The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe [Robinson Crusoe Part 2]
by
Daniel Defoe

Part 3 out of 5



this might in the end ruin the poor fellow's principles, and so
turn him back again to his first idolatry. However, a sudden
thought relieved me in this strait, and it was this: I told him I
could not say that I was willing to part with Friday on any account
whatever, though a work that to him was of more value than his life
ought to be of much more value than the keeping or parting with a
servant. On the other hand, I was persuaded that Friday would by
no means agree to part with me; and I could not force him to it
without his consent, without manifest injustice; because I had
promised I would never send him away, and he had promised and
engaged that he would never leave me, unless I sent him away.

He seemed very much concerned at it, for he had no rational access
to these poor people, seeing he did not understand one word of
their language, nor they one of his. To remove this difficulty, I
told him Friday's father had learned Spanish, which I found he also
understood, and he should serve him as an interpreter. So he was
much better satisfied, and nothing could persuade him but he would
stay and endeavour to convert them; but Providence gave another
very happy turn to all this.

I come back now to the first part of his objections. When we came
to the Englishmen, I sent for them all together, and after some
account given them of what I had done for them, viz. what necessary
things I had provided for them, and how they were distributed,
which they were very sensible of, and very thankful for, I began to
talk to them of the scandalous life they led, and gave them a full
account of the notice the clergyman had taken of it; and arguing
how unchristian and irreligious a life it was, I first asked them
if they were married men or bachelors? They soon explained their
condition to me, and showed that two of them were widowers, and the
other three were single men, or bachelors. I asked them with what
conscience they could take these women, and call them their wives,
and have so many children by them, and not be lawfully married to
them? They all gave me the answer I expected, viz. that there was
nobody to marry them; that they agreed before the governor to keep
them as their wives, and to maintain them and own them as their
wives; and they thought, as things stood with them, they were as
legally married as if they had been married by a parson and with
all the formalities in the world.

I told them that no doubt they were married in the sight of God,
and were bound in conscience to keep them as their wives; but that
the laws of men being otherwise, they might desert the poor women
and children hereafter; and that their wives, being poor desolate
women, friendless and moneyless, would have no way to help
themselves. I therefore told them that unless I was assured of
their honest intent, I could do nothing for them, but would take
care that what I did should be for the women and children without
them; and that, unless they would give me some assurances that they
would marry the women, I could not think it was convenient they
should continue together as man and wife; for that it was both
scandalous to men and offensive to God, who they could not think
would bless them if they went on thus.

All this went on as I expected; and they told me, especially Will
Atkins, who now seemed to speak for the rest, that they loved their
wives as well as if they had been born in their own native country,
and would not leave them on any account whatever; and they did
verily believe that their wives were as virtuous and as modest, and
did, to the utmost of their skill, as much for them and for their
children, as any woman could possibly do: and they would not part
with them on any account. Will Atkins, for his own particular,
added that if any man would take him away, and offer to carry him
home to England, and make him captain of the best man-of-war in the
navy, he would not go with him if he might not carry his wife and
children with him; and if there was a clergyman in the ship, he
would be married to her now with all his heart.

This was just as I would have it. The priest was not with me at
that moment, but he was not far off; so to try him further, I told
him I had a clergyman with me, and, if he was sincere, I would have
him married next morning, and bade him consider of it, and talk
with the rest. He said, as for himself, he need not consider of it
at all, for he was very ready to do it, and was glad I had a
minister with me, and he believed they would be all willing also.
I then told him that my friend, the minister, was a Frenchman, and
could not speak English, but I would act the clerk between them.
He never so much as asked me whether he was a Papist or Protestant,
which was, indeed, what I was afraid of. We then parted, and I
went back to my clergyman, and Will Atkins went in to talk with his
companions. I desired the French gentleman not to say anything to
them till the business was thoroughly ripe; and I told him what
answer the men had given me.

Before I went from their quarter they all came to me and told me
they had been considering what I had said; that they were glad to
hear I had a clergyman in my company, and they were very willing to
give me the satisfaction I desired, and to be formally married as
soon as I pleased; for they were far from desiring to part with
their wives, and that they meant nothing but what was very honest
when they chose them. So I appointed them to meet me the next
morning; and, in the meantime, they should let their wives know the
meaning of the marriage law; and that it was not only to prevent
any scandal, but also to oblige them that they should not forsake
them, whatever might happen.

The women were easily made sensible of the meaning of the thing,
and were very well satisfied with it, as, indeed, they had reason
to be: so they failed not to attend all together at my apartment
next morning, where I brought out my clergyman; and though he had
not on a minister's gown, after the manner of England, or the habit
of a priest, after the manner of France, yet having a black vest
something like a cassock, with a sash round it, he did not look
very unlike a minister; and as for his language, I was his
interpreter. But the seriousness of his behaviour to them, and the
scruples he made of marrying the women, because they were not
baptized and professed Christians, gave them an exceeding reverence
for his person; and there was no need, after that, to inquire
whether he was a clergyman or not. Indeed, I was afraid his
scruples would have been carried so far as that he would not have
married them at all; nay, notwithstanding all I was able to say to
him, he resisted me, though modestly, yet very steadily, and at
last refused absolutely to marry them, unless he had first talked
with the men and the women too; and though at first I was a little
backward to it, yet at last I agreed to it with a good will,
perceiving the sincerity of his design.

When he came to them he let them know that I had acquainted him
with their circumstances, and with the present design; that he was
very willing to perform that part of his function, and marry them,
as I had desired; but that before he could do it, he must take the
liberty to talk with them. He told them that in the sight of all
indifferent men, and in the sense of the laws of society, they had
lived all this while in a state of sin; and that it was true that
nothing but the consenting to marry, or effectually separating them
from one another, could now put an end to it; but there was a
difficulty in it, too, with respect to the laws of Christian
matrimony, which he was not fully satisfied about, that of marrying
one that is a professed Christian to a savage, an idolater, and a
heathen--one that is not baptized; and yet that he did not see that
there was time left to endeavour to persuade the women to be
baptized, or to profess the name of Christ, whom they had, he
doubted, heard nothing of, and without which they could not be
baptized. He told them he doubted they were but indifferent
Christians themselves; that they had but little knowledge of God or
of His ways, and, therefore, he could not expect that they had said
much to their wives on that head yet; but that unless they would
promise him to use their endeavours with their wives to persuade
them to become Christians, and would, as well as they could,
instruct them in the knowledge and belief of God that made them,
and to worship Jesus Christ that redeemed them, he could not marry
them; for he would have no hand in joining Christians with savages,
nor was it consistent with the principles of the Christian
religion, and was, indeed, expressly forbidden in God's law.

They heard all this very attentively, and I delivered it very
faithfully to them from his mouth, as near his own words as I
could; only sometimes adding something of my own, to convince them
how just it was, and that I was of his mind; and I always very
carefully distinguished between what I said from myself and what
were the clergyman's words. They told me it was very true what the
gentleman said, that they were very indifferent Christians
themselves, and that they had never talked to their wives about
religion. "Lord, sir," says Will Atkins, "how should we teach them
religion? Why, we know nothing ourselves; and besides, sir," said
he, "should we talk to them of God and Jesus Christ, and heaven and
hell, it would make them laugh at us, and ask us what we believe
ourselves. And if we should tell them that we believe all the
things we speak of to them, such as of good people going to heaven,
and wicked people to the devil, they would ask us where we intend
to go ourselves, that believe all this, and are such wicked fellows
as we indeed are? Why, sir; 'tis enough to give them a surfeit of
religion at first hearing; folks must have some religion themselves
before they begin to teach other people."--"Will Atkins," said I to
him, "though I am afraid that what you say has too much truth in
it, yet can you not tell your wife she is in the wrong; that there
is a God and a religion better than her own; that her gods are
idols; that they can neither hear nor speak; that there is a great
Being that made all things, and that can destroy all that He has
made; that He rewards the good and punishes the bad; and that we
are to be judged by Him at last for all we do here? You are not so
ignorant but even nature itself will teach you that all this is
true; and I am satisfied you know it all to be true, and believe it
yourself."--"That is true, sir," said Atkins; "but with what face
can I say anything to my wife of all this, when she will tell me
immediately it cannot be true?"--"Not true!" said I; "what do you
mean by that?"--"Why, sir," said he, "she will tell me it cannot be
true that this God I shall tell her of can be just, or can punish
or reward, since I am not punished and sent to the devil, that have
been such a wicked creature as she knows I have been, even to her,
and to everybody else; and that I should be suffered to live, that
have been always acting so contrary to what I must tell her is
good, and to what I ought to have done."--"Why, truly, Atkins,"
said I, "I am afraid thou speakest too much truth;" and with that I
informed the clergyman of what Atkins had said, for he was
impatient to know. "Oh," said the priest, "tell him there is one
thing will make him the best minister in the world to his wife, and
that is repentance; for none teach repentance like true penitents.
He wants nothing but to repent, and then he will be so much the
better qualified to instruct his wife; he will then be able to tell
her that there is not only a God, and that He is the just rewarder
of good and evil, but that He is a merciful Being, and with
infinite goodness and long-suffering forbears to punish those that
offend; waiting to be gracious, and willing not the death of a
sinner, but rather that he should return and live; and even
reserves damnation to the general day of retribution; that it is a
clear evidence of God and of a future state that righteous men
receive not their reward, or wicked men their punishment, till they
come into another world; and this will lead him to teach his wife
the doctrine of the resurrection and of the last judgment. Let him
but repent himself, he will be an excellent preacher of repentance
to his wife."

I repeated all this to Atkins, who looked very serious all the
while, and, as we could easily perceive, was more than ordinarily
affected with it; when being eager, and hardly suffering me to make
an end, "I know all this, master," says he, "and a great deal more;
but I have not the impudence to talk thus to my wife, when God and
my conscience know, and my wife will be an undeniable evidence
against me, that I have lived as if I had never heard of a God or
future state, or anything about it; and to talk of my repenting,
alas!" (and with that he fetched a deep sigh, and I could see that
the tears stood in his eyes) "'tis past all that with me."--"Past
it, Atkins?" said I: "what dost thou mean by that?"--"I know well
enough what I mean," says he; "I mean 'tis too late, and that is
too true."

I told the clergyman, word for word, what he said, and this
affectionate man could not refrain from tears; but, recovering
himself, said to me, "Ask him but one question. Is he easy that it
is too late; or is he troubled, and wishes it were not so?" I put
the question fairly to Atkins; and he answered with a great deal of
passion, "How could any man be easy in a condition that must
certainly end in eternal destruction? that he was far from being
easy; but that, on the contrary, he believed it would one time or
other ruin him."--"What do you mean by that?" said I.--"Why," he
said, "he believed he should one time or other cut his throat, to
put an end to the terror of it."

The clergyman shook his head, with great concern in his face, when
I told him all this; but turning quick to me upon it, says, "If
that be his case, we may assure him it is not too late; Christ will
give him repentance. But pray," says he, "explain this to him:
that as no man is saved but by Christ, and the merit of His passion
procuring divine mercy for him, how can it be too late for any man
to receive mercy? Does he think he is able to sin beyond the power
or reach of divine mercy? Pray tell him there may be a time when
provoked mercy will no longer strive, and when God may refuse to
hear, but that it is never too late for men to ask mercy; and we,
that are Christ's servants, are commanded to preach mercy at all
times, in the name of Jesus Christ, to all those that sincerely
repent: so that it is never too late to repent."

