that the wind blows sometimes east and west, north and south,
backwards and forwards, at the same instant; yet, certain it is

that the land is so contrived, that even the same wind will not,
like the same horse, always bring a man to the end of his

journey; but, that the gale which the mariner prayed heartily for
yesterday, he may as heartily deprecate to-morrow; while all use

and benefit which would have arisen to him from the westerly wind
of to-morrow may be totally lost and thrown away by neglecting

the offer of the easterly blast which blows to-day.
Hence ensues grief and disreputation to the innocent captain,

loss and disappointment to the worthy merchant, and not seldom
great prejudice to the trade of a nation whose manufactures are

thus liable to lie unsold in a foreign warehouse the market being
forestalled by some rival whose sailors are under a better

discipline. To guard against these inconveniences the prudent
captain takes every precaution in his power; he makes the

strongest contracts with his crew, and thereby binds them so
firmly, that none but the greatest or least of men can break

through them with impunity; but for one of these two reasons,
which I will not determine, the sailor, like his brother fish the

eel, is too slippery to be held, and plunges into his element
with perfect impunity. To speak a plain truth, there is no

trusting to any contract with one whom the wise citizens of
London call a bad man; for, with such a one, though your bond be

ever so strong, it will prove in the end good for nothing.
What then is to be done in this case? What, indeed, but to call

in the assistance" target="_blank" title="n.协作；援助；帮助">assistance of that tremendous magistrate, the justice of
peace, who can, and often doth, lay good and bad men in equal

durance; and, though he seldom cares to stretch his bonds to what
is great, never finds anything too minute for their detention,

but will hold the smallest reptile alive so fast in his noose,
that he can never get out till he is let drop through it. Why,

therefore, upon the breach of those contracts, should not an
immediate application be made to the nearest magistrate of this

order, who should be empowered to convey the delinquent either to
ship or to prison, at the election of the captain, to be fettered

by the leg in either place? But, as the case now stands, the
condition of this poor captain without any commission, and of

this absolutecommander without any power, is much worse than we
have hitherto shown it to be; for, notwithstanding all the

aforesaid contracts to sail in the good ship the Elizabeth, if
the sailor should, for better wages, find it more his interest to

go on board the better ship the Mary, either before their setting
out or on their speedy meeting in some port, he may prefer the

latter without any other danger than that of "doing what he ought
not to have done," contrary to a rule which he is seldom

Christian enough to have much at heart, while the captain is
generally too good a Christian to punish a man out of revenge

only, when he is to be at a considerable expense for so doing.
There are many other deficiencies in our laws relating to

maritime affairs, and which would probably have been long since
corrected, had we any seamen in the House of Commons. Not that I

would insinuate that the legislature wants a supply of many
gentlemen in the sea-service; but, as these gentlemen are by

their attendance in the house unfortunately prevented from ever
going to sea, and there learning what they might communicate to

their landed brethren, these latter remain as ignorant in that
branch of knowledge as they would be if none but courtiers and

fox-hunters had been elected into parliament, without a single
fish among them. The following seems to me to be an effect of

this kind, and it strikes me the stronger as I remember the case
to have happened, and remember it to have been dispunishable. A

captain of a trading vessel, of which he was part owner, took in
a large freight of oats at Liverpool, consigned to the market at

Bearkey: this he carried to a port in Hampshire, and there sold
it as his own, and, freighting his vessel with wheat for the port

of Cadiz, in Spain, dropped it at Oporto in his way; and there,
selling it for his own use, took in a lading of wine, with which

he sailed again, and, having converted it in the same manner,
together with a large sum of money with which he was intrusted,

for the benefit of certain merchants, sold the ship and cargo in
another port, and then wisely sat down contented with the fortune

he had made, and returned to London to enjoy the remainder of his
days, with the fruits of his former labors and a good conscience.

The sum he brought home with him consisted of near six thousand
pounds, all in specie, and most of it in that coin which Portugal

distributes so liberally over Europe.
He was not yet old enough to be past all sense of pleasure, nor

so puffed up with the pride of his good fortune as to overlook
his old acquaintances the journeymen tailors, from among whom he

had been formerly pressed into the sea-service, and, having there
laid the foundation of his future success by his shares in

prizes, had afterwards become captain of a trading vessel, in
which he purchased an interest, and had soon begun to trade in

the honorable manner above mentioned. The captain now took up
his residence at an ale-house in Drury-lane, where, having all

his money by him in a trunk, he spent about five pounds a day
among his old friends the gentlemen and ladies of those parts.

The merchant of Liverpool, having luckily had notice from a
friend during the blaze of his fortune, did, by the assistance" target="_blank" title="n.协作；援助；帮助">assistance of

a justice of peace, without the assistance" target="_blank" title="n.协作；援助；帮助">assistance of the law, recover
his whole loss. The captain, however, wisely chose to refund no

more; but, perceiving with what hasty strides Envy was pursuing
his fortune, he took speedy means to retire out of her reach, and

to enjoy the rest of his wealth in an inglorious obscurity; nor
could the same justice overtake him time enough to assist a

second merchant as he had done the first.
This was a very extraordinary case, and the more so as the

ingenious gentleman had steered entirely clear of all crimes in
our law. Now, how it comes about that a robbery so very easy to

be committed, and to which there is such immediate temptation
always before the eyes of these fellows, should receive the

encouragement of impunity, is to be accounted for only from the
oversight of the legislature, as that oversight can only be, I

think, derived from the reasons I have assigned for it.
But I will dwell no longer on this subject. If what I have here

said should seem of sufficient consequence to engage the
attention of any man in power, and should thus be the means of

applying any remedy to the most inveterate evils, at least, I
have obtained my whole desire, and shall have lain so long

wind-bound in the ports of this kingdom to some purpose. I
would, indeed, have this work--which, if I should live to finish

it, a matter of no great certainty, if indeed of any great hope
to me, will be probably the last I shall ever undertake--to

produce some better end than the mere diversion of the reader.
Monday.--This day our captain went ashore, to dine with a

gentleman who lives in these parts, and who so exactly resembles
the character given by Homer of Axylus, that the only difference

I can trace between them is, the one, living by the highway,
erected his hospitalitychiefly in favor of land-travelers; and

the other, living by the water-side, gratified his humanity by
accommodating the wants of the mariner.

In the evening our commander received a visit from a brother
bashaw, who lay wind-bound in the same harbor. This latter

captain was a Swiss. He was then master of a vessel bound to
Guinea, and had formerly been a privateering, when our own hero

was employed in the same laudable service. The honesty and
freedom of the Switzer, his vivacity, in which he was in no

respect inferior to his near neighbors the French, the awkward
and affectedpoliteness, which was likewise of French extraction,

mixed with the brutal roughness of the English tar--for he had
served under the colors of this nation and his crew had been of

the same--made such an odd variety, such a hotch-potch of
character, that I should have been much diverted with him, had

not his voice, which was as loud as a speaking-trumpet,
unfortunately made my head ache. The noise which he conveyed