Voyager communicated to his Mistress, how happy he fhould be to have her in his Country, where the fhould be cloathed in fuch Silks as his Waftecoat was made of, and be carried in Houfes drawn by Horfes, without being expofed to Wind or Weather. All this he promised her the Enjoyment of, without fuch Fears and Alarms as they were there tormented with. In this tender Correspondence thefe Lovers lived for several Months, when Yarico, inftructed by her Lover, discovered a Veffel on the Coast to which the made Signals; and in the Night, with the utmost Joy and Satisfaction, accompanied him to a Ship'sCrew of his Country-men, bound for Barbadoes.

When

a Veffel from the Main arrives in that Ifland, it seems the Planters come down to the Shoar, where there is an immediate Market of the Indians and other Slaves, as with us of Horfes and Oxen.

TO be fhort, Mr. Thomas Inkle, now coming into English Territories, began ferioufly to reflect upon his lofs of Time, and to weigh with himself how many Days Intreft of his Money he had loft during his Stay with Yarico. This Thought made the young Man very penfive, and careful what Account he should be able to give his Friends of his Voyage: Upon which Confiderations, the prudent and frugal young Man fold Yarico to a Barbadian Merchant; notwithstanding that the poor Girl, to incline him to commiferate her Condition, told him that fhe was with Child by him: But he only made use of that Information, to rife in his Demands upon the Purchafer.

I was fo touch'd with this Story (which I think should be always a Counterpart to the Ephefian Matron) that I left the Room with Tears in my Eyes; which a Woman of Arietta's good Senfe, did, I am fure, take for greater Applaufe, than any Compliments I could make her.

R

No 12. Wednesday, March 14.

A

Veteres avias tibi de pulmone revello,

Per.

T my coming to London, it was fome time before I could fettle my felf in a House to my liking. I was forced to quit my firft Lodgings, by reason of an officious Landlady, that would be asking me every Morning how I had flept. I then fell into an honeft Family, and lived very happily for above a Week; when my Landlord, who was a jolly good-natured Man, took it into his Head that I wanted Company, and therefore would frequently come into my Chamber to keep me from being alone. This I bore for two or three Days; but telling me one Day that he was afraid I was melancho ly, I thought it was high time for me to be gone, and accordingly took new Lodgings that very Night. About a Week after, I found my jolly Landlord, who, as I faid before, was an honeft hearty Man, had put me into an Advertisement of the Daily Courant, in the following Words. Whereas a melancholy Man left his Lodgings on. Thursday last in the Afternoon, and was afterwards feen going towards Illington; if any one can give notice of him to R. B. Fishmonger in the Strand, he shall be very well rewarded for his Pains. As I am the best Man in the World to keep my own Counsel, and my Landlord the Fishmonger not knowing my Name, this Accident of my Life was never difcovered to this very Day..

I am now fettled with a Widow-woman, who has a great many Children, and complies with my Humour in every thing. I do not remember that we have exchanged a Word together these Five Years; my Coffee comes into my Chamber every Morning without asking for it; if I want Fire I point to my Chimney, if Water to my Bafon: Upon which my Landlady nodds, as much as to fay fhe takes my Meaning, and immediately obeys my Signals. She has likewife model'd her Family fo well,

that

that when her little Boy offers to pull me by the Coat, or prattle in my Face, his eldeft Sifter immediately calls him off, and bids him not difturb the Gentleman. At my first entring into the Family, I was troubled with the Civility of their rifing up to me every time I came into the Room; but my Landlady obferving that upon thefe Oc. cafions I always cried Pish, and went out again, has forbidden any fuch Ceremony to be used in the House; fo that at prefent I walk into the Kitchen or Parlour without being taken notice of, or giving any Interruption to the Bufinefs or Difcourfe of the Family.. The Maid will ask her Miftrefs (tho' I am by) whether the Gentleman is ready to go to Dinner, as the Mistress (who is indeed an excellent Housewife) fcolds at the Servants as heartily before my Face as behind my Back. In fhort, I move up and down the House and enter into all Companies with the fame Liberty as a Cat or any other Domestick Animal, and am as little fufpected of telling any thing that I hear or fee.

