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The Life, Adventures & Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton

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Title: The Life, Adventures & Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton

Author: Daniel Defoe


        
Release date: September 1, 2004 [eBook #6422]
                Most recently updated: November 3, 2019

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE, ADVENTURES & PIRACIES OF THE FAMOUS CAPTAIN SINGLETON ***




Produced by Tom Allen, Charles Franks and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team









CAPTAIN SINGLETON


By Daniel Defoe



With An Introduction By Edward Garnett




[Transcriber's Note: In the print copy, the following words and those of
the title page are written in intricate, illuminated calligraphy.]

A TALE WHICH HOLDETH CHILDREN FROM PLAY AND OLD MEN FROM THE CHIMNEY
CORNER

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY




THE LIFE ADVENTURES AND PIRACIES OF THE FAMOUS CAPTAIN SINGLETON




PREFACE

That all Defoe's novels, with the exception of "Robinson Crusoe," should
have been covered with the dust of neglect for many generations, is a
plain proof of how much fashions in taste affect the popularity of the
British classics. It is true that three generations or so ago, Defoe's
works were edited by both Sir Walter Scott and Hazlitt, and that this
masterly piece of realism, "Captain Singleton," was reprinted a few
years back in "The Camelot Classics," but it is safe to say that out of
every thousand readers of "Robinson Crusoe" only one or two will
have even heard of the "Memoirs of a Cavalier," "Colonel Jack," "Moll
Flanders," or "Captain Singleton." It is indeed distressing to think
that while many scores of thousands of copies of Lord Lytton's flashy
romance, "Paul Clifford," have been devoured by the public, "Captain
Singleton" has remained unread and almost forgotten. But the explanation
is simple. Defoe's plain and homely realism soon grew to be thought
vulgar by people who themselves aspired to be refined and genteel. The
rapid spread of popular education, in the middle of last century, was
responsible for a great many aberrations of taste, and the works of the
two most English of Englishmen, Defoe and Hogarth, were judged to be
hardly fitting for polite society, as we may see from Lamb's Essay on
Hogarth, and from an early edition of Chambers's "Cyclopaedia of English
Literature" (1843), where we are told: "Nor is it needful to show how
elegant and reflective literature, especially, tends to moralise, to
soften, and to adorn the soul and life of man." "Unfortunately the
taste or _circumstances of Defoe led him mostly into low life_, and his
characters are such _as we cannot sympathise with_. The whole arcana
of roguery and villany seems to have been open to him.... It might be
thought that the good taste which led Defoe to write in a style of such
pure and unpretending English, instead of the inflated manner of vulgar
writers, _would have dictated a more careful selection of his subjects_,
and kept him from wandering so frequently into the low and disgusting
purlieus of vice. But this moral and tasteful discrimination seems to
have been wholly wanting," &c. The 'forties were the days when critics
still talked learnedly of the "noble style," &c., "the vulgar," of
"sinking" or "rising" with "the subject," the days when Books of Beauty
were in fashion, and Rembrandt's choice of beggars, wrinkled faces and
grey hairs, for his favourite subjects seemed a low and reprehensible
taste in "high art." Though critics to-day still ingenuously confound an
artist's subject with his treatment of it, and prefer scenes of life to
be idealised rather than realised by writers, we have advanced a little
since the days of the poet Montgomery, and it would be difficult now
to find anybody writing so confidently--"Unfortunately the taste or
circumstances of Defoe led him mostly into low life," however much the
critic might believe it. But let us glance at a few passages in "Captain
Singleton," which may show us why Defoe excels as a realist, and why
his descriptions of "low life" are artistically as perfect as any
descriptions of "higher life" in the works of the English novelists.
Take the following description of kidnapping:--

  "The woman pretending to take me up in her arms and kiss me, and
  play with me, draws the girl a good way from the house, till at
  last she makes a fine story to the girl, and bids her go back to
  the maid, and tell her where she was with the child; that a
  gentlewoman had taken a fancy to the child and was kissing it, but
  she should not be frightened, or to that purpose; for they were
  but just there; and so while the girl went, she carried me quite
  away.--Page 2.

Now here, in a single sentence, Defoe catches for us the whole soul
and character of the situation. It _seems_ very simple, but it sums up
marvellously an exact observation and knowledge of the arts of the gipsy
child-stealer, of her cunning flattery and brassy boldness, and we can
see the simple little girl running back to the house to tell the nurse
that a fine lady was kissing the child, and had told her to tell where
they were and she should not be frightened, &c.; and this picture again
calls up the hue and cry after the kidnappers and the fruitless hopes of
the parents. In a word, Defoe has condensed in the eight simple lines of
his little scene all that is essential to its living truth; and let the
young writer note that it is ever the sign of the master to do in three
words, or with three strokes, what the ordinary artist does in thirty.
Defoe's imagination is so extraordinarily comprehensive in picking out
just those little matter-of-fact details that suggest all the other
aspects, and that emphasise the character of the scene or situation,
that he makes us believe in the actuality of whatever he is describing.
So real, so living in every detail is this apocryphal narrative, in
"Captain Singleton," of the crossing of Africa by a body of marooned
sailors from the coast of Mozambique to the Gold Coast, that one would
firmly believe Defoe was committing to writing the verbal narrative of
some adventurer in the flesh, if it were not for certain passages--such
as the description of the impossible desert on page 90, which proves
that Defoe was piecing together his description of an imaginary
journey from the geographical records and travellers' tales of his
contemporaries, aided perhaps by the confused yarns of some sailor
friends. How substantially truthful in spirit and in detail is Defoe's
account of Madagascar is proved by the narrative of Robert Drury's
"Captivity in Madagascar," published in 1729. The natives themselves,
as described intimately by Drury, who lived amongst them for many years,
would produce just such an effect as Defoe describes on rough sailors in
their perilous position. The method by which Defoe compels us to accept
improbabilities, and lulls our critical sense asleep, is well shown in
the following passages:--

  "Thieving, lying, swearing, forswearing, joined to the most
  abominable lewdness, was the stated practice of the ship's crew;
  adding to it, that with the most unsufferable boasts of their own
  courage, they were, generally speaking, the most complete cowards
  that I ever met with."--Page 7.

  "All the seamen in a body came up to the rail of the quarter-deck,
  where the captain was walking with some of his officers, and
  appointing the boatswain to speak for them, he went up, and falling
  on his knees to the captain, begged of him in the humblest manner
  possible, to receive the four men on board again, offering to answer
  for their fidelity, or to have them kept in chains, till they came
  to Lisbon, and there to be delivered up to justice, rather than, as
  they said, to have them left, to be murdered by savages, or devoured
  by wild beasts. It was a great while ere the captain took any notice
  of them, but when he did, he ordered the boatswain to be seized, and
  threatened to bring him to the capstan for speaking for them....
  Upon this severity, one of the seamen, bolder than the rest, but
  still with all possible respect to the captain, besought his honour,
  as he called him, that he would give leave to some more of them to
  go on shore, and die with their companions, or, if possible, to
  assist them to resist the barbarians."--Page 18.

Now the first passage we have quoted about the cowardice, &c., of the
Portuguese crew is not in keeping with the second passage, which shows
the men as "wishing to die with their companions"; but so actual is
the scene of the seamen "in a body coming up to the rail of the
quarter-deck," that we cannot but believe the thing happened so, just as
we believe in all the thousand little details of the imaginary narrative
of "Robinson Crusoe." This feat of the imagination Defoe strengthens
in the most artful manner, by putting in the mouths of his characters
various reflections to substantiate the narrative. For example, in the
description, on page 263, of the savages who lined the perilous channel
in a half-moon, where the European ship lay, we find the afterthoughts
are added so naturally, that they would carry conviction to any judge or
jury:--

  "They little thought what service they had done us, and how
  unwittingly, and by the greatest ignorance, they had made
  themselves pilots to us, while we, having not sounded the place,
  might have been lost before we were aware. _It is true we might
  have sounded our new harbour, before we had ventured out; but I
  cannot say for certain, whether we should or not; for I, for my
  part, had not the least suspicion of what our real case was;
  however, I say, perhaps, before we had weighed, we should have
  looked about us a little._"

Turning to the other literary qualities that make Defoe's novels great,
if little read, classics, how delightful are the little satiric touches
that add grave weight to the story. Consider the following: "My good
gipsy mother, for some of her worthy actions, no doubt, happened in
process of time to be hanged, and as this fell out something too soon
for me to be perfected in the strolling trade," &c.(p. 3). Every other
word here is dryly satiric, and the large free callousness and careless
brutality of Defoe's days with regard to the life of criminals is
conveyed in half a sentence. And what an amount of shrewd observation is
summed up in this one saying: "Upon these foundations, William said he
was satisfied we might trust them; for, says William, I would as soon
trust a man whose interest binds him to be just to me, as a man whose
principle binds himself" (p. 227). Extremely subtle is also this remark:
"_Why, says I, did you ever know a pirate repent?_ At this he started a
little and returned, _At the gallows_ I have known _one_ repent, and
I _hope_ thou wilt be the second." The character of William the Quaker
pirate is a masterpiece of shrewd humour. He is the first Quaker brought
into English fiction, and we know of no other Friend in latter-day
fiction to equal him. Defoe in his inimitable manner has defined surely
and deftly the peculiar characteristics of the sect in this portrait. On
three separate occasions we find William saving unfortunate natives
or defenceless prisoners from the cruel and wicked barbarity of
the sailors. At page 183, for example, the reader will find a most
penetrating analysis of the dense stupidity which so often accompanies
man's love of bloodshed. The sketch of the second lieutenant, who was
for "murdering the negroes to make them tell," when he could not make
them even understand what he wanted, is worthy of Tolstoy. We have not
space here to dwell upon the scores of passages of similar deep insight
which make "Captain Singleton" a most true and vivid commentary on the
life of Defoe's times, but we may call special attention to the passage
on page 189 which describe the sale of the negroes to the planters; to
the description of the awakening of the conscience of Captain Singleton
through terror at the fire-cloud (page 222); and to the extraordinarily
picturesque conversation between William and the captive Dutchman (page
264). Finally, if the reader wishes to taste Defoe's flavour in its
perfection let him examine carefully those passages in the concluding
twenty pages of the book, wherein Captain Singleton is shown as
awakening to the wickedness of his past life, and the admirable dry
reasoning of William by which the Quaker prevents him from committing
suicide and persuades him to keep his ill-gotten wealth, "with a
resolution to do what right with it we are able; and who knows what
opportunity Providence may put into our hands.... As it is without
doubt, our present business is to go to some place of safety, where we
may wait His will." How admirable is the passage about William's sister,
the widow with four children who kept a little shop in the Minories,
and that in which the penitent ex-pirates are shown us as hesitating in
Venice for two years before they durst venture to England for fear of
the gallows.

"Captain Singleton" was published in 1720, a year after "Robinson
Crusoe," when Defoe was fifty-nine. Twenty years before had seen "The
True-Born Englishman" and "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters"; and
we are told that from "June 1687 to almost the very week of his death in
1731 a stream of controversial books and pamphlets poured from his
pen commenting upon and marking every important passing event." The
fecundity of Defoe as a journalist alone surpasses that of any great
journalist we can name, William Cobbett not excepted, and we may add
that the style of "Captain Singleton," like that of "Robinson Crusoe,"
is so perfect that there is not a single ineffective passage, or indeed
a weak sentence, to be found in the book.

EDWARD GARNETT.




The following is a list of Defoe's works: "New Discovery of Old
Intrigue" (verse), 1691. "Character of Dr. Samuel Annesley" (verse),
1697. "The Pacificator" (verse), 1700. "True-Born Englishman" (verse),
1701. "The Mock Mourners" (verse), 1702. "Reformation of Manners"
(verse), 1702. "New Test of Church of England's Loyalty," 1702.
"Shortest Way with the Dissenters," 1702. "Ode to the Athenian
Society," 1703. "Enquiry into Acgill's General Translation," 1703. "More
Reformation" (verse), 1703. "Hymn to the Pillory," 1703. "The
Storm" (Tale), 1704. "Layman's Sermon on the Late Storm," 1704. "The
Consolidator; or, Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World in the
Moon," 1704. "Elegy on Author of 'True-Born Englishman,'" 1704. "Hymn
to Victory," 1704. "Giving Alms no Charity," 1704. "The Dyet of
Poland" (verse), 1705. "Apparition of Mrs. Veal," 1706. "Sermon on the
Filling-up of Dr. Burgess's Meeting-house," 1706. "Jure Divino"
(verse), 1706. "Caledonia" (verse), 1706. "History of the Union of
Great Britain," 1709. "Short Enquiry into a Late Duel," 1713. "A General
History of Trade," 1713. "Wars of Charles III.," 1715. "The Family
Instruction" (two eds.), 1715. "Hymn to the Mob," 1715. "Memoirs of
the Church of Scotland," 1717. "Life and Death of Count Patkul," 1717.
"Memoirs of Duke of Shrewsbury," 1718. "Memoirs of Daniel Williams,"
1718. "The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of
York, Mariner," 1719. "The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe," 1719.
"The Dumb Philosopher: or, Great Britain's Wonder," 1719. "The King of
Pirates" (Capt. Avery), 1719. "Life of Baron de Goertz," 1719. "Life and
Adventures of Duncan Campbell," 1720. "Mr. Campbell's Pacquet," 1720.
"Memoirs of a Cavalier," 1720. "Life of Captain Singleton," 1720.
"Serious Reflections during the Life and Surprising Adventures of
Robinson Crusoe," 1720. "The Supernatural Philosopher; or, The Mysteries
of Magick," 1720. Translation of Du Fresnoy's "Compleat Art of Painting"
(verse), 1720. "Moll Flanders," 1722, "Journal of the Plague Year,"
1722. "Due Preparations for the Plague," 1722. "Life of Cartouche,"
1722. "History of Colonel Jacque," 1722. "Religious Courtship," 1722.
"History of Peter the Great," 1723. "The Highland Rogue" (Rob Roy),
1723. "The Fortunate Mistress" (Roxana), 1724. "Narrative of Murders at
Calais," 1724. "Life of John Sheppard," 1724. "Robberies, Escapes,
&c., of John Sheppard," 1724. "The Great Law of Subordination; or, The
Insolence and Insufferable Behaviour of Servants in England," 1724. "A
Tour through Great Britain," 1724-6. "New Voyage Round the World,"
1725. "Account of Jonathan Wild," 1725. "Account of John Gow," 1725.
"Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business" (on Servants), 1725. "The
Complete English Tradesman," 1725; vol. ii., 1727. "The Friendly Demon,"
1726. "Mere Nature Delineated" (Peter the Wild Boy), 1726. "Political
History of the Devil," 1726. "Essay upon Literature and the Original
of Letters," 1726. "History of Discoveries," 1726-7. "The Protestant
Monastery," 1726. "A System of Magic," 1726. "Parochial Tyranny," 1727.
"Treatise concerning Use and Abuse of Marriage," 1727. "Secrets of
Invisible World Discovered; or, History and Reality of Apparitions,"
1727, 1728. "A New Family Instructor," 1728. "Augusta Triumphans," 1728.
"Plan of English Commerce," 1728. "Second Thoughts are Best" (on Street
Robberies), 1728. "Street Robberies Considered," 1728. "Humble Proposal
to People of England for Increase of Trade, &c.," 1729. "Preface to
R. Dodsley's Poem 'Servitude'" 1729. "Effectual Scheme for Preventing
Street Robberies," 1731.

Besides the above-named publications a large number of further tracts by
Defoe are extant, on matters of Politics and Church.




THE LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF CAPTAIN SINGLETON


As it is usual for great persons, whose lives have been remarkable, and
whose actions deserve recording to posterity, to insist much upon their
originals, give full accounts of their families, and the histories of
their ancestors, so, that I may be methodical, I shall do the same,
though I can look but a very little way into my pedigree, as you will
see presently.

If I may believe the woman whom I was taught to call mother, I was
a little boy, of about two years old, very well dressed, had a
nursery-maid to attend me, who took me out on a fine summer's evening
into the fields towards Islington, as she pretended, to give the child
some air; a little girl being with her, of twelve or fourteen years old,
that lived in the neighbourhood. The maid, whether by appointment or
otherwise, meets with a fellow, her sweetheart, as I suppose; he carries
her into a public-house, to give her a pot and a cake; and while they
were toying in the house the girl plays about, with me in her hand, in
the garden and at the door, sometimes in sight, sometimes out of sight,
thinking no harm.

At this juncture comes by one of those sort of people who, it seems,
made it their business to spirit away little children. This was a
hellish trade in those days, and chiefly practised where they found
little children very well dressed, or for bigger children, to sell them
to the plantations.

The woman, pretending to take me up in her arms and kiss me, and play
with me, draws the girl a good way from the house, till at last she
makes a fine story to the girl, and bids her go back to the maid, and
tell her where she was with the child; that a gentlewoman had taken
a fancy to the child, and was kissing of it, but she should not be
frighted, or to that purpose; for they were but just there; and so,
while the girl went, she carries me quite away.

