and he brought them all safe to me at the Brazils: among which, without
my direction, (for I was too young in my business to think of them,) he
had taken care to have all sorts of tools, iron work, and utensils,
necessary for my plantation, and which were of great use to me.

When this cargo arrived, I thought my fortune made, for I was surprised
with the joy of it; and my good steward, the captain, had laid out the
five pounds, which my friend had sent him as a present for himself, to
purchase and bring me over a servant, under bond for six years' service,
and would not accept of any consideration, except a little tobacco,
which I would have him accept, being of my own produce.

Neither was this all: but my goods being all English manufactures, such
as cloths, stuffs, baize, and things particularly valuable and desirable
in the country, I found means to sell them to a very great advantage; so
that I might say, I had more than four times the value of my first
cargo, and was now infinitely beyond my poor neighbour, I mean in the
advancement of my plantation: for the first thing I did, I bought me a
Negro slave, and ail European servant also; I mean another besides that
which the captain brought me from Lisbon.

But as abused prosperity is oftentimes made the very means of our
adversity, so was it with me. I went on the next year with great success
in my plantation; I raised fifty great rolls of tobacco on my own
ground, more than I had disposed of for necessaries among my neighbours;
and these fifty rolls, being each of above a hundred weight, were well
cured, and laid by against the return of the fleet from Lisbon: and now,
increasing in business and in wealth, my head began to be full of
projects and undertakings beyond my reach; such as are, indeed, often
the ruin of the best heads in business. Had I continued in the station