The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders

by Daniel Defoe

and courage appeared in his very countenance. Sotrue is it, that the greatest of spirits, when overwhelmed by theirafflictions, are subject to the greatest dejections, and are the mostapt to despair and give themselves up.

  After some little pause to recover himself, my husband came up with me,and gave the mate thanks for the kindness, which he had expressed tous, and sent suitable acknowledgment by him to the captain, offering topay him by advance, whatever he demanded for our passage, and for theconveniences he had helped us to. The mate told him that the captainwould be on board in the afternoon, and that he would leave all thattill he came. Accordingly, in the afternoon the captain came, and wefound him the same courteous, obliging man that the boatswain hadrepresented him to be; and he was so well pleased with my husband'sconversation, that, in short, he would not let us keep the cabin we hadchosen, but gave us one that, as I said before, opened into the greatcabin.

  Nor were his conditions exorbitant, or the man craving and eager tomake a prey of us, but for fifteen guineas we had our whole passage andprovisions and cabin, ate at the captain's table, and were veryhandsomely entertained.

  The captain lay himself in the other part of the great cabin, havinglet his round house, as they call it, to a rich planter who went overwith his wife and three children, who ate by themselves. He had someother ordinary passengers, who quartered in the steerage, and as forour old fraternity, they were kept under the hatches while the ship laythere, and came very little on the deck.

  I could not refrain acquainting my governess with what had happened; itwas but just that she, who was so really concerned for me, should havepart in my good fortune. Besides, I wanted her assistance to supply mewith several necessaries, which before I was shy of letting anybody seeme have, that it might not be public; but now I had a cabin and room toset things in, I ordered abundance of good things for our comfort inthe voyage, as brandy, sugar, lemons, etc., to make punch, and treatour benefactor, the captain; and abundance of things for eating anddrinking in the voyage; also a larger bed, and bedding proportioned toit; so that, in a word, we resolved to want for nothing in the voyage.

  All this while I had provided nothing for our assistance when we shouldcome to the place and begin to call ourselves planters; and I was farfrom being ignorant of what was needful on that occasion; particularlyall sorts of tools for the planter's work, and for building; and allkinds of furniture for our dwelling, which, if to be bought in thecountry, must necessarily cost double the price.

  So I discoursed that point with my governess, and she went and waitedupon the captain, and told him that she hoped ways might be found outfor her two unfortunate cousins, as she called us, to obtain ourfreedom when we came into the country, and so entered into a discoursewith him about the means and terms also, of which I shall say more inits place; and after thus sounding the captain, she let him know,though we were unhappy in the circumstances that occasioned our going,yet that we were not unfurnished to set ourselves to work in thecountry, and we resolved to settle and live there as planters, if wemight be put in a way how to do it. The captain readily offered hisassistance, told her the method of entering upon such business, and howeasy, nay, how certain it was for industrious people to recover theirfortunes in such a manner. 'Madam,' says he, ''tis no reproach to anymany in that country to have been sent over in worse circumstances thanI perceive your cousins are in, provided they do but apply withdiligence and good judgment to the business of that place when theycome there.'

  She then inquired of him what things it was necessary we should carryover with us, and he, like a very honest as well as knowing man, toldher thus: 'Madam, your cousins in the first place must procuresomebody to buy them as servants, in conformity to the conditions oftheir transportation, and then, in the name of that person, they may goabout what they will; they may either purchase some plantations alreadybegun, or they may purchase land of the Government of the country, andbegin where they please, and both will be done reasonably.' She bespokehis favour in the first article, which he promised to her to take uponhimself, and indeed faithfully performed it, and as to the rest, hepromised to recommend us to such as should give us the best advice, andnot to impose upon us, which was as much as could be desired.

