partner, who, I had reason to suppose, had some years past
given me over for dead. With this view I took shipping for
Lisbon, where I arrived in April following, my man Friday
accompanying me very honestly in all these ramblings, and
proving a most faithful servant upon all occasions. When I
came to Lisbon, I found out, by inquiry, and to my particu-
lar satisfaction, my old friend, the captain of the ship who
first took me up at sea off the shore of Africa. He was now
grown old, and had left off going to sea, having put his son,
who was far from a young man, into his ship, and who still
used the Brazil trade. The old man did not know me, and
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indeed I hardly knew him. But I soon brought him to my
remembrance, and as soon brought myself to his remem-
brance, when I told him who I was.
After some passionate expressions of the old acquain-
tance between us, I inquired, you may he sure, after my
plantation and my partner. The old man told me he had not
been in the Brazils for about nine years; but that he could
assure me that when he came away my partner was living,
but the trustees whom I had joined with him to take cogni-
sance of my part were both dead: that, however, he believed
I would have a very good account of the improvement of
the plantation; for that, upon the general belief of my be-
ing cast away and drowned, my trustees had given in the
account of the produce of my part of the plantation to the
procurator-fiscal, who had appropriated it, in case I never
came to claim it, one-third to the king, and two-thirds to
the monastery of St. Augustine, to be expended for the ben-
efit of the poor, and for the conversion of the Indians to the
Catholic faith: but that, if I appeared, or any one for me, to
claim the inheritance, it would be restored; only that the
improvement, or annual production, being distributed to
charitable uses, could not be restored: but he assured me
that the steward of the king’s revenue from lands, and the
providore, or steward of the monastery, had taken great
care all along that the incumbent, that is to say my partner,
gave every year a faithful account of the produce, of which
they had duly received my moiety. I asked him if he knew to
what height of improvement he had brought the plantation,
and whether he thought it might be worth looking after; or
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whether, on my going thither, I should meet with any ob-
struction to my possessing my just right in the moiety. He
told me he could not tell exactly to what degree the planta-
tion was improved; but this he knew, that my partner was
grown exceeding rich upon the enjoying his part of it; and
that, to the best of his remembrance, he had heard that the
king’s third of my part, which was, it seems, granted away
to some other monastery or religious house, amounted to
above two hundred moidores a year: that as to my being
restored to a quiet possession of it, there was no question
to be made of that, my partner being alive to witness my
title, and my name being also enrolled in the register of the
country; also he told me that the survivors of my two trust-
ees were very fair, honest people, and very wealthy; and he
believed I would not only have their assistance for putting
me in possession, but would find a very considerable sum of
money in their hands for my account, being the produce of
the farm while their fathers held the trust, and before it was
given up, as above; which, as he remembered, was for about
twelve years.
I showed myself a little concerned and uneasy at this ac-
count, and inquired of the old captain how it came to pass
that the trustees should thus dispose of my effects, when he
knew that I had made my will, and had made him, the Por-
tuguese captain, my universal heir, &c.
He told me that was true; but that as there was no proof
of my being dead, he could not act as executor until some
certain account should come of my death; and, besides, he
was not willing to intermeddle with a thing so remote: that
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it was true he had registered my will, and put in his claim;
and could he have given any account of my being dead or
alive, he would have acted by procuration, and taken pos-
session of the ingenio (so they call the sugar-house), and
have given his son, who was now at the Brazils, orders to do
it. ‘But,’ says the old man, ‘I have one piece of news to tell
you, which perhaps may not be so acceptable to you as the
rest; and that is, believing you were lost, and all the world
believing so also, your partner and trustees did offer to ac-
count with me, in your name, for the first six or eight years’
profits, which I received. There being at that time great dis-
bursements for increasing the works, building an ingenio,
and buying slaves, it did not amount to near so much as
afterwards it produced; however,’ says the old man, ‘I shall
give you a true account of what I have received in all, and
how I have disposed of it.’
After a few days’ further conference with this ancient
friend, he brought me an account of the first six years’ in-
come of my plantation, signed by my partner and the
merchant-trustees, being always delivered in goods, viz. to-
bacco in roll, and sugar in chests, besides rum, molasses,
&c., which is the consequence of a sugar-work; and I found
by this account, that every year the income considerably in-
creased; but, as above, the disbursements being large, the
sum at first was small: however, the old man let me see that
he was debtor to me four hundred and seventy moidores of
gold, besides sixty chests of sugar and fifteen double rolls of
tobacco, which were lost in his ship; he having been ship-
wrecked coming home to Lisbon, about eleven years after
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my having the place. The good man then began to complain
of his misfortunes, and how he had been obliged to make
use of my money to recover his losses, and buy him a share
in a new ship. ‘However, my old friend,’ says he, ‘you shall
not want a supply in your necessity; and as soon as my son
returns you shall be fully satisfied.’ Upon this he pulls out
an old pouch, and gives me one hundred and sixty Portugal
moidores in gold; and giving the writings of his title to the
ship, which his son was gone to the Brazils in, of which he
was quarter-part owner, and his son another, he puts them
both into my hands for security of the rest.
I was too much moved with the honesty and kindness
of the poor man to be able to bear this; and remembering
what he had done for me, how he had taken me up at sea,
and how generously he had used me on all occasions, and
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