After dinner we drank both our Kings healths, and he grew very merry, preferring Punch to other Liquors. When he took his leave of me in the Evening, he express’d great Satisfaction at his Entertainment: Moreover he told me, “He design’d to go and see the Sea the next day, (which was about three Miles off) and as he had never yet seen it, nor a Ship, he should be glad of my Company.” But I was obliged to excuse my self, on account of my late Illness, from which I was not perfectly recovered. So I told him, “I would order my Officer in the Tent, to entertain him in the best manner he could; and if he would be pleased to go on board my Ship to see her, all possible Care should be taken of him.”
I must now leave this great Man for a while, and give an Account of a remarkable thing that happened whilst he was at the Sea side. For the right understanding of it, the Reader is to know, That a few days before the great Captain came to Jaqueen, the Linguist brought me two Female Negroes, saying, “The King desired, I would buy them, and promise I would not let them be redeemed by any one that should offer to do it:” After I had viewed these Women, one of which was turned of fifty, and the other about twenty Years old, I told the Linguist, “The first was past her Labour, and not for my purpose; but I would buy the other.” He replied, “He could not part them; adding, It would highly oblige the King if I took them both:” But suspecting he made use of the King’s Name, to get rid of an old Woman, I refused it, and he carried them away. I little suspected then what would happen to this poor Creature, which I shall presently relate.
The great Captain, as he had told me, went the next day to the Sea side, accompanied by abundance of People who came from the inland Country, which indeed they daily did in great Numbers, to see so rare a sight, now the ways were open to them. There lay then at Anchor, in the Road of Jaqueen, the Katherine Galley which I commanded, being a fine Ship of near three hundred Tuns burthen; and two Portuguese Vessels. This sight exceedingly surprized him, as well as did the Sea, which came rolling and roaring with its Billows on the Shore; so that he stood for some time fixed as if he had been a Statue, till he heard the Guns fired from the Katherine, wherewith I had ordered him to be saluted, on a signal made from our Tent. Being by the Noise of the Guns roused out of his Astonishment, my Officer then invited him to go to the Tent to dinner, which he readily accepted. Whilst he was at dinner, he could not sit still three minutes together, his Curiosity still prompting him to go and look on the Sea and Ships.
As the Water near the Shore is very shallow, our Boats cannot approach nearer than within two Cables length, so that we are obliged to make use of Cannoes, which draw much less Water than our Boats, to land our Goods: And also the fresh Water for the Ship’s use, is rafted in Casks by Ropes from the Boats. The great Man was so pleased with the sight, that he went too near the Sea to see it; in which instant a Wave coming with great force, reached him so, that with the surprize he fell on his back; by which Accident some salt Water got into his Stomach. His Servants seeing him fall, immediately run to his Assistance; and taking him up, carried him to our Tent, where he drank half a pint of Brandy, to qualify the salt Water he had swallowed down. Tho’ he had met with this mischance, he stay’d at the Tent till the Evening, and then left the place with reluctance, to come to Town; so much delighted was he with this sight. It was about nine a clock at night when he returned to Jaqueen, being usher’d in with the hideous noise of their musical Instruments, and the Acclamations of the People.
Soon after, one of his principal Servants, together with the Linguist, came to me, saying, “The Great Man had sent them to return me thanks for the kind Entertainment he had received at my Tent; that he designed to set out next day for the King’s Camp, and should be glad to see me before he went.”
The Servant being gone, the Linguist told me in private, “That the oldest Woman whom I had refused to buy, had that day been sacrificed to the Sea, by order of the great Captain. For she had highly offended the King, and as I would not take her, his Majesty had ordered her to be destroyed this way, in the room of another Victim that was designed for the same Purpose.” I asked him, What Crimes she had committed? He replied hastily, “Did I think he knew the King’s Secrets? adding, She had lived a long time in the Court, with good Repute till now.” I then wish’d in my mind I had bought her; but only said to the Linguist, “I wondered he should have a hand in such Cruelty, having been bred up amongst white People.” To which he answered, “Great Mens Commands were not to be disputed, especially there being no one but himself of the Dahomes, that durst go off in a Cannoe with her.” Whereupon he told me the following Story; “The Woman’s Hands being tied behind her, and her Feet across, she was put into the Cannoe, and carried off about half a Mile from the Shore: And then he ordered the Rowers to throw her over board; which they had no sooner done, but he saw some Sharks (voracious Fishes very common in those Seas) tear her to pieces in an instant.” On hearing this Account I pitied the Fate of this poor Creature, for I intirely credited the Story, knowing full well the Barbarity of those People. But the next day I was greatly surprized, with a Letter from my chief Mate, informing me, that the Woman was on board our Ship: Which happened in this manner. It seems, neither my People at the Tent, nor those in our Boats, which lay at the Moorings near the Shore, knew any thing of the real occasion of the Cannoe’s going off. For the Woman was put very privately into the Cannoe. They only thought the Linguist was gone, with a design to see some of the Ships. When he came on shore again, one of our Boats went just then from the Moorings, in order to go on board our Ship. Being got about half way, the Officer in the Boat spied something floating on the Sea, which at his coming nearer, he perceived to be a human Body lying on its back; and now and then spurting Water out at the Mouth. This showing it was still living, he ordered it to be taken into the Boat, being bound in the same manner as the Linguist had told me. Immediately they untied this poor Woman, chafed her Limbs, and rolled her Body about, whereupon she discharged a good quantity of salt Water out of her Mouth. Then they carried her on board the Ship, not knowing in the least the occasion of her being in the Sea, and extremely wondering she had escaped the Sharks, who are usually so voracious, that when a dead Person is thrown overboard, or a living one falls into the Sea by Accident, they are in an instant torn to pieces by those voracious Animals. So that this poor Creature seemed to have a miraculous Escape; and the knowledge of the greediness of these Sharks, I suppose, induced the Linguist to tell me, that he actually saw her torn to pieces; verily believing it would so happen, which his Fears would not let him stay to see, on account of the great swell the Billows of the Sea had at that time.