From this time, it seems, I was disposed of to a beggar woman that
wanted a pretty little child to set out her case; and after that, to
a gipsy, under whose government I continued till I was about six years
old. And this woman, though I was continually dragged about with her
from one part of the country to another, yet never let me want for
anything; and I called her mother; though she told me at last she was
not my mother, but that she bought me for twelve shillings of another
woman, who told her how she came by me, and told her that my name was
Bob Singleton, not Robert, but plain Bob; for it seems they never knew
by what name I was christened.

It is in vain to reflect here, what a terrible fright the careless hussy
was in that lost me; what treatment she received from my justly enraged
father and mother, and the horror these must be in at the thoughts of
their child being thus carried away; for as I never knew anything of the
matter, but just what I have related, nor who my father and mother were,
so it would make but a needless digression to talk of it here.

My good gipsy mother, for some of her worthy actions no doubt, happened
in process of time to be hanged; and as this fell out something too soon
for me to be perfected in the strolling trade, the parish where I was
left, which for my life I can't remember, took some care of me, to be
sure; for the first thing I can remember of myself afterwards, was, that
I went to a parish school, and the minister of the parish used to talk
to me to be a good boy; and that, though I was but a poor boy, if I
minded my book, and served God, I might make a good man.

I believe I was frequently removed from one town to another, perhaps as
the parishes disputed my supposed mother's last settlement. Whether I
was so shifted by passes, or otherwise, I know not; but the town where
I last was kept, whatever its name was, must be not far off from the
seaside; for a master of a ship who took a fancy to me, was the first
that brought me to a place not far from Southampton, which I afterwards
knew to be Bussleton; and there I attended the carpenters, and such
people as were employed in building a ship for him; and when it was
done, though I was not above twelve years old, he carried me to sea with
him on a voyage to Newfoundland.

I lived well enough, and pleased my master so well that he called me his
own boy; and I would have called him father, but he would not allow it,
for he had children of his own. I went three or four voyages with him,
and grew a great sturdy boy, when, coming home again from the banks of
Newfoundland, we were taken by an Algerine rover, or man-of-war; which,
if my account stands right, was about the year 1695, for you may be sure
I kept no journal.

I was not much concerned at the disaster, though I saw my master, after
having been wounded by a splinter in the head during the engagement,
very barbarously used by the Turks; I say, I was not much concerned,
till, upon some unlucky thing I said, which, as I remember, was about
abusing my master, they took me and beat me most unmercifully with a
flat stick on the soles of my feet, so that I could neither go or stand
for several days together.

But my good fortune was my friend upon this occasion; for, as they were
sailing away with our ship in tow as a prize, steering for the Straits,
and in sight of the bay of Cadiz, the Turkish rover was attacked by two
great Portuguese men-of-war, and taken and carried into Lisbon.

As I was not much concerned at my captivity, not indeed understanding
the consequences of it, if it had continued, so I was not suitably
sensible of my deliverance; nor, indeed, was it so much a deliverance
to me as it would otherwise have been, for my master, who was the only
friend I had in the world, died at Lisbon of his wounds; and I being
then almost reduced to my primitive state, viz., of starving, had this
addition to it, that it was in a foreign country too, where I knew
nobody and could not speak a word of their language. However, I fared
better here than I had reason to expect; for when all the rest of our
men had their liberty to go where they would, I, that knew not whither
to go, stayed in the ship for several days, till at length one of the
lieutenants seeing me, inquired what that young English dog did there,
and why they did not turn him on shore.

I heard him, and partly understood what he meant, though not what he
said, and began then to be in a terrible fright; for I knew not where to
get a bit of bread; when the pilot of the ship, an old seaman, seeing me
look very dull, came to me, and speaking broken English to me, told me
I must be gone. "Whither must I go?" said I. "Where you will," said he,
"home to your own country, if you will." "How must I go thither?" said
I. "Why, have you no friend?" said he. "No," said I, "not in the world,
but that dog," pointing to the ship's dog (who, having stolen a piece
of meat just before, had brought it close by me, and I had taken it
from him, and ate it), "for he has been a good friend, and brought me my
dinner."

"Well, well," says he, "you must have your dinner. Will you go with me?"
"Yes," says I, "with all my heart." In short, the old pilot took me home
with him, and used me tolerably well, though I fared hard enough; and I
lived with him about two years, during which time he was soliciting his
business, and at length got to be master or pilot under Don Garcia de
Pimentesia de Carravallas, captain of a Portuguese galleon or carrack,
which was bound to Goa, in the East Indies; and immediately having
gotten his commission, put me on board to look after his cabin, in
which he had stored himself with abundance of liquors, succades, sugar,
spices, and other things, for his accommodation in the voyage, and laid
in afterwards a considerable quantity of European goods, fine lace and
linen; and also baize, woollen cloth, stuffs, &c., under the pretence of
his clothes.

I was too young in the trade to keep any journal of this voyage, though
my master, who was, for a Portuguese, a pretty good artist, prompted me
to it; but my not understanding the language was one hindrance; at least
it served me for an excuse. However, after some time, I began to look
into his charts and books; and, as I could write a tolerable hand,
understood some Latin, and began to have a little smattering of
the Portuguese tongue, so I began to get a superficial knowledge of
navigation, but not such as was likely to be sufficient to carry me
through a life of adventure, as mine was to be. In short, I learned
several material things in this voyage among the Portuguese; I learned
particularly to be an arrant thief and a bad sailor; and I think I may
say they are the best masters for teaching both these of any nation in
the world.

We made our way for the East Indies, by the coast of Brazil; not that it
is in the course of sailing the way thither, but our captain, either
on his own account, or by the direction of the merchants, went thither
first, where at All Saints' Bay, or, as they call it in Portugal, the
Rio de Todos los Santos, we delivered near a hundred tons of goods, and
took in a considerable quantity of gold, with some chests of sugar, and
seventy or eighty great rolls of tobacco, every roll weighing at least a
hundredweight.

Here, being lodged on shore by my master's order, I had the charge
of the captain's business, he having seen me very diligent for my own
master; and in requital for his mistaken confidence, I found means to
secure, that is to say, to steal, about twenty moidores out of the
gold that was shipped on board by the merchants, and this was my first
adventure.

We had a tolerable voyage from hence to the Cape de Bona Speranza; and
I was reputed as a mighty diligent servant to my master, and very
faithful. I was diligent indeed, but I was very far from honest;
however, they thought me honest, which, by the way, was their very great
mistake. Upon this very mistake the captain took a particular liking to
me, and employed me frequently on his own occasion; and, on the other
hand, in recompense for my officious diligence, I received several
particular favours from him; particularly, I was, by the captain's
command, made a kind of a steward under the ship's steward, for such
provisions as the captain demanded for his own table. He had another
steward for his private stores besides, but my office concerned only
what the captain called for of the ship's stores for his private use.

However, by this means I had opportunity particularly to take care of my
master's man, and to furnish myself with sufficient provisions to make
me live much better than the other people in the ship; for the captain
seldom ordered anything out of the ship's stores, as above, but I snipt
some of it for my own share. We arrived at Goa, in the East Indies, in
about seven months from Lisbon, and remained there eight more; during
which time I had indeed nothing to do, my master being generally on
shore, but to learn everything that is wicked among the Portuguese, a
nation the most perfidious and the most debauched, the most insolent and
cruel, of any that pretend to call themselves Christians, in the world.

Thieving, lying, swearing, forswearing, joined to the most abominable
lewdness, was the stated practice of the ship's crew; adding to it,
that, with the most insufferable boasts of their own courage, they were,
generally speaking, the most complete cowards that I ever met with;
and the consequence of their cowardice was evident upon many occasions.
However, there was here and there one among them that was not so bad
as the rest; and, as my lot fell among them, it made me have the most
contemptible thoughts of the rest, as indeed they deserved.

I was exactly fitted for their society indeed; for I had no sense of
virtue or religion upon me. I had never heard much of either, except
what a good old parson had said to me when I was a child of about eight
or nine years old; nay, I was preparing and growing up apace to be as
wicked as anybody could be, or perhaps ever was. Fate certainly thus
directed my beginning, knowing that I had work which I had to do in the
world, which nothing but one hardened against all sense of honesty
or religion could go through; and yet, even in this state of original
wickedness, I entertained such a settled abhorrence of the abandoned
vileness of the Portuguese, that I could not but hate them most heartily
from the beginning, and all my life afterwards. They were so brutishly
wicked, so base and perfidious, not only to strangers but to one
another, so meanly submissive when subjected, so insolent, or barbarous
and tyrannical, when superior, that I thought there was something in
them that shocked my very nature. Add to this that it is natural to an
Englishman to hate a coward, it all joined together to make the devil
and a Portuguese equally my aversion.

However, according to the English proverb, he that is shipped with the
devil must sail with the devil; I was among them, and I managed myself
as well as I could. My master had consented that I should assist the
captain in the office, as above; but, as I understood afterwards that
the captain allowed my master half a moidore a month for my service, and
that he had my name upon the ship's books also, I expected that when
the ship came to be paid four months' wages at the Indies, as they, it
seems, always do, my master would let me have something for myself.

But I was wrong in my man, for he was none of that kind; he had taken
me up as in distress, and his business was to keep me so, and make his
market of me as well as he could, which I began to think of after a
different manner than I did at first, for at first I thought he had
entertained me in mere charity, upon seeing my distressed circumstances,
but did not doubt but when he put me on board the ship, I should have
some wages for my service.

But he thought, it seems, quite otherwise; and when I procured one to
speak to him about it, when the ship was paid at Goa, he flew into the
greatest rage imaginable, and called me English dog, young heretic, and
threatened to put me into the Inquisition. Indeed, of all the names
the four-and-twenty letters could make up, he should not have called me
heretic; for as I knew nothing about religion, neither Protestant from
Papist, or either of them from a Mahometan, I could never be a heretic.
However, it passed but a little, but, as young as I was, I had been
carried into the Inquisition, and there, if they had asked me if I was
a Protestant or a Catholic, I should have said yes to that which came
first. If it had been the Protestant they had asked first, it had
certainly made a martyr of me for I did not know what.

But the very priest they carried with them, or chaplain of the ship,
as we called him, saved me; for seeing me a boy entirely ignorant of
religion, and ready to do or say anything they bid me, he asked me some
questions about it, which he found I answered so very simply, that
he took it upon him to tell them he would answer for my being a good
Catholic, and he hoped he should be the means of saving my soul, and he
pleased himself that it was to be a work of merit to him; so he made me
as good a Papist as any of them in about a week's time.

I then told him my case about my master; how, it is true, he had taken
me up in a miserable case on board a man-of-war at Lisbon; and I was
indebted to him for bringing me on board this ship; that if I had been
left at Lisbon, I might have starved, and the like; and therefore I
was willing to serve him, but that I hoped he would give me some little
consideration for my service, or let me know how long he expected I
should serve him for nothing.

It was all one; neither the priest nor any one else could prevail with
him, but that I was not his servant but his slave, that he took me in
the Algerine, and that I was a Turk, only pretended to be an English boy
to get my liberty, and he would carry me to the Inquisition as a Turk.

This frighted me out of my wits, for I had nobody to vouch for me what I
was, or from whence I came; but the good Padre Antonio, for that was his
name, cleared me of that part by a way I did not understand; for he came
to me one morning with two sailors, and told me they must search me, to
bear witness that I was not a Turk. I was amazed at them, and frighted,
and did not understand them, nor could I imagine what they intended to
do to me. However, stripping me, they were soon satisfied, and Father
Antony bade me be easy, for they could all witness that I was no Turk.
So I escaped that part of my master's cruelty.

And now I resolved from that time to run away from him if I could, but
there was no doing of it there, for there were not ships of any nation
in the world in that port, except two or three Persian vessels from
Ormus, so that if I had offered to go away from him, he would have had
me seized on shore, and brought on board by force; so that I had no
remedy but patience. And this he brought to an end too as soon as he
could, for after this he began to use me ill, and not only to straiten
my provisions, but to beat and torture me in a barbarous manner for
every trifle, so that, in a word, my life began to be very miserable.

The violence of this usage of me, and the impossibility of my escape
from his hands, set my head a-working upon all sorts of mischief, and in
particular I resolved, after studying all other ways to deliver myself,
and finding all ineffectual, I say, I resolved to murder him. With this
hellish resolution in my head, I spent whole nights and days contriving
how to put it in execution, the devil prompting me very warmly to the
fact. I was indeed entirely at a loss for the means, for I had neither
gun or sword, nor any weapon to assault him with; poison I had my
thoughts much upon, but knew not where to get any; or, if I might have
got it, I did not know the country word for it, or by what name to ask
for it.

In this manner I quitted the fact, intentionally, a hundred and a
hundred times; but Providence, either for his sake or for mine, always
frustrated my designs, and I could never bring it to pass; so I was
obliged to continue in his chains till the ship, having taken in her
loading, set sail for Portugal.

I can say nothing here to the manner of our voyage, for, as I said, I
kept no journal; but this I can give an account of, that having been
once as high as the Cape of Good Hope, as we call it, or Cabo de Bona
Speranza, as they call it, we were driven back again by a violent storm
from the W.S.W., which held us six days and nights a great way to the
eastward, and after that, standing afore the wind for several days more,
we at last came to an anchor on the coast of Madagascar.

The storm had been so violent that the ship had received a great deal of
damage, and it required some time to repair her; so, standing in nearer
the shore, the pilot, my master, brought the ship into a very good
harbour, where we rid in twenty-six fathoms water, about half a mile
from the shore.

While the ship rode here there happened a most desperate mutiny among
the men, upon account of some deficiency in their allowance, which came
to that height that they threatened the captain to set him on shore, and
go back with the ship to Goa. I wished they would with all my heart,
for I was full of mischief in my head, and ready enough to do any. So,
though I was but a boy, as they called me, yet I prompted the mischief
all I could, and embarked in it so openly, that I escaped very little
being hanged in the first and most early part of my life; for the
captain had some notice that there was a design laid by some of the
company to murder him; and having, partly by money and promises, and
partly by threatening and torture, brought two fellows to confess the
particulars, and the names of the persons concerned, they were presently
apprehended, till, one accusing another, no less than sixteen men were
seized and put into irons, whereof I was one.

The captain, who was made desperate by his danger, resolving to clear
the ship of his enemies, tried us all, and we were all condemned to die.
The manner of his process I was too young to take notice of; but the
purser and one of the gunners were hanged immediately, and I expected it
with the rest. I do not remember any great concern I was under about it,
only that I cried very much, for I knew little then of this world, and
nothing at all of the next.

However, the captain contented himself with executing these two, and
some of the rest, upon their humble submission and promise of future
good behaviour, were pardoned; but five were ordered to be set on shore
on the island and left there, of which I was one. My master used all his
interest with the captain to have me excused, but could not obtain it;
for somebody having told him that I was one of them who was singled out
to have killed him, when my master desired I might not be set on shore,
the captain told him I should stay on board if he desired it, but then
I should be hanged, so he might choose for me which he thought best. The
captain, it seems, was particularly provoked at my being concerned in
the treachery, because of his having been so kind to me, and of his
having singled me out to serve him, as I have said above; and this,
perhaps, obliged him to give my master such a rough choice, either
to set me on shore or to have me hanged on board. And had my master,
indeed, known what good-will I had for him, he would not have been long
in choosing for me; for I had certainly determined to do him a mischief
the first opportunity I had for it. This was, therefore, a good
providence for me to keep me from dipping my hands in blood, and it made
me more tender afterwards in matters of blood than I believe I should
otherwise have been. But as to my being one of them that was to kill
the captain, that I was wronged in, for I was not the person, but it was
really one of them that were pardoned, he having the good luck not to
have that part discovered.

I was now to enter upon a part of independent life, a thing I was indeed
very ill prepared to manage, for I was perfectly loose and dissolute
in my behaviour, bold and wicked while I was under government, and now
perfectly unfit to be trusted with liberty, for I was as ripe for any
villainy as a young fellow that had no solid thought ever placed in his
mind could be supposed to be. Education, as you have heard, I had none;
and all the little scenes of life I had passed through had been full
of dangers and desperate circumstances; but I was either so young or so
stupid, that I escaped the grief and anxiety of them, for want of having
a sense of their tendency and consequences.

This thoughtless, unconcerned temper had one felicity indeed in it, that
it made me daring and ready for doing any mischief, and kept off the
sorrow which otherwise ought to have attended me when I fell into any
mischief; that this stupidity was instead of a happiness to me, for it
left my thoughts free to act upon means of escape and deliverance in my
distress, however great it might be; whereas my companions in the misery
were so sunk by their fear and grief, that they abandoned themselves to
the misery of their condition, and gave over all thought but of their
perishing and starving, being devoured by wild beasts, murdered, and
perhaps eaten by cannibals, and the like.

I was but a young fellow, about seventeen or eighteen; but hearing what
was to be my fate, I received it with no appearance of discouragement;
but I asked what my master said to it, and being told that he had used
his utmost interest to save me, but the captain had answered I should
either go on shore or be hanged on board, which he pleased, I then gave
over all hope of being received again. I was not very thankful in my
thoughts to my master for his soliciting the captain for me, because I
knew that what he did was not in kindness to me so much as in kindness
to himself; I mean, to preserve the wages which he got for me, which
amounted to above six dollars a month, including what the captain
allowed him for my particular service to him.

