sighs, tears, groans, and a very few motions of the head and hands, make up the sum of its variety; but an excess of joy, a surprise of joy, has a thousand extravagances in it: there were sone in tears; some raging and tearing themselves, as if they had been in the greatest agonies of sorrow; some stark raving, and downright lunatic; some ran about the ship stamping with their feet, others wringing their hands; some were dancing, some singing, some laughing, more crying; many quite dumb, not able to speak a word; others sick and vomiting; several swooning, and ready to faint; and a few were crossing themselves, and giving God thanks.

I would not wrong them neither; there might be many that were thankful afterwards, but the passion was too strong for them at first, and they were not able to master it: they were thrown into ecstasies and a kind of frenzy; and it was but a very few that were composed and serious in their joy.

Perhaps, also, the case may have some addition to it from the particular circumstance of that nation they belonged to; I mean the French, whose temper is allowed to be more volatile, more passionate, and more sprightly, and their spirits more fluid, than in other nations. I am not philosopher enough to determine the cause; but nothing I had ever seen before came up to it. The ecstasies poor Friday, my trusty savage, was in, when he found his father in the boat, came the nearest to it, and the surprise of the master and his two companions, who

I delivered from the villains that set them on shore in the island, came a little way towards it; but nothing was to compare to this, either that I saw in Friday, or any where else in my life.

It is further observable, that these extravagances did not how themselves, in that different manner I have mentioned, n different persons only; but all the variety would appear, in short succession of moments, in one and the same person. A man that we saw this minute dumb, and as it were stupid nd confounded, would the next minute be dancing and halooing like an antic; and the next moment be tearing his hair, or pulling his clothes to pieces, and stamping them under his feet, like a madman; in a few moments after that, we would have him all in tears, then sick, swooning, and, had not immediate help been had, he would in a few moments have been dead; and thus it was, not with one or two, or ten or twenty, but with the greatest part of them; and, if I remember right, our surgeon was obliged to let blood of about thirty of them.

There were two priests among them, one an old man, and the other a young man; and that which was strangest was, the oldest man was the worst. As soon as he set his foot on board our ship, and saw himself safe, he dropped down stone-dead, to all appearance; not the least sign of life could be perceived in him our surgeon immediately applied proper remedies to recover him, and was the only man in the ship that believed he was not dead. At length he opened a vein in his arm, having first chafed and rubbed the part, so as to warm it as much as possible upon this the blood, which only dropped at first, flowing freely, in three minutes after the man opened his eyes; and a quarter of an hour after that he spoke, grew better, and in a little time quite well. After the blood was stopped, he walked about; told us he was perfectly well; took a dram of cordial, which the surgeon gave him, and was what we call come to himself. About a quarter of an hour after this, they came running into the cabin to the surgeon, who was bleeding a French woman that had fainted, and told him the priest was gone stark mad. It seems he had begun to revolve the change of his cir cumstances in his mind, and again this put him into an ecstasy of joy his spirits whirled about faster than the vessels could convey them; the blood grew hot and feverish, and the man was as fit for Bedlam as any creature that ever was in it: the surgeon would not bleed him again in that condition, but gave him something to doze and put him to sleep, which, after some time, operated upon him, and he awoke next morning perfectly composed and well.

The younger priest behaved with great command of his passions, and was really an example of a serious, well-governed mind at his first coming on board the ship, he threw himself flat on his face, prostrating himself in thankfulness for his de

hverance, in which I unhappily and unseasonably disturbed him, really thinking he had been in a swoon; but he spoke calmly, thanked me, told me he was giving God thanks for his deliverance; begged me to leave him a few moments, and that, next to his Maker, he would give me thanks also.

I was heartily sorry that I disturbed him, and not only left him, but kept others from interrupting him also. He coninued in that posture about three minutes, or little more, after I left him; then came to me, as he had said he would, and with a great deal of seriousness and affection, but with ears n his eyes, thanked me, that had, under God, given him, and so many miserable creatures, their lives. I told him I had no room to move him to thank God for it, rather than me, for I had seen that he had done that already; but I added, that it was nothing but what reason and humanity dictated to al men, and that we had as much reason as he to give thanks to God, who had blessed us so far as to make us the instruments of his mercy to so many of his creatures.

After this the young priest applied himself to his country folks; labored to compose them; persuaded, entreated, argued, reasoned with them, and did his utmost to keep them within the exercise of their reason; and with some he haa success, though others were for a time out of all government of themselves.

I cannot help committing this to writing, as perhaps it may oe useful to those into whose hands it may fall, for the guiding themselves in all the extravagances of their passions; for if an excess of joy can carry men out to such a length beyond the reach of their reason, what will not the extravagances of anger, rage, and a provoked mind, carry us to? And, indeed, here I saw reason for keeping an exceeding watch over our pasyons of every kind, as well those of joy and satisfaction, as hose of sorrow and anger.

