To bring the story short, we agreed to go. He told me that he had a
very good house there, that it was well furnished, that his mother was
alive and lived in it, and one sister, which was all the relations he
had; that as soon as he came there, his mother would remove to another
house, which was her own for life, and his after her decease; so that I
should have all the house to myself; and I found all this to be exactly
as he had said.
To make this part of the story short, we put on board the ship which we
went in, a large quantity of good furniture for our house, with stores
of linen and other necessaries, and a good cargo for sale, and away we
went.
To give an account of the manner of our voyage, which was long and full
of dangers, is out of my way; I kept no journal, neither did my
husband. All that I can say is, that after a terrible passage,
frighted twice with dreadful storms, and once with what was still more
terrible, I mean a pirate who came on board and took away almost all
our provisions; and which would have been beyond all to me, they had
once taken my husband to go along with them, but by entreaties were
prevailed with to leave him;--I say, after all these terrible things,
we arrived in York River in Virginia, and coming to our plantation, we
were received with all the demonstrations of tenderness and affection,
by my husband's mother, that were possible to be expressed.
We lived here all together, my mother-in-law, at my entreaty,
continuing in the house, for she was too kind a mother to be parted
with; my husband likewise continued the same as at first, and I thought
myself the happiest creature alive, when an odd and surprising event
put an end to all that felicity in a moment, and rendered my condition
the most uncomfortable, if not the most miserable, in the world.
My mother was a mighty cheerful, good-humoured old woman --I may call
her old woman, for her son was above thirty; I say she was very
pleasant, good company, and used to entertain me, in particular, with
abundance of stories to divert me, as well of the country we were in
as of the people.
Among the rest, she often told me how the greatest part of the
inhabitants of the colony came thither in very indifferent
circumstances from England; that, generally speaking, they were of two
sorts; either, first, such as were brought over by masters of ships to
be sold as servants. 'Such as we call them, my dear,' says she, 'but
they are more properly called slaves.' Or, secondly, such as are
transported from Newgate and other prisons, after having been found
guilty of felony and other crimes punishable with death.