one another as to make three or four short turnings which no four-footed
beast bigger than a dog could possibly come in at; and that we might not
be attacked by any multitude together, and consequently be alarmed in
our sleep, as we had been, or be obliged to waste our ammunition, which
we were very chary of, we kept a great fire every night without the
entrance of our palisade, having a hut for our two sentinels to stand
in free from the rain, just within the entrance, and right against the
fire.
To maintain this fire we cut a prodigious deal of wood, and piled it up
in a heap to dry, and with the green boughs made a second covering over
our huts, so high and thick that it might cast the rain from the first,
and keep us effectually dry.
We had scarcely finished all these works but the rain came on so fierce
and so continued that we had little time to stir abroad for food, except
indeed that our negroes, who wore no clothes, seemed to make nothing of
the rain; though to us Europeans, in those hot climates, nothing is more
dangerous.
We continued in this posture for four months, that is to say, from the
middle of June to the middle of October; for though the rains went off,
at least the greatest violence of them, about the equinox, yet, as the
sun was then just over our heads, we resolved to stay awhile till it
passed a little to the southward.
During our encampment here we had several adventures with the ravenous
creatures of that country; and had not our fire been always kept
burning, I question much whether all our fence, though we strengthened
it afterwards with twelve or fourteen rows of stakes or more, would have
kept us secure. It was always in the night that we had the disturbance
of them, and sometimes they came in such multitudes that we thought
all the lions and tigers, and leopards and wolves of Africa were come
together to attack us. One night, being clear moonshine, one of our
men being upon the watch, told us that he verily believed he saw ten
thousand wild creatures of one sort or another pass by our little camp,
and ever as they saw the fire they sheered off, but were sure to howl or
roar, or whatever it was, when they were past.
The music of their voices was very far from being pleasant to us, and
sometimes would be so very disturbing that we could not sleep for it;
and often our sentinels would call us that were awake to come and look
at them. It was one windy, tempestuous night, after a rainy day, that
we were indeed called up; for such innumerable numbers of devilish
creatures came about us that our watch really thought they would attack
us. They would not come on the side where the fire was; and though we
thought ourselves secure everywhere else, yet we all got up and took to
our arms. The moon was near the full, but the air full of flying clouds,
and a strange hurricane of wind to add to the terror of the night; when,
looking on the back part of our camp, I thought I saw a creature within
our fortification, and so indeed he was, except his haunches, for he
had taken a running leap, I suppose, and with all his might had thrown
himself clear over our palisades, except one strong pile, which stood
higher than the rest, and which had caught hold of him, and by his
weight he had hanged himself upon it, the spike of the pile running into
his hinder haunch or thigh, on the inside; and by that he hung, growling
and biting the wood for rage. I snatched up a lance from one of the
negroes that stood just by me, and running to him, struck it three
or four times into him, and despatched him, being unwilling to shoot,
because I had a mind to have a volley fired among the rest, whom I could
see standing without, as thick as a drove of bullocks going to a fair. I
immediately called our people out, and showed them the object of terror
which I had seen, and, without any further consultation, fired a full
volley among them, most of our pieces being loaded with two or three
slugs or bullets apiece. It made a horrible clutter among them, and in
general they all took to their heels, only that we could observe that
some walked off with more gravity and majesty than others, being not
so much frighted at the noise and fire; and we could perceive that some
were left upon the ground struggling as for life, but we durst not stir
out to see what they were.
Indeed they stood so thick, and were so near us, that we could not
well miss killing or wounding some of them, and we believed they had
certainly the smell of us, and our victuals we had been killing; for we
had killed a deer, and three or four of those creatures like goats the
day before; and some of the offal had been thrown out behind our camp,
and this, we suppose, drew them so much about us; but we avoided it for
the future.
