SLAVERY AND ESCAPE

That evil influence which carried me first away from my father’srnhouse—which hurried me into the wild and indigested notion of raisingrnmy fortune, and that impressed those conceits so forcibly upon me as tornmake me deaf to all good advice, and to the entreaties and even therncommands of my father—I say, the same influence, whatever it was,rnpresented the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view; and Irnwent on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or, as our sailorsrnvulgarly called it, a voyage to Guinea.rnrnIt was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I did not shiprnmyself as a sailor; when, though I might indeed have worked a littlernharder than ordinary, yet at the same time I should have learnt thernduty and office of a fore-mast man, and in time might have qualifiedrnmyself for a mate or lieutenant, if not for a master. But as it wasrnalways my fate to choose for the worse, so I did here; for having moneyrnin my pocket and good clothes upon my back, I would always go on boardrnin the habit of a gentleman; and so I neither had any business in thernship, nor learned to do any.rnrnIt was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company in London,rnwhich does not always happen to such loose and misguided young fellowsrnas I then was; the devil generally not omitting to lay some snare forrnthem very early; but it was not so with me. I first got acquainted withrnthe master of a ship who had been on the coast of Guinea; and who,rnhaving had very good success there, was resolved to go again. Thisrncaptain taking a fancy to my conversation, which was not at allrndisagreeable at that time, hearing me say I had a mind to see thernworld, told me if I would go the voyage with him I should be at nornexpense; I should be his messmate and his companion; and if I couldrncarry anything with me, I should have all the advantage of it that therntrade would admit; and perhaps I might meet with some encouragement.rnrnI embraced the offer; and entering into a strict friendship with thisrncaptain, who was an honest, plain-dealing man, I went the voyage withrnhim, and carried a small adventure with me, which, by the disinterestedrnhonesty of my friend the captain, I increased very considerably; for Irncarried about £40 in such toys and trifles as the captain directed mernto buy. These £40 I had mustered together by the assistance of some ofrnmy relations whom I corresponded with; and who, I believe, got myrnfather, or at least my mother, to contribute so much as that to myrnfirst adventure.rnrnThis was the only voyage which I may say was successful in all myrnadventures, which I owe to the integrity and honesty of my friend therncaptain; under whom also I got a competent knowledge of the mathematicsrnand the rules of navigation, learned how to keep an account of thernship’s course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand somernthings that were needful to be understood by a sailor; for, as he tookrndelight to instruct me, I took delight to learn; and, in a word, thisrnvoyage made me both a sailor and a merchant; for I brought home fivernpounds nine ounces of gold-dust for my adventure, which yielded me inrnLondon, at my return, almost £300; and this filled me with thosernaspiring thoughts which have since so completed my ruin.rnrnYet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes too; particularly, that Irnwas continually sick, being thrown into a violent calenture by thernexcessive heat of the climate; our principal trading being upon therncoast, from latitude of 15 degrees north even to the line itself.rnrnI was now set up for a Guinea trader; and my friend, to my greatrnmisfortune, dying soon after his arrival, I resolved to go the samernvoyage again, and I embarked in the same vessel with one who was hisrnmate in the former voyage, and had now got the command of the ship.rnThis was the unhappiest voyage that ever man made; for though I did notrncarry quite £100 of my new-gained wealth, so that I had £200 left,rnwhich I had lodged with my friend’s widow, who was very just to me, yetrnI fell into terrible misfortunes. The first was this: our ship makingrnher course towards the Canary Islands, or rather between those islandsrnand the African shore, was surprised in the grey of the morning by arnTurkish rover of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all the sail sherncould make. We crowded also as much canvas as our yards would spread,rnor our masts carry, to get clear; but finding the pirate gained uponrnus, and would certainly come up with us in a few hours, we prepared tornfight; our ship having twelve guns, and the rogue eighteen. About threernin the afternoon he came up with us, and bringing to, by mistake, justrnathwart our quarter, instead of athwart our stern, as he intended, wernbrought eight of our guns to bear on that side, and poured in arnbroadside upon him, which made him sheer off again, after returning ourrnfire, and pouring in also his small shot from near two hundred menrnwhich he had on board. However, we had not a man touched, all our menrnkeeping close. He prepared to attack us again, and we to defendrnourselves. But laying us on board the next time upon our other quarter,rnhe entered sixty men upon our decks, who immediately fell to cuttingrnand hacking the sails and rigging. We