CHAPTER II--SLAVERY AND ESCAPE
That evil influence which carried me first away from my father'shouse--which hurried me into the wild and indigested notion of raising myfortune, and that impressed those conceits so forcibly upon me as to makeme deaf to all good advice, and to the entreaties and even the commandsof my father--I say, the same influence, whatever it was, presented themost unfortunate of all enterprises to my view; and I went on board avessel bound to the coast of Africa; or, as our sailors vulgarly calledit, a voyage to Guinea.
It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I did not shipmyself as a sailor; when, though I might indeed have worked a littleharder than ordinary, yet at the same time I should have learnt the dutyand office of a fore-mast man, and in time might have qualified myselffor a mate or lieutenant, if not for a master. But as it was always myfate to choose for the worse, so I did here; for having money in mypocket and good clothes upon my back, I would always go on board in thehabit of a gentleman; and so I neither had any business in the ship, norlearned to do any.
It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company in London,which does not always happen to such loose and misguided young fellows asI then was; the devil generally not omitting to lay some snare for themvery early; but it was not so with me. I first got acquainted with themaster of a ship who had been on the coast of Guinea; and who, having hadvery good success there, was resolved to go again. This captain taking afancy to my conversation, which was not at all disagreeable at that time,hearing me say I had a mind to see the world, told me if I would go thevoyage with him I should be at no expense; I should be his messmate andhis companion; and if I could carry anything with me, I should have allthe advantage of it that the trade would admit; and perhaps I might meetwith some encouragement.
I embraced the offer; and entering into a strict friendship with thiscaptain, who was an honest, plain-dealing man, I went the voyage withhim, and carried a small adventure with me, which, by the disinterestedhonesty of my friend the captain, I increased very considerably; for Icarried about 40 pounds in such toys and trifles as the captain directedme to buy. These 40 pounds I had mustered together by the assistance ofsome of my relations whom I corresponded with; and who, I believe, got myfather, or at least my mother, to contribute so much as that to my firstadventure.
This was the only voyage which I may say was successful in all myadventures, which I owe to the integrity and honesty of my friend thecaptain; under whom also I got a competent knowledge of the mathematicsand the rules of navigation, learned how to keep an account of the ship'scourse, take an observation, and, in short, to understand some thingsthat were needful to be understood by a sailor; for, as he took delightto instruct me, I took delight to learn; and, in a word, this voyage mademe both a sailor and a merchant; for I brought home five pounds nineounces of gold-dust for my adventure, which yielded me in London, at myreturn, almost 300 pounds; and this filled me with those aspiringthoughts which have since so completed my ruin.
Yet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes too; particularly, that Iwas continually sick, being thrown into a violent calenture by theexcessive heat of the climate; our principal trading being upon thecoast, from latitude of 15 degrees north even to the line itself.
I was now set up for a Guinea trader; and my friend, to my greatmisfortune, dying soon after his arrival, I resolved to go the samevoyage again, and I embarked in the same vessel with one who was his matein the former voyage, and had now got the command of the ship. This wasthe unhappiest voyage that ever man made; for though I did not carryquite 100 pounds of my new-gained wealth, so that I had 200 pounds left,which I had lodged with my friend's widow, who was very just to me, yet Ifell into terrible misfortunes. The first was this: our ship making hercourse towards the Canary Islands, or rather between those islands andthe African shore, was surprised in the grey of the morning by a Turkishrover of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all the sail she could make.We crowded also as much canvas as our yards would spread, or our mastscarry, to get clear; but finding the pirate gained upon us, and wouldcertainly come up with us in a few hours, we prepared to fight; our shiphaving twelve guns, and the rogue eighteen. About three in the afternoonhe came up with us, and bringing to, by mistake, just athwart ourquarter, instead of athwart our stern, as he intended, we brought eightof our guns to bear on that side, and poured in a broadside upon him,which made him sheer off again, after returning our fire, and pouring inalso his small shot from near two hundred men which he had on board.However, we had not a man touched, all our men keeping close. Heprepared to attack us again, and we to defend ourselves. But laying uson board the next time upon our other quarter, he entered sixty men uponour decks, who immediately fell to cutting and hacking the sails andrigging. We plied them with small shot, half-pikes, powder-chests, andsuch like, and cleared our deck of them twice. However, to cut shortthis melancholy part of our story, our ship being disabled, and three ofour men killed, and eight wounded, we were obliged to yield, and werecarried all prisoners into Sallee, a port belonging to the Moors.
