It is not easy to express the joy I was in, upon the unexpected hope of once more seeing my beloved country, and the dear pledges I left in it.

I would gladly have taken a dozen of the natives, but this was a thing the emperor would by no means permit; and, besides a diligent search into my pockets, his majesty engaged my honor not to carry away any of his subjects, although with their own consent and desire.

while I had liberty, the whole strength of that empire could hardly subdue me, and I might easily with stones pelt the metropolis to pieces; but I soon rejected that project with horror, by remembering the oath I had made to the emperor, the favors I received from him, and the high title of nardac he conferred upon me.

whereby you are only condemned to the loss of your eyes

his majesty’s subjects might in two or three days cut your flesh from your bones, take it away by cart-loads, and bury it in distant parts, to prevent infection,

who extinguished the fire in that unprincipled manner, might at another time inundate and drown the whole palace; and the same strength, which enabled you to bring over the enemy’s fleet, might serve, upon the first discontent, to carry it back: that he had good reasons to think you were a Big-endian in your heart; and, as treason begins in the heart, before it appears in overt acts, so he accused you as a traitor on that account, and therefore insisted you should be put to death.

Some of your servants were to have private orders to strew a poisonous juice on your shirts and sheets, which would soon make you tear your own flesh, and die in the utmost torture.

Thus, the young ladies there are as much ashamed of being cowards and fools as the men, and despise all personal ornaments beyond decency and cleanliness: neither did I perceive any difference in their education, made by their difference of sex,

The pension from each family, for the education and entertainment of a child, upon failure of due payment, is levied by the emperor’s officers.

but the old and diseased among them are supported by hospitals; for begging is a trade unknown in this empire.

those intended for apprentices are dismissed at seven years old, the rest are kept to eleven.

to show she was more disposed to reward than to punish.

but they suppose truth, justice, temperance, and the like, to be in every man’s power, the practice of which virtues, assisted by experience, and a good intention, would qualify any man for the service of his country,

They bury their dead with their heads directly downwards, because they hold an opinion, that in eleven thousand moons they are all to rise again, in which period the earth (which they conceive to be flat) will turn upside down, and by this means they shall, at the resurrection, be found ready, standing on their feet.

My greatest apprehension was for mine eyes, which I should have infallibly lost, if I had not suddenly thought of an expedient. I kept, among other little necessaries, a pair of spectacles, in a private pocket, which, as I observed before, had escaped the emperor’s searchers. These I took out, and fastened as strongly as I could upon my nose, and thus armed, went on boldly with my work, in spite of the enemy’s arrows, many of which struck against the glasses of my spectacles, but without any other effect, farther than a little to discompose them.

The enemy were so frightened, when they saw me, that they leaped out of their ships, and swam to shore,

and it was impossible for me to stride over them without infinite damage to the pile, though the walls were strongly built of hewn stone, and four inches thick.

By which the reader may conceive an idea of the ingenuity of that people, as well as the prudent and exact economy of so great a prince.

liberty.

Lastly. That upon his solemn oath to observe all the above articles, the said man-mountain shall have a daily allowance of meat and drink sufficient for the support of 1724 of our subjects, with free access to our royal person, and other marks of our favor. Given at our palace at Belfaborac, the twelfth day of the ninety-first moon of our reign.

and whose head strikes against the sun;

except Skyrris Bolgolam who was pleased, without any provocation, to be my mortal enemy.

my hat

I took nine of these sticks, and fixing them firmly in the ground in a quadrangular figure, two feet and a half square, I took four other sticks and tied them parallel at each corner, about two feet from the ground; then I fastened my handkerchief to the nine sticks that stood erect, and extended it on all sides, till it was as tight as the top of a drum; and the four parallel sticks, rising about five inches higher than the handkerchief, served as ledges on each side.

These diversions are often attended with fatal accidents, whereof great numbers are on record. I myself have seen two or three candidates break a limb. But the danger is much greater when the ministers themselves are commanded to show their dexterity! for, by contending to excel themselves and their fellows, they strain so far that there is hardly one of them who hath not received a fall, and some of them two or three. I was assured that a year or two before my arrival, Flimnap would have infallibly broke his neck if one of the king’s cushions, that accidentally lay on the ground, had not weakened the force of his fall.

