the black army had left their wandering about the poles, and began to
stir as if they would come on, though seeing more men stand at some
distance behind our negroes, they could not tell what to make of us;
but if they did not understand us before, they understood us less
afterwards, for as soon as ever our men found them to begin to move
forward they fired among the thickest of them, being about the distance
of 120 yards, as near as we could guess.
It is impossible to express the fright, the screaming and yelling
of those wretches upon this first volley. We killed six of them, and
wounded eleven or twelve, I mean as we knew of; for, as they stood
thick, and the small shot, as we called it, scattered among them, we had
reason to believe we wounded more that stood farther off, for our small
shot was made of bits of lead and bits of iron, heads of nails, and such
things as our diligent artificer, the cutler, helped us to.
As to those that were killed and wounded, the other frighted creatures
were under the greatest amazement in the world, to think what should
hurt them, for they could see nothing but holes made in their bodies
they knew not how. Then the fire and noise amazed all their women and
children, and frighted them out of their wits, so that they ran staring
and howling about like mad creatures.
However, all this did not make them fly, which was what we wanted, nor
did we find any of them die as it were with fear, as at first; so we
resolved upon a second volley, and then to advance as we did before.
Whereupon our reserved men advancing, we resolved to fire only three men
at a time, and move forward like an army firing in platoon; so, being
all in a line, we fired, first three on the right, then three on the
left, and so on; and every time we killed or wounded some of them, but
still they did not fly, and yet they were so frighted that they used
none of their bows and arrows, or of their lances; and we thought their
numbers increased upon our hands, particularly we thought so by the
noise. So I called to our men to halt, and bid them pour in one whole
volley and then shout, as we did in our first fight, and so run in upon
them and knock them down with our muskets.
But they were too wise for that too, for as soon as we had fired a whole
volley and shouted, they all ran away, men, women, and children, so fast
that in a few moments we could not see one creature of them except some
that were wounded and lame, who lay wallowing and screaming here and
there upon the ground as they happened to fall.
Upon this we came up to the field of battle, where we found we had
killed thirty-seven of them, among which were three women, and had
wounded about sixty-four, among which were two women; by wounded I
mean such as were so maimed as not to be able to go away, and those our
negroes killed afterwards in a cowardly manner in cold blood, for which
we were very angry, and threatened to make them go to them if they did
so again.
There was no great spoil to be got, for they were all stark naked as
they came into the world, men and women together, some of them having
feathers stuck in their hair, and others a kind of bracelet about their
necks, but nothing else; but our negroes got a booty here, which we were
very glad of, and this was the bows and arrows of the vanquished, of
which they found more than they knew what to do with, belonging to the
killed and wounded men; these we ordered them to pick up, and they
were very useful to us afterwards. After the fight, and our negroes had
gotten bows and arrows, we sent them out in parties to see what they
could get, and they got some provisions; but, which was better than all
the rest, they brought us four more young bulls, or buffaloes, that
had been brought up to labour and to carry burthens. They knew them, it
seems, by the burthens they had carried having galled their backs, for
they have no saddles to cover them with in that country.
Those creatures not only eased our negroes, but gave us an opportunity
to carry more provisions; and our negroes loaded them very hard at this
place with flesh and roots, such as we wanted very much afterwards.
In this town we found a very little young leopard, about two spans high;
it was exceeding tame, and purred like a cat when we stroked it with our
hands, being, as I suppose, bred up among the negroes like a house-dog.
It was our black prince, it seems, who, making his tour among the
abandoned houses or huts, found this creature there, and making much of
him, and giving a bit or two of flesh to him, the creature followed him
like a dog; of which more hereafter.
Among the negroes that were killed in this battle there was one who had
a little thin bit or plate of gold, about as big as a sixpence, which
hung by a little bit of a twisted gut upon his forehead, by which we
supposed he was a man of some eminence among them; but that was not all,
for this bit of gold put us upon searching very narrowly if there was
not more of it to be had thereabouts, but we found none at all.
