ook some land to farm.
My stock, like his, was low, but we made our farms serve to keep us in
food, though not more than that. We both stood in need of help, and I
saw now that I had done wrong to part with my boy.

I did not at all like this kind of life. What! thought I, have I come
all this way to do that which I could have done as well at home with
my friends round me! And to add to my grief, the kind friend, who had
brought me here in his ship, now meant to leave these shores.

On my first start to sea when a boy, I had put a small sum in the hands
of an aunt, and this my friend said I should do well to spend on my
farm. So when he got home he sent some of it in cash, and laid out the
rest in cloth, stuffs, baize, and such like goods. My aunt had put a few
pounds in my friend's hands as a gift to him, to show her thanks for all
that he had done for me, and with this sum he was so kind as to buy me a
slave. In the mean time I had bought a slave, so now I had two, and all
went on well for the next year.

But soon my plans grew too large for my means. One day some men came to
ask me to take charge of a slave ship to be sent out by them. They said
they would give me a share in the slaves, and pay the cost of the stock.
This would have been a good thing for me if I had not had farms and
land; but it was wild and rash to think of it now, for I had made a
large sum, and ought to have gone on in the same way for three or four
years more. Well, I told these men that I would go with all my heart, if
they would look to my farm in the mean time, which they said they would
do.

So I made my will, and went on board this ship on the same day on which,
eight years since, I had left Hull. She had six guns, twelve men, and a
boy. We took with us saws, chains, toys, beads, bits of glass, and such
like ware, to suit the taste of those with whom we had to trade.

We were not more than twelve days from the Line, when a high wind took
us off we knew not where. All at once there was a cry of "Land!" and the
ship struck on a bank of sand, in which she sank so deep that we could
not get her off. At last we found that we must make up our minds to
leave her, and get to shore as well as we could. There had been a boat
at her stern, but we found it had been torn off by the force of the
waves. One small boat was still left on the ship's side, so we got in
it.

There we were all of us on the wild sea. The heart of each now grew
faint, our