 Section 9 of Captain Singleton, read by Dennis Sayers. The Life, Adventures, and Piracies of Captain Singleton by Daniel Defoe. In about eight days we finished three canoes, and in them we embarked our white men and our baggage with our prints and some of the prisoners. We also found it needful to keep some of ourselves always on shore, not only to manage the Negroes, but to defend them from enemies and wild beasts. Abundance of little incidents happened upon this march, which it is impossible to crowd into this account. Particularly we saw more wild beasts now than we did before. Some elephants and two or three lions, none of which kinds we had seen any of before, and we found our Negroes were more afraid of them, a great deal than we were, principally because they had no bows and arrows or lances, which were the particular weapons they were bred up to the exercise of. But we cured them of their fears by being always ready with our firearms. However, as we were willing to be sparing of our powder, and the killing of any of the creatures now was no advantage to us, seeing their skins were too heavy for us to carry, and their flesh not good to eat, we resolved therefore to keep some of our pieces uncharged and only primed, and causing them to flash in the pan, the beasts, even the lions themselves, would always start and fly back when they saw it, and immediately march off. We passed abundance of inhabitants upon this upper part of the river, and with this observation that almost every ten miles we came to a separate nation, and every separate nation had a different speech, or else their speech had differing dialects, so that they did not understand one another. They all abounded in cattle, especially on the river side. In the eighth day of this second navigation we met with a little negro town, where they had growing a sort of corn like rice, which ate very sweet, and as we got some of it of the people, we made very good cakes of bread of it, and making a fire baked them on the ground after the fire was swept away very well. So that hitherto we had no want of provisions of any kind that we could desire. Our negroes towing our canoes we traveled at a considerable rate, and by our own account could not go less than twenty or twenty-five English miles a day, and the river continuing to be much of the same breadth, and very deep all the way. Still on the tenth day we came to another cataract. For a ridge of high hills crossing the whole channel of the river, the water came tumbling down the rocks from one stage to another, in a strange manner, so that it was a continued link of cataracts from one to another in the manner of a cascade, only that the falls were sometimes a quarter of a mile from one another, and the noise confused and frightful. We thought our voyaging was at a full stop now, but three of us, with a couple of our negroes, mounting the hills another way to view the course of the river, we found a fair channel again after about half a mile's march, and that it was like to hold us a good way further. So we set all hands to work, unloaded our cargo, and hauled our canoes on shore to see if we could carry them. Upon examination we found they were very heavy, but our carpenters, spending but one day's work upon them, hewed away so much of the timber from their outsides as reduced them very much, and yet they were as fit to swim as before. When this was done, ten men with poles took up one of the canoes and made nothing to carry it. So we ordered twenty men to each canoe, that one ten might relieve the other, and thus we carried all our canoes and launched them into the water again, and then fetched our luggage, and loaded it all again into the canoes, and all in an afternoon. And the next morning early we moved forward again. When we had towed about four days more, our gunner, who was our pilot, began to observe that we did not keep our right course so exactly as we ought, the river winding away a little towards the north, and gave us notice of it accordingly. However, we were not willing to lose the advantage of water carriage, at least not till we were forced to it. So we jogged on, and the river served us for about three score miles further, but then we found it grew very small and shallow, having passed the mouths of several little brooks or rivulets which came into it, and at length it became but a brook itself. We towed up as far as ever our boats would swim, and we went two days the farther, having been about twelve days in this last part of the river, by lightening the boats and taking our luggage out, which we made the Negroes carry, being willing to ease ourselves as long as we could. But at the end of these two days there was not water enough to swim a London wary. We now set forward wholly by land, and without any expectation of more water carriage, all our concern for more water was to be sure to have a supply for our drinking, and therefore upon every hill that we came near we clambered up to the highest part to see the country before us, and to make the best judgment we could, which way to go, to keep the lowest grounds, and as near some stream of water as we could. The country held verdant, well grown with trees, and spread with rivers and brooks, and tolerably well with inhabitants, for about thirty days March after our leaving the canoes, during which time things went pretty well with us. We did not tie ourselves down when to march and when to halt, but ordered those things as our convenience, and the health and ease of our people, as well our servants as ourselves, required. About the middle of this march we came into a low and plain country in which we perceived a greater number of inhabitants than in any other country we had gone through, but that which was worse for us we found them a fierce, barbarous, and treacherous people, and who at first looked upon us as robbers, and gathered themselves in numbers to attack us. Our men were terrified at them, at first, and began to discover an unusual fear, and even our black prince seemed in a great deal of confusion. But I smiled at him, and showing him some of our guns, I asked him if he thought that which killed the spotted cat, for so they called the leopard, in their language, could not make a thousand of those naked creatures die at one blow. Then he laughed, and said, yes, he believed it would. Well, then, said I, tell your men not to be afraid of these people, for we shall soon give them a taste of what we can do if they pretend to meddle with us. However, we considered we were in the middle of a vast country, and we knew not what numbers of people and nations we might be surrounded with, and above all we knew not how much we might stand in need of the friendship of these that we were now among, so that we ordered the Negroes to try all the methods they could to make them friends. Accordingly, the two men who had gotten bows and arrows, and two more to whom we gave the princes, two fine lances, went foremost, with five more, having long poles in their hands, and after them ten of our men advanced toward the Negro town that was next to us, and we all stood ready to succor them if there should be occasion. When they came pretty near their houses, our Negroes hallowed in their screaming way, and called to them as loud as they could. Upon their calling, some of the men came out and answered, and immediately after the whole town, men, women, and children, appeared. Our Negroes, with their long poles, went forward a little, and stuck them all in the ground, and left them, which in their country was a signal of peace. But the other did not understand the meaning of that. Then the two men with bows laid down their bows and arrows, went forward, unarmed, and made signs of peace to them, which at last the other began to understand. So two of their men laid down their bows and arrows and came towards them. Our men made all the signs of friendship to them that they could think of, putting their hands up to their mouths as a sign that they wanted provisions to eat, and the other pretended to be pleased and friendly, and went back to their fellows and talked with them a while, and they came forward again and made signs that they would bring some provisions to them before the sun set, and so our men came back again, very well satisfied for that time. But an hour before sunset, our men went to them again, just in the same posture as before, and they came according to their appointment, and brought deer's flesh, roots, and the same kind of corn, like rice, which I mentioned above, and our Negroes being furnished with such toys as our Cutler had contrived, gave them some of them, which they seemed infinitely pleased with, and promised to bring more provisions the next day. Accordingly, the next day they came again, but our men perceived they were more in number by a great many than before. However, having sent out ten men with firearms to stand ready, and our whole army being in view also, we were not much surprised, nor was the treachery of the enemy so cunningly ordered, as in other cases, for they might have surrounded our Negroes, which were but nine, under a show of peace. But when they saw our men advance almost as far as the place where they were the day before, the rogues snatched up their bows and arrows, and came running upon our men like so many furies, at which our men called to the Negroes to come back to them, which they did with speed enough, at the first word, and stood all behind our men. As they fled, the other advanced, and let fly near a hundred of their arrows at them, by which two of our Negroes were wounded, and one we thought had been killed, when they came to the five poles that our men had stuck in the ground, they stood still a while, and gathering about the poles looked at them, and handled them as wondering what they meant. We then, who were drawn up behind all, sent one of our number to our ten men to bid them fire among them, while they stood so thick, and to put some small shot into their guns besides the ordinary charge, and to tell them that we would be up with them immediately. Accordingly, they made ready, but by the time