I slept too soundly; insomuch that I was waked with a severe
mortification for my thoughtless security. A fox caught hold of my heel,
and would have dragged me along; whereupon I startled, and catching up a
firebrand gave him such a blow as staggered him; but as soon as he
recovered he flew at my face. By this time I was upon my feet and
recovered one of my lances, with which I prevented him from ever
assaulting me more, but his hideous howling brought more about him. I
saw three whose eyes sparkled like diamonds, however they kept at a
distance; for with some dry light wood that lay near me I made a blaze
directly, in order to keep a flame all night, but did not wake to renew
it as I ought to have done: so that both my fires being almost reduced
to ashes, one of them boldly ventured between them, and it was very
happy for me that he did not seize upon my throat; for when men have
negligently slept where they haunt, I have known them meet with such a
mischance. After I had made up my fires, and put my enemies to flight, I
examined my heel and found two great holes on each side, where his teeth
had entered; I bound it up with a piece of my lamber in the best manner
I could; and making a great fire, threw the fox upon it by way of
resentment. I had not that pleasure in eating my breakfast this morning
as I had in my last night’s supper; besides, my beef was now a little
too tender; however, as I had honey enough for a week and here was
faungidge in plenty, I did not concern myself much about it.
I walked on this seventh day; and though I favoured my lame foot as much
as I could, yet I rested but once all day. This way happened to be plain
and easy. At evening I came to a place where lay several bodies of trees
which were dead and dry. Thinking this, therefore, a proper lodging, I
made four very large fires, sat me down to supper, and afterwards
ventured to go to sleep with all those fires around me. But my heel now
grew so very painful, and was swelled to that degree, that I could not
go forward the next day; but as there was faungidge enough within twenty
or thirty yards of me, I dug up several, and determined to continue here
till my foot grew better. My beef was soon gone, but faungidge was both
meat and drink to me. I saved part of my beef-fat to dress my heel with;
which, as I gave it six days’ rest, took down all the swelling. During
this time I made such large fires every night, that could they have been
seen, were like those of an army. I had not far to go for wood or any
thing else that I wanted, or at least that I could any way expect in
such a place.
After these six days’ rest, it being the fourteenth since I left deaan
Afferrer, I went forward, and that day passed over three very high
mountains. By this time my honey was all gone, and I could find no more;
so that I lived altogether upon faungidge.
The fifteenth day I walked very smartly again, and passed over several
hills that were very rough, craggy, and tiresome. I took particular care
however to get dry wood enough, for I never ventured to sleep without
four fires.
The sixteenth day I had not travelled above three hours, before I
perceived the earth to be of another colour; it was chalk then, and now
clay. This excited my curiosity, to climb the first high tree I could
meet with, from whence I discovered an opening to the northward, with
which I was highly delighted, but it was too far for me to reach that
night, so I took up my lodging as before. This night I was disturbed by
a herd of wild swine.
The seventeenth day I walked very hard, being very desirous to get
through this wilderness, which still abounded with hills. About noon I
reached the open country, where I could look about me with some pleasure
and walk upon level ground. I was now like one just delivered from a
prison, having been twelve days in this mountainous desert. I was
actually travelling near six days, and I imagine I did not walk less
than twenty miles a day; it might have been passed indeed in three days,
had I been so fortunate as to have found out the path.
I had not been long in the plain before I came to a little wood, where I
took up my lodging, because here was firing and faungidge in plenty,
which I was very glad to see, having been under some melancholy
apprehensions of wanting provision in the plains; but I had soon a still
greater hope of being better supplied, for in the night I was waked by
the roaring of a bull, by which I was very well assured it was the great
northern forest of wild cattle, which Ry-Nanno had informed me of.
The next day, which was the eighteenth, I saw several herds of Hattoy’s
cattle; and perceived there were more here than in the southern forest.
