"Very well," said the old king, with a cruel look in his eyes, "I will
forgive you. Having received the royal veil, you cannot marry my
grandson. On the other hand, since he has entered your room, you cannot
remain any longer in the otan. You must be sent out of the country."

And early the next morning some of his servants were commanded to dress
her so that she could not be recognised, and then she was carried down
to the shore and sold to the captain of a slave ship.

The king did not dare to tell his grandson that he had sold Imoinda as a
slave, for the Coromantiens justly reckon slavery as something worse
than death; so he sent a messenger to say that she was dead. At first,
Oroonoko was minded to attack his grandfather, but better feelings
prevailed; and he led his army against a hostile nation, resolved to
perish on the battlefield. So desperate was his courage that he defeated
his far more numerous foes, and took a great multitude of them captives.
Many of these he sold to the captain of a slave-ship, then lying off
Coromantien. When the bargain was concluded, the captain invited the
prince and all his attendants to a banquet on board his ship, and so
plied them with wine that, being unaccustomed to drink of this sort,
they were overcome by it.

When Oroonoko recovered his senses, he found himself chained up in a
dark room, and all his men were groaning in fetters around him. The
cunning slave-dealer had got out of paying for his cargo of slaves, and
increased their number by carrying off the young prince and his
companions. This was how I came to meet Oroonoko. The unscrupulous
slave-dealer brought him to Surinam, and sold him and seventeen of his
followers to our overseer, a young Cornishman named Trefry.