It now came into my thoughts that I had hinted to my friend the clergyman
that the work of converting the savages might perhaps be set on foot in
his absence to his satisfaction, and I told him that now I thought that
it was put in a fair way; for the savages, being thus divided among the
Christians, if they would but every one of them do their part with those
which came under their hands, I hoped it might have a very good effect.
He agreed presently in that, if they did their part. "But how," says he,
"shall we obtain that of them?" I told him we would call them all
together, and leave it in charge with them, or go to them, one by one,
which he thought best; so we divided it--he to speak to the Spaniards,
who were all Papists, and I to speak to the English, who were all
Protestants; and we recommended it earnestly to them, and made them
promise that they would never make any distinction of Papist or
Protestant in their exhorting the savages to turn Christians, but teach
them the general knowledge of the true God, and of their Saviour Jesus
Christ; and they likewise promised us that they would never have any
differences or disputes one with another about religion.
When I came to Will Atkins's house, I found that the young woman I have
mentioned above, and Will Atkins's wife, were become intimates; and this
prudent, religious young woman had perfected the work Will Atkins had
begun; and though it was not above four days after what I have related,
yet the new-baptized savage woman was made such a Christian as I have
seldom heard of in all my observation or conversation in the world. It
came next into my mind, in the morning before I went to them, that
amongst all the needful things I had to leave with them I had not left
them a Bible, in which I showed myself less considering for them than my
good friend the widow was for me when she sent me the cargo of a hundred
pounds from Lisbon, where she packed up three Bibles and a Prayer-book.
However, the good woman's charity had a greater extent than ever she
imagined, for they were reserved for the comfort and instruction of those
that made much better use of them than I had done.
I took one of the Bibles in my pocket, and when I came to Will Atkins's
tent, or house, and found the young woman and Atkins's baptized wife had
been discoursing of religion together--for Will Atkins told it me with a
great deal of joy--I asked if they were together now, and he said, "Yes";
so I went into the house, and he with me, and we found them together very
earnest in discourse. "Oh, sir," says Will Atkins, "when God has sinners
to reconcile to Himself, and aliens to bring home, He never wants a
messenger; my wife has got a new instructor: I knew I was unworthy, as I
was incapable of that work; that young woman has been sent hither from
heaven--she is enough to convert a whole island of savages." The young
woman blushed, and rose up to go away, but I desired her to sit-still; I
told her she had a good work upon her hands, and I hoped God would bless
her in it.
We talked a little, and I did not perceive that they had any book among
them, though I did not ask; but I put my hand into my pocket, and pulled
out my Bible. "Here," said I to Atkins, "I have brought you an assistant
that perhaps you had not before." The man was so confounded that he was
not able to speak for some time; but, recovering himself, he takes it
with both his hands, and turning to his wife, "Here, my dear," says he,
"did not I tell you our God, though He lives above, could hear what we
have said? Here's the book I prayed for when you and I kneeled down
under the bush; now God has heard us and sent it." When he had said so,
the man fell into such passionate transports, that between the joy of
having it, and giving God thanks for it, the tears ran down his face like
a child that was crying.
The woman was surprised, and was like to have run into a mistake that
none of us were aware of; for she firmly believed God had sent the book
upon her husband's petition. It is true that providentially it was so,
and might be taken so in a consequent sense; but I believe it would have
been no difficult matter at that time to have persuaded the poor woman to
have believed that an express messenger came from heaven on purpose to
bring that individual book. But it was too serious a matter to suffer
any delusion to take place, so I turned to the young woman, and told her
we did not desire to impose upon the new convert in her first and more
ignorant understanding of things, and begged her to explain to her that
God may be very properly said to answer our petitions, when, in the
course of His providence, such things are in a particular manner brought
to pass as we petitioned for; but we did not expect returns from heaven
in a miraculous and particular manner, and it is a mercy that it is not
so.
