(영어소설 통독) 로빈슨 크루소의 모험 12부

너무도 유명한 영어소설 '로빈슨 크루소의 모험(총604쪽)'입니다. 하루에 2시간 정도씩을 투자하여 1부씩을 읽으면 15일만에 통독할 수 있습니다. 2부씩을 읽으시면 1주일만에 끝장 납니다. 절대 사전을 찾으면 안됩니다. 모르는 문장은 계속 추측하며 넘어 갑니다. 시야를 넓게 여시고 숲을 보는 훈련을 하시기 바랍니다.

독해력의 핵심은 상상력입니다. 영어소설을 읽을 때는 문장을 보시지 말고 이야기를 보시기 바랍니다. 문장은 몰라도 좋습니다. 그 속에 들어있는 이야기만 느낄 수 있다면 훌륭한 독해를 한 것입니다. 한 단어 한 단어가 주는 이미지만 따라가도  충분한 독해가 됩니다. 단어를 다 알 필요도 없습니다. 몇 개의 단어만으로도 뜻을 충분히 상상해 낼 수 있습니다. 오히려 그런 사람이 독해의 고수입니다. 또한 소설을 읽으면서 문장구조를 다 파악할 필요는 전혀 없습니다. 그것은 굉장한 시간 낭비입니다. 모국인들도 문장구조를 다 파악하면서 읽지는 않습니다. 이야기의 흐름을 잡고 그것을 느끼며 앞에서 저자가 설명이 부족했던 부분 혹은 자신이 이해하지 못했거나 놓쳤던 부분은 뒤에서 이리저리 보충하며 이야기를 엮어나가고 또한 증폭시켜 나가는 것입니다. 

좀 힘들지만 꼭 한 번 도전해 보시기 바랍니다. 비록 이해를 100% 다 못했더라도 전혀 문제가 되지 않습니다. 이 책에는 약간의 고어체 영어가 섞여 나오지만 읽는 데는 전혀 지장이 없습니다. 오히려 구어체가 거의 없는 정통파 문어체 문장이기 때문에 한국인들에게는 더 쉽게 느껴질 수도 있습니다. 이 책을 빠른 시일내에 통독하고 나면 영문을 보는 눈이 확 달라질 것입니다. 이런 식으로라도 여기서 이런 책을 읽지 않으면 여러분의 평생에 이런 책을 통독할 기회는 오지 않을 겁니다. 부디 도전하셔서 한 번 끝장을 보시고 영어의 새로운 지평을 경험하시기 바랍니다. 저는 이 책을 2번 읽었는데 한 번 더 도전해볼 생각입니다. 여러분들의 건투를 빕니다^^

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"Why truly, Atkins," said I, "I am afraid thou speakest too much truth;" and with that I let the clergyman know what Atkins had said, for he was impatient to know. "O!" 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 [page 441] 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; that he often suffers wicked men to go on a long time, 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 lend him to teach his wife the doctrine of the resurrection, and of the last judgment: let him but repent for 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 who, 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 han't the impudence to talk thus to my wife, when God and my own conscience knows, and my wife will be an undeniable evidence against me, that I have lived as if I never heard of God, or a future state, or any thing about it; and to talk of my repenting, alas! (and with that he fetched a deep sigh; and I could see that 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, Sir," says he; "I mean 'tis too late; and that is too true."

I told my clergyman word for word what he said. The poor zealous priest (I must call him so; for, be his opinion what it will, he had certainly a most singular affection for the good of other men's souls; and it would be hard to think he had not the like for his own)--I say, this zealous, affectionate man could not [page 442] refrain tears also: but recovering himself, he 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 certainly must end in eternal destruction? That he was far from being easy; but that, on the contrary, he believed it would one time or the other ruin him."

"What do you mean by that?" said I.--"Why," he said, "he believed he should, one time or another, cut his own throat to put an end to the terror of it."

