With all the fail I could make, I found I should not be able to come in their way, but that they would be gone by before I could make any fignal to them; but after I had crouded to the utmott, and began to defpair, they, it feems, faw me by the help of their perfpective-glaffes, and that it was fome European boat, which they fuppofed muft belong to fome fhip that was loft; fo they fhortened fail to let me come up. I was encouraged with this; and as I had my patron's enfign on board, I made a waft of it to them, for a fignal of distress, and fired a gun, both of which they faw; for they told me they faw the fmoke, though they did not hear the gun; upon these fignals they very kindly brought to, and lay by for me, and in about three hours time I came up with them.

They asked me what I was, in Portuguese, in Spanish, and in French, but I understood none of them; but at laft a Scots failor, who was on board, called to me, and I answered him, and told him I was an Englishman, that had made my efcape out of flavery from the Moors, at Salee; then they bid me come on board, and very kindly took me in, and all my goods.

It was an inexpreffible joy to me, any one will believe, that I was thus delivered, as I efteemed it, from fuch a miferable, and almost hopeless condition as I was in; I immediately offered all I had to the captain of the ship, as a return for my deliverance; but he generously told me he would take nothing from me, but that all I had fhould be delivered fafe to me when I came to the Brafils; for, fays he, I have faved your life on no other terms, than as I would be glad to be faved myfelf; and it may one time or other be my lot to be taken up in the same condition. Befides, when I carry you to the Brafils, fo great a way from your own country, if I fhould take from you what little you have, you will be starved there, and then I only take away that life I have given. No, no, Signior Inglefe (Mr. Englishman) I would carry you there in charity; and these things will help you to buy your fubfiftence there, and your paffage home again.

As he was charitable in this propofal, fo he was just in the performance to a tittle; for he ordered the feamen, that none should offer to touch any thing I had; then he took every thing into his own poffeffion, and gave me

back an exact inventory of them, that I might have them again, even fo much as my three earthen jars.

As to my boat, it was a very good one, and that he faw, and told me he would buy it of me for the fhip's ufe, and asked me what I would have for it. I told him he had been fo generous to me in every thing, that I could not offer to make any price of the boat, but left it entirely to him; upon which he told me he would give me a note of his hand to pay me eighty pieces of eight for it at Brafil; and when it came there, if any one offered to give more, he would make it up. He offered me alfo 1ixty pieces of eight more for my boy Xury, which I was loath to take; not that I was unwilling to let the Captain have him, but I was very loath to fell the poor boy's liberty, who had affifted me fo faithfully in procuring my own. However, when I let him know my reafon, he owned it to be juft, and offered me this medium, that he would give the boy an obligation to fet him free in ten years, if he turned Chriftian. Upon this, and Xury faying he was willing to go to him, I let the Captain have him.

We had a very good voyage to the Brafils, and arrived in the bay de Todos los Santos, or All Saints Bay, in about twenty-two days after. And now I was once more delivered from the most miferable of all conditions of life, and what to do next with myself I was to confider.

The generous treatment the Captain gave me I can never fufficiently remember; he would take nothing of me for my paffage, gave me twenty ducats for the leopard's fkin, and forty for the lion's fkin, which I had in the boat; and caufed every thing I had in the ship to be punctually delivered me; and what I was willing to fell he bought; fuch as the cafe of bottles, two of my guns, and a piece of the lump of bees-wax, for I had made candles of the reft. In a word, I made about two hundred and thirty pieces of eight of all my cargo, and with this ftock I went on fhore in the Brafils.

I had not been long here, but being recommended to the house of a good honeft man like himself, who had an ingenio, as they call it, that is, a plantation, and a fugarhoufe, I lived with him fome time, and acquainted myfelf, by that means, with the manner of their planting and making fugar; and feeing how well the planters

lived, and how they grew rich fuddenly, I refolved, if I could get a licence to fettle there, I would turn planter among them; refolving, in the mean time, to find out fome way to get my money, which I had left in London, remitted to me. To this purpofe, getting a kind of a letter of naturalization, I purchased as much land, that was uncured, as my money would reach; and formed a plan for my plantation and fettlement, and fuch an one as might be fuitable to the stock which I proposed to myfelf to receive from England.

I had a neighbour, a Portuguefe of Lifbon, but born. of English parents, whofe name was Wells, and in much fuch circumftances as I was. I call him neighbour, becaufe his plantation lay next to mine, and we went on very fociably together; my ftock was but low, as well as his; and we rather planted for food than any thing elfe, for about two years. However, we began to increafe, and our land began to come into order; fo that the third year we planted fome tobacco, and made each of us a large piece of ground ready for planting canes in the year to come; but we both wanted help; and now I found more than before, I had done wrong in parting with my boy Xury.

