The Life, Adventures & Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton

was always in the night that we had the disturbanceof them, and sometimes they came in such multitudes that we thoughtall the lions and tigers, and leopards and wolves of Africa were cometogether to attack us. One night, being clear moonshine, one of ourmen being upon the watch, told us that he verily believed he saw tenthousand wild creatures of one sort or another pass by our little camp,and ever as they saw the fire they sheered off, but were sure to howl orroar, or whatever it was, when they were past.

  The music of their voices was very far from being pleasant to us, andsometimes would be so very disturbing that we could not sleep for it;and often our sentinels would call us that were awake to come and lookat them. It was one windy, tempestuous night, after a rainy day, thatwe were indeed called up; for such innumerable numbers of devilishcreatures came about us that our watch really thought they would attackus. They would not come on the side where the fire was; and though wethought ourselves secure everywhere else, yet we all got up and took toour arms. The moon was near the full, but the air full of flying clouds,and a strange hurricane of wind to add to the terror of the night; when,looking on the back part of our camp, I thought I saw a creature withinour fortification, and so indeed he was, except his haunches, for hehad taken a running leap, I suppose, and with all his might had thrownhimself clear over our palisades, except one strong pile, which stoodhigher than the rest, and which had caught hold of him, and by hisweight he had hanged himself upon it, the spike of the pile running intohis hinder haunch or thigh, on the inside; and by that he hung, growlingand biting the wood for rage. I snatched up a lance from one of thenegroes that stood just by me, and running to him, struck it threeor four times into him, and despatched him, being unwilling to shoot,because I had a mind to have a volley fired among the rest, whom I couldsee standing without, as thick as a drove of bullocks going to a fair. Iimmediately called our people out, and showed them the object of terrorwhich I had seen, and, without any further consultation, fired a fullvolley among them, most of our pieces being loaded with two or threeslugs or bullets apiece. It made a horrible clutter among them, and ingeneral they all took to their heels, only that we could observe thatsome walked off with more gravity and majesty than others, being notso much frighted at the noise and fire; and we could perceive that somewere left upon the ground struggling as for life, but we durst not stirout to see what they were.

  Indeed they stood so thick, and were so near us, that we could notwell miss killing or wounding some of them, and we believed they hadcertainly the smell of us, and our victuals we had been killing; for wehad killed a deer, and three or four of those creatures like goats theday before; and some of the offal had been thrown out behind our camp,and this, we suppose, drew them so much about us; but we avoided it forthe future.

  Though the creatures fled, yet we heard a frightful roaring all nightat the place where they stood, which we supposed was from some that werewounded, and as soon as day came we went out to see what execution wehad done. And indeed it was a strange sight; there were three tigers andtwo wolves quite killed, besides the creature I had killed within ourpalisade, which seemed to be of an ill-gendered kind, between a tigerand a leopard. Besides this there was a noble old lion alive, but withboth his fore-legs broke, so that he could not stir away, and he hadalmost beat himself to death with struggling all night, and we foundthat this was the wounded soldier that had roared so loud and given usso much disturbance. Our surgeon, looking at him, smiled. "Now," sayshe, "if I could be sure this lion would be as grateful to me as oneof his majesty's ancestors was to Androcles, the Roman slave, I wouldcertainly set both his legs again and cure him." I had not heard thestory of Androcles, so he told it me at large; but as to the surgeon, wetold him he had no way to know whether the lion would do so or not, butto cure him first and trust to his honour; but he had no faith, so todespatch him and put him out of his torment, he shot him in the head andkilled him, for which we called him the king-killer ever after.

  Our negroes found no less than five of these ravenous creatures woundedand dropped at a distance from our quarters; whereof, one was a wolf,one a fine spotted young leopard, and the other were creatures that weknew not what to call them.

