That homely proverb, used on so many occasions in England, viz. "That
what is bred in the bone will not go out of the flesh," was never more
verified than in the story of my Life. Any one would think that after
thirty-five years' affliction, and a variety of unhappy circumstances,
which few men, if any, ever went through before, and after near seven
years of peace and enjoyment in the fulness of all things; grown old, and
when, if ever, it might be allowed me to have had experience of every
state of middle life, and to know which was most adapted to make a man
completely happy; I say, after all this, any one would have thought that
the native propensity to rambling which I gave an account of in my first
setting out in the world to have been so predominant in my thoughts,
should be worn out, and I might, at sixty one years of age, have been a
little inclined to stay at home, and have done venturing life and fortune
any more.
Nay, farther, the common motive of foreign adventures was taken away in
me, for I had no fortune to make; I had nothing to seek: if I had gained
ten thousand pounds I had been no richer; for I had already sufficient
for me, and for those I had to leave it to; and what I had was visibly
increasing; for, having no great family, I could not spend the income of
what I had unless I would set up for an expensive way of living, such as
a great family, servants, equipage, gaiety, and the like, which were
things I had no notion of, or inclination to; so that I had nothing,
indeed, to do but to sit still, and fully enjoy what I had got, and see
it increase daily upon my hands. Yet all these things had no effect upon
me, or at least not enough to resist the strong inclination I had to go
abroad again, which hung about me like a chronic distemper. In
particular, the desire of seeing my new plantation in the island, and the
colony I left there, ran in my head continually. I dreamed of it all
night, and my imagination ran upon it all day: it was uppermost in all my
thoughts, and my fancy worked so steadily and strongly upon it that I
talked of it in my sleep; in short, nothing could remove it out of my
mind: it even broke so violently into all my discourses that it made my
conversation tiresome, for I could talk of nothing else; all my discourse
ran into it, even to impertinence; and I saw it myself.
I have often heard persons of good judgment say that all the stir that
people make in the world about ghosts and apparitions is owing to the
strength of imagination, and the powerful operation of fancy in their
minds; that there is no such thing as a spirit appearing, or a ghost
walking; that people's poring affectionately upon the past conversation
of their deceased friends so realises it to them that they are capable of
fancying, upon some extraordinary circumstances, that they see them, talk
to them, and are answered by them, when, in truth, there is nothing but
shadow and vapour in the thing, and they really know nothing of the
matter.
For my part, I know not to this hour whether there are any such things as
real apparitions, spectres, or walking of people after they are dead; or
whether there is anything in the stories they tell us of that kind more
than the product of vapours, sick minds, and wandering fancies: but this
I know, that my imagination worked up to such a height, and brought me
into such excess of vapours, or what else I may call it, that I actually
supposed myself often upon the spot, at my old castle, behind the trees;
saw my old Spaniard, Friday's father, and the reprobate sailors I left
upon the island; nay, I fancied I talked with them, and looked at them
steadily, though I was broad awake, as at persons just before me; and
this I did till I often frightened myself with the images my fancy
represented to me. One time, in my sleep, I had the villainy of the
three pirate sailors so lively related to me by the first Spaniard, and
Friday's father, that it was surprising: they told me how they
barbarously attempted to murder all the Spaniards, and that they set fire
to the provisions they had laid up, on purpose to distress and starve
them; things that I had never heard of, and that, indeed, were never all
of them true in fact: but it was so warm in my imagination, and so
realised to me, that, to the hour I saw them, I could not be persuaded
but that it was or would be true; also how I resented it, when the
Spaniard complained to me; and how I brought them to justice, tried them,
and ordered them all three to be hanged. What there was really in this
shall be seen in its place; for however I came to form such things in my
dream, and what secret converse of spirits injected it, yet there was, I
say, much of it true. I own that this dream had nothing in it literally
and specifically true; but the general part was so true--the base;
villainous behaviour of these three hardened rogues was such, and had
been so much worse than all I can describe, that the dream had too much
similitude of the fact; and as I would afterwards have punished them
severely, so, if I had hanged them all, I had been much in the right, and
even should have been justified both by the laws of God and man.
