Chapter I. Revisits Island

by Daniel Defoe

　　That homely proverb, used on so many occasions in England, viz."That what is bred in the bone will not go out of the flesh," wasnever more verified than in the story of my Life. Any one wouldthink that after thirty-five years' affliction, and a variety ofunhappy circumstances, which few men, if any, ever went throughbefore, and after near seven years of peace and enjoyment in thefulness of all things; grown old, and when, if ever, it might beallowed me to have had experience of every state of middle life,and to know which was most adapted to make a man completely happy;I say, after all this, any one would have thought that the nativepropensity to rambling which I gave an account of in my firstsetting out in the world to have been so predominant in mythoughts, should be worn out, and I might, at sixty one years ofage, have been a little inclined to stay at home, and have doneventuring life and fortune any more.Nay, farther, the common motive of foreign adventures was takenaway in me, for I had no fortune to make; I had nothing to seek:if I had gained ten thousand pounds I had been no richer; for I hadalready sufficient for me, and for those I had to leave it to; andwhat I had was visibly increasing; for, having no great family, Icould not spend the income of what I had unless I would set up foran expensive way of living, such as a great family, servants,equipage, gaiety, and the like, which were things I had no notionof, or inclination to; so that I had nothing, indeed, to do but tosit still, and fully enjoy what I had got, and see it increasedaily upon my hands. Yet all these things had no effect upon me,or at least not enough to resist the strong inclination I had to goabroad again, which hung about me like a chronic distemper. Inparticular, the desire of seeing my new plantation in the island,and the colony I left there, ran in my head continually. I dreamedof it all night, and my imagination ran upon it all day: it wasuppermost in all my thoughts, and my fancy worked so steadily andstrongly upon it that I talked of it in my sleep; in short, nothingcould remove it out of my mind: it even broke so violently intoall my discourses that it made my conversation tiresome, for Icould talk of nothing else; all my discourse ran into it, even toimpertinence; and I saw it myself.I have often heard persons of good judgment say that all the stirthat people make in the world about ghosts and apparitions is owingto the strength of imagination, and the powerful operation of fancyin their minds; that there is no such thing as a spirit appearing,or a ghost walking; that people's poring affectionately upon thepast conversation of their deceased friends so realises it to themthat they are capable of fancying, upon some extraordinarycircumstances, that they see them, talk to them, and are answeredby them, when, in truth, there is nothing but shadow and vapour inthe thing, and they really know nothing of the matter.For my part, I know not to this hour whether there are any suchthings as real apparitions, spectres, or walking of people afterthey are dead; or whether there is anything in the stories theytell us of that kind more than the product of vapours, sick minds,and wandering fancies: but this I know, that my imagination workedup to such a height, and brought me into such excess of vapours, orwhat else I may call it, that I actually supposed myself often uponthe spot, at my old castle, behind the trees; saw my old Spaniard,Friday's father, and the reprobate sailors I left upon the island;nay, I fancied I talked with them, and looked at them steadily,though I was broad awake, as at persons just before me; and this Idid till I often frightened myself with the images my fancyrepresented to me. One time, in my sleep, I had the villainy ofthe three pirate sailors so lively related to me by the firstSpaniard, and Friday's father, that it was surprising: they toldme how they barbarously attempted to murder all the Spaniards, andthat they set fire to the provisions they had laid up, on purposeto distress and starve them; things that I had never heard of, andthat, indeed, were never all of them true in fact: but it was sowarm in my imagination, and so realised to me, that, to the hour Isaw them, I could not be persuaded but that it was or would betrue; also how I resented it, when the Spaniard complained to me;and how I brought them to justice, tried them, and ordered them allthree to be hanged. What there was really in this shall be seen inits place; for however I came to form such things in my dream, andwhat secret converse of spirits injected it, yet there was, I say,much of it true. I own that this dream had nothing in it literallyand specifically true; but the general part was so true - the base;villainous behaviour of these three hardened rogues was such, andhad been so much worse than all I can describe, that the dream hadtoo much similitude of the fact; and as I would afterwards havepunished them severely, so, if I had hanged them all, I had beenmuch in the right, and even should have been justified both