At length a wandering sailor came that way who had been at one of the Portuguese missions on the coast of Africa, and knew the captive’s tribe and spoke enough words of his barbarous [[253]]language to learn his history. The negro had, when a boy, been sold by his parents for “knife and tobacco” to slave traders, who had him with many others for a long time in a ship at sea. They came at last into a river, where they were landed and kept for some days in a large house, where they had plenty of sugar and sugar cane. He and another, a grown man of his tribe, made their escape and wandered for a long time in the woods, crossing a great many rivers and prairies, he did not know how many. Often they were nearly starved to death, but his companion, skillful to throw the club, had as often taken some animal with which they sustained life. At length they came into the section of the country where he afterwards remained so long. They saw the people passing about, and they saw that some of them were negroes, but were afraid of their clothes; they feared that the negroes were cannibals. His companion died after several years, and ever since he had been alone.
As he was now a man in middle life, he had probably been brought across the sea between 1820 and 1830. His small feet received some explanation. It appears that there is a tribe on the west coast of Africa, perhaps more than one, which have very small feet. We learned from the savage what we did not know before, that there is a certain hour in the night, which varies somewhat with the moon, when the most watchful dogs are sunk in insensible sleep, and a man may walk among them and step over them with impunity. His most extraordinary feat of exchanging the hogs was very simple, but if made known it might get some of his improvident race into trouble.
He was advertised as a stray negro and sold on public account. The purchaser turned him loose among his other negroes, and according to the nature of his race, he remained contented in his new home. The Wild Woman was never afterwards heard of. Public curiosity speedily died away, and nothing more being heard from the negro, he also disappears from history and legend. [[255]]
[1] Rose, Victor M., Some Historical Facts in Regard to the Settlement of Victoria, Texas, Laredo [1883?], pp. 71–72. [↑]
[2] Marryat, Captain, Narrative of the Travels and Adventures of Monsieur Violet in California, Sonora, and Western Texas, Leipzig, 1843, p. 278. [↑]
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF TEXAS LEGENDS
This bibliography makes no pretension to completeness. Mere references to legends, such as references to buried treasure, are not listed, the citations being confined almost altogether to actual narrative or explanation of narrative. Legends marked with an asterisk are either quoted or retold in this volume. It is hoped that the bibliography will continue to grow. Additions, especially of current newspaper accounts, are invited.
Agreda, Madre de Jesus de. See Blue Woman, The.