# Unparalleled sufferings and surprising adventures of Philip Quarle

THE
Unparalleled Sufferings
AND
SURPRISING ADVENTURES
OF
PHILIP QUARLE.
Who was discovered by Mr Dorrington, a Bristol merchant, upon an uninhabited island in the South Sea, where he lived about fifty years, without any human assistance.
GLASGOW:
PRINTED FOR M$^c$KENZIE & HUTCHISON,
Booksellers, 16. Saltmarket.
THE
ADVENTURES
OF
PHILIP QUARLE.
ON the 4th of July 1643, Philip Quarle, a native of Bristol, being then about eighteen years of age, entered as a sailor on board of the ship Endeavour, bound for the South Sea, which set sail with a fair wind on the 7th of the same month They sailed on for the space of a month; though the wind, in changing full in their teeth, and very high withal, obliged them to cast anchor, in order to lie by till the wind did serve; but seeing themselves made upon by a pirate, they were obliged to weigh their anchor, and ​make the best of their way before the wind, in order to avoid being taken by those infidels who pursued them, from four o’clock on Friday morning, till ten at night the following Sunday; at which time there arose a storm, the sky looked very black, the wind being at north-west, and clouds began to rise and move towards them, having hung all the morning in the horizon, so that they took in their topsails, and furled their main-sails, the sea ran very short and broke, in upon their deck: however, they put right before the wind, and sailed for three weeks, when they made Cape Horn: they had no sooner got round the Cape, but the wind veered to the south and it fell flat calm: which continued for two days when the wind sprung up at south-west, and they scudded before the wind very swift, and made an island, whose name none of them knew, the ship having never been on the coast before; ⟨but⟩ there they found wood, water, and herbs of several sorts, some seals and sea-fowls. Here they refreshed themselves for four days, and then weighed anchor, the wind being fair at full south, and traded at several ports on the coast of Peru, Chili, and Mexico. From Port Aquapulco they sailed, having a fresh breeze, at N. N. E They had not sailed above one day before the wind veered to the south-west, and blew a violent gale, and there being a great sea, so that their ship took in a great deal of water, the wind continuing two days increasing to a very great storm, which held for one day and two nights more; during which time they perceived themselves near some rocks The storm rather increasing, and it growing dark, they despaired of saving the ​ship; and as the main-yard could not lower, the ship’s tackling being disorded by the violence of the storm; Quarle, being bold and active, took a hatchet which tumbled about the deck, and ran up the shrouds, in order to cut down what stopt the working of the main-yard, but by that time he was got up, there came a sea which dashed the ship to shatters against the rock; and with the violence of the shock, flung Quarle, who was astride upon the main-yard, on the top of the rock, where, having the good fortune to fall in a clift, he was hindered from being washed back again into the sea and drowned, as every body were that belonged to the ship.
Quarle, in a dismal condition, remained the succeeding night in the clift, being continually beaten with the dashing back of the sea, and being both bruised and numbed, pulled off his clothes, which were dripping wet, and spread them in the sun; and being over-fatigued, lays himself down on the smoothest place of the rock he could find, being quite spent with the hardships he had undergone, and slept while his clothes were drying.
When he awoke, he stared about him in a frightful manner, expecting every minute some creature to devour him; but, taking a little courage, put on his clothes, which by this time were quite dry; he then looks about him, but, alas! could see nothing but the dreadful effects of the late tempest, dead corpses, broken planks, and battered chests floating, and such aspects, which at once filled him with terror and grief.
Being come to the other side of the rock, he finds at the bottom of it a narrow lake, which ​separated it from the land, therefore pulling off his clothes, the water being but shallow, he wades over with them in his arms; and dressing himself, walks up a considerable way in the island without seeing any human creature, or perceiving any sign of its being inhabited, which struck a great damp on his spirits. He walks it over and over, cross ways and long ways, yet could see nothing but monkeys, strange beasts, birds, and fowls, such as he had never seen before.
Having ranged himself weary, he sat down under a cluster of trees, that made an agreeable arbour, the place being pleasant and cool, made, as it were, for repose, and he being still very much fatigued, prompted him to lie down and sleep; during which, his mind is continually alarmed with the frightful aspect of grim death.