by thelaws of God and man.But to return to my story. In this kind of temper I lived someyears; I had no enjoyment of my life, no pleasant hours, noagreeable diversion but what had something or other of this in it;so that my wife, who saw my mind wholly bent upon it, told me veryseriously one night that she believed there was some secret,powerful impulse of Providence upon me, which had determined me togo thither again; and that she found nothing hindered me going butmy being engaged to a wife and children. She told me that it wastrue she could not think of parting with me: but as she wasassured that if she was dead it would be the first thing I woulddo, so, as it seemed to her that the thing was determined above,she would not be the only obstruction; for, if I thought fit andresolved to go - [Here she found me very intent upon her words, andthat I looked very earnestly at her, so that it a little disorderedher, and she stopped. I asked her why she did not go on, and sayout what she was going to say? But I perceived that her heart wastoo full, and some tears stood in her eyes.] "Speak out, my dear,"said I; "are you willing I should go?" - "No," says she, veryaffectionately, "I am far from willing; but if you are resolved togo," says she, "rather than I would be the only hindrance, I willgo with you: for though I think it a most preposterous thing forone of your years, and in your condition, yet, if it must be," saidshe, again weeping, "I would not leave you; for if it be of Heavenyou must do it, there is no resisting it; and if Heaven make ityour duty to go, He will also make it mine to go with you, orotherwise dispose of me, that I may not obstruct it."This affectionate behaviour of my wife's brought me a little out ofthe vapours, and I began to consider what I was doing; I correctedmy wandering fancy, and began to argue with myself sedately whatbusiness I had after threescore years, and after such a life oftedious sufferings and disasters, and closed in so happy and easy amanner; I, say, what business had I to rush into new hazards, andput myself upon adventures fit only for youth and poverty to runinto?With those thoughts I considered my new engagement; that I had awife, one child born, and my wife then great with child of another;that I had all the world could give me, and had no need to seekhazard for gain; that I was declining in years, and ought to thinkrather of leaving what I had gained than of seeking to increase it;that as to what my wife had said of its being an impulse fromHeaven, and that it should be my duty to go, I had no notion ofthat; so, after many of these cogitations, I struggled with thepower of my imagination, reasoned myself out of it, as I believepeople may always do in like cases if they will: in a word, Iconquered it, composed myself with such arguments as occurred to mythoughts, and which my present condition furnished me plentifullywith; and particularly, as the most effectual method, I resolved todivert myself with other things, and to engage in some businessthat might effectually tie me up from any more excursions of thiskind; for I found that thing return upon me chiefly when I wasidle, and had nothing to do, nor anything of moment immediatelybefore me. To this purpose, I bought a little farm in the countyof Bedford, and resolved to remove myself thither. I had a littleconvenient house upon it, and the land about it, I found, wascapable of great improvement; and it was many ways suited to myinclination, which delighted in cultivating, managing, planting,and improving of land; and particularly, being an inland country, Iwas removed from conversing among sailors and things relating tothe remote parts of the world. I went down to my farm, settled myfamily, bought ploughs, harrows, a cart, waggon-horses, cows, andsheep, and, setting seriously to work, became in one half-year amere country gentleman. My thoughts were entirely taken up inmanaging my servants, cultivating the ground, enclosing, planting,&c.; and I lived, as I thought, the most agreeable life that naturewas capable of directing, or that a man always bred to misfortuneswas capable of retreating to.I farmed upon my own land; I had no rent to pay, was limited by noarticles; I could pull up or cut down as I pleased; what I plantedwas for myself, and what I improved was for my family; and havingthus left off the thoughts of wandering, I had not the leastdiscomfort in any part of life as to this world. Now I thought,indeed, that I enjoyed the middle state of life which my father soearnestly recommended to me, and lived a kind of heavenly life,something like what is described by the poet, upon the subject of acountry life:-"Free from vices, free from care,Age has no pain, and youth no snare."But in the middle of all this felicity, one blow from unseenProvidence unhinged me at once; and not only made a breach upon meinevitable and incurable, but drove me, by its consequences, into adeep relapse of the wandering disposition, which, as I may say,being born in my very blood, soon recovered its hold of me; and,like the returns of a violent distemper, came