August 6, 2025 • 34 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter two, Slavery and Escape. That evil influence which carried
me first away from my father's house, which hurried me
into the wild and indigested notion of raising my fortune,
and that impressed those conceits so forcibly upon me as
(00:22):
to make me deaf to all good advice, and to
the entreaties and even the commands of my father. I
say the same influence, whatever it was, presented the most
unfortunate of all enterprises to my view, and I went
on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa,
(00:45):
or as our sailors vulgarly called it, a voyage to Guinea.
It was my misfortune that in all these adventures I
did not ship myself as a sailor, when though I
might have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet at
the same time I should have learnt the duty and
(01:07):
office of a foremasted man, and in time might have
qualified myself for a mate or a lieutenant, if not
for a master. But as it was always my fate
to choose for the worse, so I did here, For
having money in my pocket and good clothes upon my back,
(01:28):
I would always go on board in the habit of
a gentleman, and so I neither had any business in
the ship, nor learned to do any It was my lot,
first of all, to fall into pretty good company in London,
which does not always happen to such loose and misguided
(01:49):
young fellows, as I then was the devil, generally not
omitting to lay some snare for them very early. But
it was not so with me. I first got acquainted
with the master of a ship who had been on
the coast of Guinea, and who, having had very good
success there, was resolved to go again. This captain, taking
(02:14):
a fancy to my conversation, which was not at all
disagreeable at that time, hearing me say I had a
mind to see the world, told me if I would
go the voyage with him, I should be at no expense.
I should be his messmate and his companion, and if
(02:34):
I could carry anything with me, I should have all
the advantage of it that the trade would admit, and
perhaps I might meet with some encouragement. I embraced the offer,
and entering into a strict friendship with the captain, who
was an honest, plain dealing man, I went the voyage
with him and carried a small adventure with me, which
(02:59):
by the dissent interested honesty of my friend the Captain,
I increased very considerably, For I carried about forty pounds
in such toys and trifles as the Captain directed me
to buy. These forty pounds I had mustered together by
the assistance of some of my relations, whom I corresponded with,
and who I believe got my father or at least
(03:22):
my mother, to contribute so much as that to my
first adventure. This was the only voyage which I may
say was successful in all my adventures, which I owe
to the integrity and honesty of my friend the Captain,
under whom also I got a competent knowledge of the
(03:43):
mathematics and the rules of navigation, learned how to keep
an account of the ship's course, taken observation, and in
short to understand some things that were needful to be
understood by a sailor. For as he took delight to
instruct me, I took delight to learn. And in a word,
(04:05):
this voyage made me both a sailor and a merchant,
for I brought home five pounds nine ounces of gold
dust for my adventure, which yielded me in London at
my return almost three hundred pounds, and this filled me
with those aspiring thoughts which ever since so completed my ruin.
(04:31):
Yet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes, too,
particularly that I was continually sick, being thrown into a
violent calencher by the excessive heat of the climate, our
principal trading being upon the coast from latitude of fifteen
degrees north, even to the line itself. I was now
(04:57):
set up for a getty trader, my friend, to my
great misfortune, dying soon after his arrival. I resolved to
go the same voyage again, and I embarked in the
same vessel with one who was his mate in the
former voyage, and had now got the command of the ship.
(05:19):
This was the unhappiest voyage that ever man made, for
though I did not carry quite one hundred pounds of
my newly gained wealth, so that I left two hundred pounds,
which I had lodged with my friend's widow, who was
very just to me. Yet I fell into terrible misfortunes.
(05:39):
The first was this our ship, making her course toward
the Canary Islands, or rather between those islands and the
African shore, was surprised in the gray of the morning
by a Turkish rover of Slie, who gave chase to
us with all the sails she could make. We crowded
(06:00):
also as much canvas as our yards would spread as
or our masts carry to get clear. But finding the
pirate gained upon us and would certainly come up with
us in a few hours, we prepared to fight our ship,
having twelve guns in the rogue eighteen. About three in
(06:23):
the afternoon he came up upon us, and bringing to
by mistake, just a thwart our quarter instead of a
thwart our stern as he intended. We brought eight of
our guns to bear on that side, and poured in
a broadside upon him, which made him sheer off again.
(06:44):
After returning our fire and pouring in also his small
shot from near two hundred men which he had on board,
however we had not a man touched all our men.
Keeping close, he prepared to attack us again, and we
to defend ourselves, but laying us on board. The next
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time upon our other quarter, he entered sixty men upon
our decks, who immediately fell to cutting and hacking the
sails and rigging. We plied them with small shot half pikes,
powder chests, and such like, and cleared our deck of
them twice. However, to cut short this melancholy part of
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our story, our ship being disabled, and three of our
men killed and eight wounded, we were obliged to yield,
and were carried all prisoners into Silly, a port belonging
to the Moors. The usage I had there was not
so dreadful as at first I apprehended, nor was I
(07:54):
carried up the country to the Emperor's court, as the
rest of our men were, but was by the captain
of the rover as his proper prize, and made his slave,
being young and nimble and fit for his business. At
this surprising change of my circumstances, from a merchant to
a miserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed. And now I
(08:19):
looked back upon my father's prophetic discourse to me that
I should be miserable and have none to relieve me,
which I thought was now so effectually brought to pass
that I could not be worse. For now the hand
of Heaven had overtaken me, and I was undone without redemption.
(08:40):
But alas this was but a taste of the misery,
I was to go through, as will appear in the
sequel of the story. As my new patron or master
had taken me home to his house, so I was
in hopes that he would take me with him when
he went to sea again, believing that would sometime or
(09:01):
other be his fate to be taken by a Spanish
or Portugal ban of war, and that then I should
be set at liberty. But this hope of mine was
soon taken away, for when he went to see he
left me on shore to look after his little garden
and do the common drudgery of slaves around his house.
