and he under bonds and security not to return to England any more, as long as he lived,
he was very much dejected and cast down; the mortification of being brought on board,
as he was, like a prisoner, piqued him very much, since it was first told him he should
transport himself, and so that he might go as a gentleman at liberty. It is true he was not
ordered to be sold when he came there, as we were, and for that reason he was obliged
to pay for his passage to the captain, which we were not; as to the rest, he was as much
at a loss as a child what to do with himself, or with what he had, but by directions.
Our first business was to compare our stock. He was very honest to me, and told me his
stock was pretty good when he came into the prison, but the living there as he did in a
figure like a gentleman, and, which was ten times as much, the making of friends, and
soliciting his case, had been very expensive; and, in a word, all his stock that he had left
was #108, which he had about him all in gold.
I gave him an account of my stock as faithfully, that is to say, of what I had taken to
carry with me, for I was resolved, whatever should happen, to keep what I had left with
my governess in reserve; that in case I should die, what I had with me was enough to
give him, and that which was left in my governess's hands would be her own, which she
had well deserved of me indeed.
My stock which I had with me was #246 some odd shillings; so that we had #354
between us, but a worse gotten estate was scarce ever put together to being the world
with.
Our greatest misfortune as to our stock was that it was all in money, which every one
knows is an unprofitable cargo to be carried to the plantations. I believe his was really
all he had left in the world, as he told me it was; but I, who had between #700 and #800
in bank when this disaster befell me, and who had one of the faithfullest friends in the
world to manage it for me, considering she was a woman of manner of religious
principles, had still #300 left in her hand, which I reserved as above; besides, some very
valuable things, as particularly two gold watches, some small pieces of plate, and some
rings--all stolen goods. The plate, rings, and watches were put in my chest with the
money, and with this fortune, and in the sixty-first year of my age, I launched out into a
new world, as I may call it, in the condition (as to what appeared) only of a poor, naked
convict, ordered to be transported in respite from the gallows. My clothes were poor and
mean, but not ragged or dirty, and none knew in the whole ship that I had anything of
value about me.
However, as I had a great many very good clothes and linen in abundance, which I had
ordered to be packed up in two great boxes, I had them shipped on board, not as my
goods, but as consigned to my real name in Virginia; and had the bills of loading signed
by a captain in my pocket; and in these boxes was my plate and watches, and
everything of value except my money, which I kept by itself in a private drawer in my
chest, which could not be found, or opened, if found, with splitting the chest to pieces.