I told Atkins all this, and he heard me with great earnestness; but
it seemed as if he turned off the discourse to the rest, for he
said to me he would go and have some talk with his wife; so he went
out a while, and we talked to the rest. I perceived they were all
stupidly ignorant as to matters of religion, as much as I was when
I went rambling away from my father; yet there were none of them
backward to hear what had been said; and all of them seriously
promised that they would talk with their wives about it, and do
their endeavours to persuade them to turn Christians.

The clergyman smiled upon me when I reported what answer they gave,
but said nothing a good while; but at last, shaking his head, "We
that are Christ's servants," says he, "can go no further than to
exhort and instruct: and when men comply, submit to the reproof,
and promise what we ask, 'tis all we can do; we are bound to accept
their good words; but believe me, sir," said he, "whatever you may
have known of the life of that man you call Will Atkin's, I believe
he is the only sincere convert among them: I will not despair of
the rest; but that man is apparently struck with the sense of his
past life, and I doubt not, when he comes to talk of religion to
his wife, he will talk himself effectually into it: for attempting
to teach others is sometimes the best way of teaching ourselves.
If that poor Atkins begins but once to talk seriously of Jesus
Christ to his wife, he will assuredly talk himself into a thorough
convert, make himself a penitent, and who knows what may follow."

Upon this discourse, however, and their promising, as above, to
endeavour to persuade their wives to embrace Christianity, he
married the two other couple; but Will Atkins and his wife were not
yet come in. After this, my clergyman, waiting a while, was
curious to know where Atkins was gone, and turning to me, said, "I
entreat you, sir, let us walk out of your labyrinth here and look;
I daresay we shall find this poor man somewhere or other talking
seriously to his wife, and teaching her already something of
religion." I began to be of the same mind; so we went out
together, and I carried him a way which none knew but myself, and
where the trees were so very thick that it was not easy to see
through the thicket of leaves, and far harder to see in than to see
out: when, coming to the edge of the wood, I saw Atkins and his
tawny wife sitting under the shade of a bush, very eager in
discourse: I stopped short till my clergyman came up to me, and
then having showed him where they were, we stood and looked very
steadily at them a good while. We observed him very earnest with
her, pointing up to the sun, and to every quarter of the heavens,
and then down to the earth, then out to the sea, then to himself,
then to her, to the woods, to the trees. "Now," says the
clergyman, "you see my words are made good, the man preaches to
her; mark him now, he is telling her that our God has made him,
her, and the heavens, the earth, the sea, the woods, the trees,
&c."--"I believe he is," said I. Immediately we perceived Will
Atkins start upon his feet, fall down on his knees, and lift up
both his hands. We supposed he said something, but we could not
hear him; it was too far for that. He did not continue kneeling
half a minute, but comes and sits down again by his wife, and talks
to her again; we perceived then the woman very attentive, but
whether she said anything to him we could not tell. While the poor
fellow was upon his knees I could see the tears run plentifully
down my clergyman's cheeks, and I could hardly forbear myself; but
it was a great affliction to us both that we were not near enough
to hear anything that passed between them. Well, however, we could
come no nearer for fear of disturbing them: so we resolved to see
an end of this piece of still conversation, and it spoke loud
enough to us without the help of voice. He sat down again, as I
have said, close by her, and talked again earnestly to her, and two
or three times we could see him embrace her most passionately;
another time we saw him take out his handkerchief and wipe her
eyes, and then kiss her again with a kind of transport very
unusual; and after several of these things, we saw him on a sudden
jump up again, and lend her his hand to help her up, when
immediately leading her by the hand a step or two, they both
kneeled down together, and continued so about two minutes.

My friend could bear it no longer, but cries out aloud, "St. Paul!
St. Paul! behold he prayeth." I was afraid Atkins would hear him,
therefore I entreated him to withhold himself a while, that we
might see an end of the scene, which to me, I must confess, was the
most affecting that ever I saw in my life. Well, he strove with
himself for a while, but was in such raptures to think that the
poor heathen woman was become a Christian, that he was not able to
contain himself; he wept several times, then throwing up his hands
and crossing his breast, said over several things ejaculatory, and
by the way of giving God thanks for so miraculous a testimony of
the success of our endeavours. Some he spoke softly, and I could
not well hear others; some things he said in Latin, some in French;
then two or three times the tears would interrupt him, that he
could not speak at all; but I begged that he would contain himself,
and let us more narrowly and fully observe what was before us,
which he did for a time, the scene not being near ended yet; for
after the poor man and his wife were risen again from their knees,
we observed he stood talking still eagerly to her, and we observed
her motion, that she was greatly affected with what he said, by her
frequently lifting up her hands, laying her hand to her breast, and
such other postures as express the greatest seriousness and
attention; this continued about half a quarter of an hour, and then
they walked away, so we could see no more of them in that
situation.

I took this interval to say to the clergyman, first, that I was
glad to see the particulars we had both been witnesses to; that,
though I was hard enough of belief in such cases, yet that I began
to think it was all very sincere here, both in the man and his
wife, however ignorant they might both be, and I hoped such a
beginning would yet have a more happy end. "But, my friend," added
I, "will you give me leave to start one difficulty here? I cannot
tell how to object the least thing against that affectionate
concern which you show for the turning of the poor people from
their paganism to the Christian religion; but how does this comfort
you, while these people are, in your account, out of the pale of
the Catholic Church, without which you believe there is no
salvation? so that you esteem these but heretics, as effectually
lost as the pagans themselves."

To this he answered, with abundance of candour, thus: "Sir, I am a
Catholic of the Roman Church, and a priest of the order of St.
Benedict, and I embrace all the principles of the Roman faith; but
yet, if you will believe me, and that I do not speak in compliment
to you, or in respect to my circumstances and your civilities; I
say nevertheless, I do not look upon you, who call yourselves
reformed, without some charity. I dare not say (though I know it
is our opinion in general) that you cannot be saved; I will by no
means limit the mercy of Christ so far as think that He cannot
receive you into the bosom of His Church, in a manner to us
unperceivable; and I hope you have the same charity for us: I pray
daily for you being all restored to Christ's Church, by whatsoever
method He, who is all-wise, is pleased to direct. In the meantime,
surely you will allow it consists with me as a Roman to distinguish
far between a Protestant and a pagan; between one that calls on
Jesus Christ, though in a way which I do not think is according to
the true faith, and a savage or a barbarian, that knows no God, no
Christ, no Redeemer; and if you are not within the pale of the
Catholic Church, we hope you are nearer being restored to it than
those who know nothing of God or of His Church: and I rejoice,
therefore, when I see this poor man, who you say has been a
profligate, and almost a murderer kneel down and pray to Jesus
Christ, as we suppose he did, though not fully enlightened;
believing that God, from whom every such work proceeds, will
sensibly touch his heart, and bring him to the further knowledge of
that truth in His own time; and if God shall influence this poor
man to convert and instruct the ignorant savage, his wife, I can
never believe that he shall be cast away himself. And have I not
reason, then, to rejoice, the nearer any are brought to the
knowledge of Christ, though they may not be brought quite home into
the bosom of the Catholic Church just at the time when I desire it,
leaving it to the goodness of Christ to perfect His work in His own
time, and in his own way? Certainly, I would rejoice if all the
savages in America were brought, like this poor woman, to pray to
God, though they were all to be Protestants at first, rather than
they should continue pagans or heathens; firmly believing, that He
that had bestowed the first light on them would farther illuminate
them with a beam of His heavenly grace, and bring them into the
pale of His Church when He should see good."




CHAPTER VII--CONVERSATION BETWIXT WILL ATKINS AND HIS WIFE



I was astonished at the sincerity and temper of this pious Papist,
as much as I was oppressed by the power of his reasoning; and it
presently occurred to my thoughts, that if such a temper was
universal, we might be all Catholic Christians, whatever Church or
particular profession we joined in; that a spirit of charity would
soon work us all up into right principles; and as he thought that
the like charity would make us all Catholics, so I told him I
believed, had all the members of his Church the like moderation,
they would soon all be Protestants. And there we left that part;
for we never disputed at all. However, I talked to him another
way, and taking him by the hand, "My friend," says I, "I wish all
the clergy of the Romish Church were blessed with such moderation,
and had an equal share of your charity. I am entirely of your
opinion; but I must tell you that if you should preach such
doctrine in Spain or Italy, they would put you into the
Inquisition."--"It may be so," said he; "I know not what they would
do in Spain or Italy; but I will not say they would be the better
Christians for that severity; for I am sure there is no heresy in
abounding with charity."

Well, as Will Atkins and his wife were gone, our business there was
over, so we went back our own way; and when we came back, we found
them waiting to be called in. Observing this, I asked my clergyman
if we should discover to him that we had seen him under the bush or
not; and it was his opinion we should not, but that we should talk
to him first, and hear what he would say to us; so we called him in
alone, nobody being in the place but ourselves, and I began by
asking him some particulars about his parentage and education. He
told me frankly enough that his father was a clergyman who would
have taught him well, but that he, Will Atkins, despised all
instruction and correction; and by his brutish conduct cut the
thread of all his father's comforts and shortened his days, for
that he broke his heart by the most ungrateful, unnatural return
for the most affectionate treatment a father ever gave.

In what he said there seemed so much sincerity of repentance, that
it painfully affected me. I could not but reflect that I, too, had
shortened the life of a good, tender father by my bad conduct and
obstinate self-will. I was, indeed, so surprised with what he had
told me, that I thought, instead of my going about to teach and
instruct him, the man was made a teacher and instructor to me in a
most unexpected manner.

I laid all this before the young clergyman, who was greatly
affected with it, and said to me, "Did I not say, sir, that when
this man was converted he would preach to us all? I tell you, sir,
if this one man be made a true penitent, there will be no need of
me; he will make Christians of all in the island."--But having a
little composed myself, I renewed my discourse with Will Atkins.
"But, Will," said I, "how comes the sense of this matter to touch
you just now?"

W.A.--Sir, you have set me about a work that has struck a dart
though my very soul; I have been talking about God and religion to
my wife, in order, as you directed me, to make a Christian of her,
and she has preached such a sermon to me as I shall never forget
while I live.

R.C.--No, no, it is not your wife has preached to you; but when you
were moving religious arguments to her, conscience has flung them
back upon you.

W.A.--Ay, sir, with such force as is not to be resisted.

R.C.--Pray, Will, let us know what passed between you and your
wife; for I know something of it already.

W.A.--Sir, it is impossible to give you a full account of it; I am
too full to hold it, and yet have no tongue to express it; but let
her have said what she will, though I cannot give you an account of
it, this I can tell you, that I have resolved to amend and reform
my life.

R.C.--But tell us some of it: how did you begin, Will? For this
has been an extraordinary case, that is certain. She has preached
a sermon, indeed, if she has wrought this upon you.

