Deaan Trongha took his leave the next morning, acquainting the king, his nephew, that his owley had warned him in the night of some danger that attended his town from the enemy, in case he stayed much longer. As I was on this side the country, I desired to go and see Eglasse the Dutchman. The deaan assured me he would make it in his way home. Eglasse was very much surprised when the children came running to him, and cried, “Arve verzahar!” that is, a white man is coming; for he knew of no one in the country. One Efflep a negro of the West Indies, who was left ashore by pirates many years before, lived not far from him, and spoke nothing but English; for being very deaf, he never learned the Madagascar language. He had two sons, however, born on the island of a native mother, who spoke both languages tolerably well. When I approached Eglasse, he pulled off his hat to me; but poor Robin was not in a condition to return the compliment. At first he spoke Dutch to me, but perceiving I did not understand him, he spoke a little broken English; and I had as little to say for myself in that, as the other. Thereupon I asked for an interpreter to speak English for me; which set deaan Trongha and the rest a laughing at first; but they pitied my hard lot afterwards, to have lived in a foreign country all the flower of my age. But James, Efflep’s eldest son, carried on a conversation amongst us to the entire satisfaction of every one then present. Eglasse pressed me to live constantly with him; but I told him I would not leave deaan Trongha on any account whatever. For he was a man of great generosity and humanity; one, moreover, of great authority, and consequently able to protect me. I desired, however, that they would procure leave of him, to let me stay two or three days with them, which they did; and he as readily agreed to indulge me a whole week. I had heard but an indifferent character of Eglasse, with respect to his temper; he was rash and passionate, and would threaten the great men, not excepting the king himself, upon the slightest provocation, with what he would do as soon as the first ship arrived. This ill conduct of his rendered him distasteful to them; and for that reason I was cautious how I entered into too strict an amity with him. And it will soon appear, that my fears were justly grounded; for his continued indecent behaviour cost him his life at last.
Having now taken our farewell of deaan Trongha and his retinue, the pot was set on the fire by a slave named Toby, with a piece of salt beef, and potatoes dressed after the English manner. In the mean time, Eglasse ordered James to relate to me the history of his arrival and adventures here; and this conducing to my purpose, which is to give such an account of the various customs and manners of this island as may be useful to traders and navigators, and pleasing to the curious, I shall only transcribe here what he then told us.
“At a place called Masseleege,” said he, “on this island to the northward, there comes once a year a Moorish ship that brings silk lambers, and many other things to trade with for slaves. At this place one Burgess, called captain Burgess, and Robert Arnold had a sloop; Burgess, indeed, commanded, for Arnold knew nothing of navigation; one was as rich as the other, and both were equally concerned in the vessel. With this sloop they used to come to Augustine-bay and other places on the island, in order to buy slaves and carry them to Masseleege against the moor’s ship arrived. Eglasse sailed with them in this sloop. In one of their voyages to this place, Burgess and Arnold fell out to that degree, that the latter would stay no longer with Burgess; but prevailing on Eglasse to come on shore for his companion, he brought all his effects with him, consisting of several bags of dollars, a great many guns, powder, shot, chests of clothes, beads, &c. amounting in the whole to a considerable value. In a word, every thing that is proper to trade with in these parts. He told Eglasse that in case he survived him he should have all his effects; but their design was only to stay till a ship arrived in which they could procure a passage to Europe. Whether they durst go to England or not I cannot absolutely say; though I had good reason to suspect that a great part of these riches were obtained by piracy. There were two black slaves, this Toby and another, who in the sequel of this story will be called Robin, who could speak good English. These swam ashore the same night that captain Burgess sailed away, and surrendered themselves to Arnold.