they were ready to fire, the Black Army had left their wandering about the poles, and began to stir as if they would come on, though seeing more men stand at some distance behind our Negroes, they could not tell what to make of us, but if they did not understand us before, they understood us less afterwards, for as soon as ever our men found them to begin to move forward, they fired among the thickest of them, being about the distance of 120 yards, as near as we could guess. It is impossible to express the fright, the screaming, and yelling of those wretches upon this first valley. We killed six of them, and wounded eleven, or twelve, I mean, as we knew of, for as they stood thick in the small shot, as we called it, scattered among them, we had reason to believe we wounded more that stood farther off, for our small shot was made of bits of lead and bits of iron, heads of nails, and such things as our diligent artificer, the Cutler, helped us to. As to those that were killed and wounded, the other frightened creatures were under the greatest amazement in the world, to think what should hurt them, for they could see nothing but holes made in their bodies, they knew not how. Then the fire and noise amaze all their women and children, and frighten them out of their wits, so that they ran staring and howling about like mad creatures. However, all this did not make them fly, which was what we wanted, nor did we find any of them die, as it were, with fear, as at first. So we resolved upon a second volley, and then to advance, as we did before. Whereupon our reserved men advanced, we resolved to fire only three men at a time, and move forward like an army, firing in platoon. So, being all in a line, we fired first three on the right, then three on the left, and so on. And every time we killed or wounded some of them, but still they did not fly, and yet they were so frightened that they used none of their bows and arrows, or of their lances, and we thought their numbers increased upon our hands, particularly we thought so by the noise. So I called to our men to halt, and bid them pour in one whole volley, and then shout, as we did in our first fight, and so run in upon them, and knock them down with our muskets. But they were too wise for that too, for as soon as we fired a whole volley and shouted, they all ran away. Men, women, and children so fast, that in a few moments we could not see one creature of them, except some that were wounded, and lame, who lay wallowing and screaming here and there upon the ground as they happened to fall. Upon this we came up to the field of battle, where we found we had killed 37 of them, among which were three women, and had wounded about 64, among whom were two women. By wounded I mean such as were so maimed as not to be able to go away. And those, our Negroes killed afterwards in a cowardly manner in cold blood, for which we were very angry, and threatened to make them go to them if they did so again. There was no great spoil to be got, for they were all stark naked as they came into the world. Men and women together, some of them having feathers stuck in their hair, and others a kind of bracelet about their necks, but nothing else. But our Negroes got a booty here, which we were very glad of, and this was the bows and arrows of the vanquished, of which they found more than they knew what to do with, belonging to the killed and wounded men. These we ordered them to pick up, and they were very useful to us afterwards. After the fight, and our Negroes had gotten bows and arrows, we sent them out in parties to see what they could get, and they got some provisions. But, which was better than all the rest, they brought us four more young bulls, or buffaloes, that had been brought up to labor, and to carry burdens. They knew them, it seems, by the burdens they had carried, having galled their backs, for they have no saddles to cover them with in that country. Those creatures not only eased our Negroes, but gave us an opportunity to carry more provisions, and our Negroes loaded them very hard, at this place, with flesh and roots, such as we wanted very much afterwards. In this town we found a very little young leopard, about two spans high. It was exceeding tame, and purred like a cat when we stroked it with our hands, being, as I suppose, bred up among the Negroes like a house dog. It was our black prince, it seems, who, making his tour among the abandoned houses or huts, found this creature there, and making much of him, and giving a bit or two of flesh to him, the creature followed him, like a dog, of which more hereafter. Among the Negroes that were killed in this battle, there was one who had a little thin bit, or plate, of gold, about as big as a sixpence, which hung by a little bit of a twisted gut upon his forehead, by which we supposed he was a man of some eminence among them. But that was not all, for this bit of gold put us upon searching very narrowly if there was not more of it to be had thereabouts, but we found none at all. From this part of the country we went on for about 15 days, and then found ourselves obliged to march up a high ridge of mountains, frightful to behold, and the first of the kind that we met with. And having no guide but our little pocket compass, we had no advantage of information as to which was the best or the worst way, but was obliged to choose by what we saw and shift as well as we could. We met with several nations of wild and naked people in the plain country before we came to those hills, and we found them much more tractable and friendly than those devils we had been forced to fight with. And though we could learn little from these people, yet we understood by the signs they made that there was a vast desert beyond these hills, and as our Negroes called them, much lion, much spud and cat, for so they called, the leopard, and they signed to us also that we must carry water with us. At the last of these nations, we furnished ourselves with as much provisions as we could possibly carry, not knowing what we had to suffer or what length we had to go, and to make our way as familiar to us as possible. I proposed that of the last inhabitants we could find we should make some prisoners and carry them with us for guides over the desert and to assist us in carrying provision, and perhaps in getting it too. The advice was too necessary to be slighted, so finding by our dumb signs to the inhabitants that there were some people that dwelt at the foot of the mountains on the other side before we came to the desert itself, we resolved to furnish ourselves with guides by fair means or foul. Here, by a moderate computation, we concluded ourselves 700 miles from the sea coast where we began. Our black prince was this day set free from the sling his arm hung in, our surgeon having perfectly restored it, and he showed it to his own countrymen quite well, which made them greatly wonder. Also, our two negroes began to recover and their wounds to heal apace, for our surgeon was very skillful in managing their cure. Having with infinite labor mounted these hills and coming to a view of the country beyond them, it was indeed enough to astonish as stout, a heart as ever was created. It was a vast howling wilderness, not a tree, a river, or a green thing to be seen, for, as far as the eye could look, nothing but a scalding sand, which, as the wind blew, drove about in clouds enough to overwhelm man and beast. Nor could we see any end of it either before us, which was our way, or to the right hand or left, so that truly our men began to be discouraged and talk of going back again. Nor could we, indeed, think of venturing over such a horrid place as that before us, in which we saw nothing but present death. End of section nine, read by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California, for Libra Box. Section 10 of Captain Singleton. This Libra Box recording is in the public domain. Read by Dennis Sayers. The Life Adventures and Piracies of Captain Singleton by Daniel Defoe. I was as much affected at the site as any of them, but for all that I could not bear the thoughts of going back again. I told them we had marched 700 miles of our way, and it would be worse than death to think of going back again, and that if they thought the desert was not passable, I thought we should rather change our course and travel south till we came to the Cape of Good Hope or north to the country that lay along the Nile, where perhaps we might find some way or other over to the West Sea. For sure all Africa was not a desert. Our gunner, who as I said before was our guide as to the situation of places, told us that he could not tell what to say to going for the Cape, for it was a monstrous length, being from the place where we were now not less than 1500 miles, and by his account we were now come a third part of the way to the coast of Angola, where we should meet the western ocean and find ways enough for our escape home. On the other hand he assured us and showed us a map of it that if we went northward the western shore of Africa went out into the sea above 1000 miles west so that we should have so much and more land to travel afterwards, which land might for ought we knew be as wild, barren and desert as this. And therefore upon the whole he proposed that we should attempt this desert and perhaps we should not find it so long as we feared. And however he proposed that we should see how far our provisions would carry us and in particular our water and we should venture no further than half so far as our water would last. And if we found no end of the desert we might come safely back again. This advice was so reasonable that we approved of it and accordingly we calculated that we were able to carry provisions for 42 days but that we could not carry water for above 20 days though we were to suppose it to stink too before that time expired so that we concluded that if we did not come at some water in 10 days time we would return but if we found a supply of water we could then travel 21 days and if we saw no end of the wilderness in that time we would return also. With this regulation of our