plied them with small shot,rnhalf-pikes, powder-chests, and such like, and cleared our deck of themrntwice. However, to cut short this melancholy part of our story, ourrnship being disabled, and three of our men killed, and eight wounded, wernwere obliged to yield, and were carried all prisoners into Sallee, arnport belonging to the Moors.rnrnThe usage I had there was not so dreadful as at first I apprehended;rnnor was I carried up the country to the emperor’s court, as the rest ofrnour men were, but was kept by the captain of the rover as his properrnprize, and made his slave, being young and nimble, and fit for hisrnbusiness. At this surprising change of my circumstances, from arnmerchant to a miserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed; and now Irnlooked back upon my father’s prophetic discourse to me, that I shouldrnbe miserable and have none to relieve me, which I thought was now sorneffectually brought to pass that I could not be worse; for now the handrnof Heaven had overtaken me, and I was undone without redemption; but,rnalas! this was but a taste of the misery I was to go through, as willrnappear in the sequel of this story.rnrnAs my new patron, or master, had taken me home to his house, so I wasrnin hopes that he would take me with him when he went to sea again,rnbelieving that it would some time or other be his fate to be taken by arnSpanish or Portugal man-of-war; and that then I should be set atrnliberty. But this hope of mine was soon taken away; for when he went tornsea, he left me on shore to look after his little garden, and do therncommon drudgery of slaves about his house; and when he came home againrnfrom his cruise, he ordered me to lie in the cabin to look after thernship.rnrnHere I meditated nothing but my escape, and what method I might take torneffect it, but found no way that had the least probability in it;rnnothing presented to make the supposition of it rational; for I hadrnnobody to communicate it to that would embark with me—no fellow-slave,rnno Englishman, Irishman, or Scotchman there but myself; so that for twornyears, though I often pleased myself with the imagination, yet I neverrnhad the least encouraging prospect of putting it in practice.rnrnAfter about two years, an odd circumstance presented itself, which putrnthe old thought of making some attempt for my liberty again in my head.rnMy patron lying at home longer than usual without fitting out his ship,rnwhich, as I heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once orrntwice a week, sometimes oftener if the weather was fair, to take thernship’s pinnace and go out into the road a-fishing; and as he alwaysrntook me and young Maresco with him to row the boat, we made him veryrnmerry, and I proved very dexterous in catching fish; insomuch thatrnsometimes he would send me with a Moor, one of his kinsmen, and thernyouth—the Maresco, as they called him—to catch a dish of fish for him.rnrnIt happened one time, that going a-fishing in a calm morning, a fogrnrose so thick that, though we were not half a league from the shore, wernlost sight of it; and rowing we knew not whither or which way, wernlaboured all day, and all the next night; and when the morning came wernfound we had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; andrnthat we were at least two leagues from the shore. However, we got wellrnin again, though with a great deal of labour and some danger; for thernwind began to blow pretty fresh in the morning; but we were all veryrnhungry.rnrnBut our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to take more care ofrnhimself for the future; and having lying by him the longboat of ourrnEnglish ship that he had taken, he resolved he would not go a-fishingrnany more without a compass and some provision; so he ordered therncarpenter of his ship, who also was an English slave, to build a littlernstate-room, or cabin, in the middle of the long-boat, like that of arnbarge, with a place to stand behind it to steer, and haul home thernmain-sheet; the room before for a hand or two to stand and work thernsails. She sailed with what we call a shoulder-of-mutton sail; and thernboom jibed over the top of the cabin, which lay very snug and low, andrnhad in it room for him to lie, with a slave or two, and a table to eatrnon, with some small lockers to put in some bottles of such liquor as hernthought fit to drink; and his bread, rice, and coffee.rnrnWe went frequently out with this boat a-fishing; and as I was mostrndexterous to catch fish for him, he never went without me. It happenedrnthat he had appointed to go out in this boat, either for pleasure orrnfor fish, with two or three Moors of some distinction in that place,rnand for whom he had provided extraordinarily, and had, therefore, sentrnon board the boat overnight a larger store of provisions than ordinary;rnand had ordered me to get ready three fusees with powder and shot,rnwhich were on board his ship, for that they designed some sport ofrnfowling as well as fishing.rnrnI got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the next morningrnwith the boat washed clean, her ancient and pendants out, andrneverything to accommodate his guests; when by-and-by my patron came onrnboard alone, and told me his guests had put off going from somernbusiness that fell out, and ordered me, with the man and boy, as usual,rnto