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 Affientos, or permiffion of the king of Spain and Portugal, and engrossed in the public stock; so that few Negroes were bought, and those excessive dear.

It happened, being in company one day with some merchants and planters of my acquaintance, 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 of with them 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 streightened for nothing so much as servants; that as it was a trade that could not publicly fell the Negroes when they came home, so they defired to make but one voyage, to bring the Negroes on shore privately, and divide them among their own plantations; and, in a word, the queftion was, whether I would go their supercargo in the ship, to manage the trading part upon the coaft of Guinea? And they offered 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 confessed, had it been made to any one that had not had a fettlement and plantation of his own to look after, which was in a fair way of coming to be very confiderable, and with a good stock upon it. But for me, that was thus 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 100l. from England, and who in that time, and with that little addition, could scarce have failed of being worth 3 or 4000l. sterling, and that increasing too; for me to think of fuch a voyage, was the most prepofterous thing that ever man, in such circumstances, could 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 counsel was

loft

loft upon 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 absence, and would dispose of it to such as I should direct, if I miscarried. This they all engaged to do, and entered into writings, or covenants, to do fo; and I made a formal will, disposing of my plantation and effects, in case of my death, making the captain of the ship that had faved my life, as before, my universal heir, but obliging him to difpole of my effects as I had directed in my will; one half of the produce being to himself, and the other to be shipped to England.

In short, I took all possible caution to preserve my effects, and to keep up my plantation. Had I used half as much prudence to have looked into my own interest, and have made a judgment of what I ought to have done, and not to have done, I had certainly never gone away from so profperous an undertaking; leaving all the probable views of a thriving circumstance, and gone upon a voyage to sea, attended with all its common hazards; to say nothing of the reasons I had to expect particular misfortunes to myself.

But I was hurried on, and obeyed blindly the dictates of my fancy, rather than my reason: and accordingly the ship being fitted out, and the cargo finished, and all things done as by agreement, by my partners in the voyage; I went on board in an evil hour again, the 1st of September, 1659, being the fame day eight years that I went from my father and mother at Hull, in order to act the rebel to their authority, and the fool to my own intereft.

Our ship was about 120 Tons burthen, carried fix guns and fourteen men, besides the master, his boy, and myself: We had on board no large cargo of goods, except such toys as were fit for our trade with the Negroes; fuch as beads, bits of glass, shells, and odd trifles; especially little looking-glasses, knives, sciffars, hatchets, and the like.

The same day I went on board, we fet fail, standing away to the northward upon our own coafts, with design to stretch over for the African coast, when they came in about 10 or 12 degrees of northern latitude; which, it seems, was the manner of their course

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in those days: we had very good weather, only exceffive hot, all the way upon our own coaft, till we came to the height of Cape St. Auguftino; from whence keeping farther off at sea, we lost fight of land, and steered as if we were bound for the ifle Fernand de Noronba, holding our course N. E. by N. and leaving those isles on the East. In this course we passed the line in about 12 days time, and were by our last observation in 7 degrees 22 min. northern latitude, when a violent tornado or hurricane took us quite out of our knowledge; it began from the south-east, came about to the northweft, and then settled in the north-east, from whence it blew in such a terrible manner, that for 12 days together, we could do nothing but drive; and scudding away before it, let it carry us wherever fate and the fury of the winds directed; and during these 12 days I need not say, that I expected every day to be swallowed up, nor did any in the ship expect to fave their lives.

In this distress we had, befides the terror of a storm, one of our men died of the calenture, and a man and a boy washed over-board. About the 12th day, the wea

er abating a little, the master made an observation as well as he could, and found that he was in about 11 de. grees of north latitude, but that he was 22 degrees of longitude difference west from Cape St. Auguftino, so that he found he was gotten upon the coast of Guiana, or the north part of Brafil, beyond the river Amazones, towards that of the river Oroonoque, commonly called the Great River; and now he began to confult with me what course he should take; for the ship was leaky, and very much difabled; and he was for going directly back to the coaft of Brafil.

