there we met with three or four men, whom my master had sent out a
foraging, and they brought in with them two bullocks; one of which my
master sent to his brother, for the use of him and his people, and the
other was killed for us; for the army was now disbanded, and each party
was marching home with their respective chiefs to their own habitations.
Here my master came to me and gave me a lance, intimating that I might
cut out as much as I thought proper. I cut about a pound without any
part of the hide, which he perceiving, imputed it to my ignorance, and
so cut a slice with the hide and dressed it for me; which I ate with
seeming thankfulness, not daring to refuse it. As soon as supper was
over, each man pulled up as much grass as was sufficient for himself to
lie on; my guardian, however, provided enough for himself and me. I then
reposed myself accordingly, and he lay by me; but his back skin smelled
so rank, that I was forced to turn my back on him all night long. I had
very little rest, for the ghastly spectacle of my massacred friends was
ever before me, and made me start from sleep as soon as I closed my
eyes.
At break of day we arose, and after a short repast marched on till noon,
when we baited among some shady trees near a pond of water; which very
pond we had passed by three days before, or at least within two hundred
yards of it, when we were dying with thirst, and the negroes told us
there was no water near us.
Whilst some employed themselves in kindling a fire, others were busy in
digging up and down amongst the grass. I could not conceive what they
were doing at first; but I soon observed one of them pulling out of the
ground a long white root, which I found was a yam, having seen many of
them at Bengal; they soon furnished themselves with a sufficient
quantity. I perceived they grew wild without any cultivation: some of
them were a yard long at least, and about six or seven inches in
circumference; they obliged me with some of them, which I roasted, and
eat with a great deal of pleasure, instead of bread, with my beef: they
are very agreeable to the taste, as well as wholesome food.
We arrived that evening at a small town, which we no sooner entered than
the women and children flocked round about me, pinched me, struck me on
the back with their fists, and showed several other tokens of their
derision and contempt; at which I could not forbear weeping, as it was
not in my power to express my resentment any other way; but when my
guardian observed it, he came to my assistance and freed me from my
persecutors. All the houses that were empty were taken up by my master,
his brother, and other head-men; so that my guardian and I lay exposed
to the open air. The ill treatment I met with from the women and
children, put a thousand distracting thoughts into my head. Sometimes I
imagined that I might be preserved alive for no other purpose, than to
be carried to the king and his son, who would, in all probability, be
fired with resentment at our late seizing of them, and making them
prisoners; then, again, I thought that to gratify their pleasure and
revenge, they would order me to be put to death before their faces by
slow degrees, and the most exquisite torments. Such melancholy
reflections as these so disordered me that when once through weariness I
fell into a slumber I had a dream which so terrified me that I started
upright, and trembled every joint of me; in short, I could not get one
wink of sleep all the night long.
When it was broad daylight we marched homeward (for now I must call it
so) and in three or four hours’ time we arrived at a considerable town,
with three or four tamarind trees before it. One of the negroes carried
a large shell, which, when he blew, sounded like a post-boy’s horn. This
brought the women to a spacious house in the middle of the town, about
twelve feet high, which I soon perceived was my master’s. No sooner had
he seated himself at the door, than his wife came out crawling on her
hands and knees till she came to him, and then licked his feet; and when
she had thus testified her duty and respects, his mother paid him the
like compliment, and all the women in the town saluted their husbands in
the same manner: then each man went to his respective habitation, my
master’s brother only excepted; who though he had a house, had no wife
to receive him, and so he stayed behind.
