The Surprising Adventures of Bampfylde Moore Carew, King of the Beggars: Containing his Life, a Dictionary of the Cant Language, and many Entertaining Particulars of that Extraordinary ManUnknown
General
The Surprising Adventures of Bampfylde Moore Carew, King of the Beggars: Containing his Life, a Dictionary of the Cant Language, and many Entertaining Particulars of that Extraordinary Man
After six or seven days’ travel through this wild country he came to
Riga, a large town and famous sea-port: here he met with many English
merchants and commanders of vessels, who were very kind to him; he
tarried two days in Riga, to rest and refresh himself: during which the
English merchants and commanders provided lodgings and other
accommodations for him, collecting upwards of fifty shillings for him.
Having expressed his utmost gratitude towards his good benefactors, he
again pursued his journey, subsisting himself sometimes on the charity of
the inhabitants of the country, and at other times milking the cows upon
the mountains or in the woods. The next place of note he arrived at was
the city of Dantzic, in the kingdom of Poland: here he found a great
number of English merchants who traded to Exeter, and Bristol, and had
many correspondents living in those places, several of whom Mr. Carew
being acquainted with, he gave a particular account of.
Having been entertained here very hospitably for several days, he set out
again, having first received some handsome presents from the English
merchants. From Dantzic he got a passage on board an English brigantine
bound for Copenhagen, but through stress of weather was obliged to put
into Elson Cape, where he went on shore, and travelled by land to
Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, but in his road thither he lost his way
in this wild and desert country, and for the space of three days and
nights saw neither house, hut, nor human creature, the weather being very
thick and foggy. Nothing could be more melancholy and dreadful than
these three days’ travel; his provisions were exhausted, and every step
he took he was uncertain whether it might lead him farther into the
woods, as he could make no observation how the country lay, the fog
intercepting the light of every thing. Sometimes fancy would paint to
him a hut through the fog at a little distance, to which he would direct
his steps with eager haste, but when he came nearer, found it nothing but
an illusion of sight, which almost drove him to despair. The fourth day
he was exceedingly hungry, when, to his great joy, he espied two
she-goats fastened together with ropes of straw: he ran to them with
great eagerness, and drunk very heartily of their milk; after this he
began to consider that there must be some hut at least hard by, as the
goats could not have strayed in that manner any great distance; he
therefore resolved to stay upon the spot for some time; and soon after
the fog clearing up, he espied a hut just before him, to which he
directly repaired, and there got a belly-full of their homely fare, and
directions to find his way to Stockholm.
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