I had a little better furniture about me than the ordinary
prisoners, for he saw that I had a purse, and in it a pretty deal
of money; and I found that the very sight of it immediately
furnished me with very different treatment from what I should
otherwise have met with in the ship; for though he was very
courteous indeed before, in a kind of natural compassion to
me, as a woman in distress, yet he was more than ordinarily
so afterwards, and procured me to be better treated in the ship
than, I say, I might otherwise have been; as shall appear in
its place.
He very honestly had my letter delivered to my governess’s
own hands, and brought me back an answer from her in writing;
and when he gave me the answer, gave me the shilling again.
‘There,’ says he, ‘there’s your shilling again too, for I delivered
the letter myself.’ I could not tell what to say, I was so surprised
at the thing; but after some pause, I said, ‘Sir, you are too kind;
it had been but reasonable that you had paid yourself coach-hire,
then.’
‘No, no,’ says he, ‘I am overpaid. What is the gentlewoman?
Your sister.’
‘No, sir,’ says I, ‘she is no relation to me, but she is a dear
friend, and all the friends I have in the world.’ ‘Well,’ says
he, ‘there are few such friends in the world. Why, she cried
after you like a child,’ ‘Ay,’ says I again, ‘she would give a
hundred pounds, I believe, to deliver me from this dreadful
condition I am in.’
‘Would she so?’ says he. ‘For half the money I believe I could
put you in a way how to deliver yourself.’ But this he spoke
softly, that nobody could hear.
‘Alas! sir,’ said I, ‘but then that must be such a deliverance
as, if I should be taken again, would cost me my life.’ ‘Nay,’
said he, ‘if you were once out of the ship, you must look to
yourself afterwards; that I can say nothing to.’ So we dropped
the discourse for that time.
In the meantime, my governess, faithful to the last moment,
conveyed my letter to the prison to my husband, and got an
answer to it, and the next day came down herself to the ship,
bringing me, in the first place, a sea-bed as they call it, and
all its furniture, such as was convenient, but not to let the
people think it was extraordinary. She brought with her a
sea-chest–that is, a chest, such as are made for seamen, with
all the conveniences in it, and filled with everything almost
that I could want; and in one of the corners of the chest, where
there was a private drawer, was my bank of money–this is to
say, so much of it as I had resolved to carry with me; for I
ordered a part of my stock to be left behind me, to be sent
afterwards in such goods as I should want when I came to
settle; for money in that country is not of much use where all
things are brought for tobacco, much more is it a great loss
to carry it from hence.
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.