The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

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Transcribed from the 1919 Seeley,splash pads for 7 year olds under 10 dollars Sevice & Co. edition

THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE

CHAPTER I—REVISITS ISLAND

That homely proverb, used on so many occasions in England,viz. “That what is bred in the bone will not go out of theflesh,” was never more verified than in the story of myLife.  Any one would think that after thirty-fiveyears’ affliction, and a variety of unhappy circumstances,which few men, if any, ever went through before, and after nearseven years of peace and enjoyment in the fulness of all things;grown old, and when, if ever, it might be allowed me to have hadexperience of every state of middle life, and to know which wasmost adapted to make a man completely happy; I say, after allthis, any one would have thought that the native propensity torambling which I gave an account of in my first setting out inthe world to have been so predominant in my thoughts, should beworn out, and I might, at sixty one years of age, have been alittle inclined to stay at home, and have done venturing life andfortune any more.

Nay, farther, the common motive of foreign adventures wastaken away in me, for I had no fortune to make; I had nothing toseek: if I had gained ten thousand pounds I had been no richer;for I had already sufficient for me, and for those I had to leaveit to; and what I had was visibly increasing; for, having nogreat family, I could not spend the income of what I had unless Iwould set up for an expensive way of living, such as a greatfamily, servants, equipage, gaiety, and the like, which werethings I had no notion of, or inclination to; so that I hadnothing, indeed, to do but to sit still, and fully enjoy what Ihad got, and see it increase daily upon my hands.  Yet allthese things had no effect upon me, or at least not enough toresist the strong inclination I had to go abroad again, whichhung about me like a chronic distemper.  In particular, thedesire of seeing my new plantation in the island, and the colonyI left there, ran in my head continually.  I dreamed of itall night, and my imagination ran upon it all day: it wasuppermost in all my thoughts, and my fancy worked so steadily andstrongly upon it that I talked of it in my sleep; in short,nothing could remove it out of my mind: it even broke soviolently into all my discourses that it made my conversationtiresome, for I could talk of nothing else; all my discourse raninto it, even to impertinence; and I saw it myself.

I have often heard persons of good judgment say that all thestir that people make in the world about ghosts and apparitionsis owing to the strength of imagination, and the powerfuloperation of fancy in their minds; that there is no such thing asa spirit appearing, or a ghost walking; that people’sporing affectionately upon the past conversation of theirdeceased friends so realises it to them that they are capable offancying, upon some extraordinary circumstances, that they seethem, talk to them, and are answered by them, when, in truth,there is nothing but shadow and vapour in the thing, and theyreally know nothing of the matter.

For my part, I know not to this hour whether there are anysuch things as real apparitions, spectres, or walking of peopleafter they are dead; or whether there is anything in the storiesthey tell us of that kind more than the product of vapours, sickminds, and wandering fancies: but this I know, that myimagination worked up to such a height, and brought me into suchexcess of vapours, or what else I may call it, that I actuallysupposed myself often upon the spot, at my old castle, behind thetrees; saw my old Spaniard, Friday’s father, and thereprobate sailors I left upon the island; nay, I fancied I talkedwith them, and looked at them steadily, though I was broad awake,as at persons just before me; and this I did till I oftenfrightened myself with the images my fancy represented tome.  One time, in my sleep, I had the villainy of the threepirate sailors so lively related to me by the first Spaniard, andFriday’s father, that it was surprising: they told me howthey barbarously attempted to murder all the Spaniards, and thatthey set fire to the provisions they had laid up, on purpose todistress and starve them; things that I had never heard of, andthat, indeed, were never all of them true in fact: but it was sowarm in my imagination, and so realised to me, that, to the hourI saw them, I could not be persuaded but that it was or would betrue; also how I resented it, when the Spaniard complained to me;and how I brought them to justice, tried them, and ordered themall three to be hanged.  What there was really in this shallbe seen in its place; for however I came to form such things inmy dream, and what secret converse of spirits injected it, yetthere was, I say, much of it true.  I own that this dreamhad nothing in it literally and specifically true; but thegeneral part was so true—the base; villainous behaviour ofthese three hardened rogues was such, and had been so much worsethan all I can describe, that the dream had too much similitudeof the fact; and as I would afterwards have punished themseverely, so, if I had hanged them all, I had been much in theright, and even should have been justified both by the laws ofGod and man.

But to return to my story.  In this kind of temper Ilived some years; I had no enjoyment of my life, no pleasanthours, no agreeable diversion but what had something or other ofthis in it; so that my wife, who saw my mind wholly bent upon it,told me very seriously one night that she believed there was somesecret, powerful impulse of Providence upon me, which haddetermined me to go thither again; and that she found nothinghindered me going but my being engaged to a wife andchildren.  She told me that it was true she could not thinkof parting with me: but as she was assured that if she was deadit would be the first thing I would do, so, as it seemed to herthat the thing was determined above, she would not be the onlyobstruction; for, if I thought fit and resolved to go—[Hereshe found me very intent upon her words, and that I looked veryearnestly at her, so that it a little disordered her, and shestopped.  I asked her why she did not go on, and say outwhat she was going to say?  But I perceived that her heartwas too full, and some tears stood in her eyes.] “Speak out, my dear,” said I; “are you willingI should go?”—“No,” says she, veryaffectionately, “I am far from willing; but if you areresolved to go,” says she, “rather than I would bethe only hindrance, I will go with you: for though I think it amost preposterous thing for one of your years, and in yourcondition, yet, if it must be,” said she, again weeping,“I would not leave you; for if it be of Heaven you must doit, there is no resisting it; and if Heaven make it your duty togo, He will also make it mine to go with you, or otherwisedispose of me, that I may not obstruct it.”

This affectionate behaviour of my wife’s brought me alittle out of the vapours, and I began to consider what I wasdoing; I corrected my wandering fancy, and began to argue withmyself sedately what business I had after threescore years, andafter such a life of tedious sufferings and disasters, and closedin so happy and easy a manner; I, say, what business had I torush into new hazards, and put myself upon adventures fit onlyfor youth and poverty to run into?

With those thoughts I considered my new engagement; that I hada wife, one child born, and my wife then great with child ofanother; that I had all the world could give me, and had no needto seek hazard for gain; that I was declining in years, and oughtto think rather of leaving what I had gained than of seeking toincrease it; that as to what my wife had said of its being animpulse from Heaven, and that it should be my duty to go, I hadno notion of that; so, after many of these cogitations, Istruggled with the power of my imagination, reasoned myself outof it, as I believe people may always do in like cases if theywill: in a word, I conquered it, composed myself with sucharguments as occurred to my thoughts, and which my presentcondition furnished me plentifully with; and particularly, as themost effectual method, I resolved to divert myself with otherthings, and to engage in some business that might effectually tieme up from any more excursions of this kind; for I found thatthing return upon me chiefly when I was idle, and had nothing todo, nor anything of moment immediately before me.  To thispurpose, I bought a little farm in the county of Bedford, andresolved to remove myself thither.  I had a littleconvenient house upon it, and the land about it, I found, wascapable of great improvement; and it was many ways suited to myinclination, which delighted in cultivating, managing, planting,and improving of land; and particularly, being an inland country,I was removed from conversing among sailors and things relatingto the remote parts of the world.  I went down to my farm,settled my family, bought ploughs, harrows, a cart,waggon-horses, cows, and sheep, and, setting seriously to work,became in one half-year a mere country gentleman.  Mythoughts were entirely taken up in managing my servants,cultivating the ground, enclosing, planting, &c.; and Ilived, as I thought, the most agreeable life that nature wascapable of directing, or that a man always bred to misfortuneswas capable of retreating to.

I farmed upon my own land; I had no rent to pay, was limitedby no articles; I could pull up or cut down as I pleased; what Iplanted was for myself, and what I improved was for my family;and having thus left off the thoughts of wandering, I had not theleast discomfort in any part of life as to this world.  NowI thought, indeed, that I enjoyed the middle state of life whichmy father so earnestly recommended to me, and lived a kind ofheavenly life, something like what is described by the poet, uponthe subject of a country life:—

“Free from vices, free from care,
Age has no pain, and youth no snare.”

But in the middle of all this felicity, one blow from unseenProvidence unhinged me at once; and not only made a breach uponme inevitable and incurable, but drove me, by its consequences,into a deep relapse of the wandering disposition, which, as I maysay, being born in my very blood, soon recovered its hold of me;and, like the returns of a violent distemper, came on with anirresistible force upon me.  This blow was the loss of mywife.  It is not my business here to write an elegy upon mywife, give a character of her particular virtues, and make mycourt to the sex by the flattery of a funeral sermon.  Shewas, in a few words, the stay of all my affairs; the centre ofall my enterprises; the engine that, by her prudence, reduced meto that happy compass I was in, from the most extravagant andruinous project that filled my head, and did more to guide myrambling genius than a mother’s tears, a father’sinstructions, a friend’s counsel, or all my own reasoningpowers could do.  I was happy in listening to her, and inbeing moved by her entreaties; and to the last degree desolateand dislocated in the world by the loss of her.

When she was gone, the world looked awkwardly round me. I was as much a stranger in it, in my thoughts, as I was in theBrazils, when I first went on shore there; and as much alone,except for the assistance of servants, as I was in myisland.  I knew neither what to think nor what to do. I saw the world busy around me: one part labouring for bread,another part squandering in vile excesses or empty pleasures, butequally miserable because the end they proposed still fled fromthem; for the men of pleasure every day surfeited of their vice,and heaped up work for sorrow and repentance; and the men oflabour spent their strength in daily struggling for bread tomaintain the vital strength they laboured with: so living in adaily circulation of sorrow, living but to work, and working butto live, as if daily bread were the only end of wearisome life,and a wearisome life the only occasion of daily bread.

This put me in mind of the life I lived in my kingdom, theisland; where I suffered no more corn to grow, because I did notwant it; and bred no more goats, because I had no more use forthem; where the money lay in the drawer till it grew mouldy, andhad scarce the favour to be looked upon in twenty years. All these things, had I improved them as I ought to have done,and as reason and religion had dictated to me, would have taughtme to search farther than human enjoyments for a full felicity;and that there was something which certainly was the reason andend of life superior to all these things, and which was either tobe possessed, or at least hoped for, on this side of thegrave.

But my sage counsellor was gone; I was like a ship without apilot, that could only run afore the wind.  My thoughts ranall away again into the old affair; my head was quite turned withthe whimsies of foreign adventures; and all the pleasant,innocent amusements of my farm, my garden, my cattle, and myfamily, which before entirely possessed me, were nothing to me,had no relish, and were like music to one that has no ear, orfood to one that has no taste.  In a word, I resolved toleave off housekeeping, let my farm, and return to London; and ina few months after I did so.

When I came to London, I was still as uneasy as I was before;I had no relish for the place, no employment in it, nothing to dobut to saunter about like an idle person, of whom it may be saidhe is perfectly useless in God’s creation, and it is notone farthing’s matter to the rest of his kind whether he bedead or alive.  This also was the thing which, of allcircumstances of life, was the most my aversion, who had been allmy days used to an active life; and I would often say to myself,“A state of idleness is the very dregs of life;” and,indeed, I thought I was much more suitably employed when I wastwenty-six days making a deal board.

It was now the beginning of the year 1693, when my nephew,whom, as I have observed before, I had brought up to the sea, andhad made him commander of a ship, was come home from a shortvoyage to Bilbao, being the first he had made.  He came tome, and told me that some merchants of his acquaintance had beenproposing to him to go a voyage for them to the East Indies, andto China, as private traders.  “And now, uncle,”says he, “if you will go to sea with me, I will engage toland you upon your old habitation in the island; for we are totouch at the Brazils.”

Nothing can be a greater demonstration of a future state, andof the existence of an invisible world, than the concurrence ofsecond causes with the idea of things which we form in our minds,perfectly reserved, and not communicated to any in the world.

My nephew knew nothing how far my distemper of wandering wasreturned upon me, and I knew nothing of what he had in histhought to say, when that very morning, before he came to me, Ihad, in a great deal of confusion of thought, and revolving everypart of my circumstances in my mind, come to this resolution,that I would go to Lisbon, and consult with my old sea-captain;and if it was rational and practicable, I would go and see theisland again, and what was become of my people there.  I hadpleased myself with the thoughts of peopling the place, andcarrying inhabitants from hence, getting a patent for thepossession and I know not what; when, in the middle of all this,in comes my nephew, as I have said, with his project of carryingme thither in his way to the East Indies.

I paused a while at his words, and looking steadily at him,“What devil,” said I, “sent you on this unluckyerrand?”  My nephew stared as if he had beenfrightened at first; but perceiving that I was not muchdispleased at the proposal, he recovered himself.  “Ihope it may not be an unlucky proposal, sir,” sayshe.  “I daresay you would be pleased to see your newcolony there, where you once reigned with more felicity than mostof your brother monarchs in the world.”  In a word,the scheme hit so exactly with my temper, that is to say, theprepossession I was under, and of which I have said so much, thatI told him, in a few words, if he agreed with the merchants, Iwould go with him; but I told him I would not promise to go anyfurther than my own island.  “Why, sir,” sayshe, “you don’t want to be left there again, Ihope?”  “But,” said I, “can you nottake me up again on your return?”  He told me it wouldnot be possible to do so; that the merchants would never allowhim to come that way with a laden ship of such value, it being amonth’s sail out of his way, and might be three orfour.  “Besides, sir, if I should miscarry,”said he, “and not return at all, then you would be justreduced to the condition you were in before.”

This was very rational; but we both found out a remedy for it,which was to carry a framed sloop on board the ship, which, beingtaken in pieces, might, by the help of some carpenters, whom weagreed to carry with us, be set up again in the island, andfinished fit to go to sea in a few days.  I was not longresolving, for indeed the importunities of my nephew joined soeffectually with my inclination that nothing could oppose me; onthe other hand, my wife being dead, none concerned themselves somuch for me as to persuade me one way or the other, except myancient good friend the widow, who earnestly struggled with me toconsider my years, my easy circumstances, and the needlesshazards of a long voyage; and above all, my young children. But it was all to no purpose, I had an irresistible desire forthe voyage; and I told her I thought there was something souncommon in the impressions I had upon my mind, that it would bea kind of resisting Providence if I should attempt to stay athome; after which she ceased her expostulations, and joined withme, not only in making provision for my voyage, but also insettling my family affairs for my absence, and providing for theeducation of my children.  In order to do this, I made mywill, and settled the estate I had in such a manner for mychildren, and placed in such hands, that I was perfectly easy andsatisfied they would have justice done them, whatever mightbefall me; and for their education, I left it wholly to thewidow, with a sufficient maintenance to herself for her care: allwhich she richly deserved; for no mother could have taken morecare in their education, or understood it better; and as shelived till I came home, I also lived to thank her for it.

My nephew was ready to sail about the beginning of January1694-5; and I, with my man Friday, went on board, in the Downs,the 8th; having, besides that sloop which I mentioned above, avery considerable cargo of all kinds of necessary things for mycolony, which, if I did not find in good condition, I resolved toleave so.

First, I carried with me some servants whom I purposed toplace there as inhabitants, or at least to set on work there uponmy account while I stayed, and either to leave them there orcarry them forward, as they should appear willing; particularly,I carried two carpenters, a smith, and a very handy, ingeniousfellow, who was a cooper by trade, and was also a generalmechanic; for he was dexterous at making wheels and hand-mills togrind corn, was a good turner and a good pot-maker; he also madeanything that was proper to make of earth or of wood: in a word,we called him our Jack-of-all-trades.  With these I carrieda tailor, who had offered himself to go a passenger to the EastIndies with my nephew, but afterwards consented to stay on ournew plantation, and who proved a most necessary handy fellow ascould be desired in many other businesses besides that of histrade; for, as I observed formerly, necessity arms us for allemployments.

My cargo, as near as I can recollect, for I have not keptaccount of the particulars, consisted of a sufficient quantity oflinen, and some English thin stuffs, for clothing the Spaniardsthat I expected to find there; and enough of them, as by mycalculation might comfortably supply them for seven years; if Iremember right, the materials I carried for clothing them, withgloves, hats, shoes, stockings, and all such things as they couldwant for wearing, amounted to about two hundred pounds, includingsome beds, bedding, and household stuff, particularly kitchenutensils, with pots, kettles, pewter, brass, &c.; and near ahundred pounds more in ironwork, nails, tools of every kind,staples, hooks, hinges, and every necessary thing I could thinkof.

I carried also a hundred spare arms, muskets, and fusees;besides some pistols, a considerable quantity of shot of allsizes, three or four tons of lead, and two pieces of brasscannon; and, because I knew not what time and what extremities Iwas providing for, I carried a hundred barrels of powder, besidesswords, cutlasses, and the iron part of some pikes andhalberds.  In short, we had a large magazine of all sorts ofstore; and I made my nephew carry two small quarter-deck gunsmore than he wanted for his ship, to leave behind if there wasoccasion; so that when we came there we might build a fort andman it against all sorts of enemies.  Indeed, I at firstthought there would be need enough for all, and much more, if wehoped to maintain our possession of the island, as shall be seenin the course of that story.

I had not such bad luck in this voyage as I had been used tomeet with, and therefore shall have the less occasion tointerrupt the reader, who perhaps may be impatient to hear howmatters went with my colony; yet some odd accidents, cross windsand bad weather happened on this first setting out, which madethe voyage longer than I expected it at first; and I, who hadnever made but one voyage, my first voyage to Guinea, in which Imight be said to come back again, as the voyage was at firstdesigned, began to think the same ill fate attended me, and thatI was born to be never contented with being on shore, and yet tobe always unfortunate at sea.  Contrary winds first put usto the northward, and we were obliged to put in at Galway, inIreland, where we lay wind-bound two-and-twenty days; but we hadthis satisfaction with the disaster, that provisions were hereexceeding cheap, and in the utmost plenty; so that while we layhere we never touched the ship’s stores, but rather addedto them.  Here, also, I took in several live hogs, and twocows with their calves, which I resolved, if I had a goodpassage, to put on shore in my island; but we found occasion todispose otherwise of them.

We set out on the 5th of February from Ireland, and had a veryfair gale of wind for some days.  As I remember, it might beabout the 20th of February in the evening late, when the mate,having the watch, came into the round-house and told us he saw aflash of fire, and heard a gun fired; and while he was telling usof it, a boy came in and told us the boatswain heardanother.  This made us all run out upon the quarter-deck,where for a while we heard nothing; but in a few minutes we saw avery great light, and found that there was some very terriblefire at a distance; immediately we had recourse to ourreckonings, in which we all agreed that there could be no landthat way in which the fire showed itself, no, not for fivehundred leagues, for it appeared at WNW.  Upon this, weconcluded it must be some ship on fire at sea; and as, by ourhearing the noise of guns just before, we concluded that it couldnot be far off, we stood directly towards it, and were presentlysatisfied we should discover it, because the further we sailed,the greater the light appeared; though, the weather being hazy,we could not perceive anything but the light for a while. In about half-an-hour’s sailing, the wind being fair forus, though not much of it, and the weather clearing up a little,we could plainly discern that it was a great ship on fire in themiddle of the sea.

I was most sensibly touched with this disaster, though not atall acquainted with the persons engaged in it; I presentlyrecollected my former circumstances, and what condition I was inwhen taken up by the Portuguese captain; and how much moredeplorable the circumstances of the poor creatures belonging tothat ship must be, if they had no other ship in company withthem.  Upon this I immediately ordered that five guns shouldbe fired, one soon after another, that, if possible, we mightgive notice to them that there was help for them at hand and thatthey might endeavour to save themselves in their boat; for thoughwe could see the flames of the ship, yet they, it being night,could see nothing of us.

We lay by some time upon this, only driving as the burningship drove, waiting for daylight; when, on a sudden, to our greatterror, though we had reason to expect it, the ship blew up inthe air; and in a few minutes all the fire was out, that is tosay, the rest of the ship sunk.  This was a terrible, andindeed an afflicting sight, for the sake of the poor men, who, Iconcluded, must be either all destroyed in the ship, or be in theutmost distress in their boat, in the middle of the ocean; which,at present, as it was dark, I could not see.  However, todirect them as well as I could, I caused lights to be hung out inall parts of the ship where we could, and which we had lanternsfor, and kept firing guns all the night long, letting them knowby this that there was a ship not far off.

About eight o’clock in the morning we discovered theship’s boats by the help of our perspective glasses, andfound there were two of them, both thronged with people, and deepin the water.  We perceived they rowed, the wind beingagainst them; that they saw our ship, and did their utmost tomake us see them.  We immediately spread our ancient, to letthem know we saw them, and hung a waft out, as a signal for themto come on board, and then made more sail, standing directly tothem.  In little more than half-an-hour we came up withthem; and took them all in, being no less than sixty-four men,women, and children; for there were a great many passengers.

Upon inquiry we found it was a French merchant ship ofthree-hundred tons, home-bound from Quebec.  The master gaveus a long account of the distress of his ship; how the fire beganin the steerage by the negligence of the steersman, which, on hiscrying out for help, was, as everybody thought, entirely put out;but they soon found that some sparks of the first fire had gotinto some part of the ship so difficult to come at that theycould not effectually quench it; and afterwards getting inbetween the timbers, and within the ceiling of the ship, itproceeded into the hold, and mastered all the skill and all theapplication they were able to exert.

They had no more to do then but to get into their boats,which, to their great comfort, were pretty large; being theirlong-boat, and a great shallop, besides a small skiff, which wasof no great service to them, other than to get some fresh waterand provisions into her, after they had secured their lives fromthe fire.  They had, indeed, small hopes of their lives bygetting into these boats at that distance from any land; only, asthey said, that they thus escaped from the fire, and there was apossibility that some ship might happen to be at sea, and mighttake them in.  They had sails, oars, and a compass; and hadas much provision and water as, with sparing it so as to be nextdoor to starving, might support them about twelve days, in which,if they had no bad weather and no contrary winds, the captainsaid he hoped he might get to the banks of Newfoundland, andmight perhaps take some fish, to sustain them till they might goon shore.  But there were so many chances against them inall these cases, such as storms, to overset and founder them;rains and cold, to benumb and perish their limbs; contrary winds,to keep them out and starve them; that it must have been next tomiraculous if they had escaped.

In the midst of their consternation, every one being hopelessand ready to despair, the captain, with tears in his eyes, toldme they were on a sudden surprised with the joy of hearing a gunfire, and after that four more: these were the five guns which Icaused to be fired at first seeing the light.  This revivedtheir hearts, and gave them the notice, which, as above, Idesired it should, that there was a ship at hand for theirhelp.  It was upon the hearing of these guns that they tookdown their masts and sails: the sound coming from the windward,they resolved to lie by till morning.  Some time after this,hearing no more guns, they fired three muskets, one aconsiderable while after another; but these, the wind beingcontrary, we never heard.  Some time after that again theywere still more agreeably surprised with seeing our lights, andhearing the guns, which, as I have said, I caused to be fired allthe rest of the night.  This set them to work with theiroars, to keep their boats ahead, at least that we might thesooner come up with them; and at last, to their inexpressiblejoy, they found we saw them.

It is impossible for me to express the several gestures, thestrange ecstasies, the variety of postures which these poordelivered people ran into, to express the joy of their souls atso unexpected a deliverance.  Grief and fear are easilydescribed: sighs, tears, groans, and a very few motions of thehead and hands, make up the sum of its variety; but an excess ofjoy, a surprise of joy, has a thousand extravagances in it. There were some in tears; some raging and tearing themselves, asif they had been in the greatest agonies of sorrow; some starkraving and downright lunatic; some ran about the ship stampingwith their feet, others wringing their hands; some were dancing,some singing, some laughing, more crying, many quite dumb, notable to speak a word; others sick and vomiting; several swooningand ready to faint; and a few were crossing themselves and givingGod thanks.

I would not wrong them either; there might be many that werethankful afterwards; but the passion was too strong for them atfirst, and they were not able to master it: then were thrown intoecstasies, and a kind of frenzy, and it was but a very few thatwere composed and serious in their joy.  Perhaps also, thecase may have some addition to it from the particularcircumstance of that nation they belonged to: I mean the French,whose temper is allowed to be more volatile, more passionate, andmore sprightly, and their spirits more fluid than in othernations.  I am not philosopher enough to determine thecause; but nothing I had ever seen before came up to it. The ecstasies poor Friday, my trusty savage, was in when he foundhis father in the boat came the nearest to it; and the surpriseof the master and his two companions, whom I delivered from thevillains that set them on shore in the island, came a little waytowards it; but nothing was to compare to this, either that I sawin Friday, or anywhere else in my life.

It is further observable, that these extravagances did notshow themselves in that different manner I have mentioned, indifferent persons only; but all the variety would appear, in ashort succession of moments, in one and the same person.  Aman that we saw this minute dumb, and, as it were, stupid andconfounded, would the next minute be dancing and hallooing likean antic; and the next moment be tearing his hair, or pulling hisclothes to pieces, and stamping them under his feet like amadman; in a few moments after that we would have him all intears, then sick, swooning, and, had not immediate help been had,he would in a few moments have been dead.  Thus it was, notwith one or two, or ten or twenty, but with the greatest part ofthem; and, if I remember right, our surgeon was obliged to letblood of about thirty persons.

There were two priests among them: one an old man, and theother a young man; and that which was strangest was, the oldestman was the worst.  As soon as he set his foot on board ourship, and saw himself safe, he dropped down stone dead to allappearance.  Not the least sign of life could be perceivedin him; our surgeon immediately applied proper remedies torecover him, and was the only man in the ship that believed hewas not dead.  At length he opened a vein in his arm, havingfirst chafed and rubbed the part, so as to warm it as much aspossible.  Upon this the blood, which only dropped at first,flowing freely, in three minutes after the man opened his eyes; aquarter of an hour after that he spoke, grew better, and afterthe blood was stopped, he walked about, told us he was perfectlywell, and took a dram of cordial which the surgeon gavehim.  About a quarter of an hour after this they camerunning into the cabin to the surgeon, who was bleeding aFrenchwoman that had fainted, and told him the priest was gonestark mad.  It seems he had begun to revolve the change ofhis circumstances in his mind, and again this put him into anecstasy of joy.  His spirits whirled about faster than thevessels could convey them, the blood grew hot and feverish, andthe man was as fit for Bedlam as any creature that ever was init.  The surgeon would not bleed him again in thatcondition, but gave him something to doze and put him to sleep;which, after some time, operated upon him, and he awoke nextmorning perfectly composed and well.  The younger priestbehaved with great command of his passions, and was really anexample of a serious, well-governed mind.  At his firstcoming on board the ship he threw himself flat on his face,prostrating himself in thankfulness for his deliverance, in whichI unhappily and unseasonably disturbed him, really thinking hehad been in a swoon; but he spoke calmly, thanked me, told me hewas giving God thanks for his deliverance, begged me to leave hima few moments, and that, next to his Maker, he would give methanks also.  I was heartily sorry that I disturbed him, andnot only left him, but kept others from interrupting himalso.  He continued in that posture about three minutes, orlittle more, after I left him, then came to me, as he had said hewould, and with a great deal of seriousness and affection, butwith tears in his eyes, thanked me, that had, under God, givenhim and so many miserable creatures their lives.  I told himI had no need to tell him to thank God for it, rather than me,for I had seen that he had done that already; but I added that itwas nothing but what reason and humanity dictated to all men, andthat we had as much reason as he to give thanks to God, who hadblessed us so far as to make us the instruments of His mercy toso many of His creatures.  After this the young priestapplied himself to his countrymen, and laboured to compose them:he persuaded, entreated, argued, reasoned with them, and did hisutmost to keep them within the exercise of their reason; and withsome he had success, though others were for a time out of allgovernment of themselves.

I cannot help committing this to writing, as perhaps it may beuseful to those into whose hands it may fall, for guidingthemselves in the extravagances of their passions; for if anexcess of joy can carry men out to such a length beyond the reachof their reason, what will not the extravagances of anger, rage,and a provoked mind carry us to?  And, indeed, here I sawreason for keeping an exceeding watch over our passions of everykind, as well those of joy and satisfaction as those of sorrowand anger.

We were somewhat disordered by these extravagances among ournew guests for the first day; but after they had retired tolodgings provided for them as well as our ship would allow, andhad slept heartily—as most of them did, being fatigued andfrightened—they were quite another sort of people the nextday.  Nothing of good manners, or civil acknowledgments forthe kindness shown them, was wanting; the French, it is known,are naturally apt enough to exceed that way.  The captainand one of the priests came to me the next day, and desired tospeak with me and my nephew; the commander began to consult withus what should be done with them; and first, they told us we hadsaved their lives, so all they had was little enough for a returnto us for that kindness received.  The captain said they hadsaved some money and some things of value in their boats, caughthastily out of the flames, and if we would accept it they wereordered to make an offer of it all to us; they only desired to beset on shore somewhere in our way, where, if possible, they mightget a passage to France.  My nephew wished to accept theirmoney at first word, and to consider what to do with themafterwards; but I overruled him in that part, for I knew what itwas to be set on shore in a strange country; and if thePortuguese captain that took me up at sea had served me so, andtaken all I had for my deliverance, I must have been starved, orhave been as much a slave at the Brazils as I had been atBarbary, the mere being sold to a Mahometan excepted; and perhapsa Portuguese is not a much better master than a Turk, if not insome cases much worse.

I therefore told the French captain that we had taken them upin their distress, it was true, but that it was our duty to doso, as we were fellow-creatures; and we would desire to be sodelivered if we were in the like or any other extremity; that wehad done nothing for them but what we believed they would havedone for us if we had been in their case and they in ours; butthat we took them up to save them, not to plunder them; and itwould be a most barbarous thing to take that little from themwhich they had saved out of the fire, and then set them on shoreand leave them; that this would be first to save them from death,and then kill them ourselves: save them from drowning, andabandon them to starving; and therefore I would not let the leastthing be taken from them.  As to setting them on shore, Itold them indeed that was an exceeding difficulty to us, for thatthe ship was bound to the East Indies; and though we were drivenout of our course to the westward a very great way, and perhapswere directed by Heaven on purpose for their deliverance, yet itwas impossible for us wilfully to change our voyage on theirparticular account; nor could my nephew, the captain, answer itto the freighters, with whom he was under charter to pursue hisvoyage by way of Brazil; and all I knew we could do for them wasto put ourselves in the way of meeting with other ships homewardbound from the West Indies, and get them a passage, if possible,to England or France.

The first part of the proposal was so generous and kind theycould not but be very thankful for it; but they were in verygreat consternation, especially the passengers, at the notion ofbeing carried away to the East Indies; they then entreated methat as I was driven so far to the westward before I met withthem, I would at least keep on the same course to the banks ofNewfoundland, where it was probable I might meet with some shipor sloop that they might hire to carry them back to Canada.

I thought this was but a reasonable request on their part, andtherefore I inclined to agree to it; for indeed I considered thatto carry this whole company to the East Indies would not only bean intolerable severity upon the poor people, but would beruining our whole voyage by devouring all our provisions; so Ithought it no breach of charter-party, but what an unforeseenaccident made absolutely necessary to us, and in which no onecould say we were to blame; for the laws of God and nature wouldhave forbid that we should refuse to take up two boats full ofpeople in such a distressed condition; and the nature of thething, as well respecting ourselves as the poor people, obligedus to set them on shore somewhere or other for theirdeliverance.  So I consented that we would carry them toNewfoundland, if wind and weather would permit: and if not, Iwould carry them to Martinico, in the West Indies.

The wind continued fresh easterly, but the weather prettygood; and as the winds had continued in the points between NE.and SE. a long time, we missed several opportunities of sendingthem to France; for we met several ships bound to Europe, whereoftwo were French, from St. Christopher’s, but they had beenso long beating up against the wind that they durst take in nopassengers, for fear of wanting provisions for the voyage, aswell for themselves as for those they should take in; so we wereobliged to go on.  It was about a week after this that wemade the banks of Newfoundland; where, to shorten my story, weput all our French people on board a bark, which they hired atsea there, to put them on shore, and afterwards to carry them toFrance, if they could get provisions to victual themselveswith.  When I say all the French went on shore, I shouldremember that the young priest I spoke of, hearing we were boundto the East Indies, desired to go the voyage with us, and to beset on shore on the coast of Coromandel; which I readily agreedto, for I wonderfully liked the man, and had very good reason, aswill appear afterwards; also four of the seamen enteredthemselves on our ship, and proved very useful fellows.

From hence we directed our course for the West Indies,steering away S. and S. by E. for about twenty days together,sometimes little or no wind at all; when we met with anothersubject for our humanity to work upon, almost as deplorable asthat before.

CHAPTER II—INTERVENING HISTORY OF COLONY

It was in the latitude of 27 degrees 5 minutes N., on the 19thday of March 1694-95, when we spied a sail, our course SE. and byS.  We soon perceived it was a large vessel, and that shebore up to us, but could not at first know what to make of her,till, after coming a little nearer, we found she had lost hermain-topmast, fore-mast, and bowsprit; and presently she fired agun as a signal of distress.  The weather was pretty good,wind at NNW. a fresh gale, and we soon came to speak withher.  We found her a ship of Bristol, bound home fromBarbadoes, but had been blown out of the road at Barbadoes a fewdays before she was ready to sail, by a terrible hurricane, whilethe captain and chief mate were both gone on shore; so that,besides the terror of the storm, they were in an indifferent casefor good mariners to bring the ship home.  They had beenalready nine weeks at sea, and had met with another terriblestorm, after the hurricane was over, which had blown them quiteout of their knowledge to the westward, and in which they losttheir masts.  They told us they expected to have seen theBahama Islands, but were then driven away again to thesouth-east, by a strong gale of wind at NNW., the same that blewnow: and having no sails to work the ship with but a main course,and a kind of square sail upon a jury fore-mast, which they hadset up, they could not lie near the wind, but were endeavouringto stand away for the Canaries.

But that which was worst of all was, that they were almoststarved for want of provisions, besides the fatigues they hadundergone; their bread and flesh were quite gone—they hadnot one ounce left in the ship, and had had none for elevendays.  The only relief they had was, their water was not allspent, and they had about half a barrel of flour left; they hadsugar enough; some succades, or sweetmeats, they had at first,but these were all devoured; and they had seven casks ofrum.  There was a youth and his mother and a maid-servant onboard, who were passengers, and thinking the ship was ready tosail, unhappily came on board the evening before the hurricanebegan; and having no provisions of their own left, they were in amore deplorable condition than the rest: for the seamen beingreduced to such an extreme necessity themselves, had nocompassion, we may be sure, for the poor passengers; and theywere, indeed, in such a condition that their misery is very hardto describe.

I had perhaps not known this part, if my curiosity had not ledme, the weather being fair and the wind abated, to go on boardthe ship.  The second mate, who upon this occasion commandedthe ship, had been on board our ship, and he told me they hadthree passengers in the great cabin that were in a deplorablecondition.  “Nay,” says he, “I believethey are dead, for I have heard nothing of them for above twodays; and I was afraid to inquire after them,” said he,“for I had nothing to relieve them with.”  Weimmediately applied ourselves to give them what relief we couldspare; and indeed I had so far overruled things with my nephew,that I would have victualled them though we had gone away toVirginia, or any other part of the coast of America, to havesupplied ourselves; but there was no necessity for that.

But now they were in a new danger; for they were afraid ofeating too much, even of that little we gave them.  Themate, or commander, brought six men with him in his boat; butthese poor wretches looked like skeletons, and were so weak thatthey could hardly sit to their oars.  The mate himself wasvery ill, and half starved; for he declared he had reservednothing from the men, and went share and share alike with them inevery bit they ate.  I cautioned him to eat sparingly, andset meat before him immediately, but he had not eaten threemouthfuls before he began to be sick and out of order; so hestopped a while, and our surgeon mixed him up something with somebroth, which he said would be to him both food and physic; andafter he had taken it he grew better.  In the meantime Iforgot not the men.  I ordered victuals to be given them,and the poor creatures rather devoured than ate it: they were soexceedingly hungry that they were in a manner ravenous, and hadno command of themselves; and two of them ate with so muchgreediness that they were in danger of their lives the nextmorning.  The sight of these people’s distress wasvery moving to me, and brought to mind what I had a terribleprospect of at my first coming on shore in my island, where I hadnot the least mouthful of food, or any prospect of procuring any;besides the hourly apprehensions I had of being made the food ofother creatures.  But all the while the mate was thusrelating to me the miserable condition of the ship’scompany, I could not put out of my thought the story he had toldme of the three poor creatures in the great cabin, viz. themother, her son, and the maid-servant, whom he had heard nothingof for two or three days, and whom, he seemed to confess, theyhad wholly neglected, their own extremities being so great; bywhich I understood that they had really given them no food atall, and that therefore they must be perished, and be all lyingdead, perhaps, on the floor or deck of the cabin.

As I therefore kept the mate, whom we then called captain, onboard with his men, to refresh them, so I also forgot not thestarving crew that were left on board, but ordered my own boat togo on board the ship, and, with my mate and twelve men, to carrythem a sack of bread, and four or five pieces of beef toboil.  Our surgeon charged the men to cause the meat to beboiled while they stayed, and to keep guard in the cook-room, toprevent the men taking it to eat raw, or taking it out of the potbefore it was well boiled, and then to give every man but a verylittle at a time: and by this caution he preserved the men, whowould otherwise have killed themselves with that very food thatwas given them on purpose to save their lives.

At the same time I ordered the mate to go into the greatcabin, and see what condition the poor passengers were in; and ifthey were alive, to comfort them, and give them what refreshmentwas proper: and the surgeon gave him a large pitcher, with someof the prepared broth which he had given the mate that was onboard, and which he did not question would restore themgradually.  I was not satisfied with this; but, as I saidabove, having a great mind to see the scene of misery which Iknew the ship itself would present me with, in a more livelymanner than I could have it by report, I took the captain of theship, as we now called him, with me, and went myself, a littleafter, in their boat.

I found the poor men on board almost in a tumult to get thevictuals out of the boiler before it was ready; but my mateobserved his orders, and kept a good guard at the cook-room door,and the man he placed there, after using all possible persuasionto have patience, kept them off by force; however, he caused somebiscuit-cakes to be dipped in the pot, and softened with theliquor of the meat, which they called brewis, and gave them everyone some to stay their stomachs, and told them it was for theirown safety that he was obliged to give them but little at atime.  But it was all in vain; and had I not come on board,and their own commander and officers with me, and with goodwords, and some threats also of giving them no more, I believethey would have broken into the cook-room by force, and torn themeat out of the furnace—for words are indeed of very smallforce to a hungry belly; however, we pacified them, and fed themgradually and cautiously at first, and the next time gave themmore, and at last filled their bellies, and the men did wellenough.

But the misery of the poor passengers in the cabin was ofanother nature, and far beyond the rest; for as, first, theship’s company had so little for themselves, it was but tootrue that they had at first kept them very low, and at lasttotally neglected them: so that for six or seven days it might besaid they had really no food at all, and for several days beforevery little.  The poor mother, who, as the men reported, wasa woman of sense and good breeding, had spared all she could soaffectionately for her son, that at last she entirely sank underit; and when the mate of our ship went in, she sat upon the flooron deck, with her back up against the sides, between two chairs,which were lashed fast, and her head sunk between her shoulderslike a corpse, though not quite dead.  My mate said all hecould to revive and encourage her, and with a spoon put somebroth into her mouth.  She opened her lips, and lifted upone hand, but could not speak: yet she understood what he said,and made signs to him, intimating, that it was too late for her,but pointed to her child, as if she would have said they shouldtake care of him.  However, the mate, who was exceedinglymoved at the sight, endeavoured to get some of the broth into hermouth, and, as he said, got two or three spoonfulsdown—though I question whether he could be sure of it ornot; but it was too late, and she died the same night.

The youth, who was preserved at the price of his mostaffectionate mother’s life, was not so far gone; yet he layin a cabin bed, as one stretched out, with hardly any life leftin him.  He had a piece of an old glove in his mouth, havingeaten up the rest of it; however, being young, and having morestrength than his mother, the mate got something down his throat,and he began sensibly to revive; though by giving him, some timeafter, but two or three spoonfuls extraordinary, he was verysick, and brought it up again.

But the next care was the poor maid: she lay all along uponthe deck, hard by her mistress, and just like one that had fallendown in a fit of apoplexy, and struggled for life.  Herlimbs were distorted; one of her hands was clasped round theframe of the chair, and she gripped it so hard that we could noteasily make her let it go; her other arm lay over her head, andher feet lay both together, set fast against the frame of thecabin table: in short, she lay just like one in the agonies ofdeath, and yet she was alive too.  The poor creature was notonly starved with hunger, and terrified with the thoughts ofdeath, but, as the men told us afterwards, was broken-hearted forher mistress, whom she saw dying for two or three days before,and whom she loved most tenderly.  We knew not what to dowith this poor girl; for when our surgeon, who was a man of verygreat knowledge and experience, had, with great application,recovered her as to life, he had her upon his hands still; forshe was little less than distracted for a considerable timeafter.

Whoever shall read these memorandums must be desired toconsider that visits at sea are not like a journey into thecountry, where sometimes people stay a week or a fortnight at aplace.  Our business was to relieve this distressedship’s crew, but not lie by for them; and though they werewilling to steer the same course with us for some days, yet wecould carry no sail to keep pace with a ship that had nomasts.  However, as their captain begged of us to help himto set up a main-topmast, and a kind of a topmast to his juryfore-mast, we did, as it were, lie by him for three or four days;and then, having given him five barrels of beef, a barrel ofpork, two hogsheads of biscuit, and a proportion of peas, flour,and what other things we could spare; and taking three casks ofsugar, some rum, and some pieces of eight from them forsatisfaction, we left them, taking on board with us, at their ownearnest request, the youth and the maid, and all their goods.

The young lad was about seventeen years of age, a pretty,well-bred, modest, and sensible youth, greatly dejected with theloss of his mother, and also at having lost his father but a fewmonths before, at Barbadoes.  He begged of the surgeon tospeak to me to take him out of the ship; for he said the cruelfellows had murdered his mother: and indeed so they had, that isto say, passively; for they might have spared a small sustenanceto the poor helpless widow, though it had been but just enough tokeep her alive; but hunger knows no friend, no relation, nojustice, no right, and therefore is remorseless, and capable ofno compassion.

The surgeon told him how far we were going, and that it wouldcarry him away from all his friends, and put him, perhaps, in asbad circumstances almost as those we found him in, that is tosay, starving in the world.  He said it mattered not whitherhe went, if he was but delivered from the terrible crew that hewas among; that the captain (by which he meant me, for he couldknow nothing of my nephew) had saved his life, and he was surewould not hurt him; and as for the maid, he was sure, if she cameto herself, she would be very thankful for it, let us carry themwhere we would.  The surgeon represented the case soaffectionately to me that I yielded, and we took them both onboard, with all their goods, except eleven hogsheads of sugar,which could not be removed or come at; and as the youth had abill of lading for them, I made his commander sign a writing,obliging himself to go, as soon as he came to Bristol, to one Mr.Rogers, a merchant there, to whom the youth said he was related,and to deliver a letter which I wrote to him, and all the goodshe had belonging to the deceased widow; which, I suppose, was notdone, for I could never learn that the ship came to Bristol, butwas, as is most probable, lost at sea, being in so disabled acondition, and so far from any land, that I am of opinion thefirst storm she met with afterwards she might founder, for shewas leaky, and had damage in her hold when we met with her.

I was now in the latitude of 19 degrees 32 minutes, and hadhitherto a tolerable voyage as to weather, though at first thewinds had been contrary.  I shall trouble nobody with thelittle incidents of wind, weather, currents, &c., on the restof our voyage; but to shorten my story, shall observe that I cameto my old habitation, the island, on the 10th of April1695.  It was with no small difficulty that I found theplace; for as I came to it and went to it before on the south andeast side of the island, coming from the Brazils, so now, comingin between the main and the island, and having no chart for thecoast, nor any landmark, I did not know it when I saw it, or,know whether I saw it or not.  We beat about a great while,and went on shore on several islands in the mouth of the greatriver Orinoco, but none for my purpose; only this I learned by mycoasting the shore, that I was under one great mistake before,viz. that the continent which I thought I saw from the island Ilived in was really no continent, but a long island, or rather aridge of islands, reaching from one to the other side of theextended mouth of that great river; and that the savages who cameto my island were not properly those which we call Caribbees, butislanders, and other barbarians of the same kind, who inhabitednearer to our side than the rest.

In short, I visited several of these islands to no purpose;some I found were inhabited, and some were not; on one of them Ifound some Spaniards, and thought they had lived there; butspeaking with them, found they had a sloop lying in a small creekhard by, and came thither to make salt, and to catch somepearl-mussels if they could; but that they belonged to the Islede Trinidad, which lay farther north, in the latitude of 10 and11 degrees.

Thus coasting from one island to another, sometimes with theship, sometimes with the Frenchman’s shallop, which we hadfound a convenient boat, and therefore kept her with their verygood will, at length I came fair on the south side of my island,and presently knew the very countenance of the place: so Ibrought the ship safe to an anchor, broadside with the littlecreek where my old habitation was.  As soon as I saw theplace I called for Friday, and asked him if he knew where hewas?  He looked about a little, and presently clapping hishands, cried, “Oh yes, Oh there, Oh yes, Oh there!”pointing to our old habitation, and fell dancing and caperinglike a mad fellow; and I had much ado to keep him from jumpinginto the sea to swim ashore to the place.

“Well, Friday,” says I, “do you think weshall find anybody here or no? and do you think we shall see yourfather?”  The fellow stood mute as a stock a goodwhile; but when I named his father, the poor affectionatecreature looked dejected, and I could see the tears run down hisface very plentifully.  “What is the matter, Friday?are you troubled because you may see your father?” “No, no,” says he, shaking his head, “no seehim more: no, never more see him again.”  “Whyso, Friday? how do you know that?”  “Oh no, Ohno,” says Friday, “he long ago die, long ago; he muchold man.”  “Well, well, Friday, you don’tknow; but shall we see any one else, then?”  Thefellow, it seems, had better eyes than I, and he points to thehill just above my old house; and though we lay half a leagueoff, he cries out, “We see! we see! yes, we see much manthere, and there, and there.”  I looked, but I sawnobody, no, not with a perspective glass, which was, I suppose,because I could not hit the place: for the fellow was right, as Ifound upon inquiry the next day; and there were five or six menall together, who stood to look at the ship, not knowing what tothink of us.

As soon as Friday told me he saw people, I caused the Englishancient to be spread, and fired three guns, to give them noticewe were friends; and in about a quarter of an hour after weperceived a smoke arise from the side of the creek; so Iimmediately ordered the boat out, taking Friday with me, andhanging out a white flag, I went directly on shore, taking withme the young friar I mentioned, to whom I had told the story ofmy living there, and the manner of it, and every particular bothof myself and those I left there, and who was on that accountextremely desirous to go with me.  We had, besides, aboutsixteen men well armed, if we had found any new guests therewhich we did not know of; but we had no need of weapons.

As we went on shore upon the tide of flood, near high water,we rowed directly into the creek; and the first man I fixed myeye upon was the Spaniard whose life I had saved, and whom I knewby his face perfectly well: as to his habit, I shall describe itafterwards.  I ordered nobody to go on shore at first butmyself; but there was no keeping Friday in the boat, for theaffectionate creature had spied his father at a distance, a goodway off the Spaniards, where, indeed, I saw nothing of him; andif they had not let him go ashore, he would have jumped into thesea.  He was no sooner on shore, but he flew away to hisfather like an arrow out of a bow.  It would have made anyman shed tears, in spite of the firmest resolution, to have seenthe first transports of this poor fellow’s joy when he cameto his father: how he embraced him, kissed him, stroked his face,took him up in his arms, set him down upon a tree, and lay downby him; then stood and looked at him, as any one would look at astrange picture, for a quarter of an hour together; then lay downon the ground, and stroked his legs, and kissed them, and thengot up again and stared at him; one would have thought the fellowbewitched.  But it would have made a dog laugh the next dayto see how his passion ran out another way: in the morning hewalked along the shore with his father several hours, alwaysleading him by the hand, as if he had been a lady; and every nowand then he would come to the boat to fetch something or otherfor him, either a lump of sugar, a dram, a biscuit, or somethingor other that was good.  In the afternoon his frolics rananother way; for then he would set the old man down upon theground, and dance about him, and make a thousand antic gestures;and all the while he did this he would be talking to him, andtelling him one story or another of his travels, and of what hadhappened to him abroad to divert him.  In short, if the samefilial affection was to be found in Christians to their parentsin our part of the world, one would be tempted to say there wouldhardly have been any need of the fifth commandment.

But this is a digression: I return to my landing.  Itwould be needless to take notice of all the ceremonies andcivilities that the Spaniards received me with.  The firstSpaniard, whom, as I said, I knew very well, was he whose life Ihad saved.  He came towards the boat, attended by one more,carrying a flag of truce also; and he not only did not know me atfirst, but he had no thoughts, no notion of its being me that wascome, till I spoke to him.  “Seignior,” said I,in Portuguese, “do you not know me?”  At whichhe spoke not a word, but giving his musket to the man that waswith him, threw his arms abroad, saying something in Spanish thatI did not perfectly hear, came forward and embraced me, tellingme he was inexcusable not to know that face again that he hadonce seen, as of an angel from heaven sent to save his life; hesaid abundance of very handsome things, as a well-bred Spaniardalways knows how, and then, beckoning to the person that attendedhim, bade him go and call out his comrades.  He then askedme if I would walk to my old habitation, where he would give mepossession of my own house again, and where I should see they hadmade but mean improvements.  I walked along with him, but,alas! I could no more find the place than if I had never beenthere; for they had planted so many trees, and placed them insuch a position, so thick and close to one another, and in tenyears’ time they were grown so big, that the place wasinaccessible, except by such windings and blind ways as theythemselves only, who made them, could find.