W.A.--Why, I first told her the nature of our laws about marriage,
and what the reasons were that men and women were obliged to enter
into such compacts as it was neither in the power of one nor other
to break; that otherwise, order and justice could not be
maintained, and men would run from their wives, and abandon their
children, mix confusedly with one another, and neither families be
kept entire, nor inheritances be settled by legal descent.

R.C.--You talk like a civilian, Will. Could you make her
understand what you meant by inheritance and families? They know
no such things among the savages, but marry anyhow, without regard
to relation, consanguinity, or family; brother and sister, nay, as
I have been told, even the father and the daughter, and the son and
the mother.

W.A.--I believe, sir, you are misinformed, and my wife assures me
of the contrary, and that they abhor it; perhaps, for any further
relations, they may not be so exact as we are; but she tells me
never in the near relationship you speak of.

R.C.--Well, what did she say to what you told her?

W.A.--She said she liked it very well, as it was much better than
in her country.

R.C.--But did you tell her what marriage was?

W.A.--Ay, ay, there began our dialogue. I asked her if she would
be married to me our way. She asked me what way that was; I told
her marriage was appointed by God; and here we had a strange talk
together, indeed, as ever man and wife had, I believe.

N.B.--This dialogue between Will Atkins and his wife, which I took
down in writing just after he told it me, was as follows:-

Wife.--Appointed by your God!--Why, have you a God in your country?

W.A.--Yes, my dear, God is in every country.

Wife.--No your God in my country; my country have the great old
Benamuckee God.

W.A.--Child, I am very unfit to show you who God is; God is in
heaven and made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and all that in
them is.

Wife.--No makee de earth; no you God makee all earth; no makee my
country.

[Will Atkins laughed a little at her expression of God not making
her country.]

Wife.--No laugh; why laugh me? This no ting to laugh.

[He was justly reproved by his wife, for she was more serious than
he at first.]

W.A.--That's true, indeed; I will not laugh any more, my dear.

Wife.--Why you say you God makee all?

W.A.--Yes, child, our God made the whole world, and you, and me,
and all things; for He is the only true God, and there is no God
but Him. He lives for ever in heaven.

Wife.--Why you no tell me long ago?

W.A.--That's true, indeed; but I have been a wicked wretch, and
have not only forgotten to acquaint thee with anything before, but
have lived without God in the world myself.

Wife.--What, have you a great God in your country, you no know Him?
No say O to Him? No do good ting for Him? That no possible.

W.A.--It is true; though, for all that, we live as if there was no
God in heaven, or that He had no power on earth.

Wife.--But why God let you do so? Why He no makee you good live?

W.A.--It is all our own fault.

Wife.--But you say me He is great, much great, have much great
power; can makee kill when He will: why He no makee kill when you
no serve Him? no say O to Him? no be good mans?

W.A.--That is true, He might strike me dead; and I ought to expect
it, for I have been a wicked wretch, that is true; but God is
merciful, and does not deal with us as we deserve.

Wife.--But then do you not tell God thankee for that too?

W. A.--No, indeed, I have not thanked God for His mercy, any more
than I have feared God from His power.

Wife.--Then you God no God; me no think, believe He be such one,
great much power, strong: no makee kill you, though you make Him
much angry.

W.A.--What, will my wicked life hinder you from believing in God?
What a dreadful creature am I! and what a sad truth is it, that the
horrid lives of Christians hinder the conversion of heathens!

Wife.--How me tink you have great much God up there [she points up
to heaven], and yet no do well, no do good ting? Can He tell?
Sure He no tell what you do?

W.A.--Yes, yes, He knows and sees all things; He hears us speak,
sees what we do, knows what we think though we do not speak.

Wife.--What! He no hear you curse, swear, speak de great damn?

W.A.--Yes, yes, He hears it all.

Wife.--Where be then the much great power strong?

W.A.--He is merciful, that is all we can say for it; and this
proves Him to be the true God; He is God, and not man, and
therefore we are not consumed.

[Here Will Atkins told us he was struck with horror to think how he
could tell his wife so clearly that God sees, and hears, and knows
the secret thoughts of the heart, and all that we do, and yet that
he had dared to do all the vile things he had done.]

Wife.--Merciful! What you call dat?

W.A.--He is our Father and Maker, and He pities and spares us.

Wife.--So then He never makee kill, never angry when you do wicked;
then He no good Himself, or no great able.

W.A.--Yes, yes, my dear, He is infinitely good and infinitely
great, and able to punish too; and sometimes, to show His justice
and vengeance, He lets fly His anger to destroy sinners and make
examples; many are cut off in their sins.

Wife.--But no makee kill you yet; then He tell you, maybe, that He
no makee you kill: so you makee the bargain with Him, you do bad
thing, He no be angry at you when He be angry at other mans.

W.A.--No, indeed, my sins are all presumptions upon His goodness;
and He would be infinitely just if He destroyed me, as He has done
other men.

Wife.--Well, and yet no kill, no makee you dead: what you say to
Him for that? You no tell Him thankee for all that too?

W.A.--I am an unthankful, ungrateful dog, that is true.

Wife.--Why He no makee you much good better? you say He makee you.

W.A.--He made me as He made all the world: it is I have deformed
myself and abused His goodness, and made myself an abominable
wretch.

Wife.--I wish you makee God know me. I no makee Him angry--I no do
bad wicked thing.

[Here Will Atkins said his heart sunk within him to hear a poor
untaught creature desire to be taught to know God, and he such a
wicked wretch, that he could not say one word to her about God, but
what the reproach of his own carriage would make most irrational to
her to believe; nay, that already she had told him that she could
not believe in God, because he, that was so wicked, was not
destroyed.]

W.A.--My dear, you mean, you wish I could teach you to know God,
not God to know you; for He knows you already, and every thought in
your heart.

Wife.--Why, then, He know what I say to you now: He know me wish
to know Him. How shall me know who makee me?

W.A.--Poor creature, He must teach thee: I cannot teach thee. I
will pray to Him to teach thee to know Him, and forgive me, that am
unworthy to teach thee.

[The poor fellow was in such an agony at her desiring him to make
her know God, and her wishing to know Him, that he said he fell
down on his knees before her, and prayed to God to enlighten her
mind with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and to pardon his
sins, and accept of his being the unworthy instrument of
instructing her in the principles of religion: after which he sat
down by her again, and their dialogue went on. This was the time
when we saw him kneel down and hold up his hands.]

Wife.--What you put down the knee for? What you hold up the hand
for? What you say? Who you speak to? What is all that?

W.A.--My dear, I bow my knees in token of my submission to Him that
made me: I said O to Him, as you call it, and as your old men do
to their idol Benamuckee; that is, I prayed to Him.

Wife.--What say you O to Him for?

W.A.--I prayed to Him to open your eyes and your understanding,
that you may know Him, and be accepted by Him.

Wife.--Can He do that too?

W.A.--Yes, He can: He can do all things.

Wife.--But now He hear what you say?

W.A.--Yes, He has bid us pray to Him, and promised to hear us.

Wife.--Bid you pray? When He bid you? How He bid you? What you
hear Him speak?

W.A.--No, we do not hear Him speak; but He has revealed Himself
many ways to us.

[Here he was at a great loss to make her understand that God has
revealed Himself to us by His word, and what His word was; but at
last he told it to her thus.]

W.A.--God has spoken to some good men in former days, even from
heaven, by plain words; and God has inspired good men by His
Spirit; and they have written all His laws down in a book.

Wife.--Me no understand that; where is book?

W.A.--Alas! my poor creature, I have not this book; but I hope I
shall one time or other get it for you, and help you to read it.

[Here he embraced her with great affection, but with inexpressible
grief that he had not a Bible.]

Wife.--But how you makee me know that God teachee them to write
that book?

W.A.--By the same rule that we know Him to be God.

Wife.--What rule? What way you know Him?

W.A.--Because He teaches and commands nothing but what is good,
righteous, and holy, and tends to make us perfectly good, as well
as perfectly happy; and because He forbids and commands us to avoid
all that is wicked, that is evil in itself, or evil in its
consequence.

Wife.--That me would understand, that me fain see; if He teachee
all good thing, He makee all good thing, He give all thing, He hear
me when I say O to Him, as you do just now; He makee me good if I
wish to be good; He spare me, no makee kill me, when I no be good:
all this you say He do, yet He be great God; me take, think,
believe Him to be great God; me say O to Him with you, my dear.

Here the poor man could forbear no longer, but raised her up, made
her kneel by him, and he prayed to God aloud to instruct her in the
knowledge of Himself, by His Spirit; and that by some good
providence, if possible, she might, some time or other, come to
have a Bible, that she might read the word of God, and be taught by
it to know Him. This was the time that we saw him lift her up by
the hand, and saw him kneel down by her, as above.

They had several other discourses, it seems, after this; and
particularly she made him promise that, since he confessed his own
life had been a wicked, abominable course of provocations against
God, that he would reform it, and not make God angry any more, lest
He should make him dead, as she called it, and then she would be
left alone, and never be taught to know this God better; and lest
he should be miserable, as he had told her wicked men would be
after death.

This was a strange account, and very affecting to us both, but
particularly to the young clergyman; he was, indeed, wonderfully
surprised with it, but under the greatest affliction imaginable
that he could not talk to her, that he could not speak English to
make her understand him; and as she spoke but very broken English,
he could not understand her; however, he turned himself to me, and
told me that he believed that there must be more to do with this
woman than to marry her. I did not understand him at first; but at
length he explained himself, viz. that she ought to be baptized. I
agreed with him in that part readily, and wished it to be done
presently. "No, no; hold, sir," says he; "though I would have her
be baptized, by all means, for I must observe that Will Atkins, her
husband, has indeed brought her, in a wonderful manner, to be
willing to embrace a religious life, and has given her just ideas
of the being of a God; of His power, justice, and mercy: yet I
desire to know of him if he has said anything to her of Jesus
Christ, and of the salvation of sinners; of the nature of faith in
Him, and redemption by Him; of the Holy Spirit, the resurrection,
the last judgment, and the future state."

I called Will Atkins again, and asked him; but the poor fellow fell
immediately into tears, and told us he had said something to her of
all those things, but that he was himself so wicked a creature, and
his own conscience so reproached him with his horrid, ungodly life,
that he trembled at the apprehensions that her knowledge of him
should lessen the attention she should give to those things, and
make her rather contemn religion than receive it; but he was
assured, he said, that her mind was so disposed to receive due
impressions of all those things, and that if I would but discourse
with her, she would make it appear to my satisfaction that my
labour would not be lost upon her.

Accordingly I called her in, and placing myself as interpreter
between my religious priest and the woman, I entreated him to begin
with her; but sure such a sermon was never preached by a Popish
priest in these latter ages of the world; and as I told him, I
thought he had all the zeal, all the knowledge, all the sincerity
of a Christian, without the error of a Roman Catholic; and that I
took him to be such a clergyman as the Roman bishops were before
the Church of Rome assumed spiritual sovereignty over the
consciences of men. In a word, he brought the poor woman to
embrace the knowledge of Christ, and of redemption by Him, not with
wonder and astonishment only, as she did the first notions of a
God, but with joy and faith; with an affection, and a surprising
degree of understanding, scarce to be imagined, much less to be
expressed; and, at her own request, she was baptized.

