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BOHFS STANDARD LIBRARY. 
 DE FOE'S WOEKS. 
 
 Vol. I. 
 CAPTAIN SINGLETON, 
 
 AND 
 
 COLONEL JACK. 
 
OUN LIBRARY- C 
 
 ">r 
 
^mnfM%^ 
 
XHE 
 
 NOVELS 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS WORKS 
 
 DANIEL DE FOE. 
 
 WITH FRBFACES AND NOTES, INOOTDIIIG THOSE ATTIUBCTIID TO 
 
 SIR WALTER SCOTT. "^ 
 
 LIFE, ADVENTUEES, MD PffiACIES OF CAPTAIlf SINGLETOir, 
 
 AND 
 
 LIFE OF COLONEL JACK. 
 
 LONDON : GBOEGE BELL AND SONS, TOBK STEEET, 
 COVENT GARDEN. 
 
 1882. 
 
 ■V 
 
/coWnell\ 
 university 
 
 Sn^ LIBRARY '^^ 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTKD BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 
 STAMl-'ORn STKEEI AHD CHAKIKQ CQOSS. 
 
THE LIFE, 
 
 ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES 
 
 OF 
 
 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Description of my origin — I am stolen in infancy, and sold to a Gipsey — At 
 twelve years old the master of a sliip carries me with him to Newfound- 
 land — ^We are taken by an Algerine — Retaken by the Fori:uguese — An old 
 pilot takes charge of me, with whom I make a voyage, and begin steal- 
 ing — I am concerned in a mutiny, and set on shore with five of the 
 crew — Transactions there 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The seamen intercede to have us taken on board — On the captain's refusal, 
 twenty-three of the men, well armed, leave the ship, and join us ashore — 
 Transactions with the natives — We make a canoe to escape in — ^Aiter 
 various adventures we put to sea . . . . . . 14 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Continuation of the voyage — ^Trade with the natives — ^Their kindness — ^We 
 land, and encamp at Point Desperation — Farther proceedings and adven- 
 tures on the island — We discover the wreck of a Dutch vessel at sea-7- 
 After four months' labour, we construct a vessel fit to carry us off — Sail 
 for the mainland of Africa, and reach it in safety ... 28 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Reception of the natives — ^We determine to travel through the country by 
 land — Quarrel and battle with the negroes — We take sixty prisoners, and 
 make them servants to us in our journey — I am appointed leader of the 
 expedition, and christened Captain — Our negro servants procure us a 
 supply of cattle .42 
 
Vi LIFE OF CAPTAIK SINGLETON. — C0N1ENT8. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 We set out on our march— Great use of the bulls of the country, as beasts 
 of burthen — Manner of sailing two hundred miles, in a great river, up 
 the country — We are stepped by a prodigious cataract — Our gunner 
 shoots a fine leopard, to the great terror and astonishment of our negroes 
 — Manner of proceeding after leaving our bark — Dangerous encounter 
 with savages . . . ■ 56 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Journey continued — We reach » vast wilderness of sand — ^Adventures in 
 crossing the desert — ^We encamp on the banks of an immense lake — 
 Description of the beasts of prey, &c 70 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 We reach the end of the desert — A pleasant country succeeds — Arrival at 
 the Golden river — ^We agree to search for gold, and divide the whole pro- 
 ceeds equally — The wet season commencing, we encamp on the banks of the 
 river — Description of our camp — Dangers from multitudes of vrild beasts 
 — ^We strike our camp, and travel through an inhospitable country 83 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 We reachinhahitedland — ^The natives innocent and friendly — We enter upon 
 a second desert — The springs as salt as brine — Our surgeon discovers a 
 mode of rendering the water fresh — Proceedings on our march — Our 
 troop begin to grow sickly, and one negro dies — Farther adventures — We 
 discover a white man, perfectly naked, in the negro country, who proves 
 to be an Englishman ,97 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 History of the Englishman — After resting thirteen days, we set forward, 
 taking our new comrade with us — ^We arrive at another river yielding 
 gold — Great success of our gold fishing — Conclusion of this journey, and 
 account of my arrival in England Ill 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 I fall into bad company in England, and spend my money — I ship myself 
 on a voyage to Cadiz — The company I meet there — ^Tum pirate — ^Adven- 
 tures — ^Account of William Walters, and of our expeditions • 125 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Account of William's gallant behaviour in an action with a Portuguese 
 man-of-war— We take the ship — Fall in with a vessel fiill of negroes, who 
 had murdered the officers and crew — The negroes' account of the trans- 
 action 138 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 William makes a trading voyage with the negroes, and sells them all advan> 
 tageously — We are joined off the Cape of Good Hope by an English long 
 boat full of men — ^Account of them — ^Various captures made . 14J 
 
UPE OF CAPTAIN SINGLETON. — CONTENTS. vii 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 WiUiam's dream, and strange adventure in consequence thereof — Join Cap- 
 tain Wilmot at Mangahell; — Captain Avery joins us — Dissensions arise 
 amongst us — ^We part company, and I leave them, having the great ship 
 under my command — Occurrences of our voyage . . . 161 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Dangerous adventure — Consequences of a blast of lightning — ^William leaves 
 the ship onatrading scheme — Wemaketheisland of Formosa — ^William re- 
 turns, after having been civilly treated by the Chinese, with whom we begin 
 trading — Strange account of thirteen Englishmen resident in Japan 173 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 We are so rich that our men desire no more — Set out on our return home- 
 ward — Account of our voyage — Skirmish with Indians on shore, and loss 
 of some of our men — Siege of an old tree — We make the south shore of 
 Java, and take in water and provisions there ' ■ . • 185 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 A large ship spied to the northward — ^We lay her under contribution for 
 provisions^ — We put in upon the south coast of Ceylon — Bad behaviour oi 
 our men there — ^Violent storm, during which onrship gets aground — Trans- 
 actions with the natives and their ambassador, an old Dutchman 197 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 We get the ship off — ^The king of the country sends an immense multitude 
 down to the shore — Conversation betwixt William and the Dutchman — 
 Action with the natives — We carry off the Dutchman by a stratagem — 
 Relation of Captain Knox's adventure on the same island . 209 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Conclusion of Capfaun Knox's history — Our own story resumed — Adven- 
 tures at Groa and Surat, and account of our trade with the merchants in 
 these latitudes 221 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 William's conversation with me — His contrivances to get off, along with me, 
 from the rest, at the same time securing our property — Their successful 
 issue — We stay two months at Bassora — My trouble of mind . 233 
 
 * CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Farther conversations with William, which quiet my conscience in some 
 degree — Account of our journey from Bassora to Scanderoon, and from 
 thence to Venice — William writes to England to his sister — Her affec- 
 tionate answer —We at length return to England very rich, where I marry 
 William's sister — Conclusion . 245 
 
LIFE OF COLONEL JACK. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Introduction— I am deserted by my parents almost as soon as bom— Nick- 
 named by my nurse. Colonel Jack — Characters of the three Jacks, 
 Colonel Jack, Captain Jack, and Major Jack— Nurse dies, and we are 
 turned loose upon the world — Captain Jack flogged for roguery— We 
 pick pockets 261 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 I get acquainted with one of the most noted pickpockets in town — ^We 
 steal a letter-case full of bills — Dreadfully distressed how to dispose of 
 my share of the booty — My comrade proposes I shall return the bills 
 and get the reward promised — Proceedings thereupon . . 275 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 I am examined by the gentleman touching the bills and letter-case, and ob- 
 tain the reward of SOI. — One of them kindly takes charge of the money 
 for me — We commit more thefts — My comrade purchases better clothes 
 for me — I rob a Jew of his pocket-book full of bills and diamonds — 
 Will agrees for a reward to give up the property . . . 289 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Will returns the pocket-book and obtains the reward — We rob an old 
 knight in Smithfleld of a bag of money — Other adventures, in all of 
 which we are successftd — The notion of my being a gentleman, which 
 I always entertain, keeps me from swearing, drinking, and such like 
 vices — Will seduces me to become highwayman — Adventures on the 
 road . 304 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 My new profession very hateftil to me — Will is in great danger of being 
 taken for a housebreaking at Hounslow — He leaves his plunder under 
 my bed — I meet with him by accident, and receive his directions how to 
 dispose of the stolen goods — I meet Captain Jack, who informs me Will 
 is committed to Newgate — I pay a visit to my old friend mentioned in 
 the third chapter — Conversation with him — 1 am apprehended — Conse- 
 quences thereof ......... 319 
 
LIFE or COLONEL JACK. — CONTENTS. UC 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 I visit Will, my tutor in wickedness, in Newgate — He is executed — Captain r 
 Jack proposes to me to fly into Scotland — I return the poor old woman 
 the money I had formerly robbed her of — Captain Jack and I set out on 
 our journey north — The cantain's rogueries, and various adventures on 
 the road 333 
 
 CHAPTER VII, 
 
 Farther adventures — ^There is no preventing my comrade from exercising 
 his trade of a thief — We witness a whipping in Edinburgh — The captain 
 takes French leave — I return my horse to tiie person from whom it was 
 stolen — ^lieam to read and write — I am hired and cheated by a Scottish 
 master — Meet with the captain again — I enlist for a soldier — We desert 
 — ^Adventures thereupon 346 
 
 CHAPTER VITI. 
 
 We are kidnapped, and carried on board ship by a Virginia captain — Make 
 the coast of Virginia in 32 days — Captain Jack makes his escape — A 
 peep into futtoity — ^I am sold along with the others to a rich planter^ 
 My master holds a long conversation with me, and, in consequence of my 
 good behaviour, puts me in a place of trust .... 361 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 I stumble at the threshold of my new office — I study to render the negroes 
 obedient without punishment, and succeed — Our master visits the plan- 
 tation — Conversation with him — I gain his good graces more and more — 
 Fidelity of a negro 376 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 My master gives me my liberty, and puts me into a plantation for myself — 
 Proeeedings as a planter — I get my bill cashed in London, and a sorted 
 parcel of goods sent out for its amount — ^The greatest part of them are 
 lost at the mouth of the bay — Reflections .... 393 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 I advance rapidly to riches and honour for twelve years — My benefactor 
 
 dies — My pedagogue relates several passages of his life to me — I embark 
 
 for England — Am taken by a French privateer — ^The privateer takes 
 
 another English ship — ^Account of her cargo . . . . 405 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 We land at Bourdeaux, in France — I get rid of my capteun without paying 
 ransom, and arrive at Ghent, where I join the army — Proceedings 
 there — I arrive in Lqndon, and hear news of Major Jack — I fall in 
 love — My mistress's arra to entrap me into matrimony — I marry, and 
 repent it • . • • 425 
 
X LIFE OP COLONEL JACK. — CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 Part from my wife — I am insulted by one of her emissaries — Walking out 
 in the evening I am waylaid and wounded — I obtain a company in a 
 regiment and go over to France — ^Adventures there . . . 440 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Farther operations of the campaign — I am quartered at Trent, and marry 
 my landlord's daughter — I sell my company, and embark in the French 
 fleet — Particulars of their expedition — I return unexpectedly to Paris, 
 and make a disagreeable discovery relating to my wife — I challenge and 
 wound her gallant ........ 456 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Distress of my wife — ^I cast her off, and take horse for Lorraine-^I arrive 
 safely in London — News of my wife, to whom I send a small sum of 
 money — Her gallant recovers, and clears my hands of her — I meet with 
 a young widow in a stage coach, vrith whom I fall in fancy, and marry 
 with every prospect of happiness — She takes to drinking, and dies 469 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 I meet and fight her captain, and thrash him heartily — My wife's death — 
 Entertain thoughts of a fourth wife — Courtship and marriage with my 
 factor's daughter — She makes me an excellent wife, but dies at the end 
 of four years — I return to Virginia, and meet with a wonderful 
 surprise 481 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 My tutor falls in love with my quondam wife — DiflRoulties thereupon — I 
 take her again to wife mys.elf — A retrospect, attended with disagreeable 
 consequences — I freight a sloop, and embark for the Madeuras . 497 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII, 
 
 We are chased by a brigantine and sloop, privateers — During the chase 
 they discover an Enghsh man-of-war, and sheer off— Arrive safe at 
 Antigua — My wife returns to Virginia in the sloop, to wait news from 
 England — ^The vessel returns gutted of its cargo by pirates, but with 
 news of my deliverance— Transactions on my voyage to Virj^ia 509 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 I make a very profitable voyage — Embark on a similar adventure, accom' 
 panied by my wife— I fit up my sloop for defence, and sail for the West 
 Indies— Great success of my voyage— After various changes of fortune, 
 I return to England wealthy, where my wife joins me— Conclusion 523 
 
The Life, 
 
 Adventures, and Pyracies 
 
 Of the Famous 
 
 Captain Singleton.- 
 
 Containing 
 
 An Account of his being set on shore in the Island 
 of Madagascar ; his Settlement there ; with a 
 Description of the Place and Inhabitants : of 
 his Passage from thence in a Paraguay to the 
 main land of Africa; with an Account of the 
 Customs and Manners of the People ; his great 
 Deliverance from the barbarous Natives and wild 
 Beasts ; of his meeting with an 'Englishman, a 
 Citizen of London, among the- Indians; the 
 great Riches he acquired ; and his Voyage home 
 to England. As,' also. Captain Singleton's Return 
 to Sea ; Vith an Account of his many Adven- 
 tures 'and Pyracies with the famous Capteiin Averi/ 
 and others. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed for J. Beotherton, at the Black BuU in 
 Gornhill ; J. Graves, in St. James's Street ; 
 A. DoDD, at the Peacock, without T&nple Bar', 
 and T. Warner, at the Black Boy, in Pater* 
 vaster Bow. 
 
 1720. 
 
THE ADVENTURES 
 
 OF 
 
 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 DESCEIPTION OF MT ORIGIN — ^I AM STOLEN IN INPANCT, AND 
 SOLD TO A GIPSEY — ^AT TWELTE TEARS OLD THE MASTER OF 
 
 A SHIP CAERIES ME WITH HIM TO NEWFOUNDLAND WE 
 
 ARE TAKEN BT AN ALGEEDfB ^RETAKEN BY THE PORTUGUESE 
 
 ^AN OLD PILOT TAKES CHARGE OF ME, WITH WHOM I 
 
 MAKE A VOYAGE, AND BEGIN STEALING 1 AM CONCERNED 
 
 IN A MUTINY, AND SET ON SHORE WITH FITE OF THE CREW 
 — TEANSACTIONS THERE. 
 
 As it is usual for great persons, whose lives have been 
 remarkable, and whose actions deserve recordiug to posterity, 
 to insist much upon their originals, give fijll acconnts of 
 their &milies, and the histories of their ancestors ; so, that I 
 may be methodical, I shall do the same, though I can look 
 but a very little way into my pedigree, as you will see 
 presently. 
 
 If I may believe the woman whom I was taught to call 
 mother, I was a little boy, of about two years old, very well 
 dressed, had a nursery-maid to attend me, who took me out 
 on a fine summer's evening into the fields towards Islington, 
 as she pretended, to give the child some air ; a little girl 
 being with her, of twelve or fourteeen years old, that lived 
 in the neighbourhood. The maid, whether by appointment 
 or otherwise, meets with a fellow, her sweetheart, as I sup- 
 pose ; he carries her into a public-house to give her a pot 
 and a cake ; and while they were toying in the house, the 
 girl plays about, with me in her hand, in the garden and at 
 
 B 
 
8 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 the door, sometimes in sight, sometimes out of signtj 
 thinking no harm. " i -u 
 
 At this juncture comes by one of those ^sort of people who, 
 it seems, made it their business to spirit away little children. 
 This was a heUisli trade in those days, and cHefly practised 
 where they found little children very well dressed, or tor 
 bigger children, to sell them to the plantations. 
 
 The woman, pretending to take me up in her arms and 
 kiss me, and play with me, draws the girl a good way from 
 the house, till at last she makes a fine story to the girl, and 
 bids her go back to the maid, and tell her where she was 
 with the child ; that a gentlewoman had taken a fancy to the 
 child, and was kissing of it, but she should not be frightened, 
 or to that purpose ; for they were but just there ; and so, 
 while the girl went, she carried me quite away. 
 
 From this time, it seems, I was disposed of to a beggaf 
 
 woman that wanted a pretty little child to set out her case ; 
 
 and, after that, to a gipsey, under whose government I 
 
 continued tiU I was about six years old ; and this woman, 
 
 though I was continually dragged about with her from one 
 
 part of the country to another, yet never let me want for 
 
 anything; and I called her mother, though she told me at 
 
 last she was not my mother, but that she bought me for 
 
 ttwelve shillings of another woman, who told her how she 
 
 i|came by me, and told her that my name was Bob Singleton, 
 
 Inot Robert, but plain Bob ; for it seems they never knew 
 
 fby what name I was christened. 
 
 It is in vain to reflect here, what a terrible fright the 
 careless hussy was in, that lost me ; what treatment she 
 received from my justly-enraged father and mother, and the 
 horror these must be in at the thoughts of their child being 
 thus carried away ; for, as I never knew anything of the 
 matter, but just what I have related, nor who my father 
 and mother were, so it would make but a needless digression' 
 to talk of it here. 
 
 My good gipsey mother, for some of her worthy actions 
 no doubt, happened in process of time to be hanged ; and, as 
 this fell out something too soon for me to be perfected in the 
 stroUing trade, the parish where I was left, which, for my 
 life, I cannot I'emember, took some care of me to be sure ; for 
 the first thing I can remember of myself afterwards, was, that 
 1 went to a parish school, and the minister of the parish used 
 
TAKEN BY AN ALGEEINE EOVEB. 8 
 
 to talk to me to be a good boy ; and that, though 1 -was but 
 a poor boy. if 1 minded my book, and ser\red God, I might 
 make a good man. 
 
 I believe I was frequently removed from one town to 
 another, perhaps as the parishes disputed my supposed 
 mother's last settlement. Whether I was so shifted by 
 passes, or otherwise, I know not ; but the town where I was 
 last kept, whatever its name was, must not be far off from 
 the sea-side ; for a master of a ship, who took a fancy to me, 
 was the first that brought me to a place not far from South- 
 ampton, which I afterwards knew to be Bussleton ; and there 
 I attended the carpenters, and such people as were employed 
 in building a ship for him ; and when it was done, though 1 
 was' not above twelve years old, he carried me to sea with 
 him, on a voyage to Newfoimdland. 
 
 I lived well enough, and pleased my master so well, that 
 he called me his own boy ; and I would have called him 
 father, but he would not allow it, for he had children of his 
 own. I went three or four voyages with him, and grew a 
 sturdy boy, when, coming home again from the banks of 
 Newfouniand, we were taken by an Algerine rover, or man 
 of war : which, if my account stands right, was about the 
 year 1695, for you may be sure I kept no journal. 
 
 I was not much concerned at the disaster, though I saw 
 my master, after having been wounded by a splinter in the 
 head during the engagement, very barbarously used by the 
 Turks ; I say, I was not much concerned, till, upon some 
 unlucky thing I said, which, as I remember, was about 
 abusing my master, they took me and beat me most un- 
 mercifully with a flat stick on the soles of my feet, so that I 
 could neither go or stand for several days together. 
 
 But my good fortune was my friend upon this occasion ; 
 for, as they were sailing away with our ship in tow as a 
 prize, steering for the straits, and in sight of the bay of 
 Cadiz, the Turkish rover was attacked by two great Por- 
 tuguese men of war, and taken and carried into Lisbon. 
 
 As I was not much concerned at my captivity, not indeed 
 understanding the consequences of it, if it had continued ; so 
 I was not suitably sensible of my deliverance : nor indeed 
 was it so much a deliverance to me, as it would otherwise 
 have been : for my master who was the only friend I had in 
 the world, died at Lisbon of his wounds ; and I being then 
 
 Ji 2 
 
4 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 almost reduced to my primitive state, viz., of starving, liad 
 this addition to it, that it was in a foreign country too, where 
 I knew nobody, and could not speak a word of their language. 
 However, I fared better here than I had reason to expect; 
 ior, when all the rest of our men had their liberty to go 
 where they would, I, that knew not whither to go, stayed in 
 the ship for several days, tiU at length one of the lieutenants 
 seeing me, inquired what that young English dog did there, 
 and why they did not turn him on shore. 
 
 I heard him, and partly understood what he meant, though, 
 not what he said, and began then to be in a terrible fright; 
 for I knew not where to get a bit of bread ; when the pilot 
 of the ship, an old seaman, seeing me look very duU, came 
 to me, and speaking broken English to me, told me, I must 
 begone. "Whither must I go?" said I. "Where you 
 will," said he, " home to your own country, if you wUL" 
 "How must I go thither?" said I. "Why, have you no 
 friend?" said he. "No," said I, "not in the world, but 
 that dog, pointing to the ship's dog (who, having stolen a 
 piece of meat, just before, had brought it close by me, and 
 I had taken it from him, and eaten it), for he has been a 
 good friend, and brodght me my dinner." 
 
 "Well, well," says he, "you must have your dinner:" 
 " Will you go with me?" "Yes," says I, "with all my 
 heart." In short, thfe old pilot took me home with him, and 
 used me tolerably well, though I fared hard enough ; and I 
 lived with him about two years, during which time he was 
 soliciting his business, and at length got to be master or 
 pilot under Don Garcia de Pimentesia de Carravallas, cap- 
 tain of a Portuguese galleon, or carrack, which was bound 
 to Goa, in the East Indies ; and immediately having gotten 
 his commission, put me on board to look after his cabin, in 
 which he had stored himself with abundance of liquors, suo- 
 cades, sugar, spices, and other things for his accommodation 
 in the voyage, and laid in afterwards a considerable quantity 
 of European goods, fine lace, and linen ; and also baize, 
 wooUen cloth, stuffs, &c., under the pretence of his clothes. 
 
 I was too young in the trade to keep any journal of this 
 voyage, though my master, who was, for a Portuguese, 0, 
 pretty good artist, prompted me to it : but my not under- 
 standing the language, was one hindrance; at kast, it 
 served me for an excuse. However, a&er some time, I 
 
HE BEGINS STEALING. 5 
 
 began to look into his charts and oooks ; and, as I could 
 write a tolerable hand, understood some Latin, and began to 
 have a smattering of the Portuguese tongue, so I began to 
 get a little superficial knowledge of navigation, but not such 
 as was likely to be sufiScient to carry me through a life of 
 •adventure, as mine was to be. In short, I learned several 
 material things in this voyage among the Portuguese ; I 
 learnt particularly to be an arrant thief and a bad sailor ; 
 and I think I may say they are the best masters, for teach- 
 ing both these, of any nation in the world. 
 
 We made our way for the East Indies, by the coast ot 
 Brazil ; not that it is in the course of sailing the way thither ; 
 but our captain, either on his own account, or by the direc- 
 tion of the merchants, went thither first, where at All Saints' 
 bay, or, as they call it in Portugal, the Rio de Todos los 
 -Santos, we delivered near a himdred tons of goods, and took 
 in a considerable quantity of gold, with some chests of sugar, 
 and seventy or eighty great roUs of tobacco, every roll 
 weighing at least a hundred weight. 
 
 Here, being lodged on shore by my master's order, I haid 
 the charge of the captain's business, he having seen me very 
 diligent for my own master ; and in requital fc* his mistaken 
 confidence, I found means to secure, that is to say, to steal, 
 about twenty moidores out of the gold that was shipped on 
 board by the merchants, and this was my first adventure. 
 
 We had a tolerable voyage from hence to the Cape de 
 Bona Speranza ; and I was reputed as a mighty diligent ser- 
 vant to my master, and very faithfiil (I was diligent indeed, 
 but I was very fer from honest ; however, they thought me 
 honest, which, by the way, was their very great mistake) ; 
 Upon this very mistake the captain took a particular liking 
 to me, and employed me frequently on his own occasions ; 
 and, on the other hand, in recompence for my ofiicious dili- 
 gence, I received several particular favours from him ; par- 
 ticularly, I was, by the captain's command, made a kind of a 
 steward under the ship's steward, for such provisions as the 
 captain demanded for his own table : he had another steward 
 for his private stores besides, but my office concerned only 
 what the captain called for of the ship's stores, for his pri- 
 vate use. 
 
 However, by this means I had opportunity particularly to 
 take C0X6 of my master's man, and to furnish myself with 
 
6 CAPTAIN SINGLETON, 
 
 sufficient provisions to make me live much better than tllo 
 other people in the ship; for the captain seldom _ ordered J i 
 anything out of the ship's stores, as above, but I snipt some 
 of it for my own share. We arrived at Goa, in the East 
 Indies, in about seven months, from Lisbon, and remained 
 there eight more ; during which time, I had indeed nothing 
 to do, my master being generally on shore, but to leam 
 everything that is wicked among the Portuguese, a nation 
 the most perfidious and the most debauched, the most insolent 
 and cruel, of any that pretend to call themselves Christians, ■, j 
 in the world. 
 
 Thieving, lying, swearing, forswearing, joined to the most 
 abominable lewdness, was the stated practice of the ship's 
 crew ; adding to it, that, with the most unsufferable boasts 
 of their own courage, they were, generally speaking, the 
 most complete cowards that I ever met with ; and the conse- 
 quence of thpir cowardice was evident upon many occasions. 
 However, there was here and there one among them that 
 was not so bad as the rest ; and, as my lot fell among them, 
 it made me have the most contemptible thoughts of the res^ 
 as indeed they deserved. 
 
 I was exactly fitted for their society indeed ; for 1 had no 
 sense of virtue or religion upon me. I had never heard much 
 of either, except what a good old parson had said to me 
 when I was a child of about eight or nine years old ; nay, I 
 was preparing, and growing up apace, to be as wicked as any- 
 body could be, or perhaps ever was. Fate certainly thus 
 directed my beginning, knowing that I had work to do in the 
 world, which nothing but one hardened against all sense of 
 lionesty or religion, could go through ; and yet, even in this 
 state of original wickedness, I entertained such a settled 
 abhorrence of the abandoned vileness of the Portuguese, that 
 I could not but hate them most heartily from the beginning, 
 and all my life afterwards. They were so brutishly wicked, 
 so base and perfidious, not only to strangers, but to one 
 another ; so meanly submissive when subjected ; so insolent, 
 or barbarous and tyrannical, when superior, that I thought 
 there was something in them that shocked my very nature. 
 Add to this, that it is natural to an Englishman to hate a 
 coward, it all joined together to make the devil and a Portu- 
 guese equally my aversion. 
 
 However, according to the English proverb, " He that is 
 
CAEKIED iCNTO THE INQUISITION. 7 
 
 sMpped -with the devil must sail with the de-vU ;" I was among 
 them, and I managed myself as well as I could. My master 
 had consented that I should assist the captain in the office, 
 as above ; but, as I imderstood afterwards, that the captain 
 allowed my master half a moidore a month for my service, 
 and that he had my name upon the ship's books also, I 
 expected "that, when the ship came to be paid four months' 
 wages at the Indies, as they, it seems, always do, my master 
 would let me have something for myself. 
 
 But I was wrong in my man, for he was none of that kind: 
 he had taken me up as in distress, and his business was to 
 keep me so, and make his market of me as well as he could ; 
 which I began to think of after a different manner than I did 
 at first ; for at first I thought he had entertained me in mere 
 charity, upon seeing my distressed circumstances, but did not 
 doubt, ijut when he put me on board the ship, I should have 
 some wages for my service. 
 
 But he thought, it seems, quite otherwise ; and, when I 
 procured one to speak to him about it, when the ship was paid 
 at Goa, he flew into the greatest rage imaginable, and called 
 me English dog, young heretic, and threatened to put me 
 into the inquisition. Indeed, of all the names the four and 
 twenty letters could make up, he should not have called me 
 heretic ; for, as I knew nothing about religion, neither pro- 
 testant from papist, or either of them from a Mahometan, I 
 could never be a heretic. However, it passed but a little, 
 but, as young as I was, I had been carried into the inquisi- / 
 tion; and, there, if they had asked me if I was a protestant 
 or a catholic, I should have said yes to that which came first. , 
 If it had been the protestant they had asked first, it had cer- 
 tainly made a martyr of me for I did not know what. 
 
 But the very priest they carried with them, or chaplain of 
 the ship, as we call him, saved me : for, seeing me a boy 
 entirely ignorant of religion, and ready to do or say anything 
 they bid me, he asked me some questions about it, which he 
 found I answered so very simply, that he took it upon himl 
 to tell them, he would answer for my beiog a good catholic ;j 
 and he hoped he should be the means of saving my soul; and 
 he pleased himself that it was to be a work of merit to him J 
 BO he made me as good a papist as any of them in about 
 week's time. 
 
 I then told Vi't" my case about my master ; how, it is truei 
 
8 CAPTAIN SINGLETON 
 
 he had taken me up in a miseraMe case, on board a man-of- 
 war, at Lisbon; and I was indebted to him for bringing me 
 on board this ship; that, if I had been left at Lisbon, I might 
 have starved and the like ; and therefore I was willing to 
 serve him ; but that I hoped he would give me some little 
 consideration for my service, or let me know how long he 
 expected I should serve him for nothing. 
 
 It was aU one ; neither the priest or any one else could 
 prevail with him, but that I was not hi s servantbut_hi8 
 slave ; that he took me in "ihe Algerine; and thatTwas a 
 Turk; only pretended to be an English boy, to get my 
 liberty ; and he would carry me to the inquisition as a Turk. 
 
 This frightened me out of my wits ; for I had nobody to 
 vouch for me what I was, or from whence I came ; but the 
 'good Padre Antonio, for that was his name, cleared me of 
 that part by a way I did not understand : for he came to me 
 one morning with two sailors, and told me they must search 
 me, to bear witness that I was not a Turk. I was amazed 
 at them, and frightened ; and did not understand them ; nor 
 could I imagine what they intended to do to me. However, 
 stripping me, they were soon satisfied ; and father Anthony 
 bade me be easy, for they could all witness that I was no 
 Turk. So I escaped that part of my master's cruelty. 
 
 And now I resolved from that time to run away irom him 
 if I could ; but there was no doing of it there; for there were 
 not ships of any nation in the world, in that port, except two 
 or three Persian vessels from Ormus; so that, if I had 
 offered to go away from him, he would have had me seized 
 on shore, and brought on board by force : so that I had no 
 remedy but patience, and this he brought to an end too as 
 soon as he could; for after this he began to use me ill, and 
 not only to straiten my provisions, but to beat and torture 
 me in a barbarous manner for every trifle; so that, in a 
 word, my life began to be very miserable. 
 
 The violence of this usage of me, and the impossibility cf 
 my escape from his hands, set my head aworking upon all 
 sorts of mischief; and, in particular,/! resolved, after 
 studying all other ways to deliver mysdf, and finding all 
 ineffectual, I say, I resolved to murder him. With this 
 hellish resolution in my head, I spent whole nights and 
 days contriving how to put it in execution, the devil 
 prompting me very warmly to the fact. I was indeed en- 
 
CONCERNED IN A MUTINr. 9 
 
 tirely at a loss for the means; for I had neither gun or 
 sword, nor any weapon to assault him with. Poison I had 
 my thoughts much upon, but knew not where to get any ; 
 or, if I might have got it, I did not know the country word - 
 for it, or by what name to ask for it. 
 
 In this manner I was guilty of the fact intentionally a 
 hundred and a hundred times ; but Providence, either for his 
 sake or for mine, always frustrated my designs, and I could 
 never bring it to pass : so I was obliged to continue in his 
 chains till the ship, having taken in her loading, set sail for 
 Portugal. 
 
 I can say nothing here to the manner of our voyage ; for, 
 as I said, I kept no journal ; but this I can give an account 
 of, that, having been once as high as the Cape of Good 
 Hope, as we call it, or Cabo de Eona Speranza, as they call 
 it, we were driven back again by a violent storm from 
 the W.S.W., which held us, six days and nights, a great 
 way to the eastward ; and after that running afore the wind 
 for several days more, we at last came to an anchor on the 
 coast of Madagascar. 
 
 The storm had been so violent that the ship had received 
 a great deal of damage, and it required some time to repair 
 her ; so, standing in nearer the shore, the pilot, my master, 
 brought the ship into a very good road, where we rid in 
 twenty-six fathom water, about half-a-mUe from the shore. 
 
 While the ship rode here, there happened a most desperate 
 mutiny among the men, upon account of some deficiency in ' 
 their allowance, which came to that height that they 
 threatened the captain to set him on shore, and go back 
 with the ship to Goa. I wished they would with all my 
 heart, for I was full of mischief in my head, and ready 
 enough to do any. So, though I was but a boy, as they 
 called me, yet I prompted the mischief all I could, and 
 embarked in it so openly that I escaped very little being 
 hanged in the first and most early part of my life ; for the 
 captain had some notice that there was a design laid by 
 some of the company to murder him; and having, partly by 
 money and promises, and partly by threatening and torture, 
 brought two fellows to confess the particulars and the names 
 of the persons concerned, they were presently apprehended, 
 till, one accusing another, no less than sixteen men were ' 
 seized and put into irons, whereof I was one. 
 
10 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 The captain, who was made desperate by his danger, 
 resolving to clear the ship of his enemies, tried us all, and 
 we were all condemned to die. The manner of his process I 
 was too young to take notice of; but the purser and one of 
 the gunners were hanged immediately, and I expected it 
 with the rest. I do not remember any great concern I was 
 under about it, only that I cried very much ; for I knew 
 little then of this world, and nothing at all of the next. 
 
 However, the captain contented himself with executing 
 these two ; and some of the rest, upon their humble sub- 
 mission, and promise of fdture good behaviour, were par- 
 doned; but five were ordered to be set on shore on the 
 island, and left there, of which I was one. My master used 
 all his interest with the captain to have me excused, but 
 could not obtain it ; for somebody having told him that I 
 was one of them who was singled out to have kUled him, 
 when my master desired I might not be set on shore, the 
 captain told him I should stay on board if he desired it, but 
 then I should be hanged ; so he might Choose for me which 
 he thought best. The captain, it seems, was particularly 
 provoked at my being concerned in the treachery, because of 
 his having been so kind to me, and of his having singled me 
 out to serve him, as I have said above ; and this perhaps 
 obliged him to give my master such a rough choice, either to 
 set me on shore or to have me hanged on board ; and had 
 my master indeed known what good-wiU I had for him, he 
 would not have been long in choosing for me ; for I had 
 certainly determined to do him a mischief the first oppor- 
 tunity I had for it. This was, therefore, a good providence 
 for me, to keep me from dipping my hands in blood, and it 
 made me more tender afterwards in matters of blood than I 
 believe I should otherwise have been. But as to my being 
 one of them that was to kiU the captain, that I was wronged 
 in, for I was not the person; but it was really one of them 
 that were pardoned, he having the good luck not to have 
 that part discovered. 
 
 1 was now to enter upon a part of independent life, — a 
 thing I was indeed very ill prepared to manage ; for I was 
 perfectly loose and dissolute in my behaviour, bold and 
 wicked while I was under government, and now perfectly 
 unfit to be trusted with liberty; for I was as ripe for any 
 villany as a young feUow that had no solid thought ever 
 
MISEET OP THE CREW. 11 
 
 placed in his mind could be supposed to be. Education, as 
 you have heard, I had none ; and all the little scenes of life 
 I had passed through had been fuU of dangers and desperate 
 circumstances ; but I was either so young or so stupid, that 
 1 escaped the grief and anxiety of them, for want of having 
 a sense of their tendency and consequences. 
 
 This thoughtless, unconcerned temper had one felicity 
 indeed in it — ^that it made me daring and ready for doing 
 any mischief, and kept off the sorrow which otherwise ought 
 to have attended me when I fell into any mischief; that this 
 stupidity was instead of a happiness to me, for it left my 
 thoughts free to act upon means of escape and deliverance 
 in my distress, however great it might be; whereas my 
 companions in the distress were so simk by their feai; and 
 grief that they abandoned themselves to the misery of their 
 condition, and gave over all thought but of their perishing 
 and starving, being devoured by wild beasts, murdered, and 
 perhaps eaten by cannibals, and the like. 
 
 I was but a young fellow about seventeen or eighteen; 
 but hearing what was to be my fate, I received it with no 
 appearance of discouragement ; but I asked what my master 
 said to it, and being told that he had used his utmost interest 
 to save me, but the captain had answered I should either go 
 on shore or be hanged on board, which he pleased. I then 
 gave over all hope of being received again. I was not very 
 thankful in my thoughts to my master for his soliciting the 
 captain for me, because I knew that what he did was not in 
 kindness to me so much as in kindness to himself; I mean 
 to preserve the wages which he got for me, which amounted 
 to about sis. dollars a month, including what the captain 
 allowed him for my particular service to him. 
 
 When I understood that my master was so apparently 
 kind, I asked if I might not be admitted to speak with him, 
 and they told me I might, if my master would come down to 
 me, but I could not be allowed to come up to him ; so then 
 I desired my master might be told to come to me, and he 
 accordingly came to me ; I feU on my knees to him, and 
 begged he would forgive me what I had done to displease 
 him ; and indeed the resolution I had taken to murder him 
 lay with some horror upon my mind just at that time, so that 
 I was once just a-gouig to confess it, and beg him to forgive 
 me, but I kept it in : he said he had done all he could to 
 
12 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 obtain my pardon of the captain, but could not : and he knew 
 no way for me but to have patience, and submit to my fate ; 
 and if they came to speak with any ship of their nation at 
 the Cape, he would endeavour to have them stand in, and 
 fietch us off again if we might be found. 
 
 Then I begged I might have my clothes on shore with me. 
 He told me he was afraid I should have little need of clothes, 
 for he did not see how we could long subsist on the island, 
 and that he had been informed that the inhabitants were \ 
 caimibjls _.Qr men-eaters (though he had no reason for that 
 suggestion), and we should not be able to live among them ; 
 I told him I was not so afraid of that, as I was of starving 
 for want of victuals ; and as for the inhabitants beiag cannibals, 
 I believed we should be more likely to eat them, than they 
 us, if we could but get at them : but I was mightily concerned, 
 I said, we should have no weapons with us to defend ourselves, 
 ■and I begged nothing now, but that he would give me a gun 
 and a sword, with a little powder and shot. 
 
 He smiled ; and said, they would signify nothing to us, 
 for it was impossible for us to pretend tc^ preserve our lives 
 among such a populous and desperate nation as the people of 
 the island were. I told him that, however, it woidd do us 
 this good, for we should be devoured or destroyed immediately ; 
 So 1 begged hard for the gun. At last he told me, he did not 
 know whether the captain would give him leave to give me 
 a gun, and if not, he durst not do it ; but he promised to use 
 his interest to obtain it for me, which he did, and the next 
 day he sent me a gun, with some ammunition, but told me, 
 the captain would not suffer the ammunition to be given us, 
 till we were set all on shore, and till he was just going to 
 set sail. He also sent me the few clothes I had in the shipi 
 which indeed were not many. 
 
 Two days after this we were all carried on shore together ; 
 the rest of my feUow-criminals hearing I had a gun and some 
 powder and shot, solicited for liberty to carry the like with 
 them, which was also granted them ; and thus we were set 
 on shore to shift for ourselves. 
 
 At our first coming into the island, we were terrified 
 exceedingly with the sight of the barbarous people ; whose 
 figure was made more terrible to us than really it was, by 
 the report we had of them from the seamen ; but when we 
 came to converse with them awhile, we found they were not 
 
 \ W 1 
 
CrVILITT OF THE NATIVES. 13 
 
 canuibals, as was reported, or such as would fall immediately 
 upon us and eat us up : but they came and sat down by us, 
 and wondered much at our clothes and arms, and made signs 
 to give us some victuals, such as they had, which was only 
 roots and plants dug out of the ground, for the present, but 
 ihey brought us fowls and flesh a^erwards, in good plenty. 
 
 This encouraged the other four men that were with me 
 very much, for they were quite dejected before ; but now 
 they began to be very familiar with them, and made signs, 
 that if they would use us kindly, we would stay and live 
 with them ; which they seemed glad of, though they knew 
 little of the necessity we were under to do so, or how much 
 we were a&aid of them. 
 
 However, upon other thoughts, we resolved that we would 
 only stay in that part so long as the ship rid in the bay, and 
 then, making them believe we were gone with the ship, we 
 would go and place ourselves, if possible, where there were 
 no inhabitants to be seen, and so live as we could, or perhaps 
 watch for a ship that might be driven upon the coast, aiS 
 we were. 
 
 The ship continued a fortnight in the roads repairing 
 some damage which had been done her in the late storm, and 
 taking in wood and water ; and during tliis time the boat 
 coming often on shore, the men brought lis several refresh- 
 ments, and the natives believing we only belonged to the 
 ship, were civil enough. We lived in a kind of a tent on 
 the shore, or rather a hut, which we made with the boughs 
 of trees, and sometimes in the night retired to a wood a 
 little out of their way, to let them think we were gone on 
 board the ship. ffowpver, we found them barbarous, 
 tT-onx>iorniigj onA vT'llanniia enough in their nature. 
 
 f pr fea . ^and therefore conclude d we should soon la 
 their liaads when the ship was gone. 
 
 The sense of this wrought upon my fellow-sufferers even 
 to distraction ; and one of them, being a carpenter, in his 
 mad fit, swam off to the ship in the night, though she lay 
 then a league to sea, and made such pitifid moan to be taken 
 in, that the captain was prevailed with at last to take him 
 in, though they let him lie swimming three hours in the 
 water before he consented to it. 
 
 Upon this, and his humble submission, the captain re- 
 ceived him, and, in a word, the importunity of this man 
 
14 CAPTAIN SINGIETON. 
 
 (who for some time petitioned to be taken in, though they 
 h anged him as soon as they had him), was such as could not 
 be resisted ; for, after he had swam so long about the ship, 
 he was not able to have reached the shore again ; and the 
 captain saw evidently, that the man must be taken on board, 
 or suffered to drown, and the whole ship's company offering 
 to be bound for him for his good behaviour, the captain at 
 last yielded, and he was taken up, but ahnost dead with his 
 being so long in the water. 
 
 "V^en this man was got in, he never left off importuning^ 
 the captain, and all the rest of the officers, in behalf of us 
 that were behind ; but to the very last day the captain was 
 inexorable; when, at the time their preparations were 
 making to sail, and orders given to hoist the boats into the 
 ship, all the seamen in a body came up to the rail of the 
 quarter-deck, where the captain was walking with some of 
 his officers, and appointing the boatswain to speak for them; 
 he went up, and falling on his knees to the captain, beggeil 
 of him, in the humblest manner possible, to receive the four 
 men on board again, offering to answer for their fidelity, or 
 to have them kept in chains till they came to Lisbon, and 
 there to be delivered up to justice, rather than, as they said, 
 to have them left to be murdered by savages, or devoured by 
 wild beasts. It was a great whUe ere the captain took any 
 notice of them, but when he did, he ordered the boatswain: 
 to be seized, and threatened to bring him to the capstan fof 
 speaking for them. 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 THE SEAMEN INTERCEDE TO HAVE US TAKEN ON BOARD — 
 ON THE captain's REFUSAL, TWENTT-THRES OP THE MEN, 
 WELL AHMED, LEAVE THE SHIP, AND JOIN US ASHORE — 
 TRANSACTIONS WITH THE NATIVES WE MAKE A CANOE 
 
 ' TO ESCAPE IN — ^AFTER VAKIOUS ADVENTURES WE PUT TO 
 SEA. 
 
 Upon this severity, one of the seamen, bolder than the rest, 
 but stiU with all possible respect to the captain, besought his' 
 honour, as he called him, that he would give. leave to some 
 more of them to go on shore, and die with their companions, ■ 
 
MISERY OF THE CEEW. 15 
 
 or, if possible, to assist them to resist the barbarians. 
 The captain, rather provoked than cowed with this, came to 
 the barricado of the quarter-deck, and speaking very pru- 
 dently to the men (for, had he spoken roughly, two-thirds of 
 them would have left the ship, if not all of them), he told 
 them, it was for their safety as well as his own, that he had 
 been obliged to that severity ; that mutiny on board a ship 
 Tffgg t^p. aa.ma t]\} ji^ as treason in the king's palace, and he 
 could not answer it to his owners and employers to trust the 
 ship and goods committed to his charge with men who had 
 entertained thoughts of the worst and blackest nature ; that 
 he wished heartily, that it had been anywhere else that they 
 had been set on shore, where they might have been in less 
 hazard from the savages ; that, if he had designed they 
 shoold be destroyed, he could as well have executed them on 
 board as the other two ; that he wished it had been in some 
 other part of the world, where he might have deUvered them 
 up to the civil justice, or might have left them among Chris* 
 tians ; but that it was better their lives were put in hazard, 
 than his life, and the safety of the ship ; and that, though he 
 did not know that he had deserved so ill of any of them, as 
 that they should leave the ship rather than do their duty, yet 
 if any of them were resolved to do so, unless he would con- 
 sent to take a gang of traitors on board, who, as he had 
 proved before them all, had conspired to murder him, he 
 would not hinder them, nor, for the present, would he resent 
 their importunity ; but, if there was nobody left in the ship 
 but myself, he would never consent to^ take them on board. 
 
 This discourse was delivered so well, was in itself so rea- 
 sonable, was managed with so much temper, yet so boldly 
 concluded 'sith a negative, that the greatest part of the men 
 were satisfied for the present: however, as it put the men 
 into juntos and cabals, they were not composed for some 
 hours; the wind also slackening towards night, the captain 
 ordered not to weigh tiU next morning. 
 
 The same night twenty-three of the men, among whom 
 was the gunner's mate, the surgeon's assistant, and two car- 
 penters applying to the chief mate, told him, that, as the 
 captain had given them leave to go on shore to their com- 
 rades, they begged that he would speak to the captain not to 
 take it ill that they were desirous to go and die with their 
 companioas; and that they thought they could do no less 
 
16 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 in such, an extremity, than go to them ; because, if there was 
 any way to save their lives, it was by adding to their num- 
 bers, and makin g them strong enough to assist one another 
 in defending themselves against the savages, till perhaptij 
 they might one time or other find means to make their ' 
 escape; and get to their own country again. 
 
 The mate told them in so many words, that he durst not 
 speak to the captain upon any such design, and was very 
 ■ sorry they had no more respect for him, than to desire him 
 to go upon such an errand ; but, if they were resolved upon 
 such an enterprise, he would advise them to take the long- 
 boat in the morning betimes, and go off, seeing the captain 
 had given them leave, and leave a civil letter behind him to 
 the captain, and to desire him to send his men on shore for 
 the boat, which should be delivered very honestly, and he 
 promised to keep their counsel so long. 
 
 Accordingly, an hour before day, those twenty-three men, 
 "with every man a firelock and cutlass, with some pistols,, | 
 three halberts or half-pikes, and good store of powder, and 
 ball, without any provision but about half a hundrfed ot 
 bread, but with all their chests and clothes, tools, instru- 
 ments, books, &c., embarked themselves so silently, that the 
 captain got no nstice of it tiU they were gotten hsJf the way 
 on shore. 
 
 As soon as the captain heard of it, he called for the 
 gunner's mate, the chief gunner being at that time sick in 
 his cabin, and ordered to fire at them; but, to his great 
 mortification, the gunner's mate was one of the number, and 
 was gone with them ; and, indeed, it was by this means they 
 got so many arms and so much ammunition. When the 
 captain found how it was, and that there was no help for it, _ 
 he began to be a little appeased, made light of it, and called " 
 up the men, spoke kindly to them, and told them he was 
 very well satisfied in the fidelity and abOily of those that 
 were now left; and that he would give to them, for their 
 encouragement, to be divided among them, the wages which 
 were due to the men that were gone; and that it was a 
 great satisfaction to him that the ship was freed from such 
 a mutinous rabble, who had not the least reason for their 
 discontent. 
 
 The men seemed very well satisfied, and particularly the 
 promise of the wages of those that were gone, went a great 
 
THE CAPTAIN'S GKNEROSITl'. 17 
 
 way with them. After this the letter which was left by the 
 men was given to the captain, by his boy, with whom, it 
 seems, the men had left it. The letter was much to the 
 same purpose of what they had said to the mate, and which 
 he declined to say for them ; only that at the end of their 
 letter they told the captain, that as they had no dishonest 
 design, sq they had taken nothing away with them which 
 was not their own, except some arms and ammunition, such 
 as were absolutely necessary to them, as well for their 
 defence against the savages, as to kiU fowls or beasts for their 
 food that they might not perish; and as there were con- 
 siderable sums due to them for wages, they hoped he would 
 allow the arms and ammunition upon their accounts. They 
 told him, that as to the ship's long-boat, which they had 
 taken to bring them on shore, they knew it was necessary to 
 him, and they were wiUing to restore it to him ; and, if he 
 pleased to send for it, it should be very honestly delivered to 
 his men, and not the least injury ofiered to any of those who 
 eame for it, not the least persuasion or invitation made use 
 of to any of them to stay with them ; and, at the bottom of 
 the letter, they very humbly besought him, that, for their 
 defence, and for the safety of their lives, he would be pleased 
 to send them a barrel of powder, and some ammunition,- and 
 give them leave to keep the mast and sail of the boat, that 
 if it was possible for them to make themselves a boat of any 
 kind, they might shift off to sea, to save themselves in such 
 part of the world as their fate shduld direct them to. 
 
 Upon this the captain, who Lad won much upon the rest 
 of his men by what he had said to them, and was very easy 
 as to the general peace (for it was very true, that the most 
 mutinous of the men were gone), came out to the quarter- 
 deck, and, calling the men together, let them know the 
 substance of the letter; and told the men, that, however, 
 they had not deserved such civility from him, jet he w as not 
 wiU ipg to expose them more than they were wUlmg tb 
 expos e^ themselves^ he was inclined to send them some™" 
 ammunition; an'cl, as they had desired but one barrel ■ of 
 powder, he would send them two barrels, and shot, or lead, 
 and moulds to make shot, in proportion ; and to let them see 
 that he was civiler to them than they deserved, he ordered a 
 cask of arrack, and a great bag of bread, to be sent them for 
 Bubsisteuce, till they should be able to furnish tbemselvesg 
 
 
 
18 OAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 The rest of the men applauded the captain's generosity, 
 and every one of them sent us something or other ; and about 
 three in the afternoon the pinnace came on shore, and 
 brought us all these things, which we were very glad of, 
 and returned the long-boat accordingly ; and as to the men 
 that came with the pinnace, as the captain had singled out 
 such men as he knew would not come over to us, so they 
 had positive orders not to bring any one of us on board 
 again, upon pain of death ; and indeed both were so true to 
 our points, that we neither asked them to stay, nor they us 
 to go. 
 
 We were now a good troop, being in all twenty-seven 
 men, very well armed, and provided with everything but 
 victuals ; we had two carpenters among us, a gunner, and, 
 which was worth all the rest, a surgeon or doctor, that is to 
 say, he was an assistant to a surgeon at Goa, and was 
 entertained as a supernumerary with us. The carpenters 
 had brought all their tools, the doctor all his instruments 
 and medicines, and indeed we had a great deal of baggage, 
 that is to say, in the whole, for some of us had little more 
 than the clothes on our backs, of whom I was one ; but I 
 had one thing which none of them had, viz., I had the 
 twenty-two moidores of gold, which I stole at the Brazils, 
 and two pieces of eight. The two pieces of eight I showed, 
 and one moidore, but no more ; and none of them ever sus- 
 pected that I had any more money in the world, having been 
 known to be only a poor boy taken up in charity, as you 
 have heard, and used like a slave, and in the worst manner 
 of a slave, by my cruel master the pilot. 
 
 It will be easy to imagine we four, that were left at &st, 
 were joyful, nay, even surprised with joy, at the coming ot 
 the rest, though at first we were frightened, and thought they 
 came to fetch us back to hang us ; but they took ways 
 quickly to satisfy us that they were in the same condition 
 „ vnth. us, only with this additional circumstance, that theirs 
 was voluntary, and ours by force. 
 
 •The first piece of news they told us after the short history 
 of their coming away, was, that our companion was on board, 
 but how he got thither, we could not imagine ; for he had 
 given us the slip, and we never imagined he could swim so 
 well as to venture off to the ship, which lay at so great a 
 distance ; nay, we did not so much as know that he could 
 
ESTABLISHMENT OF RULES. 19 
 
 3wim at all, and not thinking anything of what really 
 happened, vre thought he really must have wandered into the 
 woods, and was devoured, or was fallen into the hands of the 
 natives, and was murdered ; and these thoughts filled us with 
 fears enough, and of several kinds, about its being some time 
 or other our lot to fall into their hands also. 
 
 But hearing how he had with much dilficvdty been received / 
 on board the ship again, and pardoned, we were much better T 
 
 satisfied than before. — ' 
 
 Being now, as I have said, a considerable number of ns, 
 and in condition to defend ourselves, the first thing we did 
 jras to give every one his hand, thai we would not separate 
 from one another upon any occasion whatsoever, but that 
 we would live and die together ; that we would kill no food,' 
 but that we would distribute it in public ; and that we would 
 be in all things guided by the majority, and not insist upon 
 our own resolutions in anything, if the majority were against 
 it ; that we would appoint a captain among us to be our 
 governor or leader during pleasure ; that while he was in 
 office, we would obey him without reserve, on pain of death ; 
 and that every one should take turn, but the captain was not 
 to act in any particular thing without advice of the rest, and 
 by the majority. 
 
 Having established these rules, we resolved to enter into 
 some measures for our food, and for conversing with the 
 inhabitants or natives of the island for our supply ; as for 
 food, they were at first very useful to us, but we soon grew 
 weary of them, ban g-anignoran t, ravenous, br^^gh. sort of * 
 people, even wors6 th an the natf ye s of any other country that 
 we had seea ; aiin3~we soon found that the principal parTof 
 OursubsistencB was to be had by our guns, shooting of deer 
 and other creatures, and fowls of aU other sorts, of which 
 there is abundance. 
 
 We found the natives did not disturb or concern themselves 
 much about us; nor did they inquire or perhaps know 
 whether we stayed among them or not, much less that our 
 ship was gone quite away, and had cast us ofij as was our 
 case ; for ibe next morning after we had sent back the long- 
 boat, the ship stood away to the south-east, and in four hours' 
 time was out of our sight. 
 
 The next day, two of us went out into the country one 
 Vay, and two another, to see what kind of a laud we were 
 
 C 2 
 
20 CAPTAIN SISGLETOTT. 
 
 in J and we soon found tlie country was very pleasant and 
 fruitful, and a convenient place to live in ; but, as before, 
 inhabited by a parcel of creatures scarce human, or_ca£able 
 "dbe ms ma ae""socTable on any a ccount whatsoever. 
 — ■■WT'^unTTKepIace full of cattle ImJ provisions : but 
 whether we might venture to take them -syhere we could find 
 them, or not, we did not know ; and though we were under 
 ft necessity to get provisions, yet we were loath to bring down 
 a whole nation of devils upon us at once, and, therefore, 
 some of our company agreed to try to speak with some 
 of the country, if we could, that we might see what course 
 was to be taken with them. Eleven of our men went on 
 this errand, well armed, and furnished for defence. They 
 brought word, that they had seen some of the natives, who 
 appeared very civil to them, but very shy and afraid, seeing 
 their guns; for it was easy to perceive, that the natives knew 
 what their guns were and what use they were of. 
 
 They made signs to the natives for some food, and they 
 went and fetched several herbs and roots, and some milk; 
 but it was evident they did not design to ^ve it away, 
 but to sell it, making signs to know what our men would 
 give them. 
 
 Our men were perplexed at this, for they had nothing to 
 barter; however, one of the men pulled out a knife and 
 showed them, and they were so fond of it, that they were 
 ready to go together by the ears for the knife : the seaman 
 seeing that, was willing to make a good market of his knife, 
 and keeping them chaffering a good while, some offered him 
 roots, and others milk ; at last one offered him a goat for it, 
 which he took. Then another of our men showed them 
 another knife, but they had nothing good enough for that, 
 whereupon one of them made signs that he would go and 
 fetch something; so our men stayed three hours for their 
 return, when they came back, and brought him a small-sized, 
 thick, short cow, very fat, and good meat, and gave him 
 for his knife. 
 
 This was a good market, but our misfortune was, we had 
 no merchandise ; for our knives were as needful to us as to 
 them, and but that we were in distress for food and must of 
 necessity have some, these men would not have parted with 
 their knives. 
 
 However, in a' little time more, we found that the wwods 
 
MONET OF LITTLE SEKVICB. 21 
 
 were full of living creatures which ■«© might kill for our food, 
 Bnd that without giving oflPence to them; so that our men 
 went daily out a hunting, and never failed to kill something 
 or other; for, as to the natives, we had no goods to 
 barter, and for money, all the stock among us would not 
 have subsisted us long; however, we called a general council 
 to see what money we had, and to bring it all together, that 
 it might go as far as possible ; and when it came to my turn, 
 I pulled out a moidore and the two dollars I spoke of before. 
 
 This moidore I ventured to show, that they might not 
 despise me too much for adding too little to the store, and that 
 they might not pretend to search me ; and they were very 
 civil to me, upon the presumption that I had been so faithful 
 to them as not to conceal anything from them. 
 
 But our money did us little service, for the people neither 
 knew the value or the use of it, nor could they^ JJUflZJESi® 
 the gold i n proportion wtth.J'ti&^Y^r ; jaJhajLa U^our money , 
 whichj^ s not much when it was aU put to gether, wouIcTgo 
 but a litfle way with us, that is to say, to buy us provisions. 
 . Our next consiSSfaJGon was, to get away ti-om thisTcufSSft' 
 place, and whither to go. When my opinion came to be 
 asked, I told them I would leave that all to them, and I told 
 them I had rather they would let me go into the woods to 
 get them some provisions, than consult with me, for I would 
 agree to whatever they did ; but they would not agree to 
 that, for they would not consent that any of us should go into 
 (he woods alone ; for though we had yet seen no lions or 
 tigers in the woods, we were assured there were many in the 
 island, besides other creatures as dangerous, and perhaps ' 
 worse, as we afterwards found by our own experience. 
 
 We had many adventures in the woods for our provisions, 
 and often met with wild and terrible beasts, which we could 
 not call by their names ; but as they were, like us, seeking < 
 their prey, but were themselves good for nothing. So we 
 disturbed them as little as possible. 
 
 Our consultations concerning our escape from this place, 
 which, as I have said, we were now upon, ended in tliis only, 
 that as we had two carpenters among us, and that they had 
 tools almost of all sorts with them, we should try to build us 
 a boat to go off to sea with, and that then perhaps we might 
 find our way back to Goa, or land on some more proper 
 place to make our escape. Tl; e counsels of this assembly 
 
22 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 were iiot of great moment ; yet, as they seem to be iatroduc* 
 tory of many more remarkable adventures -whicli happened 
 under my conduct hereabouts many years after, I think this 
 miniature of my future enterprises may not be unpleasaat to 
 relate. 
 
 To the building of a boat I made no objection, and away 
 they went to work immediately : but as they went on, great 
 difficulties occurred, such as want of saws to cut out plank ; 
 nails, bolts, and spikes, to fasten the timbers ; hemp, pitch 
 and tar, to caulk and pay her seams, and the like. At length 
 one of the company proposed, that, instead of building a 
 barque or sloop, or shallop, or whatever they would call it, 
 which they found was so difficult, they should rather make a 
 large periagua, or canoe, which might be done with great 
 ease. 
 
 It was presently objected, that we could never make a 
 canoe large enough to pass the great ocean, which we were 
 to go over, to get to the coast of Malabar ; that it not only 
 would not bear the sea, but it would never bear the burthen ; 
 for we were not only twenty-seven men of us, but had a 
 great deal of luggage with us, and must, for our provision, 
 take in a great deal more. 
 
 I never proposed to speak in their general consultations 
 before ; but finding they were at some loss about what kind 
 of vessel they should make, and how to make it ; and what 
 would be fit for our use, and what not ; I told them, I found 
 they were at a fuU stop in their counsels of every kind ; that 
 it was true we could never pretend to go over to .Goa, or the 
 coast of Malabar, in a canoe, which, though we could all get 
 into it, and that it would bear the sea well enough, yet would 
 not hold our provisions, and especially we could not put fresh 
 water enough into it for the voyage ; and to make such an 
 adventure would be nothing but mere running into certain 
 destruction, and yet that nevertheless I was for making a 
 canoe. 
 
 They answered, that they understood all I had said before 
 well enough, but what I meant by telling them first how 
 dangerous and impossible it was to make our escape in a 
 canoe, and yet then to advise making a canoe, that they could 
 not understand. 
 
 To this I answered, that I conceived our business was not 
 to attempt our escape in a canoe, but that, as there were 
 
DISCOVER A SAIL. 23 
 
 Other Teasels at sea besides our ship, and that there were few 
 nations that lived on the seashore that were so barbarous, 
 but that they went to sea in some boats or other, our business 
 was to cruise along the coast of the island, which was very 
 long, and to seize upon -the first we could get that was better 
 than our own, and so from that to another, tiU perhaps we 
 might at last get a good ship to carry us wMther ever we 
 pleased to go. 
 
 Excellent advice, says one of them. Admirable advice, 
 says another. Yes, yes, says the third (which was the 
 gunner), the English dog has given excellent advice ; but it 
 is just the way to bring us all to the gallows. The rogue 
 has given devilish advice. Indeed, to go a-thipving, till from 
 a little vessel we come to a great ship, and so we shall turn 
 downright pirates, the end of which is to be hanged. 
 
 Tou may call us pirates, says another, if you will ; and, if 
 we fall into bad hands, we may be used like pirates ; but I 
 care not for that, I'll be a pirate, or anything, nay, I'll be 
 hanged for a pirate, rather than starve here ; and therefore 
 I think the advice is very good ; and so they cried all. Let 
 us have a canoe. The gunner, overruled by the rest, sub- 
 mitted ; but as we broke up the council, he came to me, 
 takes me by the hand, and looking into the palm of my hand, 
 and into my face . too, very gravely. My lad, says he, thou 
 art born to do a world of mischief; thou hast commenced 
 pirate very young ; but have a care of the gallows, young 
 man ; have a care, I say, for thou wilt be an eminent thief. 
 
 I laughed at him, and told him I did not know what I 
 might come to hereafter ; but as our case was now, I should 
 make no scruple to take the first ship I came at, to get our 
 liberty ; I only wished we coiild see one, and come at her. 
 Just while we were talking, one of our men that was at the 
 door of our hut, told us, that the carpenter, who, it seems, 
 was upon a hill at a distance, cried out, A sail ! a sail ! 
 
 "We aU turned out immediately ; but, though it was very 
 clear weather, we could see nothing ; but the carpenter con- 
 tinuing to haUoo to us, A sail ! a sa,il ! away we ran up the 
 hiU, and there we saw a ship pla,inly ; but it was at a very 
 great distance, too far for us to make any signal to her. 
 However, we made a fire upon the hiU, with all the wood we 
 could get together, and made as much smoke as possible. 
 The wind was down, and it was almost calm; but as we 
 
24 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 thought, by a perspective glass which the gunner had in hil 
 pocket, her sails were fuU, and she stood away large with the 
 wind at E.N.E., taking no notice of our signal, but making 
 for the Cape de Bona Speranza: so we had no comfort 
 from her. 
 
 We went therefore immediately to work about our intended 
 canoe ; and, haying singled out a very large tree to our mind, 
 we fell to work with her ; and having three good axes among 
 us, we got it down, but it was four days time first, though 
 we worked very hard too. I do not remember what wood it 
 was, or exactly what dimensions ; but I remember that it 
 was a very large one,, and we were as much encouraged 
 when we launched it, and found it swam upright and steady, 
 as we would have been at another time, if we had had a good 
 man-of-war at our command. 
 
 She was so very large, that she carried us all very easily, 
 and would have carried two or three ton of baggage with us ; 
 so that we began to consult about going to siea directly to 
 Goa ; but many other considerations checked that thought, 
 especially when we came to look nearer into it : such as 
 want of provisions, and no casks for fresh water ; no compass 
 to steer by ; no shelter from the breach of the high sea, which 
 would certainly founder us : no defence from the heat of the 
 weather and the Kke : so that they all came readily into my 
 project to cruise about where we were, and see what might 
 ofier. 
 
 Accordingly, to gratify our fancy, we went one day all out 
 to sea in her together, and we were in a very fair way to 
 have had enough of it ; for when she had us all on board, 
 and that we were gotten about half a league to sea, there 
 happening to be a pretty high swell of the sea, though little 
 or no wind, ye^'she wallowed so in the sea, that we all of us 
 thought she would at last wallow herself bottom up ;■ so we 
 set all to work to get her in nearer the shore, and giving her 
 fresh way in the sea, she swam more steady, and with some 
 hard work we got her under the land again. 
 
 We were now at a great loss; the natives were civil 
 enough to us, and came often to discourse with us ; one time 
 they brought one whom they showed respect to as a king, 
 with them, and they set up a long pole between them and 
 us, with a great tassel of hair hanging, not on the top, but 
 something above the middle of it, adorned with little chains, 
 
iNGEmnTr-OF a cutler. 25 
 
 shells, bits of brass, and the like ; and this we understood 
 afterwards was a token of amity and friendship ; and they 
 brought down to us victuals in abundance, cattle, fowls, 
 herbs, and roots ; but we wer e in the utmost confusion on 
 ^our side ; for we had nothing to buy^witTijIjFexchange'fOT; » 
 and as to giving us tHngs"foFnoffiing",""tEeyTtiad"no~noti6nor 
 that again. As to our money, it was mere trash to them, 
 they had no value for it ; so that we were in a fair way to 
 be starved. Had we had but some toys and trinkets, brass 
 chains, baubles, glass beads, or, in a word, the veriest trifles 
 that a ship load would not have been worth the freight, we 
 might have bought cattle and provisions enough for an army, 
 or to victual a fleet of men-of-war, but for gold or silver we f 
 could get nothing. 
 
 "^TFpo'n this we were in a strange consternation. I was but 
 a young fellow, but I was for falling upon them with our fire- 
 arms, and taking all the cattle from them, and send them to 
 the devil to stop their hunger, rather than be starved our- 
 selves : but I did not consider that this might have brought 
 ten thousand of them down upon us the next day ; and 
 though we might have kiUed a vast number of them, and 
 perhaps have frightened the rest, yet their own desperation, 
 and our small number, would have animated them so, that 
 one time or other they would have destroyed us all. 
 
 In the middle of our consultation, one of our men, who 
 had been a kind of a cutler, or worker in iron, started up, 
 and asked the carpenter, if, among all his tools, he. could not 
 help him to a file. Yes, says the carpenter, I can, but it 
 is a small one. The smaller the better, says the other. Upon 
 this he goes to work, and first, by heating a piece of an old 
 broken chisel in the fire, and then he takes three or four 
 pieces of eight, and beats them out with a l^^mmer upon a 
 stone, tiU they were very broad and thin, then he cut them 
 out into the shape of birds and beasts ; he made little chains 
 of them for bracelets and necklaces, and turned them into 
 80 many devices, of his own head, that it is hardly to be 
 expressed. 
 
 When he had for about a fortnight exercised his head and 
 hands at this work, we tried the effect of his ingenuity ; and, 
 having, anojrtier meeting vrith the natives, were surprised to 
 see the folhj of the poor people. For a little bit of silver 
 cut out in the shape of n. bird, we had two cows, and, 
 
26 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 which was our loss, if it had been in brass, it had been still 
 of more value. For one of the bracelets made of chain- 
 work, we had as much provision of several sorts, as would 
 feirly have been worth, in England, fifteen or sixteen pounds ; 
 and so of aU the rest. Thus, that which when it wasan cejn 
 was not worth sixpenci"i6 us, when thus conyertedjntoj;oy8 
 and trifles, was worth a hundred times its jeal value, and 
 ^purchased for us anything we had occasion for. 
 
 In tlui^condition we lived upwards of a year, but aU of 
 us began to be very much tired of it, and, whatever came 
 of it, resolved to attempt an escape. We had furnished 
 ourselves with no less than three very good canoes ; and as 
 the monsoons, or tradewinds, generafly affect that country, 
 blowing in most parts of this island one six months of a year 
 one way, and the other six months another way, we con- 
 cluded we might be able to bear the sea weU enough. But • 
 always, when we came to look nearer into it, the want of 
 fresh water was the thing that put us off from such an 
 adventure, for it is a prodigious length, and what no man on 
 earth could be able to perform without water to drink. 
 
 Being thus prevailed upon by our own reason to set the 
 thoughts of that voyage aside, we had then but two things 
 before us ; one was, to put to sea the other way, viz., west, 
 and go away for the Cape of Good Hope, where, first or 
 last, we should meet with some of our own country ships, or 
 else to put for the mainland of Africa, and either travel by 
 land, or sail along the coast towards the Red Sea, where we 
 should, first or last, find a ship of some nation or other, that 
 would take us up; or, perhaps, we might take them up, | 
 which, by the bye, was the thing that always run in my head. J 
 
 It was our ingenious cutler, whom ever after we called 
 silversmith, that proposed this; but the gunner told him, 
 that he had been in the Bed Sea in a Malabar sloop, and he 
 knew this, that, if we went into the Eed Sea, we should 
 either be killed by the wild Arabs, or taken and made slaves 
 of by the Turks ; and therefore he was not for going that 
 way. ' 
 
 Upon this I took occasion to put in my vote again. Why, 
 said I, do we talk of being killed by the Arabs, or made 
 slaves of by the Turks? Are we not able to board almost 
 any vessel we shall meet with in those seas ; and, instead of 
 their taking us, we to take them ? WeU done, pirate, said 
 
PRESERVATION OF FOOD. 27 
 
 the gunner (he that had looked in my hand, and told me I 
 should come to the gallows), I'll say that for him. says he, 
 he always looks the same way. Bnt I think of my consci- 
 ence, it is our only way now. Do not tell me, says I, of 
 being a pirate : we must be pirates, or anything, to get fairlj 
 out of this cursed place. 
 
 In a word, they concluded aU, by my advice, that our 
 business was to cruise for anything we could see. Why 
 then, said I to them, our first business is to see, if the people 
 upon this island have any navigation, and what boats they 
 use ; and, if they have any better or bigger than ours, let us 
 take one of them. First, indeed, all our aim was, to get, if 
 possihle, a boat with a deck and a sail ; for then we might 
 have saved our provisions, which otherwise we could not. 
 
 We had, to our great good fortune, one sailor among us, 
 who had "been assistant to the cook; he told us, that he 
 would find a way how to preserve our beef, without cask or 
 pickle ; and this he did effectually by curing it in the sun, 
 with the help of saltpetre, of which there was great plenty 
 in the island ; so that, before we found any method for our 
 escape, we had dried the flesh of six or seven cows and 
 bullocks, and ten or twelve goats, and it relished so well, 
 that we never gave ourselves the trouble to boil it when we 
 eat it, but either broiled it, or eat it dry : but our main 
 difficulty about fresh water stUl remained; for we had no 
 vessel to put any into, much less to keep any for our going 
 to sea. 
 
 But our first voyage being only to coast the island, we 
 resolved to venture, whatever the hazard or consequence of 
 it might be; and in order to preserve as much fresh water as 
 we could, our carpenter made a well thwart the middle of 
 one of our canoes, which he separated from the other parts 
 of the canoe, so as to make it tight- to hold the water, and 
 covered so as we might step upon it ; and this was so large 
 that it held near a hogshead of water veiy well. I cannot 
 better describe this well than by the same kind which the 
 small fisher-boats in England have to preserve their fish 
 alive in ; only that this, instead of having holes to let the 
 salt water in, was made sound every way to keep it out; and 
 jtJcaaibejSrst invention, I believe, of its kind, for such an 
 use. But neS^fly is a spur to ingenuity, and the mother of 
 invention. 
 
28 CAPTAIN SEfGLETON. 
 
 It wanted but a little consultation to resolve now upon 
 our voyage. The first design was only to coast it round the 
 island, as well to see if we could seize upon any vessel fit to 
 embark ourselves in, as also to take hold of any opportunity 
 which might present for our passing over to the main ; and, 
 therefore, our resolution was to go on the inside, or west 
 shore of the island, where at least at one point, the land 
 stretching a great way to the north-west, the distance is not 
 extraordinary great from the island to the coast of Afiica. , 
 
 Such a voyage, and with such a desperate crew, I beheve 
 was never made ; for it is certain we took the worst side of 
 the island to look for any shipping, especially for shipping of 
 other nations, this being quite out of the way ; however, we 
 put to sea, after taking all our provisions and ammunitioiis, 
 bag and baggage, on board. We had made both mast and 
 sail for our two large periaguas, and the other we paddled 
 along as well as we could ; but. when a gaJe sprung up, we 
 took her in tow. 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 CONTINUATION OP THE VOYAGE — ^TRADB WITH THE NATIVES— 
 THEIE KINDNESS ^WE LAND, AND ENCAMP AT POINT DES- 
 PERATION — ^PDETHER PROCEEDINGS AND ADVENTDBES ON 
 
 THE ISLAND ^WE DISCOVER THE VVTIECK OF A DUTCH 
 
 VESSEL AT SEA ^AETER POUR MONTHS' LABOUR, WTi CON- 
 STRUCT A VESSEL FIT TO CARRY US OPP SAIL POB THE 
 
 ■ MAINLAND OP AFRICA, AND REACH IT IN SAFETY. 
 
 We sailed merrily forward for several days, meeting with 
 nothing to interrupt us. We saw several of the natives in 
 small canoes, catching fish, and sometimes we endeavoured 
 to come near enough to speak with them ; but they were 
 always shy, and afraid of us, making in for the shore as soon 
 as we attempted it, till one of our compamy remembered ;th<! 
 signal of friendship which the natives made us from the 
 south part of the island — viz., of setting up a long pole, and 
 put us in mind that perhaps it was the same thing to them 
 as a flag of truce was to us : so we resolved to try it ; and, 
 accordingly, the next time we saw any of their fishing-boat«| 
 at sea, we put up a pole in our canoe that had no seoI, and 
 rowed towards them. Ap soon as they saw the polej they* 
 
TKADE WITH THE NATIVES. 29 
 
 Stayed for us, and, as we came nearer, paddled towards us. 
 Wlien they came to us, they showed themselves veiy much 
 pleased; and gave us some large fish, of which we did not 
 know the names, but they were very good. It was our 
 "misfortime stUl that we had nothing to give them in return ; 
 but our artist, of whom I spoke before, gave them two little 
 thin plates of silver, beaten, as I said before, out of a piece 
 of eight ; they were cut in a diamond square, longer one 
 way than the other, and a hole punched at one of the 
 longest comers. This they wei-e so fond of that they made 
 us stay till they had cast their lines and nets again, and gave 
 us as many fish as we cared to have. 
 
 All this while we had our eyes upoij their boats, viewed 
 them very narrowly, and- examined whether any of them 
 were fit for our turn ; but they were poor sorry things. 
 Their sail was made of a large mat, only one that was of a 
 piece of cotton stuff, fit for little, and their ropes were 
 twisted flags of no strength ; so we concluded we were better 
 as we were, and let them alone. We went forward to the 
 north, keeping the coast close on board for twelve days 
 together; and having the wind at east, and E.S.E., we made 
 very fresh way. We saw no towns on the shore, but often 
 saw some huts by the water-side, upon the rocks, and 
 always abundance of people about them, who we could 
 perceive run together to stare at us. 
 
 It was as odd a voyage as ever men went : we were a 
 little fleet of three ships, and an army of between twenty 
 and thirty as dangerous fellows as ever they had amongst 
 them; and, had they known what we were, they would have 
 compounded to give us everything we desired, to be rid of us. 
 
 On the other hand, we were as miserable as nature could 
 well make us to be ; for we were upon a voyage and no 
 voyage — we were bound somewhere and nowhere; for, 
 though we knew what we intended to do, we did really not 
 know what we were doing. We went forward and forward 
 by a northerly course ; and as we advanced, the heat in- 
 creased, which began to be intolerable to us who were upon 
 the water, without any covering from heat or wet ; besides, 
 we were now in the month of October, or thereabouts, in a 
 southern latitude; and as we went every day nearer the sun, 
 the sun came also every day nearer to us, till at last we 
 found ourselves in the latitude of 20 degrees; and having 
 
30 OiPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 passed the tropic about five or six days before that, in a few 
 days more the sun would be in the zenith, just over our 
 heads. 
 
 Upon these considerations, we resolved to seek for a good 
 place to go on shore again, and pitch our tents, tUl the heat 
 of the weather abated. We had by this time measured half 
 the length of the island, and were come to that part wherd 
 the shore, tending away to the north-west, promised fair to 
 make our passage over to the mainland of Africa, much 
 shorter than we expected. But, notwithstanding that, we 
 , had good reason to believe it was about one hundred and 
 twenty leagues. 
 
 So, the heats considered, we resolved to take harbour; 
 besides, our provisions were exhausted, and we had not 
 many days store left. Accordingly, putting in for the shore 
 early in the morning, as we usually did once in three or four 
 days, for fresh water, we sat down and considered, whether 
 we should go on, or take up our standing there ; but upon 
 several considerations, too long to repeat here, we did not 
 like the place, so we resolved to go on a few days longer. 
 
 After sailing on N.W. by N. with a fresh gale at S.E. 
 about six days, we found, at a great distance, a large pro- 
 montory, or cape of land, pushing out a long way into the 
 sea ; and, as we were exceeding fond of seeing what was 
 beyond the cape, we resolved to double it before we took 
 into harbour ; so we kept on our way, the gale continuingjg; 
 and yet it was four days more before we reached the cap§« 
 But it is not possible to express the discouragement and 
 melancholy that seized us all when we came thither ; '^fog 
 when we made the headland of the cape, we were surprise™ 
 to see the shore fall away on the other side, as much as 'SI 
 had advanced on this side, and a great deal more ; and that, 
 in short, if we would venture over to the shore of Africa, ifea 
 must be from hence ; for that, if we went further, the breadth 
 of the sea stUl increased, and to what breadth it might 
 increase we knew not. 
 
 While we mused upon this discovery, we were surprised| 
 with very bad weather, and especially violent rains, with^ 
 thunder and lightning, most unusually terrible to us. In 
 this pickle we ran for the shore, and getting under the iM 
 of the cape, ran our frigates into a little creek, where 'tS 
 saw the land overgrown with trees, and made all the haste 
 
POINT DESPERATION. 31 
 
 possible to get on shore, being exceeding wet, and fatigued 
 with the heat, the thunder, lightning, and rain. 
 
 Here we thought our case was very deplorable indeed, and 
 therefore our artist, of whom I have spoken so often, set up 
 a great cross of wood on the hiU, which was within a mile 
 <&£ the headland, with these words, but in the Portuguese 
 language : — 
 
 " Point Desperation. Jesus have mercy ! " 
 
 We set to work immediately to build us some huts, and so 
 get our clothes dried ; and though I was young, and had no 
 skill in such things, yet I shall never forget the little city we 
 built, for it was no less ; and we fortified it accordmgly ; 
 and the idea is so fresh in my thought, that I cannot but 
 give a short description of it. 
 
 Our camp was on the south side of a little creek on the 
 sea, and under the shelter of a steep hiU, which lay, though 
 on the other side of the creek, yet within a quarter of a mile 
 of us, N.W. by N., and very happily intercepted the- heat of 
 the sun aU the after part of the day. The spot we pitched 
 on had a little fresh water brook, or a stream, running into 
 the creek by us ; and we saw cattle feeding in the plains and 
 low ^ound, east and to the south of us a great way. 
 
 Here we set up twelve little huts, like soldiers' tents, but 
 made of the boughs of trees, stuck into tlie ground, and 
 bound together on the top with withies, and such other 
 things as we could get ; the creek was our defence on the 
 north, a litde brook on the west, and the south and east 
 sides we fortified with a bank, which entirely covered our 
 huts ; and, being drawn oblique from the north-west to the 
 south-east, made our city a triangle. Behind the bask, or 
 line, our huts stood, having three other huts behind them at 
 a good distance. In one of these, which was a little one, 
 and stood fiirther off, we put our gunpowder, and nothing 
 else, for fear of danger ; in the other, which was bigger, we 
 drest our victuals, and put all our necessaries ; and in the 
 third, which was biggest of all, we ea^our dinners, called 
 our councils, and sat and diverted ourselves with such con- 
 versation as we had one with another, which was but in- 
 different truly at that time. 
 
82 CAPTAIN SlNGI-EaX)N, 
 
 Our correspondence with the natives was absolutely neces- 
 aary, and our artist, the cutler, having made abundance of 
 those little diamond-cut squares of sUver, with these wa 
 made shift to traffic with _aB _black people for what we 
 wanted; for, indeed, they ^ere" pleased wonderfully with 
 them ; and thus we got plenty of provisions. At first, and 
 in particular, we got about fifty head of black cattle , and 
 goats,, and our cook's mate took care to cure them, and dry 
 them salt and preserve them, for our grand supply ; nor was 
 this hard to do, the salt and saltpetre being very good, and 
 the sun excessively hot; and here we lived about four 
 months. 
 
 The southern solstice was over, and the sun gone back 
 towards the equinoctial, when we considered of our next ad- 
 venture, which was to go over the sea of Zanquebar, as the 
 "Portuguese call it, and to land, if possible, upon the conti- i 
 nent of Afnca. 
 
 We talked with many of the natives about it, such as we 
 • could make ourselves intelligible to ; but all that we could' 
 learn from them was, that there was a great land of lions 
 beyond the sea, but that it was a great way off; we knew as 
 well as they that it was a long way, but our people differed 
 mightily about it : some said it was one hundred and fifty 
 leagues, others not above one hundred. One of our 
 yi men, that had a map of the world, showed us by his scale, 
 that it was not above eighty leagues. Some said there were 
 islands aU the way to touch at ; some, that there were no 
 islands at all : for my part, I knew nothing of this matter 
 one way or another, but heard it aU without concern, 
 whether it was near or far off; however, this we learne4| 
 lirom an old man, who was blind, and led about by a boy, i 
 that if we stayed till the end of August, we should be sure 
 of the wind to be fair, and the sea smooth all th* voyage. t« 
 
 This was some encouragement ; but staying again was 
 very unwelcome news to us, because that then the sun would 
 be returning- again to the south, which was what our men 
 were very unwilling to. At last we called a council of our 
 whole body; their debates were too tedious to take notice- 
 of, only to note, that when it came to Captain Bob (for so 
 /Q they caUed^me_gKeJE;_jinceJJiad_ta]^^ uponrne before 
 
 "one of their great princes), truly I was on no sideJTf wMubt 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF THE VOYAOK. 33 
 
 one fartMng matter to me, I told them, whether -we went or 
 stayed ; I had no home, and all the world was alike to me ; "< 
 so I left it entirely to them to determine. 
 
 In a word, they saw plainly there was nothing to be donei 
 where we were, without shipping ; that, if our business in- 1 
 deed was only to eat and drink, we could not find a better ♦ 
 place in the world ; but, if our business was to get away, k 
 and get home into our conntry, we could not find a worse. ' 
 
 I confess,.! liked the country wonderfully, and even then 
 had strange notions of coming again to live there ; and I 
 used to say to them very often, that, if I had but a ship of 
 twenty guns, and a sloop, and both well manned, I would 
 not desire a better place in the world to make myself as rich V 
 as a king. 
 
 But to return to the consultations they were in about 
 going. Upon the whole, it was resolved to venture over for 
 the main ; and venture we did, madly enough indeed : for it 
 was the wrong time of the year to undertake such a voyage 
 in that country ; for, as the winds hang easterly all the 
 months from September to March, so thgy generally hang 
 westerly all the rest of the' year, and blew right in our 
 teeth, so that, as soon as we had, with a kind of a 
 land-breeze, stretched over about fifteen or twenty leagues, 
 and, as I may say, just enough to lose ourselves, we found 
 the wind set in a steady fresh gale or breeze from the sea, at 
 west, W. S.W. or S.W. by W., and never further from the 
 west ; so that, in a word, we could make nothing of it. 
 
 On the other hand, the vessel, such as we had, would not 
 lie close upon a wind ; if so, we might have stretched away 
 N.N.W. and have met with a great many islands in our way, 
 as we found afterwards ; but we could make nothing of it, 
 though we tried, and by the trying had almost undone us 
 aU ; for, stretching away to the north, as near the wind as 
 we could, we had forgotten the shape and position of the 
 island of Madagascar itself; how that we came off at the 
 head of a promontory or point of land, that lies about the 
 middle of the island, and that stretches out west a great way 
 into the sea ; and that now, being run a matter of forty 
 leagues to the north, the shore of the island fell off again 
 about two hundred miles to the east, so that we were by this 
 time in the wide ocean, between the island and the main, 
 and almost one hundred leagues from both. 
 
 s 
 
$1 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 Indeed, as the winds blew fresh at west, as before, we had 
 a smooth sea, aud we found it pretty good going before it, 
 and so, taking our smallest canoe in tow, we stood in for the 
 shore with all the sail we could make. This was a terrible 
 adventure ; for, if the least gust of wind had come, we had 
 been all lost, our canoes being deep, and in no condition to 
 make way in a high sea. 
 
 This voyage, however, held us eleven days in all ; and at 
 length, having spent most of our provisions, and every drop m 
 of water we had, we spied land, to our great joy, though at 3 
 the distance of ten or eleven leagues ; and as, under the 
 land, the wind came oft like a land-breeze, and blew hard 
 against us, we were two days more before we reached the 
 shore, having all that while excessive hot weather, aud not a 
 drop of water, or any other liquor, except some cordial 
 waters, which one of our company had a little of left in a 
 case of bottles. 
 
 This gave us a taste of what we should have done, if we 
 had ventured forward with a scant wind and uncertain 
 weather, and gave us a surfeit of our design for the main, at 
 least until we might have sonle better vessels under us ; so 
 we went on shore again, and pitched our camp, as before, in 
 as convenient a manner as we could, fortifying' ourselves 
 against any surprise ; but the natives here were exceeding 
 courteous, and much civiller than on the south part of the 
 island ; and though we could not understand what they said, 
 or they us, yet we found means to make them understand 
 that we were seafaring men, and strangers ; and that we 
 were in distress for want of provisions. 
 
 The first proof we had of their kindness was, that, as 
 soon as they saw us come on shore, and begin to make our 
 habitation, one of their captains or kings, for we knew not 
 what to call them, came down with five or six men and 
 some women, and brought us five goats and two young fat 
 steers, and gave them to us for nothing ; and when we went 
 i to offer them anything, the captain or the king, would not 
 let any of them touch it, or take anything of us. About 
 two hours after, came another king, or captain, with forty or 
 fifty men after him ; we began to be afraid of him, and laid 
 hands upon our weapons ; but he perceiving it, caused two 
 men to go before him, carrying two long poles in their 
 hands, which they held upright, as high as they could, which 
 
SIGNAL OP PEACE. 3& 
 
 wc presently perceived was a signal of peace, and these two 
 poles they set up afterwards, sticking them up in the ground ; 
 and when the king and his men came to these two poles, • 
 they stuck aU their lances up in the ground, and came on 
 unarmed, leaving their lances, as also their bows and arrows, 
 behind them. 
 
 This was to satisfy us, that they were come as friends, and 
 we were very glad to see it ; for we had ho mind to quarrel 
 with them, if we could help it. The captain of this gang 
 seeing some of our men making up their huts, and that they 
 did it but bunglingly, he beckoned to some of his men to g6 
 and help us. Immediately fifteen or sixteen of them came 
 and mingled among us, and went to work for us; and, 
 indeed, they were better workmen than we were, for they 
 run up three or four huts for us in a moment, and much 
 handsomer done than ours. 
 
 After this they sent us milk, plaintains, pumpkins, and 
 abundance of roots and greens that were very good, and 
 then took their leave, and would not take anything from us » 
 that we had. One of our men pfiered the king or captain of 
 these men, a dram, which he drank, and was mightily 
 pleased with it, and held out his hand for another, which we 
 gave him ; and, in a word, after this, he hardly failed coming 
 to us two or three times a week, always bringing us some- 
 thing or other : and one time sent us seven head of black 
 cattle, some of which we cured and dried as before. 
 
 And here I cannot but remember one thing, which after- 
 wards stood us in great stead, viz., that the flesh of their 
 goats, and their beef also, but especially the former, when 
 we had dried and cured it, looked red, and eat hard and 
 firm, as dried beef in Holland ; they were so pleased with it, ] 
 and it was such a dainty to them, that, at any time after, 
 they would trade with us for it, not knowing, or so much as > 
 imagining, what it was; so that, for ten or twelve pounds'/ i 
 weight of smoked dried beef, they would give us a whole j 
 bullock, or cow, or anything else we could desire. _ j 
 
 Here we observed two things that were very material to j 
 us, even essentially so ; first, we found they had a great deal 
 of earthenware here, which they make use of many ways, as 
 we did : particularly, they had long deep earthen pots, which 
 they used to sink into the ground, to keep the water which 
 
 D 2 
 
86 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 they drank cool and pleasant ; and tte other was, that they 
 had larger canoes than their neighbours had. 
 
 By this we were prompted to inquire if they had no 
 larger vessels than those we saw there ; or if any other of 
 the inhabitants had not such. They signified presently, that 
 they had no larger boats than that they showed us ; but 
 that, on the other side of the island, they had laxger boats, 
 and that with decks upon them, and large sails; and this 
 made us resolve to coast round the whole island to see them ; 
 so we prepared and victualled our canoe for the voyage, and, 
 in a word, went to sea for the third time. 
 
 It cost us a month or six weeks' time to perform this 
 voyage, in which time we went on shore several times for 
 water and provisions, and found the natives always very free 
 and courteous; but we were surprised one morning early, 
 being at the extremity of the northernmost part of the island, 
 when one of our men cried out, ' A sail ; a sail ! ' we 
 presently saw a vessel a great way out at sea : but after we 
 had looked at it with our perspective glasses, and en- 
 deavoured all we could to make out what it was, we could 
 not tell what to think of it ; for it was neither ship, ketch, 
 galley, galliot, or like anything that we had ever seen 
 before : all that we could make of it was, that it went from 
 us, standing out to sea. In a word, we soon lost sight of it, 
 for we were in no condition to chase anything, and we never 
 saw it again, but by all we could perceive of it, from what 
 we saw of such things afterwards, it was some Arabian 
 vessel, which had been trading to the coast of Mozambique, 
 or Zanquebar, the same place where we afterwards went, as 
 you shall hear. 
 
 Nor do I remember that the natives differed much from 
 one another, either in stature or complexion, or in their 
 manners, their habits, their weapons, or indeed in anything; 
 and yet we could not perceive that they had any intelligence 
 one with another; but they were extremely kind and civil 
 to us on this side, as well as on the other. 
 
 We continued our voyage south for many weeks, though 
 with several intervals of going on shore to get provisions and 
 water. At length, coming round a point of land which lay 
 about a league further than ordinary into the sea, we were 
 agreeably surprised with a sight, which, no doubt, had been 
 
DISCOVEE A WRECKED SHIP. 37 
 
 as disagreeable to those concerned, as it was pleasant to us. i 
 Tills was the wreck of an European ship, which had been. A 
 cast away upon the rocks, which in that place run a great ^ 
 way into the sea. 
 
 We could see plainly, at low water, a great deal of the 
 ship lay dry; even at high water she was not entirely 
 covered ; and that at most she did not lie above a league 
 from the shore. It will easily be believed, that our 
 curiosity led us, the wind and weather also permitting, to 
 go directly to her, which we did vsdthout any difficulty, and 
 presently found that it was a Dutch-built ship, and that she 
 could not have been very long in that condition, a great 
 deal of the upper work of her stern remaining firm, with the 
 mizen-mast standing. Her stern seemed to be jammed in 
 between two ridges of the rock, and so remained fast, all the 
 fore-part of the ship having been beaten to pieces. 
 
 We could see nothing to be gotten out of the wreck that 
 was worth our while ; but we resolved to go on shore, and 
 stay some time thereabouts, to see if perhaps we might get 
 any light into the story of her ; and we were not without 
 hopes that we might hear something more particular about 
 her men, and perhaps find some of them on shore there, in 
 the same condition that we were in, and so might increase 
 our company. 
 
 It was a very pleasant sight to us, when coming on shore, jwe 
 saw all the marks and tokens of a ship-carpenter's yard ; as a 
 launch-block and cradles, scaffolds and planks, and pieces of 
 planks, the remains of the building a ship or vessel ; and, in a 
 word, a great many things that fairly invited us to go about 
 the same work, and we soon came to miderstand, that the men 
 belonging to the ship that was lost, had saved themselves on 
 shore, perhaps in their boat, and had built themselves a bark 
 or sloop, and so were gone to sea again ; and inquiring of 
 the natives which way they went, they pointed to the south 
 and south-west, by which we could easily understand they 
 were gone away to the Cape of Good Hope. 
 
 Nobody wiU imagine we could be so dull as not to gather 
 from hence, that we might take the same method for ouf 
 escape; so we resolved first in general, that we would try, 
 if possible, to build us a boat of one kind or other, and go to 
 sea as our fate should direct. 
 
 In order to this, our first work was to have the two car- 
 
S8 CAPTAIN SINRLETON. 
 
 penters search about to see what materials the Dutchmen had 
 left behind them that might be of use ; and, in particular, 
 they found one that was very useful, and which I was much 
 employed about, and that was a pitch-kettle, and a little 
 pitch in it. 
 
 When we came to set close to this work, we found it very 
 laborious and difficult, having but few tools, no iron-workj 
 no cordage, no sails : so that, in short, whatever we built, 
 we were obliged to be our own smiths, rope-makers, sail- 
 makers, and indeed to practise twenty trades that we knew 
 little or nothing of: however, necessity was the spur to 
 invention, and we did many things which before we thought 
 impracticable, that is to say, in our circumstances. 
 
 After our two carpenters had resolved upon the dimensions 
 «f what they would build, they set us all to work, to go off 
 into our boats, and split up the wreck of the old ship, and to 
 bring away everything we could, and particularly, that, if 
 possible, we should bring away the mizen-mast, which was 
 left standing, which with much difficulty we effected, after 
 above twenty days' labour of fourteen of our men. 
 
 At the same time we got out a great deal of ironwork, as 
 bolts, spikes, nails, &c., all which our artist, of whom I have 
 spoken already, who was now grown a very dexterous smith, 
 made us nails and hinges for our rudder, and spikes such as 
 we wanted. 
 
 But we wanted an anchor, and if we had had an anchor, 
 we could not have made a cable ; so we contented ourselves, 
 with making some ropes with the help of the natives, of such 
 stuff as they made their mats of, and with these we made, 
 such a kind of cable or tow Hne, as was sufficient to fasten 
 our vessel to the shore, which we contented ourselves with 
 for that time. 
 
 To be short, we spent four months here, and worked very 
 hard too ; at the end of which time we launched our frigate, 
 which, in a few words, had many defects, but yet, all thinga'j' 
 considered, it was as well as we could expect it to be. 
 
 In short,- it was a kind of sloop, of the burthen of near 
 eighteen or twenty tons, and had we had masts and sails, 
 standing and running rigging, as is usual in such cases, and 
 other conveniences, the vessel might have canied us wher- 
 ever we could have had a mind to go ; but of all the materials 
 we wanted, this was the worst, viz., that we had no tar, and 
 
BUILD A VESSEL AND PUT TO SEA. 39 
 
 •bat little pitcli to pay the seams and secure the bottom ; and 
 though -we did what we could with tallow and oil, to make 
 a mixture, to supply that part, yet we could not bring it to 
 answer our end fully ; and when we launched her into the 
 water, she was so leaky, and took in the water so fast, that 
 we thought all our labour had been lost, for we had much 
 ado to make her swim ; and as for pumps, we had none, nor 
 had we any means to make one. 
 
 But at length one of the natives, ablack neg ro-man,, 
 showed us a tree, the wood of which being put mto the fire, 
 sends forth a liquid that is as glutinous, and almost as strong 
 as tar, and of .which, by boUing, we made a sort of stuff 
 which served us for pitch, and this answered our end effect- 
 ually ; for we perfectly made our vessel souad-aQd tight, so 
 that we wanted no pitch or tar at all. Thia^cret%as stood 
 me in stead, upon many occasions since that^-tiatte, in the 
 same place. 
 
 Our vessel being thus finished, out of the mizen-mast of 
 the ship we made a very good mast to her, and fltting_qur 
 sails to it as well as we could ; then we made a rudder and 
 tiller, and, in a word, everything that our present necessity 
 called upon us for ; and having victualled her, and put as 
 much fresh water on board as we thought we wanted, or 
 as we knew how to stow (for we were yet without casks), 
 we put to sea with a fair wind. 
 
 We had spent near another year in these rambles, and in 
 this piece of wprk ; for it was now, as our men said, about 
 the beginning of February, and the sun went from us apace, 
 which was mucE to our satisfaction, for the heats were 
 excedingly violent. The wind, as I said, was fair ; for, as I 
 have since learned, the winds generally spring up to the east- 
 ward, as the sun goes from them to the north. 
 
 Our debate now was which way we should go, and never 
 were men so irresolute; some were for going to the east, and , 
 stretching away directly for the coast of Malabar; but others, 
 who considered more seriously the length of that voyage, 
 shook their heads at the proposal, knowing very well that 
 neither our provisions (especially of water), or our vessel, 
 were equal to such a run as that is, of near two thousand 
 miles without any land to touch at in the way. 
 
 These men, too, had all along had a great mind to a 
 voyage for the mainland of Africa, where they said wo 
 
40 CAPTAIN SINOLETON. 
 
 should have a fair cast for our lives, and might he siire to 
 make ourselves rich, which way soever we went, if we 
 were hut able to make our way through, whether by sea or 
 land. 
 
 Besides, as the case stood with us, we had not much 
 choice for our way ; for, if we had resolved for the east, we, 
 were at the wrong season of the year, and must have stayed 
 tin April, or May, before we had gone to sea. At length, 
 as we had the wind at S.E. and E.S.E., and fine promising 
 weather, we came all into the same proposal, and resolved 
 for the coast of Airica. Nor were we long in disputing as 
 to our coasting the island which we were upon, for we were 
 now upon the wrong side of the island for the voyage we 
 intended; so we stood away to the north, and having 
 rounded the Cape, we hauled away southward, under the lee 
 of the island, thinking to reach the west point of land, which, 
 as I observed before, runs out so far towards the coast of 
 Africa, as would have shortened our run almost a hundred 
 leagues. But when we had sailed about thirty leagues, we 
 found the winds variable under the shore, and right against 
 us; so we concluded to stand over directly, for then 
 we had the wind fair, and our vessel was but very ill 
 fitted to lie near the wind, or any way indeed but just 
 afore it. 
 
 Having resolved upon it, therefore, we put into the shore 
 to furnish ourselves again with fresh water, and other pro- 
 visions, and about the latter end of March, with more 
 courage than discretion, more resolution than judgment, we 
 launched for the main coast of Africa. 
 
 As for me, I had no anxiety about it ; so that we had but 
 a view of reaching some land or other, I cared not what or 
 where it was to be, having at this time no views of what 
 was before me, nor much thought of what might or might 
 not befall me; but with as little consideration as any one can 
 be supposed to have at my age, I consented to everything I 
 ' that was proposed, however hazardous the thing itself, how- 
 ever improbable the success. 
 
 The voyage, as it was undertaken with a great deal of 
 ignorance and desperation, so really it was not carried on 
 with much resolution or judgment ; for we knew no more of 
 the course we were to steer than this, that it was somewhere 
 about the west, within two or three points N, or S. ; and as 
 
THE VOYAGE.^ /^U-<t^^ ^j 
 
 we had no compass with us but a little brass pocket eompass, 
 which one of our men had, more by accident than otherwise, 
 so we could not be very exact in our course. 
 
 However, as it pleased God, that the wind continued fair 
 at S.E. and by E., we found that N.W. by "W., which waa 
 right afore it, was as good a course for us as any we could 
 go, and thus we went on. 
 
 The voyage was much longer than we expected; our 
 vessel also, which had no sail that was proportioned to her, 
 made but very little way in the sea, and sailed heavily. No 
 great adventures indeed happened in this voyage, being out 
 of the way of everything that could offer to divert us ; and 
 as for seeing any vessel, we had not the least occasion to 
 hail anything in all the voyage ; for we saw not one vessel, 
 small or great, the sea we were upon being entirely out of 
 the way of all commerce, for the people of Madagascar 
 knew no more of the shores of Africa than we did, only 
 that there was a country of lions, as they call it, that way. 
 
 We had been eight or nine days under sail, with a fair 
 wind, when, to our great joy, one of our men cried out, 
 Land ! We had great reason to be glad of the discovery ; 
 for we had not water enough left for above two or three 
 days more, though at a short allowance. However, though 
 it was early in the morning when we discovered it, we made 
 , it near night before we reached it, the wind slackening 
 almost to a calm, and our ship being, as I said, a very dull 
 sailer. 
 
 We were sadly baulked upon our coming to the land, when 
 we found that, instead of the mainland of Africa, it was 
 only a little island, with no inhabitants upon it — at least 
 none that we could find ; nor ^ny cattle, except a few goats, 
 of which we killed three only. However, they served us 
 for fresh meat, and we found very good water ; and it was 
 fifteen days more before we reached the main, which, how- 
 ever, at last we arrived at, and, which was most essential to 
 ns, came to it just as aU our provisions were spent. Indeed, 
 we may say they were spent first, for we had but a pint of 
 water a day to each man for the last two days. But, to our 
 great joy, we saw the land, though at a great distance, the 
 evening before, and, by a pleasant gale in the night, were, 
 by morning, within two leagues of the shore. 
 
 We never scrupled going ashore at the first place we came 
 
4t2 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 at, though, had -we had patience, we might have found a 
 very fine river a little further off. However, we kept our 
 frigate on float, by the help of two great poles, which we 
 fastened into the ground to moor her, like piles ; and the 
 little weak ropes, which, as I said, we had made of mattmg, 
 served us well enough to make the vessel fast. 
 
 As soon as we had viewed the country a little, got fresh 
 water, and furnished ourselves with some victuals, which we 
 found very scarce here, we went on board again with our 
 stores. All we got for provision was some fowls that we 
 killed, and a kind of wild buffalo, or bull, very small, but 
 good meat. I say, having got these things on board, we 
 resolved to sail on along the coast, which lay away N.N.E.,, 
 till we found some creek or river that we might run up into 
 the country, or some town or people; for we had reason 
 enough to know the place was inhabited, because we several 
 times saw flres in the night, and smoke in the day, every 
 way at a distance from us. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BECEPTION OP' THE NATIVES — WE DETERMINE TO TRAVEL 
 
 THROUGH THE COUNTRY BY LAND QUARREL AND BATTLE 
 
 WITH THE NEGROES TSTE TAKE SIXTY PRISONERS, AND 
 
 MAKE THEM SERVANTS TO US IN OUR JOURNEY — ^I AM 
 APPOINTED LEADER OP THE EXPEDITION, AND CHRISTENED 
 CAPTAIN — OUR NEGRO SERVANTS PROCURE US A SUPPLY 
 OF CATTLE. 
 
 At length we came to a very large bay, and in it several 
 little creeks or rivers emptying themselves into the sea, and 
 we run boldly into the first creek we came at, where, seeing 
 some huts and wild people about them on the shore, we ran 
 our vessel into a little cove on the north side of the creek, 
 and held up a long pole, with a white bit of cloth on it, for 
 a signal of peace to them. We found they understood us 
 presently, for they came flocking to us, men, women, and 
 children, most of them, of both sexes, stark naked. At 
 first they stood wondering and staling at us as if we had 
 been monsters, and as if they had been frightened ; but we 
 found they inclined to be familiar with us ^terwards. Tha 
 
HECEPTION OP THE NATIVES. 43 
 
 first thing we did to try them was, we held up our hands to 
 «ur mouths, as if we were to drink, signifying that we 
 wanted water. Tliis they understood presently, and three of 
 their women and two boys ran away up the land, and came 
 back in about half a quarter of an hour with several pots 
 made of earth, pretty enough, and baked, I suppose, in the 
 sun. These they brought us fuU of water, and set them 
 down near the seashore, and there left them, going back a 
 little, that we might fetch them, which we did. 
 
 Some time after this, they brought us roots and herbs, and 
 some jfruits which I cannot remember, and gave us ; but as 
 we had nothing to give them, we found them not so free as 
 the people of Madagascar were. Howeve r, our cutl er went 
 to w ork, and, as he had saved some iron out of the wreck of I 
 theTEpi he made abundance of toys, birds, dogs, pins, 
 hooks, and rings; and we helped to file them, and make 
 them bright for him ; and when we gave them some of these, 
 they brought us all the sort of provisions they had, such as 
 goats, hogs, and cows, and we got victuals enough. 
 
 We were now landed upon the continent of Africa, the 
 most desolate desert, and inhospitable country in the world, 
 even Greenland and Nova Zembla itself not excepted ; with 
 this difference only, that even the worst part of it we found 
 inhabited ; though, taking the nature and quality of some of 
 the inhabitants, it might have been much better to us if 
 there had been none. 
 
 And, to add to the exclamation I am making on the nature 
 of the place, it was here that we took one of the rashest 
 and wildest, and most desperate resolutions that was ever 
 taken by man, or any number of men, in the world; this 
 was to travel over land through the heart of the country, 
 from the coast of Mozambique, on the east ocean, to the 
 coast of Angola or Guinea, on the western or Atlantic 
 ocean, a continent of land at least 1800 miles; in which 
 journey we had excessive heats to support, unpassable 
 deserts to go over; no carriages, camels, or beasts of any 
 kind to carry our baggage, innumerable numbers of wild and 
 ravenous beasts to encounter with, such as lions, leopards, 
 tigers, lizards, and elephants ; we had the equinoctial line to 
 pass under, and, consequently, were in the very centre of 
 the torrid zone; we had nations of savages to encounter 
 with, barbarous and brutish to the last degree ; hunger and 
 
44 CAPTAIN SINGLEION. 
 
 thirst to struggle with ; and, in one word, terrors enough to 
 have daunted the stoutest hearts that ever were placed in, 
 cases of flesh and blood. 
 
 Yet, fearless of all these, we resolved t j^ adventurg^iiTirl 
 accordingly made such preparations for our journey, as the 
 place we were in would allow us, and such as our little 
 experience of the country seemed to dictate to us. 
 
 It had been some time already that we had been used to 
 tread bare-footed upon the rocks, the gravel, the grass, and 
 the sand on the shore ; but, as we found the worst thing for 
 our feet was, the walking or travelling on the dry buraiMg 
 sands, within the country, so we provided ourselves with a 
 sort of shoes, made of the skins of wild beasts, with the 
 hair inward, and being dried in the sun, the outsides were 
 thick and hard, and would last a great while. In short,vas 
 I called them, so I think the term very proper still, we made 
 us gloves f or our feet, and we found them very convenient 
 "and very coimt'ortabler 
 
 We conversed with some of the natives of the country) 
 who were friendly enough. What tongue they spoke, I do 
 not yet pretend to know. We talked as far as we could 
 make them understand us, not only about our provisions, hut 
 also about our undertaking ; and asked them what country 
 lay that way, pointing west with our hands. They told us 
 but little to our purpose, only we thought, by all their dis- 
 course, that there were many great rivers ; many lions and 
 tigers, elephants, and furious wild cats (which in the end 
 we found to be civet cats), and the like. 
 
 When we asked them if any one had ever travelled that 
 way, they told us. Yes ; some had gone to where the sun 
 gleeps, meaning to the west ; but they could not tell us who 
 they were. When we asked for some to guide us, they 
 shrunk up their shoulders , as Frenchmen do w hen they are 
 afraid to undertake a thing! When we asked them about 
 the lions and wild creatures, they laughed, and let us know 
 they would do us no hurt, and directed us to a good way 
 indeed to deal with them, and that was to make some fire, 
 which would always fright them away ; and so indeed we 
 found it. 
 
 Upon these encouragements we resolved upon our jourttSy, 
 and many considerations put us upon it, which, had the thing 
 itself been practicable, we were not so much to blame for, at 
 
 /w 
 
 t, 
 
DISCOUEAGEMENTS. 45 
 
 It might otherwise be supposed ; I mil name some of them, 
 not to make the account too tedious. 
 
 First, we were perfectly destitute of means to work about 
 our own deliverance any other way ; we were on shore in a 
 place perfectly remote from all European navigation '; so that 
 we could never think of being reUeved, and fetched off by 
 any of our own countrymen in that part of the world. 
 Secondly, if we had adventured to have sailed on along the 
 coast of Mozambique, and the desolate shores of Africa to 
 the north, tUl we came to the Red Sea, all we could hope for 
 there, was to be taken by the Arabs, and be sold for slaves 
 to the Turks, which to all of us was little better than death. 
 We could not bmld .anything of a vessel that would carry us 
 over the great Arabian sea to India, nor could we reach the 
 Cape de Bona Speranza, the winds being too variable, and 
 the sea in that latitude too tempestuous ; but we all knew, if 
 we could cross this continent of land, we might reach some 
 of the great rivers that run into the Atlantic ocean ; and 
 that, on the banks of any of those rivers, we might there 
 build us canoes, which would carry us down, if it were 
 thousands of nules ; so that we could want nothing but food, 
 of which we were assured we might kiU sufficient with our 
 guns ; and, to add to the satisfaction of our deliverance, we 
 concluded we might every o ne of us get a quantity of gold. 
 which, if we" came sateTwould infinitely recompense us for 
 our toil. 
 
 I cannot say, that, in all our consultations, I ever began to 
 enter into the weight and merit of any enterprise we went 
 upon tiU now. My view before was, as I thought, very good, 
 viz., that we should get into the Arabian gulf, or the mouth 
 of the Red Sea ; and waiting for some vessel passing or re- 
 passing there, of which there is plenty, have seized upon the 
 first we came at by force ; and not only have enriched our- 
 selves with her cargo, but have carried ourselves to what 
 part of the world we had pleased : but when they came to 
 talk to me of a march of two or three thousand mUes on 
 foot, of wandering ii^ deserts, among lions and tigers, I confess 
 my blood ran chffl ; and I used all the arguments I could to 
 persuade them against it. 
 
 But they were all positive, and I might as well have held 
 my tongue ; so I submitted, and told them I would keep to 
 our first law, to be governed by the majority, and we resolved 
 
46 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 upon our journey. Tl.e first thing we did wasjqjake SF 
 observation,_and see~wEefeaBouts in t&e woild we were, 
 whicE we Hid, and found we were in the lattitude of 1 2 degree^ 
 ^.minutes south of the line. The next thing was to look on 
 Ihe charts^,"~and see the coast of the country we aimed at, 
 which we found to be from 8 to 11 degrees south latitude, if we 
 went for the coast of Angolo, or in 12 to 1 9 degrees north lati- 
 tude, if we made for the river Nigre,_and the coast of Guinea, 
 
 Our aim was for the coast of Angola, which, by the charts 
 we had, lying very near the same latitude we were then in, 
 our course thither was due west ; and, as we were assured 
 we should meet with rivers, we doubted not, but that by 
 their help we might ease our journey, especialiy if we could 
 find means to cross the great lake, or inland of the sea, 
 which the natives call Coalmucoa, out of which it is said 
 the river Nile has its source or beginning ; but we reckoned 
 without our host, as you wiU see in the sequel of our story. 
 
 The next thing we had to consider was, how to carry our 
 baggage, which we were first of all determined not to travel 
 without ; neither indeed was it possible for us to do so, for 
 even our ammunition, which was absolutely necessary to us, 
 and on which our subsistence, I mean for food, as well as 
 our defence against wild beasts and wild men, depended : I 
 say, even our ammunition was a load too heavy for us to 
 carry, in a country where the heat was such, that we shonll 
 be load enough for ourselves. 
 
 "We inquired in the country, and found there was no beast 
 of burthen known among them ; that is to say, neither horseS- 
 or mules, or asses, camels or dromedaries ; the only creature 
 they had, was a kind of bufialo, or tame bull, such a one as 
 We had killed ; and that some of these they had brought so™ 
 to their hand, that they taught them to go and come Tvith 
 their voices, as they called them to them, or sent them from 
 them ; that they made them carry burthens ; and, particu-^ 
 larly, that they would swim over rivers and lakes upon theriiE 
 the creatures swimming very high and strong in the water. 
 
 But we understood nothing of the management or guiffing 
 such a creature, or how to bind a burthen upon them, and 
 this last part of our consultation puzzled us extremely : at 
 last I proposed a method for them, which, after some con- 
 sideration, they found very convenient; and this was to 
 quarrel with some of the negro natives, take ten or tweltl' 
 
BATTLE WITH THE NEGROES. 47 
 
 of them prisoners, and, binding them as slaves, cause them 
 to travel with us, and make them carry our baggage ; which 
 I alleged would be convenient and useful many ways, as well 
 to show us the way, as to converse with other natives for 
 US. 
 
 This counsel was not accepted at first, but the natives 
 soon gave them reason to approve it ; and also gave them an 
 opportunity to put it in practice ; for, as our little trafiic 
 with the natives was hitherto upon the faith of their first 
 kindness, jy e found _some knavery among them at last; for 
 having bought some cattle of Them I'or our toys, wnich,' as I 
 said, our cutler had contrived, one of our men differing with 
 his chapman, truly they hufied him in their manner, and, 
 keeping the things he had ofiered them for the cattle, made 
 their fellows drive away the cattle before his face, and laugh 
 at him ; our man crjdng out loud of this violence, and call- 
 ing to some of "is who were not far off", the negro he was 
 dealing with threw a lance at him, which came so true, that, 
 if he had not with great agility jumped aside, and held up 
 his hand also to tunl the lance as it came, it had struck 
 through his body ; and, as it was, it wounded him in the 
 axm : at which the man enraged, took up his fusee, add shot 
 the negro through the heart. 
 
 The others that were near him, and all those that were 
 with us at a distance, were so terribly frightened ; first, at 
 the flash of fire ; secondly, at the noise ; and thirdly, at 
 seeing their countrymen killed, that they stood like men 
 stupid and amazed, at first, for some time ; but, after they 
 were a little recovered from their fright, one of them, at a 
 good distance from us, set up a sudden screaming noise, 
 which, it seems, is the noise they make when they go to 
 fight; and aU the rest, understanding what he meant, an- 
 swered him, and run together to the place where he was, and 
 we not knowing what it meant, stood stiU, looking upon one 
 another like a parcel of fools. 
 
 But we were presently undeceived ; for, in two or three 
 minutes more, we heard the screaming roaring noise go on 
 from one place to another, through all their little towns ; 
 jiay, even over the creek to the other side ; and, on a sudden, 
 we saw a naked multitude running from aU parts to the 
 place where the first man began it, as to a rendezvous ; and, 
 in less than an hour, I believe there was near five hundred 
 
48 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 of them gotten together, armed some vrith bows and arrows, 
 but most -with lances, which they threw at a good distance 
 so nicely, that they will strike a bird flying. 
 
 "We had but a very little time for consultation, for the 
 multitude was increasing every moment ; and I verily beheve, 
 if we had stayed long, they would have been ten thousand 
 together in a little time. "We had nothing to do, therefore, 
 but to fly to our ship or bark, where indeed we could have 
 defended ourselves very well, or to advance and try what a 
 voUey or two of small shot would do for us. 
 
 "We resolved immediately upon the latter, depending upon 
 it, that the fire and terror of our shot would soon put them 
 to flight ; so we drew up all in a Hne, and marched boldly up 
 to them ; they stood ready to meet us, depending, I suppose, 
 to destroy us all vrith their lances ; we halted, and, standing J 
 at a good distance from one another, to stretch our line as 
 far as we could, we gave them a salute with our shot, which, 
 besides what we wounded that we knew not of, knocked 
 sixteen of them down upon the spot, and three more were so 
 lamed, that they fell about twenty or thirty yards from 
 them. 
 
 As soon as we had fired, they set up the horridest ydl, or 
 howling, partly raised by those that were wounded, and 
 partly by those that pitied and condoled the bodies they saw 
 lie dead, that I never heard anything like it before or since. 
 
 We stood stock still after we had fired, to load oiu" guns 
 again, and finding they did not stir from the place, we fired 
 among them again ; we killed about nine of them at the 
 second fire ; but as they did not stand so thick as before, all 
 our men did not fire, seven of us being ordered to reserve 
 our charge, and to advance as soon as the other had fired, 
 while the rest loaded again ; of which I shall speak again 
 presently. * 
 
 As soon as we had fired the second volley, we shouted as 
 loud as we could, and the seven men advanced upon them, 
 and, coming about twenty yards nearer, fired again, and 
 those that were behind having loaded again with all expe- 
 dition, followed ; but when they saw us advance, they ran 
 screaming away as if they were bewitched. 
 
 "When we came up to the field of battle, we saw a great 
 number of bodies lying upon the ground, many more than 
 we could suppose were killed or wounded ; nay more than 
 
SIXTT NEGROES TAKEN PEISOKEES. 49 
 
 we had bullets in our pieces when we fired ; and we could 
 not tell what to make of it ; but at length we found how it 
 was, viz., that they were frightened out of all manner of 
 sense ; nay, I do believe several of those that were really 
 dead, were frightened to death , and had no wound about 
 them. 
 
 Of those that were thus frightened, as I have said, several 
 of them, as they recovered themselves, came and worshipped 
 us, taking us for gods or devils, I know not which, nor did 
 it much matter to us — some kneeling, some throwing them- < 
 selves flat on the ground, t).ade a thousand antic gestures-, ^ 
 but all vrith tokens of theTaost proloundT^ submissiuiK Jt~- 
 presently came into my head that we might now, by the law 
 of arms, take as many prisoners as we would, and make 
 them travel with us, and carry our baggage. As soon as I _ 
 proposed it, our men were all of my mind ; and, accordingly, 
 we secured about sixty lusty young fellows, and let them 
 know they must go with us, which they seemed very willing 
 to do. But the next question we had among ourselves was, 
 how we should do to trust them, for we found the people 
 not like those of Madagascar, but fierce, revengeful, and 
 treacherous, for which reason we were sure that we should 
 have no_serYice_fram^J3ieBi .bat that of mere slacees — no ' 
 subjection thatwould continue any longer than the fear of 
 us was upon them, nor any labour but by violence. 
 
 Before I go any farther, I must hint to the reader that, 
 from this time forward, I began to enter a little more 
 seriously into the circumstance I was in, and concerned 
 myself more ia the conduct of our afiairs ; for, though my 
 comrades were all older men, yet I began to find them void 
 of counsel, or, as I now call it, presence of mind, when they 
 came to the execution of anything. The first occasion I 
 took to observe this was in their late engagement with the 
 natives, when, though they had taken a good resolution to 
 attack them, and fire upon them, yet, when they had fired 
 the first time, and found that the negroes did not run, as 
 they expected, their hearts began to fail, and I am per- 
 suaded, if their bark had been near hand, they would every 
 man have run away. 
 
 Upon this occasion I began to take upon me a little to 
 hearten them up, and to call upon them to load again, and 
 give them another yoUey, tolling them that I would engage 
 
 K 
 
50 CAPTAIN SIXGLKTON. 
 
 if they would be ruled by me, I'd make the negroes run fast 
 enough. I found this heartened them, and, therefore, when 
 they fired a second time, I desired them to reserve some of 
 then- shot to an attempt by itself, as I mentioned above. 
 
 Having fired a second time, I was indeed forced to com- 
 mand, as I may call it. Now, seigniors, said I, let as give 
 them a cheer, -So- I-opened my throat, and shouted three 
 times, as our English sailors do on like occasions. And now 
 follow me, said r,~to the seven that had not fired, and I'll 
 warrant you we will make work with them; and so it 
 proved indeed, for, as soon as they saw us coming, away 
 they ran, as above. 
 
 From this day forward they would call me nothing but 
 Seignior Capitanio; but I told them I would not be called 
 Seignior. "Well, then, said the gunner, who spoke good 
 English, you shall be called Ca£teinBob|_and so Jhey^^ave 
 me my ti{Ie~eY6 faSer. 
 
 ' Nothing is more certain of tlie Portuguese than this: 
 take them nationally or personally, if they are animated and 
 heartened by anybody, to go before, and encourage them by 
 example, they will behave well enough ; but if they have 
 nothing but their own measures to foUow, they sink im- 
 mediately. These men had certainly fled from a parcel of 
 naked savages, though, even by flying, they could not have 
 saved their lives, if I had not shouted and hallooed, and 
 rather made sport with the thing than a fight, to keep up 
 their courage. 
 
 Nor was there less need of it upon several occasions 
 hereafter; and I do confess I have oft«n wondered how a 
 number of men, who, when they came to the extremity, 
 were so ill supported by their own spirit, had at first courage 
 to propose and to undertake the most desperate and im- 
 practicable attempt that ever men went about in the world- 
 There were indeed two or three indefatigable men among 
 them, by whose coinage and industry aS the rest were 
 upheld ; and indeed these two or three were the managers of 
 them from the beginning — that was the gunner and that 
 cutler whom I call the artist, and the third, who was pretty, 
 well, though not like either of them, was one of the car- 
 penters. These indeed were the life and soul of aU the 
 rest, and it was to their courage that all the rest owed the 
 resolution they showed upon any occasion. But when thosa 
 
BOB MADE CAPTAIN. 51 
 
 saw me take a little upon me, as above, they embraced mo, 
 lU'd treated me with particular affection ever after. 
 
 This gunner was an excellent mathematician, a good scholar, 
 .ind a complete sailor ; and it was in conversing intimately 
 with him, that I learned afterwards the grounds of what 
 knowledge I have since had in all the sciences useful for 
 oavigation, and particularly in the geographical part of 
 knowledge. . -- 
 
 '~ JUven in our conversation, finding me eager to understand 
 and learn, he laid the foundation of a general knowledge of 
 things in my mind, gave me just ideas of the form of the 
 ^rth and of the sea, the situation of countries, the course of 
 rivers, the doctripf^gf the spheres, the motion of the stars ; 
 pmd, in a word, taught me a^kind qf^^stem of astronomy, 
 which I afterwards improved. 
 
 In an especial manner, he filled my head with aspiring 
 thoughts, and with an earnest desire after learning everything 
 that coidd be taught me ; convincing me, that nothing could 
 qualify me for great undertakings, but a degree of learning 
 superior to what was usual in the race of seamen ; he told 
 me, that to be ignorant, was to be certain of a mean station 
 in the world, but thatkDowledge_was_the_first step to prefer- 
 ment. . He was alwaysflattering me with my capacity to 
 learn ; and though that fed my pride, yet, on the other hand, 
 as I had a secret ambition, which just at that time fed itself 
 in my mind, it prompted in me an insatiable thirst after 
 learning in general, and I resolved, if ever I came back to 
 Europe, and had anything left to purchase it, "I would make 
 myself master of aJl the parts of learning needful to the 
 making of me a complete saUor ; but I was not so just to 
 myself afterwards, as to do it when I had an opportunity. 
 
 But to return to our business : the gunner, when he saw 
 the service I had done in the fight, and heard my proposal 
 for keeping a number of prisoners for our march, and for 
 carrying our baggage, turns to me before them all. Captain 
 Bob, says he, I think you must be our leader, for all the 
 success of this entei-prise is owing to you. No, no, said I, 
 do not compliment me ; you shall be our Seignior Capitanio, 
 you shall be general ; I am too young for it. So, in short, 
 we all agreed he should be our leader ; but he would not 
 accept of it alone, but would have me joined with him ; and 
 all the rest agreeing, I was obliged to comply. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 CAPTAIi; SINGLETON, 
 
 The first piece of service they put me upon in this neyf 
 command, was as difficult as any they could think of, and 
 that was to manage the prisoners ; which, however, I cheer- 
 fully undertook, as you shall hear presently ; but the imme- 
 diate consultation was yet of more consequence ; and that 
 was, first, which way we should go; and secondly, how to 
 furnish ourselves for the voyage with provisions. 
 
 There was, among the prisoners, one tall, weU-shaped, 
 handsome fellow, to whom the rest seemed to pay great 
 respect, and wno, as we understood afterwards, was the son 
 of one of their kings ; his father was, as it seems, killed at 
 our first volley, and he wounded with a shot in his arm, and 
 ■with, another just on one of his hips or haunches. The shot 
 in his haunch being in a fleshly part, bled much, and he was 
 half dead with the loss of blood. As to the shot in his arm, 
 it had broke his wrist, and he was by both these wounds 
 quite disabled, so that we were once going to turn him away, 
 and let him die ; and, if we had, he would have died indeed 
 in a few days more ; but as I found the man had some 
 respect showed him, it presently occurred to my thoughts, 
 that we might bring him to be useful to us, and perhaps 
 make hima^ind of commander over them. So I caused our 
 surgeon to take" him in handj^ and"gave the poor wretch 
 good words, that is to say, I spoke to him as well as I could, 
 by signs, to make him understand that we would make him 
 well again. 
 
 This created a new awe in their minds of us, believing, 
 that, as we coiild kill at a distance by something invisible to 
 them (for so our shot was, to be sure), so we could make them 
 well again too. Upon this the young prince (for so we called 
 him afterwards) called six or seven of the savages to him, 
 and said something to them ; what it was we knew not, but 
 immedi/itely all the seven came to me, and kneeled down to 
 me, holding up their hands, and making signs of entr'eaty, 
 pointing to the place where one of those lay whom we had 
 killed. 
 
 It was a long time before I or any of us could understand 
 them ; but one of them ran and lifted up a dead man, point- 
 ing to his wound, which was in his eyes, for he was shot 
 into the head at one of his eyes. Then another pointed to 
 the surgeon, and at last we found it out, that the meaning 
 
N VTlVE PRINCE'S OATH OP ALLERTAJfCB. 53 
 
 was, that he should heal the prince's father too, trho was 
 dead, being shot through the head, as above. 
 
 We presently took the hint, and would not say we could 
 not do it, but let them know, the men that were killed were 
 those that had first fallen upon us, and provoked us, and we 
 would by no means make them alive again ; and that, if any 
 other did so, we would kill them too, and never let them 
 live any more ; but that, if he (the prince) would be willing 
 to ^ with us, and do as we should direct him, we would not 
 let him die, and would make his arm well. Upon this, he 
 bid his men go and fetch a long stick or staff, and lay on the 
 ground. When they brought it, we saw it was an arrow ; 
 he took it with his left hand (for his other was lame with 
 the wound), and, pointing up at the sun, broke the arrow in 
 two, and set the point against his breast, and then gave it to 
 me. This was, as I understood afterwards, wishing the sun, 
 whom they worship, might shoot him into the breast, with an 
 arrow, if ever he &;iled to be my Mend ; and giving the 
 point of the arrow to me, was to be a testimony that I was 
 the man he had sworn to ; and never was a Christian^ more 
 gunctualjto anjoath than he'was to this, for he was a sworn 
 'servant to us for many a weary month after that. • 
 
 When I brought him to the surgeon, he immediately 
 dressed the wound in his haunch or buttock, and found the 
 bullet had only grazed upon the flesh, and passed, as it were, 
 by it, but it was not lodged in the part ; so that it was soon 
 healed and well again ; but as to his arm, he found one of 
 the bones broken, which are in the fore-part from the wrist 
 to the elbow; and this he set, and splintered it up, and 
 bound his arm in a sUng, hanging it about his neck, and 
 making signs to him that he should not stir it ; which he 
 was so strict an observer of, that he set him down, and never 
 moved one way or other, but as the surgeon gave him leave. 
 
 I. took a great deal of pains to acquaint this negro what 
 we intended to do, and what use we intended to make of his 
 men; and particularly to teach him the meaning of what we 
 said, especially to teach him some words, such as yes andt' 
 no, and what they meant ; and to inure him to our way of* 
 telking ; and he was very willing and apt to learn anything 
 I'taught him. 
 
 It was easy to let him see that we intended to carry (»« 
 
54 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 provision with us from the first day ; but he made slgns^ to 
 us, to tell iis we need not, for that we should find provision 
 enough everywhere for forty days. It was very difficult for 
 us to understand how he expressed forty ; for he knew no 
 figures, but some words they used to one another that they 
 understood it by. At last one of the negroes, by his order, 
 laid forty little stones one by another, to show us how many 
 days we should travel, and find provisions sufficient. 
 
 Then I showed him our baggage, which was heavy, par- 
 ticularly our powder, shot, lead, iron, carpenters' tools, 
 seamens' instruments, cases of bottles, and other lumber. 
 He took some of the things up in his hand to feel the weight, 
 and shook his head at them ; so I told our people they must 
 resolve to divide their things into small parcels, and make 
 theia portable ; and accordingly they did so, by which means 
 we were fain to leave all our chests behind us, which were 
 eleven in number. 
 
 Then he made signs to us, that he would procure some 
 bufialoes, or young buUs, as I called them, to carry things 
 for us, and made signs too, that if we were weary, we might 
 be carried too ; but that we slighted, only were willing to 
 have the creatures, because, at last, when they could serve 
 us no further for carriage, we might eat them all up if we 
 had any occasion for them. 
 
 I then carried him to our bark, and showed him what 
 thiags we had here ; he seemed amazed at the sight of our 
 bark, having never seen anything of that kind before, for 
 their boats are most wretched things, such as I never saw 
 before, having no head or stern, and being made only of the 
 skins of goats, sewed together, with dried guts of goats and 
 sheep, and done over vrith a kind of slimy stufi" like rosin and 
 oil, but of a most nauseous, odious smell ; and they are poor 
 miserable things for boats, the worst that any part of the 
 world ever saw; a canoe is an excellent contrivance com- 
 pared to them. 
 
 But to return to our boat ; we carried our new prince into 
 it, and helped him over the side, becauie" of~Eislaiaeness. 
 "We made signs to him, that his men must carry our goods 
 for us, and showed him what we had; he answered, Ce 
 Seignior, or. Yes, sir (for we had taught him ttat word, and 
 the meaning of it), and taking up a bundle, he made signs to 
 
PHISONEKS SWEAR TO BE FAITHFUL. 55 
 
 OS, that when his arm was well, he would carry some for 
 us. 
 
 JEjnade^signs agahj Jo-iell-him,. that.if- he would make his 
 men carry them, we would jiot let him carry anything. We 
 TSaTsecured "air the prisoners in a narrow place, where we 
 had bound them with mat cords, and set up stakes like a 
 palisado round them : so, when we carried the prince on 
 shore, we went with him to them, and made signs to him, to 
 ask them if they were willing to go with us to the country 
 , of lions. Accordingly, he made a long speech to them, and 
 we could understand by it, that he told them, if they were 
 willing, they must say, Ce Seignior, telling them what it sig- 
 nified. They immediately answered, Ce Seignior, and clapped 
 their hands, looking up to. the sun, which, the prince signified 
 to us, was swearing to be faithful. But as soon as they had 
 said so, one of them made a long speech to the prince ; and 
 in it, we perceived by his gestures, which were very antic, 
 that they desired something from us, and that they were in 
 great concern about it. So I asked him, as well as I eould, 
 what it was they desired of us ; he told us by signs, that 
 they desired we should clap our hands to the sun (that was to 
 swear) that we would not kiU them, that we would give them 
 CMaruck, that is to say, bread, would not starve them, and 
 would not let the lions eat them. I told them we would 
 promise aU that; then he pointed to the sun, and clapped his 
 hands, signing to me, that I should do so too, which I did ; 
 at which all the prisoners fell flat on the ground,, and rising 
 up again, made the oddest, wildest cries that ever I heard. 
 
 I think it was the fir st time in my life that ^verjjijrrdi- 
 j^ustEonght affected me^^but T couia~not refrain some 
 rSections, siSi. almost tears, in considering how happy it 
 was, that I was not bom among such creatures as these, and 
 was not so stupidly ignorant and barbarous. But this soon 
 went off again, and I was not troubled again with any 
 qualms of that sort for a long time after. 
 
 When this ceremony was over, our concern was to get 
 some provisions, as well for the present subsistence of our 
 prisoners as of ourselves; and making signs to our prince 
 that we were thinking upon that subject, he made signs to 
 me, that, if I would let one of the prisoners go to his town 
 he should bring provisions, and should bring some beasts to 
 carry our baggage. I seemed loath to trust him, and sup- 
 
BG CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 posing that he would run away, he^ made, great signs_of 
 fidelity, and with his own handsjKed a roE5- abSJ^-Mi-^^' 
 offering me one endTof "itjlnGmaildngJhat I sh^ffljEnglEm 
 If lEe man did not coine "again. So I consented, and he 
 g¥TO him abundance of instructions, and sent him away, 
 pointing to the light of the sun, which it seems was to tell 
 him at what time he must be back. 
 
 The fellow ran as if he was mad, and held it till he was 
 quite out of sight, by which I supposed he had a great way 
 to go. The next morning, about two hours before the time 
 appointed, Jjie black pringe, for so I alwayscalled_JUm, 
 beckoning with his hand to me, and hallooingalter his man- 
 ner, desired me to come to him, which I did, when pointing 
 to a little hiU about two miles off, I saw plainly a little drove 
 of cattle, and several people with them ; those he told me by 
 signs were the man he had sent, and several more with him, 
 and cattle for us. 
 
 Accordingly, by the time appointed, he came quite to our 
 huts, and brought with him a great many cows, young runts, 
 about sixteen goats, and four young bulls, taught to carry 
 burthens. 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 WE SET OUT ON OUB MAECH — GREAT tTSE OP THE BULLS OF 
 THE COUNTRY, AS BEASTS OP BURTHEN — MANNER OP SAIL- 
 ING TWO HUNDRED MILES, IN A GREAT EIVEE, UP THE 
 COUNTRY— WE ARE STOPPED BY A PRODIGIOUS CATARACT 
 — OUR GUNNER SHOOTS A PINE LEOPARD, TO THE GREAT 
 TERROR AND ASTONISHMENT OP OUR NEGROES — MANNER 
 OP PROCEEDING APTER LEAVING OUR BARK — DAUGBROUS 
 ENCOUNTER WITH SAVAGES. \ 
 
 This was a supply of provisions sufficient ; as for bread, we 
 were obliged to shift with some roots which we had made 
 use of before. We then began to consider of making some 
 large bags like the soldiers' knapsacks, for their men to carry 
 our baggage in, and to make it easy to them; and the goats 
 being killed, I ordered the sHns to be spread in the sun, and 
 they were as dry in two days as could be desired ; so we 
 found means to make such little bags as we wanted, and be« 
 
SET OTTT ON THEIK MABCH. 57 
 
 gan to divide our baggage into them : when the black prince 
 found what they were for, and how easy they were of car- 
 riage when we put them on, he smiled a Httle, and sent away 
 the man again to fetch skins, and he brought two natives 
 more with him, all loaded with skins better cured than ours, 
 and of other kinds, such as we could not tell what names to 
 give them. 
 
 These two men brought the black prince two lances, of 
 the sort they use in their fights, but finer than ordinary, 
 being made of black smooth wood, as fine as ebony, and 
 headed at the point with the end of a long tooth of some 
 creature, we could not teU of what creature ; the head was 
 so firm put on, and the tooth so strong, though no bigger 
 than my thumb, and sharp at the end, that I never saw any- 
 thing lie it in any place in the world. 
 
 The prince would not take them till I gave him leave, but 
 made signs that they should give them to me : however, I 
 gave him leave to take them himself, for I saw evident signs 
 of an honourable just principle in him. 
 
 "We now prepared for our march, when the prince coming 
 to me, and pointing towards the several quarters of the 
 world, made signs to know which way we intended to go ; 
 and when I showed him, pointing to the west, he presently 
 let me know there was a great river a little further to the 
 north, which was able to carry our bark many leagues into 
 the country' due west. I presently took the hint, and inquired 
 for the mouth of the river, which I understood by him was 
 above a day's march, and, by our estimation, we found it 
 about seven leagues fiu'ther. I take this to be the great river 
 marked by our chart-makers, at the northmost part of the 
 coast of Mozambique, and called there Quilloa. 
 
 Consulting thus with ourselves, we resolved to take the 
 prince, and as many of the prisoners as we could stow in 
 our fixate, and go about by the bay into the river ; and that 
 eight of us, with our arms, should march by land, to meet 
 them on the river side ; for the prince carrying us to a rising 
 ground, had showed us the river very plain, a great way up 
 the country ; and in one place it was not above six miled 
 to it. 
 
 It was my lot to march by land, and be captain of the 
 whole caravan I had eight of our men with me, and seven 
 and thirty of our prisoner* without any baggage, for all our 
 
58 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 luggage was yet on board. We drovjg the yqung^ bulls wift^ 
 uS4_ngtMngjwas _eyer so tame, so willing to woi^__or_carry 
 anjttdng. The negroes would ride upon them foar at a 
 time, and they would go very willingly : they would eat out 
 of our hand, lick our feet, and were as tractable as a dog. 
 
 We drove with us six or seven cows for food : but our 
 negroes knew nothing of curing the flesh by salting and 
 drying it, till we showed them the way, and then they were 
 mighty willing to do so as long as we had any salt to do it 
 with, and to carry salt a great way too, after we found we 
 should have no more. 
 
 It was an easy march to the river side for us that went by 
 land, and we came thither in a piece of a day, being, as 
 above, no more than six English mUes ; whereas it was no 
 less than five days before they came to us by water, the wind 
 in the bay having faUed them, and the way, by reason of a 
 great turn or reach in the river, being above fifty mUes about. 
 
 We spent this time, in a thing which the two strangers who 
 brought the prince the two lances, put into the head of the 
 prisoners, viz., to make bottles of the goats' skins to carry 
 fresh water in, which it seems they knew we should come to 
 want ; and the men did it so dexterously, having dried skins 
 fetched them by those two men, that before our vessel came 
 up, they had every man a pouch like a bladder, to carry fresh 
 water in, hanging over their shoulder by a thong made oi 
 other skins, about three inches broad, like the sling of a fdsee. 
 
 Our prince, to assure us of the fidelity of the men in this 
 march, had ordered them to be tied two and two by the wrist, 
 as we handcufi' prisoners in England ; and made them so 
 sensible of the reasonableness of i^thatliielnadelEEem do it 
 theinselves, a;ppoiriting four of them to hiiid theTesTr'but wl 
 ioun3" them so honest, and particularly so obedient to him, 
 that after we were gotten a little further from their own 
 country, we set them at liberty, ^hough, when he came.to us, 
 he would have^ them tied ^ain, and they continued so for a 
 good while. 
 
 All the country on the bank of the river was a high land, 
 no marshy swampy ground in it; the verdure good, and 
 abundance of cattle feeding upon it wherever we went, or 
 which way soever we looked ; there was not much wood, 
 indeed, at least not near us; but further up we saw oak, 
 cedar, and pine trees, some of which were very large. 
 
A PEODIGIOUS CATARACT, 59 
 
 The river was a fair ogen chann el aTao nt ac broad as the 
 Thames, belowGrayesend, and astfong ti3e of flood7 which- 
 weTound held us about sixty miles, the channel deep ; noi' 
 did we find any want of water for a great way. In short, we 
 went merrily up the river with the flood and the wind blow- 
 ing still fresh at E. and E.N.E. ; we stemmed, the ebb easily 
 also, especially while the river continued broad and deep ; 
 but when we came past the swelling of the tide, and had the 
 natural current of the river to go against, we found it too 
 strong for us, and began to think of quitting our bark : but 
 the prince would by no means agree to that, for, finding we 
 had on board pretty good store of roping made of mats and 
 flags, which I described before, he ordered all the prisoners 
 which were on shore to come and take hold of those ropes, 
 and tow us along by the shore side ; and as we hoisted our 
 sail too, to ease them, the men ran along with us at a very 
 great rate. 
 
 In this manner the river carried us up, by our computation, 
 near two hundred miles, and then it narrowed apace, and 
 was not above as broad as the Thames is at Windsor, or 
 thereabouts ; and after another day, we came to a great 
 waterfall or cataract, enough to frighten us, for I believe the 
 whole body of water feU at once perpendicularly down a 
 precipice above sixty feet high, which made noise enough to 
 deprive men of their hearing, ^nd we heard it above ten 
 miles before we came to it. 
 
 Here we were at a ftdl stop, and now our prisoners went 
 first on shore ; they had worked very hard, and very cheer- 
 fully, relieving one another, those that were weary being 
 taken into the bark. Had we had canoes, or any boats 
 which might have been carried by men's strength, we might 
 have gone two hundred nules more up this river in small 
 boats ; but our great boat could go no further. 
 
 All this way the country looked green and pleasant, and 
 was Ml of cattle, and some people we saw, though not 
 many ; but this we observed now, _that_tiie_peo]^edidno_ 
 more un dersta nd ou r prisoners here than we couTd under^ 
 Itand tEem r^BaE^^^ineems; of different nationSj_and of 
 "Cerent speech. We had yet seen no wild ^asts, or at 
 ' least none that came very near us, except two days before 
 we came at the waterfall, when we saw three of the most 
 beautiful leopards that ever were seen, standing upon tho 
 
60 CAPTAIX SINGLETON. 
 
 bank of the river on the north side, our prisoners being all 
 on the other side of the water. Our gunner espied them 
 first, and ran to fetch his gun, putting a ball extraordinary 
 in it ; and coming to me, Now, Captain Bob, says he, where 
 is your prmce ? So I called him out. Now, says he, tell 
 your men not to be afraid; tell them they shall see that 
 thing in his hand speak in fire to one of those beasts, and 
 make it kill itself. 
 
 The poor, negroes looked as if they had been all going to 
 be killed, notwithstanding what their prince said to them, 
 and stood staring to expect the issue, when on a sudden the 
 gunner fired ; and, as he was a very good marksman, he 
 shot the creature with two slugs just in the head. As soon 
 as the leopard felt herself struck, she reared up on her two 
 hind-legs, bolt upright, and throwing her fore-paws about in 
 the air, fell backward, growling and struggling, and. im- 
 mediately died ; the other two, frightened with the fire and 
 the noise, fled, and were out of sight in an instant. 
 
 But the two finghtened leopards were not in half the 
 consternation that biir prisoners were : four or five ^iF~ffiem 
 'fel['down""as if they had been shot, "several others fell on 
 their knees, and lifted up their hands to us — whether to 
 worship us or pray us not to kill them we did not know ; 
 but we made signs to their prince to encourage them, which 
 he did, but it was with muph ado that he brought them to 
 their sense. Nay, the prince, notwithstanding aU that was 
 said to prepare him for it, yet, when the piece went off, he 
 gave a start as if he would have leaped into the river. 
 
 When we saw the creature killed, I had a great mind to 
 have the skin of her, and made signs to the prince that he 
 should send some of his men over to take the skin off. As 
 soon as he spoke but a word, four of them that offered 
 themselves were untied, and immediately they jumped into 
 the river, and swam over, and went to work with him. The 
 prince, having a knife that we gave him, made four wooden 
 knives so clever that I never saw anything like them in my 
 life ; and in less than an hour's time they brought me the 
 skin of the leopard, which was a monstrous great one, for it 
 was from the ears to the tail about seven feet, and near five 
 feet broad on the back, and most admirably spotted aU over. 
 The skin of tb's leopardj! brought to London many years 
 
ABANDOXMENT OF THE BAKK. 61 
 
 We were now all upon a level as to our travelling, being 
 unshipped, for our bark would swim no further, and she w^ 
 too heavy to cany on our backs; but, as we found tha 
 course of the river went a great way further, we consulted 
 our carpenters, whether we could not pull the bark in 
 pieces, and make us three or four small boats to go on with. 
 They told us we might do so, but it would be very long 
 a-doing, and that, when we had done, we had neither pitch 
 nor tar to make them sound, to keep the water out, or nails 
 to fasten the plank ; but one of them told us that, as soon as 
 he could come at any large tree near the river, he would 
 make us a canoe or two in a quarter of the time, and 
 which would serve us as well for all the uses we could have 
 any occasion for as a boat, and such that, if we came to any 
 waterfalls, we might take them up, and carry them for a 
 mile or two by land upon our shoulders. 
 
 Upon this we gave over the thoughts of our frigate, and 
 hauling her into a little cove or inlet, where a small brook 
 came into the main river, we laid her up for those that came 
 next, and marched forward. We spent indeed two days 
 dividing our baggage, and loading our tame buffaloes and 
 our negroes : our powder and shot, which was the thing we 
 were most careful of, we ordered thus : first, the powder we 
 divided into little leather bags, that is to say, bags of dried 
 skins with the hair inward, that the powder might not grow 
 damp ; and then we put those bags into other bags made of 
 bullocks' skins, very thick and hard, with the hair outward, 
 that no wet might come in ; and this succeeded so well, that 
 in the greatest rains we had, whereof some were very violent 
 and very long, we always kept our powder dry. Besides 
 these bags, which held our chief magazine, we divided to 
 every one a quarter of a pound of powder, and half a pound 
 of shot, to carry always about us ; which, as it was enough 
 for our present use, so we were willing to have no weight to 
 carry more than was absolutely necessary, because of the 
 heat. 
 
 We kept still on the bank of the river, and for that reason 
 had but very little communication with the people of the 
 country; for, having also our bark stored with plenty of 
 provisions, we had no occasion to look abroad for a supply ; 
 but now when we came to march on foot, we were obliged 
 often to seek out for food. The first place we came to on the 
 
62 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 river, that gave us any stop, was a little negro to-wn, contain' 
 ing about fifty huts, and there "appeared about four hundred 
 people, for they all came out to see us and wonder at us. 
 When our negroes appeared, the inhabitants began to fly to 
 arms, thinking there had been enemies coming upon them ; 
 but our negroes, though they could not speak their language, 
 made signs to them, that they had no weapons, and were tied 
 two and two together as captives ; and that there were people 
 behind, who came from the sun, and that could kill them all, 
 and make them alive again, if they pleased ; but that they 
 woTjld do them no hurt, and came with peace. As soon as 
 they understood this, they laid down their lances, and bows 
 and arrows, and came and stuck twelve large stakes in the 
 ground, as a token of peace, bowing themselves to us in token 
 of submission. But as soon as they saw white men with 
 beards, that is to say moustaches, they ran screaming away, 
 as in a fright. 
 
 We kept at a distance from them, not to be too familiar ; 
 and when we did appear, it was but two or three of us at a 
 time. But our prisoners made them understand that we 
 required some provisions of them ; so they brought us some 
 black cattle, for they have abundance of cows and buffaloes 
 all over that side of the country, as also great numbers of 
 deer. Our cutler, who had now a great stock of things of 
 his handiwork, gave them some little knick-knacks, as plates 
 of silver and of iron, cut diamond fashion, and cut into hearts 
 and into rings, and they were mightily pleased. They also 
 brought several fruits and roots, which we did not understand, 
 but our negroes fed heartily on them, and after we had seen 
 them eat them, we did so too. 
 
 Having stocked ourselves here with flesh and roots as 
 much as we could well carry, we divided the burthens among 
 our negroes, appointing about thirty to forty pounds' weight 
 to a man, which we thought indeed was load enough in a hot 
 country ; and ttie_negroesdidnot at all repine at it^ but would 
 
 _sometime£^elp_one_ another when they began to "Be weaiy" 
 ^^^^id hajipfin-now a nd then, thoug h not often; beac[es^ 
 as most of their luggage was our provision, it lightened every 
 day, like ^sop's basket of bread, till we came to get a recruit. 
 
 ,"7^-^^' ^^^^ ^^ iaad ed the m^ we untied thgir ha nds, an d 
 fiecTffiem two and two together by one foot. The ilurd day 
 of our march from this place, our chief carpenter desired us 
 
CAI^PENTER SIAEES CANOES. d8 
 
 halt, and set up some huts, for he had found out some trees 
 that he liked, and resolved to make us some canoes; f)r, as 
 he told me, he knew we should have marching enough on 
 foot, after we left the river, and he was resolved to go no 
 further by land than needs must. 
 
