I Escape from the Sallee Rover
THIS moment my former notions of deliverance darted into my thoughts, for now I found I was like to have a little ship at my command; and my master being gone, I prepared to furnish myself, not for a fishing business, but for a voyage; though I knew not, neither did I so much as consider whither I should steer; for anywhere to get out of that place was my way.
My first contrivance was to make a pretence to speak to this Moor, 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, of their kind and three jars with fresh water into 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 beeswax into the boat, which weighed above half a hundredweight, with a parcel of twine or thread, a hatchet, a saw, and a hammer, all 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 Ismael, whom they call Muly, or Moley, so I called to him, ‘‘Moley,’’ 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 some alcamies’’ (a fowl like our curlews) ‘‘for ourselves, for I know he keeps the gunner’s stores in the ship.’’ ‘‘Yes,’’ says he, ‘‘I’ll bring some’’; and accordingly he brought a great leather pouch, which held about a pound and a half of powder, or rather more; and another with shot, that had five or six pound, with some bullets; and put all into the boat. At the same time I had 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, 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 southerly, I had been sure to have made the coast of 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 some time and caught nothing (for when I had fish on my hook I would not pull them up, that he might not see them), I said to the Moor, ‘‘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 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, 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 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 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 the boat, I’ll shoot you through the head; for I am resolved to have my liberty.’’ 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 Moor with me and have drowned the boy, but there was no venturing to trust him. When he was gone I turned to the boy, whom they called Xury, and said to him, ‘‘Xury, if you will be faithful to me, I’ll make you a great man; but if you will not stroke your face to be true to me,’’ that is, swear by Mahomet and his father’s beard, ‘‘I must throw you into the sea too.’’ The boy smiled in my face, and spoke so innocently that I could not mistrust 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 sea with the boat, rather stretching to windward, that they might think me gone towards the Straits’ 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 were sure to surround us with their canoes, and destroy us; where we could ne’er once go on shore but we should be devoured by savage beasts, or more merciless savages of human kind?
But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed my course, and steered directly 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 believe by the next day at three o’clock in the afternoon, when I first made the land, I could not be less than 150 miles south of Sallee; 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 at the Moors and the dreadful apprehensions I had of falling into their hands, that I would not stop or go on shore or come to an anchor, the wind continuing fair, till I 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 to the coast and came to an anchor in the mouth of a little river, I knew not what or where; neither what latitude, what country, what nation, or what river. I neither saw, or desired to see, any people; the principal thing I wanted was fresh water. We came into this creek in the evening, resolving to swim on shore as soon as it was dark, and discover 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 of me not to go on shore till day. ‘‘Well, Xury,’’ said I, ‘‘then I won’t; but it may be we may see men by day, who will be as bad to us as those lions.’’ ‘‘Then we give them the shoot gun,’’ says Xury, laughing; ‘‘make them run wey.’’ Such English Xury spoke by conversing among us slaves. However, I was glad to see the boy so cheerful, and I gave him a dram (out of our patron’s case of bottles) to cheer him up. After all, Xury’s advice was good, and I took it. We dropped our little anchor and lay still all night; I say still, for 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 seashore 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.
Xury was dreadfully frighted, and indeed so was I too; but 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. Xury said it was a lion, and it might be so for aught I know; but poor Xury cried to me to weigh the anchor and row away. ‘‘No,’’ says I, ‘‘Xury, we can slip our cable with a buoy to it and go off to sea, they cannot follow us far.’’ I had no sooner said so but I perceived the creature (whatever it was) within two oars’ length, which something surprised me; however, 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 horrible 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 or report of the gun, a thing I have some reason to believe those creatures had never heard before. This convinced me that there wa
s no going on shore for us in the night upon 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 the savages had been as bad as to have fallen into the hands of 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 or where to get it was the point. Xury 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 would go. Why I should not go and he stay in the boat? The boy answered with so much affection that made me love him ever 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, we will kill them; they shall eat neither of us’’; so I gave Xury a piece of rusk bread to eat and a dram out of our patron’s case of bottles, which I mentioned before, and we hauled the boat in as near the shore as we thought was proper, and so waded on shore, carrying nothing but our arms and two jars for water.
I did not care to 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 country, rambled to it, and by and by I saw him come running towards me; I thought he was pursued by some savage, or frighted with some wild beast, and I ran forward towards him to help him; but when I came nearer to him, I saw something hanging over his shoulders, which was a creature that he had shot, like a hare, but different in colour, and longer legs; however, we were very glad of it, and it was very good meat; but the great joy that poor Xury came with was to tell me he had found good water and seen no wild mans.
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 flows but a little way up; so we filled our jars and feasted on the hare we had killed, and prepared to go on our way, 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 Verde Islands also, lay not far off from the coast. But as I had no instruments to take an observation to know what latitude we were in and did not exactly know, or at least not remember, what latitude they were in, I knew not where to look for them, or when to stand off to sea 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 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 wild beasts; the Negroes having abandoned it and gone farther south for fear of the Moors, and the Moors 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; 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 an hundred miles together upon this coast, we saw nothing but a waste uninhabited country by day, and heard nothing but howlings and roarings of wild beasts by night.
