The Junior Classics, Volume 5: Stories that never grow old
General
The Junior Classics, Volume 5: Stories that never grow old
Children's literature
When we had talked a while, the captain told me he had brought me
some little refreshment, such as the ship afforded, and such as
the wretches that had been so long his masters had not plundered
him of. Upon this, he called aloud to the boat, and bade his men
bring the things ashore that were for the governor; and, indeed,
it was a present as if I had been one that was not to be carried
away with them, but as if I had been to dwell upon the island
still. First, he had brought me a case of bottles full of
excellent cordial waters, six large bottles of Madeira wine (the
bottles held two quarts each), two pounds of excellent good
tobacco, twelve good pieces of the ship's beef, and six pieces of
pork, with a bag of peas, and about a hundred-weight of biscuit;
he also brought me a box of sugar, a box of flour, a bag full of
lemons, and two bottles of lime-juice, and abundance of other
things. But besides these, and what was a thousand times more
useful to me, he brought me six new clean shirts, six very good
neckcloths, two pair of gloves, one pair of shoes, a hat, and one
pair of stockings, with a very good suit of clothes of his own,
which had been worn but very little: in a word, he clothed me from
head to foot. It was a very kind and agreeable present, as any one
may imagine, to one in my circumstances, but never was anything in
the world of that kind so unpleasant, awkward, and uneasy as it
was to me to wear such clothes at first.
After these ceremonies were past, and after all his good things
were brought into my little apartment, we began to consult what
was to be done with the prisoners we had; for it was worth
considering whether we might venture to take them with us or no,
especially two of them, whom he knew to be incorrigible and
refractory to the last degree; and the captain said he knew they
were such rogues that there was no obliging them, and if he did
carry them away, it must be in irons, as malefactors, to be
delivered over to justice at the first English colony he could
come to; and I found that the captain himself was very anxious
about it. Upon this, I told him that, if he desired it, I would
undertake to bring the two men he spoke of to make it their own
request that he should leave them upon the island.
"I should be very glad of that," says the captain, "with all my
heart."
"Well," says I, "I will send for them up and talk with them for
you."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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