Having thus given an account of the colony in general, and pretty much of
my runagate Englishmen, I must say something of the Spaniards, who were
the main body of the family, and in whose story there are some incidents
also remarkable enough.
I had a great many discourses with them about their circumstances when
they were among the savages. They told me readily that they had no
instances to give of their application or ingenuity in that country; that
they were a poor, miserable, dejected handful of people; that even if
means had been put into their hands, yet they had so abandoned themselves
to despair, and were so sunk under the weight of their misfortune, that
they thought of nothing but starving. One of them, a grave and sensible
man, told me he was convinced they were in the wrong; that it was not the
part of wise men to give themselves up to their misery, but always to
take hold of the helps which reason offered, as well for present support
as for future deliverance: he told me that grief was the most senseless,
insignificant passion in the world, for that it regarded only things
past, which were generally impossible to be recalled or to be remedied,
but had no views of things to come, and had no share in anything that
looked like deliverance, but rather added to the affliction than proposed
a remedy; and upon this he repeated a Spanish proverb, which, though I
cannot repeat in the same words that he spoke it in, yet I remember I
made it into an English proverb 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 I had made in
my solitude: my unwearied application, as he called it; and how I had
made a condition, which in its circumstances was at first much worse than
theirs, a thousand times more happy than theirs was, even now when they
were all together. He told me it was remarkable that Englishmen had a
greater presence of mind in their distress than any people that ever he
met with; that their unhappy nation and the Portuguese were the worst men
in the world to struggle with misfortunes; for that their first step in
dangers, after the common efforts were over, was to despair, lie down
under it, and die, without rousing their thoughts up to proper remedies
for escape.
I told him their case and mine differed exceedingly; that they were cast
upon the shore without necessaries, without supply of food, or present
sustenance till they could provide for it; that, it was true, I had this
further disadvantage and discomfort, that I was alone; but then the
supplies I had providentially thrown into my hands, by the unexpected
driving of the ship on the shore, was such a help as would have
encouraged any creature in the world to have applied himself as I had
done. "Seignior," says the Spaniard, "had we poor Spaniards been in your
case, we should never have got half those things out of the ship, as you
did: nay," says he, "we should never have found means to have got a raft
to carry them, or to have got the raft on shore without boat or sail: and
how much less should we have done if any of us had been alone!" Well, I
desired him to abate his compliments, and go on with the history of their
coming on shore, where they landed. He told me they unhappily landed at
a place where there were people without provisions; whereas, had they had
the common sense to put off to sea again, and gone to another island a
little further, they had found provisions, though without people: there
being an island that way, as they had been told, where there were
provisions, though no people--that is to say, 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 and sea-fowls were in such plenty, that they could have been
in no want of flesh, though they had found no bread; whereas, here they
were only sustained with a few roots and herbs, which they understood
not, and which had no substance in them, and which the inhabitants gave
them sparingly enough; and they could treat them no better, unless they
would turn cannibals and eat men's flesh.
They gave me an account how many ways they strove to civilise the savages
they were with, and to teach them rational customs in the ordinary way of
living, but in vain; and how they retorted upon them as unjust that they
who came there for assistance and support should attempt to set up for
instructors to those that gave them food; intimating, it seems, that none
should set up for the instructors of others but those who could live
without them. They gave me dismal accounts of the extremities they were
driven to; how sometimes they were many days without any food at all, the
island they were upon being inhabited by a sort of savages that lived
more indolent, and for that reason were less supplied with the
necessaries of life, than they had reason to believe others were in the
same part of the world; and yet they found that these savages were less
ravenous and voracious than those who had better supplies of food. Also,
they added, they could not but see with what demonstrations of wisdom and
goodness the governing providence of God directs the events of things in
this world, which, they said, appeared in their circumstances: for if,
pressed by the hardships they were under, and the barrenness of the
country where they were, they had searched after a better to live in,
they had then been out of the way of the relief that happened to them by
my means.