My mistress intimated by her motions that she would have me go in and
sit down. A great deal of serious discourse passed between my master and
her, and though I knew nothing of what they said, yet by her looking so
earnestly at me whilst he was talking, I conjectured he was relating to
her our tragical tale, and I perceived that the tears frequently stood
in her eyes. This conference over, she ordered some carravances to be
boiled for our dinner; a kind of pulse, much like our grey pease: she
gave me some, but as they had been boiled in dirty water, I could not
eat them. She, perceiving I did not like them, strained them off the
water and put some milk to them, and after that I made a tolerable meal
of them. She gave me not only a mat to lie down upon, but a piece of
calico likewise about two yards in length to cover me. She intimated
that she wanted to know my name, which I told her was Robin. Having
received so much civility from my mistress, I began to be much better
satisfied than I was at first; and then laid me down and slept without
any fear or concern about four hours, as near as I could guess by the
sun. When I waked my mistress called me by my name, and gave me some
milk to drink. She talked for some considerable time to me, but I could
not understand one word she said. My master was all this time with his
brother at the door regaling themselves with toake.
When night came on I perceived that I was to lie with them, for there
was no other room. My master and mistress lay in the middle, and the
whole house was not above fourteen feet in length, and twelve in
breadth, so that I lay crosswise close to his feet: in this odd manner
we lay three or four nights successively. At last he called me by my
name several times to know, I presume, whether I was awake or not; but
as I answered him whenever he called, I imagined he would have been
better pleased if I had slept soundly, and had not heard him at all; for
the next evening he carried me to his aunt’s house, where he told me I
must lie for the future. There I remained both day and night, and did
little but walk out with her and her daughter to visit the plantations
which had been lately sown with Guinea corn and potatoes. In the evening
I used to visit my master and mistress, and for supper I generally had
milk, which was sometimes fresh and sometimes sour. They were not over
fond of putting me to work, as I could do them but little service, being
altogether a stranger to what was said to me, and more especially as he
had above two hundred slaves always ready to answer his occasions.
My master, whose name was deaan Mevarrow, was grandson to deaan Crindo,
who was absolute lord of this country, and his wife was the daughter of
a northern king whom they had conquered in battle, and she was one of my
master’s captives. For this reason I presume it was that she took so
much compassion upon me; considering herself a slave in a strange
country, and only preferred to my master’s bed by courtesy.
In a short time I began to reconcile myself to their manner of eating,
since no better provision I found was to be had, only I would strip off
some of the hair from the hide of the beef, whenever I could do it
without being observed. I used often to reflect on my brother and
sister’s more agreeable manner of living at my father’s table; being
conscious that even some beggars in England fared much better than I did
here. However as I found nobody lived better, I made myself as easy as I
could; I was now under no apprehensions of being killed till an accident
happened soon after, which put me into a violent panic for about an
hour. My master, attended by several of his slaves, took me with him one
evening into the woods; I observed great preparations made for killing
and dressing a bullock or some such thing, but there being none to kill,
and it being then dark, I perceived that they walked about with great
circumspection, talked softly, and testified all the symptoms of some
secret design; upon this the tears stood in my eyes, imagining that they
intended to cut me up and make a meal of me, but my fright was soon over
when I saw two slaves hauling along a bullock by a rope fastened to his
horns, and my master sticking his lance into his throat in order to
despatch him. They immediately cut up his carcass and dressed the
entrails after their own manner. The booty was equally divided, and I
observed that each man took care to hide his portion in some private
place, from whence he might convey it away by night. As soon as our
business was over we parted, some one way and some another, for fear of
being taken notice of. I now plainly perceived that we were all this
time plundering of our neighbours. I often wondered indeed that the aunt
with whom I lived, dressed meat so often in the nighttime, but this
unravelled the mystery; this was not the only time I was forced to
assist in this clandestine practice.
In about four months’ time I began to have some tolerable notion of
their language; I knew the names of most common things, and could
express myself so as to be understood. My master and mistress took me
one day into the plantations, where the slaves were hoeing the weeds
from the carravances, that were just shooting up. They gave me a hoe,
but I had no inclination to work; I pretended to be very ignorant and
hoed up plants and weeds together, at which they laughed heartily, and
took away my hoe to prevent more mischief.
