Symzonia: Voyage of Discovery

by Captain Adam Seaborn

This misfortune grieved me not only for my own loss, but for Boneto’s, who was plundered by the Providence wreckers of every dollar. Yet it was but the beginning of affliction. A few days after, I was thunderstruck by a rumour that my friend the great merchant, Mr. Slippery, had stopped payment. But there was some comfort—I was assured that it was no failure, nothing but a suspension. For some time I was kept at bay by promises and plausible statements. The whole truth, however, burst upon me at the appearance of Mr. Slippery’s name in the Gazette, as an applicant for the benefit of the insolvent act.

My situation could no longer be concealed even from myself. I was utterly ruined. Many of my drafts on Mr. Slippery remained unpaid, and came back upon me. I was sued, and called a rascal for not paying my debts. No one would believe that the Nabob was actually poor. I pressed Mr. Slippery for assistance, but got no other comfort than a cool recommendation to take the benefit of the act, as the most judicious course I could pursue.

I went to my family in a state bordering upon distraction. The troubles, mortifications, and miseries which followed, I forbear to dwell on. I endeavoured to sell my house, but was told that property had depreciated so much, it was worth no more than the mortgage, for which the holder kindly took it off my hands. At length I was constrained to take Mr. Slippery’s advice, and apply for the benefit of the act abolishing imprisonment for debt.

I was now reduced to great straits, being confined to the Liberties, as they are called—for the enjoyment of which restrained liberty I found great difficulty in obtaining sufficient bail, my friends having entirely disappeared. Fortunately I met with an old school-fellow, who, on hearing of my distress, proffered his bail, notwithstanding that the forfeiture of it would utterly ruin him.

At this period, when I frequently rose in the morning, without knowing how I should provide food for my children through the day, I found it difficult to feel and believe that it was all for the best. With neither the means of subsistence for my family, nor liberty to go in pursuit of them, my misfortunes and privations often weighed down my spirits, and became almost insupportable. When I thought of my situation, I felt no longer like a man. But the remembrance of the pious resignation, the humility, the contentment, the peacefulness and happiness of the Symzonians, recalled me to a conviction of the truth, that with a temper of calm and cordial submission to the will of Providence, a man may be happy under any circumstances, but without it must be wretched.

At this period of pecuniary distress, Will Mackerel accidentally heard of the misfortunes of his old commander, and hastened to see me. He could not comprehend why my being possessed of the Liberties should prevent me from going to sea, to acquire the means of subsistence for my family. The worthy fellow was wholly incompetent to understand the policy of depriving a man of liberty, preventing him from supplying the wants of those dependant on him, and compelling him to cast them as paupers upon the community, because he had, through misfortune, lost all his property.

Will had spent most of the money obtained by his voyage with me; but after hearing my story, and an account of the embarrassments under which I laboured, he threw every dollar that remained to him upon the table, and declared he would never touch a shilling of it whilst his old commander was in distress, but would go to sea to render me further aid. I accepted this generous bounty with the frankness with which it was offered, and recorded Will in my heart as a true-hearted sailor. It was but little that he had left to bestow upon me, but it preserved me from the extremity of want for some time.

I was cheering myself with the prospect of obtaining my real liberty, and of persuading some man of capital to equip a suitable vessel for a second voyage to Seaborn’s land, on terms which would give me a fair share of the advantages of the undertaking, when I was informed that Mr. Slippery had neither paid nor provided for the duties on the Explorer’s cargo; that the bonds which he had given, owing to the long credits on China goods, were not yet due; and that, as I was the importer, I was responsible for the whole amount, and should be required to pay the uttermost farthing, or lie in jail during the pleasure of government, no insolvent act being considered of sufficient force to impair that prerogative of government, by which citizens were deprived of their liberty when misfortune had deprived them of every thing else.

I had now no chance of freedom left, unless an opportunity should offer to fly the country before the bonds became due, for even should government relinquish the duties, the costs of suit, which amount in most cases to a large proportion of the debt, would not be relinquished till doomsday. To avail myself, however, of this only expedient, seemed impracticable. Even the shawls and trinkets which I had bestowed upon my wife in the days of our prosperity, were already sold, and the proceeds expended for bread. I was a fortnight in arrears to my landlady, and had not a friend on earth from whom I could obtain a dollar. How then could I get away with nothing to pay my expenses, or those of my wife and children in my absence?

At this moment of difficulty I heard that Captain Riley had obtained some pecuniary relief, by publishing a book of Travels, containing accounts not much more marvellous than those which I could relate of Symzonia. I therefore determined to make a brief extract from my journal for publication, to raise the wind, reserving most of the details of minute circumstances for my personal narrative, and my scientific researches in statistics, geography, botany, ærology, geology, mineralogy, zoology, ornithology, ichthyology, conchology, entomology, horticulture, agriculture, &c. &c. &c. to be digested hereafter under appropriate titles. The authenticity and genuineness of these researches, since all the autographs and specimens collected to corroborate them were lost by the bursting open of the ship’s paddle port, must rest upon the authority of my extracts, translations, journal, and memory. Should they even be questioned and disputed about by the Scavans of the external world, the generality of readers will probably trouble their heads very little on that score.