nged a woman, _so long as she was not
obstinate_, that I never spake an unkind word to a child, that I always
gave freely from that which I got freely, and never took from him who
had little, and that I was always civil to the clergy. Yet Doctor
Dubiety of St. George's tells me that I have been a signal sinner, and
bids me, now, to repent of my evil ways. Dr. Dubiety is in the right no
doubt;--how could a Doctor of Divinity be ever in the Wrong?--but I
can't see that I am so much worse than other folks. I should be in
better case, perhaps, if these eyes stood wider open. I confess that I
have killed many men with Powder and Lead, and the sharp sword; but,
then, had I not shot or stabbed them, they would surely have shot or
stabbed me. And are not his Majesty's fellow-subjects shooting and
stabbing one another at this instant moment[A] in the American
plantations? No; I always fought fair, and never refused Quarter when
mine enemy threw up his point; nor, unless a foeman's death were
required for Lawful Reprisals, did I ever deny moderate Ransom.

There may be some things belonging to my worldly store that trouble me a
little in the night season. Should I have given St. Jago de
Compostella's candlesticks to Westminster Abbey? Why, surely, the Dean
and Chapter are rich enough. But I declare that I had neither art not
part in fitting the thumbscrews to the Spanish captain, and putting the
boatswain and his mate to the ordeal of flogging and pickling. 'Twas not
I, but Matcham, who is Dead, that caused the carpenter to be
carbonadoed, and the Scotch purser to walk the Plank. Those were, I
grant, deeds worthy of Blackbeard; but I had naught to do with them.
John Dangerous had suffered too many tortures in the dungeons of the
Inquisition to think of afflicting his fellow-creatures when there was
no need for it. Then, as to what became of Dona Estella. I declare that
I did my best to save that unhappy lady. I entreated, I protested; but
in vain. None of that guilt lies at my door; and in the crime of him who
roasted the Bishop, and cut off the Franciscan Monk's great-toes I have
no share. Let every man answer for his own deeds. When I went the Middle
Passage, I tried to keep the slaves alive as long I could. I was never a
Mangoniser. When they died, what was there to do but to fling them
overboard? Should I not have done the same by white men? I was not one
of those cruel Guinea captains who kept the living and the dead chained