The fellow ran as if he was mad, and held it till he was quite out of
sight, by which I supposed he had a great way to go. The next morning,
about two hours before the time appointed, the black prince, for so I
always called him, beckoning with his hand to me, and hallooing after
his manner, desired me to come to him, which I did, when, pointing to a
little hill about two miles off, I saw plainly a little drove of cattle,
and several people with them; those, he told me by signs, were the man
he had sent, and several more with him, and cattle for us.
Accordingly, by the time appointed, he came quite to our huts, and
brought with him a great many cows, young runts, about sixteen goats,
and four young bulls, taught to carry burthens.
This was a supply of provisions sufficient; as for bread, we were
obliged to shift with some roots which we had made use of before. We
then began to consider of making some large bags like the soldiers'
knapsacks, for their men to carry our baggage in, and to make it easy
to them; and the goats being killed, I ordered the skins to be spread
in the sun, and they were as dry in two days as could be desired; so we
found means to make such little bags as we wanted, and began to divide
our baggage into them. When the black prince found what they were for,
and how easy they were of carriage when we put them on, he smiled a
little, and sent away the man again to fetch skins, and he brought two
natives more with him, all loaded with skins better cured than ours, and
of other kinds, such as we could not tell what names to give them.
These two men brought the black prince two lances, of the sort they use
in their fights, but finer than ordinary, being made of black smooth
wood, as fine as ebony, and headed at the point with the end of a long
tooth of some creature--we could not tell of what creature; the head was
so firm put on, and the tooth so strong, though no bigger than my thumb,
and sharp at the end, that I never saw anything like it in any place in
the world.
The prince would not take them till I gave him leave, but made signs
that they should give them to me; however, I gave him leave to take them
himself, for I saw evident signs of an honourable just principle in him.
We now prepared for our march, when the prince coming to me, and
pointing towards the several quarters of the world, made signs to know
which way we intended to go; and when I showed him, pointing to the
west, he presently let me know there was a great river a little further
to the north, which was able to carry our bark many leagues into the
country due west. I presently took the hint, and inquired for the mouth
of the river, which I understood by him was above a day's march, and, by
our estimation, we found it about seven leagues further. I take this to
be the great river marked by our chart-makers at the northmost part of
the coast of Mozambique, and called there Quilloa.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account