by Daniel Defoe
so illthat she could not think of going any farther in the stage-coach, whichhad tired her almost to death, and asked if she could not get us alodging for two or three days in a private house, where I might rest mea little, for the journey had been too much for me. The landlady, agood sort of woman, well-bred and very obliging, came immediately tosee me; told me she had two or three very good rooms in a part of thehouse quite out of the noise, and if I saw them, she did not doubt butI would like them, and I should have one of her maids, that should donothing else but be appointed to wait on me. This was so very kind,that I could not but accept of it, and thank her; so I went to look onthe rooms and liked them very well, and indeed they wereextraordinarily furnished, and very pleasant lodgings; so we paid thestage-coach, took out our baggage, and resolved to stay here a while.
Here I told him I would live with him now till all my money was spent,but would not let him spend a shilling of his own. We had some kindsquabble about that, but I told him it was the last time I was like toenjoy his company, and I desired he would let me be master in thatthing only, and he should govern in everything else; so he acquiesced.
Here one evening, taking a walk into the fields, I told him I would nowmake the proposal to him I had told him of; accordingly I related tohim how I had lived in Virginia, that I had a mother I believed wasalive there still, though my husband was dead some years. I told himthat had not my effects miscarried, which, by the way, I magnifiedpretty much, I might have been fortune good enough to him to have keptus from being parted in this manner. Then I entered into the manner ofpeoples going over to those countries to settle, how they had aquantity of land given them by the Constitution of the place; and ifnot, that it might be purchased at so easy a rate this it was not worthnaming.
I then gave him a full and distinct account of the nature of planting;how with carrying over but two or three hundred pounds value in Englishgoods, with some servants and tools, a man of application wouldpresently lay a foundation for a family, and in a very few years becertain to raise an estate.
I let him into the nature of the product of the earth; how the groundwas cured and prepared, and what the usual increase of it was; anddemonstrated to him, that in a very few years, with such a beginning,we should be as certain of being rich as we were now certain of beingpoor.
He was surprised at my discourse; for we made it the whole subject ofour conversation for near a week together, in which time I laid it downin black and white, as we say, that it was morally impossible, with asupposition of any reasonable good conduct, but that we must thrivethere and do very well.
Then I told him what measures I would take to raise such a sum of #300or thereabouts; and I argued with him how good a method it would be toput an end to our misfortunes and restore our circumstances in theworld, to what we had both expected; and I added, that after sevenyears, if we lived, we might be in a posture to leave our plantationsin good hands, and come over again and receive the income of it, andlive here and enjoy it; and I gave him examples of some that had doneso, and lived now in very good circumstances in London.
In short, I pressed him so to it, that he almost agreed to it, butstill something or other broke it off again; till at last he turned thetables, and he began to talk almost to the same purpose of Ireland.
He told me that a man that could confine himself to country life, andthat could find but stock to enter upon any land, should have farmsthere for #50 a year, as good as were here let for #200 a year; thatthe produce was such, and so rich the land, that if much was not laidup, we were sure to live as handsomely upon it as a gentleman of #3000a year could do in England and that he had laid a scheme to leave me inLondon, and go over and try; and if he found he could lay a handsomefoundation of living suitable to the respect he had for me, as hedoubted not he should do, he would come over and fetch me.
I was dreadfully afraid that upon such a proposal he would have takenme at my word, viz. to sell my little income as I called it, and turnit into money, and let him carry it over into Ireland and try hisexperiment with it; but he was too just to desire it, or to haveaccepted it if I had offered it; and he anticipated me in that, for headded, that he would go and try his fortune that way, and if he foundhe could do anything at it to live, then, by adding mine to it when Iwent over, we should live like ourselves; but that he would not hazarda shilling of mine till he had made the experiment with a little, andhe assured me that if he found nothing to be done in Ireland, he wouldthen come to me and join in my project for Virginia.
He was so earnest upon his project being to be tried first, that Icould not withstand him; however, he promised to let me hear from himin a very little time after his arriving there, to let me know whetherhis prospect answered his design, that if there was not a possibilityof success, I might take the occasion to prepare for our other voyage,and then, he assured me, he would go with me to America with all hisheart.
I could bring him to nothing further than this. However, thoseconsultations entertained us near a month, during which I enjoyed hiscompany, which indeed was the most entertaining that ever I met in mylife before. In this time he let me into the whole story of his ownlife, which was indeed surprising, and full of an infinite varietysufficient to fill up a much brighter history, for its adventures andincidents, than any I ever saw in print; but I shall have occasion tosay more of him hereafter.
We parted at last, though with the utmost reluctance on my side; andindeed he took his leave very unwillingly too, but necessity obligedhim, for his reasons were very good why he would not come to London, asI understood more fully some time afterwards.
I gave him a direction how to write to me, though still I reserved thegrand secret, and never broke my resolution, which was not to let himever know my true name, who I was, or where to be found; he likewiselet me know how to write a letter to him, so that, he said, he would besure to receive it.
I came to London the next day after we parted, but did not go directlyto my old lodgings; but for another nameless reason took a privatelodging in St. John's Street, or, as it is vulgarly called, St.Jones's, near Clerkenwell; and here, being perfectly alone, I hadleisure to sit down and reflect seriously upon the last seven months'ramble I had made, for I had been abroad no less. The pleasant hours Ihad with my last husband I looked back on with an infinite deal ofpleasure; but that pleasure was very much lessened when I found sometime after that I was really with child.
This was a perplexing thing, because of the difficulty which was beforeme where I should get leave to lie in; it being one of the nicestthings in the world at that time of day for a woman that was astranger, and had no friends, to be entertained in that circumstancewithout security, which, by the way, I had not, neither could I procureany.
I had taken care all this while to preserve a correspondence with myhonest friend at the bank, or rather he took care to correspond withme, for he wrote to me once a week; and though I had not spent my moneyso fast as to want any from him, yet I often wrote also to let him knowI was alive. I had left directions in Lancashire, so that I had theseletters, which he sent, conveyed to me; and during my recess at St.Jones's received a very obliging letter from him, assuring me that hisprocess for a divorce from his wife went on with success, though he metwith some difficulties in it that he did not expect.
I was not displeased with the news that his process was more tediousthan he expected; for though I was in no condition to have him yet, notbeing so foolish to marry him when I knew myself to be with child byanother man, as some I know have ventured to do, yet I was not willingto lose him, and, in a word, resolved to have him if he continued inthe same mind, as soon as I was up again; for I saw apparently I shouldhear no more from my husband; and as he had all along pressed to marry,and had assured me he would not be at all disgusted at it, or everoffer to claim me again, so I made no scruple to resolve to do it if Icould, and if my other friend stood to his bargain; and I had a greatdeal of reason to be assured that he would stand to it, by the lettershe wrote to me, which were
the kindest and most obliging that could be.
I now grew big, and the people where I lodged perceived it, and beganto take notice of it to me, and, as far as civility would allow,intimated that I must think of removing. This put me to extremeperplexity, and I grew very melancholy, for indeed I knew not whatcourse to take. I had money, but no friends, and was like to have achild upon my hands to keep, which was a difficulty I had never hadupon me yet, as the particulars of my story hitherto make appear.
In the course of this affair I fell very ill, and my melancholy reallyincreased my distemper; my illness proved at length to be only an ague,but my apprehensions were really that I should miscarry. I should notsay apprehensions, for indeed I would have been glad to miscarry, but Icould never be brought to entertain so much as a thought ofendeavouring to miscarry, or of taking any thing to make me miscarry; Iabhorred, I say, so much as the thought of it.
However, speaking of it in the house, the gentlewoman who kept thehouse