(09:21):
And when he came home again from his crews, he
ordered me to lie in the cabin to look after
the ship. Here I meditated nothing but my escape and
what method I might take to effect it, but found
no way that had the least probability in it. Nothing
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presented to make the supposition of it rational, for I
had nobody to communicate it to that would embark with me,
no fellow slave, no Englishman, Irishmen, or scotchman there but myself,
So that for two years, though I often pleased myself
(10:02):
with the imagination, yet I never had the least encouraging
prospect of putting it in practice. After about two years,
an odd circumstance presented itself, which put the old thought
of making some attempt for my liberty again in my head.
My patron lying at home longer than usual without fitting
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out his ship, which as I heard, was for want
of money, he used constantly, once or twice a week,
sometimes oftener, if the weather was fair, to take the
ship's pinnace and go out into the road of fishing.
And as he always took me and the young Moresco
with him to row the boat, we made him very merry,
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and I proved very dexterous in catching fish, insomuch that
sometimes he would send me with the Moore, one of
his kinsmen, and the youth, the Moresco as they called him,
to catch a day a fish for him. It happened
one time that, going to fishing in a calm morning,
(11:07):
a fog rose so thick that though we were not
half a league from the shore, we lost sight of it,
and rowing we knew not whither or which way. We
labored all day and all the next night, and when
the morning came we found we had pulled off to
sea instead of pulling in for shore, and that we
(11:28):
were at least two leagues from the shore. However, we
got well and again, though with a great deal of
labor and some danger, for the wind began to blow
pretty fresh in the morning. But we were all very hungry.
But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to take
(11:48):
more care of himself for the future, And having lying
by him the longboat of our English ship that he
had taken, he resolved he would not go fishing anymore
without a compass and some provision. So he ordered the
carpenter of his ship, which was also an English slave,
to build a little stateroom or cabin in the middle
(12:12):
of the longboat, like that of a barge, with the
place to stand behind it to steer and haul home
the main sheet, the room before for a hand or
two to stand and work the sails. She sailed with
what we call a shoulder of mutton sail, and the
(12:32):
boom jibed over the top of the cabin, which lay
very snug and low, and had in it room for
him to lie, with a slaver two and a table
to eat on, with some small lockers to put in
some bottles of such liquor as he thought fit to drink,
and his bread, rice and coffee. We went frequently out
(12:57):
with this boat a fishing, and as I was most
dexterous to catch fish for him, he never went without me.
It happened that he had appointed to go out in
this boat, either for pleasure or for fish, with two
or three moors of some distinction in that place, and
for whom he had provided extraordinarily, and had therefore sent
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on board the boat overnight a larger store of provisions
than ordinary, and had ordered me to get ready three
few z's with powder and shot, which were on board
his ship. For that they designed some sport of fouling,
as well as fishing. I got all things ready as
(13:40):
he had directed, and waited the next morning, with the
boat washed clean, her ancient and pendance out, and everything
to accommodate his guests, when by and by my patron
came on board alone and told me his guests had
put off going from some business that fell out, and
ordered me, with the man and boy as usual, to
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out go out with the boat and catch them some fish.
For that his friends were to step at his house,
and commanded that as soon as I got some fish,
I should bring it home to his house, all which
I prepared to do. This moment my former notions of
deliverance darted into my thoughts. For now I found I
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was likely to have a little ship at my command,
and my master being gone, I prepared to furnish myself
not for fishing business, but for a voyage. Though I
knew not neither did I so much as consider whither
I should steer anywhere. To get out of that place
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was my desire. My first contrivance was to make a
pretense to speak to this more to get something for
our subsistence on board. For I told him we must
not presume to eat of our patron's bread. He said
that was true, so he brought a large basket of
rusk or biscuit and three jars of fresh water into
(15:08):
the boat. I knew where my patron's case of bottles stood,
which it was evident by the make were taken out
of some English prize, and I conveyed them into the
boat while the moor was on shore, as if they
had been there before. For our master, I conveyed also
a great lump of bees wax into the boat, which
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weighed about half a hundredweight. With a parcel of twine
or thread, a hatchet, a saw, and a hammer, all
of which were of great use to us afterwards, especially
the wax to make candles. Another trick I tried upon him,
which he innocently came into. Also his name was Ishmael,
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which they called Muli or Moli, so I called him Molly,
said I, our patron's guns are on board the boat.
Can you not get a little powder and shot? It
may be we may kill kill some alcamis, a fowl
like our curlews for ourselves, for I know he keeps
(16:15):
the gunner's stores in the ship. Yes, says he, I'll
bring some. And accordingly he brought a great leather pouch
which held a pound and a half of powder, or
rather more, and another was shot that had five or
six pounds with some bullets, and put all into the boat.
(16:35):
At the same time I found some powder of my
master's in the great cabin, with which I filled one
of the large bottles in the case, which was almost empty,
pouring what was in it into another. And thus furnished
with everything needful, we sailed out of the port to
fish the castle, which is at the entrance of the port.
(17:00):
Knew who we were and took no notice of us,
and we were not above a mile out of the
port before we hauled in our sail and set us
down to fish. The wind blew from the north northeast,
which was contrary to my desire, for had it blown southenly,
I had been sure to have made the coast of
(17:20):
Spain and at least reached to the Bay of Cadiz.
But my resolutions were blow which way it would, I
would be gone from that horrid place where I was,
and leave the rest to fate. After we had fished
for some time and caught nothing, for when I had
(17:43):
fish on my hook, I would not pull them up
that he might not see them, I said to them more,
this will not do. Our master will not be thus served.