I asked them what put them upon all these fortifications; hetold me I would say there was need enough of it when they hadgiven me an account how they had passed their time since theirarriving in the island, especially after they had the misfortuneto find that I was gone.  He told me he could not but havesome pleasure in my good fortune, when he heard that I was gonein a good ship, and to my satisfaction; and that he hadoftentimes a strong persuasion that one time or other he shouldsee me again, but nothing that ever befell him in his life, hesaid, was so surprising and afflicting to him at first as thedisappointment he was under when he came back to the island andfound I was not there.

As to the three barbarians (so he called them) that were leftbehind, and of whom, he said, he had a long story to tell me, theSpaniards all thought themselves much better among the savages,only that their number was so small: “And,” says he,“had they been strong enough, we had been all long ago inpurgatory;” and with that he crossed himself on thebreast.  “But, sir,” says he, “I hope youwill not be displeased when I shall tell you how, forced bynecessity, we were obliged for our own preservation to disarmthem, and make them our subjects, as they would not be contentwith being moderately our masters, but would be ourmurderers.”  I answered I was afraid of it when I leftthem there, and nothing troubled me at my parting from the islandbut that they were not come back, that I might have put them inpossession of everything first, and left the others in a state ofsubjection, as they deserved; but if they had reduced them to itI was very glad, and should be very far from finding any faultwith it; for I knew they were a parcel of refractory, ungovernedvillains, and were fit for any manner of mischief.

While I was saying this, the man came whom he had sent back,and with him eleven more.  In the dress they were in it wasimpossible to guess what nation they were of; but he made allclear, both to them and to me.  First, he turned to me, andpointing to them, said, “These, sir, are some of thegentlemen who owe their lives to you;” and then turning tothem, and pointing to me, he let them know who I was; upon whichthey all came up, one by one, not as if they had been sailors,and ordinary fellows, and the like, but really as if they hadbeen ambassadors or noblemen, and I a monarch or great conqueror:their behaviour was, to the last degree, obliging and courteous,and yet mixed with a manly, majestic gravity, which very wellbecame them; and, in short, they had so much more manners than I,that I scarce knew how to receive their civilities, much less howto return them in kind.

The history of their coming to, and conduct in, the islandafter my going away is so very remarkable, and has so manyincidents which the former part of my relation will help tounderstand, and which will in most of the particulars, refer tothe account I have already given, that I cannot but commit them,with great delight, to the reading of those that come afterme.

In order to do this as intelligibly as I can, I must go backto the circumstances in which I left the island, and the personson it, of whom I am to speak.  And first, it is necessary torepeat that I had sent away Friday’s father and theSpaniard (the two whose lives I had rescued from the savages) ina large canoe to the main, as I then thought it, to fetch overthe Spaniard’s companions that he left behind him, in orderto save them from the like calamity that he had been in, and inorder to succour them for the present; and that, if possible, wemight together find some way for our deliveranceafterwards.  When I sent them away I had no visibleappearance of, or the least room to hope for, my own deliverance,any more than I had twenty years before—much less had I anyforeknowledge of what afterwards happened, I mean, of an Englishship coming on shore there to fetch me off; and it could not bebut a very great surprise to them, when they came back, not onlyto find that I was gone, but to find three strangers left on thespot, possessed of all that I had left behind me, which wouldotherwise have been their own.

The first thing, however, which I inquired into, that I mightbegin where I left off, was of their own part; and I desired theSpaniard would give me a particular account of his voyage back tohis countrymen with the boat, when I sent him to fetch themover.  He told me there was little variety in that part, fornothing remarkable happened to them on the way, having had verycalm weather and a smooth sea.  As for his countrymen, itcould not be doubted, he said, but that they were overjoyed tosee him (it seems he was the principal man among them, thecaptain of the vessel they had been shipwrecked in having beendead some time): they were, he said, the more surprised to seehim, because they knew that he was fallen into the hands of thesavages, who, they were satisfied, would devour him as they didall the rest of their prisoners; that when he told them the storyof his deliverance, and in what manner he was furnished forcarrying them away, it was like a dream to them, and theirastonishment, he said, was somewhat like that of Joseph’sbrethren when he told them who he was, and the story of hisexaltation in Pharaoh’s court; but when he showed them thearms, the powder, the ball, the provisions that he brought themfor their journey or voyage, they were restored to themselves,took a just share of the joy of their deliverance, andimmediately prepared to come away with him.

Their first business was to get canoes; and in this they wereobliged not to stick so much upon the honesty of it, but totrespass upon their friendly savages, and to borrow two largecanoes, or periaguas, on pretence of going out a-fishing, or forpleasure.  In these they came away the next morning. It seems they wanted no time to get themselves ready; for theyhad neither clothes nor provisions, nor anything in the world butwhat they had on them, and a few roots to eat, of which they usedto make their bread.  They were in all three weeks absent;and in that time, unluckily for them, I had the occasion offeredfor my escape, as I mentioned in the other part, and to get offfrom the island, leaving three of the most impudent, hardened,ungoverned, disagreeable villains behind me that any man coulddesire to meet with—to the poor Spaniards’ greatgrief and disappointment.

The only just thing the rogues did was, that when theSpaniards came ashore, they gave my letter to them, and gave themprovisions, and other relief, as I had ordered them to do; alsothey gave them the long paper of directions which I had left withthem, containing the particular methods which I took for managingevery part of my life there; the way I baked my bread, bred uptame goats, and planted my corn; how I cured my grapes, made mypots, and, in a word, everything I did.  All this beingwritten down, they gave to the Spaniards (two of them understoodEnglish well enough): nor did they refuse to accommodate theSpaniards with anything else, for they agreed very well for sometime.  They gave them an equal admission into the house orcave, and they began to live very sociably; and the headSpaniard, who had seen pretty much of my methods, together withFriday’s father, managed all their affairs; but as for theEnglishmen, they did nothing but ramble about the island, shootparrots, and catch tortoises; and when they came home at night,the Spaniards provided their suppers for them.

The Spaniards would have been satisfied with this had theothers but let them alone, which, however, they could not find intheir hearts to do long: but, like the dog in the manger, theywould not eat themselves, neither would they let the otherseat.  The differences, nevertheless, were at first buttrivial, and such as are not worth relating, but at last it brokeout into open war: and it began with all the rudeness andinsolence that can be imagined—without reason, withoutprovocation, contrary to nature, and indeed to common sense; andthough, it is true, the first relation of it came from theSpaniards themselves, whom I may call the accusers, yet when Icame to examine the fellows they could not deny a word of it.

But before I come to the particulars of this part, I mustsupply a defect in my former relation; and this was, I forgot toset down among the rest, that just as we were weighing the anchorto set sail, there happened a little quarrel on board of ourship, which I was once afraid would have turned to a secondmutiny; nor was it appeased till the captain, rousing up hiscourage, and taking us all to his assistance, parted them byforce, and making two of the most refractory fellows prisoners,he laid them in irons: and as they had been active in the formerdisorders, and let fall some ugly, dangerous words the secondtime, he threatened to carry them in irons to England, and havethem hanged there for mutiny and running away with theship.  This, it seems, though the captain did not intend todo it, frightened some other men in the ship; and some of themhad put it into the head of the rest that the captain only gavethem good words for the present, till they should come to sameEnglish port, and that then they should be all put into gaol, andtried for their lives.  The mate got intelligence of this,and acquainted us with it, upon which it was desired that I, whostill passed for a great man among them, should go down with themate and satisfy the men, and tell them that they might beassured, if they behaved well the rest of the voyage, all theyhad done for the time past should be pardoned.  So I went,and after passing my honour’s word to them they appearedeasy, and the more so when I caused the two men that were inirons to be released and forgiven.

But this mutiny had brought us to an anchor for that night;the wind also falling calm next morning, we found that our twomen who had been laid in irons had stolen each of them a musketand some other weapons (what powder or shot they had we knewnot), and had taken the ship’s pinnace, which was not yethauled up, and run away with her to their companions in rogueryon shore.  As soon as we found this, I ordered the long-boaton shore, with twelve men and the mate, and away they went toseek the rogues; but they could neither find them nor any of therest, for they all fled into the woods when they saw the boatcoming on shore.  The mate was once resolved, in justice totheir roguery, to have destroyed their plantations, burned alltheir household stuff and furniture, and left them to shiftwithout it; but having no orders, he let it all alone, lefteverything as he found it, and bringing the pinnace way, came onboard without them.  These two men made their number five;but the other three villains were so much more wicked than they,that after they had been two or three days together they turnedthe two newcomers out of doors to shift for themselves, and wouldhave nothing to do with them; nor could they for a good while bepersuaded to give them any food: as for the Spaniards, they werenot yet come.

When the Spaniards came first on shore, the business began togo forward: the Spaniards would have persuaded the three Englishbrutes to have taken in their countrymen again, that, as theysaid, they might be all one family; but they would not hear ofit, so the two poor fellows lived by themselves; and findingnothing but industry and application would make them livecomfortably, they pitched their tents on the north shore of theisland, but a little more to the west, to be out of danger of thesavages, who always landed on the east parts of the island. Here they built them two huts, one to lodge in, and the other tolay up their magazines and stores in; and the Spaniards havinggiven them some corn for seed, and some of the peas which I hadleft them, they dug, planted, and enclosed, after the pattern Ihad set for them all, and began to live pretty well.  Theirfirst crop of corn was on the ground; and though it was but alittle bit of land which they had dug up at first, having had buta little time, yet it was enough to relieve them, and find themwith bread and other eatables; and one of the fellows being thecook’s mate of the ship, was very ready at making soup,puddings, and such other preparations as the rice and the milk,and such little flesh as they got, furnished him to do.

They were going on in this little thriving position when thethree unnatural rogues, their own countrymen too, in mere humour,and to insult them, came and bullied them, and told them theisland was theirs: that the governor, meaning me, had given themthe possession of it, and nobody else had any right to it; andthat they should build no houses upon their ground unless theywould pay rent for them.  The two men, thinking they werejesting at first, asked them to come in and sit down, and seewhat fine houses they were that they had built, and to tell themwhat rent they demanded; and one of them merrily said if theywere the ground-landlords, he hoped if they built tenements upontheir land, and made improvements, they would, according to thecustom of landlords, grant a long lease: and desired they wouldget a scrivener to draw the writings.  One of the three,cursing and raging, told them they should see they were not injest; and going to a little place at a distance, where the honestmen had made a fire to dress their victuals, he takes afirebrand, and claps it to the outside of their hut, and set iton fire: indeed, it would have been all burned down in a fewminutes if one of the two had not run to the fellow, thrust himaway, and trod the fire out with his feet, and that not withoutsome difficulty too.

The fellow was in such a rage at the honest man’sthrusting him away, that he returned upon him, with a pole he hadin his hand, and had not the man avoided the blow very nimbly,and run into the hut, he had ended his days at once.  Hiscomrade, seeing the danger they were both in, ran after him, andimmediately they came both out with their muskets, and the manthat was first struck at with the pole knocked the fellow downthat began the quarrel with the stock of his musket, and thatbefore the other two could come to help him; and then, seeing therest come at them, they stood together, and presenting the otherends of their pieces to them, bade them stand off.

The others had firearms with them too; but one of the twohonest men, bolder than his comrade, and made desperate by hisdanger, told them if they offered to move hand or foot they weredead men, and boldly commanded them to lay down their arms. They did not, indeed, lay down their arms, but seeing him soresolute, it brought them to a parley, and they consented to taketheir wounded man with them and be gone: and, indeed, it seemsthe fellow was wounded sufficiently with the blow.  However,they were much in the wrong, since they had the advantage, thatthey did not disarm them effectually, as they might have done,and have gone immediately to the Spaniards, and given them anaccount how the rogues had treated them; for the three villainsstudied nothing but revenge, and every day gave them someintimation that they did so.

CHAPTER III—FIGHT WITH CANNIBALS

But not to crowd this part with an account of the lesser partof the rogueries with which they plagued them continually, nightand day, it forced the two men to such a desperation that theyresolved to fight them all three, the first time they had a fairopportunity.  In order to do this they resolved to go to thecastle (as they called my old dwelling), where the three roguesand the Spaniards all lived together at that time, intending tohave a fair battle, and the Spaniards should stand by to see fairplay: so they got up in the morning before day, and came to theplace, and called the Englishmen by their names telling aSpaniard that answered that they wanted to speak with them.

It happened that the day before two of the Spaniards, havingbeen in the woods, had seen one of the two Englishmen, whom, fordistinction, I called the honest men, and he had made a sadcomplaint to the Spaniards of the barbarous usage they had metwith from their three countrymen, and how they had ruined theirplantation, and destroyed their corn, that they had laboured sohard to bring forward, and killed the milch-goat and their threekids, which was all they had provided for their sustenance, andthat if he and his friends, meaning the Spaniards, did not assistthem again, they should be starved.  When the Spaniards camehome at night, and they were all at supper, one of them took thefreedom to reprove the three Englishmen, though in very gentleand mannerly terms, and asked them how they could be so cruel,they being harmless, inoffensive fellows: that they were puttingthemselves in a way to subsist by their labour, and that it hadcost them a great deal of pains to bring things to suchperfection as they were then in.

One of the Englishmen returned very briskly, “What hadthey to do there? that they came on shore without leave; and thatthey should not plant or build upon the island; it was none oftheir ground.”  “Why,” says the Spaniard,very calmly, “Seignior Inglese, they must notstarve.”  The Englishman replied, like a roughtarpaulin, “They might starve; they should not plant norbuild in that place.”  “But what must they dothen, seignior?” said the Spaniard.  Another of thebrutes returned, “Do? they should be servants, and work forthem.”  “But how can you expect that ofthem?” says the Spaniard; “they are not bought withyour money; you have no right to make them servants.” The Englishman answered, “The island was theirs; thegovernor had given it to them, and no man had anything to dothere but themselves;” and with that he swore that he wouldgo and burn all their new huts; they should build none upon theirland.  “Why, seignior,” says the Spaniard,“by the same rule, we must be your servants,too.”  “Ay,” returned the bold dog,“and so you shall, too, before we have done withyou;” mixing two or three oaths in the proper intervals ofhis speech.  The Spaniard only smiled at that, and made himno answer.  However, this little discourse had heated them;and starting up, one says to the other.  (I think it was hethey called Will Atkins), “Come, Jack, let’s go andhave t’other brush with them; we’ll demolish theircastle, I’ll warrant you; they shall plant no colony in ourdominions.”

Upon this they were all trooping away, with every man a gun, apistol, and a sword, and muttered some insolent things amongthemselves of what they would do to the Spaniards, too, whenopportunity offered; but the Spaniards, it seems, did not soperfectly understand them as to know all the particulars, onlythat in general they threatened them hard for taking the twoEnglishmen’s part.  Whither they went, or how theybestowed their time that evening, the Spaniards said they did notknow; but it seems they wandered about the country part of thenight, and them lying down in the place which I used to call mybower, they were weary and overslept themselves.  The casewas this: they had resolved to stay till midnight, and so takethe two poor men when they were asleep, and as they acknowledgedafterwards, intended to set fire to their huts while they were inthem, and either burn them there or murder them as they cameout.  As malice seldom sleeps very sound, it was verystrange they should not have been kept awake.  However, asthe two men had also a design upon them, as I have said, though amuch fairer one than that of burning and murdering, it happened,and very luckily for them all, that they were up and gone abroadbefore the bloody-minded rogues came to their huts.

When they came there, and found the men gone, Atkins, who itseems was the forwardest man, called out to his comrade,“Ha, Jack, here’s the nest, but the birds areflown.”  They mused a while, to think what should bethe occasion of their being gone abroad so soon, and suggestedpresently that the Spaniards had given them notice of it; andwith that they shook hands, and swore to one another that theywould be revenged of the Spaniards.  As soon as they hadmade this bloody bargain they fell to work with the poormen’s habitation; they did not set fire, indeed, toanything, but they pulled down both their houses, and left notthe least stick standing, or scarce any sign on the ground wherethey stood; they tore all their household stuff in pieces, andthrew everything about in such a manner, that the poor menafterwards found some of their things a mile off.  When theyhad done this, they pulled up all the young trees which the poormen had planted; broke down an enclosure they had made to securetheir cattle and their corn; and, in a word, sacked and plunderedeverything as completely as a horde of Tartars would havedone.

The two men were at this juncture gone to find them out, andhad resolved to fight them wherever they had been, though theywere but two to three; so that, had they met, there certainlywould have been blood shed among them, for they were all verystout, resolute fellows, to give them their due.

But Providence took more care to keep them asunder than theythemselves could do to meet; for, as if they had dogged oneanother, when the three were gone thither, the two were here; andafterwards, when the two went back to find them, the three werecome to the old habitation again: we shall see their differentconduct presently.  When the three came back like furiouscreatures, flushed with the rage which the work they had beenabout had put them into, they came up to the Spaniards, and toldthem what they had done, by way of scoff and bravado; and one ofthem stepping up to one of the Spaniards, as if they had been acouple of boys at play, takes hold of his hat as it was upon hishead, and giving it a twirl about, fleering in his face, says tohim, “And you, Seignior Jack Spaniard, shall have the samesauce if you do not mend your manners.”  The Spaniard,who, though a quiet civil man, was as brave a man as could be,and withal a strong, well-made man, looked at him for a goodwhile, and then, having no weapon in his hand, stepped gravely upto him, and, with one blow of his fist, knocked him down, as anox is felled with a pole-axe; at which one of the rogues, asinsolent as the first, fired his pistol at the Spaniardimmediately; he missed his body, indeed, for the bullets wentthrough his hair, but one of them touched the tip of his ear, andhe bled pretty much.  The blood made the Spaniard believe hewas more hurt than he really was, and that put him into someheat, for before he acted all in a perfect calm; but nowresolving to go through with his work, he stooped, and taking thefellow’s musket whom he had knocked down, was just going toshoot the man who had fired at him, when the rest of theSpaniards, being in the cave, came out, and calling to him not toshoot, they stepped in, secured the other two, and took theirarms from them.

When they were thus disarmed, and found they had made all theSpaniards their enemies, as well as their own countrymen, theybegan to cool, and giving the Spaniards better words, would havetheir arms again; but the Spaniards, considering the feud thatwas between them and the other two Englishmen, and that it wouldbe the best method they could take to keep them from killing oneanother, told them they would do them no harm, and if they wouldlive peaceably, they would be very willing to assist andassociate with them as they did before; but that they could notthink of giving them their arms again, while they appeared soresolved to do mischief with them to their own countrymen, andhad even threatened them all to make them their servants.

The rogues were now quite deaf to all reason, and beingrefused their arms, they raved away like madmen, threatening whatthey would do, though they had no firearms.  But theSpaniards, despising their threatening, told them they shouldtake care how they offered any injury to their plantation orcattle; for if they did they would shoot them as they wouldravenous beasts, wherever they found them; and if they fell intotheir hands alive, they should certainly be hanged. However, this was far from cooling them, but away they went,raging and swearing like furies.  As soon as they were gone,the two men came back, in passion and rage enough also, though ofanother kind; for having been at their plantation, and finding itall demolished and destroyed, as above mentioned, it will easilybe supposed they had provocation enough.  They could scarcehave room to tell their tale, the Spaniards were so eager to tellthem theirs: and it was strange enough to find that three menshould thus bully nineteen, and receive no punishment at all.

The Spaniards, indeed, despised them, and especially, havingthus disarmed them, made light of their threatenings; but the twoEnglishmen resolved to have their remedy against them, what painssoever it cost to find them out.  But the Spaniardsinterposed here too, and told them that as they had disarmedthem, they could not consent that they (the two) should pursuethem with firearms, and perhaps kill them. “But,” said the grave Spaniard, who was theirgovernor, “we will endeavour to make them do you justice,if you will leave it to us: for there is no doubt but they willcome to us again, when their passion is over, being not able tosubsist without our assistance.  We promise you to make nopeace with them without having full satisfaction for you; andupon this condition we hope you will promise to use no violencewith them, other than in your own defence.”  The twoEnglishmen yielded to this very awkwardly, and with greatreluctance; but the Spaniards protested that they did it only tokeep them from bloodshed, and to make them all easy atlast.  “For,” said they, “we are not somany of us; here is room enough for us all, and it is a greatpity that we should not be all good friends.”  Atlength they did consent, and waited for the issue of the thing,living for some days with the Spaniards; for their own habitationwas destroyed.

In about five days’ time the vagrants, tired withwandering, and almost starved with hunger, having chiefly livedon turtles’ eggs all that while, came back to the grove;and finding my Spaniard, who, as I have said, was the governor,and two more with him, walking by the side of the creek, theycame up in a very submissive, humble manner, and begged to bereceived again into the society.  The Spaniards used themcivilly, but told them they had acted so unnaturally to theircountrymen, and so very grossly to themselves, that they couldnot come to any conclusion without consulting the two Englishmenand the rest; but, however, they would go to them and discourseabout it, and they should know in half-an-hour.  It may beguessed that they were very hard put to it; for, as they were towait this half-hour for an answer, they begged they would sendthem out some bread in the meantime, which they did, sending atthe same time a large piece of goat’s flesh and a boiledparrot, which they ate very eagerly.

After half-an-hour’s consultation they were called in,and a long debate ensued, their two countrymen charging them withthe ruin of all their labour, and a design to murder them; allwhich they owned before, and therefore could not deny now. Upon the whole, the Spaniards acted the moderators between them;and as they had obliged the two Englishmen not to hurt the threewhile they were naked and unarmed, so they now obliged the threeto go and rebuild their fellows’ two huts, one to be of thesame and the other of larger dimensions than they were before; tofence their ground again, plant trees in the room of those pulledup, dig up the land again for planting corn, and, in a word, torestore everything to the same state as they found it, that is,as near as they could.

Well, they submitted to all this; and as they had plenty ofprovisions given them all the while, they grew very orderly, andthe whole society began to live pleasantly and agreeably togetheragain; only that these three fellows could never be persuaded towork—I mean for themselves—except now and then alittle, just as they pleased.  However, the Spaniards toldthem plainly that if they would but live sociably and friendlytogether, and study the good of the whole plantation, they wouldbe content to work for them, and let them walk about and be asidle as they pleased; and thus, having lived pretty well togetherfor a month or two, the Spaniards let them have arms again, andgave them liberty to go abroad with them as before.

It was not above a week after they had these arms, and wentabroad, before the ungrateful creatures began to be as insolentand troublesome as ever.  However, an accident happenedpresently upon this, which endangered the safety of them all, andthey were obliged to lay by all private resentments, and look tothe preservation of their lives.

It happened one night that the governor, the Spaniard whoselife I had saved, who was now the governor of the rest, foundhimself very uneasy in the night, and could by no means get anysleep: he was perfectly well in body, only found his thoughtstumultuous; his mind ran upon men fighting and killing oneanother; but he was broad awake, and could not by any means getany sleep; in short, he lay a great while, but growing more andmore uneasy, he resolved to rise.  As they lay, being somany of them, on goat-skins laid thick upon such couches and padsas they made for themselves, so they had little to do, when theywere willing to rise, but to get upon their feet, and perhaps puton a coat, such as it was, and their pumps, and they were readyfor going any way that their thoughts guided them.  Beingthus got up, he looked out; but being dark, he could see littleor nothing, and besides, the trees which I had planted, and whichwere now grown tall, intercepted his sight, so that he could onlylook up, and see that it was a starlight night, and hearing nonoise, he returned and lay down again; but to no purpose; hecould not compose himself to anything like rest; but his thoughtswere to the last degree uneasy, and he knew not for what. Having made some noise with rising and walking about, going outand coming in, another of them waked, and asked who it was thatwas up.  The governor told him how it had been withhim.  “Say you so?” says the other Spaniard;“such things are not to be slighted, I assure you; there iscertainly some mischief working near us;” and presently heasked him, “Where are the Englishmen?” “They are all in their huts,” says he, “safeenough.”  It seems the Spaniards had kept possessionof the main apartment, and had made a place for the threeEnglishmen, who, since their last mutiny, were always quarteredby themselves, and could not come at the rest. “Well,” says the Spaniard, “there is somethingin it, I am persuaded, from my own experience.  I amsatisfied that our spirits embodied have a converse with andreceive intelligence from the spirits unembodied, and inhabitingthe invisible world; and this friendly notice is given for ouradvantage, if we knew how to make use of it.  Come, let usgo and look abroad; and if we find nothing at all in it tojustify the trouble, I’ll tell you a story to the purpose,that shall convince you of the justice of my proposingit.”

They went out presently to go up to the top of the hill, whereI used to go; but they being strong, and a good company, noralone, as I was, used none of my cautions to go up by the ladder,and pulling it up after them, to go up a second stage to the top,but were going round through the grove unwarily, when they weresurprised with seeing a light as of fire, a very little way fromthem, and hearing the voices of men, not of one or two, but of agreat number.

Among the precautions I used to take on the savages landing onthe island, it was my constant care to prevent them making theleast discovery of there being any inhabitant upon the place: andwhen by any occasion they came to know it, they felt it soeffectually that they that got away were scarce able to give anyaccount of it; for we disappeared as soon as possible, nor didever any that had seen me escape to tell any one else, except itwas the three savages in our last encounter who jumped into theboat; of whom, I mentioned, I was afraid they should go home andbring more help.  Whether it was the consequence of theescape of those men that so great a number came now together, orwhether they came ignorantly, and by accident, on their usualbloody errand, the Spaniards could not understand; but whateverit was, it was their business either to have concealed themselvesor not to have seen them at all, much less to have let thesavages have seen there were any inhabitants in the place; or tohave fallen upon them so effectually as not a man of them shouldhave escaped, which could only have been by getting in betweenthem and their boats; but this presence of mind was wanting tothem, which was the ruin of their tranquillity for a greatwhile.

We need not doubt but that the governor and the man with him,surprised with this sight, ran back immediately and raised theirfellows, giving them an account of the imminent danger they wereall in, and they again as readily took the alarm; but it wasimpossible to persuade them to stay close within where they were,but they must all run out to see how things stood.  While itwas dark, indeed, they were safe, and they had opportunity enoughfor some hours to view the savages by the light of three firesthey had made at a distance from one another; what they weredoing they knew not, neither did they know what to dothemselves.  For, first, the enemy were too many; andsecondly, they did not keep together, but were divided intoseveral parties, and were on shore in several places.

The Spaniards were in no small consternation at this sight;and, as they found that the fellows went straggling all over theshore, they made no doubt but, first or last, some of them wouldchop in upon their habitation, or upon some other place wherethey would see the token of inhabitants; and they were in greatperplexity also for fear of their flock of goats, which, if theyshould be destroyed, would have been little less than starvingthem.  So the first thing they resolved upon was to despatchthree men away before it was light, two Spaniards and oneEnglishman, to drive away all the goats to the great valley wherethe cave was, and, if need were, to drive them into the very caveitself.  Could they have seen the savages all together inone body, and at a distance from their canoes, they wereresolved, if there had been a hundred of them, to attack them;but that could not be done, for they were some of them two milesoff from the other, and, as it appeared afterwards, were of twodifferent nations.

After having mused a great while on the course they shouldtake, they resolved at last, while it was still dark, to send theold savage, Friday’s father, out as a spy, to learn, ifpossible, something concerning them, as what they came for, whatthey intended to do, and the like.  The old man readilyundertook it; and stripping himself quite naked, as most of thesavages were, away he went.  After he had been gone an houror two, he brings word that he had been among them undiscovered,that he found they were two parties, and of two several nations,who had war with one another, and had a great battle in their owncountry; and that both sides having had several prisoners takenin the fight, they were, by mere chance, landed all on the sameisland, for the devouring their prisoners and making merry; buttheir coming so by chance to the same place had spoiled all theirmirth—that they were in a great rage at one another, andwere so near that he believed they would fight again as soon asdaylight began to appear; but he did not perceive that they hadany notion of anybody being on the island but themselves. He had hardly made an end of telling his story, when they couldperceive, by the unusual noise they made, that the two littlearmies were engaged in a bloody fight.  Friday’sfather used all the arguments he could to persuade our people tolie close, and not be seen; he told them their safety consistedin it, and that they had nothing to do but lie still, and thesavages would kill one another to their hands, and then the restwould go away; and it was so to a tittle.  But it wasimpossible to prevail, especially upon the Englishmen; theircuriosity was so importunate that they must run out and see thebattle.  However, they used some caution too: they did notgo openly, just by their own dwelling, but went farther into thewoods, and placed themselves to advantage, where they mightsecurely see them manage the fight, and, as they thought, not beseen by them; but the savages did see them, as we shall findhereafter.

The battle was very fierce, and, if I might believe theEnglishmen, one of them said he could perceive that some of themwere men of great bravery, of invincible spirit, and of greatpolicy in guiding the fight.  The battle, they said, heldtwo hours before they could guess which party would be beaten;but then that party which was nearest our people’shabitation began to appear weakest, and after some time more someof them began to fly; and this put our men again into a greatconsternation, lest any one of those that fled should run intothe grove before their dwelling for shelter, and therebyinvoluntarily discover the place; and that, by consequence, thepursuers would also do the like in search of them.  Uponthis, they resolved that they would stand armed within the wall,and whoever came into the grove, they resolved to sally out overthe wall and kill them, so that, if possible, not one shouldreturn to give an account of it; they ordered also that it shouldbe done with their swords, or by knocking them down with thestocks of their muskets, but not by shooting them, for fear ofraising an alarm by the noise.

As they expected it fell out; three of the routed army fledfor life, and crossing the creek, ran directly into the place,not in the least knowing whither they went, but running as into athick wood for shelter.  The scout they kept to look abroadgave notice of this within, with this comforting addition, thatthe conquerors had not pursued them, or seen which way they weregone; upon this the Spanish governor, a man of humanity, wouldnot suffer them to kill the three fugitives, but sending threemen out by the top of the hill, ordered them to go round, come inbehind them, and surprise and take them prisoners, which wasdone.  The residue of the conquered people fled to theircanoes, and got off to sea; the victors retired, made no pursuit,or very little, but drawing themselves into a body together, gavetwo great screaming shouts, most likely by way of triumph, and sothe fight ended; the same day, about three o’clock in theafternoon, they also marched to their canoes.  And thus theSpaniards had the island again free to themselves, their frightwas over, and they saw no savages for several years after.

After they were all gone, the Spaniards came out of their den,and viewing the field of battle, they found about two-and-thirtymen dead on the spot; some were killed with long arrows, whichwere found sticking in their bodies; but most of them were killedwith great wooden swords, sixteen or seventeen of which theyfound in the field of battle, and as many bows, with a great manyarrows.  These swords were strange, unwieldy things, andthey must be very strong men that used them; most of those thatwere killed with them had their heads smashed to pieces, as wemay say, or, as we call it in English, their brains knocked out,and several their arms and legs broken; so that it is evidentthey fight with inexpressible rage and fury.  We found notone man that was not stone dead; for either they stay by theirenemy till they have killed him, or they carry all the woundedmen that are not quite dead away with them.

This deliverance tamed our ill-disposed Englishmen for a greatwhile; the sight had filled them with horror, and theconsequences appeared terrible to the last degree, especiallyupon supposing that some time or other they should fall into thehands of those creatures, who would not only kill them asenemies, but for food, as we kill our cattle; and they professedto me that the thoughts of being eaten up like beef and mutton,though it was supposed it was not to be till they were dead, hadsomething in it so horrible that it nauseated their verystomachs, made them sick when they thought of it, and filledtheir minds with such unusual terror, that they were notthemselves for some weeks after.  This, as I said, tamedeven the three English brutes I have been speaking of; and for agreat while after they were tractable, and went about the commonbusiness of the whole society well enough—planted, sowed,reaped, and began to be all naturalised to the country.  Butsome time after this they fell into such simple measures again asbrought them into a great deal of trouble.

They had taken three prisoners, as I observed; and these threebeing stout young fellows, they made them servants, and taughtthem to work for them, and as slaves they did well enough; butthey did not take their measures as I did by my man Friday, viz.to begin with them upon the principle of having saved theirlives, and then instruct them in the rational principles of life;much less did they think of teaching them religion, or attemptcivilising and reducing them by kind usage and affectionatearguments.  As they gave them their food every day, so theygave them their work too, and kept them fully employed indrudgery enough; but they failed in this by it, that they neverhad them to assist them and fight for them as I had my manFriday, who was as true to me as the very flesh upon mybones.

But to come to the family part.  Being all now goodfriends—for common danger, as I said above, had effectuallyreconciled them—they began to consider their generalcircumstances; and the first thing that came under considerationwas whether, seeing the savages particularly haunted that side ofthe island, and that there were more remote and retired parts ofit equally adapted to their way of living, and manifestly totheir advantage, they should not rather move their habitation,and plant in some more proper place for their safety, andespecially for the security of their cattle and corn.

Upon this, after long debate, it was concluded that they wouldnot remove their habitation; because that, some time or other,they thought they might hear from their governor again, meaningme; and if I should send any one to seek them, I should be sureto direct them to that side, where, if they should find the placedemolished, they would conclude the savages had killed us all,and we were gone, and so our supply would go too.  But as totheir corn and cattle, they agreed to remove them into the valleywhere my cave was, where the land was as proper for both, andwhere indeed there was land enough.  However, upon secondthoughts they altered one part of their resolution too, andresolved only to remove part of their cattle thither, and part oftheir corn there; so that if one part was destroyed the othermight be saved.  And one part of prudence they luckily used:they never trusted those three savages which they had takenprisoners with knowing anything of the plantation they had madein that valley, or of any cattle they had there, much less of thecave at that place, which they kept, in case of necessity, as asafe retreat; and thither they carried also the two barrels ofpowder which I had sent them at my coming away.  Theyresolved, however, not to change their habitation; yet, as I hadcarefully covered it first with a wall or fortification, and thenwith a grove of trees, and as they were now fully convinced theirsafety consisted entirely in their being concealed, they set towork to cover and conceal the place yet more effectually thanbefore.  For this purpose, as I planted trees, or ratherthrust in stakes, which in time all grew up to be trees, for somegood distance before the entrance into my apartments, they wenton in the same manner, and filled up the rest of that whole spaceof ground from the trees I had set quite down to the side of thecreek, where I landed my floats, and even into the very oozewhere the tide flowed, not so much as leaving any place to land,or any sign that there had been any landing thereabouts: thesestakes also being of a wood very forward to grow, they took careto have them generally much larger and taller than those which Ihad planted.  As they grew apace, they planted them so verythick and close together, that when they had been three or fouryears grown there was no piercing with the eye any considerableway into the plantation.  As for that part which I hadplanted, the trees were grown as thick as a man’s thigh,and among them they had placed so many other short ones, and sothick, that it stood like a palisado a quarter of a mile thick,and it was next to impossible to penetrate it, for a little dogcould hardly get between the trees, they stood so close.

But this was not all; for they did the same by all the groundto the right hand and to the left, and round even to the side ofthe hill, leaving no way, not so much as for themselves, to comeout but by the ladder placed up to the side of the hill, and thenlifted up, and placed again from the first stage up to the top:so that when the ladder was taken down, nothing but what hadwings or witchcraft to assist it could come at them.  Thiswas excellently well contrived: nor was it less than what theyafterwards found occasion for, which served to convince me, thatas human prudence has the authority of Providence to justify it,so it has doubtless the direction of Providence to set it towork; and if we listened carefully to the voice of it, I ampersuaded we might prevent many of the disasters which our livesare now, by our own negligence, subjected to.

They lived two years after this in perfect retirement, and hadno more visits from the savages.  They had, indeed, an alarmgiven them one morning, which put them into a greatconsternation; for some of the Spaniards being out early onemorning on the west side or end of the island (which was that endwhere I never went, for fear of being discovered), they weresurprised with seeing about twenty canoes of Indians just comingon shore.  They made the best of their way home in hurryenough; and giving the alarm to their comrades, they kept closeall that day and the next, going out only at night to make theirobservation: but they had the good luck to be undiscovered, forwherever the savages went, they did not land that time on theisland, but pursued some other design.

CHAPTER IV—RENEWED INVASION OF SAVAGES

And now they had another broil with the three Englishmen; oneof whom, a most turbulent fellow, being in a rage at one of thethree captive slaves, because the fellow had not done somethingright which he bade him do, and seemed a little untractable inhis showing him, drew a hatchet out of a frog-belt which he woreby his side, and fell upon the poor savage, not to correct him,but to kill him.  One of the Spaniards who was by, seeinghim give the fellow a barbarous cut with the hatchet, which heaimed at his head, but stuck into his shoulder, so that hethought he had cut the poor creature’s arm off, ran to him,and entreating him not to murder the poor man, placed himselfbetween him and the savage, to prevent the mischief.  Thefellow, being enraged the more at this, struck at the Spaniardwith his hatchet, and swore he would serve him as he intended toserve the savage; which the Spaniard perceiving, avoided theblow, and with a shovel, which he had in his hand (for they wereall working in the field about their corn land), knocked thebrute down.  Another of the Englishmen, running up at thesame time to help his comrade, knocked the Spaniard down; andthen two Spaniards more came in to help their man, and a thirdEnglishman fell in upon them.  They had none of them anyfirearms or any other weapons but hatchets and other tools,except this third Englishman; he had one of my rusty cutlasses,with which he made at the two last Spaniards, and wounded themboth.  This fray set the whole family in an uproar, and morehelp coming in they took the three Englishmen prisoners. The next question was, what should be done with them?  Theyhad been so often mutinous, and were so very furious, sodesperate, and so idle withal, they knew not what course to takewith them, for they were mischievous to the highest degree, andcared not what hurt they did to any man; so that, in short, itwas not safe to live with them.

The Spaniard who was governor told them, in so many words,that if they had been of his own country he would have hangedthem; for all laws and all governors were to preserve society,and those who were dangerous to the society ought to be expelledout of it; but as they were Englishmen, and that it was to thegenerous kindness of an Englishman that they all owed theirpreservation and deliverance, he would use them with all possiblelenity, and would leave them to the judgment of the other twoEnglishmen, who were their countrymen.  One of the twohonest Englishmen stood up, and said they desired it might not beleft to them.  “For,” says he, “I am surewe ought to sentence them to the gallows;” and with that hegives an account how Will Atkins, one of the three, had proposedto have all the five Englishmen join together and murder all theSpaniards when they were in their sleep.

When the Spanish governor heard this, he calls to Will Atkins,“How, Seignior Atkins, would you murder us all?  Whathave you to say to that?”  The hardened villain was sofar from denying it, that he said it was true, and swore theywould do it still before they had done with them. “Well, but Seignior Atkins,” says the Spaniard,“what have we done to you that you will kill us?  Whatwould you get by killing us?  And what must we do to preventyou killing us?  Must we kill you, or you kill us?  Whywill you put us to the necessity of this, Seignior Atkins?”says the Spaniard very calmly, and smiling.  Seignior Atkinswas in such a rage at the Spaniard’s making a jest of it,that, had he not been held by three men, and withal had no weaponnear him, it was thought he would have attempted to kill theSpaniard in the middle of all the company.  Thishare-brained carriage obliged them to consider seriously what wasto be done.  The two Englishmen and the Spaniard who savedthe poor savage were of the opinion that they should hang one ofthe three for an example to the rest, and that particularly itshould be he that had twice attempted to commit murder with hishatchet; indeed, there was some reason to believe he had done it,for the poor savage was in such a miserable condition with thewound he had received that it was thought he could notlive.  But the governor Spaniard still said No; it was anEnglishman that had saved all their lives, and he would neverconsent to put an Englishman to death, though he had murderedhalf of them; nay, he said if he had been killed himself by anEnglishman, and had time left to speak, it should be that theyshould pardon him.

This was so positively insisted on by the governor Spaniard,that there was no gainsaying it; and as merciful counsels aremost apt to prevail where they are so earnestly pressed, so theyall came into it.  But then it was to be considered whatshould be done to keep them from doing the mischief theydesigned; for all agreed, governor and all, that means were to beused for preserving the society from danger.  After a longdebate, it was agreed that they should be disarmed, and notpermitted to have either gun, powder, shot, sword, or any weapon;that they should be turned out of the society, and left to livewhere they would and how they would, by themselves; but that noneof the rest, either Spaniards or English, should hold any kind ofconverse with them, or have anything to do with them; that theyshould be forbid to come within a certain distance of the placewhere the rest dwelt; and if they offered to commit any disorder,so as to spoil, burn, kill, or destroy any of the corn,plantings, buildings, fences, or cattle belonging to the society,they should die without mercy, and they would shoot them whereverthey could find them.

The humane governor, musing upon the sentence, considered alittle upon it; and turning to the two honest Englishmen, said,“Hold; you must reflect that it will be long ere they canraise corn and cattle of their own, and they must not starve; wemust therefore allow them provisions.”  So he causedto be added, that they should have a proportion of corn giventhem to last them eight months, and for seed to sow, by whichtime they might be supposed to raise some of their own; that theyshould have six milch-goats, four he-goats, and six kids giventhem, as well for present subsistence as for a store; and thatthey should have tools given them for their work in the fields,but they should have none of these tools or provisions unlessthey would swear solemnly that they would not hurt or injure anyof the Spaniards with them, or of their fellow-Englishmen.

Thus they dismissed them the society, and turned them out toshift for themselves.  They went away sullen and refractory,as neither content to go away nor to stay: but, as there was noremedy, they went, pretending to go and choose a place where theywould settle themselves; and some provisions were given them, butno weapons.  About four or five days after, they came againfor some victuals, and gave the governor an account where theyhad pitched their tents, and marked themselves out a habitationand plantation; and it was a very convenient place indeed, on theremotest part of the island, NE., much about the place where Iprovidentially landed in my first voyage, when I was driven outto sea in my foolish attempt to sail round the island.

Here they built themselves two handsome huts, and contrivedthem in a manner like my first habitation, being close under theside of a hill, having some trees already growing on three sidesof it, so that by planting others it would be very easily coveredfrom the sight, unless narrowly searched for.  They desiredsome dried goat-skins for beds and covering, which were giventhem; and upon giving their words that they would not disturb therest, or injure any of their plantations, they gave themhatchets, and what other tools they could spare; some peas,barley, and rice, for sowing; and, in a word, anything theywanted, except arms and ammunition.

They lived in this separate condition about six months, andhad got in their first harvest, though the quantity was butsmall, the parcel of land they had planted being butlittle.  Indeed, having all their plantation to form, theyhad a great deal of work upon their hands; and when they came tomake boards and pots, and such things, they were quite out oftheir element, and could make nothing of it; therefore when therainy season came on, for want of a cave in the earth, they couldnot keep their grain dry, and it was in great danger ofspoiling.  This humbled them much: so they came and beggedthe Spaniards to help them, which they very readily did; and infour days worked a great hole in the side of the hill for them,big enough to secure their corn and other things from the rain:but it was a poor place at best compared to mine, and especiallyas mine was then, for the Spaniards had greatly enlarged it, andmade several new apartments in it.

About three quarters of a year after this separation, a newfrolic took these rogues, which, together with the formervillainy they had committed, brought mischief enough upon them,and had very near been the ruin of the whole colony.  Thethree new associates began, it seems, to be weary of thelaborious life they led, and that without hope of bettering theircircumstances: and a whim took them that they would make a voyageto the continent, from whence the savages came, and would try ifthey could seize upon some prisoners among the natives there, andbring them home, so as to make them do the laborious part of thework for them.

The project was not so preposterous, if they had gone nofurther.  But they did nothing, and proposed nothing, buthad either mischief in the design, or mischief in theevent.  And if I may give my opinion, they seemed to beunder a blast from Heaven: for if we will not allow a visiblecurse to pursue visible crimes, how shall we reconcile the eventsof things with the divine justice?  It was certainly anapparent vengeance on their crime of mutiny and piracy thatbrought them to the state they were in; and they showed not theleast remorse for the crime, but added new villanies to it, suchas the piece of monstrous cruelty of wounding a poor slavebecause he did not, or perhaps could not, understand to do whathe was directed, and to wound him in such a manner as made him acripple all his life, and in a place where no surgeon or medicinecould be had for his cure; and, what was still worse, theintentional murder, for such to be sure it was, as was afterwardsthe formed design they all laid to murder the Spaniards in coldblood, and in their sleep.

The three fellows came down to the Spaniards one morning, andin very humble terms desired to be admitted to speak withthem.  The Spaniards very readily heard what they had tosay, which was this: that they were tired of living in the mannerthey did, and that they were not handy enough to make thenecessaries they wanted, and that having no help, they found theyshould be starved; but if the Spaniards would give them leave totake one of the canoes which they came over in, and give themarms and ammunition proportioned to their defence, they would goover to the main, and seek their fortunes, and so deliver themfrom the trouble of supplying them with any other provisions.

The Spaniards were glad enough to get rid of them, but veryhonestly represented to them the certain destruction they wererunning into; told them they had suffered such hardships uponthat very spot, that they could, without any spirit of prophecy,tell them they would be starved or murdered, and bade themconsider of it.  The men replied audaciously, they should bestarved if they stayed here, for they could not work, and wouldnot work, and they could but be starved abroad; and if they weremurdered, there was an end of them; they had no wives or childrento cry after them; and, in short, insisted importunately upontheir demand, declaring they would go, whether they gave them anyarms or not.

The Spaniards told them, with great kindness, that if theywere resolved to go they should not go like naked men, and be inno condition to defend themselves; and that though they could illspare firearms, not having enough for themselves, yet they wouldlet them have two muskets, a pistol, and a cutlass, and each mana hatchet, which they thought was sufficient for them.  In aword, they accepted the offer; and having baked bread enough toserve them a month given them, and as much goats’ flesh asthey could eat while it was sweet, with a great basket of driedgrapes, a pot of fresh water, and a young kid alive, they boldlyset out in the canoe for a voyage over the sea, where it was atleast forty miles broad.  The boat, indeed, was a large one,and would very well have carried fifteen or twenty men, andtherefore was rather too big for them to manage; but as they hada fair breeze and flood-tide with them, they did wellenough.  They had made a mast of a long pole, and a sail offour large goat-skins dried, which they had sewed or lacedtogether; and away they went merrily together.  TheSpaniards called after them “Bon voyajo;” andno man ever thought of seeing them any more.

The Spaniards were often saying to one another, and to the twohonest Englishmen who remained behind, how quietly andcomfortably they lived, now these three turbulent fellows weregone.  As for their coming again, that was the remotestthing from their thoughts that could be imagined; when, behold,after two-and-twenty days’ absence, one of the Englishmenbeing abroad upon his planting work, sees three strange mencoming towards him at a distance, with guns upon theirshoulders.

Away runs the Englishman, frightened and amazed, as if he wasbewitched, to the governor Spaniard, and tells him they were allundone, for there were strangers upon the island, but he couldnot tell who they were.  The Spaniard, pausing a while, saysto him, “How do you mean—you cannot tell who? They are the savages, to be sure.”  “No,no,” says the Englishman, “they are men in clothes,with arms.”  “Nay, then,” says theSpaniard, “why are you so concerned!  If they are notsavages they must be friends; for there is no Christian nationupon earth but will do us good rather than harm.” While they were debating thus, came up the three Englishmen, andstanding without the wood, which was new planted, hallooed tothem.  They presently knew their voices, and so all thewonder ceased.  But now the admiration was turned uponanother question—What could be the matter, and what madethem come back again?

It was not long before they brought the men in, and inquiringwhere they had been, and what they had been doing, they gave thema full account of their voyage in a few words: that they reachedthe land in less than two days, but finding the people alarmed attheir coming, and preparing with bows and arrows to fight them,they durst not go on shore, but sailed on to the northward sixor seven hours, till they came to a great opening, by which theyperceived that the land they saw from our island was not themain, but an island: that upon entering that opening of the seathey saw another island on the right hand north, and several morewest; and being resolved to land somewhere, they put over to oneof the islands which lay west, and went boldly on shore; thatthey found the people very courteous and friendly to them; andthey gave them several roots and some dried fish, and appearedvery sociable; and that the women, as well as the men, were veryforward to supply them with anything they could get for them toeat, and brought it to them a great way, on their heads. They continued here for four days, and inquired as well as theycould of them by signs, what nations were this way, and that way,and were told of several fierce and terrible people that livedalmost every way, who, as they made known by signs to them, usedto eat men; but, as for themselves, they said they never ate menor women, except only such as they took in the wars; and thenthey owned they made a great feast, and ate their prisoners.

The Englishmen inquired when they had had a feast of thatkind; and they told them about two moons ago, pointing to themoon and to two fingers; and that their great king had twohundred prisoners now, which he had taken in his war, and theywere feeding them to make them fat for the next feast.  TheEnglishmen seemed mighty desirous of seeing those prisoners; butthe others mistaking them, thought they were desirous to havesome of them to carry away for their own eating.  So theybeckoned to them, pointing to the setting of the sun, and then tothe rising; which was to signify that the next morning atsunrising they would bring some for them; and accordingly thenext morning they brought down five women and eleven men, andgave them to the Englishmen to carry with them on their voyage,just as we would bring so many cows and oxen down to a seaporttown to victual a ship.

