the Guinea ship, which we
came very honestly by, he would keep us company as a victualler, if
we commanded him, as long as he was under the same force that took him
away.
We understood him, so gave him the sloop, but upon condition that
he should not go from us, and should be entirely under our command.
However, William was not so easy as before; and, indeed, as we
afterwards wanted the sloop to cruise for purchase, and a right
thorough-paced pirate in her, so I was in such pain for William that I
could not be without him, for he was my privy counsellor and companion
upon all occasions; so I put a Scotsman, a bold, enterprising, gallant
fellow, into her, named Gordon, and made her carry twelve guns and four
petereroes, though, indeed, we wanted men, for we were none of us manned
in proportion to our force.
We sailed away for the Cape of Good Hope the beginning of October 1706,
and passed by, in sight of the Cape, the 12th of November following,
having met with a great deal of bad weather. We saw several
merchant-ships in the roads there, as well English as Dutch, whether
outward bound or homeward we could not tell; be it what it would, we did
not think fit to come to an anchor, not knowing what they might be,
or what they might attempt against us, when they knew what we were.
However, as we wanted fresh water, we sent the two boats belonging to
the Portuguese man-of-war, with all Portuguese seamen or negroes in
them, to the watering-place, to take in water; and in the meantime we
hung out a Portuguese ancient at sea, and lay by all that night. They
knew not what we were, but it seems we passed for anything but really
what we was.
Our boats returning the third time loaden, about five o'clock next
morning, we thought ourselves sufficiently watered, and stood away
to the eastward; but, before our men returned the last time, the wind
blowing an easy gale at west, we perceived a boat in the grey of the
morning under sail, crowding to come up with us, as if they were afraid
we should be gone. We soon found it was an English long-boat, and that
it was pretty full of men. We could not imagine what the meaning of it
should be; but, as it was but a boat, we thought there could be no great
harm in it to let them come on board; and if it appeared they came
only to inquire who we were, we would give them a full account of our
business, by taking them along with us, seeing we wanted men as much as
anything. But they saved us the labour of being in doubt how to dispose
of them; for it seems our Portuguese seamen, who went for water, had
not been so silent at the watering-places as we thought they would have
been. But the case, in short, was this: Captain ---- (I forbear his
name at present, for a particular reason), captain of an East India
merchant-ship, bound afterwards for China, had found some reason to be
very severe with his men, and had handled some of them very roughly at
St Helena; insomuch, that they threatened among themselves to leave the
ship the first opportunity, and had long wished for that opportunity.
Some of these men, it seems, had met with our boat at the
watering-place, and inquiring of one another who we were, and upon what
account, whether the Portuguese seamen, by faltering in their account,
made them suspect that we were out upon the cruise, or whether they
told it in plain English or no (for they all spoke English enough to
be understood), but so it was, that as soon as ever the men carried the
news on board, that the ships which lay by to the eastward were English,
and that they were going upon the _account_, which, by they way, was a
sea term for a pirate; I say, as soon as ever they heard it, they went
to work, and getting all things ready in the night, their chests and
clothes, and whatever else they could, they came away before it was day,
and came up with us about seven o'clock.
When they came by the ship's side which I commanded we hailed them
in the usual manner, to know what and who they were, and what their
business. They answered they were Englishmen, and desired to come on
board. We told them they might lay the ship on board, but ordered they
should let only one man enter the ship till the captain knew their
business, and that he should come without any arms. They said, Ay, with
all their hearts.
We presently found their business, and that they desired to go with us;
and as for their arms, they desired we would send men on board the boat,
and that they would deliver them all to us, which was done. The fellow
that came up to me told me how they had been used by their captain, how
he had starved the men, and used them like dogs, and that, if the rest
of the men knew they should be admitted, he was satisfied two-thirds
of them would leave the ship. We found the fellows were very hearty in
their resolution, and jolly brisk sailors they were; so I told them I
would do nothing without our admiral, that was the captain of the other
ship; so I sent my pinnace on board Captain Wilmot, to desire him to
come on board. But he was indisposed, and being to leeward, excused his
coming, but left it all to me; but before my boat was returned, Captain
Wilmot called to me by his speaking-trumpet, which all the men might
hear as well as I; thus, calling me by my name, "I hear they are honest
fellows; pray tell them they are all welcome, and make them a bowl of
punch."
As the men heard it as well as I, there was no need to tell them what
the captain said; and, as soon as the trumpet had done, they set up a
huzza, that showed us they were very hearty in their coming to us; but
we bound them to us by a stronger obligation still after this, for when
we came to Madagascar, Captain Wilmot, with consent of all the ship's
company, ordered that these men should have as much money given them out
of the stock as was due to them for their pay in the ship they had
left; and after that we allowed them twenty pieces of eight a man bounty
money; and thus we entered them upon shares, as we were all, and brave
stout fellows they were, being eighteen in number, whereof two were
midshipmen, and one a carpenter.
It was the 28th of November, when, having had some bad weather, we came
to an anchor in the road off St Augustine Bay, at the south-west end
of my old acquaintance the isle of Madagascar. We lay here awhile and
trafficked with the natives for some good beef; though the weather was
so hot that we could not promise ourselves to salt any of it up to keep;
but I showed them the way which we practised before, to salt it first
with saltpetre, then cure it by drying it in the sun, which made it eat
very agreeably, though not so wholesome for our men, that not agreeing
with our way of cooking, viz., boiling with pudding, brewis, &c., and
particularly this way, would be too salt, and the fat of the meat be
rusty, or dried away so as not to be eaten.
This, however, we could not help, and made ourselves amends by feeding
heartily on the fresh beef while we were there, which was excellent,
good and fat, every way as tender and as well relished as in England,
and thought to be much better to us who had not tasted any in England
for so long a time.
Having now for some time remained here, we began to consider that
this was not a place for our business; and I, that had some views a
particular way of my own, told them that this was not a station for
those who looked for purchase; that there were two parts of the island
which were particularly proper for our purposes; first, the bay on the
east side of the island, and from thence to the island Mauritius, which
was the usual way which ships that came from the Malabar coast, or the
coast of Coromandel, Fort St George, &c., used to take, and where, if we
waited for them, we ought to take our station.
But, on the other hand, as we did not resolve to fall upon the European
traders, who were generally ships of force and well manned, and where
blows must be looked for; so I had another prospect, which I promised
myself would yield equal profit, or perhaps greater, without any of the
hazard and difficulty of the former; and this was the Gulf of Mocha, or
the Red Sea.
I told them that the trade here was great, the ships rich, and the
Strait of Babelmandel narrow; so that there was no doubt but we might
cruise so as to let nothing slip our hands, having the seas open from
the Red Sea, along the coast of Arabia, to the Persian Gulf, and the
Malabar side of the Indies.
I told them what I had observed when I sailed round the island in my
former progress; how that, on the northernmost point of the island,
there were several very good harbours and roads for our ships; that
the natives were even more civil and tractable, if possible, than those
where we were, not having been so often ill-treated by European sailors
as those had in the south and east sides; and that we might always be
sure of a retreat, if we were driven to put in by any necessity, either
of enemies or weather.
They were easily convinced of the reasonableness of my scheme; and
Captain Wilmot, whom I now called our admiral, though he was at first of
the mind to go and lie at the island Mauritius, and wait for some of
the European merchant-ships from the road of Coromandel, or the Bay of
Bengal, was now of my mind. It is true we were strong enough to have
attacked an English East India ship of the greatest force, though some
of them were said to carry fifty guns; but I represented to him that
we were sure to have blows and blood if we took them; and, after we had
done, their loading was not of equal value to us, because we had no room
to dispose of their merchandise; and, as our circumstances stood, we had
rather have taken one outward-bound East India ship, with her ready cash
on board, perhaps to the value of forty or fifty thousand pounds, than
three homeward-bound, though their loading would at London be worth
three times the money, because we knew not whither to go to dispose of
the cargo; whereas the ships from London had abundance of things we
knew how to make use of besides their money, such as their stores of
provisions and liquors, and great quantities of the like sent to the
governors and factories at the English settlements for their use; so
that, if we resolved to look for our own country ships, it should be
those that were outward-bound, not the London ships homeward.
All these things considered, brought the admiral to be of my mind
entirely; so, after taking in water and some fresh provisions where
we lay, which was near Cape St Mary, on the south-west corner of the
island, we weighed and stood away south, and afterwards S.S.E., to
round the island, and in about six days' sail got out of the wake of the
island, and steered away north, till we came off Port Dauphin, and then
north by east, to the latitude of 13 degrees 40 minutes, which was, in
short, just at the farthest part of the island; and the admiral, keeping
ahead, made the open sea fair to the west, clear of the whole island;
upon which he brought to, and we sent a sloop to stand in round the
farthest point north, and coast along the shore, and see for a harbour
to put into, which they did, and soon brought us an account that there
was a deep bay, with a very good road, and several little islands, under
which they found good riding, in ten to seventeen fathom water, and
accordingly there we put in.
However, we afterwards found occasion to remove our station, as you
shall hear presently. We had now nothing to do but go on shore, and
acquaint ourselves a little with the natives, take in fresh water and
some fresh provisions, and then to sea again. We found the people
very easy to deal with, and some cattle they had; but it being at the
extremity of the island, they had not such quantities of cattle here.
However, for the present we resolved to appoint this for our place of
rendezvous, and go and look out. This was about the latter end of April.
Accordingly we put to sea, and cruised away to the northward, for the
Arabian coast. It was a long run, but as the winds generally blow trade
from the S. and S.S.E. from May to September, we had good weather; and
in about twenty days we made the island of Socotra, lying south from the
Arabian coast, and E.S.E. from the mouth of the Gulf of Mocha, or the
Red Sea.
Here we took in water, and stood off and on upon the Arabian shore. We
had not cruised here above three days, or thereabouts, but I spied a
sail, and gave her chase; but when we came up with her, never was such a
poor prize chased by pirates that looked for booty, for we found nothing
in her but poor, half-naked Turks, going a pilgrimage to Mecca, to the
tomb of their prophet Mahomet. The junk that carried them had no one
thing worth taking away but a little rice and some coffee, which was
all the poor wretches had for their subsistence; so we let them go, for
indeed we knew not what to do with them.
The same evening we chased another junk with two masts, and in something
better plight to look at than the former. When we came on board we found
them upon the same errand, but only that they were people of some better
fashion than the other; and here we got some plunder, some Turkish
stores, a few diamonds in the ear-drops of five or six persons, some
fine Persian carpets, of which they made their saffras to lie upon, and
some money; so we let them go also.
We continued here eleven days longer, and saw nothing but now and then a
fishing-boat; but the twelfth day of our cruise we spied a ship: indeed
I thought at first it had been an English ship, but it appeared to be
an European freighted for a voyage from Goa, on the coast of Malabar, to
the Red Sea, and was very rich. We chased her, and took her without any
fight, though they had some guns on board too, but not many. We found
her manned with Portuguese seamen, but under the direction of five
merchant Turks, who had hired her on the coast of Malabar of some
Portugal merchants, and had laden her with pepper, saltpetre, some
spices, and the rest of the loading was chiefly calicoes and wrought
silks, some of them very rich.
We took her and carried her to Socotra; but we really knew not what to
do with her, for the same reasons as before; for all their goods were of
little or no value to us. After some days we found means to let one of
the Turkish merchants know, that if he would ransom the ship we would
take a sum of money and let them go. He told me that if I would let one
of them go on shore for the money they would do it; so we adjusted the
value of the cargo at 30,000 ducats. Upon this agreement, we allowed the
sloop to carry him on shore, at Dofar, in Arabia, where a rich merchant
laid down the money for them, and came off with our sloop; and on
payment of the money we very fairly and honestly let them go.
Some days after this we took an Arabian junk, going from the Gulf of
Persia to Mocha, with a good quantity of pearl on board. We gutted him
of the pearl, which it seems was belonging to some merchants at Mocha,
and let him go, for there was nothing else worth our taking.
We continued cruising up and down here till we began to find our
provisions grow low, when Captain Wilmot, our admiral, told us it was
time to think of going back to the rendezvous; and the rest of the men
said the same, being a little weary of beating about for above three
months together, and meeting with little or nothing compared to our
great expectations; but I was very loth to part with the Red Sea at so
cheap a rate, and pressed them to tarry a little longer, which at my
instance they did; but three days afterwards, to our great misfortune,
understood that, by landing the Turkish merchants at Dofar, we had
alarmed the coast as far as the Gulf of Persia, so that no vessel would
stir that way, and consequently nothing was to be expected on that side.
I was greatly mortified at this news, and could no longer withstand the
importunities of the men to return to Madagascar. However, as the wind
continued still to blow at S.S.E. by S., we were obliged to stand away
towards the coast of Africa and the Cape Guardafui, the winds being more
variable under the shore than in the open sea.
Here we chopped upon a booty which we did not look for, and which made
amends for all our waiting; for the very same hour that we made land we
spied a large vessel sailing along the shore to the southward. The ship
was of Bengal, belonging to the Great Mogul's country, but had on board
a Dutch pilot, whose name, if I remember right, was Vandergest, and
several European seamen, whereof three were English. She was in no
condition to resist us. The rest of her seamen were Indians of the
Mogul's subjects, some Malabars and some others. There were five Indian
merchants on board, and some Armenians. It seems they had been at Mocha
with spices, silks, diamonds, pearls, calico, &c., such goods as the
country afforded, and had little on board now but money in pieces of
eight, which, by the way, was just what we wanted; and the three English
seamen came along with us, and the Dutch pilot would have done so too,
but the two Armenian merchants entreated us not to take him, for that he
being their pilot, there was none of the men knew how to guide the ship;
so, at their request, we refused him; but we made them promise he should
not be used ill for being willing to go with us.
We got near 200,000 pieces of eight in this vessel; and, if they said
true, there was a Jew of Goa, who intended to have embarked with them,
who had 200,000 pieces of eight with him, all his own; but his good
fortune, springing out of his ill fortune, hindered him, or he fell sick
at Mocha, and could not be ready to travel, which was the saving of his
money.
There was none with me at the taking this prize but the sloop, for
Captain Wilmot's ship proving leaky, he went away for the rendezvous
before us, and arrived there the middle of December; but not liking the
port, he left a great cross on shore, with directions written on a
plate of lead fixed to it, for us to come after him to the great bays at
Mangahelly, where he found a very good harbour; but we learned a piece
of news here that kept us from him a great while, which the admiral took
offence at; but we stopped his mouth with his share of 200,000 pieces
of eight to him and his ship's crew. But the story which interrupted
our coming to him was this. Between Mangahelly and another point, called
Cape St Sebastian, there came on shore in the night an European ship,
and whether by stress of weather or want of a pilot I know not, but the
ship stranded and could not be got off.
We lay in the cove or harbour, where, as I have said, our rendezvous
was appointed, and had not yet been on shore, so we had not seen the
directions our admiral had left for us.
Our friend William, of whom I have said nothing a great while, had a
great mind one day to go on shore, and importuned me to let him have
a little troop to go with him, for safety, that they might see the
country. I was mightily against it for many reasons; but particularly
I told him he knew the natives were but savages, and they were very
treacherous, and I desired him that he would not go; and, had he gone
on much farther, I believe I should have downright refused him, and
commanded him not to go.
But, in order to persuade me to let him go, he told me he would give me
an account of the reason why he was so importunate. He told me, the last
night he had a dream, which was so forcible, and made such an impression
upon his mind, that he could not be quiet till he had made the proposal
to me to go; and if I refused him, then he thought his dream was
significant; and if not, then his dream was at an end.
His dream was, he said, that he went on shore with thirty men, of which
the cockswain, he said, was one, upon the island; and that they found a
mine of gold, and enriched them all. But this was not the main thing, he
said, but that the same morning he had dreamed so, the cockswain came
to him just then, and told him that he dreamed he went on shore on the
island of Madagascar, and that some men came to him and told him they
would show him where he should get a prize which would make them all
rich.
These two things put together began to weigh with me a little, though I
was never inclined to give any heed to dreams; but William's importunity
turned me effectually, for I always put a great deal of stress upon his
judgment; so that, in short, I gave them leave to go, but I charged them
not to go far off from the sea-coast; that, if they were forced down to
the seaside upon any occasion, we might perhaps see them, and fetch them
off with our boats.
They went away early in the morning, one-and-thirty men of them in
number, very well armed, and very stout fellows; they travelled all the
day, and at night made us a signal that all was well, from the top of a
hill, which we had agreed on, by making a great fire.
Next day they marched down the hill on the other side, inclining towards
the seaside, as they had promised, and saw a very pleasant valley before
them, with a river in the middle of it, which, a little farther below
them, seemed to be big enough to bear small ships; they marched apace
towards this river, and were surprised with the noise of a piece going
off, which, by the sound, could not be far off. They listened long, but
could hear no more; so they went on to the river-side, which was a very
fine fresh stream, but widened apace, and they kept on by the banks of
it, till, almost at once, it opened or widened into a good large creek
or harbour, about five miles from the sea; and that which was still more
surprising, as they marched forward, they plainly saw in the mouth of
the harbour, or creek, the wreck of a ship.
The tide was up, as we call it, so that it did not appear very much
above the water, but, as they made downwards, they found it grow bigger
and bigger; and the tide soon after ebbing out, they found it lay dry
upon the sands, and appeared to be the wreck of a considerable vessel,
larger than could be expected in that country.
After some time, William, taking out his glass to look at it more
nearly, was surprised with hearing a musket-shot whistle by him, and
immediately after that he heard the gun, and saw the smoke from the
other side; upon which our men immediately fired three muskets, to
discover, if possible, what or who they were. Upon the noise of these
guns, abundance of men came running down to the shore from among the
trees; and our men could easily perceive that they were Europeans,
though they knew not of what nation; however, our men hallooed to them
as loud as they could, and by-and-by they got a long pole, and set it
up, and hung a white shirt upon it for a flag of truce. They on the
other side saw it, by the help of their glasses, too, and quickly after
our men see a boat launch off from the shore, as they thought, but it
was from another creek, it seems; and immediately they came rowing over
the creek to our men, carrying also a white flag as a token of truce.
It is not easy to describe the surprise, or joy and satisfaction, that
appeared on both sides, to see not only white men, but Englishmen, in
a place so remote; but what then must it be when they came to know one
another, and to find that they were not only countrymen but comrades,
and that this was the very ship that Captain Wilmot, our admiral,
commanded, and whose company we had lost in the storm at Tobago, after
making an agreement to rendezvous at Madagascar!
They had, it seems, got intelligence of us when they came to the south
part of the island, and had been a-roving as far as the Gulf of Bengal,
when they met Captain Avery, with whom they joined, took several rich
prizes, and, amongst the rest, one ship with the Great Mogul's daughter,
and an immense treasure in money and jewels; and from thence they came
about the coast of Coromandel, and afterwards that of Malabar, into the
Gulf of Persia, where they also took some prize, and then designed for
the south part of Madagascar; but the winds blowing hard at S.E. and
S.E. by E., they came to the northward of the isle, and being after that
separated by a furious tempest from the N.W., they were forced into the
mouth of that creek, where they lost their ship. And they told us, also,
that they heard that Captain Avery himself had lost his ship also not
far off.
When they had thus acquainted one another with their fortunes, the poor
overjoyed men were in haste to go back to communicate their joy to their
comrades; and, leaving some of their men with ours, the rest went back,
and William was so earnest to see them that he and two more went back
with them, and there he came to their little camp where they lived.
There were about a hundred and sixty men of them in all; they had got
their guns on shore, and some ammunition, but a good deal of their
powder was spoiled; however, they had raised a fair platform, and
mounted twelve pieces of cannon upon it, which was a sufficient defence
to them on that side of the sea; and just at the end of the platform
they had made a launch and a little yard, and were all hard at work,
building another little ship, as I may call it, to go to sea in; but
they put a stop to this work upon the news they had of our being come
in.
When our men went into their huts, it was surprising, indeed, to see the
vast stock of wealth they had got, in gold and silver and jewels, which,
however, they told us was a trifle to what Captain Avery had, wherever
he was gone.
It was five days we had waited for our men, and no news of them; and
indeed I gave them over for lost, but was surprised, after five days'
waiting, to see a ship's boat come rowing towards us along shore. What
to make of it I could not tell, but was at least better satisfied when
our men told me they heard them halloo and saw them wave their caps to
us.
In a little time they came quite up to us; and I saw friend William
stand up in the boat and make signs to us; so they came on board; but
when I saw there were but fifteen of our one-and-thirty men, I asked him
what had become of their fellows. "Oh," says William, "they are all very
well; and my dream is fully made good, and the cockswain's too."
This made me very impatient to know how the case stood; so he told us
the whole story, which indeed surprised us all. The next day we weighed,
and stood away southerly to join Captain Wilmot and ship at Mangahelly,
where we found him, as I said, a little chagrined at our stay; but we
pacified him afterwards with telling him the history of William's dream,
and the consequence of it.
In the meantime the camp of our comrades was so near Mangahelly, that
our admiral and I, friend William, and some of the men, resolved to take
the sloop and go and see them, and fetch them all, and their goods,
bag and baggage, on board our ship, which accordingly we did, and found
their camp, their fortifications, the battery of guns they had erected,
their treasure, and all the men, just as William had related it; so,
after some stay, we took all the men into the sloop, and brought them
away with us.
It was some time before we knew what was become of Captain Avery; but
after about a month, by the direction of the men who had lost their
ship, we sent the sloop to cruise along the shore, to find out, if
possible, where they were; and in about a week's cruise our men found
them, and particularly that they had lost their ship, as well as our men
had lost theirs, and that they were every way in as bad a condition as
ours.
It was about ten days before the sloop returned, and Captain Avery with
them; and this was the whole force that, as I remember, Captain Avery
ever had with him; for now we joined all our companies together, and it
stood thus:--We had two ships and a sloop, in which we had 320 men, but
much too few to man them as they ought to be, the great Portuguese ship
requiring of herself near 400 men to man her completely. As for
our lost, but now found comrade, her complement of men was 180, or
thereabouts; and Captain Avery had about 300 men with him, whereof he
had ten carpenters with him, most of which were taken aboard the
prize they had taken; so that, in a word, all the force Avery had at
Madagascar, in the year 1699, or thereabouts, amounted to our three
ships, for his own was lost, as you have heard; and never had any more
than about 1200 men in all.