Upon my receiving the above-mentioned account from the Mate, tho’ pleas’d with the safety of the poor Woman, yet it filled me with Apprehensions, if the King of Dahomè should come to know it: For he might pretend, his Fetiche, or God, being disappointed of this Sacrifice by us, would revenge it on me, or at least oblige me to make up the Affair with large Presents. So having considered of the matter, I writ to the chief Mate, to charge our People to keep the thing secret; it being of the utmost Consequence to us all to do it: Which they accordingly did. Some time after, going on board the Ship, I examined this Woman by the Linguist, but she would never confess the reason of the King’s displeasure against her; alledging she knew not that she had in any respect offended him. However, I found by the Linguist, that he suspected, it was on account of her assisting some of the King’s Women in their Amours.
This Woman being a sensible Person, did us good service in the Voyage. For she was known to several of the Negroes on board, and by her talking to and advising them, made them easy in their Minds: She observed to them, amongst other things, “That as we had shown such Kindness to her, first in saving her Life, and since in taking care of her, who might be reckoned an useless Person to us, on account of her Age; so they had all the reason in the World to believe we were much better people than their own Countrymen; and that the strange Stories they had been formerly told of white People, must be false.” The female Negroes, who used always to be the most troublesome to us, on account of the noise and clamour they made, were kept in such Order and Decorum by this Woman, that I had never the like in any Voyage before: And when I came to Antegoa, Charles Dunbar Esq; Surveyor General of Barbadoes, and the Leeward Islands, on my Recommendation, bought her, and I was not a little pleased she had got so generous and good a Master.
But to return again to the great Captain: When he was ready to depart from Jaqueen, all the Europeans in the Place waited on him to the side of the River, that runs on the back part of the Town. Upon taking leave I told him, “I wanted but eighty Negroes to compleat my Cargo,” and he promised he would acquaint the King with it; and I might be sure his Majesty would send them down to me forthwith. However, this did not happen according to my Expectation; for I understood afterwards the King had no Slaves by him for sale, tho’ he had great numbers of captive Negroes, which tilled his Grounds, and did other Work. For, it seems, after they are once inrolled for that Service, his Majesty never sells them, unless they are guilty of very great Crimes.
After the great Captain’s departure, I was obliged to wait a long while for a dispatch; at last the desired Time came, and the King’s Factors that brought the Negroes behaved themselves so well towards me, that I had no reason to complain of them. The principal amongst them told me, “The King was much surprized, that I had not been dispatch’d before; and that his Majesty had punished those severely, who had been the occasion of my long stay at Jaqueen: That if my Affairs would admit of my going to the Camp, the King was desirous to see me again there, to discourse, and settle Matters, for the mutual Interest of himself, and the Europeans trading to his Country; for when I was with him before, the great Hurry of Affairs his Majesty had then on his Hands, did not allow him sufficient time to talk of Business.” I desired the Gentleman to return the King my due Acknowledgments for all his Favours; “and that I should have been very glad and ready to have waited again on his Majesty at the Camp: But the bad state of health I was then in, did not allow it; of which himself being an Eye-Witness, I desired he would be pleased to inform the King of it: Adding, I should not fail, on my arrival into England, to tell my Countrymen who trade to this place, how great and generous a Prince I had been entertained by; hoping (if God bless’d me) to return again in a twelvemonth at farthest.” So having made the Traders some small Presents, they took their Leaves, returning many thanks for what I had given them.