424 JHE LIFE AND ADVENTURES

But it was tuo late now—all things Heaven appoints are best. Had
I gone with him, T had never had so many things to be thankful for,
and you had never heard of the Second Part of the Travels and Ad-
ventures of Robinson Crusoe; so I must leave here the fruitless ex-
claiming at myself, and go on with my voyage.

From the Brazils, we made directly away over the Atlantic Sea to
the Cape de Bonne Esperance, or, as we call it, the Cape of Good
Hope; and had a tolerable good voyage, our course generally south-
east; now and then a storm, and some contrary winds. But my disas-
ters at sea were at an cnd; my future rubs and cross events were to
befall me on shore; that it might appear the land was as well prepared
to be our scourge as the sea, when Heaven, who directs the circum-
stances of things, pleases to appoint it to be so.

Our ship was on a trading voyage, and had a supercargo on board,
who was to direct all her motions after she arrived at the Cape; only
being limited to a certain number of days for stay, by charter-party,
at the several ports she was to go to. This was none of my business,
neither did I meddle with it at all; my nephew, the captain, and the
supercargo, adjusting all those things between them as they thought fit.

We made no stay at the Cape longer than was needful to take in
fresh water, but made the best of our way for the coast of Coromandel:
we were indeed informed that a French man-of-war of fifty guns, and
two large merchant ships, were gone for the Indies; and as I knew we
were at war with France, I had some apprehensions of them; but they
went their own way, and we heard no more of them.

I shall not pester my account, or the reader, with descriptions of
places, journals of our voyages, variations of the compass, latitudes,
meridian distances, trade-winds, situation of ports, and the like; such
as almost all the histories of long navigation are full of, and which
make the reading tiresome enough, and are perfectly unprofitable to all
that read, except only to those who are to go to those places them-
selves.

It is enough to name the ports and places which we touched at, and
what occurred to us upon our passing from one to another. We touched
first at the island of Madagascar, where though the people are fierce and
treacherous, and, in particular, very well armed with lances and bows,
which they use with inconceivable dexterity, yet we fared very well
with them a while; they treated us very civilly; and for some trifles
which we gave them, such as knives, scissors, &c. they brought us
eleven good fat bullocks, middling in size, but very good in flesh, which
we took in, partly for fresh provisions for our present spending, and
the rest to salt for the ship’s use.