Once or twice in the daytime, I thought I saw the Pico of Teneriffe, being the high top of the mountain Teneriffe in the Canaries; and had a great mind to venture out in hopes of reaching thither; but having tried twice, I was forced in again by contrary winds, the sea also going too 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 tide beginning to flow, we lay still to go farther in; Xury, whose eyes were more about him than it seems mine were, calls softly to me and tells 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, 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 it were a little over him. ‘‘Xury,’’ says I, ‘‘you shall go on shore and kill him.’’ Xury looked frighted, and said, ‘‘Me kill! He eat me at one mouth’’; one mouthful he meant. However, I said no more to the boy, but bade him be 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; and the third (for we had three pieces) I loaded with five smaller bullets. I took the best aim I could with the first piece to have shot him into the head; but he lay so with his leg raised a little above his nose, that the slugs hit his leg about the knee, and broke the bone. He started up growling at first, but, finding his leg broke, 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 immediately, and though he began to move off, fired again, and shot him into the head, and had the pleasure to see him drop and make but little noise, but lay struggling for life. Then Xury 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 to shore with the other hand, and coming close to the creature, put the muzzle of the piece to his ear, and shot him into the head again, which dispatched him quite.
This was game indeed to us, but this was no 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, Xury said he would have some of him; so he comes on board and asked me to give him the hatchet. ‘‘For what, Xury?’’ said I. ‘‘Me cut off his head,’’ said he. However, Xury 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, that perhaps the skin of him might one way or other be of some value to us; and I resolved to take off his skin if I could. So Xury and I went to work with him; but Xury was much the better workman at it, for I knew very ill how to do it. Indeed it took us up both the whole day, but at last we got off 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.
After this stop, we made on to the southward continually for ten or twelve days, living very sparing on our provisions, which began to abate very much, and going no oftener in to the shore than we were obliged to for fresh water; my design in this was to make the river Gambia or Senegal, that is to say, anywhere about the Cape Verde, where I was in hopes to meet with some European ship, and if I did not, I knew not what course I had to take, but to seek out for the islands, or perish there among the Negroes. I knew that all the ships from Europe which sailed either to the coast of Guinea or to Brazil or to the East Indies made this cape or those islands; and in a word, I put the whole of my fortune upon this single point, either that I must meet with some ship or must perish.
When I had pursued this resolution about ten days longer, as I have said, I began to see that the land was inhabited, and in two or three places, as we sailed by, we saw people stand upon the shore to look at us; we could also perceive they were quite black and stark naked. I was once inclined to have gone on shore to them; but Xury was my better counsellor and said to me, ‘‘No go, no go.’’ However, I hauled in nearer the shore that I might talk to them, and I found they ran along the shore by me a good way. I observed they had no weapons in their hands, except one, who had a long slender stick, which Xury said was a lance, and that they would throw them a great way with good aim; so I kept at a distance, but talked with them by s
igns as well as I could, and particularly made signs for something to eat. They beckoned to me to stop my boat, and they would fetch me some meat; upon this I lowered the top of my sail and lay by, and two of them ran up into the country, and in less than half an hour came back and brought with them two pieces of dry flesh and some corn,3 such as is the produce of their country; but we neither knew what the one or the other was; however, we were willing to accept it. But how to come at it was our next dispute; for I was not for venturing on shore to them, and they were as much afraid of us; but they took a safe way for us all, for they brought it to the shore and laid it down, and went and stood a great way off till we fetched it on board, and then came close to us again.
We made signs of thanks to them, for we had nothing to make them amends; but an opportunity offered that very instant to oblige them wonderfully; for while we were lying by the shore, came two mighty creatures, one pursuing the other (as we took it) with great fury from the mountains towards the sea; whether it was the male pursuing the female, or whether they were in sport or in rage, we could not tell, any more than we could tell whether it was usual or strange, but I believe it was the latter; because in the first place, those ravenous creatures seldom appear but in the night; and in the second place, we found the people terribly frighted, especially the women. The man that had the lance or dart did not fly from them, but the rest did; however, as the two creatures ran directly into the water, they did not seem to offer to fall upon any of the Negroes,but plunged themselves into the sea, and swam about as if they had come for their diversion; at last one of them began to come nearer our boat than at first I expected; but I lay ready for him, for I had loaded my gun with all possible expedition, and bade Xury load both the others; as soon as he came fairly within my reach, I fired and shot him directly into the head; immediately he sunk down into the water, but rose instantly and plunged up and down as if he was struggling for life, and so indeed he was; he immediately made to the shore, but between the wound, which was his mortal hurt, and the strangling of the water, he died just before he reached the shore.