This artifice, however, proved of but little service to me, for my
master perceiving that I either could not or would not work in the
plantations, was determined to employ me some other way, and about such
business as I could not well do amiss. Accordingly the next day he
showed me his cattle, and told me I must take care of them, drive them
to water, and see that they did not break either his own or any other
neighbour’s plantations. This business I liked much better than the
other, because there were three or four lads more of this town about my
age, who had cattle to attend to as well as myself. What I disliked most
was, that we had a very considerable way to drive them to water, and at
night to drive them back again; besides I was obliged to drag home a
long tub which held about three gallons; for all the water we used in
the house was fetched from this watering place. However we had no just
cause of complaint, for we joined our herds together, and in the heat of
the day, when the cattle would lie down in the shade, we had three or
four hours’ time to ramble through the woods and gather yams. I had been
thus long in the country, yet I never knew how they struck fire, till
wanting to roast some of my yams, I asked my comrades where their fire
was; they showed me their hands and laughing, said, here it is, but one
of them soon informed me how to do it. He took one short round stick
about half the length of a gun rammer, and another considerably thicker,
but both of one sort of wood, and rubbed the former upon the latter till
there came a dust from it first, then a smoke, and soon fire after.
We sometimes traversed the woods and stole people’s honey, and eat it
just as we found it. When we could spare time, we used to look for a
creature which I call a ground-hog, and which in their language is
called tondruck; it is about the size of a cat, snout, eyes, and ears
are like an English hog’s, it has bristles on its back but no tail, the
feet of it are like a rabbit’s; its principal food is beetles and young
snails, which they grub up with their snouts; they are very prolific,
and have above twenty young ones at a litter, to all which they give
suck. In the cold season of the year (for though there is no time which
can properly be called winter, yet one part of the year is sensibly much
colder than the other) these creatures hide themselves in the ground in
a most surprising manner. They first dig a hole about two feet deep
directly in the earth, and after that they work obliquely two or three
feet one way, and as much another, making angles; though they throw the
earth up with their fore feet, yet they make it as firm with their hind
feet as if no passage had been ever made. When they have worked in this
manner for some time, they then work aslant, upwards, till they get
within half a foot of the surface: there they make a kind of lodgment,
just big enough for them to turn themselves round in, where they lie for
four or five months successively without any sustenance whatsoever; and
what is still more strange, they are as fat at the expiration of that
term as when they first went in. It is no small difficulty to catch
them, for when we have discovered some marks of the place where we
imagine they began to burrow, we are often disappointed in digging after
them; they work so artfully, that we know not which way to find out
their secret recesses; but we spare no pains to take them, for they are
excellent food, and their skin when dressed is as brown and crisp as a
pig’s. Their hedgehogs too are agreeable enough, but nothing near so
delicious as their tondrucks; these conceal themselves all the cold
winter in holes of trees, where they remain for some months without any
visible support.
This employment of attending the cattle was agreeable to me, except in
excessively hot weather, when it was a great fatigue to drive them
several miles to water, at least every other day; but in the colder
season we had no occasion to observe that practice, for the dew falls so
plentifully in the night, that we find it sufficient to drive them into
the grass about break of day; and even the inhabitants of this part of
the country of Anterndroea, who have no water near them, go into the
fields in a morning with two wooden platters and a tub, and in less than
an hour will collect about eight or ten gallons of dew-water, which is
very good while fresh, but will turn sour in a day or two, and
disagreeable to the taste.
I had not followed this employment above a year, when my master went to
war, or rather (as I understood afterwards) to plunder a people to the
westward whom they pursued with the most implacable hatred, they having
surprised deaan Crindo’s father in his own town by night, and murdered
him in a most barbarous manner.
My master informed me that I must look after the cattle no more, for he
was going to war, and had other business for me of much greater
importance. I offered my service to wait on him, but he answered, we
shall travel night and day; it is a long and tedious journey, and you
cannot, I believe, be able to undergo the fatigue, but your principal
business must be to look after my wife, and act as her guardian. He gave
me a strict charge to lie in the same house with her, and never to let
her stir out without me. After he had given her instructions to the same
effect, he took his leave, and accompanied by most of his people, went
on his intended expedition.
