The first piece of service they put me upon in this new command, was as difficult as any they could think of, and that was to manage the prisoners; which, however, I cheerfully undertook, as you shall hear presently; but the immediate consultation was yet of more consequence; and that was, first, which way we should go; and secondly, how to furnish ourselves for the voyage with provisions. There was, among the prisoners, one tall, well-shaped, handsome fellow, to whom the rest seemed to pay great respect, and who, as we understood afterwards, was the son of one of their kings; his father was, as it seems, killed at our first volley, and he wounded with a shot in his arm, and with another just on one of his hips or haunches. The shot in his haunch being in a fleshly part, bled much, and he was half dead with the loss of blood. As to the shot in his arm, it had broke his wrist, and he was by both these wounds quite disabled, so that we were once going to turn him away, and let him die; and, if we had, he would have died indeed in a few days more; but as I found the man had some respect showed him, it presently occurred to my thoughts, that we might bring him to be useful to us, and perhaps make him a kind of commander over them. So I caused our surgeon to take him in hand, and gave the poor wretch good words, that is to say, I spoke to him as well as I could, by signs, to make him understand that we would make him well again. This created a new awe in their minds of us, believing, that, as we could kill at a distance by something invisible to them (for so our shot was, to be sure), so we could make them well again too. Upon this the young prince (for so we called him afterwards) called six or seven of the savages to him, and said something to them; what it was we knew not, but immediately all the seven came to me, and kneeled down to me, holding up their hands, and making signs of entreaty, pointing to the place where one of those lay whom we had killed. It was a long time before I or any of us could understand them; but one of them ran and lifted up a dead man, pointing to his wound, which was in his eyes, for he was shot into the head at one of his eyes. Then another pointed to the surgeon, and at last we found it out, that the meaning NATIVE PRINCE'S OATH OF ALLEGIANCE. 53 was, that he should heal the prince's father too, who was dead, being shot through the head, as above. We presently took the hint, and would not say we could not do it, but let them know, the men that were killed were those that had first fallen upon us, and provoked us, and we would by no means make them alive again; and that, if any other did so, we would kill them too, and never let them live any more; but that, if he (the prince) would be willing to go with us, and do as we should direct him, we would not let him die, and would make his arm well. Upon this, he bid his men go and fetch a long stick or staff, and lay on the ground. When they brought it, we saw it was an arrow; he took it with his left hand (for his other was lame with the wound), and, pointing up at the sun, broke the arrow in two, and set the point against his breast, and then gave it to me. This was, as I understood afterwards, wishing the sun, whom they worship, might shoot him into the breast, with an arrow, if ever he failed to be my friend; and giving the point of the arrow to me, was to be a testimony that I was the man he had sworn to; and never was a Christian more punctual to an oath than he was to this, for he was a sworn servant to us for many a weary month after that. When I brought him to the surgeon, he immediately dressed the wound in his haunch or buttock, and found the bullet had only grazed upon the flesh, and passed, as it were, by it, but it was not lodged in the part; so that it was soon healed and well again; but as to his arm, he found one of the bones broken, which are in the fore-part from the wrist to the elbow; and this he set, and splintered it up, and bound his arm in a sling, hanging it about his neck, and making signs to him that he should not stir it; which he was so strict an observer of, that he set him down, and never moved one way or other, but as the surgeon gave him leave. I took a great deal of pains to acquaint this negro what we intended to do, and what use we intended to make of his men; and particularly to teach him the meaning of what we said, especially to teach him some words, such as yes and no, and what they meant; and to inure him to our way of talking; and he was very willing and apt to learn anything I taught him. It was easy to let him see that we intended to carry our provision with us from the first day; but he made signs to us, to tell us we need not, for that we should find provision enough everywhere for forty days. It was very difficult for us to understand how he expressed forty; for he knew no figures, but some words they used to one another that they understood it by. At last one of the negroes, by his order, laid forty little stones one by another, to show us how many days we should travel, and find provisions sufficient. Then I showed him our baggage, which was heavy, particularly our powder, shot, lead, iron, carpenters' tools, seamens' instruments, cases of bottles, and other lumber. He took some of the things up in his hand to feel the weight, and shook his head at them; so I told our people they must resolve to divide their things into small parcels, and make them portable; and accordingly they did so, by which