18. Whitwell the mate, about

age at this

a uni

The ftory of Whitwell, the Skinner the mate of and Jenkins.

thirty-fix years of time, told me, he was the fon of a man who once had a great fortune, and gave him a uni versity education, but left an estate so encumbered with debts, and ruined with mortgages, that its income was almost nothing, and therefore the fon fold the remains of it, and went to fea with an Eaft-India captain, in the 22d year of his age, and was fo fortunate abroad, that he not only acquired riches, in four years time that he trafficked about, between Batavia and the gulph of Perfia, but married a young Indian lady, (the daughter of a Rajah, or petty Prince in the Mogul Empire) who was rich, wife and beautiful, and made his life fo very happy, for three years that the lived, that his ftate was a mere Paradise, and he seemed a little fovereign. But this fleeting scene was foon over, and on his return to England with all his wealth, their fhip was taken by the pirates of Madagascar, who robbed him of all he had, and made him a miserable flave for two years and upwards. That he escaped from them to the tawny generation of Arabs, who lived on the mountains, the other fide of this African island, and used him with great humanity; their chief being very fond of him, and en

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tertaining

tertaining him in his mud-wall-palace: he married there a pretty little yellow creature, niece to the poor ruler, and for twelve months was very far from being miferable with his partner, as they had a handfome cottage and fome cattle, and his wife was good-humour itself, very fenfible, and a religious woman; her religion being half Mahometanism and half Judaifin. But she died at the year's end, and her uncle, the Chief, not living a month after her, Whitwell came down from the mountains to the next fea coaft under the conduct of one of the Arabians, his friend, and meeting with an European fhip there, got at last to London. A little money he had left behind him in England, by way of reserve, in case of accidents, if he ever fhould return to his own country, and with this he drest himself, got into bufinefs, and came at laft to be mate of the Skinner and Jenkins. His deftiny, he added, was untoward; but as he had thought, and read, and feen enough in his wide travels, to be convinced, the world, and every being, and every atom of it, were directed and governed by unerring wifdom, he derived hopes and comforts from a due acknowledgment of God. There are more born to mifery than happiness, in this life; but all may die to be for ever glorious and, bleffed, if they pleafe.-This conclufion

was

was juft and beautiful, and a life and fentiments fo uncommon I thought deserved a memorial.

An uncommon

Scene of life.

19. Mifs Melmoth and I continued at the Talbot for three weeks, and-during that time,. breakfafted, dined, and fupped together, Except the hours of fleep, we were rarely from each other. We walked out together every day, for hours converfed, fometimes went to cards, and often she fung, delightfully fung, while on my flute I played. With the greatest civility, and the most exact good manners, we were as intimate as if we had been acquainted for ages, and we found a fatisfaction in each others company, as great as lovers generally experience: yet not fo much as one fyllable of the paffion was mentioned: not the leaft hint of love on either fide was given, while we stayed at Whitehaven; and I believe neither of us had a thought of it. It was a friendship the moft pure and exalted, that commenced at my faving her life, in the manner I have related, and by fome ftrange kind of magic, our notions and inclinations, tempers and. fentiments, had acquired fuch a famenefs in a few days, that we feemed as two fpiritual Socias, or duplicates of each others mind. Body was quite out of the cafe, tho' this F 3

lady

lady had an extravagance of beauty. My fole delight was that fine percepient, which fhed a luftre on her outward charms. How long this ftate would have lafted, had we continued more time together, and had the image of the late Mifs Noel been more effaced, or worn out of the fenfory of my head, I cannot fay; but while it did laft, there could be nothing more ftrange. Το fee two young people of different fexes, in the highest fpirits and moft confirmed health, live together for twenty-one days, perfectly pleafed with each other, intirely at their own difpofal, and as to fortune, having abundantly enough between them both for a comfortable life; and yet never utter one word, nor give a look, that could be conftrued a declaration of the paffion, or a tendency towards a more intimate union ;to compleat that connexion which nature and providence requires of beings circumstanced as we were;-this was very odd. 'Till the clock ftruck twelve every night we fat up, and talked of a vaft variety of things, from the Bible down to the Clouds of Arif tophanes, and from the comedies and tragedies of Greece and Rome, to the Minerva of Sanctius, and Hickes's northern Thefaurus. Inftead of Venus or any of her court, our converfation would often be on the morals of Cicero, his academics, and de finibus ;

on

on the English or the Roman hiftory; ShakeIpeare's fcenes of nature, or maps of life; whether the Oedipus, or the Electra of Sophocles was the beft tragedy; and the fcenes in which Plautus and Terence moft excelled. Like two critics, or two grammarians, antiquarians, hiftorians, or philofophers, would we pass the evening with the greatest chearfulness and delight.

Mifs Melmoth had a memory astonishing, and talked on every fubject extremely well.

Mifs Mel

moth's cha

She

racter.

remembered all the had read. Her judgment was ftrong, and her reflections ever good. She told me her mother was another Mrs. Dacier, and as her fatherwas killed in a duel, when she was very young, the widow Melmoth, inftead of going into the world, continued to, live at her country-feat, and diverted herfelf with teaching her daughter the languages of Greece and Rome, and in educating her heart and mind. This made this young lady a master of the Latin tongue and Greek, and enabled her to acquire a knowledge fo various and fine, that it was furprizing to hear her expatiate and explain. She talked with so much eafe and good-humour, and had a manner fo chearful and polite, that her discourse was always entertaining, even though the fubject

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