by Daniel Defoe
short succession ofmoments, in one and the same person. A man that we saw this minute dumb,and, as it were, stupid and confounded, should the next minute bedancing and hallooing like an antic; and the next moment a-tearing hishair, or pulling his clothes to pieces, and stamping them under his feetlike a madman; a few minutes after that, we should have him all intears, then sick, then swooning; and had not immediate help been had,would in a few moments more have been dead; and thus it was, not withone or two, or ten or twenty, but with the greatest part of them; and,if I remember right, our surgeon was obliged to let above thirty ofthem blood.
There were two priests among them, one an old man, and the other a youngman; and that which was strangest was, that the oldest man wasthe worst.
As soon as he set his foot on board our ship, and saw himself safe, hedropped down stone dead, to all appearance; not the least sign of lifecould be perceived in him; our surgeon immediately applied properremedies to recover him; and was the only man in the ship that believedhe was not dead: and at length he opened a vein in his arm, having firstchafed and rubbed the part, so as to warm it as much as possible: uponthis the blood, which only dropped at first, flowed something freely; inthree minutes after the man opened his eyes; and about a quarter of anhour after that he spoke, grew better, and, in a little time, quitewell; after the blood was stopped he walked about, told us he wasperfectly well, took a dram of cordial which the surgeon gave him, andwas, what we called, come to himself; about a quarter of an hour afterthis they came running into the cabin to the surgeon, who was bleeding aFrench woman that had fainted, and told him the priest was gone starkmad. It seems he had begun to revolve the change of his circumstances inhis mind, and this put him into an ecstasy of joy: his spirits whirledabout faster than the vessels could convey them; the blood grew hot andfeverish; and the man was as fit for Bedlam as any creature that everwas in it; the surgeon would not bleed him again in that condition, butgave him something to doze and put him to sleep, which, after some time,operated upon him, and he waked next morning perfectly composedand well.
The younger priest behaved himself with great command of his passion,and was really an example of a serious, well-governed mind; at his firstcoming on board the ship, he threw himself flat on his face,prostrating himself in thankfulness for his deliverance; in which Iunhappily and unseasonably disturbed him, really thinking he had been ina swoon: but he spoke calmly; thanked me; told me he was giving Godthanks for his deliverance; begged me to leave him a few moments, andthat next to his Maker he would give me thanks also.
I was heartily sorry that I disturbed him, and not only left him, butkept others from interrupting him also; he continued in that postureabout three minutes, or a little more, after I left him, then came tome, as he had said he would, and with a great deal of seriousness andaffection, but with tears in his eyes, thanked me that had, under God,given him and so many miserable creatures their lives: I told him, I hadno room to move him to thank God for it rather than me; for I had seenthat he had done that already: but I added, that it was nothing but whatreason and humanity dictated to all men, and that we had as much reasonas he to give thanks to God, who had blessed us so far as to make us theinstruments of his mercy to so many of his creatures.
After this the young priest applied himself to his country-folks;laboured to compose them; persuaded, entreated, argued, reasoned withthem, and did his utmost to keep them within the exercise of theirreason; and with some he had success, though others were, for a time,out of all government of themselves.
I cannot help committing this to writing, as perhaps it may be useful tothose into whose hands it may fall, in the guiding themselves in all theextravagances of their passions; for if an excess of joy can carry menout to such a length beyond the reach of their reason, what will not theextravagances of anger, rage, and a provoked mind, carry us to? And,indeed, here I saw reason for keeping an exceeding watch over ourpassions of every kind, as well those of joy and satisfaction, as thoseof sorrow and anger.
We were something disordered by these extravagances among our newguests for the first day; but when they had been retired, lodgingsprovided for them as well as our ship would allow, and they had sleptheartily, as most of them did, being fatigued and frightened, they werequite another sort of people the next day.
Nothing of good manners, or civil acknowledgments for the kindness shownthem, was wanting; the French, it is known, are naturally apt enough toexceed that way. The captain and one of the priests came to me the nextday; and, desiring to speak with me and my nephew, the commander, beganto consult with us what should be done with them; and first they toldus, that as we had saved their lives, so all they had was little enoughfor a return to us for the kindness received. The captain said, they hadsaved some money, and some things of value in their boats, catchedhastily out of the flames: and if we would accept it, they were orderedto make an offer of it all to us; they only desired to be set on shoresomewhere in our way, where, if possible, they might get a passageto France.
My nephew was for accepting their money at first word, and to considerwhat to do with them afterwards; but I overruled him in that part; for Iknew what it was to be set on shore in a strange country; and if thePortugal captain that took me up at sea had served me so, and took all Ihad for my deliverance, I must have starved, or have been as much aslave at the Brasils as I had been at Barbary, the being sold to aMahometan only excepted; and perhaps a Portuguese is not a much bettermaster than a Turk, if not, in some cases, a much worse.
I therefore told the French captain that we had taken them up in theirdistress, it was true; but that it was our duty to do so, as we werefellow-creatures, and as we would desire to be so delivered, if we werein the like or any other extremity; that we had done nothing for thembut what we believed they would have done for us if we had been in theircase and they in ours; but that we took them up to serve them, not toplunder them; and that it would be a most barbarous thing, to take thatlittle from them which they had saved out of the fire, and then set themon shore and leave them; that this would be first to save them fromdeath and then kill them ourselves; save them from drowning and thenabandon them to starving; and therefore I would not let the least thingbe taken from them: as to setting them on shore, I told them indeed thatwas an exceeding difficulty to us, for that the ship was bound to theEast Indies; and though we were driven out of our course to the westwarda very great way, which perhaps was directed by Heaven on purpose fortheir deliverance, yet it was impossible for us wilfully to change ourvoyage on this particular account; nor could my nephew, the captain,answer it to the freighters, with whom he was under charter-party topursue his voyage by the way of Brasil; and all I knew he could do forthem was, to put ourselves in the way of meeting with other shipshomeward-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 notbut be very thankful for it; but they were in a great consternation,especially the passengers, at the notion of being carried away to theEast Indies: they then entreated me, that seeing I was driven so far tothe westward before I met with them, I would at least keep on the samecourse to the banks of Newfoundland, where it was possible I might meetsome 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 thereforeI inclined to agree to it; for indeed I considered, that to carry thiswhole company to the East Indies would not only be an intolerableseverity to the poor people, but would be ruining our voyage bydevouring all our provisions; so I thought it no breach ofcharter-party, but what an unforeseen accident made absolutely necessaryto us; and in which no one could say we were to blame; for the laws ofGod and nature would have forbid, that we should refuse to take up twoboats full of people in such a distressed condition; and the nature ofthe thing, as well respecting ourselves as the poor people, obliged usto see them on shore somewhere or other, for their deliverance; so Iconsented that we woul
d carry them to Newfoundland, if wind and weatherwould permit; and, if not, that I would carry them to Martinico in theWest Indies.
The wind continued fresh easterly, but the weather pretty good; and asit had blowed continually in the points between N.E. and S.E. a longtime, we missed several opportunities of sending them to France; for wemet several ships bound to Europe, whereof two were French, from St.Christopher's; but they had been so long beating up against the wind,that they durst take in no passengers for fear of wanting provisions forthe voyage, as well for themselves as for those they should take in; sowe were obliged to go on. It was about a week after this, that we madethe banks of Newfoundland, where, to shorten my story, we put all ourFrench people on board a bark, which they hired at sea there, to putthem on shore, and afterwards to carry them to France, if they could getprovisions to victual themselves with: when, I say, all the French wenton shore, I should remember that the young priest I spoke of, hearing wewere bound