When he was preparing to baptize her, I entreated him that he would
perform that office with some caution, that the man might not
perceive he was of the Roman Church, if possible, because of other
ill consequences which might attend a difference among us in that
very religion which we were instructing the other in. He told me
that as he had no consecrated chapel, nor proper things for the
office, I should see he would do it in a manner that I should not
know by it that he was a Roman Catholic myself, if I had not known
it before; and so he did; for saying only some words over to
himself in Latin, which I could not understand, he poured a whole
dishful of water upon the woman's head, pronouncing in French, very
loud, "Mary" (which was the name her husband desired me to give
her, for I was her godfather), "I baptize thee in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;" so that none could
know anything by it what religion he was of. He gave the
benediction afterwards in Latin, but either Will Atkins did not
know but it was French, or else did not take notice of it at that
time.

As soon as this was over we married them; and after the marriage
was over, he turned to Will Atkins, and in a very affectionate
manner exhorted him, not only to persevere in that good disposition
he was in, but to support the convictions that were upon him by a
resolution to reform his life: told him it was in vain to say he
repented if he did not forsake his crimes; represented to him how
God had honoured him with being the instrument of bringing his wife
to the knowledge of the Christian religion, and that he should be
careful he did not dishonour the grace of God; and that if he did,
he would see the heathen a better Christian than himself; the
savage converted, and the instrument cast away. He said a great
many good things to them both; and then, recommending them to God's
goodness, gave them the benediction again, I repeating everything
to them in English; and thus ended the ceremony. I think it was
the most pleasant and agreeable day to me that ever I passed in my
whole life. But my clergyman had not done yet: his thoughts hung
continually upon the conversion of the thirty-seven savages, and
fain be would have stayed upon the island to have undertaken it;
but I convinced him, first, that his undertaking was impracticable
in itself; and, secondly, that perhaps I would put it into a way of
being done in his absence to his satisfaction.

Having thus brought the affairs of the island to a narrow compass,
I was preparing to go on board the ship, when the young man I had
taken out of the famished ship's company came to me, and told me he
understood I had a clergyman with me, and that I had caused the
Englishmen to be married to the savages; that he had a match too,
which he desired might be finished before I went, between two
Christians, which he hoped would not be disagreeable to me.

I knew this must be the young woman who was his mother's servant,
for there was no other Christian woman on the island: so I began
to persuade him not to do anything of that kind rashly, or because
be found himself in this solitary circumstance. I represented to
him that he had some considerable substance in the world, and good
friends, as I understood by himself, and the maid also; that the
maid was not only poor, and a servant, but was unequal to him, she
being six or seven and twenty years old, and he not above seventeen
or eighteen; that he might very probably, with my assistance, make
a remove from this wilderness, and come into his own country again;
and that then it would be a thousand to one but he would repent his
choice, and the dislike of that circumstance might be
disadvantageous to both. I was going to say more, but he
interrupted me, smiling, and told me, with a great deal of modesty,
that I mistook in my guesses--that he had nothing of that kind in
his thoughts; and he was very glad to hear that I had an intent of
putting them in a way to see their own country again; and nothing
should have made him think of staying there, but that the voyage I
was going was so exceeding long and hazardous, and would carry him
quite out of the reach of all his friends; that he had nothing to
desire of me but that I would settle him in some little property in
the island where he was, give him a servant or two, and some few
necessaries, and he would live here like a planter, waiting the
good time when, if ever I returned to England, I would redeem him.
He hoped I would not be unmindful of him when I came to England:
that he would give me some letters to his friends in London, to let
them know how good I had been to him, and in what part of the world
and what circumstances I had left him in: and he promised me that
whenever I redeemed him, the plantation, and all the improvements
he had made upon it, let the value be what it would, should be
wholly mine.

His discourse was very prettily delivered, considering his youth,
and was the more agreeable to me, because he told me positively the
match was not for himself. I gave him all possible assurances that
if I lived to come safe to England, I would deliver his letters,
and do his business effectually; and that he might depend I should
never forget the circumstances I had left him in. But still I was
impatient to know who was the person to be married; upon which he
told me it was my Jack-of-all-trades and his maid Susan. I was
most agreeably surprised when he named the match; for, indeed, I
thought it very suitable. The character of that man I have given
already; and as for the maid, she was a very honest, modest, sober,
and religious young woman: had a very good share of sense, was
agreeable enough in her person, spoke very handsomely and to the
purpose, always with decency and good manners, and was neither too
backward to speak when requisite, nor impertinently forward when it
was not her business; very handy and housewifely, and an excellent
manager; fit, indeed, to have been governess to the whole island;
and she knew very well how to behave in every respect.

The match being proposed in this manner, we married them the same
day; and as I was father at the altar, and gave her away, so I gave
her a portion; for I appointed her and her husband a handsome large
space of ground for their plantation; and indeed this match, and
the proposal the young gentleman made to give him a small property
in the island, put me upon parcelling it out amongst them, that
they might not quarrel afterwards about their situation.

This sharing out the land to them I left to Will Atkins, who was
now grown a sober, grave, managing fellow, perfectly reformed,
exceedingly pious and religious; and, as far as I may be allowed to
speak positively in such a case, I verily believe he was a true
penitent. He divided things so justly, and so much to every one's
satisfaction, that they only desired one general writing under my
hand for the whole, which I caused to be drawn up, and signed and
sealed, setting out the bounds and situation of every man's
plantation, and testifying that I gave them thereby severally a
right to the whole possession and inheritance of the respective
plantations or farms, with their improvements, to them and their
heirs, reserving all the rest of the island as my own property, and
a certain rent for every particular plantation after eleven years,
if I, or any one from me, or in my name, came to demand it,
producing an attested copy of the same writing. As to the
government and laws among them, I told them I was not capable of
giving them better rules than they were able to give themselves;
only I made them promise me to live in love and good neighbourhood
with one another; and so I prepared to leave them.

One thing I must not omit, and that is, that being now settled in a
kind of commonwealth among themselves, and having much business in
hand, it was odd to have seven-and-thirty Indians live in a nook of
the island, independent, and, indeed, unemployed; for except the
providing themselves food, which they had difficulty enough to do
sometimes, they had no manner of business or property to manage. I
proposed, therefore, to the governor Spaniard that he should go to
them, with Friday's father, and propose to them to remove, and
either plant for themselves, or be taken into their several
families as servants to be maintained for their labour, but without
being absolute slaves; for I would not permit them to make them
slaves by force, by any means; because they had their liberty given
them by capitulation, as it were articles of surrender, which they
ought not to break.

They most willingly embraced the proposal, and came all very
cheerfully along with him: so we allotted them land and
plantations, which three or four accepted of, but all the rest
chose to be employed as servants in the several families we had
settled. Thus my colony was in a manner settled as follows: The
Spaniards possessed my original habitation, which was the capital
city, and extended their plantations all along the side of the
brook, which made the creek that I have so often described, as far
as my bower; and as they increased their culture, it went always
eastward. The English lived in the north-east part, where Will
Atkins and his comrades began, and came on southward and south-
west, towards the back part of the Spaniards; and every plantation
had a great addition of land to take in, if they found occasion, so
that they need not jostle one another for want of room. All the
east end of the island was left uninhabited, that if any of the
savages should come on shore there only for their customary
barbarities, they might come and go; if they disturbed nobody,
nobody would disturb them: and no doubt but they were often
ashore, and went away again; for I never heard that the planters
were ever attacked or disturbed any more.



CHAPTER VIII--SAILS FROM THE ISLAND FOR THE BRAZILS



It now came into my thoughts that I had hinted to my friend the
clergyman that the work of converting the savages might perhaps be
set on foot in his absence to his satisfaction, and I told him that
now I thought that it was put in a fair way; for the savages, being
thus divided among the Christians, if they would but every one of
them do their part with those which came under their hands, I hoped
it might have a very good effect.

He agreed presently in that, if they did their part. "But how,"
says he, "shall we obtain that of them?" I told him we would call
them all together, and leave it in charge with them, or go to them,
one by one, which he thought best; so we divided it--he to speak to
the Spaniards, who were all Papists, and I to speak to the English,
who were all Protestants; and we recommended it earnestly to them,
and made them promise that they would never make any distinction of
Papist or Protestant in their exhorting the savages to turn
Christians, but teach them the general knowledge of the true God,
and of their Saviour Jesus Christ; and they likewise promised us
that they would never have any differences or disputes one with
another about religion.

When I came to Will Atkins's house, I found that the young woman I
have mentioned above, and Will Atkins's wife, were become
intimates; and this prudent, religious young woman had perfected
the work Will Atkins had begun; and though it was not above four
days after what I have related, yet the new-baptized savage woman
was made such a Christian as I have seldom heard of in all my
observation or conversation in the world. It came next into my
mind, in the morning before I went to them, that amongst all the
needful things I had to leave with them I had not left them a
Bible, in which I showed myself less considering for them than my
good friend the widow was for me when she sent me the cargo of a
hundred pounds from Lisbon, where she packed up three Bibles and a
Prayer-book. However, the good woman's charity had a greater
extent than ever she imagined, for they were reserved for the
comfort and instruction of those that made much better use of them
than I had done.

I took one of the Bibles in my pocket, and when I came to Will
Atkins's tent, or house, and found the young woman and Atkins's
baptized wife had been discoursing of religion together--for Will
Atkins told it me with a great deal of joy--I asked if they were
together now, and he said, "Yes"; so I went into the house, and he
with me, and we found them together very earnest in discourse.
"Oh, sir," says Will Atkins, "when God has sinners to reconcile to
Himself, and aliens to bring home, He never wants a messenger; my
wife has got a new instructor: I knew I was unworthy, as I was
incapable of that work; that young woman has been sent hither from
heaven--she is enough to convert a whole island of savages." The
young woman blushed, and rose up to go away, but I desired her to
sit-still; I told her she had a good work upon her hands, and I
hoped God would bless her in it.

We talked a little, and I did not perceive that they had any book
among them, though I did not ask; but I put my hand into my pocket,
and pulled out my Bible. "Here," said I to Atkins, "I have brought
you an assistant that perhaps you had not before." The man was so
confounded that he was not able to speak for some time; but,
recovering himself, he takes it with both his hands, and turning to
his wife, "Here, my dear," says he, "did not I tell you our God,
though He lives above, could hear what we have said? Here's the
book I prayed for when you and I kneeled down under the bush; now
God has heard us and sent it." When he had said so, the man fell
into such passionate transports, that between the joy of having it,
and giving God thanks for it, the tears ran down his face like a
child that was crying.

The woman was surprised, and was like to have run into a mistake
that none of us were aware of; for she firmly believed God had sent
the book upon her husband's petition. It is true that
providentially it was so, and might be taken so in a consequent
sense; but I believe it would have been no difficult matter at that
time to have persuaded the poor woman to have believed that an
express messenger came from heaven on purpose to bring that
individual book. But it was too serious a matter to suffer any
delusion to take place, so I turned to the young woman, and told
her we did not desire to impose upon the new convert in her first
and more ignorant understanding of things, and begged her to
explain to her that God may be very properly said to answer our
petitions, when, in the course of His providence, such things are
in a particular manner brought to pass as we petitioned for; but we
did not expect returns from heaven in a miraculous and particular
manner, and it is a mercy that it is not so.