As brutish and barbarous as these fellows were at home, theirstomachs turned at this sight, and they did not know what todo.  To refuse the prisoners would have been the highestaffront to the savage gentry that could be offered them, and whatto do with them they knew not.  However, after some debate,they resolved to accept of them: and, in return, they gave thesavages that brought them one of their hatchets, an old key, aknife, and six or seven of their bullets; which, though they didnot understand their use, they seemed particularly pleased with;and then tying the poor creatures’ hands behind them, theydragged the prisoners into the boat for our men.

The Englishmen were obliged to come away as soon as they hadthem, or else they that gave them this noble present wouldcertainly have expected that they should have gone to work withthem, have killed two or three of them the next morning, andperhaps have invited the donors to dinner.  But having takentheir leave, with all the respect and thanks that could well passbetween people, where on either side they understood not one wordthey could say, they put off with their boat, and came backtowards the first island; where, when they arrived, they seteight of their prisoners at liberty, there being too many of themfor their occasion.  In their voyage they endeavoured tohave some communication with their prisoners; but it wasimpossible to make them understand anything.  Nothing theycould say to them, or give them, or do for them, but was lookedupon as going to murder them.  They first of all unboundthem; but the poor creatures screamed at that, especially thewomen, as if they had just felt the knife at their throats; forthey immediately concluded they were unbound on purpose to bekilled.  If they gave them thing to eat, it was the samething; they then concluded it was for fear they should sink inflesh, and so not be fat enough to kill.  If they looked atone of them more particularly, the party presently concluded itwas to see whether he or she was fattest, and fittest to killfirst; nay, after they had brought them quite over, and began touse them kindly, and treat them well, still they expected everyday to make a dinner or supper for their new masters.

When the three wanderers had give this unaccountable historyor journal of their voyage, the Spaniard asked them where theirnew family was; and being told that they had brought them onshore, and put them into one of their huts, and were come up tobeg some victuals for them, they (the Spaniards) and the othertwo Englishmen, that is to say, the whole colony, resolved to goall down to the place and see them; and did so, andFriday’s father with them.  When they came into thehut, there they sat, all bound; for when they had brought them onshore they bound their hands that they might not take the boatand make their escape; there, I say, they sat, all of them starknaked.  First, there were three comely fellows, well shaped,with straight limbs, about thirty to thirty-five years of age;and five women, whereof two might be from thirty to forty, twomore about four or five and twenty; and the fifth, a tall, comelymaiden, about seventeen.  The women were well-favoured,agreeable persons, both in shape and features, only tawny; andtwo of them, had they been perfect white, would have passed forvery handsome women, even in London, having pleasantcountenances, and of a very modest behaviour; especially whenthey came afterwards to be clothed and dressed, though that dresswas very indifferent, it must be confessed.

The sight, you may be sure, was something uncouth to ourSpaniards, who were, to give them a just character, men of themost calm, sedate tempers, and perfect good humour, that ever Imet with: and, in particular, of the utmost modesty: I say, thesight was very uncouth, to see three naked men and five nakedwomen, all together bound, and in the most miserablecircumstances that human nature could be supposed to be, viz. tobe expecting every moment to be dragged out and have their brainsknocked out, and then to be eaten up like a calf that is killedfor a dainty.

The first thing they did was to cause the old Indian,Friday’s father, to go in, and see first if he knew any ofthem, and then if he understood any of their speech.  Assoon as the old man came in, he looked seriously at them, butknew none of them; neither could any of them understand a word hesaid, or a sign he could make, except one of the women. However, this was enough to answer the end, which was to satisfythem that the men into whose hands they were fallen wereChristians; that they abhorred eating men or women; and that theymight be sure they would not be killed.  As soon as theywere assured of this, they discovered such a joy, and by suchawkward gestures, several ways, as is hard to describe; for itseems they were of several nations.  The woman who was theirinterpreter was bid, in the next place, to ask them if they werewilling to be servants, and to work for the men who had broughtthem away, to save their lives; at which they all fell a-dancing;and presently one fell to taking up this, and another that,anything that lay next, to carry on their shoulders, to intimatethey were willing to work.

The governor, who found that the having women among them wouldpresently be attended with some inconvenience, and might occasionsome strife, and perhaps blood, asked the three men what theyintended to do with these women, and how they intended to usethem, whether as servants or as wives?  One of theEnglishmen answered, very boldly and readily, that they would usethem as both; to which the governor said: “I am not goingto restrain you from it—you are your own masters as tothat; but this I think is but just, for avoiding disorders andquarrels among you, and I desire it of you for that reason only,viz. that you will all engage, that if any of you take any ofthese women as a wife, he shall take but one; and that havingtaken one, none else shall touch her; for though we cannot marryany one of you, yet it is but reasonable that, while you stayhere, the woman any of you takes shall be maintained by the manthat takes her, and should be his wife—I mean,” sayshe, “while he continues here, and that none else shall haveanything to do with her.”  All this appeared so just,that every one agreed to it without any difficulty.

Then the Englishmen asked the Spaniards if they designed totake any of them?  But every one of them answered“No.”  Some of them said they had wives inSpain, and the others did not like women that were notChristians; and all together declared that they would not touchone of them, which was an instance of such virtue as I have notmet with in all my travels.  On the other hand, the fiveEnglishmen took them every one a wife, that is to say, atemporary wife; and so they set up a new form of living; for theSpaniards and Friday’s father lived in my old habitation,which they had enlarged exceedingly within.  The threeservants which were taken in the last battle of the savages livedwith them; and these carried on the main part of the colony,supplied all the rest with food, and assisted them in anything asthey could, or as they found necessity required.

But the wonder of the story was, how five such refractory,ill-matched fellows should agree about these women, and that sometwo of them should not choose the same woman, especially seeingtwo or three of them were, without comparison, more agreeablethan the others; but they took a good way enough to preventquarrelling among themselves, for they set the five women bythemselves in one of their huts, and they went all into the otherhut, and drew lots among them who should choose first.

Him that drew to choose first went away by himself to the hutwhere the poor naked creatures were, and fetched out her hechose; and it was worth observing, that he that chose first tookher that was reckoned the homeliest and oldest of the five, whichmade mirth enough amongst the rest; and even the Spaniardslaughed at it; but the fellow considered better than any of them,that it was application and business they were to expectassistance in, as much as in anything else; and she proved thebest wife of all the parcel.

When the poor women saw themselves set in a row thus, andfetched out one by one, the terrors of their condition returnedupon them again, and they firmly believed they were now going tobe devoured.  Accordingly, when the English sailor came inand fetched out one of them, the rest set up a most lamentablecry, and hung about her, and took their leave of her with suchagonies and affection as would have grieved the hardest heart inthe world: nor was it possible for the Englishmen to satisfy themthat they were not to be immediately murdered, till they fetchedthe old man, Friday’s father, who immediately let them knowthat the five men, who were to fetch them out one by one, hadchosen them for their wives.  When they had done, and thefright the women were in was a little over, the men went to work,and the Spaniards came and helped them: and in a few hours theyhad built them every one a new hut or tent for their lodgingapart; for those they had already were crowded with their tools,household stuff, and provisions.  The three wicked ones hadpitched farthest off, and the two honest ones nearer, but both onthe north shore of the island, so that they continued separatedas before; and thus my island was peopled in three places, and,as I might say, three towns were begun to be built.

And here it is very well worth observing that, as it oftenhappens in the world (what the wise ends in God’sprovidence are, in such a disposition of things, I cannot say),the two honest fellows had the two worst wives; and the threereprobates, that were scarce worth hanging, that were fit fornothing, and neither seemed born to do themselves good nor anyone else, had three clever, careful, and ingenious wives; notthat the first two were bad wives as to their temper or humour,for all the five were most willing, quiet, passive, and subjectedcreatures, rather like slaves than wives; but my meaning is, theywere not alike capable, ingenious, or industrious, or alikecleanly and neat.  Another observation I must make, to thehonour of a diligent application on one hand, and to the disgraceof a slothful, negligent, idle temper on the other, that when Icame to the place, and viewed the several improvements,plantings, and management of the several little colonies, the twomen had so far out-gone the three, that there was nocomparison.  They had, indeed, both of them as much groundlaid out for corn as they wanted, and the reason was, because,according to my rule, nature dictated that it was to no purposeto sow more corn than they wanted; but the difference of thecultivation, of the planting, of the fences, and indeed, ofeverything else, was easy to be seen at first view.

The two men had innumerable young trees planted about theirhuts, so that, when you came to the place, nothing was to be seenbut a wood; and though they had twice had their plantationdemolished, once by their own countrymen, and once by the enemy,as shall be shown in its place, yet they had restored all again,and everything was thriving and flourishing about them; they hadgrapes planted in order, and managed like a vineyard, though theyhad themselves never seen anything of that kind; and by theirgood ordering their vines, their grapes were as good again as anyof the others.  They had also found themselves out a retreatin the thickest part of the woods, where, though there was not anatural cave, as I had found, yet they made one with incessantlabour of their hands, and where, when the mischief whichfollowed happened, they secured their wives and children so asthey could never be found; they having, by sticking innumerablestakes and poles of the wood which, as I said, grew so readily,made the grove impassable, except in some places, when theyclimbed up to get over the outside part, and then went on by waysof their own leaving.

As to the three reprobates, as I justly call them, though theywere much civilised by their settlement compared to what theywere before, and were not so quarrelsome, having not the sameopportunity; yet one of the certain companions of a profligatemind never left them, and that was their idleness.  It istrue, they planted corn and made fences; but Solomon’swords were never better verified than in them, “I went bythe vineyard of the slothful, and it was all overgrown withthorns”: for when the Spaniards came to view their cropthey could not see it in some places for weeds, the hedge hadseveral gaps in it, where the wild goats had got in and eaten upthe corn; perhaps here and there a dead bush was crammed in, tostop them out for the present, but it was only shutting thestable-door after the steed was stolen.  Whereas, when theylooked on the colony of the other two, there was the very face ofindustry and success upon all they did; there was not a weed tobe seen in all their corn, or a gap in any of their hedges; andthey, on the other hand, verified Solomon’s words inanother place, “that the diligent hand maketh rich”;for everything grew and thrived, and they had plenty within andwithout; they had more tame cattle than the others, more utensilsand necessaries within doors, and yet more pleasure and diversiontoo.

It is true, the wives of the three were very handy and cleanlywithin doors; and having learned the English ways of dressing,and cooking from one of the other Englishmen, who, as I said, wasa cook’s mate on board the ship, they dressed theirhusbands’ victuals very nicely and well; whereas the otherscould not be brought to understand it; but then the husband, who,as I say, had been cook’s mate, did it himself.  Butas for the husbands of the three wives, they loitered about,fetched turtles’ eggs, and caught fish and birds: in aword, anything but labour; and they fared accordingly.  Thediligent lived well and comfortably, and the slothful hard andbeggarly; and so, I believe, generally speaking, it is all overthe world.

But I now come to a scene different from all that had happenedbefore, either to them or to me; and the origin of the story wasthis: Early one morning there came on shore five or six canoes ofIndians or savages, call them which you please, and there is noroom to doubt they came upon the old errand of feeding upon theirslaves; but that part was now so familiar to the Spaniards, andto our men too, that they did not concern themselves about it, asI did: but having been made sensible, by their experience, thattheir only business was to lie concealed, and that if they werenot seen by any of the savages they would go off again quietly,when their business was done, having as yet not the least notionof there being any inhabitants in the island; I say, having beenmade sensible of this, they had nothing to do but to give noticeto all the three plantations to keep within doors, and not showthemselves, only placing a scout in a proper place, to givenotice when the boats went to sea again.

This was, without doubt, very right; but a disaster spoiledall these measures, and made it known among the savages thatthere were inhabitants there; which was, in the end, thedesolation of almost the whole colony.  After the canoeswith the savages were gone off, the Spaniards peeped abroadagain; and some of them had the curiosity to go to the placewhere they had been, to see what they had been doing.  Here,to their great surprise, they found three savages left behind,and lying fast asleep upon the ground.  It was supposed theyhad either been so gorged with their inhuman feast, that, likebeasts, they were fallen asleep, and would not stir when theothers went, or they had wandered into the woods, and did notcome back in time to be taken in.

The Spaniards were greatly surprised at this sight andperfectly at a loss what to do.  The Spaniard governor, asit happened, was with them, and his advice was asked, but heprofessed he knew not what to do.  As for slaves, they hadenough already; and as to killing them, there were none of theminclined to do that: the Spaniard governor told me they could notthink of shedding innocent blood; for as to them, the poorcreatures had done them no wrong, invaded none of their property,and they thought they had no just quarrel against them, to takeaway their lives.  And here I must, in justice to theseSpaniards, observe that, let the accounts of Spanish cruelty inMexico and Peru be what they will, I never met with seventeen menof any nation whatsoever, in any foreign country, who were souniversally modest, temperate, virtuous, so very good-humoured,and so courteous, as these Spaniards: and as to cruelty, they hadnothing of it in their very nature; no inhumanity, no barbarity,no outrageous passions; and yet all of them men of great courageand spirit.  Their temper and calmness had appeared in theirbearing the insufferable usage of the three Englishmen; and theirjustice and humanity appeared now in the case of the savagesabove.  After some consultation they resolved upon this;that they would lie still a while longer, till, if possible,these three men might be gone.  But then the governorrecollected that the three savages had no boat; and if they wereleft to rove about the island, they would certainly discover thatthere were inhabitants in it; and so they should be undone thatway.  Upon this, they went back again, and there lay thefellows fast asleep still, and so they resolved to awaken them,and take them prisoners; and they did so.  The poor fellowswere strangely frightened when they were seized upon and bound;and afraid, like the women, that they should be murdered andeaten: for it seems those people think all the world does as theydo, in eating men’s flesh; but they were soon made easy asto that, and away they carried them.

It was very happy for them that they did not carry them hometo the castle, I mean to my palace under the hill; but theycarried them first to the bower, where was the chief of theircountry work, such as the keeping the goats, the planting thecorn, &c.; and afterward they carried them to the habitationof the two Englishmen.  Here they were set to work, thoughit was not much they had for them to do; and whether it was bynegligence in guarding them, or that they thought the fellowscould not mend themselves, I know not, but one of them ran away,and, taking to the woods, they could never hear of him anymore.  They had good reason to believe he got home againsoon after in some other boats or canoes of savages who came onshore three or four weeks afterwards, and who, carrying on theirrevels as usual, went off in two days’ time.  Thisthought terrified them exceedingly; for they concluded, and thatnot without good cause indeed, that if this fellow came home safeamong his comrades, he would certainly give them an account thatthere were people in the island, and also how few and weak theywere; for this savage, as observed before, had never been told,and it was very happy he had not, how many there were or wherethey lived; nor had he ever seen or heard the fire of any oftheir guns, much less had they shown him any of their otherretired places; such as the cave in the valley, or the newretreat which the two Englishmen had made, and the like.

The first testimony they had that this fellow had givenintelligence of them was, that about two months after this sixcanoes of savages, with about seven, eight, or ten men in acanoe, came rowing along the north side of the island, where theynever used to come before, and landed, about an hour aftersunrise, at a convenient place, about a mile from the habitationof the two Englishmen, where this escaped man had beenkept.  As the chief Spaniard said, had they been all therethe damage would not have been so much, for not a man of themwould have escaped; but the case differed now very much, for twomen to fifty was too much odds.  The two men had thehappiness to discover them about a league off, so that it wasabove an hour before they landed; and as they landed a mile fromtheir huts, it was some time before they could come atthem.  Now, having great reason to believe that they werebetrayed, the first thing they did was to bind the two slaveswhich were left, and cause two of the three men whom they broughtwith the women (who, it seems, proved very faithful to them) tolead them, with their two wives, and whatever they could carryaway with them, to their retired places in the woods, which Ihave spoken of above, and there to bind the two fellows hand andfoot, till they heard farther.  In the next place, seeingthe savages were all come on shore, and that they had bent theircourse directly that way, they opened the fences where the milchcows were kept, and drove them all out; leaving their goats tostraggle in the woods, whither they pleased, that the savagesmight think they were all bred wild; but the rogue who came withthem was too cunning for that, and gave them an account of itall, for they went directly to the place.

When the two poor frightened men had secured their wives andgoods, they sent the other slave they had of the three who camewith the women, and who was at their place by accident, away tothe Spaniards with all speed, to give them the alarm, and desirespeedy help, and, in the meantime, they took their arms and whatammunition they had, and retreated towards the place in the woodwhere their wives were sent; keeping at a distance, yet so thatthey might see, if possible, which way the savages took. They had not gone far but that from a rising ground they couldsee the little army of their enemies come on directly to theirhabitation, and, in a moment more, could see all their huts andhousehold stuff flaming up together, to their great grief andmortification; for this was a great loss to them, irretrievable,indeed, for some time.  They kept their station for a while,till they found the savages, like wild beasts, spread themselvesall over the place, rummaging every way, and every place theycould think of, in search of prey; and in particular for thepeople, of whom now it plainly appeared they hadintelligence.

The two Englishmen seeing this, thinking themselves not securewhere they stood, because it was likely some of the wild peoplemight come that way, and they might come too many together,thought it proper to make another retreat about half a milefarther; believing, as it afterwards happened, that the furtherthey strolled, the fewer would be together.  Their next haltwas at the entrance into a very thick-grown part of the woods,and where an old trunk of a tree stood, which was hollow and verylarge; and in this tree they both took their standing, resolvingto see there what might offer.  They had not stood therelong before two of the savages appeared running directly thatway, as if they had already had notice where they stood, and werecoming up to attack them; and a little way farther they espiedthree more coming after them, and five more beyond them, allcoming the same way; besides which, they saw seven or eight moreat a distance, running another way; for in a word, they ran everyway, like sportsmen beating for their game.

The poor men were now in great perplexity whether they shouldstand and keep their posture or fly; but after a very shortdebate with themselves, they considered that if the savagesranged the country thus before help came, they might perhaps findtheir retreat in the woods, and then all would be lost; so theyresolved to stand them there, and if they were too many to dealwith, then they would get up to the top of the tree, from whencethey doubted not to defend themselves, fire excepted, as long astheir ammunition lasted, though all the savages that were landed,which was near fifty, were to attack them.

Having resolved upon this, they next considered whether theyshould fire at the first two, or wait for the three, and so takethe middle party, by which the two and the five that followedwould be separated; at length they resolved to let the first twopass by, unless they should spy them the tree, and come to attackthem.  The first two savages confirmed them also in thisresolution, by turning a little from them towards another part ofthe wood; but the three, and the five after them, came forwarddirectly to the tree, as if they had known the Englishmen werethere.  Seeing them come so straight towards them, theyresolved to take them in a line as they came: and as theyresolved to fire but one at a time, perhaps the first shot mighthit them all three; for which purpose the man who was to fire putthree or four small bullets into his piece; and having a fairloophole, as it were, from a broken hole in the tree, he took asure aim, without being seen, waiting till they were within aboutthirty yards of the tree, so that he could not miss.

While they were thus waiting, and the savages came on, theyplainly saw that one of the three was the runaway savage that hadescaped from them; and they both knew him distinctly, andresolved that, if possible, he should not escape, though theyshould both fire; so the other stood ready with his piece, thatif he did not drop at the first shot, he should be sure to have asecond.  But the first was too good a marksman to miss hisaim; for as the savages kept near one another, a little behind ina line, he fired, and hit two of them directly; the foremost waskilled outright, being shot in the head; the second, which wasthe runaway Indian, was shot through the body, and fell, but wasnot quite dead; and the third had a little scratch in theshoulder, perhaps by the same ball that went through the body ofthe second; and being dreadfully frightened, though not so muchhurt, sat down upon the ground, screaming and yelling in ahideous manner.

The five that were behind, more frightened with the noise thansensible of the danger, stood still at first; for the woods madethe sound a thousand times bigger than it really was, the echoesrattling from one side to another, and the fowls rising from allparts, screaming, and every sort making a different noise,according to their kind; just as it was when I fired the firstgun that perhaps was ever shot off in the island.

However, all being silent again, and they not knowing what thematter was, came on unconcerned, till they came to the placewhere their companions lay in a condition miserable enough. Here the poor ignorant creatures, not sensible that they werewithin reach of the same mischief, stood all together over thewounded man, talking, and, as may be supposed, inquiring of himhow he came to be hurt; and who, it is very rational to believe,told them that a flash of fire first, and immediately after thatthunder from their gods, had killed those two and woundedhim.  This, I say, is rational; for nothing is more certainthan that, as they saw no man near them, so they had never hearda gun in all their lives, nor so much as heard of a gun; neitherknew they anything of killing and wounding at a distance withfire and bullets: if they had, one might reasonably believe theywould not have stood so unconcerned to view the fate of theirfellows, without some apprehensions of their own.

Our two men, as they confessed to me, were grieved to beobliged to kill so many poor creatures, who had no notion oftheir danger; yet, having them all thus in their power, and thefirst having loaded his piece again, resolved to let fly bothtogether among them; and singling out, by agreement, which to aimat, they shot together, and killed, or very much wounded, four ofthem; the fifth, frightened even to death, though not hurt, fellwith the rest; so that our men, seeing them all fall together,thought they had killed them all.

The belief that the savages were all killed made our two mencome boldly out from the tree before they had charged their guns,which was a wrong step; and they were under some surprise whenthey came to the place, and found no less than four of themalive, and of them two very little hurt, and one not atall.  This obliged them to fall upon them with the stocks oftheir muskets; and first they made sure of the runaway savage,that had been the cause of all the mischief, and of another thatwas hurt in the knee, and put them out of their pain; then theman that was not hurt at all came and kneeled down to them, withhis two hands held up, and made piteous moans to them, bygestures and signs, for his life, but could not say one word tothem that they could understand.  However, they made signsto him to sit down at the foot of a tree hard by; and one of theEnglishmen, with a piece of rope-yarn, which he had by greatchance in his pocket, tied his two hands behind him, and therethey left him; and with what speed they could made after theother two, which were gone before, fearing they, or any more ofthem, should find way to their covered place in the woods, wheretheir wives, and the few goods they had left, lay.  Theycame once in sight of the two men, but it was at a greatdistance; however, they had the satisfaction to see them crossover a valley towards the sea, quite the contrary way from thatwhich led to their retreat, which they were afraid of; and beingsatisfied with that, they went back to the tree where they lefttheir prisoner, who, as they supposed, was delivered by hiscomrades, for he was gone, and the two pieces of rope-yarn withwhich they had bound him lay just at the foot of the tree.

They were now in as great concern as before, not knowing whatcourse to take, or how near the enemy might be, or in whatnumber; so they resolved to go away to the place where theirwives were, to see if all was well there, and to make themeasy.  These were in fright enough, to be sure; for thoughthe savages were their own countrymen, yet they were mostterribly afraid of them, and perhaps the more for the knowledgethey had of them.  When they came there, they found thesavages had been in the wood, and very near that place, but hadnot found it; for it was indeed inaccessible, from the treesstanding so thick, unless the persons seeking it had beendirected by those that knew it, which these did not: they found,therefore, everything very safe, only the women in a terriblefright.  While they were here they had the comfort to haveseven of the Spaniards come to their assistance; the other ten,with their servants, and Friday’s father, were gone in abody to defend their bower, and the corn and cattle that werekept there, in case the savages should have roved over to thatside of the country, but they did not spread so far.  Withthe seven Spaniards came one of the three savages, who, as Isaid, were their prisoners formerly; and with them also came thesavage whom the Englishmen had left bound hand and foot at thetree; for it seems they came that way, saw the slaughter of theseven men, and unbound the eighth, and brought him along withthem; where, however, they were obliged to bind again, as theyhad the two others who were left when the third ran away.

The prisoners now began to be a burden to them; and they wereso afraid of their escaping, that they were once resolving tokill them all, believing they were under an absolute necessity todo so for their own preservation.  However, the chief of theSpaniards would not consent to it, but ordered, for the present,that they should be sent out of the way to my old cave in thevalley, and be kept there, with two Spaniards to guard them, andhave food for their subsistence, which was done; and they werebound there hand and foot for that night.

When the Spaniards came, the two Englishmen were soencouraged, that they could not satisfy themselves to stay anylonger there; but taking five of the Spaniards, and themselves,with four muskets and a pistol among them, and two stoutquarter-staves, away they went in quest of the savages.  Andfirst they came to the tree where the men lay that had beenkilled; but it was easy to see that some more of the savages hadbeen there, for they had attempted to carry their dead men away,and had dragged two of them a good way, but had given itover.  From thence they advanced to the first rising ground,where they had stood and seen their camp destroyed, and wherethey had the mortification still to see some of the smoke; butneither could they here see any of the savages.  They thenresolved, though with all possible caution, to go forward towardstheir ruined plantation; but, a little before they came thither,coming in sight of the sea-shore, they saw plainly the savagesall embarked again in their canoes, in order to be gone. They seemed sorry at first that there was no way to come at them,to give them a parting blow; but, upon the whole, they were verywell satisfied to be rid of them.

The poor Englishmen being now twice ruined, and all theirimprovements destroyed, the rest all agreed to come and help themto rebuild, and assist them with needful supplies.  Theirthree countrymen, who were not yet noted for having the leastinclination to do any good, yet as soon as they heard of it (forthey, living remote eastward, knew nothing of the matter till allwas over), came and offered their help and assistance, and did,very friendly, work for several days to restore their habitationand make necessaries for them.  And thus in a little timethey were set upon their legs again.

About two days after this they had the farther satisfaction ofseeing three of the savages’ canoes come driving on shore,and, at some distance from them, two drowned men, by which theyhad reason to believe that they had met with a storm at sea,which had overset some of them; for it had blown very hard thenight after they went off.  However, as some might miscarry,so, on the other hand, enough of them escaped to inform the rest,as well of what they had done as of what had happened to them;and to whet them on to another enterprise of the same nature,which they, it seems, resolved to attempt, with sufficient forceto carry all before them; for except what the first man had toldthem of inhabitants, they could say little of it of their ownknowledge, for they never saw one man; and the fellow beingkilled that had affirmed it, they had no other witness to confirmit to, them.

CHAPTER V—A GREAT VICTORY

It was five or six months after this before they heard anymore of the savages, in which time our men were in hopes they hadeither forgot their former bad luck, or given over hopes ofbetter; when, on a sudden, they were invaded with a mostformidable fleet of no less than eight-and-twenty canoes, full ofsavages, armed with bows and arrows, great clubs, wooden swords,and such like engines of war; and they brought such numbers withthem, that, in short, it put all our people into the utmostconsternation.

As they came on shore in the evening, and at the easternmostside of the island, our men had that night to consult andconsider what to do.  In the first place, knowing that theirbeing entirely concealed was their only safety before and wouldbe much more so now, while the number of their enemies would beso great, they resolved, first of all, to take down the hutswhich were built for the two Englishmen, and drive away theirgoats to the old cave; because they supposed the savages would godirectly thither, as soon as it was day, to play the old gameover again, though they did not now land within two leagues ofit.  In the next place, they drove away all the flocks ofgoats they had at the old bower, as I called it, which belongedto the Spaniards; and, in short, left as little appearance ofinhabitants anywhere as was possible; and the next morning earlythey posted themselves, with all their force, at the plantationof the two men, to wait for their coming.  As they guessed,so it happened: these new invaders, leaving their canoes at theeast end of the island, came ranging along the shore, directlytowards the place, to the number of two hundred and fifty, asnear as our men could judge.  Our army was but small indeed;but, that which was worse, they had not arms for all theirnumber.  The whole account, it seems, stood thus: first, asto men, seventeen Spaniards, five Englishmen, old Friday, thethree slaves taken with the women, who proved very faithful, andthree other slaves, who lived with the Spaniards.  To armthese, they had eleven muskets, five pistols, threefowling-pieces, five muskets or fowling-pieces which were takenby me from the mutinous seamen whom I reduced, two swords, andthree old halberds.

To their slaves they did not give either musket or fusee; butthey had each a halberd, or a long staff, like a quarter-staff,with a great spike of iron fastened into each end of it, and byhis side a hatchet; also every one of our men had ahatchet.  Two of the women could not be prevailed upon butthey would come into the fight, and they had bows and arrows,which the Spaniards had taken from the savages when the firstaction happened, which I have spoken of, where the Indians foughtwith one another; and the women had hatchets too.

The chief Spaniard, whom I described so often, commanded thewhole; and Will Atkins, who, though a dreadful fellow forwickedness, was a most daring, bold fellow, commanded underhim.  The savages came forward like lions; and our men,which was the worst of their fate, had no advantage in theirsituation; only that Will Atkins, who now proved a most usefulfellow, with six men, was planted just behind a small thicket ofbushes as an advanced guard, with orders to let the first of thempass by and then fire into the middle of them, and as soon as hehad fired, to make his retreat as nimbly as he could round a partof the wood, and so come in behind the Spaniards, where theystood, having a thicket of trees before them.

When the savages came on, they ran straggling about every wayin heaps, out of all manner of order, and Will Atkins let aboutfifty of them pass by him; then seeing the rest come in a verythick throng, he orders three of his men to fire, having loadedtheir muskets with six or seven bullets apiece, about as big aslarge pistol-bullets.  How many they killed or wounded theyknew not, but the consternation and surprise was inexpressibleamong the savages; they were frightened to the last degree tohear such a dreadful noise, and see their men killed, and othershurt, but see nobody that did it; when, in the middle of theirfright, Will Atkins and his other three let fly again among thethickest of them; and in less than a minute the first three,being loaded again, gave them a third volley.

Had Will Atkins and his men retired immediately, as soon asthey had fired, as they were ordered to do, or had the rest ofthe body been at hand to have poured in their shot continually,the savages had been effectually routed; for the terror that wasamong them came principally from this, that they were killed bythe gods with thunder and lightning, and could see nobody thathurt them.  But Will Atkins, staying to load again,discovered the cheat: some of the savages who were at a distancespying them, came upon them behind; and though Atkins and his menfired at them also, two or three times, and killed above twenty,retiring as fast as they could, yet they wounded Atkins himself,and killed one of his fellow-Englishmen with their arrows, asthey did afterwards one Spaniard, and one of the Indian slaveswho came with the women.  This slave was a most gallantfellow, and fought most desperately, killing five of them withhis own hand, having no weapon but one of the armed staves and ahatchet.

Our men being thus hard laid at, Atkins wounded, and two othermen killed, retreated to a rising ground in the wood; and theSpaniards, after firing three volleys upon them, retreated also;for their number was so great, and they were so desperate, thatthough above fifty of them were killed, and more than as manywounded, yet they came on in the teeth of our men, fearless ofdanger, and shot their arrows like a cloud; and it was observedthat their wounded men, who were not quite disabled, were madeoutrageous by their wounds, and fought like madmen.

When our men retreated, they left the Spaniard and theEnglishman that were killed behind them: and the savages, whenthey came up to them, killed them over again in a wretchedmanner, breaking their arms, legs, and heads, with their clubsand wooden swords, like true savages; but finding our men weregone, they did not seem inclined to pursue them, but drewthemselves up in a ring, which is, it seems, their custom, andshouted twice, in token of their victory; after which, they hadthe mortification to see several of their wounded men fall, dyingwith the mere loss of blood.

The Spaniard governor having drawn his little body up togetherupon a rising ground, Atkins, though he was wounded, would havehad them march and charge again all together at once: but theSpaniard replied, “Seignior Atkins, you see how theirwounded men fight; let them alone till morning; all the woundedmen will be stiff and sore with their wounds, and faint with theloss of blood; and so we shall have the fewer toengage.”  This advice was good: but Will Atkinsreplied merrily, “That is true, seignior, and so shall Itoo; and that is the reason I would go on while I amwarm.”  “Well, Seignior Atkins,” says theSpaniard, “you have behaved gallantly, and done your part;we will fight for you if you cannot come on; but I think it bestto stay till morning:” so they waited.

But as it was a clear moonlight night, and they found thesavages in great disorder about their dead and wounded men, and agreat noise and hurry among them where they lay, they afterwardsresolved to fall upon them in the night, especially if they couldcome to give them but one volley before they were discovered,which they had a fair opportunity to do; for one of theEnglishmen in whose quarter it was where the fight began, ledthem round between the woods and the seaside westward, and thenturning short south, they came so near where the thickest of themlay, that before they were seen or heard eight of them fired inamong them, and did dreadful execution upon them; in half aminute more eight others fired after them, pouring in their smallshot in such a quantity that abundance were killed and wounded;and all this while they were not able to see who hurt them, orwhich way to fly.

The Spaniards charged again with the utmost expedition, andthen divided themselves into three bodies, and resolved to fallin among them all together.  They had in each body eightpersons, that is to say, twenty-two men and the two women, who,by the way, fought desperately.  They divided the firearmsequally in each party, as well as the halberds and staves. They would have had the women kept back, but they said they wereresolved to die with their husbands.  Having thus formedtheir little army, they marched out from among the trees, andcame up to the teeth of the enemy, shouting and hallooing as loudas they could; the savages stood all together, but were in theutmost confusion, hearing the noise of our men shouting fromthree quarters together.  They would have fought if they hadseen us; for as soon as we came near enough to be seen, somearrows were shot, and poor old Friday was wounded, though notdangerously.  But our men gave them no time, but running upto them, fired among them three ways, and then fell in with thebutt-ends of their muskets, their swords, armed staves, andhatchets, and laid about them so well that, in a word, they setup a dismal screaming and howling, flying to save their liveswhich way soever they could.

Our men were tired with the execution, and killed or mortallywounded in the two fights about one hundred and eighty of them;the rest, being frightened out of their wits, scoured through thewoods and over the hills, with all the speed that fear and nimblefeet could help them to; and as we did not trouble ourselves muchto pursue them, they got all together to the seaside, where theylanded, and where their canoes lay.  But their disaster wasnot at an end yet; for it blew a terrible storm of wind thatevening from the sea, so that it was impossible for them to gooff; nay, the storm continuing all night, when the tide came uptheir canoes were most of them driven by the surge of the sea sohigh upon the shore that it required infinite toil to get themoff; and some of them were even dashed to pieces against thebeach.  Our men, though glad of their victory, yet gotlittle rest that night; but having refreshed themselves as wellas they could, they resolved to march to that part of the islandwhere the savages were fled, and see what posture they werein.  This necessarily led them over the place where thefight had been, and where they found several of the poorcreatures not quite dead, and yet past recovering life; a sightdisagreeable enough to generous minds, for a truly great manthough obliged by the law of battle to destroy his enemy, takesno delight in his misery.  However, there was no need togive any orders in this case; for their own savages, who weretheir servants, despatched these poor creatures with theirhatchets.

At length they came in view of the place where the moremiserable remains of the savages’ army lay, where thereappeared about a hundred still; their posture was generallysitting upon the ground, with their knees up towards their mouth,and the head put between the two hands, leaning down upon theknees.  When our men came within two musket-shots of them,the Spaniard governor ordered two muskets to be fired withoutball, to alarm them; this he did, that by their countenance hemight know what to expect, whether they were still in heart tofight, or were so heartily beaten as to be discouraged, and so hemight manage accordingly.  This stratagem took: for as soonas the savages heard the first gun, and saw the flash of thesecond, they started up upon their feet in the greatestconsternation imaginable; and as our men advanced swiftly towardsthem, they all ran screaming and yelling away, with a kind ofhowling noise, which our men did not understand, and had neverheard before; and thus they ran up the hills into thecountry.

At first our men had much rather the weather had been calm,and they had all gone away to sea: but they did not then considerthat this might probably have been the occasion of their comingagain in such multitudes as not to be resisted, or, at least, tocome so many and so often as would quite desolate the island, andstarve them.  Will Atkins, therefore, who notwithstandinghis wound kept always with them, proved the best counsellor inthis case: his advice was, to take the advantage that offered,and step in between them and their boats, and so deprive them ofthe capacity of ever returning any more to plague theisland.  They consulted long about this; and some wereagainst it for fear of making the wretches fly to the woods andlive there desperate, and so they should have them to hunt likewild beasts, be afraid to stir out about their business, and havetheir plantations continually rifled, all their tame goatsdestroyed, and, in short, be reduced to a life of continualdistress.

Will Atkins told them they had better have to do with ahundred men than with a hundred nations; that, as they mustdestroy their boats, so they must destroy the men, or be all ofthem destroyed themselves.  In a word, he showed them thenecessity of it so plainly that they all came into it; so theywent to work immediately with the boats, and getting some drywood together from a dead tree, they tried to set some of them onfire, but they were so wet that they would not burn; however, thefire so burned the upper part that it soon made them unfit foruse at sea.

When the Indians saw what they were about, some of them camerunning out of the woods, and coming as near as they could to ourmen, kneeled down and cried, “Oa, Oa, Waramokoa,” andsome other words of their language, which none of the othersunderstood anything of; but as they made pitiful gestures andstrange noises, it was easy to understand they begged to havetheir boats spared, and that they would be gone, and never comethere again.  But our men were now satisfied that they hadno way to preserve themselves, or to save their colony, buteffectually to prevent any of these people from ever going homeagain; depending upon this, that if even so much as one of themgot back into their country to tell the story, the colony wasundone; so that, letting them know that they should not have anymercy, they fell to work with their canoes, and destroyed everyone that the storm had not destroyed before; at the sight ofwhich, the savages raised a hideous cry in the woods, which ourpeople heard plain enough, after which they ran about the islandlike distracted men, so that, in a word, our men did not reallyknow what at first to do with them.  Nor did the Spaniards,with all their prudence, consider that while they made thosepeople thus desperate, they ought to have kept a good guard atthe same time upon their plantations; for though it is true theyhad driven away their cattle, and the Indians did not find outtheir main retreat, I mean my old castle at the hill, nor thecave in the valley, yet they found out my plantation at thebower, and pulled it all to pieces, and all the fences andplanting about it; trod all the corn under foot, tore up thevines and grapes, being just then almost ripe, and did our meninestimable damage, though to themselves not one farthing’sworth of service.

Though our men were able to fight them upon all occasions, yetthey were in no condition to pursue them, or hunt them up anddown; for as they were too nimble of foot for our people whenthey found them single, so our men durst not go abroad single,for fear of being surrounded with their numbers.  The bestwas they had no weapons; for though they had bows, they had noarrows left, nor any materials to make any; nor had they anyedge-tool among them.  The extremity and distress they werereduced to was great, and indeed deplorable; but, at the sametime, our men were also brought to very bad circumstances bythem, for though their retreats were preserved, yet theirprovision was destroyed, and their harvest spoiled, and what todo, or which way to turn themselves, they knew not.  Theonly refuge they had now was the stock of cattle they had in thevalley by the cave, and some little corn which grew there, andthe plantation of the three Englishmen.  Will Atkins and hiscomrades were now reduced to two; one of them being killed by anarrow, which struck him on the side of his head, just under thetemple, so that he never spoke more; and it was very remarkablethat this was the same barbarous fellow that cut the poor savageslave with his hatchet, and who afterwards intended to havemurdered the Spaniards.

I looked upon their case to have been worse at this time thanmine was at any time, after I first discovered the grains ofbarley and rice, and got into the manner of planting and raisingmy corn, and my tame cattle; for now they had, as I may say, ahundred wolves upon the island, which would devour everythingthey could come at, yet could be hardly come at themselves.

When they saw what their circumstances were, the first thingthey concluded was, that they would, if possible, drive thesavages up to the farther part of the island, south-west, that ifany more came on shore they might not find one another; then,that they would daily hunt and harass them, and kill as many ofthem as they could come at, till they had reduced their number;and if they could at last tame them, and bring them to anything,they would give them corn, and teach them how to plant, and liveupon their daily labour.  In order to do this, they sofollowed them, and so terrified them with their guns, that in afew days, if any of them fired a gun at an Indian, if he did nothit him, yet he would fall down for fear.  So dreadfullyfrightened were they that they kept out of sight farther andfarther; till at last our men followed them, and almost every daykilling or wounding some of them, they kept up in the woods orhollow places so much, that it reduced them to the utmost miseryfor want of food; and many were afterwards found dead in thewoods, without any hurt, absolutely starved to death.

When our men found this, it made their hearts relent, and pitymoved them, especially the generous-minded Spaniard governor; andhe proposed, if possible, to take one of them alive and bring himto understand what they meant, so far as to be able to act asinterpreter, and go among them and see if they might be broughtto some conditions that might be depended upon, to save theirlives and do us no harm.

It was some while before any of them could be taken; but beingweak and half-starved, one of them was at last surprised and madea prisoner.  He was sullen at first, and would neither eatnor drink; but finding himself kindly used, and victuals given tohim, and no violence offered him, he at last grew tractable, andcame to himself.  They often brought old Friday to talk tohim, who always told him how kind the others would be to themall; that they would not only save their lives, but give thempart of the island to live in, provided they would givesatisfaction that they would keep in their own bounds, and notcome beyond it to injure or prejudice others; and that theyshould have corn given them to plant and make it grow for theirbread, and some bread given them for their present subsistence;and old Friday bade the fellow go and talk with the rest of hiscountrymen, and see what they said to it; assuring them that, ifthey did not agree immediately, they should be all destroyed.

The poor wretches, thoroughly humbled, and reduced in numberto about thirty-seven, closed with the proposal at the firstoffer, and begged to have some food given them; upon which twelveSpaniards and two Englishmen, well armed, with three Indianslaves and old Friday, marched to the place where theywere.  The three Indian slaves carried them a large quantityof bread, some rice boiled up to cakes and dried in the sun, andthree live goats; and they were ordered to go to the side of ahill, where they sat down, ate their provisions very thankfully,and were the most faithful fellows to their words that could bethought of; for, except when they came to beg victuals anddirections, they never came out of their bounds; and there theylived when I came to the island and I went to see them. They had taught them both to plant corn, make bread, breed tamegoats, and milk them: they wanted nothing but wives in order forthem soon to become a nation.  They were confined to a neckof land, surrounded with high rocks behind them, and lying plaintowards the sea before them, on the south-east corner of theisland.  They had land enough, and it was very good andfruitful; about a mile and a half broad, and three or four milesin length.  Our men taught them to make wooden spades, suchas I made for myself, and gave among them twelve hatchets andthree or four knives; and there they lived, the most subjected,innocent creatures that ever were heard of.

After this the colony enjoyed a perfect tranquillity withrespect to the savages, till I came to revisit them, which wasabout two years after; not but that, now and then, some canoes ofsavages came on shore for their triumphal, unnatural feasts; butas they were of several nations, and perhaps had never heard ofthose that came before, or the reason of it, they did not makeany search or inquiry after their countrymen; and if they had, itwould have been very hard to have found them out.

Thus, I think, I have given a full account of all thathappened to them till my return, at least that was worthnotice.  The Indians were wonderfully civilised by them, andthey frequently went among them; but they forbid, on pain ofdeath, any one of the Indians coming to them, because they wouldnot have their settlement betrayed again.  One thing wasvery remarkable, viz. that they taught the savages to makewicker-work, or baskets, but they soon outdid their masters: forthey made abundance of ingenious things in wicker-work,particularly baskets, sieves, bird-cages, cupboards, &c.; asalso chairs, stools, beds, couches, being very ingenious at suchwork when they were once put in the way of it.

My coming was a particular relief to these people, because wefurnished them with knives, scissors, spades, shovels, pick-axes,and all things of that kind which they could want.  With thehelp of those tools they were so very handy that they came atlast to build up their huts or houses very handsomely, raddlingor working it up like basket-work all the way round.  Thispiece of ingenuity, although it looked very odd, was an exceedinggood fence, as well against heat as against all sorts of vermin;and our men were so taken with it that they got the Indians tocome and do the like for them; so that when I came to see the twoEnglishmen’s colonies, they looked at a distance as if theyall lived like bees in a hive.

As for Will Atkins, who was now become a very industrious,useful, and sober fellow, he had made himself such a tent ofbasket-work as I believe was never seen; it was one hundred andtwenty paces round on the outside, as I measured by my steps; thewalls were as close worked as a basket, in panels or squares ofthirty-two in number, and very strong, standing about seven feethigh; in the middle was another not above twenty-two paces round,but built stronger, being octagon in its form, and in the eightcorners stood eight very strong posts; round the top of which helaid strong pieces, knit together with wooden pins, from which heraised a pyramid for a handsome roof of eight rafters, joinedtogether very well, though he had no nails, and only a few ironspikes, which he made himself, too, out of the old iron that Ihad left there.  Indeed, this fellow showed abundance ofingenuity in several things which he had no knowledge of: he madehim a forge, with a pair of wooden bellows to blow the fire; hemade himself charcoal for his work; and he formed out of the ironcrows a middling good anvil to hammer upon: in this manner hemade many things, but especially hooks, staples, and spikes,bolts and hinges.  But to return to the house: after he hadpitched the roof of his innermost tent, he worked it up betweenthe rafters with basket-work, so firm, and thatched that overagain so ingeniously with rice-straw, and over that a large leafof a tree, which covered the top, that his house was as dry as ifit had been tiled or slated.  He owned, indeed, that thesavages had made the basket-work for him.  The outer circuitwas covered as a lean-to all round this inner apartment, and longrafters lay from the thirty-two angles to the top posts of theinner house, being about twenty feet distant, so that there was aspace like a walk within the outer wicker-wall, and without theinner, near twenty feet wide.

The inner place he partitioned off with the same wickerwork,but much fairer, and divided into six apartments, so that he hadsix rooms on a floor, and out of every one of these there was adoor: first into the entry, or coming into the main tent, anotherdoor into the main tent, and another door into the space or walkthat was round it; so that walk was also divided into six equalparts, which served not only for a retreat, but to store up anynecessaries which the family had occasion for.  These sixspaces not taking up the whole circumference, what otherapartments the outer circle had were thus ordered: As soon as youwere in at the door of the outer circle you had a short passagestraight before you to the door of the inner house; but on eitherside was a wicker partition and a door in it, by which you wentfirst into a large room or storehouse, twenty feet wide and aboutthirty feet long, and through that into another not quite solong; so that in the outer circle were ten handsome rooms, six ofwhich were only to be come at through the apartments of the innertent, and served as closets or retiring rooms to the respectivechambers of the inner circle; and four large warehouses, orbarns, or what you please to call them, which went through oneanother, two on either hand of the passage, that led through theouter door to the inner tent.  Such a piece of basket-work,I believe, was never seen in the world, nor a house or tent soneatly contrived, much less so built.  In this greatbee-hive lived the three families, that is to say, Will Atkinsand his companion; the third was killed, but his wife remainedwith three children, and the other two were not at all backwardto give the widow her full share of everything, I mean as totheir corn, milk, grapes, &c., and when they killed a kid, orfound a turtle on the shore; so that they all lived well enough;though it was true they were not so industrious as the other two,as has been observed already.

One thing, however, cannot be omitted, viz. that as forreligion, I do not know that there was anything of that kindamong them; they often, indeed, put one another in mind thatthere was a God, by the very common method of seamen, swearing byHis name: nor were their poor ignorant savage wives much betterfor having been married to Christians, as we must call them; foras they knew very little of God themselves, so they were utterlyincapable of entering into any discourse with their wives about aGod, or to talk anything to them concerning religion.

The utmost of all the improvement which I can say the wiveshad made from them was, that they had taught them to speakEnglish pretty well; and most of their children, who were neartwenty in all, were taught to speak English too, from their firstlearning to speak, though they at first spoke it in a very brokenmanner, like their mothers.  None of these children wereabove six years old when I came thither, for it was not muchabove seven years since they had fetched these five savage ladiesover; they had all children, more or less: the mothers were all agood sort of well-governed, quiet, laborious women, modest anddecent, helpful to one another, mighty observant, and subject totheir masters (I cannot call them husbands), and lacked nothingbut to be well instructed in the Christian religion, and to belegally married; both of which were happily brought aboutafterwards by my means, or at least in consequence of my comingamong them.

CHAPTER VI—THE FRENCH CLERGYMAN’S COUNSEL

Having thus given an account of the colony in general, andpretty much of my runagate Englishmen, I must say something ofthe Spaniards, who were the main body of the family, and in whosestory there are some incidents also remarkable enough.

I had a great many discourses with them about theircircumstances when they were among the savages.  They toldme readily that they had no instances to give of theirapplication or ingenuity in that country; that they were a poor,miserable, dejected handful of people; that even if means hadbeen put into their hands, yet they had so abandoned themselvesto despair, and were so sunk under the weight of theirmisfortune, that they thought of nothing but starving.  Oneof them, a grave and sensible man, told me he was convinced theywere in the wrong; that it was not the part of wise men to givethemselves up to their misery, but always to take hold of thehelps which reason offered, as well for present support as forfuture deliverance: he told me that grief was the most senseless,insignificant passion in the world, for that it regarded onlythings past, which were generally impossible to be recalled or tobe remedied, but had no views of things to come, and had no sharein anything that looked like deliverance, but rather added to theaffliction than proposed a remedy; and upon this he repeated aSpanish proverb, which, though I cannot repeat in the same wordsthat he spoke it in, yet I remember I made it into an Englishproverb of my own, thus:—

“In trouble to be troubled,
Is to have your trouble doubled.”