The usage I had there was not so dreadful as at first I apprehended; norwas I carried up the country to the emperor's court, as the rest of ourmen were, but was kept by the captain of the rover as his proper prize,and made his slave, being young and nimble, and fit for his business. Atthis surprising change of my circumstances, from a merchant to amiserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed; and now I looked back uponmy father's prophetic discourse to me, that I should be miserable andhave none to relieve me, which I thought was now so effectually broughtto pass that I could not be worse; for now the hand of Heaven hadovertaken me, and I was undone without redemption; but, alas! this wasbut a taste of the misery I was to go through, as will appear in thesequel of this story.
As my new patron, or master, had taken me home to his house, so I was inhopes that he would take me with him when he went to sea again, believingthat it would some time or other be his fate to be taken by a Spanish orPortugal man-of-war; and that then I should be set at liberty. But thishope of mine was soon taken away; for when he went to sea, he left me onshore to look after his little garden, and do the common drudgery ofslaves about his house; and when he came home again from his cruise, heordered me to lie in the cabin to look after the ship.
Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what method I might take toeffect it, but found no way that had the least probability in it; nothingpresented to make the supposition of it rational; for I had nobody tocommunicate it to that would embark with me--no fellow-slave, noEnglishman, Irishman, or Scotchman there but myself; so that for twoyears, though I often pleased myself with the imagination, yet I neverhad the least encouraging prospect of putting it in practice.
After about two years, an odd circumstance presented itself, which putthe old thought of making some attempt for my liberty again in my head.My patron lying at home longer than usual without fitting out his ship,which, as I heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once ortwice a week, sometimes oftener if the weather was fair, to take theship's pinnace and go out into the road a-fishing; and as he always tookme and young Maresco with him to row the boat, we made him very merry,and I proved very dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes hewould send me with a Moor, one of his kinsmen, and the youth--theMaresco, as they called him--to catch a dish of fish for him.
It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a calm morning, a fog roseso thick that, though we were not half a league from the shore, we lostsight of it; and rowing we knew not whither or which way, we laboured allday, and all the next night; and when the morning came we found we hadpulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and that we wereat least two leagues from the shore. However, we got well in again,though with a great deal of labour and some danger; for the wind began toblow pretty fresh in the morning; but we were all very hungry.
But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to take more care ofhimself for the future; and having
lying by him the longboat of ourEnglish ship that he had taken, he resolved he would not go a-fishing anymore without a compass and some provision; so he ordered the carpenter ofhis ship, who also was an English slave, to build a little state-room, orcabin, in the middle of the long-boat, like that of a barge, with a placeto stand behind it to steer, and haul home the main-sheet; the roombefore for a hand or two to stand and work the sails. She sailed withwhat we call a shoulder-of-mutton sail; and the boom jibed over the topof the cabin, which lay very snug and low, and had in it room for him tolie, with a slave or two, and a table to eat on, with some small lockersto put in some bottles of such liquor as he thought fit to drink; and hisbread, rice, and coffee.
We went frequently out with this boat a-fishing; and as I was mostdexterous to catch fish for him, he never went without me. It happenedthat he had appointed to go out in this boat, either for pleasure or forfish, with two or three Moors of some distinction in that place, and forwhom he had provided extraordinarily, and had, therefore, sent on boardthe boat overnight a larger store of provisions than ordinary; and hadordered me to get ready three fusees with powder and shot, which were onboard his ship, for that they designed some sport of fowling as well asfishing.
I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the next morningwith the boat washed clean, her ancient and pendants out, and everythingto accommodate his guests; when by-and-by my patron came on board alone,and told me his guests had put off going from some business that fellout, and ordered me, with the man and boy, as usual, to go out with theboat and catch them some fish, for that his friends were to sup at hishouse, and commanded that as soon as I got some fish I should bring ithome to his house; all which I prepared to do.
This moment my former notions of deliverance darted into my thoughts, fornow I found I was likely to have a little ship at my command; and mymaster being gone, I prepared to furnish myself, not for fishingbusiness, but for a voyage; though I knew not, neither did I so much asconsider, whither I should steer--anywhere to get out of that place wasmy desire.
