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, struck it three
or four times into him, and despatched 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 apiece. 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 frighted 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 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 offal had been thrown out behind our camp,
and this, we suppose, drew them so much about us; but we avoided it for
the future.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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