And now I must impose a short digression on the reader, to note, that, notwithstanding all the disadvantages of a most wretched education, yet now, when I began to feel myself, as I may say, in the world, and to be arrived to an independent state, and to foresee that I might be something considerable in time; I say, now I found different sentiments of things taking place in my mind; and first, I had a solid principle of justice and honesty, and a secret horror at things past, when I looked back upon my former life; that original something, I knew not what, that used formerly to check me in the first meannesses of my youth, and used to dictate to me, when I was but a child, that I was to be a gentleman, continued to operate upon me now in a manner I cannot describe; and I continually remembered the words of the ancient glassmaker to the gentleman that he reproved for swearing, that to be a gentleman was to be an honest man; that without honesty, human nature was sunk and degenerated; the gentleman lost all the dignity of his birth, and placed himself even below an honest beggar. These principles growing upon my mind in the present circumstances I was in, gave me a secret satisfaction that I can give no description of. It was an inexpressible joy to me, that I was now like to be, not only a man, but an honest man; and it yielded me a greater pleasure that I was ransomed from being a vagabond, a thief, and a criminal, as I had been from a child, than that I was delivered from slavery, and the wretched state of a Virginia sold servant. I had notion enough in my mind of the hardships of the servant, or slave, because I had felt it, and worked through it; I remembered it as a state of labour and servitude, hardship and suffering. But the other shocked my very nature, chilled my blood, and turned the very soul within me; the thought of it was like reflections upon hell and the damned spirits; it struck me with horror, it was odious and frightful to look back on, and it gave me a kind of a fit, a convulsion or nervous disorder, that was very uneasy to me.

But to look forward, to reflect how things were changed, how happy I was that I could live by my own endeavours, and was no more under the necessity of being a villain, and of getting my bread at my own hazard and the ruin of honest families; this had in it something more than commonly pleasing and agreeable, and, in particular, it had a pleasure that

SERIOUS REFLECTIONS.

403

till then I had known nothing of. It was a sad thing to be under a necessity of doing evil, to procure that subsistence, which I could not support the want of, to be obliged to run the venture of the gallows rather than the venture of starying, and to be always wicked for fear of want.

I cannot say that I had any serious religious reflections, or that these things proceeded yet from the uneasiness of conscience, but from mere reasonings with myself, and from being arrived to a capacity of making a right judgment of things more than before; yet I own I had such an abhorrence of the wicked life I had led, that I was secretly easy, and had a kind of pleasure in the disaster that was upon me about the ship, and that, though it was a loss, I could not but be glad that those ill-gotten goods was gone, and that I had lost what I had stolen; for I looked on it as none of mine, and that it would be fire in my flax if I should mingle it with what I had now, which was come honestly by, and was, as it were, sent from heaven to lay the foundation of my prosperity, which the other would be only as a moth to con

sume.

At the same time my thoughts dictated to me, that though this was the foundation of my new life, yet that this was not the superstructure, and that I might still be born for greater things than these; that it was honesty and virtue alone that made men rich and great, and gave them a fame as well as a figure in the world, and that therefore I was to lay my foundation in these, and expect what might follow in time.

To help these thoughts, as I had learned to read and write when I was in Scotland; so I began now to love books, and particularly I had an opportunity of reading some very considerable ones; such as Livy's Roman history, the history of the Turks, the English history of Speed, and others; the history of the Low country wars, the history of Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, and the history of the Spaniards' conquest of Mexico, with several others, some of which I bought at a planter's house, who was lately dead, and his goods sold, and others I had borrowed.

I considered my present state of life to be my mere youth, though I was now above thirty years old, because in my youth I had learned nothing; and if my daily business, which was now great, would have permitted, I would have been content to have gone to school. However, fate, that

had yet something else in store for me, threw an opportunity into my hand; namely, a clever fellow, that came over a transported felon from Bristol, and fell into my hands for a servant. He had led a loose life, that he acknowledged, and being driven to extremities took to the highway, for which, had he been taken, he would have been hanged; but falling into some low-prized rogueries afterwards, for want of opportunity for worse, was catched, condemned, and transported, and, as he said, was glad he came off so.

He was an excellent scholar, and I perceiving it, asked him one time, if he could give a method how I might learn the Latin tongue? He said, smiling, Yes, he could teach it me in three months, if I would let him have books, or even without books, if he had time. I told him, a book would become his hands better than a hoe; and if he could promise to make me but understand Latin enough to read it, and understand other languages by it, I would ease him of the labour which I was now obliged to put him to, especially if I was assured that he was fit to receive that favour of a kind master. In short,

I made him to me what my benefactor made me to him, and from him I gained a fund of knowledge, infinitely more valuable than the rate of a slave, which was what I had paid for it, but of this hereafter.

