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little Garden, and do the common Drudgery of Slaves about his House; and when he came Home again from his Cruise, he order'd me to lie in the Cabin to look after the Ship.
Here I meditated nothing but my Escape; and what Method I might take to effect it, but found no Way that had the least Probability in it: Nothing presented to make the Supposition of it rational; for I had no Body to communicate it to, that would embark with me; no Fellow-Slave, no English Man, Irish Man, or Scotch Man there but my self; so that for two Years, tho' I often pleased my self with the Imagination, yet I never had the least encouraging Prospect of putting it in Practice.
After about two Years, an odd Circumstance presented it self, which put the old Thought of making some Atttempt for my Liberty, again in my Head: My Patron lying at Home longer than usual, without fitting out his Ship, which, as I heard, was for want of Money; he used constantly, once or twice a Week, sometimes oftner, if the Weather was fair, to take the Ship's Pinnace, and go out into the Road a fishing; and as he always took me and a young Maresco with him to row the Boat, we made him very merry, and I prov'd very dexterous in catching Fish; insomuch that sometimes he would send me with a Moor, one of his Kinsmen, and the Youth the Maresco, as they call'd him, to catch a Dish of Fish for him.
It happen'd one time, that going a fishing in a stark calm Morning, a Fog rose so thick, that tho' we were not half a League from the Shore we lost Sight of it; and rowing we knew not whither or which Way, we labour'd all Day and all the next Night, and when the Morning came we found we had pull'd off to Sea instead of pulling in for the Shore; and that we were at least two Leagues from
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