LIFE IN THE AFRICAN WILDERNESS.

25

traders; and being afterwards out of employ there, also traded on his own account; when, passing unwarily into one of the company's settlements, he was either betrayed into the hands of some of the natives, or, somehow or other, was surprised by them. However, as they did not kill him, he found means to escape from them at that time, and fled to another nation of the natives, who, being enemies to the other, entreated him friendly, and with them he lived some time; but not liking his quarters, or his company, he fled again, and several times changed his landlords; sometimes was carried by force, sometimes hurried by fear, as circumstances altered with him (the variety of which deserves a history by itself); till at last he wandered beyond all possibility of return, and had taken up his abode where we found him, where he was well received by the petty king of the tribe he lived with; and he, in return, instructed them how to value the product of their labour, and on what terms to trade with those negroes who came up to them for teeth.

As he was naked, and had no clothes, so he was naked of arms for his defence, having neither gun, sword, staff, nor any instrument of war about him ; no, not to guard himself against the attacks of wild beasts, of which the country was very full. We asked him how he came to be so entirely abandoned of all concern for his safety? He answered, that to him, who had so often wished for death, life was not worth defending; and that, as he was entirely at the mercy of the negroes, they had much the more confidence in him, seeing he had no weapons to hurt them. As for wild beasts, he was not much concerned about them; for he had scarcely ever gone from his hut; but if he did, the negro king and his men went all armed with bows and arrows, and lances, with which they would kill any of the ravenous creatures, lions as well as others; but that they seldom came abroad in the day; and if the negroes wander anywhere in the night, they always build a hut for themselves, and make a fire at the door of it, which is guard enough.

We inquired of him what we should next do towards getting to the seaside he told us we were about a hundred and twenty English leagues from the coast, where almost all the European settlements and factories were, and which is called the Gold Coast; but that there were so many different nations of negroes in the way, that it was ten to one if we were not either fought with continually, or starved for want of provisions: but that there were two other ways to go, which, if he had had any company to go

D

26

THE JOURNEY RESUMED.

with him, he had often contrived to make his escape by; the one was to travel full west, which though it was further to go, yet was not so full of people and the people we should find would be so much the civiller to us, or be so much the easier to fight with; or, that the other way was, if possible, to get to the Rio Grande, and go down the stream in canoes. We told him, that was the way we had resolved on before we met with him; but then he told us there was a prodigious desert to go over, and as prodigious woods to go through, before we came to it, and that both together were at least twenty days' march for us, travel as hard as we could.

We inquired still more, and particularly the way to the Gold Coast, and if there were no rivers to ease us in our carriage; and told him, as to the negroes fighting with us, we were not much concerned at that: nor were we afraid of starving; for, if they had any victuals among them, we would have our share of it: and, therefore, if he would venture to show us the way, we would venture to go; and as for himself, we told him we would live and die together; there should not a man of us stir from him.

He told us, with all his heart; if we resolved it, and would venture, we might be assured he would take his fate with us, and he would endeavour to guide us in such a way as we should meet with some friendly savages who would use us well, and perhaps stand by us against some others who were less tractable; so, in a word, we all resolved to go full south for the Gold Coast.

Upon the whole, not to detain you with circumstances, we agreed that, seeing he was now one of our number, and that, as we were a relief to him in carrying him out of the dismal condition he was in, he was equally a relief to us, in being our guide through the rest of the country, our interpreter with the natives, and our director how to manage with the savages, and how to enrich ourselves with the wealth of the country; that, therefore, for the future we should take our lot together, taking his solemn engagement to us as we had before to one another, that we would not conceal the the least grain of gold we found one from another.

On the thirteenth day we set forward, taking our new gentleman with us. At parting, the negro king sent two savages with a present to him, of some dried flesh, but I do not remember what it was, and he gave him again three silver birds which our cutler helped him to, which I assure you was a present for a king.

SAMUEL RICHARDSON.

BORN 1689; DIED JULY 4, 1761.

Selections.

1. THE DEATH OF CLARISSA HARLOWE.

2. THE DUEL BETWEEN LOVELACE AND COLONEL MORDEN.

1

SAMUEL RICHARDSON.

THE

HE life of Samuel Richardson was singularly uneventful. He was born in a quiet Derbyshire village, in 1689, and displayed so precocious a genius and so marked a love of knowledge that his parents at first determined to bring him up for a clerical vocation. Finding, however, that their resources were inadequate to the fulfilment of their proud desire, they wished to send him to London, and bind him to a trade. The one selected was suitable in many respects for a lad of parts and acquirements; it was that of a printer; and Samuel Richardson commenced his career as an apprentice to Mr John Wilde, printer, or Stationers' Hall, in 1706.

In this position he lived a decorous and tranquil life, devoting his leisure hours to study, and, on the expiry of his apprenticeship, continuing under the same master, for five or six years, as a compositor and corrector of the press. Industrious and temperate, he saved money, and after a while purchasing the freedom of the city, he started in a business of his own; at first in one of the little courts which branch out of Fleet Street, and eventually, as his connexion increased, in Salisbury Square.

About this time he married his first wife, Martha, a daughter of Mr Allington Wilde, printer, of Clerkenwell. She died in 1731, leaving issue five sons and a daughter, none of whom attained maturity.

His second wife was Elizabeth Leake, of Bath, of whom he had a son and four daughters. The son died in childhood; the daughters survived. their father.

Meantime, that father had acquired the respect of his friends and fellowcitizens by his industry, integrity, and honourable dealings. It is equally certain, however, that none of them suspected the force of genius and