THAT evil influence which carried me
first away from my father's
house - which hurried me into the
wild and indigested notion of
raising my fortune, and that
impressed those conceits so forcibly
upon me as to make me deaf to all
good advice, and to the
entreaties and even the commands of
my father - I say, the same
influence, whatever it was,
presented the most unfortunate of
all
enterprises to my view; and I went
on board a vessel bound to the
coast of Africa; or, as our sailors
vulgarly called it, a voyage to
Guinea. It was my great misfortune that in
all these adventures I did not
ship myself as a sailor; when,
though I might indeed have worked a
little harder than ordinary, yet at
the same time I should have
learnt the duty and office of a
fore-mast man, and in time might
have qualified myself for a mate or
lieutenant, if not for a
master. But as it was always my fate
to choose for the worse, so I
did here; for having money in my
pocket and good clothes upon my
back, I would always go on board in
the habit of a gentleman; and
so I neither had any business in the
ship, nor learned to do any. It was my lot first of all to fall
into pretty good company in
London, which does not always happen
to such loose and misguided
young fellows as I then was; the
devil generally not omitting to
lay some snare for them very early;
but it was not so with me. I
first got acquainted with the master
of a ship who had been on the
coast of Guinea; and who, having had
very good success there, was
resolved to go again. This captain
taking a fancy to my
conversation, which was not at all
disagreeable at that time,
hearing me say I had a mind to see
the world, told me if I would go
the voyage with him I should be at
no expense; I should be his
messmate and his companion; and if I
could carry anything with me,
I should have all the advantage of
it that the trade would admit;
and perhaps I might meet with some
encouragement. I embraced the offer; and entering
into a strict friendship with
this captain, who was an honest,
plain-dealing man, I went the
voyage with him, and carried a small
adventure with me, which, by
the disinterested honesty of my
friend the captain, I increased
very considerably; for I carried
about 40 pounds in such toys and
trifles as the captain directed me
to buy. These 40 pounds I had
mustered together by the assistance
of some of my relations whom I
corresponded with; and who, I
believe, got my father, or at least
my mother, to contribute so much as
that to my first adventure. This was the only voyage which I may
say was successful in all my
adventures, which I owe to the
integrity and honesty of my friend
the captain; under whom also I got a
competent knowledge of the
mathematics and the rules of
navigation, learned how to keep an
account of the ship's course, take
an observation, and, in short,
to understand some things that were
needful to be understood by a
sailor; for, as he took delight to
instruct me, I took delight to
learn; and, in a word, this voyage
made me both a sailor and a
merchant; for I brought home five
pounds nine ounces of gold-dust
for my adventure, which yielded me
in London, at my return, almost
300 pounds; and this filled me with
those aspiring thoughts which
have since so completed my ruin. Yet even in this voyage I had my
misfortunes too; particularly,
that I was continually sick, being
thrown into a violent calenture
by the excessive heat of the
climate; our principal trading being
upon the coast, from latitude of 15
degrees north even to the line
itself. I was now set up for a Guinea
trader; and my friend, to my great
misfortune, dying soon after his
arrival, I resolved to go the same
voyage again, and I embarked in the
same vessel with one who was
his mate in the former voyage, and
had now got the command of the
ship. This was the unhappiest voyage
that ever man made; for
though I did not carry quite 100
pounds of my new-gained wealth, so
that I had 200 pounds left, which I
had lodged with my friend's
widow, who was very just to me, yet
I fell into terrible
misfortunes. The first was this: our
ship making her course
towards the Canary Islands, or
rather between those islands and the
African shore, was surprised in the
grey of the morning by a
Turkish rover of Sallee, who gave
chase to us with all the sail she
could make. We crowded also as much
canvas as our yards would
spread, or our masts carry, to get
clear; but finding the pirate
gained upon us, and would certainly
come up with us in a few hours,
we prepared to fight; our ship
having twelve guns, and the rogue
eighteen. About three in the
afternoon he came up with us, and
bringing to, by mistake, just
athwart our quarter, instead of
athwart our stern, as he intended,
we brought eight of our guns to
bear on that side, and poured in a
broadside upon him, which made
him sheer off again, after returning
our fire, and pouring in also
his small shot from near two hundred
men which he had on board.
