I had perhaps not known this part, if my curiosity had not led me, the weather being fair, and the wind abated, to go on board the fhip: the second mate, who upon this occafion commanded the fhip, had been on board our fhip; and he told me indeed, that they had three paffengers in the great cabbin, that they were in a deplorable condition; nay, says he, I believe they are dead, for I have heard nothing of them for above two days; and I was afraid to enquire after them, said he, for I had nothing to relieve them with.

We immediately applied ourselves to give them what relief we could fpare; and indeed I had fo far overruled things with my nephew, that I would have victualled them, though we had gone away to Verginia, or any part of the coaft of America, to have fupplied ourselves; but there was no neceffity for that.

But now they were in a new danger; for they were afraid of eating two much, even of that little we gave them; the mate or commander brought fix men with him in his boat; but thefe poor wretches looked like skeletons, and were so weak, they could hardly fit to their oars: the mate himself was very ill, and half-ftarved; for he declared he had referved nothing from the men, and went fhare and fhare alike with them in every bit they eat.

I cautioned him to eat fparingly, but fet meat before him immediately, and he had not eaten three mouthfuls before he began to be fick, and out of order; fo he ftopt awhile, and our furgeon mixed him up fomething with fome broth, which he faid would be to him both food and phyfick; and after

he

he had taken it, he grew better: in the mean time I forgot not the men; I ordered victuals to be given them, and the poor creatures rather devoured than eat it; they were fo exceeding hungry, that they were in a manner ravenous, and had no command of themselves; and two of them eat with fo much greedinefs, that they were in danger of their lives the next morning.

The fight of these people's distress was very moving to me, and brought to mind what I had a terrible profpect of at my firft coming on fhore in my ifland, where I had not the leaft mouthful of food, or any hopes of procuring it; befides the hourly apprehenfion I had of being made the food of other creatures. But all the while the mate was thus relating to me the miferable condition of the fhip's company, I could not put out of my thought the story he had told me of the three poor creatures in the great cabbin; (viz.) the mother, her fon, and the maid fervant, whom he had heard nothing of for two or three days; and whom he seemed to confefs they had wholly neglected, their own extremities being fo great; by which I understood, that they had really given them no food at all; and that therefore they must be perished, and be all lying dead perhaps on the floor or deck of the cabbin.

As I therefore kept the mate, whom we then called captain, on board with his men to refresh them, fo I also forgot not the ftarving crew that were left on board, but ordered my own boat to go on board the ship, and with my mate and twelve men to carry them a fack of bread, and four or five pieces of beef to boil. Our furgeon charged the men to cause the

meat

meat to be boiled while they stayed, and to keep guard in the cook-room, to prevent the men's taking it to eat raw, or taking it out of the pot before it was well boiled, and then to give every man but a little at a time; and by this caution he preserved the men, who would otherwife have killed themselves with that very food that was given them on purpose to fave their lives.

At the fame time, I ordered the mate to go into the great cabbin, and fee in what condition the poor paffengers were in, and, if they were alive, to comfort them and give them what refreshment was proper; and the furgeon gave him a large pitcher with fome of the prepared broth which he had given the mate that was on board, and which he did not queftion would restore them gradually.

I was not fatisfied with this; but, as I faid above, having a great mind to see the scene of mifery, which I knew the fhip itfelf would prefent me with, in a more lively manner than I could have it by report, I took the captain of the fhip, as we now called him, with me, and went myfelf a little after in their

boat.

I found the poor men on board almost in a tumult to get the victuals out of the boiler before it was ready but my mate observed his order, and kept a good guard at the cock-room door; and the man he placed there, after ufing all poffible perfuafion to have patience, kept them off by force: however, he caused fome bifcuit cakes to be dipped in the pot, and softened them with the liquor of the meat, which they call brewis, and gave them every one one, to stay their stomachs, and told them it was for their

Own

own fafety, that he was obliged to give them but little at a time. But it was all in vain, and had I not come on board, and their own commander and officers with me, and with good words, and fome threats alfo of giving them no more, I believe they would have broke into the cook-room by force, and tore the meat out of the furnace; for words indeed are of a very small force to an hungry belly: however we pacified them, and fed them gradually and cautiously for the first time, and the next time gave them more, and at laft filled their bellies, and the men did well enough.

But the mifery of the poor paffengers in the cabbin was of another nature, and far beyond the reft; for as, first, the ship's company had fo little for themfelves, it was but too true, that they had at first kept them very low, and at last totally neglected them; fo that for fix or feven days, it might be faid, they had really had no food at all, and for several days before, very little.

The poor mother, who, as the first mate reported, was a woman of good fenfe, and good breeding, had fpared all the could get so affectionately for her son, that at laft fhe entirely funk under it: and when the mate of our fhip went in, fhe fet upon the floor or deck, with her back up against the fides, between two chairs, which were lafhed faft, and her head funk in between her fhoulders, like a corpfe, though not quite dead. My mate faid all he could to revive and encourage her, and with a spoon put fome broth into her mouth; fhe opened her lips, and lifted up one hand, but could not fpeak: yet she understood what he faid, and made figns to him, intimating,

that

that it was too late for her; but pointed to her child, as if he would have faid, they should take care of him.

However the mate, who was exceedingly moved with the fight, endeavoured to get fome of the broth into her mouth; and, as he faid, got two or three fpoonfuls down, though I queftion whether he could be fure of it or not: but it was too late, and fhe died the fame night.

The youth, who was preferved at the price of his most affectionate mother's life, was not fo far gone; yet he lay in a cabin-bed as one ftretched out, with hardly any life left in him; he had a piece of an old glove in his mouth, having eaten up the rest of it; however, being young, and having more ftrength than his mother, the mate got fomething down his throat, and he began sensibly to revive, though, by giving him fome time after but two or three spoonfuls extraordinary, he was very fick, and brought it up again.

But the next care was the poor maid; fhe lay all along upon the deck hard by her miftrefs, and just like one that had fallen down with an apoplexy, and ftruggled for life: her limbs were distorted, one of her hands was clasped round the frame of one chair, and fhe griped it fo hard, that we could not eafily make her let it go; her other arm lay over her head, and her feet lay both together, fet fast against the frame of the cabin-table; in fhort, fhe lay juft like one in the last agonies of death; and yet she was alive too.

The poor creature was not only ftarved with hunger, and terrified with the thoughts of death, but, as the men told us afterwards, was broken

VOL. II.

D

hearted