From this part of the country we went on for about fifteen days, and
then found ourselves obliged to march up a high ridge of mountains,
frightful to behold, and the first of the kind that we met with; and
having no guide but our little pocket-compass, we had no advantage of
information as to which was the best or the worst way, but was obliged
to choose by what we saw, and shift as well as we could. We met with
several nations of wild and naked people in the plain country before we
came to those hills, and we found them much more tractable and friendly
than those devils we had been forced to fight with; and though we could
learn little from these people, yet we understood by the signs they made
that there was a vast desert beyond these hills, and, as our negroes
called them, much lion, much spotted cat (so they called the leopard);
and they signed to us also that we must carry water with us. At the last
of these nations we furnished ourselves with as much provisions as we
could possibly carry, not knowing what we had to suffer, or what length
we had to go; and, to make our way as familiar to us as possible, I
proposed that of the last inhabitants we could find we should make some
prisoners and carry them with us for guides over the desert, and to
assist us in carrying provision, and, perhaps, in getting it too. The
advice was too necessary to be slighted; so finding, by our dumb signs
to the inhabitants, that there were some people that dwelt at the foot
of the mountains on the other side before we came to the desert itself,
we resolved to furnish ourselves with guides by fair means or foul.
Here, by a moderate computation, we concluded ourselves 700 miles from
the sea-coast where we began. Our black prince was this day set free
from the sling his arm hung in, our surgeon having perfectly restored
it, and he showed it to his own countrymen quite well, which made them
greatly wonder. Also our two negroes began to recover, and their wounds
to heal apace, for our surgeon was very skilful in managing their cure.
Having with infinite labour mounted these hills, and coming to a view
of the country beyond them, it was indeed enough to astonish as stout a
heart as ever was created. It was a vast howling wilderness--not a tree,
a river, or a green thing to be seen; for, as far as the eye could look,
nothing but a scalding sand, which, as the wind blew, drove about in
clouds enough to overwhelm man and beast. Nor could we see any end of
it either before us, which was our way, or to the right hand or left;
so that truly our men began to be discouraged, and talk of going back
again. Nor could we indeed think of venturing over such a horrid place
as that before us, in which we saw nothing but present death.
I was as much affected at the sight as any of them; but, for all that,
I could not bear the thoughts of going back again. I told them we had
marched 700 miles of our way, and it would be worse than death to
think of going back again; and that, if they thought the desert was not
passable, I thought we should rather change our course, and travel south
till we came to the Cape of Good Hope, or north to the country that lay
along the Nile, where, perhaps, we might find some way or other over to
the west sea; for sure all Africa was not a desert.
Our gunner, who, as I said before, was our guide as to the situation
of places, told us that he could not tell what to say to going for the
Cape, for it was a monstrous length, being from the place where we now
were not less than 1500 miles; and, by his account, we were now come a
third part of the way to the coast of Angola, where we should meet the
western ocean, and find ways enough for our escape home. On the other
hand, he assured us, and showed us a map of it, that, if we went
northward, the western shore of Africa went out into the sea above
1000 miles west, so that we should have so much and more land to travel
afterwards; which land might, for aught we knew, be as wild, barren,
and desert as this. And therefore, upon the whole, he proposed that we
should attempt this desert, and perhaps we should not find it so long
as we feared; and however, he proposed that we should see how far our
provisions would carry us, and, in particular, our water; and we should
venture no further than half so far as our water would last; and if we
found no end of the desert, we might come safely back again.
This advice was so reasonable that we all approved of it; and
accordingly we calculated that we were able to carry provisions for
forty-two days, but that we could not carry water for above twenty days,
though we were to suppose it to stink, too, before that time expired.
So that we concluded that, if we did not come at some water in ten days'
time, we would return; but if we found a supply of water, we could then
travel twenty-one days; and, if we saw no end of the wilderness in that
time, we would return also.