He then ran on in remarks upon all the little improvements Ihad made in my solitude: my unwearied application, as he calledit; and how I had made a condition, which in its circumstanceswas at first much worse than theirs, a thousand times more happythan theirs was, even now when they were all together.  Hetold me it was remarkable that Englishmen had a greater presenceof mind in their distress than any people that ever he met with;that their unhappy nation and the Portuguese were the worst menin the world to struggle with misfortunes; for that their firststep in dangers, after the common efforts were over, was todespair, lie down under it, and die, without rousing theirthoughts up to proper remedies for escape.

I told him their case and mine differed exceedingly; that theywere cast upon the shore without necessaries, without supply offood, or present sustenance till they could provide for it; that,it was true, I had this further disadvantage and discomfort, thatI was alone; but then the supplies I had providentially throwninto my hands, by the unexpected driving of the ship on theshore, was such a help as would have encouraged any creature inthe world to have applied himself as I had done. “Seignior,” says the Spaniard, “had we poorSpaniards been in your case, we should never have got half thosethings out of the ship, as you did: nay,” says he,“we should never have found means to have got a raft tocarry them, or to have got the raft on shore without boat orsail: and how much less should we have done if any of us had beenalone!”  Well, I desired him to abate his compliments,and go on with the history of their coming on shore, where theylanded.  He told me they unhappily landed at a place wherethere were people without provisions; whereas, had they had thecommon sense to put off to sea again, and gone to another islanda little further, they had found provisions, though withoutpeople: there being an island that way, as they had been told,where there were provisions, though no people—that is tosay, that the Spaniards of Trinidad had frequently been there,and had filled the island with goats and hogs at several times,where they had bred in such multitudes, and where turtle andsea-fowls were in such plenty, that they could have been in nowant of flesh, though they had found no bread; whereas, here theywere only sustained with a few roots and herbs, which theyunderstood not, and which had no substance in them, and which theinhabitants gave them sparingly enough; and they could treat themno better, unless they would turn cannibals and eat men’sflesh.

They gave me an account how many ways they strove to civilisethe savages they were with, and to teach them rational customs inthe ordinary way of living, but in vain; and how they retortedupon them as unjust that they who came there for assistance andsupport should attempt to set up for instructors to those thatgave them food; intimating, it seems, that none should set up forthe instructors of others but those who could live withoutthem.  They gave me dismal accounts of the extremities theywere driven to; how sometimes they were many days without anyfood at all, the island they were upon being inhabited by a sortof savages that lived more indolent, and for that reason wereless supplied with the necessaries of life, than they had reasonto believe others were in the same part of the world; and yetthey found that these savages were less ravenous and voraciousthan those who had better supplies of food.  Also, theyadded, they could not but see with what demonstrations of wisdomand goodness the governing providence of God directs the eventsof things in this world, which, they said, appeared in theircircumstances: for if, pressed by the hardships they were under,and the barrenness of the country where they were, they hadsearched after a better to live in, they had then been out of theway of the relief that happened to them by my means.

They then gave me an account how the savages whom they livedamongst expected them to go out with them into their wars; and,it was true, that as they had firearms with them, had they nothad the disaster to lose their ammunition, they could have beenserviceable not only to their friends, but have made themselvesterrible both to friends and enemies; but being without powderand shot, and yet in a condition that they could not in reasondecline to go out with their landlords to their wars; so whenthey came into the field of battle they were in a worse conditionthan the savages themselves, for they had neither bows norarrows, nor could they use those the savages gave them.  Sothey could do nothing but stand still and be wounded with arrows,till they came up to the teeth of the enemy; and then, indeed,the three halberds they had were of use to them; and they wouldoften drive a whole little army before them with those halberds,and sharpened sticks put into the muzzles of their muskets. But for all this they were sometimes surrounded with multitudes,and in great danger from their arrows, till at last they foundthe way to make themselves large targets of wood, which theycovered with skins of wild beasts, whose names they knew not, andthese covered them from the arrows of the savages: that,notwithstanding these, they were sometimes in great danger; andfive of them were once knocked down together with the clubs ofthe savages, which was the time when one of them was takenprisoner—that is to say, the Spaniard whom Irelieved.  At first they thought he had been killed; butwhen they afterwards heard he was taken prisoner, they were underthe greatest grief imaginable, and would willingly have allventured their lives to have rescued him.

They told me that when they were so knocked down, the rest oftheir company rescued them, and stood over them fighting tillthey were come to themselves, all but him whom they thought hadbeen dead; and then they made their way with their halberds andpieces, standing close together in a line, through a body ofabove a thousand savages, beating down all that came in theirway, got the victory over their enemies, but to their greatsorrow, because it was with the loss of their friend, whom theother party finding alive, carried off with some others, as Igave an account before.  They described, mostaffectionately, how they were surprised with joy at the return oftheir friend and companion in misery, who they thought had beendevoured by wild beasts of the worst kind—wild men; andyet, how more and more they were surprised with the account hegave them of his errand, and that there was a Christian in anyplace near, much more one that was able, and had humanity enough,to contribute to their deliverance.

They described how they were astonished at the sight of therelief I sent them, and at the appearance of loaves ofbread—things they had not seen since their coming to thatmiserable place; how often they crossed it and blessed it asbread sent from heaven; and what a reviving cordial it was totheir spirits to taste it, as also the other things I had sentfor their supply; and, after all, they would have told mesomething of the joy they were in at the sight of a boat andpilots, to carry them away to the person and place from whenceall these new comforts came.  But it was impossible toexpress it by words, for their excessive joy naturally drivingthem to unbecoming extravagances, they had no way to describethem but by telling me they bordered upon lunacy, having no wayto give vent to their passions suitable to the sense that wasupon them; that in some it worked one way and in some another;and that some of them, through a surprise of joy, would burstinto tears, others be stark mad, and others immediatelyfaint.  This discourse extremely affected me, and called tomy mind Friday’s ecstasy when he met his father, and thepoor people’s ecstasy when I took them up at sea aftertheir ship was on fire; the joy of the mate of the ship when hefound himself delivered in the place where he expected to perish;and my own joy, when, after twenty-eight years’ captivity,I found a good ship ready to carry me to my own country. All these things made me more sensible of the relation of thesepoor men, and more affected with it.

Having thus given a view of the state of things as I foundthem, I must relate the heads of what I did for these people, andthe condition in which I left them.  It was their opinion,and mine too, that they would be troubled no more with thesavages, or if they were, they would be able to cut them off, ifthey were twice as many as before; so they had no concern aboutthat.  Then I entered into a serious discourse with theSpaniard, whom I call governor, about their stay in the island;for as I was not come to carry any of them off, so it would notbe just to carry off some and leave others, who, perhaps, wouldbe unwilling to stay if their strength was diminished.  Onthe other hand, I told them I came to establish them there, notto remove them; and then I let them know that I had brought withme relief of sundry kinds for them; that I had been at a greatcharge to supply them with all things necessary, as well fortheir convenience as their defence; and that I had such and suchparticular persons with me, as well to increase and recruit theirnumber, as by the particular necessary employments which theywere bred to, being artificers, to assist them in those things inwhich at present they were in want.

They were all together when I talked thus to them; and beforeI delivered to them the stores I had brought, I asked them, oneby one, if they had entirely forgot and buried the firstanimosities that had been among them, and would shake hands withone another, and engage in a strict friendship and union ofinterest, that so there might be no more misunderstandings andjealousies.

Will Atkins, with abundance of frankness and good humour, saidthey had met with affliction enough to make them all sober, andenemies enough to make them all friends; that, for his part, hewould live and die with them, and was so far from designinganything against the Spaniards, that he owned they had donenothing to him but what his own mad humour made necessary, andwhat he would have done, and perhaps worse, in their case; andthat he would ask them pardon, if I desired it, for the foolishand brutish things he had done to them, and was very willing anddesirous of living in terms of entire friendship and union withthem, and would do anything that lay in his power to convincethem of it; and as for going to England, he cared not if he didnot go thither these twenty years.

The Spaniards said they had, indeed, at first disarmed andexcluded Will Atkins and his two countrymen for their illconduct, as they had let me know, and they appealed to me for thenecessity they were under to do so; but that Will Atkins hadbehaved himself so bravely in the great fight they had with thesavages, and on several occasions since, and had showed himselfso faithful to, and concerned for, the general interest of themall, that they had forgotten all that was past, and thought hemerited as much to be trusted with arms and supplied withnecessaries as any of them; that they had testified theirsatisfaction in him by committing the command to him next to thegovernor himself; and as they had entire confidence in him andall his countrymen, so they acknowledged they had merited thatconfidence by all the methods that honest men could merit to bevalued and trusted; and they most heartily embraced the occasionof giving me this assurance, that they would never have anyinterest separate from one another.

Upon these frank and open declarations of friendship, weappointed the next day to dine all together; and, indeed, we madea splendid feast.  I caused the ship’s cook and hismate to come on shore and dress our dinner, and the oldcook’s mate we had on shore assisted.  We brought onshore six pieces of good beef and four pieces of pork, out of theship’s provisions, with our punch-bowl and materials tofill it; and in particular I gave them ten bottles of Frenchclaret, and ten bottles of English beer; things that neither theSpaniards nor the English had tasted for many years, and which itmay be supposed they were very glad of.  The Spaniards addedto our feast five whole kids, which the cooks roasted; and threeof them were sent, covered up close, on board the ship to theseamen, that they might feast on fresh meat from on shore, as wedid with their salt meat from on board.

After this feast, at which we were very innocently merry, Ibrought my cargo of goods; wherein, that there might be nodispute about dividing, I showed them that there was asufficiency for them all, desiring that they might all take anequal quantity, when made up, of the goods that were forwearing.  As, first, I distributed linen sufficient to makeevery one of them four shirts, and, at the Spaniard’srequest, afterwards made them up six; these were exceedingcomfortable to them, having been what they had long since forgotthe use of, or what it was to wear them.  I allotted thethin English stuffs, which I mentioned before, to make every onea light coat, like a frock, which I judged fittest for the heatof the season, cool and loose; and ordered that whenever theydecayed, they should make more, as they thought fit; the like forpumps, shoes, stockings, hats, &c.  I cannot expresswhat pleasure sat upon the countenances of all these poor menwhen they saw the care I had taken of them, and how well I hadfurnished them.  They told me I was a father to them; andthat having such a correspondent as I was in so remote a part ofthe world, it would make them forget that they were left in adesolate place; and they all voluntarily engaged to me not toleave the place without my consent.

Then I presented to them the people I had brought with me,particularly the tailor, the smith, and the two carpenters, allof them most necessary people; but, above all, my generalartificer, than whom they could not name anything that was moreuseful to them; and the tailor, to show his concern for them,went to work immediately, and, with my leave, made them every onea shirt, the first thing he did; and, what was still more, hetaught the women not only how to sew and stitch, and use theneedle, but made them assist to make the shirts for theirhusbands, and for all the rest.  As to the carpenters, Iscarce need mention how useful they were; for they took to piecesall my clumsy, unhandy things, and made clever convenient tables,stools, bedsteads, cupboards, lockers, shelves, and everythingthey wanted of that kind.  But to let them see how naturemade artificers at first, I carried the carpenters to see WillAtkins’ basket-house, as I called it; and they both ownedthey never saw an instance of such natural ingenuity before, noranything so regular and so handily built, at least of its kind;and one of them, when he saw it, after musing a good while,turning about to me, “I am sure,” says he,“that man has no need of us; you need do nothing but givehim tools.”

Then I brought them out all my store of tools, and gave everyman a digging-spade, a shovel, and a rake, for we had no barrowsor ploughs; and to every separate place a pickaxe, a crow, abroad axe, and a saw; always appointing, that as often as anywere broken or worn out, they should be supplied without grudgingout of the general stores that I left behind.  Nails,staples, hinges, hammers, chisels, knives, scissors, and allsorts of ironwork, they had without reserve, as they required;for no man would take more than he wanted, and he must be a foolthat would waste or spoil them on any account whatever; and forthe use of the smith I left two tons of unwrought iron for asupply.

My magazine of powder and arms which I brought them was such,even to profusion, that they could not but rejoice at them; fornow they could march as I used to do, with a musket upon eachshoulder, if there was occasion; and were able to fight athousand savages, if they had but some little advantages ofsituation, which also they could not miss, if they hadoccasion.

I carried on shore with me the young man whose mother wasstarved to death, and the maid also; she was a sober,well-educated, religious young woman, and behaved soinoffensively that every one gave her a good word; she had,indeed, an unhappy life with us, there being no woman in the shipbut herself, but she bore it with patience.  After a while,seeing things so well ordered, and in so fine a way of thrivingupon my island, and considering that they had neither businessnor acquaintance in the East Indies, or reason for taking so longa voyage, both of them came to me and desired I would give themleave to remain on the island, and be entered among my family, asthey called it.  I agreed to this readily; and they had alittle plot of ground allotted to them, where they had threetents or houses set up, surrounded with a basket-work, palisadoedlike Atkins’s, adjoining to his plantation.  Theirtents were contrived so that they had each of them a room apartto lodge in, and a middle tent like a great storehouse to laytheir goods in, and to eat and to drink in.  And now theother two Englishmen removed their habitation to the same place;and so the island was divided into three colonies, and nomore—viz. the Spaniards, with old Friday and the firstservants, at my habitation under the hill, which was, in a word,the capital city, and where they had so enlarged and extendedtheir works, as well under as on the outside of the hill, thatthey lived, though perfectly concealed, yet full at large. Never was there such a little city in a wood, and so hid, in anypart of the world; for I verify believe that a thousand men mighthave ranged the island a month, and, if they had not known therewas such a thing, and looked on purpose for it, they would nothave found it.  Indeed the trees stood so thick and soclose, and grew so fast woven one into another, that nothing butcutting them down first could discover the place, except the onlytwo narrow entrances where they went in and out could be found,which was not very easy; one of them was close down at thewater’s edge, on the side of the creek, and it wasafterwards above two hundred yards to the place; and the otherwas up a ladder at twice, as I have already described it; andthey had also a large wood, thickly planted, on the top of thehill, containing above an acre, which grew apace, and concealedthe place from all discovery there, with only one narrow placebetween two trees, not easily to be discovered, to enter on thatside.

The other colony was that of Will Atkins, where there werefour families of Englishmen, I mean those I had left there, withtheir wives and children; three savages that were slaves, thewidow and children of the Englishman that was killed, the youngman and the maid, and, by the way, we made a wife of her beforewe went away.  There were besides the two carpenters and thetailor, whom I brought with me for them: also the smith, who wasa very necessary man to them, especially as a gunsmith, to takecare of their arms; and my other man, whom I calledJack-of-all-trades, who was in himself as good almost as twentymen; for he was not only a very ingenious fellow, but a verymerry fellow, and before I went away we married him to the honestmaid that came with the youth in the ship I mentioned before.

And now I speak of marrying, it brings me naturally to saysomething of the French ecclesiastic that I had brought with meout of the ship’s crew whom I took up at sea.  It istrue this man was a Roman, and perhaps it may give offence tosome hereafter if I leave anything extraordinary upon record of aman whom, before I begin, I must (to set him out in just colours)represent in terms very much to his disadvantage, in the accountof Protestants; as, first, that he was a Papist; secondly, aPopish priest; and thirdly, a French Popish priest.  Butjustice demands of me to give him a due character; and I mustsay, he was a grave, sober, pious, and most religious person;exact in his life, extensive in his charity, and exemplary inalmost everything he did.  What then can any one say againstbeing very sensible of the value of such a man, notwithstandinghis profession? though it may be my opinion perhaps, as well asthe opinion of others who shall read this, that he wasmistaken.

The first hour that I began to converse with him after he hadagreed to go with me to the East Indies, I found reason todelight exceedingly in his conversation; and he first began withme about religion in the most obliging manner imaginable. “Sir,” says he, “you have not only underGod” (and at that he crossed his breast) “saved mylife, but you have admitted me to go this voyage in your ship,and by your obliging civility have taken me into your family,giving me an opportunity of free conversation.  Now, sir,you see by my habit what my profession is, and I guess by yournation what yours is; I may think it is my duty, and doubtless itis so, to use my utmost endeavours, on all occasions, to bringall the souls I can to the knowledge of the truth, and to embracethe Catholic doctrine; but as I am here under your permission,and in your family, I am bound, in justice to your kindness aswell as in decency and good manners, to be under your government;and therefore I shall not, without your leave, enter into anydebate on the points of religion in which we may not agree,further than you shall give me leave.”

I told him his carriage was so modest that I could not butacknowledge it; that it was true we were such people as they callheretics, but that he was not the first Catholic I had conversedwith without falling into inconveniences, or carrying thequestions to any height in debate; that he should not findhimself the worse used for being of a different opinion from us,and if we did not converse without any dislike on either side, itshould be his fault, not ours.

He replied that he thought all our conversation might beeasily separated from disputes; that it was not his business tocap principles with every man he conversed with; and that herather desired me to converse with him as a gentleman than as areligionist; and that, if I would give him leave at any time todiscourse upon religious subjects, he would readily comply withit, and that he did not doubt but I would allow him also todefend his own opinions as well as he could; but that without myleave he would not break in upon me with any such thing.  Hetold me further, that he would not cease to do all that becamehim, in his office as a priest, as well as a private Christian,to procure the good of the ship, and the safety of all that wasin her; and though, perhaps, we would not join with him, and hecould not pray with us, he hoped he might pray for us, which hewould do upon all occasions.  In this manner we conversed;and as he was of the most obliging, gentlemanlike behaviour, sohe was, if I may be allowed to say so, a man of good sense, and,as I believe, of great learning.

He gave me a most diverting account of his life, and of themany extraordinary events of it; of many adventures which hadbefallen him in the few years that he had been abroad in theworld; and particularly, it was very remarkable, that in thevoyage he was now engaged in he had had the misfortune to be fivetimes shipped and unshipped, and never to go to the place whitherany of the ships he was in were at first designed.  That hisfirst intent was to have gone to Martinico, and that he went onboard a ship bound thither at St. Malo; but being forced intoLisbon by bad weather, the ship received some damage by runningaground in the mouth of the river Tagus, and was obliged tounload her cargo there; but finding a Portuguese ship there boundfor the Madeiras, and ready to sail, and supposing he should meetwith a ship there bound to Martinico, he went on board, in orderto sail to the Madeiras; but the master of the Portuguese shipbeing but an indifferent mariner, had been out of his reckoning,and they drove to Fayal; where, however, he happened to find avery good market for his cargo, which was corn, and thereforeresolved not to go to the Madeiras, but to load salt at the Isleof May, and to go away to Newfoundland.  He had no remedy inthis exigence but to go with the ship, and had a pretty goodvoyage as far as the Banks (so they call the place where theycatch the fish), where, meeting with a French ship bound fromFrance to Quebec, and from thence to Martinico, to carryprovisions, he thought he should have an opportunity to completehis first design, but when he came to Quebec, the master of theship died, and the vessel proceeded no further; so the nextvoyage he shipped himself for France, in the ship that was burnedwhen we took them up at sea, and then shipped with us for theEast Indies, as I have already said.  Thus he had beendisappointed in five voyages; all, as I may call it, in onevoyage, besides what I shall have occasion to mention further ofhim.

But I shall not make digression into other men’s storieswhich have no relation to my own; so I return to what concernsour affair in the island.  He came to me one morning (for helodged among us all the while we were upon the island), and ithappened to be just when I was going to visit theEnglishmen’s colony, at the furthest part of the island; Isay, he came to me, and told me, with a very grave countenance,that he had for two or three days desired an opportunity of somediscourse with me, which he hoped would not be displeasing to me,because he thought it might in some measure correspond with mygeneral design, which was the prosperity of my new colony, andperhaps might put it, at least more than he yet thought it was,in the way of God’s blessing.

I looked a little surprised at the last of his discourse, andturning a little short, “How, sir,” said I,“can it be said that we are not in the way of God’sblessing, after such visible assistances and deliverances as wehave seen here, and of which I have given you a largeaccount?”  “If you had pleased, sir,” saidhe, with a world of modesty, and yet great readiness, “tohave heard me, you would have found no room to have beendispleased, much less to think so hard of me, that I shouldsuggest that you have not had wonderful assistances anddeliverances; and I hope, on your behalf, that you are in the wayof God’s blessing, and your design is exceeding good, andwill prosper.  But, sir, though it were more so than is evenpossible to you, yet there may be some among you that are notequally right in their actions: and you know that in the story ofthe children of Israel, one Achan in the camp removed God’sblessing from them, and turned His hand so against them, thatsix-and-thirty of them, though not concerned in the crime, werethe objects of divine vengeance, and bore the weight of thatpunishment.”

I was sensibly touched with this discourse, and told him hisinference was so just, and the whole design seemed so sincere,and was really so religious in its own nature, that I was verysorry I had interrupted him, and begged him to go on; and, in themeantime, because it seemed that what we had both to say mighttake up some time, I told him I was going to theEnglishmen’s plantations, and asked him to go with me, andwe might discourse of it by the way.  He told me he wouldthe more willingly wait on me thither, because there partly thething was acted which he desired to speak to me about; so wewalked on, and I pressed him to be free and plain with me in whathe had to say.

“Why, then, sir,” said he, “be pleased togive me leave to lay down a few propositions, as the foundationof what I have to say, that we may not differ in the generalprinciples, though we may be of some differing opinions in thepractice of particulars.  First, sir, though we differ insome of the doctrinal articles of religion (and it is veryunhappy it is so, especially in the case before us, as I shallshow afterwards), yet there are some general principles in whichwe both agree—that there is a God; and that this God havinggiven us some stated general rules for our service and obedience,we ought not willingly and knowingly to offend Him, either byneglecting to do what He has commanded, or by doing what He hasexpressly forbidden.  And let our different religions bewhat they will, this general principle is readily owned by usall, that the blessing of God does not ordinarily followpresumptuous sinning against His command; and every goodChristian will be affectionately concerned to prevent any thatare under his care living in a total neglect of God and Hiscommands.  It is not your men being Protestants, whatever myopinion may be of such, that discharges me from being concernedfor their souls, and from endeavouring, if it lies before me,that they should live in as little distance from enmity withtheir Maker as possible, especially if you give me leave tomeddle so far in your circuit.”

I could not yet imagine what he aimed at, and told him Igranted all he had said, and thanked him that he would so farconcern himself for us: and begged he would explain theparticulars of what he had observed, that like Joshua, to takehis own parable, I might put away the accursed thing from us.

“Why, then, sir,” says he, “I will take theliberty you give me; and there are three things, which, if I amright, must stand in the way of God’s blessing upon yourendeavours here, and which I should rejoice, for your sake andtheir own, to see removed.  And, sir, I promise myself thatyou will fully agree with me in them all, as soon as I name them;especially because I shall convince you, that every one of themmay, with great ease, and very much to your satisfaction, beremedied.  First, sir,” says he, “you have herefour Englishmen, who have fetched women from among the savages,and have taken them as their wives, and have had many children bythem all, and yet are not married to them after any stated legalmanner, as the laws of God and man require.  To this, sir, Iknow, you will object that there was no clergyman or priest ofany kind to perform the ceremony; nor any pen and ink, or paper,to write down a contract of marriage, and have it signed betweenthem.  And I know also, sir, what the Spaniard governor hastold you, I mean of the agreement that he obliged them to makewhen they took those women, viz. that they should choose them outby consent, and keep separately to them; which, by the way, isnothing of a marriage, no agreement with the women as wives, butonly an agreement among themselves, to keep them fromquarrelling.  But, sir, the essence of the sacrament ofmatrimony” (so he called it, being a Roman) “consistsnot only in the mutual consent of the parties to take one anotheras man and wife, but in the formal and legal obligation thatthere is in the contract to compel the man and woman, at alltimes, to own and acknowledge each other; obliging the man toabstain from all other women, to engage in no other contractwhile these subsist; and, on all occasions, as ability allows, toprovide honestly for them and their children; and to oblige thewomen to the same or like conditions, on their side.  Now,sir,” says he, “these men may, when they please, orwhen occasion presents, abandon these women, disown theirchildren, leave them to perish, and take other women, and marrythem while these are living;” and here he added, with somewarmth, “How, sir, is God honoured in this unlawfulliberty?  And how shall a blessing succeed your endeavoursin this place, however good in themselves, and however sincere inyour design, while these men, who at present are your subjects,under your absolute government and dominion, are allowed by youto live in open adultery?”

I confess I was struck with the thing itself, but much morewith the convincing arguments he supported it with; but I thoughtto have got off my young priest by telling him that all that partwas done when I was not there: and that they had lived so manyyears with them now, that if it was adultery, it was past remedy;nothing could be done in it now.

“Sir,” says he, “asking your pardon for suchfreedom, you are right in this, that, it being done in yourabsence, you could not be charged with that part of the crime;but, I beseech you, flatter not yourself that you are not,therefore, under an obligation to do your utmost now to put anend to it.  You should legally and effectually marry them;and as, sir, my way of marrying may not be easy to reconcile themto, though it will be effectual, even by your own laws, so yourway may be as well before God, and as valid among men.  Imean by a written contract signed by both man and woman, and byall the witnesses present, which all the laws of Europe woulddecree to be valid.”

I was amazed to see so much true piety, and so much sincerityof zeal, besides the unusual impartiality in his discourse as tohis own party or church, and such true warmth for preservingpeople that he had no knowledge of or relation to fromtransgressing the laws of God.  But recollecting what he hadsaid of marrying them by a written contract, which I knew hewould stand to, I returned it back upon him, and told him Igranted all that he had said to be just, and on his part verykind; that I would discourse with the men upon the point now,when I came to them; and I knew no reason why they should scrupleto let him marry them all, which I knew well enough would begranted to be as authentic and valid in England as if they weremarried by one of our own clergymen.

I then pressed him to tell me what was the second complaintwhich he had to make, acknowledging that I was very much hisdebtor for the first, and thanking him heartily for it.  Hetold me he would use the same freedom and plainness in thesecond, and hoped I would take it as well; and this was, thatnotwithstanding these English subjects of mine, as he calledthem, had lived with these women almost seven years, had taughtthem to speak English, and even to read it, and that they were,as he perceived, women of tolerable understanding, and capable ofinstruction, yet they had not, to this hour, taught them anythingof the Christian religion—no, not so much as to know therewas a God, or a worship, or in what manner God was to be served,or that their own idolatry, and worshipping they knew not whom,was false and absurd.  This he said was an unaccountableneglect, and what God would certainly call them to account for,and perhaps at last take the work out of their hands.  Hespoke this very affectionately and warmly.

“I am persuaded,” says he, “had those menlived in the savage country whence their wives came, the savageswould have taken more pains to have brought them to be idolaters,and to worship the devil, than any of these men, so far as I cansee, have taken with them to teach the knowledge of the trueGod.  Now, sir,” said he, “though I do notacknowledge your religion, or you mine, yet we would be glad tosee the devil’s servants and the subjects of his kingdomtaught to know religion; and that they might, at least, hear ofGod and a Redeemer, and the resurrection, and of a futurestate—things which we all believe; that they might, atleast, be so much nearer coming into the bosom of the true Churchthan they are now in the public profession of idolatry anddevil-worship.”

I could hold no longer: I took him in my arms and embraced himeagerly.  “How far,” said I to him, “haveI been from understanding the most essential part of a Christian,viz. to love the interest of the Christian Church, and the goodof other men’s souls!  I scarce have known whatbelongs to the being a Christian.”—“Oh, sir! donot say so,” replied he; “this thing is not yourfault.”—“No,” said I; “but why didI never lay it to heart as well as you?”—“It isnot too late yet,” said he; “be not too forward tocondemn yourself.”—“But what can be donenow?” said I: “you see I am goingaway.”—“Will you give me leave to talk withthese poor men about it?”—“Yes, with all myheart,” said I: “and oblige them to give heed to whatyou say too.”—“As to that,” said he,“we must leave them to the mercy of Christ; but it is yourbusiness to assist them, encourage them, and instruct them; andif you give me leave, and God His blessing, I do not doubt butthe poor ignorant souls shall be brought home to the great circleof Christianity, if not into the particular faith we all embrace,and that even while you stay here.”  Upon this I said,“I shall not only give you leave, but give you a thousandthanks for it.”

I now pressed him for the third article in which we were toblame.  “Why, really,” says he, “it is ofthe same nature.  It is about your poor savages, who are, asI may say, your conquered subjects.  It is a maxim, sir,that is or ought to be received among all Christians, of whatchurch or pretended church soever, that the Christian knowledgeought to be propagated by all possible means and on all possibleoccasions.  It is on this principle that our Church sendsmissionaries into Persia, India, and China; and that our clergy,even of the superior sort, willingly engage in the most hazardousvoyages, and the most dangerous residence amongst murderers andbarbarians, to teach them the knowledge of the true God, and tobring them over to embrace the Christian faith.  Now, sir,you have such an opportunity here to have six or seven and thirtypoor savages brought over from a state of idolatry to theknowledge of God, their Maker and Redeemer, that I wonder how youcan pass such an occasion of doing good, which is really worththe expense of a man’s whole life.”

I was now struck dumb indeed, and had not one word tosay.  I had here the spirit of true Christian zeal for Godand religion before me.  As for me, I had not so much asentertained a thought of this in my heart before, and I believe Ishould not have thought of it; for I looked upon these savages asslaves, and people whom, had we not had any work for them to do,we would have used as such, or would have been glad to havetransported them to any part of the world; for our business wasto get rid of them, and we would all have been satisfied if theyhad been sent to any country, so they had never seen theirown.  I was confounded at his discourse, and knew not whatanswer to make him.

He looked earnestly at me, seeing my confusion. “Sir,” says he, “I shall be very sorry if whatI have said gives you any offence.”—“No,no,” said I, “I am offended with nobody but myself;but I am perfectly confounded, not only to think that I shouldnever take any notice of this before, but with reflecting whatnotice I am able to take of it now.  You know, sir,”said I, “what circumstances I am in; I am bound to the EastIndies in a ship freighted by merchants, and to whom it would bean insufferable piece of injustice to detain their ship here, themen lying all this while at victuals and wages on theowners’ account.  It is true, I agreed to be allowedtwelve days here, and if I stay more, I must pay three poundssterling per diemdemurrage; nor can I stay upon demurrageabove eight days more, and I have been here thirteen already; sothat I am perfectly unable to engage in this work unless I wouldsuffer myself to be left behind here again; in which case, ifthis single ship should miscarry in any part of her voyage, Ishould be just in the same condition that I was left in here atfirst, and from which I have been so wonderfullydelivered.”  He owned the case was very hard upon meas to my voyage; but laid it home upon my conscience whether theblessing of saving thirty-seven souls was not worth venturing allI had in the world for.  I was not so sensible of that as hewas.  I replied to him thus: “Why, sir, it is avaluable thing, indeed, to be an instrument in God’s handto convert thirty-seven heathens to the knowledge of Christ: butas you are an ecclesiastic, and are given over to the work, so itseems so naturally to fall in the way of your profession; how isit, then, that you do not rather offer yourself to undertake itthan to press me to do it?”

Upon this he faced about just before me, as he walked along,and putting me to a full stop, made me a very low bow. “I most heartily thank God and you, sir,” said he,“for giving me so evident a call to so blessed a work; andif you think yourself discharged from it, and desire me toundertake it, I will most readily do it, and think it a happyreward for all the hazards and difficulties of such a broken,disappointed voyage as I have met with, that I am dropped at lastinto so glorious a work.”

I discovered a kind of rapture in his face while he spoke thisto me; his eyes sparkled like fire; his face glowed, and hiscolour came and went; in a word, he was fired with the joy ofbeing embarked in such a work.  I paused a considerablewhile before I could tell what to say to him; for I was reallysurprised to find a man of such sincerity, and who seemedpossessed of a zeal beyond the ordinary rate of men.  Butafter I had considered it a while, I asked him seriously if hewas in earnest, and that he would venture, on the singleconsideration of an attempt to convert those poor people, to belocked up in an unplanted island for perhaps his life, and atlast might not know whether he should be able to do them good ornot?  He turned short upon me, and asked me what I called aventure?  “Pray, sir,” said he, “what doyou think I consented to go in your ship to the East Indiesfor?”—“ay,” said I, “that I knownot, unless it was to preach to theIndians.”—“Doubtless it was,” said he;“and do you think, if I can convert these thirty-seven mento the faith of Jesus Christ, it is not worth my time, though Ishould never be fetched off the island again?—nay, is itnot infinitely of more worth to save so many souls than my lifeis, or the life of twenty more of the same profession?  Yes,sir,” says he, “I would give God thanks all my daysif I could be made the happy instrument of saving the souls ofthose poor men, though I were never to get my foot off thisisland or see my native country any more.  But since youwill honour me with putting me into this work, for which I willpray for you all the days of my life, I have one humble petitionto you besides.”—“What is that?” saidI.—“Why,” says he, “it is, that you willleave your man Friday with me, to be my interpreter to them, andto assist me; for without some help I cannot speak to them, orthey to me.”

I was sensibly touched at his requesting Friday, because Icould not think of parting with him, and that for many reasons:he had been the companion of my travels; he was not only faithfulto me, but sincerely affectionate to the last degree; and I hadresolved to do something considerable for him if he out-lived me,as it was probable he would.  Then I knew that, as I hadbred Friday up to be a Protestant, it would quite confound him tobring him to embrace another religion; and he would never, whilehis eyes were open, believe that his old master was a heretic,and would be damned; and this might in the end ruin the poorfellow’s principles, and so turn him back again to hisfirst idolatry.  However, a sudden thought relieved me inthis strait, and it was this: I told him I could not say that Iwas willing to part with Friday on any account whatever, though awork that to him was of more value than his life ought to be ofmuch more value than the keeping or parting with a servant. On the other hand, I was persuaded that Friday would by no meansagree to part with me; and I could not force him to it withouthis consent, without manifest injustice; because I had promised Iwould never send him away, and he had promised and engaged thathe would never leave me, unless I sent him away.

He seemed very much concerned at it, for he had no rationalaccess to these poor people, seeing he did not understand oneword of their language, nor they one of his.  To remove thisdifficulty, I told him Friday’s father had learned Spanish,which I found he also understood, and he should serve him as aninterpreter.  So he was much better satisfied, and nothingcould persuade him but he would stay and endeavour to convertthem; but Providence gave another very happy turn to allthis.

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

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

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

This was just as I would have it.  The priest was notwith me at that moment, but he was not far off; so to try himfurther, I told him I had a clergyman with me, and, if he wassincere, I would have him married next morning, and bade himconsider of it, and talk with the rest.  He said, as forhimself, he need not consider of it at all, for he was very readyto do it, and was glad I had a minister with me, and he believedthey would be all willing also.  I then told him that myfriend, the minister, was a Frenchman, and could not speakEnglish, but I would act the clerk between them.  He neverso much as asked me whether he was a Papist or Protestant, whichwas, indeed, what I was afraid of.  We then parted, and Iwent back to my clergyman, and Will Atkins went in to talk withhis companions.  I desired the French gentleman not to sayanything to them till the business was thoroughly ripe; and Itold him what answer the men had given me.

Before I went from their quarter they all came to me and toldme they had been considering what I had said; that they were gladto hear I had a clergyman in my company, and they were verywilling to give me the satisfaction I desired, and to be formallymarried as soon as I pleased; for they were far from desiring topart with their wives, and that they meant nothing but what wasvery honest when they chose them.  So I appointed them tomeet me the next morning; and, in the meantime, they should lettheir wives know the meaning of the marriage law; and that it wasnot only to prevent any scandal, but also to oblige them thatthey should not forsake them, whatever might happen.

The women were easily made sensible of the meaning of thething, and were very well satisfied with it, as, indeed, they hadreason to be: so they failed not to attend all together at myapartment next morning, where I brought out my clergyman; andthough he had not on a minister’s gown, after the manner ofEngland, or the habit of a priest, after the manner of France,yet having a black vest something like a cassock, with a sashround it, he did not look very unlike a minister; and as for hislanguage, I was his interpreter.  But the seriousness of hisbehaviour to them, and the scruples he made of marrying thewomen, because they were not baptized and professed Christians,gave them an exceeding reverence for his person; and there was noneed, after that, to inquire whether he was a clergyman ornot.  Indeed, I was afraid his scruples would have beencarried so far as that he would not have married them at all;nay, notwithstanding all I was able to say to him, he resistedme, though modestly, yet very steadily, and at last refusedabsolutely to marry them, unless he had first talked with the menand the women too; and though at first I was a little backward toit, yet at last I agreed to it with a good will, perceiving thesincerity of his design.

When he came to them he let them know that I had acquaintedhim with their circumstances, and with the present design; thathe was very willing to perform that part of his function, andmarry them, as I had desired; but that before he could do it, hemust take the liberty to talk with them.  He told them thatin the sight of all indifferent men, and in the sense of the lawsof society, they had lived all this while in a state of sin; andthat it was true that nothing but the consenting to marry, oreffectually separating them from one another, could now put anend to it; but there was a difficulty in it, too, with respect tothe laws of Christian matrimony, which he was not fully satisfiedabout, that of marrying one that is a professed Christian to asavage, an idolater, and a heathen—one that is notbaptized; and yet that he did not see that there was time left toendeavour to persuade the women to be baptized, or to profess thename of Christ, whom they had, he doubted, heard nothing of, andwithout which they could not be baptized.  He told them hedoubted they were but indifferent Christians themselves; thatthey had but little knowledge of God or of His ways, and,therefore, he could not expect that they had said much to theirwives on that head yet; but that unless they would promise him touse their endeavours with their wives to persuade them to becomeChristians, and would, as well as they could, instruct them inthe knowledge and belief of God that made them, and to worshipJesus Christ that redeemed them, he could not marry them; for hewould have no hand in joining Christians with savages, nor was itconsistent with the principles of the Christian religion, andwas, indeed, expressly forbidden in God’s law.

They heard all this very attentively, and I delivered it veryfaithfully to them from his mouth, as near his own words as Icould; only sometimes adding something of my own, to convincethem how just it was, and that I was of his mind; and I alwaysvery carefully distinguished between what I said from myself andwhat were the clergyman’s words.  They told me it wasvery true what the gentleman said, that they were veryindifferent Christians themselves, and that they had never talkedto 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 heavenand hell, it would make them laugh at us, and ask us what webelieve ourselves.  And if we should tell them that webelieve all the things we speak of to them, such as of goodpeople going to heaven, and wicked people to the devil, theywould ask us where we intend to go ourselves, that believe allthis, and are such wicked fellows as we indeed are?  Why,sir; ’tis enough to give them a surfeit of religion atfirst hearing; folks must have some religion themselves beforethey begin to teach other people.”—“WillAtkins,” said I to him, “though I am afraid that whatyou say has too much truth in it, yet can you not tell your wifeshe is in the wrong; that there is a God and a religion betterthan her own; that her gods are idols; that they can neither hearnor speak; that there is a great Being that made all things, andthat can destroy all that He has made; that He rewards the goodand punishes the bad; and that we are to be judged by Him at lastfor all we do here?  You are not so ignorant but even natureitself will teach you that all this is true; and I am satisfiedyou know it all to be true, and believe ityourself.”—“That is true, sir,” saidAtkins; “but with what face can I say anything to my wifeof all this, when she will tell me immediately it cannot betrue?”—“Not true!” said I; “what doyou mean by that?”—“Why, sir,” said he,“she will tell me it cannot be true that this God I shalltell her of can be just, or can punish or reward, since I am notpunished and sent to the devil, that have been such a wickedcreature as she knows I have been, even to her, and to everybodyelse; and that I should be suffered to live, that have beenalways acting so contrary to what I must tell her is good, and towhat I ought to have done.”—“Why, truly,Atkins,” said I, “I am afraid thou speakest too muchtruth;” and with that I informed the clergyman of whatAtkins had said, for he was impatient to know. “Oh,” said the priest, “tell him there is onething will make him the best minister in the world to his wife,and that is repentance; for none teach repentance like truepenitents.  He wants nothing but to repent, and then he willbe so much the better qualified to instruct his wife; he willthen be able to tell her that there is not only a God, and thatHe is the just rewarder of good and evil, but that He is amerciful Being, and with infinite goodness and long-sufferingforbears to punish those that offend; waiting to be gracious, andwilling not the death of a sinner, but rather that he shouldreturn and live; and even reserves damnation to the general dayof retribution; that it is a clear evidence of God and of afuture state that righteous men receive not their reward, orwicked men their punishment, till they come into another world;and this will lead him to teach his wife the doctrine of theresurrection and of the last judgment.  Let him but repenthimself, he will be an excellent preacher of repentance to hiswife.”

I repeated all this to Atkins, who looked very serious all thewhile, and, as we could easily perceive, was more than ordinarilyaffected with it; when being eager, and hardly suffering me tomake an end, “I know all this, master,” says he,“and a great deal more; but I have not the impudence totalk thus to my wife, when God and my conscience know, and mywife will be an undeniable evidence against me, that I have livedas if I had never heard of a God or future state, or anythingabout it; and to talk of my repenting, alas!” (and withthat he fetched a deep sigh, and I could see that the tears stoodin his eyes) “’tis past all that withme.”—“Past it, Atkins?” said I:“what dost thou mean by that?”—“I knowwell enough what I mean,” says he; “I mean ’tistoo late, and that is too true.”

I told the clergyman, word for word, what he said, and thisaffectionate man could not refrain from tears; but, recoveringhimself, said to me, “Ask him but one question.  Is heeasy that it is too late; or is he troubled, and wishes it werenot so?”  I put the question fairly to Atkins; and heanswered with a great deal of passion, “How could any manbe easy in a condition that must certainly end in eternaldestruction? that he was far from being easy; but that, on thecontrary, he believed it would one time or other ruinhim.”—“What do you mean by that?” saidI.—“Why,” he said, “he believed he shouldone time or other cut his throat, to put an end to the terror ofit.”

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 byChrist, and the merit of His passion procuring divine mercy forhim, 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 ofdivine mercy?  Pray tell him there may be a time whenprovoked mercy will no longer strive, and when God may refuse tohear, but that it is never too late for men to ask mercy; and we,that are Christ’s servants, are commanded to preach mercyat all times, in the name of Jesus Christ, to all those thatsincerely repent: so that it is never too late torepent.”

I told Atkins all this, and he heard me with greatearnestness; but it seemed as if he turned off the discourse tothe rest, for he said to me he would go and have some talk withhis wife; so he went out a while, and we talked to therest.  I perceived they were all stupidly ignorant as tomatters of religion, as much as I was when I went rambling awayfrom my father; yet there were none of them backward to hear whathad been said; and all of them seriously promised that they wouldtalk with their wives about it, and do their endeavours topersuade them to turn Christians.

The clergyman smiled upon me when I reported what answer theygave, but said nothing a good while; but at last, shaking hishead, “We that are Christ’s servants,” says he,“can go no further than to exhort and instruct: and whenmen comply, submit to the reproof, and promise what we ask,’tis all we can do; we are bound to accept their goodwords; but believe me, sir,” said he, “whatever youmay have known of the life of that man you call WillAtkin’s, I believe he is the only sincere convert amongthem: I will not despair of the rest; but that man is apparentlystruck with the sense of his past life, and I doubt not, when hecomes to talk of religion to his wife, he will talk himselfeffectually into it: for attempting to teach others is sometimesthe best way of teaching ourselves.  If that poor Atkinsbegins but once to talk seriously of Jesus Christ to his wife, hewill assuredly talk himself into a thorough convert, make himselfa 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, hemarried the two other couple; but Will Atkins and his wife werenot 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 yourlabyrinth here and look; I daresay we shall find this poor mansomewhere or other talking seriously to his wife, and teachingher already something of religion.”  I began to be ofthe same mind; so we went out together, and I carried him a waywhich none knew but myself, and where the trees were so verythick 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 theedge of the wood, I saw Atkins and his tawny wife sitting underthe shade of a bush, very eager in discourse: I stopped shorttill my clergyman came up to me, and then having showed him wherethey were, we stood and looked very steadily at them a goodwhile.  We observed him very earnest with her, pointing upto the sun, and to every quarter of the heavens, and then down tothe earth, then out to the sea, then to himself, then to her, tothe woods, to the trees.  “Now,” says theclergyman, “you see my words are made good, the manpreaches to her; mark him now, he is telling her that our God hasmade 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 hisfeet, fall down on his knees, and lift up both his hands. We supposed he said something, but we could not hear him; it wastoo far for that.  He did not continue kneeling half aminute, but comes and sits down again by his wife, and talks toher again; we perceived then the woman very attentive, butwhether she said anything to him we could not tell.  Whilethe poor fellow was upon his knees I could see the tears runplentifully down my clergyman’s cheeks, and I could hardlyforbear myself; but it was a great affliction to us both that wewere not near enough to hear anything that passed betweenthem.  Well, however, we could come no nearer for fear ofdisturbing them: so we resolved to see an end of this piece ofstill conversation, and it spoke loud enough to us without thehelp of voice.  He sat down again, as I have said, close byher, and talked again earnestly to her, and two or three times wecould see him embrace her most passionately; another time we sawhim take out his handkerchief and wipe her eyes, and then kissher again with a kind of transport very unusual; and afterseveral of these things, we saw him on a sudden jump up again,and lend her his hand to help her up, when immediately leadingher 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 towithhold himself a while, that we might see an end of the scene,which to me, I must confess, was the most affecting that ever Isaw in my life.  Well, he strove with himself for a while,but was in such raptures to think that the poor heathen woman wasbecome a Christian, that he was not able to contain himself; hewept several times, then throwing up his hands and crossing hisbreast, said over several things ejaculatory, and by the way ofgiving God thanks for so miraculous a testimony of the success ofour endeavours.  Some he spoke softly, and I could not wellhear others; some things he said in Latin, some in French; thentwo or three times the tears would interrupt him, that he couldnot speak at all; but I begged that he would contain himself, andlet us more narrowly and fully observe what was before us, whichhe did for a time, the scene not being near ended yet; for afterthe poor man and his wife were risen again from their knees, weobserved he stood talking still eagerly to her, and we observedher motion, that she was greatly affected with what he said, byher frequently lifting up her hands, laying her hand to herbreast, and such other postures as express the greatestseriousness and attention; this continued about half a quarter ofan hour, and then they walked away, so we could see no more ofthem in that situation.

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

To this he answered, with abundance of candour, thus:“Sir, I am a Catholic of the Roman Church, and a priest ofthe order of St. Benedict, and I embrace all the principles ofthe Roman faith; but yet, if you will believe me, and that I donot speak in compliment to you, or in respect to my circumstancesand your civilities; I say nevertheless, I do not look upon you,who call yourselves reformed, without some charity.  I darenot say (though I know it is our opinion in general) that youcannot be saved; I will by no means limit the mercy of Christ sofar as think that He cannot receive you into the bosom of HisChurch, in a manner to us unperceivable; and I hope you have thesame charity for us: I pray daily for you being all restored toChrist’s Church, by whatsoever method He, who is all-wise,is pleased to direct.  In the meantime, surely you willallow it consists with me as a Roman to distinguish far between aProtestant and a pagan; between one that calls on Jesus Christ,though in a way which I do not think is according to the truefaith, and a savage or a barbarian, that knows no God, no Christ,no Redeemer; and if you are not within the pale of the CatholicChurch, we hope you are nearer being restored to it than thosewho know nothing of God or of His Church: and I rejoice,therefore, when I see this poor man, who you say has been aprofligate, and almost a murderer kneel down and pray to JesusChrist, as we suppose he did, though not fully enlightened;believing that God, from whom every such work proceeds, willsensibly touch his heart, and bring him to the further knowledgeof that truth in His own time; and if God shall influence thispoor man to convert and instruct the ignorant savage, his wife, Ican never believe that he shall be cast away himself.  Andhave I not reason, then, to rejoice, the nearer any are broughtto the knowledge of Christ, though they may not be brought quitehome into the bosom of the Catholic Church just at the time whenI desire it, leaving it to the goodness of Christ to perfect Hiswork in His own time, and in his own way?  Certainly, Iwould rejoice if all the savages in America were brought, likethis poor woman, to pray to God, though they were all to beProtestants at first, rather than they should continue pagans orheathens; firmly believing, that He that had bestowed the firstlight on them would farther illuminate them with a beam of Hisheavenly grace, and bring them into the pale of His Church whenHe should see good.”

CHAPTER VII—CONVERSATION BETWIXT WILL ATKINS AND HISWIFE

I was astonished at the sincerity and temper of this piousPapist, as much as I was oppressed by the power of his reasoning;and it presently occurred to my thoughts, that if such a temperwas universal, we might be all Catholic Christians, whateverChurch or particular profession we joined in; that a spirit ofcharity would soon work us all up into right principles; and ashe thought that the like charity would make us all Catholics, soI told him I believed, had all the members of his Church the likemoderation, they would soon all be Protestants.  And therewe left that part; for we never disputed at all.  However, Italked to him another way, and taking him by the hand, “Myfriend,” says I, “I wish all the clergy of the RomishChurch were blessed with such moderation, and had an equal shareof your charity.  I am entirely of your opinion; but I musttell you that if you should preach such doctrine in Spain orItaly, they would put you into theInquisition.”—“It may be so,” said he;“I know not what they would do in Spain or Italy; but Iwill not say they would be the better Christians for thatseverity; for I am sure there is no heresy in abounding withcharity.”