Though the creatures fled, yet we heard a frightful roaring all night
at the place where they stood, which we supposed was from some that were
wounded, and as soon as day came we went out to see what execution we
had done. And indeed it was a strange sight; there were three tigers and
two wolves quite killed, besides the creature I had killed within our
palisade, which seemed to be of an ill-gendered kind, between a tiger
and a leopard. Besides this there was a noble old lion alive, but with
both his fore-legs broke, so that he could not stir away, and he had
almost beat himself to death with struggling all night, and we found
that this was the wounded soldier that had roared so loud and given us
so much disturbance. Our surgeon, looking at him, smiled. "Now," says
he, "if I could be sure this lion would be as grateful to me as one
of his majesty's ancestors was to Androcles, the Roman slave, I would
certainly set both his legs again and cure him." I had not heard the
story of Androcles, so he told it me at large; but as to the surgeon, we
told him he had no way to know whether the lion would do so or not, but
to cure him first and trust to his honour; but he had no faith, so to
despatch him and put him out of his torment, he shot him in the head and
killed him, for which we called him the king-killer ever after.
Our negroes found no less than five of these ravenous creatures wounded
and dropped at a distance from our quarters; whereof, one was a wolf,
one a fine spotted young leopard, and the other were creatures that we
knew not what to call them.
We had several more of these gentlefolks about after that, but no such
general rendezvous of them as that was any more; but this ill effect
it had to us, that it frighted the deer and other creatures from our
neighbourhood, of whose company we were much more desirous, and which
were necessary for our subsistence. However, our negroes went out every
day a-hunting, as they called it, with bow and arrow, and they scarce
ever failed of bringing us home something or other; and particularly we
found in this part of the country, after the rains had fallen some time,
abundance of wild fowl, such as we have in England, duck, teal, widgeon,
etc.; some geese, and some kinds that we had never seen before; and we
frequently killed them. Also we catched a great deal of fresh fish out
of the river, so that we wanted no provision. If we wanted anything, it
was salt to eat with our fresh meat; but we had a little left, and we
used it sparingly; for as to our negroes, they could not taste it, nor
did they care to eat any meat that was seasoned with it.
The weather began now to clear up, the rains were down, and the floods
abated, and the sun, which had passed our zenith, was gone to the
southward a good way; so we prepared to go on our way.
It was the 12th of October, or thereabouts, that we began to set
forward; and having an easy country to travel in, as well as to supply
us with provisions, though still without inhabitants, we made more
despatch, travelling sometimes, as we calculated it, twenty or
twenty-five miles a day; nor did we halt anywhere in eleven days' march,
one day excepted, which was to make a raft to carry us over a small
river, which, having swelled with the rains, was not yet quite down.
When we were past this river, which, by the way, ran to the northward
too, we found a great row of hills in our way. We saw, indeed, the
country open to the right at a great distance; but, as we kept true to
our course, due west, we were not willing to go a great way out of our
way, only to shun a few hills. So we advanced; but we were surprised
when, being not quite come to the top, one of our company, who, with two
negroes, was got up before us, cried out, "The sea! the sea!" and fell
a-dancing and jumping, as signs of joy.
The gunner and I were most surprised at it, because we had but that
morning been calculating that we must have yet above 1000 miles on the
sea side, and that we could not expect to reach it till another rainy
season would be upon us; so that when our man cried out, "The sea," the
gunner was angry, and said he was mad.
But we were both in the greatest surprise imaginable, when, coming to
the top of the hill, and though it was very high, we saw nothing but
water, either before us or to the right hand or the left, being a vast
sea, without any bounds but the horizon.
We went down the hill full of confusion of thought, not being able
to conceive whereabouts we were or what it must be, seeing by all our
charts the sea was yet a vast way off.
It was not above three miles from the hills before we came to the shore,
or water-edge of this sea, and there, to our further surprise, we found
the water fresh and pleasant to drink; so that, in short, we knew not
what course to take. The sea, as we thought it to be, put a full stop
to our journey (I mean westward), for it lay just in the way. Our next
question was, which hand to turn to, to the right hand or the left,
but this was soon resolved; for, as we knew not the extent of it, we
considered that our way, if it had been the sea really, must be on the
north, and therefore, if we went to the south now, it must be just so
much out of our way at last. So, having spent a good part of the day in
our surprise at the thing, and consulting what to do, we set forward to
the north.
