After some little pause to recover himself, my husband came up with me,
and gave the mate thanks for the kindness, which he had expressed to
us, and sent suitable acknowledgment by him to the captain, offering to
pay him by advance, whatever he demanded for our passage, and for the
conveniences he had helped us to. The mate told him that the captain
would be on board in the afternoon, and that he would leave all that
till he came. Accordingly, in the afternoon the captain came, and we
found him the same courteous, obliging man that the boatswain had
represented him to be; and he was so well pleased with my husband's
conversation, that, in short, he would not let us keep the cabin we had
chosen, but gave us one that, as I said before, opened into the great
cabin.
Nor were his conditions exorbitant, or the man craving and eager to
make a prey of us, but for fifteen guineas we had our whole passage and
provisions and cabin, ate at the captain's table, and were very
handsomely entertained.
The captain lay himself in the other part of the great cabin, having
let his round house, as they call it, to a rich planter who went over
with his wife and three children, who ate by themselves. He had some
other ordinary passengers, who quartered in the steerage, and as for
our old fraternity, they were kept under the hatches while the ship lay
there, and came very little on the deck.
I could not refrain acquainting my governess with what had happened; it
was but just that she, who was so really concerned for me, should have
part in my good fortune. Besides, I wanted her assistance to supply me
with several necessaries, which before I was shy of letting anybody see
me have, that it might not be public; but now I had a cabin and room to
set things in, I ordered abundance of good things for our comfort in
the voyage, as brandy, sugar, lemons, etc., to make punch, and treat
our benefactor, the captain; and abundance of things for eating and
drinking in the voyage; also a larger bed, and bedding proportioned to
it; so that, in a word, we resolved to want for nothing in the voyage.
All this while I had provided nothing for our assistance when we should
come to the place and begin to call ourselves planters; and I was far
from being ignorant of what was needful on that occasion; particularly
all sorts of tools for the planter's work, and for building; and all
kinds of furniture for our dwelling, which, if to be bought in the
country, must necessarily cost double the price.