tween the emperor of Morocco's dominions and the Negroes, lies wafte, and uninhabited, except by wild beafts; the Negroes having abandoned it, and gone farther fouth for fear of the Moors; and the Moors not thinking it worth inhabiting, by reason of its barrennefs; and indeed both forfaking it because of the prodigious number of tygers, lions, leopards, and other furious creatures which harbour there; fo that the Moors ufe 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 coaft, we faw nothing but a waste uninhabited country by day; and heard nothing but howlings and roaring of wild beast by night.

Once or twice in the day time I thought I faw the Pico of Teneriffe, being the high top of the mountain Teneriffe in the Canaries; and had a great mind to venture out in hopes of reaching thither; but having tried twice, I was forced in again by contrary winds, the fea alfo going too high for my little veffel, so I refolved to pursue my first design and. keep along the shore.

Several times I was obliged to land for fresh water, after we had left this place; and once in particular, being early in the morning, we came to an anchor under a little point of land which was pretty high, and the tide beginning to flow, we lay ftill to go farther in; Xury, whofe eyes were more about him than it seems mine were, calls foftly to me, and tells me that we had beft go farther off the fhore; for, fays he, look yonder lies a dreadful monfter on the fide of that hillock faft afleep: I looked where he pointed, and faw a dreadful monfter indeed, for it

was

was a terrible great lion that lay on the fide of the fhore, under the shade of a piece of the hill that hung as it were a little over him. Xury, fays I, you shall go on fhore and kill him: Xury looked frighted, and faid, Me kill! he eat me at one mouth; one mouthful he meant. However, I faid no more to the boy, but bade him lie ftill; and took our biggest gun, which was almost musquet-bore, and loaded it with a good charge of powder, and with two flugs, and laid it down; then I loaded another gun with two bullets; and the third, for we had three pieces, I loaded with five fmaller bullets. I took the best aim I could with the first piece, to have fhot him into the head, but he lay fo with his leg raised a little above his nofe, that the flugs hit his leg about the knee, and broke the bone. He ftarted up growling at firft, but finding his leg broke fell down again, and then got up upon three legs, and gave the most hideous roar that ever I heard. I was a little furprised that I had not hit him on the head; however, I took up the fecond piece immediately, and, though he began to move off, fired again, and shot him into the head, and had the pleasure to see him drop, and make but little noife, but lay ftruggling for life. Then Xury took heart, and would have me let him go on fhore: Well, go, faid I; fo the boy jumped into the water, and taking a little gun in one hand, fwam to shore with the other hand, and coming close to the creature, put the muzzle of the piece to his ear, and shot him into the head again, which dispatched him quite.

This was game indeed to us, but this was no food; and I was very forry to lose three charges of powder VOL. I.

D

and

and shot upon a creature that was good for nothing to us. However, Xury faid he would have some of him; fo he comes on board, and asked me to give him the hatchet. For what, Xury? faid I. Me cut off his head, faid he. However, Xury could not cut off his head, but he cut off a foot, and brought it with him, and it was a monstrous great one.

I bethought myself however, that perhaps the skin of him might one way or other be of fome value to us; and I refolved to take off his skin, if I could. So Xury and I went to work with him; but Xury was much the better workman at it, for I knew very ill how to do it. Indeed it took us up both the whole day; but at last we got off the hide of him, and fpreading it on the top of our cabin, the fun effectually dried it in two days time, and it afterwards ferved me to lie upon.

After this stop, we made on to the fouthward continually for ten or twelve days, living very sparing on our provifions, which began to abate very much, and going no oftener into the fhore than we were obliged to for fresh water; my design in this was, to make the river Gambia or Senegal, that is to fay, any where about the Cape de Verd, where I was in hopes to meet with fome European ship; and if I did not, I knew not what course I had to take, but to feek for the lands, or perifh there among the Negroes. I knew that all the fhips from Europe, which failed either to the coast of Guinea or to Brafil, or to the East Indies, made this Cape, or thofe Ilands; and, in a word, I put the whole of my fortune upon this fingle point, either that I must meet with some fhip, or must perish.

When

When I had pursued this resolution about ten days longer, as I have faid, I began to fee that the land was inhabited; and in two or three places, as we failed by, we faw people stand upon the fhore to look at us; we could also perceive they were quite black, and stark naked. I was once inclined to have gone on fhore to them; but Xury was my better counsellor, and faid to me, No go, no go; however I hauled in nearer the fhore that I might talk to them, and I found they run along the fhore by me a good way; I obferved they had no weapons in their hands, except one, who had a long flender flick, which Xury faid was a lance, and that they would throw them a great way with good aim; fo I kept at a distance, but talked with them by figns as well as I could; and particularly made figns for fomething to eat; they beckoned to me to stop my boat, and they would fetch me some meat; upon this I lowered the top of my fail, and lay by, and two of them ran up into the country, and in less than half an hour came back, and brought with them two pieces of dry flesh and fome corn, fuch as is the produce of their country; but we neither knew what the one nor the other was; however, we were willing to accept it, but how to come at it was our next dispute, for I was not for venturing on shore to them, and they were as much afraid of us; but they took a safe way for us all, for they brought it to the fhore and laid it down, and went and ftood a great way off till we fetched it on board, and then came close to us again.

We made figns of thanks to them, for we had nothing to make them amends; but an opportunity offered that very instant to oblige them wonderfully;

for while we where lying by the fhore, came two mighty creatures, one pursuing the other (as we took it) with great fury, from the mountains towards the fea whether it was the male purfuing the female, or whether they were in fport or in rage, we could not tell, any more than we could tell whether it was ufual or ftrange, but I believe it was the latter; because, in the first place, thofe ravenous creatures feldom appear but in the night; and in the fecond place, we found the people terribly frighted, especially the women. The man that had the lance or dart did not fly from them, but the reft did; however, as the two creatures ran directly into the water, they did not seem to offer to fall upon any of the Negroes, but plunged themselves into the fea, and fwam about as if they had come for their diverfion. At last one of them began to come nearer our boat than at first I expected, but I lay ready for him, for I had loaded my gun with all poffible expedition, and bade Xury load both the others. As foon as he came fairly within my reach, I fired, and fhot him directly into the head; immediately he funk down into the water, but rofe inftantly and plunged up and down as if he was struggling for life; and fo indeed he was: he immediately made to the fhore, but between the wound, which was his mortal hurt, and the ftrangling of the water, he died juft before he reached the fhore.

It is impoffible to exprefs the astonishment of these poor creatures at the noife and the fire of my gun; fome of them were even ready to die for fear, and fell down as dead with the very terror. But when they faw the creature dead, and funk in the

water,