was I carried up the country to the emperor’s court, as the rest of our
men were, but was kept by the captain of the rover as his proper prize,
and made his slave, being young and nimble, and fit for his business. At
this surprising change of my circumstances, from a merchant to a
miserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed; and now I looked back upon
my father’s prophetic discourse to me, that I should be miserable, and
have none to relieve me, which I thought was now so effectually brought
to pass, that I could not be worse; that now the hand of Heaven had
overtaken me, and I was undone without redemption: but, alas! this was
but a taste of the misery I was to go through, as will appear in the
sequel of this story.
As my new patron, or master, had taken me home to his house, so I was in
hopes that he would take me with him when he went to sea again,
believing that it would sometime or other be his fate to be taken by a
Spanish or Portugal man of war, and that then I should be set at
liberty. But this hope of mine was soon taken away; for when he went to
sea, he left me on shore to look after his little garden, and do the
common drudgery of slaves about his house; and when he came home again
from his cruise, he ordered me to be in the cabin to look after
the ship.
Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what method I might take to
effect it, but found no way that had the least probability in it:
nothing presented to make the supposition of it rational; for I had
nobody to communicate it to that would embark with me, no fellow slave,
no Englishman, Irishman, or Scotsman there but myself; so that for two
years, though I often pleased myself with the imagination, yet I never
had the least encouraging prospect of putting it in practice.
After about two years an odd circumstance presented itself, which put
the old thought of making some attempt for my liberty again in my head:
my patron lying at home longer than usual without fitting out his ship,
which, as I heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once or
twice a week, sometimes oftener, if the weather was fair, to take the
ship’s pinnace, and go out into the road a-fishing; and as he always
took me and a young Maresco with him to row the boat, we made him very
merry, and I proved very dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that
sometimes he would send me with a Moor, one of his kinsmen, and the
youth the Maresco, as they called him, to catch a dish of fish for him.
It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a stark calm morning, a
fog rose so thick, that though we were not half a league from the shore
we lost sight of it; and rowing we knew not whither or which way, we
laboured all day, and all the next night, and when the morning came we
found we had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and
that we were at least two leagues from the shore: however, we got well
in again, though with a great deal of labour and some danger; for the
wind began to blow pretty fresh in the morning; but particularly we were
all very hungry.
But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to take more care of
himself for the future; and having lying by him the long-boat of our
English ship he had taken, he resolved he would not go a-fishing any
more without a compass and some provision; so he ordered the carpenter
of his ship, who also was an English slave, to build a little
state-room, or cabin, in the middle of the long-boat, like that of a
barge, with a place to stand behind it to steer and hale home the
main-sheet; and room before for a hand or two to stand and work the
sails: she sailed with that we call a shoulder of mutton sail; and the
boom gibed over the top of the cabin, which lay very snug and low, and
had in it room for him to lie, with a slave or two, and a table to eat
on, with some small lockers to put in some bottles of such liquor as he
thought fit to drink; particularly his bread, rice, and coffee.
We went frequently out with this boat a-fishing, and as I was most
dexterous to catch fish for him, he never went without me. It happened
that he had appointed to go out in this boat, either for pleasure or for
fish, with two or three Moors of some distinction in that place, and for
whom he had provided extraordinarily, and had therefore sent on board
the boat over-night a larger store of provisions than ordinary; and had
ordered me to get ready three fuzees with powder and shot, which were on
board his ship; for that they designed some sport of fowling as well
as fishing.
I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the next morning
with the boat washed clean, her ancient and pendants out, and every
thing to accommodate his guests; when by and by my patron came on board
alone, and told me his guests had put off going, upon some business that
fell out, and ordered me with the man and boy, as usual, to go out with
the boat and catch them some fish, for that his friends were to sup at
his house; and commanded that as soon as I got some fish I should bring
it home to his house; all which I prepared to do.
This moment my former notions of deliverance darted into my thoughts,
for now I found I was like to have a little ship at my command; and my
master being gone, I prepared to furnish myself, not for fishing
business, but for a voyage; though I knew not, neither did I so much as
consider, whither I should steer; for any where to get out of that place
was my way.