on with anirresistible force upon me. This blow was the loss of my wife. Itis not my business here to write an elegy upon my wife, give acharacter of her particular virtues, and make my court to the sexby the flattery of a funeral sermon. She was, in a few words, thestay of all my affairs; the centre of all my enterprises; theengine that, by her prudence, reduced me to that happy compass Iwas in, from the most extravagant and ruinous project that filledmy head, and did more to guide my rambling genius than a mother'stears, a father's instructions, a friend's counsel, or all my ownreasoning powers could do. I was happy in listening to her, and inbeing moved by her entreaties; and to the last degree desolate anddislocated in the world by the loss of her.When she was gone, the world looked awkwardly round me. I was asmuch a stranger in it, in my thoughts, as I was in the Brazils,when I first went on shore there; and as much alone, except for theassistance of servants, as I was in my island. I knew neither whatto think nor what to do. I saw the world busy around me: one partlabouring for bread, another part squandering in vile excesses orempty pleasures, but equally miserable because the end theyproposed still fled from them; for the men of pleasure every daysurfeited of their vice, and heaped up work for sorrow andrepentance; and the men of labour spent their strength in dailystruggling for bread to maintain the vital strength they labouredwith: so living in a daily circulation of sorrow, living but towork, and working but to live, as if daily bread were the only endof wearisome life, and a wearisome life the only occasion of dailybread.This put me in mind of the life I lived in my kingdom, the island;where I suffered no more corn to grow, because I did not want it;and bred no more goats, because I had no more use for them; wherethe money lay in the drawer till it grew mouldy, and had scarce thefavour to be looked upon in twenty years. All these things, had Iimproved them as I ought to have done, and as reason and religionhad dictated to me, would have taught me to search farther thanhuman enjoyments for a full felicity; and that there was somethingwhich certainly was the reason and end of life superior to allthese things, and which was either to be possessed, or at leasthoped for, on this side of the grave.But my sage counsellor was gone; I was like a ship without a pilot,that could only run afore the wind. My thoughts ran all away againinto the old affair; my head was quite turned with the whimsies offoreign adventures; and all the pleasant, innocent amusements of myfarm, my garden, my cattle, and my family, which before entirelypossessed me, were nothing to me, had no relish, and were likemusic to one that has no ear, or food to one that has no taste. Ina word, I resolved to leave off housekeeping, let my farm, andreturn to London; and in a few months after I did so.When I came to London, I was still as uneasy as I was before; I hadno relish for the place, no employment in it, nothing to do but tosaunter about like an idle person, of whom it may be said he isperfectly useless in God's creation, and it is not one farthing'smatter to the rest of his kind whether he be dead or alive. Thisalso was the thing which, of all circumstances of life, was themost my aversion, who had been all my days used to an active life;and I would often say to myself, "A state of idleness is the verydregs of life;" and, indeed, I thought I was much more suitablyemployed when I was twenty-six days making a deal board.It was now the beginning of the year 1693, when my nephew, whom, asI have observed before, I had brought up to the sea, and had madehim commander of a ship, was come home from a short voyage toBilbao, being the first he had made. He came to me, and told methat some merchants of his acquaintance had been proposing to himto go a voyage for them to the East Indies, and to China, asprivate traders. "And now, uncle," says he, "if you will go to seawith me, I will engage to land you upon your old habitation in theisland; for we are to touch at the Brazils."Nothing can be a greater demonstration of a future state, and ofthe existence of an invisible world, than the concurrence of secondcauses with the idea of things which we form in our minds,perfectly reserved, and not communicated to any in the world.My nephew knew nothing how far my distemper of wandering wasreturned upon me, and I knew nothing of what he had in his thoughtto say, when that very morning, before he came to me, I had, in agreat deal of confusion of thought, and revolving every part of mycircumstances in my mind, come to this resolution, that I would goto Lisbon, and consult with my old sea-captain; and if it wasrational and practicable, I would go and see the island again, andwhat was become of my people there. I had pleased myself with thethoughts of peopling the place, and carrying inhabitants fromhence, getting a patent for the possession and I know not what;when, in the middle of all this, in comes my nephew, as I havesaid, with his project of carrying me thither in his way to theEast