cular of the
number of squares or acres that it contained, how planted, how many
slaves there were upon it, and making two and twenty crosses for
blessings, told me he had said so many _Ave Marias_ to thank the blessed
Virgin that I was alive; inviting me very passionately to come over and
take possession of my own; and, in the mean time, to give him orders to
whom he should deliver my effects, if I did not come myself; concluding
with a hearty tender of his friendship, and that of his family; and sent
me, as a present, seven fine leopards' skins, which he had, it seems,
received from Africa, by some other ship that he had sent thither, and
who, it seems, had made a better voyage than I. He sent me also five
chests of excellent sweetmeats, and a hundred pieces of gold uncoined,
not quite so large as moidores. By the same fleet, my two
merchant-trustees shipped me one thousand two hundred chests of sugar,
eight hundred rolls of tobacco, and the rest of the whole account
in gold.

I might well say now, indeed, that the latter end of Job was better than
the beginning. It is impossible to express the flutterings of my very
heart when I found all my wealth about me; for as the Brazil ships come
all in fleets, the same ships which brought my letters brought my goods:
and the effects were safe in the river before the letters came to my
hand. In a word, I turned pale, and grew sick; and had not the old man
run and fetched me a cordial, I believe the sudden surprise of joy had
overset nature, and I had died upon the spot: nay, after that, I
continued very ill, and was so some hours till a physician being sent
for, and something of the real cause of my illness being known, he
ordered me to be let blood; after which I had relief, and grew well: but
I verily believe, if I had not been eased by a vent given in that manner
to the spirits, I should have died.

I was now master, all on a sudden, of above five thousand pounds
sterling in money, and had an estate, as I might well call it, in the
Brazils, of above a thousand pounds a year, as sure as an estate of
lands in England; and, in a word, I was in a condition which I scarce
knew how to understand, or how to compose myself for the enjoyment of
it. The first thing I did was to recompense my original benefactor, my
good old captain, who had been first charitable to me in my distress,
kind to me in my beginning, and honest to me at the end. I showed him
all that was sent to me; I to