[Final Escape from Captivity.]
Then I purposed to have shipped myself for Spain, and thence homewards. But the Governor denied his word, and commanded me to provide myself within two days to go up to the Conquest again. This Governor had served his three years,[125] and the citizens looked every day for another out of Portugal. So I determined to absent myself for ten or twenty days, till the other Governor came, and then to come to the city again. For every Governor that cometh maketh proclamation for all men that be absent, to come with free pardon.
The same day, at night, I departed from the city with two negro boys that I had, which carried my musket and six pounds of powder, and a hundred bullets, and that little provision of victuals that I could make. In the morning I was some twenty miles from the city, up along the river Bengo, and there I staid certain days, and then passed Bengo and came to the river Dande, which is to the northward, purposing to know what news was in the city, for I was near the highway of Congo. And one of my negroes inquired of those that passed, and brought me word that it was certain that the new Governor came not that year.
Now I was put to my shifts, whether I would go to the city again and be hanged, or to stay and live in the woods, for I had run away twice before. So I was forced to live in the woods a month, betwixt the rivers of Dande and Bengo. Then I went to Bengo again, to Mani Kaswea, and passed over the river, and went to the lake of Casansa.[126] Here is the greatest store of wild beasts that is in any place of Angola. About this lake I staid six months, and lived only upon dried flesh, as buffes [buffaloes], deer, mokokes,[127] impolancas,[128] and roebucks, and other sorts, which I killed with my musket, and dried the flesh, as the savages do, upon an hurdle, three feet from the ground, making underneath it a great fire, and laying upon the flesh green boughs, which keep the smoke and heat of the fire down, and dry it. I made my fire with two little sticks, as the savages used to do. I had sometimes Guinea wheat [maize] which my negro boy would get of the inhabitants for pieces of dried flesh.
This lake of Casanze doth abound with fish of sundry sorts. I have taken up a fish that hath skipped out of the water on shore, four feet long, which the heathen call Sombo.[129]
Thus, after I had lived six months with the dried flesh and fish, and seeing no end of my misery, I wrought means to get away.
In this lake are many little island that are full of trees called Memba [bimba][130] which are as light as cork and as soft. Of these trees I built a lergado [Jangada], with a knife of the savages that I had, in the fashion of a box nailed with wooden pegs, and railed round about, because the sea should not wash me out; and with a blanket that I had I made a sail, and prepared three oars to row withall.
This lake of Casanza is eight miles over, and issueth into the river Bengo. So I entered into my gingado [Jangada], and my two negro boys, and rowed into the river Bengo, and so came down with the current twelve leagues to the bar. Here I was in great danger, because the sea was great; and being over the bar I rode into the sea, and then sailed afore the wind along the coast, which I knew well, minding to go to the kingdom of Longo [Loango], which is towards the north; and being that night at sea, the next day I saw a pinnace come before the wind, which came from the city, and was bound to San Thomé, and she came near to me. The master was my great friend, for we had been mates together, and for pity’s sake he took me in, and set me on shore in the port of Longo, where I remained three years, and was well beloved of the king, because I killed him deer and fowls with my musket.