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<h2> THE VOYAGE </h2>
<p>WEDNESDAY, June 26, 1754.—On this day the most melancholy sun I had
ever beheld arose, and found me awake at my house at Fordhook. By the
light of this sun I was, in my own opinion, last to behold and take leave
of some of those creatures on whom I doted with a mother-like fondness,
guided by nature and passion, and uncured and unhardened by all the
doctrine of that 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 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.</p>
<p>At twelve precisely my coach was at the door, which was no sooner told me
than I kissed my children round, and went into 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 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.</p>
<p>In two hours we arrived in Rotherhithe, and immediately went on board, and
were to have sailed the next morning; but, as 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 the genius of trade,
and consequently contra bonum publicum.</p>
<p>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, were, like
Archimedes, puzzled to find a steady footing. Of this, as few of my
readers have not gone into wherries on the Thames, they will easily be
able to form to themselves an idea. However, by the assistance of my
friend, Mr. Welch, whom I never think or speak of but 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 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.</p>
<p>This latter fatigue was, perhaps, somewhat heightened by an indignation
which I could not prevent arising in my mind. I think, upon my entrance
into 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 from my
house, for fear of the ill consequences of looking at me. In this
condition I ran the gauntlope (so I think I may justly call it) through
rows of sailors and watermen, 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 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 into a train of very uncomfortable and melancholy thoughts.
It may be said that this barbarous custom is peculiar to the English, and
of them only to the lowest degree; that it is an excrescence of an
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 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 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, of our idea of devils; for I
don't know that any brutes can be taxed with such malevolence. A sirloin
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 ale-house
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! 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.</p>
<p>Thursday, June 27.—This morning the captain, who lay on shore at his
own house, paid us a visit in the cabin, and behaved like an angry bashaw,
declaring that, had he known we were not to be 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, 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 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 till
Saturday, for such was his will and pleasure.</p>
<p>Besides the disagreeable situation in which we then lay, in the confines
of Wapping and Rotherhithe, tasting a delicious mixture of the air of both
these sweet places, and enjoying the concord of sweet sounds of seamen,
watermen, fish-women, 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 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 to the voice of
reason, if I may use 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 too 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 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 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 be supposed principally to write, we will here enter somewhat
largely into the discussion of this matter; the rather, for that no
ancient or modern author (if we can trust the catalogue of doctor Mead's
library) hath ever undertaken it, but that it seems (in the style of Don
Quixote) a task reserved for my pen alone.</p>
<p>When I first conceived this intention I 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 useful and substantial learning, which so eminently
distinguishes 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, 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 their members.</p>
<p>From these societies I promised myself 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 travels, of the human race; unless,
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 on a
book, which we shall have occasion to mention presently, the contents of
which were then little known to the society.</p>
<p>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 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 of the
discovery just mentioned to have been made by the young antiquarian, who,
from the most ancient record in the world (though I don't find the society
are all agreed on this point), one long preceding the date of the earliest
modern collections, either of books or butterflies, none of 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 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 passengers 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 ways of tracing all things used by the
historian and the antiquary; these are upwards and downwards.</p>
<p>The former shows you how things are, and leaves to others to discover when
they began to be so. The latter shows you how things were, and leaves
their present existence to be examined by others. Hence the former is more
useful, the latter more curious. The former receives the thanks of
mankind; the latter of that valuable part, the virtuosi.</p>
<p>In explaining, therefore, this mystery of carrying goods and passengers
from one place to another, hitherto so profound a secret to the very 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.</p>
<p>Now there are two general ways of performing (if God permit) this
conveyance, viz., by land and water, both of which have much variety; that
by land being performed in different vehicles, such as coaches, caravans,
wagons, etc.; and that by water in ships, barges, and boats, of various
sizes and denominations. But, as all these 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.</p>
<p>Common to all of these is one general principle that, 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 bale, or at best a small part of his own baggage,
very little care is to be taken in stowing or packing them up with
convenience to himself; for the conveyance is not of passengers and goods,
but of goods and passengers.</p>
<p>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 conveyer. This allegiance is indeed only temporary 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; a
circumstance universally apprehended to be incompatible to all kinds 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 Mr.
