03 - Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon by Henry Fielding

Embark on a memorable sailing voyage from England to Portugal in the mid-eighteenth century, as narrated by one of the eras leading humorists, satirists, novelists, and playwrights. This poignant work, recorded during the final chapter of his life, interweaves the authors declining health with the captivating details of his journey.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Part two of a journal of a voyage to Lisbon
by Henry Fielding. Part two the voyage, Wednesday, June twenty sixth,
seventeen fifty four. On this day, the most melancholy son
I had ever beheld, arose and found me awake at

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my house at Ford Hook by the light of the sun.
I was, in my own opinion, last to behold and
take leave of some of those creatures on whom I
doated with a motherlike fondness, guided by nature and passion,
and uncured and unhardened by all the doctrine of that

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philosophical school where I had learned to bear pains and
to despise death. In this situation, as I could not
conquer nature, I submitted entirely to her. And she made
as great a fool of me as she had ever
done of any woman whatsoever. Under pretense of giving me

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leave to enjoy, she drew me in to suffer the
company of my little ones during eight hours, and I
doubt not whether in that time I did not undergo
more than in all my distemper At twelve, precisely, my
coach was at the door, which was no sooner told
me than I kissed my children round and went into

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it with some little resolution. My wife, who behaved more
like a heroine and philosopher, though at the same time
the tenderest mother in the world, and my eldest daughter
followed me. Some friends went with us, and others here
took their leave, and I heard my behavior applauded with

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many murmurs and praises, to which I well knew I
had no title, as all other such philosophers may, if
they have any modesty, confess on the like occasions. In
two hours we arrived in Rotherhithe and immediately went on board,
and were to have sailed the next morning, But as

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this was the King's proclamation day and consequently a holiday
at the custom house, the captain could not clear his
vessel till the Thursday. For these holidays are as strictly
observed as those in the Popish calendar, and are almost
as numerous. I might add that both are opposite to

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the genius of trade, and consequently contra bonumbublicum. To go
on board the ship, it was necessary first to go
into a boat, a matter of no small difficulty, as
I had no use of my limbs and was to
be carried by men, who, though sufficiently strong for their burden,

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were like Archimedes, puzzled to find a steady footing of this.
As few of my readers have not gone into on
the Thames, they will easily be able to form to
themselves an idea. However, by the assistance of my friend
mister Welsh, whom I never think or speak of, but

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with love and esteem, I conquered this difficulty, as I
did afterwards that of ascending the ship, into which I
was hoisted with more ease by a chair lifted with pulleys.
I was soon seated in a great chair in the
cabin to refresh myself, after a fatigue which had been
more intolerable in a quarter of a mile's passage from

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my coach to the ship than I had before undergone
in a land journey of twelve miles, which I had
traveled with the utmost expedition. This latter fatigue was perhaps
somewhat heightened by an indignation which I could not prevent
rising in my mind. I think upon my entrance into

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the boat, I presented a spectacle of the highest horror.
The total loss of limbs was apparent to all who
saw me, and my face contained marks of a most
diseased state, if not of death itself. Indeed, so ghastly
was my countenance that timorous women with child had abstained

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from my house for fear of the ill consequences of
looking at me In this condition, I ran the gaunt lope,
so I think I may justly call it, through rows
of sailors and water men, few of whom failed of
paying their compliments to me, by all manner of insults
and jests on my misery. No man who knew me

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will think I conceived any personal resentment at this behavior.
But it was a lively picture of that cruelty and
inhumanity in the nature of men, which I have often
contemplated with concern, and which leads the mind to a
train of very unc comfortable and melancholy thoughts. It may

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be said that this barbarous custom is peculiar to the English,
and of them only to the lowest degree. That it
is and excretions of uncontrolled licentiousness mistaken for liberty, and
never shows itself in men who are polished and refined
in such manner as human nature requires to produce that

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perfection of which it is susceptible and to purge away
that malevolence of disposition of which at our birth we
partake in common with the savage creation. This may be said,
and this is all that can be said. And it
is I am afraid but little satisfactory to account for

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the inhumanity of those who, while they boast of being
made after God's own image, seem to bear in their
minds a resemblance of the vilest species of brutes, or rather,
indeed our idea of devils. For I don't know that
any brutes can be taxed with such malevolence. A surloin

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of beef was now placed on the table, for which,
though little better than carrion, as much was charged by
the master of the little paltry alehouse, who dressed it
as would have been demanded for all the elegance of
the King's Arms or any other polite tavern or eating house.

