into the very middle station, or upper degree of low
life, which my father advised me to before, and which, if I resolved to
go on with, I might as well have stayed at home, and never have fatigued
myself in the world as I had done; and I used often to say to myself, I
could have done this as well in England, among my friends, as have gone
five thousand miles off to do it among strangers and savages, in a
wilderness, and at such a distance as never to hear from any part of the
world that had the least knowledge of me.

In this manner I used to look upon my condition with the utmost regret.
I had nobody to converse with, but now and then this neighbour; no work
to be done, but by the labour of my hands; and I used to say, I lived
just like a man cast away upon some desolate island, that had nobody
there but himself. But how just has it been--and how should all men
reflect, that when they compare their present conditions with others that
are worse, Heaven may oblige them to make the exchange, and be convinced
of their former felicity by their experience--I say, how just has it
been, that the truly solitary life I reflected on, in an island of mere
desolation, should be my lot, who had so often unjustly compared it with
the life which I then led, in which, had I continued, I had in all
probability been exceeding prosperous and rich.

I was in some degree settled in my measures for carrying on the
plantation before my kind friend, the captain of the ship that took me up
at sea, went back--for the ship remained there, in providing his lading
and preparing for his voyage, nearly three months--when telling him what
little stock I had left behind me in London, he gave me this friendly and
sincere advice:--"Seignior Inglese," says he (for so he always called
me), "if you will give me letters, and a procuration in form to me, with
orders to the person who has your money in London to send your effects to
Lisbon, to such persons as I shall direct, and in such goods as are
proper for this country, I will bring you the produce of them, God
willing, at my return; but, since human affairs are all subject to
changes and disasters, I would have you give orders but for one hundred
pounds sterling, which, you say, is half your stock, and let the hazard
be run for the first; so that, if it come safe, you may order the rest
the same way, and, if it miscarry, you may have the other half to have
recourse to for your supply."

This was so w