The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African
happened; but I was so overcome with terror that I immediately fainted
at this deliverance.
In twenty-eight days time we arrived in England, and I got clear of
this ship. But, being still of a roving disposition, and desirous of
seeing as many different parts of the world as I could, I shipped
myself soon after, in the same year, as steward on board of a fine
large ship, called the Jamaica, Captain David Watt; and we sailed from
England in December 1771 for Nevis and Jamaica. I found Jamaica to be
a very fine large island, well peopled, and the most considerable of
the West India islands. There was a vast number of negroes here, whom
I found as usual exceedingly imposed upon by the white people, and the
slaves punished as in the other islands. There are negroes whose
business it is to flog slaves; they go about to different people for
employment, and the usual pay is from one to four bits. I saw many
cruel punishments inflicted on the slaves in the short time I stayed
here. In particular I was present when a poor fellow was tied up and
kept hanging by the wrists at some distance from the ground, and then
some half hundred weights were fixed to his ancles, in which posture
he was flogged most unmercifully. There were also, as I heard, two
different masters noted for cruelty on the island, who had staked up
two negroes naked, and in two hours the vermin stung them to death. I
heard a gentleman I well knew tell my captain that he passed sentence
on a negro man to be burnt alive for attempting to poison an overseer.
I pass over numerous other instances, in order to relieve the reader
by a milder scene of roguery. Before I had been long on the island,
one Mr. Smith at Port Morant bought goods of me to the amount of
twenty-five pounds sterling; but when I demanded payment from him, he
was going each time to beat me, and threatened that he would put me in
goal. One time he would say I was going to set his house on fire, at
another he would swear I was going to run away with his slaves. I was
astonished at this usage from a person who was in the situation of a
gentleman, but I had no alternative; I was therefore obliged to
submit. When I came to Kingston, I was surprised to see the number of
Africans who were assembled together on Sundays; particularly at a
large commodious place, called Spring Path. Here each different nation
of Africa meet and dance after the manner of their own country. They
still retain most of their native customs: they bury their dead, and
put victuals, pipes and tobacco, and other things, in the grave with
the corps, in the same manner as in Africa. Our ship having got her
loading we sailed for London, where we arrived in the August
following. On my return to London, I waited on my old and good master,
Dr. Irving, who made me an offer of his service again. Being now tired
of the sea I gladly accepted it. I was very happy in living with this
gentleman once more; during which time we were daily employed in
reducing old Neptune's dominions by purifying the briny element and
making it fresh. Thus I went on till May 1773, when I was roused by
the sound of fame, to seek new adventures, and to find, towards the
north pole, what our Creator never intended we should, a passage to
India. An expedition was now fitting out to explore a north-east
passage, conducted by the Honourable John Constantine Phipps, since
Lord Mulgrave, in his Majesty's sloop of war the Race Horse. My master
being anxious for the reputation of this adventure, we therefore
prepared every thing for our voyage, and I attended him on board the
Race Horse, the 24th day of May 1773. We proceeded to Sheerness, where
we were joined by his Majesty's sloop the Carcass, commanded by
Captain Lutwidge. On the 4th of June we sailed towards our destined
place, the pole; and on the 15th of the same month we were off
Shetland. On this day I had a great and unexpected deliverance from an
accident which was near blowing up the ship and destroying the crew,
which made me ever after during the voyage uncommonly cautious. The
ship was so filled that there was very little room on board for any
one, which placed me in a very aukward situation. I had resolved to
keep a journal of this singular and interesting voyage; and I had no
other place for this purpose but a little cabin, or the doctor's
store-room, where I slept. This little place was stuffed with all
manner of combustibles, particularly with tow and aquafortis, and many
other dangerous things. Unfortunately it happened in the evening as I
was writing my journal, that I had occasion to take the candle out of
the lanthorn, and a spark having touched a single thread of the tow,
all the rest caught the flame, and immediately the whole was in a
blaze. I saw nothing but present death before me, and expected to be
the first to perish in the flames. In a moment the alarm was spread,
and many people who were near ran to assist in putting out the fire.
