Kabanata Kabanata 62 · 第62章

When I gave the boatswain the letter, I gave him a shilling with it,

which I told him was for the charge of a messenger or porter, which I

entreated him to send with the letter as soon as he came on shore, that

if possible I might have an answer brought back by the same hand, that

I might know what was become of my things; “for sir,” says I, “if the

ship should go away before I have them on board, I am undone.”

I took care, when I gave him the shilling, to let him see that 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.

I took that time to read my fellow-prisoner’s letter, which, however,

greatly perplexed me. He told me he 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 governess’s hands would be her own, which she had

well deserved of me indeed.

My stock which I had with me was £246 some odd shillings; so that we

had £354 between us, but a worse gotten estate was scarce ever put

together to begin the world with.

Our greatest misfortune as to our stock was that it was all in money,

which every one knows is an unprofitable cargo to be carried to the

plantations. I believe his was really all he had left in the world, as

he told me it was; but I, who had between £700 and £800 in bank when

this disaster befell me, and who had one of the faithfullest friends in

the world to manage it for me, considering she was a woman of manner of

religious principles, had still £300 left in her hand, which I reserved

as above; besides, some very valuable things, as particularly two gold

watches, some small pieces of plate, and some rings—all stolen goods.

The plate, rings, and watches were put in my chest with the money, and

with this fortune, and in the sixty-first year of my age, I launched

out into a new world, as I may call it, in the condition (as to what

appeared) only of a poor, naked convict, ordered to be transported in

respite from the gallows. My clothes were poor and mean, but not ragged

or dirty, and none knew in the whole ship that I had anything of value

about me.

However, as I had a great many very good clothes and linen in

abundance, which I had ordered to be packed up in two great boxes, I

had them shipped on board, not as my goods, but as consigned to my real

name in Virginia; and had the bills of loading signed by a captain in

my pocket; and in these boxes was my plate and watches, and everything

of value except my money, which I kept by itself in a private drawer in

my chest, which could not be found, or opened, if found, without

splitting the chest to pieces.

In this condition I lay for three weeks in the ship, not knowing

whether I should have my husband with me or no, and therefore not

resolving how or in what manner to receive the honest boatswain’s

proposal, which indeed he thought a little strange at first.

At the end of this time, behold my husband came on board. He looked

with a dejected, angry countenance, his great heart was swelled with

rage and disdain; to be dragged along with three keepers of Newgate,

and put on board like a convict, when he had not so much as been

brought to a trial. He made loud complaints of it by his friends, for

it seems he had some interest; but his friends got some check in their

application, and were told he had had favour enough, and that they had

received such an account of him, since the last grant of his

transportation, that he ought to think himself very well treated that

he was not prosecuted anew. This answer quieted him at once, for he

knew too much what might have happened, and what he had room to expect;

and now he saw the goodness of the advice to him, which prevailed with

him to accept of the offer of a voluntary transportation. And after

this his chagrin at these hell-hounds, as he called them, was a little

over, he looked a little composed, began to be cheerful, and as I was

telling him how glad I was to have him once more out of their hands, he

took me in his arms, and acknowledged with great tenderness that I had

given him the best advice possible. “My dear,” says he, “thou has twice

saved my life; from henceforward it shall be all employed for you, and

I’ll always take your advice.”