Having gratefully returned thanks to heaven for his late deliverance, he commits himself to its care, then settles and falls to sleep, and slept till hunger awaked him to the morning, having dreamed over-night of abundance of victuals, which he fain would have come at, but was kept off by a cross cook, who bid him go and fish for some; to which he answered, that he was shipwrecked, and had nothing to fish withal. Well, then, said the cook to him again, go where thou wast like to lose thy life, and there thou shalt find where withal to support it.
Being awaked, he makes reflections upon his dream, which, though he imagined it might proceed from the emptiness of his stomach, being customary for people to dream of victuals when they go to bed hungry; yet at that time ​it may prove ominous; so driven by necessity, and led by curiosity, he went, to the same side of the rock he had been cast upon, where having stood several hours without seeing shipping, or aught that might answer his dream, the air coming from the sea being pretty sharp, and he faint, having taken no manner of food for near three days, he gave over all hopes of relief. Thus submitting himself to the will of heaven, which he supposed decreed a lingering death to punish him for his past sins, he resolves to return where he lay the night before, and there wait for his doom; but being stopped by a sudden noise which issued from a creek in the rock, not far from where he stood, he had the curiosity to go and see what occasioned it.
Being come to the place he heard the noise proceed from, he sees a fine large cod-fish, near six feet long, dabbling in a hole in the rock, where the late storm had cast it.
One under condemnation of death, and just arrived at the place of execution, could not be more rejoiced at the coming of a reprieve, than he was at the sight of the fish, having felt several sick qualms, forerunners of the death he thought he was doomed to. Heaven be praised! said he, here is my dream right; where Providence rescued my life from the grim jaws of death, there it has provided me wherewithal to support it.
So having taken off both his garters, he gets into the hole where the fish lay; and having run them through his gills, he hauls it out, and drags it after him, it being heavy, and he very weak. Going along, he finds several oysters, muscles, ​and cockles, in his way, which the sea had cast up and down the rock; and having a knife about him, he sat down and eat a few; so refreshed himself, his spirits being exhausted for want of food. This small nutriment very much recruited his decayed strength, and the thoughts of his supply of provisions having dispersed the dull ideas his late want had bred in his mind, he cheerfully takes his fish, which he drags with much more vigour than before; and filling his pockets with salt that was congealed by the sun, which he found in the cavities of the rock, away he goes to the place where he lay the night before, in order to dress some of his cod-fish; where, being come, he picks up a parcel of dry leaves, and with his knife and flint struck fire, and kindled them: then, getting together a few sticks, made a fire presently, and broiled a slice of his fish; which he eat so heartily that it overcame his stomach, being grown weak with fasting: thus sick and out of order, he applies to a helpless resource, which was lying down, and being much fatigued and harassed in hauling the heavy fish up and down the rock, he fell asleep till the next morning, during which time his rest was very much disturbed with the frightful dream of being attacked by a terrible monster, such as never was heard of, either for bigness or grimness, from which he was relieved by the interference of an old lady.
Having slept quietly the remainder of the night, he awoke in the morning pretty fresh and hearty, but very much disturbed at his late dream, which he feared presaged and prognosticated some approaching evil; but as he could make no comparative allusion of the old lady, who rescued him ​from the monster, he concludes it must be an inspiration of Providence (whom the grave old lady did personate in the dream) who lately had preserved him from a death by all appearance unavoidable, to keep him from despair in this his great extremity, promising to be at hand upon occasion.
Having made these considerations, he, on his knees, returns kind Providence his hearty thanks for all the mercies that had been extended to him; begging the continuance of its assistance.
The wind being pretty high, fed his hopes, that each succeeding hour would gratify his wishing look with that object the preceding night could not bring forth: but he was disappointed. The night approaching, kept back all probability for that time; however, depending on better success the next day, he returns whence he came; and being hungry, makes a fire, and broils another slice of his fish, then lays the rest upon the broad green leaves, and strews salt thereon to keep it from spoiling, then goes to rest, and as he lay undisturbed the night before under the trees, and much more easy than a-top, he ventured again, committing himself to the care of Providence.
But his thoughts, which all day had been disturbed with the dread of those hardships he must probably undergo, if obliged to continue there all winter, so ran in his mind, that they occasioned ideas suitable to those he had formed the day before.
