N° II.

Tuesday March 13.

Dat veniam corvis, vexat cenfura columbas.

Juv. Sat. 2. 1. 63. The Doves are cenfur'd, while the Crows are spared.

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RIETTA is vifited by all Persons of both Sexes, 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 so 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 she 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 Intereits. I made her a Vifit this Afternoon, having been formerly introduced to the Honour of her Acquaintance, by my Friend WILL HONEYCOMB, who has prevail'd 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 Topick 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 Songs, which allude to the Perjuries of the Fair, and the general Levity of Women. Methought he ftrove to thine more than ordinarily in his Talkative Way, that he might infult my Silence, and diftinguish himself before a Woman of Arietta's Tafte and Understanding. She had often an Inclination to interrupt him, but could find no Opportunity, till the Larum ceafed of it felf; which VOL. I.

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it did not till he had repeated and murdered the celebrated Story of the Ephefian Matron.

ARIETTA feemed to regard this Piece of Rallery as an Outrage done to her Sex; 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 Sex, than Men are by what is faid of theirs.

WHEN fhe had a little recovered her felf from the fericus Anger fhe was in, the replied in the following

manner.

SIR, When I confider how perfectly new all you have faid on this Subject 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 difpute 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 Superiority, a Sign 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 Liors, for one Lion killed by a Man. You Men are Writers, and can reprefent us Women as unbecoming as you pleafe 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. These, and fuch other Reflexions, are fprinkled up and down the Writings of all Ages, by Authors, who leave behind them Memorials of their Refentment against the Scorn of particular Women, in Invectives against the whole Sex. Such a Writer, I doubt not, was the celebrated. Petronius, who invented the pleasant Aggravations of the Frailty of the Ephefion Lady; but when we confider this Queftion between the Sexes, which has been either 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 embellish their Narrations with any Beauties of Imagiration. I was the other Day anaufing myself with Ligon's .: Account

Account of Barbadoes; and, in Answer to your wellwrought 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 Ship called the Achilles, bound for the Weft-Indies, on the 16th of June, 1674, in order to improve his Fortune by Trade and Merchandise. Our Adventurer was the third Son of an eminent Citizen, who had taken particular Care to inftil into his Mind an early Love of Gain, by making him a perfect Mafter of Numbers, and confequently giving him a quick View of Lofs and Advantage, and preventing the natural Impulfes of his Paffions, by Prepoffeffion towards his Interests. With a Mind thus turned, young Inkle had a Person every way agreeable, a ruddy Vigour in his Countenance, Strength in his Limbs, with Ringlets of fair Hair loofely flowing on his Shoulders. It happened, in the Courfe of the Voyage, that the Achilles, in fome Diftrefs, put into a Creek on the Main of America, in Search of Provifions. The Youth, who is the Hero of my Story, among others went ashore 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 unadvifedly marched a great Distance from the Shore into the Country, and were intercepted by the Natives, who flew the greatest Number of them. Our Adventurer efcaped among others, by flying into a Foreft. Upon his coming into a remote and pathlefs Part of the Wood, he threw himself, tired, and breathlefs, on a little Hillock, when an Indian Maid rushed from a Thicket behind him. After the first Surprize, 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 Drefs. Complexion, and Shape 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 she gave him a delicious Repaft of Fruits, and led him to a Stream to flake his Thin, In the

midft of these 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 seems, a Perfon of Distinction, for fhe every Day came to him in a different Drefs, of the most beautiful Shells, Bugles, and Bredes. She likewife brought him a great many Spoils, which her other Lovers had prefented to her, fo that his Cave was richly adorned with all the spotted Skins of Beafts, and moft Party-coloured Feathers of Fowls, which that World afforded. To make his Confinement more tolerable, she would carry him in the Dusk of the Evening, or by the favour of Moon-light, to unfrequented Groves and Solitudes, and fhew him where to lie down in fafety, and fleep amidst 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 Safety. In this manner did the Lovers pass away their Time, till they had learned a Language of their own, in which the Voyager communicated to his Mistress, how happy he fhould be to have her in his Country, where the should be clothed in fuch Silks as his Waftecoat was made of, and be carried in Houfes drawn by Horfes, without being exposed 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 these Lovers lived for feveral Months, when Tarico, inftructed by her Lover, difcovered a Veffel on the Coast to which the made Signals; and in the Night,. with the utmoft Joy and Satisfaction, accompanied him: to a Ship's-Crew of his Countrymen, bound for Barbadoes. When a Veffel from the Main arrives in that Ifland, it seems the Planters come down to the Shore, where there is an immediate Market of the Indians and other Slaves, 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 Stay with Yarico. This Thought made the young Man very penfive, and careful what Account he fhould 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 so touch'd with this Story (which I think should be always a Counterpart to the Ephefian Matron) that I left the Room with Tears in my Eyes; which a Woman of Arietta's good Senfe, did, I am fure, take for greater Applaufe, than any Compliments I could make her.

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N° 12. Wednesday, March 14.

-Veteres avias tibi de pulmone revello.

Perf. Sat 5. v. 92.

I root th' old Woman from thy trembling Heart.

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T my coming to London, it was fome time before I could fettle myself in a House to my liking. I was forced to quit my firft Lodgings, by reafon of an officious Landlady, that would be asking 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 following Words, Whereas a melancholy Man left his Lodgings on Thursday laft in the Afternoon, and was after

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wards