The emperor had a mind, one day, to entertain me with one of the country shows, wherein they exceed all nations I have known, both for dexterity and magnificence. I was diverted with none so much as that of the rope-dancers, performed upon a slender white thread, extended about two feet, and twelve inches from the ground

I first cautioned the emperor not to be afraid, and then let it off in the air

for the sun shone clear, and the reflection dazzled their eyes,

with a wonderful kind of engine at the bottom

the great man-mountain

nine hundred yards round the city to deliver in, every morning, six beeves, forty sheep, and other victuals, for my sustenance; together with a proportionable quantity of bread and wine, and other liquors; for the due payment of which his majesty gave assignments upon his treasury.

He directed that those who had already beheld me should return home, and not presume to come within fifty yards of my house without license from court;

thought no punishment so proper as to deliver them bound into my hands

, High and Low Dutch, Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and Lingua Franca;[15] but all to no purpose.

He was then past his prime, being twenty-eight years and three-quarters old,

he country around, appeared like a continued garden, and the enclosed fields, which were generally forty feet square, resembled so many beds of flowers. These fields were intermingled with woods of half a stang,[12] and the tallest trees, as I could judge, appeared to be seven feet high. I viewed the town on my left hand, which looked like the painted scene of a city in a theatre.

edifice

Five hundred carpenters and engineers were immediately set to work, to prepare the greatest engine they had. It was a frame of wood, raised three inches from the ground, about seven feet long and four wide, moving upon twenty-two wheels. The shout I heard was upon the arrival of this engine, which, it seems, set out in four hours after my landing.

and it was no wonder, for the physicians, by the emperor’s order, had mingled a sleepy potion in the hogsheads of wine

for so I interpreted my submissive behavior

orator

who seemed to be a person of quality, made me a long speech, whereof I understood not one syllable.

prudent

confused noise about me

I often let my legs drop, and could feel no bottom; but, when I was almost gone, and able to struggle no longer, I found myself within my depth; and, by this time, the storm was much abated.

It would not be proper, for some reasons, to trouble the reader with the particulars of our adventures in those seas.

I laid them out in learning navigation, and other parts of the mathematics useful to those who intend to travel,

He had learned to take tobacco; and when he was assured he should die, he desired they would give him a pipe in his mouth, ready lighted; which they did. And the executioner came, and first cut off his members, and threw them into the fire; after that, with an ill-favored knife, they cut off his ears and his nose and burned them; he still smoked on, as if nothing had touched him; then they hacked off one of his arms, and still he bore up, and held his pipe; but at the cutting off the other arm, his head sunk, and his pipe dropped, and he gave up the ghost, without a groan or a reproach.

“O monster! that hast murdered thy wife.”

with a hand resolved, and a heart breaking within, gave the fatal stroke, first cutting her throat, and then severing her yet smiling face from that delicate body, pregnant as it was with the fruits of tenderest love.

he told her his design, first of killing her, and then his enemies, and next himself, and the impossibility of escaping, and therefore he told her the necessity of dying. He found the heroic wife faster pleading for death that he was to propose it, when she found his fixed resolution; and, on her knees, besought him not to leave her a prey to his enemies

They spared Imoinda, and did not let her see this barbarity committed towards her lord, but carried her down to Parham, and shut her up; which was not in kindness to her, but for fear she should die with the sight, or miscarry, and then they should lose a young slave, and perhaps the mother

and surprising them, bound them to two several stakes, and whipped them in a most deplorable and inhuman manner, rending the very flesh from their bones,

that he was ashamed of what he had done, in endeavoring to make those free who were by nature slaves, poor wretched rogues, fit to be used as Christian’s tolls; dogs, treacherous and cowardly, fit for such masters, and they wanted only but to be whipped into the knowledge of the Christian gods, to be the vilest of all creeping things

left him only Tuscan and his heroic Imoinda, who, grown big as she was, did nevertheless press near her lord, having a bow and a quiver full of poisoned arrows, which she managed with such dexterity that she wounded several, and shot the Governor into the shoulder;

Yield! and leave Caesar to their revenge”; that by degrees the slaves abandoned Caesar,

and men that had the courage and the bravery to attempt, at least, for liberty; and if they died in the attempt, it would be more brave than to live in perpetual slavery.