I looked wishfully about to discover some hunters if I could, or to
observe if any crows hovered about any particular place, for then I
might reasonably expect some beast that had been wounded was fallen
there. In the afternoon I came to a river, which was both deep and
large. As I was searching for a proper place to wade through or swim
over, I spied a large alligator; I still walked upon the banks, and in a
short time saw three more. This was a mortifying stroke and almost
dispirited me. I went on till I came to a shallower place, where I
entered the river about ten yards, with a view to swim over the rest in
four or five minutes, but seeing an alligator make towards me, I ran
back directly; he pursued me till I got into very shallow water, and
then he turned back into the deep, for they will never attack a man near
the shore. It nettled me to be stopped by a river that was scarcely a
hundred yards over. At length I recollected that at Bengal there are the
largest alligators in the world, and so bold that they will take a man
out of a shallow boat, insomuch that whenever we came off from the shore
in the night we made one small fire at the head, and another at the
stern of the boat, which no alligator would ever come near. Distress
puts a man’s invention upon the rack; something, thought I, like this
must be done, for it was to no purpose to stay here, neither could I go
back; so making choice of a stick for a firebrand, I cut it into long
splinters, and waited till it grew dark, then, after I had bound my two
fire-sticks to the top of one of my lances, I went into the water, and
recommending myself to the care of Providence, I turned upon my back,
and swam over with my two lances and hatchet in one hand, and my
firebrand burning in the other; my lamber being twisted and tied fast
about my lances.
The place where I pitched upon to swim over had a gap through the
thicket on each side one against another, which made it look like a
common passage either for men or cattle. No sooner was I landed, than I
heard some wild cattle grazing; whereupon I extinguished my fire
immediately, and washed myself as silently as possible, that they should
not smell me. I stood some time close under the cover of a thick bush in
the passage expecting that they would come to drink. The wind, as it
luckily fell out, was with them, so that they could not scent me, though
they often snorted for that purpose. I stood prepared with my lance, and
did not wait long before a numerous herd came running through the
passage to the river, and as they passed by, I pushed my lance with all
the force I was able into above forty of them, and used my utmost
endeavours to wound them in the belly. They ran roaring away, fighting,
and goring one another, to revenge as it were the blows they felt, for
they expected no other enemies than what were amongst themselves. I
thought I had struck a sufficient number, and hoped some of their wounds
would prove mortal; however, I would not run any hazard by night, and
therefore sat down contented without roast meat, and secured myself from
their attacks in a thick wood. The next morning I went to see what
success I had met with, and I found one bull and three cows dead upon
the sand; I soon cut up the youngest and fattest and carried it to my
quarters, near which I made an oven to bake it. This is a common
practice, though I never described it before; however it is made after
the following manner: a hole is dug about five feet in length, two over,
and about three in depth; this is filled with wood, which is then
kindled; on the top of the fire I put about a dozen large stones, each
weighing about a pound. Whilst the fire was burning I cut off the bark
from a tree, called the succore, and took the outer part away, and the
inner being pliant and lying flat it served for the cover of my oven.
When the fire was burnt to ashes, I laid three or four green sticks
across, that my beef might rest upon them; the stones being red-hot, I
placed them about the bottom and sides; I laid likewise more sticks over
the top, and then the bark covered all close with the earth. This is our
method of baking meat in the forests. I broiled some for my breakfast,
and then went out to see what farther execution I had done, and found
six more beeves lying dead upon the plain: however I had enough here.
When I returned, my beef was as well baked as it would have been at any
baker’s in London. When it was cold, I made it up into an enter, but
went no farther this day.
The next morning I went forward well pleased with my load: though I
discovered some smoke to the eastward, yet I saw no people, but many
herds of wild cattle; as there were several little woods in this plain,
I never wanted either a covert for a lodging, or grass to make me a
tolerably soft bed to lie on. The country was pleasant enough, and
travelling was so easy, that I determined if it should be my misfortune
to meet with as bad a master as Mevarrow, and there were no hopes of
getting to England, that I would run away and live by myself in this
forest.
The twenty-first day in the morning I saw several wild dogs engaged
with, and pulling down a bull that had been wounded as I imagined some
time before, for I never knew the dogs attack them unless they were. It
was no business of mine to interrupt them, and if it were, it would have
been a very dangerous thing to make the attempt, for though they do not
seek to assault a man, yet upon provocation they have been known to
destroy several. This night was the first time I ever felt mosquitoes in
the island; for, lying in the evening in a covert near a run of water,
they stung me to that degree, that I was forced to shift my quarters,
and as it was moonlight I got up and walked three or four miles farther
to the top of a hill, where I slept without molestation. I had no
occasion to light more than one fire, for there was no great danger of
wild beasts here.