They then gave me an account how the savages whom they lived amongst
expected them to go out with them into their wars; and, it was true, that
as they had firearms with them, had they not had the disaster to lose
their ammunition, they could have been serviceable not only to their
friends, but have made themselves terrible both to friends and enemies;
but being without powder and shot, and yet in a condition that they could
not in reason decline to go out with their landlords to their wars; so
when they came into the field of battle they were in a worse condition
than the savages themselves, for they had neither bows nor arrows, nor
could they use those the savages gave them. So they 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 would often 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
found the way to make themselves large targets of wood, which they
covered with skins of wild beasts, whose names they knew not, and these
covered them from the arrows of the savages: that, notwithstanding these,
they were sometimes in great danger; and five of them were once knocked
down together with the clubs of the savages, which was the time when one
of them was taken prisoner--that is to say, the Spaniard whom I relieved.
At first they thought he had been killed; but when they afterwards heard
he was taken prisoner, they were under the greatest grief imaginable, and
would willingly have all ventured their lives to have rescued him.
They told me that when they were so knocked down, the rest of their
company rescued them, and stood over them fighting till they were come to
themselves, all but him whom they thought had been dead; and then they
made their way with their halberds and pieces, standing close together in
a line, through a body of above a thousand savages, beating down all that
came in their way, got the victory over their enemies, but to their great
sorrow, because it was with the loss of their friend, whom the other
party finding alive, carried off with some others, as I gave an account
before. They described, most affectionately, how they were surprised
with joy at the return of their friend and companion in misery, who they
thought had been devoured by wild beasts of the worst kind--wild men; and
yet, how more and more they were surprised with the account he gave them
of his errand, and that there was a Christian in any place 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 the relief I sent
them, and at the appearance of loaves of bread--things they had not seen
since their coming to that miserable place; how often they crossed it and
blessed it as bread sent from heaven; and what a reviving cordial it was
to their spirits to taste it, as also the other things I had sent for
their supply; and, after all, they would have told me something of the
joy they were in at the sight of a boat and pilots, to carry them away to
the person and place from whence all these new comforts came. But it was
impossible to express it by words, for their excessive joy naturally
driving them to unbecoming extravagances, they had no way to describe
them but by telling me they bordered upon lunacy, having no way to give
vent to their passions suitable to the sense that was upon them; that in
some it worked one way and in some another; and that some of them,
through a surprise of joy, would burst into tears, others be stark mad,
and others immediately faint. This discourse extremely affected me, and
called to my mind Friday's ecstasy when he met his father, and the poor
people's ecstasy when I took them up at sea after their ship was on fire;
the joy of the mate of the ship when he found 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 these
poor men, and more affected with it.
Having thus given a view of the state of things as I found them, I must
relate the heads of what I did for these people, and the condition in
which I left them. It was their opinion, and mine too, that they would
be troubled no more with the savages, or if they were, they would be able
to cut them off, if they were twice as many as before; so they had no
concern about that. Then I entered into a serious discourse with the
Spaniard, 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 not be just to carry
off some and leave others, who, perhaps, would be unwilling to stay if
their strength was diminished. On the other hand, I told them I came to
establish them there, not to remove them; and then I let them know that I
had brought with me relief of sundry kinds for them; that I had been at a
great charge to supply them with all things necessary, as well for their
convenience as their defence; and that I had such and such particular
persons with me, as well to increase and recruit their number, as by the
particular necessary employments which they were bred to, being
artificers, to assist them in those things in which at present they were
in want.
They were all together when I talked thus to them; and before I delivered
to them the stores I had brought, I asked them, one by one, if they had
entirely forgot and buried the first animosities that had been among
them, and would shake hands with one another, and engage in a strict
friendship and union of interest, that so there might be no more
misunderstandings and jealousies.
Will Atkins, with abundance of frankness and good humour, said they had
met with affliction enough to make them all sober, and enemies enough to
make them all friends; that, for his part, he would live and die with
them, and was so far from designing anything against the Spaniards, that
he owned they had done nothing to him but what his own mad humour made
necessary, and what he would have done, and perhaps worse, in their case;
and that he would ask them pardon, if I desired it, for the foolish and
brutish things he had done to them, and was very willing and desirous of
living in terms of entire friendship and union with them, and would do
anything that lay in his power to convince them of it; and as for going
to England, he cared not if he did not go thither these twenty years.
