self with hopes of raising somewhat by the sale of them
to put him in a way of living; but as it was plain now he should never
see England without my assistance, if I would answer for his passage,
and write his life, he would communicate to me a faithful narrative
thereof, which he believed would pay me to the full any charge I might
be at on his account. I was very well pleased with this overture, not
from the prospect of gain by the copy, but from the expectation I had of
being fully satisfied in what I had so long desired to know; so I told
him I would make him easy in that respect. This quite transported
him: he caressed me, and called me his deliverer, and was then going
open-mouthed to the captain to tell him so. But I put a stop to that:
For, says I, though I insist upon hearing your story, the captain may
yet relent of his purpose, and not leave you on shore; and if that
should prove the case, I shall neither part with my money for you, nor
you with your interest in your adventures to me. Whereupon he agreed I
was right, and desisted.

When we had taken in best part of our water, and the boat was going its
last turn, the captain ordered up the strange man, as they called him,
and told him he must go on board the boat, which was to leave him on
shore with some few provisions. I happening to hear nothing of these
orders, they were so sudden, the poor man was afraid, after all, he
should have been hurried to land without my knowledge: but begging very
hard of the captain only for leave to speak with me before he went, I
was called (though with some reluctance, for the captain disliked me
for the liberties I frequently took with him, on account of his brutal
behaviour). I expostulated with the cruel wretch on the inhumanity of
the action he was about; telling him, if he had resolved the poor man
should perish, it would have been better to have suffered him to do so
when he was at the last extremity, than to expose him afresh, by this
means, to a death as certain, in a more lingering and miserable way. But
the savage being resolved, and nothing moved by what I said, I paid him
part of the passage down, and agreed to pay the rest at our arrival in
England.

Thus having reprieved the poor man, the next thing was to enter upon my
new employ of amanuensis: and having a long space of time before us,
we allotted two hours every morning for the purpose of writing down his
life from his own mouth; and frequently, when wind