 We had no sooner given orders for our little camp, and 
 given leave to our negroes to lay down their loads, but they 
 fell to work to build our huts ; and though they were tied as 
 above, yet they did it so nimbly as surprised us. Here we 
 set some of the negroes quite at liberty, that is to say, with- 
 out tying them, having the prince's word passed for their 
 fidelity ; and some of these were ordered to help the carpenters, 
 which they did very handily, with a little direction, and 
 others were sent to see whether they could get any provision 
 near hand ; but instead of provisions, three of them came in 
 with two bows and arrows, and five lances. They could not 
 easily make us understand how they came by them, only that 
 they had surprised some negro women, who were in some 
 huts, the men being from home, and they had found the 
 lances and bows in the huts or houses, the women and 
 children flying away at the sight of them, as from robbers. 
 We seemed very angry at them, and made the prince ask 
 them if they had not killed any of the women or children, 
 making them believe that, if they had killed anybody, we 
 would make them kiU themselves too; but they protested 
 their innocence, so we excused them. Then they brought lis 
 the bows and arrows and lances ; but, at a motion of their 
 black prince, we gave them back the bows and arrows, and 
 gave them leave to go out to see what they could kill for 
 food ; and here wegayej&em the laws of.armSjjriz., that, if 
 any men appeared to assault them or shoot at them, to offer 
 any violence to them, they might kiU them ; but that they 
 should not offer to kill or hurt any that offered them peace, 
 or laid down their weapons, nor any women or children, upon 
 any occasion whatsoever. These w ere our articles of war. 
 
 These two fellows had not been gone out above three ot 
 four hours', but one of them came running to us without his 
 bows and arrows, hallooing and whooping a great while 
 before he came at us, Okoamo, Okoamo, which, it seems, 
 was Help, Help. — ^The rest of the negroes rose up in a hurry, 
 and by twos, as they could, ran forward towards their fellows, 
 to know what the matter was. As for me, I did not under* 
 
64 CAPTAIN SINGLETOH 
 
 Stand it, nor any of our people; the prince looked as if some 
 thing unlucky had fallen out, and some of our mep took up 
 their arms to be ready on occasion. But the negroes soon 
 discovered the thing; for we saw four of them presently after 
 coming along with a great load of meat upon their backs. 
 The case was, that the two who went out with their bows 
 and arrows, meeting with a great herd of deer in the plain, 
 had been so nimble as to shoot three of them ; and then one 
 of them came running to us for help to fetch them away. 
 This was the first venison we had met with upon all our 
 march, and we feasted upon it very plentifully ; and this was 
 tilfi-first-time we Jisgaji-io prevail with our prince to eat his 
 ' meat dressed our way ; after which, his men were prevailed 
 ' with by his example, but before that, they ate most qf]^e 
 flesh. thgy had, quite raw. 
 
 We wished now we had brought some bows and arrows 
 out with us, which we might have done ; and we began to 
 have so much confidence in our negroes, and to be so familiaar 
 with them, that we cTtentimes let them go, or the greatest 
 part of theiH^lmGed^ being well assured they would notleave 
 ug^-Mdthat _^eyjiid not know whaLgourse to t ake wit hout 
 us7~Fut one thing we resolved not to trust them with, and 
 That was the charging our guns ; but they always believed 
 our guns had some heavenly power in them, that would send 
 forth fire, and smoke, and speak with a dreadful noise, and 
 kill at a distance whenever we bid them. 
 
 In about eight days we finished three canoes, and in them 
 we embarked our white men, and our baggage, with our 
 prince, and some of the prisoners. We also found it needful 
 to keep some of ourselves always on shore, not only to 
 manage the negroes, but to defend them from enemies and 
 wUd beasts. Abtmdance of little incidents happened upon 
 this march, which it is not possible to crowd into tMs account ; 
 particularly, we saw more wild beasts now than we did 
 before, some elephants, and two or three lions ; none of 
 which kinds we had seen any of before ; and we found our 
 negroes were more afraid of them a great deal than we were ; 
 principally because they had no bows and arrows, or lances, 
 which were the particular weapons they were bred up to the 
 exercise o£ 
 / But we cured them of their fears, by being always ready 
 ■with our fire-arms. However as we were willing to be 
 
PISCOTEE CORN A2a> MAKE BEEAB. 65 
 
 sparing of our powder, and the killing any of the creatures 
 now was uo advantage to us, seeing their skins were too 
 heavy for us to carry, and their flesh not good to eat, we 
 resolved, therefore, to keep some of our pieces uncharged, 
 and only prinxed ; and causing them to flash in the pan, the 
 beasts, even the lions themselves, would always start, and 
 fly back when they saw it, and immediately march off. 
 
 We passed abundance of inhabitants upon this upper part 
 of the river, and with this observation, that almost eve^ 
 ten pules, we came to a several naMfiOj-aBd every severaT 
 "nation h a d~a" ~aifl'erent jp^fiE, or else their sgeechhadj^^ 
 " ferin^ (iiaiect8r"s6" that^ey dionbt understand one another. 
 ' They all abounded in cattle, "especially on the river side ; 
 and the eighth day of this second navigation, we met with a 
 little negro town, where they had growing a sort of com like 
 rice, which eat very sweet ; and, as we got some of it of the 
 people, we made very good cakes of bread of it, and, making 
 a fire, baked them on the ground, after the fire was swept 
 away, ver^ well ; so that hitherto we had no want of pro- 
 visions of any kind we could desire. 
 
 Our negroes towing our canoes, we travelled at a con- 
 siderable rate, and by our own account could not go less 
 than twenty or twenty-five English mUes a day, and the 
 river continuing to be much at the same breadth, and very 
 deep all the way, till on the tenth day we came to another 
 cataract ; for a ridge of high hiUs crossing the whole channel 
 of the river, the water came tumbling down the rocks from 
 one stage to another in a strange manner; so that it was a 
 continued link of cataracts from one to another, in the 
 manner of a cascade ; only that the falls were sometimes a 
 quarter of a mile from one another, and the noise confused 
 and frightfid. 
 
 We thought our voyaging was at a fuU stop now; but 
 three of us, with a couple of our negroes, mounting the hills 
 another way, to view the course of the river, we found a fair 
 channel again after about half a mile's march, and that it 
 was like to hold us a good way further. So we set all hands 
 to work, unloaded our cargo, and hauled our canoes on 
 shore, to see if we could cany thenj. 
 
 Ppon examination, we found tha,t they were very heavy ; 
 but our carpenters spending but one day's work on them, 
 hewed away so much of the timber from their outsides, as 
 
66 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 reduced them very much, and yet they were as fit to swim' 
 as before. When this was done, ten men with poles took up 
 one of the canoes, and made nothing to carry it. So_ we 
 ordered twenty men to each canoe, that one ten might relieve 
 another ; and thus we carried all our canoes, and launched 
 them into the water again, and then fetched our luggage, and 
 loaded it all again into the canoes, and aU in an afternoon ; 
 and the next morning early we moved forward again. When 
 we had towed about four days more, our gunner, who was 
 our pilot, began to observe, that we did not keep our right 
 course so exactly as we ought, the river winding away a 
 little towards the north ; and gave us notice of it accordingly. 
 However, we were not willing to lose the advantage of 
 water-carriage, at least not till we were forced to it ; so we 
 logged on, and the river served us about threescore miles 
 further ; but then we found it grew very small and shallow, 
 having passed the mouths of several little brooks or rivulets 
 which come into it ; and at length it became but a brook 
 itself. 
 
 We towed up as far as ever our boats •would swim, and 
 we went two days the further, having been about twelve 
 days in this last part of the river, by lightening the boats, 
 and taking our luggage out, which we made the negroes 
 carry, being willing to ease ourselves as long as we could ; 
 but, at the end of these two days, in short, there was not 
 water enough to- swim a London wherry. 
 
 We now set forward wholly by land, and without any 
 expectation of more water-carriage. All our concern for 
 more water was, to be sure to have a supply for our drink- 
 ing ; and, therefore, upon every lull that we came near, we 
 clambered up to the highest part, to see the country before' 
 us, and to make the best judgment we could which way to 
 go, to keep the lowest grounds, and as near some stream of 
 water as we could. 
 
 The country held verdant, well grown with trees, and 
 spread with rivers and brooks, and tolerably well with -in- 
 habitants, for about thirty days' march after our leaving the 
 canoes, during which time things went pretty well with us ; 
 we did not tie ourselves do-vro when to march and when to 
 halt, but ordered those things as our convenience, and the 
 health and ease of our people, as well our servants as our- 
 selves, required. 
 
TREACECEET IK THE NATIVES. 67 
 
 About the middle of this march, we came into a low and 
 'plain country, in -which we perceived a greater number of 
 inhabitants, than in any other country we had gone through ; 
 but that which was worse for us, we found them a fierce, 
 •barbarous, treacherous people, and who at first looked upon 
 us as robbers, and gathered themselves in numbers to attack 
 us. 
 
 Our men were terrified at them at first, and began to dis- 
 cover an unusual fear; and even our black prince seemed 
 in a great deal of confusion : but I smiled at him, and show- 
 'ing him some of our guns, I asked him, if he thought that 
 which kUled the spotted cat (for so they called the leopard in 
 their language), could not make a thousand of those naked 
 creatures die at one blow ; then he laughed, and said, yes, 
 he believed it would. "WeU then, said I, tell your men not 
 to be a&aid of these people, for we shall soon give them a 
 taste of what we can do, if they pretend to meddle with us. — 
 However, we considered we were in the middle of a vast 
 country, and we knew not what numbers of people and na- 
 tions we might be surrounded with; and, above all, we 
 knew not how much we might stand in need of the fiiendship 
 of these that we were now among ; so that we ordered the 
 negroes to try all the methods they could to make them 
 fiiends. 
 
 Accordingly, the two men who had gotten bows and 
 arrows, and two more, to whom we gave the prince's two fine 
 lances, went foremost, with five more, having long poles in 
 their hands, and after them, ten of our men advanced toward 
 the negro town that was next to us, and we aU stood ready 
 to succour them, if there should be occasion. 
 
 When they came pretty near their houses, our negroes hal- 
 looed in their screaming way, and called to them as loud as 
 they could. Upon their calling, some of the men came out and 
 answered, and immediately afterwards, the whole town, men, 
 women, and children appeared : our negroes, with their long 
 poles, went forward a little and stuck them all in the ground, 
 and left them, which in their country was a signal of peace; 
 but the other did not understand the meaning of that. Then 
 the two men with bows laid down their bows and arrows, 
 went forward unarmed, and made signs of peace to them, 
 which at last the other began to understand; so two of 
 their men laid down their bows and arrows, and cama 
 
 r 2 
 
68 CAPTAIK SINGLETON. 
 
 towards them. Our men made all the signs of friendship to 
 them that they could think of, putting their hands up to 
 their mouths as a sign that they wanted provisions to eat, 
 and the other pretended to be pleased and friendly, and 
 went back to their fellows, and talked with them awhile: 
 and they came forward again, and made signs that they 
 would bring some provisions to them before the sun set; and 
 so our men came back again, very well satisfied for that 
 time. 
 
 Bui an hour before sunset our men went to them again, just 
 in the same posture as before, and they came according to 
 their appointment, and brought deer's flesh, roots, and the 
 same kind of corn like rice (which I mentioned above), and 
 our negroes being furnished with such toys as our cutler had 
 contrived, gave them some of them, which they seemed in- 
 finitely pleased with, and promised to bring more provisions 
 the next day. 
 
 Accordingly, the next day they came again, but our men 
 perceived they were more in number by a great many than 
 before ; however, having sent out ten men with fire-arms, to 
 stand ready, and our whole army being in view also, we 
 were not much surprised; nor was the treachery of the 
 enemy so cunningly ordered as in other cases ; for they might 
 have surrounded our negroes, which were but nine, under 
 a show of peace; but when they saw our men advance 
 almost as far as the place where they were the day before, 
 the rogues snatched up their bows and arrows, and came 
 running upon our men like so many furies, at wMeh our ten 
 men called to the negroes to come back to them, which they 
 did with speed enough, at the first word, and stood all behind 
 our men. As they fled, the other advanced and let fly near 
 a hundred of their arrows at them, by which two of our 
 negroes were wounded, and one we thought had been killed. 
 When they came to the five poles that our men had stuck in 
 the ground, they stood still awhile, and gathering about the 
 poles, looked at them, and handled them, as wondering at 
 what they meant. We then, who were dravm up behind all, 
 sent one of our number to our ten men, to bid them fire 
 among them, while they stood so thick, and to put some 
 small shot into their guns, besides the ordinary charge, and 
 Ui tell them, that we would be up with them immediately. 
 
 Accordingly they made ready ; but by the time they were 
 
BATTLE WITH THE NATIVES. 69 
 
 Teady to fire, the black army had left their •wondering about 
 the poles, and began to stir as if they would come on, thongh 
 seeing more men stand at some distance behind our negroes, 
 they could not teU what to make of us ; but, if they did not 
 understand us before, they understood us less afterwards ; 
 for, as soon as ever our men found them begin to move for- 
 ward, they fired among the thickest of them, being about the 
 distance of a hundred and twenty yards, as near as we 
 could giiess. 
 
 It is impossible to express the ftight, the screaming and 
 yelling of those wretches, upon tMs first volley ; we killed 
 six of them, and wounded eleven or twelve, I mean as we 
 knew of: for, as they stood thick, and the small shot, as we 
 called it, scattered among them, we had reason to beheve 
 we wounded more that stood farther oflf; for our small shot 
 was made of bits of lead, and bits of iron, heads of naUs, 
 and such things as our diligent artificer, the cutler, helped 
 us to. 
 
 As to those that were kUled and wounded, the other 
 frightened creatures were under the greatest amazement in 
 the world, to think what should hurt them ; for they could 
 see nothing but holes made in their bodies, they knew not 
 how. Then the fire and noise amazed aH th«ir women and 
 children, and frightened them out of their wits, so that they 
 ran staring and howling about like mad creatures. 
 
 However, all this did not make them fly, which was what 
 we wanted ; nor did we find any of them di« as it were with 
 fear, as at first ; so we resolved upon a second volley, and 
 then to advance as we did before. Whereupon our reserved 
 men advancing, we resolved to fire only three men at a time, 
 and move forward like an army firing in platoon : so, being 
 all in line, we fired first, three on the right, then three on the 
 left, and so on; and every time we killed or wounded 
 some of them ; but still they did not fly, and yet they were 
 so frightened, that they used none of their bows and 
 arrows, nor of their lances ; and we thought their numbers 
 increased upon our hands ; particularly we thought so by the 
 noise ; so I called to our men to halt, and bid them pour 
 in one whole volley, and then shout, as we did in our first 
 fight, and so run in upon them and knock them down with 
 our muskets. 
 
 But they were too wise for that too ; for as soon as we 
 
70 CAPTAIN SINGLEION. 
 
 had fired a whole volley, and shouted, they all run away, 
 men, women, and children, so fast, that in a few moments 
 we could not see one creature of them, except some that 
 were wounded and lame, who lay wallowing and screaming 
 here and there upon the ground, as they happened to fall. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 JOtTESNET CONTDfTJED — ^WB BEACH A VAST WXLDEENESS OF 
 SAOT) — ^ADVENTUBES IN CROSSING THE DESBET — ^WE EN- 
 CAMP ON THE BANKS OP AN IMMENSE LAKE ^DESCEIPTION 
 
 OP THE BEASTS OP PKET, &C. 
 
 Upon this we came up to the field of battle, where we found 
 we had kiUed thirty-seven of them, among whom were 
 three women, and had wounded about sixty-four, among 
 whom were two women. By wounded, I mean such as 
 were so maimed as not to be able to go away, and. those our 
 negroes kiUed afterwards in a cowardly manner, in cold 
 blood, for which we were very angry, and threatened to 
 make them go to them if they did so again. 
 
 There was no great spoil to be got, for they were all stark 
 naked as they came into the world, men and women to- 
 gether, some of them having feathers stuck in their hair, 
 and others a kind of bracelets about their necks, but nothing 
 else ; but our negroes got a booty here, which we were very 
 glad of, and this was the bows and arrows of the van-, 
 quished, of which they found more than they knew what to 
 do with, belonging to the killed and wounded men. These 
 we ordered them to pick up, and they were very useful to 
 us afterwards. After the fight, and our negroes had gotten 
 bows and arrows, we sent them out in parties to see what 
 they could get, and they got some provisions ; but, which 
 was better than all the rest, they brought four more young 
 bulls, or bufialoes, that had been brought up to labour, and 
 to carry burthens. They knew them, it seems, by the bur- 
 thens they had carried having galled their backs, for they 
 have no saddles to cover them with in that country. 
 
 Those creatures not only eased our negroes, but gave us 
 an opportunity to carry more provisions ; and our negroea 
 
JOOBNEY CONTINUED. 71 
 
 loaded them very hard at this place with flesh and roots, 
 such aa we wanted very much afterwards. 
 
 In this town we found a very little young leopard, ahont 
 two spans high ; it was exceecMng tame, and purred like a 
 cat when we stroked it with our hands, heing, as I suppose, 
 bred up among the negroes lite a house dog. It was our 
 blafik prince, it seems, who, making his tour among the 
 abandoned houses or huts, found this creature there, and, 
 making much of him, and giving a bit or two of flesh to 
 him, the creature followed him like a dog. 
 
 Among the negroes that were killed in this battle there 
 was one who had a little thin bit or plate of gold, about as 
 big as a sixpence, which hung by a little bit of a twisted 
 gut upon his forehead, by which we supposed he was a man 
 of some eminence among them ; but that was not all, for 
 this bit of gold put us upon searching very narrowly if there 
 was not more of it to be had thereabouts, but we foimd none 
 at all. 
 
 From this part of the country we went on for about"'" 
 fifteen days, and then found ourselves obliged to march up a 
 high ridge of mountains, frightful to behold, and the first ot 
 the kind that we met with ; and having no guide but our little 
 pocket-compass, we had no advantage of information as to 
 which was the best or the worst way, but were obliged to 
 choose by what we saw, and shift as well as we could. We 
 met with several nations of wild and naked people in the 
 plain country before we came to those hiUs ; and we found 
 them much more tractable and friendly than those devils we 
 had been forced to fight with ; and . though we could learn 
 little from these people, yet we understood, by the signs they 
 made, that there was a vast desert beyond those hills, and, 
 as our negroes called them, much Hon, much spotted cat (so 
 they called the leopard) ; and they signed to us also, that we 
 must carry water with us. At the last of these nations, we 
 famished ourselves with as much provisions as we could pos- 
 sibly cairy, not knowing what we had to sufier, or what 
 length we had to go ; and to make our way as familiar to us, , 
 as possible, I proposed, ti;>at ofthelastjnhabitaflia_5V5B_c^^ 
 find, we shouia make somej^i^^^^^^i csmy them witH T 
 "T3S~!^"gUiafes, OVET-ttie-TlMer^nd to assist us in carrying j 
 provision, and perhaps in getting it too. The advice was ; 
 too necessary to be slighted 5 so, finding by our dumb signs 
 
72 CAPTAIN SDIGLETON. 
 
 to the inhabitants, that there were some people that dwelt 
 at the foot of the mountains, on the other side, before tre 
 came to the desert itself, we resolved to fiimish ourselves 
 with guides, by feir meaflaj)r foul. 
 
 Here, by a lopderate computation, we concluded ourselves 
 seven hundred miles from the sea-coast, where we began. 
 Our black prince was this day set free from the sling his arm 
 hung in, our surgeon having perfectly restored it, and he 
 showed it to his own countrymen quite well, which made 
 them greatly wonder. Also our two negroes began to re- 
 cover, and their wounds to heal apace, for our surgeon was 
 very skilful in managing their cure. 
 
 Having, with infinite labour, mounted these hiUs, and 
 coming to a view of the country beyond them, it was 
 indeed enough to astonish as stout a heart as ever was 
 created. It was a vast howling wUdemess, not a tree, a 
 river, or a green thing to be seen ; for as far as the eye could 
 look, nothing but a scalding sand, which, as the wind blew, 
 drove about in clouds, enough to overwhelm man and beast : 
 nor could we see any end of it, either before us, which was 
 our way, or to the right hand or left : so that truly our men 
 began to be discouraged, and talked of going back again ; nor 
 could we, indeed, think of ventvuing over such a horrid place 
 as that before us, in which we saw nothing but present death. 
 
 I was aa much affected at the sight as any of them ; but, 
 for all that, I could not bear the thoughts of going back 
 again. I told them, we had marched seven hundred miles of 
 our way, and it would be worse than death to think Of going 
 back again ; and that, if they thought the desert was not 
 passable, I thought we should rather change our course, and 
 travel south till we came to the Cape of Good Hope, or 
 north to the country that lay along the Nile, where, perhaps, 
 we might find some way or other over to the west sea; for 
 sure all Africa was not a desert. 
 
 Our gunner, who, as I said before, was our guide, as to 
 the situation of places, told us, that he could not tell what 
 to say to going for the Cape ; for it was a monstrous length, 
 bemg, from the place where we, now were, not less than 
 fifteen hundred mUes; and, by his account, we were now 
 come a third part of the way to the coast of Angola, where 
 we should meet with the western ocean, and find ways 
 snough for our escape home. On the other hand, he assured 
 
CEOSS THE DESEET. 73 
 
 ns, and showedjiis_a_iaap-«£uij,tliat if we went northward, 
 the western shore of Africa went out into the sea above a 
 thousand miles west ; so that we should have so much, and 
 more land to travel afterwards ; which land might, for aught 
 we knew, be as wild, barren, and desert, as this. And there- 
 fore, upon the whole, he proposed that we should attempt 
 this desert, and perhaps we should not find it so long as we 
 feared ; and, however, he proposed that we should see how 
 far our provisions would carry us, and, in particular, our 
 water ; and that we should venture no further than half so 
 fer as our water would last ; and if we found no end of the 
 desert, we might come safely back again. 
 
 This advice was so seasonable that all approved of it ; 
 and, accordingly, we calculated that we were able to carry 
 provisions for forty-two days, but that we could not carry 
 water for above twenty days, though we were to suppose it 
 to stink too before that time expired. So that we con- 
 cluded that, if we did not come at some water in ten days' 
 time, we would return ; but if we found a supply of water, 
 we could then travel twenty-^one days, and, if we saw no 
 end of the wilderness in that time, we would return also. 
 
 With this regulation of our measures, we descended the 
 mountains, and it was the second day before we quite 
 reached the plain, where, however, to make us amends, we 
 found a fine little rivulet of very good water, abundance of 
 deer, a sort of creature like a hare, but not so nimble, and 
 whose flesh we found very agreeable ; but we were deceived 
 in our intelligence, for we found no people ; so we got no 
 more prisoners to assist us in carrying our baggage. 
 
 The infinite number of deer, and other creatures which we 
 saw here, we found was occasioned by the neighbourhood of 
 the waste or desert, from whence they retired hither for 
 food and refreshment. We stored ourselves here with flesh 
 and roots of divers kinds, which our negroes understood 
 better than we, and which served us for bread, and with as 
 touch water as (by the allowance of a quart a day to a man 
 for our negroes, and three pints a day a man for ourselves, 
 and three quarts a day each for our buffaloes) would serve 
 us twenty days; and thus loaden for a long miserable march, 
 we set forwards, being all sound in health, and very cheer- 
 ful, but not alike strong for so great a fatigue, and, which 
 was our grievance, were without a giyde. 
 
74 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 In the very first entrance of the waste, we were ex- 
 ceedingly discouraged ; for we found the sand so deep, and 
 it scalded our feet so much with the heat, that, after we had, 
 as I may call it, waded rather than walked through it about 
 seven or eight miles, we were all heartily tired and faint — 
 even the very negroes lay down and panted, like creatures 
 that had been pushed beyond their strength. 
 
 Here we found the difference of lodging greatly inju- 
 rious to us, for, as before, we always made us huts to sleep 
 under, which covered us from the night air, which is par- 
 ticularly unwholesome in those hot cquntries ; but we had 
 here no shelter, no lodging, after so hard a march, for here 
 were no trees — ^no, not a shrub near us — and, which was still 
 more frightful, towards night we began to hear the wolves 
 howl, the lions bellow, and a great many wild asses braying, 
 and other ugly noises, which we did not understand. 
 
 Upon this we reflected upon our indiscretion — ^that we 
 had not, at least, brought poles or stakes in our hands, with 
 which we might have, as it were, palisadoed ourselves in for 
 the night, and so we might have slept secure, whatever 
 other inconveniences we suffered. However, we found a way 
 at last, to relieve ourselves a little. For, first, we set up the 
 lances and bows we had, and endeavoured to bring the 
 tops of them as near to one another as we could, and so 
 hung our coats on the top of them, which made us a kind of 
 sorry tent. The leopard's skin, and a few other skins we 
 had put together, made us a tolerable covering, and thus we 
 lay down to sleep, and slept very heartily too for the first 
 night, setting, however, a good watch, being two of our own 
 men with their fusees, whom we relieved in an hour at first, 
 and two hours afterwards ; and it was very well we did this, 
 for they found the wilderness swarmed with raging creatures 
 of all kinds, some of which came directly up to the very 
 enclosure of our tent. But our sentinels were ordered not 
 to alarm us with firing in the night, but to flash in the pan 
 at them, which they did, and found it effectual, for the 
 creatures went off always as soon as they saw it, perhaps 
 with some noise or howling, and pursued such other game as 
 they were upon. 
 
 J£ we were tired with the day's travel, we were all as 
 much tired with the night's lodging: but our black prince 
 told us in the morning, he would give us some counsel, and 
 
MEET A .DEOVE OP WrLD ELEPHANTS. 75 
 
 indeed it was very good counsel. He told us we should be 
 all killed, if we went on this journey, and through this 
 desert, without some covering for us at night ; so he advised 
 us to march back again to a little river side, where we lay 
 the night before, and stay there till we could make us houses, 
 as he called them, to carry with us to lodge in every night. 
 As he began a little to understand our speech, and we very . 
 well to understand his signs, we easily knew what he meant, [ / 
 and that we should there make mats (for we remembered '/ 
 that we saw a great deal of matting, or bass there, that the 
 natives made mats of); I say, that we should make large 
 mats there for covering our huts or tents to lodge in at 
 night. 
 
 We all approved this advice, and immediately resolved t* 
 go back that one day's journey, resolving, though we carried 
 less provisions, we would carry mats with us, to cover us in 
 the night. Some of the nimblest of us got back to the river 
 with more ease than we had travelled it but the day before ; 
 but, as we were not in haste, the rest made a halt, encamped 
 another night, and came to us the next day. 
 
 In our return of this day's journey, our men, that made 
 two days of it, met with a very surprising thing, that gave 
 them some reason to be careful how they parted company 
 again. The case was this. The second day in the morning, 
 before they had gone half a mile, looking behind them, they 
 saw a vast cloud of sand or dust rise in the air, as we see 
 gpmetimes in the roads in summer, when it is very dusty, and 
 a large drove of cattle are coming, only very much greater ; 
 and they coidd easily perceive that it came after them ; and 
 it came on faster than they went from it. The cloud of sand 
 was so great, that they could not see what it was that raised 
 it ; and concluded that it was some army of enemies that 
 pursued them ; but then considering that they came from the 
 vast uninhabited wUdemess, they knew it was impossible 
 any nation or people that way should have intelligence ot 
 them, or the way of their march ; and therefore, if it was 
 an army, it must be of such as they were travelling that way 
 by accident. On the other hand, as they knew that there 
 were no horse in the country, and that they came on so fast, 
 they concluded that it must be some vast collection of wild 
 beasts, perhaps making to the hill country for food or water, 
 
76 CAI'TAIN SDJGLETOK. 
 
 and that they should be all devoured or trampled under foot 
 by their multitude. 
 
 Upon this thought, they very prudently observed which 
 way the cloud seemed to point, and they turned a little out 
 of the way to the north, supposing it might pass by them. 
 When they were about a quarter of a mile, they halted to see 
 what it might be. One of the negroes, a nimbler fellow than 
 the rest, went back a little, and came in a few minutes, 
 running as fast as the heavy sand would allow; and by 
 signs, gave them to know, that it was a great herd or drove, 
 or whatever it might be called, of vast monstrous elephants. 
 
 As it was a sight our men had never seen, they were 
 desirous to see it, and yet a little uneasy at the danger too : 
 for though an elephant is a heavy, unwieldy creature, yet in 
 the deep sand, which was nothing at all to them, they 
 marched at a great rate, and would soon have tired our 
 people, if they had had fer to go, and had been pursued by 
 them. 
 
 Our gunner was with them, and had a great mind to have 
 gone close up to one of the outermost of them, and to have 
 clapped his piece to his ear, and to have fired into him, 
 because he had been told no shot would penetrate them; 
 but they all dissuaded him, lest, upon the noise, they should 
 aU turn upon, and pursue us : so he was reasoned out of it, 
 and let them pass, which, in our people's circumstances, was 
 certainly the right way. 
 
 They were between twenty and thirty in number, but pro- 
 digious great ones ; and though they often showed our men 
 that they saw them, yet they did not turn out of their way, 
 or take any other notice of them, than, as we may say, just 
 to look at them. We that were before saw the cloud of dust 
 they raised, but we thought it had been our own caravan, 
 and so took no notice ; but as they bent their course one 
 point of the compass, or thereabouts, to the southward of the 
 east, and we went due east, they passed by us at some Utile 
 distance ; so that we did not see them, or know anything of 
 them, till evening, when our men came to us, and gave us 
 this account of them. However, this was a useful experi- 
 ment for our future conduct in passing the desert, as you 
 shall hear in its place. 
 
 We were now upon our work, and our black prince was 
 
PUT TIP THEIK FIRST TENT. 77 
 
 head surveyor, for he was an excellent mat-maker himself, 
 and all his men understood it ; so that they soon made us 
 near a hundred mats ; and as every man, I mean of the 
 negroes, carried one, it was no manner of load, and we did 
 not carry an ounce of provisions the less. The greatest 
 burthen was to cany six long poles, besides some shorter 
 stakes ; but the negroes made an advantage of that, for car- 
 rying them between two, they made the luggage of provisions 
 which they had to carry so much the lighter, binding it upon 
 two poles, and made three couple of them. As soon as we 
 saw this, we made a little advantage of it too ; for having 
 three or four bags, called bottles (I mean skins or bladders 
 to carry water), more than the men could carry, we got them 
 filled, and carried them this way, which was a day's water 
 and more, for our journey. 
 
 Having now ended our work, made our mats, and fully 
 recruited our stores of things necessary, and having made us 
 abundance of small ropes and matting for ordinary use, as 
 we might have occasion, we set forward again, having inter- 
 rupted our journey eight days in all, upon this affair. To 
 our great comfort, the night before we set out, there fell a 
 very violent shower of rain, the effects of which we found in 
 the sand ; though the one day dried the surface as much as 
 before, yet it was harder at bottom, not so heavy, and was 
 cooler to our feet, by which means we marched, as we 
 reckoned, about fourteen nules instead of seven, and with 
 much more ease. 
 
 When we came to encamp, we had aU things ready, for 
 we had fitted our tent, and set it up for trial, where we made 
 it ; so that, in less than an hour, we had a large tent raised, 
 with an inner and outer apartment, and two entrances. In 
 one we lay ourselves, in the other our negroes, having light 
 pleasant mats over us, and others at the same time under us. 
 Also, we had a little place v^ithout all, for our buffaloes, for 
 they deserved our care, being very useful to us, besides 
 carrying forage and water for themselves. Their forage was 
 a root, which our black prince directed us to find, not much 
 unlike a parsnip, very moist and nourishing, of which there 
 was plenty wherever we came, this horrid desert excepted. 
 
 When we came the next morning to decamp, our negroes 
 took down t%tent, and pulled up the stakes ; and aU was in 
 motion in as Httle time as it was set up. In this posture we 
 
78 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 marched eight days, and yet could see no end, no change of 
 our prospect, but all looking as wild and dismal as at the 
 beginning. If there was any alteration, it was that the sand 
 was nowhere so deep and heavy, as it was the first three 
 days. This we thought might be, because, for six months of 
 the year, the Avinds blowing west (as for the other six, they 
 blew constantly east), the sand was driven violently to the 
 side of the desert where we set out, where the mountains 
 lying very high, the easterly monsoons, when they blew, had 
 not the same power to drive it back again ; and this was 
 confirmed by our finding the like depth of sand on the farthest 
 extent of the desert to the west. 
 
 It was the ninth day of our travel in this wilderness, when 
 we came to the view of a great lake of water ; and you may 
 be sure this was a particular satisfaction to us, because we 
 had not water left for above two or three days more, at our 
 shortest allowance ; I mean, allowing water for our return, 
 if we had been put to the necessity of it. Our water had 
 served us two days longer than expected, our buffaloes having 
 found, for two or three .days, a kind of herb like a broad fiat 
 thistle, though without any prickle, spreading on the ground^ 
 and grovsdng in. the sand, which they eat freely of, and which 
 supplied them for drink as well as forage. 
 
 The next day, which was the tenth' from our setting out, 
 we came to the edge of this lake, and, happily for us, we 
 came to it at the south point of it ; so we passed by it, and 
 travelled three days by the sid^ of it, which was a great com- 
 fort to us, because it lightened our burthen, there being no 
 need to carry water when we had it in view. And yet, 
 though here was so Ymch water, we found but very httle 
 alteration in the desert ; no trees, no grass or herbage, except 
 that thistle, as I cailled it, -and two or three more plants, 
 which we did not undersliand, of which the desert began to 
 be pretty fuU. , 
 
 But as we were refreshed with the neighbourhood of this 
 lake of water, so we were now gotten among a prodigious 
 number of ra/enous inhabitants, the like whereof, it is most 
 certain, the eye of man never saw : for, as I firmly believe, 
 that never man, nor any body of men, passed this desert since 
 the flood, so I believe there is not the like collMjtion of fierce, 
 ravenous, and devouring creatures in the worlM I mean, not 
 in any particular place. 
 
DISCOVEE ENOEMOUS ELEPHANTS' TEETH. 79 
 
 For a day's journey before we came to this lake, and all 
 the three days we were passing by it, and for sis or seven 
 days' march after it, the ground was scattered with elephants' 
 teeth, in such a number as is incredible ; and, as some of 
 them may have Iain-there for some hundreds of years, so, 
 seeing the substance of them scarce ever decays, they may 
 lie there, for ought I know, to the end of time. The size of 
 some of them is, it seems, to those to whom I have reported 
 it, as incredible as tKfe number ; and I can assure you, there 
 were several so heavy, as the strongest man among us could 
 not lift./ As to nimiber, I question not there are enough to 
 load a thousand sail of the biggest ships in the world, by 
 which I may be understood to mean, that the quantity is not 
 to be concei'^d of; seeing, that as they lasted in view for 
 above eighty miles travelling, so they might continue as far 
 to the right hand, and to the left as far, and many times as 
 far, for aught we knew ; for it seems the number of elephants 
 hereabouts is promgiously great. In one place in particular 
 we saw the head of an elephant, with several teeth in it, but 
 one of the biggest that ever I saw : the flesh was consumed 
 to be sure many himdred years before, and all the other bones ; 
 but three of our strongest men could not lift this skuU and 
 teeth : the great tooth, I believe, weighed at least three 
 hundred weight; and this was particularly remarkable to 
 me, for I observed the whole skufl. was as good ivory as the 
 teeth ; and, I believe, altogether weighed at least six hundred 
 weight ; and though I do not know but, by the same rule, all 
 the bones of the elephant may be ivory, yet I think there is 
 a just objection against it, from the example before me, that 
 then aU the other bones of this elephant would have been 
 there as well as the head. 
 
 I proposed to our gunner, that, seeing we had travelled 
 now fourteen days without intermission, and that we had 
 water here for our refreshment, and no want of food yet, 
 nor any fear of it, we should rest our people a little, and see, 
 at the same time, if, perhaps, we might kill some creatures 
 that were proper for food. The gunner, who had more fore- 
 cast of that kind than I had, agreed to the proposal, and 
 added, why might we not try to catch some fish out of the 
 lake ? The., first thing we had before us, was to tiy if we 
 could make any hooks, a nd this indeed pujLour .artificer to 
 his trumps ; however, with some labour and difficultypEe*aia' 
 
80 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 h, and we catched fresh fish of several kinds. How they 
 came there, none but He that made the lake, and aU the 
 world, knows ;~rdr, to he sure, no human hands ever put any 
 4n there, or pulled any out before. 
 
 We not only catched enough for our present refreshment, 
 but we dried several large fishes, of kinds which I cannot 
 describe,- in the sun, by which we lengthened out our pro- 
 visions considerably ; for the heat of the sun dried them so 
 effectually without salt, that they were perfectly cured, dry, 
 and hard, in one day's time. 
 
 We rested ourselves here five days ; during which time we 
 had abundance of pleasant adventures with the wild crea- 
 tures, too many to relate. One of them was very particular, 
 which was a chase between a she-Uon or lioness, and a large 
 deer ; and, though the deer is naturally a very nimble crea- 
 ture, and she flew by us like the wind, having, perhaps, 
 about three hundred yards the start of the lion, yet we found 
 the lion, by her strength, and the goodness of her lungs, got 
 groimd of her. They passed by us within about a quarter 
 of a mile, and we had a view of them a great way, when, 
 having given them over, we were surprised, about an hour 
 after, to see them come thundering back again on the other 
 side of us, and then the lion was within thirty or forty yards 
 of her ; and both straining to the extremity of their speed, 
 when the deer, coming to the lake, plunged into the water, 
 and swam for her life, as she had before run for it. 
 
 The lioness plunged in after her, and swam a little way, 
 but came back again ; and, when she was got upon the land, 
 she set up the most hideous roar that ever I heard in my 
 life, as if done in the rage of having lost her prey. 
 
 We walked out morning and evening constantly ; the mid- 
 dle of the day we refreshed ourselves under our tent : but 
 one morning early we saw another chase, which more nearly 
 concerned us than the other ; for our black prince, walking 
 by the side of the lake, was set upon by a vast great croco- 
 dile, which came out of the lake upon him ; and though he 
 was very light of foot, yet it was as much as he could do to 
 get away : he fled amain to us, and the truth is, we did not 
 know what to do, for we were told no buUet would enter 
 her ; and we found it so at first, for though three of our men 
 fired at her, yet she did not mind them ; but my friend the 
 gunner, a venturous fellow, of a bold heart, and great pre- 
 
CROCODILE KILLED. 81 
 
 eence of mind, went up so near as to thrust the muzzle ol 
 his piece into her mouth, and fired, but let his piece fall, and 
 ran for it the very moment he had fired it : the creature 
 raged a great while, and spent its fiiiy upon the gun, making 
 marks upon the very iron with her teeth, but after some time 
 fainted and died. 
 
 Our negroes spread the banks of the lake all this while 
 for game, and at length killed us three deer, one of them 
 very large the other two very small. There was water-fowl 
 also in the lake, but we never came near enough to them to 
 shoot any ; and, as for the desert, we saw no fow;ls anywhere 
 in it, but at the lake. 
 
 We likewise killed two or three civet cats ; but their flesh 
 is the worst of carrion. We saw abundance of elephants at 
 a distance, and observed they always go in very good com- 
 pany, that is to say, abundance of them together, and always 
 extended in a fair line of battle ; and this, they say, is the 
 way they defend themselves from their enemies ; for, if lions 
 or tigers, wolves, or any creatures, attack them, they being 
 drawn up in a line, sometimes reaching five or six miles in 
 length, whatever comes in their way is sure to be trod under 
 foot, or beaten in pieces with their trunks, or lifted up in the 
 air with their trunks: so that if a hundred lions or tigers were 
 coming along, if they meet a line of elephants, they wiU 
 always fly back tiU they see room to pass by to the right 
 hand or to the left; and if they did not, it would be impos- 
 sible for one of them to escape : for the elephant, though a 
 ^heav2ijCTeatairejj|_jet_sp dexterous and nimble . witntlis 
 trunk, that h e wil l not faj l to lift^u£the heaviest Hon, or any 
 other -^Mrcfeature, and throw hun up in the air quite over' 
 his back , and'TEentrample him to death with his feet. We"~ 
 saw several fines of battle thus ; we saw bne so long, that 
 indeed there was no end of it to be seen, and, I believe, 
 there might be two thousand elephants in a row or line. 
 They are not beasts of prey, but live upon the herbage of 
 the field, as an ox does ; and it is said, that though they are 
 so great a creature, yet that a smaller quantity of forage 
 supplies one of them than will sufiice a horse. 
 
 The numbers of this kind of creature that are in. those 
 parts are inconceivable, as may be gathered from the pro- 
 digious quantity of teeth, which, as I said, we saw in this 
 
 G 
 
HZ CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 vast desert ; and indeed we saw a hnndred of them to one 
 of any other kinds. 
 
 One evening we were very much surprised ; we were most 
 of us laid down on our mats to sleep, when our watch camo 
 running in among us, being frightened ^th the sudden roar- 
 ing of some lions just by them, which, it seems, they had not 
 seen, the night being dark, till they were just upon them. 
 There was, as it proved, an old lion and his whole family, 
 for there was the lioness and three young lions, besides the 
 old king, who was a monstrous great one : one of the young 
 ones, who were good large well-grown ones too, leaped up 
 upon one of our negroes, who stood sentinal, before he saw 
 him, at which he was heartily frightened, cried out, and ran 
 into the tent : our other man, who had a gun, had not pre- 
 sence of mind at first to shoot him, but struck him with the 
 but-end of his piece, which made him whine a Ettle, and 
 then growl at him fearfully ; but the fellow retired, and, we 
 being all alarmed, three of our men snatched up their guns, 
 ran to the tent door, where they saw the great old lion by 
 the fire of his eyes, and first fired at him, but, we supposed, 
 missed him, or at least did not kill him ; for they went all 
 off, but raised a most hideous roar, which, as if they had 
 called for help, brought down a prodigious number of lions, 
 and other furious creatures, we know not what, about them, 
 for we could not see them ; but there, was a noise and yel- 
 ling, and howling, and all sort of such wilderness music on 
 every side of us, as if aU the beasts of the desert were as- 
 sembled to devour us. ~" 
 
 We asked our black prince what we should do with them. 
 Me go, says he, and fright them all. So he snatches up two 
 or three of the worst of our mats, and, getting one of our men 
 to strike some Gi6, he hangs the mat up at the end of a pole, 
 and set it on fire, and it blazed abroad a good while, at 
 which the creatures all moved off, for we heard them roar, 
 and make their bellowing noise at a great distance. Well, 
 says our gunner, if that wiU do, we need not bum our mats, 
 which are our beds to lay under us, and our tilting to cover 
 us. Let me alone, says he. So he comes back into our 
 tent, and falls to making some artificial fire-works, and the 
 like; and he gave our sentinels some to be ready at hand 
 upon occasion, and particularly he placed a great piece e^ 
 
KEACII THE END OP THE DESERT. 83 
 
 Wildfire upon the same pole that the mat had been tied to, 
 iind set it on fire, and that burnt there so long that aU the 
 wild creatures left us for that time. 
 
 However, we began to be weary of such company, and, 
 to get rid of _ them, we set forward again two days sooner 
 than we intended. We found now that, though the desert 
 did not end, nor could we see any appearance of it, yet that 
 the earth was pretty fuU of green stuff, of one sort or 
 another, so that our cattle had no want ; and, secondly, that 
 there were several little rivers which ran into the lake, and, 
 so long as the country continued low, we found water 
 sufficient, which eased us very much in our carriage, and we 
 went on still sixteen days more without yet coming to any, 
 appearance of better soil. After this we found the country 
 rise a little, and by that we perceived tjiat the water would 
 fail us; so, for fear of the worst, we filled our bladder 
 bottles with water. "We found the country rising gradually 
 thus for three days continually, when, on the sudden, we 
 perceived, that though we had mounted up insensibly, yet 
 that we were on the top of a very high ridge of hills, 
 though not such as at first. 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 WE EEACH THE END OF THE DESEET — A PLEASANT COTJNTRY 
 SUCCEEDS — AEBITAL AT THE GOLDEN EIVEE — ^WE AGEEE 
 TO SEAECH FOE GOLD, AND DIVIDE THE WHOLE PEO- 
 CEEDS EQUALLY THE WET SEASON COMMENCING, WE EN- 
 CAMP ON THE BANKS OF THE iOVEE ^DESCEIPTION OP 
 
 OUE CAMP DANGEES FEOM MULTITUDES OP WILD BEAST9 
 
 ^WB STEIKE OUE CAMP, AND TRAVEL THEOUGH AN IN- 
 HOSPITABLE COUNTET. 
 
 When we came to look down on the other side of the hills, 
 we saw, to the great joy of aU our hearts, that the desert 
 was at an end ; that the country was clothed with green, 
 abundance of trees, and a large river; and we made no 
 doubt but that we should find people and cattle also. And 
 here, by our gunner's account, who kept our computations, 
 we had marched about four hundred mUes over this dismal 
 
84 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 place of horror, having been four-and-thirty days a-doing of 
 it, and, (jonsequently, were come about eleven hundred milea 
 of our journey. 
 
 We would willingly have descended the hills that night, 
 but it was too late. The next morning we saw everything 
 more plain, and rested ourselves under the shade of some 
 trees, which were now the most refreshing things imaginable 
 to us, who had been scorched above a month without a tree 
 to cover us. We found the country here very pleasant, 
 especially considering that we came from; and we killed 
 some deer here also, which we found very frequent under 
 the cover of the woods. Also we killed a creature like a 
 goat, whose flesh was very good to eat, but it was no goat. 
 We found also a great number of fowls, like partridge, but 
 something smaller, and were very tame ; so that we lived 
 here very well, but found no people — at least, none that 
 would be seen — no, not for several days' journey ; and, to 
 allay our joy, we were almost every night disturbed with 
 lions and tigers. Elephants we saw none here. 
 
 In three days' march we came to a river, which we saw 
 ■^ 1 from the hiUs, and which we ca lled the ^j)ld en river ; and 
 we found it rah northward, which was the first stream we 
 had met with that did so. It ran with a very rapid current, 
 and our gunner, pulling out his map, assured me that this 
 was either the river Nile, or ran into the great lake out of 
 \ which the river Nile was said to take its beginning ; and he 
 brought out his charts and maps, which, by his instruction, 
 I began to understand very well, and told me he would 
 convince me of it, and indeed he seemed to make it so plain 
 to me that I was of the same opinion. 
 
 But I did not enter into the gunner's reason for this 
 inquiry — ^not in the least — till he went on vnth it further, 
 and stated it thus : If this is the river NUe, why should we 
 not build some more canoes, and go down this stream, rather 
 than to expose ourselves to any more deserts and scorching 
 sands, in quest of the sea, which, when we are come to. we 
 shall be. as much at a loss how to get home as we ■v>ere 
 at Madagascar. 
 
 The argument was good had there been no objections in 
 the way, of a kind which none of us were capable of 
 answering ; but, upon the whole, it was an undertaking of 
 Buch a nature that every one of us thought it impracticable. 
 
 1 
 
DISCOVEET OF GOLD. 85 
 
 and that upon several accounts ; and our surgeon, who was 
 himself a good scholar, and a man of reading, though not 
 acquainted with the business of sailing, opposed it, and some 
 of his reasons, I remember, were such as these : first, the 
 length of the way, which both he and the gunner allowed, 
 by the course of the water and turnings of the river, would 
 be at least four thousand miles ; secondly, the innumerable 
 crocodiles in the river, which we should never be able to 
 escape ; thirdly, the dreadful deserts in the way; and, lastly, 
 the approaching rainy season, in which the streams of the 
 Nile would be so fiirious, and rise so high, spreading far and 
 wide over all the plain country, that we should never be 
 able to know when we were in the channel of the river and 
 when not, and should certainly be cast away, overset, or run 
 aground so often that it would be impossible to proceed by a 
 river so excessively dangerous. 
 
 This last reason he made so plain to us, that we began to 
 be sensible of it ourselves ; so that we agreed to lay that 
 thought aside, and proceed in our first course westwards 
 towards the sea : but, as if we had been loath to depart, we 
 continued, by way of refreshing ourselves, to loiter two days 
 upon this river, in which time our black prince, who delighted 
 much in wandering up and down, came one evening, and 
 brought us several little bits of something, he knew not what ; 
 but he found it felt heavy, and looked well, and showed it to 
 me, as what he thought was some rarity. I took not much 
 notice of it to him, but stepping out and calling the gunner 
 to me, I showed it to him, and told him what I thought, viz., 
 that it was certainly gold : he agreed with me in that, and 
 also in what followed, that we would take the black prince 
 out with us the next day, and make him show us where he 
 found it; that, if there was a ny quantity to be found, we 
 would tell our company of it ; but, it there was but little, we 
 "would k eep counsel, "a5drBave"'if to ourselvegr" 
 
 iJut we tOTgono"^g^e'"the "p rince in the secret, who inno- 
 eehtlyToig!"§o"much to alTthe rest, a s that they guessed what 
 itwgs, and came to us to see : when'w6 fOHHdr^was public, 
 'we ■wSPS'moTe concerned" to prevent their sus pecting t hat we 
 ~Ead any design to conceal i!,~ahd openly telfing ourjhouglitr' 
 of It, we ^aied o uFaftj5ceg;tyKo"ggfe'ed presentlythat it'was 
 ' gold ; so i proposed, that we'should all go with the prince to 
 §ie place where he found it, and, if any quantity was to be 
 
86 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 had, we would lie here some time, and see wliat we could 
 make of it. 
 
 Accordingly, we went every man of us, for no man was 
 willing to be left behind in a discovery of such a nature. 
 When we came to the place, we found it was on the west 
 side of the river, not in the main river, but in another small 
 river or stream which came from the west, and ran into the 
 other at that place. We fell to raking in the sand, and wash- 
 ing it in our hands, and we seldom took up a handful of sand, 
 but we washed some little round lumps as big as a pin's head, 
 or sometimes as big as a grape-stone, into our hands, and we 
 found, in two or three hours' time, thatevei^^ on e had got 
 some, so we agreed to leave off, ancTgo 'to~3ihner. 
 
 WBUe we were eating, it came into my thoughts, that 
 while we worked at this rate in a thing of such nicety and 
 c onsequen ce, it was ten to one if the gold, which was the 
 
 I^^Skebate'^jf the world, did not, first or last, set us together 
 by the "ears, to break our good articles and our understanding 
 one among another, and perhaps cause us to part companies, 
 or worse ; I therefore told them, that I was indeed the 
 youngest man of the company, but, as they had always 
 allowed me to give my opinion in things, and had been some- 
 times pleased to follow my advice, so I had something to pro- 
 pose now which I thought would be for all our advantages, and 
 I believed they would all like it very well. I told them we 
 were in a country where we all knew there was a great deal 
 of gold, and that all the world sent ships {hither to get it : 
 that we did not indeed know where it was, and so we might 
 get a great deal, or a little, we did not know whether ; but I 
 offered it to them to consider, whether it would not be the 
 best way for us, and to preserve the good harmony and friend- 
 ship that had been always kept among us, and which was so 
 absolutely necessary to our safety, that what we found should 
 
 Jbe brou^t t ogether to one commo n~sto ck,"angrbe^qualiy 
 
 "Sivided at lastTratner tUaffto'fuh'fhe'hazarHof any difference 
 which might happen among us, from anyone's having foimd 
 more or less than another. I told them that, if we were all 
 upon one bottom, we should all apply ourselves heartily to the 
 Work ; and, besides that, we might then set our negroes all 
 to work for us, and receive equally the fruit of their labour, 
 and of our own, and being all exactly alike sharers, there 
 
 i eould be no just cause of quarrel or disgust among us. 
 
THE GOLD DIVIDED EQUALLY. 87 
 
 They all approved tlie proposal, and every one jointly 
 swore, and gave their hands to one another, tbat they would 
 not conceal the least grain of gold from the rest ; and con- 
 sented that, if any^one or more should be found to conceal 
 an y, all that^^e "Had should' be taken from him, and dividea" 
 among fiie rest~and^MeTEingTn6re 'wasarddeS to it by our 
 gunner, from, considerations equally good and just, that, if 
 any one of us, by any play, bet, game, or wager, won any 
 money or gold, or the value of any, from another, during our 
 whole voyage, till our return quite to Portugal, he should be 
 obliged by us all to restore it again, on the penalty of being 
 disarmed, and turned out of the company, and of having no 
 relief from us on any account whatsoever. Thig^was to pre- 
 v ent wagering and playing for money, w hich ourlnen were 
 "^t to do by several~games, though they had neither cards 
 nor dice. 
 
 Having made this wholesome agreement, we went cheer- 
 fully to work, and showed our negroes how to work for us ; 
 and, working up the stream on both sides, and in the bottom 
 of the river, we spent about three weeks' time dabbling in 
 the water ; by which time, as it lay all in our way, we had 
 been gone about six nules, and not more; and stiU the higher 
 we went, the more gold we found ; tUl at last, having passed 
 by the side of a hiU, we perceived on a sudden, that the gold 
 stopped, and that there was not a bit taken up beyond that 
 place : it presently occurred to my mind, that it must then be 
 from the side of that little hill that all the gold we found was 
 worked down. 
 
 Upon this, we went back to the hill, and fell to work with 
 that. We found the earth loose, and of a yellowish loamy 
 colour, and in some places a white hard kind of stone, which, 
 in describing since to some of our artists, they tell me was the 
 spar which is found by ore, and surrounds it in the mine. 
 However, if it had been all gold, we had no instrument to 
 force it out ; so we passed that : but scratching into the loose 
 earth with our fingers, we came to a surprising place, where 
 the earth, for the quantity of two bushels, I believe, or there- 
 abouts, crumbled down with little more than touching it, and 
 apparently showed us that there was a great deal of gold in 
 it. We took it all careftdly up, and, washing it in the water, 
 the loamy earth washed away, and left the gold dust free in 
 our hands ; and that which was more remarkable, was, that 
 
88 CAPTAIN SINGLETON'. 
 
 when this loose earth was all taken away, and we came to 
 the rock or hard stone, there was not one grain of gold more 
 to be found. 
 
 At night we came all together to see what we had got ; and 
 it appeared we had found, in that day's heap of earth, about 
 fifty pound <5reight of gold dust, and about thirty-four pound 
 more in all the rest of our works in the river. 
 
 It was a happy kind of disappointment to us, that we 
 found a fuU stop put to our work ; for, had the quantity of 
 gold been ever so small, yet, had any at all come, I do not 
 know when we should have given over ; for, having rum- 
 maged this, place, and not finding the least grain of gold in 
 any other place, or in any of the earth there, except in that 
 loose parcel, we went quite back down the small river again, 
 working it over and over again, as long as we could find 
 anything, how small soever; and we did get six or seven 
 pound more the second time. Then we went into the first 
 river, and tried it up the stream and down the stream, on 
 the one side and on the other. Up the stream we found 
 nothing, no not a grain ; down the stream we found very 
 little, not above the quantity of half an ounce in two miles 
 -, |j working ; so back we came again to_the Gold en river, as we 
 '^ ' ^ iustly called i t, and worked it up the staiam'^d downTEe 
 stream twice more apiece, and every time we found some 
 gold, and perhaps might have done so if we had stayed there 
 till this time ; but the quantity was at last so small, and the 
 work so much the harder, that we agreed by consent to give 
 it over, lest we should fatigue ourselves and our negroes so 
 as to be quite unfit for our journey. When we had brought 
 all our purchase together, we had in the whole three pound 
 and a half of gold to a man, share and share alike, according 
 to such a weight and scale as our ingenious cutler made for 
 us to weigh it by, which he did indeed by guess, but which, 
 as he said, he was sure was rather more than less, and so it 
 proved at last ; for it was near two ounces more than weight 
 in a pound. Besides this, there was seven or eight pounds' 
 weight left, which we agreed to leave in his hands, to work 
 it into such shapes as we thought fit, to give away to such 
 j)eople as we might yet meet with, from whom we might 
 have occasion to buy provisions, or even to buy fiiendship, 
 or the like ; and part icularly we gave a pound to_our_blaek 
 prince, which he hammered^ahfwbrked by his own indefa* 
 
ENCAMP FOK THE WINTEE. 89 
 
 tigable hand, and some tools our artificer lent him, into little 
 round bits, as round almost as beads, though not exact in 
 shape, and, drilling holes through them, put them all upon a 
 string, and wore them about his black neck, and they looked 
 very well there I assure you; but he was many monthii 
 a-doing it. And thus ended our first golden adventure. 
 ■• "We now began to discover what we had not troubled our 
 heads much about before ; and that was, that let the country 
 be good or bad that we were in, we could not travel much 
 further for a considerable time. We had been now five 
 months and upwards in our journey, and the seasons began 
 to change ; and nature told us, that, being in a climate that 
 had a winter as well as a summer, though of a diflferent kind 
 from what our country produced, we were to expect a wet 
 season, and such as we should not be able to travel in, as 
 well by reason of the rain itself, as of the floods which it 
 would occasion wherever we should come ; and though we 
 had been no strangers to those wet seasons in the island of 
 Madagascar, yet we had not thought much of them since we 
 betgan our travels ; for, setting out when the sun was about 
 the solstice, that is, when it was at the greatest northern 
 distance from us, we had found the benefit of it in our 
 travels. But now it drew near us apace, and we found it 
 began to rain ; upon which we called another general council^ 
 
 1^ in which we debated our present circumstances, and, in par- 
 ticular, whether we should go forward, or seek for a proper 
 place upon the bank of our Golden river, which had been so 
 lucky to us, to fix our camp for the winter. 
 
 *° Upon the whole, it was resolved to abide where we were ; 
 and it was not the least part of our happiness that we did 
 80, as shall appear in its place. 
 
 Having resolved upon this, our first measures were to set 
 our negroes to work, to make huts or houses for our habi- 
 tation; and this they did very dexterously, only that we 
 changed the ground where we had at first intended it, 
 thinking, as indeed it happened, that the river might reach 
 it upon any sudden rain. Our camp was like a little town, 
 in which our huts were in the centre, having one large one 
 in the centre of them also, into which all our particular 
 lodgings opened; so th at none of us w ent into our apart- 
 ments but througS'a'puElic te ntj where we"all eat and dran£~ 
 
 ~l^EEer7^iid kept our councils and society } and our car* 
 
90 - CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 penters made us tables, benches, and stools in abundance, aa 
 many as we could make use of. 
 
 We had no need of chimneys — ^it was hot enough without 
 fire ; but yet we found ourselves at last obliged to keep a fire 
 every night upon a particular occasion ; for, though we had 
 in aU other respects a very pleasant and agreeable situation, 
 yet we were rather worse troubled vsith the unwelcome 
 ^visits of wild beasts here than in the wilderness itself j for, as 
 the deer and other gentle creatures came hither for shelter 
 and food, so the lions and tigers, and leopards, haunted 
 these places continually for prey. 
 
 When first we discovered this, we were so uneasy at it 
 that we thought of removing our situation ; but, after many 
 debates about it, we resolved to fortify ourselves in such a 
 manner as not to be in any danger Irom it, and this our 
 carpenters undertook, who first palisadoed our camp quite 
 round with long stakes (for we had wood enough), which 
 stakes were not stuck in one by another, like pales, but in 
 an irregular manner — a great multitude of them so placed 
 that they took up near two yards in thickness, some higher, 
 some lower, all sharpened at the top, and about a foot 
 asunder ; so that, had any creature jumped at them, unless 
 he had gone clean over, which it was very hard to do, he 
 would be hung upon twenty or thirty spikes. 
 
 The entrance into this had larger stakes than the rest, so 
 placed before one another as to make three or four short 
 turnings, which no four-footed beast bigger than a dog 
 could possibly come in at ; and that we might not be at- 
 tacked by any multitude together, and consequently be 
 alarmed in our sleep, as we had been, or be obliged to waste 
 our ammunition, which we were very chary of, we kept a 
 great fire every night without the entrance of our palisadoe, 
 having a hut for our two sentinels to stand in free from the 
 rain, just within the entrance, and right against the fire. 
 
 To maintain this fire we cut a prodigious deal of wood, 
 and piled it up in a heap to dry, and, with the green boughs, 
 made a second covering over our huts, so high and thick 
 that it might cast the rain off from the first, and keep us 
 effectually dry. 
 
 We had scarce finished all these works, but the rain came 
 on so fierce, and so continued, that we had little time to stir 
 abroad for food, except indeed that our negroes, who wore 
 
INNtJMERABLE WILD BEASTS. 91 
 
 no clothes, seemed to make nothing of the rain, though to 
 us Europeans, in those hot climates, nothing is more dan- 
 gerous. 
 
 We continued in this posture for four months — ^that is, 
 from the middle of June to the middle of October ; for, 
 though the rains went off — at least the greatest violence of 
 them — about the equinox, yet, as the sun was then just over 
 our heads, we resolved to stay awhile till it had passed us a 
 little to the southward. 
 
 During our encampment here, we had several adventures 
 with the ravenous creatures of that country ; and, had not 
 our fire been always kept burning, I question much whether 
 all our fence, though we strengthened it afterwards vyith 
 twelve or fourteen rows of stakes or more, would have kept 
 us secure. It was always in the night that we had the dis- '^ 
 turbance of them, and sometimes they came in such multi- 
 tudes, that we thought aU the lions and tigers, and leopards, 
 and wolves of Africa, were come together to attack us. One 
 night, being clear moonshine, one of our men being upon 
 the watch, told us, he verily believed he saw ten thousand 
 wild creatures, of one sort or another, pass by our little 
 camp ; and as soon as ever they saw the fire, they sheered 
 off, but were sure to howl or roar, or whatever it was, when 
 they were past. 
 
 The music of their voices was very far from being pleasant 
 to us, and sometimes would be so very disturbing, that we 
 could not sleep for it ; and often our sentinels would call us, 
 that were awake, to come and look at them. It was one 
 ■windy tempestuous night, after a very rainy day, that we 
 were indeed all called up ; for such innumerable numbers of 
 devilish creatures came about us, that our watch really 
 thought they would attack us. They would not come on the 
 side where the fire was ; and though we thought ourselves 
 secure everywhere else, yet we all got up, and took to om- 
 arms. The moon was near the full, but the air full of flying 
 clouds, and a strange hurricane of wind, to add to the terror 
 of the night ; when, looking on the back part of our camp, 
 I thought I saw a creature within our fortiflcation,_and so 
 Jndeed^he wag, except Tiis haunches; for he had taken a 
 running leap, I suppose, and with all his might had thrown 
 himself clear over our palisadoes, except one strong pile, 
 which stood higher than the rest, and which had caught , 
 
92 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 hold of him, an! by his weight he had hanged himself upon 
 it, the spike of the pile running into his hinder-haunch or 
 thigh, on the inside, and by that he hung growling and 
 biting the wood for rage. I snatched up a lance from one 
 of the negroes that stood just by me, and, running to him, 
 struck it three or four times into him, and despatched him ; 
 being unwilling to shoot, because I had a mind to have a 
 volley fired among the rest, which I could see standing 
 without, as thick as a drove of bullocks going to a fair. I 
 immediately called our people out, and showed them the 
 object of terror which I had seen, and, without any farther 
 consultation, fired a full voUey among them, most of our 
 pieces being loaden with three slugs or bullets apiece. It 
 made a horrible clutter among them, and in general they all 
 took_toJii£iiL_hefilSj_ pn]j_that we could observe, that s ome 
 ^^vrolked off jwith more g ravity and majesty 1 than other s, being 
 not so much frightened at the'noise and"B're; and we could 
 perceive that some were left upon the ground struggling as 
 for Ufe, but we durst not stir out to see what Jhey_ were. 
 
 IndeSS th^'stood^goTEi^J an3~were io hear n^TEat we 
 could not weU miss killing or wounding some of them, and 
 we believed they had certainly the smell of us, and our victuals 
 we had been kiUing ; for we had killed a deer, and three or 
 four o f those creatu r es like goats, the day before ; and some 
 of the ofial had been thrown out behind our camp ; and this, 
 we suppose, drew them so much about us ; but we avoided 
 it for the future. 
 
 Though the creatures fled, yet we heard a frightful roaring 
 aU night at the place where they stood, which we supposed 
 was from some that were wounded; and, as soon as day 
 came, we went out to see what execution we had done, and, 
 indeed, it was a strange sight ; there were three tigers and 
 two wolves quite killed, besides the creature I had killed 
 within our palisadoe, wiich^eemed_to_Jbe^ o£jsjll-gendered 
 kinH, between a. tiggr_a.n(l ajtyrparfl. Besides this, there was 
 a noble old lion alive, but with both his fore-legs broken, so 
 that he could not stir away, and he had almost beat himself 
 to death with struggling all night ; and we found, that this 
 was the wounded soldier )that had roared so loud, and given 
 US so much disturbance. Our surgeon, looking at him, 
 smiled : Now, says he, if I could be sure this lion would ba 
 tm grateful to me as one of his majesty's ancestors was to 
 
JOURNEY EE3UMED. 93 
 
 Androcles, the Roman slave, I would certainly set both his 
 
 legs again, and cure him. I had not heard the stoiy of 
 
 Androcles, so he told it me at large ; but, as to the surgeon, 
 
 we told him, he had no way to know whether the lion would 
 
 be so or not, but to cure him first, and trust to his honour; 
 
 but he had no faith ; so, to despatch him, and put him out of 
 
 his torment, he shot hinijntQ the head, and killed him, for 
 
 J^l "ch"we called him th e(lin g^iller ever after. ' 
 
 Oui- negroes lound r^Hles^s' than five of these ravenous 
 
 creatures wounded and dropt at a distance from our quarters ; 
 
 whereof, one was a wolf, one a fine spotted young leopard, 
 
 and the^^erwere creaturesjhat_we knew not what to call 
 fEemT ~^ ■^--«.„.»^-=:.^ ^_=„„.=^ 
 
 ~~We had several more of these gent lefolks about after that, 
 but no such general randezvoM^fThem as that was any 
 more ; but this ill effect it had to us, that it frightened the 
 deer and other creatures from our neighbourhood, of whose 
 company we were much more desirous, and which were 
 necessary for our subsistence: however, our negroes went 
 out every day a-hun ting, as they called it , with bow and 
 arrow, and they'scarce' ever tailed of bringing us home some- 
 thing or other; and particularly we found in this part of the 
 country, after the rains had fallen some time, abundance of 
 wildfowl, such as we have in England ; duck, teal, widgeon, 
 &c., some geese, and some kinds that we had never seen 
 before, and we frequently killed them. Also we caught a 
 grea.t deal of fresh fish out of the river, so that we wanted no 
 provision ; if we wanted anything, it was salt to eat with our 
 fresh meat, but we had a little left, and we used it sparingly ; 
 for as to our negroes they could not taste it, nor did they 
 care to eat any meat that was seasoned with it. 
 
 The weather began now to clear up, the rains were down, 
 and the fioods abated, and the sun, which had passed our 
 zenith, was gone to the southward a good way, so we pro- 
 ceeded on our way:.''' ~^~ 
 
 It was the, l2th of October, or thereabouts, that we 
 began to set fomaicd; ^ndj^hgivihg an easy coimtry to travel 
 in, as well as to supply us with provisions, though stiU with- 
 out inhabitants, we made more despatch, travelling some- 
 times, as we calculated it, twenty or twenty-five miles a day ; 
 nor did we halt anywhere in eleven days' march, one day 
 excepted, which was to make a raft to carry us over a small 
 
y^f^A -^ ^^^^^ 
 
 D'A CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 river, which, having been swelled with the rains, was not yet 
 quite down. 
 
 When we were past this river, which by the way ran to the 
 northward too, we found a great row of hiUs in our way : we 
 saw indeed the country open to the right at a great distance ; 
 but, as we kept true to our course due west, we were not 
 willing to go a great way out of our way, only to shun a few 
 hiUs ; so we advanced ; but we were surprised, when, being 
 not quite come to the top, one of our company, who, with 
 two negroes, was got up before us, cried out. The Sea ! the 
 Sea! and fell a dancing and jumping, as signs of joy. 
 
 The gunner and I were most surprised at it, because we 
 had but that morning been calculating, that we were then 
 above a thousand nules from the sea-side, and that we could 
 not expect to reach it tUl another rainy season would be upon 
 us, so that, when our man cried oul^ The Sea, the gunner 
 was angrjr, and said he was mad. 
 
 But we were both in the greatest surprise imaginable, when, 
 coming to the top of the hill, and, though it was very high, 
 we saw nothing but water, either before us, or to the right 
 hand or the left, being a vast sea, without any bound but the 
 horizon. 
 
 He went down the hill fuU of confusion of thought, not 
 being able to conceive whereabouts we were, or what it must 
 be, seeing by all our charts the sea was yet a vast way off. 
 
 It was not above three nules from the hiU before we came 
 to the shore, or water-edge of this sea, and there, to our 
 further surprise, we found the water fresh and pleasant to 
 drink ; so that, in short, we knew not what course to take : 
 the sea, as we thought it to be, put a fuU stop to our journey 
 (I mean westward), for it lay just in the way. Our next 
 question was, which hand to turn to, to the right or the left? 
 but this was soon resolved ; for, as we knew not the extent 
 of it, we considered that our way, if it had been the sea really, 
 must be to the north ; and, therefore, if we went to the south 
 now, it must be just so much out of our way at last. So, 
 having spent a good part of the day in our surprise at the 
 thing, and consulting what to do, we set forward to the 
 north. 
 
 We travelled upon the shore of this sea full twenty-three 
 days, before we could come to any resolution about what it 
 was : at the end of which, early one morning, one of our 
 
PUESITED BY A SERPEST. 95 
 
 seamen cried out, Land ! and it was no false alarm, for we 
 saw plainly the tops of some hills at a very great distance, on 
 the^ further side of the water, due west; but though this 
 (satisfied us that it was not the ocean, but an inland sea or 
 lake, yet we saw no land to the northward, that is to say, no 
 end of it ; but were obliged to travel eight days more, and 
 near a hundred nules further before we came to the end of it, 
 and then we found this lake or sea ended in a very great 
 river, which ran N. or N. by E. as the other river had dona, 
 which I mentioned before. 
 
 My Mend the gunner, upon examining, said, that he be, 
 lieved that he was mistaken before, and that this was the 
 river NUe, but was still of the mind that we were of before, 
 that we should not think of a voyage into Egypt that way ; 
 so we resolved upon crossing this river, which, however, was 
 not so easy as before, the river being very rapid, and the 
 channel very broad. 
 
 It cost us, therefore, a week here to get materials to waft 
 ourselves and cattle over this river.; for though here were 
 store of trees, yet there was none of any considerable growth, 
 sufficient to niake a canoe. 
 
 During our march on the edge of this bank, we met with, 
 great fatigue, and therefore travelled fewer miles in a day 
 than before, there being such a prodigious number of little 
 rivers that came down from the hills on the east side, empty- 
 ing themselves into this gulf, all which waters were pretty 
 high, the rains having been but newly over. 
 
 In the last three days of our travel we met with some in- 
 habitants, but we found they lived upon the little hills, and 
 not by the water-side ; nor were we a little put to it for food 
 in tlaa march, having killed nothing, for four or five days, 
 but some fish we caught out of the lake, and that not in such 
 plenty as we found before. 
 
 But, to make us some amends, we had no disturbance 
 upon all the shore of this lake, from any wild beasts ; tne 
 only inconveniency of that kind was, that we met an ugly 
 venomous ^ deformed, kind of a snake Or sei-penfuT " the weiT 
 grounds n^r ^elake^at sevgral times purs ue d usTai^it 
 "woindr ^taoE~u s ; and^f we struckpor threw anytSTng at it, 
 ~irwo3d~1Faise~iteelf up, and hi^s so loud that it might be 
 heard a great way oflf; it had a hellish ugl y deformed l ook 
 
1 
 
 96 CAPTAIN SIKGLETON. 
 
 s I , 
 
 I i and.Ygice2jmd our men would not be pursuaded but it was 
 fp the devil, only that we did not know what business Satan 
 it, could have there, where there were no people. 
 
 It was very remarkable that we had_no w travelled a tho u- 
 BaEd mites"witEout meeting with any peo ple^j n the heart of 
 ^le ^^ole'contiiieiiFor' Africa, where, ToTie sure, never "ffiafi 
 set his fooTsmre the sons of Noah spread themselves over the 
 face of the whole earth. Here also our guminr took an ob- 
 servation with his forestaif, to determine our latitude, and he 
 found now, that, having marched about thirty-three days 
 northward, we were in 6 degrees 22 minutes south latitude. 
 
 After having, with great difficulty, got over this river, we 
 came into a strange wild country, that began a little to 
 affright us ; for though the country was not a desert of dry- 
 scalding sand, as that was we had passed before, yet it was 
 mountainous, barren, and infinitely full of most furio us wil d 
 beasts^ more than any place^we'^aS: past j^et. There was 
 indeed a kind' of coai^ Herhage on'ffie surface, and now and 
 then a few trees or rather shrubs ; but people we__ could . 
 see none, and we began to be in 'greaF suspense about 
 'victuals ; for we had not killed a deer a great while, but had 
 _ lived chiefly upon fish, and fowl, always by the water-side, 
 both which seemed to fail us now ; and we were in the more 
 consterna,tion, because we could not lay in a stock here to 
 proceed upon, as we did before, but were obliged to set out 
 •with scarcity, and without any certainty of a supply. 
 
 We had, however, no remedy but patience ; ajid, having 
 kiUed some fowls, and dried some fish, as much as, with 
 short allowance, we reckoned would last us five days, we 
 resolved to venture, and venture we did ; nor was it without 
 cause that we were apprehensive of the danger, for we tra- 
 velled the five days, and met with neither fish, or fowl, or 
 four-footed beast whMe^fleghjvBS fit to eat; and we were 
 in a most dreadful apprehension of beingTamished to death ; 
 on the sixth day we almost fasted, or, as wo may say, we eat iiiS 
 up all the scraps of what we had left, and at night lay down 
 supperless upon our mats with heavy hearts, being obliged, 
 the eighth dayi_to^ill_pne^of our poor faithful servantSj the 
 bufialoeSj_that carried our baggage ; the flesh of this creature 
 ^^as very good, and so sparingly did we eat of it, that it 
 lasted us all three days and a half, and was just spent ; and 
 
REACH INHABITED LAND. 97 
 
 we were upon the point of killing another, when we saw 
 before us a country that promised better, having high trees 
 and a large river in the middle of it. 
 
 ^ This encouraged us, and we quickened our march for the 
 nver side, though with empty stomachs, and very faint and 
 weak ; but, before we came to this river, we had the good 
 hap to meet with some young deer, a thing we had long 
 wished for. In a word, having shot three of them, we came 
 to a fuU stop, to fill our bellies, and never gave the flesh time 
 to cool before we eat it ; nay, it was much we could stay to 
 J^ill it, aMJbadnot eatenitalive, for we were, in short, 
 almost lamishei " " 
 
 Through all that inhospitable country, we saw continually 
 
 ' lions, tigers, leopards, civet cats, and abundance of kinds of 
 creatmesJhatjvedidjiotjindCTstand; we saw no elephants, 
 
 "buTevery now and then we met"with an elephant's tooth 
 lying on the ground, and some of them lying, as it were, 
 half buried by the length of time that they had lain there. 
 
 When we came to the shore of this river, we found it ran 
 northerly still, as all the rest had done, but with this difier- 
 ence, that as the course of the other rivers were N. by E. or 
 N.N.E. the course of this lay N.N.W. y 
 
 CHAPTER Vm. 
 
 WB REACH INHABITED LAND — THE NATIVES INNOCENT AND 
 
 FRIENDLY ^WE ENTER tTPON A SECOND DESERT THE 
 
 SPRINGS AS SALT AS BRINE — OUR SURGEON DISCOVERS A 
 
 MODE OF RENDERING THE WATER FRESH ^PROCEEDINGS 
 
 ON OUR MARCH OUR TROOP BEGIN TO GROW SICKLY, 
 
 AND ONE NEGRO DIES ^FURTHER ADVENTURES ^WE DIS- 
 COVER A WHITE MAN, PERFECTLY NAKED, Uf THE NEGRO 
 COUNTRY, WHO PROVES TO BE AN ENGLISHMAN. 
 
 On the further bank of this river we saw some sign of in- 
 habitants, but met with none for the .first day ; but the next 
 day we came into an inhabited country, the people all' 
 negroes, and stark naked, without shame, both men and 
 women. — -■ 
 
 We made signs of friendship to them, and found them a 
 very frank, civil, and friendly sort of people. They came to 
 
/K[ 
 
 98 CAPTAIN SINGLET(J». 
 
 our negroes without any suspicion, nor did they give as any 
 reason to suspect them of any villany, as the others had 
 done; we made signs to them that we were hungry, and 
 immediately some naked women ran and fetched us great 
 quantities oFfbofe," and of ^ngs like pumpkins, which we 
 made no scruple to eat ; and our artificer showed them some 
 of his trinkets that he had made, some of^ iron, some of 
 silver, but none of gold : they had so much judgment as to 
 choose those of silver before the iron ; but when we showed 
 them some gold, we found they did not value it so much as 
 either of the other. 
 
 For some of these things they brought us more provisions, 
 and three living creatures as big as calves, but not_oftiiat^ 
 kind ;. neiffier~"m3 we ever see any of them beforepEESF 
 'Besh was very good^andT after that they brought us twelve 
 more, and some smaller creatures, like hares ; all which were 
 very welcome to us, who were in3eed at a very great loss 
 for provisions. 
 
 We grew very intimate with these people, and indeed 
 they were the civilest and most friendly people that we met 
 with at all, and mightily pleased with us ; and, which was 
 very particular, they were much easier to be made to under-! 
 stand our meaning than any we had met with before. 
 
 At last, we began to inquire our way, pointing to the 
 west : they made us understand easily that we could not go 
 that way, but they pointed to us, that we might go north- 
 west, so that wei presently understood that there was another 
 lake in our way, which proved to be true ; for in two days 
 more we saw it plain, and it held us till we past the equi- 
 noctial line, lying all the way on our left hand, though at a 
 great distance. 
 
 Travelling thus northward, our gunner seemed very anxi- 
 ous about our proceedings ; for he assured us, and made me 
 sensible of it by the maps which he had been teaching me 
 out of, that when we came into the latitude of six degrees, or 
 thereabouts, north of the line, the land trenched away to the 
 west, to such a length, that we should not come at the sea 
 under a march of above fifteen hundred miles further west- 
 ward than the country we desired to go to. I asked him if there 
 were no navigable rivers that we might meet with, which, 
 winning into tlie west ocean, might perhaps carry us down 
 their stream, and then, if it were fifteen hundred miles, or 
 
GEEAT EIVER COKao. 99 
 
 twice fifteen hundred miles, we might do well enough, if we 
 could but get provisions. 
 
 Here he showed me the maps again, and that there ap- 
 peared no river whose stream was of such a length as to do 
 any kmdness, till we came perhaps within two or three 
 hundred miles of the shore, except the Rio Grand, as they call 
 It, which lay further northward from us, at least seven hundred 
 miles; and that then he knew not what kind of country 
 it might carry us through ; for he said it was his opinion, 
 that the heats on the north of the line, even in the same 
 latitude, were violent, and the country more desolate, barren, 
 and barbarous than those of the south ; and that, when we 
 came among the negroes in the north part of Africa, next the 
 sea, especially those who had seen and trafficked with the 
 Europeans, such as Dutch, English, Portuguese, Spaniards, 
 &c., they^^adjagst of them baen so jll jsed at some time 
 OToffi^ that _ they ~would certainly put all the^spte'they 
 could upon us in mere revenge. 
 
 Upon these considerations, he advised us, that, as soon as 
 we had passed this lake, we should proceed W.S.W., that is 
 to say, a little inclining to the south, and that in time we 
 should meet with the great river Congo, from whence the 
 coast is called Copgo, being a little north of Angola, where 
 we intended at first to go. 
 
 I asked him, if ever he had been on the coast of Congo ? 
 He said, yes, he had, but was never on shore there. Then I 
 asked him, how we should get from thence to the coast 
 where the European ships came, seeing, if the land trenched 
 away west for fifteen hundred mUes, we must have all that 
 shore to traverse, before we could double the west point 
 of it? 
 
 He told me, it was ten to one but we should hear of some 
 European ships to take us in, for that they often visited the 
 coast of Congo and Angola,, in trade with the negroes ; and 
 that if we could not, yet, if we couM hut fiSTprOTiiiohs, we 
 should make our way as .well along the sea-shore as along 
 the river, till we came to the gold coast, which, he said, was 
 not above four or five hundred miles north of Congo, besides 
 the turning of the coast west about three hundred more ; 
 that shore being in the latitude of 6 or 7 degrees, and that 
 there the English, or Dutch, or French, had settlements or 
 factories, perhaps all of them. 
 
 H 2 
 
,! I"' ^ 
 
 100 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 I confess I had more mind, all the while he argued, to 
 have gone northward, and shipped ourselves in the llio 
 Grand, or, as the traders call it, the river Negro, or Niger, 
 for I knew that at last it would bring us down to the Cape 
 de Verd, where we were sure of relief; whereas at the coast 
 we were going to now we had a prodigious way stiU to go, 
 either by sea or land, and no certainty which way to get 
 provisions but by force; but for the present I held my 
 tongue, because it was my tutor's opinion. 
 
 But when, according to his desire, we came to turn 
 southward, having passed beyond the second great lake, our 
 men began aU to be uneasy, and said we were now out of 
 our way for certain, for that we were going farther from 
 home, and that we were indeed far enough off already. 
 
 But we had not marched above twelve days more, eight 
 whereof was taken up in rounding the lake, and four more 
 south-west, in order to make for the river Congo, but we 
 were put to another full stop, by entering a country so 
 desolate, so frightful, and so wUd, that we knew not what to 
 think or do ; for, besides that it appeared as a terrible and 
 boundless desert, having neither woods, trees, rivers, nor 
 inhabitants, so even the place where we were was desolate of 
 inhabitants, nor had we any way to gather in a stock of 
 provisions for the passing of this desert, as we did before at 
 our entering the first, unless we had marched back four days 
 to the place where we turned the head of the lake. 
 
 Well, notwithstanding this, we ventured; for, to men that 
 had passed such wild places as we had done, nothing could 
 seem too desperate to undertake : we ventured, I say, and 
 the rather because we saw very high mountains in our way 
 at a great distance, and we imagined wherever there were 
 mountains there would be springs and rivers ; where rivers 
 there would be trees and grass ; where trees and grass there 
 w'ould be cattle ; apd where cattle some kindjif. inhabitants. 
 
 At last, in co^equence of this-^eenlative philosop^,' we 
 entered this waste, having a greatJtteap-of-rootSTCfioplants 
 for our bread, such as the Indians gave us, a very little 
 flesh, or salt, and but a little water. 
 
 "We travelled two days towards those hills, and still they 
 seemed as far off as they did at first, and it was the fifth day 
 before we got to them; indeed, we travelled softly, for it was 
 excessively hot, and we were much about the very equL<! 
 
MAKE SALT WATEK PEESH. 10^ 
 
 Boctial line — ^we hardly knew whedier to the south or the 
 north of it. 
 
 As we had concluded, that where there were hOls thero 
 would be springs, so it happened ; but we were not only 
 surprised, but rea:Uy fiightened, to find the first spring we 
 came to, and which looked admirably clear and beautiful, to 
 be salt as brine. It was a terrible disappointment to us, and 
 put us under melancholy apprehensions at first; but the 
 gunner, who was of a spirit never discouraged, told us we 
 should not be disturbed at that, but be very thankful, for 
 salt was a bait we stood in as much need of as anything, 
 and there was no question but we should find fresh water as 
 well as salt ; and here om- surgeon stept in to encourage us, 
 and told us that, if we did not know, he would show us 
 a way how to make that salt water fresh, which indeed made 
 us all more cheerful, though we wondered what he meant. 
 
 Meantime our men, without bidding, had been seeking 
 about for other springs, and found several; but still they 
 were all salt ; from whence we concluded, that there was a 
 salt rock or mineral stone in those mountains, and perhaps 
 they might be all of such a substance ; but still I wondered 
 by what witchcraft it was that our artist, the surgeon, would 
 make this salt water turn fresh ; and I longed to see the 
 experiment, which was indeed a veiy odd one ; but he went 
 to work with as much assurance as if he had tried it on the 
 very spot before. 
 
 He took two of our large mats, and sewed them together ; 
 and they made a kind of a bag four feet broad, three feet and 
 a half high, and about a foot and a half thick when it was 
 foil. 
 
 He caused us to fill this bag with dry sand, and tread it 
 down as close as we could, not to burst the mats. When 
 thus the bag was ftiU within a foot, he sought some other 
 earth, and filled up the rest with it, and still trod all in as 
 hard as he could. When he had done, he made a hole in the 
 upper earth, about as broad as the crown of a large hat, or 
 something bigger, but not so deep, and bade a negro fill it 
 with water, and stiU, as it shrunk away, to fill it again, and 
 keep it fuU. The bag he had placed at first across two pieces 
 of wood, about a foot from the ground; and under it he 
 ordered some of our skins to be spread, that would hold 
 water. In about an hour, and not sooner, the water began 
 
102 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 to come dropping through the bottom of the Lag, and, to our 
 great surprise, was perfectly fresh and sweet ; and this con- 
 tinued for several hours : but in the end the water began to 
 be a little brackish. When we told him that, WeU then;, 
 said he, turn the sand out and fill it again. Whether he did 
 this by way of experiment from his own fancy, or whether 
 he had seen it done before, I do not remember. 
 
 The next day we mounted the tops of the hills, where the 
 prospect was indeed astonishing ; for, as far as the eye could 
 look, south, or west, or north-west, there was nothing to be 
 seen but a vast howling wilderness, with neither tree or river, 
 Or any green thing. The surface we found, as the part we 
 passed the day before, had a kind of thick moss upon it, of a 
 blackish dead colour, but nothing in it that looked like food,- 
 either for man or beast. 
 
 Had we been stored with provisions to have entered 
 for ten or twenty days upon this wilderness, as we were 
 formerly, and with fresh water, we had hearts good enough to 
 have ventured, though we had been obliged to come back 
 again ; for, if we went north, we did not know but we might 
 meet with the same ; but we neither had provisions, neither 
 were we in any place where it was possible to get them. 
 We Idlled^ome wild ferine creatures at the foot of these hills i 
 but, e3£apt two thiBga^EEe to nothing that we ever saw 
 Jbeforej^ wejmet with nothing that was" fit tojeat. TEesiTwere 
 creatures that seemed to be^tweeh a^nd of buffalo and a 
 deer, but indeed resembled neither ; for they had no horns, 
 and had great legs like a cow, with a fine head, and the neck 
 like a deer. We killed also, at several times, a tiger, two 
 young lions, and a wolf: but God be thanked, we were not 
 so reduced as to eat carrion. 
 
 Upon this terrible prospect, I renewed my motion of turn- 
 ing northward, and, making towards the river Niger or Rio 
 Grand, then to turn west towards the English settlements on 
 the gold coast, to which every one most readily consented, 
 only our gunner, who was indeed our best guide, though he 
 happened to be mistaken at this time. He moved, that; 
 as our coast was now northward, so we might slant away 
 north-west, that so, by crossing the country, we might 
 perhaps meet with some other river that ran into the Rio 
 Grand northward, or down to the gold coast southward, and 
 Bo both direct our way, and shorten the labour; as alse 
 
tJNEXPECTFlD SUPPLY OP FOOD. lOS 
 
 because, if any of the country was inhabited and fruitful, wa 
 Should probaibly find it upon the shore of the rivers, where 
 alone we could be furnished with provisions. 
 
 This was good advice, and too rational not to be taken ; 
 but our present business was, what to do to get out of this 
 dreadful pla<!e we wfere in. Behind us was a waste, which 
 had already cost us five days' march, and we had not pro- 
 ^ions for five days left, to go back again the same way. 
 Before us was nothing but horror, as above : so we resolved, 
 seeing the ridge of the hills we were upon had some appear- 
 ance of fruitfuhiess, and that they seemed to lead away to the 
 northward a great way, to keep under the foot of them on 
 the east side, to go on as far as we could, and in the mean 
 time to look diligently out for food. 
 
 Accordingly we moved on the next morning ; for we had 
 no time to lose, and, to our great comfort we came, in our 
 first morning's march, to very good springs of fresh water ; 
 and, lest we should have a scarcity again, we filled all our 
 bladder-bottles, and carried it with us. I should, also have 
 observed, that our surgeon, who made the salt water fresh, 
 took the opportunity of those salt springs, and made us the 
 quantity of three or four pecks of very good salt. 
 
 In ouF^ third march we found an unexpected supply of 
 food, the hiUs being full of hares ; they were of a kind some- , 
 thing different from ours in England, larger, and not so 
 swift of foot, but very good meat. We shot several of them, J 
 and the little tame Jeopard, which I told you we took, at,^ 
 negro town that we plundered, hunted.±hem_like.a-dag,_Mid 
 1EilLed_us~"severaI every day; but-Shej EOuld ea ,t_ nothing of 
 them u nl^ we gave it her, which indeed. jn^our_own cir- 
 cumstances was" very obliging. We salted them a littl^~anar 
 dried them in the sun whole, and carried a strange parcel 
 along with us. I think it was almost three hundred ; for we 
 did not know when we might find any more, either of these, 
 or any other food. We continued our course under these 
 hUls very comfortably eight or nine days, when we found, to 
 our great satisfaction, the country beyond us began to look 
 with something of a better countenance. As for the west 
 Bide of the hills, we never examined it till this day, when 
 three of our company, the rest halting for refreshment, 
 mounted the hills again to satisfy their curiosity, but found 
 it all the same ; nor could they see iiny end of it, not even to 
 
104 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 the north, the way we were going ; so the tenth day, finding 
 the hills made a turn, and led, as it were, into the vast 
 desert, we left them, and continued our course north, the 
 country being very tolerably full of woods, some waste, but 
 not tediously long, till we came, by our gunner's observation, 
 into the latitude of 8 degrees 5 minutes, which we were nine- 
 teen days in performing. 
 
 All this way we found no inhabitants, but abundance of 
 ■wild ravenous creatures, with which we became so well 
 _^gyaainted^npw, that reaBywe didTliof much^mijadnihem. 
 "We saw lions, aiid tigers, and leopaTds",~everyTSigHtand 
 morning in abundance ; , but, as they seldom came near us, 
 we let Qiem go about their business ; if they offered to come 
 near us, we made false fire with any gun that was uncharged 
 and they would walk off as soon as they saw the flash. 
 
 We made pretty good shift for food all this way ; for some- 
 times we kiUed hares, sometimes some fowls, but.form2jife 
 J[_caen5t_^ivejiames_Jo_jajiy_ef_&em, except a^kmSToipaF- 
 tridge, and another that was like our turtle. Now and then 
 we began to meet with elephants again in great numbers ; 
 those creatures delighted chiefly in the woody part of the 
 country. 
 
 This long-continued march fatigued us very much, and 
 two of our men fell sick, indeed so very sick that we thought 
 they would have died ; and one of our negroes died sudde^y. 
 Our surgeon said it was an apoplexy, but he wondered at it, 
 he said, for he could never complain of his high feeding. 
 Another of them was very ill, but our surgeon with much 
 ado persiyiding him, indeed it was almost forcing him, to be 
 bled, he recovered. 
 
 We haltjed here twelve days for the sake of our sick men, 
 and our surgeon persuaded me, and three or four more of us, 
 to be bled during the time of rest, which, with other things 
 he gave us, contributed very much to our continued healthj 
 in so tedious a march, and in so hot a climate. 
 
 In this march we pitched our matted tents every night, 
 and they were very comfortable to us, though we had trees 
 and woods to shelter us also in most places. We thought it 
 very strange, that in all this part of the country we yet met 
 with no inhabitants ; but the principal reason, as we found 
 afterwards, was, that we, having kept a western course first, 
 and then a northern course, were gotten too much into tho 
 
A TWENTY days' MAKCH. 105 
 
 tiiiddle of the coiintiy, and among the deserts : whereas tha 
 inhabitants are principally found among the rivers, lakes, and 
 low-lands, as well to the south-west as to the north. 
 
 Wtat little rivulets we found here were so empty of water, 
 that, except some pits, and little more than ordinary pools, 
 there was scarce any water to be seen in them ; and they 
 rather showed, that, during the rainy months, they had a 
 channel, than that they had really any running water in 
 them at that time : by which it was easy for us to judge, 
 that we had a great way to go ; but this was no discourage- 
 ment so long as we had but provisions, and some reasonable 
 shelter from the violent heat, which indeed I thought was 
 greater now than when the sun was just over our heads. 
 
 Our men being recovered, we set forward again, very well 
 stored with provisions, and water sufficient, and, bending our 
 course a little to the westward of the north, travelled in 
 hopes of some favourable stream which might bear a canoe ; 
 but we found none till after twenty days' travel, including 
 eight days' rest ; for our men being weak, we rested very 
 often, especially when we came to places which were proper 
 for our purposes, where we found cattle, fowl, or anything to 
 kill for food. In those twenty days' march, we advanced 
 four degrees to the northward, besides some meridian distance 
 westward, and we met with abundance of elephants' teeth, 
 scattered up and down, here and there, in the woody grounds 
 especially, some of which were very large. But they were 
 no booty to us ; our business was provisions, and a good pas- 
 sage out of the country ; and it had been much more to our 
 purpose, to have found a good fat deer, and to have killed it 
 for our food, than a hundred ton of elephants' teeth ; and 
 yet, as you shall presently hear, when we came to begin our 
 passage by water, we once thought to have built a large 
 canoe, on purpose to have loaded it with fvory ; but this was 
 when we knew nothing of the rivers, nor knew anything 
 how dangerous and how difficult a passage it was that we 
 were likely to have in them, nor had considered the 
 weight of carriage to lug them to the rivers where we might 
 embark. 
 
 At Htc end of twenty days' travels, as above, in the lati- 
 tude of 3 degrw!S 16 minutes, we discovered in a valley, at 
 some distance from us, a pretty tolerable stream, which we 
 thought deserved the name of a river, and which ran its 
 course N.N.W. which was just what we wanted. As wa 
 
106 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 had fixed our thoughts upon our passage by water, we took 
 tjiis for the place to make our experiment, and bent our 
 march directly to the valley. 
 
 There was a small thicket of trees just in our way, which 
 we went by, thinking no harm, when on a sudden one of 
 our negroes was very dangerously wounded with an arrow, 
 shot into his back, slanting between his shoulders. This put 
 us to a full stop ; and three of oiu: men, with two negroes, 
 spreading the wood, for it was but a small one, found a negro 
 with a bow, but no arrow, who would have escaped, but our 
 men that discovered him, jhothimJELrevenge of the mischief 
 he had done; so we lost the opportunity of taking him 
 prisoner, which, if we had done, and sent him home with 
 ^ood usage, it might have brought others to us in a friendly 
 manner. 
 
 Going a little farther, we came to five negro huts or 
 houses, built after a diiferent manner from any we had seen 
 yet; and at the door of one of them lay seven elephants' 
 teeth, piled up against the wall or side of the hut, as if they 
 had been provided against a market : here were no men, but 
 seven or eight women, and near twenty children : we offered- 
 them no unciviUty of any kind, but gave them every one a 
 bit of silver beaten out thin, as I observed before, and cut 
 diamond-fashion, or in the shape of a bird; at which the 
 women were overjoyed, and brought out to us several sorts 
 of food, which we did not understand, being cakes of a meal 
 made of roots, which they bake in the sun, and which eat 
 very well. We went a little way farther, and pitched our 
 camp for that night, not doubting but our civility to the 
 iwomen would produce some good effect, when their husbands 
 might come home. 
 
 ( Accordingly, the next morning, the women, with eleven 
 men, five young boys, and two good big girls, came to our 
 camp ; before they came quite to us, the women called aloud, 
 and made an odd screaming noise, to bring us out; and 
 accordingly we came out, when two of the women, showing 
 us what we had given them, and pointing to the company 
 behind, made such signs as we could easily understand sig-* 
 nified friendship. When the men advanced, having bowa 
 and arrows, they laid them down on the ground, scraped, 
 and threw sand over their heads, and turned round 
 three times, with their hands laid up upon the tops of 
 their heads. This, it seems, was a solemn vow of friend* 
 
Hospitality of the savages. 107 
 
 Jihip. Upon this we beckoned them with our hands to 
 come nearer; then they sent the boys and girls to us 
 first, which, it seems, was to bring us more cakes of 
 bread, and some green herbs, to eat, which we received, 
 and took the boys up and kissed them, and the little girls 
 too ; then the men came up close to us, and sat them dowil 
 on the ground, making signs, that we should sit down by 
 them, which we did. They said much to one another, but 
 we could not understand them, nor could we find any way 
 to make them understand us; much less whither we were 
 going, or what we wanted, only that we easily made them 
 understand we wanted victuals : whereupon one of the men 
 casting his eyes about him towards a rising ground that was 
 about half a mile off, started up as if he was fiightened, flew 
 to the place where they had laid down their bows and 
 arrows, snatched up a bow and two arrows, and ran like a 
 racehorse to the place : when he came there, he let fly both 
 his arrows, and came back again to us with the same speed ; 
 we seeing he came with the bow, but without the arrows, 
 were the more inquisitive, but the fellow saying nothing to 
 uSj beckons to one of our negroes to come to him, and we 
 bid him go ; so he led him back to the place, where lay a 
 kind of a deer, shot with two arrows, but not quite dead; and 
 between them they brought it down to us. This was for a 
 gift to us, and was very welcome, I assure you, for our stock 
 was low. T^ese^eopjewere aU_s tark naked^ 
 
 The nexr'3aytECTe~came'^bout aTTiundred men and 
 women to us, making the same awkward signals of friend- 
 ship, and dancing, and showing themselves very well pleasedj 
 and anything they had they gave us. How the man in the 
 wood came to be so butcherly and rude as to shoot at our 
 men, without making any breach first, we could riot imagine; 
 for the people were simple, plain, and inoffensive in all our 
 other conversation with them. 
 
 From hence we went down the bank of the little river I 
 mentioned, and where I found we should see whole nations 
 of negroes ; but whether fiiendly to us or not, that we could 
 make no judgment of yet. 
 
 The river was of no use to us, as to the design of making 
 canoes, a great while ; and we traversed the country on the 
 edge of it about five days more, when our carpenters, finding 
 the stream increase, proposed to pitch our tents, and fall to 
 
108 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 work to make canoes; but after we had begun the work, and 
 cut down two or three trees, and spent five days in the 
 labour, some of our men, wandering further down the river, 
 brought us word that the stream rather decreased than 
 increased, sinking away into the sands, or drying up by the 
 heat of the sun ; so that the river appeared not able to carry 
 the least canoe that could be any way useful to us : so we 
 were obliged to give over our enterprise, and move on. 
 
 In our further prospect this way we marched three days 
 full west, the country on the north side being extraordinary 
 mountainous, and more parched and dry than any we had 
 seen yet ; whereas, in the part which looks due west, we 
 found a pleasant valley, running a great way between two 
 great ridges of mountains. The lulls looked frightful, being 
 entirely bare of trees or grass, and even white with the 
 drjTiess of the sand ; but in the valley we had trees, grass, 
 and some creatures that were fit for food, and some inhabi- 
 tants. 
 
 We passed by some of their huts or houses, and saw 
 people aboutthem ; but they ran up into the hills as sooiTas 
 they saw us. At" the end of this valley we ]iJet~witira 
 peopled country, and at first it put us to some doubt whether 
 we should go among them or keep up towards the hills 
 northerly; and as our aim was principally, as before, to 
 make our way to the river Niger, we inclined to the latter, 
 pursuing our course by the compass to the N.W. We 
 marched thus without interruption seven days more, when 
 we met with a surprising circumstance, much more desolate 
 and disconsolate than our own, and which, in time to come, 
 will scarce seem credible. 
 
 , We _ did not mudi^ seek the conversing, or acquainting 
 ourselves wiffilii£n^YlST5f;tlie country, "except where we 
 found the want of them for our provision, or their direction 
 for our way ; so that, whereas we found the countiy here 
 begin to be very populous, especially towards our left hand — 
 that is, to the south — ^we kept at the more distance northerly, 
 etill stretching towards the west. 
 
 In this trax!t we found something or other to kill and eat, 
 which always supplied our necessity, though not so well as 
 we were provided in our first setting out. Being thus, as it 
 were, pushing to avoid the peopled country, we at last came 
 to a very pleasant, agreeable streaftibf watery not big enough 
 
MEET 'WITH AN ENGLISHMAN. 109 
 
 to be called a river, but running to the N.N.W., which waa 
 the very course we desired to go. 
 
 On the farthest bank of this brook, we perceived some 
 huts of negroes, not ihany> and in a little low spot of ground, 
 some maize, or Indian corn, growing, which intimated pre- 
 sently to us, "that there were'some" ihhabitajits on that side, 
 less ^ibarous than those we had met with in other places 
 ""where 'we had' been. ~ ~" 
 
 As we went forward, our whole caravan being in a body, 
 our negroes, who were in the front, cried out that they saw a 
 white man ! We were not much surprised at first, it beingj 
 as we thought, a mistake of the fellows, and asked them 
 what they meant, when one of them stept up to me, and, 
 pointing to a hut on the other side of the hill, I was 
 astonished to see a white man indeed, but stark naked, very 
 busy near the door of his hut, and stooping down to the 
 ground with something in his hand, as if he had been at 
 some work, and, his back being towards us, he did not see us. 
 
 I gave notice to our negroes to make no noise, and waited 
 till some more of our men were come up, to show the sight 
 to them, that they might be sure I was not mistaken, and we 
 were soon satisfied of the truth ; for the man, having heard 
 some noise, started up, and looked full at us, as much sur- 
 prised, to be sure, as we were, but whether with fear or 
 _hqpe_we then faiew not. 
 
 ~~lCs he IScovered us, so did the rest of the inhabitants 
 belonging to the huts about him, and all crowded together, 
 looking at us at a distance : a little bottom, in which the 
 brook ran, lying between us, the white man, and all the rest, 
 as he told lis afterwards, not knowing well whether they, 
 should stay or nm away. However, it presently came into 
 my thoughts that, if there were white men among them, it 
 would be much easier for us to make them understand what 
 we meant, as to peace or war, than we found it with others ; 
 so, tying a piece of white rag to the end of a stick, we sent 
 two negroes with it to the bank of the water, carrying the 
 pole up as high as they could. It was presently understood,; 
 and two of their men and the white man came to the shore 
 on the other side. 
 
 However, as the white man spoke no Portuguese, they 
 could understand nothiMg of one another but by signs ; but 
 our men made the white man understand that they had 
 
110 CAPTAIN SINaLETON. 
 
 white men with them too, at which they said the white mae 
 laughed. However, to be short, our men came back, and 
 told us they were all good friends, and in about an hour four 
 of our men, two negroes, and the black prince went to the 
 river side, where the white man came to them. 
 
 They had not been half a quarter of an hour there, till a 
 negro came running to me, and told me the white njan was 
 Inglese, as he called him : upon which I ran back, eagerly 
 enough you may be sure, with him, and found, as he said, 
 that he was an Englishman, upon which he embraced me 
 very passionately, the tears running down his face. The first 
 surprise of his seeing us was over before we came ; but any 
 one may conceive it by the brief account he gave us after- 
 wards of his very unhappy circumstance, and of so unex- 
 pected a deliverance, such as perhaps never happened to 
 any man in the world ; for it was a million to one odds that 
 ever he could have been relieved — ^nothing but an adventure 
 that never was heard or read of before could have suited hia 
 case, unless heaven, by some mif acle that never was to be 
 expected, had acted for him. 
 
 He appeared to be a gentleman, not an ordinary-bred 
 fellow, seaman, of labouring man ; this showed itself in his 
 behaviour, in the first moment of our conversing with him, 
 and in spite of all the disadvantages of his miserable cu:- 
 cumstances. 
 
 He was a middle-aged man, not above thirty-seven or 
 thirty-eight, though his beard was grown exceedingly long, 
 and the hair of his head and face strangely covered him to 
 the middle of his back and breast ; he was white, and his 
 skin very fine, though discoloured, and in some places blistered, 
 and covered with a brown blackish substance, scurfy, scaly, 
 and hard, which was the effect of the scorching heat of the 
 sun ; he was stark naked, and had been so, as he told us, 
 upwards of two years. 
 
 _ He was so exceedingly transported at our meeting with 
 him, that he could scarce enter into any discourse at all with 
 us for that day ; and,, whenhe could getjiway froga us for a 
 little, we saw him walking alone, and^Howing^rthe^ost 
 -^^SIMganttokssa.Pi' an ungovernable joy ; and even after- 
 wards he was never without tears m his eyes for several days, 
 upon the least word spoken by us of his circumstances, or by 
 him of his deliverance. 
 
HISTOET OP THE ENGLISHMAN. Ill 
 
 "We found his behaviour the most courteous and endearing 
 I ever saw in any man whatever, and most evident tokens of 
 a mannerly well-bred person appeared in all things he did or 
 said ; and our people were exceedingly taken with him. He 
 was a scholar and a mathematician; he could not speak^ / 
 Portuguese indeed, but he spoke Latin to our surgeon, French/ 
 to another of our men, and Italian to a third. 
 
 He had no leisure in his thoughts to ask us whence we 
 came, whither we were going, or who we were ; but would 
 have it always as an answer to himself, that to be sure, 
 wherever we were a-going, we came from heaven, and were 
 sent on purpose to save him from the most wretched condition 
 that ever man was reduced to. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISHMAN AFTEE EESUNG THIRTEEN 
 
 DATS, WE SET POEWAED, TAKING OUR NEW COMRADE 
 
 WITH US WM ARRIVE AT ANOTHER EIVEE YIELDING GOLD 
 
 ■ — GREAT SUCCESS OP OUR GOLD FISHING — CONCLUSION 
 OF THIS JOURNEY, AND ACCOUNT OF JIY ARRIVAL IN 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Our men pitching their camp on the bank of a little river 
 opposite to him, he began to inquire what store of provisions 
 we had» and how we proposed to be supplied ; when he found 
 that our store was but smaU, he said he would talk with the 
 natives, and we should have provisions enough ; for he said 
 they were the most courteous, good-natured part of the in- 
 habitants in all that part of the country, as we might suppose 
 by his living so safe among them. 
 
 The first things this gentleman did for us were indeed of 
 the greatest consequence to us; for, first, he perfectly in- 
 formed us where we were, and which was the properest course 
 for us to steer : secondly, he put us in a way how to furnish 
 ourselves efiettually with provisions; and, thirdly, he was 
 our coieplete interpreter and peace-maker with all the natives, 
 who how T)6gan to be very numerous about us ; and who 
 were a more fierce and politic people than those we had met 
 with before; not soje^ii]y^lenJfiedjidJii_ffluX-aj3ns aaJiifige, 
 and not so ign^Sit_a8_Jta.give their prqviaonssmd__COT^ 
 
112 CAPTAEf SINGLETON. 
 
 our little toys, such, as I said before, our artifice r^de ; but, 
 as th ey bad gequenay tr aded^nrg pnversecl witEj heEurp. 
 : -^BeansoiT^eJoMtL^ other negro_nations that had, 
 
 i " toadedl.nd be ga concerneffl^hthem^ they were the less 
 I iPraranTajariS^esslfearful, and consequently nothing was 
 i to be had from them but by exchange for such thmgs as 
 
 I they liked. 
 
 This I say of the negro natives, which we soon came 
 
 among ; but as to these poor people that he lived among, they 
 
 were not much acquainted with things, being at the distance 
 
 of above three hundred miles from the coast, only that they 
 
 found elephants' teeth upon the hiUs to the north, which they 
 
 took and carried about sixty or seventy miles south, where 
 
 1 other tfading negroes usually met them, and gave them beads, 
 
 ^ \ glass,~sEaQs, and cowries for them, such as the English and 
 
 1'^ ;1 Dutch, and other traders, furnish them with from Europe. 
 
 We now began to be more familiar with our new acquaint- 
 ance ; and, first, though we made but a sorry figure as to 
 clothes ourselves, having neither shoe, or stocking, or glove, 
 or hat, among us, and but very few shirts, yet as well as we 
 rcould we clothed him ; and first, our surgeon having scissors 
 and razors, shaved him, and cut his hair ; a hat, as I say, we 
 had not in all our stores, but he supplied himself by making 
 a cap of a piece of a leopard's skin, most artificially. As for 
 shoes or stockings, he had gone so long without them, that 
 he cared not even for the buskins and foot-gloves we wore, 
 which I described above. 
 
 As he had been curious to hear the whole story of our 
 travels, and was exceedingly delighted with the relation, so 
 we were no less to know, and pleased with, the account of 
 his circumstance, and the history of his coming to that strange 
 place alone, and in that condition, which we found him in, as 
 above. This account of his would indeed be, in itself, the 
 subject of an agreeable history, and would be as long and as 
 diverting as our own, having in it many strange and extra- 
 ordinary incidents, but we cannot have room here to launch 
 out into so long a digression : the sum of his history was this. 
 I He had been a factor for the English Guinea company at 
 
 Sierra Leon, or some other of their settlements which had 
 been taken by the French, where he had been plundered of 
 ! all his own effects, as well as of what was entrusted to him 
 { by the company. Whether it was, that the company did not 
 
HISTOEr CONTINUED. 113 
 
 do him_ justice in restoring his circumstances, or in fiirther 
 employing him, he quitted their service, and was employed 
 by those they called separate traders ; and being afterwards 
 out of employ there also, traded on his own account ; when, 
 passing unwarily into one of the company's settlements, 
 he was either betrayed into the hands of some of the natives, 
 or, some how or other, was surprised by them. However, 
 as they did not kill him, he found means to escape from them 
 at that time, and fled to another nation of the natives, who, 
 being enemies to the other, entertained him friendly, and 
 with them he lived some time ; but not liking his quarters, 
 or his company, he fled again, and several times changed his 
 landlords 5, sometimesjsf as_jeaxried^ bjjforcei_sq hur- 
 
 ried^ bj^ar, as circHcagtajicesaitered with him (the variety 
 
 ■"oTwhieETdeserves a historyTy" itself ),~"till at last he had 
 wandered beyond all possibility of return, and had taken up 
 his abode where we found him, where he was weU received 
 by the petty king of the tribe he lived with ; andhe,Ja-lS- 
 ^tnraijnstoucted him^ow^^ 
 
 _and on wha t terms to trade with those negroes who came up 
 
 As he was naked, and had no clothes, so he was naked of 
 arms for his defence, having neither gun, sword, staff, nor 
 any instrument of war about him, no not to guard himself 
 against the attacks of a wild beast, of which the country 
 was very fiill. "We asked him how he came to be so entirely 
 abandoned of all concern for his safety? He answered. 
 That to him, that had so often wished for death, life was not 
 worth defending ; and that, as he was entirely at the mercy 
 of the negroes, they had much the more confidence in him, 
 seeing he had no weapons to hurt them.. As for wild beasts 
 he was not much concerned about them ; for he had scarcely 
 ever gone from his hut ; but if he did, the negro king and 
 his men went all armed with bows and arrows, and lances, 
 with which they would kill any of the ravenous creatures, 
 lions as well as others ; but that they seldom came abroad in 
 the day ; and if the negroes wander anywhere in the night, 
 they always buUd a hut for themselves, and make a fire at 
 the door of it, which is guard enough. 
 
 We inquired of him what we should next do towards 
 getting to the seaside : he told us we were about a hundred 
 and twenty English leagues from the coast, where almost all 
 
 I 
 
114 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 the European settlements and factories -were, and which is 
 called the- gold coast; but jflmt there we^e^sq^manj;^ different 
 jiations of negroes inlHe^-waj;, that it was ten_tojone JFwe 
 ' were not either fought with continually, or starved for want 
 of provisions : but that there were two other ways to go, 
 which, if he had had any company to go with him, he had 
 often contrived to make his escape by. The one was to 
 travel full west, which though it was further' to go, yet was 
 V not so full of people ; and the people we should find would 
 
 V be so much the civiller to us, or be so much the easier to 
 fight with ; or, that the other way was, if possible, to get to 
 the Rio Grand, and go down the stream in canoes. We told 
 him, that was the way we had resolved on before we met 
 with him ; but then he told us there was gi prodigious desert 
 to go over, and as prodigious woods to go through, before we 
 came to it, and that both together were at least twenty 
 days' march for us, travel as hard as we could. 
 
 We asked him if there were no horses in the country, or 
 asses, or even bullocks or buffaloes, to make use of in such a 
 lourney, and we showed him ours, of which we had but three 
 left : he said no, aU the country did not afford anything of 
 that kind. 
 
 He told us that in this great wood there were immense 
 numbers of elephants ; and, upon the desert, great multitudes 
 of lions, lynxes, tigers, leopards, &c. ; and that it was to 
 that wood, and to that desert, that the negroes went to get 
 elephants' teeth, where they never failed to find a great 
 number. 
 
 We inquired still more, and particularly the way to the 
 gold^ coast, and if there were no rivers to ease us in our 
 carriage; and told him as to the negroes fighting with us, we 
 were not much concerned at that; nor were we afraid of 
 starving, for, if they had any victuals among them, we would 
 have our share of it ; and, therefore, if he would venture to 
 show us the way, we would venture to go ; and as for him- 
 self, we told him we would live and die together, there should 
 not a man of us stir from him. 
 
 He told us, with all his heart ; if we resolved it, and 
 would venture, we might be assured he would take his fate 
 with us, and he would endeavour to guide us in such a way, 
 as we should meet with some friendly savages who would use 
 us well, and perhaps stand by us against some others, who 
 
THE LAND OP GOLD. 115 
 
 were less tractable ; so, in a word, we all resolved to go lull 
 south for the gold coast. 
 
 The next morning he came to us again, and being all met 
 in council, as we may call it, he began to talk very seriously 
 with us; that, since we were now come, after a long journey, 
 to a view of the end of our troubles, and had been so obliging 
 to him^ as to offer to carry him with us, he had been all night 
 revolving in his mind what he and we all might do to make 
 ourselves some amends for all our sorrows; and, first, he 
 said, he was to let me know, that we were just then in one 
 of the richest^parts of the^world,_thougL.it was rea Uv. oth er.- 
 "wisiB7~Eut a desolate, disconsolate wilderness; for, says he, 
 there is not a river but runs~gold, not a desert but, without 
 ploughing, be ars a crop of ivory. What mines of goTd^^^at 
 immense stores of gold those mountains may contain, from 
 whence these rivers come, or the shores which these waters 
 run by, we know not, but may imagine that they must be 
 inconceivably rich, seeing so much is washed down the stream 
 by the water washing the sides of the land, that the quantity 
 suffices all the traders which the European world send 
 thither. We asked him how far they went for it, seeing the 
 ships only trade upon the coast. He told us, th>t the negroes 
 on the coast search the rivers up for the length of a hundred 
 and fifty or two hundred mUes, and would be out a month, 
 or two or three, at a time, and always came home sufficiently 
 rewarded ; but, says he, they never come thus far, and yet 
 hereabouts is as much gold as there. Upon this, he told us, 
 that he believed he might have gotten a hundred pounds' 
 weight of gold since he came hither, if he had employed him- 
 self to look and work for it, but as he knew not what to do 
 with it, and had long since despaired of being ever delivered 
 from the misery he was in, he had entirely omitted it. For 
 what advantage had it been to me, said he, or what richer 
 had I been, i f I had a ton of gold dust,jmdJayjndwallowed 
 i n it? The"richness of it, "siid~he,"'wo^ no t give m e one 
 moment^sfelicit2;j]jior relieve me in the present exigency. 
 hi'sLj, S^sHEeTas you all see, it would not buy me clothes |o 
 cover me, or ajicfip, of^ drink to save me from perishing, ^t ^ 
 "irofH5"vaIuehere, says he";' there are several people among 
 these huts that would weigh gold against a few glass beads^- 
 or a cockle-shell, and give you a handful of gold dust for a 
 handful of cowries, ^m 
 
116 </>■ CAPTAIN SINSLETON. 
 
 N.B.— These are Jittle ^eUs, whicli-our-jdul feen cal l 
 blacltamobrs' teeth. 
 
 ""WEenrfielacrsara this, he pulled out a piece of an earthern 
 
 'fSt baked hard in the sun : here, says he, is some of the dirt 
 of this c ountry , and if I would, I could have got~a great deal 
 
 "moreTanTsfiowing it to us, I believe there was in it between 
 two and three pounds' weight of gold dust, of the same ki nd 
 
 I and colour with that^we had gotten alread^f as]betOT^ ^SfEw 
 we hadTooked at it awhile,"'he told us, smiling, we were his 
 deliverers, and all he had, as well as his life, was ours ; and 
 therefore, as this would be of value to us when we came to 
 our own country, so he desired we would accept of it among 
 us, and that this was the only time ttiat he had repented that 
 he had picked up no more of J.t. 
 
 I spoke for him as his interpreter to my comrades, and in 
 their names thanked him; but, speaking to them in Por- 
 tuguese, I desired them to refer the acceptance of his kind- 
 ness to the next morning ; and so I did, telling him we would 
 farther talk of this part in the morning ; so we parted for 
 that time. 
 
 When he was gone, I found they were all wonderfully 
 affected with his discourse, and with the generosity of hia 
 temper, as well as the magnificence of his present, which in 
 another place had been extraordinary. Upon the whole, not 
 to detain you with circumstances, we agreed, that, seeing h e 
 •y yas now one of our number, and that, as we were a relief to 
 
 'Turn in carrying him out ot the dismal condition he was in, 
 so he was equally a relief to us, in being our guide through 
 the rest of the country, our interpreter with the natives, and 
 our director how to manage with the savages, and how to 
 enrich ourselves with the wealth of the country ; that, there- 
 fore, we would put his gold among our common stock, and 
 every one should give him as much as would make his up 
 just as much as any single share of our own, and for the 
 future we would take our lot together, taking his solemn 
 
 . engagement to us, as we had before one to another, that we 
 would not conceal the least grain of gold vfe found one from 
 another. 
 
 In the next conference, we acquainted him with the ad- 
 ventures of the Golden river, and how we had shared what 
 we got there ; so that every man had a larger stock than he 
 for his share f that, therefore, instead of takinp; any fronS 
 
THE ENGLISHMAN JOINS AS EQUAL ADVENTDEEK. 117 
 
 him^ we had resolved every one to add a l ittle t o him . He 
 appeared very glad that we Had met witu sucft good success, 
 but would not take a grain from us, till at last, pressing him 
 very hard, he told us, that then he would take it thus ': that 
 when we came to get any mote, he would have so much out 
 of the first as should make him even, and then we should go 
 on as equal adventurers ; and thus we agreed. 
 
 He then told us, he thbught it would not be an unprofit- 
 able adventure, if, before we set forward, and after we had 
 got a stock of provisions, we should make a journey north to 
 the edge of the desert he had told us of, from whence our 
 negroesmghtMng ev ery one a la ige elepEaiit's tooffiTsJ'id 
 thai he~wouI3~get some more to assist; and that, after a 
 certain length of carriage, they might be conveyed by canoes 
 to the coast, whCTetheywould yield a very great profit. 
 
 _I objected aga,instJliJSi..gn_accouM'T)f oiar''gtte we 
 
 _had"o fgeMng' gold dust ; and that our negroes, whowe knew 
 "would" be faitfifuTto'usT' would get much more by searching 
 the rivers for gold for us, than by lugging a great tooth of a 
 hundred and fifty pounds' weight, a hundred miles or more, 
 which would be an insufferable labour to them after so hard 
 a journey, and would certainly kiU them. 
 
 He acquiesced in the justice of this answer, but fain would 
 have had us gone to see the woody part of the hill, and the 
 edge of the desert, that we might see how the elephants' teeth 
 lay scattered up and down there ; but when jvetqld.him fte 
 storyrfjeiat we had seen b^ore, as is said above, he said_ 
 no mo re. 
 
 "WeTtaid here twelve days, during which time the natives 
 were very obliging to us, and brought us fruits, pompions, 
 and a root like carrots, though of quite another taste, but not 
 unpleasant neither, and some Guinea fowls, whose nagies_we_ 
 di4j ?ot know . In short, they brought us plSity of what they 
 Ti^/and we lived very well, and we gate them all such 
 little things as our cutler had made, ifw he^had a whole 
 bag full ofjiheinj^ Ifrf^ 
 
 ■^a~^ thirteenth day we set forward, taking our new 
 g entleman . with us. At parting, the negro king sent two 
 .^ages with a present to him, of some dried flesh, but I do 
 not remember what it was, and he gave them again three 
 silver birds which our cutler helped him to, which I assure 
 you was a present for a_kir^. 
 
 We traveUed now sout^a little west, and here we tound 
 
118 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 the first river for above two thousand miles' march, whoso 
 water ran south, all the rest running north or west. We 
 followed this river, which was no bigger than a good large 
 brook in England, till it began to increase its water. Every 
 now and then we found our Englishman went down, as it 
 were, privately to the water, which was to try the sand. At 
 length, after a day's march upon this river, he came running 
 up to us with his hands full of sand, and saying. Look here. 
 Upon looking, we found that a good deal of gold lay spangled 
 among' the sand of the river. Now, says he, I think we may 
 begin to work ; so he divided our negroes into couples, and 
 set them to work, to search and wash the sand and ooze in 
 the bottom of the water, where it was not deep. 
 , In the first day and a quarter, our men altogether had 
 gathered a pound and two ounces of gold, or thereabouts ; 
 and, as we found the quantity increased the farther we went, 
 we followed it about .three days, till another small rivulet 
 ioined the first, and then, searching up the stream, we found 
 gold there too ; so we pitched our camp in the angle where 
 the rivers joined, and we diverted ou rselves, as I may call it,^ 
 in washing the gold out "olTthe'sand of the ^vcr, and in 
 getting provisions. 
 
 Here we staid thirteen days more, in which time we had 
 many pleasant adventures with the savages, too long to men- 
 tion here, and some of them too homely to tell of: for some 
 of our men had made something free wit h their wo men, 
 which, had not our new guide made peace for us with one of 
 . their men, at the price of seven bits of silver, which our arti- 
 ficer had cut out into the shapes of lions and fishes, and birds, 
 and had punched holes to hang them up by (an inestimable 
 - treasure) ! we mu st ha ve gone to war with them and all 
 tli eir peopleT * 
 
 All the while we were busy washing gold dust out of the 
 riveriTanSTour negroes the like, our in genious cutler wa s 
 hammering and cutting, and he was grown so dexterous by 
 use, t[iaT"Tie"'f6fmea~all manner of images. He cut out 
 elephants, tigers, civet cats, ostriches, eagles, cranes, fowls, 
 fishes, and indeed whatever he pleased, in thin plates of 
 .„ hammered gold, for his silver and iron were almost all gone. 
 
 At one of the towns .of these savage nations we were very 
 friendly received by their king ; and as he was very much 
 taken with our workman's toys, he sold him an elephant cut 
 out of a gold plate as thin as a sixpence at an e xtravagan t 
 
HONESTT OP THE CUTLER. 119 
 
 TOte. He was so. much taken with it that he would uot be 
 quiet till he had given him almost a handful of gold dust, as 
 they call it. I su^oge_it_ might y eigh three q uarter s of a 
 pound ; the piece of gold ^atthejelepfSntwas made_of 
 " might be about the weight "oTIa pistole, rather less than 
 more. Our artist was so honest, though the labourandart 
 Were all his own, that he brought all the^ goldj_ anj_j]ut_it 
 "Tnto our' common stock ; but we had indeed no manner of 
 reason iffthe least to Be covetous, for, as our new guide told 
 us, we that were strong enough to defend ourselves, and had 
 time enough to stay (for we were none of us in haste), might 
 in time get together what quantity of gold we pleased, even 
 to a hundred pounds weight a man if we thought fit ; and, 
 therefore, he told us, though he had as much reason to be 
 sick of the country as any of us, yet, if we thought to turn 
 our march a little to the south-east, and pitch upon a place 
 proper for our head-quarters, we might find provisions 
 plenty enough, and extend ourselves over the country among 
 the rivers, for two or three years, to the right and left, and 
 we should soon find the advantage of it. 
 
 The proposal, however good as to the profitable part of it, 
 suited none of us, for we were all more desirous to get home 
 than to be rich, being tired of the excessive fatigue of above 
 a year's continual wandering among deserts and wil d beasts . 
 
 However, the tongue of our nevTacquaintaJice had a kind I 
 of charm in it, and used such arguments, and had so much | 
 the power of persuasion, that there was no resisting him. 
 He told us it was ^rep^erous not to take the fruit of all 
 "ouF laboursnow we were come to the harves t; that w e 
 '^^ESSIHLe.I^^^S ,|E® Europeans ran, with ships and 
 men, and at great expense, to fetch a Ift^e gold ; and that 
 we that were in the centre of it to go away empty-handed 
 was unaccountable ; that we were strong enough to fight our 
 way through whole nations, and might make our journey 
 afterward to what part of the coast we pleased; and we 
 should never forgive ourselves when we came to our own 
 country, to see we had five hundred pistoles in gold, and 
 might as easily have had five thousand or ten thousand, or 
 what we pleased ; that he was no more covetous than we, 
 but, seeing it was in all our powers to retrieve our mis- 
 fortunes at once, and make ourselves easy for all our lives. 
 lie could not be faithful to us, or grateful for the good wti 
 
120 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 had done him, if he did not let us see the advantage we had 
 in our hands ; and he assured us he -would make it clear to 
 our own understanding that we might, in two years' time, by 
 good management, and by the help of our negroes, gather 
 every man a hundred pounds' weight of gold, and get 
 together perhaps two hundred tons of teetb ; whereas, it 
 once we pushed on to the coast, and separated, we should 
 never be able to see that place again with our eyes, or do 
 any more than sinners did with heaven — ^wish themselves 
 there, but know they can never come at it. 
 
 Our surgeon was the first man that yielded to his reason- 
 ing, and after him the gunner ; and they two indeed had a 
 great influence over us, but none of the rest had any mind to 
 stay, nor I either, I must confess ; for I had no notion oi a 
 great deal of money, or what to do with myself, or what to 
 do with it if I had it. I thought I had enough already, and 
 aU the thought I had about disposing of it, if I came to 
 Europe, was only how to spend it as fast as I could, buy me 
 some clothes, and go to sea again, to be a drudge for more. 
 
 However, he prevailed with us by his good words, at last, 
 to stay but for six months in the country, and then, if we did 
 resolve to go, he would submit : so at length we yielded to 
 that, and he carried us about fifty English miles south-east, 
 where we found several rivulets of water, which seemed to 
 come all from a great ridge of mountains which lay to the 
 north- east, and which, by our calculation, must be the be- 
 ginning that way of the great waste, which we had been 
 forced northward to avoid. 
 
 Here we found the country barren enough ; but yet wo 
 had, by his directions, plenty of food ; for the savages round 
 us, upon giving .them some of our toys, as I have so often 
 mentioned, brought us^ jgjwliatever _they_had';~and "Kef e " we 
 found some maize, or Indian wheat, which the negro-women 
 (^planted," as. we^sow seeds in a garden, and immediately our 
 .new providitO:^ ordered some of our negroes to plant it, and 
 it grew up .pfesently, and, by watering it often, we had a 
 ftrop'in less than three months' growth. 
 
 As soon as we were settled, and our camp fixed, we fell to 
 the old trade of fishing for gold in the rivers mentioned 
 above, and jourj&iglish^^eivdeinan so well knew liow to di- 
 rect our search, tEatwe scarce ever lost our labour. 
 
 One time, having set us to work, he asked, if we would 
 
A PBOriTABLE FIFTY-TWO DATS* ENTERPRISE. 121 
 
 ^ve him leave, with four or five negroes, to go out for six or 
 seven days, to seek his fortune, and see what he could dis- 
 cover in the country, assuring us, whatever he got should be 
 for the public stock. We aU gave him our consent, and lent 
 him a gun ; and two of our men desiring to go with him, 
 they took then six negroes -with- themj and two of our buf- 
 faloes that came with us the whole journey ; they took about 
 eight days' provision of bread with them, but no flesh, ex- 
 cept about as much dried flesh as would serve them two 
 days. 
 
 They travelled up to the top of the mountains I mentioned 
 just now, where they saw (as our men afterwards vouched 
 it to be) the same desert which we were so justly terrified 
 at, vrhen we were on the further side, and which, by our 
 calculation, could not be less than three hundred miles broad, 
 and above six hundred miles in length, without knowing 
 where it ended. 
 
 The journal of their travels is too long to enter upon 
 here ; they stayed out two and fifty days, when they brought 
 us seventeen pounds, and something more (for we had no 
 exact weight), of gold dust, some of it in much larger pieces 
 than any we found before ; besides about fifteen ton of ele- 
 phants' teeth, which he had, partly by good usagejjindMrti[T 
 by bad , obliged the ~ savages_of_the_ country to ^tcEpand 
 bring down to him Trom the mountains, and which he made 
 others bring with him quite down to our camp. Indeed we 
 wondered what was coming to us, when we saw him attended 
 with above two hundred negroes ; but he soon undeceived 
 us, when he made them all throw down their burthens on a 
 heap, at the entrance of our camp. 
 
 Besides this, they brought lions' skins, and five leopards' 
 skins, very large and very fine. He asked our pardon for 
 his long stay, and that he had made no greater a booty, but 
 told us, he had one excursion more to make, which he hoped 
 should turn to a better account. 
 
 So, having rested himself, and rewarded the savages that 
 brought the teeth for him, with some bits of silver and iron 
 cut out diamond-fashion, and with two shaped like little 
 dogs, he sent them away mightily pleased. 
 
 The second journey he went, some more of our men 
 desired to go with him, and they made a troop of ten white 
 men, and ten savages, and the two buifaloes to cairy their 
 
122 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 provisions and ammunition. They took the same course, 
 only not exactly the same track, and they stayed thirty-two 
 days only, in which time they killed no less than fifteen 
 leopards, three lions, and several other creatures, and 
 brought us home four and twenty pounds some ounces of 
 gold dust, and only six elephants' teeth, but they were very 
 great ones. 
 
 Our friend the Englishman showed us now, that our time 
 was well bestowed ; for in five months, which we had stayed 
 here, we had gathered so much gold dust, that, when we 
 came to share it, we had five pounds and a quarter to a man, 
 besides what we had before, and besides six or seven pounds' 
 weight which we had at several times given to our ai-tificer 
 to make baubles with ; and now we talked of going forward 
 to the coast, to put an end to oiu: journey ; but our guide 
 laughed at us then : nay, you cannot go now, says he, for 
 the rainy season begins next month, and there will be no 
 stirring then. This we found indeed reasonable, so we 
 resolved to furnish ourselves with provisions, that we might 
 not be obliged to go abroad too much in the rain, and we 
 spread ourselves, some one way, and some another, as far as 
 we cared to venture, to get provisions, and our negroes, killed 
 us some deer, which we cured, as well as we could, in the 
 sun, for we had no salt. 
 
 By this time the rainy months were set in, and we could 
 scarce, for above two months, look out of our huts. But 
 that was not all, for the rivers were so swelled with the 
 landfloods, that we scarce knew the little brooks and rivulets 
 from the great navigable rivers. This had been a very good 
 opportunity to have conveyed by water, upon rafts, our 
 elephants' teeth, of which we had a very great pile ; for, as 
 we always gave the savages some reward for their labour, 
 the very women would bring us teeth upon every opportu- 
 nity, and sometimes a great tooth carried between two ; so 
 that our quantity was increased to about two and twenty 
 tons of teeth. 
 
 As soon as the weather proved fair again, he told us 
 he would not press us to any farther stay, since we 
 did ^ot care wbether we got any more goldor notTThat vre 
 were indeed tiie~Hrst men%e~ev¥r~ met "with" inTiis life, that 
 said they had gold enough, and of whom it might be truly 
 Baid that, when it lay under our feet, we would not stoop to 
 
EESOLVE TO STAT HERB ANOTHEE SEASON. 12S 
 
 take it up. But since b.; had made us a promise, he would 
 not break it, nor press us to make any farther stay, only he 
 thought he ought to tell us, that now was the time, after the 
 landflood, when the greatest quantity of gold was found ; and 
 that, if we stayed but one month, we should see thousands 
 of savages spread themselves over the whole country, to 
 wash the gold out of the sand, for the European ships which 
 would come on the coast ; that they do it then, because the 
 rage of the floods always works down a great deal of gold out 
 of the hills ; and if we took the advantage to be there before 
 them, we did not know what extraordinary things we might 
 find. 
 
 This was so forcible, and so wellargued, that it appeared 
 in'alltiur faces we were prevailedTupon ; so we told him we 
 would all stay ; for, though it was true we were aU eager to 
 be gone, yet the evident prospect of so much advantage 
 could not be well resisted — ^that he was greatly mistaken 
 when he suggested that we did not desire to increase our 
 store of gold, and in that we were resolved to make the 
 utmost use of the advantage that was in our hands, and 
 woidd^jiayL as Jong as _any gold was ^o_be_had, if it was 
 another year. 
 
 He could hardly express the joy he was in on this 
 occasion ; and the fair weather coming on, we began, just 
 as he directed, to search about the rivers for more gold. At 
 first we had but little encouragement, and began to be 
 doubtful ; but it was very plain that the reason was, the 
 water was not fully fallen, or the rivers reduced to their 
 usual channel. But in a few days we were fully requited, 
 and found much more gold than at first, and in bigger 
 lumps ; and one of our men washed out of the sand a piece 
 of gold as big as a small nut, which weighed, by our 
 estimation, for we had no small weights, almost an ounce 
 and a half. 
 
 This success made us extremely diligent, and in a little more 
 than a month we had altogether gotten near sixty pounds' 
 weight of gold; but after this, as he told us, we found 
 abundance of the savages, men, women, and children, 
 bunting every river and brook, and even the dry land of 
 the hnis, for gold, so that we could do nothing like then, 
 compared to what we had done before. 
 
 But our artificer fd and a way to make other people find 
 
124 CAPwrsr singleton. 
 
 us in gold without our own labour ; for, when these people 
 began to appear, he had a considerable quantity of his toys, 
 birds, beasts, &c., such as before, ready for them, and, the 
 English gentleman being the interpreter, he brought the 
 savages to admire them; so our cutler had trade enough, 
 ^nd, to be sure, sold his goods at a monstrous rate, for he 
 would get an ounce of gold, sometimes two, for a bit ot 
 silver, perhaps of the value of a groat — nay, if it were iron 
 — and if it were of gold, they would not give the more for 
 it; and it was incredible almost to think what a quantity of 
 gold he got that way. 
 
 In a word, to bring this happy journey to a conclusion, • 
 we increased our stock of gold here, in three months' stay 
 more, to such a degree that, bringing it all to a common 
 stock, in order to share it, we divided almost four pounds' 
 weight again to every man ; and then we set forward for 
 the gold coast, to see what method we could find out for our 
 passage into Europe. 
 
 There happened several very remarkable incidents in this 
 part of our jotu:ney, as to how we were, or were not, 
 received Mendly by the several nations of savages through 
 which we passed ; how we delivered one negro king from 
 captivity, who had been a benefactor to our new guide; and 
 how our guide, in gratitude, by our assistance, restored him 
 to his kingdom, which, perhaps, might contain about three 
 hundred subjects; how he entertained us ; and how he made 
 his subjects go with our Englishman, and fetch all our 
 elephants' teeth which we had been obliged to leave behind 
 us, and to carry them for us to the river, the name of which 
 I forgot, where we made rafts, and in eleven days more 
 came down to one of the Dutch settlements on the gold 
 coast, where we arrived in perfect health, and to our great 
 satisfaction. As for our cargo of teeth, we sold it to the 
 Dutch factory, and received clothes and other necessaries 
 for oursejyes, and such of our negroes as we thought fit to 
 keep with us ; and it is to be observed that we had four 
 pounds of gunpowder left when we ended our journey. The 
 negro prince we made perfectly free, clothed him out of our 
 common stock, and gave him a pound and a half of gold for 
 himself, which he knew very well how to manage ; and here 
 we all parted'after the most friendly manner possible. Our 
 Englishman remained in the Dutch factory .ome time, and, ' 
 
BOB AEKIVES IN ENGLAND. 125. 
 
 as I heard afterwards, died there <^ grief? for he having 
 sent a thousand pounds sterling over t&^agland, by tlie way 
 of ^ Holland, for his refuge at his return to' his friends, the 
 ship was taken by the French, and the effects all lost. 
 
 The rest of my comrades went away, in a small bark, 
 to the two Portuguese factories, near Gambia, in the latitude 
 of 14 degrees ; and I, with two negroes which I kept with me, 
 went away to Cape Coast Castle, where 1 got passage for 
 England, and arrived there in September ; and thus ended 
 my first harvest of wild oats ; the rest were not sowed to so 
 much advantage. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 I FALL INTO BAD COMPANY IN ENGLAND, AND SPEND MT 
 
 MONET ^I SHIP MYSELF ON A VOYAGE TO CADIZ ^THE 
 
 COMPANY I MEET THEKE ^TUEIf PIRATE ADVENTURES 
 
 ACCOUNT OF WILLIAM WALTERS, AND OP OUR EXPEDITIONS. 
 
 I 
 
 I HAD neither friend, relation, nor acquaintance in England, 
 though it was my native country: I had consequently no 
 person to trust with what I had, or to counsel me to secure 
 or save it; but, falling into ill company, and trusting the 
 keeper of a public-house in Rotherhithe with a great part of 
 my money, and hastily squandering away the rest, all that 
 great sum, which I got with so much pains and hazard, was 
 gone in little more than two years' time ; and, as I even rage 
 in my own thoughts to reflect upon the manner how it was 
 wasted, so I need record no more : the rest merits to be con- 
 cealed with blushes, for that it was spent in aU kinds of folly 
 and wickedness ; so this scene of my life may be said to have 
 beg un in theft and ended in J.uxmj ; a sad setting-out, and a 
 worse coming home. 
 
 About the year 1686, I began to see the bottom of my 
 stock, ajid that it was time to think of farther adventures ; 
 for my spoilers, as I call them, began to let me know, that as 
 my money declined,' their respect would ebb with it, and that 
 I had nothing to expect of them farther than as I might com- 
 mand it by the force of my money, which, in short, would 
 not go an inch the farther for all that had been spent in their 
 .favour before. 
 
126 CAPTAIN srNGLETON. 
 
 This shocked me very much, and I conceived a just abhor- 
 rence of their ingratitude ; but it wore off; nor had I met 
 ■with any regret at the wasting so glorious a sum of money, 
 as I brought to England with me. 
 
 I next shipped myself, in an evil hour to be sure, on a 
 voyage to Cadiz, in a ship called the Cruizer, and in the 
 course of our voyage, being on the coast of Spain, was obliged 
 to put into the Groyn, by a strong south-west wind. 
 
 Here I fell into company with some masters of mischief; 
 and, among them, one forwarder than the rest, began an inti- 
 mate confidence with me, so that we called one another 
 brothers, and communicated all our circumstances to one 
 another : his name was Harris. This fellow came to me one 
 morning, asking me if I would go on shore? and I agreed; 
 so we got the captain's leave for the boat, and went together. 
 When we were together, he asked me if I had a mind for an' 
 adventure that might make amends for all past misfortunes 1 
 I told him. Yes, with all my heart ; for I did not care where 
 I went, having nothing to loose, and nobody to leave behind 
 me. 
 
 He then asked me if I would swear to be secret, and that, 
 if I did not agree to what he proposed, I would nevertheless 
 never betray him ? I readily bound myself to that, upon the 
 most solemn imprecations and curses that the devil and both 
 of us could invent. 
 
 He told me then, there was a brave fellow in the other ship, 
 pointing to another English ship which rode in the harbour, 
 who, in concert with some of the men, had resolved to mutiny 
 the next morning, and run away with the ship ; and that, 
 if we could get strength enough among our ship'^ company, 
 we might do the same. I liked the proposal very well, and he 
 got eight of us to join with him ; and he told us, that as soon 
 as his friend had begun the work, and was master of the ship, 
 we should be ready to do the like. This was his plot ; and I, 
 without the least hesitation, either at the villany of the fact, 
 or the diificulty of performing it, came immediately into the 
 wicked conspiracy, and so it went on among us ; but we could 
 not bring our part to perfection. 
 
 Accordingly, on the day appointed, his correspondent in 
 the other ship, whose name was Wilmot, began the work, 
 and, having seized the captain's mate, and other oflScers, 
 eecured the ship, and gave the signal to us. We were but 
 
EKGAGED IN A MUTINT. 127 
 
 eleven in our ship, who were in the conspiracy ; nor could we 
 get any more that we could trust ; so that, leaving the ship, 
 we aU took the boat, and went off to join the other. 
 
 Having thus left the ship I was in, we were entertained 
 with a great deal of joy by Captain WUmot and his new 
 gang ; and, being prepared for all manner of roguery, bold, 
 desperate, I mean myself, without the least checks of con- 
 science for what I was entered upon, or for anything I might 
 do, much less with any apprehension of what might be 'the 
 conseqence of it; I say, having thus embarked with this 
 crew, which at last brought me to consort with the most 
 famous pirates of the age, some of whom have ended their 
 journals at the gallows ; I think the giving an account of 
 some of my other adventures may be an agreeable piece 
 of story ; and this I may venture to say beforehand, upon 
 the word of a pirate, that 1 should not be able to recollect 
 the full, no not by far, of the great variety which has formed 
 one of the most reprobate schemes that ever man was capable 
 to present to the world, 
 
 I that was, as I have hinted before, an original thief, and 
 a pirate even by inclination before, was now in my element, 
 and never undertook anything in my life with more particular 
 satisfaction. 
 
 Captain Wilmot (for so we are now to call him), being 
 thus possessed of a ship, and in the manner as you have 
 heard, it may be easily concluded he had nothing to do to 
 stay in the port, or to wait either the attempts that might be 
 made from the shore, or any change which might happen 
 airiong his men. On the contrary, we weighed anchor the 
 same tide, and stood out to sea, steering away for the Ca- 
 naries. Our ship had twenty-two guns, but was able to 
 carry thirty ; and besides, as she was fitted out for a mer- 
 chant ship only, she was not furnished either with ammu- 
 nition or small arms sufficient for our design, or for the oc- 
 casion we might have in case of 'a fight ; so we put into 
 Cadiz, that is to say, we came to an anchor in the bay ; and 
 the captain, and one whom we called young Captain Kid, 
 who was the gunner, and some of the men, who could best 
 be trusted, among whom was my comrade Harris, who was 
 made second mate, and myself, who was made a lieutenant ; 
 some bales of English goods were proposed to be carried on 
 shore with us for sale ; but my comrade, who was a com* 
 
128 CAPTAIN SINGLETOK. 
 
 plete fellow at his business, proposed a better way. for it ; 
 and, having been in the town before, told us, in short, that 
 he would buy what powder and bullet, small arms, or any- 
 thing else we wanted, on his own word, to be paid for when 
 they came on board, in such English goods as we had there. 
 This was by much the best way, and accordingly he and the 
 captain went on shore by themselves, and, having made such 
 a bargain as they found for their turn, came away again in 
 two hours' time, and bringing only a butt of wine, and five 
 casks of brandy with them, we aU went on board again. 
 
 The next morning two barco-longoes came off to us, 
 deeply loaden, with five Spaniards on board them, for traffic. 
 Our captain sold them good pennyworths, and they delivered 
 us sixteen barrels of powder, twelve small rundlets of fine 
 powder for our small arms, sixty muskets, and twelve fusees 
 for the ofiicers ; seventeen tons of cannon-ball, fifteen barrels 
 of musket-bullets, with some swords, and twenty good pair 
 of pistols. Besides this they brought thirteen butts jf wine 
 (for we, that were now all become gentlemen, scorned to 
 drink the ship's beer), also sixteen puncheons of brandy, 
 with twelve barrels of raisins, and twenty chests of lemons ; ' 
 all which were paid for in English goods ; and, over and 
 above, the captain received six hundred pieces of eight in 
 money. They would have come again, but we would stay 
 no longer. 
 
 From hence we sailed to the Canaries, and from thence 
 onward to the West jjiclies, where we committed some depre- 
 dation upon the Spaniards for provisions, and took some 
 prizes, but none of any great value, while I remained with 
 them, which was not long at that time ; for, having taken a 
 Spanish sloop on the Coast of Carthagena, my friend made 
 a motion to me, that we should desire Captain WUmot to 
 put us into the sloop, with a proportion of arms and ammu- 
 nition, and let us try what we could do ; she being much 
 fitter for our businfess than the great ship, and a better sailer. 
 This he consented to, and we appointed our rendezvous at 
 Tobago, making an agreement, that whatever was taken by 
 either of our ships, should b e shared among the ^ hip's com- 
 _£any of both ; all wincE~we very punctually observedTaad 
 jomeT~our~ships again, about fifteen month's after, at the 
 island of Tobago, as above. 
 
 "We cruised near two years in those seas, chiefly upon the 
 
TAKE SEVEEAL SHIPS. 129 
 
 Spaniards ; not that we made any difficulty of taking English 
 ships, or Dutch, or French, if they came in our way ; and 
 particularly Captain Wihnot attacked a New England ship 
 bound from the Madeiras to Jamaica, and another bound 
 from New York to Barbadoes, with provisions ; which last 
 was a very happy supply 19 us. But the reason why we 
 meddled as little with English vessels as we could, was, first, 
 because, if they were ships of any force, we were sure of 
 more resistance from them ; and, secondly, because we found 
 the English ships had less booty when taken; tor the 
 Spaniards generally had money on board, and that was what 
 we best knew what to do with. Captain Wihnot was 
 indeed morepa rticularIg _cruel when he took any English 
 vessel, thaTTE^might noTtoo soon have advice of him in 
 England; and so the men of war have orders to look out 
 for him. But t his par t I bury in silence for ttiejgresent. 
 
 We increased our stock in thess~twO years^onsiderably, 
 having taken sixty thousand pieces of eight in one vessel, 
 and a hundred thousand in another ; and being thus first 
 grown rich, we resolved to be strong too ; for we had taken 
 a brigantine built at Virginia, an excellent sea-boat, and a 
 good sailer, and able to carry twelve giuis; and a large 
 Spanish frigate-built ship, that sailed incomparably well sdso, 
 and which afterwards, by the help of good carpenters, we 
 fitted up to carry twenty-eight guns. And now we wanted 
 more hands, so we put away for the bay of Campeachy, not 
 doubting we should ship as many men there as we pleased ; 
 and so we did. 
 
 Here we sold the sloop that I was in; and Captain 
 Wihnot, keeping his own ship, I took the command of the 
 Spanish frigate, as captain; and my comrade Harris as 
 eldest lieutenant; and a bold enterprising fellow he was, as 
 any the world afforded. One culverdine was put into the 
 brigantine, so that we were now three stout ships, well 
 manned, and victualled for twelve months ; for we had taken 
 two or three sloops from New England and New York, 
 loaden with flour, pease, and barrelled beef and pork, going 
 for Jamaica and Barbadoes ; and for more beef we went on 
 shore on the isle of Cuba, where we killed as many black 
 cattle as we pleased, though we had very little salt to cure 
 
 ^-liem. , , . J 
 
 Out of all the prizes we took here, we took their powder 
 
 K 
 
130 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 and bullet, their small arms and cutlasses ; and as for theil 
 men, we always took the surgeon and the carpenter, as 
 persons who were of particular use to u^^^pon^ many 
 occasions: nor were they always unwilling to' go with us; 
 though for their own security, in case of accidents, they 
 might easily pretend they were carried away by force; of 
 which I shall give a pleasant account in the course of my 
 other expeditions. 
 > "We had one very merry fellow here,^^a_fl3iakOT, whose 
 name was William Walters, whom we took outof a sloop 
 bound from Pennsylvania to Barbadoes. He was a surgeon, 
 and they called him doctor ; but he was not employed in the 
 sloop as a surgeon, but was going to Barbadoes to get a 
 birth, as the sailors call it. However, he had all his 
 surgeon's chest on board, and we made him go with us, and 
 take all his implements with him. He was a comic fellow 
 indeed, a man of very good solid sense, and an excellent 
 surgeon ; but, what was worth all, very good humoured, and 
 pleasant in his conversation, and a bold, stout fellow too, as 
 any we had among us. 
 
