by Daniel Defoe
hearty tender of his friendship, and that of his family; and sentme, as a present, seven fine leopards' skins, which he had, it seems,received from Africa, by some other ship that he had sent thither, andwho, it seems, had made a better voyage than I. He sent me also fivechests of excellent sweetmeats, and a hundred pieces of gold uncoined,not quite so large as moidores. By the same fleet, my twomerchant-trustees shipped me one thousand two hundred chests of sugar,eight hundred rolls of tobacco, and the rest of the whole accountin gold.
I might well say now, indeed, that the latter end of Job was better thanthe beginning. It is impossible to express the flutterings of my veryheart when I found all my wealth about me; for as the Brazil ships comeall in fleets, the same ships which brought my letters brought my goods:and the effects were safe in the river before the letters came to myhand. In a word, I turned pale, and grew sick; and had not the old manrun and fetched me a cordial, I believe the sudden surprise of joy hadoverset nature, and I had died upon the spot: nay, after that, Icontinued very ill, and was so some hours till a physician being sentfor, and something of the real cause of my illness being known, heordered me to be let blood; after which I had relief, and grew well: butI verily believe, if I had not been eased by a vent given in that mannerto the spirits, I should have died.
I was now master, all on a sudden, of above five thousand poundssterling in money, and had an estate, as I might well call it, in theBrazils, of above a thousand pounds a year, as sure as an estate oflands in England; and, in a word, I was in a condition which I scarceknew how to understand, or how to compose myself for the enjoyment ofit. The first thing I did was to recompense my original benefactor, mygood old captain, who had been first charitable to me in my distress,kind to me in my beginning, and honest to me at the end. I showed himall that was sent to me; I told him, that next to the providence ofHeaven, which disposed all things, it was owing to him; and that it nowlay on me to reward him, which I would do a hundredfold: so I firstreturned to him the hundred moidores I had received of him; then I sentfor a notary, and caused him to draw up a general release or dischargefrom the four hundred and seventy moidores, which he had acknowledged heowed me, in the fullest and firmest manner possible. After which Icaused a procuration to be drawn, empowering him to be my receiver ofthe annual profits of my plantation, and appointing my partner toaccount with him, and make the returns by the usual fleets to him in myname; and a clause in the end, being a grant of one hundred moidores ayear to him during his life, out of the effects, and fifty moidores ayear to his son after him, for his life: and thus I requited my old man.
I was now to consider which way to steer my course next, and what to dowith the estate that Providence had thus put into my hands; and, indeed,I had more care upon my head now than I had in my silent state of lifein the island, where I wanted nothing but what I had, and had nothingbut what I wanted; whereas I had now a great charge upon me, and mybusiness was how to secure it. I had never a cave now to hide my moneyin, or a place where it might lie without lock or key, till it grewmouldy and tarnished before any body would meddle with it: on thecontrary, I knew not where to put it, or whom to trust with it. My oldpatron, the captain, indeed, was honest, and that was the only refuge Ihad. In the next place, my interest in the Brazils seemed to summon methither; but now I could not tell how to think of going thither till Ihad settled my affairs, and left my effects in some safe hands behindme. At first I thought of my old friend the widow, who I knew washonest, and would be just to me; but then she was in years, and butpoor, and, for aught. I knew, might be in debt; so that, in a word, Ihad no way but to go back to England myself, and take my effectswith me.
It was some months, however, before I resolved upon this; and therefore,as I had rewarded the old captain fully, and to his satisfaction, whohad been my former benefactor, so I began to think of my poor widow,whose husband had been my first benefactor, and she, while it was in herpower, my faithful steward and instructor. So the first thing I did, Igot a merchant in Lisbon to write to his correspondent in London, notonly to pay a bill, but to go find her out, and carry her in money ahundred pounds from me, and to talk with her, and comfort her in herpoverty, by telling her she should, if I lived, have a further supply:at the same time I sent my two sisters in the country a hundred pounds,each, they being, though not in want, yet not in very goodcircumstances; one having been married and left a widow; and the otherhaving a husband not so kind to her as he should be. But among all myrelations or acquaintances, I could not yet pitch upon one to whom Idurst commit the gross of my stock, that I might go away to theBrazils, and leave things safe behind me; and this greatly perplexed me.
