Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 4]
as well to preclude the possibility of any information being given of his situation. The Colony is now in a most flourishing State, having abundance of Hogs Goats Poultry, with wild Hogs. Of Vegetables & Fruit. very fine Yams Plantains, Sweet Potatoes Turnips, with Bread Fruit Cocoa Nuts Bananas &c. in short as Adams expressed himself, they have every luxury to render life easy & comfortable. Sir Thos Staines & myself were naturally very desirous to learn the fate of Christian & those who followd his fortune, & for that purpose particularly, we accompanied his Son on shore, tho the Landing was attended with some degree of danger; with the assistance however of our Conductor & his Companion, we reached the Shore with only a good wetting, & soon after, when old John Adams learnt we had landed without Arms, & were not come to seize his person, met us on the road & conducted us to his house. his wife accompanied him, a very old woman, blind with age. They were at first extremely alarmd lest our visit, was intended against him, but as we observed to him, we were not even aware of his being then living, & that we had no intention of that nature, he was very soon relievd from all his apprehensions; indeed it would have been an act of great cruelty & inhumanity to have taken him from his Family who would be left in the greatest misery & the Settlement in all probability exterminated.
It is impossible to describe the joy these poor people manifested, in seeing us, when they were assurd our Visit was of a peaceable nature. Yams roasted of a very superior quality were immediately producd, with Cocoa Nuts, & such Fruits as they possessd. We eat some which we found delicious; as well as fine fresh Eggs, which were to us a great luxury. Old Adams would have immediately dressed a Hog, but this we declind, time not admitting of our long stay with them; indeed we had landed at the risque of our lives, & had the wind increased it would hardly have been possible for us to embark again, much less to have forced any person on board; so that had we been inclind even to seize on old Adams, it would have been impossible to have conveyd him on board; again to get to the Boats, we had to climb such precipices as were scarcely accessible to any but Goats & the Natives, & we had enough to do in holding on by the different Boughs & Roots of Trees to keep on our feet: besides from the nature of the Island