[Footnote 1: This is the explanation of Job, who being a Mahometan, was a fatalist in his belief.]
He is described as being a fine figure, five feet ten inches in height; of a pleasing but grave countenance, and having strait black hair.[1] His natural qualities were excellent. He was possessed of a solid judgment, a ready and wonderfully retentive memory, an ardent love for truth, and a sweet disposition, mild, affectionate, and grateful. His religion was Mahometanism; but he rejected the idea of a sensual paradise, and several other traditions that are held among the Turks. The foundation of his principles was the unity of God; whose name he never pronounced without some particular indication of respect. "The ideas which he held of the Supreme Being and of a future state, appeared very reasonable to the English; but he was so firm in the persuasion of the divine unity, that it was impossible to get him to reason calmly upon the doctrine of the Trinity. A New Testament in Arabic had been given him. He read it; and, giving his ideas, respectfully, concerning it, began by declaring that having examined it carefully, he could not find a word from which he could conclude that there were three Gods."[2]
[Footnote 1: There is a scarce octavo portrait of him, head and shoulders only, etched by the celebrated painter, Mr. Hoare, of Bath, in 1734, as appears by a manuscript note on the impression of it in Mr. Bindley's possession. Under the print is engraved, "JOB, son of Solliman Dgialla, high priest of Bonda, in the country of Foota, Africa.">[
[Footnote 2: "Il etoit si ferme dans la persuasion de l'unité divine, qu'il fut impossible de le faire raisouner paisiblement sur la Trinité. On lui avoit donué un Nouveau Testament daus sa langue, il le lut, et s'expliquant, avec respect, sur ce livre, il commence par déclarer que l'ayant examiné fort soigneusement, il n'y avoit pas trouvé un mot d'ou l'on fuit conclure qu'il y eut trois dieux." Histoire générale des Voyages, par l'Abbé A.F. Prévost. 4to. Paris. 1747. Tom. III. p. 116.]
Job landed at Fort English on the 8th of August, 1734. He was recommended particularly by the Directors of the Royal African Company to the Governor and Factors. They treated him with much respect and civility. The hope of finding one of his countrymen at Joar, induced him to set out on the 23d in the shallop with Mr. Moore, who was going to take the direction of the factory there. On the 26th at evening they arrived at the creek of Damasensa. Whilst Job was seated under a tree with the English, he saw seven or eight negroes pass of the nation that had made him a slave, thirty miles from that place. Though he was of a mild disposition, he could hardly refrain from attacking them with his sabre and pistols; but Moore made him give up all thought of this, by representing to him the imprudence and danger of such a measure. They called the negroes to them, to ask them various questions, and to inquire particularly what had become of the king, their master. They answered that he had lost his life by the discharge of a pistol, which he ordinarily carried suspended to his neck, and which, going off by accident, had killed him on the spot. As this pistol was supposed to have been one of the articles which he had received of Captain Pyke as the price of Job, the now redeemed captive, deeply affected by the circumstance, turning to his conductors, said, "You see that Heaven has made the very arms for which I was sold, serve as the punishment of the inexorable wretch who made my freedom their procurement! And yet I ought to be thankful for the lot into which I was cast, because if I had not been made a captive, I should not have seen such a country as England; nor known the language; nor have the many useful and precious things that I possess; nor become acquainted with men so generous as I have met with, not only to redeem me from bondage, but to shew me great kindness, and send me back so much more capable of being useful." Indeed, he did not cease to praise highly the English in conversing with the Africans, and endeavored to reclaim those poor creatures from the prejudice they had that the slaves were eaten, or killed for some other purpose, because no one was known to have returned.
Having met with a Foulah, with whom he had been formerly acquainted, he engaged him to notify his family of his return; but four months elapsed before he received any intelligence from Bunda. On the 14th of January, 1735, the messenger came back, bearing the sad tidings that his father had died; with the consolation, however, of learning, just before his death, of the ransom of his son, and of the favor which he had received in England. One of the wives of Job had married again in his absence; and the second husband had fled on being informed of the arrival of the first. During the last three years, the war had made such ravages in the country of Bunda, that no cattle remained there.
Job was deeply affected with the death of his father, the misfortunes of his country, and the situation of his family. He protested, however, that he pardoned his wife, and the man who had espoused her. "They had reason," he said, "to suppose me lost to them forever, because I had gone to a country from which no Foulah had ever returned."
When Moore, from whose narrative these particulars are extracted, left
Africa, he was charged with letters from Job, who remained at Joar, to
Oglethorpe, Bluet, the Duke of Montague, his principal benefactors,
and to the Royal African Company.[1]
[Footnote 1: Travels into the inland parts of Africa; containing a description of several nations for the space of 600 miles upon the river Gambia; with a particular account of JOB BEN SOLOMON, a Pholey, who was in England in 1733, and known by the name of "the African Prince." By FRANCIS MOORE. London, 1738.]
"On Thursday, November 4th, 1737, Sir Hans Sloane communicated to the Royal Society a letter which a gentleman had received from Job, the African, whom MR. OGLETHORPE released from slavery, and the African Company sent home to his own country, in one of their ships, about twelve months ago. In this letter he very gratefully acknowledges the favor he received in England; and, in answer to some things desired of him when here, says that he has been in the country where the tree producing the gum-Arabic grows, and can assist the English in that trade. He further says, that he has been up in the country, as far as the mountains from whence the gold-dust is wafted down; and that if the English would build flat-bottomed boats to go up the river, and send persons well skilled in separating the gold from the ore, they might gain vastly more than at present they do by the dust trade; and that he should be always ready and willing to use the utmost of his power, (which is very considerable in that country,) to encourage and support them therein."[1]