CHAPTER VII
The author escapes with Glanlepze, a native—Their hardships in travel— Plunder of a cottage—His fears—Adventuire with a crocodile—Passage of a river—Adventure with a lioness and whelps—Arrive at Glanlepze’s house—The trial of Glanlepze’s wife’s constancy—The tender meeting of her and her husband—The author’s reflections thereupon.
HAVING now set out with all possible speed, we seemed to each other as joyful as we could; though it cannot be supposed we had no fears in our minds the first part of our journey, for we had many; but as our way advanced our fears subsided; and having, with scarce any delay, pushed forwards for the first twenty-four hours, nature then began to have two very pressing demands upon us, food and rest; but as one of them was absolutely out of our power to comply with, she contented herself with the other till we should be better able to supply her, and gave a farther time till the next day.
The next morning found us very empty and sharp-set, though a very sound night’s rest had contributed its utmost to refresh us. But what added much to our discomfort was, that though our whole subsistence must come from fruits, there was not a tree to be found at a less distance than twelve leagues, in the open rocky country we were then in; but a good draught of excellent water we met with did us extraordinary service, and sent us with much better courage to the woods, though they were quite out of the way of our route: there, by divers kinds of fruits, which, though my companion knew very well, I was quite a stranger to, we satisfied our hunger for the present, and took a moderate supply for another opportunity. This retarded our journey very much, for in so hard travel every pound weighed six before night.
I cannot say this journey, though bad enough, would have been so discouraging, but for the trouble of fetching our provisions so far; and then, if we meant not to lose half the next day in the same manner, we must double load ourselves, and delay our progress by that means; but we still went on, and in about eight days got quite clear of Angola.
On the eighth day, my companion, whose name was Glanlepze, told me we were very near the confines of Congo, but there was one little village still in Angola by which we must pass within half a league; and if I would agree to it, he would go see what might be got here to supply ourselves with. I told him I was in an unknown world, and would follow wherever he should lead me; but asked him if he was not afraid of the people, as he was not of that country. He told me as there had been wars between them and his country for assisting their neighbours of Congo, he was not concerned for any mischief he should do them, or they him. “ But,” says he, “you have a knife in your pocket, and with that we will cut two stout clubs, and then follow me and fear nothing.”
We soon cut our clubs, and marching on, in the midst of some small shrubs and a few scattering trees, we saw a little hovel, larger indeed, but worse contrived, than an English hogstye, to which we boldly advanced; and Glanlepze entering first, saluted an old man who was lying on a parcel of rushes. The man attempted to run away, but Glanlepze stopped him, and we tied his hands and feet. He then set up such a hideous howl, that had not Glanlepze threatened to murder him, and prepared to do it, he would have raised the whole village upon us; but we quieted him, and rummaging to find provision, which was all we wanted, we by good luck spied best part of a goat hanging up behind a large mat at the farther end of the room. By this time in comes a woman with two children, very small. This was the old man’s daughter, of about five-and-twenty. Glanlepze bound her also, and laid her by the old man; but the two children we suffered to lie untied. We then examined her, who told us the old man was her father, and that her husband, having killed a goat that morning, was gone to carry part of it to his sister; that they had little or no corn; and finding we wanted victuals, she told us there was an earthen pot we might boil some of the goat in if we pleased.
Having now seen all that was to be had, we were going to make up our bundle, when a muletto very gently put his head into the doorway: him Glanlepze immediately seized; and bidding me fetch the great mat and the goat’s flesh, he in the meantime put a long rope he found there about the beast’s neck, and laying the mat upon him, we packed up the goat’s flesh and a little corn in a calabash-shell; and then turning up the mat round about, skewered it together, and over all we tied the earthen pot; Glanlepze crying out at everything we loaded, “It is no hurt to plunder an enemy?’ and so we marched off.
I own I had greater apprehensions from this adventure than from anything before. “For,” says I, “if the woman’s husband returns soon, or if she or her father can release themselves, they will raise the whole village upon us, and we are undone.” But Glanlepze laughed at me, saying we had not an hour’s walk out of the Angola dominions, and that the king of Congo was at war with them in helping the king of Loango, whose subject himself was; and that the Angolans durst not be seen out of their bounds on that side of the kingdom; for there was a much larger village of Congovians in our way, who would certainly rise and destroy them, if they came in any numbers amongst them; and though the war being carried on near the sea, the borders were quiet, yet, upon the least stir, the whole country would be in arms, whilst we might retire through the woods very safely.
