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
However it was with great joy he saw day-light appear, at first dawn of
which he was quite freed from those troublesome guests; he had nothing to
do but to seek the thickest tree he could find, and, climbing up into it,
he took some refreshment of sleep, which he had great need of, having
travelled hard all night. He afterwards eat sparingly of his cheese and
biscuit, fearing they might not last till he could get a fresh supply,
and then took a very large dram of rum, with which, finding his spirits
much refreshed, and night coming on, he began his journey again,
travelling in the same manner as the preceding night, with a firebrand
whirling round his head. In this manner travelling by night, and
concealing himself by day, he went on four days, when he reached the Blue
Mountains, where he thought himself out of all danger of pursuit, or
being stopped for want of a pass. He now travelled by day, meeting with
great multitudes of buffaloes, black bears, deer, wolves, and wild
turkeys, the latter being so large as to weigh thirty or forty pounds;
none of these creatures offered to attack him; but walking one day on the
side of a small rivulet, almost lost in thought, he was suddenly alarmed
by something he heard plunging into the water, and turning his head to
the side from whence the noise came, he was struck with the sight of a
great white bear, which, being likewise disturbed, raised itself
immediately and made towards him. Our hero now thought there was no way
to escape; however, with great presence of mind, he stepped aside to a
furze bush, and, striking a light with all the haste he could, set it on
fire; at the sight of which the bear, who was now within a very small
distance of him, turned about, and went away roaring hideously.
Some time after this he was comically alarmed by an inoffensive animal;
as he was walking along a deer-track, he chanced to spy a very fine
tortoise-shell box, as he imagined, though he could not conceive how it
could be dropped there; and, thinking he might make good advantage of it
among the Indians, claps it into his pocket; he had not gone far before
he heard a hissing noise, which seemed to be very near; he immediately
thought it to be some venomous snake, and endeavoured to avoid it by
going out of the path he was in; but still the noise seemed to pursue
him; at last looking down, he sees a little ugly black head peeping out
of his pocket, which he found came out of what he had picked up for a
box: he with much ado slips his fingers into his pocket, takes out his
supposed box, and flings it to the ground, when the creature, opening the
upper from the under shell, marched away; this was, as he afterwards
found, no other than a land-tortoise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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