 I must now return to my case. The time of my being transported according to my sentence was nearer to end. My governess, who continued my fast friend, had tried to obtain a pardon, but it could not be done unless with an expense too heavy for my purse. Considering that to be left naked and empty, unless I had resolved to return to my old trade again, had been worse than my transportation, because there I knew I could live. Here I could not. The good minister stood very hard on another account to prevent my being transported also, but he was answered, that indeed my life had been given me at his first solicitations, and therefore he ought to ask no more. He was sensibly grieved at my going, because, as he said, he feared I should lose the good impressions which a prospect of death had at first made on me, and which were since increased by his instructions, and the pious gentleman was exceedingly concerned about me on that account. On the other hand I really was not solicitous about it as I was before, but I industriously concealed my reasons for it from the minister, and to the last he did not know but that I went with the utmost reluctance and affliction. It was in the month of February that I was, with seven other convicts, as they called us, delivered to a merchant that traded to Virginia on boardership, riding, as they called it, in Depford Reach. The officer of the prison delivered us on board, and the master of the vessel gave a discharge for us. We were, for that night, clapped under hatches and kept so close that I thought I should have been suffocated for want of air. And the next morning the ship wade and fell down the river to a place they called Bugbee's Hole, which was done as they dulled us by the agreement of the merchant that all opportunity of escape should be taken from us. However, when the ship came thither and cast anchor, we were allowed more liberty and particularly were permitted to come up on the deck, but not up on the quarter-deck, that being kept particularly for the captain and for passengers. And by the noise of the men over my head and the motion of the ship, I perceived that they were under sail. I was at first greatly surprised, fearing we should go away directly, and that our friends would not be admitted to see us any more. But I was easy soon after, when I found they had come to an anchor again, and soon after that we had noticed given by some of the men where we were, that the next morning we should have the liberty to come up on deck and to have our friends come and see us if we had any. All that night I lay upon the hard boards of the deck, as the passengers did, but we had afterwards the liberty of little cabins where such of us as had any bedding to lay in them, and room to stow any box or trunk for clothes and linen if we had it, which might well be put in, for some of them had neither shirt nor shift, or a rag of linen or woolen, but what was on their backs and a farthing of money to help themselves, and yet I did not find but they fared well enough in the ship, especially the women who got money from the seamen for washing their clothes sufficient to purchase any common things that they wanted. When the next morning we had the liberty to come up on the deck, I asked one of the officers of the ship whether I might not have the liberty to send a letter on shore, to let my friends know where the ship lay, and to get some necessary things sent to me. This was, it seems, the Bosun, a very civil, courteous sort of man who told me that I should have that, or any other liberty that I desired, that he could allow me with safety. I told him I desired no other, and he answered that the ship's boat would go up to London the next night, and he would order my letter to be carried. Accordingly, when the boat went off, the Bosun came to me, and told me the boat was going off, and that he went in it himself, and asked me if my letter was ready, so he would take care of it. I had prepared myself, you may be sure, then ink and paper before hand, and I had gotten the letter ready, directed to my governess, and enclosed another for my fellow prisoner, which, however, I did not let her know was my husband, not to the last. In that to my governess, I let her know where the ship lay, and pressed her earnestly to send me what things I knew. She had got ready for me for my voyage. When I gave the Bosun the letter, I gave him a shilling with it, which I told him was for the charge of a messenger or porter, which I entreated him to send with the letter as soon as he came on shore. That it possible, I might have an answer brought back by the same hand, and I might know what was become of my things. For, sir, says I, if the ship should go away before I have them on board, I am undone. I took care when I gave him the shilling, to let him see that I had a little better furniture about me than the ordinary prisoners, for he saw that I had a purse and in it a pretty deal of money, and I found that the very sight of it immediately furnished me with a very different treatment from what I should otherwise have met with in the ship. For though he was very courteous indeed before, in a kind of natural compassion to me, as a woman in distress, yet he was more than ordinarily so afterwards, and procured me to be better treated in the ship than, I say, I might otherwise have been as shall appear in its place. He very honestly had my letter delivered to my governor's own hand, and brought me back an answer from her in writing. And when he gave me the answer, gave me the shilling again. There, says he, there's your shilling again, too, for I delivered the letter myself. I could not tell what to say, I was so surprised at the thing, but after some pause, I said, Sir, you are too kind. It had been but reasonable that you had paid yourself co-chire then. No, no, says he, I am overpaid. What is the gentle woman, your sister? No, Sir, says I, she is no relation to me, but she is a dear friend and all the friends I have in the world. Well, says he, there are few such friends in the world. Why, she cried after you, like a child. I, says I again, she would give a hundred pounds, I believe, to deliver me from this dreadful condition I am in. Would she so, says he, for after money I believe I could put you in a way out to deliver yourself, but this he spoke softly that nobody could hear. Alas, Sir, said I, but then that must be such a deliverance as, if I should be taken again, would cost me my life. Nay, said he, if you were once out of the ship, you must look to yourself afterwards. That I can say nothing to, so we drop the discourse for that time. In the meantime, my governess, faithful to the last moment, conveyed my letter to the prison to my husband, and got an answer to it, and the next day came down herself to the ship, bringing me, in the first place, a seabed, as they call it, and all its furniture, such as was convenient, but not to let the people think it was extraordinary. She brought with her a sea chest, that is, a chest such as are made for seamen, with all the conveniences in it, and filled with everything almost that I could want. And in one of the corners of the chest, where there was a private draw, was a bank of money. This is to say, so much of it as I had resolved to carry with me. For I ordered a part of my stock to be left behind me, to be sent afterwards in such goods as I should want when I came to settle. For money in that country is not of much use where all things are bought for tobacco. Much more is it a great loss to carry it from ants. But my case was particular. It was by no means proper for me to go there without money or goods. And for a poor convict, that was to be sold as soon as I came on shore. To carry with me a cargo of goods would be to have notice taken of it. And perhaps, to have them seized by the public. So I took part of my stock with me thus, and left the other part with my governess. My governess brought me a great many other things. But it was not proper for me to look too well provided in the ship, at least till I knew what kind of a captain we should have. When she came into the ship, I thought she would have died indeed, her heart sank at the sight of me, and at the thoughts of parting with me in that condition. And she cried so intolerably I could not for a long time have any talk with her. I took that time to read my fellow prisoner's letter which, however, greatly perplexed me. He told me he was determined to go, but found it would be impossible for him to be discharged time enough for going in the same ship, and which was more than all. He began to question whether they would give him leave to go in what ship he pleased, though he did voluntarily transport