kept others from interrupting him also; he continued in that posture
about three minutes, or a 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 room to move 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 country-folks;
laboured to compose them; 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, in the guiding themselves in all 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 something disordered by these extravagances among our new
guests for the first day; but when they had been retired, lodgings
provided for them as well as our ship would allow, and they 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, desiring 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, that as we had saved their lives, so all they had was little enough
for a return to us for the kindness received. The captain said, they had
saved some money, and some things of value in their boats, catched
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 was for accepting 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
Portugal captain that took me up at sea had served me so, and took all I
had for my deliverance, I must have starved, or have been as much a
slave at the Brasils as I had been at Barbary, the being sold to a
Mahometan only excepted; and perhaps a Portuguese is not a much better
master than a Turk, if not, in some cases, a 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 as 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 serve them, not to
plunder them; and that 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 then
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, which perhaps was directed by Heaven on purpose for
their deliverance, yet it was impossible for us wilfully to change our
voyage on this particular account; nor could my nephew, the captain,
answer it to the freighters, with whom he was under charter-party to
pursue his voyage by the way of Brasil; and all I knew he 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 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 a great consternation,
especially the passengers, at the notion of being carried away to the
East Indies: they then entreated me, that seeing 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 possible I might meet
some ship or sloop that they might hire to carry them back to Canada,
from whence they came.
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 to the poor people, but would be ruining our 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 see 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, that I would carry them to Martinico in the
West Indies.
The wind continued fresh easterly, but the weather pretty good; and as
it had blowed continually in the points between N.E. and S.E. 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: I readily agreed to that;
for I wonderfully liked the man, and had very good reason, as will
appear afterwards; also four of the seamen entered themselves in 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.
It was in the latitude of 27 degrees 5 minutes N. and the 19th day of
March 1684—5, when we espied a sail, our course S.E. and by S. We soon
perceived it was a large vessel, and that she bore up to us; but could
not at first know what to make of her, till, after coming a little
nearer, we found she had lost her main-topmast, fore-mast, and bowsprit;
and presently she fires a gun as a signal of distress. The weather was
pretty good, wind at N.N.W. a fresh gale, and we soon came to speak
with her.
We found her a ship of Bristol bound home from Barbadoes, but had been
blown out of the road at Barbadoes, a few days before she was ready to
sail, by a terrible hurricane, while the captain and chief mate were
both gone on shore; so that beside the terror of the storm, they were
but in an indifferent case for good artists to bring the ship home; they
had been already nine weeks at sea, and had met with another terrible
storm after the hurricane was over, which had blown them quite out of
their knowledge to the westward, and in which they had lost their masts,
as above; they told us, they expected to have seen the Bahama Islands,
but were then driven away again to the south-east by a strong gale of
wind at N.N.W. the same that blew now, and having no sails to work the
ship with, but a main-course, and a kind of square sail upon a
jury-foremast, which they had set up, they could not lie near the wind,
but were endeavouring to stand away for the Canaries.
But that which was worst of all, was, that they were almost starved for
want of provisions, besides the fatigues they had undergone; their bread
and flesh was quite gone, they had not an ounce left in the ship, and
had had none for eleven days; the only relief they had, was, their water
was not all spent, and they had about half a barrel of flour left; they
had sugar enough; some succades or sweetmeats they had at first, but
they were devoured; and they had seven casks of rum.
There was a youth and his mother, and a maid-servant, on board, who were
going passengers, and thinking the ship was ready to sail, unhappily
came on board the evening before the hurricane began; and having no
provisions of their own left, they were in a more deplorable condition
than the rest; for the seamen, being reduced to such an extreme
necessity themselves, had no compassion, we may be sure, for the poor
passengers; and they were indeed in a condition that their misery is
very hard to describe.
I had perhaps not known this part, if my curiosity had not led me, the
weather being fair, and the wind abated, to go on board the ship: the
second mate, who upon this occasion commanded the ship, had been on
board our ship; and he told me indeed, that they had three passengers in
the great cabin, that they were in a deplorable condition; “Nay,” says
he, “I believe they are dead, for I have heard nothing of them for above
two days; and I was afraid to inquire after them,” said he, “for I had
nothing to relieve them with.”
We immediately applied ourselves to give them what relief we could
spare; and indeed I had so far overruled things with my nephew, that I
would have victualled them, though we had gone away to Virginia, or any
part of the coast of America, to have supplied ourselves; but there was
no necessity for that.
But now they were in a new danger, for they were afraid of eating too
much, even of that little we gave them. The mate or commander brought
six men with him in his boat, but these poor wretches looked like
skeletons, and were so weak they could hardly sit to their oars; the
mate himself was very ill, and half-starved, for he declared he had
reserved nothing from the men, and went share and share alike with them
in every bit they ate.