This the young woman did afterwards effectually, so that there was
no priestcraft used here; and I should have thought it one of the
most unjustifiable frauds in the world to have had it so. But the
effect upon Will Atkins is really not to be expressed; and there,
we may be sure, was no delusion. Sure no man was ever more
thankful in the world for anything of its kind than he was for the
Bible, nor, I believe, never any man was glad of a Bible from a
better principle; and though he had been a most profligate
creature, headstrong, furious, and desperately wicked, yet this man
is a standing rule to us all for the well instructing children,
viz. that parents should never give over to teach and instruct, nor
ever despair of the success of their endeavours, let the children
be ever so refractory, or to appearance insensible to instruction;
for if ever God in His providence touches the conscience of such,
the force of their education turns upon them, and the early
instruction of parents is not lost, though it may have been many
years laid asleep, but some time or other they may find the benefit
of it. Thus it was with this poor man: however ignorant he was of
religion and Christian knowledge, he found he had some to do with
now more ignorant than himself, and that the least part of the
instruction of his good father that now came to his mind was of use
to him.

Among the rest, it occurred to him, he said, how his father used to
insist so much on the inexpressible value of the Bible, and the
privilege and blessing of it to nations, families, and persons; but
he never entertained the least notion of the worth of it till now,
when, being to talk to heathens, savages, and barbarians, he wanted
the help of the written oracle for his assistance. The young woman
was glad of it also for the present occasion, though she had one,
and so had the youth, on board our ship among their goods, which
were not yet brought on shore. And now, having said so many things
of this young woman, I cannot omit telling one story more of her
and myself, which has something in it very instructive and
remarkable.

I have related to what extremity the poor young woman was reduced;
how her mistress was starved to death, and died on board that
unhappy ship we met at sea, and how the whole ship's company was
reduced to the last extremity. The gentlewoman, and her son, and
this maid, were first hardly used as to provisions, and at last
totally neglected and starved--that is to say, brought to the last
extremity of hunger. One day, being discoursing with her on the
extremities they suffered, I asked her if she could describe, by
what she had felt, what it was to starve, and how it appeared? She
said she believed she could, and told her tale very distinctly
thus:-

"First, we had for some days fared exceedingly hard, and suffered
very great hunger; but at last we were wholly without food of any
kind except sugar, and a little wine and water. The first day
after I had received no food at all, I found myself towards
evening, empty and sick at the stomach, and nearer night much
inclined to yawning and sleep. I lay down on the couch in the
great cabin to sleep, and slept about three hours, and awaked a
little refreshed, having taken a glass of wine when I lay down;
after being about three hours awake, it being about five o'clock in
the morning, I found myself empty, and my stomach sickish, and lay
down again, but could not sleep at all, being very faint and ill;
and thus I continued all the second day with a strange variety--
first hungry, then sick again, with retchings to vomit. The second
night, being obliged to go to bed again without any food more than
a draught of fresh water, and being asleep, I dreamed I was at
Barbadoes, and that the market was mightily stocked with
provisions; that I bought some for my mistress, and went and dined
very heartily. I thought my stomach was full after this, as it
would have been after a good dinner; but when I awaked I was
exceedingly sunk in my spirits to find myself in the extremity of
family. The last glass of wine we had I drank, and put sugar in
it, because of its having some spirit to supply nourishment; but
there being no substance in the stomach for the digesting office to
work upon, I found the only effect of the wine was to raise
disagreeable fumes from the stomach into the head; and I lay, as
they told me, stupid and senseless, as one drunk, for some time.
The third day, in the morning, after a night of strange, confused,
and inconsistent dreams, and rather dozing than sleeping, I awaked
ravenous and furious with hunger; and I question, had not my
understanding returned and conquered it, whether if I had been a
mother, and had had a little child with me, its life would have
been safe or not. This lasted about three hours, during which time
I was twice raging mad as any creature in Bedlam, as my young
master told me, and as he can now inform you.

"In one of these fits of lunacy or distraction I fell down and
struck my face against the corner of a pallet-bed, in which my
mistress lay, and with the blow the blood gushed out of my nose;
and the cabin-boy bringing me a little basin, I sat down and bled
into it a great deal; and as the blood came from me I came to
myself, and the violence of the flame or fever I was in abated, and
so did the ravenous part of the hunger. Then I grew sick, and
retched to vomit, but could not, for I had nothing in my stomach to
bring up. After I had bled some time I swooned, and they all
believed I was dead; but I came to myself soon after, and then had
a most dreadful pain in my stomach not to be described--not like
the colic, but a gnawing, eager pain for food; and towards night it
went off with a kind of earnest wishing or longing for food. I
took another draught of water with sugar in it; but my stomach
loathed the sugar and brought it all up again; then I took a
draught of water without sugar, and that stayed with me; and I laid
me down upon the bed, praying most heartily that it would please
God to take me away; and composing my mind in hopes of it, I
slumbered a while, and then waking, thought myself dying, being
light with vapours from an empty stomach. I recommended my soul
then to God, and then earnestly wished that somebody would throw me
into the into the sea.

"All this while my mistress lay by me, just, as I thought,
expiring, but she bore it with much more patience than I, and gave
the last bit of bread she had left to her child, my young master,
who would not have taken it, but she obliged him to eat it; and I
believe it saved his life. Towards the morning I slept again, and
when I awoke I fell into a violent passion of crying, and after
that had a second fit of violent hunger. I got up ravenous, and in
a most dreadful condition; and once or twice I was going to bite my
own arm. At last I saw the basin in which was the blood I had bled
at my nose the day before: I ran to it, and swallowed it with such
haste, and such a greedy appetite, as if I wondered nobody had
taken it before, and afraid it should be taken from me now. After
it was down, though the thoughts of it filled me with horror, yet
it checked the fit of hunger, and I took another draught of water,
and was composed and refreshed for some hours after. This was the
fourth day; and this I kept up till towards night, when, within the
compass of three hours, I had all the several circumstances over
again, one after another, viz. sick, sleepy, eagerly hungry, pain
in the stomach, then ravenous again, then sick, then lunatic, then
crying, then ravenous again, and so every quarter of an hour, and
my strength wasted exceedingly; at night I lay me down, having no
comfort but in the hope that I should die before morning.

"All this night I had no sleep; but the hunger was now turned into
a disease; and I had a terrible colic and griping, by wind instead
of food having found its way into the bowels; and in this condition
I lay till morning, when I was surprised by the cries and
lamentations of my young master, who called out to me that his
mother was dead. I lifted myself up a little, for I had not
strength to rise, but found she was not dead, though she was able
to give very little signs of life. I had then such convulsions in
my stomach, for want of some sustenance, as I cannot describe; with
such frequent throes and pangs of appetite as nothing but the
tortures of death can imitate; and in this condition I was when I
heard the seamen above cry out, 'A sail! a sail!' and halloo and
jump about as if they were distracted. I was not able to get off
from the bed, and my mistress much less; and my young master was so
sick that I thought he had been expiring; so we could not open the
cabin door, or get any account what it was that occasioned such
confusion; nor had we had any conversation with the ship's company
for twelve days, they having told us that they had not a mouthful
of anything to eat in the ship; and this they told us afterwards--
they thought we had been dead. It was this dreadful condition we
were in when you were sent to save our lives; and how you found us,
sir, you know as well as I, and better too."

This was her own relation, and is such a distinct account of
starving to death, as, I confess, I never met with, and was
exceeding instructive to me. I am the rather apt to believe it to
be a true account, because the youth gave me an account of a good
part of it; though I must own, not so distinct and so feeling as
the maid; and the rather, because it seems his mother fed him at
the price of her own life: but the poor maid, whose constitution
was stronger than that of her mistress, who was in years, and a
weakly woman too, might struggle harder with it; nevertheless she
might be supposed to feel the extremity something sooner than her
mistress, who might be allowed to keep the last bit something
longer than she parted with any to relieve her maid. No question,
as the case is here related, if our ship or some other had not so
providentially met them, but a few days more would have ended all
their lives. I now return to my disposition of things among the
people. And, first, it is to be observed here, that for many
reasons I did not think fit to let them know anything of the sloop
I had framed, and which I thought of setting up among them; for I
found, at least at my first coming, such seeds of division among
them, that I saw plainly, had I set up the sloop, and left it among
them, they would, upon every light disgust, have separated, and
gone away from one another; or perhaps have turned pirates, and so
made the island a den of thieves, instead of a plantation of sober
and religious people, as I intended it; nor did I leave the two
pieces of brass cannon that I had on board, or the extra two
quarter-deck guns that my nephew had provided, for the same reason.
I thought it was enough to qualify them for a defensive war against
any that should invade them, but not to set them up for an
offensive war, or to go abroad to attack others; which, in the end,
would only bring ruin and destruction upon them. I reserved the
sloop, therefore, and the guns, for their service another way, as I
shall observe in its place.

Having now done with the island, I left them all in good
circumstances and in a flourishing condition, and went on board my
ship again on the 6th of May, having been about twenty-five days
among them: and as they were all resolved to stay upon the island
till I came to remove them, I promised to send them further relief
from the Brazils, if I could possibly find an opportunity. I
particularly promised to send them some cattle, such as sheep,
hogs, and cows: as to the two cows and calves which I brought from
England, we had been obliged, by the length of our voyage, to kill
them at sea, for want of hay to feed them.

The next day, giving them a salute of five guns at parting, we set
sail, and arrived at the bay of All Saints in the Brazils in about
twenty-two days, meeting nothing remarkable in our passage but
this: that about three days after we had sailed, being becalmed,
and the current setting strong to the ENE., running, as it were,
into a bay or gulf on the land side, we were driven something out
of our course, and once or twice our men cried out, "Land to the
eastward!" but whether it was the continent or islands we could not
tell by any means. But the third day, towards evening, the sea
smooth, and the weather calm, we saw the sea as it were covered
towards the land with something very black; not being able to
discover what it was till after some time, our chief mate, going up
the main shrouds a little way, and looking at them with a
perspective, cried out it was an army. I could not imagine what he
meant by an army, and thwarted him a little hastily. "Nay, sir,"
says he, "don't be angry, for 'tis an army, and a fleet too: for I
believe there are a thousand canoes, and you may see them paddle
along, for they are coming towards us apace."

I was a little surprised then, indeed, and so was my nephew the
captain; for he had heard such terrible stories of them in the
island, and having never been in those seas before, that he could
not tell what to think of it, but said, two or three times, we
should all be devoured. I must confess, considering we were
becalmed, and the current set strong towards the shore, I liked it
the worse; however, I bade them not be afraid, but bring the ship
to an anchor as soon as we came so near as to know that we must
engage them. The weather continued calm, and they came on apace
towards us, so I gave orders to come to an anchor, and furl all our
sails; as for the savages, I told them they had nothing to fear but
fire, and therefore they should get their boats out, and fasten
them, one close by the head and the other by the stern, and man
them both well, and wait the issue in that posture: this I did,
that the men in the boats might he ready with sheets and buckets to
put out any fire these savages might endeavour to fix to the
outside of the ship.