It was about a month after this that all our crews got together, and
as Avery was unshipped, we all agreed to bring our own company into the
Portuguese man-of-war and the sloop, and give Captain Avery the Spanish
frigate, with all the tackles and furniture, guns and ammunition, for
his crew by themselves; for which they, being full of wealth, agreed to
give us 40,000 pieces of eight.
It was next considered what course we should take. Captain Avery, to
give him his due, proposed our building a little city here, establishing
ourselves on shore, with a good fortification and works proper to defend
ourselves; and that, as we had wealth enough, and could increase it to
what degree we pleased, we should content ourselves to retire here,
and bid defiance to the world. But I soon convinced him that this place
would be no security to us, if we pretended to carry on our cruising
trade; for that then all the nations of Europe, and indeed of that part
of the world, would be engaged to root us out; but if we resolved to
live there as in retirement, and plant in the country as private men,
and give over our trade of pirating, then, indeed, we might plant and
settle ourselves where we pleased. But then, I told him, the best way
would be to treat with the natives, and buy a tract of land of them
farther up the country, seated upon some navigable river, where boats
might go up and down for pleasure, but not ships to endanger us; that
thus planting the high ground with cattle, such as cows and goats, of
which the country also was full, to be sure we might live here as well
as any men in the world; and I owned to him I thought it was a good
retreat for those that were willing to leave off and lay down, and yet
did not care to venture home and be hanged; that is to say, to run the
risk of it.
Captain Avery, however he made no positive discovery of his intentions,
seemed to me to decline my notion of going up into the country to plant;
on the contrary, it was apparent he was of Captain Wilmot's opinion,
that they might maintain themselves on shore, and yet carry on their
cruising trade too; and upon this they resolved. But, as I afterwards
understood, about fifty of their men went up the country, and settled
themselves in an inland place as a colony. Whether they are there still
or not, I cannot tell, or how many of them are left alive; but it is my
opinion they are there still, and that they are considerably increased,
for, as I hear, they have got some women among them, though not many;
for it seems five Dutch women and three or four little girls were taken
by them in a Dutch ship, which they afterwards took going to Mocha; and
three of those women, marrying some of these men, went with them to live
in their new plantation. But of this I speak only by hearsay.
As we lay here some time, I found our people mightily divided in their
notions; some were for going this way, and some that, till at last I
began to foresee they would part company, and perhaps we should not have
men enough to keep together to man the great ship; so I took Captain
Wilmot aside, and began to talk to him about it, but soon perceived that
he inclined himself to stay at Madagascar, and having got a vast wealth
for his own share, had secret designs of getting home some way or other.
I argued the impossibility of it, and the hazard he would run, either
of falling into the hands of thieves and murderers in the Red Sea,
who would never let such a treasure as his pass their hands, or of
his falling into the hands of the English, Dutch, or French, who would
certainly hang him for a pirate. I gave him an account of the voyage
I had made from this very place to the continent of Africa, and what a
journey it was to travel on foot.
In short, nothing could persuade him, but he would go into the Red Sea
with the sloop, and where the children of Israel passed through the sea
dry-shod, and, landing there, would travel to Grand Cairo by land,
which is not above eighty miles, and from thence he said he could ship
himself, by the way of Alexandria, to any part of the world.
I represented the hazard, and indeed the impossibility, of his passing
by Mocha and Jiddah without being attacked, if he offered it by force,
or plundered, if he went to get leave; and explained the reasons of it
so much and so effectually, that, though at last he would not hearken to
it himself, none of his men would go with him. They told him they would
go anywhere with him to serve him, but that this was running himself and
them into certain destruction, without any possibility of avoiding it,
or probability of answering his end. The captain took what I said to
him quite wrong, and pretended to resent it, and gave me some buccaneer
words upon it; but I gave him no return to it but this: that I advised
him for his advantage; that if he did not understand it so, it was his
fault, not mine; that I did not forbid him to go, nor had I offered
to persuade any of the men not to go with him, though it was to their
apparent destruction.
However, warm heads are not easily cooled. The captain was so eager that
he quitted our company, and, with most part of his crew, went over to
Captain Avery, and sorted with his people, taking all the treasure with
him, which, by the way, was not very fair in him, we having agreed to
share all our gains, whether more or less, whether absent or present.
Our men muttered a little at it, but I pacified them as well as I could,
and told them it was easy for us to get as much, if we minded our hits;
and Captain Wilmot had set us a very good example; for, by the same
rule, the agreement of any further sharing of profits with them was at
an end. I took this occasion to put into their heads some part of my
further designs, which were, to range over the eastern sea, and see if
we could not make ourselves as rich as Mr Avery, who, it was true, had
gotten a prodigious deal of money, though not one-half of what was said
of it in Europe.
Our men were so pleased with my forward, enterprising temper, that
they assured me that they would go with me, one and all, over the whole
globe, wherever I would carry them; and as for Captain Wilmot, they
would have nothing more to do with him. This came to his ears, and put
him into a great rage, so that he threatened, if I came on shore, he
would cut my throat.
I had information of it privately, but took no notice of it at all; only
I took care not to go unprovided for him, and seldom walked about but in
very good company. However, at last Captain Wilmot and I met, and talked
over the matter very seriously, and I offered him the sloop to go where
he pleased, or, if he was not satisfied with that, I offered to take
the sloop and leave him the great ship; but he declined both, and only
desired that I would leave him six carpenters, which I had in our ship
more than I had need of, to help his men to finish the sloop that was
begun before we came thither, by the men that lost their ship. This I
consented readily to, and lent him several other hands that were useful
to them; and in a little time they built a stout brigantine, able to
carry fourteen guns and 200 men.
What measures they took, and how Captain Avery managed afterwards, is
too long a story to meddle with here; nor is it any of my business,
having my own story still upon my hands.
We lay here, about these several simple disputes, almost five months,
when, about the latter end of March, I set sail with the great ship,
having in her forty-four guns and 400 men, and the sloop, carrying
eighty men. We did not steer to the Malabar coast, and so to the Gulf of
Persia, as was first intended, the east monsoons blowing yet too strong,
but we kept more under the African coast, where we had the wind variable
till we passed the line, and made the Cape Bassa, in the latitude of
four degrees ten minutes; from thence, the monsoons beginning to change
to the N.E. and N.N.E., we led it away, with the wind large, to the
Maldives, a famous ledge of islands, well known by all the sailors who
have gone into those parts of the world; and, leaving these islands a
little to the south, we made Cape Comorin, the southernmost land of the
coast of Malabar, and went round the isle of Ceylon. Here we lay by a
while to wait for purchase; and here we saw three large English East
India ships going from Bengal, or from Fort St George, homeward for
England, or rather for Bombay and Surat, till the trade set in.
We brought to, and hoisting an English ancient and pendant, lay by for
them, as if we intended to attack them. They could not tell what to make
of us a good while, though they saw our colours; and I believe at first
they thought us to be French; but as they came nearer to us, we let
them soon see what we were, for we hoisted a black flag, with two cross
daggers in it, on our main-top-mast head, which let them see what they
were to expect.
We soon found the effects of this; for at first they spread their
ancients, and made up to us in a line, as if they would fight us, having
the wind off shore, fair enough to have brought them on board us; but
when they saw what force we were of, and found we were cruisers of
another kind, they stood away from us again, with all the sail they
could make. If they had come up, we should have given them an unexpected
welcome, but as it was, we had no mind to follow them; so we let them
go, for the same reasons which I mentioned before.
But though we let them pass, we did not design to let others go at so
easy a price. It was but the next morning that we saw a sail standing
round Cape Comorin, and steering, as we thought, the same course with
us. We knew not at first what to do with her, because she had the shore
on her larboard quarter, and if we offered to chase her, she might put
into any port or creek, and escape us; but, to prevent this, we sent the
sloop to get in between her and the land. As soon as she saw that, she
hauled in to keep the land aboard, and when the sloop stood towards her
she made right ashore, with all the canvas she could spread.
The sloop, however, came up with her and engaged her, and found she was
a vessel of ten guns, Portuguese built, but in the Dutch traders'
hands, and manned by Dutchmen, who were bound from the Gulf of Persia
to Batavia, to fetch spices and other goods from thence. The sloop's men
took her, and had the rummaging of her before we came up. She had in her
some European goods, and a good round sum of money, and some pearl; so
that, though we did not go to the gulf for the pearl, the pearl came to
us out of the gulf, and we had our share of it. This was a rich ship,
and the goods were of very considerable value, besides the money and the
pearl.
We had a long consultation here what we should do with the men, for to
give them the ship, and let them pursue their voyage to Java, would be
to alarm the Dutch factory there, who are by far the strongest in the
Indies, and to make our passage that way impracticable; whereas we
resolved to visit that part of the world in our way, but were not
willing to pass the great Bay of Bengal, where we hoped for a great deal
of purchase; and therefore it behoved us not to be waylaid before we
came there, because they knew we must pass by the Straits of Malacca, or
those of Sunda; and either way it was very easy to prevent us.
While we were consulting this in the great cabin, the men had had the
same debate before the mast; and it seems the majority there were for
pickling up the poor Dutchmen among the herrings; in a word, they were
for throwing them all into the sea. Poor William, the Quaker, was in
great concern about this, and comes directly to me to talk about it.
"Hark thee," says William, "what wilt thou do with these Dutchmen that
thou hast on board? Thou wilt not let them go, I suppose," says he.
"Why," says I, "William, would you advise me to let them go?" "No," says
William, "I cannot say it is fit for thee to let them go; that is to
say, to go on with their voyage to Batavia, because it is not for thy
turn that the Dutch at Batavia should have any knowledge of thy being in
these seas." "Well, then," says I to him, "I know no remedy but to throw
them overboard. You know, William," says I, "a Dutchman swims like a
fish; and all our people here are of the same opinion as well as I." At
the same time I resolved it should not be done, but wanted to hear what
William would say. He gravely replied, "If all the men in the ship
were of that mind, I will never believe that thou wilt be of that mind
thyself, for I have heard thee protest against cruelty in all other
cases." "Well, William," says I, "that is true; but what then shall we
do with them?" "Why," says William, "is there no way but to murder them?
I am persuaded thou canst not be in earnest." "No, indeed, William,"
says I, "I am not in earnest; but they shall not go to Java, no, nor to
Ceylon, that is certain." "But," says William, "the men have done thee
no injury at all; thou hast taken a great treasure from them; what canst
thou pretend to hurt them for?" "Nay, William," says I, "do not talk of
that; I have pretence enough, if that be all; my pretence is, to
prevent doing me hurt, and that is as necessary a piece of the law of
self-preservation as any you can name; but the main thing is, I know not
what to do with them, to prevent their prating."
While William and I were talking, the poor Dutchmen were openly
condemned to die, as it may be called, by the whole ship's company; and
so warm were the men upon it, that they grew very clamorous; and when
they heard that William was against it, some of them swore they should
die, and if William opposed it, he should drown along with them.
But, as I was resolved to put an end to their cruel project, so I found
it was time to take upon me a little, or the bloody humour might grow
too strong; so I called the Dutchmen up, and talked a little with them.
First, I asked them if they were willing to go with us. Two of them
offered it presently; but the rest, which were fourteen, declined it.
"Well, then," said I, "where would you go?" They desired they should
go to Ceylon. No, I told them I could not allow them to go to any Dutch
factory, and told them very plainly the reasons of it, which they could
not deny to be just. I let them know also the cruel, bloody measures
of our men, but that I had resolved to save them, if possible; and
therefore I told them I would set them on shore at some English factory
in the Bay of Bengal, or put them on board any English ship I met, after
I was past the Straits of Sunda or of Malacca, but not before; for, as
to my coming back again, I told them I would run the venture of their
Dutch power from Batavia, but I would not have the news come there
before me, because it would make all their merchant-ships lay up, and
keep out of our way.
It came next into our consideration what we should do with their ship;
but this was not long resolving; for there were but two ways, either to
set her on fire, or to run her on shore, and we chose the last. So we
set her foresail with the tack at the cat-head, and lashed her helm a
little to starboard, to answer her head-sail, and so set her agoing,
with neither cat or dog in her; and it was not above two hours before
we saw her run right ashore upon the coast, a little beyond the
Cape Comorin; and away we went round about Ceylon, for the coast of
Coromandel.
We sailed along there, not in sight of the shore only, but so near as to
see the ships in the road at Fort St David, Fort St George, and at
the other factories along that shore, as well as along the coast of
Golconda, carrying our English ancient when we came near the Dutch
factories, and Dutch colours when we passed by the English factories.
We met with little purchase upon this coast, except two small vessels
of Golconda, bound across the bay with bales of calicoes and muslins and
wrought silks, and fifteen bales of romals, from the bottom of the bay,
which were going, on whose account we knew not, to Acheen, and to other
ports on the coast of Malacca. We did not inquire to what place in
particular; but we let the vessels go, having none but Indians on board.
In the bottom of the bay we met with a great junk belonging to the
Mogul's court, with a great many people, passengers as we supposed them
to be: it seems they were bound for the river Hooghly or Ganges, and
came from Sumatra. This was a prize worth taking indeed; and we got
so much gold in her, besides other goods which we did not meddle
with--pepper in particular--that it had like to have put an end to our
cruise; for almost all my men said we were rich enough, and desired to
go back again to Madagascar. But I had other things in my head still,
and when I came to talk with them, and set friend William to talk with
them, we put such further golden hopes into their heads that we soon
prevailed with them to let us go on.
My next design was to leave all the dangerous straits of Malacca,
Singapore, and Sunda, where we could expect no great booty, but what we
might light on in European ships, which we must fight for; and though we
were able to fight, and wanted no courage, even to desperation, yet we
were rich too, and resolved to be richer, and took this for our maxim,
that while we were sure the wealth we sought was to be had without
fighting, we had no occasion to put ourselves to the necessity of
fighting for that which would come upon easy terms.
We left, therefore, the Bay of Bengal, and coming to the coast of
Sumatra, we put in at a small port, where there was a town, inhabited
only by Malays; and here we took in fresh water, and a large quantity of
good pork, pickled up and well salted, notwithstanding the heat of the
climate, being in the very middle of the torrid zone, viz., in three
degrees fifteen minutes north latitude. We also took on board both our
vessels forty hogs alive, which served us for fresh provisions, having
abundance of food for them, such as the country produced, such as guams,
potatoes, and a sort of coarse rice, good for nothing else but to feed
the swine. We killed one of these hogs every day, and found them to be
excellent meat. We took in also a monstrous quantity of ducks, and cocks
and hens, the same kind as we have in England, which we kept for change
of provisions; and if I remember right, we had no less than two thousand
of them; so that at first we were pestered with them very much, but
we soon lessened them by boiling, roasting, stewing, &c., for we never
wanted while we had them.
My long-projected design now lay open to me, which was to fall in
amongst the Dutch Spice Islands, and see what mischief I could do there.
Accordingly, we put out to sea the 12th of August, and passing the line
on the 17th, we stood away due south, leaving the Straits of Sunda and
the isle of Java on the east, till we came to the latitude of eleven
degrees twenty minutes, when we steered east and E.N.E., having easy
gales from the W.S.W. till we came among the Moluccas, or Spice Islands.
We passed those seas with less difficulty than in other places, the
winds to the south of Java being more variable, and the weather good,
though sometimes we met with squally weather and short storms; but when
we came in among the Spice Islands themselves we had a share of the
monsoons, or trade-winds, and made use of them accordingly.
The infinite number of islands which lie in these seas embarrassed
us strangely, and it was with great difficulty that we worked our way
through them; then we steered for the north side of the Philippines,
when we had a double chance for purchase, viz., either to meet with
the Spanish ships from Acapulco, on the coast of New Spain, or we were
certain not to fail of finding some ships or junks of China, who, if
they came from China, would have a great quantity of goods of value on
board, as well as money; or if we took them going back, we should find
them laden with nutmegs and cloves from Banda and Ternate, or from some
of the other islands.
We were right in our guesses here to a tittle, and we steered directly
through a large outlet, which they call a strait, though it be fifteen
miles broad, and to an island they call Dammer, and from thence N.N.E.
to Banda. Between these islands we met with a Dutch junk, or vessel,
going to Amboyna: we took her without much trouble, and I had much ado
to prevent our men murdering all the men, as soon as they heard them say
they belonged to Amboyna: the reasons I suppose any one will guess.
We took out of her about sixteen ton of nutmegs, some provisions, and
their small-arms, for they had no great guns, and let the ship go: from
thence we sailed directly to the Banda Island, or Islands, where we
were sure to get more nutmegs if we thought fit. For my part, I would
willingly have got more nutmegs, though I had paid for them, but our
people abhorred paying for anything; so we got about twelve ton more at
several times, most of them from shore, and only a few in a small boat
of the natives, which was going to Gilolo. We would have traded openly,
but the Dutch, who have made themselves masters of all those islands,
forbade the people dealing with us, or any strangers whatever, and kept
them so in awe that they durst not do it; so we could indeed have made
nothing of it if we had stayed longer, and therefore resolved to be gone
for Ternate, and see if we could make up our loading with cloves.
Accordingly we stood away north, but found ourselves so entangled among
innumerable islands, and without any pilot that understood the channel
and races between them, that we were obliged to give it over, and
resolved to go back again to Banda, and see what we could get among the
other islands thereabouts.
The first adventure we made here had like to have been fatal to us all,
for the sloop, being ahead, made the signal to us for seeing a sail, and
afterwards another, and a third, by which we understood she saw three
sail; whereupon we made more sail to come up with her, but on a sudden
were gotten among some rocks, falling foul upon them in such a manner
as frighted us all very heartily; for having, it seems, but just water
enough, as it were to an inch, our rudder struck upon the top of a rock,
which gave us a terrible shock, and split a great piece off the rudder,
and indeed disabled it so that our ship would not steer at all, at least
not so as to be depended upon; and we were glad to hand all our sails,
except our fore-sail and main-topsail, and with them we stood away to
the east, to see if we could find any creek or harbour where we might
lay the ship on shore, and repair our rudder; besides, we found the ship
herself had received some damage, for she had some little leak near her
stern-post, but a great way under water.
By this mischance we lost the advantages, whatever they were, of the
three sail of ships, which we afterwards came to hear were small Dutch
ships from Batavia, going to Banda and Amboyna, to load spice, and, no
doubt, had a good quantity of money on board.
Upon the disaster I have been speaking of you may very well suppose that
we came to an anchor as soon as we could, which was upon a small island
not far from Banda, where, though the Dutch keep no factory, yet they
come at the season to buy nutmegs and mace. We stayed there thirteen
days; but there being no place where we could lay the ship on shore, we
sent the sloop to cruise among the islands, to look out for a place fit
for us. In the meantime we got very good water here, some provisions,
roots, and fruits, and a good quantity of nutmegs and mace, which we
found ways to trade with the natives for, without the knowledge of their
masters, the Dutch.
At length our sloop returned; having found another island where
there was a very good harbour, we ran in, and came to an anchor. We
immediately unbent all our sails, sent them ashore upon the island, and
set up seven or eight tents with them; then we unrigged our top-masts,
and cut them down, hoisted all our guns out, our provisions and loading,
and put them ashore in the tents. With the guns we made two small
batteries, for fear of a surprise, and kept a look-out upon the hill.
When we were all ready, we laid the ship aground upon a hard sand, the
upper end of the harbour, and shored her up on each side. At low water
she lay almost dry, so we mended her bottom, and stopped the leak, which
was occasioned by straining some of the rudder irons with the shock
which the ship had against the rock.
Having done this, we also took occasion to clean her bottom, which,
having been at sea so long, was very foul. The sloop washed and tallowed
also, but was ready before us, and cruised eight or ten days among the
islands, but met with no purchase; so that we began to be tired of the
place, having little to divert us but the most furious claps of thunder
that ever were heard or read of in the world.
We were in hopes to have met with some purchase here among the Chinese,
who, we had been told, came to Ternate to trade for cloves, and to the
Banda Isles for nutmegs; and we would have been very glad to have loaded
our galleon, or great ship, with these two sorts of spice, and have
thought it a glorious voyage; but we found nothing stirring more than
what I have said, except Dutchmen, who, by what means we could not
imagine, had either a jealousy of us or intelligence of us, and kept
themselves close in their ports.
I was once resolved to have made a descent at the island of Dumas, the
place most famous for the best nutmegs; but friend William, who was
always for doing our business without fighting, dissuaded me from it,
and gave such reasons for it that we could not resist; particularly
the great heats of the season, and of the place, for we were now in the
latitude of just half a degree south. But while we were disputing this
point we were soon determined by the following accident:--We had a
strong gale of wind at S.W. by W., and the ship had fresh way, but a
great sea rolling in upon us from the N.E., which we afterwards found
was the pouring in of the great ocean east of New Guinea. However, as I
said, we stood away large, and made fresh way, when, on the sudden,
from a dark cloud which hovered over our heads, came a flash, or rather
blast, of lightning, which was so terrible, and quivered so long among
us, that not I only, but all our men, thought the ship was on fire. The
heat of the flash, or fire, was so sensibly felt in our faces, that some
of our men had blisters raised by it on their skins, not immediately,
perhaps, by the heat, but by the poisonous or noxious particles which
mixed themselves with the matter inflamed. But this was not all; the
shock of the air, which the fracture in the clouds made, was such
that our ship shook as when a broadside is fired; and her motion being
checked, as it were at once, by a repulse superior to the force that
gave her way before, the sails all flew back in a moment, and the ship
lay, as we might truly say, thunder-struck. As the blast from the cloud
was so very near us, it was but a few moments after the flash that the
terriblest clap of thunder followed that was ever heard by mortals. I
firmly believe a blast of a hundred thousand barrels of gunpowder could
not have been greater to our hearing; nay, indeed, to some of our men it
took away their hearing.
It is not possible for me to describe, or any one to conceive, the
terror of that minute. Our men were in such a consternation, that not a
man on board the ship had presence of mind to apply to the proper duty
of a sailor, except friend William; and had he not run very nimbly,
and with a composure that I am sure I was not master of, to let go the
fore-sheet, set in the weather-brace of the fore-yard, and haul down
the top-sails, we had certainly brought all our masts by the board, and
perhaps have been overwhelmed in the sea.
