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['In this state of life, however, I remained some time, uncertain what', 'measures to take, and what course of life to lead. An irresistible', 'reluctance continued to going home; and as I stayed away a while, the', 'remembrance of the distress I had been in wore off, and as that abated,', 'the little motion I had in my desires to return wore off with it, till', 'at last I quite laid aside the thoughts of it, and looked out for a', 'voyage.', '', '', '', '', 'CHAPTER II. SLAVERY AND ESCAPE', '', '', 'That evil influence which carried me first away from my fatherâ\x80\x99s', 'houseâ\x80\x94which hurried me into the wild and indigested notion of raising', 'my fortune, and that impressed those conceits so forcibly upon me as to', 'make me deaf to all good advice, and to the entreaties and even the', 'commands of my fatherâ\x80\x94I say, the same influence, whatever it was,', 'presented the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view; and I', 'went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or, as our sailors', 'vulgarly called it, a voyage to Guinea.', '', 'It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I did not ship', 'myself as a sailor; when, though I might indeed have worked a little', 'harder than ordinary, yet at the same time I should have learnt the', 'duty and office of a fore-mast man, and in time might have qualified', 'myself for a mate or lieutenant, if not for a master. But as it was', 'always my fate to choose for the worse, so I did here; for having money', 'in my pocket and good clothes upon my back, I would always go on board', 'in the habit of a gentleman; and so I neither had any business in the', 'ship, nor learned to do any.', '', 'It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company in London,', 'which does not always happen to such loose and misguided young fellows', 'as I then was; the devil generally not omitting to lay some snare for', 'them very early; but it was not so with me. I first got acquainted with', 'the master of a ship who had been on the coast of Guinea; and who,', 'having had very good success there, was resolved to go again. This', 'captain taking a fancy to my conversation, which was not at all', 'disagreeable at that time, hearing me say I had a mind to see the', 'world, told me if I would go the voyage with him I should be at no', 'expense; I should be his messmate and his companion; and if I could', 'carry anything with me, I should have all the advantage of it that the', 'trade would admit; and perhaps I might meet with some encouragement.', '', 'I embraced the offer; and entering into a strict friendship with this', 'captain, who was an honest, plain-dealing man, I went the voyage with', 'him, and carried a small adventure with me, which, by the disinterested', 'honesty of my friend the captain, I increased very considerably; for I', 'carried about £40 in such toys and trifles as the captain directed me', 'to buy. These £40 I had mustered together by the assistance of some of', 'my relations whom I corresponded with; and who, I believe, got my', 'father, or at least my mother, to contribute so much as that to my', 'first adventure.', '', 'This was the only voyage which I may say was successful in all my', 'adventures, which I owe to the integrity and honesty of my friend the', 'captain; under whom also I got a competent knowledge of the mathematics', 'and the rules of navigation, learned how to keep an account of the', 'shipâ\x80\x99s course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand some', 'things that were needful to be understood by a sailor; for, as he took', 'delight to instruct me, I took delight to learn; and, in a word, this', 'voyage made me both a sailor and a merchant; for I brought home five', 'pounds nine ounces of gold-dust for my adventure, which yielded me in', 'London, at my return, almost £300; and this filled me with those', 'aspiring thoughts which have since so completed my ruin.', '', 'Yet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes too; particularly, that I', 'was continually sick, being thrown into a violent calenture by the', 'excessive heat of the climate; our principal trading being upon the', 'coast, from latitude of 15 degrees north even to the line itself.', '', 'I was now set up for a Guinea trader; and my friend, to my great', 'misfortune, dying soon after his arrival, I resolved to go the same', 'voyage again, and I embarked in the same vessel with one who was his', 'mate in the former voyage, and had now got the command of the ship.', 'This was the unhappiest voyage that ever man made; for though I did not', 'carry quite £100 of my new-gained wealth, so that I had £200 left,', 'which I had lodged with my friendâ\x80\x99s widow, who was very just to me, yet', 'I fell into terrible misfortunes. The first was this: our ship making', 'her course towards the Canary Islands, or rather between those islands', 'and the African shore, was surprised in the grey of the morning by a', 'Turkish rover of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all the sail she', 'could make. We crowded also as much canvas as our yards would spread,', 'or our masts carry, to get clear; but finding the pirate gained upon', 'us, and would certainly come up with us in a few hours, we prepared to', 'fight; our ship having twelve guns, and the rogue eighteen. About three', 'in the afternoon he came up with us, and bringing to, by mistake, just', 'athwart our quarter, instead of athwart our stern, as he intended, we', 'brought eight of our guns to bear on that side, and poured in a', 'broadside upon him, which made him sheer off again, after returning our', 'fire, and pouring in also his small shot from near two hundred men', 'which he had on board. However, we had not a man touched, all our men', 'keeping close. He prepared to attack us again, and we to defend', 'ourselves. But laying us on board the next time upon our other quarter,', 'he entered sixty men upon our decks, who immediately fell to cutting', 'and hacking the sails and rigging. We plied them with small shot,', 'half-pikes, powder-chests, and such like, and cleared our deck of them', 'twice. However, to cut short this melancholy part of our story, our'] |