My first contrivance was to make a pretence to speak to this Moor, to getsomething for our subsistence on board; for I told him we must notpresume to eat of our patron's bread. He said that was true; so hebrought a large basket of rusk or biscuit, and three jars of fresh water,into the boat. I knew where my patron's case of bottles stood, which itwas evident, by the make, were taken out of some English prize, and Iconveyed them into the boat while the Moor was on shore, as if they hadbeen there before for our master. I conveyed also a great lump ofbeeswax into the boat, which weighed about half a hundred-weight, with aparcel of twine or thread, a hatchet, a saw, and a hammer, all of whichwere of great use to us afterwards, especially the wax, to make candles.Another trick I tried upon him, which he innocently came into also: hisname was Ismael, which they call Muley, or Moely; so I called tohim--"Moely," said I, "our patron's guns are on board the boat; can younot get a little powder and shot? It may be we may kill some alcamies (afowl like our curlews) for ourselves, for I know he keeps the gunner'sstores in the ship." "Yes," says he, "I'll bring some;" and accordinglyhe brought a great leather pouch, which held a pound and a half ofpowder, or rather more; and another with shot, that had five or sixpounds, with some bullets, and put all into the boat. At the same time Ihad found some powder of my master's in the great cabin, with which Ifilled one of the large bottles in the case, which was almost empty,pouring what was in it into another; and thus furnished with everythingneedful, we sailed out of the port to fish. The castle, which is at theentrance of the port, knew who we were, and took no notice of us; and wewere not above a mile out of the port before we hauled in our sail andset us down to fish. The wind blew from the N.N.E., which was contraryto my desire, for had it blown southerly I had been sure to have made thecoast of Spain, and at least reached to the bay of Cadiz; but myresolutions were, blow which way it would, I would be gone from thathorrid place where I was, and leave the rest to fate.
After we had fished some time and caught nothing--for when I had fish onmy hook I would not pull them up, that he might not see them--I said tothe Moor, "This will not do; our master will not be thus served; we muststand farther off." He, thinking no harm, agreed, and being in the headof the boat, set the sails; and, as I had the helm, I ran the boat outnear a league farther, and then brought her to, as if I would fish; when,giving the boy the helm, I stepped forward to where the Moor was, andmaking as if I stooped for something behind him, I took him by surprisewith my arm under his waist, and tossed him clear overboard into the sea.He rose immediately, for he swam like a cork, and called to me, begged tobe taken in, told me he would go all over the world with me. He swam sostrong after the boat that he would have reached me very quickly, therebeing but little wind; upon which I stepped into the cabin, and fetchingone of the fowling-pieces, I presented it at him, and told him I had donehim no hurt, and if he would be quiet I would do him none. "But," saidI, "you swim well enough to reach to the shore, and the sea is calm; makethe best of your way to shore, and I will do you no harm; but if you comenear the boat I'll shoot you through the head, for I am resolved to havemy liberty;" so he turned himself about, and swam for the shore, and Imake no doubt but he reached it with ease, for he was an excellentswimmer.
I could have been content to have taken this Moor with me, and havedrowned the boy, but there was no venturing to trust him. When he wasgone, I turned to the boy, whom they called Xury, and said to him, "Xury,if you will be faithful to me, I'll make you a great man; but if you willnot stroke your face to be true to me"--that is, swear by Mahomet and hisfather's beard--"I must throw you into the sea too." The boy smiled inmy face, and spoke so innocently that I could not distrust him, and sworeto be faithful to me, and go all over the world with me.
While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I stood out directlyto sea with the boat, rather stretching to windward, that they mightthink me gone towards the Straits' mouth (as indeed any one that had beenin their wits must have been supposed to do): for who would have supposedwe were sailed on to the southward, to the truly Barbarian coast, wherewhole nations of negroes were sure to surround us with their canoes anddestroy us; where we could not go on shore but we should be devoured bysavage beasts, or more merciless savages of human kind.
But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed my course, andsteered directly south and by east, bending my course a little towardsthe east, that I might keep in with the shore; and having a fair, freshgale of wind, and a smooth, quiet sea, I made such sail that I believe bythe next day, at three o'clock in the afternoon, when I first made theland, I could not be less than one hundred and fifty miles south ofSallee; quite beyond the Emperor of Morocco's dominions, or indeed of anyother king thereabouts, for we saw no people.