As for myself, I must confess my eyes were open to my danger, though not
the least to anything of application for remedy. I was all amazement and
confusion, and this was the first time that I can say I began to feel
the effects of that horror which I know since much more of, upon the
just reflection on my former life. I thought myself doomed by Heaven to
sink that moment into eternal destruction; and with this peculiar mark
of terror, viz., that the vengeance was not executed in the ordinary
way of human justice, but that God had taken me into His immediate
disposing, and had resolved to be the executer of His own vengeance.
Let them alone describe the confusion I was in who know what was the
case of [John] Child, of Shadwell, or Francis Spira. It is impossible
to describe it. My soul was all amazement and surprise. I thought myself
just sinking into eternity, owning the divine justice of my punishment,
but not at all feeling any of the moving, softening tokens of a sincere
penitent; afflicted at the punishment, but not at the crime; alarmed at
the vengeance, but not terrified at the guilt; having the same gust to
the crime, though terrified to the last degree at the thought of the
punishment, which I concluded I was just now going to receive.
But perhaps many that read this will be sensible of the thunder and
lightning, that may think nothing of the rest, or rather may make a jest
of it all; so I say no more of it at this time, but proceed to the story
of the voyage. When the amazement was over, and the men began to come
to themselves, they fell a-calling for one another, every one for his
friend, or for those he had most respect for; and it was a singular
satisfaction to find that nobody was hurt. The next thing was to
inquire if the ship had received no damage, when the boatswain, stepping
forward, found that part of the head was gone, but not so as to
endanger the bowsprit; so we hoisted our top-sails again, hauled aft the
fore-sheet, braced the yards, and went our course as before. Nor can I
deny but that we were all somewhat like the ship; our first astonishment
being a little over, and that we found the ship swim again, we were soon
the same irreligious, hardened crew that we were before, and I among the
rest.
As we now steered, our course lay N.N.E., and we passed thus, with a
fair wind, through the strait or channel between the island of Gilolo
and the land of Nova Guinea, when we were soon in the open sea or ocean,
on the south-east of the Philippines, being the great Pacific, or South
Sea, where it may be said to join itself with the vast Indian Ocean.
As we passed into these seas, steering due north, so we soon crossed the
line to the north side, and so sailed on towards Mindanao and Manilla,
the chief of the Philippine Islands, without meeting with any purchase
till we came to the northward of Manilla, and then our trade began;
for here we took three Japanese vessels, though at some distance from
Manilla. Two of them had made their market, and were going home with
nutmegs, cinnamon, cloves, &c., besides all sorts of European goods,
brought with the Spanish ships from Acapulco. They had together
eight-and-thirty ton of cloves, and five or six ton of nutmegs, and as
much cinnamon. We took the spice, but meddled with very little of the
European goods, they being, as we thought, not worth our while; but we
were very sorry for it soon after, and therefore grew wiser upon the
next occasion.
The third Japanese was the best prize to us; for he came with money, and
a great deal of gold uncoined, to buy such goods as we mentioned above.
We eased him of his gold, and did him no other harm, and having no
intention to stay long here, we stood away for China.
We were at sea above two months upon this voyage, beating it up against
the wind, which blew steadily from the N.E., and within a point or two
one way or other; and this indeed was the reason why we met with the
more prizes in our voyage.
We were just gotten clear of the Philippines, and we purposed to go to
the isle of Formosa, but the wind blew so fresh at N.N.E. that there was
no making anything of it, and we were forced to put back to Laconia, the
most northerly of those islands. We rode here very secure, and shifted
our situation, not in view of any danger, for there was none, but for a
better supply of provisions, which we found the people very willing to
supply us with.
There lay, while we remained here, three very great galleons, or Spanish
ships, from the south seas; whether newly come in or ready to sail we
could not understand at first; but as we found the China traders began
to load and set forward to the north, we concluded the Spanish ships had
newly unloaded their cargo, and these had been buying; so we doubted
not but we should meet with purchase in the rest of the voyage, neither,
indeed, could we well miss of it.
We stayed here till the beginning of May, when we were told the Chinese
traders would set forward; for the northern monsoons end about the
latter end of March or beginning of April; so that they are sure of fair
winds home. Accordingly we hired some of the country boats, which
are very swift sailers, to go and bring us word how affairs stood at
Manilla, and when the China junks would sail; and by this intelligence
we ordered our matters so well, that three days after we set sail we
fell in with no less than eleven of them; out of which, however, having
by misfortune of discovering ourselves, taken but three, we contented
ourselves and pursued our voyage to Formosa. In these three vessels we
took, in short, such a quantity of cloves, nutmegs, cinnamon, and mace,
besides silver, that our men began to be of my opinion,--that we were
rich enough; and, in short, we had nothing to do now but to consider by
what methods to secure the immense treasure we had got.
I was secretly glad to hear that they were of this opinion, for I had
long before resolved, if it were possible, to persuade them to think of
returning, having fully perfected my first projected design of rummaging
among the Spice Islands; and all those prizes, which were exceeding rich
at Manilla, was quite beyond my design.
But now I had heard what the men said, and how they thought we were very
well, I let them know by friend William, that I intended only to sail
to the island of Formosa, where I should find opportunity to turn our
spices and Europe goods into ready money, and that then I would tack
about for the south, the northern monsoons being perhaps by that time
also ready to set in. They all approved of my design, and willingly
went forward; because, besides the winds, which would not permit until
October to go to the south, I say, besides this, we were now a very deep
ship, having near two hundred ton of goods on board, and particularly,
some very valuable; the sloop also had a proportion.
With this resolution we went on cheerfully, when, within about twelve
days' sail more, we made the island Formosa, at a great distance, but
were ourselves shot beyond the southernmost part of the island, being to
leeward, and almost upon the coast of China. Here we were a little at
a loss, for the English factories were not far off, and we might be
obliged to fight some of their ships, if we met with them; which, though
we were able enough to do, yet we did not desire it on many accounts,
and particularly because we did not think it was our business to have it
known who we were, or that such a kind of people as we had been seen on
the coast. However, we were obliged to keep to the northward, keeping as
good an offing as we could with respect to the coast of China.
We had not sailed long but we chased a small Chinese junk, and having
taken her, we found she was bound to the island of Formosa, having no
goods on board but some rice and a small quantity of tea; but she had
three Chinese merchants in her; and they told us that they were going to
meet a large vessel of their country, which came from Tonquin, and lay
in a river in Formosa, whose name I forgot; and they were going to the
Philippine Islands, with silks, muslins, calicoes, and such goods as
are the product of China, and some gold; that their business was to sell
their cargo, and buy spices and European goods.
This suited very well with our purpose; so I resolved now that we would
leave off being pirates and turn merchants; so we told them what goods
we had on board, and that if they would bring their supercargoes or
merchants on board, we would trade with them. They were very willing
to trade with us, but terribly afraid to trust us; nor was it an unjust
fear, for we had plundered them already of what they had. On the other
hand, we were as diffident as they, and very uncertain what to do; but
William the Quaker put this matter into a way of barter. He came to me
and told me he really thought the merchants looked like fair men, that
meant honestly. "And besides," says William, "it is their interest to be
honest now, for, as they know upon what terms we got the goods we are to
truck with them, so they know we can afford good pennyworths; and in the
next place, it saves them going the whole voyage, so that the southerly
monsoons yet holding, if they traded with us, they could immediately
return with their cargo to China;" though, by the way, we afterwards
found they intended for Japan; but that was all one, for by this means
they saved at least eight months' voyage. Upon these foundations,
William said he was satisfied we might trust them; "for," says William,
"I would as soon trust a man whose interest binds him to be just to
me as a man whose principle binds himself." Upon the whole, William
proposed that two of the merchants should be left on board our ship as
hostages, and that part of our goods should be loaded in their vessel,
and let the third go with it into the port where their ship lay; and
when he had delivered the spices, he should bring back such things as it
was agreed should be exchanged. This was concluded on, and William the
Quaker ventured to go along with them, which, upon my word, I should not
have cared to have done, nor was I willing that he should, but he went
still upon the notion that it was their interest to treat him friendly.
In the meantime, we came to an anchor under a little island in the
latitude of 23 degrees 28 minutes, being just under the northern tropic,
and about twenty leagues from the island. Here we lay thirteen days, and
began to be very uneasy for my friend William, for they had promised
to be back again in four days, which they might very easily have done.
However, at the end of thirteen days, we saw three sail coming directly
to us, which a little surprised us all at first, not knowing what might
be the case; and we began to put ourselves in a posture of defence; but
as they came nearer us, we were soon satisfied, for the first vessel was
that which William went in, who carried a flag of truce; and in a few
hours they all came to an anchor, and William came on board us with a
little boat, with the Chinese merchant in his company, and two other
merchants, who seemed to be a kind of brokers for the rest.
Here he gave us an account how civilly he had been used; how they had
treated him with all imaginable frankness and openness; that they had
not only given him the full value of his spices and other goods which he
carried, in gold, by good weight, but had loaded the vessel again with
such goods as he knew we were willing to trade for; and that afterwards
they had resolved to bring the great ship out of the harbour, to lie
where we were, that so we might make what bargain we thought fit;
only William said he had promised, in our name, that we should use no
violence with them, nor detain any of the vessels after we had done
trading with them. I told him we would strive to outdo them in civility,
and that we would make good every part of his agreement; in token
whereof, I caused a white flag likewise to be spread at the poop of our
great ship, which was the signal agreed on.
As to the third vessel which came with them, it was a kind of bark of
the country, who, having intelligence of our design to traffic, came
off to deal with us, bringing a great deal of gold and some provisions,
which at that time we were very glad of.
In short, we traded upon the high seas with these men, and indeed we
made a very good market, and yet sold thieves' pennyworths too. We sold
here about sixty ton of spice, chiefly cloves and nutmegs, and above two
hundred bales of European goods, such as linen and woollen manufactures.
We considered we should have occasion for some such things ourselves,
and so we kept a good quantity of English stuffs, cloth, baize, &c., for
ourselves. I shall not take up any of the little room I have left here
with the further particulars of our trade; it is enough to mention,
that, except a parcel of tea, and twelve bales of fine China wrought
silks, we took nothing in exchange for our goods but gold; so that the
sum we took here in that glittering commodity amounted to above fifty
thousand ounces good weight.
When we had finished our barter, we restored the hostages, and gave the
three merchants about the quantity of twelve hundredweight of nutmegs,
and as many of cloves, with a handsome present of European linen and
stuff for themselves, as a recompense for what we had taken from them;
so we sent them away exceedingly well satisfied.
Here it was that William gave me an account, that while he was on board
the Japanese vessel, he met with a kind of religious, or Japan priest,
who spoke some words of English to him; and, being very inquisitive to
know how he came to learn any of those words, he told him that there
was in his country thirteen Englishmen; he called them Englishmen
very articulately and distinctly, for he had conversed with them very
frequently and freely. He said that they were all that were left of
two-and-thirty men, who came on shore on the north side of Japan, being
driven upon a great rock in a stormy night, where they lost their ship,
and the rest of their men were drowned; that he had persuaded the king
of his country to send boats off to the rock or island where the ship
was lost, to save the rest of the men, and to bring them on shore, which
was done, and they were used very kindly, and had houses built for
them, and land given them to plant for provision; and that they lived by
themselves.
He said he went frequently among them, to persuade them to worship their
god (an idol, I suppose, of their own making), which, he said, they
ungratefully refused; and that therefore the king had once or twice
ordered them all to be put to death; but that, as he said, he had
prevailed upon the king to spare them, and let them live their own
way, as long as they were quiet and peaceable, and did not go about to
withdraw others from the worship of the country.
I asked William why he did not inquire from whence they came. "I did,"
said William; "for how could I but think it strange," said he, "to hear
him talk of Englishmen on the north side of Japan?" "Well," said I,
"what account did he give of it?" "An account," said William, "that will
surprise thee, and all the world after thee, that shall hear of it,
and which makes me wish thou wouldst go up to Japan and find them
out." "What do you mean?" said I. "Whence could they come?" "Why," says
William, "he pulled out a little book, and in it a piece of paper, where
it was written, in an Englishman's hand, and in plain English words,
thus; and," says William, "I read it myself:--'We came from Greenland,
and from the North Pole.'" This, indeed, was amazing to us all, and more
so to those seamen among us who knew anything of the infinite attempts
which had been made from Europe, as well by the English as the Dutch,
to discover a passage that way into those parts of the world; and as
William pressed as earnestly to go on to the north to rescue those poor
men, so the ship's company began to incline to it; and, in a word, we
all came to this, that we would stand in to the shore of Formosa, to
find this priest again, and have a further account of it all from him.
Accordingly, the sloop went over; but when they came there, the vessels
were very unhappily sailed, and this put an end to our inquiry after
them, and perhaps may have disappointed mankind of one of the most noble
discoveries that ever was made, or will again be made, in the world, for
the good of mankind in general; but so much for that.
William was so uneasy at losing this opportunity, that he pressed us
earnestly to go up to Japan to find out these men. He told us that if
it was nothing but to recover thirteen honest poor men from a kind of
captivity, which they would otherwise never be redeemed from, and where,
perhaps, they might, some time or other, be murdered by the barbarous
people, in defence of their idolatry, it were very well worth our while,
and it would be, in some measure, making amends for the mischiefs we had
done in the world; but we, that had no concern upon us for the mischiefs
we had done, had much less about any satisfactions to be made for it, so
he found that kind of discourse would weigh very little with us. Then
he pressed us very earnestly to let him have the sloop to go by himself,
and I told him I would not oppose it; but when he came to the sloop none
of the men would go with him; for the case was plain, they had all a
share in the cargo of the great ship, as well as in that of the sloop,
and the richness of the cargo was such that they would not leave it by
any means; so poor William, much to his mortification, was obliged to
give it over. What became of those thirteen men, or whether they are not
there still, I can give no account of.
We are now at the end of our cruise; what we had taken was indeed so
considerable, that it was not only enough to satisfy the most covetous
and the most ambitious minds in the world, but it did indeed satisfy
us, and our men declared they did not desire any more. The next motion,
therefore, was about going back, and the way by which we should perform
the voyage, so as not to be attacked by the Dutch in the Straits of
Sunda.
We had pretty well stored ourselves here with provisions, and it being
now near the return of the monsoons, we resolved to stand away to the
southward; and not only to keep without the Philippine Islands, that is
to say, to the eastward of them, but to keep on to the southward, and
see if we could not leave not only the Moluccas, or Spice Islands,
behind us, but even Nova Guinea and Nova Hollandia also; and so getting
into the variable winds, to the south of the tropic of Capricorn, steer
away to the west, over the great Indian Ocean.
This was indeed at first a monstrous voyage in its appearance, and the
want of provisions threatened us. William told us in so many words, that
it was impossible we could carry provisions enough to subsist us for
such a voyage, and especially fresh water; and that, as there would
be no land for us to touch at where we could get any supply, it was a
madness to undertake it.
But I undertook to remedy this evil, and therefore desired them not
to be uneasy at that, for I knew that we might supply ourselves at
Mindanao, the most southerly island of the Philippines.
Accordingly, we set sail, having taken all the provisions here that we
could get, the 28th of September, the wind veering a little at first
from the N.N.W. to the N.E. by E., but afterwards settled about the
N.E. and the E.N.E. We were nine weeks in this voyage, having met with
several interruptions by the weather, and put in under the lee of a
small island in the latitude of 16 degrees 12 minutes, of which we never
knew the name, none of our charts having given any account of it: I
say, we put in here by reason of a strange tornado or hurricane, which
brought us into a great deal of danger. Here we rode about sixteen days,
the winds being very tempestuous and the weather uncertain. However, we
got some provisions on shore, such as plants and roots, and a few hogs.
We believed there were inhabitants on the island, but we saw none of
them.
From hence, the weather settling again, we went on and came to the
southernmost part of Mindanao, where we took in fresh water and some
cows, but the climate was so hot that we did not attempt to salt up any
more than so as to keep a fortnight or three weeks; and away we stood
southward, crossing the line, and, leaving Gillolo on the starboard
side, we coasted the country they call New Guinea, where, in the
latitude of eight degrees south, we put in again for provisions and
water, and where we found inhabitants; but they fled from us, and were
altogether inconversable. From thence, sailing still southward, we left
all behind us that any of our charts and maps took any notice of, and
went on till we came to the latitude of seventeen degrees, the wind
continuing still north-east.
Here we made land to the westward, which, when we had kept in sight
for three days, coasting along the shore for the distance of about four
leagues, we began to fear we should find no outlet west, and so should
be obliged to go back again, and put in among the Moluccas at last; but
at length we found the land break off, and go trending away to the west
sea, seeming to be all open to the south and south-west, and a great sea
came rolling out of the south, which gave us to understand that there
was no land for a great way.
In a word, we kept on our course to the south, a little westerly, till
we passed the south tropic, where we found the winds variable; and now
we stood away fair west, and held it out for about twenty days, when we
discovered land right ahead, and on our larboard bow; we made directly
to the shore, being willing to take all advantages now for supplying
ourselves with fresh provisions and water, knowing we were now entering
on that vast unknown Indian Ocean, perhaps the greatest sea on the
globe, having, with very little interruption of islands, a continued sea
quite round the globe.
We found a good road here, and some people on shore; but when we landed,
they fled up the country, nor would they hold any correspondence with
us, nor come near us, but shot at us several times with arrows as long
as lances. We set up white flags for a truce, but they either did not
or would not understand it; on the contrary, they shot our flag of truce
through several times with their arrows, so that, in a word, we never
came near any of them.
We found good water here, though it was something difficult to get at
it, but for living creatures we could see none; for the people, if
they had any cattle, drove them all away, and showed us nothing but
themselves, and that sometimes in a threatening posture, and in number
so great, that made us suppose the island to be greater than we first
imagined. It is true, they would not come near enough for us to engage
with them, at least not openly; but they came near enough for us to see
them, and, by the help of our glasses, to see that they were clothed and
armed, but their clothes were only about their lower and middle parts;
that they had long lances, half pikes, in their hands, besides bows
and arrows; that they had great high things on their heads, made, as we
believed, of feathers, and which looked something like our grenadiers'
caps in England.
When we saw them so shy that they would not come near us, our men began
to range over the island, if it was such (for we never surrounded it),
to search for cattle, and for any of the Indian plantations, for fruits
or plants; but they soon found, to their cost, that they were to use
more caution than that came to, and that they were to discover perfectly
every bush and every tree before they ventured abroad in the country;
for about fourteen of our men going farther than the rest, into a part
of the country which seemed to be planted, as they thought, for it did
but seem so, only I think it was overgrown with canes, such as we make
our cane chairs with--I say, venturing too far, they were suddenly
attacked with a shower of arrows from almost every side of them, as they
thought, out of the tops of the trees.
They had nothing to do but to fly for it, which, however, they could not
resolve on, till five of them were wounded; nor had they escaped so, if
one of them had not been so much wiser or thoughtfuller than the rest,
as to consider, that though they could not see the enemy, so as to shoot
at them, yet perhaps the noise of their shot might terrify them, and
that they should rather fire at a venture. Accordingly, ten of them
faced about, and fired at random anywhere among the canes.
The noise and the fire not only terrified the enemy, but, as they
believed, their shot had luckily hit some of them; for they found not
only that the arrows, which came thick among them before, ceased, but
they heard the Indians halloo, after their way, to one another, and make
a strange noise, more uncouth and inimitably strange than any they had
ever heard, more like the howling and barking of wild creatures in the
woods than like the voice of men, only that sometimes they seemed to
speak words.
They observed also, that this noise of the Indians went farther and
farther off, so that they were satisfied the Indians fled away, except
on one side, where they heard a doleful groaning and howling, and where
it continued a good while, which they supposed was from some or other
of them being wounded, and howling by reason of their wounds; or
killed, and others howling over them: but our men had enough of making
discoveries; so they did not trouble themselves to look farther, but
resolved to take this opportunity to retreat. But the worst of
their adventure was to come; for as they came back, they passed by a
prodigious great trunk of an old tree; what tree it was, they said, they
did not know, but it stood like an old decayed oak in a park, where the
keepers in England take a stand, as they call it, to shoot a deer; and
it stood just under the steep side of a great rock, or hill, that our
people could not see what was beyond it.
As they came by this tree, they were of a sudden shot at, from the top
of the tree, with seven arrows and three lances, which, to our great
grief, killed two of our men, and wounded three more. This was the more
surprising, because, being without any defence, and so near the trees,
they expected more lances and arrows every moment; nor would flying do
them any service, the Indians being, as appeared, very good marksmen.
In this extremity, they had happily this presence of mind, viz., to run
close to the tree, and stand, as it were, under it; so that those above
could not come at, or see them, to throw their lances at them. This
succeeded, and gave them time to consider what to do; they knew their
enemies and murderers were above; they heard them talk, and those above
knew those were below; but they below were obliged to keep close for
fear of their lances from above. At length, one of our men, looking a
little more strictly than the rest, thought he saw the head of one of
the Indians just over a dead limb of the tree, which, it seems, the
creature sat upon. One man immediately fired, and levelled his piece so
true that the shot went through the fellow's head; and down he fell out
of the tree immediately, and came upon the ground with such force, with
the height of his fall, that if he had not been killed with the shot,
he would certainly have been killed with dashing his body against the
ground.
This so frightened them, that, besides the howling noise they made in
the tree, our men heard a strange clutter of them in the body of the
tree, from whence they concluded they had made the tree hollow, and were
got to hide themselves there. Now, had this been the case, they were
secure enough from our men, for it was impossible any of our men could
get up the tree on the outside, there being no branches to climb by;
and, to shoot at the tree, that they tried several times to no purpose,
for the tree was so thick that no shot would enter it. They made no
doubt, however, but that they had their enemies in a trap, and that a
small siege would either bring them down, tree and all, or starve them
out; so they resolved to keep their post, and send to us for
help. Accordingly, two of them came away to us for more hands, and
particularly desired that some of our carpenters might come with tools,
to help to cut down the tree, or at least to cut down other wood and set
fire to it; and that, they concluded, would not fail to bring them out.
