Robert Drury

“ I am happy in this, that though my life and liberty are lost as well as yours, yet this misfortune is not any ways chargeable on me, for I would rather have kept on my course to the Cape of Good Hope, and relied on Providence in a leaky ship, than put in here, but you strenuously opposed it; for death, in my opinion, is to be preferred to our present slavery, and the consequences that will naturally attend it. In death our sorrows will have an end, but now, who can tell the troubles and torments we shall yet undergo ”

“ The captain and other Frenchmen were surprised to find the man play his part so dexterously; not perceiving, at first, that he was in earnest, and was as fond of being their king as they were of electing him, though it was in so heathenish a place. He had here twelve thousand fighting men immediately under his command, and a fine, spacious, and plentiful country to live in at his pleasure. The ship’s crew sailed away and left him behind them; but as often as the French had occasion for what this island afforded, they made it a constant practice to put into Port Dauphine, and traffic with him. ”

“ As soon as we had got the wind and cattle right ahead, and were within hearing, we walked with all the circumspection imaginable, cropping the top of the grass with our hands, as close as possible, to mimic, as well as we could, the noise a cow makes when she bites it. ”

“ As I was going home one met me who wanted to buy some honey, it being rumoured about, that I had brought home a large cargo; he gave me a fine silk lamber for a calabash of honey that contained about two gallons. I thought myself very fine in it, and sure I am, I was the first of the family who was ever dressed so much like a Madagascar lord. Deaan Trongha told me, I had bought it cheaply enough in conscience; for if honey had not been scarce it was worth four times as much; silk is very plentiful in this country, if they would take the pains to gather it. ”

“ When we broke up, deaan Trongha told me the whole assembly had confidence in me; as knowing it to be my interest to keep their secrets. But, says he, a more than ordinary care is absolutely necessary at this juncture; for the common people abandon us to live under other lords, if our proceedings do not please them; though we aim at nothing but their own security and welfare. They have not, however, the sense to know it, and will be for ever throwing reflections on our conduct, and finding fault, though we lose our wives, families, and cattle, and run all hazards to protect them. ”

“ For if a noise be made by a great number of people, an alligator will sink, like a stone, to the bottom, and lie without the least motion, and though you tread on him, he will not stir an inch. As we took our journey for pleasure only, we had no occasion to fatigue ourselves, so we marched but slowly. In a few hours we arrived on the banks of a very large river, called Mernee. Here we came to a town inhabited by a people of a different species, as it were, from the rest of mankind, and of a language peculiar to themselves, though they can speak the general language if they please. ”

“ Few of this part of the island will eat any beef unless it is killed by one descended from a race of kings; now my master, just before the war broke out, growing haughty to excess, and having none but himself and his brother to execute these high offices, they were sometimes obliged to go five or six miles to kill an ox. He at last reflected that these people have an exalted opinion of all white men, and taking me for the captain’s son, whom they looked upon to be no ways inferior to a king, I was thought of honourable descent enough to be preferred to the dignity of a butcher ”

“ My whole stock of provision and household furniture consisted of no more than about a gallon of carravances, a mat to lie upon, a hatchet, and a little spade to dig up wild yams. We wanted no hoes now, for that work was put an end to in this country. All our plantations, and most of the produce which was laid up in little storehouses, were now left to the enemy’s disposal. In half a day we arrived at deaan Mephontey’s town, who treated my master with all due respect, and assured him, that he would defend both him and his people to the utmost of his power. ”

“ When deaan Afferrer had kept strict watch over me for about two months, and thought the track of the Feraingher army was impossible to be found, as the grass was grown up again, he took me with him hunting these Hattoy’s cattle again. We had very good diversion, had not the conclusion proved tragical; for we killed five cows, and had thoughts of departing: but a bull ran off with a lance in his side, and we, being loth to lose it, pursued him, and stuck two or three more in his belly. When his wounds smarted, he grew enraged and turned upon us. ”

“ If ever any country flowed with milk and honey it is this; and with so much ease are they to be had, that as the natives have no knowledge of the curse of Adam and his posterity, so one would be tempted to think, as well for this reason as from their colour, that they are not of his race, or that the curse ever reached them, for they can get their living without the sweat of their brows, or the least hard labour. Notwithstanding all this, the follies and passions of men will too often lead them into misery, though they have happiness in their power ”

“ When my master ordered me to stand up, I was in hopes it was to strike the bargain; but, instead of that, says he, look on that white slave there; for looking after cattle, digging of wild yams, and improving of honey, there is not his fellow; and though a buccaneer gun is the common price of a slave, I will not take two for him. Ry-Nanno thereupon showed him three or four slaves, but Mevarrow told him in direct terms that he would not part with me on any conditions whatever. ”

“ No sooner was it broad daylight, than the negroes came up to us, and the prince had a short conference with Sam. Captain Younge asked him the purport of their discourse. He answered, they wanted to know what was become of captain Drummond, and the rest. The words were no sooner out of his mouth, than one of the princes took hold of me, and delivered me to one of his attendants; there were three or four lads like myself and much about my age, who were seized at the same time and delivered to their people in the same manner; who bound our hands with cords. ”

“ We laid down our burdens, and some of us went up to them, armed with guns and lances. Deaan Murnanzack shot the boar that wounded his dog; whereupon another in an instant defended the entrance, and fought so resolutely, that neither the dogs, nor we ourselves, could come near the cattle that were within; till we had made a passage behind them with our hatchets and lances, and then fired upon some of the most resolute, who turned upon us. The rest perceiving themselves attacked behind, fought their way through the dogs, and ran away, with the dogs after them. ”