With this regulation of our measures, we descended the mountains, and it
was the second day before we quite reached the plain; where, however,
to make us amends, we found a fine little rivulet of very good water,
abundance of deer, a sort of creature like a hare, but not so nimble,
but whose flesh we found very agreeable. But we were deceived in our
intelligence, for we found no people; so we got no more prisoners to
assist us in carrying our baggage.
The infinite number of deer and other creatures which we saw here, we
found was occasioned by the neighbourhood of the waste or desert, from
whence they retired hither for food and refreshment. We stored ourselves
here with flesh and roots of divers kinds, which our negroes understood
better than we, and which served us for bread; and with as much water as
(by the allowance of a quart a day to a man for our negroes, and three
pints a day a man for ourselves, and three quarts a day each for our
buffaloes) would serve us twenty days; and thus loaded for a long
miserable march, we set forwards, being all sound in health and very
cheerful, but not alike strong for so great a fatigue; and, which was
our grievance, were without a guide.
In the very first entrance of the waste we were exceedingly discouraged,
for we found the sand so deep, and it scalded our feet so much with
the heat, that after we had, as I may call it, waded rather than walked
through it about seven or eight miles, we were all heartily tired and
faint; even the very negroes laid down and panted like creatures that
had been pushed beyond their strength.
Here we found the difference of lodging greatly injurious to us; for, as
before, we always made us huts to sleep under, which covered us from the
night air, which is particularly unwholesome in those hot countries. But
we had here no shelter, no lodging, after so hard a march; for here were
no trees, no, not a shrub near us; and, which was still more frightful,
towards night we began to hear the wolves howl, the lions bellow, and
a great many wild asses braying, and other ugly noises which we did not
understand.
Upon this we reflected upon our indiscretion, that we had not, at least,
brought poles or stakes in our hands, with which we might have, as it
were, palisadoed ourselves in for the night, and so we might have slept
secure, whatever other inconveniences we suffered. However, we found
a way at last to relieve ourselves a little; for first we set up the
lances and bows we had, and endeavoured to bring the tops of them as
near to one another as we could, and so hung our coats on the top of
them, which made us a kind of sorry tent. The leopard's skin, and a few
other skins we had put together, made us a tolerable covering, and thus
we laid down to sleep, and slept very heartily too, for the first night;
setting, however, a good watch, being two of our own men with their
fuzees, whom we relieved in an hour at first, and two hours afterwards.
And it was very well we did this, for they found the wilderness swarmed
with raging creatures of all kinds, some of which came directly up to
the very enclosure of our tent. But our sentinels were ordered not to
alarm us with firing in the night, but to flash in the pan at them,
which they did, and found it effectual, for the creatures went off
always as soon as they saw it, perhaps with some noise or howling, and
pursued such other game as they were upon.
If we were tired with the day's travel, we were all as much tired with
the night's lodging. But our black prince told us in the morning he
would give us some counsel, and indeed it was very good counsel. He told
us we should be all killed if we went on this journey, and through this
desert, without some covering for us at night; so he advised us to march
back again to a little river-side where we lay the night before, and
stay there till we could make us houses, as he called them, to carry
with us to lodge in every night. As he began a little to understand our
speech, and we very well to understand his signs, we easily knew what he
meant, and that we should there make mats (for we remembered that we saw
a great deal of matting or bass there, that the natives make mats of)--I
say, that we should make large mats there for covering our huts or tents
to lodge in at night.
We all approved this advice, and immediately resolved to go back that
one day's journey, resolving, though we carried less provisions, we
would carry mats with us to cover us in the night. Some of the nimblest
of us got back to the river with more ease than we had travelled it the
day before; but, as we were not in haste, the rest made a halt, encamped
another night, and came to us the next day.
