Now,though I am as free from superstition as any man breathing,and never did believe in witches,notwithstanding all the excellent arguments of my lord chief-justice Hale in their favor,and long before they were put down by act of parliament,yet by what power a ship of burden should sail three miles against both wind and tide,I cannot conceive,unless there was some supernatural interposition in the case;nay,could we admit that the wind stood neuter,the difficulty would still remain.So that we must of necessity conclude that the ship was either bewinded or bewitched.The captain,perhaps,had another meaning.He imagined himself,I believe,bewitched,because the wind,instead of persevering in its change in his favor,for change it certainly did that morning,should suddenly return to its favorite station,and blow him back towards the bay.But,if this was his opinion,he soon saw cause to alter;for he had not measured half the way back when the wind again declared in his favor,and so loudly,that there was no possibility of being mistaken.The orders for the second tack were given,and obeyed with much more alacrity than those had been for the first.We were all of us indeed in high spirits on the occasion;though some of us a little regretted the good things we were likely to leave behind us by the fisherman's neglect;I might give it a worse name,for he faithfully promised to execute the commission,which he had had abundant opportunity to do;but nautica fides deserves as much to be proverbial as ever Punica fides could formerly have done.Nay,when we consider that the Carthaginians came from the Phenicians who are supposed to have produced the first mariners,we may probably see the true reason of the adage,and it may open a field of very curious discoveries to the antiquarian.
We were,however,too eager to pursue our voyage to suffer anything we left behind us to interrupt our happiness,which,indeed,many agreeable circumstances conspired to advance.The weather was inexpressibly pleasant,and we were all seated on the deck,when our canvas began to swell with the wind.We had likewise in our view above thirty other sail around us,all in the same situation.Here an observation occurred to me,which,perhaps,though extremely obvious,did not offer itself to every individual in our little fleet:when I perceived with what different success we proceeded under the influence of a superior power which,while we lay almost idle ourselves,pushed us forward on our intended voyage,and compared this with the slow progress which we had made in the morning,of ourselves,and without any such assistance,I could not help reflecting how often the greatest abilities lie wind-bound as it were in life;or,if they venture out and attempt to beat the seas,they struggle in vain against wind and tide,and,if they have not sufficient prudence to put back,are most probably cast away on the rocks and quicksands which are every day ready to devour them.
It was now our fortune to set out melioribus avibus.The wind freshened so briskly in our poop that the shore appeared to move from us as fast as we did from the shore.The captain declared he was sure of a wind,meaning its continuance;but he had disappointed us so often that he had lost all credit.However,he kept his word a little better now,and we lost sight of our native land as joyfully,at least,as it is usual to regain it.
Sunday.--The next morning the captain told me he thought himself thirty miles to the westward of Plymouth,and before evening declared that the Lizard Point,which is the extremity of Cornwall,bore several leagues to leeward.Nothing remarkable passed this day,except the captain's devotion,who,in his own phrase,summoned all hands to prayers,which were read by a common sailor upon deck,with more devout force and address than they are commonly read by a country curate,and received with more decency and attention by the sailors than are usually preserved in city congregations.I am indeed assured,that if any such affected disregard of the solemn office in which they were engaged,as I have seen practiced by fine gentlemen and ladies,expressing a kind of apprehension lest they should be suspected of being really in earnest in their devotion,had been shown here,they would have contracted the contempt of the whole audience.To say the truth,from what I observed in the behavior of the sailors in this voyage,and on comparing it with what I have formerly seen of them at sea and on shore,I am convinced that on land there is nothing more idle and dissolute;in their own element there are no persons near the level of their degree who live in the constant practice of half so many good qualities.
They are,for much the greater part,perfect masters of their business,and always extremely alert,and ready in executing it,without any regard to fatigue or hazard.The soldiers themselves are not better disciplined nor more obedient to orders than these whilst aboard;they submit to every difficulty which attends their calling with cheerfulness,and no less virtues and patience and fortitude are exercised by them every day of their lives.