When I understood that my master was so apparently kind, I asked if I
might not be admitted to speak with him, and they told me I might, if my
master would come down to me, but I could not be allowed to come up to
him; so then I desired my master might be spoke to to come to me, and he
accordingly came to me. I fell on my knees to him, and begged he would
forgive me what I had done to displease him; and indeed the resolution
I had taken to murder him lay with some horror upon my mind just at
that time, so that I was once just a-going to confess it, and beg him
to forgive me, but I kept it in. He told me he had done all he could to
obtain my pardon of the captain, but could not and he knew no way for me
but to have patience, and submit to my fate; and if they came to speak
with any ship of their nation at the Cape, he would endeavour to have
them stand in, and fetch us off again, if we might be found.

Then I begged I might have my clothes on shore with me. He told me he
was afraid I should have little need of clothes, for he did not see how
we could long subsist on the island, and that he had been told that the
inhabitants were cannibals or men-eaters (though he had no reason for
that suggestion), and we should not be able to live among them. I
told him I was not so afraid of that as I was of starving for want of
victuals; and as for the inhabitants being cannibals, I believed we
should be more likely to eat them than they us, if we could but get at
them. But I was mightily concerned, I said, we should have no weapons
with us to defend ourselves, and I begged nothing now, but that he would
give me a gun and a sword, with a little powder and shot.

He smiled, and said they would signify nothing to us, for it was
impossible for us to pretend to preserve our lives among such a populous
and desperate nation as the people of this island were. I told him that,
however, it would do us this good, for we should not be devoured or
destroyed immediately; so I begged hard for the gun. At last he told me
he did not know whether the captain would give him leave to give me a
gun, and if not, he durst not do it; but he promised to use his interest
to obtain it for me, which he did, and the next day he sent me a gun,
with some ammunition, but told me the captain would not suffer the
ammunition to be given us till we were set all on shore, and till he
was just going to set sail. He also sent me the few clothes I had in the
ship, which indeed were not many.

Two days after this, we were all carried on shore together; the rest
of my fellow-criminals hearing I had a gun, and some powder and shot,
solicited for liberty to carry the like with them, which was also
granted them; and thus we were set on shore to shift for ourselves.

At our first coming into the island we were terrified exceedingly with
the sight of the barbarous people, whose figure was made more terrible
to us than it really was by the report we had of them from the seamen;
but when we came to converse with them awhile, we found they were not
cannibals, as was reported, or such as would fall immediately upon us
and eat us up; but they came and sat down by us, and wondered much at
our clothes and arms, and made signs to give us some victuals, such as
they had, which was only roots and plants dug out of the ground for the
present, but they brought us fowls and flesh afterwards in good plenty.

This encouraged the other four men that were with me very much, for they
were quite dejected before; but now they began to be very familiar with
them, and made signs, that if they would use us kindly, we would stay
and live with them; which they seemed glad of, though they knew little
of the necessity we were under to do so, or how much we were afraid of
them.

However, upon second thoughts we resolved that we would only stay in
that part so long as the ship rid in the bay, and then making them
believe we were gone with the ship, we would go and place ourselves, if
possible, where there were no inhabitants to be seen, and so live as we
could, or perhaps watch for a ship that might be driven upon the coast
as we were.

The ship continued a fortnight in the roads, repairing some damage which
had been done her in the late storm, and taking in wood and water; and
during this time, the boat coming often on shore, the men brought us
several refreshments, and the natives believing we only belonged to the
ship, were civil enough. We lived in a kind of a tent on the shore, or
rather a hut, which we made with the boughs of trees, and sometimes in
the night retired to a wood a little out of their way, to let them
think we were gone on board the ship. However, we found them barbarous,
treacherous, and villainous enough in their nature, only civil from
fear, and therefore concluded we should soon fall into their hands when
the ship was gone.

The sense of this wrought upon my fellow-sufferers even to distraction;
and one of them, being a carpenter, in his mad fit, swam off to the ship
in the night, though she lay then a league to sea, and made such pitiful
moan to be taken in, that the captain was prevailed with at last to take
him in, though they let him lie swimming three hours in the water before
he consented to it.

Upon this, and his humble submission, the captain received him, and, in
a word, the importunity of this man (who for some time petitioned to be
taken in, though they hanged him as soon as they had him) was such as
could not be resisted; for, after he had swam so long about the ship,
he was not able to reach the shore again; and the captain saw evidently
that the man must be taken on board or suffered to drown, and the whole
ship's company offering to be bound for him for his good behaviour, the
captain at last yielded, and he was taken up, but almost dead with his
being so long in the water.

When this man was got in, he never left importuning the captain, and all
the rest of the officers, in behalf of us that were behind, but to
the very last day the captain was inexorable; when, at the time their
preparations were making to sail, and orders given to hoist the boats
into the ship, all the seamen in a body came up to the rail of the
quarter-deck, where the captain was walking with some of his officers,
and appointing the boatswain to speak for them, he went up, and falling
on his knees to the captain, begged of him, in the humblest manner
possible, to receive the four men on board again, offering to answer for
their fidelity, or to have them kept in chains till they came to Lisbon,
and there to be delivered up to justice, rather than, as they said, to
have them left to be murdered by savages, or devoured by wild beasts. It
was a great while ere the captain took any notice of them, but when he
did, he ordered the boatswain to be seized, and threatened to bring him
to the capstan for speaking for them.

Upon this severity, one of the seamen, bolder than the rest, but still
with all possible respect to the captain, besought his honour, as he
called him, that he would give leave to some more of them to go on
shore, and die with their companions, or, if possible, to assist them
to resist the barbarians. The captain, rather provoked than cowed with
this, came to the barricade of the quarter-deck, and speaking very
prudently to the men (for had he spoken roughly, two-thirds of them
would have left the ship, if not all of them), he told them, it was
for their safety as well as his own that he had been obliged to that
severity; that mutiny on board a ship was the same thing as treason in a
king's palace, and he could not answer it to his owners and employers
to trust the ship and goods committed to his charge with men who had
entertained thoughts of the worst and blackest nature; that he wished
heartily that it had been anywhere else that they had been set on shore,
where they might have been in less hazard from the savages; that, if he
had designed they should be destroyed, he could as well have executed
them on board as the other two; that he wished it had been in some other
part of the world, where he might have delivered them up to the civil
justice, or might have left them among Christians; but it was better
their lives were put in hazard than his life, and the safety of the
ship; and that though he did not know that he had deserved so ill of any
of them as that they should leave the ship rather than do their duty,
yet if any of them were resolved to do so unless he would consent to
take a gang of traitors on board, who, as he had proved before them
all, had conspired to murder him, he would not hinder them, nor for the
present would he resent their importunity; but, if there was nobody left
in the ship but himself, he would never consent to take them on board.

This discourse was delivered so well, was in itself so reasonable, was
managed with so much temper, yet so boldly concluded with a negative,
that the greatest part of the men were satisfied for the present.
However, as it put the men into juntos and cabals, they were not
composed for some hours; the wind also slackening towards night, the
captain ordered not to weigh till next morning.

The same night twenty-three of the men, among whom was the gunner's
mate, the surgeon's assistant, and two carpenters, applying to the chief
mate told him, that as the captain had given them leave to go on shore
to their comrades, they begged that he would speak to the captain not to
take it ill that they were desirous to go and die with their companions;
and that they thought they could do no less in such an extremity than
go to them; because, if there was any way to save their lives, it was
by adding to their numbers, and making them strong enough to assist one
another in defending themselves against the savages, till perhaps they
might one time or other find means to make their escape, and get to
their own country again.

The mate told them, in so many words, that he durst not speak to the
captain upon any such design, and was very sorry they had no more
respect for him than to desire him to go upon such an errand; but, if
they were resolved upon such an enterprise, he would advise them to take
the long-boat in the morning betimes, and go off, seeing the captain had
given them leave, and leave a civil letter behind them to the captain,
and to desire him to send his men on shore for the boat, which should be
delivered very honestly, and he promised to keep their counsel so long.

Accordingly, an hour before day, those twenty-three men, with every
man a firelock and a cutlass, with some pistols, three halberds or
half-pikes, and good store of powder and ball, without any provision but
about half a hundred of bread, but with all their chests and clothes,
tools, instruments, books, &c., embarked themselves so silently, that
the captain got no notice of it till they were gotten half the way on
shore.

As soon as the captain heard of it he called for the gunner's mate, the
chief gunner being at the time sick in his cabin, and ordered to fire at
them; but, to his great mortification, the gunner's mate was one of the
number, and was gone with them; and indeed it was by this means they got
so many arms and so much ammunition. When the captain found how it was,
and that there was no help for it, he began to be a little appeased, and
made light of it, and called up the men, and spoke kindly to them, and
told them he was very well satisfied in the fidelity and ability of
those that were now left, and that he would give to them, for their
encouragement, to be divided among them, the wages which were due to the
men that were gone, and that it was a great satisfaction to him that the
ship was free from such a mutinous rabble, who had not the least reason
for their discontent.

The men seemed very well satisfied, and particularly the promise of the
wages of those who were gone went a great way with them. After this, the
letter which was left by the men was given to the captain by his boy,
with whom, it seems, the men had left it. The letter was much to the
same purpose of what they had said to the mate, and which he declined to
say for them, only that at the end of their letter they told the captain
that, as they had no dishonest design, so they had taken nothing away
with them which was not their own, except some arms and ammunition, such
as were absolutely necessary to them, as well for their defence against
the savages as to kill fowls or beasts for their food, that they might
not perish; and as there were considerable sums due to them for wages,
they hoped he would allow the arms and ammunition upon their accounts.
They told him that, as to the ship's longboat, which they had taken to
bring them on shore, they knew it was necessary to him, and they were
very willing to restore it to him, and if he pleased to send for it, it
should be very honestly delivered to his men, and not the least injury
offered to any of those who came for it, nor the least persuasion or
invitation made use of to any of them to stay with them; and, at the
bottom of the letter, they very humbly besought him that, for their
defence, and for the safety of their lives, he would be pleased to send
them a barrel of powder and some ammunition, and give them leave to keep
the mast and sail of the boat, that if it was possible for them to make
themselves a boat of any kind, they might shift off to sea, to save
themselves in such part of the world as their fate should direct them
to.

Upon this the captain, who had won much upon the rest of his men by what
he had said to them, and was very easy as to the general peace (for it
was very true that the most mutinous of the men were gone), came out
to the quarter-deck, and, calling the men together, let them know the
substance of the letter, and told the men that, however they had not
deserved such civility from him, yet he was not willing to expose them
more than they were willing to expose themselves; he was inclined to
send them some ammunition, and as they had desired but one barrel of
powder, he would send them two barrels, and shot, or lead and moulds to
make shot, in proportion; and, to let them see that he was civiller to
them than they deserved, he ordered a cask of arrack and a great bag
of bread to be sent them for subsistence till they should be able to
furnish themselves.

The rest of the men applauded the captain's generosity, and every one
of them sent us something or other, and about three in the afternoon the
pinnace came on shore, and brought us all these things, which we were
very glad of, and returned the long-boat accordingly; and as to the men
that came with the pinnace, as the captain had singled out such men as
he knew would not come over to us, so they had positive orders not to
bring any one of us on board again, upon pain of death; and indeed both
were so true to our points, that we neither asked them to stay, nor they
us to go.

We were now a good troop, being in all twenty-seven men, very well
armed, and provided with everything but victuals; we had two carpenters
among us, a gunner, and, which was worth all the rest, a surgeon or
doctor; that is to say, he was an assistant to a surgeon at Goa, and was
entertained as a supernumerary with us. The carpenters had brought all
their tools, the doctor all his instruments and medicines, and indeed we
had a great deal of baggage, that is to say, on the whole, for some of
us had little more than the clothes on our backs, of whom I was one;
but I had one thing which none of them had, viz., I had the twenty-two
moidores of gold which I had stole at the Brazils, and two pieces of
eight. The two pieces of eight I showed, and one moidore, and none of
them ever suspected that I had any more money in the world, having been
known to be only a poor boy taken up in charity, as you have heard,
and used like a slave, and in the worst manner of a slave, by my cruel
master the pilot.

It will be easy to imagine we four that were left at first were joyful,
nay, even surprised with joy at the coming of the rest, though at first
we were frighted, and thought they came to fetch us back to hang us;
but they took ways quickly to satisfy us that they were in the same
condition with us, only with this additional circumstance, theirs was
voluntary, and ours by force.

The first piece of news they told us after the short history of their
coming away was, that our companion was on board, but how he got
thither we could not imagine, for he had given us the slip, and we never
imagined he could swim so well as to venture off to the ship, which lay
at so great a distance; nay, we did not so much as know that he could
swim at all, and not thinking anything of what really happened, we
thought he must have wandered into the woods and was devoured, or
was fallen into the hands of the natives, and was murdered; and these
thoughts filled us with fears enough, and of several kinds, about its
being some time or other our lot to fall into their hands also. But
hearing how he had with much difficulty been received on board the ship
again and pardoned, we were much better satisfied than before.

Being now, as I have said, a considerable number of us, and in condition
to defend ourselves, the first thing we did was to give every one his
hand that we would not separate from one another upon any occasion
whatsoever, but that we would live and die together; that we would kill
no food, but that we would distribute it in public; and that we would
be in all things guided by the majority, and not insist upon our own
resolutions in anything if the majority were against it; that we would
appoint a captain among us to be our governor or leader during pleasure;
that while he was in office we would obey him without reserve, on pain
of death; and that every one should take turn, but the captain was not
to act in any particular thing without advice of the rest, and by the
majority.

Having established these rules, we resolved to enter into some measures
for our food, and for conversing with the inhabitants or natives of the
island for our supply. As for food, they were at first very useful to
us, but we soon grew weary of them, being an ignorant, ravenous, brutish
sort of people, even worse than the natives of any other country that we
had seen; and we soon found that the principal part of our subsistence
was to be had by our guns, shooting of deer and other creatures, and
fowls of all other sorts, of which there is abundance.

We found the natives did not disturb or concern themselves much about
us; nor did they inquire, or perhaps know, whether we stayed among them
or not, much less that our ship was gone quite away, and had cast us
off, as was our case; for the next morning, after we had sent back the
long-boat, the ship stood away to the south-east, and in four hours'
time was out of our sight.

The next day two of us went out into the country one way, and two
another, to see what kind of a land we were in; and we soon found the
country was very pleasant and fruitful, and a convenient place enough
to live in; but, as before, inhabited by a parcel of creatures scarce
human, or capable of being made social on any account whatsoever.

We found the place full of cattle and provisions; but whether we might
venture to take them where we could find them or not, we did not know;
and though we were under a necessity to get provisions, yet we were loth
to bring down a whole nation of devils upon us at once, and therefore
some of our company agreed to try to speak with some of the country,
if we could, that we might see what course was to be taken with them.
Eleven of our men went on this errand, well armed and furnished for
defence. They brought word that they had seen some of the natives, who
appeared very civil to them, but very shy and afraid, seeing their guns,
for it was easy to perceive that the natives knew what their guns were,
and what use they were of.

They made signs to the natives for some food, and they went and fetched
several herbs and roots, and some milk; but it was evident they did not
design to give it away, but to sell it, making signs to know what our
men would give them.

Our men were perplexed at this, for they had nothing to barter; however,
one of the men pulled out a knife and showed them, and they were so fond
of it that they were ready to go together by the ears for the knife. The
seaman seeing that, was willing to make a good market of his knife, and
keeping them chaffering about it a good while, some offered him roots,
and others milk; at last one offered him a goat for it, which he took.
Then another of our men showed them another knife, but they had nothing
good enough for that, whereupon one of them made signs that he would
go and fetch something; so our men stayed three hours for their return,
when they came back and brought him a small-sized, thick, short cow,
very fat and good meat, and gave him for his knife.

This was a good market, but our misfortune was we had no merchandise;
for our knives were as needful to us as to them, and but that we were in
distress for food, and must of necessity have some, these men would not
have parted with their knives.

However, in a little time more we found that the woods were full of
living creatures, which we might kill for our food, and that without
giving offence to them; so that our men went daily out a-hunting, and
never failed in killing something or other; for, as to the natives, we
had no goods to barter; and for money, all the stock among us would not
have subsisted us long. However, we called a general council to see what
money we had, and to bring it all together, that it might go as far as
possible; and when it came to my turn, I pulled out a moidore and the
two dollars I spoke of before.

This moidore I ventured to show, that they might not despise me too much
for adding too little to the store, and that they might not pretend to
search me; and they were very civil to me, upon the presumption that I
had been so faithful to them as not to conceal anything from them.

But our money did us little service, for the people neither knew
the value or the use of it, nor could they justly rate the gold in
proportion with the silver; so that all our money, which was not much
when it was all put together, would go but a little way with us, that is
to say, to buy us provisions.