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For indeed, the difference between the best house and the
worst is that at the former you pay largely for luxury,
at the latter for nothing. Thursday, June twenty seven, this morning,
the captain who lay on shore at his house, paid
us a visit in the cabin and behaved like an

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angry Baushaw, declaring that had he known we were not pleased,
he would not have carried us for five hundred pounds.
He added many asseverations that he was a gentleman and
despised money, not forgetting several hints of the presents which
had been made him for his cabin of twenty thirty

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and forty guineas by several gentlemen, over and above the
sum for which they had contracted. This behavior greatly surprised me,
as I knew not how to account for it, nothing
having happened since we parted from the captain the evening
before in perfect good humor, and all this broke forth

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on the first moment of his arrival this morning. He
did not, however, suffer my amazement to have any long
continuance before he clearly showed me that all this was
meant only as an apology to introduce another procrastination, being
the fifth of his weighing anchor, which was now postponed

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till Saturday, for such was his will and pleasure, besides
the disagree situation in which we then lay in the
confines of Wapping and rother hythe tasting a delicious mixture
of the air of both these sweet places, and enjoying
the concord of sweet sounds of seamen, watermen, fish women,

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oyster women, and of all the vociferous inhabitants of both shores,
composing altogether a greater variety of harmony than Hogarth's imagination
hath brought together in that print of his, which is
enough to make a man deaf to look at. I
had a more urgent cause to press our departure, which

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was that the dropsy for which I had undergone three tappings,
seemed to threaten me with a fourth discharge before I
should reach Lisbon, and when I should have nobody on
board capable of performing the operation. But I was obliged
to hearken the voice of reason, if I may use

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the Captain's own words, and to rest myself contented. Indeed,
there was no alternative within my reach, But what would
have cost me much to dear? There are many evils
in society from which people of the highest rank are
so entirely exempt that they have not the least knowledge

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or idea of them, nor indeed of the characters which
are formed by them. Such, for instance, is the conveyance
of goods and passengers from one place to another. Now
there is no such thing as any kind of knowledge
contemptible in itself, and as the particular knowledge I here

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mean is entirely necessary to the well understanding and well
enjoying this journal. And lastly, as in this case the
most ignorant will be those very readers whose amusement we
chiefly consult, and to whom we wish to supposed principally
to write, we will here enter somewhat largely into the

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discussion of this matter. The rather for that no ancient
or modern author, if we can trust the catalog of
Doctor Meade's library, hath ever undertaken it, but that it seems,
in the style of Don Quixote, a task reserved for
my pen alone. When I first conceived this intention, I

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began to entertain thoughts of inquiring into the antiquity of traveling.
And as many persons have performed in this way I mean,
have traveled at the expense of the public, I flattered
myself that the spirit of improving arts and sciences, and
of advancing youthful and substantial learning, which so eminently distinguishes

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this age, and hath given rise to more speculative societies
in Europe than I at present can recollect the names of.
Perhaps indeed, than I or any other besides their very
near neighbors, ever heard mentioned, would assist in promoting so
curious a work, a work begun with the same views,

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calculated for the same purposes, and fitted for the same uses,
with the labors which those right honorable societies have so
cheerfully undertaken themselves, and encouraged in others, sometimes with the
highest honors, even with admission into their colleges, and with
enrollment among them members from these societies, I promised myself

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all assistance in their power, particularly the communication of such
valuable manuscripts and records as they must be supposed to
have collected from those obscure ages of antiquity, when history
yields us such imperfect accounts of the residence, and much
more imperfect of the trubbles of the human race, unless,

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perhaps as a curious and learned member of the young
Society of Antiquarians, is said to have hinted his conjectures
that their residence and their travels were one and the same,
and this discovery, for such it seems to be, he
is said to have owed to the lighting by accident

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on a book which we shall have occasion to mention presently,
the contents of which were then little known to the society.
The King of Prussia, moreover, who from a degree of
benevolence and taste, which in either case is a rare
production in so northern a climate, is the great encourager

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of art and science. I was well assured would promote
so useful a design, and order his archives to be
searched on my behalf. But after well weighing all these
advantages and much meditation on the order of my work,
my whole design was subverted in a moment by hearing

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of the discovery just mentioned to have been made by
the young antiquarian, who from the most ancient record in
the world. But I don't find the society or all
agreed on this point. One long preceding date of the
earliest modern recollections, either of books or butterflies, none of

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which pretend to go beyond the flood, shows us that
the first man was a traveler, and that he and
his family were scarce settled in paradise before they disliked
their own home and became passengers to another place. Hence
it appears that the humor of traveling is as old
as the human race, and that it was their curse

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from the beginning. By this discovery, my plan became much shortened,
and I found it only necessary to treat of the
conveyance of goods and passions from place to place, which,
not being universally known, seemed proper to be explained before
we examined into its original. There are indeed two different

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ways of tracing all things, used by the historian and
the antiquary. These are upwards and downwards. The former shows
you how things are, and leaves to others to discover
when they began to be so. The latter shows how
things were, and leaves their present existence to be examined

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by others. Hence, the former is more useful and the
latter more curious. The former receives the thanks of mankind,
the latter of that valuable part the virtuosi. In explaining, therefore,
this mystery of carrying goods and passengers from one place
to another, hitherto so profound a secret to the very

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best of our readers. We shall pursue the historical method,
and endeavor to show by what means it is at
present performed referring the more curious inquiry, either to some
other pen or to some other opportunity. Now there are
two general ways of performing, if God permit this conveyance,

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namely by land and water, both of which have much variety.
That by land being performed in different vehicles such as coaches, caravans, wagons,
et cetera, and that by water in ships, barges, and
boats of various sizes and denominations. But as all these