I now lived at perfect ease, and my mistress was very kind and indulgent
to me. I went abroad wherever she went, partook of every thing she had
for herself, and lay in the same house with her, both of us strictly
observing our master’s orders; neither could I perceive that her
compliance therewith was any way repugnant to her inclinations. I was
not, it is true, absolutely easy myself; for the thoughts of my friends
and native country, and the improbability of ever seeing them again,
made me very melancholy, and dejected me to that degree that sometimes I
could not forbear indulging my grief in private, and bursting into a
flood of tears.
My mistress would frequently ask me whether I was indisposed, or wanted
any thing; I could not prevail on myself to reveal the real cause of my
anxiety; however one day I took the liberty to tell her, I should be
very glad of an opportunity to see the other three lads, whose lives
were preserved, and who were taken prisoners when I was. She desired me
not to afflict myself on that account, for she would go with me, and
should be highly delighted to hear us converse together in our own
language. Accordingly she made inquiry amongst her neighbours where they
were, who informed us that they were at some distance from one another;
but that the nearest to be met with was about four or five miles off. So
the next morning we set out and inquired for the white boy: we were told
that he was gone to carry his fellow-servants some provisions to the
plantation, but as soon as a messenger was sent to him he returned
immediately, being as desirous of seeing me in particular as I was of
him; we embraced each other in a very passionate manner, and expressed
ourselves at first rather in tears than words. We had been very intimate
on shipboard, and I used to treat him frequently with punch, being
delighted with his company as he had a taste for music, and could play
extremely well on the violin. We condoled with each other, and observed
how wretchedly we looked, all naked, except a small clout about our
middles, and our skins spotted like a leopard’s; for neither of us being
ever before so exposed to the sun, we were scorched, and flead as it
were, and our skins often rose up in blisters. After our mutual
condolence we came to an agreement, that if either of us got safe to
England, we would give the other’s friends a particular account of all
our misfortunes. We inquired of each other after our other comrades, but
were equally strangers to their particular places of abode. My mistress
seemed very attentive to our discourse, and showed a compassionate
regard for our afflictions; but with great reluctance, and many a tear,
we were obliged at last to part.
We had not been at home above two hours, before an express arrived from
my master with news of his success; and that he would be at home in a
fortnight. My mistress, and all the women who had husbands abroad,
expressed their general joy in large bowls of toake. In the mean time I
was very much indisposed, but tolerably well recovered before my
master’s return.
He made his public entry in a very triumphant manner; the trumpet-shells
blowing, and crowds of people dancing before him all the way with their
guns in their hands. On his first approach, the foremost men fired their
guns towards the ground; which with them is the signal of a victorious
return. Deaan Mevarrow, and his brother deaan Sambo, came after them
with their attendants; next followed the cattle, which he had taken from
the enemy, and the prisoners of war brought up the rear. After they were
seated in form before my master deaan Mevarrow’s house, not only his
consort, attended by the other women of the town, came as usual, and
licked his feet, but the men too, whom he left behind him when he went
to war.
I stood all this time as a spectator, till he seeing me at a distance,
called me to him. I approached him in the usual form of the country on
such a public occasion; that is, with my hands lifted up, and in a
praying posture. When I came near him, I paid him the compliment of
_salamonger umba_; but did not kneel down as all the others did, having
a kind of conscientious reluctance to such an act, as thinking it an
adoration that I ought to pay to no one but the Supreme Being; but he
seemed to resent my being so over religious; for he asked me, “If I
thought it beneath me to pay him the same respect that his own wife,
(who was a king’s daughter,) and his own mother too, so readily
condescended to?” However, I peremptorily refused, and told him, “I
would obey all his lawful commands, and do whatever work he thought
proper to employ me in; but this act of divine homage I could never
comply with.”