Our next consideration was to get away from this cursed place, and
whither to go. When my opinion came to be asked, I told them I would
leave that all to them, and I told them I had rather they would let me
go into the woods to get them some provisions, than consult with me, for
I would agree to whatever they did; but they would not agree to that,
for they would not consent that any of us should go into the woods
alone; for though we had yet seen no lions or tigers in the woods, we
were assured there were many in the island, besides other creatures
as dangerous, and perhaps worse, as we afterwards found by our own
experience.

We had many adventures in the woods, for our provisions, and often met
with wild and terrible beasts, which we could not call by their names;
but as they were, like us, seeking their prey, but were themselves good
for nothing, so we disturbed them as little as possible.

Our consultations concerning our escape from this place, which, as I
have said, we were now upon, ended in this only, that as we had two
carpenters among us, and that they had tools almost of all sorts with
them, we should try to build us a boat to go off to sea with, and that
then, perhaps, we might find our way back to Goa, or land on some more
proper place to make our escape. The counsels of this assembly were
not of great moment, yet as they seem to be introductory of many more
remarkable adventures which happened under my conduct hereabouts many
years after, I think this miniature of my future enterprises may not be
unpleasant to relate.

To the building of a boat I made no objection, and away they went to
work immediately; but as they went on, great difficulties occurred,
such as the want of saws to cut our plank; nails, bolts, and spikes, to
fasten the timbers; hemp, pitch, and tar, to caulk and pay her seams,
and the like. At length, one of the company proposed that, instead of
building a bark or sloop, or shallop, or whatever they would call
it, which they found was so difficult, they would rather make a large
periagua, or canoe, which might be done with great ease.

It was presently objected, that we could never make a canoe large enough
to pass the great ocean, which we were to go over to get to the coast
of Malabar; that it not only would not bear the sea, but it would never
bear the burden, for we were not only twenty-seven men of us, but had
a great deal of luggage with us, and must, for our provision, take in a
great deal more.

I never proposed to speak in their general consultations before, but
finding they were at some loss about what kind of vessel they should
make, and how to make it, and what would be fit for our use, and what
not, I told them I found they were at a full stop in their counsels of
every kind; that it was true we could never pretend to go over to Goa on
the coast of Malabar in a canoe, which though we could all get into
it, and that it would bear the sea well enough, yet would not hold our
provisions, and especially we could not put fresh water enough into it
for the voyage; and to make such an adventure would be nothing but mere
running into certain destruction, and yet that nevertheless I was for
making a canoe.

They answered, that they understood all I had said before well enough,
but what I meant by telling them first how dangerous and impossible
it was to make our escape in a canoe, and yet then to advise making a
canoe, that they could not understand.

To this I answered, that I conceived our business was not to attempt our
escape in a canoe, but that, as there were other vessels at sea besides
our ship, and that there were few nations that lived on the sea-shore
that were so barbarous, but that they went to sea in some boats or
other, our business was to cruise along the coast of the island, which
was very long, and to seize upon the first we could get that was better
than our own, and so from that to another, till perhaps we might at last
get a good ship to carry us wherever we pleased to go.

"Excellent advice," says one of them. "Admirable advice," says another.
"Yes, yes," says the third (which was the gunner), "the English dog has
given excellent advice; but it is just the way to bring us all to
the gallows. The rogue has given us devilish advice, indeed, to go
a-thieving, till from a little vessel we came to a great ship, and so we
shall turn downright pirates, the end of which is to be hanged."

"You may call us pirates," says another, "if you will, and if we fall
into bad hands, we may be used like pirates; but I care not for that,
I'll be a pirate, or anything, nay, I'll be hanged for a pirate rather
than starve here, therefore I think the advice is very good." And so
they cried all, "Let us have a canoe." The gunner, over-ruled by the
rest, submitted; but as we broke up the council, he came to me, takes
me by the hand, and, looking into the palm of my hand, and into my face
too, very gravely, "My lad," says he, "thou art born to do a world of
mischief; thou hast commenced pirate very young; but have a care of
the gallows, young man; have a care, I say, for thou wilt be an eminent
thief."

I laughed at him, and told him I did not know what I might come to
hereafter, but as our case was now, I should make no scruple to take the
first ship I came at to get our liberty; I only wished we could see one,
and come at her. Just while we were talking, one of our men that was at
the door of our hut, told us that the carpenter, who it seems was upon a
hill at a distance, cried out, "A sail! a sail!"

We all turned out immediately; but, though it was very clear weather,
we could see nothing; but the carpenter continuing to halloo to us, "A
sail! a sail!" away we run up the hill, and there we saw a ship plainly;
but it was at a very great distance, too far for us to make any signal
to her. However, we made a fire upon the hill, with all the wood we
could get together, and made as much smoke as possible. The wind was
down, and it was almost calm; but as we thought, by a perspective glass
which the gunner had in his pocket, her sails were full, and she stood
away large with the wind at E.N.E., taking no notice of our signal, but
making for the Cape de Bona Speranza; so we had no comfort from her.

We went, therefore, immediately to work about our intended canoe; and,
having singled out a very large tree to our minds, we fell to work with
her; and having three good axes among us, we got it down, but it was
four days' time first, though we worked very hard too. I do not remember
what wood it was, or exactly what dimensions, but I remember that it was
a very large one, and we were as much encouraged when we launched it,
and found it swam upright and steady, as we would have been at another
time if we had had a good man-of-war at our command.

She was so very large, that she carried us all very, very easily, and
would have carried two or three tons of baggage with us; so that we
began to consult about going to sea directly to Goa; but many other
considerations checked that thought, especially when we came to look
nearer into it; such as want of provisions, and no casks for fresh
water; no compass to steer by; no shelter from the breach of the high
sea, which would certainly founder us; no defence from the heat of the
weather, and the like; so that they all came readily into my project, to
cruise about where we were, and see what might offer.

Accordingly, to gratify our fancy, we went one day all out to sea in her
together, and we were in a very fair way to have had enough of it;
for when she had us all on board, and that we were gotten about half
a league to sea, there happening to be a pretty high swell of the sea,
though little or no wind, yet she wallowed so in the sea, that we all of
us thought she would at last wallow herself bottom up; so we set all
to work to get her in nearer the shore, and giving her fresh way in the
sea, she swam more steady, and with some hard work we got her under the
land again.

We were now at a great loss; the natives were civil enough to us, and
came often to discourse with us; one time they brought one whom they
showed respect to as a king with them, and they set up a long pole
between them and us, with a great tassel of hair hanging, not on the
top, but something above the middle of it, adorned with little chains,
shells, bits of brass, and the like; and this, we understood afterwards,
was a token of amity and friendship; and they brought down to us
victuals in abundance, cattle, fowls, herbs, and roots; but we were in
the utmost confusion on our side; for we had nothing to buy with, or
exchange for; and as to giving us things for nothing they had no notion
of that again. As to our money, it was mere trash to them, they had no
value for it; so that we were in a fair way to be starved. Had we had
but some toys and trinkets, brass chains, baubles, glass beads, or, in
a word, the veriest trifles that a shipload of would not have been worth
the freight, we might have bought cattle and provisions enough for an
army, or to victual a fleet of men-of-war; but for gold or silver we
could get nothing.

Upon this we were in a strange consternation. I was but a young fellow,
but I was for falling upon them with our firearms, and taking all the
cattle from them, and send them to the devil to stop their hunger,
rather than be starved ourselves; but I did not consider that this might
have brought ten thousand of them down upon us the next day; and though
we might have killed a vast number of them, and perhaps have frighted
the rest, yet their own desperation, and our small number, would have
animated them so that, one time or other, they would have destroyed us
all.

In the middle of our consultation, one of our men who had been a kind
of a cutler, or worker in iron, started up and asked the carpenter if,
among all his tools, he could not help him to a file. "Yes," says the
carpenter, "I can, but it is a small one." "The smaller the better,"
says the other. Upon this he goes to work, and first by heating a piece
of an old broken chisel in the fire, and then with the help of his file,
he made himself several kinds of tools for his work. Then he takes three
or four pieces of eight, and beats them out with a hammer upon a stone,
till they were very broad and thin; then he cuts them out into the shape
of birds and beasts; he made little chains of them for bracelets and
necklaces, and turned them into so many devices of his own head, that it
is hardly to be expressed.

When he had for about a fortnight exercised his head and hands at this
work, we tried the effect of his ingenuity; and, having another meeting
with the natives, were surprised to see the folly of the poor people.
For a little bit of silver cut in the shape of a bird, we had two cows,
and, which was our loss, if it had been in brass, it had been still of
more value. For one of the bracelets made of chain-work, we had as much
provision of several sorts, as would fairly have been worth, in England,
fifteen or sixteen pounds; and so of all the rest. Thus, that which when
it was in coin was not worth sixpence to us, when thus converted
into toys and trifles, was worth a hundred times its real value, and
purchased for us anything we had occasion for.

In this condition we lived upwards of a year, but all of us began to be
very much tired of it, and, whatever came of it, resolved to attempt
an escape. We had furnished ourselves with no less than three very
good canoes; and as the monsoons, or trade-winds, generally affect that
country, blowing in most parts of this island one six months of a year
one way, and the other six months another way, we concluded we might be
able to bear the sea well enough. But always, when we came to look into
it, the want of fresh water was the thing that put us off from such an
adventure, for it is a prodigious length, and what no man on earth could
be able to perform without water to drink.

Being thus prevailed upon by our own reason to set the thoughts of that
voyage aside, we had then but two things before us; one was, to put to
sea the other way; viz., west, and go away for the Cape of Good Hope,
where, first or last, we should meet with some of our own country ships,
or else to put for the mainland of Africa, and either travel by land,
or sail along the coast towards the Red Sea, where we should, first or
last, find a ship of some nation or other, that would take us up; or
perhaps we might take them up, which, by-the-bye, was the thing that
always ran in my head.

It was our ingenious cutler, whom ever after we called silversmith, that
proposed this; but the gunner told him, that he had been in the Red Sea
in a Malabar sloop, and he knew this, that if we went into the Red Sea,
we should either be killed by the wild Arabs, or taken and made slaves
of by the Turks; and therefore he was not for going that way.

Upon this I took occasion to put in my vote again. "Why," said I, "do we
talk of being killed by the Arabs, or made slaves of by the Turks? Are
we not able to board almost any vessel we shall meet with in those seas;
and, instead of their taking us, we to take them?" "Well done, pirate,"
said the gunner (he that had looked in my hand, and told me I should
come to the gallows), "I'll say that for him," says he, "he always looks
the same way. But I think, of my conscience, it is our only way now."
"Don't tell me," says I, "of being a pirate; we must be pirates, or
anything, to get fairly out of this cursed place."

In a word, they concluded all, by my advice, that our business was to
cruise for anything we could see. "Why then," said I to them, "our first
business is to see if the people upon this island have no navigation,
and what boats they use; and, if they have any better or bigger than
ours, let us take one of them." First, indeed, all our aim was to get,
if possible, a boat with a deck and a sail; for then we might have saved
our provisions, which otherwise we could not.

We had, to our great good fortune, one sailor among us, who had been
assistant to the cook; he told us, that he would find a way how to
preserve our beef without cask or pickle; and this he did effectually
by curing it in the sun, with the help of saltpetre, of which there was
great plenty in the island; so that, before we found any method for our
escape, we had dried the flesh of six or seven cows and bullocks,
and ten or twelve goats, and it relished so well, that we never gave
ourselves the trouble to boil it when we ate it, but either broiled it
or ate it dry. But our main difficulty about fresh water still remained;
for we had no vessel to put any into, much less to keep any for our
going to sea.

But our first voyage being only to coast the island, we resolved to
venture, whatever the hazard or consequence of it might be, and in order
to preserve as much fresh water as we could, our carpenter made a well
athwart the middle of one of our canoes, which he separated from the
other parts of the canoe, so as to make it tight to hold the water and
covered so as we might step upon it; and this was so large that it held
near a hogshead of water very well. I cannot better describe this well
than by the same kind which the small fishing-boats in England have to
preserve their fish alive in; only that this, instead of having holes to
let the salt water in, was made sound every way to keep it out; and it
was the first invention, I believe, of its kind for such an use; but
necessity is a spur to ingenuity and the mother of invention.

It wanted but a little consultation to resolve now upon our voyage. The
first design was only to coast it round the island, as well to see if we
could seize upon any vessel fit to embark ourselves in, as also to take
hold of any opportunity which might present for our passing over to the
main; and therefore our resolution was to go on the inside or west shore
of the island, where, at least at one point, the land stretching a great
way to the north-west, the distance is not extraordinary great from the
island to the coast of Africa.

Such a voyage, and with such a desperate crew, I believe was never made,
for it is certain we took the worst side of the island to look for any
shipping, especially for shipping of other nations, this being quite out
of the way; however, we put to sea, after taking all our provisions and
ammunition, bag and baggage, on board; we had made both mast and sail
for our two large periaguas, and the other we paddled along as well as
we could; but when a gale sprung up, we took her in tow.

We sailed merrily forward for several days, meeting with nothing to
interrupt us. We saw several of the natives in small canoes catching
fish, and sometimes we endeavoured to come near enough to speak with
them, but they were always shy and afraid of us, making in for the
shore as soon as we attempted it; till one of our company remembered the
signal of friendship which the natives made us from the south part of
the island, viz., of setting up a long pole, and put us in mind that
perhaps it was the same thing to them as a flag of truce to us. So we
resolved to try it; and accordingly the next time we saw any of their
fishing-boats at sea we put up a pole in our canoe that had no sail, and
rowed towards them. As soon as they saw the pole they stayed for us, and
as we came nearer paddled towards us; when they came to us they showed
themselves very much pleased, and gave us some large fish, of which we
did not know the names, but they were very good. It was our misfortune
still that we had nothing to give them in return; but our artist, of
whom I spoke before, gave them two little thin plates of silver, beaten,
as I said before, out of a piece of eight; they were cut in a diamond
square, longer one way than the other, and a hole punched at one of the
longest corners. This they were so fond of that they made us stay till
they had cast their lines and nets again, and gave us as many fish as we
cared to have.

All this while we had our eyes upon their boats, viewed them very
narrowly, and examined whether any of them were fit for our turn, but
they were poor, sorry things; their sail was made of a large mat, only
one that was of a piece of cotton stuff fit for little, and their ropes
were twisted flags of no strength; so we concluded we were better as
we were, and let them alone. We went forward to the north, keeping the
coast close on board for twelve days together, and having the wind at
east and E.S.E., we made very fresh way. We saw no towns on the shore,
but often saw some huts by the water-side upon the rocks, and always
abundance of people about them, who we could perceive run together to
stare at us.

It was as odd a voyage as ever man went; we were a little fleet of three
ships, and an army of between twenty and thirty as dangerous fellows as
ever they had amongst them; and had they known what we were, they would
have compounded to give us everything we desired to be rid of us.

On the other hand, we were as miserable as nature could well make us to
be, for we were upon a voyage and no voyage, we were bound somewhere and
nowhere; for though we knew what we intended to do, we did really not
know what we were doing. We went forward and forward by a northerly
course, and as we advanced the heat increased, which began to be
intolerable to us, who were on the water, without any covering from heat
or wet; besides, we were now in the month of October, or thereabouts,
in a southern latitude; and as we went every day nearer the sun, the sun
came also every day nearer to us, till at last we found ourselves in the
latitude of 20 degrees; and having passed the tropic about five or six
days before that, in a few days more the sun would be in the zenith,
just over our heads.

Upon these considerations we resolved to seek for a good place to go on
shore again, and pitch our tents, till the heat of the weather abated.
We had by this time measured half the length of the island, and were
come to that part where the shore tending away to the north-west,
promised fair to make our passage over to the mainland of Africa much
shorter than we expected. But, notwithstanding that, we had good reason
to believe it was about 120 leagues.

So, the heats considered, we resolved to take harbour; besides, our
provisions were exhausted, and we had not many days' store left.
Accordingly, putting in for the shore early in the morning, as we
usually did once in three or four days for fresh water, we sat down and
considered whether we would go on or take up our standing there; but
upon several considerations, too long to repeat here, we did not like
the place, so we resolved to go on a few days longer.

After sailing on N.W. by N. with a fresh gale at S.E., about six days,
we found, at a great distance, a large promontory or cape of land,
pushing out a long way into the sea, and as we were exceeding fond of
seeing what was beyond the cape, we resolved to double it before we took
into harbour, so we kept on our way, the gale continuing, and yet it
was four days more before we reached the cape. But it is not possible
to express the discouragement and melancholy that seized us all when
we came thither; for when we made the headland of the cape, we were
surprised to see the shore fall away on the other side as much as it had
advanced on this side, and a great deal more; and that, in short, if we
would venture over to the shore of Africa, it must be from hence, for
that if we went further, the breadth of the sea still increased, and to
what breadth it might increase we knew not.

While we mused upon this discovery, we were surprised with very bad
weather, and especially violent rains, with thunder and lightning,
most unusually terrible to us. In this pickle we run for the shore, and
getting under the lee of the cape, run our frigates into a little creek,
where we saw the land overgrown with trees, and made all the haste
possible to get on shore, being exceeding wet, and fatigued with the
heat, the thunder, lightning, and rain.

