Page:The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African.pdf/352

[ 306 ] thus. At last he asked me, 'How comes it that all the white men on board who can read and write, and observe the sun, and know all things, yet swear, lie, and get drunk, only excepting yourself?' I answered him, the reason was, that they did not fear God; and that if any one of them died so they could not go to, or he happy with God. He replied, that if a certain person went to hell he would go to hell too! I was sorry to hear this; and, as he sometimes had the tooth-ach, and also some other persons in the ship at the same time, I asked him if their tooth-ach made his easy? he said, No. Then I told him, if he and these people went to hell together, their pains would not make his any lighter. This had great weight with him, it depressed his spirits much; and he became ever after, during the passage, fond of being alone. When we were in the latitude of Martinico, and near making the land, one morning we had a brisk gale of wind, and carrying too much sail, the mainmast went over the side. Many people were then all about the deck, and the yards, masts, and rigging, came tumbling all about us, yet there was not one of us the least hurt, although some were within a hair's breadth of being killed; and, particularly, I saw two men, who, by the providential hand of God, were