These reflections bred various melancholy thoughts, which almost led him to despair. Oh! said he, that I was but a mouse, bat, or yet a ​meaner creature! then should I be below the cruel persecutions of fate. But man who was created in the noblest form, endued with reason and understanding, animated with an immortal soul, must be aimed at as the only mark worthy its malignant darts! but why do I thus rave at those evils we are the authors of? Had man continued in his original state of innocence, the very name of fate or fortune would not have been known. Well, since this is the product of sin, I accept this black lot as justly coming to my share: and humbly submitting to Heaven’s decree, I thankfully take this dream as a timely warning; and in imitation of those creatures represented in it, I will provide what shelter I can against bad weather comes.
Accordingly, first he begins to think of making himself an house to preserve him from the injuries of the weather; but having nothing to make it of, nor any instrument but a knife, which could be of little service to him, he resolves to go to that part of the rocks where he was shipwrecked, to see if he could discover any thing among the wreck that might be serviceable to him; and therefore takes the branch of a tree along with him, and coming to the place, he strips himself and goes into the water (the water being low, discovering the tops of several sharp-pointed rocks,) and gropes along with his staff for sure footing, wading as high as his chin, diving to the bottom frequently, and feeling about with his hands. This he continued doing for almost two hours; but to no purpose, not daring to go out of his depth: for he well knew, that he could do little good there, because he could discover no part of the ship, not so much as the mast or any of ​the rigging, but fancied she lay in some deep hole, where it was impossible to get at her.
Thus despairing, and fretting and teasing himself, he calls to mind that he had a hatchet in his hand when he was cast away, and thought probably it might lie in that clift of the rock into which he was thrown, thither he went, and looking about, perceived something like the handle of an hatchet just above the surface of the water at the bottom of the rock; and going down to it, took it up; which to his great joy proved to be the very thing he wanted.
Having got his tool, he dresses himself, and goes on to the island again, intending to cut down some trees to make himself a hut: looking about therefore for the properest plants, and taking notice of a sort of trees, whose branches, bending to the ground, took root, and became pliant, he thought they might be the fittest for this purpose, and cut a sufficient parcel of them to make his barrack; which was full business for him that day.
His barrack being finished, which took him up fifteen days hard work; now, said he, here is a house, but where is the furniture? This, indeed, may keep the weather from me, but not the cold. The ground on which I do and must lie is hard, and doubtless in the winter will grew damp, which, with want of covering, may occasion agues and fevers, the cholic and the rheumatism, and twenty racking distempers, which may cause me to repent my having escaped a milder death.
In this great consternation and perplexity, he goes to see if he could spy any shipping riding within sight of the island: as he was walking along, full of heavy and dull thoughts, which weighed his looks to the ground, he happened to ​find a sort of high grass that grows but here and there, round some particular sort of trees, which he never took notice of before. Heaven be praised! said he, I have found wherewithal to keep my poor body from the ground, whilst I am, by Providence, doomed to remain here: so passes on, intending at his return to cut down a sufficient quantity of it to make mats, that might serve him instead of bed and bed-clothes.
Having looked himself almost blind, without seeing the least prospect of what he desired, he concludes upon going to cut the grass, which he stood in such want of, and spread it to dry, whilst the weather was yet warm. That piece of work kept him employed the remainder of the day, and the best part of the succeeding, having nothing but a pocket knife to cut withal. That work being done, wanting a tool to spread and turn his grass, he takes a branch of the next tree, which having stript off all the small ones about it, all but part of that at the top, being forky, made a tolerable fork: thus being equipped for hay-making, he went on with his work, and as he was at it, he saw, at some distance, several monkeys as busy as himself, scratching something out of the ground, which they did eat upon the spot, and carried the rest to their home.
His hopes that these roots might be for his use, those creatures being naturally dainty, eating nothing but what men may, made him hasten to the place he saw them scratching at, that by the herb they bear (which they tore off) he might find out the root.
Having, by the leaves which he picked off the ground, found some of the same, he digs them up, and carried them to his barrack, where he ​broiled a slice of his fish, and in the ashes roasted them, which eat something like chesnuts done in the same manner.
