CAPTAIN SINGLETON

WITH AN INTRODUCTIONBY EDWARD GARNETT

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

A TALE WHICH HOLDETH CHILDREN FROM PLAYAND OLD MEN FROM THE CHIMNEY CORNER

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY

THE LIFE ADVENTURES AND PIRACIESOF THE FAMOUS CAPTAIN SINGLETON

BY DANIEL DEFOE

PREFACE

That all Defoe's novels, with the exception of "Robinson Crusoe, " shouldhave been covered with the dust of neglect for many generations, is a plainproof of how much fashions in taste affect the popularity of the Britishclassics. It is true that three generations or so ago, Defoe's works wereedited by both Sir Walter Scott and Hazlitt, and that this masterly pieceof realism, "Captain Singleton, " was reprinted a few years back in "TheCamelot Classics, " but it is safe to say that out of every thousand readersof "Robinson Crusoe" only one or two will have even heard of the "Memoirsof a Cavalier, " "Colonel Jack, " "Moll Flanders, " or "Captain Singleton. " Itis indeed distressing to think that while many scores of thousands ofcopies of Lord Lytton's flashy romance, "Paul Clifford, " have been devouredby the public, "Captain Singleton" has remained unread and almostforgotten. But the explanation is simple. Defoe's plain and homely realismsoon grew to be thought vulgar by people who themselves aspired to berefined and genteel. The rapid spread of popular education, in the middleof last century, was responsible for a great many aberrations of taste, andthe works of the two most English of Englishmen, Defoe and Hogarth, werejudged to be hardly fitting for polite society, as we may see from Lamb'sEssay on Hogarth, and from an early edition of Chambers's "Cyclopaedia ofEnglish Literature" (1843), where we are told: "Nor is it needful to showhow elegant and reflective literature, especially, tends to moralise, tosoften, and to adorn the soul and life of man. " "Unfortunately the taste or_circumstances of Defoe led him mostly into low life_, and his charactersare such _as we cannot sympathise with_. The whole arcana of rogueryand villany seems to have been open to him.... It might be thought that thegood taste which led Defoe to write in a style of such pure andunpretending English, instead of the inflated manner of vulgar writers, _would have dictated a more careful selection of his subjects_, andkept him from wandering so frequently into the low and disgusting purlieusof vice. But this moral and tasteful discrimination seems to have beenwholly wanting, " &c. The 'forties were the days when critics still talkedlearnedly of the "noble style, " &c. , "the vulgar, " of "sinking" or "rising"with "the subject, " the days when Books of Beauty were in fashion, andRembrandt's choice of beggars, wrinkled faces and grey hairs, for hisfavourite subjects seemed a low and reprehensible taste in "high art. "Though critics to-day still ingenuously confound an artist's subject withhis treatment of it, and prefer scenes of life to be idealised rather thanrealised by writers, we have advanced a little since the days of the poetMontgomery, and it would be difficult now to find anybody writing soconfidently--"Unfortunately the taste or circumstances of Defoe led himmostly into low life, " however much the critic might believe it. But let usglance at a few passages in "Captain Singleton, " which may show us whyDefoe excels as a realist, and why his descriptions of "low life" areartistically as perfect as any descriptions of "higher life" in the worksof 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 andcharacter of the situation. It _seems_ very simple, but it sums upmarvellously an exact observation and knowledge of the arts of the gipsychild-stealer, of her cunning flattery and brassy boldness, and we cansee the simple little girl running back to the house to tell the nursethat a fine lady was kissing the child, and had told her to tell wherethey were and she should not be frightened, &c. ; and this picture againcalls up the hue and cry after the kidnappers and the fruitless hopes ofthe parents. In a word, Defoe has condensed in the eight simple lines ofhis little scene all that is essential to its living truth; and let theyoung writer note that it is ever the sign of the master to do in threewords, or with three strokes, what the ordinary artist does in thirty. Defoe's imagination is so extraordinarily comprehensive in picking outjust those little matter-of-fact details that suggest all the otheraspects, 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 maroonedsailors from the coast of Mozambique to the Gold Coast, that one wouldfirmly believe Defoe was committing to writing the verbal narrative ofsome adventurer in the flesh, if it were not for certain passages--suchas the description of the impossible desert on page 90, which provesthat Defoe was piecing together his description of an imaginary journeyfrom the geographical records and travellers' tales of his contemporaries, aided perhaps by the confused yarns of some sailor friends. Howsubstantially truthful in spirit and in detail is Defoe's account ofMadagascar is proved by the narrative of Robert Drury's "Captivity inMadagascar, " published in 1729. The natives themselves, as describedintimately by Drury, who lived amongst them for many years, would producejust such an effect as Defoe describes on rough sailors in their perilousposition. The method by which Defoe compels us to accept improbabilities, and lulls our critical sense asleep, is well shown in the followingpassages:--

 "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 thePortuguese crew is not in keeping with the second passage, which shows themen as "wishing to die with their companions"; but so actual is the sceneof the seamen "in a body coming up to the rail of the quarter-deck, " thatwe cannot but believe the thing happened so, just as we believe in all thethousand 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 tosubstantiate the narrative. For example, in the description, on page 263, of the savages who lined the perilous channel in a half-moon, where theEuropean ship lay, we find the afterthoughts are added so naturally, thatthey 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 touchesthat add grave weight to the story. Consider the following: "My goodgipsy mother, for some of her worthy actions, no doubt, happened inprocess of time to be hanged, and as this fell out something too soonfor me to be perfected in the strolling trade, " &c. (p. 3). Every otherword here is dryly satiric, and the large free callousness and carelessbrutality of Defoe's days with regard to the life of criminals isconveyed in half a sentence. And what an amount of shrewd observation issummed up in this one saying: "Upon these foundations, William said hewas satisfied we might trust them; for, says William, I would as soontrust a man whose interest binds him to be just to me, as a man whoseprinciple binds himself" (p. 227). Extremely subtle is also this remark:"_Why, says I, did you ever know a pirate repent?_ At this hestarted a little and returned, _At the gallows_ I have known_one_ repent, and I _hope_ thou wilt be the second. " Thecharacter of William the Quaker pirate is a masterpiece of shrewdhumour. He is the first Quaker brought into English fiction, and weknow of no other Friend in latter-day fiction to equal him. Defoe inhis inimitable manner has defined surely and deftly the peculiarcharacteristics of the sect in this portrait. On three separate occasionswe find William saving unfortunate natives or defenceless prisoners fromthe cruel and wicked barbarity of the sailors. At page 183, for example, the reader will find a most penetrating analysis of the dense stupiditywhich so often accompanies man's love of bloodshed. The sketch of thesecond lieutenant, who was for "murdering the negroes to make them tell, "when he could not make them even understand what he wanted, is worthy ofTolstoy. We have not space here to dwell upon the scores of passages ofsimilar deep insight which make "Captain Singleton" a most true and vividcommentary on the life of Defoe's times, but we may call special attentionto the passage on page 189 which describe the sale of the negroes to theplanters; to the description of the awakening of the conscience of CaptainSingleton through terror at the fire-cloud (page 222); and to theextraordinarily picturesque conversation between William and the captiveDutchman (page 264). Finally, if the reader wishes to taste Defoe's flavourin its perfection let him examine carefully those passages in theconcluding twenty pages of the book, wherein Captain Singleton is shownas awakening to the wickedness of his past life, and the admirable dryreasoning of William by which the Quaker prevents him from committingsuicide and persuades him to keep his ill-gotten wealth, "with a resolutionto do what right with it we are able; and who knows what opportunityProvidence may put into our hands.... As it is without doubt, our presentbusiness 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 fourchildren who kept a little shop in the Minories, and that in which thepenitent ex-pirates are shown us as hesitating in Venice for two yearsbefore 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-BornEnglishman" and "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters"; and we are toldthat from "June 1687 to almost the very week of his death in 1731 a streamof controversial books and pamphlets poured from his pen commenting uponand marking every important passing event. " The fecundity of Defoe as ajournalist alone surpasses that of any great journalist we can name, William Cobbett not excepted, and we may add that the style of "CaptainSingleton, " like that of "Robinson Crusoe, " is so perfect that there is nota single ineffective passage, or indeed a weak sentence, to be found in thebook. 

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. "ThePacificator" (verse), 1700. "True-Born Englishman" (verse), 1701. "The MockMourners" (verse), 1702. "Reformation of Manners" (verse), 1702. "New Testof Church of England's Loyalty, " 1702. "Shortest Way with the Dissenters, "1702. "Ode to the Athenian Society, " 1703. "Enquiry into Acgill's GeneralTranslation, " 1703. "More Reformation" (verse), 1703. "Hymn to thePillory, " 1703. "The Storm" (Tale), 1704. "Layman's Sermon on the LateStorm, " 1704. "The Consolidator; or, Memoirs of Sundry Transactions fromthe World in the Moon, " 1704. "Elegy on Author of 'True-Born Englishman, '"1704. "Hymn to Victory, " 1704. "Giving Alms no Charity, " 1704. "The Dyet ofPoland" (verse), 1705. "Apparition of Mrs. Veal, " 1706. "Sermon on theFilling-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 SurprisingAdventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner, " 1719. "The FartherAdventures of Robinson Crusoe, " 1719. "The Dumb Philosopher: or, GreatBritain's Wonder, " 1719. "The King of Pirates" (Capt. Avery), 1719. "Lifeof Baron de Goertz, " 1719. "Life and Adventures of Duncan Campbell, " 1720. "Mr. Campbell's Pacquet, " 1720. "Memoirs of a Cavalier, " 1720. "Life ofCaptain Singleton, " 1720. "Serious Reflections during the Life andSurprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, " 1720. "The SupernaturalPhilosopher; or, The Mysteries of Magick, " 1720. Translation of DuFresnoy'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. "TheHighland 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 ofSubordination; or, The Insolence and Insufferable Behaviour of Servants inEngland, " 1724. "A Tour through Great Britain, " 1724-6. "New Voyage Roundthe World, " 1725. "Account of Jonathan Wild, " 1725. "Account of John Gow, "1725. "Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business" (on Servants), 1725. "TheComplete English Tradesman, " 1725; vol. Ii. , 1727. "The Friendly Demon, "1726. "Mere Nature Delineated" (Peter the Wild Boy), 1726. "PoliticalHistory of the Devil, " 1726. "Essay upon Literature and the Original ofLetters, " 1726. "History of Discoveries, " 1726-7. "The ProtestantMonastery, " 1726. "A System of Magic, " 1726. "Parochial Tyranny, " 1727. "Treatise concerning Use and Abuse of Marriage, " 1727. "Secrets ofInvisible World Discovered; or, History and Reality of Apparitions, " 1727, 1728. "A New Family Instructor, " 1728. "Augusta Triumphans, " 1728. "Plan ofEnglish Commerce, " 1728. "Second Thoughts are Best" (on Street Robberies), 1728. "Street Robberies Considered, " 1728. "Humble Proposal to People ofEngland 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 byDefoe are extant, on matters of Politics and Church. 

THE LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIESOF CAPTAIN SINGLETON

As it is usual for great persons, whose lives have been remarkable, andwhose actions deserve recording to posterity, to insist much upon theiroriginals, give full accounts of their families, and the histories of theirancestors, so, that I may be methodical, I shall do the same, though I canlook 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 littleboy, of about two years old, very well dressed, had a nursery-maid toattend me, who took me out on a fine summer's evening into the fieldstowards Islington, as she pretended, to give the child some air; a littlegirl being with her, of twelve or fourteen years old, that lived in theneighbourhood. The maid, whether by appointment or otherwise, meets with afellow, 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 thegirl 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, madeit their business to spirit away little children. This was a hellish tradein those days, and chiefly practised where they found little children verywell 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 withme, draws the girl a good way from the house, till at last she makes a finestory to the girl, and bids her go back to the maid, and tell her where shewas with the child; that a gentlewoman had taken a fancy to the child, andwas kissing of it, but she should not be frighted, or to that purpose; forthey were but just there; and so, while the girl went, she carries me quiteaway. 

From this time, it seems, I was disposed of to a beggar woman that wanted apretty little child to set out her case; and after that, to a gipsy, underwhose government I continued till I was about six years old. And thiswoman, though I was continually dragged about with her from one part of thecountry to another, yet never let me want for anything; and I called hermother; though she told me at last she was not my mother, but that shebought me for twelve shillings of another woman, who told her how she cameby me, and told her that my name was Bob Singleton, not Robert, but plainBob; 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 hussywas in that lost me; what treatment she received from my justly enragedfather and mother, and the horror these must be in at the thoughts of theirchild 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 itwould make but a needless digression to talk of it here. 

My good gipsy mother, for some of her worthy actions no doubt, happened inprocess of time to be hanged; and as this fell out something too soon forme 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; forthe first thing I can remember of myself afterwards, was, that I went to aparish school, and the minister of the parish used to talk to me to be agood boy; and that, though I was but a poor boy, if I minded my book, andserved God, I might make a good man. 

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

I lived well enough, and pleased my master so well that he called me hisown boy; and I would have called him father, but he would not allow it, forhe had children of his own. I went three or four voyages with him, and grewa 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 accountstands right, was about the year 1695, for you may be sure I kept nojournal. 

I was not much concerned at the disaster, though I saw my master, afterhaving been wounded by a splinter in the head during the engagement, verybarbarously used by the Turks; I say, I was not much concerned, till, uponsome unlucky thing I said, which, as I remember, was about abusing mymaster, they took me and beat me most unmercifully with a flat stick on thesoles of my feet, so that I could neither go or stand for several daystogether. 

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

As I was not much concerned at my captivity, not indeed understanding theconsequences of it, if it had continued, so I was not suitably sensible ofmy deliverance; nor, indeed, was it so much a deliverance to me as it wouldotherwise have been, for my master, who was the only friend I had in theworld, died at Lisbon of his wounds; and I being then almost reduced to myprimitive state, viz. , of starving, had this addition to it, that it was ina foreign country too, where I knew nobody and could not speak a word oftheir 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, tillat length one of the lieutenants seeing me, inquired what that youngEnglish 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 abit of bread; when the pilot of the ship, an old seaman, seeing me lookvery dull, came to me, and speaking broken English to me, told me I must begone. "Whither must I go?" said I. "Where you will, " said he, "home to yourown country, if you will. " "How must I go thither?" said I. "Why, have youno 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), "forhe 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 homewith him, and used me tolerably well, though I fared hard enough; and Ilived with him about two years, during which time he was soliciting hisbusiness, and at length got to be master or pilot under Don Garcia dePimentesia de Carravallas, captain of a Portuguese galleon or carrack, which was bound to Goa, in the East Indies; and immediately having gottenhis commission, put me on board to look after his cabin, in which he hadstored himself with abundance of liquors, succades, sugar, spices, andother things, for his accommodation in the voyage, and laid in afterwards aconsiderable quantity of European goods, fine lace and linen; and alsobaize, 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 mymaster, 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 servedme for an excuse. However, after some time, I began to look into his chartsand 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 beganto get a superficial knowledge of navigation, but not such as was likely tobe 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 thePortuguese; 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 ofany nation in the world. 

We made our way for the East Indies, by the coast of Brazil; not that it isin the course of sailing the way thither, but our captain, either on hisown 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 Todoslos Santos, we delivered near a hundred tons of goods, and took in aconsiderable quantity of gold, with some chests of sugar, and seventy oreighty great rolls of tobacco, every roll weighing at least ahundredweight. 

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

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

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

Thieving, lying, swearing, forswearing, joined to the most abominablelewdness, 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 theconsequence 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 contemptiblethoughts of the rest, as indeed they deserved. 

I was exactly fitted for their society indeed; for I had no sense of virtueor religion upon me. I had never heard much of either, except what a goodold parson had said to me when I was a child of about eight or nine yearsold; nay, I was preparing and growing up apace to be as wicked as anybodycould 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 butone hardened against all sense of honesty or religion could go through; andyet, even in this state of original wickedness, I entertained such asettled abhorrence of the abandoned vileness of the Portuguese, that Icould not but hate them most heartily from the beginning, and all my lifeafterwards. They were so brutishly wicked, so base and perfidious, not onlyto strangers but to one another, so meanly submissive when subjected, soinsolent, or barbarous and tyrannical, when superior, that I thought therewas something in them that shocked my very nature. Add to this that it isnatural to an Englishman to hate a coward, it all joined together to makethe devil and a Portuguese equally my aversion. 

However, according to the English proverb, he that is shipped with thedevil must sail with the devil; I was among them, and I managed myself aswell as I could. My master had consented that I should assist the captainin the office, as above; but, as I understood afterwards that the captainallowed my master half a moidore a month for my service, and that he had myname upon the ship's books also, I expected that when the ship came to bepaid four months' wages at the Indies, as they, it seems, always do, mymaster 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 upas in distress, and his business was to keep me so, and make his market ofme as well as he could, which I began to think of after a different mannerthan I did at first, for at first I thought he had entertained me in merecharity, upon seeing my distressed circumstances, but did not doubt butwhen 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 tospeak to him about it, when the ship was paid at Goa, he flew into thegreatest rage imaginable, and called me English dog, young heretic, andthreatened to put me into the Inquisition. Indeed, of all the names thefour-and-twenty letters could make up, he should not have called meheretic; for as I knew nothing about religion, neither Protestant fromPapist, 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 beencarried into the Inquisition, and there, if they had asked me if I was aProtestant or a Catholic, I should have said yes to that which camefirst. If it had been the Protestant they had asked first, it hadcertainly 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 wecalled 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 questionsabout it, which he found I answered so very simply, that he took it uponhim to tell them he would answer for my being a good Catholic, and he hopedhe should be the means of saving my soul, and he pleased himself that itwas to be a work of merit to him; so he made me as good a Papist as any ofthem in about a week's time. 

I then told him my case about my master; how, it is true, he had taken meup in a miserable case on board a man-of-war at Lisbon; and I was indebtedto him for bringing me on board this ship; that if I had been left atLisbon, I might have starved, and the like; and therefore I was willing toserve him, but that I hoped he would give me some little consideration formy service, or let me know how long he expected I should serve him fornothing. 

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 theAlgerine, and that I was a Turk, only pretended to be an English boy to getmy 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 Iwas, or from whence I came; but the good Padre Antonio, for that was hisname, cleared me of that part by a way I did not understand; for he came tome one morning with two sailors, and told me they must search me, to bearwitness that I was not a Turk. I was amazed at them, and frighted, and didnot understand them, nor could I imagine what they intended to do to me. However, stripping me, they were soon satisfied, and Father Antony bade mebe easy, for they could all witness that I was no Turk. So I escaped thatpart of my master's cruelty. 

And now I resolved from that time to run away from him if I could, butthere was no doing of it there, for there were not ships of any nation inthe world in that port, except two or three Persian vessels from Ormus, sothat if I had offered to go away from him, he would have had me seized onshore, 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 hebegan to use me ill, and not only to straiten my provisions, but to beatand 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 fromhis hands, set my head a-working upon all sorts of mischief, and inparticular I resolved, after studying all other ways to deliver myself, andfinding all ineffectual, I say, I resolved to murder him. With this hellishresolution in my head, I spent whole nights and days contriving how to putit in execution, the devil prompting me very warmly to the fact. I wasindeed 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, butknew not where to get any; or, if I might have got it, I did not know thecountry word for it, or by what name to ask for it. 

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

I can say nothing here to the manner of our voyage, for, as I said, I keptno journal; but this I can give an account of, that having been once ashigh as the Cape of Good Hope, as we call it, or Cabo de Bona Speranza, asthey 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 afterthat, standing afore the wind for several days more, we at last came to ananchor on the coast of Madagascar. 

The storm had been so violent that the ship had received a great deal ofdamage, and it required some time to repair her; so, standing in nearer theshore, 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 themen, upon account of some deficiency in their allowance, which came to thatheight that they threatened the captain to set him on shore, and go backwith the ship to Goa. I wished they would with all my heart, for I was fullof mischief in my head, and ready enough to do any. So, though I was but aboy, as they called me, yet I prompted the mischief all I could, andembarked in it so openly, that I escaped very little being hanged in thefirst and most early part of my life; for the captain had some notice thatthere 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 thepersons concerned, they were presently apprehended, till, one accusinganother, no less than sixteen men were seized and put into irons, whereof Iwas one. 

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

However, the captain contented himself with executing these two, and someof the rest, upon their humble submission and promise of future goodbehaviour, were pardoned; but five were ordered to be set on shore on theisland and left there, of which I was one. My master used all his interestwith the captain to have me excused, but could not obtain it; for somebodyhaving told him that I was one of them who was singled out to have killedhim, when my master desired I might not be set on shore, the captain toldhim 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, wasparticularly provoked at my being concerned in the treachery, because ofhis having been so kind to me, and of his having singled me out to servehim, as I have said above; and this, perhaps, obliged him to give my mastersuch a rough choice, either to set me on shore or to have me hanged onboard. And had my master, indeed, known what good-will I had for him, hewould not have been long in choosing for me; for I had certainly determinedto 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 inblood, and it made me more tender afterwards in matters of blood than Ibelieve I should otherwise have been. But as to my being one of them thatwas 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 lucknot to have that part discovered. 

I was now to enter upon a part of independent life, a thing I was indeedvery ill prepared to manage, for I was perfectly loose and dissolute in mybehaviour, bold and wicked while I was under government, and now perfectlyunfit to be trusted with liberty, for I was as ripe for any villainy as ayoung fellow that had no solid thought ever placed in his mind could besupposed to be. Education, as you have heard, I had none; and all thelittle scenes of life I had passed through had been full of dangers anddesperate circumstances; but I was either so young or so stupid, that Iescaped the grief and anxiety of them, for want of having a sense of theirtendency and consequences. 

This thoughtless, unconcerned temper had one felicity indeed in it, that itmade me daring and ready for doing any mischief, and kept off the sorrowwhich 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 mythoughts 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 sunkby their fear and grief, that they abandoned themselves to the misery oftheir condition, and gave over all thought but of their perishing andstarving, being devoured by wild beasts, murdered, and perhaps eaten bycannibals, and the like. 

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

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

Then I begged I might have my clothes on shore with me. He told me he wasafraid I should have little need of clothes, for he did not see how wecould long subsist on the island, and that he had been told that theinhabitants were cannibals or men-eaters (though he had no reason for thatsuggestion), and we should not be able to live among them. I told him I wasnot so afraid of that as I was of starving for want of victuals; and as forthe inhabitants being cannibals, I believed we should be more likely to eatthem than they us, if we could but get at them. But I was mightilyconcerned, 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, witha little powder and shot. 

He smiled, and said they would signify nothing to us, for it was impossiblefor us to pretend to preserve our lives among such a populous and desperatenation as the people of this island were. I told him that, however, itwould do us this good, for we should not be devoured or destroyedimmediately; so I begged hard for the gun. At last he told me he did notknow 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 forme, 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 tillwe were set all on shore, and till he was just going to set sail. He alsosent 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 myfellow-criminals hearing I had a gun, and some powder and shot, solicitedfor liberty to carry the like with them, which was also granted them; andthus we were set on shore to shift for ourselves. 

At our first coming into the island we were terrified exceedingly with thesight of the barbarous people, whose figure was made more terrible to usthan it really was by the report we had of them from the seamen; but whenwe came to converse with them awhile, we found they were not cannibals, aswas reported, or such as would fall immediately upon us and eat us up; butthey 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 onlyroots and plants dug out of the ground for the present, but they brought usfowls and flesh afterwards in good plenty. 

This encouraged the other four men that were with me very much, for theywere quite dejected before; but now they began to be very familiar withthem, and made signs, that if they would use us kindly, we would stay andlive with them; which they seemed glad of, though they knew little of thenecessity 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 thatpart so long as the ship rid in the bay, and then making them believe wewere 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, orperhaps 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 whichhad been done her in the late storm, and taking in wood and water; andduring this time, the boat coming often on shore, the men brought usseveral refreshments, and the natives believing we only belonged to theship, were civil enough. We lived in a kind of a tent on the shore, orrather a hut, which we made with the boughs of trees, and sometimes in thenight retired to a wood a little out of their way, to let them think wewere gone on board the ship. However, we found them barbarous, treacherous, and villainous enough in their nature, only civil from fear, and thereforeconcluded we should soon fall into their hands when the ship was gone. 

The sense of this wrought upon my fellow-sufferers even to distraction; andone of them, being a carpenter, in his mad fit, swam off to the ship in thenight, though she lay then a league to sea, and made such pitiful moan tobe 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 heconsented to it. 

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

When this man was got in, he never left importuning the captain, and allthe rest of the officers, in behalf of us that were behind, but to the verylast day the captain was inexorable; when, at the time their preparationswere making to sail, and orders given to hoist the boats into the ship, allthe seamen in a body came up to the rail of the quarter-deck, where thecaptain was walking with some of his officers, and appointing the boatswainto 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 onboard again, offering to answer for their fidelity, or to have them kept inchains 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, ordevoured by wild beasts. It was a great while ere the captain took anynotice of them, but when he did, he ordered the boatswain to be seized, andthreatened to bring him to the capstan for speaking for them. 

Upon this severity, one of the seamen, bolder than the rest, but still withall 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 withtheir companions, or, if possible, to assist them to resist the barbarians. The captain, rather provoked than cowed with this, came to the barricade ofthe quarter-deck, and speaking very prudently to the men (for had he spokenroughly, 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 beenobliged to that severity; that mutiny on board a ship was the same thing astreason in a king's palace, and he could not answer it to his owners andemployers to trust the ship and goods committed to his charge with men whohad entertained thoughts of the worst and blackest nature; that he wishedheartily 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 haddesigned they should be destroyed, he could as well have executed them onboard as the other two; that he wished it had been in some other part ofthe world, where he might have delivered them up to the civil justice, ormight have left them among Christians; but it was better their lives wereput in hazard than his life, and the safety of the ship; and that though hedid not know that he had deserved so ill of any of them as that they shouldleave the ship rather than do their duty, yet if any of them were resolvedto 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 nothinder them, nor for the present would he resent their importunity; but, ifthere was nobody left in the ship but himself, he would never consent totake them on board. 

This discourse was delivered so well, was in itself so reasonable, wasmanaged with so much temper, yet so boldly concluded with a negative, thatthe greatest part of the men were satisfied for the present. However, as itput the men into juntos and cabals, they were not composed for some hours;the wind also slackening towards night, the captain ordered not to weightill 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 matetold him, that as the captain had given them leave to go on shore to theircomrades, they begged that he would speak to the captain not to take it illthat they were desirous to go and die with their companions; and that theythought 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 totheir numbers, and making them strong enough to assist one another indefending themselves against the savages, till perhaps they might one timeor other find means to make their escape, and get to their own countryagain. 

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

Accordingly, an hour before day, those twenty-three men, with every man afirelock and a cutlass, with some pistols, three halberds or half-pikes, and good store of powder and ball, without any provision but about half ahundred of bread, but with all their chests and clothes, tools, instruments, books, &c. , embarked themselves so silently, that the captaingot 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, thechief gunner being at the time sick in his cabin, and ordered to fire atthem; but, to his great mortification, the gunner's mate was one of thenumber, and was gone with them; and indeed it was by this means they got somany arms and so much ammunition. When the captain found how it was, andthat there was no help for it, he began to be a little appeased, and madelight of it, and called up the men, and spoke kindly to them, and told themhe was very well satisfied in the fidelity and ability of those that werenow left, and that he would give to them, for their encouragement, to bedivided among them, the wages which were due to the men that were gone, andthat it was a great satisfaction to him that the ship was free from such amutinous rabble, who had not the least reason for their discontent. 

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

Upon this the captain, who had won much upon the rest of his men by what hehad said to them, and was very easy as to the general peace (for it wasvery true that the most mutinous of the men were gone), came out to thequarter-deck, and, calling the men together, let them know the substance ofthe letter, and told the men that, however they had not deserved suchcivility from him, yet he was not willing to expose them more than theywere willing to expose themselves; he was inclined to send them someammunition, and as they had desired but one barrel of powder, he would sendthem 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, heordered a cask of arrack and a great bag of bread to be sent them forsubsistence till they should be able to furnish themselves. 

The rest of the men applauded the captain's generosity, and every one ofthem sent us something or other, and about three in the afternoon thepinnace came on shore, and brought us all these things, which we were veryglad of, and returned the long-boat accordingly; and as to the men thatcame with the pinnace, as the captain had singled out such men as he knewwould not come over to us, so they had positive orders not to bring any oneof us on board again, upon pain of death; and indeed both were so true toour 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 isto say, he was an assistant to a surgeon at Goa, and was entertained as asupernumerary with us. The carpenters had brought all their tools, thedoctor all his instruments and medicines, and indeed we had a great deal ofbaggage, that is to say, on the whole, for some of us had little more thanthe clothes on our backs, of whom I was one; but I had one thing which noneof them had, viz. , I had the twenty-two moidores of gold which I had stoleat 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 moneyin 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 aslave, 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 wewere frighted, and thought they came to fetch us back to hang us; but theytook ways quickly to satisfy us that they were in the same condition withus, only with this additional circumstance, theirs was voluntary, and oursby force. 

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

Being now, as I have said, a considerable number of us, and in condition todefend ourselves, the first thing we did was to give every one his handthat 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, butthat we would distribute it in public; and that we would be in all thingsguided by the majority, and not insist upon our own resolutions in anythingif the majority were against it; that we would appoint a captain among usto be our governor or leader during pleasure; that while he was in officewe would obey him without reserve, on pain of death; and that every oneshould take turn, but the captain was not to act in any particular thingwithout advice of the rest, and by the majority. 

Having established these rules, we resolved to enter into some measures forour food, and for conversing with the inhabitants or natives of the islandfor our supply. As for food, they were at first very useful to us, but wesoon grew weary of them, being an ignorant, ravenous, brutish sort ofpeople, 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 hadby our guns, shooting of deer and other creatures, and fowls of all othersorts, 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 wasour case; for the next morning, after we had sent back the long-boat, theship stood away to the south-east, and in four hours' time was out of oursight. 

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 wasvery pleasant and fruitful, and a convenient place enough to live in; but, as before, inhabited by a parcel of creatures scarce human, or capable ofbeing made social on any account whatsoever. 

We found the place full of cattle and provisions; but whether we mightventure to take them where we could find them or not, we did not know; andthough we were under a necessity to get provisions, yet we were loth tobring down a whole nation of devils upon us at once, and therefore some ofour 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 menwent on this errand, well armed and furnished for defence. They broughtword that they had seen some of the natives, who appeared very civil tothem, but very shy and afraid, seeing their guns, for it was easy toperceive that the natives knew what their guns were, and what use they wereof. 

They made signs to the natives for some food, and they went and fetchedseveral herbs and roots, and some milk; but it was evident they did notdesign to give it away, but to sell it, making signs to know what our menwould 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 ofit that they were ready to go together by the ears for the knife. Theseaman seeing that, was willing to make a good market of his knife, andkeeping them chaffering about it a good while, some offered him roots, andothers milk; at last one offered him a goat for it, which he took. Thenanother of our men showed them another knife, but they had nothing goodenough for that, whereupon one of them made signs that he would go andfetch something; so our men stayed three hours for their return, when theycame back and brought him a small-sized, thick, short cow, very fat andgood meat, and gave him for his knife. 

This was a good market, but our misfortune was we had no merchandise; forour knives were as needful to us as to them, and but that we were indistress for food, and must of necessity have some, these men would nothave parted with their knives. 

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

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

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

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

We had many adventures in the woods, for our provisions, and often met withwild and terrible beasts, which we could not call by their names; but asthey were, like us, seeking their prey, but were themselves good fornothing, so we disturbed them as little as possible. 

Our consultations concerning our escape from this place, which, as I havesaid, we were now upon, ended in this only, that as we had two carpentersamong us, and that they had tools almost of all sorts with them, we shouldtry to build us a boat to go off to sea with, and that then, perhaps, wemight find our way back to Goa, or land on some more proper place to makeour escape. The counsels of this assembly were not of great moment, yet asthey seem to be introductory of many more remarkable adventures whichhappened under my conduct hereabouts many years after, I think thisminiature 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 workimmediately; but as they went on, great difficulties occurred, such as thewant of saws to cut our plank; nails, bolts, and spikes, to fasten thetimbers; hemp, pitch, and tar, to caulk and pay her seams, and the like. Atlength, one of the company proposed that, instead of building a bark orsloop, or shallop, or whatever they would call it, which they found was sodifficult, they would rather make a large periagua, or canoe, which mightbe done with great ease. 

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

I never proposed to speak in their general consultations before, butfinding 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 toldthem I found they were at a full stop in their counsels of every kind; thatit was true we could never pretend to go over to Goa on the coast ofMalabar in a canoe, which though we could all get into it, and that itwould bear the sea well enough, yet would not hold our provisions, andespecially we could not put fresh water enough into it for the voyage; andto make such an adventure would be nothing but mere running into certaindestruction, and yet that nevertheless I was for making a canoe. 

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

To this I answered, that I conceived our business was not to attempt ourescape in a canoe, but that, as there were other vessels at sea besides ourship, and that there were few nations that lived on the sea-shore that wereso barbarous, but that they went to sea in some boats or other, ourbusiness 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, andso from that to another, till perhaps we might at last get a good ship tocarry 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 hasgiven excellent advice; but it is just the way to bring us all to thegallows. 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 turndownright pirates, the end of which is to be hanged. "

"You may call us pirates, " says another, "if you will, and if we fall intobad hands, we may be used like pirates; but I care not for that, I'll be apirate, or anything, nay, I'll be hanged for a pirate rather than starvehere, 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; butas 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, "Mylad, " says he, "thou art born to do a world of mischief; thou hastcommenced 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 tohereafter, but as our case was now, I should make no scruple to take thefirst 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 thedoor of our hut, told us that the carpenter, who it seems was upon a hillat a distance, cried out, "A sail! a sail!"

We all turned out immediately; but, though it was very clear weather, wecould see nothing; but the carpenter continuing to halloo to us, "A sail! asail!" away we run up the hill, and there we saw a ship plainly; but it wasat 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 gettogether, and made as much smoke as possible. The wind was down, and it wasalmost calm; but as we thought, by a perspective glass which the gunner hadin his pocket, her sails were full, and she stood away large with the windat E. N. E. , taking no notice of our signal, but making for the Cape de BonaSperanza; 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 withher; and having three good axes among us, we got it down, but it was fourdays' time first, though we worked very hard too. I do not remember whatwood it was, or exactly what dimensions, but I remember that it was a verylarge one, and we were as much encouraged when we launched it, and found itswam upright and steady, as we would have been at another time if we hadhad a good man-of-war at our command. 

She was so very large, that she carried us all very, very easily, and wouldhave carried two or three tons of baggage with us; so that we began toconsult about going to sea directly to Goa; but many other considerationschecked that thought, especially when we came to look nearer into it; suchas want of provisions, and no casks for fresh water; no compass to steerby; no shelter from the breach of the high sea, which would certainlyfounder us; no defence from the heat of the weather, and the like; so thatthey all came readily into my project, to cruise about where we were, andsee what might offer. 

Accordingly, to gratify our fancy, we went one day all out to sea in hertogether, and we were in a very fair way to have had enough of it; for whenshe had us all on board, and that we were gotten about half a league tosea, there happening to be a pretty high swell of the sea, though little orno wind, yet she wallowed so in the sea, that we all of us thought shewould at last wallow herself bottom up; so we set all to work to get her innearer the shore, and giving her fresh way in the sea, she swam moresteady, 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 cameoften to discourse with us; one time they brought one whom they showedrespect to as a king with them, and they set up a long pole between themand us, with a great tassel of hair hanging, not on the top, but somethingabove 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 andfriendship; 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 thingsfor nothing they had no notion of that again. As to our money, it was meretrash to them, they had no value for it; so that we were in a fair way tobe 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 wouldnot have been worth the freight, we might have bought cattle and provisionsenough for an army, or to victual a fleet of men-of-war; but for gold orsilver we could get nothing. 

Upon this we were in a strange consternation. I was but a young fellow, butI was for falling upon them with our firearms, and taking all the cattlefrom them, and send them to the devil to stop their hunger, rather than bestarved ourselves; but I did not consider that this might have brought tenthousand of them down upon us the next day; and though we might have killeda vast number of them, and perhaps have frighted the rest, yet their owndesperation, and our small number, would have animated them so that, onetime or other, they would have destroyed us all. 

In the middle of our consultation, one of our men who had been a kind of acutler, or worker in iron, started up and asked the carpenter if, among allhis tools, he could not help him to a file. "Yes, " says the carpenter, "Ican, but it is a small one. " "The smaller the better, " says the other. Uponthis he goes to work, and first by heating a piece of an old broken chiselin the fire, and then with the help of his file, he made himself severalkinds 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 broadand thin; then he cuts them out into the shape of birds and beasts; he madelittle chains of them for bracelets and necklaces, and turned them into somany 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 thiswork, we tried the effect of his ingenuity; and, having another meetingwith the natives, were surprised to see the folly of the poor people. For alittle 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 morevalue. For one of the bracelets made of chain-work, we had as muchprovision 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 itwas in coin was not worth sixpence to us, when thus converted into toys andtrifles, was worth a hundred times its real value, and purchased for usanything we had occasion for. 

In this condition we lived upwards of a year, but all of us began to bevery much tired of it, and, whatever came of it, resolved to attempt anescape. We had furnished ourselves with no less than three very goodcanoes; 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, andthe other six months another way, we concluded we might be able to bear thesea well enough. But always, when we came to look into it, the want offresh water was the thing that put us off from such an adventure, for it isa prodigious length, and what no man on earth could be able to performwithout water to drink. 

Being thus prevailed upon by our own reason to set the thoughts of thatvoyage aside, we had then but two things before us; one was, to put to seathe 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 elseto put for the mainland of Africa, and either travel by land, or sail alongthe coast towards the Red Sea, where we should, first or last, find a shipof some nation or other, that would take us up; or perhaps we might takethem 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, thatproposed this; but the gunner told him, that he had been in the Red Sea ina Malabar sloop, and he knew this, that if we went into the Red Sea, weshould either be killed by the wild Arabs, or taken and made slaves of bythe 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 wetalk of being killed by the Arabs, or made slaves of by the Turks? Are wenot 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 thegunner (he that had looked in my hand, and told me I should come to thegallows), "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 fairlyout of this cursed place. "

In a word, they concluded all, by my advice, that our business was tocruise for anything we could see. "Why then, " said I to them, "our firstbusiness is to see if the people upon this island have no navigation, andwhat boats they use; and, if they have any better or bigger than ours, letus take one of them. " First, indeed, all our aim was to get, if possible, aboat 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 beenassistant to the cook; he told us, that he would find a way how to preserveour beef without cask or pickle; and this he did effectually by curing itin the sun, with the help of saltpetre, of which there was great plenty inthe island; so that, before we found any method for our escape, we haddried 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 boilit when we ate it, but either broiled it or ate it dry. But our maindifficulty about fresh water still remained; for we had no vessel to putany into, much less to keep any for our going to sea. 

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

It wanted but a little consultation to resolve now upon our voyage. Thefirst design was only to coast it round the island, as well to see if wecould seize upon any vessel fit to embark ourselves in, as also to takehold of any opportunity which might present for our passing over to themain; and therefore our resolution was to go on the inside or west shore ofthe island, where, at least at one point, the land stretching a great wayto the north-west, the distance is not extraordinary great from the islandto 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 anyshipping, especially for shipping of other nations, this being quite out ofthe way; however, we put to sea, after taking all our provisions andammunition, bag and baggage, on board; we had made both mast and sail forour two large periaguas, and the other we paddled along as well as wecould; but when a gale sprung up, we took her in tow. 

We sailed merrily forward for several days, meeting with nothing tointerrupt us. We saw several of the natives in small canoes catching fish, and sometimes we endeavoured to come near enough to speak with them, butthey were always shy and afraid of us, making in for the shore as soon aswe attempted it; till one of our company remembered the signal offriendship 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 thesame thing to them as a flag of truce to us. So we resolved to try it; andaccordingly the next time we saw any of their fishing-boats at sea we putup a pole in our canoe that had no sail, and rowed towards them. As soon asthey saw the pole they stayed for us, and as we came nearer paddled towardsus; when they came to us they showed themselves very much pleased, and gaveus some large fish, of which we did not know the names, but they were verygood. It was our misfortune still that we had nothing to give them inreturn; but our artist, of whom I spoke before, gave them two little thinplates of silver, beaten, as I said before, out of a piece of eight; theywere cut in a diamond square, longer one way than the other, and a holepunched at one of the longest corners. This they were so fond of that theymade us stay till they had cast their lines and nets again, and gave us asmany 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 apiece of cotton stuff fit for little, and their ropes were twisted flags ofno 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 twelvedays together, and having the wind at east and E. S. E. , we made very freshway. We saw no towns on the shore, but often saw some huts by thewater-side upon the rocks, and always abundance of people about them, whowe could perceive run together to stare at us. 

It was as odd a voyage as ever man went; we were a little fleet of threeships, and an army of between twenty and thirty as dangerous fellows asever they had amongst them; and had they known what we were, they wouldhave 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 andnowhere; for though we knew what we intended to do, we did really not knowwhat we were doing. We went forward and forward by a northerly course, andas we advanced the heat increased, which began to be intolerable to us, whowere on the water, without any covering from heat or wet; besides, we werenow in the month of October, or thereabouts, in a southern latitude; and aswe 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 havingpassed the tropic about five or six days before that, in a few days morethe sun would be in the zenith, just over our heads. 

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

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

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

While we mused upon this discovery, we were surprised with very badweather, and especially violent rains, with thunder and lightning, mostunusually terrible to us. In this pickle we run for the shore, and gettingunder the lee of the cape, run our frigates into a little creek, where wesaw the land overgrown with trees, and made all the haste possible to geton 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 ourartist, of whom I have spoken so often, set up a great cross of wood on thehill which was within a mile of the headland, with these words, but in thePortuguese language:--

"Point Desperation. Jesus have mercy. "

We set to work immediately to build us some huts, and to get our clothesdried; and though I was young and had no skill in such things, yet I shallnever forget the little city we built, for it was no less, and we fortifiedit accordingly; and the idea is so fresh in my thought, that I cannot butgive a short description of it. 

Our camp was on the south side of a little creek on the sea, and under theshelter 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 happilyintercepted the heat of the sun all the after part of the day. The spot wepitched on had a little fresh water brook, or a stream running into thecreek by us; and we saw cattle feeding in the plains and low ground eastand to the south of us a great way. 

Here we set up twelve little huts like soldiers' tents, but made of theboughs of trees stuck in the ground, and bound together on the top withwithies, and such other things as we could get; the creek was our defenceon the north, a little brook on the west, and the south and east sides werefortified with a bank, which entirely covered our huts; and being drawnoblique 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 themat a good distance. In one of these, which was a little one, and stoodfurther off, we put our gunpowder, and nothing else, for fear of danger; inthe other, which was bigger, we dressed our victuals, and put all ournecessaries; and in the third, which was biggest of all, we ate ourdinners, called our councils, and sat and diverted ourselves with suchconversation as we had one with another, which was but indifferent truly atthat time. 

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

The southern solstice was over, and the sun gone back towards theequinoctial, when we considered of our next adventure, which was to go overthe 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 makeourselves intelligible to, but all that we could learn from them was, thatthere was a great land of lions beyond the sea, but that it was a great wayoff. We knew as well as they that it was a long way, but our peoplediffered mightily about it; some said it was 150 leagues, others not above100. One of our men, that had a map of the world, showed us by his scalethat it was not above eighty leagues. Some said there were islands all theway to touch at, some that there were no islands at all. For my own part, Iknew nothing of this matter one way or another, but heard it all withoutconcern, whether it was near or far off; however, this we learned from anold man who was blind and led about by a boy, that if we stayed till theend of August, we should be sure of the wind to be fair and the sea smoothall the voyage. 

This was some encouragement; but staying again was very unwelcome news tous, because that then the sun would be returning again to the south, whichwas what our men were very unwilling to. At last we called a council of ourwhole 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 hadtaken state upon me before one of their great princes), truly I was on noside; it was not one farthing matter to me, I told them, whether we went orstayed; I had no home, and all the world was alike to me; so I left itentirely to them to determine. 

In a word, they saw plainly there was nothing to be done where we werewithout shipping; that if our business indeed was only to eat and drink, wecould not find a better place in the world; but if our business was to getaway, and get home into our country, we could not find a worse. 

I confess I liked the country wonderfully, and even then had strangenotions of coming again to live there; and I used to say to them very oftenthat 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 aking. 

But to return to the consultations they were in about going. Upon thewhole, 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 undertakesuch a voyage in that country; for, as the winds hang easterly all themonths from September to March, so they generally hang westerly all therest 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 twentyleagues, and, as I may say, just enough to lose ourselves, we found thewind set in a steady fresh gale or breeze from the sea, at west, W. S. W. , orS. W. By W. , and never further from the west; so that, in a word, we couldmake nothing of it. 

On the other hand, the vessel, such as we had, would not lie close upon awind; if so, we might have stretched away N. N. W. , and have met with a greatmany islands in our way, as we found afterwards; but we could make nothingof 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 hadforgotten the shape and position of the island of Madagascar itself; howthat we came off at the head of a promontory or point of land, that liesabout the middle of the island, and that stretches out west a great wayinto the sea; and that now, being run a matter of forty leagues to thenorth, 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 themain, 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 smallestcanoe 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, wehad been all lost, our canoes being deep and in no condition to make way ina high sea. 

This voyage, however, held us eleven days in all; and at length, havingspent most of our provisions, and every drop of water we had, we spiedland, 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 hardagainst us, we were two days more before we reached the shore, having allthat while excessive hot weather, and not a drop of water or any otherliquor, except some cordial waters, which one of our company had a littleof left in a case of bottles. 

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

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

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

After this they sent us milk, plantains, pumpkins, and abundance of rootsand greens that were very good, and then took their leave, and would nottake anything from us that we had. One of our men offered the king orcaptain of these men a dram, which he drank and was mightily pleased withit, 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, alwaysbringing us something or other; and one time sent us seven head of blackcattle, some of which we cured and dried as before. 

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

Here we observed two things that were very material to us, even essentiallyso; first, we found they had a great deal of earthenware here, which theymade use of many ways as we did; particularly they had long, deep earthenpots, which they used to sink into the ground, to keep the water which theydrunk cool and pleasant; and the other was, that they had larger canoesthan their neighbours had. 

By this we were prompted to inquire if they had no larger vessels thanthose we saw there, or if any other of the inhabitants had not such. Theysignified 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 thatwith decks upon them, and large sails; and this made us resolve to coastround the whole island to see them; so we prepared and victualled our canoefor 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 timewe went on shore several times for water and provisions, and found thenatives always very free and courteous; but we were surprised one morningearly, being at the extremity of the northernmost part of the island, whenone of our men cried out, "A sail! a sail!" We presently saw a vessel agreat way out at sea; but after we had looked at it with our perspectiveglasses, and endeavoured all we could to make out what it was, we could nottell 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 itwas, that it went from us, standing out to sea. In a word, we soon lostsight of it, for we were in no condition to chase anything, and we neversaw it again; but, by all that we could perceive of it, from what we saw ofsuch things afterwards, it was some Arabian vessel, which had been tradingto the coast of Mozambique, or Zanzibar, the same place where we afterwardswent, as you shall hear. 

I kept no journal of this voyage, nor indeed did I all this whileunderstand anything of navigation, more than the common business of aforemast-man; so I can say nothing to the latitudes or distances of anyplaces 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 theeastern shore due south, as we had done down the western shore due northbefore. 

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

We continued our voyage south for many weeks, though with several intervalsof going on shore to get provisions and water. At length, coming round apoint 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 asdisagreeable to those concerned, as it was pleasant to us. This was thewreck of an European ship, which had been cast away upon the rocks, whichin that place run a great way into the sea. 

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

We could see nothing to be gotten out of the wreck that was worth ourwhile; but we resolved to go on shore, and stay some time thereabouts, tosee if perhaps we might get any light into the story of her; and we werenot without hopes that we might hear something more particular about hermen, and perhaps find some of them on shore there, in the same conditionthat we were in, and so might increase our company. 

It was a very pleasant sight to us when, coming on shore, we saw all themarks 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 aship or vessel; and, in a word, a great many things that fairly invited usto go about the same work; and we soon came to understand that the menbelonging to the ship that was lost had saved themselves on shore, perhapsin their boat, and had built themselves a barque or sloop, and so were goneto sea again; and, inquiring of the natives which way they went, theypointed to the south and south-west, by which we could easily understandthey were gone away to the Cape of Good Hope. 

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

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

When we came to set close to this work we found it very laborious anddifficult, having but few tools, no ironwork, no cordage, no sails; sothat, 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 knewlittle or nothing of. However, necessity was the spur to invention, and wedid many things which before we thought impracticable, that is to say, inour circumstances. 

After our two carpenters had resolved upon the dimensions of what theywould build, they set us all to work, to go off in our boats and split upthe wreck of the old ship, and to bring away everything we could; andparticularly that, if possible, we should bring away the mizzen-mast, whichwas left standing, which with much difficulty we effected, after abovetwenty 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 wasnow 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 havemade a cable; so we contented ourselves with making some ropes with thehelp of the natives, of such stuff as they made their mats of, and withthese we made such a kind of cable or tow-line as was sufficient to fastenour 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 theend of which time we launched our frigate, which, in a few words, had manydefects, but yet, all things considered, it was as well as we could expectit to be. 

In short, it was a kind of sloop, of the burthen of near eighteen or twentytons; and had we had masts and sails, standing and running rigging, as isusual in such cases, and other conveniences, the vessel might have carriedus wherever we could have had a mind to go; but of all the materials wewanted, this was the worst, viz. , that we had no tar or pitch to pay theseams and secure the bottom; and though we did what we could, with tallowand oil, to make a mixture to supply that part, yet we could not bring itto answer our end fully; and when we launched her into the water, she wasso leaky, and took in the water so fast, that we thought all our labour hadbeen lost, for we had much ado to make her swim; and as for pumps, we hadnone, nor had we any means to make one. 

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

Our vessel being thus finished, out of the mizzen-mast of the ship we madea 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 ourpresent necessity called upon us for; and having victualled her, and put asmuch fresh water on board as we thought we wanted, or as we knew how tostow (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, andthe sun went from us apace, which was much to our satisfaction, for theheats were exceedingly violent. The wind, as I said, was fair; for, as Ihave since learned, the winds generally spring up to the eastward, as thesun goes from them to the north. 