Indies.I paused a while at his words, and looking steadily at him, "Whatdevil," said I, "sent you on this unlucky errand?" My nephewstared as if he had been frightened at first; but perceiving that Iwas not much displeased at the proposal, he recovered himself. "Ihope it may not be an unlucky proposal, sir," says he. "I daresayyou would be pleased to see your new colony there, where you oncereigned with more felicity than most of your brother monarchs inthe world." In a word, the scheme hit so exactly with my temper,that is to say, the prepossession I was under, and of which I havesaid so much, that I told him, in a few words, if he agreed withthe merchants, I would go with him; but I told him I would notpromise to go any further than my own island. "Why, sir," says he,"you don't want to be left there again, I hope?" "But," said I,"can you not take me up again on your return?" He told me it wouldnot be possible to do so; that the merchants would never allow himto come that way with a laden ship of such value, it being amonth's sail out of his way, and might be three or four. "Besides,sir, if I should miscarry," said he, "and not return at all, thenyou would be just reduced to the condition you were in before."This was very rational; but we both found out a remedy for it,which was to carry a framed sloop on board the ship, which, beingtaken in pieces, might, by the help of some carpenters, whom weagreed to carry with us, be set up again in the island, andfinished fit to go to sea in a few days. I was not long resolving,for indeed the importunities of my nephew joined so effectuallywith my inclination that nothing could oppose me; on the otherhand, my wife being dead, none concerned themselves so much for meas to persuade me one way or the other, except my ancient goodfriend the widow, who earnestly struggled with me to consider myyears, my easy circumstances, and the needless hazards of a longvoyage; and above all, my young children. But it was all to nopurpose, I had an irresistible desire for the voyage; and I toldher I thought there was something so uncommon in the impressions Ihad upon my mind, that it would be a kind of resisting Providenceif I should attempt to stay at home; after which she ceased herexpostulations, and joined with me, not only in making provisionfor my voyage, but also in settling my family affairs for myabsence, and providing for the education of my children. In orderto do this, I made my will, and settled the estate I had in such amanner for my children, and placed in such hands, that I wasperfectly easy and satisfied they would have justice done them,whatever might befall me; and for their education, I left it whollyto the widow, with a sufficient maintenance to herself for hercare: all which she richly deserved; for no mother could havetaken more care in their education, or understood it better; and asshe lived till I came home, I also lived to thank her for it.My nephew was ready to sail about the beginning of January 1694-5;and I, with my man Friday, went on board, in the Downs, the 8th;having, besides that sloop which I mentioned above, a veryconsiderable cargo of all kinds of necessary things for my colony,which, if I did not find in good condition, I resolved to leave so.First, I carried with me some servants whom I purposed to placethere as inhabitants, or at least to set on work there upon myaccount while I stayed, and either to leave them there or carrythem forward, as they should appear willing; particularly, Icarried two carpenters, a smith, and a very handy, ingeniousfellow, who was a cooper by trade, and was also a general mechanic;for he was dexterous at making wheels and hand-mills to grind corn,was a good turner and a good pot-maker; he also made anything thatwas proper to make of earth or of wood: in a word, we called himour Jack-of-all-trades. With these I carried a tailor, who hadoffered himself to go a passenger to the East Indies with mynephew, but afterwards consented to stay on our new plantation, andwho proved a most necessary handy fellow as could be desired inmany other businesses besides that of his trade; for, as I observedformerly, necessity arms us for all employments.My cargo, as near as I can recollect, for I have not kept accountof the particulars, consisted of a sufficient quantity of linen,and some English thin stuffs, for clothing the Spaniards that Iexpected to find there; and enough of them, as by my calculationmight comfortably supply them for seven years; if I remember right,the materials I carried for clothing them, with gloves, hats,shoes, stockings, and all such things as they could want forwearing, amounted to about two hundred pounds, including some beds,bedding, and household stuff, particularly kitchen utensils, withpots, kettles, pewter, brass, &c.; and near a hundred pounds morein ironwork, nails, tools of every kind, staples, hooks, hinges,and every necessary thing I could think of.I carried also a hundred spare arms, muskets, and fusees; besidessome pistols, a considerable quantity of shot of all sizes, threeor four tons of lead, and two pieces of brass