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methods of conveyance are formed on the same principles, they
agree so well together that it is fully sufficient to
comprehend them all in the general view, without descending to
such minute particulars as would distinguish one method from another.
Common to all of these is one general principle that,

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as the goods to be conveyed are usually the larger,
so they are to be chiefly considered in the conveyance.
The owner being indeed little more than an appendage to
his trunk or box or bail, or at best a
small part of his own baggage, very little care is
to be taken in stowing or packing them up with

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convenience to himself, For the conveyance is not of passengers
and goods, but of goods and passengers. Secondly, from this
conveyance arises a new kind of relation, or rather of subjection,
in the society, by which the passenger becomes bound in
allegiance to his conveyor. This allegiance is indeed only temporary

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and local, but the most absolute during its continuance of
any known in Great Britain, and to say truth scarce
consistent with the liberties of a free people, nor could
it be reconciled with them, did it not move downwards
The circumstance universally apprehended to be incompatible to all kinds

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of slavery. For Aristotle, in his politics, Hath proved abundantly,
to my satisfaction, that no men are born to be
slaves except barbarians, and these only to such as are
not themselves barbarians. And indeed, mister Montesquieu Hath carried it

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very little farther in the case of the Africans, the
real truth being that no man is born to be
a slave, unless to him who is able to make
him so. Thirdly, this subjection is absolute and consists of
a perfect resignation, both of body and soul to the

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disposal of another, after which resignation during a certain time
his subject retains no more power over his own will
than an Asiatic slave or an English wife, by the
laws of both countries, and by the customs of one
of them. If I should mention the instance of a

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stage coachman, many of my readers would recognize the truth
of what I have here observed all indeed, that have
ever been under the dominion of that tyrant, who in
this free country is as absolute as a Turkish bashaw
into particulars, only his power is defective. He cannot press

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you into his service. And if you enter yourself at
one place on condition of being discharged at a certain
time at another, he is obliged to perform his agreement,
if God permit. But all the intermediate time you are
absolutely under his government. He carries you how he will,

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when he will, and whither he will, provided it be
not too much out of the road. You have nothing
to eat or to drink, but what and when and
where he pleases. Nay, you cannot sleep unless he pleases
you should, for he will order you sometimes out of
bed at midnight and hurry you away at a moment's warning. Indeed,

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if you can sleep in his vehicle, he cannot prevent it. Nay, indeed,
to give him his due. This he is ordinarily disposed
to encourage. For the earlier he forces you to rise
in the morning, the more time he will give you
in the heat of the day, sometimes even six hours
at an ale house or at their doors, where he

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always gives you the same indulgence which he allows himself.
And for this he is generally very moderate in his demands.
I have known a whole bundle of passengers charge no
more than half a crown for being suffered to remain
quiet at an ale house door for above a whole hour,

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and that even in the hottest day in summer. But
as this kind of tyranny, though it hath escaped our
political writers, hath been I think touched by our dramatic
and is more trite among the generality of readers. And
as this and all other kinds of such subjection are

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alike unknown to my friends, I will quit the passengers
by land and treat of those who travel by water,
For whatever is said on this subject is applicable to
both alike, and we may bring them together as closely
as they are brought in the liturgy, when they are
recommended to the prayers of all Christian congregations, and which

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I have often thought very remarkable, where they are adjoined
with other miserable wretches, such as women in labor, people
in sickness, infants, just born, prisoners and captives. Goods and
passengers are conveyed by water in diverse vehicles, the principle

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of which being a ship. It shall suffice to mention
that alone here the tyrant doth not derive his title
as the stage coachman, doth from the vehicle itself in
which he stows his goods and passengers. But he is
called the captain, a word of such various use and
uncertain signification, that it seems very difficult to fix any

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positive idea to it. If indeed there be any general
meeting which may comprehend all its different uses, that of
the head or chief of any body of men seems
to be most capable of this comprehension. For whether they
be a company of soldiers, a crew of sailors, or
a gang of rogues, he who is at the head

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of them is always styled the captain. The particular tyrant
whose fortune it was to stow us aboard laid a
farther claim to this appellation than the bare command of
a vehicle of conveyance. He had been the captain of
a privateer, which he chose to call being in the
King's service, and thence derived right of hoisting the military

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ornament of a cockade over the button of his hat.
He likewise wore a sword of no ordinary length by
his side, with which he swaggered in his cabin among
the wretches of his passengers, whom he had stored in
cupboards on each side. He was a person of a
very singular character. He had taken it into his head

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that he was a gentleman for those very reasons that
proved he was not one, and to show himself a
fine gentleman by a behavior which seemed to insinue he
had never seen one. He was moreover a man of gallantry.
At the age of seventy. He had the the finicalness

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of Sir courtly nice with the roughness of Surley, And
while he was deaf himself, had a voice capable of
deafening all others. Now, as I saw myself in danger
by the delays of the captain who was in reality,
waiting for more freight, and as the wind had been
long nested, as it were in the Southwest, where it