Well, as Will Atkins and his wife were gone, our businessthere was over, so we went back our own way; and when we cameback, we found them waiting to be called in.  Observingthis, I asked my clergyman if we should discover to him that wehad seen him under the bush or not; and it was his opinion weshould not, but that we should talk to him first, and hear whathe would say to us; so we called him in alone, nobody being inthe place but ourselves, and I began by asking him someparticulars about his parentage and education.  He told mefrankly enough that his father was a clergyman who would havetaught him well, but that he, Will Atkins, despised allinstruction and correction; and by his brutish conduct cut thethread of all his father’s comforts and shortened his days,for that he broke his heart by the most ungrateful, unnaturalreturn for the most affectionate treatment a father evergave.

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

I laid all this before the young clergyman, who was greatlyaffected with it, and said to me, “Did I not say, sir, thatwhen this man was converted he would preach to us all?  Itell you, sir, if this one man be made a true penitent, therewill be no need of me; he will make Christians of all in theisland.”—But having a little composed myself, Irenewed my discourse with Will Atkins.  “But,Will,” said I, “how comes the sense of this matter totouch you just now?”

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

R.C.—No, no, it is not your wife has preached toyou; 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 beresisted.

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

W.A.—Sir, it is impossible to give you a fullaccount of it; I am too full to hold it, and yet have no tongueto express it; but let her have said what she will, though Icannot give you an account of it, this I can tell you, that Ihave 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 iscertain.  She has preached a sermon, indeed, if she haswrought this upon you.

W.A.—Why, I first told her the nature of our lawsabout marriage, and what the reasons were that men and women wereobliged to enter into such compacts as it was neither in thepower of one nor other to break; that otherwise, order andjustice could not be maintained, and men would run from theirwives, and abandon their children, mix confusedly with oneanother, and neither families be kept entire, nor inheritances besettled by legal descent.

R.C.—You talk like a civilian, Will.  Couldyou make her understand what you meant by inheritance andfamilies?  They know no such things among the savages, butmarry anyhow, without regard to relation, consanguinity, orfamily; brother and sister, nay, as I have been told, even thefather and the daughter, and the son and the mother.

W.A.—I believe, sir, you are misinformed, and mywife 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 toldher?

W.A.—She said she liked it very well, as it wasmuch better than in her country.

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

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

Wife.—Appointed by your God!—Why, have youa God in your country?

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

Wife.—No your God in my country; my country havethe great old Benamuckee God.

W.A.—Child, I am very unfit to show you who Godis; 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 allearth; no makee my country.

[Will Atkins laughed a little at her expression of God notmaking her country.]

Wife.—No laugh; why laugh me?  This no tingto laugh.

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

W.A.—That’s true, indeed; I will not laughany 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, andthere 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 awicked wretch, and have not only forgotten to acquaint thee withanything before, but have lived without God in the worldmyself.

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

W.A.—It is true; though, for all that, we live asif there was no God in heaven, or that He had no power onearth.

Wife.—But why God let you do so?  Why He nomakee 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 nomakee kill when you no serve Him? no say O to Him? no be goodmans?

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

Wife.—But then do you not tell God thankee forthat too?

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

Wife.—Then you God no God; me no think, believeHe 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 frombelieving in God?  What a dreadful creature am I! and what asad truth is it, that the horrid lives of Christians hinder theconversion of heathens!

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

W.A.—Yes, yes, He knows and sees all things; Hehears us speak, sees what we do, knows what we think though we donot 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 powerstrong?

W.A.—He is merciful, that is all we can say forit; and this proves Him to be the true God; He is God, and notman, and therefore we are not consumed.

[Here Will Atkins told us he was struck with horror to thinkhow 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 haddone.]

Wife.—Merciful!  What you call dat?

W.A.—He is our Father and Maker, and He pitiesand spares us.

Wife.—So then He never makee kill, never angrywhen you do wicked; then He no good Himself, or no greatable.

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

Wife.—But no makee kill you yet; then He tellyou, maybe, that He no makee you kill: so you makee the bargainwith Him, you do bad thing, He no be angry at you when He beangry at other mans.

W.A.—No, indeed, my sins are all presumptionsupon His goodness; and He would be infinitely just if Hedestroyed 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 forall that too?

W.A.—I am an unthankful, ungrateful dog, that istrue.

Wife.—Why He no makee you much good better? yousay He makee you.

W.A.—He made me as He made all the world: it is Ihave deformed myself and abused His goodness, and made myself anabominable wretch.

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

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

W.A.—My dear, you mean, you wish I could teachyou 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 makeeme?

W.A.—Poor creature, He must teach thee: I cannotteach 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 tomake her know God, and her wishing to know Him, that he said hefell down on his knees before her, and prayed to God to enlightenher mind with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and to pardonhis sins, and accept of his being the unworthy instrument ofinstructing her in the principles of religion: after which he satdown by her again, and their dialogue went on.  This was thetime when we saw him kneel down and hold up his hands.]

Wife.—What you put down the knee for?  Whatyou hold up the hand for?  What you say?  Who you speakto?  What is all that?

W.A.—My dear, I bow my knees in token of mysubmission 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, Iprayed to Him.

Wife.—What say you O to Him for?

W.A.—I prayed to Him to open your eyes and yourunderstanding, 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 promisedto 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 hasrevealed Himself many ways to us.

[Here he was at a great loss to make her understand that Godhas 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 formerdays, even from heaven, by plain words; and God has inspired goodmen by His Spirit; and they have written all His laws down in abook.

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

W.A.—Alas! my poor creature, I have not thisbook; but I hope I shall one time or other get it for you, andhelp you to read it.

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

Wife.—But how you makee me know that God teacheethem to write that book?

W.A.—By the same rule that we know Him to beGod.

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

W.A.—Because He teaches and commands nothing butwhat is good, righteous, and holy, and tends to make us perfectlygood, as well as perfectly happy; and because He forbids andcommands 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 giveall thing, He hear me when I say O to Him, as you do just now; Hemakee me good if I wish to be good; He spare me, no makee killme, when I no be good: all this you say He do, yet He be greatGod; me take, think, believe Him to be great God; me say O to Himwith 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 herin the knowledge of Himself, by His Spirit; and that by some goodprovidence, if possible, she might, some time or other, come tohave a Bible, that she might read the word of God, and be taughtby it to know Him.  This was the time that we saw him lifther up by the hand, and saw him kneel down by her, as above.

They had several other discourses, it seems, after this; andparticularly she made him promise that, since he confessed hisown life had been a wicked, abominable course of provocationsagainst God, that he would reform it, and not make God angry anymore, lest He should make him dead, as she called it, and thenshe would be left alone, and never be taught to know this Godbetter; and lest he should be miserable, as he had told herwicked men would be after death.

This was a strange account, and very affecting to us both, butparticularly to the young clergyman; he was, indeed, wonderfullysurprised with it, but under the greatest affliction imaginablethat he could not talk to her, that he could not speak English tomake her understand him; and as she spoke but very brokenEnglish, he could not understand her; however, he turned himselfto me, and told me that he believed that there must be more to dowith this woman than to marry her.  I did not understand himat first; but at length he explained himself, viz. that she oughtto be baptized.  I agreed with him in that part readily, andwished 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 toembrace a religious life, and has given her just ideas of thebeing of a God; of His power, justice, and mercy: yet I desire toknow of him if he has said anything to her of Jesus Christ, andof the salvation of sinners; of the nature of faith in Him, andredemption by Him; of the Holy Spirit, the resurrection, the lastjudgment, and the future state.”

I called Will Atkins again, and asked him; but the poor fellowfell immediately into tears, and told us he had said something toher of all those things, but that he was himself so wicked acreature, and his own conscience so reproached him with hishorrid, ungodly life, that he trembled at the apprehensions thather knowledge of him should lessen the attention she should giveto those things, and make her rather contemn religion thanreceive it; but he was assured, he said, that her mind was sodisposed to receive due impressions of all those things, and thatif I would but discourse with her, she would make it appear to mysatisfaction that my labour would not be lost upon her.

Accordingly I called her in, and placing myself as interpreterbetween my religious priest and the woman, I entreated him tobegin with her; but sure such a sermon was never preached by aPopish priest in these latter ages of the world; and as I toldhim, I thought he had all the zeal, all the knowledge, all thesincerity of a Christian, without the error of a Roman Catholic;and that I took him to be such a clergyman as the Roman bishopswere before the Church of Rome assumed spiritual sovereignty overthe consciences of men.  In a word, he brought the poorwoman to embrace the knowledge of Christ, and of redemption byHim, not with wonder and astonishment only, as she did the firstnotions of a God, but with joy and faith; with an affection, anda surprising degree of understanding, scarce to be imagined, muchless to be expressed; and, at her own request, she wasbaptized.

When he was preparing to baptize her, I entreated him that hewould perform that office with some caution, that the man mightnot perceive he was of the Roman Church, if possible, because ofother ill consequences which might attend a difference among usin that very religion which we were instructing the otherin.  He told me that as he had no consecrated chapel, norproper things for the office, I should see he would do it in amanner that I should not know by it that he was a Roman Catholicmyself, if I had not known it before; and so he did; for sayingonly some words over to himself in Latin, which I could notunderstand, he poured a whole dishful of water upon thewoman’s head, pronouncing in French, very loud,“Mary” (which was the name her husband desired me togive her, for I was her godfather), “I baptize thee in thename of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;”so that none could know anything by it what religion he wasof.  He gave the benediction afterwards in Latin, but eitherWill Atkins did not know but it was French, or else did not takenotice of it at that time.

As soon as this was over we married them; and after themarriage was over, he turned to Will Atkins, and in a veryaffectionate manner exhorted him, not only to persevere in thatgood disposition he was in, but to support the convictions thatwere upon him by a resolution to reform his life: told him it wasin vain to say he repented if he did not forsake his crimes;represented to him how God had honoured him with being theinstrument of bringing his wife to the knowledge of the Christianreligion, and that he should be careful he did not dishonour thegrace of God; and that if he did, he would see the heathen abetter Christian than himself; the savage converted, and theinstrument cast away.  He said a great many good things tothem both; and then, recommending them to God’s goodness,gave them the benediction again, I repeating everything to themin English; and thus ended the ceremony.  I think it was themost pleasant and agreeable day to me that ever I passed in mywhole life.  But my clergyman had not done yet: his thoughtshung continually upon the conversion of the thirty-seven savages,and fain be would have stayed upon the island to have undertakenit; but I convinced him, first, that his undertaking wasimpracticable in itself; and, secondly, that perhaps I would putit into a way of being done in his absence to hissatisfaction.

Having thus brought the affairs of the island to a narrowcompass, I was preparing to go on board the ship, when the youngman I had taken out of the famished ship’s company came tome, and told me he understood I had a clergyman with me, and thatI had caused the Englishmen to be married to the savages; that hehad a match too, which he desired might be finished before Iwent, between two Christians, which he hoped would not bedisagreeable to me.

I knew this must be the young woman who was his mother’sservant, for there was no other Christian woman on the island: soI began to persuade him not to do anything of that kind rashly,or because he found himself in this solitary circumstance. I represented to him that he had some considerable substance inthe world, and good friends, as I understood by himself, and themaid also; that the maid was not only poor, and a servant, butwas unequal to him, she being six or seven and twenty years old,and he not above seventeen or eighteen; that he might veryprobably, with my assistance, make a remove from this wilderness,and come into his own country again; and that then it would be athousand to one but he would repent his choice, and the dislikeof that circumstance might be disadvantageous to both.  Iwas going to say more, but he interrupted me, smiling, and toldme, with a great deal of modesty, that I mistook in myguesses—that he had nothing of that kind in his thoughts;and he was very glad to hear that I had an intent of putting themin a way to see their own country again; and nothing should havemade him think of staying there, but that the voyage I was goingwas so exceeding long and hazardous, and would carry him quiteout of the reach of all his friends; that he had nothing todesire of me but that I would settle him in some little propertyin the island where he was, give him a servant or two, and somefew necessaries, and he would live here like a planter, waitingthe good time when, if ever I returned to England, I would redeemhim.  He hoped I would not be unmindful of him when I cameto England: that he would give me some letters to his friends inLondon, to let them know how good I had been to him, and in whatpart of the world and what circumstances I had left him in: andhe promised me that whenever I redeemed him, the plantation, andall the improvements he had made upon it, let the value be whatit would, should be wholly mine.

His discourse was very prettily delivered, considering hisyouth, and was the more agreeable to me, because he told mepositively the match was not for himself. I gave him all possibleassurances that if I lived to come safe to England, I woulddeliver his letters, and do his business effectually; and that hemight depend I should never forget the circumstances I had lefthim in.  But still I was impatient to know who was theperson to be married; upon which he told me it was myJack-of-all-trades and his maid Susan.  I was most agreeablysurprised when he named the match; for, indeed, I thought it verysuitable.  The character of that man I have given already;and as for the maid, she was a very honest, modest, sober, andreligious young woman: had a very good share of sense, wasagreeable enough in her person, spoke very handsomely and to thepurpose, always with decency and good manners, and was neithertoo backward to speak when requisite, nor impertinently forwardwhen it was not her business; very handy and housewifely, and anexcellent manager; fit, indeed, to have been governess to thewhole island; and she knew very well how to behave in everyrespect.

The match being proposed in this manner, we married them thesame day; and as I was father at the altar, and gave her away, soI gave her a portion; for I appointed her and her husband ahandsome large space of ground for their plantation; and indeedthis match, and the proposal the young gentleman made to give hima small property in the island, put me upon parcelling it outamongst them, that they might not quarrel afterwards about theirsituation.

This sharing out the land to them I left to Will Atkins, whowas now grown a sober, grave, managing fellow, perfectlyreformed, exceedingly pious and religious; and, as far as I maybe allowed to speak positively in such a case, I verily believehe was a true penitent.  He divided things so justly, and somuch to every one’s satisfaction, that they only desiredone general writing under my hand for the whole, which I causedto be drawn up, and signed and sealed, setting out the bounds andsituation of every man’s plantation, and testifying that Igave them thereby severally a right to the whole possession andinheritance of the respective plantations or farms, with theirimprovements, to them and their heirs, reserving all the rest ofthe island as my own property, and a certain rent for everyparticular plantation after eleven years, if I, or any one fromme, or in my name, came to demand it, producing an attested copyof the same writing.  As to the government and laws amongthem, I told them I was not capable of giving them better rulesthan they were able to give themselves; only I made them promiseme to live in love and good neighbourhood with one another; andso I prepared to leave them.

One thing I must not omit, and that is, that being now settledin a kind of commonwealth among themselves, and having muchbusiness in hand, it was odd to have seven-and-thirty Indianslive in a nook of the island, independent, and, indeed,unemployed; for except the providing themselves food, which theyhad difficulty enough to do sometimes, they had no manner ofbusiness or property to manage.  I proposed, therefore, tothe governor Spaniard that he should go to them, withFriday’s father, and propose to them to remove, and eitherplant for themselves, or be taken into their several families asservants to be maintained for their labour, but without beingabsolute slaves; for I would not permit them to make them slavesby force, by any means; because they had their liberty given themby capitulation, as it were articles of surrender, which theyought not to break.

They most willingly embraced the proposal, and came all verycheerfully along with him: so we allotted them land andplantations, which three or four accepted of, but all the restchose to be employed as servants in the several families we hadsettled.  Thus my colony was in a manner settled as follows:The Spaniards possessed my original habitation, which was thecapital city, and extended their plantations all along the sideof the brook, which made the creek that I have so oftendescribed, as far as my bower; and as they increased theirculture, it went always eastward.  The English lived in thenorth-east part, where Will Atkins and his comrades began, andcame on southward and south-west, towards the back part of theSpaniards; and every plantation had a great addition of land totake in, if they found occasion, so that they need not jostle oneanother for want of room.  All the east end of the islandwas left uninhabited, that if any of the savages should come onshore there only for their customary barbarities, they might comeand go; if they disturbed nobody, nobody would disturb them: andno doubt but they were often ashore, and went away again; for Inever heard that the planters were ever attacked or disturbed anymore.

CHAPTER VIII—SAILS FROM THE ISLAND FOR THE BRAZILS

It now came into my thoughts that I had hinted to my friendthe clergyman that the work of converting the savages mightperhaps be set on foot in his absence to his satisfaction, and Itold him that now I thought that it was put in a fair way; forthe savages, being thus divided among the Christians, if theywould but every one of them do their part with those which cameunder 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 ofthem?”  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 theSpaniards, who were all Papists, and I to speak to the English,who were all Protestants; and we recommended it earnestly tothem, and made them promise that they would never make anydistinction of Papist or Protestant in their exhorting thesavages to turn Christians, but teach them the general knowledgeof the true God, and of their Saviour Jesus Christ; and theylikewise promised us that they would never have any differencesor disputes one with another about religion.

When I came to Will Atkins’s house, I found that theyoung woman I have mentioned above, and Will Atkins’s wife,were become intimates; and this prudent, religious young womanhad perfected the work Will Atkins had begun; and though it wasnot above four days after what I have related, yet thenew-baptized savage woman was made such a Christian as I haveseldom heard of in all my observation or conversation in theworld.  It came next into my mind, in the morning before Iwent to them, that amongst all the needful things I had to leavewith them I had not left them a Bible, in which I showed myselfless considering for them than my good friend the widow was forme 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 thanever she imagined, for they were reserved for the comfort andinstruction of those that made much better use of them than I haddone.

I took one of the Bibles in my pocket, and when I came to WillAtkins’s tent, or house, and found the young woman andAtkins’s baptized wife had been discoursing of religiontogether—for Will Atkins told it me with a great deal ofjoy—I asked if they were together now, and he said,“Yes”; so I went into the house, and he with me, andwe found them together very earnest in discourse. “Oh, sir,” says Will Atkins, “when God hassinners to reconcile to Himself, and aliens to bring home, Henever wants a messenger; my wife has got a new instructor: I knewI was unworthy, as I was incapable of that work; that young womanhas been sent hither from heaven—she is enough to convert awhole island of savages.”  The young woman blushed,and rose up to go away, but I desired her to sit-still; I toldher she had a good work upon her hands, and I hoped God wouldbless her in it.

We talked a little, and I did not perceive that they had anybook among them, though I did not ask; but I put my hand into mypocket, and pulled out my Bible.  “Here,” said Ito Atkins, “I have brought you an assistant that perhapsyou had not before.”  The man was so confounded thathe 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 youour God, though He lives above, could hear what we havesaid?  Here’s the book I prayed for when you and Ikneeled down under the bush; now God has heard us and sentit.”  When he had said so, the man fell into suchpassionate transports, that between the joy of having it, andgiving God thanks for it, the tears ran down his face like achild that was crying.

The woman was surprised, and was like to have run into amistake that none of us were aware of; for she firmly believedGod had sent the book upon her husband’s petition.  Itis true that providentially it was so, and might be taken so in aconsequent sense; but I believe it would have been no difficultmatter at that time to have persuaded the poor woman to havebelieved that an express messenger came from heaven on purpose tobring that individual book.  But it was too serious a matterto suffer any delusion to take place, so I turned to the youngwoman, and told her we did not desire to impose upon the newconvert in her first and more ignorant understanding of things,and begged her to explain to her that God may be very properlysaid to answer our petitions, when, in the course of Hisprovidence, such things are in a particular manner brought topass as we petitioned for; but we did not expect returns fromheaven in a miraculous and particular manner, and it is a mercythat it is not so.

This the young woman did afterwards effectually, so that therewas no priestcraft used here; and I should have thought it one ofthe most unjustifiable frauds in the world to have had itso.  But the effect upon Will Atkins is really not to beexpressed; and there, we may be sure, was no delusion.  Sureno man was ever more thankful in the world for anything of itskind than he was for the Bible, nor, I believe, never any man wasglad of a Bible from a better principle; and though he had been amost profligate creature, headstrong, furious, and desperatelywicked, yet this man is a standing rule to us all for the wellinstructing children, viz. that parents should never give over toteach and instruct, nor ever despair of the success of theirendeavours, let the children be ever so refractory, or toappearance insensible to instruction; for if ever God in Hisprovidence touches the conscience of such, the force of theireducation turns upon them, and the early instruction of parentsis not lost, though it may have been many years laid asleep, butsome time or other they may find the benefit of it.  Thus itwas with this poor man: however ignorant he was of religion andChristian knowledge, he found he had some to do with now moreignorant than himself, and that the least part of the instructionof his good father that now came to his mind was of use tohim.

Among the rest, it occurred to him, he said, how his fatherused to insist so much on the inexpressible value of the Bible,and the privilege and blessing of it to nations, families, andpersons; but he never entertained the least notion of the worthof it till now, when, being to talk to heathens, savages, andbarbarians, he wanted the help of the written oracle for hisassistance.  The young woman was glad of it also for thepresent occasion, though she had one, and so had the youth, onboard our ship among their goods, which were not yet brought onshore.  And now, having said so many things of this youngwoman, 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 wasreduced; how her mistress was starved to death, and died on boardthat unhappy ship we met at sea, and how the whole ship’scompany was reduced to the last extremity.  The gentlewoman,and her son, and this maid, were first hardly used as toprovisions, and at last totally neglected and starved—thatis to say, brought to the last extremity of hunger.  Oneday, being discoursing with her on the extremities they suffered,I asked her if she could describe, by what she had felt, what itwas to starve, and how it appeared?  She said she believedshe could, and told her tale very distinctly thus:—

“First, we had for some days fared exceedingly hard, andsuffered very great hunger; but at last we were wholly withoutfood of any kind except sugar, and a little wine and water. The first day after I had received no food at all, I found myselftowards evening, empty and sick at the stomach, and nearer nightmuch inclined to yawning and sleep.  I lay down on the couchin the great cabin to sleep, and slept about three hours, andawaked a little refreshed, having taken a glass of wine when Ilay down; after being about three hours awake, it being aboutfive o’clock in the morning, I found myself empty, and mystomach sickish, and lay down again, but could not sleep at all,being very faint and ill; and thus I continued all the second daywith a strange variety—first hungry, then sick again, withretchings to vomit.  The second night, being obliged to goto bed again without any food more than a draught of fresh water,and being asleep, I dreamed I was at Barbadoes, and that themarket was mightily stocked with provisions; that I bought somefor my mistress, and went and dined very heartily.  Ithought my stomach was full after this, as it would have beenafter a good dinner; but when I awaked I was exceedingly sunk inmy spirits to find myself in the extremity of family.  Thelast glass of wine we had I drank, and put sugar in it, becauseof its having some spirit to supply nourishment; but there beingno substance in the stomach for the digesting office to workupon, I found the only effect of the wine was to raisedisagreeable fumes from the stomach into the head; and I lay, asthey told me, stupid and senseless, as one drunk, for sometime.  The third day, in the morning, after a night ofstrange, confused, and inconsistent dreams, and rather dozingthan sleeping, I awaked ravenous and furious with hunger; and Iquestion, had not my understanding returned and conquered it,whether if I had been a mother, and had had a little child withme, its life would have been safe or not.  This lasted aboutthree hours, during which time I was twice raging mad as anycreature in Bedlam, as my young master told me, and as he can nowinform you.

“In one of these fits of lunacy or distraction I felldown and struck my face against the corner of a pallet-bed, inwhich my mistress lay, and with the blow the blood gushed out ofmy nose; and the cabin-boy bringing me a little basin, I sat downand bled into it a great deal; and as the blood came from me Icame to myself, and the violence of the flame or fever I was inabated, and so did the ravenous part of the hunger.  Then Igrew sick, and retched to vomit, but could not, for I had nothingin my stomach to bring up.  After I had bled some time Iswooned, and they all believed I was dead; but I came to myselfsoon after, and then had a most dreadful pain in my stomach notto be described—not like the colic, but a gnawing, eagerpain for food; and towards night it went off with a kind ofearnest wishing or longing for food.  I took another draughtof water with sugar in it; but my stomach loathed the sugar andbrought it all up again; then I took a draught of water withoutsugar, 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, andthen waking, thought myself dying, being light with vapours froman empty stomach.  I recommended my soul then to God, andthen earnestly wished that somebody would throw me into the sea.

“All this while my mistress lay by me, just, as Ithought, expiring, but she bore it with much more patience thanI, and gave the last bit of bread she had left to her child, myyoung master, who would not have taken it, but she obliged him toeat it; and I believe it saved his life.  Towards themorning I slept again, and when I awoke I fell into a violentpassion of crying, and after that had a second fit of violenthunger.  I got up ravenous, and in a most dreadfulcondition; and once or twice I was going to bite my ownarm.  At last I saw the basin in which was the blood I hadbled at my nose the day before: I ran to it, and swallowed itwith such haste, and such a greedy appetite, as if I wonderednobody had taken it before, and afraid it should be taken from menow.  After it was down, though the thoughts of it filled mewith horror, yet it checked the fit of hunger, and I took anotherdraught of water, and was composed and refreshed for some hoursafter.  This was the fourth day; and this I kept up tilltowards night, when, within the compass of three hours, I had allthe several circumstances over again, one after another, viz.sick, sleepy, eagerly hungry, pain in the stomach, then ravenousagain, then sick, then lunatic, then crying, then ravenous again,and so every quarter of an hour, and my strength wastedexceedingly; at night I lay me down, having no comfort but in thehope that I should die before morning.

“All this night I had no sleep; but the hunger was nowturned into a disease; and I had a terrible colic and griping, bywind instead of food having found its way into the bowels; and inthis condition I lay till morning, when I was surprised by thecries and lamentations of my young master, who called out to methat his mother was dead.  I lifted myself up a little, forI had not strength to rise, but found she was not dead, thoughshe was able to give very little signs of life.  I had thensuch convulsions in my stomach, for want of some sustenance, as Icannot describe; with such frequent throes and pangs of appetiteas nothing but the tortures of death can imitate; and in thiscondition I was when I heard the seamen above cry out, ‘Asail! a sail!’ and halloo and jump about as if they weredistracted.  I was not able to get off from the bed, and mymistress much less; and my young master was so sick that Ithought he had been expiring; so we could not open the cabindoor, or get any account what it was that occasioned suchconfusion; nor had we had any conversation with the ship’scompany for twelve days, they having told us that they had not amouthful of anything to eat in the ship; and this they told usafterwards—they thought we had been dead.  It was thisdreadful condition we were in when you were sent to save ourlives; and how you found us, sir, you know as well as I, andbetter too.”

This was her own relation, and is such a distinct account ofstarving to death, as, I confess, I never met with, and wasexceeding instructive to me.  I am the rather apt to believeit to be a true account, because the youth gave me an account ofa good part of it; though I must own, not so distinct and sofeeling as the maid; and the rather, because it seems his motherfed him at the price of her own life: but the poor maid, whoseconstitution was stronger than that of her mistress, who was inyears, and a weakly woman too, might struggle harder with it;nevertheless she might be supposed to feel the extremitysomething sooner than her mistress, who might be allowed to keepthe last bit something longer than she parted with any to relieveher maid.  No question, as the case is here related, if ourship or some other had not so providentially met them, but a fewdays more would have ended all their lives.  I now return tomy disposition of things among the people.  And, first, itis to be observed here, that for many reasons I did not think fitto let them know anything of the sloop I had framed, and which Ithought of setting up among them; for I found, at least at myfirst coming, such seeds of division among them, that I sawplainly, had I set up the sloop, and left it among them, theywould, upon every light disgust, have separated, and gone awayfrom one another; or perhaps have turned pirates, and so made theisland a den of thieves, instead of a plantation of sober andreligious people, as I intended it; nor did I leave the twopieces of brass cannon that I had on board, or the extra twoquarter-deck guns that my nephew had provided, for the samereason.  I thought it was enough to qualify them for adefensive war against any that should invade them, but not to setthem up for an offensive war, or to go abroad to attack others;which, in the end, would only bring ruin and destruction uponthem.  I reserved the sloop, therefore, and the guns, fortheir service another way, as I shall observe in its place.

Having now done with the island, I left them all in goodcircumstances and in a flourishing condition, and went on boardmy ship again on the 6th of May, having been about twenty-fivedays among them: and as they were all resolved to stay upon theisland till I came to remove them, I promised to send themfurther relief from the Brazils, if I could possibly find anopportunity.  I particularly promised to send them somecattle, such as sheep, hogs, and cows: as to the two cows andcalves which I brought from England, we had been obliged, by thelength of our voyage, to kill them at sea, for want of hay tofeed them.

The next day, giving them a salute of five guns at parting, weset sail, and arrived at the bay of All Saints in the Brazils inabout twenty-two days, meeting nothing remarkable in our passagebut this: that about three days after we had sailed, beingbecalmed, and the current setting strong to the ENE., running, asit were, into a bay or gulf on the land side, we were drivensomething out of our course, and once or twice our men cried out,“Land to the eastward!” but whether it was thecontinent or islands we could not tell by any means.  Butthe third day, towards evening, the sea smooth, and the weathercalm, we saw the sea as it were covered towards the land withsomething very black; not being able to discover what it was tillafter some time, our chief mate, going up the main shrouds alittle way, and looking at them with a perspective, cried out itwas 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, anda fleet too: for I believe there are a thousand canoes, and youmay see them paddle along, for they are coming towards usapace.”

I was a little surprised then, indeed, and so was my nephewthe captain; for he had heard such terrible stories of them inthe island, and having never been in those seas before, that hecould not tell what to think of it, but said, two or three times,we should all be devoured.  I must confess, considering wewere becalmed, and the current set strong towards the shore, Iliked it the worse; however, I bade them not be afraid, but bringthe ship to an anchor as soon as we came so near as to know thatwe must engage them.  The weather continued calm, and theycame 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 hadnothing to fear but fire, and therefore they should get theirboats out, and fasten them, one close by the head and the otherby the stern, and man them both well, and wait the issue in thatposture: this I did, that the men in the boats might he readywith sheets and buckets to put out any fire these savages mightendeavour to fix to the outside of the ship.

In this posture we lay by for them, and in a little while theycame up with us; but never was such a horrid sight seen byChristians; though my mate was much mistaken in his calculationof their number, yet when they came up we reckoned about ahundred and twenty-six canoes; some of them had sixteen orseventeen men in them, and some more, and the least six orseven.  When they came nearer to us, they seemed to bestruck with wonder and astonishment, as at a sight whichdoubtless they had never seen before; nor could they at first, aswe afterwards understood, know what to make of us; they cameboldly up, however, very near to us, and seemed to go about torow round us; but we called to our men in the boats not to letthem come too near them.  This very order brought us to anengagement with them, without our designing it; for five or sixof the large canoes came so near our long-boat, that our menbeckoned with their hands to keep them back, which theyunderstood very well, and went back: but at their retreat aboutfifty arrows came on board us from those boats, and one of ourmen in the long-boat was very much wounded.  However, Icalled to them not to fire by any means; but we handed down somedeal boards into the boat, and the carpenter presently set up akind of fence, like waste boards, to cover them from the arrowsof the savages, if they should shoot again.

About half-an-hour afterwards they all came up in a bodyastern of us, and so near that we could easily discern what theywere, though we could not tell their design; and I easily foundthey were some of my old friends, the same sort of savages that Ihad been used to engage with.  In a short time more theyrowed a little farther out to sea, till they came directlybroadside with us, and then rowed down straight upon us, tillthey came so near that they could hear us speak; upon this, Iordered all my men to keep close, lest they should shoot any morearrows, and made all our guns ready; but being so near as to bewithin hearing, I made Friday go out upon the deck, and call outaloud to them in his language, to know what they meant. Whether they understood him or not, that I knew not; but as soonas he had called to them, six of them, who were in the foremostor nighest boat to us, turned their canoes from us, and stoopingdown, showed us their naked backs; whether this was a defiance orchallenge we knew not, or whether it was done in mere contempt,or as a signal to the rest; but immediately Friday cried out theywere going to shoot, and, unhappily for him, poor fellow, theylet fly about three hundred of their arrows, and to myinexpressible grief, killed poor Friday, no other man being intheir sight.  The poor fellow was shot with no less thanthree arrows, and about three more fell very near him; suchunlucky marksmen they were!

I was so annoyed at the loss of my old trusty servant andcompanion, that I immediately ordered five guns to be loaded withsmall shot, and four with great, and gave them such a broadsideas they had never heard in their lives before.  They werenot above half a cable’s length off when we fired; and ourgunners took their aim so well, that three or four of theircanoes were overset, as we had reason to believe, by one shotonly.  The ill manners of turning up their bare backs to usgave us no great offence; neither did I know for certain whetherthat which would pass for the greatest contempt among us might beunderstood so by them or not; therefore, in return, I had onlyresolved to have fired four or five guns at them with powderonly, which I knew would frighten them sufficiently: but whenthey shot at us directly with all the fury they were capable of,and especially as they had killed my poor Friday, whom I soentirely loved and valued, and who, indeed, so well deserved it,I thought myself not only justifiable before God and man, butwould have been very glad if I could have overset every canoethere, and drowned every one of them.

I can neither tell how many we killed nor how many we woundedat this broadside, but sure such a fright and hurry never wereseen among such a multitude; there were thirteen or fourteen oftheir canoes split and overset in all, and the men all seta-swimming: the rest, frightened out of their wits, scoured awayas fast as they could, taking but little care to save those whoseboats were split or spoiled with our shot; so I suppose that manyof them were lost; and our men took up one poor fellow swimmingfor his life, above an hour after they were all gone.  Thesmall shot from our cannon must needs kill and wound a greatmany; but, in short, we never knew how it went with them, forthey fled so fast, that in three hours or thereabouts we couldnot see above three or four straggling canoes, nor did we eversee the rest any more; for a breeze of wind springing up the sameevening, we weighed and set sail for the Brazils.

We had a prisoner, indeed, but the creature was so sullen thathe would neither eat nor speak, and we all fancied he wouldstarve himself to death.  But I took a way to cure him: forI had made them take him and turn him into the long-boat, andmake him believe they would toss him into the sea again, and soleave him where they found him, if he would not speak; nor wouldthat do, but they really did throw him into the sea, and cameaway from him.  Then he followed them, for he swam like acork, and called to them in his tongue, though they knew not oneword of what he said; however at last they took him in again,and then he began to be more tractable: nor did I ever designthey should drown him.

We were now under sail again, but I was the most disconsolatecreature alive for want of my man Friday, and would have beenvery glad to have gone back to the island, to have taken one ofthe rest from thence for my occasion, but it could not be: so wewent on.  We had one prisoner, as I have said, and it was along time before we could make him understand anything; but intime our men taught him some English, and he began to be a littletractable.  Afterwards, we inquired what country he camefrom; but could make nothing of what he said; for his speech wasso odd, all gutturals, and he spoke in the throat in such ahollow, odd manner, that we could never form a word after him;and we were all of opinion that they might speak that language aswell if they were gagged as otherwise; nor could we perceive thatthey had any occasion either for teeth, tongue, lips, or palate,but formed their words just as a hunting-horn forms a tune withan open throat.  He told us, however, some time after, whenwe had taught him to speak a little English, that they were goingwith their kings to fight a great battle.  When he saidkings, we asked him how many kings?  He said they were fivenation (we could not make him understand the plural S),and that they all joined to go against two nation.  We askedhim what made them come up to us?  He said, “To makeete great wonder look.”  Here it is to be observed thatall those natives, as also those of Africa when they learnEnglish, always add two e’s at the end of the words wherewe use one; and they place the accent upon them, as makée,takée, and the like; nay, I could hardly make Friday leaveit off, though at last he did.

And now I name the poor fellow once more, I must take my lastleave of him.  Poor honest Friday!  We buried him withall the decency and solemnity possible, by putting him into acoffin, and throwing him into the sea; and I caused them to fireeleven guns for him.  So ended the life of the mostgrateful, faithful, honest, and most affectionate servant thatever man had.

We went now away with a fair wind for Brazil; and in abouttwelve days’ time we made land, in the latitude of fivedegrees south of the line, being the north-easternmost land ofall that part of America.  We kept on S. by E., in sight ofthe shore four days, when we made Cape St. Augustine, and inthree days came to an anchor off the bay of All Saints, the oldplace of my deliverance, from whence came both my good and evilfate.  Never ship came to this port that had less businessthan I had, and yet it was with great difficulty that we wereadmitted to hold the least correspondence on shore: not mypartner himself, who was alive, and made a great figure amongthem, not my two merchant-trustees, not the fame of my wonderfulpreservation in the island, could obtain me that favour.  Mypartner, however, remembering that I had given five hundredmoidores to the prior of the monastery of the Augustines, and twohundred and seventy-two to the poor, went to the monastery, andobliged the prior that then was to go to the governor, and getleave for me personally, with the captain and one more, besideseight seamen, to come on shore, and no more; and this uponcondition, absolutely capitulated for, that we should not offerto land any goods out of the ship, or to carry any person awaywithout licence.  They were so strict with us as to landingany goods, that it was with extreme difficulty that I got onshore three bales of English goods, such as fine broadcloths,stuffs, and some linen, which I had brought for a present to mypartner.

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

Accordingly, he got hands, and finished the sloop in a veryfew days, for she was already framed; and I gave the master ofher such instructions that he could not miss the place; nor didhe, as I had an account from my partner afterwards.  I gothim soon loaded with the small cargo I sent them; and one of ourseamen, that had been on shore with me there, offered to go withthe sloop and settle there, upon my letter to the governorSpaniard to allot him a sufficient quantity of land for aplantation, and on my giving him some clothes and tools for hisplanting work, which he said he understood, having been an oldplanter at Maryland, and a buccaneer into the bargain.  Iencouraged the fellow by granting all he desired; and, as anaddition, I gave him the savage whom we had taken prisoner of warto be his slave, and ordered the governor Spaniard to give himhis share of everything he wanted with the rest.

When we came to fit this man out, my old partner told me therewas a certain very honest fellow, a Brazil planter of hisacquaintance, who had fallen into the displeasure of theChurch.  “I know not what the matter is withhim,” says he, “but, on my conscience, I think he isa heretic in his heart, and he has been obliged to concealhimself for fear of the Inquisition.” He then told me thathe 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 myisland, and allot them a plantation, he would give them a smallstock to begin with—for the officers of the Inquisition hadseized all his effects and estate, and he had nothing left but alittle household stuff and two slaves; “and,” addshe, “though I hate his principles, yet I would not have himfall into their hands, for he will be assuredly burned alive ifhe does.”  I granted this presently, and joined myEnglishman with them; and we concealed the man, and his wife anddaughters, on board our ship, till the sloop put out to go tosea; and then having put all their goods on board some timebefore, we put them on board the sloop after she was got out ofthe bay.  Our seaman was mightily pleased with this newpartner; and their stocks, indeed, were much alike, rich intools, in preparations, and a farm—but nothing to beginwith, except as above: however, they carried over with them whatwas 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 theisland, I sent them by the sloop three milch cows and fivecalves; about twenty-two hogs, among them three sows; two mares,and a stone-horse.  For my Spaniards, according to mypromise, I engaged three Brazil women to go, and recommended itto them to marry them, and use them kindly.  I could haveprocured more women, but I remembered that the poor persecutedman had two daughters, and that there were but five of theSpaniards 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 oldinhabitants, who were now, with this addition, between sixty andseventy people, besides little children, of which there were agreat many.  I found letters at London from them all, by wayof Lisbon, when I came back to England.

I have now done with the island, and all manner of discourseabout it: and whoever reads the rest of my memorandums would dowell to turn his thoughts entirely from it, and expect to read ofthe follies of an old man, not warned by his own harms, much lessby those of other men, to beware; not cooled by almost fortyyears’ miseries and disappointments—not satisfiedwith prosperity beyond expectation, nor made cautious byafflictions and distress beyond example.

CHAPTER IX—DREADFUL OCCURRENCES IN MADAGASCAR

I had no more business to go to the East Indies than a man atfull liberty has to go to the turnkey at Newgate, and desire himto lock him up among the prisoners there, and starve him. Had I taken a small vessel from England and gone directly to theisland; had I loaded her, as I did the other vessel, with all thenecessaries for the plantation and for my people; taken a patentfrom the government here to have secured my property, insubjection only to that of England; had I carried over cannon andammunition, servants and people to plant, and taken possession ofthe place, fortified and strengthened it in the name of England,and increased it with people, as I might easily have done; had Ithen settled myself there, and sent the ship back laden with goodrice, as I might also have done in six months’ time, andordered my friends to have fitted her out again for oursupply—had I done this, and stayed there myself, I had atleast acted like a man of common sense.  But I was possessedof a wandering spirit, and scorned all advantages: I pleasedmyself with being the patron of the people I placed there, anddoing for them in a kind of haughty, majestic way, like an oldpatriarchal monarch, providing for them as if I had been fatherof the whole family, as well as of the plantation.  But Inever so much as pretended to plant in the name of any governmentor nation, or to acknowledge any prince, or to call my peoplesubjects to any one nation more than another; nay, I never somuch as gave the place a name, but left it as I found it,belonging to nobody, and the people under no discipline orgovernment but my own, who, though I had influence over them as afather and benefactor, had no authority or power to act orcommand one way or other, further than voluntary consent movedthem to comply.  Yet even this, had I stayed there, wouldhave done well enough; but as I rambled from them, and came thereno more, the last letters I had from any of them were by mypartner’s means, who afterwards sent another sloop to theplace, and who sent me word, though I had not the letter till Igot to London, several years after it was written, that they wenton but poorly; were discontented with their long stay there; thatWill Atkins was dead; that five of the Spaniards were come away;and though they had not been much molested by the savages, yetthey had had some skirmishes with them; and that they begged ofhim to write to me to think of the promise I had made to fetchthem away, that they might see their country again before theydied.

But I was gone a wildgoose chase indeed, and they that willhave any more of me must be content to follow me into a newvariety of follies, hardships, and wild adventures, wherein thejustice of Providence may be duly observed; and we may see howeasily Heaven can gorge us with our own desires, make thestrongest of our wishes be our affliction, and punish us mostseverely with those very things which we think it would be ourutmost happiness to be allowed to possess.  Whether I hadbusiness or no business, away I went: it is no time now toenlarge upon the reason or absurdity of my own conduct, but tocome to the history—I was embarked for the voyage, and thevoyage I went.

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

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

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

I shall not pester the reader with a tedious description ofplaces, journals of our voyage, variations of the compass,latitudes, trade-winds, &c.; it is enough to name the portsand places which we touched at, and what occurred to us upon ourpassages from one to another.  We touched first at theisland of Madagascar, where, though the people are fierce andtreacherous, and very well armed with lances and bows, which theyuse with inconceivable dexterity, yet we fared very well withthem a while.  They treated us very civilly; and for sometrifles 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 presentspending, and the rest to salt for the ship’s use.

We were obliged to stay here some time after we had furnishedourselves with provisions; and I, who was always too curious tolook into every nook of the world wherever I came, went on shoreas often as I could.  It was on the east side of the islandthat we went on shore one evening: and the people, who, by theway, are very numerous, came thronging about us, and stood gazingat us at a distance.  As we had traded freely with them, andhad been kindly used, we thought ourselves in no danger; but whenwe saw the people, we cut three boughs out of a tree, and stuckthem up at a distance from us; which, it seems, is a mark in thatcountry not only of a truce and friendship, but when it isaccepted the other side set up three poles or boughs, which is asignal that they accept the truce too; but then this is a knowncondition of the truce, that you are not to pass beyond theirthree poles towards them, nor they to come past your three polesor boughs towards you; so that you are perfectly secure withinthe three poles, and all the space between your poles and theirsis allowed like a market for free converse, traffic, andcommerce.  When you go there you must not carry your weaponswith you; and if they come into that space they stick up theirjavelins and lances all at the first poles, and come on unarmed;but if any violence is offered them, and the truce therebybroken, away they run to the poles, and lay hold of theirweapons, and the truce is at an end.

It happened one evening, when we went on shore, that a greaternumber of their people came down than usual, but all veryfriendly and civil; and they brought several kinds of provisions,for which we satisfied them with such toys as we had; the womenalso brought us milk and roots, and several things veryacceptable to us, and all was quiet; and we made us a little tentor 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 satisfiedto lie on shore as the rest; and the boat riding at an anchor atabout a stone’s cast from the land, with two men in her totake care of her, I made one of them come on shore; and gettingsome boughs of trees to cover us also in the boat, I spread thesail on the bottom of the boat, and lay under the cover of thebranches of the trees all night in the boat.

About two o’clock in the morning we heard one of our menmaking a terrible noise on the shore, calling out, forGod’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 Iheard the fire of five muskets, which was the number of guns theyhad, and that three times over; for it seems the natives herewere not so easily frightened with guns as the savages were inAmerica, where I had to do with them.  All this while, Iknew not what was the matter, but rousing immediately from sleepwith the noise, I caused the boat to be thrust in, and resolvedwith three fusees we had on board to land and assist ourmen.  We got the boat soon to the shore, but our men were intoo much haste; for being come to the shore, they plunged intothe water, to get to the boat with all the expedition they could,being pursued by between three and four hundred men.  Ourmen were but nine in all, and only five of them had fusees withthem; the rest had pistols and swords, indeed, but they were ofsmall 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 stillworse was, that while we stood in the boat to take our men in, wewere in as much danger as they were in on shore; for they pouredtheir arrows in upon us so thick that we were glad to barricadethe side of the boat up with the benches, and two or three looseboards which, to our great satisfaction, we had by mere accidentin the boat.  And yet, had it been daylight, they are, itseems, such exact marksmen, that if they could have seen but theleast 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 theystood pelting us from the shore with darts and arrows; and havinggot ready our firearms, we gave them a volley that we could hear,by the cries of some of them, had wounded several; however, theystood thus in battle array on the shore till break of day, whichwe supposed was that they might see the better to take their aimat us.

In this condition we lay, and could not tell how to weigh ouranchor, or set up our sail, because we must needs stand up in theboat, and they were as sure to hit us as we were to hit a bird ina tree with small shot.  We made signals of distress to theship, and though she rode a league off, yet my nephew, thecaptain, hearing our firing, and by glasses perceiving theposture we lay in, and that we fired towards the shore, prettywell understood us; and weighing anchor with all speed, he stoodas near the shore as he durst with the ship, and then sentanother boat with ten hands in her, to assist us.  We calledto them not to come too near, telling them what condition we werein; however, they stood in near to us, and one of the men takingthe end of a tow-line in his hand, and keeping our boat betweenhim and the enemy, so that they could not perfectly see him, swamon board us, and made fast the line to the boat: upon which weslipped out a little cable, and leaving our anchor behind, theytowed us out of reach of the arrows; we all the while lying closebehind the barricade we had made.  As soon as we were gotfrom between the ship and the shore, that we could lay her sideto the shore, she ran along just by them, and poured in abroadside among them, loaded with pieces of iron and lead, smallbullets, and such stuff, besides the great shot, which made aterrible havoc among them.

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

One of our men was killed with a lance thrown at him just atthe beginning of the attack, as he sallied out of the tent theyhad made; the rest came off free, all but the fellow who was theoccasion of all the mischief, who paid dear enough for hisbrutality, for we could not hear what became of him for a greatwhile.  We lay upon the shore two days after, though thewind presented, and made signals for him, and made our boat sailup shore and down shore several leagues, but in vain; so we wereobliged 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 couldlearn anything of him or them; it was the third night after theaction 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 theIndians’ side.  I was careful to do it in the dark,lest we should be attacked again: but I ought indeed to have beensure that the men I went with had been under my command, before Iengaged in a thing so hazardous and mischievous as I was broughtinto 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 beforemidnight, at the same place where the Indians stood drawn up inthe evening before.  I landed here, because my design, as Ihave said, was chiefly to see if they had quitted the field, andif they had left any marks behind them of the mischief we haddone 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 twobodies, whereof the boatswain commanded one and I theother.  We neither saw nor heard anybody stir when welanded: and we marched up, one body at a distance from another,to the place.  At first we could see nothing, it being verydark; till by-and-by our boatswain, who led the first party,stumbled and fell over a dead body.  This made them halt awhile; for knowing by the circumstances that they were at theplace where the Indians had stood, they waited for my coming upthere.  We concluded to halt till the moon began to rise,which we knew would be in less than an hour, when we could easilydiscern the havoc we had made among them.  We toldthirty-two bodies upon the ground, whereof two were not quitedead; some had an arm and some a leg shot off, and one his head;those that were wounded, we supposed, they had carriedaway.  When we had made, as I thought, a full discovery ofall we could come to the knowledge of, I resolved on going onboard; but the boatswain and his party sent me word that theywere resolved to make a visit to the Indian town, where thesedogs, as they called them, dwelt, and asked me to go along withthem; and if they could find them, as they still fancied theyshould, they did not doubt of getting a good booty; and it mightbe they might find Tom Jeffry there: that was the man’sname we had lost.

Had they sent to ask my leave to go, I knew well enough whatanswer to have given them; for I should have commanded theminstantly on board, knowing it was not a hazard fit for us torun, who had a ship and ship-loading in our charge, and a voyageto make which depended very much upon the lives of the men; butas they sent me word they were resolved to go, and only asked meand 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 tothe boat.  One or two of the men began to importune me togo; and when I refused, began to grumble, and say they were notunder my command, and they would go.  “Come,Jack,” says one of the men, “will you go withme?  I’ll go for one.”  Jack said hewould—and then another—and, in a word, they all leftme but one, whom I persuaded to stay, and a boy left in theboat.  So the supercargo and I, with the third man, wentback to the boat, where we told them we would stay for them, andtake care to take in as many of them as should be left; for Itold them it was a mad thing they were going about, and supposedmost of them would have the fate of Tom Jeffry.