Montesquieu hath carried it 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.</p>
<p>Thirdly, this subjection is absolute, and consists of a perfect
resignation both of body and soul to the 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 stage-coachman, many of my readers would recognize the truth
of what I have here observed; all, indeed, that ever have been under the
dominion of that tyrant, who in this free country is as absolute as a
Turkish bashaw. In two particulars only his power is defective; he cannot
press 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, when he
will, and whither he will, provided it be not 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, 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 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 charged no more than
half-a-crown for being suffered to remain quiet at an ale-house door for
above a whole hour, 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 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 I have often thought very
remarkable) where they are joined 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 divers vehicles,
the principal 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 positive
idea to it: if, indeed, there be any general meaning 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 of
them is always styled the captain.</p>
<p>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 a right of hoisting the
military 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 his passengers, whom he had stowed in
cupboards on each side. He was a person of a very singular character. He
had taken it into his head that he was a gentleman, from those very
reasons that proved he was not one; and to show himself a fine gentleman,
by a behavior which seemed to insinuate he had never seen one. He was,
moreover, a man of gallantry; at the age of seventy he had the finicalness
of Sir Courtly Nice, with the roughness of Surly; and, while he was deaf
himself, had a voice capable of deafening all others.</p>
<p>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 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 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 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 chirurgical instrument with which it is performed.</p>
<p>Friday, June 28.—By way of prevention, therefore, I this day sent
for my friend, Mr. 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, but as a student.</p>
<p>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 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 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
Gravesend on Sunday morning, and there to wait his arrival.</p>
<p>Sunday, June 30.—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 the best tooth-drawer 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 waterside, 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 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 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 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.</p>
<p>The tooth-drawer, who, as I 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 had both wind and tide with us,
he would have found it impossible to overtake the ship till she was come
to an anchor at Gravesend.</p>
<p>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 in all the rivers of the world. The
yards of Deptford and of Woolwich 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 Woolwich, at least, very strongly
imprinted 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.</p>
<p>It is true, perhaps, that there is more of ostentation than of real
utility in ships of this vast and unwieldy 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 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 neighbors with truth and success. And sure I am that not
our honest tars alone, but every inhabitant of this island, may exult in
the comparison, when he considers the king of Great Britain as a maritime
prince, in opposition to any other prince in Europe; but I am not so
certain that the same idea of superiority will result from comparing our
land 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 Germans and French, and perhaps the Dutch, cast
us at a distance; for, however we may flatter ourselves with the Edwards
and Henrys 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 a change in military affairs to 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 marshal Saxe
of ostentation when he showed his army, drawn up, to our captive general,
the day after the battle of La Val, we cannot say that the ostentation was
entirely vain; since he certainly showed him an army which had not been
often equaled, 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 reap the laurels of
conquest in that day; but his retreat will be always mentioned as an
addition to his glory.</p>
<p>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 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, as it cannot happen till our senates and our benches shall be
filled with the blindest ignorance, or with the blackest corruption.</p>
<p>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, unequaled
in any country for convenience as well as magnificence; both which are
consulted in building and equipping her with the most exquisite art and
workmanship.</p>
<p>We saw likewise several Indiamen just returned from their voyage.</p>
<p>These are, I believe, the largest and finest vessels which are anywhere
employed in commercial affairs. The colliers, likewise, which are very
numerous, and even assemble 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, 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 at
once to its builder 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 of fiction. When we had
passed by Greenwich we saw only two or three gentlemen's houses, all of
very moderate account, till we reached Gravesend: these are all on the
Kentish shore, which affords a much dryer, wholesomer, and pleasanter
situation, than doth that of its opposite, Essex. This circumstance, I
own, is somewhat surprising to me, when I reflect on the numerous villas
that crowd the river from Chelsea upwards as far as Shepperton, 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
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, Mortlake, etc., even the shore
of Essex might contend, not upon very unequal terms; but on the Kentish
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.</p>
<p>How shall we account for this depravity in taste? for surely there are
none so very mean and contemptible as to bring the pleasure of seeing a
number of little wherries, 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.</p>
<p>And here I cannot pass by another observation on the 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 as I have
recommended would be so convenient, and even necessary.</p>
<p>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
pleasures of a far inferior rate.</p>
<p>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
seasickness may be supposed, by the timorous and delicate, to make too
large deductions—insisting that all their enjoyments shall come to
them pure and unmixed, and being ever ready to cry out,</p>
<p>——Nocet empta dolore voluptas.<br/></p>
<p>This, however, was my present case; for the ease and lightness which I
felt from my tapping, the gayety 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 incessantly to
torment her till we came to an anchor, when I dispatched a messenger in
great haste for the best reputed operator in Gravesend. A surgeon of some
eminence now appeared, who did not decline tooth-drawing, though he
certainly would have been offended with the appellation of tooth-drawer 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 (for so I
sincerely believe he is) after examining the guilty tooth, declared that
it was such a rotten shell, and so placed at the very remotest end of the