 I found William, as I thought, not very averse to go along 
 with us, and yet resolved to do it so, that it might be apparent 
 he was taken away by force ; and, to this purpose, he comes 
 to me: Friend, says he, thou sayest I must go with thee, 
 and it is not in my power to resist thee, if I would ; but I 
 desire thou wQt oblige the master of the sloop which I am 
 on board, to certify under his hand, that I was taken away 
 by force, and against my wiU. And this he said with so 
 much satisfaction in his face, that I could not but understand 
 him. Ay, ay, says I, whether it be against your will or no, 
 I'll make him and all the men give you a certificate of it, or 
 I'll take them all along with us, and keep them till they do. 
 So I drew up the certificate myself, wherein I vyrote that he 
 was taken away by main force, as a prisoner, by a pirate 
 ship ; that they carried away his chest and instruments first, 
 and then bound his hands behind him, and forced him into 
 their boat ; and this was signed by the master and all his 
 men. 
 
 Accordingly I fell a swearmg at him, and called to my 
 men to tie his hands behind him, and so we put him into our 
 boat, and carried him away. When I had him on board, I 
 called him to me ; now, friend, says I, I have brought you 
 
ENGLISH KEK-OF-WAE SENT TO CAPTDEE THEM. 131 
 
 away by force, it is true, but I am not of the opinion I have 
 brought you away so much against your will as they imagine : 
 come, says ^^ou will be a useful man to us, and you shall 
 have very good usage among us. So I unbound his hands, 
 and first ordered all things that belonged to him to be 
 restored to him, and our captaia gave him a dram. 
 
 Thou hast dealt friendly by me, says he, and I will be 
 plaiu with thee, whether I came willingly to thee or not. I 
 shall make myself as useful to thee as I can; but thou 
 knowest it is not my business to meddle when thou art to 
 fight. No, no, says the captain, but you may meddle a httle 
 when we share the money. Those things are useful to 
 furnish a surgeon's chest, says William, and smiled, but I 
 shall be moderate. 
 
 In short, William was a most agreeable companion ; but 
 he had the better of us in this part, that, if we were taken, 
 we were sure to be hanged, and he was sure to escape ; and 
 he knew it well enough : but, in short, he was a sprightly 
 ■ fellow, and fitter to be captain than any of us. I shall have 
 often an occasion to speak of him in the rest of the story. 
 
 Our cruising so long in these seas began now to be so well 
 known, that, not in England only, but in France and Spain, 
 accounts had been made public of our adventures, and many 
 stories told, how we murdered the people in cold blood, tying 
 them back to back, and throwing them into the sea: one 
 half of which, however, was not true, though mor e jyag^done 
 than it is fit to speak of here. 
 
 The consequence ofthis However was, that several EngUsh 
 men of war were sent to the West Indies, and were par- 
 ticularly instructed to cruise in the bay of Mexico, and the 
 gulf of Florida, and among the Bahama islands, if possible, 
 to attack us. We were not so ignorant of things as not to 
 expect this, after so long a stay in that part of the world ; 
 but the first certain account we had of them, was at Hon- 
 duras, when a vessel, coming in from Jamaica, told us, that 
 two English men of war were coming du-ectly from Jamaica 
 thither in quest of us. We were indeed as it were embayed, 
 and could not have made the least shift to have got off", if 
 they had come directly to us ; but as it happened, somebody 
 had informed them that we were in the bay of Campeachy, 
 and they went directly thither, by which we were not only 
 free of them, but were so much to the windward of them, 
 
 K 2 
 
132 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 that they could not make any attempt upon us, though th^ 
 had known we were there. 
 
 We took this advantage, and stood away for Garthagena, 
 and from thence with great difficulty beat it up at a distance 
 from under the shore of St. Martha, tiU we came to the 
 Dutch island of Curasoe . and from thence to the island of 
 Tobago ; which, as before, was our rendezvous ; and it being 
 a deserted, uninhabited island, we at the same time made use 
 of it for a retreat : here the captain of the brigantine died, 
 and Captain Harris, at that time my lieutenant, took the 
 command of the brigantine. 
 
 Here we came to a resolution to go away to the coast of 
 Brazil, and from thence to the Cape of Good Hope, and so 
 for the East Indies: but Captain Harris, as I have said, 
 bein^ now captain of the brigantine, alleged that his ship 
 was too small for so long a voyage ; but that, if Captain 
 Wihnot would consent, he would take the hazard of another 
 cruise, and he would follow us in the first ship he could take : 
 so we appointed our rendezvous to be at Madagascar, which 
 was done by my recommendation of the place, and the plenty 
 of provisions to be had there. 
 
 Accordingly he went away from us in an eyilhoiir ; for, 
 instead of taking a ship to foUow us, he was taken, as I 
 heard afterwards, by an English man-of-war, and being laid 
 in irons, died of mere grief and anger before he came to 
 England. His lieutenant, I have heard, was afterwards exe- 
 cuted in England for a pirate, and this was the end of tiie 
 man who first brought me into this unhappy trade. 
 
 We parted from Tobago three days after, bending our 
 course for the coast of Brazil, but had not been at sea above 
 twenty-four hours, when we were separated by a terrible 
 storm, which held three days, with very little abatement or 
 intermission. In this juncture. Captain Wihnot happened 
 unluckily to be on board my ship, very much to his mortifi- 
 cation ; for we not only lost sight of Ms ship, but never saw 
 her more tni we came to Madagascar, where she was cast 
 away. In short, after having in this tempest lost our fore- 
 top-mast, we were forced to put back to the isle of Tobago 
 for shelter, and to repair our damage, which brought us all 
 very near our destruction. 
 
 We were no sooner on shore here, and all very busy look- 
 ing out for a piece of timber for a top-mast, but we perceived, 
 
A NARROW ESCAPE. 133 
 
 Standing in for the shore, an English man-of-war of thirty- 
 six guns: it was a great surprise to us indeed, because we 
 were disabled so much ; but to our great good fortune,- we 
 lay pretty snug and close among the high rockg, and the 
 man-oftwar did not see us, but stood off again upon his 
 cruise : so we only observed which way she wertt^ and at 
 night, leaving our work, resolved to stand off to sea, steering 
 the contrary way from that which we observed she went ; 
 and this we found had the desired success, for we saw him 
 no more. "We had gotten an old mizen top-mast on board, 
 which made us a jury fore-top-mast for the present ; and so 
 we stood away for the isle of Trinidad, where, though there 
 were Spaniards on shore, yet we landed some men with our 
 boat, and cut a very good- piece' of fir to make us a new top- 
 mast, which we got fitted up effectually ; and also we got 
 some cattle here to eke out our provisions ; and, calling a 
 council of war among ourselves, we resolved to quit those 
 seas for the present, and steer away for the coast of Brazil. 
 
 The first thing we attempted here, was only getting fresh 
 water : but we learnt, that there lay the Portuguese fleet at 
 the bay of All-Saints, bound for Lisbon, ready to sail, and 
 only waiting for a fair wind. This made us lie by, vrishing 
 to see them put to sea, and accordingly as they were, with or 
 without convoy, to attack or avoid them. 
 
 It sprung up a fresh gale in the evening, at S.W. by W., 
 which, being fair for the Portugal fleet, and the weather 
 pleasant and agreeable, we heaird the signal given to unmoor, 
 
 and, running in under the island of Si , we hauled our 
 
 Nmain-sail and fore-sail up in the brails, lowereid the top-sail 
 upon the cap, and clewed them up, that we might lie as 
 snug as we could, expecting their conung out, and the next 
 morning saw the whole fleet come out accordingly, but not 
 at! all to our satisfaction, for they consisted of twenty-six 
 sail, and most of them ships of force as well as burthen, 
 b6th merchantmen and men-of-war ; so, seeing there was no 
 mteddHng, we lay still where we were also, till the fleet was 
 oik of sight, and then stood off and on, in hopes of meeting 
 with further-purchase. 
 
 It was not long before we saw a saU, and immediately 
 gave her chase; but she proved an excellent sailer, and, 
 Standing out to sea, we saw plainly she trusted to her heels — 
 that is to say, to her sails. However, as we were a clean 
 
134 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 ehip, we gained upon her, though slowly, and, had we had a 
 day before us, we should certainly have come up with her ; 
 but it grew dark apace, and in that case we knew we should 
 lose sight of her. 
 
 Our merry quaker, perceiving us to crowd still afler her 
 in the dark, wherein we could not see which way she went, 
 came very drily to me : Friend Singleton, says he, dost thee 
 know what we are doing? Says I, Yes, why we are chasing 
 yon ship, are we not ? And how dost thou know that ? says 
 he, very gravely stUl. Nay, that's true, says I again, we 
 cannot be sure. Yes, friend, says he, I think we may be 
 sure that we are running away from her — ^not chasing her. 
 I am afraid, adds he, thou art turned quaker, and hast 
 resolved not to use the hand of power, or art a coward, and 
 art flying from thy enemy. 
 
 What do you mean ? says I (I think I swore at him) ; 
 what do ye sneer at now : you have always one dry rub or 
 another to give us. 
 
 Nay, says he, it is plain enough the ship stood off to sea 
 due east, on purpose to lose us, and thou mayest be sure her 
 business does not lie that way ; for what should she do at 
 the coast of Africa in this latitude, which should be as far 
 south as Congo or Angola ? But as soon as it is dark, that 
 we shall lose sight of her, she will tack, and stand away 
 west again for the Brazil coast, and for the bay, where, thou 
 knowest, she was going before ; and are we not then running 
 away from her? I am greatly in hopes, friend, says the 
 dry gibing creature, thou wilt turn quaker, for I see thou art 
 not for fighting. 
 
 Very weU, William, says I, then I shall make an excellent 
 pirate. However, William was in the right, and I appre- 
 hended what he meant immediately; and Captain WUmot, 
 who lay very sick in his cabin, overhearing us, understood 
 Mm as well as I, and called out to me that William was 
 right, and it was our best way to change our course, and 
 stand away for the bay, where it was ten to one but we 
 should snap her in the morning. 
 
 Accordingly, we went about ship, got our larboard tacks 
 on board, set the top-gallant sails, and crowded for the bay 
 of All-Saints, where we came to an anchor, early in the 
 morning, just out of gun-shot of the forts. We furled our 
 sails with rope-yams, that we might haul homo the isheets 
 
BOAED Am) PLUNDER A VESSEL. 135 
 
 Vitiout going up to loose them, and, lowering our main and 
 fore-yards, looked just as if we had lain there a good while. 
 
 In two hours after we saw our game standing in for the 
 T)ay with all the sail she could make, and she came inno- 
 cently into our very mouths, for We lay still tiU we saw her 
 almost within gun-shot, when our fore-mast geers being 
 stretched fore and aft, we first ran up our yards, and then 
 hauled home the top-sail sheets ; the rope-yarns that furled 
 them giving way of themselves, the sails were set in a few 
 minutes ; at the same time sUpping our cable, we came upon 
 her before she could get under way upon the other tack. 
 They were so surprised that they made little or no re- 
 sistance, but struck after the first broadside. 
 
 We were considering what to do with her, when William 
 came to me: Hark thee, friend, says he, thou hast made a 
 fine piece of work of it now, hast thou not? To borrow 
 thy neighbour's ship here just at thy neighbour's door, and 
 never ask him leave. Now, dost thou not think there are 
 some men-of-war in the port ? Thou hast given them the 
 alarm sufiiciently; thou wQt have them upon thy back 
 before night, depend upon it, to ask thee wherefore thou 
 didst so. 
 
 Truly, William, said I, for ought I know, that may be 
 true. What, then, shall we do next? Says he, ThoU hast 
 but two things to do, either to go in and take all the rest, 
 or else get thee gone before they come out and take thee ; 
 for I see they are hoisting a top-mast to yon great ship, in 
 order to put to sea immediately, and they won't be long 
 before they come to talk with thee ; and what wUt thou say 
 to them when they ask thee why thou borrowest their ship 
 without leave ? 
 
 As William said, so it was : we could see by our glasses 
 they were all in a hurry, manning and fitting some sloops 
 they had there, and a large man-of-war, and it was plain 
 they would soon be with us ; but we were not at a loss what 
 to do. We found the ship we had taken was loaden with 
 nothing considerable for our purpose, except some cocoa, 
 some sugar, and twenty barrels of flour; the rest of her 
 loading was hides ; so we took out all we thought for our turn, 
 and, among the rest, all her ammunition, great shot, and 
 small arms, and turned her off"; we also took a cable and 
 three anchors she had, which were for our purpose, and 
 
136 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 some of her saiLs. She had enough left just to carry her into 
 port, and that was all. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 ACCOUNT OF WILLIAM'S GALLANT BEHAVIOUE IN AN ACTION 
 WITH A POETUGITESE MAN-OF-WAE — ^WE TAKE THE SHIP 
 — ^FALL IN WITH A VESSEL PULL OP NEGKOES, WHO HAD 
 MURDBKED THE OPFICEES AND CEEW — THE NEGKOES' 
 ACCOUNT OP THE TRANSACTION. 
 
 Hating done thisj we stood on upon the Brazil coast, south- 
 ward, till we came to the mouth of the river Janeiro : but, 
 as we had two days the wind blowing hard at S.E and S.S.E., 
 we were obliged to come to an anchor under a little island, 
 and wait for a wind. In this time, the Portuguese had, it 
 seems, given notice over land to the governor there, that a 
 pirate was upon the coast ; so that, when we came in view 
 of the port, we saw two men-of-war riding just without the 
 bar, wheji'eof one we found was getting under sail with all 
 possible speed, having slipt her cable, on purpose to speak 
 with us ; the other was not so forward, but was preparing 
 to foUow ; in less than an hour they stood both fair after us, 
 with all the sail they could make. 
 
 Had not the night come on, William's words had been 
 made good ; they would certainly have asked us the ques- 
 tion, what we did there 1 for we found the foremost ship 
 gained upon us, especially upon one tack ; for we plied away 
 from' them to windwafd ; but in the dark losing sight of 
 them; we resolved to change our course, and stand away 
 directly to sea, not doubting but we should lose them in the 
 night. 
 
 Whether the Portuguese commander guessed we would do 
 80 or no, I know not ; but in the morning, wheii the daylight 
 appeared, instead of having lost him, we found him in chase 
 of us, about a league astern ; only, to our great good for- 
 tune, we could see but one of the two ; however, this one 
 was a great ship, carried six and forty guns, and an admi- 
 rable sailer, as appeared by her outsailing us ; for our ship 
 Was an excellent sailer too, as I have said before. 
 
 When I found this, I easily saw there was no remedy, but 
 
ACTION ■WITH A MAN-OF-WAE. 137 
 
 we must engage ; and, as we knew we could expect no quar- 
 ters from those scoundrels the Portuguese, a nation I had 
 an original aversion to, I let Captain Wilmot know how it 
 was. The captain, sick as he was, jumped up in the cabin, 
 and would be led out upon the deck (for he was very weak), 
 to see how it was. Well, says he, we'll fight them. 
 
 Our men were aU in good heart before ; but, to see the 
 captain so brisk, who had lain Ul of a calenture ten or eleven 
 days, gave them double courage, and they went all hands to 
 work to make a clear ship and be ready. "William the 
 quaker comes to me with a kind of smile : Friend, says he, 
 what does yon ship follow us for ? Why, says I, to fight uS, 
 you may be sure. Well, says he, and will she come up with 
 us, dost thou think ? Yes, said I, you see she will. Why 
 then, friend, says the dry -vyretch, why dost thou run from 
 her stiQ, when thou seest she will overtake thee ? wiU it be 
 better for us to be overtaken further off than here ? Much 
 at one for that, says I ; why, what would you have us do ? 
 Do ! says he, let us not give the poor man more trouble thaji 
 needs must ; let us stay for him, and hear what he has to 
 say to us. He wiU tglk to us in powder and ball, said I. 
 Very weU then, says he, if that be his country language. We 
 must talk to him in the same, must we not ? or else how 
 shall he understand us ? Very well, William, says I, we im- 
 derstand you. And the captain, as ill as he was,- called to 
 me, William's right again, says he, as good here as a league 
 further. So he gave a word of command, Haul up the main- 
 sail ;' we'll shorten sail for him. 
 
 ii^ceordingly we shortened sail ; and, as we expected her 
 upon our lee-side, we being then upon our starboard tack, 
 brought eighteen of our guns to the larboard side, resolving 
 to give him a broadside that should warm him ; it was about 
 half an hour before he came up with us, aU which time we 
 luffed up, that we might keep the wind of him, by which he 
 was obliged to run up under our lee, as we designed him ; 
 when we got bTTin upon our quarter, we edged down, and 
 received the fire of five or six of his guns ; by this time you 
 may be sure all our hands were at their quarters, so we 
 clapped our helm hard a-weather, let go the lee-braces of 
 the main top-sail, and laid it a-back, and so our ship fell 
 athwart the Portuguese ship's hawse ; then we immedktely 
 
138 CAPTAIN SINGLETOK. 
 
 poured in our broadside, raking them fore and aft, and killed 
 them a great many men. 
 
 The Portuguese, we could see, were in the utmost con- 
 cision ; and, not being aware of our design, their ship having 
 fresh, way, ran their bowsprit into the fore part of our main 
 Bhrouds, as that they could not easily get clear of us, and so 
 we lay locked after that manner ; the enemy could not bring 
 above two or three guns, besides their small arms, to bear 
 upon us, while we played our whole broadside upon him. 
 
 In the middle of the heat of this fight, as I was very busy 
 upon the quarter-deck, the captain calls to me, for he never 
 stirred from us. What the devil is friend William a-doing 
 yonder, says the captain, has he any business upon deck ? I 
 stept forward, and there was friend William, with two or 
 three stout fellows, lashing the ship's bowsprit fast to our 
 mainmast, for fear they should get away from us ; and every 
 now and then he puUed a bottle out of his pocket, and gave 
 the men a dram to encourage them. The shot flew about 
 his ears as thick as may be' supposed in such an action, 
 where the Portuguese, to give them their due, fought very 
 briskly, believing at first they were sure of their game, and 
 trusting to their superiority; but there was William, as 
 composed, and in as perfect tranquiUity as to danger, as if 
 he had been over a bowl of punch, only very busy securing 
 the matter, that a ship of forty-six guns should not run away 
 from a ship of eight-and-twenty. 
 
 This work was too hot to hold long ; our men behaved 
 bravely ; our gunner, a gallant man, shouted below, pouring 
 in his shot at such a rate, that the Portuguese began to 
 slacken lieir fire ; we had dismounted several of their guns 
 by firing in at their forecastle, and raking them, as I said, 
 fore and aft ; and presently comes William up to me : Friend, 
 says he, very calmly, what dost thou mean? Why dost thou 
 not visit thy neighbour in the ship, the door being open for 
 thee ? I understood him immediately, for our guns had so 
 torn their hull, that we had beat two port-holes into one,, 
 and the bulk-head of their steerage was split to pieces, so 
 that they could not retire to their close quarters ; I then gave 
 the word immediately to board them. Our second lieutenant, 
 with about thirty men, entered in an instant over the fore- 
 castle, followed by some more, with the boatswain, and 
 
THE PIRATES VICTOEIOUS. 139 
 
 CTitting in pieces about twenty-five men that they found upon 
 the deck, and then, throwing some grenadoes into the steer- 
 age, they entered there also; upon which the Portuguese 
 cried quarter presently, and we mastered the ship, contrary 
 indeed to our own expectation ; for we would have com- 
 pounded with them, if they would have sheered ofi", but 
 laying them athwart the hawse at first, and following our 
 fire furiously, without giving them any time to get clear of 
 us, and work their ship ; by this means, though they had 
 six-and-forty guns, they were not able to point them forward, 
 as I said above, for we beat them immediately from their 
 guns in the forecastle, and killed them abundance of men 
 between decks, so that, when we entered, they had hardly 
 found men enough to fight us hand to hand upon their deck. 
 
 The surprise of joy, to hear the Portuguese cry quarter, 
 and see their ancient struck, was so great to our captain, 
 who, as I have said, was reduced very weak with a high 
 fever, that it gave him new life. Nature conquered the dis- 
 temper, and the fever abated that very night ; so that in two 
 or three days he was sensibly better, his strength began to 
 come, and he was able to give his orders effectually in every- 
 thing that was material, and in about ten days was entirely 
 well, and about the ship. 
 
 In the mean time, I took possession of the Portuguese man- 
 of-war ; and Captain Wihnot made me, or rather I made 
 myself, captain of hfer for the present. About thirty of their 
 seamen took service -with, us, some of whom were French, 
 some Genoese ; and we set the rest on shore the next day, 
 on a little island on the coast of Brazil, except some wounded 
 men, who were not in a condition to be removed, and whom 
 we were bound to keep on board ; but we had an occasion 
 afterwards to dispose of them at the Cape, where, at their 
 own request, we set them on shore. 
 
 Captain Wilmot, as soon as the ship was taken, and the 
 prisoners stowed, was for standing in for the river Janeiro 
 again, not doubting that we should meet with the other man- 
 of-war, who, not having been able to find us, and having lost 
 the company of her comrade, would certainly be returned, 
 and might be surprised by the ship we had taken, if we 
 carried Portuguese colours ; and our men were all for it. 
 
 But our friend William gave us better counsel ; for he 
 came to me ; Friend, says he, I understand the captain is fo.' 
 
140 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 sailing back to the Rio Janeiro, in hopes to meet with the 
 other ship that was in chase of thee yesterday. Is it true, 
 dost thou intend it? Why, yes, says I, William, pray why 
 not? Nay, says he, thou mayest do so if thou wilt. . Well, 
 I know that too, William, said I ; but the captain is a man 
 who will be ruled by reason; what have you to say to it? 
 Why, says William, gravely, I only ask what is thy business, 
 and the business of all the people thou hast with thee? Is 
 it not to get money ? Yes, William, it is so, in our honest 
 way. And wouldst thou, says he, rather have money without 
 fighting, or fighting without money ? I mean, which wouldst 
 thou have by choice, suppose it to be left to thee ? O Wil- 
 liam, says I, the first of the two, to be sure. Why then, says 
 he, what great gain hast thou made of the prize thou hast 
 taken now, though it has cost thee the lives of thirteen of thy 
 men, besides some hurt ? It is true, thou hast got the ship 
 and some prisoners ; but thou wouldst have had twice the 
 booty in a merchant ship, with not one quarter of the fight* 
 ing ; and how dost thou know either what force, or what 
 number of men, may be in the other ship, and what loss thon; 
 mayest sufier, and what gain it shall be to thee, if thou take 
 her ? I think indeed thou mayest much better let her alone. 
 Why, William, it is true, said I, and I'll go tell the captain 
 what your opinion is, and bring you word what he says. 
 Accordingly I went to the captain, and told him William's 
 reasons; and the captain was of his mind — ^that our business 
 was indeed fighting when we could not help it, but that our 
 main affair was monevj and that with as few blows as we 
 could. So thar"aaventure was laid aside, and we stood 
 along-shore again south for the river de la Plata, expecting 
 some purchase thereabouts ; especially we had our eyes upon 
 some of the Spanish ships from Buenos Ayres, which are 
 generally veiy rich in silver, and one such prize would have 
 done our business. We plied about here, in the latitude of 
 near 22 degrees south, for near a month, and nothing 
 offered ; and here we began to consult what we should do 
 next, for we had come to no resolution yet. Indeed, my 
 design was always for the Cape de Bona Speranza, and so to 
 the East Indies. I had heard some flaming stories of 
 Captain Avery, and the fine things he had done in the 
 Indies, which were doubled and doubled, even ten thousand- 
 fold ; and from taking a great prize in the bay of Bengal, 
 
DISCOVER A SLAVES. 141 
 
 where he took a lady, said to be the Great Mogul's daughter, 
 with a great quantity of jewels about her, we had a story 
 told us, that he took a Mogul ship, so the foohsh sailors 
 called it, loaden with diamonds. 
 
 I would fain have had friend William's advice — ^whither 
 we should go ; but he always put it off with some quaking 
 quibble or other. In short, he did not care for directing us 
 neither. Whether he made a piece of conscience of it, ,or 
 whether he did not care to venture having it come against 
 him afterwards, or no, this I know not; but we concluded at 
 last without him. 
 
 We were, however, pretty long in jresolving, and hankered 
 about the Rio de la Plata a long time. At last we spied a 
 sail to windward, and it was such a sail as I believe had not 
 been seen in that part of the world a great while. It 
 wanted not that we should give it chase, for it stood directly 
 towards us, as well as they that steered could make it, and 
 even that was more accident of weather than anything else ; 
 for, if the wind had chopt about anywhere, they must have 
 gone with it. I leave any man that is a sailor, or under- 
 stands anything of a ship, to judge what a figure this ship 
 made when we first saw her, and what we could imagine 
 was the matter with her. Her main topmast was come by 
 the board, about six feet above the cap, and fell forward, the 
 head of the top-gaUant mast hanging in the fore shrouds by 
 the stay ; at the same time, the pareil of the mizen topsail 
 yard, by some accident, giving way, the mizen topsail braces 
 (the standing part of which being fast to the main topsail 
 shrouds) brought the mizen topsail, yard and all, down with 
 it, which spread over part of the quarter-deck like an 
 awning ; the fore topsail was hoisted up two-thirds of the 
 mast, but the sheets were flown ; the fore-yard was lowered 
 down upon the forecastle, the sail loose, and part of it 
 hanging overboard. In this manner she came down upon 
 us with the wind quartering. In a word, the figure the 
 whole ship made was the most confounding to men rthat 
 understood the sea that ever was seen. She had no boat, 
 neither had she any colours out. 
 
 When we came near to her we fired a gun to bring her to. 
 She took no notice of it, nor of us, but came on just as she 
 did before. We fired again, but it was all one. At length 
 we came within pistol-shot of one another, but nobody 
 
142 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 answered, nor appeared ; so we began to think that it was a 
 ship gone ashore somewhere in distress, and, the men having 
 forsaken her, the high tide had floated her off to sea. 
 Coming nearer to her, we run up alongside of her so close 
 that we could hear a noise within her, and see the motion oi 
 several people through her ports. 
 
 Upon this we manned out two boats fuU of men, and very 
 well armed, and ordered them to board her at the same 
 minute, as near as they could, and to enter, one at her fore- 
 ohains on one side, and the other a-mid-ship on the other 
 side. As soon as they came to the ship's side, a surprising 
 multitude of black sailors, such as they were, appeared upon 
 deck, and, in short, terrified our men so much, that the boat 
 which was to enter her men in the waste stood off again, and 
 durst not board her ; , and the men that entered out of the 
 other boat, finding the first boat, as they thought, beaten off, 
 and seeing the ship full of men, jumped all back again into 
 their boat, and put off, not knowing what the matter was. 
 TJpon this we prepared to pour in a broadside upon her : but 
 our friend WiUiam set us to rights again here ; for it seems 
 he guessed how it was sooner than we did ; and coming up 
 to me (for it was our ship that came up with her). Friend, 
 says he, I am of opinion thou art wrong in this matter, and 
 thy men have been wrong also in their conduct : I'll teU thee 
 how thou shalt take this ship, without making use of those 
 things called guns. How can that be, William? said I. 
 Why, said he, thou mayst take her with thy helm : thou 
 seest they keep no steerage, and thou seest the condition they 
 are in ; board her with thy ship under her lee quarter, and 
 so enter her from the ship : I am persuaded thou wilt take 
 her without fighting ; for there is some mischief has befallen 
 the ship, which we know nothing of. 
 
 In a word, it being a smooth sea, and little wind, I took 
 his advice, and laid her aboard. Immediately our men 
 entered the ship, where we found a large ship, with upwards 
 of six hundred negroes, men and women, boys and girls, and 
 not one Christian, or white man on board. 
 
 I -vras struck withhorror at the sight; for immediately I 
 concluded,' as was part^'tEe^ejlhat these black devils had 
 got loose, had murdered aU the white men, and thrown them 
 into the sea ; and I had no sooner told my mind to the men, 
 but the thought of it so enraged them, that I had much ado 
 
THE slayer's crew MURDERED BY THE NEGROES. 143 
 
 to keep my men from cutting them all in pieces. But Wil- 
 liam, with many persuasions, prevailed upon them, by telling 
 them, that it was nothing but what, if they were in the 
 negroes' condition, they would do if they could; and that 
 the negroes had really the highest injustice done them, to be 
 sold for slaves vrithout their consent ; and that the law of 
 nature dictated it to them ; that they ought not to kill them, 
 and that it would be wilful murder to do it. 
 i This prevailed with them, and cooled their first heat ; so 
 they only knocked down twenty or thirty of them, and the 
 rest ran all down between decks to their first places, believing, 
 as wefagded^hat we we re their first masters come again. 
 
 It was a riio'st unaccountable difficulty we had next ; for 
 we could not make them understand one word we said, nor 
 could we understand one word ourselves that they said. We 
 endeavoured by signs to ask them whence they came ; but 
 they could make nothing of it. We pointed to the great 
 cabin, to the roundhouse, to the cook-room, then to our faces, 
 to ask if they had no white men on board, and where they 
 were gone : but they could not understand what we meant. 
 On the other hand, they pointed to our boat apd to their ship, 
 asking qestions as well as they could, and said a thousand 
 things, and expressed themselves with great earnestness ; 
 but we could not understand a word'of it all, or know what 
 they meant by any of their signs. 
 
 We knew very well they must have been taken on board 
 the ship as slaves, and that it must be by some European 
 people too. We could easily see that the ship was a Dutch- 
 built ship, but very much altered, having been built upon, 
 and, as we supposed, in France ; for we found two or three 
 French books on board, and afterwards we found clothes, 
 linen, lace, some old shoes, and several other things. We 
 found, among the provisions, some barrels of Irish beef, some 
 Newfoundland fish, and several other evidences that there 
 had been Christians on board, but saw no remains of them. 
 We found not a sword, gun, pistol, or weapon of any kind, 
 except some cutlasses ; and the negroes had hid them below 
 where they lay. We asked them what was become of all 
 the small arms, pointing to our own, and to the places where 
 those belonging to the ship had hung. One of the negroes 
 understood me presently, and beckoned to me to come up upon 
 the deck, where, taking my fuzee, which I never let go out 
 
144 CAPTAIN SINGLETOIT. 
 
 of my hand for some time after we had mastered the ship ; 
 I say, offering to take hold of it, he made the proper motion 
 of throwing it into the sea ; by which I understood, as I did 
 afterwards, that they had thrown all the small arms, powder, 
 shot, swords, &c., into the sea, _be]ieying^ as I supposed, 
 those things would kill them though the men were jotc. 
 
 After we undCTStood this, we made no quesHbn but that 
 the ship's crew having been surprised by these desperate 
 rogues, had gone the same way, and had been thrown over- 
 board also. "We looked all over the ship to see if we could 
 find any blood, and we thought we did perceive some in 
 several places ; but the heat of the sun melting the pitch and 
 tar upon the decks, made it impossible for us to discern it 
 exactly, except in the roundhouse, where we plainly saw that 
 there had been much blood. We found the skuttle open, by 
 which we supposed the captain and those that were with him 
 had made their retreat into the great cabin, or those ia the 
 cabin had made their escape up into the roundhouse. 
 
 But that which confirmed us most of aU in what had hap 
 pened, was, that upon farther inquiry we found that there 
 were seven or eight of the negroes very much wounded, two 
 or three of them with shot ; whereof one had his leg broke, 
 and lay in a miserable condition, the flesh being mortified, 
 and, as our Mend WiQiam said, in two days more he would 
 have died. WiUiam was a most dexterous surgeon, and he 
 showed it in this cure ; for though aU the surgeons we had 
 on board both our ships (and we had no less than fiye that 
 called themselves bred surgeons, besides two or three who 
 were pretenders or assistants), though all these gave their 
 opinions, that the negro's leg must be cut off, and that his 
 life could not be saved without it ; that the mortification had 
 touched the marrow in the bone ; that the tendons were 
 mortified, and that he could never have the use of his leg, if 
 it should be cured ; WiQiam said nothing in general, but that 
 his opinion was otherwise, and that he desired the wound 
 might be searched, and that he would then tell them farther. 
 Accordingly he went to work with the leg; and, as he 
 desired he might have some of the surgeons to assist him, we 
 appointed him two of the ablest of them to help, and aU ot 
 them to look on if they thought fit. 
 
 WiUiam went to work his own way, and some of them 
 pretended to find fault at first. However, he proceeded, and 
 
A WOUNDED KEGKO HEALED. 145 
 
 searched every part of the leg where he suspected the mor- 
 tification had touched it : in a word, he cut off a great deal 
 of mortified flesh ; in all which the poor fellow felt no pain. 
 WiUiam proceeded, tUl he brought tiie vessels which he had 
 cut to bleed, and the man to cry out : then he reduced the 
 splinters of the bone, and calling for help, set it, as we call 
 it, and bound it up, and laid the man to rest, who found 
 himself much easier than before. 
 
 At the first opening, the surgeons began to triumph ; the 
 mortification seemed to spread, and a long red streak of blood 
 appeared from the wound upwards to the middle of the man's 
 thigh, and the surgeons told me the man would die in a few 
 hours. I went to look at it, and found WiUiam himself under 
 some surprise ; but when I asked him how long he thought 
 the poor fellow could live, he looked gravely up at me, and 
 said. As long as thou canst : I am not at all apprehensive of 
 his life, said he ; but I would cure him, if I could, without 
 making a cripple of him. I found he was not just then upon 
 the operation, as to his leg, but was mixing iip something to 
 give the poor creature, to repel, as I thought, the spreading 
 contagion, and to abate or prevent any feverish temper that 
 might happen in the blood ; after which he went to work 
 again, and opened the leg in two places above the wound, 
 cutting out a great deal of mortified flesh, which, it seems, was 
 occasioned by the bandage, which had pressed the parts too 
 much ; and withal, the blood being at that time in a more 
 than conmion disposition to mortify, might assist to spread it. 
 
 Well, our friend William conquered all this, cleared the 
 spreading mortification, that the red streak went off again, 
 the flesh began to heal, and matter to run ; and in a few days 
 the man's spirits began to recover, his pulse beat regular, he 
 had no fever, and gathered strength daily, and, in a word, he 
 was a perfect sound man in about ten weeks, and we kept 
 him amongst us, and made him an able seaman. But to 
 return to the ship : we never could come at a certain infor- 
 mation about it, till some of the negroes which we kept on 
 board, and whom we taught to speak English, gave the- 
 account of it afterwards, and this maimed man in particular. 
 
 We inquired by aU the signs and motions we could imagiae, 
 what was become of the people, and yet we could get nothing 
 from them. Our lieutenant was for torturing some of them 
 to inake them confess; but WiUiam opposed that vehemently; 
 
146 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 and when he heard it was under consideration, he came tc 
 me ; Friend, says he, I make a request to thee not to put 
 any of these poor wretches to torment. Why, William, said 
 I, why not ? Tou see they will not give any account of what 
 is become of the white men. Nay, says William, do not say 
 so ; I suppose they have given thee a ftdl account of every 
 particular of it. How so ? says I : pray what are we the 
 wiser for all their jabbering? Nay, says William, that may 
 be thy fault, for aught I know : thou wilt not punish the poor 
 men because they cannot speak English ; and perhaps they 
 ^ never heard a word of English before. Now, I may very 
 well suppose, that they had given thee a large account of 
 everj'thing ; for thou seest with 'Vfhat earnestness, and how 
 long, some of them have talked to thee ; and if thou canst 
 not understand their language, nor they thine, how can they 
 help that ? At the best, thou doest but suppose that they 
 have not told thee the whole truth of the story ; and, on the 
 contrary, I suppose they have ; and how wilt thou decide the 
 question, whether thou art right, or whether I am right ? 
 Besides, what can they say to thee, when thou askest them 
 a question upon the torture, and at the same time thesy do 
 not understand the question, and thou doest not know whether 
 they say aye or no ? 
 
 It is no compliment to my moderation, to say, I was con- 
 vinced by these reasons ; and yet we had aU much ado to keep 
 our second lieutenant from murdering some of them, to make 
 them tell. What if they had told ; he did not understand 
 one word of it ; but he would not be persuaded but that the 
 negroes must needs understand him, when he asked them, 
 whether the ship had any boat or no, like ours, and what 
 was become of it. 
 
 But there was no remedy but to wait till we made these 
 people understand English ; and to adjourn the story tiU that 
 tinie. The case was thus ; where they were taken on board 
 the ship, that we could never understand, because they never 
 knew the English names which we give to those coasts, or 
 what nation they were who belonged to the ship, because 
 they knew not one tongue from another; but thus far the 
 negro I, examined, who was the same whose leg William 
 had cured, told us — that they did not speak the same lan- 
 guage we spoke, nor the same our Portuguese spoke ; so that 
 in all probability they must be French or Dutch. 
 
THE NEGRO'S ACCOTJNT OF THE MUKDEB. 147 
 
 Then he told us, that the white men used them barha 
 icusly ; that they beat them unmercifully ; that one of tha 
 negro men had a wife, and two negro children, one a daugh- 
 ter, about sixteen years old ; that a white man abused the 
 negro man's wife, and afterwards his daughter, which, as lie 
 said, made all the negro men mad ; and that the woman's 
 husband was in a great rage ; at which the white man was 
 so provoked, that he threatened to kill him; but, in the 
 night, the negro man being loose, got a great club, by which 
 he made us understand he meant a handspike, and that when 
 the same Frenchman (if it was a Frenchman) came among 
 them again, he began again to abuse the negro man's wife ; 
 at which the negro, taMng up the handspike, knocked his 
 brains out at one blow ; and then taking the key from him 
 with which he usually unlocked the handcuffs which the 
 negroes were fettered with, he set about a hundred of them 
 at liberty, who, getting up upon the deck, by the same skuttle 
 that the white man came down, and taking the man's cut- 
 lass who was killed, and laying hold of what came next 
 them, they fell upon the men that were upon the deck, and 
 killed them all, and afterwards those they found upon the 
 forecastle ; that the captain and his other men, who were in 
 the cabin and the roundhouse, defended themselves with 
 great courage, and shot out at the loopholes at them, by 
 which he and several other men were wounded, and some 
 killed ; but that they broke into the roundhouse, after a long 
 dispute, where they kiUed two of the white men, but owned 
 that the two white men killed eleven of their men, before 
 they could break in ; and then the rest having got down 
 the skuttle into the great cabin, wounded three more of 
 them. 
 
 That, after this, the gunner of the ship having secured 
 himself in the gun-room, one of his men hauled up thelong 
 boat close under the stem, and putting into her all the arms 
 and ammunition they could come at, got all into the boat, 
 and afterwards took in the captain, and those that were with 
 him, out of the great cabin. Wben they were all thus em- 
 barked, they resolved to lay the ship abroad again, and try 
 to recover it. That they boarded the ship in a desperate 
 manner, and killed at first all that stood in their way ; but 
 the negroes being by this time all loose, and having gotten 
 Bome arms, though they understood nothing of powder and 
 
 L 2 
 
148 CAPTAIN SUfGLETON. 
 
 bullet, or guns, yet the men could never master them. 
 However, they lay under the ship's bow, and got out all the 
 men they had left in the cook-room, who had maintained 
 themselves there, notwithstanding all the negroes could do, 
 and with their small arms killed between thirty and forty of 
 the negroes, but were at last forced to leave them. 
 
 They could give me no account whereabouts this was — 
 whether near the coast of Africa or far off — or how long it 
 was before the ship fell into our hands ; only, in general, it 
 was a great while ago, as they called it ; and, by all we 
 could learn, it was within two or three days after they had 
 set sail from the coast. They told us that they had killed 
 about thirty of the white raen, having knocked them on the 
 head with crows and handspikes, and such things as they 
 could get : and one strong negro killed three of them •v^ith 
 an iron crow, after he was shot twice through the body ; 
 and that he was afterwards shot through the head by the 
 captain himself, at the door of the roundhouse, which he 
 had split open with the crow ; and this we suppose was the 
 occasion of the great quantity of blood which we saw at the 
 roundhouse door. 
 
 The same negro told us that they threw all the powder 
 and shot they could find into the sea, and they would have 
 thrown the great guns into the sea, if they could have lifted 
 them. Being asked , how they came to have their sails in 
 such a condition, his answer was. They no understand ; they 
 no know what the sails do ; that was, they did not so much 
 as know that it was the sails that made the ship go, or 
 understand what they meant, or what to do with them. 
 When we asked him whither they were going, he said they 
 did not know, but believed they should g o home to their 
 _ow;n country again. T asked him,"'in particular, whapEe 
 thought we werej^when we came first up with them: he said 
 they were terribly frightened, believing we were the same 
 ^ white men_that_had gone^^ay inTEeiinooats, an^Twere 
 come again in a great ship, with the two'boats^with them, 
 and expected they would kill them all. 
 
 This was the account we got out of them, after we had 
 
 taught them to speak English, and to understand the names 
 
 and use of the thiogs belonging to the ship, which they had 
 
 , occasion to speak of; and we observed that the fellow s were 
 
 ^ too innocent to dissemble m tESrlrelaSonTand that "tE^^ 
 
A TRADING VOYAGE WITH THE NEGE0E8. 149 
 
 a^eed in the particulars, and were always in the same story, 
 which confirmed very much the truth of what they said. 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 WILLIAM MAKES A TRADING VOY AGE WITH THE NEGEOES, 
 
 AND SELLS THEM ALL ADVANTAGEOUSLY WE ARE JOINED 
 
 OFF THE CAPE OP GOOD HOPE BY AN ENGLISH LONG- 
 BOAT PULL OP MEN ^ACCOUNT OP THEM ^VARIOUS CAP- 
 TURES MADE. 
 
 Having taken this ship, our next difficulty was, what to do 
 with the negroes. The Portuguese in the Brazils would 
 have bought them aU of us, and been glad of the purchase, 
 if we had not showed ourselves enemies there, and been 
 known for pirates ; but, as it was, we durst not go ashore 
 anywhere thereabouts, or treat with any of the planters, 
 because we should raise the whole country upon us ; and, it 
 there were any such things as men-of-war in any of their 
 ports, we should be assured to be attacked by them, and by 
 all the force they had by land or sea. 
 
 Nor could we think of any better success, if we went 
 northward to our own plantations. One while we deter- 
 mined to cany them all away to Buenos Ayres, and sell 
 them there to the Spaniards ; but they were really too many 
 for them to make use of; and to carry them round to the 
 South Seas, which was the only remedy that was left, was so 
 far that we should be- no way able to subsist them for so 
 long a voyage. 
 
 At last, our old never-failing Mend, William, helped us 
 out again, as he had often done at. a dead-lift. His proposal 
 was this, that he should go as master of the ship, and about 
 twenty men, such as we could best trust, and attempt* to 
 trade privately, upon the coast of Brazil, with the planters, 
 not at the principal ports, because that would not be ad- 
 mitted. 
 
 We all agreed to this, and appointed to go away ourselves 
 towards the Bio de la Plata, where We had thought of going 
 before, and to wait for him, not there, but at Port Sfc 
 Pedro, as the Spaniards call it, lying-^aj the mouth of the 
 river which they caU Eio Grande, and where the Spaniards 
 
150 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 had a small fort and a few people, but we believe there was 
 nobody in it. 
 
 Here we took up our station, cruising off and on, to see if 
 we could meet any ships going to, or coming from, Buenos 
 Ayres, or the Kio de la Plata ; but we met with nothing 
 worth notice. However, we employed ourselves in things 
 necessary for our going off to sea ; for we filled all our 
 water-casks, and got some fish for our present use, to spare 
 as much as possible our ship's stores. 
 
 WUliam, in the meantime, went away to the north, and 
 made the land about the Cape of St. Thomas ; and, betwixt 
 that and the isles of Tuberon, he found means to trade with 
 the planters for all his negroes, as well the women as the 
 ^ men, and at a very good price too ; for WilUam, who spoke 
 Portuguese pretty well, told them a fair story enough, that 
 the ship was in scarcity of provisions, that they were driven 
 a great way out of their way, and indeed, as we say, out of 
 their knowledge, and that they must go ap to the northward 
 as far as Jamaica, or sell there upon the coast. This was a 
 very plausible tale, and was easily believed; and, if you 
 observe— the manner of the negroes' sailing, and what 
 happened in their -voyage, was every word of it true. 
 
 By this method, and being true to one another, William 
 past for what he was ; I mean for a very honest fellow, 
 and, by the assistance of one planter, who sent to some of 
 his neigbour planters, and managed the trade among them- 
 selves, he got a quick market ; for in less than five weeks 
 William sold all his negroes, and at last sold the ship itself, 
 and shipped himself and his twenty men, with two negro 
 boys whom he had left, in a sloop, one of those which the 
 planters used to send on board for the negroes. With this 
 sloop, Captain William, a^ we then called him, came away, 
 and found us at Port St. Pedro, in the latitude of 32 degrees 
 3 Oi minutes south. 
 
 Nothing was more surprising to us, than to see a sloop 
 come along the coast, carrying Portuguese colours, and come 
 in directly to us, after we were assured he had discovered 
 both our ships. We fired a gun, upon her nearer approach, 
 to bring her to an anchor, but immediately she fired five 
 guns by way of salute, and spread her English ancient: 
 then we began to guess it was friend William, but wondered 
 what was the meaning of his being in a sloop, whereas we 
 
■WILLIAM SELLS ALL THE NEGEOES AND THE SHIP. 151 
 
 sent him away in a ship of near three hundred tons ; but he 
 ''°h^i!^* "s into the whole history of his management, with 
 which we had a great deal of reason to be very well satisfied. 
 As soon as he had brought the sloop to an anchor, he came 
 aboard of my ship, and there he gave us an account how 
 he began to trade, by the help of a Portuguese planter, who 
 hved near the sea-side ; how he went on shore, and went up 
 to the first house he could see, and asked the man of the house 
 to sell him some hogs, pretending at first he only stood in upon 
 the coast to take in fresh water, and buy gome provisions ; 
 and the man not only sold him seven fat hogs, but invited 
 him in, and gave him, and five men he had met with, a very 
 good dinner; and he invited the planter on board his ship, 
 and, in return for his kindness, gave him a negro girl for his [ 
 wife. 
 
 ^ This so obliged the planter, that the next morning he sent 
 him on board, in a great luggage-boat, a cow and two sheep, 
 with a chest of sweetmeats, and some sugar, and a great bag 
 of tobacco, and invited Captain WUliam on shore again: 
 that, after this, they grew from one kindness to another; 
 that they began to talk about trading for some negroes ; and 
 "William, pretending it was to do him service, consented to 
 sell him thirty negroes for his private use in his plantation, 
 for which he gave WiUiam ready money in gold, at the rate 
 of five and thirty moidores per head ; but the planter wag 
 . obli ged t ojage^rgatca ution in thebrin^Jthem on shore : for 
 which purpose, he made William weigh and stand out to sea, 
 and put in again, about fifty miles farther north, where, at a 
 little creek, he took the negroes on shore at another plan- 
 tation, belonging to a fiiend of his, whom, it seems, he 
 could trust. 
 
 This remove brought William into a farther intimacy, not 
 only with the first planter, but also with his friends, who 
 desired to have some of the negroes also ; so that, from one 
 to another, they bought so many, tiU one overgrown planter 
 took a hundred negroes, which was all "William had left, and 
 sharing them with another planter, that other planter chaf- 
 fered with "William for ship and all, giving him in exchange 
 a very clean, large, well-built sloop of near sixty tons, very 
 well furnished, carrying six guns ; but we made her after- 
 wards carry twelve guns. "William had three hundred 
 moidores in gold, besides the sloop, in paynient for the ship j 
 
152 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 and witli this money, he stored the sloop as full as she could 
 liold with provisions, especially bread, some pork, and about 
 sixty hogs alive : among the rest, "WiUiam got eighty barrels 
 of good gunpowder, which was very much for our purpose ; 
 and all the provisions which were in the French ship he took 
 out also. 
 
 This was a very agreeable account to us, especially when 
 we saw that William had received in gold coined, or by 
 weight, and some Spanish silver, sixty thousand pieces of 
 eight, besides a new sloop, and a vast quantity of pro- 
 visions. 
 
 "We were very glad of the sloop in particular, and 
 began to consult what we should do, whether we had not 
 best turn off our great Portuguese ship, and stick to our 
 first ship and the sloop, seeing we had scarce men enough 
 for aU three, and that the biggest ship was thought too big 
 for our business ; however, another dispute, which was now 
 decided, brought the first to a conclusion. The first dispute 
 was, whither we should go ? My comrade, as I called him 
 now, that is to say, he that was my captain before we took 
 this Portuguese man-of-war, was for going to the South Seas, 
 and coasting up the west side of America, where we could 
 not fail of making several good prizes upon the Spaniards ; 
 and that then, if occasion required, we might come home by 
 the South Seas to the East Indies, and so go round the globe, 
 as others had done before us. 
 
 But my head lay another way ; I had been in the East 
 Indies, and had entertained a notion, ever since that, that, 
 if we went thither we could not fail of making good work of 
 it, and that we might have a safe retreat, and good beef to 
 victual our ship, among my old friends the natives of Zangue- 
 bar, on the coast of Mozambique, or the island of St. Lau- 
 rence : I say, my thoughts lay this way ; and I read so many 
 lectures to them all, of the advantages they would certainly 
 make of their strength, by the prizes they would take in the 
 gulf of Mocha, or the Eed Sea, and on the coast of Malabar, 
 or the bay of Bengal, that I amazed them. 
 
 With these arguments, I prevailed on them, and we all 
 resolved to steer away S.E. for the Cape of Good Hope ; and, 
 in consequence of this resolution, we concluded to keep the 
 sloop, and sail with aU three, not doubting, as I assured 
 them, but we should find men there to make up the number 
 
SAIL FOE THE CAPE OP GOOD HOPK. 153 
 
 ■wanting, and, if not, we might cast any of them off when wo 
 pleased. 
 
 We could not do less than make our friend William 
 captain of the sloop, which, with such good management, he 
 had brought us. He told us, though with much good man- 
 ners, he would not command her as a frigaite, but, if we 
 would give her to him for his share of the Guinea ship, 
 which we came very honestly by, he would keep us company 
 as a victualler, if we commanded him, as long as he was 
 under the same force that took him away. 
 
 We understood him, so we gave him the sloop, but upon 
 condition that he should not go from us, and should be 
 entirely under command : however, William was not so 
 easy as before ; and indeed, as we p,fterwards wanted the 
 sloop to cruise for purchase, and a right thorough-paced pirate 
 in her, so I was in such pain for William, that I could 
 not be without him, for he was my privy-councillor and 
 companion upon all occasions ; so I put a Scotsman, a/ 
 bold enterprising g allant fellow, into her, named Gordon,^ 
 iSd' made her car^^Twelve guns, and four petereroes, 
 though, indeed, we wanted men, for we were none of us 
 manned in proportion to our force. i 
 
 We sailed away for the Cape of Good Hope, the be- 
 ginning of October, 1706, and passed by in sight of the 
 Cape, the 12th of November following, having met with 
 a great deal of bad weather: we saw several merchant- 
 ships in the road there, as well English as Dutch, whether 
 outward bound or homeward, we could not tell ; be it what 
 it would, we did not think fit to come to an anchor, not 
 knowing what they might be, or what they might attempt 
 against us, when they knew what we were : however, as we 
 wanted fresh water, we sent the two boats belonging to the 
 Portuguese man-of-war, with all Portuguese seamen or 
 negroes in them, to the watering-place, to take in water ; 
 and in the mean tune, we hung out a Portuguese ancient at 
 sea, and lay by aU that night. They knew not what we 
 were ; but it seems we past for. anything but what we really 
 
 Oiir boats returning the third time loaden, about five o'clock 
 next morning, we thought ourselves sufficiently watered, and 
 stood away to the eastward; but, before our men returned 
 the last time, the wind blowing an easy gale at west, we per- 
 
154 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 ceived a boat in the grey of the morning under sail, crowding 
 to come up with us, as if they were afraid we should be 
 gone. We soon found it was an English longboat, and that 
 it was pretty fuU of men : we could not imagine what the 
 meaning of it should be; but, as it was but a boat, we 
 thought no great harm in it to let them come on board ; and 
 if it appeared they came only to inquire who we were, we 
 would give them a fall account of our business, by taking 
 them along with us, seeing we wanted men as much as any- 
 thing ; but they saved us the labour of being in doubt how 
 to dispose of them, for it seems our Portuguese seamen, who 
 went for water, had not been so silent at the watering-place 
 as we thought they would have been. But the case, in short, 
 was this : Captain — ;- (I forbear his name at present, for a 
 particular reason), captain of the East India merchant-ship, 
 bound afterwards for China, had found some reason to be 
 very severe with his men, and had handled some of them 
 very roughly at St. Helena ; insomuch, that they threatened 
 among themselves to leave the ship the first opportunity, and 
 had long wished for that opportunity. Some of these men, 
 it seems, had met with our boat at the watering-place, and 
 Inquiring of one another who we were, and upon what 
 account ; whether the Portuguese seamen, by faltering in 
 their account, made them suspect that we were out upon a 
 cruise, or whether they told it in plain English or no (for 
 they all spoke English enough to be understood), but so it 
 was, that, as soon as ever they carried the news on board, 
 that the ships which lay by to the eastward were English, 
 and that they were going upon the account, which, by the 
 way, was a sea term for a pirate ; I say, as soon as ever they 
 heard it, they went to work, and getting all things ready in 
 the night, their chests and clothes, and whatever else they 
 could, they came away before it was day,- and came up with 
 us about seven o'clock. 
 
 When they came by the ship's side which I commanded, 
 we hailed them in the usual manner, to know what and who 
 they were, and what their business : they answered, they 
 were Englishmen, and desired to come aboard : we told them 
 they might lay the ship on board, but ordered they should 
 let only one man enter the ship, till the captain knew their 
 business, and that he should come without any arms : they 
 laid, Ay, ay, with all their hearts. 
 
PAET OF AN ENGLISH CREW JOIN THEM. 155 
 
 We presently found their business, and that they desired 
 to go with us i and as for their arms, they desired we would 
 send men on board the boat, and that they would deliver 
 them all to us, which was done. The fellow that came up 
 to me, told me how they had been used by the captain, how 
 he had starved the men, and used them like dogs ; and that, 
 if the rest of the men knew they should be admitted, he was 
 satisfied two-thirds of them would leave the ship. "We found 
 the fellows were hearty in their resolution, and jolly brisk 
 sailors they were : so I told them I would do nothing without 
 our admiral, that was the captain, of the other ship : so I sent 
 my pinnace on board Captain Wilmot, to desire him to come on 
 board ; but he was indisposed, and being to leeward, excused 
 his coming, but left it all to me : but before my boat was 
 returned. Captain Wilmot called to me by his speaking 
 trumpet, which all the men might hear as well as I ; thus° 
 calling me by my name, I hear they are honest fellows ; pray 
 tell them they are all welcome, and make them a bowl of 
 punch. 
 
 As the men heard it as well as I, there was no need to tell 
 them what the captain said ; and, as soon as the trumpet had 
 done, they set up a huzza, that showed us they were very 
 hearty in their coming to us ; but we bound them to us by a 
 stronger obligation still after this: for, when we came to 
 Madagascar, Captain Wilmot, with consent of the ship's com- 
 pany , Qrdered that these men^should have as much money 
 ,^Ygn tEer a out of lhe stock as was due to them for their pay 
 _in the ^Sp they T ad leftj and after tlat, we allowed them 
 twenty pieces of eight a man bounty money ; and thus we 
 ent ered them upon shares , as we were all, and brave~slour 
 iellows they were, being~eighteen in number, whereof two 
 were midshipmen, and one a carpenter. 
 
 It was the 2§thjjOios«mber, when, having had some bad 
 weather, we came to an anchor in the road off St. Augustine 
 bay, at the south-west end of my old acquaintance the isle of 
 Mada:gascar : we lay here awhile, and trafficked with the 
 natives, for some gcod beef; though the weather was so hot, 
 that we could not promise ourselves to salt any of it up to 
 keep ; but I showed them the way which we practised before, 
 to salt it first with saltpetre, then cure it, by drying it in the 
 sun, which made it eat very agreeably, though not so whole- 
 some for our men, that not agreeing with our way of cooking, 
 
156 CAPTAIK SINGLETON. 
 
 viz., boiling with, pudding, brewess, &ri. ; and particularly 
 this way would be too salt, and the felt of the meat be rusty, 
 or dried away, so as not to be eaten. 
 
 This, however, we could not help, and made ourselves 
 amends by feeding heartily on the fresh beef while we were 
 there, which was excellent good and fat, every way as tender 
 and as weU relished as in England, and thought to be much 
 better to us who had not tasted any in England for so long 
 a time. 
 
 Having now for some time remained here, we began to 
 consider that this was not a place for our business ; and I, that 
 had some views a. particular way of my own, told them, that 
 this was not a station for those who looked for purchase ; that 
 there were two parts of the island which were particularly 
 proper for our purposes ; first, the bay on the east side of the 
 island, and from thence to the island Mauritius, which was 
 the usual way which ships that came from the Malabar coast, 
 or the coast of Coromandel, Fort St. George, &c., used to 
 take, and where, if we waited for them, we ought to take 
 our station. 
 
 But, on the other hand, as we did not resolve to faU upon 
 the European traders, who were generally ships of force, and 
 well manned, and where blows must be looked for ; so I had 
 another prospect, which I promised myself would yield equal 
 profit, or perhaps greater, without any of the hazard and 
 difficulty of the former ; and this was the gulf of Mocha, or 
 the Red Sea. 
 
 I told them that the trade here was great, the ships rich, 
 and the strait of Babelmandel narrow ; so that there was no 
 doubt but we might cruise so as to let nothing slip our hands, 
 having the seas open from the Red Sea, along the coast of 
 Arabia to the Persian Gulf, and the* Malabar side of the 
 Indies. 
 
 I told them what I had observed when I sailed round the 
 island, in my former progress, how that, on the northernmost 
 point of the island, there were several very good harbours 
 and roads for our ships; that the natives were even more civil 
 and tractable, if possible, than those where we were, not 
 _J^aYingJ)een so often ill-treated by EuropeaiL-fla Jlors j ps ^ ose 
 had in the south and ea^sidesj and that we might always 
 be sure 6f~a retreat, if we were driven to put in by any 
 necessity, either of enemies or of weather. 
 
PUT IN OFF POET DAUPHIN. 157 
 
 ^?^5ZJir§r? _easily convinced .q£ the, reasonableaess of my 
 scheme ; and Captain WHmot, whom I dcw called oiu-'Ad- 
 miral, "ffiough he was at first of the mind to go and lie at the 
 island Mauritius, and wait for some of the European merchant- 
 ships from the road of Coromandel, or the bay of Bengal, 
 was now of my mind. It is true, we were strong enough to 
 have attacked an English East India ship of the greatest 
 force, though some of them were said to carry fifty guns; but 
 I represented to him, that we were sure to have blows and 
 blood if we took them ; and, after we had done, their load- 
 ing was not of equal value to us, because we had no room to 
 dispose of their merchandise; and, as our circumstances 
 stood, we had rather have taken one outward-bound East 
 India ship, with her ready cash on board, perhaps to the 
 value of forty or fifty thousand pounds, than three homeward- 
 bound, though their loading would at London be worth three 
 times the money ; because we knew not whither to go to dis- 
 pose of the cargo ; whereas the ships from London had abund- 
 ance of things we knew how to make use us, besides their 
 money ; such as their stores of provisions and liquors, and 
 great quantities of the like sent to the governors and factories 
 at the English settlements, for their use ; so that, if we re- 
 solved to look for our own country ships, it should be those 
 that were outward-bound, not the London ships homeward. 
 
 All these things considered, brought the admiral to be of 
 my mind entirely ; so, after taking in water and some fresh 
 provisions where we lay, which was near Cape St. Mary, on 
 the south-west corner of the island, we weighed, and stood 
 away south, and afterwards S.S.E. to round the island, and 
 in about six days' sail, got act of the wake of the island, and 
 steered away north, till we came off Port Dauphin, and then 
 north by east, to the latitude of 13 degrees 40 minutes, which 
 was, in short, just at the farthest part of the island ; and the 
 admiral keeping ahead, made the open sea fair to the west, 
 clear of the whole island ; upon which he brought to, and we 
 sent a sloop to stand in round the farthest point north, and 
 coast along the shore, and see for a harbour to put into, 
 which they did, and soon brought us an account, that there 
 was a deep bay, with a very good road, and several little 
 islands, under which th«y found good riding, in ten to seven- 
 teen fethom water, and accordingly there we put in. 
 
158 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 However, we afterwards found occasion to remove our 
 station, as you shall hear presently. "We had now nothing 
 to do, but go on shore, and acquaint ourselves a little with 
 the natives, take in fresh provisions, and then to sea again. 
 We found the people very easy to deal with ; and some cattle 
 they had ; but it being at the extremity of the island, they 
 had not such quantities of cattle here. However, for the 
 present, we resolved to appoint this for our place of rendez- 
 vous, and go and look out. This was about the latter end 
 of April. 
 
 Accordingly we put to sea, and cruised away to the north- 
 ward, for the Arabian coast : it was a long run ; but as the 
 winds generally blow trade from the south and S.S.E. from 
 May to September, we had good weather ; and in about 
 twenty days we made the island of Saccatia, lying south from 
 the Arabian coast, and E.S.E. from the mouth of the gulf of 
 Mocha, or the Eed Sea. 
 
 Here we took in water, and stood off and on upon the 
 Arabian shore. We had not cruised here above three days, 
 or thereabouts, before I spied a sail, and gave her cha^e; but 
 when we came up with her, never was such a poor prize chased 
 by pirates that looked for booty ; for we found nothing in 
 her, but poor, half-naked Turks, going a pilgrimage to Mecca 
 to the tomb of their prophet Mahomet. The junk that 
 carried them had no one thing worth taking away, but a 
 little rice, and some coffee, which was all the poor wretches 
 had for their subsistence ; so we let them go, for indeed we 
 knew not what to do with them. 
 
 The same evening we chased another junk with two masts, 
 and in something better plight to look at than the former. 
 When we came on board, we found them upon the same 
 errand, but only that they were people of some better fashion 
 than the other; and here we got some plunder, some Turkish 
 stores, a few diamonds, in the ear-drops of five or six per- 
 sons, some fine Persian carpets, of which they made their 
 saflfras to lie upon; and some money; so we let them go 
 also. 
 
 We continued here eleven days longer, and saw nothing 
 but now and then a fishing-boat ; but the twelfth day of our 
 cruise, we spied a ship : indeed I thought at first it had been 
 an English ship; but it appeared to be an European, 
 
TAKE AN EUEOPEAN SHIP AND AN AKABIAN JUNK. 159 
 
 freighted for a voyage from Goa, on the coast of Malabar, to 
 the Red Sea, and was very rich. "We chased her, and took 
 her without any fight, though they had some guns on board 
 too, but not many. We found her manned with Portuguese 
 seamen, but under the direction of five merchant Turks, who 
 had hired her on the coast of Malabar of some Portugal 
 merchants, and had loaden her with pepper, saltpetre^ some 
 spices, and the rest of the loading was chiefly calicoes and 
 wrought silks, some of them very rich. 
 
 We took her, and carried her to Saccatia ; but we really 
 knew not what to do with lier, for the sameVeasons as 
 before ; for all their goods were of little or no value to us. 
 After some days, we found means to let one of tbe Turkish 
 merchants know, that if he would ransom the ship, we would 
 take a sum of money, and let them go. He told me, if I 
 would let one of them go on shore for the money, they 
 would do it : so we adjusted the value of the cargo at 30,000 
 ducats. Upon this agreement, we allowed the sloop to carry 
 him on shore at Dofar in Arabia, where a rich merchant 
 laid down the money for them, and came off with our sloop; 
 and on payment of the money, we very fairly and honestiy 
 let them go. 
 
 Some days after this, we took an Arabian junk, going 
 from the gulf of Persia to Mocha, with a good quantity of 
 pearl on board. We gutted him of the pearl, which, it 
 seems, was belonging to some merchants at Mocha, and let 
 him go ; for there was nothing else worth our taking. 
 
 We continued cruising up and down here, till we began 
 to find our provisions grow low, when Captain Wilmot, our 
 admiral, told us, it was time to think of going back to the 
 rendezvous ; and the rest of the men said the same, being a 
 little weary of beating about for above three months together, 
 and meeting with little or nothing, compared to our great 
 expectations ; but I was very loath to part with the Bed Sea 
 at so cheap a rate, and pressed them to tarry a little longer, 
 which at my instance we did ; but three days afterwards, to 
 our great misfortune, we understood, that, by landing the 
 Turkish merchants at Dofar, we had alarmed the coast as 
 far as the gulf of Persia, so that no vessel would stir that 
 way, and consequently nothing was to be expected on that 
 side. 
 
160 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 I was greatly mortified at this news, and could no longer 
 withstand the importunities of the men, to return to Mada- 
 gascar. However, as the winds continued still to blow at 
 S.S.E. to E. by S., we were obliged to stand away towarda 
 the coast of Africa, and the Cape G-uardefoy, the winds 
 being more variable under the shore than in the open sea. 
 
 Here we chopped upon a booty which we did not look for, 
 and which made amends for all our waiting ; for, the very 
 same hour that we made land, we spied a large vessel 
 sailing along the shore, to the southward. The ship was of 
 Bengal, belonging to the Great Mogul's country, but had 
 on board a Dutch pilot, whose name, if I remember 
 right, was Vandergest, and several European seamen, 
 whereof three were English. She was in no condition to 
 resist us. The rest of her seamen were Indians of the 
 Mogul's subjects, some Malabars, and some others. There 
 were five Indian merchants on board, and some Armenians. 
 It seems they had been at Mocha with spices, silks, dia- 
 monds, pearls, calico, &c., such goods as the country 
 afforded, and had little on board now but money, in pieces 
 of eight, which, by the way, was just what we wanted ; and 
 the three English seamen came along with us ; and the 
 Dutch pilot would have done so too, but the two Armenian 
 merchants entreated us not to take him ; for that, he being 
 their pilot, there was none of the men knew how to guide 
 the ship: so, at their request, we refused him; but we made 
 them promise he should not be used ill for being willing to 
 go with us. 
 
 We got near two hundred .thousand pieces of eight in this 
 vessel ; and, if they said true, there was a Jew of Goa, who 
 intended to have embarked with them, who had two hun- 
 dred thousand pieces of eight with him, all his own ; but 
 his good fortune hindered him ; for he fell sick at Mocha, 
 and could not be ready to travel, which was the saving of 
 his money. 
 
William's dkeam, and stkakge adventure 161 
 
 CHAPTER Xm. 
 
 William's dream, and strange adventure m conse- 
 quence THEREOF JOIN CAPTAIN WILMOT AT MANGA- 
 
 HELLT CAPTAIN AVERT JOINS US DISSENSIONS ARISE 
 
 AMONGST US ^WE PART COMPAlfT, AND I LEAVE THEM, 
 
 HAVING THE GREAT SHIP UNDER MT COMMAND — OCCUR- 
 RENCES OF OUR VOYAGE. 
 
 There was none with me at the taking this prize, but the 
 sloop ; for Captain "Wilmot's ship proving leaky, he went 
 away for the rendezvous before us, and arrived there the 
 middle of December ; but not liking the port, he left a great 
 cross on shore, with directions written on a plate of lead 
 fixed to it, for us to come after him to the great bay at 
 Mangahelly, where we found a very good harbour ; but we 
 learned a piece of news here, that kept us from him a great 
 whUe, which the admiral took offence at ; but we stopped 
 his mouth with his share of two hundred thousand pieces of 
 eight to him and his ship's crew. But the story which in- 
 terrupted our coming to him was this. Between Mangahelly, 
 * and another point, called Cape St. Sebastian, there came on 
 shore, in the night, an European ship ; and whether stress 
 of weather, or want of a pilot, I know not, but the ship 
 stranded, and could not be got off. 
 
 We lay in the cove, or harbour, where, as I have said, our 
 rendezvous was appointed, and had not yet been on shore ; 
 so we had not seen the directions our admiral had left 
 for us. 
 
 Our friend William, of whom I have said nothing a great 
 while, had a great mind one day to go on shore, and impor- 
 tuned me to let him have a little troop to go with him, for 
 safety, that they might see the country. I was mightily 
 against it for many reasons ; but particularly I told him, he 
 knew the natives were but savages, and they were very 
 treacherous, and I desired him that he would not go ; and, 
 had he gone on much farther, I believe I should have down- 
 right refused him, and commanded him not to go. 
 
 But, in order to persuade me to let him go, he told me, he 
 would give me an account of the reason why he was so im- 
 
 M 
 
162 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 portunate. He told me, the last night he had a dream, 
 which was so forcible, and made such an impression upon his 
 mind, that he could not be quiet till he had made the pro- 
 posal to me to go ; and, if I refused him, then he thought 
 his dream was significant ; and if notj then his dream was 
 at an end. 
 
 His dream was, he said, that he went on shore with thirty 
 men, of which the cockswain, he said, was one, upon the 
 island ; and that they found a mine of gold, and enriched 
 them ail. But this was not the main thing, he said ; but 
 that the same morning he had dreamed so, the cockswain 
 came to him just then, and told him, that he dreamed he 
 went on shore on the island of Madagascar, and that some 
 men came to him, and told him they would show him where 
 he could get a prize which would make them all rich. 
 
 These two things put together began to weigh with me a 
 little, thonghl was never inclined to give any heed to dreams ; 
 but "William's importunity turned me effectually ; for I 
 always put a great deal of stress upon his judgment ; so that, 
 in short, I gave them leave to go ; but I charged them not to 
 go far off from the sea-coast ; .that, if they were forced down 
 to the sea-side upon any occasion, we might perhaps see 
 them, and fetch them off with our boats. 
 
 They went away early in the morning, one-and-thirty men ' 
 of them in number, very well armed, and very stout fellows : 
 they travelled all the day, and at night made us a signal that 
 all was well, from the top of a hill, which we had agreed on, 
 by inaking a great fire. 
 
 Next day they marched down the hill, on Uie other side, 
 inclining towards the sea-side, as they had promised, and 
 saw a very pleasant valley before them, with a river in the 
 middle of it, which, a little farther below them, seemed to be 
 big enough to bear small ships : they marched apace towards 
 this river, and were surprised with the noise of a piece going 
 off; which, by the sound, could not be far off: they listened 
 long, but could hear no more, so they went on to the river- 
 side, which was a very fine fresh stream, but widened' apace ; 
 and they kept on by the banks of it, till, almost at once, it 
 opened or widened into a good large creek, or harbour, about 
 five miles from the sea ; and that which was still more sur- 
 prising, as they marched forward, they plainly saw, in the 
 aiouth of the harbour, or creek, the wreck of a ship. 
 
JOIN CAPTAIN WILMOT AGAIN. loS 
 
 The tide was up, as we call it, so that it did not appear 
 very much above the water ; but, as they made downwards, 
 they found it grow bigger and bigger ; and the tide soon after 
 ebbing out, they found it lay dry upon the sands, and ap- 
 peared to he the wreck of a considerable vessel, larger than 
 could be expected in that country. 
 
 After some time, William, taking out his glass, to look at 
 it more nearly, was surprised with hearing a musket-shot 
 whistle by him ; and, immediately after that, he heard the 
 gun, and saw the smoke from the other side ; upon which 
 our men immediately fired three muskets, to discover, if pos- 
 sible, what or who they were. Upon the noise of these guns, 
 abundance of men came running down to the shore, from 
 among the trees ; and our men could easily perceive that 
 they were Europeans, though they knew not of what nation ; 
 however, our men hallooed to them as loud as they could ; 
 and by and by they got a long pole, and set it up, and hung 
 a white shirt upon it for a flag of truce. They, on the other 
 side, saw it, by the help of their glasses too ; and quickly 
 after, our men saw a boat launch off from shore, as they 
 thought ; but it was from another creek, it seems ; and im- 
 mediately they came rowing over the creek to our men, 
 carrying also a white flag as a token of truce. 
 
 It is not easy to describe the surprise, or joy and satisfac- 
 tion, that appeared on both sides, to see not only white men, 
 but Englishmen, in a place so remote ; but what then must 
 it be, when they came to know one another, to find that they 
 were not only countrymen, but comrades ; and that this was 
 the very ship that Captain Wilmot, our admiral, commanded, / 
 and whose company we had lost in the storm at Tobago, [/ 
 after making an agreement to rendezvous at Madagascar ! '■' 
 
 They had, it seems, got intelligence of us, when they came 
 to the south part of the island, and had been a roving as far 
 as the gulf of Bengal, when they met Captain Avery, with 
 whom they joined, took several rich prizes, and, amongst 
 the rest, one ship with the Great Mogul's daughter, and an 
 immense treasure in money and jewels; and from theAce 
 they came about the coast of Coromandel, and afterwards 
 that of Malabar, into the gulf of Persia, where they also took 
 some prize, and then designed for the south part of Madss, 
 gascar ; but the winds blowing hard at S.E. and S.E. by E.., 
 they came to the northward of the isle, and being, after that, 
 
 M 2 
 
164 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 separated by a furious -tempest from the N.W., they wera 
 forced into the mouth of that creek, where they lost their 
 ship. And they told us also, that they heard that Captain 
 Avery himself had lost his ship also, not far off. 
 
 When they had thus acquainted one another with their 
 fortunes, the poor overjoyed men were in haste to go back to 
 communicate their joy to their comrades ; and leaving some 
 of their men with ours, the rest went back ; and William was 
 so earnest to see them, that he and two more went back 
 with them J and there he came to their little camp,, where 
 they lived. There were about a hundred and sixty men of 
 them in all: they had got their guns on shore, and some 
 ammunition ; but a good deal of their powder was spoiled ; 
 however, they had raised a fair platform, and mounted twelve 
 pieces of cannon upon it, which was a sufficient defence to 
 them on that side of the sea ; and just at the end of the plat- 
 form they had made a launch, and a little yard, and were all 
 hard at work, building another little ship, as I may call it, to 
 go to sea in ; but they put a stop to this work upon the news 
 they had of our being come in. 
 
 When our men went into their huts, it was surprising in- 
 deed to see the vast stock of wealth they had got, in gold, 
 and silver, and jewels, which, however, they told us was a 
 trifle to what Captain Avery had, wherever he was gone*. 
 
 It was five days we had waited for our men, and no news 
 of them ; and indeed I gave them over for lost ; but was sur- 
 prised, after fiVe days waiting, to see a ship's boat come 
 rowing towards us along shore. What to make of it I could 
 not tell, but was at last better satisfied, when our men told 
 me they heard them halloo, and saw them wave their caps 
 to us. 
 
 In a little time they came quite up to us ; and I saw friend 
 William stand in the boat, and make signs to us : so they 
 came on board ; but when I saw there were but fifteen of 
 our one-and- thirty men, I asked what was become of their 
 fellows : O, says WiUiam, they are aU very well ; and my 
 dream is fuUy made good, and the cockswain's too. 
 
 This made me very impatient to know how the case stood i 
 so he told us the whole story, which, indeed surprised us all. 
 The next day we weighed, and stood away southerly to join 
 Captain Wilmot, and his ship, at Mangahelly, where we 
 found him, as I said, a little chagrined, at our stay ; but wg 
 
VISIT THEIR COMEADES' CAMP AlfD JOIN THEIR FORCES. 165 
 
 pacified him afterwards •with telling him the history ' of 
 William's dream, and the consequence of it. 
 
 In the mean time, the camp of our comrades was so near 
 Mangahelly, that our admiral, and I, friend William, and 
 some of the men, resolved to take the sloop, and go and see 
 them, and fetch them all, and their goods, bag and baggage, 
 on board our ship, which accordipgly we did, and found 
 their camp, their fortifications, the battery of guns they had 
 erected, their treasure, and all the men, just as WiQiam had 
 related it ; so, after some stay, we took all the men into the 
 sloop, and brought them away with us. 
 
 It was some time before we knew what was become of 
 Captain Avery ; but after about a month, by the direction of 
 the men who had lost their ship, we sent the sloop to cruise 
 along the shore, to find out, if possible, where they were ; 
 and in about a week's cruise, our men found them ; and par- 
 ticularly, that they had lost their ship, as well as our men 
 had lost theirs, and that they were every way in as bad a 
 condition as ours. 
 
 It was about ten days before the sloop returned, and 
 Captain Avery with them ; and this was the whole force 
 that, as I remember, Captain Avery ever had with him ; for 
 now we joined all our companies together, and it stood thus: 
 we had two ships and a sloop, in which we had three hun- 
 dred and twenty men, but much too few to man them as 
 they ought to be ; the great Portuguese ship requiring of her- 
 self near four hundred men to man her completely. As for 
 our lost, but now found, comrade, her complement of men 
 was one hundred and eighty, or thereabouts ; and Captain 
 Avery had about three hundred men with him, whereof he 
 had ten carpenters with him, most of which were found 
 aboard the prize they had taken; so that,inra~word, all the 
 force Avery had at Madagascar, in the yebr 169^ or there- 
 abouts, amounted to our three ships, for his own was lost, 
 as you have heard, and never had any more than about 
 twelve hundred men in alL 
 
 It was about a month after this, that all our- crews got 
 together; and, as Avery was unshipped, we all agreed to 
 bring our own company into the Portuguese man-of-war and 
 the sloop, and give Captain Avery the Spanish frigate, with 
 all the tackles and furniture, guns and ammunition, for his 
 crew by themselves ; for which they, being full of wealth, 
 agreed to give us forty thousand pieces of eight. 
 
16S CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 Ii was next considered what course we should take. 
 Captain Avery, to give him his due, proposed our building a 
 little city here, establishing ourselves on shore, vwth a good 
 fortification, and works proper to defend ourselves; and 
 that, as we had wealth enough, and could increase it to 
 what degree we pleased, we should content ourselves to retire 
 here, and bid defiance to the world. But I soon convinced 
 him that this place would be no security to us, if we pre- 
 tended to carry on our cruising trade ; for that then all the 
 nations of Europe, and indeed of that part of the world, 
 would be engaged to root us out ; but if we resolved to live 
 there as in a retirement, and plant in the country, as private 
 men, and give over our trade of pirating, then indeed we 
 might plant, and settle ourselves where we pleased; but 
 then I told him, the best way would be to treat with the 
 natives, and buy a tract of land of them, farther up the 
 country, seated upon some navigable river, where boats 
 might go up and down for pleasure, but not ships to en- 
 danger us : that thus planting the high ground with cattle, 
 such as cows and goats, of which the country also was full, 
 to be sure we might live here as well as any men in the 
 world ; and I owned to him, I thought it was a good retreat 
 for those that were willing to leave off, and lay down, and 
 yet did not care to venture home and be hanged ; that is to 
 say, to run the risk of it. 
 
 Captain Avery, however, made no positive discovery of 
 his intentions : he seemed to me to decline my notion of 
 going up into the country to plant: on the contrary, it was 
 apparent he was of Captain Wilmot's opinion, — ^that they 
 might maintain themselves on shore, and yet carry on their 
 cruising trade too ; and upon this they resolved ; but, as I 
 afterwards understood, about fifty of their men went up the 
 country, and settled themselves in an inland place, as a 
 colony. Whether they are there still, or not, I cannot tell, 
 or how many of them are left alive ; but it is my opinion 
 they are there still, and that they are considerably increased ; 
 for, as I hear, they have got some women among them, 
 though not many; for it seems five Dutch women, and three 
 or four little girls, were taken by them in a Dutch ship, 
 which they afterwards took going to Mocha; and three of 
 those women, marrying some of these men, went with them 
 to live in their new plantation : but of this I speak only by 
 hearsay. 
 
CAPTAIN WILMOT BREAKS FAITH. 167 
 
 As we lay here some time, I found our people mightily 
 divided in their notions ; some were for going this way, and 
 some that, till at last I began to foresee they would part 
 company, and perhaps we should not have men enough to 
 keep together to man the great ship ; so I took Captain Wil- 
 mot aside, and began to talk to him about it, but soon per- 
 ceived that he inclined himself to stay at Madagascar, and, 
 having got a vast wealth for his own share, had secret do- 
 signs of getting home some way or other. 
 
 I argued the impossibility of it, and the hazard he would 
 run, either of falling into the hands of thieves and murderers 
 in* the Red Sea, who would never let such a treasure as his 
 was pass their hands, or of his falling into the hands of the 
 English, Dutch, or French, who would certainly hang him 
 for a pirate. I gave him an account of the voyage I had 
 made from this very place to the continent of Africa, and 
 what a journey it was to travel on foot. 
 
 In short, nothing could persuade him, but he would go 
 into the Red Sea vyith the sloop, and where the children of ^ 
 Israel passed through the sea dryshod, and landing there, /,. 
 would travel to Grand Cairo by land, which is not above « 
 eighty miles ; and from thence he said he could ship himself, 
 by the way of Alexandria, to any part of the world. 
 
 I represented the hazard, and indeed the impossibility, 
 of his passing by Mocha and Judda without being attacked, 
 if he offered it by force, or plundered, if he went to get leave ; 
 and explained the reasons of it so much, and so effectually, 
 .that, though at last he would not hearken to it himselfj none 
 of his men would go with him. They told him, they would go 
 anywhere with him to serve him, but that this was running 
 himself and them into certain destruction, without any possi- 
 bility of avoiding it, or probability of answering his end. 
 The captain took what I said to him quite wrong, and pre- 
 tended to resent it, an d gave me some buceangfir wejdgjttpen- 
 it^but I gave him no return to it but this ; that I advised 
 Tiim for his advantage ; that, if he did not understand it so, 
 it was bis fault, not mine ; that I did not forbid to go, nor 
 had I offered to persuade any of the men not to go with 
 him, though it was to their apparent destruction. 
 
 However, warm heads are not easily cooled : the captain 
 was so eager, that he quitted our company, and, with most 
 of his crew, went over to Captain Avery, and sorted with 
 
IG8 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 his people, taking all the treasure with him, which, by the 
 way, was not very fair in him, we having agreed to share all 
 our gains, whether more or less, whether absent or pre- 
 sent. 
 
 Our men muttered a little at it ; bnt I pacified them as 
 well as I could, and told them it was easy for us to get as 
 much, if we minded our hits : and Captain Wilmot had set 
 us a very good example ; for, by the same rule, the agree- 
 ment of any farther sharing of profits with them was at 
 an end. I took this occasion to put into their heads some 
 part of my farther designs, which were, to range over the 
 eastern sea, and see if we could not make ourselves as rich 
 as Mr. Avery, who, it was true, had gotten a prodigious deal 
 of money, though not one half of what was said of it in 
 Europe. 
 
 Our men were so pleased with my forward, enterprising 
 temper, that they assured me that they would go with me, 
 one and all, over the whole globe, wherever I would carry 
 them ; and as for Captain Wilmot, they would have nothing 
 more to do with him. This came to his ears, and put him 
 into a great rage ; so that he threatened, if I came on shore, 
 he would cut my throat. 
 
 I had information of it privately, but took no notice of i1 
 at all ; only I took care not to go unprovided for him, and 
 seldom walked about but in very good company. However, 
 at last Captain Wilmot and I met, and talked over the matter 
 very seriously ; and I offered him the sloop to go where he 
 pleased ; or, if he was not satisfied with that, I offered to. 
 take the sloop, and leave him the great ship : but he declined 
 both, and only desired that I would leave him six carpenters, 
 which I had in our ship more than I had need of, to help his 
 men to finish the sloop that was begun before we came 
 thither, by the men that lost their ship. This I consented 
 readily to, and lent him several other hands that were useful 
 to them ; and in a little time they built a stout brigantine, 
 p,ble to carry fourteen guns, and two hundred men. 
 
 What measures they took, and how Captain Avery managed 
 afterwards, is too long a story to meddle with here ; nor is it 
 any of my business, having my own story still upon my hands. 
 
 We lay here, about these several simple disputes, almost 
 five months, when, about the latter end of March, I set sail 
 with the great ship, having in her forty-four guns and four 
 
ALLOW THREE SHIPS TO PASS, AND ATTACK ANOTHER. 169 
 
 hundred men, and the sloop, cariying eighty men. "We did 
 not steer to the Malabar coast, and so to the gulf of Persia, 
 as -was at first intended, the east monsoons blowing yet too 
 strong ; but we kept more under the African coast, where 
 we had the wind variable till we passed the line, and made 
 the Cape Bassa, in the latitude of 4 degrees 10 minutes : from 
 thence, the monsoons beginning to change to the N.E. and 
 N.N.E. we led it away, with the wind large, to the Maldives, 
 a famous lodge of islands, well known by all the sailors who 
 have gone into those parts of the world ; and, leaving these 
 islands a little to the south, we made Cape Comorin, the 
 southernmost land of the coast of Malabar, and went round 
 the isle of Ceylon. Here we lay by awhile, to wait for pur- 
 chase ; and here we saw three large English East-India ships 
 going from Bengal, or from Fort St. George, homeward 
 for England, or rather for Bombay and Surat, till the trade 
 set in. 
 
 "We brought to, and, hoisting an English ancient and 
 pendant, lay by for them, as if we intended to attack them. 
 They could not tell what to make of us a good while, though 
 they saw our colours ; and, I believe, at first they thought 
 us to be French ; but as they came nearer to us, we let them 
 soon see what we were, for we hoisted a black fiag, with two 
 cross daggers in it, on our main top-mast head, which let 
 them see what they were to expect. 
 
 "We soon found the efiects of this ; for at first they spread 
 their ancients, and made up to us in a line, as if they would 
 fight us, having the wind off shore, fair enough to have 
 brought them on board us ; but when they saw what force 
 we were of, and found we were cruisers of another kind, they 
 stood away from us again, with all the sail they could make. 
 If they had come up, we should have given them an unex- 
 pected welcome ; but as it was, we had no mind to follow 
 them ; so we let them go, for the same reasons which I men- 
 tioned before. 
 
 But though we let them pass, we did not design to let 
 others go at so easy a price. It was but the next morning 
 that we saw a sail standing round Cape Comorin, and steer- 
 ing, as we thought, the same course with us. "We knew not 
 at first what to do with her, because she had the shore on her 
 larboard quarter ; and if we offered to chase her, she might 
 
170 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 put into any port or creek, and escape us ; but, to prevent 
 this, we sent the sloop, to get in between her and the land. 
 As soon as she saw that, she haled in to keep the land 
 aboard ; and when the sloop stood towards her, she made 
 right ashore, with all the canvas she could spread. 
 
 The sloop, however, came up with her, and engaged her, 
 and found she was a vessel of ten guns, Portuguese built, 
 but in the Dutch traders' hands, and manned by Dutchtnenj 
 who were bound from the gulf of Persia to Batavia, to 
 fetch spices and other goods from thence. The sloop's men 
 took her, and had the rummaging of her, before we came 
 up. She had in her some European goods, and a good 
 round sum of money, and some pearl ; _so_ that, though we 
 did not go to the gulf for the pearl, the pearl SmeTolis out 
 ofthe gul^ and we had our share of it. This was a nch 
 ship, and the goods were of very considerable value, besides 
 the money and the pearl. 
 
 We had a long consultation here, what we should do with 
 the men ; for, to give them the ship, and let them pursue 
 their voyage to Java, would be to alarm the Dutch factory 
 there, who are by far the strongest in the Indies, and to 
 make our passage that way impracticable ; whereas we 
 resolved to visit that part of the world in our way, but were 
 not willing to pass the great Bay of Bengal, where we 
 hoped for a great deal of purchase ; and therefore it be- 
 hoved us not to be waylaid before we came there, because 
 they knew we must pass by the Straits of Malacca, or those 
 of Sunda ; and either way it was very easy to prevent us. 
 
 WhUe we were consulting this in the great cabin, the men 
 had had the same debate before the mast ; and it seems the 
 majority there were for pickling up the poor Dutchmen - 
 among the herrings; in a word, they were for throwing them 
 all into the sea. Poor William the quaker was in great 
 concern about this, and comes dii-ectly to me to talk about 
 it. Hark thee, says William, what -wait thou do with these 
 Dutchmen thou hast on board? Thou wilt not let them go, 
 I suppose, says he. Why, says I, William, would you advise 
 me to let them go ? No, says William, I cannot say it is fit 
 for thee to let them go ; that is to say, to go on with their 
 voyage to Batavia, because it is not for thy turn that the 
 Dutch at Batavia should have any knowledge of thy being 
 
DIFFICUI.TT OF DISPOSING OF THE CREW. 171 
 
 in these seas. Well, then, says I to him, I know no remedy 
 Dut to throw them overboard. You know, William, says I, 
 a Dutchman swims like a fish : and all our people here are 
 ot the same opinion as well as I. At the same time, I 
 resolved it should not be done, but wanted to hear what 
 William would say. He gravely replied. If aU the men in 
 the ship were of that mind, I will never believe that thou 
 wilt be of that mind thyself; for I have heard thee protest 
 against cruelty in all other cases. Well, William, says I, 
 that is true ; but what then shall we do with them ? Why^ 
 says William, is there no way but to murder them ? I am 
 persuaded thou canst not be in earnest. No, indeed, 
 William, say I, I am not in earnest ; but they shall not go 
 to Java, no, nor tp Ceylon, that is certain. But, says 
 William, the men have done thee no injury at all: what 
 canst thou pretend to hurt them for ? Nay, William, says Ij 
 do not talk of that ; I have pretence enough, if that be all : 
 my pretence is, to prevent doing me hurt ; and that is as 
 necessary a piece of the law of selfrpreservation as any you 
 can name : but the main thing is, I know not what to do 
 with them, to prevent their prating. 
 
 While William and I were talking, the poor Dutchmen 
 were openly condemned to die, as it may be called, by the 
 whole ship's company ; and so warm were the men upon it, 
 that they grew very clamorous ; and when they heard that 
 William was against it, some of them swore they should die, 
 and, if WiUiam opposed it, he should drown along with 
 them. 
 
 But as I was resolved to put an end to their cruel project, 
 so I found it was time to take upon me a little, or the bloody 
 humour might grow too strong ; so I called the Dutchmen 
 up, and talked a little with them. First, I asked them ii 
 they were willing to go with us ; two of them ofiered it pre- 
 sently ; but the rest, which were fourteen, declined it. Well 
 then, said I, where would you go? They desired they 
 should go to Ceylon. No, I told them, I could not allow 
 them to go to any Dutch factory, and told them very plainly 
 the reasons of it, which they* could not deny to be 'just. I 
 let them know also the cruel bloody measures of our men, 
 but that I had resolved to save them, if possible ; and 
 therefore I told them, I would set them on shore at some 
 English factory at Bengal, or put them on board an English 
 
172 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 ship I met, after I was past the Straits of Sunda or of Ma- 
 lacca, but not before ; for, as to my coming back again, I 
 told them, I would run the venture of their Dutch power 
 from Batavia ; but I would not have the news come there 
 before me, because it would make all their merchant-ships 
 lay up, and keep out of our way. 
 
 It came next into our consideration, what we should do 
 with the ship : but this was not long resolving ; for there 
 were but two ways, either to set her on fire, or to run her on 
 shore ; and we chose the last : so we set her fore-sail with 
 the tack at the cat-head, and lashed her helm a little to star- 
 board, to answer her head-sail, and so set her a-going, with 
 neither cat nor dog in her ; and it was not above two hours 
 before we saw her run right ashore upon the coast, a little 
 beyond the Cape Comorin ; and away we went round about 
 Ceylon, for the coast of Coromandel. 
 
 We sailed along there, not in sight of the shore only, but 
 so near as to see the ships in the road at Fort St. David, 
 Fort St. George, and at the other factories along that shore, 
 as well as along the coast of Golconda, carrying our Enghsh 
 ancie^jt when we came near the Dutch factories, and Dutch 
 colours when we passed by the English factories. We met 
 with little purchase upon this coast, except two small ves- 
 sels of Golconda, bound cross the bay with bales of calicoes 
 and muslins, and wrought silks, and fifteen bales of romals, 
 from the bottom of the bay, which were going, on whose 
 account we knew not, to Achin, and to other ports on the 
 coast of Malacca ; we did not inquire to what place in 
 particular ; but we let the vessels go, having none but Indians 
 onboard. ~" ^ ~~ 
 
 TS~"ffie bottom of the bay we met with a great junk, 
 belonging to the Mogul's court, with a great many people, 
 passengers as we supposed them to be : it seems, they 
 were bound for the river Hugely, or Ganges, and came 
 from Sumatra. This was a prize worth tailing indeed ; 
 and we got so much gold in her, besides other goods 
 which we did not meddle with, pepper in particular, that 
 it had like to have put an end to our cruise; for almost 
 all_mymen said we were rich enou^b, and desired to go back 
 agaiiTtoTSEadagascar : but 1 had other things in my head 
 still ; and when I came to talk to them, and set friend Wil- 
 liam to talk with them, we put such further golden hopes 
 
LEiVE THE BAT OF BENGAL. 173 
 
 iat<rtBieir-lieads, that we soon prevailed with them to let na 
 go on. 
 
 My next design was, to leave all the dangerous Straits of 
 Malacca, Sincapore, and Sunda, where we could expect no 
 great booty, but what we might light on in European ships, 
 which we must fight for ; and though we were able to 
 fight, and wanted no courage, even to desperation ; yet we 
 wererichtoo^and resolved jo_ be j-icher, and took tfiTs" 
 for oiir maxim, That while we were sure the wealth we 
 sought was to be had without fighting, we had no occasion 
 to put ourselves to the necessity of fighting for that which 
 would come upon easy terms. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 DANGEROUS ADVENTURE CONSEQUENCES OF A BLAST OF 
 
 LIGHTNING WILLIAM LEAVES THE SHIP ON A TRADING 
 
 SCHEME WE MAKE THE ISLAND OP FORMOSA WILLIAM 
 
 RETURNS, AFTER HAVING BEEN CIVILLT TREATED BY THE 
 
 CHINESE, WITH WHOM WE BEGIN TRADING STRANGE 
 
 ACCOUNT OF THIRTEEN ENGLISHMEN RESIDENT IN JAPAN. 
 
 We left, therefore, the Bay of Bengal, and coming to the 
 coast of Sumatra, we put in at a smdU port, where there was 
 a town, inhabited only by Malayans ; and here we took in 
 fresh water, and a large quantity of good pork pickled up, 
 and well salted, notwithstanding the heat of the climate, 
 being in the very middle of the torrid zone, viz., in 3 degrees 
 15 minutes norA latitude. We also took on board both our 
 vessels, forty hogs alive, which served us for fresh provisions, 
 having abundance of food for them, such as the country pro- 
 duced; such as g uams , potatoes, and a sort of coarse .rice, ««/w^ ■ 
 good for nothing else but to feed the swine. We killed one 
 of these hogs every day, and found them to be excellent meat. 
 We took in also a monstrous quantity of ducks, and cocks, 
 and hens, the same kind as we have in England, which we 
 kept for change of provisions ; and, if I remember right, we 
 had no less than two thousand of them ; so that at first we 
 were pestered with them very much, but we soon lessened 
 them by boiling, roasting, stewing, &c., for we never wanted 
 while we had them. 
 
174 CAPTATX SINGLETON. 
 
 , My long projected design now lay open to me, -whicli was, 
 to fall amongst the Dutch Spice Islands, and see what mis- 
 chief I could do there ; accordingly, we put out to sea, the 
 12th of August, and passing the line on the 17th, we stood 
 away due south, leaving the Straits of Sunda, and the isle of 
 Java, on the east, till we came to the latitude of 11 degrees 
 20 minutes, when we steered east and E.N.E. having easy 
 gales from the W.S.W. till we came among the Moluccas, or 
 Spice Islands. 
 
 We passed those seas with less difficulty than in other 
 places, the winds to the south of Java Ijeing more variable, 
 and the weather good, though sometimes we met with squally 
 weather, and short storms ; but when we came in among the 
 Spice Islands themselves, we had a share ot the monsooiTs, or 
 trade winds, and made use of them accordingly. 
 
 The infinite number of islands which lie in these seas, 
 embarrassed us strangely, and it was with great difficulty 
 that we worked our way throa^h them ; then we steered for 
 the north side of the Philippines, • where we had a double 
 chance for purchase, viz., either to meet with the Spanish 
 ships from Acapulco, on the coast of New Spain, or we were 
 certain not to fail of finding some ships or junks of China, 
 who, if they came from China, would have a great quantity of 
 goods of value on board, as well as money ; or, if we took 
 them going back, we should find them loaden with nutmegs 
 and cloves from Banda and Temate, or from some of the 
 other islands. 
 
 We were right in our guesses here to,a^ttle, and we steered 
 directly through a large outlet, which they call a strait, though 
 it be fifteen miles broad, and to an island they call Daurma, 
 and from thence N.N.E. to Banda. Between these islands 
 we met with a Dutch junk, or vessel, going to Amboyna : 
 1 we took her without much trouble, and I had much ado to 
 I prevent our men murdering all the men, as soon as they heard 
 them say they belonged to Amboyna : the reason I suppose 
 any one will guess.* 
 
 We took out of her about sixteen tons of nutmegs, some 
 provisions, and their small arms, for they had no great guns, 
 and let the ship go : from thence we sailed directly to the 
 
 * The cnielties of the Dutch to the English at Amboyna, Drydeu ha« 
 written a pla; on this subject. 
 
DANGEKOUS ADVENTUEE. 175 
 
 Banda island, or islands, where we were sure to get more 
 nutmegs, if we thought fit. For my part, I would wiUinglv 
 have got more nutmegs, though I had paid for them, hut our 
 people abhorred paying for anything : so we got about twelve 
 tons more at several times, most of them from shore, and 
 only a few in a small boat of the natives, which was going to 
 Gilolo. "We would have traded openly, but the Dutch, who 
 have made themselves masters of all those islands, forbid the 
 people dealing with us, or any strangers whatever, and kept 
 them so in awe, that they durst not do it ; so we could indeed 
 have made nothing of it if we had stayed longer, and there- 
 fore resolved to be gone for Ternate, and see if we could 
 make up oiu* loading with cloves. 
 
 Accordingly, we stood away north, but found ourselves so 
 entangled among innumerable islands, and without any pilot 
 that understood the channel and races between them, that 
 we were obliged to give it over, and resolved to go back 
 again to Banda, and see what we could get among the other 
 islands thereabouts. 
 
 Tlie first adventure we made here, had like to have been 
 fatal to us all, for the sloop being ahead, made the signal to 
 us for seeing a sail, and afterwards another, and a third, by 
 which We understood she saw three sail: whereupon we 
 made fiiore sail to come up with her, but on a sudden were 
 gotten among some rocks, falling foul upon them in such a 
 manner as frightened us all very heartily : for having, it 
 seems, but jUst water enough, as it were to an inch, our 
 rudder struck upon the top of a rock, which gave us a terrible 
 shock, and split a great piece off the rudder, and indeed dis- 
 abled it so, that our ship would not steer at all, at least not 
 so as to be depended upon ; and we were glad to hand all 
 our sails, except our fore-sail and main-top-sail, and with 
 them we stood away to the east to see if we could find any 
 creek or harbour where we might lay the ship on shore, and 
 repair our rudder ; besides, we found the ship herself had 
 received some damage, for she had some little leak near her 
 stempost, but .a great way under water. 
 
 By this mischance we lost the advantages, whatever they 
 were, of the three sail of ships which we afterwards came to 
 hear were small Dutch ships from Batavia, going to Banda 
 and Amboyna, to load spice, and, no doubt, bad a good 
 quantity of money on board. 
 
176 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 Upon the <Msaster I have been speaking of, you may very 
 well suppose that we came to an anchor as soon as we could, 
 which was upon a small island not far from Banda, where, 
 though the Dutch keep no factory, yet they come at the 
 season to buy nutmegs and mace. We stayed there thirteen 
 days ; but there being no place where we could lay the ship 
 on shore, we sent the sloop to cruise among the islands, to 
 look out for a place fit for us. In the meantime, we got 
 very good water here, some provisions, roots, and fruits, and 
 a good quantity of nutmegs and mace, which we found ways 
 to trade with the natives for, without the knowledge of their 
 masters, the Dutch. 
 
 At length our sloop returned; having found another 
 island where there was a verj^ good harbour, we ran in, and 
 came to an anchor. We immediately unbent all our sails, 
 sent them ashore upon the island, and set up seven or eight 
 tents with them : • then we imrigged our topmasts, and 
 lowered them down, hoisted all our guns out, our provisions 
 and plunder, and put them ashore in the tents. With the 
 guns we made two small batteries, for fear of a surprise, 
 and kept a look-out upon the- hiU. When we were all ready, 
 we laid the ship aground upon a hard sand, the upper end 
 of the harbour, and shored her up on each side. At low 
 water she lay almost dry, so we mended her bottom, and 
 stopped the leak, which was occasioned by straining some of 
 the rudder irons with the shock which the ship had against 
 the rock. 
 
 Having done this, we also took occasion to clean lier 
 bottom, which, having been at sea so long, was very foul. 
 The sloop washed and tallowed also, but was ready before 
 us, and cruised eight or ten days among the islands, but 
 met with no purchase; so that we began to be tired of 
 the place having ■ little to divert us, but the most furious 
 claps of thunder that ever were heai-d or read of in the 
 world. 
 
 We were in hopes to have met with some purchase here 
 among the Chinese, who, we had been told, came to Ternate 
 to trade for cloves, and to the Banda isles for nutmegs; and 
 we would have been very glad to have loaded our gafieon, or 
 great ship, with these two sorts of spice, and have thought 
 it a glorious voyage ; but we found nothing stirring more 
 than what I have said, except Dutchmen, who, by what 
 
A. TEEEIBLE STORM. 177 
 
 means we could not imagine, had either a jealousy of us, or 
 intelligence of us, and kept themselves close in their ports. 
 
 I was once resolved to have made a descent at the island 
 of Dumas, the place most famous for the best nutmegs; but 
 friend WiUiam, who was always for doing our business with- 
 out fighting, dissuaded me from it, and gave such reasons for 
 It, that we could not resist ; particularly the great heats ot 
 the season, and of the place, for we were now in the latitude 
 of just half a degree south ; but while we were disputing 
 this point, we were soon determined by the following acci- 
 dent. We had a strong gale of wind at S.W. by "W. and the 
 ship had fresh way, but a great sea rolling in upon us from 
 the N.E., which we afterwards found was the pouring in of 
 the great ocean east of New Guinea. However, as I said, 
 we stood away lai-ge, and made fresh way, when, on the 
 sudden, from a dark cloud which hovered over our heads, 
 came a flash, or rather blast of lightning, which was so 
 terrible, and quivered so long among us, that not I only, 
 but all our men, thought the ship was on fire. The heat of 
 the flash, or fire, was so sensibly felt in our faces,- that some 
 of our men had blisters raised by it on their skins, not im- 
 mediately perhaps by the heat, but by the poisonous or 
 noxious particles, which mixed themselves with the matter 
 inflamed. But this was not all ; the shock of the air, which 
 the fracture of the clouds made, was such, that oiir ship 
 shook as when a broadside is fired ; and her motion being 
 checked, as it were, at once, by a repulse superior to the force 
 that gave her way before, the sails all flew back in a mo- 
 ment, and the ship lay, as wa might truly say, thunder- 
 struck. As the blast from the cloud was so very near us, it 
 was but a few moments aftier the flash, that the terriblest 
 clap of thimder followed that was ever heard by mortals. 
 I firmly believe, a blast of a hundred thousand barrels of 
 gunpowder could not have been greater to our hearing; nay, 
 indeed, to some of our men it took away their hearing. 
 
 It is not possible for me to describe, or any one to con- 
 ceive, the terror of that minute. Our men were in such 
 a consternation, that not a man on board the ship had pre- 
 sence of mind to apply to the proper duty of a sailo r, exc ept 
 friend William ; and had he not run very nimbly, and wilhaT" 
 composure that I am sure I was not master of, to let go the 
 fore-sheet, set in the weather-brace of the fore-yard, and 
 
 N 
 
178 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 haul down the top-sails, we had certainly brought aU our 
 masts by the board, and perhaps have been overwhelmed in 
 the sea. 
 
 As for myself, I must confess my eyes were open to my 
 danger, though not the least to anything of application for 
 remedy. I was all amazement and confusion, and this was 
 the first time that I can say I began to feel the eifects of that 
 horror which I know since much more of, upon the just re- 
 flection on my former life. I thought myself doomed by 
 Heaven to sink that moment into eternal destruction; 
 and with this peculiar mark of terror, viz., that the 
 vengeance was not executed in the ordinary way of human 
 justice, but that God had taken me into his immediate 
 > disposing, and had resolved to be the executor of his own 
 j • vengeance. 
 
 Let them alone describe the confusion I was in, who know 
 
 what was the case of Child of Shadwell, or Francis 
 
 Spira. It is impossible to describe it. My soul was all 
 amazement and surprise ; I thought myself just sinking into 
 eternity, owning the divine justice of my punishment, but not 
 at all feeling any of the moving, softening tokens of a sincere 
 penitent; afflicted at the punishment, but net at the crime; 
 alarmed at the vengeance, but not terrified at the guilt ; hav- 
 ing the same gust to the crime, tliough terrified to the last 
 degree at the thought of the punishment, which I concluded 
 I was just now going to receive. 
 
 But perhaps many that read this will be sensible of the 
 thunder and lightning, that may think nothing of the rest, 
 or rather may make a jest of it all ; so I say no more of it 
 at this time, but proceed to the story of the voyage. When 
 the amazement was over, and the men began to come to 
 themselves, they fell a-calling for one another, every one for 
 his friend, or for those he had most respect for ; and it was 
 4 singular satisfaction to find that nobody was hurt. The 
 next thing was to inquire if the ship had received no 
 damage, when the boatswain stepping forward, found that 
 part of the head was gone, but not so as to endanger the 
 bowsprit ; so we hoisted our top-sails again, hauled aft the 
 fore-sheet, braced the yards, and went our course as before. 
 Nor can I deny but that we were all somewhat like the ship; 
 our first astonishment being a little over, and that we found 
 the ship swim again, we were soon 'the same irreligious 
 
TAKE THKEE JAPANESE VESSELS. 179 
 
 haxdened orew that we were before, and I among the 
 rest. 
 
 As we now steered, our course lay N.N.E. and we passed 
 thus, with a fair wind, through the straight or channel 
 between the island of Gilolo and the land of Nova Gruinea, 
 when we were soon in the open sea or ocean, on the south- 
 east of the Philippines, being the great Pacific, or South Sea, 
 where it may be said to join itself with the vast Indian 
 Ocean. 
 
 As we passed into these seas, steering due north, so we 
 soon crossed the line to the north side, and so sailed on 
 towards Mindanao and Manilla, the chief of the Philippine 
 islands, without meeting with any purchase, tiU we came to 
 the northward of ManUla, and then our trade began; for 
 here we took three Japanese vessels, though at some distance- 
 from Manilla. Two of them had made their market, and 
 were going home with nutmegs, cinnamon, cloves, &c., 
 besides all sorts of European goods, brought with the Spanish 
 ships from Acapulco. They had together eight-and-thirty 
 tons of cloves, and five or six tons of nutmegs, and as much 
 cinnamon. We took the spice, but meddled with very little 
 of the European goods, they being, as we thought, not 
 worth our while ; but we were very sorry for it soon after, 
 and therefore' grew wiser upon the next occasion. 
 
 The third Japanese was the best prize to us ; for he came 
 with money, and a great deal of gold uncoined, to buy such 
 goods as we mentioned above. We eased him of his gold, 
 and did him no other harm, and, having no intention to stay 
 long here, we stood away for China. 
 
 We were at sea above two months upon this voyage, 
 beating it up against the wind, which blew steadily from the 
 N.E. and within a point or two one way or other ; and this 
 indeed was the reason why we met with the more prizes in 
 our voyage. 
 
 We were just gotten clear of the Philippines, and we 
 purposed to go to the isle of Formosa, but the wind blew so 
 fresh at N.N.E. that there was no making anything of it, and 
 we were forced to put back to Laconia, the most northerly 
 of those islands. We rode here very secure, and shifted our 
 situation, not in view of any danger, for there was none, 
 but for a better supply of provisions, which we found the 
 people very willing to supply us with. 
 
 31 2 
 
180 CAPTAIN SINGLETOK. 
 
 There lay, while we remained here, three very great 
 galleons, or Spanish ships, from the South Seas; whether 
 newly come in, or ready to sail, we could not understand at 
 first ; but as we found the China traders began to load and set 
 forward to the north, we concluded the Spanish ships had 
 newly unloaded their cargo, and these had been buying ; so 
 we doubted not but we should meet with^^gurchase^in the 
 rest of our voyage, neither, indeed, could we well miss of it. 
 
 We stayed here till the beginning of May, when we were 
 told the Chinese traders would set forward ; for the northern 
 monsoons end about the latter end of March, or beginning 
 of April ; so that they are sure of fair winds home. Ac- 
 cordingly we hired some of the country boats, which are 
 very swift sailers, to go and bring us word how affairs stood 
 at Manilla, and when the China junks would sail ; and by 
 this intelligence we ordered our matters so well, that, three 
 days after we set sail, we fell in with no less than eleven of 
 them; out of which, however, having, by misfortune of 
 discovering ourselves, taken but three, we contented our- 
 selves, and pursued our voyage to Formosa, In these three 
 vessels we took, in short, such a quantity of cloves, nutmegs, 
 cinnamon, and mace, besides silver, jihat our inen began to 
 _ be of my opin ion — that we were rich enough ; and, in short, 
 "we had nothing to do now, but to consider by what methods 
 to secure the immense treasure we had got. 
 
 I was secretly glad to hear that they were of this opinion ; 
 for I had lonp before resolved, if it was possible, to persuade 
 ' them to think of returning, having fully perfected my first 
 projected • design, of rummaging among the Spice Islands ; 
 and all those prizes, which were exceeding rich at Manilla, 
 was quite beyond my design. 
 
 But now I had heard what the men said, and how they 
 thought we were very well, I let them know, by friend 
 WiUiam, that f intended only to sail to the island of 
 Formosa, where I should find opportunity to turn our spices 
 and European goods into ready money, and that then I 
 would tack about for the south, the northern monsoons being 
 perhaps by that time also ready to set in. They all approved 
 of my design, and willingly went forward ; because, besides 
 the winds, which would not permit until October to go to 
 the south ; I say, besides this, we were now a very deep 
 ship, having near two hundred tons of goods on board, and 
 
CAPTUKE A CHINESE JTINK. 181 
 
 particularly some very valuable : the sloop also had a pro* 
 portion. 
 
 With this resolution we went on cheerfully, when, within 
 about twelve days' sail more, we made the 'island Formosa, 
 at a great distance, but were ourselves shot beyond the 
 southernmost part of the island, being to leeward, and almost 
 upon the coast of China. Here we were a little at a loss ; 
 for the English factories were not far off, and we might be 
 obliged to fight some of their ships, if we met with them ; 
 which, though we were able enough to do, yet we did not 
 desire it, on many accounts, and particularly, because we did 
 not think it was our business to have it known who we 
 were, or that such a kind of people as we had been seen on 
 the coast. However, we were obliged to keep up to the 
 northward, keeping as good an offing as we could with 
 respect to the coast of China. We had not sailed long, 
 before we chased a small Chinese junk ; and having taken 
 her, we found she was bound to the island of Formosa, 
 having no goods on board but some rice, and a small 
 quantity of tea ; but she had three Chinese merchants in 
 her ; and they told us they were going to meet a large vessel 
 of their country, which came from Tonquin, and lay in a 
 river in Formosa, whose name I forgot ; and they were 
 going to the Philippine Islauds, with- silks, muslins, calicoes, 
 and such goods as are the product of China, and some gold ; 
 that their business was to sell their cargo, and buy spices 
 and European goods. 
 
 This suited very well with our purpose; so I resolved 
 no w, that w: e wo uld leave off bein g pir ates, and tur n mer- 
 chants: so we told them what goods we had on board, and 
 
 "tlikt, "ii" they would bring their supercargoes or merchants on 
 board, we would trade with them. They were very willing 
 to trade with us, but terribly afraid to trust us : nor was it- 
 an unjust fear;_for_ we had plundered them aljeady of wh at 
 they had. OnTEe'other hand, we were as" diffident as they^ 
 
 "SSTSyuncertain what to do ; but William the quaker put 
 this matter into a way of barter. He came to me, and told 
 me he really thought the merchants looked like fair men, 
 that meant honestly. And besides, says William, it is their 
 interest to be honest now ; for, as they know upon what 
 terms we got the goods we are to truck with them, so they 
 know we can afford good pennyworths ; and, in the next 
 
182 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 place, it saves them going the whole voyage ; so that the 
 southerly monsoons yet holding, if they traded with us, they 
 could immediately return with their cargo to China; though, 
 by the way, we afterwards found they intended for Japan ' 
 but that was all one, for by this means they saved at least 
 eight months' voyage. Upon these foundations, WiUiam 
 said he was satisfied we might trust them : for, says 
 WiUiam, I would as soo n trust a man whose interest binds 
 
 ~tiim to be just to_jiie7~a£ a manjy yhose principle binds 
 himselt._ ~ Upon "tS^ whole^ ^WiUiam proposed that two of 
 
 "the merchants should be left on board our ship as hostages, 
 and that part of our goods should be loaded in their vessel, 
 and let the third go with it into the port where their ship 
 lay ; and when he had delivered the spices, he should bring 
 back such things as it was agreed should be exchanged. 
 This was concluded on, and WiUiam the quaker ventured to 
 go along with them ; which, upon my word, I should not 
 have cared to have done, nor was I willing that he should ; 
 but he went stiU upon the notion, that it was their interest 
 to treat him friendly. 
 
 In the meantime we came to an anchor under a little 
 island, in the latitude of 23 degrees 28 minutes, being just 
 under the northern tropic, and about twenty leagues from the 
 island. Here we lay thirteen days, and began to be very 
 uneasy for my friend William ; for they had promised to be 
 back again in four days, which they might very easily have 
 done. However, at the end of thirteen days we saw three 
 sail coming directly to us, which a little surprised us all at 
 first, not knowing what might be the case, and we began to 
 put ourselves in a posture of defence; but as they came 
 nearer us, we were soon satisfied : for the first vessel wa^ 
 that which WiUiam went in, who carried a flag of truce ; 
 and in a few hours they aU came to an anchor, and William 
 came on board us with a little boat, with the Chinese 
 merchant in his company, and two other merchants, which 
 seemed to be a kind of brokers for the rest. 
 
 Here he gave us an account how civilly he had been used; 
 how they had treated him with aU imaginable frankness and 
 openness ; that they had not only given him the fuU value of 
 his spices and other goods which he carried, in gold, by 
 good weight, but had loaded the vessel again with such 
 goods as he knew we were willing to trade for ; and that 
 
BAETEK AVITH MEECHiJITS. 183 
 
 afterwards they had resolved to bring the great ship out of 
 the harbour, to Ke where we were, that so we might make 
 what bargain we thought fit ; only William said he had 
 promised, in our name, that we should use no violence with 
 them, nor detain any of the vessels after we had done 
 , trading with them. I told him we would strive to outdo 
 them in civility, and that we would make good every part of 
 his agreement : in token whereof, I caused a white flag 
 likewise to be spread at th§ poop of our great ship, which 
 was the signal agreed on. 
 
 As to the third vessel which came with them, it was a 
 kind of bark of the country, who, having intelligence of our 
 design to traffic, came off to deal with us, bringing a great 
 deal of gold, and some provisions, which at that time we 
 were very glad of. 
 
 In short, we traded upon the high seas with these men, 
 and indeed we made a very good market, and yet sold thieves' 
 pennyworths too. "We sold here above sixty tons of spice, 
 chiefly cloves and nutmegs, and above two hundred bales of 
 European goods, such as linen and wooUen manufactures. 
 We considered we should have occasion for some such things 
 ourselves, and so we kept a good quantity of English stuffs, 
 cloths, baize, &c., for ourselves. I shall not take up any of 
 the little room I have leftJiere, with the further particulars 
 of our trade ; "it is~enoiigh to mention, that, except a parcel 
 of tea, and twelve bales of fine China wrought silks, we 
 took nothing in exchange f or our goodsbut_gold_: so that the 
 ' sum we took here in that gUttering commodity amounted to 
 abov e fifty thousand ounces, good weight . 
 
 When we had finished our barter, we restored the hostages, 
 and gave the three merchants about the quantity of twelve 
 hundred weight of nutmegs, and as many of cloves, with a 
 handsome present of European linen and stuff for themselves, 
 as a recompe nse for what we had taken from them ; and so 
 we sent thenTaway exceedingly v/eU satisfied. 
 
 Here it was that William gave me an account, that, while 
 he was on board the Japanese vessel, he met with a kind 
 of religious, or Japan priest, who spoke some words of Eng- 
 lish to him ; and, being very inquisitive to know how he 
 came to learn any of those words, he told him, that there 
 was in his country thirteen Engfishmen; he called them 
 Englishmen very articulately and distinctly, for he had con- 
 
184 CAPTAIN SINGtETON. 
 
 versed with them very frequently and freely. He said they 
 ■were all that were left of two-and-thirty men, who came on 
 shore on the north side of Japan, being driven upon a great 
 rock in a stormy night, where they lost their ship, and the 
 rest of their men were drowned ; that he had persuaded the 
 king of his country to send boats off to the rock, or island,, 
 where the ship was lost, to save the rest of the men, and to 
 bring them on shore ; which was done, and they were used 
 very kindly, and had houses bjiilt for them, and land given 
 them to plant for provision ; and that they lived by them- 
 selves. 
 
 He said he went frequently among them, to persuade them 
 to worship their god (an idol, I suppose, of their own 
 making), which, he said, they ungratefully refused ; and that 
 therefore the king had once or twice ordered them all to be 
 put to death ; but that, as he said, he had prevailed upon the 
 king to spare thein, and let them live their own way, as long 
 as they were quiet and peaceable, and did not go about to 
 withdraw others from the worship of the country. 
 
 I asked William, why he did not inquire from whence 
 they came ? I did, said WiUiam ; for how could I but think 
 it strange, said he, to hear him talk of Englishmen on the 
 north side of Japan ? Well, said I, what account did he 
 give of it? An account, said WiUiam, that will surprise 
 thee and all the world after thee, that shall hear of it, and 
 which makes me wish thou wouldst go up to Japan, and 
 find them out. What do ye mean ? said I : whence could 
 they come ? Why, says William, he pulled out a little book, 
 and in it a. piece of paper, where it was written, in an 
 Englishman's hand, and in plain English words, thus ; and, 
 says William, I read it myself: — " We came from Greenland, 
 and from the North Pole." This, indeed, was amazing to 
 us all, and more so to those seamen among us who knew 
 anything of the infinite attempts which had been made from 
 Europe, as well by the English as the Dutch, to discover a 
 passage that way into those parts of the world ; and, as 
 William pressed us earnestly to go on to the north to rescue 
 those poor men, so the ship's company began to incline to it ; 
 and, in a word, we aJl came to this, that we would stand in 
 to the shore of Formosa, to find this priest again, and have a 
 farther account of it all from him. Accordingly the sloop 
 went over ; but when they came there, the vessels were very 
 
END OP THEIR CETJISE. 186 
 
 unhappily sailed, «.nd this put an end to our inquiry after 
 them, and perhaps may have disappointed mankind of one 
 of the most noble discoveries that ever was made, or will 
 again be made, in the world, for the good of mankind in 
 general ; but so much for that. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 WE ARE SO EICH THAT OUK MEN DESIKB NO MOEE SET OTJT 
 
 ON OUR RETURN HOMEWARD ACCOUNT OF OUR VOYAGE 
 
 SKTEIMISH WITH INDIANS ON SHORE, AND LOSS OF SOME OF 
 
 OUR MEN SIEGE OF AN OLD TREE ^WE MAKE THE SOUTH 
 
 SHORE OF JAVA, AND TAKE IN WATER AND PROVISIONS 
 THERE. 
 
 William was bo uneasy at losing this opportunity, that he 
 pressed us earnestly to go up to Japan, to find out these men. 
 He told us, that if it was nothing but to recover thirteen 
 honest poor men from a kind of captivity, which they would 
 otherwise never be redeemed from, and where, perhaps, they 
 might, some time or other, be murdered by the barbarous 
 people, in defence of their idolatry, it were very well worth 
 our while, and it would be, in some measure, making amends 
 for the mischiefs we had done in the world ; but we, that 
 had no concern upon us for the mischiefs we had done, had 
 much less about any satisfactions to be made for it ; so he 
 found that kind of discoiu-se would weigh very little with us. 
 Then he pressed us very earnestly to let him have the sloop 
 to go by himself, and I told him I would not oppose it ; but, 
 when he came to the sloop, none of the men would go with 
 him; for the case was plain, they had ali a share in the 
 cargo of the great ship, as well as in that of the sloop, and 
 the richness of the cargo was such, that they would not 
 leave it by any means : so poor William, much to his morti- 
 fication, was obliged to give it over. What became of those 
 thirteen men, or whether they are not there still, I can giva 
 no account of. 
 
 We were now at the end of our cruise ; what we had 
 taken was indeed so considerable, that it was not only enough 
 to satisfy the most covetous and the most ambitious minds in 
 the world, but it did indeed satisfy us ; and our men decla red 
 
186 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 jthej: did not desir e any m ore. The next motion, therefore, 
 was about going back^ and the way by which we should 
 perform the voyage, so as not to be attacked by the Dutch 
 in the straits of Sunda. 
 
 We had pretty well stored ourselves here with provisions, 
 and it being now near the return of the monsoons, we 
 resolved to stand away to the southward ; and not only to 
 keep without the Phillippine islands, that is to say, to the 
 eastward of them, but to keep on to the southward, and see 
 if we could not leave, not only the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, 
 behind us, but even Nova Gruinea, and Nova Hollandia also ; 
 and so getting into variable vsdnds, to the south of the tropic 
 of Capricorn, steer away to the west, over the great Indian 
 Ocean. 
 
 This was indeed at firsl^a monstrous voyage in its appear- 
 ance, and the want of provisions threatened us. William 
 told us in so many words, that it was impossible we could 
 carry provisions enough to subsist us for such a voyage, and 
 especially fresh water ; and that, as there would be no land 
 for us to touch at, where we could get any supply, it was a 
 madness to undertake it. 
 
 But I undertook to remedy this evil, and therefore desired 
 them not to be uneasy at that, for I knew that we might 
 supply ourselves at Mindanao, the most southern island of 
 the Philippines. Accordin^y we set sail, having taken all 
 the provisions here that we could get, the 28th of September, 
 the wind veering a little at first from the N.N. W. to the N.E. 
 by E., but afterwards settled about the N.E. and the E.N.E. 
 We were nine weeks in this voyage, having met with several 
 interruptions by the weather, and put in under the lee of a 
 smaU island, in the latitude of 16 degrees 12 minutes, of 
 which we never knew the name, none of our charts having 
 given any account of it ; I say, we put in here by reason ot 
 a strange tornado, or hurricane, which brought us into a 
 great deal of danger. Here we rode about sixteen days, the 
 winds being very tempestuous, and the weather uncertam.: 
 However, we got some provisions on shore, such as plants 
 and roots, and a few hogs. We believed there were inha- 
 bitants on the island, but we saw none of them. 
 
 From hence, the weather settling again, we went on, and 
 came to the southernmost part of Mindanao, where we took 
 in fresh water, and some cows ; but the climate was so hot, 
 
VOYAGE HOMEWAEDS. 187 
 
 that we did not attempt to salt up any more than so as to 
 keep a fortnight or three weeks ; and away we stood south- 
 ward, crossing the line, and leaving Gillolo on the starboard 
 side, we coasted the country they call New Guinea, where 
 in the latitude of 8 degrees south, we put in again for- pro- 
 visions and water, and where we found inhabitants ; but they 
 fled from us, and were altogether inconversible. From 
 thence, sailing still southward, we left all behind us that any 
 of our charts or maps took any notice of, and went on till 
 we came to the latitude of 17 degrees, the wind continuing 
 still N.E. 
 
 Here we made land to the westward, which, when we had 
 kept in sight for three days, coasting along the shore for the 
 distance of about four leagues, we began to fear we should 
 find no outlet west, and so should be obliged to go back 
 again, and put in among the Moluccas at last ; but at length 
 we found the land break off, and go trending away to the 
 West Sea, seeming to be all open to the south and S.W., 
 and a great sea came rolling out of the south, which gave us 
 to understand, that there was no land for a great way. 
 
 In a word, we kept on our course to the south, a little 
 westerly, till we passed the south tropic, where we found the 
 winds variable ; and now we stood away fair west, and held 
 it out for about twenty days, when we discovered land right 
 ahead, and on our larboard bow ; we made directly to the 
 shore, being willing to take all advantages now for supplying 
 ourselves with fresh provisions and water, knowing we were 
 now entering on that vast unknown Indian Ocean, perhaps 
 the greatest sea on the globe, having, with very little inter- 
 ruption of islands, a continued sea quite round the globe. 
 
 We found a good road here, and some people on shore; 
 but when we landed they fled up the country, nor would 
 they hold any correspondence with us, or come near us, but 
 shot at us several times with arrows as long as lances. We 
 set up white flags for a truce ; but they either did not, or 
 would not, understand it: on the contrary, they shot our 
 flag of truce through several times with their arrows; so 
 that, in a word, we never came near any of them. 
 
 We found good water here, though it was something 
 difficult to get at it ; but for living creatures, we could see 
 none ; for the people, if they had any cattle, drove them all 
 away, and showed us nothing but themselves, and that 
 
\; 
 
 188 CAPTAIN SINGLETOK. 
 
 sometimes in a threatening posture, and in number so great, 
 that made us suppose the island to be greatei than we at 
 first imagined. It is true, they would not come near enough 
 for us to engage with them, at least not openly ; but they 
 came near enough for us to see them, and, by the help of our 
 glasses, to see that they were clothed and armed, but their 
 clothes were only about their lower and middle parts; 
 that they had long lances, like half pikes, in their hands, 
 besides bows and arrows ; that they had great high things 
 on their heads, made, as we believed, of feathers, and which 
 looked something like our grenadiers' caps in England. 
 
 When we saw them so shy, that they would not come 
 near us, our men began to range over the island, if it was 
 such, for we never surrounded it, to search for cattle, and 
 for any of the Indian plantations, for fruits or plants ; hut 
 they soon found, to their cost, that they were to use more 
 caution than that came to, and that they were to discover 
 perfectly every bush and every tree, before they ventured 
 abroad in the country ; for about fourteen of our men going 
 farther than the rest, into a part of the country which 
 seemed to be planted, as they thought, for it did but seem 
 so, only I think it was overgrown with canes, such as we 
 make our cane chairs with; I say, venturing too far, 
 they were suddenly attacked with a shower of arrows from 
 almost every side of them, as they thought, out of the tops 
 of the trees. ' 
 
 They had nothing to do, but to fly for it, which, however, 
 they could not resolve on, till five of them were wounded ; 
 nor had they escaped so, if one of them had not been so 
 much wiser, or more thoughtful, than the rest, as to consider, 
 that though they could not see the enemy, so as to shoot at 
 them, yet perhaps the noise of their shot might terrify them, 
 and that they should rather fire at a venture. Accordingly, 
 ten of them faced about, and fired at random anywhere 
 among the canes. 
 
 The noise and the fire not only terrified the enemy, but, 
 as they believed, their shot had luckily hit some of them ; 
 for they found not only that the arrows, which came thick 
 among them before, ceased; but they heard the Indians 
 halloo, after their way, to one another, and make a strange 
 noise, more uncouth, and inimitably strange, than any they 
 J'had ever heard, more like the howling and barking of wild 
 
T- 
 
 AJ1J2_. 
 
 SKIRMISH WITH INDIANS ON SHORE. 189 
 
 creatures in the woods, than like the voice of men, only that 
 sometimes they seemed to speak words. 
 
 They observed also, that this noise of the Indians went 
 farther and farther off, so that they were satisfied the Indians 
 fled away, except on one side, where they heard a doleful 
 groaning and howling, and where it continued a good while, 
 which they supposed was from some or other of them being 
 wounded, and howling by reason of their wounds ; or killed, 
 and others howling over them ; but our men had enough of. 
 making discoveries ; so they did not trouble themselves to 
 look farther, but resolved to take this opportunity to retreat. 
 But the worst of their adventure was to come ; for as they 
 came back, they passed by a prodigious great trunk of an old 
 tree ; what tree it was, they said they did not know, but 
 it stood like an old decayed oak in a park, where the 
 keepers in England take a stand, as they call it, to shoot a 
 deer ; and it stood just under the steep side of a great rock, 
 or hill, that our people could not see what was beyond it. 
 
 As they came by this tree, they were of a sudden shot at 
 from the top of the tree, with seven arrows and three lances, 
 which, to our great grief, kiQed two of our men, and wounded 
 three more. This was the more surprising, because, being 
 without any defence, and so near the trees, they expected 
 more lances and arrows every moment ; nor would flying do 
 them any service, the Indians being, as appeared, very good 
 ■ marksmen. In this extremity, they had happily this pre- 
 sence of mind, viz., to run close to the tree, and stand as it 
 were under it ; so that those above could not come at, or see 
 them, to throw their lances at them. This succeeded, and 
 gave them time to consider what to do ; they knew their 
 enemies and murderers were above ; they heard them talk, 
 and those above knew those were below ; but they below 
 were obliged to keep close for fear of their lances from above. 
 At length one of our men looking a little more strictly than 
 the rest, thought he saw the head of one of the Indians, just 
 over a dead limb of the tree, which, it seems the creature sat 
 upon. One man immediately fired; and -levelled his piece so 
 true, that the shot went through the feUow's head ; and down 
 he fell out of the tree immediately, and came upon the ground 
 with such force, with the height of his fall, that if he had not 
 been killed with the shot, he would certainly have been killed 
 with dashing his body against the ground. 
 
190 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 This SO irightened them, that, besides the ugly howling 
 noise they made in the tree, our men heard a strange clutter 
 of them in the body of the tree, from whence they concluded 
 they had made the tree hoUow, and were gone to hide them- 
 selves there. Now, had this been the case, they were secure 
 enough from our men, for it was impossible any of our men 
 could get up the tree on the outside, there being no branches 
 to climb by ; and, to shoot at the tree, that they tried several 
 times to no purpose, for the tree was so thick, that no shot 
 would enter it. They made no doubt, however, but that 
 they had their enemies in a trap, and that a small siege 
 would either bring them down, tree and aU, or starve them 
 out ; so they resolved to keep their post, and send to us for 
 help. Accordingly, two of them came away to us for more 
 hands, and particularly desired, that some of our carpenters 
 might come with tools, to help to cut down the tree, or at 
 least to cut down other wood, and set fire to it ; and that, 
 they concluded, w.ould not fail to bring them out. 
 
 Accordingly, our men went like a little army, and with 
 mighty preparation for an enterprise the like of which has 
 scarce been ever heard, to form the siege of a great tree. 
 However, when they came there, they found the task difficult 
 enough, for the old trunk was indeed a very great one, and 
 very tall, being at least two-and-twenty feet high, with seven 
 old limbs standing out every way on the top, but decayed, 
 and very few leaves, if any, left on it. 
 
 William the quaker, whose curiosity led him to go among 
 the rest, proposed, that they should make a ladder, and get 
 upon the top, and then throw wildfire into the tree and smoke 
 them out. Others proposed going back, and getting a great 
 tree, and smoke them out. Others proposed going back, and 
 getting a great gun out of the ship, which would split the 
 tree in pieces with the iron bullets ; others, that they should 
 cut down a great deal of wood, and pile it up round the tree, 
 and set it on fire, and burn the tree, and the Indians in it. 
 
 These consultations took up our people no less than two 
 or three days, in all which time they heard nothing of the 
 supposed garrison within this wooden castle, nor any noise 
 within. William's project was first gone about, and a large 
 strong ladder was made, to scale this wooden tower; and 
 in two or three hours' time, it would have been ready to 
 mount, when, on a sudden, they heard the noise of tli'5 
 
ATTEMPT TO SUFFOCATE THE INDIANS. 191 
 
 Indians in the body of the tree again, and a little after, 
 several of them appeared in the top of the tree, and threw 
 some lances down at our men ; one of which struck one of 
 our seamen a-top of the shoulder, and gave him such a des- 
 perate wound that the surgeons not only had a great deal 
 of difficulty to cure him, but the poor man endured such 
 horrible torture, that we all said they had better have killed 
 him outright. However, he was cured at last, though he 
 never recovered the perfect use of his arm, the lance having cut 
 some of the tendons on the top of the arm, near the shoulder, 
 which, as I suppose, performed the office of motion to the 
 limb before ; so that the poor man was a cripple all the days 
 of his life. But to return to the desperate rogues in the 
 tree; our men shot at them, but did not find they had hit 
 them, or any of thein; but as soon as ever they shot at 
 them, they could hear them huddle down into the trunk of 
 the tree again, and there to be sure they were safe. 
 
 Well, however, it was this which put by the project of 
 William's ladder ; for when it was done, who would venture 
 up among such a troop of bold creatures as were there, and 
 who they supposed, were desperate by their circumstances ? 
 And as but one man at a time could go up, they began to 
 think that it would not do ; and indeed I was of the opinion 
 (for about this time I was come to their assistance), that 
 going up the ladder would not do, unless it was thus, that a 
 man should, as it were, run just up to the top, and throw 
 some fire-works into the tree, and come down again ; and 
 this we did two or three times, but found no efiect from it. 
 At last one of our gunner's made a stinkpot, as we called it, 
 being a composition which only smokes, but does not flame 
 or burn ; but withal, the smoke of it is so thick, and the 
 smell of it so intolerably nauseous, that it is not to be 
 sufiered. This he threw into the tree himself, and we waited 
 for the effect of it, but heard or saw nothing all that night, 
 or the next day ; so we concluded the men within were all 
 smothered, when, on a sudden, the next night we heard 
 them upon the top of the tree again, shouting and haUoojng 
 like madmen. 
 
 We concluded, as anybody would, that this was to call 
 for help ; and we resolved to continue our siege ; for we 
 were all enraged to see ourselves so baulked by a few wild 
 people, whom we thought we had safe in our clutches ; and 
 
193 CAPTAIN SUfGLETOK. 
 
 indeed never were there so many concurring circumstances 
 to delude men, in any case we had met with. "We resolved, 
 however, to try another stinkpot the next night, and our 
 engineer and gunner had got it ready, when hearing a noise 
 of the enemy, on the top of the tree, and in the body of the 
 tree, I was not willing to let the gunner go up the ladder, 
 which, I said, would be but to be certain of being mur- 
 dered. However, he found a medium for it, and that was 
 to go up a few steps, and, with a long pole in his hand, to 
 throw it in upon the top of the tree, the ladder being 
 standing all this while against the top of the tree ; but when 
 the gunner, vrith his machine at the top of his pole, came to 
 the tree, with three other men to help him, behold the 
 ladder was gone. 
 
 This perfectly confounded us ; and we now concluded the 
 Indians in the tree had by this piece of negligence taken the 
 opportunity, and coming all down the ladder, had made 
 their escape, and carried away the ladder with them. I 
 laughed most heartily at my friend William, who, as I said, 
 had the direction of the siege, and had set up a ladder, for 
 the garrison, as we called them, to get down upon, and run 
 away. But when daylight came, we were all set to rights 
 again ; for there stood our ladder, hauled up on the top of 
 the tree, with about half of it in the hollow of the tree, 
 and the other half upright in the air. Then we began to 
 laugh at the Indians for fools, that they could not as well 
 have found their way down by the ladder, and have made 
 their escape, as to have pulled it up by main strength into 
 the tree. 
 
 We then resolved upon fire, and, to put an end to the 
 work at once, to burn the tree and its inhabitants together ; 
 and accordingly we went to work to cut the wood, and in a 
 few hours' time we got enough, as we thought, together; 
 and, piling it up round the bottom of the tree, we set it on 
 fire, and waited at a distance, to see when the gentlemen 
 (whose quarters must soon become too hot for'^em) would 
 come flying out at the top. But we were quite confounded, 
 when on a sudden we found the fire all put out by a great 
 quantity of water thrown upon it. We then thought the 
 devil must be in them, to be sure. Says WiUiam, This is 
 certainly the cunningest piece of Indian engineering that 
 ever was heard of; and there can be but one thing more to 
 
NATIVES SECRETE IN A REMAKKABLB CAVE. 193 
 
 guess at, besides witchcraft and dealing witli the devil, which 
 
 I believe not one word of, says he; and that must be, that 
 
 this is an artificial tree, or a natural tree artificially made 
 
 hoUow down into the earth, through root and all ; and that 
 
 these creatures have an artificial cavity underneath it, quite 
 
 into the hiQ, or a way to go through, and under the hill, to 
 
 some other place ; and where that other place is, we know 
 
 not ; but if it be not our own fault, I'll find the place, and 
 
 follow them into it, before I am two days older. He then 
 
 called the carpenters, to know of them if they had any 
 
 large saws that would cut through the body ; and they told 
 
 him they had no saws that were long enough, nor could 
 
 men work into such a monstrous old stump for a great 
 
 while ; but that they would go to work with it with their 
 
 axes, and undertake to cut it down in two days, and stub up 
 
 the root of it in two more. But "William was for another 
 
 way, which proved much better than aU this; for he was for 
 
 silent work, that, if possible, he might catch some of the 
 
 fellows in it : so he sete twelve men to it with large augers, 
 
 to bore great holes into the side of the tree, to go almost 
 
 through, but not quite through; which holes were bored 
 
 without noise ; and when they were done, he filled them all 
 
 with gunpowder, stopping strong plugs, bolted crossways, 
 
 into the holes, and then boring a slanting hole, of a less 
 
 size, down into the greater hole, aU which were filled with 
 
 powder, and a* once blown up. When they took fire, they 
 
 made such a noise, and tore and split the tree in so many 
 
 places, and in such, a manner, that we could see plainly such 
 
 another blast would demolish it ; and so it did. Thus at 
 
 the second time we could, at two or three places, put our 
 
 hands in them, and discovered the cheat, namely, that there 
 
 was a cave or hole dug in the earth, from or through the 
 
 bottom of the hollow, and that it had communication with 
 
 another cave further in, where we heard the voices of ^, 
 
 several of the wild folks, calling and talking to one another. ^ '^-^ 
 
 When we came thus far, we had a great mind to get at K«>^ i v > 
 them ; and William desired, that three men might be given iaI H. 1 ! 
 him with hand-grenadoes ; and he promised to go down first ; 
 and boldly he did so ; for William, give hun his due, had the 
 heart of a lion. 
 
 They had pistols in their hands, and swords by their sides ; 
 but, as they had taught the Indians before, by their stinkpots, 
 
 o 
 
194 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 the Indians returned them in their own kind ; for they mado 
 such a smoke come up out of the entrance into the cave or 
 hollow, that William and his three men were glad to come 
 running out of the cave, and out of the tree too, for mere 
 want of breath ; and indeed they were almost stifled. 
 
 Never was a fortification so well defended, or assailants so 
 many ways defeated. We were now for giving it over, and 
 particularly, I called William, and told him, I could not but 
 laugh to see us spinning out our time here for nothing ; that 
 I could not imagine what we were doing ; that it was certain 
 the rogues that were in it were cunning to the last degree, 
 and it would vex anybody to be so baulked by a few naked 
 ignorant fellows ; butstiU it was not worth our while to push 
 it any further ; nor was there anything, that I knew of, to be 
 got by the conquest, when it was made ; so that I thought it 
 high time to give it over. 
 
 WUliam acknowledged that what I said was just, and that 
 there was nothing but our curiosity to be gratified in this 
 attempt; and though, as he said, he was very desirous to 
 have searched into the thing, yet he would not insist upon 
 it ; so we resolved to quit it, and come away ; which we did. 
 However, William said before he went he would have this 
 satisfaction of them, viz., to burn down the tree, and stop up 
 the entrance into the cave. And while he was doing this, 
 the gunner told him he would have one satisfaction of the 
 rogues ; and this was, that he would make a mine of it, and 
 see which way it had vent. Upon this he fetched two barrels 
 of powder out of the ships, and placed them in the inside of 
 the hollow of the cave, as far in as he durst go to carry them, 
 and then filling up the mouth of the cave where the tree stood, 
 and ramming it sufficiently hard, leaving only a pipe or touch- 
 hole, he gave fire to it, and stood at a distance, to see which 
 way it would operate, when on a sudden, he found the force 
 of the powder burst its way out among some bushes on the 
 other side of the little lull I mentioned, and that it came 
 roaring out there as out of the mouth of a cannon ; imme- 
 diately running thither, we saw the effects of the powder. 
 
 First, We saw that there was the other mouth of the cave, 
 which the powder had so torn and opened, that the loose 
 earth was so fallen in again, that nothing of shape could be 
 discerned ; but there we saw what was become of the gar- 
 rison of Indians too, who had given us all this trouble ; for 
 
DESTROY THE CAVE. 195 
 
 ^some^of Jihem had no arms, soniejQo_legg,_gome no Ixead^some^ 
 lay half burigd jn^tTiR rutbish of the mine, that is to say, in 
 the loose earth that Tell in; and, in short, there was a 
 miserable havoc made of them all ; for we had good reason 
 to believe, not one of them that were in the inside could 
 escape, Mtjather jvere shot put of the mouth of the cave, 
 like a bultetout of a gun. 
 
 ' We had now our Ml satisfaction of the Indians ; but, in 
 short, this was a losing voyage ; for we had two men killed, 
 one quite crippled, and five more wounded; we spent two 
 barrels of powder, and eleven days' time, and all to get the 
 understanding how to make an Indian mine, or how to keep 
 garrison in a hollow tree ; and with this wit, bought at this 
 dear price, we came away, having taken in some fresh water, 
 but got no fresh provisions. 
 
 We then considered what we should do to get back again 
 to Madagascar, We were much about the latitude of the 
 Cape of Good Hope, but had such a very long run, and 
 were neither sure of meeting with fair winds, or with any 
 land in the way, that we knew not what to think of it. 
 William was otu- last resort in this case again, and he was 
 very plain with us. Friend, says he to Captain Wilmot, 
 what occasion hast thou to run the venture of starving, 
 merely for the pleasure of saying thou hast been where 
 nobody ever was before ? There are a great many places 
 nearer home, of which thou mayest say the same thing at a 
 less expense. I see no occasion thou hast of keeping thus 
 far south any longer than tiU you are sure you are to the 
 west end of Java and Sumatra ; and then thou mayest stand 
 away north towards Ceylon, and the coast of Coromandel 
 and Madras, where thou mayest get both fresh water and 
 fresh provisions ; and to that part it is likely we may hold 
 out well enough with the stores that we have already. 
 
 This was wholesome advice, and such as was not to be 
 sfighted; so we stood away to the west, keeping between 
 the latitude of 31 and 35 degrees, and had very good 
 ■weather and fair winds for about ten days' sail ; by which 
 time, by our reckoning, we were clear of the isles, and 
 might run away to the north ; and, if we did not fall in with 
 Ceylon, we should at least go into the great deep bay of 
 Bengal. 
 
 But we were out in our reckoning a gi-eat deal ; for, when 
 
 o 2 
 
J 96 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 we had stood due north for about 15 or 16 degrees, we met 
 with land again on our starboard bow, about three leagues 
 distance ; so we came to an anchor about half a league from 
 it, and manned out our boats to see what sort of a country it 
 was. We found it a very good one ; fresh water easy to come 
 at, but no cattle, that we could see, or inhabitants ; and 
 we were very shy of searching too far after them, lest we 
 should make such another journey as we did last ; so that 
 we let rambling alone, and chose rather to take what we 
 could find, which was only a few wild mangoes, and some 
 plants of several kinds, which we knew not the names of. 
 
 We made no stay here, but put to sea again, N.W. by N., 
 but had little wind for a fortnight more, when we made land 
 again ; and standing in with the shore, we were surprised to 
 find ourselves on the south shore of Java ; and just as we 
 were coming to an anchor, we saw a boat, carrying Dutch 
 colours, sailing along shore._ We were not solicitous to 
 speak with them, or any other of their nation, but left it 
 indifferent to our people, when they went on shore, to see 
 the Dutchmen, or not to see them ; our business was to get 
 provisions, which indeed by this time were very short with 
 us. 
 
 We resolved to go on shore with our boats in the most 
 convenient place we could find, and to look out a proper 
 harbour to bring the ship into, leaving it to our fate, whether 
 we should meet with friends or enemies ; resolving, however, 
 not to stay any considerable time, at least not long enough to 
 have expresses sent across the island to Batavia, and for ships 
 to come round from thence to attack us. 
 
 We found, according to our desire, a very good harbour, 
 where we rode in seven fathom water, well defended from 
 the weather, whatever might happen ; and here we got fresh 
 provisions, such as good hogs, and some cows ; and that we 
 might lay in a little store, we killed sixteen cows, and pickled 
 and barrelled up the flesh as well as we could be supposed to 
 do in the latitude of 8 degrees from the line. 
 
A LAEGE SHIP SPIED TO THE NORTH WAED. 197 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 A LABGE SHIP SPIED TO THE NOBTHWAED ^WE LAY HER 
 
 UNDER CONTRIBUTION FOE PROVISIONS WE PUT IN UPON 
 
 THE SOUTH COAST OP CEYLON BAD BEHAVIOUE OP OUK 
 
 MEN THEEE VIOLENT STORM, DURING WHICH OUR SHIP 
 
 GETS AGROUND TEANSACHONS WITH THE NATIVES AND 
 
 THEIR AMBASSADOR, AN OLD DUTCHMAN. 
 
 We did all this in about five days, and filled our casks with 
 water ; and the last boat was coming off with herbs and roots, 
 we being unmoored, and our fore-top-sail loose for sailing, 
 when we spied a large ship to the northward, bearing down 
 directly upon us. We knew not what she might be, but con- 
 cluded the worst, and made all possible haste to get our 
 anchor up, and get under saU, that we inight be in readiness 
 to see what she had to say to us, for we were under no great 
 concern for one ship ; but our notion was, that we should be 
 attacked by three or four together. 
 
 By the time we had got up our anchor, and the boat was 
 stowed, the ship was within a league of us, and, as we thought, 
 bore down to engage us ; so we spread our black flag, or 
 ancient, on the poop, and the bloody flag at the top-mast 
 head, and having made a clear ship, we stretched away to 
 the westward, and got the wind of him. 
 
