of life to be full; but other things
attended me, and I was still to be the wilful agent of all my own
miseries; and particularly to increase my fault, and double the
reflections upon myself, which in my future sorrows I should have
leisure to make; all these miscarriages were procured by my apparent
obstinate adhering to my foolish inclination of wandering abroad, and
pursuing that inclination, in contradiction to the clearest views of
doing myself good in a fair and plain pursuit of those prospects and
those measures of life, which nature and Providence concurred to present
me with, and to make my duty.

As I had done thus in my breaking away from my parents, so I could not
be content now, but I must go and leave the happy view I had of being a
rich and thriving man in my new plantation, only to pursue a rash and
immoderate desire of rising faster than the nature of the thing
admitted; and thus I cast myself down again into the deepest gulf of
human misery that ever man fell into, or perhaps could be consistent
with life and a state of health in the world.

To come then by just degrees to the particulars of this part of my
story; you may suppose, that having now lived almost four years in the
Brasils, and beginning to thrive and prosper very well upon my
plantation, I had not only learnt the language, but had contracted
acquaintance and friendship among my fellow-planters, as well as among
the merchants at St. Salvadore, which was our port; and that in my
discourse among them, I had frequently given them an account of my two
voyages to the coast of Guinea, the manner of trading with the Negroes
there, and how easy it was to purchase upon the coast, for trifles, such
as beads, toys, knives, scissars, hatchets, bits of glass, and the like,
not only gold-dust, Guinea grains, elephants teeth, &c. but Negroes for
the service of the Brasils in great numbers.

They listened always very attentively to my discourses on these heads,
but especially to that part which related to the buying Negroes, which
was a trade at that time not only not far entered into, but, as far as
it was, had been carried on by the Assientos for permission of the
kings of Spain and Portugal, and engrossed in the public, so that few
Negroes were brought, and those excessive dear.

It happened, being in company with some merchants and planters of my
acquaintance, and talking of those things very earnestly, three of them
came to me the next morning, an