We must stand farther off. He, thinking no harm, agreed, and,
being in the head of the boat, set the sails,
and as I had the helm, I ran the boat
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out near a league farther, and then brought her to
as if I would fish. When giving the boy the helm,
I stepped forward to where the moor was, and, making
as if I stooped for something behind him, I took
him by surprise with my arm under his waist, and
tossed him clear overboard into the sea. He rose immediately,
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for he swam like a cork, and called to me,
begged to be taken in, told me he would go
all over the world with me. He swam so strong
after the boat that he would have reached me very quickly,
there being but little wind, upon which I stepped into
the cabin, and, fetching one of the fowling pieces, I
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presented it at him and told him I had done
him no hurt, and if he would be quiet, I
would do him none, But said I, you swim well
enough to reach to the shore, and the sea is calm.
Make the best of your way to shore, and I
will do you no harm. But if you come near
(19:09):
the boat, I'll shoot you through the head, for I
am resolved to have my liberty. And so he turned
himself about and swam for the shore. And I make
no doubt, but he reached it with ease, for he
was an excellent swimmer. I could have been content to
have taken this moar with me and have drowned the boy,
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but there was no venturing to trust him. When he
was gone, I turned to the boy whom they called Shuri,
and said to him, surely, if you will be faithful
to me, I'll make you a great man. But if
you will not stroke your face to be true to me,
that is swear by Mohammed and his father's beard, I
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must throw you into the sea too. The boy smiled
in my face and spoke so ill innocently that I
could not distress him, and swore to be faithful to
me and go all over the world with me. While
I was in view of the moor that was swimming,
I stood out directly to see with the boat, rather
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stretching to windward, that they might think me gone towards
the strait's mouth, as indeed anyone that had been in
their wits must have been supposed to do, for who
would have supposed We were sailed on to the southward,
to the truly barbarian coast, where whole nations of Negroes
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were sure to surround us with their boats and destroy us.
Where we could not go on shore, but we should
be devoured by savage beasts or more merciless savages of
the human kind. But as soon as it grew dusk
in the evening, I changed my course and steered directly
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south and by east, bending my course a little towards
the east, that I might keep in with the shore,
and having a fair, fresh gale of wind and a smooth,
quiet sea, I made such sail that I believed by
the next day, at three o'clock in the afternoon, when
I first made the land, I could not be less
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than one hundred and fifty miles south of Selie, quite
beyond the Emperor of Morocco's dominions, or indeed of any
other king thereabouts, for we saw no people. Yet. Such
was the fright I had taken of the moors, and
the dreadful apprehensions I had of falling into their hands,
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that I would not stop, or go on shore, or
come to an anchor. The wind continuing fair till I
had sailed in that manner five days, and then the
wind shifting to the southward. I concluded also that if
any of our vessels were in chase of me, they
also would now give over. So I ventured to make
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the coast and come to an anchor in the mouth
of a little river. I knew not what, nor where,
neither what latitude, what country, what nation, or what river.
I neither saw nor desire to see any people. The
principal thing I wanted was fresh water. We came into
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this creek in the evening, resolving to swim on shore
as soon as it was dark and discover the country.
But as soon as it was quite dark we heard
such dreadful noises of the barking, roaring and howling of
wild creatures, of we knew not what kinds. That the
poor boy was ready to die with fear, and begged
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of me not to go on shore till day. Well, surey,
said I, Then I won't. But it may be that
we may see men by day who will be as
bad to us as those lions. Then we give them
the shoot gun, said shurry, laughing, make them run away.
(23:07):
Such English Shury spoke by conversing among us slaves. However,
I was glad to see the boy so cheerful, and
I gave him a dram out of our patron's case
of bottles to cheer him up. After all, Shurrey's advice
was good, and I took it. We dropped our little
anchor and lay still all night. I say still, for
(23:30):
we slept none. For in two or three hours we
saw vast, great creatures we knew not what to call them,
of many sorts come down to the sea shore and
run into the water, wallowing and washing themselves for the
pleasure of cooling themselves. And they made such hideous howlings
and yellings that I never indeed heard the like. Shurry
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was dreadfully frightened, and indeed so was I too, But
we we were both more frighted when we heard one
of these mighty creatures come swimming towards our boat. We
could not see him, but we might hear him by
his blowing to be a monstrous, huge and furious beast.
Shuri said it was a lion, and it might be
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so for aught, I know, But poor Suri cried to
me to weigh the anchor and row away. No, says I, Surrey,
we can slip our cable with the boy to it
and go off to see they cannot follow us far.
I had no sooner said so, But I perceived the creature,
whatever it was, within two oar's length, which something surprised me. However,
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I immediately stepped to the cabin door, and, taking up
my gun, fired at him, upon which he immediately turned
about and swam towards the shore again. But it is
impossible to describe the horrid noises and hideous cries and
howlings that were raised as well upon the edge of
the shore as higher within the country. Upon the noise
(25:05):
or report of the gun, a thing I have some
reason to believe those creatures had never heard before. This
convinced me that there was no going on shore for
us in the night on that coast, And how to
venture on shore in the day was another question, too,
for to have fallen into the hands of any of
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the savages had been as bad as to have fallen
into the hands of the lions and tigers. At least
we were equally apprehensive of the danger of it. Be
that as it would, we were obliged to go on
shore somewhere or other for water, for we had not
a pint left in the boat. When and where to
(25:48):
get to it was the point Shurey said, if I
would let him go on shore with one of the jars,
he would find if there was any water and bring
some to me. I asked him why he should go,
Why I should not go and he stay in the boat.