We were something disordered, by these extravagances mong our new guests, for the first day; but when they had seen retired, lodgings provided for them as well as our ship would allow, and they had slept heartily,—as most of them did, eing fatigued and frightened, they were quite another sort of people the next day.

Nothing of good manners, or civil acknowledgments for the indness shown them, was wanting the French, it is known are naturally apt enough to exceed that way. The captain and one of the priests came to me the next day, and desired to speak with me and my nephew: the commander began to consult with us what should be done with them; and, first, they told us that we had saved their lives, so all they had was little enough for a return to us for that kindness received. The captain said they had saved some money, and some things of value, in their boats, catched hastily out of the flames, and if we would accept it, they were ordered to make an offer of

it all to us; they only desired to be set on shore scmewhere in our way, where, if possible, they might get a passage to France My nephew was for accepting their money at first word, and to consider what to do with them afterwards; but I overruled him in that part, for I knew what it was to be set on shore in a strange country; and if the Portuguese captain that took me up at sea had served me so, and took all I had for my de fiverance, I must have starved, or have been as much a slave at the Brazils as I had been at Barbary, the mere being sold o a Mahometan excepted: and perhaps a Portuguese is not a much better master than a Turk, if not, in some cases, much

worse.

I therefore told the French captain that we had taken them up in their distress, it was true, but that it was our duty to do so, as we were fellow-creatures; and we would desire to be so delivered, if we were in the like, or any other extremity; that we had done nothing for them but what we believed they would have done for us, if we had been in their case, and they in ours; but that we took them up to save them, not to plunder them; and it would be a most barbarous thing to take that little from them which they had saved out of the fire, and then set them on shore and leave them; that this would be first to save them from death, and then kill them ourselves; save them from drowning, and abandon them to starving; and therefore I would not let the least thing be taken from them. As to setting them on shore, I told them, indeed, that was an exceeding difficulty to us, for that the ship was bound to the East Indies; and though we were driven out of our course to the westward a very great way, and perhaps were directed by Heaven on purpose for their deliverance, yet it was impossible for us wilfully to change our voyage on their particular account; nor could my nephew, the captain, answer it to the freighters, with whom he was under charterparty to pursue his voyage by the way of Brazil; and all I knew we could do for them, was to put ourselves in the way of meeting with other ships homeward-bound from the West Indies, and get them a passage, if possible, to England or France.

The first part of the proposal was so generous and kind, they could not but be very thankful for it; but they were in a very great consternation, especially the passengers, at the notion of being carried away to the East Indies: they then entreated me, that, seeing I was driven so far to the westward before I met with them, I would at least keep on the same course to the Banks of Newfoundland, where it was probable I might meet with some ship or sloop that they might hire to carry them back to Canada, from whence they came.

I thought this was but a reasonable request on their part, and therefore I inclined to agree to it; for, indeed, I consid

ered, that to carry this whole company to the East Indies would not only be an intolerable severity upon the poor people, but would be ruining our whole voyage, by devouring all our provisions; so I thought it no breach of charter-party, but what an unforeseen accident made absolutely necessary to us, and in which no one could say we were to blame; for the laws of God and nature would have forbid that we should refuse to ake up two boats full of people in such a distressed condition nd the nature of the thing, as well respecting ourselves a he poor people, obliged us to set them on shore somewhere or other for their deliverance; so I consented that we would carry them to Newfoundland, if wind and weather would per mit; and if not, that I would carry them to Martinico, in the West Indies.

The wind continued fresh easterly, but the weather pretty good; and as the winds had continued in the points between N E. and S. E. a long time, we missed several opportunities of sending them to France; for we met several ships bound to Europe, whereof two were French, from St. Christopher's; but they had been so long beating up against the wind, that they durst take in no passengers, for fear of wanting provisions for the voyage, as well for themselves as for those they should take in; so we were obliged to go on. It was about a week after this that we made the Banks of Newfoundland; where, to shorten ny story, we put all our French people on board a bark, which they hired at sea there, to put them on shore, and afterwards to carry them to France, if they could get provisions to victual themselves with. When 1 say all the French went on shore, I should remember, that the young priest I spoke of, hearing we were bound to the East Indies, desired to go the voyage with us, and to be set on Sre on the coast of Coromandel; which I readily agreed to, for I wonderfully liked the man, and had very good reason, as will appear afterwards: also four of the seamen entered themselves on our ship, and proved very useful fellows.

From hence we directed our course for the West Indies, steering away S. and S. by E. for about twenty days together, sometimes little or no wind at all, when we met with another subject for our humanity to work upon, almost as deplorable as that before.

It was in the latitude of 27 degrees 5 minutes north, on the 19th day of March, 1694-5, when we spied a sail, our course S. E. and by S.: we soon perceived it was a large vessel, and that she bore up to us, but could not at first know what to make of her, till, after coming a little nearer, we found she had lost her main-topmast, foremast, and bowsprit; and presently she fired a gun, as a signal of distress: the weather was pretty good, wind at N. N. W., a fresh gale, and we soon came to speak with her.