They told me, like seamen, they would warrant it they wouldcome off again, and they would take care, &c.; so away theywent.  I entreated them to consider the ship and the voyage,that their lives were not their own, and that they were entrustedwith the voyage, in some measure; that if they miscarried, theship might be lost for want of their help, and that they couldnot answer for it to God or man.  But I might as well havetalked to the mainmast of the ship: they were mad upon theirjourney; only they gave me good words, and begged I would not beangry; that they did not doubt but they would be back again inabout an hour at furthest; for the Indian town, they said, wasnot above half-a mile off, though they found it above two milesbefore they got to it.

Well, they all went away, and though the attempt wasdesperate, and such as none but madmen would have gone about,yet, to give them their due, they went about it as warily asboldly; they were gallantly armed, for they had every man a fuseeor musket, a bayonet, and a pistol; some of them had broadcutlasses, some of them had hangers, and the boatswain and twomore had poleaxes; besides all which they had among them thirteenhand grenadoes.  Bolder fellows, and better provided, neverwent about any wicked work in the world.  When they went outtheir chief design was plunder, and they were in mighty hopes offinding gold there; but a circumstance which none of them wereaware of set them on fire with revenge, and made devils of themall.

When they came to the few Indian houses which they thought hadbeen the town, which was not above half a mile off, they wereunder great disappointment, for there were not above twelve orthirteen houses, and where the town was, or how big, they knewnot.  They consulted, therefore, what to do, and were sometime before they could resolve; for if they fell upon these, theymust cut all their throats; and it was ten to one but some ofthem 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 theyshould have a whole army upon them; on the other hand, if theywent away and left those untouched, for the people were allasleep, they could not tell which way to look for the town;however, the last was the best advice, so they resolved to leavethem, and look for the town as well as they could.  Theywent on a little way, and found a cow tied to a tree; this, theypresently concluded, would be a good guide to them; for, theysaid, the cow certainly belonged to the town before them, or thetown behind them, and if they untied her, they should see whichway she went: if she went back, they had nothing to say to her;but if she went forward, they would follow her.  So they cutthe cord, which was made of twisted flags, and the cow went onbefore them, directly to the town; which, as they reported,consisted of above two hundred houses or huts, and in some ofthese they found several families living together.

Here they found all in silence, as profoundly secure as sleepcould make them: and first, they called another council, toconsider what they had to do; and presently resolved to dividethemselves into three bodies, and so set three houses on fire inthree parts of the town; and as the men came out, to seize themand bind them (if any resisted, they need not be asked what to dothen), and so to search the rest of the houses for plunder: butthey resolved to march silently first through the town, and seewhat dimensions it was of, and if they might venture upon it orno.

They did so, and desperately resolved that they would ventureupon them: but while they were animating one another to the work,three of them, who were a little before the rest, called outaloud to them, and told them that they had found—TomJeffry: they all ran up to the place, where they found the poorfellow hanging up naked by one arm, and his throat cut. There was an Indian house just by the tree, where they foundsixteen or seventeen of the principal Indians, who had beenconcerned in the fray with us before, and two or three of themwounded with our shot; and our men found they were awake, andtalking one to another in that house, but knew not theirnumber.

The sight of their poor mangled comrade so enraged them, asbefore, that they swore to one another that they would berevenged, and that not an Indian that came into their handsshould have any quarter; and to work they went immediately, andyet not so madly as might be expected from the rage and fury theywere in.  Their first care was to get something that wouldsoon take fire, but, after a little search, they found that wouldbe to no purpose; for most of the houses were low, and thatchedwith flags and rushes, of which the country is full; so theypresently made some wildfire, as we call it, by wetting a littlepowder in the palm of their hands, and in a quarter of an hourthey set the town on fire in four or five places, andparticularly that house where the Indians were not gone tobed.

As soon as the fire begun to blaze, the poor frightenedcreatures began to rush out to save their lives, but met withtheir fate in the attempt; and especially at the door, where theydrove them back, the boatswain himself killing one or two withhis poleaxe.  The house being large, and many in it, he didnot care to go in, but called for a hand grenado, and threw itamong them, which at first frightened them, but, when it burst,made such havoc among them that they cried out in a hideousmanner.  In short, most of the Indians who were in the openpart of the house were killed or hurt with the grenado, excepttwo or three more who pressed to the door, which the boatswainand two more kept, with their bayonets on the muzzles of theirpieces, and despatched all that came in their way; but there wasanother apartment in the house, where the prince or king, orwhatever he was, and several others were; and these were kept intill the house, which was by this time all in a light flame, fellin upon them, and they were smothered together.

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

While this was doing, I must confess I was very uneasy, andespecially when I saw the flames of the town, which, it beingnight, 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 touse their firearms; a thousand thoughts oppressed his mindconcerning me and the supercargo, what would become of us; and atlast, though he could ill spare any more men, yet not knowingwhat exigence we might be in, he took another boat, and withthirteen men and himself came ashore to me.

He was surprised to see me and the supercargo in the boat withno 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, itwas next to an impossibility for any men in the world to restraintheir curiosity to know what had happened, or their concern forthe safety of the men: in a word, the captain told me he would goand help his men, let what would come.  I argued with him,as I did before with the men, the safety of the ship, the dangerof the voyage, the interests of the owners and merchants,&c., and told him I and the two men would go, and only see ifwe could at a distance learn what was likely to be the event, andcome back and tell him.  It was in vain to talk to mynephew, as it was to talk to the rest before; he would go, hesaid; and he only wished he had left but ten men in the ship, forhe could not think of having his men lost for want of help: hehad rather lose the ship, the voyage, and his life, and all; andaway he went.

I was no more able to stay behind now than I was to persuadethem not to go; so the captain ordered two men to row back thepinnace, and fetch twelve men more, leaving the long-boat at ananchor; and that, when they came back, six men should keep thetwo boats, and six more come after us; so that he left onlysixteen men in the ship: for the whole ship’s companyconsisted of sixty-five men, whereof two were lost in the latequarrel which brought this mischief on.

Being now on the march, we felt little of the ground we trodon; and being guided by the fire, we kept no path, but wentdirectly to the place of the flame.  If the noise of theguns was surprising to us before, the cries of the poor peoplewere now quite of another nature, and filled us withhorror.  I must confess I was never at the sacking a city,or at the taking a town by storm.  I had heard of OliverCromwell taking Drogheda, in Ireland, and killing man, woman, andchild; and I had read of Count Tilly sacking the city ofMagdeburg and cutting the throats of twenty-two thousand of allsexes; but I never had an idea of the thing itself before, nor isit possible to describe it, or the horror that was upon our mindsat hearing it.  However, we went on, and at length came tothe town, though there was no entering the streets of it for thefire.  The first object we met with was the ruins of a hutor 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 thefire, lay four men and three women, killed, and, as we thought,one or two more lay in the heap among the fire; in short, therewere such instances of rage, altogether barbarous, and of a furysomething beyond what was human, that we thought it impossibleour men could be guilty of it; or, if they were the authors ofit, we thought they ought to be every one of them put to theworst of deaths.  But this was not all: we saw the fireincrease forward, and the cry went on just as the fire went on;so that we were in the utmost confusion.  We advanced alittle way farther, and behold, to our astonishment, three nakedwomen, and crying in a most dreadful manner, came flying as ifthey had wings, and after them sixteen or seventeen men, natives,in the same terror and consternation, with three of our Englishbutchers in the rear, who, when they could not overtake them,fired in among them, and one that was killed by their shot felldown in our sight.  When the rest saw us, believing us to betheir enemies, and that we would murder them as well as thosethat pursued them, they set up a most dreadful shriek, especiallythe women; and two of them fell down, as if already dead, withthe fright.

My very soul shrunk within me, and my blood ran chill in myveins, when I saw this; and, I believe, had the three Englishsailors that pursued them come on, I had made our men kill themall; however, we took some means to let the poor flying creaturesknow that we would not hurt them; and immediately they came up tous, and kneeling down, with their hands lifted up, made piteouslamentation to us to save them, which we let them know we would:whereupon they crept all together in a huddle close behind us, asfor protection.  I left my men drawn up together, and,charging them to hurt nobody, but, if possible, to get at some ofour people, and see what devil it was possessed them, and whatthey intended to do, and to command them off; assuring them thatif they stayed till daylight they would have a hundred thousandmen about their ears: I say I left them, and went among thoseflying people, taking only two of our men with me; and there was,indeed, a piteous spectacle among them.  Some of them hadtheir feet terribly burned with trampling and running through thefire; others their hands burned; one of the women had fallen downin the fire, and was very much burned before she could get outagain; and two or three of the men had cuts in their backs andthighs, from our men pursuing; and another was shot through thebody and died while I was there.

I would fain have learned what the occasion of all this was;but I could not understand one word they said; though, by signs,I perceived some of them knew not what was the occasionthemselves.  I was so terrified in my thoughts at thisoutrageous attempt that I could not stay there, but went back tomy own men, and resolved to go into the middle of the town,through the fire, or whatever might be in the way, and put an endto it, cost what it would; accordingly, as I came back to my men,I told them my resolution, and commanded them to follow me, when,at the very moment, came four of our men, with the boatswain attheir head, roving over heaps of bodies they had killed, allcovered with blood and dust, as if they wanted more people tomassacre, when our men hallooed to them as loud as they couldhalloo; and with much ado one of them made them hear, so thatthey knew who we were, and came up to us.

As soon as the boatswain saw us, he set up a halloo like ashout of triumph, for having, as he thought, more help come; andwithout waiting to hear me, “Captain,” says he,“noble captain!  I am glad you are come; we have nothalf done yet.  Villainous hell-hound dogs!  I’llkill as many of them as poor Tom has hairs upon his head: we havesworn to spare none of them; we’ll root out the very nationof them from the earth;” and thus he ran on, out of breath,too, with action, and would not give us leave to speak aword.  At last, raising my voice that I might silence him alittle, “Barbarous dog!” said I, “what are youdoing!  I won’t have one creature touched more, uponpain of death; I charge you, upon your life, to stop your hands,and stand still here, or you are a dead man thisminute.”—“Why, sir,” says he, “doyou know what you do, or what they have done?  If you want areason for what we have done, come hither;” and with thathe showed me the poor fellow hanging, with his throat cut.

I confess I was urged then myself, and at another time wouldhave been forward enough; but I thought they had carried theirrage too far, and remembered Jacob’s words to his sonsSimeon and Levi: “Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce;and their wrath, for it was cruel.”  But I had now anew task upon my hands; for when the men I had carried with mesaw the sight, as I had done, I had as much to do to restrainthem as I should have had with the others; nay, my nephew himselffell in with them, and told me, in their hearing, that he wasonly concerned for fear of the men being overpowered; and as tothe people, he thought not one of them ought to live; for theyhad all glutted themselves with the murder of the poor man, andthat they ought to be used like murderers.  Upon thesewords, away ran eight of my men, with the boatswain and his crew,to complete their bloody work; and I, seeing it quite out of mypower to restrain them, came away pensive and sad; for I couldnot bear the sight, much less the horrible noise and cries of thepoor wretches that fell into their hands.

I got nobody to come back with me but the supercargo and twomen, and with these walked back to the boat.  It was a verygreat piece of folly in me, I confess, to venture back, as itwere, alone; for as it began now to be almost day, and the alarmhad run over the country, there stood about forty men armed withlances and boughs at the little place where the twelve orthirteen houses stood, mentioned before: but by accident I missedthe place, and came directly to the seaside, and by the time Igot to the seaside it was broad day: immediately I took thepinnace and went on board, and sent her back to assist the men inwhat might happen.  I observed, about the time that I cameto the boat-side, that the fire was pretty well out, and thenoise abated; but in about half-an-hour after I got on board, Iheard a volley of our men’s firearms, and saw a greatsmoke.  This, as I understood afterwards, was our menfalling upon the men, who, as I said, stood at the few houses onthe way, of whom they killed sixteen or seventeen, and set allthe houses on fire, but did not meddle with the women orchildren.

By the time the men got to the shore again with the pinnaceour men began to appear; they came dropping in, not in two bodiesas they went, but straggling here and there in such a manner,that a small force of resolute men might have cut them alloff.  But the dread of them was upon the whole country; andthe men were surprised, and so frightened, that I believe ahundred of them would have fled at the sight of but five of ourmen.  Nor in all this terrible action was there a man thatmade any considerable defence: they were so surprised between theterror of the fire and the sudden attack of our men in the dark,that they knew not which way to turn themselves; for if they fledone way they were met by one party, if back again by another, sothat they were everywhere knocked down; nor did any of our menreceive the least hurt, except one that sprained his foot, andanother that had one of his hands burned.

CHAPTER X—HE IS LEFT ON SHORE

I was very angry with my nephew, the captain, and indeed withall the men, but with him in particular, as well for his actingso out of his duty as a commander of the ship, and having thecharge of the voyage upon him, as in his prompting, rather thancooling, the rage of his blind men in so bloody and cruel anenterprise.  My nephew answered me very respectfully, buttold me that when he saw the body of the poor seaman whom theyhad murdered in so cruel and barbarous a manner, he was notmaster of himself, neither could he govern his passion; he ownedhe should not have done so, as he was commander of the ship; butas he was a man, and nature moved him, he could not bearit.  As for the rest of the men, they were not subject to meat all, and they knew it well enough; so they took no notice ofmy dislike.  The next day we set sail, so we never heard anymore of it.  Our men differed in the account of the numberthey had killed; but according to the best of their accounts, putall together, they killed or destroyed about one hundred andfifty people, men, women, and children, and left not a housestanding in the town.  As for the poor fellow Tom Jeffry, ashe was quite dead (for his throat was so cut that his head washalf off), it would do him no service to bring him away; so theyonly took him down from the tree, where he was hanging by onehand.

However just our men thought this action, I was against themin it, and I always, after that time, told them God would blastthe voyage; for I looked upon all the blood they shed that nightto be murder in them.  For though it is true that they hadkilled Tom Jeffry, yet Jeffry was the aggressor, had broken thetruce, and had ill-used a young woman of theirs, who came down tothem innocently, and on the faith of the public capitulation.

The boatswain defended this quarrel when we were afterwards onboard.  He said it was true that we seemed to break thetruce, but really had not; and that the war was begun the nightbefore by the natives themselves, who had shot at us, and killedone of our men without any just provocation; so that as we werein a capacity to fight them now, we might also be in a capacityto do ourselves justice upon them in an extraordinary manner;that though the poor man had taken a little liberty with thegirl, he ought not to have been murdered, and that in such avillainous manner: and that they did nothing but what was justand what the laws of God allowed to be done to murderers. One would think this should have been enough to have warned usagainst going on shore amongst the heathens and barbarians; butit is impossible to make mankind wise but at their own expense,and their experience seems to be always of most use to them whenit is dearest bought.

We were now bound to the Gulf of Persia, and from thence tothe coast of Coromandel, only to touch at Surat; but the chief ofthe supercargo’s design lay at the Bay of Bengal, where, ifhe missed his business outward-bound, he was to go out to China,and return to the coast as he came home.  The first disasterthat befell us was in the Gulf of Persia, where five of our men,venturing on shore on the Arabian side of the gulf, weresurrounded by the Arabians, and either all killed or carried awayinto slavery; the rest of the boat’s crew were not able torescue them, and had but just time to get off their boat.  Ibegan to upbraid them with the just retribution of Heaven in thiscase; but the boatswain very warmly told me, he thought I wentfurther in my censures than I could show any warrant for inScripture; and referred to Luke xiii. 4, where our Saviourintimates that those men on whom the Tower of Siloam fell werenot sinners above all the Galileans; but that which put me tosilence in the case was, that not one of these five men who werenow lost were of those who went on shore to the massacre ofMadagascar, so I always called it, though our men could not bearto hear the word massacrewith any patience.

But my frequent preaching to them on this subject had worseconsequences than I expected; and the boatswain, who had been thehead of the attempt, came up boldly to me one time, and told mehe found that I brought that affair continually upon the stage;that I made unjust reflections upon it, and had used the men veryill on that account, and himself in particular; that as I was buta passenger, and had no command in the ship, or concern in thevoyage, they were not obliged to bear it; that they did not knowbut I might have some ill-design in my head, and perhaps to callthem to an account for it when they came to England; and that,therefore, unless I would resolve to have done with it, and alsonot to concern myself any further with him, or any of hisaffairs, he would leave the ship; for he did not think it safe tosail with me among them.

I heard him patiently enough till he had done, and then toldhim that I confessed I had all along opposed the massacre ofMadagascar, and that I had, on all occasions, spoken my mindfreely about it, though not more upon him than any of the rest;that as to having no command in the ship, that was true; nor didI exercise any authority, only took the liberty of speaking mymind in things which publicly concerned us all; and what concernI had in the voyage was none of his business; that I was aconsiderable owner in the ship.  In that claim I conceived Ihad a right to speak even further than I had done, and would notbe accountable to him or any one else, and began to be a littlewarm with him.  He made but little reply to me at that time,and I thought the affair had been over.  We were at thistime in the road at Bengal; and being willing to see the place, Iwent on shore with the supercargo in the ship’s boat todivert myself; and towards evening was preparing to go on board,when one of the men came to me, and told me he would not have metrouble myself to come down to the boat, for they had orders notto carry me on board any more.  Any one may guess what asurprise I was in at so insolent a message; and I asked the manwho bade him deliver that message to me?  He told me thecoxswain.

I immediately found out the supercargo, and told him thestory, adding that I foresaw there would be a mutiny in the ship;and entreated him to go immediately on board and acquaint thecaptain of it.  But I might have spared this intelligence,for before I had spoken to him on shore the matter was effectedon board.  The boatswain, the gunner, the carpenter, and allthe inferior officers, as soon as I was gone off in the boat,came up, and desired to speak with the captain; and then theboatswain, making a long harangue, and repeating all he had saidto me, told the captain that as I was now gone peaceably onshore, they were loath to use any violence with me, which, if Ihad not gone on shore, they would otherwise have done, to obligeme to have gone.  They therefore thought fit to tell himthat as they shipped themselves to serve in the ship under hiscommand, they would perform it well and faithfully; but if Iwould not quit the ship, or the captain oblige me to quit it,they would all leave the ship, and sail no further with him; andat that word allhe turned his face towards the main-mast,which was, it seems, a signal agreed on, when the seamen, beinggot together there, cried out, “One and all! oneand all!”

My nephew, the captain, was a man of spirit, and of greatpresence of mind; and though he was surprised, yet he told themcalmly that he would consider of the matter, but that he could donothing in it till he had spoken to me about it.  He usedsome arguments with them, to show them the unreasonableness andinjustice of the thing, but it was all in vain; they swore, andshook hands round before his face, that they would all go onshore unless he would engage to them not to suffer me to come anymore on board the ship.

This was a hard article upon him, who knew his obligation tome, and did not know how I might take it.  So he began totalk smartly to them; told them that I was a very considerableowner of the ship, and that if ever they came to England again itwould cost them very dear; that the ship was mine, and that hecould not put me out of it; and that he would rather lose theship, and the voyage too, than disoblige me so much: so theymight do as they pleased.  However, he would go on shore andtalk with me, and invited the boatswain to go with him, andperhaps they might accommodate the matter with me.  But theyall rejected the proposal, and said they would have nothing to dowith me any more; and if I came on board they would all go onshore.  “Well,” said the captain, “if youare all of this mind, let me go on shore and talk withhim.”  So away he came to me with this account, alittle after the message had been brought to me from thecoxswain.

I was very glad to see my nephew, I must confess; for I wasnot without apprehensions that they would confine him byviolence, set sail, and run away with the ship; and then I hadbeen stripped naked in a remote country, having nothing to helpmyself; in short, I had been in a worse case than when I wasalone in the island.  But they had not come to that length,it seems, to my satisfaction; and when my nephew told me whatthey had said to him, and how they had sworn and shook hands thatthey would, one and all, leave the ship if I was suffered to comeon board, I told him he should not be concerned at it at all, forI would stay on shore.  I only desired he would take careand send me all my necessary things on shore, and leave me asufficient sum of money, and I would find my way to England aswell as I could.  This was a heavy piece of news to mynephew, but there was no way to help it but to comply; so, inshort, he went on board the ship again, and satisfied the menthat his uncle had yielded to their importunity, and had sent forhis goods from on board the ship; so that the matter was over ina few hours, the men returned to their duty, and I began toconsider what course I should steer.

I was now alone in a most remote part of the world, for I wasnear three thousand leagues by sea farther off from England thanI was at my island; only, it is true, I might travel here by landover the Great Mogul’s country to Surat, might go fromthence to Bassora by sea, up the Gulf of Persia, and take the wayof the caravans, over the desert of Arabia, to Aleppo andScanderoon; from thence by sea again to Italy, and so overlandinto France.  I had another way before me, which was to waitfor some English ships, which were coming to Bengal from Achin,on the island of Sumatra, and get passage on board them fromEngland.  But as I came hither without any concern with theEast Indian Company, so it would be difficult to go from hencewithout their licence, unless with great favour of the captainsof the ships, or the company’s factors: and to both I wasan utter stranger.

Here I had the mortification to see the ship set sail withoutme; however, my nephew left me two servants, or rather onecompanion and one servant; the first was clerk to the purser,whom he engaged to go with me, and the other was his ownservant.  I then took a good lodging in the house of anEnglishwoman, where several merchants lodged, some French, twoItalians, or rather Jews, and one Englishman.  Here I stayedabove nine months, considering what course to take.  I hadsome English goods with me of value, and a considerable sum ofmoney; my nephew furnishing me with a thousand pieces of eight,and a letter of credit for more if I had occasion, that I mightnot be straitened, whatever might happen.  I quicklydisposed of my goods to advantage; and, as I originally intended,I bought here some very good diamonds, which, of all otherthings, were the most proper for me in my present circumstances,because I could always carry my whole estate about me.

During my stay here many proposals were made for my return toEngland, but none falling out to my mind, the English merchantwho lodged with me, and whom I had contracted an intimateacquaintance with, came to me one morning, saying:“Countryman, I have a project to communicate, which, as itsuits with my thoughts, may, for aught I know, suit with yoursalso, when you shall have thoroughly considered it.  Here weare posted, you by accident and I by my own choice, in a part ofthe world very remote from our own country; but it is in acountry where, by us who understand trade and business, a greatdeal of money is to be got.  If you will put one thousandpounds to my one thousand pounds, we will hire a ship here, thefirst we can get to our minds.  You shall be captain,I’ll be merchant, and we’ll go a trading voyage toChina; for what should we stand still for?  The whole worldis in motion; why should we be idle?”

I liked this proposal very well; and the more so because itseemed to be expressed with so much goodwill.  In my loose,unhinged circumstances, I was the fitter to embrace a proposalfor trade, or indeed anything else.  I might perhaps saywith some truth, that if trade was not my element, rambling was;and no proposal for seeing any part of the world which I hadnever seen before could possibly come amiss to me.  It was,however, some time before we could get a ship to our minds, andwhen we had got a vessel, it was not easy to get Englishsailors—that is to say, so many as were necessary to governthe voyage and manage the sailors which we should pick upthere.  After some time we got a mate, a boatswain, and agunner, English; a Dutch carpenter, and three foremast men. With these we found we could do well enough, having Indianseamen, such as they were, to make up.

When all was ready we set sail for Achin, in the island ofSumatra, and from thence to Siam, where we exchanged some of ourwares for opium and some arrack; the first a commodity whichbears a great price among the Chinese, and which at that time wasmuch wanted there.  Then we went up to Saskan, were eightmonths out, and on our return to Bengal I was very well satisfiedwith my adventure.  Our people in England often admire howofficers, which the company send into India, and the merchantswhich generally stay there, get such very great estates as theydo, and sometimes come home worth sixty or seventy thousandpounds at a time; but it is little matter for wonder, when weconsider the innumerable ports and places where they have a freecommerce; indeed, at the ports where the English ships come thereis such great and constant demands for the growth of all othercountries, that there is a certain vent for the returns, as wellas a market abroad for the goods carried out.

I got so much money by my first adventure, and such an insightinto the method of getting more, that had I been twenty yearsyounger, I should have been tempted to have stayed here, andsought no farther for making my fortune; but what was all this toa man upwards of threescore, that was rich enough, and cameabroad more in obedience to a restless desire of seeing the worldthan a covetous desire of gaining by it?  A restless desireit really was, for when I was at home I was restless to goabroad; and when I was abroad I was restless to be at home. I say, what was this gain to me?  I was rich enough already,nor had I any uneasy desires about getting more money; thereforethe profit of the voyage to me was of no great force for theprompting me forward to further undertakings.  Hence, Ithought that by this voyage I had made no progress at all,because I was come back, as I might call it, to the place fromwhence I came, as to a home: whereas, my eye, like that whichSolomon speaks of, was never satisfied with seeing.  I wascome into a part of the world which I was never in before, andthat part, in particular, which I heard much of, and was resolvedto see as much of it as I could: and then I thought I might say Ihad seen all the world that was worth seeing.

But my fellow-traveller and I had different notions: Iacknowledge his were the more suited to the end of amerchant’s life: who, when he is abroad upon adventures, iswise to stick to that, as the best thing for him, which he islikely to get the most money by.  On the other hand, minewas the notion of a mad, rambling boy, that never cares to see athing twice over.  But this was not all: I had a kind ofimpatience upon me to be nearer home, and yet an unsettledresolution which way to go.  In the interval of theseconsultations, my friend, who was always upon the search forbusiness, proposed another voyage among the Spice Islands, tobring home a loading of cloves from the Manillas, orthereabouts.

We were not long in preparing for this voyage; the chiefdifficulty was in bringing me to come into it.  However, atlast, nothing else offering, and as sitting still, to meespecially, was the unhappiest part of life, I resolved on thisvoyage too, which we made very successfully, touching at Borneoand several other islands, and came home in about five months,when we sold our spices, with very great profit, to the Persianmerchants, who carried them away to the Gulf.  My friend,when we made up this account, smiled at me: “Well,now,” said he, with a sort of friendly rebuke on myindolent temper, “is not this better than walking abouthere, like a man with nothing to do, and spending our time instaring at the nonsense and ignorance of thePagans?”—“Why, truly,” said I, “myfriend, I think it is, and I begin to be a convert to theprinciples of merchandising; but I must tell you, by the way, youdo not know what I am doing; for if I once conquer mybackwardness, and embark heartily, old as I am, I shall harassyou up and down the world till I tire you; for I shall pursue itso eagerly, I shall never let you lie still.”

CHAPTER XI—WARNED OF DANGER BY A COUNTRYMAN

A little while after this there came in a Dutch ship fromBatavia; she was a coaster, not an European trader, of about twohundred tons burden; the men, as they pretended, having been sosickly that the captain had not hands enough to go to sea with,so he lay by at Bengal; and having, it seems, got money enough,or being willing, for other reasons, to go for Europe, he gavepublic notice he would sell his ship.  This came to my earsbefore my new partner heard of it, and I had a great mind to buyit; so I went to him and told him of it.  He considered awhile, for he was no rash man neither; and at last replied,“She is a little too big—however, we will haveher.”  Accordingly, we bought the ship, and agreeingwith the master, we paid for her, and took possession.  Whenwe had done so we resolved to engage the men, if we could, tojoin with those we had, for the pursuing our business; but, on asudden, they having received not their wages, but their share ofthe money, as we afterwards learned, not one of them was to befound; we inquired much about them, and at length were told thatthey were all gone together by land to Agra, the great city ofthe Mogul’s residence, to proceed from thence to Surat, andthen go by sea to the Gulf of Persia.

Nothing had so much troubled me a good while as that I shouldmiss the opportunity of going with them; for such a ramble, Ithought, and in such company as would both have guarded anddiverted me, would have suited mightily with my great design; andI should have both seen the world and gone homeward too. But I was much better satisfied a few days after, when I came toknow what sort of fellows they were; for, in short, their historywas, that this man they called captain was the gunner only, notthe commander; that they had been a trading voyage, in which theyhad been attacked on shore by some of the Malays, who had killedthe captain and three of his men; and that after the captain waskilled, these men, eleven in number, having resolved to run awaywith the ship, brought her to Bengal, leaving the mate and fivemen more on shore.

Well, let them get the ship how they would, we came honestlyby her, as we thought, though we did not, I confess, examine intothings so exactly as we ought; for we never inquired anything ofthe seamen, who would certainly have faltered in their account,and contradicted one another.  Somehow or other we shouldhave had reason to have suspected, them; but the man showed us abill of sale for the ship, to one Emanuel Clostershoven, or somesuch name, for I suppose it was all a forgery, and called himselfby that name, and we could not contradict him: and withal, havingno suspicion of the thing, we went through with ourbargain.  We picked up some more English sailors here afterthis, and some Dutch, and now we resolved on a second voyage tothe south-east for cloves, &c.—that is to say, amongthe Philippine and Malacca isles.  In short, not to fill upthis part of my story with trifles when what is to come is soremarkable, I spent, from first to last, six years in thiscountry, trading from port to port, backward and forward, andwith very good success, and was now the last year with my newpartner, going in the ship above mentioned, on a voyage to China,but designing first to go to Siam to buy rice.

In this voyage, being by contrary winds obliged to beat up anddown a great while in the Straits of Malacca and among theislands, we were no sooner got clear of those difficult seas thanwe found our ship had sprung a leak, but could not discover whereit was.  This forced us to make some port; and my partner,who knew the country better than I did, directed the captain toput into the river of Cambodia; for I had made the English mate,one Mr. Thompson, captain, not being willing to take the chargeof the ship upon myself.  This river lies on the north sideof the great bay or gulf which goes up to Siam.  While wewere here, and going often on shore for refreshment, there comesto me one day an Englishman, a gunner’s mate on board anEnglish East India ship, then riding in the same river. “Sir,” says he, addressing me, “you are astranger to me, and I to you; but I have something to tell youthat very nearly concerns you.  I am moved by the imminentdanger you are in, and, for aught I see, you have no knowledge ofit.”—“I know no danger I am in,” said I,“but that my ship is leaky, and I cannot find it out; but Iintend to lay her aground to-morrow, to see if I can findit.”—“But, sir,” says he, “leaky ornot leaky, you will be wiser than to lay your ship on shoreto-morrow when you hear what I have to say to you.  Do youknow, sir,” said he, “the town of Cambodia lies aboutfifteen leagues up the river; and there are two large Englishships about five leagues on this side, and threeDutch?”—“Well,” said I, “and whatis that to me?”—“Why, sir,” said be,“is it for a man that is upon such adventures as you are tocome into a port, and not examine first what ships there arethere, and whether he is able to deal with them?  I supposeyou do not think you are a match for them?”  I couldnot conceive what he meant; and I turned short upon him, andsaid: “I wish you would explain yourself; I cannot imaginewhat reason I have to be afraid of any of the company’sships, or Dutch ships.  I am no interloper.  What canthey have to say to me?”—“Well, sir,”says he, with a smile, “if you think yourself secure youmust take your chance; but take my advice, if you do not put tosea immediately, you will the very next tide be attacked by fivelongboats full of men, and perhaps if you are taken you will behanged for a pirate, and the particulars be examinedafterwards.  I thought, sir,” added he, “Ishould have met with a better reception than this for doing you apiece of service of such importance.”—“I cannever be ungrateful,” said I, “for any service, or toany man that offers me any kindness; but it is past mycomprehension what they should have such a design upon me for:however, since you say there is no time to be lost, and thatthere is some villainous design on hand against me, I will go onboard this minute, and put to sea immediately, if my men can stopthe leak; but, sir,” said I, “shall I go awayignorant of the cause of all this?  Can you give me nofurther light into it?”

“I can tell you but part of the story, sir,” sayshe; “but I have a Dutch seaman here with me, and I believeI could persuade him to tell you the rest; but there is scarcetime for it.  But the short of the story is this—thefirst part of which I suppose you know well enough—that youwere with this ship at Sumatra; that there your captain wasmurdered by the Malays, with three of his men; and that you, orsome of those that were on board with you, ran away with theship, and are since turned pirates.  This is the sum of thestory, and you will all be seized as pirates, I can assure you,and executed with very little ceremony; for you know merchantships show but little law to pirates if they get them into theirpower.”—“Now you speak plain English,”said I, “and I thank you; and though I know nothing that wehave done like what you talk of, for I am sure we came honestlyand fairly by the ship; yet seeing such a work is doing, as yousay, and that you seem to mean honestly, I will be upon myguard.”—“Nay, sir,” says he, “donot talk of being upon your guard; the best defence is to be outof danger.  If you have any regard for your life and thelives of all your men, put to sea without fail at high-water; andas you have a whole tide before you, you will be gone too far outbefore they can come down; for they will come away at high-water,and as they have twenty miles to come, you will get near twohours of them by the difference of the tide, not reckoning thelength of the way: besides, as they are only boats, and notships, they will not venture to follow you far out to sea,especially if it blows.”—“Well,” said I,“you have been very kind in this: what shall I do to makeyou amends?”—“Sir,” says he, “youmay not be willing to make me any amends, because you may not beconvinced of the truth of it.  I will make an offer to you:I have nineteen months’ pay due to me on board the ship---, which I came out of England in; and the Dutchman that iswith me has seven months’ pay due to him.  If you willmake good our pay to us we will go along with you; if you findnothing more in it we will desire no more; but if we do convinceyou that we have saved your lives, and the ship, and the lives ofall the men in her, we will leave the rest to you.”

I consented to this readily, and went immediately on board,and the two men with me.  As soon as I came to theship’s side, my partner, who was on board, came out on thequarter-deck, and called to me, with a great deal of joy,“We have stopped the leak—we have stopped theleak!”—“Say you so?” said I; “thankGod; but weigh anchor, then,immediately.”—“Weigh!” says he;“what do you mean by that?  What is thematter?”—“Ask no questions,” said I;“but set all hands to work, and weigh without losing aminute.”  He was surprised; however, he called thecaptain, and he immediately ordered the anchor to be got up; andthough the tide was not quite down, yet a little land-breezeblowing, we stood out to sea.  Then I called him into thecabin, and told him the story; and we called in the men, and theytold us the rest of it; but as it took up a great deal of time,before we had done a seaman comes to the cabin door, and calledout to us that the captain bade him tell us we were chased byfive sloops, or boats, full of men.  “Verywell,” said I, “then it is apparent there issomething in it.”  I then ordered all our men to becalled up, and told them there was a design to seize the ship,and take us for pirates, and asked them if they would stand byus, and by one another; the men answered cheerfully, one and all,that they would live and die with us.  Then I asked thecaptain what way he thought best for us to manage a fight withthem; for resist them I was resolved we would, and that to thelast drop.  He said readily, that the way was to keep themoff with our great shot as long as we could, and then to use oursmall arms, to keep them from boarding us; but when neither ofthese would do any longer, we would retire to our close quarters,for perhaps they had not materials to break open our bulkheads,or get in upon us.

The gunner had in the meantime orders to bring two guns, tobear fore and aft, out of the steerage, to clear the deck, andload them with musket-bullets, and small pieces of old iron, andwhat came next to hand.  Thus we made ready for fight; butall this while we kept out to sea, with wind enough, and couldsee the boats at a distance, being five large longboats,following us with all the sail they could make.

Two of those boats (which by our glasses we could see wereEnglish) outsailed the rest, were near two leagues ahead of them,and gained upon us considerably, so that we found they would comeup with us; upon which we fired a gun without ball, to intimatethat they should bring to: and we put out a flag of truce, as asignal for parley: but they came crowding after us till withinshot, when we took in our white flag, they having made no answerto it, and hung out a red flag, and fired at them with ashot.  Notwithstanding this, they came on till they werenear enough to call to them with a speaking-trumpet, bidding themkeep off at their peril.

It was all one; they crowded after us, and endeavoured to comeunder our stern, so as to board us on our quarter; upon which,seeing they were resolute for mischief, and depended upon thestrength that followed them, I ordered to bring the ship to, sothat they lay upon our broadside; when immediately we fired fiveguns at them, one of which had been levelled so true as to carryaway the stern of the hindermost boat, and we then forced them totake down their sail, and to run all to the head of the boat, tokeep her from sinking; so she lay by, and had enough of it; butseeing the foremost boat crowd on after us, we made ready to fireat her in particular.  While this was doing one of the threeboats that followed made up to the boat which we had disabled, torelieve her, and we could see her take out the men.  We thencalled again to the foremost boat, and offered a truce, to parleyagain, and to know what her business was with us; but had noanswer, only she crowded close under our stern.  Upon this,our gunner who was a very dexterous fellow ran out his twocase-guns, and fired again at her, but the shot missing, the menin the boat shouted, waved their caps, and came on.  Thegunner, getting quickly ready again, fired among them a secondtime, one shot of which, though it missed the boat itself, yetfell in among the men, and we could easily see did a great dealof mischief among them.  We now wore the ship again, andbrought our quarter to bear upon them, and firing three gunsmore, we found the boat was almost split to pieces; inparticular, her rudder and a piece of her stern were shot quiteaway; so they handed her sail immediately, and were in greatdisorder.  To complete their misfortune, our gunner let flytwo guns at them again; where he hit them we could not tell, butwe found the boat was sinking, and some of the men already in thewater: upon this, I immediately manned out our pinnace, withorders to pick up some of the men if they could, and save themfrom drowning, and immediately come on board ship with them,because we saw the rest of the boats began to come up.  Ourmen in the pinnace followed their orders, and took up three men,one of whom was just drowning, and it was a good while before wecould recover him.  As soon as they were on board we crowdedall the sail we could make, and stood farther out to the sea; andwe found that when the other boats came up to the first, theygave over their chase.

Being thus delivered from a danger which, though I knew notthe reason of it, yet seemed to be much greater than Iapprehended, I resolved that we should change our course, and notlet any one know whither we were going; so we stood out to seaeastward, quite out of the course of all European ships, whetherthey were bound to China or anywhere else, within the commerce ofthe European nations.  When we were at sea we began toconsult with the two seamen, and inquire what the meaning of allthis should be; and the Dutchman confirmed the gunner’sstory about the false sale of the ship and of the murder of thecaptain, and also how that he, this Dutchman, and four more gotinto the woods, where they wandered about a great while, till atlength he made his escape, and swam off to a Dutch ship, whichwas sailing near the shore in its way from China.

He then told us that he went to Batavia, where two of theseamen belonging to the ship arrived, having deserted the rest intheir travels, and gave an account that the fellow who had runaway with the ship, sold her at Bengal to a set of pirates, whowere gone a-cruising in her, and that they had already taken anEnglish ship and two Dutch ships very richly laden.  Thislatter part we found to concern us directly, though we knew it tobe false; yet, as my partner said, very justly, if we had falleninto their hands, and they had had such a prepossession againstus beforehand, it had been in vain for us to have defendedourselves, or to hope for any good quarter at their hands;especially considering that our accusers had been our judges, andthat we could have expected nothing from them but what rage wouldhave dictated, and an ungoverned passion have executed. Therefore it was his opinion we should go directly back toBengal, from whence we came, without putting in at any portwhatever—because where we could give a good account ofourselves, could prove where we were when the ship put in, ofwhom we bought her, and the like; and what was more than all therest, if we were put upon the necessity of bringing it before theproper judges, we should be sure to have some justice, and not tobe hanged first and judged afterwards.

I was some time of my partner’s opinion; but after alittle more serious thinking, I told him I thought it was a verygreat hazard for us to attempt returning to Bengal, for that wewere on the wrong side of the Straits of Malacca, and that if thealarm was given, we should be sure to be waylaid on everyside—that if we should be taken, as it were, running away,we should even condemn ourselves, and there would want no moreevidence to destroy us.  I also asked the Englishsailor’s opinion, who said he was of my mind, and that wecertainly should be taken.  This danger a little startled mypartner and all the ship’s company, and we immediatelyresolved to go away to the coast of Tonquin, and so on to thecoast of China—and pursuing the first design as to trade,find some way or other to dispose of the ship, and come back insome of the vessels of the country such as we could get. This was approved of as the best method for our security, andaccordingly we steered away NNE., keeping above fifty leagues offfrom the usual course to the eastward.  This, however, putus to some inconvenience: for, first, the winds, when we camethat distance from the shore, seemed to be more steadily againstus, blowing almost trade, as we call it, from the E. and ENE., sothat we were a long while upon our voyage, and we were but illprovided with victuals for so long a run; and what was stillworse, there was some danger that those English and Dutch shipswhose boats pursued us, whereof some were bound that way, mighthave got in before us, and if not, some other ship bound to Chinamight have information of us from them, and pursue us with thesame vigour.

I must confess I was now very uneasy, and thought myself,including the late escape from the longboats, to have been in themost dangerous condition that ever I was in through my past life;for whatever ill circumstances I had been in, I was never pursuedfor a thief before; nor had I ever done anything that merited thename of dishonest or fraudulent, much less thievish.  I hadchiefly been my own enemy, or, as I may rightly say, I had beennobody’s enemy but my own; but now I was woefullyembarrassed: for though I was perfectly innocent, I was in nocondition to make that innocence appear; and if I had been taken,it had been under a supposed guilt of the worst kind.  Thismade me very anxious to make an escape, though which way to do itI knew not, or what port or place we could go to.  Mypartner endeavoured to encourage me by describing the severalports of that coast, and told me he would put in on the coast ofCochin China, or the bay of Tonquin, intending afterwards to goto Macao, where a great many European families resided, andparticularly the missionary priests, who usually went thither inorder to their going forward to China.

Hither then we resolved to go; and, accordingly, though aftera tedious course, and very much straitened for provisions, wecame within sight of the coast very early in the morning; andupon reflection on the past circumstances of danger we were in,we resolved to put into a small river, which, however, had depthenough of water for us, and to see if we could, either overlandor by the ship’s pinnace, come to know what ships were inany port thereabouts.  This happy step was, indeed, ourdeliverance: for though we did not immediately see any Europeanships in the bay of Tonquin, yet the next morning there came intothe bay two Dutch ships; and a third without any colours spreadout, but which we believed to be a Dutchman, passed by at abouttwo leagues’ distance, steering for the coast of China; andin the afternoon went by two English ships steering the samecourse; and thus we thought we saw ourselves beset with enemiesboth one way and the other.  The place we were in was wildand barbarous, the people thieves by occupation; and though it istrue we had not much to seek of them, and, except getting a fewprovisions, cared not how little we had to do with them, yet itwas with much difficulty that we kept ourselves from beinginsulted by them several ways.  We were in a small river ofthis country, within a few leagues of its utmost limitsnorthward; and by our boat we coasted north-east to the point ofland which opens the great bay of Tonquin; and it was in thisbeating up along the shore that we discovered we were surroundedwith enemies.  The people we were among were the mostbarbarous of all the inhabitants of the coast; and among othercustoms they have this one: that if any vessel has the misfortuneto be shipwrecked upon their coast, they make the men allprisoners or slaves; and it was not long before we found a spiceof their kindness this way, on the occasion following.

I have observed above that our ship sprung a leak at sea, andthat we could not find it out; and it happened that, as I havesaid, it was stopped unexpectedly, on the eve of our beingpursued by the Dutch and English ships in the bay of Siam; yet,as we did not find the ship so perfectly tight and sound as wedesired, we resolved while we were at this place to lay her onshore, and clean her bottom, and, if possible, to find out wherethe leaks were.  Accordingly, having lightened the ship, andbrought all our guns and other movables to one side, we tried tobring her down, that we might come at her bottom; but, on secondthoughts, we did not care to lay her on dry ground, neither couldwe find out a proper place for it.

CHAPTER XII—THE CARPENTER’S WHIMSICALCONTRIVANCE

The inhabitants came wondering down the shore to look at us;and seeing the ship lie down on one side in such a manner, andheeling in towards the shore, and not seeing our men, who were atwork on her bottom with stages, and with their boats on theoff-side, they presently concluded that the ship was cast away,and lay fast on the ground.  On this supposition they cameabout us in two or three hours’ time with ten or twelvelarge boats, having some of them eight, some ten men in a boat,intending, no doubt, to have come on board and plundered theship, and if they found us there, to have carried us away forslaves.

When they came up to the ship, and began to row round her,they discovered us all hard at work on the outside of theship’s bottom and side, washing, and graving, and stopping,as every seafaring man knows how.  They stood for a whilegazing at us, and we, who were a little surprised, could notimagine what their design was; but being willing to be sure, wetook this opportunity to get some of us into the ship, and othersto hand down arms and ammunition to those that were at work, todefend themselves with if there should be occasion.  And itwas no more than need: for in less than a quarter of anhour’s consultation, they agreed, it seems, that the shipwas really a wreck, and that we were all at work endeavouring tosave her, or to save our lives by the help of our boats; and whenwe handed our arms into the boat, they concluded, by that act,that we were endeavouring to save some of our goods.  Uponthis, they took it for granted we all belonged to them, and awaythey came directly upon our men, as if it had been in aline-of-battle.

Our men, seeing so many of them, began to be frightened, forwe lay but in an ill posture to fight, and cried out to us toknow what they should do.  I immediately called to the menthat worked upon the stages to slip them down, and get up theside into the ship, and bade those in the boat to row round andcome on board.  The few who were on board worked with allthe strength and hands we had to bring the ship to rights;however, neither the men upon the stages nor those in the boatscould do as they were ordered before the Cochin Chinese were uponthem, when two of their boats boarded our longboat, and began tolay hold of the men as their prisoners.

The first man they laid hold of was an English seaman, astout, strong fellow, who having a musket in his hand, neveroffered to fire it, but laid it down in the boat, like a fool, asI thought; but he understood his business better than I couldteach him, for he grappled the Pagan, and dragged him by mainforce out of their boat into ours, where, taking him by the ears,he beat his head so against the boat’s gunnel that thefellow died in his hands.  In the meantime, a Dutchman, whostood next, took up the musket, and with the butt-end of it solaid about him, that he knocked down five of them who attemptedto enter the boat.  But this was doing little towardsresisting thirty or forty men, who, fearless because ignorant oftheir danger, began to throw themselves into the longboat, wherewe had but five men in all to defend it; but the followingaccident, which deserved our laughter, gave our men a completevictory.

Our carpenter being prepared to grave the outside of the ship,as well as to pay the seams where he had caulked her to stop theleaks, had got two kettles just let down into the boat, onefilled with boiling pitch, and the other with rosin, tallow, andoil, and such stuff as the shipwrights use for that work; and theman that attended the carpenter had a great iron ladle in hishand, with which he supplied the men that were at work with thehot stuff.  Two of the enemy’s men entered the boatjust where this fellow stood in the foresheets; he immediatelysaluted them with a ladle full of the stuff, boiling hot which soburned and scalded them, being half-naked that they roared outlike bulls, and, enraged with the fire, leaped both into thesea.  The carpenter saw it, and cried out, “Well done,Jack! give them some more of it!” and stepping forwardhimself, takes one of the mops, and dipping it in the pitch-pot,he and his man threw it among them so plentifully that, in short,of all the men in the three boats, there was not one that escapedbeing scalded in a most frightful manner, and made such a howlingand crying that I never heard a worse noise.

I was never better pleased with a victory in my life; not onlyas it was a perfect surprise to me, and that our danger wasimminent before, but as we got this victory without anybloodshed, except of that man the seaman killed with his nakedhands, and which I was very much concerned at.  Although itmaybe a just thing, because necessary (for there is no necessarywickedness in nature), yet I thought it was a sad sort of life,when we must be always obliged to be killing our fellow-creaturesto preserve ourselves; and, indeed, I think so still; and I wouldeven now suffer a great deal rather than I would take away thelife even of the worst person injuring me; and I believe allconsidering people, who know the value of life, would be of myopinion, if they entered seriously into the consideration ofit.

All the while this was doing, my partner and I, who managedthe rest of the men on board, had with great dexterity broughtthe ship almost to rights, and having got the guns into theirplaces again, the gunner called to me to bid our boat get out ofthe way, for he would let fly among them.  I called backagain to him, and bid him not offer to fire, for the carpenterwould do the work without him; but bid him heat anotherpitch-kettle, which our cook, who was on broad, took careof.  However, the enemy was so terrified with what they hadmet with in their first attack, that they would not come onagain; and some of them who were farthest off, seeing the shipswim, as it were, upright, began, as we suppose, to see theirmistake, and gave over the enterprise, finding it was not as theyexpected.  Thus we got clear of this merry fight; and havinggot some rice and some roots and bread, with about sixteen hogs,on board two days before, we resolved to stay here no longer, butgo forward, whatever came of it; for we made no doubt but weshould be surrounded the next day with rogues enough, perhapsmore than our pitch-kettle would dispose of for us.  Wetherefore got all our things on board the same evening, and thenext morning were ready to sail: in the meantime, lying at anchorat some distance from the shore, we were not so much concerned,being now in a fighting posture, as well as in a sailing posture,if any enemy had presented.  The next day, having finishedour work within board, and finding our ship was perfectly healedof all her leaks, we set sail.  We would have gone into thebay of Tonquin, for we wanted to inform ourselves of what was tobe known concerning the Dutch ships that had been there; but wedurst not stand in there, because we had seen several ships goin, as we supposed, but a little before; so we kept on NE.towards the island of Formosa, as much afraid of being seen by aDutch or English merchant ship as a Dutch or English merchantship in the Mediterranean is of an Algerine man-of-war.

