Life And Adventures Of Peter Wilkins, Vol. I. (of II.) Page 4
THE INTRODUCTION.
It might be looked upon as impertinent in me, who am about to give thelife of another, to trouble the reader with any of my own concerns,or the affairs that led me into the South Seas. Therefore I shall onlyacquaint him, that in my return on board the "Hector," as a passenger,round Cape Horn, for England, full late in the season, the wind andcurrents setting strong against us, our ship drove more southernly, byseveral degrees, than the usual course, even to the latitude of 75 or76; when the wind chopping about, we began to resume our intendedway. It was about the middle of June, when the days are there at theshortest, on a very starry and moonlight night, that we observed at somedistance a very black cloud, but seemingly of no extraordinary size orheight, moving very fast towards us, and seeming to follow the ship,which then made great way. Every one on deck was very curious inobserving its motions; and perceiving it frequently to divide, andpresently to close again, and not to continue long in any determinedshape, our captain, who had never before been so far to the southward ashe then found himself, had many conjectures what this phenomenon mightportend; and every one offering his own opinion, it seemed at last to begenerally agreed that there might possibly be a storm gathering in theair, of which this was the prognostic; and by its following, and nearlykeeping pace with us, we were in great fear lest it should break uponand overwhelm us, if not carefully avoided. Our commander, therefore,as it approached nearer and nearer, ordered one of the ship's guns to befired, to try if the percussion of the air would disperse it. This wasno sooner done than we heard a prodigious flounce in the water, at buta small distance from the ship, on the weather-quarter; and aftera violent noise, or cry in the air, the cloud, that upon our firingdissipated, seemed to return again, but by degrees disappeared. Whilstwe were all very much surprised at this unexpected accident, I, beingnaturally very curious and inquisitive into the causes of all unusualincidents, begged the captain to send the boat to see, if possible, whatit was that had fallen from the cloud, and offered myself to make one inher. He was much against this at first, as it would retard his voyage,now we were going so smoothly before the wind. But in the midst ofour debate, we plainly heard a voice calling out for help, in our owntongue, like a person in great distress. I then insisted on going, andnot suffering a fellow-creature to perish for the sake of a triflingdelay. In compliance with my resolute demand, he slackened sail; andhoisting out the boat, myself and seven others made to the cry, and soonfound it to come from an elderly man, labouring for life, with his armsacross several long poles, of equal size at both ends, very light, andtied to each other in a very odd manner. The sailors at first were veryfearful of assisting or coming near him, crying to each other, "He mustbe a monster!" and perhaps might overset the boat and destroy them; buthearing him speak English, I was very angry with them for their foolishapprehensions, and caused them to clap their oars under him, and atlength we got him into the boat. He had an extravagant beard, and alsolong blackish hair upon his head. As soon as he could speak (for hewas almost spent), he very familiarly took me by the hand, I having setmyself close by him to observe him, and squeezing it, thanked me verykindly for my civility to him, and likewise thanked all the sailors. Ithen asked him by what possible accident he came there; but he shookhis head, declining to satisfy my curiosity. Hereupon reflecting that itmight just then be troublesome for him to speak, and that we shouldhave leisure enough in our voyage for him to relate, and me to hear, hisstory (which, from the surprising manner of his falling amongst us, Icould not but believe would contain something very remarkable), I waivedany farther speech with him at that time.
We had him to the ship, and taking off his wet clothes, put him to bedin my cabin; and I having a large provision of stores on board, andno concern in the ship, grew very fond of him, and supplied him witheverything he wanted. In our frequent discourses together, he hadseveral times dropped loose hints of his past transactions, which butthe more inflamed me with impatience to hear the whole of them. Aboutthis time, having just begun to double the Cape, our captain thought ofwatering at the first convenient place; and finding the stranger had nomoney to pay his passage, and that he had been from England no less thanthirty-five years, despairing of his reward for conducting him thither,he intimated to him that he must expect to be put on shore to shift forhimself, when we put in for water. This entirely sunk the stranger'sspirits, and gave me great concern, insomuch that I fully resolved, ifthe captain should really prove such a brute, to take the payment of hispassage on myself.
