I shall conclude this first Book with an account of a Misfortune that befel me by Fire, whilst I was at _Jaqueen_. The relation, if I mistake not, may be acceptable to the Reader, and give him a true notion of the Buildings, and some other Matters amongst the _Negroes_. The Houses in that Country are built with mud-Walls, one Story high. The Rafters that support the Roof are made of _Bamboes_, which is a light spungy Wood. On these they lay a great quantity of Thatch, which in the dry Season of the Year is like Tinder: Yet the Natives are so careless, that many Fires happen in that Season; there having been no less than five during the two Months I was there, in which some thousands of their Houses were burnt down. This carelesness of the _Negroes_, I judge, chiefly proceeds from the little regard they have for their Furniture. For it is very mean, except amongst some of the principal People, consisting of _Matts_ to sleep on, earthen _Pots_ to boil their Victuals in; with a few other things of small value. Moreover, the Walls of their Houses being made of Clay, the Fire does them rather good than hurt, as it bakes them harder. And to new cover them it costs but little. So that the _Europeans_ that have Factories in the Town of _Jaqueen_, are often great Sufferers by these frequent Fires, occasioned generally by the stupid Carelessness of the Negroes, which proceeds from the Reasons just now mentioned. I thought our Factory pretty safe from it, for we lived in a large Court belonging to the Duke, who was the only Brother of the Lord of the Place by the same Mother, and his chief Minister. This House joined to the Apartments of the Duke’s Women, which it being a capital Crime for the Natives to go into, so it would have been very imprudent for any white Man to have attempted it: Yet the Fire, obliged us to save our selves that way, as I shall just now relate. The other side of the Court we lived in, opened into the Fields; and just by our Door a narrow Street began, where the Lord of _Jaqueen_’s _Feticheer_ or Priest lived with his Family. Two Fires having happened in the Town, within a few days one of the other, in which some _Portuguese_ suffered a great Loss in their Goods, I express’d my apprehensions of the like Danger. But the Duke assured me, “It was never known, that either his Brother’s Houses, or his own had been burn’d. For they having abundance of Servants, if any Fire began near them, their People, by unthatching the Houses, soon put a stop to it. Moreover, all the Inhabitants who lived near the Court, were very careful of Fire; because it was death by their Law to all the Family where it began.” These Reasons made me more easy than I had been for some time. But on the fifteenth of _March_, being _Sunday_, what I long feared came to pass.