to the widow, with a sufficient maintenance to herself for her
care: all which she richly deserved; for no mother could have
taken more care in their education, or understood it better; and as
she lived till I came home, I also lived to thank her for it.
My nephew was ready to sail about the beginning of January 1694-5;
and I, with my man Friday, went on board, in the Downs, the 8th;
having, besides that sloop which I mentioned above, a very
considerable cargo of all kinds of necessary things for my colony,
which, if I did not find in good condition, I resolved to leave so.
First, I carried with me some servants whom I purposed to place
there as inhabitants, or at least to set on work there upon my
account while I stayed, and either to leave them there or carry
them forward, as they should appear willing; particularly, I
carried two carpenters, a smith, and a very handy, ingenious
fellow, who was a cooper by trade, and was also a general mechanic;
for he was dexterous at making wheels and hand-mills to grind corn,
was a good turner and a good pot-maker; he also made anything that
was proper to make of earth or of wood: in a word, we called him
our Jack-of-all-trades. With these I carried a tailor, who had
offered himself to go a passenger to the East Indies with my
nephew, but afterwards consented to stay on our new plantation, and
who proved a most necessary handy fellow as could be desired in
many other businesses besides that of his trade; for, as I observed
formerly, necessity arms us for all employments.
My cargo, as near as I can recollect, for I have not kept account
of the particulars, consisted of a sufficient quantity of linen,
and some English thin stuffs, for clothing the Spaniards that I
expected to find there; and enough of them, as by my calculation
might comfortably supply them for seven years; if I remember right,
the materials I carried for clothing them, with gloves, hats,
shoes, stockings, and all such things as they could want for
wearing, amounted to about two hundred pounds, including some beds,
bedding, and household stuff, particularly kitchen utensils, with
pots, kettles, pewter, brass, &c.; and near a hundred pounds more
in ironwork, nails, tools of every kind, staples, hooks, hinges,
and every necessary thing I could think of.
I carried also a hundred spare arms, muskets, and fusees; besides
some pistols, a considerable quantity of shot of all sizes, three
or four tons of lead, and two pieces of brass cannon; and, because
I knew not what time and what extremities I was providing for, I
carried a hundred barrels of powder, besides swords, cutlasses, and
the iron part of some pikes and halberds. In short, we had a large
magazine of all sorts of store; and I made my nephew carry two
small quarter-deck guns more than he wanted for his ship, to leave
behind if there was occasion; so that when we came there we might
build a fort and man it against all sorts of enemies. Indeed, I at
first thought there would be need enough for all, and much more, if
we hoped to maintain our possession of the island, as shall be seen
in the course of that story.
I had not such bad luck in this voyage as I had been used to meet
with, and therefore shall have the less occasion to interrupt the
reader, who perhaps may be impatient to hear how matters went with
my colony; yet some odd accidents, cross winds and bad weather
happened on this first setting out, which made the voyage longer
than I expected it at first; and I, who had never made but one
voyage, my first voyage to Guinea, in which I might be said to come
back again, as the voyage was at first designed, began to think the
same ill fate attended me, and that I was born to be never
contented with being on shore, and yet to be always unfortunate at
sea. Contrary winds first put us to the northward, and we were