In our return of this day's journey, our men that made two days of
it met with a very surprising thing, that gave them some reason to be
careful how they parted company again. The case was this:--The second
day in the morning, before they had gone half a mile, looking behind
them they saw a vast cloud of sand or dust rise in the air, as we see
sometimes in the roads in summer when it is very dusty and a large drove
of cattle are coming, only very much greater; and they could easily
perceive that it came after them; and it came on faster as they went
from it. The cloud of sand was so great that they could not see what it
was that raised it, and concluded that it was some army of enemies
that pursued them; but then considering that they came from the vast
uninhabited wilderness, they knew it was impossible any nation or people
that way should have intelligence of them or the way of their march;
and therefore, if it was an army, it must be of such as they were,
travelling that way by accident. On the other hand, as they knew that
there were no horses in the country, and that they came on so fast, they
concluded that it must be some vast collection of wild beasts, perhaps
making to the hill country for food or water, and that they should be
all devoured or trampled under foot by their multitude.
Upon this thought, they very prudently observed which way the cloud
seemed to point, and they turned a little out of their way to the north,
supposing it might pass by them. When they were about a quarter of a
mile, they halted to see what it might be. One of the negroes, a nimbler
fellow than the rest, went back a little, and came in a few minutes
running as fast as the heavy sands would allow, and by signs gave them
to know that it was a great herd, or drove, or whatever it might be
called, of vast monstrous elephants.
As it was a sight our men had never seen, they were desirous to see it,
and yet a little uneasy at the danger too; for though an elephant is a
heavy unwieldy creature, yet in the deep sand, which is nothing at all
to them, they marched at a great rate, and would soon have tired our
people, if they had had far to go, and had been pursued by them.
Our gunner was with them, and had a great mind to have gone close up to
one of the outermost of them, and to have clapped his piece to his
ear, and to have fired into him, because he had been told no shot would
penetrate them; but they all dissuaded him, lest upon the noise they
should all turn upon and pursue us; so he was reasoned out of it, and
let them pass, which, in our people's circumstances, was certainly the
right way.
They were between twenty and thirty in number, but prodigious great
ones; and though they often showed our men that they saw them, yet they
did not turn out of their way, or take any other notice of them than, as
we might say, just to look at them. We that were before saw the cloud of
dust they raised, but we had thought it had been our own caravan, and so
took no notice; but as they bent their course one point of the compass,
or thereabouts, to the southward of the east, and we went due east [?
west], they passed by us at some little distance; so that we did not see
them, or know anything of them, till evening, when our men came to us
and gave us this account of them. However, this was a useful experiment
for our future conduct in passing the desert, as you shall hear in its
place.
We were now upon our work, and our black prince was head surveyor, for
he was an excellent mat-maker himself, and all his men understood it, so
that they soon made us near a hundred mats; and as every man, I mean of
the negroes, carried one, it was no manner of load, and we did not carry
an ounce of provisions the less. The greatest burthen was to carry
six long poles, besides some shorter stakes; but the negroes made an
advantage of that, for carrying them between two, they made the luggage
of provisions which they had to carry so much the lighter, binding it
upon two poles, and so made three couple of them. As soon as we saw
this, we made a little advantage of it too; for having three or four
bags, called bottles (I mean skins to carry water), more than the men
could carry, we got them filled, and carried them this way, which was a
day's water and more, for our journey.
Having now ended our work, made our mats, and fully recruited our stores
of all things necessary, and having made us abundance of small ropes
of matting for ordinary use, as we might have occasion, we set forward
again, having interrupted our journey eight days in all, upon this
affair. To our great comfort, the night before we set out there fell a
very violent shower of rain, the effects of which we found in the sand;
though the heat of one day dried the surface as much as before, yet it
was harder at bottom, not so heavy, and was cooler to our feet, by which
means we marched, as we reckoned, about fourteen miles instead of seven,
and with much more ease.