himself. But that they would see him put on board such a ship as they should direct, and that he would be charged upon the captain as other convict prisoners were. So that he began to be in despair of seeing me till he came to Virginia, which made him almost desperate, seeing that, on the other hand, if I should not be there, if any accident of the sea or of mortality should take me away, he should be the most undone greeter in the world. This was very perplexing, and I knew not what course to take. I told my governess the story of the person, and she was mighty eager for me to treat him, but I had no mind to it, till I owed whether my husband or fellow prisoner. So she called him, could be at liberty to go with me or no. At last I was forced to let her into the whole matter, except only that of his being my husband. I told her I had made a positive bargain or agreement with him to go, if he could get the liberty of going in the same ship, and that I found he had money. Then I read a long lecture to her of what I proposed to do when we came there, how we could flaunt, settle, and, in short, grow rich without any more adventures. And, as a great secret, I told her that we were to marry as soon as he came on board. She soon agreed cheerfully to my going when she heard this, and she made it her business from that time to get him out of the prison in time, so that he might go in the same ship with me, which at last was brought to pass, though with great difficulty, and not without all the forms of a transported prisoner or convict, which he really was not yet, for he had not been tried, and which was of great mortification to him. As our fate was now determined, and we were both on board, actually bound to Virginia, in the despicable quality of transported convicts destined to be sold for slaves, I for five years, and he under bonds and security, not to return to England anymore, as long as he lived. He was very much dejected and cast down. The mortification of being brought on board as he was, like a prisoner, peaked him very much. Since it was first told him, he should transport himself, and so that he might go as a gentleman at liberty. It is true he was not ordered to be sold when he came there, as it were, and for that reason he was obliged to pay for his passage to the captain, which we were not. As to the rest he was as much at a loss as a child what to do with himself, or with what he had, but by directions. Our first business was to compare our stock. It was very honest with me, and told me his stock was pretty good when he came into the prison. But the living there, as he did in a figure like a gentleman and, which was ten times as much, the making of friends and soliciting his case, had been very expensive, and in a word all his stock that had left was a hundred and eight pounds, which he had about him, all in gold. I gave him an account of my stock as faithfully, that is to say, of what I had taken to carry with me. For I was resolved whatever should happen to keep what I had left with my governess in reserve. That in case I should die. What I had with me was enough to give him, and that which was left in my governess's hands would be her own, which she had well deserved of me indeed. My stock which I had with me was two hundred and forty-six pounds, some odd shillings, so that we had three hundred and fifty-four pounds between us. But a worse gotten estate was scarce ever put together to being the world with. Our greatest misfortune, as to our stock, was that it was all in money, which everyone knows is an unprofitable cargo to be carried to the plantations. I believe his was really all he had left in the world, as he told me it was, but I, who had between seven hundred and eight hundred pounds in bank when this disaster befell me, and who had one of the faithfulest friends in the world to manage it for me, considered she was a woman of manner of religious principles, had still three hundred pounds left in her hand, which I reserved as above. Besides some very valuable things, as particularly, two gold watches, some small pieces of plate, and some rings, all stolen goods. The plate, rings, and watches were put in my chest with the money, and with this fortune, and in the sixty-first year of my age, I launched out into a new world, as I may call it, in the condition, as to what appeared, only of a poor, naked convict, ordered to be transported, in respite, from the gallows. My clothes were poor and mean, but not ragged or dirty, and none knew in the whole ship that I had anything of value about me. However, as I had a great many very good clothes and linen in abundance, which I had ordered to be backed up in two great boxes, I had them shipped on board, not as my goods, but as consigned to my real name in Virginia, and had the bills of loading signed by the captain in my pocket. And in these boxes was my plate and watches, and everything of value except my money, which I kept by itself in a private draw in my chest, which could not be found or opened, if found, with splitting the chest to pieces. In this condition I lay forth for three weeks in the ship, not knowing whether I should have my husband with me or no, and therefore not resolving how, or in what manner, to receive the honest boson's proposal, which indeed he thought a little strange at first. At the end of this time, behold my husband, come on board. He looked with a dejected, angry countenance, his great art was swelled with rage and disdain. To be dragged along with three keepers of Newgate, and put on board like a convict, when he had not so much has been brought to trial, he made loud complaints of it by his friends. For it seems he had some interest, but his friends got some check in their application, and were told he had had favour enough, and that they had received such an account of him, since the last grant of his transportation, that he ought to think himself very well treated, that he was not prosecuted anew. This answer quieted him at once, for he knew too much what might have happened, and what he had room to expect. And now he saw the goodness of the advice to him, which prevailed with him to accept of the offer of a voluntary transportation. And after this, his chagrin at these hell-owns, as he called them, was a little over. He looked a little composed, began to be cheerful. And as I was telling him how glad I was to have him once more out of their hands, he took me in his arms, and acknowledged with great tenderness that I had given him the best advice possible. My dear, says he, Thou hast twice saved my life. From hence forward it shall be all employed for you, and I'll always take your advice. The ship began now to fill. Several passengers came on board. We were embarked on no criminal account, and these had accommodations assigned to them in the great cabin and other parts of the ship, whereas we at convicts were thrust down below, I know not where. But when my husband came on board, I spoke to the boson, who had so early given me hints of his friendship in carrying my letter. I told him he had befriended me in many things, and I had not made any suitable return to him. And with that I put a guinea into his hand. I told him that my husband was now come on board, that though we were both under the present misfortune, yet we had been bosons of a different character from the wretched crew that we came with, and desired to know of him, whether the captain might not be moved to admit us to some conveniences in the ship, for which we would make him what satisfaction he pleased, and that we would gratify him for his pains in procuring this for us. He took the guinea, as I could see with great satisfaction, and assured me of his assistance. Then he told us, he did not doubt, but that the captain, who was one of the best humored gentlemen in the world, would be easily brought to accommodate us as well as we could desire, and to make me easy, told me he would go up the next tide, on purpose to speak to the captain about it. The next morning, happening to sleep a little longer than ordinary, when I got up and began to look abroad, I saw the boson among the men in his ordinary business. I was a little melancholy at seeing him there, and going forward to speak to him. He saw me, and came towards me, but not giving him time to speak first, I said, smiling. I doubt so, you have forgot us, for I see you are very busy. He returned presently, come along with me, and you shall see. So he took me into the great cabin, and there sat a good sort of a gentlemanly man, for a seaman, writing, and with a great many papers before him. Here, says the boson to him, that was a writing, is the gentle woman that the captain spoke to you of, and