A
VOYAGE
TO
Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies;
In His Majesty’s Ships, the Swallow,
and Weymouth, &c.
We took in eight Months Provisions each, at Portsmouth; Stores, Careening-Geer, and Necessaries requisite to continue us a double Voyage down the Coast of Guinea, for meeting, if possible, with the Pyrates; who did then very much infest those Parts, and destroy our Trade and Factories. Accordingly the Company’s Governors for Gambia and other Places, embark’d under our Convoy, and were to have what Support we could give them, in restoring the Credit of the Royal African Company; which begun now to take new life under the Influence of the Duke of Chandois.
For this Purpose we set sail from Spithead February 5th, 1720/1.
It is a Pleasure we have beyond the Merchant-Service in sailing, that we are forbid Commerce. When Men of War have no other Lading than Provisions and Necessaries, the Duty of Sailors is eased, and their Conveniencies better; whereas Cargoes, besides dishonouring the Commission, and unfitting the King’s Ships for Action, stifle and sicken a Ship’s Company in warm Climates, impose hard Services, and spoil the Trade of the Merchant they are designed to encourage, and expect a Gratuity from; because Labour and Freight free, they can afford to undersel.
In the Evening from six to nine, we saw those Appearances in the Sky called Capræ saltantes, by the Sailors Morrice-Dancers; they are Streams of Light that suddenly shoot into one another, and disappear for a Minute or two; yet shifting their Stations within the Quarter, in so quick and surprizing a manner as might easily deceive superstitious Times into a belief of Armies in the Air; these, the Scintillæ volantes, and such like nitrous Exhalations, having given rise, it’s probable, to all those Prodigies the Air has heretofore in impious Times abounded with.
The Western Extremity of England that we are now passing by, has been supposed, from the equal Depth of Water found there, from Doors, Windows, and Roots of Trees, formerly (it’s said) hooked up by Fishermen, to have been in Ages past continuous with the rocky little Islands of Scilly, by a Land called Lioness. When I consider the Changes Earthquakes and Inundations have made, and continue insensibly to make on all the different Coasts of the Earth, losing in some places, and gaining in others; and what new Islands have now and then been thrust up on the surface of the Waters by Streams and Currents, subterranean Winds and Fires; the thing does not appear to me altogether conjectural: the Rocks seem now with terrible accent to lament the reparation. Who knows but we likewise are severing eternally from our Friends! it is a Voyage we shall at some time or other make; and those solitary Rocks that bound the last sight to our Homes and Countries, naturally bring to my mind some Reflections on the subject.
Whether when we have shut up this Life we shall remain resolved into our Elements; revive again in some Plant or Animal; or thirdly, be reinstated Soul and Body into Glory, is an Enquiry worthy our utmost Concern and Diligence; as it will sweeten the imbittered Potions of Life, make us patient under Afflictions, and even easy on this treacherous Element the Sea; whom none ought to trust; but they who have a Faith in Providence.
Immortality has been the Ambition of the greatest and wisest Men that have lived, and indeed who would not in the satiety of worldly Objects seek out and desire such a prerogative to his Soul? The Philosophers, rather than lose so comfortable a prospect, have placed it in an Existence that can never concern our Happiness or Misery as Men: The Princes of them having made it to subsist in the universal Soul of the World; from whence, say they, are struck out Scintillations to every thing that has Life; and in Death, what was Elementary, returned to its proper station, and what was Divine in us, to what is Divine in the Universe: a Metempsychosis or Transmigration continuing the World on in the order we see it.
When I ponder on the natural Cause of our Being ... On the Necessity of that Cause to produce us, and what the material Agent is ... On our gradual Advances and Decay; both in respect to Body and Soul ... The Soul’s sympathizing with the disorders of the Body ... Our Sleeps and total Forgetfulness ... Our Susceptibility of Madness or Idiocy, and hebridous Productions, especially that of Man with Beast; I am tempted to think this the most plausible of all Philosophical Opinions, in relation to our future Existence, that we are not Creatures of that consequence we imagine; our Natures neither deserving, nor should they expect in reason any other Immortality than what other Creatures enjoy in their Seed and Transmigration. This Doctrine is what the Eastern Sages, reverenced for their Wisdom, do still propagate, and teach the Heterodox a Lesson of Humility, That Pride was not made for Man: but at the same time it makes me superstitiously fear and abhor a Grave of Waters; which I fancy will subside us too far from the Sun, whose Power is the chief Principle to revive us again in some Plant or Animal on our native Element: which will be such perhaps as, in our Life-time, our Senses were familiar and delighted with; and for which, we had a sympathetical Affection and Tendency to. But then granting the Doctrine, I am considering what the Advantage of such a belief can be to us as Men? Why none. Our personal Identity must be destroyed in the first Transmigration, much more in an infinite Succession; and we (as we) can never after this Life be affected with either Pleasure or Pain. I am therefore on the whole fond of Revelation, and wish that to be Truth which ascribes such Power to Faith, That it can remove Mountains: and therefore, with its fruits concurring, may raise us into immortal Spirits, translate us to Bliss, even without passing through the horrors of Death.
That an Almighty Power can subsist us to Eternity, we are very sure; and that he will do it, I say let it be our Happiness, that we have the Promises of his Gospel; for here only can be a remedy to all worldly Cares; and wherever Death o’er takes us, whether this Voyage or next, so we be upon our Watch, it will transport us to a Port and Treasure fixed. It will free us from Rocks, Sands, and tempestuous Seas, and anchor us in a Haven of Felicity.
The Gale with which we left England, carried us the length of Cape [3]Finisterre into serener Weather, and Sun-shine; but there we met with continued Westerly Winds (very unusual to the Coast of Portugal) which prolonged our Passage. A Day or two’s sail from Madeira, we fell in with Commodore Matthews, in the Lion, bound with a Squadron of four Sail to the East-Indies, on the like Service with ours to Africa, viz. the Suppression of Pyrates.
Abundance of Sea-weed floated about us at 40 Leagues distance, and continued a constant float till we reached the Island; an Argument that the bottom of the Sea, especially where the Depths are decreasing towards any Shore, have a Cloathing of Plants, which are probably the common Nutriment of large Fish. This our Divers in Pearl, and Coral-fishing, have confirmed to 8 or 10 Fathom water; and this, I think, the present Observation proves to be in greater Depths; 1st, Because the Unwieldiness of some, and the manner of being provided for Mastication in others, declares Ruminating, and not Prey, to be the way of Subsistence in many. 2dly, There is a greater Resort toward Shores, than in the distant Ocean, and perhaps, like many little Fish in our own Channels, they may have their Seasons of Rotation, and their Grazing, the Cause of unrooting and throwing it up here. 3dly, Porpoises play about us daily in Shoals, the most familiar great Fish in the Atlantick, and at all Parts of it: They tumble most upon a rough Surface, and against the Wind. Sailors observing these Porpoises, say, they portend Storms. The Latins call them Porci marini, from some Resemblance to the Hog, in it’s Entrails and Bigness, (weighing several Hundred.) These Fish, as they are very numerous, never enticed to the Hook, wasting many of their hours in play, and gradually lessening from Shore, shew they know readily where to make their Meals at the bottom of the Sea, tho’ at other times they certainly prey on smaller and particular Species of Fish: These their Feasts, it’s like, and That their ordinary Diet.