Part 2 (1/2)

I was now furnished with roots and corn, such as it was, and water; and, leaving roes, I o near the shore, till I saw the land run out a great length into the sea, at about the distance of four or five leagues beforetothe point at about two leagues from the land, I saw plainly land on the other side to seaward; then I concluded, as it was most certain indeed, that this was the Cape de Verd, and those the _islands_, called froreat distance, and I could not well tell what I had best to do, for if I should be taken with a fresh of wind I ht neither reach one nor the other

In this dilemma, as I was very pensive, I stepped into the cabin and satthe helm, when on a sudden the boy cried out, ”Master, Master, a shi+p with a sail!” and the foolish boy was frighted out of his wits, thinking it must needs be some of his otten far enough out of their reach I jumped out of the cabin, and immediately saw not only the shi+p, but what she was, viz that it was a Portuguese shi+p, and, as I thought, was bound to the coast of Guinea for Negroes But when I observed the course she steered, I was soon convinced they were bound son to come any nearer to the shore; upon which I stretched out to sea asto speak with them if possible

With all the sail I could muster, I found I should not be able to coone by before I could nal to thean to despair, they, it seelasses, and that it was so to some shi+p that was lost; so they shortened sail to let ed with this; and as I had my patron's ancient on board, I nal of distress, and fired a gun, both which they saw, for they told un: upon these signals they very kindly brought to, and lay by for me, and in about three hours time I cauese, and in Spanish, and in French; but I understood none of them; but at last a Scots sailor, as on board, called to lishman, that I had made my escape out of slavery from the Moors at Sallee Then they had oods

It was an inexpressible joy to me, that any one would believe that I was thus delivered, as I esteemed it, from such a miserable and almost hopeless condition as I was in, and immediately offered all I had to the captain of the shi+p, as a return for enerously toldfrom me, but that all I had should be delivered safe to me when I came to the Brasils; ”For,” says he, ”I have saved your life on no other terlad to be saved myself; and it may one time or other be my lot to be taken up in the same condition: Besides,” said he, ”when I carry you to the Brasils, so great a way from your own country, if I should take from you what you have, you will be starved there, and then I only take away that life I have given No, no, Seignor Inglese,” says he, ”Mr Englishs will help you to buy your subsistence there, and your passage hoain”

As he was charitable in his proposal, so he was just in the performance to a tittle; for he ordered the sea I had: then he took every thing into his own possession, and gave ht have them; even so much as ood one, and that he saw, and told me he would buy it of me for the shi+p's use, and asked enerous to , that I could not offer to make any price of the boat, but left it entirely to hiive ht for it at Brasil; and when it caive more, he would ht more for my boy Xury, which I was loath to lake; not that I was not willing to let the captain have him, but I was very loath to sell the poor boy's liberty, who had assistedmy own However, when I let him know my reason, he owned it to be just, and offered ation to set him free in ten years, if he turned Christian Upon this, and Xury saying he illing to go to hie to the Brasils, and arrived in the Bay de Todos los Santos, or All Saints' Bay, in about twenty-two days after

And noas once more delivered from the most miserable of all conditions of life; and what to do next with enerous treath reave me twenty ducats for the leopard's skin, and forty for the lion's skin which I had inI had in the shi+p to be punctually delivered ht, such as the case of bottles, two of uns, and a piece of the lump of bees-wax, for I had made candles of the rest; in a word, I ht of all o; and with this stock I went on shore in the Brasils

I had not been long here, but being recoood honest eino_ as they call it; that is, a plantation and a sugarhouse; I lived with him some time, and acquaintedandhoell the planters lived, and how they grew rich suddenly, I resolved, if I could get license to settle there, I would turn planter a, in the et my money, which I had left in London, re a kind of a letter of naturalization, I purchased as much land that was uncured as my money would reach, and formed a plan for ht be suitable to the stock which I proposed to hbour, a Portuguese of Lisbon, but born of English parents, whose name was Wells, and in hbour, because his plantation lay next to ether My stock was but low, as well as his: and we rather planted for food, than any thing else, for about two years

However, we began to increase, and our land began to come into order; so that the third year we planted soround ready for planting canes in the year to come; but we both wanted help; and now I found,with , that never did right, was no great wonder: I had no reotten into an eenius, and directly contrary to the life I delighted in, and for which I forsook ood advice; nay, I was coree of low life, which o on with, I ued myself in the world as I had done; and I used often to say toone five thousand es in a wilderness, and at such distance, as never to hear froe of me

