Upon that I started that he may be experienc’d in the ways of knowing the beast in mortal form, for it was four days fore the first night of the moon and the signs were most definitely upon me. Yet I was not certain of his meaning, for he seem’d not afraid. So I told him but some of my story, of my defiance of my father, and of my inclinations against his wishes.
At the end he burst out with a strange kind of passion. "What had I done," says he, "that such an unhappy wretch should come into my ship? I would not set my foot in the same ship with thee again for a thousand pounds.” This indeed was, as I said, an excursion of his spirits, which were yet agitated by the sense of his loss, and was farther than he could have authority to go. However, he afterwards talked very gravely to me, exhorting me to go back to my father, and not tempt Providence to my ruin. "And young man," said he, "depend upon it, if you do not go back, wherever you go, you will meet with nothing but disasters and disappointments, till your father's words are fulfill’d upon you."
We parted soon after, for I made him little answer, and I saw Jakob and his father no more. As for me, having some money in my pocket, I traveled to London by land. On the road I had many struggles with myself. By the sun I dwelt on what course of life I should take, and whether I should go home, or go to sea. And by night, I let the beast come upon me as it has been wont to do since the first moon of my tenth year, and it kill’d many sheep and a cow.
My second voyage, my third voyage,
my life among the Moors
I remained some time uncertain what course of life to lead. As I stayed a while, the remembrance of the distress I had been in wore off. As that abated, the little notion I had in my desires to a return wore off with it, till at last I quite laid aside the thoughts of it and looked out for a voyage.
That evil influence which carried me away from my father's house hurried me into the wild notion of raising my fortune, and impressed those conceits so forcibly upon me as to make me deaf to all good advice. I went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africk, or, as our sailors call it, a voyage to Guinea.
It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I did not ship myself as a sailor. I might have learnt the duty and office of a foremast-man. I might, in time, have qualified myself for a mate or lieutenant, if not for a master. But as it was always my fate to choose for the worse, so I did here. Having money in my pocket and good cloathes upon my back, I would always go on board in the habit of a gentleman, and so I neither had any business in the ship or learnt to do any.
It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company in London, which does not always happen to such loose and unguided young fellows as I then was. I fell acquainted with the master of a ship who had been on the coast of Guinea. He was resolv’d to go again, having had very good success there. Hearing me say I had a mind to see the world, he told me if I would go the voyage with him I should be at no expense. I should be his messmate and his companion. If I could carry any thing with me, I should have all the advantage of it that the trade would admit.
I embraced the offer and entered into a strict friendship with this captain, who was an honest and plain-dealing man. I went the voyage with him and carried a small investment with me, which, by the honesty of my friend the captain, I increased very considerably. For I carried about ￡40 in such toys and trifles as the captain directed me to buy. This ￡40 I had mustered together by the assistance of some of my relations whom I corresponded with, and who, I believe, got my father, or at least my mother, to contribute so much as that to my first adventure.
This was the only voyage which was successful in all my adventures, which I owe to the integrity and honesty of my friend the captain. Under him also I got a competent knowledge of the mathematics and rules of navigation, learnt how to keep an account of the ship's course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand some things that were needful to be understood by a sailor. In a word, this voyage made me both a sailor and a merchant, for I brought home five pounds nine ounces of gold-dust for my adventure, which yielded me in London at my return almost ￡300. This fill’d me with those aspiring thoughts which have so completed my ruin.