The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African: Written By HimselfEquiano, Olaudah
History
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African: Written By Himself
Equiano, Olaudah
Enslaved persons -- Great Britain -- Biography; Enslaved persons -- United States -- Biography; Equiano, Olaudah, 1745-1797
being far up in the woods, we frequently saw different kinds of
animals; but none of them ever hurt us, except poisonous snakes, the
bite of which the Doctor used to cure by giving to the patient, as
soon as possible, about half a tumbler of strong rum, with a good deal
of Cayenne pepper in it. In this manner he cured two natives and one
of his own slaves. The Indians were exceedingly fond of the Doctor,
and they had good reason for it; for I believe they never had such an
useful man amongst them. They came from all quarters to our dwelling;
and some _woolwow_, or flat-headed Indians, who lived fifty or sixty
miles above our river, and this side of the South Sea, brought us a
good deal of silver in exchange for our goods. The principal articles
we could get from our neighbouring Indians, were turtle oil, and
shells, little silk grass, and some provisions; but they would not
work at any thing for us, except fishing; and a few times they
assisted to cut some trees down, in order to build us houses; which
they did exactly like the Africans, by the joint labour of men, women,
and children. I do not recollect any of them to have had more than two
wives. These always accompanied their husbands when they came to our
dwelling; and then they generally carried whatever they brought to us,
and always squatted down behind their husbands. Whenever we gave them
any thing to eat, the men and their wives ate it separate. I never
saw the least sign of incontinence amongst them. The women are
ornamented with beads, and fond of painting themselves; the men also
paint, even to excess, both their faces and shirts: their favourite
colour is red. The women generally cultivate the ground, and the men
are all fishermen and canoe makers. Upon the whole, I never met any
nation that were so simple in their manners as these people, or had so
little ornament in their houses. Neither had they, as I ever could
learn, one word expressive of an oath. The worst word I ever heard
amongst them when they were quarreling, was one that they had got from
the English, which was, 'you rascal.' I never saw any mode of worship
among them; but in this they were not worse than their European
brethren or neighbours: for I am sorry to say that there was not one
white person in our dwelling, nor any where else that I saw in
different places I was at on the shore, that was better or more pious
than those unenlightened Indians; but they either worked or slept on
Sundays: and, to my sorrow, working was too much Sunday's employment
with ourselves; so much so, that in some length of time we really did
not know one day from another. This mode of living laid the foundation
of my decamping at last. The natives are well made and warlike; and
they particularly boast of having never been conquered by the
Spaniards. They are great drinkers of strong liquors when they can get
them. We used to distil rum from pine apples, which were very
plentiful here; and then we could not get them away from our place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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