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

These men, too, had all along had a great mind to a voyage for the mainlandof Africa, where they said we should have a fair cast for our lives, andmight be sure to make ourselves rich, which way soever we went, if we werebut 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 theyear, and must have stayed till April or May before we had gone to sea. Atlength, 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 wereupon, for we were now upon the wrong side of the island for the voyage weintended; so we stood away to the north, and, having rounded the cape, wehauled away southward, under the lee of the island, thinking to reach thewest point of land, which, as I observed before, runs out so far towardsthe coast of Africa, as would have shortened our run almost 100 leagues. But when we had sailed about thirty leagues, we found the winds variableunder the shore, and right against us, so we concluded to stand overdirectly, for then we had the wind fair, and our vessel was but very illfated to lie near the wind, or any way indeed but just before it. 

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

As for me, I had no anxieties about it, so that we had but a view ofreaching some land or other, I cared not what or where it was to be, havingat this time no views of what was before me, nor much thought of what mightor might not befall me; but with as little consideration as any one can besupposed 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 anddesperation, so really it was not carried on with much resolution orjudgment; 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, whichone of our men had more by accident than otherwise, so we could not be veryexact 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 coursefor us as any we could go, and thus we went on. 

The voyage was much longer than we expected; our vessel also, which had nosail that was proportioned to her, made but very little way in the sea, andsailed heavily. We had, indeed, no great adventures happened in thisvoyage, 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 hailanything in all the voyage; for we saw not one vessel, small or great, thesea we were upon being entirely out of the way of all commerce; for thepeople of Madagascar knew no more of the shores of Africa than we did, onlythat 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 ourgreat joy, one of our men cried out "Land!" We had great reason to be gladof the discovery, for we had not water enough left for above two or threedays more, though at a short allowance. However, though it was early in themorning 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 verydull 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 noinhabitants 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 usfor fresh meat, and we found very good water; and it was fifteen days morebefore we reached the main, which, however, at last we arrived at, andwhich was most essential to us, as we came to it just as all our provisionswere spent. Indeed, we may say they were spent first, for we had but a pintof water a day to each man for the last two days. But, to our great joy, wesaw the land, though at a great distance, the evening before, and by apleasant 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, hadwe had patience, we might have found a very fine river a little farthernorth. However, we kept our frigate on float by the help of two greatpoles, which we fastened into the ground to moor her, like poles; and thelittle weak ropes, which, as I said, we had made of matting, served us wellenough to make the vessel fast. 

As soon as we had viewed the country a little, got fresh water, andfurnished ourselves with some victuals, which we found very scarce here, wewent on board again with our stores. All we got for provision was somefowls that we killed, and a kind of wild buffalo or bull, very small, butgood meat; I say, having got these things on board, we resolved to sailalong the coast, which lay N. N. E. , till we found some creek or river, thatwe might run up into the country, or some town or people; for we had reasonenough to know the place was inhabited, because we several times saw firesin 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 orrivers emptying themselves into the sea, and we ran boldly into the firstcreek we came at; where, seeing some huts and wild people about them on theshore, 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 ofpeace to them. We found they understood us presently, for they cameflocking 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 hadbeen monsters, and as if they had been frighted; but we found they inclinedto 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 thatwe wanted water. This they understood presently, and three of their womenand two boys ran away up the land, and came back in about half a quarter ofan hour, with several pots, made of earth, pretty enough, and baked, Isuppose, in the sun; these they brought us full of water, and set them downnear the sea-shore, and there left them, going back a little, that we mightfetch them, which we did. 

Some time after this, they brought us roots and herbs, and some fruitswhich 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, ourcutler went to work, and, as he had saved some iron out of the wreck of theship, he made abundance of toys, birds, dogs, pins, hooks, and rings; andwe helped to file them, and make them bright for him, and when we gave themsome of these, they brought us all sorts of provisions they had, such asgoats, 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 Zemblaitself not excepted, with this difference only, that even the worst part ofit we found inhabited, though, taking the nature and quality of some of theinhabitants, 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, itwas here that we took one of the rashest, and wildest, and most desperateresolutions 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 thecoast 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 1800miles, in which journey we had excessive heats to support, unpassabledeserts to go over, no carriages, camels, or beasts of any kind to carryour baggage, innumerable numbers of wild and ravenous beasts to encounterwith, such as lions, leopards, tigers, lizards, and elephants; we had theequinoctial line to pass under, and, consequently, were in the very centreof the torrid zone; we had nations of savages to encounter with, barbarousand brutish to the last degree; hunger and thirst to struggle with, and, inone word, terrors enough to have daunted the stoutest hearts that ever wereplaced in cases of flesh and blood. 

Yet, fearless of all these, we resolved to adventure, and accordingly madesuch 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 barefootedupon the rocks, the gravel, the grass, and the sand on the shore; but as wefound the worst thing for our feet was the walking or travelling on the dryburning sands, within the country, so we provided ourselves with a sort ofshoes, made of the skins of wild beasts, with the hair inward, and beingdried in the sun, the outsides were thick and hard, and would last a greatwhile. 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 verycomfortable. 

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

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

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

First, we were perfectly destitute of means to work about our owndeliverance any other way; we were on shore in a place perfectly remotefrom all European navigation; so that we could never think of beingrelieved, and fetched off by any of our own countrymen in that part of theworld. Secondly, if we had adventured to have sailed on along the coast ofMozambique, and the desolate shores of Africa to the north, till we came tothe Red Sea, all we could hope for there was to be taken by the Arabs, andbe sold for slaves to the Turks, which to all of us was little better thandeath. We could not build anything of a vessel that would carry us over thegreat 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 reachsome of the great rivers that run into the Atlantic Ocean; and that, on thebanks of any of those rivers, we might there build us canoes which wouldcarry us down, if it were thousands of miles, so that we could want nothingbut 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, wouldinfinitely recompense us for our toil. 

I cannot say that in all our consultations I ever began to enter into theweight and merit of any enterprise we went upon till now. My view beforewas, as I thought, very good, viz. , that we should get into the ArabianGulf, or the mouth of the Red Sea; and waiting for some vessel passing orrepassing there, of which there is plenty, have seized upon the first wecame at by force, and not only have enriched ourselves with her cargo, buthave carried ourselves to what part of the world we had pleased; but whenthey came to talk to me of a march of 2000 or 3000 miles on foot, ofwandering 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 Isubmitted, and told them I would keep to our first law, to be governed bythe majority, and we resolved upon our journey. The first thing we did wasto take an observation, and see whereabouts in the world we were, which wedid, and found we were in the latitude of 12 degrees 35 minutes south ofthe line. The next thing was to look on the charts, and see the coast ofthe country we aimed at, which we found to be from 8 to 11 degrees southlatitude, if we went for the coast of Angola, or in 12 to 29 degrees northlatitude, 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, lyingvery near the same latitude we were then in, our course thither was duewest; and as we were assured we should meet with rivers, we doubted not butthat by their help we might ease our journey, especially if we could findmeans to cross the great lake, or inland sea, which the natives callCoalmucoa, out of which it is said the river Nile has its source orbeginning; but we reckoned without our host, as you will see in the sequelof our story. 

The next thing we had to consider was, how to carry our baggage, which wewere first of all determined not to travel without; neither indeed was itpossible for us to do so, for even our ammunition, which was absolutelynecessary to us, and on which our subsistence, I mean for food, as well asour 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 carryin a country where the heat was such that we should be load enough forourselves. 

We inquired in the country, and found there was no beast of burthen knownamong them, that is to say, neither horses or mules, or asses, camels, ordromedaries; the only creature they had was a kind of buffalo, or tamebull, such a one as we had killed; and that some of these they had broughtso 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 themcarry burthens; and particularly that they would swim over rivers and lakesupon them, the creatures swimming very high and strong in the water. 

But we understood nothing of the management of guiding such a creature, orhow to bind a burthen upon them; and this last part of our consultationpuzzled us extremely. At last I proposed a method for them, which, aftersome consideration, they found very convenient; and this was, to quarrelwith some of the negro natives, take ten or twelve of them prisoners, andbinding them as slaves, cause them to travel with us, and make them carryour baggage; which I alleged would be convenient and useful many ways aswell 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 themreason to approve it, and also gave them an opportunity to put it inpractice; for, as our little traffic with the natives was hitherto upon thefaith 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, ourcutler had contrived, one of our men differing with his chapman, truly theyhuffed him in their manner, and, keeping the things he had offered them forthe cattle, made their fellows drive away the cattle before his face, andlaugh at him. Our man crying out loud of this violence, and calling to someof us who were not far off, the negro he was dealing with threw a lance athim, which came so true, that, if he had not with great agility jumpedaside, and held up his hand also to turn the lance as it came, it hadstruck through his body; and, as it was, it wounded him in the arm; atwhich the man, enraged, took up his fuzee, and shot the negro through theheart. 

The others that were near him, and all those that were with us at adistance, were so terribly frighted, first, at the flash of fire; secondly, at the noise; and thirdly, at seeing their countryman killed, that theystood like men stupid and amazed, at first, for some time; but after theywere a little recovered from their fright, one of them, at a good distancefrom us, set up a sudden screaming noise, which, it seems, is the noisethey make when they go to fight; and all the rest understanding what hemeant, answered him, and ran together to the place where he was, and we notknowing what it meant, stood still, looking upon one another like a parcelof fools. 

But we were presently undeceived; for, in two or three minutes more, weheard the screaming roaring noise go on from one place to another, throughall their little towns; nay, even over the creek to the other side; and, ona sudden, we saw a naked multitude running from all parts to the placewhere the first man began it, as to a rendezvous; and, in less than anhour, I believe there was near 500 of them gotten together, armed some withbows 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 wasincreasing every moment; and I verily believe, if we had stayed long, theywould 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 havedefended ourselves very well, or to advance and try what a volley or two ofsmall shot would do for us. 

We resolved immediately upon the latter, depending upon it that the fireand terror of our shot would soon put them to flight; so we drew up all ina 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 wecame near enough for them to throw their lances, we halted, and, standingat a good distance from one another, to stretch our line as far as wecould, we gave them a salute with our shot, which, besides what we woundedthat we knew not of, knocked sixteen of them down upon the spot, and threemore 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, partlyraised by those that were wounded, and partly by those that pitied andcondoled the bodies they saw lie dead, that I never heard anything like itbefore or since. 

We stood stock still after we had fired, to load our guns again, andfinding they did not stir from the place we fired among them again; wekilled about nine of them at the second fire; but as they did not stand sothick as before, all our men did not fire, seven of us being ordered toreserve our charge, and to advance as soon as the other had fired, whilethe 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 yardsnearer, fired again, and those that were behind having loaded again withall expedition, followed; but when they saw us advance, they ran screamingaway as if they were bewitched. 

When we came up to the field of battle, we saw a great number of bodieslying upon the ground, many more than we could suppose were killed orwounded; nay, more than we had bullets in our pieces when we fired; and wecould 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 believeseveral of those that were really dead, were frighted to death, and had nowound about them. 

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

Before I go any farther, I must hint to the reader, that from this timeforward I began to enter a little more seriously into the circumstance Iwas in, and concerned myself more in the conduct of our affairs; for thoughmy 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 ofa thing. The first occasion I took to observe this, was in their lateengagement with the natives, when, though they had taken a good resolutionto 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 beganto fail, and I am persuaded, if their bark had been near hand, they wouldevery man have run away. 

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

Having fired a second time, I was indeed forced to command, as I may callit. "Now, seigniors, " said I, "let us give them a cheer. " So I opened mythroat, and shouted three times, as our English sailors do on likeoccasions. "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 provedindeed; 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 thegunner, who spoke good English, "you shall be called Captain Bob;" and sothey gave me my title ever after. 

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

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

There were indeed two or three indefatigable men among them, by whosecourage and industry all the rest were upheld; and indeed those two orthree 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 indeedwere the life and soul of all the rest, and it was to their courage thatall the rest owed the resolution they showed upon any occasion. But whenthose saw me take a little upon me, as above, they embraced me, and treatedme with particular affection ever after. 

This gunner was an excellent mathematician, a good scholar, and a completesailor; and it was in conversing intimately with him that I learnedafterwards the grounds of what knowledge I have since had in all thesciences useful for navigation, and particularly in the geographical partof knowledge. 

Even in our conversation, finding me eager to understand and learn, he laidthe foundation of a general knowledge of things in my mind, gave me justideas 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 afterwardsimproved. 

In an especial manner, he filled my head with aspiring thoughts, and withan earnest desire after learning everything that could be taught me;convincing me, that nothing could qualify me for great undertakings, but adegree of learning superior to what was usual in the race of seamen; hetold me, that to be ignorant was to be certain of a mean station in theworld, but that knowledge was the first step to preferment. He was alwaysflattering 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 feditself in my mind, it prompted in me an insatiable thirst after learning ingeneral, and I resolved, if ever I came back to Europe, and had anythingleft to purchase it, I would make myself master of all the parts oflearning needful to the making of me a complete sailor; but I was not sojust 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 haddone in the fight, and heard my proposal for keeping a number of prisonersfor 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 thesuccess of this enterprise is owing to you. " "No, no, " said I, "do notcompliment me; you shall be our Seignior Capitanio, you shall be general; Iam 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; andall the rest agreeing, I was obliged to comply. 

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

There was among the prisoners one tall, well-shaped, handsome fellow, towhom the rest seemed to pay great respect, and who, as we understoodafterwards, 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 withanother just on one of his hips or haunches. The shot in his haunch beingin 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 thesewounds quite disabled, so that we were once going to turn him away, and lethim 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 mythoughts that we might bring him to be useful to us, and perhaps make him akind 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 wellas I could by signs, to make him understand that we would make him wellagain. 

This created a new awe in their minds of us, believing that, as we couldkill at a distance by something invisible to them (for so our shot was, tobe 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 tohim, and said something to them; what it was we know not, but immediatelyall 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 laywhom we had killed. 

It was a long time before I or any of us could understand them; but one ofthem ran and lifted up a dead man, pointing to his wound, which was in hiseyes, for he was shot into the head at one of his eyes. Then anotherpointed 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 shotthrough the head, as above. 

We presently took the hint, and would not say we could not do it, but letthem know, the men that were killed were those that had first fallen uponus, and provoked us, and we would by no means make them alive again; andthat, if any others did so, we would kill them too, and never let them liveany more: but that, if he (the prince) would be willing to go with us, anddo as we should direct him, we would not let him die, and would make hisarm well. Upon this he bid his men go and fetch a long stick or staff, andlay on the ground. When they brought it, we saw it was an arrow; he took itwith his left hand (for his other was lame with the wound), and, pointingup at the sun, broke the arrow in two, and set the point against hisbreast, 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 anarrow, if ever he failed to be my friend; and giving the point of the arrowto me was to be a testimony that I was the man he had sworn to: and neverwas Christian more punctual to an oath than he was to this, for he was asworn servant to us for many a weary month after that. 

When I brought him to the surgeon, he immediately dressed the wound in hishaunch or buttock, and found the bullet had only grazed upon the flesh, andpassed, as it were, by it, but it was not lodged in the part, so that itwas soon healed and well again; but, as to his arm, he found one of thebones broken, which are in the fore-part from the wrist to the elbow; andthis he set, and splintered it up, and bound his arm in a sling, hanging itabout his neck, and making signs to him that he should not stir it; whichhe was so strict an observer of, that he set him down, and never moved oneway 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 himthe meaning of what we said, especially to teach him some words, such asyes 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 usfrom the first day; but he made signs to us to tell us we need not, for weshould find provision enough everywhere for forty days. It was verydifficult for us to understand how he expressed forty; for he knew nofigures, but some words that they used to one another that they understoodit by. At last one of the negroes, by his order, laid forty little stonesone by another, to show us how many days we should travel, and findprovisions sufficient. 

Then I showed him our baggage, which was very heavy, particularly ourpowder, shot, lead, iron, carpenters' tools, seamen's instruments, cases ofbottles, and other lumber. He took some of the things up in his hand tofeel the weight, and shook his head at them; so I told our people they mustresolve 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 ourchests behind us, which were eleven in number. 

Then he made signs to us that he would procure some buffaloes, or youngbulls, as I called them, to carry things for us, and made signs, too, thatif we were weary, we might be carried too; but that we slighted, only werewilling to have the creatures, because, at last, when they could serve usno farther for carriage, we might eat them all up if we had any occasionfor them. 

I then carried him to our bark, and showed him what things we had here. Heseemed amazed at the sight of our bark, having never seen anything of thatkind before, for their boats are most wretched things, such as I never sawbefore, 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 akind of slimy stuff like rosin and oil, but of a most nauseous, odioussmell; and they are poor miserable things for boats, the worst that anypart of the world ever saw; a canoe is an excellent contrivance compared tothem. 

But to return to our boat. We carried our new prince into it, and helpedhim over the side, because of his lameness. We made signs to him that hismen 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 themeaning of it), and taking up a bundle, he made signs to us, that when hisarm 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 anarrow place, where we had bound them with mat cords, and set up stakeslike a palisado round them; so, when we carried the prince on shore, wewent with him to them, and made signs to him to ask them if they werewilling to go with us to the country of lions. Accordingly he made a longspeech to them, and we could understand by it that he told them, if theywere willing, they must say, "Si, Seignior, " telling them what itsignified. They immediately answered, "Si, Seignior, " and clapped theirhands, looking up to the sun, which, the prince signified to us, wasswearing to be faithful. But as soon as they had said so, one of them madea long speech to the prince; and in it we perceived, by his gestures, whichwere very antic, that they desired something from us, and that they were ingreat concern about it. So I asked him, as well as I could, what it wasthey desired of us; he told us by signs that they desired we should clapour hands to the sun (that was, to swear) that we would not kill them, thatwe 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 Ishould do so too, which I did; at which all the prisoners fell flat on theground, and rising up again, made the oddest, wildest cries that ever Iheard. 

I think it was the first time in my life that ever any religious thoughtaffected me; but I could not refrain some reflections, and almost tears, inconsidering how happy it was that I was not born among such creatures asthese, and was not so stupidly ignorant and barbarous; but this soon wentoff again, and I was not troubled again with any qualms of that sort for along time after. 

When this ceremony was over, our concern was to get some provisions, aswell for the present subsistence of our prisoners as ourselves; and makingsigns to our prince that we were thinking upon that subject, he made signsto me that, if I would let one of the prisoners go to his town, he shouldbring provisions, and should bring some beasts to carry our baggage. Iseemed loth to trust him, and supposing that he would run away, he madegreat 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 didnot 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 totell him at what time he must be back. 

The fellow ran as if he was mad, and held it till he was quite out ofsight, 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 Ialways called him, beckoning with his hand to me, and hallooing after hismanner, desired me to come to him, which I did, when, pointing to a littlehill about two miles off, I saw plainly a little drove of cattle, andseveral people with them; those, he told me by signs, were the man he hadsent, and several more with him, and cattle for us. 

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

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

These two men brought the black prince two lances, of the sort they use intheir fights, but finer than ordinary, being made of black smooth wood, asfine as ebony, and headed at the point with the end of a long tooth of somecreature--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 theend, 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 thatthey should give them to me; however, I gave him leave to take themhimself, 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 pointingtowards the several quarters of the world, made signs to know which way weintended to go; and when I showed him, pointing to the west, he presentlylet me know there was a great river a little further to the north, whichwas able to carry our bark many leagues into the country due west. Ipresently took the hint, and inquired for the mouth of the river, which Iunderstood by him was above a day's march, and, by our estimation, we foundit about seven leagues further. I take this to be the great river marked byour chart-makers at the northmost part of the coast of Mozambique, andcalled there Quilloa. 

Consulting thus with ourselves, we resolved to take the prince, and as manyof the prisoners as we could stow in our frigate, and go about by the bayinto the river; and that eight of us, with our arms, should march by landto meet them on the river side; for the prince, carrying us to a risingground, had showed us the river very plain, a great way up the country, andin 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 hadeight of our men with me, and seven-and-thirty of our prisoners, withoutany baggage, for all our luggage was yet on board. We drove the young bullswith 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 verywillingly. They would eat out of our hand, lick our feet, and were astractable as a dog. 

We drove with us six or seven cows for food; but our negroes knew nothingof 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 doit with, and to carry salt a great way too, after we found we should haveno more. 

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

We spent this time in a thing which the two strangers, which brought theprince the two lances, put into the head of the prisoners, viz. , to makebottles of the goats' skins to carry fresh water in, which it seems theyknew we should come to want; and the men did it so dexterously, havingdried 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, hangingover their shoulders by a thong made of other skins, about three inchesbroad, like the sling of a fuzee. 

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

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

The river was a fair open channel, about as broad as the Thames belowGravesend, and a strong tide of flood, which we found held us about sixtymiles; 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 blowingstill fresh at E. And E. N. E. We stemmed the ebb easily also, especiallywhile the river continued broad and deep; but when we came past theswelling of the tide, and had the natural current of the river to goagainst, we found it too strong for us, and began to think of quitting ourbark; but the prince would by no means agree to that, for, finding we hadon board pretty good store of roping made of mats and flags, which Idescribed before, he ordered all the prisoners which were on shore to comeand take hold of those ropes, and tow us along by the shore side; and as wehoisted our sail too, to ease them, the men ran along with us at a verygreat 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 atWindsor, or thereabouts; and, after another day, we came to a greatwaterfall or cataract, enough to fright us, for I believe the whole body ofwater fell at once perpendicularly down a precipice above sixty foot high, which made noise enough to deprive men of their hearing, and we heard itabove 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, thosethat were weary being taken into the bark. Had we had canoes or any boatswhich might have been carried by men's strength we might have gone twohundred miles more up this river in small boats, but our great boat couldgo 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 thepeople did no more understand our prisoners here than we could understandthem; being, it seems, of different nations and of different speech. We hadyet seen no wild beasts, or, at least, none that came very near us, excepttwo days before we came to the waterfall, when we saw three of the mostbeautiful leopards that ever were seen, standing upon the bank of the riveron 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 ballextraordinary in it; and coming to me, "Now, Captain Bob, " says he, "whereis your prince?" So I called him out. "Now, " says he, "tell your men not tobe afraid; tell them they shall see that thing in his hand speak in fire toone 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 expectthe issue, when on a sudden the gunner fired; and as he was a very goodmarksman, he shot the creature with two slugs, just in the head. As soon asthe leopard felt herself struck, she reared up on her two hind-legs, boltupright, and throwing her forepaws about in the air, fell backward, growling and struggling, and immediately died; the other two, frighted withthe 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 ourprisoners 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 wemade signs to their prince to encourage them, which he did, but it was withmuch ado that he brought them to their senses. Nay, the prince, notwithstanding all that was said to prepare him for it, yet when the piecewent 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 ofher, and made signs to the prince that he should send some of his men overto take the skin off. As soon as he spoke but a word, four of them, thatoffered themselves, were untied, and immediately they jumped into theriver, and swam over, and went to work with him. The prince having a knifethat we gave him, made four wooden knives so clever, that I never sawanything like them in my life; and in less than an hour's time they broughtme the skin of the leopard, which was a monstrous great one, for it wasfrom the ears to the tale about seven foot, and near five foot broad on theback, and most admirably spotted all over. The skin of this leopard Ibrought to London many years after. 

We were now all upon a level as to our travelling, being unshipped, for ourbark 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, weconsulted our carpenters whether we could not pull the bark in pieces, andmake us three or four small boats to go on with. They told us we might doso, but it would be very long a-doing; and that, when we had done, we hadneither pitch or tar to make them sound to keep the water out, or nails tofasten the plank. But one of them told us that as soon as he could come atany large tree near the river, he would make us a canoe or two in a quarterof the time, and which would serve us as well for all the uses we couldhave any occasion for as a boat; and such, that if we came to anywaterfalls, we might take them up, and carry them for a mile or two by landupon our shoulders. 

Upon this we gave over the thoughts of our frigate, and hauling her into alittle cove or inlet, where a small brook came into the main river, we laidher up for those that came next, and marched forward. We spent indeed twodays dividing our baggage, and loading our tame buffaloes and our negroes. Our powder and shot, which was the thing we were most careful of, weordered thus:--First, the powder we divided into little leather bags, thatis to say, bags of dried skins, with the hair inward, that the powder mightnot grow damp; and then we put those bags into other bags, made ofbullocks' skins, very thick and hard, with the hair outward, that no wetmight come in; and this succeeded so well, that in the greatest rains wehad, whereof some were very violent and very long, we always kept ourpowder dry. Besides these bags, which held our chief magazine, we dividedto every one a quarter of a pound of powder, and half a pound of shot, tocarry always about us; which, as it was enough for our present use, so wewere 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 verylittle communication with the people of the country; for, having also ourbark stored with plenty of provisions, we had no occasion to look abroadfor a supply; but now, when we came to march on foot, we were obliged oftento seek out for food. The first place we came to on the river, that gave usany stop, was a little negro town, containing about fifty huts, and thereappeared about 400 people, for they all came out to see us, and wonder atus. When our negroes appeared the inhabitants began to fly to arms, thinking there had been enemies coming upon them; but our negroes, thoughthey could not speak their language, made signs to them that they had noweapons, and were tied two and two together as captives, and that therewere people behind who came from the sun, and that could kill them all, andmake them alive again, if they pleased; but that they would do them nohurt, and came with peace. As soon as they understood this they laid downtheir lances, and bows and arrows, and came and stuck twelve large stakesin the ground as a token of peace, bowing themselves to us in token ofsubmission. 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 didappear it was but two or three of us at a time. But our prisoners made themunderstand that we required some provisions of them; so they brought ussome black cattle, for they have abundance of cows and buffaloes all overthat side of the country, as also great numbers of deer. Our cutler, whohad now a great stock of things of his handiwork, gave them some littleknick-knacks, as plates of silver and of iron, cut diamond fashion, and cutinto hearts and into rings, and they were mightily pleased. They alsobrought several fruits and roots, which we did not understand, but ournegroes fed heartily on them, and after we had seen them eat them, we didso too. 

Having stocked ourselves here with flesh and root as much as we could wellcarry, we divided the burthens among our negroes, appointing about thirtyto forty pounds weight to a man, which we thought indeed was load enough ina hot country; and the negroes did not at all repine at it, but wouldsometimes help one another when they began to be weary, which did happennow and then, though not often; besides, as most of their luggage was ourprovision, it lightened every day, like Aesop's basket of bread, till wecame 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 usto halt, and set up some huts, for he had found out some trees that heliked, and resolved to make us some canoes; for, as he told me, he knew weshould have marching enough on foot after we left the river, and he wasresolved to go no farther by land than needs must. 

We had no sooner given orders for our little camp, and given leave to ournegroes 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 surprisedus. 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; andsome of these were ordered to help the carpenters, which they did veryhandily, with a little direction, and others were sent to see whether theycould get any provisions near hand; but instead of provisions, three ofthem came in with two bows and arrows, and five lances. They could noteasily make us understand how they came by them, only that they hadsurprised 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 womenand children flying away at the sight of them, as from robbers. We seemedvery angry at them, and made the prince ask them if they had not killed anyof the women or children, making them believe that, if they had killedanybody, we would make them kill themselves too; but they protested theirinnocence, so we excused them. Then they brought us the bows and arrows andlances; but, at a motion of their black prince, we gave them back the bowsand arrows, and gave them leave to go out to see what they could kill forfood; and here we gave them the laws of arms, viz. , that if any manappeared 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 anythat offered them peace, or laid down their weapons, nor any women orchildren, upon any occasion whatsoever. These were our articles of war. 

These two fellows had not been gone out above three or four hours, but oneof them came running to us without his bow and arrows, hallooing andwhooping a great while before he came at us, "Okoamo, okoamo!" which, itseems, was, "Help, help!" The rest of the negroes rose up in a hurry, andby twos, as they could, ran forward towards their fellows, to know what thematter was. As for me, I did not understand it, nor any of our people; theprince looked as if something unlucky had fallen out, and some of our mentook up their arms to be ready on occasion. But the negroes soon discoveredthe thing, for we saw four of them presently after coming along with agreat load of meat upon their backs. The case was, that the two who wentout with their bows and arrows, meeting with a great herd of deer in theplain, had been so nimble as to shoot three of them, and then one of themcame running to us for help to fetch them away. This was the first venisonwe 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 hismeat dressed our way; after which his men were prevailed with by hisexample, 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 wemight 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 thegreatest 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 weresolved not to trust them with, and that was the charging our guns: butthey always believed our guns had some heavenly power in them, that wouldsend forth fire and smoke, and speak with a dreadful noise, and kill at adistance whenever we bid them. 

In about eight days we finished three canoes, and in them we embarked ourwhite men and our baggage, with our prince, and some of the prisoners. Wealso found it needful to keep some of ourselves always on shore, not onlyto manage the negroes, but to defend them from enemies and wild beasts. Abundance of little incidents happened upon this march, which it isimpossible to crowd into this account; particularly, we saw more wildbeasts now than we did before, some elephants, and two or three lions, noneof which kinds we had seen any of before; and we found our negroes weremore afraid of them a great deal than we were; principally, because theyhad no bows and arrows, or lances, which were the particular weapons theywere 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 ofany of the creatures now was no advantage to us, seeing their skins weretoo heavy for us to carry, and their flesh not good to eat, we resolvedtherefore to keep some of our pieces uncharged and only primed; and causingthem to flash in the pan, the beasts, even the lions themselves, wouldalways start and fly back when they saw it, and immediately march off. 

We passed abundance of inhabitants upon this upper part of the river, andwith this observation, that almost every ten miles we came to a separatenation, and every separate nation had a different speech, or else theirspeech had differing dialects, so that they did not understand one another. They all abounded in cattle, especially on the river-side; and the eighthday of this second navigation we met with a little negro town, where theyhad growing a sort of corn like rice, which ate very sweet; and, as we gotsome 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 thatwe could desire. 

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

We thought our voyaging was at a full stop now; but three of us, with acouple of our negroes, mounting the hills another way, to view the courseof the river, we found a fair channel again after about half a mile'smarch, and that it was like to hold us a good way further. So we set allhands to work, unloaded our cargo, and hauled our canoes on shore, to seeif 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 timberfrom their outsides as reduced them very much, and yet they were as fit toswim as before. When this was done, ten men with poles took up one of thecanoes and made nothing to carry it. So we ordered twenty men to eachcanoe, that one ten might relieve the other; and thus we carried all ourcanoes, and launched them into the water again, and then fetched ourluggage 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 aboutfour days more, our gunner, who was our pilot, began to observe that we didnot keep our right course so exactly as we ought, the river winding away alittle towards the north, and gave us notice of it accordingly. However, wewere not willing to lose the advantage of water-carriage, at least not tillwe were forced to it; so we jogged on, and the river served us for aboutthreescore miles further; but then we found it grew very small and shallow, having passed the mouths of several little brooks or rivulets which cameinto 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 thefarther--having been about twelve days in this last part of the river--bylightening the boats and taking our luggage out, which we made the negroescarry, being willing to ease ourselves as long as we could; but at the endof these two days, in short, there was not water enough to swim a Londonwherry. 

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

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

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

Our men were terrified at them at first, and began to discover an unusualfear, and even our black prince seemed in a great deal of confusion; but Ismiled at him, and showing him some of our guns, I asked him if he thoughtthat which killed the spotted cat (for so they called the leopard in theirlanguage) could not make a thousand of those naked creatures die at oneblow? 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 soongive 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 knewnot 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 ofthese that we were now among, so that we ordered the negroes to try all themethods they could to make them friends. 

Accordingly the two men who had gotten bows and arrows, and two more towhom 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 advancedtoward the negro town that was next to us, and we all stood ready tosuccour them if there should be occasion. 

When they came pretty near their houses our negroes hallooed in theirscreaming way, and called to them as loud as they could. Upon theircalling, some of the men came out and answered, and immediately after thewhole town, men, women, and children, appeared; our negroes, with theirlong poles, went forward a little, and stuck them all in the ground, andleft them, which in their country was a signal of peace, but the other didnot understand the meaning of that. Then the two men with bows laid downtheir bows and arrows, went forward unarmed, and made signs of peace tothem, which at last the other began to understand; so two of their men laiddown their bows and arrows, and came towards them. Our men made all thesigns of friendship to them that they could think of, putting their handsup to their mouths as a sign that they wanted provisions to eat; and theother pretended to be pleased and friendly, and went back to their fellowsand talked with them a while, and they came forward again, and made signsthat they would bring some provisions to them before the sun set; and soour men came back again very well satisfied for that time. 

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

Accordingly the next day they came again, but our men perceived they weremore in number by a great many than before. However, having sent out tenmen with firearms to stand ready, and our whole army being in view also, wewere not much surprised; nor was the treachery of the enemy so cunninglyordered 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 menadvance almost as far as the place where they were the day before, therogues snatched up their bows and arrows and came running upon our men likeso many furies, at which our ten men called to the negroes to come back tothem, which they did with speed enough at the first word, and stood allbehind our men. As they fled, the other advanced, and let fly near ahundred 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 thatour men had stuck in the ground, they stood still awhile, and gatheringabout the poles, looked at them, and handled them, as wondering what theymeant. We then, who were drawn up behind all, sent one of our number to ourten men to bid them fire among them while they stood so thick, and to putsome small shot into their guns besides the ordinary charge, and to tellthem that we would be up with them immediately. 

Accordingly they made ready; but by the time they were ready to fire, theblack army had left their wandering about the poles, and began to stir asif they would come on, though seeing more men stand at some distance behindour negroes, they could not tell what to make of us; but if they did notunderstand us before, they understood us less afterwards, for as soon asever our men found them to begin to move forward they fired among thethickest of them, being about the distance of 120 yards, as near as wecould guess. 

It is impossible to express the fright, the screaming and yelling of thosewretches upon this first volley. We killed six of them, and wounded elevenor twelve, I mean as we knew of; for, as they stood thick, and the smallshot, as we called it, scattered among them, we had reason to believe wewounded more that stood farther off, for our small shot was made of bits oflead and bits of iron, heads of nails, and such things as our diligentartificer, the cutler, helped us to. 

As to those that were killed and wounded, the other frighted creatures wereunder 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 nothow. Then the fire and noise amazed all their women and children, andfrighted them out of their wits, so that they ran staring and howling aboutlike mad creatures. 

However, all this did not make them fly, which was what we wanted, nor didwe find any of them die as it were with fear, as at first; so we resolvedupon a second volley, and then to advance as we did before. Whereupon ourreserved men advancing, we resolved to fire only three men at a time, andmove forward like an army firing in platoon; so, being all in a line, wefired, first three on the right, then three on the left, and so on; andevery 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 ourfirst 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 wholevolley and shouted, they all ran away, men, women, and children, so fastthat in a few moments we could not see one creature of them except somethat were wounded and lame, who lay wallowing and screaming here and thereupon the ground as they happened to fall. 

Upon this we came up to the field of battle, where we found we had killedthirty-seven of them, among which were three women, and had wounded aboutsixty-four, among which were two women; by wounded I mean such as were somaimed as not to be able to go away, and those our negroes killedafterwards in a cowardly manner in cold blood, for which we were veryangry, 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 theycame into the world, men and women together, some of them having feathersstuck in their hair, and others a kind of bracelet about their necks, butnothing 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 foundmore than they knew what to do with, belonging to the killed and woundedmen; these we ordered them to pick up, and they were very useful to usafterwards. After the fight, and our negroes had gotten bows and arrows, wesent them out in parties to see what they could get, and they got someprovisions; but, which was better than all the rest, they brought us fourmore young bulls, or buffaloes, that had been brought up to labour and tocarry burthens. They knew them, it seems, by the burthens they had carriedhaving galled their backs, for they have no saddles to cover them with inthat country. 

Those creatures not only eased our negroes, but gave us an opportunity tocarry more provisions; and our negroes loaded them very hard at this placewith flesh and roots, such as we wanted very much afterwards. 

In this town we found a very little young leopard, about two spans high; itwas exceeding tame, and purred like a cat when we stroked it with ourhands, being, as I suppose, bred up among the negroes like a house-dog. Itwas our black prince, it seems, who, making his tour among the abandonedhouses or huts, found this creature there, and making much of him, andgiving 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 alittle thin bit or plate of gold, about as big as a sixpence, which hung bya little bit of a twisted gut upon his forehead, by which we supposed hewas a man of some eminence among them; but that was not all, for this bitof gold put us upon searching very narrowly if there was not more of it tobe had thereabouts, but we found none at all. 

From this part of the country we went on for about fifteen days, and thenfound ourselves obliged to march up a high ridge of mountains, frightful tobehold, and the first of the kind that we met with; and having no guide butour little pocket-compass, we had no advantage of information as to whichwas 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 andnaked people in the plain country before we came to those hills, and wefound them much more tractable and friendly than those devils we had beenforced 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 desertbeyond these hills, and, as our negroes called them, much lion, muchspotted cat (so they called the leopard); and they signed to us also thatwe must carry water with us. At the last of these nations we furnishedourselves with as much provisions as we could possibly carry, not knowingwhat we had to suffer, or what length we had to go; and, to make our way asfamiliar to us as possible, I proposed that of the last inhabitants wecould find we should make some prisoners and carry them with us for guidesover the desert, and to assist us in carrying provision, and, perhaps, ingetting it too. The advice was too necessary to be slighted; so finding, byour dumb signs to the inhabitants, that there were some people that dweltat the foot of the mountains on the other side before we came to the desertitself, we resolved to furnish ourselves with guides by fair means or foul. 

Here, by a moderate computation, we concluded ourselves 700 miles from thesea-coast where we began. Our black prince was this day set free from thesling his arm hung in, our surgeon having perfectly restored it, and heshowed 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, forour surgeon was very skilful in managing their cure. 

Having with infinite labour mounted these hills, and coming to a view ofthe country beyond them, it was indeed enough to astonish as stout a heartas 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 buta scalding sand, which, as the wind blew, drove about in clouds enough tooverwhelm 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 menbegan to be discouraged, and talk of going back again. Nor could we indeedthink of venturing over such a horrid place as that before us, in which wesaw nothing but present death. 

I was as much affected at the sight as any of them; but, for all that, Icould not bear the thoughts of going back again. I told them we had marched700 miles of our way, and it would be worse than death to think of goingback again; and that, if they thought the desert was not passable, Ithought we should rather change our course, and travel south till we cameto 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; forsure all Africa was not a desert. 

Our gunner, who, as I said before, was our guide as to the situation ofplaces, 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 notless than 1500 miles; and, by his account, we were now come a third part ofthe way to the coast of Angola, where we should meet the western ocean, andfind ways enough for our escape home. On the other hand, he assured us, andshowed us a map of it, that, if we went northward, the western shore ofAfrica went out into the sea above 1000 miles west, so that we should haveso much and more land to travel afterwards; which land might, for aught weknew, be as wild, barren, and desert as this. And therefore, upon thewhole, he proposed that we should attempt this desert, and perhaps weshould not find it so long as we feared; and however, he proposed that weshould see how far our provisions would carry us, and, in particular, ourwater; and we should venture no further than half so far as our water wouldlast; and if we found no end of the desert, we might come safely backagain. 

This advice was so reasonable that we all approved of it; and accordinglywe calculated that we were able to carry provisions for forty-two days, butthat we could not carry water for above twenty days, though we were tosuppose it to stink, too, before that time expired. So that we concludedthat, 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 itwas the second day before we quite reached the plain; where, however, tomake 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, butwhose flesh we found very agreeable. But we were deceived in ourintelligence, for we found no people; so we got no more prisoners to assistus in carrying our baggage. 

The infinite number of deer and other creatures which we saw here, we foundwas occasioned by the neighbourhood of the waste or desert, from whencethey retired hither for food and refreshment. We stored ourselves here withflesh and roots of divers kinds, which our negroes understood better thanwe, and which served us for bread; and with as much water as (by theallowance of a quart a day to a man for our negroes, and three pints a daya man for ourselves, and three quarts a day each for our buffaloes) wouldserve us twenty days; and thus loaded for a long miserable march, we setforwards, being all sound in health and very cheerful, but not alike strongfor 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 theheat, that after we had, as I may call it, waded rather than walked throughit about seven or eight miles, we were all heartily tired and faint; eventhe very negroes laid down and panted like creatures that had been pushedbeyond their strength. 

Here we found the difference of lodging greatly injurious to us; for, asbefore, we always made us huts to sleep under, which covered us from thenight air, which is particularly unwholesome in those hot countries. But wehad here no shelter, no lodging, after so hard a march; for here were notrees, 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 agreat many wild asses braying, and other ugly noises which we did notunderstand. 

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 lastto relieve ourselves a little; for first we set up the lances and bows wehad, and endeavoured to bring the tops of them as near to one another as wecould, and so hung our coats on the top of them, which made us a kind ofsorry 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 sleptvery heartily too, for the first night; setting, however, a good watch, being two of our own men with their fuzes, whom we relieved in an hour atfirst, and two hours afterwards. And it was very well we did this, for theyfound the wilderness swarmed with raging creatures of all kinds, some ofwhich came directly up to the very enclosure of our tent. But our sentinelswere ordered not to alarm us with firing in the night, but to flash in thepan at them, which they did, and found it effectual, for the creatures wentoff always as soon as they saw it, perhaps with some noise or howling, andpursued such other game as they were upon. 

If we were tired with the day's travel, we were all as much tired with thenight's lodging. But our black prince told us in the morning he would giveus some counsel, and indeed it was very good counsel. He told us we shouldbe all killed if we went on this journey, and through this desert, withoutsome covering for us at night; so he advised us to march back again to alittle river-side where we lay the night before, and stay there till wecould make us houses, as he called them, to carry with us to lodge in everynight. As he began a little to understand our speech, and we very well tounderstand his signs, we easily knew what he meant, and that we shouldthere make mats (for we remembered that we saw a great deal of matting orbass there, that the natives make mats of)--I say, that we should makelarge 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 oneday's journey, resolving, though we carried less provisions, we would carrymats with us to cover us in the night. Some of the nimblest of us got backto 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, andcame to us the next day. 

In our return of this day's journey, our men that made two days of it metwith a very surprising thing, that gave them some reason to be careful howthey parted company again. The case was this:--The second day in themorning, before they had gone half a mile, looking behind them they saw avast cloud of sand or dust rise in the air, as we see sometimes in theroads in summer when it is very dusty and a large drove of cattle arecoming, only very much greater; and they could easily perceive that it cameafter them; and it came on faster as they went from it. The cloud of sandwas so great that they could not see what it was that raised it, andconcluded that it was some army of enemies that pursued them; but thenconsidering that they came from the vast uninhabited wilderness, they knewit was impossible any nation or people that way should have intelligence ofthem or the way of their march; and therefore, if it was an army, it mustbe of such as they were, travelling that way by accident. On the otherhand, as they knew that there were no horses in the country, and that theycame on so fast, they concluded that it must be some vast collection ofwild beasts, perhaps making to the hill country for food or water, and thatthey should be all devoured or trampled under foot by their multitude. 

Upon this thought, they very prudently observed which way the cloud seemedto point, and they turned a little out of their way to the north, supposingit might pass by them. When they were about a quarter of a mile, theyhalted to see what it might be. One of the negroes, a nimbler fellow thanthe rest, went back a little, and came in a few minutes running as fast asthe heavy sands would allow, and by signs gave them to know that it was agreat herd, or drove, or whatever it might be called, of vast monstrouselephants. 

As it was a sight our men had never seen, they were desirous to see it, andyet a little uneasy at the danger too; for though an elephant is a heavyunwieldy 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 theyhad 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 oneof the outermost of them, and to have clapped his piece to his ear, and tohave 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 uponand pursue us; so he was reasoned out of it, and let them pass, which, inour 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 notturn out of their way, or take any other notice of them than, as we mightsay, just to look at them. We that were before saw the cloud of dust theyraised, but we had thought it had been our own caravan, and so took nonotice; but as they bent their course one point of the compass, orthereabouts, 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, orknow anything of them, till evening, when our men came to us and gave usthis account of them. However, this was a useful experiment for our futureconduct 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 hewas an excellent mat-maker himself, and all his men understood it, so thatthey soon made us near a hundred mats; and as every man, I mean of thenegroes, carried one, it was no manner of load, and we did not carry anounce of provisions the less. The greatest burthen was to carry six longpoles, besides some shorter stakes; but the negroes made an advantage ofthat, for carrying them between two, they made the luggage of provisionswhich they had to carry so much the lighter, binding it upon two poles, andso made three couple of them. As soon as we saw this, we made a littleadvantage of it too; for having three or four bags, called bottles (I meanskins 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 ourjourney. 

Having now ended our work, made our mats, and fully recruited our stores ofall things necessary, and having made us abundance of small ropes ofmatting for ordinary use, as we might have occasion, we set forward again, having interrupted our journey eight days in all, upon this affair. To ourgreat comfort, the night before we set out there fell a very violent showerof rain, the effects of which we found in the sand; though the heat of oneday dried the surface as much as before, yet it was harder at bottom, notso heavy, and was cooler to our feet, by which means we marched, as wereckoned, 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 ourtent, and set it up for trial, where we made it; so that, in less than anhour, we had a large tent raised, with an inner and outer apartment, andtwo entrances. In one we lay ourselves, in the other our negroes, havinglight pleasant mats over us, and others at the same time under us. Also wehad a little place without all for our buffaloes, for they deserved ourcare, being very useful to us, besides carrying forage and water forthemselves. Their forage was a root, which our black prince directed us tofind, not much unlike a parsnip, very moist and nourishing, of which therewas 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 wasset up. In this posture we marched eight days, and yet could see no end, nochange of our prospect, but all looking as wild and dismal as at thebeginning. If there was any alteration, it was that the sand was nowhere sodeep and heavy as it was the first three days. This we thought might bebecause, for six months of the year the winds blowing west (as for theother six they blow constantly east), the sand was driven violently to theside 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 itback again; and this was confirmed by our finding the like depth of sand onthe farthest extent of the desert to the west. 

It was the ninth day of our travel in this wilderness, when we came to theview of a great lake of water; and you may be sure this was a particularsatisfaction to us, because we had not water left for above two or threedays 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 twodays longer than expected, our buffaloes having found, for two or threedays, 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 edgeof this lake, and, very happily for us, we came to it at the south point ofit, for to the north we could see no end of it; so we passed by it andtravelled 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 whenwe had it in view. And yet, though here was so much water, we found butvery little alteration in the desert; no trees, no grass or herbage, exceptthat thistle, as I called it, and two or three more plants, which we didnot understand, of which the desert began to be pretty full. 

But as we were refreshed with the neighbourhood of this lake of water, sowe were now gotten among a prodigious number of ravenous inhabitants, thelike whereof, it is most certain, the eye of man never saw; for as I firmlybelieve 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, anddevouring 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 wewere passing by it, and. For six or seven days' march after it, the groundwas scattered with elephants' teeth in such a number as is incredible; andas some of them have lain there for some hundreds of years, so, seeing thesubstance 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 whomI have reported it, as incredible as the number; and I can assure you therewere several so heavy as the strongest man among us could not lift. As tonumber, I question not but there are enough to load a thousand sail of thebiggest ships in the world, by which I may be understood to mean that thequantity is not to be conceived of; seeing that as they lasted in view forabove eighty miles' travelling, so they might continue as far to the righthand, and to the left as far, and many times as far, for aught we knew; forit seems the number of elephants hereabouts is prodigiously great. In oneplace in particular we saw the head of an elephant, with several teeth init, but one of the biggest that ever I saw; the flesh was consumed, to besure, many hundred years before, and all the other bones; but three of ourstrongest men could not lift this skull and teeth; the great tooth, Ibelieve, weighed at least three hundredweight; and this was particularlyremarkable to me, that I observed the whole skull was as good ivory as theteeth, and, I believe, altogether weighed at least six hundredweight; andthough I do not know but, by the same rule, all the bones of the elephantmay be ivory, yet I think there is this just objection against it from theexample before me, that then all the other bones of this elephant wouldhave been there as well as the head. 

I proposed to our gunner, that, seeing we had travelled now fourteen dayswithout intermission, and that we had water here for our refreshment, andno want of food yet, nor any fear of it, we should rest our people alittle, and see, at the same time, if perhaps we might kill some creaturesthat were proper for food. The gunner, who had more forecast of that kindthan I had, agreed to the proposal, and added, why might we not try tocatch some fish out of the lake? The first thing we had before us was totry if we could make any hooks, and this indeed put our artificer to histrumps; however, with some labour and difficulty, he did it, and we catchedfresh fish of several kinds. How they came there, none but He that made thelake and all the world knows; for, to be sure, no human hands ever put anyin there, or pulled any out before. 

We not only catched enough for our present refreshment, but we driedseveral large fishes, of kinds which I cannot describe, in the sun, bywhich we lengthened out our provision considerably; for the heat of the sundried them so effectually without salt that they were perfectly cured, dry, and hard, in one day's time. 

We rested ourselves here five days; during which time we had abundance ofpleasant adventures with the wild creatures, too many to relate. One ofthem was very particular, which was a chase between a she-lion, or lioness, and a large deer; and though the deer is naturally a very nimble creature, and she flew by us like the wind, having, perhaps, about 300 yards thestart of the lion, yet we found the lion, by her strength, and the goodnessof her lungs, got ground of her. They passed by us within about a quarterof a mile, and we had a view of them a great way, when, having given themover, we were surprised, about an hour after, to see them come thunderingback again on the other side of us, and then the lion was within thirty orforty yards of her; and both straining to the extremity of their speed, when the deer, coming to the lake, plunged into the water, and swam for herlife, as she had before run for it. 

The lioness plunged in after her, and swam a little way, but came backagain; and when she was got upon the land she set up the most hideous roarthat ever I heard in my life, as if done in the rage of having lost herprey. 

We walked out morning and evening constantly; the middle of the day werefreshed ourselves under our tent. But one morning early we saw anotherchase, which more nearly concerned us than the other; for our black prince, walking by the side of the lake, was set upon by a vast, great crocodile, which came out of the lake upon him; and though he was very light of foot, yet it was as much as he could do to get away. He fled amain to us, and thetruth is, we did not know what to do, for we were told no bullet wouldenter her; and we found it so at first, for though three of our men firedat her, yet she did not mind them; but my friend the gunner, a venturousfellow, of a bold heart, and great presence of mind, went up so near as tothrust the muzzle of his piece into her mouth, and fired, but let his piecefall, and ran for it the very moment he had fired it. The creature raged agreat while, and spent its fury upon the gun, making marks upon the veryiron with its teeth, but after some time fainted and died. 

Our negroes spread the banks of the lake all this while for game, and atlength killed us three deer, one of them very large, the other two verysmall. There was water-fowl also in the lake, but we never came near enoughto them to shoot any; and as for the desert, we saw no fowls anywhere in itbut at the lake. 