On this he fell into a violent passion, and upbraided me with being
ungrateful, and insensible of his saving me from being killed among my
countrymen; and urged, moreover, that I was his slave, &c.; but
notwithstanding all this, I still continued resolute and firm to my
purpose. Whereupon he rose from his seat, and with his lance made a
stroke at me with all his might; but his brother, by a sudden push on
one side, prevented the mischief he intended. He was going to repeat his
blow, but his brother interposed, and entreated him to excuse me; but he
absolutely, and in the warmest terms, refused to forgive me unless I
would lick his feet. His brother begged he would give him a little time
to talk with me in private, which he did; and after he had told me the
danger of not doing it, and that in submitting to it, I did no more than
what many great princes were obliged to do when taken prisoners, I
found, at length, it was prudence to comply; so I went in, asked pardon,
and performed the ceremony as others had done before me. He told me he
readily forgave me, but would make me sensible I was a slave. I did not
much regard his menaces, for as I had no prospect of ever returning to
England, I set but little value on my life. The next day I incurred his
displeasure again, and never expected to escape from feeling the weight
of his resentment.
My master then performed the ceremony of thanksgiving to God, for his
happy deliverance from all the hazards of war, and for the success of
his arms; which is performed in the following manner:—The inhabitants
have in all their houses a small portable utensil, which is devoted to
religious uses, and is a kind of household altar, which they call the
owley. It is made of a peculiar wood, in small pieces neatly joined, and
making almost the form of a half-moon with the horns downwards, between
which are placed two alligator’s teeth; this is adorned with various
kinds of beads, and such a sash fastened to it behind as a man ties
about his waist when he goes to war. [I shall not here pretend to give
an exact account of their religious worship, for I had not been long
enough in the country to be a perfect master of the true meaning of what
they either did or said.] However, I observed that they brought two
forks from the woods, and fixed them in the ground, on which was laid a
beam, slender at each end, and about six feet long, with two or three
pegs in it, and upon this they hung the owley. Behind it was a long
pole, to which a bullock was fastened with a cord. They had a pan full
of live coals, on which they threw an aromatic gum, and planted it under
the owley. Then they took a small quantity of hair from the tail, chin,
and eyebrows of the ox, and put them on the owley. Then deaan Mevarrow,
my master, used some particular gestures with a large knife in his hand,
and made a formal prayer, in which the people joined. In the next place
they threw the ox on the ground with his legs tied fast together, and
the deaan cut his throat; for as there are no priests among them, the
chief man, whether of the country, town, or family, performs all divine
offices himself. As soon as the people were all seated on mats in a
circular form, my master ordered me to sit down too, and say as the
people said, which I absolutely refused. However he pursued his
devotion, and when the service was over, took the owley in one hand and
his lance in the other, and came directly to me, asking me with a frown,
which I rather chose, either to assist in their solemn and public
thanksgiving, or to a fall a sacrifice to his just resentment? At first
I was startled, but as I thought this sort of worship to be downright
idolatry, and that they paid their adorations to the owley, I resolutely
told him that I would sooner die than pay divine homage to any false
deity whatsoever. Upon this, as soon as he had put the owley in its
place, he came to me again, and taking me by the hand was determined to
lead me out of the town and kill me; but his brother and all the people
round about him pleaded for me, and used their utmost endeavours to
persuade him against so rash an action, but to no purpose; till his
brother at last very warmly told him, he would that minute depart and
see his face no more, if he offered to be guilty of such an act of
inhumanity, and rose up to be gone accordingly. When my master saw his
brother was going in good earnest, he called him back, and promised to
spare my life; but assured him he would punish me very severely for my
contempt of his orders. Deaan Sambo told him, he should submit that to
his own discretion; all he begged of him was not to kill me. Upon this,
by a secret sign, he advised me to kneel down and lick his feet, which I
readily complied with, and asked his pardon. When I got up, I kneeled
down to deaan Sambo of my own accord, and licked his feet as a testimony
of my gratitude and respect for thus saving my life a second time.