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Journal of A Voyage to Lisbon-Part6_HENRY FIELDING(1707-1754)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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possessed of that chirurgical instrument with which it is performed.

Friday, June 28.--By way of prevention, therefore, I this day



sent for my friend, Mr. Hunter, the great surgeon and anatomist

of Covent-garden; and, though my belly was not yet very full and



tight, let out ten quarts of water; the young sea-surgeon

attended the operation, not as a performer, but as a student.



I was now eased of the greatest apprehension which I had from the

length of the passage; and I told the captain I was become



indifferent as to the time of his sailing. He expressed much

satisfaction in this declaration, and at hearing from me that I



found myself, since my tapping, much lighter and better. In

this, I believe, he was sincere; for he was, as we shall have



occasion to observe more than once, a very good-natured man; and,

as he was a very brave one too, I found that the heroic constancy



with which I had borne an operation that is attended with scarce

any degree of pain had not a little raised me in his esteem.



That he might adhere, therefore, in the most religious and

rigorous manner to his word, when he had no longer any temptation



from interest to break it, as he had no longer any hopes of more

goods or passengers, he ordered his ship to fall down to



Gravesend on Sunday morning, and there to wait his arrival.

Sunday, June 30.--Nothing worth notice passed till that morning,



when my poor wife, after passing a night in the utmost torments

of the toothache, resolved to have it drawn. I despatched



therefore a servant into Wapping to bring in haste the best

tooth-drawer he could find. He soon found out a female of great



eminence in the art; but when he brought her to the boat, at the

waterside, they were informed that the ship was gone; for indeed



she had set out a few minutes after his quitting her; nor did the

pilot, who well knew the errand on which I had sent my servant,



think fit to wait a moment for his return, or to give me any

notice of his setting out, though I had very patiently attended



the delays of the captain four days, after many solemn promises

of weighing anchor every one of the three last.



But of all the petty bashaws or turbulenttyrants I ever beheld,

this sour-faced pilot was the worst tempered; for, during the



time that he had the guidance of the ship, which was till we

arrived in the Downs, he complied with no one's desires, nor did



he give a civil word, or indeed a civil look, to any on board.

The tooth-drawer, who, as I said before, was one of great



eminence among her neighbors, refused to follow the ship; so that

my man made himself the best of his way, and with some difficulty



came up with us before we were got under full sail; for after

that, as we had both wind and tide with us, he would have found



it impossible to overtake the ship till she was come to an anchor

at Gravesend.



The morning was fair and bright, and we had a passage thither, I

think, as pleasant as can be conceived: for, take it with all



its advantages, particularly the number of fine ships you are

always sure of seeing by the way, there is nothing to equal it in



all the rivers of the world. The yards of Deptford and of

Woolwich are noble sights, and give us a just idea of the great



perfection to which we are arrived in building those floating

castles, and the figure which we may always make in Europe among



the other maritime powers. That of Woolwich, at least, very

strongly imprinted this idea on my mind; for there was now on the



stocks there the Royal Anne, supposed to be the largest ship ever

built, and which contains ten carriage-guns more than had ever



yet equipped a first-rate.

It is true, perhaps, that there is more of ostentation than of



real utility in ships of this vast and unwieldy burden, which are

rarely capable of acting against an enemy; but if the building



such contributes to preserve, among other nations, the notion of

the British superiority in naval affairs, the expense, though



very great, is well incurred, and the ostentation is laudable and

truly political. Indeed, I should be sorry to allow that



Holland, France, or Spain, possessed a vessel larger and more




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