The clergyman shook his head, with a great concern in his face, when I told him all this; but turning quick to me upon it, said, "If that be his case, you 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 'tis 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 'tis 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 awhile, and we talked to the rest. I perceived they were all stupidly ignorant as to matters of religion; much as I was when I went rambling away from my father; and yet that 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 endeavour to persuade them to turn Christians.

[page 443]

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 farther 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 William Atkins, I believe he is the only sincere convert among them; I take that man to be a true penitent; I won't despair of the rest; but that man is perfectly struck with the sense of his past life; and I doubt not but 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. I knew a man," added he, "who having nothing but a summary notion of religion himself, and being wicked and profligate to the last degree in his life, made a thorough reformation in himself by labouring to convert a Jew: and if that poor Atkins begins but once to talk seriously of Jesus Christ to his wife, my life for it he talks himself into a thorough convert, makes 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 other three couple; but Will Atkins and his wife were not yet come in. After this, my clergyman waiting awhile, was curious to know where Atkins was gone; and turning to me, says he, "I entreat you, Sir, let us walk out of your labyrinth here and look; I dare say we shall find this poor man somewhere or other, talking seriously with 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 thick set, as that it was not easy to see through the thicket of leaves, and far harder to see in than to see [page 444] out; when coming to the edge of the wood I saw Atkins, and his tawny savage 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 shewed 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; then down to the earth, then out to the sea, then to himself, then to her, to the woods, to the trees. "Now," says my 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, and 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 up upon his feet, fall down upon his knees, and lift up both his hands; we supposed he said something, but we could not hear him; it was too far off 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 any thing or no 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 any thing 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 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 [page 445] 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 awhile, that we might see an end of the scene, which to me, I must confess, was the most affecting, and yet the most agreeable, that ever I saw in my life. Well, he strove with himself, and contained himself for awhile, but was in such raptures of joy 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 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 audibly; some in Latin, some in French; then two or three times the tears of joy would interrupt him, that he could not speak at all. But I begged that he would compose himself, and let us more narrowly and fully observe what was before us, which he did for a time, and the scene was not ended there 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 by her motion that she was greatly affected with what he said, by her frequent lifting up her hands, laying her hand to her breast, and such other postures as usually express the greatest seriousness and attention. This continued about half a quarter of an hour, and then they walked away too; so that we could see no more of them in that situation.

I took this interval to talk with my clergyman: and first I told him, 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 both might be; and I hoped such a beginning would have yet a more [page 446] happy end: "And who knows," said I, "but these two may in time, by instruction and example, work upon some of the others?"--"Some of them!" said he, turning quick upon me, "ay, upon all of them: depend upon it, if those two savages (for he has been but little better as you relate it) should embrace Jesus Christ, they will never leave till they work upon all the rest; for true religion is naturally communicative, and he that is once made a Christian will never leave a Pagan behind him if be can help it," I owned it was a most Christian principle to think so, and a testimony of a true zeal, as well as a generous heart in him. "But, my friend," said I, "will you give me liberty to start one difficulty here? I cannot tell how to object the least thing against that affectionate concern which you shew for the turning 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 still; and, for other reasons, as effectually lost as the Pagans themselves?"

To this he answered with abundance of candour and Christian charity, 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 this 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, yet I dare not say, that you cannot be saved; I will by no means limit the mercy of Christ, so far as to think that he cannot receive you into the bosom of his church, in a manner to us imperceivable, and which it is impossible for us to know; and I hope you have the same charity for us. I pray daily for your being all restored to Christ's church, by whatsoever methods he, who is all-wise, is pleased to direct. In the mean time, sure you will allow it to consist with me, as a Roman, [page 447] to distinguish far between a Protestant and a Pagan; between him that calls on Jesus Christ, though in a way which I do not think is according to the true faith; and a savage, a barbarian, that knows no God, no Christ, no Redeemer at all; and if you are not within the pale of the Catholic church, we hope you are nearer being restored to it than those that know nothing at all of God or his church. 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 the 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 may desire it; leaving it to the goodness of Christ to perfect his work in his own time, and 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 to be all Protestants at first, rather than they should continue pagans and heathens; firmly believing, that He who had bestowed that first light upon 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."