We likewise killed two or three civet cats; but their flesh is the worst ofcarrion. We saw abundance of elephants at a distance, and observed theyalways go in very good company, that is to say, abundance of them together, and always extended in a fair line of battle; and this, they say, is theway they defend themselves from their enemies; for if lions or tigers, wolves or any creatures, attack them, they being drawn in a line, sometimesreaching five or six miles in length, whatever comes in their way is sureto be trod under foot, or beaten in pieces with their trunks, or lifted upin the air with their trunks; so that if a hundred lions or tigers werecoming along, if they meet a line of elephants, they will always fly backtill they see room to pass by the right hand or the left; and if they didnot, it would be impossible for one of them to escape; for the elephant, though a heavy creature, is yet so dexterous and nimble with his trunk, that he will not fail to lift up the heaviest lion, or any other wildcreature, and throw him up in the air quite over his back, and then tramplehim to death with his feet. We saw several lines of battle thus; we saw oneso long that indeed there was no end of it to be seen, and I believe theremight be 2000 elephants in row or line. They are not beasts of prey, butlive upon the herbage of the field, as an ox does; and it is said, thatthough they are so great a creature, yet that a smaller quantity of foragesupplies one of them than will suffice a horse. 

The numbers of this kind of creature that are in those parts areinconceivable, as may be gathered from the prodigious quantity of teethwhich, as I said, we saw in this vast desert; and indeed we saw a hundredof them to one of any other kind. 

One evening we were very much surprised. We were most of us laid down onour mats to sleep, when our watch came running in among us, being frightedwith the sudden roaring of some lions just by them, which, it seems, theyhad not seen, the night being dark, till they were just upon them. Therewas, as it proved, an old lion and his whole family, for there was thelioness and three young lions, besides the old king, who was a monstrousgreat one. One of the young ones--who were good, large, well-grown onestoo--leaped up upon one of our negroes, who stood sentinel, before he sawhim, at which he was heartily frighted, cried out, and ran into the tent. Our other man, who had a gun, had not presence of mind at first to shoothim, but struck him with the butt-end of his piece, which made him whine alittle, and then growl at him fearfully; but the fellow retired, and, webeing all alarmed, three of our men snatched up their guns, ran to the tentdoor, where they saw the great old lion by the fire of his eyes, and firstfired at him, but, we supposed, missed him, or at least did not kill him;for they went all off, but raised a most hideous roar, which, as if theyhad called for help, brought down a prodigious number of lions, and otherfurious creatures, we know not what, about them, for we could not see them;but there was a noise, and yelling and howling, and all sorts of suchwilderness music on every side of us, as if all the beasts of the desertwere assembled to devour us. 

We asked our black prince what we should do with them. "Me go, " says he, "and fright them all. " So he snatches up two or three of the worst of ourmats, and getting one of our men to strike some fire, he hangs the mat upat the end of a pole, and set it on fire, and it blazed abroad a goodwhile; at which the creatures all moved off, for we heard them roar, andmake their bellowing noise at a great distance. "Well, " says our gunner, "if that will do, we need not burn our mats, which are our beds to layunder us, and our tilting to cover us. Let me alone, " says he. So he comesback into our tent, and falls to making some artificial fireworks and thelike; and he gave our sentinels some to be ready at hand upon occasion, andparticularly he placed a great piece of wild-fire upon the same pole thatthe mat had been tied to, and set it on fire, and that burnt there so longthat all the wild creatures left us for that time. 

However, we began to be weary of such company; and, to be rid of them, weset forward again two days sooner than we intended. We found now, thatthough the desert did not end, nor could we see any appearance of it, yetthat the earth was pretty full of green stuff of one sort or another, sothat our cattle had no want; and secondly, that there were several littlerivers which ran into the lake, and so long as the country continued low, we found water sufficient, which eased us very much in our carriage, and wewent on still sixteen days more without yet coming to any appearance ofbetter soil. After this we found the country rise a little, and by that weperceived that the water would fail us; so, for fear of the worst, wefilled our bladder-bottles with water. We found the country risinggradually thus for three days continually, when, on the sudden, weperceived that, though we had mounted up insensibly, yet that we were onthe top of a very high ridge of hills, though not such as at first. 

When we came to look down on the other side of the hills, we saw, to thegreat joy of all our hearts, that the desert was at an end; that thecountry was clothed with green, abundance of trees, and a large river; andwe made no doubt but that we should find people and cattle also; and here, by our gunner's account, who kept our computations, we had marched about400 miles over this dismal place of horror, having been four-and-thirtydays a-doing of it, and consequently were come about 1100 miles of ourjourney. 

We would willingly have descended the hills that night, but it was toolate. The next morning we saw everything more plain, and rested ourselvesunder the shade of some trees, which were now the most refreshing thingsimaginable to us, who had been scorched above a month without a tree tocover us. We found the country here very pleasant, especially consideringthat we came from; and we killed some deer here also, which we found veryfrequent under the cover of the woods. Also we killed a creature like agoat, whose flesh was very good to eat, but it was no goat; we found also agreat number of fowls like partridge, but something smaller, and were verytame; so that we lived here very well, but found no people, at least nonethat would be seen, no, not for several days' journey; and to allay ourjoy, we were almost every night disturbed with lions and tigers; elephants, indeed, we saw none here. 

In three days' march we came to a river, which we saw from the hills, andwhich we called the Golden River; and we found it ran northward, which wasthe first stream we had met with that did so. It ran with a very rapidcurrent, and our gunner, pulling out his map, assured me that this waseither the river Nile, or run into the great lake out of which the riverNile was said to take its beginning; and he brought out his charts andmaps, which, by his instruction, I began to understand very well, and toldme he would convince me of it, and indeed he seemed to make it so plain tome that I was of the same opinion. 

But I did not enter into the gunner's reason for this inquiry, not in theleast, till he went on with it farther, and stated it thus:--"If this isthe river Nile, why should not we build some more canoes, and go down thisstream, rather than expose ourselves to any more deserts and scorchingsands in quest of the sea, which when we are come to, we shall be as muchat a loss how to get home as we were at Madagascar?"

The argument was good, had there been no objections in the way of a kindwhich none of us were capable of answering; but, upon the whole, it was anundertaking of such a nature that every one of us thought it impracticable, and that upon several accounts; and our surgeon, who was himself a goodscholar and a man of reading, though not acquainted with the business ofsailing, opposed it, and some of his reasons, I remember, were such asthese:--First, the length of the way, which both he and the gunner allowed, by the course of the water, and turnings of the river, would be at least4000 miles. Secondly, the innumerable crocodiles in the river, which weshould never be able to escape. Thirdly, the dreadful deserts in the way;and lastly, the approaching rainy season, in which the streams of the Nilewould be so furious, and rise so high--spreading far and wide over all theplain country--that we should never be able to know when we were in thechannel of the river and when not, and should certainly be cast away, overset, or run aground so often that it would be impossible to proceed bya river so excessively dangerous. 

This last reason he made so plain to us that we began to be sensible of itourselves, so that we agreed to lay that thought aside, and proceed in ourfirst course, westwards towards the sea; but, as if we had been loth todepart, we continued, by way of refreshing ourselves, to loiter two daysupon this river, in which time our black prince, who delighted much inwandering up and down, came one evening and brought us several little bitsof something, he knew not what, but he found it felt heavy and looked well, and showed it to me as what he thought was some rarity. I took not muchnotice of it to him, but stepping out and calling the gunner to me I showedit to him, and told him what I thought, viz. , that it was certainly gold. He agreed with me in that, and also in what followed, that we would takethe black prince out with us the next day, and make him show us where hefound it; that if there was any quantity to be found we would tell ourcompany of it, but if there was but little we would keep counsel, and haveit to ourselves. 

But we forgot to engage the prince in the secret, who innocently told somuch to all the rest, as that they guessed what it was, and came to us tosee. When we found it was public, we were more concerned to prevent theirsuspecting that we had any design to conceal it, and openly telling ourthoughts of it, we called our artificer, who agreed presently that it wasgold; so I proposed that we should all go with the prince to the placewhere he found it, and if any quantity was to be had, we would lie heresome time and see what we could make of it. 

Accordingly we went every man of us, for no man was willing to be leftbehind in a discovery of such a nature. When we came to the place we foundit was on the west side of the river, not in the main river, but in anothersmall river or stream which came from the west, and ran into the other atthat place. We fell to raking in the sand, and washing it in our hands; andwe seldom took up a handful of sand but we washed some little round lumpsas big as a pin's head, or sometimes as big as a grape stone, into ourhands; and we found, in two or three hours' time, that every one had gotsome, so we agreed to leave off, and go to dinner. 

While we were eating, it came into my thoughts that while we worked at thisrate in a thing of such nicety and consequence, it was ten to one if thegold, which was the make-bait of the world, did not, first or last, set ustogether by the ears, to break our good articles and our understanding oneamong another, and perhaps cause us to part companies, or worse; Itherefore told them that I was indeed the youngest man in the company, butas they had always allowed me to give my opinion in things, and hadsometimes been pleased to follow my advice, so I had something to proposenow, which I thought would be for all our advantages, and I believed theywould all like it very well. I told them we were in a country where we allknew there was a great deal of gold, and that all the world sent shipsthither to get it; that we did not indeed know where it was, and so wemight get a great deal, or a little, we did not know whether; but I offeredit to them to consider whether it would not be the best way for us, and topreserve the good harmony and friendship that had been always kept amongus, and which was so absolutely necessary to our safety, that what we foundshould be brought together to one common stock, and be equally divided atlast, rather than to run the hazard of any difference which might happenamong us from any one's having found more or less than another. I toldthem, that if we were all upon one bottom we should all apply ourselvesheartily to the work; and, besides that, we might then set our negroes allto work for us, and receive equally the fruit of their labour and of ourown, and being all exactly alike sharers, there could be no just cause ofquarrel or disgust among us. 

They all approved the proposal, and every one jointly swore, and gave theirhands to one another, that they would not conceal the least grain of goldfrom the rest; and consented that if any one or more should be found toconceal any, all that he had should be taken from him and divided among therest; and one thing more was added to it by our gunner, from considerationsequally good and just, that if any one of us, by any play, bet, game, orwager, won any money or gold, or the value of any, from another, during ourwhole voyage, till our return quite to Portugal, he should be obliged by usall to restore it again on the penalty of being disarmed and turned out ofthe company, and of having no relief from us on any account whatever. Thiswas to prevent wagering and playing for money, which our men were apt to doby several means and at several games, though they had neither cards nordice. 

Having made this wholesome agreement, we went cheerfully to work, andshowed our negroes how to work for us; and working up the stream on bothsides, and in the bottom of the river, we spent about three weeks' timedabbling in the water; by which time, as it lay all in our way, we had goneabout six miles, and not more; and still the higher we went, the more goldwe found; till at last, having passed by the side of a hill, we perceivedon a sudden that the gold stopped, and that there was not a bit taken upbeyond that place. It presently occurred to my mind, that it must then befrom the side of that little hill that all the gold we found was workeddown. 

Upon this, we went back to the hill, and fell to work with that. We foundthe earth loose, and of a yellowish loamy colour, and in some places awhite hard kind of stone, which, in describing since to some of ourartists, they tell me was the spar which is found by ore, and surrounds itin the mine. However, if it had been all gold, we had no instrument toforce it out; so we passed that. But scratching into the loose earth withour fingers, we came to a surprising place, where the earth, for thequantity of two bushels, I believe, or thereabouts, crumbled down withlittle more than touching it, and apparently showed us that there was agreat deal of gold in it. We took it all carefully up, and washing it inthe water, the loamy earth washed away, and left the gold dust free in ourhands; and that which was more remarkable was, that, when this loose earthwas all taken away, and we came to the rock or hard stone, there was notone grain of gold more to be found. 

At night we all came together to see what we had got; and it appeared wehad found, in that day's heap of earth, about fifty pounds' weight of golddust, and about thirty-four pounds' weight more in all the rest of ourworks in the river. 

It was a happy kind of disappointment to us, that we found a full stop putto our work; for, had the quantity of gold been ever so small, yet, had anyat all come, I do not know when we should have given over; for, havingrummaged this place, and not finding the least grain of gold in any otherplace, or in any of the earth there, except in that loose parcel, we wentquite back down the small river again, working it over and over again, aslong as we could find anything, how small soever; and we did get six orseven pounds more the second time. Then we went into the first river, andtried it up the stream and down the stream, on the one side and on theother. Up the stream we found nothing, no, not a grain; down the stream wefound very little, not above the quantity of half an ounce in two miles'working; so back we came again to the Golden River, as we justly called it, and worked it up the stream and down the stream twice more apiece, andevery time we found some gold, and perhaps might have done so if we hadstayed there till this time; but the quantity was at last so small, and thework so much the harder, that we agreed by consent to give it over, lest weshould fatigue ourselves and our negroes so as to be quite unfit for ourjourney. 

When we had brought all our purchase together, we had in the whole threepounds and a half of gold to a man, share and share alike, according tosuch a weight and scale as our ingenious cutler made for us to weigh it by, which indeed he did by guess, but which, as he said, he was sure was rathermore than less, and so it proved at last; for it was near two ounces morethan weight in a pound. Besides this, there was seven or eight pounds'weight left, which we agreed to leave in his hands, to work it into suchshapes as we thought fit, to give away to such people as we might yet meetwith, from whom we might have occasion to buy provisions, or even to buyfriendship, or the like; and particularly we gave about a pound to ourblack prince, which he hammered and worked by his own indefatigable hand, and some tools our artificer lent him, into little round bits, as roundalmost as beads, though not exact in shape, and drilling holes throughthem, put them all upon a string, and wore them about his black neck, andthey looked very well there, I assure you; but he was many months a-doingit. And thus ended our first golden adventure. 

We now began to discover what we had not troubled our heads much aboutbefore, and that was, that, let the country be good or bad that we were in, we could not travel much further for a considerable time. We had been nowfive months and upwards in our journey, and the seasons began to change;and nature told us, that, being in a climate that had a winter as well as asummer, though of a different kind from what our country produced, we wereto expect a wet season, and such as we should not be able to travel in, aswell by reason of the rain itself, as of the floods which it would occasionwherever we should come; and though we had been no strangers to those wetseasons in the island of Madagascar, yet we had not thought much of themsince we began our travels; for, setting out when the sun was about thesolstice, that is, when it was at the greatest northern distance from us, we had found the benefit of it in our travels. But now it drew near usapace, and we found it began to rain; upon which we called another generalcouncil, in which we debated our present circumstances, and, in particular, whether we should go forward, or seek for a proper place upon the bank ofour Golden River, which had been so lucky to us, to fix our camp for thewinter. 

Upon the whole, it was resolved to abide where we were; and it was not theleast part of our happiness that we did so, as shall appear in its place. 

Having resolved upon this, our first measures were to set our negroes towork, to make huts or houses for our habitation, and this they did verydexterously; only that we changed the ground where we at first intended it, thinking, as indeed it happened, that the river might reach it upon anysudden rain. Our camp was like a little town, in which our huts were in thecentre, having one large one in the centre of them also, into which all ourparticular lodgings opened; so that none of us went into our apartments butthrough a public tent, where we all ate and drank together, and kept ourcouncils and society; and our carpenters made us tables, benches, andstools in abundance, as many as we could make use of. 

We had no need of chimneys, it was hot enough without fire; but yet wefound ourselves at last obliged to keep a fire every night upon aparticular occasion. For though we had in all other respects a verypleasant and agreeable situation, yet we were rather worse troubled withthe unwelcome visits of wild beasts here than in the wilderness itself; foras the deer and other gentle creatures came hither for shelter and food, sothe lions and tigers and leopards haunted these places continually forprey. 

When first we discovered this we were so uneasy at it that we thought ofremoving our situation; but after many debates about it we resolved tofortify ourselves in such a manner as not to be in any danger from it; andthis our carpenters undertook, who first palisaded our camp quite roundwith long stakes, for we had wood enough, which stakes were not stuck inone by another like pales, but in an irregular manner; a great multitude ofthem so placed that they took up near two yards in thickness, some higher, some lower, all sharpened at the top, and about a foot asunder: so that hadany creature jumped at them, unless he had gone clean over, which it wasvery hard to do, he would be hung upon twenty or thirty spikes. 

The entrance into this had larger stakes than the rest, so placed beforeone another as to make three or four short turnings which no four-footedbeast bigger than a dog could possibly come in at; and that we might not beattacked by any multitude together, and consequently be alarmed in oursleep, as we had been, or be obliged to waste our ammunition, which we werevery chary of, we kept a great fire every night without the entrance of ourpalisade, having a hut for our two sentinels to stand in free from therain, just within the entrance, and right against the fire. 

To maintain this fire we cut a prodigious deal of wood, and piled it up ina heap to dry, and with the green boughs made a second covering over ourhuts, so high and thick that it might cast the rain from the first, andkeep us effectually dry. 

We had scarcely finished all these works but the rain came on so fierce andso continued that we had little time to stir abroad for food, except indeedthat our negroes, who wore no clothes, seemed to make nothing of the rain;though to us Europeans, in those hot climates, nothing is more dangerous. 

We continued in this posture for four months, that is to say, from themiddle of June to the middle of October; for though the rains went off, atleast the greatest violence of them, about the equinox, yet, as the sun wasthen just over our heads, we resolved to stay awhile till it passed alittle to the southward. 

During our encampment here we had several adventures with the ravenouscreatures of that country; and had not our fire been always kept burning, Iquestion much whether all our fence, though we strengthened it afterwardswith twelve or fourteen rows of stakes or more, would have kept us secure. It was always in the night that we had the disturbance of them, andsometimes they came in such multitudes that we thought all the lions andtigers, and leopards and wolves of Africa were come together to attack us. One night, being clear moonshine, one of our men being upon the watch, toldus that he verily believed he saw ten thousand wild creatures of one sortor another pass by our little camp, and ever as they saw the fire theysheered off, but were sure to howl or roar, or whatever it was, when theywere past. 

The music of their voices was very far from being pleasant to us, andsometimes would be so very disturbing that we could not sleep for it; andoften our sentinels would call us that were awake to come and look at them. It was one windy, tempestuous night, after a rainy day, that we were indeedcalled up; for such innumerable numbers of devilish creatures came about usthat our watch really thought they would attack us. They would not come onthe side where the fire was; and though we thought ourselves secureeverywhere else, yet we all got up and took to our arms. The moon was nearthe full, but the air full of flying clouds, and a strange hurricane ofwind to add to the terror of the night; when, looking on the back part ofour camp, I thought I saw a creature within our fortification, and soindeed he was, except his haunches, for he had taken a running leap, Isuppose, and with all his might had thrown himself clear over ourpalisades, except one strong pile, which stood higher than the rest, andwhich had caught hold of him, and by his weight he had hanged himself uponit, the spike of the pile running into his hinder haunch or thigh, on theinside; and by that he hung, growling and biting the wood for rage. Isnatched up a lance from one of the negroes that stood just by me, andrunning to him, struck it three or four times into him, and despatched him, being unwilling to shoot, because I had a mind to have a volley fired amongthe rest, whom I could see standing without, as thick as a drove ofbullocks going to a fair. I immediately called our people out, and showedthem the object of terror which I had seen, and, without any furtherconsultation, fired a full volley among them, most of our pieces beingloaded with two or three slugs or bullets apiece. It made a horribleclutter among them, and in general they all took to their heels, only thatwe could observe that some walked off with more gravity and majesty thanothers, being not so much frighted at the noise and fire; and we couldperceive that some were left upon the ground struggling as for life, but wedurst not stir out to see what they were. 

Indeed they stood so thick, and were so near us, that we could not wellmiss killing or wounding some of them, and we believed they had certainlythe smell of us, and our victuals we had been killing; for we had killed adeer, and three or four of those creatures like goats the day before; andsome of the offal had been thrown out behind our camp, and this, wesuppose, drew them so much about us; but we avoided it for the future. 

Though the creatures fled, yet we heard a frightful roaring all night atthe place where they stood, which we supposed was from some that werewounded, and as soon as day came we went out to see what execution we haddone. And indeed it was a strange sight; there were three tigers and twowolves quite killed, besides the creature I had killed within our palisade, which seemed to be of an ill-gendered kind, between a tiger and a leopard. Besides this there was a noble old lion alive, but with both his fore-legsbroke, so that he could not stir away, and he had almost beat himself todeath with struggling all night, and we found that this was the woundedsoldier that had roared so loud and given us so much disturbance. Oursurgeon, looking at him, smiled. "Now, " says he, "if I could be sure thislion would be as grateful to me as one of his majesty's ancestors was toAndrocles, the Roman slave, I would certainly set both his legs again andcure him. " I had not heard the story of Androcles, so he told it me atlarge; but as to the surgeon, we told him he had no way to know whether thelion would do so or not, but to cure him first and trust to his honour; buthe had no faith, so to despatch him and put him out of his torment, he shothim in the head and killed him, for which we called him the king-killerever after. 

Our negroes found no less than five of these ravenous creatures wounded anddropped at a distance from our quarters; whereof, one was a wolf, one afine spotted young leopard, and the other were creatures that we knew notwhat to call them. 

We had several more of these gentlefolks about after that, but no suchgeneral rendezvous of them as that was any more; but this ill effect it hadto us, that it frighted the deer and other creatures from ourneighbourhood, of whose company we were much more desirous, and which werenecessary for our subsistence. However, our negroes went out every daya-hunting, as they called it, with bow and arrow, and they scarce everfailed of bringing us home something or other; and particularly we found inthis part of the country, after the rains had fallen some time, abundanceof wild fowl, such as we have in England, duck, teal, widgeon, etc. ; somegeese, and some kinds that we had never seen before; and we frequentlykilled them. Also we catched a great deal of fresh fish out of the river, so that we wanted no provision. If we wanted anything, it was salt to eatwith our fresh meat; but we had a little left, and we used it sparingly;for as to our negroes, they could not taste it, nor did they care to eatany meat that was seasoned with it. 

The weather began now to clear up, the rains were down, and the floodsabated, and the sun, which had passed our zenith, was gone to the southwarda good way; so we prepared to go on our way. 

It was the 12th of October, or thereabouts, that we began to set forward;and having an easy country to travel in, as well as to supply us withprovisions, though still without inhabitants, we made more despatch, travelling sometimes, as we calculated it, twenty or twenty-five miles aday; nor did we halt anywhere in eleven days' march, one day excepted, which was to make a raft to carry us over a small river, which, havingswelled with the rains, was not yet quite down. 

When we were past this river, which, by the way, ran to the northward too, we found a great row of hills in our way. We saw, indeed, the country opento the right at a great distance; but, as we kept true to our course, duewest, we were not willing to go a great way out of our way, only to shun a, few hills. So we advanced; but we were surprised when, being not quite cometo the top, one of our company, who, with two negroes, was got up beforeus, cried out, "The sea! the sea!" and fell a-dancing and jumping, as signsof joy. 

The gunner and I were most surprised at it, because we had but that morningbeen calculating that we must have yet above 1000 miles on the sea side, and that we could not expect to reach it till another rainy season would beupon us; so that when our man cried out, "The sea, " the gunner was angry, and said he was mad. 

But we were both in the greatest surprise imaginable, when, coming to thetop of the hill, and though it was very high, we saw nothing but water, either before us or to the right hand or the left, being a vast sea, without any bounds but the horizon. 

We went down the hill full of confusion of thought, not being able toconceive whereabouts we were or what it must be, seeing by all our chartsthe sea was yet a vast way off. 

It was not above three miles from the hills before we came to the shore, orwater-edge of this sea, and there, to our further surprise, we found thewater fresh and pleasant to drink; so that, in short, we knew not whatcourse to take. The sea, as we thought it to be, put a full stop to ourjourney (I mean westward), for it lay just in the way. Our next questionwas, which hand to turn to, to the right hand or the left, but this wassoon resolved; for, as we knew not the extent of it, we considered that ourway, if it had been the sea really, must be on the north, and therefore, ifwe went to the south now, it must be just so much out of our way at last. So, having spent a good part of the day in our surprise at the thing, andconsulting what to do, we set forward to the north. 

We travelled upon the shore of this sea full twenty-three days before wecould come to any resolution about what it was; at the end of which, earlyone morning, one of our seamen cried out, "Land!" and it was no falsealarm, for we saw plainly the tops of some hills at a very great distance, on the further side of the water, due west; but though this satisfied usthat it was not the ocean, but an inland sea or lake, yet we saw no land tothe northward, that is to say, no end of it, but were obliged to traveleight days more, and near 100 miles farther, before we came to the end ofit, and then we found this lake or sea ended in a very great river whichran N. Or N. By E. , as the other river had done which I mentioned before. 

My friend the gunner, upon examining, said that he believed that he wasmistaken before, and that this was the river Nile, but was still of themind that we were of before, that we should not think of a voyage intoEgypt that way; so we resolved upon crossing this river, which, however, was not so easy as before, the river being very rapid and the channel verybroad. 

It cost us, therefore, a week here to get materials to waft ourselves andcattle over this river; for though here were stores of trees, yet there wasnone of any considerable growth sufficient to make a canoe. 

During our march on the edge of this bank we met with great fatigue, andtherefore travelled a fewer miles in a day than before, there being such aprodigious number of little rivers that came down from the hills on theeast side, emptying themselves into this gulf, all which waters were prettyhigh, the rains having been but newly over. 

In the last three days of our travel we met with some inhabitants, but wefound they lived upon the little hills and not by the water-side; nor werewe a little put to it for food in this march, having killed nothing forfour or five days but some fish we caught out of the lake, and that not insuch plenty as we found before. 

But, to make us some amends, we had no disturbance upon all the shores ofthis lake from any wild beasts; the only inconveniency of that kind was, that we met an ugly, venomous, deformed kind of a snake or serpent in thewet grounds near the lake, that several times pursued us as if it wouldattack us; and if we struck or threw anything at it, it would raise itselfup and hiss so loud that it might be heard a great way. It had a hellishugly deformed look and voice, and our men would not be persuaded but it wasthe devil, only that we did not know what business Satan could have there, where there were no people. 

It was very remarkable that we had now travelled 1000 miles without meetingwith any people in the heart of the whole continent of Africa, where, to besure, never man set his foot since the sons of Noah spread themselves overthe face of the whole earth. Here also our gunner took an observation withhis forestaff, to determine our latitude, and he found now, that havingmarched about thirty-three days northward, we were in 6 degrees 22 minutessouth latitude. 

After having with great difficulty got over this river, we came into astrange wild country that began a little to affright us; for though thecountry was not a desert of dry scalding sand as that was we had passedbefore, yet it was mountainous, barren, and infinitely full of most furiouswild beasts, more than any place we had passed yet. There was indeed a kindof coarse herbage on the surface, and now and then a few trees, or rathershrubs. But people we could see none, and we began to be in great suspenseabout victuals, for we had not killed a deer a great while, but had livedchiefly upon fish and fowl, always by the water-side, both which seemed tofail us now; and we were in the more consternation, because we could notlay in a stock here to proceed upon, as we did before, but were obliged toset out with scarcity, and without any certainty of a supply. 

We had, however, no remedy but patience; and having killed some fowls anddried some fish, as much as, with short allowance, we reckoned would lastus five days, we resolved to venture, and venture we did; nor was itwithout cause that we were apprehensive of the danger, for we travelled thefive days and met neither with fish nor fowl, nor four-footed beast, whoseflesh was fit to eat, and we were in a most dreadful apprehension of beingfamished to death. On the sixth day we almost fasted, or, as we may say, weate up all the scraps of what we had left, and at night lay down supperlessupon our mats, with heavy hearts, being obliged the eighth day to kill oneof our poor faithful servants, the buffaloes that carried our baggage. Theflesh of this creature was very good, and so sparingly did we eat of itthat it lasted us all three days and a half, and was just spent; and wewere on the point of killing another when we saw before us a country thatpromised better, having high trees and a large river in the middle of it. 

This encouraged us, and we quickened our march for the river-side, thoughwith empty stomachs, and very faint and weak; but before we came to thisriver we had the good hap to meet with some young deer, a thing we had longwished for. In a word, having shot three of them, we came to a full stop tofill our bellies, and never gave the flesh time to cool before we ate it;nay, it was much we could stay to kill it and had not eaten it alive, forwe were, in short, almost famished. 

Through all that inhospitable country we saw continually lions, tigers, leopards, civet cats, and abundance of kinds of creatures that we did notunderstand; we saw no elephants, but every now and then we met with anelephant's tooth lying on the ground, and some of them lying, as it were, half buried by the length of time that they had lain there. 

When we came to the shore of this river, we found it ran northerly still, as all the rest had done, but with this difference, that as the course ofthe other rivers were N. By E. Or N. N. E. , the course of this lay N. W. N. 

On the farther bank of this river we saw some sign of inhabitants, but metwith none for the first day; but the next day we came into an inhabitedcountry, the people all negroes, and stark naked, without shame, both menand women. 

We made signs of friendship to them, and found them a very frank, civil, and friendly sort of people. They came to our negroes without anysuspicion, nor did they give us any reason to suspect them of any villainy, as the others had done; we made signs to them that we were hungry, andimmediately some naked women ran and fetched us great quantities of roots, and of things like pumpkins, which we made no scruple to eat; and ourartificer showed them some of his trinkets that he had made, some of iron, some of silver, but none of gold. They had so much judgment as to choosethat of silver before the iron; but when we showed them some gold, we foundthey did not value it so much as either of the other. 

For some of these things they brought us more provisions, and three livingcreatures as big as calves, but not of that kind; neither did we ever seeany of them before; their flesh was very good; and after that they broughtus twelve more, and some smaller creatures like hares; all which were verywelcome to us, who were indeed at a very great loss for provisions. 

We grew very intimate with these people, and indeed they were the civillestand most friendly people that we met with at all, and mightily pleased withus; and, which was very particular, they were much easier to be made tounderstand our meaning than any we had met with before. 

At last we began to inquire our way, pointing to the west. They made usunderstand easily that we could not go that way, but they pointed to usthat we might go north-west, so that we presently understood that there wasanother lake in our way, which proved to be true; for in two days more wesaw it plain, and it held us till we passed the equinoctial line, lying allthe way on our left hand, though at a great distance. 

Travelling thus northward, our gunner seemed very anxious about ourproceedings; for he assured us, and made me sensible of it by the mapswhich he had been teaching me out of, that when we came into the latitudeof six degrees, or thereabouts, north of the line, the land trended away tothe west to such a length that we should not come at the sea under a marchof above 1500 miles farther westward than the country we desired to go to. I asked him if there were no navigable rivers that we might meet with, which, running into the west ocean, might perhaps carry us down theirstream, and then, if it were 1500 miles, or twice 1500 miles, we might dowell enough if we could but get provisions. 

Here he showed me the maps again, and that there appeared no river whosestream was of any such a length as to do any kindness, till we came perhapswithin 200 or 300 miles of the shore, except the Rio Grande, as they callit, which lay farther northward from us, at least 700 miles; and that thenhe knew not what kind of country it might carry us through; for he said itwas his opinion that the heats on the north of the line, even in the samelatitude, were violent, and the country more desolate, barren, andbarbarous, than those of the south; and that when we came among the negroesin the north part of Africa, next the sea, especially those who had seenand trafficked with the Europeans, such as Dutch, English, Portuguese, Spaniards, etc. , they had most of them been so ill-used at some time orother that they would certainly put all the spite they could upon us inmere revenge. 

Upon these considerations he advised us that, as soon as we had passed thislake, we should proceed W. S. W. , that is to say, a little inclining to thesouth, and that in time we should meet with the great river Congo, fromwhence the coast is called Congo, being a little north of Angola, where weintended at first to go. 

I asked him if ever he had been on the coast of Congo. He said, yes, hehad, but was never on shore there. Then I asked him how we should get fromthence to the coast where the European ships came, seeing, if the landtrended away west for 1500 miles, we must have all that shore to traversebefore we could double the west point of it. 

He told me it was ten to one but we should hear of some European ships totake us in, for that they often visited the coast of Congo and Angola, intrade with the negroes; and that if we could not, yet, if we could but findprovisions, we should make our way as well along the sea-shore as along theriver, till we came to the Gold Coast, which, he said, was not above 400 or500 miles north of Congo, besides the turning of the coast west about 300more; that shore being in the latitude of six or seven degrees; and thatthere the English, or Dutch, or French had settlements or factories, perhaps all of them. 

I confess I had more mind, all the while he argued, to have gone northward, and shipped ourselves in the Rio Grande, or, as the traders call it, theriver Negro or Niger, for I knew that at last it would bring us down to theCape de Verd, where we were sure of relief; whereas, at the coast we weregoing to now, we had a prodigious way still to go, either by sea or land, and no certainty which way to get provisions but by force; but for thepresent I held my tongue, because it was my tutor's opinion. 

But when, according to his desire, we came to turn southward, having passedbeyond the second great lake, our men began all to be uneasy, and said wewere now out of our way for certain, for that we were going farther fromhome, and that we were indeed far enough off already. 

But we had not marched above twelve days more, eight whereof were taken upin rounding the lake, and four more south-west, in order to make for theriver Congo, but we were put to another full stop, by entering a country sodesolate, so frightful, and so wild, that we knew not what to think or do;for, besides that it appeared as a terrible and boundless desert, havingneither woods, trees, rivers, or inhabitants, so even the place where wewere was desolate of inhabitants, nor had we any way to gather in a stockof provisions for the passing of this desert, as we did before at ourentering the first, unless we had marched back four days to the place wherewe turned the head of the lake. 

Well, notwithstanding this, we ventured; for, to men that had passed suchwild places as we had done, nothing could seem too desperate to undertake. We ventured, I say, and the rather because we saw very high mountains inour way at a great distance, and we imagined, wherever there were mountainsthere would be springs and rivers; where rivers there would be trees andgrass; where trees and grass there would be cattle; and where cattle, somekind of inhabitants. At last, in consequence of this speculativephilosophy, we entered this waste, having a great heap of roots and plantsfor our bread, such as the Indians gave us, a very little flesh or salt, and but a little water. 

We travelled two days towards those hills, and still they seemed as far offas they did at first, and it was the fifth day before we got to them;indeed, we travelled but softly, for it was excessively hot; and we weremuch about the very equinoctial line, we hardly knew whether to the southor the north of it. 

As we had concluded, that where there were hills there would be springs, soit happened; but we were not only surprised, but really frighted, to findthe first spring we came to, and which looked admirably clear andbeautiful, to be salt as brine. It was a terrible disappointment to us, andput us under melancholy apprehensions at first; but the gunner, who was ofa spirit never discouraged, told us we should not be disturbed at that, butbe very thankful, for salt was a bait we stood in as much need of asanything, and there was no question but we should find fresh water as wellas salt; and here our surgeon stepped in to encourage us, and told us thatif we did not know he would show us a way how to make that salt waterfresh, which indeed made us all more cheerful, though we wondered what hemeant. 

Meantime our men, without bidding, had been seeking about for othersprings, and found several; but still they were all salt; from whence weconcluded that there was a salt rock or mineral stone in those mountains, and perhaps they might be all of such a substance; but still I wondered bywhat witchcraft it was that our artist the surgeon would make this saltwater turn fresh, and I longed to see the experiment, which was indeed avery odd one; but he went to work with as much assurance as if he had triedit on the very spot before. 

He took two of our large mats and sewed them together, and they made a kindof a bag four feet broad, three feet and a half high, and about a foot anda half thick when it was full. 

He caused us to fill this bag with dry sand and tread it down as close aswe could, not to burst the mats. When thus the bag was full within a foot, he sought some other earth and filled up the rest with it, and still trodall in as hard as he could. When he had done, he made a hole in the upperearth about as broad as the crown of a large hat, or something biggerabout, but not so deep, and bade a negro fill it with water, and still asit shrunk away to fill it again, and keep it full. The bag he had placed atfirst across two pieces of wood, about a foot from the ground; and under ithe ordered some of our skins to be spread that would hold water. In aboutan hour, and not sooner, the water began to come dropping through thebottom of the bag, and, to our great surprise, was perfectly fresh andsweet, and this continued for several hours; but in the end the water beganto be a little brackish. When we told him that, "Well, then, " said he, "turn the sand out, and fill it again. " Whether he did this by way ofexperiment from his own fancy, or whether he had seen it done before, I donot remember. 

The next day we mounted the tops of the hills, where the prospect wasindeed astonishing, for as far as the eye could look, south, or west, ornorthwest, there was nothing to be seen but a vast howling wilderness, withneither tree nor river, nor any green thing. The surface we found, as thepart we passed the day before, had a kind of thick moss upon it, of ablackish dead colour, but nothing in it that looked like food, either forman or beast. 

Had we been stored with provisions to have entered for ten or twenty daysupon this wilderness, as we were formerly, and with fresh water, we hadhearts good enough to have ventured, though we had been obliged to comeback again, for if we went north we did not know but we might meet with thesame; but we neither had provisions, neither were we in any place where itwas possible to get them. We killed some wild ferine creatures at the footof these hills; but, except two things, like to nothing that we ever sawbefore, we met with nothing that was fit to eat. These were creatures thatseemed to be between the kind of a buffalo and a deer, but indeed resembledneither; for they had no horns, and had great legs like a cow, with a finehead, and the neck like a deer. We killed also, at several times, a tiger, two young lions, and a wolf; but, God be thanked, we were not so reduced asto eat carrion. 

Upon this terrible prospect I renewed my motion of turning northward, andmaking towards the river Niger or Rio Grande, then to turn west towards theEnglish settlements on the Gold Coast; to which every one most readilyconsented, only our gunner, who was indeed our best guide, though hehappened to be mistaken at this time. He moved that, as our coast was nownorthward, so we might slant away north-west, that so, by crossing thecountry, we might perhaps meet with some other river that run into the RioGrande northward, or down to the Gold Coast southward, and so both directour way and shorten the labour; as also because, if any of the country wasinhabited and fruitful, we should probably find it upon the shore of therivers, where alone we could be furnished with provisions. 

This was good advice, and too rational not to be taken; but our presentbusiness was, what to do to get out of this dreadful place we were in. Behind us was a waste, which had already cost us five days' march, and wehad not provisions for five days left to go back again the same way. Beforeus was nothing but horror, as above; so we resolved, seeing the ridge ofthe hills we were upon had some appearance of fruitfulness, and that theyseemed to lead away to the northward a great way, to keep under the foot ofthem on the east side, to go on as far as we could, and in the meantime tolook diligently out for food. 

Accordingly we moved on the next morning; for we had no time to lose, and, to our great comfort, we came in our first morning's march to very goodsprings of fresh water; and lest we should have a scarcity again, we filledall our bladder bottles and carried it with us. I should also have observedthat our surgeon, who made the salt water fresh, took the opportunity ofthose salt springs, and made us the quantity of three or four pecks of verygood salt. 

In our third march we found an unexpected supply of food, the hills beingfull of hares. They were of a kind something different from ours inEngland, larger and not as swift of foot, but very good meat. We shotseveral of them, and the little tame leopard, which I told you we took atthe negro town that we plundered, hunted them like a dog, and killed usseveral every day; but she would eat nothing of them unless we gave it her, which, indeed, in our circumstance, was very obliging. We salted them alittle and dried them in the sun whole, and carried a strange parcel alongwith us. I think it was almost three hundred, for we did not know when wemight find any more, either of these or any other food. We continued ourcourse under these hills very comfortably for eight or nine days, when wefound, to our great satisfaction, the country beyond us began to look withsomething of a better countenance. As for the west side of the hills, wenever examined it till this day, when three of our company, the resthalting for refreshment, mounted the hills again to satisfy theircuriosity, but found it all the same, nor could they see any end of it, no, not to the north, the way we were going; so the tenth day, finding thehills made a turn, and led as it were into the vast desert, we left themand continued our course north, the country being very tolerably full ofwoods, some waste, but not tediously long, till we came, by our gunner'sobservation, into the latitude of eight degrees five minutes, which we werenineteen days more in performing. 

All this way we found no inhabitants, but abundance of wild ravenouscreatures, with which we became so well acquainted now that really we didnot much mind them. We saw lions and tigers and leopards every night andmorning in abundance; but as they seldom came near us, we let them go abouttheir business: if they offered to come near us, we made false fire withany gun that was uncharged, and they would walk off as soon as they saw theflash. 

We made pretty good shift for food all this way; for sometimes we killedhares, sometimes some fowls, but for my life I cannot give names to any ofthem, except a kind of partridge, and another that was like our turtle. Nowand then we began to meet with elephants again in great numbers; thosecreatures delighted chiefly in the woody part of the country. 

This long-continued march fatigued us very much, and two of our men fellsick, indeed, so very sick that we thought they would have died; and one ofour negroes died suddenly. Our surgeon said it was an apoplexy, but hewondered at it, he said, for he could never complain of his high feeding. Another of them was very ill; but our surgeon with much ado persuading him, indeed it was almost forcing him to be let blood, he recovered. 

We halted here twelve days for the sake of our sick men, and our surgeonpersuaded me and three or four more of us to be let blood during the timeof rest, which, with other things he gave us, contributed very much to ourcontinued health in so tedious a march and in so hot a climate. 

In this march we pitched our matted tents every night, and they were verycomfortable to us, though we had trees and woods to shelter us in mostplaces. We thought it very strange that in all this part of the country weyet met with no inhabitants; but the principal reason, as we foundafterwards, was, that we, having kept a western course first, and then anorthern course, were gotten too much into the middle of the country andamong the deserts; whereas the inhabitants are principally found among therivers, lakes, and lowlands, as well to the south-west as to the north. 

What little rivulets we found here were so empty of water, that except somepits, and little more than ordinary pools, there was scarcely any water tobe seen in them; and they rather showed that during the rainy months theyhad a channel, than that they had really running water in them at thattime, by which it was easy for us to judge that we had a great way to go;but this was no discouragement so long as we had but provisions, and someseasonable shelter from the violent heat, which indeed I thought was muchgreater now than when the sun was just over our heads. 

Our men being recovered, we set forward again, very well stored withprovisions, and water sufficient, and bending our course a little to thewestward of the north, travelled in hopes of some favourable stream whichmight bear a canoe; but we found none till after twenty days' travel, including eight days' rest; for our men being weak, we rested very often, especially when we came to places which were proper for our purpose, wherewe found cattle, fowl, or anything to kill for our food. In those twentydays' march we advanced four degrees to the northward, besides somemeridian distance westward, and we met with abundance of elephants, andwith a good number of elephants' teeth scattered up and down, here andthere, in the woody grounds especially, some of which were very large. Butthey were no booty to us; our business was provisions, and a good passageout of the country; and it had been much more to our purpose to have founda good fat deer, and to have killed it for our food, than a hundred ton ofelephants' teeth; and yet, as you shall presently hear, when we came tobegin our passage by water, we once thought to have built a large canoe, onpurpose to have loaded it with ivory; but this was when we knew nothing ofthe rivers, nor knew anything how dangerous and how difficult a passage itwas we were likely to have in them, nor had considered the weight ofcarriage to lug them to the rivers where we might embark. 

At the end of twenty days' travel, as above, in the latitude of threedegrees sixteen minutes, we discovered in a valley, at some distance fromus, a pretty tolerable stream, which we thought deserved the name of ariver, and which ran its course N. N. W. , which was just what we wanted. Aswe had fixed our thoughts upon our passage by water, we took this for theplace to make the experiment, and bent our march directly to the valley. 

There was a small thicket of trees just in our way, which we went by, thinking no harm, when on a sudden one of our negroes was dangerouslywounded with an arrow shot into his back, slanting between his shoulders. This put us to a full stop; and three of our men, with two negroes, spreading the wood, for it was but a small one, found a negro with a bow, but no arrow, who would have escaped, but our men that discovered him shothim in revenge of the mischief he had done; so we lost the opportunity oftaking him prisoner, which, if we had done, and sent him home with goodusage, it might have brought others to us in a friendly manner. 

Going a little farther, we came to five negro huts or houses, built after adifferent manner from any we had seen yet; and at the door of one of themlay seven elephants' teeth, piled up against the wall or side of the hut, as if they had been provided against a market. Here were no men, but sevenor eight women, and near twenty children. We offered them no incivility ofany kind, but gave them every one a bit of silver beaten out thin, as Iobserved before, and cut diamond fashion, or in the shape of a bird, atwhich the women were overjoyed, and brought out to us several sorts offood, which we did not understand, being cakes of a meal made of roots, which they bake in the sun, and which ate very well. We went a little wayfarther and pitched our camp for that night, not doubting but our civilityto the women would produce some good effect when their husbands might comehome. 

Accordingly, the next morning the women, with eleven men, five young boys, and two good big girls, came to our camp. Before they came quite to us, thewomen called aloud, and made an odd screaming noise to bring us out; andaccordingly we came out, when two of the women, showing us what we hadgiven them, and pointing to the company behind, made such signs as we couldeasily understand signified friendship. When the men advanced, having bowsand arrows, they laid them down on the ground, scraped and threw sand overtheir heads, and turned round three times with their hands laid up upon thetops of their heads. This, it seems, was a solemn vow of friendship. Uponthis we beckoned them with our hands to come nearer; then they sent theboys and girls to us first, which, it seems, was to bring us more cakes ofbread and some green herbs to eat, which we received, and took the boys upand kissed them, and the little girls too; then the men came up close tous, and sat them down on the ground, making signs that we should sit downby them, which we did. They said much to one another, but we could notunderstand them, nor could we find any way to make them understand us, muchless whither we were going, or what we wanted, only that we easily madethem understand we wanted victuals; whereupon one of the men, casting hiseyes about him towards a rising ground that was about half a mile off, started up as if he was frighted, flew to the place where they had laiddown their bows and arrows, snatched up a bow and two arrows, and ran likea racehorse to the place. When he came there, he let fly both his arrows, and comes back again to us with the same speed. We, seeing he came with thebow, but without the arrows, were the more inquisitive; but the fellow, saying nothing to us, beckons to one of our negroes to come to him, and webid him go; so he led him back to the place, where lay a kind of deer, shotwith two arrows, but not quite dead, and between them they brought it downto us. This was for a gift to us, and was very welcome, I assure you, forour stock was low. These people were all stark naked. 

The next day there came about a hundred men to us, and women making thesame awkward signals of friendship, and dancing, and showing themselvesvery well pleased, and anything they had they gave us. How the man in thewood came to be so butcherly and rude as to shoot at our men, withoutmaking any breach first, we could not imagine; for the people were simple, plain, and inoffensive in all our other conversation with them. 

From hence we went down the banks of the little river I mentioned, andwhere, I found, we should see the whole nation of negroes, but whetherfriendly to us or not, that we could make no judgment of yet. 

The river was no use to us, as to the design of making canoes, a greatwhile; and we traversed the country on the edge of it about five days more, when our carpenters, finding the stream increased, proposed to pitch ourtents, and fall to work to make canoes; but after we had begun the work, and cut down two or three trees, and spent five days in the labour, some ofour men, wandering further down the river, brought us word that the streamrather decreased than increased, sinking away into the sands, or drying upby the heat of the sun, so that the river appeared not able to carry theleast canoe that could be any way useful to us; so we were obliged to giveover our enterprise and move on. 

In our further prospect this way, we marched three days full west, thecountry on the north side being extraordinary mountainous, and more parchedand dry than any we had seen yet; whereas, in the part which looks duewest, we found a pleasant valley running a great way between two greatridges of mountains. The hills looked frightful, being entirely bare oftrees or grass, and even white with the dryness of the sand; but in thevalley we had trees, grass, and some creatures that were fit for food, andsome inhabitants. 

We passed by some of their huts or houses, and saw people about them, butthey ran up into the hills as soon as they saw us. At the end of thisvalley we met with a peopled country, and at first it put us to some doubtwhether we should go among them, or keep up towards the hills northerly;and as our aim was principally as before, to make our way to the riverNiger, we inclined to the latter, pursuing our course by the compass to theN. W. We marched thus without interruption seven days more, when we met witha surprising circumstance much more desolate and disconsolate than our own, and which, in time to come, will scarce seem credible. 

We did not much seek the conversing, or acquainting ourselves with thenatives of the country, except where we found the want of them for ourprovision, or their direction for our way; so that, whereas we found thecountry here begin to be very populous, especially towards our left hand, that is, to the south, we kept at the more distance northerly, stillstretching towards the west. 

In this tract we found something or other to kill and eat, which alwayssupplied our necessity, though not so well as we were provided in our firstsetting out; being thus, as it were, pushing to avoid a peopled country, weat last came to a very pleasant, agreeable stream of water, not big enoughto be called a river, but running to the N. N. W. , which was the very coursewe desired to go. 

On the farthest bank of this brook, we perceived some huts of negroes, notmany, and in a little low spot of ground, some maize, or Indian corn, growing, which intimated presently to us, that there were some inhabitantson that side less barbarous than what we had met with in other places wherewe had been. 

As we went forward, our whole caravan being in a body, our negroes, whowere in the front, cried out, that they saw a white man! We were not muchsurprised at first, it being, as we thought, a mistake of the fellows, andasked them what they meant; when one of them stepped to me, and pointing toa hut on the other side of the hill, I was astonished to see a white manindeed, but stark naked, very busy near the door of his hut, and stoopingdown to the ground with something in his hand, as if he had been at somework; and his back being towards us, he did not see us. 

I gave notice to our negroes to make no noise, and waited till some more ofour men were come up, to show the sight to them, that they might be sure Iwas not mistaken; and we were soon satisfied of the truth, for the man, having heard some noise, started up, and looked full at us, as muchsurprised, to be sure, as we were, but whether with fear or hope, we thenknew not. 

As he discovered us, so did the rest of the inhabitants belonging to thehuts about him, and all crowded together, looking at us at a distance, alittle bottom, in which the brook ran, lying between us; the white man, andall the rest, as he told us afterwards, not knowing well whether theyshould stay or run away. However, it presently came into my thoughts, thatif there were white men among them, it would be much easier to make themunderstand what we meant as to peace or war, than we found it with others;so tying a piece of white rag to the end of a stick, we sent two negroeswith it to the bank of the water, carrying the pole up as high as theycould; it was presently understood, and two of their men and the white mancame to the shore on the other side. 

However, as the white man spoke no Portuguese, they could understandnothing of one another but by signs; but our men made the white manunderstand that they had white men with them too, at which they said thewhite man laughed. However, to be short, our men came back, and told usthey were all good friends, and in about an hour four of our men, twonegroes, and the black prince, went to the river-side, where the white mancame to them. 

They had not been half a quarter of an hour, but a negro came running tome, and told me the white man was Inglese, as he called him; upon which Iran back, eagerly enough, you may be sure, with him, and found, as he said, that he was an Englishman; upon which he embraced me very passionately, thetears running down his face. The first surprise of his seeing us was overbefore we came, but any one may conceive it by the brief account he gave usafterwards of his very unhappy circumstances, and of so unexpected adeliverance, such as perhaps never happened to any man in the world, for itwas a million to one odds that ever he could have been relieved; nothingbut an adventure that never was heard or read of before could have suitedhis case, unless Heaven, by some miracle that never was to be expected, hadacted for him. 