The Spaniards said they had, indeed, at first disarmed and excluded Will
Atkins and his two countrymen for their ill conduct, as they had let me
know, and they appealed to me for the necessity they were under to do so;
but that Will Atkins had behaved himself so bravely in the great fight
they had with the savages, and on several occasions since, and had showed
himself so faithful to, and concerned for, the general interest of them
all, that they had forgotten all that was past, and thought he merited as
much to be trusted with arms and supplied with necessaries as any of
them; that they had testified their satisfaction in him by committing the
command to him next to the governor himself; and as they had entire
confidence in him and all his countrymen, so they acknowledged they had
merited that confidence by all the methods that honest men could merit to
be valued and trusted; and they most heartily embraced the occasion of
giving me this assurance, that they would never have any interest
separate from one another.
Upon these frank and open declarations of friendship, we appointed the
next day to dine all together; and, indeed, we made a splendid feast. I
caused the ship's cook and his mate to come on shore and dress our
dinner, and the old cook's mate we had on shore assisted. We brought on
shore six pieces of good beef and four pieces of pork, out of the ship's
provisions, with our punch-bowl and materials to fill it; and in
particular I gave them ten bottles of French claret, and ten bottles of
English beer; things that neither the Spaniards nor the English had
tasted for many years, and which it may be supposed they were very glad
of. The Spaniards added to our feast five whole kids, which the cooks
roasted; and three of them were sent, covered up close, on board the ship
to the seamen, that they might feast on fresh meat from on shore, as we
did with their salt meat from on board.
After this feast, at which we were very innocently merry, I brought my
cargo of goods; wherein, that there might be no dispute about dividing, I
showed them that there was a sufficiency for them all, desiring that they
might all take an equal quantity, when made up, of the goods that were
for wearing. As, first, I distributed linen sufficient to make every one
of them four shirts, and, at the Spaniard's request, afterwards made them
up six; these were exceeding comfortable to them, having been what they
had long since forgot the use of, or what it was to wear them. I
allotted the thin English stuffs, which I mentioned before, to make every
one a light coat, like a frock, which I judged fittest for the heat of
the season, cool and loose; and ordered that whenever they decayed, they
should make more, as they thought fit; the like for pumps, shoes,
stockings, hats, &c. I cannot express what pleasure sat upon the
countenances of all these poor men when they saw the care I had taken of
them, and how well I had furnished them. They told me I was a father to
them; and that having such a correspondent as I was in so remote a part
of the world, it would make them forget that they were left in a desolate
place; and they all voluntarily engaged to me not to leave 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, all of them most necessary
people; but, above all, my general artificer, than whom they could not
name anything that was more useful to them; and the tailor, to show his
concern for them, went to work immediately, and, with my leave, made them
every one a shirt, the first thing he did; and, what was still more, he
taught the women not only how to sew and stitch, and use the needle, but
made them assist to make the shirts for their husbands, and for all the
rest. As to the carpenters, I scarce need mention how useful they were;
for they took to pieces all my clumsy, unhandy things, and made clever
convenient tables, stools, bedsteads, cupboards, lockers, shelves, and
everything they wanted of that kind. But to let them see how nature made
artificers at first, I carried the carpenters to see Will Atkins' basket-
house, as I called it; and they both owned they never saw an instance of
such natural ingenuity before, nor anything 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 give him tools."
Then I brought them out all my store of tools, and gave every man a
digging-spade, a shovel, and a rake, for we had no barrows or ploughs;
and to every separate place a pickaxe, a crow, a broad axe, and a saw;
always appointing, that as often as any were broken or worn out, they
should be supplied without grudging out of the general stores that I left
behind. Nails, staples, hinges, hammers, chisels, knives, scissors, and
all sorts of ironwork, they had without reserve, as they required; for no
man would take more than he wanted, and he must be a fool that would
waste or spoil them on any account whatever; and for the use of the smith
I left two tons of unwrought iron for a supply.
My magazine of powder and arms which I brought them was such, even to
profusion, that they could not but rejoice at them; for now they could
march as I used to do, with a musket upon each shoulder, if there was
occasion; and were able to fight a thousand savages, if they had but some
little advantages of situation, which also they could not miss, if they
had occasion.
