pounds of my late acquired wealth, (ſo that I had two hundred pounds left, which I repoſed with the Captain's widow, who was an honeſt gentlewoman,) yet my misfortunes in this unhappy voyage were very great. For our ſhip ſailing towards the Canary iſlands, we were chaſed by a Salee rover; and in ſpite of all the haſte we could make, by crowding as much canvas as our yards could ſpread, or our maſts carry, the pirate gained upon us, ſo that we prepared ourſelves to fight. They had eighteen guns, and we had but twelve. About three in the afternoon there was a deſperate engagement, wherein many were killed and wounded on both ſides; but finding ourſelves overpowered with numbers, our ſhip diſabled, and ourſelves too impotent to have the leaſt hopes of ſucceſs, we were forced to ſurrender; and accordingly were all carried priſoners into the port of Salee. Our men were ſent to the Emperor’s court to be ſold there; but the pirate captain taking notice of me, kept me to be his own ſlave.
In this condition, I thought myſelf the moſt miſerable creature on earth, and the prophecy of my father came afreſh into my thoughts. However, my condition was better than I thought it to be, as will ſoon appear. Some hopes indeed I had that my new patron would go to ſea again, where he might be taken by a Spaniſh or Portugueſe man of war, and then I ſhould be ſet at liberty. But in this I was miſtaken; for he never took me with him, but left me to look after his little garden, and do the drudgery of his houſe; and when he returned from ſea, would make me lie in the cabin, and look after the ſhip. I had no one that I could communicate my thoughts to, which were continually meditating my eſcape; no Erghfiman, Irifhmsn, or Scotchman here, but myſelf; and for two years I could ſee nothing practicable, but only pleaſed myſelf with the imagination.
After ſome length of time, my patron, as I found, grew ſo poor that he could not fit out his ſhip as uſual; and then he uſed conſtantly, once or twice a week, if the weather was fair, to go out a fiſhing, taking me and a young Moreſco boy to row the boat; and ſo much pleaſed was he with me for my dexterity in catching the fiſh, that he would often ſend me with a Moor, who was one of his kinſmen, and the Moreſco youth, to catch a diſh of fiſh for him.
One morning, as we were at the ſport, there aroſe ſuch a thick fog, that we loſt ſight of the ſhore; and rowing we