I was pofitively against that, and, looking over the charts of the fea coaft of America with him, we concluded there was no inhabited country for us to have recourse to, till we came within the circle of the Caribbe Islands; and therefore resolved to stand away for Barbaboes, which by keeping off at sea, to avoid the indraught of the bay or gulph of Mexico, we might eafily perform, as we hoped, in about fifteen days fail; whereas we could not poffibly make our voyage to the coast of Africa, without fome afsistance both to our ship and to ourselves.

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With this design we changed our course, and steered away N.W. by W. in order to reach some of our En-glish iflands, where I hoped for relief; but our voyage was otherwise determined; for, being in the latitude of 12 deg. 18 min. a second storm came upon us, which carried us away with the fame impetuosity westward, and drove us so out of the very way of all human commerce, that had all our lives been saved, as to the fea, we were rather in danger of being devoured by savages, than ever returning to our own country.

In this distress, the wind ftill blowing very hard, one of our men, early one morning cried out land; and we had no fooner run out of the cabin to look out, in hopes of feeing whereabouts in the world we were, but the ship ftruck upon a fand, and in a moment, her motion being fo ftopped, the sea broke over her in such a manner that we expected we should all have perished im mediately; and we were even driven into our close quar. ters, to shelter us from the very foam and spray of the ea.

It is not easy for any one, who has not been in the like condition, to defcribe or conceive the const rnation of men in fuch circumstances; we knew nothing where we vere, or upon what land it was we were driven, whether an island or the main, whether inhabited or not inhabited: and, as the rage of the wind was still great, though rather less than at first, we coed not fo much as hope to have the ship hold many minutes without breaking in pieces, unless the winds, by a kind of miracle, should turn immediately about. In a word, we fat looking one upon another, and expecting death every moment, and every man acting accordingly, as preparing for another world; for there was little or nothing more for us to do in this: that which was our present comfort, and all the comfort we had, was, that, contrary to our expectation, the ship did not break yet, and that the master said the wind began to abate.

Now, though we thought that the wind did a little abate, yet the ship having thus ftruck upon the sand, and sticking too faft for us to expect her getting off, we were in a dreadful condition indeed, and had nothing to do but to think of saving our lives as well as

we

we could. We had a boat at our stern, just before the storm; but she was first staved by dashing against the ship's rudder, and in the next place the broke away, and either funk, or was driven off to sea, so there was no hope from her: We had another boat on board, but how to get her off into the sea was a doubtful thing; however, there was no room to debate; for we fancied the ship would break in pieces every minute; and fome told us she was actually broken already.

In this distress the mate of our vessel lays hold of the boat, and with the help of the rest of the men, they got her flung over the ship's fide, and getting all into her, let go, and committed ourselves, being eleven in number, to God's mercy and the wild fea; for though the itorm was abated confiderably, yet the fea went dreadfully high upon the shore, and might well be called Den wild Zee, as the Dutch call the fea in a storm.

And now our case was very dismal indeed; for we all saw plainly, that the sea went to high, that the boat could not escape, and that we should be inevitably drowned. As to making fail, we had none, nor, if we had, could we have done any thing with; so we worked at the oar towards the land, though with heavy hearts, like men going to execution; for we all knew, that when the boat came near the shore, she would be dashed in a thousand pieces by the breach of the sea. However, we committed our fouls to God in the most earnest manner, and the wind driving us towards the shore, we haftened our destruction with our own hands, pulling, as well as we could, towards land.

What the shore was, whether rock or fand, whether sleep or shoal, we knew not; the only hope that could C rationally give us the least shadow of expectation, was, if we might happen into fome Bay or Gulph, or the mouth of fome river, where by great chance we might have run our boats in, or got under the lee of the land; and perhaps made smooth water. But there was nothing of this appeared; but as we made nearer and nearer the shore, the land looked more frightful than the fea.

After we had rowed, or rather driven, about a league and a half, as we reckoned it, a raging wave, moun