| Citation |
PC.767.195
16-23 Nov 1767:1741 (1/44)
[In middle of long narrative of shipwreck in Guinea,
narrator rescued by natives and taken to village.] . . . At
sun-set a grave old Negro stood up, with a white want in his
hand, and waving it in the air, a general silence ensued,
the four young folks fell down on their knees, in a circle,
taking hold of each others hands, whilst the old fellow
pronounced a long oration, making sundry pauses, at each of
which the couples cried out, Fanda Cenboo, which I
interpreted as an assent to what he said. The [marriage]
ceremony being over, the company joined in a circular dance,
with the married pairs in the middle. . . [later all
captured by some armed Negroes and sold to a captain heading
for Barbados.]
A week passed very quietly, when the Captain ordered the
mate to go down and bring up twenty, saying, "He would make
the devils dance for their health, " . . . [23 lines,
narrator finally reaches original destination of Rhode
Island]
But the distresses of these poor enslaved wretches have
fixed such a melancholy on my mind, that the pleasures,
which generally attend the meeting of long absent friends,
are totally banished from my breast; my thoughts by day, and
my dreams by night, are totally employed on that gloomy
subject, and I am really amazed, than men, who pretend to be
Christians, who pretend to be Britons, should so far deviate
from the laws of religion and liberty, as to treat their
fellow-creatures like the beasts of the field! . . .
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