Well, we marched on as fast as we could all the remainder of that day till moonlight, close by the skirt of a long wood, that we might take shelter therein, if there should be occasion; and my eyes were the best part of the way behind me; but neither hearing nor seeing anything to annoy us, and finding by the declivity of the ground we should soon be in some plain or bottom, and have a chance of water for us all, and pasture for our muletto, which was now become one of us, we would not halt till we found a bottom to the hill, which in half an hour more we came to, and in some minutes after to a rivulet of fine clear water, where we resolved to spend the night. Here we fastened our muletto by his cord to a stake in the ground; but perceiving him not to have sufficient range to fill his belly in before morning, we, under Glanlepze’s direction, cut several long slips from the mat, and soaking them well in water, twisted them into a very strong cord, of sufficient length for the purpose. And now, having each of us brought a bundle of dry fallen sticks from the wood with us, and gathered two or three flints as we came along, we struck fire on my knife upon some rotten wood, and boiled a good piece of our goat’s flesh; and having made such a meal as we had neither of us made for many months before, we laid us down and slept heartily till morning.
As soon as day broke we packed up our goods, and filling our calabash with water, we loaded our muletto, and got forward very pleasantly that day and several others following, and had tolerable lodgings.
About noon, one day, travelling with great glee, we met an adventure which very much daunted me, and had almost put a stop to my hopes of ever getting where I intended. We came to a great river whose name I have now forgot, near a league over, but full, and especially about the shores, of large trees that had fallen from the mountains and been rolled down with the floods, and lodged there in a shocking manner. This river, Glanlepze toid me, we must pass: for my part, I shrunk at the sight of it, and told him if he could get over, I would not desire to prevent his meeting with his family; but as for my share, I had rather take my chance in the woods on this side than plunge myself into such a stream only for the sake of drowning. “Oh?’ says Glanlepze, “then you can’t swim?”—“No,” says I; “ there’s my misfortune.”—“Well,” says the kind Glanlepze, “be of good heart; I’ll have you over.” He then bade me go cut an armful of the tallest of the reeds that grew there near the shore, whilst he pulled up another where he then was, and bring them to him. The side of the river sloped for a good way with an easy descent, so that it was very shallow where the reeds grew, and they stood very close together upon a large compass of ground. I had no sooner entered the reeds a few yards, to cut some of the longest, but (being about knee-deep in the water and mud, and every step raising my feet very high to keep them clear of the roots, which were matted together) I thought I had trod upon a trunk of one of the trees, of which, as I said, there was such plenty thereabouts; and raising my other foot to get that also upon the tree, as I fancied it, I found it move along with me; upon which I roared out, when Glanlepze, who was not far from me, imagining what was the matter, cried out, “Leap off, and run to shore to the right!” I knew not yet what was the case, but did what I was bid, and gained the shore. Looking back, I perceived the reeds shake and rustle all the way to the shore, by degrees after me. I was terribly frightened, and ran to Glanlepze, who then told me the danger I had escaped, and that what I took for a tree was certainly a large alligator or crocodile.
My blood ran chill within me at hearing the name of such a dangerous creature; but he had no sooner told me what it was, than out came the most hideous monster I had ever seen. Glanlepze ran to secure the muletto; and then taking the cord which had fastened him, and tying it to each end of a broken arm of a tree that lay on the shore, he marched up to the crocodile without the least dismay, and beginning near the tail, with one leg on one side, and the other on the other side, he straddled over him, still mending his pace as the beast crept forward, till he came to his forefeet; then throwing the great log before his mouth, he, by the cord in his hand, bobbed it against the creature’s nose, till he gaped wide enough to have taken in the muletto; then of a sudden, jerking the wood between his jaws with all his force by the cord, he gagged the beast, with his jaws wide open up to his throat, so that he could neither make use of his teeth nor shut his mouth; he then threw one end of the cord upon the ground, just before the creature’s under-jaw, which, as he by degrees crept along over it, came out behind his forelegs on the contrary side; and serving the other end of it in the same manner, he took up those ends and tied them over the creature’s back, just within his forelegs, which kept the gag firm in his mouth; and then calling out to me (for I stood at a good distance), “Peter,” says he, “bring me your knife!” I trembled at going so near, for the crocodile was turning his head this way and that very uneasy, and wanting to get to the river again, but yet I carried it, keeping as much behind him as I could, still eyeing him which way he moved, and at length tossed my knife so near that Glanlepze could reach it; and he, just keeping behind the beast’s forefeet, and leaning forward, first darted the knife into one eye, and then into the other; and immediately leaping from his back, came running to me. “So, Peter,” says he, “I have done the business.”—“Aye! business enough, I think,” says I, “and more than I would have done to have been king of Congo.”