of your
people arrived in Surinam yesterday? However you may fly from all white
men, you surely ought to pay some respect to him."

Oroonoko started when a girl came out, with her head bowed down as if
she had resolved never to raise her eyes again to the face of a man.

"Imoinda! Imoinda!" Oroonoko cried after a moment's silence. "Imoinda!"

It was she. She looked up at the sound of his voice, and then tottered
and fell down in a swoon, and Oroonoko caught her in his arms. By
degrees she came to herself; and it is needless to tell with what
transport, what ecstasies of joy, the lovers beheld each other. Mr.
Trefry was infinitely pleased by this happy conclusion of the prince's
misadventures; and, leaving the lovers to themselves, he came to Parham
House, and gave me an account of all that had happened. In the
afternoon, to the great joy of all the negroes, Oroonoko and Imoinda
were married. I was invited to the wedding, and I assured Oroonoko that
he and his wife would be set free as soon as the lord-governor of the
colony returned to Surinam.

_III.--The Taint of Slavery_

Unhappily, the lord-governor was delayed for some months in the islands,
and Oroonoko became impatient. After the trick played upon him by the
captain of the slave-ship, he had become exceedingly suspicious of the
honesty and good faith of white men. He was afraid that the overseer
would keep him and his wife until their child was born, and make a slave
of it. At last, he grew so moody and sullen that many persons feared
that he would incite the negroes to a mutiny. In order to soothe the
prince, I invited him and Imoinda to stay at my house, where I
entertained them to the best of my ability.

"Surely," I said to him, "you do not suspect that we will break our word
with you? Only wait patiently, my friend, till the lord-governor
arrives, and you will be permitted to return to your own kingdom."

"You do not understand," Oroonoko replied. "I am angry with myself for
remaining so long a slave. What! Do you white people think that I, the
king of Coromantien, can be treated like the captives that I have taken
in war and sold to you? Had it not been for Imoinda, I would long since
have been free or dead."

Unfortunately, both for me and Oroonoko, my father, who had been
appointed lieutenant-general of the West Indies and Guiana, died at sea
on his way to Surinam, and the new lord-governor was long in arriving.
In the meantime, a child was