on purpose to kill the best beasts, they always make choice of the
darkest nights. They permitted me, on my request, to accompany them; but
first ordered me to wash myself, as they themselves did, that we might
not smell either of smoke or sweat. I would have taken two lances
according to custom, but they obliged me to leave one behind me, lest
two together might rattle in my hand. These cattle feed only in the
night, and if all these precautions were not taken, they could never be
surprised; for they are always on their guard, snorting with their
noses, and listening after their pursuers. We can hear them roar, and
bellow a great way off; by which we know where they are, and we are
forced always to go round till they are directly to the windward of us;
for otherwise they would soon scent us. As soon as we had got the wind
and cattle right ahead, and were within hearing, we walked with all the
circumspection imaginable, cropping the top of the grass with our hands,
as close as possible, to mimic, as well as we could, the noise a cow
makes when she bites it. The moment they heard us they were all hush;
not one of them bellowed or grazed, but seemed to listen with the utmost
attention: which when we perceived, we all stood still likewise without
a whisper, whilst three or four, who understood the nature of it best,
continued cropping the grass. When the cattle had listened, till (as we
imagined) they took us for some of their own species, they returned to
their grazing, and we walked with caution nearer, still mimicking them
as we moved softly along. Deaan Murnanzack ordered me to keep behind,
lest they should discern my white skin, and be startled; he also gave me
his lamber to cover myself with, which was a large piece of black silk,
so that if I had been near them, they could have seen nothing but my
face, the grass being above knee deep.
At length we got amongst them, so that one of our men (as he told me)
with some grass in his hand, and under the cover of a bush, took hold of
the dug of a cow, and finding she gave no milk, he concluded she was not
lean; for which reason he stuck his lance instantly into her belly, and
drew it out again, making no other motion. The cow thus wounded will
give a spring perhaps, and make a noise, as if another had run her horns
against her; but this is so common amongst them, that the herd is not
any ways disturbed by it: so that our people stuck three or four after
this manner, and left them, with an intention to come the next morning,
and track them by their blood; for it is very dangerous to come near
them in the night. As soon as they find themselves sorely wounded, they
run from their companions, and will attack the first man they see. They
are generally found actually dead, or fallen down in some wood, or
shelter of bushes, as if they industriously endeavoured to conceal
themselves. No sooner had we determined to depart, and I had returned
deaan Murnanzack his lamber, than a calf, that had been mortally
wounded, began to make a hideous uproar, and running about, made the
herd jealous; so that they ran away, and the calf made directly at me,
and knocked me backwards; I caught hold of his leg, but cried out
lustily for help. This accident afforded much mirth, and fixed a joke
upon me afterwards; as a stout fellow to cry out for assistance to cope
with a calf. However, they took him, cut him to pieces, and carried him
away; of whom we made a very good supper. I have been informed, that
notwithstanding these cattle are so wild, the cows will sometimes stand
still to have their dugs handled, and several of them have been milked
in the dark into a horn; however, as I never attempted this myself, I
cannot absolutely vouch it for truth; yet as I have heard so many affirm
it, I think there are no just grounds to contradict it.
We were in no hurry to get home, for not only our cattle, but we too,
lived as well as we could desire there; so that though we kept going
forwards, yet we made several days more of our journey than we should
have done. A day or two after this beef hunting, we had an accidental
diversion of another kind: our dogs had got the scent of some wild hogs
that were got into a thicket, and were very busy in running round it;
but could find no entrance for a considerable time. At length, however,
they found the path which the swine had made, and attempted to enter the
wood by it: the passage was defended by a large boar, who fought the
dogs with great fury, and wounded one of them in a very dangerous
manner. Now, what with the dogs on the one hand, and the swine on the
other, there was such a yelping, grunting, and howling, that the woods
rang with their noise; and one would have imagined, all the hogs in the
island had met there by consent, in order to revenge their quarrel upon
us.