This the young woman did afterwards effectually, so that there was no
priestcraft used here; and I should have thought it one of the most
unjustifiable frauds in the world to have had it so. But the effect upon
Will Atkins is really not to be expressed; and there, we may be sure, was
no delusion. Sure no man was ever more thankful in the world for
anything of its kind than he was for the Bible, nor, I believe, never any
man was glad of a Bible from a better principle; and though he had been a
most profligate creature, headstrong, furious, and desperately wicked,
yet this man is a standing rule to us all for the well instructing
children, viz. that parents should never give over to teach and instruct,
nor ever despair of the success of their endeavours, let the children be
ever so refractory, or to appearance insensible to instruction; for if
ever God in His providence touches the conscience of such, the force of
their education turns upon them, and the early instruction of parents is
not lost, though it may have been many years laid asleep, but some time
or other they may find the benefit of it. Thus it was with this poor
man: however ignorant he was of religion and Christian knowledge, he
found he had some to do with now more ignorant than himself, and that the
least part of the instruction of his good father that now came to his
mind was of use to him.
Among the rest, it occurred to him, he said, how his father used to
insist so much on the inexpressible value of the Bible, and the privilege
and blessing of it to nations, families, and persons; but he never
entertained the least notion of the worth of it till now, when, being to
talk to heathens, savages, and barbarians, he wanted the help of the
written oracle for his assistance. The young woman was glad of it also
for the present occasion, though she had one, and so had the youth, on
board our ship among their goods, which were not yet brought on shore.
And now, having said so many things of this young woman, I cannot omit
telling one story more of her and myself, which has something in it very
instructive and remarkable.
I have related to what extremity the poor young woman was reduced; how
her mistress was starved to death, and died on board that unhappy ship we
met at sea, and how the whole ship's company was reduced to the last
extremity. The gentlewoman, and her son, and this maid, were first
hardly used as to provisions, and at last totally neglected and
starved--that is to say, brought to the last extremity of hunger. One
day, being discoursing with her on the extremities they suffered, I asked
her if she could describe, by what she had felt, what it was to starve,
and how it appeared? She said she believed she could, and told her tale
very distinctly thus:--
"First, we had for some days fared exceedingly hard, and suffered very
great hunger; but at last we were wholly without food of any kind except
sugar, and a little wine and water. The first day after I had received
no food at all, I found myself towards evening, empty and sick at the
stomach, and nearer night much inclined to yawning and sleep. I lay down
on the couch in the great cabin to sleep, and slept about three hours,
and awaked a little refreshed, having taken a glass of wine when I lay
down; after being about three hours awake, it being about five o'clock in
the morning, I found myself empty, and my stomach sickish, and lay down
again, but could not sleep at all, being very faint and ill; and thus I
continued all the second day with a strange variety--first hungry, then
sick again, with retchings to vomit. The second night, being obliged to
go to bed again without any food more than a draught of fresh water, and
being asleep, I dreamed I was at Barbadoes, and that the market was
mightily stocked with provisions; that I bought some for my mistress, and
went and dined very heartily. I thought my stomach was full after this,
as it would have been after a good dinner; but when I awaked I was
exceedingly sunk in my spirits to find myself in the extremity of family.
The last glass of wine we had I drank, and put sugar in it, because of
its having some spirit to supply nourishment; but there being no
substance in the stomach for the digesting office to work upon, I found
the only effect of the wine was to raise disagreeable fumes from the
stomach into the head; and I lay, as they told me, stupid and senseless,
as one drunk, for some time. The third day, in the morning, after a
night of strange, confused, and inconsistent dreams, and rather dozing
than sleeping, I awaked ravenous and furious with hunger; and I question,
had not my understanding returned and conquered it, whether if I had been
a mother, and had had a little child with me, its life would have been
safe or not. This lasted about three hours, during which time I was
twice raging mad as any creature in Bedlam, as my young master told me,
and as he can now inform you.
"In one of these fits of lunacy or distraction I fell down and struck my
face against the corner of a pallet-bed, in which my mistress lay, and
with the blow the blood gushed out of my nose; and the cabin-boy bringing
me a little basin, I sat down and bled into it a great deal; and as the
blood came from me I came to myself, and the violence of the flame or
fever I was in abated, and so did the ravenous part of the hunger. Then
I grew sick, and retched to vomit, but could not, for I had nothing in my
stomach to bring up. After I had bled some time I swooned, and they all
believed I was dead; but I came to myself soon after, and then had a most
dreadful pain in my stomach not to be described--not like the colic, but
a gnawing, eager pain for food; and towards night it went off with a kind
of earnest wishing or longing for food. I took another draught of water
with sugar in it; but my stomach loathed the sugar and brought it all up
again; then I took a draught of water without sugar, and that stayed with
me; and I laid me down upon the bed, praying most heartily that it would
please God to take me away; and composing my mind in hopes of it, I
slumbered a while, and then waking, thought myself dying, being light
with vapours from an empty stomach. I recommended my soul then to God,
and then earnestly wished that somebody would throw me into the sea.