He appeared to be a gentleman, not an ordinary-bred fellow, seaman, orlabouring man; this showed itself in his behaviour in the first moment ofour conversing with him, and in spite of all the disadvantages of hismiserable circumstances. 

He was a middle-aged man, not above thirty-seven or thirty-eight, thoughhis beard was grown exceedingly long, and the hair of his head and facestrangely covered him to the middle of his back and breast; he was white, and his skin very fine, though discoloured, and in some places blistered, and covered with a brown blackish substance, scurfy, scaly, and hard, whichwas the effect of the scorching heat of the sun; he was stark naked, andhad been so, as he told us, upwards of two years. 

He was so exceedingly transported at our meeting with him, that he couldscarce enter into any discourse at all with us that day; and when he couldget away from us for a little, we saw him walking alone, and showing allthe most extravagant tokens of an ungovernable joy; and even afterwards hewas never without tears in his eyes for several days, upon the least wordspoken by us of his circumstances, or by him of his deliverance. 

We found his behaviour the most courteous and endearing I ever saw in anyman whatever, and most evident tokens of a mannerly, well-bred personappeared in all things he did or said, and our people were exceedinglytaken with him. He was a scholar and a mathematician; he could not speakPortuguese indeed, but he spoke Latin to our surgeon, French to another ofour men, and Italian to a third. 

He had no leisure in his thoughts to ask us whence we came, whither we weregoing, or who we were; but would have it always as an answer to himself, that to be sure, wherever we were a-going, we came from Heaven, and weresent on purpose to save him from the most wretched condition that ever manwas reduced to. 

Our men pitching their camp on the bank of a little river opposite to him, he began to inquire what store of provisions we had, and how we proposed tobe supplied. When he found that our store was but small, he said he wouldtalk with the natives, and we should have provisions enough; for he saidthey were the most courteous, good-natured part of the inhabitants in allthat part of the country, as we might suppose by his living so safe amongthem. 

The first things this gentleman did for us were indeed of the greatestconsequence to us; for, first, he perfectly informed us where we were, andwhich was the properest course for us to steer; secondly, he put us in theway how to furnish ourselves effectually with provisions; and thirdly, hewas our complete interpreter and peacemaker with all the natives, who nowbegan to be very numerous about us, and who were a more fierce and politicpeople than those we had met with before; not so easily terrified with ourarms as those, and not so ignorant as to give their provisions and corn forour little toys, such as, I said before, our artificer made; but as theyhad frequently traded and conversed with the Europeans on the coast, orwith other negro nations that had traded and been concerned with them, theywere the less ignorant and the less fearful, and consequently nothing wasto be had from them but by exchange for such things as they liked. 

This I say of the negro natives, which we soon came among; but as to thesepoor people that he lived among, they were not much acquainted with things, being at the distance of above 300 miles from the coast; only that theyfound elephants' teeth upon the hills to the north, which they took andcarried about sixty or seventy miles south, where other trading negroesusually met them, and gave them beads, glass, shells, and cowries, forthem, such as the English and Dutch and other traders furnish them withfrom Europe. 

We now began to be more familiar with our new acquaintance; and first, though we made but a sorry figure as to clothes ourselves, having neithershoe, or stocking, or glove, or hat among us, and but very few shirts, yetas well as we could we clothed him; and first, our surgeon having scissorsand razors, shaved him, and cut his hair; a hat, as I say, we had not inall our stores, but he supplied himself by making himself a cap of a pieceof a leopard-skin, most artificially. As for shoes or stockings, he hadgone so long without them that he cared not even for the buskins andfoot-gloves we wore, which I described above. 

As he had been curious to hear the whole story of our travels, and wasexceedingly delighted with the relation, so we were no less to know, andpleased with, the account of his circumstances, and the history of hiscoming to that strange place alone, and in that condition which we foundhim in, as above. This account of his would indeed be in itself the subjectof an agreeable history, and would be as long and diverting as our own, having in it many strange and extraordinary incidents; but we cannot haveroom here to launch out into so long a digression: the sum of his historywas this:--

He had been a factor for the English Guinea Company at Sierra Leone, orsome other of their settlements which had been taken by the French, wherehe had been plundered of all his own effects, as well as of what wasentrusted to him by the company. Whether it was that the company did not dohim justice in restoring his circumstances, or in further employing him, hequitted their service, and was employed by those called separate traders, and being afterwards out of employ there also, traded on his own account;when, passing unwarily into one of the company's settlements, he was eitherbetrayed into the hands of some of the natives, or, somehow or other, wassurprised by them. However, as they did not kill him, he found means toescape from them at that time, and fled to another nation of the natives, who, being enemies to the other, entertained him friendly, and with them helived some time; but not liking his quarters or his company, he fled again, and several times changed his landlords: sometimes was carried by force, sometimes hurried by fear, as circumstances altered with him (the varietyof which deserves a history by itself), till at last he had wandered beyondall possibility of return, and had taken up his abode where we found him, where he was well received by the petty king of the tribe he lived with;and he, in return, instructed them how to value the product of theirlabour, and on what terms to trade with those negroes who came up to themfor teeth. 

As he was naked, and had no clothes, so he was naked of arms for hisdefence, having neither gun, sword, staff, or any instrument of war abouthim, no, not to guard himself against the attacks of a wild beast, of whichthe country was very full. We asked him how he came to be so entirelyabandoned of all concern for his safety? He answered, that to him, that hadso often wished for death, life was not worth defending; and that, as hewas entirely at the mercy of the negroes, they had much the more confidencein him, seeing he had no weapons to hurt them. As for wild beasts, he wasnot much concerned about that, for he scarce ever went from his hut; but ifhe did, the negro king and his men went all with him, and they were allarmed with bows and arrows, and lances, with which they would kill any ofthe ravenous creatures, lions as well as others; but that they seldom cameabroad in the day; and if the negroes wander anywhere in the night, theyalways build a hut for themselves, and make a fire at the door of it, whichis guard enough. 

We inquired of him what we should next do towards getting to the seaside. He told us we were about one hundred and twenty English leagues from thecoast, where almost all the European settlements and factories were, andwhich is called the Gold Coast; but that there were so many differentnations of negroes in the way, that it was ten to one if we were not eitherfought with continually, or starved for want of provisions; but that therewere two other ways to go, which, if he had had any company to go with him, he had often contrived to make his escape by. The one was to travel fullwest, which, though it was farther to go, yet was not so full of people, and the people we should find would be so much the civiller to us, or be somuch the easier to fight with; or that the other way was, if possible, toget to the Rio Grande, and go down the stream in canoes. We told him, thatwas the way we had resolved on before we met with him; but then he told usthere was a prodigious desert to go over, and as prodigious woods to gothrough, before we came to it, and that both together were at least twentydays' march for us, travel as hard as we could. 

We asked him if there were no horses in the country, or asses, or evenbullocks or buffaloes, to make use of in such a journey, and we showed himours, of which we had but three left. He said no, all the country did notafford anything of that kind. 

He told us that in this great wood there were immense numbers of elephants;and upon the desert, great multitudes of lions, lynxes, tigers, leopards, &c. ; and that it was to that wood and that desert that the negroes went toget elephants' teeth, where they never failed to find a great number. 

We inquired still more, and particularly the way to the Gold Coast, and ifthere were no rivers to ease us in our carriage; and told him, as to thenegroes fighting with us, we were not much concerned at that; nor were weafraid of starving, for if they had any victuals among them, we would haveour share of it; and, therefore, if he would venture to show us the way, wewould venture to go; and as for himself, we told him we would live and dietogether--there should not a man of us stir from him. 

He told us, with all his heart, if we resolved it, and would venture, wemight be assured he would take his fate with us, and he would endeavour toguide us in such a way as we should meet with some friendly savages whowould use us well, and perhaps stand by us against some others, who wereless tractable; so, in a word, we all resolved to go full south for theGold Coast. 

The next morning he came to us again, and being all met in council, as wemay call it, he began to talk very seriously with us, that since we werenow come, after a long journey, to a view of the end of our troubles, andhad been so obliging to him as to offer to carry him with us, he had beenall night revolving in his mind what he and we all might do to makeourselves some amends for all our sorrows; and first, he said, he was tolet me know that we were just then in one of the richest parts of theworld, though it was really otherwise but a desolate, disconsolatewilderness; "for, " says he, "there is not a river but runs gold--not adesert but without ploughing bears a crop of ivory. What mines of gold, what immense stores of gold, those mountains may contain, from whence theserivers come, or the shores which these waters run by, we know not, but mayimagine that they must be inconceivably rich, seeing so much is washed downthe stream by the water washing the sides of the land, that the quantitysuffices all the traders which the European world send thither. " We askedhim how far they went for it, seeing the ships only trade upon the coast. He told us that the negroes on the coast search the rivers up for thelength of 150 or 200 miles, and would be out a month, or two, or three at atime, and always come home sufficiently rewarded; "but, " says he, "theynever come thus far, and yet hereabouts is as much gold as there. " Uponthis he told us that he believed he might have gotten a hundred pounds'weight of gold since he came thither, if he had employed himself to lookand work for it; but as he knew not what to do with it, and had long sincedespaired of being ever delivered from the misery he was in, he hadentirely omitted it. "For what advantage had it been to me, " said he, "orwhat richer had I been, if I had a ton of gold dust, and lay and wallowedin it? The richness of it, " said he, "would not give me one moment'sfelicity, nor relieve me in the present exigency. Nay, " says he, "as youall see, it would not buy me clothes to cover me, or a drop of drink tosave me from perishing. It is of no value here, " says he; "there areseveral people among these huts that would weigh gold against a few glassbeads or a cockle-shell, and give you a handful of gold-dust for a handfulof cowries. " N. B. --These are little shells which our children callblackamoors' teeth. 

When he had said thus he pulled out a piece of an earthen pot baked hard inthe sun. "Here, " says he, "is some of the dirt of this country, and if Iwould I could have got a great deal more;" and, showing it to us, I believethere was in it between two and three pounds weight of gold-dust, of thesame kind and colour with that we had gotten already, as before. After wehad looked at it a while, he told us, smiling, we were his deliverers, andall he had, as well as his life, was ours; and therefore, as this would beof value to us when we came to our own country, so he desired we wouldaccept of it among us; and that was the only time that he had repented thathe had picked up no more of it. 

I spoke for him, as his interpreter, to my comrades, and in their namesthanked him; but, speaking to them in Portuguese, I desired them to deferthe acceptance of his kindness to the next morning; and so I did, tellinghim we would further talk of this part in the morning; so we parted forthat time. 

When he was gone I found they were all wonderfully affected with hisdiscourse, and with the generosity of his temper, as well as themagnificence of his present, which in another place had been extraordinary. Upon the whole, not to detain you with circumstances, we agreed that, seeing he was now one of our number, and that as we were a relief to him incarrying him out of the dismal condition he was in, so he was equally arelief to us, in being our guide through the rest of the country, ourinterpreter with the natives, and our director how to manage with thesavages, and how to enrich ourselves with the wealth of the country; that, therefore, we would put his gold among our common stock, and every oneshould give him as much as would make his up just as much as any singleshare of our own, and for the future we would take our lot together, takinghis solemn engagement to us, as we had before one to another, that we wouldnot conceal the least grain of gold we found one from another. 

In the next conference we acquainted him with the adventures of the GoldenRiver, and how we had shared what we got there, so that every man had alarger stock than he for his share; that, therefore, instead of taking anyfrom him, we had resolved every one to add a little to him. He appearedvery glad that we had met with such good success, but would not take agrain from us, till at last, pressing him very hard, he told us, that thenhe would take it thus:--that, when we came to get any more, he would haveso much out of the first as should make him even, and then we would go onas equal adventurers; and thus we agreed. 

He then told us he thought it would not be an unprofitable adventure if, before we set forward, and after we had got a stock of provisions, weshould make a journey north to the edge of the desert he had told us of, from whence our negroes might bring every one a large elephant's tooth, andthat he would get some more to assist; and that, after a certain length ofcarriage, they might be conveyed by canoes to the coast, where they wouldyield a very great profit. 

I objected against this on account of our other design we had of gettinggold-dust; and that our negroes, who we knew would be faithful to us, wouldget much more by searching the rivers for gold for us than by lugging agreat tooth of a hundred and fifty pounds weight a hundred miles or more, which would be an insufferable labour to them after so hard a journey, andwould certainly kill them. 

He acquiesced in the justice of this answer, but fain would have had usgone to see the woody part of the hill and the edge of the desert, that wemight see how the elephants' teeth lay scattered up and down there; butwhen we told him the story of what we had seen before, as is said above, hesaid no more. 

We stayed here twelve days, during which time the natives were veryobliging to us, and brought us fruits, pompions, and a root like carrots, though of quite another taste, but not unpleasant neither, and someguinea-fowls, whose names we did not know. In short, they brought us plentyof what they had, and we lived very well, and we gave them all such littlethings as our cutler had made, for he had now a whole bag full of them. 

On the thirteenth day we set forward, taking our new gentleman with us. Atparting, the negro king sent two savages with a present to him of somedried flesh, but I do not remember what it was, and he gave him again threesilver birds which our cutler helped him to, which I assure you was apresent for a king. 

We travelled now south, a little west, and here we found the first riverfor above 2000 miles' march, whose waters run south, all the rest runningnorth or west. We followed this river, which was no bigger than a goodlarge brook in England, till it began to increase its water. Every now andthen we found our Englishman went down as it were privately to the water, which was to try the land; at length, after a day's march upon this river, he came running up to us with his hands full of sand, and saying, "Lookhere. " Upon looking we found that a good deal of gold lay spangled amongthe sand of the river. "Now, " says he, "I think we may begin to work;" sohe divided our negroes into couples and set them to work, to search andwash the sand and ooze in the bottom of the water where it was not deep. 

In the first day and a quarter our men all together had gathered a poundand two ounces of gold or thereabouts, and as we found the quantityincreased the farther we went, we followed it about three days, tillanother small rivulet joined the first, and then searching up the stream, we found gold there too; so we pitched our camp in the angle where therivers joined, and we diverted ourselves, as I may call it, in washing thegold out of the sand of the river, and in getting provisions. 

Here we stayed thirteen days more, in which time we had many pleasantadventures with the savages, too long to mention here, and some of them toohomely to tell of, for some of our men had made something free with theirwomen, which, had not our new guide made peace for us with one of their menat the price of seven fine bits of silver, which our artificer had cut outinto the shapes of lions, and fishes, and birds, and had punched holes tohang them up by (an inestimable treasure), we must have gone to war withthem and all their people. 

All the while we were busy washing gold-dust out of the rivers, and ournegroes the like, our ingenious cutler was hammering and cutting, and hewas grown so dexterous by use that he formed all manner of images. He cutout elephants, tigers, civet cats, ostriches, eagles, cranes, fowls, fishes, and indeed whatever he pleased, in thin plates of hammered gold, for his silver and iron were almost all gone. 

At one of the towns of these savage nations we were very friendly receivedby their king, and as he was very much taken with our workman's toys, hesold him an elephant cut out of a gold plate as thin as a sixpence at anextravagant rate. He was so much taken with it that he would not be quiettill he had given him almost a handful of gold-dust, as they call it; Isuppose it might weigh three-quarters of a pound; the piece of gold thatthe elephant was made of might be about the weight of a pistole, ratherless than more. Our artist was so honest, though the labour and art wereall his own, that he brought all the gold and put it into our common stock;but we had, indeed, no manner of reason in the least to be covetous, for, as our new guide told us, we that were strong enough to defend ourselves, and had time enough to stay (for we were none of us in haste), might intime get together what quantity of gold we pleased, even to an hundredpounds weight each man if we thought fit; and therefore he told us, thoughhe had as much reason to be sick of the country as any of us, yet if wethought to turn our march a little to the south-east, and pitch upon aplace proper for our headquarters, we might find provisions plenty enough, and extend ourselves over the country among the rivers for two or threeyears to the right and left, and we should soon find the advantage of it. 

The proposal, however good as to the profitable part of it, suited none ofus, for we were all more desirous to get home than to be rich, being tiredof the excessive fatigue of above a year's continual wandering amongdeserts and wild beasts. 

However, the tongue of our new acquaintance had a kind of charm in it, andused such arguments, and had so much the power of persuasion, that therewas no resisting him. He told us it was preposterous not to take the fruitof all our labours now we were come to the harvest; that we might see thehazard the Europeans run with ships and men, and at great expense, to fetcha little gold, and that we, that were in the centre of it, to go awayempty-handed was unaccountable; that we were strong enough to fight our waythrough whole nations, and might make our journey afterward to what part ofthe coast we pleased, and we should never forgive ourselves when we came toour own country to see we had 500 pistoles in gold, and might as easilyhave had 5000 or 10, 000, or what we pleased; that he was no more covetousthan we, but seeing it was in all our powers to retrieve our misfortunes atonce, and to make ourselves easy for all our lives, he could not befaithful to us, or grateful for the good we had done him, if he did not letus see the advantage we had in our hands; and he assured us he would makeit clear to our own understanding, that we might in two years' time, bygood management and by the help of our negroes, gather every man a hundredpounds weight of gold, and get together perhaps two hundred ton of teeth;whereas, if once we pushed on to the coast and separated, we should neverbe able to see that place again with our eyes, or do any more than sinnersdid with heaven, --wish themselves there, but know they can never come atit. 

Our surgeon was the first man that yielded to his reasoning, and after himthe gunner; and they too, indeed, had a great influence over us, but noneof the rest had any mind to stay, nor I neither, I must confess; for I hadno notion of a great deal of money, or what to do with myself, or what todo with it if I had it. I thought I had enough already, and all thethoughts I had about disposing of it, if I came to Europe, was only how tospend it as fast as I could, buy me some clothes, and go to sea again to bea drudge for more. 

However, he prevailed with us by his good words at last to stay but for sixmonths in the country, and then, if we did resolve to go, he would submit;so at length we yielded to that, and he carried us about fifty Englishmiles south-east, where we found several rivulets of water, which seemed tocome all from a great ridge of mountains, which lay to the north-east, andwhich, by our calculation, must be the beginning that way of the greatwaste, which we had been forced northward to avoid. 

Here we found the country barren enough, but yet we had by his directionplenty of food; for the savages round us, upon giving them some of ourtoys, as I have so often mentioned, brought us in whatever they had; andhere we found some maize, or Indian wheat, which the negro women planted, as we sow seeds in a garden, and immediately our new provider ordered someof our negroes to plant it, and it grew up presently, and by watering itoften, we had a crop in less than three months' growth. 

As soon as we were settled, and our camp fixed, we fell to the old trade offishing for gold in the rivers mentioned above, and our English gentlemanso well knew how to direct our search, that we scarce ever lost our labour. 

One time, having set us to work, he asked if we would give him leave, withfour or five negroes, to go out for six or seven days to seek his fortune, and see what he could discover in the country, assuring us whatever he gotshould be for the public stock. We all gave him our consent, and lent him agun; and two of our men desiring to go with him, they took then six negroeswith them, and two of our buffaloes that came with us the whole journey;they took about eight days' provision of bread with them, but no flesh, except about as much dried flesh as would serve them two days. 

They travelled up to the top of the mountains I mentioned just now, wherethey saw (as our men afterwards vouched it to be) the same desert which wewere so justly terrified at when we were on the farther side, and which, byour calculation, could not be less than 300 miles broad and above 600 milesin length, without knowing where it ended. 

The journal of their travels is too long to enter upon here. They stayedout two-and-fifty days, when they brought us seventeen pound and somethingmore (for we had no exact weight) of gold-dust, some of it in much largerpieces than any we had found before, besides about fifteen ton ofelephants' teeth, which he had, partly by good usage and partly by bad, obliged the savages of the country to fetch, and bring down to him from themountains, and which he made others bring with him quite down to our camp. Indeed, we wondered what was coming to us when we saw him attended withabove 200 negroes; but he soon undeceived us, when he made them all throwdown their burdens on a heap at the entrance of our camp. 

Besides this, they brought two lions' skins, and five leopards' skins, verylarge and very fine. He asked our pardon for his long stay, and that he hadmade no greater a booty, but told us he had one excursion more to make, which he hoped should turn to a better account. 

So, having rested himself and rewarded the savages that brought the teethfor him with some bits of silver and iron cut out diamond fashion, and withtwo shaped like little dogs, he sent them away mightily pleased. 

The second journey he went, some more of our men desired to go with him, and they made a troop of ten white men and ten savages, and the twobuffaloes to carry their provisions and ammunition. They took the samecourse, only not exactly the same track, and they stayed thirty-two daysonly, in which time they killed no less than fifteen leopards, three lions, and several other creatures, and brought us home four-and-twenty pound someounces of gold-dust, and only six elephants' teeth, but they were verygreat ones. 

Our friend the Englishman showed us that now our time was well bestowed, for in five months which we had stayed here, we had gathered so muchgold-dust that, when we came to share it, we had five pound and a quarterto a man, besides what we had before, and besides six or seven pound weightwhich we had at several times given our artificer to make baubles with. Andnow we talked of going forward to the coast to put an end to our journey;but our guide laughed at us then. "Nay, you can't go now, " says he, "forthe rainy season begins next month, and there will be no stirring then. "This we found, indeed, reasonable, so we resolved to furnish ourselves withprovisions, that we might not be obliged to go abroad too much in the rain, and we spread ourselves some one way and some another, as far as we caredto venture, to get provisions; and our negroes killed us some deer, whichwe cured as well as we could in the sun, for we had now no salt. 

By this time the rainy months were set in, and we could scarce, for abovetwo months, look out of our huts. But that was not all, for the rivers wereso swelled with the land-floods, that we scarce knew the little brooks andrivulets from the great navigable rivers. This had been a very goodopportunity to have conveyed by water, upon rafts, our elephants' teeth, ofwhich we had a very great pile; for, as we always gave the savages somereward for their labour, the very women would bring us teeth upon everyopportunity, and sometimes a great tooth carried between two; so that ourquantity was increased to about two-and-twenty ton of teeth. 

As soon as the weather proved fair again, he told us he would not press usto any further stay, since we did not care whether we got any more gold orno; that we were indeed the first men he ever met with in his life thatsaid they had gold enough, and of whom it might be truly said, that, whenit lay under our feet, we would not stoop to take it up. But, since he hadmade us a promise, he would not break it, nor press us to make any furtherstay; only he thought he ought to tell us that now was the time, after theland-flood, when the greatest quantity of gold was found; and that, if westayed but one month, we should see thousands of savages spread themselvesover the whole country to wash the gold out of the sand, for the Europeanships which would come on the coast; that they do it then, because the rageof the floods always works down a great deal of gold out of the hills; and, if we took the advantage to be there before them, we did not know whatextraordinary things we might find. 

This was so forcible, and so well argued, that it appeared in all our faceswe were prevailed upon; so we told him we would all stay: for though it wastrue we were all eager to be gone, yet the evident prospect of so muchadvantage could not well be resisted; that he was greatly mistaken, when hesuggested that we did not desire to increase our store of gold, and in thatwe were resolved to make the utmost use of the advantage that was in ourhands, and would stay as long as any gold was to be had, if it was anotheryear. 

He could hardly express the joy he was in on this occasion; and the fairweather coming on, we began, just as he directed, to search about therivers for more gold. At first we had but little encouragement, and beganto be doubtful; but it was very plain that the reason was, the water wasnot fully fallen, or the rivers reduced to their usual channel; but in afew days we were fully requited, and found much more gold than at first, and in bigger lumps; and one of our men washed out of the sand a piece ofgold as big as a small nut, which weighed, by our estimation--for we had nosmall weights--almost an ounce and a half. 

This success made us extremely diligent; and in little more than a month wehad altogether gotten near sixty pound weight of gold; but after this, ashe told us, we found abundance of the savages, men, women, and children, hunting every river and brook, and even the dry land of the hills for gold;so that we could do nothing like then, compared to what we had done before. 

But our artificer found a way to make other people find us in gold withoutour own labour; for, when these people began to appear, he had aconsiderable quantity of his toys, birds, beasts, &c. , such as before, ready for them; and the English gentleman being the interpreter, he broughtthe savages to admire them; so our cutler had trade enough, and, to besure, sold his goods at a monstrous rate; for he would get an ounce ofgold, sometimes two, for a bit of silver, perhaps of the value of a groat;nay, if it were iron and if it was of gold, they would not give the morefor it; and it was incredible almost to think what a quantity of gold hegot that way. 

In a word, to bring this happy journey to a conclusion, we increased ourstock of gold here, in three months' stay more, to such a degree that, bringing it all to a common stock, in order to share it, we divided almostfour pound weight again to every man; and then we set forward for the GoldCoast, to see what method we could find out for our passage into Europe. 

There happened several remarkable incidents in this part of our journey, asto how we were, or were not, received friendly by the several nations ofsavages through which we passed; how we delivered one negro king fromcaptivity, who had been a benefactor to our new guide; and now our guide, in gratitude, by our assistance, restored him to his kingdom, which, perhaps, might contain about 300 subjects; how he entertained us; and howhe made his subjects go with our Englishmen, and fetch all our elephants'teeth which we had been obliged to leave behind us, and to carry them forus to the river, the name of which I forgot, where we made rafts, and ineleven days more came down to one of the Dutch settlements on the GoldCoast, where we arrived in perfect health, and to our great satisfaction. As for our cargo of teeth, we sold it to the Dutch factory, and receivedclothes and other necessaries for ourselves, and such of our negroes as wethought fit to keep with us; and it is to be observed, that we had fourpound of gunpowder left when we ended our journey. The negro prince we madeperfectly free, clothed him out of our common stock, and gave him a poundand a half of gold for himself, which he knew very well how to manage; andhere we all parted after the most friendly manner possible. Our Englishmanremained in the Dutch factory some time, and, as I heard afterwards, diedthere of grief; for he having sent a thousand pounds sterling over toEngland, by the way of Holland, for his refuge at his return to hisfriends, the ship was taken by the French and the effects all lost. 

The rest of my comrades went away, in a small bark, to the two Portuguesefactories, near Gambia, in the latitude of fourteen; and I, with twonegroes which I kept with me, went away to Cape Coast Castle, where I gotpassage for England, and arrived there in September; and thus ended myfirst harvest of wild oats; the rest were not sowed to so much advantage. 

I had neither friend, relation, nor acquaintance in England, though it wasmy native country; I had consequently no person to trust with what I had, or to counsel me to secure or save it; but, falling into ill company, andtrusting the keeper of a public-house in Rotherhithe with a great part ofmy money, and hastily squandering away the rest, all that great sum, whichI got with so much pains and hazard, was gone in little more than twoyears' time; and, as I even rage in my own thoughts to reflect upon themanner how it was wasted, so I need record no more; the rest merits to beconcealed with blushes, for that it was spent in all kinds of folly andwickedness. So this scene of my life may be said to have begun in theft, and ended in luxury; a sad setting-out, and a worse coming home. 

About the year ---- I began to see the bottom of my stock, and that it wastime to think of further adventures; for my spoilers, as I call them, beganto let me know, that as my money declined, their respect would ebb with it, and that I had nothing to expect of them further than as I might command itby the force of my money, which, in short, would not go an inch the furtherfor all that had been spent in their favour before. 

This shocked me very much, and I conceived a just abhorrence of theiringratitude; but it wore off; nor had I met with any regret at the wastingso glorious a sum of money as I brought to England with me. 

I next shipped myself, in an evil hour to be sure, on a voyage to Cadiz, ina ship called the ----, and in the course of our voyage, being on the coastof Spain, was obliged to put into the Groyn, by a strong southwest wind. 

Here I fell into company with some masters of mischief; and, among them, one, forwarder than the rest, began an intimate confidence with me, so thatwe called one another brothers, and communicated all our circumstances toone another. His name was Harris. This fellow came to me one morning, asking me if I would go on shore, and I agreed; so we got the captain'sleave for the boat, and went together. When we were together, he asked meif I had a mind for an adventure that might make amends for all pastmisfortunes. I told him, yes, with all my heart; for I did not care where Iwent, having nothing to lose, and no one to leave behind me. 

He then asked me if I would swear to be secret, and that, if I did notagree to what he proposed, I would nevertheless never betray him. I readilybound myself to that, upon the most solemn imprecations and curses that thedevil and both of us could invent. 

He told me, then, there was a brave fellow in the other ship, pointing toanother English ship which rode in the harbour, who, in concert with someof the men, had resolved to mutiny the next morning, and run away with theship; and that, if we could get strength enough among our ship's company, we might do the same. I liked the proposal very well, and he got eight ofus to join with him, and he told us, that as soon as his friend had begunthe work, and was master of the ship, we should be ready to do the like. This was his plot; and I, without the least hesitation, either at thevillainy of the fact or the difficulty of performing it, came immediatelyinto the wicked conspiracy, and so it went on among us; but we could notbring our part to perfection. 

Accordingly, on the day appointed, his correspondent in the other ship, whose name was Wilmot, began the work, and, having seized the captain'smate and other officers, secured the ship, and gave the signal to us. Wewere but eleven in our ship, who were in the conspiracy, nor could we getany more that we could trust; so that, leaving the ship, we all took theboat, and went off to join the other. 

Having thus left the ship I was in, we were entertained with a great dealof joy by Captain Wilmot and his new gang; and, being well prepared for allmanner of roguery, bold, desperate (I mean myself), without the leastchecks of conscience for what I was entered upon, or for anything I mightdo, much less with any apprehension of what might be the consequence of it;I say, having thus embarked with this crew, which at last brought me toconsort with the most famous pirates of the age, some of whom have endedtheir journals at the gallows, I think the giving an account of some of myother adventures may be an agreeable piece of story; and this I may ventureto say beforehand, upon the word of a pirate, that I shall not be able torecollect the full, no, not by far, of the great variety which has formedone of the most reprobate schemes that ever man was capable to present tothe world. 

I that was, as I have hinted before, an original thief, and a pirate, evenby inclination before, was now in my element, and never undertook anythingin my life with more particular satisfaction. 

Captain Wilmot (for so we are now to call him) being thus possessed of aship, and in the manner as you have heard, it may be easily concluded hehad nothing to do to stay in the port, or to wait either the attemptsthat might be made from the shore, or any change that might happen amonghis men. On the contrary, we weighed anchor the same tide, and stood outto sea, steering away for the Canaries. Our ship had twenty-two guns, but was able to carry thirty; and besides, as she was fitted out for amerchant-ship only, she was not furnished either with ammunition orsmall-arms sufficient for our design, or for the occasion we might havein case of a fight. So we put into Cadiz, that is to say, we came to ananchor in the bay; and the captain, and one whom we called young CaptainKidd, who was the gunner, [landed, ] and some of the men who could bestbe trusted, among whom was my comrade Harris, who was made second mate, and myself, who was made a lieutenant. Some bales of English goods wereproposed to be carried on shore with us for sale, but my comrade, whowas a complete fellow at his business, proposed a better way for it; andhaving been in the town before, told us, in short, that he would buywhat powder and bullet, small-arms, or anything else we wanted, on hisown word, to be paid for when they came on board, in such English goodsas we had there. This was much the best way, and accordingly he and thecaptain went on shore by themselves, and having made such a bargain asthey found for their turn, came away again in two hours' time, andbringing only a butt of wine and five casks of brandy with them, we allwent on board again. 

The next morning two _barcos longos_ came off to us, deeply laden, withfive Spaniards on board them, for traffic. Our captain sold them goodpennyworths, and they delivered us sixteen barrels of powder, twelve smallrundlets of fine powder for our small-arms, sixty muskets, and twelvefusees for the officers; seventeen ton of cannon-ball, fifteen barrels ofmusket-bullets, with some swords and twenty good pair of pistols. Besidesthis, they brought thirteen butts of wine (for we, that were now all becomegentlemen, scorned to drink the ship's beer), also sixteen puncheons ofbrandy, with twelve barrels of raisins and twenty chests of lemons; allwhich we paid for in English goods; and, over and above, the captainreceived six hundred pieces of eight in money. They would have come again, but we would stay no longer. 

From hence we sailed to the Canaries, and from thence onward to the WestIndies, where we committed some depredation upon the Spaniards forprovisions, and took some prizes, but none of any great value, while Iremained with them, which was not long at that time; for, having taken aSpanish sloop on the coast of Carthagena, my friend made a motion to me, that we should desire Captain Wilmot to put us into the sloop, with aproportion of arms and ammunition, and let us try what we could do; shebeing much fitter for our business than the great ship, and a bettersailer. This he consented to, and we appointed our rendezvous at Tobago, making an agreement, that whatever was taken by either of our ships shouldbe shared among the ship's company of both; all which we very punctuallyobserved, and joined our ships again, about fifteen months after, at theisland of Tobago, as above. 

We cruised near two years in those seas, chiefly upon the Spaniards; notthat we made any difficulty of taking English ships, or Dutch, or French, if they came in our way; and particularly, Captain Wilmot attacked a NewEngland ship bound from the Madeiras to Jamaica, and another bound from NewYork to Barbados, with provisions; which last was a very happy supply tous. But the reason why we meddled as little with English vessels as wecould, was, first, because, if they were ships of any force, we were sureof more resistance from them; and, secondly, because we found the Englishships had less booty when taken, for the Spaniards generally had money onboard, and that was what we best knew what to do with. Captain Wilmot was, indeed, more particularly cruel when he took any English vessel, that theymight not too soon have advice of him in England; and so the men-of-warhave orders to look out for him. But this part I bury in silence for thepresent. 

We increased our stock in these two years considerably, having taken 60, 000pieces of eight in one vessel, and 100, 000 in another; and being thus firstgrown rich, we resolved to be strong too, for we had taken a brigantinebuilt at Virginia, an excellent sea-boat, and a good sailer, and able tocarry twelve guns; and a large Spanish frigate-built ship, that sailedincomparably well also, and which afterwards, by the help of goodcarpenters, we fitted up to carry twenty-eight guns. And now we wanted morehands, so we put away for the Bay of Campeachy, not doubting we should shipas many men there as we pleased; and so we did. 

Here we sold the sloop that I was in; and Captain Wilmot keeping his ownship, I took the command of the Spanish frigate as captain, and my comradeHarris as eldest lieutenant, and a bold enterprising fellow he was, as anythe world afforded. One culverdine was put into the brigantine, so that wewere now three stout ships, well manned, and victualled for twelve months;for we had taken two or three sloops from New England and New York, ladenwith flour, peas, and barrelled beef and pork, going for Jamaica andBarbados; and for more beef we went on shore on the island of Cuba, wherewe killed as many black cattle as we pleased, though we had very littlesalt to cure them. 

Out of all the prizes we took here we took their powder and bullet, theirsmall-arms and cutlasses; and as for their men, we always took the surgeonand the carpenter, as persons who were of particular use to us upon manyoccasions; nor were they always unwilling to go with us, though for theirown security, in case of accidents, they might easily pretend they werecarried away by force; of which I shall give a pleasant account in thecourse of my other expeditions. 

We had one very merry fellow here, a Quaker, whose name was WilliamWalters, whom we took out of a sloop bound from Pennsylvania to Barbados. He was a surgeon, and they called him doctor; but he was not employed inthe sloop as a surgeon, but was going to Barbados to get a berth, as thesailors call it. However, he had all his surgeon's chests on board, and wemade him go with us, and take all his implements with him. He was a comicfellow indeed, a man of very good solid sense, and an excellent surgeon;but, what was worth all, very good-humoured and pleasant in hisconversation, and a bold, stout, brave fellow too, as any we had among us. 

I found William, as I thought, not very averse to go along with us, and yetresolved to do it so that it might be apparent he was taken away by force, and to this purpose he comes to me. "Friend, " says he, "thou sayest I mustgo with thee, and it is not in my power to resist thee if I would; but Idesire thou wilt oblige the master of the sloop which I am on board tocertify under his hand, that I was taken away by force and against mywill. " And this he said with so much satisfaction in his face, that I couldnot but understand him. "Ay, ay, " says I, "whether it be against your willor no, I'll make him and all the men give you a certificate of it, or I'lltake them all along with us, and keep them till they do. " So I drew up acertificate myself, wherein I wrote that he was taken away by main force, as a prisoner, by a pirate ship; that they carried away his chest andinstruments first, and then bound his hands behind him and forced him intotheir boat; and this was signed by the master and all his men. 

Accordingly I fell a-swearing at him, and called to my men to tie his handsbehind him, and so we put him into our boat and carried him away. When Ihad him on board, I called him to me. "Now, friend, " says I, "I havebrought you away by force, it is true, but I am not of the opinion I havebrought you away so much against your will as they imagine. Come, " says I, "you will be a useful man to us, and you shall have very good usage amongus. " So I unbound his hands, and first ordered all things that belonged tohim to be restored to him, and our captain gave him a dram. 

"Thou hast dealt friendly by me, " says he, "and I will be plain with thee, whether I came willingly to thee or not. I shall make myself as useful tothee as I can, but thou knowest it is not my business to meddle when thouart to fight. " "No, no, " says the captain, "but you may meddle a littlewhen we share the money. " "Those things are useful to furnish a surgeon'schest, " says William, and smiled, "but I shall be moderate. "

In short, William was a most agreeable companion; but he had the better ofus in this part, that if we were taken we were sure to be hanged, and hewas sure to escape; and he knew it well enough. But, in short, he was asprightly fellow, and fitter to be captain than any of us. I shall haveoften an occasion to speak of him in the rest of the story. 

Our cruising so long in these seas began now to be so well known, that notin England only, but in France and Spain, accounts had been made public ofour adventures, and many stories told how we murdered the people in coldblood, tying them back to back, and throwing them into the sea; one half ofwhich, however, was not true, though more was done than is fit to speak ofhere. 

The consequence of this, however, was, that several English men-of-war weresent to the West Indies, and were particularly instructed to cruise in theBay of Mexico, and the Gulf of Florida, and among the Bahama islands, ifpossible, to attack us. We were not so ignorant of things as not to expectthis, after so long a stay in that part of the world; but the first certainaccount we had of them was at Honduras, when a vessel coming in fromJamaica told us that two English men-of-war were coming directly fromJamaica thither in quest of us. We were indeed as it were embayed, andcould not have made the least shift to have got off, if they had comedirectly to us; but, as it happened, somebody had informed them that wewere in the Bay of Campeachy, and they went directly thither, by which wewere not only free of them, but were so much to the windward of them, thatthey could not make any attempt upon us, though they had known we werethere. 

We took this advantage, and stood away for Carthagena, and from thence withgreat difficulty beat it up at a distance from under the shore for St. Martha, till we came to the Dutch island of Curacoa, and from thence to theisland of Tobago, which, as before, was our rendezvous; which, being adeserted, uninhabited island, we at the same time made use of for aretreat. Here the captain of the brigantine died, and Captain Harris, atthat time my lieutenant, took the command of the brigantine. 

Here we came to a resolution to go away to the coast of Brazil, and fromthence to the Cape of Good Hope, and so for the East Indies; but CaptainHarris, as I have said, being now captain of the brigantine, alleged thathis ship was too small for so long a voyage, but that, if Captain Wilmotwould consent, he would take the hazard of another cruise, and he wouldfollow us in the first ship he could take. So we appointed our rendezvousto be at Madagascar, which was done by my recommendation of the place, andthe plenty of provisions to be had there. 

Accordingly, he went away from us in an evil hour; for, instead of taking aship to follow us, he was taken, as I heard afterwards, by an Englishman-of-war, and being laid in irons, died of mere grief and anger before hecame to England. His lieutenant, I have heard, was afterwards executed inEngland for a pirate; and this was the end of the man who first brought meinto this unhappy trade. 

We parted from Tobago three days after, bending our course for the coast ofBrazil, but had not been at sea above twenty-four hours, when we wereseparated by a terrible storm, which held three days, with very littleabatement or intermission. In this juncture Captain Wilmot happened, unluckily, to be on board my ship, to his great mortification; for we notonly lost sight of his ship, but never saw her more till we came toMadagascar, where she was cast away. In short, after having in this tempestlost our fore-topmast, we were forced to put back to the isle of Tobago forshelter, and to repair our damage, which brought us all very near ourdestruction. 

We were no sooner on shore here, and all very busy looking out for a pieceof timber for a topmast, but we perceived standing in for the shore anEnglish man-of-war of thirty-six guns. It was a great surprise to usindeed, because we were disabled so much; but, to our great good fortune, we lay pretty snug and close among the high rocks, and the man-of-war didnot see us, but stood off again upon his cruise. So we only observed whichway she went, and at night, leaving our work, resolved to stand off to sea, steering the contrary way from that which we observed she went; and this, we found, had the desired success, for we saw him no more. We had gotten anold mizzen-topmast on board, which made us a jury fore-topmast for thepresent; and so we stood away for the isle of Trinidad, where, though therewere Spaniards on shore, yet we landed some men with our boat, and cut avery good piece of fir to make us a new topmast, which we got fitted upeffectually; and also we got some cattle here to eke out our provisions;and calling a council of war among ourselves, we resolved to quit thoseseas for the present, and steer away for the coast of Brazil. 

The first thing we attempted here was only getting fresh water, but welearnt that there lay the Portuguese fleet at the bay of All Saints, boundfor Lisbon, ready to sail, and only waited for a fair wind. This made uslie by, wishing to see them put to sea, and, accordingly as they were withor without convoy, to attack or avoid them. 

It sprung up a fresh gale in the evening at S. W. By W. , which, being fairfor the Portugal fleet, and the weather pleasant and agreeable, we heardthe signal given to unmoor, and running in under the island of Si---, wehauled our mainsail and foresail up in the brails, lowered the topsailsupon the cap, and clewed them up, that we might lie as snug as we could, expecting their coming out, and the next morning saw the whole fleet comeout accordingly, but not at all to our satisfaction, for they consisted oftwenty-six sail, and most of them ships of force, as well as burthen, bothmerchantmen and men-of-war; so, seeing there was no meddling, we lay stillwhere we were also, till the fleet was out of sight, and then stood off andon, in hopes of meeting with further purchase. 

It was not long before we saw a sail, and immediately gave her chase; butshe proved an excellent sailer, and, standing out to sea, we saw plainlyshe trusted to her heels--that is to say, to her sails. However, as we werea clean ship, we gained upon her, though slowly, and had we had a daybefore us, we should certainly have come up with her; but it grew darkapace, and in that case we knew we should lose sight of her. 

Our merry Quaker, perceiving us to crowd still after her in the dark, wherein we could not see which way she went, came very dryly to me. "FriendSingleton, " says he, "dost thee know what we are a-doing?" Says I, "Yes;why, we are chasing yon ship, are we not?" "And how dost thou know that?"says he, very gravely still. "Nay, that's true, " says I again; "we cannotbe sure. " "Yes, friend, " says he, "I think we may be sure that we arerunning away from her, not chasing her. I am afraid, " adds he, "thou artturned Quaker, and hast resolved not to use the hand of power, or art acoward, and art flying from thy enemy. "

"What do you mean?" says I (I think I swore at him). "What do you sneer atnow? You have always one dry rub or another to give us. "

"Nay, " says he, "it is plain enough the ship stood off to sea due east, onpurpose to lose us, and thou mayest be sure her business does not lie thatway; for what should she do at the coast of Africa in this latitude, whichshould be as far south as Congo or Angola? But as soon as it is dark, thatwe would lose sight of her, she will tack and stand away west again for theBrazil coast and for the bay, where thou knowest she was going before; andare we not, then, running away from her? I am greatly in hopes, friend, "says the dry, gibing creature, "thou wilt turn Quaker, for I see thou artnot for fighting. "

"Very well, William, " says I; "then I shall make an excellent pirate. "However, William was in the right, and I apprehended what he meantimmediately; and Captain Wilmot, who lay very sick in his cabin, overhearing us, understood him as well as I, and called out to me thatWilliam was right, and it was our best way to change our course, and standaway for the bay, where it was ten to one but we should snap her in themorning. 

Accordingly we went about-ship, got our larboard tacks on board, set thetop-gallant sails, and crowded for the bay of All Saints, where we came toan anchor early in the morning, just out of gunshot of the forts; we furledour sails with rope-yarns, that we might haul home the sheets without goingup to loose them, and, lowering our main and fore-yards, looked just as ifwe had lain there a good while. 

In two hours afterwards we saw our game standing in for the bay with allthe sail she could make, and she came innocently into our very mouths, forwe lay still till we saw her almost within gunshot, when, our foremostgears being stretched fore and aft, we first ran up our yards, and thenhauled home the topsail sheets, the rope-yarns that furled them giving wayof themselves; the sails were set in a few minutes; at the same timeslipping our cable, we came upon her before she could get under way uponthe other tack. They were so surprised that they made little or noresistance, but struck after the first broadside. 

We were considering what to do with her, when William came to me. "Harkthee, friend, " says he, "thou hast made a fine piece of work of it now, hast thou not, to borrow thy neighbour's ship here just at thy neighbour'sdoor, and never ask him leave? Now, dost thou not think there are somemen-of-war in the port? Thou hast given them the alarm sufficiently; thouwilt have them upon thy back before night, depend upon it, to ask theewherefore thou didst so. "

"Truly, William, " said I, "for aught I know, that may be true; what, then, shall we do next?" Says he, "Thou hast but two things to do: either to goin and take all the rest, or else get thee gone before they come out andtake thee; for I see they are hoisting a topmast to yon great ship, inorder to put to sea immediately, and they won't be long before they come totalk with thee, and what wilt thou say to them when they ask thee why thouborrowedst their ship without leave?"

As William said, so it was. We could see by our glasses they were all in ahurry, manning and fitting some sloops they had there, and a largeman-of-war, and it was plain they would soon be with us. But we were not ata loss what to do; we found the ship we had taken was laden with nothingconsiderable for our purpose, except some cocoa, some sugar, and twentybarrels of flour; the rest of her cargo was hides; so we took out all wethought fit for our turn, and, among the rest, all her ammunition, greatshot, and small-arms, and turned her off. We also took a cable and threeanchors she had, which were for our purpose, and some of her sails. She hadenough left just to carry her into port, and that was all. 

Having done this, we stood on upon the Brazil coast, southward, till wecame to the mouth of the river Janeiro. But as we had two days the windblowing hard at S. E. And S. S. E. , we were obliged to come to an anchor undera little island, and wait for a wind. In this time the Portuguese had, itseems, given notice over land to the governor there, that a pirate was uponthe coast; so that, when we came in view of the port, we saw two men-of-warriding just without the bar, whereof one, we found, was getting under sailwith all possible speed, having slipped her cable on purpose to speak withus; the other was not so forward, but was preparing to follow. In less thanan hour they stood both fair after us, with all the sail they could make. 

Had not the night come on, William's words had been made good; they wouldcertainly have asked us the question what we did there, for we found theforemost ship gained upon us, especially upon one tack, for we plied awayfrom them to windward; but in the dark losing sight of them, we resolved tochange our course and stand away directly for sea, not doubting that weshould lose them in the night. 

Whether the Portuguese commander guessed we would do so or no, I know not;but in the morning, when the daylight appeared, instead of having lost him, we found him in chase of us about a league astern; only, to our great goodfortune, we could see but one of the two. However, this one was a greatship, carried six-and-forty guns, and an admirable sailer, as appeared byher outsailing us; for our ship was an excellent sailer too, as I have saidbefore. 

When I found this, I easily saw there was no remedy, but we must engage;and as we knew we could expect no quarter from those scoundrels thePortuguese, a nation I had an original aversion to, I let Captain Wilmotknow how it was. The captain, sick as he was, jumped up in the cabin, andwould be led out upon the deck (for he was very weak) to see how it was. "Well, " says he, "we'll fight them!"

Our men were all in good heart before, but to see the captain so brisk, whohad lain ill of a calenture ten or eleven days, gave them double courage, and they went all hands to work to make a clear ship and be ready. William, the Quaker, comes to me with a kind of a smile. "Friend, " says he, "whatdoes yon ship follow us for?" "Why, " says I, "to fight us, you may besure. " "Well, " says he, "and will he come up with us, dost thou think?""Yes, " said I, "you see she will. " "Why, then, friend, " says the drywretch, "why dost thou run from her still, when thou seest she willovertake thee? Will it be better for us to be overtaken farther off thanhere?" "Much as one for that, " says I; "why, what would you have us do?""Do!" says he; "let us not give the poor man more trouble than needs must;let us stay for him and hear what he has to say to us. " "He will talk to usin powder and ball, " said I. "Very well, then, " says he, "if that be hiscountry language, we must talk to him in the same, must we not? or else howshall he understand us?" "Very well, William, " says I, "we understand you. "And the captain, as ill as he was, called to me, "William's right again, "says he; "as good here as a league farther. " So he gives a word of command, "Haul up the main-sail; we'll shorten sail for him. "

Accordingly we shortened sail, and as we expected her upon our lee-side, webeing then upon our starboard tack, brought eighteen of our guns to thelarboard side, resolving to give him a broadside that should warm him. Itwas about half-an-hour before he came up with us, all which time we luffedup, that we might keep the wind of him, by which he was obliged to run upunder our lee, as we designed him; when we got him upon our quarter, weedged down, and received the fire of five or six of his guns. By this timeyou may be sure all our hands were at their quarters, so we clapped ourhelm hard a-weather, let go the lee-braces of the maintop sail, and laid ita-back, and so our ship fell athwart the Portuguese ship's hawse; then weimmediately poured in our broadside, raking them fore and aft, and killedthem a great many men. 

The Portuguese, we could see, were in the utmost confusion; and not beingaware of our design, their ship having fresh way, ran their bowsprit intothe fore part of our main shrouds, as that they could not easily get clearof us, and so we lay locked after that manner. The enemy could not bringabove five or six guns, besides their small-arms, to bear upon us, while weplayed our whole broadside upon him. 

In the middle of the heat of this fight, as I was very busy upon thequarter-deck, the captain calls to me, for he never stirred from us, "Whatthe devil is friend William a-doing yonder?" says the captain; "has he anybusiness upon, deck?" I stepped forward, and there was friend William, withtwo or three stout fellows, lashing the ship's bowsprit fast to ourmainmast, for fear they should get away from us; and every now and then hepulled a bottle out of his pocket, and gave the men a dram to encouragethem. The shot flew about his ears as thick as may be supposed in such anaction, where the Portuguese, to give them their due, fought very briskly, believing at first they were sure of their game, and trusting to theirsuperiority; but there was William, as composed, and in as perfecttranquillity as to danger, as if he had been over a bowl of punch, onlyvery busy securing the matter, that a ship of forty-six guns should not runaway from a ship of eight-and-twenty. 