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constantly blew hurricanes, I began with great reason to apprehend
that our voyage might be long, and that my belly,
which began already to be much extended, would require the
water to be let out at a time when no
assistance was at hand. Though indeed the captain comforted me

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with assurances that he had a pretty young fellow on
board who acted as his surgeon. As I found he
likewise did as steward, cook, butler, sailor. In short, he
had as many offices as scrub in the play, and
went through them all with great dexterity. This of surgeon

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was perhaps the only one in which his skill was
somewhat deficient, at least that branch of tapping for the dropsy,
for he very ingenuously and modestly confessed he had never
seen the operation performed, nor was possessed of that cheerurgical
instrument with which it is performed. Friday, June twenty eighth,

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by way of prevention, therefore, I this day sent for
my friend mister Hunter, the great surgeon and anatomist of
Covent garden, and though my belly was not yet very
full and tight, let out ten quarts of water. The
young sea surgeon attended the operation not as a performer,

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but as a student. I was now eased of the
greatest apprehension which I had from the length of the passage,
and I told the captain I was become indifferent as
to the time of his sailing. He expressed much satisfaction
in this declaration, and at hearing from me that I

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found myself, since my tapping, much lighter and better. In
this I believe he was sincere, for he was, as
we shall have occasion to observe more than once, a
very good natured man, and as he was a very
brave one too. I found that the heroic constancy with
which I had borne an operation that is attended with

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scarce any degree of pain, had not a little raised
me in his esteem, that he might adhere, therefore, in
the most religious and rigorous manner to his word, When
he had no longer any temptation from interest to break it,
as he had no longer any hopes of more goods
or passengers, he ordered his ship to fall down to

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gravesend on Sunday morning, and there to wait his arrival Sunday,
June thirtieth. Nothing worth notice passed till that morning, when
my poor wife, after passing a night in the utmost
torments of the toothache, resolved to have it drawn. I
despatched therefore a servant into Wapping to bring in haste

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the best tooth draw he could find. He soon found
out a female of great eminence in the art. But
when he brought her to the boat at the water side,
they were informed that the ship was gone, for indeed
she had set out a few minutes after his quitting her.
Nor did the pilot, who well knew the errand on

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which I had sent my servant, think fit to wait
a moment for his return, or to give me any
notice of his setting out, though I had very patiently
attended to the delays of the captain four days after
many solemn promises of weighing anchor every one of the
three last. But of all the petty bashaws or turbulent

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tyrants I ever beheld, this sour faced pilot was the
worst tempered, for during the time that he had the
guidance of the ship, which was till we arrived in
the downs, he complied with no one's desires, nor did
he give a civil word, or indeed a civil look,
to any on board. The tooth draw, who, as I

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said before, was one of great eminence among her neighbors,
refused to follow the ship, so that my man made
himself the best of his way, and with some difficulty,
came up with us before we were got under full sail.
For after that, as we both had win and tied
with us, he would have found it impossible to overtake

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the ship till she was come to an anchor at
graves End. The morning was fair and bright, and we
had a passage thither I think as pleasant as can
be conceived. For take it, with all its advantages, particularly
the number of fine ships you are always sure of
seeing by the way. There is nothing to equal it

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in all the rivers of the world. The yards of
Deptford and of Woolrich are noble sights, and give us
a just idea of the great perfection to which we
are arrived in building those floating castles, and the figure
which we may always make in Europe Among the other
maritime powers, that of Woolrich at least very strongly imprinted

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this idea on my mind, for there was now on
the stocks there the Royal Anne, supposed to be the
largest ship ever built, and which contains ten carriage guns,
more than had ever yet equipped a first rate. It
is true, perhaps that there is more of ostentation than

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of a real utility in ships of this vast and
unwieldly burden, which are rarely capable of acting against an enemy.
But if the building such contributes to preserve, among other nations,
the notion of the British superiority in naval affairs, the expense,
though very great, is well incurred, and the ostentation is

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laudable and truly political. Indeed, I should be sorry to
allow that Holland, France or Spain possessed a vessel larger
and more beautiful than the largest and most beautiful of ours.
For this honor I would always administer to the pride
of our sailors, who should challenge it from all their

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neighbors with truth and success. And sure I am that
not our honest tars alone, but every inhabitant of this
island may exalt in the comparison which he considers. The
King of Great Britain as a maritime prince in opposition
to any other prince in Europe. But I am not

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so certain that the same idea of superiority will result
from comparing our land of forces with those of many
other crowned heads. In numbers, they all far exceed us,
and in the goodness and splendor of their troops. Many nations,
particularly the German and French, and perhaps the Dutch cast

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us at a distance. For however, we may flatter ourselves
with the edwards and henries of former ages. The change
of the whole art of war since those days, by
which the advantage of personal strength is in a manner
entirely lost, hath produced to change any military affairs to

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the advantage of our enemies. As for our successes in
later days, if they were not entirely owing to the
superior genius of our general, they were not a little
due to the superior force of his money. Indeed, if
we should arraign martial sacs of ostentation when he showed
his army drawn up to our captive general the day

