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 Gravesend, where we were
very merry, stayed all night, lay at the house where we supped,
and came all very honestly on board again with him in the
morning. Here we bought ten dozen bottles of good beer, some
wine, some fowls, and such things as we thought might be
acceptable on board.
My governess was with us all this while, and went with us
round into the Downs, as did also the captain’s wife, with
whom she went back. I was never so sorrowful at parting
with my own mother as I was at parting with her, and I never
saw her more. We had a fair easterly wind sprung up the third
day after we came to the Downs, and we sailed from thence
the 10th of April. Nor did we touch any more at any place,
till, being driven on the coast of Ireland by a very hard gale
of wind, the ship came to an anchor in a little bay, near the
mouth of a river, whose name I remember not, but they said
the river came down from Limerick, and that it was the largest
river in Ireland.
Here, being detained by bad weather for some time, the captain,
who continued the same kind, good-humoured man as at
first, took us two on shore with him again. He id it now in
kindness to my husband indeed, who bore the sea very ill, and
was very sick, especially when it blew so hard. Here we
bought in again a store of fresh provisions, especially beef,
pork, mutton, and fowls, and the captain stayed to pickle up
five or six barrels of beef to lengthen out the ship’s store. We
were here not above five days, when the weather turning mild,
and a fair wind, we set sail again, and in two-and-forty days
came safe to the coast of Virginia.
When we drew near to the shore, the captain called me to him,
and told me that he found by my discourse I had some relations
in the place, and that I had been there before, and so he supposed
I understood the custom in their disposing the convict prisoners
when they arrived. I told him I did not, and that as to what
relations I had in the place, he might be sure I would make
myself known to none of them while I was in the circumstances
of a prisoner, and that as to the rest, we left ourselves entirely
to him to assist us, as he was pleased to promise us he would
do. He told me I must get somebody in the place to come and
buy us as servants, and who must answer for us to the governor
of the country, if he demanded us. I told him we should do as
she should direct; so he brought a planter to treat with him, as
it were, for the purchase of these two servants, my husband
and me, and there we were formally sold to him, and went
ashore with him. The captain went with us, and carried us to
a certain house, whether it was to be called a tavern or not I
know not, but we had a bowl of punch there made of rum, etc.,
and were very merry. After some time the planter gave us a
certificate of discharge, and an acknowledgment of having
served him faithfully, and we were free from him the next
morning, to go wither we would.
For this piece of service the captain demanded of us six
thousand weight of tabacco, which he said he was accountable
for to his freighter, and which we immediately bought for him,
and made him a present of twenty guineas besides, with which
he was abundantly satisfied.
It is not proper to enter here into the particulars of what part
of the colony of Virginia we settled in, for divers reasons; it
may suffice to mention that we went into the great river
Potomac, the ship being bound thither; and there we intended