Here we stay'd thirteen Days more, in which time we had many pleasant Adventures
with the Savages, too long to mention here, and some of them too homely to tell
off; for some of our Men had made something free with their Women, which, had
not our new Guide made Peace for us with one of their Men, at the Price of seven
fine Bits of Silver, which our Artificer had cut out into the Shapes of Lions,
and Fishes, and Birds, and had punch'd Holes to hang them up by (an inestimable
Treasure!) we must have gone to War with them and all their People.
All the while we were busy washing Gold Dust out of the Rivers, and our Negroes
the like, our ingenious Cutler was hammering and cutting, and he was grown so
dexterous by Use, that he formed all Manner of Images. He cut out Elephants,
Tygers, Civet Cats, Ostriches, Eagles, Cranes, Fowls, Fishes, and indeed
whatever he pleased, in thin Plates of hammer'd Gold, for his Silver and Iron
was almost all gone.
At one of the Towns of these Savage Nations we were very friendly received by
their King; and as he was very much taken with our Workman's Toys, he sold him
an Elephant cut out of a Gold Plate as thin as a Six-pence, at an extravagant
Rate. He was so much taken with it, that he would not be quiet till he had given
him almost a Handful of Gold Dust, as they call it. I suppose it might weigh
three Quarters of a Pound; the Piece of Gold that the Elephant was made of,
might be about the Weight of a Pistole, rather less than more. Our Artist was so
honest, tho' the Labour and Art was all his own, that he brought all the Gold,
and put it into our common Stock: But we had indeed no Manner of Reason in the
least to be covetous; for, as our new Guide told us, we that were strong enough
to defend our selves, and had Time enough to stay (for we were none of us in
Haste) might in time get together what Quantity of Gold we pleased, even to an
Hundred Pound Weight a Man, if we thought fit; and therefore he told us, tho' he
had as much Reason to be sick of the Country as any of us, yet if we thought to
turn our March a little to the South-East, and pitch upon a Place proper for our
Head Quarters, we might find Provisions plenty enough, and extend our selves
over the Country among the Rivers for two or three Year to the Right and Left,
and we should soon find the Advantage of it.
The Proposal, however good as to the profitable Part of it, suited none of us;
for we were all more desirous to get Home, than to be rich, being tired of the
excessive Fatigue of above a Year's continual Wandring among Desarts and wild
Beasts.
However, the Tongue of our new Acquaintance had a Kind of Charm in it, and used
such Arguments, and had so much the Power of Perswasion, that there was no
resisting him. He told us, it was preposterous not to take the Fruit of all our
Labours, now we were come to the Harvest; that we might see the Hazard the
Europeans run, with Ships and Men, and at great Expence, to fetch a little Gold;
and that we that were in the Center of it, to go away empty handed, was
unaccountable; that we were strong enough to fight our Way thro' whole Nations,
and might make our Journey afterward to what Part of the Coast we pleased; and
we should never forgive our selves when we came to our own Country, to see we
had 500 Pistoles in Gold, and might as easily have had 5000, or 10000, or what
we pleased; that he was no more covetous than we, but seeing it was in all our
Powers to retrieve our Misfortunes at once, and to make our selves easy for all
our Lives, he could not be faithful to us, or grateful for the Good we had done
him, if he did not let us see the Advantage we had in our Hands; and he assured
us, he would make it clear to our own Understanding, that we might in two Years
time, by good Management, and by the Help of our Negroes, gather every Man a
Hundred Pound Weight of Gold, and get together perhaps two Hundred Ton of Teeth:
Whereas, if once we push'd on to the Coast, and separated, we should never be
able to see that Place again with our Eyes, or do any more than Sinners did with
Heaven, wish themselves there, but know they can never come at it.
Our Surgeon was the first Man that yielded to his Reasoning, and after him the
Gunner; and they two indeed had a great Influence over us, but none of the rest
had any Mind to stay, nor I neither, I must confess; for I had no Notion of a
great deal of Money, or what to do with my self, or what to do with it if I had
it. I thought I had enough already, and all the Thoughts I had about disposing
of it, if I came to Europe, was only how to spend it as fast as I could, buy me
some Clothes, and go to Sea again to be a Drudge for more.