turning to me, he said, I have been so far from forgetting your business, that I have been up at the captain's house, and have represented faithfully to the captain what you said, relating to you being furnished with better conveniences for yourself and your husband. And the captain has sent this gentleman, who is made of the ship, down with me on purpose to show you everything, and to accommodate you fully to your content. And bid me assure you, that you shall not be treated like what you were at first expected to be, but with the same respect as other passengers are treated. The maiden spoke to me, and, not giving me time to thank the boson for his kindness, confirmed what the boson had said, and added that it was the captain's delight to show himself kind and charitable, especially to those that were under any misfortunes. And with that he showed me several cabins built up, some in the great cabin, and some partitioned off, out of the carriage, but opening into the great cabin on purpose for the accommodation of passengers, and gave me leave to choose where I would. However, I chose a cabin which opened into the steerage, in which was very good convenience to set our chests and boxes and a table to eat on. The mate then told me that the boson had given so good a character of me and my husband, as to our civil behavior, that he had orders to tell me we should eat with him, if we thought bit, during the whole voyage, on the common terms of passengers, that we may lay in some fresh provisions if we pleased, or if not, he should lay in his usual store and we should have share with him. This was very reviving news to me, after so many odd ships and afflictions as I had gone through of late. I thanked him, and told him the captain should make his own terms with us, and asked him leave to go and tell my husband of it, who was not very well and was not yet out of his cabin. Accordingly I went, and my husband, whose spirits were still so much sunk with the indignity, as he understood it, offered him, that he was scarce yet himself, was so revived with the account that I gave him of the reception we were like to have in the ship, that he was quite another man, and knew vigor and courage appeared in his very countenance, so true is it that the greatest of spirits, when overwhelmed by their afflictions, are subject to the greatest ejections, and are the most apt to despair and give themselves up, after some little pause to recover himself. My husband came up with me, and gave the mate thanks for his kindness which he had expressed to us, and sent suitable acknowledgement by him to the captain, offering to pay him by advance whatever he demanded for our passage, and for the conveniences he had helped us to. The mate told him that the captain would be on board in the afternoon, and that he would leave all that till he came. Accordingly, in the afternoon the captain came, and we found him the same courty as a bludging man that the Bosin had represented him to be, and he was so well pleased with my husband's conversation, that, in short, he would not let us keep the cabin we had chosen, but gave us one that, as I said before, opened into the great cabin, nor were his conditions exorbitant, for the man craving and eager to make a prey of us. But for fifteen guineas we had our whole passage and provisions in cabin aid at the captain's table, and were very ansomely entertained. The captain lay himself in the other part of the great cabin, having let his round house, as they call it, to a rich plantar who went over with his wife and three children, who were ate by themselves. He had some other ordinary passengers who quartered in the steerage, and as for our old fraternity they were kept under the hatches while the ship lay there, and came very little on the deck. I could not refrain acquainting my governess with what had happened. It was but just that she, who was so really concerned for me, should have part in my good fortune. Besides, I wanted her assistance to supply me with several necessaries, which before I was shy of letting anybody see me have, that it might not be public. But now I had a cabin and room to set things in. I ordered abundance of good things for our comfort in the voyage, as brandy, sugar, lemons, etc., to make punch and treat our benefactor, the captain. And abundance of things for eating and drinking in the voyage, also a larger bed, and betting proportion to it, so that, in a word, we resolved one for nothing in the voyage. All this while I had provided nothing for our assistance when we should come to the place and begin to call ourselves planters, and it was far from being ignorant of what was needful on that occasion, particularly all sorts of tools for the planter's work and for building, and all kinds of furniture for our dwelling, which, if to be bought in the country, must necessarily cost double the price. So I discourse that point with my governess, then she went and waited upon the captain, and told him that she hoped ways might be found out for her two unfortunate cousins, as she called us, to obtain our freedom when we came into the country, and so entered into a discourse with him about the means and terms also, of which I shall say more in its place. And after thus sounding the captain, she let him know that we were unhappy in the circumstances that occasioned our going, yet that we were not unburnished to set ourselves to work in the country, and we resolved to settle and live there as planters, if we might be put in a way how to do it. The captain readily offered his assistance, told her the method of entering upon such business, and how easy, nay, how certain it was for industrious people to recover their fortunes in such a manner. Madam, says he, it is no reproach to any man in that country to have been sent over in worse circumstances than I perceive your cousins are in, provided they do but apply with diligence and good judgment to the business of that place when they come there. She then inquired of him what things it was necessary we should carry over with us, and he, like a very honest as well as knowing man, told her thus, Madam, your cousins in the first place must procure somebody to buy them his servants, in conformity to the conditions of their transportation, and then in the name of that person they may go about what they will, they may either purchase some plantations already begun, or they may purchase land of the government of the country, and begin where they please, and both will be done reasonably. She bespoke his favour in the first article, which he promised to her to take upon himself, and indeed faithfully performed it, and as to the rest, he promised to recommend us to such as should give us the best advice, and not to impose upon us, which was as much as could be desired. She then asked him if it would be necessary to furnish us with a stock of tools and materials for the business of planting, and he said yes, by all means, and then she begged his assistance in it. She told him she would furnish us with everything that was convenient, whatever it cost her. He accordingly gave her a long particular of things necessary for a planter, which by his account came to about four score, or a hundred pounds, and in short she went about as dexterously to buy them as if she had been an old Virginia merchant, only that she bought, by my direction, above twice as much of everything as he had given her a list of. These she put on board in her own name, took his bills of loading for them, and endorsed those bills of loading to my husband, ensuring the cargo afterwards in her own name by our order, so that we were provided for all events, and for all disasters. I should have told you that my husband gave her all of his stock of a hundred eight pounds, which as I have said, he had about him in gold, to lay out thus, and I gave her a good sum besides, so that I did not break into the stock which I had left in her hands at all, but after we had sorted out our whole cargo, we had yet near two hundred pounds in money, which was more than enough for our purpose. In this condition, very cheerful and indeed joyful at being so happily accommodated as we were, we set sail from Bugsby's Hole to Graves End, where the ship lay about ten more days, and where the captain came on board for good and all. Here the captain offered us a civility, which indeed we had no reason to expect, namely to let us go unsure and refresh ourselves upon giving our words in a solemn manner, that we would not go from him, and that we would return peaceably on board again. This was such an evidence of his confidence in us that it overcame my husband, who in a mere principle of gratitude told him, as he