The fishermen who rescued me carried
me to their huts, and there I remained three weeks helpless and
miserable. "That part of the coast on which I was thrown was, in the highest
degree, sterile and rude. Its few inhabitants subsisted precariously on
the produce of the ocean. Their dwellings were of mud,--low, filthy,
dark, and comfortless. Their fuel was the stalks of shrubs sparingly
scattered over a sandy desert. Their poverty scarcely allowed them salt
and black bread with their fish, which was obtained in unequal and
sometimes insufficient quantities, and which they ate with all its
impurities, and half cooked. "My former habits, as well as my present indisposition, required very
different treatment from what the ignorance and penury of these people
obliged them to bestow. I lay upon the moist earth, imperfectly
sheltered from the sky, and with neither raiment nor fire to keep me
warm. My hosts had little attention or compassion to spare to the wants
of others. They could not remove me to a more hospitable district; and
here, without doubt, I should have perished, had not a monk chanced to
visit their hovels. He belonged to a convent of St. Jago, some leagues
farther from the shore, which used to send one of its members annually
to inspect the religious concerns of those outcasts. Happily, this was
the period of their visitations. "My abode in Spain had made me somewhat conversant with its language. The dialect of this monk did not so much differ from Castilian but that,
with the assistance of Latin, we were able to converse. The jargon of
the fishermen was unintelligible, and they had vainly endeavoured to
keep up my spirits by informing me of this expected visit. "This monk was touched with compassion at my calamity, and speedily
provided the means of my removal to his convent. Here I was charitably
entertained, and the aid of a physician was procured for me. He was but
poorly skilled in his profession, and rather confirmed than alleviated
my disease. The Portuguese of his trade, especially in remoter
districts, are little more than dealers in talismans and nostrums. For a
long time I was unable to leave my pallet, and had no prospect before me
but that of consuming my days in the gloom of this cloister. "All the members of this convent but he who had been my first
benefactor, and whose name was Chaledro, were bigoted and sordid. Their
chief motive for treating me with kindness was the hope of obtaining a
convert from heresy. They spared no pains to subdue my errors, and were
willing to prolong my imprisonment, in the hope of finally gaining their
end. Had my fate been governed by those, I should have been immured in
this convent, and compelled either to adopt their fanatical creed or to
put an end to my own life, in order to escape their well-meant
persecutions. Chaledro, however, though no less sincere in his faith and
urgent in his entreaties, yet finding me invincible, exerted his
influence to obtain my liberty. "After many delays, and strenuous exertions of my friend, they consented
to remove me to Oporto. The journey was to be performed in an open cart,
over a mountainous country, in the heats of summer. The monks
endeavoured to dissuade me from the enterprise, for my own sake, it
being scarcely possible that one in my feeble state should survive a
journey like this; but I despaired of improving my condition by other
means. I preferred death to the imprisonment of a Portuguese monastery,
and knew that I could hope for no alleviation of my disease but from the
skill of Scottish or French physicians, whom I expected to meet with in
that city. I adhered to my purpose with so much vehemence and obstinacy,
that they finally yielded to my wishes. "My road lay through the wildest and most rugged districts. It did not
exceed ninety miles, but seven days were consumed on the way. The motion
of the vehicle racked me with the keenest pangs, and my attendants
concluded that every stage would be my last. They had been selected
without due regard to their characters. They were knavish and inhuman,
and omitted nothing but actual violence to hasten my death. They
purposely retarded the journey, and protracted to seven what might have
been readily performed in four days. They neglected to execute the
orders which they had received respecting my lodging and provisions; and
from them, as well as from the peasants, who were sure to be informed
that I was a heretic, I suffered every species of insult and injury. My
constitution, as well as my frame, possessed a fund of strength of which
I had no previous conception. In spite of hardship, and exposure, and
abstinence, I at last arrived at Oporto. "Instead of being carried, agreeably to Chaledro's direction, to a
convent of St. Jago, I was left, late in the evening, in the porch of a
common hospital. My attendants, having laid me on the pavement and
loaded me with imprecations, left me to obtain admission by my own
efforts. I passed the livelong night in this spot, and in the morning
was received into the house in a state which left it uncertain whether I
was alive or dead. "After recovering my sensibility, I made various efforts to procure a
visit from some English merchant. This was no easy undertaking for one
in my deplorable condition. I was too weak to articulate my words
distinctly, and these words were rendered, by my foreign accent,
scarcely intelligible. The likelihood of my speedy death made the people
about me more indifferent to my wants and petitions. "I will not dwell upon my repeated disappointments, but content myself
with mentioning that I gained the attention of a French gentleman whose
curiosity brought him to view the hospital. Through him I obtained a
visit from an English merchant, and finally gained the notice of a
person who formerly resided in America, and of whom I had imperfect
knowledge. By their kindness I was removed from the hospital to a
private house. A Scottish surgeon was summoned to my assistance, and in
seven months I was restored to my present state of health. "At Oporto, I embarked, in an American ship, for New York. I was
destitute of all property, and relied, for the payment of the debts
which I was obliged to contract, as well as for my future subsistence,
on my remittance to Waldegrave. I hastened to Philadelphia, and was soon
informed that my friend was dead. His death had taken place a long time
since my remittance to him: hence this disaster was a subject of regret
chiefly on his own account. I entertained no doubt but that my property
had been secured, and that either some testamentary directions or some
papers had been left behind respecting this affair. "I sought out those who were formerly our mutual acquaintance. I found
that they were wholly strangers to his affairs. They could merely relate
some particulars of his singular death, and point out the lodgings which
he formerly occupied.