zi, succeeded to the royalty; he, being
already the father of a son, entrusted him to the care of Soliman,
the father of Job, to have him taught the Arabic language, and the
Alcoran. Job became, in this way, the fellow student and companion of
this young prince. Jelazi lived but a short time, and was succeeded by
his son.

When Job had attained the age of fifteen, he assisted his father in
the capacity of Iman, or inferior priest, and soon after married the
daughter of the Alfa of Tombuto: By her he had three sons, Abdallah,
Ibrahim, and Sambo. Two years before his captivity he took a second
wife, the daughter of the Alfa of Tomga; by whom he had a daughter
named Fatima. His two wives and his four children were alive when he
left Bunda.

In the month of February, 1730, the father of Job, having learnt that
an English vessel had arrived in the Gambia, sent his son thither,
attended by two domestics, to procure some European commodities; but
charged him not to cross the river, because the inhabitants of the
opposite bank were Mandingoes, enemies of the kingdom of Futa.

Job, coming to no agreement with Captain Pyke, the commander of the
English vessel, sent back his two domestics to Bunda, to render an
account of his affairs to his father, and to inform him that his
curiosity induced him to travel further. With this view he made a
contract with a negro merchant, named Loumein-Yoa, who understood the
language of the Mandingoes, to serve him as an interpreter and guide
on a pacific expedition and overture. Having passed the river Gambia,
when the heat compelled him to avail himself of the cooling shade of
the forest, he suspended his arms upon a tree, to rest himself. They
consisted of a sabre, with a handle of gold; a dagger in a sheath,
with a hilt of the same metal, and a rich quiver filled with arrows,
of which king Sambo, the son of Jelazi, had made him a present. "His
evil destiny willed"[1] that a troop of Mandingoes, accustomed to
pillage, should pass that way, who, discovering him unarmed, seized
him, shaved his head and chin; and, on the 27th of February, sold him,
with his interpreter, to Captain Pyke; and, on the first of March,
they were put on board the vessel. Pyke, however, learning from Job
that he was the same person who had attempted to trade with him some
days before, and that he was a slave only by having been kidnapped,
gave him leave to ransom himself and his companion. Accordingly, Job
immediatel