"All this while my mistress lay by me, just, as I thought, expiring, but
she bore it with much more patience than I, and gave the last bit of
bread she had left to her child, my young master, who would not have
taken it, but she obliged him to eat it; and I believe it saved his life.
Towards the morning I slept again, and when I awoke I fell into a violent
passion of crying, and after that had a second fit of violent hunger. I
got up ravenous, and in a most dreadful condition; and once or twice I
was going to bite my own arm. At last I saw the basin in which was the
blood I had bled at my nose the day before: I ran to it, and swallowed it
with such haste, and such a greedy appetite, as if I wondered nobody had
taken it before, and afraid it should be taken from me now. After it was
down, though the thoughts of it filled me with horror, yet it checked the
fit of hunger, and I took another draught of water, and was composed and
refreshed for some hours after. This was the fourth day; and this I kept
up till towards night, when, within the compass of three hours, I had all
the several circumstances over again, one after another, viz. sick,
sleepy, eagerly hungry, pain in the stomach, then ravenous again, then
sick, then lunatic, then crying, then ravenous again, and so every
quarter of an hour, and my strength wasted exceedingly; at night I lay me
down, having no comfort but in the hope that I should die before morning.
"All this night I had no sleep; but the hunger was now turned into a
disease; and I had a terrible colic and griping, by wind instead of food
having found its way into the bowels; and in this condition I lay till
morning, when I was surprised by the cries and lamentations of my young
master, who called out to me that his mother was dead. I lifted myself
up a little, for I had not strength to rise, but found she was not dead,
though she was able to give very little signs of life. I had then such
convulsions in my stomach, for want of some sustenance, as I cannot
describe; with such frequent throes and pangs of appetite as nothing but
the tortures of death can imitate; and in this condition I was when I
heard the seamen above cry out, 'A sail! a sail!' and halloo and jump
about as if they were distracted. I was not able to get off from the
bed, and my mistress much less; and my young master was so sick that I
thought he had been expiring; so we could not open the cabin door, or get
any account what it was that occasioned such confusion; nor had we had
any conversation with the ship's company for twelve days, they having
told us that they had not a mouthful of anything to eat in the ship; and
this they told us afterwards--they thought we had been dead. It was this
dreadful condition we were in when you were sent to save our lives; and
how you found us, sir, you know as well as I, and better too."
This was her own relation, and is such a distinct account of starving to
death, as, I confess, I never met with, and was exceeding instructive to
me. I am the rather apt to believe it to be a true account, because the
youth gave me an account of a good part of it; though I must own, not so
distinct and so feeling as the maid; and the rather, because it seems his
mother fed him at the price of her own life: but the poor maid, whose
constitution was stronger than that of her mistress, who was in years,
and a weakly woman too, might struggle harder with it; nevertheless she
might be supposed to feel the extremity something sooner than her
mistress, who might be allowed to keep the last bit something longer than
she parted with any to relieve her maid. No question, as the case is
here related, if our ship or some other had not so providentially met
them, but a few days more would have ended all their lives. I now return
to my disposition of things among the people. And, first, it is to be
observed here, that for many reasons I did not think fit to let them know
anything of the sloop I had framed, and which I thought of setting up
among them; for I found, at least at my first coming, such seeds of
division among them, that I saw plainly, had I set up the sloop, and left
it among them, they would, upon every light disgust, have separated, and
gone away from one another; or perhaps have turned pirates, and so made
the island a den of thieves, instead of a plantation of sober and
religious people, as I intended it; nor did I leave the two pieces of
brass cannon that I had on board, or the extra two quarter-deck guns that
my nephew had provided, for the same reason. I thought it was enough to
qualify them for a defensive war against any that should invade them, but
not to set them up for an offensive war, or to go abroad to attack
others; which, in the end, would only bring ruin and destruction upon
them. I reserved the sloop, therefore, and the guns, for their service
another way, as I shall observe in its place.