I carried on shore with me the young man whose mother was starved to
death, and the maid also; she was a sober, well-educated, religious young
woman, and behaved so inoffensively that every one gave her a good word;
she had, indeed, an unhappy life with us, there being no woman in the
ship but herself, but she bore it with patience. After a while, seeing
things so well ordered, and in so fine a way of thriving upon my island,
and considering that they had neither business nor acquaintance in the
East Indies, or reason for taking so long a voyage, both of them came to
me and desired I would give them leave to remain on the island, and be
entered among my family, as they called it. I agreed to this readily;
and they had a little plot of ground allotted to them, where they had
three tents or houses set up, surrounded with a basket-work, palisadoed
like Atkins's, adjoining to his plantation. Their tents were contrived
so that they had each of them a room apart to lodge in, and a middle tent
like a great storehouse to lay their goods in, and to eat and to drink
in. And now the other two Englishmen removed their habitation to the
same place; and so the island was divided into three colonies, and no
more--viz. the Spaniards, with old Friday and the first servants, at my
habitation under the hill, which was, in a word, the capital city, and
where they had so enlarged and extended their works, as well under as on
the outside of the hill, that they lived, though perfectly concealed, yet
full at large. Never was there such a little city in a wood, and so hid,
in any part of the world; for I verify believe that a thousand men might
have ranged the island a month, and, if they had not known there was such
a thing, and looked on purpose for it, they would not have found it.
Indeed the trees stood so thick and so close, and grew so fast woven one
into another, that nothing but cutting them down first could discover the
place, except the only two narrow entrances where they went in and out
could be found, which was not very easy; one of them was close down at
the water's edge, on the side of the creek, and it was afterwards above
two hundred yards to the place; and the other was up a ladder at twice,
as I have already described it; and they had also a large wood, thickly
planted, on the top of the hill, containing above an acre, which grew
apace, and concealed the place from all discovery there, with only one
narrow place between two trees, not easily to be discovered, to enter on
that side.
The other colony was that of Will Atkins, where there were four families
of Englishmen, I mean those I had left there, with their wives and
children; three savages that were slaves, the widow and children of the
Englishman that was killed, the young man and the maid, and, by the way,
we made a wife of her before we went away. There were besides the two
carpenters and the tailor, whom I brought with me for them: also the
smith, who was a very necessary man to them, especially as a gunsmith, to
take care of their arms; and my other man, whom I called
Jack-of-all-trades, who was in himself as good almost as twenty men; for
he was not only a very ingenious fellow, but a very merry fellow, and
before I went away we married him to the honest maid that came with the
youth in the ship I mentioned before.
And now I speak of marrying, it brings me naturally to say something of
the French ecclesiastic that I had brought with me out of the ship's crew
whom I took up at sea. It is true this man was a Roman, and perhaps it
may give offence to some hereafter if I leave anything extraordinary upon
record of a man whom, before I begin, I must (to set him out in just
colours) represent in terms very much to his disadvantage, in the account
of Protestants; as, first, that he was a Papist; secondly, a Popish
priest; and thirdly, a French Popish priest. But justice demands of me
to give him a due character; and I must say, he was a grave, sober,
pious, and most religious person; exact in his life, extensive in his
charity, and exemplary in almost everything he did. What then can any
one say against being very sensible of the value of such a man,
notwithstanding his profession? though it may be my opinion perhaps, as
well as the opinion of others who shall read this, that he was mistaken.
The first hour that I began to converse with him after he had agreed to
go with me to the East Indies, I found reason to delight exceedingly in
his conversation; and he first began with me about religion in the most
obliging manner imaginable. "Sir," says he, "you have not only under
God" (and at that he crossed his breast) "saved my life, 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 your nation what yours is; I may think it is my duty, and
doubtless it is so, to use my utmost endeavours, on all occasions, to
bring all the souls I can to the knowledge of the truth, and to embrace
the Catholic doctrine; but as I am here under your permission, and in
your family, I am bound, in justice to your kindness as well as in
decency and good manners, to be under your government; and therefore I
shall not, without your leave, enter into any debate 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 but acknowledge
it; that it was true we were such people as they call heretics, but that
he was not the first Catholic I had conversed with without falling into
inconveniences, or carrying the questions to any height in debate; that
he should not find himself the worse used for being of a different
opinion from us, and if we did not converse without any dislike on either
side, it should be his fault, not ours.
