บทที่ บทที่ 68 · 第68章

He stood a little while hesitating, as if doubtful whether to take it

or no; but I pressed it on him, and made him accept it, and it was not

much less worth than his leather pouch full of Spanish gold; no, though

it were to be reckoned as if at London, whereas it was worth twice as

much there, where I gave it him. At length he took it, kissed it, told

me the watch should be a debt upon him that he would be paying as long

as I lived.

A few days after he brought the writings of gift, and the scrivener

with them, and I signed them very freely, and delivered them to him

with a hundred kisses; for sure nothing ever passed between a mother

and a tender, dutiful child with more affection. The next day he brings

me an obligation under his hand and seal, whereby he engaged himself to

manage and improve the plantation for my account, and with his utmost

skill, and to remit the produce to my order wherever I should be; and

withal, to be obliged himself to make up the produce £100 a year to me.

When he had done so, he told me that as I came to demand it before the

crop was off, I had a right to produce of the current year, and so he

paid me £100 in Spanish pieces of eight, and desired me to give him a

receipt for it as in full for that year, ending at Christmas following;

this being about the latter end of August.

I stayed here about five weeks, and indeed had much ado to get away

then. Nay, he would have come over the bay with me, but I would by no

means allow him to it. However, he would send me over in a sloop of his

own, which was built like a yacht, and served him as well for pleasure

as business. This I accepted of, and so, after the utmost expressions

both of duty and affection, he let me come away, and I arrived safe in

two days at my friend’s the Quaker’s.

I brought over with me for the use of our plantation, three horses,

with harness and saddles, some hogs, two cows, and a thousand other

things, the gift of the kindest and tenderest child that ever woman

had. I related to my husband all the particulars of this voyage, except

that I called my son my cousin; and first I told him that I had lost my

watch, which he seemed to take as a misfortune; but then I told him how

kind my cousin had been, that my mother had left me such a plantation,

and that he had preserved it for me, in hopes some time or other he

should hear from me; then I told him that I had left it to his

management, that he would render me a faithful account of its produce;

and then I pulled him out the £100 in silver, as the first year’s

produce; and then pulling out the deerskin purse with the pistoles,

“And here, my dear,” says I, “is the gold watch.” My husband—so is

Heaven’s goodness sure to work the same effects in all sensible minds

where mercies touch the heart—lifted up both hands, and with an ecstacy

of joy, “What is God a-doing,” says he, “for such an ungrateful dog as

I am!” Then I let him know what I had brought over in the sloop,

besides all this; I mean the horses, hogs, and cows, and other stores

for our plantation; all which added to his surprise, and filled his

heart with thankfulness; and from this time forward I believe he was as

sincere a penitent, and as thoroughly a reformed man, as ever God’s

goodness brought back from a profligate, a highwayman, and a robber. I

could fill a larger history than this with the evidence of this truth,

and but that I doubt that part of the story will not be equally

diverting as the wicked part, I have had thoughts of making a volume of

it by itself.

As for myself, as this is to be my own story, not my husband’s, I

return to that part which related to myself. We went on with our

plantation, and managed it with the help and diversion of such friends

as we got there by our obliging behaviour, and especially the honest

Quaker, who proved a faithful, generous, and steady friend to us; and

we had very good success, for having a flourishing stock to begin with,

as I have said, and this being now increased by the addition of £150

sterling in money, we enlarged our number of servants, built us a very

good house, and cured every year a great deal of land. The second year

I wrote to my old governess, giving her part with us of the joy of our

success, and order her how to lay out the money I had left with her,

which was £250 as above, and to send it to us in goods, which she

performed with her usual kindness and fidelity, and this arrived safe

to us.