I was astonished at the sincerity and temper of this truly 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 were joined to, or joined in; that a spirit of charity would soon work us all up into right principles; and, in a word, as he thought that [page 448] the like charity would make us all Catholics, as I told him, I believed had all the members of his church the like moderation they would soon be all 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," said I, "I wish all the clergy of the Roman church were blessed with such moderation, and 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 might do in Spain and Italy; but I will not say they would be the better Christians for that severity; for I am sure there is no heresy in too much 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 no; 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 with him thus:

"Will Atkins," said I, "pr'ythee what education had you? What was your father?"

W.A. A better man than ever I shall be. Sir, my father was a clergyman.

R.C. What education did he give you?

W.A. He would have taught me well, Sir; but I despised all education, instruction, or correction, like a beast as I was.

R.C. It is true, Solomon says, "He that despiseth reproof is brutish."

W.A. Ay, Sir, I was brutish indeed; I murdered my father; for God's sake, Sir, talk no more about that, Sir; I murdered my poor father.

Priest. Ha! a murderer?

[page 449]

[Here the priest started (for I interpreted every word as he spoke it), and looked pale: it seems he believed that Will had really killed his own father.]

R.C. No, no, Sir, I do not understand him so. Will Atkins, explain yourself: you did not kill your father, did you, with your own hands?

W.A. No, Sir; I did not cut his throat; but I cut the thread of all his comforts, and shortened his days; I broke his heart by the most ungrateful, unnatural return for the most tender, affectionate treatment that ever father gave, or child could receive.

R.C. Well, I did not ask you about your father to extort this confession; I pray God give you repentance for it, and forgive you that and all your other sins; but I asked you, because I see that, though you have not much learning, yet you are not so ignorant as some are in things that are good; that you have known more of religion a great deal than you have practised.

W.A. Though you, Sir, did not extort the confession that I make about my father, conscience does; and whenever we come to look back upon our lives, the sins against our indulgent parents are certainly the first that touch us; the wounds they make lie deepest; and the weight they leave will lie heaviest upon the mind of all the sins we can commit.

R.C. You talk too feelingly and sensible for me, Atkins; I cannot bear it.

W.A. You bear it, master! I dare say you know nothing of it.

R.C. Yes, Atkins, every shore, every hill, nay, I may say every tree in this island, is witness to the anguish of my soul for my ingratitude and base usage of a good tender father; a father much like yours by your description; and I murdered my father as well as you, Will Atkins; but think for all that, my repentance is short of yours too, by a great deal.

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[I would have said more, if I could have restrained my passions; but I thought this poor man's repentance was so much sincerer than mine, that I was going to leave off the discourse and retire, for I was surprised with what he said, and thought, that, instead of my going about to teach and instruct him, the man was made a teacher and instructor to me, in a most surprising and 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, here 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 through 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 a 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, and though I cannot give you an account of it, this I can tell you of it, that I resolve 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.

[page 451]

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 or 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, or inheritances be settled by a 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 thing among the savages, but marry any how, without any regard to relation, consanguinity, or family; brother and sister, nay, as I have been told, even the father and daughter, and the son and the mother.

W.A. I believe, Sir, you are misinformed;--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 they never touch one another in the near relations you speak of.

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

W.A. She said she liked it very well; and it was much better than in her country.

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

W.A. Ay, ay, there began all 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 of God; and here we had a strange talk together indeed, as ever man and wife had, I believe.

[N.B. This dialogue between W. Atkins and his wife, as I took it 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 Benamnekee God.

W.A. Child, I am very unfit to shew you who God [page 452] 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 de earth; no make my country.

[W.A. laughed a little at her expression of God not making her country.]

W.A. 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 make 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; there is no God but he; 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 any thing before, but have lived without God in the world myself.

