AFRICA. . 
from China an old fupercargo of the company, 
with his wife and children. I had now ancj 
then fallen in with thefe people m different 
companies at the Cape, and 1 rejoiced at the 
thought of having them to myfelf, and that 
too for a confiderable time: for it is pleafmg 
to enliven the tedioufnefs of a long voyage by 
the charm of agreeable companyj and to be 
able occafionally to contemplate a handfome 
face, when the fea, the fky, or failors in their 
dirty dreffes, are the objeds, and the only ob- 
jeds, conftantly before the eye. Such was to 
have been my lot : at leafi fuch I hoped it 
would have been. But probably the hufband 
thought me too eager for a paffenger; and 
accordingly, without; a dired: denial, be alTured 
me I fhould be fo badly accommodated, and 
he fo pofitively refufed to take my boxes on 
board with me, that I was obliged to give up 
the defign. Being lefs a courtier than attached 
to my riches, I could by no means confent to 
be feparated from them. They were therefore 
fent aboard another velTel, and the fapercargo 
was freed from my importunities. By his re- 
fufal he gave me my life, while, poor man ! h£ 
little thought of lofing his owrit 
I em- 
