564 INFLUENCE OF FEAR.

joyful, and I may say thankful, when I set my foot safe on shore,
resolving, and my partner too, that if it was possible to dispose of
ourselves and effects any other way, though not every way to our
satisfaction, we would never set one foot on board that unhappy
vessel more; and, indeed, I must acknowledge, that of all the
circumstances of life that ever I had any experience of, nothing
makes mankind so completely miscrable as that of being in constant
fear. Well does the Scripture say, “The fear of man bringeth a
snare:”’ it is a life of death, and the mind is so entirely suppressed
by it, that it is capable of no relief; the animal spirits sink, and
all the vigour of nature, which usually supports men under other
afflictions, and is present to them in the greatest exigencies, fails
them here.

Nor did it fail of its usual operations upon the fancy, by height-
ening every danger, representing the English and Dutch captains
to be men incapable of hearing reason, or of distinguishing be-
tween honest men and rogues; or between a story calculated for
our own turn, made out of nothing, on purpose to deceive, and a
true genuine account of our whole voyage, progress, and design.
For we might many ways have convinced any reasonable creature
that we were not pirates: the goods we had on board, the course
we steered, our frankly showing ourselves, and entering into such
and such ports; and even our very manner, the force we had, the
number of men, the few arms, little ammunition, short provisions ;
all these would have served to convince any men that we were no
pirates. The opium, and other goods we had on board, would
make it appear the ship had been at Bengal. The Dutchmen,
who, it was said, had the names of all the men that were in the
ship, might easily see that we were a mixture of English, Portu-
guese, and Indians, and but two Dutchmen on board. These,
and many other particular circumstances, might have made it
evident to the understanding of any commander, whose hands we
might fall into, that we were no pirates.

But fear, that blind, useless passion, worked another way, and
threw us into the vapours; it bewildered our understandings, and set
the imagination at work to form a thousand terrible things that
perhaps might never happen. We first supposed, as indeed every-