confiderable share of learning, tho' a failor; as remarkable this way, as the captain of the ship was the other way, that is, for being the roughest and most brutal old tar that ever commanded a veffel. The story of Whit mate of the 18. Whitwell the mate, about thirty-fix years of age at this time, told me, he was the son of a man who once had a great for- well, the tune, and gave him a univerfity education, Skinner and but left an estate so encumbered with debts, Jenkins. and ruined with mortgages, that its income was almost nothing, and therefore the fon fold the remains of it, and went to fea with an Eaft-India captain, in the 22d year of his age, and was fo fortunate abroad, that he not only acquired riches, in four years time that he trafficked about, between Batavia and the Gulph of Perfia, but married a young Indian Lady, (the daughter of a Rajah, or petty Prince in the Mogul Empire) who was rich, wife, and beautiful, and made his life fo very happy, for three years that fhe lived, that his ftate was a mere Paradife, and he feemed a little fovereign. But this fleeting scene was foon over, and on his return to England with all his wealth, their hip was taken by the pirates of Madagascar, who robbed him of all he had, and made. him a miferable flave for two years and upwards. That he escaped from them to the tawny generation of Arabs, who lived on the the mountains, the other fide of this African inland, and ufed him with great humanity; their chief being very fond of him, and entertaining him in his mud-wall palace: he married there a pretty little yellow creature, niece to the poor ruler, and for twelve months was very far from being miferable with this partner, as they had a handfome cottage and fome cattle, and this wife was good-humour itself, very fenfible, and a religious woman; her religion being half Mahometanism and half Judaism. But he died at the years end, and her uncle, the Chief, not living a month after her, Whitwell came down from the mountains to the next fea coaft under the conduct of one of the Arabians, his friend, and meeting with a European fhip there, got at laft to London. A little money he had left behind him in England, by way of referve, in cafe of accidents, if he ever should return to his own country, and with this he dreft himself, got into bufinefs, and came at laft to be mate of the Skinner and Jenkins. His destiny, he added, was untoward, but as he had thought, and read, and feen enough in his wide travels, to be convinced, the world, and every being, and every atom of it, were directed and governed by unerring wisdom, he derived hopes and comforts from a due acknowledgment of God. There are more born born to misery than to happiness, in this life: of life. 19. Miss Melmoth and I continued at the An uncomTalbot for three weeks, and during that time, mon scene breakfafted, dined, and fupped together." Except the hours of fleep, we were rarely 21 from each other. We walked out together every day, for hours converfed, fometimes went to cards, and often the fung, delightfully fung, while on my flute I played. With the greatest civility, and the most exact good manners, we were as intimate as if we had been acquainted for ages, and we found E a fatisfaction in each others company, as great as lovers generally experience: yet fo much as one fyllable of the paffion was not mentioned: not the leaft hint of love on either fide was given, while we stayed at Whitehaven; and I believe, neither of us had a thought of it. It was a friendship the most pure and exalted, that commenced at my faving her life, in the manner I have related, and by fome strange kind of magic, our notions and inclinations, tempers and fentiments, had acquired fuch a fameness in a few days, that we feemed as two fpiritual Socias, or duplicates of each others mind. Body Body was quite out of the cafe, tho' this lady had an extravagance of beauty. My fole delight was that fine percepient, which fhed a luftre on her outward charms. How long this state would have lafted, had we continued more time together, and had the image of the late Mifs Noel been more effaced, or worn out of the fenfory of my head, I cannot fay; but while it did laft, there could be nothing more ftrange. To fee two young people of different fexes, in the higheft fpirits and moft confirmed health, live together for twenty-one days, perfectly pleafed with each other, intirely at their own difpofal, and as to fortune, having abundantly enough between them both for a comfortable life; and yet, never utter one word, nor give a look, that could be conftrued a declaration of the paffion, or a tendency towards a more intimate union; to compleat that connexion which nature and providence requires of beings circumftanced as we were; this was very odd. Till the clock ftruck twelve every night we fat up, and talked of a vast variety of things, from the Bible down to the clouds of Ariftophanes, and from the comedies and tragedies of Greece and Rome to the Minerva of Sanctius, and Hickes's northern Thefaurus. Inftead of Venus or any of her court, our converfation would often be on the morals of Cicero, his aca demicks, demicks, and de finibus; on the English or character. Mifs Melmoth had a memory astonish- Mifs Meling, and talked on every fubject extreme-moth's ly well. She remembred all the had read. Her judgment was ftrong, and her reflections ever good. She told me her mother was another Mrs. Dacier, and as her father was killed in a duel, when she was very young, the widow Melmoth, instead of going into the world, continued to live at her country feat, and diverted herself with teaching her daughter the languages of Greece and Rome, and in educating her heart and mind. This made this young lady a master of the Latin tongue and Greek, and enabled her to acquire a knowledge fo various and fine, that it was furprizing to hear her expatiate and explain. She talked with fo much ease and good humour, and had a manner fo chearful and polite, that her difcourfe was always entertaining, even tho' the fubject happened to be, as it was one evening, the paulo |