could not be in any capacity to make a suitable return for such a favour. So he could not think of accepting of it, nor could he be easy that the captain should run such a risk. After some mutual civilities, I gave my husband a purse in which was eighty guineas, and he put it into the captain's hands. There, captain, says he, there is part of a pledge for our fidelity, if we deal dishonestly with you on any account, tis your own, and on this we went on shore. Indeed, the captain had assurance enough of our resolutions to go, for that having made such provision to settle there, it did not seem rational that we would choose to remain here at the expense and barrel of life, for such it must have been if we had been taken again. In a word, we went all on shore with the captain and supped together at grave's end, where we were very merry, stayed all night, lay at the house where we supped, and came all very honestly on board again with him in the morning. Here we bought ten dozen bottles of good beer, some wine, some vows, and such things as we thought might be acceptable on board. My governess was with us all this while and went with us round into the towns, as did also the captain's wife with whom she went back. I was never so sorrowful at parting with my own mother as I was at parting with her, and I never saw her more. We had a fair easterly wind sprung up the third day after we came to the towns, and we sailed from Vence the tenth of April. Nor did we touch any more at any place still, being driven on the coast of Ireland by a very hard gale of wind. The ship came to another anchor in a little bay near the mouth of a river, whose name I remember not, but they said the river came down from Limerick, and that it was the largest river in Ireland. Here, being detained by bad weather for some time, the captain who continued the same kind called humid man as at first, took us to on shore with him again. He did it now in kindness to my husband indeed, who bore the sea very ill and was very sick, especially when it blew so hard. Here we bought in again a store of fresh provisions, especially beef, pork, mutton, and fowls, and the captain's day to pick up five or six barrels of beef to lengthen out the ship's store. We were here not above five days when the weather turned mild, and a fair wind we set sail again, and in two and forty days came safe to the coast of Virginia. When we drew near to the shore, the captain called me to him and told me that he found by my discourse I had some relations in the place, and that I had been there before, and though he supposed I understood the custom in their disposing the convict prisoners when they arrived. I told him I did not, and that as to what relations I had in the place, he might be sure I would make myself known to none of them, while I was in the circumstances of a prisoner, and that as to the rest, we left ourselves in darling to him do as is does, as he was pleased to promise us he would do. He told me I must get somebody in the place to come and buy us his servants. I told him we should do as he should direct, so he brought a blonder to treat with him, as it were, for the purchase of these two servants, my husband and me, and there we were formally sold to him, and went to shore with him. The captain went with us, and carried us to a certain house, whether it was to be called a tavern or not, I know not, but we had a bowl of plunge there, made of rum, etc., and were very merry. After some time the blonder gave us a certificate of discharge, and an acknowledgment of having served him faithfully, and we were free from him the next morning to go wither we would. For this piece of service the captain demanded of us six thousand weight of tobacco, which he said he was accountable for to his freighter, and which we immediately bought for him and made him a present of twenty guineas besides, with which he was abundantly satisfied. It is not proper to enter here into the particulars of what part of the colony of Virginia we settled in, for diverse reasons. It may suffice to mention that we went into the great river Potomac, the ship being bound Bither, and there we intended to have settled first, though afterwards we altered our minds. The first thing I did of a moment after having gotten all our goods on shore, and placed them in a storehouse or warehouse, which, with a lodging, we had at the small place or village where we landed. I say the first thing was to inquire after my mother and after my brother, that fatal person whom I married as a husband as I have related at Lodge. A little inquiry furnished me with information that Mrs. that is my mother was dead, that my brother or husband was alive, which I confess I was not very glad to hear, but which was worse I found he was removed from the plantation where he lived formally and where I lived with him, and lived with one of his sons in a plantation just by the place where we landed and where we had hired a warehouse. I was a little surprised at first, but as I ventured to satisfy myself that he could not know me, I was not only perfectly easy, but had a great mind to see him, if it was possible to so do without his seeing me. In order to do that I found up by inquiry the plantation where he lived, and with a woman of that place whom I got to help me, like what we call a chairwoman, I rambled about towards the place as if I had only a mind to see the country and look about me. At last I came so near that I saw the dwelling house. I asked the woman whose plantation that was. She said it belonged to such a man and looking out a little to our right hands. There, says she, is the gentleman that owns the plantation and his father with him. What are their Christian names, said I. I know not, says she, what the old gentleman's name is, but the son's name is Humphrey, and I believe, says she, the father's is so too. You may guess, if you can, what a confused mixture of joy and fright possessed my thoughts upon this occasion. For I immediately knew that this was nobody else but my own son. By that father she showed me who was my own brother. I had no mask, but I ruffled my hood so about my face that I depended upon it that after above twenty years' absence and with all not expecting anything of me in that part of the world, he would not be able to know anything of me. But I need not have used all that caution, for the old gentleman was grown dim-sighted by some distemper which had fallen upon his eyes, and could but just see well enough to walk about and not run against a tree or into a ditch. The woman that was with me had told me that by a mere accident, knowing nothing of what importance it was to me, as they drew near to us, I said, does he know you, Mrs. Owen? So they called the woman. Yes, said she, if he hears me speak he will know me, but he can't see well enough to know me or anybody else. And so she told me the story of his sight, as I have related. This made me secure, and so I threw open my hoods again and let them pass by me. It was a wretched thing for a mother thus to see her own son, a handsome, calmly young gentleman in flourishing circumstances, and durst not make herself known to him, and durst not take any notice of him. Let any mother of children that reads this consider it, and but think with what anguish of mind I restrained myself, what yearnings of soul I had in me to embrace him and weep over him, and how I thought all my entrails turned within me that my very bowels moved, and I knew not what to do, as I know now, not how to express those agonies. When he went from me I stood gazing and trembling and looking after him as long as I could see him, then sitting down to rest me, but turned from her and lying on my face, wept, and kissed the ground that he had set his foot upon. I could not conceal my disorder so much from the woman, but that she perceived it, and thought I was not well, which I was obliged to pretend was true, upon which she pressed me to rise, the ground being damp and dangerous, which I did accordingly, and walked away. As I was going back again and still talking of this gentleman and his son, a new occasion of melancholy offered itself thus. The woman began as if she would tell me a story to divert me. There goes, says she, a very odd tale among the neighbors where this gentleman formerly lived. What was that, said I? Why, she says, that old gentleman going to England when he was a young man, fell in love with a young lady there, one of the finest women that ever was seen, and married her, and brought her over hither to his mother who was then living. He lived here several years with her, continued she, and had several children by her, of which the young gentleman that was with him