go out with the boat and catch them some fish, for that his friendsrnwere to sup at his house, and commanded that as soon as I got some fishrnI should bring it home to his house; all which I prepared to do.rnrnThis moment my former notions of deliverance darted into my thoughts,rnfor now I found I was likely to have a little ship at my command; andrnmy master being gone, I prepared to furnish myself, not for fishingrnbusiness, but for a voyage; though I knew not, neither did I so much asrnconsider, whither I should steer—anywhere to get out of that place wasrnmy desire.rnrnMy first contrivance was to make a pretence to speak to this Moor, tornget something for our subsistence on board; for I told him we must notrnpresume to eat of our patron’s bread. He said that was true; so hernbrought a large basket of rusk or biscuit, and three jars of freshrnwater, into the boat. I knew where my patron’s case of bottles stood,rnwhich it was evident, by the make, were taken out of some Englishrnprize, and I conveyed them into the boat while the Moor was on shore,rnas if they had been there before for our master. I conveyed also arngreat lump of beeswax into the boat, which weighed about half arnhundred-weight, with a parcel of twine or thread, a hatchet, a saw, andrna hammer, all of which were of great use to us afterwards, especiallyrnthe wax, to make candles. Another trick I tried upon him, which herninnocently came into also: his name was Ismael, which they call Muley,rnor Moely; so I called to him—“Moely,” said I, “our patron’s guns are onrnboard the boat; can you not get a little powder and shot? It may be wernmay kill some alcamies (a fowl like our curlews) for ourselves, for Irnknow he keeps the gunner’s stores in the ship.” “Yes,” says he, “I’llrnbring some;” and accordingly he brought a great leather pouch, whichrnheld a pound and a half of powder, or rather more; and another withrnshot, that had five or six pounds, with some bullets, and put all intornthe boat. At the same time I had found some powder of my master’s inrnthe great cabin, with which I filled one of the large bottles in therncase, which was almost empty, pouring what was in it into another; andrnthus furnished with everything needful, we sailed out of the port tornfish. The castle, which is at the entrance of the port, knew who wernwere, and took no notice of us; and we were not above a mile out of thernport before we hauled in our sail and set us down to fish. The windrnblew from the N.N.E., which was contrary to my desire, for had it blownrnsoutherly I had been sure to have made the coast of Spain, and at leastrnreached to the bay of Cadiz; but my resolutions were, blow which way itrnwould, I would be gone from that horrid place where I was, and leavernthe rest to fate.rnrnAfter we had fished some time and caught nothing—for when I had fish onrnmy hook I would not pull them up, that he might not see them—I said tornthe Moor, “This will not do; our master will not be thus served; wernmust stand farther off.” He, thinking no harm, agreed, and being in thernhead of the boat, set the sails; and, as I had the helm, I ran the boatrnout near a league farther, and then brought her to, as if I would fish;rnwhen, giving the boy the helm, I stepped forward to where the Moor was,rnand making as if I stooped for something behind him, I took him byrnsurprise with my arm under his waist, and tossed him clear overboardrninto the sea. He rose immediately, for he swam like a cork, and calledrnto me, begged to be taken in, told me he would go all over the worldrnwith me. He swam so strong after the boat that he would have reached mernvery quickly, there being but little wind; upon which I stepped intornthe cabin, and fetching one of the fowling-pieces, I presented it atrnhim, and told him I had done him no hurt, and if he would be quiet Irnwould do him none. “But,” said I, “you swim well enough to reach to thernshore, and the sea is calm; make the best of your way to shore, and Irnwill do you no harm; but if you come near the boat I’ll shoot yournthrough the head, for I am resolved to have my liberty;” so he turnedrnhimself about, and swam for the shore, and I make no doubt but hernreached it with ease, for he was an excellent swimmer.rnrnI could have been content to have taken this Moor with me, and haverndrowned the boy, but there was no venturing to trust him. When he wasrngone, 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 ifrnyou will not stroke your face to be true to me”—that is, swear byrnMahomet and his father’s beard—“I must throw you into the sea too.” Thernboy smiled in my face, and spoke so innocently that I could notrndistrust him, and swore to be faithful to me, and go all over the worldrnwith me.rnrnWhile I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I stood out directlyrnto sea with the boat, rather stretching to windward, that they mightrnthink me gone towards the Straits’ mouth (as indeed any one that hadrnbeen in their wits must have been supposed to do): for who would havernsupposed we were sailed on to the southward, to the truly Barbarianrncoast, where whole nations of negroes were sure to surround us withrntheir canoes and destroy us; where we could not go on shore but wernshould be devoured by savage beasts, or more merciless savages of humanrnkind.rnrnBut as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed