Chapter 7 The Free Men We sailed for five days before we stopped.
We were well away from Salih by then and had sailed up a great river.
I didn't know exactly where we were, but it didn't matter.
I was free.
Zuri wasn't as excited to be away from the master as I was.
He was very scared.
The more we traveled up the river, the more he begged me not to go on shore, especially after we heard the loud roar of animals we didn't know.
The sun was setting, so I did as Zuri asked, and didn't venture off the boat that night.
We lay down on deck and looked across to see if anything would happen.
Soon it did.
Massive beasts came to the water's edge.
They made loud and awful noises, horrible sounds my ears had never heard before.
We were both frightened.
When one of the beasts swam toward us, we both panicked.
What if it made it to the ship?
What if it climbed on board?
What if it sunk the ship?
What would we do then?
I raced up and grabbed one of our guns and fired into the air to scare the animal.
It worked.
The beast quickly turned and swam back to shore.
What should we do?
Zuri asked.
Well, we need drinking water, I answered.
We don't have any left.
Even though we're scared, we must go ashore now.
The sun rose early the next morning.
We rode slowly toward the mainland and dropped the anchor.
Then Zuri and I jumped in and swam as fast as we could to shore.
I was afraid natives might steal our boats, so I didn't want to go too far.
I had heard awful stories about sailors being stranded with unfriendly people who would steal their boats and all of their goods.
These sailors were never heard from again.
Zuri said he would be the brave man and go find drinking water.
I stayed with the boat and kept watch with my binoculars.
A short time later, he ran back.
I thought something might be chasing him, so I ran to him to see if I could help.
When we reached each other, Zuri proudly showed me that he had shot a wild animal.
It looked like a hare, but it had different colors and longer legs.
This land was one of great surprises, that's for sure.
Good job, Zuri, I exclaimed.
We ate well that night.
We were really happy that we had found water and food without finding either natives or those awful beasts from last night.
My previous voyages to the North African coast made me think we were close to the Canary Islands, but without instruments I couldn't be sure of our exact location.
Without knowing where we were going, we continued along the shoreline.
My hope was to come across an English trading ship that could take us both back to my homeland.
We sailed past lush landscapes filled with interesting animals.
A lot of beasts we didn't recognize roamed around, but there were also many we knew, like lions, tigers and leopards.
We stopped every couple of days to find more drinking water.
We went so long without seeing people that I was convinced no one even lived in these parts.