measures we descended the mountains and it was the second day before we quite reached the plain where however to make us amends we found a fine little rivulet of very good water abundance of deer a sort of creature like a hare but not so nimble but whose flesh we found very agreeable but we were deceived in our intelligence for we found no people so we got no more prisoners to assist us in carrying our baggage the infinite number of deer and other creatures which we saw here we found was occasioned by the neighborhood of the waste or desert from whence they retired hither for food and refreshment we stored ourselves here with flesh and roots of diverse kinds which our Negroes understood better than we and which served us for bread and with as much water as by the allowance of a court a day to a man for our Negroes and three pints a day a man for ourselves and three quarts a day each for our buffaloes would serve us 20 days and thus loaded for a long miserable march we set forwards being all sound in health and very cheerful but not alike strong for so great a fatigue and which was our grievance were without a guide in the very first entrance of the waste we were exceedingly discouraged for we found the sand so deep and it scalded our feet so much with the heat that after we had as I may call it weighted rather than walked through it about seven or eight miles we were all heartily tired and faint even the very Negroes laid down and panted like creatures that had been pushed beyond their strength here we found the difference of lodging greatly injurious to us for as before we always made us huts to sleep under which covered us from the night air which is particularly unwholesome in these hot countries but we had here no shelter no lodging after so hard a march for here were no trees no not a shrub near us and which was still more frightful towards night we began to hear the wolves howl the lions bellow and a great many wild asses braying and other ugly noises which we did not understand upon this we reflected upon our indiscretion that we had not at least brought poles or stakes in our hands with which we might have as it were palisade ourselves in for the night and so we might have slept secure whatever other inconveniences we suffered however we found a way at last to relieve ourselves a little for first we set up the lances and bows we had and endeavored to bring the tops of them as near to one another as we could and so hung our coats on the top of them which made us a kind of sorry tent the leopard skin and a few other skins we had put together made us a tolerable covering and thus we laid down to sleep slept very heartily too for the first night setting however a good watch being two of our men with their fuses whom we relieved in an hour at first and two hours afterwards and it was very well we did this for they found that the wilderness swarmed with raging creatures of all kinds some of which came directly up to the very enclosure of our tent but our sentinels were ordered not to alarm us with firing in the night but to flash in the pan at them which they did and found it effectual for the creatures went off always as soon as they saw it perhaps with some noise or howling and pursued such other game as they were upon if we were tired with the day's travel we were all as much tired with the night's lodging but our black prince told us in the morning he would give us some counsel and indeed it was very good counsel he told us we should all be killed if we went on this journey and through this desert without some covering for us at night so he advised us to march back again to a little riverside where we lay the night before and stay there till we could make us houses as he called them to carry with us to lodging every night as he began a little to understand our speech and we very well to understand his signs we easily knew what he meant and that we should there make mats for we remembered that we saw a great deal of matting or bass there that the natives make mats of I say that we should make large mats there for covering our huts or tents to lodging at night we all approved this advice and immediately resolved to go back that one day's journey resolving though we carried less provisions we would carry mats with us to cover us in the night some of the nimblest of us got back to the river with more ease then we had traveled it the day before but as we were not in haste the rest made a halt and then kept another night and came to us the next day in our return of this day's journey our men that made two days of it met with a very surprising thing that gave them some reason to be careful how they parted company again the case was this the second day in the morning before they had gone half a mile looking behind them they saw a vast cloud of sand or dust rise in the air as we see sometimes in the roads in summer when it is very dusty and a large drove of cattle are coming only very much greater and they could easily perceive that it came after them and it came on faster as they went from it the cloud of sand was so great that they could not see what it was that raised it and concluded that it was some army of enemies that pursued them but then considering that they came from the vast uninhabited wilderness they knew it was impossible any nation or people that way should have intelligence of them or the way of their march and therefore if it was an army it must be of such as they were traveling that way by accident on the other hand as they knew that there were no horses in the country and that they came on so fast they concluded that it must be some vast collection of wild beasts perhaps making to the hill country for food or water and that they should be all devoured or trampled under foot by their multitude upon this dot they very prudently observed which way the clouds seemed to point and they turned a little out of their way to the north supposing it might pass by them when they were about a quarter of a mile they halted to see what it might be one of the negroes, a nimbler fellow than the rest went back a little and came in a few minutes running as fast as the heavy sands would allow and by signs gave them to know that it was a great herd or drove or whatever it might be called of vast monstrous elephants as it was a sight our men had never seen they were desirous to see it and yet a little uneasy at the danger too for though an elephant is a heavy unwieldy creature yet in the deep sand which is nothing at all to them they marched at a great rate and would soon have tired our people if they had had far to go and had been pursued by them our gunner was with them and had a great mind to have gone close up to one of the outermost of them and to have clapped his peace to his ear and to have fired into him because he had been told no shot would penetrate them but they all dissuaded him lest upon the noise they should all turn upon and pursue us so he was reasoned out of it and let them pass which in our people's circumstances was certainly the right way they were between twenty and thirty in number but prodigious great ones and though they often showed our men that they saw them yet they did not turn out of their way or take any other notice of them then as we might say just to look at them we that were before saw the cloud of dust they raised but we had thought it had been our own caravan and so took no notice but as they bent their course one point of the compass were thereabouts to the southward of the east and we went due east or west they passed by us at some little distance so that we did not see them or know anything of them till evening when our men came to us and gave us this account of them however this was a useful experiment for our future conduct in passing the desert as you shall hear in its place we were now upon our work and our black prince was head surveyor for he was an excellent matmaker himself and all his men understood it so that they soon made us near a hundred mats and as every man I mean of the Negroes carried one it was no manner of load and we did not carry an ounce of provisions the less the greatest burden was to carry six long poles besides some shorter stakes but the Negroes made an advantage of that for carrying them between two they made the luggage of provisions which they had to carry so much the lighter binding it upon two poles and so made three couple of them as soon as we saw this we made a little advantage of it too for having three or four bags called bottles I mean skins to carry water more than the men could carry we got them filled and carried them this way which was a day's water and more for our journey having now ended our work made our mats and fully recruited our stores of all things necessary and having made us abundance of small robes of matting for ordinary use as we might have occasion we set forward again having interrupted our journey eight days and all upon this affair to our great comfort the night before we set out there fell a very violent shower of rain the effects of which we found in the sand though the heat of one day dried the surface as much as before yet it was harder at bottom not so heavy and was cooler to our feet by which means we marched as we reckoned about fourteen miles instead of seven and with much more ease when we came to encamp we had all things ready for we had fitted our tent and set it up for trial where we made it so that in less than an hour we had a large tent raised within inner and outer apartment and two entrances in one we lay ourselves in the other our negroes having light pleasant mats over us and others at the same time under us also we had a little place without all for our buffaloes for they deserved our care being very useful to us besides carrying forage and water for themselves their forage was a route which our black prints directed us to find not much unlike a parsnip very moist and nourishing of which there was plenty wherever we came this horrid desert accepted when we came the next morning to decamp our negroes took down the tent and pulled up the stakes and all was in motion in as little time as it was set up in this