death of the English Governor, who had given his hand to come on
such a day to 'em, and neither came nor sent; believing, when a
man's word was past, nothing but death could or should prevent his
keeping it: and when they saw he was not dead, they asked him what
name they had for a man who promised a thing he did not do. The
Governor told them, such a man was a liar, which was a word of
infamy to a gentleman. Then one of 'em replied, "Governor, you are a
liar, and guilty of that infamy." They have a native justice, which
knows no fraud; and they understand no vice, or cunning, but when they
are taught by the white men. They have plurality of wives; which, when
they grow old, serve those that succeed 'em, who are young, but with a
servitude easy and respected; and unless they take slaves in war, they
have no other attendants.

  Those on that continent where I was had no king; but the oldest
war-captain was obeyed with great resignation.

  A war-captain is a man who has led them on to battle with conduct
and success; of whom I shall have occasion to speak more hereafter,
and of some other of their customs and manners, as they fall in my
way.

  With these people, as I said, we live in perfect tranquillity and
good understanding, as it behoves us to do; they knowing all the
places where to seek the best food of the country, and the means of
getting it; and for very small and unvaluable trifles, supply us
with that 'tis impossible for us to get: for they do not only in the
woods, and over the savannahs, in hunting, supply the parts of hounds,
by swiftly scouring through those almost impassable places, and by the
mere activity of their feet run down the nimblest deer and other
eatable beasts; 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 then for shooting,
what they cannot take, or reach with their hands, they do with arrows;
and have so admirable an aim that they will split almost an hair,
and at any distance that an arrow can reach: they will shoot down
oranges and other fruit, and only touch the stalk with the dart's
point, that they may not hurt the fruit. So that they being on all
occasions very useful to us, we find it absolutely necessary to caress
'em as friends, and not to treat 'em as slaves, nor dare we do
other, their numbers so far surpassing ours in that continent.

  Those then whom we make use of to work in our plantations of sugar
are negroes, black slaves altogether, who are transported thither in
this manner.

  Those who want slaves make a bargain with a master or a captain of a
ship, and contract to pay him so much apiece, a matter of twenty pound
a head, for as many as he agrees for, and to pay for 'em when they
shall be delivered on such a plantation: so that when there arrives
a ship laden with slaves, they who have so contracted go aboard, and
receive their number by lot; and perhaps in one lot that may be for
ten, there may happen to be three or four men, the rest women and
children. Or be there more or less of either sex, you are obliged to
be contented with your lot.

  Coramantien, a country of blacks so called, was one of those
places in which they found the most advantageous trading for these
slaves, and thither most of our great traders in that merchandise
traffic; for that nation is very warlike and brave: and having a
continual campaign, being always in hostility with one neighboring
prince or other, they had the fortune to take a great many captives:
for all they took in battle were sold as slaves; at least those common
men who could not ransom themselves. Of these slaves so taken, the
general only has all the profit; and of these generals our captains
and masters of ships buy all their freights.

  The King of Coramantien was himself a man of an hundred and odd
years old, and had no son, though he had many beautiful black wives:
for most certainly there are beauties that can charm of that color. In
his younger years he had had many gallant men to his sons, thirteen of
whom died in battle, conquering when they fell; and he had only left
him for his successor one grandchild, son to one of these dead
victors, who, as soon as he could bear a bow in his hand, and a quiver
at his back, was sent into the field to be trained up by one of the
oldest generals to war; where, from his natural inclination to arms,
and the occasions given him, with the good conduct of the old general,
he became, at the age of seventeen, one of the most expert captains
and bravest soldiers that ever saw the field of Mars: so that he was
adored as the wonder of all that world, and the darling of the
soldiers. 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; as he did into
me, who beheld him with surprise and wonder, when afterwards he
arrived in our world.

  He had scarce arrived at his seventeenth year, when, fighting by his
side, the general was killed with an arrow in his eye, which the
Prince Oroonoko (for so was this gallant Moor called) very narrowly
avoided; nor had he, if the general who saw the arrow shot, and
perceiving it aimed at the prince, had not bowed his head between,
on purpose to receive it in his own body, rather than it should
touch that of the prince, and so saved him.

  'Twas then, afflicted as Oroonoko was, that he was proclaimed
general in the old man's place: and then it was, at the finishing of
that war, which had continued for two years, that the prince came to
court, where he had hardly been a month together, from the time of his
fifth year to that of seventeen; and 'twas amazing to imagine where it