On the twenty-second day I discovered a fog in one long canal that ran
from east to west, which as it continued all the day long, and at a vast
distance, I conceived it to hang over the great river Oneghaloyhe, that
runs into Augustine-bay. This put new life into me, to think I drew near
to a seaport; I saw two men that day laden with beef, and would have
spoken to them, but they dropped their enters and ran from me, though I
called and laid down mine, and went towards them. As soon as they
imagined I was gone, I saw them return and take their beef up again.
On the twenty-third day in the morning the fog appeared again, but much
nearer. I walked as hard as I well could, being desirous to get to the
river: it was afternoon, however, before I reached within a mile of it,
and then the bushes and thorny small wood were so thick that it was with
great difficulty, and many severe scratches, that I got to the river
side. When I saw the river so very broad I was surprised, for at least
it was twice as broad as the Thames at London. I had been informed that
a man might wade over it near the head, but that they always made use of
canoes to transport themselves over other parts, which way they got them
I cannot say, for my own part I had no such help. I made my fire, went
to supper, and then reposed myself to rest, or rather to study which way
I should get over. In the morning I determined to look out for some old
trees or branches that were fallen, and in a short time I met with
several that were fit for my purpose, not only great arms but trunks of
trees broken off by tempests, these I dragged down to the river side. In
the next place I made it my business to find out a creeper, which is as
large as a withy, but twining round trees is very pliant. I lopped the
superfluous branches off of six long and thick arms of the trees, and
placing three at bottom and three at top, I bound them together, making
what we call in the East Indies, a catamaran. I built it afloat in the
water, for otherwise I could not have launched it; and moored it to a
lance which I stuck in the shore for that purpose; I then fixed my enter
in order to preserve it as dry as I possibly could, as also my hatchet
and my other lance, after that I made a paddle to row with; then I
pulled up my lance and kept it in my hand to defend myself against the
alligators, in case any of them should assault me, for I was informed
they were very numerous and very fierce here. It blowed a fresh gale at
west against the stream, which in the middle made a sea, and gave me no
small concern; for I was in great danger of being overset and becoming a
prey to the alligators. It pleased God, however, to protect me, and I
landed safely on the other shore. This being a pretty good day’s work, I
determined not to go much farther that evening before I took up my
lodging.
On the twenty-fourth day, though I travelled a great way, yet nothing
material offered; I saw indeed a few wild cattle, but not near the
number that was on the other side of the river, and those too were
somewhat shyer, by which I concluded it to be an inhabited country.
On the twenty-fifth day my burden grew lighter and began to smell, but I
did not concern myself much about that, since I resolved to speak to the
first people I could see; for I remembered, that deaan Trongha had told
me that his town lay by the north side of this river. I forded over a
brook which runs into the great river. The country is very pleasant, and
here are abundance of palmetto trees, which they call satter-futey. They
bear a long leaf like a cocoa-nut tree, but the fruit is quite of
another nature: of these leaves the people make baskets, caps, &c. I saw
no wild cattle all this day.
On the twenty-sixth day, though I walked very hard again, yet I baited
in the heat of the day, and in the afternoon, making the best of my way,
I espied a smoke; and being determined to speak to those who made it I
mended my pace, lest they should be passengers only that baited as I
did, and would be gone; but I soon heard the tongues of several
children, who ran into the woods as soon as they saw me. Upon which,
immediately three men, armed with guns and lances, started out. I looked
behind me for a commodious shelter, not knowing what to think of them,
and retreated a little; which they perceiving, left their guns behind
them, and came towards me. Upon that I went to meet them, and, at a
distance, desired to know what king they belonged to. They answered
deaan Mernaugha, and as a farther testimony, perceiving that I was a
white man, they spoke two or three words in broken English; and after
that we shook hands, and saluted each other with the usual compliment,
salamonger. They invited me to go with them to their habitations, where
we sat down, and I gave them a short detail of my travels. They said
they had heard of me, and having some susers in the pot just boiled,
they desired me to eat with them. After which, I asked them several
questions relating to their trade, their war, and peace; and one of the
most experienced of them gave me the following melancholy account of it.