Having now done with the island, I left them all in good circumstances
and in a flourishing condition, and went on board my ship again on the
6th of May, having been about twenty-five days among them: and as they
were all resolved to stay upon the island till I came to remove them, I
promised to send them further relief from the Brazils, if I could
possibly find an opportunity. I particularly promised to send them some
cattle, such as sheep, hogs, and cows: as to the two cows and calves
which I brought from England, we had been obliged, by the length of our
voyage, to kill them at sea, for want of hay to feed them.
The next day, giving them a salute of five guns at parting, we set sail,
and arrived at the bay of All Saints in the Brazils in about twenty-two
days, meeting nothing remarkable in our passage but this: that about
three days after we had sailed, being becalmed, and the current setting
strong to the ENE., running, as it were, into a bay or gulf on the land
side, we were driven something out of our course, and once or twice our
men cried out, "Land to the eastward!" but whether it was the continent
or islands we could not tell by any means. But the third day, towards
evening, the sea smooth, and the weather calm, we saw the sea as it were
covered towards the land with something very black; not being able to
discover what it was till after some time, our chief mate, going up the
main shrouds a little way, and looking at them with a perspective, cried
out it was an army. I could not imagine what he meant by an army, and
thwarted him a little hastily. "Nay, sir," says he, "don't be angry, for
'tis an army, and a fleet too: for I believe there are a thousand canoes,
and you may see them paddle along, for they are coming towards us apace."
I was a little surprised then, indeed, and so was my nephew the captain;
for he had heard such terrible stories of them in the island, and having
never been in those seas before, that he could not tell what to think of
it, but said, two or three times, we should all be devoured. I must
confess, considering we were becalmed, and the current set strong towards
the shore, I liked it the worse; however, I bade them not be afraid, but
bring the ship to an anchor as soon as we came so near as to know that we
must engage them. The weather continued calm, and they came on apace
towards us, so I gave orders to come to an anchor, and furl all our
sails; as for the savages, I told them they had nothing to fear but fire,
and therefore they should get their boats out, and fasten them, one close
by the head and the other by the stern, and man them both well, and wait
the issue in that posture: this I did, that the men in the boats might he
ready with sheets and buckets to put out any fire these savages might
endeavour to fix to the outside of the ship.
In this posture we lay by for them, and in a little while they came up
with us; but never was such a horrid sight seen by Christians; though my
mate was much mistaken in his calculation of their number, yet when they
came up we reckoned about a hundred and twenty-six canoes; some of them
had sixteen or seventeen men in them, and some more, and the least six or
seven. When they came nearer to us, they seemed to be struck with wonder
and astonishment, as at a sight which doubtless they had never seen
before; nor could they at first, as we afterwards understood, know what
to make of us; they came boldly up, however, very near to us, and seemed
to go about to row round us; but we called to our men in the boats not to
let them come too near them. This very order brought us to an engagement
with them, without our designing it; for five or six of the large canoes
came so near our long-boat, that our men beckoned with their hands to
keep them back, which they understood very well, and went back: but at
their retreat about fifty arrows came on board us from those boats, and
one of our men in the long-boat was very much wounded. However, I called
to them not to fire by any means; but we handed down some deal boards
into the boat, and the carpenter presently set up a kind of fence, like
waste boards, to cover them from the arrows of the savages, if they
should shoot again.
About half-an-hour afterwards they all came up in a body astern of us,
and so near that we could easily discern what they were, though we could
not tell their design; and I easily found they were some of my old
friends, the same sort of savages that I had been used to engage with. In
a short time more they rowed a little farther out to sea, till they came
directly broadside with us, and then rowed down straight upon us, till
they came so near that they could hear us speak; upon this, I ordered all
my men to keep close, lest they should shoot any more arrows, and made
all our guns ready; but being so near as to be within hearing, I made
Friday go out upon the deck, and call out aloud to them in his language,
to know what they meant. Whether they understood him or not, that I knew
not; but as soon as he had called to them, six of them, who were in the
foremost or nighest boat to us, turned their canoes from us, and stooping
down, showed us their naked backs; whether this was a defiance or
challenge we knew not, or whether it was done in mere contempt, or as a
signal to the rest; but immediately Friday cried out they were going to
shoot, and, unhappily for him, poor fellow, they let fly about three
hundred of their arrows, and to my inexpressible grief, killed poor
Friday, no other man being in their sight. The poor fellow was shot with
no less than three arrows, and about three more fell very near him; such
unlucky marksmen they were!