  We had several more of these gentlefolks about after that, but no suchgeneral rendezvous of them as that was any more; but this ill effectit had to us, that it frighted the deer and other creatures from ourneighbourhood, of whose company we were much more desirous, and whichwere necessary for our subsistence. However, our negroes went out everyday a-hunting, as they called it, with bow and arrow, and they scarceever failed of bringing us home something or other; and particularly wefound in this part of the country, after the rains had fallen some time,abundance of wild fowl, such as we have in England, duck, teal, widgeon,etc.; some geese, and some kinds that we had never seen before; and wefrequently killed them. Also we catched a great deal of fresh fish outof the river, so that we wanted no provision. If we wanted anything, itwas salt to eat with our fresh meat; but we had a little left, and weused it sparingly; for as to our negroes, they could not taste it, nordid they care to eat any meat that was seasoned with it.

  The weather began now to clear up, the rains were down, and the floodsabated, and the sun, which had passed our zenith, was gone to thesouthward a good way; so we prepared to go on our way.

  It was the 12th of October, or thereabouts, that we began to setforward; and having an easy country to travel in, as well as to supplyus with provisions, though still without inhabitants, we made moredespatch, travelling sometimes, as we calculated it, twenty ortwenty-five miles a day; nor did we halt anywhere in eleven days' march,one day excepted, which was to make a raft to carry us over a smallriver, which, having swelled with the rains, was not yet quite down.

  When we were past this river, which, by the way, ran to the northwardtoo, we found a great row of hills in our way. We saw, indeed, thecountry open to the right at a great distance; but, as we kept true toour course, due west, we were not willing to go a great way out of ourway, only to shun a few hills. So we advanced; but we were surprisedwhen, being not quite come to the top, one of our company, who, with twonegroes, was got up before us, cried out, "The sea! the sea!" and fella-dancing and jumping, as signs of joy.

  The gunner and I were most surprised at it, because we had but thatmorning been calculating that we must have yet above 1000 miles on thesea side, and that we could not expect to reach it till another rainyseason would be upon us; so that when our man cried out, "The sea," thegunner was angry, and said he was mad.

  But we were both in the greatest surprise imaginable, when, coming tothe top of the hill, and though it was very high, we saw nothing butwater, either before us or to the right hand or the left, being a vastsea, without any bounds but the horizon.

  We went down the hill full of confusion of thought, not being ableto conceive whereabouts we were or what it must be, seeing by all ourcharts the sea was yet a vast way off.

  It was not above three miles from the hills before we came to the shore,or water-edge of this sea, and there, to our further surprise, we foundthe water fresh and pleasant to drink; so that, in short, we knew notwhat course to take. The sea, as we thought it to be, put a full stopto our journey (I mean westward), for it lay just in the way. Our nextquestion was, which hand to turn to, to the right hand or the left,but this was soon resolved; for, as we knew not the extent of it, weconsidered that our way, if it had been the sea really, must be on thenorth, and therefore, if we went to the south now, it must be just somuch out of our way at last. So, having spent a good part of the day inour surprise at the thing, and consulting what to do, we set forward tothe north.

  We travelled upon the shore of this sea full twenty-three days beforewe could come to any resolution about what it was; at the end of which,early one morning, one of our seamen cried out, "Land!" and it was nofalse alarm, for we saw plainly the tops of some hills at a very greatdistance, on the further side of the water, due west; but though thissatisfied us that it was not the ocean, but an inland se
a or lake, yetwe saw no land to the northward, that is to say, no end of it, but wereobliged to travel eight days more, and near 100 miles farther, beforewe came to the end of it, and then we found this lake or sea ended in avery great river which ran N. or N. by E., as the other river had donewhich I mentioned before.

  My friend the gunner, upon examining, said that he believed that he wasmistaken before, and that this was the river Nile, but was still of themind that we were of before, that we should not think of a voyage intoEgypt that way; so we resolved upon crossing this river, which, however,was not so easy as before, the river being very rapid and the channelvery broad.

  It cost us, therefore, a week here to get materials to waft ourselvesand cattle over this river; for though here were stores of trees, yetthere was none of any considerable growth sufficient to make a canoe.

  During our march on the edge of this bank we met with great fatigue, andtherefore