But alas! for me to do wrong that never did right, was no great wonder; I had no remedy but to go on; 1 was gotten into an employment quite remote to my genius, and directly contrary to the life I delighted in, and for which I forfook my father's houfe, and broke through all his good advice. Nay, I was coming into the very middle itation, or upper degree of low life, which my father advised me to before, and which, if I refolved to go on with, I might as well have ftaid at home, and never fatigued myfelf in the world, as I have done and I used often to fay to myfelf, I could have done this as well in England among my friends, as have gone five thousand miles off, to do it among ftrangers and favages, in a wildernefs, and at fuch a distance as never to hear from any part of the world that had the leaft knowledge of me.

In this manner I used to look upon my condition with the utmoft regret. I had nobody to converfe with but now and then this neighbour; no work to be done but by the labour of my hands; and I used to say, I lived

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just

just like a man caft away upon fome defolate island, that had nobody there but himself: but how juft has it been, and how should all men reflect, that when they compare their prefent condition with others that are worse, heaven may oblige them to make the exchange, and be convinced of their former felicity, by their experience! I faw how juft it has been, that the truly folitary life I reflected on in an ifland, or mere defolation, fhould be my lot, who had fo often unjustly compared it with the life which I then led, in which, had I continued, I had, in all probability, been exceeding profperous and rich! I was in fome degree fettled in my measures for carrying on the plantation, before my kind friend the Captain of the fhip that took me up at fea, went back; for the fhip remained there in providing her loading, and preparing for her voyage, near three months; when telling him what little ftock I had left behind me in London, he gave me this friendly and fincere advice:-Signior Inglefe, fays he (for fo he always called me), if you will give me letters, and a procuration here, in form to me, with orders to the perfon who has your money in London, to fend your effects to Lisbon, to fuch perfons as I fhall direct, and in fuch goods as are proper for this country, I will bring you the produce of them, God willing, at my return; but fince human affairs are all fubject to changes and difafters, I would have you give orders but for one hundred pounds fterling, which you fay is half your stock, and let the hazard be run for the firft; fo that if it comes fafe, you may order the reft the fame way; and if it mifcarries, you may have the other half to have recourfe to for your fupply.

This was fuch wholesome advice, and looked fo friendly, that I could not but be convinced it was the best courfe, I could take; fo I accordingly prepared letters to the gentlewoman with whom I had left my money, and a procuration to the Portuguese Captain, as he defired.

I wrote the English Captain's widow a full account of all my adventures, my flavery, efcape, and how I had met with the Portugal Captain at fea, the humanity of his behaviour, and what condition I was now in, with all other neceffary directions for my fupply; and when this honeft Captain came to Lisbon, he found means, by

fome

fome of the English merchants there, to fend over not the order only, but a full account of my story to a merchant at London, who prefented it effectually to her; whereupon, the not only delivered the money, but out of her own pocket fent the Portugal Captain a very hand-fome prefent for his humanity and charity to me.

The merchant in London vefted this hundred pounds in English goods, fuch as the Captain had written for; fent them directly to him at Lisbon, and he brought them all fafe to me to the Brafils: among which, without my direction (for I was too young in my business to think of them), he had taken care to have all forts of tools, ironwork, and utenfils neceffary for my plantation, and which were of great ufe to me.

When this cargo arrived, I thought my fortune made, for I was furprized with the joy of it; and my good. Reward, the Captain, had laid out the five pounds which my friend had fent him for a prefent for himself, to purchase, and bring me over a fervant, under bond for fix years service, and would not accept of any confideration, except a little tobacco, which I would have him accept, being of my own produce..

Neither was this all; but my goods, being all English manufactures, fuch as cloth, ftuff, bays, and things particularly valuable and defirable in the country, I found means to fell them to a very great advantage; fo that I may say I had more than four times the value of my firft cargo, and was now infinitely beyond my poor neighbour, I mean in the advancement of my plantation; for for the first thing I did, I bought me a Negro flave, and. an European fervant alfo; I mean another befides that which the Captain brought me from Lisbon.

But as abufed profperity is oftentimes made the very means of our greatest adverfity, fo was it with me. I went on the next year with great fuccefs in my plantation; I raised fifty great rolls of tobacco, on my own. ground, more than I had difpofed of for neceffaries among my neighbours; and thefe fifty rolls being each of above. one hundred pounds weight, were well cured, and laid by, against the return of the fleet from Lisbon. And now increafing in bufinefs and wealth, my head began to be full of projects and undertakings beyond my reach ;