Our late king, Rer Vovvern, said he, killed himself with grief at an
irruption which Rer Trimmenongarevo made with nine thousand men, and
took his two daughters captives. Our prince pursued him with seven
thousand, but the enemy, by a stratagem, got privately into Feraignher,
and plundered it; deaan Woozington at the same time attacked the
southern parts, having made canoes and passed the great river; the other
passages being first stopped. He took also a great many people, but
deaan Trongha, and his brother Rer Befaugher, who stayed at home with
two thousand men, disconcerted his measures and prevented his carrying
off the captives; which so enraged Woozington, who was a man of a
barbarous disposition, that he slew a great many women and children. Rer
Trimmenongarevo took a contrary method, for he sent messengers with
friendly invitations to the people to come and live in his country and
be his subjects, and with repeated assurances, that he would restore to
them their wives and children; which promise he punctually performed,
and still continues so to do; so that some hundreds are gone away: and
he still so embarrasses us, who are unwilling to leave our native
country, that many of us are obliged to fly into these forests and
secret recesses in order to be safe, contenting ourselves, as you see,
with what the country naturally affords us; for we dare neither plant
nor keep cattle, lest we should be surprised. We have another petty
prince in the mountains, who takes this opportunity to make incursions,
and helps to impoverish us, so that we have enemies all around us; and
those who remain in towns are almost famished. For we have no friends
but white men, and there has not been a ship come this way a long time;
and should they be apprized of our poverty they would come no more. Thus
this kingdom, which was lately the glory of the island, is now almost
reduced to nothing.
This melancholy tale so shocked me, that I sat mute and as fixed as a
statue, till the man perceiving my concern, roused me by asking me my
name; and if I had not thoughts of going to the king before I went to
deaan Trongha, as, they said, was my duty; but I told them I was a
freeman, and would act as I had already told them; so they gave me a
mat, and I lay down ruminating on the hard fortune that attended me; but
as Providence had taken care of me hitherto, I did not question but in
due time my deliverance would be accomplished; and with this resignation
I laid me down to rest.
These men were very courteous to me, and pressed me to stay two or three
days with them; but I only breakfasted there, giving them some of my
beef, which they accepted, though it was far from being good. When they
found I was determined to go, they made me a present of a parcel of
roasted susers to carry with me, and accompanied me as far as the path,
and showed me how to find these susers, which till then I had never
seen; they grow like wild yams, which were their principal diet. This
was the twenty-seventh day of my travels, and turning out of the path
into the wood, I hunted about for such an inn as had served me many a
night before; which I soon found, made a fire, and after supper slept
very contentedly.
The next morning I met with four men, who informed me, that though I
could not reach deaan Trongha’s town, yet I might Rer Befaugher’s, and
he would send a man to direct me. My way lay over a high hill, from
whence I saw the sea, and the road where the ships used to lie in
Augustine-bay; on the other hand was the great river, and the country
very pleasant along its banks. When I came to the bottom, some boys who
were tending their cattle ran up to me, for they are not afraid of white
men, and one of them very courteously offered to show me the way to the
town.
On my arrival, the people stared to see a white man without clothes;
some said, a ship was arrived; but most said, I could not come from a
ship naked, and without a hat. When I came near Rer Befaugher’s house, I
perceived he looked earnestly at me, not knowing me at first; but, when
I came nearer, he arose from his seat, clapped his hand to his mouth and
cried, “Ah! Ry-Robin, how came you here?” Had I been his brother, he
could not have embraced me with more affection. As soon as I was seated,
several came about me; some who knew me in the army asked me, who were
with me? And when I answered, nobody, they wondered how I could find the
way by myself; but when I informed them how I lost my way, and came
through the mountainous wilderness, and what stratagems I made use of to
pass the rivers, they were perfectly astonished.
Rer Befaugher took me into his house, and made me sup with him; he had
roast beef, and his wife brought milk on purpose for me. I asked about
the state of the country, and he gave much the same account I had heard
before; with this addition, that he expected every day that Rer
Trimmenongarevo would come, and ravage the whole country, for they were
altogether incapable of making any resistance; those, however, who were
the pillars of the land, were determined to stand till they were cut
down by death, and not to fly. For indeed, said he, we have nowhere to
go but into the sea, and we have no notion of living there as you white
men have.