now was one. But after some time the old gentle woman, his mother, talked to her of something relating to herself when she was in England, and of her circumstances in England, which were bad enough. The daughter-in-law began to be very much surprised and uneasy, and in short, examining further into things that appeared past all contradiction that the old gentle woman was her own mother, and that consequently that son was his wife's own brother, which struck the whole family with aura, and put them into such confusion that it had almost ruined them all. The young woman would not live with him. The son, her brother, and husband, for a time went distracted, and at last the young woman went away to England, and has never been heard of since. It is easy to believe that I was strangely affected with this story, but it is impossible to describe the nature of my disturbance. I seemed astonished at the story, and asked her a thousand questions about the particulars, which I found she was thoroughly acquainted with. At last I began to inquire into the circumstances of the family, how the old gentle woman, I mean my mother, died, and how she left what she had. For my mother had promised me very solemnly that when she died she would do something for me, and leave it so, as that, if I was living, I should one way or other come at it, without its being in the power of her son, my brother and husband, to prevent it. She told me she did not know exactly how it was ordered, but she had been told that my mother had left to some of money, and had tied her plantation for the payment of it, to be made good to the daughter, if ever she could be heard of, either in England or elsewhere, and that the trust was left with this son, who was the person that we saw with his father. This was news too good for me to make light of, and you may be sure. Filled my heart with a thousand thoughts, what course I should take, how and when, and in what manner I should make myself known, or whether I should ever make myself known or not. End of section 22. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Gemma Blythe. Malflanders by Daniel Defoe. Section 23. Here was a perplexity that I had not indeed skilled to manage myself in. Neither knew I what course to take. It lay heavy upon my mind night and day. I could neither sleep nor converse, so that my husband perceived it and wondered what ailed me, strove to divert me. But it was all to no purpose. He breasted me to tell him what it was troubled me, but I put it off, till it last, in protruding me. Continually I was forced to form a story which yet had a plain truth to lay it upon to. I told him I was troubled, because I found we must shift our quarters and alter our scheme of settling, for that I found I should be known if I stayed in that part of the country. For that my mother being dead, several of my relations were come into that part where we then was, and that I must either discover myself to them, which in our present circumstances was not proper on many accounts, or remove, and which to do I knew not, and that this it was that made me so melancholy and so thoughtful. He joined with me in this, that it was by no means proper for me to make myself known to anybody in the circumstances in which we then were, and therefore he told me he would be willing to remove to any other part of the country, or even to another country, if I thought fit. But now I had another difficulty, which was that if I remove to any other colony I put myself out of the way of ever making a due search after those effects which my mother had left. Again I could never so much as think of breaking the secret of my form of marriage to my new husband. It was not a story, as I thought, that would bear telling, nor could I tell what might be the consequences of it, and it was impossible to search into the bottom of the thing without making it public all over the country as well who I was as what I now was also. In this perplexity I continued a great while, and this made my spouse very uneasy, for he found me perplexed, and yet thought I was not open with him, and did not let him into every part of my grievance, and he would often say, he wondered what he had done, that I would not trust him with whatever it was, especially if it was grievous and afflicting. The truth is, he ought to have trusted with everything, for no man in the world could deserve better of a wife, but this was a thing I knew not how to open to him, and yet, having nobody to disclose any part of it to, the burden was too heavy for my mind. For let them say what they please of our sex, not being able to keep a secret, my life is a plain conviction to me of the contrary, but be it our sex or the man's sex, a secret of moment should always have a confidant, a bosom friend, to whom we may communicate the joy of it, or the grief of it, be it which it will, or it will be a double weight upon the spirits, and perhaps become even insupportable in itself, and this I appeal to all human testimony for the truth of. And this is the cause why many times men as well as women, and men of the greatest and best qualities other ways, yet have found themselves weak in this part, and have not been able to bear the weight of a secret joy, or of a secret sorrow, but have been obliged to disclose it, even for the mere giving vent to themselves, and to unbend the mind oppressed with a load of weight which attended it. Nor was this any token of folly or thoughtlessness at all, but a natural consequence of the thing, and such people, had they struggled longer with the oppression, would certainly have told it in their sleep, and disclosed the secret, but it had been of what fatal nature so ever, without regard to the person to whom it might be exposed. This necessity of nature is a thing which works sometimes with such vehemence in the minds of those who are guilty of any atrocious villainy, such a secret murder in particular, that they had been obliged to discover it, though the consequences would necessarily be their own destruction. Now, though it may be true that the divine justice ought to have the glory of all those discoveries and confessions, yet it is a certain that providence, which ordinarily works by the hands of nature, makes use here of the same natural causes to produce those extraordinary effects. I could give several remarkable instances of this in my long conversation with crime and with criminals. I knew one fellow that, while I was in prison in Newgate, was one of those they called then Nightflyers. I knew not what other word they may have understood it by since, but he was one who by connivance was admitted to go abroad every evening when he bled his pranks and furnished those honest people they called thief-catchers with business to find out the next day and restore for a reward what they had stolen the evening before. This fellow was as sure to tell in his sleep all that he had done and every step he had taken, what he had stolen and where, as sure as if he had engaged to tell it waking and that there was no harm or danger in it, and therefore he was obliged, after he had been out, to lock himself up or be locked up by some of the keepers that had him in fee, that nobody should ear him, but on the other hand, if he had told all the particulars and given a full account of his rambles and success to any comrade, any brother thief or to his employers, as I may justly call them, then all was well with him and he slept as quietly as other people. As the publishing this account of my life is for the sake of the just moral of very part of it, and for instruction, caution, warning, and improvement to every reader, so this will not pass, I hope, for an unnecessary digression concerning some people being obliged to disclose the greatest secrets, either of their own or other people's affairs. Under the certain oppression of this weight upon my mind I labored, in the case I had been naming, and the only relief I found for it was to let my husband into so much of it as I thought would convince him of the necessity there was for us to think of settling in some other part of the world, and the next consideration before us was which part of the English settlements we should go to. My husband was a perfect stranger to the country, and had not yet so much as a geographical knowledge of the situation of the several places, and I, that, till I wrote this, did not know what the word geographical signified, had only a general knowledge from long conversation with people that came from, or went to, several places, but this I knew, that Maryland, Pennsylvania, East and West Jersey, New York, and New England lay all north of Virginia, and that they were consequently all colder