He replied that he thought all our conversation might be easily separated
from disputes; that it was not his business to cap principles with every
man he conversed with; and that he rather desired me to converse with him
as a gentleman than as a religionist; and that, if I would give him leave
at any time to discourse upon religious subjects, he would readily comply
with it, and that he did not doubt but I would allow him also to defend
his own opinions as well as he could; but that without my leave he would
not break in upon me with any such thing. He told me further, that he
would not cease to do all that became him, 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 was in her; and though, perhaps, we would not join
with him, and he could not pray with us, he hoped he might pray for us,
which he would do upon all occasions. In this manner we conversed; and
as he was of the most obliging, gentlemanlike behaviour, so he 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 the many
extraordinary events of it; of many adventures which had befallen him in
the few years that he had been abroad in the world; and particularly, it
was very remarkable, that in the voyage he was now engaged in he had had
the misfortune to be five times shipped and unshipped, and never to go to
the place whither any of the ships he was in were at first designed. That
his first intent was to have gone to Martinico, and that he went on board
a ship bound thither at St. Malo; but being forced into Lisbon by bad
weather, the ship received some damage by running aground in the mouth of
the river Tagus, and was obliged to unload her cargo there; but finding a
Portuguese ship there bound for the Madeiras, and ready to sail, and
supposing he should meet with a ship there bound to Martinico, he went on
board, in order to sail to the Madeiras; but the master of the Portuguese
ship being but an indifferent mariner, had been out of his reckoning, and
they drove to Fayal; where, however, he happened to find a very good
market for his cargo, which was corn, and therefore resolved not to go to
the Madeiras, but to load salt at the Isle of May, and to go away to
Newfoundland. He had no remedy in this exigence but to go with the ship,
and had a pretty good voyage as far as the Banks (so they call the place
where they catch the fish), where, meeting with a French ship bound from
France to Quebec, and from thence to Martinico, to carry provisions, he
thought he should have an opportunity to complete his first design, but
when he came to Quebec, the master of the ship died, and the vessel
proceeded no further; so the next voyage he shipped himself for France,
in the ship that was burned when we took them up at sea, and then shipped
with us for the East Indies, as I have already said. Thus he had been
disappointed in five voyages; all, as I may call it, in one voyage,
besides what I shall have occasion to mention further of him.
But I shall not make digression into other men's stories which have no
relation to my own; so I return to what concerns our affair in the
island. He came to me one morning (for he lodged among us all the while
we were upon the island), and it happened to be just when I was going to
visit the Englishmen's colony, at the furthest part of the island; I say,
he came to me, and told me, with a very grave countenance, that he had
for two or three days desired an opportunity of some discourse with me,
which he hoped would not be displeasing to me, because he thought it
might in some measure correspond with my general design, which was the
prosperity of my new colony, and perhaps 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, and turning a
little short, "How, sir," said I, "can it be said that we are not in the
way of God's blessing, after such visible assistances and deliverances as
we have seen here, and of which I have given you a large account?" "If
you had pleased, sir," said he, with a world of modesty, and yet great
readiness, "to have heard me, you would have found no room to have been
displeased, much less to think so hard of me, that I should suggest that
you have not had wonderful assistances and deliverances; and I hope, on
your behalf, that you are in the way of God's blessing, and your design
is exceeding good, and will prosper. But, sir, though it were more so
than is even possible to you, yet there may be some among you that are
not equally right in their actions: and you know that in the story of the
children of Israel, one Achan in the camp removed God's blessing from
them, and turned His hand so against them, that six-and-thirty of them,
though not concerned in the crime, were the objects of divine vengeance,
and bore the weight of that punishment."
I was sensibly touched with this discourse, and told him his inference
was so just, and the whole design seemed so sincere, and was really so
religious in its own nature, that I was very sorry I had interrupted him,
and begged him to go on; and, in the meantime, because it seemed that
what we had both to say might take up some time, I told him I was going
to the Englishmen's plantations, and asked him to go with me, and we
might discourse of it by the way. He told me he would the more willingly
wait on me thither, because there partly the thing was acted which he
desired to speak to me about; so we walked on, and I pressed him to be
free and plain with me in what he had to say.