This work was too hot to hold long; our men behaved bravely: our gunner, agallant man, shouted below, pouring in his shot at such a rate, that thePortuguese began to slacken their fire; we had dismounted several of theirguns by firing in at their forecastle, and raking them, as I said, fore andaft. Presently comes William up to me. "Friend, " says he, very calmly, "what dost thou mean? Why dost thou not visit thy neighbour in the ship, the door being open for thee?" I understood him immediately, for our gunshad so torn their hull, that we had beat two port-holes into one, and thebulk-head of their steerage was split to pieces, so that they could notretire to their close quarters; so I gave the word immediately to boardthem. Our second lieutenant, with about thirty men, entered in an instantover the forecastle, followed by some more with the boatswain, and cuttingin pieces about twenty-five men that they found upon the deck, and thenthrowing some grenadoes into the steerage, they entered there also; uponwhich the Portuguese cried quarter presently, and we mastered the ship, contrary indeed to our own expectation; for we would have compounded withthem if they would have sheered off: but laying them athwart the hawse atfirst, and following our fire furiously, without giving them any time toget clear of us and work their ship; by this means, though they hadsix-and-forty guns, they were not able to fight above five or six, as Isaid above, for we beat them immediately from their guns in the forecastle, and killed them abundance of men between decks, so that when we enteredthey had hardly found men enough to fight us hand to hand upon their deck. 

The surprise of joy to hear the Portuguese cry quarter, and see theirancient struck, was so great to our captain, who, as I have said, wasreduced very weak with a high fever, that it gave him new life. Natureconquered the distemper, and the fever abated that very night; so that intwo or three days he was sensibly better, his strength began to come, andhe was able to give his orders effectually in everything that was material, and in about ten days was entirely well and about the ship. 

In the meantime I took possession of the Portuguese man-of-war; and CaptainWilmot made me, or rather I made myself, captain of her for the present. About thirty of their seamen took service with us, some of which wereFrench, some Genoese; and we set the rest on shore the next day on a littleisland on the coast of Brazil, except some wounded men, who were not in acondition to be removed, and whom we were bound to keep on board; but wehad an occasion afterwards to dispose of them at the Cape, where, at theirown request, we set them on shore. 

Captain Wilmot, as soon as the ship was taken, and the prisoners stowed, was for standing in for the river Janeiro again, not doubting but we shouldmeet with the other man-of-war, who, not having been able to find us, andhaving lost the company of her comrade, would certainly be returned, andmight be surprised by the ship we had taken, if we carried Portuguesecolours; and our men were all for it. 

But our friend William gave us better counsel, for he came to me, "Friend, "says he, "I understand the captain is for sailing back to the Rio Janeiro, in hopes to meet with the other ship that was in chase of thee yesterday. Is it true, dost thou intend it?" "Why, yes, " says I, "William, pray whynot?" "Nay, " says he, "thou mayest do so if thou wilt. " "Well, I know thattoo, William, " said I, "but the captain is a man will be ruled by reason;what have you to say to it?" "Why, " says William gravely, "I only ask whatis thy business, and the business of all the people thou hast with thee? Isit not to get money?" "Yes, William, it is so, in our honest way. " "Andwouldest thou, " says he, "rather have money without fighting, or fightingwithout money? I mean which wouldest thou have by choice, suppose it to beleft to thee?" "O William, " says I, "the first of the two, to be sure. ""Why, then, " says he, "what great gain hast thou made of the prize thouhast taken now, though it has cost the lives of thirteen of thy men, besides some hurt? It is true thou hast got the ship and some prisoners;but thou wouldest have had twice the booty in a merchant-ship, with not onequarter of the fighting; and how dost thou know either what force or whatnumber of men may be in the other ship, and what loss thou mayest suffer, and what gain it shall be to thee if thou take her? I think, indeed, thoumayest much better let her alone. "

"Why, William, it is true, " said I, "and I'll go tell the captain what youropinion is, and bring you word what he says. " Accordingly in I went to thecaptain and told him William's reasons; and the captain was of his mind, that our business was indeed fighting when we could not help it, but thatour main affair was money, and that with as few blows as we could. So thatadventure was laid aside, and we stood along shore again south for theriver De la Plata, expecting some purchase thereabouts; especially we hadour eyes upon some of the Spanish ships from Buenos Ayres, which aregenerally very rich in silver, and one such prize would have done ourbusiness. We plied about here, in the latitude of ---- south, for near amonth, and nothing offered; and here we began to consult what we should donext, for we had come to no resolution yet. Indeed, my design was alwaysfor the Cape de Bona Speranza, and so to the East Indies. I had heard someflaming stories of Captain Avery, and the fine things he had done in theIndies, which were doubled and doubled, even ten thousand fold; and fromtaking a great prize in the Bay of Bengal, where he took a lady, said to bethe Great Mogul's daughter, with a great quantity of jewels about her, wehad a story told us, that he took a Mogul ship, so the foolish sailorscalled it, laden with diamonds. 

I would fain have had friend William's advice whither we should go, but healways put it off with some quaking quibble or other. In short, he did notcare for directing us neither; whether he made a piece of conscience of it, or whether he did not care to venture having it come against him afterwardsor no, this I know not; but we concluded at last without him. 

We were, however, pretty long in resolving, and hankered about the Rio dela Plata a long time. At last we spied a sail to windward, and it was sucha sail as I believe had not been seen in that part of the world a greatwhile. It wanted not that we should give it chase, for it stood directlytowards us, as well as they that steered could make it; and even that wasmore accident of weather than anything else, for if the wind had choppedabout anywhere they must have gone with it. I leave any man that is asailor, or understands anything of a ship, to judge what a figure this shipmade when we first saw her, and what we could imagine was the matter withher. Her maintop-mast was come by the board about six foot above the cap, and fell forward, the head of the topgallant-mast hanging in thefore-shrouds by the stay; at the same time the parrel of themizzen-topsail-yard by some accident giving way, the mizzen-topsail-braces(the standing part of which being fast to the main-topsail shrouds) broughtthe mizzen-topsail, yard and all, down with it, which spread over part ofthe quarter-deck like an awning; the fore-topsail was hoisted up two-thirdsof the mast, but the sheets were flown; the fore-yard was lowered down uponthe forecastle, the sail loose, and part of it hanging overboard. In thismanner she came down upon us with the wind quartering. In a word, thefigure the whole ship made was the most confounding to men that understoodthe sea that ever was seen. She had no boat, neither had she any coloursout. 

When we came near to her, we fired a gun to bring her to. She took nonotice of it, nor of us, but came on just as she did before. We firedagain, but it was all one. At length we came within pistol-shot of oneanother, but nobody answered nor appeared; so we began to think that it wasa ship gone ashore somewhere in distress, and the men having forsaken her, the high tide had floated her off to sea. Coming nearer to her, we ran upalongside of her so close that we could hear a noise within her, and seethe motion of several people through her ports. 

Upon this we manned out two boats full of men, and very well armed, andordered them to board her at the same minute, as near as they could, and toenter one at her fore-chains on the one side, and the other amidships onthe other side. As soon as they came to the ship's side, a surprisingmultitude of black sailors, such as they were, appeared upon deck, and, inshort, terrified our men so much that the boat which was to enter her menin the waist stood off again, and durst not board her; and the men thatentered out of the other boat, finding the first boat, as they thought, beaten off, and seeing the ship full of men, jumped all back again intotheir boat, and put off, not knowing what the matter was. Upon this weprepared to pour in a broadside upon her; but our friend William set us torights again here; for it seems he guessed how it was sooner than we did, and coming up to me (for it was our ship that came up with her), "Friend, "says he, "I am of opinion that thou art wrong in this matter, and thy menhave been wrong also in their conduct. I'll tell thee how thou shalt takethis ship, without making use of those things called guns. " "How can thatbe, William?" said I. "Why, " said he, "thou mayest take her with thy helm;thou seest they keep no steerage, and thou seest the condition they are in;board her with thy ship upon her lee quarter, and so enter her from theship. I am persuaded thou wilt take her without fighting, for there is somemischief has befallen the ship, which we know nothing of. "

In a word, it being a smooth sea, and little wind, I took his advice, andlaid her aboard. Immediately our men entered the ship, where we found alarge ship, with upwards of 600 negroes, men and women, boys and girls, andnot one Christian or white man on board. 

I was struck with horror at the sight; for immediately I concluded, as waspartly the case, that these black devils had got loose, had murdered allthe white men, and thrown them into the sea; and I had no sooner told mymind to the men, but the thought so enraged them that I had much ado tokeep my men from cutting them all in pieces. But William, with manypersuasions, prevailed upon them, by telling them that it was nothing butwhat, if they were in the negroes' condition, they would do if they could;and that the negroes had really the highest injustice done them, to be soldfor slaves without their consent; and that the law of nature dictated it tothem; that they ought not to kill them, and that it would be wilful murderto do it. 

This prevailed with them, and cooled their first heat; so they only knockeddown twenty or thirty of them, and the rest ran all down between decks totheir first places, believing, as we fancied, that we were their firstmasters come again. 

It was a most unaccountable difficulty we had next; for we could not makethem understand one word we said, nor could we understand one wordourselves that they said. We endeavoured by signs to ask them whence theycame; but they could make nothing of it. We pointed to the great cabin, tothe round-house, to the cook-room, then to our faces, to ask if they had nowhite men on board, and where they were gone; but they could not understandwhat we meant. On the other hand, they pointed to our boat and to theirship, asking questions as well as they could, and said a thousand things, and expressed themselves with great earnestness; but we could notunderstand a word of it all, or know what they meant by any of their signs. 

We knew very well they must have been taken on board the ship as slaves, and that it must be by some European people too. We could easily see thatthe ship was a Dutch-built ship, but very much altered, having been builtupon, and, as we supposed, in France; for we found two or three Frenchbooks on board, and afterwards we found clothes, linen, lace, some oldshoes, and several other things. We found among the provisions some barrelsof Irish beef, some Newfoundland fish, and several other evidences thatthere had been Christians on board, but saw no remains of them. We foundnot a sword, gun, pistol, or weapon of any kind, except some cutlasses; andthe negroes had hid them below where they lay. We asked them what wasbecome of all the small-arms, pointing to our own and to the places wherethose belonging to the ship had hung. One of the negroes understood mepresently, and beckoned to me to come upon the deck, where, taking myfuzee, which I never let go out of my hand for some time after we hadmastered the ship--I say, offering to take hold of it, he made the propermotion of throwing it into the sea; by which I understood, as I didafterwards, that they had thrown all the small-arms, powder, shot, swords, &c. , into the sea, believing, as I supposed, those things would kill them, though the men were gone. 

After we understood this we made no question but that the ship's crew, having been surprised by these desperate rogues, had gone the same way, andhad been thrown overboard also. We looked all over the ship to see if wecould find any blood, and we thought we did perceive some in severalplaces; but the heat of the sun, melting the pitch and tar upon the decks, made it impossible for us to discern it exactly, except in the round-house, where we plainly saw that there had been much blood. We found the scuttleopen, by which we supposed that the captain and those that were with himhad made their retreat into the great cabin, or those in the cabin had madetheir escape up into the round-house. 

But that which confirmed us most of all in what had happened was that, uponfurther inquiry, we found that there were seven or eight of the negroesvery much wounded, two or three of them with shot, whereof one had his legbroken and lay in a miserable condition, the flesh being mortified, and, asour friend William said, in two days more he would have died. William was amost dexterous surgeon, and he showed it in this cure; for though all thesurgeons we had on board both our ships (and we had no less than five thatcalled themselves bred surgeons, besides two or three who were pretendersor assistants)--though all these gave their opinions that the negro's legmust be cut off, and that his life could not be saved without it; that themortification had touched the marrow in the bone, that the tendons weremortified, and that he could never have the use of his leg if it should becured, William said nothing in general, but that his opinion was otherwise, and that he desired the wound might be searched, and that he would thentell them further. Accordingly he went to work with the leg; and, as hedesired that he might have some of the surgeons to assist him, we appointedhim two of the ablest of them to help, and all of them to look on, if theythought fit. 

William went to work his own way, and some of them pretended to find faultat first. However, he proceeded and searched every part of the leg where hesuspected the mortification had touched it; in a word, he cut off a greatdeal of mortified flesh, in all which the poor fellow felt no pain. Williamproceeded till he brought the vessels which he had cut to bleed, and theman to cry out; then he reduced the splinters of the bone, and, calling forhelp, set it, as we call it, and bound it up, and laid the man to rest, whofound himself much easier than before. 

At the first opening the surgeons began to triumph; the mortificationseemed to spread, and a long red streak of blood appeared from the woundupwards to the middle of the man's thigh, and the surgeons told me the manwould die in a few hours. I went to look at it, and found William himselfunder some surprise; but when I asked him how long he thought the poorfellow could live, he looked gravely at me, and said, "As long as thoucanst; I am not at all apprehensive of his life, " said he, "but I wouldcure him, if I could, without making a cripple of him. " I found he was notjust then upon the operation as to his leg, but was mixing up something togive the poor creature, to repel, as I thought, the spreading contagion, and to abate or prevent any feverish temper that might happen in the blood;after which he went to work again, and opened the leg in two places abovethe wound, cutting out a great deal of mortified flesh, which it seemed wasoccasioned by the bandage, which had pressed the parts too much; andwithal, the blood being at the time in a more than common disposition tomortify, might assist to spread it. 

Well, our friend William conquered all this, cleared the spreadingmortification, and the red streak went off again, the flesh began to heal, and matter to run; and in a few days the man's spirits began to recover, his pulse beat regular, he had no fever, and gathered strength daily; and, in a word, he was a perfect sound man in about ten weeks, and we kept himamongst us, and made him an able seaman. But to return to the ship: wenever could come at a certain information about it, till some of thenegroes which we kept on board, and whom we taught to speak English, gavethe account of it afterwards, and this maimed man in particular. 

We inquired, by all the signs and motions we could imagine, what was becomeof the people, and yet we could get nothing from them. Our lieutenant wasfor torturing some of them to make them confess, but William opposed thatvehemently; and when he heard it was under consideration he came to me. "Friend, " says he, "I make a request to thee not to put any of these poorwretches to torment. " "Why, William, " said I, "why not? You see they willnot give any account of what is become of the white men. " "Nay, " saysWilliam, "do not say so; I suppose they have given thee a full account ofevery particular of it. " "How so?" says I; "pray what are we the wiser forall their jabbering?" "Nay, " says William, "that may be thy fault, foraught I know; thou wilt not punish the poor men because they cannot speakEnglish; and perhaps they never heard a word of English before. Now, I mayvery well suppose that they have given thee a large account of everything;for thou seest with what earnestness, and how long, some of them havetalked to thee; and if thou canst not understand their language, nor theythine, how can they help that? At the best, thou dost but suppose that theyhave not told thee the whole truth of the story; and, on the contrary, Isuppose they have; and how wilt thou decide the question, whether thou artright or whether I am right? Besides, what can they say to thee when thouaskest them a question upon the torture, and at the same time they do notunderstand the question, and thou dost not know whether they say ay or no?"

It is no compliment to my moderation to say I was convinced by thesereasons; and yet we had all much ado to keep our second lieutenant frommurdering some of them, to make them tell. What if they had told? He didnot understand one word of it; but he would not be persuaded but that thenegroes must needs understand him when he asked them whether the ship hadany boat or no, like ours, and what was become of it. 

But there was no remedy but to wait till we made these people understandEnglish, and to adjourn the story till that time. The case was thus: wherethey were taken on board the ship, that we could never understand, becausethey never knew the English names which we give to those coasts, or whatnation they were who belonged to the ship, because they knew not one tonguefrom another; but thus far the negro I examined, who was the same whose legWilliam had cured, told us, that they did not speak the same language as wespoke, nor the same our Portuguese spoke; so that in all probability theymust be French or Dutch. 

Then he told us that the white men used them barbarously; that they beatthem unmercifully; that one of the negro men had a wife and two negrochildren, one a daughter, about sixteen years old; that a white man abusedthe negro man's wife, and afterwards his daughter, which, as he said, madeall the negro men mad; and that the woman's husband was in a great rage; atwhich the white man was so provoked that he threatened to kill him; but, inthe night, the negro man, being loose, got a great club, by which he madeus understand he meant a handspike, and that when the same Frenchman (if itwas a Frenchman) came among them again, he began again to abuse the negroman's wife, at which the negro, taking up the handspike, knocked his brainsout at one blow; and then taking the key from him with which he usuallyunlocked the handcuffs which the negroes were fettered with, he set about ahundred of them at liberty, who, getting up upon the deck by the samescuttle that the white men came down, and taking the man's cutlass who waskilled, and laying hold of what came next them, they fell upon the men thatwere upon the deck, and killed them all, and afterwards those they foundupon the forecastle; that the captain and his other men, who were in thecabin and the round-house, defended themselves with great courage, and shotout at the loopholes at them, by which he and several other men werewounded, and some killed; but that they broke into the round-house after along dispute, where they killed two of the white men, but owned that thetwo white men killed eleven of their men before they could break in; andthen the rest, having got down the scuttle into the great cabin, woundedthree more of them. 

That, after this, the gunner of the ship having secured himself in thegun-room, one of his men hauled up the long-boat close under the stern, andputting into her all the arms and ammunition they could come at, got allinto the boat, and afterwards took in the captain, and those that were withhim, out of the great cabin. When they were all thus embarked, theyresolved to lay the ship aboard again, and try to recover it. That theyboarded the ship in a desperate manner, and killed at first all that stoodin their way; but the negroes being by this time all loose, and havinggotten some arms, though they understood nothing of powder and bullet, orguns, yet the men could never master them. However, they lay under theship's bow, and got out all the men they had left in the cook-room, who hadmaintained themselves there, notwithstanding all the negroes could do, andwith their small-arms killed between thirty and forty of the negroes, butwere at last forced to leave them. 

They could give me no account whereabouts this was, whether near the coastof Africa, or far off, or how long it was before the ship fell into ourhands; only, in general, it was a great while ago, as they called it; and, by all we could learn, it was within two or three days after they had setsail from the coast. They told us that they had killed about thirty of thewhite men, having knocked them on the head with crows and handspikes, andsuch things as they could get; and one strong negro killed three of themwith an iron crow, after he was shot twice through the body; and that hewas afterwards shot through the head by the captain himself at the door ofthe round-house, which he had split open with the crow; and this wesupposed was the occasion of the great quantity of blood which we saw atthe round-house door. 

The same negro told us that they threw all the powder and shot they couldfind into the sea, and they would have thrown the great guns into the seaif they could have lifted them. Being asked how they came to have theirsails in such a condition, his answer was, "They no understand; they noknow what the sails do;" that was, they did not so much as know that it wasthe sails that made the ship go, or understand what they meant, or what todo with them. When we asked him whither they were going, he said they didnot know, but believed they should go home to their own country again. Iasked him, in particular, what he thought we were when we first came upwith them? He said they were terribly frighted, believing we were the samewhite men that had gone away in their boats, and were come again in a greatship, with the two boats with them, and expected they would kill them all. 

This was the account we got out of them, after we had taught them to speakEnglish, and to understand the names and use of the things belonging to theship which they had occasion to speak of; and we observed that the fellowswere too innocent to dissemble in their relation, and that they all agreedin the particulars, and were always in the same story, which confirmed verymuch the truth of what they said. 

Having taken this ship, our next difficulty was, what to do with thenegroes. The Portuguese in the Brazils would have bought them all of us, and been glad of the purchase, if we had not showed ourselves enemiesthere, and been known for pirates; but, as it was, we durst not go ashoreanywhere thereabouts, or treat with any of the planters, because we shouldraise the whole country upon us; and, if there were any such things asmen-of-war in any of their ports, we should be as sure to be attacked bythem, and by all the force they had by land or sea. 

Nor could we think of any better success if we went northward to our ownplantations. One while we determined to carry them all away to BuenosAyres, and sell them there to the Spaniards; but they were really too manyfor them to make use of; and to carry them round to the South Seas, whichwas the only remedy that was left, was so far that we should be no way ableto subsist them for so long a voyage. 

At last, our old, never-failing friend, William, helped us out again, as hehad often done at a dead lift. His proposal was this, that he should go asmaster of the ship, and about twenty men, such as we could best trust, andattempt to trade privately, upon the coast of Brazil, with the planters, not at the principal ports, because that would not be admitted. 

We all agreed to this, and appointed to go away ourselves towards the Riode la Plata, where we had thought of going before, and to wait for him, notthere, but at Port St Pedro, as the Spaniards call it, lying at the mouthof the river which they call Rio Grande, and where the Spaniards had asmall fort and a few people, but we believe there was nobody in it. 

Here we took up our station, cruising off and on, to see if we could meetany ships going to or coming from the Buenos Ayres or the Rio de la Plata;but we met with nothing worth notice. However, we employed ourselves inthings necessary for our going off to sea; for we filled all ourwater-casks, and got some fish for our present use, to spare as much aspossible our ship's stores. 

William, in the meantime, went away to the north, and made the land aboutthe Cape de St Thomas; and betwixt that and the isles De Tuberon he foundmeans to trade with the planters for all his negroes, as well the women asthe men, and at a very good price too; for William, who spoke Portuguesepretty well, told them a fair story enough, that the ship was in scarcityof provisions, that they were driven a great way out of their way, andindeed, as we say, out of their knowledge, and that they must go up to thenorthward as far as Jamaica, or sell there upon the coast. This was a veryplausible tale, and was easily believed; and, if you observe the manner ofthe negroes' sailing, and what happened in their voyage, was every word ofit true. 

By this method, and being true to one another, William passed for what hewas--I mean, for a very honest fellow; and by the assistance of oneplanter, who sent to some of his neighbour planters, and managed the tradeamong themselves, he got a quick market; for in less than five weeksWilliam sold all his negroes, and at last sold the ship itself, and shippedhimself and his twenty men, with two negro boys whom he had left, in asloop, one of those which the planters used to send on board for thenegroes. With this sloop Captain William, as we then called him, came away, and found us at Port St Pedro, in the latitude of 32 degrees 30 minutessouth. 

Nothing was more surprising to us than to see a sloop come along the coast, carrying Portuguese colours, and come in directly to us, after we wereassured he had discovered both our ships. We fired a gun, upon her nearerapproach, to bring her to an anchor, but immediately she fired five guns byway of salute, and spread her English ancient. Then we began to guess itwas friend William, but wondered what was the meaning of his being in asloop, whereas we sent him away in a ship of near 300 tons; but he soon letus into the whole history of his management, with which we had a great dealof reason to be very well satisfied. As soon as he had brought the sloop toan anchor, he came aboard of my ship, and there he gave us an account howhe began to trade by the help of a Portuguese planter, who lived near theseaside; how he went on shore and went up to the first house he could see, and asked the man of the house to sell him some hogs, pretending at firsthe only stood in upon the coast to take in fresh water and buy someprovisions; and the man not only sold him seven fat hogs, but invited himin, and gave him, and five men he had with him, a very good dinner; and heinvited the planter on board his ship, and, in return for his kindness, gave him a negro girl for his wife. 

This so obliged the planter that the next morning he sent him on board, ina great luggage-boat, a cow and two sheep, with a chest of sweetmeats andsome sugar, and a great bag of tobacco, and invited Captain William onshore again; that, after this, they grew from one kindness to another; thatthey began to talk about trading for some negroes; and William, pretendingit was to do him service, consented to sell him thirty negroes for hisprivate use in his plantation, for which he gave William ready money ingold, at the rate of five-and-thirty moidores per head; but the planter wasobliged to use great caution in the bringing them on shore; for whichpurpose he made William weigh and stand out to sea, and put in again, aboutfifty miles farther north, where at a little creek he took the negroes onshore at another plantation, being a friend's of his, whom, it seems, hecould trust. 

This remove brought William into a further intimacy, not only with thefirst planter, but also with his friends, who desired to have some of thenegroes also; so that, from one to another, they bought so many, till oneovergrown planter took 100 negroes, which was all William had left, andsharing them with another planter, that other planter chaffered withWilliam for ship and all, giving him in exchange a very clean, large, well-built sloop of near sixty tons, very well furnished, carrying sixguns; but we made her afterwards carry twelve guns. William had 300moidores of gold, besides the sloop, in payment for the ship; and with thismoney he stored the sloop as full as she could hold with provisions, especially bread, some pork, and about sixty hogs alive; among the rest, William got eighty barrels of good gunpowder, which was very much for ourpurpose; and all the provisions which were in the French ship he took outalso. 

This was a very agreeable account to us, especially when we saw thatWilliam had received in gold coined, or by weight, and some Spanish silver, 60, 000 pieces of eight, besides a new sloop, and a vast quantity ofprovisions. 

We were very glad of the sloop in particular, and began to consult what weshould do, whether we had not best turn off our great Portuguese ship, andstick to our first ship and the sloop, seeing we had scarce men enough forall three, and that the biggest ship was thought too big for our business. However, another dispute, which was now decided, brought the first to aconclusion. The first dispute was, whither we should go. My comrade, as Icalled him now, that is to say, he that was my captain before we took thisPortuguese man-of-war, was for going to the South Seas, and coasting up thewest side of America, where we could not fail of making several good prizesupon the Spaniards; and that then, if occasion required it, we might comehome by the South Seas to the East Indies, and so go round the globe, asothers had done before us. 

But my head lay another way. I had been in the East Indies, and hadentertained a notion ever since that, if we went thither, we could not failof making good work of it, and that we might have a safe retreat, and goodbeef to victual our ship, among my old friends the natives of Zanzibar, onthe coast of Mozambique, or the island of St Lawrence. I say, my thoughtslay this way; and I read so many lectures to them all of the advantagesthey would certainly make of their strength by the prizes they would takein the Gulf of Mocha, or the Red Sea, and on the coast of Malabar, or theBay of Bengal, that I amazed them. 

With these arguments I prevailed on them, and we all resolved to steer awayS. E. For the Cape of Good Hope; and, in consequence of this resolution, weconcluded to keep the sloop, and sail with all three, not doubting, as Iassured them, but we should find men there to make up the number wanting, and if not, we might cast any of them off when we pleased. 

We could do no less than make our friend William captain of the sloopwhich, with such good management, he had brought us. He told us, thoughwith much good manners, he would not command her as a frigate; but, if wewould give her to him for his share of the Guinea ship, which we came veryhonestly by, he would keep us company as a victualler, if we commanded him, as long as he was under the same force that took him away. 

We understood him, so gave him the sloop, but upon condition that he shouldnot go from us, and should be entirely under our command. However, Williamwas not so easy as before; and, indeed, as we afterwards wanted the sloopto cruise for purchase, and a right thorough-paced pirate in her, so I wasin such pain for William that I could not be without him, for he was myprivy counsellor and companion upon all occasions; so I put a Scotsman, abold, enterprising, gallant fellow, into her, named Gordon, and made hercarry twelve guns and four petereroes, though, indeed, we wanted men, forwe were none of us manned in proportion to our force. 

We sailed away for the Cape of Good Hope the beginning of October 1706, andpassed by, in sight of the Cape, the 12th of November following, having metwith a great deal of bad weather. We saw several merchant-ships in theroads there, as well English as Dutch, whether outward bound or homeward wecould not tell; be it what it would, we did not think fit to come to ananchor, not knowing what they might be, or what they might attempt againstus, when they knew what we were. However, as we wanted fresh water, we sentthe two boats belonging to the Portuguese man-of-war, with all Portugueseseamen or negroes in them, to the watering-place, to take in water; and inthe meantime we hung out a Portuguese ancient at sea, and lay by all thatnight. They knew not what we were, but it seems we passed for anything butreally what we was. 

Our boats returning the third time loaden, about five o'clock next morning, we thought ourselves sufficiently watered, and stood away to the eastward;but, before our men returned the last time, the wind blowing an easy galeat west, we perceived a boat in the grey of the morning under sail, crowding to come up with us, as if they were afraid we should be gone. Wesoon found it was an English long-boat, and that it was pretty full of men. We could not imagine what the meaning of it should be; but, as it was but aboat, we thought there could be no great harm in it to let them come onboard; and if it appeared they came only to inquire who we were, we wouldgive them a full account of our business, by taking them along with us, seeing we wanted men as much as anything. But they saved us the labour ofbeing in doubt how to dispose of them; for it seems our Portuguese seamen, who went for water, had not been so silent at the watering-places as wethought they would have been. But the case, in short, was this: Captain---- (I forbear his name at present, for a particular reason), captain ofan East India merchant-ship, bound afterwards for China, had found somereason to be very severe with his men, and had handled some of them veryroughly at St Helena; insomuch, that they threatened among themselves toleave the ship the first opportunity, and had long wished for thatopportunity. Some of these men, it seems, had met with our boat at thewatering-place, and inquiring of one another who we were, and upon whataccount, whether the Portuguese seamen, by faltering in their account, madethem suspect that we were out upon the cruise, or whether they told it inplain English or no (for they all spoke English enough to be understood), but so it was, that as soon as ever the men carried the news on board, thatthe ships which lay by to the eastward were English, and that they weregoing upon the _account_, which, by they way, was a sea term for a pirate;I say, as soon as ever they heard it, they went to work, and getting allthings ready in the night, their chests and clothes, and whatever else theycould, they came away before it was day, and came up with us about seveno'clock. 

When they came by the ship's side which I commanded we hailed them in theusual manner, to know what and who they were, and what their business. Theyanswered they were Englishmen, and desired to come on board. We told themthey might lay the ship on board, but ordered they should let only one manenter the ship till the captain knew their business, and that he shouldcome without any arms. They said, Ay, with all their hearts. 

We presently found their business, and that they desired to go with us; andas for their arms, they desired we would send men on board the boat, andthat they would deliver them all to us, which was done. The fellow thatcame up to me told me how they had been used by their captain, how he hadstarved the men, and used them like dogs, and that, if the rest of the menknew they should be admitted, he was satisfied two-thirds of them wouldleave the ship. We found the fellows were very hearty in their resolution, and jolly brisk sailors they were; so I told them I would do nothingwithout our admiral, that was the captain of the other ship; so I sent mypinnace on board Captain Wilmot, to desire him to come on board. But he wasindisposed, and being to leeward, excused his coming, but left it all tome; but before my boat was returned, Captain Wilmot called to me by hisspeaking-trumpet, which all the men might hear as well as I; thus, callingme by my name, "I hear they are honest fellows; pray tell them they are allwelcome, and make them a bowl of punch. "

As the men heard it as well as I, there was no need to tell them what thecaptain said; and, as soon as the trumpet had done, they set up a huzza, that showed us they were very hearty in their coming to us; but we boundthem to us by a stronger obligation still after this, for when we came toMadagascar, Captain Wilmot, with consent of all the ship's company, orderedthat these men should have as much money given them out of the stock as wasdue to them for their pay in the ship they had left; and after that weallowed them twenty pieces of eight a man bounty money; and thus we enteredthem upon shares, as we were all, and brave stout fellows they were, beingeighteen in number, whereof two were midshipmen, and one a carpenter. 

It was the 28th of November, when, having had some bad weather, we came toan anchor in the road off St Augustine Bay, at the south-west end of my oldacquaintance the isle of Madagascar. We lay here awhile and trafficked withthe natives for some good beef; though the weather was so hot that we couldnot promise ourselves to salt any of it up to keep; but I showed them theway which we practised before, to salt it first with saltpetre, then cureit by drying it in the sun, which made it eat very agreeably, though not sowholesome for our men, that not agreeing with our way of cooking, viz. , boiling with pudding, brewis, &c. , and particularly this way, would be toosalt, and the fat of the meat be rusty, or dried away so as not to beeaten. 

This, however, we could not help, and made ourselves amends by feedingheartily on the fresh beef while we were there, which was excellent, goodand fat, every way as tender and as well relished as in England, andthought to be much better to us who had not tasted any in England for solong a time. 

Having now for some time remained here, we began to consider that this wasnot a place for our business; and I, that had some views a particular wayof my own, told them that this was not a station for those who looked forpurchase; that there were two parts of the island which were particularlyproper for our purposes; first, the bay on the east side of the island, andfrom thence to the island Mauritius, which was the usual way which shipsthat came from the Malabar coast, or the coast of Coromandel, Fort StGeorge, &c. , used to take, and where, if we waited for them, we ought totake our station. 

But, on the other hand, as we did not resolve to fall upon the Europeantraders, who were generally ships of force and well manned, and where blowsmust be looked for; so I had another prospect, which I promised myselfwould yield equal profit, or perhaps greater, without any of the hazard anddifficulty of the former; and this was the Gulf of Mocha, or the Red Sea. 

I told them that the trade here was great, the ships rich, and the Straitof Babelmandel narrow; so that there was no doubt but we might cruise so asto let nothing slip our hands, having the seas open from the Red Sea, alongthe coast of Arabia, to the Persian Gulf, and the Malabar side of theIndies. 

I told them what I had observed when I sailed round the island in my formerprogress; how that, on the northernmost point of the island, there wereseveral very good harbours and roads for our ships; that the natives wereeven more civil and tractable, if possible, than those where we were, nothaving been so often ill-treated by European sailors as those had in thesouth and east sides; and that we might always be sure of a retreat, if wewere driven to put in by any necessity, either of enemies or weather. 

They were easily convinced of the reasonableness of my scheme; and CaptainWilmot, whom I now called our admiral, though he was at first of the mindto go and lie at the island Mauritius, and wait for some of the Europeanmerchant-ships from the road of Coromandel, or the Bay of Bengal, was nowof my mind. It is true we were strong enough to have attacked an EnglishEast India ship of the greatest force, though some of them were said tocarry fifty guns; but I represented to him that we were sure to have blowsand blood if we took them; and, after we had done, their loading was not ofequal value to us, because we had no room to dispose of their merchandise;and, as our circumstances stood, we had rather have taken one outward-boundEast India ship, with her ready cash on board, perhaps to the value offorty or fifty thousand pounds, than three homeward-bound, though theirloading would at London be worth three times the money, because we knew notwhither to go to dispose of the cargo; whereas the ships from London hadabundance of things we knew how to make use of besides their money, such astheir stores of provisions and liquors, and great quantities of the likesent to the governors and factories at the English settlements for theiruse; so that, if we resolved to look for our own country ships, it shouldbe those that were outward-bound, not the London ships homeward. 

All these things considered, brought the admiral to be of my mind entirely;so, after taking in water and some fresh provisions where we lay, which wasnear Cape St Mary, on the south-west corner of the island, we weighed andstood away south, and afterwards S. S. E. , to round the island, and in aboutsix days' sail got out of the wake of the island, and steered away north, till we came off Port Dauphin, and then north by east, to the latitude of13 degrees 40 minutes, which was, in short, just at the farthest part ofthe island; and the admiral, keeping ahead, made the open sea fair to thewest, clear of the whole island; upon which he brought to, and we sent asloop to stand in round the farthest point north, and coast along theshore, and see for a harbour to put into, which they did, and soon broughtus an account that there was a deep bay, with a very good road, and severallittle islands, under which they found good riding, in ten to seventeenfathom water, and accordingly there we put in. 

However, we afterwards found occasion to remove our station, as you shallhear presently. We had now nothing to do but go on shore, and acquaintourselves a little with the natives, take in fresh water and some freshprovisions, and then to sea again. We found the people very easy to dealwith, and some cattle they had; but it being at the extremity of theisland, they had not such quantities of cattle here. However, for thepresent we resolved to appoint this for our place of rendezvous, and go andlook out. This was about the latter end of April. 

Accordingly we put to sea, and cruised away to the northward, for theArabian coast. It was a long run, but as the winds generally blow tradefrom the S. And S. S. E. From May to September, we had good weather; and inabout twenty days we made the island of Socotra, lying south from theArabian coast, and E. S. E. From the mouth of the Gulf of Mocha, or the RedSea. 

Here we took in water, and stood off and on upon the Arabian shore. We hadnot cruised here above three days, or thereabouts, but I spied a sail, andgave her chase; but when we came up with her, never was such a poor prizechased by pirates that looked for booty, for we found nothing in her butpoor, half-naked Turks, going a pilgrimage to Mecca, to the tomb of theirprophet Mahomet. The junk that carried them had no one thing worth takingaway but a little rice and some coffee, which was all the poor wretches hadfor their subsistence; so we let them go, for indeed we knew not what to dowith them. 

The same evening we chased another junk with two masts, and in somethingbetter plight to look at than the former. When we came on board we foundthem upon the same errand, but only that they were people of some betterfashion than the other; and here we got some plunder, some Turkish stores, a few diamonds in the ear-drops of five or six persons, some fine Persiancarpets, of which they made their saffras to lie upon, and some money; sowe let them go also. 

We continued here eleven days longer, and saw nothing but now and then afishing-boat; but the twelfth day of our cruise we spied a ship: indeed Ithought at first it had been an English ship, but it appeared to be anEuropean freighted for a voyage from Goa, on the coast of Malabar, to theRed Sea, and was very rich. We chased her, and took her without any fight, though they had some guns on board too, but not many. We found her mannedwith Portuguese seamen, but under the direction of five merchant Turks, whohad hired her on the coast of Malabar of some Portugal merchants, and hadladen her with pepper, saltpetre, some spices, and the rest of the loadingwas chiefly calicoes and wrought silks, some of them very rich. 

We took her and carried her to Socotra; but we really knew not what to dowith her, for the same reasons as before; for all their goods were oflittle or no value to us. After some days we found means to let one of theTurkish merchants know, that if he would ransom the ship we would take asum of money and let them go. He told me that if I would let one of them goon shore for the money they would do it; so we adjusted the value of thecargo at 30, 000 ducats. Upon this agreement, we allowed the sloop to carryhim on shore, at Dofar, in Arabia, where a rich merchant laid down themoney for them, and came off with our sloop; and on payment of the money wevery fairly and honestly let them go. 

Some days after this we took an Arabian junk, going from the Gulf of Persiato Mocha, with a good quantity of pearl on board. We gutted him of thepearl, which it seems was belonging to some merchants at Mocha, and let himgo, for there was nothing else worth our taking. 

We continued cruising up and down here till we began to find our provisionsgrow low, when Captain Wilmot, our admiral, told us it was time to think ofgoing back to the rendezvous; and the rest of the men said the same, beinga little weary of beating about for above three months together, andmeeting with little or nothing compared to our great expectations; but Iwas very loth to part with the Red Sea at so cheap a rate, and pressed themto tarry a little longer, which at my instance they did; but three daysafterwards, to our great misfortune, understood that, by landing theTurkish merchants at Dofar, we had alarmed the coast as far as the Gulf ofPersia, so that no vessel would stir that way, and consequently nothing wasto be expected on that side. 

I was greatly mortified at this news, and could no longer withstand theimportunities of the men to return to Madagascar. However, as the windcontinued still to blow at S. S. E. By S. , we were obliged to stand awaytowards the coast of Africa and the Cape Guardafui, the winds being morevariable under the shore than in the open sea. 

Here we chopped upon a booty which we did not look for, and which madeamends for all our waiting; for the very same hour that we made land wespied a large vessel sailing along the shore to the southward. The ship wasof Bengal, belonging to the Great Mogul's country, but had on board a Dutchpilot, whose name, if I remember right, was Vandergest, and severalEuropean seamen, whereof three were English. She was in no condition toresist us. The rest of her seamen were Indians of the Mogul's subjects, some Malabars and some others. There were five Indian merchants on board, and some Armenians. It seems they had been at Mocha with spices, silks, diamonds, pearls, calico, &c. , such goods as the country afforded, and hadlittle on board now but money in pieces of eight, which, by the way, wasjust what we wanted; and the three English seamen came along with us, andthe Dutch pilot would have done so too, but the two Armenian merchantsentreated us not to take him, for that he being their pilot, there was noneof the men knew how to guide the ship; so, at their request, we refusedhim; but we made them promise he should not be used ill for being willingto go with us. 

We got near 200, 000 pieces of eight in this vessel; and, if they said true, there was a Jew of Goa, who intended to have embarked with them, who had200, 000 pieces of eight with him, all his own; but his good fortune, springing out of his ill fortune, hindered him, or he fell sick at Mocha, and could not be ready to travel, which was the saving of his money. 

There was none with me at the taking this prize but the sloop, for CaptainWilmot's ship proving leaky, he went away for the rendezvous before us, andarrived there the middle of December; but not liking the port, he left agreat cross on shore, with directions written on a plate of lead fixed toit, for us to come after him to the great bays at Mangahelly, where hefound a very good harbour; but we learned a piece of news here that kept usfrom him a great while, which the admiral took offence at; but we stoppedhis mouth with his share of 200, 000 pieces of eight to him and his ship'screw. But the story which interrupted our coming to him was this. BetweenMangahelly and another point, called Cape St Sebastian, there came on shorein the night an European ship, and whether by stress of weather or want ofa pilot I know not, but the ship stranded and could not be got off. 

We lay in the cove or harbour, where, as I have said, our rendezvous wasappointed, and had not yet been on shore, so we had not seen the directionsour admiral had left for us. 

Our friend William, of whom I have said nothing a great while, had a greatmind one day to go on shore, and importuned me to let him have a littletroop to go with him, for safety, that they might see the country. I wasmightily against it for many reasons; but particularly I told him he knewthe natives were but savages, and they were very treacherous, and I desiredhim that he would not go; and, had he gone on much farther, I believe Ishould have downright refused him, and commanded him not to go. 

But, in order to persuade me to let him go, he told me he would give me anaccount of the reason why he was so importunate. He told me, the last nighthe had a dream, which was so forcible, and made such an impression upon hismind, that he could not be quiet till he had made the proposal to me to go;and if I refused him, then he thought his dream was significant; and ifnot, then his dream was at an end. 

His dream was, he said, that he went on shore with thirty men, of which thecockswain, he said, was one, upon the island; and that they found a mine ofgold, and enriched them all. But this was not the main thing, he said, butthat the same morning he had dreamed so, the cockswain came to him justthen, and told him that he dreamed he went on shore on the island ofMadagascar, and that some men came to him and told him they would show himwhere he should get a prize which would make them all rich. 

These two things put together began to weigh with me a little, though I wasnever inclined to give any heed to dreams; but William's importunity turnedme effectually, for I always put a great deal of stress upon his judgment;so that, in short, I gave them leave to go, but I charged them not to gofar off from the sea-coast; that, if they were forced down to the seasideupon any occasion, we might perhaps see them, and fetch them off with ourboats. 

They went away early in the morning, one-and-thirty men of them in number, very well armed, and very stout fellows; they travelled all the day, and atnight made us a signal that all was well, from the top of a hill, which wehad agreed on, by making a great fire. 

Next day they marched down the hill on the other side, inclining towardsthe seaside, as they had promised, and saw a very pleasant valley beforethem, with a river in the middle of it, which, a little farther below them, seemed to be big enough to bear small ships; they marched apace towardsthis river, and were surprised with the noise of a piece going off, which, by the sound, could not be far off. They listened long, but could hear nomore; so they went on to the river-side, which was a very fine freshstream, but widened apace, and they kept on by the banks of it, till, almost at once, it opened or widened into a good large creek or harbour, about five miles from the sea; and that which was still more surprising, asthey marched forward, they plainly saw in the mouth of the harbour, orcreek, the wreck of a ship. 

The tide was up, as we call it, so that it did net appear very much abovethe water, but, as they made downwards, they found it grow bigger andbigger; and the tide soon after ebbing out, they found it lay dry upon thesands, and appeared to be the wreck of a considerable vessel, larger thancould be expected in that country. 

After some time, William, taking out his glass to look at it more nearly, was surprised with hearing a musket-shot whistle by him, and immediatelyafter that he heard the gun, and saw the smoke from the other side; uponwhich our men immediately fired three muskets, to discover, if possible, what or who they were. Upon the noise of these guns, abundance of men camerunning down to the shore from among the trees; and our men could easilyperceive that they were Europeans, though they knew not of what nation;however, our men hallooed to them as loud as they could, and by-and-by theygot a long pole, and set it up, and hung a white shirt upon it for a flagof truce. They on the other side saw it, by the help of their glasses, too, and quickly after our men see a boat launch off from the shore, as theythought, but it was from another creek, it seems; and immediately they camerowing over the creek to our men, carrying also a white flag as a token oftruce. 

It is not easy to describe the surprise, or joy and satisfaction, thatappeared on both sides, to see not only white men, but Englishmen, in aplace so remote; but what then must it be when they came to know oneanother, and to find that they were not only countrymen but comrades, andthat this was the very ship that Captain Wilmot, our admiral, commanded, and whose company we had lost in the storm at Tobago, after making anagreement to rendezvous at Madagascar!

They had, it seems, got intelligence of us when they came to the south partof the island, and had been a-roving as far as the Gulf of Bengal, whenthey met Captain Avery, with whom they joined, took several rich prizes, and, amongst the rest, one ship with the Great Mogul's daughter, and animmense treasure in money and jewels; and from thence they came about thecoast of Coromandel, and afterwards that of Malabar, into the Gulf ofPersia, where they also took some prize, and then designed for the southpart of Madagascar; but the winds blowing hard at S. E. And S. E. By E. , theycame to the northward of the isle, and being after that separated by afurious tempest from the N. W. , they were forced into the mouth of thatcreek, where they lost their ship. And they told us, also, that they heardthat Captain Avery himself had lost his ship also not far off. 

When they had thus acquainted one another with their fortunes, the pooroverjoyed men were in haste to go back to communicate their joy to theircomrades; and, leaving some of their men with ours, the rest went back, andWilliam was so earnest to see them that he and two more went back withthem, and there he came to their little camp where they lived. There wereabout a hundred and sixty men of them in all; they had got their guns onshore, and some ammunition, but a good deal of their powder was spoiled;however, they had raised a fair platform, and mounted twelve pieces ofcannon upon it, which was a sufficient defence to them on that side of thesea; and just at the end of the platform they had made a launch and alittle yard, and were all hard at work, building another little ship, as Imay call it, to go to sea in; but they put a stop to this work upon thenews they had of our being come in. 

When our men went into their huts, it was surprising, indeed, to see thevast stock of wealth they had got, in gold and silver and jewels, which, however, they told us was a trifle to what Captain Avery had, wherever hewas gone. 

It was five days we had waited for our men, and no news of them; and indeedI gave them over for lost, but was surprised, after five days' waiting, tosee a ship's boat come rowing towards us along shore. What to make of it Icould not tell, but was at least better satisfied when our men told me theyheard them halloo and saw them wave their caps to us. 

In a little time they came quite up to us; and I saw friend William standup in the boat and make signs to us; so they came on board; but when I sawthere were but fifteen of our one-and-thirty men, I asked him what hadbecome of their fellows. "Oh, " says William, "they are all very well; andmy dream is fully made good, and the cockswain's too. "

This made me very impatient to know how the case stood; so he told us thewhole story, which indeed surprised us all. The next day we weighed, andstood away southerly to join Captain Wilmot and ship at Mangahelly, wherewe found him, as I said, a little chagrined at our stay; but we pacifiedhim afterwards with telling him the history of William's dream, and theconsequence of it. 

In the meantime the camp of our comrades was so near Mangahelly, that ouradmiral and I, friend William, and some of the men, resolved to take thesloop and go and see them, and fetch them all, and their goods, bag andbaggage, on board our ship, which accordingly we did, and found their camp, their fortifications, the battery of guns they had erected, their treasure, and all the men, just as William had related it; so, after some stay, wetook all the men into the sloop, and brought them away with us. 

It was some time before we knew what was become of Captain Avery; but afterabout a month, by the direction of the men who had lost their ship, we sentthe sloop to cruise along the shore, to find out, if possible, where theywere; and in about a week's cruise our men found them, and particularlythat they had lost their ship, as well as our men had lost theirs, and thatthey were every way in as bad a condition as ours. 

It was about ten days before the sloop returned, and Captain Avery withthem; and this was the whole force that, as I remember, Captain Avery everhad with him; for now we joined all our companies together, and it stoodthus:--We had two ships and a sloop, in which we had 320 men, but much toofew to man them as they ought to be, the great Portuguese ship requiring ofherself near 400 men to man her completely. As for our lost, but now foundcomrade, her complement of men was 180, or thereabouts; and Captain Averyhad about 300 men with him, whereof he had ten carpenters with him, most ofwhich were taken aboard the prize they had taken; so that, in a word, allthe force Avery had at Madagascar, in the year 1699, or thereabouts, amounted to our three ships, for his own was lost, as you have heard; andnever had any more than about 1200 men in all. 

It was about a month after this that all our crews got together, and asAvery was unshipped, we all agreed to bring our own company into thePortuguese man-of-war and the sloop, and give Captain Avery the Spanishfrigate, with all the tackles and furniture, guns and ammunition, for hiscrew by themselves; for which they, being full of wealth, agreed to give us40, 000 pieces of eight. 

It was next considered what course we should take. Captain Avery, to givehim his due, proposed our building a little city here, establishingourselves on shore, with a good fortification and works proper to defendourselves; and that, as we had wealth enough, and could increase it to whatdegree we pleased, we should content ourselves to retire here, and biddefiance to the world. But I soon convinced him that this place would be nosecurity to us, if we pretended to carry on our cruising trade; for thatthen all the nations of Europe, and indeed of that part of the world, wouldbe engaged to root us out; but if we resolved to live there as inretirement, and plant in the country as private men, and give over ourtrade of pirating, then, indeed, we might plant and settle ourselves wherewe pleased. But then, I told him, the best way would be to treat with thenatives, and buy a tract of land of them farther up the country, seatedupon some navigable river, where boats might go up and down for pleasure, but not ships to endanger us; that thus planting the high ground withcattle, such as cows and goats, of which the country also was full, to besure we might live here as well as any men in the world; and I owned to himI thought it was a good retreat for those that were willing to leave offand lay down, and yet did not care to venture home and be hanged; that isto say, to run the risk of it. 

Captain Avery, however he made no positive discovery of his intentions, seemed to me to decline my notion of going up into the country to plant; onthe contrary, it was apparent he was of Captain Wilmot's opinion, that theymight maintain themselves on shore, and yet carry on their cruising tradetoo; and upon this they resolved. But, as I afterwards understood, aboutfifty of their men went up the country, and settled themselves in an inlandplace as a colony. Whether they are there still or not, I cannot tell, orhow many of them are left alive; but it is my opinion they are there still, and that they are considerably increased, for, as I hear, they have gotsome women among them, though not many; for it seems five Dutch women andthree or four little girls were taken by them in a Dutch ship, which theyafterwards took going to Mocha; and three of those women, marrying some ofthese men, went with them to live in their new plantation. But of this Ispeak only by hearsay. 

As we lay here some time, I found our people mightily divided in theirnotions; some were for going this way, and some that, till at last I beganto foresee they would part company, and perhaps we should not have menenough to keep together to man the great ship; so I took Captain Wilmotaside, and began to talk to him about it, but soon perceived that heinclined himself to stay at Madagascar, and having got a vast wealth forhis own share, had secret designs of getting home some way or other. 