“And why,” said he, “my dear friends and fellow-sufferers, should we be slaves to an unknown people? Have they vanquished us nobly in fight? Have they won us in honorable battle? And are we by the chance of war become their slaves? This would not anger a noble heart; this would not animate a soldiers soul: no, but we are bought and sold like apes or monkeys, to be the sport of women, fools, and cowards; and the support of rogues and runagates, that have abandoned their own countries for rapine, murders, theft, and villainies. Do you not hear every day how they upbraid each other with infamy of life, below the wildest savages? And shall we render obedience to such a degenerate race, who have no one human virtue left, to distinguish them from the vilest creatures? Will you, I say, suffer the lash from such hands?”

but now Imoinda began to show she was with child, and did nothing but sigh and weep for the captivity of her lord,

but however their shapes appeared, their souls were very humane and noble; but some wanted their noses, some their lips, some both noses and lips, some their ears, and others cut through each cheek, with long slashes, through which their teeth appeared: they had several other formidable wounds and scars, or rather dismemberings. They had comitias, or little aprons before ’em; and girdles of cotton, with their knives naked stuck in it; a bow at their back, and a quiver of arrows on their thighs; and most had feathers on their heads of divers colors.

For my part, I took ’em for hobgoblins, or fiends, rather than men:

I soon perceived, by an admiration that is natural to these people, and by the extreme ignorance and simplicity of ’em, it were not difficult to establish any unknown or extravagant religion among them, and to impose any notions or fictions upon ’em.

They were all naked; and we were dressed, so as is most commode for the hot countries, very glittering and rich; so that we appeared extremely fine: my own hair was cut short, and I had a taffety cap, with black feathers on my head; my brother was in a stuff-suit, with silver loops and buttons, and abundance of green ribbon.

so that they cut in pieces all they could take, getting into houses, and hanging up the mother and all her children about her; and cut a footman, I left behind me, all in joints, and nailed him to trees.

called a numb eel (an eel of which I have eaten) that, while it is alive, it has a quality so cold that those who are angling, though with a line of ever so great a length, with a rod at the end of it, it shall, in the same minute the bait is touched by this eel, seize him or her that holds the rod with a numbness that shall deprive ’em of sense for a while; and some have fallen into the water, and others dropped as dead on the banks of the rivers where they stood, as soon as this fish touches the bait.

’tis there eternal spring, always the very months of April, May, and June; the shades are perpetual, the trees bearing at once all degrees of leaves and fruit, from blooming buds to ripe autumn: groves of oranges, lemons, citrons, figs, nutmegs, and noble aromatics continually bearing their fragrancies. The trees appearing all like nosegays adorned with flowers of different kinds; some are all white, some purple, some scarlet, some blue, some yellow; bearing at the same time ripe fruit, and blooming young, or producing every day new. The very wood of all these trees has an intrinsic value above common timber; for they are, when cut, of different colors, glorious to behold, and bear a price considerable, to inlay withal. Besides this, they yield rich balm and gums; so that we make our candles of such an aromatic substance as does not only give a sufficient light, but, as they burn, they cast their perfumes all about. Cedar is the common firing, and all the houses are built with it.