climates, to which, for that very reason, I had an aversion for that as I naturally loved warm weather, so now I grew into years, I had a stronger inclination to shun a cold climate. I therefore considered of going to Carolina, which is the only southern colony of the English on the continent of America, and hither I proposed to go, and the rather because I might with great ease come from thence at any time, when it might be proper to inquire after my mother's effects, and to make myself known enough to demand them. With this resolution I proposed to my husband, now going away from where we was, and carrying all our effects with us to Carolina, where we resolved to settle, for my husband readily agreed to the first birth, that was not at all proper to stay where we was, since I had assured him we should be known there, and the rest I effectually concealed from him. But now I found a new difficulty upon me, the main affair grew heavy upon my mind still, and I could not think of going out of the country without somehow or other, making inquiry into the grand affair of what my mother had done for me, nor could I with any patience bear the thought of going away, and not make myself known to my old husband, brother, or to my child, his son. Only I would feign have had this done without my new husband having any knowledge of it, or they having any knowledge of him, or that I had such a thing as a husband. I cast about innumerable ways in my thoughts how this might be done. I would gladly have sent my husband away to Carolina with all our goods, and have come after myself. But this was impracticable. He would never stir without me, being himself perfectly unacquainted with the country, and with the methods of settling there, or anywhere else. Then I thought we would both go first with part of our goods, and then when we were settled I should come back to Virginia and fetch the remainder. But even then I knew he would never part with me and be left there to go alone. The case was plain. He was bred a gentleman, and by consequence was not only unacquainted but indolent, and when we did settle would much rather go out into the woods with his gun, which they called their hunting, and which is the ordinary work of the Indians, and which they do as servants. I say he would rather do that than attend the natural business of his plantation. These were, therefore, difficulties insurmountable, and such as I knew not what to do in. I had such strong impressions on my mind about discovering myself to my brother, formerly my husband, that I could not withstand them. And the rather, because it ran constantly in my thoughts, that if I did not do it while he lived, I might in vain endeavour to convince my son afterward that I was really the same person, and that I was his mother, and so might both lose the assistance and comfort of the relation, and the benefit of whatever it was my mother had left me. And yet, on the other hand, I could never think it proper to discover myself to them in the circumstances I was in. As well relating to the having a husband with me, as to my being brought over by a legal transportation, as a criminal, on both which accounts it was absolutely necessary to me to remove from the place where I was, and come again to him, as from another place, and in another figure. Upon these considerations, I went on with telling my husband the absolute necessity there was of our not settling in Potomac River, at least that we should be presently made public there. Whereas, if we went to any other place in the world, we should come in with as much reputation as any family that came to plant. That, as it was always agreeable to the inhabitants, to have families come among them to plant, who brought substance with them, either through purchase plantations or begin new ones, so we should be sure of a kind agreeable reception, and that without any possibility of a discovery of our circumstances. I told him in general, too, that as I had several relations in the place where we were, and that I just not let myself be known to them, because they would soon come into a knowledge of the occasion and reason of my coming over, which would be to expose myself to the last degree. So I had reason to believe that my mother, who died here, had left me something, and perhaps considerable, which it might be very well worth my while to inquire after, and that this, too, could not be done without exposing us publicly, unless we went from hence. And then, wherever we settled, I might come, as it was, to visit and to see my brother and nephews, make myself known to them, claim and inquire after what was my due, be received with respect, and at the same time, have just as done me with cheerfulness and goodwill. Whereas, if I did it now, I could expect nothing but with trouble, such as exacting it by force, receiving it with curses and reluctance, and with all kinds of affronts, which he would not perhaps bear to see, that in case of being obliged to legal proofs of being really her daughter, I might be at loss, be obliged to have recourse to England, and it may be to fail at last, and so lose it, whatever it might be. With these arguments, and having thus acquainted my husband with the whole secret so far as was needful of him, we resolved to go and seek a settlement in some other colony. And at first thoughts, Carolina was the place we pitched upon. In order to do this, we began to make inquiry for vessels going to Carolina, and in a very little while got information that on the other side of the bay, as they call it, namely in Maryland, there was a ship which came from Carolina, laden with rice and other goods, and was going back again wither, and from thence to Jamaica with provisions. On this news, we iris looped, taking our goods and taking, as it were, a final farewell of Potomac River. We went with all our cargo over to Maryland. This was a long and unpleasant voyage, and my spouse said it was worse to him than all the voyage from England, because the weather was but indifferent, the water rough and the vessel small and inconvenient. In the next place, we were full a hundred miles up Potomac River, in a part which they call Westmoreland County, and as that river is by far the greatest in Virginia, and I have heard say it is the greatest river in the world that falls into another river, and not directly into the sea. So we had base weather in it, and were frequently in great danger, for though we were in the middle, we could not see land on either side for many leagues together. Then we had the great river or bay of Chesapeake to cross, which is where the river Potomac falls into it, near 30 miles broad, and we entered more great vast waters whose names I know not, so that our voyage was full of 200 miles in a poor sorry sloop with all our treasure, and if any accident had happened to us, we might at last have been very miserable. Supposing we had lost our goods and saved our lives only, and had then been left naked and destitute, and in a wild, strange place, not having one friend or acquaintance in all that part of the world, the very thought of it gives me some aura, even since the danger is past. Well, we came to the place in five days' sailing. I think they called it Phillips Point, and behold, when we came thither, the ship bound to Carolina was loaded and gone away, but three days before. This was a disappointment. But, however, I, that was to be discouraged with nothing, told my husband that since we could not get passage to Carolina, and that the country we was in was very fertile and good, we would, if he liked of it, see if we could find out anything for our tune where we was, and that if he liked things we would settle here. We immediately went on shore but found no conveniences just at that place, either for our being on shore or preserving our goods on shore, but was directed by a very honest Quaker whom we found there, to go to a place about sixty miles east, that is to say, nearer the mouth of the bay, where he said he lived and where we should be accommodated, either to flaunt or to wait for any other place to flaunt, and that might be more convenient. And he invited us with so much kindness and simple honesty that we agreed to go, and the Quaker himself went with us. Here we bought us two servants, an English woman's servant, just come on shore from a ship of Liverpool, and a Negro man's servant, things absolutely necessary for all people that pretended to settle in that country. This honest Quaker was very helpful to us, and when we came to the place that he proposed to us, found us out a convenience doorhouse for our goods and lodging for ourselves and our servants, and about two months or thereabouts afterwards