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struggling nor squawling, for both will be impertinent. The first man who offers to come in here, I will have 'his skin flea'd off at the gangway. He then attempted to pull me violently towards his bed. I threw myself on my knees, and with tears and entreaties besought 'his compassion: but this was, I found, to no purเ pose: I then had recourse to threats, and endeavoured to frighten him with the consequence; 'but neither had this, though it seemed to stagger him 'more than the other method, sufficient force to deliver me. At last a stratagem came into my head, of which my perceiving him reel gave me the first hint, I entreated เ a moment's reprieve only, when, collecting all the spirits 'I could muster, I put on a constrained air of gaiety, and 'told him with an affected laugh, he was the roughest lover I had ever met with, and that I believed I was 'the first woman he had ever paid his addresses to. Ad'dresses, said he, d-n your addresses, I want to undress you. I then begged him to let us drink some punch 'together; for that I loved a can as well as himself, and never would grant the favour to any man till I had 'drank a hearty glass with him. O! said he, if that be

all, you shall have punch enough to drown yourself in. 'At which words he rung the bell, and ordered in a gallon of that liquor. I was in the mean time obliged 'to suffer his nauseous kisses, and some rudenesses which 'I had great difficulty to restrain within moderate bounds. 'When the punch came in, he took up the bowl and ' drank my health ostentatiously, in such a quantity, that 'it considerably advanced my scheme. I followed him 'with bumpers, as fast as possible, and was myself เ obliged to drink so much, that at another time it would have staggered my own reason, but at present it did not affect me. At length, perceiving him very far gone, 'I watched an opportunity, and ran out of the cabin,

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' resolving to seek protection of the sea, if I could find เ no other; but heaven was now graciously pleased to ' relieve me; for in his attempt to pursue me, he reeled 'backwards, and falling down the cabin stairs, he dislocated his shoulder, and so bruised himself, that I was 'not only preserved that night from any danger of my 'intended ravisher; but the accident threw him into a 'fever, which endangered his life, and whether he ever ' recovered or no I am not certain; for, during his deli'rious fits, the eldest lieutenant commanded the ship. 'This was a virtuous and a brave fellow, who had been twenty-five years in that post without being able to ob'tain a ship, and had seen several boys, the bastards of 'noblemen, put over his head. One day, while the ship ' remained under his command, an English vessel bound 'to Cork passed by; myself and my friend, who had 'formerly lain two days in irons on my account, went on board this ship with the leave of the good lieutenant, 'who made us such presents as he was able of provisions, and, congratulating me on my delivery from a danger to which none of the ship's crew had been strangers, he kindly wished us both a safe voyage.'

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CHAPTER VIII.

In which Mrs. Heartfree continues the relation of her adventures.

เ THE first evening after we were aboard this vessel, which was a brigantine, we being then at no very great 'distance from the Madeiras, the most violent storm arose from the north-west, in which we presently lost 'both our masts; and indeed death now presented itself

as inevitable to us-I need not tell my Tommy what were then my thoughts. Our danger was so great, that 'the captain of the ship, a professed atheist, betook him'self to prayers, and the whole crew, abandoning themselves for lost, fell with the utmost eagerness to the emptying a cask of brandy, not one drop of which, they swore, should be polluted with salt water. I 'observed here, my old friend displayed less courage 'than I expected from him. He seemed entirely swal'lowed up in despair. in despair. But, heaven be praised! we were at last all preserved. The storm, after above 'eleven hours' continuance, began to abate, and by degrees entirely ceased; but left us still rolling at 'the mercy of the waves, which carried us at their own pleasure to the south-east a vast number of leagues. 'Our crew were all dead drunk with the brandy which they had taken such care to preserve from the sea: but, indeed, had they been awake, their labour would have 'been of very little service, as we had lost all our rigging; our brigantine being reduced to a naked hulk 'only. In this condition we floated about thirty hours, 'till in the midst of a very dark night we spied a light ' which, seeming to approach us, grew so large that our 'sailors concluded it to be the lanthorn of a man of war; เ but, when we were cheering ourselves with the hopes of ( our deliverance from this wretched situation, on a sudden, to our great concern, the light entirely disappeared, and left us in a despair, increased by the ' remembrance of those pleasing imaginations with ' which we had entertained our minds during its appearThe rest of the night we passed in melancholy, conjectures on the light which had deserted us, which 'the major part of the sailors concluded to be a meteor. In this distress we had one comfort, which was a plenti'ful store of provision: this so supported the spirits of

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'the sailors, that they declared, had they but a sufficient เ quantity of brandy, they cared not whether they saw 'land for a month to come: but, indeed, we were much 'nearer it than we imagined, as we perceived at break of เ day; one of the most knowing of the crew declared we 6 were near the continent of Africa; but when we were เ within three leagues of it a second violent storm arose from the north, so that we again gave over all hopes of safety. This storm was not quite so outrageous as the 'former, but of much longer continuance, for it lasted near three days, and drove us an immense number of leagues to the south. We were within a league of the shore, expecting every moment our ship to be dashed to pieces, when the tempest ceased all on a sudden; but 'the waves still continued to roll like mountains, and 'before the sea recovered its calm motion, our ship was 'thrown so near the land, that the captain ordered out 'his boat, declaring he had scarce any hopes of saving her; and indeed we had not quitted her many minutes 'before we saw the justice of his apprehensions; for she 'struck against a rock, and immediately sunk. The 'behaviour of the sailors on this occasion very much 'affected me; they beheld their ship perish with the ' tenderness of a lover or a parent; they spoke of her as the fondest husband would of his wife; and many of them, who seemed to have no tears in their composi'tion, shed them plentifully at her sinking. The captain 'himself cried out, Go thy way, charming Molly, the sea 'never devoured a lovelier morsel. If I have fifty vessels, 'I shall never love another like thee. Poor slut, I shall remember thee to my dying day.-Well, the boat now 'conveyed us all safe to shore, where we landed with very little difficulty. It was now about noon, and the rays of the sun, which descended almost perpendicularly on our heads, were extremely hot and troublesome.

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'However, we travelled through this extreme heat about 'five miles over a plain. This brought us to a vast wood, which extended itself as far as we could see both เ to the right and left, and seemed to me to put an entire 'end to our progress. Here we decreed to rest and dine เ on the provision which we had brought from the ship, ' of which we had sufficient for very few meals; our boat 'being so overloaded with people that we had very little 'room for luggage of any kind. Our repast was salt 'pork broiled, which the keenness of hunger made so delicious to my companions that they fed very heartily upon it. As for myself, the fatigue of my body, and 'the vexation of my mind, had so thoroughly weakened that I was almost entirely deprived of appetite; 'and the utmost dexterity of the most accomplished 'French cook would have been ineffectual, had he ' endeavoured to tempt me with delicacies. I thought 'myself very little a gainer by my late escape from the tempest, by which I seemed only to have exchanged the 'element in which I was presently to die. When our company had sufficiently, and indeed very plentifully, 'feasted themselves, they resolved to enter the wood, and 'endeavour to pass it, in expectation of finding some ' inhabitants, at least some provision. We proceeded 'therefore in the following order: one man in the front 'with a hatchet to clear our way, and two others followed him with guns to protect the rest from wild 'beasts; then walked the rest of our company, and last of all the captain himself, being armed, likewise, with เ a gun to defend us from any attack behind, in the rear, 'I think, you call it. And thus our whole company, 'being fourteen in number, travelled on till night over'took us, without seeing any thing unless a few birds and some very insignificant animals. We rested all night under the covert of some trees, and indeed we

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