The usage I had there was not so dreadful as at first I apprehended,nor was I carried up the country to the emperor's court,as the rest of our men were,but was kept by the captain of the rover as his proper prize,and made his slave,being young and nimble,and fit for his business.At this surprising change of my circumstances from a merchant to a miserable slave,I was perfectly overwhelmed;and now I looked back upon my father's prophetic discourse to me,that I should be miserable,and have none to relieve me,which I thought was now so effectually brought to pass,that it could not be worse;that now the hand of Heaven had overtaken me,and I was undone without redemption.But alas!this was but a taste of the misery I was to go through,as will appear in the sequel of this story.
As my new patron,or master,had taken me home to his house,so I was in hopes that he would take me with him when he went to sea again,believing that it would some time or other be his fate to be taken by a Spanish or Portugal man of war;and that then I should be set at liberty.But this hope of mine was soon taken away;for when he went to sea,he left me on shore to look after his little garden,and do the common drudgery of slaves about his house;and when he came home again from his cruise,he ordered me to lie in the cabin to look after the ship.
Here I meditated nothing but my escape,and what method I might take to effect it,but found no way that had the least probability in it.Nothing presented to make the supposition of it rational;for I had nobody to communicate it to that would embark with me,no fellow slave,no Englishman,Irishman,or Scotsman there but myself;so that for two years,though I often pleased myself with the imagination,yet I never had the least encouraging prospect of putting it in practice.
After about two years an odd circumstance presented itself,which put the old thought of making some attempt for my liberty again in my head.My patron lying at home longer than usual without fitting out his ship,which,as I heard,was for want of money,he used constantly,once or twice a week,sometimes oftener,if the weather was fair,to take the ship's pinnace,and go out into the road a fishing;and as he always took me and a young Maresco with him to row the boat,we made him very merry,and I proved very dexterous in catching fish;insomuch,that sometimes he would send me with a Moor,one of his kinsmen,and the youth the Maresco,as they called him,to catch a dish of fish for him.
It happened one time that,going a fishing in a stark calm morning,a fog rose so thick,that though we were not half a league from the shore we lost sight of it;and rowing we knew not whither or which way,we laboured all day,and all the next night,and when the morning came we found we had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore;and that we were at least two leagues from the shore.However,we got well in again,though with a great deal of labour,and some danger,for the wind began to blow pretty fresh in the morning;but particularly we were all very hungry.
But our patron,warned by this disaster,resolved to take more care of himself for the future;and having lying by him the longboat of our English ship which he had taken,he resolved he would not go a fishing any more without a compass and some provision;so he ordered the carpenter of his ship,who also was an English slave,to build a little state room,or cabin,in the middle of the long boat,like that of a barge,with a place to stand behind it to steer and haul home the main sheet,and room before for a hand or two to stand and work the sails.She sailed with what we call a shoulder of mutton sail;and the boom jibbed over the top of the cabin,which lay very snug and low,and had in it room for him to lie,with a slave or two,and a table to eat on,with some small lockers to put in some bottles of such liquor as he thought fit to drink;particularly his bread,rice,and coffee.
We went frequently out with this boat a fishing,and as I was most dexterous to catch fish for him,he never went without me.It happened that he had appointed to go out in this boat,either for pleasure or for fish,with two or three Moors of some distinction in that place,and for whom he had provided extraordinarily;and had therefore sent on board the boat overnight a larger store of provisions than ordinary;and had ordered me to get ready three fuzees with powder and shot,which were on board his ship,for that they designed some sport of fowling as well as fishing.
I got all things ready as he had directed,and waited the next morning with the boat,washed clean,her ancient and pendants out,and everything to accommodate his guests;when by and by my patron came on board alone,and told me his guests had put off going,upon some business that fell out,and ordered me with the man and boy,as usual,to go out with the boat and catch them some fish,for that his friends were to sup at his house;and commanded that as soon as I had got some fish I should bring it home to his house;all which I prepared to do.
This moment my former notions of deliverance darted into my thoughts,for now I found I was like to have a little ship at my command;and my master being gone,I prepared to furnish myself,not for a fishing business,but for a voyage;though I knew not,neither did I so much as consider,whither I should steer;for anywhere,to get out of that place,was my way.