The boy answered with so much affection as made me
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love him ever after, says he, if wild mans come
they eat me, you go away. Well, surey said I,
We will both go, and if the wild mans come,
we will kill them. They shall eat neither of us.
So I gave Shuy a piece of rusk bread to
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eat in a dram out of our patron's case of bottles,
which I mentioned before, And we hauled the boat in
as near to the shore as we thought was proper,
and so waited on shore, carrying nothing but our arms
and two jars for water. I did not care to
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go out of sight of the boat, fearing the coming
of canoes with savages down the river. But the boy,
seeing a low place about a mile up the rambled
to it, and by and bye I saw him come
running towards me. I thought he was pursued by some savage,
or frighted with some wild beast, and I ran towards
him to help him. But when I came nearer to him,
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I saw something hanging over his shoulders, which was a
creature that he had shot, like a hare, but different
in color and longer legs. However, we were very glad
of it, and it was very good meat. But the
great joy that poor Shury came with was to tell
me he had found good water and seen no wild
(27:35):
man's But we found afterwards that we need not take
such pains for water. For a little higher up the
creek where we were, we found the water fresh when
the tide was out, which flowed but a little way up,
and so we filled our jars and feasted on the
air he had killed, and prepared to go our way,
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having seen no footsteps of any human creature in that
part of the country. As I had been one voyage
to this coast before, I knew very well that the
islands of the Canaries and the Cape de Verde Islands
also lay not far off from the coast. But as
I had no instruments to take an observation to know
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what latitude we were in, and not exactly knowing or
at least remembering what latitude they were in, I knew
not where to look for them, or when to stand
off to see towards them. Otherwise I might now easily
have found some of these islands. But my hope was
that if I stood along this coast till I came
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to that part where the English traded, I should find
some of their vessels upon their usual design of trade
that would relieve and take us in. By the best
of my calculation, that place where I now was must
be that country which, lying between the Emperor of Morocco's
dominions and the Negroes, lies waste and uninhabited except by
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wild beasts, the Negroes having abandoned it and gone farther
south for fear of the Moors, and the moor Is,
not thinking it worth inhabiting by reason of its barrenness,
and indeed both forsaking it because of the prodigious numbers
of tigers, lions, leopards, and other furious creatures which harbour there,
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so that the Moors use it for their hunting only
where they go like an army, two or three thousand
men at a time, and indeed, for near one hundred
miles together upon this coast, we saw nothing but a waste,
uninhabited country by day, and heard nothing but howlings and
roaring of wild beasts by night. Once or twice in
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the daytime I thought I saw the Pico of Tenerife,
being the high top of the mountain Tenerife in the Canaries,
and had a great mind to venture out in hopes
of reaching thither, but having tried twice, I was forced
again in by contrary winds, the sea also going too
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high for my little vessel. So I resolved to pursue
my first design and keep along the shore. Several times
I was obliged to land for fresh water after we
had left this place, and once in particular, being early
in the morning, we came to an anchor under a
little point of land which was pretty high, and the
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tide beginning to flow. We lay still to go further in. Shurrey,
whose eyes were more about him than it seems mine were,
called softly to me and tells me that we had
best go farther off the shore. For says he, looking on,
there lies a dreadful monster on the side of that
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hillock fast asleep. I looked where he pointed, and saw
a dreadful monster. Indeed, for it was a terrible, great
lion that lay on the side of the shore, under
the shade of a piece of the hill that hung
as if it were a little over him. sureI says I,
you shall on shore and kill him. Shuri looked frighted
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and said me kill heat me one mouth one mouthful.
He meant. However, I said no more to the boy,
but bade him lie still. And I took our biggest gun,
which was almost musket bore, and loaded it with a
good charge of powder and with two slugs, and laid
it down. Then I loaded another gun with two bullets,
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and the third, for we had three pieces, I loaded
with five smaller bullets. I took the best daim I
could with the first piece to have shot him in
the head, but he lay so with his leg raised
a little above his nose that the slug hit his
knee and broke the bone. He started up, growling at first,
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but finding his leg broken, fell down again, and then
got up upon three legs and gave the most hideous
roar that ever I heard. I was a little surprised
that I had not hit him on the head. However,
I took up the second piece in immediately, and though
he began to move off, fired again and shot him
(32:30):
in the head, and had the pleasure to see him
drop and make but little noise, but lie struggling for life.
Then Shurrey took heart and would have me let him
go on shore. Well go, said I. So the boy
jumped into the water and taking a little gun in
one hand, swam ashore with the other, and coming close
(32:53):
to the creature, put the muzzle of the piece to
his ear and shot him in the head again, which
despatched him quite This was game, indeed to us, but
this was not food, and I was very sorry to
lose three charges of powder and shot upon a creature
that was good for nothing to us. However, Surrey said
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he would have some for him. So he comes on
board and asks me to give him the hatchet. For
what surey said, I me cut off his head, said he. However,
sure he could not cut off his head, but he
cut off a foot and brought it with him, and
it was a monstrous, great one. I bethought myself, however,
(33:40):
that perhaps the skin of him might, one way or another,
be of some value to us, and I resolved to
take off his skin if I could so. Shury and
I went to work with him. But Surrey was much
better the workman at it, for I knew very ill
how to do it. Indeed, it took both of us
up the whole day, but at last we got off
(34:03):
the hide of him, and spreading it on the top
of our cabin, the sun effectually dried it in two
days time, and it afterwards served me to lie. Upon
end of chapter two,
Chapter two, Slavery and Escape. That evil influence which carried
me first away from my father's house, which hurried me
into the wild and indigested notion of raising my fortune,
and that impressed those conceits so forcibly upon me as
(00:22):
to make me deaf to all good advice, and to
the entreaties and even the commands of my father. I
say the same influence, whatever it was, presented the most
unfortunate of all enterprises to my view, and I went
on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa,
(00:45):
or as our sailors vulgarly called it, a voyage to Guinea.