We laid down our burdens, and some of us went up to them, armed with
guns and lances. Deaan Murnanzack shot the boar that wounded his dog;
whereupon another in an instant defended the entrance, and fought so
resolutely, that neither the dogs, nor we ourselves, could come near the
cattle that were within; till we had made a passage behind them with our
hatchets and lances, and then fired upon some of the most resolute, who
turned upon us. The rest perceiving themselves attacked behind, fought
their way through the dogs, and ran away, with the dogs after them.
Words cannot describe the noise there was, especially after a number of
them were wounded. We found seven dead, besides several others so
wounded that they could not make off. We picked out only one or two of
the fattest, for there are very few that will eat them. I did not dare
to take any, on account of my office of killing beeves, and the eating
of swine’s flesh is accounted so contemptible a thing, that I should
have lessened my dignity, and perhaps been degraded; which, whatever
mean thoughts I might possibly have, as to the honour of it, I had too
good an opinion of its value to part with it for the gratification of my
appetite in one meal: for in this case they are curious to a punctilio,
that if the daughter of a king be married to any one that is not of a
royal family, their children are not admitted to the honour of killing
beeves, notwithstanding the father be a freeman, and a chief amongst his
neighbours.
We used every evening to sit down near the prince, and discourse of one
thing or another to divert the time; now, though it is a common custom
amongst the princes here, to converse with every body in the most
familiar manner, yet they preserve a decent state and distinction. The
people throughout the whole island pay a religious regard to dreams, and
imagine that their good demons (for I cannot tell what other name to
give their inferior deities, which, as they say, attend on their owleys)
tell them in their dreams what ought to be done, or warn them of what
ought to be avoided; more especially after a sacrifice, or a prayer to
God, and an invocation of this demon. I well remember our discourse this
evening turned principally upon this topic. The next morning deaan
Murnanzack came to me as I was alone, and discoursed very freely with me
about several things; and in particular he advised me to take what beef
I wanted, and could carry with me; for we should have no more
opportunities of killing any wild cattle. Observing him fond of
conversation, I told him, if there were any dependance on dreams, as
some had asserted the night before, I should incur his anger that day;
having dreamt that I was at home with my parents, and all my relations
round about me; that my pockets were full of gold, and they added still
to my store. This, I said, did not only throw me into a melancholy when
I awaked, to find myself naked in a wood and in a strange country, but
it likewise gave me some concern, for that I had always observed, not
only when I was a lad in England, but since under my master Mevarrow,
that to dream of plenty of gold money was a certain indication of anger.
At this deaan Murnanzack smiled, and made answer, “I wonder that you,
who laughed but last night at the talk of God’s sending dreams by the
good demons, should today be afraid of one.” “However,” says he, “I dare
say you will be once mistaken; for I don’t know any thing you can do to
make me angry.” I would not have my reader imagine, that I have
introduced this story, merely for the sake of telling an idle dream; but
it proved the introduction to something very remarkable, and furnished
us with a discourse the next evening, that may possibly be thought an
agreeable amusement.
