knew that my
preservation depended entirely upon my mistress's favour, and I
endeavoured all I could to conciliate her by the most sedulous
attentions to please. Young and generous in disposition, she was
easily satisfied by my ready obedience and careful service. I do not
think that she was more than seventeen years of age; but they are
women at fourteen in that country, and even earlier. She was a Negress
as to colour, but not a real Negress; for her hair, although short and
very wavy, was not woolly, and her nose was straight. Her mouth was
small, and her teeth beautiful. Her figure was perfect, her limbs
being very elegantly formed. When she first rose in the morning, I
attended her to the brow of a hill just without the palisades, where
with devout but mistaken piety she adored the rising sun--at least it
appeared to me that she did so. She then went down to the river to
bathe, and as soon as her hair was dry she had it dressed. This
office, after a short time, devolved upon me, and I became very
expert, having to rub her hair with a sweet oil, and then roll it up
in its natural curls with a quill, so as to dispose them to the most
fanciful advantage as to form.

After her toilet was complete, she went to feed her poultry, and some
antelopes and other beasts, and then she practised at a mark with her
bow and arrows and javelin till about ten o'clock, when she went to
the king's hut, and they all sat down to eat together. After the
repast, which lasted some time, if she did not repose with the king,
she retired to her own hut, where she usually refreshed herself till
about four o'clock, when she returned to the king, or ranged the
woods, or otherwise amused herself during the rest of the evening. I
will say for the old savage that he did not confine his wives. Such
was our general course of life, and wherever she went I attended her.
The attachment I showed and really felt for her secured her
confidence, and she always treated me in a kind and familiar manner.
Their language consists of few words compared to our own, and in a
short time, by help of signs, we understood each other tolerably well.
She appeared to have a most ardent curiosity to know who we were, and
from whence we came, and all the time that we passed alone was
employed in putting questions, and my endeavouring to find out her
meaning and answer them. This, although very difficult at first, I was
eventually enabled to accomplish indifferently well. S