cannon; and, becauseI knew not what time and what extremities I was providing for, Icarried a hundred barrels of powder, besides swords, cutlasses, andthe iron part of some pikes and halberds. In short, we had a largemagazine of all sorts of store; and I made my nephew carry twosmall quarter-deck guns more than he wanted for his ship, to leavebehind if there was occasion; so that when we came there we mightbuild a fort and man it against all sorts of enemies. Indeed, I atfirst thought there would be need enough for all, and much more, ifwe hoped to maintain our possession of the island, as shall be seenin the course of that story.I had not such bad luck in this voyage as I had been used to meetwith, and therefore shall have the less occasion to interrupt thereader, who perhaps may be impatient to hear how matters went withmy colony; yet some odd accidents, cross winds and bad weatherhappened on this first setting out, which made the voyage longerthan I expected it at first; and I, who had never made but onevoyage, my first voyage to Guinea, in which I might be said to comeback again, as the voyage was at first designed, began to think thesame ill fate attended me, and that I was born to be nevercontented with being on shore, and yet to be always unfortunate atsea. Contrary winds first put us to the northward, and we wereobliged to put in at Galway, in Ireland, where we lay wind-boundtwo-and-twenty days; but we had this satisfaction with thedisaster, that provisions were here exceeding cheap, and in theutmost plenty; so that while we lay here we never touched theship's stores, but rather added to them. Here, also, I took inseveral live hogs, and two cows with their calves, which Iresolved, if I had a good passage, to put on shore in my island;but we found occasion to dispose otherwise of them.We set out on the 5th of February from Ireland, and had a very fairgale of wind for some days. As I remember, it might be about the20th of February in the evening late, when the mate, having thewatch, came into the round-house and told us he saw a flash offire, and heard a gun fired; and while he was telling us of it, aboy came in and told us the boatswain heard another. This made usall run out upon the quarter-deck, where for a while we heardnothing; but in a few minutes we saw a very great light, and foundthat there was some very terrible fire at a distance; immediatelywe had recourse to our reckonings, in which we all agreed thatthere could be no land that way in which the fire showed itself,no, not for five hundred leagues, for it appeared at WNW. Uponthis, we concluded it must be some ship on fire at sea; and as, byour hearing the noise of guns just before, we concluded that itcould not be far off, we stood directly towards it, and werepresently satisfied we should discover it, because the further wesailed, the greater the light appeared; though, the weather beinghazy, we could not perceive anything but the light for a while. Inabout half-an-hour's sailing, the wind being fair for us, thoughnot much of it, and the weather clearing up a little, we couldplainly discern that it was a great ship on fire in the middle ofthe sea.I was most sensibly touched with this disaster, though not at allacquainted with the persons engaged in it; I presently recollectedmy former circumstances, and what condition I was in when taken upby the Portuguese captain; and how much more deplorable thecircumstances of the poor creatures belonging to that ship must be,if they had no other ship in company with them. Upon this Iimmediately ordered that five guns should be fired, one soon afteranother, that, if possible, we might give notice to them that therewas help for them at hand and that they might endeavour to savethemselves in their boat; for though we could see the flames of theship, yet they, it being night, could see nothing of us.We lay by some time upon this, only driving as the burning shipdrove, waiting for daylight; when, on a sudden, to our greatterror, though we had reason to expect it, the ship blew up in theair; and in a few minutes all the fire was out, that is to say, therest of the ship sunk. This was a terrible, and indeed anafflicting sight, for the sake of the poor men, who, I concluded,must be either all destroyed in the ship, or be in the utmostdistress in their boat, in the middle of the ocean; which, atpresent, as it was dark, I could not see. However, to direct themas well as I could, I caused lights to be hung out in all parts ofthe ship where we could, and which we had lanterns for, and keptfiring guns all the night long, letting them know by this thatthere was a ship not far off.About eight o'clock in the morning we discovered the ship's boatsby the help of our perspective glasses, and found there were two ofthem, both thronged with people, and deep in the water. Weperceived they rowed, the wind being against them; that they sawour ship, and did their utmost to make us see them. We immediatelyspread our ancient, to let them know we saw them, and hung a waftout, as a signal for them to come on board, and then made moresail, standing directly