First Account ( Purchas , pp. 1220-2).
Continually I desired my master to give me leave to get my living, intending to come into my country, but the Governor would not let me go from him. When I saw no means to get leave of my master, I determined to run away to Angola, for to serve the King as a soldier in Massangano till such time that I might pass myself to the King of Anyeca,264 which warreth against the Portugals, and so have come through Prester Johns country into Turkey.
On the seven and twentieth day of June, 1597, I embarked myself unknown to my master, in a small ship of one Emanuell Andrea, for to come for Angola. In this voyage we were driven so near the Cape of Good Hope that we thought all of us should have been cast away, the seas are there so great; and by reason of the current they brake in such sort that no ship is able to endure. There we brake both our main mast and our mizzen. It pleased God to send us the wind Eastward, which brought us to our desired harbour [of] Angola.265 We had been five months in our voyage, and by that means other ships that departed two months after us were there before us.
When I heard that there were ships of the River of Ienero [Rio de Janeiro], I durst not go ashore for fear of being known of some of the Portugals. The next day after that we came into the harbour, there came a great boat aboard us, to ask if we would sell any Cassava meal. We told them we would, and asked them whither they went with their boat. They answered, that they tarried for the tide to go up to the River of Guansa [Kwanza] to Masangano. Then I thought it a fit time for my purpose, and so embarked myself in the bark. The Portugals marvelled to see me go willingly to Masangano; for there men die like chickens, and no man will go thither if he can chose.
Nine days we were going up the River of Guansa [Kwanza], in which time two Portugal soldiers died; the country is so hot that it pierceth their hearts. Three days after I had been in Masangano, Don Francisco de Mendosa Fortado,266 the Governor of the city of Kongo, having received a letter from Salvador Coria de Sasa [Salvador Corrêa de Sá], who was his great friend, sent a Pursuivant for me, who brought me by land through the King of Kongo’s country, and in six days we came to a town called Saint Francis267 (where the Governor was), hard by the kingdom of Manicongo.
When I came before the Governor he used me very kindly in words, and asked me what I meant, to cast myself away wilfully in Masangano. Then I told him how long I had served Salvador Coria de Sasa; and in how many dangers I had been for him and his Son, without ever having any recompence of any of them, and therefore I thought it better to venture my life in the King’s service, than to live his Bond-slave. The Governor commanded me to be carried to Angola, and charged a pair of bolts to be put upon my legs, because I should not run away.
About a fortnight after I was sent back again in a Carvell [caravel] of Francis Lewes, and in two months we arrived in the River of Jenero [Rio de Janeiro], and I was carried with my bolts on my legs before the Governor; when he saw me he began to laugh and to jest with me, saying that I was welcome out of England. So, after many jests he spake, he bade pull off my bolts from my legs, and gave me clothes and used me very well.