In this posture we lay by for them, and in a little while they came
up with us; but never was such a horrid sight seen by Christians;
though my mate was much mistaken in his calculation of their
number, yet when they came up we reckoned about a hundred and
twenty-six canoes; some of them had sixteen or seventeen men in
them, and some more, and the least six or seven. When they came
nearer to us, they seemed to be struck with wonder and
astonishment, as at a sight which doubtless they had never seen
before; nor could they at first, as we afterwards understood, know
what to make of us; they came boldly up, however, very near to us,
and seemed to go about to row round us; but we called to our men in
the boats not to let them come too near them. This very order
brought us to an engagement with them, without our designing it;
for five or six of the large canoes came so near our long-boat,
that our men beckoned with their hands to keep them back, which
they understood very well, and went back: but at their retreat
about fifty arrows came on board us from those boats, and one of
our men in the long-boat was very much wounded. However, I called
to them not to fire by any means; but we handed down some deal
boards into the boat, and the carpenter presently set up a kind of
fence, like waste boards, to cover them from the arrows of the
savages, if they should shoot again.

About half-an-hour afterwards they all came up in a body astern of
us, and so near that we could easily discern what they were, though
we could not tell their design; and I easily found they were some
of my old friends, the same sort of savages that I had been used to
engage with. In a short time more they rowed a little farther out
to sea, till they came directly broadside with us, and then rowed
down straight upon us, till they came so near that they could hear
us speak; upon this, I ordered all my men to keep close, lest they
should shoot any more arrows, and made all our guns ready; but
being so near as to be within hearing, I made Friday go out upon
the deck, and call out aloud to them in his language, to know what
they meant. Whether they understood him or not, that I knew not;
but as soon as he had called to them, six of them, who were in the
foremost or nighest boat to us, turned their canoes from us, and
stooping down, showed us their naked backs; whether this was a
defiance or challenge we knew not, or whether it was done in mere
contempt, or as a signal to the rest; but immediately Friday cried
out they were going to shoot, and, unhappily for him, poor fellow,
they let fly about three hundred of their arrows, and to my
inexpressible grief, killed poor Friday, no other man being in
their sight. The poor fellow was shot with no less than three
arrows, and about three more fell very near him; such unlucky
marksmen they were!

I was so annoyed at the loss of my old trusty servant and
companion, that I immediately ordered five guns to be loaded with
small shot, and four with great, and gave them such a broadside as
they had never heard in their lives before. They were not above
half a cable's length off when we fired; and our gunners took their
aim so well, that three or four of their canoes were overset, as we
had reason to believe, by one shot only. The ill manners of
turning up their bare backs to us gave us no great offence; neither
did I know for certain whether that which would pass for the
greatest contempt among us might be understood so by them or not;
therefore, in return, I had only resolved to have fired four or
five guns at them with powder only, which I knew would frighten
them sufficiently: but when they shot at us directly with all the
fury they were capable of, and especially as they had killed my
poor Friday, whom I so entirely loved and valued, and who, indeed,
so well deserved it, I thought myself not only justifiable before
God and man, but would have been very glad if I could have overset
every canoe there, and drowned every one of them.

I can neither tell how many we killed nor how many we wounded at
this broadside, but sure such a fright and hurry never were seen
among such a multitude; there were thirteen or fourteen of their
canoes split and overset in all, and the men all set a-swimming:
the rest, frightened out of their wits, scoured away as fast as
they could, taking but little care to save those whose boats were
split or spoiled with our shot; so I suppose that many of them were
lost; and our men took up one poor fellow swimming for his life,
above an hour after they were all gone. The small shot from our
cannon must needs kill and wound a great many; but, in short, we
never knew how it went with them, for they fled so fast, that in
three hours or thereabouts we could not see above three or four
straggling canoes, nor did we ever see the rest any more; for a
breeze of wind springing up the same evening, we weighed and set
sail for the Brazils.

We had a prisoner, indeed, but the creature was so sullen that he
would neither eat nor speak, and we all fancied he would starve
himself to death. But I took a way to cure him: for I had made
them take him and turn him into the long-boat, and make him believe
they would toss him into the sea again, and so leave him where they
found him, if he would not speak; nor would that do, but they
really did throw him into the sea, and came away from him. Then he
followed them, for he swam like a cork, and called to them in his
tongue, though they knew not one word of what he said; however at
last they took him in again., and then he began to he more
tractable: nor did I ever design they should drown him.

We were now under sail again, but I was the most disconsolate
creature alive for want of my man Friday, and would have been very
glad to have gone back to the island, to have taken one of the rest
from thence for my occasion, but it could not be: so we went on.
We had one prisoner, as I have said, and it was a long time before
we could make him understand anything; but in time our men taught
him some English, and he began to be a little tractable.
Afterwards, we inquired what country he came from; but could make
nothing of what he said; for his speech was so odd, all gutturals,
and he spoke in the throat in such a hollow, odd manner, that we
could never form a word after him; and we were all of opinion that
they might speak that language as well if they were gagged as
otherwise; nor could we perceive that they had any occasion either
for teeth, tongue, lips, or palate, but formed their words just as
a hunting-horn forms a tune with an open throat. He told us,
however, some time after, when we had taught him to speak a little
English, that they were going with their kings to fight a great
battle. When he said kings, we asked him how many kings? He said
they were five nation (we could not make him understand the plural
's), and that they all joined to go against two nation. We asked
him what made them come up to us? He said, "To makee te great
wonder look." Here it is to be observed that all those natives, as
also those of Africa when they learn English, always add two e's at
the end of the words where we use one; and they place the accent
upon them, as makee, takee, and the like; nay, I could hardly make
Friday leave it off, though at last he did.

And now I name the poor fellow once more, I must take my last leave
of him. Poor honest Friday! We buried him with all the decency
and solemnity possible, by putting him into a coffin, and throwing
him into the sea; and I caused them to fire eleven guns for him.
So ended the life of the most grateful, faithful, honest, and most
affectionate servant that ever man had.

We went now away with a fair wind for Brazil; and in about twelve
days' time we made land, in the latitude of five degrees south of
the line, being the north-easternmost land of all that part of
America. We kept on S. by E., in sight of the shore four days,
when we made Cape St. Augustine, and in three days came to an
anchor off the bay of All Saints, the old place of my deliverance,
from whence came both my good and evil fate. Never ship came to
this port that had less business than I had, and yet it was with
great difficulty that we were admitted to hold the least
correspondence on shore: not my partner himself, who was alive,
and made a great figure among them, not my two merchant-trustees,
not the fame of my wonderful preservation in the island, could
obtain me that favour. My partner, however, remembering that I had
given five hundred moidores to the prior of the monastery of the
Augustines, and two hundred and seventy-two to the poor, went to
the monastery, and obliged the prior that then was to go to the
governor, and get leave for me personally, with the captain and one
more, besides eight seamen, to come on shore, and no more; and this
upon condition, absolutely capitulated for, that we should not
offer to land any goods out of the ship, or to carry any person
away without licence. They were so strict with us as to landing
any goods, that it was with extreme difficulty that I got on shore
three bales of English goods, such as fine broadcloths, stuffs, and
some linen, which I had brought for a present to my partner.

He was a very generous, open-hearted man, although he began, like
me, with little at first. Though he knew not that I had the least
design of giving him anything, he sent me on board a present of
fresh provisions, wine, and sweetmeats, worth about thirty
moidores, including some tobacco, and three or four fine medals of
gold: but I was even with him in my present, which, as I have
said, consisted of fine broadcloth, English stuffs, lace, and fine
holland; also, I delivered him about the value of one hundred
pounds sterling in the same goods, for other uses; and I obliged
him to set up the sloop, which I had brought with me from England,
as I have said, for the use of my colony, in order to send the
refreshments I intended to my plantation.

Accordingly, he got hands, and finished the sloop in a very few
days, for she was already framed; and I gave the master of her such
instructions that he could not miss the place; nor did he, as I had
an account from my partner afterwards. I got him soon loaded with
the small cargo I sent them; and one of our seamen, that had been
on shore with me there, offered to go with the sloop and settle
there, upon my letter to the governor Spaniard to allot him a
sufficient quantity of land for a plantation, and on my giving him
some clothes and tools for his planting work, which he said he
understood, having been an old planter at Maryland, and a buccaneer
into the bargain. I encouraged the fellow by granting all he
desired; and, as an addition, I gave him the savage whom we had
taken prisoner of war to be his slave, and ordered the governor
Spaniard to give him his share of everything he wanted with the
rest.

When we came to fit this man out, my old partner told me there was
a certain very honest fellow, a Brazil planter of his acquaintance,
who had fallen into the displeasure of the Church. "I know not
what the matter is with him," says he, "but, on my conscience, I
think he is a heretic in his heart, and he has been obliged to
conceal himself for fear of the Inquisition." He then told me that
he would be very glad of such an opportunity to make his escape,
with his wife and two daughters; and if I would let them go to my
island, and allot them a plantation, he would give them a small
stock to begin with--for the officers of the Inquisition had seized
all his effects and estate, and he had nothing left but a little
household stuff and two slaves; "and," adds he, "though I hate his
principles, yet I would not have him fall into their hands, for he
will be assuredly burned alive if he does." I granted this
presently, and joined my Englishman with them: and we concealed
the man, and his wife and daughters, on board our ship, till the
sloop put out to go to sea; and then having put all their goods on
board some time before, we put them on board the sloop after she
was got out of the bay. Our seaman was mightily pleased with this
new partner; and their stocks, indeed, were much alike, rich in
tools, in preparations, and a farm--but nothing to begin with,
except as above: however, they carried over with them what was
worth all the rest, some materials for planting sugar-canes, with
some plants of canes, which he, I mean the Brazil planter,
understood very well.

Among the rest of the supplies sent to my tenants in the island, I
sent them by the sloop three milch cows and five calves; about
twenty-two hogs, among them three sows; two mares, and a stone-
horse. For my Spaniards, according to my promise, I engaged three
Brazil women to go, and recommended it to them to marry them, and
use them kindly. I could have procured more women, but I
remembered that the poor persecuted man had two daughters, and that
there were but five of the Spaniards that wanted partners; the rest
had wives of their own, though in another country. All this cargo
arrived safe, and, as you may easily suppose, was very welcome to
my old inhabitants, who were now, with this addition, between sixty
and seventy people, besides little children, of which there were a
great many. I found letters at London from them all, by way of
Lisbon, when I came back to England.

I have now done with the island, and all manner of discourse about
it: and whoever reads the rest of my memorandums would do well to
turn his thoughts entirely from it, and expect to read of the
follies of an old man, not warned by his own harms, much less by
those of other men, to beware; not cooled by almost forty years'
miseries and disappointments--not satisfied with prosperity beyond
expectation, nor made cautious by afflictions and distress beyond
example.