my course, andrnsteered directly south and by east, bending my course a little towardsrnthe east, that I might keep in with the shore; and having a fair, freshrngale of wind, and a smooth, quiet sea, I made such sail that I believernby the next day, at three o’clock in the afternoon, when I first madernthe land, I could not be less than one hundred and fifty miles south ofrnSallee; quite beyond the Emperor of Morocco’s dominions, or indeed ofrnany other king thereabouts, for we saw no people.rnrnYet such was the fright I had taken of the Moors, and the dreadfulrnapprehensions I had of falling into their hands, that I would not stop,rnor go on shore, or come to an anchor; the wind continuing fair till Irnhad sailed in that manner five days; and then the wind shifting to thernsouthward, I concluded also that if any of our vessels were in chase ofrnme, they also would now give over; so I ventured to make to the coast,rnand came to an anchor in the mouth of a little river, I knew not what,rnnor where, neither what latitude, what country, what nation, or whatrnriver. I neither saw, nor desired to see any people; the principalrnthing I wanted was fresh water. We came into this creek in the evening,rnresolving to swim on shore as soon as it was dark, and discover therncountry; but as soon as it was quite dark, we heard such dreadfulrnnoises of the barking, roaring, and howling of wild creatures, of wernknew not what kinds, that the poor boy was ready to die with fear, andrnbegged of me not to go on shore till day. “Well, Xury,” said I, “then Irnwon’t; but it may be that we may see men by day, who will be as bad tornus as those lions.” “Then we give them the shoot gun,” says Xury,rnlaughing, “make them run wey.” Such English Xury spoke by conversingrnamong us slaves. However, I was glad to see the boy so cheerful, and Irngave him a dram (out of our patron’s case of bottles) to cheer him up.rnAfter all, Xury’s advice was good, and I took it; we dropped our littlernanchor, and lay still all night; I say still, for we slept none; for inrntwo or three hours we saw vast great creatures (we knew not what torncall them) of many sorts, come down to the sea-shore and run into thernwater, wallowing and washing themselves for the pleasure of coolingrnthemselves; and they made such hideous howlings and yellings, that Irnnever indeed heard the like.rnrnXury was dreadfully frighted, and indeed so was I too; but we were bothrnmore frighted when we heard one of these mighty creatures come swimmingrntowards our boat; we could not see him, but we might hear him by hisrnblowing to be a monstrous huge and furious beast. Xury said it was arnlion, and it might be so for aught I know; but poor Xury cried to me tornweigh the anchor and row away; “No,” says I, “Xury; we can slip ourrncable, with the buoy to it, and go off to sea; they cannot follow usrnfar.” I had no sooner said so, but I perceived the creature (whateverrnit was) within two oars’ length, which something surprised me; however,rnI immediately stepped to the cabin door, and taking up my gun, fired atrnhim; upon which he immediately turned about and swam towards the shorernagain.rnrnBut it is impossible to describe the horrid noises, and hideous criesrnand howlings that were raised, as well upon the edge of the shore asrnhigher within the country, upon the noise or report of the gun, a thingrnI have some reason to believe those creatures had never heard before:rnthis convinced me that there was no going on shore for us in the nightrnon that coast, and how to venture on shore in the day was anotherrnquestion too; for to have fallen into the hands of any of the savagesrnhad been as bad as to have fallen into the hands of the lions andrntigers; at least we were equally apprehensive of the danger of it.rnrnBe that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore somewhere or otherrnfor water, for we had not a pint left in the boat; when and where tornget to it was the point. Xury said, if I would let him go on shore withrnone of the jars, he would find if there was any water, and bring somernto me. I asked him why he would go? why I should not go, and he stay inrnthe boat? The boy answered with so much affection as made me love himrnever after. Says he, “If wild mans come, they eat me, you go wey.”“Well, Xury,” said I, “we will both go and if the wild mans come, wernwill kill them, they shall eat neither of us.” So I gave Xury a piecernof rusk bread to eat, and a dram out of our patron’s case of bottlesrnwhich I mentioned before; and we hauled the boat in as near the shorernas we thought was proper, and so waded on shore, carrying nothing butrnour arms and two jars for water.rnrnI did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the coming ofrncanoes with savages down the river; but the boy seeing a low placernabout a mile up the country, rambled to it, and by-and-by I saw himrncome running towards me. I thought he was pursued by some savage, orrnfrighted with some wild beast, and I ran forward towards him to helprnhim; but when I came nearer to him I saw something hanging over hisrnshoulders, which was a creature that he had shot, like a hare, butrndifferent in colour, and longer legs; however, we were very glad of it,rnand it was very good meat; but the great joy that poor Xury came with,rnwas to tell me he had found good water and