Yet such was the fright I had taken of the Moors, and the dreadfulapprehensions I had of falling into their hands, that I would not stop,or go on shore, or come to an anchor; the wind continuing fair till I hadsailed in that manner five days; and then the wind shifting to thesouthward, I concluded also that if any of our vessels were in chase ofme, they also would now give over; so I ventured to make to the coast,and came to an anchor in the mouth of a little river, I knew not what,nor where, neither what latitude, what country, what nation, or whatriver. I neither saw, nor desired to see any people; the principal thingI wanted was fresh water. We came into this creek in the evening,resolving to swim on shore as soon as it was dark, and discover thecountry; but as soon as it was quite dark, we heard such dreadful noisesof the barking, roaring, and howling of wild creatures, of we knew notwhat kinds, that the poor boy was ready to die with fear, and begged ofme not to go on shore till day. "Well, Xury," said I, "then I won't; butit may be that we may see men by day, who will be as bad to us as thoselions." "Then we give them the shoot gun," says Xury, laughing, "makethem run wey." Such English Xury spoke by conversing among us slaves.However, I was glad to see the boy so cheerful, and I gave him a dram(out of our patr
on's case of bottles) to cheer him up. After all, Xury'sadvice was good, and I took it; we dropped our little anchor, and laystill all night; I say still, for we slept none; for in two or threehours we saw vast great creatures (we knew not what to call them) of manysorts, come down to the sea-shore and run into the water, wallowing andwashing themselves for the pleasure of cooling themselves; and they madesuch hideous howlings and yellings, that I never indeed heard the like.
Xury was dreadfully frighted, and indeed so was I too; but we were bothmore frighted when we heard one of these mighty creatures come swimmingtowards our boat; we could not see him, but we might hear him by hisblowing to be a monstrous huge and furious beast. Xury said it was alion, and it might be so for aught I know; but poor Xury cried to me toweigh the anchor and row away; "No," says I, "Xury; we can slip ourcable, with the buoy to it, and go off to sea; they cannot follow usfar." I had no sooner said so, but I perceived the creature (whatever itwas) within two oars' length, which something surprised me; however, Iimmediately stepped to the cabin door, and taking up my gun, fired athim; upon which he immediately turned about and swam towards the shoreagain.
But it is impossible to describe the horrid noises, and hideous cries andhowlings that were raised, as well upon the edge of the shore as higherwithin the country, upon the noise or report of the gun, a thing I havesome reason to believe those creatures had never heard before: thisconvinced me that there was no going on shore for us in the night on thatcoast, and how to venture on shore in the day was another question too;for to have fallen into the hands of any of the savages had been as badas to have fallen into the hands of the lions and tigers; at least wewere equally apprehensive of the danger of it.
Be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore somewhere or otherfor water, for we had not a pint left in the boat; when and where to getto it was the point. Xury said, if I would let him go on shore with oneof the jars, he would find if there was any water, and bring some to me.I asked him why he would go? why I should not go, and he stay in theboat? The boy answered with so much affection as made me love him everafter. Says he, "If wild mans come, they eat me, you go wey." "Well,Xury," said I, "we will both go and if the wild mans come, we will killthem, they shall eat neither of us." So I gave Xury a piece of ruskbread to eat, and a dram out of our patron's case of bottles which Imentioned before; and we hauled the boat in as near the shore as wethought was proper, and so waded on shore, carrying nothing but our armsand two jars for water.
I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the coming ofcanoes with savages down the river; but the boy seeing a low place abouta mile up the country, rambled to it, and by-and-by I saw him comerunning towards me. I thought he was pursued by some savage, or frightedwith some wild beast, and I ran forward towards him to help him; but whenI came nearer to him I saw something hanging over his shoulders, whichwas a creature that he had shot, like a hare, but different in colour,and longer legs; however, we were very glad of it, and it was very goodmeat; but the great joy that poor Xury came with, was to tell me he hadfound good water and seen no wild mans.