 They had, it seems, quite mistaken us before, expecting 
 nothing of an enemy or a pirate in those seas ; and, not 
 doubting but we had been one of their own ships, they seemed 
 to be in some confusion when they found their mistake; 
 so they immediktely hauled upon a wind on the other tack, 
 and stood edging in for the shore, toward the easternmost 
 part of the island. Upon this we tacked, and stood after 
 him with all the sail we could, and in two hours came almost 
 within gunshot. Though they crowded all the sail they could 
 lay on, there was no remedy but to engage us, and they soon 
 saw their inequality of force. We fired a gun for them to 
 bring to : so they manned out their boat, and sent to us with 
 a flag of truce. We sent back the boat, but with this 
 answer to the captaiffi, that he had nothing to do, but to 
 Strike his colours, and bring his ship under our stern, and 
 
198 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 come on board us himself, when he should know our de- 
 mands ; but that, However, since he had not yet put us to the 
 trouble of forcing him, which we saw we were able to do, we 
 assured them that the captain should return again in safety, 
 and all his men, and that, supplying us with such things as 
 we shotdd demand, his ship should not be plundered. They 
 went back with this message, and it was some time after 
 they were on board, that they struck, which made us begin 
 to think they refused it : so we fired a shot, and in a few 
 minutes more we perceived their boat put off; and as soon as 
 the boat put off, the ship struck, and came to, as was directed. 
 
 When the captain came on board, we demanded an 
 account of their cargo, which was chiefly bales of goods 
 from Bengal for Bantam. We told them our present want 
 was provisions, which they had no need of, being just at the 
 end of their voyage ; and that, if they would send their 
 boat on shore with ours, and procure us six-and-twenty 
 head of black cattle, threescore hogs, a quantity of brandy 
 and arrack, and three hundred bushels of rice, we would let 
 them go free. 
 
 As to the rice, they gave us six hundred bushels, which 
 they had actually on board, together with a parcel shipped 
 upon freight. Also,, they gave us thirty middling casks of 
 very good arrack, but beef and pork they had none. How- 
 ever, they went on shore with our men, and bought eleven 
 bullocks and fifty hogs, which were pickled up for our 
 occasion; and upon the supplies of provision being delivered, 
 we dismissed them and their ship. 
 
 We lay here seven days before we could furnish ourselves 
 with the provisions agreed for, and some of the men fancied 
 the Dutchmen were contriving our destruction ; but they 
 were very honest,_and did what they could to furhish~tKe' 
 black cattl^lbut found it impossible to supply so many. So 
 they came and told us ingenuously, that unless we could stay 
 a while longer, they could get no more oxen or cows than 
 those eleven, with which we were obliged to be satisfied, 
 taking the value of them in other things, rather than stay 
 longer there. On our side, we were punctual with them in 
 observing the conditions we had agreed on ; nor would we 
 let any of our men so much as go on board them, or suffer 
 any of their men to come on board us ; for, Tiad any of our 
 men gone on board, nobody could have answered for their 
 
SKIRMISH ON SHORE. 199 
 
 behaviour, any more than if they had been on shore in an 
 enemy's country. 
 
 We' were now victualled for our voyage ; and, as we 
 cared not for purchase, we went merrUy on for the coast of 
 Ceylon, where we intended lb touch, to get fresh water 
 again, and more provisions; and we had nothing material 
 offered in this part of the voyage, only that we met witli 
 contrary winds, and were above a month in the passage. 
 
 We put in upon the south coast of the island, desiring to 
 have as little to do with the Dutch as we could ; and as the 
 Dutch were lords of the country as to commerce, so they are 
 more so of the sea-coast, where they have several forts, and, 
 in particular, have all the cinnamon, which is the trade of 
 that island. 
 
 "We took in fresh water here, and some provisions, but did 
 not much trouble ourselves about laying in any stores, our 
 beef and hogs, which we got at Java, being not yet all gone 
 by a good deal. We had a small skirmish on shore here 
 with some of the people of the island, some of our men 
 having been a little too familiar w ith the homely ladie s of 
 the countr; o~lor homely indeed they were, to such a degree, 
 that, if our men had not had good stomachs that way, they 
 would scarce have touched any of them. 
 
 I could n ever fully get it out of our men what t hey d id, 
 they were so true to one another in their wickedness ; but I 
 understood in the main, that it was some barbarous thing 
 they had done, and that they had like to have paid dear for 
 it ; for the men resented it to the last degree, and gathered 
 in such numbers about them, that, had not sixteen more of 
 our men, in another boat, gone all in the nick of time, just 
 to rescue our first men, who were but eleven, and so fetch 
 them off by main force, they had been all cut off, the in- 
 habitants being no less than two or three hundred, armed 
 with darts and lances, the usual weapons of the country, 
 and which they "are very dexterous at throvring, even so 
 dexterous, that it was scarce credible; and had our men 
 stood to fight them, as some of them were bold enough to 
 talk of, they had all been overwhelmed and killed. As it 
 was, seventeen of our men were wounded, and some of them 
 very dangerously. But they were more frightened than hurt 
 too ; for every one of them gave themselves over for dead 
 men, believing the lances were poisoned. But William was 
 
200 CAPTAIN SBfGLETON. 
 
 our comfort here too ; for, when two of our surgeons were 
 of the same opinion, and told the men foolishly enough, that 
 they would die, William cheerfully went to work with them, 
 and cured them all but one, who rather died by drinking 
 some arrack punch, than of hJb wouud, the excess of drinking 
 throwing him into a fever. 
 
 We had enough of Ceylon, though some of our people 
 were for going ashore again, sixty or seventy men together, 
 to be revenged ; but WilEam persuaded them against it ; and 
 his reputation was so great among the men, as well as with 
 us that were commanders, that he could influence them more 
 than any of ub. 
 
 They were mighty warm upon the revenge, and would go 
 on shore, and destroy five hundred of them. Well, says 
 William, and suppose you do, what are you the better? 
 Why then, says one of them, speaking for the rest, we shall 
 have our satisfaction. Well, and what will you be the better 
 for that? says William. They could then say nothing to 
 that. Then, says William, if I mistake not, your busin ess^ is 
 money: now, I desire to know, if you conquer and EU two 
 "or"lftree thousand of these poor creatures, they have no 
 money, pray what wiU you get? They are poor naked 
 wretches, what shall you gain by them ? But then, said 
 William, perhaps in doing this, you may chance to lose half 
 a score of your own company, as it is very probable you 
 may. Pray, what gain is in it? and what account can you 
 give the company for the lost men ? In short, WiUiam argued 
 so effectually, that he convinced them that it was mere mur- 
 der to do so ; and that the men had a right to their own, 
 and that they had no right to take them away ; that it was 
 destroying innocent men, who had acted no otherwise than 
 as the laws of nature dictated ; and that it would be as much 
 murder to do so, as to meet a man on the highway, and kill 
 him, ,for the mere sake of it, in cool blood, not regarding 
 
 1 ther he had done any wrong to us or no. 
 goiifbese reasons prevailed with them at last, and they were 
 he (tent to go away, and leave them as they found them. In 
 hof first skirmish they killed between sixty and seventy men, 
 and wounded a great many more : but they had nothing, 
 and our people got nothing by it but the loss of one man's 
 life, and the wounding sixteen more, as above. 
 
 But another accident brought us to a necessity of farther 
 
A VIOLENT STORM OF "WIND BRINGS THEM AGROUND. 201 
 
 business with these people, and indeed we had like to have 
 put an end to our hves and adventures all at once among 
 them; for, about three days after our putting out to sea, 
 from the place where we had that skirmish, we were at- 
 tacked by a violent storm of wind from the south, or rather 
 a hurricane of wind from all the points southward, for it 
 blew in a most desperate and furious manner, from the S.E. 
 to the S.W., one' minute at one point, and then instantly 
 turning about again to another point, but with the same 
 violence ; nor were we able to work the ship in that con- 
 dition ; so that the ship I was in split three topsails, and at 
 last brought the main topmast by the board; and, in a word, 
 we were once or twice driven right ashore ; and one time, 
 had not the wind shifted the very moment it did, we had , 
 been dashed in a thousand pieces upon a great ledge of 
 rocks, which lay off about half a league from the shore : but, 
 as I have said, the wind shifting very often, and at that time 
 coming to the E.S.E., we stretched off, and got above a 
 league more sea-room in half-an-hour. After that, it blew 
 with some fiiry S.W. by S., then S.W. by W., and put us 
 back again a great way to the eastward of the ledge of 
 rocks, where we found a great opening between the rocks 
 and the land, and endeavoured to come to an anchor there ; 
 but we found there was no ground fit to anchor in, there 
 being nothing but rocks. We stood through the opening, 
 which held about four leagues. The storm continued, and 
 now we found a dreadful foul shore, and knew not what 
 course to take. We looked out very narrowly for some 
 river or creek, or bay, where we might run in, and come to 
 an anchor, but found none a great while. At length we saw 
 a great headland lie out far south into the sea, and that to 
 such a length, that, in short, we saw plainly, that, if the 
 wind held where it was, we could not weather it ; so we run 
 in as much under the lee of the point as we could, and caxoc^ 
 to an anchor in about twelve fathom water. ■/ ^i\. 
 
 But the wind veering again in the night, and ^w ^ 
 exceedingly hard, our anchors came home, and the si ® 
 drove till the rudder struck against the ground ; and, hi^^^ 
 the ship gone half her length farther, she had been lost^ia^d 
 every one of us with her. But our sheet anchor held its 
 own, and we heaved in some of the cable, to get clear of 
 the ground we had struck upon. It was by this only cable 
 
202 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 that -we rode it out all night; and towards morning wel 
 thought the wind abated a little ; and it was well for us that 
 it was so ; for, in spite of what our sheet-anchor did for us, 
 we found the ship fast aground in the morning, to our very 
 great surprise and amazement. 
 
 When the tide was out, though the water here ebbed 
 away, the ship lay almost dry upon a bank of hard sand, 
 which never, I suppose, had any ship upon it before : the 
 people of the country came down in great numbers to look 
 at us, and gaze, not knowing what we were, but gaping at 
 us as at a great sight or wonder, at which they were sur- 
 prised, and knew not what to do. 
 
 I have reason to believe that, upon the sight, they imme- 
 diately sent an account of a ship being there, and of the 
 condition we were in ; for the next day there appeared a 
 great man, whether it was their king or no, I know not ; but 
 he had abundance of men vsdth him, and some with long 
 javelins, in their hands, as long as half-pikes ; and these came 
 all down to the water's edge, and drew up in a very good 
 order, just in our view. They stood near an hour without 
 making any motion ; and then there came near twenty of 
 them with a man before them, carrying a white flag before 
 them. They came forward into the water as high as their 
 waists, the sea not going so high as before, for the wind was 
 abated, and blew off shore. 
 
 The man made a long oration to us, as we could see by 
 his gestures ; and we sometimes heard his voice, but knew 
 not one word he said. WiUiam, who was always useful to 
 us, I believe was here again the saving of all our lives. The 
 case was this. The fellow, or what I might call him, when 
 his speech was done, gave three great screams (for I know not 
 what else to say they were), then lowered his white flag 
 three times, and then made three motions to us with his arm, 
 _to come to him, 
 
 I ^.cknowledge, that I was for manning out the boat, and 
 going to them ; but WiUiam would by no means allow me : 
 he ! told me, we ought to trust n'obbdy ;_thatj_if_they were 
 \baj.'barians, and under their own government, we might be 
 sufC to be-all inurdered; and if thej_were Christian^^^wS 
 should hot fare much better, if thex_knew who we_ were ; 
 that it was the custom of the Malabars, to betray all people 
 that they could get into their hands ; and that these were 
 
FEAK THE TEEACHERT OF THE PEOPLE. 203 
 
 some of the same people ; and that, if -we had aty regiird id 
 our own safety, we should not go to them by any means. I 
 opposed him a great while, and told him I thought he used 
 to be always right, but that now I thought he was not ; that 
 I was no more for running needless risks, than he, or any 
 one else ; but I thought aU nations in the world, even the 
 most savage people, when they held out a flag of peace, kept 
 the offer of peace made by that signal, very sacredly ; and I 
 gave him several examples of it in the history of my African 
 travels, which I have here gone through in the beginning of 
 this work ; and that I could not think these people worse 
 than some of them. And besides, I told him, our case seemed 
 to be such, that we must fall into somebody's hands or other, 
 and that we had better fall into their hands by a friendly 
 treaty, than by a forced submission ; nay, though they had 
 indeed a treacherous design ; and therefore I was for a parley 
 with them. 
 
 Well, friend, says William, very gravely, if thou wilt go, I 
 cannot help it, I shall only desire to take my last leave of 
 thee at parting, for, depend upon it, thou wilt never see us 
 again. Whether we in the ship may come off any better at 
 last, I cannot resolve thee ; but this I wiU answer for, that 
 we will not give up our lives idly, and in cool blood, as thou 
 art going to do ; we wiU at least preserve ourselves as long 
 as we can, and die at last like men, not like fools, trepanned 
 by the wiles of a few barbarians. 
 
 William spoke this with so niuch warmth, and yet with 
 so much assurance of our fate, that I began to think a little 
 of the risk I was going to run. I had no more mind to be 
 murdered than he ; and yet I could not for my life be so 
 faint-hearted in the thing as he. Upon which, I asked him, 
 if he hadaay^iowiedge of the place, j)r had ever been there. 
 H e saidTNa Then I asked him, if Jie ha_Oieard_or_ read 
 anything about the people of this island, and of their way of 
 "EeaSiig'aSy^Christians that had fallen into their hands ; and 
 he told me, he had heard of one, and he would tell me the 
 story afterward. HisTffanie^ he said, was Knox, commander 
 of an East-India ship, who was driven on shore, just as we 
 were, upon this island of Ceylon, though he could not say it 
 was at the same place, or whereabouts: that he was beguiled 
 by the barbarians, and enticed to come on shore, just as we 
 were invited to do at that time ; and that, when they had 
 
 \%^\ 
 
204 CAPTAIN SINGLETON, 
 
 him, they surrounded him and eighteen or twenty of hia' 
 men, and never suiFered them to return, but kept them 
 prisoners, or murdered them, he could not tell which ; hut 
 they were carried away up in the country, separated from 
 one another, and never heard of afterwards, except the 
 captain's son, who miraculously made his escape, after 
 twenty years' slavery. 
 
 I had no time then to ask him to give the full stoiy of 
 this Knox, much less to hear him tell it me ; but as it is 
 usual in such cases, when one begins to be a little touched, I 
 turned short with him. "Why then, friend WiUiam, said I, 
 what would you have us do ? You see what condition we 
 are in, and what is before us ; something must be done, and 
 that immediately. Why, says William, I'll teU thee what 
 thou shouldst do : first cause a white flag to be hung out, 
 as they do to us, and man out the long-boat and pinnace 
 with as many men as they can well stow, to handle their 
 arms, and let me go with them, and thou shalt see what we 
 wiU do. If I miscarry, thou mayest be safe ; and I will 
 also tell thee, that if I do miscarry, it shall be my own fault, 
 and thou shalt learn wit by my folly. 
 
 I knew not what to reply to him at first ; but, after some 
 pause, I said, WUliam, WiQiam, I am as loath you should 
 be lost as you are that I should; and if there be any danger, 
 I desire you may no more fall into it than I. Therefore, if 
 you vrill, let us aU keep in the ship, fare alike, and take our 
 fate together. 
 
 No, no, says William, there's no danger in the method I 
 propose; thou shalt go with me, if thou thinkest fit. If 
 thou pleasest but to follow the measures that I shall resolve 
 on, depend upon it, though we will go ofi" from the ships, 
 we will not a man of us go any nearer them than within 
 call, to talk with them. Thou seest they have no boats to 
 come off to us ; but, says he, I rather desire thou wouldst 
 take my advice, and manage the ships as I shall give the 
 signal from the boat, and let us concert that matter together 
 before we go ofi". 
 
 Well, I found William had his measures in his head aU 
 laid beforehand, and was not at a loss what to do at all ; so I 
 told him he should be captain for this voyage, and we would 
 be all of us imder his orders, which I would see observed to 
 a tittle. 
 

 
 ^^LA^-^C 
 
 
 
 "> ft /' 
 
 
 
 WILLIAM GOES OH SHOKB. 205 
 
 Upon this conclusion of our debates, he ordered four-and- 
 twenty men into the the long-boat, and twelve men into the 
 pinnace, and the sea being now pretty smooth, they went off, 
 being all very well armed. Also he ordered, that all the 
 guns of the great ship, on the side which lay next the shore, 
 should be loaded with musket-balls, old naUs, stubs, and 
 such like pieces of old iron, lead, and anything that came to 
 hand ; and that we should prepare to Are as soon as ever we 
 saw them lower the white flag and hoist up a red one in the 
 pinnace. 
 
 With these measures fixed between us, they went off 
 towards the shore, "William in the pinnace with twelve nlen, 
 and the long-boat coming after him with four-and-twenty 
 more, aU stout, resolute fellows, and very well armed. They 
 rowed so near the shore, as that they might speak to one 
 another, carrying a white flag, as the other did, and offering 
 a parley. The brutes, for such they were, showed them- 
 selves very courteous ; but, finding we could not understand 
 them, they fetched an old Dutchman, who had been their 
 prisoner many years, and set him to speak to us. The sum 
 and substance of his speech was — ^that the king of the 
 country had sent his general down to know who we were, 
 and what our business was. William stood up in the stem 
 of the pinnace, and told him — that as to that, he, that was 
 an European, by his language and voice, might easily know 
 what we were, and our condition : the ship being aground 
 upon the sand, would aJso tell him, that our business there 
 was that of a ship in distress : so William desired to know 
 what they came down for with such a multitude, and with 
 arms and weapons, as if they came to war with us. 
 
 He answered, they might have good reason to come down 
 to the shore, the country being alarmed with the appearance 
 of ships of strangers upon the coast ; and as our vessels were 
 full of men, who had guns and weapons, the king had sent part 
 of his military men, that, in case of any invasion upon the 
 country, they might be ready to defend themselves, whatso- 
 ever might be the occasion. 
 
 But, says he, as you are men in distress, the king has 
 ordered his general, who is here also, to give you all the as- 
 sistance he can, and to invite you on shore, and receive you 
 with all possible courtesy. Says William, very quick upoE 
 
206 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 him, Before I give ttee an answer to that, I desire thee to 
 tell me what thou art ; for by thy speech thou art an Eu- 
 ropean. He answered presently, he was a Dutchman. That 
 I know well, says William, by thy speech ; but art thou a 
 native Dutchman of Holland, or a native of this country, , 
 that has learned Dutch by conversing among the Hollanders, 
 who we know are settled Nipon this island ? 
 
 No, says the old man, I am a native of Delft, in the pro- 
 vince of Holland, in Europe, 
 
 Well, says William, immediately, but art thou a Christian 
 or a heathen, or what we call a renegado ? 
 
 I am, says he, a Christian. And so they went on, in a 
 short dialogue, as follows : — 
 
 Will. Thou art a Dutchman, and a Christian, thou sayest ; 
 pray, art thou a freeman or a servant ? 
 
 Dutchm. I am a servant to the king here, and in his 
 army. 
 
 Will. But art thou a volunteer, or a prisoner ? 
 
 Dutchm. Indeed I was a prisoner at first, but am at Uberty 
 now, and so am a volunteer. 
 
 Will. That is to say, being first a prisoner, thou hast 
 liberty to serve them ; but art thou so at liberty, that thou 
 mayest go away, if thou pleasest, to thine own country- 
 men? 
 
 Dutclim. No, I do not say so : my countrjonen live a great 
 way off, on the north and east parts of the island, and there 
 is no going to them, without the king's express license. 
 
 Will. Well, and why doest not thou get a license to go 
 away ? 
 
 Dutchm. I have never asked for it. 
 
 Will. And, I suppose, if thou didst, thou knowest thou 
 couldst not obtain it. 
 
 Dutakm. I cannot say much as to that ; but why do you 
 ask me all these questions. 
 
 Will. Why, my reason is good : if thou art a Christian 
 and a prisoner, how canst thou consent to be made an in- 
 strument to these barbarians, to betray us into their hands, 
 who are thy countrymen and fellow-Clmstians ? Is it not a 
 barbarous thing in thee to do so ? 
 
 Duichm. How do I go about to betray you ? Do I not 
 
DIALOGUE BETWEEN WILLIAM AND A DUTCHMAN. 207 
 
 give you an account, how the king invites you to come on 
 shore, and has ordered you to be treated courteously, and 
 assisted ? 
 
 Will. As thou art a Christian, though I doubt it much, 
 dost thou believe the king, or the general, as thou callest 
 him, means one word of what he says ? 
 
 Dutchm. He promises you by the mouth of his great 
 general. 
 
 Will. I don't ask thee what he promises, or by whom ; but 
 I ask thee this: — Canst thou say, that thou believest he 
 intends to perform it ? 
 
 Butchm. How can I answer that? How can I tell what 
 he intends? 
 
 WUl. Thou canst teU what thou believest. 
 
 Dutchm. I cannot say but he will perform it ; I believe he 
 may. 
 
 Will. Thou art but a double-tongued Christian, I doubt. 
 Come, rU ask thee another question : Wilt thou say, that 
 thou believest it, and that thou wouldst advise me to believe 
 , it, and put our hves into their hands upon these promises ? 
 
 Dutchm. I am not to be your adviser. 
 
 Will. Thou art perhaps afraid to speak thy mind, because 
 thou art in their power. Pray, do any of them understand 
 what thou and I say ? Can they speak Dutch ? 
 
 Dutchm. No, not one of them : I have no apprehensions 
 upon that account at all. 
 
 Will. Why then, answer me plainly, if thou art a Chris- 
 tian : Is it safe for us to venture, upon their words, to put 
 ourselves into their hands, and come on shore ? 
 
 Dutchm. You put it very home to me. Pray, let me ask 
 you another question : are you in any likelihood of getting 
 your ship off, if you refuse it? 
 
 Will. Yes, yes, we shall get off the ship ; now the storm 
 is over, we, don't fear it. 
 
 Dutchm. Then I cannot say it is best for you to trust them. 
 
 Will. Well, it is honestly said. 
 
 Dutchm. But what shall I say to them ? 
 
 Will. Give them good words, as they give us. 
 
 Dutchm. What good words ? 
 
 Will. Why, let them teU the king, that we are strangers, 
 who were driven on the coast by a great storm; that wa 
 thank him very kindly for his offer of civility to us, which, 
 
208 CAPTAIN sraaLETON. 
 
 if we are farther distressed, we will accept thankfully ; but 
 that at present we have no occasion to come on shore ; and 
 besides, that we cannot safely leave the ship in the present 
 condition she is in ; but that we are obliged to take care of 
 her, in order to get her off, and expect, in a tide or two 
 more, to get her quite clear, and at an anchor. 
 
 Dutchm. But he will expect you to come on shore, then, to 
 visit him, and make him some present for his civility. 
 
 Will. When we have got our ship clear, and stopped the 
 leaks, we wiU pay our respects to him. 
 
 Dutchm. Nay, you may as weU come to him now as then. 
 
 Will. Nay, hold, fiiend ; I did not say we would come to 
 him then : you talked of making him a present ; that is to 
 pay our respects to him ; is it not ? 
 
 Dutchm. WeU, but I will tell him that you will come on 
 shore to him when your ship is got off. 
 
 Will. I have nothing to say to that : you may tell him 
 what you think fit. 
 
 Dutchm. But he wiU be in a great rage if I do not. 
 
 Will. Who will he be in a rage at ? 
 
 Dutchm. At you. 
 
 Will. What occasion have we to value that I 
 
 Dutchm. Why, he will send all his army down against you. 
 , Will. And what if they were all here just now? What 
 dost thou suppose they could do to us ? 
 
 Dutchm. He would expect they should burn your ships, 
 and bring you all to him. 
 
 Will. TeU him, if he should try, he may catch a Tartar. 
 
 Dutchm. He has a world of men. 
 
 Will. Has he any ships ? 
 
 Dutchm. No, he has no ships. 
 
 Will. Nor boats ? 
 
 Dutchm. No, nor boats. 
 
 Will. Why, what then do you think we care for his men? 
 What canst thou do now to us, if thou hadst a hundred 
 thousand with thee ? 
 
 Dutchm. O ! they might set you on fire. 
 
 Will. Set us a-firing, thou meanest: that they might 
 indeed ; but set us on fire they shall not ; they might try, at 
 their peril, and we shaU make mad work with your hundred 
 thousand men, if they come within reach of our guns, I 
 assure thee. 
 
THE SHIP GOT OFF. 209 
 
 Dutehm. But what if the king gives you hostages for your 
 
 Will. Whom can he give but mere slaves and servants like 
 thyself, whose lives he no more values than we an Ensrlish 
 hound? ^ 
 
 Dutehm. Whom do you demand for hostages? 
 
 Will. Himself and your worship. 
 
 Dutehm. What woidd you do with him ? 
 
 Will. Do with him as he would do with us,^ut his 
 head off. 
 
 Dutehm. And what would you do to me? 
 
 Will. Do with thee ? We would carry thee home into 
 thine own country ; and, though thou deservest the gallows, 
 we would make a man and a Christian of thee again, and 
 not do by thee as thou wouldst have done- by us, — ^betray 
 thee to a parcel of merciless, savage pagans, that know no 
 God, nor how to show mercy to man. 
 
 Dutehm. You put a thought in my head, that I will speak 
 to you about to-morrow. 
 
 CHAPTEE XVn. 
 
 WE GET THE SHIP OFF — THE KING OF THE COUNTBT SENDS 
 AN IMMENSE MULTITUDE DOWN TO THE SHORE CONVER- 
 SATION BETWIXT WILLIAM AND THE DUTCHMAN ACTION 
 
 WITH THE NATIVES ^WE CARRY OFF THE DUTCHMAN BY 
 
 A STRATAGEM — ^RELATION OF CAPTAIN KNOx's ADVENTURE 
 ON THE SAME ISLAND. 
 
 Thus they went away, and William came on board, and gave 
 us a ftdl account of his parley with the old Dutclrman, which 
 was very diverting, and to me instructing ; for I had abund- 
 ance of reason to acknowledge WiQiam had made a better 
 judgment of things than I. 
 
 ■ It was our good fortune to get our ship off that very night, 
 and to bring her to an anchor at about a mile and a half 
 further out, and in deep water, to our great satisfaction ; so 
 that we had no need to fear the Dutchman's king, with his 
 hundred thousand men ; and indeed we had some sport with 
 them the next day, when they came down, a vast prodigious 
 
 ' p 
 
210 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 multitude of them, very few less in number, in our ima^a^ 
 tion, than a hundred thousand, with some elephants ; though 
 if it had been an army of elephants, they could have done us 
 ho harm ; for we were fairly at our anchor now, and out of 
 their reach ; and indeed we thought ourselves more out of 
 their reach than we really were ; and it was ten thousand to 
 one, that we had not been fast aground again ; for the wind 
 blowing off shore, though it made the water smooth where 
 we lay, yet it blew the ebb farther out than usual, and we 
 could easily perceive the sand, which we touched upon before,, j 
 lay in the shape of a half moon, and surrounded us ivith 
 two horns of it ; so that we lay in the middle or centre of it, 
 as in a round bay, safe just as we were, and in deep water,; 
 but present death, as it were, on the right hand and on the 
 left ; for the two horns, or points of the sand, reached out 
 beyond where our ship lay near two miles. 
 
 On that part of the sand which lay on our east side, this 
 misguided multitude extended themselves ; and, being most 
 of them not above their knees, or most of them not above 
 ancle deep in the water, they, as it were, surrounded us on 
 that side, and on the side of the mainland, and a httle way 
 on the other side of the sand, standing in a half circle, or 
 rather threa-fifths of a circle, for about six miles in length ; 
 the other horn, or point of the sand, which lay on our west 
 side, being not quite so shallow, they could not extend them- 
 selves upon it so far. 
 
 They little thought what service they had done us, and 
 how unwillingly, and by the greatest ignorance, they had 
 made themselves pilots to us, while we, having not sounded 
 the place, might have been lost before we were aware. It is 
 true, we might have sounded our new harbour before we 
 had ventured out ; but I cannot say, for certain, whether we 
 should or not ; for I, for my part, had not the least suspicion 
 of what our real case was : however, I say, perhaps, before 
 we had weighed, we should have looked about us a little. * 
 I am sure we ought to have done it ; for, besides these armies 
 of human , furies, we had a very leaky ship, and all pur 
 pumps could hardly keep the water from growing upon us, 
 and our carpenters were overboard, working to find out and 
 stop the wounds we had received, heeling her first on one 
 side and then on the other ; and it was very diverting to see 
 how, when our men heeled the ship over to the side next the 
 
ARMY. OF NATTVES SENT llOWHt TO THE SHOEE. 211 
 
 ■Wild axmy that stood on the east horn of the sand, they were 
 so amazed, between fright and joy, that it put them into a 
 kind of confusion, calling to one another, hallooing and 
 shrieking, in a manner that it is impossible to describe. 
 
 While we were doing this, for we were in a great hurry, 
 you may be sure, arid all hands at work, as well at the stop- 
 ping our leaks, as repairing our rigging and sails, which had 
 received a great deal of damage, and also in rigging a new 
 main-top-mast, and the like ; I say, while we were doing all 
 this, we perceived a body of men, of near a thousand, move 
 from that part <^ the army of the barbarians that lay at the 
 bottom of the sandy bay, and come all along the water's 
 edge, round the sand, till they stood just on our broadside 
 east, and were within about half a mile of us. Then we 
 saw the Dutchman come forward nearer to us, and all alone, 
 with his white j3ag and all his motions, just as before, and 
 there he stood. 
 
 Our men had just brough't the ship to rights again as they 
 came up to our broadside, and we had very happily found 
 out and stopped the Tvorst and most dangerous leak that we 
 had, to our very great satisfaction ; so I ordered the boats to 
 be hauled up arid . manned as they were the day before, and 
 William to go as plenipotentiary. I would have gone my- 
 self, if I had understood Dutch ; but as I did not, it was to 
 no purpose, for I should be able to know nothing of what 
 was said, but from him at second hand, which might be done 
 as well afterwards. All the instructions I pretended to give 
 WiUiam, was, if possible, to get the old Dutchman away, 
 and, if he could, to make him come on board. 
 
 Well, William went just as before ; and when he came 
 within about sixty or seventy yards of the shore, he held up 
 his white flag, as the Dutchman did, and, turning the boat's 
 broadside to the shore, and his men lying upon their oars, 
 the parley, or dialogue, began again thus : — 
 
 Will. Well, friend, what dost thou say to us now? 
 
 Dutchm. I came of the same mild errand as I did 
 yesterday. 
 
 Will. What dost thou pretend to come of a mild errand, 
 with'all these people at thy back, and aU the foolish weapons 
 of war they bring witii them ? Prithee, what dost thou 
 
 mean? 
 
 p 2 
 
212 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 Dutchm. The king hastens us to invite the captain and all 
 his men to come on shore, and has ordered all his men to 
 show them aU the civility they can. 
 
 Will. Well, and are those men come to invite us ashore ? 
 
 Butchm. They wiU do you no hurt, if you will come on 
 shore peaceably. 
 
 Will. Well, and what dost thou think they can do to us, 
 if we will not? 
 
 Butchm. I would not have them do you any hurt then 
 neither. 
 
 Will. But grithee, friend, do not make thyself fool and 
 knave too : dost not thou know that we are out of fear of aU 
 thy army, and out of danger of all that they can do ? What 
 makes thee act so simply as well as so knavishly ? 
 
 Butchm. Why you may think yourselves safer than you 
 are : you do not know what they may do to you. I can 
 assure you they are able to do you a great deal of harm, and 
 perhaps burn your ship. 
 
 Will. Suppose that were true, as I am sure it is false, you 
 see we have more ships to carry us off (pointing to the 
 sloop*). 
 
 Butchm. We do not value that, if you had ten ships, you 
 dare not come on shore with all the men you have, in a 
 hostile way; we are too many for you. 
 
 Will. Thou dost not even in that speak as thou meanest ; 
 and we may give thee a trial of our hands, when our friends 
 come up to us ; for thou hearest they have discovered us.f 
 
 Butchm. Yes, I hear they fire, but I hope your ship will 
 not fire again ; for, if they do, our general will take it for 
 breaking the truce, and wUl make- the army let fly a shower 
 of arrows at you in the boat. 
 
 Will. Thou mayest be sure the ship will Jire, that the 
 other ship may hear them, but not with ball. If thy general 
 knows no better, he may begin when he will ; but thou 
 mayest be sure we will return it to his cost. 
 
 Butchm. What must I do then 1 
 
 Will. Do ! why go to him, and tell him of it beforehand 
 
 * N.B. — Just at this time we discovered the sloop standing' towards us 
 from the east, along the shore, at about the distance of two leagues, which 
 was to our particular satisfaction, she having been missing thirteen days. 
 
 ' ^ust then the sloop fired five guns, which was to get news of u, fol' 
 imo/ did not see ug. 
 
DIALOGUE BETWEEN WlLLIiil AND THE DUTCHMAN. 21b 
 
 then ; and let him know, that the ship firing is not at him, 
 nor his men ; and then come again and teU us what ha 
 
 Dutchm. No, I will send to him, which will do as well. 
 
 Will. Do as thou wilt ; but I believe thou hadst better go 
 thyself; for, if our men fire first, I suppose he will be in a 
 great wrath, and, it may be, at thee ; for, as for his wrath at 
 us, we tell thee, beforehand, we value it not. 
 
 Dutchm. Tou slight them too much ; you know not what 
 they may do. 
 
 Will. Thou makest as if those poor savage wretches could 
 do mighty things ; prithee let us see what you can all do, we 
 value it not ; thou mayest set down thy flag of truce when 
 thou pleasest, and begin. 
 
 Dutchm. I had rather make a truce, and have you all part 
 fiiends. 
 
 Will. Thou art a deceitful rogue thyself ; for it is plain 
 thou knowest these people would only persuade us on shore, 
 to entrap and surprise us ; and yet thou that art a Christian, 
 as thou caUest thyself, wouldst have us come on shore, and 
 put our lives into their hands who know nothing that 
 belongs to compassion, good usage, or good manners ; how 
 canst thou be such a villain ? 
 
 Dutchm. How can you call me so ? What have I done to 
 you, and what would you have me do ? 
 
 Will. Not act like a traitor, but like one that was once a 
 Christian, and would have been so stiU, if you had not been 
 a Dutchman. / 
 
 Dutchm. I know not what to do, not I; I vrish I were*/ 
 from them ; they are a bloody people. 
 
 Will. Prithee make no difficulty of what thou shouldest 
 do : canst thou swim ? 
 
 Dutchm. Yes, I can swim; but if I should attempt to swim 
 ofi" to you, I should have a thousand arrows and javelins 
 sticking in me, before I should get to your boat. 
 
 Will. I'll bring the boat close to thee, and take thee on 
 board in spite of them all. We wiU give them but one 
 voUey, and I'll engage they vrill all run away from thee. 
 
 Dutchm. You are mistaken in them, I assure you; they 
 would immediately come all running down to the shore, and 
 shoot fire-arrows at you, and set your boat and ship and all 
 on fire about your ears, 
 
il4 CAPTAIN SINGLETOS. 
 
 Will. We -will venture that, if thou wilt come off. 
 
 Dutchm. Will you use me honourably when I am ajnong 
 you? 
 
 Will. I'll give thee my word for it, if thou provest honest. 
 
 Dutchm. Will you not make me a prisoner ? 
 
 Will. I wiU be thy surety, body for body, that thou shalt 
 be a freeman, and go whither thou wilt, though I owh to 
 thee thou dost not deserve it. 
 
 Just at this time our ship fired three guns to answer the 
 sloop, and let her know we saw her, who immediately, we 
 perceived, understood it, and stood directly for the place j | 
 but it is impossible to express the confusion and filthy vile 
 noise, the hurry and universal disorder, that was among that 
 vast multitude of people, upon our firing off three guns. 
 They immediately all repaired to their arms, as I may call 
 it ; for, to say they put themselves into order, would be 
 saying nothing. 
 
 Upon the word of command, then, they advanced all in a 
 body to the sea-side, and resolving to give us one volley of 
 their fire-arms (for such they were), immediately they saluted 
 us with a hundred thousand of their arrows, every one 
 carrying a little bag of cloth dipped in brimstone, or some 
 such thing; which, flying through the air, had nothing to 
 hinder it taking fire as it flew ; and it generally did so. 
 
 I cannot say but this method of attacking us, by a way we 
 had no notion of, might give us at first some little surprise ; 
 for the number was so great at first, that we were not 
 altogether without apprehensions that they might unluckily 
 set our ship on fire ; so that WUliam resolved immediately to 
 row on board, and persuade us all to weigh, and stand out to 
 sea ; but there was no time for it ; for they immediately let 
 fly a volley at the boat, and at the ship, from all the parts of 
 the vast crowd of people which stood near the shore. 
 
 Nor did they fire, as I may caU it, all at once, and so leave 
 off; but their arrows being soon notched upon their bows, 
 they kept continually shooting, so that the air was full of 
 flame. 
 
 I could not say whether they set their cotton rag on fire 
 before they shot the arrow ; for I did not perceive they had 
 fire with them, which, however, it seems they had. The 
 arrow, besides the fire it carried with it, had a head, oi » 
 
ENGAGEMENT WITH THE NATIVES. 215 
 
 peg, as we call it, of a bone, and some of sharp flint stone .; 
 and some few of a metal, too soft in itself for metal, but hard 
 enough to cause it to enter, if it were a plank, so as to stick 
 where it fell. 
 
 William and his men had notice sufficient to lie close 
 behind their waste-boards, which, for this very purpose, they 
 had made so high, that they could easily sink iJiemselves 
 behind them, so as to defend themselves from anything that 
 came point-blank (as we caU it), or upon a line ; but for 
 what might faU perpendicularly out of the air, they had no 
 guard, but took the hazard of that. At first, they made as 
 if they would row away, but before they went, they gave a 
 volley of their small arms, firing at those which stood with 
 the Dutchman ; but William ordered them to be sure to take 
 their aim at others, so as to miss him, and they did so. 
 
 There was no calling to them now, for the noise was so 
 great among them, that they could hear nobody; but our 
 men boldly rowed in nearer to them, for they were at first 
 driven a little ofi^, and when they came nearer, they fired a 
 second volley, which put the fellows into great confusion, 
 and we could see from the ship, that several of them were 
 killed or wounded. 
 
 We thought this was a very unequal fight, and therefore 
 we made a signal to our men to row away, that we might 
 have a little of the sport as well as they ; but the arrows 
 flew so thick upon them, being so near the shore, that they 
 could not sit to their oars ; so they spread a little of their sail, 
 thinking they might sail along the shore, and lie behind their 
 waste-boards ; but the sail had not been spread six minutes, 
 tUl it had five hundred fire-arrows shot into it, and through 
 it, and at length set it fairly on fire ; nor were our men quite 
 out of the danger of its setting the boat on fire ; and this 
 made them paddle and shove the boat away as well as they 
 could, as they lay, to get farther off. 
 
 By this time they had left us a fair mark at the whole 
 savage army ; and as we had sheered the ship as near to them 
 as we could, we fired among the thickest of them six or seven 
 times, five guns at a time, with shot, old iron, musket 
 bullets, &c. 
 
 We could easily see that we made havoc of them, and 
 killed and wounded abundance of them, and that they were 
 
216 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 in a great surprise at it ; but yet they never offered to stir, 
 and all this while their fire-arrows flew as thick as before. 
 
 At last, on a sudden their arrows stopped, and the old 
 Dutchman came running down to the water-side all alone, 
 with his white flag, as before, waving it as high as he could, 
 and making signals to our boat to come to him again. 
 
 William did not care at first to go near him, but the man 
 continning to make signals to him to come, at last WiUiam 
 went ; and the Dutchman told him, that he had been with 
 the general, who was much mollified by the slaughter of 
 his men, and that now he could have anything of him. 
 
 Anything, says William, what have we to do with him ? 
 Let him go about his business, and carry his men out of gun- 
 shot ; can't he? 
 
 Why, says the Dutchman, but he dares not stir, nor see 
 the king's face ; unless some of your men came on shore, he 
 will certainly put him to death. 
 
 Why then, says William, he is a dead man ; for if it were 
 to save his life, and the lives of all the crowd that is with 
 him, he shall never have one of us in his power. 
 
 But I'll teU thee, said William, how thou shalt cheat him, 
 and gain thy own liberty too, if thou hast any mind to see 
 thy own country again, and art not turned savage, and grown 
 fond of living all thy days among heathens and savages. 
 
 I would be glad to do it with all my heart, says he ; but 
 if I should offer to swim off to you now, though they are so 
 far from me, they shoot so true, that they would kill me 
 before I got half way. 
 
 ■But, says William, I'll tell thee how thou shalt come with 
 his consent. Go to him, and tell him I have offered to carry 
 you on board, to try if you could persuade the captain to 
 come on shore, and that I would not hinder him if he was 
 willing to venture. 
 
 The Dutchman seemed in a rapture at the very first word. 
 I'll do it, says he ; I am persuaded he will give me leave to 
 come. 
 
 Away he runs, as if he had a glad message to carry, and 
 tells the general, that William had promised, if he would go 
 on board the ship with him, he would persuade the captain 
 to return with him. The general was fool enough to give 
 him orders to go, and charged him not to come back without 
 
ly 
 
 THE DUTCHMAN ESCAPES FKOM CKTLON. 217 
 
 the captain ; which he readily promised, and very honestly 
 might. 
 
 So they took him in, and brought him on hoard ; and ha 
 was as good as his word to them ; for he never went back 
 any more ; and the sloop being come to the mouth of the 
 inlet where we lay, we weighed, and set sail ; but, as we 
 went out, being pretty near the shore, we flred three guns, as 
 it were among them, but without any shotj_fox_iLffi;as^f_no 
 use to us t o hurtan y more of them. After we had fired, we 
 ' gave tJiem a" cheer, as the seamen^caU it ; that is to say, we 
 hallooed at them, by way of triumph, and so carried oflf their 
 ambassador. How it fared with the general, we know 
 nothing of that. 
 
 This passage, when I related it to a friend of mine, after 
 my return from those rambles, agreed so well with his 
 relation of what happened to one Mr. Knox, an English 
 captain, who some time ago was decoyed on shore by those 
 people, that it could not be very much to my satisfaction to 
 think what mischief we had all escaped; and I think it 
 cannot but be very profitable to record the other story (which 
 is but short) with my own, to show whoever reads this, 
 what it was I avoided, and prevent their falling into the like, 
 if they have to do with the perfidious people of Ceylon. 
 The relation is as foUows: — 
 
 The island of CeylotI being inhabited for the greatest part (^^<Ha^ 
 by barba rians, which wiU no t a llow an y trade_or commeEce Jaujl^zX^%, 
 witETanYTEurop ean nation.^nd inaccessible by an v travellers. ^ i, 
 it will be convenient to relate the occasion how the author [rst-v-tewi-v-i 
 of this story happened to go into this island, and what op- ''^'^ ■ 
 portunities he had of being fuUy acquainted with the people, 
 their laws and customs, that so we may the better depend 
 upon the account, and value it, as it deserves, for the rarity 
 as well as the truth of it ; and both these the author gives 
 us a brief relation of in this manner. His words are as 
 follow: — 
 
 In the year 1657, the Anne frigate, of London, Captain 
 Robert Knox commander, on the 21st day of January, set 
 sail out of the Downs, in the service of the honourable the 
 East India Company of England, bound for Fort St. George, 
 upon the coast of Coromandel, to trade for one year from 
 port to port in India ; which having performed, as he was 
 
218 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 lading his goods to return to England, being in the road of 
 Matlipatam, on the 19th of November, 1659. there happened 
 such a mighty storm, that in it several ships were cast away, 
 and he was forced to cut his mainmast by the board, which 
 so disabled the ship, that he could not proceed in his voy- 
 age; whereupon Cotiar, in the island of Ceylon, being a 
 very commodious bay, fit for her present distress, Thomas 
 Chambers, esquire, since Sir Thomas Chambers, the agent 
 at Fort St. George, ordered that the ship should take in 
 some cloth and Indian merchants belonging to Porta 
 Nova, who might trade there while she lay to set her mast, 
 and repair the other damages sustained by the storm. At 
 her first coming thither, after the Indian merchants were set 
 on shore, the captain and his men were very jealous of the 
 people of that place, by reason the English never had any 
 commerce or dealing with them; but after they had been 
 there twenty days, going ashore and returning again at plea- 
 sure, without any molestation, they began to lay aside all 
 suspicious thoughts of the people that dwelt thereabouts, who 
 had kindly entertained them for their money. 
 
 By this time the king of the country had notice of their 
 arrival, and, not being acquainted with their intents, he sent 
 down a dissuava, or general, with an army to them, who 
 immediately sent a messenger to the captain on board, to 
 desire him to come ashore to him, pretending a letter from 
 the king. The captain saluted the message with firing of 
 guns, and ordered his son Robert Knox, and Mr. John 
 Loveland, merchant of the ship, to go ashore, and wait on 
 him. When they were come before him, he demanded who 
 they were, and how long they should stay. They told him 
 they were Englishmen, and not to stay above twenty or 
 thirty days, and desired permission to trade in his majesty's 
 port. His answer was — ^that the king was glad to hear that 
 the English were come into his country, and had commanded 
 him to assist them as they should desire, and had sent a 
 letter to be delivered to none but the captain himself. They 
 were then twelve miles from the sea-side, and therefore 
 replied, that the captain could not leave his ship to come so 
 far; but if he pleased to go down to the sea-side, the 
 captain would wait on him to receive the letter ; whereupon 
 the dissuava desired them to stay that day, and on the 
 morrow he would go with them; which, rather than dis- 
 
HISTOET OP CAPTAIN KNOX ON THE SAME IST4IID. 219 
 
 please him in so small a matter, they consented to. In the 
 evening the dissuava sent a present to the captain, of cattle 
 and fruits, &c., which, being carried all night by the mes- 
 sengers, was dehvered to him in the morning, who told him 
 withal that his men were coming down with the dissuava, 
 and desired his company on shore against his coming, having 
 a letter from the king to deliver into his own hand. The 
 captain, mistrusting nothing, came on shore with his boat, 
 and, sitting under a tamarind tree, waited for the dissuava. 
 In the meantime, the native soldiers privately surrounded 
 him and the seven men he had with him, and, seizing them, 
 carried them to meet the dissuava, bearing the captain on a 
 hammock on their shoulders. 
 
 The next day the long-boat's crew, not knowing what had 
 happened, came on shore to cut down a tree to make cheeks 
 for the mainmast, and were made prisoners after the same 
 manner, though with more violence, because they were more 
 rough with them, and made resistance : yet they were not 
 brought to the captain and his company, but quartered in 
 another house in the same town. 
 
 The dissuava having thus gotten two boats and eighteen 
 men, his next care was to gain the ship ; and to that end, 
 telling the captain that he and his men were only detained 
 because the king intended to send letters and a present to 
 the English nation by him, desired he would send some men 
 on board his ship to order her to stay ; and because the ship 
 was in danger of being fired by the Dutch, if she stayed 
 long in the bay, to bring her up the river. The captain did 
 not approve, of the advice, but did not dare to own his 
 dislike ; and so sent his son with the order, but with a 
 solemn conjuration to return again, which he accordingly 
 did, bringing a letter from the company in the ship — ^that 
 they would not obey the captain, nor any other, in this 
 matter, but were resolved to stand on their own defence. 
 This letter satisfied the dissuava, who thereupon gave the 
 captain leave to write for what he would have brought him 
 from the ship, pretending that he had not the king's order to 
 release them, though it would suddenly come. 
 
 The captain seeing he was held in suspense, and the 
 season of the year spending for the ship to proceed on her 
 voyage to some place, sent order to Mr. John Burfofd, the 
 chief mate, to take charge of the ship, and set sail to Porta 
 
220 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 Nova, from whence they came, and there to follow the agent's 
 order 
 
 And now began that long and sad captivity they aU along 
 feared. The ship being gone, the dissuava was called up to 
 the king, and they were kept under guards awhile, tUl a 
 special order came from the king to part them, and put one 
 in a town, for the conveniency of their maintenance, which 
 the king ordered to be at the charge of the country. On 
 September 16, 1660, the captam and his son were placed in 
 a town called Bonder Cooswat, in the country of Hotcurly, 
 distant from the city of Candi northward thirty miles, and 
 from the rest of the English, a fuU day's journey. Here 
 they had their provisions brought them twice a day, without 
 money, as much as they could eat, and as good as the 
 country yielded. The situation of the place was very 
 pleasant and commodious; but that year that part of the 
 land was very sickly by agues and fevers, of which many 
 died. The captain and his son, after some time, were 
 visited with the common distemper, and the captain being 
 also loaded with grief for his deplorable condition, languished 
 more than three months, and then died, February the 9 th, 
 1661, 
 
 Eobert Knox, his son, was now left desolate, sick, and in 
 captivity, having none to comfort him but God, who is the 
 father of the fatherless, and hears the groans of such as are 
 in captivity, being alone to enter upon a long scene of 
 misery and. calamity, oppressed with weakness of body and 
 grief of soul, for the loss of his father, and his remediless- 
 trouble that he was hke to endure ; and the first instance of 
 it was in the burial of his father : for he sent his black boy 
 to the people of the tovsm, to desire their assistance, because 
 they understood not their language ; but they sent him only 
 a rope, to drag him by the neck into the woods, and told him, 
 — that they would offer him no other help, unless he would 
 pay for it. This barbarous answer increased his trouble for 
 his father's death, that now he was like to lie unburied, and 
 be made a prey to the wild beasts in the woods; for the 
 ground was very hard, and they had not tools to dig with, 
 and so it was impossible for them to bury him ; and having 
 a small matter of money left him, viz., a pagoda and a gold 
 ring, he hired a man, and so buried him in as decent a 
 manner as their condition would permit. 
 
CONCLUSION OP CAPTAIN KNOX's HISTOEY. 221 
 
 CHAPTER XVin. 
 
 CONCLUSION OP CAPTAIN KNOX's HISTOET — OUE OWN STOET 
 RESUMED — ADVENTUEES AT GOA AND SUEAT, AND ACCOUNT 
 OP OUE TEADE -WITH THE MEECHANTS IN THESE LATI- 
 TUDES. 
 
 His dead father being thus removed out of his sight, but his 
 ague continuing, he was reduced very low, partly by sorrow, 
 and partly by his disease. All the comfort he had was to go 
 into the woods and fields with a book, either the Practice of 
 Piety, or Mr. Rogers's Seven Treatises, which were the only 
 two books he had, and meditate and read, and sometimes 
 pray ; in which his anguish made him often invert Elijah's 
 petition, — ^that he might die, because his life was a burthen to 
 him. God, though he was pleased to prolong his life, yet he 
 found a way to lighten his grief, by removing his ague, and 
 granting him a desire, which, above all things, was accept- 
 able to him. He had read his two books over so often, that 
 he had both almost by heart ; and though they were both 
 pious and good writings, yet he longed for the truth from the 
 original fountain, and thought it his greatest unhappiness, 
 that he had not a Bible, and did beUeve that he should never 
 see one again ; but, contrary to his expectation, God brought 
 him one after this manner. As he was fishing one day, with 
 nis black boy, to catch some fish to relieve his hunger, an old 
 man passed by them, and asked his boy, whether his master 
 could read ? and when the boy had answered, yes, he told 
 him, — that he had gotten a book from the Portuguese, when 
 they left Columbo ; and, if his master pleased, he would sell 
 it him. The boy told his master, who bade him go and see 
 what book it was. The boy having served the English some 
 time, knew the book, and, as soon as he had got it into his 
 hand, came running to him, calling out before he came to 
 him, — ^It is the Bible ! The words startled him, and he flung 
 down his angle to meet him, and, finding it true, was mightily 
 rejoiced to see it; but he was afraid he should not have 
 enough to purchase it, though he was resolved to part with 
 all the money he had, which was but one pagoda, to buy it ; 
 
222 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 but his black boy, persuading him to slight it, and leave it to 
 him to buy it, he at length obtained it for a knit cap. 
 
 This accident he could not but look upon as a great miracle, 
 —that God should bestow upon him such an extraordinary 
 blessing, and bring him a Bible in his own native language, 
 in such a remote part of the world, where his name was not 
 known, and where it was never heard of that an Englishman 
 had ever been before. The enjoyment of this mercy was a 
 great comfort to him in captivity ; and though he wanted no 
 bodily convenience that the country did afford ; for the king, 
 immediately after his father's death, had sent an express order 
 to the people of the towns, that they should be kind to him, 
 and give him good victuals ; and, after he had been some time 
 in the country, and understood the language, he got him good 
 conveniences, as, a house and gardens ; and falling to hus- 
 bandry, Grod so prospered him, that he had plenty, not only 
 for himself, but to lend others ; which being, according to the 
 custom of the country, at fifty percent, a-year, much enriched 
 him ; he had also goats, which served him for mutton, and 
 hogs and hens : notwithstanding this, I say, for he hved as 
 fine as any of their noblemen, he could not so far forget his 
 native country as to be contented to dwell in a strange land, 
 where there was to him a famine of God's word and sacra- 
 ments, the want of which made all other things to be of httle 
 value to him ; therefore, as he made it his daily and fervent 
 prayer to God, in his good time, to restore him to both, so, 
 at length, he, with one Stephen Rutland, who had Uved with 
 him two years before, resolved to make their escape, and, 
 about the year 1673, meditated all secret ways to compass it. 
 /— Ihgyhadbeforetoken upi_a.way_Qf.pedi^ ng about the counte y, 
 -aPJi-baaSg tobacco, pepper, garlic, comteTi^ l all sorts^ of 
 iron ware, and carried them into those parts of the coun^ 
 where they wanted them ; and now, to promote their design, 
 as they went with their commodities from place to place, they 
 discoursed with the country people (for they could not speak 
 their language well) concerning the ways and inhabitants, 
 where the isle was thinnest and fullest inhabited, where and 
 how the watches lay from one country to another, and what 
 commodities were proper for them to carry into all parts ; 
 pretending that they would furnish themselves vnth such 
 wares as the respective places wanted. None doubted but 
 what they did was upon the account of trade, because that 
 
THE SON OF CAPTAIN KNOX ATTEMPTS HIS ESCAPE. 223 
 
 he (Mr Knox), who was so well seated, could not be supposed 
 to leave such an estate, by travelling northward, because that 
 part of the land was least inhabited. And so furnishing 
 themselves with such wares as were vendible in those parts, 
 they set forth, and steered their course towards the north 
 part of the islands, knowing very little of the ways, which 
 were generally intricate and perplexed, because they have 
 no public roads, but a multitude of little paths from one town 
 to another, and those often changing ; and for white men to 
 inquire about the ways was very dangerous, because the 
 people would presently suspect their design. 
 
 At this time they travelled from Canda Uda, as far as the 
 country of Neurecalava, which is in the farthermost parts of 
 the king's dominions, and about three days' journey from 
 their dwelling. They were very thankful to Providence 
 that they had passed all difficulties so far, but yet durst not 
 go any farther, because they had no wares left to traffic with ; 
 and it being the first time they had been absent so long from 
 home, they feared the townsmen would come after them to 
 seek for them ; and so they returned home, and went eight 
 or ten times into those parts with thejli wares, till thej 
 became well acquainted both with the people and the paths. 
 
 In these parts Mr. Knox met his black boy, whom he had 
 turned away divers years before. He had now got a wife 
 and children, and was very poor ; but being acquainted with 
 these quarters, he not only took directions of him, but 
 agreed with him, for a good reward, to conduct him and his 
 companions to the Dutch. He gladly undertook, and a time 
 was appointed between them ; but Mr. Knox being disabled 
 by a grievous pain, which seized him on his right side, and 
 held him five days, that he could not travel, this appointment 
 proved in vain ; for though he went as soon as he was weD, 
 his guide was gone into another country about his business, 
 and they durst not at that time venture to run away without 
 him. These attempts took up eight or nine years, various 
 accidents hindering their designs, but most commonly the 
 dry weather, because they feared, in the woods, they should 
 be starved with thirst, all the country being in such a con- 
 dition almost four or five years together for lack of rain. 
 
 On September 22, 1679, they set forth again, furnished 
 with knives and small axes, for their defence, because they 
 could carry them privately, and send all sorts of wares to. 
 
224 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 sell, as formerly, and all necessary provisions, the moon 
 being twenty-seven days' old, that they might have light to 
 run away by, to try what success God Almighty would now 
 give them in seeking their liberty. Their first stage was 
 to Anarodgburro, in the way to which lay a wilderness, 
 called Parraoth Mocolane, full of wild elephants, tigers, and 
 bears ; and because it is the utmost confines of the king's 
 dominions, there is always a watch kept. 
 
 In the middle of their way they heard that the governor's 
 officers of these parts were out to gather up the king's reve- 
 nues and duties, to send them up to the city ; which put them 
 into no smaU fear, lest, finding them, they should send them 
 back again : whereupon they withdrew to the western parts 
 of Ecpoulpot, and sat down to knitting, till they heard the 
 officers were gone. As soon as they were departed, they 
 went onwards of their journey, having got a good parcel of 
 cotton yarn to knit caps with, and having kept their wares, 
 as they pretended, to exchange for dried flesh, which WM 
 sold only in those lower parts. Their way lay necessarily 
 through the governor's y-ard at Collinilla, who dwells there 
 on purpose to exaitnine all that go and come. This greatly 
 distressed them, because he would easily suspect they were 
 out of their bounds, being captives; however, they went 
 resolutely to his house, and meeting him, presented him with 
 a small parcel of tobacco and betel ; and showing him their 
 wares, told him they came to get dried flesh to carry back 
 with them. The governor did not suspect them, but told 
 them, he was sorry they came in . so dry a time, when no 
 deer could be catched, but if some rain fell, he would soon 
 supply them. This answer pleased them, and they seemed 
 contented to stay; and accordingly, abiding with him two or 
 three days, and no rain falling, they presented the governor 
 with five or six charges of gunpowder, which is a rarity 
 among them ; and leaving a bundle at his house, they desired 
 him to shoot them some deer, while they made a step to 
 Anarodgburro. Here also they were put in a great fright, 
 by the coming of certain soldiers from the king to the 
 governor, to give him orders to set a secure guard at the 
 watches, that no suspicious persons might pass; which, 
 though, it was only intended to prevent the flight of the 
 relations of certain nobles whom the king had clapped up, 
 yet they feared they might wonder to see white men herei 
 
JOUKNEt IHEOUGH WOODS AND ESCAPE TO AEEPA. 225 
 
 and so send them back again : but God so ordered it, that 
 they were very kind to them, and left them to their business, 
 and so they got safe to Anarodgbuiro. Their pretence was 
 dried flesh, though they knew there was none to be had; 
 but their real business was to search the way down to 
 the Dutch, which they stayed three days to do : but finding, 
 that in the way to Jafhapatan, which is one of the Dutch 
 ports, there was a watch which could hardly be passed, and 
 other inconveniences not surmountable, they resolved to go 
 back, and take the river Malwatogah, which they had before 
 judged would be a probable guide to lead them to the sea ; 
 and, that they might not be pursued, left Anarodgburro just 
 at night, when the people never travel for fear of wild 
 beasts, on Sunday, Oct. 12, being stored with aU things 
 needful for their journey, viz., ten days' provision, a basin to 
 boil their provision in, two calabashes to fetch water in, and 
 two great tallipat leaves for tents, with jaggory, sweetmeats, 
 tobacco, betel, tinder-boxes, and a deer-skin for shoes, to 
 keep their feet from thorns, because to them they chiefly 
 trusted. Being come to the river, they struck into the 
 woods, and kept by the side of it; yet not going on the 
 sand (lest their footsteps should be discerned), unless forced, 
 and then going backwards. 
 
 Being got a good way into the wood, it began to rain ; 
 wherefore they erected their tents, made a fire, and re- 
 freshed themselves against the rising of the moon, which 
 was then eighteen days' old ; and having tied deer-skins 
 about their feet, and eased themselves of their wares, they 
 proceeded in their journey. "When they had travelled three 
 or four hours with difficulty, because the moon gave but 
 little light among the thick trees, they found an elephant in 
 their way before them, and, because they could not scare 
 him away, they were forced to stay tiU morning ; and so 
 they kindled a fire, and took a pipe of tobacco. By the 
 light they could not discern that ever anybody had been 
 there, nothing being to be seen but woods; and so they were 
 in great hopes that they were past all danger, being beyond 
 all inhabitants ; but they were mistaken, for the river 
 winding northward, brought them into the midst of a parcel 
 of towns, called Tissea Wava, where, being in danger of 
 being seen, they were under a mighty terror ; for, had the 
 people found them, they would have beat them, and sent 
 
 Q 
 
226 CAPTAIN SINOtLETON. 
 
 them up to the king ; and, to avoid it, they crept into n 
 hollow t ree, and sat there in mud and wet, till it began to 
 grow dark, and then, betaking themselves to their legs, 
 travelled tiU the darkness of night stopped them. They 
 heard voices behind them, and feared it was somebody in 
 pursuit of them ; but at length, discerning it was only an 
 hallooing to keep th» wild beasts out of the corn, they 
 pitched their tents by the river, and having boiled rice, and 
 roasted meat for their suppers, and satisfied their hunger, 
 they committed themselves to God's keeping, and laid them 
 down to sleep. 
 
 The next morning, to prevent the worst, they got up 
 early, and hastened on their journey; and though they were 
 now got out of all danger of the tame Chiangulays, they 
 were in great danger of the wild ones, of whom those woods 
 were full; and though they saw their tents, yet they were all 
 gone, since the rains had fallen, from the river into the 
 woods ; and so God kept them from that danger ; for, had 
 they met the wild men, they had been shot. 
 
 Thus they travelled from morning till night several days, 
 through bushes and thorns, which made their arms and 
 shoulders, which were naked, all of a gore blood. They 
 often met with bears, hogs, deer, and wild buffaloes ; but 
 they aU ran away as soon as they saw them. The river was 
 exceeding fuU of alligators. In the evening they used to 
 pitch their tents, and make great fires both before and 
 behind them, to aflfright the wild beasts; and though they 
 heard the voices of all sorts, they saw none. 
 
 On Thursday, at noon, they crossed the river Coronda 
 Oya, which parts the country of the Malabars from the 
 king's, and on Friday, about nine or ten in the morning, 
 came among the inhabitants, of whom they were as much 
 afraid as of the Chiangulays before ; for, though the Wan- 
 niounay, or prince of the people, payeth tribute to the 
 Dutch out of fear, yet he is better affected to the king of 
 Candi, and, if he had took them, would have sent them up 
 to their old master ; but, not knowing any way to escape, 
 they kept on their journey by the river-side, by day, because 
 the woods are not to be travelled by night, for thorns and 
 wild beasts, who come down then to the river to drink. In 
 all the Malabar country they met with only two Bramans, 
 who treated them civilly ; and for their money, one of them 
 
CAPTAIN SINGLETON EESUMES HIS OWN HISTOET, 227 
 
 conducted them till they came into the territories of tiie 
 Dutch, and out of all danger of the ting of Candi, whreh 
 did not a little rejoice them ; but yet they were in no smali 
 trouble how to find the way out of the woods, till a Malabar, 
 for the lucre of a knife, conducted them to a Dutch town, 
 where they found guides to conduct them from town to town, 
 till they came to the fort called Arepa, where they arrived 
 Saturday, October 18, 1679, and there thankfully adored 
 God's wonderful providence, in thus completing their de- 
 liverance from a long captivity of nineteen years and six 
 months. 
 
 I come now back to my own history, which grows near a 
 conclusion, as to the travels I took in this part of the world. 
 We were now at sea, and we stood away to the north for a 
 while to try if we could get a market for our spices ; for we 
 were very rich in nutmegs, but we iU knew what to do with 
 them : we durst not go upon the English coast, or, to speak 
 more properly, among the English factories, to trade ; not 
 that we were afraid to fight any two ships they had ; and 
 besides that, we knew, that as they had no letters of marque, 
 or of reprisals, from the government, so it was none of their 
 business to act offensively, no, not though we were pirates. 
 Indeed, if we had made any attempt upon them, they might 
 have justified themselves in joining together to resist, and 
 assisting one another to defend themselves ; but to go out ot 
 their business to attack a pirate ship of almost fifty guns, as 
 we were, it was plain that it was none of their business, 
 and consequently it was none of our concern ; so we did not 
 trouble ourselves about it : but, on the other hand, it was 
 none of our business to be seen among them, and to have the 
 news of us carried from one factory to another, so that what- 
 ever design we might be upon at another time, we should be 
 sure to be prevented and discovered : much less had we any 
 occasion to be seen among the Dutch factories, upon the 
 coast of Malabar ; for, being fully loaden with the spices 
 which we had, in the sense of their trade, plundered them oi', 
 it would soon have told them what we were, and aU that we 
 had been doing ; and they would, no doubt, have concerned 
 themselves aJl manner of ways to have fallen upon us. 
 
 The only way we had for it was to stand away for Goa, 
 imd trade, if we could, for our spices with the Portuguesw 
 
 Q 2 
 
ji-<^ 
 
 228 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 factory there. Accordingly, we sailed almost thither, for we 
 liKi made land two days before, and, being in the latitude of 
 Goa, where standing in fair for Marmagoon, on the head of 
 Salsat, at the going up to Goa, when I called to the men at 
 the helm to bring the ship to, and bid the pilot go away 
 N.N.W. till we came out of sight of the shore ; when WiUiam 
 and' I called a council, as we used to do upon emergencies, 
 what cours e we should take to trade ther e;_and not be ^s^ 
 "coveredTf and we concluded at length, ttiat we would not go 
 "lEther at all ; but that William, with such trusty fellows 
 only as could he depended upon, should go in the sloop to 
 Surat, which was still farther northward, and trade there as 
 merchants, with such of the English factory as they could 
 find to be for their turn. 
 
 To carry this with the more caution, and so as not to be 
 suspected, we agreed to take out all her guns, and put such 
 men into her, and no other, as would promise us not to 
 desire or offer to go on shore, or to enter into any talk or 
 conversation with any that might come on board ; and, to 
 finish the disguise to our nund, William documented two of 
 our men, one a surgeon, as he himself was, and the other a 
 ready-witted fellow, an old sailor, that had been a pilot upon 
 the coast of New England, and was an excellent mimic; 
 these__two , WiU iam dressed up lik e two quakers, and made 
 them talk like such. The old pilot he made go captain oi 
 ~the sloop, and the surgeon for doctor, as he was, and himself 
 supercargo : in this figure, and the sloop all plain, no carved 
 work upon her (indeed she had not much before), and no 
 guns to be seen, away he went for Surat. 
 
 I should, indeed, have observed that we went some days 
 before we parted to a small sandy island, close under the 
 shore, where there was a good cove of deep water, like a 
 road, and out of sight of any of the factories, which are 
 here very thick upon the coast. Here we shifted the loading 
 of the sloop, and put into her such things only as we had a 
 mind to dispose of there, which was indeed little but 
 nutmegs and cloves, but chiefly the former ; and from thence 
 William and his two quakers, vrith about eighteen men in 
 the sloop, went away to Surat, and came to an anchor at a 
 distance from the factory. 
 
 William used such caution, that he found means to go on 
 shore himself, and the doctor, as he called him, in a boat 
 
TRADE WITH MISBCHANTS AT SURAT. 229 
 
 which came on board them to sell fish, rowed with only 
 Indians of the country, which boat he afterwards hired to 
 carry him on board again. It was not long that they were 
 on shore, but that they found means to get acquaintance 
 with some Englishmen, who, though they lived there, and 
 perhaps were the Company's servants at first, yet appeared 
 then to be traders for themselves, in whatever coast-business 
 especially came in their way ; and the doctor was made the 
 first to pick acquaintance ; so he recommended his friend, 
 the supercargo, till, by degrees, the merchants were as fond 
 of the bargain as our men were of the merchants, only that 
 the cargo was a little too much for them. 
 
 However, this did not prove a difficulty long with them ; 
 for the next day they brought two more merchants, English 
 also, into their bargain ; and, as William could perceive by 
 their discourse, they resolved, if they bought them, to carry 
 them to the gulf ot Persia, upon their own accounts: 
 WUliam took the hint, and, as he told me afterwards, con- 
 cluded we might carry them there as well as they ; but this 
 was not William's present business ; he had here no less 
 than three-and-thirty tons of nuts, and eighteen tons of 
 cloves. There was a good quantity of mace among the 
 nutmegs; but we did not stand to make much allowance; in 
 short, they bargained ; and the merchants, who would gladly 
 have bought sloop and all, gave William directions, and two 
 men for pilots, to go to a creek about six leagues from the 
 factory, where they brought boats, and unloaded the whole 
 cargo, and paid William very honestly for it; the whole 
 parcel amounting, in money, to about thirty-five thousand 
 pieces of eight, besides some goods of value, which William 
 was content to take, and two large diamonds, worth about 
 three hundred pounds sterling. 
 
 When they paid the money, William invited them on 
 board the sloop, where they came; and^^e meg y old quaker 
 
 diverted them exceedingly with his talk, and thee'd 'em and 
 and thou'd 'em till he made 'em so drunk that they could 
 not go on shore for that night. 
 
 They would fain have known who our people were, and 
 whence they came; but not a man in the sloop would 
 answer them to any question they asked, but in such manner 
 as let them think themselves baatered and jested with. 
 
230 CAPTAIN SINGUSTON. 
 
 However, in discourse, "William said, they were able men 
 for any cargo we could have brought them, and that they 
 would have bought twice as much spice if we had had it. 
 He ordered the merry captain to tell them, that they had 
 another sloop that lay at Marmagoon, and that had a great 
 quantity of epice on board also ; and that, if it was not sold 
 when he went back (for that thither he was bound), he 
 would bring her up. 
 
 Their new chaps were so eager, that they would have bar- 
 gained with the old captain beforehand : nay, friend, said he, 
 I wiU not trade with thee imsight and unseen ; neither do I 
 know, whether the master of the sloop may not have sold his 
 loading already to some merchants of Salsat : but if he has 
 not, when I come to him, I think to bring him up to thee. 
 
 The doctor had his employment all this wlule, as well as 
 "William and the old captain ; for he went on shore several 
 times a day in the Indian boat, and brought fresh provisions 
 for the sloop, which the men had need enough of: he 
 brought, in particular, seventeen large casks of arrack, as 
 big as butts, besides smaller quantities, a quantity of rice, 
 and abundance of fruits, mangoes, pompions, and such things, 
 with fowls and fish. He never came on board but he was 
 deep laden ; for, in short, he bought for the ship, as well as 
 for themselves ; and particularly, they half loaded the ship 
 with rice and arrack, with some hogs, and six or seven cows, 
 alive ; and thus, being weU victualled, and having directions 
 for coming again, they returned to us. 
 
 WiQJam was always the lucky welcome messenger to us, 
 but never more welcome to us than now ; for where we had 
 thrust in the ship, we could get nothing, except a few man- 
 goes and roots, being not vdlling to make any steps into the 
 country, or make ourselves known, till we had news of oiff 
 sloop ; and indeed our men's patience was almost tired ; for 
 it was seventeen days that "William spent upon this enter- 
 prise, and well bestowed too. 
 
 "When he came back, we had another conference upon the 
 subject of trade, namely, whether we should send the rest of 
 
DISGUISE THEIR SLOOP AND SELL ANOTHER CARGO. 231 
 
 selves, which hy the way, was from the good frugal merchani- 
 like temper of the man, who was for the best of everything ; 
 but here I overruled William, which I very seldom took 
 upon me to do ; but I told him, that, considering our cir- 
 cumstances, it was much better for us to sell all our cargoes 
 here, though we made but half price of them, than to go 
 with them to the gulf of Persia, where we should run a 
 greater risk, and where people would be much more curious 
 and inquisitive into things than they were here, and where 
 it would not be so easy to manage them, seeing they_ traded 
 __fredy jnd openly there, notjbyjtealth, as those men seemed 
 TO do; and besides, if theyluspected anything, it would be 
 much more difficult for us to retreat, except by mere force, 
 than here, where we were upon the high sea, as it were, and 
 could be gone whenever we pleased, vsithout any disguise, or 
 indeed without the least appearance of being pursued, none 
 knowing where to look for us. 
 
 My apprehensions prevailed with William, whether my 
 reasons did or no, and he submitted ; and we resolved to try 
 another ship's loading to the same merchants. The maic 
 business was to consider how to get off of that circumstance 
 that had exposed them to the English merchants ; namely, that |\_^X 
 it was our other sloop; but this the old quaker pilot under- '^ 
 took; for being, as I said, an exceU'ehi mimic himself it was ' ' 
 the easier for M m to dre ss up the sloop in new clothes ; and 
 first, he put on aU the carvea worFTie had taken off before ; 
 her stem, which was painted of a dumb white, or dun colour, 
 before all flat, was now all lackered, and blue, and I know 
 not how many gay figures in it ; as to her quarter, the car- 
 penters made her a neat little gallery on either side ; she had 
 twelve guns put into her, and some patereroes upon her 
 gunnel, none of which were there before ; and, to finish her 
 new habit, or appearance, and make her change complete, 
 he ordered her sails to be altered ; and as she sailed before 
 with a half-sprit, like a yacht, she sailed now with square 
 sail and mizen-mast, like a ketch ; so that, in a word, j]tf_ 
 was a perfect cheat, d ig guised in everythins; that a stranger 
 "could be sug posed to ^te any notice of^jthat had never had 
 ~Tjiul'ohe view ; for they had" been but once]bn_b6ard^ 
 "^ In~ffiis~mean lSgiiifeTEe~iIbop returned; she had a new 
 man put into her for captain, one we knew how to trust ; and 
 
232 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 the old pilot appearing only as a passenger, the doctor and 
 WiDiam acting as the supercargoes, by a formal procuration 
 from one Captain Singleton, and all things ordered in form. 
 
 We had a complete loading for the sloop ; for, besides a 
 very great quantity of nutmegs and cloves, mace, and some 
 cinnamon, she had on board some goods, which we took in 
 as we lay about the Philippine islands, whUe we waited as 
 looking for purchase. 
 
 William made no difficulty of selling this cargo also, and 
 in about twenty days returned again, freighted with all 
 necessary provisions for our voyage, and for a long time ; and, 
 as I say, we had a great deal of other goods, he brought us back 
 about three-and-thirty thousand pieces of eight, and some dia- 
 monds, which, though William did not pretend to much skill 
 in, yet he made shift to act so as not to be imposed upon, the 
 merchants he had to deal with too being very fair men. 
 
 They had no difficulty at all with these merchants ; for the 
 prospect they had of gain made them not at all inquisitive ; 
 nor did they make the least discovery of the sloop ; and as to 
 the selling them spices which were fetched so far from thence, 
 it seems it was not so much a novelty there, as we believed ; 
 for the Portuguese had frequently vessels which came from 
 Macao in China, who brought spices, which they bought of 
 the Chinese traders, who again frequently dealt among the 
 Dutch Spice Islands, and received spices in exchange for such 
 goods as they carried from China. 
 
 Thisjm^t_be called, indeed, the only tradi ng voyage we 
 haSmade ; and now we were really very rich ; and it came 
 now naturally before us to consider whither we should go 
 next, Our proper delivery port, as we ought to have called 
 it, was at Madagascar, in the bay of MangaheUy; but 
 William took me by myself into the cabin of the sloop one 
 day, and told me, he wanted to talk seriously with me a little ; 
 so we shut ourselves in, and WiUiam began with me. 
 
WILLIAM CONTEESES WITH THE CAPTAIN. 233 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 William's conteesation with me— his conteivances to 
 get off, along- with me, feom tee rest, at the 
 
 same time secueing oue peopeety theie successful 
 
 issue — we stat two months at bassoea — ^mt teouble 
 
 OF MIND. 
 
 Wilt thou give me leave, says William, to talk plainly with 
 thee upon thy present circumstances, and thy future prospect 
 of living; and wilt thou promise, on thy word, to take 
 nothing ill of me ? 
 
 With all my heart, said I, William ; I have always found 
 your advice good ; and your designs have not only been well 
 laid, but your counsel has been very lucky to us; and, 
 therefore, say what you wiU, I promise you I will not take 
 itiU. 
 
 But that is not all my demand, says William; if thou 
 dost not like what I am going to propose to thee, thou shalt 
 promise me not to make it public among the njen. 
 
 I wiU not, William, says I, upon my word ; and swore to 
 him too very heartily. 
 
 Why then, says WiUiam, I have but one thing more to 
 article with thee about, and that is, that thou wilt consent, 
 that, if thou dost not approve of it for thyself, thou wilt yet 
 consent that I shall put so much of it in practice as relates 
 to myself and my new comrade doctor, so that it be in 
 nothing to thy detriment and loss. 
 
 In anything, says I, WiUiam, but leaving me, I will ; but 
 I cannot part with you upon any terms whatever. 
 
 Well, says WiUiam, I am not designing to part from thee,' 
 unless it is thy own doing; but assure me in aU these points, 
 and I will tell my mind freely. 
 
 So I promised him everything he desired of me, in the 
 most solemn manner possible, and so seriously and frankly 
 withal, that WiUiam made no scruple to open his mind 
 to me. 
 
 Why then, in the first place, says William, shall I ask 
 thee if thou dost not think thou and all thy men are rich 
 
234 CAFrAIN SEJGIP^ON. 
 
 enough, and have really gotten as much wealth together (by 
 whatsoever way it has been gotten, that is not the question), 
 as ye all know what to do with ? 
 
 Why, truly, WUliam, said I, thou art pretty right; I 
 think we have had pretty good luck. 
 
 Well then, says William, I would ask, whether, if thou 
 
 hast gotten enough, thou hast any thought of leaving off 
 
 this trade ; for most people leave off trading when they are 
 
 satisfied with getting, and are rich enough; for nobody 
 
 __to,des for the sake of trading; much lesB_d o any men rob 
 
 for the sake of thieving. ~~ 
 
 ' WeS, William, says I, now I perceive what it is thou art 
 driving at: I warrant you, says I, you begin to hanker 
 after home. 
 
 Why, truly, says William, thou hast said it, and so I hope 
 thou dost too. It is natural for most men that are abroad 
 to desire to come home again at last, especially when they 
 are grown rich, and when they are (as thou ownest thyself 
 to be) rich enough, and so rich, as they know not what to 
 do with more, if they had it. 
 
 Well, William, said I, but now you think you have laid 
 your preliminary at first so home, that I should have nothing 
 to say ; that is, that when I had got money enough, it would 
 be natural to think of going home; but you have not 
 explained what you mean by home; and there you and I 
 shall differ. Why, man, I am at home ; here is my habita- 
 tion ; I never had any other in my lifetime : I,was a kind 
 of a charity-school boy; so that I can have^no desire of 
 going anywhere for being rich or poor, for I have nowhere 
 to go. 
 
 Why, says William, looking a little confused, art not thoU 
 an Englishman ? 
 f Yes, says I, I think so ; you see I speak English : but I 
 \ came out of England a child, and never was in it but once 
 1 since I was a man ; and then I was cheated and imposed 
 lupon, and used so HI, that I care not if I never see it 
 more. 
 — A Why, hast thou no relations or Mends there ? says he : no 
 acquaintance ? none that thou hast any kindness, or any re- 
 mains of respect for ? 
 
 Not 1, William, said I ; not one, more than I have in the 
 court of the Great Mogul. 
 
CONVERSATION CONTINUED. 235 
 
 Nor any kindijtess for the country where thou wast bom ' 
 Bays "William. 
 
 Not I, any more than for the island of Madagascar, nor 
 60 much neither ; for that has been a fortunate island to me 
 more than once, as thou knowest, William, said I. 
 
 William was quite stunned at my discourse, and held his 
 peace ;■ and I said to him. Go on, WiUiam ; what hast thou 
 to say farther ? for I hear you have some project in your 
 head, says I ; come, let's have it out. 
 
 Nay, says WiUiam, thou hast put me to silence, and all I 
 had to say is overthrown ; all my projects are come to 
 nothing, and gone. 
 
 Well, but, William, said I, let me hear what they were ; 
 for though it is so that what I have to aim at does not look 
 your way, and though I have no relation, no friend, no ac- 
 quaintance in England, yet I do not say I like this roving, 
 cruising life so well as never to give it over : let me hear if 
 thou canst propose to me anything beyond it. 
 
 Certainly, friend, says William, very gravely, there is 
 something beyond it ; and lifting up his hands, he seemed 
 very much affected, and I thought I saw tears standing in his 
 eyes ; but I, that was too hardened a wretch to be moved 
 with these things, laughed at him. What! says I, you mean 
 death, I warrant you ; don't you ? that is beyond this trade. 
 Why, when it comes, it comes ; then we are all provided 
 for. 
 
 Aye, says William, that is true ; but it would be better 
 that some things were thought on before that came. 
 
 Thought on ! says I ; what signifies thinking of it ? To 
 think of death, is to die ; and to be always thinking of it, is 
 to be all one's life long a-dying : it is time enough to think of 
 it when it comes. 
 
 You will easily believe I was well qualified for a pirate, 
 that could talk thus ; but let me leave it upon record, for the 
 remark of other hardened rogues like myself. My conscience 
 gave me a pang that I had never felt before, when I said — 
 What signifies thinking of it ? and told me, I should one day 
 think of these words with a sad heart ; but the time of my 
 reflection was not yet come ; so I went on. 
 
 Says William, very seriously, I must tell thee, friend, I 
 am sorry to hear thee talk so : they that never think of 
 dying, often die without thinking of it. 
 
236 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 I carried on the jesting way a while farther, and said — 
 Prithee do not talk of dying ; how do we know we shall 
 e^er die ? and began to laugh. 
 
 I need not answer thee to that, says "William ; it is not my 
 place to reprove thee who art commander over me here ; but 
 I had rather thou wouldst talk otherwise of death : it is a 
 coarse thing. 
 
 Say anything to me, William, said I, I will take it kindly. 
 I began now to be very much moved at his discourse. 
 
 Says William (tears running down his face), it is because 
 men live as if they were never to die, that so many die before 
 they know how to live ; but it was not death that I meant, 
 when I said, — That there was something to be thought of 
 beyond this way of living. 
 
 Why, William, said I, what was that 1 
 
 It was repentance, says he. 
 
 Why, says I, did you ever know a pirate repent f 
 
 At this he started a little, and returned, — ^At the gallows 
 I have known one repent, and I hope thou wilt be the 
 second. 
 
 He spoke this very affectionately, with an appearance of 
 concern for me. 
 
 Well, WiUiam, says I, I thank you, and I am not so 
 senseless of these things, perhaps, as I make myself seem to 
 be ; but come, let me hear your proposal. 
 
 My proposal, says William, is for thy good, as well as my 
 own. We may put an end to this kind of life, and repent ; 
 and I think the fairest occasion offers for both, at this very 
 time, that ever did, or ever will, or indeed can happen again. 
 
 Look you, William, says I, let me have your proposal for 
 putting an end to our present way of living first, for that is 
 the case before us, and you and I will talk of the other after- 
 w;ard. I am not so insensible, said I, as you may think me 
 to be ; but let us get out of this hellish condition we are 
 in first. 
 
 Nay, says William, thou art in the right there ; we must 
 never talk of repenting while we continue pirates. 
 
 Well, says I, William, that it is what I meant ; for if we 
 must not reform, as well as be borry lor wnat is done, I have 
 no notion what repentance means : indeed, at best I know 
 little of the matter ; but the nature of the thing seems to tell 
 me, that the tirst step we have to take, is to break off this 
 
EESOLVE TO ABANDON THfi PIEATe's LIFE. 237 
 
 wretched course; and I'll begin there with you, with all 
 my heart. 
 
 I could see by his countenance that William was thoroughly 
 pleased with the offer ; and if he had tears in his eyes before, 
 he had more now ; but it was from a quite different passion ; 
 for he was so swallowed up with joy he could not speak. 
 
 Come, "William, says I, liiou showest me plain enough thou 
 hast an honest meaning. Dost thou think it is practicable 
 for us to put an end to our unhappy way of living here, and 
 get off? 
 
 Yes, says he, I think it is very practicable for me ; whether 
 it is for thee or no, that wiU depend upon thyself. 
 
 Well, says I, I give you my word, that as I have com- 
 manded you all along, from the time I first took you on 
 board, so you shall command me from this hour, and every- 
 thing you direct me I'll do. 
 
 WUt thou leave it all to me ? Dost thou say this freely ? 
 
 Yes, WiLiam, says I, freely ; and I'll perform it faithfully. 
 
 Why then, says William, my scheme is this : — ^We are 
 now at the mouth of the gulf of Persia ; we have sold so 
 much of our cargo here at Surat, that we have money enough t 
 send me away for Bassorar with the sloop, loaden with the 
 China goods we have on board, which will make another 
 good cargo, and I'U warrant thee I'll find means, among the 
 English and the Dutch merchants there, to lodge a quantity 
 of goods and money also as a merchant, so as we will be able 
 to have recourse to it again upon any occasion ; and when I 
 come home, we will contrive the rest ; and in the mean time 
 do- you bring the ship's crew to take a resolution to go to 
 Madagascar, as soon as I return. 
 
 I told him I thought he need not go so far as Bassora, but 
 might run into Gombaroon, or to Ormus, and pretend the 
 same business. 
 
 No, says he, I cannot act with the same freedom there, 
 because the Company's factory are there, and I may be laid 
 hold of there, on pretence of interloping. 
 
 Well, but, said I, you may go to Ormus then ; for I am 
 loath to part with you so long as to go to the bottom of the 
 Persian Gulf. He returned, that I should leave it to him 
 to do as he should see cause. 
 
 We had taken a large sum of money at Surat ; so that we 
 had near a hundred thousand pounds in money at our 
 
238 CAPTAIN SIKGLETON. 
 
 command ; but on board the great ship we had still a great 
 deal more. 
 
 I ordered him publicly to keep the money on board which 
 he had, and to buy up with it a quantity of ammunition, if 
 he could get it, and so to furnish us for new exploits ; and in 
 the meantime I resolved to get a quantity of gold, and some 
 jewels, which I had on board the great ship, and place them 
 so that I might carry them off without notice, as soon as he 
 came back ; and so, according to WUliam's directions, I left 
 him to go the voyage, and I went on board the great ship, 
 in which we had indeed an immense treasure. 
 
 We waited no less than two months for William's return ; 
 and indeed I began to be very uneasy about William, some- 
 times thinking he had abandoned me, and that he might 
 have used the same artifice to have engaged the other men 
 to comply with him, and so they were gone away together ; 
 and it was but three days before his return that I was just 
 upon the point of resolving to go away to Madagascar, and 
 give him over ; but the old surgeon, who mimicked the 
 quaker, and passed for the master of the sloop at Surat, 
 persuaded me against that ; for which good advice, and his 
 apparent faithfulness in what he had been trusted with, I 
 made him a party to my design, and he proved very honest. 
 
 At length William came back, to our inexpressible joy, 
 and brought a great many necessary things with him; as, 
 particularly, he brought sixty barrels of powder, some iron 
 shot, and about thirty tons of lead ; also he brought a great 
 deal of provisions ; and, in a word, William gave me a 
 public account of his voyage, in the hearing of whoever 
 happened to be upon the quarter-deck, that no suspicions 
 might be found about us. 
 
 After all was done, William moved, that he might go up 
 again, and that I would go with him ; named several things 
 which we had on board that he could not sell there ; and 
 particulai'lj' told us, he had been obliged to leave several 
 things there, the caravans not being come in ; and that he 
 had engaged to come back again with goods. 
 
 This was what I wanted. The men were eager for his 
 going, and particularly because he told them they might' 
 load the sloop back with rice and provisions ; but I seemed 
 backward to going; when the old surgeon stood up, and 
 persuaded me to go, and with many arguments pressed me 
 
"WILLIAM Aim CAPTaIN SINGLETON LEAVE THE SHIP. 239 
 
 to it ; as, particulary, if I did not go, there -would be no 
 order, and several of the men might drop away, and perhaps 
 betray all the rest ; and that they should not think it safe 
 for the sloop to go again, if I did not go ; and, to urge me 
 to it, he offered himself to go with me. 
 
 Upon these considerations, I seemed to be overpersuaded 
 to go ; and all the company seemed the better satisfied when 
 I had consented ; and accordingly we took aU the powder, 
 lead, and iron out of the sloop into the great ship, and all 
 the other things that were for the ship's use, and put in some 
 bales of spices, and casks or frails of cloves, in all about 
 seven tons, and some other goods, among the bales of which 
 I had conveyed all my private treasure, which, I assure you, 
 was of no small value ; and away I went. 
 
 At going off", I called a council of all the officers in the 
 ship, to consider in what place they should wait for me, and 
 how long; and we appointed the ship to stay eight-and- 
 twenty days at a little island on the Arabian side of the 
 gulf; and that, if the sloop did not come in that time, they 
 should sail to another island to the west of that place, and 
 wait there fifteeen days more; and then, if the sloop did not 
 come, they should conclude some accident must have hap- 
 pened, and the rendezvous should be at Madagascar. 
 
 Being thus resolved, we left the ship, which both William 
 and I, and the surgeon, never intended to see any more. We 
 steered directly for the gulf, and through to Bassora, or 
 Balsara. This city of Ba^ara lies at some distance from the 
 place where our sloop lay, and the river not being very safe, 
 and we but ill acquainted with it, having but an ordinary 
 pilot, we went on shore at a village where some merchants 
 live, and which is very populous, for the sake of small ves- 
 sels riding there. 
 
 Here we stayed and traded three or four days, landing aU 
 our bales and spices, and indeed the whole cargo, that was of 
 any considerable value ; which we chose to do, rather than 
 go up immediately to Balsara, tiU the project we had laid 
 was put in execution. 
 
 After we had bought several goods, and were preparing to 
 buy several others, the boat being on shore with twelve men, 
 myself, William, the surgeon, and one fourth man, whom we 
 had singled out, we contrived to send a Turk, just at the 
 dusk of the evening, with a letter to the boatswain ; and 
 
240 CAPTAEJ SINGLETON. 
 
 giving the fellow a charge to run with all possible speed, we 
 stood at a small distance, to observe the event. The contents 
 of the letter were thus written by the old doctor. 
 
 "boatswain THOMAS, 
 
 We are all betrayed. For God's sake make off with the 
 boat, and get on board, or you are all lost. The captain, 
 "William the quaker, and George the reformade, are seized 
 and carried away : I am escaped, and hid, but cannot stir 
 out ; if I do, I am a dead man. As soon as you are on 
 board, cut or slip, and make sail for your lives. Adieu. 
 
 U. S." 
 
 We stood undiscovered, as above, it being the dusk of the 
 evening, and saw the Turk deliver the letter ; and in three 
 minutes we saw all the men hurry into the boat, and put off; 
 and no sooner were they on board than they took the hint, 
 as we supposed; for the next morning they were out of 
 sight, and we never heard tale or tidings of them since. 
 
 We were now in a good place, and in very good circum- 
 stances ; for we passed for merchants of Persia. 
 
 It is not material to record here what a mass of ill-gotten 
 wealth we had got together: it will be more to the purpose 
 to teU you, that I began to be sensible of the crime of getting 
 of it in such a manner as I had done ; that-X^fe ad ve ry Uttle 
 satisfaction in- the possession -ofJt-;_and, as Itold WlB^n, 
 I had no expectation of keeping it, nor much desire ; but, as 
 I said to him one day walking out into the fields near the 
 town of Bassora, so I depended upon it, that it would he the 
 case, which you will hear presently. 
 
 We were perfectly secured at Bassora, by having frightened ' 
 away the rogues, our comrades ; and we had nothing to do 
 but to conside r how t o convert pur treasure into t hiugs 
 prope r to make us_look_Jike_ merchants, as we were now to 
 be, and not like freebooters, as we really had been. 
 
 We happened very opportunely here upon a Dutchman, 
 who had traveled from Bengal to Agra, the capital city of 
 the"^ Great Mogul^ and from thence was come to the coast of 
 Malabar by land, and got shipping, some how or other, ud 
 the gulf J and we found his design was to go up the gi-eat 
 river to Bagdat or Babylon, and so, by the caravan, tfl 
 
DBESS AS FEBSIAN MERCHAITTS. 241 
 
 Aleppo and Scanderoon. As "William.. spoke_ I)ntch, and 
 was _o{ an agreeabl e, insinuatij ag behaviour , he soon got 
 acquaintea -with tins DutchmaaTand, discovering our circum- 
 stances to one another, we found he had considerable effects 
 with him ; and that he had traded long in that country, and 
 was making homeward to his own country ; and that he had 
 servants with him ; one an Armenian, whom he had taught to 
 speak Dutch, and who had something of his own, but had a 
 mind to travel into Europe ; and the other a Dutch sailor, 
 whom he had picked up by his fancy, and reposed a great 
 trust in him, and a very honest fellow he was. 
 
 This Dutchman was very glad of an acquaintance, because 
 he soon found that we directed our thoughts to Europe also ; 
 and as he found we were encumbered with goods only (for 
 we let him know nothing of our money), he readily offered 
 us his assistance to dispose of as many of them as the place 
 we were in would put off, and his advice what to do with 
 the rest. 
 
 While this was doing, William and I consulted what to do 
 with ourselves and what we had; and, first, we resolvedwe 
 would never talk seriouslj of jmyjof^omr^measurejjbut injhe. 
 ' open BeT d Si'whe ^jsjKer e sure nobod y-fiould hear; so every 
 evening, when the sun began to decline, and the air to be 
 moderate, we walked out, sometimes this way, sometimes 
 that, to consult of our affairs. 
 _Ijfe9PM-i9Xe-fil}Served,_that we had new cloth^d_ourselves 
 hereaf ter the Persian m anner, in long vests of silk, a gown 
 or robe of English crimson cloth, very fine and handsome, 
 and let our beards grow so after the Persian manner, that 
 we passed for Persian merchants, in view only, though, by 
 the way, we could no t understand or speak one word ofjhe 
 la nguage ofTersia, or Indeed of any other but English and 
 Dutch ;^^5d"onhe latter I understood very little. 
 
 However, the Dutchman supplied aU this for us ; and as 
 w e-had resolved to keep ourselves as retired as we could, though 
 there were several English merchants upon the place, yet we 
 never acquainted ourselves with one of them, or exchanged 
 a word with them; by which means we prevented their 
 inquiry of us now, or their giving any intelligence of us, if 
 any news of our landing here should happen to come, which, 
 it was easy for us to know, was possible enough, if any of 
 
 B 
 
242 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 our comrades fell into bad hands, or by many accidents 
 •whicli we could not foresee. 
 
 It was during my beuig here, for here we stayed near two 
 months, that I grew very thoughtful about my circumstances ; 
 not as to the danger, neither indeed were we in any, but 
 were entirely concealed and, tmsuspected ; but I really began 
 to have other thoughts"^ mysel^^S^" of the world, than 
 ever I had before. 
 
 "William had struck so deep into my unlinking temper, 
 \ with hinting to me that there waS: something~b^widr^ 
 "this ; that the present time was the time of enjoyment, but 
 that the time of account approached ; that the work that 
 remained was gentler than the labour past, viz., repentance, 
 and that it was high time to think of it: I say these, and 
 such thoughts as these, engrossed my honrs, and, in a word, 
 I grew very sad. 
 
 As to the wealth I had, which was immensely great, it 
 \ ' was all like dirt under my feet ; I had no value for it, no 
 \ peace in the possession of it, no great concern about me for 
 the leaving of it. 
 
 William had perceived my thoughts to be troubled, and 
 my mind heavy and oppressed for some time ; and one 
 evening, in one of our cool walks, I began with him about 
 the leaving our effects. William was a wise and wary man ; 
 and indeed all the prudentials of my conduct had for a long 
 time been owing to his advice, and so now all the methods 
 for preserving our effects, and even, ourselves, lay upon him ; 
 and he had been telling me of some of the measures he had 
 been taking for our making homeward, and for the security 
 of our wealth, when I took him very short. Why, WiUiain, 
 says I, dost thou think we shall ever be able to reach 
 Europe with all this cargo that we have about us ? 
 
 Aye, says William, without doubt, as well as other 
 merchants with theirs, as long as it is not publicly known 
 jwhatquantity, or of what value our cargo consists. 
 
 Why,~ W iHTam, says I, smiling, do you thiiik that, if 
 there is a God above, as you have so long been telling, me 
 there is, and that we must give an accoimt to him; I say, 
 do you think, if he be a righteous judge, he will let us 
 escape thus with thejlunder, as we may call it, of so many 
 innocent people, nay, I might say nations, and not call us to 
 
THEIE CONSCIENCES ATVAKENEP. 243 
 
 an account for it before we can get to Europe, -where we 
 pretend to enjoy it ? 
 
 WHliam appeared struck and surprised at the question, , 
 and made no answer for a great while ; and I repeated the 
 question, adding that it was not to be expected. 
 
 After a little pause, says WiUiam, thou hast started a very 
 weighty question, and I can make no positive answer to it ; 
 but I wiU state it thus : first, it is time that, if we consider 
 the justice of God, we have no reason to expect any pro- 
 tection ; but as the ordinary ways of Providence are out of 
 the common road of human affairs, so we may hope for 
 mercy stiU upon our repentance, and we know not how good 
 he may be to us ; so we are to act as if we rather depended 
 upon the last, I mean the merciful part, than claimed the 
 first, which must produce nothing but judgment and ven- 
 geance. 
 
 But hark ye, William, says I, the nature of repentance, as 
 you hinted once to me, included reformation ; and we can 
 never reform ; how then can we repent? 
 
 Why can we never reform ? says William. 
 
 Because, said I, we cannot restore what we have taken 
 away by rapine and spoU. 
 
 It is true, says William, we can never do that ; for we 
 can nevCT co me to t he knowledge of the owners. 
 
 But what then must be done with our wealth, said I, the 
 effects of plunder and rapine ? If we keep it, we continue 
 to be robbers and thieves ; and if we quit it, we cannot . do 
 justice with it, for we cannot restore it to the right owners. 
 
 Nay, says William, the answer to it is short. To quit I 
 what we have, and do it here, is to throw it away to those ' i 
 who have no claim to it, and to divest ourselves of it, but to , 
 ,do no right with it ; whereas we ought to keep it carefully 1 \ 
 together, with a resolution to do what right with it we are ; 
 able ; and who knows what opportunity Providence may put 1 
 into our hands, to do justice, at least, to some of those we i 
 have injured ; so we ought, at least, to leave it to him, and \ 
 go on. As it is, without doubt, our present business is to go ) i 
 to some place of safety, where we may wait his wiU. ' ' 
 
 This resolution of William was very satisfying to me 
 indeed, as, the truth is, all he said, and at all times, was solid 
 and good ; and had not WiUiam thus, as it were, quieted my 
 
 B 2 
 
\i 
 
 244 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 mind, I think verily, I was so alarmed at the just reason I had 
 to expect vengeance from Heaven npon me for my iU-gotten 
 wealth, that I should have run away from it as the devil's 
 goods, that I had nothing to do with, that did not belong to 
 me, and that I had no right to keep, and was in certain danger 
 of being destroyed for. 
 
 However, William settled my mind to more prudent steps 
 than these, and I concluded, that I ought, however, to pro- 
 ceed to a place of safety, and leave the event to God Almighty's 
 mercy ; but this I must leave upon record, that I had, from 
 this time, no joy of the wealth I had got ; I looked upon it as 
 stolen, and so indeed the greatest part of it was ; I looked 
 upon it as a hoard of other men's goods,' which I had robbed 
 the innocent owners of, and which I ought, in a word, to be 
 hanged for here, and damned for hereafter ; and now, indeed, 
 I began sincerely to hate myself for a dog ; a wretch, that 
 had been a thief, and a murderer ; a wretch, that was in a 
 condition which nobody was ever in ; for I had robbed, and 
 though I had the wealth by me, yet it was impossible I should 
 ever make any restitution ; and upon this account it ran in 
 my. head, that I could never repent, for that repentance could 
 not be sincere without restitution, and therefore must of 
 necessity be damned ; there was no room for me to escape ; 
 I went about with my heart full of these thoughts, little better 
 than a distracted fellow ; in short, running headlong into the 
 most dreadful despair, and premeditating nothing but how to 
 rid myself out of the world ; and, indeed, the devil, if such 
 things are of the devil's immediate doing, followed his work 
 very close with me; and nothing lay upon my mind for 
 several days, but to shoot myself into the head with my 
 pistoL 
 
FAETHEE CONVEESATION WITH WILLIAM. 245 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 paethee conveesations with william, which qbtet 
 mt consciekcb in some degeee — account of oue 
 jouenet feom bassoka to scandeeoon, and feom 
 
 thence to venice william whites to england to 
 
 his sistee ^hee affectionate answee ^we at length 
 
 eetuen to england veet eich, wheee 1 maeey 
 William's sistee — conclusion. 
 
 I WAS all this while in a vagrant life, among infidels, Turks^ 
 pagans, and such sort of people ; I had no minister, no 
 Christian to converse with, but poor William ; he was my 
 ghostly feither, or confessor ; and he was all the comfort I 
 had. As for my knowledge of religion, you have heard my 
 history ; you may suppose I had not much ; and, as for the 
 word of God, I don't remember that I ever read a chapter 
 in the Bible in my lifetime ; I was little Bob at Busselton, 
 and went to school to learn my Testament. 
 
 JIowever,_it_5leMed_God__tp_make WUliam Jh§i_ quaker 
 everything to me. Upon this occasion, I took him out one 
 evening, as usual, and hurried him away into the fields with 
 me, in more haste than ordinary ; and there, in short, I told 
 him the perplexity of my mind, and under what terrible 
 temptations of the devil I had been; that I must shoot 
 myself, for I could not support the weight and terror that 
 was upon me. 
 
 Shoot yourself! says WiUiam ; why, what wiU that do for 
 you? 
 
 Why, says I, it will put an end to a miserable life. 
 
 Weil, says William, are you satisfied the next wUl be 
 better? 
 
 No, no, says J, much worse, to be sure. 
 
 Why then, says he, shooting yourself is the devil's motion, 
 no doubt ; for it is the devil of a reason, that, because thou 
 art in an ill case, therefore thou must put thyself into a 
 worse. 
 
 This shocked my reason indeed. Well but, says I, there 
 is no bearing the miserable condition I am in. 
 
 Very well, says William ; but it seems there, is some bear- 
 
246 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 ing a worse condition ; and so you will shoot yourself that 
 you may be past remedy ? 
 
 I am past remedy already, says I. 
 
 How do you know that ? says he. 
 
 I am satisfied of it, said I. 
 
 Well, says he, but you are not sure ; so you will shoot 
 yourself to make it certain ; for, though on this side death, 
 you cannot be sure you will be damned at all, yet the moment 
 you step on the other side of time, you are sure of it ; for 
 when it is done, it is not to be said then that you will be, but 
 that you are damned. 
 
 Well, but, says William, as if he had been between jest and 
 earnest, pray, what didst thou dream of last night ? 
 
 Why, said I, I had fidghtfid dreams all night; and, par- 
 ticularly, I dreamed that the devil came for me, and asked 
 me what my name -vyas? and I told him. Then he asked 
 me what trade I was f Trade ! says I ; I am a thief, a rogue, 
 by my calling ; I am a pirate, and a murderer, and ought to be 
 hanged. Ay, ay, says the devil, so you do ; and you are the 
 man I looked for, and therefore come along with me ; at 
 which, I Was most horribly frightened, and cried out, so that 
 it waked me ; and I have been in horrible agony ever since. 
 
 Very well, says William ; come, give me the pistol thou 
 talkedst of jujt now. 
 
 Why, says I, what will you do with it ? 
 
 Do -with, it ! says William, why, thou needest not shoot 
 thyself; I shall be obliged to do it for thee : why, thou wilt 
 destroy us all. 
 
 What do you mean, William 1 said I. 
 
 Mean ! said he ; nay, what didst thou mean, to cry out 
 aloud in thy sleep, I am a thief, a pirate, a murderer, and 
 ought to be hanged? Why, thou wilt ruin us all; 'twas 
 well the Dutchman did not understand English. In short, 
 I must shoot thee, to save my own life : come, come, says he, 
 give me thy pistol. 
 
 I confess this terrified me again another way ; and I began 
 to be sensible, that, if anybody had been near me to under- 
 stand English, I had been undone. The thought of shoot- 
 ing myself forsook me from that time ; and I turned to 
 WUliam ; you disorder me extremely, William, said I ; why 
 I am never safe, nor is it safe to keep me company ; What 
 EhaU I do ^ I shall betray you all. 
 
BESOLVE TO GO TO BAGDAT OE BABYLON. 247 
 
 Come, come, friend Bob, says he, I'll put an end to it all, 
 if you will take my advice. 
 
 How's that? said I. 
 
 Why, only, says he, that the next time thou talkest with 
 the devil, thou wilt talk a little softlier, or we shall be all 
 undone, and you too. 
 
 This fidghtened me, I must confess, and allayed a great 
 deal of the trouble of mind I was in ; but William, after he 
 had done jesting with me, entered upon a very long and 
 serious discourse with me about the nature of my circum- 
 stances, and about repentance ; that it ought to be attended, 
 indeed, with a deep abhorrence of the crime that I had to 
 charge myself with ; but that to despair of God's mercy was 
 no part of repentance, but putting myself into the condition 
 of the devil ; indeed, that I must apply myself with a sincere 
 humble confession of my crime, to ask pardon of God, whom 
 I had offended, and cast myself upon his mercy, resolving to 
 be willing to make restitution, if ever it should please God to 
 put it in my power, even to the utmost of what I had in 
 the world ; and this, he told me, was the method which he 
 had resolved upon himself; and in this, he told me, he had 
 found comfort. 
 
 I had a great deal of satisfaction in William's discourse, 
 
 and it quieted me .very much ; but William was very anxious 
 
 ever after about my talking in my sleep, a nd took care to he 
 
 wi^_me_alwayshimself, and to keep mrffiim lodging in' any 
 
 ~Eouse where somuch as a word of EngUsh was understood. 
 
 However, there was not the hke occasion afterward ; for I 
 was much more composed in my mind, and resolved, for the 
 fiiture, to live a quite different hfe from what I had done. 
 As to the wealth I had, I looked upon it as nothing; I 
 resolved to set it apart to any such opportunity of doing 
 justice, as God should put into my hand ; and the miraculous 
 opportunity I had afterwards of applying some parts of it to 
 preserve a ruined family, whom I had plundered, may be 
 worth reading, if I have room for it in this account. 
 
 With these resolutions, I began to be restored to some 
 degree of quiet in my mind ; and having, after almost three 
 months' stay at Bassora, disposed of some goods; but, having 
 a great quantity left, we hired boats, according to the Dutch- 
 man's direction, and went up to Bagdat, or Babylon, on the 
 river Tigris, or rather Euphrates. We had a very consider- 
 
248 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 able cargo of goods with us, and therefore made a great figure 
 there, and were received with respect : we had, in particular, 
 two-and-forty bales of Indian stuffs of sundry sorts, silks, 
 muslins, and fine chintz : we had fifteen bales of very fine 
 China siDss, and seventy packs, or bales, of spices, particularly 
 cloves and nutmegs, with other goods : we were bid money 
 here for our cloves ; but the Dutchman advised us not to 
 part with them, and told us we should get a better price at 
 Aleppo, or in the Levant ; so we prepared for the caravan. 
 
 We concealed our having any gold, or pearls, as much as 
 we could, and therefore sold three or four bales of China 
 silks and Indian calicoes, to raise money to buy camels, and 
 to pay the customs which are taken at several places, and for 
 our provisions over the deserts. 
 
 I travelled this journey, careless to the last degree of my 
 goods or wealth, believing, that, as I came by it all by rapine 
 and violence, Grod would direct, that it should be taken from 
 me again in the same manner ; and, indeed, I think I might 
 say, I was very willing it should be so ; but, as I had a mer- 
 ciful protector above me, so I_had.a most faithful steward, 
 counsellor, partner, ortjffiiiaLtever I might calThim, who"waS 
 niy guide, my pilot, my governor, jjiiy every ffi^^ and took 
 car e both of m e, and of aU we^drraiid~OioughTie~Ead 
 never been in any of these parts of the world, yet he took 
 the care of all upon him ; and in about nine-and-fifty days 
 we arrived from Bassora, at the mouth of the river Tigris or 
 Euphrates, through the desert, and through Aleppo, to Alex- 
 andria, or, as we caU it, Scanderoon, in the Levant. 
 
 Here Wilham and I, and the other two, our faithful com- 
 rades, debated what we should do ; and here William and I 
 resolved to separate from the other two, they resolving to go 
 with the Dutchman into Holland, by the means of some 
 Dutch ship which lay then in the road. William and I told 
 them, we_resolveijtD_ go and _s_etfle in the Morea, which 
 then belonged to the Venetians. 
 
 It is true, we acted wisely in it, not to let them know 
 whither we went, seeing we had resolved to separate ; but 
 we took our old doctor's directions how to write to him in 
 Holland, and in England, that we might have intelligence 
 from him on occasion, and promised to give him an account 
 how to virite to us, which we afterwards did, as mav »n time 
 be made out. 
 
WILLIAM WHITES TO HIS SISTER IN ENGLAND. 249 
 
 We Stayed here some time after they were gone, till at 
 length, not being thoroughly resolved whither to go till then, 
 a Venetian ship touched at Cyprus, and put in at Scande- 
 roon to look for freight home. We took the hint, and, bar- 
 gaining for our passage, and the freight of our goods, we 
 embarked for Venice, where, in two-and-twenty days, we 
 arrived safe with aJl our treasure, and with such a cargo, 
 take our goods, and our money, and our jewels together, as, 
 I believed, was never brought into the city iij two single 
 men, since the state of Venice had a being. "" " 
 
 "We kept ourse lves here incognito ior a great while, passing 
 for two Armenian^merchants stUl^ as we had done before ; 
 and by this time we had gotten, so much of the_Fersian and_ 
 ^Ar menian jargon, which they talked at Bassora and Bagdat^ 
 am everywhere that we came in the country, as was suf- 
 ficient to make us able to talk to one another, so as not to be 
 understood by anybody, though sometimes hardly by our- 
 selves. 
 
 Here we converted all our effects into money, settled our 
 abode as for a considerable time, and Wi lliam and I. main- 
 taining an inviolable _Mend§bip and fl5elity_tp one another, 
 _ Jived like t wo brothers : we neither had- or sought any sepa^' 
 rate interest ; we conversed seriously and gravely, and upon 
 the subject of our repentance continually ; we never changed, 
 that is to say, so as to leave off our Armenian garbs ; and we 
 were called, at Venice, the two Grecians. 
 
 I Eadloeen two or threelESieFgdiJDg to give a detail of our 
 wealth ; but it will appear incredible ; and we had the 
 greatest difficulty in the world how to conceal it, being 
 justlyapprehensiv£_lestj59-e might be assassinated_injthat^ 
 _ counEy torour^toiasure. At lengtE "William told me, he 
 began to 'think now that he must never see England any 
 more, and that indeed he did not much concern himself 
 about it ; but seeing we had gained so great wealth, and 
 having some poor relations in England, he said he would, if 
 I was willing, write to know if they were living, and to 
 know what condition they were in ; and if he found such of 
 them were alive as he had some thoughts about, he would, 
 with my consent, send them something to better their con- 
 dition. 
 
 I consented most willingly; and accordingly William 
 wrote to a sister and an uuclej and in ^bout five weeks' 
 
250 CAPTAIS SINGLETON. 
 
 time received an answer from them both, directed to himself 
 tmd er cover of a hard Armenian na me that he had gpven 
 ^himself; viz.,' Sei^ior Cdhstantine Alexion of Ispahan, at 
 VenideT* 
 
 It was a very moving letter he received from his sister, 
 
 who, after the most passionate expressions of joy to hear he 
 
 was alive, seeing she had long ago had an account that he 
 
 was murdered by the pirates in the West Indies, entreats 
 
 him to let her know what circumstances he was in ; tells 
 
 him she was not in any capacity to do anything considerable 
 
 I for him, but that he should be welcome to her with all her 
 
 / heart; that she was left a widow, with four children, but 
 
 / kept a little shop in the Minories, by which she made shift 
 
 to maintain her family; and that she had sent him five 
 
 pounds, lest he should want money, in a strange country, to 
 
 bring him home. 
 
 I could see the letter brought tears out of his eyes, as he 
 
 read it ; and indeed, when he showed it me, and the little 
 
 bill for five pounds, upon an English merchant in Venice, it 
 
 brought tears out of my eyes too. 
 
 '1Zi,J*- ■^ After we had been both afFected_sufficientiy_with the 
 
 (( ., , V, .1. ' tenderness and kindness of this letter, he turns to me ; says 
 
 '%JeUx^-'-^ck ^^' What shall I do for this poor woman? I mused awhile; 
 
 . , ..^ij^ .j(„ ! at last, says I, I will tell you what you shall do for her: she 
 
 " has sent you five pounds, and she has four children, and 
 
 herself, that is five : such a sum, from a poor woman in 
 
 her circumstances, is as much as live thousand pounds is to 
 
 us ; you shall send her a bill of exchange for five thousand 
 
 pounds English money, and bid her conceal her surprise at 
 
 it till she hears from you again ; but bid her leave oif her 
 
 shop, and go and take a house somewhere in the country, 
 
 not far ofi" from London, and stay there, in a moderate 
 
 figure, till she hears from you again. 
 
 Now, says William, I perceive by it that ycu Lave some 
 thoughts of venturing into England. 
 
 Indeed, William, said I, you mistake me ; but it presently 
 occurred to me that you should venture ; for what have you 
 done that_yqu may not be seen there ? Why should I desire 
 'tokeep you from your relations, pujrely to keep me company? 
 William looked very affectionately upon me : Nay, says 
 he, we have embarked together so long, and come together 
 so far, I am resolved I will never part with thee as loii"- as 1 
 
WILLIAM SENDS HIS STSTEE FIVE THOUSAND POUNDS. 251 
 
 live, go where thou wilt, or stay where thou wilt; and as for 
 my sister, said William, I cannot send her such a sum ol 
 money; for whose is all this money we have? It is most of 
 it thine. 
 
 No, "WDliam, said I, there is not a penny of it mine but 
 what is yours too ; and I won't have anytlung but an equal 
 share with you ; and therefore you shall send it to her ; if 
 Qot, I wUl send it. 
 
 Why, says William, it will make the poor woman dis- 
 tracted; she wUl be so surprised, she will go out of her 
 wits. Well, said I, William, you may do it prudently: send 
 her a biU backed of a hundred pounds, and bid her expect 
 more in a post or two, and that you will send her enough to 
 live on without keeping shop ; and then send her more. 
 
 Accordingly WiUiam sent her a very kind letter, with a 
 bill upon a merchant in London for a hundred and sixty 
 pounds, and bid her comfort herself with the hope that he 
 should be able in a little time to send her more. About ten 
 days after, he sent her another bill of five hundred and forty 
 pounds J and a post or two after, another for three hundred 
 pounds, making in all a thousand pounds ; and told her he 
 would send her sufficient to enable her to leave off her 
 shop, and directed her to take a house as above. 
 
 He waited then tiU he received an answer to all the three 
 letters, with, an account that she had received the money, 
 and, which I did not expect, that she had not let any other 
 acquaintance Jmow that^ sKe_^^had receive^ a shiUijig .from 
 ^^^jbMy^ or so much as that he was alive, and would not, till 
 sheEeard again. 
 
 When he showed me this letter, Well, William, said I, 
 this woman is fit to be trusted with life or anything : send 
 her the rest of the five thousand pounds ; and I'll venture to 
 England with you, to this woman's house, whenever you 
 wiU. 
 
 In a word, we sent her five thousand pounds in good bills ; 
 and she received them very punctually, and in a little time 
 sent her brother word, that she had pretended to her uncle 
 that -she was sickly, and could not carry on the trade any 
 longer; and that she had taken a large house about four 
 miles from London, under pretence of letting lodgings for 
 her livelihood i and, in short, intimated as if she understood 
 
252 CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 
 
 ^ that he intended to come over to be mcognito, assuring him 
 he should be as retired as he pleased. ~ 
 
 This was opening the very door for us that we thought 
 had been effectually shut for this life; and, in ajword, we 
 resolved to venture, but to keep ourselves entirely concealed, 
 _^both as to name and evefy^ther circumstajice ; and accord- 
 ingly William sent his sister word, how kindly he took her 
 prudent steps, and that she had guessed right, that he 
 desired to be retired, and that he obliged her not to increase 
 her figure, but live private, till she might perhaps see him. 
 
 He was going to send the letter away. Come, William^ 
 said I, you sha'n't send her an empty letter : tell her you 
 have a Mend coming with . you, that must be as retired as 
 yourself; and I'll send her five thousand pounds more. 
 
 So, in short, we made this poor woman's family rich ; and 
 yet, when it came to the point, my heart failed me, and I 
 durst not venture; and for WiUiam, he would not stir 
 without me ; and so we stayed about two years after this, 
 considering what we should do. 
 
 You may think, perhaps, that I was very prodigal of my 
 ill-gotten goods, thus to load a stranger with my bounty, and 
 give a gift like a prince Jo one that had been ablejo merit^ 
 nothing of me, or indeed know me ; but my condition ought 
 to be considered in this case : though I had money to 
 profiision, yet I was perfectly destitute of a friend in the 
 world, to have the least obligation or assistance fromj or 
 ; knew not either where to dispose or trust anything I had 
 while I lived, or whom to give it to if I died. r 
 
 When I had reflected upon the manner of my getting of 
 
 g^ * * it, I was sometimes for giving it aU to charitable uses, as a 
 
 a', "^^j, :\ ^ debt due to mankind, though I was a Roman Catholic, and 
 
 t. <■"" \t not at all of the opinibn that it would purchase me any 
 
 . ' ' ; ' 'repose to my soul; but I thought) as it was got by a general 
 
 . ; . plunder, and which I could make no satisfaction for, it was 
 
 due to the community, and I ought to distribute it for the 
 
 general good. But still I was at a loss how, and where, and 
 
 by whom, to settle this charity, not daring to go home to my 
 
 own country, lest some of my comrades, strolled home, 
 
 should see and detect me, and, for the very spoil of my 
 
 money, or the purchase of his own pardon, betray and 
 
 expose me to an untimely- end. 
 
KETUEN TO UNGLAND 253 
 
 Being thus destitute, I say, of a friend, I pitched thus 
 upon William's sister ; the kind step of her's to her brother, 
 whom she thought to be in distress, signifying a generous 
 mind, and a charitable disposition ; and, having resolved to 
 make her the object of my first bounty, I did not doubt but j 
 I should purchase something of a refiige for myself, and a 
 kind of a centre, to which I should tend in my fiiture 
 actions ; for really a man that has a subsistence, and no 
 residence, no place that has a niagnetic influence upon his 
 affections, is in one of the most odd, uneasy conditions in the 
 world ; nor is it in the power of all his money to make it up 
 to him. 
 
 It was, as I told you, two years and upwards that we 
 remained at Venice, and thereabout, in the greatest hesi- 
 tation imaginable, irresolute and unfixed to the last degree. 
 William's sister importuned us daily to come to England, 
 and wondered we should not dare to trust her, whom we 
 had to such a degree obliged to be faithful; and, in a 
 manner, lam ented her being suspected by us. 
 
 At last I began to incline ; and I said to William, Come, 
 brother WiUiam, said I_^(for, ever since our discourse at 
 BalsOTa,_X^aJO[ed_iim_b^^)r"if youTwill agireelo two 'of 
 ~ threetidngs with me, I'U go home to England with all my 
 heart. 
 
 Says William, Let me know what they are. 
 
 Why, first, says I, you shall not disclose yourself to any of 
 your relations in England but your sister, no, not to one. 
 
 Secondly, We wiU. not shave off our moustaches or beards 
 (for we had all along worn our beards after the Grecian 
 manner), nor leave off our long vests, that we may pass for , 
 Grecians and foreigners. 
 
 Thirdly, That we shaU never speak English in public 
 before anybody, your sister excepted. 
 
 Fourthly, That we will always live together, and for 
 brothers. 
 
 William said, he would agree to them all with all his 
 heart; but that the not speaking Enghsh would be the 
 hardest ; but- he would do his best for that too : so, in a 
 word, we agreed to go from Venice to Naples, where we 
 converted a large sum of money into bales of sUk, left a 
 large sum in a merchant's hands at Venice, and another 
 considerable sum at Naples, and took bills of exchan^ for a 
 
254 CAFTAIK SINGLETON. 
 
 great deal too ; and yet we came witli such a cargo to 
 London as few Armenian merchants had done for some 
 years; for we loaded in two ships seventy-three bales of 
 thrown silk, besides thirteen bales cf wrought silks, from 
 the dutchy of Milan, shipped at Genoa ; with aH which I 
 arrived safely, and some time after married my faithful 
 protectress, William's sister, with whom I am much more 
 happy than I deserve. 
 
 And now, having so plainly told you that I am come to 
 England, after I have so boldly owned what life I have led 
 abroad, it is time to leave off and say no more for the 
 present, lest some should be willing to inquire too nicely 
 after 
 
 Tour old friend, 
 
 V CAPTAIN BOB. 
 
 THE END. 
 
THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 4^ 
 
THE HISTOEY 
 
 And Remabkablb 
 
 LIFE 
 
 Of the truly Honourable 
 
 COLONEL JACQUE, 
 
 COMMONLT CALl'd 
 
 COLONEL JACK, 
 
 WHO WAS 
 
 Bom a Gentleman, put 'Prentice to a Pick-Pocket, 
 was Six-and-Twenty Years a Thiep, and then Kid- 
 napp'd to VIRGINIA. 
 
 Came back a Merchant; was Five times married to 
 Four Whores; went into the Wars, behav'd bravely, 
 got Preferment, was made Colonel of a Regiment, 
 eame over, and fled with the ChevaMer, is stUl abroad 
 compleating a Life of Wonders, and resolves to dye 
 a GENERAL. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed and Sold by J. Beotheeton, at the Royal 
 Exchange ; T. Payne, near Stationers' -Hall ; W, 
 Meaes, at the Lamb, and A. Dodd, at the Peacock 
 without Temph-Bar; W. Chetwood, in Covent- 
 Garden; J. Geates, in St. James' s- Street ; S. Chap- 
 man, in Pall-MaU, and J. Stagg, at Westminster- 
 HaU. MDCCXXm. 
 
THE PEEFACE, 
 
 Prefaces are so customary before books of this nature, to 
 introduce them into the world by a display of their excellen- 
 cies, that it might be thought too presuming to send this 
 performance abroad, without some such preliminary. Arid 
 yet I may venture to say, it needs this good office as little as 
 any that has ever gone before it. The pleasant and delight- 
 ful part speaks for itself; the useftil and instructive is so 
 large, and has such a tendency to improve the mind, and 
 rectify the manners, that it would employ a volume, large 
 as itself, to particularize the instructions that may be drawn 
 from it. 
 
 Here is room for just and copious observations, on the 
 blessings and advantages of a sober and weU-govemed 
 education, and the ruin of so many thousands of all ranks 
 in this nation for want of it ; here, also, we may see how 
 much public schools and charities might be improve^ to 
 prevent the destruction of so many unhappy children, as, 
 in this town, are every year bred up for the executioner. 
 
 The miserable condition of multitudes of youth, many 
 of whose natural tempers are docible, and would lead them 
 to learn the best things rather than the worst, is truly 
 deplorable, and is abundantly seen in the history of this 
 man's childhood ; where, though circumstances formed him 
 by necessity to be a thief, surprising rectitude of principles 
 remained with him, and made him early abhor the worst 
 part of his trade, and at length to forsake the whole of it. 
 Had h e come infro the world with the advantag gjof a virtuous 
 
 8 J 
 
'-.' »> 
 
 ),/■:, 
 
 260 ■ PREFACE. 
 
 education, aad been instructed how to improve the generous 
 principles he had in him, what a figure might he not have 
 made, either as a man, or a Christian. 
 
 The various turns of his fortune in different scenes of 
 life, make a delightful field for the reader to wander in ; 
 a garden where he may gather wholesome and medicinal 
 fruits, none noxious or poisonous ; where he will see virtue, 
 and the ways of wisdom, everywhere applauded, honoured, 
 encouraged, and rewarded ; vice and extravagance attended 
 with sorrow, and every kind of infelicity ; and at last, sin 
 and shame going together, the offender meeting with reproach 
 and contempt, and the crimes with detestation and punish- 
 ment. 
 
 Every vicious reader will here be encouraged to a change, 
 and it will appear that the best and only good end of a 
 impious misspent life is repentance ; that in this, there is 
 comfort, peace, and oftentimes hope, and that the penitent 
 shall be received like the prodigal, and his latter end be 
 better than his beginning. 
 
 A book founded on so useful a plan, calculated to answer 
 such valuable purposes as have been specified, can require no 
 apology : Nor is it of any concern to the reader, whether it 
 be an exact historical relation of real facts, or whether the 
 hero of it intended to present us, at least in part, with a 
 moral romance. On either si;pposition, it is equally service- 
 able for the discouragement of vice and the recommendation 
 of virtue. 
 
 ''■■•7 t-— ., L-t .-^-T Daniel De Foe. 
 
THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION — ^I AM DESERTED BT MT PAEEliTTS ALMOST AS 
 
 SOON AS BOKN NICKNAMED BT MT NURSE, COLONEL 
 
 JACK CHARACTERS OF THE THREE JACKS — COLONEL 
 
 JACK, CAPTAIN JACK, AND MAJOR JACK — NURSE DIES, 
 
 AND WE ARE TURNED LOOSE UPON THE WORLD CAPTAIN 
 
 JACK FLOGGED FOR ROGUERY WE PICK POCKETS. 
 
 Seeing my life has been such a ^gjiMi«®£ffickj^ nalyrg,, and 
 that I am able now to look bacEupon it from a safer dis- 
 tance, than is ordinarily the tiate of the clan to which I 
 once belonged; I think my history may find a place in 
 the world, as weU as some, which I see are every day read 
 with pleasure, though they have in them nothing so divert- 
 ing, or instructing, as I believe mine will appear to be. 
 
 My original may be as high as anybody's for aught I know, 
 for my mother kept very good company, but that part 
 belong s to he r story,jiore than to mine ; all ttal5w of it is 
 by orlfl'TTaartion. MLy nurse told me "my mother was a 
 gentlewoman, that my father was a man of quality, and she 
 (my nurse) had 'a good piece of money given her to take me 
 off his hands, and deliver him and my mother from the im^ 
 portunities that usually attend the misfortune of having a 
 child to keep, that should not be seen_OTjbeard__o_f, 
 
262 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 My father, it seems, gave my nurse Bometlimg more than 
 was agreed for, at my mother's request, upon her solemn^ 
 promise, that she wovdd use me well, and let me be put to 
 school; and charged her, that if I Kved to come to any 
 bigness, capable to understand the meaning of it, she should 
 always take care to bid me remember, that I was a gentle- 
 man; and this, he said, was all the education he would 
 ' desire of her for me ; for he did not doubt, he said, but that 
 some time or other, the vei^ hint would Jnspire me with 
 thoughts suitable to my birth, and^that I wonla certeln ly act 
 HEe a gentleman, if I believed myself to be so. 
 
 But my disasters were not directed"Yo "an "end as soon as 
 they began. It is very seldom that the unfortunate are so 
 but for a day ; as the great rise by degrees of greatness to 
 the pitch of glory, in which they shine, so the miserable 
 sink to the depth of their misery by a continued series of 
 disaster, and are long in the tortures and agonies of their 
 distressed circumstances, before a turn of fortune, if ever 
 such a thing happens to them, gives them a prospect of 
 deliverance. 
 
 My nurse was as honest to the engagement she had 
 entered into, as could be expected from one of her employ- 
 ment, and particularly as honest as her circumstances would 
 give her leave to be ; for she bred me up very carefully with 
 her own son, and with another son of shame like me, whom 
 she had taken upon the same terms. 
 
 My name was John, as she told me, but neither she or I, 
 knew anything of a surname that belonged to me ; so I was 
 left to call myself Mr. Anything, what I pleased, as fortune 
 and better circumstances should give occasion. 
 
 It happened that her own son (for she had a little boy of 
 her own, about one year older than I) was called John 
 too; and about two years after she took another son of 
 shame, as I called it above, to keep as she did me, and his 
 name was John too. 
 
 As we were all Johns, we were all Jacks, and soon came 
 to be called so ; for at that part of the town, where we had 
 our breeding, viz., near Goodman's-fields, the Johns are 
 generally called Jack ; but my nurse, who may be allowed 
 tp distinguish her own son a little, from the rest, would have 
 him called Ca£tai;n,_becauseJorsoothJ^e was the eldest,^ 
 
 I was provoked at having this boy~called captain, and I 
 
NICKNAMED COLONEL. 5J65 
 
 cried, and told my nurse I would bo called captain ; for she 
 told me I was a gentleman, and I would be a captain, that I 
 would : the good woman, to keep the peace, told me, ay, ay, 
 I was a gentleman, and therefore I should be above a 
 captain, for I should be a colonel, and that was a great deal 
 better than a captain; for, my dear, says she, every tar- 
 pawUng, if he gets but to be lieutenant of a press smack, is 
 called captain, but colonels are soldiers, and none but 
 gentlemen are ever made colonels : besides, says she, I have 
 known colonels come to be lords, and generals, though they 
 were bastards at first, and therefore you shall be called 
 colonel. 
 
 Well, I was hushed indeed with this for the present, but 
 not thoroughly pleased, tiU a little while after I heard her 
 tell her own boy, that I was a gentleman, and therefore he 
 must call me colonel ; at which her boy feU a-crying, and he 
 would be called colonel. That part pleased me to the life, 
 that he should cry to be called colonel, for then I was 
 satisfied that it was above a captain: so universally is 
 ambition seated in the minds of men, that not a beggar-boy 
 but Mas his share of it. 
 
 So here was Colonel Jack, and Captain Jack ; as for the 
 third boy, he was only plain Jack for some years after, tiU 
 Jie_came to preferment by the merit of his birth, as you shaH" 
 hear in its place. 
 
 We were hopeful boys all three of us, and promised very 
 early, by many repeated circumstances of our lives, that we 
 would all be rogues ; and yet I cannot say, if what I have 
 heard of my nurse's character be true, but the honest 
 woman did what she could to prevent it. 
 
 Before I tell you much more of our story, it would be 
 very proper to give you something of our several characters, 
 as I have gathered them up in my memory, as far back as I 
 can recover things, either of myself, oi* my brother Jacks, 
 and they shall be brief and impartial. 
 
 Captain Jack was the eldest of us all, by a whole year 
 He was a squat, big, strong made boy, and promised to be 
 stout when grown up to be a man, but not to be tall. His 
 temper was sly, sullen, reserved, malicious, revengeful; and 
 withal, he was brutish, bloody, and cruel in his disposition ; 
 he was as to manners a mere boor, or clown, of a carman- 
 like breed ; sharp as a street-bred boy must be, but ignorant 
 
264 COLOKBL JACK. 
 
 and unteachable from a child. He tad much the nature of 
 a bull-dog, bold and desperate, but not generous at all ; all 
 the schoolmistresses we went to, could never make him 
 learn, no, not so much as to make him know his letters ; and 
 as if he was bom a thief, he would steal everything that 
 came near him, even as soon almost as he could speak ; and 
 that, not from his mother only, but from anybody else, and 
 from us too that were his brethren and companions. He 
 was an original rogue, for he would do the foulest and most 
 villanous things, even by his own inclination; he had no 
 taste or sense of being honest, no, not, I say, to his brother 
 rogues, which is what other thieves make a pbint of honour 
 of ; I mean that of being honest to one another. 
 
 The other, that is to say, the youngest of us Johns, was 
 called Major Jack, by the accident Jqllowing ; the lady that 
 had deposited him vnth our nurse, had owned to her that 
 it was a major^of the guards that was the father of the 
 cETdf but that^ she was obliged to concea l his name pand 
 that was enough. So he was at first caUe3"Jolmthe Major, 
 and afterwards the Major, and at last, when we came to 
 rove together, Major Jack, according to the rest, for his 
 name was John, as I have observed already. 
 
 Major Jack was a merry, facetious, pleasant boy, had a 
 good share of wit, especially oflf-hand wit, as they call it; 
 was full of jests and good humour, and, as I often said, had 
 something of a gentleman in him. He had a true manly 
 courage, feared nothing, and could look death in the face, 
 without any hesitation ; and yet, if he had the advantage, 
 was the most generous and most compassionate creature 
 alive. He had native principles of gallantry in him, without 
 anything of the brutal or terrible part that the captain had ; 
 and in a word, he wanted nothing but honesty to have made 
 him an excellent man. He had learned to read, as I had 
 done ; and as he talked very well, so he wrote good sense, 
 and very handsome language, as yon wiU see in the process 
 of his story. 
 
 As for your humble servant. Colonel Jack, he was a poor 
 unhappy tractable dog, willing enough, and capable too, to 
 learn anything, if he had had any but the devil for his 
 schoolmaster : he set out into the world so early, that wheil 
 he began to do evil, he understood nothing of the wickedness 
 of it, nor what he had to expect for it. I remember very 
 
DEFENCE BEPOKE A JUSTICE. 265 
 
 well that wlien I was once carried before a justice, for a 
 theft which indeed I was not guilty of, and defended myseh 
 by argument, proving the mistakes of my accusers, and how 
 they contradicted themselves; the justice told me it was a 
 pity I had not been better employed, for I was certainly 
 better taught; in which, however, his worship was mistaken, 
 for I had never been taught anything but to be a thief; 
 except, as I said, to read and write, and that was all, before 
 I was ten years old ; but I had a natural talent of talking, 
 and could say as much to the purpose as most people that 
 had been taught much more than I. 
 
 I passed among my comrades for a bold resolute boy, and 
 one that durst fight anything ; but I had a different opinion 
 of myself, and therefore shunned fighting as much as I 
 could, though sometimes I ventured too, and came off well, 
 being very strong made, and nimble withal. However, I 
 many times brought myself off with my tongue, where my 
 hands would not be sufficient ; and this, as well after I was 
 a man, as while I was a boy. 
 
 I was wary and dexterous at my trade, and was not so 
 often catched as my fellow rogues, I mean while I was a 
 boy, and never after I came to be a man, no, not once for 
 twenty-six years, being so old in the trade, and still un- 
 hanged, as you shall hear. 
 
 As for my person, while I was a dirty glass-bottle-house 
 boy, sleeping in the ashes, and dealing always in the street 
 dirt, it cannot be expected but that I looked like what I was, 
 and so we did all ; that is to say, like a black your shoes 
 your honour, a beggar-boy, a blackguard-boy, or what you 
 please, despicable, and miserable, to the last degree; and 
 yet I remember, the people would say of me, that boy has a 
 good face : if he was washed and well dressed, he would be 
 a good pretty boy ; do but look what eyes he has, what a 
 pleasant sniiling countenance : it is a pity ! I wonder what 
 the rogue's father and mother was, and the like : then they 
 would call me, and ask me my name, and I would tell them 
 my name was Jack. But what's your surname, sirrah? says 
 they: I don't know, says I. Who is your father and 
 mother? I have none, said I. What, and never had you 
 any? said they : No, says I, not that I know of. Then they 
 would shake their heads, and cry, Poor boy ! and 'tis a pity, 
 
266 COLUNEL JACK. 
 
 and the like; and so let me go. But I laid up all these 
 things in my heart. 
 
 I was almost ten years old, the captain eleven, and the 
 major about eight, when the good woman my nurse died. 
 Her husband was a seaman, and had been drowned a little 
 before in the Gloucester frigate, one of the king's ships 
 which was cast away going to Scotland with the duke of 
 York, in the time r.f Irinoj C\h<^lp,jj TT. and the honest woman 
 dying very poor, th'S^ansn was obliged to bury her ; when 
 the three young Jacks attended her corpse, and I the colonel 
 (for we all passed for her own children) was chief mourner, 
 the captain, who was the eldest son, going back very sick. 
 
 The good woman being dead, we, the three Jacks, were 
 turned loose to the world. As to the parish provi(Ung for 
 us, we did not trouble ourselves much about that; we 
 rambled about all three together, and the people in Rosemary- 
 lane and Ratcliff, and that way, knowing us pretty well, we 
 got victuals easily enough, and without much begging. 
 
 For my particular part, I got some reputation, for a 
 mighty civil honest boy ! for if I was sent of an errand, I 
 always did it punctually and carefiilly, and made haste 
 again ; and if I was trusted with anything, I never touched 
 it to diminish it, but made it a point of honour to be 
 punctual to whatever was committed to me, though I was as 
 arrant a thief as any of them in all other cases. 
 
 In like case, some of the poorer shopkeepers would often 
 leave me at their door, to look after their shops, tiU they 
 went up to dinner, or tiU they went over the way to an ale- 
 house, and the like, and I always did it freely and cheerfully, 
 and with the utmost honesty. 
 
 Captain Jack, on the contrary, a surly, ill-looking rough 
 boy, had not a word in his mouth that savoured either of 
 good manners, or good humour ; he would say Yes, and No, 
 just as he was asked a question, and that was all, but nobody 
 got anything from him that was obliging in the least. If he 
 was sent of an errand he would forget half of it, and it may 
 be go to play, if he met any boys, and never go at all, or if 
 he went, never come back with an answer ; which was such 
 a regardless, disobliging way, that nobody had a good word 
 for him, and everybody said he had the very look of a rogue, 
 and would come to be hanged. In a word, he got nothing 
 
MAKNEK IX WHICH HE LIVED. 267 
 
 of anybody for good ■will, but was as it were obliged to turn 
 tliief, for the mere necessity of bread to eat ; for if he begged 
 he did it with so iU a tone, rather like bidding folks give him 
 victuals than entreating them ; that one man, of whom he 
 had something given, and knew him, told^ him one day, 
 Captain Jack, says he, thou art but an awkward, ugly sort 
 of a beggar, now thou art a boy ; I doubt thou wilt be fitter 
 to ask a man for his purse, than for a penny, when thou 
 comest to be a man. 
 
 The major was a merry thoughtless fellow, always cheer- 
 ful : whether he had any victuals or no, he never complained ; 
 and he recommended himself so well by his good carriage, 
 that the neighbours loved him, and he got victuals enough 
 one where or other. Thus we all made shift, though we 
 were so little, to keep from starving ; and as for lodging, we 
 lay in the summer-time about the watchhouses, and on bulk- 
 heads, and shop-doors, where we were known ; as for a bed, 
 we knew nothing what belonged to it for many years after 
 my nurse died ; and in winter we got into the ash-holes, and 
 nealing-arches in the glass-house, called DalloVs Glass- 
 house in Rosemary-lane, or at another glass-house in Bat- 
 cliff-highway. 
 
 In this manner we lived for some years ; and here we 
 failed not to fall among a gang of naked, ragged rogues like 
 ourselves, wicked as the devil could desire to have them be 
 at so early an age, and ripe for all the other parts of mischief 
 that suited them as they advanced in years. 
 
 I remember that one cold winter night we were disturbed 
 in our rest with a constable and his watch, crying out for 
 one, Wry-neck, who it seems had done some roguery, and 
 required a hue and cry of that kind ; and the watch were 
 informed he was to be found among the beggar-boys under 
 the nealing-arches in the glass-house. 
 
 The alarm being given, we were awakened in the dead of 
 the night, with. Come out here, ye crew of young devils, 
 come out and show yourselves ; so we were all produced : 
 some came out rubbing their eyes, and scratching their 
 heads, and others were dragged out ; and I think there was 
 about seventeen of us in afi, but Wry-neck, as they called 
 him, was not among them. It seems this was a good big 
 boy, that used to be among the inhabitants of that place, 
 and had been, concerned in a robbery the night before, in 
 
268 COl.ONEL JACK. 
 
 whicli Ms comrade, who was taken, in hopes of escaping 
 punishment, had discovered him, and informed where he 
 usually harboured ; but he was aware, it seems, and had se- 
 cured himself, at least for that time. So we were allowed 
 to return to our warm apartment among the coal-ashes where 
 I slept many a cold winter night ; nay, I may say, many a 
 winter, as sound, and as comfortably as ever I did since, 
 though in better lodgings. 
 
 In this manner of living we went on a good while, I be- 
 lieve two years, and neither did, cir meant any harm. We 
 generally went aU three together ; for, in short, the captain, 
 for want of address, and for something disagreeable in him, 
 would have starved if we had not kept him with us. As 
 we were always together, we were generally known by the 
 name of the three Jacks ; but Colonel Jack had always the 
 preference, upon many accounts. The major, as I have said, 
 was merry and pleasant, but the colonel always held talk 
 with the better sort, I mean the better sort of those that 
 would converse with a beggar-boy. In this way of talk, I 
 was always upon the inquiry, asking questions of things 
 done in public, as well as in private ; particularly, I loved to 
 talk with seamen and soldiers about the war, and about the 
 great seafights, or battles on shore, that any of them had 
 been in j^ and, as I^ never forgot anythi ng they told me, I 
 could soon, that is to say, in a few yearsTgive almostas^od 
 an account of the Dutch war, and of the fights at sea, the 
 battles in Flanders, the taking of Maestricht, and the like, 
 as any of those that had been there ; and this made those 
 old soldiers and tars love to talk with me too, and to tell me 
 all the stories they could think of, and that not only of. the 
 wars then going on, but also of the wars in Oliver's time, 
 the death of king Charles I. and the like. 
 
 By this means, as young as I was, I was a kind of^ an 
 historian ; and though I had read no books, "aJSTnever haS 
 any "books to, read, yet I could give a tolerable account of 
 what had been done, and of what was then a-doing in the 
 world, especially in those things that our own people were 
 concerned in. I knew the names of every ship in the navy, 
 and who commanded them too, and all this before I was 
 fourteen years old, or but very soon after. 
 
 Captain Jack in this time fell into bad company, and went 
 away from us, and it was a good while before we ever heard 
 
CAPTAIN JACK WHIPPED AT BRIDEWELL. 269 
 
 tale or tidings of him, till about half a year I think, or 
 thereabouts, I understood he was got among a gang of,iids_ 
 naB£erSi_as_they were then called, being a sort of wicked 
 "Tellows that used to spirit people's children away ; that is, 
 snatch them up in the dark, and, stopping their mouths, 
 carry them to houses where they had rogues ready to receive 
 them, and so carry them on board of ships bound to Vir- 
 ginia, and sell them. 
 
 This was a trade that horrid Jack, for so I called him 
 when we were grown up, was very fit for, especially the 
 violent part; for if a little child got into his clutches, he 
 would stop the breath of it, instead of stopping its mouth, 
 and never troubled his head with the child's being almost 
 strangled, so he did but keep it from making a noise. There 
 was, it seems, some villanous thing done by this gang about 
 that time, whether a child was murdered among them, or a 
 child otherwise abused ; but it seems it was a child of an 
 eminent citizen, and the parent some how or other got a 
 scent af the thing, so that they recovered their child, though 
 in a sad condition, and almost killed. I was too young, and 
 it was too long ago, for me to remember the whole story, but 
 they were all taken up and sent to Newgate, and Captain 
 Jack among the rest, though he was but young, for he was 
 not then much above thirteen years old. 
 
 What punishment was inflicted upon the rogues of that 
 gang I cannot tell now, but the captain being but a lad, was 
 ordered to be three times soundly whipt at Bridewell ; my 
 lord mayor, or the recorder, telling him, it was done in pity 
 to him, to keep him from the gallows, not forgetting to tell 
 him, that he had a hanging look, and bid him have a care on 
 that very account ; so remarkable was the captain's counte- 
 nance, even so young, and which he heard of afterwards on 
 many occasions. When he was in Bridewell, I heard of his 
 misfortune, and the major and I went to see him, for this 
 was the first news we heard of what became of him. 
 
 The very day that we went, he was called out to be 
 corrected, as they called it, according to his sentence ; and 
 as it was ordered to be done soundly, so indeed they were 
 true to the sentence ; for the alderman, who was the 
 president of Bridewell, and who I think they called Sir 
 WiUiam Turner, held preaching to him about how young 
 he was, and what pity it was such a youth should come ta 
 
270 novoNEL JACK. 
 
 be hanged, and a great deal more, how he should take 
 warning by it, and how wicked a thing it was, that they 
 should steal away poor innocent children, and the like ; and 
 all this while the man with a blue badge on lashed him most 
 unmercifully, for he was not to leave off till Sir WUUam 
 knocked with a little hammer on the table. 
 
 The poor captain stamped and danced, and roared out like 
 a mad boy ; and I must confess, I was fHghted almost to 
 death ; for though I could not come near enough,, being but 
 a poor boy, to see how he was handled, yet I saw him 
 afterwards, with his back all wealed with the lashes, and in 
 several places bloody, and thought I should have died with 
 the sight of it; but I grew better acquainted with those 
 things afterwards. 
 
 I did what I could to comfort the poor captain, when I 
 got leave to come to him. But the worst was not over with 
 him, for he was to have two more such whippings before 
 they had done with him; and indeed they scourged him 
 so severely, that they made him sick of the kidnapping trade 
 for a great while ; but he fell in among them again, and 
 kept among them as long as that trade lasted, for it ceased 
 L in a few years afterwards. 
 
 The major and I, though very young, had sensible im- 
 pressions made upon us for some time by the severe usage of 
 the captain, and it might be very well said, we were 
 corrected as well as he, though not concerned in the crime ; 
 but it was within the year that the major, a good-con- 
 ditioned easy boy, was wheedled away by a couple of young 
 rogues that frequented the glass-house apartments, to take a 
 walk with them, as they were pleased to call it; the 
 gentlemen were very well matched, the major was about 
 twelve years old, and the oldest of the two that led him out 
 was not above fourteen: the business was to go to Bartholo- 
 mew fair — ^was, in short, to pick pockets. 
 
 The major knew nothing of the trade, and therefore was 
 to do nothing; but they promised him a share for aU that, as 
 if he had been as expert as themselves ; so away they went. 
 The two dexterous young rogues managed it so well, that 
 by eight o'clock at night, they came back to our dusty 
 quarters at the glass-house, and, sitting them down in a 
 comer, they began to share their spoil, by the light of the 
 glass-house fire. The major lugged out the goods, for, as 
 
 r 
 
PKODUrB OF PLUNDER. 271 
 
 fiist as they made any purchase, they unloaded themselves, 
 and gave all to him, that, if they had been taken, nothing- 
 might be found about them. 
 
 It was a devilish lucky day to them, the devil certainly 
 assisting them to find their prey, that he might draw in a 
 young gamester, and encourage him to the undertaking, who 
 had been made backward before by the misfortune of the 
 «aptain. The list of their purchase the first night was as 
 follows : 
 
 1. A white handkerchief from a country wench, as she 
 was starting up at a jack-pudding ; there was 3s. 6d. and a 
 row of pins tied up in one end of it. 
 
 2. A coloured hankerchief, out of a young country fellow's 
 pocket as he was bujdng a china orange. 
 
 3. A riband pvu-se with lis. 3d. and a silver thimble in it, 
 out of a young woman's pocket, just as a fellow offered to 
 pick her up. 
 
 N.B. She missed her purse presently, but, not seeing the 
 thief, charged the man with it that would have picked 
 her up, and cried out, "A pickpocket!" and he fell into 
 the hands of the mob, but, being known in the street, 
 he got off with greart difficulty. 
 
 4. A knife and fork, that a couple of boys had just 
 bought, and were going home with; the young rogue that 
 took it got it within the minute after the boy had put it in 
 his pocket. 
 
 5. A little silver box with 7s. in it, all in small silver. 
 Id, 2d., 3d., id. pieces. 
 
 N.B. This it seems a maid pulled out of her pocket, to 
 pay at her going into the booth to see a show, and the 
 little rogue got his hand in and fetched it off, just as 
 she put it up again. 
 
 6. Another silk handkerchief, out of a gentleman's pocket. 
 
 7. Another. 
 
 8. A jointed baby, and a little looking-glass, stolen off a 
 toyseller's stall in the fair. 
 
 All this cargo to be brought home clear in one afternoon, 
 or evening rather, and by only two little rogues so young, 
 was, it must be confessed, extraordinary ; and the major was 
 elevated the next day to a strange degree. 
 