Accordingly, our men went like a little army, and with mighty
preparations for an enterprise, the like of which has scarce been ever
heard, to form the siege of a great tree. However, when they came there,
they found the task difficult enough, for the old trunk was indeed a
very great one, and very tall, being at least two-and-twenty feet high,
with seven old limbs standing out every way from the top, but decayed,
and very few leaves, if any, left on it.
William the Quaker, whose curiosity led him to go among the rest,
proposed that they should make a ladder, and get upon the top, and then
throw wild-fire into the tree, and smoke them out. Others proposed going
back, and getting a great gun out of the ship, which would split the
tree in pieces with the iron bullets; others, that they should cut down
a great deal of wood, and pile it up round the tree, and set it on fire,
and burn the tree, and the Indians in it.
These consultations took up our people no less than two or three days,
in all which time they heard nothing of the supposed garrison within
this wooden castle, nor any noise within. William's project was first
gone about, and a large strong ladder was made, to scale this wooden
tower; and in two or three hours' time it would have been ready to
mount, when, on a sudden, they heard the noise of the Indians in the
body of the tree again, and a little after, several of them appeared at
the top of the tree, and threw some lances down at our men; one of which
struck one of our seamen a-top of the shoulder, and gave him such
a desperate wound, that the surgeons not only had a great deal of
difficulty to cure him, but the poor man endured such horrible torture,
that we all said they had better have killed him outright. However, he
was cured at last, though he never recovered the perfect use of his arm,
the lance having cut some of the tendons on the top of the arm, near the
shoulder, which, as I supposed, performed the office of motion to the
limb before; so that the poor man was a cripple all the days of his
life. But to return to the desperate rogues in the tree; our men shot at
them, but did not find they had hit them, or any of them; but as soon as
ever they shot at them, they could hear them huddle down into the trunk
of the tree again, and there, to be sure, they were safe.
Well, however, it was this which put by the project of William's ladder;
for when it was done, who would venture up among such a troop of bold
creatures as were there, and who, they supposed, were desperate by their
circumstances? And as but one man at a time could go up, they began to
think it would not do; and, indeed, I was of the opinion (for about this
time I was come to their assistance) that going up the ladder would not
do, unless it was thus, that a man should, as it were, run just up to
the top, and throw some fireworks into the tree, and come down again;
and this we did two or three times, but found no effect of it. At
last, one of our gunners made a stink-pot, as we called it, being a
composition which only smokes, but does not flame or burn; but withal
the smoke of it is so thick, and the smell of it so intolerably
nauseous, that it is not to be suffered. This he threw into the tree
himself, and we waited for the effect of it, but heard or saw nothing
all that night or the next day; so we concluded the men within were all
smothered; when, on a sudden, the next night we heard them upon the top
of the tree again shouting and hallooing like madmen.
We concluded, as anybody would, that this was to call for help, and we
resolved to continue our siege; for we were all enraged to see ourselves
so baulked by a few wild people, whom we thought we had safe in our
clutches; and, indeed, never were there so many concurring circumstances
to delude men in any case we had met with. We resolved, however, to try
another stink-pot the next night, and our engineer and gunner had got it
ready, when, hearing a noise of the enemy on the top of the tree, and
in the body of the tree, I was not willing to let the gunner go up the
ladder, which, I said, would be but to be certain of being murdered.
However, he found a medium for it, and that was to go up a few steps,
and, with a long pole in his hand, to throw it in upon the top of the
tree, the ladder being standing all this while against the top of the
tree; but when the gunner, with his machine at the top of his pole, came
to the tree, with three other men to help him, behold the ladder was
gone.
This perfectly confounded us; and we now concluded the Indians in the
tree had, by this piece of negligence, taken the opportunity, and come
all down the ladder, made their escape, and had carried away the ladder
with them. I laughed most heartily at my friend William, who, as I
said, had the direction of the siege, and had set up a ladder for the
garrison, as we called them, to get down upon, and run away. But when
daylight came, we were all set to rights again; for there stood our
ladder, hauled up on the top of the tree, with about half of it in the
hollow of the tree, and the other half upright in the air. Then we began
to laugh at the Indians for fools, that they could not as well have
found their way down by the ladder, and have made their escape, as to
have pulled it up by main strength into the tree.
We then resolved upon fire, and so to put an end to the work at once,
and burn the tree and its inhabitants together; and accordingly we
went to work to cut wood, and in a few hours' time we got enough, as we
thought, together; and, piling it up round the bottom of the tree,
we set it on fire, waiting at a distance to see when, the gentlemen's
quarters being too hot for them, they would come flying out at the top.
But we were quite confounded when, on a sudden, we found the fire all
put out by a great quantity of water thrown upon it. We then thought the
devil must be in them, to be sure. Says William, "This is certainly the
cunningest piece of Indian engineering that ever was heard of; and there
can be but one thing more to guess at, besides witchcraft and dealing
with the devil, which I believe not one word of," says he; "and that
must be, that this is an artificial tree, or a natural tree artificially
made hollow down into the earth, through root and all; and that these
creatures have an artificial cavity underneath it, quite into the hill,
or a way to go through, and under the hill, to some other place; and
where that other place is, we know not; but if it be not our own fault,
I'll find the place, and follow them into it, before I am two days
older." He then called the carpenters, to know of them if they had any
large saws that would cut through the body; and they told him they had
no saws that were long enough, nor could men work into such a monstrous
old stump in a great while; but that they would go to work with it with
their axes, and undertake to cut it down in two days, and stock up the
root of it in two more. But William was for another way, which proved
much better than all this; for he was for silent work, that, if
possible, he might catch some of the fellows in it. So he sets twelve
men to it with large augers, to bore great holes into the side of the
tree, to go almost through, but not quite through; which holes were
bored without noise, and when they were done he filled them all with
gunpowder, stopping strong plugs, bolted crossways, into the holes, and
then boring a slanting hole, of a less size, down into the greater hole,
all of which were filled with powder, and at once blown up. When they
took fire, they made such a noise, and tore and split up the tree in
so many places, and in such a manner, that we could see plainly such
another blast would demolish it; and so it did. Thus at the second time
we could, at two or three places, put our hands in them, and discovered
a cheat, namely, that there was a cave or hole dug into the earth, from
or through the bottom of the hollow, and that it had communication with
another cave farther in, where we heard the voices of several of the
wild folks, calling and talking to one another.
When we came thus far we had a great mind to get at them; and William
desired that three men might be given him with hand-grenadoes; and he
promised to go down first, and boldly he did so; for William, to give
him his due, had the heart of a lion.
They had pistols in their hands, and swords by their sides; but, as they
had taught the Indians before by their stink-pots, the Indians returned
them in their own kind; for they made such a smoke come up out of the
entrance into the cave or hollow, that William and his three men were
glad to come running out of the cave, and out of the tree too, for mere
want of breath; and indeed they were almost stifled.
Never was a fortification so well defended, or assailants so many ways
defeated. We were now for giving it over, and particularly I called
William, and told him I could not but laugh to see us spinning out our
time here for nothing; that I could not imagine what we were doing; that
it was certain that the rogues that were in it were cunning to the
last degree, and it would vex anybody to be so baulked by a few naked
ignorant fellows; but still it was not worth our while to push it any
further, nor was there anything that I knew of to be got by the conquest
when it was made, so that I thought it high time to give it over.
William acknowledged what I said was just, and that there was nothing
but our curiosity to be gratified in this attempt; and though, as he
said, he was very desirous to have searched into the thing, yet he would
not insist upon it; so we resolved to quit it and come away, which
we did. However, William said before we went he would have this
satisfaction of them, viz., to burn down the tree and stop up the
entrance into the cave. And while doing this the gunner told him he
would have one satisfaction of the rogues; and this was, that he would
make a mine of it, and see which way it had vent. Upon this he fetched
two barrels of powder out of the ships, and placed them in the inside of
the hollow of the cave, as far in as he durst go to carry them, and then
filling up the mouth of the cave where the tree stood, and ramming it
sufficiently hard, leaving only a pipe or touch-hole, he gave fire to
it, and stood at a distance to see which way it would operate, when on
a sudden he found the force of the powder burst its way out among some
bushes on the other side the little hill I mentioned, and that it came
roaring out there as out of the mouth of a cannon. Immediately running
thither, we saw the effects of the powder.
First, we saw that there was the other mouth of the cave, which the
powder had so torn and opened, that the loose earth was so fallen in
again that nothing of shape could be discerned; but there we saw what
was become of the garrison of the Indians, too, who had given us all
this trouble, for some of them had no arms, some no legs, some no head;
some lay half buried in the rubbish of the mine--that is to say, in the
loose earth that fell in; and, in short, there was a miserable havoc
made in them all; for we had good reason to believe not one of them that
were in the inside could escape, but rather were shot out of the mouth
of the cave, like a bullet out of a gun.
We had now our full satisfaction of the Indians; but, in short, this was
a losing voyage, for we had two men killed, one quite crippled, and five
more wounded; we spent two barrels of powder, and eleven days' time, and
all to get the understanding how to make an Indian mine, or how to keep
garrison in a hollow tree; and with this wit, bought at this dear
price, we came away, having taken in some fresh water, but got no fresh
provisions.
We then considered what we should do to get back again to Madagascar.
We were much about the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope, but had such a
very long run, and were neither sure of meeting with fair winds nor with
any land in the way, that we knew not what to think of it. William
was our last resort in this case again, and he was very plain with us.
"Friend," says he to Captain Wilmot, "what occasion hast thou to run the
venture of starving, merely for the pleasure of saying thou hast been
where nobody has been before? There are a great many places nearer
home, of which thou mayest say the same thing at less expense. I see no
occasion thou hast of keeping thus far south any longer than till you
are sure you are to the west end of Java and Sumatra; and then thou
mayest stand away north towards Ceylon, and the coast of Coromandel and
Madras, where thou mayest get both fresh water and fresh provisions; and
to that part it is likely we may hold out well enough with the stores we
have already."
This was wholesome advice, and such as was not to be slighted; so we
stood away to the west, keeping between the latitude of 31 and 35, and
had very good weather and fair winds for about ten days' sail; by which
time, by our reckoning, we were clear of the isles, and might run away
to the north; and if we did not fall in with Ceylon, we should at least
go into the great deep Bay of Bengal.
But we were out in our reckoning a great deal; for, when we had stood
due north for about fifteen or sixteen degrees, we met with land again
on our starboard bow, about three leagues' distance; so we came to an
anchor about half a league from it, and manned out our boats to see what
sort of a country it was. We found it a very good one; fresh water easy
to come at, but no cattle that we could see, or inhabitants; and we
were very shy of searching too far after them, lest we should make such
another journey as we did last; so that we let rambling alone, and chose
rather to take what we could find, which was only a few wild mangoes,
and some plants of several kinds, which we knew not the names of.
We made no stay here, but put to sea again, N.W. by N., but had little
wind for a fortnight more, when we made land again; and standing in with
the shore, we were surprised to find ourselves on the south shore of
Java; and just as we were coming to an anchor we saw a boat, carrying
Dutch colours, sailing along-shore. We were not solicitous to speak
with them, or any other of their nation, but left it indifferent to our
people, when they went on shore, to see the Dutchmen or not to see them;
our business was to get provisions, which, indeed, by this time were
very short with us.
We resolved to go on shore with our boats in the most convenient place
we could find, and to look out a proper harbour to bring the ship into,
leaving it to our fate whether we should meet with friends or enemies;
resolving, however, not to stay any considerable time, at least not
long enough to have expresses sent across the island to Batavia, and for
ships to come round from thence to attack us.
We found, according to our desire, a very good harbour, where we rode
in seven fathom water, well defended from the weather, whatever might
happen; and here we got fresh provisions, such as good hogs and some
cows; and that we might lay in a little store, we killed sixteen cows,
and pickled and barrelled up the flesh as well as we could be supposed
to do in the latitude of eight degrees from the line.
We did all this in about five days, and filled our casks with water; and
the last boat was coming off with herbs and roots, we being unmoored,
and our fore-topsail loose for sailing, when we spied a large ship to
the northward, bearing down directly upon us. We knew not what she might
be, but concluded the worst, and made all possible haste to get our
anchor up, and get under sail, that we might be in a readiness to see
what she had to say to us, for we were under no great concern for one
ship, but our notion was, that we should be attacked by three or four
together.
By the time we had got up our anchor and the boat was stowed, the ship
was within a league of us, and, as we thought, bore down to engage us;
so we spread our black flag, or ancient, on the poop, and the bloody
flag at the top-mast-head, and having made a clear ship, we stretched
away to the westward, to get the wind of him.
They had, it seems, quite mistaken us before, expecting nothing of an
enemy or a pirate in those seas; and, not doubting but we had been one
of their own ships, they seemed to be in some confusion when they found
their mistake, so they immediately hauled upon a wind on the other tack,
and stood edging in for the shore, towards the easternmost part of the
island. Upon this we tacked, and stood after him with all the sail we
could, and in two hours came almost within gunshot. Though they crowded
all the sail they could lay on, there was no remedy but to engage us,
and they soon saw their inequality of force. We fired a gun for them to
bring to; so they manned out their boat, and sent to us with a flag of
truce. We sent back the boat, but with this answer to the captain, that
he had nothing to do but to strike and bring his ship to an anchor
under our stern, and come on board us himself, when he should know our
demands; but that, however, since he had not yet put us to the trouble
of forcing him, which we saw we were able to do, we assured them that
the captain should return again in safety, and all his men, and that,
supplying us with such things as we should demand, his ship should not
be plundered. They went back with this message, and it was some time
after they were on board before they struck, which made us begin to
think they refused it; so we fired a shot, and in a few minutes more we
perceived their boat put off; and as soon as the boat put off the ship
struck and came to an anchor, as was directed.
When the captain came on board, we demanded an account of their cargo,
which was chiefly bales of goods from Bengal for Bantam. We told them
our present want was provisions, which they had no need of, being just
at the end of their voyage; and that, if they would send their boat on
shore with ours, and procure us six-and-twenty head of black cattle,
threescore hogs, a quantity of brandy and arrack, and three hundred
bushels of rice, we would let them go free.
As to the rice, they gave us six hundred bushels, which they had
actually on board, together with a parcel shipped upon freight. Also,
they gave us thirty middling casks of very good arrack, but beef and
pork they had none. However, they went on shore with our men, and bought
eleven bullocks and fifty hogs, which were pickled up for our occasion;
and upon the supplies of provision from shore, we dismissed them and
their ship.
We lay here several days before we could furnish ourselves with the
provisions agreed for, and some of the men fancied the Dutchmen were
contriving our destruction; but they were very honest, and did what they
could to furnish the black cattle, but found it impossible to supply so
many. So they came and told us ingenuously, that, unless we could stay
a while longer, they could get no more oxen or cows than those eleven,
with which we were obliged to be satisfied, taking the value of them
in other things, rather than stay longer there. On our side, we were
punctual with them in observing the conditions we had agreed on; nor
would we let any of our men so much as go on board them, or suffer any
of their men to come on board us; for, had any of our men gone on board,
nobody could have answered for their behaviour, any more than if they
had been on shore in an enemy's country.
We were now victualled for our voyage; and, as we mattered not purchase,
we went merrily on for the coast of Ceylon, where we intended to touch,
to get fresh water again, and more provisions; and we had nothing
material offered in this part of the voyage, only that we met with
contrary winds, and were above a month in the passage.
We put in upon the south coast of the island, desiring to have as little
to do with the Dutch as we could; and as the Dutch were lords of the
country as to commerce, so they are more so of the sea-coast, where they
have several forts, and, in particular, have all the cinnamon, which is
the trade of that island.
We took in fresh water here, and some provisions, but did not much
trouble ourselves about laying in any stores, our beef and hogs, which
we got at Java, being not yet all gone by a good deal. We had a little
skirmish on shore here with some of the people of the island, some of
our men having been a little too familiar with the homely ladies of the
country; for homely, indeed, they were, to such a degree, that if our
men had not had good stomachs that way, they would scarce have touched
any of them.
I could never fully get it out of our men what they did, they were so
true to one another in their wickedness, but I understood in the main,
that it was some barbarous thing they had done, and that they had like
to have paid dear for it, for the men resented it to the last degree,
and gathered in such numbers about them, that, had not sixteen more of
our men, in another boat, come all in the nick of time, just to rescue
our first men, who were but eleven, and so fetch them off by main force,
they had been all cut off, the inhabitants being no less than two or
three hundred, armed with darts and lances, the usual weapons of the
country, and which they are very dexterous at the throwing, even so
dexterous that it was scarce credible; and had our men stood to fight
them, as some of them were bold enough to talk of, they had been all
overwhelmed and killed. As it was, seventeen of our men were wounded,
and some of them very dangerously. But they were more frighted than hurt
too, for every one of them gave themselves over for dead men, believing
the lances were poisoned. But William was our comfort here too; for,
when two of our surgeons were of the same opinion, and told the men
foolishly enough that they would die, William cheerfully went to work
with them, and cured them all but one, who rather died by drinking some
arrack punch than of his wound; the excess of drinking throwing him into
a fever.
We had enough of Ceylon, though some of our people were for going
ashore again, sixty or seventy men together, to be revenged; but William
persuaded them against it; and his reputation was so great among the
men, as well as with us that were commanders, that he could influence
them more than any of us.
They were mighty warm upon their revenge, and they would go on shore,
and destroy five hundred of them. "Well," says William, "and suppose you
do, what are you the better?" "Why, then," says one of them, speaking
for the rest, "we shall have our satisfaction." "Well, and what will you
be the better for that?" says William. They could then say nothing to
that. "Then," says William, "if I mistake not, your business is money;
now, I desire to know, if you conquer and kill two or three thousand of
these poor creatures, they have no money, pray what will you get? They
are poor naked wretches; what shall you gain by them? But then," says
William, "perhaps, in doing this, you may chance to lose half-a-score of
your own company, as it is very probable you may. Pray, what gain is
in it? and what account can you give the captain for his lost men?" In
short, William argued so effectually, that he convinced them that it
was mere murder to do so; and that the men had a right to their own,
and that they had no right to take them away; that it was destroying
innocent men, who had acted no otherwise than as the laws of nature
dictated; and that it would be as much murder to do so, as to meet a man
on the highway, and kill him, for the mere sake of it, in cold blood,
not regarding whether he had done any wrong to us or no.
These reasons prevailed with them at last, and they were content to
go away, and leave them as they found them. In the first skirmish they
killed between sixty and seventy men, and wounded a great many more; but
they had nothing, and our people got nothing by it, but the loss of one
man's life, and the wounding sixteen more, as above.
But another accident brought us to a necessity of further business with
these people, and indeed we had like to have put an end to our lives
and adventures all at once among them; for, about three days after our
putting out to sea from the place where we had that skirmish, we
were attacked by a violent storm of wind from the south, or rather a
hurricane of wind from all the points southward, for it blew in a most
desperate and furious manner from the S.E. to the S.W., one minute at
one point, and then instantly turning about again to another point,
but with the same violence; nor were we able to work the ship in that
condition, so that the ship I was in split three top-sails, and at last
brought the main-top-mast by the board; and, in a word, we were once or
twice driven right ashore; and one time, had not the wind shifted the
very moment it did, we had been dashed in a thousand pieces upon a great
ledge of rocks which lay off about half-a-league from the shore; but,
as I have said, the wind shifting very often, and at that time coming
to the E.S.E., we stretched off, and got above a league more sea-room in
half-an-hour. After that, it blew with some fury S.W. by S., then S.W.
by W., and put us back again a great way to the eastward of the ledge
of rocks, where we found a great opening between the rocks and the land,
and endeavoured to come to an anchor there, but we found there was no
ground fit to anchor in, and that we should lose our anchors, there
being nothing but rocks. We stood through the opening, which held about
four leagues. The storm continued, and now we found a dreadful foul
shore, and knew not what course to take. We looked out very narrowly
for some river or creek or bay, where we might run in, and come to an
anchor, but found none a great while. At length we saw a great headland
lie out far south into the sea, and that to such a length, that, in
short, we saw plainly that, if the wind held where it was, we could not
weather it, so we ran in as much under the lee of the point as we could,
and came to an anchor in about twelve fathom water.
But the wind veering again in the night, and blowing exceedingly hard,
our anchors came home, and the ship drove till the rudder struck against
the ground; and had the ship gone half her length farther she had been
lost, and every one of us with her. But our sheet-anchor held its own,
and we heaved in some of the cable, to get clear of the ground we had
struck upon. It was by this only cable that we rode it out all night;
and towards morning we thought the wind abated a little; and it was well
for us that it was so, for, in spite of what our sheet-anchor did for
us, we found the ship fast aground in the morning, to our very great
surprise and amazement.
When the tide was out, though the water here ebbed away, the ship lay
almost dry upon a bank of hard sand, which never, I suppose, had any
ship upon it before. The people of the country came down in great
numbers to look at us and gaze, not knowing what we were, but gaping at
us as at a great sight or wonder at which they were surprised, and knew
not what to do.
I have reason to believe that upon the sight they immediately sent an
account of a ship being there, and of the condition we were in, for the
next day there appeared a great man; whether it was their king or no
I know not, but he had abundance of men with him, and some with long
javelins in their hands as long as half-pikes; and these came all down
to the water's edge, and drew up in a very good order, just in our view.
They stood near an hour without making any motion; and then there came
near twenty of them, with a man before them carrying a white flag. They
came forward into the water as high as their waists, the sea not going
so high as before, for the wind was abated, and blew off the shore.
The man made a long oration to us, as we could see by his gestures; and
we sometimes heard his voice, but knew not one word he said. William,
who was always useful to us, I believe was here again the saving of all
our lives. The case was this: The fellow, or what I might call him, when
his speech was done, gave three great screams (for I know not what else
to say they were), then lowered his white flag three times, and then
made three motions to us with his arm to come to him.