But to return to my story. In this kind of temper I lived some years; I
had no enjoyment of my life, no pleasant hours, no agreeable diversion
but what had something or other of this in it; so that my wife, who saw
my mind wholly bent upon it, told me very seriously one night that she
believed there was some secret, powerful impulse of Providence upon me,
which had determined me to go thither again; and that she found nothing
hindered me going but my being engaged to a wife and children. She told
me that it was true she could not think of parting with me: but as she
was assured that if she was dead it would be the first thing I would do,
so, as it seemed to her that the thing was determined above, she would
not be the only obstruction; for, if I thought fit and resolved to
go--[Here she found me very intent upon her words, and that I looked very
earnestly at her, so that it a little disordered her, and she stopped. I
asked her why she did not go on, and say out what she was going to say?
But I perceived that her heart was too full, and some tears stood in her
eyes.] "Speak out, my dear," said I; "are you willing I should
go?"--"No," says she, very affectionately, "I am far from willing; but if
you are resolved to go," says she, "rather than I would be the only
hindrance, I will go with you: for though I think it a most preposterous
thing for one of your years, and in your condition, yet, if it must be,"
said she, again weeping, "I would not leave you; for if it be of Heaven
you must do it, there is no resisting it; and if Heaven make it your duty
to go, He will also make it mine to go with you, or otherwise dispose of
me, that I may not obstruct it."
This affectionate behaviour of my wife's brought me a little out of the
vapours, and I began to consider what I was doing; I corrected my
wandering fancy, and began to argue with myself sedately what business I
had after threescore years, and after such a life of tedious sufferings
and disasters, and closed in so happy and easy a manner; I, say, what
business had I to rush into new hazards, and put myself upon adventures
fit only for youth and poverty to run into?
With those thoughts I considered my new engagement; that I had a wife,
one child born, and my wife then great with child of another; that I had
all the world could give me, and had no need to seek hazard for gain;
that I was declining in years, and ought to think rather of leaving what
I had gained than of seeking to increase it; that as to what my wife had
said of its being an impulse from Heaven, and that it should be my duty
to go, I had no notion of that; so, after many of these cogitations, I
struggled with the power of my imagination, reasoned myself out of it, as
I believe people may always do in like cases if they will: in a word, I
conquered it, composed myself with such arguments as occurred to my
thoughts, and which my present condition furnished me plentifully with;
and particularly, as the most effectual method, I resolved to divert
myself with other things, and to engage in some business that might
effectually tie me up from any more excursions of this kind; for I found
that thing return upon me chiefly when I was idle, and had nothing to do,
nor anything of moment immediately before me. To this purpose, I bought
a little farm in the county of Bedford, and resolved to remove myself
thither. I had a little convenient house upon it, and the land about it,
I found, was capable of great improvement; and it was many ways suited to
my inclination, which delighted in cultivating, managing, planting, and
improving of land; and particularly, being an inland country, I was
removed from conversing among sailors and things relating to the remote
parts of the world. I went down to my farm, settled my family, bought
ploughs, harrows, a cart, waggon-horses, cows, and sheep, and, setting
seriously to work, became in one half-year a mere country gentleman. My
thoughts were entirely taken up in managing my servants, cultivating the
ground, enclosing, planting, &c.; and I lived, as I thought, the most
agreeable life that nature was capable of directing, or that a man always
bred to misfortunes was capable of retreating to.
I farmed upon my own land; I had no rent to pay, was limited by no
articles; I could pull up or cut down as I pleased; what I planted was
for myself, and what I improved was for my family; and having thus left
off the thoughts of wandering, I had not the least discomfort in any part
of life as to this world. Now I thought, indeed, that I enjoyed the
middle state of life which my father so earnestly recommended to me, and
lived a kind of heavenly life, something like what is described by the
poet, upon the subject of a country life:--
"Free from vices, free from care,
Age has no pain, and youth no snare."
