Of these slaves so taken, the
general only has all the profit; and of these generals our captains
and masters of ships buy all their freights.
The King of Coramantien was himself a man of an hundred and odd
years old, and had no son, though he had many beautiful black wives:
for most certainly there are beauties that can charm of that color. In
his younger years he had had many gallant men to his sons, thirteen of
whom died in battle, conquering when they fell; and he had only left
him for his successor one grandchild, son to one of these dead
victors, who, as soon as he could bear a bow in his hand, and a quiver
at his back, was sent into the field to be trained up by one of the
oldest generals to war; where, from his natural inclination to arms,
and the occasions given him, with the good conduct of the old general,
he became, at the age of seventeen, one of the most expert captains
and bravest soldiers that ever saw the field of Mars: so that he was
adored as the wonder of all that world, and the darling of the
soldiers. Besides, he was adorned with a native beauty, so
transcending all those of his gloomy race that he struck an awe and
reverence even into those that knew not his quality; as he did into
me, who beheld him with surprise and wonder, when afterwards he
arrived in our world.
He had scarce arrived at his seventeenth year, when, fighting by his
side, the general was killed with an arrow in his eye, which the
Prince Oroonoko (for so was this gallant Moor called) very narrowly
avoided; nor had he, if the general who saw the arrow shot, and
perceiving it aimed at the prince, had not bowed his head between,
on purpose to receive it in his own body, rather than it should
touch that of the prince, and so saved him.
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