CHAP. VII.
The Sea-Captain gives an account of his illegitimate Birth at Bristol, was left on a Stall, and maintained by the Parish. He is deluded by a Bawd, and perswaded to steal; he is taken ipso facto, committed, arraigned, and condemned to be transported; the Bawd is carted.
It’s now high time for me to acknowledge the great Satisfaction I have received in your relating so many witty and pleasant passages, that have occurr’d in your lives time hitherto; nor can I (without injuring your ingenuity) but commend your generous freedom in discoursing every Remarque, and not omiting any observable, though you knew it could not chuse but cut the very throat of your dying Reputations; and that I may not seem to fall short of that frankness, and gallantry, I will not so much as seem tainted of the late unpardonable sin of these times; Men making it generally their business to censure the Lives and Actions of others, without being in the least sensible of their own, or amending those they cannot hide. Wherefore I shall not abate my self an Ace, nor shall I let a Vice escape, (whereof I am and hath been plentifully stored) without letting you take notice of its shape, complexion, and constitution; Nor shall I hide this truth from you, that I came into the world by stealth; being begot in Hugger-mugger. As my Parents begot me rashly, so they left me carelesly to the world, not doubting, but that which was gotten with so much heat, would live in spight of Fate. They were the more resolute in this cruel resolution of leaving me on a Stall, having generally observed the good Fortune that generally attends Bastards. I was not long left on the Stall, (as my Nurse hath several times since informed me,) but that Hunger awakening me, I piped so shrilly, (and so unexpectedly lowd from a Child so young,) that I soon penetrated the ears of a great many pitiful minded persons that were passing by that way: but the greatest number were of the Female Sex. The Maids, you may think had fine tittering sport; whilst I poor Babby cryed for I knew not what, and well it had been if I never had known what it was to shed a Tear. At length a notable old Woman of the vulgar sort, pressing into the crowd; Stand aside (quoth she) ye giggletting Huzzies; get ye home to your Mistresses service; there is some of ye, for all your laughing now I warrant ye, will be putting finger in eye before these nine Months, upon the like account, and so steps to me; What (said she) the Child must not starve, though it be a By blow; its none of the poor infants fault; and so opening her Breast, she conducted her Nipple to my mouth, which immediately quieted my bawling. Various were the Discourses and suppositions of the People whose Child I should be, every one giving in his verdict according to his imagination, or the suspitions he had entertained of such and such. Some that were more curious and inquisitive than the rest, strictly survey’d me all over, and having commended me for a lusty Child (as generally such are, who are begotten by the heat of blood and strength, grown to full perfection) but likewise praised the proportion and promising features of my tender countenance. At last, a Paper some espy’d pinn’d to my breast, which my Nurse preserving, since I was of years, she gave them me, and I committed them to my memory, which were these:
You see I’me pretty, and am cleanly clad;
Shew then more pity, than my Mother had.
But four days since, that I received breath;
O do not let me cry my self to death.
Take home your Child, this Parish is my Mother;
And what’s distressed in it is my Brother.
Keep me awhile, for in some time don’t fear,