posture we marched eight days and yet could see no end no change of our prospect but all looking as wild and dismal as at the beginning if there was any alteration it was that the sand was nowhere so deep and heavy as it was the first three days this we thought might be because for six months of the year the winds blowing west as for the other six they blow constantly east the sand was driven violently to the side of the desert where we set out where the mountains lying very high the easterly monsoons when they blew had not the same power to drive it back again and this was confirmed by our finding the like depth of sand on the farthest extent of the desert to the west it was the ninth day of our travel in this wilderness when we came to the view of a great lake of water and you may be sure this was a particular satisfaction to us because we had not water left for above two or three days more at our shortest allowance I mean allowing water for our return if we had been driven to the necessity of it our water had served us two days longer than expected our buffaloes having found for two or three days a kind of herb like a broad flat thistle though without any prickle spreading on the ground and growing in the sand which they ate freely of and which supplied them for drink as well as forage the next day which was the tenth from our setting out we came to the edge of this lake and very happily for us we came to it at the south point of it for to the north we could see no end of it so we passed by it and traveled three days by the side of it which was a great comfort to us because it lightened our burden there being no need to carry water when we had it in view and yet though here was so much water we found but very little alteration in the desert no trees no grass or herbage except that thistle as I called it and two or three more plants which we did not understand of which the desert began to be pretty full but as we were refreshed with the neighborhood of this lake of water so we were now gotten among a prodigious number of ravenous inhabitants the like whereof it is most certain the eye of man never saw for as I firmly believe that never man nor body of men passed this desert since the flood so I believe there is not the like collection of fierce ravenous and devouring creatures in the world I mean not in any particular place for a day's journey before we came to this lake and all the three days we were passing by it and for six or seven days march after it the ground was scattered with elephants teeth in such a number as is incredible and as some of them have lain there for some hundreds of years so seeing the substance of them scarce ever decays they may lie there for ought I know to the end of time the size of some of them is it seems to those to whom I have reported it as incredible as the number and I can assure you there were several so heavy as the strongest man among us could not lift as to number I question not but there are enough to load a thousand sale of the biggest ships in the world by which I may be understood to mean that the quantity is not to be conceived of seeing that as they lasted in view for above eighty miles traveling so they might continue as far to the right hand and to the left as far and many times as far for ought we knew for it seems the number of elephants hereabouts is prodigiously great in one place in particular we saw the head of an elephant with several teeth in it but one of the biggest that ever I saw the flesh was consumed to be sure many hundred years before and all the other bones but three or four of our strongest men could not lift this skull and teeth the great tooth I believe weighed at least three hundred weight and this was particularly remarkable to me that I observed the whole skull was as good ivory as the teeth and I believe all together weighed at least six hundred weight and though I do not know but by the same rule all the bones of the elephant may be ivory yet I think there is this just objection against it from the example before me that then all the other bones of this elephant would have been there as well as they had I propose to our gunner that seeing we had traveled now 14 days without intermission and that we had water here for our refreshment and no want of food yet nor any fear of it we should rest our people a little and see at the same time if perhaps we might kill some creatures that were proper for food the gunner who had more forecast of that kind then I had agreed to the proposal and added why might we not try to catch some fish out of the lake the first thing we had before us was to try if we could make any hooks and this indeed put our artificer to his trumps however with some labor and difficulty he did it and we catched fresh fish of several kinds how they came there none but he that made the lake and all the world knows for to be sure no human hands ever put any in there or pulled any out before we not only catched enough for our present refreshment but we dried several large fishes of kinds which I cannot describe in the sun by which we lengthened out our provision considerably for the heat of the sun dried them so effectually without salt that they were perfectly cured dry and hard in one day's time we rested ourselves here five days during which time we had abundance of pleasant adventures with the wild creatures too many to relate one of them was very particular which was a chase between a sheen lion or lioness and a large deer and though the deer is naturally a very nimble creature and she flew by us like the wind having perhaps about three hundred yards the start of the lion yet we found the lion by her strength and the goodness of her lungs got ground of her they passed by us within about a quarter of a mile and we had a view of them a great way when having given them over we were surprised about an hour after to see them come thundering back again on the other side of us and then the lion was within thirty or forty yards of her and both straining to the extremity of their speed when the deer coming to the lake plunged into the water and swam for her life as she had before run for it the lioness plunged in after her and swam a little way but came back again and when she was got upon the land she set up the most hideous roar that ever I heard in my life as if done in the rage of having lost her prey we walked out morning and evening constantly the middle of the day we refreshed ourselves under our tent but one morning early we saw another chase which more nearly concerned us than the other for our black prince walking by the side of the lake was set upon by a vast great crocodile which came out of the lake upon him and though he was very light of foot yet it was as much as he could do to get away he fled amane to us and the truth is we did not know what to do before we were told no bullet would enter her and we found it so at first for though three or four men fired at her yet she did not mind them but my friend the gunner a venturous fellow of a bold heart and great presence of mind went up so near as to thrust the muzzle of his piece into her mouth and fired but let his piece fall and ran for it at the moment he had fired it the creature raged a great while and spent its fury upon the gun making marks upon the very iron with its teeth but after some time fainted and died our negroes spread the banks of the lake all this while for game and at length killed us three deer one of them very large the other two very small there was waterfowl also in the lake but we never came near enough to them to shoot any and as for the desert we saw no fouls anywhere in it but at the lake we likewise killed two or three civet cats but their flesh is the worst of carrion we saw abundance of elephants at a distance and observed they always go in very good company that is to say abundance of them together and always extended in a fair line of battle and this they say is the way they defend themselves from their enemies for if lions or tigers wolves or any creatures attack them they being drawn in a line sometimes reaching five or six miles in length whatever comes in their way is sure to be trod underfoot or beaten in pieces with their trunks or lifted up in the air with their trunks so that if a hundred lions or tigers were coming along if they met a line of elephants they will always fly back till they see room to pass by the right hand or the left and if they did not it would be impossible for one of them to escape for the elephant though a heavy creature is yet so dexterous and nimble with his trunk that he will not fail to lift up the heaviest lion or any other wild creature and throw him up in the air quite over his back and then trample him to death with his feet we saw several lines of battle thus we saw one so long that indeed there was no end of it to be seen and I believe there might be two thousand elephants in row or line they are not beasts of prey but live on the herbage of the field as an ox does and it is said that though they are so great a creature yet that a smaller quantity of forage supplies one of them then will suffice a horse the numbers of this kind of creature that are in those parts are inconceivable as may be gathered from the prodigious quantity of teeth which as I said we saw in this vast desert and indeed we saw a hundred of them to one of any other kind one evening we were very much surprised we were most of us laid down on our mats to sleep when our watch came running in among us being frighted with the sudden roaring of some lions just by them which it seems they had not seen the night being dark till they were just upon them there was as it proved an old lion and his whole family for there was the lioness and three young lions besides the old king who was a monstrous great one one of the young ones who were good large well-grown ones too leaped up upon one of our negroes who stood sentinel before he saw him at which he was heartily frighted cried out and ran into the tent our other man who had a gun had not presence of mind at first to shoot him but struck him with the butt end of his piece which made him whine a little