I acknowledge that I was for manning out the boat and going to them, but
William would by no means allow me. He told me we ought to trust nobody;
that, if they were barbarians, and under their own government, we might
be sure to be all murdered; and, if they were Christians, we should not
fare much better, if they knew who we were; that it was the custom of
the Malabars to betray all people that they could get into their hands,
and that these were some of the same people; and that, if we had any
regard to our own safety, we should not go to them by any means. I
opposed him a great while, and told him I thought he used to be always
right, but that now I thought he was not; that I was no more for running
needless risks than he or any one else; but I thought all nations in the
world, even the most savage people, when they held out a flag of peace,
kept the offer of peace made by that signal very sacredly; and I gave
him several examples of it in the history of my African travels, which
I have here gone through in the beginning of this work, and that I could
not think these people worse than some of them. And, besides, I told him
our case seemed to be such that we must fall into somebody's hands or
other, and that we had better fall into their hands by a friendly treaty
than by a forced submission, nay, though they had indeed a treacherous
design; and therefore I was for a parley with them.
"Well, friend," says William very gravely, "if thou wilt go I cannot
help it; I shall only desire to take my last leave of thee at parting,
for, depend upon it, thou wilt never see us again. Whether we in the
ship may come off any better at last I cannot resolve thee; but this I
will answer for, that we will not give up our lives idly, and in cool
blood, as thou art going to do; we will at least preserve ourselves as
long as we can, and die at last like men, not like fools, trepanned by
the wiles of a few barbarians."
William spoke this with so much warmth, and yet with so much assurance
of our fate, that I began to think a little of the risk I was going to
run. I had no more mind to be murdered than he; and yet I could not for
my life be so faint-hearted in the thing as he. Upon which I asked him
if he had any knowledge of the place, or had ever been there. He said,
No. Then I asked him if he had heard or read anything about the people
of this island, and of their way of treating any Christians that had
fallen into their hands; and he told me he had heard of one, and
he would tell me the story afterward. His name, he said, was Knox,
commander of an East India ship, who was driven on shore, just as we
were, upon this island of Ceylon, though he could not say it was at the
same place, or whereabouts; that he was beguiled by the barbarians, and
enticed to come on shore, just as we were invited to do at that time;
and that, when they had him, they surrounded him, and eighteen or twenty
of his men, and never suffered them to return, but kept them prisoners,
or murdered them, he could not tell which; but they were carried away
up into the country, separated from one another, and never heard of
afterwards, except the captain's son, who miraculously made his escape,
after twenty years' slavery.
I had no time then to ask him to give the full story of this Knox, much
less to hear him tell it me; but, as it is usual in such cases, when
one begins to be a little touched, I turned short with him. "Why then,
friend William," said I, "what would you have us do? You see what
condition we are in, and what is before us; something must be done, and
that immediately." "Why," says William, "I'll tell thee what thou shalt
do; first, cause a white flag to be hanged out, as they do to us, and
man out the longboat and pinnace with as many men as they can well stow,
to handle their arms, and let me go with them, and thou shalt see what
we will do. If I miscarry, thou mayest be safe; and I will also tell
thee, that if I do miscarry, it shall be my own fault, and thou shalt
learn wit by my folly."
I knew not what to reply to him at first; but, after some pause, I said,
"William, William, I am as loath you should be lost as you are that I
should; and if there be any danger, I desire you may no more fall into
it than I. Therefore, if you will, let us all keep in the ship, fare
alike, and take our fate together."
"No, no," says William, "there's no danger in the method I propose; thou
shalt go with me, if thou thinkest fit. If thou pleasest but to follow
the measures that I shall resolve on, depend upon it, though we will
go off from the ships, we will not a man of us go any nearer them than
within call to talk with them. Thou seest they have no boats to come off
to us; but," says he, "I rather desire thou wouldst take my advice, and
manage the ships as I shall give the signal from the boat, and let us
concert that matter together before we go off."
Well, I found William had his measures in his head all laid beforehand,
and was not at a loss what to do at all; so I told him he should be
captain for this voyage, and we would be all of us under his orders,
which I would see observed to a tittle.
Upon this conclusion of our debates, he ordered four-and-twenty men into
the long-boat, and twelve men into the pinnace, and the sea being now
pretty smooth, they went off, being all very well armed. Also he ordered
that all the guns of the great ship, on the side which lay next the
shore, should be loaded with musket-balls, old nails, stubs, and
such-like pieces of old iron, lead, and anything that came to hand; and
that we should prepare to fire as soon as ever we saw them lower the
white flag and hoist up a red one in the pinnace.
With these measures fixed between us, they went off towards the shore,
William in the pinnace with twelve men, and the long-boat coming after
him with four-and-twenty more, all stout resolute fellows, and very
well armed. They rowed so near the shore as that they might speak to one
another, carrying a white flag, as the other did, and offering a parley.
The brutes, for such they were, showed themselves very courteous; but
finding we could not understand them, they fetched an old Dutchman, who
had been their prisoner many years, and set him to speak to us. The sum
and substance of his speech was, that the king of the country had sent
his general down to know who we were, and what our business was. William
stood up in the stern of the pinnace, and told him, that as to that, he,
that was an European, by his language and voice, might easily know what
we were, and our condition; the ship being aground upon the sand would
also tell him that our business there was that of a ship in distress; so
William desired to know what they came down for with such a multitude,
and with arms and weapons, as if they came to war with us.
He answered, they might have good reason to come down to the shore, the
country being alarmed with the appearance of ships of strangers upon
the coast; and as our vessels were full of men, and as we had guns and
weapons, the king had sent part of his military men, that, in case of
any invasion upon the country, they might be ready to defend themselves,
whatsoever might be the occasion.
"But," says he, "as you are men in distress, the king has ordered his
general, who is here also, to give you all the assistance he can, and to
invite you on shore, and receive you with all possible courtesy." Says
William, very quick upon him, "Before I give thee an answer to that,
I desire thee to tell me what thou art, for by thy speech thou art an
European." He answered presently, he was a Dutchman. "That I know well,"
says William, "by thy speech; but art thou a native Dutchman of Holland,
or a native of this country, that has learned Dutch by conversing among
the Hollanders, who we know are settled upon this island?"
"No," says the old man, "I am a native of Delft, in the province of
Holland, in Europe."
"Well," says William, immediately, "but art thou a Christian or a
heathen, or what we call a renegado?"
"I am," says he, "a Christian." And so they went on, in a short
dialogue, as follows:--
_William_. Thou art a Dutchman, and a Christian, thou sayest; pray, art
thou a freeman or a servant?
_Dutchman_. I am a servant to the king here, and in his army.
_W_. But art thou a volunteer, or a prisoner?
_D_. Indeed I was a prisoner at first, but am at liberty now, and so am
a volunteer.
_W_. That is to say, being first a prisoner, thou hast liberty to serve
them; but art thou so at liberty that thou mayest go away, if thou
pleasest, to thine own countrymen?
_D_. No, I do not say so; my countrymen live a great way off, on the
north and east parts of the island, and there is no going to them
without the king's express license.
_W_. Well, and why dost thou not get a license to go away?
_D_. I have never asked for it.
_W_. And, I suppose, if thou didst, thou knowest thou couldst not obtain
it.
_D_. I cannot say much as to that; but why do you ask me all these
questions?
_W_. Why, my reason is good; if thou art a Christian and a prisoner,
how canst thou consent to be made an instrument to these barbarians,
to betray us into their hands, who are thy countrymen and
fellow-Christians? Is it not a barbarous thing in thee to do so?
_D_. How do I go about to betray you? Do I not give you an account how
the king invites you to come on shore, and has ordered you to be treated
courteously and assisted?
_W_. As thou art a Christian, though I doubt it much, dost thou believe
the king or the general, as thou callest it, means one word of what he
says?
_D_. He promises you by the mouth of his great general.
_W_. I don't ask thee what he promises, or by whom; but I ask thee this:
Canst thou say that thou believest he intends to perform it?
_D_. How can I answer that? How can I tell what he intends?
_W_. Thou canst tell what thou believest.
_D_. I cannot say but he will perform it; I believe he may.
_W_. Thou art but a double-tongued Christian, I doubt. Come, I'll ask
thee another question: Wilt thou say that thou believest it, and that
thou wouldst advise me to believe it, and put our lives into their hands
upon these promises?
_D_. I am not to be your adviser.
_W_. Thou art perhaps afraid to speak thy mind, because thou art in
their power. Pray, do any of them understand what thou and I say? Can
they speak Dutch?
_D_. No, not one of them; I have no apprehensions upon that account at
all.
_W_. Why, then, answer me plainly, if thou art a Christian: Is it safe
for us to venture upon their words, to put ourselves into their hands,
and come on shore?
_D_. You put it very home to me. Pray let me ask you another question:
Are you in any likelihood of getting your ship off, if you refuse it?
_W_. Yes, yes, we shall get off the ship; now the storm is over we don't
fear it.
_D_. Then I cannot say it is best for you to trust them.
_W_. Well, it is honestly said.
_D_. But what shall I say to them?
_W_. Give them good words, as they give us.
_D_. What good words?
_W_. Why, let them tell the king that we are strangers, who were driven
on his coast by a great storm; that we thank him very kindly for his
offer of civility to us, which, if we are further distressed, we will
accept thankfully; but that at present we have no occasion to come on
shore; and besides, that we cannot safely leave the ship in the present
condition she is in; but that we are obliged to take care of her, in
order to get her off; and expect, in a tide or two more, to get her
quite clear, and at an anchor.
_D_. But he will expect you to come on shore, then, to visit him, and
make him some present for his civility.
_W_. When we have got our ship clear, and stopped the leaks, we will pay
our respects to him.
_D_. Nay, you may as well come to him now as then.
_W_. Nay, hold, friend; I did not say we would come to him then: you
talked of making him a present, that is to pay our respects to him, is
it not?
_D_. Well, but I will tell him that you will come on shore to him when
your ship is got off.
_W_. I have nothing to say to that; you may tell him what you think fit.
_D_. But he will be in a great rage if I do not.
_W_. Who will he be in a great rage at?
_D_. At you.
_W_. What occasion have we to value that?
_D_. Why, he will send all his army down against you.
_W_. And what if they were all here just now? What dost thou suppose
they could do to us?
_D_. He would expect they should burn your ships and bring you all to
him.
_W_. Tell him, if he should try, he may catch a Tartar.
_D_. He has a world of men.
_W_. Has he any ships?
_D_. No, he has no ships.
_W_. Nor boats?
_D_. No, nor boats.
_W_. Why, what then do you think we care for his men? What canst thou do
now to us, if thou hadst a hundred thousand with thee?
_D_. Oh! they might set you on fire.
_W_. Set us a-firing, thou meanest; that they might indeed; but set us
on fire they shall not; they may try, at their peril, and we shall make
mad work with your hundred thousand men, if they come within reach of
our guns, I assure thee.
_D_. But what if the king gives you hostages for your safety?
_W_. Whom can he give but mere slaves and servants like thyself, whose
lives he no more values than we an English hound?
_D_. Whom do you demand for hostages?
_W_. Himself and your worship.
_D_. What would you do with him?
_W_. Do with him as he would do with us--cut his head off.
_D_. And what would you do with me?
_W_. Do with thee? We would carry thee home into thine own country; and,
though thou deservest the gallows, we would make a man and a Christian
of thee again, and not do by thee as thou wouldst have done by
us--betray thee to a parcel of merciless, savage pagans, that know no
God, nor how to show mercy to man.
_D_. You put a thought in my head that I will speak to you about
to-morrow.
Thus they went away, and William came on board, and gave us a full
account of his parley with the old Dutchman, which was very diverting,
and to me instructing; for I had abundance of reason to acknowledge
William had made a better judgment of things than I.
It was our good fortune to get our ship off that very night, and to
bring her to an anchor at about a mile and a half farther out, and in
deep water, to our great satisfaction; so that we had no need to fear
the Dutchman's king, with his hundred thousand men; and indeed we
had some sport with them the next day, when they came down, a
vast prodigious multitude of them, very few less in number, in our
imagination, than a hundred thousand, with some elephants; though, if it
had been an army of elephants, they could have done us no harm; for we
were fairly at our anchor now, and out of their reach. And indeed we
thought ourselves more out of their reach than we really were; and it
was ten thousand to one that we had not been fast aground again, for the
wind blowing off shore, though it made the water smooth where we lay,
yet it blew the ebb farther out than usual, and we could easily perceive
the sand, which we touched upon before, lay in the shape of a half-moon,
and surrounded us with two horns of it, so that we lay in the middle
or centre of it, as in a round bay, safe just as we were, and in deep
water, but present death, as it were, on the right hand and on the left,
for the two horns or points of the sand reached out beyond where our
ship lay near two miles.
On that part of the sand which lay on our east side, this misguided
multitude extended themselves; and being, most of them, not above their
knees, or most of them not above ankle-deep in the water, they as it
were surrounded us on that side, and on the side of the mainland, and a
little way on the other side of the sand, standing in a half-circle,
or rather three-fifths of a circle, for about six miles in length. The
other horn, or point of the sand, which lay on our west side, being not
quite so shallow, they could not extend themselves upon it so far.
They little thought what service they had done us, and how unwittingly,
and by the greatest ignorance, they had made themselves pilots to us,
while we, having not sounded the place, might have been lost before we
were aware. It is true we might have sounded our new harbour before we
had ventured out, but I cannot say for certain whether we should or not;
for I, for my part, had not the least suspicion of what our real case
was; however, I say, perhaps, before we had weighed, we should have
looked about us a little. I am sure we ought to have done it; for,
besides these armies of human furies, we had a very leaky ship, and
all our pumps could hardly keep the water from growing upon us, and our
carpenters were overboard, working to find out and stop the wounds we
had received, heeling her first on the one side, and then on the other;
and it was very diverting to see how, when our men heeled the ship over
to the side next the wild army that stood on the east horn of the sand,
they were so amazed, between fright and joy, that it put them into a
kind of confusion, calling to one another, hallooing and skreeking, in a
manner that it is impossible to describe.
While we were doing this, for we were in a great hurry you may be sure,
and all hands at work, as well at the stopping our leaks as repairing
our rigging and sails, which had received a great deal of damage, and
also in rigging a new main-top-mast and the like;--I say, while we were
doing all this, we perceived a body of men, of near a thousand, move
from that part of the army of the barbarians that lay at the bottom of
the sandy bay, and came all along the water's edge, round the sand, till
they stood just on our broadside east, and were within about half-a-mile
of us. Then we saw the Dutchman come forward nearer to us, and all
alone, with his white flag and all his motions, just as before, and
there he stood.
Our men had but just brought the ship to rights again as they came up to
our broadside, and we had very happily found out and stopped the worst
and most dangerous leak that we had, to our very great satisfaction;
so I ordered the boats to be hauled up and manned as they were the day
before, and William to go as plenipotentiary. I would have gone myself
if I had understood Dutch, but as I did not, it was to no purpose, for
I should be able to know nothing of what was said but from him
at second-hand, which might be done as well afterwards. All the
instructions I pretended to give William was, if possible, to get the
old Dutchman away, and, if he could, to make him come on board.
Well, William went just as before, and when he came within about sixty
or seventy yards of the shore, he held up his white flag as the Dutchman
did, and turning the boat's broadside to the shore, and his men lying
upon their oars, the parley or dialogue began again thus:--
_William_. Well, friend, what dost thou say to us now?
_Dutchman_. I come of the same mild errand as I did yesterday.
_W_. What! dost thou pretend to come of a mild errand with all these
people at thy back, and all the foolish weapons of war they bring with
them? Prithee, what dost thou mean?
_D_. The king hastens us to invite the captain and all his men to come
on shore, and has ordered all his men to show them all the civility they
can.
_W_. Well, and are all those men come to invite us ashore?
D. They will do you no hurt, if you will come on shore peaceably.
W. Well, and what dost thou think they can do to us, if we will not?
D. I would not have them do you any hurt then, neither.
W. But prithee, friend, do not make thyself fool and knave too. Dost not
thou know that we are out of fear of all thy army, and out of danger
of all that they can do? What makes thee act so simply as well as so
knavishly?
D. Why, you may think yourselves safer than you are; you do not know
what they may do to you. I can assure you they are able to do you a
great deal of harm, and perhaps burn your ship.
W. Suppose that were true, as I am sure it is false; you see we have
more ships to carry us off (pointing to the sloop).
[N.B.--Just at this time we discovered the sloop standing towards us
from the east, along the shore, at about the distance of two leagues,
which was to our particular satisfaction, she having been missing
thirteen days.]
D. We do not value that; if you had ten ships, you dare not come on
shore, with all the men you have, in a hostile way; we are too many for
you.
W. Thou dost not, even in that, speak as thou meanest; and we may give
thee a trial of our hands when our friends come up to us, for thou
hearest they have discovered us.
[Just then the sloop fired five guns, which was to get news of us, for
they did not see us.]
D. Yes, I hear they fire; but I hope your ship will not fire again; for,
if they do, our general will take it for breaking the truce, and will
make the army let fly a shower of arrows at you in the boat.
W. Thou mayest be sure the ship will fire that the other ship may hear
them, but not with ball. If thy general knows no better, he may begin
when he will; but thou mayest be sure we will return it to his cost.
D. What must I do, then?
W. Do! Why, go to him, and tell him of it beforehand, then; and let
him know that the ship firing is not at him nor his men; and then come
again, and tell us what he says.
D. No; I will send to him, which will do as well.
W. Do as thou wilt, but I believe thou hadst better go thyself; for if
our men fire first, I suppose he will be in a great wrath, and it may be
at thee; for, as to his wrath at us, we tell thee beforehand we value it
not.
D. You slight them too much; you know not what they may do.
W. Thou makest as if these poor savage wretches could do mighty things:
prithee, let us see what you can all do, we value it not; thou mayest
set down thy flag of truce when thou pleasest, and begin.
D. I had rather make a truce, and have you all part friends.
W. Thou art a deceitful rogue thyself, for it is plain thou knowest
these people would only persuade us on shore to entrap and surprise us;
and yet thou that art a Christian, as thou callest thyself, would have
us come on shore and put our lives into their hands who know nothing
that belongs to compassion, good usage, or good manners. How canst thou
be such a villain?
D. How can you call me so? What have I done to you, and what would you
have me do?
W. Not act like a traitor, but like one that was once a Christian, and
would have been so still, if you had not been a Dutchman.
D. I know not what to do, not I. I wish I were from them; they are a
bloody people.
W. Prithee, make no difficulty of what thou shouldst do. Canst thou
swim?
D. Yes, I can swim; but if I should attempt to swim off to you, I should
have a thousand arrows and javelins sticking in me before I should get
to your boat.
W. I'll bring the boat close to thee, and take thee on board in spite
of them all. We will give them but one volley, and I'll engage they will
all run away from thee.
D. You are mistaken in them, I assure you; they would immediately come
all running down to the shore, and shoot fire-arrows at you, and set
your boat and ship and all on fire about your ears.
W. We will venture that if thou wilt come off.
D. Will you use me honourably when I am among you?
W. I'll give thee my word for it, if thou provest honest.
D. Will you not make me a prisoner?
W. I will be thy surety, body for body, that thou shalt be a free man,
and go whither thou wilt, though I own to thee thou dost not deserve it.
Just at this time our ship fired three guns to answer the sloop and let
her know we saw her, who immediately, we perceived, understood it,
and stood directly for the place. But it is impossible to express the
confusion and filthy vile noise, the hurry and universal disorder, that
was among that vast multitude of people upon our firing off three guns.
They immediately all repaired to their arms, as I may call it; for to
say they put themselves into order would be saying nothing.
Upon the word of command, then, they advanced all in a body to the
seaside, and resolving to give us one volley of their fire-arms (for
such they were), immediately they saluted us with a hundred thousand of
their fire-arrows, every one carrying a little bag of cloth dipped
in brimstone, or some such thing, which, flying through the air, had
nothing to hinder it taking fire as it flew, and it generally did so.
I cannot say but this method of attacking us, by a way we had no notion
of, might give us at first some little surprise, for the number was so
great at first, that we were not altogether without apprehensions that
they might unluckily set our ship on fire, so that William resolved
immediately to row on board, and persuade us all to weigh and stand out
to sea; but there was no time for it, for they immediately let fly a
volley at the boat, and at the ship, from all parts of the vast crowd of
people which stood near the shore. Nor did they fire, as I may call it,
all at once, and so leave off; but their arrows being soon notched upon
their bows, they kept continually shooting, so that the air was full of
flame.
I could not say whether they set their cotton rag on fire before they
shot the arrow, for I did not perceive they had fire with them, which,
however, it seems they had. The arrow, besides the fire it carried with
it, had a head, or a peg, as we call it, of bone; and some of sharp
flint stone; and some few of a metal, too soft in itself for metal, but
hard enough to cause it to enter, if it were a plank, so as to stick
where it fell.
William and his men had notice sufficient to lie close behind their
waste-boards, which, for this very purpose, they had made so high
that they could easily sink themselves behind them, so as to defend
themselves from anything that came point-blank (as we call it) or upon a
line; but for what might fall perpendicularly out of the air they had no
guard, but took the hazard of that. At first they made as if they would
row away, but before they went they gave a volley of their fire-arms,
firing at those which stood with the Dutchman; but William ordered them
to be sure to take their aim at others, so as to miss him, and they did
so.
There was no calling to them now, for the noise was so great among them
that they could hear nobody, but our men boldly rowed in nearer to them,
for they were at first driven a little off, and when they came nearer,
they fired a second volley, which put the fellows into great confusion,
and we could see from the ship that several of them were killed or
wounded.
We thought this was a very unequal fight, and therefore we made a signal
to our men to row away, that we might have a little of the sport as
well as they; but the arrows flew so thick upon them, being so near the
shore, that they could not sit to their oars, so they spread a little
of their sail, thinking they might sail along the shore, and lie behind
their waste-board; but the sail had not been spread six minutes till it
had five hundred fire-arrows shot into it and through it, and at length
set it fairly on fire; nor were our men quite out of the danger of its
setting the boat on fire, and this made them paddle and shove the boat
away as well as they could, as they lay, to get farther off.
By this time they had left us a fair mark at the whole savage army; and
as we had sheered the ship as near to them as we could, we fired among
the thickest of them six or seven times, five guns at a time, with shot,
old iron, musket-bullets, &c.
We could easily see that we made havoc among them, and killed and
wounded abundance of them, and that they were in a great surprise at it;
but yet they never offered to stir, and all this while their fire-arrows
flew as thick as before.
At last, on a sudden their arrows stopped, and the old Dutchman came
running down to the water-side all alone, with his white flag, as
before, waving it as high as he could, and making signals to our boat to
come to him again.
