But it was not possible to describe the horrible noises and hideous cries and howlings, that were raised, as well upon the edge of the shore, as higher within the country, upon the noise or report of a gun; a thing I have some reason to believe those creatures had never heard before. This convinced me that there was no going on shore for us in the night upon that coast; and how to venture on shore in the day, was another question, too; for to have fallen into the hands of any of the savages, had been as bad as to have fallen into the paws of lions and tigers; at least, we were equally apprehensive of the danger of it.
Be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore somewhere or other for water, for we had not a pint left in the boat; when or where to get it was the point. Xury said if I would let him go on shore with one of the jars he would find if there was any water, and bring some to me. I asked him why he would go, why I should not go, and he stay in the boat? The boy answered with so much affection, that made me love him ever after. Says he, “If wild mans come, they eat me, you go away.” “Well, Xury,” said I, “we will both go, and if the wild mans come, we will kill them; they shall eat neither of us.” So I gave Xury a piece of rusk bread to eat, and a dram out of our patron’s case of bottles, which I mentioned before; and we hauled the boat in as near the shore as we thought was proper, and waded on shore, carrying nothing but our arms, and two jars for water.
I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the coming of canoes with savages down the river: but the boy, seeing a low place about a mile up the country, rambled to it; and by and by I saw him come running towards me. I thought he was pursued by some savage, or frighted with some wild beast, and I ran forward towards him to help him; but when I came nearer to him, I saw something hanging over his shoulders, which was a creature that he had shot, like a hare, but different in colour, and longer legs: however, we were very glad of it, and it was very good meat; but the great joy that poor Xury came with, was to tell me he had found good water, and seen no wild mans.
But we found afterwards that we need not take such pains for water, for a little higher up the creek where we were, we found the water fresh when the tide was out, which flows but a little way up; so we filled our jars, and feasted on the hare we had killed, and prepared to go on our way, having seen no footsteps of any human creature in that part of the country.
As I had been one voyage to the coast before, I knew very well that the islands of the Canaries, and the Cape de Verde Islands also, lay not far off from the coast. But as I had no instruments to take an observation to know what latitude we were in, and did not exactly know, or at least not remember, what latitude they were in, I knew not where to look for them, or when to stand off to sea towards them; otherwise I might now easily have found some of these islands. But my hope was, that if I stood along this coast till I came to that part where the English traded, I should find some of their vessels upon their usual design of trade, that would relieve and take us in.
By the best of my calculation, that place where I now was must be that country, which, lying between the Emperor of Morocco’s dominions and the negroes, lies waste and uninhabited, except by wild beasts; the negroes having abandoned it, and gone farther south for fear of the Moors; and the Moors not thinking it worth inhabiting, by reason of its barrenness—and, indeed, both forsaking it because of the prodigious numbers of tigers, lions, leopards, and other furious creatures, which harbour there; so that the Moors use it for their hunting only, where they go like an army, two or three thousand men at a time—and, indeed, for near an hundred miles together upon this coast, we saw nothing but a waste uninhabited country by day, and heard nothing but howlings and roaring of wild beasts by night.