and then growl at him fearfully but the fellow retired and we being all alarmed three of our men snatched up their guns ran to the tent door where they saw the great old lion by the fire of his eyes and first fired at him but we supposed missed him or at least did not kill him for they all went off but raised the most hideous roar which as if they had called for help brought down a prodigious number of lions and other furious creatures we know not what about them for we could not see them but there was a noise and yelling and howling and all sorts of such wilderness music on every side of us as if all the beasts of the desert were assembled to devour us end of section 10 read by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California for LibriVox section 11 of Captain Singleton this LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by Dennis Sayers the Life Adventures and Piracies of Captain Singleton by Daniel Defoe we asked our black prince what we should do with them me go says he and fright them all so he snatches up two or three of the worst of our mats and getting one of our men to strike some fire he hangs the mat up at the end of a pole and set it on fire and it blazed abroad a good while at which the creatures all moved off for we heard them roar and make their bellowing noise at a great distance well says our gunner if that will do we need not burn our mats which are our beds to lay under us and are tilting to cover us let me alone says he so he comes back into our tent and falls to making some artificial fireworks and the like and he gave our sentinels some to be ready at hand upon occasion and particularly he placed a great piece of wild fire upon the same pole that the mat had been tied to and set it on fire and that burnt there so long that all the wild creatures left us for that time however we began to be weary of such company and to be rid of them we set forward again two days sooner than we intended we found now that though the desert did not end nor could we see any appearance of it yet that the earth was pretty full of green stuff of one sort or another so that our cattle had no want and secondly that there were several little rivers which ran into the lake and so long as the country continued low we found water sufficient which eased us very much in our carriage and we went on still sixteen days more without yet coming to any appearance of better soil after this we found the country rise a little and by that we perceived that the water would fail us so for fear of the worst we filled our bladder bottles with water we found the country rising gradually thus for three days continually when on the sudden we perceived that though we had mounted up insensibly yet that we were on the top of a very high ridge of hills though not such as at first when we came to look down on the other side of the hills we saw to the great joy of all our hearts that the desert was at an end that the country was clothed with green abundance of trees and a large river and we made no doubt but that we should find people and cattle also and here by our gunner's account who kept our computations we had marched about four hundred miles over this dismal place of harbour having been four and thirty days of doing of it and consequently were come about one thousand one hundred miles of our journey we would willingly have descended the hills that night but it was too late the next morning we saw everything more plain and rested ourselves under the shade of some trees which were now the most refreshing things imaginable to us who had been scorched above a month without a tree to cover us we found the country here very pleasant especially considering that we came from and we killed some deer here also which we found very frequent under the cover of the woods also we killed a creature like a goat whose flesh was very good to eat but it was no goat we found also a great number of fowls like partridge but something smaller and were very tame so that we lived here very well found no people at least none that would be seen no not for several days journey and to allay our joy we were almost every night disturbed with lions and tigers elephants indeed we saw none here in three days march we came to a river which we saw from the hills and which we called the golden river and we found it ran northward which was the first stream we had met with that did so it ran with a very rapid current and our gunner pulling out his map assured me that this was either the river Nile or run into the great lake out of which the river Nile was said to take its beginning and he brought out his charts and maps which by his instruction I began to understand very well and told me he would convince me of it and indeed he seemed to make it so plain to me that I was of the same opinion but I did not enter into the gunner's reason for this inquiry not in the least till he went on with it farther and stated it thus if this is the river Nile why should not we build some more canoes and go down the stream rather than expose ourselves to any more deserts and scorching sands in quest of the sea which when we came to we shall be as much at a loss how to get home as we were at Madagascar the argument was good had there been no objections in the way of a kind which none of us were capable of answering but upon the whole it was an undertaking of such a nature that every one of us thought it impracticable and that upon several accounts and our surgeon who was himself a good scholar and a man of reading though not acquainted with the business of sailing opposed it and some of his reasons I remember were such as these first the length of the way which both he and the gunner allowed by the course of the water and turnings of the river would be at least four thousand miles secondly the innumerable crocodiles in the river which we should never be able to escape the dreadful deserts in the way and lastly the approaching rainy season in which the streams of the Nile would be so furious and rise so high spreading far and wide over all the plain country that we should never be able to know when we were in the channel of the river and when not and should certainly be cast away over set or run aground so often that it would be impossible to proceed by a river so excessively dangerous this last reason he made so plain to us that we began to be sensible of it ourselves so that we agreed to lay that thought aside and proceed in our first course westwards towards the sea as if we had been loath to depart we continued by way of refreshing ourselves to loiter two days upon this river in which time our black prince who delighted much in wandering up and down came one evening and brought us several little bits of something we knew not what but we found it felt heavy and looked well and showed it to me as what he thought was some rarity I took not much notice of it to him but stepping out and calling the gunner to me I showed it to him and told him what I thought viz that it was certainly gold he agreed with me in that and also in what followed that we would take the black prince out with us the next day and make him show us where he had found it that if there was any quantity to be found we would tell our company of it but if there was but little we would keep counsel and have it to ourselves but we forgot to engage the prince in the secret who innocently told so much to all the rest as that they guessed what it was and came to us to see when we found it was public we were more concerned to prevent their suspecting that we had any design to conceal it and openly telling our thoughts of it we called our artificer who agreed presently that it was gold so I proposed that we should all go with the prince to the place where he found it and if any quantity was to be had we would lie here some time and see what we could make of it accordingly we went every man of us for no man was willing to be left behind in a discovery of such a nature when we came to the place we found it was on the west side of the river not in the main river but in another small river or stream which came from the west and ran into the other at that place we fell to raking in the sand and washing it with our hands and we seldom took up a handful of sand but we washed some little round lumps as big as a pin's head or sometimes as big as a grapestone into our hands and we found in two or three hours time that everyone had got some so we agreed to leave off and go to dinner while we were eating it came into my thoughts that while we worked at this rate in a thing of such nicety and consequence it was ten to one if the gold which was the make-bait of the world did not first or last set us together by the ears to break our good articles and our understanding one among another and perhaps cause us to part companies or worse I therefore told them that I was indeed the youngest man in the company but as they had always allowed me to give my opinion in things and had sometimes been pleased to follow my advice so I had something to propose now which I thought would be for all our advantages and I believe they would all like it very well I told them we were in a country where we all knew there was a great deal of gold and that all the world sent ships thither to get it that we did not indeed know where it was and so we might get a great deal for a little we did not know whether but I offered it to them to consider whether it would not be the best way for us and to preserve the good harmony and friendship that had been always kept among us and which was so absolutely necessary to our safety that what we found should be brought together to one common stock and be equally divided at last rather than to run the hazard of any difference which might happen among us from any ones having found more or less than another I told them that if we were all upon one bottom we should all apply ourselves heartily to the work and besides that we might then set our Negroes all to work for us and receive equally the fruit of their labor and of our own and being all exactly alike sharers there could be no just cause of quarrel or disgust among us they