However, we had not a man touched,
all our men keeping close. He
prepared to attack us again, and we
to defend ourselves. But
laying us on board the next time
upon our other quarter, he entered
sixty men upon our decks, who
immediately fell to cutting and
hacking the sails and rigging. We
plied them with small shot,
half-pikes, powder-chests, and such
like, and cleared our deck of
them twice. However, to cut short
this melancholy part of our
story, our ship being disabled, and
three of our men killed, and
eight wounded, we were obliged to
yield, and were carried all
prisoners into Sallee, a port
belonging to the Moors. The usage I had there was not so
dreadful as at first I
apprehended; nor was I carried up
the country to the emperor's
court, as the rest of our men were,
but was kept by the captain of
the rover as his proper prize, and
made his slave, being young and
nimble, and fit for his business. At
this surprising change of my
circumstances, from a merchant to a
miserable slave, I was
perfectly overwhelmed; and now I
looked back upon my father's
prophetic discourse to me, that I
should be miserable and have none
to relieve me, which I thought was
now so effectually brought to
pass that I could not be worse; for
now the hand of Heaven had
overtaken me, and I was undone
without redemption; but, alas! this
was but a taste of the misery I was
to go through, as will appear
in the sequel of this story. As my new patron, or master, had
taken me home to his house, so I
was in hopes that he would take me
with him when he went to sea
again, believing that it would some
time or other be his fate to be
taken by a Spanish or Portugal
man-of-war; and that then I should
be set at liberty. But this hope of
mine was soon taken away; for
when he went to sea, he left me on
shore to look after his little
garden, and do the common drudgery
of slaves about his house; and
when he came home again from his
cruise, he ordered me to lie in
the cabin to look after the ship. Here I meditated nothing but my
escape, and what method I might
take to effect it, but found no way
that had the least probability
in it; nothing presented to make the
supposition of it rational;
for I had nobody to communicate it
to that would embark with me -
no fellow-slave, no Englishman,
Irishman, or Scotchman there but
myself; so that for two years,
though I often pleased myself with
the imagination, yet I never had the
least encouraging prospect of
putting it in practice. After about two years, an odd
circumstance presented itself, which
put the old thought of making some
attempt for my liberty again in
my head. My patron lying at home
longer than usual without fitting
out his ship, which, as I heard, was
for want of money, he used
constantly, once or twice a week,
sometimes oftener if the weather
was fair, to take the ship's pinnace
and go out into the road a-
fishing; and as he always took me
and young Maresco with him to row
the boat, we made him very merry,
and I proved very dexterous in
catching fish; insomuch that
sometimes he would send me with a
Moor, one of his kinsmen, and the
youth - the Maresco, as they
called him - to catch a dish of fish
for him. It happened one time, that going
a-fishing in a calm morning, a fog
rose so thick that, though we were
not half a league from the
shore, we lost sight of it; and
rowing we knew not whither or which
way, we laboured all day, and all
the next night; and when the
morning came we found we had pulled
off to sea instead of pulling
in for the shore; and that we were
at least two leagues from the
shore. However, we got well in
again, though with a great deal of
labour and some danger; for the wind
began to blow pretty fresh in
the morning; but we were all very
hungry. But our patron, warned by this
disaster, resolved to take more care
of himself for the future; and
having lying by him the longboat of
our English ship that he had taken,
he resolved he would not go a-
fishing any more without a compass
and some provision; so he
ordered the carpenter of his ship,
who also was an English slave,
to build a little state-room, or
cabin, in the middle of the long-
boat, like that of a barge, with a
place to stand behind it to
steer, and haul home the main-sheet;
the room before for a hand or
two to stand and work the sails. She
sailed with what we call a
shoulder-of-mutton sail; and the
boom jibed over the top of the
cabin, which lay very snug and low,
and had in it room for him to
lie, with a slave or two, and a
table to eat on, with some small
lockers to put in some bottles of
such liquor as he thought fit to
drink; and his bread, rice, and
coffee. We went frequently out with this
boat a-fishing; and as I was most
dexterous to catch fish for him, he
never went without me. It
happened that he had appointed to go
out in this boat, either for
pleasure or for fish, with two or
three Moors of some distinction
in that place, and for whom he had
provided extraordinarily, and
had, therefore, sent on board the
boat overnight a larger store of
provisions than ordinary; and had
ordered me to get ready three
fusees with powder and shot, which
were on board his ship, for that
they designed some sport of fowling
as well as fishing. I got all things ready as he had
directed, and waited the next
morning with the boat washed clean,
her ancient and pendants out,
and everything to accommodate his
guests; when by-and-by my patron
came on board alone, and told me his
guests had put off going from
some business that fell out, and
ordered me, with the man and boy,
as usual, to go out with the boat
and catch them some fish, for
that his friends were to sup at his
house, and commanded that as
soon as I got some fish I should
bring it home to his house; all
which I prepared to do. This moment my former notions of
deliverance darted into my
thoughts, for now I found I was
likely to have a little ship at my
command; and my master being gone, I
prepared to furnish myself,
not for fishing business, but for a
voyage; though I knew not,
neither did I so much as consider,
whither I should steer -
anywhere to get out of that place
was my desire. My first contrivance was to make a
pretence to speak to this Moor,
to get something for our subsistence
on board; for I told him we
must not presume to eat of our
patron's bread. He said that was
true; so he brought a large basket
of rusk or biscuit, and three
jars of fresh water, into the boat.