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after the Battle of Laval, we cannot say that the
ostentation was entirely vain, Since he certainly showed him an
army which had not been often equalled either in the
number or goodness of the troops, and which in those
respects so far exceeded ours that none can ever cast
any reflection on the brave young prince who could not

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reap the laurels of conquest in that day, But his
retreat will always be mentioned as in addition to his
glory in our marine. The case is entirely the reverse,
and it must be our own fault if it doth
not continue so for continue so it will, as long

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as the flourishing state of our trade shall support it,
And this support it can never want till our legislature
shall cease to give sufficient attention to the protection of
our trade, and our magistrates want sufficient power, ability and
honesty to execute the laws, a circumstance not to be apprehended,

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as it cannot happen until our senates and our benches
shall be filled with the blindest ignorance or with the
blackest corruption. Besides the ships in the docks, we saw
many on the water. The yachts are sights of great parade,
and the King's body yacht is I believe unequal in
any country for convenience as well as magnificence, both which

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are consulted in building and equipping her with the most
exquisite art and workmanship. We saw likewise several Indiamen just
returned from their voyage. These are, I believe, the largest
and finest vessels which are anywhere employed in commercial travel.
The colliers, likewise, which are very numerous and even assemble

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in fleets, are ships of great bulk. And if we
descend to those used in the American, African and European trades,
and pass through those which visit our own coasts, to
the small craft that lie between Chatham and the Tower,
the whole forms a most pleasing object to the eye,

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as well as highly warming to the heart of an
Englishman who has any degree of love for his country,
or can recognize any effect of the patriot in his constitution. Lastly,
the Royal Hospital at Greenwich, which presents so delightful a
front to the water, and doth such honor as once

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to its builders and the nation, to the great skill
and ingenuity of the one, and to the no less
sensible gratitude of the other, very properly closes the account
of this scene, which may well appear romantic to those
who have not themselves seen that in this one instance,
truth and reality are capable perhaps of exceeding the power

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of fiction. When we had passed by Greenwich we saw
only two or three gentlemen's houses, all a very moderate account,
till we reached graves End. These are all on the
Kentish shore, which affords a much drier, wholesomer and pleasanter
situation than doth that of its opposite Essex. This circumstance,

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I own is somewhat surprising to me when I reflect
on the numerous villas that crowd the river from Chelsea
upwards as far as Sheperton, where the narrower channel affords
not half so noble a prospect, and where the continual
succession of the small craft, like the frequent repetition of

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all things which have nothing in them great beautiful or admirable,
tire the eye and give us distaste and aversion instead
of pleasure. With some of these situations, such as Barnes
mort Lake, et cetera, even the shore of Essex might
contend not upon very unequal terms. But on the Kentish

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borders there are many spots to be chosen by the
builder which might justly claim the preference over almost the
very finest of those in Middlesex and Surrey. How shall
we account for this depravity and taste, For surely there
are none so very mean and and contemptible as to

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bring the pleasure of seeing a number of little wearies
gliding along after one another in competition with what we
enjoy in viewing a succession of ships with all their
sails expanded to the winds, bounding over the waves before us.
In here I cannot pass by another observation on the

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deplorable want of taste in our enjoyments, which we show
by almost totally neglecting the pursuit of what seems to
me the highest degree of amusement. This is the sailing
ourselves in little vessels of our own, contrived only for
our ease and accommodation, to which such situations of our villas,

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as I have recommended, would be so convenient and even necessary.
This amusement, I confess, if enjoyed in any perfection, would
be of the expensive kind. But such expense would not
exceed the reach of a moderate fortune, and would fall
very short of the prices which are daily paid for

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pleasures of a farm in inferior rate. The truth I
believe is that sailing in the manner I have just
mentioned is a pleasure rather unknown or unthought of, than
rejected by those who have experienced it, unless perhaps the
apprehension of danger or sea sickness may be supposed by

(37:20):
the timorous and delicate to make two large deductions, insisting
that all their enjoyments shall come to them pure and unmixed,
and being ever ready to cry out not chet empta
dolore uluptas. This, however, was my present case. For the

(37:42):
ease and lightness which I felt from my tapping, the
gaiety of the morning, the pleasant sailing with wind and tide,
and the many agreeable objects with which I was constantly
entertained during the whole way, were all suppressed and overcome
by the single consideration of my wife's pain, which continued

(38:05):
incessantly to torment her till we came to an anchor,
when I despatched a messenger in great haste for the
best reputed operator. In Grave's end. A surgeon of some
eminence now appeared, who did not decline tooth drawing, though
he certainly would have been offended with the appellation of

(38:26):
tooth draw no less than his brethren. The members of
that venerable body would be with that of barber, since
the late separation between those long united companies, by which
if the surgeons have gained much, the barbers are supposed
to have lost very little. This able and careful person,

(38:49):
for so I sincerely believed he is, after examining the
guilty tooth, declared that it was such a rotten shell,
and so placed at the very remotest ends of the
upper jaw, where it was in a manner covered and
secured by a large, fine, firm tooth, that he despaired