However, he prevailed with us by his good Words at last, to stay but for six
Months in the Country, and then, if we did resolve to go, he would submit: So at
length we yielded to that, and he carry'd us about fifty English Miles
South-East, where we found several Rivulets of Water, which seem'd to come all
from a great Ridge of Mountains, which lay to the North-East, and which, by our
Calculation, must be the Beginning that Way of the great Wast, which we had been
forc'd Northward to avoid.
Here we found the Country barren enough, but yet we had, by his Direction,
Plenty of Food; for the Savages round us, upon giving them some of our Toys, as
I have so often mentioned, brought us in whatever they had: And here we found
some Maise, or Indian Wheat, which the Negroe Women planted, as we sow Seeds in
a Garden, and immediately our new Proveditor ordered some of our Negroes to
plant it, and it grew up presently, and by watering it often, we had a Crop in
less than three Months Growth.
As soon as we were settled, and our Camp fix'd, we fell to the old Trade of
Fishing for Gold in the Rivers mentioned above; and our English Gentleman so
well knew how to direct our Search, that we scarce ever lost our Labour.
One time, having set us to Work, he asked, if we would give him Leave, with four
or five Negroes, to go out for six or seven Days, to seek his Fortune, and see
what he could discover in the Country, assuring us, whatever he got should be
for the publick Stock. We all gave him our Consent, lent him a Gun; and two of
our Men desiring to go with him, they took then six Negroes with them, and two
of our Buffloes that came with us the whole Journey; they took about eight Days
Provision of Bread with them, but no Flesh, except about as much dried Flesh as
would serve them two Days.
They travelled up to the Top of the Mountains I mentioned just now, where they
saw, (as our Men afterwards vouch'd it to be) the same Desart which we were so
justly terrified at, when we were on the further Side, and which, by our
Calculation, could not be less than 300 Miles broad, and above 600 Miles in
Length, without knowing where it ended.
The Journal of their Travels is too long to enter upon here; they stayed out two
and fifty Days, when they brought us seventeen Pound, and something more (for we
had no exact Weight) of Gold Dust, some of it in much larger Pieces than any we
found before; besides abo
ut fifteen Ton of Elephants Teeth, which he had, partly
by good Usage, and partly by bad, obliged the Savages of the Country to fetch,
and bring down to him from the Mountains, and which he made others bring with
him quite down to our Camp. Indeed we wondered what was coming to us, when we
saw him attended with above 200 Negroes; but he soon undeceived us, when he made
them all throw down their Burthens on a Heap, at the Entrance of our Camp.
Besides this, they brought two Lions Skins, and five Leopards Skins, very large
and very fine. He asked our Pardon for his long Stay, and that he had made no
greater a Booty, but told us, he had one Excursion more to make, which he hop'd
should turn to a better Account.
So having rested himself, and rewarded the Savages that brought the Teeth for
him, with some Bits of Silver and Iron cut out Diamond Fashion, and with two
shap'd like little Dogs, he sent them away mightily pleased.
The second Journey he went, some more of our Men desired to go with him, and
they made a Troop of ten white Men, and ten Savages, and the two Buffloes to
carry their Provisions and Ammunition. They took the same Course, only not
exactly the same Tract, and they stay'd thirty two Days only, in which time they
killed no less than fifteen Leopards, three Lions, and several other Creatures,
and brought us Home four and twenty Pound, some Ounces of Gold Dust, and only
six Elephants Teeth, but they were very great ones.
