Chapter VIII. Sails from the Island for the Brazils

by Daniel Defoe

　　It now came into my thoughts that I had hinted to my friend theclergyman that the work of converting the savages might perhaps beset on foot in his absence to his satisfaction, and I told him thatnow I thought that it was put in a fair way; for the savages, beingthus divided among the Christians, if they would but every one ofthem do their part with those which came under their hands, I hopedit might have a very good effect.He agreed presently in that, if they did their part. "But how,"says he, "shall we obtain that of them?" I told him we would callthem all together, and leave it in charge with them, or go to them,one by one, which he thought best; so we divided it - he to speakto the Spaniards, who were all Papists, and I to speak to theEnglish, who were all Protestants; and we recommended it earnestlyto them, and made them promise that they would never make anydistinction of Papist or Protestant in their exhorting the savagesto turn Christians, but teach them the general knowledge of thetrue God, and of their Saviour Jesus Christ; and they likewisepromised us that they would never have any differences or disputesone with another about religion.When I came to Will Atkins's house, I found that the young woman Ihave mentioned above, and Will Atkins's wife, were becomeintimates; and this prudent, religious young woman had perfectedthe work Will Atkins had begun; and though it was not above fourdays after what I have related, yet the new-baptized savage womanwas made such a Christian as I have seldom heard of in all myobservation or conversation in the world. It came next into mymind, in the morning before I went to them, that amongst all theneedful things I had to leave with them I had not left them aBible, in which I showed myself less considering for them than mygood friend the widow was for me when she sent me the cargo of ahundred pounds from Lisbon, where she packed up three Bibles and aPrayer-book. However, the good woman's charity had a greaterextent than ever she imagined, for they were reserved for thecomfort and instruction of those that made much better use of themthan I had done.I took one of the Bibles in my pocket, and when I came to WillAtkins's tent, or house, and found the young woman and Atkins'sbaptized wife had been discoursing of religion together - for WillAtkins told it me with a great deal of joy - I asked if they weretogether now, and he said, "Yes"; so I went into the house, and hewith me, and we found them together very earnest in discourse."Oh, sir," says Will Atkins, "when God has sinners to reconcile toHimself, and aliens to bring home, He never wants a messenger; mywife has got a new instructor: I knew I was unworthy, as I wasincapable of that work; that young woman has been sent hither fromheaven - she is enough to convert a whole island of savages." Theyoung woman blushed, and rose up to go away, but I desired her tosit-still; I told her she had a good work upon her hands, and Ihoped God would bless her in it.We talked a little, and I did not perceive that they had any bookamong them, though I did not ask; but I put my hand into my pocket,and pulled out my Bible. "Here," said I to Atkins, "I have broughtyou an assistant that perhaps you had not before." The man was soconfounded that he was not able to speak for some time; but,recovering himself, he takes it with both his hands, and turning tohis wife, "Here, my dear," says he, "did not I tell you our God,though He lives above, could hear what we have said? Here's thebook I prayed for when you and I kneeled down under the bush; nowGod has heard us and sent it." When he had said so, the man fellinto such passionate transports, that between the joy of having it,and giving God thanks for it, the tears ran down his face like achild that was crying.The woman was surprised, and was like to have run into a mistakethat none of us were aware of; for she firmly believed God had sentthe book upon her husband's petition. It is true thatprovidentially it was so, and might be taken so in a consequentsense; but I believe it would have been no difficult matter at thattime to have persuaded the poor woman to have believed that anexpress messenger came from heaven on purpose to bring thatindividual book. But it was too serious a matter to suffer anydelusion to take place, so I turned to the young woman, and toldher we did not desire to impose upon the new convert in her firstand more ignorant understanding of things, and begged her toexplain to her that God may be very properly said to answer ourpetitions, when, in the course of His providence, such things arein a particular manner brought to pass as we petitioned for; but wedid not expect returns from heaven in a miraculous and particularmanner, and it is a mercy that it is not so.This the young woman did afterwards effectually, so that there wasno priestcraft used here; and I should have thought it one of themost unjustifiable frauds in the world to have had it so. But theeffect upon Will Atkins is really not to be expressed; and there,we may be sure, was no delusion. Sure no man was ever morethankful in the world for anything of its kind than he was for theBible, nor, I believe, never any man was glad of a Bible from abetter principle; and though he had been a most profligatecreature, headstrong, furious, and