(39:09):
of his power of drawing it. He said, indeed more
to my wife, and used more rhetoric to dissuade her
from having it drawn than is generally employed to persuade
young ladies to prefer a pain of three moments to
one of three months continuance, especially if those young ladies

(39:30):
happen to be passed forty and fifty years of age,
When by submitting to support a racking torment, the only
good circumstance attending, which is it is so short that
scarce one in a thousand can cry out, I feel it.
They are to do a violence to their charms, and
to lose one of those beautiful holders with which alone

(39:55):
so courtly niece declares a lady can ever lay hold
of his art. He said at last so much, and
seemed to reason so justly, that I came over to
his side and assisted him in prevailing on my wife,
For it was no easy matter to resolve on keeping

(40:16):
her tooth a little longer, and to apply palliatives only
for relief. These were opium applied to the tooth, and
blisters behind the ears. While we were at dinner this
day in the cabin, on a sudden the window on
one side was beat into the room with a crash,

(40:38):
as if a twenty pounder had been discharged among us.
We were all alarmed at the suddenness of the accident,
for which, however, we were soon able to account for.
The sash, which was shivered all to pieces, was pursued
into the middle of the cabin by the bow spirit
of a little ship called a cod Smell, the master

(41:01):
of which made us amends, forerunning carelessly at best against us,
and injuring the ship in the sea way, that is
to say, by damning us all to hell, and uttering
several pious wishes that it had done us much more mischief,
all which were answered in their own kind, and a

(41:22):
phrase by our men between whom and the other crew,
a dialog of oaths and a scurrility was carried on
as long as they continued in each other's hearing. It
is difficult, I think, to assign a satisfactory reason why
sailors in general should, of all others think themselves entirely

(41:44):
discharged from the common bands of humanity, and should seem
to glory in the language and behavior of savages. They
see more of the world, and have most of them
a more erudite education than is the portion of the
landmen of their degree. Nor do I believe that in
any country they visit, Holland itself not accepted, they can

(42:08):
ever find a paralleled to what daily passes on the
River Thames. Is it that they think true courage? For
they are the bravest fellows upon earth, inconsistent with all
the gentleness of a humane carriage, And that the attempt
of civil order springs up in mines, but a little
cultivated at the same time, and from the same principles,

(42:33):
with the contempt of danger and death. Is it in short,
it is so, and how it comes to be so?
I leave to form a question in the robin Hood Society,
or to be propounded for solution among the enigmas in
the Woman's Almanac for the next year. Monday, July first,

(42:58):
this day, mister Welsh took his leave of me after dinner,
as did a young lady of his sister, who was
proceeding with my wife to Lisbon. They both set out
together in a post chaise for London. Soon after their departure,
our cabin, where my wife and I were sitting together,

(43:18):
was visited by two ruffians whose appearance greatly corresponded with
that of the sheriff's, or rather the night Marshal's bailiffs.
One of these, especially, who seemed to effect a more
than ordinary degree of rudeness and insolence, came in without
any kind of ceremony, with a broad gold lace on

(43:41):
his hat, which was cocked with much military fierceness on
his head, a namecorn at his button hole, and some
papers in his hand sufficiently assured me what he was,
and I asked him if he and his companion were
not custom house officers. He answered with sufficient dignity that

(44:03):
they were as an information which he seemed to conclude
would strike the hearer with awe and suppress all further inquiry.
But on the contrary, I proceeded to ask of what
rank he was in the custom house, and, receiving an
answer from his companion, as I remember that the gentleman

(44:24):
was a riding surveyor, I replied that he might be
a riding surveyor, but could be no gentleman, for that
none who had any title to that denomination would break
into the presence of a lady without an apology or
even moving his hat. He then took his covering from
his head and laid it on the table, saying he

(44:46):
asked pardon and blamed the mate. Who should, he said,
have informed him if any persons of distinction were below?
I told him he might guess by our appearance, which
perhaps was rather more than could be said with the
strictest adherence to truth, that he was before a gentleman
and lady, which should teach him to be very civil

(45:10):
in his behavior, though we should not happen to be
of that number whom the world calls people of fashion
and distinction. However, I said that as he seemed sensible
of his error, and had asked pardon. The lady would
permit him to put his hat on again if he
chose it. This he refused with some degree of surliness,

(45:32):
and failed not to convince me that if I should
condescend to become more gentle, he should soon grow more rude.
I now renewed a reflection which I have often seen
occasion to make, that there is nothing so incongruous in
nature as any kind of power with lowness of mind

(45:54):
and of ability, and that there is nothing more deplorable
than the want of truth. The whimsical notion of Plato,
who tells us that Saturn, well knowing the state of
human affairs, gave us kings and rulers not of human
but divine origin. For as we make not shepherds of sheep,

(46:16):
nor ox herds of oxen, nor goatherds of goats, but
place some of our own kind over all, as being
better and fitter to govern them, in the same manner
were demons, by the divine love set over us, as
a race of beings of superior order to men, and who,
with great ease to themselves, might regulate our affairs and