"Why, then, sir," said he, "be pleased to give me leave to lay down a few
propositions, as the foundation of what I have to say, that we may not
differ in the general principles, though we may be of some differing
opinions in the practice of particulars. First, sir, though we differ in
some of the doctrinal articles of religion (and it is very unhappy it is
so, especially in the case before us, as I shall show afterwards), yet
there are some general principles in which we both agree--that there is a
God; and that this God having given us some stated general rules for our
service and obedience, we ought not willingly and knowingly to offend
Him, either by neglecting to do what He has commanded, or by doing what
He has expressly forbidden. And let our different religions be what they
will, this general principle is readily owned by us all, that the
blessing of God does not ordinarily follow presumptuous sinning against
His command; and every good Christian will be affectionately concerned to
prevent any that are under his care living in a total neglect of God and
His commands. It is not your men being Protestants, whatever my opinion
may be of such, that discharges me from being concerned for their souls,
and from endeavouring, if it lies before me, that they should live in as
little distance from enmity with their Maker as possible, especially if
you give me leave to meddle so far in your circuit."
I could not yet imagine what he aimed at, and told him I granted all he
had said, and thanked him that he would so far concern himself for us:
and begged he would explain the particulars of what he had observed, that
like Joshua, to take his own parable, I might put away the accursed thing
from us.
"Why, then, sir," says he, "I will take the liberty you give me; and
there are three things, which, if I am right, must stand in the way of
God's blessing upon your endeavours here, and which I should rejoice, for
your sake and their own, to see removed. And, sir, I promise myself that
you will fully agree with me in them all, as soon as I name them;
especially because I shall convince you, that every one of them may, with
great ease, and very much to your satisfaction, be remedied. First,
sir," says he, "you have here four Englishmen, who have fetched women
from among the savages, and have taken them as their wives, and have had
many children by them all, and yet are not married to them after any
stated legal manner, as the laws of God and man require. To this, sir, I
know, you will object that there was no clergyman or priest of any kind
to perform the ceremony; nor any pen and ink, or paper, to write down a
contract of marriage, and have it signed between them. And I know also,
sir, what the Spaniard governor has told you, I mean of the agreement
that he obliged them to make when they took those women, viz. that they
should choose them out by consent, and keep separately to them; which, by
the way, is nothing of a marriage, no agreement with the women as wives,
but only an agreement among themselves, to keep them from quarrelling.
But, sir, the essence of the sacrament of matrimony" (so he called it,
being a Roman) "consists not only in the mutual consent of the parties to
take one another as man and wife, but in the formal and legal obligation
that there is in the contract to compel the man and woman, at all times,
to own and acknowledge each other; obliging the man to abstain from all
other women, to engage in no other contract while these subsist; and, on
all occasions, as ability allows, to provide honestly for them and their
children; and to oblige the women to the same or like conditions, on
their side. Now, sir," says he, "these men may, when they please, or
when occasion presents, abandon these women, disown their children, leave
them to perish, and take other women, and marry them while these are
living;" and here he added, with some warmth, "How, sir, is God honoured
in this unlawful liberty? And how shall a blessing succeed your
endeavours in this place, however good in themselves, and however sincere
in your design, while these men, who at present are your subjects, under
your absolute government and dominion, are allowed by you to live in open
adultery?"
I confess I was struck with the thing itself, but much more with the
convincing arguments he supported it with; but I thought to have got off
my young priest by telling him that all that part was done when I was not
there: and that they had lived so many years 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 such freedom, you are right in
this, that, it being done in your absence, 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 an
end to it. You should legally and effectually marry them; and as, sir,
my way of marrying may not be easy to reconcile them to, though it will
be effectual, even by your own laws, so your way may be as well before
God, and as valid among men. I mean by a written contract signed by both
man and woman, and by all the witnesses present, which all the laws of
Europe would decree to be valid."