to them. In little more than half-an-hourwe came up with them; and took them all in, being no less thansixty-four men, women, and children; for there were a great manypassengers.Upon inquiry we found it was a French merchant ship of three-hundred tons, home-bound from Quebec. The master gave us a longaccount of the distress of his ship; how the fire began in thesteerage by the negligence of the steersman, which, on his cryingout for help, was, as everybody thought, entirely put out; but theysoon found that some sparks of the first fire had got into somepart of the ship so difficult to come at that they could noteffectually quench it; and afterwards getting in between thetimbers, and within the ceiling of the ship, it proceeded into thehold, and mastered all the skill and all the application they wereable to exert.They had no more to do then but to get into their boats, which, totheir great comfort, were pretty large; being their long-boat, anda great shallop, besides a small skiff, which was of no greatservice to them, other than to get some fresh water and provisionsinto her, after they had secured their lives from the fire. Theyhad, indeed, small hopes of their lives by getting into these boatsat that distance from any land; only, as they said, that they thusescaped from the fire, and there was a possibility that some shipmight happen to be at sea, and might take them in. They had sails,oars, and a compass; and had as much provision and water as, withsparing it so as to be next door to starving, might support themabout twelve days, in which, if they had no bad weather and nocontrary winds, the captain said he hoped he might get to the banksof Newfoundland, and might perhaps take some fish, to sustain themtill they might go on shore. But there were so many chancesagainst them in all these cases, such as storms, to overset andfounder them; rains and cold, to benumb and perish their limbs;contrary winds, to keep them out and starve them; that it must havebeen next to miraculous if they had escaped.In the midst of their consternation, every one being hopeless andready to despair, the captain, with tears in his eyes, told me theywere on a sudden surprised with the joy of hearing a gun fire, andafter that four more: these were the five guns which I caused tobe fired at first seeing the light. This revived their hearts, andgave them the notice, which, as above, I desired it should, thatthere was a ship at hand for their help. It was upon the hearingof these guns that they took down their masts and sails: the soundcoming from the windward, they resolved to lie by till morning.Some time after this, hearing no more guns, they fired threemuskets, one a considerable while after another; but these, thewind being contrary, we never heard. Some time after that againthey were still more agreeably surprised with seeing our lights,and hearing the guns, which, as I have said, I caused to be firedall the rest of the night. This set them to work with their oars,to keep their boats ahead, at least that we might the sooner comeup with them; and at last, to their inexpressible joy, they foundwe saw them.It is impossible for me to express the several gestures, thestrange ecstasies, the variety of postures which these poordelivered people ran into, to express the joy of their souls at sounexpected a deliverance. Grief and fear are easily described:sighs, tears, groans, and a very few motions of the head and hands,make up the sum of its variety; but an excess of joy, a surprise ofjoy, has a thousand extravagances in it. There were some in tears;some raging and tearing themselves, as if they had been in thegreatest agonies of sorrow; some stark raving and downrightlunatic; some ran about the ship stamping with their feet, otherswringing their hands; some were dancing, some singing, somelaughing, more crying, many quite dumb, not able to speak a word;others sick and vomiting; several swooning and ready to faint; anda few were crossing themselves and giving God thanks.I would not wrong them either; there might be many that werethankful afterwards; but the passion was too strong for them atfirst, and they were not able to master it: then were thrown intoecstasies, and a kind of frenzy, and it was but a very few thatwere composed and serious in their joy. Perhaps also, the case mayhave some addition to it from the particular circumstance of thatnation they belonged to: I mean the French, whose temper isallowed to be more volatile, more passionate, and more sprightly,and their spirits more fluid than in other nations. I am notphilosopher enough to determine the cause; but nothing I had everseen before came up to it. The ecstasies poor Friday, my trustysavage, was in when he found his father in the boat came thenearest to it; and the surprise of the master and his twocompanions, whom I delivered from the villains that set them onshore in the island, came a little way towards it; but nothing wasto compare to this, either that I saw in Friday, or anywhere elsein my life.It is further observable, that these extravagances did not showthemselves in that different manner