This new found out eatable much rejoicing him, he returned his hearty thanks to kind Providence, that he had put him in a way to provide himself with bread, and that of a most delicious kind. As soon, therefore, as he had dined, he went out on purpose to dig a good quantity; but as he was going to the place where he had taken notice they grew pretty thick, he sees a tortoise, of about a foot over, crawling before him: heaven be praised! said he, here is what will supply me both with victuals, and utensils to dress it in; he ran, therefore, and turned it on its back, to keep it from getting away, whilst he went to fetch his hatchet, that he might cut the bottom shell from the top, in order to make a kettle of the deepest, and a dish of the flat part.
Being tired of cod-fish, he dresses the tortoise, an animal seldom eaten but upon extremity, the flesh thereof often giving the flux; nevertheless he ventured upon it, and liked it extremely, some part of it eating very much like veal; which at that time was a very great novelty to him, having eaten no fresh meat for a long time before.
Happening to eat of the part of the tortoise which is the most nourishing, and less hurtful, he was in no wise discomposed; but, having boiled it all, be laid by the remainder to eat how and then between his fish.
Being provided with a boiling utensil, he often had a change, by means of those admirable roots so luckily discovered; some of which he roasted for bread, others he boiled with salt cod: this in a great measure mitigated his misfortune, and softened ​the hardships he lay under, so that seeing but little prospect of changing his present condition, by getting away from thence for a while, he thinks on means to make it as easy as possible, whilst he remained in it; for having projected a bed, and taking the grass, which by that time was dry, he falls to work; and a mat being the thing concluded upon, he twists his hay into ropes, the bigness of his leg; then he cuts a pretty number of sticks, about two feet long, which he drives in the ground, ten in a row, and near four inches asunder, and opposite to them such another row at six or seven feet distance from the first, which made the length of his mat; then having fastened one end of his rope to one of his corner sticks, he brings it round the other corner stick, and so to the next at the other end, till he has laid his frame, then he weaves across shorter ropes of the same, in the manner they make pallions on board with old cable ends. When he had finished his mat, he beat it with a long stick, which made it swell up; and the grass being of a soft cottony nature, he had a warm and easy bed to lie on.
The comfort and pleasure he found on his soft mat (being grown sore with lying on the ground for the space of a month and more) so liberally gratified him for the time and labour he had bestowed in making it, that it gave him encouragement to go about another; a covering being the next necessary wanted, for though the winter was as yet pretty warm, and he in a great measure, seasoned by the hardships he had gone through; yet the winter approaching, and the present season still favourable for him to make provision against it, he goes and cuts more grass; which being made ready for use, he lengthens his ​loom, to allow for rolling up at one end, instead of a bolster, and makes it thicker than the first; which he intends in cold weather shall lie upon him instead of blankets.
Being provided with the most necessary furniture he wanted, he thinks on more conveniences, resolving to make himself a table to eat his victuals upon, and a chair to sit on: thus having cut several sticks above four feet long, he drives them in a row a little way in the ground; then takes smaller, which he interweaves between: having made the top, he sets it upon four other sticks, forky at the upper end, which he stuck in the ground at one side of his barrack, to the height of a table; this being done, he cuts four more branches, such as he judged would do best for the seat and back of a chair, which he also drove in the ground near his table; and having twisted the branches, which grew to them, with each other, from back to front, and across again, he weaves smaller between, bottoming his seat, which completes the furniture of his habitation.
Now being entirely reconciled to the state of life Providence, on whom he fully depended, had been pleased to call him to, he resolves to make provision of these excellent roots; and with his hatchet he cuts a piece of a tree wherewith he makes a shovel, in order to dig them up with more ease: with this instrument he went to the place where he had observed they grew thickest, which being near the monkeys quarters, they came down from off the trees in great numbers, grinning as if they would have flown at him; which made him stop a while; he might, indeed, with the instrument in his hand, have killed several, and perhaps have dispersed the rest, but ​would not: why, said he, should I add barbarity to injustice; it is but natural and reasonable for every creature to guard and defend their own; this was given them by nature for food, which I come to rob them of; and since I am obliged to get of them for my subsistence, if I am decreed to be here another season, I will set some in a place distant from theirs for my own use.
