We Continued
In This Manner Ranging Along Shore For Twelve Days, Seeing Nothing But
Thick Woods And Deserts, Full Of
Wild beasts, which often appeared and
came in crowds at sunset to the sea shore, where they lay down or
Played
on the sand, sometimes plunging into the water to cool themselves. At
any other time it would have been diverting to see how archly the
elephants would fill their trucks with water, which they spouted out
upon the rest. Besides deer, wild boars, and antelopes, we saw many
other wild beasts, such as I had never seen before.
We often saw a man or two on the shore, who on seeing us used to come
off in their almadias or canoes; when casting anchor we offered such
wares as we had in the boat for fish and fresh water, or provisions of
their cooking, and in this way we procured from them roots and the fruit
of the palm tree, and some of their wine, which is the juice of a tree
and is of the colour of whey. Sometimes we got wild honeycombs; and by
means of these and other things we relieved our hunger; but nothing
could relieve our grief, fatigue and want of sleep, and we were so sore
depressed by the dreadful situation in which we were placed, that we
were ready to die, and were reduced to extreme weakness. Having lost all
hope of rejoining the ships, which we now concluded were either lost or
gone homewards, we knew not how to conduct ourselves. We were in a
strange and distant country, inhabited by a people whose manners and
customs were entirely different from ours; and to attempt getting home
in an open boat destitute of every necessary was utterly impossible. By
this time we found we had passed to leeward of _Melegete_ or the grain
coast, and had got to the Mina or gold coast of Guinea, as the negroes
who now came on board spoke some Portuguese, and brought off their
weights and scales for the purpose of trade, asking where were our
ships. To this we answered, in hopes of being the better treated, that
we had two ships at sea, which would be with them in a day or two.
We now consulted together how they should best proceed. If we continued
at sea in our boat, exposed by day to the burning heat of the sun which
sensibly consumed us by copious perspiration, and to the frequent
tornadoes or hurricanes by night, accompanied with thunder, lightning
and rain; which deprived us of all rest, we could not possibly long hold
out. We were often three days without a morsel of food; and having sat
for twenty days continually in our boat, we were in danger of losing the
use of our limbs for want of exercise, and our joints were so swollen by
the scurvy, that we could hardly stand upright. It was not possible for
us to remain much longer in the boat in our present condition, so that
it was necessary to come to some resolution, and we had only three
things to choose.
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