Chapter
20
But my case was
particular; it was by no means proper to me to go thither without money or
goods, and for a poor convict, that was to be sold as soon as I came on shore,
to carry with me a cargo of goods would be to have notice taken of it, and
perhaps to have them seized by the public; so I took part of my stock with me
thus, and left the other part with my governess.
My governess brought me
a great many other things, but it was not proper for me to look too well
provided in the ship, at least till I knew what kind of a captain we should
have. When she came into the ship, I thought she would have died indeed; her
heart sank at the sight of me, and at the thoughts of parting with me in that
condition, and she cried so intolerably, I could not for a long time have any
talk with her.
I took that time to read
my fellow-prisoner’s letter, which, however, greatly perplexed me. He told me
was determined to go, but found it would be impossible for him to be discharged
time enough for going in the same ship, and which was more than all, he began
to question whether they would give him leave to go in what ship he pleased,
though he did voluntarily transport himself; but that they would see him put on
board such a ship as they should direct, and that he would be charged upon the
captain as other convict prisoners were; so that he began to be in despair of
seeing me till he came to Virginia, which made him almost desperate;
seeing that, on the other hand, if I should not be there, if any accident of
the sea or of mortality should take me away, he should be the most undone
creature there in the world.
This was very
perplexing, and I knew not what course to take. I told my Governess the story
of the Boatswain, and she was mighty eager with me treat with him; but I had no
mind to it, till I heard whether my husband, or fellow-prisoner, so she
called him, could be at liberty to go with me or no. At last I was forced
to let her into the whole matter, except only that of his being my husband. I
told her I had made a positive bargain or agreement with him to go, if he could
get the liberty of going in the same ship, and that I found he had money.
Then I read a long
lecture to her of what I proposed to do when we came there, how we could plant,
settle, and, in short, grow rich without any more adventures; and, as a great
secret, I told her that we were to marry as soon as he came on board.
She soon agreed
cheerfully to my going when she heard this, and she made it her business from
that time to get him out of the prison in time, so that he might go in the same
ship with me, which at last was brought to pass, though with great difficulty,
and not without all the forms of a transported prisoner- convict, which
he really was not yet, for he had not been tried, and which was a great
mortification to him. As our fate was now determined, and we were both on
board, actually bound to Virginia, in the despicable quality of
transported convicts destined to be sold for slaves, I for five years, and he
under bonds and security not to return to England any more, as long as
he lived, he was very much dejected and cast down; the mortification of being
brought on board, as he was, like a prisoner, piqued him very much, since it
was first told him he should transport himself, and so that he might go as a
gentleman at liberty. It is true he was not ordered to be sold when he came
there, as we were, and for that reason he was obliged to pay for his passage to
the captain, which we were not; as to the rest, he was as much at a loss as a
child what to do with himself, or with what he had, but by directions.
Our first business was
to compare our stock. He was very honest to me, and told me his stock was
pretty good when he came into the prison, but the living there as he did in a
figure like a gentleman, and, which was ten times as much, the making of
friends, and soliciting his case, had been very expensive; and, in a word, all
his stock that he had left was
I gave him an account of
my stock as faithfully, that is to say, of what I had taken to carry with me,
for I was resolved, whatever should happen, to keep what I had left with my
governess in reserve; that in case I should die, what I had with me was enough
to give him, and that which was left in my governess’s hands would be her own,
which she had well deserved of me indeed.
My stock which I had
with me was
Our greatest misfortune
as to our stock was that it was all in money, which every one knows is an
unprofitable cargo to be carried to the plantations. I believe his was really
all he had left in the world, as he told me it was; but I, who had between
However, as I had a
great many very good clothes and linen in abundance, which I had ordered to be
packed up in two great boxes, I had them shipped on board, not as my goods, but
as consigned to my real name in Virginia; and had the bills of loading
signed by a captain in my pocket; and in these boxes was my plate and watches,
and everything of value except my money, which I kept by itself in a private
drawer in my chest, which could not be found, or opened, if found, with
splitting the chest to pieces.
In this condition I lay
for three weeks in the ship, not knowing whether I should have my husband with
me or no, and therefore not resolving how or in what manner to receive the
honest Boatswain’s proposal, which indeed he thought a little strange at first.