Here we had a supply of all sorts of clothes, as well for my husband as

for myself; and I took especial care to buy for him all those things

that I knew he delighted to have; as two good long wigs, two

silver-hilted swords, three or four fine fowling-pieces, a fine saddle

with holsters and pistols very handsome, with a scarlet cloak; and, in

a word, everything I could think of to oblige him, and to make him

appear, as he really was, a very fine gentleman. I ordered a good

quantity of such household stuff as we yet wanted, with linen of all

sorts for us both. As for myself, I wanted very little of clothes or

linen, being very well furnished before. The rest of my cargo consisted

in iron-work of all sorts, harness for horses, tools, clothes for

servants, and woollen cloth, stuffs, serges, stockings, shoes, hats,

and the like, such as servants wear; and whole pieces also to make up

for servants, all by direction of the Quaker; and all this cargo

arrived safe, and in good condition, with three woman-servants, lusty

wenches, which my old governess had picked for me, suitable enough to

the place, and to the work we had for them to do; one of which happened

to come double, having been got with child by one of the seamen in the

ship, as she owned afterwards, before the ship got so far as Gravesend;

so she brought us a stout boy, about seven months after her landing.

My husband, you may suppose, was a little surprised at the arriving of

all this cargo from England; and talking with me after he saw the

account of this particular, “My dear,” says he, “what is the meaning of

all this? I fear you will run us too deep in debt: when shall we be

able to make return for it all?” I smiled, and told him that it was all

paid for; and then I told him, that what our circumstances might expose

us to, I had not taken my whole stock with me, that I had reserved so

much in my friend’s hands, which now we were come over safe, and was

settled in a way to live, I had sent for, as he might see.

He was amazed, and stood a while telling upon his fingers, but said

nothing. At last he began thus: “Hold, let’s see,” says he, telling

upon his fingers still, and first on his thumb; “there’s £246 in money

at first, then two gold watches, diamond rings, and plate,” says he,

upon the forefinger. Then upon the next finger, “Here’s a plantation on

York River, £100 a year, then £150 in money, then a sloop load of

horses, cows, hogs, and stores”; and so on to the thumb again. “And

now,” says he, “a cargo cost £250 in England, and worth here twice the

money.” “Well,” says I, “what do you make of all that?” “Make of it?”

says he; “why, who says I was deceived when I married a wife in

Lancashire? I think I have married a fortune, and a very good fortune

too,” says he.

In a word, we were now in very considerable circumstances, and every

year increasing; for our new plantation grew upon our hands insensibly,

and in eight years which we lived upon it, we brought it to such pitch,

that the produce was at least £300 sterling a year; I mean, worth so

much in England.

After I had been a year at home again, I went over the bay to see my

son, and to receive another year’s income of my plantation; and I was

surprised to hear, just at my landing there, that my old husband was

dead, and had not been buried above a fortnight. This, I confess, was

not disagreeable news, because now I could appear as I was, in a

married condition; so I told my son before I came from him, that I

believed I should marry a gentleman who had a plantation near mine; and

though I was legally free to marry, as to any obligation that was on me

before, yet that I was shy of it, lest the blot should some time or

other be revived, and it might make a husband uneasy. My son, the same

kind, dutiful, and obliging creature as ever, treated me now at his own

house, paid me my hundred pounds, and sent me home again loaded with

presents.

Some time after this, I let my son know I was married, and invited him

over to see us, and my husband wrote a very obliging letter to him

also, inviting him to come and see him; and he came accordingly some

months after, and happened to be there just when my cargo from England

came in, which I let him believe belonged all to my husband’s estate,

not to me.

It must be observed that when the old wretch my brother (husband) was

dead, I then freely gave my husband an account of all that affair, and

of this cousin, as I had called him before, being my own son by that

mistaken unhappy match. He was perfectly easy in the account, and told

me he should have been as easy if the old man, as we called him, had

been alive. “For,” said he, “it was no fault of yours, nor of his; it

was a mistake impossible to be prevented.” He only reproached him with

desiring me to conceal it, and to live with him as a wife, after I knew

that he was my brother; that, he said, was a vile part. Thus all these

difficulties were made easy, and we lived together with the greatest

kindness and comfort imaginable.

We are grown old; I am come back to England, being almost seventy years

of age, husband sixty-eight, having performed much more than the

limited terms of my transportation; and now, notwithstanding all the

fatigues and all the miseries we have both gone through, we are both of

us in good heart and health. My husband remained there some time after

me to settle our affairs, and at first I had intended to go back to

him, but at his desire I altered that resolution, and he is come over

to England also, where we resolve to spend the remainder of our years

in sincere penitence for the wicked lives we have lived.

WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1683