I have mentioned, in differentpersons only; but all the variety would appear, in a shortsuccession of moments, in one and the same person. A man that wesaw this minute dumb, and, as it were, stupid and confounded, wouldthe next minute be dancing and hallooing like an antic; and thenext moment be tearing his hair, or pulling his clothes to pieces,and stamping them under his feet like a madman; in a few momentsafter that we would have him all in tears, then sick, swooning,and, had not immediate help been had, he would in a few momentshave been dead. Thus it was, not with one or two, or ten ortwenty, but with the greatest part of them; and, if I rememberright, our surgeon was obliged to let blood of about thirtypersons.There were two priests among them: one an old man, and the other ayoung man; and that which was strangest was, the oldest man was theworst. As soon as he set his foot on board our ship, and sawhimself safe, he dropped down stone dead to all appearance. Notthe least sign of life could be perceived in him; our surgeonimmediately applied proper remedies to recover him, and was theonly man in the ship that believed he was not dead. At length heopened a vein in his arm, having first chafed and rubbed the part,so as to warm it as much as possible. Upon this the blood, whichonly dropped at first, flowing freely, in three minutes after theman opened his eyes; a quarter of an hour after that he spoke, grewbetter, and after the blood was stopped, he walked about, told ushe was perfectly well, and took a dram of cordial which the surgeongave him. About a quarter of an hour after this they came runninginto the cabin to the surgeon, who was bleeding a Frenchwoman thathad fainted, and told him the priest was gone stark mad. It seemshe had begun to revolve the change of his circumstances in hismind, and again this put him into an ecstasy of joy. His spiritswhirled about faster than the vessels could convey them, the bloodgrew hot and feverish, and the man was as fit for Bedlam as anycreature that ever was in it. The surgeon would not bleed himagain in that condition, but gave him something to doze and put himto sleep; which, after some time, operated upon him, and he awokenext morning perfectly composed and well. The younger priestbehaved with great command of his passions, and was really anexample of a serious, well-governed mind. At his first coming onboard the ship he threw himself flat on his face, prostratinghimself in thankfulness for his deliverance, in which I unhappilyand unseasonably disturbed him, really thinking he had been in aswoon; but he spoke calmly, thanked me, told me he was giving Godthanks for his deliverance, begged me to leave him a few moments,and that, next to his Maker, he would give me thanks also. I washeartily sorry that I disturbed him, and not only left him, butkept others from interrupting him also. He continued in thatposture about three minutes, or little more, after I left him, thencame to me, as he had said he would, and with a great deal ofseriousness and affection, but with tears in his eyes, thanked me,that had, under God, given him and so many miserable creaturestheir lives. I told him I had no need to tell him to thank God forit, rather than me, for I had seen that he had done that already;but I added that it was nothing but what reason and humanitydictated to all men, and that we had as much reason as he to givethanks to God, who had blessed us so far as to make us theinstruments of His mercy to so many of His creatures. After thisthe young priest applied himself to his countrymen, and laboured tocompose them: he persuaded, entreated, argued, reasoned with them,and did his utmost to keep them within the exercise of theirreason; and with some he had success, though others were for a timeout of all government of themselves.I cannot help committing this to writing, as perhaps it may beuseful to those into whose hands it may fall, for guidingthemselves in the extravagances of their passions; for if an excessof joy can carry men out to such a length beyond the reach of theirreason, what will not the extravagances of anger, rage, and aprovoked mind carry us to? And, indeed, here I saw reason forkeeping an exceeding watch over our passions of every kind, as wellthose of joy and satisfaction as those of sorrow and anger.We were somewhat disordered by these extravagances among our newguests for the first day; but after they had retired to lodgingsprovided for them as well as our ship would allow, and had sleptheartily - as most of them did, being fatigued and frightened -they were quite another sort of people the next day. Nothing ofgood manners, or civil acknowledgments for the kindness shown them,was wanting; the French, it is known, are naturally apt enough toexceed that way. The captain and one of the priests came to me thenext day, and desired to speak with me and my nephew; the commanderbegan to consult with us what should be done with them; and first,they told us we had saved their lives, so all they had was littleenough for a return to us for that kindness received. The captainsaid they had saved