much out of the road; you have nothing to eat
or to drink, but what, and when, and where he pleases. Nay, you cannot
sleep unless he pleases you should; for he will order you sometimes out
of bed at midnight and hurry you away at a moment's warning: indeed, if
you can sleep in his vehicle he cannot prevent it; nay, indeed, to
give him his due, this he is ordinarily disposed to encourage: for the
earlier he forces you to rise in the morning, the more time he will give
you in the heat of the day, sometimes even six hours at an ale-house, or
at their doors, where he always gives you the same indulgence which
he allows himself; and for this he is generally very moderate in his
demands. I have known a whole bundle of passengers charged no more than
half-a-crown for being suffered to remain quiet at an ale-house door for
above a whole hour, and that even in the hottest day in summer. But as
this kind of tyranny, though it hath escaped our political writers,
hath been I think touched by our dramatic, and is more trite among
the generality of readers; and as this and all other kinds of such
subjection are alike unknown to my friends, I will quit the passengers
by land, and treat of those who travel by water; for whatever is said on
this subject is applicable to both alike, and we may bring them together
as closely as they are brought in the liturgy, when they are recommended
to the prayers of all Christian congregations; and (which I have often
thought very remarkable) where they are joined with other miserable
wretches, such as women in labor, people in sickness, infants just born,
prisoners and captives. Goods and passengers are conveyed by water in
divers vehicles, the principal of which being a ship, it shall suffice
to mention that alone. Here the tyrant doth not derive his title, as the
stage-coachman doth, from the vehicle itself in which he stows his goods
and passengers, but he is called the captain--a word of such various
use and uncertain signification, that it seems very difficult to fix any
positive idea to it: if, indeed, there be any general meaning which may
comprehend all its different uses, that of the head or chief of any body
of men seems to be most capable of this comprehension; for whether they
be a company of soldiers, a crew of sailors, or a gang of rogues, he who
is at the head of them is always styled the captain.

The particular tyrant whose fortune it was to stow us aboard laid a
farther claim to thi