But in the middle of all this felicity, one blow from unseen Providence
unhinged me at once; and not only made a breach upon me inevitable and
incurable, but drove me, by its consequences, into a deep relapse of the
wandering disposition, which, as I may say, being born in my very blood,
soon recovered its hold of me; and, like the returns of a violent
distemper, came on with an irresistible force upon me. This blow was the
loss of my wife. It is not my business here to write an elegy upon my
wife, give a character of her particular virtues, and make my court to
the sex by the flattery of a funeral sermon. She was, in a few words,
the stay of all my affairs; the centre of all my enterprises; the engine
that, by her prudence, reduced me to that happy compass I was in, from
the most extravagant and ruinous project that filled my head, and did
more to guide my rambling genius than a mother's tears, a father's
instructions, a friend's counsel, or all my own reasoning powers could
do. I was happy in listening to her, and in being moved by her
entreaties; and to the last degree desolate and dislocated in the world
by the loss of her.
When she was gone, the world looked awkwardly round me. I was as much a
stranger in it, in my thoughts, as I was in the Brazils, when I first
went on shore there; and as much alone, except for the assistance of
servants, as I was in my island. I knew neither what to think nor what
to do. I saw the world busy around me: one part labouring for bread,
another part squandering in vile excesses or empty pleasures, but equally
miserable because the end they proposed still fled from them; for the men
of pleasure every day surfeited of their vice, and heaped up work for
sorrow and repentance; and the men of labour spent their strength in
daily struggling for bread to maintain the vital strength they laboured
with: so living in a daily circulation of sorrow, living but to work, and
working but to live, as if daily bread were the only end of wearisome
life, and a wearisome life the only occasion of daily bread.
This put me in mind of the life I lived in my kingdom, the island; where
I suffered no more corn to grow, because I did not want it; and bred no
more goats, because I had no more use for them; where the money lay in
the drawer till it grew mouldy, and had scarce the favour to be looked
upon in twenty years. All these things, had I improved them as I ought
to have done, and as reason and religion had dictated to me, would have
taught me to search farther than human enjoyments for a full felicity;
and that there was something which certainly was the reason and end of
life superior to all these things, and which was either to be possessed,
or at least hoped for, on this side of the grave.
But my sage counsellor was gone; I was like a ship without a pilot, that
could only run afore the wind. My thoughts ran all away again into the
old affair; my head was quite turned with the whimsies of foreign
adventures; and all the pleasant, innocent amusements of my farm, my
garden, my cattle, and my family, which before entirely possessed me,
were nothing to me, had no relish, and were like music to one that has no
ear, or food to one that has no taste. In a word, I resolved to leave
off housekeeping, let my farm, and return to London; and in a few months
after I did so.
When I came to London, I was still as uneasy as I was before; I had no
relish for the place, no employment in it, nothing to do but to saunter
about like an idle person, of whom it may be said he is perfectly useless
in God's creation, and it is not one farthing's matter to the rest of his
kind whether he be dead or alive. This also was the thing which, of all
circumstances of life, was the most my aversion, who had been all my days
used to an active life; and I would often say to myself, "A state of
idleness is the very dregs of life;" and, indeed, I thought I was much
more suitably employed when I was twenty-six days making a deal board.
It was now the beginning of the year 1693, when my nephew, whom, as I
have observed before, I had brought up to the sea, and had made him
commander of a ship, was come home from a short voyage to Bilbao, being
the first he had made. He came to me, and told me that some merchants of
his acquaintance had been proposing to him to go a voyage for them to the
East Indies, and to China, as private traders. "And now, uncle," says
he, "if you will go to sea with me, I will engage to land you upon your
old habitation in the island; for we are to touch at the Brazils."
Nothing can be a greater demonstration of a future state, and of the
existence of an invisible world, than the concurrence of second causes
with the idea of things which we form in our minds, perfectly reserved,
and not communicated to any in the world.
My nephew knew nothing how far my distemper of wandering was returned
upon me, and I knew nothing of what he had in his thought to say, when
that very morning, before he came to me, I had, in a great deal of
confusion of thought, and revolving every part of my circumstances in my
mind, come to this resolution, that I would go to Lisbon, and consult
with my old sea-captain; and if it was rational and practicable, I would
go and see the island again, and what was become of my people there. I
had pleased myself with the thoughts of peopling the place, and carrying
inhabitants from hence, getting a patent for the possession and I know
not what; when, in the middle of all this, in comes my nephew, as I have
said, with his project of carrying me thither in his way to the East
Indies.
