This employment of attending the cattle was agreeable to me, except in excessively hot weather, when it was a great fatigue to drive them several miles to water, at least every other day; but in the colder season we had no occasion to observe that practice, for the dew falls so plentifully in the night, that we find it sufficient to drive them into the grass about break of day; and even the inhabitants of this part of the country of Anterndroea, who have no water near them, go into the fields in a morning with two wooden platters and a tub, and in less than an hour will collect about eight or ten gallons of dew-water, which is very good while fresh, but will turn sour in a day or two, and disagreeable to the taste.
I had not followed this employment above a year, when my master went to war, or rather (as I understood afterwards) to plunder a people to the westward whom they pursued with the most implacable hatred, they having surprised deaan Crindo’s father in his own town by night, and murdered him in a most barbarous manner.
My master informed me that I must look after the cattle no more, for he was going to war, and had other business for me of much greater importance. I offered my service to wait on him, but he answered, we shall travel night and day; it is a long and tedious journey, and you cannot, I believe, be able to undergo the fatigue, but your principal business must be to look after my wife, and act as her guardian. He gave me a strict charge to lie in the same house with her, and never to let her stir out without me. After he had given her instructions to the same effect, he took his leave, and accompanied by most of his people, went on his intended expedition.
I now lived at perfect ease, and my mistress was very kind and indulgent to me. I went abroad wherever she went, partook of every thing she had for herself, and lay in the same house with her, both of us strictly observing our master’s orders; neither could I perceive that her compliance therewith was any way repugnant to her inclinations. I was not, it is true, absolutely easy myself; for the thoughts of my friends and native country, and the improbability of ever seeing them again, made me very melancholy, and dejected me to that degree that sometimes I could not forbear indulging my grief in private, and bursting into a flood of tears.
My mistress would frequently ask me whether I was indisposed, or wanted any thing; I could not prevail on myself to reveal the real cause of my anxiety; however one day I took the liberty to tell her, I should be very glad of an opportunity to see the other three lads, whose lives were preserved, and who were taken prisoners when I was. She desired me not to afflict myself on that account, for she would go with me, and should be highly delighted to hear us converse together in our own language. Accordingly she made inquiry amongst her neighbours where they were, who informed us that they were at some distance from one another; but that the nearest to be met with was about four or five miles off. So the next morning we set out and inquired for the white boy: we were told that he was gone to carry his fellow-servants some provisions to the plantation, but as soon as a messenger was sent to him he returned immediately, being as desirous of seeing me in particular as I was of him; we embraced each other in a very passionate manner, and expressed ourselves at first rather in tears than words. We had been very intimate on shipboard, and I used to treat him frequently with punch, being delighted with his company as he had a taste for music, and could play extremely well on the violin. We condoled with each other, and observed how wretchedly we looked, all naked, except a small clout about our middles, and our skins spotted like a leopard’s; for neither of us being ever before so exposed to the sun, we were scorched, and flead as it were, and our skins often rose up in blisters. After our mutual condolence we came to an agreement, that if either of us got safe to England, we would give the other’s friends a particular account of all our misfortunes. We inquired of each other after our other comrades, but were equally strangers to their particular places of abode. My mistress seemed very attentive to our discourse, and showed a compassionate regard for our afflictions; but with great reluctance, and many a tear, we were obliged at last to part.
We had not been at home above two hours, before an express arrived from my master with news of his success; and that he would be at home in a fortnight. My mistress, and all the women who had husbands abroad, expressed their general joy in large bowls of toake. In the mean time I was very much indisposed, but tolerably well recovered before my master’s return.
He made his public entry in a very triumphant manner; the trumpet-shells blowing, and crowds of people dancing before him all the way with their guns in their hands. On his first approach, the foremost men fired their guns towards the ground; which with them is the signal of a victorious return. Deaan Mevarrow, and his brother deaan Sambo, came after them with their attendants; next followed the cattle, which he had taken from the enemy, and the prisoners of war brought up the rear. After they were seated in form before my master deaan Mevarrow’s house, not only his consort, attended by the other women of the town, came as usual, and licked his feet, but the men too, whom he left behind him when he went to war.