’Tis a continent whose vast extent was never yet known, and may contain more noble earth than all the universe beside; for, they say, it reaches from east to west one way as far as China, and another to Peru:

and that they would delay him till the time of his wife’s delivery, and make a slave of that too

This new accident made him more impatient of liberty,

he soon saw Imoinda all over her; in a minute he saw her face, her shape, her air, her modesty, and all that called forth his soul with joy at his eyes, and left his body destitute of almost life: it stood without motion, and for a minute knew not that it had a being; and, I believe, he had never come to himself, so oppressed he was with over-joy, if he had not met with this allay, that he perceived Imoinda fall dead in the hands of Trefry. This awakened him, and he ran to her aid, and caught her in his arms, where by degrees she came to herself; and ’tis needless to tell with what transports, what ecstasies of joy, they both a while beheld each other, without speaking; then snatched each other to their arms; then gazed again, as if they still doubted whether they possessed the blessing they grasped: but when they recovered their speech, ’tis not to be imagined what tender things they expressed to each other; wondering what strange fate had brought them again together.

I have been ready to make use of those advantages of strength and force nature has given me:

I have been ready to make use of those advantages of strength and force nature has given me: but oh! she disarms me with that modesty and weeping, so tender and so moving that I retire, and thank my stars she overcame me.”

that the breezes would steal kisses from her delicate mouth.

“Farewell, Sir, ’tis worth my sufferings to gain so true a knowledge both of you and of your gods by whom you swear.”

upbraiding him with eyes that forced blushes on his guilty cheeks,

Possessed with a thousand thoughts of past joys with this fair young person, and a thousand griefs for her eternal loss, he endured a tedious voyage

and entreated him to oblige ’em to eat, and assure ’em of that liberty on the first opportunity

So that being deprived of all other means, he resolved to perish for want of food; and pleased at last with that thought, and toiled and tired by rage and indignation, he laid himself down, and sullenly resolved upon dying, and refused all things that were brought him.

so that the captain, who had well laid his design before, gave the word, and seized on all his guests; they clapping great irons suddenly on the prince, when he was leaped down into the hold to view that part of the vessel; and locking him fast down, secured him.

: but no motives of beauties, though all endeavored it, could engage him in any sort of amour, though he had all the invitations to it, both from his own youth and others’ ambitions and designs.

languishmen

the prince from his amorous slumber, in which he had remained buried for two days, without permitting any sustenance to approach him

and the continual thoughts of what his lord and grandfather had thought good to send out of the world, with all that youth, that innocence and beauty.

But as it is the greatest crime in nature amongst ’em to touch a woman after having been possessed by a son, a father, or a brother, so now he looked on Imoinda as a polluted thing, wholly unfit for his embrace;

believed she should appease the fury of a jealous king, by saying she was surprised, and that it was by force of arms he got into her apartment

Tis not to be imagined the satisfaction of these two young lovers; nor the vows she made him, that she remained a spotless maid till that night, and that what she did with his grandfather had robbed him of no part of her virgin-honor; the gods, in mercy and justice, having reserved that for her plighted lord, to whom of right it belonged

But nothing could appease the jealousy of the old lover

and to find those caresses paid to new beauties, to which once she laid claim

certainly, nothing is more afflicting to a decayed beauty than to behold in itself declining charms that were once adored

what rage! what wild frenzies seized his heart!

gallantries

the raging of his flame

In this time, the prince, who was returned from hunting, went to visit his Imoinda, but found her gone; and not only so, but heard she had received the royal veil.

After a thousand assurances of his lasting flame, and her eternal empire over him, she condescended to receive him for her husband;

such ill morals are only practised in Christian countries, where they prefer the bare name of religion; and, without virtue or morality, think that sufficient

the beautiful black Venus to our young Mars

e had an extreme good and graceful mien, and all the civility of a well-bred great man. He had nothing of barbarity in his nature, but in all points addressed himself as if his education had been in some European court.

Besides, he was adorned with a native beauty, so transcending all those of his gloomy race that he struck an awe and reverence even into those that knew not his quality;

but in the water, one would think they were gods of the rivers, or fellow-citizens of the deep; so rare an art they have in swimming, diving, and almost living in water; by which they command the less swift inhabitants of the floods.

And though they are all thus naked, if one lives forever among ’em there is not to be seen an undecent action, or glance: and being continually used to see one another so unadorned, so like our first parents before the Fall, it seems as if they had no wishes, there being nothing to heighten curiosity; but all you can see, you see at once, and every moment see; and where there is no novelty, there can be no curiosity.