When we were thus got to sea, we kept on NE., as if we wouldgo to the Manillas or the Philippine Islands; and this we didthat we might not fall into the way of any of the European ships;and then we steered north, till we came to the latitude of 22degrees 30 seconds, by which means we made the island of Formosadirectly, where we came to an anchor, in order to get water andfresh provisions, which the people there, who are very courteousin their manners, supplied us with willingly, and dealt veryfairly and punctually with us in all their agreements andbargains.  This is what we did not find among other people,and may be owing to the remains of Christianity which was onceplanted here by a Dutch missionary of Protestants, and it is atestimony of what I have often observed, viz. that the Christianreligion always civilises the people, and reforms their manners,where it is received, whether it works saving effects upon themor no.

From thence we sailed still north, keeping the coast of Chinaat an equal distance, till we knew we were beyond all the portsof China where our European ships usually come; being resolved,if possible, not to fall into any of their hands, especially inthis country, where, as our circumstances were, we could not failof being entirely ruined.  Being now come to the latitude of30 degrees, we resolved to put into the first trading port weshould come at; and standing in for the shore, a boat came of twoleagues to us with an old Portuguese pilot on board, who, knowingus to be an European ship, came to offer his service, which,indeed, we were glad of and took him on board; upon which,without asking us whither we would go, he dismissed the boat hecame in, and sent it back.  I thought it was now so much inour choice to make the old man carry us whither we would, that Ibegan to talk to him about carrying us to the Gulf of Nankin,which is the most northern part of the coast of China.  Theold man said he knew the Gulf of Nankin very well; but smiling,asked us what we would do there?  I told him we would sellour cargo and purchase China wares, calicoes, raw silks, tea,wrought silks, &c.; and so we would return by the same coursewe came.  He told us our best port would have been to put inat Macao, where we could not have failed of a market for ouropium to our satisfaction, and might for our money have purchasedall sorts of China goods as cheap as we could at Nankin.

Not being able to put the old man out of his talk, of which hewas very opinionated or conceited, I told him we were gentlemenas well as merchants, and that we had a mind to go and see thegreat city of Pekin, and the famous court of the monarch ofChina.  “Why, then,” says the old man,“you should go to Ningpo, where, by the river which runsinto the sea there, you may go up within five leagues of thegreat canal.  This canal is a navigable stream, which goesthrough the heart of that vast empire of China, crosses all therivers, passes some considerable hills by the help of sluices andgates, and goes up to the city of Pekin, being in length near twohundred and seventy leagues.”—“Well,”said I, “Seignior Portuguese, but that is not our businessnow; the great question is, if you can carry us up to the city ofNankin, from whence we can travel to Pekinafterwards?”  He said he could do so very well, andthat there was a great Dutch ship gone up that way justbefore.  This gave me a little shock, for a Dutch ship wasnow our terror, and we had much rather have met the devil, atleast if he had not come in too frightful a figure; and wedepended upon it that a Dutch ship would be our destruction, forwe were in no condition to fight them; all the ships they tradewith into those parts being of great burden, and of much greaterforce than we were.

The old man found me a little confused, and under some concernwhen he named a Dutch ship, and said to me, “Sir, you needbe under no apprehensions of the Dutch; I suppose they are notnow at war with your nation?”—“No,” saidI, “that’s true; but I know not what liberties menmay take when they are out of the reach of the laws of their owncountry.”—“Why,” says he, “you areno pirates; what need you fear?  They will not meddle withpeaceable merchants, sure.”  These words put me intothe greatest disorder and confusion imaginable; nor was itpossible for me to conceal it so, but the old man easilyperceived it.

“Sir,” says he, “I find you are in somedisorder in your thoughts at my talk: pray be pleased to go whichway you think fit, and depend upon it, I’ll do you all theservice I can.”  Upon this we fell into furtherdiscourse, in which, to my alarm and amazement, he spoke of thevillainous doings of a certain pirate ship that had long been thetalk of mariners in those seas; no other, in a word, than thevery ship he was now on board of, and which we had so unluckilypurchased.  I presently saw there was no help for it but totell him the plain truth, and explain all the danger and troublewe had suffered through this misadventure, and, in particular,our earnest wish to be speedily quit of the ship altogether; forwhich reason we had resolved to carry her up to Nankin.

The old man was amazed at this relation, and told us we werein the right to go away to the north; and that, if he mightadvise us, it should be to sell the ship in China, which we mightwell do, and buy, or build another in the country; adding that Ishould meet with customers enough for the ship at Nankin, that aChinese junk would serve me very well to go back again, and thathe would procure me people both to buy one and sell theother.  “Well, but, seignior,” said I, “asyou say they know the ship so well, I may, perhaps, if I followyour measures, be instrumental to bring some honest, innocent meninto a terrible broil; for wherever they find the ship they willprove the guilt upon the men, by proving this was theship.”—“Why,” says the old man,“I’ll find out a way to prevent that; for as I knowall those commanders you speak of very well, and shall see themall as they pass by, I will be sure to set them to rights in thething, and let them know that they had been so much in the wrong;that though the people who were on board at first might run awaywith the ship, yet it was not true that they had turned pirates;and that, in particular, these were not the men that first wentoff with the ship, but innocently bought her for their trade; andI am persuaded they will so far believe me as at least to actmore cautiously for the time to come.”

In about thirteen days’ sail we came to an anchor, atthe south-west point of the great Gulf of Nankin; where I learnedby accident that two Dutch ships were gone the length before me,and that I should certainly fall into their hands.  Iconsulted my partner again in this exigency, and he was as muchat a loss as I was.  I then asked the old pilot if there wasno creek or harbour which I might put into and pursue my businesswith the Chinese privately, and be in no danger of theenemy.  He told me if I would sail to the southward aboutforty-two leagues, there was a little port called Quinchang,where the fathers of the mission usually landed from Macao, ontheir progress to teach the Christian religion to the Chinese,and where no European ships ever put in; and if I thought to putin there, I might consider what further course to take when I wason shore.  He confessed, he said, it was not a place formerchants, except that at some certain times they had a kind of afair there, when the merchants from Japan came over thither tobuy Chinese merchandises.  The name of the port I mayperhaps spell wrong, having lost this, together with the names ofmany other places set down in a little pocket-book, which wasspoiled by the water by an accident; but this I remember, thatthe Chinese merchants we corresponded with called it by adifferent name from that which our Portuguese pilot gave it, whopronounced it Quinchang.  As we were unanimous in ourresolution to go to this place, we weighed the next day, havingonly gone twice on shore where we were, to get fresh water; onboth which occasions the people of the country were very civil,and brought abundance of provisions to sell to us; but nothingwithout money.

We did not come to the other port (the wind being contrary)for five days; but it was very much to our satisfaction, and Iwas thankful when I set my foot on shore, resolving, and mypartner too, that if it was possible to dispose of ourselves andeffects any other way, though not profitably, we would never moreset foot on board that unhappy vessel.  Indeed, I mustacknowledge, that of all the circumstances of life that ever Ihad any experience of, nothing makes mankind so completelymiserable as that of being in constant fear.  Well does theScripture say, “The fear of man brings a snare”; itis a life of death, and the mind is so entirely oppressed by it,that it is capable of no relief.

Nor did it fail of its usual operations upon the fancy, byheightening every danger; representing the English and Dutchcaptains to be men incapable of hearing reason, or ofdistinguishing between honest men and rogues; or between a storycalculated for our own turn, made out of nothing, on purpose todeceive, and a true, genuine account of our whole voyage,progress, and design; for we might many ways have convinced anyreasonable creatures that we were not pirates; the goods we hadon board, the course we steered, our frankly showing ourselves,and entering into such and such ports; and even our very manner,the force we had, the number of men, the few arms, the littleammunition, short provisions; all these would have served toconvince any men that we were no pirates.  The opium andother goods we had on board would make it appear the ship hadbeen at Bengal.  The Dutchmen, who, it was said, had thenames of all the men that were in the ship, might easily see thatwe were a mixture of English, Portuguese, and Indians, and buttwo Dutchmen on board.  These, and many other particularcircumstances, might have made it evident to the understanding ofany commander, whose hands we might fall into, that we were nopirates.

But fear, that blind, useless passion, worked another way, andthrew us into the vapours; it bewildered our understandings, andset the imagination at work to form a thousand terrible thingsthat perhaps might never happen.  We first supposed, asindeed everybody had related to us, that the seamen on board theEnglish and Dutch ships, but especially the Dutch, were soenraged at the name of a pirate, and especially at our beatingoff their boats and escaping, that they would not give themselvesleave to inquire whether we were pirates or no, but would executeus off-hand, without giving us any room for a defence.  Wereflected that there really was so much apparent evidence beforethem, that they would scarce inquire after any more; as, first,that the ship was certainly the same, and that some of the seamenamong them knew her, and had been on board her; and, secondly,that when we had intelligence at the river of Cambodia that theywere coming down to examine us, we fought their boats andfled.  Therefore we made no doubt but they were as fullysatisfied of our being pirates as we were satisfied of thecontrary; and, as I often said, I know not but I should have beenapt to have taken those circumstances for evidence, if the tableswere turned, and my case was theirs; and have made no scruple ofcutting all the crew to pieces, without believing, or perhapsconsidering, what they might have to offer in their defence.

But let that be how it will, these were our apprehensions; andboth my partner and I scarce slept a night without dreaming ofhalters and yard-arms; of fighting, and being taken; of killing,and being killed: and one night I was in such a fury in my dream,fancying the Dutchmen had boarded us, and I was knocking one oftheir seamen down, that I struck my doubled fist against the sideof the cabin I lay in with such a force as wounded my handgrievously, broke my knuckles, and cut and bruised the flesh, sothat it awaked me out of my sleep.  Another apprehension Ihad was, the cruel usage we might meet with from them if we fellinto their hands; then the story of Amboyna came into my head,and how the Dutch might perhaps torture us, as they did ourcountrymen there, and make some of our men, by extremity oftorture, confess to crimes they never were guilty of, or ownthemselves and all of us to be pirates, and so they would put usto death with a formal appearance of justice; and that they mightbe tempted to do this for the gain of our ship and cargo, worthaltogether four or five thousand pounds.  We did notconsider that the captains of ships have no authority to actthus; and if we had surrendered prisoners to them, they could notanswer the destroying us, or torturing us, but would beaccountable for it when they came to their country. However, if they were to act thus with us, what advantage wouldit be to us that they should be called to an account forit?—or if we were first to be murdered, what satisfactionwould it be to us to have them punished when they came home?

I cannot refrain taking notice here what reflections I now hadupon the vast variety of my particular circumstances; how hard Ithought it that I, who had spent forty years in a life ofcontinual difficulties, and was at last come, as it were, to theport or haven which all men drive at, viz. to have rest andplenty, should be a volunteer in new sorrows by my own unhappychoice, and that I, who had escaped so many dangers in my youth,should now come to be hanged in my old age, and in so remote aplace, for a crime which I was not in the least inclined to, muchless guilty of.  After these thoughts something of religionwould come in; and I would be considering that this seemed to meto be a disposition of immediate Providence, and I ought to lookupon it and submit to it as such.  For, although I wasinnocent as to men, I was far from being innocent as to my Maker;and I ought to look in and examine what other crimes in my lifewere most obvious to me, and for which Providence might justlyinflict this punishment as a retribution; and thus I ought tosubmit to this, just as I would to a shipwreck, if it had pleasedGod to have brought such a disaster upon me.

In its turn natural courage would sometimes take its place,and then I would be talking myself up to vigorous resolutions;that I would not be taken to be barbarously used by a parcel ofmerciless wretches in cold blood; that it were much better tohave fallen into the hands of the savages, though I were surethey would feast upon me when they had taken me, than those whowould perhaps glut their rage upon me by inhuman tortures andbarbarities; that in the case of the savages, I always resolvedto die fighting to the last gasp, and why should I not do sonow?  Whenever these thoughts prevailed, I was sure to putmyself into a kind of fever with the agitation of a supposedfight; my blood would boil, and my eyes sparkle, as if I wasengaged, and I always resolved to take no quarter at their hands;but even at last, if I could resist no longer, I would blow upthe ship and all that was in her, and leave them but little bootyto boast of.

CHAPTER XIII—ARRIVAL IN CHINA

The greater weight the anxieties and perplexities of thesethings were to our thoughts while we were at sea, the greater wasour satisfaction when we saw ourselves on shore; and my partnertold me he dreamed that he had a very heavy load upon his back,which he was to carry up a hill, and found that he was not ableto stand longer under it; but that the Portuguese pilot came andtook it off his back, and the hill disappeared, the ground beforehim appearing all smooth and plain: and truly it was so; theywere all like men who had a load taken off their backs.  Formy part I had a weight taken off from my heart that it was notable any longer to bear; and as I said above we resolved to go nomore to sea in that ship.  When we came on shore, the oldpilot, who was now our friend, got us a lodging, together with awarehouse for our goods; it was a little hut, with a larger houseadjoining to it, built and also palisadoed round with canes, tokeep out pilferers, of which there were not a few in thatcountry: however, the magistrates allowed us a little guard, andwe had a soldier with a kind of half-pike, who stood sentinel atour door, to whom we allowed a pint of rice and a piece of moneyabout the value of three-pence per day, so that our goods werekept very safe.

The fair or mart usually kept at this place had been over sometime; however, we found that there were three or four junks inthe river, and two ships from Japan, with goods which they hadbought in China, and were not gone away, having some Japanesemerchants on shore.

The first thing our old Portuguese pilot did for us was to getus acquainted with three missionary Romish priests who were inthe town, and who had been there some time converting the peopleto Christianity; but we thought they made but poor work of it,and made them but sorry Christians when they had done.  Oneof these was a Frenchman, whom they called Father Simon; anotherwas a Portuguese; and a third a Genoese.  Father Simon wascourteous, and very agreeable company; but the other two weremore reserved, seemed rigid and austere, and applied seriously tothe work they came about, viz. to talk with and insinuatethemselves among the inhabitants wherever they hadopportunity.  We often ate and drank with those men; andthough I must confess the conversion, as they call it, of theChinese to Christianity is so far from the true conversionrequired to bring heathen people to the faith of Christ, that itseems to amount to little more than letting them know the name ofChrist, and say some prayers to the Virgin Mary and her Son, in atongue which they understood not, and to cross themselves, andthe like; yet it must be confessed that the religionists, whom wecall missionaries, have a firm belief that these people will besaved, and that they are the instruments of it; and on thisaccount they undergo not only the fatigue of the voyage, and thehazards of living in such places, but oftentimes death itself,and the most violent tortures, for the sake of this work.

Father Simon was appointed, it seems, by order of the chief ofthe mission, to go up to Pekin, and waited only for anotherpriest, who was ordered to come to him from Macao, to go alongwith him.  We scarce ever met together but he was invitingme to go that journey; telling me how he would show me all theglorious things of that mighty empire, and, among the rest,Pekin, the greatest city in the world: “A city,” saidhe, “that your London and our Paris put together cannot beequal to.”  But as I looked on those things withdifferent eyes from other men, so I shall give my opinion of themin a few words, when I come in the course of my travels to speakmore particularly of them.

Dining with Father Simon one day, and being very merrytogether, I showed some little inclination to go with him; and hepressed me and my partner very hard to consent.  “Why,father,” says my partner, “should you desire ourcompany so much? you know we are heretics, and you do not loveus, nor cannot keep us company with anypleasure.”—“Oh,” says he, “you mayperhaps be good Catholics in time; my business here is to convertheathens, and who knows but I may convert youtoo?”—“Very well, father,” said I,“so you will preach to us all theway?”—“I will not be troublesome to you,”says he; “our religion does not divest us of good manners;besides, we are here like countrymen; and so we are, compared tothe place we are in; and if you are Huguenots, and I a Catholic,we may all be Christians at last; at least, we are all gentlemen,and we may converse so, without being uneasy to oneanother.”  I liked this part of his discourse verywell, and it began to put me in mind of my priest that I had leftin the Brazils; but Father Simon did not come up to his characterby a great deal; for though this friar had no appearance of acriminal levity in him, yet he had not that fund of Christianzeal, strict piety, and sincere affection to religion that myother good ecclesiastic had.

But to leave him a little, though he never left us, norsolicited us to go with him; we had something else before us atfirst, for we had all this while our ship and our merchandise todispose of, and we began to be very doubtful what we should do,for we were now in a place of very little business.  Once Iwas about to venture to sail for the river of Kilam, and the cityof Nankin; but Providence seemed now more visibly, as I thought,than ever to concern itself in our affairs; and I was encouraged,from this very time, to think I should, one way or other, get outof this entangled circumstance, and be brought home to my owncountry again, though I had not the least view of themanner.  Providence, I say, began here to clear up our way alittle; and the first thing that offered was, that our oldPortuguese pilot brought a Japan merchant to us, who inquiredwhat goods we had: and, in the first place, he bought all ouropium, and gave us a very good price for it, paying us in gold byweight, some in small pieces of their own coin, and some in smallwedges, of about ten or twelves ounces each.  While we weredealing with him for our opium, it came into my head that hemight perhaps deal for the ship too, and I ordered theinterpreter to propose it to him.  He shrunk up hisshoulders at it when it was first proposed to him; but in a fewdays after he came to me, with one of the missionary priests forhis interpreter, and told me he had a proposal to make to me,which was this: he had bought a great quantity of our goods, whenhe had no thoughts of proposals made to him of buying the ship;and that, therefore, he had not money to pay for the ship: but ifI would let the same men who were in the ship navigate her, hewould hire the ship to go to Japan; and would send them fromthence to the Philippine Islands with another loading, which hewould pay the freight of before they went from Japan: and that attheir return he would buy the ship.  I began to listen tohis proposal, and so eager did my head still run upon rambling,that I could not but begin to entertain a notion of going myselfwith him, and so to set sail from the Philippine Islands away tothe South Seas; accordingly, I asked the Japanese merchant if hewould not hire us to the Philippine Islands and discharge usthere.  He said No, he could not do that, for then he couldnot have the return of his cargo; but he would discharge us inJapan, at the ship’s return.  Well, still I was fortaking him at that proposal, and going myself; but my partner,wiser than myself, persuaded me from it, representing thedangers, as well of the seas as of the Japanese, who are a false,cruel, and treacherous people; likewise those of the Spaniards atthe Philippines, more false, cruel, and treacherous thanthey.

But to bring this long turn of our affairs to a conclusion;the first thing we had to do was to consult with the captain ofthe ship, and with his men, and know if they were willing to goto Japan.  While I was doing this, the young man whom mynephew had left with me as my companion came up, and told me thathe thought that voyage promised very fair, and that there was agreat prospect of advantage, and he would be very glad if Iundertook it; but that if I would not, and would give him leave,he would go as a merchant, or as I pleased to order him; that ifever he came to England, and I was there and alive, he wouldrender me a faithful account of his success, which should be asmuch mine as I pleased.  I was loath to part with him; butconsidering the prospect of advantage, which really wasconsiderable, and that he was a young fellow likely to do well init, I inclined to let him go; but I told him I would consult mypartner, and give him an answer the next day.  I discoursedabout it with my partner, who thereupon made a most generousoffer: “You know it has been an unlucky ship,” saidhe, “and we both resolve not to go to sea in it again; ifyour steward” (so he called my man) “will venture thevoyage, I will leave my share of the vessel to him, and let himmake the best of it; and if we live to meet in England, and hemeets with success abroad, he shall account for one half of theprofits of the ship’s freight to us; the other shall be hisown.”

If my partner, who was no way concerned with my young man,made him such an offer, I could not do less than offer him thesame; and all the ship’s company being willing to go withhim, we made over half the ship to him in property, and took awriting from him, obliging him to account for the other, and awayhe went to Japan.  The Japan merchant proved a verypunctual, honest man to him: protected him at Japan, and got hima licence to come on shore, which the Europeans in general havenot lately obtained.  He paid him his freight verypunctually; sent him to the Philippines loaded with Japan andChina wares, and a supercargo of their own, who, trafficking withthe Spaniards, brought back European goods again, and a greatquantity of spices; and there he was not only paid his freightvery well, and at a very good price, but not being willing tosell the ship, then the merchant furnished him goods on his ownaccount; and with some money, and some spices of his own which hebrought with him, he went back to the Manillas, where he sold hiscargo very well.  Here, having made a good acquaintance atManilla, he got his ship made a free ship, and the governor ofManilla hired him to go to Acapulco, on the coast of America, andgave him a licence to land there, and to travel to Mexico, and topass in any Spanish ship to Europe with all his men.  Hemade the voyage to Acapulco very happily, and there he sold hisship: and having there also obtained allowance to travel by landto Porto Bello, he found means to get to Jamaica, with all histreasure, and about eight years after came to England exceedingrich.

But to return to our particular affairs, being now to partwith the ship and ship’s company, it came before us, ofcourse, to consider what recompense we should give to the two menthat gave us such timely notice of the design against us in theriver Cambodia.  The truth was, they had done us a veryconsiderable service, and deserved well at our hands; though, bythe way, they were a couple of rogues, too; for, as they believedthe story of our being pirates, and that we had really run awaywith the ship, they came down to us, not only to betray thedesign that was formed against us, but to go to sea with us aspirates.  One of them confessed afterwards that nothing elsebut the hopes of going a-roguing brought him to do it: however,the service they did us was not the less, and therefore, as I hadpromised to be grateful to them, I first ordered the money to bepaid them which they said was due to them on board theirrespective ships: over and above that, I gave each of them asmall sum of money in gold, which contented them very well. I then made the Englishman gunner in the ship, the gunner beingnow made second mate and purser; the Dutchman I made boatswain;so they were both very well pleased, and proved very serviceable,being both able seamen, and very stout fellows.

We were now on shore in China; if I thought myself banished,and remote from my own country at Bengal, where I had many waysto get home for my money, what could I think of myself now, whenI was about a thousand leagues farther off from home, anddestitute of all manner of prospect of return?  All we hadfor it was this: that in about four months’ time there wasto be another fair at the place where we were, and then we mightbe able to purchase various manufactures of the country, andwithal might possibly find some Chinese junks from Tonquin forsail, that would carry us and our goods whither we pleased. This I liked very well, and resolved to wait; besides, as ourparticular persons were not obnoxious, so if any English or Dutchships came thither, perhaps we might have an opportunity to loadour goods, and get passage to some other place in India nearerhome.  Upon these hopes we resolved to continue here; but,to divert ourselves, we took two or three journeys into thecountry.

First, we went ten days’ journey to Nankin, a city wellworth seeing; they say it has a million of people in it: it isregularly built, and the streets are all straight, and cross oneanother in direct lines.  But when I come to compare themiserable people of these countries with ours, their fabrics,their manner of living, their government, their religion, theirwealth, and their glory, as some call it, I must confess that Iscarcely think it worth my while to mention them here.  Wewonder at the grandeur, the riches, the pomp, the ceremonies, thegovernment, the manufactures, the commerce, and conduct of thesepeople; not that there is really any matter for wonder, butbecause, having a true notion of the barbarity of thosecountries, the rudeness and the ignorance that prevail there, wedo not expect to find any such thing so far off.  Otherwise,what are their buildings to the palaces and royal buildings ofEurope?  What their trade to the universal commerce ofEngland, Holland, France, and Spain?  What are their citiesto ours, for wealth, strength, gaiety of apparel, rich furniture,and infinite variety?  What are their ports, supplied with afew junks and barks, to our navigation, our merchant fleets, ourlarge and powerful navies?  Our city of London has moretrade than half their mighty empire: one English, Dutch, orFrench man-of-war of eighty guns would be able to fight almostall the shipping belonging to China: but the greatness of theirwealth, their trade, the power of their government, and thestrength of their armies, may be a little surprising to us,because, as I have said, considering them as a barbarous nationof pagans, little better than savages, we did not expect suchthings among them.  But all the forces of their empire,though they were to bring two millions of men into the fieldtogether, would be able to do nothing but ruin the country andstarve themselves; a million of their foot could not stand beforeone embattled body of our infantry, posted so as not to besurrounded, though they were not to be one to twenty in number;nay, I do not boast if I say that thirty thousand German orEnglish foot, and ten thousand horse, well managed, could defeatall the forces of China.  Nor is there a fortified town inChina that could hold out one month against the batteries andattacks of an European army.  They have firearms, it istrue, but they are awkward and uncertain in their going off; andtheir powder has but little strength.  Their armies arebadly disciplined, and want skill to attack, or temper toretreat; and therefore, I must confess, it seemed strange to me,when I came home, and heard our people say such fine things ofthe power, glory, magnificence, and trade of the Chinese;because, as far as I saw, they appeared to be a contemptible herdor crowd of ignorant, sordid slaves, subjected to a governmentqualified only to rule such a people; and were not its distanceinconceivably, great from Muscovy, and that empire in a manner asrude, impotent, and ill governed as they, the Czar of Muscovymight with ease drive them all out of their country, and conquerthem in one campaign; and had the Czar (who is now a growingprince) fallen this way, instead of attacking the warlike Swedes,and equally improved himself in the art of war, as they say hehas done; and if none of the powers of Europe had envied orinterrupted him, he might by this time have been Emperor ofChina, instead of being beaten by the King of Sweden at Narva,when the latter was not one to six in number.

As their strength and their grandeur, so their navigation,commerce, and husbandry are very imperfect, compared to the samethings in Europe; also, in their knowledge, their learning, andin their skill in the sciences, they are either very awkward ordefective, though they have globes or spheres, and a smatteringof the mathematics, and think they know more than all the worldbesides.  But they know little of the motions of theheavenly bodies; and so grossly and absurdly ignorant are theircommon people, that when the sun is eclipsed, they think a greatdragon has assaulted it, and is going to run away with it; andthey fall a clattering with all the drums and kettles in thecountry, to fright the monster away, just as we do to hive aswarm of bees!

As this is the only excursion of the kind which I have made inall the accounts I have given of my travels, so I shall make nomore such.  It is none of my business, nor any part of mydesign; but to give an account of my own adventures through alife of inimitable wanderings, and a long variety of changes,which, perhaps, few that come after me will have heard the likeof: I shall, therefore, say very little of all the mighty places,desert countries, and numerous people I have yet to pass through,more than relates to my own story, and which my concern amongthem will make necessary.

I was now, as near as I can compute, in the heart of China,about thirty degrees north of the line, for we were returned fromNankin.  I had indeed a mind to see the city of Pekin, whichI had heard so much of, and Father Simon importuned me daily todo it.  At length his time of going away being set, and theother missionary who was to go with him being arrived from Macao,it was necessary that we should resolve either to go or not; so Ireferred it to my partner, and left it wholly to his choice, whoat length resolved it in the affirmative, and we prepared for ourjourney.  We set out with very good advantage as to findingthe way; for we got leave to travel in the retinue of one oftheir mandarins, a kind of viceroy or principal magistrate in theprovince where they reside, and who take great state upon them,travelling with great attendance, and great homage from thepeople, who are sometimes greatly impoverished by them, beingobliged to furnish provisions for them and all their attendantsin their journeys.  I particularly observed in ourtravelling with his baggage, that though we received sufficientprovisions both for ourselves and our horses from the country, asbelonging to the mandarin, yet we were obliged to pay foreverything we had, after the market price of the country, and themandarin’s steward collected it duly from us.  Thusour travelling in the retinue of the mandarin, though it was agreat act of kindness, was not such a mighty favour to us, butwas a great advantage to him, considering there were above thirtyother people travelled in the same manner besides us, under theprotection of his retinue; for the country furnished all theprovisions for nothing to him, and yet he took our money forthem.

We were twenty-five days travelling to Pekin, through acountry exceeding populous, but I think badly cultivated; thehusbandry, the economy, and the way of living miserable, thoughthey boast so much of the industry of the people: I saymiserable, if compared with our own, but not so to these poorwretches, who know no other.  The pride of the poor peopleis infinitely great, and exceeded by nothing but their poverty,in some parts, which adds to that which I call their misery; andI must needs think the savages of America live much more happythan the poorer sort of these, because as they have nothing, sothey desire nothing; whereas these are proud and insolent and inthe main are in many parts mere beggars and drudges.  Theirostentation is inexpressible; and, if they can, they love to keepmultitudes of servants or slaves, which is to the last degreeridiculous, as well as their contempt of all the world butthemselves.

I must confess I travelled more pleasantly afterwards in thedeserts and vast wildernesses of Grand Tartary than here, and yetthe roads here are well paved and well kept, and very convenientfor travellers; but nothing was more awkward to me than to seesuch a haughty, imperious, insolent people, in the midst of thegrossest simplicity and ignorance; and my friend Father Simon andI used to be very merry upon these occasions, to see theirbeggarly pride.  For example, coming by the house of acountry gentleman, as Father Simon called him, about ten leaguesoff the city of Nankin, we had first of all the honour to ridewith the master of the house about two miles; the state he rodein was a perfect Don Quixotism, being a mixture of pomp andpoverty.  His habit was very proper for a merry-andrew,being a dirty calico, with hanging sleeves, tassels, and cuts andslashes almost on every side: it covered a taffety vest, sogreasy as to testify that his honour must be a most exquisitesloven.  His horse was a poor, starved, hobbling creature,and two slaves followed him on foot to drive the poor creaturealong; he had a whip in his hand, and he belaboured the beast asfast about the head as his slaves did about the tail; and thus herode by us, with about ten or twelve servants, going from thecity to his country seat, about half a league before us.  Wetravelled on gently, but this figure of a gentleman rode awaybefore us; and as we stopped at a village about an hour torefresh us, when we came by the country seat of this great man,we saw him in a little place before his door, eating arepast.  It was a kind of garden, but he was easy to beseen; and we were given to understand that the more we looked athim the better he would be pleased.  He sat under a tree,something like the palmetto, which effectually shaded him overthe head, and on the south side; but under the tree was placed alarge umbrella, which made that part look well enough.  Hesat lolling back in a great elbow-chair, being a heavy corpulentman, and had his meat brought him by two women slaves.  Hehad two more, one of whom fed the squire with a spoon, and theother held the dish with one hand, and scraped off what he letfall upon his worship’s beard and taffety vest.

Leaving the poor wretch to please himself with our looking athim, as if we admired his idle pomp, we pursued ourjourney.  Father Simon had the curiosity to stay to informhimself what dainties the country justice had to feed on in allhis state, which he had the honour to taste of, and which was, Ithink, a mess of boiled rice, with a great piece of garlic in it,and a little bag filled with green pepper, and another plantwhich they have there, something like our ginger, but smellinglike musk, and tasting like mustard; all this was put together,and a small piece of lean mutton boiled in it, and this was hisworship’s repast.  Four or five servants more attendedat a distance, who we supposed were to eat of the same aftertheir master.  As for our mandarin with whom we travelled,he was respected as a king, surrounded always with his gentlemen,and attended in all his appearances with such pomp, that I sawlittle of him but at a distance.  I observed that there wasnot a horse in his retinue but that our carrier’spackhorses in England seemed to me to look much better; though itwas hard to judge rightly, for they were so covered withequipage, mantles, trappings, &c., that we could scarce seeanything but their feet and their heads as they went along.

I was now light-hearted, and all my late trouble andperplexity being over, I had no anxious thoughts about me, whichmade this journey the pleasanter to me; in which no ill accidentattended me, only in passing or fording a small river, my horsefell and made me free of the country, as they call it—thatis to say, threw me in.  The place was not deep, but itwetted me all over.  I mention it because it spoiled mypocket-book, wherein I had set down the names of several peopleand places which I had occasion to remember, and which not takingdue care of, the leaves rotted, and the words were never after tobe read.

At length we arrived at Pekin.  I had nobody with me butthe youth whom my nephew had given me to attend me as a servantand who proved very trusty and diligent; and my partner hadnobody with him but one servant, who was a kinsman.  As forthe Portuguese pilot, he being desirous to see the court, we borehis charges for his company, and for our use of him as aninterpreter, for he understood the language of the country, andspoke good French and a little English.  Indeed, this oldman was most useful to us everywhere; for we had not been above aweek at Pekin, when he came laughing.  “Ah, SeigniorInglese,” says he, “I have something to tell willmake your heart glad.”—“My heart glad,”says I; “what can that be?  I don’t knowanything in this country can either give me joy or grief to anygreat degree.”—“Yes, yes,” said the oldman, in broken English, “make you glad, mesorry.”—“Why,” said I, “will itmake you sorry?”—“Because,” said he,“you have brought me here twenty-five days’ journey,and will leave me to go back alone; and which way shall I get tomy port afterwards, without a ship, without a horse, withoutpecune?” so he called money, being his broken Latin,of which he had abundance to make us merry with.  In short,he told us there was a great caravan of Muscovite and Polishmerchants in the city, preparing to set out on their journey byland to Muscovy, within four or five weeks; and he was sure wewould take the opportunity to go with them, and leave him behind,to go back alone.

I confess I was greatly surprised with this good news, and hadscarce power to speak to him for some time; but at last I said tohim, “How do you know this? are you sure it istrue?”—“Yes,” says he; “I met thismorning in the street an old acquaintance of mine, an Armenian,who is among them.  He came last from Astrakhan, and wasdesigned to go to Tonquin, where I formerly knew him, but hasaltered his mind, and is now resolved to go with the caravan toMoscow, and so down the river Volga toAstrakhan.”—“Well, Seignior,” says I,“do not be uneasy about being left to go back alone; ifthis be a method for my return to England, it shall be your faultif you go back to Macao at all.”  We then went toconsult together what was to be done; and I asked my partner whathe thought of the pilot’s news, and whether it would suitwith his affairs?  He told me he would do just as I would;for he had settled all his affairs so well at Bengal, and lefthis effects in such good hands, that as we had made a goodvoyage, if he could invest it in China silks, wrought and raw, hewould be content to go to England, and then make a voyage back toBengal by the Company’s ships.

Having resolved upon this, we agreed that if our Portuguesepilot would go with us, we would bear his charges to Moscow, orto England, if he pleased; nor, indeed, were we to be esteemedover-generous in that either, if we had not rewarded him further,the service he had done us being really worth more than that; forhe had not only been a pilot to us at sea, but he had been like abroker for us on shore; and his procuring for us a Japan merchantwas some hundreds of pounds in our pockets.  So, beingwilling to gratify him, which was but doing him justice, and verywilling also to have him with us besides, for he was a mostnecessary man on all occasions, we agreed to give him a quantityof coined gold, which, as I computed it, was worth one hundredand seventy-five pounds sterling, between us, and to bear all hischarges, both for himself and horse, except only a horse to carryhis goods.  Having settled this between ourselves, we calledhim to let him know what we had resolved.  I told him he hadcomplained of our being willing to let him go back alone, and Iwas now about to tell him we designed he should not go back atall.  That as we had resolved to go to Europe with thecaravan, we were very willing he should go with us; and that wecalled him to know his mind.  He shook his head and said itwas a long journey, and that he had no pecuneto carry himthither, or to subsist himself when he came there.  We toldhim we believed it was so, and therefore we had resolved to dosomething for him that should let him see how sensible we were ofthe service he had done us, and also how agreeable he was to us:and then I told him what we had resolved to give him here, whichhe might lay out as we would do our own; and that as for hischarges, if he would go with us we would set him safe on shore(life and casualties excepted), either in Muscovy or England, ashe would choose, at our own charge, except only the carriage ofhis goods.  He received the proposal like a man transported,and told us he would go with us over all the whole world; and sowe all prepared for our journey.  However, as it was withus, so it was with the other merchants: they had many things todo, and instead of being ready in five weeks, it was four monthsand some days before all things were got together.

CHAPTER XIV—ATTACKED BY TARTARS

It was the beginning of February, new style, when we set outfrom Pekin.  My partner and the old pilot had gone expressback to the port where we had first put in, to dispose of somegoods which we had left there; and I, with a Chinese merchantwhom I had some knowledge of at Nankin, and who came to Pekin onhis own affairs, went to Nankin, where I bought ninety pieces offine damasks, with about two hundred pieces of other very finesilk of several sorts, some mixed with gold, and had all thesebrought to Pekin against my partner’s return.  Besidesthis, we bought a large quantity of raw silk, and some othergoods, our cargo amounting, in these goods only, to about threethousand five hundred pounds sterling; which, together with teaand some fine calicoes, and three camels’ loads of nutmegsand cloves, loaded in all eighteen camels for our share, besidesthose we rode upon; these, with two or three spare horses, andtwo horses loaded with provisions, made together twenty-sixcamels and horses in our retinue.

The company was very great, and, as near as I can remember,made between three and four hundred horses, and upwards of onehundred and twenty men, very well armed and provided for allevents; for as the Eastern caravans are subject to be attacked bythe Arabs, so are these by the Tartars.  The companyconsisted of people of several nations, but there were abovesixty of them merchants or inhabitants of Moscow, though of themsome were Livonians; and to our particular satisfaction, five ofthem were Scots, who appeared also to be men of great experiencein business, and of very good substance.

When we had travelled one day’s journey, the guides, whowere five in number, called all the passengers, except theservants, to a great council, as they called it.  At thiscouncil every one deposited a certain quantity of money to acommon stock, for the necessary expense of buying forage on theway, where it was not otherwise to be had, and for satisfying theguides, getting horses, and the like.  Here, too, theyconstituted the journey, as they call it, viz. they namedcaptains and officers to draw us all up, and give the word ofcommand, in case of an attack, and give every one their turn ofcommand; nor was this forming us into order any more than what weafterwards found needful on the way.

The road all on this side of the country is very populous, andis full of potters and earth-makers—that is to say, people,that temper the earth for the China ware.  As I was comingalong, our Portuguese pilot, who had always something or other tosay to make us merry, told me he would show me the greatestrarity in all the country, and that I should have this to say ofChina, after all the ill-humoured things that I had said of it,that I had seen one thing which was not to be seen in all theworld beside.  I was very importunate to know what it was;at last he told me it was a gentleman’s house built withChina ware.  “Well,” says I, “are not thematerials of their buildings the products of their own country,and so it is all China ware, is it not?”—“No,no,” says he, “I mean it is a house all made of Chinaware, such as you call it in England, or as it is called in ourcountry, porcelain.”—“Well,” says I,“such a thing may be; how big is it?  Can we carry itin a box upon a camel?  If we can we will buyit.”—“Upon a camel!” says the old pilot,holding up both his hands; “why, there is a family ofthirty people lives in it.”

I was then curious, indeed, to see it; and when I came to it,it was nothing but this: it was a timber house, or a house built,as we call it in England, with lath and plaster, but all thisplastering was really China ware—that is to say, it wasplastered with the earth that makes China ware.  Theoutside, which the sun shone hot upon, was glazed, and lookedvery well, perfectly white, and painted with blue figures, as thelarge China ware in England is painted, and hard as if it hadbeen burnt.  As to the inside, all the walls, instead ofwainscot, were lined with hardened and painted tiles, like thelittle square tiles we call galley-tiles in England, all made ofthe finest china, and the figures exceeding fine indeed, withextraordinary variety of colours, mixed with gold, many tilesmaking but one figure, but joined so artificially, the mortarbeing made of the same earth, that it was very hard to see wherethe tiles met.  The floors of the rooms were of the samecomposition, and as hard as the earthen floors we have in use inseveral parts of England; as hard as stone, and smooth, but notburnt and painted, except some smaller rooms, like closets, whichwere all, as it were, paved with the same tile; the ceiling andall the plastering work in the whole house were of the sameearth; and, after all, the roof was covered with tiles of thesame, but of a deep shining black.  This was a Chinawarehouse indeed, truly and literally to be called so, and had Inot been upon the journey, I could have stayed some days to seeand examine the particulars of it.  They told me there werefountains and fishponds in the garden, all paved on the bottomand sides with the same; and fine statues set up in rows on thewalks, entirely formed of the porcelain earth, burnt whole.

As this is one of the singularities of China, so they may beallowed to excel in it; but I am very sure they excel in theiraccounts of it; for they told me such incredible things of theirperformance in crockery-ware, for such it is, that I care not torelate, as knowing it could not be true.  They told me, inparticular, of one workman that made a ship with all its tackleand masts and sails in earthenware, big enough to carry fiftymen.  If they had told me he launched it, and made a voyageto Japan in it, I might have said something to it indeed; but asit was, I knew the whole of the story, which was, in short, thatthe fellow lied: so I smiled, and said nothing to it.  Thisodd sight kept me two hours behind the caravan, for which theleader of it for the day fined me about the value of threeshillings; and told me if it had been three days’ journeywithout the wall, as it was three days’ within, he musthave fined me four times as much, and made me ask pardon the nextcouncil-day.  I promised to be more orderly; and, indeed, Ifound afterwards the orders made for keeping all together wereabsolutely necessary for our common safety.

In two days more we passed the great China wall, made for afortification against the Tartars: and a very great work it is,going over hills and mountains in an endless track, where therocks are impassable, and the precipices such as no enemy couldpossibly enter, or indeed climb up, or where, if they did, nowall could hinder them.  They tell us its length is near athousand English miles, but that the country is five hundred in astraight measured line, which the wall bounds without measuringthe windings and turnings it takes; it is about four fathomshigh, and as many thick in some places.

I stood still an hour or thereabouts without trespassing onour orders (for so long the caravan was in passing the gate), tolook at it on every side, near and far off; I mean what waswithin my view: and the guide, who had been extolling it for thewonder of the world, was mighty eager to hear my opinion ofit.  I told him it was a most excellent thing to keep outthe Tartars; which he happened not to understand as I meant itand so took it for a compliment; but the old pilot laughed! “Oh, Seignior Inglese,” says he, “you speak incolours.”—“In colours!” said I;“what do you mean by that?”—“Why, youspeak what looks white this way and black that way—gay oneway and dull another.  You tell him it is a good wall tokeep out Tartars; you tell me by that it is good for nothing butto keep out Tartars.  I understand you, Seignior Inglese, Iunderstand you; but Seignior Chinese understood you his ownway.”—“Well,” says I, “do you thinkit would stand out an army of our country people, with a goodtrain of artillery; or our engineers, with two companies ofminers?  Would not they batter it down in ten days, that anarmy might enter in battalia; or blow it up in the air,foundation and all, that there should be no sign of itleft?”—“Ay, ay,” says he, “I knowthat.”  The Chinese wanted mightily to know what Isaid to the pilot, and I gave him leave to tell him a few daysafter, for we were then almost out of their country, and he wasto leave us a little time after this; but when he knew what Isaid, he was dumb all the rest of the way, and we heard no moreof his fine story of the Chinese power and greatness while hestayed.

After we passed this mighty nothing, called a wall, somethinglike the Picts’ walls so famous in Northumberland, built bythe Romans, we began to find the country thinly inhabited, andthe people rather confined to live in fortified towns, as beingsubject to the inroads and depredations of the Tartars, who robin great armies, and therefore are not to be resisted by thenaked inhabitants of an open country.  And here I began tofind the necessity of keeping together in a caravan as wetravelled, for we saw several troops of Tartars roving about; butwhen I came to see them distinctly, I wondered more that theChinese empire could be conquered by such contemptible fellows;for they are a mere horde of wild fellows, keeping no order andunderstanding no discipline or manner of it.  Their horsesare poor lean creatures, taught nothing, and fit for nothing; andthis we found the first day we saw them, which was after weentered the wilder part of the country.  Our leader for theday gave leave for about sixteen of us to go a hunting as theycall it; and what was this but a hunting of sheep!—however,it may be called hunting too, for these creatures are the wildestand swiftest of foot that ever I saw of their kind! only theywill not run a great way, and you are sure of sport when youbegin the chase, for they appear generally thirty or forty in aflock, and, like true sheep, always keep together when theyfly.

In pursuit of this odd sort of game it was our hap to meetwith about forty Tartars: whether they were hunting mutton, as wewere, or whether they looked for another kind of prey, we knownot; but as soon as they saw us, one of them blew a hideous blaston a kind of horn.  This was to call their friends aboutthem, and in less than ten minutes a troop of forty or fifty moreappeared, at about a mile distance; but our work was over first,as it happened.

One of the Scots merchants of Moscow happened to be amongstus; and as soon as he heard the horn, he told us that we hadnothing to do but to charge them without loss of time; anddrawing us up in a line, he asked if we were resolved.  Wetold him we were ready to follow him; so he rode directly towardsthem.  They stood gazing at us like a mere crowd, drawn upin no sort of order at all; but as soon as they saw us advance,they let fly their arrows, which missed us, very happily. Not that they mistook their aim, but their distance; for theirarrows all fell a little short of us, but with so true an aim,that had we been about twenty yards nearer we must have hadseveral men wounded, if not killed.

Immediately we halted, and though it was at a great distance,we fired, and sent them leaden bullets for wooden arrows,following our shot full gallop, to fall in among them sword inhand—for so our bold Scot that led us directed.  Hewas, indeed, but a merchant, but he behaved with such vigour andbravery on this occasion, and yet with such cool courage too,that I never saw any man in action fitter for command.  Assoon as we came up to them we fired our pistols in their facesand then drew; but they fled in the greatest confusionimaginable.  The only stand any of them made was on ourright, where three of them stood, and, by signs, called the restto come back to them, having a kind of scimitar in their hands,and their bows hanging to their backs.  Our brave commander,without asking anybody to follow him, gallops up close to them,and with his fusee knocks one of them off his horse, killed thesecond with his pistol, and the third ran away.  Thus endedour fight; but we had this misfortune attending it, that all ourmutton we had in chase got away.  We had not a man killed orhurt; as for the Tartars, there were about five of themkilled—how many were wounded we knew not; but this we knew,that the other party were so frightened with the noise of ourguns that they fled, and never made any attempt upon us.

We were all this while in the Chinese dominions, and thereforethe Tartars were not so bold as afterwards; but in about fivedays we entered a vast wild desert, which held us threedays’ and nights’ march; and we were obliged to carryour water with us in great leathern bottles, and to encamp allnight, just as I have heard they do in the desert ofArabia.  I asked our guides whose dominion this was in, andthey told me this was a kind of border that might be called noman’s land, being a part of Great Karakathy, or GrandTartary: that, however, it was all reckoned as belonging toChina, but that there was no care taken here to preserve it fromthe inroads of thieves, and therefore it was reckoned the worstdesert in the whole march, though we were to go over some muchlarger.

In passing this frightful wilderness we saw, two or threetimes, little parties of the Tartars, but they seemed to be upontheir own affairs, and to have no design upon us; and so, likethe man who met the devil, if they had nothing to say to us, wehad nothing to say to them: we let them go.  Once, however,a party of them came so near as to stand and gaze at us. Whether it was to consider if they should attack us or not, weknew not; but when we had passed at some distance by them, wemade a rear-guard of forty men, and stood ready for them, lettingthe caravan pass half a mile or thereabouts before us. After a while they marched off, but they saluted us with fivearrows at their parting, which wounded a horse so that itdisabled him, and we left him the next day, poor creature, ingreat need of a good farrier.  We saw no more arrows orTartars that time.

We travelled near a month after this, the ways not being sogood as at first, though still in the dominions of the Emperor ofChina, but lay for the most part in the villages, some of whichwere fortified, because of the incursions of the Tartars. When we were come to one of these towns (about two days and ahalf’s journey before we came to the city of Naum), Iwanted to buy a camel, of which there are plenty to be sold allthe way upon that road, and horses also, such as they are,because, so many caravans coming that way, they are oftenwanted.  The person that I spoke to to get me a camel wouldhave gone and fetched one for me; but I, like a fool, must beofficious, and go myself along with him; the place was about twomiles out of the village, where it seems they kept the camels andhorses feeding under a guard.

I walked it on foot, with my old pilot and a Chinese, beingvery desirous of a little variety.  When we came to theplace it was a low, marshy ground, walled round with stones,piled up dry, without mortar or earth among them, like a park,with a little guard of Chinese soldiers at the door.  Havingbought a camel, and agreed for the price, I came away, and theChinese that went with me led the camel, when on a sudden came upfive Tartars on horseback.  Two of them seized the fellowand took the camel from him, while the other three stepped up tome and my old pilot, seeing us, as it were, unarmed, for I had noweapon about me but my sword, which could but ill defend meagainst three horsemen.  The first that came up stoppedshort upon my drawing my sword, for they are arrant cowards; buta second, coming upon my left, gave me a blow on the head, whichI never felt till afterwards, and wondered, when I came tomyself, what was the matter, and where I was, for he laid me flaton the ground; but my never-failing old pilot, the Portuguese,had a pistol in his pocket, which I knew nothing of, nor theTartars either: if they had, I suppose they would not haveattacked us, for cowards are always boldest when there is nodanger.  The old man seeing me down, with a bold heartstepped up to the fellow that had struck me, and laying hold ofhis arm with one hand, and pulling him down by main force alittle towards him, with the other shot him into the head, andlaid him dead upon the spot.  He then immediately stepped upto him who had stopped us, as I said, and before he could comeforward again, made a blow at him with a scimitar, which healways wore, but missing the man, struck his horse in the side ofhis head, cut one of the ears off by the root, and a great slicedown by the side of his face.  The poor beast, enraged withthe wound, was no more to be governed by his rider, though thefellow sat well enough too, but away he flew, and carried himquite out of the pilot’s reach; and at some distance,rising upon his hind legs, threw down the Tartar, and fell uponhim.