I paused a while at his words, and looking steadily at him, "What devil,"
said I, "sent you on this unlucky errand?" My nephew stared as if he had
been frightened at first; but perceiving that I was not much displeased
at the proposal, he recovered himself. "I hope it may not be an unlucky
proposal, sir," says he. "I daresay you would be pleased to see your new
colony there, where you once reigned with more felicity than most of your
brother monarchs in the world." In a word, the scheme hit so exactly
with my temper, that is to say, the prepossession I was under, and of
which I have said so much, that I told him, in a few words, if he agreed
with the merchants, I would go with him; but I told him I would not
promise to go any further than my own island. "Why, sir," says he, "you
don't want to be left there again, I hope?" "But," said I, "can you not
take me up again on your return?" He told me it would not be possible to
do so; that the merchants would never allow him to come that way with a
laden ship of such value, it being a month's sail out of his way, and
might be three or four. "Besides, sir, if I should miscarry," said he,
"and not return at all, then you would be just reduced to the condition
you were in before."
This was very rational; but we both found out a remedy for it, which was
to carry a framed sloop on board the ship, which, being taken in pieces,
might, by the help of some carpenters, whom we agreed to carry with us,
be set up again in the island, and finished fit to go to sea in a few
days. I was not long resolving, for indeed the importunities of my
nephew joined so effectually with my inclination that nothing could
oppose me; on the other hand, my wife being dead, none concerned
themselves so much for me as to persuade me one way or the other, except
my ancient good friend the widow, who earnestly struggled with me to
consider my years, my easy circumstances, and the needless hazards of a
long voyage; and above all, my young children. But it was all to no
purpose, I had an irresistible desire for the voyage; and I told her I
thought there was something so uncommon in the impressions I had upon my
mind, that it would be a kind of resisting Providence if I should attempt
to stay at home; after which she ceased her expostulations, and joined
with me, not only in making provision for my voyage, but also in settling
my family affairs for my absence, and providing for the education of my
children. In order to do this, I made my will, and settled the estate I
had in such a manner for my children, and placed in such hands, that I
was perfectly easy and satisfied they would have justice done them,
whatever might befall me; and for their education, I left it wholly to
the widow, with a sufficient maintenance to herself for her care: all
which she richly deserved; for no mother could have taken more care in
their education, or understood it better; and as she lived till I came
home, I also lived to thank her for it.
My nephew was ready to sail about the beginning of January 1694-5; and I,
with my man Friday, went on board, in the Downs, the 8th; having, besides
that sloop which I mentioned above, a very considerable cargo of all
kinds of necessary things for my colony, which, if I did not find in good
condition, I resolved to leave so.
First, I carried with me some servants whom I purposed to place there as
inhabitants, or at least to set on work there upon my account while I
stayed, and either to leave them there or carry them forward, as they
should appear willing; particularly, I carried two carpenters, a smith,
and a very handy, ingenious fellow, who was a cooper by trade, and was
also a general mechanic; for he was dexterous at making wheels and hand-
mills to grind corn, was a good turner and a good pot-maker; he also made
anything that was proper to make of earth or of wood: in a word, we
called him our Jack-of-all-trades. With these I carried a tailor, who
had offered himself to go a passenger to the East Indies with my nephew,
but afterwards consented to stay on our new plantation, and who proved a
most necessary handy fellow as could be desired in many other businesses
besides that of his trade; for, as I observed formerly, necessity arms us
for all employments.
My cargo, as near as I can recollect, for I have not kept account of the
particulars, consisted of a sufficient quantity of linen, and some
English thin stuffs, for clothing the Spaniards that I expected to find
there; and enough of them, as by my calculation might comfortably supply
them for seven years; if I remember right, the materials I carried for
clothing them, with gloves, hats, shoes, stockings, and all such things
as they could want for wearing, amounted to about two hundred pounds,
including some beds, bedding, and household stuff, particularly kitchen
utensils, with pots, kettles, pewter, brass, &c.; and near a hundred
pounds more in ironwork, nails, tools of every kind, staples, hooks,
hinges, and every necessary thing I could think of.
