3
Being two leagues north of the River Dande, we met with a party of Negroes, a dozen or more young huntsmen or warriors, well armed, but seemingly friendly. They spoke the language of the Angolan blacks and asked us whither we traveled.
“We go to Kongo,” I said.
“You go the wrong way, then,” said they, which much surprised me, for that I was sure I had the plan of the territory clear in my mind. But they said they would guide us, for they were Mushikongos, that is, Kongo-men, and would carry us to the land of Mbamba, where the Duke of Mbamba lay, who was one of the chief princes of the kingdom of the Kongo.
I was ill at ease at all this, and to his credit so was Cristovão and his Gypsies. But the Portugals who were with us had come to mistrust my leadership and were willing to be guided by these blackamoors, and so firmly did they argue that I yielded, thinking I might after all be mistaken about the proper direction of our travel.
So we went some three miles east, up into the land, till we became certain that we were in the wrong way. For we traveled by the sun and the sun plainly lay behind us in the afternoon as we went up into the hills. So we turned back again to the westward. At this the blacks quick took up a position before us with their bows and arrows and darts, ready to shoot at us.
I looked toward Cristovão and he to me, and I said, “We must go through them.”
“Aye,” said he, and we levelled our muskets at them. The blackamoors not showing fear at this, we discharged six muskets together, which killed four of them and greatly amazed the others, who fled into the woods. But they followed us four or five miles, and hurt two of our company with their arrows.
The next day we came within the borders of Mbamba, that is the south-west province of the kingdom of the Kongo, and traveled all that day. At night we heard the surge of the sea. This gave me great pleasure, I having lived all the happiest days of my life within earshot of the sea, and like any Englishman I begin to feel narrow-souled and strained when I am herded into some great dry flatland far from the surf and the ocean-breezes. But there on my ear was the rise and the fall of the waves, that is the sweetest sound our world can bestow.
My plan was this, to make my way to some civilized part of the Kongo, for that is a well-ordered land, whose people are far from backward and do obey the behests of Jesus. The Portugals have great influence there, but I did not fear falling into their hands, since they would have no knowledge of my condition in Angola, and perhaps I might pretend to be a Dutchman, shipwrecked somewhere and seeking rescue. Or else the blackamoors themselves might aid me to reach a port, and I might take ship for England. I had some other such schemes, too, in case these did not fare well. But in the final event all my planning was doomed to perish frustrate, because calamity overtook us as we made our wearisome track northward, running a few miles in from the shore of the sea.
It was in the morning and we were, I think, ten leagues or a little more above São Paulo de Loanda. To our great dismay we saw suddenly coming after us a troop of Portugals on horse, with a great store of Negroes following them. I think we had by grievous error stumbled across some outlying garrison of the army, who did patrol this region against enemies, and peradventure we were mistaken for scouts of an encroaching force.
Our company was so disheartened by this that our seven faint-hearted Portugals hid themselves in the thickets, crouching down like squirrels in a hole, where they would certainly be captured. I and the four Gypsies thought to have escaped, but the soldiers followed us so fast that we were fain to go into a little wood. As soon as the Portugal captain had overtaken us he discharged a volley of shot into the wood, which made us lose one another, for under that deadly fire we did crawl this way and that, and were separated.
I lay alone, steeped in my reeking sweat but still unwounded. All about me sounded the cries and alarums of the Negro auxiliaries, who were thrashing foolishly about in the wood, shouting halloo to one another as they sought for us. But there were so many of them that even in their folly they were like to blunder upon me, and I bethought myself that if those Negroes did take me in the wood they would kill me in some barbarous ugly way, and drag my bloodied corpse to the captain of the Portugals to claim a reward. I believed my time was up, but I preferred to die in clean warfare rather than be pounded and mangled by savages in some tangled jungly place of chaos. Therefore, thinking to make a better end for myself among the Portugals, I came presently out of the wood with my musket ready charged, intending to give a good accounting for my life.
But the captain, thinking that we had been all twelve together and I was leading my fellows from refuge, called to me and said, “Fellow soldier, I have the governor’s pardon; if you will yield yourselves you shall have no hurt.”
I, having my musket ready, answered the captain most truthfully that I was an Englishman, and had served six years at Masanganu, in great misery; and came in company with eleven Portugals and Gypsies, and here am left all alone; and rather than I will be hanged, I will die in the defense of my liberty.
“Nay,” he said, “you will not be hanged. Are you Andres Battell the Piloto?”
“That I am.”
“Deliver thy musket to one of the soldiers, Piloto Battell. And I protest, as I am a gentleman and a soldier, to save thy life for thy resolute mind.”
These were right noble words, even though they came from the mouth of a Portugal. I thought it wiser to accept his pledge, for all my mistrust of such blandishments, than to reject it out of hand and die gloriously; for there is no repair of dying, glorious or otherwise. So did I surrender. And you will not be amazed to learn that I tumbled thereby into fresh misfortune.
The captain did command all his soldiers and Negroes to search the woods, and to bring us all out alive or dead, which was presently done. Then they carried us to the city of São Paulo de Loanda, which looked much enlarged and greatly more prosperous in the six years since last I had seen it, and thrust me with the three Gypsies into prison. There I lay for months with a collar of iron upon me, and great bolts upon my legs, in the very dungeon I had known before, among the rats and spiders. So I was not hanged, and the captain did keep his promise to me to that degree. But once again I was a captive in chains.
Everything becomes more skilful done with practice at it, and I had had by now such training at being a dungeon inmate that I was a fair expert at it, and carried off the task with high great virtuosity. No longer did I expend my breath in loud railings at my fate, or denunciation of mine enemies, nor did I brood long and hard upon dire revenge. Instead I quickly let myself slide into an altered condition of awareness, a kind of mystical trance, in which for hours at a time I did lift my soul from out of this dreary place and let it rove the bright realm of fancy. I think I would have gone mad in all my many captivities, had I not had that skill.
Therefore did I imagine myself in England, walking through the tangled grimy lanes of London and strolling the sweet green fields of Essex. To Plymouth I went, and Dover, that shines so fine in the sunlight, and I knelt in the great Cathedral at Canterbury, and walked on the old walls of Chester, and journeyed by cart to York, and even across into dark stormy Scotland on some errand to those dour turbulent folk. I consorted with great lords of the court and met with learned geographers, to whom I did tell my tales of Africa. I sailed again to France, and to Spain, even which I imagined now was bound by treaty of peace with England. And I pictured myself coming home to a loving wife I called Anne Katherine, though here my fancy failed me, for I could not even summon up a face to give her, nor any character of person. The Anne Katherine I had once known was only a figment, a child long outgrown, and though in pretense I could see myself married with her, she had no substance for me.