they used to make what they called fetish, and bow
down to, and ask favours of, and then, perhaps, abuse
and strike, provided the senseless rubbish did not
give them what they asked for; and then, above all,
Mumbo Jumbo, the grand fetish master, who lived somewhere
in the woods, and who used to come out every now and
then with his fetish companions; a monstrous figure,
all wound round with leaves and branches, so as to
be quite indistinguishable, and, seating himself on
the high seat in the villages, receive homage from
the people, and also gifts and offerings, the most
valuable of which were pretty damsels, and then betake
himself back again, with his followers, into the woods.
Oh the tales that my brother used to tell us of the
high Barbary shore! Poor fellow! what became
of him I can’t say; the last time he came back
from a voyage, he told us that his captain, as soon
as he had brought his vessel to port and settled with
his owner, drowned himself off the quay, in a fit of
the horrors, which it seems high Barbary captains,
after a certain number of years, are much subject
to. After staying about a month with us, he went
to sea again, with another captain; and, bad as the
old one had been, it appears the new one was worse,
for, unable to bear his treatment, my brother left
his ship off the high Barbary shore, and ran away up
the country. Some of his comrades, whom we afterwards
saw, said that there were various reports about him
on the shore; one that he had taken on with Mumbo
Jumbo, and was serving him in his house in the woods,
in the capacity of swashbuckler, or life-guardsman;
another, that he was gone in quest of a mighty city
in the heart of the negro country; another, that in
swimming a stream he had been devoured by an alligator.
Now, these two last reports were bad enough; the
idea of their flesh and blood being bit asunder by
a ravenous fish was sad enough to my poor parents;
and not very comfortable was the thought of his sweltering
over the hot sands in quest of the negro city; but
the idea of their son, their eldest child, serving
Mumbo Jumbo as swashbuckler was worst of all, and caused
my poor parents to shed many a scalding tear.
’I stayed at home with my parents until I was
about eighteen, assisting my father in various ways.
I then went to live at the Squire’s, partly
as groom, partly as footman. After living in
the country some time, I attended the family in a
trip of six weeks which they made to London.
Whilst there, happening to have some words with an
old ill-tempered coachman, who had been for a great
many years in the family, my master advised me to
leave, offering to recommend me to a family of his
acquaintance who were in need of a footman. I
was glad to accept his offer, and in a few days went
to my new place. My new master was one of the
great gentry, a baronet in Parliament, and possessed
of an estate of about twenty thousand a year; his
family consisted of his lady, a son, a fine young