As to my Boat it was a very good one, and that he saw, and told me he would buy it of me for the Ship's use, and ask'd me what I would have for it? I told him he had been so generous to me in every thing, that I could not offer to make any Price of the Boat, but left it entirely to him, upon which he told me he would give me a Note of his Hand to pay me 80 Pieces of Eight for it at Brasil , and when it came there, if any one offer'd to give more he would make it up; he offer'd me also 60 Pieces of Eight more for my Boy Xury , which I was loath to take, not that I was not willing to let the Captain have him, but I was very loath to sell poor Boy's Liberty, who had assisted me so faithfully procuring my own.However when I let him know my reason, he own'd it to be just, and offer'd me this Medium, that he would give the Boy an obligation to set him free in ten Years, if he turn'd Christian; upon this, and Xury saying he was willing to go him, I let the Captain have him.
We had a very good Voyage to the Brasils , and arriv'd in the Bay de Todos los Santos , or All-Saints Bay , in about Twenty-two Days after.And now I was once more deliver'd from the most miserable of all Conditions of Life, and what to do next with my self I was now to consider.
The generous Treatment the Captain gave me, I can never enough remember;
he would take nothing of me for my Passage, gave me twenty Ducats for the Leopard's Skin, and forty for the Lyon's Skin which I had in my Boat, and caused every thing I had in the Ship to be punctually deliver'd me, and what I was willing to sell he bought, such as the Case of Bottles, two of my Guns, and a Piece of the Lump of Bees-wax, for I had made Candles of the rest; in a word, I made about 220 Pieces of Eight of all my Cargo, and with this Stock I went on Shoar in the Brasils.
I had not been long here, but being recommended to the House of a good honest Man like himself, who had an Ingenio as they call it; that is, a Plantation and a Sugar-House.I lived with him some time, and acquainted my self by that means with the Manner of their planting and making of Sugar;
and seeing how well the Planters liv'd, and how they grew rich suddenly, I resolv'd, if I could get Licence to settle there, I would turn Planter among them, resolving in the mean time to find out some Way to get my Money which I had left in London remitted to me.To this Purpose getting a kind of a Letter of Naturalization, I purchased as much Land that was Uncur'd, as my Money would reach, and form'd a Plan for my Plantation and Settlement, and such a one as might be suitable to the Stock which I proposed to my self to receive from England.
I had a Neighbour, a Portugueze of Lisbon , but born of English Parents, whose Name was Wells , and in much such Circumstances as I was.I call him my Neighbour, because his Plantation lay next to mine, and we went on very sociably together.My Stock was but low as well as his; and we rather planted for Food than any thing else, for about two Years.However, we began to increase, and our Land began to come into Order;
so that the third Year we planted some Tobacco, and made each of us a large Piece of Ground ready for planting Canes in the Year to come; but we both wanted Help, and now I found more than before, I had done wrong in parting with my Boy Xury.
But alas! for me to do wrong that never did right, was no great Wonder:
I had no Remedy but to go on; I was gotten into an Employment quite remote to my Genius, and directly contrary to the Life I delighted in, and for which I forsook my Father's House, and broke thro' all his good Advice;
nay, I was coming into the very Middle Station, or upper Degree of low Life, which my Father advised me to before; and which if I resolved to go on with, I might as well ha' staid at Home, and never have fatigu'd my self in the World as I had done; and I used often to say to my self, I could ha' done this as well in England among my Friends, as ha'
gone 5000 Miles off to do it among Strangers and Salvages in a Wilderness, and at such a Distance, as never to hear from any Part of the World that had the least Knowledge of me.
In this manner I used to look upon my Condition with the utmost Regret.
I had no body to converse with but now and then Neighbour; no Work to be done, but by the Labour of my Hands; and I used to say, I liv'd just like a Man cast some desolate Island, that had no body there but how just has it been, and how should all Men reflect, that when they compare their present Conditions with others that are worse, Heaven may oblige them to make the Exchange, and be convinc'd of their former Felicity by their Experience:
I say, how just has it been, that the truly solitary Life I reflected on in an Island of meer Desolation should be my Lot, who had so of unjustly compar'd it with the Life which I then led, which had I continued, I had in all Probability been exceeding prosperous and rich.
I was in some Degree settled in my Measures for carrying on the Plantation, before my kind Friend the Captain of the Ship that tool: me up at Sea, went back; for the Ship remained there in providing his Loading, and preparing for his Voyage, near three Months, when telling him what little Stock I had left behind me in London , he gave me this friendly and sincere Advice, Seignior Inglese says he , for so he always called me, if you will give me Letters, band a Procuration here in Form to me, with Orders to the Person who has your Money in London , to send your Effects to Lisbon , to such Persons as I shall direct and in such Goods as are proper for this Country, I will bring you the Produce of them, God willing, at my Return; but since human Affairs are all subject to Changes and Disasters, I would have you give Orders but for One Hundred Pounds Sterl.which you say is Half your Stock, and let the Hazard be run for the first; so that if it come safe, you may order the rest the same Way; and if it miscarry, you may have the other Half to have Recourse to for your Supply.