by his direction, we took up a large piece of land from the governor of that country in order to form our flantation. And so we laid the thoughts of going to Carolina, wholly aside. Having been very well received here and accommodated with a convenient lodging till we could prepare things and have land enough cleared and timber and materials provided for building us a house, all which we managed by the direction of the Quaker, so that in one year's time we had nearly fifty acres of land clear, part of it enclosed and some of it planted with tobacco, though not much. Besides, we had garden ground and corn sufficient to help supply our servants with roots and herbs and bread, and now I persuaded my husband to let me go over the bay again and inquire after my friends. He was willing to consent to it now because he had business upon his hands sufficient to employ him, besides his gun to divert him, which they call hunting there, and which he greatly delighted in, and indeed we used to look at one another, sometimes with a great deal of pleasure, reflecting how much better that was, not the new gate only, but then the most prosperous of our circumstances and the wicked trade that we had been both carrying on. Our affair was in a very good posture. We purchased of the proprietors of the colony as much land for thirty-five pounds, paid in ready money, as would make a sufficient plantation to employ between fifty and sixty servants, and which, being well improved, would be sufficient to us as long as we could either of us live, and as for children, I was past the prospect of anything of that kind. But our good fortune did not end here, I went, as I have said, over the bay, to the place where my brother, once my husband, lived, but I did not go to the same village where I was before, but went up another great river, on the east side of the river Potomac, called Rappahonic River, and by this means came on the back of his plantation, which was large, and by the help of a navigable Greek, or little river, that ran into the Rappahonic. I came very near it. I was now fully resolved to go up point blank to my brother, husband, and tell him who I was, but not knowing what temper I might find him in, or how much out of temper rather, I might make him by such a rash visit. I resolved to write a letter to him first, to let him know who I was, and that I was come not to give him any trouble upon the old relation, which I hoped was entirely forgot, but that I have lied to him as a sister to a brother, desiring his assistance in the case of that provision which our mother, at her deceased, had left for my support, and which I did not doubt, but he would do me justice in, especially considering that I was come thus far to look after it. I said some very tender kind things in the letter about his son, which I told him he knew to be my own child, and that as I was guilty of nothing in marrying him any more than he was in marrying me, neither of us having been known or being at all related to one another. So I hoped he would allow me the most passionate desire of one seeing my one and only child, and of showing something of the infirmities of a mother in preserving a violent effect for him, who had never been able to retain any thought of me one way or other. I did believe that, having received this letter, he would immediately give it to his son to read, I having understood his eyes being so dim that he could not see to read it, and it fell out better than so, for as his sight was dim, so he had allowed his son to open all letters that came to his hand for him, and the old gentleman being from home or out of the way when the messenger came, my letter came directly to my son's hand, and he opened and read it. He called the messenger in after some little stay, and asked him where the person who gave him the letter was. The messenger told him the place, which was about seven miles off, so he bid him stay and ordering a horse to be got ready, and two servants. Away he came, do me, with the messenger, that anyone judged the consternation I was in when my messenger came back, and told me the old gentleman was not at home, but his son was come along with him, and was just coming up to me. I was perfectly confounded, for I knew not whether it was peace or war, nor could I tell how to behave, however I had but a very few moments to think, for my son was at the heels of the messenger, and coming up into my lodgings asked the fellow at the door something. I suppose it was, for I did not hear it so as to understand it, which was the gentle woman that sent him. For the messenger said, there she is at which he comes directly up to me, kisses me, took me in his arms, and embraced me with so much passion that he could not speak. But I could feel his breast heave and throb like a child that cries but sobs and cannot cry out. I could neither express nor describe the joy that touched my very soul when I found, for it was easy to discover that part, that he came not as a stranger, but as a son to a mother, and indeed as a son who had never before known what a mother of his own was. In short, we cried over one another a considerable while, when at last he broke out first. My dear mother says he, are you still alive? I never expected to have seen your face. As for me, I could say nothing a great while. After we had both recovered ourselves a little and were able to talk, he told me how things stood, as to what I had written to his father. He told me he had not shown my letter to his father or told him anything about it, that what his grandmother left me was in his hands and that he would do me justice to my full satisfaction, that as to his father he was old and infirm, both in body and mind, that he was very fretful and passionate, almost blind and capable of nothing, and he questioned whether he would know how to act in an affair which was of so nice a nature as this, and that therefore he had come himself, as well as to satisfy himself in seeing me, which he could not restrain himself from, as also it put into my power to make a judgment after I had seen how things were, whether I would discover myself to his father or no. This was really so prudently and wisely managed that I found my son was a man of sense and needed no direction from me. I told him I did not wonder that his father was as he had described him, for that his Ed was a little touched before I went away, and principally his disturbance was because I could not be persuaded to conceal our relation and to live with him as my husband, after I knew that he was my brother, that as he knew better than I what his father's present condition was, I should readily join with him in such measure as he would direct, that I was indifferent as to seeing his father, since I had seen him first, and he could not have told me better news than to tell me that what his grandmother had left me was entrusted in his hands, who I doubted not, now he knew who I was, would, as he said, do me justice. I inquired then how long my mother had been dead and where she died, and told so many particulars of the family that I left him no room to doubt the truth of my being really and truly his mother. My son then inquired where I was and how I had disposed myself. I told him I was on the Maryland side of the bay at the plantation of a particular friend who came from England in the same ship with me, that as for that side of the bay where he was I had no habitation. He told me I should go home with him and live with him if I pleased, as long as I lived, that as to his father he knew nobody and would never so much as guess at me. I considered of that a little and told him, that though it was really no concern to me to live at a distance from him, yet I could not say it would be the most comfortable thing in the world to me to live in a house with him, and to have that unhappy object always before me, which had been such a blow to my peace before, that though I should be glad to have his company, my son, or to be as near him as possible while I stayed, yet I could not think of being in the house where I should be also under constant restraint for fear of betraying myself in my discourse, nor should I be able to refrain some expressions in my conversing with him as my son, that might discover the whole affair which would by no means be convenient. He acknowledged that I was right in all this, but then dear mother says he, you shall be as near me as you can. So he took me with him on horseback to a plantation next to his own, and where I was as well entertained as I could have been in his own. Having left me there he went away home, telling me we would talk of the main business the next day, and having first called me