By the same fleet my merchant-trustees shipped me 1,200 chests of sugar, 800 rolls of tobacco, and the rest of the whole account in gold.
I might well say now, indeed, that the latter end of Job was better than the beginning. It is impossible to express the flutterings of my very heart when I looked over these letters, and especially when I found all my wealth about me; for as the Brazil ships come all in fleets, the same ships which brought my letters brought my goods, and the effects were safe in the Tagus before the letter came to my hand. In a word, I turned pale and grew sick, and had not the old man ran and fetched me a cordial, I believe the sudden surprise of joy had overset nature, and I had died upon the spot.
Nay, after that, I continued very ill, and was so some hours, till a physician being sent for, and something of the real cause of my illness being known, he ordered me to be let blood, after which I had relief and grew well; but I verily believe, if I had not been eased by the vent given in that manner to the spirits, I should have died.
I was now master all on a sudden of about £50,000 sterling in money, and had an estate, as I might well call it, in the Brazils, of above a thousand pounds a year, as sure as an estate of lands in England and in a word, I was in a condition which I scarce knew how to understand, or how to compose myself for the enjoyment of.
The first thing I did was to recompense my original benefactor, my good old captain, who had been first charitable to me in my distress, kind to me in the beginning, and honest to me at the end. I showed all that was sent me; I told him that, next to the providence of heaven, which disposes all things, it was owing to him; and that it now lay on me to reward him, which I would do an hundred fold. So I first returned to him the hundred moidores I had received of him; then I sent for a notary, and caused him to draw up a general release or discharge for the 470 moidores which he had acknowledged he owed me, in the fullest and firmest manner possible; after which I caused a procuration to be drawn, empowering him to be my receiver of the annual profits of my plantation, and appointing my partner to account to him, and make the returns by the usual fleets to him in my name; and a clause in the end, being a grant of 100 moidores a year to him during his life out of the effects, and 50 moidores a year to his son after him for his life; and thus I requited my old man.
I was now to consider which way to steer my course next, and what to do with the estate that Providence had thus put into my hands; and, indeed, I had more care upon my head now than I had in my silent state of life in the island, where I wanted nothing but what I had, and had nothing but what I wanted; whereas I had now a great charge upon me, and my business was how to secure it. I had never a cave to hide my money in, or a place where it might lie without lock or key till it grew mouldy and tarnished before anybody would meddle with it. On the contrary, I knew not where to put it, or whom to trust it with. My old patron, the captain, indeed, was honest, and that was the only refuge I had.
In the next place, my interest in the Brazils seemed to summon me thither; but now I could not tell how to think of going thither till I had settled my affairs, and left my effects in some safe hands behind me. At first I thought of my old friend the widow, who, I knew, was honest, and would be just to me; but then she was in years, and but poor, and, for aught I knew, might be in debt; so that, in a word, I had no way but to go back to England myself, and take my effects with me.