desperately wicked, yet this manis a standing rule to us all for the well instructing children,viz. that parents should never give over to teach and instruct, norever despair of the success of their endeavours, let the childrenbe ever so refractory, or to appearance insensible to instruction;for if ever God in His providence touches the conscience of such,the force of their education turns upon them, and the earlyinstruction of parents is not lost, though it may have been manyyears laid asleep, but some time or other they may find the benefitof it. Thus it was with this poor man: however ignorant he was ofreligion and Christian knowledge, he found he had some to do withnow more ignorant than himself, and that the least part of theinstruction of his good father that now came to his mind was of useto him.Among the rest, it occurred to him, he said, how his father used toinsist so much on the inexpressible value of the Bible, and theprivilege and blessing of it to nations, families, and persons; buthe never entertained the least notion of the worth of it till now,when, being to talk to heathens, savages, and barbarians, he wantedthe help of the written oracle for his assistance. The young womanwas glad of it also for the present occasion, though she had one,and so had the youth, on board our ship among their goods, whichwere not yet brought on shore. And now, having said so many thingsof this young woman, I cannot omit telling one story more of herand myself, which has something in it very instructive andremarkable.I have related to what extremity the poor young woman was reduced;how her mistress was starved to death, and died on board thatunhappy ship we met at sea, and how the whole ship's company wasreduced to the last extremity. The gentlewoman, and her son, andthis maid, were first hardly used as to provisions, and at lasttotally neglected and starved - that is to say, brought to the lastextremity of hunger. One day, being discoursing with her on theextremities they suffered, I asked her if she could describe, bywhat she had felt, what it was to starve, and how it appeared? Shesaid she believed she could, and told her tale very distinctlythus:-"First, we had for some days fared exceedingly hard, and sufferedvery great hunger; but at last we were wholly without food of anykind except sugar, and a little wine and water. The first dayafter I had received no food at all, I found myself towardsevening, empty and sick at the stomach, and nearer night muchinclined to yawning and sleep. I lay down on the couch in thegreat cabin to sleep, and slept about three hours, and awaked alittle refreshed, having taken a glass of wine when I lay down;after being about three hours awake, it being about five o'clock inthe morning, I found myself empty, and my stomach sickish, and laydown again, but could not sleep at all, being very faint and ill;and thus I continued all the second day with a strange variety -first hungry, then sick again, with retchings to vomit. The secondnight, being obliged to go to bed again without any food more thana draught of fresh water, and being asleep, I dreamed I was atBarbadoes, and that the market was mightily stocked withprovisions; that I bought some for my mistress, and went and dinedvery heartily. I thought my stomach was full after this, as itwould have been after a good dinner; but when I awaked I wasexceedingly sunk in my spirits to find myself in the extremity offamily. The last glass of wine we had I drank, and put sugar init, because of its having some spirit to supply nourishment; butthere being no substance in the stomach for the digesting office towork upon, I found the only effect of the wine was to raisedisagreeable fumes from the stomach into the head; and I lay, asthey told me, stupid and senseless, as one drunk, for some time.The third day, in the morning, after a night of strange, confused,and inconsistent dreams, and rather dozing than sleeping, I awakedravenous and furious with hunger; and I question, had not myunderstanding returned and conquered it, whether if I had been amother, and had had a little child with me, its life would havebeen safe or not. This lasted about three hours, during which timeI was twice raging mad as any creature in Bedlam, as my youngmaster told me, and as he can now inform you."In one of these fits of lunacy or distraction I fell down andstruck my face against the corner of a pallet-bed, in which mymistress lay, and with the blow the blood gushed out of my nose;and the cabin-boy bringing me a little basin, I sat down and bledinto it a great deal; and as the blood came from me I came tomyself, and the violence of the flame or fever I was in abated, andso did the ravenous part of the hunger. Then I grew sick, andretched to vomit, but could not, for I had nothing in my stomach tobring up. After I had bled some time I swooned, and they allbelieved I was dead; but I came to myself soon after, and then hada most dreadful pain in my stomach not to be described - not likethe colic, but a gnawing, eager pain for food; and towards night itwent off with a kind of earnest wishing or longing for food. Itook another draught of water with sugar in it; but my stomachloathed the sugar and brought it all up again; then I took adraught of water without sugar, and that stayed with me; and I laidme down upon the bed, praying