The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, Volume 1 (of 2) — John Shaqi
The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, Volume 1 (of 2)Paltock, Robert
Science
The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, Volume 1 (of 2)
Paltock, Robert
Adventure stories; Fantasy fiction
was right, and desisted.
When we had taken in best part of our water, and the boat was going its
last 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 on
shore with some few provisions. I happening to hear nothing of these
orders, they were so sudden, the poor man was afraid, after all, he
should have been hurried to land without my knowledge: but begging very
hard of the captain only for leave to speak with me before he went, I
was called (though with some reluctance, for the captain disliked me
for the liberties I frequently took with him, on account of his brutal
behaviour). I expostulated with the cruel wretch on the inhumanity of
the action he was about; telling him, if he had resolved the poor man
should perish, it would have been better to have suffered him to do so
when he was at the last extremity, than to expose him afresh, by this
means, to a death as certain, in a more lingering and miserable way. But
the savage being resolved, and nothing moved by what I said, I paid him
part of the passage down, and agreed to pay the rest at our arrival in
England.
Thus having reprieved the poor man, the next thing was to enter upon my
new employ of amanuensis: and having a long space of time before us,
we allotted two hours every morning for the purpose of writing down his
life from his own mouth; and frequently, when wind and weather kept us
below, we spent some time of an afternoon in the same exercise, till
we had quite completed it. But then there were some things in it so
indescribable by words, that if I had not had some knowledge in drawing,
our history had been very incomplete. Thus it must have been, especially
in the description of the _Glumms_ and _Gawrys_ therein mentioned. In
order to gain (that so I might communicate) a clear idea of these, I
made several drawings of them from his discourses and accounts; and,
at length, after divers trials, I made such exact delineations, that
he declared they could not have been more perfect resemblances if I had
drawn them from the life. Upon a survey, he confessed the very persons
themselves could not have been more exact. I also drew with my pencil
the figure of an aerial engagement, which, having likewise had his
approbation, I have given a draught of, plate the sixth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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