My first contrivance was to make a pretence to speak to this Moor, to
get something for our subsistence on board; for I told him we must not
presume to eat of our patron’s bread; he said, that was true: so he
brought a large basket of rusk or bisket of their kind, and three jars
with fresh water, into the boat. I knew where my patron’s case of
bottles stood, which it was evident, by the make, were taken out of some
English prize, and I conveyed them into the boat while the Moor was on
shore, as if they had been there before for our master: I conveyed also
a great lump of bees-wax into the boat, which weighed above half a
hundred weight, with a parcel of twine or thread, a hatchet, a saw, and
a hammer, all which were of great use to us afterwards, especially the
wax to make candles. Another trick I tried upon him, which he innocently
came into also; his name was Ismael, whom they call Muly or Moley; so I
called to him: “Moley,” said I, “our patron’s guns are on board the
boat; can you not get a little powder and shot? It may be we may kill
some alcamies (a fowl like our curlews) for ourselves, for I know he
keeps the gunner’s stores in the ship.”—“Yes,” says he, “I’ll bring
some;” and accordingly he brought a great leather pouch which held about
a pound and a half of powder, or rather more; and another with shot,
that had five or six pounds, with some bullets, and put all into the
boat; at the same time I had found some powder of my master’s in the
great cabin, with which I filled one of the large bottles in the case,
which was almost empty, pouring what was in it into another; and thus
furnished with every thing needful, we sailed out of the port to fish.
The castle, which is at the entrance of the port, knew who we were, and
took no notice of us: and we were not above a mile out of the port
before we haled in our sail, and set us down to fish. The wind blew from
the N.N.E. which was contrary to my desire; for had it blown southerly,
I had been sure to have made the coast of Spain, and at last reached to
the bay of Cadiz; but my resolutions were, blow which way it would, I
would be gone from that horrid place where I was, and leave the rest
to fate.
After we had fished some time and catched nothing, for when I had fish
on my hook I would not pull them up, that he might not see them, I said
to the Moor, “This will not do; our master will not be thus served; we
must stand farther off.” He, thinking no harm, agreed, and being in the
head of the boat set the sails; and as I had the helm I ran the boat out
near a league farther, and then brought her to as if I would fish; when
giving the boy the helm, I stepped forward to where the Moor was, and
making as if I stooped for something behind him, I took him by surprise
with my arm under his twist, and tossed him clear overboard into the
sea; he rose immediately, for he swam like a cork, and called to me,
begged to be taken in, told me he would go all over the world with me.
He swam so strong after the boat, that he would have reached me very
quickly, there being but little wind; upon which I stepped into the
cabin, and fetching one of the fowling-pieces, I presented it at him,
and told him, I had done him no hurt, and if he would be quiet I would
do him none: “But,” said I, “you swim well enough to reach to the shore,
and the sea is calm; make the best of your way to shore, and I will do
you no harm; but if you come near the boat I’ll shoot you through the
head, for I am resolved to have my liberty:” so he turned himself about,
and swam for the shore, and I make no doubt but he reached it with ease,
for he was an excellent swimmer.
I could have been content to have taken this Moor with me, and have
drowned the boy, but there was no venturing to trust him. When he was
gone I turned to the boy, whom they called Xury, and said to him, “Xury,
if you will be faithful to me I’ll make you a great man; but if you will
not stroke your face to be true to me,” that is, swear by Mahomet and
his father’s beard, “I must throw you into the sea too.” The boy smiled
in my face, and spoke so innocently, that I could not mistrust him; and
swore to be faithful to me, and go all over the world with me.
While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I stood out directly
to sea with the boat, rather stretching to windward, that they might
think me gone towards the Straits’ mouth; (as indeed any one that had
been in their wits must have been supposed to do) for who would have
supposed we were sailed on to the southward to the truly Barbarian
coast, where whole nations of Negroes were sure to surround us with the
canoes, and destroy us; where we could never once go on shore but we
should be devoured by savage beasts, or more merciless savages of
human kind?