William did not care at first to go near him, but the man continuing to
make signals to him to come, at last William went; and the Dutchman told
him that he had been with the general, who was much mollified by the
slaughter of his men, and that now he could have anything of him.
"Anything!" says William; "what have we to do with him? Let him go about
his business, and carry his men out of gunshot, can't he?"
"Why," says the Dutchman, "but he dares not stir, nor see the king's
face; unless some of your men come on shore, he will certainly put him
to death."
"Why, then," says William, "he is a dead man; for if it were to save his
life, and the lives of all the crowd that is with him, he shall never
have one of us in his power. But I'll tell thee," said William, "how
thou shalt cheat him, and gain thy own liberty too, if thou hast any
mind to see thy own country again, and art not turned savage, and grown
fond of living all thy days among heathens and savages."
"I would be glad to do it with all my heart," says he; "but if I should
offer to swim off to you now, though they are so far from me, they shoot
so true that they would kill me before I got half-way."
"But," says William, "I'll tell thee how thou shalt come with his
consent. Go to him, and tell him I have offered to carry you on board,
to try if you could persuade the captain to come on shore, and that I
would not hinder him if he was willing to venture."
The Dutchman seemed in a rapture at the very first word. "I'll do it,"
says he; "I am persuaded he will give me leave to come."
Away he runs, as if he had a glad message to carry, and tells the
general that William had promised, if he would go on board the ship with
him, he would persuade the captain to return with him. The general was
fool enough to give him orders to go, and charged him not to come back
without the captain; which he readily promised, and very honestly might.
So they took him in, and brought him on board, and he was as good as
his word to them, for he never went back to them any more; and the sloop
being come to the mouth of the inlet where we lay, we weighed and set
sail; but, as we went out, being pretty near the shore, we fired three
guns, as it were among them, but without any shot, for it was of no
use to us to hurt any more of them. After we had fired, we gave them a
cheer, as the seamen call it; that is to say, we hallooed, at them, by
way of triumph, and so carried off their ambassador. How it fared with
their general, we know nothing of that.
This passage, when I related it to a friend of mine, after my return
from those rambles, agreed so well with his relation of what happened to
one Mr Knox, an English captain, who some time ago was decoyed on shore
by these people, that it could not but be very much to my satisfaction
to think what mischief we had all escaped; and I think it cannot but be
very profitable to record the other story (which is but short) with my
own, to show whoever reads this what it was I avoided, and prevent their
falling into the like, if they have to do with the perfidious people of
Ceylon. The relation is as follows:--
The island of Ceylon being inhabited for the greatest part by
barbarians, which will not allow any trade or commerce with any European
nation, and inaccessible by any travellers, it will be convenient to
relate the occasion how the author of this story happened to go into
this island, and what opportunities he had of being fully acquainted
with the people, their laws and customs, that so we may the better
depend upon the account, and value it as it deserves, for the rarity
as well as the truth of it; and both these the author gives us a brief
relation of in this manner. His words are as follows:
In the year 1657, the _Anne_ frigate, of London, Captain Robert Knox,
commander, on the 21st day of January, set sail out of the Downs, in the
service of the honourable East India Company of England, bound for Fort
St George, upon the coast of Coromandel, to trade for one year from port
to port in India; which having performed, as he was lading his goods
to return for England, being in the road of Masulipatam, on the 19th of
November 1659, there happened such a mighty storm, that in it several
ships were cast away, and he was forced to cut his mainmast by the
board, which so disabled the ship, that he could not proceed in his
voyage; whereupon Cottiar, in the island of Ceylon, being a very
commodious bay, fit for her present distress, Thomas Chambers, Esq.,
since Sir Thomas Chambers, the agent at Fort St George, ordered that the
ship should take in some cloth and India merchants belonging to Porto
Novo, who might trade there while she lay to set her mast, and repair
the other damages sustained by the storm. At her first coming thither,
after the Indian merchants were set ashore, the captain and his men were
very jealous of the people of that place, by reason the English never
had any commerce or dealing with them; but after they had been there
twenty days, going ashore and returning again at pleasure, without any
molestation, they began to lay aside all suspicious thoughts of the
people that dwelt thereabouts, who had kindly entertained them for their
money.
By this time the king of the country had notice of their arrival, and,
not being acquainted with their intents, he sent down a dissauva, or
general, with an army, to them, who immediately sent a messenger to
the captain on board, to desire him to come ashore to him, pretending
a letter from the king. The captain saluted the message with firing of
guns, and ordered his son, Robert Knox, and Mr John Loveland, merchant
of the ship, to go ashore, and wait on him. When they were come before
him, he demanded who they were, and how long they should stay. They told
him they were Englishmen, and not to stay above twenty or thirty days,
and desired permission to trade in his Majesty's port. His answer was,
that the king was glad to hear the English were come into his country,
and had commanded him to assist them as they should desire, and had sent
a letter to be delivered to none but the captain himself. They were then
twelve miles from the seaside, and therefore replied, that the captain
could not leave his ship to come so far; but if he pleased to go down
to the seaside, the captain would wait on him to receive the letter;
whereupon the dissauva desired them to stay that day, and on the morrow
he would go with them; which, rather than displease him in so small a
matter, they consented to. In the evening the dissauva sent a present to
the captain of cattle and fruits, &c., which, being carried all night by
the messengers, was delivered to him in the morning, who told him withal
that his men were coming down with the dissauva, and desired his company
on shore against his coming, having a letter from the king to deliver
into his own hand. The captain, mistrusting nothing, came on shore with
his boat, and, sitting under a tamarind tree, waited for the dissauva.
In the meantime the native soldiers privately surrounded him and the
seven men he had with him, and seizing them, carried them to meet the
dissauva, bearing the captain on a hammock on their shoulders.
The next day the long-boat's crew, not knowing what had happened, came
on shore to cut down a tree to make cheeks for the mainmast, and were
made prisoners after the same manner, though with more violence, because
they were more rough with them, and made resistance; yet they were not
brought to the captain and his company, but quartered in another house
in the same town.
The dissauva having thus gotten two boats and eighteen men, his next
care was to gain the ship; and to that end, telling the captain that he
and his men were only detained because the king intended to send letters
and a present to the English nation by him, desired he would send some
men on board his ship to order her to stay; and because the ship was
in danger of being fired by the Dutch if she stayed long in the bay, to
bring her up the river. The captain did not approve of the advice, but
did not dare to own his dislike; so he sent his son with the order, but
with a solemn conjuration to return again, which he accordingly did,
bringing a letter from the company in the ship, that they would not obey
the captain, nor any other, in this matter, but were resolved to stand
on their own defence. This letter satisfied the dissauva, who thereupon
gave the captain leave to write for what he would have brought from
the ship, pretending that he had not the king's order to release them,
though it would suddenly come.
The captain seeing he was held in suspense, and the season of the year
spending for the ship to proceed on her voyage to some place, sent order
to Mr John Burford, the chief mate, to take charge of the ship, and
set sail to Porto Novo, from whence they came, and there to follow the
agent's order.
And now began that long and sad captivity they all along feared. The
ship being gone, the dissauva was called up to the king, and they were
kept under guards a while, till a special order came from the king
to part them, and put one in a town, for the conveniency of their
maintenance, which the king ordered to be at the charge of the country.
On September 16, 1660, the captain and his son were placed in a town
called Bonder Coswat, in the country of Hotcurly [? Hewarrisse Korle],
distant from the city of Kandy northward thirty miles, and from the
rest of the English a full day's journey. Here they had their provisions
brought them twice a day, without money, as much as they could eat,
and as good as the country yielded. The situation of the place was very
pleasant and commodious; but that year that part of the land was very
sickly by agues and fevers, of which many died. The captain and his son
after some time were visited with the common distemper, and the captain,
being also loaded with grief for his deplorable condition, languished
more than three months, and then died, February 9, 1661.
Robert Knox, his son, was now left desolate, sick, and in captivity,
having none to comfort him but God, who is the Father of the fatherless,
and hears the groans of such as are in captivity; being alone to enter
upon a long scene of misery and calamity; oppressed with weakness of
body and grief of soul for the loss of his father, and the remediless
trouble that he was like to endure; and the first instance of it was in
the burial of his father, for he sent his black boy to the people of
the town, to desire their assistance, because they understood not their
language; but they sent him only a rope, to drag him by the neck into
the woods, and told him that they would offer him no other help, unless
he would pay for it. This barbarous answer increased his trouble for his
father's death, that now he was like to lie unburied, and be made a prey
to the wild beasts in the woods; for the ground was very hard, and they
had not tools to dig with, and so it was impossible for them to bury
him; and having a small matter of money left him, viz., a pagoda and a
gold ring, he hired a man, and so buried him in as decent a manner as
their condition would permit.
His dead father being thus removed out of his sight, but his ague
continuing, he was reduced very low, partly by sorrow and partly by his
disease. All the comfort he had was to go into the wood and fields with
a book, either the "Practice of Piety" or Mr Rogers's "Seven Treatises,"
which were the only two books he had, and meditate and read, and
sometimes pray; in which his anguish made him often invert Elijah's
petition,--that he might die, because his life was a burden to him. God,
though He was pleased to prolong his life, yet He found a way to lighten
his grief, by removing his ague, and granting him a desire which above
all things was acceptable to him. He had read his two books over so
often that he had both almost by heart; and though they were both
pious and good writings, yet he longed for the truth from the original
fountain, and thought it his greatest unhappiness that he had not a
Bible, and did believe that he should never see one again; but, contrary
to his expectation, God brought him one after this manner. As he was
fishing one day with his black boy, to catch some fish to relieve his
hunger, an old man passed by them, and asked his boy whether his master
could read; and when the boy had answered yes, he told him that he had
gotten a book from the Portuguese, when they left Colombo; and, if his
master pleased, he would sell it him. The boy told his master, who bade
him go and see what book it was. The boy having served the English
some time, knew the book, and as soon as he got it into his hand, came
running to him, calling out before he came to him, "It is the Bible!"
The words startled him, and he flung down his angle to meet him, and,
finding it was true, was mightily rejoiced to see it; but he was afraid
he should not have enough to purchase it, though he was resolved to part
with all the money he had, which was but one pagoda, to buy it; but his
black boy persuading him to slight it, and leave it to him to buy it, he
at length obtained it for a knit cap.
This accident he could not but look upon as a great miracle, that God
should bestow upon him such an extraordinary blessing, and bring him a
Bible in his own native language, in such a remote part of the world,
where His name was not known, and where it was never heard of that an
Englishman had ever been before. The enjoyment of this mercy was a great
comfort to him in captivity, and though he wanted no bodily convenience
that the country did afford; for the king, immediately after his
father's death, had sent an express order to the people of the towns,
that they should be kind to him, and give him good victuals; and after
he had been some time in the country, and understood the language,
he got him good conveniences, as a house and gardens; and falling
to husbandry, God so prospered him, that he had plenty, not only for
himself, but to lend others; which being, according to the custom of the
country, at 50 per cent. a year, much enriched him: he had also goats,
which served him for mutton, and hogs and hens. Notwithstanding this, I
say, for he lived as fine as any of their noblemen, he could not so far
forget his native country as to be contented to dwell in a strange land,
where there was to him a famine of God's word and sacraments, the want
of which made all other things to be of little value to him; therefore,
as he made it his daily and fervent prayer to God, in His good time, to
restore him to both, so, at length, he, with one Stephen Rutland, who
had lived with him two years before, resolved to make their escape, and,
about the year 1673, meditated all secret ways to compass it. They had
before taken up a way of peddling about the country, and buying tobacco,
pepper, garlic, combs, and all sorts of iron ware, and carried them into
those parts of the country where they wanted them; and now, to promote
their design, as they went with their commodities from place to place,
they discoursed with the country people (for they could now speak their
language well) concerning the ways and inhabitants, where the isle was
thinnest and fullest inhabited, where and how the watches lay from one
country to another, and what commodities were proper for them to carry
into all parts; pretending that they would furnish themselves with such
wares as the respective places wanted. None doubted but what they did
was upon the account of trade, because Mr Knox was so well seated, and
could not be supposed to leave such an estate, by travelling northward,
because that part of the land was least inhabited; and so, furnishing
themselves with such wares as were vendible in those parts, they set
forth, and steered their course towards the north part of the islands,
knowing very little of the ways, which were generally intricate and
perplexed, because they have no public roads, but a multitude of little
paths from one town to another, and those often changing; and for white
men to inquire about the ways was very dangerous, because the people
would presently suspect their design.
At this time they travelled from Conde Uda as far as the country of
Nuwarakalawiya, which is the furthermost part of the king's dominions,
and about three days' journey from their dwelling. They were very
thankful to Providence that they had passed all difficulties so far,
but yet they durst not go any farther, because they had no wares left to
traffic with; and it being the first time they had been absent so long
from home, they feared the townsmen would come after them to seek for
them; and so they returned home, and went eight or ten times into those
parts with their wares, till they became well acquainted both with the
people and the paths.
In these parts Mr Knox met his black boy, whom he had turned away divers
years before. He had now got a wife and children, and was very poor;
but being acquainted with these quarters, he not only took directions
of him, but agreed with him, for a good reward, to conduct him and
his companions to the Dutch. He gladly undertook it, and a time was
appointed between them; but Mr Knox being disabled by a grievous pain,
which seized him on his right side, and held him five days that he could
not travel, this appointment proved in vain; for though he went as
soon as he was well, his guide was gone into another country about his
business, and they durst not at that time venture to run away without
him.
These attempts took up eight or nine years, various accidents hindering
their designs, but most commonly the dry weather, because they feared in
the woods they should be starved with thirst, all the country being in
such a condition almost four or five years together for lack of rain.
On September 22, 1679, they set forth again, furnished with knives and
small axes for their defence, because they could carry them privately
and send all sorts of wares to sell as formerly, and all necessary
provisions, the moon being twenty-seven days old, that they might have
light to run away by, to try what success God Almighty would now give
them in seeking their liberty. Their first stage was to Anuradhapoora,
in the way to which lay a wilderness, called Parraoth Mocolane, full of
wild elephants, tigers, and bears; and because it is the utmost confines
of the king's dominions, there is always a watch kept.
In the middle of the way they heard that the governor's officers of
these parts were out to gather up the king's revenues and duties, to
send them up to the city; which put them into no small fear, lest,
finding them, they should send them back again; whereupon they withdrew
to the western parts of Ecpoulpot, and sat down to knitting till they
heard the officers were gone. As soon as they were departed, they went
onwards of their journey, having got a good parcel of cotton-yarn to
knit caps with, and having kept their wares, as they pretended, to
exchange for dried flesh, which was sold only in those lower parts.
Their way lay necessarily through the governor's yard at Kalluvilla, who
dwells there on purpose to examine all that go and come. This greatly
distressed them, because he would easily suspect they were out of their
bounds, being captives; however, they went resolutely to his house, and
meeting him, presented him with a small parcel of tobacco and betel;
and, showing him their wares, told him they came to get dried flesh to
carry back with them. The governor did not suspect them, but told
them he was sorry they came in so dry a time, when no deer were to be
catched, but if some rain fell, he would soon supply them. This answer
pleased them, and they seemed contented to stay; and accordingly,
abiding with him two or three days, and no rain falling, they presented
the governor with five or six charges of gunpowder, which is a rarity
among them; and leaving a bundle at his house, they desired him to shoot
them some deer, while they made a step to Anuradhapoora. Here also they
were put in a great fright by the coming of certain soldiers from the
king to the governor, to give him orders to set a secure guard at the
watches, that no suspicious persons might pass, which, though it was
only intended to prevent the flight of the relations of certain nobles
whom the king had clapped up, yet they feared they might wonder to see
white men here, and so send them back again; but God so ordered it that
they were very kind to them and left them to their business, and so they
got safe to Anuradhapoora. Their pretence was dried flesh, though they
knew there was none to be had; but their real business was to search the
way down to the Dutch, which they stayed three days to do; but finding
that in the way to Jaffnapatam, which is one of the Dutch ports, there
was a watch which could hardly be passed, and other inconveniences not
surmountable, they resolved to go back, and take the river Malwatta Oya,
which they had before judged would be a probable guide to lead them to
the sea; and, that they might not be pursued, left Anuradhapoora just at
night, when the people never travel for fear of wild beasts, on Sunday,
October 12, being stored with all things needful for their journey,
viz., ten days' provision, a basin to boil their provision in, two
calabashes to fetch water in, and two great tallipat leaves for tents,
with jaggery, sweetmeats, tobacco, betel, tinder-boxes, and a deerskin
for shoes, to keep their feet from thorns, because to them they chiefly
trusted. Being come to the river, they struck into the woods, and kept
by the side of it; yet not going on the sand (lest their footsteps
should be discerned), unless forced, and then going backwards.
Being gotten a good way into the wood, it began to rain; wherefore they
erected their tents, made a fire, and refreshed themselves against the
rising of the moon, which was then eighteen days old; and having tied
deerskins about their feet, and eased themselves of their wares, they
proceeded on their journey. When they had travelled three or four hours
with difficulty, because the moon gave but little light among the thick
trees, they found an elephant in their way before them, and because they
could not scare him away, they were forced to stay till morning; and so
they kindled a fire, and took a pipe of tobacco. By the light they could
not discern that ever anybody had been there, nothing being to be seen
but woods; and so they were in great hopes that they were past all
danger, being beyond all inhabitants; but they were mistaken, for the
river winding northward, brought them into the midst of a parcel of
towns, called Tissea Wava, where, being in danger of being seen, they
were under a mighty terror; for had the people found them, they would
have beat them, and sent them up to the king; and, to avoid it, they
crept into a hollow tree, and sat there in mud and wet till it began to
grow dark, and then betaking themselves to their legs, travelled till
the darkness of night stopped them. They heard voices behind them, and
feared it was somebody in pursuit of them; but at length, discerning
it was only an hallooing to keep the wild beasts out of the corn, they
pitched their tents by the river, and having boiled rice and roasted
meat for their suppers, and satisfied their hunger, they committed
themselves to God's keeping, and laid them down to sleep.
The next morning, to prevent the worst, they got up early and hastened
on their journey; and though they were now got out of all danger of the
tame Chiangulays, they were in great danger of the wild ones, of whom
those woods were full; and though they saw their tents, yet they were
all gone, since the rains had fallen, from the river into the woods; and
so God kept them from that danger, for, had they met the wild men, they
had been shot.
Thus they travelled from morning till night several days, through bushes
and thorns, which made their arms and shoulders, which were naked,
all of a gore blood. They often met with bears, hogs, deer, and wild
buffaloes; but they all ran away as soon as they saw them. The river was
exceedingly full of alligators; in the evening they used to pitch their
tents, and make great fires both before and behind them, to affright
the wild beasts; and though they heard the voices of all sorts, they saw
none.
On Thursday, at noon, they crossed the river Coronda [? Kannadera Oya],
which parts the country of the Malabars from the king's, and on Friday,
about nine or ten in the morning, came among the inhabitants, of whom
they were as much afraid as of the Chiangulays before; for, though the
Wanniounay, or prince of this people, payeth tribute to the Dutch out
of fear, yet he is better affected to the King of Kandy, and, if he had
took them, would have sent them up to their old master; but not knowing
any way to escape, they kept on their journey by the river-side by day,
because the woods were not to be travelled by night for thorns and wild
beasts, who came down then to the river to drink. In all the Malabar
country they met with only two Brahmins, who treated them very civilly;
and for their money, one of them conducted them till they came into the
territories of the Dutch, and out of all danger of the King of Kandy,
which did not a little rejoice them; but yet they were in no small
trouble how to find the way out of the woods, till a Malabar, for the
lucre of a knife, conducted them to a Dutch town, where they found
guides to conduct them from town to town, till they came to the fort
called Aripo, where they arrived Saturday, October 18, 1679, and there
thankfully adored God's wonderful providence, in thus completing their
deliverance from a long captivity of nineteen years and six months.
I come now back to my own history, which grows near a conclusion, as to
the travels I took in this part of the world. We were now at sea, and we
stood away to the north for a while, to try if we could get a market for
our spice, for we were very rich in nutmegs, but we ill knew what to
do with them; we durst not go upon the English coast, or, to speak more
properly, among the English factories to trade; not that we were afraid
to fight any two ships they had, and, besides that, we knew that, as
they had no letters of marque, or of reprisals from the government, so
it was none of their business to act offensively, no, not though we were
pirates. Indeed, if we had made any attempt upon them, they might have
justified themselves in joining together to resist, and assisting one
another to defend themselves; but to go out of their business to attack
a pirate ship of almost fifty guns, as we were, it was plain that it was
none of their business, and consequently it was none of our concern, so
we did not trouble ourselves about it; but, on the other hand, it was
none of our business to be seen among them, and to have the news of us
carried from one factory to another, so that whatever design we might be
upon at another time, we should be sure to be prevented and discovered.
Much less had we any occasion to be seen among any of the Dutch
factories upon the coast of Malabar; for, being fully laden with the
spices which we had, in the sense of their trade, plundered them of, it
would have told them what we were, and all that we had been doing; and
they would, no doubt, have concerned themselves all manner of ways to
have fallen upon us.
The only way we had for it was to stand away for Goa, and trade, if we
could, for our spices, with the Portuguese factory there. Accordingly,
we sailed almost thither, for we had made land two days before, and
being in the latitude of Goa, were standing in fair for Margaon, on the
head of Salsat, at the going up to Goa, when I called to the men at the
helm to bring the ship to, and bid the pilot go away N.N.W., till we
came out of sight of the shore, when William and I called a council,
as we used to do upon emergencies, what course we should take to trade
there and not be discovered; and we concluded at length that we would
not go thither at all, but that William, with such trusty fellows only
as could be depended upon, should go in the sloop to Surat, which was
still farther northward, and trade there as merchants with such of the
English factory as they could find to be for their turn.
To carry this with the more caution, and so as not to be suspected,
we agreed to take out all her guns, and put such men into her, and no
other, as would promise us not to desire or offer to go on shore, or to
enter into any talk or conversation with any that might come on board;
and, to finish the disguise to our mind, William documented two of our
men, one a surgeon, as he himself was, and the other, a ready-witted
fellow, an old sailor, that had been a pilot upon the coast of New
England, and was an excellent mimic; these two William dressed up like
two Quakers, and made them talk like such. The old pilot he made go
captain of the sloop, and the surgeon for doctor, as he was, and himself
supercargo. In this figure, and the sloop all plain, no curled work upon
her (indeed she had not much before), and no guns to be seen, away he
went for Surat.