most heartily that it would pleaseGod to take me away; and composing my mind in hopes of it, Islumbered a while, and then waking, thought myself dying, beinglight with vapours from an empty stomach. I recommended my soulthen to God, and then earnestly wished that somebody would throw meinto the into the sea."All this while my mistress lay by me, just, as I thought,expiring, but she bore it with much more patience than I, and gavethe last bit of bread she had left to her child, my young master,who would not have taken it, but she obliged him to eat it; and Ibelieve it saved his life. Towards the morning I slept again, andwhen I awoke I fell into a violent passion of crying, and afterthat had a second fit of violent hunger. I got up ravenous, and ina most dreadful condition; and once or twice I was going to bite myown arm. At last I saw the basin in which was the blood I had bledat my nose the day before: I ran to it, and swallowed it with suchhaste, and such a greedy appetite, as if I wondered nobody hadtaken it before, and afraid it should be taken from me now. Afterit was down, though the thoughts of it filled me with horror, yetit checked the fit of hunger, and I took another draught of water,and was composed and refreshed for some hours after. This was thefourth day; and this I kept up till towards night, when, within thecompass of three hours, I had all the several circumstances overagain, one after another, viz. sick, sleepy, eagerly hungry, painin the stomach, then ravenous again, then sick, then lunatic, thencrying, then ravenous again, and so every quarter of an hour, andmy strength wasted exceedingly; at night I lay me down, having nocomfort but in the hope that I should die before morning."All this night I had no sleep; but the hunger was now turned intoa disease; and I had a terrible colic and griping, by wind insteadof food having found its way into the bowels; and in this conditionI lay till morning, when I was surprised by the cries andlamentations of my young master, who called out to me that hismother was dead. I lifted myself up a little, for I had notstrength to rise, but found she was not dead, though she was ableto give very little signs of life. I had then such convulsions inmy stomach, for want of some sustenance, as I cannot describe; withsuch frequent throes and pangs of appetite as nothing but thetortures of death can imitate; and in this condition I was when Iheard the seamen above cry out, 'A sail! a sail!' and halloo andjump about as if they were distracted. I was not able to get offfrom the bed, and my mistress much less; and my young master was sosick that I thought he had been expiring; so we could not open thecabin door, or get any account what it was that occasioned suchconfusion; nor had we had any conversation with the ship's companyfor twelve days, they having told us that they had not a mouthfulof anything to eat in the ship; and this they told us afterwards -they thought we had been dead. It was this dreadful condition wewere in when you were sent to save our lives; and how you found us,sir, you know as well as I, and better too."This was her own relation, and is such a distinct account ofstarving to death, as, I confess, I never met with, and wasexceeding instructive to me. I am the rather apt to believe it tobe a true account, because the youth gave me an account of a goodpart of it; though I must own, not so distinct and so feeling asthe maid; and the rather, because it seems his mother fed him atthe price of her own life: but the poor maid, whose constitutionwas stronger than that of her mistress, who was in years, and aweakly woman too, might struggle harder with it; nevertheless shemight be supposed to feel the extremity something sooner than hermistress, who might be allowed to keep the last bit somethinglonger than she parted with any to relieve her maid. No question,as the case is here related, if our ship or some other had not soprovidentially met them, but a few days more would have ended alltheir lives. I now return to my disposition of things among thepeople. And, first, it is to be observed here, that for manyreasons I did not think fit to let them know anything of the sloopI had framed, and which I thought of setting up among them; for Ifound, at least at my first coming, such seeds of division amongthem, that I saw plainly, had I set up the sloop, and left it amongthem, they would, upon every light disgust, have separated, andgone away from one another; or perhaps have turned pirates, and somade the island a den of thieves, instead of a plantation of soberand religious people, as I intended it; nor did I leave the twopieces of brass cannon that I had on board, or the extra twoquarter-deck guns that my nephew had provided, for the same reason.I thought it was enough to qualify them for a defensive war againstany that should invade them, but not to set them up for anoffensive war, or to go abroad to attack others; which, in the end,would only bring ruin and destruction upon them. I reserved thesloop, therefore, and the guns, for their service another way, as Ishall observe in its place.Having now done with the island, I left them all in goodcircumstances and in a flourishing condition, and went on board myship again on the 6th of May, having been about twenty-five daysamong them: and as they were all resolved to stay upon the