At the end of this time,
behold my husband came on board. He looked with a dejected, angry countenance,
his great heart was swelled with rage and disdain; to be dragged along with
three keepers of Newgate, and put on board
like a convict, when he had not so much as been brought to a trial. He made
loud complaints of it by his friends, for it seems he had some interest; but
his friends got some check in their application, and were told he had had Favour
enough, and that they had received such an account of him, since the last
grant of his transportation, that he ought to think himself very well treated
that he was not prosecuted anew. This answer quieted him at once, for he knew
too much what might have happened, and what he had
room to expect; and now he saw the goodness of the advice to him, which
prevailed with him to accept of the offer of a voluntary transportation. And
after this his chagrin at these hell-hounds, as he called them, was a
little over, he looked a little composed, began to be cheerful, and as I was
telling him how glad I was to have him once more out of their hands, he took me
in his arms, and acknowledged with great tenderness that I had given him the
best advice possible. ‘My dear,’ says he, ‘thou has
twice saved my life; from hence forward it shall be all employed for you, and
I’ll always take your Advice.’
The ship began now to
fill; several passengers came on board, who were embarked on no criminal
account, and these had accommodations assigned them in the great cabin, and
other parts of the ship, whereas we, as convicts, were thrust down
below, I know not where. But when my husband came on board, I spoke to the
Boatswain, who had so early given me hints of his friendship in carrying my
letter. I told him he had befriended me in many things, and I had not made any
suitable return to him, and with that I put a guinea into his hand. I told him
that my husband was now come on board; that though we were both under the
present misfortune, yet we had been persons of a different character from the
wretched crew that we came with, and desired to know of him, whether the
captain might not be moved to admit us to some conveniences in the ship, for
which we would make him what satisfaction he pleased, and that we would gratify
him for his pains in procuring this for us. He took the guinea, as I could see,
with great satisfaction, and assured me of his Assistance.
Then he told us he did
not doubt but that the captain, who was one of the best humour’d
gentlemen in the world, would be easily brought to Accommodate us, as well as
we could desire, and, to make me easy, told me he would go up the next tide on
purpose to speak to the captain about it. The next morning, happening to sleep
a little longer than ordinary, when I got up, and began to look abroad, I saw
the Boatswain among the men in his ordinary business. I was a little melancholy
at seeing him there, and going forward to speak to him, he saw me, and came
towards me, but not giving him time to speak first, I said, smiling, ‘I
doubt, sir, you have forgot us, for I see you are very busy.’ He returned
presently, ‘Come along with me, and you shall see.’ So he took me into the
great cabin, and there sat a good sort of a gentlemanly man for a seaman,
writing, and with a great many papers before him.
‘Here,’ says the
Boatswain to him that was a-writing, ‘is the gentlewoman that the captain spoke
to you of’; and turning to me, he said, ‘I have been so far from forgetting
your business, that I have been up at the captain’s house, and have represented
faithfully to the captain what you said, relating to you being furnished with
better conveniences for yourself and your husband; and the captain has sent
this gentleman, who is made of the ship, down with me, on purpose to show you
everything, and to accommodate you fully to your content, and bid me assure you
that you shall not be treated like what you were at first expected to be, but
with the same respect as other passengers are treated.’
The mate then spoke to
me, and, not giving me time to thank the Boatswain for his kindness, confirmed
what the Boatswain had said, and added that it was the captain’s delight to
show himself kind and charitable, especially to those that were under any
misfortunes, and with that he showed me several cabins built up, some in the
great cabin, and some partitioned off, out of the steerage, but opening into
the great cabin on purpose for the accommodation of passengers, and gave me
leave to choose where I would. However, I chose a cabin which opened into the
steerage, in which was very good conveniences to set our chest and boxes, and a
table to eat on.
The Mate then told me
that the Boatswain had given so good a character of me and my husband, as to
our civil Behaviour, that he had orders to tell me we should eat with him, if
we thought fit, during the whole voyage, on the common terms of passengers;
that we might lay in some fresh provisions, if we pleased; or if not, he should
lay in his usual store, and we should have share with him. This was very reviving
news to me, after so many hardships and afflictions as I had gone through of
late. I thanked him, and told him the captain should make his own terms with
us, and asked him leave to go and tell my husband of it, who was not very well,
and was not yet out of his cabin. Accordingly I went, and my husband, whose
spirits were still so much sunk with the indignity (as he understood it)
offered him, that he was scare yet himself, was so revived with the account
that I gave him of the reception we were like to have in the ship, that he was
quite another man, and new vigour and courage appeared in his very countenance.
So true is it, that the greatest of spirits, when overwhelmed by their
afflictions, are subject to the greatest dejections, and are the most apt to
despair and give themselves up.
After some little pause
to recover himself, my husband came up with me, and gave the mate thanks for
the kindness, which he had expressed to us, and sent suitable acknowledgment by
him to the captain, offering to pay him by advance, whatever he demanded for
our passage, and for the conveniences he had helped us to. The mate told him
that the captain would be on board in the afternoon, and that he would leave
all that till he came. Accordingly, in the afternoon the captain came, and we
found him the same courteous, obliging man that the Boatswain had represented
him to be; and he was so well pleased with my husband’s conversation, that, in
short, he would not let us keep the cabin we had chosen, but gave us one that,
as I said before, opened into the great cabin.
