ved, or have been as much a
slave at the Brasils as I had been at Barbary, the being sold to a
Mahometan only excepted; and perhaps a Portuguese is not a much better
master than a Turk, if not, in some cases, a much worse.

I therefore told the French captain that we had taken them up in their
distress, it was true; but that it was our duty to do so, as we were
fellow-creatures, and as we would desire to be so delivered, if we were
in the like or any other extremity; that we had done nothing for them
but what we believed they would have done for us if we had been in their
case and they in ours; but that we took them up to serve them, not to
plunder them; and that it would be a most barbarous thing, to take that
little from them which they had saved out of the fire, and then set them
on shore and leave them; that this would be first to save them from
death and then kill them ourselves; save them from drowning and then
abandon them to starving; and therefore I would not let the least thing
be taken from them: as to setting them on shore, I told them indeed that
was an exceeding difficulty to us, for that the ship was bound to the
East Indies; and though we were driven out of our course to the westward
a very great way, which perhaps was directed by Heaven on purpose for
their deliverance, yet it was impossible for us wilfully to change our
voyage on this particular account; nor could my nephew, the captain,
answer it to the freighters, with whom he was under charter-party to
pursue his voyage by the way of Brasil; and all I knew he could do for
them was, to put ourselves in the way of meeting with other ships
homeward-bound from the West Indies, and get them passage, if possible,
to England or France.

The first part of the proposal was so generous and kind, they could not
but be very thankful for it; but they were in a great consternation,
especially the passengers, at the notion of being carried away to the
East Indies: they then entreated me, that seeing I was driven so far to
the westward before I met with them, I would at least keep on the same
course to the banks of Newfoundland, where it was possible I might meet
some ship or sloop that they might hire to carry them back to Canada,
from whence they came.

I thought this was but a reasonable request on their part, and therefore
I inclined to agree to it; for indeed I considered, that to carry this
whole company to the East Indies would not only be an intolerable