I should, indeed, have observed, that we went, some days before we
parted, to a small sandy island close under the shore, where there was
a good cove of deep water, like a road, and out of sight of any of the
factories, which are here very thick upon the coast. Here we shifted the
loading of the sloop, and put into her such things only as we had a mind
to dispose of there, which was indeed little but nutmegs and cloves, but
chiefly the former; and from thence William and his two Quakers, with
about eighteen men in the sloop, went away to Surat, and came to an
anchor at a distance from the factory.
William used such caution that he found means to go on shore himself,
and the doctor, as he called him, in a boat which came on board them
to sell fish, rowed with only Indians of the country, which boat he
afterwards hired to carry him on board again. It was not long that they
were on shore, but that they found means to get acquaintance with some
Englishmen, who, though they lived there, and perhaps were the company's
servants at first, yet appeared then to be traders for themselves, in
whatever coast business especially came in their way; and the doctor was
made the first to pick acquaintance; so he recommended his friend, the
supercargo, till, by degrees, the merchants were as fond of the bargain
as our men were of the merchants, only that the cargo was a little too
much for them.
However, this did not prove a difficulty long with them, for the next
day they brought two more merchants, English also, into their bargain,
and, as William could perceive by their discourse, they resolved, if
they bought them, to carry them to the Gulf of Persia upon their
own accounts. William took the hint, and, as he told me afterwards,
concluded we might carry them there as well as they. But this was not
William's present business; he had here no less than three-and-thirty
ton of nuts and eighteen ton of cloves. There was a good quantity of
mace among the nutmegs, but we did not stand to make much allowance. In
short, they bargained, and the merchants, who would gladly have bought
sloop and all, gave William directions, and two men for pilots, to go
to a creek about six leagues from the factory, where they brought boats,
and unloaded the whole cargo, and paid William very honestly for it; the
whole parcel amounting, in money, to about thirty-five thousand pieces
of eight, besides some goods of value, which William was content to
take, and two large diamonds, worth about three hundred pounds sterling.
When they paid the money, William invited them on board the sloop, where
they came; and the merry old Quaker diverted them exceedingly with his
talk, and "thee'd" them and "thou'd" them till he made them so drunk
that they could not go on shore for that night.
They would fain have known who our people were, and whence they came;
but not a man in the sloop would answer them to any question they asked,
but in such a manner as let them think themselves bantered and jested
with. However, in discourse, William said they were able men for any
cargo we could have brought them, and that they would have bought twice
as much spice if we had had it. He ordered the merry captain to tell
them that they had another sloop that lay at Margaon, and that had a
great quantity of spice on board also; and that, if it was not sold when
he went back (for that thither he was bound), he would bring her up.
Their new chaps were so eager, that they would have bargained with the
old captain beforehand. "Nay, friend," said he, "I will not trade with
thee unsight and unseen; neither do I know whether the master of the
sloop may not have sold his loading already to some merchants of Salsat;
but if he has not when I come to him, I think to bring him up to thee."
The doctor had his employment all this while, as well as William and
the old captain, for he went on shore several times a day in the Indian
boat, and brought fresh provisions for the sloop, which the men had need
enough of. He brought, in particular, seventeen large casks of arrack,
as big as butts, besides smaller quantities, a quantity of rice, and
abundance of fruits, mangoes, pompions, and such things, with fowls and
fish. He never came on board but he was deep laden; for, in short, he
bought for the ship as well as for themselves; and, particularly, they
half-loaded the ship with rice and arrack, with some hogs, and six
or seven cows, alive; and thus, being well victualled, and having
directions for coming again, they returned to us.
William was always the lucky welcome messenger to us, but never more
welcome to us than now; for where we had thrust in the ship, we could
get nothing, except a few mangoes and roots, being not willing to make
any steps into the country, or make ourselves known till we had news of
our sloop; and indeed our men's patience was almost tired, for it
was seventeen days that William spent upon this enterprise, and well
bestowed too.
When he came back we had another conference upon the subject of trade,
namely, whether we should send the best of our spices, and other goods
we had in the ship, to Surat, or whether we should go up to the Gulf of
Persia ourselves, where it was probable we might sell them as well as
the English merchants of Surat. William was for going ourselves, which,
by the way, was from the good, frugal, merchant-like temper of the man,
who was for the best of everything; but here I overruled William, which
I very seldom took upon me to do; but I told him, that, considering our
circumstances, it was much better for us to sell all our cargoes here,
though we made but half-price of them, than to go with them to the Gulf
of Persia, where we should run a greater risk, and where people would be
much more curious and inquisitive into things than they were here, and
where it would not be so easy to manage them, seeing they traded freely
and openly there, not by stealth, as those men seemed to do; and,
besides, if they suspected anything, it would be much more difficult for
us to retreat, except by mere force, than here, where we were upon the
high sea as it were, and could be gone whenever we pleased, without any
disguise, or, indeed, without the least appearance of being pursued,
none knowing where to look for us.
My apprehensions prevailed with William, whether my reasons did or no,
and he submitted; and we resolved to try another ship's loading to the
same merchants. The main business was to consider how to get off that
circumstance that had exposed them to the English merchants, namely that
it was our other sloop; but this the old Quaker pilot undertook; for
being, as I said, an excellent mimic himself, it was the easier for
him to dress up the sloop in new clothes; and first, he put on all the
carved work he had taken off before; her stern, which was painted of
a dumb white or dun colour before, all flat, was now all lacquered and
blue, and I know not how many gay figures in it; as to her quarter, the
carpenters made her a neat little gallery on either side; she had twelve
guns put into her, and some petereroes upon her gunnel, none of which
were there before; and to finish her new habit or appearance, and make
her change complete, he ordered her sails to be altered; and as she
sailed before with a half-sprit, like a yacht, she sailed now with
square-sail and mizzen-mast, like a ketch; so that, in a word, she was a
perfect cheat, disguised in everything that a stranger could be supposed
to take any notice of that had never had but one view, for they had been
but once on board.
In this mean figure the sloop returned; she had a new man put into her
for captain, one we knew how to trust; and the old pilot appearing only
as a passenger, the doctor and William acting as the supercargoes, by a
formal procuration from one Captain Singleton, and all things ordered in
form.
We had a complete loading for the sloop; for, besides a very great
quantity of nutmegs and cloves, mace, and some cinnamon, she had
on board some goods which we took in as we lay about the Philippine
Islands, while we waited as looking for purchase.
William made no difficulty of selling this cargo also, and in about
twenty days returned again, freighted with all necessary provisions for
our voyage, and for a long time; and, as I say, we had a great deal of
other goods: he brought us back about three-and-thirty thousand pieces
of eight, and some diamonds, which, though William did not pretend to
much skill in, yet he made shift to act so as not to be imposed upon,
the merchants he had to deal with, too, being very fair men.
They had no difficulty at all with these merchants, for the prospect
they had of gain made them not at all inquisitive, nor did they make the
least discovery of the sloop; and as to the selling them spices which
were fetched so far from thence, it seems it was not so much a novelty
there as we believed, for the Portuguese had frequently vessels which
came from Macao in China, who brought spices, which they bought of
the Chinese traders, who again frequently dealt among the Dutch Spice
Islands, and received spices in exchange for such goods as they carried
from China.
This might be called, indeed, the only trading voyage we had made; and
now we were really very rich, and it came now naturally before us to
consider whither we should go next. Our proper delivery port, as we
ought to have called it, was at Madagascar, in the Bay of Mangahelly;
but William took me by myself into the cabin of the sloop one day,
and told me he wanted to talk seriously with me a little; so we shut
ourselves in, and William began with me.
"Wilt thou give me leave," says William, "to talk plainly with thee upon
thy present circumstances, and thy future prospect of living? and wilt
thou promise, on thy word, to take nothing ill of me?"
"With all my heart," said I. "William, I have always found your advice
good, and your designs have not only been well laid, but your counsel
has been very lucky to us; and, therefore, say what you will, I promise
you I will not take it ill."
"But that is not all my demand," says William; "if thou dost not like
what I am going to propose to thee, thou shalt promise me not to make it
public among the men."
"I will not, William," says I, "upon my word;" and swore to him, too,
very heartily.
"Why, then," says William, "I have but one thing more to article with
thee about, and that is, that thou wilt consent that if thou dost not
approve of it for thyself, thou wilt yet consent that I shall put so
much of it in practice as relates to myself and my new comrade doctor,
so that it be nothing to thy detriment and loss."
"In anything," says I, "William, but leaving me, I will; but I cannot
part with you upon any terms whatever."
"Well," says William, "I am not designing to part from thee, unless it
is thy own doing. But assure me in all these points, and I will tell my
mind freely."
So I promised him everything he desired of me in the solemnest manner
possible, and so seriously and frankly withal, that William made no
scruple to open his mind to me.
"Why, then, in the first place," says William, "shall I ask thee if thou
dost not think thou and all thy men are rich enough, and have really
gotten as much wealth together (by whatsoever way it has been gotten,
that is not the question) as we all know what to do with?"
"Why, truly, William," said I, "thou art pretty right; I think we have
had pretty good luck."
"Well, then," says William, "I would ask whether, if thou hast gotten
enough, thou hast any thought of leaving off this trade; for most people
leave off trading when they are satisfied of getting, and are rich
enough; for nobody trades for the sake of trading; much less do men rob
for the sake of thieving."
"Well, William," says I, "now I perceive what it is thou art driving at.
I warrant you," says I, "you begin to hanker after home."
"Why, truly," says William, "thou hast said it, and so I hope thou dost
too. It is natural for most men that are abroad to desire to come home
again at last, especially when they are grown rich, and when they are
(as thou ownest thyself to be) rich enough, and so rich as they know not
what to do with more if they had it."
"Well, William," said I, "but now you think you have laid your
preliminary at first so home that I should have nothing to say; that is,
that when I had got money enough, it would be natural to think of going
home. But you have not explained what you mean by home, and there you
and I shall differ. Why, man, I am at home; here is my habitation; I
never had any other in my lifetime; I was a kind of charity school boy;
so that I can have no desire of going anywhere for being rich or poor,
for I have nowhere to go."
"Why," says William, looking a little confused, "art not thou an
Englishman?"
"Yes," says I, "I think so: you see I speak English; but I came out of
England a child, and never was in it but once since I was a man; and
then I was cheated and imposed upon, and used so ill that I care not if
I never see it more."
"Why, hast thou no relations or friends there?" says he; "no
acquaintance--none that thou hast any kindness or any remains of respect
for?"
"Not I, William," said I; "no more than I have in the court of the Great
Mogul."
"Nor any kindness for the country where thou wast born?" says William.
"Not I, any more than for the island of Madagascar, nor so much neither;
for that has been a fortunate island to me more than once, as thou
knowest, William," said I.
William was quite stunned at my discourse, and held his peace; and I
said to him, "Go on, William; what hast thou to say farther? for I hear
you have some project in your head," says I; "come, let's have it out."
"Nay," says William, "thou hast put me to silence, and all I had to say
is overthrown; all my projects are come to nothing, and gone."
"Well, but, William," said I, "let me hear what they were; for though
it is so that what I have to aim at does not look your way, and though
I have no relation, no friend, no acquaintance in England, yet I do not
say I like this roving, cruising life so well as never to give it over.
Let me hear if thou canst propose to me anything beyond it."
"Certainly, friend," says William, very gravely, "there is something
beyond it;" and lifting up his hands, he seemed very much affected, and
I thought I saw tears stand in his eyes; but I, that was too hardened
a wretch to be moved with these things, laughed at him. "What!" says I,
"you mean death, I warrant you: don't you? That is beyond this trade.
Why, when it comes, it comes; then we are all provided for."
"Ay," says William, "that is true; but it would be better that some
things were thought on before that came."
"Thought on!" says I; "what signifies thinking of it? To think of death
is to die, and to be always thinking of it is to be all one's life long
a-dying. It is time enough to think of it when it comes."
You will easily believe I was well qualified for a pirate that could
talk thus. But let me leave it upon record, for the remark of other
hardened rogues like myself,--my conscience gave me a pang that I never
felt before when I said, "What signifies thinking of it?" and told me I
should one day think of these words with a sad heart; but the time of my
reflection was not yet come; so I went on.
Says William very seriously, "I must tell thee, friend, I am sorry to
hear thee talk so. They that never think of dying, often die without
thinking of it."
I carried on the jesting way a while farther, and said, "Prithee, do not
talk of dying; how do we know we shall ever die?" and began to laugh.
"I need not answer thee to that," says William; "it is not my place to
reprove thee, who art commander over me here; but I would rather thou
wouldst talk otherwise of death; it is a coarse thing."
"Say anything to me, William," said I; "I will take it kindly." I began
now to be very much moved at his discourse.
Says William (tears running down his face), "It is because men live
as if they were never to die, that so many die before they know how
to live. But it was not death that I meant when I said that there was
something to be thought of beyond this way of living."
"Why, William," said I, "what was that?"
"It was repentance," says he.
"Why," says I, "did you ever know a pirate repent?"
At this he startled a little, and returned, "At the gallows I have
[known] one before, and I hope thou wilt be the second."
He spoke this very affectionately, with an appearance of concern for me.
"Well, William," says I, "I thank you; and I am not so senseless of
these things, perhaps, as I make myself seem to be. But come, let me
hear your proposal."
"My proposal," says William, "is for thy good as well as my own. We may
put an end to this kind of life, and repent; and I think the fairest
occasion offers for both, at this very time, that ever did, or ever
will, or, indeed, can happen again."
"Look you, William," says I; "let me have your proposal for putting an
end to our present way of living first, for that is the case before
us, and you and I will talk of the other afterwards. I am not so
insensible," said I, "as you may think me to be. But let us get out of
this hellish condition we are in first."
"Nay," says William, "thou art in the right there; we must never talk of
repenting while we continue pirates."
"Well," says I, "William, that's what I meant; for if we must not
reform, as well as be sorry for what is done, I have no notion what
repentance means; indeed, at best I know little of the matter; but the
nature of the thing seems to tell me that the first step we have to take
is to break off this wretched course; and I'll begin there with you,
with all my heart."
I could see by his countenance that William was thoroughly pleased with
the offer; and if he had tears in-his eyes before, he had more now; but
it was from quite a different passion; for he was so swallowed up with
joy he could not speak.
"Come, William," says I, "thou showest me plain enough thou hast an
honest meaning; dost thou think it practicable for us to put an end to
our unhappy way of living here, and get off?"
"Yes," says he, "I think it very practicable for me; whether it is for
thee or no, that will depend upon thyself."
"Well," says I, "I give you my word, that as I have commanded you all
along, from the time I first took you on board, so you shall command me
from this hour, and everything you direct me I'll do."
"Wilt thou leave it all to me? Dost thou say this freely?"
"Yes, William," said I, "freely; and I'll perform it faithfully."
"Why, then," says William, "my scheme is this: We are now at the mouth
of the Gulf of Persia; we have sold so much of our cargo here at Surat,
that we have money enough; send me away for Bassorah with the sloop,
laden with the China goods we have on board, which will make another
good cargo, and I'll warrant thee I'll find means, among the English and
Dutch merchants there, to lodge a quantity of goods and money also as
a merchant, so as we will be able to have recourse to it again upon any
occasion, and when I come home we will contrive the rest; and, in the
meantime, do you bring the ship's crew to take a resolution to go to
Madagascar as soon as I return."
I told him I thought he need not go so far as Bassorah, but might run
into Gombroon, or to Ormuz, and pretend the same business.
"No," says he, "I cannot act with the same freedom there, because
the Company's factories are there, and I may be laid hold of there on
pretence of interloping."
"Well, but," said I, "you may go to Ormuz, then; for I am loth to
part with you so long as to go to the bottom of the Persian Gulf." He
returned, that I should leave it to him to do as he should see cause.
We had taken a large sum of money at Surat, so that we had near a
hundred thousand pounds in money at our command, but on board the great
ship we had still a great deal more.
I ordered him publicly to keep the money on board which he had, and to
buy up with it a quantity of ammunition, if he could get it, and so to
furnish us for new exploits; and, in the meantime, I resolved to get a
quantity of gold and some jewels, which I had on board the great ship,
and place them so that I might carry them off without notice as soon as
he came back; and so, according to William's directions, I left him
to go the voyage, and I went on board the great ship, in which we had
indeed an immense treasure.
We waited no less than two months for William's return, and indeed
I began to be very uneasy about William, sometimes thinking he had
abandoned me, and that he might have used the same artifice to have
engaged the other men to comply with him, and so they were gone away
together; and it was but three days before his return that I was just
upon the point of resolving to go away to Madagascar, and give him over;
but the old surgeon, who mimicked the Quaker and passed for the master
of the sloop at Surat, persuaded me against that, for which good advice
and apparent faithfulness in what he had been trusted with, I made him a
party to my design, and he proved very honest.
At length William came back, to our inexpressible joy, and brought a
great many necessary things with him; as, particularly, he brought sixty
barrels of powder, some iron shot, and about thirty ton of lead; also
he brought a great deal of provisions; and, in a word, William gave me
a public account of his voyage, in the hearing of whoever happened to be
upon the quarter-deck, that no suspicions might be found about us.
After all was done, William moved that he might go up again, and that
I would go with him; named several things which we had on board that he
could not sell there; and, particularly, told us he had been obliged to
leave several things there, the caravans being not come in; and that he
had engaged to come back again with goods.
This was what I wanted. The men were eager for his going, and
particularly because he told them they might load the sloop back with
rice and provisions; but I seemed backward to going, when the old
surgeon stood up and persuaded me to go, and with many arguments pressed
me to it; as, particularly, if I did not go, there would be no order,
and several of the men might drop away, and perhaps betray all the rest;
and that they should not think it safe for the sloop to go again if I
did not go; and to urge me to it, he offered himself to go with me.
Upon these considerations I seemed to be over-persuaded to go, and all
the company seemed to be better satisfied when I had consented; and,
accordingly, we took all the powder, lead, and iron out of the sloop
into the great ship, and all the other things that were for the ship's
use, and put in some bales of spices and casks or frails of cloves, in
all about seven ton, and some other goods, among the bales of which I
had conveyed all my private treasure, which, I assure you, was of no
small value, and away I went.
At going off I called a council of all the officers in the ship to
consider in what place they should wait for me, and how long, and we
appointed the ship to stay eight-and-twenty days at a little island on
the Arabian side of the Gulf, and that, if the sloop did not come in
that time, they should sail to another island to the west of that place,
and wait there fifteen days more, and that then, if the sloop did not
come, they should conclude some accident must have happened, and the
rendezvous should be at Madagascar.
Being thus resolved, we left the ship, which both William and I, and
the surgeon, never intended to see any more. We steered directly for the
Gulf, and through to Bassorah, or Balsara. This city of Balsara lies
at some distance from the place where our sloop lay, and the river
not being very safe, and we but ill acquainted with it, having but an
ordinary pilot, we went on shore at a village where some merchants live,
and which is very populous, for the sake of small vessels riding there.
Here we stayed and traded three or four days, landing all our bales and
spices, and indeed the whole cargo that was of any considerable value,
which we chose to do rather than go up immediately to Balsara till the
project we had laid was put in execution.
After we had bought several goods, and were preparing to buy several
others, the boat being on shore with twelve men, myself, William, the
surgeon, and one fourth man, whom we had singled out, we contrived
to send a Turk just at the dusk of the evening with a letter to the
boatswain, and giving the fellow a charge to run with all possible
speed, we stood at a small distance to observe the event. The contents
of the letter were thus written by the old doctor:--
"BOATSWAIN THOMAS,--We are all betrayed. For God's sake make off with
the boat, and get on board, or you are all lost. The captain, William
the Quaker, and George the reformade are seized and carried away: I am
escaped and hid, but cannot stir out; if I do I am a dead man. As
soon as you are on board cut or slip, and make sail for your lives.
Adieu.--R.S."
We stood undiscovered, as above, it being the dusk of the evening, and
saw the Turk deliver the letter, and in three minutes we saw all the men
hurry into the boat and put off, and no sooner were they on board than
they took the hint, as we supposed, for the next morning they were out
of sight, and we never heard tale or tidings of them since.
We were now in a good place, and in very good circumstances, for we
passed for merchants of Persia.
It is not material to record here what a mass of ill-gotten wealth we
had got together: it will be more to the purpose to tell you that I
began to be sensible of the crime of getting of it in such a manner as
I had done; that I had very little satisfaction in the possession of
it; and, as I told William, I had no expectation of keeping it, nor much
desire; but, as I said to him one day walking out into the fields near
the town of Bassorah, so I depended upon it that it would be the case,
which you will hear presently.
We were perfectly secured at Bassorah, by having frighted away the
rogues, our comrades; and we had nothing to do but to consider how to
convert our treasure into things proper to make us look like merchants,
as we were now to be, and not like freebooters, as we really had been.
We happened very opportunely here upon a Dutchman, who had travelled
from Bengal to Agra, the capital city of the Great Mogul, and from
thence was come to the coast of Malabar by land, and got shipping,
somehow or other, up the Gulf; and we found his design was to go up the
great river to Bagdad or Babylon, and so, by the caravan, to Aleppo and
Scanderoon. As William spoke Dutch, and was of an agreeable, insinuating
behaviour, he soon got acquainted with this Dutchman, and discovering
our circumstances to one another, we found he had considerable effects
with him; and that he had traded long in that country, and was making
homeward to his own country; and that he had servants with him; one an
Armenian, whom he had taught to speak Dutch, and who had something of
his own, but had a mind to travel into Europe; and the other a Dutch
sailor, whom he had picked up by his fancy, and reposed a great trust in
him, and a very honest fellow he was.
This Dutchman was very glad of an acquaintance, because he soon found
that we directed our thoughts to Europe also; and as he found we were
encumbered with goods only (for we let him know nothing of our money),
he readily offered us his assistance to dispose of as many of them as
the place we were in would put off, and his advice what to do with the
rest.