Here we thought our case was very deplorable indeed, and therefore our
artist, of whom I have spoken so often, set up a great cross of wood on
the hill which was within a mile of the headland, with these words, but
in the Portuguese language:--

"Point Desperation. Jesus have mercy."

We set to work immediately to build us some huts, and to get our clothes
dried; and though I was young and had no skill in such things, yet I
shall never forget the little city we built, for it was no less, and we
fortified it accordingly; and the idea is so fresh in my thought, that I
cannot but give a short description of it.

Our camp was on the south side of a little creek on the sea, and under
the shelter of a steep hill, which lay, though on the other side of
the creek, yet within a quarter of a mile of us, N.W. by N., and very
happily intercepted the heat of the sun all the after part of the day.
The spot we pitched on had a little fresh water brook, or a stream
running into the creek by us; and we saw cattle feeding in the plains
and low ground east and to the south of us a great way.

Here we set up twelve little huts like soldiers' tents, but made of the
boughs of trees stuck in the ground, and bound together on the top
with withies, and such other things as we could get; the creek was our
defence on the north, a little brook on the west, and the south and east
sides were fortified with a bank, which entirely covered our huts; and
being drawn oblique from the north-west to the south-east, made our city
a triangle. Behind the bank or line our huts stood, having three other
huts behind them at a good distance. In one of these, which was a little
one, and stood further off, we put our gunpowder, and nothing else, for
fear of danger; in the other, which was bigger, we dressed our victuals,
and put all our necessaries; and in the third, which was biggest of all,
we ate our dinners, called our councils, and sat and diverted ourselves
with such conversation as we had one with another, which was but
indifferent truly at that time.

Our correspondence with the natives was absolutely necessary, and our
artist the cutler having made abundance of those little diamond-cut
squares of silver, with these we made shift to traffic with the black
people for what we wanted; for indeed they were pleased wonderfully with
them, and thus we got plenty of provisions. At first, and in particular,
we got about fifty head of black cattle and goats, and our cook's mate
took care to cure them and dry them, salt and preserve them for our
grand supply; nor was this hard to do, the salt and saltpetre being very
good, and the sun excessively hot; and here we lived about four months.

The southern solstice was over, and the sun gone back towards the
equinoctial, when we considered of our next adventure, which was to go
over the sea of Zanguebar, as the Portuguese call it, and to land, if
possible, upon the continent of Africa.

We talked with many of the natives about it, such as we could make
ourselves intelligible to, but all that we could learn from them was,
that there was a great land of lions beyond the sea, but that it was a
great way off. We knew as well as they that it was a long way, but our
people differed mightily about it; some said it was 150 leagues, others
not above 100. One of our men, that had a map of the world, showed us
by his scale that it was not above eighty leagues. Some said there were
islands all the way to touch at, some that there were no islands at all.
For my own part, I knew nothing of this matter one way or another, but
heard it all without concern, whether it was near or far off; however,
this we learned from an old man who was blind and led about by a boy,
that if we stayed till the end of August, we should be sure of the wind
to be fair and the sea smooth all the voyage.

This was some encouragement; but staying again was very unwelcome news
to us, because that then the sun would be returning again to the south,
which was what our men were very unwilling to. At last we called a
council of our whole body; their debates were too tedious to take notice
of, only to note, that when it came to Captain Bob (for so they called
me ever since I had taken state upon me before one of their great
princes), truly I was on no side; it was not one farthing matter to me,
I told them, whether we went or stayed; I had no home, and all the world
was alike to me; so I left it entirely to them to determine.

In a word, they saw plainly there was nothing to be done where we were
without shipping; that if our business indeed was only to eat and drink,
we could not find a better place in the world; but if our business was
to get away, and get home into our country, we could not find a worse.

I confess I liked the country wonderfully, and even then had strange
notions of coming again to live there; and I used to say to them very
often that if I had but a ship of twenty guns, and a sloop, and both
well manned, I would not desire a better place in the world to make
myself as rich as a king.

But to return to the consultations they were in about going. Upon the
whole, it was resolved to venture over for the main; and venture we did,
madly enough, indeed, for it was the wrong time of the year to undertake
such a voyage in that country; for, as the winds hang easterly all the
months from September to March, so they generally hang westerly all the
rest of the year, and blew right in our teeth; so that, as soon as
we had, with a kind of a land-breeze, stretched over about fifteen or
twenty leagues, and, as I may say, just enough to lose ourselves, we
found the wind set in a steady fresh gale or breeze from the sea, at
west, W.S.W., or S.W. by W., and never further from the west; so that,
in a word, we could make nothing of it.

On the other hand, the vessel, such as we had, would not lie close upon
a wind; if so, we might have stretched away N.N.W., and have met with a
great many islands in our way, as we found afterwards; but we could make
nothing of it, though we tried, and by the trying had almost undone us
all; for, stretching away to the north, as near the wind as we could, we
had forgotten the shape and position of the island of Madagascar itself;
how that we came off at the head of a promontory or point of land, that
lies about the middle of the island, and that stretches out west a great
way into the sea; and that now, being run a matter of forty leagues to
the north, the shore of the island fell off again above 200 miles to the
east, so that we were by this time in the wide ocean, between the island
and the main, and almost 100 leagues from both.

Indeed, as the winds blew fresh at west, as before, we had a smooth sea,
and we found it pretty good going before it, and so, taking our smallest
canoe in tow, we stood in for the shore with all the sail we could make.
This was a terrible adventure, for, if the least gust of wind had come,
we had been all lost, our canoes being deep and in no condition to make
way in a high sea.

This voyage, however, held us eleven days in all; and at length, having
spent most of our provisions, and every drop of water we had, we spied
land, to our great joy, though at the distance of ten or eleven leagues;
and as, under the land, the wind came off like a land-breeze, and blew
hard against us, we were two days more before we reached the shore,
having all that while excessive hot weather, and not a drop of water or
any other liquor, except some cordial waters, which one of our company
had a little of left in a case of bottles.

This gave us a taste of what we should have done if we had ventured
forward with a scant wind and uncertain weather, and gave us a surfeit
of our design for the main, at least until we might have some better
vessels under us; so we went on shore again, and pitched our camp
as before, in as convenient manner as we could, fortifying ourselves
against any surprise; but the natives here were exceeding courteous,
and much more civil than on the south part of the island; and though we
could not understand what they said, or they us, yet we found means to
make them understand that we were seafaring men and strangers, and that
we were in distress for want of provisions.

The first proof we had of their kindness was, that as soon as they saw
us come on shore and begin to make our habitation, one of their captains
or kings, for we knew not what to call them, came down with five or six
men and some women, and brought us five goats and two young fat
steers, and gave them to us for nothing; and when we went to offer them
anything, the captain or the king would not let any of them touch it,
or take anything of us. About two hours after came another king, or
captain, with forty or fifty men after him. We began to be afraid of
him, and laid hands upon our weapons; but he perceiving it, caused two
men to go before him, carrying two long poles in their hands, which they
held upright, as high as they could, which we presently perceived was
a signal of peace; and these two poles they set up afterwards, sticking
them up in the ground; and when the king and his men came to these
two poles, they struck all their lances up in the ground, and came on
unarmed, leaving their lances, as also their bows and arrows, behind
them.

This was to satisfy us that they were come as friends, and we were glad
to see it, for we had no mind to quarrel with them if we could help it.
The captain of this gang seeing some of our men making up their huts,
and that they did it but bunglingly, he beckoned to some of his men to
go and help us. Immediately fifteen or sixteen of them came and mingled
among us, and went to work for us; and indeed, they were better workmen
than we were, for they run up three or four huts for us in a moment, and
much handsomer done than ours.

After this they sent us milk, plantains, pumpkins, and abundance of
roots and greens that were very good, and then took their leave, and
would not take anything from us that we had. One of our men offered the
king or captain of these men a dram, which he drank and was mightily
pleased with it, and held out his hand for another, which we gave him;
and in a word, after this, he hardly failed coming to us two or three
times a week, always bringing us something or other; and one time sent
us seven head of black cattle, some of which we cured and dried as
before.

And here I cannot but remember one thing, which afterwards stood us in
great stead, viz., that the flesh of their goats, and their beef also,
but especially the former, when we had dried and cured it, looked red,
and ate hard and firm, as dried beef in Holland; they were so pleased
with it, and it was such a dainty to them, that at any time after they
would trade with us for it, not knowing, or so much as imagining what it
was; so that for ten or twelve pounds' weight of smoke-dried beef, they
would give us a whole bullock, or cow, or anything else we could desire.

Here we observed two things that were very material to us, even
essentially so; first, we found they had a great deal of earthenware
here, which they made use of many ways as we did; particularly they had
long, deep earthen pots, which they used to sink into the ground, to
keep the water which they drunk cool and pleasant; and the other was,
that they had larger canoes than their neighbours had.

By this we were prompted to inquire if they had no larger vessels than
those we saw there, or if any other of the inhabitants had not such.
They signified presently that they had no larger boats than that they
showed us; but that on the other side of the island they had larger
boats, and that with decks upon them, and large sails; and this made us
resolve to coast round the whole island to see them; so we prepared and
victualled our canoe for the voyage, and, in a word, went to sea for the
third time.

It cost us a month or six weeks' time to perform this voyage, in which
time we went on shore several times for water and provisions, and found
the natives always very free and courteous; but we were surprised one
morning early, being at the extremity of the northernmost part of the
island, when one of our men cried out, "A sail! a sail!" We presently
saw a vessel a great way out at sea; but after we had looked at it with
our perspective glasses, and endeavoured all we could to make out what
it was, we could not tell what to think of it; for it was neither ship,
ketch, galley, galliot, or like anything that we had ever seen before;
all that we could make of it was, that it went from us, standing out to
sea. In a word, we soon lost sight of it, for we were in no condition
to chase anything, and we never saw it again; but, by all that we could
perceive of it, from what we saw of such things afterwards, it was some
Arabian vessel, which had been trading to the coast of Mozambique, or
Zanzibar, the same place where we afterwards went, as you shall hear.

I kept no journal of this voyage, nor indeed did I all this while
understand anything of navigation, more than the common business of a
foremast-man; so I can say nothing to the latitudes or distances of any
places we were at, how long we were going, or how far we sailed in
a day; but this I remember, that being now come round the island, we
sailed up the eastern shore due south, as we had done down the western
shore due north before.

Nor do I remember that the natives differed much from one another,
either in stature or complexion, or in their manners, their habits,
their weapons, or indeed in anything; and yet we could not perceive that
they had any intelligence one with another; but they were extremely kind
and civil to us on this side, as well as on the other.

We continued our voyage south for many weeks, though with several
intervals of going on shore to get provisions and water. At length,
coming round a point of land which lay about a league further than
ordinary into the sea, we were agreeably surprised with a sight which,
no doubt, had been as disagreeable to those concerned, as it was
pleasant to us. This was the wreck of an European ship, which had been
cast away upon the rocks, which in that place run a great way into the
sea.

We could see plainly, at low water, a great deal of the ship lay dry;
even at high water, she was not entirely covered; and that at most she
did not lie above a league from the shore. It will easily be believed
that our curiosity led us, the wind and weather also permitting, to
go directly to her, which we did without any difficulty, and presently
found that it was a Dutch-built ship, and that she could not have been
very long in that condition, a great deal of the upper work of her stern
remaining firm, with the mizzen-mast standing. Her stern seemed to be
jammed in between two ridges of the rock, and so remained fast, all the
fore part of the ship having been beaten to pieces.

We could see nothing to be gotten out of the wreck that was worth our
while; but we resolved to go on shore, and stay some time thereabouts,
to see if perhaps we might get any light into the story of her; and
we were not without hopes that we might hear something more particular
about her men, and perhaps find some of them on shore there, in the same
condition that we were in, and so might increase our company.

It was a very pleasant sight to us when, coming on shore, we saw all
the marks and tokens of a ship-carpenter's yard; as a launch-block and
cradles, scaffolds and planks, and pieces of planks, the remains of
the building a ship or vessel; and, in a word, a great many things
that fairly invited us to go about the same work; and we soon came to
understand that the men belonging to the ship that was lost had saved
themselves on shore, perhaps in their boat, and had built themselves a
barque or sloop, and so were gone to sea again; and, inquiring of the
natives which way they went, they pointed to the south and south-west,
by which we could easily understand they were gone away to the Cape of
Good Hope.

Nobody will imagine we could be so dull as not to gather from hence that
we might take the same method for our escape; so we resolved first, in
general, that we would try if possible to build us a boat of one kind or
other, and go to sea as our fate should direct.

In order to this our first work was to have the two carpenters search
about to see what materials the Dutchmen had left behind them that might
be of use; and, in particular, they found one that was very useful,
and which I was much employed about, and that was a pitch-kettle, and a
little pitch in it.

When we came to set close to this work we found it very laborious and
difficult, having but few tools, no ironwork, no cordage, no sails; so
that, in short, whatever we built, we were obliged to be our own smiths,
rope-makers, sail-makers, and indeed to practise twenty trades that we
knew little or nothing of. However, necessity was the spur to invention,
and we did many things which before we thought impracticable, that is to
say, in our circumstances.

After our two carpenters had resolved upon the dimensions of what they
would build, they set us all to work, to go off in our boats and split
up the wreck of the old ship, and to bring away everything we could; and
particularly that, if possible, we should bring away the mizzen-mast,
which was left standing, which with much difficulty we effected, after
above twenty days' labour of fourteen of our men.

At the same time we got out a great deal of ironwork, as bolts, spikes,
nails, &c., all of which our artist, of whom I have spoken already, who
was now grown a very dexterous smith, made us nails and hinges for our
rudder, and spikes such as we wanted.

But we wanted an anchor, and if we had had an anchor, we could not have
made a cable; so we contented ourselves with making some ropes with the
help of the natives, of such stuff as they made their mats of, and with
these we made such a kind of cable or tow-line as was sufficient to
fasten our vessel to the shore, which we contented ourselves with for
that time.

To be short, we spent four months here, and worked very hard too; at the
end of which time we launched our frigate, which, in a few words, had
many defects, but yet, all things considered, it was as well as we could
expect it to be.

In short, it was a kind of sloop, of the burthen of near eighteen
or twenty tons; and had we had masts and sails, standing and running
rigging, as is usual in such cases, and other conveniences, the vessel
might have carried us wherever we could have had a mind to go; but of
all the materials we wanted, this was the worst, viz., that we had no
tar or pitch to pay the seams and secure the bottom; and though we did
what we could, with tallow and oil, to make a mixture to supply that
part, yet we could not bring it to answer our end fully; and when we
launched her into the water, she was so leaky, and took in the water so
fast, that we thought all our labour had been lost, for we had much ado
to make her swim; and as for pumps, we had none, nor had we any means to
make one.

But at length one of the natives, a black negro-man, showed us a tree,
the wood of which being put into the fire, sends forth a liquid that is
as glutinous and almost as strong as tar, and of which, by boiling, we
made a sort of stuff which served us for pitch, and this answered our
end effectually; for we perfectly made our vessel sound and tight, so
that we wanted no pitch or tar at all. This secret has stood me in stead
upon many occasions since that time in the same place.

Our vessel being thus finished, out of the mizzen-mast of the ship we
made a very good mast to her, and fitted our sails to it as well as we
could; then we made a rudder and tiller, and, in a word, everything that
our present necessity called upon us for; and having victualled her, and
put as much fresh water on board as we thought we wanted, or as we knew
how to stow (for we were yet without casks), we put to sea with a fair
wind.

We had spent near another year in these rambles, and in this piece
of work; for it was now, as our men said, about the beginning of
our February, and the sun went from us apace, which was much to our
satisfaction, for the heats were exceedingly violent. The wind, as I
said, was fair; for, as I have since learned, the winds generally spring
up to the eastward, as the sun goes from them to the north.

Our debate now was, which way we should go, and never were men so
irresolute; some were for going to the east, and stretching away
directly for the coast of Malabar; but others, who considered more
seriously the length of that voyage, shook their heads at the proposal,
knowing very well that neither our provisions, especially of water,
or our vessel, were equal to such a run as that is, of near 2000 miles
without any land to touch at in the way.

These men, too, had all along had a great mind to a voyage for the
mainland of Africa, where they said we should have a fair cast for our
lives, and might be sure to make ourselves rich, which way soever we
went, if we were but able to make our way through, whether by sea or by
land.

Besides, as the case stood with us, we had not much choice for our way;
for, if we had resolved for the east, we were at the wrong season of the
year, and must have stayed till April or May before we had gone to sea.
At length, as we had the wind at S.E. and E.S.E., and fine promising
weather, we came all into the first proposal, and resolved for the coast
of Africa; nor were we long in disputing as to our coasting the island
which we were upon, for we were now upon the wrong side of the island
for the voyage we intended; so we stood away to the north, and, having
rounded the cape, we hauled away southward, under the lee of the island,
thinking to reach the west point of land, which, as I observed before,
runs out so far towards the coast of Africa, as would have shortened our
run almost 100 leagues. But when we had sailed about thirty leagues, we
found the winds variable under the shore, and right against us, so we
concluded to stand over directly, for then we had the wind fair, and our
vessel was but very ill fated to lie near the wind, or any way indeed
but just before it.

