at Barbadoes. He begged of the furgeon to speak to me, to take him out of the fhip; for he faid, the cruel fellows had murdered his mother; and indeed fo they had, that is to fay, paffively; for they might have fpared a fmall fuftenance to the poor helpless widow, that might have preferved her life, though it had been just to keep her alive. But hunger knows no friend, no relation, no juftice, no right; and therefore is remorfelefs, and capable of no compaffion.

The furgeon told him how far we were going, and how it would carry him away from all his friends, and put him perhaps in as bad circumstances, almost, as we found them in; that is to fay, ftarving in the world. He faid he mattered not whither he went, if he was but delivered from the terrible crew that he was among that the captain (by which he meant me, for he could know nothing of my nephew) had faved his life, and he was fure would not hurt him; and as for the maid, he was fure, if fhe came to herself, fhe would be very thankful for it, let us carry them whither we would. The furgeon reprefented the case so affectionately to me, that I yielded, and we took them both on board with all their goods, except eleven hogfheads of fugar, which could not be removed, or come at; and as the youth had a bill of lading for them, I made his commander fign a writing, obliging him to go, as foon as he came to Bristol, to one Mr. Rogers, a merchant there, to whom the youth faid he was related, and to deliver a letter which I wrote to him, and all the goods he had belonging to the deceafed widow; which I fuppofe was not done; for I could never learn that

the ship came to Bristol; but was, as is moft proba ble, lost at sea, being in so disabled a condition, and fo far from any land, that I am of opinion, the first ftorm fhe met with afterwards fhe might founder in the fea; for she was leaky, and had damage in her hold when I met with her.

I was now in the latitude of 19 deg. 32 min. and had hitherto had a tolerable voyage as to weather, tho' at first the winds had been contrary. I fhall trouble nobody with the little incidents of wind, weather, currents, &c. on the reft of our voyage; but, fhortening my ftory for the fake of what is to follow, fhall obferve, that I came to my old habitation, the island, on the 10th of April, 1695. It was with no fmall difficulty that I found the place; for as I came to it, and went from it before, on the fouth and eaft fide of the island, as coming from the Brafils, fo now coming in between the main and the ifland, and having no chart for the coaft, nor any landmark, I did not know it when I faw it, or know whether I faw it or no.

We beat about a great while, and went on fhore on feveral islands in the mouth of the great river Oroonoque, but none for my purpofe; only this I learned by my coafting the fhore, that I was under one great mistake before, viz. that the continent which I thought I faw from the island I lived in, was really no continent, but a long island, or rather a ridge of islands reaching from one to the other fide of the extended mouth of that great river; and that the favages who came to my island, were not properly those which we call Caribees, but iflanders, and other Barbarians of the fame kind, who inhabited fomething nearer to our fide than the reft.

In

In fhort, I vifited feveral of the islands to no purpofe; fome I found were inhabited, and fome were

not. On one of them I found fome Spaniards, and thought they had lived there; but fpeaking with them, found they had a floop lay in a fmall creek hard by, and that they came thither to make falt, and catch fome pearl-muscles, if they could; but they belonged to the Ile de Trinidad, which lay farther north, in the latitude of 10 and 11 degrees.

Thus coafting from one island to another, fometimes with the fhip, fometimes with the Frenchman's fhallop (which we had found a convenient boat, and therefore kept her with their very good will), at length I came fair on the fouth-fide of my ifland, and I presently knew the very countenance of the place; fo I brought the fhip fafe to an anchor, broadfide with the little creek where was my old habitation.

As foon as I faw the place, I called for Friday, and asked him, if he knew where he was? He looked about a little, and presently clapping his hands, cried, O yes, O there, O yes, O there! pointing to our old habitation, and fell a dancing and capering like a mad fellow; and I had much ado to keep him from jumping into the fea, to swim afhore to the place.

Well, Friday, faid I, do you think we fhall find any body here, or no? and what do you think, fhall we see your father? The fellow ftood mute as a stock a good while; but when I named his father, the poor affectionate creature looked dejected; and I could fee the tears run down his face very plentifully. What is the matter Friday, faid I? are you troubled because you may fee your father? No, no, fays he, D 3

fhaking

fhaking his head, no see him more, no ever more fee again. Why fo, faid I, Friday? how do you know that? O no, O no, fays Friday, he long ago die; long ago, he much old man. Well, well, faid I, Friday, you don't know; but fhall we fee any one else then: the fellow, it seems, had better eyes than I, and he points juft to the hill above my old houfe; and tho' we lay half a league off, he cries out, Me fee! me fee! yes, yes, me fee much man there, and there, and there. I looked, but I could fee nobody, no, not with a perspective glafs; which was, I fuppofe, because I could not hit the place; for the fellow was right, as I found upon enquiry the next day, and there were five or fix men altogether stood to look at the fhip, not knowing what to think of us.

As foon as Friday had told me he saw people, I caused the English ancient to be spread, and fired three guns, to give them notice we were friends; and about half a quarter of an hour after, we perceived a fmoke rife from the fide of the creek; fo I immediately ordered a boat out, taking Friday with me; and, hanging out a white flag, or a flag of truce, I went directly on fhore, taking with me the young friar I mentioned, to whom I had told the whole ftory of my living there, and the manner of it, and every particular, both of myfelf, and thofe that I left there; and who was on that account extremely defirous to go with me. We had befides about fixteen men very well armed, if we had found any new. gueft there which we did not know of; but we had no need of weapons.

As we went on fhore upon the tide of flood, near high water, we rowed directly into the creek; and

the

the first man I fixed my eye upon, was the Spaniard whofe life I had faved, and whom I knew by his face perfectly well; as to his habit, I fhall defcribe it afterwards. I ordered nobody to go on fhore at first but myfelf; but there was no keeping Friday in the boat for the affectionate creature had fpied his father at a distance, a good way off of the Spaniards, where indeed I faw nothing of him; and if they had not let him go on fhore, he would have jumped into the fea. He was no fooner on fhore, but he flew away to his father like an arrow out of a bow. It would have made any man shed tears, in spite of the firmest resolution, to have feen the first tranfports of this poor fellow's joy, when he came to his father; how he embraced him, kiffed him, ftroaked his face, took him up in his arms, fet him down upon a tree, and lay down by him; then stood and looked at him as any one would look at a strange picture, for a quarter of an hour together; then lay down upon the ground, and ftroaked his legs, and kiffed them, and then got up again, and stared at him; one would have thought the fellow bewitched: but it would have made a dog laugh to fee how the next day his paffion run out another way: in the morning he walked along the fhore, to and-again, with his father, feveral hours, always leading him by the hand, as if he had been a lady; and every now-and-then would come to fetch something or other for him from the boat, either a lump of fugar, or a dram, a biscuit, or fomething or other that was good. In the afternoon his frolics ran another way, for then he would fet the old man down upon the ground, and dance about him, and made a thousand antic poftures and geftures; and