But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed my course, and
steered directly south and by east, bending my course a little toward
the east, that I might keep in with the shore; and having a fair, fresh
gale of wind, and a smooth, quiet sea, I made such sail that I believe
by the next day at three o’clock in the afternoon, when I first made the
land, I could not be less than 150 miles south of Sallee; quite beyond
the Emperor of Morocco’s dominions, or indeed of any other king
thereabouts, for we saw no people.
Yet such was the fright I had taken at the Moors, and the dreadful
apprehensions I had of falling into their hands, that I would not stop,
or go on shore, or come to an anchor; the wind continuing fair till I
had sailed in that manner five days, and then the wind shifting to the
southward, I concluded also that if any of our vessels were in chase of
me, they also would now give over; so I ventured to make to the coast,
and come to an anchor in the mouth of a little river, I knew not what,
or where; neither what latitude, what country, what nation, or what
river: I neither saw, or desired to see any people; the principal thing
I wanted was fresh water. We came into this creek in the evening,
resolving to swim on shore as soon as it was dark, and discover the
country; but as soon as it was quite dark, we heard, such dreadful
noises of the barking, roaring, and howling of wild creatures, of we
knew not what kinds that the poor boy was ready to die with fear, and
begged of me not to go on shore till day. “Well, Xury,” said I, “then I
won’t; but it may be we may see men by day, who will be as bad to us as
those lions.”—“Then we give them the shoot gun,” says Xury, laughing,
“make them run wey.” Such English Xury spoke by conversing among us
slaves. However, I was glad to see the boy so cheerful, and I gave him a
dram (out of our patron’s case of bottles) to cheer him up. After all,
Xury’s advice was good, and I took it; we dropped our little anchor, and
lay still all night; I say still, for we slept none; for in two or three
hours we saw vast great creatures (we knew not what to call them) of
many sorts, come down to the sea-shore and run into the water, wallowing
and washing themselves for the pleasure of cooling themselves; and they
made such hideous howlings and yellings, that I never indeed heard
the like.
Xury was dreadfully frighted, and indeed so was I too; but we were both
more frighted when we heard one of these mighty creatures come swimming
towards our boat; we could not see him, but we might hear him by his
blowing to be a monstrous huge and furious beast; Xury said it was a
lion, and it might be so for aught I know; but poor Xury cried to me to
weigh the anchor and row away: “No,” says I, “Xury; we can slip our
cable with the buoy to it, and go off to sea; they cannot follow us
far.” I had no sooner said so, but I perceived the creature (whatever it
was) within two oars’ length, which something surprised me; however, I
immediately stepped to the cabin-door, and taking up my gun fired at
him; upon which he immediately turned about, and swam towards the
shore again.
But it is impossible to describe the horrible noises, and hideous cries
and howlings, that were raised, as well upon the edge of the shore as
higher within the country, upon the noise or report of the gun, a thing
I have some reason to believe those creatures had never heard before:
this convinced me that there was no going on shore for us in the night
upon that coast, and how to venture on shore in the day was another
question too; for to have fallen into the hands of any of the savages,
had been as bad as to have fallen into the hands of lions and tigers; at
least we were equally apprehensive of the danger of it.
Be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore somewhere or other
for water, for we had not a pint left in the boat; when or where to get
it, was the point: Xury said, if I would let him go on shore with one of
the jars, he would find if there was any water, and bring some to me. I
asked him why he would go? why I should not go, and he stay in the
boat? The boy answered with so much affection, that made me love him
ever after. Says he, “If wild mans come, they eat me, you go
wey.”—“Well, Xury,” said I, “we will both go, and if the wild mans
come, we will kill them, they shall eat neither of us.” So I gave Xury a
piece of rusk bread to eat, and a dram out of our patron’s case of
bottles which I mentioned before; and we haled the boat in as near the
shore as we thought was proper, and waded on shore; carrying nothing but
our arms, and two jars for water.
I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the coming of
canoes with savages down the river; but the boy seeing a low place about
a mile up the country, rambled to it; and by and by I saw him come
running towards me. I thought he was pursued by some savage, or frighted
with some wild beast, and I run forward towards him to help him; but
when I came nearer to him, I saw something hanging over his shoulders,
which was a creature that he had shot, like a hare, but different in
colour, and longer legs; however, we were very glad of it, and it was
very good meat; but the great joy that poor Xury came with, was to tell
me that he had found good water, and seen no wild mans.