 He came very early to me, who lay not far from him, and 
 said to me, Colonel Jack, I want to speak with you. Wei], 
 
272 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 said I, what do you say? Nay, said he, it is business of 
 consequence, I cannot talk here ; so we walked out. As 
 soon as we were come out into a narrow lane, by the glass- 
 house, Look here, says he, and puUs out his little hand 
 almost fill! of money. 
 
 I was surprised at the sight, when he puts it up again, 
 and, bringing his hand out. Here, says he, you shall have 
 some of it ; and gives me a sixpence, and a shilling's worth 
 of the small silver pieces. This was very welcome to me, 
 _wh5La§_nnich as J was of a gentleman, and as much as I 
 though of myself upon that account, never had a s hilling of 
 money together before m all" my H^^BoOEaJIIlcguld^all 
 my own. , 
 
 I was very earnest then to know how he came by this 
 wealth, for he had for his share 7s. 6d. in money, the silver 
 thimble, and a silk handkerchief, which was, in short, an 
 estate to him, that never had, as I said of myself, a shilling 
 together in his life. 
 
 And what wUl you do with it now, Jack ? said I. I do ? 
 says he ; the first thing I do I'll go into Rag Fair, and buy 
 me a pair of shoes and stockings. That's right, says I, and 
 so will I too ; so away we went together, and we bought 
 each of us a pair of Rag Fair stockings in the first place for 
 fivepence, not fivepence a pair, but fivepence together, and 
 good stockings they were too, much above our wear, I 
 assure you. 
 
 We found it more difficult to fit ourselves with shoes ; but 
 at last, having looked a gi'eat while before we could find any 
 good enough for us, we found a shop very well stored, and 
 of these we bought two pair for sixteen-pence. 
 
 We put them on immediately to our great comfort, for we 
 had neither of us had any stockings to our legs that had any 
 feet to them for a long time : I found myself so refi-eshed 
 with having a pair of warm stockings on, and a pair of dry 
 shoes, — ^things, I say, which I had not been acquainted with 
 a great while, that I began to call to my mind my being a 
 gentleman, and now I thought it began to come to pass. 
 When we had thus fitted ourselves, I said. Hark ye. Major 
 Jack, you and I never had any money in our lives before, 
 and we never had a good dinner in all our lives: what if we 
 should go somewhere and get some victuals? I am very 
 hungry. 
 
FEASTING AT A COOK'S SHOP. 275 
 
 So we will then, says the major, I am hungry too ; so we 
 went to a boiBng cook's in Eosemary-lane, where we treated 
 ourselves noBly, and, as I thought with myself,^we began to 
 _Ii Ye like gentlemen, f or we had three-pennyworth of boiled 
 nSeet', two-pennywortTi of pudding, a penny brick (as they 
 call it, or loaf), and a whole pint of stoong beer, which was 
 seven-pence in aU. 
 
 N.B. We had each of us a good mess of charming beef- 
 broth into the bargain ; and, which cheered my heart 
 wonderfully, all the while we were at dinner, the maid 
 and the boy in the house every time they passed by the ■ 
 open box where we sat at our dinner, would look in and 
 cry, Gentlemen, do you call ? and. Do ye call, gentle- 
 men ? I say this was as good to me as aU my dinner. ^ 
 Not the best housekeeper in Stepney parish, not my lord 
 mayor of London, no, not the greatest man on earth could 
 be more happy in their own imagination, and with less 
 mixture of grief or reflection, than I was at this new piece 
 of felicity ; though mine was but a small part of it, for 
 Major Jack had ah estate compared to me, as I had an estate 
 compared to what I had before : in a word, nothing but an 
 utter ignorance of greater felicity, which was my case, could 
 make anybody think himself so exalted as J did, though I 
 had no share of this booty but eighteen-pence. 
 
 That night the major and I triumphed in our new enjoy- 
 ment, and slept with an undisturbed repose in the usual place, 
 surrounded with the warmth of the glass-house fires above, 
 which was a fidl amends for all the ashes and ciuders which 
 we rolled in below. 
 
 Those who know the position of the glass-houses, and the 
 arches where they neal the bottles after they are made, know 
 that those places where the ashes are cast, and where the 
 poor boys lie, are cavities in the brick-work, perfectly close, 
 except at the entrance, and consequently _warm as the 
 _ch essing-room of a ba^io, that it is impossible they can feel 
 ^aiay cold there7wefe it m Greenland, or Nova Zembla, and 
 that therefore the boys lie there not only safe, but very com- 
 fortably, the ashes excepted, which are no grievance at all 
 to them. 
 
 The next day the major and his comrades went abroad 
 again, and were still successful ; nor did any disaster attend 
 them, for I know not how many months ; and, by frequent 
 
 T 
 
274 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 imitation and direction, Major Jack became as dexterous a 
 pickpocket as any of them, and went on through a long 
 variety of fortunes, too long to enter upon now,,-because I am 
 hastening to my own story, which at present is the main 
 thing I have to set down. 
 
 The major failed not to let me see every day the effects of 
 his new prosperity, and was so bountiftd, as frequently to 
 throw me a tester, sometimes a shilling ; and I might perceive 
 that he began to have clothes on his back, to leave the ash- 
 hole, having gotten a society lodging (of which I may give 
 an explanation by itself on another occasion), and which was 
 more, he took upon him to wear a shirt, which was what 
 neither he or I had ventured to do for three years before, 
 and upward. 
 
 But I observed aU this while, that though Major Jack was 
 so prosperous and had thriven so well, and notwithstanding 
 he was very kind, and eyen generous to me, in giving me 
 money upon many occasions, yet he never invited me to 
 enter myself into the society, or to embark with him, whereby 
 I might have been made as happy as he, no, nor did he 
 recommend the employment to me at all. 
 
 I was not very well pleased with his being thus reserved 
 to me ; I had learned from him in general, that the business 
 was picking of pockets, and I fancied, that though the in- 
 genuity of the trade consisted very much in sleight of hand, 
 a good address, and being very nimble, yet that it was not at 
 all difficult to learn ; and, especially, I thought the opportu- 
 nities were so many, the country people that come to London 
 so foolish, so gaping, and so engaged in looking about them, 
 that it was a trade with no great hazard annexed to it, and 
 might be easily learned, if I did but know in general the 
 manner «f it, and how they went about it. 
 
LOOKED ON PICKING POCKETS AS A TEADE. 275 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 I 
 
 I GET ACQUAINTED WITH ONE OP THE MOST NOTED PICK- 
 POCKETS IN TOWN — ^WE STEAL A LETTEB-CASE FULL OP 
 
 BILLS DEEADPULLT DISTRESSED HOW TO DISPOSE OF MT 
 
 SHAKE OP THE BOOTY TUT COMRADE PrOPOSES I SHALL 
 
 EETUEN THE BILLS AND GET THE EEWARD PROMISED 
 
 PROCEEDINGS THEREUPON. 
 
 The subtle devil, never absent from his business, but ready 
 at all occasions to encourage his servants, removed all these 
 difficulties, and brought him into an intimacy •with one of the 
 most exquisite divers, or pickpockets, in the town ; and this, 
 our intimacy, was of no less a kind, than that, as I had an 
 inclination to be as wicked as any of them, he was for taking 
 care that I should not be disappointed. 
 
 He was above the little fellows who went about stealing 
 trifles and baubles in Bartholomew fair, and run the risk ot 
 being mobbed for three or four shillings. His aim was at 
 higher things, even at no less than considerable sums of 
 money, and bills for more. 
 
 He solicited me earnestly to go and take a walk with him 
 as above, adding, that after he had shewn me my trade a 
 little, he would let me be as wicked as I would ; that is, as 
 he expressed it, that after he had made me capable, I should 
 set up for myself if I pleased, and he would only wish me 
 good luck. 
 
 Accordingly, as Major Jack went with his gentleman, only 
 to see the manner, and receive the purchase, and yet come 
 in for a share ; so he told me, if he had success, I should 
 have my share as much as if I had been principal ; and this 
 he assured me was a custom of the trade, in order to encou- 
 rage young beginners, and bring them into the trade vpith 
 courage, for that nothing was to be done if a man had not 
 the heart of the lion. 
 
 I hesitated at the matter a great while, objecting the 
 hazard, and telling the story of Captain Jack, my elder 
 brother, as I might call him. Well, colonel, says he, I find 
 you are faint-hearted, and to be faint-hearted is indeed to be 
 unfit for our trade, for nothing but a bold heart can go 
 
 T 2 
 
276 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 through stitch with this work ; but, however, as there ii 
 nothing for you to do, so there is no risk fo^^° ^un in 
 these things the first time. If I am tak^mm^ he, yoa 
 having nothing to do in it, they will let y<^Kg^^^ i for it 
 shall easily be made appear, that whatever i" have done, you 
 had no Land in it. 
 
 Upon those persuasions I ventured out with him j but I 
 soon found that my new friend was a thief_gf_giia]itji_and^ 
 
 pickpocket above the ordinary ranE^5ad_feaL5JS2^.^^i^ 
 abundanHy than niy brother Jack! He was a bi^er boy than 
 I a great deal ; for though I was now near fifteen years old, 
 I was not big of my age, and as to the nature of the thing, I 
 was perfectly a stranger to it. I knew indeed what at first 
 I did not, for it was a good while before I understood the 
 thing as an offence. I looked on picking pockets as a trade, 
 and thought I was to go apprentice to it. It is true, this 
 was when I was young in the society, as well as younger in 
 years, but even now I understood it to be only a thing for 
 which, if we were catched, we run the risk of being ducked 
 or pumped, which we caU soaking, and then all was over ; 
 and we made nothing of having our rags wetted a little ; but 
 I never understood, till a great while after, that the crime 
 was capital, and that we might be sent to Newgate for it, 
 tUl a great fellow, almost a man, one of our society, was 
 hanged for it ; and then I was terribly frighted, as you 
 shall hear by and by. 
 
 Well, upon the persuasions of this lad, I walked out with 
 him ; a poor innocent boy, and (as I remember my very 
 thoughts perfectly well) I had no evU in my intentions ; I 
 had never stolen anything in my life ; and if a goldsmith had 
 left me in his shop, with heaps of money strewed all round 
 me, and bade me look after it, I should not have touched it, 
 I was so honest ; but the subtle tempter baited his hook for 
 me, as I was a child, in a manner suitable to my childishness, 
 for I never took this picking of pockets to be dishonesty, but, 
 as I have said above, I looked on it as a kind of trade that 
 I was to be bred up toTand^o I entered' upon it, "fiHTbecame 
 hardened in it beyond the power of retreating; and thus I 
 was made a thief involuntarily, and went on a length that 
 few boys do, without coming to the common period of that 
 kind of life, I mean to the transport-ship, or to the gaUows. 
 
 The first day I went abroad with my new instructor, he 
 
EOBBEET AT THE CUSIOM HOUSE. 277 
 
 carried me directly into the city, and as we went first to the 
 watetT^M^^ed me into the long-room at the custom-house ; 
 we were ^^^Bbuple of ragged boys at best, but I was much 
 the wors^BBjfeader had a hat on, a shirt, and a neckcloth ; 
 as for me, IE35 neither of the three, nor had I spoiled my 
 manners so much as to have a hat on my head since my nurse 
 died, w;hich was now some years. His orders to me were to 
 keep always in sight, and near him, but not close to him, 
 nor to take any notice of him at any time till he came to 
 me; and if any hurlyburly happened, I should by no 
 means know him, or pretend to have anything to do with him. 
 
 I observed my orders to a tittle. While he peered into 
 every corner, and had his eye upon everybody, I kept my 
 eye directly upon him, but went always at a distance, and on 
 the other side of the long-room, looking as it were for pins, 
 and picking them up out of the dust as I could find them, and 
 then sticking them on my sleeve, where I had at last got 
 forty or fifty good pins ; but still my eye was upon my com- 
 rade, who, I observed, was very busy among the crowds of 
 people that stood at the board, doing business with the 
 officers, who pass the entries, and make the cocquets, &c. 
 
 At length he comes over to me, and stooping as if be would 
 take up a pin close to me, he put something into my hand, 
 and said. Put that up, and foUow me down stairs quickly ; 
 he did not run, but shuffled along apace through the crowd, 
 and went down, not the great stairs which we came in at, 
 but a little narrow staircase at the other end of the long 
 room ; I followed, and he found I did, and so went on, not 
 stopping below as I expected, nor speaking one word to me, 
 tiU through innumerable narrow passages, alleys, and dark 
 ways, we were got up into Fenchurch-street, and through 
 Billiter-lane into Leadenhall-street, and from thence into 
 LeadenhaU-market. 
 
 It was not a meat-market day, so we had room to sit down 
 upon one of the butchers' stalls, and he bid me lug out. 
 What he had given me was a little leather letter-case, with a 
 French almanack stuck in the inside of it, and a great many 
 papers in it of several kinds. 
 
 We looked them over, and found there was several valu- 
 able bills in it, such as bills of exchange, and other notes, 
 things I did not understand ; but among the rest was a gold- 
 Bmith's note, as he called it, of one Sir Stephen Evans, for 
 
278 COLOKEL JACK. 
 
 300/., payable to the bearer, and at demand ; besides tliis, 
 there was another note for 121. 10s., being a gd^mith's bill 
 too, but I forget the name; there was a l^flHrtwo also 
 ■written in French, which neither of us under^fffflPbut which 
 it seems were things of value, being called loreign biUs 
 accepted. 
 /^ The rogue, my master, knew what belonged to the gold- 
 smith's bUls well enough, and I observed, when- he read the 
 bill of Sir Stephen, he said, this is too big for me to meddle 
 with ; but when he came to the bill 121. 10s., he said to me, 
 This wiU do, come hither, Jack ; so away he runs to Lom- 
 bard-street, and I after him, huddling the other papers into 
 the letter-case. As he went along, he inquired the name out 
 immediately, and went directly to the shop, put on a good 
 grave countenance, and had the money paid him without any 
 stop or question asked ; I stood on the other side the way 
 looking about the street, as not at all concerned with anybody 
 that way, but observed, that when he presented the bill, he 
 pulled out the letter-case, as if he had been a merchant's 
 boy, acquainted with business, and had other bills about him. 
 
 They paid him the money in gold, and he made haste 
 enough in telling it over, and came away, passing by me, 
 and going into Three-King-court, on the other side of the 
 way ; then we crossed back into Clement's-lane, made the 
 best of our way to Cole-harbour, at the water side, and got 
 a sculler for a penny to carry us over the water to St. Mary- 
 Over's stairs, where we landed, and were safe enough. 
 
 Here he turns to me; Colonel Jack, says he, I believe 
 you are a lucky boy, this is a good job ; we'U go away to 
 St. George's Fields and share our booty. Away we went to 
 the Fields, and sitting down in the grass, far enough out of 
 the path, he puUed out the money; Look here Jack, says 
 he, did you ever see the like before in your life ? No, never, 
 says I, and added very innocently, must we have it all ? We 
 have it! says he, who should have it? Why, says I, must 
 the man have none of it again that lost it? He have it 
 again; says he, what d'ye mean by that? Nay, I don't 
 know, says I; why you said just now you would let him 
 have the t'other bill again ; that you said was too big for you. 
 
 He laughed at me; You are but a little boy, says he 
 that's true, but I thought you had not been such a child 
 neither; so he mighty gravely explained the thing to me 
 
SHARE OF THE KOBBEET. 279 
 
 tbus : that the bill of Sir Stephen Evans was a great bill for 
 3001., an(^f I, says he, that am but a poor lad, should 
 venture t(Sfeo Ij^r the money, they will presently say, how 
 should I coihe Iby such a bill, and that I certainly found it 
 or stole it; so they will stop me, says he, and take it away 
 from me, and it may bring me into trouble for it too ; so, 
 says he, I did say it was too big for me to meddle with, and 
 that I would let the man have it again, if I could tell how ; 
 but for the money, Jack, the money that we have got, I 
 warrant you he should have none of that ; besides, says he, 
 whoever he be that has lost this letter-case, to be sure, as 
 soon as he missed it, he would run to the goldsmith and giv» 
 notice, that if anybody came for the money, they would be 
 stopped ; but I am too old for him there, says he. 
 
 "Why, says I, and what wiU you do with the bill ; will you 
 throw it away ? if you do, somebody else wiU find it, says I, 
 and they will go and take the money : No, no, says he, then 
 they will be stopped and examined, as I tell you I should 
 be. I did not know well what all this meant, so I talked no 
 more about that ; but we fell to handling the money. As 
 for me, I had never seen so much together in all my life, nor 
 did I know what in the world to do with it, and once or 
 twice I was going to bid him keep it for me, which would 
 have been done like a child indeed, for, to be sure, I had 
 never heard a word more of it, though nothiag had befallen 
 him. 
 
 However, as I happened to hold my tongue as to that 
 part, he shared the money very honestly with me ; only at 
 the end, he told me, that though it was true, he promised 
 me half, yet as it was the first time, and I had done nothing 
 but look on, so he thought it was very well if I took a little 
 less then he did; so he divided the money, which was 
 121. 10s., into two exact parts, viz., 61. 5s., in each part; then 
 he took 11. 5s., from my part, and told me I should ^ve 
 him that for hansel. Well, says I, take it then, for I think 
 you deserve it aU: so, however, I took up the rest; and 
 what shall I do with this now, says I, for I have nowhere to 
 put it? Why, have you no pockets? says he; Yes, says I, 
 but they are full of holes. I have often thought since that, 
 and with some mirth too, how I had really more wealth 
 than I knew what to do with, for lodging I had none, nor 
 any box or drawer to bide my money in, nor had I any 
 
280 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 pocket, but such as I say was full of holes ; I knew_ nobodj 
 in the world that I could go and desire them to ky it up for 
 me; for being a poor naked, ragged boy',''piey would 
 presently say, I had robbed somebody, and perhaps lay hold 
 of me, and my money would be my crime, as they say it 
 oftejLis'in foreign countries; and now, as I was full of 
 wealth, behold I was fuU of care, for what to do to secure 
 my money I could not tell ; and this held me so long, and 
 was so vexatious to me the next day, that I truly sat down 
 and cried. 
 
 Nothing could be more perplexing than this money was to 
 me all that night. I carried it in my hand a good while, 
 for it was in gold, all but 14s. ; and that is to say, it was in 
 four guineas, and th,at 14s,, was more difficult to carry than 
 the four guineas ; at last I sat down, and puUed off one of 
 my shoes, and put the four guineas into that; but after I had 
 gone a while, my shoe hurt me so I could not go, so I was 
 fain to sit down again, and take it out of my shoe, and carry 
 it in my hand ; then I found a dirty linen rag in the street, 
 and I took that up, and wrapt it aU tog^her, and carried it in 
 that a good way. I have often since heard people say, when 
 they have been talking of money ; that they could not get iik, 
 I wish I had it in a foul clout: in truth, I had mine in a 
 foul clout ; for it was foul, according to the letter of that 
 saying, but it served me tiU I came to a convenient place, 
 and then I sat down and washed the cloth in the kennel, and 
 so then put my money in again. 
 
 Well, I earned it home with me to my lodging in the 
 glass-house, and when I went to go to sleep, I knew not 
 what to do with it ; if I had let any of the black crew I was 
 with know of it, I should have been smothered in the ashes 
 for it, or robbed of it, or some trick or other put upon me 
 for it ; so I knew not what to do, but lay with it in my 
 hand, and my hand in my bosom, but then sleep went from 
 my eyes : 0, the weight of human care ! I, a poor beggar- 
 boy, could not sleep so soon as I had but a little money to 
 keep, who, before that could have slept upon a heap of 
 brick-bats, stones, or cinders, or anywhere, as sound as a 
 rich man does on his down bed, and sounder too. 
 
 Every now and then dropping asleep, I should dream that 
 my money was lost, and start like one frighted; then, finding 
 it fast in my hand, try to go to sleep agaiu, but could not for 
 
HIDES HIS MONET IN A TKEE. 281 
 
 a long while, then drop and start again. At last a fancy ^*-«y*^^ > 
 
 came into my head that i f I feU asleep , I shoul d dream of the iH-i 
 
 money, and jalk of it in^ my sl eep, a nd tell that I had money, 
 
 which if T should "do, and one of the rogues should hear me, 
 
 they would pick it out of my bosom, and of my hand too, 
 
 without waking me; and after that thought I could not 
 
 sleep a wink more ; so that I passed that night over in care 
 
 and anxiety enough ; and this, I may safely say, was the first 
 
 night's rest that I lost by the cares of this Ufe, and the 
 
 deceitfulness of riches. 
 
 As soon as it was day, I got out of the hole we lay in, 
 and rambled abroad in the fields towards Stepney, and there 
 I mused and considered what I should do with this money, 
 and many a time I wished that I had not had it ; for, after 
 all my ruminating upon it, and what course I should take 
 with it, or where I should put it, I could not hit upon any 
 one thing, or any possible method to secure it, and it 
 perplexed me so, that at last, as I said just now, I sat down 
 and cried heartily. 
 
 When my crying was over, the case was the same ; I had 
 the money still, and what to do with it I could not tell. At 
 last it came into my head, that I would look out for some 
 hole in a tree, and see to hide it there till I should have 
 occasion for it. Big with this discovery, as I then thought 
 it, I began to look about me for a tree ; but there were no 
 trees in the fields about Stepney or Mile-end, that looked 
 fit for my purpose ; and if there were any, that I began to 
 look narrowly at, the fields were so fuU of people, that they 
 would see if I went to hide anything there, and I thought 
 the people eyed me as it were, and that two men in par- 
 ticular followed me to see what I intended to do. 
 
 This drove me farther off, and I crossed the road at 
 Mile-end, and in the middle of the town went down a lane 
 that goes away to the Blind Beggar's at Bednal-green ; when 
 I came a little way in the lane, I found a footpath over the 
 fields, and in those fields several trees for my turn, as I 
 thought ; at last, one tree had a little hole in it, pretty high 
 out of my reach, and I climbed up the tree to get it, and 
 when I came there, I put my hand in, and found (as I 
 thought) a place very fit, so I placed my treasure there, and 
 was mighty well satisfied with it ; but, behold, putting my 
 
y 
 
 282 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 hand in again to lay it more commodiously, as I thought, of 
 a sudden it slipped away from me, and I found the tree was 
 hollow, and my little parcel was fallen in quite out of my 
 reach, and how far it might go in I knew not ; so that, in a 
 word, my money was quite gone, irrecoverably lost; there 
 could be no room so much as to hope ever to see it again, 
 for 'twas a vast great tree. 
 
 As young as I was, I was now sensible what a fool I was 
 before, that I could not think of ways to keep my money, 
 but I must come thus far to throw it into a hole where I 
 could not reach it. Well, I thrust my hand quite up to my 
 elbow, but no bottom was to be found, or any end of the 
 hole or cavity; I got a stick of the tree, and thrust it in a 
 great way, but all was one ; then I cried, nay, roared out, I 
 was in such a passion ; then I got down the tree again, then 
 up again, and thrust in my hand again till I scratched my 
 arm and made it bleed, and cried all the while most vio- 
 lently; then I began to think I had not so much as a half- 
 penny of it left for a half-penny roU, and I was hungry, and 
 then I cried again ; then I came away in despair, crying and 
 roaring like a little boy that had been whipjped ; then X went 
 back again to the tree, and up the tree again, and thus I did 
 several times. 
 
 The last time I had gotten up the tree I happened to come 
 down not on the same side that I went up and came down 
 before, but on the other side of the tree, and on the other 
 side of the bank also ; and, behold, the tree had a great 
 open place, in the side of it close to the ground, as old 
 hollow trees often have ; and looking into the open place, to 
 my inexpressible joy, there lay my money and my linen rag, 
 aU wrapped up just as I had put it into the hole ; for the tree 
 being hollow all the way up, there had been some moss or 
 light stuff (which I had not judgment enough to know), was 
 not firm, and had given way when it came to drop out of 
 my hand, and so it had slipped quite down at once. 
 
 I was but a child, and I rejoiced like a child, for I 
 hollo'd quite out aloud when I saw it; then I run to it, 
 and snatched it up, hugged and kissed the dirty rag a 
 hundred times ; then danced and jumped about, run from 
 one end of the field to the other, and, in short, I knew not 
 what, much leas do I know now what I did, though I shall 
 
PDKCHASES SOME CLOTHING. 283 
 
 never forget the thing, either what a sinking grief it was to 
 my heart, when I thought I had lost it, or what a flood of 
 joy overwhehned me when I had got it again. 
 
 While I was in the first transport of my joy, as I have 
 said, I run about, and knew not what I did ; but when that 
 was over I sat down, opened the foul clout the money was 
 in, looked at it, told it, found it was all there, and then I fell 
 a-crying as savourly as I did before, when I thought I had 
 lost it. 
 
 It would tire the reader should I dwell on all the little 
 .boyish tricks that I played in the ecstacy of my joy and 
 satisfaction, when I had found my money; so I break off 
 here. Joy is as extravagant as grief, and since I have been 
 a man I have often thought, that had such a thing befallen a 
 man, so to have lost all he had, and not have a bit of bread 
 to eat, and then so strangely to find it again, after having 
 given it so effectually over, — ^I say, ha^ it been so with a 
 man, it might have hazarded his using some Adolence upon 
 himself. 
 
 Well, i came away with my money, and, having taken 
 sixpence out of it, before I made it up again, I went to a 
 chandler's shop in MQe-end, and bought a half-penny roU and 
 a hal^enny- worth of cheese, and sat down at the door after 
 I bought it, and eat it very heartily, and begged some beer 
 to drink wiih it, which the good woman gave me very fireely. 
 
 Away I went then for the town, to see if I could find any 
 of my companions, and resolved I would try no more hoUow 
 trees for my treasure. As I came along Whitechapel, I 
 came by a broker's shop, over against the church, where 
 they sold old clothes, for I had nothing on but the worst of 
 rags; so I stopped at the shop, and stood looking at the 
 clothes which hung at the door. 
 
 WeU, young gentleman, says a man that stood at the door, 
 you look wisMully ; do you see anything you like, and will 
 your pocket compass a good coat now, for you look as if 
 you belonged to the ragged regiment? I was affronted at 
 the fellow. What's that to you, says I, how ragged I am? 
 if I had seen anything I liked, I have money to pay for it ; 
 but I can go where I shan't be huffed at for looking. 
 
 While I said thus, pretty boldly to the fellow, comes a 
 woman out, What ails you, says she to the man, to bully 
 away our customers so? a poor boy's money is as good as 
 
 „U . 
 
284 COL&NEI. JACK. 
 
 my lord mayor^s.i_jL^qgr_peo£le_did not buy old clo thea, 
 what wonld become^f our business ? an^ tben turning to 
 me7 Come hitter, child, says she, "if tHou hast a mind to 
 anything I have, you shan't be hectored by him ; the boy ig 
 a pretty boy, I assure you, says she, to another woman that 
 was by this time come to her. Ay, says the t'other, so he is, 
 a very well-looking child, if he was clean and weU dressed , 
 and may be, as„good..a gentlemaa's_soi!( Qo£_anything.jr e'i 
 EnoWj)as any gf„thoge^that are well dressed ! Come, my 
 deaf, says she, tell me what is "it you would have ? She 
 pleased me mightily to hear her tali: of my being a gentle-, 
 man's son, and it brought fomer_thingsJo _myjnmd ; but 
 when she taik'd of myToemg not clean, and in rags, then I 
 cried. 
 
 She pressed me to tell her if I saw anything that I 
 wanted ; I told her no, all the clothes I saw there were too 
 big for me. Come, child, says she, I have two things here 
 that will fit you, and I am sure you want them both; that is, 
 first, a little hat, and there, says she (tossing it to me), I'll 
 give you that for nothing ; and here is a good warm pair of 
 breeches ; I dare say, says she, they vnll fit you, and they 
 are very tight and good ; and, says she, if you should ever 
 come to have so much money that you don't know what to 
 do with it, here are excellent good pockets, says she, and a 
 little fob to put your gold in, or your watch in, when you 
 get it. 
 
 It struck me with a strange kind of joy that I should have 
 a place to put my money in, and need not go to hide it 
 again in a hollow tree; that I was ready to snatch the 
 breeches out of her hands, and wondered that I should be 
 such a fool never to think of buykig me a pair of breeches 
 before, that I might have a pocket to put my moneyin, and 
 not carry it about two days together in my hand, aim in my 
 shoe, and I knew not how ; so, in a word, I gave her two 
 shillings for the breeches, and went over into the church- 
 yard, and put them on, put my money into my new pockets, 
 and was as pleased as a prince is^ with his coach and six 
 horses. 1 thanked the good woman tob'Kiirthe haf,"andTold 
 her I would come again when I got more money, and buy 
 some other things I wanted ; and so I came away. 
 
 I was but a boy 'tis true, but I thought myself a man, 
 now I had got a pocket to put my money in, and I went 
 
RTIWAET) OFFERED FOE THE BILLS. 285 
 
 directly to find out my companion, by whose means I got it; 
 but I was fiighte^out of my wits when I heard that he was 
 carried to Bridewdl ; I made no question but it was for the 
 letter-case, and that I should be carried there too ; and then 
 my poor brother Captain Jack's case came into my head, 
 and that I should be whipped there as cruelly as he was, 
 and I was in such a flight, that I knew not what to do. 
 
 But in the afternoon I met him ; he had been carried to 
 Bridewell, it seems, upon that very aflfair, but was got out 
 again. The case was thus : having had such good luck at 
 the custom-house the day before, he takes his walk thither 
 again, and as he was in the long-room, gaping and staring 
 about him, a fellow lays hold of him, and calls to one of the 
 clerks that sat behind. Here, says he, is the same young 
 rogue that I told you I saw loitering about t'other day, when 
 the gentleman lost his letter-case, and his goldsmith's bills ; 
 I dare say it was he that stole them. Immediately the whole 
 crowd of people gathered about the boy, and charged him 
 point blank ; but he was too well used to such things to be 
 flighted into a confession of what he knew they could not 
 prove, for he had nothing about him belonging to it, nor had 
 any money, but sixpence and a few dirty farthings. 
 
 They threatened him, and pulled, and hauled him, till 
 _&^yjinost_9uUedjfliB_jcjfltiiesjoff^his back, and the commis- 
 sioners examined him; but all was one, he would own 
 nothing, but said, he walked up through the room, only to 
 see the place, both then, and the time before, for he had 
 owned he was there before, so as there was no proof against 
 him of any fact, no, nor of any circumstances relating to the 
 letter-case, they were forced at last to let him go ; however, 
 they made a show of carrying him to Bridewell, and they did 
 carry him to the gate to see if they could make him confess 
 anything ; but he would confess nothing, and they had no 
 mittimus ; so they durst cany him into the house, nor would 
 the people have received him, I suppose, if they had, they 
 having no warrant for putting him in prison. 
 
 WeD, when they could get nothing out of him, they carried 
 him into an alehouse, and there they told him, that the 
 letter-case had biUs in it of a very great value, that they 
 would be of no use to the rogue that had them, but they 
 would be of infinite damage to the gentleman that had lost 
 them ; and that he had left word with the clerk, who th& 
 
286 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 man that stopped this boy had called to, and who was there 
 with him, that he would give 30/. to any one that would 
 bring them again, and give all the security that conld be de- 
 sired, that he would give them no trouble, whoever it was. 
 
 He was just come from out of their hands, when I met 
 with him, and so he told me all the story ; but, says he, I 
 would confess nothing, and so I got off, and am come away 
 clear. Well, says I, and what wiU you do with the letter- 
 case, and the bills, will not you let the poor man have his 
 bills again ? No, not I, says he, I won't trust them, what 
 care I for their biUs ? It came into my head, as young as I 
 was, that it was a sad thing indeed to take a man's bills 
 away for so much money, and not have any advantage by it 
 either ; for I concluded, that the gentleman, who owned the 
 bUls, must lose all the money, and it was strange he should 
 keep the bUls, and make a gentleman lose so much money 
 for nothing. I remember that I ruminated very much about 
 it, and, though I did not understand it very well, yet it lay 
 upon my mind, and I said every now and then to him. Do 
 let the gentleman have his bills again, do, pray do ; and so 
 I teazed him, with do, and pray do, tiU at last I cried about 
 them. He said. What, would you have me be found out 
 and sent to Bridewell, and be whipped, as your brother Cap- 
 tain Jack was ? I said. No, I would not have you whipped, 
 but I would have the man have his bills, for they will do you 
 no good, but the gentleman will be undone, it may be ; and 
 then, I added again. Do let him have them. He snapped me 
 short, Why, says he, how shall I get them to him? Who 
 dare carry them ? I dare not, to be sure, for they will stop 
 me, and bring the goldsmith to see if he does not know me, 
 and that I received the money, and so they will prove the 
 robbery, and I shall be hanged ; would you have me be 
 hanged. Jack? 
 
 I was silenced a good while with that, for when he said, 
 would you have me be hanged. Jack? I had no more to say; 
 but one day after this, he called to me. Colonel Jack, says 
 he, I have thought of a way how the gentleman shall have 
 his bills again ; and you and I shall get a good deal of money 
 by it, if you will be honest to me, as I was, to you- Indeed, 
 says I, Eobin, that was his name, I will be very honest ; let 
 me know how it is, for I would fain have him have his 
 bills. 
 
GOES TO EETDKN THE 3ILIS. 287 
 
 Wiry, says he, they told me that he had left word at the 
 clerk's place in the long-room, that he would give 301. to any 
 one that had the bills, and would restore them, and would 
 aak no questions. Now, if you will go, like a poor innocent 
 boy, as you are, into the long-room, and speak to the clerk, 
 it may do ; tell him, if the gentleman will do as he promised, 
 you believe you can tell him who has it ; and if they are 
 civil to you, and willing to be as good as their words, you 
 shall have the letter-case, and give it them. 
 
 I told him, Ay, I would go with all my heart. But, 
 Colonel Jack, says he, what if they should take hold of you, 
 and threaten to have you whipped, won't you discover me to 
 them 1 No, says I, if they would whip me to death I won't. 
 Well, then, says he, there's the letter-case, do you go. So 
 he gave me directions how to act, and what to say ; but I 
 would not take the letter-case with me, lest they should prove 
 false, and take hold of me, thinking to find it upon me, and 
 so charge me with the fact ; so I left it with him, and the 
 next morning I went to the custom-house, as was agreed ; 
 what my directions were, wiU, to avoid repetition, appear in 
 what happened ; it was an errand of too much consequence 
 indeed to be entrusted to a boy, not only so young as I was, 
 but so little of a rogue as I was yet arrived to the degree 
 of. 
 
 Two things I was particularly armed with, which I re- 
 solved upon : 1. That the man should have his bills again ; 
 for it seemed a horrible thing to me that he should be made K 
 to lose his money, which I supposed he must, purely because 
 we would not carry the letter-case home. 2. That whatever 
 happened to me, I was never to teU the name of my comrade 
 Robin, who had been the principal. With these two pieces 
 of honestjiJor_auch they were both gn themselves,^ and vyith 
 a manly heart, though a boy's head, 1 went up into the long- 
 room in the customrhouse the next day. 
 
 As soon as I came to the place where the thing was done, 
 I saw the man sit just where he had sat before, and it run in 
 my head that he had sat there ever since ; but I knew no 
 better ; so I went up, and stood just at that side of the 
 writing-board, that goes upon that side of the room, and 
 which I was but just tall enough to lay my arms upon. 
 
 While I stood there, one thrust me this way, and another 
 thrust me that way, and the man that sat behind began to 
 
288 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 look at lae ; at last he called out to me ; What does that 
 boy do there ? get you gone, sirrah ; are you one of the 
 rogues that stole the gentleman's letter-case on Monday last? 
 Then he turns his tale to a gentleman that was doing business 
 
 with Mm, and goes on thus : Here was Mr. had a very 
 
 unlucky chance on Monday last, did not you hear of it? 
 No, not I, says the gentleman. Why, standing just there,, 
 where you do, says he, making his entries, he pulled out his 
 letter-case, and laid it down, as he says, but just at his hand, 
 while he reached over to the standish there for a penfiil of 
 ink, and somebody stole away his letter-case. 
 
 His letter-case! says t'other, what, and was there any 
 bills in it? 
 
 Ay, says he, there was Sir Stephen Evans's note in it for 
 SQOL, and another goldsmith's biQ for about 12Z., and which 
 is worse still for the gentleman, he had two foreign ac- 
 cepted bills in it for a great sum, I know not how much, I 
 think one was a French biU for 1200 crowns. 
 
 And who could it be ? says the gentleman. 
 
 Nobody knows, says he, but one of our room-keepers says, 
 he saw a couple of young rogues like that, pointing at me, 
 hanging about here, and that on a sudden they were both 
 gone. 
 
 Villains ! says he again ; why, what can they do with 
 them, they will be of no use to them ? I suppose he went 
 immediately, and gave notice to prevent the payment. 
 
 Yes, says the clerk, he did ; but the rogues were too 
 nimble for him with the little bill of 121. odd money ; they 
 went and got the money for that, but all the rest are stopped ; 
 however, 'tis an unspeakable damage to him for want of 
 his money. 
 
 Why, he should publish a reward for the encouragemenv 
 of those that have them to bring them again ; they would 
 be glad to bring them, I wai-rant you. 
 
 He has posted it up at the door, that he will give SOL foi 
 them. 
 
 Ay, but he should add, that he will promise not to stop, or 
 give any trouble to the person that brings them. 
 
 He has done that too, says he, but I fear they won'i trust 
 themselves to be honest, for fear he should break his word. 
 
 Why? it is true, he may break his word in that case, but 
 no man should do so ; for then no rogue wiU veDlure i^ 
 
QUESTIONED CONCEBNING THE LETTER-CASE. 289 
 
 bring home anything that is stolen, and so he would do au 
 injury to others after him. 
 
 I durst pawn my life for him, he would scorn it. 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 I AM EXAMINBD BT THE GENTLEMAN TOUCHING THE BILl^S 
 
 AND LETTER-CASE, AND OBTAIN THE REWARD OF 301. 
 
 ONE OF THEM KINDLY TAKES CHARGE OF THE MONET 
 FOR ME ^\ra COMMIT MORE THEFTS MT COMRADE PUR- 
 CHASES BETTER CLOTHES FOR ME ^I ROB A JEW OP HIS 
 
 POCKET-BOOK FULL OF BILLS AND DIAMONDS ^WILL 
 
 AGREES FOE A REWARD TO GIVE UP THE PROPERTY. 
 
 Thus far they discoursed of it, and then went 6S to some- 
 thing else. • I heard it aU, but did not know what to do a 
 great while ; but at last, watching the gentleman that went 
 away, when he was gone, I run after him to have spoken to 
 him, intending to have broke it to him, but he went hastily ' 
 into a room or two, fuU of people, at the hither end of the 
 long-room; and when I went to follow, the doorkeepers 
 turned me back, and told me, I must not go in there ; so I 
 went back, and loitered about, near the man that sat behind 
 the board, and hung about there till I found the clock struck 
 twelve, and the room began to be thin of people ; and at last 
 he sat there writing, but nobody stood at the board before 
 him, as there had all the rest of the morning ; then I came a 
 little nearer, and stood close to the board, as I did before ; 
 when, looking up fi'om his paper, and seeing me, says he to 
 me. You have been up and down there all this morning, 
 sirrah, what do you want ? you have some business that is 
 not very good, I doubt. 
 
 No, I han't, said I. 
 
 No ? it is well if you han't, says he ; pray what business 
 can you have in the long-room, sir ; you are no merchant ?. 
 
 I would speak with you, said I. 
 
 With me, says he, what have you to say to me ? 
 
 I have something to say, said I, if you will do me no 
 barm for it. 
 
 V 
 
290 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 I do thee harm, child, what harm should I do thee ? and 
 spoke very kindly. 
 
 Won't you indeed, sir ? said I. 
 
 No, not I, child ; I'll do thee no harm ; what is it ? do you 
 know anything of the gentleman's letter-case ? 
 
 I answered, but spoke softly, that he could not hear me : 
 so he gets over presently into the seat next him, and opens a 
 place that was made to come out, and bade me come in to 
 him ; and I did. 
 
 Then he asked me again, if I knew anything of the letter- 
 case. 
 
 I spoke softly again, and said. Folks' would hear him. 
 
 Then he whispered softly, and asked me again. 
 
 I told him, I believed I did ; but that, indeed I had it not, 
 nor had no hand in stealing it, but it was gotten into the 
 hands of a boy that would have burnt it, if it had not been 
 for me ; and that I heard him say, that the gentleman would 
 be glad to have them again, and give a good deal of money 
 for them. 
 
 I did say so, child, said he, and if you can get them for 
 him, he shall give you a good reward, no less than 30Z. as he 
 has promised. 
 
 But you said too, sir, to the gentleman just now, said I, 
 that you was sure he would not bring them into any harm, 
 that should bring them. 
 
 No, you shall come to no harm ; I will pass my word for it. 
 
 Boy. Nor shan't they make me bring other people into 
 trouble ? 
 
 ' Gmt. No, you shall not be asked the name of anybody, 
 nor to tell who they are. 
 
 Boy. I am but a poor boy, and I woidd fain have the 
 gentleman have his bills, and indeed I did not take them 
 away, nor I han't got them. 
 
 Oent. But can you tell how the gentleman shall have 
 them? 
 
 Boy. If I can get them, I wiU bring them to you to-morrow 
 morning. 
 
 Gent. Can you not do it to-night? 
 
 Boy. 1 believe I may if I knew where to come, 
 Gent. Come to my house, child. 
 
 Boy. I don't know where you live. 
 
PRODUCES THE LETTER-CASE. 291 
 
 Gent. Go along with me now, and you shall see. So ha 
 carried me up into Tower-street, and showed me his house, 
 and ordered me to come there at five o'clock at night ; which 
 accordingly I did, and carried the letter-case with me. 
 
 When I came, the gentleman asked me it I had brought 
 the book, as he called it. 
 
 It is not a book, said I. 
 
 No, the letter-case, that's all one, says he. 
 
 You promised me, said I, you would not hurt me, and 
 cried. 
 
 Don't be afraid, chUd, says he, I will not hurt thee, poor 
 boy ; nobody shall hurt thee. 
 
 Here it is, said I, and pulled it out. 
 
 He then brought in another gentleman, who it seems 
 owned the letter-case, and asked him. If that was it? and he 
 said. Yes. 
 
 Then he asked me if all the bills were in it ? 
 
 I told him, I heard him say there was one gone, but I 
 believed there was all the rest. 
 
 Why do you believe so ? says he. 
 
 Because I heard the boy that I believe stole them, say, 
 they were too big for Tiitti to meddle with. ^ 
 
 The gentleman, then, that owned them, said, Where is 
 the boy? 
 
 Then the other gentleman put in, and said, No, you must 
 not ask him that ; I passed my word that you should not, 
 and that he should not be obliged to tell it to anybody. 
 
 Well, chUd, says he, you mil let us see the letter-case 
 opened, and whether the bUls are in it ? 
 
 Yes, says I. 
 
 Then the first gentleman said. How many bUls were there 
 in it? 
 
 Only three, says he, besides the bill of 121. 10s. ; there 
 was Sir Stephen Evans's note for 300?. and two foreign bills. 
 
 Well, then, if they are in the letter-case, the boy shall 
 have SOL, shall he not? Yes, says the gentleman, he shall 
 have it freely. 
 
 Come then, child, says he, let me open it. 
 
 So I gave it him, and he opened it, and there were sR 
 three bills, and several other papers, fair and safe, nothing 
 defaced or diminished, and the gentleman said. All is riglit, 
 
 V 2 
 
292 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 Then said the first man, Then I am security to the poor 
 boy for the money. Well, but, says the gentleman, the rogues 
 have got the 121. 10«. ; they ought to reckon that as part of 
 the 30?. Had he asked me, I phould have consented to it at 
 first word ; but the first man stood my friend. Nay, says he, 
 it was since you knew that the 121. 10s. was received that 
 you offered 30/. for the other bills, and published it by the 
 crier, and posted it up at the custom-house dopr, and I pro- 
 mised him the 301. this morning. They argued long, and I 
 thought would have guarreUed about it. 
 
 However, at last they both yielded a little, and the gentle- 
 man gave me 251. in good guineas. When he gave it me, he 
 bade me hold out my hand, and he told the money into my 
 hand ; and when he had done, he asked me if it was right? 
 I said, I did not know, but I believed it was : Why, says he, 
 can't you tell it ? I told him. No ; I never saw so much 
 money in my life, nor I did not know how to tell money. 
 Why, says he, don't you know that they are guineas ? No, 
 I told him, I did not know how much a guinea was. 
 
 Why, then, says he, did you tell me you believed it 
 was right? I told him. Because I believed he would not 
 give it me wrong. 
 
 Poor child, says he, thou knowest little of the world, 
 indeed ; what art thou ? 
 
 I am a poor boy, says I, and cried. 
 
 What is your name ? says he — ^but hold, I forgot, said he ; 
 I promised I would not ask your name, so you need not tell 
 me. 
 
 My name is Jack, said I. 
 
 Why, have you no surname, said he ? 
 
 What is that? said I. 
 
 You have some other name besides Jack, says he, han't 
 you. 
 
 Yes, says I, they call me Colonel Jack. 
 
 But have you no other name ? 
 
 No, said I. 
 
 How came you to be called Colonel Jack, pray? 
 
 They say, said I, my father's name was ColonoL 
 
 Is your father or mother alive ? said he. 
 
 No, said I, my father is dead. 
 
 Where is your mother then ? said vs. 
 
EECEIVES THE REWARD. 293 
 
 I never had e'er a mother, said I. 
 
 This made him laugh. What, said he, had you never a 
 mother, what then? 
 
 I to4 j, nu rsftn, figj,^ J,„ ]t>iit-aha-3iga-g Tint, my mother. I 
 
 Well, sS^ne to the gentleman, l^fife' say this boy was 
 not the thief that stole your bills. 
 
 Indeed, sir, I did not steal them, said I, and cried again. 
 
 No, no, child, said he, we don't believe you did. This is a 
 very clever boy, says he, to the other gentleman, and yet very 
 ignorant and honest ; 'tis pity some care should not be taken 
 of him, and something done for him ; let us talk a littk' 
 more with him. So they sat down and drank wine, ana 
 gave me some, and then the first gentleman talked to me 
 again. 
 
 Well, says he, what wilt thou do with this money now 
 thou hast it ? 
 
 I don't know, said I. 
 
 Where will you put it ? said he. 
 
 In my pocket, said I. 
 
 In your pocket, said he ; is your pocket whole ? shan't 
 you lose it ? 
 
 Yes, said I, my pocket is whole. 
 
 And where will you put it, when you get home ? 
 
 I have no home, said I ; and cried again. 
 
 Poor child ! said he, then what dost thou do for thy living ? 
 
 I go of errands, said I, for the folks in Rosemary-lane. 
 
 And what dost thou do for a lodging at night ? 
 
 I lie at the glass-house, said I, at night. 
 
 How, lie at the glass-house ! have they any beds there ? 
 says he. 
 
 I never lay in a bed in my life, said I, as I remember. 
 
 Why, says he, what do you lie on at the glass-house ? 
 
 The ground, says I, and sometimes a little straw, or upon 
 the warm ashes. 
 
 Here the gentleman that lost the bills, said. Thi s poor 
 child is enough to make a man weep for the miseries of " . ■ 
 human natu re, ariTBe^ank^ful for himself; he puts teairs into (, >o 
 my eyes. ASd intolnine too^ says flie~otHer. 
 ""Welirbut hark ye. Jack; says the first gentleman, do they 
 give you no money when they send you of errands ? 
 
 They give me victuals, said T, and that's better. 
 
 But what, says he, do you do for clothes ? 
 
294 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 They give me sometimes old things, said I, such as they 
 have to spare. . 
 
 Why, you have never a shirt on, I believe, said he, have 
 
 you? 
 
 No, I never had a shirt, said I, since my nurse died. 
 
 How long ago is that ? said he. 
 
 Six winters, when this is out, said L 
 
 Why, how old are you? said he. 
 
 I can't tell, said I. 
 
 Well, says the gentleman, now you have this money, 
 won't you buy some clothes, and a shirt with some of it? 
 
 Yes, said I, I would biiy some clothes. 
 
 And what will you do with the rest? 
 
 I can't tell, said I, and cried. 
 
 What do'st Cry for. Jack ? said he. 
 
 I am afraid, said I ; and cried stiU. 
 
 What art afraid of? 
 
 They will know I have money. 
 
 Well, and what then? 
 
 Then I must sleep no more in the warm glass-house, and 
 I shall be starved with cold. They will take away my 
 money. 
 
 But why must you sleep there no more ? 
 
 Here the gentlemen observed to one another how naturally 
 anxiety and perplexity attend those that have money. I 
 warrant you, says the clerk, when this poor boy had no 
 money, he slept all night in the straw, or on the warm ashes 
 in the glass-house, as soundly and as void of care as it 
 would be possible for any creature to do ; but now, as soon 
 as he has gotten money, the care of preserving it brings 
 tears into his eyes, and fear into his heart. 
 
 They asked me a great many questions more, to which I 
 answered in my childish way as well as I could, but so as 
 pleased them well enough ; at last I was going away with a 
 heavy pocket, and I assure you not a light heart, for I was 
 so Mghted with having so much money that I knew not 
 what in the earth to do with myself: I Went away, however, 
 and walked a little way, but I could not teU what to do; so, 
 after rambling two hours or thereabout, I went back again, 
 and sat down at the gentleman's door, and there I cried as 
 long as I had any moisture in my head to make tears o^ but 
 never knocked at the door. 
 
LEAVES HIS MONEY IN A. GENTLEMAN'S KEEPING. 295 
 
 1 had not sat long, I suppose, but somebody belonging to 
 the family got knowledge of it, and a maid came and talked 
 to me, but I said little to her, only cried stiU ; at length it 
 came to the gentleman's ears. As for the merchant, he was 
 gone. When the gentleman heard of me, he called me in, 
 and began to talk -with me again, and asked me what ^ 
 stayed for? 
 
 I told him I had not stayed there all that while, for I had 
 been gone a great while, and was come again. 
 
 "Well, says he, but what did you come again for ? 
 
 I can't tell, says 1. 
 
 And what do you cry so for, said he? I hope you have 
 not lost your money, have you ? 
 
 No, I told him, I had not lost it yet, but I was afraid I 
 should. 
 
 And does that make you cry? says he. 
 
 I told him, Tes, for I knew I should not be able to keep 
 it, but they would cheat me of it, or they would kill me, 
 and take it away from me too. 
 
 They, says he, who? what sort of gangs of people art 
 thou with ? 
 
 I told him they were all boys, but very wicked boys; 
 thieves and pickpockets, said I, such as stole this letter-c«>ee, 
 a sad pack, I can't abide them. 
 
 Well, Jack, said he, what shall be done for thee ? Will 
 you leave it with me, shall I keep it for you? 
 
 Yes, said I, with aU my heart, if you please. 
 
 Come, then, says he, give it me ; and that you may be sure 
 that I have it, and you shall have it honestly again, I'll give 
 you a bin for it,_and for the interest of it, and that you may 
 keep safe enough. Nay, added he, and if you lose it, or 
 anybody takes it from you, none shall receive the money but 
 yourself, or any part of it. 
 
 I presently pulled out all the money, and gave it to him, 
 only keeping about 15«. for myself to buy some clothes ; and 
 thus ended the conference between us on the first occasion, 
 at least for the first time. Having thus secured my money 
 to my ftdl satisfaction, I was then perfectly easy, and accord- 
 ingly the sad thoughts that afflicted my mind before, began 
 to vanish away. 
 
 This was enough to let any one see how all the sorrows 
 and anxieties of men's lives come about ; how they rise from 
 
296 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 their restless pushing at getting of money, and the restless 
 cares of keeping it when they have got it. I that had 
 nothing, and had not known what it was to have had any- 
 thing, knew nothing of the care, either of getting, or of 
 keeping it ; I wanted nothing, who wanted everything ; I had 
 no care, no concern about where I should get my victuals, or 
 how I should lodge ; I knew not what money was, or what 
 to do with it ; and never knew what it was not to sleep till 
 I had money to keep, and was afraid of losing it. 
 
 I had, without doubt, an opportunity at this time, if I had 
 not been too foohsh, and too much a child to speak for my- 
 self; I had an opportunity, I say, to have got into his ser- 
 vice, or perhaps to be under some of the care and concern of 
 these gentlemen ; for they seemed to be very fond of doing 
 something for me, and were surprised at the innocence of my 
 talk to them, as weU as at the misery (as they thought it) of 
 my condition. 
 
 But I acted indeed like a child ; and leaving my money, 
 as I have said, I never went near them for several years 
 after. What course I took, and what befel me in that 
 interval, has so much variety in it, and carries so much in- 
 struction in it, that it requires an account of it by itself. 
 
 The first happy chance that offered itself to me in the 
 world was now over ; I had got money, but I neither knew 
 the value of it, nor the use of it; the way of living I had 
 begun was so natural to me, I had no notion of bettering it ; 
 I had not so much as any desire of buying me any clothes, 
 no, not so much as a shirt, and much less had I any thought 
 of getting any other lodging than that in the glass-house, 
 and loitering about the streets, as I had done ; for I knew no 
 good, and had tasted no evU ; that is to say, the life. I had 
 led being not evU in my account. 
 
 In this state of innocence I returned to my really misera- 
 ble life, so it was in itself, and was only not so to me, be- 
 cause I did not understand how to judge of it, and had known 
 no better. 
 
 My comrade that gave me back the bills, and who, if I 
 had not pressed him, designed never to have restored tiiem, 
 never asked me what I had given me, but told me, if they 
 gave me anything it should be my own ; for, as he said, he 
 would not run the venture of being seen in the restoring 
 them, I deserved the reward if there was any ; neither did 
 
TRIES HIS HAND AT TITE EXCHANGE. 297 
 
 he trouble Ms head -with inquiring wliat I had, or whether I 
 had anything or no ; sojy title to what I had got was clear. 
 
 I went now up an3 down just as I did befori ; I'Md' 
 money indeed in my pocket, but I let nobody know it; I 
 went of errands cheerfully as before, and accepted of what 
 anybody gave me, with as much thankfulness as ever ; the 
 only difference that I made with myself, was, that if I was 
 hungry, and nobody employed me, or gave me anything ta 
 eat, I did not beg from door to door, as I did at first, but 
 went to a boiling-house, as I said onc€ before, and got a mess 
 of broth and a piece of bread, price a halfpenny ; very 
 seldom any meat, or if I treated myself, it was a halfpenny- 
 worth of cheese ; all which expense did not amount to above 
 twopence or threepence a week ; for, contrary to the usage 
 of the rest of the tribe, I was extremely frugal, and I had 
 not disposed of any of the guineas which I had at first ; 
 neither, as I said to the custom-house gentleman, could Ijtell 
 wha_t a^guinea was made of, or_what_itwas_sEfiEtii^ 
 ' After I had been" abouta month thus, and had done 
 nothing, my comrade, as I called him, came to me one 
 morning ; Colonel Jack, says he, when shall you and I take 
 a walk again ? When you will, said I. Have you got no 
 business yet? says he. No, says I; and so one thing 
 bringing in another, he told me I was a fortunate wretch, 
 and he believed I would be so again; but that he must make 
 a new bargain with me now ; for, says he. Colonel, the first 
 time, we always let a raw brother coine in for full share to 
 encourage him, but afterwards, except it be when he puts 
 himself forward well, and runs equal hazard, he stands to 
 courtesy; but as we are gentlemen, we always do very 
 honourable by one another ; and if you are willing to tmk 
 it, or leave it to me, I shaU do handsomely by you, that you 
 may depend upon. I told him, I was not able to do any- 
 thing, that was certain, for I did not understand it, and 
 therefore I could not expect to get anything, but I would do 
 as he bade me ; so we walked abroad together. 
 
 We went no more to the custom-house, it was too bold a 
 venture; besides, I did not care to show myself again, 
 especially with him in company; but we went directly to 
 the Exchange, and we hankered about in Castle-alley, and 
 in Swithin's-alley, and at the coffee-house doors. It was a 
 very unlucky day, for we got nothing all day but two oi* 
 
298 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 three handkerchiefs, and came home to the old lodgings at 
 the glass-house ; nor had I anjrthing to eat or drink all day, 
 but a piece of bread which he gave me, and some water at 
 the conduit at the Exchange-gate. So when he was gone 
 from me, for he did not lie in the glass-house as I did, I 
 went to my old broth-house for my usual bait, and refreshed 
 myself, and the next day early went to meet him again, as 
 he appointed me. 
 
 Being early in the morning, he took his walk to Billings- 
 gate, where it seems two sorts of people make a great 
 crowd as soon as it is light, and at that time a-year, rather 
 before daylight; that is to say, crimps, and the masters of 
 coal ships, who they call coUier-masters ; and, secondly, 
 fishmongers, fish-sellers, and buyers of fish. 
 
 It was the first of these people that he had his eye upon. 
 So he gives me my orders, which was thus : Go you, says 
 he, into all the alehouses, as we go along, and observe where 
 any people are telling of money ; and when you find any, 
 come and tell me. So he stood at the door, and I went 
 into the houses. As the collier-masters generally sell their 
 coals art the gate, as they call it, so they generally receive 
 their money in those alehouses; and it was not long before 
 I brought him word of several. Upon this he went in, and 
 made his observations, but found nothing to his purpose ; at 
 length I brought him word, that there was a man in such a 
 house who had received a great deal of money of somebody, 
 I believed of several people, and that it lay all upon the 
 table in heaps, and he was very busy writing down the sums, 
 and putting it up in several bags. Is he? say he, I'll 
 warrant him I will have some of it ; and in he goes. He 
 walks up and down the house, which had several open 
 tables and boxes in it, and he listened to hear, if he could, 
 what the man's name was ; and he heard somebody call him 
 CuUum, or some such name. Then he watches his oppor- 
 tunity, and steps up to him, and tells him a long story, that 
 there were two gentlemen at the Gun tavern, sent him to 
 inquire for him, and to teU him they desired to speak with 
 him. 
 
 The coUier-master had his money lying before him, just 
 as I had told him, and had two or three small payments of 
 money, which he had put up in little black dirty bags, and 
 lay by themselves; and as it was hardly broad day, ie 
 
ROBS A COLLIER MASTER AT BILUNGSGATE. 299 
 
 found means, in delivering his message, to lay his hand upon 
 one of those bags, and. cany it off perfectly undiscovered. 
 
 When he had got it, he came out to me, who stood but at 
 the door ; and pulling me by the sleeve. Run, Jack, says he, 
 for our lives ; and away he scours, and I after him, never 
 resting, or scarce looking about me, till we got quite up into 
 Fenchurch-street, through Lime-street, into Leadenhall- 
 street, down St. Mary-Axe, to London-wall, then through 
 Bishopsgate-street, and down Old Bedlam into Moorfields. 
 By this time we were neither of us able to run very fast, nor 
 need we have gone so fer, for I never found that anybody 
 pursued us. When we got into Moorfields, and began to 
 take breath, I asked him, what it was frighted him so? 
 Fright me, you fool, says he, I have got a devilish great bag 
 of money. A bag ! said I ; Ay, ay, said he, let us get out 
 into the fields where nobody can see us, and I'll show it you. 
 So away he had me through Long-alley, and cross Hog-lane, 
 and HoUoway-lane, into the middle of the great field, which, 
 since that, has been called the Farthing Pie-house Fields. 
 There we would have sat down, but it was all fuU of water ; 
 so we went on, crossed the road at Anniseed Cleer, and 
 went into the field where now the great hospital stands ; and 
 finding a bye place, we sat down, and he puUs out the bag. 
 Thou art a lucky boy, Jack, says he, thou deservest a good 
 share of this job truly, for it is all along of thy lucky news. 
 So he pours U all out into my hat, for, as I told you, I now 
 wore a hat. 
 
 How he did to whip away such a bag of money from any 
 man that was awake and in his senses, I cannot tell ; but 
 there was a great deal in it, and among it a paper-full by 
 itself. When the paper dropt out of the bag. Hold, says he, 
 that is gold ! and began to crow and hollow like a mad boy. 
 But there he was baulked, for it was a paper of old 
 thirteenpence-hal^enny pieces, half and quarter pieces, with 
 ninepences, and fourpence-halQ>enmes, aU^ldorooked money, 
 Scotc h and L-ish coin ; so he was disappointed in that ; but > 
 ^"IF'was, there"'was about 17?. or 18/. in the bag, as I 
 understood by him ; for I could not tell money, not L 
 
 Well, he parted this money into three; that is to say, 
 into three shares, two for himself, and one for me, and 
 asked. If I was content? I told him. Yes, I had reason to 
 be contented ; besides, it was so much money added to that 
 
300 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 I had left of his former adventure, that I knew not what to 
 do with it, or with myself, while I had so much about me. 
 
 This was a most exquisite fellow for a thief; for he had 
 the greatest dexterity at conveying anything away, that he 
 scarce ever pitched upon anything in his eye, hut he carried 
 it off with his hands, and never, that I know of, missed his 
 aim, or was caught in the fact. 
 
 He was an eminent pickpocket, and very dexterous at 
 ladies gold watches ; but he generally pushed higher, at such 
 desperate things as these ; and he came off the cleanest, and 
 with the greatest success imaginable ; and it was in these 
 kinds of the wicked art of thieving that I became his 
 scholar. 
 
 As we were now so rich, he would not let me lie any 
 longer in the glass-house, or go naked and ragged, as I had 
 done ; but obliged me to buy two shirts, a waistcoat, and a 
 great coat ; for a great coat was more for our purpose in the 
 business we were upon than any other. So I clothed myself 
 as he directed, and he took me a lodging in the same house 
 with him, and we lodged together in a little garret fit for our 
 quality. 
 
 ' Soon after this we walked out again, and then we tried 
 our fortune in the places by the Exchange a second time. 
 Here we began to act separately, and I undertook to walk 
 by myself; and the first thing I did accurately, was a trick 
 I played that required some skill for a new beginner, for I 
 had never seen any business of that kind done before. I 
 saw two gentlemen mighty eager in talk, and one pulled out 
 a pocket-book two or three times, and then slipt it into his 
 coat-pocket again, and then out it came again, and papers 
 were taken out, and others were put in ; and then in it 
 went again, and, so several times; the man being still 
 warmly engaged with another man, and two or three othel 
 standing hard by them. The last time he put his pocket ■ 
 book into his pocket, he might be said to throw it in, rather 
 than put it in with his hand, and the book lay end-way, 
 resting upon some other book, or something else in his 
 pocket ; so that it did not go quite down, but one comer of 
 it was seen above his pocket. 
 
 This careless way of men putting their pocket-books into 
 a coat-pocket, which is so easily dived into by the least boy 
 that has been used to the trade, can never be too much 
 
BOBS A GENTLEMAN IN SWITHIn's ALLET. 301 
 
 blamed ; the gentlemen are in great hurries, their heads and 
 thoughts entirely taken up, and it is impossible they should 
 be guarded enough against such little hawk's-eyed creatures 
 as we were ; and, therefore, they ought either never to put 
 their pocket-books up at all, or to put them up more secure, 
 or to put nothing of value into them. I happened to be 
 just opposite to this gentleman in that they call Swithin's- 
 alley ; or that alley rather which is between Swithin's-alley 
 and the Exchange, just by a passage that goes out of the 
 alley into the Exchange; when seeing the book pass and 
 nepass into the pocket, and out of the pocket as above, it 
 came immediately into my head, certainly I might get that 
 pocket-book out rf I were nimble, and I warrant WiU would 
 have it, if he saw it go and come to and again as I did ; but 
 when I saw it hang by the way, as I have said ; now it is 
 mine, said I to myself, and, crossing the alley, I brushed 
 smoothly, but closely, by the man, with my hand down flat 
 to my own side, and, taking hold of it by the corner that 
 appeared, the book came so light into my hand, it was 
 impossible the gentleman should feel the least motion, or 
 anybody else see me take it away. ' I went directly forward 
 into the broad place on the north side of tha Exchange, 
 then scoured down Bartholomew-lane, so into Tokenhouse- 
 yard, into the alleys which pass through from thence to 
 London-wall, so thorough Moorgate, and sat down on the 
 grass in the second of the quarters of Moorfields, towards 
 the middle field ; which was the place that WiU and I had 
 appointed to meet at if either of us got any booty. When I 
 came thither, Will was not come, but I saw him a coming in 
 about half an hour. 
 
 As soon as WiU came to me, I asked him what booty he 
 had gotten ? He looked pale, and, as I thought, frighted ; 
 but he returned, I have got nothing, not I; but, you lucky 
 young dog, says he, what have you got? Have not you got 
 the gentleman's pocket-book in Swithin'sraUey ? ^ Yes, says 
 I, and laughed at him ; why, how did you know it? Know 
 it ! says he, why the gentleman is raving and half distracted; 
 he stamps and cries, and tears his very clothes ; he says he 
 is utterly undone and ruined, and the folks in the aUey say 
 there is I know not how many thousand pounds in it ; what 
 can be in it? says WiU; come, let us see. 
 
302 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 Well, we lay close in the grass in the middle of the 
 quarter, so that nobody minded us ; and so we opened the 
 pocket-book, and there was a great many bills and notes 
 under men's hands ; some goldsmiths', and some belonging 
 to insurance offices, as they call them, and the like; but that 
 which was it seems worth aU the rest was that in one of the 
 folds of the cover of the book, where "there was a case with 
 several partitions, there was a jape r fuU of loose dia mrods. 
 The man, as we understood afterward, was a Jew, who 
 dealt in such goods, and who indeed ought to have taken 
 more care of the keeping of them. 
 
 Now was this booty too great, even for WiU himself, to 
 manage ; for though by this time I was come to understand 
 things better than I did formerly, when I knew not what 
 belonged to money ; yet Will was better skilled by far in 
 those things than I. But this puzzled him too, as weU as 
 me. Now were we something like the cock in the fable ; for 
 all these bUls, and I think there was one bill of Sir Henry 
 Furness's for 1200/., and all these diamonds, which were 
 worth about 150Z., as they said ; I say, all these things were 
 of no value to us, one little purse of gold would have been 
 better to us than all of it. But come, says WUl, let us look 
 over the biOs for a little one. 
 
 We looked over all the bills, and, among them, we found 
 a bill under a man's hand for 321. ; Come, says Will, let us 
 go and inquire where this man lives. So he went into the 
 city again, and Will went to the post-house, and asked there; 
 they told him he lived at Temple-bar : Well, says Will, I 
 will venture, I'll go and receive the money ; it may be he has 
 not remembered to send to stop the payment there. 
 
 But it came into his thoughts to take another course ; 
 Come, says Will, I'll go back to the alley, and see if I can 
 hear anything of what has happened, for I believe the hurry 
 is not over yet. It seems the man, who lost the book, was 
 carried into the King's-head tavern, at the end of that alley, 
 and a great crowd was about the door. 
 
 Away goes Will, and watches and waits about the place ; 
 and then, seeing several people together, for they were not 
 all dispersed, he asks one or two what was the matter ; they 
 tell him a long story of a gentleman who had lost his pocket- 
 book, with a great bag of diamonds in it, and bills for a great 
 
IcNGAGES 10 BECOVEE THE POCKET-BOOK. 803 
 
 many thousand pounds, and I know not what ; and that they 
 had been just crying it, and had offered lOOZ. reward to any 
 one who would discover and restore it. 
 
 I wish, said he, to one of them that parleyed with him, I 
 did but know who has it, I don't doubt but I could help him 
 to it again ; does he remember nothing of anybody, boy, or 
 fellow, that was near him ? if he could but describe him, it 
 might do. Somebody that overheard him was so forward to 
 assist the poor gentleman, that they went up and let him 
 know what a youug feUow, meaning Will, had beeh talking 
 at the door ; and down comes another gentleman from him, 
 and, taking "WUl aside, asked him what he had said about it ? 
 Wni was a grave sort of a young man, that , though he was_ 
 an old s oldier at the trade, had^ yet nothings ofTF^ifi^Hs 
 co untenance ; an3~Ee "answered, thaTTie was concerned' ffiT 
 business where a great many of the gangs of little pick- 
 pockets haunted, and if he had but the least description of 
 the person they suspected, he durst say he could find ■ him 
 out, and might perhaps get the things again for him. Upon 
 this, he desired him to go up with him to the gentleman, 
 which he did accordingly ; and there, he said, he sat leaning 
 his head back to the chair, pale as a cloth ; disconsolate to a 
 strange degree, and, as Will described him, just like one 
 under a sentence. 
 
 When they came to ask him, whether he had seen no boy, 
 or shabby fellow, lurking near where he stood, or passing, or 
 repassing, and the like, he answered, No, not any ; neither 
 could he remember that anybody had come near him. Then, 
 said WUl, it win be very hard, if not ■ impossible, to find 
 them out. However, said Will, if you think it worth while, 
 I wiU put myself among those rogues, though, says he, I 
 care not for being seen among them; but I will put in 
 among them, and if it be in any of those gangs, it is ten to 
 one but I shall hear something of it. 
 
 They asked him then, if he had heard what terms the 
 gentleman had offered to have it restored ; he answered. No 
 (though he had been told at the door) ; they answered. He 
 had offered 1001. That is too much, says Will ; but if you 
 jflease to leave it to me, I shall either get it for you for less 
 than that, or not be able to get it for you at all. ^ Then the 
 losing gentleman said to one of the other. Tell hini, that if 
 he^an get it lowerj.the overplus shall be to himsel'fi William 
 
304 COLONBt. JACK. 
 
 said, He would be very glad to do the gentleman ?uch a 
 service, and would leave the reward to himself. ' WeU, young 
 man, says one of the gentlemen, whatever you appoint to the 
 young artist that has done this roguery (for I waiTant he is 
 an. artist, let it be who it wiU), he shall be paid, if it be 
 within the lOQl., and the gentleman is willing to give you 
 501. besides for your pains. 
 
 Truly, sir, says WiU, very gravely, it was by mere chance, 
 that, coming by the door, and seeing the crowd, I asked what 
 the matter was ? but if I should be instrumental to get the 
 unfortunate gentleman his pocket-book, and the things in it 
 again, I shall be very glad ; nor am I so rich neither, sir, 
 but 501. is very well worth my while too. Then he took 
 directions who to come to, and who to give his account to 
 if he learned anything, and the like. 
 
 CHAPTER rV. 
 
 WILL RETURNS THE POCKET-BOOK AOT* OBTAINS THE RE- 
 WARD WE BOB AN OLD KNIGHT IN SMITHFIELD OF A 
 
 BAG OP MONET OTHER ADVENTURES, IN ALL OF WHICH 
 
 WE ARE SUCCESSFUL THE NOTION OF MT BEING A GEN- 
 TLEMAN, WHICH I ALWAYS ENTERTAIN, KEEPS ME FROM 
 
 SWEARING, DRINKING, AND SUCH LIKE VICES WILL 
 
 SEDUCES ME TO BECOME HIGHWAYMAN ADVENTURES ON 
 
 THE ROAD. 
 
 Will stayed so long, that, as he and I agreed, I went home, 
 and he did not come to me till night ; for we had considered 
 before, that it would not be proper to come from them directly 
 to me, lest they should foUow him and apprehend me. If 
 he had made no advances towards a treaty, he would have 
 come back in half an hour, as we agreed ; but staying late, 
 we met at our night rendezvous, which was in Rosemary- 
 lane. 
 
 When he came, he gave an account of all the discourse, 
 and particularly what a consternation the gentleman was in 
 who lost the pocket-book, and that he did not doubt but we 
 should get a good round sum for the recovery of it. 
 
 We consulted all the evening about it, and concluded he 
 should let them hear nothing of them the next day at all ; 
 
ACCEPTATION OF HIS OFPEIl. 305 
 
 and that the third day he should go, but should make no 
 discovery, only that he had got a scent of it, and that he 
 believed he should have it, and make it appear as diflacult as 
 possible, and to start as many objections as he could. 
 Accordingly, the third day after he met with the gentleman, 
 who he found had been uneasy at his long stay, and told him, 
 they were afraid that he only flattered them to get from 
 them ; and that they had been too easy in letting him go 
 without a fai'ther examination. 
 
 He took upon him to be very grave with them, and told 
 them. That if that was what he was like to have for being so 
 free as to tell them he thought he might serve them, they 
 might see that they had wronged him, and were mistaken by 
 his coming again to them ; that if they thought they could do 
 anything by examining him, they might go about it, if they 
 pleased, now ; that aU he had to say to them was, that he 
 knew where some of the young rogues haunted, who were 
 famous for such things ; and that by some inquiries, offering 
 them money, and the like, he believed they would be brought 
 to betray one another, and that so he might pick it out for 
 them ; and tlds he would say before a justice of peace, if 
 they thought fit ; and then all that he had to say farther to 
 them, was, to tell them, he had lost a day or two in their 
 service, and had got nothing, but to be suspected for his 
 pains ; and that after that he had done, and they might seek 
 their goods where they could find them. 
 
 They began to listen a Uttle upon that, and asked him, if 
 he could 'give them any hopes of recovering their loss ; he 
 told them, that he was not afraid to tell them that he believed 
 he had heard some news of them, and that what he had done, 
 had prevented all the bills being burnt, book and all ; but 
 that now he ought not to be asked any more questions till 
 they should be pleased to answer him a question or two. 
 They told him they would give him any satisfaction they 
 could, and bid him tell what he desired. 
 
 Why, sir, says he, how can you expect any thief that had 
 robbed you to such a considerable value as this, would come 
 and put himself into your hands, confess he had your goods, 
 and restore them to you, if you do not give them assurance 
 that you wiQ not only give them the reward you agreed to, 
 but also give assurance that they shall not be stopped, ques- 
 tioned, or called to account before a magistrate ? 
 
 x: 
 
306 COLONEL JACK 
 
 They said they would give all possible assurance of it. 
 Nay, says he, I do not know what assurance you are able to 
 give ; for when a poor feUow is in your clutches, and has 
 shown you your goods, you may seize upon him for a thief, 
 and it is plain he must be so ; then you go, take away your 
 goods, send him to prison, and what amends can he have o£ 
 you afterward ? 
 
 They were entirely confounded with the difficulty; they 
 asked him to try if he could get the things into his hands, and 
 they would pay him the money before he let them go out of 
 his hand, and he should go away half an hour before they 
 went out of the room. 
 
 No, gentlemen, says he, that won't do now. If you had 
 talked so before you had talked of apprehending me for 
 nothing, I should have taken your words ; but now it is plain 
 you have had such a thought in your heads, and how can I, 
 or any one else, be assured of safety? 
 
 Well, they thought of a great many particulars, but nothing 
 would do ; at length the other people who were present put 
 in, that they should give security to him, by a bond of lOOOZ., 
 that they would not give the person any trouble whatsoever. 
 He pretended they could not be bound, nor could their obliga- 
 tion be of any value, and that their own goods being once 
 seen, they might seize them ; and what would it signify, said 
 he, to put a poor pickpocket to sue for his reward? They 
 could not tell what to say : but told him, that he should take 
 the things of the boy, if it was a boy ; and they would be 
 bound to pay him the money promised. He laughed at them, 
 and said, No, gentlemen, as I am not the thief, so I shall be very 
 loath to put myself in the thief's stead, and lie at your mercy. 
 
 They told him they knew not what to do then, and that it 
 would be very hard he would not trust them at all. He said, 
 he was very willing to trust them, and to serve them ; but 
 that it would be very hard to be ruined and charged with the 
 theft, for endeavouring to serve them. 
 
 They then offered to give it him under their hands, that 
 they did not in the least suspect him ; that they would never 
 charge him with anything about it ; that they acknowledged 
 he went about to inquire after the goods at their request ; and 
 that if he produced them, they would pay him so much money, 
 at or before the delivery of them, without obliging him to 
 name or produce that person he had them from. 
 
CONTENTS OF THB BOOK. 307 
 
 Upon this writing, signed by three gentlemen who were 
 present, and by the person in particular who lost the things, 
 the young gentleman told them, he would go and do his utmost 
 to get the pocket-book, and aU that was in it. 
 
 Then he desired that they would in writing, beforehand, 
 give him a particular of all the several things that were in 
 the book ; that he might not have it said, when he produced 
 it, that there was not all ; and he would have the said writing 
 sealed up, and he would make the book be sealed up when it 
 was given to him. This they agreed to ; and the gentleman 
 accordingly drew up a particular of all the bills that he 
 remembered, as he said, was in the book ; and also of the 
 diamonds, as follows : 
 
 One bill under Sir Henry Fumess's hand for 1200Z. 
 
 One bill under Sir Charles Duncomb's hand for 8001., 
 2501. indorsed off.— 550Z. 
 
 OnebUl under the hand of J. Tassel, goldsmith, 165Z. 
 
 One bill of Sir Francis Child, 39Z. 
 
 One bill of one Stewart, that kept a. wager-office and 
 insurance, 3501. 
 
 A paper containing thirty-seven loose diamonds, value 
 about 2502. 
 
 A little paper, containing three large rough diamonds, and 
 one large one polished, and cut, value 1851. 
 
 For aU these things they promised, first, to give him 
 whatever he agreed with the thief to give him, not exceeding 
 501., and to give him 501. more for himself for procuring 
 them. 
 
 Now he had his cue, and now he came to me, and told 
 me honestly the whole story as above ; so I delivered him 
 the book, and he told me that he thought it was reasonable 
 we should take the full sum; because he would seem to 
 have done them some service, and so make them the easier. 
 All this I agreed to ; so he went the next day to the place, 
 and the gentlemen met him very punctually. 
 
 He told them at the first word he had done their work, 
 and, as he hoped, to their mind ; and told them, if it had 
 not been for the diamonds, he could have got all for lOZ., 
 but that the diamonds had shone so bright in the boy's 
 imagination that he talked of running away to France or 
 Holland, and living there all his days like a gentleman j_ at 
 which they laui^hed. However, gentlemra^aicThe, here is 
 •' ■ -' - — '- X 2 
 
808 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 the book ; and so pulled it out, wrapt up in a dirty piece of 
 a coloured handkerchief, as black as the street could make 
 it, and sealed with a piece of sorry wax, and th e impression 
 of a fa ryiiiig for a seal. 
 
 Upon this, the note being also unsealed, at the same time 
 he pulled open the dirty rag, and showed the gentleman his 
 pocket-book ; at which he was so over-surprised with joy, 
 notwithstsHiding all the preparatory discourse, that he was 
 fain to caU for a glass of wine or brandy to drink, to keep 
 him from fainting. 
 
 The book being opened, the paper of diamonds was first 
 taken out, and there they were every one, only the little 
 paper was by itself; and the rough diamonds that were in it 
 were loose among the rest; but he owned they were all 
 there safe. 
 
 Then the bills were called over, one by one, and they 
 found one bill for 801. more than the account mentioned ; 
 besides several papers which were not for money, though ot 
 consequence to the gentleman, and he acknowledged that all 
 was very honestly returned; and now, young man, said 
 they, you shall see we will deal as honestly by you ; and so, 
 in the first place, they gave him 50Z. for himself, and then 
 they told out the 50Z. for me. 
 
 He took the 501. for himself, and put it up in his pocket, 
 wrapping it in paper, it being all in gold : then he began to 
 tell over the other 50/.; but when he had told out 30Z., 
 Hold, gentlemen, said he, as I have acted fairly for you, so 
 you shall have no reason to say I do not do so to the end. 
 I have taken 30Z., and for so much I agreed with the boy ; 
 and so there is 201. of your money again. 
 
 They stood looking one at another a good while, as 
 surprised at the honesty of it ; for till that time they were 
 not quite without a secret suspicion that he was the, thief, 
 but that piece of policy cleared up his reputation to them. 
 The gentleman that had got his bills said softly to one of 
 them, Give it him all ; but the other said (softly too). No, 
 no, as long as he has got it abated, and is satisfied with the 
 50/. you have given him, 'tis very well, let it go as it is. 
 This was not spoke so softly but he heard it, and said. No, 
 too ; I am very well satisfied, I am glad I have got them for 
 you ; and so they began to part. 
 
 But just before they were going away one of the gentle- 
 
EXPLAINS HOW THE IIOBBERT WAS EFFECTED. 309 
 
 men said to him, Young^man, come, you see we are just to 
 you, and have done fairly, as you have also, and we wiU not 
 desire you to tell us who this cunning fellow is that got such 
 a prize from this gentleman ; but as you have talked with 
 him, pr'ythee, can you t ell us nothing of how he did it, that 
 we may beware of such spaiEs agairil ' * 
 
 Sir, says Will, "when I shall tell you what they say, and 
 how the particular case stood, the gentleman would blame 
 himself more than anybody else, or as much at least. The 
 young rogue that catched this prize was out, it seems, with a 
 comrade, who is a nimble experienced pickpocket as most in 
 London, but at that time the artist was somewhere at a 
 distance, and this boy never had picked a pocket in his life 
 before ; but, he says, he stood over against the passage into 
 the Exchange, on the east side, and the gentleman stood 
 just by the passage ; that he was very earnest in talking 
 with some other gentleman, and often pulled out this book 
 and opened it, and took papers out, and put others in, and 
 returned it into his coat-pocket; that the last time it hitched 
 at the pocket-hole, or stopt at something that was in the 
 pocket, and hung a little out, which the boy, who had 
 watched it a good while, perceiving, he passes by close to 
 the gentleman, and carried it smoothly off, without the 
 gentleman's perceiving it at aU. 
 
 He went on; and said, 'Tis very strange gentlemen should 
 put pocket-books which have such things in them into those 
 loose pockets, and in so careless a manner. That's very 
 true, says the gentleman ; and so, with some other discourse 
 of no great signification, he came away to me. 
 
 We were now so rich that we scarce knew what to do 
 with our money ; at least I did not, for I had no relations, 
 no friend, nowhere to put anything I had but in my pocket ; 
 as for WOl, he had a poor mother, but wicked as himself, 
 and he made her rich, and glad with his good success. 
 
 We divided this booty equally ; for, though the gaining it 
 was mine, yet the improving of it was his, and his manage- 
 ment brought the money ; for neither he or I could have 
 made anything proportionable of the thing any other way. 
 As for the bills, there was no room to doubt, but unless they 
 had been carried that minute to the goldsmith's for the 
 money, he would have come with notice to stop the pay- 
 ment, and perhaps have come while the money was receiving, 
 
310 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 and have taken hold of the persog. And then as to th6 
 diamonds, there had been no offering them to sale by us 
 poor boys to anybody, but those who were our known 
 receivers, and they would have given us nothing for them, 
 compared to what they were worth ; for, as I understood 
 afterwards, those who made a trade of buying stolen goods, 
 took care to have false weights, and cheat the poor devil 
 that stole them, at least an ounce in three. 
 
 TJpon the whole, we made the best of it many ways 
 besides. I had a strange kind of uninstructed conscience at 
 that time; for, though I made no scruple of getting a nything 
 in this manner from anybody, yet_ I couldTnot J)ear d^ 
 " stroyin g their_ bills and papers, -v^ich were_things3hat::mj^ 
 do them a great deal of hurt, and do me no good; and I 
 was so tormented about it, that I could not rest night or day 
 till I made the people easy, from whom the things were 
 taken. 
 
 I was now rich, so rich that I knew not what to do with 
 my money, or with myself. I had lived so near and so 
 close, that although, as I said, I did now and then lay out 
 twopence or threepence, for mere hunger, yet I had so many 
 people, who, as I said, employed me, and who gave me 
 victuals, and sometimes clothes, that in a whole year I had 
 not quite spent the' 15s. which I had saved of the custom- 
 house gentleman's money; and I had the four guineas, 
 which was of the first booty before that, stUl in my pocket, 
 I mean the money that I let fall into the tree. 
 
 But now I began to look higher ; and though Will and I 
 went abroad several times together, yet, when small things 
 offered, as handkerchiefs, and such trifles, we would not 
 meddle with them, not caring to run the risk for small 
 matters. It feU out one day, that, as we were strolling 
 about in West Smithfleld- on a Friday, there happened to be 
 an ancient country gentleman in the market, selling some 
 very large buUocks ; it seems they came out of Sussex. His 
 worship, for so they called him, had received the money for 
 these bullocks at a tavern, whose sign I forget now, and 
 having some of it in a bag, and the bag in his hand, he was 
 taken with a sudden fit of coughing, and stands to cough, 
 resting his hand with the bag of money in it, upon the bulk- 
 head of a shop, just by the Cloister-gate in Smithfleld, that 
 is to say, within three or four doors of it ; we were both just 
 
E0B3 A GENTLEMAN IN WEST SMITHFIELD. 311 
 
 behind him. Says "Will to me, Stand ready ; upon this, ho 
 makes an artificial stumble, and falls with his head just 
 against the old gentleman in the very moment when he was 
 coughing, ready to be straiigled, and quite spent for want of 
 breath. 
 
 The violence of the blow beat the old gentleman quite 
 down ; the bag of money did not immediately fly out of his 
 hand, but I run to get hold of it, and gave it a quick snatch, 
 pulled it clean away, and run like the wind down the Clois- 
 ters with it; turned on the left hand, as soon as I was 
 through, and cut into Little Britain, so into Bartholomew- 
 i-ose, then across Aldersgate-street, through Paul's-alley into 
 Kedcross-street, and so cross all the streets, through innu- 
 merable alleys, and never stopped till I got into the second 
 quarter of Moorfields, our old agreed rendezvous. 
 
 WUl, in the mean time, fell down with the old gentleman, 
 but soon got up ; the old knight, for such it seems he was, was 
 flighted with the fall, and his breath so stopped with his 
 cough, that he could not recover himself to speak till some 
 time ; during which, nimble Will was got up again, and 
 walked off; nor could he call out, stop thief, or tell anybody 
 he had lost anything for a good while ; but, coughing vehe- 
 mently, and looking red, till he was almost black in the face, 
 
 he cried, the ro Hegh, hegh, hegh, the rouges — hegh, 
 
 have got — hegh, hegh, hegh, hegh, hegh, hegh, — then he 
 would get a little breath, and at it again ; the rogues — ^hegh, 
 hegh ; and, after a great many heghs atid rogues, he brought 
 it out, — ^have got away my bag of money ! 
 
 All this whUe the people understood nothing of the matter ; 
 and as for the rogues indeed, they had time enough to get 
 clear away, and in about an hour WiU came to the rendez- 
 vous ; there we sat down in the grass again, and turned out 
 the money, which proved to be eight guineas, and hi. 12«. in 
 silver, so that it made just HI. together. This we shared 
 upon the spot, and went to work the same day for more ; but 
 whether it was, that, being flushed with our success, we were 
 not so vigilant, or that no other opportunity offered, I know 
 not, but we got nothing more that night, nor so much as any- 
 thing offered itself for an attempt. 
 
 We took many walks of this kind, sometimes together, at a 
 little distance from one another, and several small hits wa 
 made ; but we were so flushed with our success, that truly 
 
312 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 we were above meddling with trifles, as I said before, no, no{ 
 such things that others would have been glad of ; nothing but 
 pocket-books, letter-cases, or sums of money would move us. 
 
 The next adventure was in th^ dusk of the evemng, in a 
 court, which goes out of Grracecnurch-street into Lombard- 
 street, where the Quakers' meeting-house is ; there was a 
 young fellow, who, as we learned afterward, was a woollen- 
 draper's apprentice in Gracechurch-street ; it seems he had 
 been receiving a sum of money, which was very considerable, 
 and he comes to a goldsmith's shop in Lombard-street with 
 it ; paid in the most of it there ; insomuch that it grew dark, 
 and the goldsmith began to be shutting in shop, and candles 
 to be lighted ; we watched him in there, and stood on the 
 other side of the way to see what he did. When he had paid 
 in all the money he intended, he stayed stiU some time longer 
 to take notes, as I supposed, for what he had paid, and by 
 this time it was still darker than before ; at last he comes out 
 of the shop, with still a pretty large bag under his arm, and 
 walks over into the court, which was then very dark ; in the 
 middle of the court is a boarded entry, and farther, at the end 
 of it, a threshold ; and as soon as he had set his foot over 
 the threshold, he was to turn on his left hand into Grace- 
 church-street. 
 
 Keep up, says Will to me, be nimble ; and as soon as he 
 had said so, he flies at the young man, and gives him such a 
 violent thrust, that pushed him forward with too great a force 
 tor him to stand ; and, as he strove to recover, the threshold 
 took his feet, and he fell forward into the other part of the 
 court, as if he had flown in the air, with his head lying 
 towards the Quaker's meeting-house. I stood ready, and 
 presently felt out the bag of money, which I heard fall, for 
 it flew out of his hand, he having his life to save, not his 
 money. I went forward with the money, and Will, that 
 threw him down, finding I had it, run backward, and as I 
 made along Fenchurch-street, Will overtook me, and we 
 scoured home together. The poor young man was hurt a 
 little with the fall, and reported to his master, as we heard 
 afterward, that he was knocked down, which was not true, 
 for neither Will or I had any stick in our hands ; but the 
 master of the youth was, it seems, so very thankful that his 
 young man was not knocked down before he paid the rest of the 
 money (which was above lOOZ. more) to the goldsmith, who 
 
ACraEVES VARIOUS ROBBERIES. 313 
 
 was Sir John Sweetapple, that he made no great noise at the 
 loss he had ; and, as we heard afterward, only warned his 
 apprentice to be more careful, and come no more through 
 such places in the dark ; whereas the man had really no such 
 deliverance as he imagined, for we saw him before, when he 
 had all the money about him ; but it was no time of day for 
 such work as we had to do, so that he was in no danger 
 before. 
 
 This booty amounted to 29?. 16s., which was HI. 18s. 
 a-piece, and added exceedingly to my store, which began 
 now to be very much too big for my management; and 
 indeed I began to be now full of care for the preservation of 
 what I had got. I wanted a trusty Mend to commit it to, 
 but where was such a one to be found by a poor boy, bred 
 up among thieves ? If I should have let any honest body 
 know that I had so much money, they would have asked me 
 how I came by it, and would have been afraid to take it into 
 their hands, lest I being some time or other catched in my 
 rogueries, they should be counted the receivers of stolen goods, 
 and the encouragers of a thief. 
 
 We had, however, in the mean time, a great many other 
 successful enterprises, some of one kind, some of another, 
 and were never so much as in danger of being apprehended ; 
 but my companion Will, who was now grown a man, and 
 encouraged by these advantages, fell into quite another vein 
 of wickedness, getting acquainted with a wretched gang of 
 feUows that turned their hands to everything that was vile. 
 
 WiU was a lusty strong fellow, and withal very bold and 
 daring, would fight anybody, and venture upon anything, and 
 I found he began to be above the mean rank of a poor pick- 
 pocket, so I saw him but seldom ; however, once coming to 
 me in a very friendly manner, and asking me how I went on, 
 I told him that I used the old trade still, that I had had two 
 or three good jobs ; one with a young woman, whose pocket 
 I had picked of eleven guineas ; and another, a countrywoman, 
 just come out of a stage-coach, seeing her pull out her bag 
 to pay the coachman ; and that I followed her till I got an 
 opportunity, and slipped it out so neatly, that though there 
 was 81. 17s. in it, yet she never felt it go. And several other 
 jobs I told him of, by which I made pretty good purchase. 
 I always said you were a lucky boy. Colonel Jack, says he ; 
 but, come, you are grown almost a man now. and you shall 
 
314 COLONEL JACK 
 
 not be always at play at push-pin; I am got into bettor 
 business, I assure you, and you shall come into it too. I'll 
 bring you into a brave gang. Jack, says he, where you shall 
 seejwe shall be all gentlemen. 
 
 Then he told me the trade itself, in short, which was with 
 a set of fellows, that had two of the most desperate works 
 flpon their hands that belonged to the whole art of thieving j. 
 that is to say, in the evening they were footpads, and in the 
 night they were housebreakers. Will told me so many 
 plausible stories, and talked of such great things, that, in 
 short, I, who had been always used to do anything he bid 
 me do, went with him without any hesitation. 
 
 Nothing is more certain, than that hitherto, being partly 
 from the gross ignorance of my untaught childhood, as I 
 observed before, partly from the hardness and wickedness of 
 the company I kept, and add to these, that it was the busi- 
 nesslmight^be said to be brought u£ to, I had, I say, all the 
 "wayTIEEerto, jio jnanner of thqughtg. about the good or evil 
 o f what I was embarkecLin ; consequently, iTiad no sense of 
 conscience, no reproaches upon my mind for having done 
 amiss. 
 
 Yet I had something in me, by what secret influence I 
 knew not, kept me from the other degrees of raking and vice, 
 and, in short, from the general wickedness of the rest of my 
 companions ; for example, I never used any ill words, nobody 
 ever heard me swear, nor was I given to drink, or to love 
 strong drink ; and I cannot omit a circumstance that very 
 Inuch served to prevent it. I had a strange original notion, 
 as I have mentioned in its place, of my being a gintleman ; 
 and several things had casually happened in my way~to 
 increase this fancy of mine. It happened one day, that being 
 in the glass-house yard, between Rosemary-lane and Ratcliff- 
 highway, there came a man dressed very well, and with a 
 Coach attending him, and he came (as I suppose) to buy glass- 
 bottles, or some other goods, as they sold ; and in bargaining 
 for his goods, he swore most horrible oaths at every two or 
 three words. At length the master of the glass-house, an 
 ancient grave gentleman, took the liberty to reprove him, 
 which at first made him swear the worse ; after awhile, the 
 gentteman^was a little calmer, but still he swore very much, 
 though not so bad as at first. After some time, the master 
 of the glass-house turned from him,— Really sir, says tha 
 
SWEARING DEEOGATOEt I'D A GENTLEMAN. 316 
 
 good old gentlenianj you swear so, and take God's name in 
 vain so"," that I cannot bear to stay with you ; I would rather 
 you would let my goods alone, and go somewhere else ; I 
 hope you won't take it iU, but I don't desire to deal with any 
 body that does so ; I am a&aid my glass-house should fall 
 on your head while you stay in it. 
 
 The genltoaan grew good-humoured at the reproof, and 
 said, Well^ come, don't go away, I won't swear any more, 
 says he, if I can help it ; for I own, says he, I should not 
 do it. 
 
 With that the old gentlem an looked up at him, and, return- 
 ing. Really sir, says he, 'tis a pity you, tiiat seem to be a fine 
 pentlem an, weU-bred, and good-humoured, should accustom _. 
 
 yourseffTo such a hateful practice ; why, 'tisjuot^like a gentle- -^ 
 man to swear, 'tis enough for my black wretches that work 
 there at the furnace, or for these ragged, naked, blackguard 
 boys, pointing at me, and some others of the dirty crew, that 
 lay in the ashes ; 'tis bad enough for them, says he, and they 
 ought to be corrected for it too ; but for a man of breeding, 
 sir, says he, a gentleman, it ought to be looked upon as below 
 them ; gentlemen know better, and are taught better, and it "^^^SfrL 
 is plain you know better ; I beseech you, sir, when you are ' 1 - ';p*-M 
 tempted to swear, always ask yourself, Is this like a gentle- 
 man ? does this become me as a gentleman ? Do but ask 
 yourself that question, and your reason will prevail — ^you 
 wiU soon leave it ofi". 
 
 I heard aU this, and it made the blood run chiU in my veins,' 
 when he said swearing was only fit for such as we were. In 
 short, it made as great an impression upon me as it did upon 
 the gentleman ; and yet he took it very kindly too, and 
 thanked the old gentleman for his advice! But from that 
 time forward, I never had the least inclination to swearing or 
 ill words, and abhorred it when I heard the other boys do it. 
 As to drinking, I had no opportunity, for I had nothing to 
 drink but water, or small beer that anybody gave me in 
 charity, for they seldom gave away strong, beer ; and after I 
 had money, I neither desired strong beer, or cared to part 
 with my money to buy it. 
 
 Then as to principle, 'tis true I had no foundation laid in 
 me by education ; and being early led by my fate into evil, I 
 had the less sense of its being evil, left upon my mind; but 
 when I began to grow to an age of. understanding, and t* 
 
 
 
 '^■'k" 
 
316 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 know that I was a thief, growing up in all manner (A 
 villanjr, and ripening apace for the gallows, it came often 
 into my thoughts that I was going wrong, that I was in the 
 high road to the devil; and several times I would stop 
 short, and ask myself^if _this was the life of a, gentleman ? 
 
 But these little things wore off again as offieii ai~they 
 came on, and I followed the old trade again; especially when 
 WUl came to prompt me, as I have observed ; for he was a 
 kind of a guide to me in all these things ; and I had, by 
 custom and application, together with seeing his vfay, learned 
 to be as acute a workman as my master. 
 
 But, to go back where I left off. WiU came to me, as I 
 have said, and telling me how much better business he was 
 fallen into, would have me go along with him, and I should 
 JblA-gentlemaaL__WillviLseeiMj^imderstoodJhat in a 
 
 quite diffirent manner from me : for his gentleiaan was 
 nothing more or less than a~ geivEleman thief, a villain of a 
 higher degree than a pickpocket, and one that might do 
 something more wicked, and better entitling him to the 
 gallows, than, could be done in our way ; but my gentleman 
 that I had my eye upon, was anoftter_-thing_qjaitB,_:^ou^!j 
 could not really tell_hfljs-_to .3iac]ibe ,it_dther. 
 
 However the word took with me, audi went with him. 
 We were neither of us old; "Will was about twenty-four, and 
 as for me I was now about eighteen, and pretty tall of my age. 
 
 The first time I went with him, he brought me into the 
 company only of two more young fellows. We met at the 
 lower part of G-ray's-Inn-lane, about an hour before sunset, 
 and went out into the fields toward a place called Pindar of 
 Wakefield, where are abundance of brick-kilns ; here it was 
 agreed to spread from the field-path to the road way, all the 
 way towards Pancras church, to observe any chance game, as 
 they called it, which they might shoot flying. Upon the path, 
 within the bank, on the side of the road, going towards 
 Kentish-town, two of our gang. Will, and one of the other, 
 met a single gentleman, walking apace towards the town; 
 being almost dark, WiU cried, Mark, ho ! which, it seems, 
 was the word at which we were all to stand still at a distance, 
 come in, if he wanted help, and give a signal if anything 
 appeared that was dangerous. 
 
 Will steps up to the gentleman, stops him, and put the 
 question; that is. Sir, your money? The gentleman seeing 
 
ROBS TWO POOR WOMKN NEAE KENTISH TOWN. 317 
 
 he was alone, struck at him with his cane, but Will, a 
 nimble, strong feUow, flew in upon him, and, with struggling, 
 got him down ; then he begged for his life, Will having told 
 him with an oath that he would cut his throat. In that 
 moment, while this was doing, comes a hackney-coach along 
 the road, and the fourth man, who was that way, cries, 
 Mark, ho ! which was to intimate that it was a prize, not a 
 surprise ; and accordingly the next man went up to assist 
 him, where they stopped the coach, which had a doctor, of 
 physic and a surgeon in it, who had been to visit some 
 considerable patient, and, I suppose, had considerable fees ; 
 for here they got two good purses, one with eleven or twelve 
 guineas, the other six, with some pocket money, two watches, 
 one diamond ring, and the surgeon's plaster-box, which was 
 most of it fiill of silver instruments. ' 
 
 While they were at this work. Will kept the man down 
 who was under him ; and though he promised not to kiU 
 him, unless he ofiered to make a noise, yet he would not 
 let him stir till he heard the noise of the coach going on 
 again, by which he knew the job was over on that side. 
 Then he carried him a little out of the way, tied his hands 
 behind him, and bid him lie stUl and make no noise, and he 
 would come back in half an hour and untie him, upon his 
 word; but if he cried out, he would come back and kill 
 him. 
 
 The poor man promised to lie still and make no noise, 
 and did so; and had not above lis. 6d. in his pocket, which 
 Will took, and came back to the rest ; but while they were 
 together, I, who was on the side of the Pindar of Wakefield, 
 cried, Mark, ho ! too. 
 
 What I saM^ was a couple of poor women, one a kind of a 
 nurse, and the other a maid-servant going for Kentish-town. 
 As Will knew that I was but young at the work, he came 
 flying to me, and seeing how easy a bargain it was, he said. 
 Go, Colonel, fall to work. I went up to them, and speaking 
 to the elderly woman. Nurse, said I, don't be in such haste, 
 I want to speak vrith you ; at which they both stopped, and 
 looked a little frighted. Don't be frighted, sweetheart, said 
 I to the maid ; a little of that money in the bottom of your 
 pocket will make all easy, and I will do you no hai-m. By 
 .this time Will came up to us, for they did not see him 
 before; then they began to scream out. Hold! says I, make 
 
I 
 
 818 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 no noise, unless you have a mind to force us to murder yoil 
 whether we will or no ; give me your money presently, and 
 make no words, and we shan't hurt you. Upon this the 
 poor maid pulled out 5s. 6d. and the old woman a guinea 
 and a shilling, crying heartily for her money, and said it was 
 aU she had left in the world. Well, we took it for all that, 
 though it made my very heart bleed to see what agony the 
 poor woman was in at parting with it, and I asked her 
 where she lived; she said her name was Smith, and she 
 lived at Kentish-town : I said nothing to her, but bid them 
 go on about their business, and I gave WiU the money ; so 
 in a few minutes we were all together again : says one o) 
 the other rogues. Come this is well enough for one road, it' 
 time to be gone. So we jogged away, crossing the fields 
 out of the path towards Tottenham-court ; But hold ! says 
 Will, I must go and untie the man. D-mn him, says one of 
 them, let him lie. No, says WiU, I won't be worse than my 
 word, I wiU untie him. So he went to the place, but the 
 man was gone ; either he had untied himself, or somebody 
 had passed by, and he had called for help, and so was 
 untied, for he could not find him, nor make him hear, though 
 he ventured to call twice for him aloud. 
 
 This made us hasten away the faster, and getting into 
 Tottenham-court road, they thought it was a little too near, 
 so they made into the town at St. Giles's, and crossing to 
 Piccadilly, went to Hyde-Park-gate ; here they ventured to 
 rob another coach, that is to say, one of the two other rogues 
 and WiU did it, between the Park-gate and Knigtsbridge ; 
 there was in it only a gentleman and apiink that he had 
 picked up, it seems, at the spring-garSenpT little farther. 
 They took the gentleman's money, his watch, and his silver- 
 hilted sword ; but when they came to thejlut, she damned 
 and cursed them for robbing the gentIeica^~of his money, 
 and leaving none for her ; as for herself, she had not one 
 sixpenny-piece about her, though she was indeed weU enough 
 dressed too. 
 
 Having made this adventure, we left that road too, and 
 went over the fields to Chelsea. In the way from West- 
 minster to Chelsea, we met three gentlemen, but they were 
 too strong for us to meddle with ; they had been afraid to 
 come over the fields so late (for by this time it was eight 
 o'clock, and though the moon gave some light, yet it waa 
 
HOB A HOUSE AT CHELSEA. 319 
 
 too late and too dark to be safe), so they hired three men 
 at Chelsea, two with pitchforks, and the third, a waterman, 
 with a boat-hook-staff to guard them : we would have 
 fiteered clear of them, and eared not to have them see us, 
 if we could help it, but they did see us, and cried, Who 
 comes there? we answered) Friends; and so they went on, 
 to our great satisfaction. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 MT NEW PEOFESSION VEET HATEFUL TO ME — ^WILL IS IN 
 GREAT DANGER OF BEING TAKEN FOE A HOUSEBREAKING 
 
 AT HOUNSLOW HE LEAVES HIS PLUNDER UNDER MY 
 
 BED ^I MEET WITH HIM BY ACCIDENT, AND EECEIVE HIS 
 
 DIRECTIONS HOW TO DISPOSE OF THE STOLEN GOODS 1 
 
 MEET CAPTAIN JACK, WHO INFORMS ME WILL IS COM- 
 MITTED TO NEWGATE ^I PAY A VISIT TO MY OLD FRIEND 
 
 MENTIONED IN THE THIRD CHAPTER CONVERSATION WITH 
 
 HIM ^I AM APPREHENDED CONSEQUENCES THEREOF. 
 
 When we came to Chelsea, it seems we had other work to 
 do, which I had not been made privy to ; and this was a 
 house to be robbed. They had some intelligence, it seems, 
 with a servant in the house, who was of their gang ; this 
 rogue was a waiting-man, or footman, and he had a watch- 
 word to let them in by ; but this fellow, not for want of 
 being a villain, but by getting drunk, and not minding his 
 part of the work, disappointed us ; for he had promised to 
 rise at two o'clock in the morning and let us all in, but, 
 being very drunk, and not come in at eleven o'clock, his 
 master ordered him to be shut out, and the doors locked up, 
 and charged the other servants not to let him in upon any 
 terms whatsoever. 
 
 We came about the house at one o'clock to make our 
 observations, intending to go and lie under Beaufort House 
 wall tiU the clock struck two, and then to come again ; but, 
 behold ! when we came to the house, there lay the fellow at 
 the door fast asleep, and very drunk. Will, who I found 
 was the leader iii all these things, waked the fellow, who, as 
 he had had about two hours' sleep, wa° a little come to 
 himself, and told them the misfortune, as he called it, and 
 
 AL. 
 
320 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 that he could not get in : they had some instruments about 
 them, by which they could have broken in by force, but WiU 
 considered that as it was but waiting till another time, and 
 they should be let in quietly, they resolved to give it over 
 for that time. 
 
 But this was a happy drunken bout for the family ; for 
 the fellow having let fall some words in his drink (for he was 
 a saucy one as well as a drunken one, and talked oddly), as 
 that it had been better they had let him in, and he would 
 make them pay dear for it, or some such thing ; the master 
 hearing of jt, turned him away in the morning, and never 
 let him come into his house again : so, I say, it was a happy 
 drunkenness to the family, for it saved them from being 
 robbed, and perhaps murdered, for they were a cursed 
 bloody crew, and, as I found, were about thirteen of them 
 in all, whereof three of them made it their business to get 
 into gentlemen's services, and so to open doors in the night, 
 and let the other rogues in upon them to rob and destroy 
 them. 
 
 I rambled this whole night with them. They went from 
 Chelsea, being disappointed there as above, to Kensington ; 
 there they broke into a brewhouse and washhouse, and by 
 that means into an out-kitchen of a gentleman's house, 
 where they unhanged a small copper, and brought it off, and 
 stole about a hundred weight of pewter, and went clear off 
 with that too ; and every one going their own by-ways, they 
 found means to get safe to their several receptacles where 
 they used to dispose of such things. 
 
 We lay still the next day, and shared the effects stolen 
 that night, of which my share came to 81. 19s. The copper 
 and pewter being weighed, and cast up, a person was at 
 hand- to take it as money, at about half value, and in the 
 afternoon Will and I came away together. WiU was 
 mighty full of the success we had had, and how we might 
 be sure of the like this way flvery day. But he observed 
 that I did not seem so elevated at the success of that night's 
 ramble as I used to be, and also, that I did not take any 
 great notice of the expectations he was in, of what was to 
 come ; yet I had said little to him at that time. 
 
 But my heart was full of the poor woman's case at 
 Kentish-town, and I resolved, if possible, to find her out, 
 and give her her money. With the abhorrence that filled 
 
HIS PEOFESSION BECOMES HATEFUL. 32 i 
 
 my mind at the cruelty of that act, there necessarily fol- 
 lowed a little distaste for the thing itself; and now it came 
 into my head with a double force, that this was the high 
 road to the devU, and that certainly this was not the life of a 
 gentleman. 
 
 Wm and I parted for that time, but next morning we met 
 again, and Will was mighty brisk and merry ; And now, 
 Colonel Jack, says he, we shall be rich very quickly. Well, 
 says I, and what shall we do when we are rich ? Do ! says 
 he ; we will buy a couple of good horses, and go farther 
 afield. What do you mean by farther afield ? says I. Why, 
 says he, we will take the highway like gentlemen, and then 
 we shall get a great deal of money indeed. Well, says I, 
 what then ? Why then, says he, we shall live like gentlemen. 
 
 But, Will, says I, if we get a great deal of money, shan't 
 we leave this trade off, and sit down, and be safe and 
 quiet? 
 
 Ay, says Will, when we have got a great estate we shall 
 be wUling to lay it down. But where, says I, shall we be 
 before that time comes, if we should drive on this cursed 
 kind of trade ? 
 
 Prithee never think of that, says Will : if you think of 
 those things, you w i ll never be fit_to_be_a gentleman. He 
 touched me there Tndeed, for it ran much in my^mind still 
 that I was to be a gentleman, and it made me dumb for 
 awhile ; but I came to myself after a little while, and I said 
 to him, pretty tartly, Why, Will, do you call this way of 
 living the life of a gentleman ? 
 
 Why, says WiU, why not ? 
 
 Why, says I, was it like a gentleman for me to take that 
 22s. from a poor ancient woman, when she begged of me 
 upon her knees not to take it, and told me it was all she had 
 ■ in the world to buy her bread for herself and a sick child 
 which she had at home f Do you think I could be so cruel, 
 if you had not stood by and made me do it ? Why, I cried 
 at doing it as much as the poor woman did, though I did 
 not let you see me. 
 
 You fool you, says Will, you will never be fit for our 
 business, indeed, if you mind such things as those ; I shall 
 bring you off those things quickly. Why, if you will be fit 
 tar business, you must learn to fight when they resist, and 
 
322 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 cut their throats when they submit ; you must learn to stop 
 their breath, that they may beg and pray no more. What 
 signifies pity, prithee who will pity us when we come to the 
 Old Bailey? I warrant you that whining old woman, that 
 begged so heartily for her 22s., would let you and I beg 
 upon our knees, and would not save our lives by not coming 
 in for an evidence against us. Did you ever see any of them 
 cry when they see gentlemen go to the gallows ? 
 
 "Well, Will, says I, you had better let us keep to the 
 business we Were in before ; there were ho such crsiel doings 
 in that, and yet we got more money by it than I believe we 
 shall get at this. 
 
 No, no, says Will, you are a fool ; you don't know what 
 fine things we shall do in a little whUe. 
 
 Upon this discourse we parted for that time ; but I re- 
 solved with myself that I would never be concerned with 
 him that way any more. The truth is, they were such a 
 dreadful gang, such horrid barbarous villains, that even that 
 little while that I was among them, my very blood ran cold 
 in my veins at what I heard, particularly the continued 
 raving and damning one another, and themselves, at every 
 word they spoke ; and then the horrid resolutions of murder, 
 and cutting throats, which I perceived was in their minds 
 upon any occasion that should present. This appeared first 
 in their discourse upon the disappointment they met with at 
 Chelsea, where the two rogues that were with us, ay, and 
 Will too, damned and raged that they could not get into the 
 house, and swore they would have cut the gentleman's 
 throat if they had got in ; and shook hands, damning and 
 cursing themselves, if they did not murder the whole family 
 as soon. as Tom (that was the man-servant) could get an 
 opportunity to let them in. 
 
 Two days after this. Will came to my lodging ; for I had 
 now got a room by myself, had bought me tolerable good 
 clothes and some shirts, and began to look like other folks ; 
 but, as it happened, I was abroad upon the scout in another 
 way ; for, though I was not hardened enough for so black a 
 villain as Will would have had me be, yet I had not arrived 
 to any principle sufficient to keep me from a life, in its degree 
 wicked enough, which tended to the same destruction, though 
 not in so violent and precipitant degrees. I had his message 
 
SOME OP THE PAEXr CAPTDKED. 323 
 
 delivered to me, which was to meet him the next evening at 
 such a place, and, as I came in time enough to go, I went 
 to the place, but resolved beforehand, that I would not go 
 stay more with him among the gang. 
 
 However, to my great satisfaction, I missed him, for he 
 did not come at all to the place, but met with the gang at 
 another place, they having sent for him in haste upon the 
 notice of some booty ; and so they went aU away together. 
 This was a summons, it seems, from one of the creatures 
 which they had abroad in a family, where an opportunity 
 offered them to commit a notorious robbery, down almost as 
 far as Hounslow, and where they wounded a gentleman's 
 gardener so, that I think he died, and robbed the house of a 
 very considerable sum of money and plate. 
 
 This, however, was not so clean carried, nor did they get 
 in so easy, but by the resistance they met with, the neighbours 
 were all alarmed, and the gentlemen rogues were pursued, 
 and being at London with the booty, one of them was taken. 
 Will, a dexterous fellow and head of the gang, made his 
 escape, and though in his clothes, with a great weight about 
 him, of both money and plate, plunged into the Thames, and 
 swam over where there was no path, or road, leading to the 
 river ; so that nobody suspected any one's -going that way. 
 Being got over, he made his way, wet as he was, into some 
 woods adjacent, and, as he told me afterwards, not far from 
 Chertsey, and stayed lurking about in the woods or fields 
 thereabout, till his clothes were dry ; then, in the night, got 
 down to Eingston, and so to Mortlake, where he got a boat 
 to London.* 
 
 He knew not that one of his comrades was taken ; only 
 he knew that they were aJl so closely pursued that they were 
 obliged to disperse, and every one to shift for himself. He 
 happened to come home in the evening, as good luck then 
 directed him, just after search had been made for him by 
 the constables ; his companion, who was taken, having, upon 
 promise of favour, and of saving him from the gallows, 
 discovered his companions, and WiU among the rest, as the 
 principal party in the whole undertaking. 
 
 Will got notice of this just time enough to run for it, and 
 not to be taken , and away he came to look for me ; but, as 
 my good fate still directed, I was not at home neither. How- 
 ever, he left aU his booty at my lodging, and hid it in an old 
 
 T 2 
 
324 COLONEL JACK, 
 
 coat that lay under my bedding, and left word that my 
 brother Will had been there, and had left his coat, that he 
 borrowed of me, and that it was imder my bed. 
 
 I knew not what to make of it, but went up to go to bed ; 
 and, finding the parcel, was perfectly frighted to see, wrapped 
 up in it, above one hundred pound in plate and money, and 
 yet knew nothing of brother Will, as he called himself, nor 
 did I hear of him for three or four days. 
 
 At the end of four days, I heard, by great accident, that 
 Win, who used to be seen with me, and who called me 
 brother, was taken, and would be hanged. Next day, a poor 
 man, a shoemaker, that used formerly to have a kindness for 
 me, and to send me of errands, and gave me sometimes some 
 victuals, seeing me accidentally in Rosemary-lane, going by 
 him, clasped me fast hold by the arm ; Hark ye, young man, 
 says he, have I catched you ? and hauled me along as if I 
 had been a thief apprehended, and he the constable. Hark 
 ye. Colonel Jack, says, he again, come along with me, I must 
 speak with you. What, are you got into this gang too ? 
 What, are you turned housebreaker ? Come, I'U have you 
 hanged, to be sure. 
 
 These were dreadful words to me, who, though not guilty 
 of the particular thing in question, yet was frighted heartily 
 before, and did not know what I might be charged with by 
 Will, if he was taken, as I heard that very morning he was. 
 With these words, the shoemaker began to haul and drag me 
 along as he used to do when I was a boy. 
 
 However, recovering my spirits, and provoked to the highest 
 
 degree, I said to him again. What do you mean, !Mr. ? 
 
 Let me alone, or you wiU oblige me to make you do it ; and, 
 with that, I stopped short, and soon let him see I was a little 
 too big to be hauled about as I used to be when I run of his 
 errands, and made a motion with my other hand as if I would 
 strike him in the face. 
 
 How, Jack ! says he, will you strike me ? will you sti-ike 
 your old friend? and then he let go my arm, and laughed. 
 Well, but hark ye, colonel, says he, I am in earnest, I hear 
 bad news of you ; they say you are gotten into bad company, 
 and that this Will calls you brother ; he is a great villain, 
 and I hear he is charged with a bloody robbery, and will be 
 hanged, if he is taken. I hope you are not concerned with 
 him ; if you are, I would advise you to shift for yourself, for 
 
ADVISED TO KEEP BETTER COMPANY. 325 
 
 the constable and the headborough are after him to-day, and 
 if he can lay anything to you, he wiU do it, you may be sure; 
 he will certainly hang you to save himself. 
 
 This was kind, and I thanked him ; but told him, this was 
 a thing too serious, and that had too much weight in it to be 
 jested with, as he had done before ; and that some ignorant 
 stranger might have seized upon me as a person guilty, who 
 had no farther concern in it than just knowing the man, and 
 so I might have been brought into trouble for nothing ; at 
 least people might have thought I was among them, whether 
 I was or no, and it would have rendered me suspected, though 
 I was innocent. 
 
 He acknowledged that ; told me he was but in jest, and 
 that he talked to me just as he used to do. However, colonel, 
 says he, I won't jest any more with you in a thing of such a 
 dangerous consequence ; I only advise you to keep the fellow 
 company no more. 
 
 I thanked him, and went away, but in the greatest per- 
 plexity imaginable ; and now, not knowing what to do with 
 myself, or with the little ill-gotten wealth which I had, I went 
 musing and alone into the fields towards Stepney, my usual 
 walk, and there began to consider what to do ; and as this 
 creature had left his prize in my garret, I began to think 
 that if he should be taken, and should confess, and send the 
 officers to search there for the goods, and they should find 
 them, I should be undone, and should be taken up for a con- 
 federate ; whereas I knew nothing of the matter, and had no 
 hand in it. 
 
 While I was thus musing, and in great perplexity, I heard 
 somebody halloo to me ; and, looking about, I saw Will run- 
 ning after me. I knew not what to think at first ; but see- 
 ing bim alone, was the more encouraged, and I stood still for 
 him. When he came up to me, I said to him. What is the 
 matter. Will ? Matter! says WiU, matter enough; I am 
 undone — ^When was you at home ? 
 
 I saw what you left there, says I ; what is the meaning of 
 it, and where got you all that? is that your being undone? 
 
 Ay, says Will, I am undone for all that ; for the officers 
 are after me ; and I am a dead dog if I am taken, for George 
 is in custody, and he has peached me, and all the others, to 
 save his life. 
 
326 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 Life ! says I : why should you lose your life if they should 
 take you ? Pray what would they do to you ? 
 
 Do to me ! says he ; they would hang me, if the king had 
 ne'er another soldier in his guards; I shall certainly he 
 hanged as I am now alive. 
 
 This frighted me terribly, and I said. And what will you 
 do then ? Nay, says he, I know not : I would get Out of the 
 nation, if I knew how ; but I am a stranger to all those things, 
 and I know not what to do, not I ; advise me, Jack, says he, 
 prithee tell me whither shall I go ; I have a good mind to go 
 to sea. 
 
 You talk of going away, says I ; what wiU you do with all 
 you have hid in my garret ? it must not lie there, said I ; for 
 if I should be taken up for it, and it be found to be the money 
 you stole, I shall be ruined. 
 
 I care not what becomes of it, not I, says WUl ; I'll be 
 gone ; do you take it, if you will, and do what you wiU with 
 it ; I must fly, and I cannot take it with me. I won't have 
 it, not I, says I to him ; I'll go and fetch it to you if you will 
 take it, says I, but I won't meddle with it ; besides, there is 
 plate, what shall I do with plate ? said I ; if I should offer 
 to sell it anywhere, said I, they wiU stop me. 
 
 As for that, says WiU, I could seU it well enough, if I had 
 it, but I must not be seen anywhere among my old acquaint- 
 ance, for I am blown, and they will all betray me ; but I 
 win tell you where you shall go and sell it, if you wiU, and 
 they wiU ask you no questions, if you give them the word 
 that I will give you. So he gave me the word, and direc- 
 tions to a pawnbroker, near Cloth-fair ; the word was Good 
 tower standard. Having these instructions, he said to me. 
 Colonel Jack, I am sure you won't betray me ; and I promise 
 you, if I am taken, and should be hanged, I won't name you ; 
 I will go to such a house (naming a house at Bromley by 
 Bow, where he and I had often been), and there, says he, 
 m stay till it is dark ; at night I will come near the streets, 
 and I will lay under such a haystack all night (a place we 
 both knew also very well) ; and if you cannot finish to come 
 to me there, I wiU go back to Bow. 
 
 I went back and took the cargo, went to the place by 
 Cloth-fair, and gave the word Good tower standard; and 
 without any words, they took the plate, weighed it, and paid 
 
AI.ABMED BY HIS DREAMS. 327 
 
 me after the rate of 2s. per ounce for it; so I came away 
 and went to meet him, but it was too late to meet him at the 
 first place ; but I went to the haystack, and there I found 
 him fast asleep. 
 
 I delivered him his cargo ; what it really amounted to I 
 knew not, for I never told it ; but I went home to my 
 quarters very late and tired. I went to sleep at first, but, 
 notwithstanding I was so weary, I slept little or none for 
 several hours ; at last, being overcome with sleep, I dropped, 
 but was immediately roused with noise of people knocking at 
 the door, as if they would beat it down, and crying and calling 
 out to the people of the house, Ris«, and let in the constable 
 here, we come for your lodger in the garret. 
 
 I was firighed to the last degree, and started up in my 
 bed ; but when I was awaked, I heard no noise at all, but of 
 two watchmen thumping at the doors with their staves, and 
 giving the hour, Past three o'clock, and a rainy wet morning, 
 for such it was. I was very glad when I found it was but a 
 dream, and went to bed again, but was soon roused a second 
 time with the same, very same noise and words : then, being 
 sooner awaked than I was before, I jumped out of bed, and 
 run to the window, and found it was just an hour more, and 
 the watchmen were come about, Past four o'clock, and they 
 went away again very quietly ; so I lay me down again, and 
 slept the rest of the night quietly enough. 
 
 I laid no stress upon the thing called a dream, neither tiU 
 now did I understand that dreams were of any importance; 
 but getting up the next day, and going out with a resolution 
 to meet brother WiU, who should I meet but my former bro- 
 ther, captain Jack : when he saw me, he came close to me 
 in his blunt way, and says. Do you hear the news ? No, not 
 I, said I, what news ? Your old comrade and teacher is 
 taken this morning and carried to Newgate. How, says I, 
 this morning ? Yes, says he, this morning, at four o'clock. 
 He is charged with a robbery and murder, somewhere beyond 
 Brentford ; and that which is worse, is, that he is impeached 
 by one of the gang, who, to save his own life, has turned evi- 
 dence ; and therefore you had best consider, says the captain, 
 what you have to do. What I have to do ! says I ; and 
 what do you mean by that ? Nay, colonel, says he, don't be 
 angry, you know best ; if you are not in danger I am glad of 
 it, but I doubt not but you were with them. No, not I, said 
 
328 ' COLONEL JACK. 
 
 I, again : I assure you I was not. Well, says he, but if yoi 
 were not with them this bout, you have been with them at 
 other times ; and 'twill be aU one. Not I, says I, you are 
 quite mistaken, I am none of their gang ; they are above my 
 quality. With such, and a little more talk of that kind, we 
 parted, and Captain Jack went away ; but as he went, I 
 observed he shook his head, seemed to have more concern 
 upon him than he could be supposed to have merely on my 
 account, of which we shall hear more very quickly. 
 
 I was extremely alarmed when I heard Will was in New- 
 gate, and, had I known where to have gone, would certainly 
 have fled as far as legs would have carried me ; my very 
 joints trembled, and I was raady to sink into the ground ; 
 and aU that evening and that night following, I was in the 
 uttermost consternation ; my head run upon nothing but 
 Newgate and the gallows, and being hanged ; which, I said, 
 I deserved, if it were for nothing but taking that two-and- 
 twenty shillings from the poor old nurse. 
 
 The first thing my perplexed thoughts allowed me to take 
 care of was my money. This indeed lay in a little compass, 
 and I carried it generally all about me. I had got together, 
 as you will perceive by the past account, above BOl. (for I 
 spent nothing), and what to do with it I knew not ; at last 
 it came into my head that I would go to my benefactor, the 
 clerk at the custom-house, if he was to be found, and see if I 
 could get him to take the rest of my money : the only busi- 
 ness was to make a plausible story to him, that he might not 
 wonder how I came by so much money. 
 
 But my invention quickly supplied that want ; there was 
 a suit of clothes at one of our houses of rendezvous, which 
 was refnhere for any of the gang to put on,_u£on_£axticular 
 ~^bccasions,_ as a disguise : this was a green hvery, laced with 
 "pink-coloured galloon, and lined with the same; an edged hat, 
 a pair of boots, and a whip. I went and dressed myself up in 
 this livery, and went to my gentleman, to his house in Tower- 
 street, and there I found him in health, and well, just the 
 same honest gentleman as ever. 
 
 He stared at me when first I came to him, for I met him 
 iust at his door ; I say he stared at me, and seeing me bow, 
 and bow to him several times, with my laced hat uuder my 
 arm ; at last, not knowing me in the least, says he to me. 
 Dost thou want to speak with me, young man ? and I said, 
 
INATESTS MOEE MONET WITH HIS BANKEE, 329 
 
 Yes, sir ; I believe your .worship (I had learnt some manners 
 now) does not know me ; I am the poor boy Jack. He 
 looked hard at me, and then recollecting me presently, says 
 he, who, Colonel Jack ! why, where hast thou been all this 
 whUe ? why, 'tis five or six years since I saw you. 'Tis above 
 «ix years, and please your worship, says I. 
 
 Well, and where hast thou been all this while ? says he. 
 
 I have been in the country, sir, says I, at service. 
 
 WeU, Colonel Jack, says he, you give long credit ; what's 
 the reason you han't fetched your money all this while, nor 
 the interest? why, you will grow so rich in time by the 
 interest of your money, you won't know what to do with it. 
 
 To that I said nothing, but bowed and scraped a great 
 many times. WeU, come. Colonel Jack, said he, come in, 
 and I, will give you your money, and the interest of it too. 
 
 I cringed, and bowed, and told him I did not come to him 
 for my money ; for I had had a good place or two, and I 
 did not want my money. 
 
 WeU, Colonel Jack, said he, and who do you Uve with ? 
 
 Sir Jonathan Loxham, said I, sir, in Somersetshire, and 
 please your worship. This was a name I had heard of, but 
 knew nothing of any such gentleman, or of the country. 
 
 WeU, says he, but won't you have your money. Jack ? 
 
 No, sir, said I, if your worship would please, for I have 
 had a good place. 
 
 If I would please to do what, prithee ? Your money is 
 ready, I teU thee. 
 
 No, sir, said I, but I have had a good place. 
 
 WeU, and what dost thou mean. Jack ? I do not under- 
 stand thee. 
 
 Why, and please your worship, my old master. Sir Jona- 
 than's father, left me 30/. when he died, and a suit of mourn- 
 ing, and — 
 
 And what, prithee, Jack? what, hast thou brought me 
 more money? For then he began to understand what I 
 meant. 
 
 Yes, sir, said I, and your worship woidd be so good to 
 take it, and put it aU together ; I have saved some too out of 
 my wages. 
 
 I told you, Jack, says , he, you would be rich ; and how 
 much hast thou saved ? come let me see it. 
 
 To shorten the story, I puUed it out, and he was content 
 
330 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 to take it, giving me his note, with interest, for the whole 
 sum, which amounted to 9il., that is to say, 
 
 251. The first money. 
 
 91. For six years' interest. 
 601. Now paid him. 
 
 94Z. 
 
 I came away exceediiig J03rful, made him abundance of 
 bows and scrapes, and went immediately to shift my clothes 
 again, with a resolution to run away from London, and see 
 it no more for a great whUe ; but I was surprised the very 
 next morning, when, going cross Rosemary-lane, by the end 
 of the place which is called Bag-fair, I heard one call Jack ; 
 he had said something before, which I did not hear, hut 
 upon hearing the name Jack, I looked about me, immediately 
 saw three men, and after them a constable coming towards 
 me with great fury. I was in a great surprise, and started 
 to run, but one of them clapped in upon me, and got hold of 
 me, and in a moment the rest surrounded m&, and I was- 
 taken. I asked them what they wanted, and what I had 
 done ? They told me it was no place to talk of that there ; 
 but showed me their warrant, and bade me read it, and I 
 should know the resfwhen I came before the justice ; so they 
 hurried me away. 
 
 I took the warrant, but to my great affliction, I could 
 know nothing by that, for I could not read ; so I desired 
 them to read it, and they read it, that they were to appre- 
 hend a known thief, that went by the name of one of the 
 three Jacks of Eag-fair ; for that he was charged upon oath 
 with having been a party in a notorious robbery, burglary, 
 and murder, committed so and so, in such a place, and on 
 such a day. 
 
 It was to no purpose for me to deny it, or to say I knew 
 nothing of it, that was none of their business they said ; that 
 must be disputed, they told me, before the justice, where I 
 would find that it was sworn positively against me, and then, 
 perhaps, I might be better satisfied. 
 
 I had no remedy but patience ; and, as my heart was full 
 of terror and guilt, so I was ready to die with the weight of 
 it as they carried me along ; for as I very well knew that I 
 was guUty of the first day's work, though I was not of the 
 
APPREHENDED ON SUSPICION. 331 
 
 last, SO I did not doubt but I should be sent to Newgate, and 
 then I took it for granted I must be hanged ; for to go to 
 Newgate, and to be hanged, were to me as things which 
 necessarily followed one another. 
 
 But I had a sharp conflict to go through before it came to 
 that part; and that was before the justice; where, when I was 
 come, and the constable brought me in, the justice asked me 
 my name ; But hold, says he, young man ; before I ask you 
 your name, let me do you justice ; you are not bound to 
 answer till your accusers come ; so, turning to the constable, 
 he asked for his warrant. 
 
 Well, says the justice, you have brought this young man 
 here by virtue of this warrant; is this young man the person 
 for whom this warrant is granted? 
 
 Con. I believe so, and please your worship. 
 
 Just. Believe so! Why, are you not sure of it? ' 
 
 Con. An't please your worship, the people said so where 
 I took him. 
 
 Just. It is a very particular kind of warrant; it is to 
 apprehend a young man who goes by the name of Jack, but 
 no surname, only that it is said, he is called Captain Jack, 
 or some other such name. Now, young man, pray is your 
 name Captain Jack ? or are you usually called so ? 
 
 I presently found that the men that took me knew nothing 
 of me, and the constable had taken me up by hearsay ; so I 
 took heart, and told the justice, that I thought, with sub- 
 mission, that it was not the present question, what my name 
 was, but what these men or any one else, had to lay to my 
 charge; whether I was the person who the warrant em- 
 powered them to apprehend or no ? 
 
 He smiled ; 'Tis very true, young man, says he, it is very 
 true ; and on my word, if they have taken you up, and do 
 not know you, and there is nobody to charge you, they will 
 be mistaken, to their own damage. 
 
 Then I told his worship, I hoped I should not be obliged 
 to teU my name till my accuser was brought to charge me, 
 and then I should not conceal my name. 
 
 It is but reason, said his worship. Mr. Constable, turning 
 to the officers, are you sure this is the person that is intended 
 in your warrant? If you are not, you must fetch the person 
 that accuses him, and on whose oath the warrant was 
 
332 COLOKEL JACK. 
 
 granted. They used many words to insinuate that I wa| 
 the person, and that I knew it well enough, and that I should 
 be obliged to tell my name. 
 
 I insisted on the unreasonableness of it, and that I should 
 not be obliged to accuse myself; and the justice told them 
 in so many words, that he could not force me to it, that 1 
 might do it if I would, indeed ; but you see, says the justice, 
 he understood too well, to be imposed upon in that case. 
 So that, in short, after an hour's debating before his worship, 
 in which time I pleaded against four of them, the justice 
 told them they must produce the accuser, or he must dis- 
 charge me. 
 
 I was greatly encouraged at this, and argued with the 
 more vigour for myself ; at length the accuser was brought, 
 fettered as he was, from the gaol, and glad I was when I 
 saw him, and found that I knew him not ; that is to say, 
 that it was not one of the two rogues that I went out with 
 that night that we robbed the poor old woman. 
 
 When the prisoner was brought into the room, he was set 
 right against me. 
 
 Do you know this young man, says the justice ? 
 
 No, sir, says the prisoner, I never saw him in my life. 
 
 Hum ! says the justice, did not you charge one that goes 
 by the name of Jack, or Captain Jack, as concerned in the 
 robbery and murder which you are in custody for ? 
 
 Pris. Yes, an't please your worship, says the prisoner. 
 
 Just. And is this the man, or is he not ? 
 
 Pris. This is not the man, sir ; I never saw this man 
 before. 
 
 Very good : Mr. Constable, says the justice. What must 
 we do now ? 
 
 I am surprised, says the constable ; I was at such a house, 
 naming the house, and this young man went by ; the people 
 cried out. There's Jack, that's your man, and these people 
 ran after him, and apprehended him. 
 
 Well, says the justice, and have these people anything to 
 say to him ? can they prove that he is the person ? 
 
 One said no, and the other said no ; and, in short, they all 
 said no. Why then, said the justice, what can be done ? the 
 young man must be discharged ; and I must tell you, Mr. 
 Constable, and you gentlemen, that have brought him hither, 
 
HONOtniABLT ACQUITTED. 333 
 
 he may give you trouble if he thinks fit, for your being so 
 rash. But look you, young man, says the justice, you have 
 no great damage done you, and the constable, though he has 
 been mistaken, had no ill design, but to be faithful to his 
 office ; I think you may pass it by. 
 
 I told his worship, I would readily pass it by at his direc- 
 tion ; but I thought the constable and the rest could do no 
 less than to go back to the place where they had insulted me, 
 and declare publicly there that I was honourably acquitted, 
 and that I was not the man. This his worship said was very 
 reasonable, and the constable and his assistants promised to 
 do it, and so we came aU away good friends, and I was 
 cleared with triumph. 
 Note. — This was the time that, as I mentioned above, the 
 justice talked to me, and told me I was born to better 
 things, and that by my well managing of my own de- 
 fence, he did not question but I had been well educated ; 
 and that he was sorry I should fall into such a misfortune 
 as this, which he hoped however would be no dis- 
 honour to me, since I was so handsomely acquitted. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 I VISIT WILL, MT TUTOR IN WICKEDNESS, IN NEWGATE — HE 
 
 IS EXECUTED CAPTAIN JACK PROPOSES TO ME TO FLY 
 
 INTO SCOTLAND 1 RETURN THE POOR OLD WOMAN THE 
 
 MONEY I HAD FORMERLY ROBBED HER OF CAPTAIN JACK 
 
 AND I SET OUT ON OL[R JOURNEY NORTH ^THE CAPTAIn'S 
 
 ROGUERIES, AND VARIOUS ADVENTURES ON THE ROAD. 
 
 Though his worship was mistaken in the matter of my 
 education, yet it had this good effect upon me, that I resolved, 
 if possible, I would learn to read and write, that I would not 
 be such an uncapable creature, that I should not be able to 
 read a warrant, and see whether I was the person to be 
 apprehended or not. 
 
 But there was something more in all this than what I have 
 taken notice of; for, in a word, it appeared plainly, that my 
 brother Captain Jack, who had the forwardness to put it to 
 me, whether I was among them or no ? when in truth he waa 
 
334 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 there himself, had the only reason to be afraid to fly, at tha 
 same time that he advised me to shift for myself. 
 
 As this presently occurred to my thoughts, so I made it 
 my business to inquire and find him out, and to give him 
 notice of it. 
 
 In the mean time, being now confident of my own safety, 
 I had no more concern upon my mind about myself; but now 
 I began to be anxious for poor Will, my master and tutor in 
 wickedness, who was now fast by the heels in Newgate, whUe 
 I was happily at liberty, and I wanted very much to go and 
 see him, and accordingly did so. 
 
 I found him in a sad condition, loaden with heavy irons, 
 and had himself no prospect or hope of escaping ; he told me 
 he should die, but bid me be easy ; for, as it would do him 
 no good to accuse me, who never was out with any of them 
 but that once, so I might depend upon it, he would not bring 
 me into the trouble ; as for the rogue who had betrayed 
 them all, he was not able to hurt me, for I might be satisfied 
 he had never seen me in his life ; but, Colonel Jack, says he, 
 I will teU you who was vrith us, and that is, your brother the 
 captain, and the villain has certainly named him ; and, there- 
 fore, says he, if you can give him timely notice of it, do, that 
 he may make his escape. 
 
 He said a great many things to warn me of follovnng the 
 steps he had led me. I was fer out. Jack, said he, when I 
 told you, to be a notorious thief was to live like a gentleman. 
 He chiefly discovered his concern that they had, as he feared, 
 killed the gentleman's gardener, and that he in particular 
 had given him a wound in the neck, of which he was afraid 
 he would die. 
 
 He had a great sum of money in gold about him, being 
 the same that I had carried back to him at the haystack ; 
 and he had concealed it so well, that those who took him had 
 not found it, and he gave me the greatest part of it to carry 
 to his mother, which I very honestly delivered, and came 
 away with a heavy heart : nor did I ever see him since, for 
 he was executed in about three weeks' time after, being con- 
 demned that very next sessions. 
 
 I had nothing to do now but to find the captain, who, 
 though not without some trouble, I at last got news of, and 
 told him the whole story, and how I had been taken up for 
 
PEEPAEES TO GO TO SCOTtAND. 835 
 
 Ilim by mistake, and was come off, but that the warrant was 
 still out for him, and very strict search after him ; I say, 
 telling him all this, he presently discovered by his surprise 
 that he was guilty, and after a few words more, told me 
 plainly it was all true, that he was in the robbery ; and that 
 he had the greatest part of the booty in keeping, but what to 
 do with it, or himself, he did not know ; and wanted me to 
 tell him, which I was very unfit to do, for I knew nothing of 
 the world. Then he told me he had a mind to fly into Scot- 
 land, which was easy to be done, and asked me if I would go 
 with him. I told him I would with all my heart, if I had 
 money enough to bear the charge. He had the trade still in 
 his eyes by his answer ; I warrant you, says he, we will make 
 the jouroey pay our charge. I dare not think of going any 
 more upon the adventure, says I ; besides, if we meet with 
 any misfortune, out of our knowledge, we shall never get out 
 of it, we shall be undone. Nay, says he, we shall find no 
 mercy here, if they can catch us, and they can do no worse 
 abroad ; I am for venturing at all events. 
 
 Well, but captain, says I, have you husbanded your time 
 so iU that you have no money to supply you in such a time 
 as this ? I have very little indeed, said he, for I have had 
 bad luck lately. But he Ued, for he had a great share of the 
 booty they had got at their last adventure, as above; and, as 
 the rest complained, he and Will had got almost aU of it, and 
 kept the rest out of their shares, which made them the will- 
 inger to discover them. 
 
 However it was, he owned he had about 22Z. in money, 
 and something that would yield money ; I suppose it was 
 plate ; but he would not tell me what it was, or where it 
 was, but he said he durst not go to fetch it, for he should be 
 betrayed and seized, so he would venture without it ; sure, 
 says he, we shall come back again some time or other. 
 
 I honestly produced all the money I had, which was 161. 
 and some odd shillings. Now, says I, if we are good hus- 
 bands, and travel frugally, this will carry us quite out of 
 danger ; for we had both been assured, that when we came 
 out of England, we should be both safe, and nobody could 
 hurt us, though they had known us ; but we neither of us 
 thought it was so many weary steps to Scotland as we found 
 
 it. 
 
 I speak of myself as in the same circumstances of danger 
 
336 • COLONEL JACK. 
 
 with brother Jack ; but it was only thus : I was in as much 
 fear as he, but not in quite as much danger. 
 
 I cannot omit, that, in the interval of these things, and a 
 few days before I carried my money to the gentleman in 
 Tower-street, 1 took a walk all alone into the fields, in order 
 to go to Kentish-town, and do justice to the poor old nurse ; 
 it happened that before I was aware, I crossed a field that 
 came to the very spot where I robbed the poor old woman 
 and the maid, or where, I should say, WiQ made me rob 
 them ; my heart had reproached me many a time with that 
 cruel action, and many a time I promised to myself, that I 
 would find a way to make her satisfaction, and restore hei 
 money, and that day I had set apart for the work ; but was 
 a little surprised that I was so suddenly upon thS unhappy 
 spot. 
 
 The place brought to my mind the viUany I had committed 
 there, and something struck me with a kind of wish, I cannot 
 say prayer, for I knew not what that meant, that I might 
 leave off that cursed trade, and said to myself, O ! that I had 
 some trade to live by ; I would never rob no more, for sure 
 'tis a wicked, abominable thing. 
 
 Here indeed I felt the loss of what just parents do, and 
 ought to do, by all their children : I mean, being bred to some 
 trade or employment ; and I wept many times, that I knew 
 not what to do, or what to turn my hand to, though I re- 
 solved to leave off the wicked course I was in. 
 
 But, to return to my journey, I asked my way to Kentish- 
 town, and it happened to be of a poor woman that said she 
 lived there ; upon which intelligence, I asked if she knew a 
 woman that lived there, whose name was Smith ? She an- 
 swered. Yes, very well, that she was not a settled inhabitant, 
 only a lodger in the town, but that she was an honest, poor, 
 industrious woman, and, by her labour and pains, maintained 
 a diseased husband, that had been unable to help himself 
 some years. 
 
 What a villain have I been, said I to myself, that I should 
 rob such a poor woman as this, and add grief and tears to 
 her misery, and to the sorrows of her house ! This quick- 
 ened my resolution to restore her money, and liot only so, but 
 I resolved I would give her something, over and above her 
 loss ; so I went forward, and by the direction I had received, 
 found her lodging with very little trouble ; then asking for 
 
KETUENS TWO POOK WOMEN THEIR MONET. 337 
 
 the woman, she came to the door immediately, for she heard me 
 ask for her by her name of a little girl that came first to the 
 door. I presently spoke to her : Dame, said I, was not you 
 robbed about a year ago, as you was coming home from Lon- 
 don, about Pindar of Wakefield 1 Yes, indeed I was, says 
 she, and sadly frighted into the bargain. And how much 
 did you lose ? said I. Indeed, says she, I lost all the money 
 I had in the world ; I am sure 1 worked hard for it, it was 
 money for keeping a nurse-child that I had then, and I had 
 been at London to receive it. But how much was it, dame ? 
 said L Why, says she, it was 22s. 6|rf. ; 21a. I had been 
 to fetch, and the odd money was my own before. 
 
 Well, look you, good woman, what will you say if I should 
 put you in a way to get your money again ; for I believe the 
 fellow that took it is fast enough now, and perhaps I may do 
 you a kindness in it, and for that I came to see you. O dear! 
 says the old woman, I understand you, but indeed I cannot 
 swear to the man's face again ; for it was dark, and beside, 
 I would not hang the poor wretch for my money ; let him 
 live and repent. That is very kind, says I, more than he de- 
 serves from you ; but you need not be concerned about that, 
 for he will be hanged whether you appear against him or 
 not ; but are you willing to have your money again that you 
 lost? Yes, indeed, says the woman, I should be glad of that, 
 for I. have not been so hard put to it for money a great while 
 as I am now ; I have much ado to find us bread to eat, 
 though I work hard early and late; and with that she cried. 
 
 I thought it would have broken my very heart, to think 
 how this poor creature worked, and was a slave at near three- 
 score, and that I, a young fellow of hardly twenty, should 
 rob her of her bread to support my idleness and wicked life; 
 and the tears came from my eyes in spite of all my struggling 
 to prevent it, and the woman perceived it too. Poor woman, 
 said I, 'tis a sad thing such creatures as these should plunder 
 and strip such a poor object as thou art ! Well, he is at leisure 
 now to repent it, I assure you. I perceive, sir, says she, you 
 are veiy compassionate indeed; I wish he may improve the 
 time God has spared him, and that he may repent, and I 
 pray God give him repentance; whoever he is, I forgive him, 
 whether he can make me recompense or not, and I pray God 
 forgive him : I won't do him any prejudice, not L And with 
 that she went on praying for me. 
 
338 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 Well, dame, come Hther to me, says I ; and with that I 
 put my hand into my pocket, and she came to me. Hold up 
 your hand, said I ; which she did, and I told her nine half- 
 crowns into her hand. There, dame, said I, is your 22s. 6d 
 you lost ; I assure you, dame, said I, I have been the chief 
 instrument to get it of him for you ; for, ever since he told 
 me the story of it among the rest of his wicked exploits, I 
 never gave him any rest tUl I made him promise me to 
 make yon restitution. All the whUe I held her hand and. 
 put the money into it, I looked in her face, and I perceived 
 her colour come and go,, and, that she was under the greatest 
 surprise of joy imaginable. 
 
 Well, God bless him, says she, and spare him from the 
 disaster he is afraid of, if it be his -ndU ; for sure, this is an act 
 of so much justice, and so honest, that I never expected the 
 like. She run on a great while so, and wept for him, when 
 I told her I doubted there was no room to expect his life. 
 Well, says she, then pray God give him repentance, and 
 bring him to heaven, for sure he must have something that 
 is good at the bottom ; he has a principle of honesty at bot- 
 tom to be sure, however he may have been brought into bad 
 courses, by bad company or evil example, or other temptations ; 
 but I dare say he will be brought to repentance one time or 
 other before he dies. 
 
 All this touched me nearer than she imagined : for I was 
 the man that she prayed for aU this while, though she did 
 not know it, and in my heart I said amen to it ; for I was 
 sensible that I had done one of the -^ilest actions in the world, 
 in attacking a poor creature in such a condition, and not 
 listening to her entreaties, when she begged so heartily for 
 that little money we took from her. 
 
 In a word, the good woman so moved me with her chari- 
 table prayers, that I put my hand in my pocket again for her ; 
 Dame, said I, you are so charitable in your petitions for this 
 miserable creature, that it puts me in mind of one thing more 
 which I will do for him, whether he ordered me or not ; and 
 that is, to ask you forgiveness for the thief in robbing you ; 
 for it was an offence, and a trespass against you, as well as 
 an injury t-o you ; and therefore I ask your pardon for him : 
 will you sincerely and heartily forgive him, Dame ? I do 
 desire of you ; and with that I stood up, and, with my hat 
 off, asked her pardon. ! sir, says she, dc not stand up, 
 
WALK FROM LONDON TO WARE. 339 
 
 and with your hat off to me ! I am a poor woman, I forgive 
 him, and all that were with Mm ; for there was one or more 
 with him ; I forgive them with all my heart, and I pray God. 
 to forgive them. 
 
 "Well, dame, then, said I, to make you some recompenso 
 for your charity, there is something for you more than your 
 loss ; and with that I gave her a crown more. 
 
 Then I asked her who that was who was robbed with her ? 
 She said it was a servant-maid that lived then in the town, 
 but she was gone from her place, and she did not know where 
 she lived now. Well, dame, says I, if ever you do hear of 
 her, let her leave word where she may be found ; and if I live 
 to come and see you again, I will get the money of him for 
 her too : I think that was but little, was it ? No, says she, 
 it was but 5s. 6d., which I knew as well as she. Well, says 
 I, dame, inquire her out if you have an opportunity ; so she 
 promised me she would, and away I came. 
 
 The satisfaction this gave me was very much ; but then a 
 natural consequence attended it, which filled me with reflec- 
 tion afterwards ; and this was, that, by the same rule, I ought 
 to make restitution to all that I had wronged, in the lIEe'man- f i 
 " ^ner ; and what could I do as to that? To this I knew not 
 what to say, and so the thought in time wore off; for, in 
 short, it was impossible to be done. I had not ability, 
 neither did I know any of the people whom I had so injured ; 
 and that satisfying me for the present, I let it drop. 
 
 I come now to my journey with Captain Jack, my supposed 
 brother. We set out from London on foot, and travelled the 
 first day to Ware, for we had learnt so much of our road, 
 that the way lay through that town ; we were weary enough 
 the first day, having not been used at all to travelling ; but 
 we made shift to walk once up and down the town, after we 
 came into it. 
 