—“Why, Peter,” says he, “there is nothing but a man may compass by resolution, if he takes both ends of a thing in his view at once, and fairly deliberates on both sides what may be given and taken from end to end. What you have seen me perform is only from a thorough notion I have of this beast and of myself, how far each of us hath power to act and counteract upon the other, and duly applying the means. But,” says he, “this talk will not carry us across the river; come, here are the reeds I have pulled up, which I believe will be sufficient without any more, for I would not overload the muletto.”—“Why,” says I, “is the muletto to carry them?”—“No, they are to carry you,” says he.—“I can never ride upon these,” says I. —“Hush!” says he, “I’ll not lose you, never fear. Come, cut me a good tough stick, the length of these reeds.”—“Well,” says I, “this is all conjuration; but I don’t see a step towards my getting over the river yet, unless I am to ride the muletto upon these reeds, and guide myself with the stick.”—“I must own, Peter,” says he, “you have a bright guess.” So taking an armful of the reeds, and laying them on the ground, “Now, Peter,” says he, “lay that stick upon those reeds and tie them tight at both ends.” I did so. “Now, Peter,” says he, “lay yourself down upon them.” I then laying myself on my back, lengthwise, upon the reeds, Glanlepze laughed heartily at me, and turning me about, brought my breast upon the reeds at the height of my armpits; and then taking a handful of the reeds he had reserved by themselves, he laid them on my back, tying them to the bundle close at my shoulders, and again at the ends. “Now, Peter,” says he, “stand up; “ which I did, but it was full as much as I could do. I then seeing Glanlepze laughing at the figure I cut, desired him to be serious, and not put me upon losing my life for a joke; for I could not think what he would do next with me. He bid me never fear; and looking more soberly, ordered me to walk to the river, and so stand just within the bank till he came; then leading the muletto to me, he tied me to her, about a yard from the tail, and taking the cord in his hand, led the muletto and me into the water. We had not gone far before my guide began to swim, then the muletto and I were presently chin-deep, and I expected nothing but drowning every moment: however, having gone so far, I was ashamed to cry out; when getting out of my depth, and my reeds coming to their bearing, up I mounted, and was carried on with all the ease imaginable; my conductor guiding us between the trees so dexterously, that not one accident happened to either of us all the way, and we arrived safe on the opposite shore.
We had now got into a very low, close, swampy country, and our goat’s flesh began to be very stale through the heat, not only of the sun, but the muletto’s back: however, we pleased ourselves we should have one more meal of it before it was too bad to eat; so, having travelled about three miles from the river, we took up our lodging on a little rising, and tied our muletto in a valley about half a furlong below us, where he made as good a meal in his way as we did in ours.
We had but just supped, and were sauntering about to find the easiest spot to sleep on, when we heard a rustling and a grumbling noise in a small thicket just on our right, which seeming to approach nearer and nearer, Glanlepze roused himself, and was on his legs just time enough to see a lioness and a small whelp which accompanied her, within thirty yards of us, making towards us, as we afterwards guessed, for the sake of our goat’s flesh, which now smelt very strong. Glanlepze whipped on the contrary side of the fire to that where the goat’s flesh lay, and fell to kicking the fire about at a great rate, which being made of dry wood, caused innumerable sparks to fly about us; but the beasts still approaching in a couchant manner, and seizing the ribs of the goat and other bones (for we had only cut the flesh off), and grumbling and cracking them like rotten twigs, Glanlepze snatched up a firebrand, flaming, in each hand, and made towards them; which sight so terrified the creatures that they fled with great precipitation to the thicket again.
Glanlepze was a little uneasy at the thoughts of quitting so good a lodging as we had found, but yet held it best to move farther; for as the lions had left the bones behind them, we must expect another visit if we stayed there, and could hope for no rest; and, above all, we might possibly lose our muletto; so we removed our quarters two miles farther, where we slept with great tranquillity.
Reflections on the nature of mankind have often astonished me. I told you at first my thoughts concerning prayer in my journey to Bristol, and of the benefit I received from it, and how fully I was convinced of the necessity of it; which one would think was a sufficient motive to a reasonable creature to be constant in it; and yet, it is too true that, notwithstanding the difficulties I had laboured under, and hardships I had undergone, and the danger of starving at sea or being murdered for food by my fellows, when there was as urgent a necessity of begging Divine assistance as can be conceived, I never once thought of it, nor of the Object of it, nor returned thanks for my being delivered, till the lioness had just left me; and then I felt near the same force urging me to return thanks for my escape, as I had impelling me to prayer before; and I think I did so with great sincerity.
I shall not trouble you with a relation of the common accidents of our journey, which lasted two months and better, nor with the different methods we used to get subsistence, but shall at once conduct you to Quamis; only mentioning that we were sometimes obliged to go about, and were once stopped by a cut that my guide and companion received by a ragged stone in his foot, which growing very bad, almost deprived me of the hopes of his life; but by rest and constant sucking and licking it, which was the only remedy we had to apply, except green leaves chewed, that I laid to it by his direction, to supple and cool it, he soon began to be able to ride upon the muletto, and sometimes to walk a little.