upper jaw, where it was in a manner covered and secured by a large fine
firm tooth, that he despaired of his power of drawing it.</p>
<p>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 happen to be past 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 lose one of those beautiful holders with which alone Sir
Courtly Nice declares a lady can ever lay hold of his heart. 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 her tooth a little longer, and to apply
palliatives only for relief. These were opium applied to the tooth, and
blisters behind the ears.</p>
<p>Whilst 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 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 bowsprit of a little ship called a cod-smack, the master of which
made us amends for running (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 phrase by our men, between whom
and the other crew a dialogue of oaths and scurrility was carried on as
long as they continued in each other's hearing.</p>
<p>It is difficult, I think, to assign a satisfactory reason why sailors in
general should, of all others, think themselves entirely 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 landmen of their degree. Nor
do I believe that in any country they visit (Holland itself not excepted)
they can ever find a parallel 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 contempt of civil order springs up in minds but little cultivated, at
the same time and from the same principles 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.</p>
<p>Monday, July 1.—This day Mr. Welch took his leave of me after
dinner, as did a young lady of her 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, was visited by two ruffians, whose appearance greatly
corresponded with that of the sheriffs, or rather the knight-marshal's
bailiffs. One of these especially, who seemed to affect a more than
ordinary degree of rudeness and insolence, came in without any kind of
ceremony, with a broad gold lace on his hat, which was cocked with much
military fierceness on his head. An inkhorn at his buttonhole 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 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 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 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 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, and failed not to convince me that, if I
should condescend to become more gentle, he would 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 and of ability, and that there is nothing more deplorable
than the want of truth in 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 original; for, as we make not shepherds of
sheep, nor oxherds 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 a
superior order to men, and who, with great ease to themselves, might
regulate our affairs and 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 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, while we pay to this the strictest obedience, we should
form both our private economy and public policy from 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 such governor or governors shall abandon
himself or 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." Plato de Leg., lib. iv. p. 713, c. 714, edit. Serrani.</p>
<p>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 inferior powers; and, indeed, every subordinate degree is
immediately derived from the highest; and, as it is equally protected by
the same force and 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 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 protect the persons of the officers who became
established by those laws, many of whom are so far from bearing any
resemblance to the Saturnian 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 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 alma mater at
whose plentiful breast all mankind are nourished. 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.</p>
<p>Such 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 to allow them, are daily employed in meditating mischief
against her, and in endeavoring to steal from their brethren those shares
which this great alma mater had allowed them.</p>
<p>At length our governor came on board, and about six in the evening we
weighed anchor, and fell down to the Nore, whither our passage was
extremely pleasant, the evening being very delightful, the moon just past
the full, and both wind and tide favorable to us.</p>
<p>Tuesday, July 2.—This morning we again set sail, under all the
advantages we had enjoyed the evening before. This day we left the shore
of Essex and coasted along Kent, passing by the pleasant island of Thanet,
which is an island, and that of Sheppy, 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.—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 assigned by the former: however, 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 statu quo; and she had 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—a circumstance which would 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; my daughter and her
companion were both retired sea-sick to bed; the other passengers were a
rude school-boy 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 I
might indulge 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, the state-room—being, indeed, a most
stately apartment, capable of containing one human body in length, if not
very tall, and three bodies in breadth), lay asleep within a yard of me.
In this situation necessity and choice were one and the same thing; the
captain and I sat down together to a small bowl of punch, over which we
both soon fell fast asleep, and so concluded the evening.</p>
<p>Wednesday, July 3.—This morning I awaked at four o'clock for my
distemper seldom suffered me to sleep later. I presently got up, and had
the pleasure of enjoying the 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 a wind-music, much more
agreeable to the performers than to the hearers, especially such as have,
as I had, the privilege of sitting 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 his ship with all
manner of salt provisions for the voyage, and had added great quantities
of fresh stores, particularly of vegetables, at Gravesend, 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 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 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 females, whose sickness did not 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 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.</p>
<p>Thursday, July 4.—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 Aeolus than it was over Neptune, he forced
the wind to blow him on in its own despite.</p>
<p>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 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 anchor in the neighborhood of Deal.</p>
<p>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 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 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 manor; in which when they find
any of their fellow-creatures impounded, they conclude that they have a
full right of making them pay at 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 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 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 distress of one who stands
more or less in absolute want of his assistance, and with the urgency of
these always rises in the exorbitancy of his demand, without ever
considering that, from these very circumstances, the power or ease of
gratifying such demand is 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 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 them from triumphing
any longer in the miseries 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 windbound, as
a blessing sent among them from above, and calling it by that blasphemous
name.</p>
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