CHAPTER IX-- DREADFUL OCCURRENCES IN MADAGASCAR



I had no more business to go to the East Indies than a man at full
liberty has to go to the turnkey at Newgate, and desire him to lock
him up among the prisoners there, and starve him. Had I taken a
small vessel from England and gone directly to the island; had I
loaded her, as I did the other vessel, with all the necessaries for
the plantation and for my people; taken a patent from the
government here to have secured my property, in subjection only to
that of England; had I carried over cannon and ammunition, servants
and people to plant, and taken possession of the place, fortified
and strengthened it in the name of England, and increased it with
people, as I might easily have done; had I then settled myself
there, and sent the ship back laden with good rice, as I might also
have done in six months' time, and ordered my friends to have
fitted her out again for our supply--had I done this, and stayed
there myself, I had at least acted like a man of common sense. But
I was possessed of a wandering spirit, and scorned all advantages:
I pleased myself with being the patron of the people I placed
there, and doing for them in a kind of haughty, majestic way, like
an old patriarchal monarch, providing for them as if I had been
father of the whole family, as well as of the plantation. But I
never so much as pretended to plant in the name of any government
or nation, or to acknowledge any prince, or to call my people
subjects to any one nation more than another; nay, I never so much
as gave the place a name, but left it as I found it, belonging to
nobody, and the people under no discipline or government but my
own, who, though I had influence over them as a father and
benefactor, had no authority or power to act or command one way or
other, further than voluntary consent moved them to comply. Yet
even this, had I stayed there, would have done well enough; but as
I rambled from them, and came there no more, the last letters I had
from any of them were by my partner's means, who afterwards sent
another sloop to the place, and who sent me word, though I had not
the letter till I got to London, several years after it was
written, that they went on but poorly; were discontented with their
long stay there; that Will Atkins was dead; that five of the
Spaniards were come away; and though they had not been much
molested by the savages, yet they had had some skirmishes with
them; and that they begged of him to write to me to think of the
promise I had made to fetch them away, that they might see their
country again before they died.

But I was gone a wildgoose chase indeed, and they that will have
any more of me must be content to follow me into a new variety of
follies, hardships, and wild adventures, wherein the justice of
Providence may be duly observed; and we may see how easily Heaven
can gorge us with our own desires, make the strongest of our wishes
be our affliction, and punish us most severely with those very
things which we think it would be our utmost happiness to be
allowed to possess. Whether I had business or no business, away I
went: it is no time now to enlarge upon the reason or absurdity of
my own conduct, but to come to the history--I was embarked for the
voyage, and the voyage I went.

I shall only add a word or two concerning my honest Popish
clergyman, for let their opinion of us, and all other heretics in
general, as they call us, be as uncharitable as it may, I verily
believe this man was very sincere, and wished the good of all men:
yet I believe he used reserve in many of his expressions, to
prevent giving me offence; for I scarce heard him once call on the
Blessed Virgin, or mention St. Jago, or his guardian angel, though
so common with the rest of them. However, I say I had not the
least doubt of his sincerity and pious intentions; and I am firmly
of opinion, if the rest of the Popish missionaries were like him,
they would strive to visit even the poor Tartars and Laplanders,
where they have nothing to give them, as well as covet to flock to
India, Persia, China, &c., the most wealthy of the heathen
countries; for if they expected to bring no gains to their Church
by it, it may well be admired how they came to admit the Chinese
Confucius into the calendar of the Christian saints.

A ship being ready to sail for Lisbon, my pious priest asked me
leave to go thither; being still, as he observed, bound never to
finish any voyage he began. How happy it had been for me if I had
gone with him. But it was too late now; all things Heaven appoints
for the best: had I gone with him I had never had so many things
to be thankful for, and the reader had never heard of the second
part of the travels and adventures of Robinson Crusoe: so I must
here leave exclaiming at myself, and go on with my voyage. From
the Brazils we made directly over the Atlantic Sea to the Cape of
Good Hope, and had a tolerably good voyage, our course generally
south-east, now and then a storm, and some contrary winds; but my
disasters at sea were at an end--my future rubs and cross events
were to befall me on shore, that it might appear the land was as
well prepared to be our scourge as the sea.

Our ship was on a trading voyage, and had a supercargo on board,
who was to direct all her motions after she arrived at the Cape,
only being limited to a certain number of days for stay, by
charter-party, at the several ports she was to go to. This was
none of my business, neither did I meddle with it; my nephew, the
captain, and the supercargo adjusting all those things between them
as they thought fit. We stayed at the Cape no longer than was
needful to take in-fresh water, but made the best of our way for
the coast of Coromandel. We were, indeed, informed that a French
man-of-war, of fifty guns, and two large merchant ships, were gone
for the Indies; and as I knew we were at war with France, I had
some apprehensions of them; but they went their own way, and we
heard no more of them.

I shall not pester the reader with a tedious description of places,
journals of our voyage, variations of the compass, latitudes,
trade-winds, &c.; it is enough to name the ports and places which
we touched at, and what occurred to us upon our passages from one
to another. We touched first at the island of Madagascar, where,
though the people are fierce and treacherous, and very well armed
with lances and bows, which they use with inconceivable dexterity,
yet we fared very well with them a while. They treated us very
civilly; and for some trifles which we gave them, such as knives,
scissors, &c., they brought us eleven good fat bullocks, of a
middling size, which we took in, partly for fresh provisions for
our present spending, and the rest to salt for the ship's use.

We were obliged to stay here some time after we had furnished
ourselves with provisions; and I, who was always too curious to
look into every nook of the world wherever I came, went on shore as
often as I could. It was on the east side of the island that we
went on shore one evening: and the people, who, by the way, are
very numerous, came thronging about us, and stood gazing at us at a
distance. As we had traded freely with them, and had been kindly
used, we thought ourselves in no danger; but when we saw the
people, we cut three boughs out of a tree, and stuck them up at a
distance from us; which, it seems, is a mark in that country not
only of a truce and friendship, but when it is accepted the other
side set up three poles or boughs, which is a signal that they
accept the truce too; but then this is a known condition of the
truce, that you are not to pass beyond their three poles towards
them, nor they to come past your three poles or boughs towards you;
so that you are perfectly secure within the three poles, and all
the space between your poles and theirs is allowed like a market
for free converse, traffic, and commerce. When you go there you
must not carry your weapons with you; and if they come into that
space they stick up their javelins and lances all at the first
poles, and come on unarmed; but if any violence is offered them,
and the truce thereby broken, away they run to the poles, and lay
hold of their weapons, and the truce is at an end.

It happened one evening, when we went on shore, that a greater
number of their people came down than usual, but all very friendly
and civil; and they brought several kinds of provisions, for which
we satisfied them with such toys as we had; the women also brought
us milk and roots, and several things very acceptable to us, and
all was quiet; and we made us a little tent or hut of some boughs
or trees, and lay on shore all night. I know not what was the
occasion, but I was not so well satisfied to lie on shore as the
rest; and the boat riding at an anchor at about a stone's cast from
the land, with two men in her to take care of her, I made one of
them come on shore; and getting some boughs of trees to cover us
also in the boat, I spread the sail on the bottom of the boat, and
lay under the cover of the branches of the trees all night in the
boat.

About two o'clock in the morning we heard one of our men making a
terrible noise on the shore, calling out, for God's sake, to bring
the boat in and come and help them, for they were all like to be
murdered; and at the same time I heard the fire of five muskets,
which was the number of guns they had, and that three times over;
for it seems the natives here were not so easily frightened with
guns as the savages were in America, where I had to do with them.
All this while, I knew not what was the matter, but rousing
immediately from sleep with the noise, I caused the boat to be
thrust in, and resolved with three fusees we had on board to land
and assist our men. We got the boat soon to the shore, but our men
were in too much haste; for being come to the shore, they plunged
into the water, to get to the boat with all the expedition they
could, being pursued by between three and four hundred men. Our
men were but nine in all, and only five of them had fusees with
them; the rest had pistols and swords, indeed, but they were of
small use to them.

We took up seven of our men, and with difficulty enough too, three
of them being very ill wounded; and that which was still worse was,
that while we stood in the boat to take our men in, we were in as
much danger as they were in on shore; for they poured their arrows
in upon us so thick that we were glad to barricade the side of the
boat up with the benches, and two or three loose boards which, to
our great satisfaction, we had by mere accident in the boat. And
yet, had it been daylight, they are, it seems, such exact marksmen,
that if they could have seen but the least part of any of us, they
would have been sure of us. We had, by the light of the moon, a
little sight of them, as they stood pelting us from the shore with
darts and arrows; and having got ready our firearms, we gave them a
volley that we could hear, by the cries of some of them, had
wounded several; however, they stood thus in battle array on the
shore till break of day, which we supposed was that they might see
the better to take their aim at us.

In this condition we lay, and could not tell how to weigh our
anchor, or set up our sail, because we must needs stand up in the
boat, and they were as sure to hit us as we were to hit a bird in a
tree with small shot. We made signals of distress to the ship, and
though she rode a league off, yet my nephew, the captain, hearing
our firing, and by glasses perceiving the posture we lay in, and
that we fired towards the shore, pretty well understood us; and
weighing anchor with all speed, he stood as near the shore as he
durst with the ship, and then sent another boat with ten hands in
her, to assist us. We called to them not to come too near, telling
them what condition we were in; however, they stood in near to us,
and one of the men taking the end of a tow-line in his hand, and
keeping our boat between him and the enemy, so that they could not
perfectly see him, swam on board us, and made fast the line to the
boat: upon which we slipped out a little cable, and leaving our
anchor behind, they towed us out of reach of the arrows; we all the
while lying close behind the barricade we had made. As soon as we
were got from between the ship and the shore, that we could lay her
side to the shore, she ran along just by them, and poured in a
broadside among them, loaded with pieces of iron and lead, small
bullets, and such stuff, besides the great shot, which made a
terrible havoc among them.

When we were got on board and out of danger, we had time to examine
into the occasion of this fray; and indeed our supercargo, who had
been often in those parts, put me upon it; for he said he was sure
the inhabitants would not have touched us after we had made a
truce, if we had not done something to provoke them to it. At
length it came out that an old woman, who had come to sell us some
milk, had brought it within our poles, and a young woman with her,
who also brought us some roots or herbs; and while the old woman
(whether she was mother to the young woman or no they could not
tell) was selling us the milk, one of our men offered some rudeness
to the girl that was with her, at which the old woman made a great
noise: however, the seaman would not quit his prize, but carried
her out of the old woman's sight among the trees, it being almost
dark; the old woman went away without her, and, as we may suppose,
made an outcry among the people she came from; who, upon notice,
raised that great army upon us in three or four hours, and it was
great odds but we had all been destroyed.

One of our men was killed with a lance thrown at him just at the
beginning of the attack, as he sallied out of the tent they had
made; the rest came off free, all but the fellow who was the
occasion of all the mischief, who paid dear enough for his
brutality, for we could not hear what became of him for a great
while. We lay upon the shore two days after, though the wind
presented, and made signals for him, and made our boat sail up
shore and down shore several leagues, but in vain; so we were
obliged to give him over; and if he alone had suffered for it, the
loss had been less. I could not satisfy myself, however, without
venturing on shore once more, to try if I could learn anything of
him or them; it was the third night after the action that I had a
great mind to learn, if I could by any means, what mischief we had
done, and how the game stood on the Indians' side. I was careful
to do it in the dark, lest we should be attacked again: but I
ought indeed to have been sure that the men I went with had been
under my command, before I engaged in a thing so hazardous and
mischievous as I was brought into by it, without design.

