Occasion of the Death of a Prince, whose Valour and Magnanimity deserved
the Empire of the World. He protested to him, he looked upon his Action
as gallant and brave, however tending to the Prejudice of his Lord and
Master, who would by it have lost so considerable a Number of Slaves;
that this Flight of his should be look’d on as a Heat of Youth, and a
Rashness of a too forward Courage, and an unconsider’d Impatience of
Liberty, and no more; and that he labour’d in vain to accomplish that
which they would effectually perform as soon as any Ship arrived that
would touch on his Coast: ‘So that if you will be pleased
(_continued he_) to surrender yourself, all imaginable Respect shall be
paid you; and your Self, your Wife and Child, if it be born here, shall
depart free out of our Land.’ But _Cæsar_ would hear of no Composition;
though _Byam_ urged, if he pursued and went on in his Design, he would
inevitably perish, either by great Snakes, wild Beasts or Hunger; and he
ought to have Regard to his Wife, whose Condition requir’d Ease, and not
the Fatigues of tedious Travel, where she could not be secured from
being devoured. But _Cæsar_ told him, there was no Faith in the White
men, or the Gods they ador’d; who instructed them in Principles so
false, that honest Men could not live amongst them; though no People
profess’d so much, none perform’d so little: That he knew what he had to
do when he dealt with Men of Honour; but with them a Man ought to be
eternally on his Guard, and never to eat and drink with Christians,
without his Weapon of Defence in his Hand; and, for his own Security,
never to credit one Word they spoke. As for the Rashness and
Inconsiderateness of his Action, he would confess the Governor is in the
right; and that he was ashamed of what he had done in endeavouring to
make those free, who were by Nature Slaves, poor wretched Rogues, fit to
be used as Christian Tools; Dogs, treacherous and cowardly, fit for such
Masters; and they wanted only but to be whipped into the Knowledge of
the Christian Gods, to be the vilest of all creeping Things; to learn to
worship such Deities as had not Power to make them just, brave, or
honest: In fine, after a thousand Things of this Nature, not fit here to
be recited, he told _Byam_, He had rather die, than live upon the same
Earth with such Dogs. But _Trefry_ and _Byam_ pleaded and protested
together so much, that _Trefry_ believing the Governor to mean what he
said, and speaking very cordially himself, generously put himself into
_Cæsar’s_ Hands, and took him aside, and persuaded him, even with Tears,
to live, by surrendring himself, and to name his Conditions. _Cæsar_ was
overcome by his Wit and Reasons, and in Consideration of _Imoinda_; and
demanding what he desired, and that it should be ratify’d by their Hands
in Writing, because he had perceived that was the common Way of Contract
between Man and Man amongst the Whites; all this was performed, and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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