Wife. What have you de great God in your country, you no know him? No say O to him? No do good ting for him? That no impossible!

W.A. It is too 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 make kill when he will: why he no make 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.

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

W.A. No, Indeed; I have not thanked God for his mercy, any more than I have feared God for his power.

Wife. Then you God no God; me no tink, believe he be such one, great much power, strong; no makee kill you, though you makee 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. Now 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 seen 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 swear, curse, speak the great damn?

W.A. Yes, yes, he hears it all.

Wife. Where be then the muchee 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, [page 454] and infinitely great, and able to punish too; and some times, to shew 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, may be, that he no makee you kill, so you make de bargain with him, you do bad ting, 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 tankee 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; 'tis I have deformed myself, and abused his goodness, and have made myself an abominable wretch.

Wife. I wish you makee God know me; I no makee him angry; I no do bad wicked ting.

[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 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'll pray to him to teach thee to know [page 455] him; and to forgive me that I 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.]

N.B. This was the time when we saw him kneel down and lift 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 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 you say your old men do to their idol Benamuckee; that is, I prayed to him.

Wife. What you say 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 he no 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 had revealed himself to us by his word; and what his word was; but at last he told it her thus:]

W.A. God has spoken to some good men in former days, even from heaven, by plain words; and God [page 456] 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 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?

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 consequences.

Wife. That me would understand, that me fain see; if he reward all good thing, punish all wicked thing, he teachee all good thing, forbid all wicked thing, he makee all thing, he give all thing; he hear me when I say O to him, as you go to do just now; he makee me good if I wish be good; he spare me, no makee kill me when I no be good; all this you say he do: yes, he be great God; me take, think, believe him be great God; me say O to him too with you, my dear.

Here the poor man said he could forbear no longer; but, raising 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 him 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 [page 457] this, too long to set down here; and particularly she made him promise, that, since he confessed his own life had been a wicked, abominable course of provocation against God, he would reform it, and not make God angry any more, lest he should make him dead, as she called it, and then she should be left alone, and never be taught to know this God better; and lest he should be miserable, as he told her wicked men should be after death.

This was a strange account, and very affecting to us both, but particularly 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 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 was for going about it presently: "No, no; hold, Sir," said he; "though I would have her baptized by all means, yet 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 any thing to her of Jesus Christ, and of the salvation of sinners; of the nature of faith in him, and the redemption by him; of the Holy Spirit, the Resurrection, the last judgment, and a 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 [page 458] 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, 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 errors 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 himself it 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 dishfull of water upon the woman's head, pronouncing in French very loud Mary (which was the name her husband desired me [page 459] 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 any thing by it what religion he was of: he gave the benediction afterwards in Latin; but either Will Atkins did not know but it was in French, or else did not take notice of it at that time.

As soon as this was over, he married them; and after the marriage was over, he turned himself 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 recommended them, in a few words, to God's goodness; gave them the benediction again, I repeating every thing to them in English: and thus ended the ceremony. I think it was the most pleasant, 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 he would have staid upon the island to have undertaken it; but I convinced him, first, that his undertaking was impracticable in itself; and secondly, that, perhaps, I could put it into a way of being done, in his absence, to his satisfaction; of which by and by.

Having thus brought the affair of the island to a narrow compass, I was preparing to go on board the ship when the young man, whom 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 [page 460] that I had caused the Englishmen to be married to the savages whom they called wives; 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 any thing of that kind rashly, or because he found himself in this solitary circumstance. I represented that he had some considerable substance in the world, and good friends, as I understood by himself, and by his maid also; that the maid was not only poor, and a servant, but was unequal to him, she being twenty-six or twenty-seven 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, his present circumstances being melancholy and disconsolate enough; and he was very glad to hear that I had some thoughts of putting them in a way to see their own country again; and that nothing should have set him upon 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 of the island where he was; give him a servant or two, and some few necessaries, and he would settle himself here like a planter, waiting the good time when, if ever I returned to England, I would redeem him, and 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 [page 461] been to him, and 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 would never forget the circumstances I 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 had 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 not backward to speak when any thing required it, or impertinently forward to speak when it was not her business; very handy and housewifely in any thing that was before her; an excellent manager, and fit indeed to have been governess to the whole island; she knew very well how to behave herself to all kind of folks she had about her, and to better if she had found any there.

