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
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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
He communicated this design to his school-fellow, Escott, one of those
who joined the gipseys with him, (for neither of the four wholly quitted
the community). Escott very readily agreed to accompany him in his
travels, and there being a vessel ready to sail for Newfoundland, tying
at Dartmouth, where they then were, they agreed to embark on board her.
Nothing remarkable happened in their passage which relates to our hero;
we shall therefore pass it by, and land him safe in Newfoundland. Having
remained there during the fishing season, he acquired all the information
he possibly could, and which he thought might be useful to him, and
returned in the same vessel to Dartmouth, from whence he had at first
sailed, bringing with him a surprising fierce and large dog, which he had
enticed to follow him, and made as gentle as a lamb, by an art peculiar
to himself. Our hero was received with great joy by his fellow gipseys,
and they were loud in his praises, when they understood he had undertaken
this voyage to enable him to deceive his enemies with the greater
success. He accordingly, in a few days, went out on a cruise in the
character of a shipwrecked sailor, lost in a vessel homeward bound from
Newfoundland, sometimes belonging to Pool, sometimes to Dartmouth, at
other times to other ports, and under such or such commander, according
as the newspapers gave account of such melancholy accidents.
If the booty he got before under this character was considerable, it was
much more so now, for being able to give an exact account of
Newfoundland, the settlements, harbours, fishery, and the inhabitants
thereof, he applied with great confidence to masters of vessels, and
gentlemen well acquainted with those parts; so that those to whom before
his prudence would not let him apply, now became his greatest
benefactors, as the perfect account he gave of the country engaged them
to give credit to all he asserted, and made them very liberal in his
favour.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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