he had taken it, he grew better: in the mean time I forgot not the men; I ordered victuals to be given them, and the poor creatures rather devoured than eat it; they were fo exceeding hungry, that they were in a manner ravenous, and had no command of themselves; and two of them eat with so much greediness, that they were in danger of their lives the next morning.

The fight of these people's diftrefs was very moving to me, and brought to mind what I had a terrible profpect of at my firft coming on shore in my island, where I had not the leaft mouthful of food, or any hopes of procuring it; befides the hourly apprehenfion I had of being made the food of other creatures. But all the while the mate was thus relating to me the miferable condition of the fhip's company, I could not put out of my thought the story he had told me of the three poor creatures in the great cabbin; (viz.) the mother, her fon, and the maid fervant, whom he had heard nothing of for two or three days; and whom he feemed to confefs they had wholly neglected, their own extremities being fo great; by which I understood, that they had really given them no food at all; and that therefore they must be perished, and be all lying dead perhaps on the floor or deck of the cabbin.

As I therefore kept the mate, whom we then called captain, on board with his men to refresh them, fo I also forgot not the ftarving crew that were left on board, but ordered my own boat to go on board the fhip, and with my mate and twelve men to carry them a fack of bread, and four or five pieces of beef to boil. Our furgeon charged the men to cause the

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meat to be boiled while they stayed, and to keep guard in the cook-room, to prevent the men's taking it to eat raw, or taking it out of the pot before it was well boiled, and then to give every man but a little at a time; and by this caution he preserved the men, who would otherwife have killed themselves with that very food that was given them on purpose to fave their lives.

At the fame time, I ordered the mate to go into the great cabbin, and fee in what condition the poor paffengers were in, and, if they were alive, to comfort them and give them what refreshment was proper; and the furgeon gave him a large pitcher with fome of the prepared broth which he had given the mate that was on board, and which he did not queftion would restore them gradually.

I was not fatisfied with this; but, as I faid above, having a great mind to see the scene of mifery, which I knew the ship itself would prefent me with, in a more lively manner than I could have it by report, I took the captain of the fhip, as we now called him, with me, and went myfelf a little after in their boat.

I found the poor men on board almost in a tumult to get the victuals out of the boiler before it was ready but my mate obferved his order, and kept a good guard at the cock-room door; and the man he placed there, after ufing all poffible perfuafion to have patience, kept them off by force: however, he caused fome biscuit cakes to be dipped in the pot, and foftened them with the liquor of the mcat, which they call brewis, and gave them every one one, to ftay their ftomachs, and told them it was for their

own

own fafety, that he was obliged to give them but little at a time. But it was all in vain, and had I not come on board, and their own commander and officers with me, and with good words, and fome threats alfo of giving them no more, I believe they would have broke into the cook-room by force, and tore the meat out of the furnace; for words indeed are of a very small force to an hungry belly: however we pacified them, and fed them gradually and cautiously for the first time, and the next time gave them more, and at laft filled their bellies, and the men did well enough.

But the mifery of the poor paffengers in the cabbin was of another nature, and far beyond the rest; for as, first, the fhip's company had fo little for themfelves, it was but too true, that they had at first kept them very low, and at laft totally neglected them; fo that for fix or feven days, it might be faid, they had really had no food at all, and for feveral days before, very little.

The poor mother, who, as the first mate reported, was a woman of good fenfe, and good breeding, had fpared all she could get fo affectionately for her son, that at last she entirely funk under it: and when the mate of our fhip went in, fhe fet upon the floor or deck, with her back up against the fides, between two chairs, which were lafhed fast, and her head funk in between her fhoulders, like a corpfe, though not quite dead. My mate faid all he could to revive and encourage her, and with a spoon put fome broth into her mouth; fhe opened her lips, and lifted up one hand, but could not speak: yet she understood what he faid, and made figns to him, intimating,

that

that it was too late for her; but pointed to her child, as if she would have faid, they fhould take care of him.

However the mate, who was exceedingly moved with the fight, endeavoured to get fome of the broth into her mouth; and, as he said, got two or three fpoonfuls down, though I queftion whether he could be fure of it or not: but it was too late, and fhe died the fame night.

The youth, who was preferved at the price of his most affectionate mother's life, was not fo far gone; yet he lay in a cabin-bed as one ftretched out, with hardly any life left in him; he had a piece of an old glove in his mouth, having eaten up the reft of it; however, being young, and having more ftrength than his mother, the mate got fomething down his throat, and he began fenfibly to revive, though, by giving him fome time after but two or three spoonfuls extraordinary, he was very fick, and brought it up again.

But the next care was the poor maid; fhe lay all along upon the deck hard by her mistress, and just like one that had fallen down with an apoplexy, and struggled for life: her limbs were distorted, one of her hands was clafped round the frame of one chair, and she griped it so hard, that we could not eafily make her let it go; her other arm lay over her head, and her feet lay both together, fet fast against the frame of the cabin-table; in fhort, fhe lay just like one in the laft agonies of death; and yet fhe was alive too.

The poor creature was not only starved with hunger, and terrified with the thoughts of death, but, as the men told us afterwards, was broken

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hearted

hearted for her miftrefs, whom fhe faw dying two or three days before, and whom fhe loved most tenderly.

We knew not what to do with this poor girl; for when our furgeon, who was a man of very great knowledge and experience, and with great application recovered her as to life, he had her upon his hand as to her fenfes, for fhe was little less than diftracted for a confiderable time after; as fhall appear prefently.

Whoever fhall read these memorandums, muft be defired to confider, that vifits at fea are not like a journey into the country, where fometimes people ftay a week or a fortnight at a place. Our business was to relieve this diftreffed fhip's crew, but not lie by for them; and though they were willing to steer the fame courfe with us for fome days, yet we could carry no fail to keep pace with a fhip that had no mafts: however, as their captain begged of us to help him to fet up a main top-maft, and a kind of top-maft to his jury fore-mast, we did, as it were, lie by him for three or four days, and then having given him five barrels of beef and pork, two hogfheads of bifcuit, and a proportion of peas, flour, and what other things we could fpare; and taking three casks of fugar and fome rum, and fome pieces of eight of them for fatisfaction, we left them, taking on board with us, at their own earnest request, the youth, and the maid, and all their goods.

The young lad was about feventeen years of age, a pretty, well-bred, modeft, and fenfible youth; greatly dejected with the loss of his mother, and, as it feems, had loft his father but a few months before

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