ortion of peas,
flour, and what other things we could spare; and taking three casks of
sugar, some rum, and some pieces of eight from them for satisfaction, we
left them, taking on board with us, at their own earnest request, the
youth and the maid, and all their goods.

The young lad was about seventeen years of age, a pretty, well-bred,
modest, and sensible youth, greatly dejected with the loss of his mother,
and also at having lost his father but a few months before, at Barbadoes.
He begged of the surgeon to speak to me to take him out of the ship; for
he said the cruel fellows had murdered his mother: and indeed so they
had, that is to say, passively; for they might have spared a small
sustenance to the poor helpless widow, though it had been but just enough
to keep her alive; but hunger knows no friend, no relation, no justice,
no right, and therefore is remorseless, and capable of no compassion.

The surgeon told him how far we were going, and that it would carry him
away from all his friends, and put him, perhaps, in as bad circumstances
almost as those we found him in, that is to say, starving in the world.
He said it mattered not whither he went, if he was but delivered from the
terrible crew that he was among; that the captain (by which he meant me,
for he could know nothing of my nephew) had saved his life, and he was
sure would not hurt him; and as for the maid, he was sure, if she came to
herself, she would be very thankful for it, let us carry them where we
would. The surgeon represented the case so affectionately to me that I
yielded, and we took them both on board, with all their goods, except
eleven hogsheads of sugar, which could not be removed or come at; and as
the youth had a bill of lading for them, I made his commander sign a
writing, obliging himself to go, as soon as he came to Bristol, to one
Mr. Rogers, a merchant there, to whom the youth said he was related, and
to deliver a letter which I wrote to him, and all the goods he had
belonging to the deceased widow; which, I suppose, was not done, for I
could never learn that the ship came to Bristol, but was, as is most
probable, lost at sea, being in so disabled a condition, and so far from
any land, that I am of opinion the first storm she met with afterwards
she might founder, for she was leaky, and had damage in her hold when we
met with her.

I was now in the latitude of 19 degrees 32 minutes, and had hitherto a
tolerable voyage as to weat