  She then asked him if it would not be necessary to furnish us with astock of tools and materials for the business of planting, and he said,'Yes, by all means.' And then she begged his assistance in it. Shetold him she would furnish us with everything that was convenientwhatever it cost her. He accordingly gave her a long particular ofthings necessary for a planter, which, by his account, came to aboutfourscore or a hundred pounds. And, in short, she went about asdexterously to buy them, as if she had been an old Virginia merchant;only that she bought, by my direction, above twice as much ofeverything as he had given her a list of.

  These she put on board in her own name, took his bills of loading forthem, and endorsed those bills of loading to my husband, insuring thecargo afterwards in her own name, by our order; so that we wereprovided for all events, and for all disasters.

  I should have told you that my husband gave her all his whole stock of#108, which, as I have said, he had about him in gold, to lay out thus,and I gave her a good sum besides; so that I did not break into thestock which I had left in her hands at all, but after we had sorted outour whole cargo, we had yet near #200 in money, which was more thanenough for our purpose.

  In this condition, very cheerful, and indeed joyful at being so happilyaccommodated as we were, we set sail from Bugby's Hole to Gravesend,where the ship lay about ten more days, and where the captain came onboard for good and all. Here the captain offered us a civility, whichindeed we had no reason to expect, namely, to let us go on shore andrefresh ourselves, upon giving our words in a solemn manner that wewould not go from him, and that we would return peaceably on boardagain. This was such an evidence of his confidence in us, that itovercame my husband, who, in a mere principle of gratitude, told him,as he could not be in any capacity to make a suitable return for such afavour, so he could not think of accepting of it, nor could he be easythat the captain should run such a risk. After some mutual civilities,I gave my husband a purse, in which was eighty guineas, and he put ininto the captain's hand. 'There, captain,' says he, 'there's part of apledge for our fidelity; if we deal dishonestly with you on anyaccount, 'tis your own.' And on this we went on shore.

  Indeed, the captain had assurance enough of our resolutions to go, forthat having made such provision to settle there, it did not seemrational that we would choose to remain here at the expense and perilof life, for such it must have been if we had been taken again. In aword, we went all on shore with the captain, and supped together inGravesend, where we were very merry, stayed all night, lay at the housewhere we supped, and came all very honestly on board again with him inthe morning. Here we bought ten dozen bottles of good beer, some wine,some fowls, and such things as we thought might be acceptable on board.

  My governess was with us all this while, and went with us round intothe Downs, as did also the captain's wife, with whom she went back. Iwas never so sorrowful at parting with my own mother as I was atparting with her, and I never saw her more. We had a fair easterlywind sprung up the third day after we came to the Downs, and we sailedfrom thence the 10th of April. Nor did we touch any more at any place,till, being driven on the coast of Ireland by a very hard gale of wind,the ship came to an anchor in a little bay, near the mouth of a river,whose name I remember not, but they said the river came down fromLimerick, and that it was the largest river in Ireland.

  Here, being detained by bad weather for some time, the captain, whocontinued the same kind, good-humoured man as at first, took us two onshore with him again. He did it now in kindness to my husband indeed,who bore the sea very ill, and was very sick, especially when it blewso hard. Here we bought in again a store of fresh provisions,especially beef, pork, mutton, and fowls, and the captain stayed topickle up five or six barrels of beef to lengthen out the ship's store.We w
ere here not above five days, when the weather turning mild, and afair wind, we set sail again, and in two-and-forty days came safe tothe coast of Virginia.

  When we drew near to the shore, the captain called me to him, and toldme that he found by my discourse I had some relations in the place, andthat I had been there before, and so he supposed I understood thecustom in their disposing the convict prisoners when they arrived. Itold him I did not, and that as to what relations I had in the place,he might be sure I would make myself known to none of them while I wasin the circumstances of a prisoner, and that as to the rest, we leftourselves entirely to him to assist us, as he was pleased to promise ushe would do. He told me I must get somebody in the place to come andbuy us as servants, and who must answer for us to the governor of thecountry, if he demanded us. I told him we should do as he shoulddirect; so he brought a planter to treat with