We dealt with ’em with beads of all colors, knives, axes, pins, and needles; which they used only as tools to drill holes with in their ears, noses, and lips, where they hang a great many little things; as long beads, bits of tin, brass or silver beat thin, and any shining trinket. The beads they weave into aprons about a quarter of an ell long, and of the same breadth; working them very prettily in flowers of several colors; which apron they wear just before ’em, as Adam and Eve did the fig-leaves; the men wearing a long stripe of linen, which they deal with us for. They thread these beads also on long cotton threads, and make girdles to tie their aprons to, which come twenty times, or more, about the waist, and then cross, like a shoulder-belt, both ways, and round their necks, arms, and legs. This adornment, with their long black hair, and the face painted in little specks or flowers here and there, makes ’em a wonderful figure to behold.

I was myself an eye-witness to a great part of what you will find here set down; and what I could not be witness of, I received from the mouth of the chief actor in this history, the hero himself, who gave us the whole transactions of his youth

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested;

for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.

it is better they should be graced with elegancy, than daubed with cost

Acting in song, especially in dialogues, hath an extreme good grace; I say acting, not dancing, (for that is a mean and vulgar thing;) and the voices of the dialogue would be strong and manly, (a base and a tenor, no treble,) and the ditty high and tragical, not nice or dainty.

In all negotiations of difficulty, a man may not look to sow and reap at once; but must prepare business, and so ripen it by degrees.

by the mediation of a third

The people wherewith you plant ought to be gardeners, ploughmen, labourers, smiths, carpenters, joiners, fishermen, fowlers, with some few apothecaries, surgeons, cooks, and bakers.

for the principal thing that hath been the destruction of most plantations, hath been the base and hasty drawing of profit in the first years.

PLANTATIONS

When the plantation grows to strength, then it is time to plant with women as well as with men; that the plantation may spread into generations,

For government, let it be in the hands of one, assisted with some counsel; and let them have commission to exercise martial laws, with some limitation;

Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation: all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not; but superstition dismounts all these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men: therefore atheism did never perturb states; for it makes men wary of themselves,

lucre

prelates

stratagems

pharisaica

Use the memory of thy predecessor fairly and tenderly;

For roughness, it is a needless cause of discontent; severity breedeth fear, but roughness breedeth hate

The standing is slippery, and the regress is either a downfall, or at least an eclipse, which is a melancholy thing

because their means are less exhaust

but the most ordinary cause of a single life is liberty, especially in certain self-pleasing and humorous minds, which are so sensible of every restraint, as they will go near to think heir girdles and garters to be bonds and shackles.

both in affection and means, have married and endowed the public

lieth

Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that showeth best by day, but it will not rise to the price of a diamond or carbuncle, that showeth best in varied lights.

Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man’s mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.

providence

Let me turn back, shame cries I ought return

therein danger is; If to the left, suspicion hinders bliss,

If to the right hand, there in love I burn

LOVE, a child, is ever crying;

My pain, still smothered in my grieved breast, Seeks for some ease, yet cannot passage find To be discharged of this unwelcome guest;

Go then, my thoughts, and cry

Yet childlike, we cannot his sports refuse

Thus shadow they their wicked vile intent, Colouring evil with the mask* of good

For hope deluding brings us to the pride Of our desires the farther down to slide.

39

Why should wee not love’s purblind charms resist? Must we be servile, doing what he list?

Cupid shall lose his darts,* have sight, and see His shame

Desire shall quench love’s flames,

Love what art thou? Causeless cursed Yet alas these not the worst, Much more of thee may be said

Love what art thou? light, and fair, Fresh as morning clear as th’air,

Idle smiles did thee beget While fond wishes made that* net Which so many fools have caught

beget

A vain thought,

vain

“hauing heard some part of your sorrows, they have not only made me truly pity you, but wonder at you; since if you have lost so great a treasure, you should not lie thus leaving her and your love unrevenged, suffering her murderers to live, while you lie here complaining; and if such perfections be dead in her, why make you not the Phoenix of your deeds live again, as to new life rais’d out of the revenge you should take on them?