It was my misfortune that in all these adventures I
did not ship myself as a sailor, when though I
might have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet at
the same time I should have learnt the duty and
(01:07):
office of a foremasted man, and in time might have
qualified myself for a mate or a lieutenant, if not
for a master. But as it was always my fate
to choose for the worse, so I did here, For
having money in my pocket and good clothes upon my back,
(01:28):
I would always go on board in the habit of
a gentleman, and so I neither had any business in
the ship, nor learned to do any It was my lot,
first of all, to fall into pretty good company in London,
which does not always happen to such loose and misguided
(01:49):
young fellows, as I then was the devil, generally not
omitting to lay some snare for them very early. But
it was not so with me. I first got acquainted
with the master of a ship who had been on
the coast of Guinea, and who, having had very good
success there, was resolved to go again. This captain, taking
(02:14):
a fancy to my conversation, which was not at all
disagreeable at that time, hearing me say I had a
mind to see the world, told me if I would
go the voyage with him, I should be at no expense.
I should be his messmate and his companion, and if
(02:34):
I could carry anything with me, I should have all
the advantage of it that the trade would admit, and
perhaps I might meet with some encouragement. I embraced the offer,
and entering into a strict friendship with the captain, who
was an honest, plain dealing man, I went the voyage
with him and carried a small adventure with me, which
(02:59):
by the dissent interested honesty of my friend the Captain,
I increased very considerably, For I carried about forty pounds
in such toys and trifles as the Captain directed me
to buy. These forty pounds I had mustered together by
the assistance of some of my relations, whom I corresponded with,
and who I believe got my father or at least
(03:22):
my mother, to contribute so much as that to my
first adventure. This was the only voyage which I may
say was successful in all my adventures, which I owe
to the integrity and honesty of my friend the Captain,
under whom also I got a competent knowledge of the
(03:43):
mathematics and the rules of navigation, learned how to keep
an account of the ship's course, taken observation, and in
short to understand some things that were needful to be
understood by a sailor. For as he took delight to
instruct me, I took delight to learn. And in a word,
(04:05):
this voyage made me both a sailor and a merchant,
for I brought home five pounds nine ounces of gold
dust for my adventure, which yielded me in London at
my return almost three hundred pounds, and this filled me
with those aspiring thoughts which ever since so completed my ruin.
(04:31):
Yet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes, too,
particularly that I was continually sick, being thrown into a
violent calencher by the excessive heat of the climate, our
principal trading being upon the coast from latitude of fifteen
degrees north, even to the line itself. I was now
(04:57):
set up for a getty trader, my friend, to my
great misfortune, dying soon after his arrival. I resolved to
go the same voyage again, and I embarked in the
same vessel with one who was his mate in the
former voyage, and had now got the command of the ship.
(05:19):
This was the unhappiest voyage that ever man made, for
though I did not carry quite one hundred pounds of
my newly gained wealth, so that I left two hundred pounds,
which I had lodged with my friend's widow, who was
very just to me. Yet I fell into terrible misfortunes.
(05:39):
The first was this our ship, making her course toward
the Canary Islands, or rather between those islands and the
African shore, was surprised in the gray of the morning
by a Turkish rover of Slie, who gave chase to
us with all the sails she could make. We crowded
(06:00):
also as much canvas as our yards would spread as
or our masts carry to get clear. But finding the
pirate gained upon us and would certainly come up with
us in a few hours, we prepared to fight our ship,
having twelve guns in the rogue eighteen. About three in
(06:23):
the afternoon he came up upon us, and bringing to
by mistake, just a thwart our quarter instead of a
thwart our stern as he intended. We brought eight of
our guns to bear on that side, and poured in
a broadside upon him, which made him sheer off again.
(06:44):
After returning our fire and pouring in also his small
shot from near two hundred men which he had on board,
however we had not a man touched all our men.
Keeping close, he prepared to attack us again, and we
to defend ourselves, but laying us on board. The next
(07:07):
time upon our other quarter, he entered sixty men upon
our decks, who immediately fell to cutting and hacking the
sails and rigging. We plied them with small shot half pikes,
powder chests, and such like, and cleared our deck of
them twice. However, to cut short this melancholy part of
(07:31):
our story, our ship being disabled, and three of our
men killed and eight wounded, we were obliged to yield,
and were carried all prisoners into Silly, a port belonging
to the Moors. The usage I had there was not
so dreadful as at first I apprehended, nor was I
(07:54):
carried up the country to the Emperor's court, as the
rest of our men were, but was by the captain
of the rover as his proper prize, and made his slave,
being young and nimble and fit for his business. At
this surprising change of my circumstances, from a merchant to
a miserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed. And now I
(08:19):
looked back upon my father's prophetic discourse to me that
I should be miserable and have none to relieve me,
which I thought was now so effectually brought to pass
that I could not be worse. For now the hand
of Heaven had overtaken me, and I was undone without redemption.
(08:40):
But alas this was but a taste of the misery,
I was to go through, as will appear in the
sequel of the story. As my new patron or master
had taken me home to his house, so I was
in hopes that he would take me with him when
he went to sea again, believing that would sometime or
(09:01):
other be his fate to be taken by a Spanish
or Portugal ban of war, and that then I should
be set at liberty. But this hope of mine was
soon taken away, for when he went to see he
left me on shore to look after his little garden
and do the common drudgery of slaves around his house.
