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Page 28
In pursuance of our orders we sailed from Portsmouth for the Thames,
and arrived at Deptford the 10th of December, where we cast anchor
just as it was high water. The ship was up about half an hour, when my
master ordered the barge to be manned; and all in an instant, without
having before given me the least reason to suspect any thing of the
matter, he forced me into the barge; saying, I was going to leave him,
but he would take care I should not. I was so struck with the
unexpectedness of this proceeding, that for some time I did not make a
reply, only I made an offer to go for my books and chest of clothes,
but he swore I should not move out of his sight; and if I did he would
cut my throat, at the same time taking his hanger. I began, however,
to collect myself; and, plucking up courage, I told him I was free,
and he could not by law serve me so. But this only enraged him the
more; and he continued to swear, and said he would soon let me know
whether he would or not, and at that instant sprung himself into the
barge from the ship, to the astonishment and sorrow of all on board.
The tide, rather unluckily for me, had just turned downward, so that
we quickly fell down the river along with it, till we came among some
outward-bound West Indiamen; for he was resolved to put me on board
the first vessel he could get to receive me. The boat's crew, who
pulled against their will, became quite faint different times, and
would have gone ashore; but he would not let them. Some of them strove
then to cheer me, and told me he could not sell me, and that they
would stand by me, which revived me a little; and I still entertained
hopes; for as they pulled along he asked some vessels to receive me,
but they could not. But, just as we had got a little below Gravesend,
we came alongside of a ship which was going away the next tide for the
West Indies; her name was the Charming Sally, Captain James Doran; and
my master went on board and agreed with him for me; and in a little
time I was sent for into the cabin. When I came there Captain Doran
asked me if I knew him; I answered that I did not; 'Then,' said he
'you are now my slave.' I told him my master could not sell me to him,
nor to any one else. 'Why,' said he,'did not your master buy you?' I
confessed he did. 'But I have served him,' said I,'many years, and he
has taken all my wages and prize-money, for I only got one sixpence
during the war; besides this I have been baptized; and by the laws of
the land no man has a right to sell me:' And I added, that I had heard
a lawyer and others at different times tell my master so. They both
then said that those people who told me so were not my friends; but I
replied--it was very extraordinary that other people did not know the
law as well as they. Upon this Captain Doran said I talked too much
English; and if I did not behave myself well, and be quiet, he had a
method on board to make me. I was too well convinced of his power over
me to doubt what he said; and my former sufferings in the slave-ship
presenting themselves to my mind, the recollection of them made me
shudder. However, before I retired I told them that as I could not get
any right among men here I hoped I should hereafter in Heaven; and I
immediately left the cabin, filled with resentment and sorrow. The
only coat I had with me my master took away with him, and said if my
prize-money had been 10,000 �. he had a right to it all, and would have
taken it. I had about nine guineas, which, during my long sea-faring
life, I had scraped together from trifling perquisites and little
ventures; and I hid it that instant, lest my master should take that
from me likewise, still hoping that by some means or other I should
make my escape to the shore; and indeed some of my old shipmates told
me not to despair, for they would get me back again; and that, as soon
as they could get their pay, they would immediately come to Portsmouth
to me, where this ship was going: but, alas! all my hopes were
baffled, and the hour of my deliverance was yet far off. My master,
having soon concluded his bargain with the captain, came out of the
cabin, and he and his people got into the boat and put off; I followed
them with aching eyes as long as I could, and when they were out of
sight I threw myself on the deck, while my heart was ready to burst
with sorrow and anguish.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote L: He had drowned himself in endeavouring to desert.]
[Footnote M: Among others whom we brought from Bayonne, two gentlemen,
who had been in the West Indies, where they sold slaves; and they
confessed they had made at one time a false bill of sale, and sold two
Portuguese white men among a lot of slaves.]
[Footnote N: Some people have it, that sometimes shortly before
persons die their ward has been seen; that is, some spirit exactly in
their likeness, though they are themselves at other places at the same
time. One day while we were at Bayonne Mr. Mondle saw one of our men,
as he thought, in the gun-room; and a little after, coming on the
quarter-deck, he spoke of some circumstances of this man to some of
the officers. They told him that the man was then out of the ship, in
one of the boats with the Lieutenant: but Mr. Mondle would not believe
it, and we searched the ship, when he found the man was actually out
of her; and when the boat returned some time afterwards, we found the
man had been drowned at the very time Mr. Mondle thought he saw him.]
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