No 11.

Tuesday, MARCH 13.

Dat veniam corvis, vexat cenfura columbas.

Juv. Sat. 2. 1. 63The doves are cenfur'd, while the crows are spared.

A

RIETTA is vifited by all perfons of both fexes, who have any pretence to wit and gallantry. She is in that time of life which is neither affected with the follies of youth, or infirmities of age; and her conversation is fo mixed with gaiety and prudence, that fhe is agreeable both to the young and the old. Her behaviour is very frank, without being in the least blameable; and, as fhe is out of the track of any amorous or ambitious pursuits of her own, her vifitants entertain her with accounts of themselves very freely, whether they concern their paffions or their interefts. I made her a vifit this afternoon, having been formerly introduced to the honour of her acquaintance, by my friend WILL HONEYCOMB, who has prevailed upon her to admit me fometimes into her affembly, as a civil inoffenfive man. I found her accompanied with one perfon only, a common-place talker, who, upon my entrance, arofe, and after a very flight civility fat down again; then turning to Arietta, purfued his difcourfe, which, I found, was upon the old topic of conftancy in love. He went on with great facility in repeating what he talks every day of his life; and with the ornaments of infignificant laughs and geftures, enforced his arguments by quotations out of plays and fongs, which allude to the perjuries of the fair, and the general levity of women. Methought he ftrove to fhine more than ordinarily in his talkative way, that he might infult my filence, and distinguish himself before a woman of Arietta's tafte and understanding. She had of ten an inclination to interrupt him, but could find no opportunity, till the larum ceafed of itfelf; which it VOL. I. E

did

did not till he had repeated and murdered the celebrated ftory of the Ephesian matron.

ARIETTA feemed to regard this piece of rallery as an outrage done to her fex; as indeed I have always obferved that women, whether out of a nicer regard to their honour, or what other reason I cannot tell, are more fenfibly touched with thofe general afperfions which are caft upon their fex, than men are by what is faid of theirs.

WHEN fhe had a little recovered herself from the ferious anger she was in, fhe replied in the following

manner.

SIR, When I confider how perfectly new all you have faid on this fubject is, and that the story you have given us is not quite two thousand years old, I cannot but think it a piece of prefumption to dispute with you ; but your quotations put me in mind of the fable of the lion and the man. The man walking with that noble animal, fhewed him, in the oftentation of human fuperiority, a fign of a man killing a lion. Upon which the lion faid very juftly, We lions are none of us painters, elfe we could fhew a hundred men killed by lions, for one lion killed by a man. 'You men are writers, and can reprefent us women as unbecoming as you please in your works, while we are unable to return the injury. You have twice or thrice obferved in your difcourfe, that hypocrify is the very foundation of our education; and, that an ability to diffemble our affections is a profeffed part of our breeding. Thefe, and fuch other reflexions, are fprinkled up and down the writings of all ages, by authors, who leave behind them memorials of their re fentment against the fcorn of particular women, in invectives against the whole fex. Such a writer, I doubt not, was the celebrated Petronius, who invented the pleafant aggravations of the frailty of the Ephefian lady; but when we confider this question between the fexes, which has been either a point of difpute or rallery ever fince there were men and women, let us take facts from plain people, and from fuch as have not either ambition or capacity to embellifh their narrations with any beauties of imagination. I was the other day amufing myfelf with Ligon's account of Barbadoes;

and, in anfwer to your well-wrought tale, I will give you, as it dwells upon my memory, out of that honeft traveller, in his fifty fifth page, the hiftory of Inkle and Yarico.