his aunt, and given a charge to the people who it seems were his tenants, to treat me with all possible respect. About two hours after he was gone, he sent me a maid servant and a negro boy to wait on me, and provisions ready dressed for my supper, and thus I was as if I had been in a new world, and began secretly now to wish that I had not brought my Lancashire husband. However, that wish was not hearty neither, for I loved my Lancashire husband entirely, as indeed I had ever done from the beginning. And he merited from me as much as it was possible for a man to do, but that by the way. The next morning my son came to visit me again, almost as soon as I was up. After a little discourse he first of all pulled out a dearskin bag and gave it to me, with five and fifty Spanish pistols on it, and told me that it was to supply my expenses from England, for though it was not his business to inquire, yet he ought to think I did not bring a great deal of money out with me. It is not being usual to bring much money into that country. Then he pulled out his grandmother's will and read it over to me, whereby it appeared that she had left a small plantation, as he called it, on York River, that is, where my mother lived, to me, with the stock of servants and cattle upon it, and given it in trust to this son of mine for my use, whenever he should hear of my being alive, and to my heirs, if I had any children, and in default of heirs, to whomsoever I should by will dispose of it, but gave the income of it, till I should be heard of or found, to my said son, and if I should not be living, then it was to him and his heirs. This plantation, though remote from him, he said he did not let out, but managed it by a head clerk, Stuart, as he did another that was his father's, that lay hard by it, and went over himself three or four times a year to look after it. I asked him what he thought the plantation might be worth. He said, if I would let it out, he would give me about sixty pounds a year for it. But if I would live on it, then it would be worth much more, and he believed would bring me in about a hundred and fifty pounds a year. But seeing I was likely either to settle on the other side of the bay, or, my perhaps, have a mind to go back to England again. If I would let him be my Stuart, he would manage it for me, as he had done for himself, and that he believed he should be able to send me as much tobacco to England from it, as would yield me about a hundred pounds a year, sometimes more. This was all strange news to me, and things I had not been used to, and really my heart began to look up more seriously than I think it ever did before, and to look with great thankfulness to the hand of Providence, which had done such wonders for me, who had been myself. The greatest wonder of wickedness, perhaps, that had been suffered to live in the world, and I must again observe that not on this occasion only, but even on all other occasions of thankfulness, my past wicked and abominable life never looked so monstrous to me, and I never so completely abhorred it and reproached myself with it, as when I had a sense upon me of Providence doing good to me while I had been making those vile returns on my part. But I leave the reader to improve these thoughts, as no doubt they will seek cause, and I go on to the fact my son's tender courage and kind offers fetched tears from me almost all the while he talked with me. Indeed, I could gas discourse with him, but in the intervals of my passion. However, at length I began, and expressing myself with wonder at my being so happy to have the trust of what I had left, put into the hands of my own child, I told him that as to the inheritance of it, I had no child but him in the world, I was now past having any if I should marry, and therefore would desire him to get a writing drawn, which I was ready to execute, by which I would, after me, give it wholly to him in his heirs, and in the meantime, smiling, I asked him what made him continue a bachelor so long. His answer was kind and ready, that Virginia did not yield any great plenty of whims, and that since I talked of going back to England, I should send him away from London. This was the substance of our first day's conversation, the pleasantest day that ever passed over my head in my life, and which gave me the truest satisfaction. He came every day after this, and spent a great part of his time with me, and guided me about to several of his friend's houses, where I was entertained with great respect. Also, I dined several times at his own house, when he took care always to see his half-dead father so out of the way that I never saw him or he me. I made him one present, and it was all I had of value, and that was one of the gold watches, of which I mentioned above, that I had two in my chest, and this I happened to have with me, and I gave it him at his third visit. I told him I had nothing of any value to bestow but that, and I desired he would now and then kiss it, for my sake. I did not indeed tell him that I had stole it from a gentle woman's side at a meeting house in London, that's by the way. He stood a little while, hesitating as if doubtful whether to take it or not, but I breasted 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 with all to be obliged himself to make of the produce a hundred pounds 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 a hundred pounds 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 adieu to get away then. Nay 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 he built like a yacht, and served in his 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 Quakers. I brought over with me for the use of ablandation, three horses with harness and saddles, some augs, two cows, and a thousand other things, the gift of the kindest and tenderest child that ever a 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, out kind, my cousin had been, that my mother had left me such ablandation, and that he had reserved 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 hundred pounds in silver as the first year's produce, and then pulling out the disk and purse with the pistols. 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 mercy's touched the heart, lifted up both ends, and with an ecstasy of joy. What is God a-doing, says he, for as such an ungrateful dog as I am. Then I let him know what I had brought over in this loop, besides all this. I mean the horses, hogs, and cows, and other stores for our ablandation, 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 feel 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 returned to that part which related to myself. We went on with our ablandation and managed it with the help and diversion of such friends as we got there by our obliging behavior, 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 pounds sterling in money, we enlarged our number of servants, built as 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 pounds as above, and to send it to us in goods, which she performed with her usual kindness and fidelity, and this arrived safe for us. Here we had a supply of all sorts of clothes, as well as my husband, as for myself. And I took a special 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 fouling 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 first both. As for myself, I wanted very little of clothes or linen, being very well furnished before. The rest of my cargo consisted of ironwork of all sorts, harness for horses, tools, clothes for servants, and woolen cloth, stuffs, surges, 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 women's servants, lusty winches, 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 Graves' end, 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 old stock with me, that I had reserved so much in my friend's hands, which now we will 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 two hundred and forty-six pounds 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, a hundred pounds a year, then a hundred and fifty pounds 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 two hundred and fifty pounds 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 a pitch that the produce was at least three hundred pounds 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 receive another year's income on 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 my 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 has come over to England also, where we resolved to spend the remainder of our years in sincere penitence for the wicked lives we have lived, written in the year sixteen hundred and eighty-three. End of Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.