The next day we roasted our beef and laid it to cool, in order to bind
up in a burden, which we called an enter, to carry at our backs. All I
had to do, was to provide for myself, and what with my beef and honey I
was pretty well loaded, and as well contented, for I lived in plenty; my
honey, likewise, mingled with water, made a pleasant drink. This was the
last day of our passage through these groves and habitations of the wild
cattle; some of which they attempted once more to surround, more for the
sake of their diversion than want of beef: and in this, not wilfully,
but for want of knowledge, I spoiled all their sport, by traversing the
way they were running, which was directly towards the place where deaan
Murnanzack lay in ambush for them. This made them run quite another way,
and put him into such a violent passion at first, that he lifted up his
lance, and frowning, threatened to kill me, and, indeed, I expected no
less, which made me get out of his sight as soon as possible, being
apprehensive of some such barbarous treatment as I had before met with
from deaan Mevarrow. This prince, however, was of a more generous
disposition; for when his passion was over, he sent for me in a very
courteous manner, and desired I would spend the evening with him as
usual, and sit down by him, which, accordingly, I did. After we had
discoursed on a variety of subjects, he, at last, pressed me to give him
some account of the customs of my country, and in a more particular
manner to inform him, what god or gods we worship, since I seemed to
have so little veneration for theirs; and that I would be ingenuous, and
tell him, as I had been a great traveller, what things I had seen, in
order to improve the evening to the best advantage. “And pray,” says he,
“what God is that you adore?” Upon this the company drew round me, and I
began by asking them in the first place, if they were not satisfied that
there was a God above the skies? I could not say above the heavens,
because there was no term in their language expressive of them; nor had
they, as I could perceive, any idea of what we christians mean by
heaven, as the peculiar residence of the Almighty, and the glorious
mansions of the saints after their decease. They told me that they
firmly believed there was a God above, who was the supreme Lord of all
other gods, demons, or spirits, of what nature or kind soever. “That
very God,” said I, “is the deity we adore, for we know of no other God,
nor do we pay the tribute of divine worship to any other object than
this one—this supreme and only God.” “Do not you then,” said they, “make
prayers and sacrifices, and invoke some guardian demons to assist you in
the knowledge of the will of that God; and to warn you of any
approaching dangers? If your countrymen had such owleys as ours, your
good demons would have assisted you that night you lay upon the sands,
and have told you in dreams of the danger, and directed you to escape
before the morning.”
To this I replied, “that all good men in England acknowledged an
overruling Providence; and I am fully persuaded, that it was by the
providence of that divine power that I was preserved at that time; and
why God did not see fit that the rest should save their lives, is a
secret I do not pretend to pry into; but I cannot conceive that your
owleys, to which you seem to pay a divine homage, and pray to for their
aid and assistance, should have a spirit or a god within them; or visit
you in the night when you are asleep, and forewarn you of such
misfortunes as you would willingly avoid. I plainly perceive, that they
are nothing more than pieces of wood, and alligators’ teeth dressed up;
I plainly discern, likewise, how they are made; and I am certain that
other wood, and other alligators’ teeth are not living spirits, have no
power of speech, and are incapable of knowing things present, much less
things to come; for which reason, we look upon it as an act of idolatry
to pay that adoration, which belongs to the great God alone, to any
created thing, or the likeness of any created thing above, or here
below, since he has strictly forbid the worship of any thing but
himself.”
Deaan Murnanzack listened to this serious discourse of mine with
abundance of attention, and then turned to some of his people and argued
with them for some time; partly in vindication of what I had asserted,
and partly in endeavouring to explain to them the nature of their
owleys, which I am sensible I had not a just notion of at that time. But
I was too young when first I was reduced to this slavery, and had
neither friends nor books to assist me; besides, I was not capable of
making such just remarks then, as I could do now.
But, to proceed; as soon as the deaan had done discoursing with them, he
turned again to me and said, “To me it seems very strange, that you,
who, but this very morning, told me a dream of your own, and found it
happened true, should argue against these owleys of ours; for you
mistake us; it is not the wood, nor the alligators’ teeth that we
worship; but there are certain guardian demons, who take care of all
nations, families, and private persons; and should you be possessed of
one of these owleys, and give it the name of some guardian spirit, it
will undoubtedly attend you; for how could you know this morning that I
should be angry with you, had not one of these good demons visited you
and discovered it; and if you had not had such friendly notice, you
might, probably, have been killed, though I did not design it; but men’s
passions are unruly, and I was highly provoked, I own, though I say not
this to reproach you, as if I imagined you wilfully spoiled our sport,
for I am fully satisfied you meant no harm. I only mention this to put
you in mind that you argue against yourself; besides, if the spirits of
our forefathers, or these guardian demons did not declare these to
mankind, how should they know them? No one could tell that I should be
angry with you, when you had given me no offence; neither did you intend
to provoke me, and nothing was done that any such accident should have
happened. You do not imagine, I hope, that the great God himself came
down to tell you, since these inferior spirits, of whom there are such
numbers, could more conveniently attend you. But you observed just now,
as I remember, that the great supreme God had forbid you the worship of
any thing but himself. Pray did any white man ever see this great God
above? or does he often condescend to talk with your people, and not
with ours?”