When we came to encamp, we had all things ready, for we had fitted our
tent, and set it up for trial, where we made it; so that, in less than
an hour, we had a large tent raised, with an inner and outer apartment,
and two entrances. In one we lay ourselves, in the other our negroes,
having light pleasant mats over us, and others at the same time under
us. Also we had a little place without all for our buffaloes, for they
deserved our care, being very useful to us, besides carrying forage and
water for themselves. Their forage was a root, which our black
prince directed us to find, not much unlike a parsnip, very moist and
nourishing, of which there was plenty wherever we came, this horrid
desert excepted.
When we came the next morning to decamp, our negroes took down the tent,
and pulled up the stakes; and all was in motion in as little time as it
was set up. In this posture we marched eight days, and yet could see no
end, no change of our prospect, but all looking as wild and dismal as
at the beginning. If there was any alteration, it was that the sand
was nowhere so deep and heavy as it was the first three days. This we
thought might be because, for six months of the year the winds blowing
west (as for the other six they blow constantly east), the sand was
driven violently to the side of the desert where we set out, where the
mountains lying very high, the easterly monsoons, when they blew, had
not the same power to drive it back again; and this was confirmed by our
finding the like depth of sand on the farthest extent of the desert to
the west.
It was the ninth day of our travel in this wilderness, when we came
to the view of a great lake of water; and you may be sure this was a
particular satisfaction to us, because we had not water left for above
two or three days more, at our shortest allowance; I mean allowing water
for our return, if we had been driven to the necessity of it. Our water
had served us two days longer than expected, our buffaloes having found,
for two or three days, a kind of herb like a broad flat thistle, though
without any prickle, spreading on the ground, and growing in the sand,
which they ate freely of, and which supplied them for drink as well as
forage.
The next day, which was the tenth from our setting out, we came to the
edge of this lake, and, very happily for us, we came to it at the south
point of it, for to the north we could see no end of it; so we passed by
it and travelled three days by the side of it, which was a great comfort
to us, because it lightened our burthen, there being no need to carry
water when we had it in view. And yet, though here was so much water,
we found but very little alteration in the desert; no trees, no grass
or herbage, except that thistle, as I called it, and two or three more
plants, which we did not understand, of which the desert began to be
pretty full.
But as we were refreshed with the neighbourhood of this lake of water,
so we were now gotten among a prodigious number of ravenous inhabitants,
the like whereof, it is most certain, the eye of man never saw; for as
I firmly believe that never man nor body of men passed this desert since
the flood, so I believe there is not the like collection of fierce,
ravenous, and devouring creatures in the world; I mean not in any
particular place.
For a day's journey before we came to this lake, and all the three days
we were passing by it, and for six or seven days' march after it,
the ground was scattered with elephants' teeth in such a number as is
incredible; and as some of them have lain there for some hundreds of
years, so, seeing the substance of them scarce ever decays, they may lie
there, for aught I know, to the end of time. The size of some of them
is, it seems, to those to whom I have reported it, as incredible as
the number; and I can assure you there were several so heavy as the
strongest man among us could not lift. As to number, I question not but
there are enough to load a thousand sail of the biggest ships in the
world, by which I may be understood to mean that the quantity is not
to be conceived of; seeing that as they lasted in view for above eighty
miles' travelling, so they might continue as far to the right hand, and
to the left as far, and many times as far, for aught we knew; for it
seems the number of elephants hereabouts is prodigiously great. In one
place in particular we saw the head of an elephant, with several teeth
in it, but one of the biggest that ever I saw; the flesh was consumed,
to be sure, many hundred years before, and all the other bones; but
three of our strongest men could not lift this skull and teeth; the
great tooth, I believe, weighed at least three hundredweight; and this
was particularly remarkable to me, that I observed the whole skull was
as good ivory as the teeth, and, I believe, altogether weighed at least
six hundredweight; and though I do not know but, by the same rule, all
the bones of the elephant may be ivory, yet I think there is this just
objection against it from the example before me, that then all the other
bones of this elephant would have been there as well as the head.