I remember laft Winter there were feveral young Girls of the Neighbourhood fitting about the Fire with my Landlady's Daughters, and telling Stories of Spirits and Apparitions. Upon my opening the Door the young Women broke off their Difcourfe, but my Landlady's Daughters telling them that it was no Body but the Gentleman (for that is the Name which I go by in the Neighbourhood as well as in the Family) they went on without minding me. I feated my felf by the Candle that stood on a Table at one end of the Room; and pretending to read a Book that I took out of my Pocket, heard feveral dreadful Stories of Ghosts as pale as Ashes that ftood at the Feet of a Bed, or walked over a Church-yard by Moonlight: And of others that had been conjured into the RedSea, for disturbing People's Reft, and drawing their Curtains at Midnight; with many other old Womens Fables of the like nature. As one Spirit raised another, I obferved that at the End of every Story the whole Company closed their Ranks, and crouded about the Fire: I took Notice in particular of a little Boy, who was fo áttentive to every Story, that I am mistaken if he ventures to go to Bed by himself this Twelve-month. Indeed they talked fo.long, that the Imaginations of the whole Affem

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bly were manifeftly crazed, and I am fure will be the worfe for it as long as they live. I heard one of the Girls, that had looked upon me over her Shoulder, asking the Company how long I had been in the Room, and whether I did not look paler than I ufed to do. This put me under fome Apprehenfions that I should be forced to explain my felf if I did not retire; for which Reason I took the Candle in my Hand, and went up into my Chamber, not without wondering at this unaccountable Weakness in reasonable Creatures, that they fhould love to aftonish and terrifie one another. Were I a Father, I fhould take a particular Care to preserve my Children from thefe little Horrors of Imagination, which they are apt to contract when they are young, and are not able to hake off when they are in Years. I have known a Soldier that has entered a Breach, affrighted at his own Shadow; and look pale upon a little fcratching at his Door, who the Day before had marched up against a Battery of Cannon. There are Inftances of Perfons, who have been terrified even to Diftraction, at the Figure of a Tree, or the fhaking of a Bull-rush. The Truth of it is, I look upon a found Imagination as the greatest Bleffing of Life, next to a clear Judgment and a good Confcience. In the mean time, fince there are very few whofe Minds are not more or less fubject to these dreadful Thoughts and Apprehenfions, we ought to arm our felves againft them by the Dictates of Reafon and Religion, to pull the old Woman out of our Hearts (as Perfius expreffes it in the Motto of my Paper) and extinguifh thofe impertinent Notions which we imbibed at a Time that we were not able to judge of their Abfurdity. Or if we believe, as many wife and good Men have done, that there are fuch Phantoms and Apparitions as those I have been speaking of, let us endeavour to establish to our felves an Interest in him who holds the Reins of the whole Creation in his Hand, and moderates them after fuch a Manner, that it is impoffible for one Being to break loofe upon another without his Knowledge and Permiffion.

FOR my own Part, I am apt to join in Opinion with thofe who believe that all the Regions of Nature fwarm with Spirits; and that we have Multitudes of Spectators on all our Actions, when we think our felves muft alone:

But

But instead of terrifying my felf with fuch a Notion, I am wonderfully pleafed to think that I am always engaged with fuch an innumerable Society, in fearching out the Wonders of the Creation, and joining in the fame Confort of Praise and Adoration,

MILTON has finely defcribed this mixed Communion of Men and Spirits in Paradife; and had doubtless his Eye upon a Verfe in old Hefiod, which is almoft Word for Word the fame with his third Line in the following Paffage.

Nor think, though Men were none,

That Heav'n would want Spectators, God want Praife:
·Millions of Spiritual Creatures walk the Earth
Unfeen, both when we wake and when we fleep;
All thefe with ceafelefs Praife his Works behold
Both Day and Night. How often from the Steep,
Of ecchoing Hill or Thicket, have we heard
Celeftial Voices to the midnight Air,
(Sole, or refponfive each to other's Note,)
Singing their great Creator? Oft in Bands,
While they keep Watch, or nightly rounding walk,
With heav'nly Touch of inftrumental Sounds,
In full harmonick Number join'd, their Songs
Divide the Night, and lift our Thoughts to Heav'n.

No 13.

Thursday, March 15.

Dic mihi fi fueras tu Leo qualis eris?

T

Mart.

C

HERE is nothing that of late Years has afforded Matter of greater Amusement to the Town than Signior Nicolini's Combat with a Lion in the HayMarket, which has been very often exhibited to the general Satisfaction of most of the Nobility and Gentry in the Kingdom of Great-Britain. Upon the firft Rumour of this intended Combat, it was confidently affirmed, and is ftill believed by many in both Galleries, that there

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would