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We sailed south for many more days . I hoped to reach the Cape Verde Islands , where European ships often passed . One morning Xury cried out , “ Master , master , a ship ! ” He was afraid that it was my old master’s ship . But it was a Portuguese ship on its way to Brazil . We sailed after it and fired a gun , and at last the sailors saw us and waited . The Portuguese captain was a very good man . He took us on board and did not want any money for it . “ I have saved your life , ” he said , “ as I hope somebody will save mine one day . ” He bought my boat and the two skins for a good price . He also offered sixty pieces of silver for Xury . He promised to set the boy free after ten years if Xury became a Christian . I did not want to sell the boy , because he had helped me to escape . But Xury said that he was happy to go with the captain , and so I agreed . Later , in Brazil , I often thought that I was wrong to let him go . IV . Brazil and the Last Voyage After twenty - two days we arrived in Brazil . The captain helped me with everything . With my money I bought some land , and I began to grow tobacco and sugar cane . My neighbour was a man from Lisbon , and we became good friends . We both worked hard , and after four years my farm was doing well . I had a good life now . It was exactly the quiet middle life that my father described . But I was not happy with it . I always wanted more . I often told my neighbours about my voyages to Guinea . One day three of them came to see me with a plan . The farms in Brazil needed many workers . In those days the farmers bought enslaved Africans to work on them . It was a cruel trade , but I did not think about that then . They wanted to send a ship to Guinea , and they wanted me to go as their manager . I did not have to pay anything , and I would get a share of everything . This was a foolish plan for a man with a good farm . But I could not say no to the sea . I wrote a will . If I died , half of my farm went to the good Portuguese captain . The other half went to my family in England . On the first of September 1659 I went on board . It was exactly eight years since I ran away to sea from Hull . We had fourteen men and six guns . For twelve days the weather was fine . Then a great storm began . For twelve days more the wind carried us wherever it wanted . We could do nothing . One man died of a fever , and a big wave washed a man and a boy into the sea . Our ship was badly damaged , and we decided to sail to the islands of the Caribbean for help . But a second storm came and drove us west . Early one morning a sailor shouted , “ Land ! ” At that moment the ship hit a sandbank and stopped . The waves broke over us so hard that we expected to die at any moment .
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