A faithful counsellor is life from the dead, gives courage where the heart is sinking, and raises the mind to a proper use of means; and such she was to me, indeed, upon every step of this affair, and it was by her direction that I took every step that followed for the extricating myself out of this labyrinth.

Come, come, my dear," says she, "if this be all, there is no room for any such disconsolate doings as your fears run you upon;" for I was immediately for selling off my plantations and all my stock, and embarking myself forthwith, and to get to Madeiras, or to any place out of the king's dominions.

But my wife was quite of another opinion, and cncouraging me on another account, proposed two things, either my freighting a sloop with provisions to the West Indies, and so taking passage from thence to London, or letting her go away directly for England, and endeavour to obtain the king's pardon, whatever it might

cost.

I inclined to the last proposal; for though I was unhappily prejudiced in favour of a wrong interest, yet I had always a secret and right notion of the clemency and merciful disposition of his majesty, and, had I been in England, should, I believe, have been easily persuaded to have thrown myself at his feet.

But going to England as I was circumstanced must have been a public action, and I must have made all the usual preparations for it, must have appeared in public, have stayed till the crop was ready, and gone away in form and state as usual, or have acted as if something extraordinary was the matter, and have filled the heads of the peo- || ple there with innumerable suggestions of they knew not what.

But my wife made all this easy to me from her own invention; for, without acquainting me of anything she comes merrily to me one morning before I was up: "My dear," says she, "I am very sorry to hear that you are not very well this morning. I have ordered Pennico (that was a young negro girl which I had given her) to make you a fire in your chamber, and pray lie still where you are a while till it is done;" at the same instant the little negro came in with the wood and a pair of bellows, &c., to kindle the fire, and my wife not giving me time to reply, whispers close to my ear to lie still and say nothing till she came up again to me.

I was thoroughly frightened, that you may be sure of, and thought of nothing but of being discovered, betrayed, and carried to England, hanged, quartered, and all that was terrible, and my very heart sunk within me; she perceived my disorder and turned back, assuring me there was no harm, desired me to be easy and she would come back again presently and give me satisfaction in every particular that I could desire; so 1 composed myself as well as I could, but it was but a little while that I could bear it, and I sent Pen

My wife was as good as her word, and was coming up as the girl was going down. "I see," says she, "you want patience, but pray do not want government of yourself, but take that screen before your face, and go to the window and see if you know any of those Scotchmen that are in the yard, for there are seven or eight of them come about some business to your clerk."

I went and looked through the screen, and saw the faces of them all distinctly, but could make nothing of them, other than that they were Scotchmen, which was easy to discern; however, it was no satisfaction to me that I knew not their faces, for they might know mine for all that, according to the old English proverb, "that more knows Toni Fool than Tom Fool knows;" so I kept close in my chamber till I understood they were all gone.

After this my wife caused it to be given out in the house that I was not well, and when this not being well had lasted three or four days I had my leg wrapped up in a great piece of flannel and laid upon a stool, and there I was lame of the gout and this served for about six weeks, when my wife told me she had given it out that my gout was rather rheumatic than a settled gout, and that I was resolved to take one of my own sloops and go to Nevis or Antigua, and use the hot baths there for my cure.

All this was very well, and I approved my wife's contrivance as admirably good, both to keep me within doors eight or ten weeks at first, and to convey me away afterwards without any extraordinary bustle to be made about it; but still I did not know what it all tended to, and what the design of it all was, but my wife desired me to leave that to her, so I really did, and she carried it all on with a prudence not to be disputed; and after she had wrapt my legs in flannel almost three months, she came and told me the sloop was ready and all the goods put on board. "And now, my dear," says she, "I come to tell you all the rest of my design; for," added she, "I hope you will not think I am going to kidnap you and transport you from Virginia as other people are transported to it, or that I am going to get you sent away and leave myself in possession of your estate; but you shall find me the same faithful creature which I should have been if I had been still your slave, and not had any hopes of being your wife, and that in all my scheme which I have laid for your safety in this new exigence, I have not proposed your going one step but where I shall go, and be always with you to assist and serve you on all occasions, and to take my portion with you of what kind soever our lot may be."

