I should get home what wonders I should have to tell.  But I was reserved for another fate, and was soon undeceived when we came within sight of the English coast.  While I was on board this ship, my captain and master named me Gustavus Vassa.  I at that time began to understand him a little, and refused to be called so, and told him as well as I could that I would be called Jacob; but he said I should not, and still called me Gustavus; and when I refused to answer to my new name, which at first I did, it gained me many a cuff; so at length I submitted, and was obliged to bear the present name, by which I have been known ever since.  The ship had a very long passage; and on that account we had very short allowance of provisions.  Towards the last we had only one pound and a half of bread per week, and about the same quantity of meat, and one quart of water a-day.  We spoke with only one vessel the whole time we were at sea, and but once we caught a few fishes.  In our extremities the captain and people told me in jest they would kill and eat me; but I thought them in earnest, and was depressed beyond measure, expecting every moment to be my last.  While I was in this situation one evening they caught, with a good deal of trouble, a large shark, and got it on board.  This gladdened my poor heart exceedingly, as I thought it would serve the people to eat instead of their eating me; but very soon, to my astonishment, they cut off a small part of the tail, and tossed the rest over the side.  This renewed my consternation; and I did not know what to think of these white people, though I very much feared they would kill and eat me.  There was on board the ship a young lad who had never been at sea before, about four or five years older than myself:  his name was Richard Baker.  He was a native of America, had received an excellent education, and was of a most amiable temper.  Soon after I went on board he shewed me a great deal of partiality and attention, and in return I grew extremely fond of him.  We at length became inseparable; and, for the space of two years, he was of very great use to me, and was my constant companion and instructor.  Although this dear youth had many slaves of his own, yet he and I have gone through many sufferings together on shipboard; and we have many nights lain in each other’s bosoms when we were in great distress.  Thus such a friendship was cemented between us as we cherished till his death, which, to my very great sorrow, happened in the year 1759, when he was up the Archipelago, on board his majesty’s ship the Preston:  an event which I have never ceased to regret, as I lost at once a kind interpreter, an agreeable companion, and a faithful friend; who, at the age of fifteen, discovered a mind superior to prejudice; and who was not ashamed to notice, to associate with, and to be the friend and instructor of one who was ignorant, a stranger, of a different complexion, and a slave!  My master had lodged in his mother’s