 I soon found that his walking out to see the town was not 
 to satisfy his curiosity in viewing the place, for he had no 
 notion of anything of that kind ; but to see if he could light 
 of any purchase ; for .he was so natural a thief that he could 
 see nothing on the road, but it occurred to him how easily 
 that might be taken, and how cleverly this might be carried 
 off, and the like. 
 
 Nothing offered in Ware to his mind, it not being market 
 day ; and as for me, though I made no great scruple of eatmg 
 
 z 2 
 
340 COLOKEL JACK. 
 
 and drinking at the cost of his roguery, yet I resolved not to 
 enter upon anything, as they called it, nor to take the least 
 .thing from anybody. 
 
 When the captain found me resolved upon the negative, he 
 asked me how I thought to travel ? I asked him what he 
 thought of himself, that was sure to be hanged if he was 
 taken, how small soever the crime was that he should he 
 taken for. How can that be ? says he ; they don't know me 
 in the country. Ay, says I, but do you think they do not 
 send up word to Newgate as soon as any thief Is taken in the 
 country, and so inquire who is escaped from them, or who is 
 fled, that they may be stopped ? Assure yourself, says I, the 
 gaolers correspond with one another, with the greatest exact- 
 ness imaginable ; and if you were taken here but for stealing 
 a basket of eggs, you shall have your accuser sent down to 
 see if he knows you. 
 
 This terrified him a little for awhile, and kept him honest 
 for three or four days ; but it was but for a few days indeed, 
 for he played a great many rogue's tricks without me, till at 
 last he came to his end without me too, though it was not tiU 
 many years after, as you shall hear in its order ; but as these 
 exploits are no part of my story, but of his, whose life and 
 exploits are sufficient to make a volume larger than this, by 
 itself; so I shall omit everything but what I was particularly 
 concerned in, during this^edious journey. 
 
 From "Ware we travelled^to Cambridge, though that was 
 not our direct road ; the occasion was this ; in our way, 
 going through a village called Puckeridge, we baited at an 
 inn, at the sign of the Falcon, and while we were there, a 
 countryman comes to the inn, and hangs his horse at the 
 door, while he goes in to drink ; we sat in the gateway, 
 having called for a mug of beer, and drank it up. We had 
 been talking with the hostler about the way to Scotland, and 
 he had bid us ask the road to Royston ; But, says he, there is 
 a turning just here a little farther, you must not go that way, 
 for that goes to Cambridge. 
 
 We had paid for our beer, and sat at the door only to rest 
 us, when on the sudden comes a gentleman's coach to the 
 door, and three or four horsemen ; the horsemen rode into 
 the yard, and the hostler Was obliged to go in with them; 
 says he to the captain. Young man, pray take hold of the 
 horse (meaning the countryman's horse I mentioned above), 
 
STEAL A HOKSE AT PUCKEEIDGB. 341 
 
 and take Mm out of the way, that the coach may come up. 
 He did so, and beckoned me to follow him ; we walked to- 
 gether to the turning : says he to me. Do you step before and 
 turn up the lane, I'll overtake you ; so I went on up the lane, 
 and in a few minutes he was got up upon the horse and at 
 my heels. Come, get up, says he, we wiU have a lift, if we 
 don't get the horse by the bargain. 
 
 I made no difficulty to get up behind him, and away we 
 went at a good round rate, it being a good strong horse. ^ 
 We lost no time for an hour's riding and more, by which 
 time we thought we were out of the reach of being pursued ; 
 and as the- countrymen, when he should miss his horse, would 
 hear that we inquired the way to Royston, he would certainly 
 pursue us that way, and not towards Cambridge. We went 
 easier after the first hour's riding, and, coming through a 
 town or two, we alighted by turns, and did not ride double 
 through the villages. 
 
 Now, as it was impossible for the captain to pass by any- 
 thing that he could lay his hand on, and not take it, so now 
 having a horse to carry it off too, the temptation was the 
 stronger. Going through a village, where a good housewife 
 of the house had been washing, and hung her clothes out 
 upon a hedge near the road, he could not help it, but got 
 hold of a couple of good shirts, that were about half dry, 
 and overtook me upon the spur, for I walked on before ; I 
 immediately got up behind, and away we galloped together 
 as fast as the horse could well go. In this part of our expe- 
 dition, his good luck or mine, carried us quite out of the 
 road ; and having seen none to ask the way of, we lost our- 
 selves, and wandered I know not how many miles to the 
 right hand, tiU, partly by that means, and partly by the 
 occasion following, we came quite into the coach road to 
 Cambridge, :from London, by Bishop-Stratford. The parti- 
 cular occasion that made me wander on was thus; the 
 country was all open corn-fields, no enclosures ; when, being 
 upon a little rising ground, I bade him stop the horse, for I 
 would get down, and walk a little to ease my legs, being 
 tired with riding so long behind without stirrups ; when I 
 was down and looked a little about me, I saw plainly the 
 great white road, which we should have gone, at near two 
 miles from us. 
 
 On a sudden, looking a little back to my left, upon that 
 
342 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 road, I saw four or five horsemen, riding full speefl, some a 
 good way before the other, and hurrying on, as people in a 
 full pursuit. 
 
 It immediately struck me ; Ha ! brother Jack, says I, get 
 off the horse this moment, and ask why afterwards ; so he 
 jumps off: "What is the matter ? says he: The matter, says 
 I, look yonder, it is well we have lost our way ; do you see 
 how they ride ? they are pursuing us, you may depend upon 
 it; either, says I, you are pursued from the last village for 
 the two shirts, or from Puckeridge for the horse. He had 
 so much presence of mind, that without my mentioning it to 
 him, he puts back the horse behind a great white thorn-bush, 
 which grew just by him ; so they could by no means see the 
 horse, which, we being just at the top of the hiU, they 
 might otherwise have done, and so have pursued that way at 
 a venture. 
 
 But as it was impossible for them to see the horse, so was 
 it as impossible for them to see us at that distance, who sat 
 down on the ground to look at them the more securely. 
 
 The road winding about, we saw them a great way, and 
 they rode as fast as they could make their horses go. When 
 we found they were gone quite out of sight, we mounted, and 
 made the best of our way also ; and indeed, though we were 
 two upon one horse, yet we abated no speed where the 
 way would admit of it, not inquiring of anybody the way to 
 anywhere, till, after about two hours' riding, we came to a 
 town, which, upon inquiry, they called Chesterford; and 
 here we stopped, and asked not our way to any place, but 
 whither that road went, and were told it was the coach road 
 to Cambridge ; also that it was the way to Newmarket, to 
 St. Edmund's-bury, to Norwich and Yarmouth, to Lynn, 
 and to Ely, and the like. 
 
 We stayed here a good whUe, believing ourselves secure ; 
 and afterwards, towards evening, went forward to a place 
 called Bournbridge, where the road to Cambridge turns 
 away out of the road to Newmarket, and where there are 
 but two houses only, both of them being inns. Here the 
 captain says to me. Hark ye, you see we are pursued towards 
 Cambridge, and shall be stopped if we go thither ; now New- 
 market is but ten miles off, and there we may be safe, and 
 perhaps get an opportunity to do some business. 
 
 Look ye. Jack, said I talk no more of doing business, for 
 
PURSUED ON THE EOAD TO CAMBETPGE. 343 
 
 I will not join with you in anything of that kind ; I would 
 fain get you to Scotland, before you get a halter about your 
 neck ; I will not have you hanged in England, it I can help 
 it, and therefore I won't go to Newmarket, unless you will 
 promise me to take no false steps there. Well, says he, if I 
 must not, then I won't ; but I hope you will let us get ■ 
 another horse, won't you, that we may travel faster 1 No, 
 says I, I won't agree to that ; but if you will let me send this 
 horse back fairly, I wiU tell you how we shall hire horses 
 . afterwards, for one stage, or two, and then take them as far as 
 we please : it is only sending a letter to the owner to send for 
 him, and then, if we are stopped, it can do us but little hurt. 
 
 You are a wary, pohtic gentleman, says the captain, but I 
 say we are better as we are ; for we are out of all danger of 
 being stopped on the way, after we are gone from this place. 
 
 "We had not parleyed thus long, but, though in the dead 
 of the night, came a man to the other inn door; for, as I said 
 above, there are two inns at that place, and called for a pot 
 of beer, but the people were all in bed, and would not rise ; 
 he asked them if they had seen two fellows come that way 
 'upon one horse. The man said he had, that they went 
 by in the afternoon, and asked the way to Cambridge, but 
 did not stop only to drink one mug. O ! says he, are they 
 gone to Cambridge? Then I'll be with them quickly. I 
 was awake in a little garret of the next inn, where we 
 lodged ; and hearing the feUow call at the door, got up, and 
 went' to the window, having some uneasiness at every noise 
 I heard ; and by that means heard the whole story. Now, 
 the case is plain, our hour was not come, our fate had deter- 
 mined other things for us, and we were to be reserved for it ; 
 the matter was thus : when we first came to Boumbridge, 
 we called at the first house, and asked the way to Cam- 
 bridge, drank a mug of beer, and went on, and they might 
 see us turn off to go the way they directed ; but, night 
 coming on, and we being very weary, we thought we should 
 not find the way; and we came back in the dusk of the 
 evening, and went into the other house, being the first as 
 we came back, as that, where we called before, was the first 
 as we went forward. 
 
 You may be sure I was alarmed now, as indeed I had 
 reason to be. The captain was in bed, and fast asleep, but 
 I wakened him, and roused him with a noise that frighted 
 
344 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 him enough; Rise, Jack, said I, we are both ruined, they 
 are come after us hither. Indeed, I was wrong to terrify 
 him at that rate ; for he started, and jumped out of bed, and 
 run directly to the window, not knowing where he was, and, 
 not quite awake, was just going to jump out of the window, 
 but I laid hold of him ; What are you going to do ? says I ; 
 I won't be taken, says he ; let me alone, where are they? 
 
 This was all confusion ; and he was so out of himself with 
 the fright, and being overcome with sleep, that I had much 
 to do to prevent his jumping out of the window. However, I 
 held him fast, and thoroughly wakened him, and then all 
 was well again, and he was presently composed. 
 
 Then I told him the story, and we sat together upon the 
 bed-side, considering what we should do ; upon the whole, 
 as the fellow that called was apparently gone to Cambridge, 
 we had nothing to fear, but to be quiet till daybreak, and 
 then to mount and be gone. 
 
 Accordingly, as soon as day peeped we were up ; and 
 having halppily informed ourselves of the road at the other 
 house, and being told that the road to Cambridge turned off 
 on the left hand, and that the road to Newmarket lay 
 straight forward ; I say, having learnt this, the captain told 
 me he would walk away on foot towards Newmarket ; and 
 so, when I came to go out, I should appear as a single tra- 
 veller ; and accordingly he wef.-'t out immediately, and away 
 he walked, and he travelled so hard, that when I came to 
 follow, I thought once that b» had dropped me, for, though 
 I rode hard, I got no sight of him for an hour. At length, 
 having passed the great bank, called the devil's ditch, I 
 found him, and took him up beliind me, and we rode double 
 till we came almost to the end of Newmarket town. Just 
 at the hither house in the town stood a horse at a door, 
 just as it was at Puckeridge. Now, says Jack, if the horse 
 was at the other end of the town, I would have him, as sure 
 as we had the other at Puckeridge ; but it would not do ; so 
 he got down, and walked through the town on the i-ight hand 
 side of the way. 
 
 He had not got half through the tcjwn, but the horse, 
 having some how or other got loose, came trotting gently 
 on by himself, and nobody following him. The captain, an 
 old soldier at such work, as soon as the horse was got a 
 pretty way before him, and that he saw nobody followed. 
 
STEAL ANOTHER HOESE AT NEWMAEKET. 845 
 
 Bets up a run after the horse, and the horse hearing him 
 follow, ran the faster ; then the captain calls out, " Stop the 
 horse !" and by this time the horse was got almost to the 
 iarther end of the town ; the people of the house where he 
 stood not missing him all the while. 
 
 Upon his calling out "Stop the horse !" the poor people of 
 the town, such as were next at hand, ran from both sides 
 the way, and stopped the horse for him, as readily as could 
 be, and held him for him till he came up ; he very gravely 
 comes up to the horse, hits him a blow or two, and calls him 
 dog for running away ; gives the man tw.opence that catched 
 Mm for him, mounts, and away he comes after me. 
 
 This was the oddest adventure that could have happened, 
 for the horse stole the cap tain, the cg ptein did not steal the 
 TioiSe. When he came up to me. Now, Colonel Jack, says 
 Te, wEat say you to good luck? would you have had me 
 refused the horse, when he came so civilly to ask me to ride ? 
 No, no, said I, you have got this horse by your wit, not by 
 design ; and you may go on now I think ; you are in a safer 
 condition than I am, if we are taken. 
 
 The next question was, what road we should take ? here 
 were four ways before us, and we were alike strangers to 
 them all ; first, on the right hand, and at a little mile from 
 the town, a great road went off to St. Edmund's-bury ; 
 straight on, but inclining afterwards to the right, lay the 
 great road to Barton Mills, and Thetford, and so to Nor- 
 wich ; and fuU before us lay a great road also to Brandon 
 and Lynn, and on the left, lay a less road to the city of Ely, 
 and into the fens. 
 
 ' In short, as we knew not which road to take, nor which 
 way to get into the great north road, which we had left, so 
 we, by mere unguided chance took the way to Brandon, and 
 so to Lynn. At Brand, or Brandon, we were told, that, 
 passing over at a place called Downham-bridge, we might 
 cross the fen country to Wisbeach; and from thence go 
 along the bank of the river Nyne to Peterborough, and from 
 thence to Stamford where we were in the northern road 
 again ; and likewise, that at Lynn we might go by the washes 
 into Lincolnshire, and so might travel north. But, upon the 
 whole, this was my rule, that, when we inquired the way to 
 any particular place, to be sure we never took the road, but 
 some other, which the accidental discourse we might hav« 
 
346 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 should bring in ; and thus we did here ; for, having chiefly 
 asked our way into the northern road, we resolved to go 
 directly for Lynn. 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 FiniTHEE ADVENTURES — THEEE IS NO PREVENTING MY COM- 
 RADE FROM EXERCISING HIS TRADE OF A THIEF WE 
 
 WITNESS A WHIPPING IN EDINBURGH ^THE CAPTAIN 
 
 TAKES FRENCH LEAVE 1 RETURN MT HORSE TO THE 
 
 PERSON FROM WHOM IX WAS STOLEN LEARN TO READ 
 
 AND WRITE ^I AM HIRED AND CEGBATED BT A- SCOTTISH 
 
 MASTER MEET WITH THE CAPTAIN AGAIN 1 ENLIST 
 
 FOE A SOLDIER WE DESERT ADVENTURES THEREUPON. 
 
 We arrived here very easy and safe, and while we were con- 
 sidering of what way we should travel next, we found we 
 were got to a point, and that there was no way now leftj but 
 that by the washes into Lincolnshire, and that was repre- 
 sented as very dangerous ; so an opportunity offering of a 
 man that was travelling over the fens, we took him for our 
 guide, and went with him to Spalding, and from thence to a 
 town called Deeping, and so to Stamford in Lincolnshire. 
 
 This is a large populous town, and it was market-day when 
 we came to it ; so we put in at a little house at the hither 
 end of the town, and walked into the town. 
 
 Here it was not possible to restrain my captain from play- 
 ing his feats of art, and my heart ached for him; I told him 
 I would not go with him, for he would not promise to leave 
 off, Und I was so terribly concerned at the apprehensions of 
 bis venturous humour, that I would not so much as stir out 
 of my lodging ; but it was in vain to persuade him. He went 
 into the market, and found a mountebank there, which was 
 what he wanted. How he picked two pockets there in one 
 quarter of an hour, and brought to our quarters a piece of 
 new holland of eight or nine ells, a piece of stuff, and played 
 three or four pranks more in less than two hours ; and how 
 afterward he robbed a doctor of physic, and yet came off clear in 
 them ; all this, I say, as above, belongs to his story, not mine. 
 
 I scolded heartily at him when he came back, and told him 
 he would certainly ruin himself, -and me too, before he left 
 
JOUENET ON TO GEANTHAM AND NEWAEK, 347 
 
 off, and threatened in so many words, that I would leave 
 him, and go back, and carry the horse to Puckeridge, where 
 we borrowed it, and so go to London by myself. 
 
 He promised amendment; but, as we resolved (now we 
 were in the great road) to travel by night, so it being not yet 
 night, he gives me the slip again ; and was not gone half an 
 hour, but he comes back with a gold watch in his hand : 
 Come, says he, why an't you ready ? I am ready to go as 
 soon as you will ; and with that he pulls out the gold watch. 
 I was amazed at such a thing as that in a country town; but 
 it seems there were prayers at one of the churches in the 
 evening, and he, placing himself as the occasion directed, 
 found the way to be so near a lady as to get it from her side, 
 and walked off with it unperceived. 
 
 The same night we went away, by moonlight, after having 
 the satisfaction to hear the watch cried, and ten guineas 
 offered for it again ; he would have been glad of the ten 
 guineas instead of the watch ; but durst hot venture carry it 
 home. Well, says I, you are afraid, and indeed you have 
 reason ; give it me, I will venture to carry it again ; but he 
 would not let me ; but told me, that when he came into 
 Scotland we might sell anything there without danger, which 
 was true indeed, for there they asked us no questions. 
 
 We set out, as I said, in the evening by moonlight, and 
 travelled hard, the road being very plain and large, till we 
 came to Grantham, by which time it was about two in the 
 morning, and all the town, as it were, dead asleep ; so we 
 went on for Newark, where we reached about eight in the 
 morning, and there we lay down and slept most of the day ; 
 and by this sleeping so continually in the day-time, I kept 
 him from doing a great deal of mischief, which he would 
 otherwise have done. 
 
 From Newark, we took advice of one that was accident- 
 ally comparing the roads, and we concluded that the road by 
 Nottingham would be the best for us ; so we turned out of the 
 great road, and went up the side of the Trent to Nottingham. 
 Here he played his pranks again in a manner, that it was the 
 greatest wonder imaginable to me that he was not surprised, 
 and yet he came off clear ; and now he had got so many 
 bulky goods, that he bought him a portmanteau to carry 
 them in. It was in vain for me to offer to restrain him any 
 more ; so after this he went on his own way. 
 
348 COLONEL JACK, 
 
 At Nottingham, I say, he had such success as made us 
 the hastier to be going than otherwise we would have been, 
 lest we should have been baulked, and should be laid hold of; 
 from thence we left the road, which leads to the north again, 
 went away by Mansfield, into Scarsdale in Yorkshire. 
 
 I shall take up no more of my own story with his pranks ; 
 they very well merit to be told by themselves, but I shall 
 observe only what relates to our journey. In a word, I 
 dragged him along as fast as I could, till I came to Leeds in 
 Yorkshire. Here, though it be a large and populous town, 
 yet he could make nothing of it, neither had he any success 
 at Wakefield ; and he told me, in short, that the north-coun- 
 try people were certainly all thieves. Why so ? said I, the 
 people seem to be just as other people are : No, no, says he, 
 they have their eyes so about them, and are aU so sharp, they 
 look upon everybody that comes near them to be a pick- 
 pocket, or else they would never stand so upon their guard ; 
 and then again, says he, they are so poor, there is but little 
 to be got ; and I am a&aid, says he, the farther we go north, 
 we shall find it worse. Well, said I, what do you infer from 
 thence? I argue from thence, says he, that we shall do 
 nothing there, and I had as good go back into the south and 
 be hanged, as into the north to be starved. 
 
 Well, we came at length to Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Here, 
 on a market-day, was a great throng of people, and several 
 of the townspeople going to market to buy provisions ; and 
 here he played his pranks, cheated a shopkeeper of 151. or 
 161. in goods, and got clear away with them; stole a horse, 
 and sold that he came upon, and played so many pranks that 
 I was quite frighted for him ; I say for him, for I was not 
 concerned for myself, having never stirred out of the house 
 where I lodged, at least not with him, nor without some 
 or other with me belonging to the inn, that might give an 
 account of me. 
 
 Nor did I use this caution in vain ; for he had made him- 
 self so public by his rogueries, that he was waylaid every- 
 where to be taken, and had he not artfully first given out 
 that he was come from Scotland, and was going toward 
 London, inquiring that road, and the like, which amused his 
 pursuers for the first day, he had been taken, and in all 
 probability had been hanged there ; but, by that artifice, he 
 got half a day's time of them ; and yet, as it was, he was 
 
CEOSSES THE TWEED AT KELSO. 849 
 
 put SO to it, that he was fain to plunge, horse and all, into 
 the river Tweed, and swim over, and thereby made his 
 escape. It was true that he was before upon Scots' ground 
 (as they call it), and consequently they had no power to have 
 carried him off, if anybody had opposed them ; yet, as they 
 were in a fuU chase after him, could they have come up 
 with him, they would have run the risk of the rest, ajid they 
 could but have deUvered him up, if they had been questioned 
 about it. However, as he got over the Tweed, and was 
 landed safe, they could neither follow him, the water being 
 too high at the usual place of going over, nor could they 
 have attempted to have brought him away if they had taken 
 him. The place where he took the river was where there is 
 a ford below Kelso, but, the water being up, the ford was 
 not passable, and he had no time to go to the ferry-boat, 
 which is about a furlong off, opposite to the town. 
 
 Having thus made his escape, he went to Kelso, wher» 
 he had appointed me to come after him. 
 
 I foUowed with a heavy heart, expecting every hour to 
 meet him upon the road in the custody of the constables, 
 and such people, or to hear of him in the gaol ; but when I 
 came to a place on the border, called WoUer-haugh-head, 
 there I understood how he had been chased, and how he 
 made his escape. 
 
 When I came to Kelso, he was, easy enough to be found ; 
 for his having desperately swam the Tweed, a rapid and 
 large river, made him much talked of, though it seems they 
 had not heard of the occasion of it, nor anything of his 
 character ; for he had wit enough to conceal all that, and 
 live as retired as he could tiU I came to him. 
 
 I was not so much rejoiced at his safety, as I was provoked 
 at his conduct ; and the more, for that I could not find he 
 had yet the least notion of his having been void of common 
 sense with respect to his circumstances, as well as contrary 
 to what he promised me. However, as there was no beating 
 anything into his head by words, I only told him, that I was 
 glad he was at last gotten into a place of safety, and I asked 
 him then how he intended to manage himself in that country? 
 He said in a few words, he did not know yet, he doubted 
 the people were very poor ; but if they had any money he 
 was resolved to have some of it. 
 
 But do you know too, says I, that they are the severest 
 
350 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 people upon criminals of your kind in the world? He did 
 not value that, he said, in his blunt short way, he would 
 venture it ; upon this, I told him that, seeing it was so, and 
 he would run such ventures, I would take my leave of him, 
 and be gone back to England. He seemed sullen, or rather 
 it was the roughness of his untractable disposition ; he said I 
 might do what I would, he would do as he found opportunity ; 
 however, we did not part immediately, but went on towards 
 the capital city. On the road we found too much poverty, 
 and too few people, to give him room to expect any 
 advantage in his way ; and though he had his eyes about 
 him as sharp as a hawk, yet he saw plainly there was 
 nothing to be done; for as to the men, they did not seem to 
 have much money about them ; and for the woinen, their 
 dress was such, that had they any money, or indeed any 
 nonets, it was impossible to come at them ; for, wearing 
 largeplaids about them and down to their knees, th ey wer e 
 
 ^wrapp ed up so close, that tliere was no coming to make the 
 least attempt of that kind. 
 
 Kelso was indeed a good town, and had abundance of 
 people in it ; and yet, though he stayed one Sunday there, and 
 saw the church, which is very large and thronged with people ; 
 yet, as he told me, there was not one woman to be seen in 
 all the church with any other dress than a plaid, except in 
 two pews, which belonged to some noblemen, and who, when 
 they came out, were so surrounded with footmen and 
 servants mat there]was^o coming ne ar" ffie m, any m5re"than 
 
 "there was'any'^ming near tEeHngTiu'rounded by his 
 guards. 
 
 We set out therefore with this discouragement, which I 
 
 'was secretly glad of, and went forward to Edinburgh. All ' 
 the way thither we went through no considerable town, and 
 it was but very coarse travelling for us, who were strangers ; 
 for we met with waters which were very dangerous to pass, 
 by reason of hasty rains, at a'place called Lauderdale, and 
 where my captain was really in danger of drowning, his 
 horse being driven down by the stream, and fell under him, 
 by which he wetted and spoiled his stolen goods, that he 
 brought from Newcastle, and which he had kept dry strangely, 
 by holding them up in his arms when he swam the Tweed ; 
 but here it wanted but little that he and his horse had been 
 lost, not so much by the depth of the water, as the fury oi 
 
AKEIVES AT EDINBURGH. 351 
 
 the current ; but he had a proverb in his favour, and he got 
 out of the water, though with difficulty enough, not being 
 bom to be drowned, as I shall observe afterwards in its 
 place. 
 
 We came to Edinburgh, the third day from Kelso, having 
 stopped at an inn one whole day, at a place called Soutra- 
 hUl, to dry our goods and refresh ourselves. We were oddly 
 saluted at Edinburgh, the next day after we came thither ; 
 my captain having a desire to walk, and look about him, 
 asked me if I would go and see the town ? I told him yes ; 
 so we went out, and coming through a gate, that they call 
 the Nether-bow, into the great High-street, which went up 
 to the cross, we were surprised to see it thronged with an 
 infinite number of people. Ay (says my captain), this will 
 do ; however, as I had made him promise to make no ad- 
 ventures that day, otherwise I told him I would not go out 
 with him, so I held liim by the sleeve, and would not let him 
 stir from me. 
 
 Then we came up to the market-cross, and there, besides 
 the great number of people who passed and repassed, we saw 
 a great parade, or kind of meeting, like an exchange of 
 gentlemen, of all ranks and qualities, and this encouraged 
 my captain again, and he pleased himself with that sight. 
 
 It was while we were looking, and wondering at what we 
 saw here, that we were surprised with a sight which we 
 little expected; we observed the people running on a sudden, 
 as to see some strange thing just coming along, and strange 
 it was indeed ; for we saw two men naked from the waist 
 upwards, run by us as swift as the Tvind, and we imagined 
 nothing but that it was two men running a race for some 
 mighty Wager. On a sudden we found two long small ropes 
 or lines, which hung down at first, pulled straight, and the 
 two racers stopped, and stood still, one close by the other. 
 We could not imagine what tjiis meant, but the reader may 
 judge at our surprise, when we found a man follow after, 
 who had the ends of both those lines in his hands, and who, 
 when he came up to them, gave each of them two frightful 
 lashes with a wire whip, or lash, which he held in the other 
 hand ; and then the two poor naked wretches run on again 
 to the length of their line or tether, where they waited for 
 the like salutation ; and in this manner they danced the 
 length of the whole street, which is about half a mi^e. 
 
352 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 This was a dark prospect to my captain, and put him in 
 mind, not only of what he was to expect if he made a sljp 
 in the way of his profession in this place, but also of what 
 he had suffered, when he was but a boy, at the famous place 
 called Bridewell. 
 
 But this was not aU ; for, as we saw the execution, so we 
 were curious to examine into the crime too ; and we asked a 
 young fellow who stood near us, what the two men had 
 done, for which they suffered that punishment ? The fellow, 
 an tmhappy ill-natured Scotchman, perceived by our speech 
 that we were Englishmen, and by our question that we 
 were strangers, told us, with a malicious wit, that they were 
 two Englishmen ; and that they were whipped so /or picking 
 pockets, and other petty thieveries, and that they were after- 
 wards to be sent away over the border into England. 
 
 Now this was every word of it false, and was only formed 
 by his nimble invention to insult us as Englishmen; for 
 when we inquired farther, they were both Scotchmen, and 
 were thus scourged for the usual offences, for which we give 
 the like punishment in England ; and the man who held the 
 line and scourged them, was the city hangman ; who (by the 
 way) is there an officer of note, has a constant salary, and is 
 a man of substance ; and not only so, but a most dexterous 
 fellow in his office, and makes a great deal of money of his 
 employment. 
 
 This sight, however, was very shocking to us ; and my 
 captain turned to me. Come, says he, let us go away, I won't 
 stay here any longer. I was glad to hear him say so, but 
 did not think he had meant or intended what he said : how- 
 ever, we went back to our quarters, and kept pretty much 
 within, only that in the evenings we walked about ; but 
 even then my captain found no employment, no encourage- 
 ment ; two or three times indeed, he madf, a prize of some 
 mercery and mUlinery goods; but when he had them he 
 knew not what to do with them, so that, in short, he was 
 forced to be honest in spite of his good wiU to be otherwise. 
 
 We remained here about a mdnth, when, on a sudden, my 
 captain was gone, horse and all, and I knew nothing, what 
 was become of him ; nor did I ever see or hear of him for 
 eighteen months after, nor did he so muoh as leave the least 
 notice for me, either whither he was gone, or whether h'l 
 vould roturn to Edinburgh again, or no. 
 
THE STOLEN HORSE IJEXUKNED TO PTJCKEEIDGE. 353 
 
 I took Ms leaving me very heinously, not knoAving what 
 to do with myself, being a stranger in the place ; and, on the 
 other hand, my money abated apace too. I had for the most 
 part of this time my horse upon my hands to keep ; and as 
 horses yield but a sony price in Scotland, I found no oppor- 
 tunity to make much of him ; and, on the other hand, I had 
 a secret resolution, if I had gone back to England, to have 
 restored him to the owner, at Puckeridge, by "Ware ; and so 
 I should have wronged him of nothing but the use of him 
 for so long a time; but I found an occasion to answer all my 
 designs about the horse to advantage. 
 
 There came a man to the stabler, so they caU the people 
 at Edinburgh that take in horses to keep, and wanted to 
 know if he could hear of any returned horses for England. 
 My landlord, so we called him, came bluntly to me one day, 
 and asked me. If my horse was my own ? It was an odd 
 question, as my circumstances stood, and puzzled me at first; 
 and I asked why, and what was the matter ? Because, says 
 he, if it be a hired horse in England, as is often the case 
 with Englishmen who come to Scotland, I could help you to 
 send it back, and get you something for riding; so he 
 expressed himself. 
 
 I was very glad of the occasion ; and, in short, took 
 security there of the person, for delivering the horse safe 
 and sound, and had 15s. sterling for the riding him. Upon 
 this agreement, I gave order to leave the horse at the 
 Falcon, at Puckeridge, and where I heard, many years 
 after, that he was honestly left, and that the owner had him 
 again, but had nothing for the loan of him. 
 
 Being thus eased of the expense of my horse, and having 
 nothing at all to do, I began to consider with myself what 
 would become of me, and what I could turn my hand to. I 
 had not much diminished my stock of money, for, though I 
 was all the way so w^ry that I would not join with my 
 captain in his desperate attempts, yet I made no scruple to 
 live at his expense, which, as I came out of England only 
 to keep him company, had been but just, had I not known 
 that all he had to spend upon me was what he robbed honest 
 people of, and that I was aU that while a receiver of stolen 
 goods ; but I was not come so far then as to scruple that 
 part at all. 
 
 In the next place, I was not so anxious about my. money 
 
 A A 
 
S54 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 running low, because I knew what a reserve I had made at 
 London ; but still I was very willing to have engaged in any 
 honest employment for a livelihood; for I was sick indeed of 
 the wandering life which I had led, and was resolved to 
 thieve no more ; but then two or three things which I had 
 offered me I lost, because I could not write or read. 
 
 This afflicted me a great while very much; but the 
 stabler, as I have called him, delivered me from my anxiety 
 that way, by bringing me to an honest, but a poor young 
 man, who undertook to teach me both to write and read, 
 and in a little time too, and for a small expense, if I would 
 take pains at it. I promised aU possible diligence, and to 
 work I went with it, but found the writing much more 
 difficult to me than the reading. 
 
 However, in half a year's time, or thereabouts, I could 
 read and write too, tolerably well, insomuch that I began to 
 think I was now fit for business ; and I got by it into the 
 service of a certain oificer of the customs, who employed 
 me for a time, but as he set me to do little but pass and 
 repass between Leeds and Edinburgh, with the accounts 
 which he kept for the farmers of the customs there, leaving 
 me to live at my own expense tUl my wages should be due, 
 I run out the little money I had left, in clothes and sub- 
 sistence, and a little before the year's end, when I was to 
 have 121. English money, truly my master was turned out 
 of his place ; and, which was worse, having been charged 
 with some misapplications, was obliged to take shelter in 
 England, and so we that were servants, for there were three 
 of us, were left to shift for ourselves. 
 
 This was a hard case for me in a strange place> and I was 
 reduced by it to the last extremity. I might have gone for 
 England, an English ship being there, the master of which 
 proffered me to give me my passage (upon telling him my 
 distress), and to take my word for the payment of 10». when 
 I came there ; but my captain appeared just then under new 
 circumstances, which obliged him not to go away, and I was 
 loath to leave him ; it seems we were yet farther to take our 
 fate together. 
 
 I have mentioned that he left me, and that I saw him no 
 more for eighteen months. His ramble and adventures were 
 many in that time ; he went to Glasgow, played some 
 remarkable pranks there, escaped almost mi];aculously from 
 
USTS FOB A SOLDIEB. 355 
 
 the gallows, goi over to Ireland, -wandered about there, 
 turned raparee, and did some villanous things there, and 
 escaped from Londonderry, over to the Highlands in the 
 north of Scotland ; and about a month before I was left 
 destitute at Leith by my master, behold ! my noble Captain 
 Jack came in there, on board the ferry boat from Fife, being, 
 after all adventures and successes, advanced to the dignity of 
 a foot soldier in a body of recruits raised in the north for the 
 regiment of Douglas. 
 
 After my disaster, being reduced almost as low as my 
 captain, I found no better shift before me, at least for the 
 present, than to enter myself a soldier too; and thus we 
 were ranked together, with each of us a musket upon our 
 shoulders, and, I confess, that thing did not sit so ill upon 
 me as I thought at first it would have done ; for, though I 
 fared hard, and lodged ill (for the last, especially, is the fate 
 of poor soldiers in that part of the world), yet to me that 
 had been used to lodge on the ashes in the glass-house, this 
 was no great matter ; I had a secret satisfaction at being 
 now under no necessity of stealing, and living in fear of a 
 prison, and of the lash of the hangman ; a thing which, from 
 the time I saw it in Edinburgh, was so terrible to me^ 
 that I could not think of it without horror ; and it was an 
 inesspressible ease to my mind, that I was now in a certain 
 way of living, which was honest, and which I could say was 
 not unbecoming a gentleman. 
 
 Whatever was my satisfaction in that part, yet other cir- 
 cumstances did not equally concur to make this Ufe suit me ; 
 for after we had been about six months in this figure, we 
 were informed that the recruits were all to march for 
 England, and to be shipped off at Newcastle, or at Hul, to 
 join the regiment, which was then in Flanders. 
 
 I should tell you, that, before this, I was extremely 
 delighted with the life of a soldier, and I took the exercise 
 so naturally, that the Serjeant that taught us to handle our 
 arms, seeing me so ready at it asked me if I had never 
 carried arms before. I told him, no ; at which he swore, 
 though jesting. They call you colonel, says he, and I believe 
 you will be a colonel, or you must be some colonel's bastard, 
 or you would never handle your arms as you do, at once or 
 twice showing. 
 
 This pleased me extremely, and encouraged me, and I was 
 
 A A 2 
 
356 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 mightily taken with the life of a soldier; but when the 
 captain came and told me the news, that we were to march 
 lor England, and to be shipped off for Flanders at Newcastle- 
 upon-Tyne, I was surprised very much, and new thoughts 
 began to come in my mind ; as, first, my captain's condition 
 was particular, for he durst not appear publicly at Newcastle, 
 as he must have done if he had marched with the battalion 
 (for they were a body of above four hundred, and therefore 
 called themselves a battalion, though we were but recruits, 
 and belonged to the several companies abroad) ; I say, he 
 must have marched with them, and been publicly seen, in 
 which case he would have been apprehended and delivered 
 up. In the next place, I remembered that I had almost 100/. 
 in money in London, and if it should have been asked all 
 the soldiers in the regiment, which of them would go to 
 Flanders, a private centinel, if they had 1001. in their 
 pockets, I believe none of them would answer in the affirm- 
 ative ; a 1001. being at that time sufficient to buy colours in 
 any new regiment, though not in that regiment, which was 
 on an old establishment. This whetted my ambition, and I 
 dreamt of nothing but being a gentleman officer, as well as a 
 gentleman soldier. 
 
 These two circumstances concurring, I began to be very 
 uneasy, and very unwilling in my thoughts to go over a poor 
 musqueteer into Flanders, to be knocked on the head at the 
 tune of 3s. 6d. a week. While I was daily musing on the 
 circumstances of being sent away, as above, and considering 
 what to do, my captain comes to me one evening ; Hark ye, 
 Jack, says he, 1 must speak with you ; let us take a walk in 
 the fields a little out of from the houses. We were quartered 
 at a place called Park-End, near the town of Dunbar, about 
 twenty miles from Berwick-upon-Tweed, and about sixteen 
 miles from the river Tweed, the nearest way. 
 
 We walked together here, and talked seriously upon the 
 matter ; the captain told me how his case stood, and that he 
 durst not march with the battalion into Newcastle ; that if 
 he did he should be taken out of the ranks and tried for his 
 life, and that I knew as well as he : I could go privately to 
 Newcastle, says he, and go through the town well enough, 
 but to go publicly, is to run into the jaws of destruction. 
 Well, says I, that is very true ; but what will you do ? Do ! 
 eays he, do you think I am s'. bound by honour, as a gentle- 
 
■DESEKTS FKOM THE SEKVICE. 357 
 
 man soldier, that I will be hanged for them ? No, no, says 
 he, I am resolved to be gone, and I would have you go with 
 us ; said I, What do you mean by us ? Why, here is another 
 honest fellow, an Englishman also, says he, that is resolved ta 
 desert too, and he has been a long while in the service, and 
 eays he knows how we shall be used abroad, and he will not 
 go to Flanders, says he, not he. 
 
 Why, says I, you will be shot to death for deserters if you 
 are taken, and they wiU send out scouts for you in the morn- 
 ing all over the country, so that you will certainly fall into 
 their hands. As for that, says he, my comrade is thoroughly 
 acquainted with the way, and he has imdertaken to bring us 
 to the banks of the Tweed, before they can come up with us, 
 and when we are on the other side of the Tweed, they can't 
 take us up. 
 
 And when would you go away? says I. 
 
 This minute, says he ; no time to be lost ; 'tis a fine moon- 
 shining night. 
 
 I have none of my baggage, says I ; let me go back and 
 fetch my linen, and other things. 
 
 Tour linen is not much, I suppose, says he, and we shall 
 easily get more in England the old way. 
 
 No, says I, no more of your old ways ; it has been owing 
 to those old ways that we are now in such a strait. 
 
 Well, well, says he, the old ways are better than this 
 starving life of a gentleman, as we call it. 
 
 But, says I, we have no money in our pockets, how shall 
 we travel? 
 
 I have a little, says the captain ; enough to help us on to 
 Newcastle, and if we can get none by the way, we will get 
 some collier ship to take us in, and carry uS to London by 
 sea. 
 
 I like that the best of aU the measures you have laid yet, 
 ■ said I ; and so I consented to go, and went ofi" with him im- 
 mediately. The cunning rogue having lodged his comrade a 
 mile oflf under the hills, had dragged me by talking with 
 him, by little and little, that way, till just when I con- 
 sented, he was in sight, and he said. Look, there's my 
 comrade ! who I knew presently, having seen him among 
 the men. 
 
 Being thus gotten under the hills, and a mile off the way, 
 and the day just shut in, we kept on apaee, resolving, it 
 
358 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 possible, to get out of the reach of our pursuers, before they 
 should miss us, or know anything of our being gone. 
 
 We plyed our time so well, and travelled so hard, that by 
 five o'clock in the morning we were at a little village, whose 
 name I forget ; but they told us that we were within eight 
 miles of the Tweed ; and that as soon as we should be over 
 the river, we were on English ground. 
 
 We refreshed a little here, but marched on with but little 
 stay ; however, it was half an hour past eight in the morn- 
 ing before we reached the Tweed, so it was at least twelve 
 miles, when they told us it was but eight. Here we over- 
 took two more of the same regiment, who had deserted from 
 Haddington, where another part of the recruits were 
 quartered. 
 
 Those were Scotchmen, and very poor, having not one 
 penny in their pockets ; and had no more when they made 
 their escape but 8s. between them ; and when they saw us, 
 whom they knew to be of the same regiment, they took us 
 to be pursuers, and that we came to lay hold of them ; upon 
 which they stood upon their defence, having the regiment 
 swords on, as we had also, but none of the mounting or 
 clothing ; for we were not to receive the clothing till we 
 came to the regiment in Flanders. 
 
 It was not long before we made them understand that we 
 were in the same circumstances with themselves, and so we 
 soon became one company ; and after resting some time on 
 the English side of the river (for we were heartily tired, and 
 the others were as much fatigued as we were), — ^I say, after 
 resting awhile, we set forwards towards Newcastle, whither 
 we resolved to go to get our passage by sea to London ; for 
 we had not money to hold us out any farther. 
 
 Our money was ebbed very low ; for, though I had one 
 piece of gold in my pocket, which I kept reserved for the 
 last extremity, yet it was but half-a-guinea, and my captain 
 had bore all our charges as far as his money would go, so 
 that when we came to Newcastle we had but sixpence left 
 in all to help ourselves, and the two Scots had begged their 
 way all along the road. 
 
 We contrived to come into Newcastle in the dusk of the 
 evening, and even then we durst not venture into the public 
 part of the town, but made down towards the river, some- 
 thing below the town, where some glass-houses stand. Here 
 
AEEIVES AT NEWCASTLE^ 359 
 
 • 
 
 we knew not what to do with ourselves ; but, guided hy out 
 fate, we put a good face upon the matter, and went into an 
 ale-house, sat down, and called for a pint of beer. 
 
 The house was kept by a womau only, that is to say, we 
 saw no other ; and, as she appeared very frank, and enter- 
 tained us cheerfully, we at last told our condition, and asked 
 her if she could not help us to some kind master of a collier, 
 that would give us a passage to London by sea. The subtle 
 devil, who immediately found us proper flsh for her hook, 
 gave us the kindest words in the world, and told us she was 
 heartily sorry she had not seen us one day sooner; that 
 there was a collier-master, of her particular acquaintance, 
 that went away but with the morning tide, that the ship was 
 fallen down to Shields, but she believed was hardly over the 
 bar yet, and she would send to his house and see if he was 
 gone on board, for sometimes the masters do not go away 
 till a tide after the ship, and she was sure if he was not 
 gone she could prevail with him to take us all in \ but then 
 she was afraid we must go on board immediately, the same 
 night. 
 
 "We begged her to send to his house, for we knew not what 
 to do, and if she could oblige him to take us on boardj we 
 did not care what time of night it was ; for, as we had no 
 money, we had no lodging, and we wanted nothing but to 
 be on board. 
 
 We looked upon this as a mighty favour, that she sent to 
 the master's house, and to our greater joy, she brought 
 us word about an hour after that he was not gone, and was 
 at a tavern in the town, whither his boy had been to fetch 
 him ; and that he had sent word he would call there in the 
 way home. 
 
 This was all in our favour, and we were extremely pleased 
 with it. About an hour after, the 'landlady being in the 
 room with us, her maid brings us word the master was 
 below ; so down she goes to him, telling us she would go and 
 tell him our case, and see to persuade him to take us aU on 
 board. After some time she comes up with him, atid brings 
 him into the room to us. Where are these honest gentlemen 
 soldiers, says he, that are in such distress? We stood all 
 up, and paid our respects to him. Well, gentlemen, and is 
 all your money spent ? 
 
 Lideed it is, said one of our company, and we shall l)d 
 
360 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 t 
 
 infinitely obliged to you, sir, if you will give us & passage f 
 we will be very willing to do anything we can in the ship, 
 though we are not seamen. 
 
 "Why, says he, were none of you ever at sea in your lives ? 
 No, says we, not one of us. 
 
 You will be able to do me no service then, says he, for 
 you will be all sick : Well, however, says he, for my good 
 landlady's sake here, I'll do it ; but are you all ready to go 
 on board, for I go on board this very night ? 
 
 Yes, sir, says we again, we are ready to go this minute. 
 No, no, says he, very kindly, we'll drink together ; come, 
 landlady, says he, make these honest gentlemen a sneaker of 
 punch. 
 
 We looked at one another, for we knew we had no money, 
 and he perceived it; Come, come, says he, don't be con- 
 cerned at your having no money : my landlady here and I 
 never part with dry lips. Come, goodwife, says he, make 
 the punch as I bid you. 
 
 We thanked him, and said, God bless you, noble captain, 
 a hundred times over, being overjoyed with such good luck, 
 WhUe we were drinking the punch, he calls the landlady ; 
 Come, says he, I'U step home and take my things, and bid 
 them good bye, and order the boat to come at high water 
 and take me up here ; and pray, goodwife, says he, get me 
 something for supper ; sure if I can give these honest men their 
 passage, I may give them a bit of victuals too ; it may be 
 they han't had much for dinner. 
 
 With this away he went, and in a little while we heard the 
 jack agoing, and one of us going down stairs for* a spy, 
 brought us word there was a good leg of mutton at the fire. In 
 less than an hour our captain came again, and came up to 
 us, and blamed us that we had not drank all the punch out ; 
 Come, says he, don't be bashful, when that is out we can 
 have another ; when I am obliging poor men, I love to do it 
 handsomely. 
 
 We drank on, and drank the punch out, and more was 
 brought up, and he pushed it about apace ; and then came 
 up a leg of mutton, and I need not say that we eat heartUy, 
 being told several times that we should pay nothing. After 
 supper was done, he bids my landlady ask if the boat was 
 come? And she brought word no, it was not high water 
 by a good deal ; No ! says he, well, then, give us some more 
 
KIDNAPPED AND CAEEIED TO VIKGINIA. 361 
 
 punch ; so more punch was brought in, and, as was after- 
 wards confessed, something was put into it, or more brandy 
 than ordinary, and by that time the punch was drunk out, 
 we were all very drunk, and, as for me, I was asleep. 
 
 About the time that was out, we were told the boat was 
 come ; so we tumbled out, almost over one another, into the 
 boat, and away we went, and our captain in the boat. 
 Most of us, if not all, fell asleep, tiU after some time, 
 though how much, or how far going, we knew not, the boat 
 stopped, and we were waked, and told we were at the ship's 
 side, which was true ; and with much help and holding us, 
 for fear we should fall overboard, we were all gotten into the 
 ship. All I remember of it was this, that as soon as we 
 were on board, our captain, as we called him, called out 
 thus : Here, boatswain, take care of these gentlemen, and give 
 them good cabins, and let them turn in and go to sleep, for 
 they are very weary ; and so indeed we were, and very drunk 
 too, being the first time I had ever drank punch in my life. 
 
 CHAPTER Vni. 
 
 WE AEE KIDKAPPED, AND CAEEIED ON BOAED SHIP BT A 
 
 VIEGINIA CAPTAIN MAKE THE COAST OP VIEGINIA IN 
 
 32 DATS CAPTAIN JACK MAKES HIS ESCAPE ^A PEEP 
 
 INTO FDTDEITT — ^I AM SOLD ALONG- WITH THE OTHERS TO 
 
 A EICH PLANTBE ^MT MASTBE HOLDS A LONG CONYEE- 
 
 SATION WITH ME, AND IN CONSEQUENCE OP MY GOOD 
 BEHAVIOUB PUTS MB IN A PLACE OP TRUST. 
 
 Well, care was taken of us according to order, and we 
 were put into very good cabins, where we were sure to go 
 immediately to sleep. In the mean time, the ship, which 
 was indeed just ready to go, and only on notice given had 
 come to an anchorfor us at Shields, weighed, stood over the bar, 
 and went off to sea ; and when we waked, and began to peep 
 abroad, which was not tiU near noon the next day, we found 
 ourselves a great way at sea ; the land in sight, indeed, but 
 at a great distance, and all going merrily on for London, 
 as we understood it." We were very well used, and well 
 satisfied with our condition for about three days, when we 
 began to inquire whether we were not almost come, and how 
 
362 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 much longer it would be before we should come into the 
 river. What river ? says one of the men. Why, the Thames, 
 says my Captain Jack. The Thames ! says the seaman. 
 What do you mean by that? What, han't you had time 
 enough to be sober yet ? so Captain Jack said no more, but 
 looked about him like a fool i when a while after, some other 
 of us asked the like question, and the seamen, who knew 
 nothing of the cheat, began to smeU a trick ; and turning to 
 the other Englishman that came with us, Pray, says he, 
 where do you fancy you are going, that you ask so often 
 about it? Why to London, says he, where should we be 
 going? We agreed with the captain to carry us to London. 
 
 Not with the captain, says he, I dare say ; poor men, you 
 are all cheated; and I thought so when I saw you come 
 aboard with that kidnapping rogue GiUiman ; poor men ! 
 adds he, you are all betrayed ; Why, you are going to Vir- 
 ginia, and the ship is bound to Virginia. 
 
 The Englishman falls a storming and raving like a tuad^ 
 man, and we gathering round him, let any man guess, if they 
 can, what was our surprise, and how we were confounded, 
 when we were told how it was ; in short, we drew our swords, 
 and began to lay about us, and made such a noise and hurry 
 in the ship, that at last the seamen were obliged to call out 
 for help. The captain commanded us to be disarmed in 
 the first place, which was not however done without giving 
 and receiving some wounds, and afterwards he caused us to 
 be brought to him into the great cabin. 
 
 Here he talked very calmly to us, that he was really very 
 sorry for what had befallen us ; that he perceived we had 
 been trepanned, and that the fellow who had brought us on 
 board was a rogue, that was employed by a sort of wicked 
 merchants not unlike himself; that he supposed he had been 
 represented to us as captain of the ship, and asked us if it 
 was not so ? We told him yes, and gave Viim a large account 
 of ourselves, and how we came to the woman's house to 
 inquire for some master of a collier to get a passage to 
 London, and that this man engaged to carry us to London in 
 his own ship, and the like, as is related above. 
 
 He told us he was very sorry for it, and he had no hand 
 in it ; but it was out of lus power to help us, and let us know 
 very plainly what our condition was ; namely, that we were 
 put on board his ship as servants to be delivered at Mary^ 
 
THE CAPTAIN OF THE SHIP THREATENED. 363 
 
 land to such a man, whom he named to us ; but that, how- 
 ever, if we would be quiet and orderly in the ship, he would 
 use us well in the passage, and take care we should be used 
 well when we came there, and that he would do anything for 
 us that lay in his power ; but if we were unruly and refrac- 
 tory, we could not expect but he must take such measures 
 as to oblige us to be satisfied ; and that, in short, we must be 
 handcuffed, carried down between the decks and kept as pri- 
 soners, for it was his business to take care that no distur- 
 bance must be in the ship. 
 
 My captain raved like a madmam, swore at the captain, 
 told him he would not fail to cut his throat either on board, 
 or ashore, whenever he came within his reach ; and that if 
 he could not do it now, he would do it after he came to Eng- 
 land again, if ever he durst show his face there again ; for he 
 might depend upon it, if he was carried away to Virginia, 
 he should find his way to England again ; that, if it 
 was twenty yeavs after, he would have satisfaction of 
 him. Well, young man, says the captain, smiling, 'tis 
 very honesfly said, and then I must take care of you 
 while I have you here, and afterwards I must take care of 
 myself. Do your worst, says Jack, boldly, I'U pay you home 
 for it one time or other. I must venture that, young man, 
 says he, still calmly, but for the present you and I must talk 
 a little ; so he bids the boatswain, who stood near him, 
 secure him, which he did ; I spoke to him to be easy and 
 patient, and that the captain had no hand in our misfortune. 
 
 No hand in it ! d n him, said he aloud, do you think 
 
 he is not confederate in this villany? Would any honest 
 man receive innocent people on board his ship and not in- 
 quire of their circumstances, but carry them away and not 
 speak to them ? and now he knows how barbarously we are 
 treated, why does he not set us on shore again ; I tell you 
 he is a villain, and none but him ; why does he not complete 
 his villany and murder us, and then he will be free from our 
 revenge ? but nothing else shall ever deliver him from my 
 hands, but sending us to the d — ^1, or going thither himself; 
 and I am honester in telling him so fairly, than he has been 
 to me, and am in no passion any more than he is. 
 
 The captain was, I say, a little shocked at his boldness, for 
 he talked a great deal more of the same kind, with a great 
 deal of spirit and fire, and yet without any disorder in lu» 
 
364 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 temper ; indeed I was surprised at it, for I never had heard 
 him talk so well, and so much to the purpose in my life. 
 The captain was, I say, a little shocked at it ;_ however, he 
 talked very handsomely to him, and told him, Look ye, 
 young man, I bear with you the more, because I am sensible 
 your case is very hard ; and yet I cannot allow your threat- 
 ening me neither, and you oblige me by that to be severer 
 with you than I intended ; however, I wUl do nothing to you, 
 but what your threatening my life makes necessary. The 
 boatswain called out to have him to the geers, as they called 
 it, and to have him taste the cat-o'-nine-tails ; all which 
 were terms we did not understand till afterwards, when we 
 were told he should have been whipped and pickled, for they 
 said it was not to be suffered. But the captain said. No no, 
 the young man has been really injured, and has reason to be 
 very much provoked ; but I have not injured him, says he. 
 And then he protested he had no hand in it, that he was put 
 on board, and we also, by the owners' agent, and for their 
 account ; that it was true, that they did always deal in ser- 
 vants, and carried a great many every voyage ; but that it 
 was no profit to him as commander ; but they were always 
 put on board by the owners, and that it was none of his busi- 
 ness to inquire about them ; and, to prove that he was not con- 
 cerned in it, but was very much troubled at so base a thing, 
 and that he would not be instrumental to carry us away 
 against our wills, if the wind and the weather would permit, 
 he would set us on shore again, though, as it blowed then, 
 the wind being at south-west, and a hard gale, and that they 
 were already as far as the Orkneys, it was impossible. 
 
 But the captain was the same man ; he told him, that let 
 the wind blow how it would, he ought not to carry us away 
 against our consents ; and as to his pretences of his owners 
 and the like, it was saying of nothing to him, for it was he, 
 the captain, that carried us away, and that whatever rogue 
 trepanned us on board (now he knew it), he ought no more to 
 carry us away than murder us ; and that he demanded to be 
 set on shore, or else he, the captain, was a thief and a mur- 
 derer. 
 
 The captain continued mild stiU ; and then I put in with 
 an argument, that had like to have brought us all back, if 
 the weather had not really hindered it ; which, when I came 
 to understand sea affairs better, I found was indeed so, and 
 
OFFERS MONET TO BE I5K0UGHT BACK. 3G5 
 
 that it had been impossible. I told the captain that I was 
 eorry that my brother was so warm, but that our usage was 
 villanous, which he could not deny. Then I took up the 
 air of what my habit did not agree with ; I told him, that we 
 were not people to be sold for slaves, that though we had the 
 misfortune to be in a circumstance that obliged us to conceal 
 ourselves, having disguised ourselves, to get out of the army, 
 as being not willing to go into Flanders, yet that we were 
 men of substance, and able to discharge ourselves from the 
 service when it came to that ; and, to convince him of it, I told 
 him I would give him sufficient security to pay 201. apiece for 
 my brother and myself; and in as short time as we could send 
 from the place he should put into London, and receive a 
 return. And, to show that I was able to do it, I pulled out 
 my biU for 9il. from the gentleman of the Custom-house, and 
 who, to my infinite satisfaction, he knew as soon as he saw 
 the bill. He was astonished at this ; and, lifting up his hands, 
 By what witchcraft, says he, were you brought hither ! 
 
 As to that, says I, we have told you the story, and we add 
 nothing to it ; but we insist upon it that you wiU do this 
 justice to us now. Well, says he, I am very sorry for it, 
 but I cannot answer putting back the ship ; neither if I could, 
 says he; is it practicable to be done. 
 
 While this discourse lasted, the two Scotchmen and the 
 other Englishman were silent ; but as I seemed to acquiesce, 
 the Scotchmen began to talk to the same purpose, which I 
 need not repeat, and had not mentioned, but for a merry pas- 
 sage that followed. After the Scotchmen had said all they 
 could, and the captain stUl told them they must submit, — ■ 
 And will you then carry us to Virginia ? Yes, says the cap- 
 tain. And wiU we be sold, says the Scotchman, when we 
 come there ? Yes, says the captain. Why then, sir, says the 
 Scotchman, the devU will have you at the hinder end of the 
 bargain. Say you so, says the captain, smiling, well, well, 
 let the devU and I alone to agree about that: do you be 
 quiet, and behave civilly as you should do, and you shall be 
 used as kindly, both here and there too, as I can. The poor 
 Scotchmen could say little to it, nor I, nor any of us ; for we 
 saw there was no remedy, but to leave the devU and the 
 captain to agree among themselves, as the captain had said, 
 as to the honesty of it. 
 
 Thus, in short, we were all, I say, obliged to acquiesce, 
 
366 rOLONEL JACK. 
 
 but my captain, who was so much the more ohstinate when 
 he found that I had a fund to make such an offer upon ; nor 
 could all my persuasions prevail with him. The captain of 
 the ship and he had many pleasant dialogues about this in 
 the rest of the voyage, in which Jack never treated him with 
 any language but that of kidnapper, and villain, nor talked 
 of anything but of taking his revenge of him ; but I omit 
 that part, though very diverting, as being no part of my own 
 story. 
 
 In short, the wind continued to blow hard, though very 
 fair, till, as the seamen said, we were past the Islands on the 
 north of Scotland, and that we began to steer away westerly 
 (which I came to understand since), as there was no land any 
 way, for many hundred leagues, so we had no remedy but 
 patience, and to be easy as we could ; only my surly Cap- 
 tain Jack continued the same man all the way. 
 
 We had a very good voyage, no storms all the way, and a 
 northerly wind almost twenty days together ; so that, in a 
 word, we made the capes of Virginia in two-and-thirty days, 
 from the day we steered west, as I have said, which was in 
 the latitude of 60 degrees 30 minutes, being to the north of 
 the isle of Great Britain ; and this they said was a very 
 quick passage. 
 
 Nothing material happened to me during the voyage ; and 
 indeed, when I came there, I was obliged to act in so narrow 
 a compass, that nothing very material could present itself. 
 
 When we came ashore, which was in a great river, which 
 they call Potomac, the captain asked us, but me more par- 
 ticularly, whether I had anything to propose to him now ? 
 Jack answered. Yes, I have something to propose to you, 
 captain ; that is, that I have promised you to cut yt)ur throat, 
 and depend upon it I wiU be as good as my word. Well, 
 weU, says the captain, if I can't help it, you shall ; so he 
 turned away to me. I understood him very well what he 
 meant ; but I was now out of the reach of any relief; and as 
 for my note, it was now but a bit of paper of no value, for 
 nobody could receive it but myself. I saw no remedy, and so 
 talked coldly to him of it as of a thing I was indifferent 
 about; and indeed I was grown indifferent, for I considered 
 all the way on the voyage, that as I was bred a vagabond, 
 had been a pickpocket and a soldier, and was run from my 
 colours, and that I had no settled abode in the world, nor 
 
SOLD TO A BICH PLANTEB. 36? 
 
 any employ to get anything by, except that wicked one I was 
 bred to, which had the gallows at the heels of it, I did not 
 see but that this service might be as well to me as other 
 business. And this I was particularly satisfied with, when 
 they told me, that after I had served out the five years* servi- 
 tude, I should have the courtesy of the country (as they called 
 it), that is, a certain quantity of land to cultivate and plant for 
 myself. So that now I was like to be brought up to some- 
 thing by which I might live, without that wretched thing 
 called stealing ; which my very soul abhorred, and which I 
 had given over, as I have said, ever since that wicked time 
 that I robbed the poor widow of Kentish-tovro. 
 
 In thfe mind I was when I arrived at Virginia ; and so, 
 when the captain inquired of me what I intended to do, and 
 whether I had anytMng to propose, that is to say, he meant 
 whether I would give him my bill, which he wanted to be 
 fingering very much ; I answered coldly, My bill would be 
 of no use to me now, for nobody would advance anything 
 upon it ; only this I would say to him, that if he would carry 
 me and Captain Jack back to England, and to London again, 
 I vTOuld pay him the 201. off my bill for each of us. This he 
 had no mind to ; For as to your brother, says he, I would 
 not take him into my ship for tvrice 201., he is such a hard- 
 ened desperate villain, says he, I should be obliged to carry 
 him in irons as I brought him hither. 
 
 Thus we parted vrith our captain or kidnapper, call him as 
 you will. We were then delivered to the merchants, to whom 
 we were consigned, who again disposed of us as they thought 
 fit ; and in a few days we were separated. 
 
 As for my Captain Jack, to make short of the story, that 
 desperate rogue had the good luck to have a very easy good 
 master, whose business and good humour he abused very 
 much ; and, in particular, took an opportunity to run away 
 with a boat, which his master entrusted him and another 
 with, to carry some provisions down the river to another 
 plantation which he had there. This boat and provisions 
 they ran away with, and sailed north to the bottom of the 
 bay, as they call it, and into a river called Susquehanna, and 
 there, quitting the boat, they wandered through the woods, 
 till they came to Pennsylvania, from whence they made shift 
 to get passage to New-England, and from thence home ; 
 where, &lling in among bis old companions, and ip the old 
 
S68 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 trade, he was at length taken and hanged, about a month 
 before I came to London, which was near twenty years 
 afterwards. 
 
 My part was harder at the beginning, though better at the 
 latter end ; I was disposed of, that is to say, sold, to a rich 
 planter, whose name was Smith, and with me the other 
 Englishman, who was my fellow-deserter, that Jack brought 
 to me when we went off from Dunbar. 
 
 "We were now fellow-servants, and it was our lot to be 
 carried up a small river or creek, which falls into Potomac 
 river, about eight miles from the great river. Here we were 
 brought to the plantation, and put in ' among about fifty 
 servants, as weU negroes as others ; and being delivered to 
 the head man, or director, or manager of the plantation, he 
 took care to let us know that we must expect to work, and 
 very hard too ; for it was for that purpose his master bought 
 servants, and for no other. I told him, very submissively, 
 that since it was our misfortune to come into such a miser- 
 able condition as we were in, we expected no other ; only 
 we desired we might be showed our business, and be allowed 
 to learn it gradually, since he might be sure we had not been 
 used to labour ; and, I added, that when he knew particu- 
 larly by what methods we were brought, and betrayed into 
 such a condition, he would perhaps see cause at least to show 
 us that favour, if not more. This I spoke with such a moving 
 tone, as gave him curiosity to inquire into the particulars of 
 our story, which I gave him at large, a little more to our 
 advantage too than ordinary. 
 
 This story, as I hoped it would, did move him to a sort of 
 tenderness ; but yet he told us, that his master's business 
 must be done, and that he expected we must work as above ; 
 that he could not dispense with that upon any account what- 
 ever. Accordingly, to work we went ; and indeed we had 
 three hard things attending us ; namely, we worked hard, 
 lodged hard, and fared hard. The first I had been an utter 
 stranger to, the last I could shift, well enough vsdth. 
 
 During this scene of life, I had time to reflect on my past 
 hours, and upon what I had done in the world ; and though I 
 had ho great capacity of making a clear judgment, and very- 
 little reflections from conscience, yet it made some impressions 
 upon me; and particularly, that I was brought into this 
 miserable condition of a slave, by some strange directing 
 
MADE A GUABD AT THE PLANTATION. 369 
 
 power, asa- punishment for the wickedness of my younge r 
 years ; an3~tnis thought was increased upon the following 
 occasion ; the master, whose service I was now engaged in, 
 was a man of substailce and figure in the country, and had 
 abundance of servants, as well negroes as English ; in all, I 
 thiak, he had near two hundred ; and among so many, as 
 some grew every year infirm and unable to work, others went 
 off upon their time being expired, and others died ; and by 
 these and other accidents the number would diminish, if they 
 were not often recruited and filled, and this obliged him to 
 buy more every year. 
 
 It happened while I was here, that a ship arrived from 
 London with several servants, and among the rest was seven- 
 teen transported felons, some burnt in the hand, others not ; 
 eight of whom my master bought for the time specified in the 
 warrant for their transportation respectively, some for a 
 longer, some a shorter term of years. 
 
 Our master was a great man in the country, and a justice 
 of peace, though he seldom came down to the plantation 
 where I was ; yet, as the new servants were brought on 
 shore, and delivered at our plantation, his worship came 
 thither, in a kind of state, to see and receive them. When 
 they were brought before him, I was called, among other 
 servants, as a kind of guard, to take them into custody after 
 he had seen them, and carry them to the work. They were 
 brought by a guard of seamen from the ship, and the second 
 mate of the ship came with them, and delivered them to our 
 master, with the warrant for their transportation, as above. 
 
 When his worship had read over the warrants, he called 
 them over by their names, one by one, and having let them 
 know, by his reading the warrants over again to each man 
 respectively, that he knew for what offences they were 
 transported, he talked to every one separately very gravely ; 
 let them know how much favour they had received in being 
 saved from the gallows, which the law had appointed for 
 their crimes ; that they were not sentenced to be transported, 
 but to be hanged, and that transportation was granted them 
 upon their own request and humble petition. 
 
 Then he laid before them, that they ought to look upon 
 the life they were just going to enter upon as just beginning 
 the world again ; that if they thought fit to be diligent and 
 sober, they would, after the time they were ordered to serve 
 
 B B 
 
370 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 was expired, be encouraged by the constitution of the 
 country to settle and plant for themselves ; and that even 
 he himself would be so kind to them, that if he^ lived 
 to see any of them serve their time laithfuUy out, it was 
 his custom to assist his servants in order to their settling 
 in that country, according as their behaviour might merit 
 from him; and they would see and know several planters 
 round about them, who now were in very good circumstances, 
 and who formerly were only his servants, in the same con- 
 dition with them, and came from the same place, that is to 
 say, Newgate ; and some of them had the mark of it in 
 their hands, but were now very honest men and lived in 
 very good repute. 
 
 Among the rest of his new servants, he came to a young 
 fellow not above seventeen or eighteen years of age, and his 
 warrant mentions that he was, though a young man, yet an 
 old offender ; that he had been several times condemned, but 
 had been respited or pardoned, but still he continued an 
 incorrigible pick-pocket; that the crime for which he was 
 now transported, was for picking a merchant's pocket-book, 
 or letter-case, out of his pocket, in which was bills of 
 exchange for a very great sum of money ; that he had 
 afterwards received the money upon some of the bUls, but 
 that going to a goldsmith in Lombard-street with another 
 bill, and having demanded the money, he was stopped, notice 
 having been given of the loss of them; that he was con- 
 demned to die for the felony, and being so well known for 
 an old offender, had certainly died but the merchant, upon 
 his earnest application, had obtained that he should be 
 transported, on condition that he restored all the rest of his 
 bills, which he had done accordingly. 
 
 Our master talked a long time to this young fellow ; 
 ^nentioned, with some surprise, that he so young should have 
 followed such a wicked trade so long as to obtain the name 
 of an old offender at so young an age ; and that he should 
 be styled incorrigible, which is to signify, that notwithstand- 
 ing his being whipt two or three times, and several times 
 punished by imprisonment, and once burnt in the hand, yet 
 nothing would do him any good, but that he was still the 
 same. He talked mighty religiously to this boy, and told 
 him, God had not only spared him from th: gallows, but 
 Aad now mercifully delivered him from the opportunity oi 
 
THE PLANTER QUESTIONS HIS EAELT UFE. 371 
 
 committing the same sin again, and put it into iis power to 
 live an honest life, which perhaps he knew not how to do 
 before ; and though some part of his life now might be 
 laborious, yet he ought to look on it to be no more than 
 being put out apprentice to an honest trade, in which, when 
 he came out of his time, he might be able to set up for 
 himself and live honestly. 
 
 Then he told him, that while he was a servant he would 
 have no opportunity to be dishonest, so when he came to be 
 for himself he would have no temptation to it ; and so after 
 a great many other kind things said to him and the rest, 
 they were dismissed. 
 
 I was exceedingly moved at this discourse of our master's, 
 as anybody would judge I must be, when it was directed to 
 such a young rogue, born a thief, and bred up a pickpocket, 
 like myself ;^_^JJhQilgllt_aU. my master said was apo,]^p,a fti 
 me, and sometimes it came into my head that sure my 
 master was some extraordinary man, and he knew all things 
 t hat ever I had done in my life. 
 
 "But I was surprised to the last degree, when my master, 
 dismissing all the rest of us servants, pointed at me; and 
 speaking to his head clerk. Here, says he, bring that young 
 fellow hither to me. 
 
 I had been near a year in the work, and I had plied it so 
 well, that the clerk, or head man, either flattered me, or did 
 really believe that I behaved very well ; but I was terribly 
 frighted to he a r myself called out aloud, just as they used to 
 6all for such"a8 had done some misdemeanor, and were to be 
 lashed or otherwise corrected. 
 
 I came in like a malefactor indeed, and thought I looked 
 like one just taken in the fact , and carried before the justice ; 
 and indeed when I came in, for I was carried intq^an inner- 
 roomj_or_pailour, in the house to him, (his discourse "to" the 
 Iresfwas iSTariarge hall, where he sat in a seat like a lord 
 judge upon the bench, or a petty king upon his throne); 
 when I came in, I say, he ordered his man to withdraw, and 
 I standing half naked, and bare-headed, with , my haugh, or 
 hoe, in my hand (the posture and figure I was in at my 
 work), near the door, he bade me lay down my hoe and 
 come nearer. Then he began to look a litttle less stem and 
 terrible than I fencied him to look before, or, perhaps, both 
 his countenance then and before might be to my imagination 
 
 B B 2 
 
S72 30L0NEL JACK. 
 
 difFering from what tliey really were ; for we do not always 
 judge those things by the real temper of the person, but by 
 the measure_of_pur ^prehensions ~^ 
 
 Hark ye, young man, how old are you ? says my master, 
 and so our dialogue began. 
 
 Jack. Indeed, sir, I do not know. 
 
 Mast. What is your name ? 
 
 Jach. They call me Colonel here, but my name is Jack, 
 a'nt please your worship. 
 
 Mast. But prithee, what is thy name ? 
 
 Jack. Jack. 
 
 Mast. What is thy christian name then. Colonel, and thy 
 surname, Jack? 
 
 Jack. Truly, sir, to tell your honour the truth, ,J_knovj 
 littlp^nr i;intJiiiig of mysglfjor what my triiajnaDMuilout 
 thfisThave been called ever since T remember ; which is my 
 christian name, or which my surname, or whether I was 
 ever christened or not, I cannot tell. 
 
 Mast. Well, however, that's honestly answered. Pray 
 how came you hither, and on what account are you made a 
 servant here ? 
 
 Jack. I wish your honour could have patience with me to 
 hear the whole story; it is the hardest and most unjust 
 thing that ever came before you. 
 
 Mast. Say you so ? tell it me at large then ; I'U hear it, I 
 promise that, if it be an hour long. 
 
 This encouraged me, and I began at being a soldier, and 
 being persuaded to desert at Dunbar, and gave him all the 
 particulars, as they are related above, to the time of my 
 coming on shore, and the captain talking to me about my 
 bUl after I arrived here. He held up his hands several 
 times as I went on, expressing his abhorrence of the usage I 
 had met with at Newcastle, and inquired the name of the 
 master of the ship ; for, said he, that captain, for all his 
 smooth words, must be a rogue. So I told him his name, 
 and the name of the ship, and he took it down in his book, 
 and then we went on. 
 
 Mast. But pray answer me, honestly too, to another ques- 
 tion, what was it made you so much concerned at my talking 
 to the boy there, the pickpocket ? 
 
 Jack. An't please your honour, it moved me to hear you 
 talk so kindly to a poor slave. 
 
TELLS THE PLANTER HIS HISTOKT. 373 
 
 Mast And was that all? speak truly now. 
 
 Jack. No, indeed, but a secret wish came into my thoughts, 
 that you that were so good to such a creature as that, could 
 but one way or other know my case, and that if you did, you 
 would certainly pity me, and do something for me. 
 
 Mast. Well, but was there nothing in his case that hit 
 your own, that made you so aflfected with it, for I saw tears 
 come from your eyes, and it was that made me call to speak 
 to you. 
 
 Jack. Indeed, sir, I have been a wicked idle boy, and was 
 left desolate in the world ; but that boy is a thief, and con- 
 demned to be hanged ; I never was before a court of justice 
 in my life. 
 
 Mast. Well, I won't examine you too far ; if you were 
 never before a court of justice, and are not a criminal trans- 
 ported, I have nothing further to inquire of you. You have 
 been ill used, that's certain, and was it that that aifected you ? 
 
 Jack. Yes, indeed, please your honour (we all called him 
 his honour, or his worship). 
 
 Mast. Well, now I do kiiow your case, what can I do for 
 you ? You speak of a bill of 94/. of which you would have 
 given the captain 40/. for your liberty, have you that bill in 
 your keeping stiU ? 
 
 Jack. Yes, sir, here it is. I pulled it out of the waistband 
 of my drawers, where I always found means to preserve it, 
 wraRped up in a piece of paper, and pinned to the waistband, 
 and yet almost worn out too with often pinning and remov- 
 ing ; so I gave it to him to read, and he read it. 
 
 Mast, And is this gentleman in being that gave you the 
 bill! 
 
 Jack. Yes, sir, he was alive and in good health when I 
 came from London, which you may see by the date of the 
 biU, for I came away the next day. 
 
 Mast. I do not wonder that the captain of the ship was 
 willing to get this bill of you when you came on shore here. 
 
 Jack. I would have given it into his possession, if he would 
 have carried me and my brother back again to England, and 
 have taken what he asked for us out of it. 
 
 Mast. Ay, but he knew better than that too ; he knew if 
 he had any friends there, they would call him to an account 
 for what he had done ; but I wonder he did not take it from 
 you while you were at sea, either by fraud or by force. 
 
374 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 J(yk. He did not attempt that indeed. 
 
 Mast. Well, young man, I have a mind to try if I can do 
 you any service in this case. On my word, if the money can 
 be paid, and you can get it safe over, I might put you in a 
 way how to be a better man than your master, if you will be 
 honest and diligent. 
 
 Jack. As I behave myself in your service, sir, you will I 
 hope judge of the rest. 
 
 Mast. But perhaps you hanker after returning to England. 
 
 Jack. No, indeed, sir^ if I c an but get my bread honestl y 
 here, I have no mindJto.goTEo Kngland; for I know n(sX llOV 
 to get Tmy bread ther e; if I had, 1 h ad not 'listed fof a 
 .Boia^j_^' — -— 
 
 ~ Mast. Well, but I must ask you some questions about that 
 part hereafter; for 'tis indeed something strange that you 
 should list for a soldier, when you had 94?. in your pocket. 
 
 JojcTc. I shall give your worship as particular account of 
 that as I have of the other part of my life, if you please, but 
 'tis very long. 
 
 Mast. Well, we will have that another time ; but to the 
 case in hand ; are you willing I should send to anybody at 
 London to talk with that gentleman that gave you the bill ; 
 not to take the money of him, but to ask him only whether 
 he has so much money of yours in his hands ; and whether 
 he will part with it when you shall give order, and send the 
 bill, or a duplicate of it ; that is, says he, the copy ; and it 
 was well he did say so, for I did not understand the word 
 duplicate at all. 
 
 Jach. Yes, sir, I will give you the bill itself, if you please, 
 I can trust it with you though I could not with him. 
 
 Mast. No, no, young man, I won't take it from you. 
 
 JacTc. I wish your worship would please to keep it for me, 
 for if I should lose it then I am quite undone. 
 
 MasL I will keep it for you. Jack, if you will, but then 
 you shall have a note under my hand, signifying that I have 
 it, and will return it you upon demand, which will be as safe 
 to you as the bill ; I won't take it else. 
 
 So I gave my master the bill, and he gave me his note for 
 it ; and he was a faithful steward for me, as you will hear in 
 its place. After this conference I was dismissed and went 
 to my work ; but about two hours after, the steward, or the 
 overseer of the plantation, came riding by, and coming up to 
 
MADE OVEESEER IN A PLANTATION. 375 
 
 me as I was at work, pulled a bottle out of Ms pocket, and 
 calling me to him gave me a dram of rum ; when, in good 
 manners, I had taken but a little sup, he held it out to me 
 again, and bade me take another ; and spoke wondrous civilly 
 to me, quite otherwise than he used to do. 
 
 This encouraged me, and heartened me very much, but yet 
 I had no particular view of anything, or which way I should 
 have any relief. 
 
 A day or two after, when we were all going out to our 
 work in the morning, the overseer called me to him again, 
 and gave me a dram, and a good piece of bread, and bade 
 me come off &om my work about one o'clock, and come to 
 him to the house, for he must speak with me. 
 
 When I came to him, I came to be sure in the ordinary 
 habit of a poor half naked slave. Come hither, young man, 
 says he, and give me your hoe. When I gave it him. Well, 
 says he, you are to work no more in this plantation. 
 
 I looked surprised, and as if I was frighted. What have 
 I done ? sir, said I, and whither am I to be sent away ? 
 
 Nay, nay, says he, and looked very pleasantly, do not be 
 frighted, 'tis for your good, 'tis not to hurt you ; I am ordered 
 to make an overseer of you, and you shall be a slave no 
 longer. 
 
 Alas ! says I to him, I an overseer ! I am in no condition 
 for it, I haye no c lothes to put on, no Unen, nothing to help 
 myseHT ~~ — 
 
 Well, well, says he, you may be better used than you are 
 aware of; come hither with me. So he led me into a vast 
 great warehouse, or, rather, set of warehouses, one within 
 another, and calling the warehouse-keeper. Here, says he, 
 you must clothe this man, and give him everything necessary, 
 upon the foot of number five, and give the bill to me ; our 
 master has ordered me to allow it in the account of the west 
 plantation. That was, it seems, the plantation where I was 
 to go. 
 
376 COLuSEL JACK. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A STUMBLE AT THE THRESHOLD OF MY NEW OFFICE — ^I 
 STUDY TO RENDER THE NEGKOES OBEDIENT WITHOUT 
 
 PUNISHMENT, AND SUCCEED OUR MASTER YISITS THE 
 
 PLANTATION CONVERSATION WITH HIM ^I GAIN HIS GOOD 
 
 GRACES MORE AND MORE FIDELITY OF A NEGRO. 
 
 Accordingly, the warehouse-keeper carried me into an 
 inner warehouse, where were several suits of clothes of the 
 sort his orders mentioned : which were plain, but good sorts 
 of clothes, ready made, being of a good broadcloth, about 
 lis. a yard in England, and with this he gave me three 
 good shirts, two pair of shoes, stockings and gloves, a hat, 
 six neckcloths, and, in shott, everything I could want ; and 
 when he had looked everything out, and fitted them, he lets 
 "toe into a little room by itself. Here , sa ys he, go in there a 
 ^lave,_ ajj4 ^ome^out a gentler&nj and with that carried 
 everything into the room, and, shutting the doOT, bid me put 
 them on, which I did most willingly; and now you may 
 believe, that I began to hope for something better than 
 ordinary. < 
 
 In a little while after this, came the overseer, and gave^ 
 mej^y of my new clothes, and told me I must go with Em: 
 so I was carried to another plantation, larger than that 
 where I worked before, and where there were two overseers, 
 or clerks ; one withiii doors, and one Without. This last was 
 removed to another plantation, and I was placed there in his 
 room, that is to say, as the clerk without doors, and my 
 business was to look after the servants and negroes, and take 
 care that they did their business, provide their food, and, in 
 short, both govern and direct them. 
 
 I was elevated to the highest degree in my thoughts at 
 this advancement, and it is impossible for me to express the 
 joy of my mind upon this occasion; but there came a 
 difficulty upon me, tha* shocked me so violently, and went 
 so against my very nature, that I really had almost forfeited 
 my place about it ; and in all appearance, the favour of ou;- 
 master who had been so generous to me ; and this was, tliat 
 
ENTERS ON HIS NEW DUTIES. 377 
 
 when I entered upon my office, I had a horse given me and 
 a long horsewhip, like what we call in England a hunting- 
 whip. The horse was to ride up and down all over the 
 plantation, to see the servants and negroes did their work, 
 and, the plantation being so large, it could not be done on 
 foot, at least so often and so effectually as was required ; 
 and the horsewhip was given me to correct and lash the 
 slaves and servants when they proved negligent or quarrel- 
 some, or, in short, were guilty of any offence. This part 
 turned the very blood within my veins, and I could not 
 think of it with any temper, that I, who was but yesterday 
 a servant or slave like them, and under the authority of the 
 same lash, should lift up my hand to the cruel work which 
 was my terror but the day before. This, I say, I could not 
 do ; insomuch that the negroes perceived it, and I had soon 
 so much contempt upon my authority, that we were all in 
 disorder. 
 
 The ingratitude of their return for the compassion I 
 showed them provoked me, I confess, and a little hardened 
 my heart ; and I began with the negroes, two of whom I 
 was obliged to correct ; and I thought I did it most cruelly ; 
 but after I had lashed them tUl every blow I struck them 
 hurt myself, and I was ready to faint at the work, the rogues 
 laughed at me, and one of them had the impudence to say, 
 behind my back, that, if he had the whipping of me, he 
 would show me better how to whip a negro. 
 
 WeU, however, I had no power to do it in such a bar- 
 barous manner as I found it was necessary to have it done j 
 and the defect began to be a detriment to our master's 
 business, and now I began indeed to see that the cruelty so 
 much talked o^ used in Virginia and Barbadoes, and other 
 colonies, in whipping the negro slaves, was not so much 
 owing to the tyranny and passion, and cruelty of the English 
 as had been reported; the English not being accounted to be 
 of a cruel disposition, and really are not so ; but that it is 
 owing to the bru tality and obstinate temper of_^e negroes, 
 "who cannot be managedrl^BSaness^d courtesy, ^BiSt must 
 be ruled with a rod of iron, beaten with scorpions, as the 
 Scripture calls it, and must be used as they do use them, or 
 they would rise and murder all their masters ; which, their 
 numbers considered, would not be hard for them to do, if 
 
378 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 they had arms and ammunition suitable to the rage and 
 cruelty of their nature. 
 
 But I began to see at the same time that this brutal 
 temper of the negroes was not rightly managed ; that they 
 did not take the best course with them to make them 
 sensible, either of mercy or punishment ; and it was evident 
 to me that even the worst of those tempers might be brought 
 to a compliance, without the lash, or at least without so 
 much of it as they generally inflicted. 
 
 Our master was really a man of humanity himself, and 
 was sometimes so full of tenderness that he would forbid 
 the severities of his overseers and stewards ; but he saw the 
 necessity of it, and was obliged at last to leave it to the 
 discretion of his upper servants; yet he would often bid 
 them be merciful, and bid them consider the difference of 
 the constitution of the bodies of the negroes ; some being 
 less able to bear the tortures of their punishment than 
 others, and some of them less obstinate too than others. 
 
 However, somebody was so officious as to inform him 
 against me upon this occasion; and let him know that I 
 neglected his affairs, and that the servants were under no 
 government ; by which means his plantation was not duly 
 managed, and that all things were in disorder. 
 
 This was a heavy charge for a young overseer, and his 
 honour came like a judge, vnth all his attendants, to look 
 into things and hear the cause. However, he was so just to 
 me, as that, before he censured me, he resolved to hear me 
 fully, and that not only publicly but in private too ; and the 
 last part of this was my particular good fortune, for, as he 
 had formerly allowed me to speak to him with freedom, so I 
 had the like freedom now, and had fuU liberty to explain 
 and defend myself. 
 
 I knew nothing of the complaint against me, till I had it 
 from his own mouth ; nor anything of his coming tiU I saw 
 him in the very plantation, viewing his work, and viewing 
 the several pieces of ground that were ordered to be new 
 planted ; and after he had rode all round, and seen things in 
 the condition which they were to be seen in ; how every- 
 thing was in its due order, and the servants and negroes 
 were all at work, and everything appearing to his mind, he 
 went into the house. 
 
EXPRESSES GKATITUDE TO HIS EMPLOYEE. 379 
 
 As I saw him come up the walks, I ran towards him, and 
 made my homage, and gave him my humble thanks for the 
 goodness he had showed me in taking me from the miserable 
 condition I was in before, and employing and entrusting me 
 in his business ; and he looked pleasant enough, though he 
 did not say much at first, and I attended him through the 
 whole plantation, gave him an account of everything as he 
 went along, answered all his objections and inquiries every- 
 where in such a manner as it seems he did not expect ; and, 
 as he acknowledged afterwards, everything was very much 
 to his satisfaction. 
 
 There was an overseer, as I observed, belonging to the 
 same plantation, who was, though not over me, yet in a 
 work superior to mine ; for his business was to see the 
 tobacco packed up, and deliver it either on board the sloops, 
 or otherwise, as our master ordered, and to receive English 
 goods from the grand warehouse, which was at the other 
 plantation, because that was nearest the water-side ; and, in 
 short, to keep the accounts. 
 
 This overseer, an honest and upright man, made no 
 complaint to him of his business being neglected, as above, 
 or of anything like it, though he inquired of him about it, 
 and that very strictly too. 
 
 I should have said, that as he rid over the plantation, he 
 came in his round to the place where the servants were 
 usually corrected, when they had done any fault ; and there 
 stdod two negroes, with their hands tied, behind them, as it 
 were under sentence ; and when he came near them, they 
 fell on their knees, and made pitiful signs to him for mercy. 
 Alas ! alas ! says he, turning to me, why did you bring me 
 this way ? I do not love such sights, what must I do now ? 
 I must pardon them ; prithee, what have they done? I told 
 him the particular offences which they were brought to the 
 place for ; one had stole a bottle of rum, and had made 
 himself drunk with it, and, when he was drunk, had done a 
 great many mad things, and had attempted to knock one of 
 the white servants' brains out with a handspike ; but that 
 the white man had avoided the blow, and, striking up the 
 negro's heels, had seized him, and brought him prisoner 
 thither, where he had lain all night ; and that I had told 
 him he was to be whipped that day, and the next three days, 
 twice every day. 
 
880 coLOKEL j.\::k. 
 
 And could you be so cruel ? says his honour ; why yon 
 would kill the poor wretch ; and so, beside the blood which 
 you would have to answer for, you would lose me a lusty 
 man negro, which cost me at least 30^. or AOL, and bring a 
 reproach upon my whole plantation ; nay, and more than 
 that, some of them in revenge would murder me, if ever it 
 was in their power. 
 
 Sir, says I, if those fellows are not kept under by violence 
 I believe you are satisfied nothing is to be done with them ; 
 and it is reported in your works, that I have been rather 
 their jest than their terror, for want of using them as they 
 deserve ; and I was resolved, how much soever it is against 
 my own disposition, that your service should not suffer for 
 my unseasonable forbearance ; and therefore, if I had 
 scourged him to death — Hold, says he, no, no, by no means 
 any such severity in my bo'inds. Remember, young man, 
 you were once a servant ; deal as you would acknowledge it 
 would be just to deal with you in his case, and mingle 
 always some mercy. I desire it, and let the consequence of 
 being too gentle be placed to my account. 
 
 This was as much as I could desire, and the more, because 
 what passed was in public, and several, both negroes and 
 white servants, as well as the particular persons who had 
 accused me, heard it all, though I did not know it. A cruel 
 dog of an overseer, says one of the white servants behind, 
 he would have whipped poo r bullet-head , so they called the 
 negro that was to be punished to death, if his honour had 
 not happened to come to-day. • 
 
 However, I urged the notorious crime this fellow was 
 guilty of, and the danger there was in such forbearance, from 
 the refractory and incorrigible temper of the negroes, and 
 pressed a little the necessity of making examples ; but he 
 said. Well, well, do it the next time, but not now ; so I said 
 no more. 
 
 The other fellow's crime wa« trifling compared vsdth this ; 
 and the master went forward, talking of it to me, and I fol- 
 lowing him, tiU we came to the house ; when, after he had 
 been sat down awhile, he called me to him ; and, not suf- 
 fering my accusers to come near till he had heard my defence, 
 he began with me thus : — 
 
 Mast. Hark ye, young man, I must have some discourse 
 with you. Your conduct is complained of. since I set you 
 
ACCUSED OF CEDEl VY TO THE NEGROES. 381 
 
 over this plantation ; I thought your sense of the obligation 
 I had laid on you, would have secured your diligence and 
 faithfulness to me. 
 
 Jack. I am very sorry any complaint should be made of 
 me, because the obligation I am under to your honour, and 
 which I freely confess, does bind me to your interest in the 
 strongest manner imaginable ; and, however I may have 
 mistaken my business, I am sure I have not willingly 
 neglected it. 
 
 Mast. "Well, I shall not condemn you without hearing you, 
 and therefore I called you in now to tell you of it. 
 
 Jack. I humbly thank your honour ; I have but one 
 petition more, and that is, that I may know my accusation ; 
 and, if you please, my accusers. 
 
 Mast. The first you shall, and that is the reason of my 
 talking to you in private ; and if there is any need of a 
 farther hearing you shall know your accusers too. What 
 you are charged with, is just contrary to what appeared to 
 me just now, and therefore you and I must come to a new 
 imderstanding about it, for I thought I was too cunoaing for 
 you, and now I think you have been too cunning for me. 
 
 Jack. I hope your honour wiU not be offended that I do 
 not fully imderstand you. 
 
 Mast. I believe you do not ; come, tell me honestly, did 
 you really intend to whip the poor negro twice a day for 
 four days together, that is to say, to whip him to death, for 
 that would have been the English of it, and the end of it. 
 
 Jack. If I may be permitted to guess, sir, I believe I know 
 the charge that is brought against me ; and that yoiu- honour 
 has been told that I have been too gentle with the negroes, 
 as well as other servants; and that when, they deserved to 
 be used with the accustomed severity of the country, I have 
 not given them half enough ; and that by this means they 
 are careless of your business, and that your plantation is not 
 weU looked after, and the like. 
 
 Mast. WeU, you guess right ; go on. 
 
 Jack: The first part of the charge I confess, but the last I 
 deny ; and appeal to your honour's strictest examination 
 into every part of it. 
 
 Mast. If the last part could be true, I would be glad the 
 first were ; for it would be an infinite satisfaction to me, 
 that, my business not being tmgiected, nor our safety en- 
 
382 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 dangered, those poor wretches could be used with more 
 humanity ; for cruelty is the aversion of my nature, and it 
 is the only uncomiortable thing that attends_me Jn_all_jifly 
 prospenty.^ 
 
 Jack. I freely acknowledge, sir, that at first it was impos- 
 sible for me to bring myself to that terrible work. How 
 could I, that was but just come out of the terror of it myself, 
 and had but the day before been a poor naked miserable 
 servant myself, and might be to-morrow reduced to the same 
 condition again ; how could I use this (showing a horsewhip) 
 terrible weapon on the naked flesh of my fellow-servants, as 
 well as fellow-creatures ? At least, sir, when my duty made 
 it absolutely necessary, I could not do it without the utmost 
 horror. I beseech you, pardon me if I have such a tender- 
 ness in my nature, that though I might be fit to be your 
 servant, I am incapable of being an executioner, having been 
 an offender myself. 
 
 Mast. Well, but how then can my business be done ? and 
 how will this terrible obstinacy of the negroes, who they tell 
 me can be no otherwise governed, be kept from neglect of 
 their work, or even insolence and rebellion ? 
 
 Jack. This brings me, sir, to the latter part of my defence ; 
 and here, I hope your honour wiU be pleased to call my 
 accusers, or that you will give yourself the trouble of taking 
 the exactest view of your plantation, and see, or let them 
 show you, if anything is neglected, if your business has 
 suffered in anything, or if your negroes or other servants 
 are under less government than they were before ; and if, on 
 the contrary, I have foundout._that happ y secret , to have 
 good order kept, the buSittesiof the pljintation done, and 
 that with diligence and despatch, and that the negroes ara 
 kept in awe, the natural temper of them subjected, and the 
 safety and peace of your family secured, as well by gentle 
 means as by rough, by moderate correction as by torture and 
 barbarity, by a due awe of just discipline as by the horror 
 of unsufferableTorSe^nS^IIibpe^uriKonour will not lay that 
 sin to my charge. 
 
 Mast. No, indeed, you would be the most acceptable 
 manager that ever I employed ; but how then does this con- 
 sist with the cruel sentence you had passed on the poor 
 fellow that is in your condemned hole yonder, who was to 
 be whipped eight times in four days ? 
 
NEUKOES OBEDIENT WITHOUT PUNISHMENT. 383 
 
 Jack. Very well, sir ; first, sir, he remains under the ter- 
 rible apprehensions of a punishment', so severe as no negro 
 ever had before ; this fellow, with your leave, I intended to 
 release to-morrow without any whipping at all, after talking 
 to him in my way about his offence, and raising in his mind 
 a sense of the value of pardon ; and if this makes him a 
 better servant than the severest whipping will do, then, I 
 presume, you would allow I have gained a point. 
 
 Mast. Ay, but what if it should not be so? for these 
 fellows have no sense of gratitude. 
 
 Jack. That is, sir, because they are never pardoned ; if 
 they offend, they never know what mercy is, and what then 
 have they to be grateful for ? , 
 
 Mast. Thou art in the right indeed; where there is no 
 mercy showed, there is no obligation laid upon them. 
 
 Jack. Besides, sir, if they have at any time been let go, 
 which is very seldom, they are not told what the case is ; 
 they take no pains with them to imprint principles of grati- 
 tude on their minds, to tell them what kindness is shown 
 them, and what they are indebted for it, and what they might 
 gain in the end by it. 
 
 Mast. But do you think such usage would do ? Would it 
 make any impression ? You persuade yourself it would, but 
 you see 'tis against the received notion of the whole country. 
 
 Jack. There are, it may be, public and national mistakes 
 and errors in conduct, and this is one. 
 
 Mast. Have you tried it ? You cannot say it is a mistake 
 till you have tried and proved it to be so. 
 
 Jack. Your whole plantation is a proof of it. This very 
 fellow had never acted as he did, if he had not gotten rum in 
 his head,_^nd^een .flut of the goyemment of himself; so that 
 indeed all the offence T ought to have punished Inrn for had 
 been that of stealing a bottle of rum, and drinking it all up ; 
 in which case, like Noah, he did not know the strength of it, 
 and when he iTadltmlGis head, he was a madman, he was as 
 one raging and distracted ; so that, for all the rest, he de- 
 served pity rather than punishment. 
 
 Mast. Thou art right, certainly right, and thou wilt be a 
 rare fellow if thou canst bring these notions into practice. I 
 wish you had tried it upon any one particular negro, that I 
 might see an example; I would give 500i. if it could be 
 brought to bear. 
 
S84 COlOIfEL JiiCK. 
 
 Jack. I desire nothing, sir, but your favour, and the advan« 
 tage of obliging you ; I will show you an example of it among 
 your own negroes, and all the plantation will acknow- 
 ledge it. 
 
 Mast. You make my very heart glad within me. Jack ; if 
 you can bring this to pass, I here give you my word, I'll not 
 
 ^only give you your own freedom, but make a manofjon for 
 
 _ this world a s long as you live^ 
 
 Upon this I bowed to him very respectfully, and told him 
 the following story. There is a negro, sir, in your planta- 
 tion, who has been your servant several years before I came ; 
 he did a fault that was of no great consequence in itself, but 
 perhaps would have been Ty^orse if they had indeed gone 
 farther ; and I had him brought into the usual place, and tied 
 him by the thumbs for correction, and he was told that he 
 should be whipped and pickled in a dreadful manner. Afier 
 I had made proper impressions on his mind of the terror of 
 his punishment, and found that he was sufficiently humbled 
 by it, I went into the house, and caused him to be brought 
 out, just as they do when they go to correct the negroes on 
 such occasions : when he was stripped and tied up, he had 
 two lashes given him, that were indeed very cruel ones, and 
 I called to them to hold. Hold ! said I, to the two men that 
 had just began to lay on upon the poor fellow : Hold ! said \ 
 let me talk with him. 
 
 So he was taken down ; then I began, and represented to 
 him how kind you, that were his great master (so the negroes 
 call the owner of the plantation, or at least so they called 
 him, because he was a great man in the coxmtry, having 
 
 'three or four large plantations), had been to him; that you 
 had never done Mm any harm, that you had used him gently, 
 and he had never been brought to this punishment in so many 
 years, though he had done some faults before ; that this was 
 a notorious offence, for he had stolen some rum, and made 
 himself and two other negroes drunk-mad (to be drunk in a 
 negro, is to be mad; for when they get rumlhey afe'worse 
 than raving, and fipto do any manner of mischief) ; and had 
 
 jabused_twx|jvomen negroes, who had husbands in ouFmS'- 
 ter's service, but in anoffier plantation ; and~played several 
 pranks, and for this I had appbinteTEin this punishment. 
 
 He shook his head, and made signs that he was muchf* 
 torree, as he called it. And what wiU you say or do, said i, 
 
METHOD OF TREATMENT TO NEGEOES. 383 
 
 if I should prevail with the great master to pardon you ? I 
 have a mind to go and see if I can beg for you. He told me 
 he -would lie down, let me kill him : Me will, says he, run, 
 go, fetch, bring for you as long as me live. This was the 
 opportunity I had jjiind to h ave, to try whether ^ as negroes 
 have_aUjMilierrfe^ultie§j£.rea^onaJ)le_cjiato^ 
 not_also^S;^.e ^nse.of JdBdneaa,-aQffie_pri^^ 
 ^enCTosij^,^ which in short is the foundation of gratitude, for~ 
 gratitude is the product of generous principles. 
 
 You please me with the beginning of tlus story, says he, I 
 hope you have carried it on. 
 
 Yes, sir, says I, it has been carried on farther perhaps 
 than you imagine, or wiU think has been possible in such a 
 case. 
 
 But I was not so arrogant as to assume the merit to my- 
 self: No, no, said I, I do not ask ■ you to go or run for me, 
 _ you must do all that for our great mast er, for it wi ll be from 
 Em ent ir ely t hat you wiLTbep ajHonecTat all, for your offence 
 is against him ; and what will you say, wiU you be grateful 
 " to him, and run, go, fetch, bring, for lum as long as you live, 
 as you have said you would for me ? 
 
 Yes indeed, says he, and muohee do, muchee do, for you too 
 (he would not leave me out), you ask him for me. 
 
 Well, I put off all his promised gratitude to me from my- 
 self, as wfis my duty, and placed it to your account ; told hua 
 I knew you was muchee good, muchee pitiful, and I would 
 persuade you if I could ; and so told him I would go to you, 
 and he should be whipped no more till I came again ; but. 
 Hark ye, Mouchat, s ays I (that was the negro's name), they 
 tell me, when 1 came hither, that there is no showing kind- 
 ness to smy of you negroes ; that when we spare you from 
 whipping you laugh at us, and are the worse. 
 
 He looked very serious at me, and said, O, that no so ; 
 the masters say so, but no be so, no be so, indeede, indeede : 
 and so we parleyed. 
 
 Jack. Why do they say so then ? To be sure they have 
 tried you all. 
 
 Negro. No, no, they no try, they say so, but no try. 
 
 Jack. I hear them all say so. 
 
 HFegro. Me tell you the true ; they have no mercie, they 
 beat us cruel, all cruel, they never have show mercie. How 
 can they tell we be no better ? 
 
 c c 
 
886 COLONUL JACK. 
 
 Jack. What, do they never spare ? 
 
 Negro. Master, me speakee the true ; they never give 
 mercie, they always whippee, lashee, knockee down, all 
 cruel : negro be muchee better man, do muchee better work, 
 but they teU us no mercie. 
 
 Jack. But what, do they never show any mercy ? 
 
 Negro. No, never, no, never, all whippee, all whippee, 
 cruel, worse than they whippee de horse, whippee de dog. 
 
 Jack. But would they be better if they did ? 
 
 Negro. Yes, yes, negro be muchee better if they be 
 mercie ; when they be whippee, whippee, negro muchee ciy, 
 muchee hate, would kill if they had de gun ; but when they 
 makee de mercie, then negro tell de great tankee, and love 
 to worke, and do muchee worke ; and because he good 
 master to them. 
 
 Jach. They say no, you would laugh at them and mock 
 when they show mercy. 
 
 Negro. How they say when they show mercie! they 
 never show mercie, me never see them show one mercie 
 since me live. 
 
 Now, sir, said I, if this be so, really they go, I dare say, 
 contrary to your inclination, for I see you are but too full 
 of pity for the miserable ; I saw it in my own case ; and 
 upon a presumption, that you had rather have your work 
 done from a principle of love than fear, without making 
 your servants bleed for every trifle, if it were possible ; I 
 say, upon this presumption I dealt with this Mouchat, as 
 you shall hear. 
 
 Mast. I have never met with anything of this kind since 
 I have been a planter, which is now about forty years; I 
 am delighted with the story; go on, I expect a pleasant 
 conclusion. 
 
 Jach. The conclusion, sir, will be I believe as much to 
 your satisfaction as the beginning; for it every way answered 
 my expectation, and will yours also ; and show you how you 
 might be faithfuUy served if you pleased, for 'tis certain you 
 are not so served now. 
 
 Mast. No, indeed ; they serve me but just as they do the 
 devil, for fear I should hurt them ; but 'tis contrary to an 
 ingenuous spirit to delight in such service ; I abhor it, if I 
 could but know how to get any other. 
 
 Jack. It is easy, sir, to show you, that you may be servej 
 
NEGEO GHATITUDE. 387 
 
 npon better 'principles, and consequently he better served, 
 and more to your satisfaction; .and I dare undertake to 
 convince you of it 
 
 Mast. Well, go on •with the story. 
 
 Jack. After I had talked thus to him, I said. Well, 
 Mouchat, I shall see how you will be afterwards, if I ca 
 get our great master to be merciful to you at this time. 
 
 Negro. Yes, you shall see, you muchee see, muchee see. 
 
 Upon this I called for my horse and went from him, and 
 made as if I rode away to you, who they told me was in the 
 next plantation; and having stayed four or five hours, I 
 came back and talked to him again, told him that I had 
 waited on you, and that you had heard of his offence, was 
 highly provoked, and had resolved to cause him to be 
 severely punished for an example to all the negroes in the 
 plantation ; but that I had told you how penitent he was, 
 and how good he would be if you would pardon him ; and 
 had at last prevailed on you. That you had told me what 
 all people said of the negroes; how, that to show them 
 mercy was to make them think you were never in earnest 
 with them, and that you did but trifle and play with them. 
 However, that I had told you what he had said of himself, ' 
 and that it was not true of the negroes, and that the white 
 men said it, but that they could not know because they did 
 never show any mercy; ' and therefore had never tried : that / 
 I had persuaded you to show mercy, to try whether kindness ^ 
 would prevail as much as cruelty. And now, Mouchat, said 
 I, you will be let go, pray let oiu* great master see that I 
 have said true. So I ordered him to be untied, gave him 
 a dram of rum out of my pocket bottle, and ordered them to 
 give him some victuals. 
 
 When the feUow was let loose, he came to me and kneeled 
 down to me, and took hold of my legs and of my feet, and 
 laid his head upon the ground, and sobbed and cried like a 
 child that had been corrected, but could not speak for his 
 Ufe; and thus he continued a long time. I would have 
 taken him up but he would not rise ; but I cried as fast as 
 he, for I- could not bear to see a poor wretch lie on the 
 ground to me, that was but a servant the other day like 
 himself. At last, but not tiU a quarter of an hour, I made 
 him get up, and then he spoke. Me muchee know good | 
 
 c c 2 
 
388 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 great master, muchee good you master. No negro unthank< 
 ful, me die for them, do me so muchee kind. 
 
 I dismissed him then, and bid him go to his wife (for he 
 was married), and not work that afternoon ; but, as he was 
 going away, I called him again, and talked thus to him. 
 
 Now, Mouchat, says I, you see the white men can show 
 mercy; now you must tell all the negroes what has been 
 reported of them, that they regard nothing but the whip; 
 that if they are used gently they are the worse, not the 
 better ; and that this is the reason why the white men show 
 them no mercy; and convince them, that they would he 
 much better treated, and used kindlier, if they would show 
 themselves as grateful for kind usage, as humble after tor- 
 ment ; and see if you can work on them. 
 
 Me go, me go, says he, me muchee talk to them ; they be 
 muchee glad as me be, and do great work to be used kind 
 by de great master. 
 
 Mast. "Well, but now what testimony have you of this 
 gratitude you speak of? Have you seen any alteration 
 among them ? 
 
 Jack. I come next to that part, sir. About a month 
 after this, I caused a report to be spread abroad in the 
 plantation, that I had offended you, the great master, and 
 that I was turned out of the plantation, and was to be 
 hanged. Your honour knows that some time ago, you sent 
 me upon your particular business into Potuxent river, where 
 I was absent twelve days ; then I took the opportunity to 
 have this report spread about among the negroes, to see how 
 it would work. 
 
 Mast. What ? to see how Mouchat would take it ? 
 
 Jack. Yes, sir, and it made a discovery indeed ; the poor 
 fellow did not believe it presently, but finding I was stiU 
 absent, he went to the head clerk, and standing at his door, 
 said nothing, but looked like a fool of ten years old. After 
 some time, the upper overseer came out, and seeing him 
 stand there, at first said nothing, supposing he had been sent 
 of some errand ; but observing him to stand stock still, and 
 that he was in the same posture and place, during the time 
 that he had passed and repassed two or three times, he stops 
 short the last time of his coming by. What do you want, 
 «ays he to him, that you stand idle here so long? 
 
NEGEOES EXCITEMENT AT JACk's ABSENCE. 389 
 
 Me speakee, me tell something, sayfs he. 
 
 Then the overseer thought some discovery was at hand, 
 End began to listen to him. What would you tell me ? says 
 be. 
 
 Me tell ! pray, says he, where be de other master 1 
 
 He meant, he would ask where he was. What other 
 master do you mean? says the clerk. What, do you want 
 to speak with the great master ? He can't be spoke by you ; 
 pray what is your business, cannot you tell it to me ? 
 
 No, no, me no speakee the great master, the other master, 
 Bays Mouchat. 
 
 What, the colonel? says the clerk. 
 
 Yes, yes, the colonel, says 'he. 
 
 Why, don't you know that he is to be hanged to-morrow, 
 Bays the clerk, for making the great master angry ? 
 
 Tes, yes, says Mouchat, me know, me know, but me want 
 speaik, me tell something. 
 
 Well, what would you say? says the clerk. 
 
 ! me no let him makee de great master angry ; with 
 that he kneeled down to the clerk. 
 
 What ails you? says the clerk; I tell you he must be 
 banged. 
 
 No, no, says he, no hang de master, me kneel for him to 
 great master. 
 
 You kneel for him ! says the clerk ; what, do you think 
 the great master will mind you ? He has made the great 
 master angry, and must be hanged, I tell you; what signifies 
 your begging ? 
 
 Negro. ! me pray, me pray the great master for him. 
 
 Ckrk. Why, what ails you, that you would pray for him? 
 
 Negro. O ! he beggee the great master for me, now me 
 beggee for him ; the great master muchee good, muchee 
 good, he pardon me when the other master beggee me ; now 
 he pardon him when me beggee for him again. 
 
 Clerk. No, no, your begging won't do; wiU you be hanged 
 for him ? if you do that, something may be. 
 
 Negro. Yes, yes, me be hang for de poor master that 
 beggee for me ; Mouchat shall hang, the great master shall 
 hangee me, whippee me, anything to save the poor master 
 that beggee me, yes, yes, indeed. 
 
 Clerk. Are you in earnest, Mouchat ? 
 
 Negro. Yes indeed, me tellee de true, the great master 
 
,^90 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 shall know me tellee de true, for he shall see the white man 
 hangee me Mouchat ; poor negro Mouchat will be hangee, 
 be whippee, anything for the poor master that beggee for me. 
 
 With this the poor fellow cried most pitifully, and there 
 was no room to question his being in earnest ; when on a 
 sudden I appeared, for I was fetched to see all this trans- 
 action. I was not in the house at first, but was just come 
 home from the business you sent me of, and heard it all, 
 and indeed neither the clerk nor I could bear it any longer, 
 so he came out to me : Go to him, says he, you have made 
 an example tha t wiUjever^be fo rgot, that a negro can be 
 grateful ; go to him, adds Ee,^ for I can talk to him no 
 longer. So I appeared, and spoke to him presently, and let 
 him see that I was at liberty; but to hear how the poor 
 fellow behaved, your honour cannot but be pleased. 
 
 Master. Prithee go on, I am pleased with it all ; 'tis all a 
 new scene of negro life to me, and very moving. 
 
 Jack. For a good while he stood as if he had been 
 thunderstruck and stupid; but, looking steadily at me, 
 though not speaking a word, at last he mutters to himself, 
 with a kind of a laugh, Ay, ay, says he, Mouchat see, 
 Mouchat no see, me wakee, me no wakee ; no hangee, no 
 hangee, he live truly, very live ; and then on a sudden he 
 runs to me, snatches me away as if I had been a boy of ten 
 years old, and takes me up upon his back and runs away 
 with me, tiU I was fain to cry out to him to stop ; then he 
 sets me down, and looks at me again, then falls a dancing 
 about me, as if he had been bewitched, just as you have 
 seen them do about their wives and children when they are 
 merry. 
 
 Well, then, he began to talk with me, and told me what 
 they had said to him, how I was to be hanged. Well, says 
 I, Mouchat, and would you have been satisfied to be hanged 
 to save me ? Yes, yes, says he, be truly hangee, to beggee 
 you. 
 
 But why do you love me so well, Mouchat? said I. 
 
 Did you no beggee me, he says, at the great master ? you 
 savee me, make great master muchee good, muchee kind, no 
 whippee me; me no forget; me be whipped, be hanged, that 
 you no be hanged ; me die, that you no die ; me no let any 
 bad be with you all while that me live. 
 
 Now, sir, your honour may judge whether kindness, well 
 
STRATEGEM USED TO EEFOEM THE NEGROES. 391 
 
 managed, -would not oblige these people as well as cruelty ; 
 and wkether there are principles of gratitude in them or no. 
 
 Master. But what then can be the reason that we never 
 believed it to be so before? 
 
 Jack. Truly, sir, I fear that Mouchat gave the true reason. 
 
 Master, What was that pray? that we were too cruel ? 
 
 Jack. That they never had any mercy showed them ; that 
 they never tried them whether they would be grateful or no; 
 that if they did a fault, they were never spared, but punished 
 with the utmost cruelty ; so that they had no passion, no 
 affection to act upon, TMit.,;thafc».'«rf--feai:, which necessarily 
 brought hatred with it; but that if they were used with 
 compassion they would serve with affection as well as other 
 servants. Nature is the samej and reason governs _m jjist 
 proportions i n all creatiifes : but having never been let taste 
 what mercy'iSj'they'Eow not how to act from a principle of 
 love. 
 
 Master. I am convihced it is so ; but now, pray tell me, 
 how did you put this in practice vnth the poor negroes now 
 in bonds yonder, when you passed such a cruel sentence 
 upon them, that they should be whipped twice a day, for 
 four days together ; was that showing mercy? 
 
 Jack. My method was just the same; and if you please to 
 
 inquire of Mr. , your other servant, you wUl be satisfied 
 
 that it was so ; for we agreed upon the same measures as I 
 took with Mouchat ; namely, first to put them into the 
 utmost horror and apprehensions of the cruelest punishment 
 that they ever heard of, and thereby enhance the value of 
 their pardon, which was to come as from yourself,, but not 
 without our great intercession. Then I was to argue with 
 them, and work upon their reason, to make the mercy that 
 was showed them sink deep into their minds, and give 
 lasting impressions; explain the meaning of gratitude to 
 them, and the nature of an obligation, and the like, as I had 
 done vvdth Mouchat. 
 
 Master. I am answered ; your method is certainly right, 
 and I desire you may go on with it ; for I desire nothing on 
 this side heaven more, than to have all my negroes serve me 
 from principles of gratitude for my kindness to them. I 
 abhor to be feared like a lion, like a tyrant; it is a violence 
 upon nature every way, and is the most disagreeable thing 
 in the world to a generous mind. 
 
S92 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 Jack. But, sir, I am doubtful that you may not believe 
 that I intended to act thus with those poor fellows ; I be- 
 seech you to send for Mr. , that he may tell you what 
 
 we had agreed on, before I speak with him. 
 
 Master. What reason have I to doubt that ? 
 
 Jack. I hope you have not ; but I should be very sorry 
 you should think me capable of executing such a sentence, 
 as you have heard me own I had passed on them; and there 
 can be no way effectually to clear it up but this. 
 
 Master. Well, seeing you put so much weight upon it, he 
 shall be called for. 
 
 [He was called, and, being ordered by the master to 
 teU the measures that were concerted between them 
 for the punishment or management of those negroes, 
 he gave it just as Jack had done before.] 
 
 Jack. I hope, sir, you are ijow, not only satisfied of the 
 truth of the account I gave, relating to the method we had 
 agreed on, but of its being so proper, and so likely to 
 answer your end. 
 
 Master. I am fuUy satisfied, and shall be glad to see that 
 it answers the end ; for, as I have said, nothing can be more 
 agreeable to me, nothing has so much robbed me of the 
 comfort of aU my fortunes, as the cruelty used, in my name, 
 on the bodies of those poor slaves. 
 
 Jack. It is certainly wrong, sir ; it is not only wrong as it 
 is barbarous and cruel, but it is wrong, too, as it is thg 
 worst way of managing and of having your business done. 
 
 Master. It is my aversion, it fills my very soul with 
 horror; I believe if I should come by while they were using 
 those cruelties on the poor creatures, I should either sink 
 down at the sight of it, or fly into a rage and kill the fellow 
 that did it ; ^ough it is done too by m vown authority. 
 
 Jack. But, sir, i dare say I shall convince you also that it 
 is wrong in respect of interest ; and that your business shall 
 be better discharged, and your plantations better ordered, 
 and more work done by the negroes, who shall be engaged 
 by mercy and lenity, than by those who are driven and 
 dragged by the whips and the chains of a merciless tor- 
 mentor. 
 
 Master. I think the nature of the thing speaks itself; 
 doubtless it should be so, and I have often thought it would 
 be so, and a thousand times wished it might be so ; but all 
 
SOME NEGROES DNGOVEENABLE. 393 
 
 my English people pretend otherwise, and that it is impos- 
 sible to bring the negroes to any sense of kindness, and con- 
 sequently not to any obedience of love. 
 
 Jack. It may be true, sir, that there may be found here 
 and there a negro of a senseless, stupid, sordid disposition, 
 perfectly untractable, undocible, and incapable of due im- 
 pressions ; especially incapable of the generosity of principle 
 which I am speaking of. You know very well, sir, there 
 are such among the Christians, as well as among the negroes ; 
 whence else came the English proverb. That if you save a 
 thief from the gallows, he shall be the first to cut your throat. 
 But, sir, if such a refractory, undocible fellow comes in our 
 way, he must be dealt with, first by the smooth ways, to try 
 him, then by the violent way, to break his temper, as th^ 
 break a horse ; and if nothing will do, such a wretch should 
 be sold off, and others bought in his room ; for the peace of 
 the plantation should not be broken for one devihsh-tempered 
 fellow ; and if this was done, I doubt not you should have 
 all your plantations carried on, and your work done, and not 
 a negro or a servant upon it, but what w ould not only work. 
 for you, but even die for you if there was an occasion for it, 
 as you see this poor Mouchat would have done for me. 
 
 Master. Well, go on with your measures, and may you 
 succeed ; I'll promise you I will fully make you amends for 
 it. I long to have these cruelties out of use, in my planta- 
 tion especially ; as for others, let them do as they will. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MY MASTER GIVES ME MT LIBERTY, AKD PUTS ME INTO A 
 
 PLANTATION FOR MYSELF ^PROCEEDINGS AS A PLANTER 
 
 1 GET MY BILL CASHED IN LONDON, AND A SORTED 
 
 PARCEL OP GOODS SENT OUT FOR ITS AMOUNT — ^THE 
 GREATEST PART OF THEM ARE LOST AT THE MOUTH OP 
 THE . BAY REFLECTIONS. 
 
 Our master being gone, I went to the prisoners, and first I 
 suffered them to be told that the great master had been there, 
 and that he had been inclined to pardon them, till he knew 
 what their crime was ; but then he said it was so great a 
 fault that it must be punished ; besides, the man that talked 
 
394 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 to them told them, that the great master said, that he knew 
 if he had pardoned them they would be but the worse, for 
 that the negroes were never thankful for being spared, and 
 that there were no other ways to make them obedient, but 
 by severity. 
 
 One of the poor fellows, more sensible than the other, 
 answered, if any negro be badder for being kindly used, they 
 should be whipped till they were muchee better ; but that 
 he never knew that, for that he never knew the negro be 
 ■ kindly use. 
 
 This was the same thing as the other had said, and indeed, 
 
 was but too true, for the overseers really kne.w no such thing 
 
 as mercy ; and that notion of the negroes being no other way 
 
 to be governed but by cruelty, had been the occasion that no 
 
 \> other method was ever tried among them. 
 
 >^Aj»- Again, if a slack hand had at any time been held upon 
 
 < '^< y them, it had not been done with discretion, or as a poin t of 
 
 [ ' . I ). mercy, an d manag ed with the assistance of argument to 
 
 „- j-^'v^^ convince the negroes" oT the nature and reasolToF it, andTo 
 
 ^.J^> "sEow them what they ought to do in return for it ; but it 
 
 A ' was perhaps the effect of negligence, ill conduct, and want of 
 
 application to the business of the plantation ; and then it was 
 
 _^^y*f I no wonder that the negroes took the advantage of it. 
 
 r\ • '•- .Tft. f Well, I carried on the affair with these two negroes just 
 
 y..«»y-'*'t^rju-> t^ as I did with Mouchat, so I need not repeat the particulars ; 
 
 ^^''^''^ and they were delivered with infinite acknowledgments and 
 
 thanks, even to all the extravagances of joy usual in thoae 
 
 people on such occasions; and such was the gratitude of 
 
 those two pardoned fellows, that they were the most faithful 
 
 and most diligent servants ever after that belonged to the 
 
 whole plantation, Mouchat excepted. 
 
 In this manner I carried on the plantation fuUy to his 
 satisfaction ; and before a year more was expired, there was 
 scarce any such thing as correction known in the plantation, 
 exc ept upon a few boy s, who were incapable of the impres- 
 sions that good usage would have made, even upon them too, 
 till they had Uved toJmow_thg_differen£.e. 
 
 It was some time after this conference, that our great 
 master, as we called him, sent for me again to his dwefiing- 
 house, and told me he had had an answer from England 
 from his friend, to whom he had written about my bill, I 
 was a little afraid that he was going to ask me leave to send 
 
PEEFEES SLATEET TO LIBEETr. 395 
 
 •t to London ; but he did not say aaiytHng like that, but told 
 me that his friend had been with the gentleman, and that he 
 owned the bill, and that he had all the money in his hand 
 that the biU had mentioned ; but that he had promised the 
 young man that had given him the money (meaning me) not 
 to pay the money to anybody but himself, though they should 
 bring the bill ; the reason of which was, that I did not know 
 who might get the bUl away from me. 
 
 But now, Colonel Jack, says he, as you wrote him an 
 account where you was, and by what wicked arts you were 
 trepanned, and that it was impossible for you to have your 
 liberty till you could get the money ; my friend at London 
 has written to me, that, upon making out a due copy of the 
 bill here, attested by a notary and sent to him, and your 
 obligation likewise attested, whereby you oblige yourself to 
 deliver the original to his order, after the money is paid, he 
 will pay the money. 
 
 I told him I was willing to do whatever his honour 
 directed ; and so the proper copies were drawn as I had 
 been told were required. 
 
 But now, what will you do with this money Jack ? says 
 he, smiling ; will you buy your liberty of me, and go to 
 planting ? 
 
 I was too cunning forjiim now indeed, for I remembered 
 what he had promised me ; and I had too much knowledge 
 of the honesty of his principles, as well as of the kindness he 
 had for me, to doubt his being as good as his word ; J0_I_ 
 tumed_aUJ;his talk j£JiiajipoiL,him_ anp^r jgay. I knew 
 "That whenhe asked me if I would buy my liberty and go to I q^^ r*.f 
 planting, it was to try if I would leave him ; so I said. As ^if^'^ ^ 
 to buying my liberty, sir, that is to say, going out of your W*^ j 
 service, Ihadmuch rather buy n^re_timejn_jour_sraTice, • (uv«J^^^ 
 and I am"only unhappy that I have but two years to serve. ( " t*^'^ 
 
 Come, come, colonel, says he, don't flatter me; I love tA--'-^ 
 plain dealing ; liberty is precious to everybody ; if you have "^^^^^^^^ 
 a mind to have your money brought over, you shall have , - C(^ 
 your liberty to begin for yourself, and I will take care you ^ 
 shall be well used by the country, and get you a good plant 
 tation. 
 
 I still insisted that I would not quit his service for the 
 best plantation in Maryland ; that he had been so good to 
 me, and I believed I was so useful to him, that I could not 
 
 frtV 
 
396 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 think of it; and at last I added, I hoped h e could not 
 believe butjL.Viad .as.fflu&h^ratitudg_a§~a. negro. 
 
 He smiled, and said he would not be served upon those 
 terms ; that he did not forget what he had promised, nor 
 what I had done in his plantation ; and that he was resolved 
 in the first place to give me my liberty. So he pulls out a 
 piece of paper, and throws it to me : There, says he, there's 
 a certificate of your coming on shore, and being sold to me 
 for five years, of which you have lived three with me, and 
 now you are your own master. I bowed, and told him that 
 I was sure if I was my own master, I would be his servant 
 as long as he would accept of my service ; and now we 
 strained courtesies, and he told me I should be his servant 
 still ; but it should be on two conditions, 1st, that he would 
 give me 30^. a-year and my board, for my managing the 
 plantation I was then employed in ; and 2dly, that at the 
 same time he would procure me a new plantation to begin 
 upon my own account. For, Colonel Jack, says he, smihng, 
 though you are but a young man, yet 'tis time you were 
 doing something for yourself. 
 
 I answered, that I could do little at a plantation for myself, 
 tmless I neglected his business, which I was resolved not to 
 do on any terms whatever ; but that I would serve him 
 faithfiiUy, if he would accept of me, as long as he lived. So 
 you shall, says he again, and serve yourself too. And thus 
 we parted for that time. 
 
 Here I am to observe in the general, to avoid dwelling too 
 long upon a story, that as the two negroes, who I delivered 
 from punishment, were ever after the most diligent and labo- 
 rious poor fellows in the whole plantation as above, except 
 Mouchat, of whom I shall speak more by and by, so they not 
 only were grateful themselves for their good usage, but they 
 influenced the whole plantation ; so that the gentle usage and 
 lenity with which they had been treated, had a thousand 
 times more influence upon them to make them diligent, than 
 all the blows and kicks, whippings, and other tortures could 
 have, which they had been used to, and now the plantation 
 was famous for it ; so that several other planters began to do 
 the same, though I cannot say it was with the same success, 
 which might be for want of taking pains with them, and 
 working upon their passions in a right manner. It appeared 
 that negroes were to be reasoned into things as well as other 
 
IHEEATENED DISCHAEGE THE BEST EEFOKM. 397 
 
 people, and it was by thus managing their reason that most 
 oi' the work was done. 
 
 However, as it was, the plantations in Maryland were the 
 better for this undertaking, and they are to this day less cruel 
 and barbarous to their negroes, than they are in Barbadoes ^ 
 and Jamaica ; and 'tis observed the negroes are not in these 
 colonies so desperate, neither do they so often run away, or so 
 t)ften plot mischief against their master, as they do in those. 
 
 I have dwelt the longer upon it, that, if possible, posterity 
 might be persuaded to try gentler methods with those miser- 
 able creatures, and to use them with humanity ; assuring 
 them that if they did so, adding the common prudence that 
 every particular case would direct them to for itself, the 
 negroes would do their work faithfully and cheerfully ; they 
 would not find any of that refractoriness and suUenness in 
 their temper that they pretend now to complain of, but they 
 would be the same as their Christian servants, except that 
 they would be the more thankful, and humble, and laborious 
 of the two. 
 
 I continued in this station between five and six years after 
 this, and in all that time we had not one negro whipped, ex- -, 
 cept, as I observed before, now and then an unlucky boy, and I 
 that only for trifles ; I cannot say but we had some ill-natured, -' 
 ungovernable negroes ; but if at any time such offended, they 
 were pardoned the first time, in the manner as above, and 
 the second time were ordered to be turned out of the planta- 
 tion; and this was remarkable, that they would torment 
 themselves at the apprehension of being turned away, more 
 by a great deal than if they had been to be whipped, for 
 then they were only sullen, and heavy ; nay, at length we 
 found the fear of being turned out of the plantation had as 
 much effect to reform them, that is to say, make them more 
 diligent than any torture would have done ; and the reason -\ 
 was evident, namely, because in our plantation they were 
 used like men, in the other like dogs. -' 
 
 My master owned the satisfaction he took in this blessed 
 change, as he called it, as long as he lived ; and as he was so 
 engaged by seeing the negroes grateful, he showed the same 
 principle of gratitude to those that served him, as he looked 
 for in those that he served ; and particularly to me, and so I 
 come briefly to that part. The first thing he did after giving 
 me my liberty as above, and making me an allowance, was 
 
 V 
 
898 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 to get the country bounty to me, ttat is to say, a quantity of 
 land to begin and plant for myself. 
 
 But this he managed a way by himself; and, as I found 
 afterwards, took up, that is, purchased in my name, about 
 three hundred acres of land, in a more convenient place than 
 it would have otherwise been allotted me ; and this he did 
 by his interest with the lord proprietor ; so that I had an 
 extent of ground marked out to me, not next, but very near 
 one of his own plantations. Wlien I made my acknowledg- 
 ment for this to him, he told me plainly that I was not 
 beholden to him for it all ; for he did it that I might not be 
 obliged to neglect his business for the carrying on my own, 
 and on that account he would not reckon to me what money 
 he paid, which, however, according to the custom of the 
 country, was not a very great sum ; I think about 40Z. or 50/. 
 
 Thus he very generously gave me my liberty, advanced 
 this money for me, put me into a plantation for myself, and 
 gave me 30Z. a year wages for looking after one of his own 
 plantations. 
 
 But, colonel, says he to me, giving you this plantation is 
 nothing at all to you, if I do not assist you to support it and 
 to carry it on ; and jherefo re Iwill.gLEPi ynn ftrpfjif, for what- 
 ever is needful to you for the carrying it on ; such as tools, 
 provisions for servants, and some servants to begin; ma- 
 terials to build out-houses, and conveniencies of all sorts for 
 the plantation, and to buy hogs, cows, horses for stock, and 
 the like, and I'll take it out of your cargo, which will come 
 from London, for the money of your bill. 
 
 This was highly obliging and very kind, and the more so, 
 as it afterwards appeared. In order to this, he sent two ser- 
 vants of his own, who were carpenters ; as for timber, boards, 
 planks, and all sorts of such things, in a country almost all 
 made of wood, they could not be wanting : these run me up 
 a little wooden house in less than three weeks' time, where 
 I had three rooms, a kitchen, an out-house, and two large 
 sheds at a distance from the house, for store-houses,, almost 
 like barns, with stables at the end of them ; and thus I was 
 set up in the world, and, in short, reraay,g4J)y__the_degrees 
 that you have heard, from a pickpocket to a kidnapped miser- 
 able slave in Virginia J^or MarylafldjsJV^irginia, speaking d 
 them jat a distance) ; then from a slave to a head officer ~br 
 overseer of slaves, and from thence to a master planter. 
 
PROCEEDINGS AS A PLANTEK. 399 
 
 I had now, as above, a house, a stable, two warehouses, 
 and three hundred acres of land ; but, as we say, bare walls 
 make giddy hussies, so I had neither axe nor hatchet to cut 
 down the trees; horse, nor hog, nor cow to put upon the 
 land ; not a hoe, or a spade, to break ground, nor a pair of 
 hands but my own to go to work upon. 
 
 But heaven and kind masters make up aH those^n^to , 
 _a_^^ent servantT and T mention it, because peoplewho are ^'^ Vx 
 either transported or otherwise trepanned into those places, *'^*'VmJ^ 
 are generally thought to be rendered miserable and undone ; \ "^^^^i^ 
 whereas, on the contrary. I would encourage them, upon my 
 own experience, to depend upon it, that if their own dihgence 
 in the time of service gains them but a good character, which it 
 wUl certainly do if they can deserve it, there is not the poorest 
 and most despicable felon that ever went over, but may, after 
 his time is served, begin for himself, and may in time be sure 
 of raising a good plantation. 
 
 ' For example , I will now take a man in the meanest cir- j^^ ^^^ 
 cumstances of a servant, who has served out his five or seven "^ ^^ 
 years ; suppose a transported wretch for seven years. The "^ ^*<i 
 custom of the place was then, what it is since I know not, v''^ i^^^-T" 
 that on his master's certifying that he had served his time 'W* "< 
 out faithfully, he had fifly acres of land allotted him for -^/.Ov^ 
 planting, and on this plan he begins. J^t^u4.e^ 
 
 Some had a horse, a cow, and three hogs given, or rather ^^ [,^ 
 lent them, as a stock for the land, which they made an ~ ip^j f 
 allowance for at a certain time and rate. 
 
 Custom has made it a trade to give credit to Such beginners 
 as these, for tools, clothes, nails, ironwork, and other things 
 necessary for their planting; and which the persons, so 
 ^ving credit to them, are to be paid for out of the crop ot 
 tobacco which they shall plant; nor is it in the debtor's 
 power to defraud the creditor of payment in that manner ; 
 and as to bacco is their coi n, as weU .as the ir product, so all 
 things are to be purchased at a certain quantity of tobacco, 
 the price being so rated. 
 
 Thus 'the naked planter has credit at his beginning, and 
 immediately goes to work, to cure the land, and plant to- 
 bacco ; and from this little beginning have some of the most 
 considerable planters in Virginia, and in Maryland also, raised 
 themselves ; namely, from being without a hat, or a shoe, 
 to estates of 40 or 50,000Z. ; and in this method, I may add, 
 
400 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 no diligent man ever miscarried, if he had health to work, 
 and was a good husband; for he every year increases a 
 little, and every year adding more land, and planting more 
 tobacco, which is real money, he must gradually increase 
 in substance, till at length he gets enough to buy negroes 
 and other servants, and then never works himself any more. 
 In a word, every Newgate wretch, every desperate for- 
 lorn creature, the most despicable ruined man in the world, 
 has here a fair opportunity put into his hands to begin the 
 world again, and that upon a foot of certain gain, and in a 
 method exactly honest ; with a reputation that nothing past 
 will have any effect upon ; and innumerable people have 
 raised themselves firom the worst circumstances in the world, 
 namely, from the cells in Newgate. 
 •^Ut- ^ > But I return to my ow nstory : I was now a planter, and 
 V /■%(?' ^couraged by a kind benelactor ; for, that I might not be 
 r<-... t-t^a ! wholly taken up with my new plantation, he gave me freely, 
 e- HM-i^ gjii without any consideration, my grateful negro Mouchat. 
 ' "^"' ^ He told me it was a debt due to the affection that poor cre a- 
 "jf^r^'j turiLJlSisl^^SIlSEsS! ^^ so indeed it was, for as the 
 "ij |jw-« T J 'TfeTlow would once have been hanged for me, so now, and to 
 uji,^i^t,J,J0^ his last, he loved me so much, that it was apparent he did 
 » everything with pleasure that he did for me ; and he was so 
 overcome of joy when he heard that he was to be my negro, 
 that the people in the plantation really thought it would turn 
 his head, and that the fellow would go distracted. 
 
 Besides this, he sent me two servants more, a man and a 
 woman, but these he put to my account, as above. Mouchat 
 and these two fell immediately to work for me, and they be- 
 gan with about two acres of land which had but little timber 
 on it at first, and most of that was cut down by the two car- 
 penters who built my house, or shed rather, for so it should 
 be called. 
 
 These two acres I got in good forwardness, and most of it 
 well planted with tobacco ; though some of it we were 
 obliged to plant with garden-stuff for food, such as potatoes, 
 carrots, cabbages, peas, beans, &c. 
 
 It was a great advantage to me, that I had so bountiful a 
 master, who helped me out in every case ; for in this very 
 first year I received a terrible blow ; for my bill, as I have 
 observed, having been copied, and attested in form, and sent 
 to London, my kind friend and custom-house gentleman paid 
 
PRODUCE OF Mr LONDON MONEY WKECKED, 401 
 
 me the money, and the merchant at London, by my good 
 master's direction, had laid it all out in a sorted cargo ol 
 goods for me, such as would have made a man of me all at 
 once ; but to my inexpressible terror and surprise, the ship 
 was lost, and that just at the entrance into the capes, that is 
 to say, the mouth of the bay. Some of the goods were re- 
 covered, but spoiled, and, in short, nothing but the nails, 
 tools, and iron-work, were good for anything; and though 
 the value of them was pretty considerable in proportion to 
 the rest, yet my loss was irreparably great, and, indeed, the r^ 
 greatness of the loss consisted in its being irreparable. "l ^ 
 
 I was perfectly astonished at the first news of the loss, J J^' ^ 
 knowing that I was in debt to my patron, or master, so ^si^-'^^^, 
 much, that it must be several yearsbelbre 1 should recover '^f^^^^^^^i 
 it ; and as he brought me the bad news himself, he perceived ff**^:^ 
 my disorder, that is to say, he saw I was in the utmost con- l^f^lftSi^ 
 fusion, and a kind of amazement, and so indeed I was, be- I 
 cause I was so much in debt ; but he spoke cheerfully to me ; 
 Come, says he, do not be so discouraged, you may make up / 
 this loss. No, sir, says I, that never can be, for it is my all, / 
 and I shall never be out of debt. Well, but, says he, you 
 have no creditor, however, but me ; and now remember I ' 
 once told you I would make a man of you, and I will not 
 disappoint you for this disaster. 
 
 I thanked him, and did it with more ceremony and respect 
 than ever, because I thought myself more under the hatches 
 than I was before. But he was as good as his word, for he 
 did not baulk me in the least of anything I wanted ; and as I 
 had more iron- work saved out of the ship, in proportion, than 
 I wanted, I supplied him with some part of it, and took up 
 some linen and clothes, and other necessaries from him in 
 exchange. 
 
 And now I began to increase visibly ; I had a large 
 quantity of land cured, that is, freed from timber, and a very 
 good crop of tobacco in view ; and I got three servants more 
 and one negro, so that I had five white servants and two 
 negroes, and with this my affairs went very well on. 
 
 The first year, indeed, I took my wages, or salary, that is 
 to say, 30?. a year, because I wanted it very much ; but the 
 second and third year I resolved not to take it, on any account 
 whatsoever, but to leave it in my benefactor's hands, to clear 
 off the debt I had contracted. 
 
402 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 And now I must impose a short digression on the reader, 
 to note, that, notwithstanding all the disadvantages of a most 
 wretched education, yet now, when I began to feel myself, as 
 I may say, in the world, and to be arrived to an independent 
 state, and to foresee that I might be something considerable 
 in time ;, I say, now I found different sentiments of things 
 taking place in my mind ; and first, I had a solid principle 
 of justice and honesty, and a secret horror at things past, 
 when I looked back upon my former life ; that original some- 
 thing, I knew not what, that used formerly to check me in 
 the first meannesses of my youth, and used to dictate to me, 
 when I was but a child, that I was to be a gentleman, con- 
 tinued to operate upon me now in a manner I cannot de- 
 scribe ; and I continually remembered the words of the 
 ancient glassmaker to the gentleman that he reproved for 
 swearing, that to be a gentleman was to be an honest man ; 
 that without honesty, human nature was sunk and degene- 
 rated ; the gentle man lost all the digpity of his birth, and 
 place d himself even b elow an honest beggar. These princi- 
 ples growing upon my mind in the present circumstances I 
 was in, gave me a secret satisfaction that I can give no de- 
 scription of. It was an inexpressible joy to me, that I yvas) 
 now like to be, not only a man, but an honest man ; and it 
 yielded me a greater pleasure that I was ransomed from 
 being a vagabond, a thief, and a criminal, as I had been from 
 a child, than that I was delivered from slavery, and the 
 wretched state of a Virginia sold servant. I had notion 
 enough in my mind of the hardships of the servant, or slave, 
 because I had felt it, and worked through it ; I remembered 
 it as a state of labour and servitude, hardship and suffering. 
 But the other shocked my very nature, chilled my blood, 
 and turned the very soul within me ; the thought of it was 
 like reflections upon heU and the damned spirits ; it struck 
 me with horror, it was odious and frightful to look back on, 
 and it gave me a kind of a fit, a convulsion or nervous dis- 
 order, that was very uneasy to me. 
 
 But to look forward, to reflect how things were changed, 
 how happy I was that I could live by my own endeavours, 
 and was no more under the necessity of being a villain, and 
 of get ting my bread at my own hazardand the ruin of hon est 
 TamiEes ; thisTiad iiTirsbmething more than commonly plea- 
 sing an J agreeable, and, in particular, it had a pleasure that 
 
SERIOUS KEFLECnONS. H}'6 
 
 till then I had known nothing of. It was a sad thing to be 
 under a necessity of doing evil, to procure that subsistence, 
 which I could not support the want of, to be obliged to run 
 the venture of the gallows rather than the venture of starv- 
 ing, and to be always wicked for fear of want. 
 
 I cannot say that I had any serious religious reflections, 
 or that these things proceeded yet from the uneasiness of 
 conscience, but from mere reasonings with myself, and from 
 being arrived to a capacity of making a right j udgment of things 
 more than before ; yet T own I had such an abhorrence of the 
 wicked life I had led, that I was secretly easy, and had a kind 
 of pleasure in the disaster that was upon me about the ship, 
 and that, though it was a loss, I could not but be glad that 
 ^hose ill-gotten goods was gone, and that I had lost what I 
 had stolen ; for I looked on it as none of mine, and that it 
 would be fire in my flax if I should mingle it with what 
 I had now, which was come honestly by, and was, as it 
 were, sent from heaven to lay the foundation of my pros- 
 perity, which the other would be only as a moth to con- 
 sume. 
 
 At the same time my thoughts dictated to me, that though 
 this was the foundation of my new Ufe, yet that this was not 
 the superstructure, and that I might stiU be born for greater 
 things than these ; that it was honesty and virtue alone that 
 made men rich and great, and gave them a fame as well as a 
 figure in the world, and that therefore I was to lay my founda- 
 tion in these, and expect what might foUow in time. 
 
 To help these thoughts, as I had learned to read and write 
 when I was in Scotland ; so I began now to love books, and 
 particularly I had an opportunity of reading some very con- 
 siderable ones ; such as Liv/s Roman history, the history of 
 the Turks, the English history of Speed, and others ; the 
 history of the Low country wars, the history of Gustavus 
 Adolphus, king of Sweden, and the history of the Spaniards* 
 conquest of Mexico, with several others, some of wliich I 
 bought at a planter's house, who was lately dead, and his 
 goods sold, and others I had borrowed. 
 
 I considered my present state of life to be my mere youth, 
 though I was now above thirty years old, because in my 
 youth I had learned nothing; and if my daily business, 
 which was now great, would have permitted, I would have 
 been content to have gone to school. However, fate, thai 
 
 D D 2 
 
404 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 had yet something else in store for me, threw an opportunity 
 into my hand ; namely, a clever fellow, that came over a 
 transported felon from Bristol, and feU into my hands for a 
 servant. He had led a loose life, that he acknowledged, and 
 being driven to extremities took to the highway, for which, 
 had he -been taken, he would have been hanged ; but falling 
 into some low-prized rogueries afterwards, for. want of op- 
 portunity for worse, was catched, condemned, and trans- 
 ported, and, as he said, was glad he came off so. 
 
 He was an excellent scholar, and I perceiving it, asked him 
 one time, if he could give a method how I might learn the 
 Latin tongue ? • He said, smiling. Yes, he could teach it me 
 in three months, if I would let him have books, or even with- 
 out books, if he had time. I told him, a book would become 
 his hands better than a hoe ; and if he could promise to make 
 me but understand Latin enough to read it, and understand 
 other languages by it, I would ease him of the labour which 
 I was now obliged to put him to, especially if I was assured that 
 he was fit to receive that favour of a kind master. In short, 
 JL made him to me what my benefactor made me"to_^mL 
 and from him I gained a fund of knowledgerinEnitely mwe 
 valuable than the rate of a slave, which was what I had paid 
 for it, but of this hereafter. 
 
 With these thoughts I went cheerfully about my work. As 
 I had now five servants, my plantation went on, though 
 gently, yet safely, and increased gradually, though slowly ; 
 but the third year, with the assistance of my old benefactor, 
 I purchased two negroes more, so that now I had seven ser- 
 vants ; and having cured land sufficient for supply of their 
 food, I was at no difficulty to maintain them ; so that my 
 plantation began now to enlarge itself, and as I lived without 
 any personal expense, but was maintained at my old great 
 master's, as we called him, and at his charge, with 301. ayeat 
 besides, so all my gains was laid up for increase. 
 
MT BENEFACTOR DIES. 405 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 t ADVANCE EAPIDLT TO RICHES AND HONOUR FOR T^VELVE 
 
 YEARS MT BENEFACTOR DIES MT PEDAGOGUE "RELATES 
 
 SEVERAL PASSAGES OF HIS LIFE TO ME 1 EMBARK FOR 
 
 ENGLAND AM T^AKRN BT A FRENCH PRIVATEER THE 
 
 PRIVATEER TAKES ANOTHER ENGLISH SHIP — ^ACCOUNT OP 
 HER CARGO. 
 
 In this posture I vrent on for twelve years, and was very suc- 
 cessful in my plantation, and had gotten, by means of my 
 master's favour, who now I called my friend, a correspond- 
 ent in London, with, whom I traded, shipped over my to- 
 bacco to him, and received European goods in return, such as 
 I wanted to carry on my plantation, and sufficient to seU to 
 others also. 
 
 Li this interval, my good fiiend and benefactor died, and I 
 was left very disconsolate on account of my loss, for it was 
 indeed a great loss to me ; he had been a father to me, and I 
 was like a forsaken stranger without him, though I knew the 
 country and the trade too, well enough, and had for some time 
 chiefly carried on his whole business for him, yet I seemed 
 now at a loss ; my counsellor and my chief supporter was 
 gone, and I had no confidant to communicate myself to, on 
 all occasions, as formerly ; but there was no remedy, I was, 
 however, in a better condition to stand alone than ever ; I had 
 a very large plantation, and had near seventy negroes and other 
 ■ servants. In a word, I was grown really rich, considering my 
 first circumstances, that began as I may say with nothing ; 
 that is to say, I had nothing of stock, but I had a great be- 
 ginning, for I had such a man's friendship and support in my 
 beginning, that indeed I needed no other stock, and if I had 
 had 5001. to have begun with, and not the assistance, advice^ 
 and countenance of such a man, I had not been in a better 
 condition ; but he promised to make a man of me, and so he 
 did, and in one respect I may say I have merited it of him, 
 for I brought his plantation into such order, and the govern- 
 ment of his negroes into such a regulation, that if he had 
 given 5001. to have had it done, he would have thought his 
 money well bestowed ; his work was always in order, going 
 
406 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 forward to his mind, everything was in a thriving posture, 
 his servants all loved him, even negroes and all, and yet there 
 was no such thing as a cruel punishment, or severities known 
 among them. 
 
 In my own plantation it was the same thing ; I wrought 
 so upon the reason and the affections of my negroes, that 
 they served me cheerfully, and, by consequence, faithfully 
 and diligently ; when in my neighbour's plantation there was 
 not a week hardly passed without such horrible outcries, 
 roarings and yellings of the servants, either under torture, or 
 in fear of it, that their negroes would, in discourse with ours, 
 wish themselves dead and gone, as it seems they believed they 
 should after death, into their own country. 
 
 If I met with a sullen stupid fellow, as sometimes it was 
 unavoidable, I always parted with him, .and sold him off; for 
 I would not keep any that sense of kind usage would not 
 oblige ; but I seldom met with such bad ones ; for, by talking 
 to them in a plain reasoning v/ay, I found the temper of the 
 roughest of them would break and soften ; the sense of their 
 own interest would prevail with them at first or last ; and if 
 it had not, the contrary temper was so general among my 
 people, that their own fellows and countrymen would be 
 against them, and that served to bring them to reason as soon 
 as any other thing ; and this, those who think it worth their 
 while, will easily find, viz., that having prevailed effectually 
 over one leading man among them to be tractable, and pleased, 
 and grateiul, he shall make them all like him, and that in a 
 little while, with more ease than can be imagined. 
 
 I was now a planter, and also a student. My pedagogue, 
 I mentioned above, was very diligent, and proved an extra- 
 ordinary man indeed; he taught me not only with application, 
 but with admirable judgment in the teaching part ; for I 
 have seen it in many instances since that time, that every 
 good scholar is not fitted for a schoolmaster, and that the art 
 of teaching is quite different from that of knowing the lan- 
 guage taught. 
 
 But this man had both, and proved of great use to me, 
 and I found reason, in the worth of the person, to be very 
 kind to him, his circumstances considered. I once took the 
 liberty to ask him how it came to pass that he, who must 
 have had a liberal education, and great advantages to have 
 advanced him in the world, should be capable of faUing into 
 
HAS BECOME A PI.ANTEK. 407 
 
 such miserable circumstances as he was in when he came 
 overt I used some caution in entering upon an inquiry, 
 which, as I said, might not be pleasant to him to relate ; but 
 that I would make him amends by telling him, that if he 
 desired not to enter into it with me, I would readily excuse 
 him, and would not take it iU at all ; this I did, because to a 
 man under such afflictions one should always be tender, and 
 not put them upon relating anything of themselves which was 
 grievous to them, or which they had rather was concealed. 
 
 But he told me that it was true, that to look back upon 
 his past life was indeed renovare dolorem ; but that such mor- 
 tifications were now useful to him, to help forward that 
 repentance which he hoped he was sincerely entered upon ; 
 and that though it was with horror he looked back upon 
 misspent time, and ill-applied gifts, which a bountiful Creator 
 had blessed him with, and spared to him for a better improve- 
 ment, yet he thought he ought to load himself with as much 
 of the shame as it pleased God to make his lot, since he had 
 already loaded himself with the guUt Ih a shameless manner ; 
 till God, he still hoped in mercy to him, had cut him short, 
 and brought him to public disgrace, though he could not say 
 he had been brought to justice, for then he had been sent 
 into eternity in despair, and not been sent to Virginia, to 
 repent of the wickedest life that ever man lived. — ^He would 
 have gone on, but I found his speech interrupted by a passion- 
 ate struggle within, between his grief and his tears. 
 
 I took no more notice of it than to tell him, that I was 
 sorry I had asked him about it, but that it was my curiosity. 
 When I saw that ignorant, imtaught, untractable creatures 
 come into misery and shame, I made no inquiry after their 
 affairs ; but when I saw men of parts and learning take such 
 steps, I concluded it must be occasioned by something exceed- 
 ing wicked. So indeed, said he, the judge said to me when 
 I begged mercy of him ia Latin ; he told me, that when a 
 man with such learning, falls into such crimes, he is more 
 inexcusable than other men, because his learning recom- 
 mending him, he could not want advantages, and had the less 
 temptation to crimes. 
 