I had once a mind to have gone to the Brazils, and have settled myselfthere, for I was, as it were, naturalized to the place; but I had somelittle scruple in my mind about religion, which insensibly drew me back.However, it was not religion that kept me from going there for thepresent; and as I had made no scruple of being openly of the religion ofthe country all the while I was among them, so neither did I yet; onlythat, now and then, having of late thought more of it than formerly,when I began to think of living and dying among them, I began to regretmy having professed myself a papist, and thought it might not be thebest religion to die with.
But, as I have said, this was not the main thing that kept me from goingto the Brazils, but that really I did not know with whom to leave myeffects behind me; so I resolved, at last, to go to England with it,where, if I arrived, I concluded I should make some acquaintance, orfind some relations that would be faithful to me; and, accordingly, Iprepared to go to England with all my wealth.
In order to prepare tilings for my going home, I first, the Brazil fleetbeing just going away, resolved to give answers suitable to the just andfaithful account of things I had from thence; and, first, to the priorof St. Augustine I wrote a letter full of thanks for their justdealings, and the offer of the eight hundred and seventy-two moidoreswhich were undisposed of, which I desired might be given, five hundredto the monastery, and three hundred and seventy-two to the poor, as theprior should direct; desiring the good padre's prayers for me, and thelike. I wrote next a letter of thanks to my two trustees, with all theacknowledgment that so much justice and honesty called for; as forsending them any present, they were far above having any occasion forit. Lastly, I wrote to my partner, acknowledging his industry in theimproving the plantation, and his integrity in increasing the stock ofthe, works; giving him instructions for his future government of mypart, according to the powers I had left with my old patron, to whom Idesired him to send whatever became due to me, till he should hear fromme more particularly; assuring him that it was my intention not only tocome to him, but to settle myself there for the remainder of my life. Tothis I added a very handsome present of some Italian silks for his wifeand two daughters, for such the captain's son informed me he had; withtwo pieces of fine English broad-cloth, the best I could get in Lisbon,five pieces of black baize, and some Flanders lace of a good value.
Having thus settled my affairs, sold my cargo, and turned all my effectsinto good bills of exchange, my next difficulty was, which way to go toEngland: I had been accustomed enough to the sea, and yet I had astrange aversion to go to England by sea at that time; and though Icould give no reason for it, yet the difficulty increased upon me somuch, that though I had once shipped my baggage in order to go, yet Ialtered my mind, and that not once, but two or three times.
It is true; I had been very unfortunate by sea, and this might be someof the reasons; but let no man slight the strong impulses of his ownthoughts in cases of such moment: two of the ships which I had singledout to go in, I mean more particularly singled out than any other,having put my things on board one of them, and in the other to haveagreed with the captain; I say, two of these ships miscarried, viz. onewas taken by the Algerines, and the other was cast away on the Start,near Torbay, and all the people drowned, except three; so that in eitherof those vessels I had been made miserable.
Having been thus harassed in my
thoughts, my old pilot, to whom Icommunicated every thing, pressed me earnestly not to go by sea, buteither to go by land to the Groyne, and cross over the Bay of Biscay toRochelle, from whence it was but an easy and safe journey by land toParis, and so to Calais and Dover; or to go up to Madrid, and so all theway by laud through France. In a word, I was so prepossessed against mygoing by sea at all, except from Calas to Dover, that I resolved totravel all the way by land; which, as I was not in haste, and did notvalue the charge, was by much the pleasanter way: and to make it moreso, my old captain brought an English gentleman, the son of a merchantin Lisbon, who was willing to travel with me; after which we picked uptwo more English merchants also, and two young Portuguese gentlemen, thelast going to Paris only; so that in all there were six of us, and fiveservants; the two merchants and the two Portuguese contenting themselveswith one servant between two, to save the charge; and as for me, I gotan English sailor to travel
