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
#108, which he had about him all in gold.
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