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THE INTERESTING NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF OLAUDAH EQUIANO, OR GUSTAVUS VASSA, THE AFRICAN.

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.

CHAPTER I.

I was born in the province of Evony, in the country of Benin, and in the year 1745. My father was a chief man, and a man of some consequence in his own land. At the age of eleven, or thereabouts, I and my sister were stolen away by some firm and resolute villains, and carried off into the neighbouring countries of an unknown distance.

At the first intimation of the plot, my father immediately set a large party after us, who traced us for some time, but at last gave over the pursuit. I now began to discover the painful confusion that enslaves my country-men feel in these calamitous circumstances: almost every person about me during our journey expressed the most excessive sorrow, occasioned by the loss of their relatives: none of the thieves made our cries the least regard or attention to our distress and anguish.

The region to which we were carried beyond my expectation, was not far from my own home: but the difference between it and my own country was evinced by the diversity of languages spoken by the natives of the different regions we passed through. We were carried with a good deal of hurry, for we were, I believe, near six hundred miles after we were taken, before we got to the sea coast.

The sense of my misery and the impression of my melancholy was not a little increased by the mortifying reflection of my lost sister, from whom I was snatched away. I myself at the time was also much distressed, nor could I have been sensible of the value of freedom, which I cannot express, but by reverting to my late happy state of life with my dear parents and relations.

The white men that took us up at last were the first that I ever saw of the race of white people. They were white, and the most terrible things I ever beheld: and I am not ashamed to own I still tremble at the recollection. They soon made us lovers of the chain, and as for myself, I wished to die, but an unbelieving slave was afraid to die.

We were landed, after our voyage, at a trading fort of the white people. Many of the slaves who had been brought from different countries spoke various languages, and no communication could be had between us. I now began to learn some words of English from the white people. I was soon carried on board a vessel which was to convey me to the land of America.

I had never been on a ship before; and my first prospect of the sea filled me with astonishment, which was soon exchanged for terror, which I cannot yet find words to express. I had seen small brooks, rivers, and ponds in my own country; but never any thing of like extent as the ocean, or so dreadful a machine as a ship.

I was soon conducted below the deck, and there I saw a sight which filled me with the utmost horror, and which I believe is never to be forgot by any voyager that has witnessed it. There were a great number of my fellow-creatures stowed in the hold so close together, as scarcely to be able to turn themselves, or even to breathe, amidst the nauseating and pestilential stench of the bilge water, and the heat of the climate; nor was there any possibility of getting to any kind of relief. The groans of these unhappy wretches, who were embarking in all the agonies of despair, at last worked upon me to such a degree, that I confess I inwardly wished for death to deliver me from the sufferings before me; still the Lord thought fit to deliver me out of the hand of the oppressor, and I became a servant to a master, and was brought to the land of America.

This voyage was accompanied with all the horrors of the Slave-Trade. In a short time after we had come to sea, such a flooring of the ship took place, that it seemed ready to part asunder, which put us all in the greatest consternation. In short, we were all of us sure that we were going to the bottom of the ocean. Many of the slaves were in such terror that they jumped overboard; and some were seized with a violent illness, and died.

I now began to discover the shocking reality of the trade. The heat in the hold was so oppressive that I thought I should have fainted; and I would have given any thing to have been on deck. The air, too, was become intolerably close, and I was so much overcome with the heat and the stench of the hold, that I became sick and ever since I have suffered from a variety of disorders.

This produced a great effect on my spirits. I cried most bitterly for several days, not only because I was separated from my dearest friends and relations, but from the cruel treatment of the crew, and the horrors of my confined situation. I prayed to God, if there was a God, to deliver me out of this world, and I should be contented to die.

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