(09:21):
And when he came home again from his crews, he
ordered me to lie in the cabin to look after
the ship. Here I meditated nothing but my escape and
what method I might take to effect it, but found
no way that had the least probability in it. Nothing
(09:42):
presented to make the supposition of it rational, for I
had nobody to communicate it to that would embark with me,
no fellow slave, no Englishman, Irishmen, or scotchman there but myself,
So that for two years, though I often pleased myself
(10:02):
with the imagination, yet I never had the least encouraging
prospect of putting it in practice. After about two years,
an odd circumstance presented itself, which put the old thought
of making some attempt for my liberty again in my head.
My patron lying at home longer than usual without fitting
(10:22):
out his ship, which as I heard, was for want
of money, he used constantly, once or twice a week,
sometimes oftener, if the weather was fair, to take the
ship's pinnace and go out into the road of fishing.
And as he always took me and the young Moresco
with him to row the boat, we made him very merry,
(10:46):
and I proved very dexterous in catching fish, insomuch that
sometimes he would send me with the Moore, one of
his kinsmen, and the youth, the Moresco as they called him,
to catch a day a fish for him. It happened
one time that, going to fishing in a calm morning,
(11:07):
a fog rose so thick that though we were not
half a league from the shore, we lost sight of it,
and rowing we knew not whither or which way. We
labored all day and all the next night, and when
the morning came we found we had pulled off to
sea instead of pulling in for shore, and that we
(11:28):
were at least two leagues from the shore. However, we
got well and again, though with a great deal of
labor and some danger, for the wind began to blow
pretty fresh in the morning. But we were all very hungry.
But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to take
(11:48):
more care of himself for the future, And having lying
by him the longboat of our English ship that he
had taken, he resolved he would not go fishing anymore
without a compass and some provision. So he ordered the
carpenter of his ship, which was also an English slave,
to build a little stateroom or cabin in the middle
(12:12):
of the longboat, like that of a barge, with the
place to stand behind it to steer and haul home
the main sheet, the room before for a hand or
two to stand and work the sails. She sailed with
what we call a shoulder of mutton sail, and the
(12:32):
boom jibed over the top of the cabin, which lay
very snug and low, and had in it room for
him to lie, with a slaver two and a table
to eat on, with some small lockers to put in
some bottles of such liquor as he thought fit to drink,
and his bread, rice and coffee. We went frequently out
(12:57):
with this boat a fishing, and as I was most
dexterous to catch fish for him, he never went without me.
It happened that he had appointed to go out in
this boat, either for pleasure or for fish, with two
or three moors of some distinction in that place, and
for whom he had provided extraordinarily, and had therefore sent
(13:20):
on board the boat overnight a larger store of provisions
than ordinary, and had ordered me to get ready three
few z's with powder and shot, which were on board
his ship. For that they designed some sport of fouling,
as well as fishing. I got all things ready as
(13:40):
he had directed, and waited the next morning, with the
boat washed clean, her ancient and pendance out, and everything
to accommodate his guests, when by and by my patron
came on board alone and told me his guests had
put off going from some business that fell out, and
ordered me, with the man and boy as usual, to
(14:02):
out go out with the boat and catch them some fish.
For that his friends were to step at his house,
and commanded that as soon as I got some fish,
I should bring it home to his house, all which
I prepared to do. This moment my former notions of
deliverance darted into my thoughts. For now I found I
(14:23):
was likely to have a little ship at my command,
and my master being gone, I prepared to furnish myself
not for fishing business, but for a voyage. Though I
knew not neither did I so much as consider whither
I should steer anywhere. To get out of that place
(14:44):
was my desire. My first contrivance was to make a
pretense to speak to this more to get something for
our subsistence on board. For I told him we must
not presume to eat of our patron's bread. He said
that was true, so he brought a large basket of
rusk or biscuit and three jars of fresh water into
(15:08):
the boat. I knew where my patron's case of bottles stood,
which it was evident by the make were taken out
of some English prize, and I conveyed them into the
boat while the moor was on shore, as if they
had been there before. For our master, I conveyed also
a great lump of bees wax into the boat, which
(15:29):
weighed about half a hundredweight. With a parcel of twine
or thread, a hatchet, a saw, and a hammer, all
of which were of great use to us afterwards, especially
the wax to make candles. Another trick I tried upon him,
which he innocently came into. Also his name was Ishmael,
(15:51):
which they called Muli or Moli, so I called him Molly,
said I, our patron's guns are on board the boat.
Can you not get a little powder and shot? It
may be we may kill kill some alcamis, a fowl
like our curlews for ourselves, for I know he keeps
(16:15):
the gunner's stores in the ship. Yes, says he, I'll
bring some. And accordingly he brought a great leather pouch
which held a pound and a half of powder, or
rather more, and another was shot that had five or
six pounds with some bullets, and put all into the boat.
(16:35):
At the same time I found some powder of my
master's in the great cabin, with which I filled one
of the large bottles in the case, which was almost empty,
pouring what was in it into another. And thus furnished
with everything needful, we sailed out of the port to
fish the castle, which is at the entrance of the port.
(17:00):
Knew who we were and took no notice of us,
and we were not above a mile out of the
port before we hauled in our sail and set us
down to fish. The wind blew from the north northeast,
which was contrary to my desire, for had it blown southenly,
I had been sure to have made the coast of
(17:20):
Spain and at least reached to the Bay of Cadiz.
But my resolutions were blow which way it would, I
would be gone from that horrid place where I was,
and leave the rest to fate. After we had fished
for some time and caught nothing, for when I had
(17:43):
fish on my hook, I would not pull them up
that he might not see them, I said to them more,
this will not do. Our master will not be thus served.
