In the same tone I likewise threatened the captain with that which,he afterwards said,he feared more than any rock or quicksand.Nor can we wonder at this when we are told he had been twice obliged to bring to and cast anchor there before,and had neither time escaped without the loss of almost his whole cargo.
The most distant sound of law thus frightened a man who had often,I am convinced,heard numbers of cannon roar round him with intrepidity.Nor did he sooner see the hoy approaching the vessel than he ran down again into the cabin,and,his rage being perfectly subsided,he tumbled on his knees,and a little too abjectly implored for mercy.
I did not suffer a brave man and an old man to remain a moment in this posture,but I immediately forgave him.
And here,that I may not be thought the sly trumpeter of my own praises,I do utterly disclaim all praise on the occasion.
Neither did the greatness of my mind dictate,nor the force of my Christianity exact,this forgiveness.To speak truth,I forgave him from a motive which would make men much more forgiving if they were much wiser than they are,because it was convenient for me so to do.
Wednesday.--This morning the captain dressed himself in scarlet in order to pay a visit to a Devonshire squire,to whom a captain of a ship is a guest of no ordinary consequence,as he is a stranger and a gentleman,who hath seen a great deal of the world in foreign parts,and knows all the news of the times.
The squire,therefore,was to send his boat for the captain,but a most unfortunate accident happened;for,as the wind was extremely rough and against the hoy,while this was endeavoring to avail itself of great seamanship in hauling up against the wind,a sudden squall carried off sail and yard,or at least so disabled them that they were no longer of any use and unable to reach the ship;but the captain,from the deck,saw his hopes of venison disappointed,and was forced either to stay on board his ship,or to hoist forth his own long-boat,which he could not prevail with himself to think of,though the smell of the venison had had twenty times its attraction.He did,indeed,love his ship as his wife,and his boats as children,and never willingly trusted the latter,poor things!to the dangers of the sea.
To say truth,notwithstanding the strict rigor with which he preserved the dignity of his stations and the hasty impatience with which he resented any affront to his person or orders,disobedience to which he could in no instance brook in any person on board.he was one of the best natured fellows alive.He acted the part of a father to his sailors;he expressed great tenderness for any of them when ill,and never suffered any the least work of supererogation to go unrewarded by a glass of gin.
He even extended his humanity,if I may so call it,to animals,and even his cats and kittens had large shares in his affections.
An instance of which we saw this evening,when the cat,which had shown it could not be drowned,was found suffocated under a feather-bed in the cabin.I will not endeavor to describe his lamentations with more prolixity than barely by saying they were grievous,and seemed to have some mixture of the Irish howl in them.Nay,he carried his fondness even to inanimate objects,of which we have above set down a pregnant example in his demonstration of love and tenderness towards his boats and ship.
He spoke of a ship which he had commanded formerly,and which was long since no more,which he had called the Princess of Brazil,as a widower of a deceased wife.This ship,after having followed the honest business of carrying goods and passengers for hire many years,did at last take to evil courses and turn privateer,in which service,to use his own words,she received many dreadful wounds,which he himself had felt as if they had been his own.
Thursday.--As the wind did not yesterday discover any purpose of shifting,and the water in my belly grew troublesome and rendered me short-breathed,I began a second time to have apprehensions of wanting the assistance of a trochar when none was to be found;I therefore concluded to be tapped again by way of precaution,and accordingly I this morning summoned on board a surgeon from a neighboring parish,one whom the captain greatly recommended,and who did indeed perform his office with much dexterity.He was,I believe,likewise a man of great judgment and knowledge in the profession;but of this I cannot speak with perfect certainty,for,when he was going to open on the dropsy at large and on the particular degree of the distemper under which I labored,I was obliged to stop him short,for the wind was changed,and the captain in the utmost hurry to depart;and to desire him,instead of his opinion,to assist me with his execution.I was now once more delivered from my burden,which was not indeed so great as I had apprehended,wanting two quarts of what was let out at the last operation.
While the surgeon was drawing away my water the sailors were drawing up the anchor;both were finished at the same time;we unfurled our sails and soon passed the Berry-head,which forms the mouth of the bay.
We had not however sailed far when the wind,which,had though with a slow pace,kept us company about six miles,suddenly turned about,and offered to conduct us back again;a favor which,though sorely against the grain,we were obliged to accept.