hence, getting a patent for the possession and I know not what;
when, in the middle of all this, in comes my nephew, as I have
said, with his project of carrying me thither in his way to the
East Indies.

I paused a while at his words, and looking steadily at him, "What
devil," said I, "sent you on this unlucky errand?" My nephew
stared as if he had been frightened at first; but perceiving that I
was not much displeased at the proposal, he recovered himself. "I
hope it may not be an unlucky proposal, sir," says he. "I daresay
you would be pleased to see your new colony there, where you once
reigned with more felicity than most of your brother monarchs in
the world." In a word, the scheme hit so exactly with my temper,
that is to say, the prepossession I was under, and of which I have
said so much, that I told him, in a few words, if he agreed with
the merchants, I would go with him; but I told him I would not
promise to go any further than my own island. "Why, sir," says he,
"you don't want to be left there again, I hope?" "But," said I,
"can you not take me up again on your return?" He told me it would
not be possible to do so; that the merchants would never allow him
to come that way with a laden ship of such value, it being a
month's sail out of his way, and might be three or four. "Besides,
sir, if I should miscarry," said he, "and not return at all, then
you would be just reduced to the condition you were in before."

This was very rational; but we both found out a remedy for it,
which was to carry a framed sloop on board the ship, which, being
taken in pieces, might, by the help of some carpenters, whom we
agreed to carry with us, be set up again in the island, and
finished fit to go to sea in a few days. I was not long resolving,