I knew where my patron's case
of bottles stood, which it was
evident, by the make, were taken out
of some English prize, and I
conveyed them into the boat while
the
Moor was on shore, as if they had
been there before for our master.
I conveyed also a great lump of
beeswax into the boat, which
weighed about half a hundred-weight,
with a parcel of twine or
thread, a hatchet, a saw, and a
hammer, all of which were of great
use to us afterwards, especially the
wax, to make candles. Another
trick I tried upon him, which he
innocently came into also: his
name was Ismael, which they call
Muley, or Moely; so I called to
him - "Moely," said I, "our patron's
guns are on board the boat;
can you not get a little powder and
shot? It may be we may kill
some alcamies (a fowl like our
curlews) for ourselves, for I know
he keeps the gunner's stores in the
ship." "Yes," says he, "I'll
bring some;" and accordingly he
brought a great leather pouch,
which held a pound and a half of
powder, or rather more; and
another with shot, that had five or
six pounds, with some bullets,
and put all into the boat. At the
same time I had found some
powder of my master's in the great
cabin, with which I filled one
of the large bottles in the case,
which was almost empty, pouring
what was in it into another; and
thus furnished with everything
needful, we sailed out of the port
to fish. The castle, which is
at the entrance of the port, knew
who we were, and took no notice
of us; and we were not above a mile
out of the port before we
hauled in our sail and set us down
to fish. The wind blew from the
N.N.E., which was contrary to my
desire, for had it blown southerly
I had been sure to have made the
coast of Spain, and at least
reached to the bay of Cadiz; but my
resolutions were, blow which
way it would, I would be gone from
that horrid place where I was,
and leave the rest to fate. After we had fished some time and
caught nothing - for when I had
fish on my hook I would not pull
them up, that he might not see
them - I said to the Moor, "This
will not do; our master will not
be thus served; we must stand
farther off." He, thinking no harm,
agreed, and being in the head of the
boat, set the sails; and, as I
had the helm, I ran the boat out
near a league farther, and then
brought her to, as if I would fish;
when, giving the boy the helm,
I stepped forward to where the Moor
was, and making as if I stooped
for something behind him, I took him
by surprise with my arm under
his waist, and tossed him clear
overboard into the sea. He rose
immediately, for he swam like a
cork, and called to me, begged to
be taken in, told me he would go all
over the world with me. He
swam so strong after the boat that
he would have reached me very
quickly, there being but little
wind; upon which I stepped into the
cabin, and fetching one of the
fowling-pieces, I presented it at
him, and told him I had done him no
hurt, and if he would be quiet
I would do him none. "But," said I,
"you swim well enough to reach
to the shore, and the sea is calm;
make the best of your way to
shore, and I will do you no harm;
but if you come near the boat
I'll shoot you through the head, for
I am resolved to have my
liberty;" so he turned himself
about, and swam for the shore, and I
make no doubt but he reached it with
ease, for he was an excellent
swimmer. I could have been content to have
taken this Moor with me, and have
drowned the boy, but there was no
venturing to trust him. When he
was gone, I turned to the boy, whom
they called Xury, and said to
him, "Xury, if you will be faithful
to me, I'll make you a great
man; but if you will not stroke your
face to be true to me" - that
is, swear by Mahomet and his
father's beard - "I must throw you
into the sea too." The boy smiled in
my face, and spoke so
innocently that I could not distrust
him, and swore to be faithful
to me, and go all over the world
with me. While I was in view of the Moor that
was swimming, I stood out
directly to sea with the boat,
rather stretching to windward, that
they might think me gone towards the
Straits' mouth (as indeed any
one that had been in their wits must
have been supposed to do): for
who would have supposed we were
sailed on to the southward, to the
truly Barbarian coast, where whole
nations of negroes were sure to
surround us with their canoes and
destroy us; where we could not go
on shore but we should be devoured
by savage beasts, or more
merciless savages of human kind. But as soon as it grew dusk in the
evening, I changed my course,
and steered directly south and by
east, bending my course a little
towards the east, that I might keep
in with the shore; and having a
fair, fresh gale of wind, and a
smooth, quiet sea, I made such sail
that I believe by the next day, at
three o'clock in the afternoon,
when I first made the land, I could
not be less than one hundred
and fifty miles south of Sallee;
quite beyond the Emperor of
Morocco's dominions, or indeed of
any other king thereabouts, for
we saw no people. Yet such was the fright I had taken
of the Moors, and the dreadful
apprehensions I had of falling into
their hands, that I would not
stop, or go on shore, or come to an
anchor; the wind continuing
fair till I had sailed in that
manner five days; and then the wind
shifting to the southward, I
concluded also that if any of our
vessels were in chase of me, they
also would now give over; so I
ventured to make to the coast, and
came to an anchor in the mouth
of a little river, I knew not what,
nor where, neither what
latitude, what country, what nation,
or what river. I neither saw,
nor desired to see any people; the
principal thing I wanted was
fresh water. We came into this creek
in the evening, resolving to
swim on shore as soon as it was
dark, and discover the country; but
as soon as it was quite dark, we
heard such dreadful noises of the
barking, roaring, and howling of
wild creatures, of we knew not
what kinds, that the poor boy was
ready to die with fear, and
begged of me not to go on shore till
day. "Well, Xury," said I,
"then I won't; but it may be that we
may see men by day, who will
be as bad to us as those lions."