The match being proposed in this manner, we married them the same day: and as I was father at the altar, as I may say, 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 me, to give him a small property in the island, put me upon parcelling it out among them, that they might not quarrel afterwards about their situation.

[page 462]

This sharing out the land to them I left to Will Atkins, who indeed was now grown a most sober, grave, managing fellow, perfectly reformed, exceeding pious and religious, and as far as I may be allowed to speak positively in such a case, I verily believe was a true sincere 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 to them, 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 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 but odd to have seven-and-thirty Indians live in a nook of the island, independent, and indeed unemployed; for excepting the providing themselves food, which they had difficulty enough in doing 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 take them into their several families as servants, to be maintained for their labour, but without being absolute slaves, for I would not admit them to make them slaves by force by any means, because they had their liberty given by [page 463] capitulation, and 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; and thus my colony was in a manner settled as follows: The Spaniards possessed my original habitation, which was the capital city, and extended their plantation 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 west end of the island was left uninhabited, that, if any of the savages should come on shore there, only for their usual 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 and disturbed any more.

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 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," said he, "they will do 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 [page 464] 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 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 may call it so, for such a house, or such a piece of basket-work, I believe was not standing in the world again!) I say, when I came thither I found the young woman I have mentioned above, and William Atkins's wife, were become intimates; and this prudent and 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 any like her, in all my observation or conversation in the world.

It came next into my mind in the morning, before I went to them, that among all the needful things I had to leave with them, I had not left a Bible; in which I shewed myself less considering for them than my good friend the widow was for me, when she sent me the cargo of 100l. 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 William Atkins's tent, or house, I found the young woman and Atkins's baptized wife had been discoursing of religion together (for William Atkins told it me with a great deal of joy.) I asked if they were together now? And he said yes; so I [page 465] went into the house, and he with me, and we found them together, very earnest in discourse: "O Sir," says William 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 they had any book among them, though I did not ask, but I put my hand in 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 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 said? Here is 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 thus, the man fell in such transports of a passionate joy, 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 believed 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 [page 466] told her we did not desire to impose upon the 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 do not expect returns from Heaven in a miraculous and particular manner; and that it is our mercy it is not so.

This the young woman did afterwards effectually; so that there was, I assure you, 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 surprise of joy 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 any thing of its kind than he was for this Bible; and I believe never any man was glad of a Bible from a better principle; and though he had been a most profligate creature, desperate, headstrong, outrageous, furious, and wicked to a great degree, 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, or ever despair of the success of their endeavours, let the children be ever so obstinate, refractory, or to appearance insensible of instruction; for if ever God in his providence touches the consciences of such, the force of their education returns 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, or divested 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 could now come to his mind was of use to him.

Among the rest it occurred to him, he said, how his father used to insist much upon the inexpressible [page 467] value of the Bible, 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 very glad of it also for the present occasion, though she had one, and so had the youth, on board our ship among the 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 informing and remarkable.

I have related to what extremity the poor young woman was reduced; how her mistress was starved to death, and did die on board that unhappy ship we met at sea; and how the whole ship's company being 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 upon the extremities they suffered, I asked her if she could describe by what she felt what it was to starve, and how it appeared? She told me she believed she could, and she told her tale very distinctly thus:

"First, Sir," said she, "we had for some days fared exceeding hard, and suffered very great hunger, but now at last we were wholly without food of any kind except sugar, and a little wine, and a little water. The first day after I had received no food at all, I found myself, towards evening, first empty and sickish at my stomach, and nearer night mightily inclined to yawning, and sleepy; I lay down on a 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 again, and lay down again, but could not sleep at all, being very faint and ill; and thus I continued all the second [page 468] 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 fair 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 or at a good dinner; but when I waked, I was exceedingly sunk in my spirits to find myself in the extremity of famine; the last glass of wine we had I drank, and put sugar into 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 and confused 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, I say, I question whether, if I had been a mother, and had had a little child with me, its life would have been safe or no.