I argued the impossibility of it, and the hazard he would run, either offalling into the hands of thieves and murderers in the Red Sea, who wouldnever let such a treasure as his pass their hands, or of his falling intothe hands of the English, Dutch, or French, who would certainly hang himfor a pirate. I gave him an account of the voyage I had made from this veryplace to the continent of Africa, and what a journey it was to travel onfoot. 

In short, nothing could persuade him, but he would go into the Red Sea withthe sloop, and where the children of Israel passed through the seadry-shod, and, landing there, would travel to Grand Cairo by land, which isnot above eighty miles, and from thence he said he could ship himself, bythe way of Alexandria, to any part of the world. 

I represented the hazard, and indeed the impossibility, of his passing byMocha and Jiddah without being attacked, if he offered it by force, orplundered, if he went to get leave; and explained the reasons of it so muchand so effectually, that, though at last he would not hearken to ithimself, none of his men would go with him. They told him they would goanywhere with him to serve him, but that this was running himself and theminto certain destruction, without any possibility of avoiding it, orprobability of answering his end. The captain took what I said to him quitewrong, and pretended to resent it, and gave me some buccaneer words uponit; but I gave him no return to it but this: that I advised him for hisadvantage; that if he did not understand it so, it was his fault, not mine;that I did not forbid him to go, nor had I offered to persuade any of themen not to go with him, though it was to their apparent destruction. 

However, warm heads are not easily cooled. The captain was so eager that hequitted our company, and, with most part of his crew, went over to CaptainAvery, and sorted with his people, taking all the treasure with him, which, by the way, was not very fair in him, we having agreed to share all ourgains, whether more or less, whether absent or present. 

Our men muttered a little at it, but I pacified them as well as I could, and told them it was easy for us to get as much, if we minded our hits; andCaptain Wilmot had set us a very good example; for, by the same rule, theagreement of any further sharing of profits with them was at an end. I tookthis occasion to put into their heads some part of my further designs, which were, to range over the eastern sea, and see if we could not makeourselves as rich as Mr Avery, who, it was true, had gotten a prodigiousdeal of money, though not one-half of what was said of it in Europe. 

Our men were so pleased with my forward, enterprising temper, that theyassured me that they would go with me, one and all, over the whole globe, wherever I would carry them; and as for Captain Wilmot, they would havenothing more to do with him. This came to his ears, and put him into agreat rage, so that he threatened, if I came on shore, he would cut mythroat. 

I had information of it privately, but took no notice of it at all; only Itook care not to go unprovided for him, and seldom walked about but in verygood company. However, at last Captain Wilmot and I met, and talked overthe matter very seriously, and I offered him the sloop to go where hepleased, or, if he was not satisfied with that, I offered to take the sloopand leave him the great ship; but he declined both, and only desired that Iwould leave him six carpenters, which I had in our ship more than I hadneed of, to help his men to finish the sloop that was begun before we camethither, by the men that lost their ship. This I consented readily to, andlent him several other hands that were useful to them; and in a little timethey built a stout brigantine, able to carry fourteen guns and 200 men. 

What measures they took, and how Captain Avery managed afterwards, is toolong a story to meddle with here; nor is it any of my business, having myown story still upon my hands. 

We lay here, about these several simple disputes, almost five months, when, about the latter end of March, I set sail with the great ship, having inher forty-four guns and 400 men, and the sloop, carrying eighty men. We didnot steer to the Malabar coast, and so to the Gulf of Persia, as was firstintended, the east monsoons blowing yet too strong, but we kept more underthe African coast, where we had the wind variable till we passed the line, and made the Cape Bassa, in the latitude of four degrees ten minutes; fromthence, the monsoons beginning to change to the N. E. And N. N. E. , we led itaway, with the wind large, to the Maldives, a famous ledge of islands, wellknown by all the sailors who have gone into those parts of the world; and, leaving these islands a little to the south, we made Cape Comorin, thesouthernmost land of the coast of Malabar, and went round the isle ofCeylon. Here we lay by a while to wait for purchase; and here we saw threelarge English East India ships going from Bengal, or from Fort St George, homeward for England, or rather for Bombay and Surat, till the trade setin. 

We brought to, and hoisting an English ancient and pendant, lay by forthem, as if we intended to attack them. They could not tell what to make ofus a good while, though they saw our colours; and I believe at first theythought us to be French; but as they came nearer to us, we let them soonsee what we were, for we hoisted a black flag, with two cross daggers init, on our main-top-mast head, which let them see what they were to expect. 

We soon found the effects of this; for at first they spread their ancients, and made up to us in a line, as if they would fight us, having the wind offshore, fair enough to have brought them on board us; but when they saw whatforce we were of, and found we were cruisers of another kind, they stoodaway from us again, with all the sail they could make. If they had come up, we should have given them an unexpected welcome, but as it was, we had nomind to follow them; so we let them go, for the same reasons which Imentioned before. 

But though we let them pass, we did not design to let others go at so easya price. It was but the next morning that we saw a sail standing round CapeComorin, and steering, as we thought, the same course with us. We knew notat first what to do with her, because she had the shore on her larboardquarter, and if we offered to chase her, she might put into any port orcreek, and escape us; but, to prevent this, we sent the sloop to get inbetween her and the land. As soon as she saw that, she hauled in to keepthe land aboard, and when the sloop stood towards her she made rightashore, with all the canvas she could spread. 

The sloop, however, came up with her and engaged her, and found she was avessel of ten guns, Portuguese built, but in the Dutch traders' hands, andmanned by Dutchmen, who were bound from the Gulf of Persia to Batavia, tofetch spices and other goods from thence. The sloop's men took her, and hadthe rummaging of her before we came up. She had in her some European goods, and a good round sum of money, and some pearl; so that, though we did notgo to the gulf for the pearl, the pearl came to us out of the gulf, and wehad our share of it. This was a rich ship, and the goods were of veryconsiderable value, besides the money and the pearl. 

We had a long consultation here what we should do with the men, for to givethem the ship, and let them pursue their voyage to Java, would be to alarmthe Dutch factory there, who are by far the strongest in the Indies, and tomake our passage that way impracticable; whereas we resolved to visit thatpart of the world in our way, but were not willing to pass the great Bay ofBengal, where we hoped for a great deal of purchase; and therefore itbehoved us not to be waylaid before we came there, because they knew wemust pass by the Straits of Malacca, or those of Sunda; and either way itwas very easy to prevent us. 

While we were consulting this in the great cabin, the men had had the samedebate before the mast; and it seems the majority there were for picklingup the poor Dutchmen among the herrings; in a word, they were for throwingthem all into the sea. Poor William, the Quaker, was in great concern aboutthis, and comes directly to me to talk about it. "Hark thee, " says William, "what wilt thou do with these Dutchmen that thou hast on board? Thou wiltnot let them go, I suppose, " says he. "Why, " says I, "William, would youadvise me to let them go?" "No, " says William, "I cannot say it is fit forthee to let them go; that is to say, to go on with their voyage to Batavia, because it is not for thy turn that the Dutch at Batavia should have anyknowledge of thy being in these seas. " "Well, then, " says I to him, "I knowno remedy but to throw them overboard. You know, William, " says I, "aDutchman swims like a fish; and all our people here are of the same opinionas well as I. " At the same time I resolved it should not be done, butwanted to hear what William would say. He gravely replied, "If all the menin the ship were of that mind, I will never believe that thou wilt be ofthat mind thyself, for I have heard thee protest against cruelty in allother cases. " "Well, William, " says I, "that is true; but what then shallwe do with them?" "Why, " says William, "is there no way but to murder them?I am persuaded thou canst not be in earnest. " "No, indeed, William, " saysI, "I am not in earnest; but they shall not go to Java, no, nor to Ceylon, that is certain. " "But, " says William, "the men have done thee no injury atall; thou hast taken a great treasure from them; what canst thou pretend tohurt them for?" "Nay, William, " says I, "do not talk of that; I havepretence enough, if that be all; my pretence is, to prevent doing me hurt, and that is as necessary a piece of the law of self-preservation as any youcan name; but the main thing is, I know not what to do with them, toprevent their prating. "

While William and I were talking, the poor Dutchmen were openly condemnedto die, as it may be called, by the whole ship's company; and so warm werethe men upon it, that they grew very clamorous; and when they heard thatWilliam was against it, some of them swore they should die, and if Williamopposed it, he should drown along with them. 

But, as I was resolved to put an end to their cruel project, so I found itwas time to take upon me a little, or the bloody humour might grow toostrong; so I called the Dutchmen up, and talked a little with them. First, I asked them if they were willing to go with us. Two of them offered itpresently; but the rest, which were fourteen, declined it. "Well, then, "said I, "where would you go?" They desired they should go to Ceylon. No, Itold them I could not allow them to go to any Dutch factory, and told themvery plainly the reasons of it, which they could not deny to be just. I letthem know also the cruel, bloody measures of our men, but that I hadresolved to save them, if possible; and therefore I told them I would setthem on shore at some English factory in the Bay of Bengal, or put them onboard any English ship I met, after I was past the Straits of Sunda or ofMalacca, but not before; for, as to my coming back again, I told them Iwould run the venture of their Dutch power from Batavia, but I would nothave the news come there before me, because it would make all theirmerchant-ships lay up, and keep out of our way. 

It came next into our consideration what we should do with their ship; butthis was not long resolving; for there were but two ways, either to set heron fire, or to run her on shore, and we chose the last. So we set herforesail with the tack at the cat-head, and lashed her helm a little tostarboard, to answer her head-sail, and so set her agoing, with neither cator dog in her; and it was not above two hours before we saw her run rightashore upon the coast, a little beyond the Cape Comorin; and away we wentround about Ceylon, for the coast of Coromandel. 

We sailed along there, not in sight of the shore only, but so near as tosee the ships in the road at Fort St David, Fort St George, and at theother factories along that shore, as well as along the coast of Golconda, carrying our English ancient when we came near the Dutch factories, andDutch colours when we passed by the English factories. We met with littlepurchase upon this coast, except two small vessels of Golconda, boundacross the bay with bales of calicoes and muslins and wrought silks, andfifteen bales of romals, from the bottom of the bay, which were going, onwhose account we knew not, to Acheen, and to other ports on the coast ofMalacca. We did not inquire to what place in particular; but we let thevessels go, having none but Indians on board. 

In the bottom of the bay we met with a great junk belonging to the Mogul'scourt, with a great many people, passengers as we supposed them to be: itseems they were bound for the river Hooghly or Ganges, and came fromSumatra. This was a prize worth taking indeed; and we got so much gold inher, besides other goods which we did not meddle with--pepper inparticular--that it had like to have put an end to our cruise; for almostall my men said we were rich enough, and desired to go back again toMadagascar. But I had other things in my head still, and when I came totalk with them, and set friend William to talk with them, we put suchfurther golden hopes into their heads that we soon prevailed with them tolet us go on. 

My next design was to leave all the dangerous straits of Malacca, Singapore, and Sunda, where we could expect no great booty, but what wemight light on in European ships, which we must fight for; and though wewere able to fight, and wanted no courage, even to desperation, yet we wererich too, and resolved to be richer, and took this for our maxim, thatwhile we were sure the wealth we sought was to be had without fighting, wehad no occasion to put ourselves to the necessity of fighting for thatwhich would come upon easy terms. 

We left, therefore, the Bay of Bengal, and coming to the coast of Sumatra, we put in at a small port, where there was a town, inhabited only byMalays; and here we took in fresh water, and a large quantity of good pork, pickled up and well salted, notwithstanding the heat of the climate, beingin the very middle of the torrid zone, viz. , in three degrees fifteenminutes north latitude. We also took on board both our vessels forty hogsalive, which served us for fresh provisions, having abundance of food forthem, such as the country produced, such as guams, potatoes, and a sort ofcoarse rice, good for nothing else but to feed the swine. We killed one ofthese hogs every day, and found them to be excellent meat. We took in alsoa monstrous quantity of ducks, and cocks and hens, the same kind as we havein England, which we kept for change of provisions; and if I rememberright, we had no less than two thousand of them; so that at first we werepestered with them very much, but we soon lessened them by boiling, roasting, stewing, &c. , for we never wanted while we had them. 

My long-projected design now lay open to me, which was to fall in amongstthe Dutch Spice Islands, and see what mischief I could do there. Accordingly, we put out to sea the 12th of August, and passing the line onthe 17th, we stood away due south, leaving the Straits of Sunda and theisle of Java on the east, till we came to the latitude of eleven degreestwenty minutes, when we steered east and E. N. E. , having easy gales from theW. S. W. Till we came among the Moluccas, or Spice Islands. 

We passed those seas with less difficulty than in other places, the windsto the south of Java being more variable, and the weather good, thoughsometimes we met with squally weather and short storms; but when we came inamong the Spice Islands themselves we had a share of the monsoons, ortrade-winds, and made use of them accordingly. 

The infinite number of islands which lie in these seas embarrassed usstrangely, and it was with great difficulty that we worked our way throughthem; then we steered for the north side of the Philippines, when we had adouble chance for purchase, viz. , either to meet with the Spanish shipsfrom Acapulco, on the coast of New Spain, or we were certain not to fail offinding some ships or junks of China, who, if they came from China, wouldhave a great quantity of goods of value on board, as well as money; or ifwe took them going back, we should find them laden with nutmegs and clovesfrom Banda and Ternate, or from some of the other islands. 

We were right in our guesses here to a tittle, and we steered directlythrough a large outlet, which they call a strait, though it be fifteenmiles broad, and to an island they call Dammer, and from thence N. N. E. ToBanda. Between these islands we met with a Dutch junk, or vessel, going toAmboyna: we took her without much trouble, and I had much ado to preventour men murdering all the men, as soon as they heard them say they belongedto Amboyna: the reasons I suppose any one will guess. 

We took out of her about sixteen ton of nutmegs, some provisions, and theirsmall-arms, for they had no great guns, and let the ship go: from thence wesailed directly to the Banda Island, or Islands, where we were sure to getmore nutmegs if we thought fit. For my part, I would willingly have gotmore nutmegs, though I had paid for them, but our people abhorred payingfor anything; so we got about twelve ton more at several times, most ofthem from shore, and only a few in a small boat of the natives, which wasgoing to Gilolo. We would have traded openly, but the Dutch, who have madethemselves masters of all those islands, forbade the people dealing withus, or any strangers whatever, and kept them so in awe that they durst notdo it; so we could indeed have made nothing of it if we had stayed longer, and therefore resolved to be gone for Ternate, and see if we could make upour loading with cloves. 

Accordingly we stood away north, but found ourselves so entangled amonginnumerable islands, and without any pilot that understood the channel andraces between them, that we were obliged to give it over, and resolved togo back again to Banda, and see what we could get among the other islandsthereabouts. 

The first adventure we made here had like to have been fatal to us all, forthe sloop, being ahead, made the signal to us for seeing a sail, andafterwards another, and a third, by which we understood she saw three sail;whereupon we made more sail to come up with her, but on a sudden weregotten among some rocks, falling foul upon them in such a manner asfrighted us all very heartily; for having, it seems, but just water enough, as it were to an inch, our rudder struck upon the top of a rock, which gaveus a terrible shock, and split a great piece off the rudder, and indeeddisabled it so that our ship would not steer at all, at least not so as tobe depended upon; and we were glad to hand all our sails, except ourfore-sail and main-topsail, and with them we stood away to the east, to seeif we could find any creek or harbour where we might lay the ship on shore, and repair our rudder; besides, we found the ship herself had received somedamage, for she had some little leak near her stern-post, but a great wayunder water. 

By this mischance we lost the advantages, whatever they were, of the threesail of ships, which we afterwards came to hear were small Dutch ships fromBatavia, going to Banda and Amboyna, to load spice, and, no doubt, had agood quantity of money on board. 

Upon the disaster I have been speaking of you may very well suppose that wecame to an anchor as soon as we could, which was upon a small island notfar from Banda, where, though the Dutch keep no factory, yet they come atthe season to buy nutmegs and mace. We stayed there thirteen days; butthere being no place where we could lay the ship on shore, we sent thesloop to cruise among the islands, to look out for a place fit for us. Inthe meantime we got very good water here, some provisions, roots, andfruits, and a good quantity of nutmegs and mace, which we found ways totrade with the natives for, without the knowledge of their masters, theDutch. 

At length our sloop returned; having found another island where there was avery good harbour, we ran in, and came to an anchor. We immediately unbentall our sails, sent them ashore upon the island, and set up seven or eighttents with them; then we unrigged our top-masts, and cut them down, hoistedall our guns out, our provisions and loading, and put them ashore in thetents. With the guns we made two small batteries, for fear of a surprise, and kept a look-out upon the hill. When we were all ready, we laid the shipaground upon a hard sand, the upper end of the harbour, and shored her upon each side. At low water she lay almost dry, so we mended her bottom, andstopped the leak, which was occasioned by straining some of the rudderirons with the shock which the ship had against the rock. 

Having done this, we also took occasion to clean her bottom, which, havingbeen at sea so long, was very foul. The sloop washed and tallowed also, butwas ready before us, and cruised eight or ten days among the islands, butmet with no purchase; so that we began to be tired of the place, havinglittle to divert us but the most furious claps of thunder that ever wereheard or read of in the world. 

We were in hopes to have met with some purchase here among the Chinese, who, we had been told, came to Ternate to trade for cloves, and to theBanda Isles for nutmegs; and we would have been very glad to have loadedour galleon, or great ship, with these two sorts of spice, and have thoughtit a glorious voyage; but we found nothing stirring more than what I havesaid, except Dutchmen, who, by what means we could not imagine, had eithera jealousy of us or intelligence of us, and kept themselves close in theirports. 

I was once resolved to have made a descent at the island of Dumas, theplace most famous for the best nutmegs; but friend William, who was alwaysfor doing our business without fighting, dissuaded me from it, and gavesuch reasons for it that we could not resist; particularly the great heatsof the season, and of the place, for we were now in the latitude of justhalf a degree south. But while we were disputing this point we were soondetermined by the following accident:--We had a strong gale of wind at S. W. By W. , and the ship had fresh way, but a great sea rolling in upon us fromthe N. E. , which we afterwards found was the pouring in of the great oceaneast of New Guinea. However, as I said, we stood away large, and made freshway, when, on the sudden, from a dark cloud which hovered over our heads, came a flash, or rather blast, of lightning, which was so terrible, andquivered so long among us, that not I only, but all our men, thought theship was on fire. The heat of the flash, or fire, was so sensibly felt inour faces, that some of our men had blisters raised by it on their skins, not immediately, perhaps, by the heat, but by the poisonous or noxiousparticles which mixed themselves with the matter inflamed. But this was notall; the shock of the air, which the fracture in the clouds made, was suchthat our ship shook as when a broadside is fired; and her motion beingchecked, as it were at once, by a repulse superior to the force that gaveher way before, the sails all flew back in a moment, and the ship lay, aswe might truly say, thunder-struck. As the blast from the cloud was so verynear us, it was but a few moments after the flash that the terriblest clapof thunder followed that was ever heard by mortals. I firmly believe ablast of a hundred thousand barrels of gunpowder could not have beengreater to our hearing; nay, indeed, to some of our men it took away theirhearing. 

It is not possible for me to describe, or any one to conceive, the terrorof that minute. Our men were in such a consternation, that not a man onboard the ship had presence of mind to apply to the proper duty of asailor, except friend William; and had he not run very nimbly, and with acomposure that I am sure I was not master of, to let go the fore-sheet, setin the weather-brace of the fore-yard, and haul down the top-sails, we hadcertainly brought all our masts by the board, and perhaps have beenoverwhelmed in the sea. 

As for myself, I must confess my eyes were open to my danger, though notthe least to anything of application for remedy. I was all amazement andconfusion, and this was the first time that I can say I began to feel theeffects of that horror which I know since much more of, upon the justreflection on my former life. I thought myself doomed by Heaven to sinkthat moment into eternal destruction; and with this peculiar mark ofterror, viz. , that the vengeance was not executed in the ordinary way ofhuman justice, but that God had taken me into His immediate disposing, andhad resolved to be the executer of His own vengeance. 

Let them alone describe the confusion I was in who know what was the caseof [John] Child, of Shadwell, or Francis Spira. It is impossible todescribe it. My soul was all amazement and surprise. I thought myself justsinking into eternity, owning the divine justice of my punishment, but notat all feeling any of the moving, softening tokens of a sincere penitent;afflicted at the punishment, but not at the crime; alarmed at thevengeance, but not terrified at the guilt; having the same gust to thecrime, though terrified to the last degree at the thought of thepunishment, which I concluded I was just now going to receive. 

But perhaps many that read this will be sensible of the thunder andlightning, that may think nothing of the rest, or rather may make a jest ofit all; so I say no more of it at this time, but proceed to the story ofthe voyage. When the amazement was over, and the men began to come tothemselves, they fell a-calling for one another, every one for his friend, or for those he had most respect for; and it was a singular satisfaction tofind that nobody was hurt. The next thing was to inquire if the ship hadreceived no damage, when the boatswain, stepping forward, found that partof the head was gone, but not so as to endanger the bowsprit; so we hoistedour top-sails again, hauled aft the fore-sheet, braced the yards, and wentour course as before. Nor can I deny but that we were all somewhat like theship; our first astonishment being a little over, and that we found theship swim again, we were soon the same irreligious, hardened crew that wewere before, and I among the rest. 

As we now steered, our course lay N. N. E. , and we passed thus, with a fairwind, through the strait or channel between the island of Gilolo and theland of Nova Guinea, when we were soon in the open sea or ocean, on thesouth-east of the Philippines, being the great Pacific, or South Sea, whereit may be said to join itself with the vast Indian Ocean. 

As we passed into these seas, steering due north, so we soon crossed theline to the north side, and so sailed on towards Mindanao and Manilla, thechief of the Philippine Islands, without meeting with any purchase till wecame to the northward of Manilla, and then our trade began; for here wetook three Japanese vessels, though at some distance from Manilla. Two ofthem had made their market, and were going home with nutmegs, cinnamon, cloves, &c. , besides all sorts of European goods, brought with the Spanishships from Acapulco. They had together eight-and-thirty ton of cloves, andfive or six ton of nutmegs, and as much cinnamon. We took the spice, butmeddled with very little of the European goods, they being, as we thought, not worth our while; but we were very sorry for it soon after, andtherefore grew wiser upon the next occasion. 

The third Japanese was the best prize to us; for he came with money, and agreat deal of gold uncoined, to buy such goods as we mentioned above. Weeased him of his gold, and did him no other harm, and having no intentionto stay long here, we stood away for China. 

We were at sea above two months upon this voyage, beating it up against thewind, which blew steadily from the N. E. , and within a point or two one wayor other; and this indeed was the reason why we met with the more prizes inour voyage. 

We were just gotten clear of the Philippines, and we purposed to go to theisle of Formosa, but the wind blew so fresh at N. N. E. That there was nomaking anything of it, and we were forced to put back to Laconia, the mostnortherly of those islands. We rode here very secure, and shifted oursituation, not in view of any danger, for there was none, but for a bettersupply of provisions, which we found the people very willing to supply uswith. 

There lay, while we remained here, three very great galleons, or Spanishships, from the south seas; whether newly come in or ready to sail we couldnot understand at first; but as we found the China traders began to loadand set forward to the north, we concluded the Spanish ships had newlyunloaded their cargo, and these had been buying; so we doubted not but weshould meet with purchase in the rest of the voyage, neither, indeed, couldwe well miss of it. 

We stayed here till the beginning of May, when we were told the Chinesetraders would set forward; for the northern monsoons end about the latterend of March or beginning of April; so that they are sure of fair windshome. Accordingly we hired some of the country boats, which are very swiftsailers, to go and bring us word how affairs stood at Manilla, and when theChina junks would sail; and by this intelligence we ordered our matters sowell, that three days after we set sail we fell in with no less than elevenof them; out of which, however, having by misfortune of discoveringourselves, taken but three, we contented ourselves and pursued our voyageto Formosa. In these three vessels we took, in short, such a quantity ofcloves, nutmegs, cinnamon, and mace, besides silver, that our men began tobe of my opinion, --that we were rich enough; and, in short, we had nothingto do now but to consider by what methods to secure the immense treasure wehad got. 

I was secretly glad to hear that they were of this opinion, for I had longbefore resolved, if it were possible, to persuade them to think ofreturning, having fully perfected my first projected design of rummagingamong the Spice Islands; and all those prizes, which were exceeding rich atManilla, was quite beyond my design. 

But now I had heard what the men said, and how they thought we were verywell, I let them know by friend William, that I intended only to sail tothe island of Formosa, where I should find opportunity to turn our spicesand Europe goods into ready money, and that then I would tack about for thesouth, the northern monsoons being perhaps by that time also ready to setin. They all approved of my design, and willingly went forward; because, besides the winds, which would not permit until October to go to the south, I say, besides this, we were now a very deep ship, having near two hundredton of goods on board, and particularly, some very valuable; the sloop alsohad a proportion. 

With this resolution we went on cheerfully, when, within about twelve days'sail more, we made the island Formosa, at a great distance, but wereourselves shot beyond the southernmost part of the island, being toleeward, and almost upon the coast of China. Here we were a little at aloss, for the English factories were not far off, and we might be obligedto fight some of their ships, if we met with them; which, though we wereable enough to do, yet we did not desire it on many accounts, andparticularly because we did not think it was our business to have it knownwho we were, or that such a kind of people as we had been seen on thecoast. However, we were obliged to keep to the northward, keeping as goodan offing as we could with respect to the coast of China. 

We had not sailed long but we chased a small Chinese junk, and having takenher, we found she was bound to the island of Formosa, having no goods onboard but some rice and a small quantity of tea; but she had three Chinesemerchants in her; and they told us that they were going to meet a largevessel of their country, which came from Tonquin, and lay in a river inFormosa, whose name I forgot; and they were going to the PhilippineIslands, with silks, muslins, calicoes, and such goods as are the productof China, and some gold; that their business was to sell their cargo, andbuy spices and European goods. 

This suited very well with our purpose; so I resolved now that we wouldleave off being pirates and turn merchants; so we told them what goods wehad on board, and that if they would bring their supercargoes or merchantson board, we would trade with them. They were very willing to trade withus, but terribly afraid to trust us; nor was it an unjust fear, for we hadplundered them already of what they had. On the other hand, we were asdiffident as they, and very uncertain what to do; but William the Quakerput this matter into a way of barter. He came to me and told me he reallythought the merchants looked like fair men, that meant honestly. "Andbesides, " says William, "it is their interest to be honest now, for, asthey know upon what terms we got the goods we are to truck with them, sothey know we can afford good pennyworths; and in the next place, it savesthem going the whole voyage, so that the southerly monsoons yet holding, ifthey traded with us, they could immediately return with their cargo toChina;" though, by the way, we afterwards found they intended for Japan;but that was all one, for by this means they saved at least eight months'voyage. Upon these foundations, William said he was satisfied we mighttrust them; "for, " says William, "I would as soon trust a man whoseinterest binds him to be just to me as a man whose principle bindshimself. " Upon the whole, William proposed that two of the merchants shouldbe left on board our ship as hostages, and that part of our goods should beloaded in their vessel, and let the third go with it into the port wheretheir ship lay; and when he had delivered the spices, he should bring backsuch things as it was agreed should be exchanged. This was concluded on, and William the Quaker ventured to go along with them, which, upon my word, I should not have cared to have done, nor was I willing that he should, buthe went still upon the notion that it was their interest to treat himfriendly. 

In the meantime, we came to an anchor under a little island in the latitudeof 23 degrees 28 minutes, being just under the northern tropic, and abouttwenty leagues from the island. Here we lay thirteen days, and began to bevery uneasy for my friend William, for they had promised to be back againin four days, which they might very easily have done. However, at the endof thirteen days, we saw three sail coming directly to us, which a littlesurprised us all at first, not knowing what might be the case; and we beganto put ourselves in a posture of defence; but as they came nearer us, wewere soon satisfied, for the first vessel was that which William went in, who carried a flag of truce; and in a few hours they all came to an anchor, and William came on board us with a little boat, with the Chinese merchantin his company, and two other merchants, who seemed to be a kind of brokersfor the rest. 

Here he gave us an account how civilly he had been used; how they hadtreated him with all imaginable frankness and openness; that they had notonly given him the full value of his spices and other goods which hecarried, in gold, by good weight, but had loaded the vessel again with suchgoods as he knew we were willing to trade for; and that afterwards they hadresolved to bring the great ship out of the harbour, to lie where we were, that so we might make what bargain we thought fit; only William said he hadpromised, in our name, that we should use no violence with them, nor detainany of the vessels after we had done trading with them. I told him we wouldstrive to outdo them in civility, and that we would make good every part ofhis agreement; in token whereof, I caused a white flag likewise to bespread at the poop of our great ship, which was the signal agreed on. 

As to the third vessel which came with them, it was a kind of bark of thecountry, who, having intelligence of our design to traffic, came off todeal with us, bringing a great deal of gold and some provisions, which atthat time we were very glad of. 

In short, we traded upon the high seas with these men, and indeed we made avery good market, and yet sold thieves' pennyworths too. We sold here aboutsixty ton of spice, chiefly cloves and nutmegs, and above two hundred balesof European goods, such as linen and woollen manufactures. We considered weshould have occasion for some such things ourselves, and so we kept a goodquantity of English stuffs, cloth, baize, &c. , for ourselves. I shall nottake up any of the little room I have left here with the furtherparticulars of our trade; it is enough to mention, that, except a parcel oftea, and twelve bales of fine China wrought silks, we took nothing inexchange for our goods but gold; so that the sum we took here in thatglittering commodity amounted to above fifty thousand ounces good weight. 

When we had finished our barter, we restored the hostages, and gave thethree merchants about the quantity of twelve hundredweight of nutmegs, andas many of cloves, with a handsome present of European linen and stuff forthemselves, as a recompense for what we had taken from them; so we sentthem away exceedingly well satisfied. 

Here it was that William gave me an account, that while he was on board theJapanese vessel, he met with a kind of religious, or Japan priest, whospoke some words of English to him; and, being very inquisitive to know howhe came to learn any of those words, he told him that there was in hiscountry thirteen Englishmen; he called them Englishmen very articulatelyand distinctly, for he had conversed with them very frequently and freely. He said that they were all that were left of two-and-thirty men, who cameon shore on the north side of Japan, being driven upon a great rock in astormy night, where they lost their ship, and the rest of their men weredrowned; that he had persuaded the king of his country to send boats off tothe rock or island where the ship was lost, to save the rest of the men, and to bring them on shore, which was done, and they were used very kindly, and had houses built for them, and land given them to plant for provision;and that they lived by themselves. 

He said he went frequently among them, to persuade them to worship theirgod (an idol, I suppose, of their own making), which, he said, theyungratefully refused; and that therefore the king had once or twice orderedthem all to be put to death; but that, as he said, he had prevailed uponthe king to spare them, and let them live their own way, as long as theywere quiet and peaceable, and did not go about to withdraw others from theworship of the country. 

I asked William why he did not inquire from whence they came. "I did, " saidWilliam; "for how could I but think it strange, " said he, "to hear him talkof Englishmen on the north side of Japan?" "Well, " said I, "what accountdid he give of it?" "An account, " said William, "that will surprise thee, and all the world after thee, that shall hear of it, and which makes mewish thou wouldst go up to Japan and find them out. " "What do you mean?"said I. "Whence could they come?" "Why, " says William, "he pulled out alittle book, and in it a piece of paper, where it was written, in anEnglishman's hand, and in plain English words, thus; and, " says William, "Iread it myself:--'We came from Greenland, and from the North Pole. '" This, indeed, was amazing to us all, and more so to those seamen among us whoknew anything of the infinite attempts which had been made from Europe, aswell by the English as the Dutch, to discover a passage that way into thoseparts of the world; and as William pressed as earnestly to go on to thenorth to rescue those poor men, so the ship's company began to incline toit; and, in a word, we all came to this, that we would stand in to theshore of Formosa, to find this priest again, and have a further account ofit all from him. Accordingly, the sloop went over; but when they camethere, the vessels were very unhappily sailed, and this put an end to ourinquiry after them, and perhaps may have disappointed mankind of one of themost noble discoveries that ever was made, or will again be made, in theworld, for the good of mankind in general; but so much for that. 

William was so uneasy at losing this opportunity, that he pressed usearnestly to go up to Japan to find out these men. He told us that if itwas nothing but to recover thirteen honest poor men from a kind ofcaptivity, which they would otherwise never be redeemed from, and where, perhaps, they might, some time or other, be murdered by the barbarouspeople, in defence of their idolatry, it were very well worth our while, and it would be, in some measure, making amends for the mischiefs we haddone in the world; but we, that had no concern upon us for the mischiefs wehad done, had much less about any satisfactions to be made for it, so hefound that kind of discourse would weigh very little with us. Then hepressed us very earnestly to let him have the sloop to go by himself, and Itold him I would not oppose it; but when he came to the sloop none of themen would go with him; for the case was plain, they had all a share in thecargo of the great ship, as well as in thae of the sloop, and the richnessof the cargo was such that they would not leave it by any means; so poorWilliam, much to his mortification, was obliged to give it over. Whatbecame of those thirteen men, or whether they are not there still, I cangive no account of. 

We are now at the end of our cruise; what we had taken was indeed soconsiderable, that it was not only enough to satisfy the most covetous andthe most ambitious minds in the world, but it did indeed satisfy us, andour men declared they did not desire any more. The next motion, therefore, was about going back, and the way by which we should perform the voyage, soas not to be attacked by the Dutch in the Straits of Sunda. 

We had pretty well stored ourselves here with provisions, and it being nownear the return of the monsoons, we resolved to stand away to thesouthward; and not only to keep without the Philippine Islands, that is tosay, to the eastward of them, but to keep on to the southward, and see ifwe could not leave not only the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, behind us, buteven Nova Guinea and Nova Hollandia also; and so getting into the variablewinds, to the south of the tropic of Capricorn, steer away to the west, over the great Indian Ocean. 

This was indeed at first a monstrous voyage in its appearance, and the wantof provisions threatened us. William told us in so many words, that it wasimpossible we could carry provisions enough to subsist us for such avoyage, and especially fresh water; and that, as there would be no land forus to touch at where we could get any supply, it was a madness to undertakeit. 

But I undertook to remedy this evil, and therefore desired them not to beuneasy at that, for I knew that we might supply ourselves at Mindanao, themost southerly island of the Philippines. 

Accordingly, we set sail, having taken all the provisions here that wecould get, the 28th of September, the wind veering a little at first fromthe N. N. W. To the N. E. By E. , but afterwards settled about the N. E. And theE. N. E. We were nine weeks in this voyage, having met with severalinterruptions by the weather, and put in under the lee of a small island inthe latitude of 16 degrees 12 minutes, of which we never knew the name, none of our charts having given any account of it: I say, we put in here byreason of a strange tornado or hurricane, which brought us into a greatdeal of danger. Here we rode about sixteen days, the winds being verytempestuous and the weather uncertain. However, we got some provisions onshore, such as plants and roots, and a few hogs. We believed there wereinhabitants on the island, but we saw none of them. 

From hence, the weather settling again, we went on and came to thesouthernmost part of Mindanao, where we took in fresh water and some cows, but the climate was so hot that we did not attempt to salt up any more thanso as to keep a fortnight or three weeks; and away we stood southward, crossing the line, and, leaving Gillolo on the starboard side, we coastedthe country they call New Guinea, where, in the latitude of eight degreessouth, we put in again for provisions and water, and where we foundinhabitants; but they fled from us, and were altogether inconversable. Fromthence, sailing still southward, we left all behind us that any of ourcharts and maps took any notice of, and went on till we came to thelatitude of seventeen degrees, the wind continuing still north-east. 

Here we made land to the westward, which, when we had kept in sight forthree days, coasting along the shore for the distance of about fourleagues, we began to fear we should find no outlet west, and so should beobliged to go back again, and put in among the Moluccas at last; but atlength we found the land break off, and go trending away to the west sea, seeming to be all open to the south and south-west, and a great sea camerolling out of the south, which gave us to understand that there was noland for a great way. 

In a word, we kept on our course to the south, a little westerly, till wepassed the south tropic, where we found the winds variable; and now westood away fair west, and held it out for about twenty days, when wediscovered land right ahead, and on our larboard bow; we made directly tothe shore, being willing to take all advantages now for supplying ourselveswith fresh provisions and water, knowing we were now entering on that vastunknown Indian Ocean, perhaps the greatest sea on the globe, having, withvery little interruption of islands, a continued sea quite round the globe. 

We found a good road here, and some people on shore; but when we landed, they fled up the country, nor would they hold any correspondence with us, nor come near us, but shot at us several times with arrows as long aslances. We set up white flags for a truce, but they either did not or wouldnot understand it; on the contrary, they shot our flag of truce throughseveral times with their arrows, so that, in a word, we never came near anyof them. 

We found good water here, though it was something difficult to get at it, but for living creatures we could see none; for the people, if they had anycattle, drove them all away, and showed us nothing but themselves, and thatsometimes in a threatening posture, and in number so great, that made ussuppose the island to be greater than we first imagined. It is true, theywould not come near enough for us to engage with them, at least not openly;but they came near enough for us to see them, and, by the help of ourglasses, to see that they were clothed and armed, but their clothes wereonly about their lower and middle parts; that they had long lances, halfpikes, in their hands, besides bows and arrows; that they had great highthings on their heads, made, as we believed, of feathers, and which lookedsomething like our grenadiers' caps in England. 

When we saw them so shy that they would not come near us, our men began torange over the island, if it was such (for we never surrounded it), tosearch for cattle, and for any of the Indian plantations, for fruits orplants; but they soon found, to their cost, that they were to use morecaution than that came to, and that they were to discover perfectly everybush and every tree before they ventured abroad in the country; for aboutfourteen of our men going farther than the rest, into a part of the countrywhich seemed to be planted, as they thought, for it did but seem so, only Ithink it was overgrown with canes, such as we make our cane chairs with--Isay, venturing too far, they were suddenly attacked with a shower of arrowsfrom almost every side of them, as they thought, out of the tops of thetrees. 

They had nothing to do but to fly for it, which, however, they could notresolve on, till five of them were wounded; nor had they escaped so, if oneof them had not been so much wiser or thoughtfuller than the rest, as toconsider, that though they could not see the enemy, so as to shoot at them, yet perhaps the noise of their shot might terrify them, and that theyshould rather fire at a venture. Accordingly, ten of them faced about, andfired at random anywhere among the canes. 

The noise and the fire not only terrified the enemy, but, as they believed, their shot had luckily hit some of them; for they found not only that thearrows, which came thick among them before, ceased, but they heard theIndians halloo, after their way, to one another, and make a strange noise, more uncouth and inimitably strange than any they had ever heard, more likethe howling and barking of wild creatures in the woods than like the voiceof men, only that sometimes they seemed to speak words. 

They observed also, that this noise of the Indians went farther and fartheroff, so that they were satisfied the Indians fled away, except on one side, where they heard a doleful groaning and howling, and where it continued agood while, which they supposed was from some or other of them beingwounded, and howling by reason of their wounds; or killed, and othershowling over them: but our men had enough of making discoveries; so theydid not trouble themselves to look farther, but resolved to take thisopportunity to retreat. But the worst of their adventure was to come; foras they came back, they passed by a prodigious great trunk of an old tree;what tree it was, they said, they did not know, but it stood like an olddecayed oak in a park, where the keepers in England take a stand, as theycall it, to shoot a deer; and it stood just under the steep side of a greatrock, or hill, that our people could not see what was beyond it. 

As they came by this tree, they were of a sudden shot at, from the top ofthe tree, with seven arrows and three lances, which, to our great grief, killed two of our men, and wounded three more. This was the moresurprising, because, being without any defence, and so near the trees, theyexpected more lances and arrows every moment; nor would flying do them anyservice, the Indians being, as appeared, very good marksmen. In thisextremity, they had happily this presence of mind, viz. , to run close tothe tree, and stand, as it were, under it; so that those above could notcome at, or see them, to throw their lances at them. This succeeded, andgave them time to consider what to do; they knew their enemies andmurderers were above; they heard them talk, and those above knew those werebelow; but they below were obliged to keep close for fear of their lancesfrom above. At length, one of our men, looking a little more strictly thanthe rest, thought he saw the head of one of the Indians just over a deadlimb of the tree, which, it seems, the creature sat upon. One manimmediately fired, and levelled his piece so true that the shot wentthrough the fellow's head; and down he fell out of the tree immediately, and came upon the ground with such force, with the height of his fall, thatif he had not been killed with the shot, he would certainly have beenkilled with dashing his body against the ground. 

This so frightened them, that, besides the howling noise they made in thetree, our men heard a strange clutter of them in the body of the tree, fromwhence they concluded they had made the tree hollow, and were got to hidethemselves there. Now, had this been the case, they were secure enough fromour men, for it was impossible any of our men could get up the tree on theoutside, there being no branches to climb by; and, to shoot at the tree, that they tried several times to no purpose, for the tree was so thick thatno shot would enter it. They made no doubt, however, but that they hadtheir enemies in a trap, and that a small siege would either bring themdown, tree and all, or starve them out; so they resolved to keep theirpost, and send to us for help. Accordingly, two of them came away to us formore hands, and particularly desired that some of our carpenters might comewith tools, to help to cut down the tree, or at least to cut down otherwood and set fire to it; and that, they concluded, would not fail to bringthem out. 

Accordingly, our men went like a little army, and with mighty preparationsfor an enterprise, the like of which has scarce been ever heard, to formthe siege of a great tree. However, when they came there, they found thetask difficult enough, for the old trunk was indeed a very great one, andvery tall, being at least two-and-twenty feet high, with seven old limbsstanding out every way from the top, but decayed, and very few leaves, ifany, left on it. 

William the Quaker, whose curiosity led him to go among the rest, proposedthat they should make a ladder, and get upon the top, and then throwwild-fire into the tree, and smoke them out. Others proposed going back, and getting a great gun out of the ship, which would split the tree inpieces with the iron bullets; others, that they should cut down a greatdeal of wood, and pile it up round the tree, and set it on fire, and burnthe tree, and the Indians in it. 

These consultations took up our people no less than two or three days, inall which time they heard nothing of the supposed garrison within thiswooden castle, nor any noise within. William's project was first goneabout, and a large strong ladder was made, to scale this wooden tower; andin two or three hours' time it would have been ready to mount, when, on asudden, they heard the noise of the Indians in the body of the tree again, and a little after, several of them appeared at the top of the tree, andthrew some lances down at our men; one of which struck one of our seamena-top of the shoulder, and gave him such a desperate wound, that thesurgeons not only had a great deal of difficulty to cure him, but the poorman endured such horrible torture, that we all said they had better havekilled him outright. However, he was cured at last, though he neverrecovered the perfect use of his arm, the lance having cut some of thetendons on the top of the arm, near the shoulder, which, as I supposed, performed the office of motion to the limb before; so that the poor man wasa cripple all the days of his life. But to return to the desperate roguesin the tree; our men shot at them, but did not find they had hit them, orany of them; but as soon as ever they shot at them, they could hear themhuddle down into the trunk of the tree again, and there, to be sure, theywere safe. 

Well, however, it was this which put by the project of William's ladder;for when it was done, who would venture up among such a troop of boldcreatures as were there, and who, they supposed, were desperate by theircircumstances? And as but one man at a time could go up, they began tothink it would not do; and, indeed, I was of the opinion (for about thistime I was come to their assistance) that going up the ladder would not do, unless it was thus, that a man should, as it were, run just up to the top, and throw some fireworks into the tree, and come down again; and this wedid two or three times, but found no effect of it. At last, one of ourgunners made a stink-pot, as we called it, being a composition which onlysmokes, but does not flame or burn; but withal the smoke of it is so thick, and the smell of it so intolerably nauseous, that it is not to be suffered. This he threw into the tree himself, and we waited for the effect of it, but heard or saw nothing all that night or the next day; so we concludedthe men within were all smothered; when, on a sudden, the next night weheard them upon the top of the tree again shouting and hallooing likemadmen. 

We concluded, as anybody would, that this was to call for help, and weresolved to continue our siege; for we were all enraged to see ourselves sobaulked by a few wild people, whom we thought we had safe in our clutches;and, indeed, never were there so many concurring circumstances to deludemen in any case we had met with. We resolved, however, to try anotherstink-pot the next night, and our engineer and gunner had got it ready, when, hearing a noise of the enemy on the top of the tree, and in the bodyof the tree, I was not willing to let the gunner go up the ladder, which, Isaid, would be but to be certain of being murdered. However, he found amedium for it, and that was to go up a few steps, and, with a long pole inhis hand, to throw it in upon the top of the tree, the ladder beingstanding all this while against the top of the tree; but when the gunner, with his machine at the top of his pole, came to the tree, with three othermen to help him, behold the ladder was gone. 

This perfectly confounded us; and we now concluded the Indians in the treehad, by this piece of negligence, taken the opportunity, and come all downthe ladder, made their escape, and had carried away the ladder with them. Ilaughed most heartily at my friend William, who, as I said, had thedirection of the siege, and had set up a ladder for the garrison, as wecalled them, to get down upon, and run away. But when daylight came, wewere all set to rights again; for there stood our ladder, hauled up on thetop of the tree, with about half of it in the hollow of the tree, and theother half upright in the air. Then we began to laugh at the Indians forfools, that they could not as well have found their way down by the ladder, and have made their escape, as to have pulled it up by main strength intothe tree. 

We then resolved upon fire, and so to put an end to the work at once, andburn the tree and its inhabitants together; and accordingly we went to workto cut wood, and in a few hours' time we got enough, as we thought, together; and, piling it up round the bottom of the tree, we set it onfire, waiting at a distance to see when, the gentlemen's quarters being toohot for them, they would come flying out at the top. But we were quiteconfounded when, on a sudden, we found the fire all put out by a greatquantity of water thrown upon it. We then thought the devil must be inthem, to be sure. Says William, "This is certainly the cunningest piece ofIndian engineering that ever was heard of; and there can be but one thingmore to guess at, besides witchcraft and dealing with the devil, which Ibelieve not one word of, " says he; "and that must be, that this is anartificial tree, or a natural tree artificially made hollow down into theearth, through root and all; and that these creatures have an artificialcavity underneath it, quite into the hill, or a way to go through, andunder the hill, to some other place; and where that other place is, we knownot; but if it be not our own fault, I'll find the place, and follow theminto it, before I am two days older. " He then called the carpenters, toknow of them if they had any large saws that would cut through the body;and they told him they had no saws that were long enough, nor could menwork into such a monstrous old stump in a great while; but that they wouldgo to work with it with their axes, and undertake to cut it down in twodays, and stock up the root of it in two more. But William was for anotherway, which proved much better than all this; for he was for silent work, that, if possible, he might catch some of the fellows in it. So he setstwelve men to it with large augers, to bore great holes into the side ofthe tree, to go almost through, but not quite through; which holes werebored without noise, and when they were done he filled them all withgunpowder, stopping strong plugs, bolted crossways, into the holes, andthen boring a slanting hole, of a less size, down into the greater hole, all of which were filled with powder, and at once blown up. When they tookfire, they made such a noise, and tore and split up the tree in so manyplaces, and in such a manner, that we could see plainly such another blastwould demolish it; and so it did. Thus at the second time we could, at twoor three places, put our hands in them, and discovered a cheat, namely, that there was a cave or hole dug into the earth, from or through thebottom of the hollow, and that it had communication with another cavefarther in, where we heard the voices of several of the wild folks, callingand talking to one another. 

When we came thus far we had a great mind to get at them; and Williamdesired that three men might be given him with hand-grenadoes; and hepromised to go down first, and boldly he did so; for William, to give himhis due, had the heart of a lion. 

They had pistols in their hands, and swords by their sides; but, as theyhad taught the Indians before by their stink-pots, the Indians returnedthem in their own kind; for they made such a smoke come up out of theentrance into the cave or hollow, that William and his three men were gladto come running out of the cave, and out of the tree too, for mere want ofbreath; and indeed they were almost stifled. 

Never was a fortification so well defended, or assailants so many waysdefeated. We were now for giving it over, and particularly I calledWilliam, and told him I could not but laugh to see us spinning out our timehere for nothing; that I could not imagine what we were doing; that it wascertain that the rogues that were in it were cunning to the last degree, and it would vex anybody to be so baulked by a few naked ignorant fellows;but still it was not worth our while to push it any further, nor was thereanything that I knew of to be got by the conquest when it was made, so thatI thought it high time to give it over. 

William acknowledged what I said was just, and that there was nothing butour curiosity to be gratified in this attempt; and though, as he said, hewas very desirous to have searched into the thing, yet he would not insistupon it; so we resolved to quit it and come away, which we did. However, William said before we went he would have this satisfaction of them, viz. , to burn down the tree and stop up the entrance into the cave. And whiledoing this the gunner told him he would have one satisfaction of therogues; and this was, that he would make a mine of it, and see which way ithad vent. Upon this he fetched two barrels of powder out of the ships, andplaced them in the inside of the hollow of the cave, as far in as he durstgo to carry them, and then filling up the mouth of the cave where the treestood, and ramming it sufficiently hard, leaving only a pipe or touch-hole, he gave fire to it, and stood at a distance to see which way it wouldoperate, when on a sudden he found the force of the powder burst its wayout among some bushes on the other side the little hill I mentioned, andthat it came roaring out there as out of the mouth of a cannon. Immediatelyrunning thither, we saw the effects of the powder. 

First, we saw that there was the other mouth of the cave, which the powderhad so torn and opened, that the loose earth was so fallen in again thatnothing of shape could be discerned; but there we saw what was become ofthe garrison of the Indians, too, who had given us all this trouble, forsome of them had no arms, some no legs, some no head; some lay half buriedin the rubbish of the mine--that is to say, in the loose earth that fellin; and, in short, there was a miserable havoc made in them all; for we hadgood reason to believe not one of them that were in the inside couldescape, but rather were shot out of the mouth of the cave, like a bulletout of a gun. 

We had now our full satisfaction of the Indians; but, in short, this was alosing voyage, for we had two men killed, one quite crippled, and five morewounded; we spent two barrels of powder, and eleven days' time, and all toget the understanding how to make an Indian mine, or how to keep garrisonin a hollow tree; and with this wit, bought at this dear price, we cameaway, having taken in some fresh water, but got no fresh provisions. 

