About three days after I went on board; but the sea and change of diet made me very sick for some time; after which the two captains went to Rer Trimmonongarevo, and I with them, in order to settle some matters in relation to the trade. It is a general custom all over the island for the king of each place to make terms, and settle one universal price, to which all the people are obliged to conform; and this method is, doubtless, not only very commodious, but prevents all quarrels and disorders. They presented the king with a fine gun, gilt and japanned. I was the interpreter, and though I carried on the correspondence, my dress had so altered me in these few days’ time, that he had no notion who I was, till upon inquiry who that Englishman was who spake so well their language, he was told it was Robin.
A few days after, there came messengers from Rer Moume, desiring the captains to come up the river Mernee, for he had a great many slaves to sell, but being lame he could not take a long journey; however, he would come down to the banks of that river, to a town near enough for trade. It was agreed that the Sarah should go, so they ordered a long-boat out to sound before them; I went on board, and we sailed with a gentle gale, but could find no convenient harbour or road in the mouth of the Mernee; however, there was a convenient place for anchoring, in a saltwater river, about three leagues on this side; from whence the two captains and myself went up in the boat a considerable way, till a canoe took us in and carried us to the town, where Rer Moume with his wives and people were waiting for us. Until I kneeled and kissed his knee, he did not know me, for my behaviour and grateful acknowledgments for his past favours, he and they soon recollected me, and were extremely glad to see me. Here we continued five days successively, bought all the slaves they had, and agreed to send our long-boat once a week as long as we stayed; and then they went on board, weighed anchor, and returned to their former road at Yong-Owl, where there arrived that very day a third ship, that belonged to the same owners, called the Mercury, captain White commander; he had eight or nine natives of Dillagoe in Africa on board him, who lived very merrily; they were all freemen, and went with him the whole voyage, six of whom lived to see their native country the next voyage he took, in which I was with him. Soon after this a ketch came in, which was fitted out in order to cruise off the coast, and be serviceable in several affairs; captain Henry Macket, the captain’s brother, was the commander of her; another ship was still expected, but she did not arrive till we were at Masseleege, otherwise called Munnongaro; they now agreed to separate for the more speedy despatch of business. Captain Bloom accordingly had his choice, which was to go to Port Dauphine, and captain Macket to Masseleege, where we arrived in a week’s time, and went several leagues up a great river, called Munnonbaugher; we had a fisherman for our pilot, who informed us that the king’s town was but about three hours’ journey up the country. The captain asked me, if I would venture to go there; I readily answered, that I would, and that I was not apprehensive of any danger; so the fisherman setting us ashore we went forward. Before we had gone far from the shore, the fisherman told me the king was gone out to war. Whereupon I flew into a great passion, asking him why he imposed upon us; he said the king’s wives would trade with us. I told him, we did not want provisions; and as for slaves they had no authority to dispose of them. The man, however, prevailed on me to go to their town, assuring me that four white men lived there, who came from the island of St. Mary’s. “Then, I presume, they are robbers of ships,” said I. “No,” he replied, “not now, for they have lived there several years; their names are captain Burgess, Zachary, John Pro, and Nick.” So I walked forwards with my gun on my shoulder, and the man carried another. I had also several knives and beads, which the captain gave me to buy provisions with, though I knew how to live without buying any victuals, yet I took them, as thinking they would be agreeable presents.
When I arrived at the town, a man ran before and informed the king’s head consort, whom I shall call queen, that a ship was arrived, and that one of the white men was coming to see her. At my arrival, a mat was ready placed for me to sit down on; no sooner was I seated, than I heard the queen ask for some of the white men to be interpreters between us, and one ran that moment to fetch them. I soon convinced her, however, that I wanted no assistants, and delivered my message, as ambassador from the captain, saying, “I was afraid no trade could be carried on, as the king was absent.” She said, “she expected him in a fortnight, and as there was a great number of slaves to be sold, she desired me to prevail on the captain to stay till his return.” By this time, came in two white men abreast, making a formidable and hostile figure; upon which I cocked my gun, laid the other by me, and planted myself directly before them. One was John Pro, a Dutchman, who spoke good English; he was dressed in a short coat with broad plate-buttons, and other things answerable, but without either shoes or stockings. In his sash, he had stuck a brace of pistols, and held one in his hand. The other was in an English dress, and had two pistols in his sash, and one in his hand, like his companion; they spoke to me in English, with the usual compliment, which I returned; but Nick looked me wishfully in the face, and after a short pause, took hold of my hand, saying, “Robert Drury, how have you done these many years? My name is Nicholas Dove,” said he, “I am one of the four boys who were saved with you when our ship’s company were massacred in Anterndroea; and the very same of whom no tidings could be given in the conference between deaan Crindo and king Samuel.” Upon this, I went home with them after I had finished with the queen, in order to know whether captain Macket would think proper to stay so long or not. John Pro assured me it would certainly be well worth his while; that there were a great number of slaves whom they wanted to dispose of; that the king, deaan Toke-offu, was a very honest fair-dealing man, as well as a great prince, and would return in a short time, though not so soon, he feared, as the queen said. They were gone to encounter with a king to the northward, and about five or six thousand of them went all the way up the river in canoes, that were large enough to contain about thirty men a piece, with their proper accommodations in them, to make fires and dress victuals, and such as I had never seen any where else. I wrote a letter to the captain the next morning, and sent it by the fisherman, in which I gave him a full and particular account of what had passed. In his answer, he desired me to send some men to carry him up to the town on their shoulders, in a hammock affixed to two poles.