"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, whether by the motion of the ship or some slip of my foot I know not, 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 ran from me I came to myself, and the violence of the flame or the fever I was in abated, and so did the ravenous part of the hunger.

[page 469]

"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, something like, as I suppose, the longing of a woman with child. 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 awhile; and then waking, thought myself dying, being light with vapours from an empty stomach: I recommended my soul to God, and earnestly wished that somebody would throw me into the sea.

"All this while my mistress lay by me just, as I thought, expiring, but bore it with much more patience than I, and gave the last bit of bread she had 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 first when I awaked I fell into a violent passion of crying, and after that had a second fit of violent hunger, so that I got up ravenous, and in a most dreadful condition. Had my mistress been dead, so much as I loved her, I am certain I should have eaten a piece of her flesh with as much relish and as unconcerned as ever I did the flesh of any creature appointed for food; and once or twice I was going to bite my own arm. At last I saw the basin in which was the blood 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 had wondered nobody had taken it before, and afraid it should be taken from me now.

[page 470]

"Though after it was down the thoughts of it filled me with horror, yet it checked the fit of hunger, and I drank a draught of fair water, and was composed and refreshed for some hours, after it. This was the fourth day; and thus I held it till towards night, when, within the compass of three hours, I had all these several circumstances over again, one after another, viz. sick, sleepy, eagerly hungry, pain in the stomach, then ravenous again, then sick again, then lunatic, then crying, then ravenous again, and so every quarter of an hour; and my strength wasted exceedingly. At night I laid 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, wind instead of food having found its way into my bowels; and in this condition I lay till morning, when I was surprised a little with 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, that I cannot describe them, with such frequent throes and pangs of appetite that nothing but the tortures of death can imitate; and this condition I was in 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 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 a combustion; nor had we any conversation with the ship's company for two days, they having told us they had not a mouthful of any thing to eat in the ship; and they told us afterwards they thought we had been dead.

"It was this dreadful condition we were in when [page 471] 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 entertaining 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 feelingly as his maid, and the rather because it seems his mother fed him at the price of her own life: but the poor maid, though her constitution being stronger than that of her mistress, who was in years, and a weakly woman too, she might struggle harder with it; I say, the poor maid might be supposed to feel the extremity something sooner than her mistress, who might be allowed to keep the last bits something longer than she parted with any to relieve the maid. No question, as the case is here related, if our ship, or some other, had not so providentially met them, a few days more would have ended all their lives, unless they had prevented it by eating one another; and even that, as their case stood, would have served them but a little while, they being five hundred leagues from any land, or any possibility of relief, other than in the miraculous manner it happened.--But this is by the way; I 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 any thing 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 it plainly, had I set up the sloop, and left it among them, they would, upon very 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 to be; nor did I leave the two pieces of brass cannon that I had on board, or the two quarter-deck guns, that my nephew took extraordinary, for the same reason: I thought they [page 472] had enough to qualify them for a defensive war, against any that should invade them; but I was not to set them up for an offensive war, or to encourage them to go abroad to attack others, which, in the end, would only bring ruin and destruction upon themselves and all their undertakings: I reserved the sloop, therefore, and the guns, for their service another way, as I shall observe in its place.

I have now done with the island: I left them all in good circumstances, and in a flourishing condition, and went on board my ship again the fifth day of May, having been five and twenty days among them; and, as they were all resolved to stay upon the island till I came to remove them, I promised to send some further relief from the Brasils, if I could possibly find an opportunity; and particularly I promised to send them some cattle; such as sheep, hogs, and cows; for 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 Brasils, in about twenty-two days; meeting nothing remarkable in our passage but this, that about three days after we sailed, being becalmed, and the current setting strong to the N.N.E. 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 Land, to the westward; 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; but, 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 spoke a little hastily, calling [page 473] the fellow a fool, or some such word: "Nay, Sir," says he, "don't be angry, for it is an army, and a fleet too; for I believe there are a thousand canoes, and you may see them paddle along, and they are coming towards us too apace, and full of men."

