d told me they had been musing very much
upon what I had discoursed with them of, the last night, and they came
to make a secret proposal to me; and after enjoining me secrecy, they
told me, that they had a mind to fit out a ship to to Guinea; that they
had all plantations as well as I, and were straitened for nothing so
much as servants; that as it was a trade could not be carried on,
because they could not publicly sell the Negroes when they came home, so
they desired to make but one voyage, to bring the Negroes on shore
privately, and divide them among their own plantations; and in a word,
the question was, whether I would go their supercargo in the ship, to
manage the trading part upon the coast of Guinea? and they offered me
that I should have my equal share of the Negroes, without providing any
part of the stock.

This was a fair proposal, it must be confessed, had it been made to any
one that had not had a settlement and plantation of his own to look
after, which was in a fair way of coming to be very considerable, and
with a good stock upon it. But for me, that was thus entered and
established, and had nothing to do but go on as I had begun, for three
or four years more, and to have sent for the other hundred pounds from
England, and who in that time, and with that little addition, could
scarce have failed of being worth three or four thousand pounds
sterling, and that increasing too; for me to think of such a voyage, was
the most preposterous thing that ever man in such circumstances could be
guilty of.

But I, that was born to be my own destroyer, could no more resist the
offer, than I could restrain my first rambling designs, when my father's
good counsel was lost upon me. In a word, I told them I would go with
all my heart, if they would undertake to look alter my plantation in my
absence, and would dispose of it to such as I should direct if I
miscarried. This they all engaged to do, and entered into writings or
covenants to do so; and I made a formal will, disposing of my plantation
and effects, in case of my death, making the captain of the ship that
had saved my life as before, my universal heir, but obliging him to
dispose of my effects as I had directed in my will, one half of the
produce being to himself, and the other to be shipped to England.

In short, I took all possible caution to preserve my effects, and keep
up my plantation: had I used half as much prudence to have looked into
my own intere