To which I made answer, that no man ever saw God, but some of our
forefathers, many ages ago, heard his voice when he descended in a
cloud. “But,” says he, “if this was so many years ago, and there is no
man now living, black or white, that ever heard the voice of this God,
how are you sure it is true? And since, as you allow it was many ages
ago, things may be so altered or misrepresented from what they were when
your first forefathers told them, that you cannot rely upon their
certainty.” I was here at some loss, as they had no knowledge of
letters, and consequently, I could not make them comprehend any thing of
the sacred scriptures; I only told them, therefore, that we had a way of
preserving the memory of things, which they were wholly unacquainted
with; and by that means, I said, we had an account of the beginning of
the world, and of its creation by God, and that I could tell them a
great many strange things in relation thereto, which they then seemed
very desirous of hearing.
And, accordingly, I told them that the world was originally dark, and a
confused chaos or mass; and that God, by the word of his power, made the
sun and moon, the beasts, fish, fowl, trees, herbs, and every thing
else. They still persisted in their first objection, and as they
imagined with much more reason than before; “for,” said one of them,
“though it is possible you may have a better method of preserving the
memory of things than we have, yet you could never have the knowledge of
what was done before there was any man created.” To this I replied, that
God hath revealed the knowledge of this, and much more to particular
persons; which, they listening attentively to, I went on to the creation
of man, and then of woman’s being made out of a rib, which God took from
him while he was asleep. At this they all broke out into astonishment
and laughter; and deaan Murnanzack said it was a manifest untruth, and
that, therefore, it was a shame to tell such a story with a serious
countenance; by this, he said, he was convinced that all the rest was
false; for, were this true, a woman would have a rib more than a man,
and a man be defective on one side.
Here I was guilty of a gross error through ignorance; however, I think
myself obliged ingenuously to confess it. I hope our divines and all
good christians will consider the circumstances I was in, and readily
forgive me; for I had so little wit, as peremptorily to insist on the
truth of it, and affirmed what I had heard, when a child, from
illiterate persons, that a man had one rib less on one side than the
other; nay, I had so much assurance as to put the whole argument upon
this issue, and offered to lay any wager on the fact. The prince laughed
at me, though he was willing to be convinced; we had two women with us,
one was very lean, whom he ordered to be called, her ribs were told and
found to be equal; and after that, a man was examined, and his ribs were
the same. They were not all of them, indeed, convinced of the exact
number, nor could I myself, in attempting to count them after them. From
this time, I perceived deaan Murnanzack treated all I had said on
religion with contempt, and immediately resumed his former objection
with more vigour, and said, that to talk of what was done before man was
created, was perfect nonsense; that what I had asserted in relation to
God’s conversing with men, and telling them such and such things, had no
manner of evidence; and that the things I pretended to know and talk of,
were, in short, nothing more than old women’s tales. “However,” says he,
“pray go on, and give us some farther account of this God of yours, who,
in former ages, was thus familiar with mankind.” Then I went on with the
scripture story of God’s displeasure with the whole world, and the flood
which destroyed all men and beasts on the earth, except those in the
ark; and of Noah’s taking male and female of every species into it to
preserve them. Upon this, one of them shortly replied, “if they had been
all destroyed, could not that God who made them at first, make more of
them at his pleasure?” But I went on and told them of the rainbow, that
it was appointed for a sign of God’s promise not to drown the world
again. To this deaan Murnanzack replied, that they had no such tradition
handed down to them; “but besides,” says he, “if none but Noah, with his
sons and daughters, were saved, pray was Noah a white or a black man?”