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 him 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 from them 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 be ready, with sheet and buckets, to put out any fire these savages might endeavour to fix upon 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; my mate was much mistaken in his calculation of their number, I mean of a thousand canoes; the most we could make of them when they came up, being about 126; and a great many of them too; for some of them had sixteen or seventeen men in them, 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 they had, doubtless, never seen before; nor could they, at first, as we afterwards understood, know what to make of us. They came boldly up however, [page 474] 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 nearest 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 [page 475] 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 [page 476] men took up one poor fellow swimming for his life; above an hour after they were all gone.

Our small shot from our cannon must needs kill and wound a great many; but, in short, we never knew any thing 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 Brasils.

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 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; and 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 be 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 while before we could make him understand any thing; 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 spoken in the throat, in such a hollow and odd manner, that we could never form a word from him; and we were all of opinion that they might speak that language as well if they were gagged, as otherwise; nor could we [page 477] 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, there 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."--Where it is to be observed, that all those natives, as also those of Africa, when they learn English, they always add two e's at the end of the words where we use one, and place the accent upon the last of them; as makee, takee, and the like; and we could not break them of it; 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 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: and so ended the life of the most grateful, faithful, honest, and most affectionate servant that ever man had.

We now went away with a fair wind for Brasil, 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 the 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 did a ship come to this part 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 [page 478] two merchant trustees, nor the fame of my wonderful preservation in the island, could obtain me that favour; but my partner remembering that I had given five hundred moidores to the prior of the monastery of the Augustines, and three hundred and seventy-two to the poor, went to the monastery, and obliged the prior that then was, to go to the governor, and beg leave for me presently, 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 broad-cloths, stuffs, and some linen, which I had brought for a present to my partner.

He was a very generous, broad-hearted man, though (like me) he came from little at first; and though he knew not that I had the least design of giving him any thing, he sent me on board a present of fresh provisions, wine, and sweetmeats, worth above thirty moidores, including some tobacco, and three or four fine medals in gold. But I was even with him in my present, which, as I have said, consisted of fine broad-cloth, English stuffs, lace, and fine Hollands. Also, I delivered him about the value of 100l. 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 instruction as he could not miss the place; nor did he miss it, as I had an account from my partner afterwards. I got him soon loaded with the small cargo I had 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 [page 479] letter to the governor Spaniard, to allot him a sufficient quantity of land for a plantation; and giving him some clothes, and tools for his planting work, which he said he understood, having been an old planter in 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 which 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 Brasil planter of his acquaintance, who had fallen into he 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;" 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 the 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 assuredly be burnt 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 the sloop 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 stock, indeed, was much alike, rich in tools, and in preparations, for a farm; but nothing to begin with, but as above. However, they carried over with them (which was worth all the rest) some materials for planting sugar-canes, with some plants of [page 480] canes; which he (I mean the Portugal man) understood very well.

Among the rest of the supplies sent my tenants in the island, I sent them, by this sloop, three milch-cows and five calves, about twenty-two hogs, among them, three sows big with pig, two mares, and a stone-horse.

For my Spaniards, according to my promise, I engaged three Portugal 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 there were but five of the Spaniards that wanted; the rest had wives of their own, though in another country.

All this cargo arrived safe, and, as you may easily suppose, 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, being sent back to the Brasils by this sloop; of which I shall take some notice in its place.

I have now done with my 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 only of the follies of an old man, not warned by his own harms, much less by those of other men, to beware of the like; not cooled by almost forty years misery and disappointments; not satisfied with prosperity beyond expectation; not made cautious by affliction and distress beyond irritation.