While this was doing, William and I consulted what to do with ourselves
and what we had; and first, we resolved we would never talk seriously
of our measures but in the open fields, where we were sure nobody could
hear; so every evening, when the sun began to decline and the air to be
moderate we walked out, sometimes this way, sometimes that, to consult
of our affairs.
I should have observed that we had new clothed ourselves here, after
the Persian manner, with long vests of silk, a gown or robe of English
crimson cloth, very fine and handsome, and had let our beards grow so
after the Persian manner that we passed for Persian merchants, in view
only, though, by the way, we could not understand or speak one word of
the language of Persia, or indeed of any other but English and Dutch;
and of the latter I understood very little.
However, the Dutchman supplied all this for us; and as we had resolved
to keep ourselves as retired as we could, though there were several
English merchants upon the place, yet we never acquainted ourselves with
one of them, or exchanged a word with them; by which means we prevented
their inquiry of us now, or their giving any intelligence of us, if any
news of our landing here should happen to come, which, it was easy for
us to know, was possible enough, if any of our comrades fell into bad
hands, or by many accidents which we could not foresee.
It was during my being here, for here we stayed near two months, that
I grew very thoughtful about my circumstances; not as to the danger,
neither indeed were we in any, but were entirely concealed and
unsuspected; but I really began to have other thoughts of myself, and of
the world, than ever I had before.
William had struck so deep into my unthinking temper with hinting to me
that there was something beyond all this; that the present time was the
time of enjoyment, but that the time of account approached; that the
work that remained was gentler than the labour past, viz., repentance,
and that it was high time to think of it;--I say these, and such
thoughts as these, engrossed my hours, and, in a word, I grew very sad.
As to the wealth I had, which was immensely great, it was all like dirt
under my feet; I had no value for it, no peace in the possession of it,
no great concern about me for the leaving of it.
William had perceived my thoughts to be troubled and my mind heavy and
oppressed for some time; and one evening, in one of our cool walks, I
began with him about the leaving our effects. William was a wise and
wary man, and indeed all the prudentials of my conduct had for a long
time been owing to his advice, and so now all the methods for preserving
our effects, and even ourselves, lay upon him; and he had been telling
me of some of the measures he had been taking for our making homeward,
and for the security of our wealth, when I took him very short. "Why,
William," says I, "dost thou think we shall ever be able to reach Europe
with all this cargo that we have about us?"
"Ay," says William, "without doubt, as well as other merchants with
theirs, as long as it is not publicly known what quantity or of what
value our cargo consists."
"Why, William," says I, smiling, "do you think that if there is a God
above, as you have so long been telling me there is, and that we must
give an account to Him,--I say, do you think, if He be a righteous
Judge, He will let us escape thus with the plunder, as we may call it,
of so many innocent people, nay, I might say nations, and not call us to
an account for it before we can get to Europe, where we pretend to enjoy
it?"
William appeared struck and surprised at the question, and made no
answer for a great while; and I repeated the question, adding that it
was not to be expected.
After a little pause, says William, "Thou hast started a very weighty
question, and I can make no positive answer to it; but I will state it
thus: first, it is true that, if we consider the justice of God, we
have no reason to expect any protection; but as the ordinary ways of
Providence are out of the common road of human affairs, so we may hope
for mercy still upon our repentance, and we know not how good He may be
to us; so we are to act as if we rather depended upon the last, I mean
the merciful part, than claimed the first, which must produce nothing
but judgment and vengeance."
"But hark ye, William," says I, "the nature of repentance, as you have
hinted once to me, included reformation; and we can never reform; how,
then, can we repent?"
"Why can we never reform?" says William.
"Because," said I, "we cannot restore what we have taken away by rapine
and spoil."
"It is true," says William, "we never can do that, for we can never come
to the knowledge of the owners."
"But what, then, must be done with our wealth," said I, "the effects
of plunder and rapine? If we keep it, we continue to be robbers and
thieves; and if we quit it we cannot do justice with it, for we cannot
restore it to the right owners."
"Nay," says William, "the answer to it is short. To quit what we have,
and do it here, is to throw it away to those who have no claim to it,
and to divest ourselves of it, but to do no right with it; whereas we
ought to keep it carefully together, with a resolution to do what right
with it we are able; and who knows what opportunity Providence may
put into our hands to do justice, at least, to some of those we have
injured? So we ought, at least, to leave it to Him and go on. As it is,
without doubt our present business is to go to some place of safety,
where we may wait His will."
This resolution of William was very satisfying to me indeed, as, the
truth is, all he said, and at all times, was solid and good; and had
not William thus, as it were, quieted my mind, I think, verily, I was so
alarmed at the just reason I had to expect vengeance from Heaven upon
me for my ill-gotten wealth, that I should have run away from it as the
devil's goods, that I had nothing to do with, that did not belong to
me, and that I had no right to keep, and was in certain danger of being
destroyed for.
However, William settled my mind to more prudent steps than these, and
I concluded that I ought, however, to proceed to a place of safety,
and leave the event to God Almighty's mercy. But this I must leave upon
record, that I had from this time no joy of the wealth I had got. I
looked upon it all as stolen, and so indeed the greatest part of it was.
I looked upon it as a hoard of other men's goods, which I had robbed the
innocent owners of, and which I ought, in a word, to be hanged for here,
and damned for hereafter. And now, indeed, I began sincerely to hate
myself for a dog; a wretch that had been a thief and a murderer; a
wretch that was in a condition which nobody was ever in; for I had
robbed, and though I had the wealth by me, yet it was impossible I
should ever make any restitution; and upon this account it ran in my
head that I could never repent, for that repentance could not be sincere
without restitution, and therefore must of necessity be damned. There
was no room for me to escape. I went about with my heart full of these
thoughts, little better than a distracted fellow; in short, running
headlong into the dreadfullest despair, and premeditating nothing but
how to rid myself out of the world; and, indeed, the devil, if such
things are of the devil's immediate doing, followed his work very close
with me, and nothing lay upon my mind for several days but to shoot
myself into the head with my pistol.
I was all this while in a vagrant life, among infidels, Turks, pagans,
and such sort of people. I had no minister, no Christian to converse
with but poor William. He was my ghostly father or confessor, and he was
all the comfort I had. As for my knowledge of religion, you have heard
my history. You may suppose I had not much; and as for the Word of
God, I do not remember that I ever read a chapter in the Bible in my
lifetime. I was little Bob at Bussleton, and went to school to learn my
Testament.
However, it pleased God to make William the Quaker everything to me.
Upon this occasion, I took him out one evening, as usual, and hurried
him away into the fields with me, in more haste than ordinary; and
there, in short, I told him the perplexity of my mind, and under what
terrible temptations of the devil I had been; that I must shoot myself,
for I could not support the weight and terror that was upon me.
"Shoot yourself!" says William; "why, what will that do for you?"
"Why," says I, "it will put an end to a miserable life."
"Well," says William, "are you satisfied the next will be better?"
"No, no," says I; "much worse, to be sure."
"Why, then," says he, "shooting yourself is the devil's motion, no
doubt; for it is the devil of a reason, that, because thou art in an ill
case, therefore thou must put thyself into a worse."
This shocked my reason indeed. "Well, but," says I, "there is no bearing
the miserable condition I am in."
"Very well," says William; "but it seems there is some bearing a worse
condition; and so you will shoot yourself, that you may be past remedy?"
"I am past remedy already," says I.
"How do you know that?" says he.
"I am satisfied of it," said I.
"Well," says he, "but you are not sure; so you will shoot yourself to
make it certain; for though on this side death you cannot be sure you
will be damned at all, yet the moment you step on the other side of time
you are sure of it; for when it is done, it is not to be said then that
you will be, but that you are damned."
"Well, but," says William, as if he had been between jest and earnest,
"pray, what didst thou dream of last night?"
"Why," said I, "I had frightful dreams all night; and, particularly, I
dreamed that the devil came for me, and asked me what my name was; and
I told him. Then he asked me what trade I was. 'Trade?' says I; 'I am a
thief, a rogue, by my calling: I am a pirate and a murderer, and ought
to be hanged.' 'Ay, ay,' says the devil, 'so you do; and you are the
man I looked for, and therefore come along with me.' At which I was most
horribly frighted, and cried out so that it waked me; and I have been in
horrible agony ever since."
"Very well," says William; "come, give me the pistol thou talkedst of
just now."
"Why," says I, "what will you do with it?"
"Do with it!" says William. "Why, thou needest not shoot thyself; I
shall be obliged to do it for thee. Why, thou wilt destroy us all."
"What do you mean, William?" said I.
"Mean!" said he; "nay, what didst thou mean, to cry out aloud in thy
sleep, 'I am a thief, a pirate, a murderer, and ought to be hanged'?
Why, thou wilt ruin us all. 'Twas well the Dutchman did not understand
English. In short, I must shoot thee, to save my own life. Come, come,"
says he, "give me thy pistol."
I confess this terrified me again another way, and I began to be
sensible that, if anybody had been near me to understand English, I had
been undone. The thought of shooting myself forsook me from that time;
and I turned to William, "You disorder me extremely, William," said I;
"why, I am never safe, nor is it safe to keep me company. What shall I
do? I shall betray you all."
"Come, come, friend Bob," says he, "I'll put an end to it all, if you
will take my advice."
"How's that?" said I.
"Why, only," says he, "that the next time thou talkest with the devil,
thou wilt talk a little softlier, or we shall be all undone, and you
too."
This frighted me, I must confess, and allayed a great deal of the
trouble of mind I was in. But William, after he had done jesting with
me, entered upon a very long and serious discourse with me about the
nature of my circumstances, and about repentance; that it ought to be
attended, indeed, with a deep abhorrence of the crime that I had to
charge myself with; but that to despair of God's mercy was no part of
repentance, but putting myself into the condition of the devil; indeed,
that I must apply myself with a sincere, humble confession of my crime,
to ask pardon of God, whom I had offended, and cast myself upon His
mercy, resolving to be willing to make restitution, if ever it should
please God to put it in my power, even to the utmost of what I had in
the world. And this, he told me, was the method which he had resolved
upon himself; and in this, he told me, he had found comfort.
I had a great deal of satisfaction in William's discourse, and it
quieted me very much; but William was very anxious ever after about my
talking in my sleep, and took care to lie with me always himself, and to
keep me from lodging in any house where so much as a word of English was
understood.
However, there was not the like occasion afterward; for I was much
more composed in my mind, and resolved for the future to live a quite
different life from what I had done. As to the wealth I had, I looked
upon it as nothing; I resolved to set it apart to any such opportunity
of doing justice as God should put into my hand; and the miraculous
opportunity I had afterwards of applying some parts of it to preserve
a ruined family, whom I had plundered, may be worth reading, if I have
room for it in this account.
With these resolutions I began to be restored to some degree of quiet
in my mind; and having, after almost three months' stay at Bassorah,
disposed of some goods, but having a great quantity left, we hired
boats according to the Dutchman's direction, and went up to Bagdad,
or Babylon, on the river Tigris, or rather Euphrates. We had a very
considerable cargo of goods with us, and therefore made a great
figure there, and were received with respect. We had, in particular,
two-and-forty bales of Indian stuffs of sundry sorts, silks, muslins,
and fine chintz; we had fifteen bales of very fine China silks, and
seventy packs or bales of spices, particularly cloves and nutmegs, with
other goods. We were bid money here for our cloves, but the Dutchman
advised us not to part with them, and told us we should get a better
price at Aleppo, or in the Levant; so we prepared for the caravan.
We concealed our having any gold or pearls as much as we could, and
therefore sold three or four bales of China silks and Indian calicoes,
to raise money to buy camels and to pay the customs which are taken at
several places, and for our provisions over the deserts.
I travelled this journey, careless to the last degree of my goods or
wealth, believing that, as I came by it all by rapine and violence, God
would direct that it should be taken from me again in the same manner;
and, indeed, I think I might say I was very willing it should be so.
But, as I had a merciful Protector above me, so I had a most faithful
steward, counsellor, partner, or whatever I might call him, who was my
guide, my pilot, my governor, my everything, and took care both of me
and of all we had; and though he had never been in any of these parts
of the world, yet he took the care of all upon him; and in about
nine-and-fifty days we arrived from Bassorah, at the mouth of the
river Tigris or Euphrates, through the desert, and through Aleppo to
Alexandria, or, as we call it, Scanderoon, in the Levant.
Here William and I, and the other two, our faithful comrades, debated
what we should do; and here William and I resolved to separate from the
other two, they resolving to go with the Dutchman into Holland, by the
means of some Dutch ship which lay then in the road. William and I told
them we resolved to go and settle in the Morea, which then belonged to
the Venetians.
It is true we acted wisely in it not to let them know whither we
went, seeing we had resolved to separate; but we took our old doctor's
directions how to write to him in Holland, and in England, that we might
have intelligence from him on occasion, and promised to give him an
account how to write to us, which we afterwards did, as may in time be
made out.
We stayed here some time after they were gone, till at length, not being
thoroughly resolved whither to go till then, a Venetian ship touched at
Cyprus, and put in at Scanderoon to look for freight home. We took the
hint, and bargaining for our passage, and the freight of our goods, we
embarked for Venice, where, in two-and-twenty days, we arrived safe,
with all our treasure, and with such a cargo, take our goods and our
money and our jewels together, as, I believed, was never brought into
the city by two single men, since the state of Venice had a being.
We kept ourselves here _incognito_ for a great while, passing for two
Armenian merchants still, as we had done before; and by this time we had
gotten so much of the Persian and Armenian jargon, which they talked at
Bassorah and Bagdad, and everywhere that we came in the country, as
was sufficient to make us able to talk to one another, so as not to be
understood by anybody, though sometimes hardly by ourselves.
Here we converted all our effects into money, settled our abode as for
a considerable time, and William and I, maintaining an inviolable
friendship and fidelity to one another, lived like two brothers; we
neither had or sought any separate interest; we conversed seriously and
gravely, and upon the subject of our repentance continually; we never
changed, that is to say, so as to leave off our Armenian garbs; and we
were called, at Venice, the two Grecians.
I had been two or three times going to give a detail of our wealth, but
it will appear incredible, and we had the greatest difficulty in the
world how to conceal it, being justly apprehensive lest we might be
assassinated in that country for our treasure. At length William told me
he began to think now that he must never see England any more, and
that indeed he did not much concern himself about it; but seeing we had
gained so great wealth, and he had some poor relations in England, if
I was willing, he would write to know if they were living, and to know
what condition they were in, and if he found such of them were alive
as he had some thoughts about, he would, with my consent, send them
something to better their condition.
I consented most willingly; and accordingly William wrote to a sister
and an uncle, and in about five weeks' time received an answer from them
both, directed to himself, under cover of a hard Armenian name that
he had given himself, viz., Signore Constantine Alexion of Ispahan, at
Venice.
It was a very moving letter he received from his sister, who, after the
most passionate expressions of joy to hear he was alive, seeing she had
long ago had an account that he was murdered by the pirates in the West
Indies, entreats him to let her know what circumstances he was in; tells
him she was not in any capacity to do anything considerable for him, but
that he should be welcome to her with all her heart; that she was left
a widow, with four children, but kept a little shop in the Minories, by
which she made shift to maintain her family; and that she had sent him
five pounds, lest he should want money, in a strange country, to bring
him home.
I could see the letter brought tears out of his eyes as he read it; and,
indeed, when he showed it to me, and the little bill for five pounds,
upon an English merchant in Venice, it brought tears out of my eyes too.
After we had been both affected sufficiently with the tenderness and
kindness of this letter, he turns to me; says he, "What shall I do for
this poor woman?" I mused a while; at last says I, "I will tell you what
you shall do for her. She has sent you five pounds, and she has four
children, and herself, that is five; such a sum, from a poor woman in
her circumstances, is as much as five thousand pounds is to us; you
shall send her a bill of exchange for five thousand pounds English
money, and bid her conceal her surprise at it till she hears from you
again; but bid her leave off her shop, and go and take a house somewhere
in the country, not far off from London, and stay there, in a moderate
figure, till she hears from you again."
"Now," says William, "I perceive by it that you have some thoughts of
venturing into England."
"Indeed, William," said I, "you mistake me; but it presently occurred to
me that you should venture, for what have you done that you may not be
seen there? Why should I desire to keep you from your relations, purely
to keep me company?"
William looked very affectionately upon me. "Nay," says he, "we have
embarked together so long, and come together so far, I am resolved I
will never part with thee as long as I live, go where thou wilt, or stay
where thou wilt; and as for my sister," said William, "I cannot send her
such a sum of money, for whose is all this money we have? It is most of
it thine."
"No, William," said I, "there is not a penny of it mine but what is
yours too, and I won't have anything but an equal share with you, and
therefore you shall send it to her; if not, I will send it."
"Why," says William, "it will make the poor woman distracted; she will
be so surprised she will go out of her wits."
"Well," said I, "William, you may do it prudently; send her a bill
backed of a hundred pounds, and bid her expect more in a post or two,
and that you will send her enough to live on without keeping shop, and
then send her more."
Accordingly William sent her a very kind letter, with a bill upon a
merchant in London for a hundred and sixty pounds, and bid her comfort
herself with the hope that he should be able in a little time to send
her more. About ten days after, he sent her another bill of five hundred
and forty pounds; and a post or two after, another for three hundred
pounds, making in all a thousand pounds; and told her he would send her
sufficient to leave off her shop, and directed her to take a house as
above.
He waited then till he received an answer to all the three letters, with
an account that she had received the money, and, which I did not expect,
that she had not let any other acquaintance know that she had received
a shilling from anybody, or so much as that he was alive, and would not
till she had heard again.
When he showed me this letter, "Well, William," said I, "this woman is
fit to be trusted with life or anything; send her the rest of the five
thousand pounds, and I'll venture to England with you, to this woman's
house, whenever you will."
In a word, we sent her five thousand pounds in good bills; and she
received them very punctually, and in a little time sent her brother
word that she had pretended to her uncle that she was sickly and could
not carry on the trade any longer, and that she had taken a large house
about four miles from London, under pretence of letting lodgings for
her livelihood; and, in short, intimated as if she understood that he
intended to come over to be _incognito_, assuring him he should be as
retired as he pleased.
This was opening the very door for us that we thought had been
effectually shut for this life; and, in a word, we resolved to venture,
but to keep ourselves entirely concealed, both as to name and every
other circumstance; and accordingly William sent his sister word how
kindly he took her prudent steps, and that she had guessed right that
he desired to be retired, and that he obliged her not to increase her
figure, but live private, till she might perhaps see him.
He was going to send the letter away. "Come, William," said I, "you
shan't send her an empty letter; tell her you have a friend coming with
you that must be as retired as yourself, and I'll send her five thousand
pounds more."
So, in short, we made this poor woman's family rich; and yet, when it
came to the point, my heart failed me, and I durst not venture; and for
William, he would not stir without me; and so we stayed about two years
after this, considering what we should do.
You may think, perhaps, that I was very prodigal of my ill-gotten goods,
thus to load a stranger with my bounty, and give a gift like a prince to
one that had been able to merit nothing of me, or indeed know me; but
my condition ought to be considered in this case; though I had money to
profusion, yet I was perfectly destitute of a friend in the world, to
have the least obligation or assistance from, or knew not either where
to dispose or trust anything I had while I lived, or whom to give it to
if I died.
When I had reflected upon the manner of my getting of it, I was
sometimes for giving it all to charitable uses, as a debt due to
mankind, though I was no Roman Catholic, and not at all of the opinion
that it would purchase me any repose to my soul; but I thought, as it
was got by a general plunder, and which I could make no satisfaction
for, it was due to the community, and I ought to distribute it for the
general good. But still I was at a loss how, and where, and by whom to
settle this charity, not daring to go home to my own country, lest some
of my comrades, strolled home, should see and detect me, and for the
very spoil of my money, or the purchase of his own pardon, betray and
expose me to an untimely end.
Being thus destitute, I say, of a friend, I pitched thus upon William's
sister; the kind step of hers to her brother, whom she thought to be in
distress, signifying a generous mind and a charitable disposition; and
having resolved to make her the object of my first bounty, I did not
doubt but I should purchase something of a refuge for myself, and a kind
of a centre, to which I should tend in my future actions; for really
a man that has a subsistence, and no residence, no place that has a
magnetic influence upon his affections, is in one of the most odd,
uneasy conditions in the world, nor is it in the power of all his money
to make it up to him.
It was, as I told you, two years and upwards that we remained at Venice
and thereabout, in the greatest hesitation imaginable, irresolute and
unfixed to the last degree. William's sister importuned us daily to come
to England, and wondered we should not dare to trust her, whom we had to
such a degree obliged to be faithful; and in a manner lamented her being
suspected by us.
At last I began to incline; and I said to William, "Come, brother
William," said I (for ever since our discourse at Bassorah I called him
brother), "if you will agree to two or three things with me, I'll go
home to England with all my heart."
Says William, "Let me know what they are."
"Why, first," says I, "you shall not disclose yourself to any of your
relations in England but your sister--no, not one; secondly, we will
not shave off our mustachios or beards" (for we had all along worn our
beards after the Grecian manner), "nor leave off our long vests, that we
may pass for Grecians and foreigners; thirdly, that we shall never speak
English in public before anybody, your sister excepted; fourthly, that
we will always live together and pass for brothers."
William said he would agree to them all with all his heart, but that the
not speaking English would be the hardest, but he would do his best for
that too; so, in a word, we agreed to go from Venice to Naples, where we
converted a large sum of money into bales of silk, left a large sum in a
merchant's hands at Venice, and another considerable sum at Naples, and
took bills of exchange for a great deal too; and yet we came with such
a cargo to London as few American merchants had done for some years,
for we loaded in two ships seventy-three bales of thrown silk, besides
thirteen bales of wrought silks, from the duchy of Milan, shipped at
Genoa, with all which I arrived safely; and some time after I married my
faithful protectress, William's sister, with whom I am much more happy
than I deserve.
And now, having so plainly told you that I am come to England, after I
have so boldly owned what life I have led abroad, it is time to leave
off, and say no more for the present, lest some should be willing to
inquire too nicely after your old friend CAPTAIN BOB.
[Transcriber's Note: The words "thae" (Scottish dialect for "those") and
"Geat Mogul" ("Great" may be meant) do occur as such in the print copy.]
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