I cautioned him to eat sparingly, but set meat before him immediately,
and he had not eaten three mouthfuls before he began to be sick, and out
of order; so he stopped awhile, and our surgeon mixed him up something
with some broth, which he said would be to him both food and physic; and
after he had taken it, he grew better: in the meantime I forgot not the
men; I ordered victuals to be given them, and the poor creatures rather
devoured than ate it; they were so exceeding hungry, that they were in a
manner ravenous, and had no command of themselves; and two of them ate
with so much greediness, that they were in danger of their lives the
next morning.
The sight of these people’s distress was very moving to me, and brought
to mind what I had a terrible respect of at my first coming on shore in
my island, where I had not the least mouthful of food, or any hopes of
procuring it; besides the hourly apprehension I had of being made the
food of other creatures. But all the while the mate was thus relating to
me the miserable condition of the ship’s company, I could not put out of
my thought the story he had told me of the three poor creatures in the
great cabin; viz. the mother, her son, and the maid-servant, whom he had
heard nothing of for two or three days; and whom he seemed to confess
they had wholly neglected, their own extremities being so great; by
which I understood that they had really given them no food at all; and
that therefore they must be perished, and be all lying dead perhaps on
the floor or deck of the cabin.
As I therefore kept the mate, whom we then called captain, on board with
his men to refresh them, so I also forgot not the starving crew that
were left on board, but ordered my own boat to go on board the ship and
with my mate and twelve men to carry them a sack of bread, and four or
five pieces of beef to boil. Our surgeon charged the men to cause the
meat to be boiled while they stayed, and to keep guard in the cook-room,
to prevent the men’s taking it to eat raw, or taking it out of the pot
before it was well boiled, and then to give every man but a little at a
time; and by this caution he preserved the men, who would otherwise have
killed themselves with that very food that was given them on purpose to
save their lives.
At the same time I ordered the mate to go into the great cabin, and see
what condition the poor passengers were in, and, if they were alive, to
comfort them and give them what refreshment was proper; and the surgeon
gave him a large pitcher with some of the prepared broth which he had
given the mate that was on board, and which he did not question would
restore them gradually.
I was not satisfied with this; but, as I said above, having a great mind
to see the scene of misery, which I knew the ship itself would present
me with, in a more lively manner than I could have it by report, I took
the captain of the ship, as we now called him, with me, and went myself
a little after in their boat.
I found the poor men on board almost in a tumult to get the victuals out
of the boiler before it was ready; but my mate observed his order, and
kept a good guard at the cook-room door; and the man he placed there,
after using all possible persuasion to have patience, kept them off by
force: however, he caused some biscuit cakes to be dipped in the pot,
and softened them with the liquor of the meat, which they call brewis,
and gave every one one, to stay their stomachs, and told them it was for
their own safety that he was obliged to give them but little at a time.
But it was all in vain, and had I not come on board, and their own
commander and officers with me, and with good words, and some threats
also of giving them no more, I believe they would have broke into the
cook-room by force, and torn the meat out of the furnace; for words
indeed are of a very small force to an hungry belly: however, we
pacified them, and fed them gradually and cautiously for the first time,
and the next time gave them more, and at last filled their bellies, and
the men did well enough.
But the misery of the poor passengers in the cabin was of another
nature, and far beyond the rest; for as, first, the ship’s company had
so little for themselves, it was but too true, that they had at first
kept them very low, and at last totally neglected them; so that for six
or seven days, it might be said, they had really had no food at all, and
for several days before, very little.
The poor mother, who, as the first mate reported, was a woman of good
sense and good breeding, had spared all she could get so affectionately
for her son, that at last she entirely sunk under it; and when the mate
of our ship went in, she sat upon the floor or deck, with her back up
against the sides, between two chairs, which were lashed fast, and her
head sunk in between her shoulders, like a corpse, though not quite
dead. My mate said all he could to revive and encourage her, and with a
spoon put some broth into her mouth; she opened her lips, and lifted up
one hand, but could not speak: yet she understood what he said, and made
signs to him, intimating, that it was too late for her; but pointed to
her child, as if she would have said, they should take care of him.
However, the mate, who was exceedingly moved with the sight, endeavoured
to get some of the broth into her mouth; and, as he said, got two or
three spoonfuls down, though I question whether he could be sure of it
or not; but it was too late, and she died the same night.
The youth, who was preserved at the price of his most affectionate
mother’s life, was not so far gone; yet he lay in a cabin-bed as one
stretched out, with hardly any life left in him; he had a piece of an
old glove in his mouth, having eaten up the rest of it; however, being
young, and having more strength than his mother, the mate got something
down his throat, and he began sensibly to revive, though, by giving him
some time after but two or three spoonfuls extraordinary, he was very
sick, and brought it up again.
But the next care was the poor maid; she lay all along upon the deck
hard by her mistress, and just like one that had fallen down with an
apoplexy, and struggled for life: her limbs were distorted, one of her
hands was clasped round the frame of one chair, and she griped it so
hard, that we could not easily make her let it go; her other arm lay
over her head, and her feet lay both together, set fast against the
frame of the cabin-table; in short, she lay just like one in the last
agonies of death; and yet she was alive too.