Having resolved upon it, therefore, we put into the shore to furnish
ourselves again with fresh water and other provisions, and about the
latter end of March, with more courage than discretion, more resolution
than judgment, we launched for the main coast of Africa.

As for me, I had no anxieties about it, so that we had but a view of
reaching some land or other, I cared not what or where it was to be,
having at this time no views of what was before me, nor much thought of
what might or might not befall me; but with as little consideration as
any one can be supposed to have at my age, I consented to everything
that was proposed, however hazardous the thing itself, however
improbable the success.

The voyage, as it was undertaken with a great deal of ignorance and
desperation, so really it was not carried on with much resolution or
judgment; for we knew no more of the course we were to steer than this,
that it was anywhere about the west, within two or three points N. or
S., and as we had no compass with us but a little brass pocket compass,
which one of our men had more by accident than otherwise, so we could
not be very exact in our course.

However, as it pleased God that the wind continued fair at S.E. and by
E., we found that N.W. by W., which was right afore it, was as good a
course for us as any we could go, and thus we went on.

The voyage was much longer than we expected; our vessel also, which had
no sail that was proportioned to her, made but very little way in the
sea, and sailed heavily. We had, indeed, no great adventures happened
in this voyage, being out of the way of everything that could offer to
divert us; and as for seeing any vessel, we had not the least occasion
to hail anything in all the voyage; for we saw not one vessel, small
or great, the sea we were upon being entirely out of the way of all
commerce; for the people of Madagascar knew no more of the shores of
Africa than we did, only that there was a country of lions, as they call
it, that way.

We had been eight or nine days under sail, with a fair wind, when, to
our great joy, one of our men cried out "Land!" We had great reason to
be glad of the discovery, for we had not water enough left for above two
or three days more, though at a short allowance. However, though it was
early in the morning when we discovered it, we made it near night before
we reached it, the wind slackening almost to a calm, and our ship being,
as I said, a very dull sailer.

We were sadly baulked upon our coming to the land, when we found that,
instead of the mainland of Africa, it was only a little island, with no
inhabitants upon it, at least none that we could find; nor any cattle,
except a few goats, of which we killed three only. However, they served
us for fresh meat, and we found very good water; and it was fifteen days
more before we reached the main, which, however, at last we arrived at,
and which was most essential to us, as we came to it just as all our
provisions were spent. Indeed, we may say they were spent first, for we
had but a pint of water a day to each man for the last two days. But, to
our great joy, we saw the land, though at a great distance, the evening
before, and by a pleasant gale in the night were by morning within two
leagues of the shore.

We never scrupled going ashore at the first place we came at, though,
had we had patience, we might have found a very fine river a little
farther north. However, we kept our frigate on float by the help of two
great poles, which we fastened into the ground to moor her, like poles;
and the little weak ropes, which, as I said, we had made of matting,
served us well enough to make the vessel fast.

As soon as we had viewed the country a little, got fresh water, and
furnished ourselves with some victuals, which we found very scarce here,
we went on board again with our stores. All we got for provision was
some fowls that we killed, and a kind of wild buffalo or bull, very
small, but good meat; I say, having got these things on board, we
resolved to sail along the coast, which lay N.N.E., till we found some
creek or river, that we might run up into the country, or some town
or people; for we had reason enough to know the place was inhabited,
because we several times saw fires in the night, and smoke in the day,
every way at a distance from us.

At length we came to a very large bay, and in it several little creeks
or rivers emptying themselves into the sea, and we ran boldly into the
first creek we came at; where, seeing some huts and wild people about
them on the shore, we ran our vessel into a little cove on the north
side of the creek, and held up a long pole, with a white bit of cloth
on it, for a signal of peace to them. We found they understood us
presently, for they came flocking to us, men, women, and children, most
of them, of both sexes, stark naked. At first they stood wondering
and staring at us, as if we had been monsters, and as if they had been
frighted; but we found they inclined to be familiar with us afterwards.
The first thing we did to try them, was, we held up our hands to our
mouths, as if we were to drink, signifying that we wanted water. This
they understood presently, and three of their women and two boys ran
away up the land, and came back in about half a quarter of an hour, with
several pots, made of earth, pretty enough, and baked, I suppose, in
the sun; these they brought us full of water, and set them down near the
sea-shore, and there left them, going back a little, that we might fetch
them, which we did.

Some time after this, they brought us roots and herbs, and some fruits
which I cannot remember, and gave us; but as we had nothing to give
them, we found them not so free as the people in Madagascar were.
However, our cutler went to work, and, as he had saved some iron out
of the wreck of the ship, he made abundance of toys, birds, dogs, pins,
hooks, and rings; and we helped to file them, and make them bright for
him, and when we gave them some of these, they brought us all sorts of
provisions they had, such as goats, hogs, and cows, and we got victuals
enough.

We were now landed upon the continent of Africa, the most desolate,
desert, and inhospitable country in the world, even Greenland and Nova
Zembla itself not excepted, with this difference only, that even the
worst part of it we found inhabited, though, taking the nature and
quality of some of the inhabitants, it might have been much better to us
if there had been none.

And, to add to the exclamation I am making on the nature of the place,
it was here that we took one of the rashest, and wildest, and most
desperate resolutions that ever was taken by man, or any number of men,
in the world; this was, to travel overland through the heart of the
country, from the coast of Mozambique, on the east ocean, to the coast
of Angola or Guinea, on the western or Atlantic Ocean, a continent of
land of at least 1800 miles, in which journey we had excessive heats to
support, unpassable deserts to go over, no carriages, camels, or beasts
of any kind to carry our baggage, innumerable numbers of wild and
ravenous beasts to encounter with, such as lions, leopards, tigers,
lizards, and elephants; we had the equinoctial line to pass under, and,
consequently, were in the very centre of the torrid zone; we had nations
of savages to encounter with, barbarous and brutish to the last degree;
hunger and thirst to struggle with, and, in one word, terrors enough to
have daunted the stoutest hearts that ever were placed in cases of flesh
and blood.

Yet, fearless of all these, we resolved to adventure, and accordingly
made such preparations for our journey as the place we were in would
allow us, and such as our little experience of the country seemed to
dictate to us.

It had been some time already that we had been used to tread barefooted
upon the rocks, the gravel, the grass, and the sand on the shore; but as
we found the worst thing for our feet was the walking or travelling on
the dry burning sands, within the country, so we provided ourselves with
a sort of shoes, made of the skins of wild beasts, with the hair inward,
and being dried in the sun, the outsides were thick and hard, and would
last a great while. In short, as I called them, so I think the term very
proper still, we made us gloves for our feet, and we found them very
convenient and very comfortable.

We conversed with some of the natives of the country, who were friendly
enough. What tongue they spoke I do not yet pretend to know. We
talked as far as we could make them understand us, not only about our
provisions, but also about our undertaking, and asked them what country
lay that way, pointing west with our hands. They told us but little to
our purpose, only we thought, by all their discourse, that there were
people to be found, of one sort or other, everywhere; that there were
many great rivers, many lions and tigers, elephants, and furious wild
cats (which in the end we found to be civet cats), and the like.

When we asked them if any one had ever travelled that way, they told
us yes, some had gone to where the sun sleeps, meaning to the west, but
they could not tell us who they were. When we asked for some to guide
us, they shrunk up their shoulders as Frenchmen do when they are afraid
to undertake a thing. When we asked them about the lions and wild
creatures, they laughed, and let us know that they would do us no hurt,
and directed us to a good way indeed to deal with them, and that was to
make some fire, which would always fright them away; and so indeed we
found it.

Upon these encouragements we resolved upon our journey, and many
considerations put us upon it, which, had the thing itself been
practicable, we were not so much to blame for as it might otherwise be
supposed; I will name some of them, not to make the account too tedious.

First, we were perfectly destitute of means to work about our own
deliverance any other way; we were on shore in a place perfectly remote
from all European navigation; so that we could never think of being
relieved, and fetched off by any of our own countrymen in that part of
the world. Secondly, if we had adventured to have sailed on along the
coast of Mozambique, and the desolate shores of Africa to the north,
till we came to the Red Sea, all we could hope for there was to be taken
by the Arabs, and be sold for slaves to the Turks, which to all of us
was little better than death. We could not build anything of a vessel
that would carry us over the great Arabian Sea to India, nor could we
reach the Cape de Bona Speranza, the winds being too variable, and the
sea in that latitude too tempestuous; but we all knew, if we could cross
this continent of land, we might reach some of the great rivers that run
into the Atlantic Ocean; and that, on the banks of any of those rivers,
we might there build us canoes which would carry us down, if it were
thousands of miles, so that we could want nothing but food, of which we
were assured we might kill sufficient with our guns; and to add to the
satisfaction of our deliverance, we concluded we might, every one of
us, get a quantity of gold, which, if we came safe, would infinitely
recompense us for our toil.

I cannot say that in all our consultations I ever began to enter into
the weight and merit of any enterprise we went upon till now. My view
before was, as I thought, very good, viz., that we should get into the
Arabian Gulf, or the mouth of the Red Sea; and waiting for some vessel
passing or repassing there, of which there is plenty, have seized upon
the first we came at by force, and not only have enriched ourselves with
her cargo, but have carried ourselves to what part of the world we had
pleased; but when they came to talk to me of a march of 2000 or 3000
miles on foot, of wandering in deserts among lions and tigers, I confess
my blood ran chill, and I used all the arguments I could to persuade
them against it.

But they were all positive, and I might as well have held my tongue; so
I submitted, and told them I would keep to our first law, to be governed
by the majority, and we resolved upon our journey. The first thing we
did was to take an observation, and see whereabouts in the world we
were, which we did, and found we were in the latitude of 12 degrees 35
minutes south of the line. The next thing was to look on the charts, and
see the coast of the country we aimed at, which we found to be from 8 to
11 degrees south latitude, if we went for the coast of Angola, or in 12
to 29 degrees north latitude, if we made for the river Niger, and the
coast of Guinea.

Our aim was for the coast of Angola, which, by the charts we had, lying
very near the same latitude we were then in, our course thither was due
west; and as we were assured we should meet with rivers, we doubted not
but that by their help we might ease our journey, especially if we could
find means to cross the great lake, or inland sea, which the natives
call Coalmucoa, out of which it is said the river Nile has its source
or beginning; but we reckoned without our host, as you will see in the
sequel of our story.

The next thing we had to consider was, how to carry our baggage, which
we were first of all determined not to travel without; neither indeed
was it possible for us to do so, for even our ammunition, which was
absolutely necessary to us, and on which our subsistence, I mean for
food, as well as our safety, and particularly our defence against wild
beasts and wild men, depended,--I say, even our ammunition was a load
too heavy for us to carry in a country where the heat was such that we
should be load enough for ourselves.

We inquired in the country, and found there was no beast of burthen
known among them, that is to say, neither horses or mules, or asses,
camels, or dromedaries; the only creature they had was a kind of
buffalo, or tame bull, such a one as we had killed; and that some of
these they had brought so to their hand, that they taught them to go and
come with their voices, as they called them to them, or sent them from
them; that they made them carry burthens; and particularly that they
would swim over rivers and lakes upon them, the creatures swimming very
high and strong in the water.

But we understood nothing of the management of guiding such a
creature, or how to bind a burthen upon them; and this last part of our
consultation puzzled us extremely. At last I proposed a method for them,
which, after some consideration, they found very convenient; and this
was, to quarrel with some of the negro natives, take ten or twelve of
them prisoners, and binding them as slaves, cause them to travel with
us, and make them carry our baggage; which I alleged would be convenient
and useful many ways as well to show us the way, as to converse with
other natives for us.

This counsel was not accepted at first, but the natives soon gave them
reason to approve it, and also gave them an opportunity to put it in
practice; for, as our little traffic with the natives was hitherto upon
the faith of their first kindness, we found some knavery among them at
last; for having bought some cattle of them for our toys, which, as
I said, our cutler had contrived, one of our men differing with his
chapman, truly they huffed him in their manner, and, keeping the things
he had offered them for the cattle, made their fellows drive away the
cattle before his face, and laugh at him. Our man crying out loud of
this violence, and calling to some of us who were not far off, the negro
he was dealing with threw a lance at him, which came so true, that, if
he had not with great agility jumped aside, and held up his hand also
to turn the lance as it came, it had struck through his body; and, as it
was, it wounded him in the arm; at which the man, enraged, took up his
fuzee, and shot the negro through the heart.

The others that were near him, and all those that were with us at
a distance, were so terribly frighted, first, at the flash of fire;
secondly, at the noise; and thirdly, at seeing their countryman killed,
that they stood like men stupid and amazed, at first, for some time; but
after they were a little recovered from their fright, one of them, at a
good distance from us, set up a sudden screaming noise, which, it
seems, is the noise they make when they go to fight; and all the rest
understanding what he meant, answered him, and ran together to the place
where he was, and we not knowing what it meant, stood still, looking
upon one another like a parcel of fools.

But we were presently undeceived; for, in two or three minutes more,
we heard the screaming roaring noise go on from one place to another,
through all their little towns; nay, even over the creek to the other
side; and, on a sudden, we saw a naked multitude running from all parts
to the place where the first man began it, as to a rendezvous; and, in
less than an hour, I believe there was near 500 of them gotten together,
armed some with bows and arrows, but most with lances, which they throw
at a good distance, so nicely that they will strike a bird flying.

We had but a very little time for consultation, for the multitude was
increasing every moment; and I verily believe, if we had stayed long,
they would have been 10,000 together in a little time. We had nothing
to do, therefore, but to fly to our ship or bark, where indeed we could
have defended ourselves very well, or to advance and try what a volley
or two of small shot would do for us.

We resolved immediately upon the latter, depending upon it that the fire
and terror of our shot would soon put them to flight; so we drew up all
in a line, and marched boldly up to them. They stood ready to meet us,
depending, I suppose, to destroy us all with their lances; but before
we came near enough for them to throw their lances, we halted, and,
standing at a good distance from one another, to stretch our line as far
as we could, we gave them a salute with our shot, which, besides what we
wounded that we knew not of, knocked sixteen of them down upon the spot,
and three more were so lamed, that they fell about twenty or thirty
yards from them.

As soon as we had fired, they set up the horridest yell, or howling,
partly raised by those that were wounded, and partly by those that
pitied and condoled the bodies they saw lie dead, that I never heard
anything like it before or since.

We stood stock still after we had fired, to load our guns again, and
finding they did not stir from the place we fired among them again; we
killed about nine of them at the second fire; but as they did not stand
so thick as before, all our men did not fire, seven of us being ordered
to reserve our charge, and to advance as soon as the other had fired,
while the rest loaded again; of which I shall speak again presently.

As soon as we had fired the second volley, we shouted as loud as we
could, and the seven men advanced upon them, and, coming about twenty
yards nearer, fired again, and those that were behind having loaded
again with all expedition, followed; but when they saw us advance, they
ran screaming away as if they were bewitched.

When we came up to the field of battle, we saw a great number of bodies
lying upon the ground, many more than we could suppose were killed or
wounded; nay, more than we had bullets in our pieces when we fired; and
we could not tell what to make of it; but at length we found how it
was, viz., that they were frighted out of all manner of sense; nay, I do
believe several of those that were really dead, were frighted to death,
and had no wound about them.

Of those that were thus frighted, as I have said, several of them, as
they recovered themselves, came and worshipped us (taking us for gods or
devils, I know not which, nor did it much matter to us): some kneeling,
some throwing themselves flat on the ground, made a thousand antic
gestures, but all with tokens of the most profound submission. It
presently came into my head, that we might now, by the law of arms, take
as many prisoners as we would, and make them travel with us, and carry
our baggage. As soon as I proposed it, our men were all of my mind; and
accordingly we secured about sixty lusty young fellows, and let them
know they must go with us; which they seemed very willing to do. But
the next question we had among ourselves, was, how we should do to trust
them, for we found the people not like those of Madagascar, but fierce,
revengeful, and treacherous; for which reason we were sure that we
should have no service from them but that of mere slaves; no subjection
that would continue any longer than the fear of us was upon them, nor
any labour but by violence.

Before I go any farther, I must hint to the reader, that from this time
forward I began to enter a little more seriously into the circumstance
I was in, and concerned myself more in the conduct of our affairs; for
though my comrades were all older men, yet I began to find them void of
counsel, or, as I now call it, presence of mind, when they came to the
execution of a thing. The first occasion I took to observe this, was in
their late engagement with the natives, when, though they had taken a
good resolution to attack them and fire upon them, yet, when they had
fired the first time, and found that the negroes did not run as they
expected, their hearts began to fail, and I am persuaded, if their bark
had been near hand, they would every man have run away.

Upon this occasion I began to take upon me a little to hearten them
up, and to call upon them to load again, and give them another volley,
telling them that I would engage, if they would be ruled by me, I'd make
the negroes run fast enough. I found this heartened them, and therefore,
when they fired a second time, I desired them to reserve some of their
shot for an attempt by itself, as I mentioned above.

