Eleven days later we came near the Cape Verde Island. We could see them, but we
couldn't get near because there was no wind. We waited. Suddenly Xury called to me, 'Look, a ship!'
He was right! We called and shouted and sailed our little boat as fast as we could.
But the ship did not see us. Then I remembered the guns which made a lot of
smoke. A few minutes later the ship saw us and turned. When we were on the ship,
the Portuguese captain listened to my story. He was going to Brazil and agreed
to help me, but he wanted nothing for his help. 'No,' he said when I tried to
pay him, 'Perhaps one day someone will help me when I need it.'
But he gave me money for my boat and for Xury too. At first I did not want to sell
Xury as a slave, after all our dangerous adventures together. But Xury was happy
to go to the captain, and the captain was a good man. 'In ten years' time,' he
said, 'Xury can go free.'
When I
arrived in Brazil three weeks later, I said goodbye to the captain and Xury,
left the ship and went to begin a new life.