islandtill I came to remove them, I promised to send them further relieffrom the Brazils, if I could possibly find an opportunity. Iparticularly promised to send them some cattle, such as sheep,hogs, and cows: as to the two cows and calves which I brought fromEngland, we had been obliged, by the length of our voyage, to killthem at sea, for want of hay to feed them.The next day, giving them a salute of five guns at parting, we setsail, and arrived at the bay of All Saints in the Brazils in abouttwenty-two days, meeting nothing remarkable in our passage butthis: that about three days after we had sailed, being becalmed,and the current setting strong to the ENE., running, as it were,into a bay or gulf on the land side, we were driven something outof our course, and once or twice our men cried out, "Land to theeastward!" but whether it was the continent or islands we could nottell by any means. But the third day, towards evening, the seasmooth, and the weather calm, we saw the sea as it were coveredtowards the land with something very black; not being able todiscover what it was till after some time, our chief mate, going upthe main shrouds a little way, and looking at them with aperspective, cried out it was an army. I could not imagine what hemeant by an army, and thwarted him a little hastily. "Nay, sir,"says he, "don't be angry, for 'tis an army, and a fleet too: for Ibelieve there are a thousand canoes, and you may see them paddlealong, for they are coming towards us apace."I was a little surprised then, indeed, and so was my nephew thecaptain; for he had heard such terrible stories of them in theisland, and having never been in those seas before, that he couldnot tell what to think of it, but said, two or three times, weshould all be devoured. I must confess, considering we werebecalmed, and the current set strong towards the shore, I liked itthe worse; however, I bade them not be afraid, but bring the shipto an anchor as soon as we came so near as to know that we mustengage them. The weather continued calm, and they came on apacetowards us, so I gave orders to come to an anchor, and furl all oursails; as for the savages, I told them they had nothing to fear butfire, and therefore they should get their boats out, and fastenthem, one close by the head and the other by the stern, and manthem both well, and wait the issue in that posture: this I did,that the men in the boats might he ready with sheets and buckets toput out any fire these savages might endeavour to fix to theoutside of the ship.In this posture we lay by for them, and in a little while they cameup with us; but never was such a horrid sight seen by Christians;though my mate was much mistaken in his calculation of theirnumber, yet when they came up we reckoned about a hundred andtwenty-six canoes; some of them had sixteen or seventeen men inthem, and some more, and the least six or seven. When they camenearer to us, they seemed to be struck with wonder andastonishment, as at a sight which doubtless they had never seenbefore; nor could they at first, as we afterwards understood, knowwhat to make of us; they came boldly up, however, very near to us,and seemed to go about to row round us; but we called to our men inthe boats not to let them come too near them. This very orderbrought us to an engagement with them, without our designing it;for five or six of the large canoes came so near our long-boat,that our men beckoned with their hands to keep them back, whichthey understood very well, and went back: but at their retreatabout fifty arrows came on board us from those boats, and one ofour men in the long-boat was very much wounded. However, I calledto them not to fire by any means; but we handed down some dealboards into the boat, and the carpenter presently set up a kind offence, like waste boards, to cover them from the arrows of thesavages, if they should shoot again.About half-an-hour afterwards they all came up in a body astern ofus, and so near that we could easily discern what they were, thoughwe could not tell their design; and I easily found they were someof my old friends, the same sort of savages that I had been used toengage with. In a short time more they rowed a little farther outto sea, till they came directly broadside with us, and then roweddown straight upon us, till they came so near that they could hearus speak; upon this, I ordered all my men to keep close, lest theyshould shoot any more arrows, and made all our guns ready; butbeing so near as to be within hearing, I made Friday go out uponthe deck, and call out aloud to them in his language, to know whatthey meant. Whether they understood him or not, that I knew not;but as soon as he had called to them, six of them, who were in theforemost or nighest boat to us, turned their canoes from us, andstooping down, showed us their naked backs; whether this was adefiance or challenge we knew not, or whether it was done in merecontempt, or as a signal to the rest; but immediately Friday criedout they were going to shoot, and, unhappily for him, poor fellow,they let fly about three hundred of their arrows, and to myinexpressible grief, killed poor Friday, no other man being intheir sight. The poor fellow was shot with no less than threearrows, and about three more fell very near him; such unluckymarksmen they were!I was so annoyed at the loss of my old trusty