“It happened a little before Rer Vovvern’s death, (and which was, indeed, the occasion of it,) that this country was invaded by two enemies at the same time; and whilst the greater part of the lords and people were marched off in order to oppose the northern enemy, Woozington, who was a southern foe, came unawares upon us, having passed the great river without being in the least suspected, and a bold general of his, named Ry-Opheck, attacked the town and the king’s house about midnight; Rer Vovvern himself was wounded in the thigh. Another party was likewise coming against us, whereupon every one was for flying to some shelter or other; as is not only customary, but indeed necessary in such cases. Arnold and Eglasse, however, having great riches, were resolved to defend them, and therefore armed themselves with guns, pistols, and cutlasses; but they no sooner appeared at their door than Arnold was shot dead on the spot. Eglasse was then glad to fly with his two slaves, Robin and Toby, for they never left him. The enemy plundered the house of what they saw convenient; which was all his wearing apparel, or any thing like it, even his beds for the ticking sake; the silver being black they knew not what it was, and therefore contented themselves with throwing it about. As to the cattle which they found in the pens they killed them all, for they had neither time nor strength enough to carry them off; nor were they able to defend themselves when once the country should make head against them. However, they took some captives and marched off in as great a hurry as they came, lest deaan Mundrosser, our present king’s brother, who is very well beloved by his countrymen, and feared by his enemies, should fall upon them; for we have not a greater man in war than he, deaan Trongha only excepted. Ry-Opheck’s fears and haste were just and proper; for deaan Mundrosser mustered an army in a few hours after, and overtook them before they could pass the river. The sound of his shells added wings to their flight, insomuch that they left their captives behind them; and he brought most of our women and children again, so that our loss was inconsiderable: for as to our valuable goods, we (who were apprehensive of surprise, and well knew the manner of the country) had dug holes in the ground and buried them there, and they had no time to search after them. When my father Efflep, my brother, and I returned, we missed none of our effects, but very much concerned and surprised to find Arnold not only dead, but naked; but as to his dollars they lay neglected and scattered up and down; till some of our people, who were no strangers to their use and value, took up a great many and concealed them from Eglasse. We threatened some of them, however, and made them refund, complaining to deaan Mernaugha; but they were above half lost. Eglasse was so confounded, that he never returned till some messengers, who were sent out after him, met with him at last, and conducted him and his two slaves home. He lives handsomely enough still, though he lost so much, having a plantation of his own and three or four good milch cows; and he is able to join with my father to buy an ox notwithstanding it is a very dear time, a good one being worth now ten dollars. Our king, Rer Vovvern, died in six weeks after, more with grief than of his wounds. He was very well beloved, being a good man and a gallant warrior; he was also a great friend to white men, but more especially to the English. I must not forget, however, to tell you here is another family you must be acquainted with too, and that is one Hempshire, a Guinea negro, who was formerly among the pirates, but has been settled here some considerable time. He has a very pretty woman to his wife, and also a daughter by her. Though the man is both blind and poor, yet Eglasse makes him many presents out of respect to his wife, as we imagine, for they are very intimate.”
Here Eglasse interrupted James, on hearing his own name and Mrs Hempshire’s too often, as he thought, mentioned together, and suspected that James was telling me of their supposed amour; so he broke off the discourse; though James said he was only expatiating on the christian-like manner in which he behaved to Hempshire and his family; but by this time dinner was ready. I found myself here a perfect negro in my way of eating, for I devoured my meat alone which made them laugh heartily; but what was a still greater mortification to me was, Hempshire, his wife and child came to pay me a visit; and Eglasse and he talked my adventures over in English, and it seemed like unintelligible jargon which I could not form my tongue to imitate; insomuch that I was apprehensive that I should never be able to speak my mother tongue again. A few days’ conversation however among these people, gave me hopes of recollecting it in time. Efflep and his sons were near neighbours to Eglasse, where I was invited the next day, and entertained in a very handsome manner after the English fashion, and much better than at Eglasse’s. We had not only a couple of capons boiled with rice, like a pilaw, but another dish of fried meat and boiled potatoes, served up on pewter plates, so that I began to fancy myself in a christian country. They also procured some toake for me, as Eglasse had done before; but it was scarce, there being no honey to be got. This was made of sugar-canes, which were likewise scarce at this time, and the toake was much inferior to what we had to the southward; it was strong enough however to make us a little gay and lively.