“ There are some people in the remote parts of this country, whose habitations are in secret recesses in the woods; they live easy, indolent lives, never come near a town, nor concern themselves with any affairs of peace or war, either foreign or domestic. They keep no cattle, lest the vociferations of their herds or flocks might possibly betray them, and induce some evil-minded men to disturb their peace by plundering them of so valuable a treasure; but content themselves with small plantations and the product of nature, which is, indeed, sufficient to support them. ”

“ Rer Moume replied, he was not conscious of keeping any slave of his from him, and if he would nominate the person, he should be instantly restored. “Why there he stands,” says Rer Vove. “I hope (says the uncle) you don’t mean Robin, the white man. Is he a slave of yours? I am ashamed of your imprudence to say so. Is it not to the white men, but more especially to his countrymen, the English, that we are indebted for the riches we enjoy? We, who formerly were insulted by the Amboer-lambo people, and other nations around us, are by these Englishmen’s guns made too powerful for them ”

“ He being now at leisure, Rer Mimebolambo and he agreed to join their forces, and having obtained leave of deaan Crindo, they prepared for their expedition.
I expected to be left behind, as usual, to take care of his wife, and pleased myself with the hope that the time was near at hand for putting my design in execution; but standing before him with two lances in my hand, you shall not, says he, always live at home like a woman, but shall go to the wars with me; the sight of a white man in arms will strike terror into the people upon the mountains where we are going. ”

“ He gave me, moreover, a slave, a boy about sixteen years of age; and in a short time, he sent me with others to fetch away some cattle from a man, who, upon examination before him, had been found guilty of stealing several from his neighbours; for which facts he was fined twenty beeves. This was the first time I was ever sent on such an errand, though not the last; and people of the best rank are fond of this employment; for they never fail of a good present for their trouble. He gave me, likewise, a cow with her calf, and a young bull of three years old. ”

“ The richer sort, indeed, and people of distinction, buy silk and calicoes at seaport towns, and often give a cow and a calf for no more than will make them one lamber. The men wear no other clothes, but they adorn themselves with mananelers, which are rings round their wrists; and these, both men and women of distinction, are very fond of. ”

“ For indeed, said he, we have nowhere to go but into the sea, and we have no notion of living there as you white men have.
When we had supped, and talked till I was sleepy, he sent a man with me to a house prepared for my reception. The next morning I begged the favour of him to send a man to direct me in the right road to deaan Trongha’s; but he would go himself. I told him that it was too great a condescension, and too much beneath his dignity, to attend a slave as I was. He answered, that he never looked on white men as slaves, and that he had waited on several. ”

“ Nothing but an East India voyage would please me; for no other reason that I can think of, but because I had a cousin at Bengal, whose name was John Steel, in the New East India Company’s service; the companies at that time not being united.
My father showed a due care and concern for my welfare, by the manner in which he fitted me out; and by plentifully supplying me with provisions, clothes, and other necessaries for the voyage; besides which, I had a cargo to the value of a hundred pounds, which was a large trust for a boy of my age. ”

“ Having now in great measure recovered my strength, I began to reflect on the misery of returning to my former slavery; and for that reason, after some conflict with myself, I determined to run the risk of throwing 285myself at Rer Moume’s feet, to beg his protection, be the consequence what it would; death being preferable to perpetual slavery. Having imbibed this notion, I desired my landlord one morning to put me over the water in his canoe; for I would willingly pay a visit to a friend on that side, it not being above two hours’ walk to Rer Moume’s town. ”

“ As I was passing by a river, and walking down to it, I perceived the track of an alligator, which gave a great check to that inclination, and there being two or three houses at but a small distance from it, I was going towards them to beg a little water; but a young woman who was going with her calabash to dip for some, desired me to stay, and she would supply me with as much as I would drink; I told her I would accept the favour, but as she went into the water up to her knees to fill her vessel, an alligator with a spring caught fast hold of both her thighs, and dragged her into the stream ”

“ I had been here above a month, before old Efflep died, and his son James made a grand burial for him, after the manner of the country; which is the same as in Anterndroea. He killed four or five beeves, to entertain his friends who attended the funeral. The princes and lords do not kill the beasts here; but a prince will eat any thing, even swine’s flesh, though a slave should kill it. ”

“ Absolute power is what all ambitious princes aim at, and thirst to enjoy it. This the world may see is the darling passion of the vicious great; and this was the misfortune that attended Saccalauvor; at least that part of it which was under the immediate jurisdiction of Rer Trimmonongarevo: for the other lords, his sons and nephews, were as humane as those in any other part of the island ”

“ If war were agreed on, the same men took their arms, and the sovereign or chief headed them, as my master did here; and when they returned, each man went home to his own family. Thus the people are their own army and defence; and the lord could never oblige them to do what the majority did not think convenient to be done, because he had no army to compel them. ”

“ He made my master a present of five of his own, and fifteen of the chemango’s. He seldom, if ever, goes out on foot, but is carried on a bier on men’s shoulders. He is very old, indeed, having been cow-keeper to Rer Trimmonongarevo’s father, deaan Lohefute.
Butter and cheese might be made here in plenty, were there but people who understood the art of it, for the cows give abundance of milk, though not altogether so much as ours do in England, but then they continue it longer; summer time in this hot country being the worst for the cattle. ”

“ My employment was still to follow the cow-tail for the town in general, for nobody was willing to trust either their children or servants; and deaan Mevarrow durst not peremptorily command, even his own young slaves, to do any thing which might hazard their being taken by the enemy, lest their parents and friends should resent it, and leave him to live under other lords. As for his white slave, he had neither parents nor relations to mourn his loss if killed or taken; and for that reason was the only proper person to be exposed to danger. ”