which, going off by accident, had killed him on the spot. As this
pistol was supposed to have been one of the articles which he had
received of Captain Pyke as the price of Job, the now redeemed
captive, deeply affected by the circumstance, turning to his
conductors, said, "You see that Heaven has made the very arms for
which I was sold, serve as the punishment of the inexorable wretch who
made my freedom their procurement! And yet I ought to be thankful
for the lot into which I was cast, because if I had not been made a
captive, I should not have seen such a country as England; nor known
the language; nor have the many useful and precious things that I
possess; nor become acquainted with men so generous as I have met
with, not only to redeem me from bondage, but to shew me great
kindness, and send me back so much more capable of being useful."
Indeed, he did not cease to praise highly the English in conversing
with the Africans, and endeavored to reclaim those poor creatures from
the prejudice they had that the slaves were eaten, or killed for some
other purpose, because no one was known to have returned.

Having met with a Foulah, with whom he had been formerly acquainted,
he engaged him to notify his family of his return; but four months
elapsed before he received any intelligence from Bunda. On the 14th of
January, 1735, the messenger came back, bearing the sad tidings that
his father had died; with the consolation, however, of learning, just
before his death, of the ransom of his son, and of the favor which he
had received in England. One of the wives of Job had married again in
his absence; and the second husband had fled on being informed of the
arrival of the first. During the last three years, the war had made
such ravages in the country of Bunda, that no cattle remained there.

Job was deeply affected with the death of his father, the misfortunes