I was so annoyed at the loss of my old trusty servant and companion, that
I immediately ordered five guns to be loaded with small shot, and four
with great, and gave them such a broadside as they had never heard in
their lives before. They were not above half a cable's length off when
we fired; and our gunners took their aim so well, that three or four of
their canoes were overset, as we had reason to believe, by one shot only.
The ill manners of turning up their bare backs to us gave us no great
offence; neither did I know for certain whether that which would pass for
the greatest contempt among us might be understood so by them or not;
therefore, in return, I had only resolved to have fired four or five guns
at them with powder only, which I knew would frighten them sufficiently:
but when they shot at us directly with all the fury they were capable of,
and especially as they had killed my poor Friday, whom I so entirely
loved and valued, and who, indeed, so well deserved it, I thought myself
not only justifiable before God and man, but would have been very glad if
I could have overset every canoe there, and drowned every one of them.
I can neither tell how many we killed nor how many we wounded at this
broadside, but sure such a fright and hurry never were seen among such a
multitude; there were thirteen or fourteen of their canoes split and
overset in all, and the men all set a-swimming: the rest, frightened out
of their wits, scoured away as fast as they could, taking but little care
to save those whose boats were split or spoiled with our shot; so I
suppose that many of them were lost; and our men took up one poor fellow
swimming for his life, above an hour after they were all gone. The small
shot from our cannon must needs kill and wound a great many; but, in
short, we never knew how it went with them, for they fled so fast, that
in three hours or thereabouts we could not see above three or four
straggling canoes, nor did we ever see the rest any more; for a breeze of
wind springing up the same evening, we weighed and set sail for the
Brazils.
We had a prisoner, indeed, but the creature was so sullen that he would
neither eat nor speak, and we all fancied he would starve himself to
death. But I took a way to cure him: for I had made them take him and
turn him into the long-boat, and make him believe they would toss him
into the sea again, and so leave him where they found him, if he would
not speak; nor would that do, but they really did throw him into the sea,
and came away from him. Then he followed them, for he swam like a cork,
and called to them in his tongue, though they knew not one word of what
he said; however at last they took him in again, and then he began to be
more tractable: nor did I ever design they should drown him.
We were now under sail again, but I was the most disconsolate creature
alive for want of my man Friday, and would have been very glad to have
gone back to the island, to have taken one of the rest from thence for my
occasion, but it could not be: so we went on. We had one prisoner, as I
have said, and it was a long time before we could make him understand
anything; but in time our men taught him some English, and he began to be
a little tractable. Afterwards, we inquired what country he came from;
but could make nothing of what he said; for his speech was so odd, all
gutturals, and he spoke in the throat in such a hollow, odd manner, that
we could never form a word after him; and we were all of opinion that
they might speak that language as well if they were gagged as otherwise;
nor could we perceive that they had any occasion either for teeth,
tongue, lips, or palate, but formed their words just as a hunting-horn
forms a tune with an open throat. He told us, however, some time after,
when we had taught him to speak a little English, that they were going
with their kings to fight a great battle. When he said kings, we asked
him how many kings? He said they were five nation (we could not make him
understand the plural S), and that they all joined to go against two
nation. We asked him what made them come up to us? He said, "To makee
te great wonder look." Here it is to be observed that all those natives,
as also those of Africa when they learn English, always add two e's at
the end of the words where we use one; and they place the accent upon
them, as makee, takee, and the like; nay, I could hardly make Friday
leave it off, though at last he did.
And now I name the poor fellow once more, I must take my last leave of
him. Poor honest Friday! We buried him with all the decency and
solemnity possible, by putting him into a coffin, and throwing him into
the sea; and I caused them to fire eleven guns for him. So ended the
life of the most grateful, faithful, honest, and most affectionate
servant that ever man had.
We went now away with a fair wind for Brazil; and in about twelve days'
time we made land, in the latitude of five degrees south of the line,
being the north-easternmost land of all that part of America. We kept on
S. by E., in sight of the shore four days, when we made Cape St.
Augustine, and in three days came to an anchor off the bay of All Saints,
the old place of my deliverance, from whence came both my good and evil
fate. Never ship came to this port that had less business than I had,
and yet it was with great difficulty that we were admitted to hold the
least correspondence on shore: not my partner himself, who was alive, and
made a great figure among them, not my two merchant-trustees, not the
fame of my wonderful preservation in the island, could obtain me that
favour. My partner, however, remembering that I had given five hundred
moidores to the prior of the monastery of the Augustines, and two hundred
and seventy-two to the poor, went to the monastery, and obliged the prior
that then was to go to the governor, and get leave for me personally,
with the captain and one more, besides eight seamen, to come on shore,
and no more; and this upon condition, absolutely capitulated for, that we
should not offer to land any goods out of the ship, or to carry any
person away without licence. They were so strict with us as to landing
any goods, that it was with extreme difficulty that I got on shore three
bales of English goods, such as fine broadcloths, stuffs, and some linen,
which I had brought for a present to my partner.