We took twenty as stout fellows with us as any in the ship, besides
the supercargo and myself, and we landed two hours before midnight,
at the same place where the Indians stood drawn up in the evening
before. I landed here, because my design, as I have said, was
chiefly to see if they had quitted the field, and if they had left
any marks behind them of the mischief we had done them, and I
thought if we could surprise one or two of them, perhaps we might
get our man again, by way of exchange.

We landed without any noise, and divided our men into two bodies,
whereof the boatswain commanded one and I the other. We neither
saw nor heard anybody stir when we landed: and we marched up, one
body at a distance from another, to the place. At first we could
see nothing, it being very dark; till by-and-by our boatswain, who
led the first party, stumbled and fell over a dead body. This made
them halt a while; for knowing by the circumstances that they were
at the place where the Indians had stood, they waited for my coming
up there. We concluded to halt till the moon began to rise, which
we knew would be in less than an hour, when we could easily discern
the havoc we had made among them. We told thirty-two bodies upon
the ground, whereof two were not quite dead; some had an arm and
some a leg shot off, and one his head; those that were wounded, we
supposed, they had carried away. When we had made, as I thought, a
full discovery of all we could come to the knowledge of, I resolved
on going on board; but the boatswain and his party sent me word
that they were resolved to make a visit to the Indian town, where
these dogs, as they called them, dwelt, and asked me to go along
with them; and if they could find them, as they still fancied they
should, they did not doubt of getting a good booty; and it might be
they might find Tom Jeffry there: that was the man's name we had
lost.

Had they sent to ask my leave to go, I knew well enough what answer
to have given them; for I should have commanded them instantly on
board, knowing it was not a hazard fit for us to run, who had a
ship and ship-loading in our charge, and a voyage to make which
depended very much upon the lives of the men; but as they sent me
word they were resolved to go, and only asked me and my company to
go along with them, I positively refused it, and rose up, for I was
sitting on the ground, in order to go to the boat. One or two of
the men began to importune me to go; and when I refused, began to
grumble, and say they were not under my command, and they would go.
"Come, Jack," says one of the men, "will you go with me? I'll go
for one." Jack said he would--and then another--and, in a word,
they all left me but one, whom I persuaded to stay, and a boy left
in the boat. So the supercargo and I, with the third man, went
back to the boat, where we told them we would stay for them, and
take care to take in as many of them as should be left; for I told
them it was a mad thing they were going about, and supposed most of
them would have the fate of Tom Jeffry.

They told me, like seamen, they would warrant it they would come
off again, and they would take care, &c.; so away they went. I
entreated them to consider the ship and the voyage, that their
lives were not their own, and that they were entrusted with the
voyage, in some measure; that if they miscarried, the ship might be
lost for want of their help, and that they could not answer for it
to God or man. But I might as well have talked to the mainmast of
the ship: they were mad upon their journey; only they gave me good
words, and begged I would not be angry; that they did not doubt but
they would be back again in about an hour at furthest; for the
Indian town, they said, was not above half-a mile off, though they
found it above two miles before they got to it.

Well, they all went away, and though the attempt was desperate, and
such as none but madmen would have gone about, yet, to give them
their due, they went about it as warily as boldly; they were
gallantly armed, for they had every man a fusee or musket, a
bayonet, and a pistol; some of them had broad cutlasses, some of
them had hangers, and the boatswain and two more had poleaxes;
besides all which they had among them thirteen hand grenadoes.
Bolder fellows, and better provided, never went about any wicked
work in the world. When they went out their chief design was
plunder, and they were in mighty hopes of finding gold there; but a
circumstance which none of them were aware of set them on fire with
revenge, and made devils of them all.

When they came to the few Indian houses which they thought had been
the town, which was not above half a mile off, they were under
great disappointment, for there were not above twelve or thirteen
houses, and where the town was, or how big, they knew not. They
consulted, therefore, what to do, and were some time before they
could resolve; for if they fell upon these, they must cut all their
throats; and it was ten to one but some of them might escape, it
being in the night, though the moon was up; and if one escaped, he
would run and raise all the town, so they should have a whole army
upon them; on the other hand, if they went away and left those
untouched, for the people were all asleep, they could not tell
which way to look for the town; however, the last was the best
advice, so they resolved to leave them, and look for the town as
well as they could. They went on a little way, and found a cow
tied to a tree; this, they presently concluded, would be a good
guide to them; for, they said, the cow certainly belonged to the
town before them, or the town behind them, and if they untied her,
they should see which way she went: if she went back, they had
nothing to say to her; but if she went forward, they would follow
her. So they cut the cord, which was made of twisted flags, and
the cow went on before them, directly to the town; which, as they
reported, consisted of above two hundred houses or huts, and in
some of these they found several families living together.

Here they found all in silence, as profoundly secure as sleep could
make them: and first, they called another council, to consider
what they had to do; and presently resolved to divide themselves
into three bodies, and so set three houses on fire in three parts
of the town; and as the men came out, to seize them and bind them
(if any resisted, they need not be asked what to do then), and so
to search the rest of the houses for plunder: but they resolved to
march silently first through the town, and see what dimensions it
was of, and if they might venture upon it or no.

They did so, and desperately resolved that they would venture upon
them: but while they were animating one another to the work, three
of them, who were a little before the rest, called out aloud to
them, and told them that they had found--Tom Jeffry: they all ran
up to the place, where they found the poor fellow hanging up naked
by one arm, and his throat cut. There was an Indian house just by
the tree, where they found sixteen or seventeen of the principal
Indians, who had been concerned in the fray with us before, and two
or three of them wounded with our shot; and our men found they were
awake, and talking one to another in that house, but knew not their
number.

The sight of their poor mangled comrade so enraged them, as before,
that they swore to one another that they would be revenged, and
that not an Indian that came into their hands should have any
quarter; and to work they went immediately, and yet not so madly as
might be expected from the rage and fury they were in. Their first
care was to get something that would soon take fire, but, after a
little search, they found that would be to no purpose; for most of
the houses were low, and thatched with flags and rushes, of which
the country is full; so they presently made some wildfire, as we
call it, by wetting a little powder in the palm of their hands, and
in a quarter of an hour they set the town on fire in four or five
places, and particularly that house where the Indians were not gone
to bed.

As soon as the fire begun to blaze, the poor frightened creatures
began to rush out to save their lives, but met with their fate in
the attempt; and especially at the door, where they drove them
back, the boatswain himself killing one or two with his poleaxe.
The house being large, and many in it, he did not care to go in,
but called for a hand grenado, and threw it among them, which at
first frightened them, but, when it burst, made such havoc among
them that they cried out in a hideous manner. In short, most of
the Indians who were in the open part of the house were killed or
hurt with the grenado, except two or three more who pressed to the
door, which the boatswain and two more kept, with their bayonets on
the muzzles of their pieces, and despatched all that came in their
way; but there was another apartment in the house, where the prince
or king, or whatever he was, and several others were; and these
were kept in till the house, which was by this time all in a light
flame, fell in upon them, and they were smothered together.

All this while they fired not a gun, because they would not waken
the people faster than they could master them; but the fire began
to waken them fast enough, and our fellows were glad to keep a
little together in bodies; for the fire grew so raging, all the
houses being made of light combustible stuff, that they could
hardly bear the street between them. Their business was to follow
the fire, for the surer execution: as fast as the fire either
forced the people out of those houses which were burning, or
frightened them out of others, our people were ready at their doors
to knock them on the head, still calling and hallooing one to
another to remember Tom Jeffry.

While this was doing, I must confess I was very uneasy, and
especially when I saw the flames of the town, which, it being
night, seemed to be close by me. My nephew, the captain, who was
roused by his men seeing such a fire, was very uneasy, not knowing
what the matter was, or what danger I was in, especially hearing
the guns too, for by this time they began to use their firearms; a
thousand thoughts oppressed his mind concerning me and the
supercargo, what would become of us; and at last, though he could
ill spare any more men, yet not knowing what exigence we might be
in, he took another boat, and with thirteen men and himself came
ashore to me.

He was surprised to see me and the supercargo in the boat with no
more than two men; and though he was glad that we were well, yet he
was in the same impatience with us to know what was doing; for the
noise continued, and the flame increased; in short, it was next to
an impossibility for any men in the world to restrain their
curiosity to know what had happened, or their concern for the
safety of the men: in a word, the captain told me he would go and
help his men, let what would come. I argued with him, as I did
before with the men, the safety of the ship, the danger of the
voyage, the interests of the owners and merchants, &c., and told
him I and the two men would go, and only see if we could at a
distance learn what was likely to be the event, and come back and
tell him. It was in vain to talk to my nephew, as it was to talk
to the rest before; he would go, he said; and he only wished he had
left but ten men in the ship, for he could not think of having his
men lost for want of help: he had rather lose the ship, the
voyage, and his life, and all; and away he went.

I was no more able to stay behind now than I was to persuade them
not to go; so the captain ordered two men to row back the pinnace,
and fetch twelve men more, leaving the long-boat at an anchor; and
that, when they came back, six men should keep the two boats, and
six more come after us; so that he left only sixteen men in the
ship: for the whole ship's company consisted of sixty-five men,
whereof two were lost in the late quarrel which brought this
mischief on.

Being now on the march, we felt little of the ground we trod on;
and being guided by the fire, we kept no path, but went directly to
the place of the flame. If the noise of the guns was surprising to
us before, the cries of the poor people were now quite of another
nature, and filled us with horror. I must confess I was never at
the sacking a city, or at the taking a town by storm. I had heard
of Oliver Cromwell taking Drogheda, in Ireland, and killing man,
woman, and child; and I had read of Count Tilly sacking the city of
Magdeburg and cutting the throats of twenty-two thousand of all
sexes; but I never had an idea of the thing itself before, nor is
it possible to describe it, or the horror that was upon our minds
at hearing it. However, we went on, and at length came to the
town, though there was no entering the streets of it for the fire.
The first object we met with was the ruins of a hut or house, or
rather the ashes of it, for the house was consumed; and just before
it, plainly now to be seen by the light of the fire, lay four men
and three women, killed, and, as we thought, one or two more lay in
the heap among the fire; in short, there were such instances of
rage, altogether barbarous, and of a fury something beyond what was
human, that we thought it impossible our men could be guilty of it;
or, if they were the authors of it, we thought they ought to be
every one of them put to the worst of deaths. But this was not
all: we saw the fire increase forward, and the cry went on just as
the fire went on; so that we were in the utmost confusion. We
advanced a little way farther, and behold, to our astonishment,
three naked women, and crying in a most dreadful manner, came
flying as if they had wings, and after them sixteen or seventeen
men, natives, in the same terror and consternation, with three of
our English butchers in the rear, who, when they could not overtake
them, fired in among them, and one that was killed by their shot
fell down in our sight. When the rest saw us, believing us to be
their enemies, and that we would murder them as well as those that


 


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