To which I answered, “Sir, I perceive you give no credit to what I say
of this nature.” He said, “There are many things which I do not rightly
understand, and shall be glad to be informed of; nay, I would give
credit to any thing that a reasonable man can desire, but most of these
things are no better than old women’s fictions, and I am fully persuaded
that all white men will not talk thus idly as you do.” These were his
very words, which he repeated several times, and with which this
evening’s conference concluded. It was no small concern to me to find
how the truth suffered by my weakness; but I was in hopes that deaan
Murnanzack, who was a man of penetration, might consider that I was but
a child when I left England, and for that reason, not well acquainted
with the topics I undertook to explain.
The next day we went directly forwards, for we were then past all the
wild cattle, and deaan Murnanzack therefore hastened homewards. About
three in the afternoon, we came to a place where the road divided; here
the prince halted, as I perceived, with no other view than to take his
leave of me, ordering two men to conduct me and my cattle to his
cow-keeper. Here we parted, and we lay that night near the banks of a
river, which are the boundaries of deaan Murnanzack’s country, and leads
into Madamvovo, the great river which runs through Anterndroea. To this
place where I was going, all the cattle come to water. As we were
passing through the woods, we met a company of men and women going to
fetch water; they stopped and gazed at me with admiration, having never
seen a white man before, asking those who accompanied me, who I was? and
from whence I came? who waggishly told them they found me in the forest
among the wild cattle, and intended to make a present of me to the
prince. In order to carry on the jest, I ran towards the women, and
talking gibberish, frightened one of them to that degree that she fell
into such violent fits, that the rest had much to do to recover her, for
which I was afterwards extremely sorry.
This wood extended from the river about seven miles, without any break
or plain, till within a mile of the town. It was no small concern to me
to think what a great way I had to drive my cattle to water every other
day, but it did not prove so great a fatigue as I expected; for there
being eight or ten of us, we took our turns, so that it came to each
man’s turn but once in about sixteen or twenty days; besides, as there
was no grass by the way, there was no impediment or interruption; and
when they returned hungry, they would go home fast enough of themselves.
As the people here had never seen a white man before, I was a very
surprising sight to them at first; but they were soon acquainted with
me, and I became of singular service to them: for whenever they had an
ox to kill they were obliged, till now, to go a great way for one of the
royal family; this trouble I saved them, and lived very plentifully
myself by that means. I was frequently sent for upon these occasions,
and had always my fee, which was four or five ribs to carry home with
me, besides the leg roasted for my entertainment whilst I was with them.
I seldom went without a boy to wait on me, as there were always several
at hand, and willing enough, because I was able to oblige them with part
of my beef. I had also sufficient to live like those who are free and
generous, in communicating some portion of whatever they have to their
neighbours. As soon as I came home, I used to put on the pot, and send
messes out to all my acquaintance, which they did not fail to return
when in their power: and it may be observed in the whole course of this
history, that all the people of this island delight in this free,
good-natured, and sociable way of living.
Whenever I was sent for, the house was always set in order, the owley
dressed, and placed in view. I was frequently employed to kill a
sacrifice, in case of a circumcision, or when any one was sick; and
since I had the conference above related with deaan Murnanzack, I had
the curiosity to listen to their prayers; and more than once I attempted
to speak in favour of the christian religion. When I mentioned the
resurrection of the body, they told me it must be a mere romance; and to
talk as I did of burning in fire after death, was to them inconceivable;
for (said they) no man can feel after he is dead, and unless they could
see some person raised from the grave, they would give no credit to my
assertion. I told them farther of God’s appearing, and giving the ten
commandments, but it had no influence over them; “for” (said they) “all
mankind have the purport and meaning of them by the dictates of nature.”