all approved the proposal and everyone jointly swore and gave their hands to one another that they would not conceal the least grain of gold from the rest and consented that if anyone or more should be found to conceal any all that he had should be taken from him and divided among the rest and one thing more was added to it by our gunner from considerations equally good and just that if any one of us by any play bet game or wager one any money or gold or the value of any from another during our whole voyage till our return quite to Portugal he should be obliged by us all to restore it again on the penalty of being disarmed and turned out of the company and of having no relief from us on any account whatever this was to prevent wagering and playing for money which our men were apt to do by several means and at several games though they had neither cards nor dice having made this wholesome agreement we went cheerfully to work and showed our Negroes how to work for us and working up the stream on both sides and in the bottom of the river we spent about three weeks time dabbling in the water by which time as it lay all in our way we had gone about six miles and not more and still the higher we went the more gold we found till at last having passed by the side of a hill we perceived on a sudden that the gold stopped and that there was not a bit taken up beyond that place it presently occurred to my mind that it must then be from the side of that little hill that all the gold we found was worked down upon this we went back to the hill and fell to work with that we found the earth loose and of a yellowish loamy color and in some places a white hard kind of stone which in describing sense to some of our artists they tell me was the spar which is found by ore and surrounds it in the mine however if it had been all gold we had no instrument to force it out so we passed that but scratching into the loose earth with our fingers we came to a surprising place where the earth for the quantity of two bushels I believe or thereabouts crumbled down with little more than touching it and apparently showed us that there was a great deal of gold in it we took it all carefully up and washing it in the water the loamy earth washed away and left the gold dust free in our hands and that which was more remarkable was that when this loose earth was all taken away and we came to the rock or hard stone there was not one grain of gold more to be found at night we all came together to see what we had got and it appeared we had found in that day's heap of earth about 50 pounds weight of gold dust and about 34 pounds weight more in all the rest of our works in the river it was a happy kind of disappointment to us that we found a full stop put to our work for had the quantity of gold been ever so small yet had any at all come I do not know when we should have given over for having rummaged this place and not finding the least grain of gold in any other place or in any of the earth there except in that loose parcel we went quite back down the small river again working it over and over again as long as we could find anything how small so ever and we did get six or seven pounds more the second time then we went into the first river and tried it up the stream and down the stream on the one side and on the other up the stream we found nothing no not a grain down the stream we found very little not above the quantity of half an ounce in two miles working so back we came again to the golden river as we justly called it and worked it up the stream and down the stream twice more apiece and every time we found some gold and perhaps might have done so if we had stayed there till this time but the quantity was at last so small and the work so much harder that we agreed by consent to give it over lest we should fatigue ourselves and our negroes so as to be quite unfit for our journey when we brought all our purchases together we had in the hole three pounds and a half of gold to a man share and share alike according to such a weight and scale as our ingenious cutler made for us to weigh it by which indeed he did by guess but which as he said he was sure was rather more than less and so it proved at last for it was near two ounces more than weight in a pound besides this there was seven or eight pounds weight left which we agreed to leave in his hands and to work it into such shapes as we thought fit to give away to such people as we might yet meet with from whom we might have occasion to buy provisions or even to buy friendship or the like and particularly we gave about a pound to our black prince which he hammered and worked by his own indefatigable hand and some tools our artificer lent him into little round bits as round almost as beads though not exact in shape and drilling holes through each of them put them all upon a string and wore them about his black neck and they looked very well there I assure you but he was many months doing it and thus ended our first golden adventure we now began to discover what we had not troubled our heads much about before and that was that let the country be good or bad that we were in we could not travel much further for a considerable time we had been now five months and upwards in our journey and the seasons began to change and nature told us that being in a climate that had a winter as well as a summer though of a different kind from what our country produced we were to expect a wet season and such as we should not be able to travel in as well by reason of the rain itself as of the floods which it would occasion wherever we should come and though we had been no strangers to those wet seasons in the island of Madagascar yet we had not thought much of them since we began our travels for setting out when the sun was about the solstice that is when it was at the greatest northern distance from us we had found the benefit of it in our travels but now it drew near us a pace and we found it began to rain upon which we called another general council in which we debated our present circumstances and in particular whether we should go forward or seek a proper place upon the bank of our golden river which had been so lucky to us to fix our camp for the winter upon the whole it was resolved to abide where we were and it was not the least part of our happiness that we did so as shall appear in its place having resolved upon this our first measures were to set our negroes to work to make huts or houses for our habitation and this they did vary dexterously only that we changed the ground where we at first intended it thinking as indeed it happened that the river might reach it upon any sudden rain our camp was like a little town in which our huts were in the center having one large one in the center of them also into which all our particular lodgings opened so that none of us went into our apartments but through a public tent where we all ate and drank together and kept our councils and society and our carpenters made us tables benches and stools in abundance as many as we could make use of we had no need of chimneys it was hot enough without fire but yet we found ourselves at last obliged to keep a fire every night upon a particular occasion for though we had in all other respects a very pleasant and agreeable situation yet we were rather worse troubled with the unwelcome visits of wild beasts here than in the wilderness itself for as the deer and other gentle creatures came hither for shelter and food so the lions and tigers and leopards haunted these places continually for prey when first we discovered this we were so uneasy at it that we thought of removing our situation but after many debates about it we resolved to fortify ourselves in such a manner as not to be in any danger from it and this our carpenters undertook who first palisaded our camp quite round with long stakes for we had wood enough which stakes were not stuck in one by another like pales but in an irregular manner a great multitude of them so placed they took up near two yards in thickness some higher some lower all sharpened at the top and about a foot asunder so that had any creature jumped at them unless he got clean over which it was very hard to do he would be hung upon 20 or 30 spikes the entrance into this had larger stakes than the rest so placed before one another as to make three or four short turnings which no four-footed beast bigger than a dog could possibly come in it and that we might not be attacked by any multitude together and consequently be alarmed in our sleep as we had been or be obliged to waste our ammunition which we were very cherry of we kept a great fire every night without the entrance of our palisade having a hut for our two sentinels to stand in free from the rain just within the entrance and right against the fire to maintain this fire we cut a prodigious deal of wood and piled it up in a heap to dry and with the green boughs made a second covering over our huts so high and thick that it might cast the rain from the first and keep us effectually dry we had scarcely finished all these works but the rain came on so fierce and so continued that we had little time to stir abroad for food except indeed that our Negroes who wore no clothes seemed to make nothing of the rain though to us Europeans in those hot climates nothing is more dangerous we continued in this posture for four months that is to say from the middle of June to the middle of October for though the rains went off at least the greatest violence of them about the equinox yet as the sun was then just over our heads we resolved to stay a while till it passed a little to the southward end of section 11 read by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California for LibriVox section 12 of Captain Singleton this LibriVox recording is in the public domain reading by Dennis Sayers The Life Adventures and Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton by Daniel Defoe during our encampment here we had several adventures with the ravenous creatures of that country and had not our fire always been kept burning I question much whether all our fence though we strengthened