Having stood a considerable time, those animals seeing he did not go forwards, each went and scratched up for itself, and afterwards retiring, giving him the opportunity to dig up a few for himself: and as he was not come to the place where they grew thick, he laid them in small heaps as he dug them up; while those sly creatures would, whilst he was digging up more, come down from the trees, where they stood hid among the leaves, and steal them away, which obliged him to be contented for that time with as many as his pockets would hold, resolving to bring something next time which would contain a larger quantity; and fearing those animals, which are naturally very cunning, should dig them up, he comes early in the morning following to make his provision: and for want of a sack to put them in, he takes his jacket, which he buttons up, and ties at the sleeves, and as he had observed that every root had abundance of little off-sets hanging at it by small fibres, he pulled off his shirt also, of which he makes another sack to put them in.
Having concluded upon catching some animals which he had seen in the woods, he considers by what means, having no dogs to hunt, nor guns to shoot: having paused a while, he resolves upon making gins, wherewith he had seen hares catched in Europe; thus, taking some of the cords ​which he found with a sail at the outside of the rock, he goes to work, and makes several, which he fastens at divers gaps in the thicket within the wood, through which he judged that sort of beast he had a mind for went.
Impatient to know the success of his snares, he gets up betimes the next morning, and goes to examine them; in one of which he found a certain animal something like a fawn, the colour of a deer, but feet and ears like a fox, and as big as a well-grown hare; he was much rejoiced at his game, whose mouth he immediately opened to see if he could find whether it fed upon grass, or lived upon prey; the creature being caught by the neck, and strangled with struggling, before it died had brought up in its throat some of the greens it had been eating, which very much pleased him, accounting those which lived upon flesh as bad as carrion.
Having returned thanks for his good luck, he takes it home, in order to dress part of it for his dinner; so cases and guts it. And having stuck a long stick at both ends in the ground, making a half circle, he hangs one quarter of the animal upon a string before a good fire, and so roasts it.
His dinner being ready, having said grace, he set to eating with an uncommon appetite; and whether it was the novelty of the dish, or that the meat did really deserve the praise, he really thought he never eat any kind of flesh, till then, comparable to it either for taste or tenderness.
Having made a couple of nets, about four feet square, which he fastens in the room of the killing snares, so retired, and resolved to come and examine them every morning.
Several days passed without taking any thing, ​so that he wanted flesh for a whole week; which did begin to disorder his stomach, but not his temper: being entirely resigned to the will of providence, and fully contented with whatever heaven was pleased to send.
One afternoon, which was not his customary time of day to examine his nets, being too visible in the day-time for game to run in, he happened to walk in the wood, to take full dimensions thereof, so chanced to go by his nets; in one of which were taken two animals as big as a kid six weeks old, of a bright dun, their horns upright and straight, the shape like a stag, and most curiously limbed, a small tuft of hair on each shoulder and hip. By their horns, which were but short, they appeared to be very young, which rejoiced him the more, being in hopes to tame those he did not want for present use; so carried them home, joyful of his game, depending upon a good dinner but was sadly disappointed: the animals he found were antelopes, (calling to mind he had seen them in his travels), which proved both females, he had made a resolution to preserve. Though they were too young to be with kid, and he in great need of flesh, yet he would not kill them; therefore, with cords, fastens them to the outside of his lodge; and with constant feeding them, in two months time made them so tame, that they followed him up and down; which added much to the pleasure he already took in his habitation, which by that time was covered with green leaves, both top and sides, the stakes it was made of having struck root, and shot out young branches, whose strength increasing that summer; to fill up the vacancy between each plant, he pulled up the truss wherewith he had covered the ​outside and top of the hut between them, to keep the cold out in the winter.
Having completed that piece of work, he goes and visits his plantations, which he finds in a thriving condition, the roots being, in six months time, grown from the bigness of a pea (as they were when first set) tc that of an egg: his antelopes also were come to their full growth and complete beauty, which exceeded most fourfooted beasts, having a majestic presence, body and limbs representing a stag, and the noble march of a horse: so every thing concurred to his happiness. For which, having returned his most liberal benefactor his grateful acknowledgments, he thinks on means to prevent any obstructions that may intercept the continuation thereof, and as the want of clothes was the only cause he could think of to make him uneasy, having but the jacket and clothes which were given him on board; to save his own clothes which, when worn out, he could not recruit, therefore, to accustom himself to go without, he thinks on those he had, so takes away the lining from the outside of his clothing, in order to wear the thickest in the coldest weather, and so thins his dress by degrees, till at last he went quite naked.
