our men afterwards vouched it to be) the same desertwhich we were so justly terrified at when we were on the farther side,and which, by our calculation, could not be less than 300 miles broadand above 600 miles in length, without knowing where it ended.
The journal of their travels is too long to enter upon here. Theystayed out two-and-fifty days, when they brought us seventeen pound andsomething more (for we had no exact weight) of gold-dust, some of it inmuch larger pieces than any we had found before, besides about fifteenton of elephants' teeth, which he had, partly by good usage and partlyby bad, obliged the savages of the country to fetch, and bring down tohim from the mountains, and which he made others bring with him quitedown to our camp. Indeed, we wondered what was coming to us when we sawhim attended with above 200 negroes; but he soon undeceived us, when hemade them all throw down their burdens on a heap at the entrance of ourcamp.
Besides this, they brought two lions' skins, and five leopards' skins,very large and very fine. He asked our pardon for his long stay, andthat he had made no greater a booty, but told us he had one excursionmore to make, which he hoped should turn to a better account.
So, having rested himself and rewarded the savages that brought theteeth for him with some bits of silver and iron cut out diamond fashion,and with two shaped like little dogs, he sent them away mightilypleased.
The second journey he went, some more of our men desired to go withhim, 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, threelions, and several other creatures, and brought us home four-and-twentypound some ounces of gold-dust, and only six elephants' teeth, but theywere very great 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 aquarter to a man, besides what we had before, and besides six or sevenpound weight which we had at several times given our artificer to makebaubles with. And now we talked of going forward to the coast to put anend to our journey; but our guide laughed at us then. "Nay, you can't gonow," says he, "for the rainy season begins next month, and there willbe no stirring then." This we found, indeed, reasonable, so we resolvedto furnish ourselves with provisions, that we might not be obliged togo abroad too much in the rain, and we spread ourselves some one way andsome another, as far as we cared to venture, to get provisions; and ournegroes killed us some deer, which we cured as well as we could in thesun, for we had now no salt.
By this time the rainy months were set in, and we could scarce, forabove two months, look out of our huts. But that was not all, for therivers were so swelled with the land-floods, that we scarce knew thelittle brooks and rivulets from the great navigable rivers. This hadbeen a very good opportunity to have conveyed by water, upon rafts, ourelephants' teeth, of which we had a very great pile; for, as we alwaysgave the savages some reward for their labour, the very women wouldbring us teeth upon every opportunity, and sometimes a great toothcarried between two; so that our quantity was increased to abouttwo-and-twenty ton of teeth.
As soon as the weather proved fair again, he told us he would not pressus to any further stay, since we did not care whether we got any moregold or no; that we were indeed the first men he ever met with in hislife that said they had gold enough, and of whom it might be truly said,that, when it lay under our feet, we would not stoop to take it up. But,since he had made us a promise, he would not break it, nor press us tomake any further stay; only he thought he ought to tell us that now wasthe time, after the land-flood, when the greatest quantity of gold wasfound; and that, if we stayed but one month, we should see thousands ofsavages spread themselves over the whole country to wash the gold outof the sand, for the European ships which would come on the coast; thatthey do it then, because the rage of the floods always works down agreat deal of gold out of the hills; and, if we took the advantage tobe there before them, we did not know what extraordinary things we mightfind.
This was so forcible, and so well argued, that it appeared in all ourfaces we were prevailed upon; so we told him we would all stay: forthough it was true we were all eager to be gone, yet the evidentprospect of so much advantage could not well be resisted; that he wasgreatly mistaken, when he suggested that we did not desire to increaseour store of gold, and in that we were resolved to make the utmost useof the advantage that was in our hands, and would stay as long as anygold was to be had, if it was another year.
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, andbegan to be doubtful; but it was very plain that the reason was,the water was not fully fallen, or the rivers reduced to their usualchannel; but in a few days we were fully requited, and found much moregold than at first, and in bigger lumps; and one of our men washed outof the sand a piece of gold as big as a small nut, which weighed, by ourestimation--for we had no small weights--almost an ounce and a half.
This success made us extremely diligent; and in little more than a monthwe had altogether gotten near sixty pound weight of gold; but afterthis, as he told us, we found abundance of the savages, men, women, andchildren, hunting every river and brook, and even the dry land of thehills for gold; so that we could do nothing like then, compared to whatwe had done before.
But our artificer found a way to make other people find us in goldwithout our own labour; for, when these people began to appear, he hada considerable quantity of his toys, birds, beasts, &c., such as before,ready for them; and the English gentleman being the interpreter, hebrought the savages to admire them; so our cutler had trade enough,and, to be sure, sold his goods at a monstrous rate; for he would get anounce of gold, sometimes two, for a bit of silver, perhaps of the valueof a groat; nay, if it were iron and if it was of gold, they wouldnot give the more for it; and it was incredible almost to think what aquantity of gold he got 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 dividedalmost four pound weight again to every man; and then we set forwardfor the Gold Coast, to see what method we could find out for our passageinto Europe.
There happened several remarkable incidents in this part of our journey,as to how we were, or were not, received friendly by the several nationsof savages through which we passed; how we delivered one negro kingfrom captivity, who had been a benefactor to our new guide; and now ourguide, in gratitude, by our assistance, restored him to his kingdom,which, perhaps, might contain about 300 subjects; how he entertained us;and how he made his subjects go with our Englishmen, and fetch all ourelephants' teeth which we had been obliged to leave behind us, and tocarry them for us to the river, the name of which I forgot, wherewe made rafts, and in eleven days more came down to one of the Dutchsettlements on the Gold Coast, where we arrived in perfect health, andto our great satisfaction. As for our cargo of teeth, we sold it to theDutch factory, and received clothes and other necessaries for ourselves,and such of our negroes as we thought fit to keep with us; and it is tobe observed, that we had four pound of gunpowder left when we ended ourjourney. The negro prince we made perfectly free, clothed him out of ourcommon stock, and gave him a pound and a half of gold for himself, whichhe knew very well how to manage; and here we all parted after the mostfriendly manner possible. Our Englishman remained in the Dutch factorysome time, and, as I heard afterwards, died there of grief; for hehaving sent a thousand pounds sterling over to England, by the way ofHolland, for his refuge at his return to his friends, the ship was takenby the French and the effects all lost.
The rest of my comrades went away, in a small bark, to the twoPortuguese factories, near Gambia, in the
latitude of fourteen; and I,with two negroes which I kept with me, went away to Cape Coast Castle,where I got passage for England, and arrived there in September; andthus ended my first harvest of wild oats; the rest were not sowed to somuch advantage.
I had neither friend, relation, nor acquaintance in England, though itwas my native country; I had consequently no person to trust with whatI had, or to counsel me to secure or save it; but, falling into illcompany, and trusting the keeper of a public-house in Rotherhithe with agreat part of my money, and hastily squandering away the rest, all thatgreat sum, which I got with so much pains and hazard, was gone in littlemore than two years' time; and, as I even rage in my own thoughts toreflect upon the manner how it was wasted, so I need record no more; therest merits to be concealed with blushes, for that it was spent in allkinds of folly and wickedness. So this scene of my life may be said tohave begun in theft, and ended in luxury; a sad