(46:41):
establish peace, modesty, freedom, and justice, and totally destroying all
sedition might complete the happiness of the human race. So
far at least may even now be said with truth
that in all states which are under the government of
mere man, without any divine assistance, there is nothing but

(47:03):
labor and misery to be found. From what I have said, therefore,
we may at least learn, with our utmost endeavors to
imitate the Saturnian institution, borrowing all assistance from our immortal
part which we pay to this the strictest obedience, we
should form both our private economy and public policy from

(47:28):
its dictates. By this dispensation of our immortal minds, we
are to establish a law, and to call it by
that name. But if any government be in the hands
of a single person of the few or of the many,
and as such governor or governors shall abandon himself with

(47:48):
themselves to the unbridled pursuit of the wildest pleasures or desires,
unable to restrain any passion, but possessed with an insatiable
bad disease. If such shall attempt to govern, and at
the same time to trample on all laws, there can
be no means of preservation left for the wretched people.

(48:11):
That is from Plato De Legibus Libri, Volume four, page
seven thirteen to seven fourteen, edited Serrani. It is true
that Plato is here treating of the highest or sovereign
power in a state. But it is as true that
his observations are general and may be applied to all

(48:35):
inferior powers. And indeed, every subordinate degree is immediately derived
from the highest, and as it is equally protected by
the same force, and a sanctified by the same authority
is alike dangerous to the well being of the subject
of all powers. Perhaps there is none so sanctified and

(48:58):
protected as this, which is under our present consideration. So numerous, indeed,
and strong are the sanctions given to it by many
acts of Parliament, that, having once established the laws of
customs on merchandise, it seems to have been the sole
view of the legislature to strengthen the hands and to

(49:21):
protect the persons of the officers who became established by
those laws, many of whom are so far from bearing
any resemblance to the Saturnnian institution, and to be chosen
from a degree of beings superior to the rest of
human race, that they sometimes seem industriously picked out of

(49:44):
the lowest and vilest orders of mankind. There is indeed
nothing so useful to man in general, nor so beneficial
to particular societies and individuals, as trade. This is that
all mammota, at whose plentiful breast all mankind are nourished.

(50:06):
It is true, like other parents, she is not always
equally indulgent to all her children. But though she gives
to her favorites a vast proportion of redundancy and superfluity,
there are very few whom she refuses to supply with
the conveniences, and none with the necessaries of life. Such

(50:30):
a benefactress as this must naturally be beloved by mankind
in general. It would be wonderful, therefore, if her interest
was not considered by them, and protected from the fraud
and violence of some of her rebellious offspring, who, coveting
more than their share, or more than she thinks proper

(50:53):
to allow them, are dearely employed in meditating mischief against her,
and in endeavoring to steal from their brethren those shares
which this great Alma Mata hath allowed him. At length,
our governor came on board, and about six in the
evening we weighed anchor and fell down to the nore,

(51:17):
whither our passage was extremely pleasant, the evening being very delightful,
the moon just passed the full, and both wind and
tide favorable to us. Tuesday, July second, this morning we
again set sail, under all the advantages we had enjoyed
the evening before. This day we left the shore of

(51:40):
Essex and coasted along Kent, passing by the pleasant island
of Thanet, which is an island, and that of Sheppey,
which is not an island. And about three o'clock, the
wind being now full in our teeth, we came to
an anchor in the downs. Within two miles of Deal.

(52:02):
My wife, having suffered intolerable pain from her tooth, again
renewed her resolution of having it drawn, and another surgeon
was sent for from Deal, but with no better success
than the former. He likewise declined the operation for the
same reason which had been assign'd by the former. However,

(52:25):
such was her resolution, backed with pain, that he was
obliged to make the attempt, which concluded more in honor
of his judgment than of his operation, For after having
put my poor wife to inexpressible torment, he was obliged
to leave her tooth in status quo, and she had

(52:49):
now the comfortable prospect of a long fit of pain,
which might have lasted her whole voyage, without any possibility
of relief in these pleasing sensations of which I had
my just share. Nature, overcome with fatigue, about eight in
the evening, resigned her to rest. The circumstance which would

(53:13):
have given me some happiness, could I have known how
to employ those spirits which were raised by it, But
unfortunately for me, I was left in a disposition of
enjoying an agreeable hour without the assistance of a companion
which has always appeared to me necessary to such enjoyment.

(53:35):
My daughter and her companion were both retired seasick to bed.
The other passages were a rude schoolboy of fourteen years
old and an illiterate Portuguese friar who understood no language
but his own, in which I had not the least smattering.
The captain was the only person left in whose conversation

(53:59):
I might adul myself, But unluckily, besides a total ignorance
of everything in the world but a ship, he had
the misfortune of being so deaf, that to make him
hear I will not say understand my words, I must
run the risk of conveying them to the ears of
my wife, who, though in another room called I think

(54:22):
the State Room, being indeed a most stately apartment, capable
of containing on human being in body, if not very tall,
and three bodies in width, lay asleep within a yard
of me. In this situation, necessity and choice were one
and the same thing. The Capsain and I sat down

