frequency of these summons, as well as the solicitude with which

they were made, sufficiently testified the state of the captain's
mind; he endeavored to conceal it, and would have given no small

alarm to a man who had either not learned what it is to die, or
known what it is to be miserable. And my dear wife and child

must pardon me, if what I did not conceive to be any great evil
to myself I was not much terrified with the thoughts of happening

to them; in truth, I have often thought they are both too good
and too gentle to be trusted to the power of any man I know, to

whom they could possibly be so trusted.
Can I say then I had no fear? indeed I cannot. Reader, I was

afraid for thee, lest thou shouldst have been deprived of that
pleasure thou art now enjoying; and that I should not live to

draw out on paper that military character which thou didst peruse
in the journal of yesterday.

From all these fears we were relieved, at six in the morning, by
the arrival of Mr. Morrison, who acquainted us that he was sure

he beheld land very near; for he could not see half a mile, by
reason of the haziness of the weather. This land he said was, he

believed, the Berry-head, which forms one side of Torbay: the
captain declared that it was impossible, and swore, on condition

he was right, he would give him his mother for a maid. A forfeit
which became afterwards strictly due and payable; for the

captain, whipping on his night-gown, ran up without his breeches,
and within half an hour returning into the cabin, wished me joy

of our lying safe at anchor in the bay.
Sunday, July 26.--Things now began to put on an aspect very

different from what they had lately worn; the news that the ship
had almost lost its mizzen, and that we had procured very fine

clouted cream and fresh bread and butter from the shore, restored
health and spirits to our women, and we all sat down to a very

cheerful breakfast. But, however pleasant our stay promised to
be here, we were all desirous it should be short: I resolved

immediately to despatch my man into the country to purchase a
present of cider, for my friends of that which is called Southam,

as well as to take with me a hogshead of it to Lisbon; for it is,
in my opinion, much more delicious than that which is the growth

of Herefordshire. I purchased three hogsheads for five pounds
ten shillings, all which I should have scarce thought worth

mentioning, had I not believed it might be of equal service to
the honest farmer who sold it me, and who is by the neighboring

gentlemen reputed to deal in the very best; and to the reader,
who, from ignorance of the means of providing better for himself,

swallows at a dearer rate the juice of Middlesex turnip, instead
of that Vinum Pomonae which Mr. Giles Leverance of Cheeshurst,

near Dartmouth in Devon, will, at the price of forty shillings
per hogshead, send in double casks to any part of the world. Had

the wind been very sudden in shifting, I had lost my cider by an
attempt of a boatman to exact, according to custom. He required

five shillings for conveying my man a mile and a half to the
shore, and four more if he stayed to bring him back. This I

thought to be such insufferable impudence that I ordered him to
be immediately chased from the ship, without any answer. Indeed,

there are few inconveniences that I would not rather encounter
than encourage the insolent demands of these wretches, at the

expense of my own indignation, of which I own they are not the
only objects, but rather those who purchase a paltry convenience

by encouraging them. But of this I have already spoken very
largely. I shall conclude, therefore, with the leave which this

fellow took of our ship; saying he should know it again, and
would not put off from the shore to relieve it in any distress

whatever. It will, doubtless, surprise many of my readers to
hear that, when we lay at anchor within a mile or two of a town

several days together, and even in the most temperate weather, we
should frequently want fresh provisions and herbage, and other

emoluments of the shore, as much as if we had been a hundred
leagues from land. And this too while numbers of boats were in

our sight, whose owners get their livelihood by rowing people up
and down, and could be at any time summoned by a signal to our

assistance, and while the captain had a little boat of his own,
with men always ready to row it at his command.

This, however, hath been partly accounted for already by the
imposing disposition of the people, who asked so much more than

the proper price of their labor. And as to the usefulness of the
captain's boat, it requires to be a little expatiated upon, as it

will tend to lay open some of the grievances which demand the
utmost regard of our legislature, as they affect the most

valuable part of the king's subjects--those by whom the commerce
of the nation is carried into execution. Our captain then, who

was a very good and experiencedseaman, having been above thirty
years the master of a vessel, part of which he had served, so he

phrased it, as commander of a privateer, and had discharged
himself with great courage and conduct, and with as great

success, discovered the utmost aversion to the sending his boat
ashore whenever we lay wind-bound in any of our harbors. This

aversion did not arise from any fear of wearing out his boat by
using it, but was, in truth, the result of experience, that it

was easier to send his men on shore than to recall them. They
acknowledged him to be their master while they remained on

shipboard, but did not allow his power to extend to the shores,
where they had no sooner set their foot than every man became sui

juris, and thought himself at full liberty to return when he
pleased. Now it is not any delight that these fellows have in

the fresh air or verdant fields on the land. Every one of them
would prefer his ship and his hammock to all the sweets of Arabia

the Happy; but, unluckily for them, there are in every seaport in
England certain houses whose chief livelihood depends on

providing entertainment for the gentlemen of the jacket. For
this purpose they are always well furnished with those cordial

liquors which do immediately inspire the heart with gladness,
banishing all careful thoughts, and indeed all others, from the

mind, and opening the mouth with songs of cheerfulness and
thanksgiving for the many wonderful blessings with which a

seafaring life overflows.
For my own part, however whimsical it may appear, I confess I

have thought the strange story of Circe in the Odyssey no other
than an ingenious allegory, in which Homer intended to convey to

his countrymen the same kind of instruction which we intend to
communicate to our own in this digression. As teaching the art

of war to the Greeks was the plain design of the Iliad, so was
teaching them the art of navigation the no less manifest

intention of the Odyssey. For the improvement of this, their
situation was most excellently adapted; and accordingly we find

Thucydides, in the beginning of his history, considers the Greeks
as a set of pirates or privateers, plundering each other by sea.

This being probably the first institution of commerce before the
Ars Cauponaria was invented, and merchants, instead of robbing,

began to cheat and outwit each other, and by degrees changed the
Metabletic, the only kind of traffic allowed by Aristotle in his

Politics, into the Chrematistic.
By this allegory then I suppose Ulysses to have been the captain

of a merchant-ship, and Circe some good ale-wife, who made his
crew drunk with the spirituous liquors of those days. With this

the transformation into swine, as well as all other incidents of
the fable, will notably agree; and thus a key will be found out

for unlocking the whole mystery, and forging at least some meaning
to a story which, at present, appears very strange and absurd.

Hence, moreover, will appear the very near resemblance between
the sea-faring men of all ages and nations; and here perhaps may

be established the truth and justice of that observation, which
will occur oftener than once in this voyage, that all human flesh

is not the same flesh, but that there is one kind of flesh of
landmen, and another of seamen.

Philosophers, divines, and others, who have treated the
gratification of human appetites with contempt, have, among other