All this time I was in the very midst of the flames; my shirt, and the
handkerchief on my neck, were burnt, and I was almost smothered with
the smoke. However, through God's mercy, as I was nearly giving up all
hopes, some people brought blankets and mattresses and threw them on
the flames, by which means in a short time the fire was put out. I was
severely reprimanded and menaced by such of the officers who knew it,
and strictly charged never more to go there with a light: and, indeed,
even my own fears made me give heed to this command for a little time;
but at last, not being able to write my journal in any other part of
the ship, I was tempted again to venture by stealth with a light in
the same cabin, though not without considerable fear and dread on my
mind. On the 20th of June we began to use Dr. Irving's apparatus for
making salt water fresh; I used to attend the distillery: I frequently
purified from twenty-six to forty gallons a day. The water thus
distilled was perfectly pure, well tasted, and free from salt; and was
used on various occasions on board the ship. On the 28th of June,
being in lat. 78, we made Greenland, where I was surprised to see the
sun did not set. The weather now became extremely cold; and as we
sailed between north and east, which was our course, we saw many very
high and curious mountains of ice; and also a great number of very
large whales, which used to come close to our ship, and blow the water
up to a very great height in the air. One morning we had vast
quantities of sea-horses about the ship, which neighed exactly like
any other horses. We fired some harpoon guns amongst them, in order to
take some, but we could not get any. The 30th, the captain of a
Greenland ship came on board, and told us of three ships that were
lost in the ice; however we still held on our course till July the
11th, when we were stopt by one compact impenetrable body of ice. We
ran along it from east to west above ten degrees; and on the 27th we
got as far north as 80, 37; and in 19 or 20 degrees east longitude
from London. On the 29th and 30th of July we saw one continued plain
of smooth unbroken ice, bounded only by the horizon; and we fastened
to a piece of ice that was eight yards eleven inches thick. We had
generally sunshine, and constant daylight; which gave cheerfulness and
novelty to the whole of this striking, grand, and uncommon scene; and,
to heighten it still more, the reflection of the sun from the ice gave
the clouds a most beautiful appearance. We killed many different
animals at this time, and among the rest nine bears. Though they had
nothing in their paunches but water yet they were all very fat. We
used to decoy them to the ship sometimes by burning feathers or skins.
I thought them coarse eating, but some of the ship's company relished
them very much. Some of our people once, in the boat, fired at and
wounded a sea-horse, which dived immediately; and, in a little time
after, brought up with it a number of others. They all joined in an
attack upon the boat, and were with difficulty prevented from staving
or oversetting her; but a boat from the Carcass having come to assist
ours, and joined it, they dispersed, after having wrested an oar from
one of the men. One of the ship's boats had before been attacked in
the same manner, but happily no harm was done. Though we wounded
several of these animals we never got but one. We remained hereabouts
until the 1st of August; when the two ships got completely fastened in
the ice, occasioned by the loose ice that set in from the sea. This
made our situation very dreadful and alarming; so that on the 7th day
we were in very great apprehension of having the ships squeezed to
pieces. The officers now held a council to know what was best for us
to do in order to save our lives; and it was determined that we should
endeavour to escape by dragging our boats along the ice towards the
sea; which, however, was farther off than any of us thought. This
determination filled us with extreme dejection, and confounded us with
despair; for we had very little prospect of escaping with life.
However, we sawed some of the ice about the ships to keep it from
hurting them; and thus kept them in a kind of pond. We then began to
drag the boats as well as we could towards the sea; but, after two or
three days labour, we made very little progress; so that some of our
hearts totally failed us, and I really began to give up myself for
lost, when I saw our surrounding calamities. While we were at this
hard labour I once fell into a pond we had made amongst some loose
ice, and was very near being drowned; but providentially some people
were near who gave me immediate assistance, and thereby I escaped
drowning. Our deplorable condition, which kept up the constant
apprehension of our perishing in the ice, brought me gradually to
think of eternity in such a manner as I never had done before. I had
the fears of death hourly upon me, and shuddered at the thoughts of
meeting the grim king of terrors in the _natural_ state I then was in,
and was exceedingly doubtful of a happy eternity if I should die in
it. I had no hopes of my life being prolonged for any time; for we
saw that our existence could not be long on the ice after leaving the
ships, which were now out of sight, and some miles from the boats. Our
appearance now became truly lamentable; pale dejection seized every
countenance; many, who had been before blasphemers, in this our
distress began to call on the good God of heaven for his help; and in
the time of our utter need he heard us, and against hope or human
probability delivered us! It was the eleventh day of the ships being
thus fastened, and the fourth of our drawing the boats in this manner,
that the wind changed to the E.N.E. The weather immediately became
mild, and the ice broke towards the sea, which was to the S.W. of us.
Many of us on this got on board again, and with all our might we hove
the ships into every open water we could find, and made all the sail
on them in our power; and now, having a prospect of success, we made
signals for the boats and the remainder of the people. This seemed to
us like a reprieve from death; and happy was the man who could first
get on board of any ship, or the first boat he could meet. We then
proceeded in this manner till we got into the open water again, which
we accomplished in about thirty hours, to our infinite joy and
gladness of heart. As soon as we were out of danger we came to anchor
and refitted; and on the 19th of August we sailed from this
uninhabited extremity of the world, where the inhospitable climate
affords neither food nor shelter, and not a tree or shrub of any kind
grows amongst its barren rocks; but all is one desolate and expanded
waste of ice, which even the constant beams of the sun for six months