He was a very generous, open-hearted man, although he began, like me,
with little at first. Though he knew not that I had the least design of
giving him anything, he sent me on board a present of fresh provisions,
wine, and sweetmeats, worth about thirty moidores, including some
tobacco, and three or four fine medals of gold: but I was even with him
in my present, which, as I have said, consisted of fine broadcloth,
English stuffs, lace, and fine holland; also, I delivered him about the
value of one hundred pounds sterling in the same goods, for other uses;
and I obliged him to set up the sloop, which I had brought with me from
England, as I have said, for the use of my colony, in order to send the
refreshments I intended to my plantation.
Accordingly, he got hands, and finished the sloop in a very few days, for
she was already framed; and I gave the master of her such instructions
that he could not miss the place; nor did he, as I had an account from my
partner afterwards. I got him soon loaded with the small cargo I sent
them; and one of our seamen, that had been on shore with me there,
offered to go with the sloop and settle there, upon my letter to the
governor Spaniard to allot him a sufficient quantity of land for a
plantation, and on my giving him some clothes and tools for his planting
work, which he said he understood, having been an old planter at
Maryland, and a buccaneer into the bargain. I encouraged the fellow by
granting all he desired; and, as an addition, I gave him the savage whom
we had taken prisoner of war to be his slave, and ordered the governor
Spaniard to give him his share of everything he wanted with the rest.
When we came to fit this man out, my old partner told me there was a
certain very honest fellow, a Brazil planter of his acquaintance, who had
fallen into the displeasure of the Church. "I know not what the matter
is with him," says he, "but, on my conscience, I think he is a heretic in
his heart, and he has been obliged to conceal himself for fear of the
Inquisition." He then told me that he would be very glad of such an
opportunity to make his escape, with his wife and two daughters; and if I
would let them go to my island, and allot them a plantation, he would
give them a small stock to begin with--for the officers of the
Inquisition had seized all his effects and estate, and he had nothing
left but a little household stuff and two slaves; "and," adds he, "though
I hate his principles, yet I would not have him fall into their hands,
for he will be assuredly burned alive if he does." I granted this
presently, and joined my Englishman with them; and we concealed the man,
and his wife and daughters, on board our ship, till the sloop put out to
go to sea; and then having put all their goods on board some time before,
we put them on board the sloop after she was got out of the bay. Our
seaman was mightily pleased with this new partner; and their stocks,
indeed, were much alike, rich in tools, in preparations, and a farm--but
nothing to begin with, except as above: however, they carried over with
them what was worth all the rest, some materials for planting
sugar-canes, with some plants of canes, which he, I mean the Brazil
planter, understood very well.
Among the rest of the supplies sent to my tenants in the island, I sent
them by the sloop three milch cows and five calves; about twenty-two
hogs, among them three sows; two mares, and a stone-horse. For my
Spaniards, according to my promise, I engaged three Brazil women to go,
and recommended it to them to marry them, and use them kindly. I could
have procured more women, but I remembered that the poor persecuted man
had two daughters, and that there were but five of the Spaniards that
wanted partners; the rest had wives of their own, though in another
country. All this cargo arrived safe, and, as you may easily suppose,
was very welcome to my old inhabitants, who were now, with this addition,
between sixty and seventy people, besides little children, of which there
were a great many. I found letters at London from them all, by way of
Lisbon, when I came back to England.
I have now done with the island, and all manner of discourse about it:
and whoever reads the rest of my memorandums would do well to turn his
thoughts entirely from it, and expect to read of the follies of an old
man, not warned by his own harms, much less by those of other men, to
beware; not cooled by almost forty years' miseries and
disappointments--not satisfied with prosperity beyond expectation, nor
made cautious by afflictions and distress beyond example.