“Surely,” I said to him, “you do not suspect that we will break our word with you?  Only wait patiently, my friend, till the lord-governor arrives, and you will be permitted to return to your own kingdom.”

“You do not understand,” Oroonoko replied.  “I am angry with myself for remaining so long a slave.  What!  Do you white people think that I, the king of Coromantien, can be treated like the captives that I have taken in war and sold to you?  Had it not been for Imoinda, I would long since have been free or dead.”

Unfortunately, both for me and Oroonoko, my father, who had been appointed lieutenant-general of the West Indies and Guiana, died at sea on his way to Surinam, and the new lord-governor was long in arriving.  In the meantime, a child was born to Imoinda, and all the negroes, to the number of 300, came together to celebrate the event.  Oroonoko, beside himself with anger, because his child had been born into slavery, made a harangue to the assembled multitude.

“Why should we be slaves to these white men?” he cried.  “Have they conquered us nobly in battle?  Are we become their captives by the chance of war?  No!  We have been bought and sold, like monkeys or cattle, to a set of cowards and rogues who have been driven out of their own country by reason of their villainy!  Shall we let vile creatures such as these flog us and bruise us as they please?”

“No, no!” shouted the negroes.  “Be our king, Oroonoko, and make us a free nation!”

Thereupon he commanded them to seize what arms they could, and tie up everything they wanted in their hammocks, and sling these over their shoulders, and march out, with their wives and children.  The next morning, when the overseers went to call their slaves up to work, they found they had fled.  By noon, 600 militiamen set out in search of the fugitives.  The negroes were forced to travel slowly by reason of their women and children; and at the end of two days the militiamen, led by the new lord-governor, caught them up and surrounded them.  In the battle that ensued, several Englishmen were killed and a great many wounded; but as they outnumbered the negroes, and were much better armed, they defeated them.  Even then Oroonoko would not surrender.  But the lord-governor parleyed with him, and promised that he would give him and his wife and child a free passage to Coromantien in the first ship that touched on the coast.

On this, Oroonoko surrendered.  But, to his horror and surprise, he was taken back to Surinam, and tied to a stake at the whipping-place, and lashed until the very flesh was torn from his bones.  His captors then bound him in chains, and cast him into a prison.  From this, however, he was at last rescued by Mr. Trefry.  But the shame and the torture had unhinged his fine mind.  He led Imoinda and his child into a forest, and asked his wife whether she would prefer to remain the slave of the white devils, or die at once by his hand.  Imoinda begged him rather to kill her, and Oroonoko did so.  But, instead of putting an end to himself, the prince determined to die fighting.  He turned back from the forest, fiercely resolved to search out the lord-governor, and slay him; but, falling into the hands of the militiamen, he was killed in a very horrible manner.