Our Friend the Englishman shewed us now, that our Time was well bestow'd; for in
five Months which we had stayed here, we had gathered so much Gold Dust, that
when we came to share it, we had five Pound and a Quarter to a Man, besides what
we had before, and besides six or seven Pound Weight which we had at several
times given our Artificer to make Baubles with; and now we talk'd of going
forward to the Coast, to put an End to our Journey; but our Guide laught at us
then: Nay you can't go now, says he; for the rainy Season begins next Month, and
there will be no stirring then. This we found indeed reasonable, so we resolved
to furnish our selves with Provisions that we might not be obliged to go abroad
too much in the Rain, and we spread our selves some one Way, some another, as
far as we cared to venture, to get Provisions, and our Negroes killed us some
Deer which we cured as well as we could, in the Sun, for we had now no Salt.
By this time the rainy Months were set in, and we could scarce, for above two
Months, look out of our Hutts. But that was not all, for the Rivers were so
swelled with the Land Floods that we scarce knew the little Brooks and Rivulets
from the great navigable Rivers. This had been a very good Opportunity for to
have convey'd by Water, upon Rafts, our Elephants Teeth, of which we had a very
great Pile; for as we always gave the Savages some Reward for their Labour, the
very Women would bring us Teeth upon every Opportunity, and sometimes a great
Tooth carried between two; so that our Quantity was encreased to about two and
twenty Ton of Teeth.
As soon as the Weather proved fair again, he told us he would not press us to
any further Stay, since we did not care whether we got any more Gold or no; that
we were indeed the first Men ever he met with in his Life, that said they had
Gold enough, and of whom it might be truly said, that when it lay under our
Feet, we would not stoop to take it up. But since he had made us a Promise, he
would not break it, nor press us to make any farther Stay, only he thought he
ought to tell us, that now was the Time, after the Land Flood, when the greatest
Quantity of Gold was found; and that if we stayed but one Month, we should see
Thousands of Savages spread themselves over the whole Country, to wash the Gold
out of the Sand, for the European Ships who would come on the Coast; that they
do it then, because the Rage of the Floods always works down a great deal of
Gold out of the Hills; and if we took the Advantage to be there before them, we
did not know what extraordinary things we might find.
This was so forcible, and so well argued, that it appeared in all our Faces we
were prevailed upon; so we told him we would all stay: For tho' it was true we
were all eager to be gone, yet the evident Prospect of so much Advantage, could
not well be resisted: That he was greatly mistaken when he suggested, that we
did not desire to encrease our Store of Gold, and in that we were resolved to
make the utmost Use of the Advantage that was in our Hands, and would stay as
long as any Gold was to be had, if it was another Year.
He could hardly express the Joy he was in on this Occasion, and the fair Weather
coming on, we began just as he directed, to search about the Rivers for more
Gold; at first we had but little Encouragement, and began to be doubtful, but it
was very plain that the Reason was the Water was not fully fallen, or the Rivers
reduced to there usual Channel; but in a few Days we were fully requited, and
found much more Gold than at first, and in bigger Lumps; and one of our Men
washed out of the Sand a Piece of Gold as big as a small Nut, which weighed by
our Estimation, for we had no small Weights, almost an Ounce and a half.
This Success made us extreamly diligent, and in little more than a Month, we had
all together gotten near sixty Pound Weight of Gold; but after this, as he told
us, we found Abundance of the Savages, both Men, Women and Children, hunting
every River and Brook, and even the dry Land of the Hills for Gold, so that we
could do nothing like then, compared to what we had done before.
But our Artificer found a Way to make other People find us in Gold without our
own Labour; for when these People began to appear, he had a considerable
Quantity of his Toys, Birds, Beasts, &c. such as before, ready for them, and the
English Gentleman being the Interpreter, he brought the Savages to admire them;
so our Cutler had Trade enough; and to be sure sold his Goods at a monstrous
Rate; for he would get an Ounce of Gold, sometimes two, for a Bit of Silver,
perhaps of the Value of a Groat, nay if it were Iron; and if it was of Gold,
they would not give the more for it; and it was incredible almost to think what
a Quantity of Gold he got that Way.
In a Word, to bring this happy Journey to a Conclusion, we encreased our Stock
of Gold here in three Months Stay more, to such a Degree, that bringing it all
to a common Stock, in order to Share it, we divided almost four Pound Weight
again to every Man, and then we set forward for the Gold Coast, to see what
Method we could find out for our Passage into Europe.