We travelled upon the shore of this sea full twenty-three days before
we could come to any resolution about what it was; at the end of which,
early one morning, one of our seamen cried out, "Land!" and it was no
false alarm, for we saw plainly the tops of some hills at a very great
distance, on the further side of the water, due west; but though this
satisfied us that it was not the ocean, but an inland sea or lake, yet
we saw no land to the northward, that is to say, no end of it, but were
obliged to travel eight days more, and near 100 miles farther, before
we came to the end of it, and then we found this lake or sea ended in a
very great river which ran N. or N. by E., as the other river had done
which I mentioned before.
My friend the gunner, upon examining, said that he believed that he was
mistaken before, and that this was the river Nile, but was still of the
mind that we were of before, that we should not think of a voyage into
Egypt that way; so we resolved upon crossing this river, which, however,
was not so easy as before, the river being very rapid and the channel
very broad.
It cost us, therefore, a week here to get materials to waft ourselves
and cattle over this river; for though here were stores of trees, yet
there was none of any considerable growth sufficient to make a canoe.
During our march on the edge of this bank we met with great fatigue, and
therefore travelled a fewer miles in a day than before, there being such
a prodigious number of little rivers that came down from the hills on
the east side, emptying themselves into this gulf, all which waters were
pretty high, the rains having been but newly over.
In the last three days of our travel we met with some inhabitants, but
we found they lived upon the little hills and not by the water-side; nor
were we a little put to it for food in this march, having killed nothing
for four or five days but some fish we caught out of the lake, and that
not in such plenty as we found before.
But, to make us some amends, we had no disturbance upon all the shores
of this lake from any wild beasts; the only inconveniency of that kind
was, that we met an ugly, venomous, deformed kind of a snake or serpent
in the wet grounds near the lake, that several times pursued us as if
it would attack us; and if we struck or threw anything at it, it would
raise itself up and hiss so loud that it might be heard a great way.
It had a hellish ugly deformed look and voice, and our men would not be
persuaded but it was the devil, only that we did not know what business
Satan could have there, where there were no people.
It was very remarkable that we had now travelled 1000 miles without
meeting with any people in the heart of the whole continent of Africa,
where, to be sure, never man set his foot since the sons of Noah spread
themselves over the face of the whole earth. Here also our gunner took
an observation with his forestaff, to determine our latitude, and he
found now, that having marched about thirty-three days northward, we
were in 6 degrees 22 minutes south latitude.
After having with great difficulty got over this river, we came into a
strange wild country that began a little to affright us; for though the
country was not a desert of dry scalding sand as that was we had passed
before, yet it was mountainous, barren, and infinitely full of most
furious wild beasts, more than any place we had passed yet. There was
indeed a kind of coarse herbage on the surface, and now and then a few
trees, or rather shrubs. But people we could see none, and we began
to be in great suspense about victuals, for we had not killed a deer
a great while, but had lived chiefly upon fish and fowl, always by the
water-side, both which seemed to fail us now; and we were in the more
consternation, because we could not lay in a stock here to proceed upon,
as we did before, but were obliged to set out with scarcity, and without
any certainty of a supply.
We had, however, no remedy but patience; and having killed some fowls
and dried some fish, as much as, with short allowance, we reckoned would
last us five days, we resolved to venture, and venture we did; nor
was it without cause that we were apprehensive of the danger, for
we travelled the five days and met neither with fish nor fowl, nor
four-footed beast, whose flesh was fit to eat, and we were in a most
dreadful apprehension of being famished to death. On the sixth day we
almost fasted, or, as we may say, we ate up all the scraps of what we
had left, and at night lay down supperless upon our mats, with heavy
hearts, being obliged the eighth day to kill one of our poor faithful
servants, the buffaloes that carried our baggage. The flesh of this
creature was very good, and so sparingly did we eat of it that it lasted
us all three days and a half, and was just spent; and we were on the
point of killing another when we saw before us a country that promised
better, having high trees and a large river in the middle of it.