As we came nearer to the destined watering, the captain spoke theplainer of his intentions (for I had not yet hinted my design to himor any one else); and one morning the stranger came into my cabin, withtears in his eyes, telling me he verily believed the captain would beas good as his word, and set him on shore, which he very much dreaded.I did not choose to tell him immediately what I designed in his favour,but asked him if he could think of no way of satisfying the captain,or any one else, who might thereupon be induced to engage for him; andfarther, how he expected to live when he should get to England, a manquite forgotten and penniless. Hereupon he told me he had, ever sincehis being on board, considering his destitute condition, entertained athought of having his adventures written; which, as there was somethingso uncommon in them, he was sure the world would be glad to know; and hehad flattered himself with hopes of raising somewhat by the sale of themto put him in a way of living; but as it was plain now he should neversee England without my assistance, if I would answer for his passage,and write his life, he would communicate to me a faithful narrativethereof, which he believed would pay me to the full any charge I mightbe at on his account. I was very well pleased with this overture, notfrom the prospect of gain by the copy, but from the expectation I had ofbeing fully satisfied in what I had so long desired to know; so I toldhim I would make him easy in that respect. This quite transportedhim: he caressed me, and called me his deliverer, and was then goingopen-mouthed to the captain to tell him so. But I put a stop to that:For, says I, though I insist upon hearing your story, the captain mayyet relent of his purpose, and not leave you on shore; and if thatshould prove the case, I shall neither part with my money for you, noryou with your interest in your adventures to me. Whereupon he agreed Iwas right, and desisted.
When we had taken in best part of our water, and the boat was going itslast turn, the captain ordered up the strange man, as they called him,and told him he must go on board the boat, which was to leave him onshore with some few provisions. I happening to hear nothing of theseorders, they were so sudden, the poor man was afraid, after all, heshould have been hurried to land without my knowledge: but begging veryhard of the captain only for leave to speak with me before he went, Iwas called (though with some reluctance, for the captain disliked mefor the liberties I frequently took with him, on account of his brutalbehaviour). I expostulated with the cruel wretch on the inhumanity ofthe action he was about; telling him, if he had resolved the poor manshould perish, it would have been better to have suffered him to do sowhen he was at the last extremity, than to expose him afresh, by thismeans, to a death as certain, in a more lingering and miserable way. Butthe savage being resolved, and nothing moved by what I said, I paid himpart of the passage down, and agreed to pay the rest at our arrival inEngland.
Thus having reprieved the poor man, the next thing was to enter upon mynew employ of amanuensis: and having a long space of time before us,we allotted two hours every morning for the purpose of writing down hislife from his own mouth; and frequently, when wind and weather kept usbelow, we spent some time of an afternoon in the same exercise, tillwe had quite completed it. But then there were some things in it soindescribable by words, that if I had not had some knowledge in drawing,our history had been very incomplete. Thus it must have been, especiallyin the description of the _Glumms_ and _Gawrys_ therein mentioned. Inorder to gain (that so I might communicate) a clear idea of these, Imade several drawings of them from his discourses and accounts; and,at length, after divers tria
ls, I made such exact delineations, thathe declared they could not have been more perfect resemblances if I haddrawn them from the life. Upon a survey, he confessed the very personsthemselves could not have been more exact. I also drew with my pencilthe figure of an aerial engagement, which, having likewise had hisapprobation, I have given a draught of, plate the sixth.
Then, having finished the work to our mutual satisfaction, I locked itup, in order to peruse it at leisure, intending to have presented it tohim at our arrival in England, to dispose of as he pleased, in sucha way as might have conduced most to his profit; for I resolved,notwithstanding our agreement, and the obligations he was under tome, that the whole of that should be his own. But he, having been in adeclining state some time before we reached shore, died the very nightwe landed; and his funeral falling upon me, I thought I had the greatestright to the manuscript, which, however, I had no design to have partedwith; but showing it to some judicious friends, I have by them beenprevailed with not to conceal from the world what may prove so veryentertaining, and perhaps useful.
R. P.
A GENUINE ACCOUNT
OF THE
LIFE OF PETER WILKINS.