afford; which at that time would, indeed, allow me to do but little for
her; but I assured her I would never forget her former kindness to me;
nor did I forget her when I had sufficient to help her, as shall be
observed in its proper place. I went down afterwards into Yorkshire; but
my father was dead, and my mother and all the family extinct, except that
I found two sisters, and two of the children of one of my brothers; and
as I had been long ago given over for dead, there had been no provision
made for me; so that, in a word, I found nothing to relieve or assist me;
and that the little money I had would not do much for me as to settling
in the world.

I met with one piece of gratitude indeed, which I did not expect; and
this was, that the master of the ship, whom I had so happily delivered,
and by the same means saved the ship and cargo, having given a very
handsome account to the owners of the manner how I had saved the lives of
the men and the ship, they invited me to meet them and some other
merchants concerned, and all together made me a very handsome compliment
upon the subject, and a present of almost 200 pounds sterling.

But after making several reflections upon the circumstances of my life,
and how little way this would go towards settling me in the world, I
resolved to go to Lisbon, and see if I might not come at some information
of the state of my plantation in the Brazils, and of what was become of
my partner, who, I had reason to suppose, had some years past given me
over for dead. With this view I took shipping for Lisbon, where I
arrived in April following, my man Friday accompanying me very honestly
in all these ramblings, and proving a most faithful servant upon all
occasions. When I came to Lisbon, I found out, by inquiry, and to my
particular satisfaction, my old friend, the captain of the ship who first
took me up at sea off the shore of Africa. He was now grown old, and had
left off going to sea, having put his son, who was far from a young man,
into his ship, and who still used the Brazil trade. The old man did not
know me, and indeed I hardly knew him. But I soon brought him to my
remembrance, and as soon brought myself to his remembrance, when I told
him who I was.

After some passionate expressions of the old acquaintance between us, I
inquired, you may be sure, after my plantation and my partner. The old
man told me he had not been in the Brazils for about nine years; but that
he co