opportunities to converse with anything but what was like myself, or to
hear anything that was good or tended towards it.

So void was I of everything that was good, or the least sense of what I
was, or was to be, that, in the greatest deliverances I enjoyed--such as
my escape from Sallee; my being taken up by the Portuguese master of the
ship; my being planted so well in the Brazils; my receiving the cargo
from England, and the like--I never had once the words "Thank God!" so
much as on my mind, or in my mouth; nor in the greatest distress had I so
much as a thought to pray to Him, or so much as to say, "Lord, have mercy
upon me!" no, nor to mention the name of God, unless it was to swear by,
and blaspheme it.

I had terrible reflections upon my mind for many months, as I have
already observed, on account of my wicked and hardened life past; and
when I looked about me, and considered what particular providences had
attended me since my coming into this place, and how God had dealt
bountifully with me--had not only punished me less than my iniquity had
deserved, but had so plentifully provided for me--this gave me great
hopes that my repentance was accepted, and that God had yet mercy in
store for me.

With these reflections I worked my mind up, not only to a resignation to
the will of God in the present disposition of my circumstances, but even
to a sincere thankfulness for my condition; and that I, who was yet a
living man, ought not to complain, seeing I had not the due punishment of
my sins; that I enjoyed so many mercies which I had no reason to have
expected in that place; that I ought never more to repine at my
condition, but to rejoice, and to give daily thanks for that daily bread,
which nothing but a crowd of wonders could have brought; that I ought to
consider I had been fed even by a miracle, even as great as that of
feeding Elijah by ravens, nay, by a long series of miracles; and that I
could hardly have named a place in the uninhabitable part of the world
where I could have been cast more to my advantage; a place where, as I
had no society, which was my affliction on one hand, so I found no
ravenous beasts, no furious wolves or tigers, to threaten my life; no
venomous creatures, or poisons, which I might feed on to my hurt; no
savages to murder and devour me. In a word, as my life was a life of
sorrow one way, so it was a life of mercy another; and I wanted nothing
to make it a life of comfort but to