The Waggon That I Was In Was Foremost Of All The Company, And As We
Travelled, I Being Alone In
The waggon, began to try if I could pluck
my hands out of the manacles, and as God would, although
It were
somewhat painful for me, yet my hands were so slender that I could pull
them out and put them in again, and ever as we went when the waggons
made most noise and the men busiest, I would be working to file off my
bolts, and travelling thus for the space of eight leagues from Vera
Cruz we came to an high hill, at the entering up of which (as God
would), one of the wheels of the waggon wherein I was brake, so that by
that means the other waggons went afore, and the waggon man that had
charge of me set an Indian carpenter at work to mend the wheel; and
here at this place they baited at an ostrie that a negro woman keeps,
and at this place for that the going up of the hill is very steep for
the space of two leagues and better, they do always accustom to take
the mules of three or four waggons and to place them all together for
the drawing up of one waggon, and so to come down again and fetch up
others in that order. All which came very well to pass, for as it drew
towards night, when most of the waggoners were gone to draw up their
waggons in this sort, I being alone, had quickly filed off my bolts,
and so espying my time in the dark of the evening before they returned
down the hill again, I conveyed myself into the woods there adjoining,
carrying my bolts and manacles with me, and a few biscuits and two
small cheeses.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 136 of 144
Words from 39825 to 40133
of 42569