This was so generous and so handsome a declaration of her fidelity, and so great a token too of the goodness of her judgment in considering of the things which were before her, and of what my present circumstances called for, that from that time forward I gave myself cheerfully up to her management, without any hesitation in the least, and, after about ten days' preparation, we

was, land! land! The master and I (for by this time I had gotten out of my cabin) ran upon the deck, and there we saw the state of our case very plain; the two rogues that stood after us laid on all the canvass they could carry, and crowded after us amain; but at the distance, as I have said, of about six leagues, rather more than less; on the other hand, the land discovered lay about nine leagues right a-head; so that if the pirates could gain on us, so as to sail three feet for our two, it was evident they would be up with us before we could make the island; if not, we should escape them and get in; but even then we had no great hope to do any more than to run the ship ashore to save our lives; and so, stranding our vessel, spoil both sloop and cargo. When we were making this calculation, our master came in cheerfully, and told me he had crowded on more sail, and found the sloop carried it very well, and that he did not find the rogues gained much upon us, and that especially, if one of them did not, that was the sloop, he found he could go away from the brigantine as he pleased. Thus we gave them what they call a stern chase, and they worked hard to come up with us till towards noon, when on a sudden they both stood away and gave us over, to our great satisfaction, you may be sure.

We did not, it seems, so easily see the occasion of our deliverance as the pirate did; for while we went spooning away large with the wind for one of the islands, with those two spurs in our heels, that is, with the two thieves at our sterns, there lay an English man-of-war in the road of Nevis, which was the same island from whence they espied the pirates, but the land lying between, we could not see them.

As the man-of-war discovered them, she immediately slipped her cable, and put herself under sail in chase of the rogues, and they as soon perceived her; and, being windward, put themselves upon a wind to escape her; and thus we were delivered, and in half an hour more we knew who was our deliverer, seeing the man of war stretch a-head clear of the island, and stand directly after the pirates, who now crowded from us as fast as they crowded after us before, and thus we got safe into Antigua, after the terrible apprehension we had been in of being taken; our apprehensions of being taken now were much more than they would have been on board a loaden ship from or to London, where the most they ordinarily do is to rifle the ship, take what is valuable and portable, and let her go; but ours being but a sloop, and all our loading being good provisions, such as they wanted, to be sure, for their ship's store, they would certainly have carried us away, ship and all, taken out the cargo and the men, and, perhaps, have set the sloop on fire; so that, as to our cargo of gold, it had been inevitably lost, and we hurried away, nobody knows where, and used as such barbarous fellows are wont to use such innocent people as fall into their hands.

But we were now out of their hands, and had the satisfaction, a few days after, to hear that the man-of-war pursued them so close, notwithstand ing they changed their course in the night, that the next day they were obliged to separate, and shift for themselves; so the man-of-war took one

of them, namely, the brigantine, and carried her into Jamaica; but the other, viz. the sloop, made her escape.

Being arrived here, we presently disposed of our cargo, and at a tolerably good price; and now the question was, what I should do next? I looked upon myself to be safe here from the fears I had been under of being discovered as a rebel, and so indeed I was; but having been now absent five months, and having sent the ship back with a cargo of rum and molasses, which I knew was wanting in my plantations, I received the same vessel back in return, loaden, as at first, with provisions.

With this cargo my wife received a packet from London, from the person whom she had em|| ployed (as above) to solicit a pardon, who very honestly wrote to her, that he would not be so unjust to her friend, whoever he was, as to put him to any expense for a private solicitation; for that he was very well assured that his majesty had resolved, from his own native disposition to acts of clemency and mercy to his subjects, to grant a general pardon, with some few exceptions to persons extraordinary, and he hoped her friend was none of the extraordinary persons to be excepted.

This was a kind of life from the dead to us both, and it was resolved that my wife should go back in the sloop directly to Virginia, where she should wait the good news from England, and should send me an account of it as soon as she received it.

Accordingly, she went back, and came safe with the sloop and cargo to our plantation, from whence, after above four months' expectation, behold the sloop came to me again, but empty, and gutted of all her cargo, except about 100 sacks of unground malt which the pirates (not knowing how to brew) knew not what to do with, and so had left in her. However, to my infinite satisfaction, there was a packet of letters from my wife, with another to her from England, as well one from her friend, as one from my own correspondent; both of them intimating that the king had signed an act of grace, that is to say, a general free pardon, and sent me copies of the act, wherein it was manifest I was fully included.

And here let me hint, that, having now, as it were, received my life at the hands of King George, and in a manner so satisfying as it was to me, it made a generous convert of me, and I became sincerely given to the interest of King George; and this from a principle of gratitude, and a sense of my obligation to his majesty for my life; and it has continued ever since, and will certainly remain with me as long as any sense of honour, and of the debt of gratitude, remains with me. I mention this to hint how far, in such cases, justice and duty to ourselves commands us; namely, that to those who graciously give us our lives when it is in their power to take them away, those lives are a debt ever after, and ought to be set apart for their service and interest as long as any of the powers of life remain; for gratitude is a debt that never ceases while the benefit received remains; and if my prince has given me my life, I can never pay the debt fully, unless such a circumstance as this should happen-that the prince's life should be in my

power, and I as generously preserved it; and yet, neither would the obligation be paid then, because the cases would differ; thus, that my preserving the life of my prince was my natural duty, whereas the prince on his side (my life being forfeited to him) had no motive but mere clemency and beneficence.

