Standing at the bow, my mouth hang open I think. I sees this in the vision I had in the woods in Ioway. The most beautiful mountain, in front of me. Bart, the First Mate, he call it Table Mountain, and at its foot lies, above a thin white strip of sand, the city of Cape Town.
Cause I save Bart's life with the great swell that hit us out in the ocean, he say I be Free when we reach land. There be land. Soon, I be Free.
But above the white strip of sand at the bottom, there be, the mountain above it, an' on top of the mountain, just like in the vision in the woods, there be a white cloud, a true table cloth, like what the muckity-mucks have on their tables. The cloud rolls in and down the face of the mountain, till just above the city... then it disappears.
Soon as we pass this island to port, Bart say it called Robben Island, we will drop anchor. Bart tell me he will honour his word, as I kept my word to him.We'll see. And Rippens, the ship cat, who kept the brig real free of rats for me. We can not part, he'll just have to come along.
I am trying hard to make my writing better - but I will still spell Freedom with a big F. Just because it be so important to me. As Mister Franklin Rudd say, Ma's father, you can not appreciate something, till you do not have it.
This be my Journal, the Journal of Rudd.
--FRB.
Sometime, 1901.
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