servant andcompanion, that I immediately ordered five guns to be loaded withsmall shot, and four with great, and gave them such a broadside asthey had never heard in their lives before. They were not abovehalf a cable's length off when we fired; and our gunners took theiraim so well, that three or four of their canoes were overset, as wehad reason to believe, by one shot only. The ill manners ofturning up their bare backs to us gave us no great offence; neitherdid I know for certain whether that which would pass for thegreatest contempt among us might be understood so by them or not;therefore, in return, I had only resolved to have fired four orfive guns at them with powder only, which I knew would frightenthem sufficiently: but when they shot at us directly with all thefury they were capable of, and especially as they had killed mypoor Friday, whom I so entirely loved and valued, and who, indeed,so well deserved it, I thought myself not only justifiable beforeGod and man, but would have been very glad if I could have oversetevery canoe there, and drowned every one of them.I can neither tell how many we killed nor how many we wounded atthis broadside, but sure such a fright and hurry never were seenamong such a multitude; there were thirteen or fourteen of theircanoes split and overset in all, and the men all set a-swimming:the rest, frightened out of their wits, scoured away as fast asthey could, taking but little care to save those whose boats weresplit or spoiled with our shot; so I suppose that many of them werelost; and our men took up one poor fellow swimming for his life,above an hour after they were all gone. The small shot from ourcannon must needs kill and wound a great many; but, in short, wenever knew how it went with them, for they fled so fast, that inthree hours or thereabouts we could not see above three or fourstraggling canoes, nor did we ever see the rest any more; for abreeze of wind springing up the same evening, we weighed and setsail for the Brazils.We had a prisoner, indeed, but the creature was so sullen that hewould neither cat nor speak, and we all fancied he would starvehimself to death. But I took a way to cure him: for I had madethem take him and turn him into the long-boat, and make him believethey would toss him into the sea again, and so leave him where theyfound him, if he would not speak; nor would that do, but theyreally did throw him into the sea, and came away from him. Then hefollowed them, for he swam like a cork, and called to them in histongue, though they knew not one word of what he said; however atlast they took him in again., and then he began to he moretractable: nor did I ever design they should drown him.We were now under sail again, but I was the most disconsolatecreature alive for want of my man Friday, and would have been veryglad to have gone back to the island, to have taken one of the restfrom thence for my occasion, but it could not be: so we went on.We had one prisoner, as I have said, and it was a long time beforewe could make him understand anything; but in time our men taughthim some English, and he began to be a little tractable.Afterwards, we inquired what country he came from; but could makenothing of what he said; for his speech was so odd, all gutturals,and he spoke in the throat in such a hollow, odd manner, that wecould never form a word after him; and we were all of opinion thatthey might speak that language as well if they were gagged asotherwise; nor could we perceive that they had any occasion eitherfor teeth, tongue, lips, or palate, but formed their words just asa hunting-horn forms a tune with an open throat. He told us,however, some time after, when we had taught him to speak a littleEnglish, that they were going with their kings to fight a greatbattle. When he said kings, we asked him how many kings? He saidthey were five nation (we could not make him understand the plural's), and that they all joined to go against two nation. We askedhim what made them come up to us? He said, "To makee te greatwonder look." Here it is to be observed that all those natives, asalso those of Africa when they learn English, always add two e's atthe end of the words where we use one; and they place the accentupon them, as makee, takee, and the like; nay, I could hardly makeFriday leave it off, though at last he did.And now I name the poor fellow once more, I must take my last leaveof him. Poor honest Friday! We buried him with all the decencyand solemnity possible, by putting him into a coffin, and throwinghim into the sea; and I caused them to fire eleven guns for him.So ended the life of the most grateful, faithful, honest, and mostaffectionate servant that ever man had.We went now away with a fair wind for Brazil; and in about twelvedays' time we made land, in the latitude of five degrees south ofthe line, being the north-easternmost land of all that part ofAmerica. We kept on S. by E., in sight of the shore four days,when we made Cape St. Augustine, and in three days came to ananchor off the bay of All Saints, the old place of my deliverance,from whence came both my good and evil fate. Never ship came tothis port that had less business than I had, and yet it was withgreat difficulty that we were admitted to hold the leastcorrespondence on shore: not my partner himself, who was alive,and made a great figure among them, not my