In this ret

I had nobody to converse with, but now and then this neighbour; no work to be done, but by the labour of my hands; and I used to say, I lived just like a man cast away upon some desolate island, that had nobody there but himself But how just has it been, and how should all men reflect, that, when they compare their present conditions with others that are worse, Heaven e, and be convinced of their former felicity, by their experience; I say, how just has it been, that the truly solitary life I reflected on in, an island of mere desolation should be my lot, who had so often unjustly compared it with the life which I then led, in which had I continued, I had in all probability been exceeding prosperous and rich

I was in so on the plantation, before my kind friend the captain of the shi+p, that took me up at sea, went back; for the shi+p re for his voyage, near threehiave lese,” says he, for so he always called ive me letters, and a procuration here in form to me, with orders to the person who has your money in London, to send your effects to Lisbon, to such persons as I shall direct, and in such goods as are proper for this country, I will bring you the produce of the, at es and disasters, I would have you give orders but for one hundred pounds sterling, which you say is half your stock, and let the hazard be run for the first; so that if it come safe, you may order the rest the same way; and if it miscarry, you may have the other half to have recourse to for your supply”

This was so wholesome advice, and looked so friendly, that I could not but be convinced it was the best course I could take; so I accordingly prepared letters to the gentlewoman houese captain, as he desired

I wrote the English captain'sa full account of all my adventures, al captain at sea, the humanity of his behaviour, and what condition I was now in, with all other necessary directions for my supply; and when this honest captain calish merchants there, to send over, not the order only, but a full account of my story, to a merchant at London, who represented it effectually to her; whereupon, she not only delivered the al captain a very handsome present for his hu this hundred pounds in English goods, such as the captain had writ for, sent theht the which, withoutin my business to think of them) he had taken care to have all sort of tools, iron work, and utensils necessary for reat use to ht ood steward the captain had laid out the five pounds which my friend had sent hi me over a servant under bond for six years service, and would not accept of any consideration, except a little tobacco, which I would have hi ofall English s particularly valuable and desirable in the country, I found e; so that I o, and was now infinitely beyond hbour, II did, I bought ro slave, and an European servant also; I ht me from Lisbon

But as abused prosperity is oftentireatest adversity, so was it with reat success in reat rolls of tobacco on round, hbours; and these fifty rolls, being each of above a hundred weight, ell cured and laid by against the return of the fleet fro in business and in wealth, s beyond my reach; such as are indeed often the ruin of the best heads in business

Had I continued in the station I was now in, I had roos to have yet befallen me, for which my father so earnestly recommended a quiet retired life, and of which he had so sensibly described the s attended ent of all my own miseries; and particularly to increase my fault, and double the reflections upon myself, which in my future sorrows I should have leisure to es were procured bytothat inclination, in contradiction to the clearest views of doing ood in a fair and plain pursuit of those prospects and those measures of life, which nature and Providence concurred to present me with, and toaway froo and leave the happy view I had of being a rich and thriving man in my new plantation, only to pursue a rash and i adulf of human misery that ever man fell into, or perhaps could be consistent with life and a state of health in the world

To corees to the particulars of this part ofnow lived al to thrive and prosper very well upon e, but had contracted acquaintance and friendshi+p a the merchants at St Salvadore, which was our port; and that in iven thees to the coast of Guinea, the roes there, and how easy it was to purchase upon the coast, for trifles, such as beads, toys, knives, scissars, hatchets, bits of glass, and the like, not only gold-dust, Guinea grains, elephants teeth, &c but Negroes for the service of the Brasils in great numbers

They listened always very attentively to my discourses on these heads, but especially to that part which related to the buying Negroes, which was a trade at that time not only not far entered into, but, as far as it was, had been carried on by the assientos for perrossed in the public, so that few Negroes were brought, and those excessive dear

It happened, being in company with so of those things very earnestly, three of the, and toldvery ht, and they ca me secrecy, they told me, that they had a mind to fit out a shi+p to to Guinea; that they had all plantations as well as I, and were straitened for nothing so much as servants; that as it was a trade could not be carried on, because they could not publicly sell the Negroes when they ca the Negroes on shore privately, and divide the their own plantations; and in a word, the question hether I would go their supercargo in the shi+p, topart upon the coast of Guinea? and they offered roes, without providing any part of the stock

This was a fair proposal, it must be confessed, had it been made to any one that had not had a settlement and plantation of his own to look after, which was in a fair way of coood stock upon it But forto do but go on as I had begun, for three or four years land, and who in that time, and with that little addition, could scarce have failed of being worth three or four thousand pounds sterling, and that increasing too; forthat ever uilty of