But we found afterwards that we need not take such pains for water, for
a little higher up the creek where we were, we found the water fresh
when the tide was out, which flows but a little way up; so we filled our
jars, and feasted on the hare we had killed, and prepared to go on our
way, having seen no footsteps of any human creature in that part of
the country.
As I had been one voyage to this coast before, I knew very well that the
islands of the Canaries, and the Cape de Verd islands also, lay not far
off from the coast. But as I had no instruments to take an observation
to know what latitude we were in, and not exactly knowing, or at least
remembering what latitude they were in, and knew not where to look for
them, or when to stand off to sea towards them; otherwise I might now
easily have found some of these islands. But my hope was, that if I
stood along this coast till I came to that part where the English
traded, I should find some of their vessels upon their usual design of
trade, that would relieve and take us in.
By the best of my calculation, that place where I now was, must be that
country, which, lying between the emperor of Morocco’s dominions and the
Negroes, lies waste, and uninhabited, except by wild beasts; the Negroes
having abandoned it, and gone farther south for fear of the Moors; and
the Moors not thinking it worth inhabiting, by reason of its barrenness;
and indeed both forsaking it because of the prodigious numbers of
tigers, lions, leopards, and other furious creatures which harbour
there; so that the Moors use it for their hunting only, where they go
like an army, two or three thousand men at a time; and indeed for near
an hundred miles together upon this coast, we saw nothing but a waste
uninhabited country by day, and heard nothing but howlings and roaring
of wild beasts by night.
Once or twice in the daytime. I thought I saw the Pico of Teneriffe,
being the high top of the Mountain Teneriffe in the Canaries; and had a
great mind to venture out in hopes of reaching thither; but having tried
twice, I was forced in again by contrary winds, the sea also going too
high for my little vessel; so I resolved to pursue my first design, and
keep along the shore.
Several times I was obliged to land for fresh water, after we had left
this place; and once in particular, being early in the morning, we came
to an anchor under a little point of land which was pretty high; and the
tide beginning to flow, we lay still to go farther in. Xury, whose eyes
were more about him than it seems mine were, calls softly to me, and
tells me that we had best go farther off the shore; “for,” says he,
“look yonder lies a dreadful monster on the side of that hillock fast
asleep.” I looked where he pointed, and saw a dreadful monster indeed,
for it was a terrible great lion that lay on the side of the shore,
under the shade of a piece of the hill that hung as it were a little
over him. “Xury,” says I, “you shall go on shore and kill him.” Xury
looked frighted, and said, “Me kill! he eat me at one mouth;” one
mouthful he meant: however, I said no more to the boy, but had him lie
still, and I took our biggest gun, which was almost musket-bore, and
loaded it with a good charge of powder, and with two slugs, and laid it
down; then I loaded another gun with two bullets; and the third, for we
had three pieces, I loaded with five smaller bullets. I took the best
aim I could with the first piece, to have shot him into the head, but he
lay so with his leg raised a little above his nose, that the slugs hit
his leg about the knee, and broke the bone. He started up growling at
first, but finding his leg broke fell down again, and then got up upon
three legs, and gave the most hideous roar that ever I heard. I was a
little surprised that I had not hit him on the head; however, I look up
the second piece immediately, and, though he began to move off, fired
again, and shot him into the head, and had the pleasure to see him drop,
and make but little noise, but he struggling for life. Then Xury took
Heart, and would have me let him go on shore: “Well, go,” said I; so the
boy jumped into the water, and taking a little gun in one hand, swam to
shore with the other hand, and coming close to the creature, put the
muzzle of the piece to his ear, and shot him into the head again, which
dispatched him quite.
This was game indeed to us, but this was no food; and I was very sorry
to lose three charges of powder and shot upon a creature that was good
for nothing to us. However, Xury said he would have some of him; so he
comes on board, and asked me to give him the hatchet. “For what, Xury?”
said I, “Me cut off his head,” said he. However, Xury could not cut off
his head, but he cut off a foot, and brought it with him, and it was a
monstrous great one.
