第21章 THE VOYAGE(9)

But as all men who have ever been at sea well know how weak such attempts are,and want no authorities of Scripture to prove that the most absolute power of a captain of a ship is very contemptible in the wind's eye,so did it befall our noble commander,who,having struggled with the wind three or four hours,was obliged to give over,and lost in a few minutes all that he had been so long a-gaining;in short,we returned to our former station,and once more cast anchor in the neighborhood of Deal.

Here,though we lay near the shore,that we might promise ourselves all the emolument which could be derived from it,we found ourselves deceived;and that we might with as much conveniency be out of the sight of land;for,except when the captain launched forth his own boat,which he did always with great reluctance,we were incapable of procuring anything from Deal,but at a price too exorbitant,and beyond the reach even of modern luxury--the fare of a boat from Deal,which lay at two miles'distance,being at least three half-crowns,and,if we had been in any distress for it,as many half-guineas;for these good people consider the sea as a large common appendant to their manor;in which when they find any of their fellow-creatures impounded,they conclude that they have a full right of making them pay at their own discretion for their deliverance:to say the truth,whether it be that men who live on the sea-shore are of an amphibious kind,and do not entirely partake of human nature,or whatever else may be the reason,they are so far from taking any share in the distresses of mankind,or of being moved with any compassion for them,that they look upon them as blessings showered down from above,and which the more they improve to their own use,the greater is their gratitude and piety.Thus at Gravesend a sculler requires a shilling for going less way than he would row in London for threepence;and at Deal a boat often brings more profit in a day than it can produce in London in a week,or perhaps in a month;in both places the owner of the boat founds his demand on the necessity and distress of one who stands more or less in absolute want of his assistance,and with the urgency of these always rises in the exorbitancy of his demand,without ever considering that,from these very circumstances,the power or ease of gratifying such demand is in like proportion lessened.Now,as I am unwilling that some conclusions,which may be,I am aware,too justly drawn from these observations,should be imputed to human nature in general,I have endeavored to account for them in a way more consistent with the goodness and dignity of that nature.However it be,it seems a little to reflect on the governors of such monsters that they do not take some means to restrain these impositions,and prevent them from triumphing any longer in the miseries of those who are,in many circumstances at least,their fellow-creatures,and considering the distresses of a wretched seaman,from his being wrecked to his being barely windbound,as a blessing sent among them from above,and calling it by that blasphemous name.

Friday,July 5.--This day I sent a servant on board a man-of-war that was stationed here,with my compliments to the captain,to represent to him the distress of the ladies,and to desire the favor of his long-boat to conduct us to Dover,at about seven miles'distance;and at the same time presumed to make use of a great lady's name,the wife of the first lord commissioner of the admiralty,who would,I told him,be pleased with any kindness shown by him towards us in our miserable condition.And this Iam convinced was true,from the humanity of the lady,though she was entirely unknown to me.

The captain returned a verbal answer to a long letter acquainting me that what I desired could not be complied with,it being a favor not in his power to grant.This might be,and I suppose was,true;but it is as true that,if he was able to write,and had pen,ink,and paper on board,he might have sent a written answer,and that it was the part of a gentleman so to have done;but this is a character seldom maintained on the watery element,especially by those who exercise any power on it.Every commander of a vessel here seems to think himself entirely free from all those rules of decency and civility which direct and restrain the conduct of the members of a society on shore;and each,claiming absolute dominion in his little wooden world,rules by his own laws and his own discretion.I do not,indeed,know so pregnant an instance of the dangerous consequences of absolute power,and its aptness to intoxicate the mind,as that of those petty tyrants,who become such in a moment,from very well-disposed and social members of that communion in which they affect no superiority,but live in an orderly state of legal subjection with their fellow-citizens.