MR. THOMAS INKLE, of London, aged twenty years, embarked in the Downs on the good fhip called the Achilles, bound for the Weft-Indies, on the 16th of June, 1674, in order to improve his fortune by trade and merchandize. Our adventurer was the third fon of an eminent citizen, who had tal taken particular care to inftil into his mind an early love of gain, by making him a perfect mafter of numbers, and confequently gi ving him a quick view of lofs and advantage, and preventing the natural impulfes of his paffions, by prepoffeffion towards his interefts. With a mind thus turned, young Inkle had a perfon every way agreeable, a ruddy vigour in his countenance, ftrength in his limbs, with ringlets of fair hair loofely flowing on his thoulders. It happened, in the courfe of the voyage, that the Achilles, in fome diftrefs, put into a creek on the main of America, in fearch of provifions. The youth, who is the hero of my story, among others, went afhore on this occafion. From their firft landing they were obferved by a party of Indians, who hid themselves in the woods for that purpofe. The English, unadvisedly, marched a great diftance from the fhore into the country, and were intercepted by the natives, who flew the greateft number of them. Our adventurer escaped among others, by flying into a foret. Upon his coming into a remote and pathlefs part of the wood, he threw himfelf, tired, and breathlefs, on a little hillock, when an Indian maid ruffed from a thicket behind him. After the first furprize, they appeared mutually agreeable to each other. If the European was highly charmed with the limbs, features, and wild graces of the naked American; the American was no lefs taken with the dress, complexion, and fhape of an European, covered from head to foot, The Indian grew immediately enamoured of him, and confequently folicitous for his prefervation. She therefore conveyed him to a cave, where the gave him a delicious repaft of fruits, and led him to a ftream to flake his thirst. In the midft

of thefe good offices, fhe would fometimes play with his hair, and delight in the oppofition of its colour to that of her fingers: then open his bofom, then laugh at him. for covering it. She was, it feems, a perfon of diftinction, for the every day came to him in a different dress, of the most beautiful fhells, buggles, and bredes. She likewife brought him a great many fpoils, which her other lovers had prefented to her, fo that his cave was richly adorned with all the fpotted fkins of beafts, and moft party-coloured feathers of fowls, which that world afforded. To make his confinement more tolerable, the would carry him in the dufk of the evening, or by the favour of moon-light, to unfrequented groves and folitudes, and fhew him where to lie down in fafety, and fleep amidft the falls of waters, and melody of nightingales. Her part was to watch and hold him awake in her arms, for fear of her countrymen, and awake him on occafions to confult his fafety. In this manner did the lovers pafs away their time, till they had learned a language of their own, in which the voyager communicated to his miftrefs, how happy he fhould be to have her in his country, where she should be clothed in fach fiiks as his waift-coat was made of, and be carried in houfes drawn by horfes, without being expofed to wind or weather. All this he promised her the enjoyment of, without fuch fears and alarms as they were there tormented with. In this tender correfpondence thefe lovers lived for feveral months, when Yarico, inftructed by her lover, discovered a veffel on the coaft, to which he made fignals; and, in the night, with the utmost joy and fatisfaction, accompanied him to a fhip's crew of his countrymen, bound for Barbadoes. When a veffel from the main arrives in that ifland, it feems the planters come down to the fhore, where there is an immediate market of the Indians and other flaves, as with us of horfes and oxen.

To be fhort, Mr. Thomas Inkle, now coming into English territories, began ferioufly to reflect upon his lofs of time, and to weigh with himself how many days intereft of his money he had loft during his ftay with Yarico. This thought made the young man very penfive, and careful what account he should be able to give

his

his friends of his voyage. Upon which confideration, the prudent and frugal young man fold Yarico to a Barbadian merchant; notwithstanding that the poor girl, to incline him to commiferate her condition, told him that she was with child by him; but he only made use of that information, to rife in his demands upon the purchaser.

I was fo touched with this ftory, which I think fhould be always a counterpart to the Ephesian matron, that left the room with tears in my eyes; which a woman of Arietta's good fenfe, did, I am fure, take for greaterapplaufe, than any compliments I could make her.

No 12.

Wednesday, MARCH 14..

Veteres avias tibi de pulmone revello.

R

Perf. Sat. 5. v. 92,.

I root th' old woman from thy trembling heart.

A

T my coming to London, it was fome time before I could fettle myself in a houfe to my liking. was forced to quit my first lodgings, by reafon of am officious landlady, that would be afking me every morning how I had flept. I then fell into an honest family, and lived very happily for above a week; when my landlord, who was a jolly good-natured man, took it into his head that I wanted company, and therefore would frequently come into my chamber to keep me from being alone. This I bore for two or three days; but telling me one day that he was afraid I was melancholy, I thought it was high time for me to be gone, and accordingly took new lodgings that very night. About a week after, I found my jolly landlord, who, as I faid before, was an honeft hearty man, had put me into an advertisement of the Daily Courant, in the fol lowing words, Whereas a melancholy man left his lod-. gings on Thurfday laft in the afternoon, and was afterwards

E3

feena