1 should be taken with a Fresh of Wind I might neither reach one or other. In this Dilemna, as I was very penfive, I fiept into the Cabin, and fat me down, Xury having the Helm, when on a sudden the Boy cry'd out Master, Master, a Ship with a Sail, and the foolish Boy was frighted out of his Wits, thinking it must needs be some of his Master's Ships sent to pursueus, when, I knew we were gotten far enough out of their reach. I jump'd out of the Cabin, and immediately saw not only the Ship, but what she was, (viz.) that it was a Portugu Je Ship, and as I thought was bound to the Ccaft of Guinea for Negroes. But when I observ'd the Course she steer'd, I was soon convinc'd they were bound some other way, and did not design to come any nearer to the Shore; upon which I stretch'd out to Sea as much as I could, refolving to speak with them if poffible. With all the Sall I could make I found I should not be able to come in thei: Way, but that they should be gone by, before I could make any Signal to them; but after I had crowded to the utmost, and began to despair, they it feems saw me by the help of their Perfspective-Glasses, and that it was some European Boat, which as they supposed muft belong to fome Ship that was loft, so they shortned Sail to let me come up. I was encouraged with this, and as I had my Patron's Antient on Board, I made a Waft of it to them for a Signal of Diftrefs, and fir'da Gun, both which they faw, for they told me they saw the Smoke, tho' they did not hear the Gun; upon these Signals they very kindly brought too, and lay by for me, and in about three Hours time I came up with them. **They ask'd me what I was, in Portuguese, and in Spanish, and in French, but I understood none of them 2 them; but a last a Scots Sailor who was on board, call'd to me, and I answer'd him, and told him I was an English Man, that I had made my escape out of Slavery from the Moors at Sallee; then they bad me come on board, and very kindly took me in, and all my Goods. It was an inexpressible Joy to me, that any one will believe, that I was thus deliver'd, as I esteem'd it, from fuch a miferable and almost hopeless Condition as I was in, and I immediately offered all I had to the Captain of the Ship, as a Return for my Deliverance; but he generously told me, he would take nothing from me, but that all I had should be deliver'd safe to me when I came to the Brafils; for, fays he, I have sav'd your Life on no o they Terms than I would be glad to be saved my self, and it may one time or other be my Lot to be taken up in the Jame Condition; besides, faid he, when I carry you to the Brafils, fo 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, Seignior, Inglese, says he, Mr. Englishman, I will carry you thither in Charity, and those things will help you to buy your Subsistance there, and your Passage home again. 1 As he was Charitable in his Proposal, so he was just in the Performance to a tittle, for he ordered the Seamen, that none should offer to touch any thing I had; then he took every thing into his own Poffeffion, and gave me back an exact Inventory of them, that I might have them, even so much as my three Earthen Jarrs. As to my Boat it was a very good one, and that he faw, and told me he would buy it of me for the Ship's Ufe, and ask'd me what I would have for it? I told him he had been fo generous to me in every thing, that I could not offer to make ahy Price of the Boat, but left it entirely to him, upon which he told me he would give me a Note of his Hand to pay me 80 Pieces of Eight for it at Brafil, and when it came there, if any one of fer'd to give more he would make it up; he offer'd me also 60 Pieces of Eight more for my Boy Xury, which I was loath to take, not that I was not wil ling to let the Captain have him, but I was very loath to fell the poor Boy's Liberty, who had affisted me fo faithfully in procuring my own. However when I let him know my Reason, he own'd it to be just, and offer'd me this Medium, that he would give the Boy an Obligation to fet him free in ten Years, if he turn'd Christian; upon this, and Xury faying he was willing to go to him, I let the Captain have him. *We had a very good Voyage to the Brafils, and arriv'd in the Bay de Todos los Santos, or All-SaintsBay, in about 22 Days after. And now I was once more deliver'd from the most miferable of all Conditions of Life, and what to do next with my felf, I was now to confider.. The generous Treatment the Captain gave me, I can never enough remember; he would take no thing of me for my Paflage, gave me 20 Ducats for the Leopard's Skin, and 40 for the Lyon's Skin which I had in my Boat, and caused every Thing I had in the Ship to be punctually deliver'd me, and what I was willing to fell he bought, fuch as the Cafe of Bottles, two of my Guns, and a Piece of the Lump of Bees-wax, for I had made Cam dles of the rest; in a word, I made about 220 Pieces of Eight of all my Cargo, and with this Stock I went on Shore in the Brafilo. I had not been long here, but being recommended to the House of a good honest Man like him felf, who had an Ingeino as they call its that is, a Plan Plantation, and a Sugar-House. I liv'd with him fome Time, and acquainted myself by that Means with the Manner of their planting and making of Sugar; and feeing how well the Planters liv'd, and how they grew rich fuddenly, I refolv'd, if I could get Licence, to fettle there, I would turn Planter among them, refolving in the mean time to find out some way to get my Money, which I left in London, remitted to me. To this Purpose, getting a kind of a Letter of Naturalization, I purchased as much Land that was uncur'd, as my Money would reach, and form'd a Plan for my Plantation and Settlement, and fuch a one as might be suitable to the Stock, which I propos'd to myself to receive from England. I had a Neighbour, a Portuguese of Lisbon, but born of English Parents, whose Name was Wells, and in much such Circumstances as I was. I call him my Neighbour, because his Plantation lay next to mine, and we went on very fociably together. 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 encrease, and our Land began to come into Order; so that the third Year we planted some Tobacco, and made each of us a large Piece of Ground ready for planting Canes in the Year to come; but we both wanted Help; and now I found more than before, I had done wrong in parting with my Boy Xury. But alas! for me to do wrong that never did right, was no great Wonder: I had no Remedy but to go on; I was gotten into an Imployment quite remote to my Genius, and directly contrary to the Life I delighted in, and for which I forsook my Father's House, and broke thro' all his good Advice; nay, I was coming into the very middle Station, or upper Degree of low Life, which my Father Advised me to before; and which, if I resolv'd to go on D4 with with, I might as well ha' staid at Home, and never have fatigu'd my self in the World as I had done; and I used often to say to my self, I could ha done this as well in England among my Friends, as ha' gone 5000 Miles oft to do it among Strangers and Savages in a Wilderness, and at such a Distance, as never to hear from any Part of the World that had the leaft Knowledge of me. In this manner I used to look upon my Condition with the utmost Regret. I had no Body 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 liv'd just like a Man calt away upon fome defolate Island, that had no Body there but himself. But how just has it been, and how should all Men reflect, that, when they compare their prefent Conditions with others that are worse, Heaven may oblige them to make the Exchange, and be convinc'd of their former Felicity, by their Experience: I fay, how just has it been, that the truly folin tary Life I reflected on in an Island of meer Defoltion should be my Lot, who had so often unjustly compar'd it with the Life which I then led, in which had I continued, I had in all Probability been exceeding profperous and rich. I was in fome Degree fettled in my Measures for carrying on the Plantation, before my kind Friend the Captain of the Ship, that took me up at Sea, went back; for the Ship remained there in provi ding his Loading, and preparing for his Voyage, near three Months, when telling him what little Stock I had left behind me in London, he gave me this friendly and fincere Advice, Seignor Inglese, fays he, for fo he always called me, if you will give me Lerters, and a Procuration here in Form to me, with Orders to the Perfon who has your Money in London, to fend your Effects to Lisbon, to fuch Perfons as I fhall direct, |