by Daniel Defoe
up at sea off the shore of Africa. He was now grown old,and had left off going to sea, having put his son, who was far from ayoung man, into his ship, and who still used the Brazil trade. The oldman did not know me; and, indeed, I hardly knew him: but I soon broughthim to my remembrance, and as soon brought myself to his remembrance,when I told him who I was.
After some passionate expressions of the old acquaintance between us, Iinquired, you may be sure, after my plantation and my partner. The oldman told me he had not been in the Brazils for about nine years; butthat he could assure me, that when he came away my partner was living;but the trustees, whom I had joined with him to take cognizance of mypart, were both dead: that, however, he believed I would have a verygood account of the improvement of the plantation; for that upon thegeneral belief of my being cast away and drowned, my trustees had givenin the account of the produce of my part of the plantation to theprocurator-fiscal, who had appropriated it, in case I never came toclaim it, one-third to the king, and two-thirds to the monastery of St.Augustine, to be expended for the benefit of the poor, and for theconversion of the Indians to the Catholic faith; but that if I appeared,or any one for me, to claim the inheritance, it would be restored; onlythat the improvement or annual production, being distributed tocharitable uses, could not be restored: but he assured me that thesteward of the king's revenue from lands, and the provedore, or stewardof the monastery, had taken great care all along that the incumbent,that is to say, my partner, gave every year a faithful account of theproduce, of which they had duly received my moiety. I asked him if heknew to what height of improvement he had brought the plantation, andwhether he thought it might be worth looking after; or whether, on mygoing thither, I should meet with any obstruction to my possessing myjust right in the moiety. He told me he could not tell exactly to whatdegree the plantation was improved; but this he knew, that my partnerwas grown exceeding rich upon the enjoying his part of it; and that, tothe best of his remembrance, he had heard that the king's third of mypart, which was, it seems, granted away to some other monastery orreligious house, amounted to above two hundred moidores a year: that asto my being restored to a quiet possession of it, there was no questionto be made of that, my partner being alive to witness my title, and myname being also enrolled in the register of the country; also he toldme, that the survivors of my two trustees were very fair honest people,and very wealthy; and he believed I would hot only have their assistancefor putting me in possession, but would find a very considerable sum ofmoney in their hands for my account, being the produce of the farm whiletheir fathers held the trust, and before it was given up, as above;which, as he remembered, was for about twelve years.
I showed myself a little concerned and uneasy at this account, andinquired of the old captain how it came to pass that the trustees shouldthus dispose of my effects, when he knew that I had made my will, andhad made him, the Portuguese captain, my universal heir, &c.
He told me that was true; but that as there was no proof of my beingdead, he could not act as executor, until some certain account shouldcome of my death; and, besides, he was not willing to intermeddle with athing so remote: that it was true he had registered my will, and put inhis claim; and could he have given any account of my being dead oralive, he would have acted by procuration, and taken possession of theingeino, (so they called the sugar-house) and have given his son, whowas now at the Brazils, orders to do it. "But," says the old man, "Ihave one piece of news to tell you, which perhaps may not be soacceptable to you as the rest; and that is, believing you were lost, andall the world believing so also, your partner and trustees did offer toaccount with me, in your name, for six or eight of the first years'profits, which I received. There being at that time great disbursementsfor increasing the works, building an ingeino, and buying slaves, it didnot amount to near so much as afterwards it produced: however," says theold man, "I shall give you a true account of what I have received inall, and how I have disposed of it."
After a few days' farther conference with this ancient friend, hebrought me an account of the first six years' income of my plantation,signed by my partner and the merchant-trustees, being always deliveredin goods, viz. tobacco in roll, and sugar in chests, besides rum,molasses, &c. which is the consequence of a sugar-work; and I found, bythis account, that every year the income considerably increased; but, asabove, the disbursements being large, the sum at first was small:however, the old man let me see that he was debtor to me four hundredand seventy moidores of gold, besides sixty chests of sugar, and fifteendouble rolls of tobacco, which were lost in his ship; he having beenshipwrecked coming home to Lisbon, about eleven years after my leavingthe place. The good man then began to complain of his misfortunes, andhow he had been obliged to make use of my money to recover his losses,and buy him a share in a new ship. "However, my old friend," says he,"you shall not want a supply in your necessity; and as soon as my sonreturns, you shall be fully satisfied." Upon this, he pulls out an oldpouch, and gives me one hundred and sixty Portugal moidores in gold; andgiving the writings of his title to the ship, which his son was gone tothe Brazils in, of which he was a quarter-part owner, and his sonanother, he puts them both into my hands for security of the rest.
I was too much moved with the honesty and kindness of the poor man to beable to bear this; and remembering what he had done for me, how he hadtaken me up at sea, and how generously he had used me on all occasions,and particularly how sincere a friend he was now to me, I could hardlyrefrain weeping at what he had said to me; therefore I asked him if hiscircumstances admitted him to spare so much money at that time, and ifit would not straiten him? He told me he could not say but it mightstraiten him a little; but, however, it was my money, and I might wantit more than he.
Every thing the good man said was full of affection, and I could hardlyrefrain from tears while he spoke; in short, I took one hundred of themoidores, and called for a pen and ink to give him a receipt for them:then I returned him the rest, and told him if ever I had possession ofthe plantation, I would return the other to him also, (as, indeed, Iafterwards did;) and that as to the bill of sale of his part in hisson's ship, I would not take it by any means; but that if I wanted themoney, I found he was honest enough to pay me; and if I did not, butcame to receive what he gave me reason to expect, I would never have apenny more from him.
When this was past, the old man asked me if he should put me into amethod to make my claim to my plantation? I told him I thought to goover to it myself. He said I might do so if I pleased; but that if I didnot, there were ways enough to secure my right, and immediately toappropriate the profits to my use: and as there were ships in the riverof Lisbon just ready to go away to Brazil, he made me enter my name in apublic register, with his affidavit, affirming, upon oath, that I wasalive, and that I was the same person who took up the land for theplanting the said plantation at first. This being regularly attested bya notary, and a procuration affixed, he directed me to send it, with aletter of his writing, to a merchant of his acquaintance at the place;and then proposed my staying with him till an account came ofthe return.
Never was any thing more honourable than the proceedings upon thisprocuration; for in less than seven months I received a large packetfrom the survivors of my trustees, the merchants, for whose account Iwent to sea, in which were the following particular letters andpapers enclosed.
First, There was the account-current of the produce of my farm orplantation, from the year when their fathers had balanced with my oldPortugal captain, being for six years; the balance appeared to be onethousand one hundred and seventy-four moidores in my favour.
Secondly, There was the account of four years more, while they kept theeffects in their hands, before the government claimed theadministration, as being the effects of a person not to be found, whichthey called civil death; and the balance of this, the value of theplantation increasing, amounted to nineteen thousand four hundred andforty-six crusadoes, being about three thousand two hundred andforty moidores.
Third
ly, There was the prior of Augustine's account, who had receivedthe profits for above fourteen years; but not being to account for whatwas disposed of by the hospital, very honestly declared he had eighthundred and seventy-two moidores not distributed, which he acknowledgedto my account: as to the king's part, that refunded nothing.
There was a letter of my partner's, congratulating me veryaffectionately upon my being alive, giving me an account how the estatewas improved, and what it produced a year; with a particular of thenumber of squares or acres that it contained, how planted, how manyslaves there were upon it, and making two and twenty crosses forblessings, told me he had said so many _Ave Marias_ to thank the blessedVirgin that I was alive; inviting me very passionately to come over andtake possession of my own; and, in the mean time, to give him orders towhom he should deliver my effects, if I did not come myself; concludingwith a