In this interval the poor Chinese came in who had lost thecamel, but he had no weapon; however, seeing the Tartar down, andhis horse fallen upon him, away he runs to him, and seizing uponan ugly weapon he had by his side, something like a pole-axe, hewrenched it from him, and made shift to knock his Tartarianbrains out with it.  But my old man had the third Tartar todeal with still; and seeing he did not fly, as he expected, norcome on to fight him, as he apprehended, but stood stock still,the old man stood still too, and fell to work with his tackle tocharge his pistol again: but as soon as the Tartar saw the pistolaway he scoured, and left my pilot, my champion I called himafterwards, a complete victory.

By this time I was a little recovered.  I thought, when Ifirst began to wake, that I had been in a sweet sleep; but, as Isaid above, I wondered where I was, how I came upon the ground,and what was the matter.  A few moments after, as sensereturned, I felt pain, though I did not know where; so I clappedmy hand to my head, and took it away bloody; then I felt my headache: and in a moment memory returned, and everything was presentto me again.  I jumped upon my feet instantly, and got holdof my sword, but no enemies were in view: I found a Tartar lyingdead, and his horse standing very quietly by him; and, lookingfurther, I saw my deliverer, who had been to see what the Chinesehad done, coming back with his hanger in his hand.  The oldman, seeing me on my feet, came running to me, and joyfullyembraced me, being afraid before that I had been killed. Seeing me bloody, he would see how I was hurt; but it was notmuch, only what we call a broken head; neither did I afterwardsfind any great inconvenience from the blow, for it was well againin two or three days.

We made no great gain, however, by this victory, for we lost acamel and gained a horse.  I paid for the lost camel, andsent for another; but I did not go to fetch it myself: I had hadenough of that.

The city of Naum, which we were approaching, is a frontier ofthe Chinese empire, and is fortified in their fashion.  Wewanted, as I have said, above two days’ journey of thiscity when messengers were sent express to every part of the roadto tell all travellers and caravans to halt till they had a guardsent for them; for that an unusual body of Tartars, making tenthousand in all, had appeared in the way, about thirty milesbeyond the city.

This was very bad news to travellers: however, it wascarefully done of the governor, and we were very glad to hear weshould have a guard.  Accordingly, two days after, we hadtwo hundred soldiers sent us from a garrison of the Chinese onour left, and three hundred more from the city of Naum, and withthese we advanced boldly.  The three hundred soldiers fromNaum marched in our front, the two hundred in our rear, and ourmen on each side of our camels, with our baggage and the wholecaravan in the centre; in this order, and well prepared forbattle, we thought ourselves a match for the whole ten thousandMogul Tartars, if they had appeared; but the next day, when theydid appear, it was quite another thing.

CHAPTER XV—DESCRIPTION OF AN IDOL, WHICH THEYDESTROY

Early in the morning, when marching from a little town calledChangu, we had a river to pass, which we were obliged to ferry;and, had the Tartars had any intelligence, then had been the timeto have attacked us, when the caravan being over, the rear-guardwas behind; but they did not appear there.  About threehours after, when we were entered upon a desert of about fifteenor sixteen miles over, we knew by a cloud of dust they raised,that the enemy was at hand, and presently they came on upon thespur.

Our Chinese guards in the front, who had talked so big the daybefore, began to stagger; and the soldiers frequently lookedbehind them, a certain sign in a soldier that he is just ready torun away.  My old pilot was of my mind; and being near me,called out, “Seignior Inglese, these fellows must beencouraged, or they will ruin us all; for if the Tartars come onthey will never stand it.”—“If am of yourmind,” said I; “but what must bedone?”—“Done?” says he, “let fiftyof our men advance, and flank them on each wing, and encouragethem.  They will fight like brave fellows in brave company;but without this they will every man turn his back.” Immediately I rode up to our leader and told him, who was exactlyof our mind; accordingly, fifty of us marched to the right wing,and fifty to the left, and the rest made a line of rescue; and sowe marched, leaving the last two hundred men to make a body ofthemselves, and to guard the camels; only that, if need were,they should send a hundred men to assist the last fifty.

At last the Tartars came on, and an innumerable company theywere; how many we could not tell, but ten thousand, we thought,at the least.  A party of them came on first, and viewed ourposture, traversing the ground in the front of our line; and, aswe found them within gunshot, our leader ordered the two wings toadvance swiftly, and give them a salvo on each wing with theirshot, which was done.  They then went off, I suppose to givean account of the reception they were like to meet with; indeed,that salute cloyed their stomachs, for they immediately halted,stood a while to consider of it, and wheeling off to the left,they gave over their design for that time, which was veryagreeable to our circumstances.

Two days after we came to the city of Naun, or Naum; wethanked the governor for his care of us, and collected to thevalue of a hundred crowns, or thereabouts, which we gave to thesoldiers sent to guard us; and here we rested one day.  Thisis a garrison indeed, and there were nine hundred soldiers kepthere; but the reason of it was, that formerly the Muscovitefrontiers lay nearer to them than they now do, the Muscoviteshaving abandoned that part of the country, which lies from thiscity west for about two hundred miles, as desolate and unfit foruse; and more especially being so very remote, and so difficultto send troops thither for its defence; for we were yet above twothousand miles from Muscovy properly so called.  After thiswe passed several great rivers, and two dreadful deserts; one ofwhich we were sixteen days passing over; and on the 13th of Aprilwe came to the frontiers of the Muscovite dominions.  Ithink the first town or fortress, whichever it may he called,that belonged to the Czar, was called Arguna, being on the westside of the river Arguna.

I could not but feel great satisfaction that I was arrived ina country governed by Christians; for though the Muscovites do,in my opinion, but just deserve the name of Christians, yet suchthey pretend to be, and are very devout in their way.  Itwould certainly occur to any reflecting man who travels the worldas I have done, what a blessing it is to be brought into theworld where the name of God and a Redeemer is known, adored, andworshipped; and not where the people, given up to strongdelusions, worship the devil, and prostrate themselves tomonsters, elements, horrid-shaped animals, and monstrousimages.  Not a town or city we passed through but had theirpagodas, their idols, and their temples, and ignorant peopleworshipping even the works of their own hands.  Now we camewhere, at least, a face of the Christian worship appeared; wherethe knee was bowed to Jesus: and whether ignorantly or not, yetthe Christian religion was owned, and the name of the true Godwas called upon and adored; and it made my soul rejoice to seeit.  I saluted the brave Scots merchant with my firstacknowledgment of this; and taking him by the hand, I said tohim, “Blessed be God, we are once again amongstChristians.”  He smiled, and answered, “Do notrejoice too soon, countryman; these Muscovites are but an oddsort of Christians; and but for the name of it you may see verylittle of the substance for some months further of ourjourney.”—“Well,” says I, “butstill it is better than paganism, and worshipping ofdevils.”—“Why, I will tell you,” says he;“except the Russian soldiers in the garrisons, and a few ofthe inhabitants of the cities upon the road, all the rest of thiscountry, for above a thousand miles farther, is inhabited by theworst and most ignorant of pagans.”  And so, indeed,we found it.

We now launched into the greatest piece of solid earth that isto be found in any part of the world; we had, at least, twelvethousand miles to the sea eastward; two thousand to the bottom ofthe Baltic Sea westward; and above three thousand, if we leftthat sea, and went on west, to the British and French channels:we had full five thousand miles to the Indian or Persian Seasouth; and about eight hundred to the Frozen Sea north.

We advanced from the river Arguna by easy and moderatejourneys, and were very visibly obliged to the care the Czar hastaken to have cities and towns built in as many places as it ispossible to place them, where his soldiers keep garrison,something like the stationary soldiers placed by the Romans inthe remotest countries of their empire; some of which I had readof were placed in Britain, for the security of commerce, and forthe lodging of travellers.  Thus it was here; for whereverwe came, though at these towns and stations the garrisons andgovernors were Russians, and professed Christians, yet theinhabitants were mere pagans, sacrificing to idols, andworshipping the sun, moon, and stars, or all the host of heaven;and not only so, but were, of all the heathens and pagans thatever I met with, the most barbarous, except only that they didnot eat men’s flesh.

Some instances of this we met with in the country betweenArguna, where we enter the Muscovite dominions, and a city ofTartars and Russians together, called Nortziousky, in which is acontinued desert or forest, which cost us twenty days to travelover.  In a village near the last of these places I had thecuriosity to go and see their way of living, which is mostbrutish and unsufferable.  They had, I suppose, a greatsacrifice that day; for there stood out, upon an old stump of atree, a diabolical kind of idol made of wood; it was dressed up,too, in the most filthy manner; its upper garment was ofsheepskins, with the wool outward; a great Tartar bonnet on thehead, with two horns growing through it; it was about eight feethigh, yet had no feet or legs, nor any other proportion ofparts.

This scarecrow was set up at the outer side of the village;and when I came near to it there were sixteen or seventeencreatures all lying flat upon the ground round this hideous blockof wood; I saw no motion among them, any more than if they hadbeen all logs, like the idol, and at first I really thought theyhad been so; but, when I came a little nearer, they started upupon their feet, and raised a howl, as if it had been so manydeep-mouthed hounds, and walked away, as if they were displeasedat our disturbing them.  A little way off from the idol, andat the door of a hut, made of sheep and cow skins dried, stoodthree men with long knives in their hands; and in the middle ofthe tent appeared three sheep killed, and one youngbullock.  These, it seems, were sacrifices to that senselesslog of an idol; the three men were priests belonging to it, andthe seventeen prostrated wretches were the people who brought theoffering, and were offering their prayers to that stock.

I confess I was more moved at their stupidity and brutishworship of a hobgoblin than ever I was at anything in my life,and, overcome with rage, I rode up to the hideous idol, and withmy sword made a stroke at the bonnet that was on its head, andcut it in two; and one of our men that was with me, taking holdof the sheepskin that covered it, pulled at it, when, behold, amost hideous outcry ran through the village, and two or threehundred people came about my ears, so that I was glad to scourfor it, for some had bows and arrows; but I resolved from thatmoment to visit them again.  Our caravan rested three nightsat the town, which was about four miles off, in order to providesome horses which they wanted, several of the horses having beenlamed and jaded with the long march over the last desert; so wehad some leisure here to put my design in execution.  Icommunicated it to the Scots merchant, of whose courage I hadsufficient testimony; I told him what I had seen, and with whatindignation I had since thought that human nature could be sodegenerate; I told him if I could get but four or five men wellarmed to go with me, I was resolved to go and destroy that vile,abominable idol, and let them see that it had no power to helpitself, and consequently could not be an object of worship, or tobe prayed to, much less help them that offered sacrifices toit.

He at first objected to my plan as useless, seeing that, owingto the gross ignorance of the people, they could not be broughtto profit by the lesson I meant to teach them; and added that,from his knowledge of the country and its customs, he feared weshould fall into great peril by giving offence to these brutalidol worshippers.  This somewhat stayed my purpose, but Iwas still uneasy all that day to put my project in execution; andthat evening, meeting the Scots merchant in our walk about thetown, I again called upon him to aid me in it.  When hefound me resolute he said that, on further thoughts, he could notbut applaud the design, and told me I should not go alone, but hewould go with me; but he would go first and bring a stout fellow,one of his countrymen, to go also with us; “and one,”said he, “as famous for his zeal as you can desire any oneto be against such devilish things as these.”  So weagreed to go, only we three and my man-servant, and resolved toput it in execution the following night about midnight, with allpossible secrecy.

We thought it better to delay it till the next night, becausethe caravan being to set forward in the morning, we suppose thegovernor could not pretend to give them any satisfaction upon uswhen we were out of his power.  The Scots merchant, assteady in his resolution for the enterprise as bold in executing,brought me a Tartar’s robe or gown of sheepskins, and abonnet, with a bow and arrows, and had provided the same forhimself and his countryman, that the people, if they saw us,should not determine who we were.  All the first night wespent in mixing up some combustible matter, with aqua vitae,gunpowder, and such other materials as we could get; and having agood quantity of tar in a little pot, about an hour after nightwe set out upon our expedition.

We came to the place about eleven o’clock at night, andfound that the people had not the least suspicion of dangerattending their idol.  The night was cloudy: yet the moongave us light enough to see that the idol stood just in the sameposture and place that it did before.  The people seemed tobe all at their rest; only that in the great hut, where we sawthe three priests, we saw a light, and going up close to thedoor, we heard people talking as if there were five or six ofthem; we concluded, therefore, that if we set wildfire to theidol, those men would come out immediately, and run up to theplace to rescue it from destruction; and what to do with them weknew not.  Once we thought of carrying it away, and settingfire to it at a distance; but when we came to handle it, we foundit too bulky for our carriage, so we were at a loss again. The second Scotsman was for setting fire to the hut, and knockingthe creatures that were there on the head when they came out; butI could not join with that; I was against killing them, if itwere possible to avoid it.  “Well, then,” saidthe Scots merchant, “I will tell you what we will do: wewill try to make them prisoners, tie their hands, and make themstand and see their idol destroyed.”

As it happened, we had twine or packthread enough about us,which we used to tie our firelocks together with; so we resolvedto attack these people first, and with as little noise as wecould.  The first thing we did, we knocked at the door, whenone of the priests coming to it, we immediately seized upon him,stopped his mouth, and tied his hands behind him, and led him tothe idol, where we gagged him that he might not make a noise,tied his feet also together, and left him on the ground.

Two of us then waited at the door, expecting that anotherwould come out to see what the matter was; but we waited so longtill the third man came back to us; and then nobody coming out,we knocked again gently, and immediately out came two more, andwe served them just in the same manner, but were obliged to goall with them, and lay them down by the idol some distance fromone another; when, going back, we found two more were come out ofthe door, and a third stood behind them within the door.  Weseized the two, and immediately tied them, when the third,stepping back and crying out, my Scots merchant went in afterthem, and taking out a composition we had made that would onlysmoke and stink, he set fire to it, and threw it in amongthem.  By that time the other Scotsman and my man, takingcharge of the two men already bound, and tied together also bythe arm, led them away to the idol, and left them there, to seeif their idol would relieve them, making haste back to us.

When the fuze we had thrown in had filled the hut with so muchsmoke that they were almost suffocated, we threw in a smallleather bag of another kind, which flamed like a candle, and,following it in, we found there were but four people, who, as wesupposed, had been about some of their diabolicalsacrifices.  They appeared, in short, frightened to death,at least so as to sit trembling and stupid, and not able to speakeither, for the smoke.

We quickly took them from the hut, where the smoke soon droveus out, bound them as we had done the other, and all without anynoise.  Then we carried them all together to the idol; whenwe came there, we fell to work with him.  First, we daubedhim all over, and his robes also, with tar, and tallow mixed withbrimstone; then we stopped his eyes and ears and mouth full ofgunpowder, and wrapped up a great piece of wildfire in hisbonnet; then sticking all the combustibles we had brought with usupon him, we looked about to see if we could find anything elseto help to burn him; when my Scotsman remembered that by the hut,where the men were, there lay a heap of dry forage; away he andthe other Scotsman ran and fetched their arms full of that. When we had done this, we took all our prisoners, and broughtthem, having untied their feet and ungagged their mouths, andmade them stand up, and set them before their monstrous idol, andthen set fire to the whole.

We stayed by it a quarter of an hour or thereabouts, till thepowder in the eyes and mouth and ears of the idol blew up, and,as we could perceive, had split altogether; and in a word, tillwe saw it burned so that it would soon be quite consumed. We then began to think of going away; but the Scotsman said,“No, we must not go, for these poor deluded wretches willall throw themselves into the fire, and burn themselves with theidol.”  So we resolved to stay till the forage hasburned down too, and then came away and left them.  Afterthe feat was performed, we appeared in the morning among ourfellow-travellers, exceedingly busy in getting ready for ourjourney; nor could any man suppose that we had been anywhere butin our beds.

But the affair did not end so; the next day came a greatnumber of the country people to the town gates, and in a mostoutrageous manner demanded satisfaction of the Russian governorfor the insulting their priests and burning their great ChamChi-Thaungu.  The people of Nertsinkay were at first in agreat consternation, for they said the Tartars were already noless than thirty thousand strong.  The Russian governor sentout messengers to appease them, assuring them that he knewnothing of it, and that there had not a soul in his garrison beenabroad, so that it could not be from anybody there: but if theycould let him know who did it, they should be exemplarilypunished.  They returned haughtily, that all the countryreverenced the great Cham Chi-Thaungu, who dwelt in the sun, andno mortal would have dared to offer violence to his image butsome Christian miscreant; and they therefore resolved to denouncewar against him and all the Russians, who, they said, weremiscreants and Christians.

The governor, unwilling to make a breach, or to have any causeof war alleged to be given by him, the Czar having strictlycharged him to treat the conquered country with gentleness, gavethem all the good words he could.  At last he told themthere was a caravan gone towards Russia that morning, and perhapsit was some of them who had done them this injury; and that ifthey would be satisfied with that, he would send after them toinquire into it.  This seemed to appease them a little; andaccordingly the governor sent after us, and gave us a particularaccount how the thing was; intimating withal, that if any in ourcaravan had done it they should make their escape; but thatwhether we had done it or no, we should make all the hasteforward that was possible: and that, in the meantime, he wouldkeep them in play as long as he could.

This was very friendly in the governor; however, when it cameto the caravan, there was nobody knew anything of the matter; andas for us that were guilty, we were least of all suspected. However, the captain of the caravan for the time took the hintthat the governor gave us, and we travelled two days and twonights without any considerable stop, and then we lay at avillage called Plothus: nor did we make any long stop here, buthastened on towards Jarawena, another Muscovite colony, and wherewe expected we should be safe.  But upon the secondday’s march from Plothus, by the clouds of dust behind usat a great distance, it was plain we were pursued.  We hadentered a vast desert, and had passed by a great lake calledSchanks Oser, when we perceived a large body of horse appear onthe other side of the lake, to the north, we travellingwest.  We observed they went away west, as we did, but hadsupposed we would have taken that side of the lake, whereas wevery happily took the south side; and in two days more theydisappeared again: for they, believing we were still before them,pushed on till they came to the Udda, a very great river when itpasses farther north, but when we came to it we found it narrowand fordable.

The third day they had either found their mistake, or hadintelligence of us, and came pouring in upon us towardsdusk.  We had, to our great satisfaction, just pitched upona convenient place for our camp; for as we had just entered upona desert above five hundred miles over, where we had no towns tolodge at, and, indeed, expected none but the city Jarawena, whichwe had yet two days’ march to; the desert, however, hadsome few woods in it on this side, and little rivers, which ranall into the great river Udda; it was in a narrow strait, betweenlittle but very thick woods, that we pitched our camp that night,expecting to be attacked before morning.  As it was usualfor the Mogul Tartars to go about in troops in that desert, sothe caravans always fortify themselves every night against them,as against armies of robbers; and it was, therefore, no new thingto be pursued.  But we had this night a most advantageouscamp: for as we lay between two woods, with a little rivuletrunning just before our front, we could not be surrounded, orattacked any way but in our front or rear.  We took carealso to make our front as strong as we could, by placing ourpacks, with the camels and horses, all in a line, on the insideof the river, and felling some trees in our rear.

In this posture we encamped for the night; but the enemy wasupon us before we had finished.  They did not come on likethieves, as we expected, but sent three messengers to us, todemand the men to be delivered to them that had abused theirpriests and burned their idol, that they might burn them withfire; and upon this, they said, they would go away, and do us nofurther harm, otherwise they would destroy us all.  Our menlooked very blank at this message, and began to stare at oneanother to see who looked with the most guilt in their faces; butnobody was the word—nobody did it.  The leader of thecaravan sent word he was well assured that it was not done by anyof our camp; that we were peaceful merchants, travelling on ourbusiness; that we had done no harm to them or to any one else;and that, therefore, they must look further for the enemies whohad injured them, for we were not the people; so they desiredthem not to disturb us, for if they did we should defendourselves.

They were far from being satisfied with this for an answer:and a great crowd of them came running down in the morning, bybreak of day, to our camp; but seeing us so well posted, theydurst come no farther than the brook in our front, where theystood in such number as to terrify us very much; indeed, somespoke of ten thousand.  Here they stood and looked at us awhile, and then, setting up a great howl, let fly a crowd ofarrows among us; but we were well enough sheltered under ourbaggage, and I do not remember that one of us was hurt.

Some time after this we saw them move a little to our right,and expected them on the rear: when a cunning fellow, a Cossackof Jarawena, calling to the leader of the caravan, said to him,“I will send all these people away toSibeilka.”  This was a city four or five days’journey at least to the right, and rather behind us.  So hetakes his bow and arrows, and getting on horseback, he rides awayfrom our rear directly, as it were back to Nertsinskay; afterthis he takes a great circuit about, and comes directly on thearmy of the Tartars as if he had been sent express to tell them along story that the people who had burned the Cham Chi-Thaunguwere gone to Sibeilka, with a caravan of miscreants, as he calledthem—that is to say, Christians; and that they had resolvedto burn the god Scal-Isar, belonging to the Tonguses.  Asthis fellow was himself a Tartar, and perfectly spoke theirlanguage, he counterfeited so well that they all believed him,and away they drove in a violent hurry to Sibeilka.  In lessthan three hours they were entirely out of our sight, and wenever heard any more of them, nor whether they went to Sibeilkaor no.  So we passed away safely on to Jarawena, where therewas a Russian garrison, and there we rested five days.

From this city we had a frightful desert, which held ustwenty-three days’ march.  We furnished ourselves withsome tents here, for the better accommodating ourselves in thenight; and the leader of the caravan procured sixteen waggons ofthe country, for carrying our water or provisions, and thesecarriages were our defence every night round our little camp; sothat had the Tartars appeared, unless they had been very numerousindeed, they would not have been able to hurt us.  We maywell be supposed to have wanted rest again after this longjourney; for in this desert we neither saw house nor tree, andscarce a bush; though we saw abundance of the sable-hunters, whoare all Tartars of Mogul Tartary; of which this country is apart; and they frequently attack small caravans, but we saw nonumbers of them together.

After we had passed this desert we came into a country prettywell inhabited—that is to say, we found towns and castles,settled by the Czar with garrisons of stationary soldiers, toprotect the caravans and defend the country against the Tartars,who would otherwise make it very dangerous travelling; and hisczarish majesty has given such strict orders for the wellguarding the caravans, that, if there are any Tartars heard of inthe country, detachments of the garrison are always sent to seethe travellers safe from station to station.  Thus thegovernor of Adinskoy, whom I had an opportunity to make a visitto, by means of the Scots merchant, who was acquainted with him,offered us a guard of fifty men, if we thought there was anydanger, to the next station.

I thought, long before this, that as we came nearer to Europewe should find the country better inhabited, and the people morecivilised; but I found myself mistaken in both: for we had yetthe nation of the Tonguses to pass through, where we saw the sametokens of paganism and barbarity as before; only, as they wereconquered by the Muscovites, they were not so dangerous, but forrudeness of manners and idolatry no people in the world ever wentbeyond them.  They are all clothed in skins of beasts, andtheir houses are built of the same; you know not a man from awoman, neither by the ruggedness of their countenances nor theirclothes; and in the winter, when the ground is covered with snow,they live underground in vaults, which have cavities going fromone to another.  If the Tartars had their Cham Chi-Thaungufor a whole village or country, these had idols in every hut andevery cave.  This country, I reckon, was, from the desert Ispoke of last, at least four hundred miles, half of it beinganother desert, which took us up twelve days’ severetravelling, without house or tree; and we were obliged again tocarry our own provisions, as well water as bread.  After wewere out of this desert and had travelled two days, we came toJanezay, a Muscovite city or station, on the great river Janezay,which, they told us there, parted Europe from Asia.

All the country between the river Oby and the river Janezay isas entirely pagan, and the people as barbarous, as the remotestof the Tartars.  I also found, which I observed to theMuscovite governors whom I had an opportunity to converse with,that the poor pagans are not much wiser, or nearer Christianity,for being under the Muscovite government, which they acknowledgedwas true enough—but that, as they said, was none of theirbusiness; that if the Czar expected to convert his Siberian,Tonguse, or Tartar subjects, it should be done by sendingclergymen among them, not soldiers; and they added, with moresincerity than I expected, that it was not so much the concern oftheir monarch to make the people Christians as to make themsubjects.

From this river to the Oby we crossed a wild uncultivatedcountry, barren of people and good management, otherwise it is initself a pleasant, fruitful, and agreeable country.  Whatinhabitants we found in it are all pagans, except such as aresent among them from Russia; for this is the country—I meanon both sides the river Oby—whither the Muscovite criminalsthat are not put to death are banished, and from whence it isnext to impossible they should ever get away.  I havenothing material to say of my particular affairs till I came toTobolski, the capital city of Siberia, where I continued sometime on the following account.

We had now been almost seven months on our journey, and winterbegan to come on apace; whereupon my partner and I called acouncil about our particular affairs, in which we found itproper, as we were bound for England, to consider how to disposeof ourselves.  They told us of sledges and reindeer to carryus over the snow in the winter time, by which means, indeed, theRussians travel more in winter than they can in summer, as inthese sledges they are able to run night and day: the snow, beingfrozen, is one universal covering to nature, by which the hills,vales, rivers, and lakes are all smooth and hard is a stone, andthey run upon the surface, without any regard to what isunderneath.

But I had no occasion to urge a winter journey of thiskind.  I was bound to England, not to Moscow, and my routelay two ways: either I must go on as the caravan went, till Icame to Jarislaw, and then go off west for Narva and the Gulf ofFinland, and so on to Dantzic, where I might possibly sell myChina cargo to good advantage; or I must leave the caravan at alittle town on the Dwina, from whence I had but six days by waterto Archangel, and from thence might be sure of shipping either toEngland, Holland, or Hamburg.

Now, to go any one of these journeys in the winter would havebeen preposterous; for as to Dantzic, the Baltic would have beenfrozen up and I could not get passage; and to go by land in thosecountries was far less safe than among the Mogul Tartars;likewise, as to Archangel in October, all the ships would be gonefrom thence, and even the merchants who dwell there in summerretire south to Moscow in the winter, when the ships are gone; sothat I could have nothing but extremity of cold to encounter,with a scarcity of provisions, and must lie in an empty town allthe winter.  Therefore, upon the whole, I thought it much mybetter way to let the caravan go, and make provision to winterwhere I was, at Tobolski, in Siberia, in the latitude of aboutsixty degrees, where I was sure of three things to wear out acold winter with, viz. plenty of provisions, such as the countryafforded, a warm house, with fuel enough, and excellentcompany.

I was now in quite a different climate from my beloved island,where I never felt cold, except when I had my ague; on thecontrary, I had much to do to bear any clothes on my back, andnever made any fire but without doors, which was necessary fordressing my food, &c.  Now I had three good vests, withlarge robes or gowns over them, to hang down to the feet, andbutton close to the wrists; and all these lined with furs, tomake them sufficiently warm.  As to a warm house, I mustconfess I greatly dislike our way in England of making fires inevery room of the house in open chimneys, which, when the fire isout, always keeps the air in the room cold as the climate. So I took an apartment in a good house in the town, and ordered achimney to be built like a furnace, in the centre of six severalrooms, like a stove; the funnel to carry the smoke went up oneway, the door to come at the fire went in another, and all therooms were kept equally warm, but no fire seen, just as they heatbaths in England.  By this means we had always the sameclimate in all the rooms, and an equal heat was preserved, andyet we saw no fire, nor were ever incommoded with smoke.

The most wonderful thing of all was, that it should bepossible to meet with good company here, in a country sobarbarous as this—one of the most northerly parts ofEurope.  But this being the country where the statecriminals of Muscovy, as I observed before, are all banished, thecity was full of Russian noblemen, gentlemen, soldiers, andcourtiers.  Here was the famous Prince Galitzin, the oldGerman Robostiski, and several other persons of note, and someladies.  By means of my Scotch merchant, whom, nevertheless,I parted with here, I made an acquaintance with several of thesegentlemen; and from these, in the long winter nights in which Istayed here, I received several very agreeable visits.

CHAPTER XVI—SAFE ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND

It was talking one night with a certain prince, one of thebanished ministers of state belonging to the Czar, that thediscourse of my particular case began.  He had been tellingme abundance of fine things of the greatness, the magnificence,the dominions, and the absolute power of the Emperor of theRussians: I interrupted him, and told him I was a greater andmore powerful prince than ever the Czar was, though my dominionwere not so large, or my people so many.  The Russiangrandee looked a little surprised, and, fixing his eyes steadilyupon me, began to wonder what I meant.  I said his wonderwould cease when I had explained myself, and told him the storyat large of my living in the island; and then how I managed bothmyself and the people that were under me, just as I have sinceminuted it down.  They were exceedingly taken with thestory, and especially the prince, who told me, with a sigh, thatthe true greatness of life was to be masters of ourselves; thathe would not have exchanged such a state of life as mine to beCzar of Muscovy; and that he found more felicity in theretirement he seemed to be banished to there, than ever he foundin the highest authority he enjoyed in the court of his masterthe Czar; that the height of human wisdom was to bring ourtempers down to our circumstances, and to make a calm within,under the weight of the greatest storms without.  When hecame first hither, he said, he used to tear the hair from hishead, and the clothes from his back, as others had done beforehim; but a little time and consideration had made him look intohimself, as well as round him to things without; that he foundthe mind of man, if it was but once brought to reflect upon thestate of universal life, and how little this world was concernedin its true felicity, was perfectly capable of making a felicityfor itself, fully satisfying to itself, and suitable to its ownbest ends and desires, with but very little assistance from theworld.  That being now deprived of all the fancied felicitywhich he enjoyed in the full exercise of worldly pleasures, hesaid he was at leisure to look upon the dark side of them, wherehe found all manner of deformity; and was now convinced thatvirtue only makes a man truly wise, rich, and great, andpreserves him in the way to a superior happiness in a futurestate; and in this, he said, they were more happy in theirbanishment than all their enemies were, who had the fullpossession of all the wealth and power they had left behindthem.  “Nor, sir,” says he, “do I bring mymind to this politically, from the necessity of my circumstances,which some call miserable; but, if I know anything of myself, Iwould not now go back, though the Czar my master should call me,and reinstate me in all my former grandeur.”

He spoke this with so much warmth in his temper, so muchearnestness and motion of his spirits, that it was evident it wasthe true sense of his soul; there was no room to doubt hissincerity.  I told him I once thought myself a kind ofmonarch in my old station, of which I had given him an account;but that I thought he was not only a monarch, but a greatconqueror; for he that had got a victory over his own exorbitantdesires, and the absolute dominion over himself, he whose reasonentirely governs his will, is certainly greater than he thatconquers a city.

I had been here eight months, and a dark, dreadful winter Ithought it; the cold so intense that I could not so much as lookabroad without being wrapped in furs, and a kind of mask of furbefore my face, with only a hole for breath, and two for sight:the little daylight we had was for three months not above fivehours a day, and six at most; only that the snow lying on theground continually, and the weather being clear, it was neverquite dark.  Our horses were kept, or rather starved,underground; and as for our servants, whom we hired here to lookafter ourselves and horses, we had, every now and then, theirfingers and toes to thaw and take care of, lest they shouldmortify and fall off.

It is true, within doors we were warm, the houses being close,the walls thick, the windows small, and the glass alldouble.  Our food was chiefly the flesh of deer, dried andcured in the season; bread good enough, but baked as biscuits;dried fish of several sorts, and some flesh of mutton, and ofbuffaloes, which is pretty good meat.  All the stores ofprovisions for the winter are laid up in the summer, and wellcured: our drink was water, mixed with aqua vitae instead ofbrandy; and for a treat, mead instead of wine, which, however,they have very good.  The hunters, who venture abroad allweathers, frequently brought us in fine venison, and sometimesbear’s flesh, but we did not much care for the last. We had a good stock of tea, with which we treated our friends,and we lived cheerfully and well, all things considered.

It was now March, the days grown considerably longer, and theweather at least tolerable; so the other travellers began toprepare sledges to carry them over the snow, and to get thingsready to be going; but my measures being fixed, as I have said,for Archangel, and not for Muscovy or the Baltic, I made nomotion; knowing very well that the ships from the south do notset out for that part of the world till May or June, and that ifI was there by the beginning of August, it would be as soon asany ships would be ready to sail.  Therefore I made no hasteto be gone, as others did: in a word, I saw a great many people,nay, all the travellers, go away before me.  It seems everyyear they go from thence to Muscovy, for trade, to carry furs,and buy necessaries, which they bring back with them to furnishtheir shops: also others went on the same errand toArchangel.

In the month of May I began to make all ready to pack up; and,as I was doing this, it occurred to me that, seeing all thesepeople were banished by the Czar to Siberia, and yet, when theycame there, were left at liberty to go whither they would, whythey did not then go away to any part of the world, wherever theythought fit: and I began to examine what should hinder them frommaking such an attempt.  But my wonder was over when Ientered upon that subject with the person I have mentioned, whoanswered me thus: “Consider, first, sir,” said he,“the place where we are; and, secondly, the condition weare in; especially the generality of the people who are banishedthither.  We are surrounded with stronger things than barsor bolts; on the north side, an unnavigable ocean, where shipnever sailed, and boat never swam; every other way we have abovea thousand miles to pass through the Czar’s own dominion,and by ways utterly impassable, except by the roads made by thegovernment, and through the towns garrisoned by his troops; inshort, we could neither pass undiscovered by the road, norsubsist any other way, so that it is in vain to attemptit.”

I was silenced at once, and found that they were in a prisonevery jot as secure as if they had been locked up in the castleat Moscow: however, it came into my thoughts that I mightcertainly be made an instrument to procure the escape of thisexcellent person; and that, whatever hazard I ran, I wouldcertainly try if I could carry him off.  Upon this, I tookan occasion one evening to tell him my thoughts.  Irepresented to him that it was very easy for me to carry himaway, there being no guard over him in the country; and as I wasnot going to Moscow, but to Archangel, and that I went in theretinue of a caravan, by which I was not obliged to lie in thestationary towns in the desert, but could encamp every nightwhere I would, we might easily pass uninterrupted to Archangel,where I would immediately secure him on board an English ship,and carry him safe along with me; and as to his subsistence andother particulars, it should be my care till he could bettersupply himself.

He heard me very attentively, and looked earnestly on me allthe while I spoke; nay, I could see in his very face that what Isaid put his spirits into an exceeding ferment; his colourfrequently changed, his eyes looked red, and his heart fluttered,till it might be even perceived in his countenance; nor could heimmediately answer me when I had done, and, as it were, hesitatedwhat he would say to it; but after he had paused a little, heembraced me, and said, “How unhappy are we, unguardedcreatures as we are, that even our greatest acts of friendshipare made snares unto us, and we are made tempters of oneanother!”  He then heartily thanked me for my offersof service, but withstood resolutely the arguments I used to urgehim to set himself free.  He declared, in earnest terms,that he was fully bent on remaining where he was rather than seekto return to his former miserable greatness, as he called it:where the seeds of pride, ambition, avarice, and luxury mightrevive, take root, and again overwhelm him.  “Let meremain, dear sir,” he said, in conclusion—“letme remain in this blessed confinement, banished from the crimesof life, rather than purchase a show of freedom at the expense ofthe liberty of my reason, and at the future happiness which I nowhave in my view, but should then, I fear, quickly lose sight of;for I am but flesh; a man, a mere man; and have passions andaffections as likely to possess and overthrow me as any man: Oh,be not my friend and tempter both together!”

If I was surprised before, I was quite dumb now, and stoodsilent, looking at him, and, indeed, admiring what I saw. The struggle in his soul was so great that, though the weatherwas extremely cold, it put him into a most violent heat; so Isaid a word or two, that I would leave him to consider of it, andwait on him again, and then I withdrew to my own apartment.

About two hours after I heard somebody at or near the door ofmy room, and I was going to open the door, but he had opened itand come in.  “My dear friend,” says he,“you had almost overset me, but I am recovered.  Donot take it ill that I do not close with your offer.  Iassure you it is not for want of sense of the kindness of it inyou; and I came to make the most sincere acknowledgment of it toyou; but I hope I have got the victory overmyself.”—“My lord,” said I, “I hopeyou are fully satisfied that you do not resist the call ofHeaven.”—“Sir,” said he, “if it hadbeen from Heaven, the same power would have influenced me to haveaccepted it; but I hope, and am fully satisfied, that it is fromHeaven that I decline it, and I have infinite satisfaction in theparting, that you shall leave me an honest man still, though nota free man.”

I had nothing to do but to acquiesce, and make professions tohim of my having no end in it but a sincere desire to servehim.  He embraced me very passionately, and assured me hewas sensible of that, and should always acknowledge it; and withthat he offered me a very fine present of sables—too much,indeed, for me to accept from a man in his circumstances, and Iwould have avoided them, but he would not be refused.  Thenext morning I sent my servant to his lordship with a smallpresent of tea, and two pieces of China damask, and four littlewedges of Japan gold, which did not all weigh above six ounces orthereabouts, but were far short of the value of his sables,which, when I came to England, I found worth near two hundredpounds.  He accepted the tea, and one piece of the damask,and one of the pieces of gold, which had a fine stamp upon it, ofthe Japan coinage, which I found he took for the rarity of it,but would not take any more: and he sent word by my servant thathe desired to speak with me.

When I came to him he told me I knew what had passed betweenus, and hoped I would not move him any more in that affair; butthat, since I had made such a generous offer to him, he asked meif I had kindness enough to offer the same to another person thathe would name to me, in whom he had a great share ofconcern.  In a word, he told me it was his only son; who,though I had not seen him, was in the same condition withhimself, and above two hundred miles from him, on the other sideof the Oby; but that, if I consented, he would send for him.

I made no hesitation, but told him I would do it.  I madesome ceremony in letting him understand that it was wholly on hisaccount; and that, seeing I could not prevail on him, I wouldshow my respect to him by my concern for his son.  He sentthe next day for his son; and in about twenty days he came backwith the messenger, bringing six or seven horses, loaded withvery rich furs, which, in the whole, amounted to a very greatvalue.  His servants brought the horses into the town, butleft the young lord at a distance till night, when he cameincognito into our apartment, and his father presented him to me;and, in short, we concerted the manner of our travelling, andeverything proper for the journey.

I had bought a considerable quantity of sables, blackfox-skins, fine ermines, and such other furs as are very rich inthat city, in exchange for some of the goods I had brought fromChina; in particular for the cloves and nutmegs, of which I soldthe greatest part here, and the rest afterwards at Archangel, fora much better price than I could have got at London; and mypartner, who was sensible of the profit, and whose business, moreparticularly than mine, was merchandise, was mightily pleasedwith our stay, on account of the traffic we made here.

It was the beginning of June when I left this remoteplace.  We were now reduced to a very small caravan, havingonly thirty-two horses and camels in all, which passed for mine,though my new guest was proprietor of eleven of them.  Itwas natural also that I should take more servants with me than Ihad before; and the young lord passed for my steward; what greatman I passed for myself I know not, neither did it concern me toinquire.  We had here the worst and the largest desert topass over that we met with in our whole journey; I call it theworst, because the way was very deep in some places, and veryuneven in others; the best we had to say for it was, that wethought we had no troops of Tartars or robbers to fear, as theynever came on this side of the river Oby, or at least veryseldom; but we found it otherwise.

My young lord had a faithful Siberian servant, who wasperfectly acquainted with the country, and led us by privateroads, so that we avoided coming into the principal towns andcities upon the great road, such as Tumen, Soloy Kamaskoy, andseveral others; because the Muscovite garrisons which are keptthere are very curious and strict in their observation upontravellers, and searching lest any of the banished persons ofnote should make their escape that way into Muscovy; but, by thismeans, as we were kept out of the cities, so our whole journeywas a desert, and we were obliged to encamp and lie in our tents,when we might have had very good accommodation in the cities onthe way; this the young lord was so sensible of, that he wouldnot allow us to lie abroad when we came to several cities on theway, but lay abroad himself, with his servant, in the woods, andmet us always at the appointed places.

We had just entered Europe, having passed the river Kama,which in these parts is the boundary between Europe and Asia, andthe first city on the European side was called Soloy Kamaskoy,that is, the great city on the river Kama.  And here wethought to see some evident alteration in the people; but we weremistaken, for as we had a vast desert to pass, which is nearseven hundred miles long in some places, but not above twohundred miles over where we passed it, so, till we came past thathorrible place, we found very little difference between thatcountry and Mogul Tartary.  The people are mostly pagans;their houses and towns full of idols; and their way of livingwholly barbarous, except in the cities and villages near them,where they are Christians, as they call themselves, of the GreekChurch: but have their religion mingled with so many relics ofsuperstition, that it is scarce to be known in some places frommere sorcery and witchcraft.

In passing this forest (after all our dangers were, to ourimagination, escaped), I thought, indeed, we must have beenplundered and robbed, and perhaps murdered, by a troop ofthieves: of what country they were I am yet at a loss to know;but they were all on horseback, carried bows and arrows, and wereat first about forty-five in number.  They came so near tous as to be within two musket-shot, and, asking no questions,surrounded us with their horses, and looked very earnestly uponus twice; at length, they placed themselves just in our way; uponwhich we drew up in a little line, before our camels, being notabove sixteen men in all.  Thus drawn up, we halted, andsent out the Siberian servant, who attended his lord, to see whothey were; his master was the more willing to let him go, becausehe was not a little apprehensive that they were a Siberian troopsent out after him.  The man came up near them with a flagof truce, and called to them; but though he spoke several oftheir languages, or dialects of languages rather, he could notunderstand a word they said; however, after some signs to him notto come near them at his peril, the fellow came back no wiserthan he went; only that by their dress, he said, he believed themto be some Tartars of Kalmuck, or of the Circassian hordes, andthat there must be more of them upon the great desert, though henever heard that any of them were seen so far north before.

This was small comfort to us; however, we had no remedy: therewas on our left hand, at about a quarter of a mile distance, alittle grove, and very near the road.  I immediatelyresolved we should advance to those trees, and fortify ourselvesas well as we could there; for, first, I considered that thetrees would in a great measure cover us from their arrows; and,in the next place, they could not come to charge us in a body: itwas, indeed, my old Portuguese pilot who proposed it, and who hadthis excellency attending him, that he was always readiest andmost apt to direct and encourage us in cases of the mostdanger.  We advanced immediately, with what speed we could,and gained that little wood; the Tartars, or thieves, for we knewnot what to call them, keeping their stand, and not attempting tohinder us.  When we came thither, we found, to our greatsatisfaction, that it was a swampy piece of ground, and on theone side a very great spring of water, which, running out in alittle brook, was a little farther joined by another of the likesize; and was, in short, the source of a considerable river,called afterwards the Wirtska; the trees which grew about thisspring were not above two hundred, but very large, and stoodpretty thick, so that as soon as we got in, we saw ourselvesperfectly safe from the enemy unless they attacked us onfoot.

While we stayed here waiting the motion of the enemy somehours, without perceiving that they made any movement, ourPortuguese, with some help, cut several arms of trees half off,and laid them hanging across from one tree to another, and in amanner fenced us in.  About two hours before night they camedown directly upon us; and though we had not perceived it, wefound they had been joined by some more, so that they were nearfourscore horse; whereof, however, we fancied some werewomen.  They came on till they were within half-shot of ourlittle wood, when we fired one musket without ball, and called tothem in the Russian tongue to know what they wanted, and badethem keep off; but they came on with a double fury up to thewood-side, not imagining we were so barricaded that they couldnot easily break in.  Our old pilot was our captain as wellas our engineer, and desired us not to fire upon them till theycame within pistol-shot, that we might be sure to kill, and thatwhen we did fire we should be sure to take good aim; we bade himgive the word of command, which he delayed so long that they weresome of them within two pikes’ length of us when we letfly.  We aimed so true that we killed fourteen of them, andwounded several others, as also several of their horses; for wehad all of us loaded our pieces with two or three bullets apieceat least.

They were terribly surprised with our fire, and retreatedimmediately about one hundred rods from us; in which time weloaded our pieces again, and seeing them keep that distance, wesallied out, and caught four or five of their horses, whoseriders we supposed were killed; and coming up to the dead, wejudged they were Tartars, but knew not how they came to make anexcursion such an unusual length.

About an hour after they again made a motion to attack us, androde round our little wood to see where they might break in; butfinding us always ready to face them, they went off again; and weresolved not to stir for that night.

We slept little, but spent the most part of the night instrengthening our situation, and barricading the entrances intothe wood, and keeping a strict watch.  We waited fordaylight, and when it came, it gave us a very unwelcome discoveryindeed; for the enemy, who we thought were discouraged with thereception they met with, were now greatly increased, and had setup eleven or twelve huts or tents, as if they were resolved tobesiege us; and this little camp they had pitched upon the openplain, about three-quarters of a mile from us.  I confess Inow gave myself over for lost, and all that I had; the loss of myeffects did not lie so near me, though very considerable, as thethoughts of falling into the hands of such barbarians at thelatter end of my journey, after so many difficulties and hazardsas I had gone through, and even in sight of our port, where weexpected safety and deliverance.  As to my partner, he wasraging, and declared that to lose his goods would be his ruin,and that he would rather die than be starved, and he was forfighting to the last drop.

The young lord, a most gallant youth, was for fighting to thelast also; and my old pilot was of opinion that we were able toresist them all in the situation we were then in.  Thus wespent the day in debates of what we should do; but towardsevening we found that the number of our enemies still increased,and we did not know but by the morning they might still be agreater number: so I began to inquire of those people we hadbrought from Tobolski if there were no private ways by which wemight avoid them in the night, and perhaps retreat to some town,or get help to guard us over the desert.  The younglord’s Siberian servant told us, if we designed to avoidthem, and not fight, he would engage to carry us off in thenight, to a way that went north, towards the river Petruz, bywhich he made no question but we might get away, and the Tartarsnever discover it; but, he said, his lord had told him he wouldnot retreat, but would rather choose to fight.  I told himhe mistook his lord: for that he was too wise a man to lovefighting for the sake of it; that I knew he was brave enough bywhat he had showed already; but that he knew better than todesire seventeen or eighteen men to fight five hundred, unless anunavoidable necessity forced them to it; and that if he thoughtit possible for us to escape in the night, we had nothing else todo but to attempt it.  He answered, if his lordship gave himsuch orders, he would lose his life if he did not perform it; wesoon brought his lord to give that order, though privately, andwe immediately prepared for putting it in practice.

And first, as soon as it began to be dark, we kindled a firein our little camp, which we kept burning, and prepared so as tomake it burn all night, that the Tartars might conclude we werestill there; but as soon as it was dark, and we could see thestars (for our guide would not stir before), having all ourhorses and camels ready loaded, we followed our new guide, who Isoon found steered himself by the north star, the country beinglevel for a long way.

After we had travelled two hours very hard, it began to belighter still; not that it was dark all night, but the moon beganto rise, so that, in short, it was rather lighter than we wishedit to be; but by six o’clock the next morning we had gotabove thirty miles, having almost spoiled our horses.  Herewe found a Russian village, named Kermazinskoy, where we rested,and heard nothing of the Kalmuck Tartars that day.  Abouttwo hours before night we set out again, and travelled till eightthe next morning, though not quite so hard as before; and aboutseven o’clock we passed a little river, called Kirtza, andcame to a good large town inhabited by Russians, called Ozomys;there we heard that several troops of Kalmucks had been abroadupon the desert, but that we were now completely out of danger ofthem, which was to our great satisfaction.  Here we wereobliged to get some fresh horses, and having need enough of rest,we stayed five days; and my partner and I agreed to give thehonest Siberian who conducted us thither the value of tenpistoles.

In five days more we came to Veussima, upon the riverWitzogda, and running into the Dwina: we were there, veryhappily, near the end of our travels by land, that river beingnavigable, in seven days’ passage, to Archangel.  Fromhence we came to Lawremskoy, the 3rd of July; and providingourselves with two luggage boats, and a barge for our ownconvenience, we embarked the 7th, and arrived all safe atArchangel the 18th; having been a year, five months, and threedays on the journey, including our stay of about eight months atTobolski.

We were obliged to stay at this place six weeks for thearrival of the ships, and must have tarried longer, had not aHamburgher come in above a month sooner than any of the Englishships; when, after some consideration that the city of Hamburghmight happen to be as good a market for our goods as London, weall took freight with him; and, having put our goods on board, itwas most natural for me to put my steward on board to take careof them; by which means my young lord had a sufficientopportunity to conceal himself, never coming on shore again allthe time we stayed there; and this he did that he might not beseen in the city, where some of the Moscow merchants wouldcertainly have seen and discovered him.

We then set sail from Archangel the 20th of August, the sameyear; and, after no extraordinary bad voyage, arrived safe in theElbe the 18th of September.  Here my partner and I found avery good sale for our goods, as well those of China as thesables, &c., of Siberia: and, dividing the produce, my shareamounted to £3475, 17s 3d., including about six hundredpounds’ worth of diamonds, which I purchased at Bengal.

Here the young lord took his leave of us, and went up theElbe, in order to go to the court of Vienna, where he resolved toseek protection and could correspond with those of hisfather’s friends who were left alive.  He did not partwithout testimonials of gratitude for the service I had done him,and for my kindness to the prince, his father.

To conclude: having stayed near four months in Hamburgh, Icame from thence by land to the Hague, where I embarked in thepacket, and arrived in London the 10th of January 1705, havingbeen absent from England ten years and nine months.  Andhere, resolving to harass myself no more, I am preparing for alonger journey than all these, having lived seventy-two years alife of infinite variety, and learned sufficiently to know thevalue of retirement, and the blessing of ending our days inpeace.

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