This encouraged us, and we quickened our march for the river-side,
though with empty stomachs, and very faint and weak; but before we came
to this river we had the good hap to meet with some young deer, a thing
we had long wished for. In a word, having shot three of them, we came to
a full stop to fill our bellies, and never gave the flesh time to cool
before we ate it; nay, it was much we could stay to kill it and had not
eaten it alive, for we were, in short, almost famished.
Through all that inhospitable country we saw continually lions, tigers,
leopards, civet cats, and abundance of kinds of creatures that we did
not understand; we saw no elephants, but every now and then we met with
an elephant's tooth lying on the ground, and some of them lying, as it
were, half buried by the length of time that they had lain there.
When we came to the shore of this river, we found it ran northerly
still, as all the rest had done, but with this difference, that as the
course of the other rivers were N. by E. or N.N.E., the course of this
lay N.W.N.
On the farther bank of this river we saw some sign of inhabitants,
but met with none for the first day; but the next day we came into an
inhabited country, the people all negroes, and stark naked, without
shame, both men and women.
We made signs of friendship to them, and found them a very frank,
civil, and friendly sort of people. They came to our negroes without
any suspicion, nor did they give us any reason to suspect them of any
villainy, as the others had done; we made signs to them that we were
hungry, and immediately some naked women ran and fetched us great
quantities of roots, and of things like pumpkins, which we made no
scruple to eat; and our artificer showed them some of his trinkets that
he had made, some of iron, some of silver, but none of gold. They had so
much judgment as to choose that of silver before the iron; but when we
showed them some gold, we found they did not value it so much as either
of the other.
For some of these things they brought us more provisions, and three
living creatures as big as calves, but not of that kind; neither did we
ever see any of them before; their flesh was very good; and after that
they brought us twelve more, and some smaller creatures like hares; all
which were very welcome to us, who were indeed at a very great loss for
provisions.
We grew very intimate with these people, and indeed they were the
civillest and most friendly people that we met with at all, and mightily
pleased with us; and, which was very particular, they were much easier
to be made to understand our meaning than any we had met with before.
At last we began to inquire our way, pointing to the west. They made us
understand easily that we could not go that way, but they pointed to us
that we might go north-west, so that we presently understood that there
was another lake in our way, which proved to be true; for in two days
more we saw it plain, and it held us till we passed the equinoctial
line, lying all the way on our left hand, though at a great distance.
Travelling thus northward, our gunner seemed very anxious about our
proceedings; for he assured us, and made me sensible of it by the
maps which he had been teaching me out of, that when we came into the
latitude of six degrees, or thereabouts, north of the line, the land
trended away to the west to such a length that we should not come at the
sea under a march of above 1500 miles farther westward than the country
we desired to go to. I asked him if there were no navigable rivers that
we might meet with, which, running into the west ocean, might perhaps
carry us down their stream, and then, if it were 1500 miles, or twice
1500 miles, we might do well enough if we could but get provisions.
Here he showed me the maps again, and that there appeared no river whose
stream was of any such a length as to do any kindness, till we came
perhaps within 200 or 300 miles of the shore, except the Rio Grande, as
they call it, which lay farther northward from us, at least 700 miles;
and that then he knew not what kind of country it might carry us
through; for he said it was his opinion that the heats on the north of
the line, even in the same latitude, were violent, and the country more
desolate, barren, and barbarous, than those of the south; and that when
we came among the negroes in the north part of Africa, next the sea,
especially those who had seen and trafficked with the Europeans, such as
Dutch, English, Portuguese, Spaniards, etc., they had most of them been
so ill-used at some time or other that they would certainly put all the
spite they could upon us in mere revenge.