I bethought myself however, that perhaps the skin of him might one way
or other be of some value to us; and I resolved to take off his skin if
I could. So Xury and I went to work with him; but Xury was much the
better workman at it, for I knew very ill how to do it. Indeed it took
us up both the whole day, but at last we got off the hide of him, and
spreading it on the top of our cabin, the sun effectually dried it in
two days time, and it afterwards served me to lie upon.
After this stop, we made on to the southward continually for ten or
twelve days, living very sparing on our provisions, which began to abate
very much, and going no oftener into the shore than we were obliged to
for fresh water: my design in this was, to make the river Gambia or
Senegal, that is to say, any where about the Cape de Verd, where I was
in hopes to meet with some European ship; and if I did not, I knew not
what course I had to take, but to seek for the islands, or perish there
among the Negroes. I knew that all the ships from Europe, which sailed
either to the coast of Guinea or Brasil, or to the East Indies, made
this Cape, or those islands; and in a word, I put the whole of my
fortune upon this single point, either that I must meet with some ship,
or must perish.
When I had passed this resolution about ten days longer, as I have said,
I began to see that the land was inhabited; and in two or three places,
as we sailed by, we saw people stand upon the shore to look at us; we
could also perceive that they were quite black, and stark naked. I was
once inclined to have gone on shore to them; but Xury was my better
counsellor, and said to me, “No go, no go.” However, I hauled in nearer
the shore that I might talk to them, and I found they run along the
shore by me a good way: I observed they had no weapons in their hands,
except one, who had a long slender stick, which Xury said was a lance,
and that they would throw, them a great way with good aim; so I kept at
a distance, but talked with them by signs as well as I could; and
particularly made signs for something to eat; they beckoned to me to
stop my boat, and they would fetch me some meat. Upon this I lowered the
top of my sail, and lay by, and two of them ran up into the country, and
in less than half an hour came back, and brought with them two pieces of
dry flesh and some corn, such as is the produce of their country; but we
neither knew what the one nor the other was: however, we were willing to
accept it, but how to come at it was our next dispute, for I was not for
venturing on shore to them, and they were as much afraid of us: but they
took a safe way for us all, for they brought it to the shore and laid it
down, and went and stood a great way off till we fetched it on board,
and then came close to us again.
We made signs of thanks to them, for we had nothing to make them amends;
but an opportunity offered that very instant to oblige them wonderfully;
for while we were lying by the shore came two mighty creatures, one
pursuing the other (as we took it) with great fury from the mountains
towards the sea; whether it was the male pursuing the female, or whether
they were in sport or in rage, we could not tell, any more than we could
tell whether it was usual or strange, but I believe it was the latter;
because, in the first place, those ravenous creatures seldom appear but
in the night; and in the second place, we found the people terribly
frighted, especially the women. The man that had the lance or dart did
not fly from them, but the rest did; however, as the two creatures ran
directly into the water, they did not seem to offer to fall upon any of
the Negroes, but plunged themselves into the sea, and swam about as if
they had come for their diversion. At last one of them began to come
nearer our boat than at first I expected; but I lay ready for him, for I
had loaded my gun with all possible expedition, and had Xury load both
the others: as soon as he came fairly within my reach I fired, and shot
him directly into the head; immediately he sunk down into the water, but
rose instantly, and plunged up and down as if he was struggling for
life; and so indeed he was: he immediately made to the shore; but
between the wound, which was his mortal hurt, and the strangling of the
water, he died just before he reached the shore.
It is impossible to express the astonishment of these poor creatures at
the noise and the fire of my gun; some of them were even ready to die
for fear, and fell down as dead with the very terror. But when they saw
the creature dead, and sunk in the water, and that I made signs to them
to come to the shore, they took heart and came to the shore, and began
to search for the creature. I found him by his blood staining the water,
and by the help of a rope, which I slung round him, and gave the Negroes
to hale, they dragged him on shore, and found that it was a most curious
leopard, spotted and fine to an admirable degree, and the Negroes held
up their hands with admiration to think what it was I had killed
him with.