As soon as the week was expired I was determined to stay no longer, notwithstanding they importuned me very much, assuring them I would procure leave to come again in a short time: nor would I accept of a guide, since I knew the way. When I came to the seaside I espied a sail as I thought, though it proved nothing but a large canoe returning from sea, where the men had been fishing. I waited till they reached the shore, who seeing me white, though naked, came up to me, and a great deal of conversation passed between us, they being very inquisitive after my uncommon adventures. I gave them all the satisfaction I could, and inquired if there were any likelihood of a ship’s arrival. Before I took my leave they made me a present of as many fish as I could well carry with me. When I came home to my own house, I picked out four of the best, and went to wait on my mistresses, presenting them with two a piece. Deaan Trongha coming home soon after, was surprised to find fish there, and highly pleased that I was returned; but was so complaisant as not to suffer me to lick his feet. He had been all day in the plantations, pushing the work as forward as he could, that they might not want for provisions when they came back from the wars; for every body was busy and making preparations for it. He told me he had ordered one of his wives to make me a cap; such as we usually wore by way of distinction. I did not like the proposal, but there was no opposing it. He gave out to his wives and people that their intention was to invade deaan Morrochemek, a petty king in the adjacent mountains; this he did, for fear some of his people should desert and alarm the country of Merfaughla.
Upon my return home I found visiters in abundance, who flocked about me for the sake of my fish; but as it was a customary thing, and what I used to do myself, I could not take it amiss; so I shared them out as far as they would go.
I slept but this one night in peace and quietness; for next morning I was called up to attend the deaan, and carry his gun with me to the plantation. At that time he had no project of great importance in his head, but before noon a messenger came running in haste with the news, that an army of ten thousand Saccalauvors (our northern enemies) were at a town called Murnumbo, within ten or twelve hours’ march of us. Deaan Trongha was too impatient to hear the whole story, before he ordered his slaves to leave their work and go home; the hoes and spades were thrown aside, and the lances taken in hand, every man running home and making preparation for a march. Messengers were sent to Rer Befaugher, and all the other neighbouring lords to give their friendly assistance. Some of the principal men of each town were directed to stay at home, with a sufficient force to defend their families and cattle, in case Woozington should be at hand as he was before, in order to take the towns by surprise, while the fighting men were all engaged another way. I went home under the plausible view of whetting my lances, but with a resolution of being out of sight, and, if possible, forgotten; which succeeded to my wish, for they were soon on their march. When I was well assured that they were gone, I went in a violent hurry to the head lady’s house, asking for my master; and being informed he was gone, I pretended to be in a confusion, and in all the haste imaginable to follow him; but the women would not let me go; for they ordered the men, who were left as a guard, to stop me. At length, with much ado it may be supposed, I was prevailed on to stay, and sat down very contentedly amongst the women. Most of the town, nay, the very children were there; or round about the house. Their clamour, prayers, and cries for their husbands, and idle tattle about the war, were troublesome enough; but not so bad as running the risk of either life or limb, in fighting the quarrel of a people, for whom I had no manner of concern.
At night I had several young female visiters, who supped with me on carravances, of which my mistress had made me a present. Our conversation was innocent and pleasant, though some of my gay readers may perhaps imagine otherwise. But be that as it may I can assure them (to the shame of christianity) there are more modest women in proportion to the number of people here than in England; even such as would sooner part with their lives than yield to a man’s embraces, unless they were taken to wife according to the custom of the country; but such women as sailors find for their turn, are only slaves brought down to the seaside and dressed with beads and silk lambers, with no other view than to allure their gallants and get from them what they can, and though the gain they make of their prostitution is their master’s, yet most of them are generous enough to present them with part of the fine things they get from their cullies; but were these sailors to go up into the country, they would not find it an easy matter to procure a mistress. The conversation, however, I had with my young visiters, gave me some melancholy reflections in bringing to my remembrance the pleasure I formerly enjoyed in the company of my dear wife, whose beauty and conversation were in my opinion far superior to any of these.
During the men’s absence, we had little else to live on than tamarinds and ashes, a little milk only excepted; but in twelve days they returned, and were received with all the demonstrations of joy imaginable by the women. I went myself likewise with a good assurance to welcome them home. Deaan Trongha, indeed, rallied me a little about it; but his wife ingenuously confessing, that she hindered me from following him, I heard no more of it.