372 A VALUABLE CARGO.

that was proper to make of earth or of wood; in a word, we called
him our Jack-of-all-trades.

With these I carried a tailor, who had offered himself to go
passenger to the East Indies with my nephew, but afterwards con-
sented to stay on our new plantation, and proved a most necessary
handy fellow as could be desired in many other businesses besides
that of his trade; for, as I observed formerly, necessity arms us
for all employments.

My cargo, as near as I can collect, for I have not kept an
account of the particulars, consisted of a sufficient quantity of
linen, and some thin English stuffs for clothing the Spaniards that
I expected to find there, and enough of them as, by my calcula-
tion, might comfortably supply them for seven years. If I re-
member right, the materials I carried for clothing them with,
gloves, hats, shoes, stockings, and all such things as they could
want for wearing, amounted to above £200, including some beds,
bedding, and household stuff, particularly kitchen utensils, with
pots, kettles, pewter, brass, &c.; and near £100 more in iron-
work, nails, tools of every kind, staples, hooks, hinges, and every
necessary thing I could think of.

I carried also an hundred spare arms, muskets, and fuzees,
besides some pistols, a considerable quantity of shot of all sizes,
and two pieces of brass cannon; and because I knew not what
time, and what extremities I was providing for, I carried an
hundred barrels of powder, besides swords, cutlasses, and the iron
part of some pikes and halberds; so that, in short, we had a large
magazine of all sorts of stores. And I made my nephew carry two
small quarter-deck guns more than he wanted for his ship, to
leave behind, if there was occasion, that, when we came there,
we might build a fort, and man it against all sorts of enemies;
and, indeed, I at first thought there was need enough for it all,
and much more, if we hoped to maintain our possession of the
island, as shall be seen in the course of that story.

I had not such bad luck in this voyage as I had been used to
meet with, and therefore shall have the less occasion to interrupt
the reader, who, perhaps, may be impatient to hear how matters
went with my colony; yet some odd accidents, cross winds, and