I carried also a hundred spare arms, muskets, and fusees; besides some
pistols, a considerable quantity of shot of all sizes, three or four tons
of lead, and two pieces of brass cannon; and, because I knew not what
time and what extremities I was providing for, I carried a hundred
barrels of powder, besides swords, cutlasses, and the iron part of some
pikes and halberds. In short, we had a large magazine of all sorts of
store; and I made my nephew carry two small quarter-deck guns more than
he wanted for his ship, to leave behind if there was occasion; so that
when we came there we might build a fort and man it against all sorts of
enemies. Indeed, I at first thought there would be need enough for all,
and much more, if we hoped to maintain our possession of the island, as
shall be seen in the course of that story.
I had not such bad luck in this voyage as I had been used to meet with,
and therefore shall have the less occasion to interrupt the reader, who
perhaps may be impatient to hear how matters went with my colony; yet
some odd accidents, cross winds and bad weather happened on this first
setting out, which made the voyage longer than I expected it at first;
and I, who had never made but one voyage, my first voyage to Guinea, in
which I might be said to come back again, as the voyage was at first
designed, began to think the same ill fate attended me, and that I was
born to be never contented with being on shore, and yet to be always
unfortunate at sea. Contrary winds first put us to the northward, and we
were obliged to put in at Galway, in Ireland, where we lay wind-bound two-
and-twenty days; but we had this satisfaction with the disaster, that
provisions were here exceeding cheap, and in the utmost plenty; so that
while we lay here we never touched the ship's stores, but rather added to
them. Here, also, I took in several live hogs, and two cows with their
calves, which I resolved, if I had a good passage, to put on shore in my
island; but we found occasion to dispose otherwise of them.
We set out on the 5th of February from Ireland, and had a very fair gale
of wind for some days. As I remember, it might be about the 20th of
February in the evening late, when the mate, having the watch, came into
the round-house and told us he saw a flash of fire, and heard a gun
fired; and while he was telling us of it, a boy came in and told us the
boatswain heard another. This made us all run out upon the quarter-deck,
where for a while we heard nothing; but in a few minutes we saw a very
great light, and found that there was some very terrible fire at a
distance; immediately we had recourse to our reckonings, in which we all
agreed that there could be no land that way in which the fire showed
itself, no, not for five hundred leagues, for it appeared at WNW. Upon
this, we concluded it must be some ship on fire at sea; and as, by our
hearing the noise of guns just before, we concluded that it could not be
far off, we stood directly towards it, and were presently satisfied we
should discover it, because the further we sailed, the greater the light
appeared; though, the weather being hazy, we could not perceive anything
but the light for a while. In about half-an-hour's sailing, the wind
being fair for us, though not much of it, and the weather clearing up a
little, we could plainly discern that it was a great ship on fire in the
middle of the sea.
I was most sensibly touched with this disaster, though not at all
acquainted with the persons engaged in it; I presently recollected my
former circumstances, and what condition I was in when taken up by the
Portuguese captain; and how much more deplorable the circumstances of the
poor creatures belonging to that ship must be, if they had no other ship
in company with them. Upon this I immediately ordered that five guns
should be fired, one soon after another, that, if possible, we might give
notice to them that there was help for them at hand and that they might
endeavour to save themselves in their boat; for though we could see the
flames of the ship, yet they, it being night, could see nothing of us.
We lay by some time upon this, only driving as the burning ship drove,
waiting for daylight; when, on a sudden, to our great terror, though we
had reason to expect it, the ship blew up in the air; and in a few
minutes all the fire was out, that is to say, the rest of the ship sunk.
This was a terrible, and indeed an afflicting sight, for the sake of the
poor men, who, I concluded, must be either all destroyed in the ship, or
be in the utmost distress in their boat, in the middle of the ocean;
which, at present, as it was dark, I could not see. However, to direct
them as well as I could, I caused lights to be hung out in all parts of
the ship where we could, and which we had lanterns for, and kept firing
guns all the night long, letting them know by this that there was a ship
not far off.
