ABSTRACT
Our ship being ordered to prepare for sea, I went to say farewell to my friend the planter who received me with his usual hospitality. After having been treated during the day in the most luxurious manner, in the evening I retired to bed; the little mulatto girl being as usual stretched out on her mat by the bed-side. Soon after we both fell so fast 86asleep, that we could not hear our-selves snore. I, for my own share, was dreaming of nothing less than a hurricane, when I was waked by the falling of the Venetian blinds and sashes into the room, I started up in my bed, and opening my mouth to call out murder! thieves! the wind rushed in so furiously, that I could not shut it again, I then began to suspect what was the matter, and was not a little alarmed at the rocking of the house. I was in doubt what step to take, and was much afraid I should be buried in the ruins of the building, when the mulatto girl took me by the arm, and pulled me towards the opposite window. “One cursee hurricane to be sure,” said she; “but good little macky blue-coat, never be afraid.”—She then lowered herself 87down by her hands, and jumped to the ground. I followed her example, and jumped upon her hack. The girl immediately recovered her legs, and, driven on by the wind, ran along at an amazing rate. As my good fortune had placed me on her back, I thought proper to keep my hold, for as she was in the front, it was clear that she would first encounter any obstacle in the way, and save my bones it the expence of her own. This reasoning, as she was a slave, was very fair; but the wind and my weight soon became too much for her; she fell upon her face, and I was dismounted. I continued to be carried on by the wind with the greatest swiftness, and, was much afraid I should be driven to sea, where in all probability I should have been loft, when I was suddenly taken off 88my feet, and falling from a considerable height, found myself very happily seated in a kind of ravine that was sheltered on every side. During my journey the wind had blown my shirt piece-meal off my back, and when I got into shelter, I perceived that I had nothing but the collar and wristbands left to cover my nakedness. There was a very numerous company in this hollow way, which was every moment increased by stragglers, who came flying in upon our heads, till at last we were crowded one upon another, and almost: stifled with excessive heat. Terrible were the complaints on every side of me, every one enumerating his supposed losses, and lamenting his friends killed, or supposed to be killed. “My poor dear wife! cried one: “my poor dear boy! exclaimed 89another. As I had heard that the best way of consoling our fellow-creatures, is to divert their attention from their misfortunes, by relating our own, I began to cry out, “O! my poor dear blue coat! my best white dimity waistcoat! my new prince’s stuff breeches!” A planter, who was standing near me, and who was probably in a bad humour at being blown out of bed, imagined me to be making game of him; fell upon a creole lady whom, in the dark, he mistook for me, and pummelled her till her cries, and some discoveries he made in the action, undeceived him. When I perceived what was the matter, I left off my lamentations, and shifted my place to another, where, though I was safer, I was not near so much at my ease, I found myself in 90the middle of a company that did not seem to be of the most cleanly kind, at least if I could judge from the strong smell of perspiration that almost: suffocated me. As soon as the day began to dawn, perceiving that I was in the midst of six overgrown negresses, I begged these black natives of Congo to give me a little room, “for really,” said I, “my good women, you smell “very strong.” “Fie, fie, massa,” answered one of them, “what we smell! ee fair sex smell! ’tis ippossible—no—neber see de day dat ee fair sex smell.” I made my way from among these sable fair ones, and went up to two young ladies of my acquaintance, whom I observed at a little distance, and who were as totally naked as myself. I made them a very ceremonious bow, they returned 91full as formal a courtesy, which, in the situation they were in, had so comical an effect, that I could not help laughing. The ladies, suspecting the cause of my mirth, turned their hacks upon me, an expedient that by no means lessened my merriment. However, as I observed that my laughter seemed to displease some of the people about me, who were almost all naked too, I changed my tome, and began to comfort those that appeared to be the most in want of consolation. There was one planter in the number, whose sorrow was more turbulent than that of his neighbours. He roared, sobbed, cursed the hurricane, and called himself the most unfortunate of men. I went up to him: “Sir,” find I, “consider we are all mortal, and if your wife had not met with 92this misfortune, she must have died sooner or later: your sorrow, my good sir, cannot bring her back: besides, she is, no doubt, in heaven; where, according to the best accounts, she must be better off, than we poor, naked christians in this nasty ravine.”—“What do you mean, sir?” said he, still sobbing; “my wife is the lady whom you see just by.” “I beg your pardon for my blunder,” replied I, “but if you have loft your children, do not let it afflict you too much; it is a loss your lady, who is still young, can easily repair.” “Children, sir!” said he, “I never had any in my life.” “Oh!” said I, “I see what is the matter, your crop of sugar is destroyed, and your house blown down.—“Oh! no, no, no,” answered he, “that house 93yonder is mine. Oh, oh, oh! I left it last night, for fear it should “fall; but I see that it is safe, and my crop of sugar is all housed.” “For G—d’s sake, what is the matter then?” “Oh, oh, oh!” said he, sobbing still louder, “Oh, oh, oh! I have lost twenty negroes, and six of them, oh, oh, oh!”—here his tears interrupted his voice—“Oh, oh, oh! six of them were she’s, oh, oh, oh! and big with young, oh, oh! I would not have sold them for fifty Jos a-piece.”