it afterwards with 12 or 14 rows of stakes or more would have kept us secure it was always in the night that we had the disturbance of them and sometimes they came in such multitudes that we thought all the lions and tigers and leopards and wolves of Africa were come together to attack us One night, being clear moonshine one of our men being upon the watch told us that he barely believed he saw 10,000 wild creatures of one sort or another passed by our little camp and ever as they saw the fire they sheared off but were sure to howl or roar or whatever it was when they were passed the music of their voices was very far from being pleasant to us and sometimes would be so very disturbing that we could not sleep for it and often our sentinels would call us that were awake to come and look at them it was one windy tempestuous night after a rainy day that we were indeed called up for such innumerable numbers of devilish creatures came about us that our watch really thought they would attack us they would not come on the side where the fire was and though we thought ourselves secure everywhere else yet we all got up and took to our arms the moon was near the full but the air full of flying clouds and a strange hurricane of wind to add to the terror of the night when looking on the back part of our camp I thought I saw a creature within our fortification and so indeed he was except his haunches for he had taken a running leap I suppose and with all his might had thrown himself clear over our palisades except one strong pile which stood higher than the rest and which had caught hold of him and by his weight he had hanged himself upon it the spike of the pile running into his hinder haunch or thigh on the inside and by that he hung growling and biting the wood for rage I snatched up a lance from one of the negroes that stood just by me and running to him stuck it three or four times into him and dispatched him being unwilling to shoot because I had a mind to have a volley fired among the rest whom I could see standing without as thick as a drove of bullocks going to a fair I immediately called our people out and showed them the object of terror which I had seen and without any further consultation fired a full volley among them most of our pieces being loaded with two or three slugs or bullets a piece it made a horrible clutter among them and in general they all took to their heels only that we could observe that some walked off with more gravity and majesty than others being not so much frided at the noise and fire and we could perceive that some were left upon the ground struggling as for life but we durst not stir out to see what they were indeed they stood so thick and were so near us that we could not well miss or killing or wounding some of them and we believed they had certainly the smell of us and our victuals we had been killing for we had killed a deer and three or four of those creatures like goats the day before and some of the awful had been thrown out behind our camp and this we suppose drew them so much about us but we avoided it for the future though the creatures fled yet we heard a frightful roaring all night at the place where they stood which we supposed was from some that were wounded and as soon as day came we went out to see what execution we had done and indeed it was a strange sight there were three tigers and two wolves quite killed besides the creature I had killed within our palisade which seemed to be of an ill-gendered kind between a tiger and a leopard besides this there was a noble old lion alive but with both his forelegs broke so that he could not stir away and he had almost beat himself to death with struggling all night and we found that this was the wounded soldier that had roared so loud and given us so much disturbance our surgeon looking at him smiled now says he if I could be sure this lion would be grateful to me as one of his majesty's ancestors was to Andrew Cleese the roman slave I would certainly set both his legs again and cure him I had not heard the story of Andrew Cleese so he told it me at large but as to the surgeon we told him he had no way to know whether the lion would do so or not but to cure him first and trust to his honor but he had no faith so to dispatch him and put him out of his torment he shot him in the head and killed him for which we called him the king killer ever after our negros found no less than five of these ravenous creatures wounded and dropped at a distance from our quarters whereof one was a wolf one a fine spotted young leopard and the other were creatures that we knew not what to call them we had several more of these gentle folks about after that but no such general rendezvous of them as that was anymore but this ill effect it had to us that it frightened the deer and other creatures from our neighborhood of whose company we were much more desirous and which were necessary for our subsistence however our negros went out every day hunting as they called it with bow and arrow and they scarce ever failed of bringing us home something or other and particularly we found in this part of the country after the rains had fallen some time abundance of wild fowl such as we have in England duck, teal, widgen, etc some geese and some kinds that we had never seen before and we frequently killed them also we catched a great deal of fresh fish out of the river so that we wanted no provision if we wanted anything it was salt to eat with our fresh meat but we had a little left and we used it sparingly for as to our negros they could not taste it nor did they care to eat any meat that was seasoned with it the weather began now to clear up the rains were down and the floods abated and the sun which had passed our zenith was gone to the southward a good way so we prepared to go on our way it was the 12th of October or thereabouts that we began to set forward and having an easy country to travel in as well as to supply us with provisions though still without inhabitants we made more dispatch traveling sometimes as we calculated it 20 or 25 miles a day nor did we halt anywhere in 11 days march one day accepted which was to make a raft to carry us over a small river which having swelled with the rains was not yet quite down when we were past this river which by the way ran to the northward too we found a great row of hills in our way we saw indeed the country open to the right at a great distance but as we kept true to our course due west we were not willing to go a great way out of our way only to shun a few hills so we advanced but we were surprised when being not quite come to the top one of our company who with two negroes was got up before us cried out the sea the sea and fell a dancing and jumping as signs of joy the gunner and I were most surprised at it because we had but that morning been calculating that we must have yet above a thousand miles on the seaside and that we could not expect to reach it till another rainy season would be upon us so that when our man cried out the sea the gunner was angry and said he was mad but we were both in the greatest surprise imaginable when coming to the top of the hill and though it was very high we saw nothing but water either before us or to the right hand or the left being a vast sea without any bounds but the horizon we went down the hill full of confusion of thought not being able to conceive whereabouts we were or what it must be seen by all our charts the sea was yet a vast way off it was not above three miles from the hills before we came to the shore or water edge of the sea and there to our surprise we found the water fresh and pleasant to drink so that in short we knew not what course to take the sea as we thought it to be put a full stop to our journey I mean westward for it laid just in the way our next question was which hand to turn to to the right hand or the left but this was soon resolved for as we knew not the extent of it we considered that our way if it had been the sea really must be on the north and therefore if we went to the south now it must be just so much out of our way at last so having spent a good part of the day and our surprise at the thing and consulting what to do we set forward to the north we traveled upon the shore of this sea full 23 days before we could come to any resolution about what it was at the end of which early one morning one of our seamen cried out land and it was no false alarm for we saw plainly the tops of some hills at a very great distance on the further side of the water due west but though this satisfied us that it was not the ocean but an inland sea or lake yet we saw no land to the northward that is to say no end of it but we're obliged to travel eight days more and near a hundred miles farther before we came to the end of it and then we found this lake or sea ended in a very great river which ran north or north by east as the other river had done which I mentioned before my friend the gunner upon examining said that he believed that he was mistaken before and that this was the river Nile but was still of the mind that we were of before that we should not think of a voyage into Egypt that way so we resout upon crossing this river which however was not so easy as before the river being very rapid and channel very broad it cost us therefore a week to get materials to waft ourselves and cattle over this river for though here were stores of trees yet there was none of any considerable growth sufficient to make a canoe during our march on the edge of this bank we met with great fatigue and therefore traveled a fewer miles in a day than before there being such a prodigious number of little rivers that came down from the hills on the east side emptying themselves into this gulf all which waters were pretty high the rains having been but newly over in the last three days of our travel we met with some inhabitants but we found they lived upon the little hills and not by the water side nor were we a little put to it for food in this march having killed nothing for four or five days but some fish we caught out of the lake and that not in such plenty as we found before but to make