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also forced, while we remained there, to look after all the cattle, and milk them too; for they were not perfectly recovered, when orders were brought us to return with our cattle. As my poor comrades could scarce walk, I made the messenger who came to us assist me in driving the cattle home.

When I came home, I was soon informed that deaan Tuley-Noro, king of Antenosa, had given my master all this trouble by marching his people into Anterndroea, and demanding satisfaction of deaan Crindo for the murder of the white men. Now, though this was two years and a half before (for so long I had been in the country) yet I soon heard that Captain Drummond, Captain Steward, Mr. Bembo, and the rest, who escaped the night before the massacre, were with him; and that there had not been, during all that time, a ship at Port Dauphine, for them to return in; but that, notwithstanding, they lived free and entirely at their own disposal. This deaan Tuley-Noro was king Samuel, whom I mentioned before, and whose dominions were on the other side of the river Manderra.

As soon as I got home I was taken from the cattle, and two men were ordered to guard me, and see that I did not run away to king Samuel. The next day we heard the Antenosa people were within ten miles of our town, which put them all into a great hurry and confusion. The cattle were sent one way, and the women and children another; poor Robin, their white slave, was along with them, but had his hands tied behind him. I had not been long there, before a messenger came to my mistress in great haste, with orders to send me to my master in the camp, for the white men were to purchase me, and proposed to give two Buccaneer guns as a valuable consideration. My mistress was loth to part with me; I dissembled as much as I could, and showed a seeming reluctance at parting, since I had been so long amongst them; though at the same time I struggled hard to conceal my joy. I kneeled down and licked her feet, thanking her for all her favours, and away I went with the messenger, in

great hopes now of seeing some of my countrymen again, and getting a passage to England. But see how rtune tantalized me! It was twenty miles, or thereabouts, to the camp where my master was; and it might be somewhat after midnight when we arrived there: my master set a watch over me the remaining part of the night, and made me swear I would never discover the hiding places of their wives and cattle; which I readily complied with.

The next morning king Samuel sent to know if I was come, and desired they would permit a hundred men to be sent down with me between the two camps; and he would send the like number to meet them, with the two Buccaneer guns. This being agreed to, deaan Crindo ordered my master to go with the party; and king Samuel seeing them approach, gave directions for his men to meet them; among whom were Captain Drummond, and the rest of the white men. When we came near one another, Captain Drummond, being glad to see me, called me by my name, and asked me how I did. My master thereupon clapped his hand upon my mouth, and vowed if I offered to speak he would kill me; so that I durst not return any answer. Captain Drummond finding I made no reply, imagined, as I suppose, that I could not hear, whereupon he and the white men came nearer. My master, on their approach, thought they came to take me by force, and cheat them of the two guns; upon this he ordered his men to fire at them; so that instead of a parley and an exchange of me for the two guns, a skirmish ensued, and both armies advanced to support each other's party. I was immediately sent away under a strong guard to the woods, where I parted with my mistress the night before: so that this pleasing prospect of deliverance was nothing more than a short transitory dream of liberty, which immediately vanished; and made me only feel the weight of slavery much more sensibly than before. Which way I returned back I cannot tell; but sure I am, I was in such a disorder of mind as a condemned criminal is when going to execution. In a few

hours, however, I found myself in my former station ; my legs in parra-pingo (a fastening almost like fetters) for fear I should run away: my old companions stood round about me, and my mistress and the women were glad to see me again. But I was in too melancholy a mood to return them any compliments; nor could they extract from me any thing but tears and exclamations at my hard fortune. I wished for death, and was very near being gratified in my desire two days after.

The next day, news came that deaan Tuley-Noro was returning back to his own country; he being (as they said) obliged to retire by deaan Crindo, though the Antenosa army was twice their number. We were also ordered to return home, and I was released from parra-pingo, and set at liberty; my guard being also discharged.