I say we arrived at Quamis, a small place on a river of that name, where Glanlepze had a neat dwelling, and left a wife and five children when he went out to the wars. We were very near the town when the day closed; and as it is soon dark there after sunset, you could but just see your hand at our entrance into it. We met nobody in the way, but I went directly to Glanlepze’s door, by his direction, and struck two or three strokes hard against it with my stick. On this there came a woman to it stark-naked. I asked her, in her own language, if she knew one Glanlepze. She told me, with a deep sigh, that once she did. I asked then where he was. She said, with their ancestors, she hoped, for he was the greatest warrior in the world; but if he was not dead, he was in slavery. Now you must know Glanlepze had a mind to hear how his wife took his death or slavery, and had put me upon asking these questions before he discovered himself. I proceeded then to tell her I brought some news of Glanlepze, and was lately come from him, and by his order. “And does my dear Glanlepze live!” says she, flying upon my neck, and almost smothering me with caresses, till I begged her to forbear, or she would strangle me, and I had a great deal more to tell her; then ringing for a light, when she saw I was a white man she seemed in the utmost confusion at her own nakedness; and immediately retiring, she threw a cloth round her waist and came to me again. I then repeated to her that her husband was alive and well, but wanted a ransom to redeem himself, and had sent me to see what she could anyways raise for that purpose. She told me she and her children had lived very hardly ever since he went from her, and she had nothing to sell, or make money of, but her five children; that as this was the time for the slaving-trade, she would see what she could raise by them, and if that would not do, she would sell herself and send him the money, if he would let her know how to do it.
Glanlepze, who heard every word that passed, finding so strong a proof of his wife’s affection, could hold out no longer, but bursting into the room, clasped her in his arms, crying, “No, Zulika! (for that was her name) I am free; there will be no occasion for your or my dear children’s slavery, and rather than have purchased my freedom at that rate, I would willingly have died a slave myself. But my own ears have heard the tender sentiments my Zulika has for me.” Then, drowned in tears of joy, they embraced each other so close and so long, that I thought it impertinent to be seen with them till their first transports were over. So I retired without the house, till Glanlepze called me in, which was not less than full half an hour. I admired at the love and constancy of the person I had just left behind me; and, Good Heaven, thinks I to myself, with a sigh, how happy has this our escape rendered Glanlepze and his wife! what a mutual felicity do they feel! And what is the cause of all this? Is it that he has brought home great treasures from the wars? Nothing like it; he is come naked. Is it that, having escaped slavery and poverty, he is returned to an opulent wife, abounding with the good things of life? No such thing. What, then, can be the cause of this excess of satisfaction, this alternate joy, that Patty and I could not have been as happy with each other? Why, it was my pride that interposed and prevented it. But what am I like to get by it, and by all this travel and these hazards? Is this the way to make a fortune, to get an estate? No, surely the very contrary. I could not, forsooth, labour for Patty and her children where I was known; but am I any better for labouring here where I am not known, where I have nobody to assist me, ‘than I could have been where I am known, and where there would have been my friends about me, at least, if they could have afforded no great assistance? I have been deceived, then, and have travelled so many thousand miles, and undergone so many dangers, only to know at last I had been happier at home; and have doubled my misery for want of consideration that very consideration which, impartially taken, would have convinced me I ought to have made the best of my bad circumstances, and to have laid hold of every commendable method of improving them. Did I come hither to avoid daily labour or voluntary servitude at home? I have had it in abundance. Did I come hither to avoid poverty or contempt? Here I have met with them tenfold And now, after all, was I to return home empty and naked, as Glanlepze has done, should I meet a wife, as bare as myself, so ready to die in my embraces, and to be a slave herself, with her children, for my sake only? I fear not. These and the like reflections had taken possession of me when Glanlepze called me in; where I found his wife, in her manner, preparing our supper, with all that cheerfulness which gives a true lustre to innocence.
The bustle we made had by this time awakened the children; who, stark-naked as they were born, both boys and girls, came crawling out, black as jet, from behind a curtain at the farther end of the room, which was very long. The father as yet had only inquired after them; but upon sight of them he fell into an ecstasy, kissing one, stroking another, dandling a third, for the eldest was scarce fourteen; but not one of them knew him, for seven years makes a great chasm in young memories. The more I saw of this sport, the stronger impression Patty and my own children made upon me. My mind had been so much employed on my own distresses, that those dear ideas were almost effaced; but this moving scene introduced them afresh, and imprinted them deeply on my imagination, which cherished the sweet remembrance.