I stood all this time as a spectator, till he seeing me at a distance, called me to him. I approached him in the usual form of the country on such a public occasion; that is, with my hands lifted up, and in a praying posture. When I came near him, I paid him the compliment of salamonger umba; but did not kneel down as all the others did, having a kind of conscientious reluctance to such an act, as thinking it an adoration that I ought to pay to no one but the Supreme Being; but he seemed to resent my being so over religious; for he asked me, “If I thought it beneath me to pay him the same respect that his own wife, (who was a king’s daughter,) and his own mother too, so readily condescended to?” However, I peremptorily refused, and told him, “I would obey all his lawful commands, and do whatever work he thought proper to employ me in; but this act of divine homage I could never comply with.”
On this he fell into a violent passion, and upbraided me with being ungrateful, and insensible of his saving me from being killed among my countrymen; and urged, moreover, that I was his slave, &c.; but notwithstanding all this, I still continued resolute and firm to my purpose. Whereupon he rose from his seat, and with his lance made a stroke at me with all his might; but his brother, by a sudden push on one side, prevented the mischief he intended. He was going to repeat his blow, but his brother interposed, and entreated him to excuse me; but he absolutely, and in the warmest terms, refused to forgive me unless I would lick his feet. His brother begged he would give him a little time to talk with me in private, which he did; and after he had told me the danger of not doing it, and that in submitting to it, I did no more than what many great princes were obliged to do when taken prisoners, I found, at length, it was prudence to comply; so I went in, asked pardon, and performed the ceremony as others had done before me. He told me he readily forgave me, but would make me sensible I was a slave. I did not much regard his menaces, for as I had no prospect of ever returning to England, I set but little value on my life. The next day I incurred his displeasure again, and never expected to escape from feeling the weight of his resentment.
My master then performed the ceremony of thanksgiving to God, for his happy deliverance from all the hazards of war, and for the success of his arms; which is performed in the following manner:—The inhabitants have in all their houses a small portable utensil, which is devoted to religious uses, and is a kind of household altar, which they call the owley. It is made of a peculiar wood, in small pieces neatly joined, and making almost the form of a half-moon with the horns downwards, between which are placed two alligator’s teeth; this is adorned with various kinds of beads, and such a sash fastened to it behind as a man ties about his waist when he goes to war. [I shall not here pretend to give an exact account of their religious worship, for I had not been long enough in the country to be a perfect master of the true meaning of what they either did or said.] However, I observed that they brought two forks from the woods, and fixed them in the ground, on which was laid a beam, slender at each end, and about six feet long, with two or three pegs in it, and upon this they hung the owley. Behind it was a long pole, to which a bullock was fastened with a cord. They had a pan full of live coals, on which they threw an aromatic gum, and planted it under the owley. Then they took a small quantity of hair from the tail, chin, and eyebrows of the ox, and put them on the owley. Then deaan Mevarrow, my master, used some particular gestures with a large knife in his hand, and made a formal prayer, in which the people joined. In the next place they threw the ox on the ground with his legs tied fast together, and the deaan cut his throat; for as there are no priests among them, the chief man, whether of the country, town, or family, performs all divine offices himself. As soon as the people were all seated on mats in a circular form, my master ordered me to sit down too, and say as the people said, which I absolutely refused. However he pursued his devotion, and when the service was over, took the owley in one hand and his lance in the other, and came directly to me, asking me with a frown, which I rather chose, either to assist in their solemn and public thanksgiving, or to a fall a sacrifice to his just resentment? At first I was startled, but as I thought this sort of worship to be downright idolatry, and that they paid their adorations to the owley, I resolutely told him that I would sooner die than pay divine homage to any false deity whatsoever. Upon this, as soon as he had put the owley in its place, he came to me again, and taking me by the hand was determined to lead me out of the town and kill me; but his brother and all the people round about him pleaded for me, and used their utmost endeavours to persuade him against so rash an action, but to no purpose; till his brother at last very warmly told him, he would that minute depart and see his face no more, if he offered to be guilty of such an act of inhumanity, and rose up to be gone accordingly. When my master saw his brother was going in good earnest, he called him back, and promised to spare my life; but assured him he would punish me very severely for my contempt of his orders. Deaan Sambo told him, he should submit that to his own discretion; all he begged of him was not to kill me. Upon this, by a secret sign, he advised me to kneel down and lick his feet, which I readily complied with, and asked his pardon. When I got up, I kneeled down to deaan Sambo of my own accord, and licked his feet as a testimony of my gratitude and respect for thus saving my life a second time.