means we were fain to leave all our chests behind us, which were eleven in number. Then he made signs to us, that he would procure some buffaloes, or young bulls, as I called them, to carry things for us, and made signs too, that if we were weary, we might be carried too; but that we slighted, only were willing to have the creatures, because, at last, when they could serve us no further for carriage, we might eat them all up if we any occasion for them. had I then carried him to our bark, and showed him what things we had here; he seemed amazed at the sight of our bark, having never seen anything of that kind before, for their boats are most wretched things, such as I never saw before, having no head or stern, and being made only of the skins of goats, sewed together, with dried guts of goats and sheep, and done over with a kind of slimy stuff like rosin and oil, but of a most nauseous, odious smell; and they are poor miserable things for boats, the worst that any part of the world ever saw; a canoe is an excellent contrivance compared to them. But to return to our boat: we carried our new prince into it, and helped him over the side, because of his lameness. We made signs to him, that his men must carry our goods for us, and showed him what we had; he answered, Ce Seignior, or, Yes, sir (for we had taught him that word, and the meaning of it), and taking up a bundle, he made signs to PRISONERS SWEAR TO BE FAITHFUL. 55 us, that when his arm was well, he would carry some for us. I made signs again to tell him, that if he would make his men carry them, we would not let him carry anything. We had secured all the prisoners in a narrow place, where we had bound them with mat cords, and set up stakes like a palisado round them: so, when we carried the prince on shore, we went with him to them, and made signs to him, to ask them if they were willing to go with us to the country of lions. Accordingly, he made a long speech to them, and we could understand by it, that he told them, if they were willing, they must say, Ce Seignior, telling them what it signified. They immediately answered, Ce Seignior, and clapped their hands, looking up to the sun, which, the prince signified to us, was swearing to be faithful. But as soon as they had said so, one of them made a long speech to the prince; and in it, we perceived by his gestures, which were very antic, that they desired something from us, and that they were in great concern about it. So I asked him, as well as I could, what it was they desired of us; he told us by signs, that they desired we should clap our hands to the sun (that was to swear) that we would not kill them, that we would give them Chiaruck, that is to say, bread, would not starve them, and I would not let the lions eat them. I told them we would promise all that; then he pointed to the sun, and clapped his hands, signing to me, that I should do so too, which I did; at which all the prisoners fell flat on the ground, and rising up again, made the oddest, wildest cries that ever I heard. I think it was the first time in my life that ever any religious thought affected me; but I could not refrain some reflections, and almost tears, in considering how happy it was, that I was not born among such creatures as these, and was not so stupidly ignorant and barbarous. But this soon went off again, and I was not troubled again with any qualms of that sort for a long time after. When this ceremony was over, our concern was to get some provisions, as well for the present subsistence of our prisoners as of ourselves; and making signs to our prince that we were thinking upon that subject, he made signs to me, that, if I would let one of the prisoners go to his town he should bring provisions, and should bring some beasts to carry our baggage. I seemed loath to trust him, and sup posing that he would run away, he made great signs of fidelity, and with his own hands tied a rope about his neck, offering me one end of it, intimating that I should hang him if the man did not come again. So I consented, and he gave him abundance of instructions, and sent him away, pointing to the light of the sun, which it seems was to tell him at what time he must be back. The fellow ran as if he was mad, and held it till he was quite out of sight, by which I supposed he had a great way to go. The next morning, about two hours before the time appointed, the black prince, for so I always called him, beckoning with his hand to me, and hallooing after his manner, desired me to come to him, which I did, when pointing to a little hill about two miles off, I saw plainly a little drove of cattle, and several people with them; those he told me by signs were the man he had sent, and several more with him, and cattle for us. Accordingly, by the time appointed, he came quite to our huts, and brought with him a great many cows, young runts, about sixteen goats, and four young bulls, taught to carry burthens. CHAPTER V. WE SET OUT ON OUR MARCH-GREAT USE OF THE BULLS OF OF PROCEEDING AFTER LEAVING OUR THIS was a supply of provisions sufficient; as for bread, we were obliged to shift with some roots which we had made use of before. We then began to consider of making some large bags like the soldiers' knapsacks, for their men to carry our baggage in, and to make it easy to them; and the goats being killed, I ordered the skins to be spread in the sun, and they were as dry in two days as could be desired; so we found means to make such little bags as we wanted, and be |