 But, sir, said he, I believe my case was what I find is the 
 case of most of the wicked part of the world, viz., that to be 
 reduced to necessity is to be wicked; for necessity is not only 
 the temptation, but is such a temptation as human nature ia 
 
408 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 not empowered to resist. How good then, says he, is that 
 God,; which takes from you, sir, the temptation, by taking 
 away the necessity ? ^ 
 
 I was so sensible of the truth of what he said, knowing it 
 by my own case, that I could not enter any farther upon the 
 discourse ; but lie went on voluntarily. This, sir, says he, I 
 am so sensible of, that I think the case I am reduced to much 
 less miserable than the life which I lived before, because I am 
 delivered from the horrid necessity of doing such ill things, 
 which was my ruin and disaster then, even for my bread, and 
 am not now obliged to ravish my bread out of the mouths of 
 others by violence and disorder ; but am fed, though I am 
 made to earn it by the hard labour of my hands, and I thank 
 God for the difference. He paused here, but went on thus : 
 
 How much is the life of a slave in Virginia to be preferred 
 to that of the most ■ prosperous thief in the world! Here I 
 live miserable, but honest ; suffer wrong, but do no wrong ; 
 my body is punished, but my conscience is not loaded ; and, 
 as I used to say, that I had no leisure to look in, but I would 
 begin when I had some recess, some time to spare, now God 
 has found me leisure to repent. He run on in this manner a 
 great whUe, giving thanks, I beheve most heartily, for his 
 being delivered from the wretched life he had lived, though 
 his misery were to be tenfold as much as it was. 
 
 I was sincerely touched with his discourse on this subject; 
 I had known so much of the real difference of the case, that 
 I could not but be affected with it, though till now, I confess, 
 I knew little of the religious part. I had been an offender as 
 well as he, though not altogether in the same degree, but I 
 knew nothing of the penitence ; neither had I looked back 
 upon anything as a crime, but as a life dishonourable, and not 
 like a gentleman, which run much in my thoughts, as I have 
 several times mentioned. 
 
 "Well, but now, says I, you talk penitently, and I hope you 
 are sincere ; but what would be your case, if you were 
 delivered from the miserable condition of a slave sold for 
 money which you are now in ? Should you not, think you, 
 be the same man ? 
 
 Blessed be God, says he, that if I thought I should, I 
 would sincerely pray that I might not be delivered, and that 
 I might for ever be a slave rather than a sinner. 
 
 Well but, says I, suppose you to be under the same necessity^ 
 
THE SENSITIVENESS OP DOING WEONG. 409 
 
 in the same staxving condition, should you not take the same 
 course ? 
 
 He replied very sharply, That shows us the need we have 
 of the petition in the Lord's prayer, "lead us not into tempt- 
 ation;" and of Solomon's, or Agar's prayer, "give me not 
 poverty, lest I steal." I should ever beg of God not to be 
 left to such snares as human nature cannot resist. But I 
 have some hope, that I should venture to starve rather than 
 to steal ; but I also beg to be delivered from the danger, 
 because I know not my own strength. 
 
 This was honestly spoken, indeed ; and there really were 
 such visible tokens of sincerity in all his discourse, that I 
 could not suspect him. On some of our discourses on this 
 subject, he pulled out a little dirty paper-book, in which he 
 had wrote down such a prayer in verse, as I doubt few 
 Christians in the world could subscribe to.; and I cannot but 
 record it, because I never saw anything like it in my life ; the 
 lines are as fbUow : 
 
 Lord ! whatsoever sorrows rack my breast. 
 Till crime removes too, let me find no rest ; 
 How dark soe'er my state, or sharp my pain, 
 O ! let not troubles cease, and sin remain. 
 For Jesus' sake remove not my distress. 
 Till free triumphant grace shall repossess 
 The vacant throne from whence my sins depart, 
 And make a willing captive of my heart ; 
 Till grace completely shall my soul subdue. 
 Thy conquest fuU, and my subjection true. 
 
 There were more lines on the same subject, but these were 
 the beginning ; and these touching me so sensibly I have re- 
 membered them distinctly ever since, and have, I beheve, 
 repeated them to myself a thousand times. 
 
 I pressed him no more you may be sure, after an answer 
 80 very particular and affecting as this was ; it was easy to 
 see the man was a sincere penitent, not sorrowing for the 
 punishment he was suffering under ; for his condition was no 
 part of his affliction, he was rather thankful for it, as above ; 
 but his concern was a feeling and affecting sense of the 
 wicked and abominable life he had led, the abhorred crimes 
 Le had committed both against God and man, and the little 
 
410 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 sense he had had of the condition he was in, and that even 
 till ho came to the place where he now was. 
 
 I asked him if he had no reflections of this kind after or 
 before his sentence ? He told me Newgate (for the prison at 
 Bristol is called so, it seems, as well as that at London) was 
 a place that seldom made penitents, but often made villains 
 worse, till they learnt to defy God and devil. But that, 
 however, he could look back with this satisfaction, that he 
 could say he was not altogether insensible of it, even then ; 
 but nothing that amounted to a thorough serious looking up 
 to heaven ; that he often indeed looked in, and reflected upon 
 his past misspent life, even before he was in prison, when the 
 intervals of his wicked practices gave some time for reflection, 
 and he would sometimes say to himself, Whither am I going? 
 to what will all these things bring me at last? and where 
 will they end? sin and shame follow one another, and I shall 
 certainly come to the gallows ; then, said he, I would strike 
 upon my breast, and say, O wicked wretch ! when wiU you 
 repent ? and would answer myself as often. Never ! never ! 
 never ! except it be in a gaol, or at a gibbet. 
 
 Then, said he, I would weep and sigh, and look back a 
 little upon my wretched life, the history of which would 
 make the world amazed ; but, alas ! the prospect was so dark, 
 and it filled me with so much terror, that I could not bear it ; 
 then I would fly to wine and company for relief ; that vrine 
 brought on excess, and that company, being always wicked 
 like yourself, brought on temptation, and then aU reflection 
 vanished and I was the same devil as before. 
 
 He spoke this vvith so much affection, that his face was 
 ever smiling when he talked of it, and yet his eyes had tears 
 standing in them at the same time, and aU the time ; for he 
 had a delightful sorrow, if that be a proper expression in 
 speaking of it. 
 
 This was a strange relation to me, and began to affect me 
 after a manner that I did not understand. I loved to hear 
 him talk of it, and yet it always left a kind of a dead lump 
 behind it upon my heart, which I could give no reason for, 
 nor imagine to what it tended ; I had a heaviness on my soul, 
 without being able to describe it, or to say what aUed me. 
 
 "Well, he went on with his relation. After this, says he, 
 I fell into the hands of a justice for a trifle, a piece of sport 
 in our crime ; and I, that for a hundred robberies, as well on 
 
MOTIVES OF EEPENTANCE GENERATED BY PCNISHMENT. 411 
 
 the highway as otherwise, the particulars of which would fill 
 a book to give an account of, ought, whenever I was taken, 
 to be hanged in chains, and who, if it had been public, could 
 not have failed of having twenty people come in against me, 
 was privately hurried into a country gaol under a wrong 
 name ; tried for a small fact, within benefit of clergy, and in 
 which I was not principally guilty, and by this means obtained 
 the favour of being transported. 
 
 And what think you, said he, has most sensibly affected 
 me, and brought on the blessed change that, I hope I may 
 say, God has wrought in my soul. Not the greatness of my 
 crimes, but the wonders of that merciful providence, which, 
 when it has mercy in store for a man, often brings him into 
 the briers, into sorrow and misery for lesser sins, that men 
 may be led to see how they are spared from the punishment 
 due to them, for the greater guilt which they know lies upon 
 them. Do you think, that when I received the grant of 
 transportation, I could be insensible what a miracle of divine 
 goodness such a thing must be, to one who had so many 
 ways deserved to be hanged, and must infallibly have died, 
 if my true name had been known, or if the least notice had 
 been given that it was such a notorious wretch as I that was 
 in custody. There began the first motive of repentance ; for 
 certainly the goodness of our great Creator in sparing us, 
 when we forfeit our lives to his justice, and his merciful 
 bringing us out of the miseries which we plunge ourselves 
 into, when we have no way to extricate ourselves ; his bring- 
 ing those very miseries to be the means of our deliverance, 
 and working good to us out of evil, when we are working the 
 very evil out of his good ; I say, these things are certainly 
 the strongest motives to repentance that are in the world ; 
 and the sparing thieves from the gallows certainly makes 
 more penitents than the gallows itself. 
 
 It is true, continued he, that the terror of punishment 
 works strongly upon the mind; in view of death men are 
 fiUed with horror of soul, and immediately they call that 
 repentance which I doubt is too often mistaken, being only 
 a kind of anguish in the soul, which breeds a grief for the 
 punishment that is to be suffered ; an amazement founded 
 upon the dreadful view of what is to follow. But the sense 
 of mercy is quite another thing ; this seizes all the passions 
 and all the afiections, and works a sincere unfeigned abhor* 
 
412 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 rence of the crime, as a crime ; as an offence against our 
 Benefactor, as an act of baseness and ingratitude to him, 
 who has given us life, and all the blessings and comforts of 
 life ; and who has conquered us by continuing to do us good, 
 when he has been provoked to destroy us. 
 
 This, sir, says he, has been the fountain of that repentance 
 which I so much rejoice in; this is the delightful sorrow, 
 says he, that I spoke of just now ; and this makes smiles sit 
 on my face while tears run from my eyes, a joy that I can- 
 no otherwise express, than by telling you, sir, that I never 
 lived a happy day since I came to an age of acting in the 
 world, till I landed in this country, and worked in your 
 plantation, naked and hungry, weary and faint, oppressed 
 with cold in one season, and heat in the other ; then I began 
 to see into my own ways, and see the difference between the 
 hardships of the body and the torment of the mind. Before 
 I revelled in fulness, and here I struggled with hard fare ; 
 then I wallowed in sloth and voluptuous ease ; here I laboured 
 till nature sometimes was just sinking under the load ; but 
 with this difference in the felicity of either case, namely, that 
 there I had a heU in my soul, was filled with horror and 
 confusion, was a daily terror to myself, and always expected 
 a miserable end ; whereas here I had a blessed calm of soul, 
 an emblem and forerunner of heaven, thankful and humble, 
 adoring that mercy that had snatched me out of the jaws of 
 the devil ; these took up my thoughts, and made my most 
 weary hours pleasant to me, my labour Ught, and my heart 
 cheerful. I never lay down on my hard lodging but I praised 
 God with the greatest excess of affection, not only that it 
 was not the condemned hole, and that I was delivered from 
 the death I had deserved, but that it was not Shooter's-hiU, 
 that I was not still a robber, a terror to just and honest men, 
 a plunderer of the innocent and the poor, a thief, and a 
 villain, that ought to be rooted out from the earth for the 
 safety of others ; but that I was delivered from the horrid 
 temptation of sinning, to support my luxury, and making 
 one vice necessary to another ; and this, I bear witness, is 
 sufficient to sweeten the bitterest sorrow, and make any man 
 be thankful for Virginia, or a worse place, if that can be. 
 
 He then entertained me with an opinion of his, that if it 
 were possible for the face of heaven and hell to be disclosed 
 and laid open, and that men could be made capable of seeing 
 
SOMEWHAT INCLINED TO EELIGION. 413 
 
 distinctly and separately, the joys and glory and utmost feli- 
 city of one, and the horrors of the other, and to make a judg- 
 ment of both according to the power of human reasoning, the 
 first would have a stronger and more powerful effect to reform 
 the world than the latter : but this we had farther discourses 
 about on many occasions. 
 
 If it should be inquired, how I was capable of hearing all 
 this, and having no impressions made upon my mind by it, 
 especially when it so many ways suited my own case, and the 
 condition of the former part of my life, I shall answer that 
 presently by myself. However, I took no notice of it to Mm, 
 for he had quite other notions of me than I had of myself; 
 nor did I, as is usual in such cases, enter into any confidence 
 with him on my own story, only that I took sometimes the 
 occasion to let him know, that I did not come over to Vir- 
 ginia in the capacity of a criminal, or that I was not trans- 
 ported ; which, considering how many of the inhabitants there 
 were so who then lived in good circumstances, was needful 
 enough to be done. 
 
 But as to myself, it was enough that I was in condition 
 now, 'twas no matter to anybody, what I had been, and as it 
 was grown pretty much out of memory from what original 
 disaster I came into the country, or that I was ever a servant 
 otherwise than voluntary, and that it was no business of mine 
 to expose myself, so I kept that part close ; but for all that, 
 it was impossible for me to conceal the disorder I was in as 
 often as he talked of these things. I had hitherto gone on 
 upon a notion of things founded only in their appearance, as 
 they affected me with good or evil, esteeming the happy and 
 unhappy part of life to be those that gave me ease or sorrow, 
 without regarding, or indeed much understanding, how far 
 those turns of life were influenced by the Giver of life ; or 
 how far they were all directed by a sovereign God that governs 
 the world, and all the creatures it had made. 
 
 As I had no education but as you have heard, so I had had 
 no instruction, no knowledge of religion, or indeed of the 
 meaning of it ; and though I was now in a kind of search 
 after religion, it was a mere looking, as it were, into the world 
 to see what kind of a thing or place it was, and what had 
 been done in it ; but as to him that made it, there had truly 
 been scarce a creature among all that he had made, with soula 
 
414 OOLONEL JACK. 
 
 in them, that were so entirely -without the knowledge of G<)(1 
 as I was, and made so little inquiry about it. 
 
 But the serious, affectionate discourse of this young man 
 began to have different effects upon me, and I began to say 
 to myself, This man's reflections are certainly very just ; but 
 what a creature am I, and what have I been doing ! I that 
 never once did this in all my life ; that never said so much. 
 God I thank thee for all that I have been saved from, or all 
 that I have been brought to in this world ; and yet my life 
 has been as full of variety, and I have been as miraculously 
 delivered from dangers and mischiefs, and as many of them, 
 as ever he has ; and if it has all been brought to pa ss by an 
 invisi^le_ha2d_in mercy to me, what have I been doing! and 
 where have I lived ! that I only should be the most thought- 
 less and unthankful ot all God's creatures ! 
 
 This indeed began to grow upon me, and made me very 
 melancholy ; but as to religion, I understood so little about 
 it, that if I had resolved upon any such thing as a new course 
 of Ufe, or to set about a religious change, I knew not at 
 which end to begin, or what to do about it. 
 
 One day it happened that my tutor, for so I always called 
 him, had the Bible in his hand, and was looking in it, as he 
 generally did many times a day, though I knew not for what. 
 Seeing the Bible, I took it out of his hands, and went to look 
 into it, which I had done so little before, that I think I 
 might safely say I had never read a chapter in it all my life ; 
 he was talking of the Bible then as a book only, and where 
 he had it, and how he brought it to Virginia, and in some 
 ecstacy he took and kissed it. This blessed book ! says he, 
 this was all the treasure I brought out from England with me ; 
 and a comfortable treasure it has been to me, added he, I 
 would not have been without it in my sorrows for any other 
 treasure in the world, and so he went on at large. 
 
 I that had no notion of what he meant, only, as I have 
 said above, some young infant thoughts about the works of 
 Providence in the world, and its merciful dealings with me, 
 took the book out of his hand and went to look into it, and 
 the book opened at the Acts xxvi. 28, where Felix says to 
 St. Paul, "almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." 
 I think, says I, here's a line hits me to a tittle, upon the long 
 account you have given of yourself, and I must say them to 
 
READS THE B1BL£. 415 
 
 you, as the governor here said ; and so I read the words to 
 him. He blushed at the text, and returns, I could answer 
 you in the very words the apostle returned to him in the next 
 verse, " I would thou wert both, I wish almost, and altogether 
 such as I am, except these bonds." 
 
 I was now more than thirty years old by my own account, 
 and, as well as it was possible for me to keep a reckoning of 
 my age, -w^j^ Jiad nobody left that ever knew my beginning ; 
 I was, I say, above thirty years old, arid had *g6ilfe"'feroTOgh 
 some variety in the world ; but as I was perfectly abandoned 
 in my infancy, and utterly without instruction in my youth, 
 so I was entirely ignorant of everything that was worthy the 
 name of religion in the world ; and this was the first time 
 that ever any notion of religious things entered into my heart. 
 I was surprised at this man's talk, and that several ways par- 
 ticularly, he talked so feelingly of his past circumstances, and 
 they were so like my own, that every time he made a religi- 
 ous inference from his own condition, and argued from one 
 condition of his to another, it struck into my thoughts like a 
 bullet from a gun, that I had certainly as much to be thank- 
 ful for and to repent of as he had, except only that I had no 
 knowledge of better things to be thankful for, which he had ; 
 but in return for that, I was delivered and set up in the 
 world, made a master, and easy, and was in good circum- 
 stances, being raised from the very same low distressed 
 condition as he was in, I mean a sold servant ; but that he 
 remained so still, so that if his sin had been greater than 
 mine, so his distress was stUl greater. 
 
 This article of gratitude struck deep, and lay heavy upon 
 my mind; I remembered that I was grateful to the last 
 degree to my old master, who had raised me from my low 
 condition, and that I loved the very name of him, or, as might 
 be said, the very ground he trod on ; but I had not so much 
 as once thought of any higher obligation, no, nor so much as, 
 like the Pharisee, had said once, " God, I thank thee," to him 
 for all the influence which his providence must have had in 
 my whole affair. 
 
 It occurred to me presently, that if none of all these things 
 befall us without the direction of a Divine Power, as my new 
 instructor had told me at large, and that God had ordered 
 everything, the most minute and least transaction of life, 
 insomuch, " that not a hair of our head shall fall to the 
 
416 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 ground without his permission ;" I say, it occurred to me, 
 that I had been a most unthankful dog to that Providence 
 that had done so much for me; and the consequence of 
 the reflection was immediately this, how justly may that 
 power, so disobliged, take away again his wool and his flax, 
 with which I am now clothed, and reduce me to the misery of 
 my first circumstances. 
 
 This perplexed me much, and I was very pensive and sad; 
 'n which, however, my new. instructor was a constant com- 
 forter to me, and I learned every day something or other 
 from him ; upon which I told him one morning, that I thought 
 he must leave off teaching me Latin, and teach me religion. 
 
 He spoke with a great deal of modesty of his being incap- 
 able of informing me of anything that I did not know, and 
 proposed to me to read the scriptures every day as the sure 
 and only fund of instruction. I answered that, in the words 
 of the eunuch to St. Philip, when the apostle asked him if he 
 understood what he read ; " How can I, unless some one 
 guide me?" 
 
 "We talked frequently upon this subject, and I found so 
 much reason to believe he was a sincere convert, that I can 
 speak of him as no other in all I have to say of him. How- 
 ever, I cannot say my thoughts were yet ripened for an ope- 
 ration of that kind; I had some uneasiness about my past 
 life, and I lived now, and had done so before I knew him, a 
 very regular sober life, always taken up in my business, and 
 running into no excesses ; but as to commencing penitent, as 
 this man had done, I cannot say I had any convictions upon 
 me sufiicient to bring it on, nor had I a fund of religious 
 knowledge to support me in it ; so it wore off again gradually, 
 as such things generally do, where the first impressions are 
 not deep enough. 
 
 In the meantime, as he read over long lectures of his own 
 disasters to me, and applied them all seriously to me, so our 
 discourse was always very solid and weighty, and we had 
 nothing of levity between us, even when we were not con- 
 cerned in religious discourses. He read history to me ; and, 
 where books were wanting, he gave me ideas of those things 
 which had not been recorded by our modern histories, or at 
 least, that our number of books would not reach. By these 
 tilings he raised an unquenchable thirst in me, after seeing 
 Bomething that was doing in the world ; and the more, be- 
 
TURN MT THOUGHTS TO ENGLAND. 417 
 
 ca use all th e_'world was at that time en gaged, m ore or less, 
 m the great war wherein Jhe_KencKking mi ght be said to 
 b^engagfidjsrith and agaifflitjU the powefFoT Jbjurop el ' ' 
 
 Now, I looked upon myself as one buried alive in a remote 
 part of the world, where I could see nothing at all, and hear 
 but a little of what was seen, and that little not till at least 
 half a year after it was done, and sometimes a year or more ; 
 and, in a v,'ord, th^ old reproach often came in the way, 
 namely, that eve n this w as not yet the life of a gentleman. 
 
 It was true, tEat this was mudrnearerTo it than that of a 
 pickpocket, and still nearer than that of a sold slave ; but, in 
 short, this would not do, and I could receive no satisfaction 
 in it. I had now a second plantation, a very considerable 
 one, and it went forward very well. I had on it almost a 
 hundred servants already of sundry sorts, and an overseer 
 that I had a great deal of reason to say I might depend upon, 
 and but that I had a third in embryo, and newly begun, I had 
 nothing to hinder me from going where I pleased. 
 
 However, I now began to frame my thoughts for a voyage 
 to England, resolving then to act as I should see cause, but 
 with a secret resolution to see more of the world if possible, 
 and realize those things to my mind, which I had hitherto 
 only entertained remote ideas of by the help of books. 
 
 Accordingly I pushed forward the settlement of my third 
 plantation, in order to bring it to be in a posture, either to 
 be let to a tenant, or left in trust with an overseer, as I should 
 find occasion. 
 
 Had I resolved to leave it to an overseer, or steward, no 
 man in the world could have been fit for it hke my tutor ; 
 but I could not think of parting vnth him who was the 
 cause of my desire of travelling, and who I concluded to 
 make my partner in my travels. 
 
 It was three years after this before I could get things in 
 order, fit for my leaving the country. In this time I 
 deUvered my tutor from his bondage, and would have given 
 him his liberty, but, to my great disappointment, I found 
 that I could not empower him to go for England till his 
 time was expired, according to the certificate of his trans- 
 portation, which was registered ; so I made him one of my 
 overseers, and thereby raised him gradually to a prospect of 
 living in the same manner, and bj' the like steps that my 
 good benefactor raised me, only that I did not assist him tqi 
 
 E E 
 
418 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 enter upon planting for himself as I was assisted, neither 
 was I upon the spot to do it ; but this man's diligence and 
 honest application, even unassisted, delivered himself, any 
 farther than, as I say, by making him an overseer, which 
 was only a present ease and deliverance to him, from the 
 hard labour and fare which he endured as a servant. 
 
 However, in this trust he behaved so faithfully, and so 
 diligently, that it recommended him in the country; and 
 when I came back I found him in circumstances very 
 different from what I left him in, besides his being my 
 principal manager for near twenty years, as you shall hear 
 in its place. 
 
 I mention these things the more at large, that, if any 
 unhappy wretch, who may have the disaster to fall into such 
 circumstances as these, may come to see this account, they 
 may learn the following short lessons from these examples;— 
 
 I. That Virguiia, and a state of transportation, may he 
 the happiest place and condition they were ever in for 
 this hfe, as, by a sincere repentance, and a diligent 
 application to the business they are put to, they are 
 effectually delivered from a life of flagrant wickedness, 
 and put in a perfect new condition, in which they have 
 no- temptation to the crimes they formerly committed, 
 and have a prospect of advantage for the future. 
 
 H. That in "Virginia, the meanest and most despicable 
 creature, after his time of servitude is expired, if he 
 will but apply himself with diligence and industry to 
 the business of the country, is sure (life and health 
 supposed) both of living well and growing rich. 
 
 As this is a foundation which the most unfortunate wretch 
 alive is entitled to, a transported felon is, in my opinion, a 
 much happier man than the most prosperous untaken thief 
 in the nation ; nor are those poor young people so much in 
 the wrong as some imagine them to be, that go voluntarily 
 over to those countries; and, in order to get themselves 
 carried over and placed there, freely bind themselves there ; 
 especially if the persons into whos^ hands they fall do any. 
 thing honestly by them; for, as it is to be supposed that 
 those poor people knew not what course to take before, or 
 had miscarried in their conduct before, here they are sure to 
 
PROVISION FOR GOING TO ENGLAND. 419 
 
 be immediately provided for, and, after the expiration of 
 their time, to be put in a condition to provide for themselves. 
 But I return to my own story, -which now begins a new 
 scene. 
 
 I was now making provision for my going to England. 
 After having 'settled my plantation in such hands as was 
 fully to my satisfaction, my first work was to furnish myself 
 with such a stock of goods and money as might be sufficient 
 for my occasions abroad, and particularly might allow me to 
 make large returns to Maryland, for the use and supply of 
 ail my plantations ; but when I came to look nearer into 
 the voyage, it occurred to me that it would not be prudent 
 to put my cargo aU on board the same ship that I went in.; 
 so I shipped at several times five hundred hogsheads of 
 tobacco in- several ships for England, giving notice to my 
 correspondent in London that I would embark about such a 
 time to come over myself, and ordering him to insure for a 
 considerable sum, proportioned to the value of my oargo. 
 
 About two months after this I left the place, and embarked 
 for England in a stout ship, carrying twenty-four guns, and 
 about six hundred hogsheads of tobacco, and we left the capes 
 of Virginia on the 1st of August. We had a very sour and 
 rough voyage for the first fortnight, though it was in a 
 season so generally noted for good weather. 
 
 After we had been about eleven days at sea, having the 
 wind most part of the time blowing very Hard at west, or 
 between the west and north-west, by which we were carried 
 a great way farther to the eastward than they usually go in 
 their course for England, we met -with a furious tempest, 
 which held us five days, blo-wing most of the time excessive 
 hard, and by which we were obliged to run away afore the 
 wind as the seamen call it, wheresoever it was our lot to go. 
 By this storm our ship was greatly damaged, and some leaks 
 we had, but not so bad that by the diligence of the seamen 
 they were stopped; however, the captain, after having 
 beaten up again as well as he could against the weather, and 
 the sea going very high, at length he resolved to go away for 
 the Bermudas. 
 
 I was not seaman enough to understand what the reason of 
 their disputes was, but in their running for the islands, it 
 seems they overshot the latitude, and could never reach the 
 islands of Bermudas again. The master and the mate difi'ered 
 
 £ E 2 
 
420 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 to an extremity about this, their reckonings being more than 
 usually wide of one another, the storm having driven them 
 a little out of their knowledge. The master being a positive 
 man, insulted the mate about it, and threatened to expose 
 him for it when he came to England. The mate was an 
 excellent^seajxtistj and an experienced sailor, but withal a 
 modest man ; and though he insisted upon his being right, 
 did it in respectful terms, and as it became him ; but after 
 several days' dispute, when the weather came to abate, and 
 the heavens to clear up, that they could take their observa- 
 tions and know where they were, it appeared that the mate's 
 account was right, and the captain was mistaken, for they 
 were then in the latitude of 29 degrees, and quite out of the 
 wake of the Bermudas. 
 
 The mate made no indecent use of the discovery at all, 
 and the captain being convinced, carried it civilly to him, 
 and so the heats were over among them ; but the next 
 question was, what they should do next. Some were for 
 going one way, some another, but all agreed that they were 
 not in a condition to go on the direct course for England, 
 unless they could have a southerly or south-west wind, 
 which had not been our fate since we came to sea. 
 
 Upon the whole, they resolved by consent to steer away to 
 the Canaries, which was the nearest land they could make, 
 except the Cape de Verd islands, which were too much to 
 the southward for us, if it could be avoided. 
 
 Upon this, they stood away N.E., and the wind hanging 
 still westerly, or to the northward of the west, we made good 
 way, and in about fifteen days' sail we made the Pico 
 Teneriffe, being a monstrous hill in one of the Canary 
 islands. Here we refreshed ourselves, got fi-esh water and 
 some fresh provisions, and plenty of excellent wine, but no 
 harbour to run into, to take care of the ship, which was 
 leaky and tender, having had so much very bad weather ; 
 so we were obliged to do as well as we could, and put to sea 
 again, after riding at the Canaries four days onlv. 
 
 From the Canaries we had tolerable weather, and a smooth 
 sea, till we came into the soundings, so they call the mouth 
 of the British Channel, and the wind blowing hard at the N. 
 and N.W. obliged us to keep a larger ofiBing, as the seamen 
 call it, at our entrance into the Channel, when, behold ! in 
 the grey of the morning, a French cruiser or privateer of 
 
Ajl, ~ Aua-<L^.v 
 
 CAPTURED BY A FRENCH PRIVATEER. 421 
 
 twenty-six guns appeared, and crowded after us with all the 
 sail they could make. In short, our captain exchanged a 
 broadside or two with them, which was terrible work to me, 
 for I had never seen such before, the Frenchman's guns 
 having raked us, and killed and wounded six of our best 
 men. 
 
 In short, after a fight long enough to show us, that if we 
 would not be taken we must resolve to sink by her side, for 
 there was no room to expect deliverance, and a fight long 
 enough to save the master's credit, we were taken, and the 
 ship carried away to St. Maloes. 
 
 I was not much concerned for the loss I had in the ship, 
 because I knew I had sufficient in the world somewhere or 
 other ; but as I was effectually stripped of everything I had 
 about me . and even-ahnost mv clothes fi:om m y back. I was 
 in but a very indifferent condition ; but somebody informing 
 the captain of the privateer, that I was a passenger and a 
 merchant, he called for me and inquired into my circum- 
 stances, and ^coming to hear fro m my self .how_I had been 
 iisftd. n>}]|i{rpifl tbp. spji.mp.Ti to give me a coat and hat, a nd a 
 pair of.shoes, wMc h tSey h ad tak^^offme, a nd himself ga,ye 
 me a morning-g own of his ow n to wear w hile I was in his 
 "ship, and, to give him his due, treated me very well. 
 
 I had, however, besides my being taken, the mortification 
 to be detained on boai'd the cruiser, and seeing the ship I 
 was in manned with Frenchmen and sent away, as above, 
 for St. Maloes ; and this was a greater mortification to me 
 afterwards, when, being brought into St. Maloes, I heard 
 that our ship was re-taJsen in her passage to St. Maloes by 
 an English man-of-war, and carried to Portsmouth. 
 
 When our ship was sent away, the Kover cruised abroad 
 again in the mouth of the Channel for some time, but met 
 with no purchase ; at last they made a sail, which proved to 
 be one of their nation, and one of their own trade, from 
 whom they learned, the news having been carried to 
 England, that some French privateers lay off and on in the 
 soundings, that three English men-of-war were come out from . 
 Plymouth, on purpose to cruise in the Channel, and that 
 they would certainly meet with us. Upon this intelligence, 
 the Frenchman, a bold brave fellow, far from shrinking 
 from his work, steers away N.E. for St. George's Channel, 
 and in the latitude of 48 degrees and a half, unhappily 
 
422 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 enough, meets with^a large and rich. Engli sh ship^ bou nd 
 tome from Jamaica f it was in the grey of the morning, and 
 very clear, when a man on the roundtop cried out, Au voile, . 
 a sail. I was in hopes indeed it had been the English man- 
 of-war, and, by the hurry and clutter they were in, to get all 
 ready for a fight, I concluded it was so, and got out of my 
 hammock, for I had no cabin to lie in, that I might see what 
 it was ; but I soon found that my hopes were in vain, and it 
 was on the wrong side ; for that being on our larboard bow, 
 the ship lying then northward to make the coast of Ireland, 
 by the time I was turned out, I could perceive they had all 
 their sails bent and fuU, having begun to chase, and making 
 great way. On the other hand, it was evident the ship saw 
 them too, and knew what they were ; and, to avoid them, 
 stretched away with all the canvass they could lay on for the 
 coast of Ireland, to run in there for harlDour. 
 
 Our privateer, it was plain, infinitely outsailed her, run- 
 ning two feet for her one, and towards evening came up with 
 them. Had they been able to have held it but six hours 
 longer, they would have got into Limerick river, or some- 
 where under shore, so that we should not have ventured 
 upon them, but we came up with them, and the captain, 
 when he saw there was no remedy, bravely brought to, and 
 prepared to fight. She was a ship of thirty guns, but deep 
 in the sea, cumbered between decks with goods, and could 
 not run out her lower deck guns, the sea also going pretty 
 high, though at last she ventured to open her gun-room 
 ports, and fire with three guns on a side ; but her worst fate 
 was, she sailed heavy, being deep loaden, and the Frenchman 
 had run up by her side, and poured in his broadside, and 
 was soon ready again. However, as she was well mannei 
 too, and that the English sailors bestirred themselves, they 
 gave us their broadsides too very nimbly and heartily, and I 
 found the Frenchman had a great many men killed at the 
 first brush, but the next was worse, for the English ship, 
 though she did not sail so well as the Frenchman, was a 
 , bigger ship and strong built, and as_ we (the French) bore 
 down upon them again, the English ninnboldly on board us, 
 and laid thwart our hawse, lashing themselves fast to us. 
 Then it was that the English captain run out his lower tier 
 r of guns, and indeed tore the Frenchman so, that, had he 
 held it, the privateer would have had the worst of it. But 
 
THE PEIVATMER FIGHTS "VnTH AN ENGLISH SHIP. 423 
 
 ths Frenchman, with admirable readiness indeed, and courage, 
 the captain appearing everywhere with his sword in his 
 band, bestirred themselves, and loosing themselves from the 
 English ship, thrusting her off with brooms, and pouring 
 their small shot so thick, that the other could not appear 
 upon deck. I say, clearing themselves thus, they came to 
 lie a broadside of each other, when, by long firing, the 
 English ship was at length disabled, her mizen-mast and 
 bowsprit shot away, and, which was worst of aU, her captain 
 killed; so that, after a fight which held all night, for they 
 fought in the dark, and part of the next day, they were 
 obliged to strike. 
 
 I was ciiylly desired by the French captain to go down 
 into the hold while the fight held, and, besides the civility of 
 it, I found he was not willing I should be upon deck ; 
 perhaps he thought I might have some opportunity to do 
 hurt, though I knew not how it could be. However, I was 
 very ready to go down, for I had no mind to be^kUledj^ t£^ 
 especially b y my own friends^ so I went down and sat by the vo 
 surgeon, and " had the opportunity to find, that the first 
 broadside the English fired, seven wounded men were 
 brought down to the surgeon, and thirty-three more after- 
 wards, that is to say, when the English lay thwart their 
 bow, and after they cleared themselves there were about 
 eleven more ; so that they had fifty-one men wounded, and ilXva/uh.^ - 
 about twenty- two killed ; the Englishman had eighteen men -i ~SSLt^ — i, 
 killed and wounded, among whom was the captain. Ji'**-'i-*o F^i 
 
 The French captain however triumphed in this prize, for 
 it was an exceeding rich ship, having abundance of silver 
 on board; and after the ship was taken, and they had 
 plundered aU the great cabin afforded, which was very con- 
 siderable, the mate promised the captain, that, if he would 
 give him his liberty, he w ou ld discover six thousand pieces 
 of eight to him privately; which none of the^ men sEouM" 
 ~know of ; the captain engaged, and gave it unfer hiF"Eana 
 to set him at liberty as soon as he came on shore. Accord- i, 
 ingly, in the night, after all was either turned in, as they 
 call it, or employed on the duty of the watch, the captain 
 and the mate of the prize went on board, and having 
 faithfully discovered the money, which lay in a place made 
 on purpose to conceal it, the captain resolved to let it lie till 
 they arrived, and then he conveyed it on shore for his own 
 
424 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 use ; so that the owners, nor the seamen, ever came to any 
 share of it, which by the way was a fraud in the captain ; 
 but the mate paid his ransom by the discovery, and the 
 captain gave him his liberty very punctually, as he had 
 promised, and two hundred pieces of eight to carry him to 
 England, and to make good his losses. 
 
 When he had made this prize, the captain thought of 
 nothing more than how to get safe to France with her, for 
 she was a ship sufficient to enrich aU his men and his owners 
 also. The account of her cargo, by the captain's books, of 
 which I took a copy, was in general : 
 
 260 hogsheads of sugar. 
 187 smaller casks of sugar. 
 176 barrels of indigo. 
 28 casks of pimento. 
 42 bags of cotton wool. 
 80 cwt. of elephants' teeth, 
 60 small casks of rum. 
 18,000 pieces of eight, besides the six thousand 
 concealed. 
 Several parcels of drugs, tortoiseshell, sweetmeats, called 
 succades, chocolate, lime juice, and other things of con- 
 siderable value. 
 
 This was a terrible loss among the English merchants, and 
 a noble booty for the rogues that took it ; but as it was in 
 open war, and by fair fighting, as they call it, there was no 
 objection to be made against them, and, to give them thenr 
 due, they fought bravely for it. 
 
LAKDED AT BOUBDEAUX. 42A 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 WE LAND AT BODRDEATJX, IN FKANCE — ^I GET EID OP JIT 
 CAPTAIN WITHOUT FATING- KANSOM, AND AEKIVB AT 
 GHENT, WHERE I JOIN THE AEMT-^PKOCEEDINGS THERE 
 
 1 AEEIVE IN LONDON, AND HEAR NEWS OP MAJOR 
 
 JACK ^I PALL IN LOVE MT JHSTRESs's ARTS TO ENTRAP 
 
 ME INTO MATEIMONT — I MARRT, AND REPENT IT. 
 
 The captain was not so bold as to meet the English men-o£- 
 war before, but he was as wary now ; for, having a prize of 
 such value in his hands, he was resolved not to lose her again, 
 if he could help it : so he stood away to the southward, and 
 that so fer, that I once thought he was resolved to go into 
 the Straits, and home by Marseilles. But having sailed to 
 the latitude of 45 degrees 45 minutes, or thereabouts, he steered 
 away east, into the bottom of the Bay of Biscay, and carried 
 us all into the river of Bourdeaux, where, on notice of his 
 arrival with such a prize, his owners or principals, came over- 
 land to see him, and where they consulted what to do with her. 
 The money they secured to be sure, and some of the cargo ; 
 but the ships sailed afterwards along the coast to St. Malo, 
 taking the opportunity of some French men-of-war which 
 were cruising on the coast, to be their convoy as far as Ushant. 
 Here the captain rewarded and dismissed the English mate, 
 as I have said, who got a passage from thence to Dieppe by 
 sea, and after that into England, by the help of a passport, 
 through Flanders to Ostend : the captain, it seems, the more 
 willingly shipped him off, that _he_mighi_npt discover to 
 others what he had discovered to him. "" 
 
 i was nowaTEourdeaux, in France, and the captain asked 
 me one morning what I intended to do ? I did not under- 
 stand him at first, but he soon gave me to understand, that I 
 was now either to be delivered up to the state as an English 
 prisoner, and so be carried to Dinant, in Britanny, or to find 
 means to have myself exchanged, or to pay my ransom, and 
 this ransom he told me at first was three hundred crowns. 
 
 I knew not what to do, but desired he would give me time 
 to write to England to my friends ; for that I had a cargo of 
 
426 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 goods sent to them by me from Virginia, but I did not know 
 but it might have fallen into such hands as his were, and if it 
 was, I knew not what would be my fate. He readily granted 
 that, so I wrote by the post, and had the satisfaction, in 
 answer to i t, to he ar that the ship I was taken in had been 
 retakeiij and carried into Portsmouth ; which I doubted 
 would have made my new master more strict, and perhaps 
 insolent, but he said nothing of it to me, nor I to him, though, 
 as I afterwards understood, he had advice of it before. 
 
 However, this was a help to me,_and served to more than 
 pay my_ransom_to the captain; and my correspondent TiT 
 Xondon, hearing o? my being alive, and at Bourdeaux, imme- 
 diately sent me a letter of credit upon an English merchant 
 at Bourdeaux, for whatever I might have occasion for. As 
 soon as I received this, I went to the merchant, who ho- 
 noured the letter of credit, and told me I should have 
 what money I pleased. But as I, who was before a mere 
 stranger in the place, and knew not what course to take, had 
 now, as it were, a friend to communicate my affairs to and 
 consult with, as soon as I told him my case, Hold, says he, 
 if that be your case, I may perhaps find a way to get you ofi 
 without a ransom. 
 
 There was, it seems, a ship bound home to France from 
 Martinico, taken off Cape Finisterre by an English man-of- 
 war, and a merchant of Rochelle being a passenger, was 
 taken on board, and brought into Plymouth. This man had 
 made great solicitation by his friends to be exchanged, plead- 
 ing poverty, and that he was unable to pay any ransom ; my 
 friend told me something of it, but not much, only bade me 
 not be too forward to pay any money to the captain, but 
 pretend I could not hear from England. This I did till the 
 captain appeared impatient. 
 
 After some time the captain told me I had used him ill ; 
 that I had made him expect a ransom, and he had treated 
 me courteously, and been at expense to subsist me, and that 
 I held him in suspense, but that, in short, if I did not pro- 
 cure the money, he would send me to Dinant in ten days, to 
 lie there as the king's prisoner till I should be exchanged. 
 My merchant gave me my cue, and by his direction I an- 
 swered, I was very sensible of his civility, and sorry he 
 should lose what expenses he had been at ; but that I found 
 my friends forgot me, and what to do I did not know, and 
 

 BILK THE CAPTAIN OF HIS RANSOM. 427 
 
 that, rather than impose upon him, I must submit to go to 
 Dinaat, or where he thought fit to send me ; but that if ever 
 I obtained my liberty, and came into England, I would not 
 fail to reimburse him what expense he had been at for my 
 subsistence ; and so, in short, made my case very bad in all 
 my discourse. He shook his head and said little, but the 
 next day entered me in the list of . English prisoners to be at 
 the king's charge, as appointed by the intendant of the place, 
 and to be sent away into Britanny. 
 
 I was then out of the captain's power, and immediately the 
 merchant, with two others who were fiiends to the merchant 
 prisoner at Plymouth, went to the intendant and gained an 
 order for the exchange, and my friend giving security for my 
 being forthcoming, in case the other was not delivered, I had 
 my liberty immediately, and went home with him to his 
 house. 
 
 Thus we bilked the captain of his ransom money ; but, 
 however, my friend went to him, and letting him know that 
 I was exchanged by the governor's order, paid him whatever 
 he could say he was in disburse on my account ; and it was 
 not then in the captain's power to object, or to claim any- 
 thing for a ransom. 
 
 I got passage from hence to Dunkirk on board a French 
 vessel, and having a certificate of an exchanged prisoner from 
 the intendant at Bourdeaux, I had a passport given me to go 
 into the Spanish Netherlands, and so whither I pleased. 
 
 Accordingly, I came to Ghent, in AprU , just as the 
 
 armies were going to take the field. I had no dislike to the 
 business of the army, but I thought I was a little above it 
 now, and had other things to look to ; for that, in my opi- 
 nion, nobody went into the field but those that could not live 
 at home ; and yet I resolved to see the manner of it a little ' 
 too: so having made an acquaintance with an English officer, 
 quartered at Ghent, I told him my intention, and he invited 
 me to go with him, and offered me his protection as a volun- 
 teer, that I should quarter with him in his tent, and live as I^ 
 would, and either carry arms or not, as I saw occasion. \ 
 
 The campaign was none of the hardest that had been, or 
 was like to be ; so that I had the diversion of seeing the ser- 
 vice, as it was proper to call it, without much hazard ; in- 
 deed, I did not see any considerable action, for there was not 
 much fighting that campaign. As to the merit of the cause 
 
u -h' 
 
 428 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 on ei ther s ide I knew nothing of it, nor had^J_suffered any of 
 " the^sputes-aBout it to enter into my thon^ts. The Prince 
 of Orange had been niade King of "England, and the English 
 troops were all on his side ; and I heard a great deal of 
 swearing and damning for King William among the soldiers ; 
 . but as for fighting, I observed the French beat them several 
 i times, and particularly the regiment my friend belonged to, 
 was surrounded in a village where they were posted, I knew 
 I not upon what occasion, and all taken prisoners. But by 
 I great good hap, I being not in service, and so not in com- 
 mand, was strolled away that day to see the country about; 
 for it was my delight to see the strong towns, and observe 
 the beauty of their fortifications ; and while I diverted myself 
 thus, I had the happy deliverance of not being taken by the 
 French for that time. 
 
 When I came back, I found the enemy possessed of the 
 town, but as I was no soldier, they did me no harm, and 
 having my French passport in my pocket, they gave me leave 
 to go to Newport, where I took the packetrboat, and came 
 over to England, landing at Deal instead of Dover, the 
 weather forcing us into the Downs ; and thus my short cam- 
 paign ended, and this g as my, seeoind. essay at the trade of 
 soldiering. 
 
 ""'"""When"! came to London, I was very well received by my 
 friend, to whom I had consigned my effects, and I found my- 
 self in very good circumstances ; for aU my goods, which, as 
 above, by several ships, I had consigned to him, came safe 
 to hand; and my overseers that I had left behind, had shipped 
 at several times four hundred hogsheads of tobacco to 
 my correspondent in my absence, being the product of my 
 plantation, or part of it, for the time of my being abroad ; so 
 that I had above l,000i. in my factor's hands, two hundred 
 hogsheads of tobacco besides left in hand, not sold. 
 
 I had nothi ng to d o. np-yv;, but jentirely Ifl. concealjDQjsdf, 
 from all that had any ^awledge^Ls.^ hefore, and this was 
 ^ the easiest thing in the world to do ; for Iwas grown out of 
 everybody's knowledge, and most of those I had known were 
 grown out of mine. My captain, who went with me, or, 
 rather, who carried me away, I found by inquiring at the 
 proper place, had been rambling about the world, came to 
 London, fell into his own trade, which he could not forbear, 
 and . growing an eminent highwayman, had made his exit 
 
AT THE HEIGHT OP GOOD FORTUNE. 429 
 
 at the gallows, after a life of fotirteen years most exquisite 
 and successful rogueries, the particulars of which would make, 
 as I observed, an admirable history. My other brother Jack, 
 who I called major, followed the like wicked trade, but was 
 a man of more gallantry and generosity ; and having com- 
 mitted innumerable depredations upon mankind, yet had 
 always so much dexterity as to bring himself off, till at length 
 he was laid fast in Newgate, and loaded with irons, and 
 would certainly have gone the same way as the captain, but 
 he was so dexterous a rogue, that no gaol, no fetters, would 
 hold him ; and he, with two more, found means to knock ofi 
 their irons, worked their way through the wall of the prison, 
 and let themselves down on the outside in the night; so 
 escaping, they found means to get into France, where he 
 followed the same trade, and with so much success, that he 
 grew famous by the name of Anthony, and had the honour, 
 with three of his comrades, whom he had taught ^e Eng lish 
 way of robbing gen erously^,^ as they caUed it, withouFm uraer^ -J 
 ing or w oundLagpor ill-using those theyrobbeH, I say, he 
 had the honour to be broke upon'the'wheerat~the Greve in 
 Paris. 
 
 AH these things I found means to be fully informed of, 
 and to have a long account of the particulars of their con- 
 duct, from some of their comrades who had the good fortune 
 to escape, and who I got the knowledge of, without letting 
 them so much as guess at who I was, or upon what account 
 I inquired. 
 
 I was now at the height of my good fortune ; indeed I was 
 in very good circumstances, and being of a fi'ugal temper 
 from the beginning, I saved things together as they came, and 
 yet lived very well too ; particularly I had the reputation of 
 a very considerable merchant, and one that came over vastly 
 rich from Virginia ; and as I frequently bought supplies for 
 my several families and plantations there, as they wrote to 
 me for them, so I passed, I say, for a great merchant. 
 
 I lived single, indeed, and in lodgings, but I began to be 
 very well known, and though I had subscribed my name only 
 Jack to my particular correspondent, yet, the French, 
 among whom I lived near a year, as I have said, not under- 
 standing what Jack meant, called me Monsieur Jacque, and 
 Colonel Jacques, and so gradually Colonel Jacque ; so I was 
 
430 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 called in the certificate of exchanging me with the other pri- 
 soner, so that I went so also into Flanders ; upon which, and 
 seeing njy certificate of exchange, as above, I was called 
 Colonel Jacques in England by my friend, who I called cor^ 
 respondent ; and thus I passed for a foreigner, and a French- 
 man, and I was infinitely fond^of having everybody take me 
 for a Ifenchman j and as I spoke French very well, having 
 learned it by continuing so long among them, so I went con- 
 stantly to the French church in London, and spoke French 
 upon all occasions, as much as I could ; and, to complete the 
 appearance of it, I got me a French servant to do my busi- 
 ness, I mean as to my merchandise, which only consisted in 
 receiving and disposing of tobacco, of which I had about 
 five hundred to six hundred hogsheads a year from my own 
 plantations, and in supplying my people with necessaries, 
 as they wanted them. 
 
 In this private condition I continued about two years more, 
 when the devil owing me a spleen ever since I refused being 
 a thief, paid me home, with my interest, by laying a snare in 
 my way, which had almost ruined me. 
 
 There dwelt a lady in the house opposite to the house I 
 lodged in, who made an extraordinary figure indeed; she 
 went very well dressed, and was a most beautiful person. She 
 was well-bred, sung admirably fine, and sometimes I could 
 hear her very distinctly, the houses being over against one 
 another, in a narrow court, not much unlike Three-king-eourt 
 in Lombard-street. 
 
 This lady put herself so often in my way, that I could not 
 in good manners forbear taking notice of her, and giving her 
 the ceremony of my hat, when I saw her at the window, or 
 at the door, or when I passed her in the court, so that we be- 
 came almost acquainted at a distance. Sometimes she also 
 visited at the house I lodged at, and it was generally con- 
 trived, that I should be introduced when she came, and thus 
 by degrees we became more intimately acquainted, and often 
 conversed together in the family, but always in public, at least 
 for a great while. 
 
 I was a mere boy in the aflFair of love, and knew the least 
 of what belonged to a woman of any man in Europe of my 
 age ; the thoughts of a wife, much less of a mistress, had never 
 so much as taken the least hold of my head, and I had been 
 
FALLS IN LOVE. 431 
 
 till now as perfectly unacquainted with the sex, and as uncon- 
 cerned about them, as I was when I was ten years old, and 
 lay in a heap of ashes at a glass-house. . / 
 
 But I know not by what witchcraft in the conversation of 
 this woman, and her singling me out upon several occasions, 
 I began to be ensnared, I knew not how, or to what end ; and 
 was on a sudden so embarrassed in my thoughts about her, 
 that, like a charm, she had me always in her circle. If she 
 had not been one of the subtlest women on earth, she could 
 never have brought me to have given myself the least trouble 
 about her, but I was drawn in by the magic of a genius 
 capable to deceive a more wary capacity than mine, and it 
 was impossible to resist her. 
 
 She attacked me without ceasing, with the fineness of her 
 conduct, and with arts which were impossible to be ineffec- 
 tual ; she was ever, as it were, in my view, often in my com- 
 pany, and yet kept herself so on the reserve, so surrounded 
 continually with obstructions, that for several months after 
 she could perceive I sought an opportunity to speak to her, 
 she rendered it impossible, nor could I ever break in upon her, 
 she kept her guard so well. 
 
 This rigid behaviour was the greatest mystery that could 
 be, considering, at the same time, that she never declined 
 my seeing her, or conversing with me in public ; but she 
 held it on, she took care never to set next me, that I might 
 slip no paper into her hand, or speak softly to her; she kept 
 somebody or other always between, that I could never come 
 up to her ; and thus, as if she was resolved really to have 
 nothing to do with me, she held me at the bay several 
 months. 
 
 All this whUe nothing was more certain than that she 
 intended to have me, if she could catch, and it was indeed a 
 kind of a catch, for she managed all by art, and drew me in 
 with the most resolute backwardness, that it was almost 
 impossible not to be deceived by it. On the other hand, she 
 did not appear to be a woman despicable, neither was she 
 poor, or in a coadition that should require so much art to 
 draw any man in ; ^but^the cheat was reallv on m^side ; for 
 she was unhappily toff^tEatnTwas vastly rich, a great 
 merchant, and that she would live like a queen, which I was 
 not at all instrumental in putting upon her, neither did I 
 know that she went upon that motive. 
 
432 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 She was too cunning to let me perceive how easy she was 
 to be had; on the contrary, she run all the hazards of 
 bringing me to neglect her entirely, that one would think 
 any woman in the world could do ; and I have wondered 
 often since, that how it was possible it should fail of making 
 me perfectly averse to her; for as I had a perfect indifferency 
 for the whole sex, and never, till then, entertained any 
 notion of them, they were no more to me than a p icture 
 i& 7 hanging up against a wall. 
 
 ° As we conversed Tfeely together in public, so she took a 
 great many occasions to rally the men, and the weakness 
 they were guilty of, in letting the women insult them as they 
 did. She thought if the men had not been fools, marriage 
 had been only treaties of peace between two neighbours, or 
 alliances offensive or defensive, which must necessarily have 
 been carried on sometimes by interviews and personal trea- 
 ties ; but oftener by ambassadors, agents, and emissaries on 
 both sides; but that the women had outwitted us, and 
 brought us upon our knees, and made us whine after them, 
 and lower ourselves, so as we could never pretend to gain 
 our equality again. 
 
 I told her I thought it was a decency to the ladies, to give 
 them the advantage of denying a little, that they might be 
 courted, and that I should not like a woman the worse for 
 denying me. I expect it, madam, says I, when I wait on 
 you to-morrow ; intimating that I intended it. You shan't 
 be deceived, sir, says she, for I'll deny now, before you ask 
 me the question. 
 
 I was dashed so effectually, with so malicious, so devilish 
 an answer, that I returned with a little suUenness, I shan't 
 trespass upon you yet, madam, and I shall be very careful 
 not to offend you when I do. 
 
 It is the greatest token of your respect, sir, says she, that 
 you are able to bestow upon me, and the most agreeable too, 
 except one, which I will not be out of hopes of obtaining of 
 you in a little time. 
 
 What is in my power to oblige you in, madam, said I, you 
 may command me in at any time, especially the way we are 
 talking of; this I spoke still with a resentment very sincere. 
 
 It is only, sir, that you would promise to hate me with as 
 much sincerity as I will endeavour to make you a suitable 
 
LOVE SOMEWHAT ABATED. 433 
 
 I granted that request, madam, seven years before you 
 asked it, said I, for I heartily hated the whole sex, and 
 scarce know how I came to abate that good disposition in 
 compliment to your conversation ; but I assure you that 
 abatement is so little, that it does no injury to your pro- 
 posal. 
 
 There's some mystery in that indeed, sir, said she, for I 
 desired to assist your aversion to women in a more particular 
 manner, and hoped it should never abate under my manage- 
 ment. We said a thousand illuatured things after this, but 
 she outdid me, for she had such a stock of bitterness upon 
 her tongue, as no woman ever went beyond her, and yet all 
 this while she was the pleasantest and most obliging creature 
 in every part of our conversation that could possibly be, and 
 meant not one word of what she said, no, not a word. But 
 I must confess it no way answered her end, for it really cooled 
 all my thoughts of her, and I, that had lived in so perfect an 
 indifferency to the sex all my days, was easily returned to 
 that condition again, and began to grow very cold and negli- 
 gent in my usual respects to her upon all occasions. 
 
 She soon found she had gone too far with me; and, in 
 short, that she was extremely out in her politics ; that she 
 had to do with one that was not listed yet among the whining 
 sort of lovers, and knew not what it was to adore a mistress 
 in order to abuse her ; and that it was not with me as it was 
 with the usual sort of men in love, that are warmed by the 
 cold, and rise in their passions as the ladies fall in their 
 returns. On the contrary, she found that it was quite altered ; ' 
 I was civil to her, as before, but not so forward; when I saw 
 her at her chamber window, I did not throw mine open, as 
 I usually had done, to talk with her ; when she sung in the 
 parlour, where I could easily hear it, I did not listen ; when 
 she visited at the house where I lodged, I did not always 
 come down, or if I did, I had business which obliged me to 
 go abroad ; and yet all this while, when I did come into her 
 company I was as intimate as ever. 
 
 I could 'easily see that this madded her to the heart, and 
 that she was perplexed to the last degree, for she found that 
 she had all her game to play over again ; that so absolute a 
 reservedness, even to rudeness and iU manners, was a little 
 too much ;_but she was a mere posture-mistress in lov e, and 
 could put her self into what shades she plea^ 
 
434 COLONISL JACK. 
 
 She was too wise to show a fondness or forwardness, that 
 looked like kindness : she knew that was the meanest and last 
 step a woman can take, and lays her under the foot of the 
 man she pretends to ; but ?^e was not come to that neither. 
 T^s cameleon put on aiiother colour, turne d, on a sudden, 
 
 The^avest, soberest, majestic madam, so that any one would 
 have thought she was advanced in age in one week from two- 
 and-twenty to fifty, and this she carried on with so much 
 
 . government of herself, that it did not in the least look like 
 art ; but if it was a representation of nature only, it was so 
 like nature itself that nobody living can be able to distin- 
 guish. She sung very often in her parlour, as well by herself 
 as with two young ladies who came often to see her ; I could 
 see by their books, and her guitar in her hand, that she was 
 singing, but she never opened the window, as she was wont 
 to do ; upon my coming to my window, she kept her own 
 always shut, or if it was open, she would be sitting at work, 
 and not look up, it may be, once in half an hour. 
 
 If she saw me by accident all this while, she would smile, 
 and speak as cheerfully as ever, but it was but a word or 
 two, and so make her honours and be gone ; so that, in a word, 
 we conversed just as we did after I had been there a week. 
 
 She tired me quite out at this work ; for though I began 
 the strangeness, indeed, yet I did not design the carrying it on 
 so far ; but she held it to the last, just in the same manner 
 as she began it. She came to the house where I lodged as 
 usual, and we were often together, supped together, played at 
 cards together, danced together ; _for i n FrancfiXaccconplishgd 
 myself with everything_^t was. needful, to make me what I 
 believed myself to be even from a boy, I mean a gen tleman; 
 I say, we conversed togetHer^ as~above, bur she "was so per- 
 fectly another thing to what she used to be in every part of 
 her conversation, that it presently occurred to me, that her 
 former behaviour was a kind of a rant, or fit ; that either it 
 was the effeot of some extraordinary levity that had come 
 
 j upon her, or that it was done to mimic the coquets of the 
 
 I town, believing it might take with me, who she thou^t was 
 a JEVenchman, and that it was what I loved ; but her new 
 jjravity w asTer realnatural tempw, and indeed JTBecameTier 
 so much better, or, as I shouTTsay, she acted it so well, that 
 it really brought me back to have, not as much only, but 
 more mind to her than ever I had before. 
 
TALK ABOUT MATEIMONT. 435 
 
 However it was a great while before I discovered myself, f 
 and I stayed indeed to find out, if possible, whether this 1 
 change was real or counterfeit ; for I could not easily believe 
 it was possible the gay humour she used to appear in could 
 be a counterfeit. It was not, therefore, till a year and 
 aknost a quarter, that I came to any resolution in my thoughts 
 about her, when, on a mere accident, we came to a little 
 conversation together. 
 
 She came to visit at our house as usual, and it happened all 
 the ladies were gone abroad : but, as it fell out, I was in the 
 passage, or entry of the house, going towards the stairs, when 
 she knocked at the door ; so stepping back, I opened the door, 
 and she, without any ceremony, came in, and run forward 
 into the parlour, supposing the women had been there; I 
 went in after her, as I could do no less, because she did not 
 know that the family was abroad. 
 
 Upon my coming in she asked for the ladies ; I told her, I 
 hoped she came to visit me now, for that the ladies were all 
 gone abroad. Are they ? (said she), as if surprised, though I 
 understood afterwards she knew it before, as also that I was 
 at home, and then rises up to be gone. No, madam, said I, 
 pray do not go ; when ladies come to visit me, I do not use 
 to tire them of my company so soon. That's as iUnatured, 
 says she, as you could possibly talk ; pray don't pretend I 
 came to visit you. I am satisfied who I came to visit, and 
 satisfied that you know it. Yes, madam, said I, but if I hap- 
 pen to be all of the family that's left at home, then you came 
 to visit me. 
 
 I never receive visits from those that I hate, says she. 
 
 Tou have me there, indeed, said I, but you never gave me 
 leave to teU you why I hated you. I hated you because you 
 would never give me an opportunity to tell you I loved you ; 
 sure, you took me for some frightful creature, that you would 
 never come near enough, so much as to let me whisper to you 
 that I love you. 
 
 I never care to hear anything so disagreeable, says she, 
 though it be spoken ever so softly. 
 
 We rallied thus for an hour; in short, she showed the 
 abundance of her wit, and I an abundant deficiency of mine ; 
 for though three or four times she provoked me to the last 
 degree, so that once I was going to tell her I had enough of 
 her company, and if sh9 pleased, I would wait upon her to 
 
 F F 2 
 
436 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 the door; yet she had always so much witchcraJl on her tongue, 
 that she brought herself off again ; till, to make^ the story 
 short, we came at last to talk seriously on both sides about 
 matrimony, and she heard me freely propose it, and answered 
 rae directly upon many occasions. For example, she told me 
 1 would carry her away to France, or to Virginia, and that 
 she could not think of leaving England, her native country. 
 I toM her, I hoped she did notjake me for akidnapper. By 
 ' thp:iimv^J^^A^^^teaherho w I "haTbeen kidnapped myseltr 
 '~She'tai3'no715ut the cOTiequenceoFmy afiairs, which were 
 it seems mostly abroad, might oblige me to go, and she could 
 never think of marrying any man, that she could not be con- 
 tent to go all over the world with, if he had occasion to go 
 himself. This was handsomely expressed, indeed; I made 
 her easy on that point, and thus we began the grand parley ; 
 which indeed she drew me into with the utmost art and sub- 
 tilty, such as was peculiar to herself, but was infinitely her 
 advantage in our treating of marriage ; for she made me 
 effectually court her, though at the same time in her design 
 she courted me with the utmost skill, and such skill it was, 
 that her design was perfectly impenetrable to the last moment. 
 In short, we came nearer and nearer every time we met, 
 and after one casual visit more, in which I had the mighty 
 favour of talking vnth her alone, I then waited on her every 
 day at her own house, or lodgings rather, and so we set 
 about the work to a purpose, and in about a month wegave 
 the world the jlig, and were privately iH§££J6d, to avoid cere- 
 "mony and the public^ inconveniency of awedding. 
 
 We soon found a house proper for our dwelling, and so 
 went to housekeeping ; we had not been long together, but I 
 found that gay temper of my wife returned, and sheJ;hrewoff 
 the mask of her gravil^r and_gQ2.4-C2Ildupt, that I had so long 
 Tancie3"was"]iOTniere natural disposition,'and now, having no 
 more occasion for disguises, she resolved to seem nothing but 
 what really she was, a wild, untamed colt, perfectly loose, and 
 careless to conceal any part, no, not the worst of her conduct. 
 She carried on this air_of_levity to such an excess, that I 
 could not but be dissatisfied at the expense of it, for she kept 
 company that I did not like, lived beyond what I could sup- 
 port, and sometimes lost at play more than I cared to pay ; 
 upon which, one day, I took occasion to mention it, but 
 lightly ; and .said to her, by way of raillery, that we lived 
 
AM MARRIED AND REPENT IT. 437 
 
 merrily, for as long as it would last. She turned short upon me, 
 What do you mean, says she ; why, you do not pretend to he 
 uneasy, do ye ? No, no, madam, not I, by no means ; it is 
 no business of mine, you know, said I, to inquire what my 
 wife spends, or whether she spends more than I can afford, 
 or less ; I only desire the favour to know, as near as you can 
 guess, how long you wiU please to take to despatch me, for I 
 would not be too_long^_dgng. ' ' 
 
 I do not know what you talk of, says she ; you may die 
 as leisurely, or as hastily, as you please, when your time 
 comes ; I an't a going to kill you, as I know of. 
 
 But you are a going to starve me, madam, said I, and hun- 
 ger is as leisurely a death as breaking upon the wheel. 
 
 I starve you ! why are not you a great Virginia merchant, 
 and did not I bring you 1500Z. ? What would you have ? 
 Sure, you can maintain a wife out of that, can't you ? 
 
 Yes, madam, says I, I could maintain a wife, but not a 
 gamester, though you had brought me 1500^. a year; no 
 estate is big enough for a box and dice. 
 
 She took fire at that, and flew out in a passion, and, after 
 a great many bitter words, told me in short, that she saw no 
 occasion to alter her conduct ; and as for my not maintain- 
 ing her, when I could not maintain her longer, she would, 
 find some way or other to maintain herself. 
 
 Some time after the first rattle of this kind, she vouchsafed 
 to let me know that she was pleased to be with child ; I was 
 at first glad of it, in hopes it would help to abate her mad- 
 ness ; but it was all one, and her being with child only added 
 to the rest, for she made such preparations for her lying-in, 
 and the other appendixes of a child's being born, that, in short, 
 I found she would be downright distracted ; and I took the 
 liberty to tell her one day, that she would soon bring herself 
 and me to destruction, and entreated her to consider that such 
 figures as those were quite above us, and out of our circle ; 
 and, in short, that I neither could, nor would, allow such ex- 
 penses ; that, at this rate, two or three children would effec- 
 tually ruin me, and that I desired her to consider what she 
 was doing. 
 
 She told me, with an air of disdain, that it was none of her 
 business to consider anything of that matter; that if I could 
 not allow it, she would allow it herself, and I might do my 
 worst. 
 
438 COLONEI. JACK. 
 
 I begged her to consider things for all that, and not drive 
 me to extremities ; that I married her to love and cherish 
 her, and use her as a good wife ought to be used, but not to 
 be ruined and undone by her. In a word, nothing could 
 mollify her, nor any argument persuade her to moderation, 
 but withal she took it so heinously, that I should pretend to 
 restrain her, that she told me in so many words, she would 
 drop her burthen -mth me, and then, if I did not like it, she 
 would take care of herself, she would not live vvdth me an 
 hour, for she would not be restrained, not she ; and talked a 
 long while at that rate. 
 
 I told her, as to her child, which she called her burthen, it 
 should be no burthen to me ; as to the rest she might do as 
 she pleased ; it might, however, do me this favour, that I 
 should have no more lyings-in at the rate of 136^. at a time, 
 as I found she intended it should be now. She told me she 
 could not tell that ; if she had no more by me, she hoped she 
 should by somebody else. Say you so, madam? said I; then 
 they that get them, shall keep them. She did not know that 
 neither, she said, and so turned it off jeering, and as it were 
 laughing at me. 
 
 This last discourse nettled me, I must confess, and the more, 
 because I had a great deal of it, and very often, till, in short, 
 we began at length to enter into a friendly treaty about parting. 
 
 Nothing could be more criminal than the several discourses 
 we had upon this subject ; she demanded a separate mainte- 
 nance, and, in particular, at the rate of 300Z. a year, and I 
 demanded security of her, that she should not run me in debt ; 
 she demanded the keeping of the child, with an allowance of 
 lOOZ. a year for that, and I demanding that I should be secured 
 from being charged for keeping any she might have by some- 
 body else, as she had threatened me. 
 
 In the interval, and during these contests, she dropped her 
 burthen (as she called it), and brought me a son, a very fine 
 child. 
 
 She was content, during her lying-in, to abate a little, 
 though it was but a very little indeed, of the great expense 
 she had intended ; and with some difficulty and persuasion, 
 was content with a suit of childbed-linen of 161. instead of 
 one she had intended of threescore ; and this she magnified 
 as a particular testimony of her condescension, and a yielding 
 to my avaricious temper, as she called it. 
 
MT WIFE TUEN6 OUT A BAD -WOMAN. 439 
 
 But after she was up again, it was the same thing, and she 
 went on with her humour to that degree, that in a little time 
 she began to carry it on to other excesses, and to have a sort 
 of fellows come to visit her, which I. did not like, and once, in 
 particular, stayed abroad all night. The next day, when she 
 came home, she began to cry out first ; told me where (as 
 she said) she lay, and that the occasion was a christening, 
 where the company had a feast, and stayed too late ; that, if 
 I was dissatisfied, I might inform myself there of all the par- 
 ticulars, where she lay, and the like. I told her coldly, 
 Madam, you do well to suggest my being dissatisfied, for you 
 may be sure I am, and you could expect no other ; that as 
 to going to your haunte to inform myself, that is not my 
 business; it is your business to bring testimonies of your 
 behaviour, and to prove where you lay, and in what company; 
 it is enough to me that you lay out of your own house, with- 
 out your husband's knowledge or consent, and before you 
 and I converse again, I must have some satisfaction of the 
 particulars. 
 
 She answered, with all her heart ; she was as indifferent as 
 I, and since I took so ill her lying at a friend's house on an 
 extraordinary occasion, she gave me to understand, that it 
 was what she would have me expect, and what she would 
 have the liberty to do when she thought fit. 
 
 Well, madam, said I, if I must expect what I cannot allow, 
 you must expect I shall shut my doors by day, against those 
 that keep out of them at night. 
 
 She would try me, she said, very. speedily; and if I shut 
 the doors against her, she would find a way to make me 
 open them. 
 
 "Well, madam, says I, you threaten me hard, but I would 
 advise you to consider before you take such measures, for I 
 shall be as good as my word. However, it was not long 
 that we could live together upon these terms ; for I found 
 very quickly what company she kept, and that she took a 
 course which I ought not to bear ; so I began the separation 
 first, and refused her my bed ; we had indeed refrained iM 
 converse as husband and wife for about two months before, 
 for I told her very plainly, I would father no brats that were 
 not of my own getting ; and matters coming thus gradually 
 to an extremity, too great to continue as it was, she went ofF 
 one afternoon, and left me a line in writing, signif^ng that 
 
440 COLONKL JACK. 
 
 affairs had come to such a pass between us, that she did not 
 think fit to give me the opportunity of shutting her out of 
 doors, and that therefore she had retired herself to such a 
 place ; naming a relation of her own, as scandalous as herself; 
 and that she hoped I would not give her the trouble to sue 
 tor her support, in the ordinary course of law, but that, as 
 her occasions required, she should draw bills upon me, which 
 she expected I would not refuse. 
 
 CHAPTER Xni. 
 
 PAKT FEOM MT WIFE 1 AM INSBLTED BY ONE OP HEB 
 
 EMISSAKIES WALKING OUT IN THE EVENING I AM WAT- 
 LAID AND WOUNDED 1 OBTAIN A COMPANY IN A REGI- 
 MENT AND GO OVEK TO FRANCE ADVENTURES THERE. 
 
 I WAS extremely satisfied with this proceeding, and took care 
 to let her hear of it, though I gave no answer at all to 
 her letter ; and as I had taken care before, that whenever 
 she played such a prank as this, she should not be able to 
 carry much with her, so, after she was gone, I immediately 
 broke up housekeeping, sold my furniture by public outcry, 
 and in it everything in particular that was her own, and set 
 a bill upon my door, giving her to understand by it, that she 
 had passed the Rubicon, that as she had taken such a step 
 of her own accord, so there was no room left her ever to 
 think of coming back again. 
 
 This was what any one may believe I should not have 
 done, if I had se«n any room for a reformation ; but she had 
 given me such testimonies of a mind ' alienated from her 
 husband, in particular espousing her own unsufferable levity, 
 that there was indeed no possibility of our coming afterwards 
 to any terms again. 
 
 However, I kept a couple of trusty agents so near her, 
 that I failed not to have a full account of her conduct,, though 
 I never let her know anything of me, but that I was gone 
 over to France ; as to her bills which she said she would 
 draw upon me, she was as good as her word in drawing one 
 of SOL, which I refused to accept, and never gave her leave 
 to trouble me with anotlier. 
 
 It is true, and I must acknowledge it, that all this was a 
 
GROWN QUITE SICK OP WEDLOCK. 441 
 
 very melancholy scene of life to me, and but that she took 
 care by carrying herself to the last degree provoking, and 
 continually to insult me, I could never have gone on to the 
 parting with so much resolution, for I really loved her very 
 sincerely, and could have been anything but a beggar and a 
 cuckold with her, but those were intolerable to me, especially 
 as they were put upon me with so much insult and rudeness. 
 
 But my wife carried it at last to a point that made all 
 things light and easy to me, for after above a year's separa- 
 tion, and keeping such company as she thought fit, she was 
 pleased to be with child again, in which she had, however, 
 so much honesty, as not to pretend that she had had anything 
 to do with me ; what a wretched life she led after this, and 
 how she brought herseK to the utmost extremity of misery 
 and distress, I may speak of hereafter. 
 
 I had found, soon after our parting, that I had a great deal 
 of reason to put myself into a posture at first not to be 
 imposed upon by her ; for I found very quickly that she had 
 run herself into debt in several places very considerably ; and 
 that it was upon a supposition that I was liable to those 
 debts; but I was gone, and it was absolutely necessary I 
 should do so ; upon which, she found herself obliged, out of 
 her wicked gains, however, whatever she made of them, to 
 discharge most of those debts herself. 
 
 As soon as she was delivered of her child, in which my 
 intelligence was so good, that I had gotten sufficient proof of 
 it, I sued her in the ecclesiastical court, in order to obtain a 
 divorce ; and as she found it impossible to avoid it, so she 
 declined the defence, i^nd I gained a legal decree, or what 
 they call it, of divorce, in the usual time of such process ; and 
 now I thought myself a freeman once again, and began to be 
 sick of wedlock with all my heart. 
 
 I lived retired, because I knew she had contracted debts 
 which I should be obliged to pay, and I was resolved to be 
 gone out of her reach, with what speed I could ; but it was 
 necessary that I should stay till the Virginia fieet came in, 
 because I looked for at least three hundred hogsheads of 
 tobacco from thence, which I knew would heal all my 
 breaches ; for indeed the extravagance of three years with 
 this lady bad sunk me most effectually, even tar beyond her 
 own fortune, which was considerable, though not quite 1500/,, 
 as she had called it. 
 
442 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 But all the mischiefs I met with on account of this match 
 were not over yet ; for when I had been parted with her about 
 three months, and had refused to accept her bill of 30/. which 
 I mentioned above, though I was removed from my first 
 lodgings too, and thought I had effectually secured myself 
 from being found out, yet there came a gentleman well 
 dressed to my lodgings one day, and was let in before I knew 
 of it, or else I should scarce have admitted him. 
 
 He was led into a parlour, and I came down to him in my 
 gown and slippers ; when I came into the room, he called 
 me as familiarly by my name as if he had known me twenty 
 years, and pulling out a pocket-book, he shows me a bill upon 
 me, drawn by my wife, which was the same biU for 30/. that 
 I had refused before. 
 
 Sir, says I, this bUl has been presented before, and I gave 
 my answer to it then. 
 
 Answer, sir ! says he, with a kind of jeering, taunting air ; 
 I do not understand what you mean by an answer ; it is not 
 a question, sir, it is a bUl to be paid. 
 
 Well, sir, says I, it is a bill, I know that, and I gave my 
 answer to it before. 
 
 Sir, sir, says he, very saucily, your answer ! there is no 
 answer to a bUl, it must be paid ; bUls are to be paid, not to 
 be answered ; they say you are a merchant, sir ; merchants 
 always pay their bills. 
 
 I began to be angry too a little, but I did not like my man, 
 for I found he begun to be quarrelsome ; however, I said. 
 Sir, I perceive you are not much used to presenting bills ; 
 sir, a bUl is always first presented, and presenting is a ques- 
 tion, it is asking if I will accept or pay the bill, and then 
 whether I say yes or no, it is an answer one way or other ; 
 after it is accepted, it indeed requires no more answer but 
 payment when it is due ; if you please to inform yourself, 
 this is the usage which all merchants or tradesmen of any 
 kind, who have bills drawn upon them, act by. 
 
 "Well, sir, says he, and what then ? What is this to the 
 paying me the 30/. ? 
 
 Why, sir, says I, it is this to it, that I told the person that 
 brought it, I should not pay it. 
 
 Not pay it ! says he, but you shall pay it ; ay, ay, you 
 will pay it. 
 
 She that draws it, has no reason to draw any bills upon 
 
rNSULTED ]JT ONUi OP HEE EMISSAEIES. 44S 
 
 me, I am sure, said I ; and I shall pay no bills she draws, 1 
 assure you. 
 
 Upon this, he turns ^hort upon me ; Sir, she that draws 
 this bill is a person of too much honour to draw any bill 
 without reason, and it is an affiront to say so of her, and I 
 shall expect satisfaction of you for that by itself; but first 
 the bill, sir, the biU, you must pay the bill, sir. 
 
 I returned as short ; Sir, I afiront nobody, I know the 
 person as well as you I hope, and what I have said of her is 
 no afiront ; she can have no reason to draw bUls upon me, 
 for I owe her nothing. 
 
 I omit intermingling the oaths he laced his speech with, 
 as too foul for my paper ; but he told me he would make me 
 know she had friends to stand by her, that I had abused her, 
 and he would let me know it, and do her justice ; but first, I 
 must pay his bill. 
 
 I answered in short, I would not pay the biU, nor any bills 
 she should draw. 
 
 With that he steps to the door and shuts it, and swore by 
 G — d he would make me pay the bill before we parted ; and 
 laid his hand upon his sword, but did not draw it out. 
 
 I confess I was frightened to the last degree, for I had no 
 sword, and if I had, I must ow n, that, though I had, l earaed. , 
 a great ma5x.good tilings inErance to make me look like a 
 gentlem aSfcX had forgot the main article^ of learning how J;o 
 q se a swo rd, a thing so universally practised there ; and to 
 say more, I had been perfectly unacquainted with quarrels of 
 this nature ; so that I was perfectly surprised when he shut 
 the door, and knew not what to say or do. 
 
 However, as it happened, the people of the house hearing 
 us pretty loud, came near the door, and made a noise in the 
 entry, to let me know they were at hand ; and one of the 
 servants going to open the door, and finding it locked, called 
 out to me. Sir, for God's sake open the door ! what is the 
 matter? shall we fetch a constable? I made no answer, but 
 it gave me courage, so I sat down composed in one of the 
 chairs, and said to bim ; Sir, this is not the way to make me 
 pay the bill ; you had much better be easy, and take your 
 satisfaction another way. 
 
 He understood me of fighting, which upon my word waa 
 not in my thoughts, but I meant that he had better take hia 
 course at law. 
 
444 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 With all my heart, says he ; they say you ar e a gentleman , 
 
 and they call you colonel; nowpit you are a"gentleman, I 
 
 "acceprfwCfrtSftSnenge, sir, and if you will walk out with me, 
 
 I will take it for full payment of the bill, and will decide it 
 
 as gentlemen ought to do. 
 
 I challenge you, sir ! said I ; not I, I made no challenge j 
 I said, this is not the way to make me pay a bUl that I have 
 not accepted ; that is, that you had better seek your satisfac- 
 tion at law. 
 
 Law ! says h e, law ! gentleman's law ism ^affl.; in short, 
 sii^ you StlUll pay me or fight me ; and linen, as if he had 
 mistaken, he turns short upon me, Nay, says he, you shall 
 both fight me and pay me, for I will maintain her honour ; 
 and in saying this, he bestowed about six or seven damme's 
 and oaths, by way of parenthesis. 
 
 This interval delivered me effectually, for just at the word 
 'fight me, for I will maintain her honour,' the maid had 
 brought in a constable, with three or four neighbours to 
 assist him. 
 
 He heard them come in, and began to be a little in a rage, 
 and asked me if I intended to mob him instead of paying ; 
 and laying his hand on his sword, told me, if any man offered 
 to break in upon him, he would run me through the first 
 moment, that he might have the fewer to deal with afterw-ards. 
 
 I told him he knew I had called for no help (believing he 
 could not be in earnest in what he had said), and that if any- 
 body attempted to come in upon us, it was to prevent the 
 mischief he threatened, and which he might see I had no 
 weapons to resist. 
 
 Upon this the constable called, and charged us both in the 
 king's name to open the door ; I was sitting in a chair, and 
 offered to rise ; he made a motion as if he would draw, upon 
 which I sat down again, and the door not being opened, the 
 constable set Ma foot against it and came in. 
 
 Well, sir, says my gentleman, and what now? what ia 
 your business here I Nay, sir, says the constable, you see my 
 business, I am a peace-officer, aU I have to do is to keep the 
 peace, and I find the people of the house frightened for fear 
 of mischief between you, and they have fetched me to pre- 
 vent it. What mischief have they supposed you should find 1 
 says he. I suppose, says the constable, they were afi-aid you 
 Bhould fight. That is, because they did not know this fellow 
 
WIFE DRAWS BILLS IN MT NAME. 445 
 
 here; he never fights; they call him colonel, says he; I 
 suppose he might be bom a colonel, for I dare say he was 
 born a coward ; he never fights, he dares not see a man ; if 
 he woidd have fought, he would have walked out with me, 
 but he scorns to be brave ; they would never have talked to you 
 of fighting, if they had known him : I teU you, Mr. Constable, 
 he is a coward, and a coward is a rascal ; and with that he 
 came to me, and stroked his finger down my nose pretty hard, 
 and laughed and mocked most horridly, as if I was a coward. 
 Now, for aught I knew, it might be true, but I was now what 
 they call a coward made desperate, which is one of the worst 
 of men in the world to encounter with, for being in a fury, I 
 threw my head in his face, and closing with him, threw him 
 fairly on his back by main strength, and had not the constable 
 stepped in and taken me off, I had certainly stamped him to 
 death with my feet, for my blood was now all in a flame, and 
 the people of the house were Mghtened now as much the 
 other way, lest I should kill him, though I had no weapon at 
 all in my hand. 
 
 The constable too reproved me in his turn ; but I said to 
 him, Mr. Constable, do not you think I am sufiiciently pro- 
 voked? can any man bear such things as these? I desire to 
 know who this man is, and who sent him hither ? 
 ^lam, says he, a p;(;.i],)i1f.ma,Tij and come with a bUl to him 
 for nioney,anorhe refuses to pay it. Well, says the constable 
 very prudently, that is none of my business, I am no justice 
 of the peace to hear the cause ; be that among yourselves, 
 but keep your hands off one another, and that is as much as 
 I desire ; and therefore, sir, says the constable to him, if I 
 may advise you, seeing he will not pay the bUl, and that 
 must be decided between you as the law directs, I would 
 have you leave it for the present, and go quietly away. 
 
 He made many impertinent harangues about the bill, and 
 insisted that it wfes_drauWn by my .D.WiL«wifej I said angrily, 
 ^tterfir : wlS drawn by a ,whpre_; he buli]e3.""me upon that, 
 told me I durst not tell him so anywhere else ; so I answered, 
 I would very soon pubhsh her for a whore to all the w orld, 
 and cry her down ; and thus we scolded for near half an hour, 
 for I took courage when the constable was there, for I knew 
 that he would keep us from fighting, which indeed I had no 
 mind to, and so at length I got rid of him. 
 
 I was heartily vexed at this rencounter, and the more, be" 
 
448 fiOLONEL JACK. 
 
 cause I had been found out in my lodging, which I thought 
 I had effectually concealed ; however, I resolved to remove 
 the next day, and in the meantime I kept within doors all 
 that day tUl the evening, and then I went out in order not 
 to return thither any more. 
 
 Being come out into Gracechurch-street, I observed a man 
 foUow me, with one of his legs tied up in a string, and hop- 
 ping along with the other, and two crutches ; he begged for 
 a farthing, but I inclining not to give him anything, the 
 fellow followed me still, till I came to a court, when I 
 answered hastily to him, I have nothing for you ! Pray do 
 not be so troublesome ! with which words he knocked me 
 down with his crutches. 
 
 Being stunned with the blow, I knew nothing what was 
 done to me afterwards ; but coming to myself again, I found 
 I was wounded ¥ery frightfully in several places, and that 
 among the rest my nose was slit upwards, one of my ears 
 almost cut off, and a great cut with a sword on the side of 
 the forehead, also a stab into the body, though not dangerous. 
 
 Who had been near me, or struck me, besides the cripple 
 that struck me with his crutch, I knew not, nor do I know to 
 this hour ; but I was terribly wounded, and lay bleeding on 
 the ground some time, tiU coming to myself I got strength to 
 cry out for help, and people coming about me, I got some 
 hands to carry me to my lodging, where I lay by it more 
 than two months before I was well enough to go out of doors, 
 and when I did go out, I had reason to believe that I was 
 waited for by some rogues, who watched au opportunity to 
 repeat the injury I had met with before. 
 
 This made me very uneasy, and I resolved to get myself 
 out of danger if possible, and to go over to France, or home, 
 as I called it, to Virginia, so to be out of the way of villains 
 and assassinations; for every time I stirred out here, I 
 thought I went in danger of my life; and therefore, as before, 
 I went out at night, thinking to be concealed, so now I never 
 went out but in open day, that I might be safe, and never 
 without one or two servants to be my lifeguard. 
 
 But I must do my wife a piece of justice here too, and that 
 was, that hearing wha't had befallen me, she wrote me a 
 letter, in which she treated me more decently than she had 
 been wont to do ; she said she was very sorry to hear how I 
 had been used, and the rather, because she understood it was 
 
WAYLA1I» AND VEET rLLTKEATED 447 
 
 on presenting her bill to me : she said she hoped I could not. 
 -in my worst dispositions, think so hardly of her, as to believe 
 it was done by her knowledge or consent, much less by her 
 order or direction ; that she abhorred such things, and pro- 
 tested, if she had the least knowledge, or so much as a guess 
 at the villains concerned, she would discover them to me ; 
 she let me know the person's name to whom she gave the 
 bill, and where he lived, and left it to me to oblige him to 
 discover the person who had brought it, and used me so ill, 
 and wished I might find him, and bring him to justice, and 
 have him punished with the utmost severity of the law. 
 
 I took this so kindly of my wife, that I think in my con- 
 science, had she come after it herself, to see how I did, I had 
 certainly taken her again ; but she satisfied herself with the 
 civility of another letter, and desiring me to let her know as 
 often as I could how I was, adding, that it would be infinitely 
 to her satisfaction to hear I was recovered of the hurt I 
 had received, and that he was hanged at Tyburn who had 
 done it. 
 
 She used some expressions, signifying, as I understood 
 them, her affliction at our parting, and her continued respect 
 for me, but did not make any motion towai'ds returning ; then 
 she used some arguments to move me to pay her bOls ; inti- 
 mating that she had brought me a large fortune, and now had 
 nothing to subsist on, which was very severe. 
 
 I wrote her an answer to this letter, though I had not to 
 the other, letting her know how I had been used ; that I was 
 satisfied, upon her letter, that she had no hand in it, that it 
 was not in her nature to treat me so, who had never injured 
 her, used any violence with her, or been the cause or desire 
 of our parting : that, as to her bill, she could not but know 
 how much her expensive way of living had straitened and 
 reduced me, and would, if continued, have ruined me ; that 
 she had in less than three years, spent more than as much as 
 she brought to me, and would not abate her expensive way, 
 though calmly entreated by me, with protestations that I 
 could not support so great an expense, but chose rather to 
 break up her family and go from me, than to restrain hersell 
 to reasonable limits, though I used no violence with her, but 
 entreaties and earnest persuasions, backed with good reason; 
 letting her know how my estate was, and convincing her, that 
 it must reduce us to poverty at least ; that, however, if she 
 
148 COLONEI. JACK. 
 
 would recall her bill, I would send her 301., wbioh was the 
 sum mentioned in her bill, and, according to my ability, 
 would not let her want, if sbe pleased to live within due 
 bounds ; but then I let her know also, that I had a very bad 
 account of her conduct, and that she kept company with a 
 scandalous fellow, who I named to her ; that I was loath to 
 believe such things of her, but that, to put an entire end to 
 the report, and restore her reputation, I let her know that 
 still, after all I had heard, if she woidd resolve to live without 
 restraints, within the reasonable bounds of my capacity, and 
 treat me with the same kindness, affection, and tenderness, 
 as I always had treated her, and ever would, ^^ was willing 
 to receive her again, and would forget all that was past ; but 
 that, if she declined me now, it would be for ever ; for if she 
 did not accept my offer, I was resolved to stay here no longer, 
 where I had been so ill treated on many occasions, but was 
 preparing to go into my own country, where I would spend 
 my days in q^uief, and iii a retreaTEom the world. 
 
 She did not give such an answer to this as I expected ; for 
 though she thanked me for the 301., yet she insisted upon her 
 justification in all other points ; and, though she did not 
 refuse to return to me, yet she did not say she accepted it, 
 and, in short, said little or nothing to it, only a kind of claim 
 to a reparation of her injured reputation, and the Kke. 
 
 This gave me some surprise at first, for I thought, indeed, 
 any woman in her circumstances would have been very 
 willing to have put an end to all her miseries, and to the 
 reproach which was upon her, by a reconciliation ; especially, 
 considering she subsisted at that time but very meanly. But 
 there was a particular reason which prevented her return, 
 and which she could not plead to in her letter, yet was a 
 good reason against accepting an offer which she would other- 
 wise have been glad of ; and this was, that as I have men- 
 tioned above, she had fallen into bad company, and had 
 prostituted her virtue to some of her flatterers, and, in short, 
 was with child ; so that she durst not venture to accept my 
 offer. 
 
 However, as I observed above, she did not absolutely 
 refuse it, intending (as I uiiderstood afterward), to keep the 
 treaty of it on foot, till she could drop her burthen, as she 
 called it before ; and having been delivered privately, have 
 accepted my proposal afterward; and, indeed, this was th« 
 
ENTERED AGAIN INTO THE AKMT. 443 
 
 most prudent step she could take, or, as we may say, the only 
 step she had left to take. _£ut_I_HSS Jaomany for her 
 ^here too, my intelligence aboutjier wastoo^^ooS tor heFto 
 con^ear~such aiTTfiajrTrom me,~uhless shehad gone away 
 before she was visibly big, and unless she had gone farther 
 off too than she did, for I had an account to a tittle of the 
 time when, and place where, and the creature of which she 
 was delivered, and then my offers of taking her again were 
 at an end, though she wrote me several penitent letters, 
 acknowledging her crime, and begging me to forgive her; 
 but my spirit was above all that now, nor could I ever bear 
 the thoughts of her after that, but pursued a divorce, and 
 accordingly obtained it, as I have mentioned already. 
 
 Things being at this pass, I resolved, as I have observed 
 before, to go over to France, after I had received my effects 
 from Virginia; and accordingly I came to Dunkirk in the 
 year 1700, and here I fell into company with some Irish 
 officers of the regiment of DiUon, who by little and little 
 entered me into the army, and, by the help of Lieutenant- 
 "generalTJonnor, an Irishman, and some money, I obtained a 
 company in his regiment, and so went into the army directly. 
 
 I was exceedingly pleased with my new circumstances, and 
 n ow I used to say to myseKLj was come to wha t I was born 
 to, an^that Ihad nCTe rtfl lnow lived the Efe bra gentleman. 
 
 Our regiment, after Thad been some timem it, was'com- 
 manded into Italy, and one of the most considerable actions 
 that I was in, was the famous attack upon Cremona, in the 
 Milanese, where the Germans being privately, and by trea- 
 chery, let into the town in the night, through a kind of com- 
 mon sewer, surprised the town, and got possession of the 
 greatest part of it, surprising the mareschal duke de Villeroy, 
 and taking him prisoner as he came out of his quarters, and 
 beating the few French troops which were left in the citadel j 
 but were in the middle of their victory so boldly and reso- 
 lutely attacked by two Irish regiments, who- were quartered 
 in the street leading to the river Po, and who kept possession 
 of the water-gate, or Po gate of the town, by which the Ger- 
 man reinforcemejits should have come in, that after a most 
 desperate fight, the Germans had their victory wrung out of 
 their hands, and not being able to break through us to let m 
 ■ their friends, were obliged at length to quit the town again, 
 to the eternal honour of those Irish regiments, and indeed of 
 
 G G 
 
450 
 
 COLONEl, JACK. 
 
 their whole nation, and for which we had a veiy handsome 
 compliment from the king of France. 
 
 I now had the satisfaction of knowing, and that for the first 
 time too, that I was not that cowardly low-spirited wretch 
 that I was when the fellow bullied me in my lodgings about 
 the bill of SQL: had he attacked me now, though in the very 
 same condition, I should, naked and unai-med as I was, have 
 flown in the face of him, and trampled him under my feet ; 
 but men never know themselves till they are tried, jfl4.eou; 
 
 _r^e isacgmred byjamej^ and experience _^ _things . 
 
 , 7 PiuIipdelDom]neft"KIis us, that after the^battle of Monte* 
 leri, the Count de Charolois, who till then had an utter aver- 
 sion to the war, and abhorred it, and everything that belonged 
 to it, was so changed by the glory he obtained in that action, 
 and by the flattery of those about hkn, that afterwards .the 
 army was his mistress, and the fatigues of the war his chief 
 delight ; it is too great an example for me to bring in my own 
 case, but so it was, that they flattered me so with my bravery, 
 as they called it, on the occasion of this action, t hat I fancied 
 myseH' brave, _jyh.ether I was so or not, and the pride of it 
 made me bold and daring to the last degree on all occasions ; 
 but what added to it was, that somebody gave a particular ac- 
 count to the court of my being instrumental to the saving the 
 city, and the whole Cremonese, by my extraordinary defence 
 of the Po gate, and by my managing that defence after the 
 lieutenant-colonel, who commanded the party where I was 
 posted, was killed; upon which the king sent me a public 
 testimony of his accepting my service, and sent me a brevet 
 to be a lieutenant-colonel, and the next courier brought me 
 actually a lommission for lieutenant-colonel in the regiment 
 
 of . 
 
 I was m several skirmishes and petty encounters^ before 
 this, by which I gained the reputation of a good officer, but I 
 happened to be in some particular posts too, by which I g«t 
 somewhat that I liked much better, and that was a good deal 
 of money. 
 
 Our regiment was sent from France to Italy by sea ; we 
 embarked at Toulon, and landed at Savona, in the territory 
 of Genoa, and marched from thence to. the duchy of Milan. 
 At the first town Ave were sent to take possession of, which 
 was Alexandria, the citizens rose upon our men in a most 
 furious manner, and drove the whole garrison, which con- 
 
 X) lA^ 
 
 
QUARTEKED IN A BUEGHER's HOUSE. 451 
 
 sisted of eight hundred men, that is, French, and soldiers in 
 the French service, quite out of the town. 
 
 I was quartered in a burgher's house, just by one of the 
 ports, with eight of my men and a servant, where, calling a 
 short council with my men, we were resolved to maintain the 
 house we were in, whatever it cost, tiU we received orders to 
 quit it from the commanding officer. Upon this, when I saw 
 ouf men could not stand their ground in the street, being 
 pressed hard by the citizens, I turned out of doors all the 
 family, and kept the house as a castle, which I was governor 
 in ; and as the house joined to the city gate, I resolved to 
 maintain it, so as to be the last that should quit the place, my 
 own retreat being secured by being so near the port. 
 
 Having thus emptied the house of the inhabitants, we made 
 no scruple of filling our pockets vrith whatever we could find 
 there; in a word, we left nothing we could carry away, among 
 which, it came to my lot to dip into the burgher's cabinet, 
 whose house it was where we were, and there I took about 
 the quantity of two hundred pistoles in money and plate, and 
 other things of value. There was great complaint made to 
 Prince Vaudemont, who was then governor of the Milanese, 
 of this violence ; but as the repulse the citizens gave us was 
 contrary to his order, and to the general design of the piince, 
 who was then wholly in the interest of king Philip, the citi- 
 zens could obtain nothing, and I found that if we had plun- 
 dered the whole city it would have been the same thing ; for 
 the governor had orders to take our regiment in, and it was 
 an act of open rebellion to resist us as they did ; however, 
 we had orders not to fire upon the burghers, unless constrained 
 to it by evident necessity, and we rather chose to quit the 
 pla:ce as we did, than dispute it with a desperate body of fel- 
 lows, who wanted no advantage of us, except only that of 
 having possession of two bastions, and one port of our retreat ; 
 first, they were treble our number, for the burghers being 
 joined by seven companies of the regular troops, made up 
 above sixteen hundred men, besides rabble, which was many 
 more, whereas we were about eight hundred in all jthey also 
 had the citadel, and several pieces of cannon, so that we could 
 have made nothing of it, if we had attacked them ; but they 
 submitted three or four days after to other forces, the soldiers 
 within turning upon them, and taking the citadel from them. 
 
 After this we lay still in quarters eight months; for the 
 
 G G 2 
 
452 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 prince having secured the whole Milanese for king Philip, and 
 no enemy appearing for some time, had nothing to do but to 
 receive the auxiliary troops of France, and as they came, ex- 
 tend himself every way as he could, in order to keep^thejm- 
 perialists_(who were preparing to fall into Italy with a great 
 army) as much at a distance as possible, which he did, by 
 taking possession of the city of Mantua, and of most of the 
 towns on that side, as far as the lake De la Guarda, and the 
 river Adige. 
 
 We lay in Mantua some time, but were afterwards drawn 
 out by order of the Count de Tesse (afterwards marshal of 
 France), to form the French army, till the arrival of the Duke 
 de Vendome, who was to command in chief. Here we had 
 a severe campaign, anno 1701, havingPrinceEugene of Savoy, 
 and an army of forty thousand Germans, all old soldiers, 
 to deal with ; and though the French army was- more nume- 
 rous than the enemy by twenty-tive thousand men, yet, being 
 on the defensive, and having so many posts to cover, not 
 knowing exactly where the prince of Savoy, who commanded 
 the imperial army, would attack us, it obliged the French to 
 keep their troops so divided, and so remote from one another, 
 that the Germans pushed on their design vrith great success, 
 as the histories of those times more fuUy relate. 
 
 I was at the action at Carpi, July, 1701, where we were 
 worsted by the Germans indeed, were forced to quit our en- 
 campment, and give up to the prinee the whole river Adige, 
 and where our regiment sustained some loss, but the enemies 
 got little by us, and Monsieur Catinat, who commanded at 
 that time, drew up in order of battle the next day in sight 
 of the German army, and gave them a defiance, but they 
 would not stir, though we offered them battle two days to- 
 gether ; for, having gained the passage over the Adige by our 
 quitting Rivoli, which was then useless to us, their business 
 was done. 
 
 Finding they declined a decisive action, our generals 
 pressed them in their quarters, and made them fight for 
 every inch of ground they gained, and at length, in the 
 September following, we attacked them in their intrenched 
 posts of Chiar. Here we broke into the very heart of their 
 camp, where we made a very terrible slaughter ; but I know 
 not by what mistake among our generals, or defect in the 
 execution of their orders, the brigade of Normandy and our 
 
LOSE MANY MEN BY DISTEMPEES. 453 
 
 Irish brigade, who had so bravely entered the German 
 intrenchments, were not supported as we should have been, 
 so that we were obliged to sustain the shock of the whole 
 German arniy, and at last to quit the advantage we had 
 gained, and that not without loss ; but, being timely rein- 
 forced by a great body of horse, the enemy were in their turn 
 beaten off too, and driven back into their very camp. The 
 Germans boasted of having a great victory here, and indeedj 
 in repulsing us after we had gained their camp, they had the 
 advantage; but had Monsieur de Tesse succoured us in time^ 
 as old Catinat said he ought to have done, with twelve 
 thousand foot which he had with him, that day's action had 
 put an end to the war, and Prince Eugene must have been 
 glad to have gone back to Germany in more haste than he 
 came, if, perhaps, we had not cut him short by the way. 
 
 But the fate of things went another way, and the Germans 
 continued all that campaign to push forward and advance 
 one post after another, till they beat us quite out of the 
 Milanese. 
 
 The latter part of this campaign we made only a party 
 war ; the French, according to their volatUe temper, being 
 every day abroad, either foraging or surprising the enemy's 
 forager's ; plundering, or circumventing the plunders of the 
 other side ; but they very often came short home, for the 
 Germans had the better of them on several occasions ; and 
 indeed so many lost their lives upon these petty encounters^ 
 that I think, iacluding those who died of distempers gotten 
 by hard service and bad quarters, lying in the field even till 
 the middle of December, among rivers and bogs, in a country 
 so full of canals and rivers as that part of Italy is known to 
 be, I say, we lost more men, and so did the enemy also, 
 than would have been lost in a general decisive battle. 
 
 The duke of Savoy, to give him his due. pressed earnestly 
 to put it to a day, and come to a battle with Prince Eugene J 
 but the Duke de Villeroy, Monsieur Catinat, and the Count 
 de Tesse, were all against it, and the principal reason waSj 
 that they knew the weakness of the troops, who had suffered 
 so much on so many occasions, that they were in no condition 
 to give battle to the Germans ; so after, as I say, about three 
 months harrassing one another with parties, we went into 
 Winter-quarters. 
 
 Before we marched out of the field, our regiment, with a 
 
454 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 detachment of dragoons of six hundred, and about two 
 hundred and fifty horse, went out with a design to intercept 
 Prince Commercy, a general of note, under Prince Eugene of 
 Savoy ; the detachment was intended to be only horse and 
 dragoons ; but because it was the imperialists' good luck to 
 beat many of our parties, and, as was given out, many more 
 •than we beat of theirs ; and because it was believed that the 
 prince, who was an officer of good note among them, would 
 not go abroad but in. very little company, the Irish regiment 
 of loot was ordered to be added, that, if possible, they might 
 meet with their match. 
 
 I was commanded about two hours before, to pass about 
 two hundred foot, and fifty dragoons, at a small wood, where 
 our general had intelligence that prince would post some 
 men to secure his passage, which accordingly I did ; but 
 Count Tesse not thinking our party strong enough, had 
 marched himself with a thousand horse, and three hundred 
 grenadiers, to support us, and it was^ very well he did so ; 
 for Prince Commercy having intelligence of the first party, 
 came forward sooner than they expected, apd fell upon them, 
 and had entirely routed them, had not the count, hearing 
 the firing, advanced with the thousand horse he had, with 
 such expedition, as to support his men in the very heat of 
 the action, by which means the Germans were defeated, and 
 forced to retire ; but the prince made a ptetty good retreat, 
 and, after the action, came on to the wood where I was posted, 
 but the surprise of his defeat had prevented Hs sending a 
 detachment to secure the pass at the wood, as he intended. 
 
 The Count de Tesse understanding that we were sent, as 
 above, to the wood, followed them close at the heels, to pre- 
 vent our being cut off, and, if it were possible that we should 
 give them any check at the wood, to fall in, and have another 
 brush with them ; it was near night before they came to the 
 wood, by which means they could not discern our number 5 
 but when they came up to the wood, fifty dragoons advanced 
 to discover the pass, and see if all was clear ; these we suf- 
 fered to pass a great way into the defile, or lane, that went 
 through the wood, and then clapping in between them and 
 the entrance, cut off their retreat so effectually, that whec 
 they discovered us, and fired, they were instantly surrounded, 
 and cut in pieces; the officers who commanded them, and 
 eight dragoons only, being made prisoners. 
 
SUKRENDEE TO A GERMAN OFFICER. 453 
 
 This made the prince halt, not knowing what the case was, 
 or how strong we were ; and, to get better intelligence, sent 
 two hundred horse to surround or skirt the wood, and beat 
 up our quarter, and in the interim, the Count de Tesse ap- 
 peared in his rear. We found the strait he was in, by the 
 noise of our own troops at a distance, so we resolved to engage 
 the two hundred horse immediately ; accordingly, our little 
 troop of horse drew up in the entrance of the lane, and offered 
 to skirmish, and our foot lying behind the hedge, which went 
 round the wood, stood ready to act as occasion should offer ; 
 the horse being attacked, gave way, and retired into the lane ; 
 but the Germans were too old for us there ; they contented 
 themselves to push us to the entrance, but would not be 
 drawn into a narrow pass vnthout knowing whether the 
 hedges were lined or no. 
 
 But the prince finding the French in his rear, and not being 
 strong enough to engage again, resolved to force his way 
 through, and commanded his dragoons to alight and enter the 
 wood, to clear the hedges on either side the lane, that he 
 might pass with his cavalry ; this they did so vigorously, and 
 were so much too strong for us, that though we made good 
 our ground a long time, yet our men were almost half of them 
 cut in pieces. Hewever, we gave time to the French cavalry 
 to come up, and to fall on the prince's troops, arid cut them 
 off, and take a great many prisoners, and then retreated in 
 our turn, opening a gap for our own horse to break in ; three 
 hundred of the dragoons were killed, and two hundred of 
 them taken prisoners. 
 
 In the first heat of this action, a German officer of dragoons, 
 well followed, had knocked down three men that stood next 
 me ; and, offering me quarter, I was obliged to accept it, and 
 gave him my sword, for our men were upon the point of quit- 
 ting their post, and shifting every one as they could ; but the 
 scale was turned, for our cavalry breaking in, as above, the 
 dragoons went to wreck, and the officer who had me prisoner^ 
 turning to me said. We are all lost ; I asked him if I could 
 serve him ? Stand still a little, says he ; for his men fought 
 most desperately indeed, but about two hundred French horse 
 appearing in his rear too, he said to me in French, I wiU be 
 your prisoner ; and returning me my sword, gave me also his 
 own ; a dragoon that stood near him was just going to do the 
 like, when he was shot dead, and the horse coming up, the 
 
456 COLOHEI. JACK. 
 
 field was cleared in an instant ; but Prince Commercy went 
 off with the rest of his party, and was pursued no farther. 
 
 There were sixteen or seventeen of our men released as I 
 was, from being taken ; but they had not the luck I had, to 
 take the officer that had them in keeping ; he had been so 
 generous to me as not to ask what money I had about me, 
 though I had not much if he had ; but 1 lost by his civility, 
 for then I could not have the assurance to ask him for hia 
 money, though I understood he had near a hundred pistoles 
 about him ; but he very handsomely at night, when we came 
 to our tents, made me a present of twenty pistoles, and in 
 return I obtained leave for him to go to Prince Eugene'^ 
 camp upon his parole, which he did, and so got himself 
 exchanged. 
 
 It was after this campaign that I was quartered at Cremona, 
 when the action happened there, of which I have spoken 
 already, and where our Irish regiment did such service that 
 they saved the town from being really surprised, and indeed 
 beat the Germans out again, after they had been masters of 
 three quarters of the town six hours, and by which they 
 gained a very great reputation. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 FAETHEE OPEEATIONS OF THE CAMPAIGN ^I AM QUAETEEED 
 
 AT TEENT, Airo MAEET MY LANDLOED's DAUGHTEE — I 
 
 SELL MX COMPANY, AND EMBAEK IN THE FEENCH FLEET 
 
 PAKTICULAES OF THEIE EXPEDITION ^I EETUEN UNEX- 
 PECTEDLY TO PAEIS, AND MAKE A DISAGEEEABLE DIS- 
 
 COVEEY EELATING TO MY WIFE ^I CHAIXANGE AND 
 
 WOUND HEE GALLANT. 
 
 Bdt I hasten on to my own history, for I am not writing a 
 journal of the wars, in which I had no long share. 
 
 The summer after this, our two Irish regiments were drawn 
 out into the field, and had many a sore brush with the 
 G-ermans; for Prince Eugene, a vigilant general, gave us 
 little rest, and gained many advantages by his continual mov- 
 ing up and down, harassing his own men and ours too ; and 
 whoever will do the French justice, and knew how they 
 
PARTHEE 0PEKATI0N8 or THE CAMPAIGN. 457 
 
 beh$,ved, must acknowledge they never declined the Germans, 
 but fought them upon all occasions, with the utmost resolu- 
 tion iand courage ; and though it cost the blood of an infinite 
 nujnbBr of fine gentlemen, as well as private soldiers, yet the 
 Duke de Vendome, who now commanded, though king Philip 
 was himself in the army this campaign, made the prince of 
 Savoy a fuU return in his own kind, and drove him from post 
 to post, till he was just at the point of quitting the whole 
 country of Italy; all that gallant army Prince Eugene brought 
 with him into Italy, which was the best, without doubt, for the 
 goodness of the troops,, that ever were there, laid their bones 
 in that country, and many thousands more after them, tUl 
 the affairs of France declining in other places, they were 
 forced in their turn to give way to their fate, as may be seen 
 in the histories of those times, as above ; but it is none of my 
 business. 
 
 The part that I bore in these affairs was but short and 
 sharp : we took the field about the beginning of July, 1702, 
 and the Duke de Vendome ordered the whole army to draw 
 the sooner together, in order to relieve the city of Mantua, 
 which was blocked up by the imperialists. 
 
 Prince Eugene was a politic, and indeed a fortunate prince, 
 and had the year before pushed our army upon many occa- 
 sions ; but his good fortune began to fail him a little this 
 year, for our army was not only more numerous than his, but 
 the duke was in the field before him ; and as the prince had 
 held Mantua closely blocked up all the winter, the duke 
 resolved to relieve the town, cost what it would. As I said, 
 the duke was first in the field ; the prince was in no condition 
 to prevent his raising the blockade by force ; so he drew off 
 his troops, and leaving several strong bodies of troops to pro- 
 tect Bersello, which the Duke de Vendome threatened, and 
 Borgo' Fort, where his magazine lay, he drew all the rest of 
 his forces together, to make head against us. By this time 
 the king of Spain was come into the army, and the Duke de 
 Vendome lay with about thirty-five thousand men, near 
 Luzara, which he had resolved to attack, to bring Prince 
 Eugene to a battle : the prince of Vaudemont lay intrenched 
 wi^ twenty thousand more at Eivalto, behind Mantua, to 
 cover the frontiers of Milan, and there were near twelve 
 thousand in Mantua itself; and Monsieur Pracontal lay with 
 ten thousand men just under the cannon of one of the fortg 
 
458 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 whicli guard the causeway which leads into the city of 
 Mantua : so that had all these joined, as they would have 
 done in a few days more, the prince must have been put to 
 his shifts, and would have had enough to do to have main- 
 tained himself in Italy ; for he was master of no one place in 
 the country, that could have held out a formal siege of fifteen 
 days, and he knew all this very well ; and therefore, it seems, 
 while the duke of Vendome resolved, if possible, to bring him 
 to a battle, and to that end made dispositions to attack 
 Luzai-a, we were surprised to find, the 15th of June, 1702, 
 the whole imperial army appeared in battalia, and in full 
 march to attack us. 
 
 As it happened, our army was all marching in columns to- 
 wards them, as we had done for two days before ; and I should 
 have told you, that three days before, the duke having notice 
 that General Visconti, with three imperial regiments of horse, 
 and one of dragoons, was posted at San- Victoria, on the Tes- 
 sona, he resolved to attack them ; and this design was car- 
 ried so secretly, that while Monsieur Visconti, though our 
 army was three leagues another way, was passing towards 
 the Modenese, he found himself unexpectedly attacked by six 
 thousand horse and dragoons of the French army. He de- 
 fended himself very bravely for near an hour ; when being 
 overpowered, and finding he should be forced into disorder, he 
 sounded a retreat ; but the squadrons had not fe,ced about to 
 make their retreat scarce a quarter of an hour, when they 
 found themselves surrounded with a great body of infantry, 
 who had entirely cut off their retreat, except over the bridge 
 of Tassona, which being thronged with their baggage, they 
 could neither get backward or forward ; so they thrust and 
 tumbled over one another in such a manner, that they could 
 preserve no kind of order; but abundance fell into the river, 
 and were drowned, many were killed, and more taken priso- 
 ners ; so that in a word, the whole three regiments of horse, 
 and one of dragoons, were entirely defeated. 
 
 This was a great blow to the prince, because they were 
 some of the choicest troops of his whole army. We took 
 about four hundred prisoners, and all their baggage, which 
 was a very considerable booty, and about eight hundred 
 horses ; and no doubt these troops were very much wanted 
 in the battle that ensued on the 15th, as I have said. Our 
 army being in full mar:h, as above, to attack Luzara, a par^ 
 
OPEEATIONS OP THE CAMPAIGN. 459 
 
 of Germans appeared, being about six hundred horse, and in 
 less than an hour more, their whole army, in order of battle. 
 
 Our army formed immediately, and the duke posted the 
 regiments as they came up, so much to their advantage, that 
 Prince Eugene was obliged to alter his dispositions, and had 
 this particular inconvenience upon his hands, viz., to attack 
 an army superior to .his own, in all their most advantageous 
 posts ; whereas, had he thought fit to have waited but one 
 day, we should have met him half way: but this was owing 
 to the pride of the German generals, and their being so 
 opinionated of the goodness of their troops. The royal army 
 was posted with the left to thereat river Po, on the other side 
 of which the prince of Vaudemont's army lay cannonading the 
 intrenchments which the imperialists had made at Borgo 
 Fort ; and hearing that there was like to be a general battle; 
 he detached twelve battalions and about a thousand horse, to 
 reinforce the royal army; all which,' to our great encourage- 
 ment, had time to join the army; while Prince Eugene was 
 making his new dispositions for the attack ; and yet it was 
 the coming of these troops which caused Prince Eugene to 
 resolve to begin the fight, expecting to have come to an 
 action before they could come up; but he was disappointed 
 in the reason of fighting, and yet was obliged to fight too, 
 which was an error in the prince that it was too late to 
 retrieve. 
 
 It was five o'clock in the evening before he eould bring up 
 his whole line to engage; and then, after having cannonaded 
 us to no great purpose for half an hour, his right, commanded 
 by the Prince de Commercy, attacked our left wing with great 
 fiiry. Our men received them so well, and seconded one 
 another so punctually, that they were repulsed with a very 
 great slaughter, and the Prince de Commercy being, unhap- 
 pily for them, killed in the first onset, the regiments, for want 
 of orders, and surprised vsdth the fall of so great a man, were 
 pushed into disorder, and one whole brigade was entirely 
 broke. 
 
 But their second line advancing, under General HerbeviUe, 
 restored things in the first ; the battalions rallied, and they 
 came boldly on to charge a second time, and being seconded 
 with' new reinforcements from their main body, our men had 
 their turn, and were pushed to a canal, which lay on their left 
 flank, between tihem and the Po, behind which they rallied, 
 
460 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 and being supported by new troops, as well horse as footj 
 they fought on both sides with the utmost obstinacy, and 
 with such courage and skill, that it was not possible to judge 
 who should have had the better, could they have been able 
 to have fought it out. 
 
 On the right of the royal army, was posted the flower of 
 the French cavalry ; namely, the gendarmes, the royal carar 
 bineers, and the queen's horse-guards, vsdth four hundred horse 
 more, and next them the infantry, among which were our 
 brigade; the horse advanced first to charge, and they carried 
 all before them sword in hand, receiving the fire of two impe- 
 rial regiments of cuirassiers, without firing a shot, and falling 
 in among them, bore them down by the strength of their 
 horses, putting them into confusion, and left so clear a field for 
 us to foUow, that the first line of our infantry stood drawn up 
 upon the ground which the enemy at first possessed. 
 
 In this first attack the Marquis de Crequi, who commanded 
 the whole right wing, was killed ; a loss which fuUy balanced 
 the death of the Prince de Commercy, on the side of the G-er- 
 mans. After we had thus pushed the enemy's cavalry, as 
 above, their troops, being rallied by the dexterity of their 
 generals, and supported by three imperial regiments of footj 
 came on again to the charge with such fury, that nothing 
 could withstand them ; and here two battalions of our Irish 
 regiments were put into disorder, and abundance of our men 
 killed; and here also I had the misfortune to receive a musket 
 shot, which broke my left arm ; and that was not all, for I 
 was knocked down by a giant-like German soldier, who, 
 when he thought he had killed me, set his foot upon me, but 
 was immediately shot dead by one of my men, and fell just 
 upon me, which, my arm being broken, was a very great mis- 
 chief to me; for the very weight of the fellow, who was 
 almost as big as a horse, was such, that I was not able to 
 stir. 
 
 Our men were beaten back after this, from the place where 
 they stood; and so I was left in possession of the enemy, but 
 was not their prisoner, that is to say, was not found, tiU next 
 morning, when a party being sent, as usual, with surgeons to 
 look after the wounded men, among the dead, found me al- 
 most smothered with the dead Germans, and others that lay 
 near me: however, to do them justice, they used me with hu- 
 manity, and the surgeons set my arm very skilfully and well; 
 
THE CAMPAIGN AT AN END. 461 
 
 and four or five days after, I had liberty to go to Parma upon 
 parole. 
 Both the armies continued fighting, especially on our left, till 
 it was so dark that it was impossible to know who they fired 
 at, or for the generals to see what they did ; so they abated 
 firing gradually, and, as it may be truly said, the night parted 
 them. 
 
 Both sides claimed the victory, and both concealed their 
 losses as much as it was possible ; but it is certain, that 
 never battle was fought with greater bravery and obstinacy 
 than this was ; and had there been daylight to have fought it 
 out, doubtless there would have been many thousand more 
 men killed on both sides. 
 
 All the Germans had to entitle them to the victory was, 
 that they made our left retire, as I have said, to the canal, 
 and to the high banks, or mounds on the edge of the Po ; 
 but they had so much advantage in the retreat — ^they fired 
 from thence among the thickest of the enemy, and could 
 never be forced fi-om their posts. 
 
 The best testimony the royal army had of the victory, and 
 which was certainly the better of the two, was, that, two days 
 after the fight, they attacked Guastalia, as it were in view of 
 the German army, and forced the garrison to surrender, and 
 to swear not to serve again for six months, which, they being 
 fifteen hundred men, was a great loss to the Germans, and 
 yet Prince Eugene did not ofier to relieve it ; and after that 
 we took several other posts, which the imperialists had pos- 
 session of, but were obliged to quit them upon the approach 
 of the French army, not being in a condition to fight another 
 battle that year. 
 
 My campaign was now at an end, and though I came lame 
 ofi^, I came ofi" much better than abundance of gentlemen ; for 
 in that bloody battle we had above four hundred officers 
 kUled or wounded, whereof three were general officers. 
 
 The campaign held on tiU December, and the Duke de 
 Vendome took Borgo Fort, and several other places, from 
 the Germans, who, in short, lost ground every day in Italy ; 
 I was a prisoner a great while, and there being no cartel 
 settled, Prince Eugene ordered the French prisoners to be 
 sent into Hungary, which was a cruelty that could not be 
 reasonably exercised on them ; however, a great many, by 
 that banishment, found means to make their escape to the 
 
462 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 Turks, by whom they were kindly received, and the French 
 ambassador at Constantinople took care of them, and shipped 
 them back again into Italy at the,king's charge. 
 
 But the Duke de Vendome now took so many German 
 prisoners, that Prince Eugene was tired of sending his priso- 
 ners to Hungary, and was obliged to be at the charge, of 
 bringing some of them back again, whom he had sent thither, 
 and come to agree to a general exchange of prisoners. 
 
 I was, as I have said, allowed for a time to go to Parma^ 
 upon my parole, where I continued for the recovery of my 
 wound and broken arm, forty days, and was then obliged to 
 render myself to the commanding, officer at Ferrara, where 
 Prince Eugene coming soon after, I was, with several other 
 prisoners of war, sent away into the Milanese, to be kept for 
 an exchange of prisoners. 
 \~ It was in the city of Trent that I continued about eighi 
 
 months ; the man in whose house I quartered was exceed- 
 ingly civil to me, and took a great deal of care of me, 
 and I lived very easy. Here I con tracted a kind of famiU- 
 MJty, perfectly undesigned by me, with the daughter of the 
 burgher at whose house I had lodged, and I know not by 
 what fatality that was upon me, I was prevailed with after- 
 wards to marry her : this was a piece of honesty on my side, 
 which I must acknowledge I never intended to be guilty of: 
 but the girl was too cunning for me, for she found means to 
 get some wine into my head more than I used to drink, 
 and though I was not so disordered with it, but that I knew 
 very well what I did, yet in an unusual height of good 
 humour, I consented to be married. This impolitic piece of 
 honesty put me to many inconveniences, for I knew not what 
 to do with this clog, which I had loaded myself with ; I could 
 f^ neither stay with her, or take her with me, so that I was ex- 
 ceedingly perplexed. 
 [—, The time came soon after that I was released by th« cartel, 
 
 and so was obliged to go to my regiment, which then was 
 in quarters in the Milanese, and from thence I got leave to go 
 to Paris, upon my promise to raise some recruits in England 
 for the Irish regiments, by the help of my correspondence 
 there. Having thus leave to go to Paris, I took a passport 
 from the enemy's army to go to Trent, and making a long, 
 circuit, I went back thither, and very honestly packed up my 
 baggage, wife and all, and brought her away through Tyrol,, 
 
SELL MT COMPANY, AND JOIN THE FKENCH FLEET. 4<53 
 
 into Bavaria, and so through Suabia and the Black Forest, into 
 Alsatia, from thence I came into Lorraine, and so to Paris. 
 
 I had now a secret design to quit the war, for I really had 
 had enough of fighting ; but it was counted so dishonourable a 
 thing to quit, wMe the army was in the field, that I could not 
 dispense with it; but an intervening accident made that part 
 easy to me : the war was now renewed between France and 
 England, and Holland, just as it was before ; and the French 
 king meditating nothing more than how to give the English 
 a diversion, fitted out a strong squadron of men-of-war and 
 frigates, at Dunkirk, on board of which he embarked a body 
 of troops, of about six thousand five hundred men, besides 
 volunteers ; and the new king, as we called him, though more 
 generally he was called the Chevalier de St. George, was 
 shipped along with them, and all for Scotland. 
 
 P pretended a great deal of zeal for this service, and that if 
 I might be permitted to sell my company in the Irish regiment 
 I was in, and have the Chevalier's brevet for a colonel, in 
 case of raising troops for him in Great Britain, after his 
 arrival, I would embark volunteer, and serve at my own ex- 
 pense. The latter gave me a great advantage with the 
 chevalier ; for now I was esteemed as a man of consideration, 
 and one that must have a considerable interest in my own 
 country ; so I obtained leave to seU my company, and having 
 had a good round sum of money remitted me from London, 
 by the way of Holland, I prepared a very handsome equi- 
 page, and away I went to Dunkirk to embark. 
 
 I was very weE received- by the chevalier ; and, as he had 
 an account that I was an oificer in the Irish brigade, and had 
 served in Italy, and consequently was an old soldier, all this 
 added to the character which I had before, and made me 
 have a great deal of honour paid me, though at the same 
 time I had no particular attachment to his person, or to his 
 cause ; nor indeed did I touch consider the ca use of one side 
 or otherT if I had, l¥hould hardly have risked, not myiife 
 "oS^pBut effects too, which were all, as I might say, from 
 that moment, forfeited to the English government, and were 
 too evidently in their power to confiscate at their pleasure. 
 
 However, having just received a remittance from London, 
 of 3001. sterling, and sold my company in the Irish regiment 
 for very near as much, I was not only insensibly drawn in, 
 but was perfectly volunteer in that dull cause, and away I 
 
464 COLONEL JACK 
 
 went with them at all hazards ; it belongs very little to my 
 history to give an account of that fruitless expedition, only 
 to tell you, that, being so closely and effectually chased by 
 the English fleet, which was superior in fo;-ce to the French, 
 1 may say, that, in escaping them, I escaped being hanged. 
 
 It was the good fortune of the French, that they overshot 
 the port they. aimed at, and intending for the frith of Forth, 
 or, as it is caUed, the frith of Edinburgh, the first land they 
 made was as far north as a place called Montrose, where it . 
 was not their business to land, and so they were obliged to 
 come back to the frith, and were gotten to the entrance of 
 it, and came to an anchor for the tide ; but this delay or 
 hinderance gave time to the English, under Sir George Bing, 
 to come to the frith, and they came to an anchor, just as we 
 did, only waiting to go up the frith with the flood. 
 
 Had we not overshot the port, as above, all our squadron 
 had been destroyed in two days, and all we could have done, 
 had been to have gotten into the pier or haven at Leith, with 
 the smaller frigates, and have landed the troops and ammu- 
 nition ; but we must have set fire to the men-of-war, for the 
 English squadron was not above twenty-four hours behind 
 us, or thereabout. 
 
 Upon this surprise, the French admiral set sail from the 
 north point of the frith, where we lay, and, crowding away 
 to the north, got the start of the English fleet, and made 
 their escape, with the loss of one ship only, which being 
 behind the rest, could not get away. When we were satis- 
 fied the English left chasing us, which was not till the third 
 night, when we altered our course, and lost sight of them, 
 we stood over to the coast of Norway, and keeping that 
 shore on board all the way to the mouth of the Baltic, we 
 came to an anchor again, and sent two scouts abroad to 
 learn news, to see if the sea was clear, and being satisfied 
 that the enemy did not chase us, we kept on with an easier 
 sail, and came all back again to Dunkirk, and glad I was to 
 set my foot on shore again ; for aU the while we were thus 
 flying for our lives, I was under the greatest terror imagin- 
 able, and nothing but halters and gibbets run in my head, 
 concluding, that if I had been taken, I should certamly 
 have been hanged. 
 
 But the care was now over, I took my leave of the 
 chevalier, and of the army, 'and mads haste to Paris. I 
 
mSAGEEEABLE DISCOVEKX EELATING TO MY WIFE. 465 
 
 came so unexpectedly to Paris, and to my own lodgings, 
 that it was my misfortune to make a discovery, relating to 
 my wife, which was not at all to my satisfaction ; for I found 
 her ladyship had kept some company, that I had reason to 
 believe were not such as an honest woman ought to have 
 conversed with, and as I knew her temper, by what I had 
 found of her myself, I grew very jealous and uneasy about 
 her ; I must own it touched me very nearly, for I began to 
 have an extraordinary value for her, and her behaviour was 
 very taking, especially after I had brought her into France ; 
 but having a vein of levity, it was impossible to prevent her 
 running into such things, in a town so full of what they call 
 gallantry as Paris. 
 
 It vexed me also to think that it should be my fate to be a 
 cuckold both abroad and at home, and sometimes I would be 
 in such a rage about it, that I had no government of myself 
 when I thought of it ; whole days, and I may say, sometimes 
 whole nights, I spent musing and considering what I should 
 do to her, and especially what I should do to the villain, 
 whoever he was, that had thus abused and supplanted me. 
 Here indeed I committed murder more than once, or indeed 
 than a hundred times, in my imagination ; and, as the devil 
 is certainly an apparent prompter to wickedness, if he is not 
 the first mover of it in our minds, he seized me night and 
 day, with proposals to kUl my wife. 
 
 This horrid project he carried up so high, by raisiiig fierce 
 thoughts, and fomenting the blood upon my contemplation of 
 the word cuckold, that, in short, I left debating whether I 
 should murder her or no, as a thing out of the question, and 
 determined; and my thoughts were then taken up only with 
 the management how I should kill her, and how to make 
 my escape after I had done it 
 
 All this T^hile I had no suflScient evidence of her guilt, 
 neither had I so much as charged hqr with it, or let her 
 know I suspected her, otherwise than as she might perceive 
 it in my conduct, and in the change of my behaviour to her, 
 which was such, that she could not but perceive that some- 
 thing troubled me, yet slie took no notice of it to me, but 
 received me very well, and showed herself to be glad of my 
 return; nor did I find she had been extravagant in her 
 expenses while I was abroad ; but jealousy, as the wise man 
 says, is the vsrath of a man ; her being so good a hussy of 
 
 H H 
 
466 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 what money I had left her, gave my distempered fancy an 
 opinion that she had been maintained by other people, and 
 so had had no occasion to spend. 
 
 I must confess she had a difficult point here upon her, 
 though she had been really honest; for, as my , head was 
 prepossessed of her dishonesty, if she had been lavish, I 
 should have said she had spent it upon her gentlemen ; and 
 as she had been frugal, I said she had been maintained by 
 them : thus, I gay, my head was distempered ; I believed 
 myself abused, and nothing could put it out of my thoughts 
 night or day. 
 
 AH this while it was not visibly broken out between us; 
 but I was so fully possessed vrith the belief of it, that I 
 seemed to want no evidence, and I looked with an evil eye 
 upon everybody that came near her, or that she conversed 
 with. There was an officer of the Guards du Corps, that 
 lodged in the same house with us, a very honest gentleman, 
 and a man of quality ; I happened to be in a little drawing- 
 room, adjoining to a parlour where my wife sat at that time, 
 and this gentleman came into the parlour, which, as he waa 
 one of the family, he might haVe done without offence, but 
 he not knowing that I was in the drawing-room, sat doWn 
 and talked with my wife. I heard every word they said, for 
 the door between us was open, nor could I say that there 
 passed anything between them but cursory discourse ; they 
 talked of casual ,thmgs, of a young lady, a burgher's 
 daughter of nineteen, th&t had been married the week 
 before to an advocate in the parliament of Paris, vastly 
 rich, and about thirty-six; and of another, a widow lady of 
 fortune in Paris, that had married her deceased husband's 
 valet de chambre, and of such casual matters, that I could 
 find no fault with her now at all. 
 
 But it filled my head with jealous thoughts, and fired my 
 temper ; now I fancied he used too much freedom with her, 
 then that she used too much freedom to him, and once or 
 twice I was upon the point of breaking in upon them, and 
 aflEronting them both, but I restrained myself; at length he 
 talked something merrily of the lady throwing away her 
 maidenhead, as I understoed it, upon an old man ; but still 
 it was nothing indecent ; but I, who was all on fire already, 
 could bear it no longer, but started up, and came into the 
 room, and catching at my wife's words, Say you so^ madam, 
 
AFFRONT HEE GALLANT. 467 
 
 said I, was he too old for her? And giving the officer a 
 look that I f ancy wa^jomethingakin to the fece^n the sign, 
 callect the^ull and Mouth, wuESTSIHefigate, I went "out "^^^j 
 'Tnto^the street. ^ " ~~" — — ^7/ 
 
 The marquis, so he was styled, a man of honour, and of 
 spirit too, took it as I meant it, and followed me in a 
 moment, and hemm'd afiter me in the street ; upon which I 
 Stopped, and he came up to me ; Sir, said he, our circum- 
 stances are very unhappy in France, that we cannot do 
 ourselves justice here, without the most severe treatment ii 
 the world; but, come on it what will, you must explaii 
 yourself to me on the subject of your behaviour just now. 
 
 I was a little cooled, as to the point of my conduct to hir 
 in the very few moments that had passed, and was very 
 sensible that I was wrong to him, and I said, therefore, to 
 him very frankly. Sir, you are a gentleman, whom I know 
 very well, and I have a very great respect for you ; but I 
 had been disturbed a little about the conduct of my wife, 
 and, were it your own case, what would you have donjB less? 
 
 I am sorry for any dislike between you and your wife, 
 says he, but what is that to me ? Can you charge me with 
 any indecency to her, except my talking so and so (at which 
 he repeated the words), and, as I knew you were in the next 
 room, and heard every word, srod that all the doors were 
 open, I thought no man could have taken amiss so innocent 
 an expression. 
 
 I could no otherwise take it amiss, said I, than as I 
 thought it implied a farther familiarity, and that you cannot 
 expect should be borne by any man of honour ; however, 
 sir, said I, I spoke only to my wife ; I said nothing to you, 
 but gave you my hat as I passed you. 
 
 Yes, said he, and a look as full of rage as the devil ; are 
 there no words in such looks ? 
 
 I can say nothing to that, said I, for I cannot see my own 
 countenance ; but my rage, as you call it, was at my wife, 
 not at you. 
 
 But hark you, sir, said he, growing warm as I grew calm, 
 your anger at your wife was for her discourse with me, and I 
 think that concerns me too, and I ought to resent it. 
 
 I think not, sir, said I, nor had I found you in bed with my \ 
 wife, would I have quarrelled with you ; for, if my wife will 1 
 let you lie with her, it is she is the offender, what have 1 1« 1 
 
 H H 2 
 
468 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 do with you ? You could not He with her, if she was not wil- 
 liug, and if she is willing to be a whore, I ought to punish 
 her ; but I should have no quarrel with you ; I will lie with 
 your wife, if I can, and then I am even with you. 
 
 I spoke this aU in good humour, and in order to pacify him, 
 but it would not do ; but he would have me give him satis- 
 faction, as he called it. I told him I was a stranger in the 
 country, and perhaps should find little mercy in their course 
 of justice ; that it was not my business to fight any man in his 
 vindicating his keeping company with my wife, for that the m- 
 ( jury was mine, in having a bad woman to deal with; that 
 there was no reason in the thing, that after any man should 
 have found the way into my bed, I, who am injured, should 
 go and ^take my life upon an equal hazard against the man 
 who has abused me. 
 
 Nothing would prevail with this person to be quiet for all 
 this ; but I had afironted him, and no satisfaction could be 
 made him, but that at the point of the sword ; so we agreed 
 to go away together to Lisle in Flanders. I was now soldier 
 finough not to be afraid to look a man in the face, and as the 
 rage at my wife inspired me with courage, so he let fall a 
 word, that fired and provoked me beyond aU patience ; for 
 speaking of the distrust I had of my wife, he said, unless I 
 had good information, I ought not to suspect my wife. I told 
 him, if I had good information, I should be past suspicion ; 
 he replied, if he was the happy man that had so much of her 
 favour, he would take care then to put me past the suspicion ; 
 I gave him as rough an answer as he could desire, and he re- 
 turned in French, Nous verrons aux Lisle, that is to say, We 
 will talk farther of it at Lisle. 
 
 I told him I did not see the benefit either to him or me of 
 going so far as Lisle to decide this quarrel, since now I 
 perceived he was the man I wanted, that we might decide 
 this quarrel, aux champ, upon the spot, and whoever had the 
 fortune to fell the other, might make his escape to Lisle as 
 well afterwards as before. 
 
 Thus we walked on talking very iU-naturedly on both 
 sides, and yet very mannerly, till we came clear of the 
 suburbs of Paris, on the way to Charenton ; when, seeing 
 the way clear, I told him, under those trees was a very fit 
 place for us, pointing to a row of trees adjoining to Monsieur 
 • — r—'a garden-wall j so we went thither, and fell to work 
 
FIGHT A DUEL. 469 
 
 Immediately ; after some fencing, he made a home thrust at 
 me, and run me into my arm, a long slanting wound, but at 
 the same time received my point into hia body, and soon 
 after fell ; he spoke some words before he dropped ; first, he 
 told me I had killed him; then he said he had indeed 
 wronged me, and, as he knew it, he ought not to have 
 fought me; he desired I would make my escape immediately, 
 which I did into the city, but no farther, nobody, as I 
 thought, having seen us together. In the afternoon, about 
 six hours after the action, messengers brought news, one 
 on the heels of another, that the marquis was mortally 
 wounded, and carried into a house at Charenton; that 
 account, saying he was not dead, surprised me a little, not 
 doubting but that, concluding I had made my escape, he 
 would own who it was ; however, I discovered nothing of 
 my concern, but, going up into my chamber, I took out of a 
 cabinet there what money I had, which indeed was so much 
 as I thought- would be sufficient for my expenses; but 
 having an accepted bill for two thousand livres, I walked 
 sedately to a merchant who knew me, and got fifty pistoles 
 of him upon my bill, letting him know my business called 
 me to England, and I would take the rest of him when he 
 had received it. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 DISTRESS OP MT WIPE — ^I CAST HEK OPP, AND TAKE HOESB 
 FOE LORRAINE — I ARRIVE SAFELY IN LONDON — NEWS OP 
 MT WIPE, TO WHOM I SEND A SMALL SUM OP MONET — 
 HER G-ALLANT RECOVERS, AND CLEARS SIT HANDS OP 
 
 HER 1 MEET WITH A YOUNG WIDOW IN A STAGE COACH, 
 
 WITH WHOM I FALL IN FANCY, AND MARRY WITH EVERY 
 PROSPECT OF HAPPINESS — SHE TAKES TO DRINKING AND 
 DIES. 
 
 Having furnished myself thus, I provided me a horse for 
 my servant, for I had a very £;ood one of my own, and once 
 more ventured home to my lodging, where I heard again 
 that the marquis was not dead. My wife, all this while, 
 covered her concern for the marquis so well, that she <ia\e 
 
47s) COLONEL JACK 
 
 me no room to make any remark upon her ; but she saw 
 evidently the marks of rage and deep resentment in my be- 
 haviour after some little stay, and perceiving me making 
 preparations for a journey, she said to me, Are you going 
 out of town ? Yes, madam, says I, that you may have room 
 to mourn for your friend the marquis ; at which she started, 
 and showed she was indeed in a most terrible fright, and 
 making a thousand crosses about herself, with a great many 
 callings upon the Blessed Virgin, and her country saints, she 
 burst out at last, Is it possible I Are you the man that 
 killed the marquis ? Then you are undone, and I too. 
 
 You may, madam, be a loser by the marquis being killed, 
 but rU take care to be as little a loser by you as I can ; it 
 is enough, the marquis has honestly confessed your guUt, and 
 I have done with you ; she would have thrown herself into 
 my arms, protesting her innocence, and told me she would 
 fly with me, and would convince me of her fidelity, by such 
 testimonies as I could not but be satisfied with, but I thrust 
 her violently from me ; Allez infame ! said I, go, infamous 
 creature, and take from me the necessity I should be under, 
 if I stayed, of sending you to keep company with your dear 
 friend the marquis. I thrust her away with such force, that 
 she fell backward upon the floor, and cried out most terribly^ 
 and indeed she had reason, for she was very much hurt. 
 
 It grieved me indeed to have thrust her away with such 
 force, but you must consider me now in the circumstances of 
 a. man enraged, and, as it were, out of himself, furious and 
 mad. However, I took her up from the floor, and laid her 
 on the bed, and caUing up her maid, bid her go and take 
 care of her mistress ; and, going soon after out of doors, I 
 took horse, and made the best of my way, not towards Calais 
 or Dunkirk, or towards Flanders, whither it might be 
 suggested I was fled, and whither they did pursue me the 
 same evening, but I took the direct road for Lorrain, and, 
 riding all night, and very hard, I passed the Maine the next 
 day at night, at Chalons, and came safe into the Duke of 
 Lorrain's dominions the third day, where I rested one day 
 only, to consider what course to take, for it was still a most 
 difficult thing to pass any way, but that I should either be 
 in the king of France's dominions, or be taken by the French 
 aUies as a subject of France ; but getting good advice from a 
 priest at Bar le Due, who, though I £d not tell him tho 
 
AHEIVE SAFE IN ENGLAND. 47l 
 
 pd.rticulars of my case, yet guessed how it was, it being, aS 
 he said, very usual for gentlemen in my circumstances to fly 
 that way. Upon this supposition, this kind padre got me a 
 church pass, that is to say, he made me a purveyor for the 
 
 abbey of , and, as such, got me a passport to go to 
 
 Deux Fonts, which belonged to the King of Sweden. Having 
 such authority there, and the priest's recommendation to an 
 ecclesiastic in the placCj I got passports from thence in the 
 King of Sweden's name to Cologne, and then I was thoroughly 
 safe ; so, making my way to the Netherlands, without any 
 difficulty, I came to the Hague, and from thence, though vei^ 
 privately, arid by several names, I came to England ; and 
 thus I got clear of my Italian wife, whore I should have 
 called her; for, ajte r I had made her so myself, ho w should ^ (^. 
 I expect axrfW^ of heE 
 
 JBeing arrived at ijcmdon, I wrote to my friend at Paris, 
 but dated my letters from the Hague, where I ordered him to 
 direct his answersi The chief business of my writing was, 
 to know if my bill was paid him, to inquire if any pursuit 
 was made after me, and what other news he had about me, 
 or my wife, and particularly how it had fared with the 
 marquis. 
 
 I received an answer in a few days, importing that he had 
 deceived the money on my bill, which he was ready to pay 
 as I should direct ; that the marquis was not dead, but said 
 he, you have killed him another way, for he has lost his 
 Commission in the guards, which was worth to him twenty 
 thousand livres, and he is yet a close prisoner in the Bastile ', 
 that pursuit was ordered after me upon suspicion ; that they 
 had followed me to Amiens> on the road to Dunkirk, and to 
 Chastean de Cambresis, on the way to Flanders ; but missing 
 me that way, had given it over ; that the marquis had been 
 too well instructed to own that he had fought with me, but 
 said, that he was assaulted on the road, and unless I could 
 be taken, he would take his trial and come off for want of 
 proof; that my flying was a circumstance indeed that moved 
 Strongly against him, because it was known that we had had 
 some words that day, and were seen to walk together ; but 
 that nothing being proved on either side, he would come off 
 with the loss of his commission, which, however, being very 
 rich, he could bear well enough. 
 
 As to my wife, he wrote ma word she was inoonsolabley 
 
472 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 and had cried herself to death almost; but he added, very 
 ill-natured indeed, and whether it was for me,_ or for the 
 marquis, that he could not determine. He likewise told me, 
 she was in very bad circumstances, and very low, so that ii 
 I did not take some care of her, she would come to be in 
 very great distress. 
 
 The latter part of this story moved me indeed, for I thought, 
 however it was, I ought not to let her starve ; and besides, 
 poverty was a temptation which a woman could not easily 
 withstand, and I ought not to be the instrument to drive her 
 to a horrid necessity of crime, if I could prevent it. 
 
 Upon this, I wrote to hini again, to go to her, and talk 
 with her, and learn as much as he could of her particular 
 circumstances ; and that, if he found she was really in want, 
 and, particularly, that she did not live a scandalous life, he 
 should give her twenty pistoles, and tell her, if she would 
 engage to live retired and honestly she should have so much 
 annually, which was enough to subsist her. 
 
 She took the first twenty pistoles, but bade him tell me, 
 that I had wronged her, and unjustly charged her, and I 
 ought to do her justice ; and I had ruined her by exposing 
 her, in such a manner as I had, having no proof of my 
 charge, or ground for any suspicion; that, as to twenty 
 pistoles a-year, it was a mean allowance to a wife that had 
 travelled over the world, as she had done with me, and the 
 like ; and so expostulated with him to obtain forty pistoles 
 a-year of me, which I consented to ; but she never gave me 
 the trouble of paying above one year; for after that the 
 marquis was so fond of her again, that he took her away to 
 himself; and, as my fnend wrote me word, had settled four 
 hundred crowns a year on her, and I never heard any more 
 of her. 
 
 I was now ki^London, but was obliged to be_ver y retired . 
 and~chahge my~hsffire,~let(ing nobody iiT' tFe nation know 
 _who I_ waSj^_eMepF^^m^5eEant, oy whomTcoffesponded 
 with my people in "Virginia ; and particularly, that my 
 Wtor, who was now become the head manager of my affairs, 
 and was in very good circumstances himself also by my 
 means ; but he deserved all I did, or could do for him, for 
 he was a most faithful friend, as well as servant, as ever 
 man had, in that country at least. 
 T was not +l>n easiest man alive, in the retired solitary 
 
SETTLE AT CANTERBUEY. 473 
 
 manner 1 now lived in ; and I experienced the truth of the 
 text, that it is not good for man to be alone, for I waa 
 extremely melancholy and heavy, and indeed knew not what 
 to do with myself, particularly, because I was under some 
 restraint, that I was, too, afraid to go abroad ; at last I 
 resolved to go .quite away, and go to Virginia again, and 
 there live retired as I could. 
 
 But when I came to consider that part more narrowly,, I 
 could not prevail with myself to live a private life. I haT 
 ''got a wandering Idnd of taste, and knowledge of things begat 
 a desire of increasing it, and an exceeding delight I had in it, 
 though I had nothing to do in the armies or in war, and did 
 not design ever to meddle with it again ; yet I could not 
 live in the world, and not inquire what was doing in it ; 
 nor could I think of living in Virginia, where I was to hear 
 my news twice a year, and read the public accounts of what 
 was just then upon the stocks, as the history of things past. 
 
 This was my notion ; I was now in my native country, 
 where my circumstances were easy, and, though I had ill-luck 
 abroad, for I brought little money home with me, yet, by a 
 little good management, I might soon have money by me. I 
 had nobody to keep but myself, and my plantations in Virginia 
 generally returned me from 400Z. to 600/. a year, one year 
 above 7001., and to go thither, I concluded, was to be buried 
 alive ; so I put off all thoughts of it, and resolved to settle 
 somewhere in England, where I might know everybody, and 
 nobody know me. I was not long in concluding where to pitch, 
 for as I spoke the French tongue perfectly well, having been 
 so many years among them, it was easy for me to pass for a 
 Frenchman; so I went to Canterbury, called myself an _ 
 Englishman among the French, a nd a__ Frenchman among ~ 
 th.a_gn glisti ; aiir on that 8gQra.,.w as the more perfectly 
 p.nnnealed, ^in g by the nam e jof Monsieur Chamot with the 
 Frp.nch,! andMr. ChamocF am ong the En glisEi ~ 
 
 ^ere mdeed I lived perfectly incog. ; 1 made no particula r 
 acquaintance so as to be intimate^-ajad.:yet.LkBe^^iSbg.fedy. 
 ^an^ everybody knew me. I discoursed in common, talked 
 I'rench with the Walloons, and English with the English ; 
 and Kved retired and sober, and was well enough received 
 by all sorts ; but, as I meddled with nobody's business, so 
 nobody meddled with mine ; I thought I lived pretty welL 
 
 But I was not fully satisfied ; a settled family life was th« 
 
474 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 thing I loved ; had made two pushes at it, as you have heard, 
 but with ill-success ; yet the miscarriage of what was passed 
 did not discourage me at all, but I resolved to marry ; I 
 looked out for a woman as suitable as I could, but always 
 found something or other to shock my fancy, except once a 
 gentleman's daughter of good fashion ; but I met with go 
 many repulses of one kind or another, that I was forced to 
 give it over, and indeed, though I might be said to be a lover 
 in this suit, and had managed myself so well with the young 
 lady, that I had no difficulty left, but what would soon have 
 been adjusted ; yet her father was so difficult, made so many 
 objections, was to-day not pleased one way, to-morrow 
 another, that he would stand by nothing that he himself had 
 proposed, nor could he be ever brought to be of the same 
 inind two days together ; so that we at last put an end to 
 the pretensions, for she would not marry without her father's 
 consent, and I would not steal her, and so that affair ended. 
 ■ I cannot say but I was a little vexed- at the dissappointment 
 of this, so I left the city of Canterbury, and went to London 
 in the stage coach ; here I had an odd scene presented as 
 ever happened of its kind. 
 
 There was in the stage coach a young woman and her 
 maid ; she was sitting in a very melancholy posture, for she 
 was in the coach before me, and sighed most dreadfully all 
 the way, and whenever her maid spoke to her, she burst out 
 into tears ; I was not long in the coach with her, but, seeing 
 she made such a dismal figure, I offered to comfort her a little, 
 and inquired into the occasion of her affliction, but she 
 would not speak a word; but her maid, with a force of 
 Crying too, said her master was dead, at which word the 
 lady burst out again into a passion of crying, and between 
 mistress and maid, this was all I could get for the morning 
 part of that day. When we came to dine, I offered the lady, 
 that seeing, I supposed, she would not dine with the company, 
 if she would please to dine with me, I would dine in a 
 
 A separate room, for the rest of the co mpany were foreigners. 
 
 '■ Her maid thanked me in her nustaSs^s riameT but her 
 mistress could eat nothing, and desired to b e private . 
 
 Here, however, I had some discourse with the maid, from 
 whom I learned that the lady was vsdfe to a captain of a 
 ihip, who was outward bound to somewhere in the Straits, I 
 think it was to Zant and Venice; that, being gone no farther 
 
MEET WITH A WIDOW IN A STAGE COACH. 475 
 
 than the Downs, he was taken sick, and, after about ten days' 
 iUnesa had died at Deal; that his wife, hearing of his sickness, 
 had gone to Deal to see him, and had come but just time 
 enough to see him die ; had stayed there to bury him, and 
 was now coming to London in a sad disconsolate condition 
 indeed. 
 
 I heartily pitied the young gentlewoman indeed, and said 
 some things to her in the coach, to let her know I did 
 so, which she gave no answer to, but in civility, now and 
 then made a bow, bu t never gave me the least opportunity to 
 see her fa ce, or so much as t o know whether she had a face _ 
 "^or no, "much les3 ~to_gu5s33iat for m of a fa c e it was . It 
 was winter time, and the coach put up at Eochester, not 
 going through in a day, as was usual in summer; and a 
 little before we came to Rochester, I told the lady I under- 
 istood she had eat nothing to-day, that such a course would 
 but make her sick, and, doing her harm, could do her 
 deceased husband no good; and therefore I entreated her, 
 that, as I was a Stranger, and only offered a civility to her, 
 in order to abate her severely afflicting herself, she would 
 yield so far to matters of ceremony, as let us sup together as 
 passengers ; for as to the strangers, they did not seem to 
 understand the custom, or to desire it. 
 