two merchant-trustees,not the fame of my wonderful preservation in the island, couldobtain me that favour. My partner, however, remembering that I hadgiven five hundred moidores to the prior of the monastery of theAugustines, and two hundred and seventy-two to the poor, went tothe monastery, and obliged the prior that then was to go to thegovernor, and get leave for me personally, with the captain and onemore, besides eight seamen, to come on shore, and no more; and thisupon condition, absolutely capitulated for, that we should notoffer to land any goods out of the ship, or to carry any personaway without licence. They were so strict with us as to landingany goods, that it was with extreme difficulty that I got on shorethree bales of English goods, such as fine broadcloths, stuffs, andsome linen, which I had brought for a present to my partner.He was a very generous, open-hearted man, although he began, likeme, with little at first. Though he knew not that I had the leastdesign of giving him anything, he sent me on board a present offresh provisions, wine, and sweetmeats, worth about thirtymoidores, including some tobacco, and three or four fine medals ofgold: but I was even with him in my present, which, as I havesaid, consisted of fine broadcloth, English stuffs, lace, and fineholland; also, I delivered him about the value of one hundredpounds sterling in the same goods, for other uses; and I obligedhim to set up the sloop, which I had brought with me from England,as I have said, for the use of my colony, in order to send therefreshments I intended to my plantation.Accordingly, he got hands, and finished the sloop in a very fewdays, for she was already framed; and I gave the master of her suchinstructions that he could not miss the place; nor did he, as I hadan account from my partner afterwards. I got him soon loaded withthe small cargo I sent them; and one of our seamen, that had beenon shore with me there, offered to go with the sloop and settlethere, upon my letter to the governor Spaniard to allot him asufficient quantity of land for a plantation, and on my giving himsome clothes and tools for his planting work, which he said heunderstood, having been an old planter at Maryland, and a buccaneerinto the bargain. I encouraged the fellow by granting all hedesired; and, as an addition, I gave him the savage whom we hadtaken prisoner of war to be his slave, and ordered the governorSpaniard to give him his share of everything he wanted with therest.When we came to fit this man out, my old partner told me there wasa certain very honest fellow, a Brazil planter of his acquaintance,who had fallen into the displeasure of the Church. "I know notwhat the matter is with him," says he, "but, on my conscience, Ithink he is a heretic in his heart, and he has been obliged toconceal himself for fear of the Inquisition." He then told me thathe would be very glad of such an opportunity to make his escape,with his wife and two daughters; and if I would let them go to myisland, and allot them a plantation, he would give them a smallstock to begin with - for the officers of the Inquisition hadseized all his effects and estate, and he had nothing left but alittle household stuff and two slaves; "and," adds he, "though Ihate his principles, yet I would not have him fall into theirhands, for he will be assuredly burned alive if he does." Igranted this presently, and joined my Englishman with them: and weconcealed the man, and his wife and daughters, on board our ship,till the sloop put out to go to sea; and then having put all theirgoods on board some time before, we put them on board the sloopafter she was got out of the bay. Our seaman was mightily pleasedwith this new partner; and their stocks, indeed, were much alike,rich in tools, in preparations, and a farm - but nothing to beginwith, except as above: however, they carried over with them whatwas worth all the rest, some materials for planting sugar-canes,with some plants of canes, which he, I mean the Brazil planter,understood very well.Among the rest of the supplies sent to my tenants in the island, Isent them by the sloop three milch cows and five calves; abouttwenty-two hogs, among them three sows; two mares, and a stone-horse. For my Spaniards, according to my promise, I engaged threeBrazil women to go, and recommended it to them to marry them, anduse them kindly. I could have procured more women, but Iremembered that the poor persecuted man had two daughters, and thatthere were but five of the Spaniards that wanted partners; the resthad wives of their own, though in another country. All this cargoarrived safe, and, as you may easily suppose, was very welcome tomy old inhabitants, who were now, with this addition, between sixtyand seventy people, besides little children, of which there were agreat many. I found letters at London from them all, by way ofLisbon, when I came back to England.I have now done with the island, and all manner of discourse aboutit: and whoever reads the rest of my memorandums would do well toturn his thoughts entirely from it, and expect to read of thefollies of an old man, not warned by his own harms, much less bythose of other men, to beware; not cooled by almost forty years'miseries and disappointments - not satisfied with prosperity beyondexpectation, nor made cautious by afflictions and distress beyondexample.