About eight o'clock in the morning we discovered the ship's boats by the
help of our perspective glasses, and found there were two of them, both
thronged with people, and deep in the water. We perceived they rowed,
the wind being against them; that they saw our ship, and did their utmost
to make us see them. We immediately spread our ancient, to let them know
we saw them, and hung a waft out, as a signal for them to come on board,
and then made more sail, standing directly to them. In little more than
half-an-hour we came up with them; and took them all in, being no less
than sixty-four men, women, and children; for there were a great many
passengers.
Upon inquiry we found it was a French merchant ship of three-hundred
tons, home-bound from Quebec. The master gave us a long account of the
distress of his ship; how the fire began in the steerage by the
negligence of the steersman, which, on his crying out for help, was, as
everybody thought, entirely put out; but they soon found that some sparks
of the first fire had got into some part of the ship so difficult to come
at that they could not effectually quench it; and afterwards getting in
between the timbers, and within the ceiling of the ship, it proceeded
into the hold, and mastered all the skill and all the application they
were able to exert.
They had no more to do then but to get into their boats, which, to their
great comfort, were pretty large; being their long-boat, and a great
shallop, besides a small skiff, which was of no great service to them,
other than to get some fresh water and provisions into her, after they
had secured their lives from the fire. They had, indeed, small hopes of
their lives by getting into these boats at that distance from any land;
only, as they said, that they thus escaped from the fire, and there was a
possibility that some ship might happen to be at sea, and might take them
in. They had sails, oars, and a compass; and had as much provision and
water as, with sparing it so as to be next door to starving, might
support them about twelve days, in which, if they had no bad weather and
no contrary winds, the captain said he hoped he might get to the banks of
Newfoundland, and might perhaps take some fish, to sustain them till they
might go on shore. But there were so many chances against them in all
these cases, such as storms, to overset and founder them; rains and cold,
to benumb and perish their limbs; contrary winds, to keep them out and
starve them; that it must have been next to miraculous if they had
escaped.
In the midst of their consternation, every one being hopeless and ready
to despair, the captain, with tears in his eyes, told me they were on a
sudden surprised with the joy of hearing a gun fire, and after that four
more: these were the five guns which I caused to be fired at first seeing
the light. This revived their hearts, and gave them the notice, which,
as above, I desired it should, that there was a ship at hand for their
help. It was upon the hearing of these guns that they took down their
masts and sails: the sound coming from the windward, they resolved to lie
by till morning. Some time after this, hearing no more guns, they fired
three muskets, one a considerable while after another; but these, the
wind being contrary, we never heard. Some time after that again they
were still more agreeably surprised with seeing our lights, and hearing
the guns, which, as I have said, I caused to be fired all the rest of the
night. This set them to work with their oars, to keep their boats ahead,
at least that we might the sooner come up with them; and at last, to
their inexpressible joy, they found we saw them.
It is impossible for me to express the several gestures, the strange
ecstasies, the variety of postures which these poor delivered people ran
into, to express the joy of their souls at so unexpected a deliverance.
Grief and fear are easily described: sighs, tears, groans, and a very few
motions of the head and hands, make up the sum of its variety; but an
excess of joy, a surprise of joy, has a thousand extravagances in it.
There were some in tears; some raging and tearing themselves, as if they
had been in the greatest agonies of sorrow; some stark raving and
downright lunatic; some ran about the ship stamping with their feet,
others wringing their hands; some were dancing, some singing, some
laughing, more crying, many quite dumb, not able to speak a word; others
sick and vomiting; several swooning and ready to faint; and a few were
crossing themselves and giving God thanks.
I would not wrong them either; there might be many that were thankful
afterwards; but the passion was too strong for them at first, and they
were not able to master it: then were thrown into ecstasies, and a kind
of frenzy, and it was but a very few that were composed and serious in
their joy. Perhaps also, the case may have some addition to it from the
particular circumstance of that nation they belonged to: I mean the
French, whose temper is allowed to be more volatile, more passionate, and
more sprightly, and their spirits more fluid than in other nations. I am
not philosopher enough to determine the cause; but nothing I had ever
seen before came up to it. The ecstasies poor Friday, my trusty savage,
was in when he found his father in the boat came the nearest to it; and
the surprise of the master and his two companions, whom I delivered from
the villains that set them on shore in the island, came a little way
towards it; but nothing was to compare to this, either that I saw in
Friday, or anywhere else in my life.