Perhaps this principle may not please all that read it; but, as I have resolved to guide my actions in things of such a nature by the rules of strict virtue and principles of honour, so I must lay it down as a rule of honour that a man having once forfeited his life to the justice of his prince and to the laws of his country, and receiving it back as a bounty from the grace of his sovereign, such a man can never lift up his hand again against that prince without a forfeiture of his virtue, and an irreparable breach of his honour and duty, and deserves no pardon after it, either from God or man. But all this is a digression; I leave it as a sketch of the laws of honour, imprinted by the laws of nature in the breast of a soldier, or a man of honour, and which, I believe, all impartial persons, who understand what honour means, wil subscribe to.

But I return now to my present circumstances; my wife was gone, and, with her, all my good|| fortune and success in business seemed to have forsaken me; and I had another scene of misery to go through after I had thought that all my misfortunes were over and at an end.

My sloop, as I have told you, arrived, but having met with a pirate rogue in the Gulf of Florida, they took her first, then, finding her cargo to be all eatables, which they always want, they gutted her of all her loading except (as I have said) about 100 sacks of malt, which they really knew not what to do with; and, which was still worse, they took all the men, except the master and two boys, whom they left on board, just to run the vessel into Antigua, where they said they were bound.

But the most valuable part of my cargo, viz. a packet of letters from England, those they left, to my inexpressible comfort and satisfaction; and particularly that by those I saw my way open to return to my wife and to my plantations, from which I promised myself never to wander any more.

In order to this, I now embarked myself, and all my effects, on board the sloop, resolving to sail directly to the capes of Virginia. My captain, beating it up to reach the Bahama channel, had not been two days at sea, but we were overtaken with a violent storm, which drove us so far upon the coast of Florida, as that we twice struck upon the shore, and had we struck a third time, we had been inevitably lost. A day or two after that, the storm abating a little, we kept the sea, but found the wind blowing so strong against our passing the gulf, and the sea going so high, we could not hold it any longer; so we were forced to bear away, and make what shift we could; in which distress, the fifth day after, we made land, but found it to be Cape. the north-west part of the isle of Cuba. we found ourselves under a necessity to run in under the land for shelter, though we had not come to an anchor, so we had not touched the King of Spain's territories at all. However, in

Here

the morning, we were surrounded with five Spanish barks or boats, such as they call barcos longos, full of men; who instantly boarded us, took us, and carried us into the Havannah, the most considerable port belonging to the Spaniards in that part of the world.

Here the sloop was immediately seized, and in consequence plundered, as any one that knows the Spaniards, especially in that country, will easily guess. Our men were made prisoners, and sent to the common gaol; and as for myself and the captain, we were carried before the Alcaide Mayor, or intendant of the place, as criminals.

I spoke Spanish very well, having served under the King of Spain in Italy, and it stood me in good stead at this time; for I so effectually argued the injustice of their treatment of me, that the governor, or whatever I ought to call him, frankly owned they ought not to have stopped me, seeing I was in the open sea, pursuing my voyage, and offering no offence to anybody, and had not landed, or offered to land, upon any part of his Catholic majesty's dominions, till I was brought as a prisoner.

It was a great favour that I could obtain thus much; but I found it easier to obtain an acknowledgment that I had received wrong, than to get any satisfaction for that wrong, and much less was there any hope or prospect of restitution. And I was let know, that I was to wait till an account could be sent to the viceroy of Mexico, and orders could be received back from him how to act in the affair.

I could easily foresee what all this tended to, namely, to a confiscation of the ship and goods by the ordinary process at the place; and that my being left to the decision of the viceroy of Mexico was but a pretended representation of things to him from the corregidor, or judge of the place.

However, I had no remedy but the old insignificant thing called patience; and this I was better furnished with, because I did not so much value the loss as I made them believe I did; my greatest apprehensions were, that they would detain me, and keep me as a prisoner for life, and perhaps send me to their mines in Peru, as they have done many, and pretended to do to all that come on shore in their dominions, how great soever the distresses may have been which have brought them thither, and which have been the reason why others, who have been forced on shore, have committed all manner of violence upon the Spaniards in their turn; resolving, however dear they sold their lives, not to fall into their hands.

But I got better quarter among them than that too, which was (as I have said) much of it owing to my speaking Spanish, and to my telling them how I had fought on so many occasions in the quarrel of his Catholic majesty in Italy; and, by great good chance, I had the King of France's commission for lieutenant-colonel in the Irish brigade in my pocket, where it was mentioned that the said brigade was then serving in the armies of France, under the orders of his Catholic majesty in Italy.