We then considered what we should do to get back again to Madagascar. Wewere much about the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope, but had such a verylong run, and were neither sure of meeting with fair winds nor with anyland in the way, that we knew not what to think of it. William was our lastresort in this case again, and he was very plain with us. "Friend, " says heto Captain Wilmot, "what occasion hast thou to run the venture of starving, merely for the pleasure of saying thou hast been where nobody has beenbefore? There are a great many places nearer home, of which thou mayest saythe same thing at less expense. I see no occasion thou hast of keeping thusfar south any longer than till you are sure you are to the west end of Javaand Sumatra; and then thou mayest stand away north towards Ceylon, and thecoast of Coromandel and Madras, where thou mayest get both fresh water andfresh provisions; and to that part it is likely we may hold out well enoughwith the stores we have already. "

This was wholesome advice, and such as was not to be slighted; so we stoodaway to the west, keeping between the latitude of 31 and 35, and had verygood weather and fair winds for about ten days' sail; by which time, by ourreckoning, we were clear of the isles, and might run away to the north; andif we did not fall in with Ceylon, we should at least go into the greatdeep Bay of Bengal. 

But we were out in our reckoning a great deal; for, when we had stood duenorth for about fifteen or sixteen degrees, we met with land again on ourstarboard bow, about three leagues' distance; so we came to an anchor abouthalf a league from it, and manned out our boats to see what sort of acountry it was. We found it a very good one; fresh water easy to come at, but no cattle that we could see, or inhabitants; and we were very shy ofsearching too far after them, lest we should make such another journey aswe did last; so that we let rambling alone, and chose rather to take whatwe could find, which was only a few wild mangoes, and some plants ofseveral kinds, which we knew not the names of. 

We made no stay here, but put to sea again, N. W. By N. , but had little windfor a fortnight more, when we made land again; and standing in with theshore, we were surprised to find ourselves on the south shore of Java; andjust as we were coming to an anchor we saw a boat, carrying Dutch colours, sailing along-shore. We were not solicitous to speak with them, or anyother of their nation, but left it indifferent to our people, when theywent on shore, to see the Dutchmen or not to see them; our business was toget provisions, which, indeed, by this time were very short with us. 

We resolved to go on shore with our boats in the most convenient place wecould find, and to look out a proper harbour to bring the ship into, leaving it to our fate whether we should meet with friends or enemies;resolving, however, not to stay any considerable time, at least not longenough to have expresses sent across the island to Batavia, and for shipsto come round from thence to attack us. 

We found, according to our desire, a very good harbour, where we rode inseven fathom water, well defended from the weather, whatever might happen;and here we got fresh provisions, such as good hogs and some cows; and thatwe might lay in a little store, we killed sixteen cows, and pickled andbarrelled up the flesh as well as we could be supposed to do in thelatitude of eight degrees from the line. 

We did all this in about five days, and filled our casks with water; andthe last boat was coming off with herbs and roots, we being unmoored, andour fore-topsail loose for sailing, when we spied a large ship to thenorthward, bearing down directly upon us. We knew not what she might be, but concluded the worst, and made all possible haste to get our anchor up, and get under sail, that we might be in a readiness to see what she had tosay to us, for we were under no great concern for one ship, but our notionwas, that we should be attacked by three or four together. 

By the time we had got up our anchor and the boat was stowed, the ship waswithin a league of us, and, as we thought, bore down to engage us; so wespread our black flag, or ancient, on the poop, and the bloody flag at thetop-mast-head, and having made a clear ship, we stretched away to thewestward, to get the wind of him. 

They had, it seems, quite mistaken us before, expecting nothing of an enemyor a pirate in those seas; and, not doubting but we had been one of theirown ships, they seemed to be in some confusion when they found theirmistake, so they immediately hauled upon a wind on the other tack, andstood edging in for the shore, towards the easternmost part of the island. Upon this we tacked, and stood after him with all the sail we could, and intwo hours came almost within gunshot. Though they crowded all the sail theycould lay on, there was no remedy but to engage us, and they soon saw theirinequality of force. We fired a gun for them to bring to; so they mannedout their boat, and sent to us with a flag of truce. We sent back the boat, but with this answer to the captain, that he had nothing to do but tostrike and bring his ship to an anchor under our stern, and come on boardus himself, when he should know our demands; but that, however, since hehad not yet put us to the trouble of forcing him, which we saw we were ableto do, we assured them that the captain should return again in safety, andall his men, and that, supplying us with such things as we should demand, his ship should not be plundered. They went back with this message, and itwas some time after they were on board before they struck, which made usbegin to think they refused it; so we fired a shot, and in a few minutesmore we perceived their boat put off; and as soon as the boat put off theship struck and came to an anchor, as was directed. 

When the captain came on board, we demanded an account of their cargo, which was chiefly bales of goods from Bengal for Bantam. We told them ourpresent want was provisions, which they had no need of, being just at theend of their voyage; and that, if they would send their boat on shore withours, and procure us six-and-twenty head of black cattle, threescore hogs, a quantity of brandy and arrack, and three hundred bushels of rice, wewould let them go free. 

As to the rice, they gave us six hundred bushels, which they had actuallyon board, together with a parcel shipped upon freight. Also, they gave usthirty middling casks of very good arrack, but beef and pork they had none. However, they went on shore with our men, and bought eleven bullocks andfifty hogs, which were pickled up for our occasion; and upon the suppliesof provision from shore, we dismissed them and their ship. 

We lay here several days before we could furnish ourselves with theprovisions agreed for, and some of the men fancied the Dutchmen werecontriving our destruction; but they were very honest, and did what theycould to furnish the black cattle, but found it impossible to supply somany. So they came and told us ingenuously, that, unless we could stay awhile longer, they could get no more oxen or cows than those eleven, withwhich we were obliged to be satisfied, taking the value of them in otherthings, rather than stay longer there. On our side, we were punctual withthem in observing the conditions we had agreed on; nor would we let any ofour men so much as go on board them, or suffer any of their men to come onboard us; for, had any of our men gone on board, nobody could have answeredfor their behaviour, any more than if they had been on shore in an enemy'scountry. 

We were now victualled for our voyage; and, as we mattered not purchase, wewent merrily on for the coast of Ceylon, where we intended to touch, to getfresh water again, and more provisions; and we had nothing material offeredin this part of the voyage, only that we met with contrary winds, and wereabove a month in the passage. 

We put in upon the south coast of the island, desiring to have as little todo with the Dutch as we could; and as the Dutch were lords of the countryas to commerce, so they are more so of the sea-coast, where they haveseveral forts, and, in particular, have all the cinnamon, which is thetrade of that island. 

We took in fresh water here, and some provisions, but did not much troubleourselves about laying in any stores, our beef and hogs, which we got atJava, being not yet all gone by a good deal. We had a little skirmish onshore here with some of the people of the island, some of our men havingbeen a little too familiar with the homely ladies of the country; forhomely, indeed, they were, to such a degree, that if our men had not hadgood stomachs that way, they would scarce have touched any of them. 

I could never fully get it out of our men what they did, they were so trueto one another in their wickedness, but I understood in the main, that itwas some barbarous thing they had done, and that they had like to have paiddear for it, for the men resented it to the last degree, and gathered insuch numbers about them, that, had not sixteen more of our men, in anotherboat, come all in the nick of time, just to rescue our first men, who werebut eleven, and so fetch them off by main force, they had been all cut off, the inhabitants being no less than two or three hundred, armed with dartsand lances, the usual weapons of the country, and which they are verydexterous at the throwing, even so dexterous that it was scarce credible;and had our men stood to fight them, as some of them were bold enough totalk of, they had been all overwhelmed and killed. As it was, seventeen ofour men were wounded, and some of them very dangerously. But they were morefrighted than hurt too, for every one of them gave themselves over for deadmen, believing the lances were poisoned. But William was our comfort heretoo; for, when two of our surgeons were of the same opinion, and told themen foolishly enough that they would die, William cheerfully went to workwith them, and cured them all but one, who rather died by drinking somearrack punch than of his wound; the excess of drinking throwing him into afever. 

We had enough of Ceylon, though some of our people were for going ashoreagain, sixty or seventy men together, to be revenged; but William persuadedthem against it; and his reputation was so great among the men, as well aswith us that were commanders, that he could influence them more than any ofus. 

They were mighty warm upon their revenge, and they would go on shore, anddestroy five hundred of them. "Well, " says William, "and suppose you do, what are you the better?" "Why, then, " says one of them, speaking for therest, "we shall have our satisfaction. " "Well, and what will you be thebetter for that?" says William. They could then say nothing to that. "Then, " says William, "if I mistake not, your business is money; now, Idesire to know, if you conquer and kill two or three thousand of these poorcreatures, they have no money, pray what will you get? They are poor nakedwretches; what shall you gain by them? But then, " says William, "perhaps, in doing this, you may chance to lose half-a-score of your own company, asit is very probable you may. Pray, what gain is in it? and what account canyou give the captain for his lost men?" In short, William argued soeffectually, that he convinced them that it was mere murder to do so; andthat the men had a right to their own, and that they had no right to takethem away; that it was destroying innocent men, who had acted no otherwisethan as the laws of nature dictated; and that it would be as much murder todo so, as to meet a man on the highway, and kill him, for the mere sake ofit, in cold blood, not regarding whether he had done any wrong to us or no. 

These reasons prevailed with them at last, and they were content to goaway, and leave them as they found them. In the first skirmish they killedbetween sixty and seventy men, and wounded a great many more; but they hadnothing, and our people got nothing by it, but the loss of one man's life, and the wounding sixteen more, as above. 

But another accident brought us to a necessity of further business withthese people, and indeed we had like to have put an end to our lives andadventures all at once among them; for, about three days after our puttingout to sea from the place where we had that skirmish, we were attacked by aviolent storm of wind from the south, or rather a hurricane of wind fromall the points southward, for it blew in a most desperate and furiousmanner from the S. E. To the S. W. , one minute at one point, and theninstantly turning about again to another point, but with the same violence;nor were we able to work the ship in that condition, so that the ship I wasin split three top-sails, and at last brought the main-top-mast by theboard; and, in a word, we were once or twice driven right ashore; and onetime, had not the wind shifted the very moment it did, we had been dashedin a thousand pieces upon a great ledge of rocks which lay off abouthalf-a-league from the shore; but, as I have said, the wind shifting veryoften, and at that time coming to the E. S. E. , we stretched off, and gotabove a league more sea-room in half-an-hour. After that, it blew with somefury S. W. By S. , then S. W. By W. , and put us back again a great way to theeastward of the ledge of rocks, where we found a great opening between therocks and the land, and endeavoured to come to an anchor there, but wefound there was no ground fit to anchor in, and that we should lose ouranchors, there being nothing but rocks. We stood through the opening, whichheld about four leagues. The storm continued, and now we found a dreadfulfoul shore, and knew not what course to take. We looked out very narrowlyfor some river or creek or bay, where we might run in, and come to ananchor, but found none a great while. At length we saw a great headland lieout far south into the sea, and that to such a length, that, in short, wesaw plainly that, if the wind held where it was, we could not weather it, so we ran in as much under the lee of the point as we could, and came to ananchor in about twelve fathom water. 

But the wind veering again in the night, and blowing exceedingly hard, ouranchors came home, and the ship drove till the rudder struck against theground; and had the ship gone half her length farther she had been lost, and every one of us with her. But our sheet-anchor held its own, and weheaved in some of the cable, to get clear of the ground we had struck upon. It was by this only cable that we rode it out all night; and towardsmorning we thought the wind abated a little; and it was well for us that itwas so, for, in spite of what our sheet-anchor did for us, we found theship fast aground in the morning, to our very great surprise and amazement. 

When the tide was out, though the water here ebbed away, the ship layalmost dry upon a bank of hard sand, which never, I suppose, had any shipupon it before. The people of the country came down in great numbers tolook at us and gaze, not knowing what we were, but gaping at us as at agreat sight or wonder at which they were surprised, and knew not what todo. 

I have reason to believe that upon the sight they immediately sent anaccount of a ship being there, and of the condition we were in, for thenext day there appeared a great man; whether it was their king or no I knownot, but he had abundance of men with him, and some with long javelins intheir hands as long as half-pikes; and these came all down to the water'sedge, and drew up in a very good order, just in our view. They stood nearan hour without making any motion; and then there came near twenty of them, with a man before them carrying a white flag. They came forward into thewater as high as their waists, the sea not going so high as before, for thewind was abated, and blew off the shore. 

The man made a long oration to us, as we could see by his gestures; and wesometimes heard his voice, but knew not one word he said. William, who wasalways useful to us, I believe was here again the saving of all our lives. The case was this: The fellow, or what I might call him, when his speechwas done, gave three great screams (for I know not what else to say theywere), then lowered his white flag three times, and then made three motionsto us with his arm to come to him. 

I acknowledge that I was for manning out the boat and going to them, butWilliam would by no means allow me. He told me we ought to trust nobody;that, if they were barbarians, and under their own government, we might besure to be all murdered; and, if they were Christians, we should not faremuch better, if they knew who we were; that it was the custom of theMalabars to betray all people that they could get into their hands, andthat these were some of the same people; and that, if we had any regard toour own safety, we should not go to them by any means. I opposed him agreat while, and told him I thought he used to be always right, but thatnow I thought he was not; that I was no more for running needless risksthan he or any one else; but I thought all nations in the world, even themost savage people, when they held out a flag of peace, kept the offer ofpeace made by that signal very sacredly; and I gave him several examples ofit in the history of my African travels, which I have here gone through inthe beginning of this work, and that I could not think these people worsethan some of them. And, besides, I told him our case seemed to be such thatwe must fall into somebody's hands or other, and that we had better fallinto their hands by a friendly treaty than by a forced submission, nay, though they had indeed a treacherous design; and therefore I was for aparley with them. 

"Well, friend, " says William very gravely, "if thou wilt go I cannot helpit; I shall only desire to take my last leave of thee at parting, for, depend upon it, thou wilt never see us again. Whether we in the ship maycome off any better at last I cannot resolve thee; but this I will answerfor, that we will not give up our lives idly, and in cool blood, as thouart going to do; we will at least preserve ourselves as long as we can, anddie at last like men, not like fools, trepanned by the wiles of a fewbarbarians. "

William spoke this with so much warmth, and yet with so much assurance ofour fate, that I began to think a little of the risk I was going to run. Ihad no more mind to be murdered than he; and yet I could not for my life beso faint-hearted in the thing as he. Upon which I asked him if he had anyknowledge of the place, or had ever been there. He said, No. Then I askedhim if he had heard or read anything about the people of this island, andof their way of treating any Christians that had fallen into their hands;and he told me he had heard of one, and he would tell me the storyafterward. His name, he said, was Knox, commander of an East India ship, who was driven on shore, just as we were, upon this island of Ceylon, though he could not say it was at the same place, or whereabouts; that hewas beguiled by the barbarians, and enticed to come on shore, just as wewere invited to do at that time; and that, when they had him, theysurrounded him, and eighteen or twenty of his men, and never suffered themto return, but kept them prisoners, or murdered them, he could not tellwhich; but they were carried away up into the country, separated from oneanother, and never heard of afterwards, except the captain's son, whomiraculously made his escape, after twenty years' slavery. 

I had no time then to ask him to give the full story of this Knox, muchless to hear him tell it me; but, as it is usual in such cases, when onebegins to be a little touched, I turned short with him. "Why then, friendWilliam, " said I, "what would you have us do? You see what condition we arein, and what is before us; something must be done, and that immediately. ""Why, " says William, "I'll tell thee what thou shalt do; first, cause awhite flag to be hanged out, as they do to us, and man out the longboat andpinnace with as many men as they can well stow, to handle their arms, andlet me go with them, and thou shalt see what we will do. If I miscarry, thou mayest be safe; and I will also tell thee, that if I do miscarry, itshall be my own fault, and thou shalt learn wit by my folly. "

I knew not what to reply to him at first; but, after some pause, I said, "William, William, I am as both you should be lost as you are that Ishould; and if there be any danger, I desire you may no more fall into itthan I. Therefore, if you will, let us all keep in the ship, fare alike, and take our fate together. "

"No, no, " says William, "there's no danger in the method I propose; thoushalt go with me, if thou thinkest fit. If thou pleasest but to follow themeasures that I shall resolve on, depend upon it, though we will go offfrom the ships, we will not a man of us go any nearer them than within callto talk with them. Thou seest they have no boats to come off to us; but, "says he, "I rather desire thou wouldst take my advice, and manage the shipsas I shall give the signal from the boat, and let us concert that mattertogether before we go off. "

Well, I found William had his measures in his head all laid beforehand, andwas not at a loss what to do at all; so I told him he should be captain forthis voyage, and we would be all of us under his orders, which I would seeobserved to a tittle. 

Upon this conclusion of our debates, he ordered four-and-twenty men intothe long-boat, and twelve men into the pinnace, and the sea being nowpretty smooth, they went off, being all very well armed. Also he orderedthat all the guns of the great ship, on the side which lay next the shore, should be loaded with musket-balls, old nails, stubs, and such-like piecesof old iron, lead, and anything that came to hand; and that we shouldprepare to fire as soon as ever we saw them lower the white flag and hoistup a red one in the pinnace. 

With these measures fixed between us, they went off towards the shore, William in the pinnace with twelve men, and the long-boat coming after himwith four-and-twenty more, all stout resolute fellows, and very well armed. They rowed so near the shore as that they might speak to one another, carrying a white flag, as the other did, and offering a parley. The brutes, for such they were, showed themselves very courteous; but finding we couldnot understand them, they fetched an old Dutchman, who had been theirprisoner many years, and set him to speak to us. The sum and substance ofhis speech was, that the king of the country had sent his general down toknow who we were, and what our business was. William stood up in the sternof the pinnace, and told him, that as to that, he, that was an European, byhis language and voice, might easily know what we were, and our condition;the ship being aground upon the sand would also tell him that our businessthere was that of a ship in distress; so William desired to know what theycame down for with such a multitude, and with arms and weapons, as if theycame to war with us. 

He answered, they might have good reason to come down to the shore, thecountry being alarmed with the appearance of ships of strangers upon thecoast; and as our vessels were full of men, and as we had guns and weapons, the king had sent part of his military men, that, in case of any invasionupon the country, they might be ready to defend themselves, whatsoevermight be the occasion. 

"But, " says he, "as you are men in distress, the king has ordered hisgeneral, who is here also, to give you all the assistance he can, and toinvite you on shore, and receive you with all possible courtesy. " SaysWilliam, very quick upon him, "Before I give thee an answer to that, Idesire thee to tell me what thou art, for by thy speech thou art anEuropean. " He answered presently, he was a Dutchman. "That I know well, "says William, "by thy speech; but art thou a native Dutchman of Holland, ora native of this country, that has learned Dutch by conversing among theHollanders, who we know are settled upon this island?"

"No, " says the old man, "I am a native of Delft, in the province ofHolland, in Europe. "

"Well, " says William, immediately, "but art thou a Christian or a heathen, or what we call a renegado?"

"I am, " says he, "a Christian. " And so they went on, in a short dialogue, as follows:--

_William_. Thou art a Dutchman, and a Christian, thou sayest; pray, art thou a freeman or a servant?

_Dutchman_. I am a servant to the king here, and in his army. 

_W_. But art thou a volunteer, or a prisoner?

_D_. Indeed I was a prisoner at first, but am at liberty now, and soam a volunteer. 

_W_. That is to say, being first a prisoner, thou hast liberty toserve them; but art thou so at liberty that thou mayest go away, if thoupleasest, to thine own countrymen?

_D_. No, I do not say so; my countrymen live a great way off, on thenorth and east parts of the island, and there is no going to them withoutthe king's express license. 

_W_. Well, and why dost thou not get a license to go away?

_D_. I have never asked for it. 

_W_. And, I suppose, if thou didst, thou knowest thou couldst notobtain it. 

_D_. I cannot say much as to that; but why do you ask me all thesequestions?

_W_. Why, my reason is good; if thou art a Christian and a prisoner, how canst thou consent to be made an instrument to these barbarians, tobetray us into their hands, who are thy countrymen and fellow-Christians?Is it not a barbarous thing in thee to do so?

_D_. How do I go about to betray you? Do I not give you an account howthe king invites you to come on shore, and has ordered you to be treatedcourteously and assisted?

_W_. As thou art a Christian, though I doubt it much, dost thoubelieve the king or the general, as thou callest it, means one word of whathe says?

_D_. He promises you by the mouth of his great general. 

_W_. I don't ask thee what he promises, or by whom; but I ask theethis: Canst thou say that thou believest he intends to perform it?

_D_. How can I answer that? How can I tell what he intends?

_W_. Thou canst tell what thou believest. 

_D_. I cannot say but he will perform it; I believe he may. 

_W_. Thou art but a double-tongued Christian, I doubt. Come, I'll askthee another question: Wilt thou say that thou believest it, and that thouwouldst advise me to believe it, and put our lives into their hands uponthese promises?

_D_. I am not to be your adviser. 

_W_. Thou art perhaps afraid to speak thy mind, because thou art intheir power. Pray, do any of them understand what thou and I say? Can theyspeak Dutch?

_D_. No, not one of them; I have no apprehensions upon that account atall. 

_W_. Why, then, answer me plainly, if thou art a Christian: Is it safefor us to venture upon their words, to put ourselves into their hands, andcome on shore?

_D_. You put it very home to me. Pray let me ask you another question:Are you in any likelihood of getting your ship off, if you refuse it?

_W_. Yes, yes, we shall get off the ship; now the storm is over wedon't fear it. 

_D_. Then I cannot say it is best for you to trust them. 

_W_. Well, it is honestly said. 

_D_. But what shall I say to them?

_W_. Give them good words, as they give us. 

_D_. What good words?

_W_. Why, let them tell the king that we are strangers, who weredriven on his coast by a great storm; that we thank him very kindly for hisoffer of civility to us, which, if we are further distressed, we willaccept thankfully; but that at present we have no occasion to come onshore; and besides, that we cannot safely leave the ship in the presentcondition she is in; but that we are obliged to take care of her, in orderto get her off; and expect, in a tide or two more, to get her quite clear, and at an anchor. 

_D_. But he will expect you to come on shore, then, to visit him, andmake him some present for his civility. 

_W_. When we have got our ship clear, and stopped the leaks, we willpay our respects to him. 

_D_. Nay, you may as well come to him now as then. 

_W_. Nay, hold, friend; I did not say we would come to him then: youtalked of making him a present, that is to pay our respects to him, is itnot?

_D_. Well, but I will tell him that you will come on shore to him whenyour ship is got off. 

_W_. I have nothing to say to that; you may tell him what you thinkfit. 

_D_. But he will be in a great rage if I do not. 

_W_. Who will he be in a great rage at?

_D_. At you. 

_W_. What occasion have we to value that?

_D_. Why, he will send all his army down against you. 

_W_. And what if they were all here just now? What dost thou supposethey could do to us?

_D_. He would expect they should burn your ships and bring you all tohim. 

_W_. Tell him, if he should try, he may catch a Tartar. 

_D_. He has a world of men. 

_W_. Has he any ships?

_D_. No, he has no ships. 

_W_. Nor boats?

_D_. No, nor boats. 

_W_. Why, what then do you think we care for his men? What canst thoudo now to us, if thou hadst a hundred thousand with thee?

_D_. Oh! they might set you on fire. 

_W_. Set us a-firing, thou meanest; that they might indeed; but set uson fire they shall not; they may try, at their peril, and we shall make madwork with your hundred thousand men, if they come within reach of our guns, I assure thee. 

_D_. But what if the king gives you hostages for your safety?

_W_. Whom can he give but mere slaves and servants like thyself, whoselives he no more values than we an English hound?

_D_. Whom do you demand for hostages?

_W_. Himself and your worship. 

_D_. What would you do with him?

_W_. Do with him as he would do with us--cut his head off. 

_D_. And what would you do with me?

_W_. Do with thee? We would carry thee home into thine own country;and, though thou deservest the gallows, we would make a man and a Christianof thee again, and not do by thee as thou wouldst have done by us--betraythee to a parcel of merciless, savage pagans, that know no God, nor how toshow mercy to man. 

_D_. You put a thought in my head that I will speak to you aboutto-morrow. 

Thus they went away, and William came on board, and gave us a full accountof his parley with the old Dutchman, which was very diverting, and to meinstructing; for I had abundance of reason to acknowledge William had madea better judgment of things than I. 

It was our good fortune to get our ship off that very night, and to bringher to an anchor at about a mile and a half farther out, and in deep water, to our great satisfaction; so that we had no need to fear the Dutchman'sking, with his hundred thousand men; and indeed we had some sport with themthe next day, when they came down, a vast prodigious multitude of them, very few less in number, in our imagination, than a hundred thousand, withsome elephants; though, if it had been an army of elephants, they couldhave done us no harm; for we were fairly at our anchor now, and out oftheir reach. And indeed we thought ourselves more out of their reach thanwe really were; and it was ten thousand to one that we had not been fastaground again, for the wind blowing off shore, though it made the watersmooth where we lay, yet it blew the ebb farther out than usual, and wecould easily perceive the sand, which we touched upon before, lay in theshape of a half-moon, and surrounded us with two horns of it, so that welay in the middle or centre of it, as in a round bay, safe just as we were, and in deep water, but present death, as it were, on the right hand and onthe left, for the two horns or points of the sand reached out beyond whereour ship lay near two miles. 

On that part of the sand which lay on our east side, this misguidedmultitude extended themselves; and being, most of them, not above theirknees, or most of them not above ankle-deep in the water, they as it weresurrounded us on that side, and on the side of the mainland, and a littleway on the other side of the sand, standing in a half-circle, or ratherthree-fifths of a circle, for about six miles in length. The other horn, orpoint of the sand, which lay on our west side, being not quite so shallow, they could not extend themselves upon it so far. 

They little thought what service they had done us, and how unwittingly, andby 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. Itis 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. Iam sure we ought to have done it; for, besides these armies of humanfuries, we had a very leaky ship, and all our pumps could hardly keep thewater from growing upon us, and our carpenters were overboard, working tofind out and stop the wounds we had received, heeling her first on the oneside, and then on the other; and it was very diverting to see how, when ourmen heeled the ship over to the side next the wild army that stood on theeast horn of the sand, they were so amazed, between fright and joy, that itput them into a kind of confusion, calling to one another, hallooing andskreeking, in a manner that it is impossible to describe. 

While we were doing this, for we were in a great hurry you may be sure, andall hands at work, as well at the stopping our leaks as repairing ourrigging and sails, which had received a great deal of damage, and also inrigging a new main-top-mast and the like;--I say, while we were doing allthis, we perceived a body of men, of near a thousand, move from that partof the army of the barbarians that lay at the bottom of the sandy bay, andcame all along the water's edge, round the sand, till they stood just onour broadside east, and were within about half-a-mile of us. Then we sawthe Dutchman come forward nearer to us, and all alone, with his white flagand all his motions, just as before, and there he stood. 

Our men had but just brought the ship to rights again as they came up toour broadside, and we had very happily found out and stopped the worst andmost dangerous leak that we had, to our very great satisfaction; so Iordered the boats to be hauled up and manned as they were the day before, and William to go as plenipotentiary. I would have gone myself if I hadunderstood Dutch, but as I did not, it was to no purpose, for I should beable to know nothing of what was said but from him at second-hand, whichmight be done as well afterwards. All the instructions I pretended to giveWilliam was, if possible, to get the old Dutchman away, and, if he could, to make him come on board. 

Well, William went just as before, and when he came within about sixty orseventy yards of the shore, he held up his white flag as the Dutchman did, and turning the boat's broadside to the shore, and his men lying upon theiroars, the parley or dialogue began again thus:--

_William_. Well, friend, what dost thou say to us now?

_Dutchman_. I come of the same mild errand as I did yesterday. 

_W_. What! dost thou pretend to come of a mild errand with all thesepeople at thy back, and all the foolish weapons of war they bring withthem? Prithee, what dost thou mean?

_D_. The king hastens us to invite the captain and all his men to comeon shore, and has ordered all his men to show them all the civility theycan. 

_W_. Well, and are all those men come to invite us ashore?

D. They will do you no hurt, if you will come on shore peaceably. 

W. Well, and what dost thou think they can do to us, if we will not?

D. I would not have them do you any hurt then, neither. 

W. But prithee, friend, do not make thyself fool and knave too. Dost notthou know that we are out of fear of all thy army, and out of danger of allthat they can do? What makes thee act so simply as well as so knavishly?

D. Why, you may think yourselves safer than you are; you do not know whatthey may do to you. I can assure you they are able to do you a great dealof harm, and perhaps burn your ship. 

W. Suppose that were true, as I am sure it is false; you see we have moreships to carry us off (pointing to the sloop). 

[N. B. --Just at this time we discovered the sloop standing towards us fromthe east, along the shore, at about the distance of two leagues, which wasto our particular satisfaction, she having been missing thirteen days. ]

D. We do not value that; if you had ten ships, you dare not come on shore, with all the men you have, in a hostile way; we are too many for you. 

W. Thou dost not, even in that, speak as thou meanest; and we may give theea trial of our hands when our friends come up to us, for thou hearest theyhave discovered us. 

[Just then the sloop fired five guns, which was to get news of us, for theydid not see us. ]

D. Yes, I hear they fire; but I hope your ship will not fire again; for, ifthey do, our general will take it for breaking the truce, and will make thearmy let fly a shower of arrows at you in the boat. 

W. Thou mayest be sure the ship will fire that the other ship may hearthem, but not with ball. If thy general knows no better, he may begin whenhe will; but thou mayest be sure we will return it to his cost. 

D. What must I do, then?

W. Do! Why, go to him, and tell him of it beforehand, then; and let himknow that the ship firing is not at him nor his men; and then come again, and tell us what he says. 

D. No; I will send to him, which will do as well. 

W. Do as thou wilt, but I believe thou hadst better go thyself; for if ourmen fire first, I suppose he will be in a great wrath, and it may be atthee; for, as to his wrath at us, we tell thee beforehand we value it not. 

D. You slight them too much; you know not what they may do. 

W. Thou makest as if these poor savage wretches could do mighty things:prithee, let us see what you can all do, we value it not; thou mayest setdown thy flag of truce when thou pleasest, and begin. 

D. I had rather make a truce, and have you all part friends. 

W. Thou art a deceitful rogue thyself, for it is plain thou knowest thesepeople would only persuade us on shore to entrap and surprise us; and yetthou that art a Christian, as thou callest thyself, would have us come onshore and put our lives into their hands who know nothing that belongs tocompassion, good usage, or good manners. How canst thou be such a villain?

D. How can you call me so? What have I done to you, and what would you haveme do?

W. Not act like a traitor, but like one that was once a Christian, andwould have been so still, if you had not been a Dutchman. 

D. I know not what to do, not I. I wish I were from them; they are a bloodypeople. 

W. Prithee, make no difficulty of what thou shouldst do. Canst thou swim?

D. Yes, I can swim; but if I should attempt to swim off to you, I shouldhave a thousand arrows and javelins sticking in me before I should get toyour boat. 

W. I'll bring the boat close to thee, and take thee on board in spite ofthem all. We will give them but one volley, and I'll engage they will allrun away from thee. 

D. You are mistaken in them, I assure you; they would immediately come allrunning down to the shore, and shoot fire-arrows at you, and set your boatand ship and all on fire about your ears. 

W. We will venture that if thou wilt come off. 

D. Will you use me honourably when I am among you?

W. I'll give thee my word for it, if thou provest honest. 

D. Will you not make me a prisoner?

W. I will be thy surety, body for body, that thou shalt be a free man, andgo whither thou wilt, though I own to thee thou dost not deserve it. 

Just at this time our ship fired three guns to answer the sloop and let herknow we saw her, who immediately, we perceived, understood it, and stooddirectly for the place. But it is impossible to express the confusion andfilthy vile noise, the hurry and universal disorder, that was among thatvast multitude of people upon our firing off three guns. They immediatelyall repaired to their arms, as I may call it; for to say they putthemselves into order would be saying nothing. 

Upon the word of command, then, they advanced all in a body to the seaside, and resolving to give us one volley of their fire-arms (for such theywere), immediately they saluted us with a hundred thousand of theirfire-arrows, every one carrying a little bag of cloth dipped in brimstone, or some such thing, which, flying through the air, had nothing to hinder ittaking fire as it flew, and it generally did so. 

I cannot say but this method of attacking us, by a way we had no notion of, might give us at first some little surprise, for the number was so great atfirst, that we were not altogether without apprehensions that they mightunluckily set our ship on fire, so that William resolved immediately to rowon board, and persuade us all to weigh and stand out to sea; but there wasno time for it, for they immediately let fly a volley at the boat, and atthe ship, from all parts of the vast crowd of people which stood near theshore. Nor did they fire, as I may call it, all at once, and so leave off;but their arrows being soon notched upon their bows, they kept continuallyshooting, so that the air was full of flame. 

I could not say whether they set their cotton rag on fire before they shotthe arrow, for I did not perceive they had fire with them, which, however, it seems they had. The arrow, besides the fire it carried with it, had ahead, or a peg, as we call it, of bone; and some of sharp flint stone; andsome few of a metal, too soft in itself for metal, but hard enough to causeit to enter, if it were a plank, so as to stick where it fell. 

William and his men had notice sufficient to lie close behind theirwaste-boards, which, for this very purpose, they had made so high that theycould easily sink themselves behind them, so as to defend themselves fromanything that came point-blank (as we call it) or upon a line; but for whatmight fall perpendicularly out of the air they had no guard, but took thehazard of that. At first they made as if they would row away, but beforethey went they gave a volley of their fire-arms, firing at those whichstood with the Dutchman; but William ordered them to be sure to take theiraim at others, so as to miss him, and they did so. 

There was no calling to them now, for the noise was so great among themthat they could hear nobody, but our men boldly rowed in nearer to them, for they were at first driven a little off, and when they came nearer, theyfired a second volley, which put the fellows into great confusion, and wecould see from the ship that several of them were killed or wounded. 

We thought this was a very unequal fight, and therefore we made a signal toour men to row away, that we might have a little of the sport as well asthey; but the arrows flew so thick upon them, being so near the shore, thatthey could not sit to their oars, so they spread a little of their sail, thinking they might sail along the shore, and lie behind their waste-board;but the sail had not been spread six minutes till it had five hundredfire-arrows shot into it and through it, and at length set it fairly onfire; nor were our men quite out of the danger of its setting the boat onfire, and this made them paddle and shove the boat away as well as theycould, as they lay, to get farther off. 

By this time they had left us a fair mark at the whole savage army; and aswe had sheered the ship as near to them as we could, we fired among thethickest of them six or seven times, five guns at a time, with shot, oldiron, musket-bullets, &c. 

We could easily see that we made havoc among them, and killed and woundedabundance of them, and that they were in a great surprise at it; but yetthey never offered to stir, and all this while their fire-arrows flew asthick as before. 

At last, on a sudden their arrows stopped, and the old Dutchman camerunning down to the water-side all alone, with his white flag, as before, waving it as high as he could, and making signals to our boat to come tohim again. 

William did not care at first to go near him, but the man continuing tomake signals to him to come, at last William went; and the Dutchman toldhim that he had been with the general, who was much mollified by theslaughter of his men, and that now he could have anything of him. 

"Anything!" says William; "what have we to do with him? Let him go abouthis business, and carry his men out of gunshot, can't he?"

"Why, " says the Dutchman, "but he dares not stir, nor see the king's face;unless some of your men come on shore, he will certainly put him to death. "

"Why, then, " says William, "he is a dead man; for if it were to save hislife, and the lives of all the crowd that is with him, he shall never haveone of us in his power. But I'll tell thee, " said William, "how thou shaltcheat him, and gain thy own liberty too, if thou hast any mind to see thyown country again, and art not turned savage, and grown fond of living allthy days among heathens and savages. "

"I would be glad to do it with all my heart, " says he; "but if I shouldoffer to swim off to you now, though they are so far from me, they shoot sotrue that they would kill me before I got half-way. "

"But, " says William, "I'll tell thee how thou shalt come with his consent. Go to him, and tell him I have offered to carry you on board, to try if youcould persuade the captain to come on shore, and that I would not hinderhim if he was willing to venture. "

The Dutchman seemed in a rapture at the very first word. "I'll do it, " sayshe; "I am persuaded he will give me leave to come. "

Away he runs, as if he had a glad message to carry, and tells the generalthat William had promised, if he would go on board the ship with him, hewould persuade the captain to return with him. The general was fool enoughto give him orders to go, and charged him not to come back without thecaptain; which he readily promised, and very honestly might. 

So they took him in, and brought him on board, and he was as good as hisword to them, for he never went back to them any more; and the sloop beingcome to the mouth of the inlet where we lay, we weighed and set sail; but, as we went out, being pretty near the shore, we fired three guns, as itwere among them, but without any shot, for it was of no use to us to hurtany more of them. After we had fired, we gave them a cheer, as the seamencall it; that is to say, we hallooed, at them, by way of triumph, and socarried off their ambassador. How it fared with their general, we knownothing of that. 

This passage, when I related it to a friend of mine, after my return fromthose rambles, agreed so well with his relation of what happened to one MrKnox, an English captain, who some time ago was decoyed on shore by thesepeople, that it could not but be very much to my satisfaction to think whatmischief we had all escaped; and I think it cannot but be very profitableto record the other story (which is but short) with my own, to show whoeverreads this what it was I avoided, and prevent their falling into the like, if they have to do with the perfidious people of Ceylon. The relation is asfollows:--

The island of Ceylon being inhabited for the greatest part by barbarians, which will not allow any trade or commerce with any European nation, andinaccessible by any travellers, it will be convenient to relate theoccasion how the author of this story happened to go into this island, andwhat opportunities he had of being fully acquainted with the people, theirlaws and customs, that so we may the better depend upon the account, andvalue it as it deserves, for the rarity as well as the truth of it; andboth these the author gives us a brief relation of in this manner. Hiswords are as follows:

In the year 1657, the _Anne_ frigate, of London, Captain Robert Knox, commander, on the 21st day of January, set sail out of the Downs, in theservice of the honourable East India Company of England, bound for Fort StGeorge, upon the coast of Coromandel, to trade for one year from port toport in India; which having performed, as he was lading his goods to returnfor England, being in the road of Masulipatam, on the 19th of November1659, there happened such a mighty storm, that in it several ships werecast away, and he was forced to cut his mainmast by the board, which sodisabled the ship, that he could not proceed in his voyage; whereuponCottiar, in the island of Ceylon, being a very commodious bay, fit for herpresent distress, Thomas Chambers, Esq. , since Sir Thomas Chambers, theagent at Fort St George, ordered that the ship should take in some clothand India merchants belonging to Porto Novo, who might trade there whileshe lay to set her mast, and repair the other damages sustained by thestorm. At her first coming thither, after the Indian merchants were setashore, the captain and his men were very jealous of the people of thatplace, by reason the English never had any commerce or dealing with them;but after they had been there twenty days, going ashore and returning againat pleasure, without any molestation, they began to lay aside allsuspicious thoughts of the people that dwelt thereabouts, who had kindlyentertained them for their money. 

By this time the king of the country had notice of their arrival, and, notbeing acquainted with their intents, he sent down a dissauva, or general, with an army, to them, who immediately sent a messenger to the captain onboard, to desire him to come ashore to him, pretending a letter from theking. The captain saluted the message with firing of guns, and ordered hisson, Robert Knox, and Mr John Loveland, merchant of the ship, to go ashore, and wait on him. When they were come before him, he demanded who they were, and how long they should stay. They told him they were Englishmen, and notto stay above twenty or thirty days, and desired permission to trade in hisMajesty's port. His answer was, that the king was glad to hear the Englishwere come into his country, and had commanded him to assist them as theyshould desire, and had sent a letter to be delivered to none but thecaptain himself. They were then twelve miles from the seaside, andtherefore replied, that the captain could not leave his ship to come sofar; but if he pleased to go down to the seaside, the captain would wait onhim to receive the letter; whereupon the dissauva desired them to stay thatday, and on the morrow he would go with them; which, rather than displeasehim in so small a matter, they consented to. In the evening the dissauvasent a present to the captain of cattle and fruits, &c. , which, beingcarried all night by the messengers, was delivered to him in the morning, who told him withal that his men were coming down with the dissauva, anddesired his company on shore against his coming, having a letter from theking to deliver into his own hand. The captain, mistrusting nothing, cameon shore with his boat, and, sitting under a tamarind tree, waited for thedissauva. In the meantime the native soldiers privately surrounded him andthe seven men he had with him, and seizing them, carried them to meet thedissauva, bearing the captain on a hammock on their shoulders. 

The next day the long-boat's crew, not knowing what had happened, came onshore to cut down a tree to make cheeks for the mainmast, and were madeprisoners after the same manner, though with more violence, because theywere more rough with them, and made resistance; yet they were not broughtto the captain and his company, but quartered in another house in the sametown. 

The dissauva having thus gotten two boats and eighteen men, his next carewas to gain the ship; and to that end, telling the captain that he and hismen were only detained because the king intended to send letters and apresent to the English nation by him, desired he would send some men onboard his ship to order her to stay; and because the ship was in danger ofbeing fired by the Dutch if she stayed long in the bay, to bring her up theriver. The captain did not approve of the advice, but did not dare to ownhis dislike; so he sent his son with the order, but with a solemnconjuration to return again, which he accordingly did, bringing a letterfrom the company in the ship, that they would not obey the captain, nor anyother, in this matter, but were resolved to stand on their own defence. This letter satisfied the dissauva, who thereupon gave the captain leave towrite for what he would have brought from the ship, pretending that he hadnot the king's order to release them, though it would suddenly come. 

The captain seeing he was held in suspense, and the season of the yearspending for the ship to proceed on her voyage to some place, sent order toMr John Burford, the chief mate, to take charge of the ship, and set sailto Porto Novo, from whence they came, and there to follow the agent'sorder. 

And now began that long and sad captivity they all along feared. The shipbeing gone, the dissauva was called up to the king, and they were keptunder guards a while, till a special order came from the king to part them, and put one in a town, for the conveniency of their maintenance, which theking ordered to be at the charge of the country. On September 16, 1660, thecaptain and his son were placed in a town called Bonder Coswat, in thecountry of Hotcurly [? Hewarrisse Korle], distant from the city of Kandynorthward thirty miles, and from the rest of the English a full day'sjourney. Here they had their provisions brought them twice a day, withoutmoney, as much as they could eat, and as good as the country yielded. Thesituation of the place was very pleasant and commodious; but that year thatpart of the land was very sickly by agues and fevers, of which many died. The captain and his son after some time were visited with the commondistemper, and the captain, being also loaded with grief for his deplorablecondition, languished more than three months, and then died, February 9, 1661. 

Robert Knox, his son, was now left desolate, sick, and in captivity, havingnone to comfort him but God, who is the Father of the fatherless, and hearsthe groans of such as are in captivity; being alone to enter upon a longscene of misery and calamity; oppressed with weakness of body and grief ofsoul for the loss of his father, and the remediless trouble that he waslike to endure; and the first instance of it was in the burial of hisfather, for he sent his black boy to the people of the town, to desiretheir assistance, because they understood not their language; but they senthim only a rope, to drag him by the neck into the woods, and told him thatthey would offer him no other help, unless he would pay for it. Thisbarbarous answer increased his trouble for his father's death, that now hewas like to lie unburied, and be made a prey to the wild beasts in thewoods; for the ground was very hard, and they had not tools to dig with, and so it was impossible for them to bury him; and having a small matter ofmoney left him, viz. , a pagoda and a gold ring, he hired a man, and soburied him in as decent a manner as their condition would permit. 

His dead father being thus removed out of his sight, but his aguecontinuing, he was reduced very low, partly by sorrow and partly by hisdisease. All the comfort he had was to go into the wood and fields with abook, either the "Practice of Piety" or Mr Rogers's "Seven Treatises, "which were the only two books he had, and meditate and read, and sometimespray; in which his anguish made him often invert Elijah's petition, --thathe might die, because his life was a burden to him. God, though He waspleased to prolong his life, yet He found a way to lighten his grief, byremoving his ague, and granting him a desire which above all things wasacceptable to him. He had read his two books over so often that he had bothalmost by heart; and though they were both pious and good writings, yet helonged for the truth from the original fountain, and thought it hisgreatest unhappiness that he had not a Bible, and did believe that heshould never see one again; but, contrary to his expectation, God broughthim one after this manner. As he was fishing one day with his black boy, tocatch some fish to relieve his hunger, an old man passed by them, and askedhis boy whether his master could read; and when the boy had answered yes, he told him that he had gotten a book from the Portuguese, when they leftColombo; and, if his master pleased, he would sell it him. The boy told hismaster, who bade him go and see what book it was. The boy having served theEnglish some time, knew the book, and as soon as he got it into his hand, came running to him, calling out before he came to him, "It is the Bible!"The words startled him, and he flung down his angle to meet him, and, finding it was true, was mightily rejoiced to see it; but he was afraid heshould not have enough to purchase it, though he was resolved to part withall the money he had, which was but one pagoda, to buy it; but his blackboy persuading him to slight it, and leave it to him to buy it, he atlength obtained it for a knit cap. 

This accident he could not but look upon as a great miracle, that Godshould bestow upon him such an extraordinary blessing, and bring him aBible in his own native language, in such a remote part of the world, whereHis name was not known, and where it was never heard of that an Englishmanhad ever been before. The enjoyment of this mercy was a great comfort tohim in captivity, and though he wanted no bodily convenience that thecountry did afford; for the king, immediately after his father's death, hadsent an express order to the people of the towns, that they should be kindto him, and give him good victuals; and after he had been some time in thecountry, and understood the language, he got him good conveniences, as ahouse and gardens; and falling to husbandry, God so prospered him, that hehad plenty, not only for himself, but to lend others; which being, according to the custom of the country, at 50 per cent. A year, muchenriched him: he had also goats, which served him for mutton, and hogs andhens. Notwithstanding this, I say, for he lived as fine as any of theirnoblemen, he could not so far forget his native country as to be contentedto dwell in a strange land, where there was to him a famine of God's wordand sacraments, the want of which made all other things to be of littlevalue to him; therefore, as he made it his daily and fervent prayer to God, in His good time, to restore him to both, so, at length, he, with oneStephen Rutland, who had lived with him two years before, resolved to maketheir escape, and, about the year 1673, meditated all secret ways tocompass it. They had before taken up a way of peddling about the country, and buying tobacco, pepper, garlic, combs, and all sorts of iron ware, andcarried them into those parts of the country where they wanted them; andnow, to promote their design, as they went with their commodities fromplace to place, they discoursed with the country people (for they could nowspeak their language well) concerning the ways and inhabitants, where theisle was thinnest and fullest inhabited, where and how the watches lay fromone country to another, and what commodities were proper for them to carryinto all parts; pretending that they would furnish themselves with suchwares as the respective places wanted. None doubted but what they did wasupon the account of trade, because Mr Knox was so well seated, and couldnot be supposed to leave such an estate, by travelling northward, becausethat part of the land was least inhabited; and so, furnishing themselveswith such wares as were vendible in those parts, they set forth, andsteered their course towards the north part of the islands, knowing verylittle of the ways, which were generally intricate and perplexed, becausethey have no public roads, but a multitude of little paths from one town toanother, and those often changing; and for white men to inquire about theways was very dangerous, because the people would presently suspect theirdesign. 

At this time they travelled from Conde Uda as far as the country ofNuwarakalawiya, which is the furthermost part of the king's dominions, andabout three days' journey from their dwelling. They were very thankful toProvidence that they had passed all difficulties so far, but yet they durstnot go any farther, because they had no wares left to traffic with; and itbeing the first time they had been absent so long from home, they fearedthe townsmen would come after them to seek for them; and so they returnedhome, and went eight or ten times into those parts with their wares, tillthey became well acquainted both with the people and the paths. 

In these parts Mr Knox met his black boy, whom he had turned away diversyears before. He had now got a wife and children, and was very poor; butbeing acquainted with these quarters, he not only took directions of him, but agreed with him, for a good reward, to conduct him and his companionsto the Dutch. He gladly undertook it, and a time was appointed betweenthem; but Mr Knox being disabled by a grievous pain, which seized him onhis right side, and held him five days that he could not travel, thisappointment proved in vain; for though he went as soon as he was well, hisguide was gone into another country about his business, and they durst notat that time venture to run away without him. 

These attempts took up eight or nine years, various accidents hinderingtheir designs, but most commonly the dry weather, because they feared inthe woods they should be starved with thirst, all the country being in sucha condition almost four or five years together for lack of rain. 

On September 22, 1679, they set forth again, furnished with knives andsmall axes for their defence, because they could carry them privately andsend all sorts of wares to sell as formerly, and all necessary provisions, the moon being twenty-seven days old, that they might have light to runaway by, to try what success God Almighty would now give them in seekingtheir liberty. Their first stage was to Anuradhapoora, in the way to whichlay a wilderness, called Parraoth Mocolane, full of wild elephants, tigers, and bears; and because it is the utmost confines of the king's dominions, there is always a watch kept. 

In the middle of the way they heard that the governor's officers of theseparts were out to gather up the king's revenues and duties, to send them upto the city; which put them into no small fear, lest, finding them, theyshould send them back again; whereupon they withdrew to the western partsof Ecpoulpot, and sat down to knitting till they heard the officers weregone. As soon as they were departed, they went onwards of their journey, having got a good parcel of cotton-yarn to knit caps with, and having kepttheir wares, as they pretended, to exchange for dried flesh, which was soldonly in those lower parts. Their way lay necessarily through the governor'syard at Kalluvilla, who dwells there on purpose to examine all that go andcome. This greatly distressed them, because he would easily suspect theywere out of their bounds, being captives; however, they went resolutely tohis house, and meeting him, presented him with a small parcel of tobaccoand betel; and, showing him their wares, told him they came to get driedflesh to carry back with them. The governor did not suspect them, but toldthem he was sorry they came in so dry a time, when no deer were to becatched, but if some rain fell, he would soon supply them. This answerpleased them, and they seemed contented to stay; and accordingly, abidingwith him two or three days, and no rain falling, they presented thegovernor with five or six charges of gunpowder, which is a rarity amongthem; and leaving a bundle at his house, they desired him to shoot themsome deer, while they made a step to Anuradhapoora. Here also they were putin a great fright by the coming of certain soldiers from the king to thegovernor, to give him orders to set a secure guard at the watches, that nosuspicious persons might pass, which, though it was only intended toprevent the flight of the relations of certain nobles whom the king hadclapped up, yet they feared they might wonder to see white men here, and sosend them back again; but God so ordered it that they were very kind tothem and left them to their business, and so they got safe toAnuradhapoora. Their pretence was dried flesh, though they knew there wasnone to be had; but their real business was to search the way down to theDutch, which they stayed three days to do; but finding that in the way toJaffnapatam, which is one of the Dutch ports, there was a watch which couldhardly be passed, and other inconveniences not surmountable, they resolvedto go back, and take the river Malwatta Oya, which they had before judgedwould be a probable guide to lead them to the sea; and, that they might notbe pursued, left Anuradhapoora just at night, when the people never travelfor fear of wild beasts, on Sunday, October 12, being stored with allthings needful for their journey, viz. , ten days' provision, a basin toboil their provision in, two calabashes to fetch water in, and two greattallipat leaves for tents, with jaggery, sweetmeats, tobacco, betel, tinder-boxes, and a deerskin for shoes, to keep their feet from thorns, because to them they chiefly trusted. Being come to the river, they struckinto the woods, and kept by the side of it; yet not going on the sand (lesttheir footsteps should be discerned), unless forced, and then goingbackwards. 