us some amends we had no disturbance upon all the shores of this lake from any wild beasts the only inconvenience of that kind was that we met an ugly venomous deformed kind of a snake or serpent in the wet grounds near the lake that several times pursued us as if it would attack us and if we struck or threw anything at it it would raise itself up and hiss so loud that it might be heard a great way it had a hellish ugly deformed look and voice and our men could not be persuaded but it was the devil only that we did not know what business satan could have there where there were no people it was very remarkable that we had now traveled a thousand miles without meeting with any people in the heart of the whole continent of Africa where to be sure never man set his foot since the sons of Noah spread themselves over the face of the whole earth here also our gunner took an observation with his four staff to determine our latitude and he found now that having marched about 33 days northward we were in six degrees 22 minutes south latitude after having with great difficulty got over this river we came into a strange wild country that began a little to affright us for though the country was not a desert of dry scalding sand as that was we had passed before yet it was mountainous barren and infinitely full of most furious wild beasts more than any place we had passed yet there was indeed a kind of course herbage on the surface and now and then a few trees or rather shrubs but people we could see none and we began to be in great suspense about victuals for we had not killed a deer a great while but had lived chiefly upon fish and foul always by the water side both of which seemed to fail us now and we were in the more consternation because we could not lay in a stock here to proceed upon as we did before but were obliged to set out with scarcity and without any certainty of a supply we had however no remedy but patience and having killed some fouls and dried some fish as much as with short allowance we reckoned would last us five days we resolved to venture and venture we did nor was it without cause that we were apprehensive of the danger for we traveled the five days and met neither with fish nor foul nor four-footed beast whose flesh was fit to eat and we were in a most dreadful apprehension of being famished to death on the sixth day we almost fasted or as we may say we ate up all the scraps of what we had left and at night lay down supperless upon our mats with heavy hearts being obliged the eighth day to kill one of our poor servants the buffaloes that carried our baggage the flesh of this creature was very good and so sparingly did we eat of it that it lasted us all three days and a half and was just spent and we were on the point of killing another when we saw before us a country that promised better having high trees and a large river in the middle of it this encouraged us and we quickened our march for the riverside though with empty stomachs and very faint and weak but before we came to this river we had the good hap to meet with some young deer a thing we had long wished for in a word having shot three of them we came to a full stop to fill our bellies and never gave the flesh time to cool before we ate it nay it was much as we could stay to kill it and had not eaten it alive for we were in short almost famished through all that inhospitable country we saw continually lions tigers leopards civet cats and abundance of kinds of creatures that we did not understand we saw no elephants but every now and then we met with an elephant's tooth line on the ground and some of them lying as it were half buried by the length of time that they had lain there when we came to the shore of this river we found it ran northerly still as all the rest had done but with this difference that as the course of the other rivers were north by east or north northeast the course of this lay north west north on the farther bank of this river we saw some sign of inhabitants but met with none for the first day but the next day we came into an inhabited country the people all negros and stark naked without shame both men and women we made signs of friendship to them and found them a very frank civil and friendly sort of people they came to our negros without any suspicion nor did they give us any reason to suspect them of any villainy as the others had done we made signs to them that we were hungry and immediately some naked women ran and fetched us great quantities of roots and of things like pumpkins which we made no scruple to eat and our artificer showed them some of his strength it's that he had made some of iron some of silver but none of gold they had so much judgment as to choose that of silver before the iron but when we showed them some gold we found they did not value it so much as either of the other for some of these things they brought us more provisions and three living creatures as big as calves but not of that kind neither did we ever see any of them before their flesh was very good and after that they brought us twelve more and some smaller creatures like hairs all which were very welcome to us who were indeed at a very great loss for provisions we grew very intimate with these people and indeed they were the civilest and most friendly people that we met with at all and mightily pleased with us and which was very particular they were much easier to be made to understand our meaning than any we had met with before at last we began to inquire our way pointing to the west they made us understand easily that we could not go that way but they pointed to us that we might go northwest so that we presently understood that there was another lake in our way which proved to be true for in two days more we saw it plain and it held us till we passed the equinoxial line lying all the way on our left hand though at a great distance traveling thus northward our gunner seemed very anxious about our proceedings for he assured us and made me sensible of it by the maps which he had been teaching me out of that when we came into the latitude of six degrees or thereabouts north of the line the land trended away to the west to such a length that we should not come at the sea under a march of above 1500 miles farther westward than the country we desired to go to I asked him if there were no navigable rivers that we might meet with which running into the west ocean might perhaps carry us down their stream and then if it were 1500 miles or twice 1500 miles we might do well enough if we could but get provisions here he showed me the maps again and that there appeared to no river whose stream was of any such a length as to do any kindness till we came perhaps within 200 or 300 miles of the shore except the Rio Grande as they call it which lay farther northward from us at least 700 miles and that then he knew not what kind of country it might carry us through for he said it was his opinion that the heats on the north of the line even in the same latitude were violent and the country more desolate barren and barbarous than those of the south and that when we came among the negros in the north part of Africa next to sea especially those who had seen and trafficked with the Europeans such as Dutch, English, Portuguese, Spaniards etc they had most of them been so ill-used at some time or other that they would certainly put all the spite they could upon us in mere revenge upon these considerations he advised us that as soon as we had passed this lake we should proceed west southwest that is to say a little inclining to the south and that in time we should meet with the great river Congo from whence the coast is called Congo being a little north of Angola where we intended at first to go I asked him if ever he had been on the coast of Congo he said yes he had but was never on shore there then I asked him how we should get from thence to the coast where the European ships came seeing if the land trended away west for 1500 miles we must have all that shore to traverse before we could double the west point of it he told me it was 10 to 1 but we should hear of some European ships to take us in for that they often visited the coast of Congo and Angola in trade with the Negroes and that if we could not yet if we could but find provisions we should make our way as well along the seashore as along the river till we came to the gold coast which he said was not above 400 or 500 miles north of Congo besides the turning of the coast west about 300 more that shore being in the latitude of six or seven degrees and that there the English or Dutch or French had settlements or factories perhaps all of them I confess I had more mind all the while he argued to have gone northward and shipped ourselves in the Rio Grande or as the traders call it the river Negro or Niger for I knew that at last it would bring us down to the Cape de Verde where we were sure of relief whereas at the coast we were going to now we had a prodigious way still to go either by sea or land and no certainty which way to get provisions but by force but for the present I held my tongue because it was my tutor's opinion but when according to his desire we came to turn southward having passed beyond the second great lake our men began all to be uneasy and said we were now out of our way for certain for that we were going farther from home and that we were indeed far enough already but we had not marched above 12 days more eight whereof were taken up and rounding the lake and four more southwest in order to make for the river Congo but we were put to another full stop by entering a country so desolate so frightful and so wild that we knew not what to think or do for besides that it appeared as a terrible and boundless desert having neither woods trees rivers or inhabitants so even the place where we were was desolate of inhabitants nor had we any way to gather in a stock of provisions for the passing of this desert as we did before at our entering the first unless we had marched back four days to the place where we turned the head of the lake end of section 12 read by Dennis Sayers and Modesto, California for Liberbox