We must stand farther off. He, thinking no harm, agreed, and,
being in the head of the boat, set the sails,
and as I had the helm, I ran the boat
(18:04):
out near a league farther, and then brought her to
as if I would fish. When giving the boy the helm,
I stepped forward to where the moor was, and, making
as if I stooped for something behind him, I took
him by surprise with my arm under his waist, and
tossed him clear overboard into the sea. He rose immediately,
(18:28):
for he swam like a cork, and called to me,
begged to be taken in, told me he would go
all over the world with me. He swam so strong
after the boat that he would have reached me very quickly,
there being but little wind, upon which I stepped into
the cabin, and, fetching one of the fowling pieces, I
(18:49):
presented it at him and told him I had done
him no hurt, and if he would be quiet, I
would do him none, But said I, you swim well
enough to reach to the shore, and the sea is calm.
Make the best of your way to shore, and I
will do you no harm. But if you come near
(19:09):
the boat, I'll shoot you through the head, for I
am resolved to have my liberty. And so he turned
himself about and swam for the shore. And I make
no doubt, but he reached it with ease, for he
was an excellent swimmer. I could have been content to
have taken this moar with me and have drowned the boy,
(19:31):
but there was no venturing to trust him. When he
was gone, I turned to the boy whom they called Shuri,
and said to him, surely, if you will be faithful
to me, I'll make you a great man. But if
you will not stroke your face to be true to me,
that is swear by Mohammed and his father's beard, I
(19:54):
must throw you into the sea too. The boy smiled
in my face and spoke so ill innocently that I
could not distress him, and swore to be faithful to
me and go all over the world with me. While
I was in view of the moor that was swimming,
I stood out directly to see with the boat, rather
(20:17):
stretching to windward, that they might think me gone towards
the strait's mouth, as indeed anyone that had been in
their wits must have been supposed to do, for who
would have supposed We were sailed on to the southward,
to the truly barbarian coast, where whole nations of Negroes
(20:38):
were sure to surround us with their boats and destroy us.
Where we could not go on shore, but we should
be devoured by savage beasts or more merciless savages of
the human kind. But as soon as it grew dusk
in the evening, I changed my course and steered directly
(21:00):
south and by east, bending my course a little towards
the east, that I might keep in with the shore,
and having a fair, fresh gale of wind and a smooth,
quiet sea, I made such sail that I believed by
the next day, at three o'clock in the afternoon, when
I first made the land, I could not be less
(21:21):
than one hundred and fifty miles south of Selie, quite
beyond the Emperor of Morocco's dominions, or indeed of any
other king thereabouts, for we saw no people. Yet. Such
was the fright I had taken of the moors, and
the dreadful apprehensions I had of falling into their hands,
(21:43):
that I would not stop, or go on shore, or
come to an anchor. The wind continuing fair till I
had sailed in that manner five days, and then the
wind shifting to the southward. I concluded also that if
any of our vessels were in chase of me, they
also would now give over. So I ventured to make
(22:05):
the coast and come to an anchor in the mouth
of a little river. I knew not what, nor where,
neither what latitude, what country, what nation, or what river.
I neither saw nor desire to see any people. The
principal thing I wanted was fresh water. We came into
(22:26):
this creek in the evening, resolving to swim on shore
as soon as it was dark and discover the country.
But as soon as it was quite dark we heard
such dreadful noises of the barking, roaring and howling of
wild creatures, of we knew not what kinds. That the
poor boy was ready to die with fear, and begged
(22:46):
of me not to go on shore till day. Well, surey,
said I, Then I won't. But it may be that
we may see men by day who will be as
bad to us as those lions. Then we give them
the shoot gun, said shurry, laughing, make them run away.
(23:07):
Such English Shury spoke by conversing among us slaves. However,
I was glad to see the boy so cheerful, and
I gave him a dram out of our patron's case
of bottles to cheer him up. After all, Shurrey's advice
was good, and I took it. We dropped our little
anchor and lay still all night. I say still, for
(23:30):
we slept none. For in two or three hours we
saw vast, great creatures we knew not what to call them,
of many sorts come down to the sea shore and
run into the water, wallowing and washing themselves for the
pleasure of cooling themselves. And they made such hideous howlings
and yellings that I never indeed heard the like. Shurry
(23:56):
was dreadfully frightened, and indeed so was I too, But
we we were both more frighted when we heard one
of these mighty creatures come swimming towards our boat. We
could not see him, but we might hear him by
his blowing to be a monstrous, huge and furious beast.
Shuri said it was a lion, and it might be
(24:18):
so for aught, I know, But poor Suri cried to
me to weigh the anchor and row away. No, says I, Surrey,
we can slip our cable with the boy to it
and go off to see they cannot follow us far.
I had no sooner said so, But I perceived the creature,
whatever it was, within two oar's length, which something surprised me. However,
(24:42):
I immediately stepped to the cabin door, and, taking up
my gun, fired at him, upon which he immediately turned
about and swam towards the shore again. But it is
impossible to describe the horrid noises and hideous cries and
howlings that were raised as well upon the edge of
the shore as higher within the country. Upon the noise
(25:05):
or report of the gun, a thing I have some
reason to believe those creatures had never heard before. This
convinced me that there was no going on shore for
us in the night on that coast, And how to
venture on shore in the day was another question, too,
for to have fallen into the hands of any of
(25:25):
the savages had been as bad as to have fallen
into the hands of the lions and tigers. At least
we were equally apprehensive of the danger of it. Be
that as it would, we were obliged to go on
shore somewhere or other for water, for we had not
a pint left in the boat. When and where to
(25:48):
get to it was the point Shurey said, if I
would let him go on shore with one of the jars,
he would find if there was any water and bring
some to me. I asked him why he should go,
Why I should not go and he stay in the boat.