seen no wild mans.rnrnBut we found afterwards that we need not take such pains for water, forrna little higher up the creek where we were we found the water freshrnwhen the tide was out, which flowed but a little way up; so we filledrnour jars, and feasted on the hare he had killed, and prepared to go onrnour way, having seen no footsteps of any human creature in that part ofrnthe country.rnrnAs I had been one voyage to this coast before, I knew very well thatrnthe islands of the Canaries, and the Cape de Verde Islands also, layrnnot far off from the coast. But as I had no instruments to take anrnobservation to know what latitude we were in, and not exactly knowing,rnor at least remembering, what latitude they were in, I knew not wherernto look for them, or when to stand off to sea towards them; otherwise Irnmight now easily have found some of these islands. But my hope was,rnthat if I stood along this coast till I came to that part where thernEnglish traded, I should find some of their vessels upon their usualrndesign of trade, that would relieve and take us in.rnrnBy the best of my calculation, that place where I now was must be thatrncountry which, lying between the Emperor of Morocco’s dominions and thernnegroes, lies waste and uninhabited, except by wild beasts; the negroesrnhaving abandoned it and gone farther south for fear of the Moors, andrnthe Moors not thinking it worth inhabiting by reason of its barrenness;rnand indeed, both forsaking it because of the prodigious number ofrntigers, lions, leopards, and other furious creatures which harbourrnthere; so that the Moors use it for their hunting only, where they gornlike an army, two or three thousand men at a time; and indeed for nearrna hundred miles together upon this coast we saw nothing but a waste,rnuninhabited country by day, and heard nothing but howlings and roaringrnof wild beasts by night.rnrnOnce or twice in the daytime I thought I saw the Pico of Teneriffe,rnbeing the high top of the Mountain Teneriffe in the Canaries, and had arngreat mind to venture out, in hopes of reaching thither; but havingrntried twice, I was forced in again by contrary winds, the sea alsorngoing too high for my little vessel; so, I resolved to pursue my firstrndesign, and keep along the shore.rnrnSeveral times I was obliged to land for fresh water, after we had leftrnthis place; and once in particular, being early in morning, we came tornan anchor under a little point of land, which was pretty high; and therntide beginning to flow, we lay still to go farther in. Xury, whose eyesrnwere more about him than it seems mine were, calls softly to me, andrntells me that we had best go farther off the shore; “For,” says he,“look, yonder lies a dreadful monster on the side of that hillock, fastrnasleep.” I looked where he pointed, and saw a dreadful monster indeed,rnfor it was a terrible, great lion that lay on the side of the shore,rnunder the shade of a piece of the hill that hung as it were a littlernover him. “Xury,” says I, “you shall go on shore and kill him.” Xury,rnlooked frighted, and said, “Me kill! he eat me at one mouth!”—onernmouthful he meant. However, I said no more to the boy, but bade him liernstill, and I took our biggest gun, which was almost musket-bore, andrnloaded it with a good charge of powder, and with two slugs, and laid itrndown; then I loaded another gun with two bullets; and the third (for wernhad three pieces) I loaded with five smaller bullets. I took the bestrnaim I could with the first piece to have shot him in the head, but hernlay so with his leg raised a little above his nose, that the slugs hitrnhis leg about the knee and broke the bone. He started up, growling atrnfirst, but finding his leg broken, fell down again; and then got uponrnthree legs, and gave the most hideous roar that ever I heard. I was arnlittle surprised that I had not hit him on the head; however, I took uprnthe second piece immediately, and though he began to move off, firedrnagain, and shot him in the head, and had the pleasure to see him droprnand make but little noise, but lie struggling for life. Then Xury tookrnheart, and would have me let him go on shore. “Well, go,” said I: sornthe boy jumped into the water and taking a little gun in one hand, swamrnto shore with the other hand, and coming close to the creature, put thernmuzzle of the piece to his ear, and shot him in the head again, whichrndespatched him quite.rnrnThis was game indeed to us, but this was no food; and I was very sorryrnto lose three charges of powder and shot upon a creature that was goodrnfor nothing to us. However, Xury said he would have some of him; so herncomes on board, and asked me to give him the hatchet. “For what, Xury?”rnsaid I. “Me cut off his head,” said he. However, Xury could not cut offrnhis head, but he cut off a foot, and brought it with him, and it was arnmonstrous great one.rnrnI bethought myself, however, that, perhaps the skin of him might, onernway or other, be of some value to us; and I resolved to take off hisrnskin if I could. So Xury and I went to work with him; but Xury was muchrnthe better workman at it, for I knew very ill how to do it. Indeed, itrntook us both up the whole day, but at last we got off the hide of him,rnand spreading it on the top of our cabin, the sun effectually dried itrnin two days’ time, and it afterwards served me to lie upon.