We had little satisfaction, however, in eating and drinking, especially since the hour was come in which we were obliged to leave the seaside; and it galled us severely to think how we were forced up the country like a flock of sheep, at the pleasure of a parcel of barbarous negroes, without any power to make terms for ourselves like men. Some cursed and others bewailed their hard fortune, nor were reflections wanting; for my own part, though I could not, at that time, see any reason for complaint, yet I have since thought that our captain was young, and had not so much experience as his father, who would not have put to sea from Mauritius in a leaky vessel, but have taken out the company’s cargo and left it there, till another ship had been sent for it, and saved all our lives; however Providence ordained it otherwise.
The king sent, and the word was given to march. I was ready in an instant, for I carried nothing with me but what I brought ashore; but many of our people took pieces of silk and fine calico. We assembled together, and went to see the place where the king’s tent was pitched. We were no sooner come, than he was for marching. We left the sea with heavy hearts, looking very wishfully back as long as we could discern it; and as oft as we did, we observed the negroes hard at work, breaking up our bales, and enriching themselves with the plunder of our goods; in short, they were so busy that but few went back with the king.
Our people were but ill-disposed for travelling, since every body was tired with working, and want of rest; many were lamed with hurts received in getting on shore; some were also without shoes, and most of us had but bad ones; then again, the country near the seaside and some few miles further, is full of short underwood and thorny shrubs, which tore our clothes to rags, for the path was very narrow, and before this accident but little frequented; the ground also was sandy, so that when the sun was advanced pretty high, it scorched our feet to that degree that we were scarcely able to walk.
About noon we came to one of their small mean villages, consisting of about eight or ten houses, or rather huts, for they were not above six or seven feet high, and about eight or nine feet in length, and their doors not above three or four feet high; our people crept into these hovels to rest, and to see what they could meet with to refresh themselves. Some found honey, others milk, and others beef, for the king had given us free permission to take what eatables soever came to hand. The inhabitants were all absent, the men at the seaside making advantage of our wreck, and the women and children fled into the woods at our approach. We passed several of these poor villages, but saw few of the people. Here we reposed ourselves till the heat abated, when we made ourselves but a poor compensation by robbing them of their trifles, while they were enriching themselves with our most valuable commodities; however, I observed some of our people found a secret pleasure in gratifying their resentment.
In the cool of the evening we marched again, and in a little time came to a more open and better road. As we were now some miles from the sea the king left us, and went before to his seat, leaving us to march at our leisure; having before taken care that we should not want provisions, and left his chief officer (whom I shall call his general) strict orders to supply us with whatever we wanted, and what the country would afford.
At night we came to another of these little villages, where we killed a bullock, and got a few earthen pots to cook our meat in; the water was very thick and nasty, they having none but what they fetched at a great distance out of holes and pits in the woods, and kept in calabashes, or long tubs, which hold about four or five gallons each; however it served our purpose, for at that time we were not very curious. We reposed ourselves on the ground in the best manner we could, and rose the next morning by daylight. We had beef for our breakfast without any bread or roots in the room of it, and our meat was full of sand; however, eating and drinking was the least of our concern at that time. We passed this day much after the same manner as the day before, with this difference only, that those who wanted shoes were sadly harassed in the woods.
On the third day of our march we came to our journey’s end; we were obliged to walk much faster than either of the two former, having more ground to traverse and less time to do it in, for we were ordered to be at the king’s town before sunset. I missed one of my purses in this day’s journey, but the loss of it was not of any great importance to me at that time, for it would have been of little service to me had I kept it; but the loss of a medal afterwards which my dear mother had presented me as a testimony of her love, and a token to remember her, was no small addition to my other misfortunes.
The residence of this king is about fifty miles from the seaside, for I reckon we might travel sixteen or seventeen miles a day. It stands in a wood secured with trees all round it, which seem to have been planted there when very young; they grow very regular and tall, and so close together, that a small dog cannot pass between them. They are likewise armed with large strong thorns, so that there is no breaking through or climbing over them. There are but two passages or gates, which are so narrow that two only can go abreast; one of these is to the northward, and the other to the southward; the whole is about a mile in circumference.
When we came near our journey’s end we halted, whilst Sam went to inform the king of our arrival. We were ordered to wait till he was ready for our reception; our captain too put us into the best form he could, ordering all our baggage and such things as our people brought with them, to be lodged under a tamarind tree, and three or four Lascars to look after them. He soon sent for us, and we marched in order by fours. The king was sitting on a mat, cross-legged, in the open air, just before the door of his palace, with a gun leaning on his shoulder, and a brace of pistols lying by his side; his sons and kinsman sat in the same manner on the ground on each hand of him, armed with guns and lances; the natives joined them on both sides, and formed together a semicircle; most of these were likewise furnished with guns and lances. There were mats spread from one end of the people to the other for us to sit on, so that when we had joined them, the assembly was almost a circular form. We were somewhat concerned to see them all thus in arms, till Sam informed us, that they never go from one house to another without them.
As soon as we were seated, the king (by Sam) assured the captain he was welcome, and sent for ten calabashes of toake, six he gave to our people, three to his own, and one he reserved for our captain and himself. He also sent for captain Drummond, captain Steward, and the rest of their company. Captain Younge arose to salute them, and after the usual compliments were passed, the captains sat down together. The king ordered a servant to pour out some toake into a clean earthen cup which he kept for his own use, and drank it up without drinking to any body, but ordered some more to be poured out for our captain in another cup, but as it was dirty he refused it. The king asked Sam the reason of it, who told him the truth, so the king sent a man immediately to wash it. The captain, indeed, expected to be served out of the king’s cup, but Sam informed him, that neither black nor white, nor even his wives or children, ever drank out of his cup; and this is the general custom of the country.