But we found afterwards that we need not take such pains for water, for alittle higher up the creek where we were we found the water fresh whenthe tide was out, which flowed but a little way up; so we filled ourjars, and feasted on the hare he had killed, and prepared to go on ourway, having seen no footsteps of any human creature in that part of thecountry.
As I had been one voyage to this coast before, I knew very well that theislands of the Canaries, and the Cape de Verde Islands also, lay not faroff from the coast. But as I had no instruments to take an observationto know what latitude we were in, and not exactly knowing, or at leastremembering, what latitude they were in, I knew not where to look forthem, or when to stand off to sea towards them; otherwise I might noweasily have found some of these islands. But my hope was, that if Istood along this coast till I came to that part where the English traded,I should find some of their vessels upon their usual design of trade,that would relieve and take us in.
By the best of my calculation, that place where I now was must be thatcountry which, lying between the Emperor of Morocco's dominions and thenegroes, lies waste and uninhabited, except by wild beasts; the negroeshaving abandoned it and gone farther south for fear of the Moors, and theMoors not thinking it worth inhabiting by reason of its barrenness; andindeed, both forsaking it because of the prodigious number of tigers,lions, leopards, and other furious creatures which harbour there; so thatthe Moors use it for their hunting only, where they go like an army, twoor three thousand men at a time; and indeed for near a hundred milestogether upon this coast we saw nothing but a waste, uninhabited countryby day, and heard nothing but howlings and roaring of wild beasts bynight.
Once or twice in the daytime I thought I saw the Pico of Teneriffe, beingthe high top of the Mountain Teneriffe in the Canaries, and had a greatmind to venture out, in hopes of reaching thither; but having triedtwice, I was forced in again by contrary winds, the sea also going toohigh for my little vessel; so, I resolved to pursue my first design, andkeep along the shore.
Several times I was obliged to land for fresh water, after we had leftthis place; and once in particular, being early in morning, we came to ananchor under a little point of land, which was pretty high; and the tidebeginning to flow, we lay still to go farther in. Xury, whose eyes weremore about him than it seems mine were, calls softly to me, and tells methat we had best go farther off the shore; "For," says he, "look, yonderlies a dreadful monster on the side of that hillock, fast asleep." Ilooked where he pointed, and saw a dreadful monster indeed, for it was aterrible, great lion that lay on the side of the shore, under the shadeof a piece of the hill that hung as it were a little over him. "Xury,"says I, "you shall on shore and kill him." Xury, looked frighted, andsaid, "Me kill! he eat me at one mouth!"--one mouthful he meant.However, I said no more to the boy, but bade him lie still, and I tookour biggest gun, which was almost musket-bore, and loaded it with a goodcharge of powder, and with two slugs, and laid it down; then I loadedanother gun with two bullets; and the third (for we had three pieces) Iloaded with five smaller bullets. I took the best aim I could with thefirst piece to have shot him in the head, but he lay so with his legraised a little above his nose, that the slugs hit his leg about the kneeand broke the bone. He started up, growling at first, but finding hisleg broken, fell down again; and then got upon three legs, and gave themost hideous roar that ever I heard. I was a little surprised that I hadnot hit him on the head; however, I took up the second piece immediately,and though he began to move off, fired again, and shot him in the head,and had the pleasure to see him drop and make but little noise, but liestruggling for life. Then Xury took heart, and would have me let him goon shore. "Well, go," said I: so the boy jumped into the water andtaking a little gun in one hand, swam to shore with the other hand, andcoming close to the creature, put the muzzle of the piece to his ear, andshot him in the head again, which despatched him quite.
This was game indeed to us, but this was no food; and I was very sorry tolose three charges of powder and shot upon a creature that was good fornothing to us. However, Xury said he would have some of him; so he comeson board, and asked me to give him the hatchet. "For what, Xury?" saidI. "Me cut off his head," said he. However, Xury could not cut off hishead, but he cut off a foot, and brought it with him, and it was amonstrous great one.
I bethought myself, however, that, perhaps the skin of him might, one wayor other, be of some value to us; and I resolved to take off his skin ifI could. So Xury and I went to work with him; but Xury was much thebetter workman at it, for I knew very ill how to do it. Indeed, it tookus both up the whole day, but at last we got off the hide of him, andspreading it on the top of our cabin, the sun effectually dried it in twodays' time, and it afterwards served me to lie upon.