It is further observable, that these extravagances did not show
themselves in that different manner I have mentioned, in different
persons only; but all the variety would appear, in a short succession of
moments, in one and the same person. A man that we saw this minute dumb,
and, as it were, stupid and confounded, would the next minute be dancing
and hallooing like an antic; and the next moment be tearing his hair, or
pulling his clothes to pieces, and stamping them under his feet like a
madman; in a few moments after that we would have him all in tears, then
sick, swooning, and, had not immediate help been had, he would in a few
moments have been dead. Thus it was, not with one or two, or ten or
twenty, but with the greatest part of them; and, if I remember right, our
surgeon was obliged to let blood of about thirty persons.
There were two priests among them: one an old man, and the other a young
man; and that which was strangest was, the oldest man was the worst. As
soon as he set his foot on board our ship, and saw himself safe, he
dropped down stone dead to all appearance. Not the least sign of life
could be perceived in him; our surgeon immediately applied proper
remedies to recover him, and was the only man in the ship that believed
he was not dead. At length he opened a vein in his arm, having first
chafed and rubbed the part, so as to warm it as much as possible. Upon
this the blood, which only dropped at first, flowing freely, in three
minutes after the man opened his eyes; a quarter of an hour after that he
spoke, grew better, and after the blood was stopped, he walked about,
told us he was perfectly well, and took a dram of cordial which the
surgeon gave him. About a quarter of an hour after this they came
running into the cabin to the surgeon, who was bleeding a Frenchwoman
that had fainted, and told him the priest was gone stark mad. It seems
he had begun to revolve the change of his circumstances in his mind, and
again this put him into an ecstasy of joy. His spirits whirled about
faster than the vessels could convey them, the blood grew hot and
feverish, and the man was as fit for Bedlam as any creature that ever was
in it. The surgeon would not bleed him again in that condition, but gave
him something to doze and put him to sleep; which, after some time,
operated upon him, and he awoke next morning perfectly composed and well.
The younger priest behaved with great command of his passions, and was
really an example of a serious, well-governed mind. At his first coming
on board the ship he threw himself flat on his face, prostrating himself
in thankfulness for his deliverance, in which I unhappily and
unseasonably disturbed him, really thinking he had been in a swoon; but
he spoke calmly, thanked me, told me he was giving God thanks for his
deliverance, begged me to leave him a few moments, and that, next to his
Maker, he would give me thanks also. I was heartily sorry that I
disturbed him, and not only left him, but kept others from interrupting
him also. He continued in that posture about three minutes, or little
more, after I left him, then came to me, as he had said he would, and
with a great deal of seriousness and affection, but with tears in his
eyes, thanked me, that had, under God, given him and so many miserable
creatures their lives. I told him I had no need to tell him to thank God
for it, rather than me, for I had seen that he had done that already; but
I added that it was nothing but what reason and humanity dictated to all
men, and that we had as much reason as he to give thanks to God, who had
blessed us so far as to make us the instruments of His mercy to so many
of His creatures. After this the young priest applied himself to his
countrymen, and laboured to compose them: he persuaded, entreated,
argued, reasoned with them, and did his utmost to keep them within the
exercise of their reason; and with some he had success, though others
were for a time out of all government of themselves.
I cannot help committing this to writing, as perhaps it may be useful to
those into whose hands it may fall, for guiding themselves in the
extravagances of their passions; for if an excess of joy can carry men
out to such a length beyond the reach of their reason, what will not the
extravagances of anger, rage, and a provoked mind carry us to? And,
indeed, here I saw reason for keeping an exceeding watch over our
passions of every kind, as well those of joy and satisfaction as those of
sorrow and anger.