(54:44):
together to a small bowl of punch, over which we
both soon fell fast asleep, and so concluded the evening Wednesday,
July third. This morning I awaked at four o'clock, for
my dea temper seldom suffered me to sleep. Later. I
presently got up and had the pleasure of enjoying the

(55:07):
sight of a tempestuous sea for four hours before the
captain was stirring, for he loved to indulge himself in
morning slumbers, which were attended with the wind music, much
more agreeable to the performers than to the hearers, especially
such as have as I had the privilege of sitting

(55:29):
in the orchestra. At eight o'clock, the captain rose and
sent his boat on shore, I ordered my man likewise
to go in it, as my distemper was not of
that kind which entirely deprives us of appetite. Now, though
the captain had well victualled the ship with all manner
of salt provisions for the voyage, and had added great

(55:52):
quantities of fresh stores, particularly of vegetables at graves end,
such as beans and peas, which had been on board
only two days, and had possibly not been gathered above
two more, I apprehended I could provide better for myself
at deal than the ship's ordinary seemed to promise. I

(56:15):
accordingly sent for fresh provisions of all kinds from the shore,
in order to put off the evil day of starving
as long as possible. My man returned with most of
the articles I sent for, and I now thought myself
in a condition of living a week on my own provisions.
I therefore ordered my own dinner, which I wanted nothing

(56:38):
but a cook to dress and a proper fire to
dress it at. But those were not to be had,
nor indeed any addition to my roast mutton, except the
pleasure of the captain's company with that of the other passengers.
For my wife continued the whole day in a state
of dozing, and my other female, whose sickness did not

(57:01):
abate by the rolling of the ship at Anchor, seemed
more inclined to empty their stomachs than to fill them.
Thus I passed the whole day except about an hour
at dinner by myself, and the evening concluded with the captain,
as the preceding one had done. One comfortable piece of

(57:23):
news he communicated to me, which was that he had
no doubt of a prosperous wind in the morning. But
as he did not divulge the reasons of this confidence,
and as I saw none myself, besides the wind being
directly opposite, my faith in this prophecy was not strong
enough to build any great hopes upon Thursday, July fourth.

(57:47):
This morning, however, the captain seemed resolved to fulfill his
own predictions, whether the wind would or no. He accordingly
weighed Anchor, and, taking the advantage of the tide. When
the wind was not very boisterous, he hoisted his sails, and,
as if his power had been no less absolute over

(58:10):
ALUs than it was over a Neptune, he forced the
wind to blow him on in its own despite But
as all men who have ever been at sea well
know how weak such attempts are, and want no authorities
of scripture to prove that the most absolute power of

(58:31):
a captain of a ship is very contemptible in the
wind's eye. So did it befall our noble commander, who,
having struggled with the wind three or four hours, was
obliged to give over and lost in a few minutes
all that he had been so long a gaining. In short,
we returned to our former station and once more cast

(58:54):
anchor in the neighborhood of Deal. Here, though we lay
near the shore, that we might promise ourselves all the
emolument which could be derived from it, we found ourselves deceived,
and that we might, with as much conveniency, be out
of the sight of land. For except when the captain

(59:15):
launched forth his own boat, which he did always with
great reluctance, we were incapable of procuring anything from Deal,
but at a price too exorbitant and beyond the reach
even of modern luxury, the fare of a boat from Deal,
which lay at two miles distance, being at least three

(59:37):
half crowns, And if we had been in any distress
for it, as many half Guineas for these good people
consider the sea as a large common appendant to their manner,
in which when they find any of their fellow creatures impounded,
they conclude that they have a full right of making

(59:58):
them pay their own discretion for their deliverance. To say
the truth, whether it be that men who live on
the sea shore are of an amphibious kind and do
not entirely partake of human nature, or whatever else may
be the reason they are so far from taking any
share in the distresses of mankind, or of being moved

(01:00:23):
with any compassion for them, that they look upon them
as blessings showered down from above, and which the more
they improve to their own use, the greater is their
gratitude and piety. Thus, at Gravesend a sculler requires a
shilling for going less way than he would row in
London for threepence, And at deal a boat often brings

(01:00:47):
more profit in a day than it can produce in
London in a week, or perhaps in a month. In
both places, the owner of the boat founds his demand
on the necessity and dish stress of one who stands
more or less in absolute want of his assistance, and
with the urgency of these always rises in the exorbitancy

(01:01:10):
of his demand, without ever considering that from these very
circumstances the power or ease of gratifying such demand as
in like proportion lessened. Now as I am unwilling that
some conclusions which may be I am aware too justly
drawn from these observations should be imputed to human nature

(01:01:33):
in general, I have endeavored to account for them in
a way more consistent with the goodness and dignity of
that nature. However it be it seems a little to
reflect on the governors of such monsters that they do
not take some means to restrain these impositions and prevent

(01:01:54):
them from triumphing any longer. In the misteries of those
who are in many circumstances at least their fellow creatures.
And considering the distresses of a wretched seaman, from his
being wrecked to his being barely wind bound, as a
blessing sent among them from above, and calling it by

(01:02:15):
that blasphemous name, and of Part two