 She bowed, but gave no answer, only after pressing her 
 by arguments, which she could not deny was very civil and 
 kind, she returned, she gave me thanks, but she not eat. 
 Well, madam, said I, do but sit down, though you think you 
 cannot eat, perhaps you may eat a bit; indeed you must 
 eat, or you wiU destroy yourself at this rate of living, and 
 upon the road too : in a word you wiU be sick indeed. I 
 argued with her; the maid put in a word, and said, D6 
 madam, pray try to divert yourself a little. I pressed heir 
 again, and she bowed to me very respectfully, but stiU saidj 
 No, and she could not eat ; the maid continued to importune 
 her, and said, Dear madam, do, the gentleman is a civil 
 gentleman, pray madam do ; and then, turning to me, said, 
 My mistress will, sir, I hope, and seemed pleased) and 
 indeed was so. 
 
 However, I went on to persuade her; and, taking no 
 notice of what her maid said, that I was a civil gentleman, 
 I told her, I am a stranger to you madam, but if I thought 
 
476 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 you were shy of me on any account, as to civility, I will 
 send my supper up to you in your own chamber, and stay 
 below myself; she bowed then to me twice, and looked up, 
 which was the first time, and said, she had no suspicion ot 
 that kind ; that my offer was so civil, that she was as much 
 ashamed to refuse it as she should be ashamed to accept it, 
 jf she was where sh e was known ; that she thought I was 
 not quite a'~s&anger"to her, for~sE"e h ad seen m ejbgfore ; that 
 she would accept my offer, so far as to sit at table, because I 
 desired it, but she could not promise me to eat, and that 
 she hoped I would take the other as a constraint upon her, 
 in return to so much kindness. 
 
 She startled me, when she said she had seen me before, 
 for I had not the least knowledge of her, nor did I remember 
 so much as to have heard of her name, for I had asked her 
 name of her maid ; and indeed it made me almost repent my 
 compliment; for it was many wa ys essential to me not to 
 .be.^own. However, I could not go back, and besides, if I 
 wa s known, it was_es sentially necessary to me to know who 
 it^ wggjthat _knew me, and by what ci rcumstances ; so I went 
 on with my compliment^ 
 
 We came to the inn but just before it was dark, I offered 
 to hand my widow out of the coach, and she could not decUne 
 it, but though her hoods were not then much over her face, 
 yet, being dark, I could see little of her then. I waited on 
 her then to the stairfoot, and led her up the inn stairs to a 
 dining-room, which the master of the house offered to show 
 us, as if for the whole company ; but she declined going in 
 there, and said she desired rather to go directly to her 
 chamber, and, turning to her maid, bade her speak to the 
 innkeeper to show her to her lodging-room ; so I waited on 
 her to the door, and took my leave, telling her I would expect 
 her at supper. 
 
 In order to treat her moderately well, and not extrava- 
 gantly, for I had no thoughts of anything farther than civility^ 
 which was the effect of mere compassion for the unhappiness 
 of the most truly disconsolate woman that I ever met with; 
 I say, in order to treat her handsomely, but not extravagantly, 
 I provided what the house afibrded, which was a couple of 
 partridges, and a very good dish of stewed oysters; they 
 brought us up afterwards, a neat's tongue, and a han^; that 
 
PALL IN LOVE WITH, AND MAEET THE WIDOW. 477 
 
 was almost cut quite down, but we eat none of it, for the 
 other was fully enough for us both, and the maid made her 
 Bupper of the oysters we had left, which were enough. 
 
 I mention this, because it should appear I did not treat her ■~-i 
 
 a person I was making any court to, for I had nothing of 'V? S 
 
 J 
 
 as 
 
 that in my thoughts ; but merely in pity to the poor woman, 
 
 who I saw in a circumstance that was indeed very unhappy. 
 
 Wben I gave her maid notice that supper was ready, she 
 fetched her mistress, coming in before her with a candle in 
 her hand, and then it was that I s aw her face, and being in 
 herdishabille, she had no hood over her eyes, or black upon 
 her head, when I was truly surprised to see one of the most 
 beautiful faces upon earth. I saluted her, and led her to the 
 fire-side, the table, though spread, being too far from the fire, 
 the weather being cold. 
 
 She was now something sociable, though very grave, and 
 sighed often, on account of her circumstances ; but she so 
 handsomely governed her grief, yet so artfully made it mingle 
 itself with all her discourse, that it added exceedingly to her 
 behaviour, which was every way most exquisitely genteel. 
 I had a great deal of discourse with her, and upon many 
 subjects, and by degrees took her name, that is to say from 
 herself, as I had done before from her maid ; also the place 
 where she lived, viz., near Katclifi", or rather Stepney, where 
 I asked her leave to pay her a visit, when she thought fit to 
 admit company, which she seemed to intimate would not be 
 a great while. 
 
 It is a subject too surfeitin g to e ntertain people with the 
 beauty of a pe rson they wUr never see^ let it suffice to tell 
 them she was the^most beautifiircreature of her sex that I 
 ever saw before or since ; and it cannot be wondered if I 
 was charmed with her, the very first moment I saw her face ; 
 her behaviour was likewise a beauty in itself, and was so ex- 
 traordinary, that I cannot say I can describe it. 
 
 The next day she was much more free than she was the 
 first night, and I had so much conversation, as to enter into 
 particulars of things on both sides ; also she gave me leave 
 to come and see her house, which, however, I did not do un- 
 der a fortnight, or thereabouts, because I did not know how 
 far she would dispense with the ceremony which it was 
 necessary to keep up at the beginning of the mourning. 
 
 However I came as a man that had business with her, 
 
^ 
 
 478 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 relating to the ship her husband was dead out of, and the 
 tirst time I came was admitted, and, in short, the first time I 
 came I made love to her; she received that proposal with 
 disdain ; I cannot indeed say she treated me with any disre- 
 spect, but she said she abhorred the offer, and would hear no 
 more of it. 
 
 How I came to make such a proposal to her, I scarce knew 
 
 rV^ • then, though it was very much my intention from the first. 
 ^ in tiie mean time I inquired into her circumstances and^er 
 
 character, and heard nothing but what was very agreeable of 
 them both ; and, above all, I found she had the report of the 
 best-humoured lady, and the best-bred of all that part of the 
 town ; and now I thought I had found what I had so often 
 wished for to make me happy, and had twice miscarried in, 
 and resolved not to miss her, if it was possible to obtain her. 
 f~ It came indeed a little into my thoughts, that I was a mar- 
 ried man, and had a second wife alive, who, though she was 
 false to me, and a whore, yet I was not legally divorced from 
 ■^jM her, and that she was my wife for aU that ; but I soon got 
 
 yA^ over that part ; for, first, as she was a whore, and the mar- 
 
 quis had confessed it to me, I was divorced in law, and I had 
 a power to put her away ; but having had the misfortune of 
 fighting a duel, and being obliged to quit the country, I could 
 not claim the legal process which was my right, and therefore 
 might conclude myself as much divorced as if it had been 
 I_ actually done, and so that scruple vanished. 
 
 I suffered now two months to run without pressing mv 
 widow any more, only I had kept a strict watch to find if any 
 one else pretended to her ; at the end of two months I visited 
 her again, when I found she received me with more freedom, 
 and we had no more sighs and sobs about the last husband;, 
 and though she would not let me press my former proposal, 
 so far as I thought I might have done, yet I found I had leave 
 ;o come again, and it was the article of decency which she 
 stood upon as much as anything; that I was not disagreeable 
 to her, and that my using her so handsomely upon the road 
 had given me a great advantage in her favour. 
 
 I went on gradually wdth her, and gave her leave to stand 
 off for two months more ; but then 1 told her the matter of 
 decency, which was but a ceremony, was not to stand in com- 
 petition with the matter of affection ; and, in short, I could 
 not liear any longer delay, but that, if she thought fit, wa 
 
MY -WIFE TAKES TO DRINKING. 479 
 
 might marry privately ; and, to cut the story short, as 1 did 
 
 my courtship, in about five months I got her in the mind, and 
 
 _we were privately m arried, and that with so very exact a 
 
 'concealment th at her maid that was so instrumental in it, yet 
 
 had no knowledge of it for near a month more. 
 
 I was now, not only in my imagination, but in reality, the 
 most happy creature in the world, as I was infinitely satisfied 
 with my wife, who was indeed the best-humoured woman in 
 the world, a most accomplished beautiful creature indeed, 
 perfectly weU-bred, and had not one ill quality about her ; 
 and this happiness continued without the least interruption 
 for about six years. 
 
 But I, that was to be the most unhappy fellow alive in the 
 article of matrimony, had at last a disappointment of the 
 worst sort, even here. I had three fine children by her, and 
 in her time of lying-in with the last, she got some cold, thtt 
 she did not in a long time get off, and in short, she grew verj' 
 sickly. In being so continually ill, and out of order, she very 
 unhappily got a habit of drinking cordials and hot liquors. 
 Drink, like the devil, when it gets hold of any one, though 
 but a little, it goes on by little and little to their destruction : 
 so in my wife, her stomach being weak and faint, she first 
 took this cordial, then that, tiU, in short, she could not live 
 without them, and from a drop to a sup, from a sup to a 
 dram, from a dram to a glass, and so on to two, tUl at last she 
 took, in short, to what we call drinking. 
 
 As I likened drink to the devji, in its gradual possession oi 
 the habits and person, so it is yet more like the devil in its 
 encroachment on us, where it gets hold of our senses; in short 
 my beautiful, good-humoured, modest, weU-bred wife, grew a 
 beast, a slave to strong liquor, and would be drunk at her 
 own table, nay, in her own closet by herself, till, instead of a 
 'weU-made, fine shape, she was as fat as a hostess ; her fine 
 face, bloated and blotched, had not so much as the ruins of 
 the most beautiful person alive, nothing remained but a good 
 eye ; that indeed she held to the last. In short, she lost her 
 beauty, her shape, her manners, and at last her virtue ; and, 
 giving herself up to drinking, killed herself in about a year 
 ■and a half after she first began that cursed trade, in which 
 time she twice was Exposed in the most scandalous manner 
 with a captain of a ship, who, like a villain, took the advan- 
 tage of her being in drink, and not knowing what ahe did; 
 
460 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 but it had this unhappy effect, that, instead of her being 
 ashamed, and repenting of it when she came to herself, it 
 hardened her in the crime, and she grew as void of modesty 
 at last as of sobriety. 
 
 ! the power of intemperance ! and how it encroaches on 
 the best dispositions in the world ; how it comes upon us 
 gradually and insensibly, and what dismal effects it works 
 upon our morals, changing the most virtuous, regular, well- 
 instructed, and well-inclined tempers into worse than brutal ! 
 That was a good story, whether real or invented, of the devil 
 tempting a young man to murder his father : No, he said, that 
 was unnatural. Why then, says the devil, go and lie with 
 your mother. No, says he, that is abominable. Well then, 
 says the devil, if you will do nothing else to oblige me, go 
 and get drunk. Ay, ay, says the fellow, I will do that; 
 so he went and made himself drunk as a swine, and when 
 he was drunk, ,he murdered his father and lay with his 
 mother. 
 
 Never was a woman more virtuous, modest, chaste, sober ; 
 she never so much as desired to drink anything strong ; it 
 was with the greatest entreaty that I could prevail with her 
 to drink a glass or two of wine, and rarely, if ever, above one 
 or two at a time ; even in company she had no inclination to 
 it. Not an immodest word ever came out of her mouth, nor 
 would she suffer it in any one else in her hearing, without re- 
 sentment and abhorrence : but upon that weakness and illness, 
 after her last lying-in as ahcffe, the nurse pressed her, when- 
 ever she found herself faint, and a sinking of her spirits, to 
 take this cordial, and that dram, to keep up her spirits, till 
 it became necessary even to keep her alive, and gradually in- 
 creased to a habit, so that it was no longer her physic but her 
 food. Her appetite sunk and went quite away, and she eat 
 little or nothing, but came at last to such a dreadful height, 
 that, as I have said, she would be drunk in her own dressing- 
 room by eleven o'clock in the morning, and, in short, at last j 
 was never sober. | 
 
 In this life of hellish excess, as I have said, she lost all that { 
 was before so valuable in her, and a villain if it be proper to 
 call a man by such a name, who was an intimate acquaintance, 
 coming to pretend to visit her,jmade_her and her maid so 
 drunk t ogether , _ t hat h e abused both. Let any one judg^ 
 wliat was my case now ; I that for six years thought myseu 
 
FIGHT AND THEASH HER CAPTAIIf. 481 
 
 the happiest man alive, was now the most miserable distracted 
 creature. As to my wife, I loved her so well, and was so sen- 
 sible of the disaster of her drinking being the occasion of it 
 all, that I could not resent it to such a degree as I had done in 
 her predecessor, but I pitied her heartily; however, I put 
 away all her servants, and almost locked her up, that is to 
 say, I set new people over her, who would not suffer any one 
 to come near her without my knowledge. 
 
 CHAPTEE XVI. 
 
 I MEET AND FIGHT HEE CAPTAIN, AND THEASH HIM 
 
 HEAETILT MT WIFE's DEATH ENTERTAIN THOUGHTS OP 
 
 A FOURTH WIFE COUETSHIP AND MARRIAGE WITH MY 
 
 factor's daughter SHE MAKES '%E AN EXCELLENT 
 
 WIFE, BUT DIES AT THE END OF FOUR YEARS 1 RETURN 
 
 TO VIRGINIA, AND MEET "WITH A WONDEEFUL SUEFEISE. 
 
 But what to do with the villain that had thus abused both 
 her and me, that was the question that remained ; to fight 
 him upon equal terms, I thought was a little bard; that 
 after a man had treated me as he had done, he deserved no 
 fair play for his life ; so I resolved to wait for him in Stepney 
 fields, and which way he often came home pretty late, and 
 ^pistol him in^ the dark,-itadr-i£-possible, to let-him knowwhaJL- 
 I kil led him for, before I did it ; but when I came to consider 
 of thSTTTsEocEeS my temper too as well as principle, and I 
 could not be a murderer, whatever else I could be, or what- 
 ever I was provoked to be. 
 
 However, I resolved on the other hand, that I would se- 
 verely correct him for what he had done, and it was not long 
 before I had an opportunity; for, hearing one morning that 
 he was walking across the fields from Stepney to Shadwell, 
 which way I knew he often went, I waited for his coming 
 home again, and fairly met him. 
 
 I had not many words -with, him, but told him I had long 
 looked for him ; that he knew the villany he had been guilty 
 of in my family, and he could not believe, since he knew also 
 that I was fuUy informed of it, but that I must be a great 
 'wwurd, as well as a cuckold, or that I would resent it, and 
 
 I I 
 
482 COLONEL JA.CK. 
 
 that it was now a veiy proper time to call him to an account 
 for it ; and therefore bade him, if he durst show his face to 
 what he had done, and defend the name of a captain of a man- 
 of-war, as they said he had been, to draw. 
 
 He seemed surprised at the thing, and began to parley, and 
 would lessen the crime of it, hut I told him it was not a time 
 to talk that way, since he could not deny the fact ; and to 
 lessen the crime, was to lay it the more upon the woman, 
 who, I was sure, if he had not first debauched with wine, he 
 couldnever have brought to the rest; and, seeing he refused 
 to draw, I knocked him down with my cane atone blow, and 
 I would not strike him again while he lay on the ground, but 
 waited to see him recover a little, for I saw plainly he was 
 notkiUed. In a few minutes he came to himself again, and 
 then I took him fast by one wrist, and caned him as severely 
 as I was able, and as long as I could hold it for want of 
 breath, but forebore his head, because I was resolved he 
 ' should feel it ; in this condition at last he begged for mercy, 
 but I was deaf to aU pity a great while, till he roared out like 
 a boy soundly whipped. Then I took his sword from him, 
 and broke it before his face, and left him on the ground, giv- 
 ing him two or three kicks on the backside, and bade him go 
 and take the law of me, if he thought fit. 
 
 I had now as much satisfaction as indeed could be taken of 
 a coward, and had no more to say to him ; but as I knew it 
 would make a great noise about the town, I immediately re- 
 moved my family, and that I might be perfectly conceale d, 
 went into the nofth ot iilngland, and lived in a little town 
 
 called , not far from Lancaster, where I lived retired, 
 
 and was no more heard of for about two years. My wife, 
 though more confined than she used to be, and so kept up from 
 the lewd part which, I believe, in the intervals of her intem- 
 perance, she was truly ashamed of and abhorred, yet retained 
 the drinking part, which becoming, as I have said, necessary 
 for her subsistence, she soon ruined her health, and in about 
 a year and a half after my removal into the north, she died. 
 
 , Thu s I was once more a free man, and as one would think, 
 
 ghoula Dy t'his^inffliave beBrrtuHy satisfied that matrimony 
 was not appointed to be a state of felicity to me. 
 
 I should have mentioned that the villain of a captain who 
 I had drubbed, as above, pretended to make a great stir 
 about my as»aulting him on the Mghway, and ihsA I Lad 
 
sir WIFE DIES. 483 
 
 fellen upon Mm with three ruffians, with an intent to murder 
 him ; and this began to obtain belief among the people in 
 the neighbourhood; I sent him word of so much of it as I had 
 heard, and told him I hoped it did not come from his own 
 mouth, but if it did, I expected he would publicly disown it, 
 he himself declaring he knew it to be false, or else I should 
 be forced to aCt the same thing over again, till I had dis- 
 ciplined him into better manners; and that he might be as- 
 sured, that if he continued to pretend that T had anybody 
 with me when I caned him, I would publish the whole story 
 in print, and besides that, would cane him again wherever I 
 met him, and as often as I met him, tiU he thought fit to de- 
 fend himself with his sword like a gentleman. 
 
 He gave me no answer to this letter ; and the satisfaction 
 I had for that was, that I gave twenty or thirty copies of it | 
 about among the neighbours, which made it as public as if I 
 had p rinte d it ( that is, as to "his acquaintance ajod mine), and* 
 made him so hissed at and hated, that he was obliged to 
 remove into some other part of the town, whither I did not 
 inquire. 
 
 My wife being now dead, I knew not what course to take 
 in the world, and I grew so disconsolate and discouraged, 
 that I was next door to being distempered, and sometimes, 
 indeed, I thought myself a Kttle touched in my head. But it 
 proved nothing but vapours, and the vexation of this affair, 
 and in about a year's time, or thereabouts, it wore off again. 
 
 I had rambled up and down in a most discontented unsettled 
 posture after this, I say, about a year, and then I considered 
 I had three innocent children, and I could take no care of 
 them, and that I must either go away, and leave them to the 
 wide world, or settle here and get somebody to look after them, 
 and that better a mother-in-law than no mother, for to live 
 such a wandering life it would not do ; so I resolved I would 
 marry as anything offered, though it was mean, and the 
 meaner the better. I concl uded my next wife should be :{ 
 only taken as an upper servant, that is to say, a nurse to \ 
 my children, and housekeeper to myself, and let her be 
 whore or honest woman, said I, as she likes best, I am resolved 
 I will not much concern myself about that ; for I was now 
 one desperate, that valued not how things went. 
 
 In this careless, and indeed rash, foolish humour, I talked 
 to myself thus : If. I marry an honest woman,, my childrea 
 
 I I 2 
 

 484 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 will be taken care of; if she be a slut, and abuses me, as I seo 
 everybody does, I, will kidnap her and send her to Virginia, 
 to my plantations lErrK■~ST^hgJg,^,^shall_^rk^ 
 PTiniiffli, g,yH %R ha rd Bnniigb to keep hftr cha.ste. ru 
 warra nt her. 
 
 TEnewweH enough at first thatthese were mad hair-brained 
 notions, and I thought no more of being serious in them than 
 I thought of being a man in the moon : but I know not how 
 it happened to me, I reasoned and talked to myself in this 
 wild manner so long, that I brought myself to be seriously 
 desperate ; that is, to resolve upon another mamage, with 
 all the suppositions of unhappiness that could be imagined to 
 fall out. 
 
 And yet even this rash resolution of my senses did not 
 come presently to action ; for I was half a year after this 
 before I fixed upon anything; at last, as he that seeks 
 mischief shall certainly find it, so it was with me. There 
 happened to be a young, or rather, a middle-aged woman in 
 the next town, which was but a half mile off", who usually 
 was at my house, and among my children, every day when 
 the weather was tolerable ; and though she came but merely 
 as a neighbour, and to see us, yet she was always helpful in 
 directing and ordering things for them, and mighty handy 
 about them, as well before my wife died as after. 
 
 Her father was one that I employed often to go to Liver- 
 pool, and sometimes to Whitehaven, and do business for me ; 
 for having, as it were, settled myself in the northern parts 
 of England, I had ordered part of my effects to be shipped, 
 as occasion of shipping offered, to either of those two towns, 
 to which, the war continuing very sharp, it was safer coming, 
 as to privateers, than about through the channel to London. 
 
 I took a mighty fancy at last, that this girl would answer 
 my end, particularly that I saw she was mighty useful among 
 the children ; so on the other hand, the children loved her 
 very well, and I resolved to love her too, flattering myself 
 mightily, that as ][^ad_ married two gentlewomen and one 
 citizen^. a n5 they j>roved alLlhree, whoTMLl should liownSnd 
 what I wanted in_an irmocent^ountry wench. 
 
 r took up a world of time in considering of this matter ; 
 indeed scarce any of my matches were done without very 
 mature consideration ; the second was the worst in that 
 article, hut in this, I thought of it, I believe, four months 
 
THOUGHTS OF A FOURTH WIFE. 485 
 
 most seriously before I resolved, and that very prudence 
 spoiled the whole thing ; however, at last being resolved, I 
 took Mrs. Margaret one day as she passed by my parlour 
 door, called her in, and. told her I wanted to speak with her ; 
 she came readily in, but blushed mightUy when I bade her 
 sit down in a chair just by me. 
 
 I used no great ceremony with her, but told her that I had 
 observed she had been mighty kind to my children, and was 
 very tender to them, and that they all loved her, and that if 
 she and I could agree about it, I intended to ma^e her their 
 mother, if she was not engaged to somebody else. The girl 
 sat still, and said never a word, till I said those words, ' if 
 she was not engaged to somebody else ;' when she seemed 
 struck. However, I took no notice of it, other than this. 
 Look ye,_Mogg2;, s aid I (so tibiey_caU thgm jn the_count2)^ 
 if you have promised yourself, you must tell me. For we^T 
 knew that a young fellow, a good clergyman's widked^spn, 
 had hung about her a great while, two or three years, ana 
 made love to her, but could never get the girl in the mind, 
 it seems,' to have him. 
 
 She knew I was not ignorant of it, and therefore, after 
 
 her first surprise was over, she told me Mr. had, as I 
 
 knew, often come after her, but she had never promised him 
 anything, and had, for several years, refused him ; her father 
 always telling her that he was a wicked fellow, and that he 
 would be her ruin if she had him. 
 
 "Well, Moggy, then, says I, what dost say to me ? art thou 
 free to make me a wife? She blushed and looked down 
 upon the ground, and would not speak a good while ; but, 
 when I pressed her to tell me, she looked up, and said, she 
 supposed I was but jesting with her ; well, I got over that, 
 and told her I was in very good earnest with her, and 
 I took her for a sober, honest, modest girl, and, as I said, one 
 that my children loved mighty well, and I was in earnest 
 with her; if she would give me her consent, I would give 
 her my word that I would have her, and we would be married 
 to-morrow morning. She looked up again at that, and smiled 
 a little, and said. No, that was too soon to say yes; she 
 hoped I would give her some time to consider of it, and to 
 talk with her father about it. 
 
 I told her she needed not much time to consider about it ; 
 but, however, I would give her till to-morrow morning, 
 
486 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 which was a great while. By this time I had Mssed Mo^y 
 two or three times, Mid she began taieicefiK,WJiLffi&; and, 
 when I pressed hereto marry me the next morning, she 
 laughed, and told me it wa s not luckv to he married in her 
 old clothes . 
 
 I stopped her mouth presently with that, and told her she 
 should not be married in her old clothes, for I would give her 
 some new. Ay, it may be afterwards, says Moggy, and 
 laughed again. No, just now, says I, come along with me 
 Moggy ; so I carried her up stairs into my wife's room that 
 was, and showed her a new morning gown of my wife's, that 
 she had never worn above two or three times, and several 
 other fine things. Look you there. Moggy, says I, there is 
 a wedding-gown for you ; give me your hand now that you 
 will have me to-morrow morning; and as to your father, 
 you know he has gone to Liverpool on my business, but I 
 ' will answer for it, he shall not be angry when he comes home 
 to call his master son-in-law, and I ask him no portion ; 
 therefore, give me thy hand for it. Moggy, says I, very 
 merrily to her, and kissed her again ; and the girl gave me 
 her hand, and very pleasantly too, and I was mightily pleased 
 with it, I assure you. _ 
 
 There lived about three doors from us an anci eat gentle- 
 man, whopassad jor a doctor of physic, but wh o w^_re^^ 
 a Eomish priest in orders, as there axe manyln thaTpart o f 
 "the cguhteyj^ and in the evening r sent to speak with him. 
 He knew that I understood his professsion, and that I had 
 lived in popish countries, and, in a word, believed me a 
 _^Koman too, for Ijwas such a broad. When he came to me, 
 Itold^imlthe occasion" for which I sent for him, and that it 
 was to be to-morrow morning; he readily told me, if I would 
 come and see him in the evening, and bring Moggy with me, 
 he would marry us in his own study, and that it was rather 
 more private to do it in the evening th^n in the morning ; so 
 I called Moggy again to me, and told her, since she and I 
 had agreed the matter for to-morrow, it was as well to be 
 done over night, and told her what the doctor had said. 
 
 Moggy blushed again, and said she must go home first, 
 that she could not be ready before to-morrow. Look ye, 
 Moggy, says I, you are my wife now, and you shaJl never go 
 away from me a maid ; I know what you mean, you would 
 go home to shift you. Come, Moggy, says I, come along 
 
GET MAKEIED, MI "WIFE SOOS VTE8. 487 
 
 with me again up stairs. So I carried her to a chest of 
 linen, where were several new shifts of my last wife's, which 
 she had never worn at all, and some that had been worn. 
 
 There is a clean smock for you, Moggy, says I, and to- 
 morrow you shall have all the rest. When I had done this, 
 Now, Moggy, says I, go and dress you ; so I locked her in^ 
 and went down stairs. Knock, says I, when you are 
 dressed. 
 
 After some time, Moggy did not knock, but down she 
 came into my room, completely dressed, for there were several 
 other things that I bade her take, and the clothes fitted her 
 as if they had been made fo r her ; it s eem s she slipped the 
 lock back. 
 
 Well, Moggy, says I, now you see you shall not be married 
 in your old clothes ; so I took her in my arms, and kissed 
 her, and well pleased I was, as ever I was in my life, or with 
 anything I ever did in my life. As soon as it was dark, 
 Moggy slipped away beforehand, as the doctor and I had 
 agreed, to the old genUeman's housekeeper, and I came in 
 about half an hour after, and there we were married in the 
 doctor's study, that is to say, in his oratory, or chapel, a little 
 room within his' study, and we stayed and supped with him 
 afterwards. 
 
 When, after a short stay more, I went home first, because I 
 would send the children all to bed, and the other servants out 
 of the way, and Moggy came some time after, and so we lay 
 together that night. The next morning I let all the family 
 know that Moggy was my wife, and my three children were 
 rejoiced at it to the last degree. And now I was a married 
 man a fourth time ; and, in short, I was really more happy 
 in this plain country girl, than with any of all the wives I 
 had had. She was not young, being about thirty-three, but 
 she brought me a son the first year ; she was very pretty, 
 well shaped, and of a merry cheerful disposition, but not a 
 beauty; she was an admirable family manager, loved my 
 former children, and us^d them not at all the worse for having 
 Some of her own. In a word, she made me an excellent 
 wife, but lived with me but four years, and died of a hurt she 
 got of a fall while she was with child, and in her I had a 
 Very great loss indeed. 
 
 And yet such was my fate in wives, that, after all the 
 blushing and backwardness of Mrs. Moggy at first, Mr» 
 
488 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 Moggj? had, it seems, made a slip in her younger days, and 
 was got with child ten years before, by a gentleman of a 
 great estate in that country, who promised her marriage, and 
 afterwards deserted her ; but as that had happened long 
 before I came into the country, and the child was dead and 
 forgotten, the people was so good to her, and so kind to me, 
 that, hearing I had married her, nobody ever spoke of it, 
 neither did I ever hear of it, or suspect it, tiU after she was 
 in her grave, and then it was of small consequence to me 
 One way or other, and she was a faithful, virtuous, obliging 
 wife to me. I had a very severe aflSiction indeed whUe she 
 lived with me, for the smallpox, a frightful distemper in that 
 country, broke into my family, and carried off three of my 
 children, and a maid-servant ; so that I had only one of my 
 former wife's, and one by my Moggy, the first a son, the last 
 a daughter. 
 
 While these things were in agitation, came on the inva- 
 sion of the Scots, aud the fight at Preston ; and I have cause 
 to bless the memory of my Moggy, for I was all on fire on 
 that side, and just going away with horse and arms, to join 
 the Lord Derwentwater ; but Moggy begged me off (as I may 
 call it), and hung about me so, with her tears and impor- 
 tunities, that I sat still and looked on, for which I had rea- 
 son to be thankful. 
 
 I was really a sorrowful father, and the loss of my children 
 stuck close to me, but the loss of my wife stuck closer to me 
 than all the rest ; nor was my grief lessened, or my kindest 
 thoughts abated in the least, by the account I heard of her 
 former miscarriages, seeing they were so long before I knew 
 her, and were not discovered by me, or to me, in her life- 
 time. 
 
 All these things put together made me very comfortless. 
 And now I thought heaven summoned me to retire to Vir- 
 ginia, the place, and, as I may say, the only place, I had 
 been blessed at, or had met with anything that deserved the 
 name of success in, and where, indeed, my affairs being in 
 good hands, the plantations were increased to such a degree, 
 that some years my return here made up eight hundred 
 pounds, and one year almost a thousand; so I resolved to 
 leave my native country once more, and taking my son with 
 me, and leaving Moggy's daughter with her grandfather, I 
 made him my principal agent, left him considerable in hia 
 
RETURN TO VIEGINIA. 48^ 
 
 hands, for the maintenance of the child, and left my will in 
 his hand, by which, if I died before I should otherwise pro- 
 vide for her, I left her 2000i. portion, to be paid by my son 
 out of the estate I had in Virginia, and the whole estate, if 
 he died unmarried. 
 
 I embarked for Virginia in the year , at the town of 
 
 Liverpool, and had a tolerable voyage thither, only that we 
 met with a pirate ship, in the latitude of 48 degrees, who 
 plundered us of everything they could come at that was for 
 their turn, that is to say, provisions, ammunition, small arms, 
 and money ; but, to give the rogues their due, though they 
 were the most abandoned wretches that were ever seen, they 
 did not use us iU ; and as to my loss, it was not considerable, 
 the cargo which I had on board was in goods, and was of 
 no use to them ; nor could they come at those things without 
 rummaging the whole ship, which they did not tMnk worth 
 their while. 
 
 I found all my affairs in very good order at Virginia, my 
 plantations prodigiously increased, and my manager who first 
 Inspired me with travelling thoughts, and made me master of 
 any knowledge worth naming, received me with a transport 
 of joy, after a ramble of four-and- twenty years. 
 
 I ought to remember it, to the encouragement of all faith- 
 ful servants, that he gave me an account, which, I believe, was 
 critically just, of the whole affairs of the plantations, each by 
 themselves, and balanced in years, every year's produce being 
 fully transmitted, charges deducted, to my order at London. 
 
 I was exceedingly satisfied, as I had good reason indeed, 
 with his management ; and with his management, as much 
 in its degree, of his own, I can safely say it. He had im- 
 proved a very large plantation of his own at the same time, 
 which he began upon the foot of the country's allowance of 
 land, and the encouragement he had from me. 
 
 When he had given me all this pleasing agreeable account, 
 you wiU not think it strange that I had a desire to see the 
 plantations, and to view all the servants, which, in both the 
 works, were upwards of three hundred; and as my tutor 
 generally bought some every fleet that came from England, 
 I had the mortification to see two or three of the Preston 
 gentlemen there, who, being prisoners of war, were spared 
 from the public execution, and sent over to that slavery, 
 which to gentlemen must be worse than death. 
 
490 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 I do not m sntion what I did or said, relating to them, 
 here ; I shall speak at large of it, -when the rest of them 
 came over, which more nearly concerned me. 
 
 But one circumstance occurred to me here, that equally 
 surprised me, and terrified me to the last degree ; looking 
 over all the servants, as I say above, and viewing the plan- 
 tations narrowly and frequently, I came one day by a place 
 where some women were at work by themselves. I was 
 seriously reflecting on the misery of human life, when I saw 
 some of those poor wretches ; thought I, they have perhaps 
 lived gay and pleasantly in the world, notwithstanding, 
 through a variety of distresses, they may have been brought 
 to this ; and if a body was to hear the history of some of 
 them now, it would perhaps be as moving and as seasonable 
 a sermon as any minister in the country could preach. 
 
 While I was musing thus, and looking at the women, on 
 a sudden I heard a combustion among other of the womenr 
 servants, who were almost behind me, in the same work, 
 and help was called loudly for, one of the women having 
 swooned away; they said she would die immediately if 
 something was not done to relieve her. I had nothing about 
 me but a httle bottle, which we always carried about us 
 there with rum, to give any servant a dram that merited 
 that favour ; so I turned my horse, and went up towards the 
 place ; but as the poor creature was lying flat on the ground, 
 and the rest of the women-servants about her, I did not see 
 her, but gave them the bottle, and they rubbed her temples 
 with it, and, with much ado, brought her to life, and offered 
 her a little to drink, but she could drink nqne of it, and was 
 exceeding ill afterwards, so that she was carried to the 
 infirmary, so they call it in the religious houses in Italy, where 
 the sick nuns or friars are carried; but here, in Virpnia, 
 I think they should call it the condemned hole, for it really 
 was only a place just fit for people to die in, not a place to 
 be cured in. 
 
 The sick woman refusing to drink, one of the women^- 
 servants brought me the bottle again, and I bade them drink 
 it among them, which had almost set them together by the 
 ears for the liquor, there being not enough to give every one 
 a sup. 
 
 I went home to my house immediately, and reflecting on 
 the miserable provision was wont to be made for poor 
 
STMPATHT FOB THE SICK SLAArES. 491 
 
 Bervants wlien they were sick, I inquired of my manager, if 
 it was so still? He suid, he believed mine was better than 
 any in the country; but he confessed it was but sad lodging; 
 however, he said he would go and look after it immediately, 
 and see how it was. 
 
 He came to me again about an hour after, and told me 
 the woman was very iU, and frightened with her condition ; 
 that she seemed to be very penitent for some things in her 
 past Ufa, which lay heavy upon her mind, believing she 
 should die ; that she asked him if there were no ministers 
 to comfort poor dying servants ? and he told her, that she 
 knew they had no minister nearer than such a place ; but 
 that, if she lived till morning, he should be sent for. He told 
 me also, that he had removed her into a room where their 
 Chief workman used to lodge ; that he had given her a pair 
 of sheets, and everything he could, that he thought she 
 wanted, and had appointed another woman-servant to attend 
 her, and sit up vdth her. 
 
 Well, says I, that is well, for I cannot bear to have poor 
 creatures lie and perish, by the mere hardship of the place 
 they are in, when they are sick, and want help ; besides, said 
 I , some of those unfortun ate creatu res they c all convicts, ma y 
 be people th at have bee n tenderly'^ought up. Keally, sir ^ 
 says he, th is poor creat ure I always said had ^s omething of a 
 genflewoman in her, I could_see it by her behaviour, and I ' 
 "TSSve" heard the other women say that sheTived very~greia,t 
 once, and&at she h ad fifteen hundred pounds to her portion ; 
 and I dare say she has been a handsome woman in her time, 
 and she has a hand as fine as a lady's now, though it be 
 tanned with the weather ; I dare say she was never brought 
 up to labour as she does here, and she says to the rest that it 
 will kiU her. 
 
 Truly, says I, it may be so, and that may be the reason 
 that she faints under it ; and, I added, is there nothing you 
 can put her to within doors, that may not be so laborious, and 
 expose her to so much heat and cold? He told me yes, there 
 was ; he could set her to be the housekeeper, for the woman 
 that lately was such, was out of her time, and was married 
 and turned planter. Why then let her have it, said I, if she 
 recovers, and in the mean time go, said I, and tell her so ; 
 perhaps the comfort of it may help to restore her. 
 
 He did so, and with that, taking good care of her, and 
 
492 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 giving her good warm diet, the woman recovered, and in a 
 little time was abroad again ; for it was the mere weight of 
 labour, and being exposed to hard lodging and mean dietjjo 
 one so tenderly bred, that struck her, and she fainted at her 
 work. " I 
 
 When she was made housekeeper, she was quite another 
 body; she put all the household into such excellent order, 
 and managed their provisions so well, that my tutor admired 
 her conduct, and would be every now and then speaking of 
 her to me, that she was an excellent manager. I'll warrant, 
 says he,^she hasJbeen ^red ja gentlewoman,., and.^e_has_been 
 a fine woman in herjtimg.l9o. In a word, he said so many 
 "good things oTher, that I had a mind to see her : so one day 
 I took occasion to go to the plantation-house, as they called 
 it, and into a parlour, always reserved for the master of the 
 plantation ; there she had opportunity to see me before I 
 could see her, ^and as soon -as-she had seen me. fihe l^naw r g ^f 
 but indeedj_had.I_seen .her an hun dred timeSj ^ I sh ould not 
 have known her. She was, it seems, in the greatest confusion 
 "aSd surmise" at seeing who I was, that it was possible for any 
 one to be ; and when I ordered my manager to bring her 
 into the room, he found her crying, and begged him to ex- 
 cuse her, that she was fiightened, and should die away if she 
 came near me. 
 
 I, not imagining anything but that the poor creature was 
 afraid of me (for mastersjr i Jir^nia are terrible thrngs ^ 
 bade him tell HerlKTieed' to be under no concern at my 
 calling for her, for it was not for any hurt, nor for any dis- 
 pleasure, but that I had some orders to give her ; so having, 
 y\^ as he thought, encouraged her, though her surprise was of 
 \ X /-another kind, he brought her in. When she came in, she 
 
 LI 
 
 /\/" / held a handkerchief in her hand, wiping her eyes, as. if she 
 
 A/ 
 
 ^ *- had cried : Mrs. Housekeeper, said I, speaking cheerfully to 
 ^' her, don't be concerned at my sending for you, I have had a 
 
 very good account of your management, and I called for you 
 to let you know I am very well pleased with it ; and if it falls 
 in my way to do you any good, if your circumstances will 
 allow it, I may be willing enough to help you out of your 
 misery. 
 
 She made low courtesies, but said nothing; however, she was 
 so far encouraged, that she took her hand from her face, and 
 I saw her face fully, and I believe she did it, desiring I should 
 
SINGDLAE SURPRISE. 493 
 
 discover who she was, but I really knew nothing of her, any 
 more than if I had never seen her in my life ; but went on as 
 I thought, to encourage her, as I used to do with any that I 
 saw deserved it. 
 
 In the mean time my tutor, who was in the room, went 
 out on some business or other, I know not what; as soon as 
 he was gone,' she burst out into a passion, and fell down on 
 her knees just before me : O ! sir, says she, I see you don't 
 know me, be merciful to me, I am your miserable divorced 
 wife! 
 
 I was astonished, I was frightened, I trembled like one ia 
 an ague, I was speechless ; in a word, I was ready to sink, 
 and she fell flat on her face, and lay there as if she had been 
 dead. I was speechless, I say, as a stone. I had o nly pre.- 
 sence of m ind enough to step to the door a nJ fagten^it, that 
 my tutor might not come in ; then, going back to her, I took 
 her up, and spoke comfortably to her, and told her I no more 
 knew her than if I had never seen her . ~'~ 
 
 U ! sir, said she, afflictions are dreadful things ; such as I 
 have suffered have been enough to alter my countenance ; but 
 forgive, said she, for God's sake the injuries I have done you. 
 I have paid dear for all my wickedness, and it is just, it is 
 righteous, that God should bring me to your foot, to ask your 
 pardon for all my brutish doings. Forgive me, sir, said she, 
 I beseech you, and let me be your slave or servant for it as 
 long as I Uve, it is all I ask. And with those words, she fell 
 upon her knees again, and cried so vehemently, that it was 
 impossible for her to stop it, or to speak a word more. I 
 took her up again, made her sit down, desired her to com- 
 pose herself, and to hear what I was going to say, though 
 indeed, it touched me so sensibly, that I was hardly able to 
 speak any more than she was. 
 
 First, I told her it was such a surprise to me, that I was 
 not able to say much to her, and indeed the tears run down 
 my face almost as fast as they did on hers. I told her that I 
 should only teU her now, that,_as nobody had yet know n 
 anything that had passed, so it w as absolutely n er R ii i a fl i rT n ot 
 -g-^Word-tif it sho uld be know n; that it should not be the 
 "worseTor her, that shTwasthus thrown in my hands again ; 
 but that I could do no thing for her i f it w as known; and, 
 therefore, thajb_lieF^iEre.-gQod-jQrin3pMai ^ depend 
 
 upon h er entire conceaEng_it ; that, as my manager would 
 
494 COL >NEL JACK. 
 
 come in again presently, she should go back to her part of 
 the house, and go on in the business, a» she did before ; that 
 5^/V^ I would come to her, and talk more at large with her in a 
 / ^ day or two. So she retired, after assuring me that not a 
 word of it should go out of her mouth ; and indeed she was 
 willing to retire before my tutor came again, that he might 
 not see the agony she was in. 
 
 I was so perplexed about this surprising incident, that I 
 hardly knew what I did or said all that night, nor was I 
 come to any settled resolution in the morning what course to 
 take in it. However, in the morning I called my tutor, and 
 told him that I had been exceedingly concerned about the 
 poor distressed creature, the housekeeper ; that I had heard 
 some of her story, which was very dismal ; that she had been 
 in very good circumstances, and was bred very well, and 
 that I was glad he had removed her out of the field into the 
 house ; but stiU she was almost naked, and that I would 
 have him go down to the warehouse, and give her some linen, 
 especially head-clothes, and all sorts of small things such as 
 hoods, gloves, stockings, shoes, petticoats, &c., and to let her 
 choose for herself; also a morning-gown of calico, and a 
 mantua of a better kind of calico ; that is to say, new clothe 
 her ; which he did, "but brought me word, that he found her 
 all in tears, and that she had cried all night long, and ih 
 short, he believed she would indeed cry herself to death; 
 that all the while she was receiving the things he gave her, 
 she cried; that now and then she would struggle with, and 
 stop it, but that then, upon another word speaking, she would 
 burst out again, so that it grieved everybody that saw her. 
 
 I was really affected with her case very much, but strug- 
 gled hard with myself to hide it, and turned the discourse to 
 something else ; in the mean time, though I did not go to 
 her the next day, nor till the third day, yet I studied day 
 and night how to act, and what I should do in this remark- 
 able case. 
 
 When I came to the house, which was the third day, she 
 came into the room I was in, clothed all over with my 
 things which I had ordered her, and told me she thanked 
 God she was now my servant again, and wore my livery;, 
 thanked me for the clothes I had 6«nt her, and said it wai 
 much more than she had deserved Irom me. 
 
 I then entered into discouj-ses with her, nobody being 
 
MT DIVORCED WIFE MADE HOUSEKEEPER. 495 
 
 present but ourselves ; and first I told her she should name 
 no more of the unkind things that had past, for she had 
 humbled herself more than enough on that subject, and I 
 would never reproach her with anything that was past. I 
 found that she had been the deepest sufferer by far ; I told 
 her it was impossible for me, in my present circumstances, 
 to receive her there as a wife, who came over as a convict, 
 fleither did she know so little as to desire it ; but, I told her, 
 I might be instrumental to put an end to her misfortunes in 
 the world, and especially to the miserable part of it, which 
 was her present load, provided she could effectually keep her 
 own counsel, and never lsL^g__£articulars come out of her 
 mouth j.,.aad.^atr from ^e da^she~ai^she nught^^te her 
 iri^esfive rable ruij i;___l "" 
 
 She was as sensible of the necessity of that part as I was, 
 and told me all she could claim of me wOuld be only to 
 deliver her from her present calamity, that she was not able 
 to support ; and that then, if I pleased, she might live such 
 a life as that she might apply the residue of what time she 
 should have wholly to repentance; that she was willing to 
 do the meanest offices in the world for me ; and, though she 
 should rejoice to hear that I would forgive her former life, 
 yet that she would not look any higher than to be my 
 servant as long as she lived ; and, in the meantime, I might 
 be satisfied she would never let any creature so much as 
 know that I had ever seen her before. 
 
 I asked her if she was wiUing to let me into any part of 
 the history of her life since she and I parted, but I did not 
 insist upon it otherwise than as she thought convenient. 
 She said, as her breach with me began first in folly, and 
 ended in sin, so her whole life afterwards was a continued 
 series of calamity, sin and sorrow, sin and shame, and at 
 last misery ; that she was deluded into gay company, and to 
 an expensive way of living, which betrayed her to several 
 wicked courses to support the expenses of it ; that, after & 
 thousand distresses and difficulties, being not able to main- 
 tain herself, she was reduced to extreme poverty. 
 
 That she would many times have humbled herself to me 
 in the lowest and most submissive manner in the world, 
 -being sincerely penitent for her first crime, but that she 
 never could hear of me, nor which way I was gone ; that 
 she was by that means so abandoned that she wanted bread, 
 
496 COLOKISL JACK. 
 
 and those wants and distresses brought her into bad com- 
 pany of another kind, and that she Ml in among a gang of 
 thieves, with whom she herded for some time, and got 
 money enough a great while, but under the greatest dread 
 and terror imaginable, being in the constant fear of coming 
 to shame ; that afterwards, what she feared was come upon 
 her, and for a very trifling attempt, in which she was not 
 principal, but accidentally concerned, she was sent to this 
 place. She told me her life was such a collection of various 
 fortunes, up and down, in plenty and in misery, in prison 
 and at liberty, at ease and in torment, that it would take up 
 a great many days to give me a history of it ; that I was 
 come to see the end of it, as I had seen the best part of the 
 beginning ; that I knew she was brought up tenderly, and 
 fared delicately ; but that now she was, with the prodigal, 
 brought to desire husks with swine, and even to want that 
 supply. Her tears flowed so strongly upon this discourse 
 that they frequently interrupted her, so that she could not 
 go on without difficulty, and at last could not go on at all ; 
 so I told her I would excuse her telling any more of her 
 i story at that time ; that I saw it was but a renewing of her 
 grief, and that I would rather contribute to her forgetting 
 what was past, and desired her to say no more of it : so I 
 broke off that part. 
 
 In the mean time I told her, since Providence had thus 
 cast her upon my hands again, I would take care that she 
 should not want, and that she should not live hardly neither, 
 though I could go no farther at present; and thus she parted 
 for that time, and she continued in the business of house- 
 keeper; only that, to ease her, I gave her an assistant; and, 
 though I would not have it called so, it was neither more 
 nor less than a servant to wait on her, and do everything foi 
 her ; and I told her, too, that it was so. 
 
ANOTHEB ODD ACCIDENT. 497 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 MT TDTOB FALLS IN LOVE WITH MT QUONDAM WIFE — 
 
 DIFFICULTIES THEREUPON 1 TAKE HEK AGAIN TO WIFE 
 
 MYSELF ^A EETROSPECT ATTENDED WITH DISAGKEEABLE 
 
 CONSEQUENCES — ^I FKEIGHT A SLOOP, AND EMBASE FOE 
 THE MADEIRAS. 
 
 After she had been some time in this place, she recovered 
 her spirits, and grew cheerful ; her fallen flesh plumped up, 
 and the sunk and hollow parts filled again ; so that she 
 began to recover something of that brightness, and charming 
 countenance, which was once so very agreeable to me ; and 
 sometimes I could not help having warm desires towards 
 her, and of taking her into her first station again ; but there 
 were many difficulties occurred, which I could not get over a 
 great whUe. 
 
 But in the meantime another odd accident happened, 
 which put me to a very great difficulty, and more than I 
 could have thought such a thing could be capable of. My 
 tutor, a man of wit and learning, and fuU of generous 
 principles, who was at first moved with compassion for the 
 misery of this gentlewoman, and, even then, thought there 
 were some things more than common in her, as I have 
 hinted : now, when, as I say, she was recovered, and her 
 sprightly temper restored and comforted, he was charmed so 
 with her conversation that, in short, he fell in love with her. 
 
 I hinted, in my former account of her, that she had a 
 charming tongue, was mistress of abundance of wit, that she 
 sung incomparably fine, and was perfectly well-bred ; these 
 aU remaraed with her stiU, and made her a very agreeable 
 person ; and, in short, he came to me one evening, and told 
 me that he came to ask my leave to let him marry the 
 housekeeper. 
 
 I was exceedingly perplexed at this proposal, but, how- 
 ever, I gave him no room to perceive that. I told him I 
 hoped he had considered well of it before he brought it so 
 far as to offer it to me, and supposed that he had agreed that 
 point so, that I had no consent to give, but as she had 
 almost four years of her time to serve. 
 
 K E 
 
498 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 He answered no, lie paid such a regard to me, that he 
 would not so much as take one step in such a thing -without 
 my knowledge, and assured me he had not so much as 
 mentioned it to her. I knew not what answer indeed to 
 make to him, hut at last I resolved to put it off from myself 
 to her, because then I should have opportunity to talk with 
 her beforehand; so I told him he was perfectly free to act in 
 the matter as he thought fit ; that I could not say either one 
 thing or another to it, neither had I any right to meddle in 
 it ; as- to serving out her time with me, that was a trifle, and 
 not worth naming, but I hoped he would consider well every 
 circumstance before he entered upon such an affair as that. 
 
 He told me he had fully considered it already, and that he 
 was resolved, seeing I was not against it, to have her what- 
 ever came of it, for he believed he should be the happiest 
 man alive with her ; then he ran on in his character of her, 
 how clever a woman she was in the management of all 
 manner of business, what admirable conversation she had, 
 what a wit, what a memory, what a vast share of know- 
 ledge, a,nd the like ; all which I knew to be the truth, and 
 yet short of her just character too ; for, as she was all that 
 formerly when she was mine, she was vastly improved in the 
 school of afiliction, and was all the bright part, with a vast 
 addition of temper, prudence, judgment, and all that she 
 formerly wanted. 
 
 I had not much patience, as you may well imagine, till I 
 saw my honest housekeeper, to communicate this secret to 
 her, and to see what course she would steer on so nice an oc- 
 casion ; but I was suddenly taken so Ul with a cold, which 
 held for two days, that I could not stir out of doors ; and in 
 this time the matter was aU done and over, for my tutor had 
 gone the same night, and made his attack, but was coldly 
 received at first, which very much surprised him, for he made 
 no doubt to have her consent at first word. However, the next 
 day he came again, and again the third day, when, finding 
 he was in earnest, and yet that she could not think of anything 
 of that kind, she told him, in few words, that she thought 
 herself greatly obliged to him for such a testimony of his 
 respect to her, and should have embraced it willingly, as any- 
 body would suppose CMle in her circumstances should do, but 
 that she would not abuse him so much ; for that, she must 
 acknowledge to him, she was under obligations that prevented 
 
PERSUADE THE HOUSEKEBPEK TO MAEET. ^99 
 
 her ; that -was, in short, that she was a married woman, and 
 had a husband alive. 
 
 This was so sincere, but so effectual an answer, that he 
 could have no room to reply one word to it ; but that he was 
 very sorry, and that it was a very great affliction to him, and 
 as great a disappointment as ever he met with. 
 
 The next day after he had received this repulse, I came to 
 the plantation-house, and, sending for the housekeeper, I 
 began with her, and told her that I understood she would 
 have a very advantageous proposal made to her, and that I 
 would have her consider well of it, and then told her what 
 my tutor had said to me. 
 
 She immediately feU a crying, at which I seemed to wonder 
 very much. O ! sir, says she, how can you name such a 
 thing to me ? I told her that I could name it the better to 
 her, because I had been married myself since' I parted from 
 her. Yes, sir, says she, but the case alters ; the crime being 
 on my side, I ought not to marry ; but, says she, that is not 
 the reason at aU, but I cannot do it. I pretended to press 
 her to it, though not sincerely, I must acknowledge, for my 
 heart had turned toward her for some time, and I had fully 
 forgiven her in my mind all her former conduct ; but, I say, 
 I seemed to press her to it, at which she burst out in a pas- 
 sion ; No, no, says she, let me be your slave rather than the 
 best man's wife in the world. I reasoned with her upon her 
 circimistances, and how such a marriage would restore her to 
 a state of ease and plenty, and none in the world might ever 
 know or suspect who or what she had been ; but she could 
 not bear it, but, with tears, agaia raising her voice, that I 
 was afraid she would be heard, I beseech you, says she, do 
 not speak of it any more ; I was once yours, and I will never 
 belong to any man else in the world ; let me be as I am, or 
 anything else you please to make me, but not a wife to any 
 man alive but yourself. 
 
 I was so moved with the passion she was in at speaking 
 this, that I knew not what I said or did for some time ;• at 
 length I said to her. It is a great pity you had not long ago 
 been as sincere as you are now, it had been better for us 
 both ; however, as it is, you shall'not be forced to anything 
 against your mind, nor shaU you be the worse treated for re- 
 fusing ; but how will you put him off? No doubt he expects 
 you will receive his proposal, as an advantage; and as he 
 
 K E 2 
 
500 COLONEL JACK 
 
 sees no farther into your circnmstances, so it is, 0! ar, 
 says she, I have done all that already ; he has hia answer, 
 and is fuUy satisfied ; he will never trouble you any more on 
 that head ; and then she told me what answer she had given 
 him. 
 
 From that minute I resolved that I would certainly take 
 her again to be my wife as before ; I thought she had fully 
 made me amends for her former ill conduct, and she deserved 
 to be forgiven (and so indeed she did, if ever woman did, 
 considering also what dreadful penance she had undergone, 
 and how long she had lived in misery and distress) ; and that 
 providence had, as it were, cast her upon me again ; and, 
 above all, had given her such an affection to me, and so 
 resolved a mind, that she could refuse so handsome an offer 
 of deliverance, rather than be farther separated from me. 
 
 As I resolved this in my mind, so I thought it was cruel to 
 conceal it any longer from her ; nor, indeed, could I contain 
 myself any longer, but I took her in my arms ; Well, says I, 
 you have given me such a testimony of affection in this, that 
 I can no longer withstand ; I forgive you all that ever was 
 between us on this account ; and, since you will be nobody's 
 but mine, you shall be mine again as you were at first. 
 
 But this was too much for her the other way, and now she 
 was so far overcome with my yielding to her, that, had she 
 not got vent to her passion, by the most vehement crying, 
 she must have died in my arms ; and I was forced to let 
 her go, and set her down in a chair, where she cried for a 
 quarter of an hour before she could speak a word. 
 
 "When she was come to herself enough to talk again, I told 
 her we must consider of a method how to bring this to pass, 
 and that it must not be done by publishing there that she was 
 my wife before, for that would expose us both, but that I 
 would openly marry her again; this she agreed was very 
 rational, and accordingly, about two months after, we were 
 married again, and no man in the world ever enjoyed a better 
 wife, or lived more happy than we both did for several years 
 after. 
 
 And now I began to think my fortunes were settled for 
 this world, and I had nothing before me but to finish a life of 
 infinite variety, such as mine had been, with a comfortable 
 retreat, being both made wiser by our sufferings and difficul- 
 ties, and able to judge for ourselves what kind of life would 
 
MAKET THE HOnSKKEEPEK MYSELF. 501 
 
 be best adapted to our present circumstances, and what station 
 we might look upon ourselves to be most completely happy. 
 
 But man is a shortsighted creature at best, and in nothing 
 more than in that of fixing his own felicity, or, as we may 
 say, choosing for himself. One would have thought, and so 
 my wife often suggested to me, that the state of life that I 
 was now in, was as perfectly calculated to make a man com- 
 pletely happy, as any private station in the world could be. 
 We had an estate more than sufficient, and daily increasing, 
 for the supporting any state or figure that in that place we 
 could propose to ourselves, or even desire to live in ; we had 
 everything that was pleasant and agreeable, without the least 
 mortification in any circumstances of it ; every sweet thing, 
 and nothing to embitter it ; every good, and no mixture of 
 evil with it ; nor any gap open where we could have the least 
 apprehensions of any evil breaking out upon us ; nor indeed 
 was it easy for either of us, in our phlegmatic melancholy 
 notions, to have the least imagination how anything disastrous 
 could happen to us in the common course of things, unless 
 something should befall us out of the ordinary way of provi- 
 dence, or of its acting in the world. 
 
 But an unseen mine blew up all this apparent tranquillity 
 at once ; and, though it did not remove my afiairs there from 
 me, yet it effectually removed me firom them, and sent me a 
 wandering into the world again ; a condition full of hazards, 
 and always attended with circumstances dangerous to man- 
 kind, while he is left to choose his own fortunes, and be guided 
 by his own shortsighted measures. 
 
 I must now return to a circumstance of my history which 
 had been past for some time, and which relates to my con- 
 duct, while I was last in England. 
 
 I mentioned how my faithful wife Moggy, with her tears 
 and her entreaties, had prevailed with me not to play the 
 madman, and openly join in the rebellion with the late Lord 
 Derwentwater and his party, when they entered Lancashire ; 
 and thereby, as I may say, saved my life. But my curiosity 
 prevailed so much at last, that I gave her the slip when they 
 came to Preston, and at least thought I would go and look 
 at them, and see what they were likely to come to. 
 
 My former wife's importunities, as above, had indeed^M*- 
 
 ^_yailed_upon me from publicly embarking in that enterprise^ 
 
 and joining openly wiffi iEemuTarms"; aHd by this, as I have 
 
502 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 observed, she saved my life to he sure, because I had then 
 publicly espoused the rebellion, and had been known to have 
 been among them, which might have been as fatal to me 
 afterwards, though I had not been taken in the action as if I 
 had. 
 
 But when they advanced and came nearer to us to Preston, 
 and there appeared a greater, spirit among the people in their 
 favour, my old doctor, whom I mentioned before, who was a 
 Eomish priest, and had married us, inspired me with new 
 zeal, and gave me no rest, till he obliged me, with only a 
 good horse and arms, to join them the day before they 
 entered Preston, he himself venturing in the same posture 
 with me. 
 
 _ I was not so pu blic he re as to be very well known ^ at least 
 Iby any one that~~had knowledge of me in the country 
 where I lived ; and this was indeed my safety afterwards, as 
 you will soon hear ; but yet I was known too among the men, 
 especially among the Scots, with some of whom I had been 
 acquainted in foreign service. With these I was particularly 
 conversant, gndpassed for a_I]rench^officer. I talked to them 
 of making aielect detachment to defend the pass between 
 Preston and the river and bridge ; upon maintaining which 
 as I insisted, depended the safety of the whole party. 
 
 It was with some warmth that I spoke of that affair ; and 
 as I passed among them, I say, for a French oflScer, and a 
 man of experience, it caused several debates among them; 
 but the hint was not followed, as is well known, and from 
 that moment I gave them all up as lost, and meditated nothing 
 but how to escape from them, which I effected the night 
 before they were surrounded by the royal cavalry. I did not 
 do this without great difficulty, swimming the river Eibble, 
 at a place where, though I got well over, yet I could not for 
 a long while get to a place where my horse could land himself, 
 that is to say, where the ground was firm enough for him to 
 take the land : however, at length I got on shore, and riding 
 very hard, came the next evening in sight of my own dwelling; 
 • here, after lying by in a wood till the depth of night, I shut 
 my horse in a little kind of a gravel pit, or marl pit, where I 
 ' soon covered him with earth for the present, and marching 
 all alone, I came about two in the morning to my house, 
 where my wife, surprised with joy, and yet terribly frightened, 
 let me in, and then I took immediate measures to secure my- 
 
A NAEEOW ESCAPE. 503 
 
 self upon whatever incident might happen, but which, as 
 things were ordered, I had no need to make use of, for the 
 rebels being entirely defeated, and either all killed or taken 
 prisoners, I was not known by anybody in the country to have 
 been among them; no, nor so much as suspected. And thus 
 I made a narrow escape from the most dangerous action, and 
 most foolishly embarked in, of any that I had ever been 
 engaged in before. 
 
 It was very lucky to me that I killed and buried my horse, 
 for he would have been taken two days after, and would, to 
 be sure, have been known by those who had seen me upon 
 him at Preston ; but now, as none knew I had been abroad, 
 nor any such circumstance could discover me, I kept close, 
 and as my excursion had been short, and I had not been 
 missed by any of my neighbours, if anybody came to speak 
 with me, behold I was at home. 
 
 However, I was not thoroughly easy in my mind, and 
 secretly wished I was in my own dominions in Virginia, to 
 which in a little time, other circumstances occumng, I made 
 preparations to remove with my whole family. 
 In the mean time, as above, the action at Preston happened, 
 and the miserable people surrendered to the king's troops ; 
 some were executed for examples, as in such cases is usual, 
 and the government extending mercy to the multitude, they 
 were kept in Chester castle, and other places a considerable 
 time, tiU they were disposed of, some one way, some another, 
 as we shall hear. 
 
 Several hundreds of them, after this, were at their own 
 request transported, as it is vulgarly expressed, to the 
 plantations, that is to say, sent to Virginia, and other British 
 colonies, to be sold after the usual manner of condemned 
 criminals, or, as we call them there, convicts, to serve a 
 limited time in the country, and then be made freemen again. 
 Some of these I have spoken of above ; but now, to my no 
 little uneasiness, I found, after I had been there some time, 
 two ships arrived with more of these people in the same river, 
 where all my plantations lay. 
 
 I no sooner heard of it, but the first step I took was, to 
 
 resolve to let none of them be bought into my work, or to 
 
 any of my plantations ; and this I did . , , pretending that I 
 
 would not make slaves every day qf^unfortunate gentlemei^ 
 
 "^Eolell into that condilbn for their zeal to their party only, 
 
604 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 and the like ; but the true reason was,__^at I expected 
 severaL.of_th.eni wouldtnow mej^^SJmight perEaps~betfa^ 
 me, and ma^ it public, that I was one of the same sort, but 
 ' lEH made my escape, anH so I might be brought into trouble; 
 and if I came off with my life, might have all my effects 
 seized on, and be reduced to misery and poverty again at 
 once, all which I thought I had done enough to deserve. 
 
 This was a just caution ; but as I found quickly was not a 
 sufficient one, as my circumstances stood, for my safety ; for 
 though I bought none of these poor men mysel^_jetsevera]_ 
 of my neighb ours did, and there was scarce aplaStation 
 near me but ha3^ome of them, more or less, among them ; 
 so that, in a wor d,.^! co uld_n ot peep abroad hardl y, but I 
 was in danger to be seen and known too, by some or other 
 "ofThemI 
 
 I may be allowed to say, that this was a very uneasy life 
 to me, and such, that in short, I found myself utterly unable 
 to bear; for I was now reduced from a great man, a 
 magistrate, a governor, or master of three plantations, and 
 having three or four hundred servants at my command, to be 
 a poor self-condemned rebel, and durst not show my face ; 
 and that I might with the same safety, or rather more, havn 
 skulked about in Lancashire where I was, or gone up to Lon- 
 don, and concealed myself there till things had been over ; but 
 now the danger was come home to me, even to my door, and 
 I expected nothing but to be informed against every day, be 
 taken up, and sent to England in irons, and have all my 
 plantations seized on, as a forfeited estate to the crown. 
 
 I had but one hope of safety to trust to, and that was, 
 that having been so little a while among them, done nothing 
 for them, and passing for a stranger, they never knew my 
 name, but only I was called the French colonel, or the French 
 officer, or the French gentleman, by most, if not by all, the 
 people there ; and as for the doctor that went with me, he had 
 found means to escape too, though not the same way that I 
 did, finding the cause not likely to be supported, and that 
 the king's troops were gathering on all sides round them like 
 a cloud. 
 
 But to return to myself; this was no satisfaction to me, 
 and what to do I really knew not ; for I was more at a loss 
 how to shift in such a distressed case as this, now it lay so 
 close to me, than ever I was in any difficulty in my life. The 
 
DANGER OP DISCOA'ERT AS A REBEL. 505 
 
 first tMng I did was to come home, and make a confidence 
 of the whole affair to my wife ; and though I did it gener- 
 ously without conditions, yet I did not do it without first 
 telling her, how I was now going to put my life into her 
 hands, that she might have it in her power to pay me home, 
 tor all that she might think had been hard in my former usage 
 of her ; and that, in short, it would be in her power to deliver 
 me up into the hands of my enemies, but that I would trust 
 her generosity, as well as her renewed affection, and put all 
 upon her fidelity, and, without any more precaution, I opened 
 the whole thing to her, and, particularly, the danger I was 
 now in. 
 
 A feithful counsellor is life from the dead, gives courage 
 where the heart is sinking, and raises the mind to a proper 
 use of means ; and such she was to me indeed upon every 
 step of this affair, and it was by her direction that I took 
 every step that followed for the extricating myself out of 
 this labyrinth. 
 
 Come, come, my dear, says she, if this be all, there is no 
 room for any such disconsolate doings as your fears run you 
 upon ; for I was immediately for selling off my plantations, 
 and all . my stock, and embarking myself forthwith, and to 
 get to Madeiras, or to any place out of the king's dominions. 
 
 But my wife was quite of another opinion, and encouraging 
 me on another account, proposed two things, either my freight- 
 ing a sloop with provisions to the "West Indies, and so taking 
 passage from thence to London, or letting her go away 
 directly for England, and endeavour to obtain the king's 
 pardon, whatever it might cost. 
 
 I inclined to the last proposal ; for though I was unhappily 
 prejudiced in favour of a wrong interest, yet I had always a 
 secret and right notion of the clemency and merciful dispo- 
 sition of his majesty, and, had I been in England, should, I 
 believe, have been easUy persuaded to have thrown myself 
 at his feet. 
 
 But going to England, as I was circumstanced, ^ust have 
 been^^Bublic a ction, and I must have made all the usual 
 preparations for it, must hive appeared in public, have stayed 
 till the crop was ready, and gone away in form and state as 
 usual, or have acted as if something extraordinary was the 
 matter, and have filled the heads of the people there with 
 innumerable suggestions of they knew not what. 
 
606 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 But my wife made all this easy to me, from her, own 
 invention; for, without acquainting me of anything, she 
 comes merrily to me one morning before I was up: My 
 dear, says she, I am very sorry to hear that you are not very 
 well this morning, I have ordered Pennico (that was a young 
 negro girl which I had given her), to make you a fire in 
 your chamber, and pray lie still where you are awhile, till 
 it is. done ; at the same instant the little negro came in 
 with wood, and a pair of bellows, &c., to kindle the fire, 
 and my wife not giving me time to reply, whispers close to 
 my ear, to lie still, and say nothing till she came up again 
 to me. 
 
 I was thoroughly fHghtened, that you may be sure of, and 
 thought of nothing but of being discovered, betrayed, and 
 carried to England, hanged, quartered, and all that was 
 terrible, and my very heart sunk within me. She perceived 
 my disorder, and turned back, assuring me there was no 
 harm, desired me to be easy, and she would come back 
 again presently, and give me satisfaction in every particular 
 that I could desire ; so I composed myself awhile as well as 
 I could, but it was but a little while that I could bear it, 
 and I sent Pennico down stairs to find out her mistress, and 
 tell her I was very ill, and must speak with her immediately, 
 and the girl was scarce out of the room before I jumped out 
 of bed and began to dress me, that I might be ready for all 
 events. 
 
 My wife was as good as her word, and was coming up as 
 the girl was going down ; I see, says she, you want patience, 
 but pray do not want government of yourself, but take that 
 scree n before your face, and g a.to the windo w." ariiTsSR if 
 you know any of those'Scotchmen that are in the yard, for 
 there are seven or eight of them come about some business 
 to your clerk. 
 
 I went and looked through the screen, and saw the faces of 
 them aU distinctly, but could make nothing of them, other 
 than that they were Scotchmen, which was easy to discern ; 
 however it was no satisfaction to me that I knew not their 
 faces, for they might know mine for all that, according to 
 the old English proverb, " that more knows Tom Fool, than 
 Tom Fool knows;" so I kept close in my chamber till I 
 onderstood they were all gone. 
 
 After this my wii'e caused it to be given out in the house, 
 
IlMBAEK FOK the MADElHAft. 507 
 
 that I was not -well; and when this not being well had lasted 
 three or four days, I had my leg wrapped up in a great piece 
 of flannel, and laid upon a stool, and there I was lame of 
 the gout; and this served for about six weeks, when my 
 wife told me she had given it out, that my gout was rather 
 rheumatic than a settled gout, and that I was resolved to 
 take one of my own sloops, and go to Nevis or Antigua, 
 and use the hot baths there for my cure. 
 
 AH this was very well, and I approved my wife's con- 
 trivance as admirably good, both to keep me within doors 
 eight or ten weeks at first, and to convey me away after- 
 wards without any extraordinary bustle to be made about it ; 
 but still I did not know what it all tended to, and what the 
 design of it all was, but my wife desired me to leave that to 
 her, so I really did, and she carried it all on with a prudence 
 not to be disputed; and after she had wrapt my legs in 
 flannel almost three months, she came and told me the sloop 
 was ready, and all the goods put on board : And now, my 
 dear, says she, I come to tell you all the rest of my design ; 
 for, added she, I hope you will not think I am going to 
 kidnap-5a)Ufcaiid.transgOTtyou^q people 
 
 are fe ^a port ed to'ltTortharT am going to get you sent 
 away and leave'myself in possession of your estate ; but you 
 shall find me the same faithful creature, which I should have 
 been if I had been still your slave, and not had any hopes of 
 being your wife, and that in all my scheme which I have ; 
 laid for your safety, in this new exigence, I have not pro- 
 posed your going one step but where I shall go and be 
 always with you, to assist and serve you on all occasions, 
 and to take my portion with you, of what kind soever our 
 lot may be. 
 
 This was so generous, and so handsome a declaration of 
 her fidelity, and so great a token too of the goodness of her 
 judgment, in considering of the things which were before 
 her, and of what my present circumstances called for, that, 
 from that time forward, I gave myself cheerfully up to her 
 management, without any hesitation in the least, and after 
 about ten days preparation, we embarked in a large sloop ot 
 my own of about sixty tons. 
 
 I should have mentioned here, that I had still my faithful 
 tutor, as I called him, at the head of my affairs ; and, as ho 
 knew whp to corresponcL with, and how to manage the 
 
508 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 correspondence in Efigland, we left all that part to Mm, as 1 
 had done before ; and I did this with a full satisfaction in 
 his ability as well as in his integrity : it is true, he had been 
 a little chagrined in that affair of my wife, who, as I hinted 
 before, had married me, after telling him, in answer to his 
 solicitations, that she had a husband alive. 
 
 Now, though this was literally true, yet, as it was a secret 
 not fit to be opened to him, I was obliged to put him ofl 
 with other reasons, as well as I could, perhaps not much to 
 the purpose, and perhaps not much to his satisfaction, so 
 that I reckoned he looked on himself as not very kindly 
 used several ways. 
 
 But he began to get over it, and to be easy, especially at 
 our going away, when he found that the trust of every thing 
 was still left in his hands, as it was before. 
 
 When my wife had thus communicated every thing of the 
 voyage to me, and we began to be ready to go off, she came 
 to me one morning, and, with her usual cheerfulness, told me, 
 she now came to tell me the rest of her measures for the 
 completing my deliverance ; and this was, that while we made 
 this trip, as she called it, to the hot springs at Nevis, she 
 would write to a particular friend at London, whom she could 
 depend upon, to try to get a pardon for a person on account 
 of the late rebellion, with all the circumstances which my 
 case was attended with, viz., of having acted nothing among 
 them, but being three days in the place; and, while we were 
 thus absent, she did not question but to have an answer, 
 which she would direct to come so many ways, that we 
 would be sure to have the first of it, as soon as it was possible 
 the vessels could go and come ; and in the mean time the 
 expense should be very small, for she would have an answer 
 to the grand question first, whether it could be obtained or 
 no; and then an account of the expense of it, that so I 
 might judge for myself, whether I would part vpith the 
 needful sum or no, before any money was disbursed on my 
 account. 
 
 I could not but be thoroughly satisfied with her contrivance 
 in this particular, and I had nothing to add to it, but that I 
 would not have her limit her friend so strictly, but that if he 
 saw the way clear, and that he was sure to obtain it, he 
 should go through stitch with it, if within the expense of 
 two, or tliree, or four hundred pounds, and that upon advice 
 
AEEIVE AT THE ISLAND OF ANTIGUA. SOS 
 
 of its being practicable, he should have bills payable by such 
 a person on delivery of the warrant for the thing. 
 
 To fortify this, I enclosed in her packet a letter to one of 
 my correspondents, who I could particularly trust, with a 
 credit for the money, on such and such conditions ; but the 
 honesty and integrity of my wife's correspondence was such, 
 as prevented all the expense, and yet I had the wished for 
 security, as if it had been all paid, as you shall hear 
 presently. 
 
 All these tilings being fixed to our minds, and all things, 
 left behind in good posture of settlement as usual, we em- 
 barked together and put to sea, having the opportunity of an 
 English man-of-war, being on the coast in pursuit of the 
 pirates, and who was just then standing away towards the 
 gulf of Florida, and told us he would see us safe as far as 
 New Providence, or the Bahama islands. 
 
 CHAPTEE XVm. 
 
 WE AEE CHASED BY A BEIGANTINE AND SLOOP, PKIVATEEES 
 — DUEING THE CHASE THEY DISCOVEE AN ENGLISH MAN- 
 OF-WAE, AND SHEEE OFF — AEEIVE SAFE AT ANTIGUA — 
 MY WIFE EETUENS TO VIEGINIA IN THE SLOOP, TO WAIT 
 
 NEWS FEOM ENGLAND ^THE VESSEL EETUENS GUTTED OF 
 
 ITS CAEGO BY PIEATES, BUT WITH NEWS OF MY DELIVEE- 
 ANCE — TEANSACTIONS ON MY VOYAGE TO VIEGINIA. 
 
 And now having fair weather and a pleasant voyage, and 
 my flannels taken off my legs, I must Mnt a little what cargo 
 I had with me ; for as my circumstances were very good in 
 that country, so I did not go such a voyage as this, and with 
 a particular reserve of fortunes whatever might afterwards 
 happen, without a sufficient cargo for our support, and what- 
 ever exigence might happen. 
 
 Our sloop, as I said, was of about sixty or seventy tons ; 
 and as tobacco, which is the general produce of the country, 
 was no merchandize at Nevis, that is to say, for a great quan- 
 tity, so we carried very little, but loaded the sloop with corn, 
 pease, meal, and some barrels of pork, and an excellent cargo 
 it was, most of it being the produce of my own plantation ; 
 
510 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 we took also a considerable sum of money with us in Spanish 
 gold, which was, as above, not for trade, but for all events, 
 I also ordered another sloop to be hired, and to be sent aftei 
 me, loadeu with the same goods, as soon as they should have 
 advice from me that I was safe arrived. 
 
 We came to the latitude of the island of Antigua, which 
 was very near to that of Nevis, whither we intended to go, 
 on the 18th day after our passing the Capes of Virginia, but 
 had no sight of the island, only our master said he was sure, 
 if he stood the same course as he then was, and the gale 
 held, I say he told me, he was sure he should make the 
 island in less than five hour's sail ; so he stood on fair for the 
 islands. However his account had failed him, for we held 
 on all the evening, made no land, and likewise all night, 
 when in the grey of the morning, we discovered,- from the 
 topmast head, a brigantine and a sloop making sail after 
 us, at the distance of about six leagues, fair weather, and the 
 wind fresh at S.E. 
 
 Our master soon understood what they were, and came 
 down into the cabin to me, to let me know it. I was much 
 surprised you may be sure at the danger, but my poor wife 
 took from me all the concern for myself to take care of her, 
 for she was frightened to that degree, that I thought we 
 should not have been able to keep life in her. 
 
 While we were thus under the first hurry, and surprise of 
 the thing, suddenly another noise from the deck called us up 
 to look out, and that was, Land ! land ! The master and I, 
 for by this time I had gotten out of my cabin, run upon the 
 deck, and there we saw the state of our case very plain. 
 The two rogues that stood after us, laid on all the canvas 
 they could carry, and crowded after us amain ; but at the 
 distance, as I have said, of about six leagues, rather more 
 than less ; on the other hand, the land discovered lay about 
 nine leagues right ahead ; so that, if the pirates could gain 
 on us, so as to sail three foot for our two, it was evident they 
 would be up with us before we could make the island ; if 
 not, we should escape them and get in ; but even then, we 
 had no great hope to do any more than to run the ship ashore 
 to save our lives, and so, stranding our vessel, spoil both 
 sloop and cargo. 
 
 When we were making this calculation, our master came 
 in cheerfully, and told me he had crowded on more sail, and 
 
CnASEl> BX PEIVATEEES. 511' 
 
 found the sloop carried it very well, and that he did not find 
 the rogues gained much upon us, and that especially, if one 
 of them did not, that was the sloop, he found he could go 
 away from the brigantine as he pleased. Thus we gave them 
 what they call a stern chase, and they worked hard to come 
 up with us till towards noon, when on a sudden they both 
 stood away, and gave us over, to our great satisfaction you 
 may be sure. 
 
 We did not, it seems, so easily see the occasion of our 
 deliverance, as the pirate did ; for while we went spooning 
 away large with the wind for one of the islands, with those 
 two spurs in our heels, that is, with the two thieves at our 
 sterns, there lay an English man-of-war in the road of Nevis, 
 which was the same island from whence they espied the 
 pirates, but the land lying between, we could not see them. 
 
 As the man-of-war discovered them, she immediately 
 slipped her cable, and put herself under sail in chase of the 
 rogues, and they as soon perceived her ; and, being wind- 
 ward, put themselves upon a wind to escape her-; and thus 
 we were delivered, and in half an hour more we knew who 
 was our deliverer, seeing the man-of-war stretch ahead clear 
 of the island, and. stand directly after the pirates, who now 
 crowded from us as fast as they crowded after us before, and 
 thus we got safe into Antigua, after the terrible apprehension 
 we had been in of being taken. Our apprehensions of being 
 taken now were much more than they would have been on 
 board a loaden ship, from, or to London, where the most they 
 ordinarily do is to rifle the ship, take what is valuable and 
 portable, and let her go ; but ours being but a sloop, and all 
 our loading being good provisions, such as they wanted, to 
 be sure, for their ship's store, they would certainly have 
 carried us away, ship and aU, taken out the cargo and the 
 men, and perhaps have set the sloop on fire ; so that, as to 
 our cargo of gold, it had been inevitably lost, and we hurried 
 away, nobody knows where, and used as such barbarous 
 fellows are wont to use innocent people as fall into their 
 hands. 
 
 But we were now out of their hands, and had the satis- 
 faction, a few days after, to hear that the man-of-war pursued 
 them so close, notwithstanding they changed their course in 
 the night, that the next day they were obliged to separate, 
 ijad sMft for themselves ; so the man-of-war took one of them, 
 
512 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 nam&Iy, the brigantine, and carried her into Jamaica, but, 
 the other, viz., the sloop, made her escape. 
 
 Being arrived here, we presently disposed of our cargo, 
 and at a tolerable good price ; and now the question was, 
 what I should do next ? I looked upon myself to be safe 
 here from the fears I had been under of being discovered as 
 a rebel, and so indeed I was ; but having been now absent five 
 months, and having sent the ship back with a cargo of rum 
 and molasses, which I knew was wanting in my plantations, 
 I received the same vessel back in return, loaden, as at first, 
 with provisions. 
 
 With this cargo my wife received a packet from London, 
 from the person whom she had employed, as above, to solicit 
 a pardon, who very honestly wrote to her, that he would not 
 be so unjust to her friend, whomever he was, as to put him 
 to a;ny expense for a private solicitation ; for that he was 
 very well assured that his majesty had resolved, from his 
 own native disposition to acts of clemency and mercy to his 
 subjects, to grant a general pardon, with some few exceptions 
 to persons extraordinary, and he hoped her friend was none 
 of the extraordinary persons to be excepted. 
 
 This was a kind of life from the dead to us both, and it 
 was resolved that my wife should go back in the sloop 
 directly to Virginia, where she should wait the good news 
 from England, and should send me an account of it as soon 
 as she received it. 
 
 Accordingly she went back, and came safe with the sloop and 
 cargo to our plantation, from whence, after above four months' 
 expectation, behold the sloop came to me again, but empty, 
 and gutted of all her cargo, except about a hundred sacks of 
 unground malt, which the pirates, not knovring how to brew, 
 knew not what to do with, and so had left in her. However, 
 to my infinite satisfactioni there was a packet of letters from 
 my wife, with another to her from England, as well one from 
 her friend, as one from my own cori'espondent ; both of them 
 intimating, that the king had signed an act of grace, that is 
 to say, a general free pardon, and sent me copies of the act, 
 wherein it was manifest that I was fuUy included. 
 
 And here let me hint, that, having now, as it were, 
 received my life at the hands of King George, and in a 
 manner so satisfying as it was to me, it made a generous 
 convert of me, and I became sincerely given in to the interest 
 
BECOME A CONVERT IN HIS MAJESTY'S INTEEEST. 513 
 
 •of King George ; and this from a principle of gratitude, and 
 a sense of my obligation to his majesty for my life ; and it 
 has continued ever since, and will certainly remain with me 
 as long as any sense of honour, and of the debt of gratitude,' 
 remains with me. I mention this, to hint how far, in such 
 cases, justice and duty to ourselves commands us ; namely, 
 that to those who graciously give us our lives, when it is in 
 their power to take them away, those lives are a debt ever 
 after, and ought to be set apart for their service and interest, 
 as long as any of the powers of life remain ; for gratitude is 
 a debt that never ceases while the benefit received remains ; 
 and if my prince has given me my life, I can never pay the 
 debt fully, unless such a circumstance as this should happen, 
 that the prince's life should be in my power, and I as gene- 
 rously preserved it ; and yet, neither would the obligation be 
 paid then, because the cases would differ; thus, that my 
 preserving the life of my prince was my natural duty, 
 whereas the prince on his side, my life being forfeited to him, 
 had no motive but mere clemency and beneficence. 
 
 Perhaps this principle may not please all that read it ; but 
 as I have resolved to guide my actions in things of such a 
 nature by the rules of strict virtue and principles of honour, 
 so I must lay it down as a rule of honour, that a man 
 having once forfeited his life to the justice of his prin«e, and 
 to the laws of his countiy, and receiving it back as a bounty 
 from the grace of his sovereign, such a man can never lift up 
 his hand again against that prince, without a forfeiture of his 
 virtue, and an irreparable breach of his honour and duty, and 
 deserves no pardon after it, either from God or man. But all 
 this is a digression : I leave it as a sketch of the laws of honour, 
 printed by the laws of nature in the breast of a soldier, or a 
 man of honour, and which, I believe all impartial persons, 
 who understand what honour means, will subscribe to. 
 
 But I return now to my present circumstances : my wife 
 was gone, and, with her, all my good fortune and success in 
 business seemed to have forsaken me ; and I had another 
 scene of misery to go through, after I had thought that all 
 my misfortunes were over and at an end. 
 
 My sloop, as I have told you, arrived, but having met 
 with a pirate rogue in the gulf of Florida, they took her 
 .jfir8t> then, fmding her cargo to be all eatables, which they 
 always want, they gutted her of all her loading, except, as 1 
 
 I. L 
 
\ 
 
 511 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 have said, about a hundred sacks of malt, which they really 
 knew not what to do with ; and, which was still worse, they 
 took all the men, except the master and two boys, whom 
 they left on board, just to run the vessel into Antigua, where 
 they said they were bound. 
 
 But the most valuable part of my cargo, viz., a packet of 
 letters from England, those they left, to my inexpressible 
 comfort and satisfaction ; and, particularly, that by those, I saw 
 my way home to return to my wife, and to my plantations,, 
 from which I promised myself never to wander any more. 
 
 In order to this, I now. embarked myself, and all my 
 effects, on board the sloop, resolving to sail directly to the 
 capes of Virginia. My captain beating it up to reach the 
 Bahama channel, had not been two days at sea, but we 
 were overtaken by a violent storm, which drove us so far 
 upon the coast of Florida, as that we twice struck upon the 
 shore, and had we struck a third time, we had been inevitably 
 lost. A day or two after that, the storm abating a little, we 
 kept the sea, but found the wind blowing so strong against 
 our passing the gulf, and the sea going so high, we could not 
 hold it any longer ; so we were forced to bear away, and 
 make what shift we could ; in which distress, the fifth day 
 
 after, we made land, but found it to be Cape , the 
 
 north-west part of the isle of Cuba. Here we found ourselves 
 under a necessity to run in under the land for shelter, 
 though we had not come to an anchor, so we had not touched 
 the king of Spain's territories at all. However, in the 
 morning, we were surrounded with five Spanish barks, or 
 boats, such as they call Barco Longos, full of men; who 
 instantly boarded us, took us and carried us into the Havannah, 
 the most considerable port belonging to the Spaniards in that 
 part of the world. 
 
 Here the sloop was immediately seized, and in consequence 
 plundered, as any one that knows the- Spaniards, especially 
 in that country, will easily guess, our men were made 
 prisoners, and sent to the common gaol ; and as for myself 
 and the captain, we were carried before the Alcade Major, 
 or intendant of the place, as criminals. 
 
 I spoke Spanish very well, having served under the king 
 of Spain in Italy, and it stood me in good stead at this time ; 
 for I so effectually argued the injustice of their treatment ot 
 me, that the govenor, or what I ought to call him, frankly 
 
MY SLOOP SEIZED AND PLDSDEREU, 519 
 
 ©■wlied they ougtit not to have stopped me, seeing I was in 
 the open sea, pursuing my voyage, and offered no offence to 
 anybody, and had not landed, or offered to land, upon any 
 part of his catholic majesty's dominions, till I was brought 
 as a prisoner. 
 
 It was a great favour that I could obtain thus much ; but 
 I found it easier to obtain an acknowledgment that I had 
 received wrong than to get any satisfaction for that wrong, 
 and much less was there any hope or prospect of restitution ; 
 and I was let know that I was to wait till an account could 
 be sent to the viceroy of Mexico, and orders could be 
 received back from him how to act in the affair. 
 
 I could easily foresee what all this tended to, namely, to a 
 confiscation of the ship and goods, by the ordinary process 
 at the place ; and that my being left to the decision of the 
 viceroy of Mexico was but a pretended representation of 
 things to him from the corregidore, or judge of the place. 
 
 However, I had no remedy but the old insignificant thing, 
 called patience; and this I was better furnished with, 
 because I did not so much value the loss as I made them 
 believe I did. My greatest apprehensions were, that they 
 would detain me, and keep me as a prisoner for life, and 
 perhaps send me to their mines in Peru, as they have done 
 many, and pretended to do to all that come on shore in 
 their dominions, how great soever the distresses may have 
 ■fieen which have brought them thither, and which has been 
 the reason why others, who have been forced on shore, have 
 committed aU manner of violence upon the Spaniards in 
 their turn ; resolving, however dear they sold their lives, not 
 to fall into their hands. 
 
 But I got better quarter among them than that tpo, which 
 was, as I have said, miich of it owing to my speaking 
 Spanish, and to my telling them how I had fought in so 
 many occasions in the quarrel of his cathdic majesty in 
 Itdy; and, by great good chance, I had the king of France's 
 commission for lieutenant-colonel in the Irish brigade in my 
 pocket, where it was mentioned that the said brigade was 
 then serving in the armies of France, under the orders of 
 his catholic majesty,- in Italy, 
 
 I failed not to talk up the gallantry and personal bravery 
 of his catholic majesty on aU occasions, and particular in 
 many battles, wh&Eejh^_^^iejw^^jh^_r^S^~^l'^^^^-SS!iM^^ 
 
 "^ L L 2 
 
516 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 been atdl^andji„$oin£.i8idbuamXiM,n^^^^ ''"t 
 
 ■iMBunHT'OE^to people who knew nothing"or the matter, 
 and so anything went down with them, if it did but praise 
 the king of Spain, and talk big of the Spanish cavalry, of 
 which, God knows, there was not one regiment in the army, 
 at least while I was there. 
 
 However, this way of managing myself obtained me the 
 liberty of the place, upon my parole, that I would not 
 attempt an escape ; and I obtained also, which was a great 
 favour, to have two hundred pieces of eight allowed me out 
 of the sale of my cargo, for subsistence, tiU I could negociate 
 my affairs at Mexico ; as for my men, they were maintained 
 as prisoners, at the public charge. 
 
 Well, after several months' solicitation and attendance, all 
 I could obtain was, the satisfaction of seeing my ship and 
 cargo confiscated, and my poor sailors in a fair way to be 
 sent to the mines. The last I begged off, upon condition of 
 paying three hundred pieces of eight for their ransom, and 
 having them set on shore at Antigua, and myself to remain 
 hostage for the payment of the said three hundred pieces of 
 eight, and for two hundred pieces of eight, which I had 
 already had, and for five hundred pieces of eight more for 
 my own ransom, if, upon a return from Mexico, the sentence 
 of confiscation, as above, should be confltrmed by the viceroy. 
 
 These were hard articles indeed; but I was forced to 
 submit to them ; nor, as my circumstances were above aU 
 such matters as these, as to substance, did I lay it much to 
 heart ; the greatest difficulty that lay in my way was, that I 
 knew not how to correspond with my friends in any part of 
 the world, or which way to supply myself with necessaries, 
 or with money for the payment I had agreed to ; the 
 Spaniards being so tenacious of their ports, that they al- 
 lowed nobody to come on shore, or indeed near the shore, 
 from any part of the world, upon pain of seizure and 
 confiscation, as had been my case abeady. Upon this 
 difficulty I began to reason with the corregidore, and tell 
 him that he put things upon us that were impossible, and 
 that were inconsistent with the customs of nations ; that if 
 a man was a prisoner at Algiers, they would allow him to 
 write to his friends to pay his ransom, and would admit the 
 person that brought it to come and go free, as a public 
 person, and, if they did not, no treaty could be carried on 
 
SEVEEITT OF SPANISH LAWS. 517 
 
 for the ransom of a slave, nor the conditions be performecl 
 when they are agreed upon. 
 
 I brought it then down to my own case, and desired to 
 know, upon supposition, that I might, within the time 
 limited in that agreement, have the sums of money ready 
 for the ransom of my men and of myself, how I should 
 obtain to have notice given me of it ? Or, how it should be 
 brought, seeing the very persons bringing that notice, or 
 afterwards presuming to bring the money, might be liable to 
 be seized and confiscated, as I had been, and the money 
 itself be taken as a second prize, without redeeming the first. 
 
 Though this was so reasonable a request, that it could not 
 be withstood in point of argument, yet the Spaniard shrunk 
 his head into his shoulders, and said they had not power 
 sufficient to act in such a case ; that the king's laws were so 
 severe against the suffering any strangers to set their foot on 
 his catholic majesty's dominions in America, and they could 
 not dispense with the least tittle of them, without a particular 
 assiento, as they called it, from the consulado, or chamber of 
 commerce, at Seville; or a command under the hand and 
 seal of the viceroy of Mexico. 
 
 How! signior corregidore, said I, with some warmth, and, 
 as it were, with astonishment, have you not authority enough 
 to sign a passport for an agent, or ambassador, to come on 
 shore here, from any of the king of Great Britain's gover- 
 nors in these parts, under a white flag, or flag of truce, to 
 speak with the governor of this place, or with any other 
 person in the king's name, on the subject of such business as 
 the governor may have to communicate ? Why, said I, if 
 you cannot do that, you cannot act according to the law of 
 nations. 
 
 He shook his head, but stiU said. No, he could not do 
 even so much as that ; but here one of the military gover- 
 nors put in and opposed him, and they two differed warmly; 
 the first insisting that their orders were deficient in that 
 particular ; but the other said that, as they were bound up 
 to them, it could not be! in their power to act otherwise, and 
 that they were answerable for the iU consequences. 
 
 Well, then, says the governor to the corregidore, now you 
 have kept this Englishman as hostage for the ransom of the 
 men that you have dismissed, suppose he tells you the money 
 is ready, either at such, or such, or such a place, how shall 
 
I nl8 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 he bring it hither? you will take all the people prisoners 
 that offer to bring it; what must he do? if you say you will 
 send and fetch it, what security shall he have, that he shall 
 have his liberty when it is paid you ? and why should he 
 trust you so far as to pay the money, and yet remain here a 
 prisoner ? 
 
 This carried so much reason with it, that the corregidoro 
 knew not what to say; but that so was the law, and he 
 could act no otherwise, but by the very letter of it; and 
 here each was so positive that nothing could determine it, 
 but another express to be sent to the viceroy of Mexico. 
 
 Upon this, the governor was so kind, as to say he would 
 get me a passport for anybody that should bring the money, 
 and any vessel they were in, by his own authority, and for 
 their safe returning, and taking me with them, provided I 
 would answer for it, that they should bring no European or 
 other goods whatever with them, and should not set foot on 
 shore without his express permission, and provided he did 
 not receive orders to the contrary, in the mean time, from 
 any superior hand; and that even, in such a case, they 
 should have liberty to go back freely from whence they came, 
 under the protection of a white flag. 
 
 I bowed very respectfully to the governor, in token of my 
 acknowledging his justice, and then presented my humble 
 petition to him, that he would allow my men to take their 
 own sloop ; that it should be rated at a certain value, and 
 would be obliged they should bring specie on board with 
 them, and that they should either pay it for the sloop, or 
 leave the sloop again. 
 
 Then he inquired to what country he would send them for 
 so much money, and if I could assure him of the payment ; 
 and, when he understood it was no farther than to Virginia, 
 he seemed very easy ; and, to satisfy the corregidore, who 
 still stood off, adhering with a true Spanish stiffiiess, to the 
 letter of the law, the said governor calls out to me : Signior,- 
 says he, I shall make all this matter easy to you, if you agree 
 to my proposal ; your men shall have the sloop, on condition 
 you shall be my hostage for her return ; but they shall riot 
 take her a^YQur.slaflP, thniiph flke.ghall.in t he effect he yours, 
 on the payment of the money ; but you shall take two of my 
 men on board with you, upon your parole for their safe 
 return, and when she returns, she shall carry his catholic 
 
COMPELLED TO HOIST SPANISH COLOtfRS. 6l9 
 
 majesty's colours, and be entered as one of the sloops belong- 1 i ' 
 ing to the Havannah ; one of the Spaniards to be commander, 1 
 and to be called by such name as he shall appoint. ' j 
 
 This the corregidore came into immediately, and said, this 
 was within the letter of the king's commanderie, or precept, 
 upon condition, however, that she should bring no European 
 goods on board. I desired it might be put in other words ; 
 namely, that she should bring no European goods on shore. 
 It cost two days' debate between these two, whether it should 
 pass, that no European goods should be brought in the ship, 
 or brought on shore ; but having found means to intimate, 
 that I meant not to trade there, but would not be tied from 
 bringing a small present to a certain person, in acknowledg- 
 ment of favours ; I say, after I had found room to place such 
 a hint right, where it should be placed, I found it was all 
 made easy to me, and it was all agreed presently, that, after 
 the ransom was paid, and the ship also bought, it was but 
 reasonable, that I should have liberty to trade to any othei 
 country, not in the dominions of the king of Spain, so to 
 make up my losses ; and that it would be hard to oblige my 
 men to bring away the vessel light, and so lose the voyage, 
 and add so much to our former misfortunes ; that, so long as 
 no goods were brought on shore in the country belonging to 
 his catholic majesty's dominions, which was all that they had 
 to defend, the rest was no business of theirs. 
 
 Now I began to see my way through this unhappy business, 
 and to find, that a s money w ould bring me. put of it, so money 
 would bring it to turn to a goo3"account anotherws^Twhere- 
 "Tbre 1 sent the "sloop away under SpamsE colours, and called 
 her the Nuestra Signiora de la Val de Grace, commanded by 
 Signior Giraldo de Nesma, one of the two Spaniards. 
 
 With the sloop I sent letters to my wife, and to my chief 
 manager, with orders to load her back. I there directed, 
 viz., that she should have two hundred barrels of flour, fifty 
 barrels of pease, and, to answer my other views, I ordered a 
 hundred bales to be made up of all sorts of European goods, 
 such as not my own warehouses only would supply, but such 
 as they could be supplied with in other warehouses, where I 
 knew they had credit for anything. 
 
 In this cargo I directed all the richest and most valuable 
 English goods they had, or could get, whether linen, woollen, 
 or silk, to be made up ; the coarser things, such as we use in 
 
520 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 Virginia for clothing of servants, such I ordered to be left be- 
 hind, for the use of the plantation. In less than seven weeks 
 time the sloop returned, and I, that failed not every day to 
 look out for her on the strand, was the first that spied her at 
 sea at a distance, and knew her by her sails, but afterwards 
 more particularly by her signals. 
 
 When she returned, she came into the road with her 
 Spanish ancient flying, and came to an anchor, as directed ; 
 but I, that had seen her some hours before, went directly to 
 the governor, and gave him an account of her being come, 
 and fain I would have obtained the favour to have his excel- 
 lency, as I called him, go on board in person, that he might 
 see how well his orders were executed ; but he declined that, 
 saying, he could not justify going off the island, which was, in 
 short, to go out of his command of the fort, which he could not 
 reassume without a new commission from the king's own hand. 
 Then I asked leave to go on board myself, which he granted 
 me, and I brought on shore with me the full sum in gold, 
 which I had conditioned to pay for the ransom, both of my 
 men and myself, and for the purchase of the sloop ; and as I 
 obtained leave to land in a different place, so my governor 
 sent his son, with six soldiers, to receive and convey me with 
 the money to the castle, where he commanded, and therein 
 to his own house. I had made up the money in heavy parcels, 
 as if it had been all silver, and gave it to two of my men, who' 
 belonged to the sloop, with orders to them that they should 
 make it seem, by their carrying it, to be much heavier than 
 it was ; this was done to conceal three parcels of goods, which 
 I had packed up with the money, to make a present to the 
 governor, as I intended. 
 
 When the money was carried in, and laid down on a table, 
 the governor ordered my men to withdraw, and I gave the 
 soldiers each of them a piece of eight to drink, for which they 
 were very thankful, and the governor seemed very well 
 pleased with it also. Then I asked him, presently, if he 
 would please to receive the money ; he said. No, he would 
 not receive it but in presence of the corregidore, and the other 
 people concerned ; then I begged his excellency, as I called 
 him, to give me leave to open the parcels in his presence, for 
 that I would do myself the honour to acknowledge his favours 
 in the best manner I could. 
 He told me no, he could noj see anything be brought on 
 
A PRESENT INTENDED FOR THE GOVERNOR. 521 
 
 shore, but the money; but, if I had brought anything on 
 shore for my own use, he would not be so strict as to inquire 
 into that, so I might do what I pleased myself. 
 
 Upon that I went into the place, shut myself in, and having 
 opened all the things, placed them to my mind. There 
 was five little parcels, as follows : 
 
 1, 2. A piece of twenty yards fine English broad-cloth ; 
 five yards of black, five yards of crimson, in one parcel, 
 and the rest of fine mixtures in another parcel. 
 
 3. A piece of thirty ells of fine Holland linen. 
 
 4. A piece of eighteen yards of fine English brocaded silk. 
 
 5. A piece of black Colchester bays. 
 
 After I had placed these by themselves, I found means, 
 with some seeming difficulties, and much grimace, to bring 
 him to know that this was intended for a present to himself. 
 After all that part was over, and he had seemed to accept 
 them, he signified, after walking a hundred turns and more 
 in the room by them, by throwing his hat, which was under 
 his arm, upon them, and making a very stiff bow ; I say, after 
 this, he seemed to take his leave of me for awhile, and I waited 
 in an outer room ; when I was called in again, I found that 
 he had looked over all the particulars, and caused them to be 
 removed out of the place. 
 
 But when I came again, I found him quite another man ; 
 he thanked me for my present ; told me, it was a present At 
 to be given to a viceroy of Mexico, rather than to a mere 
 governor of a fort ; that he had done me no services suitable 
 to such a return, but that he would see if he could not oblige 
 me farther before I left the place. 
 
 After our compliments were over, I obtained leave to have 
 the corregidore sent for, who accordingly came, and in his 
 presence the money, stipulated for the ransom of the ship, and 
 of the men, was paid. 
 
 But here the corregidore showed that he would be as 
 severely just on my side as on theirs, for he would not admit 
 the money as a ransom for us as prisoners, but as a deposit 
 for so much as we were to be ransomed for, if the sentence of 
 our being made prisoners should be confirmed. 
 
 And then the governor and corregidore joining together 
 sent a representation of the whole affair, at least we were told 
 
522 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 80, to the ^dce^oy of Mexico ; and it was privately hinted to 
 me, that I would do well to stay for the return of the aviso, 
 (hat is, a boat which they send over the bay to Vera Cruz, 
 with an express to Mexico, whose return is generally per- 
 formed in two months. 
 
 I was not unwiUing to stay, having secret hints ^ven mc, 
 that I should find some way to go with my sloo| towards 
 Vera Cruz myself, where I might have an occasion to trade 
 privately for the cargo which I had on board ; but it came 
 about a nearer way ; for about two days after this money 
 being deposited, as above, the governor's son invited himself 
 on board my sloop, where I told him I would be very glad to 
 see him, and whither, at the same time, he brought with him 
 three considerable merchants, Spaniards, two of them not 
 inhabitants of the place. ~i 
 
 When they were on board they were very merry and 
 pleasant, and I treated them so much to their satisfaction, 
 that, in short, they were not weU able to go on shore for that 
 night, but were content to take a nap on some carpets, which 
 I caused to be spread for them ; and that the governor's son 
 might think himself well used, I brought him a very good silk 
 nightgown, with a crimson velvet cap to lie down in, and in 
 the morning desired him to accept of them for his use, which 
 he took very kindly. 
 
 During that merry evening, one of the merchants, not so 
 touched with drink as the young gentleman, nor so as not to 
 mind what it was he came about, takes an occasion to with- 
 draw out of the great cabin, and enter into a parley with the 
 master of the sloop, in order to trade for what European 
 goods we had on board. The master took the hint, and gave 
 me notice of what had passed, and I gave him instructions 
 what to say, and what to do ; according to which instructions, 
 they made but few words, bought the goods for about five 
 thousand pieces of eight, and carried them away themselves, 
 and at their own hazards. 
 
 This was very agreeable to me, for now I began to see I 
 should lick myself whole, by the sale of this cargo, and should 
 make myself full amen ds of Ja ck Spaniard^ for all the injuries 
 he had done me in the first of these things ; with this view I 
 gave my master or captain of the sloop instructions for sale 
 of all the rest of the goods, and left him to manage by himself, 
 which ho did so well, that he sold the whole cargo the next 
 
BELL MT CAKGO TO SFANIAEDS. 523 
 
 day to the three Spaniards, with this additional circumstance, 
 that they desired the sloop might carry the goods, as they 
 were on board, to such part of the terra firma as they should 
 appoint, between the Honduras and the coast of La "Vera 
 Cruz. 
 
 It was difficult for me to make good this part of the bargain ; 
 but, finding the price agreed for would very well answer the 
 voyage, I consented ; but then how to send the sloop away, 
 and remain among the Spaniards, when I was now a clear 
 man, this was a difficulty too, as it was also to go away, and 
 not wait for a favourable answer from the viceroy of Mexico 
 to the representation of the governor and the corregidore ; 
 however, at last, I resolved to go in the sloop, fall out what 
 would, so I went to the governor, and represented to him, 
 that, being now to expect a favourable answer from Mexico, 
 it would be a great loss to me to keep the sloop there all the 
 while, and I desired his leave for me to go with the sloop to 
 Antigua, to sell and dispose of the cargo, which he well knew 
 I was obliged not to bring on shore there at the Havannah, 
 and which would be in danger of being spoiled by lying so 
 long on board. 
 
 This I obtained readily, with license to come again into 
 the road, and, for myself only, to come on shore, in order to 
 hear the viceroy's pleasure in my case, which was depending. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 I MAKE A VERT PROFITABLE VOYAGE — EMBARK ON A 
 
 SIMILAR ADVENTURE, ACCOMPANIED BY MY WIFE 1 FIT 
 
 UP MY SLOOP FOR DEFENCE, AND SAIL FOB THE WEST 
 
 INDIES GREAT SUCCESS OF MY VOYAGE AFTER VARIOUS 
 
 CHANGES OF FORTUNE I RETURN TO ENGLAND WEALTHY, 
 WHERE MY WIFE JOINS ME — CONCLUSION. 
 
 Having thus obtained a license or passport for the sloop and 
 myself, I put to sea with the three Spanish merchants on 
 board with me. They told me they did, not live at the 
 Havannah, but it seems one of them did ; and some rich 
 merchants of the Havannah, or of the parts thereabouts in 
 the same island, were concerned with them ; for they brought 
 on board, the night we put to sea, a great sum of money ia 
 
524 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 pieces of eight ; and, as I understood afterwards, that these 
 merchants bought the cargo of me, and, though they gave 
 me a very great price for everything, yet that they sold them 
 again to the merchants, who they procured on the coast of 
 La Vera Cruz, at a prodigious advantage ; so that they got 
 above a hundred per cent, after I had gained very sufficiently 
 before. 
 
 We sailed from the Havannah directly for Vera Cruz. I 
 scrupled venturing into the port at first, and was very uneasy, 
 lest I should have another Spanish trick put upon me ; but 
 as we sailed under Spanish colours, they showed us such 
 authentic papers from the proper officers, that there was no 
 room to fear anything. 
 
 However, when we came in sight of the Spanish coast, I 
 found they had a secret clandestine trade to carry on, which, 
 though it was secret, yet they knew the way of it so well, 
 that it was but a mere road to them. The case was this, we 
 stood in close under the shore in the night, about six leagues 
 to the north of the port, where two of the three merchants 
 went on shore in the boat, and in three hours or thereabouts 
 they came on board again with five canoes, and seven or eight 
 merchants more with them, and as soon as they were on 
 board, we stood off to sea, so that by daylight we were quite 
 out of sight of land. 
 
 I ought to have mentioned before, that as soon as we were 
 put to sea from the Havannah, and during our voyage into 
 the Gulf of Mexico, which was eight days, we rummaged the 
 whole cargo, and opening every bale, as far as the Spanish 
 merchants desired, we trafficked with them for the whole 
 cargo, except the barrels of flour and pease. 
 
 This cargo was considerable in itself, for my wife's account, 
 or invoice, drawn out by my tutor and manager, amounted 
 to 2684:1. 10s., and I sold the whole, inchiding what had been 
 sold in the evening, when they were on board first, as I have 
 Baid, for thirty-eight thousand five hundred and ninety-three 
 pieces of eight, and they allowed me twelve hundred pieces 
 of eight for the freight of the sloop, and made my master and 
 the seamen very handsome presents besides, and they were 
 well able to do this too, as you shall hear presently. 
 
 After we were gotten out of sight of land, the Spaniards 
 fell to their traffic, and our three merchants opened their 
 shop, as they might say, for it was their shop ; as to me, I 
 
A VEHY PROFITABLE VOTAGE. 525 
 
 had nothing to do with it, or with their goods ; they drove 
 their bargain in a few hours, and at night we stood in again 
 for the shore, when the five canoes carried a great part of the 
 goods on shore, and brought the money back in specie, aa 
 well for that they carried as for all the rest, and at their 
 second voyage, carried all away clear, leaving me nothing on 
 board but my barrels of flour and pease, which they bade me 
 money for too, but not so much as I expected. 
 
 Here I found that my Spanish merchants made abov6 
 seventy thousand pieces of eight of the cargo I had sold them, 
 upon which, I had a great mind to be acquainted with those 
 merchants on the terra firma, who were the last customers ; 
 for it presently occurred to me, that I could easily go with a 
 sloop from Virginia, and taking a cargo directed on purpose 
 from England, of about 5000Z. or 6000/., I might easily maike 
 four of one ; with this view I began to make a kind of an 
 acquaintance with the Spaniards which came in the canoes, 
 and we became so intimate, that at last, with the consent of 
 the three Spaniards of the Havannah, I accepted an invita- 
 tion on shore to their house, which was a little villa, or rather 
 plantation, where they had an ingenio, that is to say, a sugar- 
 house, or sugar-work, and there they treated us like princes. 
 
 I took occasion at this invitation to say, that, if I knew 
 how to find my way thither again, I could visit them once or 
 twice a-year, very much to their advantage and mine too. 
 One of the Spaniards took the hint, and taking me into a 
 room by myself, Signior, says he, if you have any thoughts 
 of coming to this place again, I shall give you such directions 
 ae you shall be sure not to mistake ; and, upon either coming 
 on shore in the night, and coming up to this place, or, upon 
 making the signals which we shaU give you, we wiU not iaii 
 to come ofi'to you, and bring money enough for any cargaison, 
 so they call it, that you shall bring. 
 
 I took all their directions, took their paroles of honour for 
 my safety, and, without taking any notice to my first three 
 merchants, laid up the rest in my most secret thoughts, 
 resolving to visit them again in as short a time as I could; 
 and thus having, in about five days, finished aU our merchan- 
 dizing, we stood off to sea, and made for the island of Cuba, 
 ' where I set my three Spaniards on shore with all their trea- 
 sure, to their heart's content, and made the best of my way 
 to Antigua, where, with all the despatch I could, I sold my 
 
526 COLOKEL JACK. 
 
 two hundred barrels of flour, which however had suffered d 
 little by the leiigth of the voyage ; and having laden the 
 sloop with rum, molasses, and sugar, I set sail again for the 
 Havannah. 
 
 I was now uneasy indeed, for fear of the pirates, for I was 
 a rich ship, having besides goods, near forty thousand pieces 
 of eight in silver. 
 
 When I came back to the Havannah, I went on shore to 
 wait on the governor and the corregidore, and to hear what 
 return was had from the viceroy, and had the good fortune to 
 know that the viceroy had disallowed that part of the sentence 
 which condemned us as prisoners and put a ransom on us, 
 which he insisted could not be but in time of open war ; but 
 as to the confiscation, he deferred it to the chamber or council 
 of commerce at Seville, and the appeal to the king, if such be 
 preferred. 
 
 This was, in some measure, a very good piece of justice in 
 the viceroy ; for, as we had not been on shore, we could not 
 be legally imprisoned ; and for the rest, I believe if I would 
 have given myself the trouble to have gone to Old Spain, and 
 have preferred my claim to both the ship and the cargo, I 
 had recovered them also. 
 
 However, as it was, I was now a freeman without ransom, 
 and my men were also free, so that all the money which 1 
 had deposited, as above, was returned me ; and thus I took 
 my leave of the Havannah, and made the best of my way for 
 Virginia, where I arrived after a year and a half s absence ; 
 and notwithstanding all my losses, came home above forty 
 thousand pieces of eight richer than I went out. 
 
 As to the old affair about the Preston prisoners, that was 
 quite at an end, for the general pardon passed in parliament 
 made me perfectly easy, and I took no more thought about 
 that part. I might here very usefully observe, how necessary 
 and inseparable a companion fear is to guilt ; it was but a 
 few months before that the face of a poor Preston transport 
 would have frightened me out of my wits ; to avoid them, I 
 feigned myself sick, and wrapped my legs in flannel, as if I 
 had the gout ; whereas now they were no more surprise to 
 me, nor was I any more uneasy to see them than I was to 
 see any other of the servants of the plantations. 
 
 And that which was more particular than all was, that, 
 though before I fancied every one of them would know me, 
 
PUKCHASE MERCHANDIZE AT NEW ENGrASD. 527 
 
 and remember me, and consequently betray and accuse me, 
 now, though I was frequently among them, and saw most,, if 
 not all of them, one time or other, nay though I remembered 
 several of their faces, and even some of their names, yet 
 there was not a man of them that ever took the least notice 
 of me, or of having known or seen me before. 
 
 It would have been a singular satisfaction to me, if I could 
 have known so much as this of them before, and have saved 
 me all the fatigue, hazard, and misfortune that befell me 
 afterwards ; but man, a short-sighted creature, sees so little 
 before him, that he can neither anticipate his joys, nor 
 prevent his disasters, be they ever so little a distance from 
 him. 
 
 I had now my head full of my "West India project, and I 
 began to make provision for it accordingly; I had a full 
 account of what European goods were most acceptable in 
 New Spain ; and, to add to my speed, I knew that the 
 Spaniards were in great want of European goods, the 
 galleons from Old Spain having been delayed to an unusual 
 length of time for the two years before. Upon this account, 
 not having time, as I thought, to send to England for a cargo 
 of such goods as were most proper, I resolved to load my 
 sloop with tobacco and rum, the last I brought from Antigua, 
 and go away to Boston in New England, and to New York, 
 and see if I could pick up a cargo to my mind. 
 
 Accordingly, I took twenty thousand pieces of eight in 
 money, and my sloop laden as above, and taking my wife 
 with me, we went away ; it was an odd and new thing at 
 New England, to have such a quantity of goods bought up 
 there by a sloop from Virginia, and especially to be paid for 
 in ready money, as I did for most of my goods ; and this set 
 all the trading heads upon the stretch, to inquire what and 
 who I was, to which they had an immediate and direct 
 answer, that I was a very considerable planter in Virginia, 
 and that was all any of my men on board the sloop could tell 
 of me, and enough too. 
 
 Well', it was the cause of much speculation among them, 
 as I heard at second and third hands ; some said, he is cer- 
 tainly going to Jamaica, others said, he is going to trade 
 with the Spaniards ; others, that he is going to the South Sea 
 and turn half merchant, half pirate, on the coast of Chili and 
 Peru; some one thing, some another, as the men gossipa 
 
528 COIONEL JACK. 
 
 found their imaginations directed ; but we went on with our 
 business, and laid out twelve thousand pieces of eight, 
 besides our cargo of rum and tobacco, and went from thence 
 to New York, where we laid out the rest. 
 
 The chief of the cargo we bought here was fine English 
 broadcloth, serges, druggets, Norwich stuffs, bays, says, and 
 all kinds of woollen manufactures, as also linen of all sorts, a 
 very great quantity, and near lOOOZ. in fine silks of several 
 sorts. 
 
 Being thus freighted, I came back safe to Virginia, and 
 with very little addition to my cargo, began to prepare for 
 my West India voyage. 
 
 I should have mentioned, that I had built upon my sloop, 
 and raised her a little, so that I had made her carry twelve 
 guns, and fitted her up for defence, for I thought she should 
 not be attacked and boarded by a few Spanish barco longos, 
 as she was " before ; and I found the benefit of it afterwards, 
 as you shall hear. 
 
 We set sail the beginning of August, and as I had twice 
 been attacked by pirates in passing the gulf of Florida, or 
 among the Bahama islands, I resolved, though it was farther 
 about, to stand off to sea, and so keep, as I believed it would 
 be, out of the way of them. 
 
 We passed the tropic, as near as we could guess, just 
 where the famous Sir William Phipps fished up the silver 
 from the Spanish plate wreck, and standing in between the 
 islands, kept our course W. by S., keeping under the isle of 
 Cuba, and so running away, trade, as they call it, into the 
 «,Teat gulf of Mexico, leaving the island of Jamaica to the S. 
 and S.E., by this means avoiding, as I thought, all the 
 Spaniards of Cuba, or the Havannah. 
 
 As we passed the west point of Cuba, three Spanish boats 
 came off to board us, as they had done before, on the other 
 side of the island ; but they found themselves mistaken, we 
 were too many for them, for we run out our guns, which they 
 did not perceive before, and firing three or four shot at them, 
 they retired. 
 
 The next morning they appeared again, being five large 
 boats and a bark, and gave us chase; but we fiien spread 
 
 our Spanish colours, and brought too toTTgEt" them,"" at' which 
 
 they^Telifed^ so we escaped this danger by the addition of 
 force which we had made to our vessel. 
 
THE SPANiaH MEKCHANTS PUKCHASE MY CABeO. 629 
 
 We now had a fair run for our port, and, as I had taken 
 very good directions, I stood away to the north of St. John 
 d'Ulva, and then running in for the shore, found the place 
 appointed exactly ; and going on shore, I sent the master of 
 my sloop directly to the ingenio, where he found the Spanish 
 merchant at his house, and where he dwelt like a sovereign 
 prince, who welcomed him, and understanding that I was in 
 a particular boat at the creek, as appointed, he came imme- 
 diately with him, and bringing another Spaniard from a 
 villa not far off, in about four hours they were with me. 
 
 They would have persuaded me to go up to their houses 
 and have stayed there till the next night, ordering the sloop 
 to stand off as usual, but I would not consent to let the sloop 
 go to sea without me, so we went on board directly ; and, as, 
 the night was almost run, stood off to sea, so by daybreak, 
 we were quite out of sight of land. 
 
 Here we began, as I said before, to open shop, and I found 
 the Spaniards were extremely surprised at seeing such a 
 cargo, I mean so large, for in short, they had cared not if it 
 had been four times as much. They soon ran through the 
 contents of all the bales we opened that night, and, with very 
 little dispute about the price, they approved and accepted all 
 that I showed them ; but, as they said they had not money 
 for any greater parcel, they agreed to go on shore the next 
 evening for more money. 
 
 However, we spent the remainder of the night in looking 
 over and making inventories or invoices of the rest of the 
 cargo, that so they might see the goods, know the value, and 
 know what more money they had to bring. 
 
 Accordingly, in the evening, we stood in for the shore, 
 and they carried part of the cargo with them, borrowing the 
 sloop's boat to assist them; and after they had lodged and 
 landed the goods, they came on board again, bringing three 
 of the other merchants with them, who were concerned be- 
 fore, and money enough to clear the whole ship, ay, and ship 
 and all, if I had been willing to sell her. 
 
 To give them their due, they dealt with me like men oi 
 honour; they were indeed sensible that they bought every- 
 thing much cheaper of me than they did before of the three 
 merchants of the Havannah ; these merchants having been, 
 as it were, the hucksters, and bought them first of me, and 
 then advanced, as I have said, above one hundred per cent 
 
 X V 
 
530 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 upon the price they gave me ; but yet, at the same time, 1 
 advanced in the price much more now than I did before to 
 the said Spaniards, nor was it without reason, because of 
 the length and risk of the voyage, both out and home, which 
 now lay wholly upon me. 
 
 In short, I sold the whole cargo to them, and for which 1 
 received near two hundred thousand pieces of eight in 
 money, besides which, when they came on board the second 
 time, they brought all their boats loaden -with, fresh pro- 
 visions, hogs, sheep, fowls, sweetmeats, &c., enough for my 
 whole voyage, all which they made a present of to me, and 
 thus we finished our traf&c to our mutual satisfaction, and 
 parted with promises of farther commerce, and with assur- 
 ances on their part of all acts of friendship and assistance 
 that I could desire, if any disaster should befall me in any of 
 these adventures ; as indeed was not improbable, considering 
 the strictness and severity of their customs, in case any 
 people were taken trading upon their coast. 
 
 I inunediately called a council with my little crew, which 
 way we should go back ; the mate was for beating it up to 
 windward, and getting up to Jamaica ; but, as we were too 
 rich to run any risks, and were to take the best course to get 
 safe home, I thought, and so did the master of the sloop, that 
 our best way was to coast about the bay, and, keeping the 
 shore of Florida on board, make the shortest course to the 
 gulf, and so make for the coast of Carolina, and to put in 
 there, into the first port we could, and wait for any English 
 men-of-war that might be on the coast to secure us to the 
 capes. 
 
 This was the best course we could take, and proved very 
 safe to us, excepting that, about the cape of Florida, and on 
 the coast in the gulf, tiU we came to the height of St Augus- 
 tine, we were several times visited with the Spaniards' barco 
 longos, and small barks, in hopes of making a prize of us ; 
 _^tcarryirig_Spanish_ colours, deceived mos t of them, and^ 
 gopytie m^ gaipa-kept tEeTesT^aJfetSce," so that we came 
 sale, though once or twice in danger of being run on shore 
 by a storm of wind ; I say we came safe into Charles' river 
 in Carolina. 
 
 From hence I found means to send a letter home, with an 
 account to my wife of my good success ; and having an ac- 
 count that the coast was clear of pirates, though there were 
 
GKEAT SUCCESS OF VOYAGE. 531 
 
 no men-of-war in the place, I ventured forward, and, in short, 
 got safe into the bay of Chesapeake, that is to say, within the 
 capes of Virginia, and in a few days more to my own house, 
 having been absent three months and four days. 
 
 Never did any vessel on this side the world make a better 
 voyage in so short a time, than I made in this sloop ; for by 
 the most moderate computation, I cleared, in these three 
 months, 25,000Z. sterling in ready money, all the charges of 
 the voyages to New England also being reckoned up. 
 
 Now was my time to have sat still contented with what I 
 had got, if it was in the power of man to know when his good 
 fortune was at the highest. And more, my prudent wife 
 gave it as her opinion, that I should sit down satisfied, and 
 push the affair uo farther, and earnestly persuaded me to do 
 so J but I that had a door open, as I thought, to immense 
 treasure , that had found th e way to have a st ream of the 
 gdden rivers of Mexic o flo w into my plantation of" Virginia, 
 "^ff'saw no EaSaxH^lmore^KiJD^wEaFwCT^con^ 
 things in the prosecution ; I say, to me these things looked 
 with another face, and I dreamed of nothing but millions and 
 hundreds of thousands ; so, contrary to all moderate measures, 
 I pushed on for another voyage, and laid up a stock of all sorts 
 of goods that I could get together, proper for the trade. I did 
 not indeed go again to New England, for I had by this time 
 a very good cargo come from England, pursuant to a com- 
 mission I had sent several months before ; so that, in short, 
 my cargo, according to the invoice now made out, amounted 
 to above 10,000Z. sterling first cost, and was a cargo so sorted, 
 and so well bought, that I expected to have advanced upon 
 them much more in proportion than I had done in the cargo 
 before. 
 
 With these expectations, we began our second voy^e in 
 April, being about five months after our return from the 
 first ; we had not indeed the same good speed, even in our 
 beginning, as we had at first ; for though we stood off to sea 
 about sixty leagues, in order to be out of the way of the 
 pirates, yet we had not been above five days at sea, but we 
 were visited and rifled by two pirate barks, who, being 
 bound to the northward, that is to say, the banks of Ne>S"' 
 foundland, took away all our provisions, and aU our ammu- 
 nition, and small arms, and left us very ill provided to pursue 
 our voyage ; and it being so near home, we thought it adr 
 
 M M 2 
 
532 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 visable to come about, and stand in for the capes again, to 
 restore our condition, and furnish ourselves with stores of all 
 kinds for our voyage ; this took us up about ten days, and we 
 put to sea again ; as for our cargo, the pirates did not meddle 
 with it, being all bale goods, which they had no present use 
 for, and knew not what to do with if they had them. 
 
 We met with no other adventure worth naming, tiU by 
 the same course that we had steered before, we came into 
 the gulf of Mexico ; and the first misfortune we met with 
 here was, that, on the back of Cuba, crossing towards the 
 point of the terra flrma, on the coast of Jucatan, we had 
 sight of the flota of New Spain, that is, of the ships which 
 come from Carthagena or Porto BeUo, and go to the Ha- 
 vannah, in order to pursue their voyage to Europe. 
 
 They had vdth them one Spanish man-of-war, and three 
 frigates ; two of the frigates gave us chase ; but, it being 
 just at the shutting in of the day, we soon lost sight of them, 
 and, standing to the north, across the bay of Mexico, as if we 
 were going to the mouth of Mississippi, they lost us quite, 
 and, in a few days more, we made the bottom of the bay, 
 being the port, we were bound for. 
 
 We stood in as usual, in the night, and gave notice to our 
 friends ; but, instead of their former readiness to come on 
 board, they gave us notice that we had been seen in the bay, 
 and that notice of us was given at Vera Cruz, and at other 
 places, and that several frigates were in quest of us, and that 
 three more would be cruising the next morning in search 
 for us. 
 
 We could not conceive how this could be : but we were 
 afterwards told, that those three frigates, having lost sight of 
 us in the night, had made in for the shore, and had given 
 the alarm of us as of privateers. 
 
 Be that as it would, we had nothing to do, but to consider 
 what course to take immediately. The Spanish merchants 
 advice was very good if we had taken it, namely, to have 
 unladen as many of our bales as we could that very night 
 by the help of our boat and their canoes, and to make the 
 best of our way in the morning to the north of the gulf, and 
 take our fate. 
 
 This my skipper, or master, thought very well of, but 
 when we began to put it into execution, we were so con- 
 fused, and in such a hurry, being not resolved what 
 
Srt SLOOP CHASED BT TWO SPANISH FRIGATES. 533 
 
 course to take, that we could not get out above sixteen bales 
 of all sorts of goods, before it began to be too Ught, and it 
 behoved us to sail; at last the master proposed a medium, 
 which was, that I should go on shore in the next boat, in 
 which were five bales of goods more, and that I should stay 
 on shore, if the Spanish merchants would undertake to con- 
 ceal me, and let them go to sea, and take their chance. 
 
 The Spanish merchants readily undertook to protect me, 
 ^pRp.ially it being _ga. eas2_to_haS£jD.a.4ia§a^fQr a natural _ 
 
 ]!aniard^ and so they took me on shore with twenty-one 
 bales"cJiny goods, and the sloop stood off to sea. If they 
 met with any enemies, they were to stand in for the shore the 
 next night, and we failed not to look well out for them, but 
 to no purpose, for the next day they were discovered and 
 chased by two Spanish frigates ; they stood from them, and 
 the sloop, being an excellent sailer, gained so much, that they 
 would certainly have been clear of them when night came on, 
 but a small picaroon of a sloop kept them company in spite of 
 all they could do, and two or three times offered to engage 
 them, thereby to give time to the rest to come up, but the 
 sloop kept her way, and gave them a chase of three days and 
 nights, having a fresh gale of wind at S. W. till she made the 
 Rio Grand, or, as the French call it, the Mississippi, and 
 there finding no remedy, they ran the vessel on shore, not 
 far from the fort, which the Spaniards call Pensacola, 
 garrisoned at that time with French ; our men would have 
 entered the river as a port, but having no pilot, and the 
 current of the river being strong against them, the sloop ran 
 on shore, and the men shifted as well as they could in their 
 boats. 
 
 I was now in a very odd condition indeed, though my 
 circumstances were in one sense very happy, namely, that I 
 was in the hands of my friends, for such really they were, 
 and so faithful, that no men could have been more careful of 
 their own safety, than were they of mine ; and that which 
 added to the comfort of my new condition, was the produce 
 of my goods, which were gotten on shore by their own 
 advice and direction, which was a fund sufficient to maintain 
 me with them as long as 1 could be supposed to stay there ; 
 and the first merchant to whose house I went, assured me, 
 that he would give me credit, for twenty thousand pieoes 
 of eight, if I had occasion for it. 
 
534 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 My greatest affiction was, that I knew not how to convey 
 news fo my wife of my present condition, and how, among 
 pany misfortunes of the voyage, I was yet safe, and in 
 good hands. 
 
 But there was no remedy for this part, but the great 
 universal cure of all incurable sorrows, viz., patience ; and, 
 indeed I had a great deal of reason, not for patience only, 
 but thankfulness, if I had known the circumstances which 
 I should have been reduced to, if I had fallen into the hands 
 of the Spaniards ; the best of which that I could reasonably 
 have expected, had been, to have been sent to the mines, or, 
 whiijh was ten thousand times tvorse, the inquisition ; or, if 
 I had escaped the Spaniards, as my men in the sloop did, the 
 hardships they were exposed to, the dangers they were in, 
 and the miseries they suifered, were still worse, in wandering 
 among savages, and the more savage French, who plundered 
 and stripped them, instead of relieving and supplying theni 
 in their long wilderness journey over the mountains, tUl they 
 reached the S.W. parts of South Carolina, a journey which 
 indeed deserves to have an account to be given of it by itself; 
 I say, all these things, had I known of them, would have let 
 me see that I had a great deal of reason, not only to be patient 
 under my present circumstances, but satisfied and thankful. 
 
 Here, as I said, my patron, the merchant, entertained me 
 like a prince, he made my safety his peculiar care ; and 
 while we were in any expectation of the sloop being taken, 
 and brought into Vera Cruz, he kept me retired at a little 
 bouse in a wood, where he kept a fine aviary of all sorts oi 
 American birds, and out of which he yearly sent some as 
 presents to his friends in old Spain. 
 
 This retreat was necessary, lest, if the sloop should be 
 taken and brought into Vera Cruz, and the men be brought 
 in prisoners, they should be tempted to give an account of 
 me as their supercargo or merchant, and where both I and 
 the twenty-one bales of goods were set on shore. As for the 
 goods, he made sure work with them, for they were all 
 opened, taken out of the bales, and separated, and, being 
 mixed with other European goods which came by the 
 galleons, were made up in new package, and sent to Mexico 
 in several parcels, some to one merchant, some to another} 
 80 that it was impossible to have found them out, even it 
 they had had information of them. 
 
SLOOP EDITS AGEOCKD AND BREAKS UP. 535 
 
 In tMs posture, and in apprehension of some bad news of 
 the sloop, I remained at the villa, or house in the valej for so 
 they called it, about five weeks. I had two negroes appointed 
 to wait on me, one of whom was my purveyor, or my 
 cook, the other my valet ; and my friend, the master of all, 
 came constantly every evening to visit and sup with me, 
 when we walked out together into the aviary, which was, of 
 its kind, the most beautiful thing that ever I saw in the 
 world. 
 
 After above five weeks' retreat of this kind, he had good 
 intelligence of the fate of the sloop, viz., that the two 
 frigates and a sloop had chased her till she ran on ground 
 near the fort of Pensacola ; that they saw her stranded and 
 broke in pieces by the force of the waves, the men making 
 their escape in their boat. 
 
 This news was brought, it seems, by the said frigates 
 to La Vera Cruz, where my friend went on purpose to 
 be ftilly informed, and received the account from one of 
 the captains of the frigates, and discoursed with him at large 
 about it. 
 
 I was better pleased with the loss of the sloop and all my 
 cargo, the men being got on shore and escaping, than I 
 should have been with the saving the whole cargo, if the 
 men had fallen into the hands of the Spaniards, for now J 
 w^ _safe, whereas then, it being supposed they would have 
 .been forced to some discovery abou t me, I must have fled, 
 and should" have found it very difficuK to have made my 
 escape, even with all that my friends could have done for 
 me too. 
 
 But now I was perfectly easy, and my friend, who thought 
 confining me at the house in the vale no longer needfiil, 
 brought me publicly home to his dwelling-house, as a mer- 
 chant come from Old Spain by the last galleons, and who, 
 having been at Mexico, was come to reside with him. 
 
 Here I w a s dressed like a Spaniard of the better so rt, had 
 three negroes to attend me, and was called IJon Ferdinand 
 de Villa Moresa, in Castilia Feja, that is to say, in Old 
 Castile. 
 
 Here I had nothing to do but to walk about, and ride out 
 into the woods, and come home again to enjoy the pleasantest 
 and most agreeable retirement in the world ; for certainly no 
 
536 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 men in the world live in such splendour, and wallow in such 
 immense treasures, as the merchants of this place. 
 
 They live, as I have said, in a kind of country retreat at 
 their villas, or, as we would call them in Virginia, their 
 plantations, and, as they call them, their ingenios, where 
 they make their indigo and their sugars ; but they have also 
 houses and warehouses at Vera Cruz, where they go twice a 
 yearj when the galleons arrive from Old Spain, and when 
 these galleons relade for their return ; and it was surprising 
 to me, when I went to La Vera Cruz with them, to see what 
 prodigious consignments they had from their correspondents 
 in Old Spain, and with what despatch they managed them ; 
 for no sooner were the cases, packages, and bales of European 
 goods brought into their warehouses, but they were opened, 
 and repacked by porters and packers of their own, that is to 
 say, negroes and Indian servants ; and being made up into 
 new bales, and sepai-aUS p'ai'CBls^were all despatched again, 
 by horses, for Mexico, and directed to their several merchants 
 there, and the remainder carried home, as above, to the 
 ingenio where they lived, which was near thirty English 
 miles from Vera Cruz, so that, in about twenty days, their 
 warehouses were again entirely free. At La Vera Cruz, all 
 their business was over there, and they and all their servants 
 retired; for they stayed no longer there than needs must, 
 because of the unhealthiness of the air. 
 
 After the goods were thus despatched, it was equally 
 surprising, to see how soon, and with what exactness, the 
 merchants of Mexico, to whom those cargoes were separately 
 consigned, made the return, and how it came all in silver or 
 Tn gold, so that their warehouses, in a few months, were 
 piled up, even to the ceiling, with chests of pieces of eight, 
 and vsdth bars of sUver. 
 
 It is impossible to describe, in the narrow compass of this 
 work, with what exactness and order, and yet with how little 
 hurry, and not the least confusion, everjrtMng was done, and 
 how soon a weight of business of such importance and value 
 was negotiated and finished, the goods repacked, invoices 
 made, and everything despatched and gone ; so that, in about 
 five weeks, all the goods they had received from Europe by 
 the galleons were disposed of, and entered in their journals, 
 to the proper account of their merchant, to whom they were 
 
A BALE OF GOODS FOB FBESENTS. 537 
 
 respectively consigned ; from thence they had bookkeepers, 
 who drew out the invoices and wrote the letters, which the 
 merchant himself only read over and signed, and then other 
 hands copied aU again into other books. 
 
 I can give no estimate of the value of the several con- 
 signments they received by that flota ; but I remember thatj 
 when the galleons went back, they shipped on board, at 
 several times, one million three hundred thousand pieces of 
 eight in specie, besides a hundred and eighty bales or bags 
 of cochineal, and about three hundred bales of indigo, but 
 they were so modest, that they said, this was for themselves 
 and their iiiends; that is to say, the several merchants of 
 Mexico consigned large quantities of bullion to them, to ship 
 on board and consign according to their order ; but then I 
 know also, that, for all that, they were allowed commission, 
 so that their gain was very considerable, even that way also. 
 I had been with them at La Vera Cruz, and came back 
 again before we came to an account for the goods which I 
 had brought on shore in the twenty-one bales, which, by the 
 account we brought them (leaving a piece of everything to 
 be governed by our last market), amounted to eight thousand 
 five hundred and seventy pieces of eight, all which money 
 my friend, for so I must now call him, brought me in specie, 
 and caused his negroes to pile them up in one comer of my 
 apartment ; so that I was indeed still veiy rich, all things 
 considered. 
 
 There was a bale which I had caused to be packed up on 
 purpose in Virginia, and which indeed, I had written for from 
 England, being chiefly of fine English broad-cloths, silk, 
 silk-druggets, and fine stufis of several kinds, with some 
 very fine Hollands, which I set apart for presents, as I 
 should find occasion; and as, whatever hurry I was in at 
 carrying the twenty-one bales of goods on shore, I did not 
 forget to let this bale be one of them, so, when we came to i_ ^ • 
 a sale for the rest, I told them that this was a pack with '='^*,'* "^ > *? 
 clothes and necessaries for my own wearing and use, and so «„^^,^^^,„_^^ 
 desired it might not be opened with the_^rest, which was r^'^^y 
 
 "accordingly obsefvedi''and that bale or pack was brought 
 into my apartment. 
 JHiisJiaie was, in_general, ma^u£ of several smaller 
 
 _tales, which I had directed, so that 1 m^OTave f ooiii to 
 make presents, equally sorted as the circumstance might 
 
538 COLONEL JACK. 
 
 direct me. However, they were all considerable, and I 
 reckoned the whole bale cost me near 200/. sterling in 
 England; and, though my present circumstances required 
 some limits to my bounty in making presents, yet the 
 obligation I was under, being so much the greater, especially 
 to this one friendly generous Spaniard, I thought I could not 
 do better than, by opening two of the smaller bales, join 
 them together, and make my gift something a'litable to the 
 benefactor, and to the respect he had shown me ; accordingly 
 I took two bales, and, laying the goods together, the contents 
 were as follows : — 
 
 Two pieces of fine English broadcloth, the finest that could 
 be got in London, divided, as was that which I gave to 
 the governor, at the Havannah, into fine crimson in grain, 
 fine light mixtures, and fine black. 
 
 Four pieces of fine Holland, of 7s. to 8s. per ell in London. 
 
 Twelve pieces of fine silk drugget and duroys, for mens' 
 wear. 
 
 Six pieces of broad silks, two damasks, two brocaded sUks, 
 and two mantuas. 
 
 "With a box of ribands, and a box of lace, the last cost about 
 40Z. sterling in England. 
 
 This handsome parcel I laid open in my apartment, and 
 brought him up stairs one morning, on pretence to drink cho- 
 colate with me, which he ordinarily did ; when, as we drank 
 chocolate, and were merry, I said to him, though I had sold him 
 almost all my cargo, and taken his money, yet the truth was, 
 that I ought not to have sold them to him, but to have laid 
 them all at his feet, for that it was to his direction I owed 
 the having anything saved at all. 
 
 He smiled, and, with a great deal of friendship in his face, 
 told me, that not to have paid me for them, -woidd have been 
 to have plundered a shipwreck, which had been worse than 
 to have robbed an hospital. 
 
 At last I told him, I had two requests to make to him, 
 which must not be denied. I told him I had a small present 
 to make him, which I would give him a reason why he should 
 not refiise to accept ; and the second request, I would make 
 after the first was granted. He said he would have accepted 
 my present from me, if I had not been under a disaster, but| 
 
MY wife's present FOR FRIENDS' LADIES. 639 
 
 fts it was, it would be cruel and ungenerous. But, I told 
 him, he was obliged to hear my reason for his accepting it. 
 Then I told him, that this parcel was made up for him by 
 name, by my wife and I in Virginia, and his name set on the 
 marks of the bale, and accordingly I showed him the marks, 
 which was indeed on one of the bales, but I had doubled it 
 now, as above, so that I told him these were his own proper 
 goods ; and, in short I pressed him so to receive them, that 
 he made a bow, and I said no more, but ordered my negro, 
 that is to say, his aegro that waited on me, to carry them all, 
 except the two boxes, into his apartments, but would not let 
 him see the particulars, tiU they were all carried away. 
 
 After he was gone, about a quarter of an hour, he came in 
 raving, and almost swearing, and in a great passion, but 1 
 could easily see he was exceedingly pleased ; and told me, 
 had he known the particulars, he would never have suffered 
 them to have gone as he did, and at last used the very same 
 compliment that the governor at the Havannah used, viz., 
 that it was a present fit for a viceroy of Mexico, rather than 
 for him. 
 
 When he had done, he then told me, he remembered I had 
 two requests to him, and that one was not to be told tiU after 
 the first was granted, and he hoped now I had something to 
 ask of him, that was equal to the obligation I had laid upon 
 him. 
 
 I told him, I knew it was not the custom in Spain, for a 
 stranger to make presents to the ladies, and that I would not 
 in the least doubt, but that, whatever the ladies of his family 
 required, as proper for their use, he would appropriate to 
 them as he thought fit. But that there were two little boxes 
 in the parcel, which my wife with her own hand had directed 
 to the ladies ; and I begged he would be pleased with his 
 own hand to give them in my wife's name, as directed ; that 
 I was only the messenger, but that I could not be honest, if 
 I did not discharge the trust reposed in me. 
 
 These were the two boxes of ribands and lace, which, jrjr'' 
 lmowing^e_nicety_of'Jhe ladies jn Spain,^or rather of ttie '^[^[^^T^jji 
 Spaniards about their won i en, I had made my wife pacE up, L^*!^ ' 
 and directed with her own" hand, as I have said. '"'•->*. , 
 
 He smiled, and told me it was true, the Spaniards did not 
 ordinarily admit so much freedom among the women as other 
 nations; but he hoped, he said, I would not think the Spa* 
 
540 COLONEL JACK, 
 
 niards thought all their women w s, or that all Spaniards 
 
 were jealous of their wives. That, as to my present, since 
 he had agreed to accept of it, I should have the direction of 
 what part I pleased to his wife and daughters ; for he had 
 three daughters. 
 
 Here I strained courtesies again, and told him by no means, 
 I would direct nothing of that kind, ^ only begged that he 
 would with his own hand present to his donna, or lady, the 
 present designed her by my wife, and that he would present 
 it in her name, now living in Virginia. He was extremely 
 pleased with the nicety I used, and I saw him present it to her 
 accordingly, and could see, at the opening of it, that she was 
 extremely pleased with the present itself, as indeed might very 
 Veil be ; for in that country it was worth a very considerable 
 sum of money. 
 
 Though I was used with an uncommon Mendship before, 
 and nothing could well be desired more, yet the grateful sense 
 I showed of it, in the magnificence of this present, was not 
 lost, and the whole family appeared sensible of it ; so that I 
 must allow that presents, where they can be made, in such a 
 manner, are not without their influence, where the persons 
 were not at all mercenary either before or after. 
 
 I had here now a most h appy and com fortable retrea t, 
 thoughJt_wa^aAijid2!£.ag^e3jej here I enjoyed everythmg 
 "Tcould think of, that was agreeable and pleasant, except only 
 a liberty of going home, which, for that reason perhaps, was 
 the only thing I desired in the world ; for the grief of one 
 absent comfort is oftentimes capable of embittering all the 
 other enjoyments in the world. 
 
 Here I enjoyed the moments which I had never before 
 known how to employ, I mean, that here I learned to look 
 back upon a long iU-spent life, blessed with infinite advan- 
 tage, which I had no heart given me till now to make use of, 
 and here I found just reflections were the utmost felicity of 
 human life. 
 
 Here I wrote these memoirs, having to add, to the- pleasure 
 ^■\liM^ of looking back with due reflections, the bene fit of a viol ent 
 
 ^^fit nf the-gQut,-which, as it is allowed by mosrpeople, clears ' 
 the head, restores the memory, and qualifies us to make the 
 most, and just, and useful remarks upon our own actions. 
 I Perhaps, when I wrote these things down, I did not foresee 
 that the writings of our own stories would be so much the 
 
 /U^ ■ 
 
REFLECTIONS OK PAST LIFE. 541 
 
 fashion in England, or so agreeable to others to read, as I 
 find custom, and the humour of the times has caused it to be; 
 
 M au Y one that reads my story , pleases to m qfep- th*^ sa.tn(^. jiia^ 
 -jeflecSonsTwhich I ackn nTYlftiTgg T ought to h ave_ made, he 
 
 wiU re ap the benefit m ^my misfortunes, perhaps, more than 
 '"Il^^fildQ ne myselE" ~It is evident, by the long series of 
 changes and turns, which have appeared in the narrow com- 
 pass of one private, mean person's life, that the history of 
 men's lives may be many ways made useful and instructing 
 to those who read them, if moral and religious improvement 
 and reflections are made by those that write them. 
 
 There remains many things in the course of this unhappy 
 life of mine, though I have left so Kttle a part of it to speak 
 of, that is worth giving a large and distinct account of, and 
 which gives room for just reflections of a kind which I have 
 not made yet ; particularly, I think it just to add how, in col- 
 lecting the various changes and turns of my affairs, I saw 
 clearer than ever I had done before, how an invincible over- 
 ruling power,^a hand i nfluenced from above , governs aU our 
 actions of evSy kiri^ Umits all our designs, and orders the 
 events of everything relating to us. 
 
 And from this observation it necessarily occiured to me, 
 how just it was, that we should pay the homage of all events 
 to him ; that as he guided, and had even made the chain of 
 cause and consequences, which nature in general strictly 
 /Obeyed, so to him should be given the honour of all events, 
 the consequences of those causes, as the first mover and 
 maker of all things. 
 
 I, who had hitherto lived, as might be truly said, without 
 God in the world, began now to see farther into all those 
 things, than I had ever yet been capable of before, and this 
 brought me at last to look with shame and blushes upon such 
 a course of wickedness, as I had gone through in the world. 
 I had been bred indeed to nothing of either religious or 
 moral knowledge ; what I had gained of either was, first, 'by 
 the little time of civil life which I lived in Scotland, where 
 my abhorrence of the wickedness of my captain and comrade, 
 and some sober religious company I fell into, first gave me 
 some knowledge of good and evil, and showed me the beauty 
 of a sober, religious life, though, with my leaving that 
 country, it soon left me too ; or, secondly, the modest bintS) 
 
542" COLONEL JACK. 
 
 and just reflections of my steward, whom I called my tutor, 
 who was a man of sincere religion, good principles, and a 
 real true penitent, for his past miscarriages. O ! had I 
 with him sincerely repented of what was past, I had not for 
 twenty-four years together lived a life of levity and profligate 
 wickedness after it. 
 
 But here I had, as I said, leisure to reflect, and to repent, 
 and to call to mind things past, and with a just detestatioi^ 
 learn, as Job, says, to abhor myself in dust and ashes. 
 
 It is with this temper that I have written my story. I 
 would have all that design to read it, prepare to do so with 
 the temper of penitents ; and remember, with how much 
 advantage they make their penitent reflections at home 
 under the merciful dispositions of Providence in peace, plenty, 
 and ease, rather than abroad, under the discipline of a 
 transported criminal, as my wife and my tutor, or under the 
 miseries and distresses of a shipwrecked wanderer, as my 
 skipper, or captain of the sloop, who, as I hear, died a very 
 great penitent, labouring in the deserts and mountains to find 
 his way home to Virginia, by the way of Carolina, whither 
 the rest of the crew reached, after infinite dangers and hard-, 
 ships ; or .jJl^ gxile, hfl wever favourably circumstanced as 
 mine, in absenceTrojajij5,^^|j, and for some time in no 
 probablevievT'Of ever seeing them any more. 
 
 Such, I say, may repent with advantage ; but how few are 
 they that seriously look in, till their way is hedged up, and 
 they have no other way to look. 
 
 Here, I say, I had leisure to repent ; how far it pleases 
 God to give the grace of repentance where he gives the 
 opportunity of it, is not for me to say of myself; it is 
 sufficient that I recommend it to all that read this story, that, 
 when they find their lives come up in any degree to any 
 similitude of cases, they will inquire by me, and ask them- 
 selves, is not this the time to repent I Perhaps the answer 
 may touch them. 
 
 I have only to add to what was then written, that my kind 
 friends the Spaniards, finding no other method presented for 
 conveying me to my home, that is to say, to Virginia, got a 
 license for me to come in the next galleons, as a Spanish 
 merchant to Cadiz, where I arrived safe with all my treasure, 
 for he suffered me to be at no expenses in his house ; and 
 
coKCLtrsiON. 548 
 
 trom Cadiz, I soon got my passage on board an English 
 merchant ship for London, from whence I sent an account of 
 my adventures to my wifB. and where, in about five months 
 more she came over to me, leaving with fuU satis&ction the 
 management of all our affairs in Virginia, in the same 
 &ithful hands as before. 
 
 END OF THE LIFE OF OOLONBL JAOE. 
 
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