We were somewhat disordered by these extravagances among our new guests
for the first day; but after they had retired to lodgings provided for
them as well as our ship would allow, and had slept heartily--as most of
them did, being fatigued and frightened--they were quite another sort of
people the next day. Nothing of good manners, or civil acknowledgments
for the kindness shown them, was wanting; the French, it is known, are
naturally apt enough to exceed that way. The captain and one of the
priests came to me the next day, and desired to speak with me and my
nephew; the commander began to consult with us what should be done with
them; and first, they told us we had saved their lives, so all they had
was little enough for a return to us for that kindness received. The
captain said they had saved some money and some things of value in their
boats, caught hastily out of the flames, and if we would accept it they
were ordered to make an offer of it all to us; they only desired to be
set on shore somewhere in our way, where, if possible, they might get a
passage to France. My nephew wished to accept their money at first word,
and to consider what to do with them afterwards; but I overruled him in
that part, for I knew what it was to be set on shore in a strange
country; and if the Portuguese captain that took me up at sea had served
me so, and taken all I had for my deliverance, I must have been starved,
or have been as much a slave at the Brazils as I had been at Barbary, the
mere being sold to a Mahometan excepted; and perhaps a Portuguese is not
a much better master than a Turk, if not in some cases much worse.
I therefore told the French captain that we had taken them up in their
distress, it was true, but that it was our duty to do so, as we were
fellow-creatures; and we would desire to be so delivered if we were in
the like or any other extremity; that we had done nothing for them but
what we believed they would have done for us if we had been in their case
and they in ours; but that we took them up to save them, not to plunder
them; and it would be a most barbarous thing to take that little from
them which they had saved out of the fire, and then set them on shore and
leave them; that this would be first to save them from death, and then
kill them ourselves: save them from drowning, and abandon them to
starving; and therefore I would not let the least thing be taken from
them. As to setting them on shore, I told them indeed that was an
exceeding difficulty to us, for that the ship was bound to the East
Indies; and though we were driven out of our course to the westward a
very great way, and perhaps were directed by Heaven on purpose for their
deliverance, yet it was impossible for us wilfully to change our voyage
on their particular account; nor could my nephew, the captain, answer it
to the freighters, with whom he was under charter to pursue his voyage by
way of Brazil; and all I knew we could do for them was to put ourselves
in the way of meeting with other ships homeward bound from the West
Indies, and get them a passage, if possible, to England or France.
The first part of the proposal was so generous and kind they could not
but be very thankful for it; but they were in very great consternation,
especially the passengers, at the notion of being carried away to the
East Indies; they then entreated me that as I was driven so far to the
westward before I met with them, I would at least keep on the same course
to the banks of Newfoundland, where it was probable I might meet with
some ship or sloop that they might hire to carry them back to Canada.
I thought this was but a reasonable request on their part, and therefore
I inclined to agree to it; for indeed I considered that to carry this
whole company to the East Indies would not only be an intolerable
severity upon the poor people, but would be ruining our whole voyage by
devouring all our provisions; so I thought it no breach of charter-party,
but what an unforeseen accident made absolutely necessary to us, and in
which no one could say we were to blame; for the laws of God and nature
would have forbid that we should refuse to take up two boats full of
people in such a distressed condition; and the nature of the thing, as
well respecting ourselves as the poor people, obliged us to set them on
shore somewhere or other for their deliverance. So I consented that we
would carry them to Newfoundland, if wind and weather would permit: and
if not, I would carry them to Martinico, in the West Indies.
The wind continued fresh easterly, but the weather pretty good; and as
the winds had continued in the points between NE. and SE. a long time, we
missed several opportunities of sending them to France; for we met
several ships bound to Europe, whereof two were French, from St.
Christopher's, but they had been so long beating up against the wind that
they durst take in no passengers, for fear of wanting provisions for the
voyage, as well for themselves as for those they should take in; so we
were obliged to go on. It was about a week after this that we made the
banks of Newfoundland; where, to shorten my story, we put all our French
people on board a bark, which they hired at sea there, to put them on
shore, and afterwards to carry them to France, if they could get
provisions to victual themselves with. When I say all the French went on
shore, I should remember that the young priest I spoke of, hearing we
were bound to the East Indies, desired to go the voyage with us, and to
be set on shore on the coast of Coromandel; which I readily agreed to,
for I wonderfully liked the man, and had very good reason, as will appear
afterwards; also four of the seamen entered themselves on our ship, and
proved very useful fellows.
From hence we directed our course for the West Indies, steering away S.
and S. by E. for about twenty days together, sometimes little or no wind
at all; when we met with another subject for our humanity to work upon,
almost as deplorable as that before.