He knew almost
as much as if he had read much: he had heard of and admired the
Romans: he had heard of the late Civil Wars in England, and the
deplorable death of our great monarch; and would discourse of it
with all the sense and abhorrence of the injustice imaginable. He
had an extreme good and graceful mien, and all the civility of a
well-bred great man. He had nothing of barbarity in his nature, but in
all points addressed himself as if his education had been in some
European court.
This great and just character of Oroonoko gave me an extreme
curiosity to see him, especially when I knew he spoke French and
English, and that I could talk with him. But though I had heard so
much of him, I was as greatly surprised when I saw him as if I had
heard nothing of him; so beyond all report I found him. He came into
the room, and addressed himself to me and some other women with the
best grace in the world. He was pretty tall, but of a shape the most
exact that can be fancied: the most famous statuary could not form the
figure of a man more admirably turned from head to foot. His face
was not of that brown rusty black which most of that nation are, but
of perfect ebony, or polished jet. His eyes were the most awful that
could be seen, and very piercing; the white of 'em being like snow, as
were his teeth. His nose was rising and Roman, instead of African
and flat. His mouth the finest shaped that could be seen; far from
those great turned lips which are so natural to the rest of the
negroes.
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