useful branches of the mathematics. And indeed this voyage made me both
a sailor and a merchant; for I brought home five pounds nine ounces of
gold-dust for my adventure which produced, at my return to London,
almost three hundred pounds. But in this voyage I was extremely sick,
being thrown into a violent calenture through the excessive heat,
trading upon the coast from the latitude of fifteen degrees north, even
to the line itself.

But alas! my dear friend the captain soon departed this life after his
arrival. This was a sensible grief to me; yet I resolved to go another
with his mate, who had now got command of the ship. This proved a very
unsuccessful one; for though I did not carry quite a hundred pounds of
my late acquired wealth, (so that I had two hundred pounds left, which I
reposed with the captain's widow, who was an honest gentlewoman) yet my
misfortunes in this unhappy voyage were very great. For our ship sailing
towards the Canary islands, we were chased by a Salee rover; and in
spite of all the haste we could make by crowding as much canvas as our
yards could spread, or our masts carry, the pirate gained upon us, to
that we prepared ourselves to fight. They had eighteen guns, and we had
but twelve. About three in the afternoon there was a desperate
engagement, wherein many were killed and wounded on both sides; but
finding ourselves overpowered with numbers, our ship disabled and
ourselves too impotent to have the least hopes of success, we were
forced to surrender; and accordingly were all carried prisoners into the
port of Salee. Our men were sent to the Emperor's court to be sold
there, but the pirate captain taking notice of me, kept me to be his
own slave.

In this condition, I thought myself the most miserable creature on
earth, and the prophecy of my father came afresh into my thoughts.