Nor were his conditions
exorbitant, or the man craving and eager to make a prey of us, but for fifteen
The captain lay himself in the other part of the great cabin, having let
his round house, as they call it, to a rich planter who went over with
his wife and three children, who ate by themselves. He had some other ordinary
passengers, who quartered in the steerage, and as for our old fraternity, they
were kept under the hatches while the ship lay there, and came very little on
the deck.
I could not refrain
acquainting my governess with what had happened; it was but just that she, who
was so really concerned for me, should have part in my good fortune. Besides, I
wanted her assistance to supply me with several necessaries, which before I was
shy of letting anybody see me have, that it might not be public; but now I had
a cabin and room to set things in, I ordered abundance of good things for our
comfort in the voyage, as brandy, sugar, lemons, etc., to make punch,
and treat our benefactor, the captain; and abundance of things for eating and
drinking in the voyage; also a larger bed, and bedding proportioned to it; so
that, in a word, we resolved to want for nothing in the voyage.
All this while I had
provided nothing for our assistance when we should come to the place and begin
to call ourselves planters; and I was far from being ignorant of what was
needful on that occasion; particularly all sorts of tools for the planter’s
work, and for building; and all kinds of furniture for our dwelling, which, if
to be bought in the country, must necessarily cost double the price.
So I discoursed that
point with my governess, and she went and waited upon the captain, and told him
that she hoped ways might be found out for her two unfortunate cousins, as
she called us, to obtain our freedom when we came into the country, and so
entered into a discourse with him about the means and terms also, of which I
shall say more in its place; and after thus sounding the captain, she let him
know, though we were unhappy in the circumstances that occasioned our going,
yet that we were not unfurnished to set ourselves to work in the country, and
we resolved to settle and live there as planters, if we might be put in a way
how to do it. The captain readily offered his assistance, told her the method
of entering upon such business, and how easy, nay, how certain it was for industrious
people to recover their fortunes in such a manner. ‘Madam,’ says he,
‘’tis no reproach to any many in that country to have been sent over in worse
circumstances than I perceive your cousins are in, provided they do but apply
with diligence and good judgment to the business of that place when they come
there.’
She then inquired of him
what things it was necessary we should carry over with us, and he, like a very
honest as well as knowing man, told her thus: ‘Madam, your cousins in the first
place must procure somebody to buy them as servants, in conformity to the
conditions of their transportation, and then, in the name of that person, they
may go about what they will; they may either purchase some plantations already
begun, or they may purchase land of the Government of the country, and begin
where they please, and both will be done reasonably.’ She bespoke his Favour in
the first article, which he promised to her to take upon himself, and indeed
faithfully performed it, and as to the rest, he promised to recommend us to
such as should give us the best advice, and not to impose upon us, which was as
much as could be desir’d.
She then asked him if it
would not be necessary to furnish us with a stock of tools and materials for
the business of planting, and he said, ‘Yes, by all means.’ And then she begged
his assistance in it. She told him she would furnish us with everything that
was convenient whatever it cost her. He accordingly gave her a long particular
of things necessary for a planter, which, by his account, came to about
fourscore or a hundred pounds. And, in short, she went about as dexterously to
buy them, as if she had been an old
These she put on board
in her own name, took his bills of loading for them, and endorsed those bills
of loading to my husband, insuring the cargo afterwards in her own name, by our
order; so that we were provided for all events, and for all disasters.
I should have told you
that my husband gave her all his whole stock of
In this condition, very
cheerful, and indeed joyful at being so happily accommodated as we were, we set
sail from Bugby’s-Hole to Gravesend,
where the ship lay about ten more days, and where the captain came on board for
good and all. Here the captain offered us a civility, which indeed we had no
reason to expect, namely, to let us go on shore and refresh ourselves, upon
giving our words in a solemn manner that we would not go from him, and that we
would return peaceably on board again. This was such an evidence of his
confidence in us, that it overcame my husband, who, in a mere principle of
gratitude, told him, as he could not be in any capacity to make a suitable
return for such a Favour, so he could not think of accepting of it, nor could
he be easy that the captain should run such a risk. After some mutual
civilities, I gave my husband a purse, in which was 80
Indeed, the captain had
assurance enough of our resolutions to go, for that having made such provision
to settle there, it did not seem rational that we would choose to remain here
at the expense and peril of life, for such it must have been if we had been
taken again. In a word, we went all on shore with the captain, and supped
together in
My governess was with us
all this while, and went with us round into the
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