John Pro lived in a very decent manner, and his house was furnished with pewter dishes, a standing-bed with curtains, and all other things of the like nature, except chairs; a chest or two, however, served for that use well enough. He had an outhouse on purpose for his cook-room, and cook-slave’s lodging, storehouse, and summer house; all these were enclosed in a palisade, as most of the great men’s houses are in this country; for he was rich, had many cattle, and several slaves. Nicholas Dove, indeed, was not near so rich. In the evening came captain Burgess and Zachary: I soon understood that these were the sloop’s crew, to which Arnold and Eglasse the Dutchman belonged; and, therefore, gave them the best account I could of their fortune in Feraignher.
Nicholas Dove, however, told me more than I knew before, viz.—That he ran away and got to Port Dauphine; that after the expiration of two years, he got to Mattatanna Road, in a large canoe, and there entered himself on board a pirate, that cruised principally among the Moors, from whom they frequently took great riches, and carried them to St. Mary’s. This place having a good harbour, they made it their settlement and general rendezvous. It is a small island, but three leagues from Madagascar, in the latitude of 16 deg. 33 min. south; but as their ship grew old and crazy, and none of the Moorish ships, which they had taken, were fit for their business, they being also vastly rich, they removed to Madagascar, made one Thomas Collins, a carpenter, their governor, and built a small fort, which they defended with their ship’s guns; but here they led most licentious and profligate lives, stealing whatever they could come at, and ravishing the wives and daughters of the natives: living by this means for some time in a state of perpetual war. Upon this, I could not forbear reflecting that deaan Mernaugha was not so much to be blamed in ordering Eglasse to be killed for threatening him; since he had, doubtless, a competent knowledge by some means or another, to what a crew of vile abandoned wretches he once belonged. Nicholas Dove said, they had not gone out a pirating for nine years successively, contenting themselves with building a sloop by this governor’s assistance, and soon after left him and others, and settled here, where they had continued ever since. By him I understood that Mr Bembo got safe to England; but captain Drummond was killed before he could get off the island, though the particular manner and occasion, he could not inform me; but they told me one remarkable piece of news, namely,—that this captain Drummond was the very man, for whose murder, and his crews, one captain Green, commander of an East India ship, was hanged in Scotland; whether it be truth or not, I cannot determine. All I know of the case I have already related, and can only observe, that the time, the name, and the circumstances of his being here, where no news of him could be had for several years, give just grounds for the supposition. But to return to my history.
The queen sent me a calf for a present, and I in return, gave her a few knives and beads; I went to the shore with John Pro, to welcome the captain to the town. His surgeon, one Mr Strahan, was with him. The queen entertained them as elegantly as she could, and mutual presents passed in form.
We returned that evening to the ship, and built a house the next day for the more commodious carrying on of trade. The natives perceiving we were determined to stay, they built several others near it, to accommodate us with rice, milk, fruits, and other necessaries. I went frequently up to the town to hear what news I could, but it was a month or more before the people came back from the wars; they came down the river in canoes, as they went up, and met with great success. At length the king arrived with the corpse of his brother, who was killed in the fight. He deferred his burial for nearly a fortnight, till he had settled all his affairs with us, and had given audience likewise to his brother’s ambassadors, who were waiting for him.
As soon as captain Macket heard of his return, he came up to town again with a large retinue, and his trumpeter sounding before him. They went to J. Pro’s house whilst I attended on the king, with whom I had some very familiar conversation, as he had often heard of me; in the conclusion whereof, he told me that he desired the captain’s patience till he had sent for his people about him, and put himself in due order to receive him, which, in about two hours’ time, he did; and then all we white men, as well captain Burgess, and the rest, as those who came with us, marched two abreast, the trumpeter sounding before the captain, having a crowd of black mob after us; the shells blowing, and the drums beating at the same time in the king’s palisade by way of compliment. As deaan Toke-offu well knew how to treat white men, he had ordered two stools for the captain and surgeon to sit upon. After the mutual compliments were reciprocally passed, I being their interpreter, the manner of trade was soon settled and adjusted; and then the captain made a present to the king of a gun or two, &c., and the king presented him with a slave, &c. He gave me likewise a girl of twelve years old, whom I sold immediately to John Pro. The captain had thoughts of taking his leave this afternoon, but the king prevailed on him to stay till the next day, in order to make his court look the more grand when he received the ambassadors.
Accordingly, the next day, we were seated in order, when the ambassadors came with a numerous retinue, making just such an entry as Rer Vove did before his grandfather, when he returned from the wars. Some capering as they advanced, and firing their guns, and then retreating; others advancing in their places and doing the same. When the principal ambassador approached, he kneeled upon one knee, and licked the king’s knee, saying—
“Tyhew an deaan Unghorra en Zaftana Lohefute.”