[17]
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 look'd out for a Voyage. That evil Influence which carried me first away from my Father's House, that buried me into the wild and indigested Notion of raising my Fortune; and that imprest those Conceits so forciby 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 Enterprizes 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 Guiney. It was my great Misfortune that in all these Adventures I did not ship my self as a Sailor; whereby, tho' indeed I might have work'd a little harder than ordinary, yet at the same time I had learn'd the Duty and Office of a Fore-mast Man; and in time might have qualify'd my self 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 Cloaths 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 learn'd 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 unguided 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 Guiney; and who having had very good Success there, was re-
C