The boy answered with so much affection as made me
(26:09):
love him ever after, says he, if wild mans come
they eat me, you go away. Well, surey said I,
We will both go, and if the wild mans come,
we will kill them. They shall eat neither of us.
So I gave Shuy a piece of rusk bread to
(26:31):
eat in a dram out of our patron's case of bottles,
which I mentioned before, And we hauled the boat in
as near to the shore as we thought was proper,
and so waited on shore, carrying nothing but our arms
and two jars for water. I did not care to
(26:51):
go out of sight of the boat, fearing the coming
of canoes with savages down the river. But the boy,
seeing a low place about a mile up the rambled
to it, and by and bye I saw him come
running towards me. I thought he was pursued by some savage,
or frighted with some wild beast, and I ran towards
him to help him. But when I came nearer to him,
(27:14):
I saw something hanging over his shoulders, which was a
creature that he had shot, like a hare, but different
in color and longer legs. However, we were very glad
of it, and it was very good meat. But the
great joy that poor Shury came with was to tell
me he had found good water and seen no wild
(27:35):
man's But we found afterwards that we need not take
such pains for water. For a little higher up the
creek where we were, we found the water fresh when
the tide was out, which flowed but a little way up,
and so we filled our jars and feasted on the
air he had killed, and prepared to go our way,
(27:59):
having seen no footsteps of any human creature in that
part of the country. As I had been one voyage
to this coast before, I knew very well that the
islands of the Canaries and the Cape de Verde Islands
also lay not far off from the coast. But as
I had no instruments to take an observation to know
(28:21):
what latitude we were in, and not exactly knowing or
at least remembering what latitude they were in, I knew
not where to look for them, or when to stand
off to see towards them. Otherwise I might now easily
have found some of these islands. But my hope was
that if I stood along this coast till I came
(28:43):
to that part where the English traded, I should find
some of their vessels upon their usual design of trade
that would relieve and take us in. By the best
of my calculation, that place where I now was must
be that country which, lying between the Emperor of Morocco's
dominions and the Negroes, lies waste and uninhabited except by
(29:08):
wild beasts, the Negroes having abandoned it and gone farther
south for fear of the Moors, and the moor Is,
not thinking it worth inhabiting by reason of its barrenness,
and indeed both forsaking it because of the prodigious numbers
of tigers, lions, leopards, and other furious creatures which harbour there,
(29:29):
so that the Moors use it for their hunting only
where they go like an army, two or three thousand
men at a time, and indeed, for near one hundred
miles together upon this coast, we saw nothing but a waste,
uninhabited country by day, and heard nothing but howlings and
roaring of wild beasts by night. Once or twice in
(29:52):
the daytime I thought I saw the Pico of Tenerife,
being the high top of the mountain Tenerife in the Canaries,
and had a great mind to venture out in hopes
of reaching thither, but having tried twice, I was forced
again in by contrary winds, the sea also going too
(30:13):
high for my little vessel. So I resolved to pursue
my first design and keep along the shore. Several times
I was obliged to land for fresh water after we
had left this place, and once in particular, being early
in the morning, we came to an anchor under a
little point of land which was pretty high, and the
(30:36):
tide beginning to flow. We lay still to go further in. Shurrey,
whose eyes were more about him than it seems mine were,
called softly to me and tells me that we had
best go farther off the shore. For says he, looking on,
there lies a dreadful monster on the side of that
(30:57):
hillock fast asleep. I looked where he pointed, and saw
a dreadful monster. Indeed, for it was a terrible, great
lion that lay on the side of the shore, under
the shade of a piece of the hill that hung
as if it were a little over him. sureI says I,
you shall on shore and kill him. Shuri looked frighted
(31:20):
and said me kill heat me one mouth one mouthful.
He meant. However, I said no more to the boy,
but bade him lie still. And I took our biggest gun,
which was almost musket bore, and loaded it with a
good charge of powder and with two slugs, and laid
it down. Then I loaded another gun with two bullets,
(31:43):
and the third, for we had three pieces, I loaded
with five smaller bullets. I took the best daim I
could with the first piece to have shot him in
the head, but he lay so with his leg raised
a little above his nose that the slug hit his
knee and broke the bone. He started up, growling at first,
(32:09):
but finding his leg broken, fell down again, and then
got up upon three legs and gave the most hideous
roar that ever I heard. I was a little surprised
that I had not hit him on the head. However,
I took up the second piece in immediately, and though
he began to move off, fired again and shot him
(32:30):
in the head, and had the pleasure to see him
drop and make but little noise, but lie struggling for life.
Then Shurrey took heart and would have me let him
go on shore. Well go, said I. So the boy
jumped into the water and taking a little gun in
one hand, swam ashore with the other, and coming close
(32:53):
to the creature, put the muzzle of the piece to
his ear and shot him in the head again, which
despatched him quite This was game, indeed to us, but
this was not food, and I was very sorry to
lose three charges of powder and shot upon a creature
that was good for nothing to us. However, Surrey said
(33:16):
he would have some for him. So he comes on
board and asks me to give him the hatchet. For
what surey said, I me cut off his head, said he. However,
sure he could not cut off his head, but he
cut off a foot and brought it with him, and
it was a monstrous, great one. I bethought myself, however,
(33:40):
that perhaps the skin of him might, one way or another,
be of some value to us, and I resolved to
take off his skin if I could so. Shury and
I went to work with him. But Surrey was much
better the workman at it, for I knew very ill
how to do it. Indeed, it took both of us
up the whole day, but at last we got off
(34:03):
the hide of him, and spreading it on the top
of our cabin, the sun effectually dried it in two
days time, and it afterwards served me to lie. Upon
end of chapter two,
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