Images de page
PDF
ePub

rect, and in fuch Goods as are proper for this Country, I will bring you the Produce of them, God willing, at my Return; but fince human Af fairs are all fubject to Changes and Disasters, I would have you give Orders but for 100 1. Sterl. 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 fame Way; and if it mifcarry, you may have the other Half to have Recourse to for your Supply.

A

This was so wholesome Advice, and look'd fo friendly, that I could not but be convinc'd it was the best Course I could take; so I accordingly prepared Letters to the Gentlewoman, with whom I had left my Money, and a Procuration to he Portuguese Captain, as he defir'd.

I wrote the English Captain's Widow a full Acconnt of all my Adventures, my Slavery, Escape, and how I had met with the Portugal Captain at Sea, the Humanity of his Behaviour, and in what Condition I was now in, with all other necessary Directions for my Supply; and when this honeft Captain came to Lisbon, he found means by fome of the English Merchants there, to fend over not the Order only, but a full Account of my Story to a Merchant at London, who represented it effectually to her; whereupon, the not only delivered the Money, but out of her own Pocket fent the Portugal Captain a very handfome Present for his Humanity and Charity to me.

The Merchant in London vesting this 100 l. in English Goods, such as the Captain had writ for, fent them directly to him at Lisbon, and he brought them all fafe to me to the Brafils, among which, without my Direction (for I was too young in my Business to think of them) he had taken Care to have all forts of Tools, Iron-Work, and Utenftis necessary for my Plantation, and which were of great Ufe to me.

When this Cargo arrived, I thought my Fortune made, for I was surprized with Joy of it; and my good Steward the Captain had laid out the five Pounds which my Friend had fent him for a Prefent for himself, to purchase, and bring me over a Servant under Bond for fix Years Service, and would not accept of any Confideration, except a little Tobacco, which I would have him accept, being of my own Produce.

Neither was this all; but my Goods being all English Manufactures, such as Cloath, Stuffs, Bays, and Things particularly valuable and defirable in the Country, I found Means to fell them to a very great Advantage; so that I may say, I had more than four times the Value of my first Cargo, and was now infinitly beyond my poor Neighbour, I mean in the Advancement of my Plantation; for the first thing I did, I bought me a Negroe Slave, and an European Servant also; I mean another besides that which the Captain brought me from Lisbon.

But as abus'd Profperity is oftentimes made the very Means of our greatest Adversity, so was it with me. I went on the next Year with great Success in my Plantation: I raised fifty great Rolls of Tobacco on my own Ground, more than I had disposed of for Neceffaries among my Neighbours; and these fifty Rolls being each of above a 100 Wt. were well cur'd and laid by against the Return of the Fleet from Lisbon: And now increasing in Business and in Wealth, my Head began to be full of Projects and Undertakings beyond my Reach; such as are indeed often the Ruin of the best Heads in Business.

[ocr errors][merged small]

Had I continued in the Station I was how in, I had room for all the happy Things to have yet beFallen me, for which my Father so earnestly recommended a quiet retired Life, and of which he had fo fenfibly described the middle Station of Life to be full off; but other Things attended me, and I was still to be the wilful Agent of all my own Miseries; and particularly to encrease my Fault, and double the Reflections upon my self, which in my future Sorrows I should have Leisure to make; all these Miscarriages were procured by my apparent obftinate adhering to my foolish Inclination, of wandring Abroad, and pursuing that Inclination, in Contradiction to the clearest Views of doing my felf good, in a fair and plain Pursuit of those Prof pects, and those Measures of Life, which Nature and Providence concurred to present me with, and to make my Duty.

As I had once done thus in my breaking away from my Parents, fo I could not be content now? but I must go and leave the happy View I had of being a rich and thriving Man in my new Plantation, only to purfue a rash and immoderate Defire of tifing faster than the Nature of the Thing admitted; and thus I cast my felf down again into the deepest Gulph of human Mifery that ever Man fell into, or perhaps could be consistent with Life and a State of Health in the World.

To come then by just Degrees, to the Particulars of this Part of my Story; you may suppose, that having now lived almost four Years in the Brafilo, and beginning to thrive and prosper very well upon my Plantation; I had not only learn'd the Language, but had contracted Acquaintance and Friendship among my Fellow-Planters, as well as among the Merchants at St. Salvadore, which was our Port; and that in my Discourses among them,

them, I had frequently given them an Account of my two Voyages to the Coast of Guinea, the manner of Trading with the Negroes there, and how easy it was to purchase upon the Coaft, for Trifles, such as Beads, Toys, Knives, Sciffars, Hatchets, Bits of Glass, and the like; not only Gold Duft, Guinea Grains, Elephants Teeth, &ε but Negroes for the Service of the Brafils, 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 entred into, but as far as it was, had been carry'd on by the Affiento's, or Permiffion of the Kings of Spain and Portugal, and engrofs'd in the Publick, so that few Negroes were brought, and those excessive dear.

It happen'd, being in Company with some Merchants and Planters of my Acquaintaince, and talking of those Things very earnestly, three of them came to me the next Morning, and told me they had been musing very much upon what I had discoursed with them of, the last Night, and they came to make a secret Proposal to me; and after enjoining me Secrecy, they told me, that they had a mind to fit out a Ship to go to Guinea, that they had all Plantations as well as I, and were straiten'd for nothing so much as Servants; that as it was a Trade that could not be carry'd on, because they could not publickly fell the Negroes when they came Home, so they defir'd to make but one Voyage, to bring the Negroes on Shore privately, and divide them among their own Plantations; and in a word, the Question was, whether I would go their Super-Cargo in the Ship to manage the Trading Part upon the Coaft

of

σε

of Guiney? And they offer'd me that I should have my equal Share of the Negroes, without providing any Part of the Stock.

This was a fair Proposal, it must be confefs'd, 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 coming to be very confiderable, and with a good S.ock upon it. But for me that was thus entered and established, and had nothing to do but go on as I had begun for three or four Years more, and to have fent for the other hundred Pound from England, and who in that time, and with that little Add tion, could searce ha' fan'a of being worth three or four thoufand Pounds Sterling, and that encreasing too; for me to t ink of fuch a Voyage, was the most preposterous Thing that ever Man in fuch Circumftances cou'd be guilty of.

But I that was born to be my own Destroyer, could no more refift the Offer than I could restrain my first rambling Designs, when my Father's good Cour fel was loft i pon me. In a word, I told them I would go with all my Heart, if they would undertake to look after my Plantation in my Abfence, and would difpose of it to fuch as I should direct, if I miscarry'd. This they all engag'd to do, and entred into Writings or Covenants to do fo; and I made a formal Will, disposing of my Plantation and Effects, in Cafe of my Death, making the Captain of the Ship that had sav'd my Life, as before, my univerfal Heir, but obliging him to dispose of my Effects, as I had directed in my Will, one half of the Produce being to himself, and the other to be shipp'd to England.

In short, I took all poffible Caution to preferve my Effects and keep up my Plantation; had I u fed half as much Prudence to have look'd into my

[blocks in formation]

:

« PrécédentContinuer »