With these thoughts I went cheerfully about my work. As I had now five servants, my plantation went on, though gently, yet safely, and increased gradually, though slowly; but the third year, with the assistance of my old benefactor, I purchased two negroes more, so that now I had seven servants; and having cured land sufficient for supply of their food, I was at no difficulty to maintain them; so that my plantation began now to enlarge itself, and as I lived without any personal expense, but was maintained at my old great master's, as we called him, and at his charge, with 30l. a year besides, so all my gains was laid up for increase.

MY BENEFACTOR DIES.

405

CHAPTER XI.

I ADVANCE RAPIDLY TO RICHES AND HONOUR FOR TWELVE YEARS-MY BENEFACTOR DIES-MY PEDAGOGUE RELATES SEVERAL PASSAGES OF HIS LIFE TO ME-I EMBARK FOR ENGLAND-AM TAKEN BY A FRENCH

PRIVATEER-THE

PRIVATEER TAKES ANOTHER ENGLISH SHIP-ACCOUNT OF

HER CARGO.

In this posture I went on for twelve years, and was very successful in my plantation, and had gotten, by means of my master's favour, who now I called my friend, a correspondent in London, with whom I traded, shipped over my tobacco to him, and received European goods in return, such as I wanted to carry on my plantation, and sufficient to sell to others also.

In this interval, my good friend and benefactor died, and I was left very disconsolate on account of my loss, for it was indeed a great loss to me; he had been a father to me, and I was like a forsaken stranger without him, though I knew the country and the trade too, well enough, and had for some time chiefly carried on his whole business for him, yet I seemed now at a loss; my counsellor and my chief supporter was gone, and I had no confidant to communicate myself to, on all occasions, as formerly; but there was no remedy. I was, however, in a better condition to stand alone than ever; I had a very large plantation, and had near seventy negroes and other servants. In a word, I was grown really rich, considering my first circumstances, that began as I may say with nothing; that is to say, I had nothing of stock, but I had a great beginning, for I had such a man's friendship and support in my beginning, that indeed I needed no other stock, and if I had had 500l. to have begun with, and not the assistance, advice, and countenance of such a man, I had not been in a better condition; but he promised to make a man of me, and so he did, and in one respect I may say I have merited it of him, for I brought his plantation into such order, and the government of his negroes into such a regulation, that if he had given 500l. to have had it done, he would have thought his money well bestowed; his work was always in order, going

forward to his mind, everything was in a thriving posture, his servants all loved him, even negroes and all, and yet there was no such thing as a cruel punishment, or severities known among them.

In my own plantation it was the same thing; I wrought so upon the reason and the affections of my negroes, that they served me cheerfully, and, by consequence, faithfully and diligently; when in my neighbour's plantation there was not a week hardly passed without such horrible outcries, roarings and yellings of the servants, either under torture, or in fear of it, that their negroes would, in discourse with ours, wish themselves dead and gone, as it seems they believed they should after death, into their own country.

If I met with a sullen stupid fellow, as sometimes it was unavoidable, I always parted with him, and sold him off; for I would not keep any that sense of kind usage would not oblige; but I seldom met with such bad ones; for, by talking to them in a plain reasoning way, I found the temper of the roughest of them would break and soften; the sense of their own interest would prevail with them at first or last; and if it had not, the contrary temper was so general among my people, that their own fellows and countrymen would be against them, and that served to bring them to reason as soon as any other thing; and this, those who think it worth their while, will easily find, viz., that having prevailed effectually over one leading man among them to be tractable, and pleased, and grateful, he shall make them all like him, and that in a little while, with more ease than can be imagined.

I was now a planter, and also a student. My pedagogue, I mentioned above, was very diligent, and proved an extraordinary man indeed; he taught me not only with application, but with admirable judgment in the teaching part; for I have seen it in many instances since that time, that every good scholar is not fitted for a schoolmaster, and that the art of teaching is quite different from that of knowing the language taught.

But this man had both, and proved of great use to me, and I found reason, in the worth of the person, to be very kind to him, his circumstances considered. I once took the liberty to ask him how it came to pass that he, who must have had a liberal education, and great advantages to have advanced him in the world, should be capable of falling into