In furthest Ind : $b The narrative of Mr Edward Carlyon of the honourable East India Company's serviceGrier, Sydney C.
General
In furthest Ind : $b The narrative of Mr Edward Carlyon of the honourable East India Company's service
Grier, Sydney C.
British -- India -- Fiction; East India Company -- Fiction; India -- Fiction
“Sir,” said he, “when you come on board I looked upon you as one whom
the Lord had rid of great danger and peril that you might show forth
His glory. But since we have left Goa I have observed in you a levity
and a hardness of heart that hath given me much concernment. You have
showed no signs of grace, and have displayed much sympathy with the
wicked and a culpable laxity with regard to the Papistry and lewdness
that abound in our unhappy country. I fear, young sir, that there is a
grievous fall before you. The pride of your heart hath maybe kept you
firm when your Protestant faith was threatened with force, but the
devil can work with promises and allurements as well as with
threatenings. If you be so minded, I am willing to show you more
particularly wherein I think you err, to your profiting in the
future.”
Now I won’t deny that I was much nettled by the boldness of his words,
neither anticipating in my youth and vainglory that fall whereof he
spake, nor yet foreseeing that in my later life I should confess that
both in his rebukes and his prophecies this old man was wiser than I
thought him, but still I made shift to answer him peaceably.
“My good man,” says I, “I have thanked God daily for my deliverance,
and prayed of Him to keep me staunch in the future. What more I can do
I don’t see, having an eye to the difference between your age and
mine, which would make it strange were I in all things like unto you.”
“Nay,” says he, “I have known many young persons that showed forth in
their lives the fruits of grace in a soberness of walk and a meekness
of carriage that edified all about ’em. But of these you an’t one, and
rejecting the counsel I offer you, will go your way to your own
destruction.”
And with that he departed, and I, as you may well suppose, sought not
his company overmuch thereafter. But it so chanced that time and the
course of events placed it in his power to hurt me, though I don’t
say, nor yet believe, that this was with his intention. For we were
now passing into the Sea of Bengall, and having been so greatly
delayed by the wind’s being contrary to us, were arriving at what they
call in these seas the _hurracan_ season, that is, the time when these
tempestuous winds do most commonly use to blow. And although during
some time we met with no _hurracan_, yet were we assailed and buffeted
by divers fierce gales, that did much damage to the upper works of the
ship, and served still further to delay us in our voyage. And on the
account of these things I did condole with the captain, I myself also
finding the delay irksome to me, but thought nothing in especial
touching the gales until I heard one day the old seaman Darrell, that
sat with his Bible on his knees, say to his fellows--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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