Being gotten a good way into the wood, it began to rain; wherefore theyerected their tents, made a fire, and refreshed themselves against therising of the moon, which was then eighteen days old; and having tieddeerskins about their feet, and eased themselves of their wares, theyproceeded on their journey. When they had travelled three or four hourswith difficulty, because the moon gave but little light among the thicktrees, they found an elephant in their way before them, and because theycould not scare him away, they were forced to stay till morning; and sothey kindled a fire, and took a pipe of tobacco. By the light they couldnot discern that ever anybody had been there, nothing being to be seen butwoods; and so they were in great hopes that they were past all danger, being beyond all inhabitants; but they were mistaken, for the river windingnorthward, brought them into the midst of a parcel of towns, called TisseaWava, where, being in danger of being seen, they were under a mightyterror; for had the people found them, they would have beat them, and sentthem up to the king; and, to avoid it, they crept into a hollow tree, andsat there in mud and wet till it began to grow dark, and then betakingthemselves to their legs, travelled till the darkness of night stoppedthem. They heard voices behind them, and feared it was somebody in pursuitof them; but at length, discerning it was only an hallooing to keep thewild beasts out of the corn, they pitched their tents by the river, andhaving boiled rice and roasted meat for their suppers, and satisfied theirhunger, they committed themselves to God's keeping, and laid them down tosleep. 

The next morning, to prevent the worst, they got up early and hastened ontheir journey; and though they were now got out of all danger of the tameChiangulays, they were in great danger of the wild ones, of whom thosewoods were full; and though they saw their tents, yet they were all gone, since the rains had fallen, from the river into the woods; and so God keptthem from that danger, for, had they met the wild men, they had been shot. 

Thus they travelled from morning till night several days, through bushesand thorns, which made their arms and shoulders, which were naked, all of agore blood. They often met with bears, hogs, deer, and wild buffaloes; butthey all ran away as soon as they saw them. The river was exceedingly fullof alligators; in the evening they used to pitch their tents, and makegreat fires both before and behind them, to affright the wild beasts; andthough they heard the voices of all sorts, they saw none. 

On Thursday, at noon, they crossed the river Coronda [? Kannadera Oya], which parts the country of the Malabars from the king's, and on Friday, about nine or ten in the morning, came among the inhabitants, of whom theywere as much afraid as of the Chiangulays before; for, though theWanniounay, or prince of this people, payeth tribute to the Dutch out offear, yet he is better affected to the King of Kandy, and, if he had tookthem, would have sent them up to their old master; but not knowing any wayto escape, they kept on their journey by the river-side by day, because thewoods were not to be travelled by night for thorns and wild beasts, whocame down then to the river to drink. In all the Malabar country they metwith only two Brahmins, who treated them very civilly; and for their money, one of them conducted them till they came into the territories of theDutch, and out of all danger of the King of Kandy, which did not a littlerejoice them; but yet they were in no small trouble how to find the way outof the woods, till a Malabar, for the lucre of a knife, conducted them to aDutch town, where they found guides to conduct them from town to town, tillthey came to the fort called Aripo, where they arrived Saturday, October18, 1679, and there thankfully adored God's wonderful providence, in thuscompleting their deliverance from a long captivity of nineteen years andsix months. 

I come now back to my own history, which grows near a conclusion, as to thetravels I took in this part of the world. We were now at sea, and we stoodaway to the north for a while, to try if we could get a market for ourspice, for we were very rich in nutmegs, but we ill knew what to do withthem; we durst not go upon the English coast, or, to speak more properly, among the English factories to trade; not that we were afraid to fight anytwo ships they had, and, besides that, we knew that, as they had no lettersof marque, or of reprisals from the government, so it was none of theirbusiness to act offensively, no, not though we were pirates. Indeed, if wehad made any attempt upon them, they might have justified themselves injoining together to resist, and assisting one another to defend themselves;but to go out of their business to attack a pirate ship of almost fiftyguns, as we were, it was plain that it was none of their business, andconsequently it was none of our concern, so we did not trouble ourselvesabout it; but, on the other hand, it was none of our business to be seenamong them, and to have the news of us carried from one factory to another, so that whatever design we might be upon at another time, we should be sureto be prevented and discovered. Much less had we any occasion to be seenamong any of the Dutch factories upon the coast of Malabar; for, beingfully laden with the spices which we had, in the sense of their trade, plundered them of, it would have told them what we were, and all that wehad been doing; and they would, no doubt, have concerned themselves allmanner of ways to have fallen upon us. 

The only way we had for it was to stand away for Goa, and trade, if wecould, for our spices, with the Portuguese factory there. Accordingly, wesailed almost thither, for we had made land two days before, and being inthe latitude of Goa, were standing in fair for Margaon, on the head ofSalsat, at the going up to Goa, when I called to the men at the helm tobring the ship to, and bid the pilot go away N. N. W. , till we came out ofsight of the shore, when William and I called a council, as we used to doupon emergencies, what course we should take to trade there and not bediscovered; and we concluded at length that we would not go thither at all, but that William, with such trusty fellows only as could be depended upon, should go in the sloop to Surat, which was still farther northward, andtrade there as merchants with such of the English factory as they couldfind to be for their turn. 

To carry this with the more caution, and so as not to be suspected, weagreed to take out all her guns, and put such men into her, and no other, as would promise us not to desire or offer to go on shore, or to enter intoany talk or conversation with any that might come on board; and, to finishthe disguise to our mind, William documented two of our men, one a surgeon, as he himself was, and the other, a ready-witted fellow, an old sailor, that had been a pilot upon the coast of New England, and was an excellentmimic; these two William dressed up like two Quakers, and made them talklike such. The old pilot he made go captain of the sloop, and the surgeonfor doctor, as he was, and himself supercargo. In this figure, and thesloop all plain, no curled work upon her (indeed she had not much before), and no guns to be seen, away he went for Surat. 

I should, indeed, have observed, that we went, some days before we parted, to a small sandy island close under the shore, where there was a good coveof deep water, like a road, and out of sight of any of the factories, whichare here very thick upon the coast. Here we shifted the loading of thesloop, and put into her such things only as we had a mind to dispose ofthere, which was indeed little but nutmegs and cloves, but chiefly theformer; and from thence William and his two Quakers, with about eighteenmen in the sloop, went away to Surat, and came to an anchor at a distancefrom the factory. 

William used such caution that he found means to go on shore himself, andthe doctor, as he called him, in a boat which came on board them to sellfish, rowed with only Indians of the country, which boat he afterwardshired to carry him on board again. It was not long that they were on shore, but that they found means to get acquaintance with some Englishmen, who, though they lived there, and perhaps were the company's servants at first, yet appeared then to be traders for themselves, in whatever coast businessespecially came in their way; and the doctor was made the first to pickacquaintance; so he recommended his friend, the supercargo, till, bydegrees, the merchants were as fond of the bargain as our men were of themerchants, only that the cargo was a little too much for them. 

However, this did not prove a difficulty long with them, for the next daythey brought two more merchants, English also, into their bargain, and, asWilliam could perceive by their discourse, they resolved, if they boughtthem, to carry them to the Gulf of Persia upon their own accounts. Williamtook the hint, and, as he told me afterwards, concluded we might carry themthere as well as they. But this was not William's present business; he hadhere no less than three-and-thirty ton of nuts and eighteen ton of cloves. There was a good quantity of mace among the nutmegs, but we did not standto make much allowance. In short, they bargained, and the merchants, whowould gladly have bought sloop and all, gave William directions, and twomen for pilots, to go to a creek about six leagues from the factory, wherethey brought boats, and unloaded the whole cargo, and paid William veryhonestly for it; the whole parcel amounting, in money, to about thirty-fivethousand pieces of eight, besides some goods of value, which William wascontent to take, and two large diamonds, worth about three hundred poundssterling. 

When they paid the money, William invited them on board the sloop, wherethey came; and the merry old Quaker diverted them exceedingly with histalk, and "thee'd" them and "thou'd" them till he made them so drunk thatthey could not go on shore for that night. 

They would fain have known who our people were, and whence they came; butnot a man in the sloop would answer them to any question they asked, but insuch a manner as let them think themselves bantered and jested with. However, in discourse, William said they were able men for any cargo wecould have brought them, and that they would have bought twice as muchspice if we had had it. He ordered the merry captain to tell them that theyhad another sloop that lay at Margaon, and that had a great quantity ofspice on board also; and that, if it was not sold when he went back (forthat thither he was bound), he would bring her up. 

Their new chaps were so eager, that they would have bargained with the oldcaptain beforehand. "Nay, friend, " said he, "I will not trade with theeunsight and unseen; neither do I know whether the master of the sloop maynot have sold his loading already to some merchants of Salsat; but if hehas not when I come to him, I think to bring him up to thee. "

The doctor had his employment all this while, as well as William and theold captain, for he went on shore several times a day in the Indian boat, and brought fresh provisions for the sloop, which the men had need enoughof. He brought, in particular, seventeen large casks of arrack, as big asbutts, besides smaller quantities, a quantity of rice, and abundance offruits, mangoes, pompions, and such things, with fowls and fish. He nevercame on board but he was deep laden; for, in short, he bought for the shipas well as for themselves; and, particularly, they half-loaded the shipwith rice and arrack, with some hogs, and six or seven cows, alive; andthus, being well victualled, and having directions for coming again, theyreturned to us. 

William was always the lucky welcome messenger to us, but never morewelcome to us than now; for where we had thrust in the ship, we could getnothing, except a few mangoes and roots, being not willing to make anysteps into the country, or make ourselves known till we had news of oursloop; and indeed our men's patience was almost tired, for it was seventeendays that William spent upon this enterprise, and well bestowed too. 

When he came back we had another conference upon the subject of trade, namely, whether we should send the best of our spices, and other goods wehad in the ship, to Surat, or whether we should go up to the Gulf of Persiaourselves, where it was probable we might sell them as well as the Englishmerchants of Surat. William was for going ourselves, which, by the way, wasfrom the good, frugal, merchant-like temper of the man, who was for thebest of everything; but here I overruled William, which I very seldom tookupon me to do; but I told him, that, considering our circumstances, it wasmuch better for us to sell all our cargoes here, though we made buthalf-price of them, than to go with them to the Gulf of Persia, where weshould run a greater risk, and where people would be much more curious andinquisitive into things than they were here, and where it would not be soeasy to manage them, seeing they traded freely and openly there, not bystealth, as those men seemed to do; and, besides, if they suspectedanything, it would be much more difficult for us to retreat, except by mereforce, than here, where we were upon the high sea as it were, and could begone whenever we pleased, without any disguise, or, indeed, without theleast appearance of being pursued, none knowing where to look for us. 

My apprehensions prevailed with William, whether my reasons did or no, andhe submitted; and we resolved to try another ship's loading to the samemerchants. The main business was to consider how to get off thatcircumstance that had exposed them to the English merchants, namely that itwas our other sloop; but this the old Quaker pilot undertook; for being, asI said, an excellent mimic himself, it was the easier for him to dress upthe sloop in new clothes; and first, he put on all the carved work he hadtaken off before; her stern, which was painted of a dumb white or duncolour before, all flat, was now all lacquered and blue, and I know not howmany gay figures in it; as to her quarter, the carpenters made her a neatlittle gallery on either side; she had twelve guns put into her, and somepetereroes upon her gunnel, none of which were there before; and to finishher new habit or appearance, and make her change complete, he ordered hersails to be altered; and as she sailed before with a half-sprit, like ayacht, she sailed now with square-sail and mizzen-mast, like a ketch; sothat, in a word, she was a perfect cheat, disguised in everything that astranger could be supposed to take any notice of that had never had but oneview, for they had been but once on board. 

In this mean figure the sloop returned; she had a new man put into her forcaptain, one we knew how to trust; and the old pilot appearing only as apassenger, the doctor and William acting as the supercargoes, by a formalprocuration from one Captain Singleton, and all things ordered in form. 

We had a complete loading for the sloop; for, besides a very great quantityof nutmegs and cloves, mace, and some cinnamon, she had on board some goodswhich we took in as we lay about the Philippine Islands, while we waited aslooking for purchase. 

William made no difficulty of selling this cargo also, and in about twentydays returned again, freighted with all necessary provisions for ourvoyage, and for a long time; and, as I say, we had a great deal of othergoods: he brought us back about three-and-thirty thousand pieces of eight, and some diamonds, which, though William did not pretend to much skill in, yet he made shift to act so as not to be imposed upon, the merchants he hadto deal with, too, being very fair men. 

They had no difficulty at all with these merchants, for the prospect theyhad of gain made them not at all inquisitive, nor did they make the leastdiscovery of the sloop; and as to the selling them spices which werefetched so far from thence, it seems it was not so much a novelty there aswe believed, for the Portuguese had frequently vessels which came fromMacao in China, who brought spices, which they bought of the Chinesetraders, who again frequently dealt among the Dutch Spice Islands, andreceived spices in exchange for such goods as they carried from China. 

This might be called, indeed, the only trading voyage we had made; and nowwe were really very rich, and it came now naturally before us to considerwhither we should go next. Our proper delivery port, as we ought to havecalled it, was at Madagascar, in the Bay of Mangahelly; but William took meby myself into the cabin of the sloop one day, and told me he wanted totalk seriously with me a little; so we shut ourselves in, and William beganwith me. 

"Wilt thou give me leave, " says William, "to talk plainly with thee uponthy present circumstances, and thy future prospect of living? and wilt thoupromise, on thy word, to take nothing ill of me?"

"With all my heart, " said I. "William, I have always found your advicegood, and your designs have not only been well laid, but your counsel hasbeen very lucky to us; and, therefore, say what you will, I promise you Iwill not take it ill. "

"But that is not all my demand, " says William; "if thou dost not like whatI am going to propose to thee, thou shalt promise me not to make it publicamong the men. "

"I will not, William, " says I, "upon my word;" and swore to him, too, veryheartily. 

"Why, then, " says William, "I have but one thing more to article with theeabout, and that is, that thou wilt consent that if thou dost not approve ofit for thyself, thou wilt yet consent that I shall put so much of it inpractice as relates to myself and my new comrade doctor, so that it benothing to thy detriment and loss. "

"In anything, " says I, "William, but leaving me, I will; but I cannot partwith you upon any terms whatever. "

"Well, " says William, "I am not designing to part from thee, unless it isthy own doing. But assure me in all these points, and I will tell my mindfreely. "

So I promised him everything he desired of me in the solemnest mannerpossible, and so seriously and frankly withal, that William made no scrupleto open his mind to me. 

"Why, then, in the first place, " says William, "shall I ask thee if thoudost not think thou and all thy men are rich enough, and have really gottenas much wealth together (by whatsoever way it has been gotten, that is notthe question) as we all know what to do with?"

"Why, truly, William, " said I, "thou art pretty right; I think we have hadpretty good luck. "

"Well, then, " says William, "I would ask whether, if thou hast gottenenough, thou hast any thought of leaving off this trade; for most peopleleave off trading when they are satisfied of getting, and are rich enough;for nobody trades for the sake of trading; much less do men rob for thesake of thieving. "

"Well, William, " says I, "now I perceive what it is thou art driving at. Iwarrant you, " says I, "you begin to hanker after home. "

"Why, truly, " says William, "thou hast said it, and so I hope thou dosttoo. It is natural for most men that are abroad to desire to come homeagain at last, especially when they are grown rich, and when they are (asthou ownest thyself to be) rich enough, and so rich as they know not whatto do with more if they had it. "

"Well, William, " said I, "but now you think you have laid your preliminaryat first so home that I should have nothing to say; that is, that when Ihad got money enough, it would be natural to think of going home. But youhave not explained what you mean by home, and there you and I shall differ. Why, man, I am at home; here is my habitation; I never had any other in mylifetime; I was a kind of charity school boy; so that I can have no desireof going anywhere for being rich or poor, for I have nowhere to go. "

"Why, " says William, looking a little confused, "art not thou anEnglishman?"

"Yes, " says I, "I think so: you see I speak English; but I came out ofEngland a child, and never was in it but once since I was a man; and then Iwas cheated and imposed upon, and used so ill that I care not if I neversee it more. "

"Why, hast thou no relations or friends there?" says he; "no acquaintance--none that thou hast any kindness or any remains of respect for?"

"Not I, William, " said I; "no more than I have in the court of the GeatMogul. "

"Nor any kindness for the country where thou wast born?" says William. 

"Not I, any more than for the island of Madagascar, nor so much neither;for that has been a fortunate island to me more than once, as thou knowest, William, " said I. 

William was quite stunned at my discourse, and held his peace; and I saidto him, "Go on, William; what hast thou to say farther? for I hear you havesome project in your head, " says I; "come, let's have it out. "

"Nay, " says William, "thou hast put me to silence, and all I had to say isoverthrown; all my projects are come to nothing, and gone. "

"Well, but, William, " said I, "let me hear what they were; for though it isso that what I have to aim at does not look your way, and though I have norelation, no friend, no acquaintance in England, yet I do not say I likethis roving, cruising life so well as never to give it over. Let me hear ifthou canst propose to me anything beyond it. "

"Certainly, friend, " says William, very gravely, "there is something beyondit;" and lifting up his hands, he seemed very much affected, and I thoughtI saw tears stand in his eyes; but I, that was too hardened a wretch to bemoved with these things, laughed at him. "What!" says I, "you mean death, Iwarrant you: don't you? That is beyond this trade. Why, when it comes, itcomes; then we are all provided for. "

"Ay, " says William, "that is true; but it would be better that some thingswere thought on before that came. "

"Thought on!" says I; "what signifies thinking of it? To think of death isto die, and to be always thinking of it is to be all one's life longa-dying. It is time enough to think of it when it comes. "

You will easily believe I was well qualified for a pirate that could talkthus. But let me leave it upon record, for the remark of other hardenedrogues like myself, --my conscience gave me a pang that I never felt beforewhen I said, "What signifies thinking of it?" and told me I should one daythink of these words with a sad heart; but the time of my reflection wasnot yet come; so I went on. 

Says William very seriously, "I must tell thee, friend, I am sorry to hearthee talk so. They that never think of dying, often die without thinking ofit. "

I carried on the jesting way a while farther, and said, "Prithee, do nottalk of dying; how do we know we shall ever die?" and began to laugh. 

"I need not answer thee to that, " says William; "it is not my place toreprove thee, who art commander over me here; but I would rather thouwouldst talk otherwise of death; it is a coarse thing. "

"Say anything to me, William, " said I; "I will take it kindly. " I began nowto be very much moved at his discourse. 

Says William (tears running down his face), "It is because men live as ifthey were never to die, that so many die before they know how to live. Butit was not death that I meant when I said that there was something to bethought of beyond this way of living. "

"Why, William, " said I, "what was that?"

"It was repentance, " says he. 

"Why, " says I, "did you ever know a pirate repent?"

At this he startled a little, and returned, "At the gallows I have [known]one before, and I hope thou wilt be the second. "

He spoke this very affectionately, with an appearance of concern for me. 

"Well, William, " says I, "I thank you; and I am not so senseless of thesethings, perhaps, as I make myself seem to be. But come, let me hear yourproposal. "

"My proposal, " says William, "is for thy good as well as my own. We may putan end to this kind of life, and repent; and I think the fairest occasionoffers for both, at this very time, that ever did, or ever will, or, indeed, can happen again. "

"Look you, William, " says I; "let me have your proposal for putting an endto our present way of living first, for that is the case before us, and youand I will talk of the other afterwards. I am not so insensible, " said I, "as you may think me to be. But let us get out of this hellish condition weare in first. "

"Nay, " says William, "thou art in the right there; we must never talk ofrepenting while we continue pirates. "

"Well, " says I, "William, that's what I meant; for if we must not reform, as well as be sorry for what is done, I have no notion what repentancemeans; indeed, at best I know little of the matter; but the nature of thething seems to tell me that the first step we have to take is to break offthis wretched course; and I'll begin there with you, with all my heart. "

I could see by his countenance that William was thoroughly pleased with theoffer; and if he had tears in-his eyes before, he had more now; but it wasfrom quite a different passion; for he was so swallowed up with joy hecould not speak. 

"Come, William, " says I, "thou showest me plain enough thou hast an honestmeaning; dost thou think it practicable for us to put an end to our unhappyway of living here, and get off?"

"Yes, " says he, "I think it very practicable for me; whether it is for theeor no, that will depend upon thyself. "

"Well, " says I, "I give you my word, that as I have commanded you allalong, from the time I first took you on board, so you shall command mefrom this hour, and everything you direct me I'll do. "

"Wilt thou leave it all to me? Dost thou say this freely?"

"Yes, William, " said I, "freely; and I'll perform it faithfully. "

"Why, then, " says William, "my scheme is this: We are now at the mouth ofthe Gulf of Persia; we have sold so much of our cargo here at Surat, thatwe have money enough; send me away for Bassorah with the sloop, laden withthe China goods we have on board, which will make another good cargo, andI'll warrant thee I'll find means, among the English and Dutch merchantsthere, to lodge a quantity of goods and money also as a merchant, so as wewill be able to have recourse to it again upon any occasion, and when Icome home we will contrive the rest; and, in the meantime, do you bring theship's crew to take a resolution to go to Madagascar as soon as I return. "

I told him I thought he need not go so far as Bassorah, but might run intoGombroon, or to Ormuz, and pretend the same business. 

"No, " says he, "I cannot act with the same freedom there, because theCompany's factories are there, and I may be laid hold of there on pretenceof interloping. "

"Well, but, " said I, "you may go to Ormuz, then; for I am loth to part withyou so long as to go to the bottom of the Persian Gulf. " He returned, thatI should leave it to him to do as he should see cause. 

We had taken a large sum of money at Surat, so that we had near a hundredthousand pounds in money at our command, but on board the great ship we hadstill a great deal more. 

I ordered him publicly to keep the money on board which he had, and to buyup with it a quantity of ammunition, if he could get it, and so to furnishus for new exploits; and, in the meantime, I resolved to get a quantity ofgold and some jewels, which I had on board the great ship, and place themso that I might carry them off without notice as soon as he came back; andso, according to William's directions, I left him to go the voyage, and Iwent on board the great ship, in which we had indeed an immense treasure. 

We waited no less than two months for William's return, and indeed I beganto be very uneasy about William, sometimes thinking he had abandoned me, and that he might have used the same artifice to have engaged the other mento comply with him, and so they were gone away together; and it was butthree days before his return that I was just upon the point of resolving togo away to Madagascar, and give him over; but the old surgeon, who mimickedthe Quaker and passed for the master of the sloop at Surat, persuaded meagainst that, for which good advice and apparent faithfulness in what hehad been trusted with, I made him a party to my design, and he proved veryhonest. 

At length William came back, to our inexpressible joy, and brought a greatmany necessary things with him; as, particularly, he brought sixty barrelsof powder, some iron shot, and about thirty ton of lead; also he brought agreat deal of provisions; and, in a word, William gave me a public accountof his voyage, in the hearing of whoever happened to be upon thequarter-deck, that no suspicions might be found about us. 

After all was done, William moved that he might go up again, and that Iwould go with him; named several things which we had on board that he couldnot sell there; and, particularly, told us he had been obliged to leaveseveral things there, the caravans being not come in; and that he hadengaged to come back again with goods. 

This was what I wanted. The men were eager for his going, and particularlybecause he told them they might load the sloop back with rice andprovisions; but I seemed backward to going, when the old surgeon stood upand persuaded me to go, and with many arguments pressed me to it; as, particularly, if I did not go, there would be no order, and several of themen might drop away, and perhaps betray all the rest; and that they shouldnot think it safe for the sloop to go again if I did not go; and to urge meto it, he offered himself to go with me. 

Upon these considerations I seemed to be over-persuaded to go, and all thecompany seemed to be better satisfied when I had consented; and, accordingly, we took all the powder, lead, and iron out of the sloop intothe great ship, and all the other things that were for the ship's use, andput in some bales of spices and casks or frails of cloves, in all aboutseven ton, and some other goods, among the bales of which I had conveyedall my private treasure, which, I assure you, was of no small value, andaway I went. 

At going off I called a council of all the officers in the ship to considerin what place they should wait for me, and how long, and we appointed theship to stay eight-and-twenty days at a little island on the Arabian sideof the Gulf, and that, if the sloop did not come in that time, they shouldsail to another island to the west of that place, and wait there fifteendays more, and that then, if the sloop did not come, they should concludesome accident must have happened, and the rendezvous should be atMadagascar. 

Being thus resolved, we left the ship, which both William and I, and thesurgeon, never intended to see any more. We steered directly for the Gulf, and through to Bassorah, or Balsara. This city of Balsara lies at somedistance from the place where our sloop lay, and the river not being verysafe, and we but ill acquainted with it, having but an ordinary pilot, wewent on shore at a village where some merchants live, and which is verypopulous, for the sake of small vessels riding there. 

Here we stayed and traded three or four days, landing all our bales andspices, and indeed the whole cargo that was of any considerable value, which we chose to do rather than go up immediately to Balsara till theproject we had laid was put in execution. 

After we had bought several goods, and were preparing to buy severalothers, the boat being on shore with twelve men, myself, William, thesurgeon, and one fourth man, whom we had singled out, we contrived to senda Turk just at the dusk of the evening with a letter to the boatswain, andgiving the fellow a charge to run with all possible speed, we stood at asmall distance to observe the event. The contents of the letter were thuswritten by the old doctor:--

"BOATSWAIN THOMAS, --We are all betrayed. For God's sake make off with theboat, and get on board, or you are all lost. The captain, William theQuaker, and George the reformade are seized and carried away: I am escapedand hid, but cannot stir out; if I do I am a dead man. As soon as you areon board cut or slip, and make sail for your lives. Adieu. --R. S. "

We stood undiscovered, as above, it being the dusk of the evening, and sawthe Turk deliver the letter, and in three minutes we saw all the men hurryinto the boat and put off, and no sooner were they on board than they tookthe hint, as we supposed, for the next morning they were out of sight, andwe never heard tale or tidings of them since. 

We were now in a good place, and in very good circumstances, for we passedfor merchants of Persia. 

It is not material to record here what a mass of ill-gotten wealth we hadgot together: it will be more to the purpose to tell you that I began to besensible of the crime of getting of it in such a manner as I had done; thatI had very little satisfaction in the possession of it; and, as I toldWilliam, I had no expectation of keeping it, nor much desire; but, as Isaid to him one day walking out into the fields near the town of Bassorah, so I depended upon it that it would be the case, which you will hearpresently. 

We were perfectly secured at Bassorah, by having frighted away the rogues, our comrades; and we had nothing to do but to consider how to convert ourtreasure into things proper to make us look like merchants, as we were nowto be, and not like freebooters, as we really had been. 

We happened very opportunely here upon a Dutchman, who had travelled fromBengal to Agra, the capital city of the Great Mogul, and from thence wascome to the coast of Malabar by land, and got shipping, somehow or other, up the Gulf; and we found his design was to go up the great river to Bagdador Babylon, and so, by the caravan, to Aleppo and Scanderoon. As Williamspoke Dutch, and was of an agreeable, insinuating behaviour, he soon gotacquainted with this Dutchman, and discovering our circumstances to oneanother, we found he had considerable effects with him; and that he hadtraded long in that country, and was making homeward to his own country;and that he had servants with him; one an Armenian, whom he had taught tospeak Dutch, and who had something of his own, but had a mind to travelinto Europe; and the other a Dutch sailor, whom he had picked up by hisfancy, and reposed a great trust in him, and a very honest fellow he was. 

This Dutchman was very glad of an acquaintance, because he soon found thatwe directed our thoughts to Europe also; and as he found we were encumberedwith goods only (for we let him know nothing of our money), he readilyoffered us his assistance to dispose of as many of them as the place wewere in would put off, and his advice what to do with the rest. 

While this was doing, William and I consulted what to do with ourselves andwhat we had; and first, we resolved we would never talk seriously of ourmeasures but in the open fields, where we were sure nobody could hear; soevery evening, when the sun began to decline and the air to be moderate wewalked out, sometimes this way, sometimes that, to consult of our affairs. 

I should have observed that we had new clothed ourselves here, after thePersian manner, with long vests of silk, a gown or robe of English crimsoncloth, very fine and handsome, and had let our beards grow so after thePersian manner that we passed for Persian merchants, in view only, though, by the way, we could not understand or speak one word of the language ofPersia, or indeed of any other but English and Dutch; and of the latter Iunderstood very little. 

However, the Dutchman supplied all this for us; and as we had resolved tokeep ourselves as retired as we could, though there were several Englishmerchants upon the place, yet we never acquainted ourselves with one ofthem, or exchanged a word with them; by which means we prevented theirinquiry of us now, or their giving any intelligence of us, if any news ofour landing here should happen to come, which, it was easy for us to know, was possible enough, if any of our comrades fell into bad hands, or by manyaccidents which we could not foresee. 

It was during my being here, for here we stayed near two months, that Igrew very thoughtful about my circumstances; not as to the danger, neitherindeed were we in any, but were entirely concealed and unsuspected; but Ireally began to have other thoughts of myself, and of the world, than everI had before. 

William had struck so deep into my unthinking temper with hinting to methat there was something beyond all this; that the present time was thetime of enjoyment, but that the time of account approached; that the workthat remained was gentler than the labour past, viz. , repentance, and thatit was high time to think of it;--I say these, and such thoughts as these, engrossed my hours, and, in a word, I grew very sad. 

As to the wealth I had, which was immensely great, it was all like dirtunder my feet; I had no value for it, no peace in the possession of it, nogreat concern about me for the leaving of it. 

William had perceived my thoughts to be troubled and my mind heavy andoppressed for some time; and one evening, in one of our cool walks, I beganwith him about the leaving our effects. William was a wise and wary man, and indeed all the prudentials of my conduct had for a long time been owingto his advice, and so now all the methods for preserving our effects, andeven ourselves, lay upon him; and he had been telling me of some of themeasures he had been taking for our making homeward, and for the securityof our wealth, when I took him very short. "Why, William, " says I, "dostthou think we shall ever be able to reach Europe with all this cargo thatwe have about us?"

"Ay, " says William, "without doubt, as well as other merchants with theirs, as long as it is not publicly known what quantity or of what value ourcargo consists. "

"Why, William, " says I, smiling, "do you think that if there is a Godabove, as you have so long been telling me there is, and that we must givean account to Him, --I say, do you think, if He be a righteous Judge, Hewill let us escape thus with the plunder, as we may call it, of so manyinnocent people, nay, I might say nations, and not call us to an accountfor it before we can get to Europe, where we pretend to enjoy it?"

William appeared struck and surprised at the question, and made no answerfor a great while; and I repeated the question, adding that it was not tobe expected. 

After a little pause, says William, "Thou hast started a very weightyquestion, and I can make no positive answer to it; but I will state itthus: first, it is true that, if we consider the justice of God, we have noreason to expect any protection; but as the ordinary ways of Providence areout of the common road of human affairs, so we may hope for mercy stillupon our repentance, and we know not how good He may be to us; so we are toact as if we rather depended upon the last, I mean the merciful part, thanclaimed the first, which must produce nothing but judgment and vengeance. "

"But hark ye, William, " says I, "the nature of repentance, as you havehinted once to me, included reformation; and we can never reform; how, then, can we repent?"

"Why can we never reform?" says William. 

"Because, " said I, "we cannot restore what we have taken away by rapine andspoil. "

"It is true, " says William, "we never can do that, for we can never come tothe knowledge of the owners. "

"But what, then, must be done with our wealth, " said I, "the effects ofplunder and rapine? If we keep it, we continue to be robbers and thieves;and if we quit it we cannot do justice with it, for we cannot restore it tothe right owners. "

"Nay, " says William, "the answer to it is short. To quit what we have, anddo it here, is to throw it away to those who have no claim to it, and todivest ourselves of it, but to do no right with it; whereas we ought tokeep it carefully together, with a resolution to do what right with it weare able; and who knows what opportunity Providence may put into our handsto do justice, at least, to some of those we have injured? So we ought, atleast, to leave it to Him and go on. As it is, without doubt our presentbusiness is to go to some place of safety, where we may wait His will. "

This resolution of William was very satisfying to me indeed, as, the truthis, all he said, and at all times, was solid and good; and had not Williamthus, as it were, quieted my mind, I think, verily, I was so alarmed at thejust reason I had to expect vengeance from Heaven upon me for my ill-gottenwealth, that I should have run away from it as the devil's goods, that Ihad nothing to do with, that did not belong to me, and that I had no rightto keep, and was in certain danger of being destroyed for. 

However, William settled my mind to more prudent steps than these, and Iconcluded that I ought, however, to proceed to a place of safety, and leavethe event to God Almighty's mercy. But this I must leave upon record, thatI had from this time no joy of the wealth I had got. I looked upon it allas stolen, and so indeed the greatest part of it was. I looked upon it as ahoard of other men's goods, which I had robbed the innocent owners of, andwhich I ought, in a word, to be hanged for here, and damned for hereafter. And now, indeed, I began sincerely to hate myself for a dog; a wretch thathad been a thief and a murderer; a wretch that was in a condition whichnobody was ever in; for I had robbed, and though I had the wealth by me, yet it was impossible I should ever make any restitution; and upon thisaccount it ran in my head that I could never repent, for that repentancecould not be sincere without restitution, and therefore must of necessitybe damned. There was no room for me to escape. I went about with my heartfull of these thoughts, little better than a distracted fellow; in short, running headlong into the dreadfullest despair, and premeditating nothingbut how to rid myself out of the world; and, indeed, the devil, if suchthings are of the devil's immediate doing, followed his work very closewith me, and nothing lay upon my mind for several days but to shoot myselfinto the head with my pistol. 

I was all this while in a vagrant life, among infidels, Turks, pagans, andsuch sort of people. I had no minister, no Christian to converse with butpoor William. He was my ghostly father or confessor, and he was all thecomfort I had. As for my knowledge of religion, you have heard my history. You may suppose I had not much; and as for the Word of God, I do notremember that I ever read a chapter in the Bible in my lifetime. I waslittle Bob at Bussleton, and went to school to learn my Testament. 

However, it pleased God to make William the Quaker everything to me. Uponthis occasion, I took him out one evening, as usual, and hurried him awayinto the fields with me, in more haste than ordinary; and there, in short, I told him the perplexity of my mind, and under what terrible temptationsof the devil I had been; that I must shoot myself, for I could not supportthe weight and terror that was upon me. 

"Shoot yourself!" says William; "why, what will that do for you?"

"Why, " says I, "it will put an end to a miserable life. "

"Well, " says William, "are you satisfied the next will be better?"

"No, no, " says I; "much worse, to be sure. "

"Why, then, " says he, "shooting yourself is the devil's motion, no doubt;for it is the devil of a reason, that, because thou art in an ill case, therefore thou must put thyself into a worse. "

This shocked my reason indeed. "Well, but, " says I, "there is no bearingthe miserable condition I am in. "

"Very well, " says William; "but it seems there is some bearing a worsecondition; and so you will shoot yourself, that you may be past remedy?"

"I am past remedy already, " says I. 

"How do you know that?" says he. 

"I am satisfied of it, " said I. 

"Well, " says he, "but you are not sure; so you will shoot yourself to makeit certain; for though on this side death you cannot be sure you will bedamned at all, yet the moment you step on the other side of time you aresure of it; for when it is done, it is not to be said then that you willbe, but that you are damned. "

"Well, but, " says William, as if he had been between jest and earnest, "pray, what didst thou dream of last night?"

"Why, " said I, "I had frightful dreams all night; and, particularly, Idreamed that the devil came for me, and asked me what my name was; and Itold him. Then he asked me what trade I was. 'Trade?' says I; 'I am athief, a rogue, by my calling: I am a pirate and a murderer, and ought tobe hanged. ' 'Ay, ay, ' says the devil, 'so you do; and you are the man Ilooked for, and therefore come along with me. ' At which I was most horriblyfrighted, and cried out so that it waked me; and I have been in horribleagony ever since. "

"Very well, " says William; "come, give me the pistol thou talkedst of justnow. "

"Why, " says I, "what will you do with it?"

"Do with it!" says William. "Why, thou needest not shoot thyself; I shallbe obliged to do it for thee. Why, thou wilt destroy us all. "

"What do you mean, William?" said I. 

"Mean!" said he; "nay, what didst thou mean, to cry out aloud in thy sleep, 'I am a thief, a pirate, a murderer, and ought to be hanged'? Why, thouwilt ruin us all. 'Twas well the Dutchman did not understand English. Inshort, I must shoot thee, to save my own life. Come, come, " says he, "giveme thy pistol. "

I confess this terrified me again another way, and I began to be sensiblethat, if anybody had been near me to understand English, I had been undone. The thought of shooting myself forsook me from that time; and I turned toWilliam, "You disorder me extremely, William, " said I; "why, I am neversafe, nor is it safe to keep me company. What shall I do? I shall betrayyou all. "

"Come, come, friend Bob, " says he, "I'll put an end to it all, if you willtake my advice. "

"How's that?" said I. 

"Why, only, " says he, "that the next time thou talkest with the devil, thouwilt talk a little softlier, or we shall be all undone, and you too. "

This frighted me, I must confess, and allayed a great deal of the troubleof mind I was in. But William, after he had done jesting with me, enteredupon a very long and serious discourse with me about the nature of mycircumstances, and about repentance; that it ought to be attended, indeed, with a deep abhorrence of the crime that I had to charge myself with; butthat to despair of God's mercy was no part of repentance, but puttingmyself into the condition of the devil; indeed, that I must apply myselfwith a sincere, humble confession of my crime, to ask pardon of God, whom Ihad offended, and cast myself upon His mercy, resolving to be willing tomake restitution, if ever it should please God to put it in my power, evento the utmost of what I had in the world. And this, he told me, was themethod which he had resolved upon himself; and in this, he told me, he hadfound comfort. 

I had a great deal of satisfaction in William's discourse, and it quietedme very much; but William was very anxious ever after about my talking inmy sleep, and took care to lie with me always himself, and to keep me fromlodging in any house where so much as a word of English was understood. 

However, there was not the like occasion afterward; for I was much morecomposed in my mind, and resolved for the future to live a quite differentlife from what I had done. As to the wealth I had, I looked upon it asnothing; I resolved to set it apart to any such opportunity of doingjustice as God should put into my hand; and the miraculous opportunity Ihad afterwards of applying some parts of it to preserve a ruined family, whom I had plundered, may be worth reading, if I have room for it in thisaccount. 

With these resolutions I began to be restored to some degree of quiet in mymind; and having, after almost three months' stay at Bassorah, disposed ofsome goods, but having a great quantity left, we hired boats according tothe Dutchman's direction, and went up to Bagdad, or Babylon, on the riverTigris, or rather Euphrates. We had a very considerable cargo of goods withus, and therefore made a great figure there, and were received withrespect. We had, in particular, two-and-forty bales of Indian stuffs ofsundry sorts, silks, muslins, and fine chintz; we had fifteen bales of veryfine China silks, and seventy packs or bales of spices, particularly clovesand nutmegs, with other goods. We were bid money here for our cloves, butthe Dutchman advised us not to part with them, and told us we should get abetter price at Aleppo, or in the Levant; so we prepared for the caravan. 

We concealed our having any gold or pearls as much as we could, andtherefore sold three or four bales of China silks and Indian calicoes, toraise money to buy camels and to pay the customs which are taken at severalplaces, and for our provisions over the deserts. 

I travelled this journey, careless to the last degree of my goods orwealth, believing that, as I came by it all by rapine and violence, Godwould direct that it should be taken from me again in the same manner; and, indeed, I think I might say I was very willing it should be so. But, as Ihad a merciful Protector above me, so I had a most faithful steward, counsellor, partner, or whatever I might call him, who was my guide, mypilot, my governor, my everything, and took care both of me and of all wehad; and though he had never been in any of these parts of the world, yethe took the care of all upon him; and in about nine-and-fifty days wearrived from Bassorah, at the mouth of the river Tigris or Euphrates, through the desert, and through Aleppo to Alexandria, or, as we call it, Scanderoon, in the Levant. 

Here William and I, and the other two, our faithful comrades, debated whatwe should do; and here William and I resolved to separate from the othertwo, they resolving to go with the Dutchman into Holland, by the means ofsome Dutch ship which lay then in the road. William and I told them weresolved to go and settle in the Morea, which then belonged to theVenetians. 

It is true we acted wisely in it not to let them know whither we went, seeing we had resolved to separate; but we took our old doctor's directionshow to write to him in Holland, and in England, that we might haveintelligence from him on occasion, and promised to give him an account howto write to us, which we afterwards did, as may in time be made out. 

We stayed here some time after they were gone, till at length, not beingthoroughly resolved whither to go till then, a Venetian ship touched atCyprus, and put in at Scanderoon to look for freight home. We took thehint, and bargaining for our passage, and the freight of our goods, weembarked for Venice, where, in two-and-twenty days, we arrived safe, withall our treasure, and with such a cargo, take our goods and our money andour jewels together, as, I believed, was never brought into the city by twosingle men, since the state of Venice had a being. 

We kept ourselves here _incognito_ for a great while, passing for twoArmenian merchants still, as we had done before; and by this time we hadgotten so much of the Persian and Armenian jargon, which they talked atBassorah and Bagdad, and everywhere that we came in the country, as wassufficient to make us able to talk to one another, so as not to beunderstood by anybody, though sometimes hardly by ourselves. 

Here we converted all our effects into money, settled our abode as for aconsiderable time, and William and I, maintaining an inviolable friendshipand fidelity to one another, lived like two brothers; we neither had orsought any separate interest; we conversed seriously and gravely, and uponthe subject of our repentance continually; we never changed, that is tosay, so as to leave off our Armenian garbs; and we were called, at Venice, the two Grecians. 

I had been two or three times going to give a detail of our wealth, but itwill appear incredible, and we had the greatest difficulty in the world howto conceal it, being justly apprehensive lest we might be assassinated inthat country for our treasure. At length William told me he began to thinknow that he must never see England any more, and that indeed he did notmuch concern himself about it; but seeing we had gained so great wealth, and he had some poor relations in England, if I was willing, he would writeto know if they were living, and to know what condition they were in, andif he found such of them were alive as he had some thoughts about, hewould, with my consent, send them something to better their condition. 

I consented most willingly; and accordingly William wrote to a sister andan uncle, and in about five weeks' time received an answer from them both, directed to himself, under cover of a hard Armenian name that he had givenhimself, viz. , Signore Constantine Alexion of Ispahan, at Venice. 

It was a very moving letter he received from his sister, who, after themost passionate expressions of joy to hear he was alive, seeing she hadlong ago had an account that he was murdered by the pirates in the WestIndies, entreats him to let her know what circumstances he was in; tellshim she was not in any capacity to do anything considerable for him, butthat he should be welcome to her with all her heart; that she was left awidow, with four children, but kept a little shop in the Minories, by whichshe made shift to maintain her family; and that she had sent him fivepounds, lest he should want money, in a strange country, to bring him home. 

I could see the letter brought tears out of his eyes as he read it; and, indeed, when he showed it to me, and the little bill for five pounds, uponan English merchant in Venice, it brought tears out of my eyes too. 

After we had been both affected sufficiently with the tenderness andkindness of this letter, he turns to me; says he, "What shall I do for thispoor woman?" I mused a while; at last says I, "I will tell you what youshall do for her. She has sent you five pounds, and she has four children, and herself, that is five; such a sum, from a poor woman in hercircumstances, is as much as five thousand pounds is to us; you shall sendher a bill of exchange for five thousand pounds English money, and bid herconceal her surprise at it till she hears from you again; but bid her leaveoff her shop, and go and take a house somewhere in the country, not far offfrom London, and stay there, in a moderate figure, till she hears from youagain. "

"Now, " says William, "I perceive by it that you have some thoughts ofventuring into England. "

"Indeed, William, " said I, "you mistake me; but it presently occurred to methat you should venture, for what have you done that you may not be seenthere? Why should I desire to keep you from your relations, purely to keepme company?"

William looked very affectionately upon me. "Nay, " says he, "we haveembarked together so long, and come together so far, I am resolved I willnever part with thee as long as I live, go where thou wilt, or stay wherethou wilt; and as for my sister, " said William, "I cannot send her such asum of money, for whose is all this money we have? It is most of it thine. "

"No, William, " said I, "there is not a penny of it mine but what is yourstoo, and I won't have anything but an equal share with you, and thereforeyou shall send it to her; if not, I will send it. "

"Why, " says William, "it will make the poor woman distracted; she will beso surprised she will go out of her wits. "

"Well, " said I, "William, you may do it prudently; send her a bill backedof a hundred pounds, and bid her expect more in a post or two, and that youwill send her enough to live on without keeping shop, and then send hermore. "

Accordingly William sent her a very kind letter, with a bill upon amerchant in London for a hundred and sixty pounds, and bid her comfortherself with the hope that he should be able in a little time to send hermore. About ten days after, he sent her another bill of five hundred andforty pounds; and a post or two after, another for three hundred pounds, making in all a thousand pounds; and told her he would send her sufficientto leave off her shop, and directed her to take a house as above. 

He waited then till he received an answer to all the three letters, with anaccount that she had received the money, and, which I did not expect, thatshe had not let any other acquaintance know that she had received ashilling from anybody, or so much as that he was alive, and would not tillshe had heard again. 

When he showed me this letter, "Well, William, " said I, "this woman is fitto be trusted with life or anything; send her the rest of the five thousandpounds, and I'll venture to England with you, to this woman's house, whenever you will. "

In a word, we sent her five thousand pounds in good bills; and she receivedthem very punctually, and in a little time sent her brother word that shehad pretended to her uncle that she was sickly and could not carry on thetrade any longer, and that she had taken a large house about four milesfrom London, under pretence of letting lodgings for her livelihood; and, inshort, intimated as if she understood that he intended to come over to be_incognito_, assuring him he should be as retired as he pleased. 

This was opening the very door for us that we thought had been effectuallyshut for this life; and, in a word, we resolved to venture, but to keepourselves entirely concealed, both as to name and every other circumstance;and accordingly William sent his sister word how kindly he took her prudentsteps, and that she had guessed right that he desired to be retired, andthat he obliged her not to increase her figure, but live private, till shemight perhaps see him. 

He was going to send the letter away. "Come, William, " said I, "you shan'tsend her an empty letter; tell her you have a friend coming with you thatmust be as retired as yourself, and I'll send her five thousand poundsmore. "

So, in short, we made this poor woman's family rich; and yet, when it cameto the point, my heart failed me, and I durst not venture; and for William, he would not stir without me; and so we stayed about two years after this, considering what we should do. 

You may think, perhaps, that I was very prodigal of my ill-gotten goods, thus to load a stranger with my bounty, and give a gift like a prince toone that had been able to merit nothing of me, or indeed know me; but mycondition ought to be considered in this case; though I had money toprofusion, yet I was perfectly destitute of a friend in the world, to havethe least obligation or assistance from, or knew not either where todispose or trust anything I had while I lived, or whom to give it to if Idied. 

When I had reflected upon the manner of my getting of it, I was sometimesfor giving it all to charitable uses, as a debt due to mankind, though Iwas no Roman Catholic, and not at all of the opinion that it would purchaseme any repose to my soul; but I thought, as it was got by a generalplunder, and which I could make no satisfaction for, it was due to thecommunity, and I ought to distribute it for the general good. But still Iwas at a loss how, and where, and by whom to settle this charity, notdaring to go home to my own country, lest some of my comrades, strolledhome, should see and detect me, and for the very spoil of my money, or thepurchase of his own pardon, betray and expose me to an untimely end. 

Being thus destitute, I say, of a friend, I pitched thus upon William'ssister; the kind step of hers to her brother, whom she thought to be indistress, signifying a generous mind and a charitable disposition; andhaving resolved to make her the object of my first bounty, I did not doubtbut I should purchase something of a refuge for myself, and a kind of acentre, to which I should tend in my future actions; for really a man thathas a subsistence, and no residence, no place that has a magnetic influenceupon his affections, is in one of the most odd, uneasy conditions in theworld, nor is it in the power of all his money to make it up to him. 

It was, as I told you, two years and upwards that we remained at Venice andthereabout, in the greatest hesitation imaginable, irresolute and unfixedto the last degree. William's sister importuned us daily to come toEngland, and wondered we should not dare to trust her, whom we had to sucha degree obliged to be faithful; and in a manner lamented her beingsuspected by us. 

At last I began to incline; and I said to William, "Come, brother William, "said I (for ever since our discourse at Bassorah I called him brother), "ifyou will agree to two or three things with me, I'll go home to England withall my heart. "

Says William, "Let me know what they are. "

"Why, first, " says I, "you shall not disclose yourself to any of yourrelations in England but your sister--no, not one; secondly, we will notshave off our mustachios or beards" (for we had all along worn our beardsafter the Grecian manner), "nor leave off our long vests, that we may passfor Grecians and foreigners; thirdly, that we shall never speak English inpublic before anybody, your sister excepted; fourthly, that we will alwayslive together and pass for brothers. "

William said he would agree to them all with all his heart, but that thenot speaking English would be the hardest, but he would do his best forthat too; so, in a word, we agreed to go from Venice to Naples, where weconverted a large sum of money into bales of silk, left a large sum in amerchant's hands at Venice, and another considerable sum at Naples, andtook bills of exchange for a great deal too; and yet we came with such acargo to London as few American merchants had done for some years, for weloaded in two ships seventy-three bales of thrown silk, besides thirteenbales of wrought silks, from the duchy of Milan, shipped at Genoa, with allwhich I arrived safely; and some time after I married my faithfulprotectress, William's sister, with whom I am much more happy than Ideserve. 

And now, having so plainly told you that I am come to England, after I haveso boldly owned what life I have led abroad, it is time to leave off, andsay no more for the present, lest some should be willing to inquire toonicely after your old friend CAPTAIN BOB. 

[Transcriber's Note: The words "thae" (Scottish dialect for "those") and"Geat Mogul" ("Great" may be meant) do occur as such in the print copy. ]