varieties, figs, oranges, lemons, everything, in incredible abundance. Hundreds of females in companies were riding on jacks, with large hampers of fruit slung on each side, going to market. It was curious to walk through the market and see the great variety and abundance of fish. Fishermen had their families in boats, and I doubted whether many of them had any other habitation. In their boats they kept a small tub, with some gravel in it, and a small iron grate, on which they put coal, and cooked their fish in earthen pots. When they came from selling fish in the market, they would bring large water-melons in their arms, and eat them with stewed fish. They made free use of raw onions, some of which were as large as a common saucer, and only an inch and a half thick. I did not notice that they had any other vegetable, bread, or meat. In one street, called "Rag Fair," all the shops were occupied by Jews who sold clothing. The moment one enters this odd-looking vicinage, his attention is arrested by the vociferations of these Israelites, standing in their shop-doors. They beckoned from both sides of the street, to inveigle a passenger inside. To effect this object, so dear to their hearts, all sorts of gestures and maneuvers are brought into play. When the door of any one of them is approached, he is beset and surrounded by a dozen of these shysters, all fully determined to drive a bargain. When any one succeeds in getting a person inside, he is shown articles in great variety; this, that, and the other, is urged on him: the goods are cheapened again and again. "Here, take this for so much," and it is next to impossible to get out of their clutches without buying something; and whatever it is, the buyer is done for. On leaving the shop he is sure to be seized by a dozen more, and happy is he, if he escapes their importunities, and gets into the street again with a whole skin. We often passed through this street, for no other object but to see those unmitigated sharpers display their peculiar cunning, and tricks of trade. One evening about sunset, as I was going on board the ship, I saw about fifty men carrying a cable on their shoulders; and when a certain bell began to ring, a large number of them left their burdens to others, and for the space of a minute attended to their devotions, crossing themselves, and telling their beads. It was curious to notice how patiently the others stood under their heavy burden, until their fellows returned. The streets were very narrow, but there was here and there an open square. At one of the largest in the city, in one corner, a wax statue of the Virgin was placed, about ten feet from the ground, inclosed in glass, and with the infant Saviour in her arms. All the Portuguese, gentle or simple, were careful to take off their hats when they passed on that side of the street where the image stood. As for me, having no proclivities of that sort, I took care to keep on the other side. One day a funeral procession came along, and having the curiosity to examine it, I stepped into a shoemaker's shop. Suddenly I found a fellow fumbling about my head with a long pole, with which he nearly uncapt me, and would have succeeded if I had not held it on, might and main. This caused the fellow to be more resolute, and I got some pretty hard thumps on my head. The man of the shop then gave me the hint to take off my hat, which I was not slow to do, when I knew the cause of his holy rage. I afterward ascertained that it gave them great offense to remain covered in the presence of their sacred images, pictures, and what not. We live and learn, thought I. On another occasion I noticed a large collection of people near a marketsquare. Drawing near, I observed a corpse on a bier, and a bald-headed friar standing at the head, in a tone of mock-solemnity, repeating over and over again a long sentence in some unknown tongue. On the stomach of the corpse, which was a female, was a large earthen basin. The bosom was bare, and just above the left breast, a deep wound had been inflicted with a large dagger. The priest and the Portuguese spectators looked sad, and a sad sight it was. One and another would drop some change into the basin, which contained about three dollars, which the priest appeared anxious to increase. We were informed that the husband of this woman committed the horrid deed, having suspected his wife's chastity; for she had been walking in the evening with another man. The husband had followed, and killed her with the dagger he had concealed in his coatsleeve. The murderer then fled to the church, and put his finger in the key-hole, which act protected him! The use made of the money is for any intelligent reader to imagine. But it is time to think of returning to my native land. We took part of a cargo at Lisbon, and sailed to St. Ubes for the remainder, and were conveyed off the coast with a number of other vessels, by a Portuguese frigate. On our passage homeward we had tempestuous weather. It was November. We were several times driven back by fierce winds; our sails were split, and we were out of fuel and provisions. Our caboose was carried overboard, whence we were in great danger of following. My boxes of chocolate and some other merchandise, which I took as an adventure at Lisbon, I could not sell to advantage, and so I had to keep it for a home market. This bad luck, however, saved us from absolute starvation, having become reduced to a quarter allowance; and we had a pint of chocolate twice a day, in consequence of my untoward luck in not being able to sell it! In bad weather we had to pump all the time, as the ship was heavily laden. Once she leaked so much that we despaired of freeing her, and soon expected to find ocean graves; but the same good, and gracious, and ever-watchful Providence, whose mercies had followed me all my days, in all my wanderings, and ingratitude, and forgetfulness of Him, had better things in store for me, and designed me for some useful purposes then to me unknown. We reached the desired haven of Portsmouth, my native home, in safety, to the great joy of my surviving friends. My uncle Weymouth soon paid me a visit. He had not been at sea since his deliverance from the Old Jersey. To me it seemed a merciful Providence that I had been induced by the earnest entreaties of my uncle to abandon all thought of any future voyage, and settle down with him in the country on a farm, in New Hampshire. The preceding narrative is not without a wholesome moral, while it affords many vivid pictures of an age of heroic suffering, in the cause of Liberty. We may well wonder at our hero's strong propensity for sea roving. While nearly all his early associates passed away "like the swift ships" on a tempestuous sea, he was spared to more useful ends. His tale of hardship and almost incredible suffering, is left not so much for imitation, as instruction and admonition. Not till he became weary in his lorg and vain chase of phantoms, did he give them up. His experience was of much value in after life, when he became a successful minister of the gospel. He died in 1831, at the age of seventy. |