Upon these considerations he advised us that, as soon as we had passed
this lake, we should proceed W.S.W., that is to say, a little inclining
to the south, and that in time we should meet with the great river
Congo, from whence the coast is called Congo, being a little north of
Angola, where we intended at first to go.
I asked him if ever he had been on the coast of Congo. He said, yes, he
had, but was never on shore there. Then I asked him how we should get
from thence to the coast where the European ships came, seeing, if the
land trended away west for 1500 miles, we must have all that shore to
traverse before we could double the west point of it.
He told me it was ten to one but we should hear of some European ships
to take us in, for that they often visited the coast of Congo and
Angola, in trade with the negroes; and that if we could not, yet, if
we could but find provisions, we should make our way as well along the
sea-shore as along the river, till we came to the Gold Coast, which, he
said, was not above 400 or 500 miles north of Congo, besides the turning
of the coast west about 300 more; that shore being in the latitude of
six or seven degrees; and that there the English, or Dutch, or French
had settlements or factories, perhaps all of them.
I confess I had more mind, all the while he argued, to have gone
northward, and shipped ourselves in the Rio Grande, or, as the traders
call it, the river Negro or Niger, for I knew that at last it would
bring us down to the Cape de Verd, where we were sure of relief;
whereas, at the coast we were going to now, we had a prodigious way
still to go, either by sea or land, and no certainty which way to get
provisions but by force; but for the present I held my tongue, because
it was my tutor's opinion.
But when, according to his desire, we came to turn southward, having
passed beyond the second great lake, our men began all to be uneasy,
and said we were now out of our way for certain, for that we were going
farther from home, and that we were indeed far enough off already.
But we had not marched above twelve days more, eight whereof were taken
up in rounding the lake, and four more south-west, in order to make for
the river Congo, but we were put to another full stop, by entering a
country so desolate, so frightful, and so wild, that we knew not what to
think or do; for, besides that it appeared as a terrible and boundless
desert, having neither woods, trees, rivers, or inhabitants, so even the
place where we were was desolate of inhabitants, nor had we any way to
gather in a stock of provisions for the passing of this desert, as we
did before at our entering the first, unless we had marched back four
days to the place where we turned the head of the lake.
Well, notwithstanding this, we ventured; for, to men that had passed
such wild places as we had done, nothing could seem too desperate to
undertake. We ventured, I say, and the rather because we saw very high
mountains in our way at a great distance, and we imagined, wherever
there were mountains there would be springs and rivers; where rivers
there would be trees and grass; where trees and grass there would
be cattle; and where cattle, some kind of inhabitants. At last, in
consequence of this speculative philosophy, we entered this waste,
having a great heap of roots and plants for our bread, such as the
Indians gave us, a very little flesh or salt, and but a little water.
We travelled two days towards those hills, and still they seemed as
far off as they did at first, and it was the fifth day before we got to
them; indeed, we travelled but softly, for it was excessively hot; and
we were much about the very equinoctial line, we hardly knew whether to
the south or the north of it.
As we had concluded, that where there were hills there would be springs,
so it happened; but we were not only surprised, but really frighted, to
find the first spring we came to, and which looked admirably clear and
beautiful, to be salt as brine. It was a terrible disappointment to us,
and put us under melancholy apprehensions at first; but the gunner, who
was of a spirit never discouraged, told us we should not be disturbed at
that, but be very thankful, for salt was a bait we stood in as much need
of as anything, and there was no question but we should find fresh water
as well as salt; and here our surgeon stepped in to encourage us, and
told us that if we did not know he would show us a way how to make that
salt water fresh, which indeed made us all more cheerful, though we
wondered what he meant.
Meantime our men, without bidding, had been seeking about for other
springs, and found several; but still they were all salt; from whence
we concluded that there was a salt rock or mineral stone in those
mountains, and perhaps they might be all of such a substance; but still
I wondered by what witchcraft it was that our artist the surgeon would
make this salt water turn fresh, and I longed to see the experiment,
which was indeed a very odd one; but he went to work with as much
assurance as if he had tried it on the very spot before.