There happened several very remarkable Incidents in this Part of our Journey, as
to how we were, or were not; received friendly, by the several Nations of
Savages through whom we past; how we delivered one Negroe King from Captivity,
who had been a Benefactor to our new Guide; and how our Guide in Gratitude, by
our Assistance, restored him to his Kingdom, which perhaps might contain about
300 Subjects; how he entertained us; and how he made his Subjects go with our
Englishman, and fetch all our Elephants
Teeth, which we had been obliged to
leave behind us, and to carry them for us to the River, the Name of which I
forgot, where we made Rafts, and in eleven Days more came down to one of the
Dutch Settlements on the Gold Coast, where we arrived in perfect Health, and to
our great Satisfaction. As for our Cargo of Teeth, we sold it to the Dutch
Factory, and received Clothes and other Necessaries for our selves, and such of
our Negroes as we thought fit to keep with us; and it is to be observed, that we
had four Pound of Gunpowder left when we ended our Journey. The Negro Prince we
made perfectly free, clothed him out of our common Stock, and gave him a Pound
and a half of Gold for himself, which he knew very well how to manage, and here
we all parted after the most friendly Manner possible. Our Englishman remained
in the Dutch Factory some time, and, as I heard afterwards, died there of Grief;
for he having sent a Thousand Pound Sterling over to England by the Way of
Holland, for his Refuge, at his Return to his Friends, the Ship was taken by the
French, and the Effects all lost.
The rest of my Comrades went away in a small Bark, to the two Portuguese
Factories, near Gambia, in the Latitude of fourteen; and I with two Negroes
which I kept with me, went away to Cape Coast Castle, where I got Passage for
England, and arrived there in September; and thus ended my first Harvest of Wild
Oats, the rest were not sowed to so much Advantage.
I had neither Friend, Relation, nor Acquaintance in England, tho' it was my
Native Country, I had consequently no Person to trust with what I had, or to
counsel me to secure or save it; but falling into ill Company, and trusting the
Keeper of a Publick House in Rotherhith with a great Part of my Money, and
hastily squandering away the rest, all that great Sum, which I got with so much
Pains and Hazard, was gone in little more than two Years Time; and as I even
rage in my own Thoughts to reflect upon the Manner how it was wasted, so I need
record no more; the rest Merits to be conceal'd with Blushes, for that it was
spent in all Kinds of Folly and Wickedness; so this Scene of my Life may be said
to have begun in Theft, and ended in Luxury; a sad Setting out, and a worse
Coming home.
About the Year ? I began to see the Bottom of my Stock, and that it was Time to
think of farther Adventures, for my Spoilers, as I call them, began to let me
know, that as my Money declined, their Respect would ebb with it, and that I had
nothing to expect of them farther than as I might command it by the Force of my
Money, which in short would not go an Inch the farther, for all that had been
spent in their Favour before.
This shocked me very much, and I conceived a just Abhorrence of their
Ingratitude; but it wore off; nor had I with it any Regret at the wasting so
glorious a Sum of Money, as I brought to England with me.
I next shipped my self, in an evil Hour to be sure, on a Voyage to Cadiz, in a
Ship called the ? and in the Course of our Voyage, being on the Coast of Spain,
was obliged to put in to the Groyn, by a strong South West Wind.
Here I fell into Company with some Masters of Mischief, and among them, one
forwarder than the rest, began an intimate Confidence with me, so that we called
one another Brothers, and communicated all our Circumstances to one another; his
Name was Harris. This Fellow came to me one Morning, asking me if I would go on
Shore, and I agreed; so we got the Captain's Leave for the Boat, and went
together. When we were together, he asked me if I had a Mind for an Adventure
that might make amends for all past Misfortunes; I told him yes, with all my
Heart; for I did not care where I went, having nothing to lose, and no Body to
leave behind me.
He then asked me if I would swear to be secret, and that if I did not agree to
what he proposed, I would nevertheless never betray him; I readily bound my self