The poor creature was not only starved with hunger, and terrified with
the thoughts of death, but, as the men told us afterwards, was
broken-hearted for her mistress, whom she saw dying two or three days
before, and whom she loved most tenderly.
We knew not what to do with this poor girl; for when our surgeon, who
was a man of very great knowledge and experience, and with great
application recovered her as to life, he had her upon his hand as to her
senses, for she was little less than distracted for a considerable time
after; as shall appear presently.
Whoever shall read these memorandums, must be desired to consider, that
visits at sea are not like a journey into the country, where sometimes
people stay a week or a fortnight at a place. Our business was to
relieve this distressed ship’s crew, but not lie by for them; and though
they were willing to steer the same course with us for some days, yet we
could carry no sail to keep pace with a ship that had no masts: however,
as their captain begged of us to help him to set up a main-topmast, and
a kind of topmast to his jury-foremast, we did, as it were, lie by him
for three or four days, and then having given him five barrels of beef
and pork, two hogsheads of biscuit, and a proportion of peas, flour, and
what other things we could spare; and taking three casks of sugar and
some rum, and some pieces of eight of them for satisfaction, we left
them, taking on board with us, at their own earnest request, the youth
and the maid, and all their goods.
The young lad was about seventeen years of age, a pretty, well-bred,
modest, and sensible youth; greatly dejected with the loss of his
mother, and, as it happened had lost his father but a few months before
at Barbados. He begged of the surgeon to speak to me, to take him out of
the ship; for he said, the cruel fellows had murdered his mother; and
indeed so they had, that is to say, passively; for they might have
spared a small sustenance to the poor helpless widow, that might have
preserved her life, though it had been just to keep her alive. But
hunger knows no friend, no relation, no justice, no right; and therefore
is remorseless, and capable of no compassion.
The surgeon told him how far we were going, and how it would carry him
away from all his friends, and put him perhaps in as bad circumstance,
almost, as we found them in; that is to say, starving in the world. He
said it mattered not whither he went, if he was but delivered from the
terrible crew that he was among: that the captain (by which he meant me,
for he could know nothing of my nephew) had saved his life, and he was
sure would not hurt him; and as for the maid, he was sure, if she came
to herself, she would be very thankful for it, let us carry them whither
we would. The surgeon represented the case so affectionately to me, that
I yielded, and we took them both on board with all their goods, except
eleven hogsheads of sugar, which could not be removed, or come at; and
as the youth had a bill of lading for them, I made his commander sign a
writing, obliging him to go, as soon as he came to Bristol, to one Mr.
Rogers, a merchant there, to whom the youth said he was related, and to
deliver a letter which I wrote to him, and all the goods he had
belonging to the deceased widow; which I suppose was not done; for I
could never learn that the ship came to Bristol; but was, as is most
probable, lost at sea, being in so disabled a condition, and so far from
any land, that I am of opinion, the first storm she met with afterwards
she might founder in the sea; for she was leaky, and had damage in her
hold when I met with her.
I was now in the latitude of 19 deg. 32 min. and had hitherto had a
tolerable voyage as to weather, though at first the winds had been
contrary. I shall trouble nobody with the little incidents of wind,
weather, currents, &c. on the rest of our voyage; but, shortening my
story for the sake of what is to follow, shall observe, that I came to
my old habitation, the island, on the 10th of April, 1695. It was with
no small difficulty that I found the place; for as I came to it, and
went from it before, on the south and east side of the island, as coming
from the Brasils; so now coming in between the main and the island, and
having no chart for the coast, nor any land-mark, I did not know it when
I saw it, or know whether I saw it or no.
We beat about a great while, and went on shore on several islands in the
mouth of the great river Oroonoque, but none for my purpose: only this I
learnt by my coasting the shore, that I was under one great mistake
before, viz. that the continent which I thought I saw from the island I
lived in, was really no continent, but a long island, or rather a ridge
of islands reaching from one to the other side of the extended mouth of
that great river; and that the savages who came to my island, were not
properly those which we call Caribbees, but islanders, and other
barbarians of the same kind, who inhabited something nearer to our side
than the rest.
In short, I visited several of the islands to no purpose; some I found
were inhabited, and some were not. On one of them I found some
Spaniards, and thought they had lived there; but speaking with them,
found they had a sloop lay in a small creek hard by, and that they came
thither to make salt, and catch some pearl-muscles, if they could; but
they belonged to the Isle de Trinidad, which lay farther north, in the
latitude of 10 and 11 degrees.
Thus coasting from one island to another, sometimes with the ship,
sometimes with the Frenchman’s shallop (which we had found a convenient
boat, and therefore kept her with their very good will,) at length I
came fair on the south side of my island, and I presently knew the very
countenance of the place; so I brought the ship safe to an anchor
broadside with the little creek where was my old habitation.
As soon as I saw the place, I called for Friday, and asked him, if he
knew where he was? He looked about a little, and presently clapping his
hands, cried, “O yes, O there, O yes, O there!” pointing to our old
habitation, and fell a-dancing and capering like a mad fellow; and I had
much ado to keep him from jumping into the sea, to swim ashore to
the place.