"Then we give them the shoot
gun," says Xury, laughing, "make
them run wey." Such English Xury
spoke by conversing among us slaves.
However, I was glad to see
the boy so cheerful, and I gave him
a dram (out of our patron's
case of bottles) to cheer him up.
After all, Xury's advice was
good, and I took it; we dropped our
little anchor, and lay still
all night; I say still, for we slept
none; for in two or three
hours we saw vast great creatures
(we knew not what to call them)
of many sorts, come down to the
sea-shore and run into the water,
wallowing and washing themselves for
the pleasure of cooling
themselves; and they made such
hideous howlings and yellings, that
I never indeed heard the like. Xury was dreadfully frighted, and
indeed so was I too; but we were
both more frighted when we heard one
of these mighty creatures come
swimming towards our boat; we could
not see him, but we might hear
him by his blowing to be a monstrous
huge and furious beast. Xury
said it was a lion, and it might be
so for aught I know; but poor
Xury cried to me to weigh the anchor
and row away; "No," says I,
"Xury; we can slip our cable, with
the buoy to it, and go off to
sea; they cannot follow us far." I
had no sooner said so, but I
perceived the creature (whatever it
was) within two oars' length,
which something surprised me;
however, I immediately stepped to
the
cabin door, and taking up my gun,
fired at him; upon which he
immediately turned about and swam
towards the shore again. But it is impossible to describe the
horrid noises, and hideous
cries and howlings that were raised,
as well upon the edge of the
shore as higher within the country,
upon the noise or report of the
gun, a thing I have some reason to
believe those creatures had
never heard before: this convinced
me that there was no going on
shore for us in the night on that
coast, and how to venture on
shore in the day was another
question too; for to have fallen
into
the hands of any of the savages had
been as bad as to have fallen
into the hands of the lions and
tigers; at least we were equally
apprehensive of the danger of it. Be that as it would, we were obliged
to go on shore somewhere or
other for water, for we had not a
pint left in the boat; when and
where to get to it was the point.
Xury said, if I would let him go
on shore with one of the jars, he
would find if there was any
water, and bring some to me. I asked
him why he would go? why I
should not go, and he stay in the
boat? The boy answered with so
much affection as made me love him
ever after. Says he, "If wild
mans come, they eat me, you go wey."