Having fired a second time, I was indeed forced to command, as I may
call it. "Now, seigniors," said I, "let us give them a cheer." So I
opened my throat, and shouted three times, as our English sailors do on
like occasions. "And now follow me," said I to the seven that had not
fired, "and I'll warrant you we will make work with them," and so it
proved indeed; for, as soon as they saw us coming, away they ran, as
above.

From this day forward they would call me nothing but Seignior Capitanio;
but I told them I would not be called seignior. "Well, then," said the
gunner, who spoke good English, "you shall be called Captain Bob;" and
so they gave me my title ever after.

Nothing is more certain of the Portuguese than this, take them
nationally or personally, if they are animated and heartened up by
anybody to go before, and encourage them by example, they will behave
well enough; but if they have nothing but their own measures to follow,
they sink immediately: these men had certainly fled from a parcel of
naked savages, though even by flying they could not have saved their
lives, if I had not shouted and hallooed, and rather made sport with the
thing than a fight, to keep up their courage.

Nor was there less need of it upon several occasions hereafter; and I do
confess I have often wondered how a number of men, who, when they came
to the extremity, were so ill supported by their own spirits, had
at first courage to propose and to undertake the most desperate and
impracticable attempt that ever men went about in the world.

There were indeed two or three indefatigable men among them, by whose
courage and industry all the rest were upheld; and indeed those two or
three were the managers of them from the beginning; that was the gunner,
and that cutler whom I call the artist; and the third, who was pretty
well, though not like either of them, was one of the carpenters. These
indeed were the life and soul of all the rest, and it was to their
courage that all the rest owed the resolution they showed upon any
occasion. But when those saw me take a little upon me, as above, they
embraced me, and treated me with particular affection ever after.

This gunner was an excellent mathematician, a good scholar, and a
complete sailor; and it was in conversing intimately with him that I
learned afterwards the grounds of what knowledge I have since had in all
the sciences useful for navigation, and particularly in the geographical
part of knowledge.

Even in our conversation, finding me eager to understand and learn, he
laid the foundation of a general knowledge of things in my mind, gave
me just ideas of the form of the earth and of the sea, the situation of
countries, the course of rivers, the doctrine of the spheres, the motion
of the stars; and, in a word, taught me a kind of system of astronomy,
which I afterwards improved.

In an especial manner, he filled my head with aspiring thoughts, and
with an earnest desire after learning everything that could be taught
me; convincing me, that nothing could qualify me for great undertakings,
but a degree of learning superior to what was usual in the race of
seamen; he told me, that to be ignorant was to be certain of a
mean station in the world, but that knowledge was the first step to
preferment. He was always flattering me with my capacity to learn; and
though that fed my pride, yet, on the other hand, as I had a secret
ambition, which just at that time fed itself in my mind, it prompted in
me an insatiable thirst after learning in general, and I resolved, if
ever I came back to Europe, and had anything left to purchase it, I
would make myself master of all the parts of learning needful to
the making of me a complete sailor; but I was not so just to myself
afterwards as to do it when I had an opportunity.

But to return to our business; the gunner, when he saw the service I
had done in the fight, and heard my proposal for keeping a number of
prisoners for our march, and for carrying our baggage, turns to me
before them all. "Captain Bob," says he, "I think you must be our
leader, for all the success of this enterprise is owing to you." "No,
no," said I, "do not compliment me; you shall be our Seignior Capitanio,
you shall be general; I am too young for it." So, in short, we all
agreed he should be our leader; but he would not accept of it alone, but
would have me joined with him; and all the rest agreeing, I was obliged
to comply.

The first piece of service they put me upon in this new command was
as difficult as any they could think of, and that was to manage the
prisoners; which, however, I cheerfully undertook, as you shall hear
presently. But the immediate consultation was yet of more consequence;
and that was, first, which way we should go; and secondly, how to
furnish ourselves for the voyage with provisions.

There was among the prisoners one tall, well-shaped, handsome fellow,
to whom the rest seemed to pay great respect, and who, as we understood
afterwards, was the son of one of their kings; his father was, it seems,
killed at our first volley, and he wounded with a shot in his arm, and
with another just on one of his hips or haunches. The shot in his haunch
being in a fleshy part, bled much, and he was half dead with the loss of
blood. As to the shot in his arm, it had broke his wrist, and he was by
both these wounds quite disabled, so that we were once going to turn him
away, and let him die; and, if we had, he would have died indeed in a
few days more: but, as I found the man had some respect showed him, it
presently occurred to my thoughts that we might bring him to be useful
to us, and perhaps make him a kind of commander over them. So I caused
our surgeon to take him in hand, and gave the poor wretch good words,
that is to say, I spoke to him as well as I could by signs, to make him
understand that we would make him well again.

This created a new awe in their minds of us, believing that, as we could
kill at a distance by something invisible to them (for so our shot was,
to be sure), so we could make them well again too. Upon this the young
prince (for so we called him afterwards) called six or seven of the
savages to him, and said something to them; what it was we know not, but
immediately all the seven came to me, and kneeled down to me, holding up
their hands, and making signs of entreaty, pointing to the place where
one of those lay whom we had killed.

It was a long time before I or any of us could understand them; but one
of them ran and lifted up a dead man, pointing to his wound, which was
in his eyes, for he was shot into the head at one of his eyes. Then
another pointed to the surgeon, and at last we found it out, that the
meaning was, that he should heal the prince's father too, who was dead,
being shot through the head, as above.

We presently took the hint, and would not say we could not do it, but
let them know, the men that were killed were those that had first fallen
upon us, and provoked us, and we would by no means make them alive
again; and that, if any others did so, we would kill them too, and never
let them live any more: but that, if he (the prince) would be willing
to go with us, and do as we should direct him, we would not let him die,
and would make his arm well. Upon this he bid his men go and fetch a
long stick or staff, and lay on the ground. When they brought it, we saw
it was an arrow; he took it with his left hand (for his other was lame
with the wound), and, pointing up at the sun, broke the arrow in two,
and set the point against his breast, and then gave it to me. This was,
as I understood afterwards, wishing the sun, whom they worship, might
shoot him into the breast with an arrow, if ever he failed to be my
friend; and giving the point of the arrow to me was to be a testimony
that I was the man he had sworn to: and never was Christian more
punctual to an oath than he was to this, for he was a sworn servant to
us for many a weary month after that.

When I brought him to the surgeon, he immediately dressed the wound in
his haunch or buttock, and found the bullet had only grazed upon the
flesh, and passed, as it were, by it, but it was not lodged in the part,
so that it was soon healed and well again; but, as to his arm, he found
one of the bones broken, which are in the fore-part from the wrist to
the elbow; and this he set, and splintered it up, and bound his arm in a
sling, hanging it about his neck, and making signs to him that he should
not stir it; which he was so strict an observer of, that he set him
down, and never moved one way or other but as the surgeon gave him
leave.

I took a great deal of pains to acquaint this negro what we intended
to do, and what use we intended to make of his men; and particularly
to teach him the meaning of what we said, especially to teach him some
words, such as yes and no, and what they meant, and to inure him to
our way of talking; and he was very willing and apt to learn anything I
taught him.

It was easy to let him see that we intended to carry our provision with
us from the first day; but he made signs to us to tell us we need not,
for we should find provision enough everywhere for forty days. It was
very difficult for us to understand how he expressed forty; for he
knew no figures, but some words that they used to one another that they
understood it by. At last one of the negroes, by his order, laid forty
little stones one by another, to show us how many days we should travel,
and find provisions sufficient.

Then I showed him our baggage, which was very heavy, particularly our
powder, shot, lead, iron, carpenters' tools, seamen's instruments, cases
of bottles, and other lumber. He took some of the things up in his hand
to feel the weight, and shook his head at them; so I told our people
they must resolve to divide their things into small parcels, and make
them portable; and accordingly they did so, by which means we were fain
to leave all our chests behind us, which were eleven in number.

Then he made signs to us that he would procure some buffaloes, or young
bulls, as I called them, to carry things for us, and made signs, too,
that if we were weary, we might be carried too; but that we slighted,
only were willing to have the creatures, because, at last, when they
could serve us no farther for carriage, we might eat them all up if we
had any occasion for them.

I then carried him to our bark, and showed him what things we had here.
He seemed amazed at the sight of our bark, having never seen anything
of that kind before, for their boats are most wretched things, such as
I never saw before, having no head or stern, and being made only of the
skins of goats, sewed together with dried guts of goats and sheep, and
done over with a kind of slimy stuff like rosin and oil, but of a most
nauseous, odious smell; and they are poor miserable things for boats,
the worst that any part of the world ever saw; a canoe is an excellent
contrivance compared to them.

But to return to our boat. We carried our new prince into it, and helped
him over the side, because of his lameness. We made signs to him that
his men must carry our goods for us, and showed him what we had; he
answered, "Si, Seignior," or, "Yes, sir" (for we had taught him that
word and the meaning of it), and taking up a bundle, he made signs to
us, that when his arm was well he would carry some for us.

I made signs again to tell him, that if he would make his men carry
them, we would not let him carry anything. We had secured all the
prisoners in a narrow place, where we had bound them with mat cords, and
set up stakes like a palisado round them; so, when we carried the prince
on shore, we went with him to them, and made signs to him to ask them if
they were willing to go with us to the country of lions. Accordingly he
made a long speech to them, and we could understand by it that he told
them, if they were willing, they must say, "Si, Seignior," telling
them what it signified. They immediately answered, "Si, Seignior," and
clapped their hands, looking up to the sun, which, the prince signified
to us, was swearing to be faithful. But as soon as they had said so, one
of them made a long speech to the prince; and in it we perceived, by his
gestures, which were very antic, that they desired something from us,
and that they were in great concern about it. So I asked him, as well as
I could, what it was they desired of us; he told us by signs that they
desired we should clap our hands to the sun (that was, to swear) that we
would not kill them, that we would give them chiaruck, that is to say,
bread, would not starve them, and would not let the lions eat them.
I told him we would promise all that; then he pointed to the sun, and
clapped his hands, signing to me that I should do so too, which I did;
at which all the prisoners fell flat on the ground, and rising up again,
made the oddest, wildest cries that ever I heard.

I think it was the first time in my life that ever any religious thought
affected me; but I could not refrain some reflections, and almost tears,
in considering how happy it was that I was not born among such creatures
as these, and was not so stupidly ignorant and barbarous; but this soon
went off again, and I was not troubled again with any qualms of that
sort for a long time after.

When this ceremony was over, our concern was to get some provisions,
as well for the present subsistence of our prisoners as ourselves; and
making signs to our prince that we were thinking upon that subject, he
made signs to me that, if I would let one of the prisoners go to his
town, he should bring provisions, and should bring some beasts to carry
our baggage. I seemed loth to trust him, and supposing that he would
run away, he made great signs of fidelity, and with his own hands tied a
rope about his neck, offering me one end of it, intimating that I should
hang him if the man did not come again. So I consented, and he gave him
abundance of instructions, and sent him away, pointing to the light of
the sun, which it seems was to tell him at what time he must be back.

The fellow ran as if he was mad, and held it till he was quite out of
sight, by which I supposed he had a great way to go. The next morning,
about two hours before the time appointed, the black prince, for so I
always called him, beckoning with his hand to me, and hallooing after
his manner, desired me to come to him, which I did, when, pointing to a
little hill about two miles off, I saw plainly a little drove of cattle,
and several people with them; those, he told me by signs, were the man
he had sent, and several more with him, and cattle for us.

Accordingly, by the time appointed, he came quite to our huts, and
brought with him a great many cows, young runts, about sixteen goats,
and four young bulls, taught to carry burthens.

This was a supply of provisions sufficient; as for bread, we were
obliged to shift with some roots which we had made use of before. We
then began to consider of making some large bags like the soldiers'
knapsacks, for their men to carry our baggage in, and to make it easy
to them; and the goats being killed, I ordered the skins to be spread
in the sun, and they were as dry in two days as could be desired; so we
found means to make such little bags as we wanted, and began to divide
our baggage into them. When the black prince found what they were for,
and how easy they were of carriage when we put them on, he smiled a
little, and sent away the man again to fetch skins, and he brought two
natives more with him, all loaded with skins better cured than ours, and
of other kinds, such as we could not tell what names to give them.

These two men brought the black prince two lances, of the sort they use
in their fights, but finer than ordinary, being made of black smooth
wood, as fine as ebony, and headed at the point with the end of a long
tooth of some creature--we could not tell of what creature; the head was
so firm put on, and the tooth so strong, though no bigger than my thumb,
and sharp at the end, that I never saw anything like it in any place in
the world.

The prince would not take them till I gave him leave, but made signs
that they should give them to me; however, I gave him leave to take them
himself, for I saw evident signs of an honourable just principle in him.

We now prepared for our march, when the prince coming to me, and
pointing towards the several quarters of the world, made signs to know
which way we intended to go; and when I showed him, pointing to the
west, he presently let me know there was a great river a little further
to the north, which was able to carry our bark many leagues into the
country due west. I presently took the hint, and inquired for the mouth
of the river, which I understood by him was above a day's march, and, by
our estimation, we found it about seven leagues further. I take this to
be the great river marked by our chart-makers at the northmost part of
the coast of Mozambique, and called there Quilloa.

Consulting thus with ourselves, we resolved to take the prince, and as
many of the prisoners as we could stow in our frigate, and go about
by the bay into the river; and that eight of us, with our arms, should
march by land to meet them on the river side; for the prince, carrying
us to a rising ground, had showed us the river very plain, a great way
up the country, and in one place it was not above six miles to it.

It was my lot to march by land, and be captain of the whole caravan.
I had eight of our men with me, and seven-and-thirty of our prisoners,
without any baggage, for all our luggage was yet on board. We drove the
young bulls with us; nothing was ever so tame, so willing to work, or
carry anything. The negroes would ride upon them four at a time, and
they would go very willingly. They would eat out of our hand, lick our
feet, and were as tractable as a dog.

We drove with us six or seven cows for food; but our negroes knew
nothing of curing the flesh by salting and drying it till we showed them
the way, and then they were mighty willing to do so as long as we had
any salt to do it with, and to carry salt a great way too, after we
found we should have no more.

It was an easy march to the river side for us that went by land, and
we came thither in a piece of a day, being, as above, no more than six
English miles; whereas it was no less than five days before they came
to us by water, the wind in the bay having failed them, and the way, by
reason of a great turn or reach in the river, being about fifty miles
about.

We spent this time in a thing which the two strangers, which brought the
prince the two lances, put into the head of the prisoners, viz., to make
bottles of the goats' skins to carry fresh water in, which it seems they
knew we should come to want; and the men did it so dexterously, having
dried skins fetched them by those two men, that before our vessel came
up, they had every man a pouch like a bladder, to carry fresh water in,
hanging over their shoulders by a thong made of other skins, about three
inches broad, like the sling of a fuzee.

Our prince, to assure us of the fidelity of the men in this march,
had ordered them to be tied two and two by the wrist, as we handcuff
prisoners in England; and made them so sensible of the reasonableness of
it, that he made them do it themselves, appointing four of them to bind
the rest; but we found them so honest, and particularly so obedient
to him, that after we were gotten a little further off of their own
country, we set them at liberty, though, when he came to us, he would
have them tied again, and they continued so a good while.

All the country on the bank of the river was a high land, no marshy
swampy ground in it; the verdure good, and abundance of cattle feeding
upon it wherever we went, or which way soever we looked; there was
not much wood indeed, at least not near us; but further up we saw oak,
cedar, and pine-trees, some of which were very large.

The river was a fair open channel, about as broad as the Thames below
Gravesend, and a strong tide of flood, which we found held us about
sixty miles; the channel deep, nor did we find any want of water for a
great way. In short, we went merrily up the river with the flood and
the wind blowing still fresh at E. and E.N.E. We stemmed the ebb easily
also, especially while the river continued broad and deep; but when we
came past the swelling of the tide, and had the natural current of the
river to go against, we found it too strong for us, and began to think
of quitting our bark; but the prince would by no means agree to that,
for, finding we had on board pretty good store of roping made of mats
and flags, which I described before, he ordered all the prisoners which
were on shore to come and take hold of those ropes, and tow us along by
the shore side; and as we hoisted our sail too, to ease them, the men
ran along with us at a very great rate.

In this manner the river carried us up, by our computation, near 200
miles, and then it narrowed apace, and was not above as broad as the
Thames is at Windsor, or thereabouts; and, after another day, we came
to a great waterfall or cataract, enough to fright us, for I believe the
whole body of water fell at once perpendicularly down a precipice
above sixty foot high, which made noise enough to deprive men of their
hearing, and we heard it above ten miles before we came to it.

Here we were at a full stop, and now our prisoners went first on shore;
they had worked very hard and very cheerfully, relieving one another,
those that were weary being taken into the bark. Had we had canoes or
any boats which might have been carried by men's strength we might have
gone two hundred miles more up this river in small boats, but our great
boat could go no farther.

