A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 2 | Page 8

was friendly to their cruelty, and a royal warrant seemed to justify the vanity of her parent. The consolation of an ingenious mind supported Machin under confinement, and enabled him to seek after redress without yielding to despondency. On his releasement from prison, he learned that the beloved cause of his persecution had been forced to marry a nobleman, whose name he could not discover, but who had carried her to his castle near Bristol. The friends of Machin made his misfortune their own, and one of them had the address to get introduced into the service of the afflicted Anna under the character of a groom. The prospect of the ocean during their rides, suggested or matured the plan of escape and the hope of a secure asylum counteracted the imagined dangers of a passage to the coast of France. Under pretence of deriving benefit from the sea air, the victim of parental ambition was enabled to elude suspicion, and embarked without delay, in a vessel procured for the purpose, along with her lover.
In the successful completion of this anxious design, Machin was alike insensible to the unfavourable season of the year, and to the portentous signs of an approaching storm, which in a calmer moment he would have duly observed. The gradual rising of a gale of wind, rendered the astonished fugitives sensible of their rashness; and, as the tempest continued to augment, the thick darkness of night completed the horrors of their situation. In their confusion, the intended port was missed, or could not be attained, and their vessel drove at the mercy of the winds and waves. In the morning they found themselves in the midst of an unknown ocean, without skill to determine their situation, and destitute of knowledge or experience to direct their course towards any known land. At length, after twelve anxious mornings had dawned without sight of land, with the earliest streaks of day an object dimly appeared to their eager watchfulness in the distant horizon, and when the grey haze, which had alternately filled them with hope and despondency was dissipated by the rising sun, the certainty of having discovered land was welcomed by a general burst of joy. A great luxuriancy of trees of unknown species, was soon observed to overspread the land, whence unknown birds of beautiful plumage came off in flocks to the vessel, and gave the appearance of a pleasing dream to their unexpected deliverance.
[Illustration: Chart of North Western Africa]
The boat was hoisted out to examine the new found island, and returned with a favourable account. Machin and his friends accompanied their trembling charge on shore, leaving the mariners to secure the vessel at an anchor. The wilderness and rich scenery of the adjacent country possessed great charms to these thankful guests, just escaped from apparently inevitable destruction. An opening in the extensive woods, which was encircled with laurels and other flowering shrubs, presented a delightful retreat to the tempest-worn voyagers; a venerable tree, of ancient growth, offered its welcome shade on an adjoining eminence, and the first moments of liberty were employed in forming a romantic residence, with the abundant materials which nature supplied all around. The novelty of every object they beheld, induced curiosity to explore their new discovery, and they spent three days in wandering about the woods, when the survey was interrupted by an alarming hurricane, which came on during the night, and rendered them extremely anxious for the safety of their companions, who had been left in charge of the vessel. The ensuing morning destroyed all prospect of being ever enabled to get away from the island; the vessel had broke from her moorings by the violence of the storm, and was wrecked on the coast of Morocco, where all on board were immediately seized as slaves.
The afflicted Machin found this last calamity too severe for his terrified and afflicted companion to endure. Her susceptible mind and tender frame, overcome by the severity of the scenes she had gone through, and oppressed by consciousness of having deviated from her duty, sunk under her afflictive situation. From the moment it was reported that the vessel had disappeared, she became dumb with sorrow, and expired after a few days of silent despair. This heavy stroke was too much for the inconsolable lover to support; though watched over with the utmost solicitude by his afflicted friends, all attempts to administer consolation were entirely fruitless, and he expired on the fifth day after the death of his beloved mistress. With his parting breath, he earnestly enjoined his surviving companions, to deposit his body in the same grave, under the venerable tree, which they had so recently made for the victim of his temerity; and where the altar which had been raised to celebrate their deliverance, would