Having thus concluded, as being the best shift necessity could raise him, he falls a ripping his jacket, in the lining whereof he finds seven peas, and three beans, which were got in at a hole in the corner of the pocket.
Those few made him wish for more, which yet he had no room to hope for, they being raised by saed which the island did not produce; these few, said he, which at present are hardly sufficient to satisfy a womans longing, may, with time and industry, ​be improved to a quantity large enough to serve me for a meal, then lays them up against a proper time to set them, so spent the remainder of that summer in walking about the island, watering his lodge, weeding his root plantation, attending his nets, which now and then supplied him with an antelope or goat, to eat at intervals between; fish he commonly found on the rock after high winds and storms: never failing to visit the sea three or four times a-week, according as the weather did prove: thus diverting many anxious hours with variety of objects that element affords. Sometimes he had the pleasure to see great whales chasing one another, spouting large streams of water out of their gills and nostrils: at other times, numbers of beautiful dolphins rolling amongst the waves: now and then a quantity of strange monstrous fish playing on the surface of the sea, some whereof had heads (not common to fishes) like those of hogs, others not unlike those of dogs, calves, horses, lions, bulls, goats, and several other creatures; some chasing another sort, which to avoid being taken, would quit their element, and seek refuge in the air, and fly some yards above the water till their fins, being dry, obliged them to plunge in again.
In this prosperous way he lived fifteen years, finding no alteration in the weather or seasons, nor meeting in all the time with any transactions worthy of record: still performing his usual exercises, and taking his walk with all the content and satisfaction his happy condition could procure, entirely forsaking all thoughts and desires of ever quitting the blessed station he then had in his possession.
​One day, after a violent storm, being at that side of the rock he used to visit, as he was looking about, he hears a voice cry out, like that of a man from behind the rock: this set his blood aglowing, and he said to himself, I shall now have a companion; and proceeds to the spot, and saw something which he took to be a chest; with his staff he broke it open, and as he was striking it, a boy underneath called to him in French to turn it up; at this he put the end of his staff, and raised it up about a foot from the ground, and out of the opening immediately out creeps the boy, who falling upon his knees, and holding up his hands, almost drowned in tears, and begging for mercy in such a moving manner, that Quarle could not refrain from shedding tears! and taking him by the hand, he led him to his habitation, where they lived in a state of comparative happiness for the space of ten years: till one morning, the boy having gone out to catch some oysters, he observed a ship at a distance; at which his heart fell a-panting, his pulse doubled its motion, his blood grows warmer and warmer, till at length, inflamed with the desire of getting at it, he lays down the bag he had brought to carry the oysters in, and falls to swimming: the men on board having espied him, sent out their boat which picked him up. Thus he went away without taking leave of him he had received so much good from.
One morning he was awakened by a great noise of squeeling: and his mind being impressed with notions of war, it at first seized him with terror: but being somewhat settled, and the noise still continuing, he perceived it proceeded from the two different kinds of monkeys in the island, whch were fighting for the wild pomegranates ​that the high wind had shook off the trees the preceding night.
Having guessed the occasion of their debate, he gets up in order to go and quell their difference, by dividing amongst them the cause thereof. Getting up, he opens the door, at the outside of which an old monkey of each sort were quietly waiting his levee, to entice him to come, as he once before did, and put an end to their bloody war.
He was not a little surprised to see two inveterate enemies, who at other times never meet without fighting, at that juncture agree so well.
One morning, when he had roasted a parcel of roots, which he used to eat instead of bread, and this he commonly did once a week, it eating best when stale; having spread them on his table and chest to cool, he went out to walk, leaving his door open to let the air in.
His walk, though graced with all the agreeables nature could adorn it with, to make it delightful, a grass carpet, embroidered with beautiful flowers of many different colours and smells, under his feet, to tread; on before, and on each side of him, fine lofty trees, of various forms and heights, clothed with pleasant green leaves, trimmed with rich blossoms of many colours, to divert his eye, a number of various sorts of melodious singing birds perching in their most lovely shades, as though nature had studied to excel man’s brightest imagination, and exquisiteness of art: yet all those profusenesses of nature’s wonders are not sufficient to keep away or expel anxious thoughts from his mind.