All this way the country looked green and pleasant, and was full of
cattle, and some people we saw, though not many; but this we observed
now, that the people did no more understand our prisoners here than
we could understand them; being, it seems, of different nations and of
different speech. We had yet seen no wild beasts, or, at least, none
that came very near us, except two days before we came to the waterfall,
when we saw three of the most beautiful leopards that ever were seen,
standing upon the bank of the river on the north side, our prisoners
being all on the other side of the water. Our gunner espied them first,
and ran to fetch his gun, putting a ball extraordinary in it; and coming
to me, "Now, Captain Bob," says he, "where is your prince?" So I called
him out. "Now," says he, "tell your men not to be afraid; tell them they
shall see that thing in his hand speak in fire to one of those beasts,
and make it kill itself."

The poor negroes looked as if they had been all going to be killed,
notwithstanding what their prince said to them, and stood staring to
expect the issue, when on a sudden the gunner fired; and as he was a
very good marksman, he shot the creature with two slugs, just in the
head. As soon as the leopard felt herself struck, she reared up on her
two hind-legs, bolt upright, and throwing her forepaws about in the air,
fell backward, growling and struggling, and immediately died; the other
two, frighted with the fire and the noise, fled, and were out of sight
in an instant.

But the two frighted leopards were not in half the consternation that
our prisoners were; four or five of them fell down as if they had been
shot; several others fell on their knees, and lifted up their hands to
us; whether to worship us, or pray us not to kill them, we did not know;
but we made signs to their prince to encourage them, which he did, but
it was with much ado that he brought them to their senses. Nay, the
prince, notwithstanding all that was said to prepare him for it, yet
when the piece went off, he gave a start as if he would have leaped into
the river.

When we saw the creature killed, I had a great mind to have the skin of
her, and made signs to the prince that he should send some of his men
over to take the skin off. As soon as he spoke but a word, four of them,
that offered themselves, were untied, and immediately they jumped into
the river, and swam over, and went to work with him. The prince having a
knife that we gave him, made four wooden knives so clever, that I never
saw anything like them in my life; and in less than an hour's time they
brought me the skin of the leopard, which was a monstrous great one, for
it was from the ears to the tale about seven foot, and near five foot
broad on the back, and most admirably spotted all over. The skin of this
leopard I brought to London many years after.

We were now all upon a level as to our travelling, being unshipped, for
our bark would swim no farther, and she was too heavy to carry on our
backs; but as we found the course of the river went a great way farther,
we consulted our carpenters whether we could not pull the bark in
pieces, and make us three or four small boats to go on with. They told
us we might do so, but it would be very long a-doing; and that, when
we had done, we had neither pitch or tar to make them sound to keep the
water out, or nails to fasten the plank. But one of them told us that as
soon as he could come at any large tree near the river, he would make
us a canoe or two in a quarter of the time, and which would serve us
as well for all the uses we could have any occasion for as a boat; and
such, that if we came to any waterfalls, we might take them up, and
carry them for a mile or two by land upon our shoulders.

Upon this we gave over the thoughts of our frigate, and hauling her into
a little cove or inlet, where a small brook came into the main river,
we laid her up for those that came next, and marched forward. We spent
indeed two days dividing our baggage, and loading our tame buffaloes
and our negroes. Our powder and shot, which was the thing we were most
careful of, we ordered thus:--First, the powder we divided into little
leather bags, that is to say, bags of dried skins, with the hair inward,
that the powder might not grow damp; and then we put those bags into
other bags, made of bullocks' skins, very thick and hard, with the hair
outward, that no wet might come in; and this succeeded so well, that in
the greatest rains we had, whereof some were very violent and very long,
we always kept our powder dry. Besides these bags, which held our chief
magazine, we divided to every one a quarter of a pound of powder, and
half a pound of shot, to carry always about us; which, as it was enough
for our present use, so we were willing to have no weight to carry more
than was absolutely necessary, because of the heat.

We kept still on the bank of the river, and for that reason had but very
little communication with the people of the country; for, having also
our bark stored with plenty of provisions, we had no occasion to look
abroad for a supply; but now, when we came to march on foot, we were
obliged often to seek out for food. The first place we came to on the
river, that gave us any stop, was a little negro town, containing about
fifty huts, and there appeared about 400 people, for they all came out
to see us, and wonder at us. When our negroes appeared the inhabitants
began to fly to arms, thinking there had been enemies coming upon them;
but our negroes, though they could not speak their language, made signs
to them that they had no weapons, and were tied two and two together as
captives, and that there were people behind who came from the sun, and
that could kill them all, and make them alive again, if they pleased;
but that they would do them no hurt, and came with peace. As soon as
they understood this they laid down their lances, and bows and arrows,
and came and stuck twelve large stakes in the ground as a token of
peace, bowing themselves to us in token of submission. But as soon as
they saw white men with beards, that is to say, with mustachios, they
ran screaming away, as in a fright.

We kept at a distance from them, not to be too familiar; and when we did
appear it was but two or three of us at a time. But our prisoners
made them understand that we required some provisions of them; so
they brought us some black cattle, for they have abundance of cows and
buffaloes all over that side of the country, as also great numbers of
deer. Our cutler, who had now a great stock of things of his handiwork,
gave them some little knick-knacks, as plates of silver and of iron,
cut diamond fashion, and cut into hearts and into rings, and they were
mightily pleased. They also brought several fruits and roots, which we
did not understand, but our negroes fed heartily on them, and after we
had seen them eat them, we did so too.

Having stocked ourselves here with flesh and root as much as we could
well carry, we divided the burthens among our negroes, appointing about
thirty to forty pounds weight to a man, which we thought indeed was load
enough in a hot country; and the negroes did not at all repine at it,
but would sometimes help one another when they began to be weary, which
did happen now and then, though not often; besides, as most of their
luggage was our provision, it lightened every day, like Aesop's basket
of bread, till we came to get a recruit.--Note, when we loaded them we
untied their hands, and tied them two and two together by one foot.

The third day of our march from this place our chief carpenter desired
us to halt, and set up some huts, for he had found out some trees that
he liked, and resolved to make us some canoes; for, as he told me, he
knew we should have marching enough on foot after we left the river, and
he was resolved to go no farther by land than needs must.

We had no sooner given orders for our little camp, and given leave to
our negroes to lay down their loads, but they fell to work to build our
huts; and though they were tied as above, yet they did it so nimbly as
surprised us. Here we set some of the negroes quite at liberty, that is
to say, without tying them, having the prince's word passed for their
fidelity; and some of these were ordered to help the carpenters, which
they did very handily, with a little direction, and others were sent
to see whether they could get any provisions near hand; but instead of
provisions, three of them came in with two bows and arrows, and five
lances. They could not easily make us understand how they came by them,
only that they had surprised some negro women, who were in some huts,
the men being from home, and they had found the lances and bows in the
huts, or houses, the women and children flying away at the sight of
them, as from robbers. We seemed very angry at them, and made the prince
ask them if they had not killed any of the women or children, making
them believe that, if they had killed anybody, we would make them kill
themselves too; but they protested their innocence, so we excused them.
Then they brought us the bows and arrows and lances; but, at a motion of
their black prince, we gave them back the bows and arrows, and gave them
leave to go out to see what they could kill for food; and here we gave
them the laws of arms, viz., that if any man appeared to assault them,
or shoot at them to offer any violence to them, they might kill them;
but that they should not offer to kill or hurt any that offered them
peace, or laid down their weapons, nor any women or children, upon any
occasion whatsoever. These were our articles of war.

These two fellows had not been gone out above three or four hours, but
one of them came running to us without his bow and arrows, hallooing and
whooping a great while before he came at us, "Okoamo, okoamo!" which,
it seems, was, "Help, help!" The rest of the negroes rose up in a hurry,
and by twos, as they could, ran forward towards their fellows, to know
what the matter was. As for me, I did not understand it, nor any of our
people; the prince looked as if something unlucky had fallen out, and
some of our men took up their arms to be ready on occasion. But the
negroes soon discovered the thing, for we saw four of them presently
after coming along with a great load of meat upon their backs. The case
was, that the two who went out with their bows and arrows, meeting with
a great herd of deer in the plain, had been so nimble as to shoot three
of them, and then one of them came running to us for help to fetch them
away. This was the first venison we had met with in all our march, and
we feasted upon it very plentifully; and this was the first time we
began to prevail with our prince to eat his meat dressed our way; after
which his men were prevailed with by his example, but before that, they
ate most of the flesh they had quite raw.

We wished now we had brought some bows and arrows out with us, which we
might have done; and we began to have so much confidence in our negroes,
and to be so familiar with them, that we oftentimes let them go, or the
greatest part of them, untied, being well assured they would not leave
us, and that they did not know what course to take without us; but one
thing we resolved not to trust them with, and that was the charging our
guns: but they always believed our guns had some heavenly power in them,
that would send forth fire and smoke, and speak with a dreadful noise,
and kill at a distance whenever we bid them.

In about eight days we finished three canoes, and in them we embarked
our white men and our baggage, with our prince, and some of the
prisoners. We also found it needful to keep some of ourselves always on
shore, not only to manage the negroes, but to defend them from enemies
and wild beasts. Abundance of little incidents happened upon this march,
which it is impossible to crowd into this account; particularly, we
saw more wild beasts now than we did before, some elephants, and two or
three lions, none of which kinds we had seen any of before; and we
found our negroes were more afraid of them a great deal than we were;
principally, because they had no bows and arrows, or lances, which were
the particular weapons they were bred up to the exercise of.

But we cured them of their fears by being always ready with our
firearms. However, as we were willing to be sparing of our powder, and
the killing of any of the creatures now was no advantage to us, seeing
their skins were too heavy for us to carry, and their flesh not good to
eat, we resolved therefore to keep some of our pieces uncharged and only
primed; and causing them to flash in the pan, the beasts, even the
lions themselves, would always start and fly back when they saw it, and
immediately march off.

We passed abundance of inhabitants upon this upper part of the river,
and with this observation, that almost every ten miles we came to a
separate nation, and every separate nation had a different speech,
or else their speech had differing dialects, so that they did not
understand one another. They all abounded in cattle, especially on the
river-side; and the eighth day of this second navigation we met with
a little negro town, where they had growing a sort of corn like rice,
which ate very sweet; and, as we got some of it of the people, we made
very good cakes of bread of it, and, making a fire, baked them on the
ground, after the fire was swept away, very well; so that hitherto we
had no want of provisions of any kind that we could desire.

Our negroes towing our canoes, we travelled at a considerable rate, and
by our own account could not go less than twenty or twenty-five English
miles a day, and the river continuing to be much of the same breadth
and very deep all the way, till on the tenth day we came to another
cataract; for a ridge of high hills crossing the whole channel of the
river, the water came tumbling down the rocks from one stage to another
in a strange manner, so that it was a continued link of cataracts from
one to another, in the manner of a cascade, only that the falls were
sometimes a quarter of a mile from one another, and the noise confused
and frightful.

We thought our voyaging was at a full stop now; but three of us, with
a couple of our negroes, mounting the hills another way, to view the
course of the river, we found a fair channel again after about half a
mile's march, and that it was like to hold us a good way further. So
we set all hands to work, unloaded our cargo, and hauled our canoes on
shore, to see if we could carry them.

Upon examination we found that they were very heavy; but our carpenters,
spending but one day's work upon them, hewed away so much of the timber
from their outsides as reduced them very much, and yet they were as fit
to swim as before. When this was done, ten men with poles took up one
of the canoes and made nothing to carry it. So we ordered twenty men to
each canoe, that one ten might relieve the other; and thus we carried
all our canoes, and launched them into the water again, and then fetched
our luggage and loaded it all again into the canoes, and all in an
afternoon; and the next morning early we moved forward again. When we
had towed about four days more, our gunner, who was our pilot, began to
observe that we did not keep our right course so exactly as we ought,
the river winding away a little towards the north, and gave us notice
of it accordingly. However, we were not willing to lose the advantage of
water-carriage, at least not till we were forced to it; so we jogged on,
and the river served us for about threescore miles further; but then
we found it grew very small and shallow, having passed the mouths of
several little brooks or rivulets which came into it; and at length it
became but a brook itself.

We towed up as far as ever our boats would swim, and we went two days
the farther--having been about twelve days in this last part of the
river--by lightening the boats and taking our luggage out, which we made
the negroes carry, being willing to ease ourselves as long as we could;
but at the end of these two days, in short, there was not water enough
to swim a London wherry.

We now set forward wholly by land, and without any expectation of more
water-carriage. All our concern for more water was to be sure to have a
supply for our drinking; and therefore upon every hill that we came near
we clambered up to the highest part to see the country before us, and
to make the best judgment we could which way to go to keep the lowest
grounds, and as near some stream of water as we could.

The country held verdant, well grown with trees, and spread with rivers
and brooks, and tolerably well with inhabitants, for about thirty days'
march after our leaving the canoes, during which time things went pretty
well with us; we did not tie ourselves down when to march and when to
halt, but ordered those things as our convenience and the health and
ease of our people, as well our servants as ourselves, required.

About the middle of this march we came into a low and plain country,
in which we perceived a greater number of inhabitants than in any other
country we had gone through; but that which was worse for us, we found
them a fierce, barbarous, treacherous people, and who at first looked
upon us as robbers, and gathered themselves in numbers to attack us.

Our men were terrified at them at first, and began to discover an
unusual fear, and even our black prince seemed in a great deal of
confusion; but I smiled at him, and showing him some of our guns, I
asked him if he thought that which killed the spotted cat (for so they
called the leopard in their language) could not make a thousand of those
naked creatures die at one blow? Then he laughed, and said, yes, he
believed it would. "Well, then," said I, "tell your men not to be afraid
of these people, for we shall soon give them a taste of what we can do
if they pretend to meddle with us." However, we considered we were in
the middle of a vast country, and we knew not what numbers of people
and nations we might be surrounded with, and, above all, we knew not how
much we might stand in need of the friendship of these that we were now
among, so that we ordered the negroes to try all the methods they could
to make them friends.

Accordingly the two men who had gotten bows and arrows, and two more
to whom we gave the prince's two fine lances, went foremost, with five
more, having long poles in their hands; and after them ten of our men
advanced toward the negro town that was next to us, and we all stood
ready to succour them if there should be occasion.

When they came pretty near their houses our negroes hallooed in their
screaming way, and called to them as loud as they could. Upon their
calling, some of the men came out and answered, and immediately after
the whole town, men, women, and children, appeared; our negroes, with
their long poles, went forward a little, and stuck them all in the
ground, and left them, which in their country was a signal of peace, but
the other did not understand the meaning of that. Then the two men with
bows laid down their bows and arrows, went forward unarmed, and made
signs of peace to them, which at last the other began to understand; so
two of their men laid down their bows and arrows, and came towards them.
Our men made all the signs of friendship to them that they could think
of, putting their hands up to their mouths as a sign that they wanted
provisions to eat; and the other pretended to be pleased and friendly,
and went back to their fellows and talked with them a while, and they
came forward again, and made signs that they would bring some provisions
to them before the sun set; and so our men came back again very well
satisfied for that time.

But an hour before sunset our men went to them again, just in the same
posture as before, and they came according to their appointment, and
brought deer's flesh, roots, and the same kind of corn, like rice, which
I mentioned above; and our negroes, being furnished with such toys as
our cutler had contrived, gave them some of them, which they seemed
infinitely pleased with, and promised to bring more provisions the next
day.

Accordingly the next day they came again, but our men perceived they
were more in number by a great many than before. However, having sent
out ten men with firearms to stand ready, and our whole army being in
view also, we were not much surprised; nor was the treachery of the
enemy so cunningly ordered as in other cases, for they might have
surrounded our negroes, which were but nine, under a show of peace; but
when they saw our men advance almost as far as the place where they were
the day before, the rogues snatched up their bows and arrows and came
running upon our men like so many furies, at which our ten men called
to the negroes to come back to them, which they did with speed enough
at the first word, and stood all behind our men. As they fled, the other
advanced, and let fly near a hundred of their arrows at them, by which
two of our negroes were wounded, and one we thought had been killed.
When they came to the five poles that our men had stuck in the ground,
they stood still awhile, and gathering about the poles, looked at them,
and handled them, as wondering what they meant. We then, who were drawn
up behind all, sent one of our number to our ten men to bid them fire
among them while they stood so thick, and to put some small shot into
their guns besides the ordinary charge, and to tell them that we would
be up with them immediately.

Accordingly they made ready; but by the time they were ready to fire,
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.

I proposed to our gunner, that, seeing we had travelled now fourteen
days without intermission, and that we had water here for our
refreshment, and no want of food yet, nor any fear of it, we should rest
our people a little, and see, at the same time, if perhaps we might
kill some creatures that were proper for food. The gunner, who had more
forecast of that kind than I had, agreed to the proposal, and added, why
might we not try to catch some fish out of the lake? The first thing we
had before us was to try if we could make any hooks, and this indeed put
our artificer to his trumps; however, with some labour and difficulty,
he did it, and we catched fresh fish of several kinds. How they came
there, none but He that made the lake and all the world knows; for, to
be sure, no h

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