I was amazed to see so much true piety, and so much sincerity of zeal,
besides the unusual impartiality in his discourse as to his own party or
church, and such true warmth for preserving people that he had no
knowledge of or relation to from transgressing the laws of God. But
recollecting what he had said of marrying them by a written contract,
which I knew he would stand to, I returned it back upon him, and told him
I granted all that he had said to be just, and on his part very kind;
that I would discourse with the men upon the point now, when I came to
them; and I knew no reason why they should scruple to let him marry them
all, which I knew well enough would be granted to be as authentic and
valid in England as if they were married by one of our own clergymen.
I then pressed him to tell me what was the second complaint which he had
to make, acknowledging that I was very much his debtor for the first, and
thanking him heartily for it. He told me he would use the same freedom
and plainness in the second, and hoped I would take it as well; and this
was, that notwithstanding these English subjects of mine, as he called
them, had lived with these women almost seven years, had taught them to
speak English, and even to read it, and that they were, as he perceived,
women of tolerable understanding, and capable of instruction, yet they
had not, to this hour, taught them anything of the Christian religion--no,
not so much as to know there was 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 unaccountable
neglect, and what God would certainly call them to account for, and
perhaps at last take the work out of their hands. He spoke this very
affectionately and warmly.
"I am persuaded," says he, "had those men lived in the savage country
whence their wives came, the savages would 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 can see, have taken with them to teach the knowledge of
the true God. Now, sir," said he, "though I do not acknowledge your
religion, or you mine, yet we would be glad to see the devil's servants
and the subjects of his kingdom taught to know religion; and that they
might, at least, hear of God and a Redeemer, and the resurrection, and of
a future state--things which we all believe; that they might, at least,
be so much nearer coming into the bosom of the true Church than they are
now in the public profession of idolatry and devil-worship."
I could hold no longer: I took him in my arms and embraced him eagerly.
"How far," said I to him, "have I been from understanding the most
essential part of a Christian, viz. to love the interest of the Christian
Church, and the good of other men's souls! I scarce have known what
belongs to the being a Christian."--"Oh, sir! do not say so," replied he;
"this thing is not your fault."--"No," said I; "but why did I never lay
it to heart as well as you?"--"It is not too late yet," said he; "be not
too forward to condemn yourself."--"But what can be done now?" said I:
"you see I am going away."--"Will you give me leave to talk with these
poor men about it?"--"Yes, with all my heart," said I: "and oblige them
to give heed to what you say too."--"As to that," said he, "we must leave
them to the mercy of Christ; but it is your business to assist them,
encourage them, and instruct them; and if you give me leave, and God His
blessing, I do not doubt but the poor ignorant souls shall be brought
home to the great circle of 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 thousand thanks
for it."
I now pressed him for the third article in which we were to blame. "Why,
really," says he, "it is of the same nature. It is about your poor
savages, who are, as I may say, your conquered subjects. It is a maxim,
sir, that is or ought to be received among all Christians, of what church
or pretended church soever, that the Christian knowledge ought to be
propagated by all possible means and on all possible occasions. It is on
this principle that our Church sends missionaries into Persia, India, and
China; and that our clergy, even of the superior sort, willingly engage
in the most hazardous voyages, and the most dangerous residence amongst
murderers and barbarians, to teach them the knowledge of the true God,
and to bring them over to embrace the Christian faith. Now, sir, you
have such an opportunity here to have six or seven and thirty poor
savages brought over from a state of idolatry to the knowledge of God,
their Maker and Redeemer, that I wonder how you can pass such an occasion
of doing good, which is really worth the expense of a man's whole life."
I was now struck dumb indeed, and had not one word to say. I had here
the spirit of true Christian zeal for God and religion before me. As for
me, I had not so much as entertained a thought of this in my heart
before, and I believe I should not have thought of it; for I looked upon
these savages as slaves, 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 have
transported them to any part of the world; for our business was to get
rid of them, and we would all have been satisfied if they had been sent
to any country, so they had never seen their own. I was confounded at
his discourse, and knew not what answer to make him.