some money and some things of value in theirboats, caught hastily out of the flames, and if we would accept itthey were ordered to make an offer of it all to us; they onlydesired to be set on shore somewhere in our way, where, ifpossible, they might get a passage to France. My nephew wished toaccept their money at first word, and to consider what to do withthem afterwards; but I overruled him in that part, for I knew whatit was to be set on shore in a strange country; and if thePortuguese captain that took me up at sea had served me so, andtaken all I had for my deliverance, I must have been starved, orhave been as much a slave at the Brazils as I had been at Barbary,the mere being sold to a Mahometan excepted; and perhaps aPortuguese is not a much better master than a Turk, if not in somecases much worse.I therefore told the French captain that we had taken them up intheir distress, it was true, but that it was our duty to do so, aswe were fellow-creatures; and we would desire to be so delivered ifwe were in the like or any other extremity; that we had donenothing for them but what we believed they would have done for usif we had been in their case and they in ours; but that we tookthem up to save them, not to plunder them; and it would be a mostbarbarous thing to take that little from them which they had savedout of the fire, and then set them on shore and leave them; thatthis would be first to save them from death, and then kill themourselves: save them from drowning, and abandon them to starving;and therefore I would not let the least thing be taken from them.As to setting them on shore, I told them indeed that was anexceeding difficulty to us, for that the ship was bound to the EastIndies; and though we were driven out of our course to the westwarda very great way, and perhaps were directed by Heaven on purposefor their deliverance, yet it was impossible for us wilfully tochange our voyage on their particular account; nor could my nephew,the captain, answer it to the freighters, with whom he was undercharter to pursue his voyage by way of Brazil; and all I knew wecould do for them was to put ourselves in the way of meeting withother ships homeward bound from the West Indies, and get them apassage, if possible, to England or France.The first part of the proposal was so generous and kind they couldnot but be very thankful for it; but they were in very greatconsternation, especially the passengers, at the notion of beingcarried away to the East Indies; they then entreated me that as Iwas driven so far to the westward before I met with them, I wouldat least keep on the same course to the banks of Newfoundland,where it was probable I might meet with some ship or sloop thatthey might hire to carry them back to Canada.I thought this was but a reasonable request on their part, andtherefore I inclined to agree to it; for indeed I considered thatto carry this whole company to the East Indies would not only be anintolerable severity upon the poor people, but would be ruining ourwhole voyage by devouring all our provisions; so I thought it nobreach of charter-party, but what an unforeseen accident madeabsolutely necessary to us, and in which no one could say we wereto blame; for the laws of God and nature would have forbid that weshould refuse to take up two boats full of people in such adistressed condition; and the nature of the thing, as wellrespecting ourselves as the poor people, obliged us to set them onshore somewhere or other for their deliverance. So I consentedthat we would carry them to Newfoundland, if wind and weather wouldpermit: and if not, I would carry them to Martinico, in the WestIndies.The wind continued fresh easterly, but the weather pretty good; andas the winds had continued in the points between NE. and SE. a longtime, we missed several opportunities of sending them to France;for we met several ships bound to Europe, whereof two were French,from St. Christopher's, but they had been so long beating upagainst the wind that they durst take in no passengers, for fear ofwanting provisions for the voyage, as well for themselves as forthose they should take in; so we were obliged to go on. It wasabout a week after this that we made the banks of Newfoundland;where, to shorten my story, we put all our French people on board abark, which they hired at sea there, to put them on shore, andafterwards to carry them to France, if they could get provisions tovictual themselves with. When I say all the French went on shore,I should remember that the young priest I spoke of, hearing we werebound to the East Indies, desired to go the voyage with us, and tobe set on shore on the coast of Coromandel; which I readily agreedto, for I wonderfully liked the man, and had very good reason, aswill appear afterwards; also four of the seamen entered themselveson our ship, and proved very useful fellows.From hence we directed our course for the West Indies, steeringaway S. and S. by E. for about twenty days together, sometimeslittle or no wind at all; when we met with another subject for ourhumanity to work upon, almost as deplorable as that before.