When this cargo arrived I thought my fortune made, for I was
surprised with the joy of it; and my stood steward, the captain,
had laid out the five pounds, which my friend had sent him for a
present for himself, to purchase and bring me over a servant, under
bond for six years' service, and would not accept of any
consideration, except a little tobacco, which I would have him
accept, being of my own produce.
Neither was this all; for my goods being all English manufacture,
such as cloths, stuffs, baize, and things particularly valuable and
desirable in the country, I found means to sell them to a very
great advantage; so that I might say I had more than four times the
value of my first cargo, and was now infinitely beyond my poor
neighbour - I mean in the advancement of my plantation; for the
first thing I did, I bought me a negro slave, and an European
servant also - I mean another besides that which the captain
brought me from Lisbon.
But as abused prosperity is oftentimes made the very means of our
greatest adversity, so it was with me. I went on the next year
with great success in my plantation: I raised fifty great rolls of
tobacco on my own ground, more than I had disposed of for
necessaries among my neighbours; and these fifty rolls, being each
of above a hundredweight, were well cured, and laid by against the
return of the fleet from Lisbon: and now increasing in business and
wealth, my head began to be full of projects and undertakings
beyond my reach; such as are, indeed, often the ruin of the best
heads in business.
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