Translation of the Life of Omar ibn Said: Manuscript No. 1

The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
Omar ben Saeed
Manuscript, No. 1.—
Page 14—
In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful.—Thanks be to God, supreme in goodness, & kindness, & grace, & who is worthy of all honor, who created all things for his service, even man’s power of action & of speech.
From Omar to Sheikh Hunter.
You asked me to write my life. I am not able to do this because I have much forgotten my own, as well as the Arabic language. Neither can I write very grammatically or according to the true idiom. And so, my brother, I beg you, in God’s name, not to chide me, for I am a man of weak eyes, & of a weak body.
My name is Omar ibn Seid, (son of Seid.)
Before (after?) I came into the hand of Gen. Owen a man by the name of Mitchell came to buy me. He asked me if I were willing to go to Charleston City. I said “no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I not willing to go to Charleston. I stay in the hand of Jim Owen.”
O ye people of N. Carolina, O ye people of S. Carolina, O ye people of America, all of you; have you among you any two such men as Jim Owen & John Owen. These men are good men. What food they eat they give to me to eat. As they clothe themselves they clothe me. They permit me to read the gospel of God, our Lord, & Saviour, & King; who regulates all our circumstances, our health & wealth, & who bestows his mercies willingly, not by constraint. According to my power I open my heart, as to a great light, to receive the true way, the way of the Lord Jesus the Messiah.
O ye people of N. Carolina, O ye people of S. Carolina, O all ye people of America—the first son of Jim Owen is called Thomas, & his sister is called Masa-jein (Martha Jane?) This is an excellent family.
Tom Owen & Nell Owen have two sons & a daughter. The first son is called Jim & the second John. The daughter is named Melissa.