"Well, Xury," said I, "we
will both go and if the wild mans
come, we will kill them, they
shall eat neither of us." So I gave
Xury a piece of rusk bread to
eat, and a dram out of our patron's
case of bottles which I
mentioned before; and we hauled the
boat in as near the shore as we
thought was proper, and so waded on
shore, carrying nothing but our
arms and two jars for water. I did not care to go out of sight of
the boat, fearing the coming
of canoes with savages down the
river; but the boy seeing a low
place about a mile up the country,
rambled to it, and by-and-by I
saw him come running towards me. I
thought he was pursued by some
savage, or frighted with some wild
beast, and I ran forward towards
him to help him; but when I came
nearer to him I saw something
hanging over his shoulders, which
was a creature that he had shot,
like a hare, but different in
colour, and longer legs; however, we
were very glad of it, and it was
very good meat; but the great joy
that poor Xury came with, was to
tell me he had found good water
and seen no wild mans. But we found afterwards that we need
not take such pains for water,
for a little higher up the creek
where we were we found the water
fresh when the tide was out, which
flowed but a little way up; so
we filled our jars, and feasted on
the hare he had killed, and
prepared to go on our way, having
seen no footsteps of any human
creature in that part of the
country. As I had been one voyage to this
coast before, I knew very well
that the islands of the Canaries,
and the Cape de Verde Islands
also, lay not far off from the
coast. But as I had no instruments
to take an observation to know what
latitude we were in, and not
exactly knowing, or at least
remembering, what latitude they were
in, I knew not where to look for
them, or when to stand off to sea
towards them; otherwise I might now
easily have found some of these
islands. But my hope was, that if I
stood along this coast till I
came to that part where the English
traded, I should find some of
their vessels upon their usual
design of trade, that would relieve
and take us in. By the best of my calculation, that
place where I now was must be
that country which, lying between
the Emperor of Morocco's
dominions and the negroes, lies
waste and uninhabited, except by
wild beasts; the negroes having
abandoned it and gone farther south
for fear of the Moors, and the Moors
not thinking it worth
inhabiting by reason of its
barrenness; and indeed, both
forsaking
it because of the prodigious number
of tigers, lions, leopards, and
other furious creatures which
harbour there; so that the Moors use
it for their hunting only, where
they go like an army, two or three
thousand men at a time; and indeed
for near a hundred miles
together upon this coast we saw
nothing but a waste, uninhabited
country by day, and heard nothing
but howlings and roaring of wild
beasts by night. Once or twice in the daytime I
thought I saw the Pico of Teneriffe,
being the high top of the Mountain
Teneriffe in the Canaries, and
had a great mind to venture out, in
hopes of reaching thither; but
having tried twice, I was forced in
again by contrary winds, the
sea also going too high for my
little vessel; so, I resolved to
pursue my first design, and keep
along the shore. Several times I was obliged to land
for fresh water, after we had
left this place; and once in
particular, being early in morning,
we
came to an anchor under a little
point of land, which was pretty
high; and the tide beginning to
flow, we lay still to go farther
in. Xury, whose eyes were more about
him than it seems mine were,
calls softly to me, and tells me
that we had best go farther off
the shore; "For," says he, "look,
yonder lies a dreadful monster on
the side of that hillock, fast
asleep." I looked where he pointed,
and saw a dreadful monster indeed,
for it was a terrible, great
lion that lay on the side of the
shore, under the shade of a piece
of the hill that hung as it were a
little over him. "Xury," says
I, "you shall on shore and kill
him." Xury, looked frighted, and
said, "Me kill! he eat me at one
mouth!" - one mouthful he meant.
However, I said no more to the boy,
but bade him lie still, and I
took our biggest gun, which was
almost musket-bore, and loaded it
with a good charge of powder, and
with two slugs, and laid it down;
then I loaded another gun with two
bullets; and the third (for we
had three pieces) I loaded with five
smaller bullets. I took the
best aim I could with the first
piece to have shot him in the head,
but he lay so with his leg raised a
little above his nose, that the
slugs hit his leg about the knee and
broke the bone. He started
up, growling at first, but finding
his leg broken, fell down again;
and then got upon three legs, and
gave the most hideous roar that
ever I heard. I was a little
surprised that I had not hit him on
the head; however, I took up the
second piece immediately, and
though he began to move off, fired
again, and shot him in the head,
and had the pleasure to see him drop
and make but little noise, but
lie struggling for life. Then Xury
took heart, and would have me
let him go on shore. "Well, go,"
said I: so the boy jumped into
the water and taking a little gun in
one hand, swam to shore with
the other hand, and coming close to
the creature, put the muzzle of
the piece to his ear, and shot him
in the head again, which
despatched him quite. This was game indeed to us, but this
was no food; and I was very
sorry to lose three charges of
powder and shot upon a creature that
was good for nothing to us. However,
Xury said he would have some
of him; so he comes on board, and
asked me to give him the hatchet.
"For what, Xury?" said I. "Me cut
off his head," said he.
However, Xury could not cut off his
head, but he cut off a foot,
and brought it with him, and it was
a monstrous great one. I bethought myself, however, that,
perhaps the skin of him might,
one way or other, be of some value
to us; and I resolved to take
off his skin if I could. So Xury and
I went to work with him; but
Xury was much the better workman at
it, for I knew very ill how to
do it. Indeed, it took us both up
the whole day, but at last we
got off the hide of him, and
spreading it on the top of our
cabin,
the sun effectually dried it in two
days' time, and it afterwards
served me to lie upon. |