The day following came deaan Mevarrow, deaan Sambo, and their little army, entering the town with great pomp and grandeur, as if they had gained some extraordinary victory; though I heard of nothing but a little bush-fighting and ambuscades. The deaan, however, sat himself down with his brother, the other chiefs, and the rest, in the usual form before his house: my mistress, according to custom, crept out to lick her hero's feet; when she had done, the rest of the women performed the same ceremony; and after them the slaves, among whom I was one. As I was getting up to depart, he ordered me to stay; I stood some time to hear him tell his wife, how like a coward deaan Tuley-Noro behaved himself, though he had twice their number of men. After he had told his tale, he turned his head, and with an angry countenance asked me what the white men said when they called me? Sir, said I, they only asked me how I did. And nothing else? said he. I replied, no, sir. At this he rose up in a rage, cocked his gun, and put the muzzle to my breast, saying, if I did not tell him the truth he would shoot me that moment. I was not much daunted, as I had little or no regard for my life in my then melancholy humour; so with little concern I repeated what I said,

At this he pulled the trigger, but Providence being pleased to preserve me for some other purpose, the cock snapped, and missed fire. Whether the prime was wet in the pan, or by what other miracle it was I escaped his fury, I cannot say; but that not succeeding to his wish, he took his lance to stab me; when his brother and the rest of his chief men ran in between us, and told him it was cruel and inhuman, and that he had better have killed me at first, than saved me only to terrify me with death on every slight occasion; there being no reason at all for such severe treatment. With much persuasion he returned to his seat, and told them there were just grounds to suspect the white men had formed a design to commit some treacherous action, since they came nearer than they ought to have done. And, indeed, their fears proceeded from a natural dread they have of white men, ten of whom will drive fifty black men before them. Besides, Captain Drummond and the rest being completely armed with pistols in their girdles, was an additional terror to them. What

was the true reason of king Samuel's retiring I know not; but when this broil was over, my curiosity led me to understand the whole affair; which was thus related to me.

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King Samuel's intention was to have marched directly to Fennoarevo, and fall upon deaan Crindo before he could be provided for him; his way lay over a large plain called Ambovo, leading to a great wood; through which they must also pass. Deaan Crindo, having more timely notice than they expected, laid an ambuscade in the wood; king Samuel, being lame of the gout, was carried on men's shoulders; they suffered lim and great part of his army to enter the wood, and then gave the signal: whereupon deaan Crindo's men arose and attacked them so vigorously, and with so much advantage, (knowing the wood, which the others did not,) that king Samuel himself was in danger of being taken; but was gallantly defended by the white men, and others of his bravest people. They were obliged, however, to retire into the plain, where they

encamped, as did deaan Crindo's people close by the wood side, and even in it; by that means securing themselves from the superior number of the Antenosa army, which, as they were informed, consisted of six thousand men. Here they came to a parley: king Samuel sent one of his chiefs to acquaint deaan Crindo, that he had no intention to deprive him either of his cattle or his slaves; but that as he had been brought up among white men, all such were his friends; and he looked on himself obliged in duty and honour to demand some satisfaction of deaan Črindo, for the white men he had so inhumanly sacrificed to his resentment; and if there were any yet alive, he desired to have them in order to send them to their native country.

Deaan Crindo gave good attention to the messenger, and then returned an answer to this effect: that he wondered deaan Tuley-Noro should concern himself with other people's affairs; that as to the white men who were shipwrecked on his coast, he looked upon it, that the great God had sent them there for his assistance; and that as he had a potent enemy, and was conscious of the white men's courage, as well as superior skill in war, he should not slight the help his gods had sent him. Accordingly he treated them with the utmost civility as friends, and maintained them in as handsome a manner as his country would afford; they wanting for nothing he could procure them: and after all, though they had in so violent a manner seized him, and prince Murnanzack, and made them prisoners, he would condescend so far to Tuley-Noro to inform him (though under no obligations to give him an account of his actions, or frame any excuses) that neither he, nor prince Murnanzack was present, or any way aiding or abetting in their deaths; but that action was done by some of his sons and nephews, to revenge the indignity offered to himself and prince Murnanzack. And to convince him he did not tell him this as a plea, through a mean-spirited fear; since his sons thought fit to do it, he would justify and defend them in it; and thought they did the white men justice. That he knows

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