第41章 THE VOYAGE(29)

In truth,the sum was paid for nothing more than for a liberty to six persons (two of them servants)to stay on board a ship while she sails from one port to another,every shilling of which comes clear into the captain's pocket.Ignorant people may perhaps imagine,especially when they are told that the captain is obliged to sustain them,that their diet at least is worth something,which may probably be now and then so far the case as to deduct a tenth part from the net profits on this account;but it was otherwise at present;for when I had contracted with the captain at a price which I by no means thought moderate,I had some content in thinking I should have no more to pay for my voyage;but I was whispered that it was expected the passengers should find themselves in several things;such as tea,wine,and such like;and particularly that gentlemen should stow of the latter a much larger quantity than they could use,in order to leave the remainder as a present to the captain at the end of the voyage;and it was expected likewise that gentlemen should put aboard some fresh stores,and the more of such things were put aboard the welcomer they would be to the captain.

I was prevailed with by these hints to follow the advice proposed;and accordingly,besides tea and a large hamper of wine,with several hams and tongues,I caused a number of live chickens and sheep to be conveyed aboard;in truth,treble the quantity of provisions which would have supported the persons I took with me,had the voyage continued three weeks,as it was supposed,with a bare possibility,it might.

Indeed it continued much longer;but as this was occasioned by our being wind-bound in our own ports,it was by no means of any ill consequence to the captain,as the additional stores of fish,fresh meat,butter,bread,&c.which I constantly laid in,greatly exceeded the consumption,and went some way in maintaining the ship's crew.It is true I was not obliged to do this;but it seemed to be expected;for the captain did not think himself obliged to do it,and I can truly say I soon ceased to expect it of him.He had,I confess,on board a number of fowls and ducks sufficient for a West India voyage;all of them,as he often said,"Very fine birds,and of the largest breed."This I believe was really the fact,and I can add that they were all arrived at the full perfection of their size.Nor was there,I am convinced,any want of provisions of a more substantial kind;such as dried beef,pork,and fish;so that the captain seemed ready to perform his contract,and amply to provide for his passengers.What I did then was not from necessity,but,perhaps,from a less excusable motive,and was by no means chargeable to the account of the captain.

But,let the motive have been what it would,the consequence was still the same;and this was such that I am firmly persuaded the whole pitiful thirty pounds came pure and neat into the captain's pocket,and not only so,but attended with the value of ten pound more in sundries into the bargain.I must confess myself therefore at a loss how the epithet PITIFUL came to be annexed to the above sum;for,not being a pitiful price for what it was given,I cannot conceive it to be pitiful in itself;nor do I believe it is thought by the greatest men in the kingdom;none of whom would scruple to search for it in the dirtiest kennel,where they had only a reasonable hope of success.How,therefore,such a sum should acquire the idea of pitiful in the eyes of the master of a ship seems not easy to be accounted for;since it appears more likely to produce in him ideas of a different kind.

Some men,perhaps,are no more sincere in the contempt for it which they express than others in their contempt of money in general;and I am the rather inclined to this persuasion,as Ihave seldom heard of either who have refused or refunded this their despised object.Besides,it is sometimes impossible to believe these professions,as every action of the man's life is a contradiction to it.Who can believe a tradesman who says he would not tell his name for the profit he gets by the selling such a parcel of goods,when he hath told a thousand lies in order to get it?Pitiful,indeed,is often applied to an object not absolutely,but comparatively with our expectations,or with a greater object:in which sense it is not easy to set any bounds to the use of the word.Thus,a handful of halfpence daily appear pitiful to a porter,and a handful of silver to a drawer.The latter,I am convinced,at a polite tavern,will not tell his name (for he will not give you any answer)under the price of gold.And in this sense thirty pound may be accounted pitiful by the lowest mechanic.

One difficulty only seems to occur,and that is this:how comes it that,if the profits of the meanest arts are so considerable,the professors of them are not richer than we generally see them?

One answer to this shall suffice.Men do not become rich by what they get,but by what they keep.He who is worth no more than his annual wages or salary,spends the whole;he will be always a beggar let his income be what it will,and so will be his family when he dies.This we see daily to be the case of ecclesiastics,who,during their lives,are extremely well provided for,only because they desire to maintain the honor of the cloth by living like gentlemen,which would,perhaps,be better maintained by living unlike them.

But,to return from so long a digression,to which the use of so improper an epithet gave occasion,and to which the novelty of the subject allured,I will make the reader amends by concisely telling him that the captain poured forth such a torrent of abuse that I very hastily and very foolishly resolved to quit the ship.

I gave immediate orders to summon a hoy to carry me that evening to Dartmouth,without considering any consequence.Those orders I gave in no very low voice,so that those above stairs might possibly conceive there was more than one master in the cabin.