for we were separated in the town to several quarters - I say, the
first time he was me, it appeared his tone was altered, and looking
very melancholy and shaking his head, asked me how I did, and
telling his father who I was, and how I had came this voyage only
for a trial in order to go farther abroad, his father turning to me
with a very grave and concerned tone, "Young man," says he, "you ought
never to go to sea any more, you ought to take this for a plain and
visible token, that you are not to be a seafaring man." "Why, sir,"
said I, "will you go to sea no more?" "That is another case," said he;
"it is my calling, and therefore my duty; but as you made this
voyage for a trial, you see what a task Heaven has given you of what
you are to expect if you persist; perhaps this is all befallen us on
your account, like Jonah in the ship of Tarshish. Pray," continues he,
"what are you? and on what account did you go to sea?" Upon that I
told him some of my story, at the end of which he burst out with a
strange kind of passion. "What had I done," says he, "that such an
unhappy wretch should come into my ship? I would not set my foot in
the same ship with thee again for a thousand pounds." This, indeed,
was, as I said, an excursion of his spirits, which were got agitated
by the sense of his loss, and was farther than he could have authority
to go. However, he afterwards talked very gravely to me, exhorted me
to go back to my father, and not tempt Providence to my ruin; told
me I might see a visible hand of Heaven against me. "And, young
man," said he, "depend upon it, if you do not go back, wherever you go
you will meet with nothing but disasters and disappointments, till
your father's words are fulfilled upon you."

  We parted soon after; for I made him little answer, and I saw him no
more; which way he went, I know not. As for me, having some money in
my pocket, I travelled to London by land; and there, as well as on the
road, had many struggles with myself what course of life I should
take, and whether I should go home or go to sea.

  As to going home, shame opposed the best motions that offered to
my thoughts; and it immediately occurred to me how I should be laughed
at among the neighbors, and should be ashamed to see, not my father
and mother only but even everybody else; from whence I have since
often observed how incongruous and irrational the common temper of
mankind is, especially of youth, to the reason which ought to guide
them in such cases, viz., that they are not ashamed to sin, and yet
are ashamed to repent; not ashamed of the action for which they
ought justly to be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the returning,
which only can make them be esteemed wise men.

  In this state of life, however, I remained some time, uncertain what
measures to take, and what course of life to lead. An irresistible
reluctance continued to going home; and as I stayed a while, the
remembrance of the distress I had been in wore off, and as that
abated, the little motion I had in my desires to a return wore off
with it, till at last I quite laid aside the thoughts of it, and
looked out for a voyage.

  That evil influence which carried me first away from my father's
house, that hurried me into the wild and indigested notion of
raising my fortune, and that impressed those conceits so forcibly upon
me as to make me deaf to all good advice, and to the entreaties and
even command of my father - I say, the same influence, whatever it
was, presented the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view; and
I went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa, or as our
sailors vulgarly call it, a voyage to Guinea.

  It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I did not
ship myself as a sailor, whereby, though I might indeed have worked
a little harder than ordinary, yet at the same time I had learned
the duty and office of a foremast man, and in time might have
qualified myself for a mate or lieutenant, if not for a master. But as
it was always my fate to choose for the worse, so I did here; for
having money in my pocket, and good clothes upon my back, I would
always go on board in the habit of a gentleman; and so I neither had
any business in the ship, or learned to do any.

  It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company in
London, which does not always happen to such loose and misguided young
fellows as I then was; the devil generally not omitting to lay some
snare for them very early; but it was not so with me. I first fell
acquainted with the master of a ship who had been on the coast of
Guinea, and who, having had very good success there, was resolved to
go again; and who, taking a fancy to my conversation, which was not at
all disagreeable at that time, hearing me say I had a mind to see
the world, told me if I would go the voyage with him I should be at no
expense; I should be his messmate and his companion; and if I could
carry anything with me, I should have all the advantage of it that the
trade would admit, and perhaps I might meet with some encouragement.

  I embraced the offer; and, entering into a strict friendship with
this captain, who was an honest and plain-dealing man, I went the
voyage with him, and carried a small adventure with me, which by the
disinterested honesty of my friend the captain, I increased very
considerably, for I carried about L40 in such toys and trifles as
the captain directed me to buy. This L40 I had mustered together by
the assistance of some of my relations whom I corresponded with, and
who, I believe, got my father, or at least my mother, to contribute so
much as that to my first adventure.

  This was the only voyage which I may say was successful in all my
adventures, and which I owe to the integrity and honesty of my
friend the captain; under whom also I got a competent knowledge of the
mathematics and the rules of navigation, learned how to keep an
account of the ship's course, to take an observation, and, in short,
to understand some things that were needful to be understood by a