I failed not to talk up the gallantry and personal bravery of his Catholic majesty on all occasions, and particularly in many battles where

(by the way) his majesty had never been at all, and in some where I had never been myself; but I found I talked to people who knew nothing of the matter, and so anything went down with them, if it did but praise the King of Spain, and talk big of the Spanish cavalry, of which, God knows, there was not one regiment in the army, at least while I was there.

However, this way of managing myself obtained me the liberty of the place, upon my parole that I would not attempt an escape; and I obtained also, which was a great favour, to have 200 pieces of eight allowed me out of the sale of my cargo, for subsistence, till I could negotiate my affairs at Mexico; as for my men, they were maintained as prisoners at the public charge.

Well, after several months' solicitation and attendance, all I could obtain was, the satisfaction of seeing my ship and cargo confiscated, and my poor sailors in a fair way to be sent to the mines. The last I begged off, upon condition of paying 300 pieces of eight for their ransom, and having them set on shore at Antigua, and myself to remain hostage for the payment of the said 300 pieces of eight, and for 200 pieces of eight, which I had already had, and for 500 pieces of eight more for my own ransom, if, upon a return from Mexico, the sentence of confiscation, as above, should be confirmed by the viceroy.

These were hard articles indeed, but I was forced to submit to them: nor, as my circumstances were above all such matters as these as to substance, did I lay it much to heart; the greatest difficulty that lay in my way was, that I knew not how to correspond with my friends in any part of the world, or which way to supply myself with necessaries, or with money for the payment I had agreed to the Spaniards being so tenacious of their ports, that they allowed nobody to come on shore, or indeed near the shore, from any part of the world, upon pain of seizure and confiscation, as had been my case already.

on his Catholic majesty's dominions in America, and they could not dispense with the least tittle of them without a particular assiento (as they called it) from the consulado, or chamber of commerce, at Seville, or a command under the hand and seal of the viceroy of Mexico.

"How! Seignior Corregidor," said I, with some warmth, and, as it were, with astonishment, "have you not authority enough to sign a passport for an agent, or ambassador, to come on shore here, from any of the King of Great Britain's governors in these parts, under a white flag, or flag of truce, to speak with the governor of this place, or with any other person in the king's name, on the subject of such business as the governor may have to communicate? Why," said I, “if you cannot do that, you cannot act according to the law of nations."

He shook his head, but still said, no, he could not do even so much as that; but here one of the military governors put in and opposed him, and they two differed warmly; the first insisting that their orders were deficient in that particular; but the other said, that, as they were bound up to them, it could not be in their power to act otherwise, and that they were answerable for the ill consequences.

"Well then," says the governor to the corregidor, "now you have kept this Englishman as hostage for the ransom of the men that you have dismissed, suppose he tells you the money is ready, either at such, or such, or such a place, how shall he bring it hither? You will take all the people prisoners that offer to bring it; what must he do? If you say you will send and fetch it, what security shall he have that he shall have his liberty when it is paid you? And why should he trust you so far as to pay the money, and yet remain here a prisoner?"

This carried so much reason with it, that the corregidor knew not what to say, but that so was the law, and he could act no otherwise but by the very letter of it; and here each was so positive, that nothing could determine it but another express to be sent to the viceroy of Mexico.

I brought it then down to my own case, and desired to know, upon supposition that I might, within the time limited in that agreement, have the sums of money ready for the ransom of my men and of myself, how I should obtain to have notice given me of it, or how it should be brought, seeing the very persons bringing that notice, or afterwards presuming to bring the money, might be liable to be seized and confiscated as I had been, and the money itself be taken as a second prize, without redeeming the first.

Though this was so reasonable a request, that it could not be withstood in point of argument, yet the Spaniard shrunk his head into his shoulders, and said, they had not power sufficient to act in such a case; that the king's laws were so severe against the suffering any strangers to set their foot

answer for it, that they should bring no European, or other goods whatever with them, and should not set foot on shore without his express permis sion, and provided he did not receive orders to the contrary in the meantime from any superior hand; and that even, in such a case, they should have liberty to go back freely from whence they came, under the protection of a white flag.

I bowed very respectfully to the governor in token of my acknowledging his justice, and then presented my humble petition to him, that he would allow my men to take their own sloop; that it should be rated at a certain valuc, and would be obliged they should bring specie on board with them, and that they should either pay it for the sloop, or leave the sloop again.

Then he inquired to what country I would send them for so much money, and if I could assure him of the payment; and, when he understood it was no farther than to Virginia, he seemed very easy; and, to satisfy the corregidor, who stil!