In these melancholy thoughts, which his lonesomeness every now and then created, he returns home, where Providence had left a remedy for ​his grievance: a companion, far exceeding any he ever had, waits his return; which was a beautiful monkey of the finest, kind, and the most complete of the sort, as though made to manifest the unparalleled skill of nature, is sent him by Providence to dissipate his melancholy.
Being come to his lodge, and beholding that wonderful creature, and in his own possession, at the farthest end of it, and him at the entrance thereof to oppose its flight, if offered, he is at once filled with joy and admiration: long, said he, I endeavoured in vain to get one, and would have been glad of any, though of the worst kind, and even the meanest of the sort: and here kind Providence has sent me one of unparalleled beauty.
Having a considerable time admired the beast, which all the while stood unconcerned, now and then eating of the roots that lay before him, he shuts the door, and goes in, with a resolution of staying within all day, in order to tame it, which he hoped would be no difficult matter, his disposition being already pretty familiar, little thinking Providence, who sent him thither, had already qualified him for the commission he bore; which having found out by the creature’s surprising docility, he returns his benefactor his most hearty thanks for that miraculous gift.
This most wonderful animal having, by its surprising tractability and good nature, joined to its matchless handsomeness, gained his master’s love, beyond what is usual to place on any sort of beasts, he thought himself doubly recompensed for all his former losses, especially for that of his late ungrateful companion, who, notwithstanding all the obligations he held from him, basely left him at a time he might be most helpful: and, as he ​he fancied his dear Beaufidelle (for so he called that admirable creature) had some sort of resemblance to the picture he framed of him; he takes ⟨it⟩ down, thinking it unjust to bear in his sight ⟨of⟩ that vile object, which could not in any wise claim ⟨a⟩ likeness to so worthy a creature as his beloved monkey.
Beaufidelle, whose good keeping and warm lying had made him thrive in bigness and strength, exceeding his kind, finding some of them stealing his master’s roots, beat them away; which obliged those subtle creatures to come several together, the better to be able to encounter him, which Quarle having taken notice of, and being willing to add a new sport to his usual diversions, cuts a stick of the length and bigness that the creature could manage, which he gave him, and taking his own staff, exercises it before him, which he did the same with his: and apprehending what use it was given him for, he had it often in his hands, and with it drove away the others when they came, though ten or a dozen together: so that the roots were very well guarded, by his continual watching; which made those sly and spiteful creatures watch in opportunity to take him at a disadvantage; thus ⟨finding⟩ him one morning, as he was going for water by himself, as he was wont to do, and being then without his staff, of which they stood in great fear, a considerable number fell upon him, and so bit him and beat him, that he lay as dead; but his master appearing, who, being uneasy at his extraordinary stay, was gone to see what was the occasion thereof, put them to flight; and they left the poor creature with just breath enough to keep his life in, and scarce strength sufficient to draw it.
​Quarle, being come to the place where his beloved Beaufidelle lay in a most dismal bloody condition, could not forbear shedding tears to see him thus miserably dying; but, finding still breath in him, it give him hopes of his recovery; and taking him up in his arms, with all the care he could, hastens home; and gives him a little of the liquor he had made, which by that time had got both body and spirit; then having laid him upon his bed, and covered him with his winter wrapper, he makes a fire, warms some of the liquor and fresh butter, wherewith he washes his sores; so lays him down again, giving him all the careful attendance he could during his illness, which held but one week; at the end of which he died to his unspeakable grief; who, from that time grew so melancholy, that he had not the ⟨courage⟩ to go on with his memoirs; til having a most remarkable dream, about twelvemonths after, ⟨he⟩ changed his resolution, and proceeded in his memoirs; and as he set down his dream, he also ⟨did⟩ the death of his beloved beast; it happening ⟨near⟩ the same time.
Being now deprived of the society of his dear Beaufidelle, Quarle passed the remainder of his time, during his stay on the island, very heavily which happily for him happened not to be long for in a few months after this, an English vessel commanded by Mr. Dorrington, a Bristol merchant, having touched at the island took him on board and having again set sail, after a prosperous voyage, brought him safely home to the bosom of his country and his friends.
FINIS.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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