As no spring can quench least part of my woe

Blest in the love of those I took for parents ; but now by them I know the con trary, and by that knowledge, not to know myself.

but care itself had left him:

she fearing nothing, but the continuance of her ignorance, went in;

Doubly resounded by that moanful voice, Which seems to second me in misery,

To rocks, to hills, to meadows, and to springs,

her very soul turn’d into mourning

Each arbour, banke, each seate, each stately tree, Lookes bare and desolate now for want of thee; Turning greene tresses into frostie gray, While in cold griefe they wither all away.

The trees that were so glorious in our view, Forsooke both flowres and fruit, when once they knew Of your depart, their very leaues did wither, Changing their colours as they grewe together. But when they saw this had no powre to stay you, They often wept, though speechlesse, could not pray you; Letting their teares in your faire bosoms fall, As if they said, Why will ye leaue vs all? This being vaine, they cast their leaues away, Hoping that pitie would haue made you stay:

Now let me come vnto that stately Tree, Wherein such goodly Prospects you did see; That Oake that did in height his fellowes passe, As much as lofty trees, low growing grasse: Much like a comely Cedar streight and tall, Whose beauteous stature farre exceeded all: How often did you visite this faire tree, Which seeming joyfull in receiuing thee, Would like a Palme tree spread his armes abroad, Desirous that you there should make abode: Whose faire greene leaues much like a comely vaile,

The little Birds in chirping notes did sing, To entetaine both You and that sweet Spring.

And where the Muses gaue their full consent

Her weakenesse did the Serpents word obay, But you in malice Gods deare Sonne betray.

The fruit beeing faire perswaded him to fall:

Although the Serpents craft had her abus’d, Gods holy word ought all his actions frame: For he was Lord and King of al the earth, Before poore Eue had either life or breath.

vndiscerning Ignorance perceau’d

The subtile Serpent that our Sex betraide, Before our fall so sure a plot had laide.

 Iesus

Pontius Pilate

As also in respect it pleased our Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ, without the assistance of man, beeing free from originall and all other sinnes, from the time of his conception, till the houre of his death

Ladies and Gentlewomen

vouchsafe

What garment is so faire but she may weare it; Especially for her that entertaines A Glorious Queene, in whome all woorth remains.

But that faire Virtue, though in meane attire, All Princes of the world doe most desire.

The hopefull hauen of the meaner sort, Its he that all our ioy full tidings brings

of all the world admired,

durst not view heaven yesterday; and today In prayers and flattering speeches I court God: Tomorrow I quake with true fear of his rod.

ake me to you, imprison me, for I Except you enthrall me, never shall be free, Nor ever chaste,

chaste

And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,

Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From death, you numberless infinities Of souls, and to your scattered bodies go,

But our old subtle foe so tempteth me,

Little think’st thou, poor heart, That labourest yet to nestle thee, And think’st by hovering here to get a part In a forbidden or forbidding tree, And hopest her stiffness by long siege to bow, Little think’st thou

Whom I’ve watch’d six or seven days, And seen thy birth, and seen what every hour Gave to thy growth, thee to this height to raise, And now dost laugh and triumph on this bough, Little think’st thou,

By this should know my pain, As prisoners then are manacled, when they’re condemn’d to die.

Viceroy

So must pure lovers’ souls descend

Small change when we’re to bodies gone.

As our blood labours to beget Spirits, as like souls as it can ; Because such fingers need to knit That subtle knot, which makes us man ;

And we said nothing, all the day. If any, so by love refined, That he soul’s language understood, And by good love were grown all mind, Within convenient distance stood,

The violet’s reclining head,

AS virtuous men pass mildly away, And whisper to their souls to go, Whilst some of their sad friends do say, “Now his breath goes,” and some say, “No.”

Gladder to catch thee, than thou him

Of golden sands, and crystal brooks, With silken lines and silver hooks.

sepulchral

coarse bold hands

treacherously

amorously

live bath

But I am none ; nor will my sun renew.

To fetch new lust, and give it you,