When we had supped, and talked till I was sleepy, he sent a man with me
to a house prepared for my reception. The next morning I begged the
favour of him to send a man to direct me in the right road to deaan
Trongha’s; but he would go himself. I told him that it was too great a
condescension, and too much beneath his dignity, to attend a slave as I
was. He answered, that he never looked on white men as slaves, and that
he had waited on several. And Rer Vovvern, as well as he, had clothed
and maintained some who did not deserve it, but they did it for the sake
of others; for, says he, here have been some very quarrelsome people who
come ashore, and never go aboard again, and behave themselves shamefully
ill. I asked him what they trafficked for here. He said, for nothing but
provision, for which they gave them gold and silver in exchange, and
sometimes pieces of silk; and when they sail away, no one, nay, they
themselves don’t know to what country they are going: for they are
wicked, careless wretches, and their whole business is to plunder other
ships. I told him, they were to blame either to assist them, or sell
them any provisions; and that the government of England was at a
prodigious expense to fit out ships on purpose to destroy them, for they
spoil the merchants’ trade, and were a disgrace to their country. The
English, for the generality, said he, were very good people, and by the
trade which they drove with them, were of singular service to their
country. That he had been on board divers ships, and had met with
several captains, who were very honest men, for they used to receive him
in the most courteous manner, and entertain him with wine, punch, and
brandy; and sometimes another sort of liquor that was very bitter, what
the name of it was he could not tell, but they loved it themselves. I
told him it was beer. He said, yes; but he could never drink it with any
pleasure. Thus we went chatting along to deaan Trongha’s, which was
about two hours’ walk. When we arrived the people flocked round me, some
saying a samb-tuley; that is to say, a ship was arrived, but others said
no, for men seldom come naked from a ship.
When I came before deaan Trongha, I perceived he did not recollect me, I
offered to kneel and lick his feet, but he would not permit; saying, be
he who he may, he is a white man, and they shall never lick black men’s
feet. At length, his brother informed him who I was: no sooner had he
heard it than he rose up, and embraced me with abundance of joy and
friendship. When we had been seated some time, and I had given them an
account of my travels, he told me, I was still a very unfortunate man;
for they were in a very poor state and condition, and I should be
miserably mistaken, if I expected to live happy there. I told him, it
could not well be worse than it had been with me all along, and I was
determined to live with him all my life long, if he pleased to admit me
into his service, unless he would be so indulgent to me as to send me
home when a ship came. He told me, I should fare as he did himself; for
he looked on it as his duty to relieve a white man in distress, for the
favours he and his family had received from my countrymen. In short, he
received me with such tokens of friendship, and treated me with so much
tenderness, that my own father could not have shown me more compassion.
He lamented very much the deplorable circumstances to which his country
was reduced, and was extremely afraid lest the white men should know it;
for then, said he, they would never come to trade with us any more, nor
give me an opportunity of sending you to your native home.
When I had eaten and drunk with him, he took his leave of his brother,
being obliged to guard the slaves who were at work in the plantations,
lest they should be surprised and taken by small parties of their
northern enemy, who lay in ambuscade, in order to sally out, and carry
off what they could steal on a sudden, and so run away again. When we
were a little way out of town, we came to a spacious thicket of wild
canes, reeds, and rushes; in the midst of which were the plantations,
bounded on the other side with the great river Oneghaloyhe. Here were
plantains, bonanoes, sugar-canes, and rice, with all these the southern
country from whence I came were wholly unacquainted; but here were
likewise several things which I had seen before, as anbotty, anchoroko,
&c. These were but lately planted and sowed; the enemy having destroyed
all the plantations in the incursions they made, whilst deaan Trongha,
&c. were in the late war in Merfaughla. I began to suspect that he
intended to set me to work, but I soon perceived he had no such design;
for he gave me his gun, and told me since I was willing to be his
servant, all he should require of me should be to carry his gun, and
never to be the length of it from him, that in case of a surprise he
might have it at hand.