He looked earnestly at me, seeing my confusion. "Sir," says he, "I shall
be very sorry if what I 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 should never take any notice of this before, but
with reflecting what notice I am able to take of it now. You know, sir,"
said I, "what circumstances I am in; I am bound to the East Indies in a
ship freighted by merchants, and to whom it would be an insufferable
piece of injustice to detain their ship here, the men lying all this
while at victuals and wages on the owners' account. It is true, I agreed
to be allowed twelve days here, and if I stay more, I must pay three
pounds sterling _per diem_ demurrage; nor can I stay upon demurrage above
eight days more, and I have been here thirteen already; so that I am
perfectly unable to engage in this work unless I would suffer myself to
be left behind here again; in which case, if this single ship should
miscarry in any part of her voyage, I should be just in the same
condition that I was left in here at first, and from which I have been so
wonderfully delivered." He owned the case was very hard upon me as to my
voyage; but laid it home upon my conscience whether the blessing of
saving thirty-seven souls was not worth venturing all I had in the world
for. I was not so sensible of that as he was. I replied to him thus:
"Why, sir, it is a valuable thing, indeed, to be an instrument in God's
hand to convert thirty-seven heathens to the knowledge of Christ: but as
you are an ecclesiastic, and are given over to the work, so it seems so
naturally to fall in the way of your profession; how is it, then, that
you do not rather offer yourself to undertake it than 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; and if you think yourself discharged from it, and desire me to
undertake it, I will most readily do it, and think it a happy reward for
all the hazards and difficulties of such a broken, disappointed voyage as
I have met with, that I am dropped at last into so glorious a work."
I discovered a kind of rapture in his face while he spoke this to me; his
eyes sparkled like fire; his face glowed, and his colour came and went;
in a word, he was fired with the joy of being embarked in such a work. I
paused a considerable while before I could tell what to say to him; for I
was really surprised to find a man of such sincerity, and who seemed
possessed of a zeal beyond the ordinary rate of men. But after I had
considered it a while, I asked him seriously if he was in earnest, and
that he would venture, on the single consideration of an attempt to
convert those poor people, to be locked up in an unplanted island for
perhaps his life, and at last might not know whether he should be able to
do them good or not? He turned short upon me, and asked me what I called
a venture? "Pray, sir," said he, "what do you think I consented to go in
your ship to the East Indies for?"--"ay," said I, "that I know not,
unless it was to preach to the Indians."--"Doubtless it was," said he;
"and do you think, if I can convert these thirty-seven men to the faith
of Jesus Christ, it is not worth my time, though I should never be
fetched off the island again?--nay, is it not infinitely of more worth to
save so many souls than my life is, or the life of twenty more of the
same profession? Yes, sir," says he, "I would give God thanks all my
days if I could be made the happy instrument of saving the souls of those
poor men, though I were never to get my foot off this island or see my
native country any more. But since you will honour me with putting me
into this work, for which I will pray for you all the days of my life, I
have one humble petition to you besides."--"What is that?" said I.--"Why,"
says he, "it is, that you will leave your man Friday with me, to be my
interpreter to them, and to assist me; for without some help I cannot
speak to them, or they to me."
I was sensibly touched at his requesting Friday, because I could not
think of parting with him, and that for many reasons: he had been the
companion of my travels; he was not only faithful to me, but sincerely
affectionate to the last degree; and I had resolved to do something
considerable for him if he out-lived me, as it was probable he would.
Then I knew that, as I had bred Friday up to be a Protestant, it would
quite confound him to bring him to embrace another religion; and he would
never, while his eyes were open, believe that his old master was a
heretic, and would be damned; and this might in the end ruin the poor
fellow's principles, and so turn him back again to his first idolatry.
However, a sudden thought relieved me in this strait, and it was this: I
told him I could not say that I was willing to part with Friday on any
account whatever, though a work that to him was of more value than his
life ought to be of much more value than the keeping or parting with a
servant. On the other hand, I was persuaded that Friday would by no
means agree to part with me; and I could not force him to it without his
consent, without manifest injustice; because I had promised I would never
send him away, and he had promised and engaged that he would never leave
me, unless I sent him away.
He seemed very much concerned at it, for he had no rational access to
these poor people, seeing he did not understand one word of their
language, nor they one of his. To remove this difficulty, I told him
Friday's father had learned Spanish, which I found he also understood,
and he should serve him as an interpreter. So he was much better
satisfied, and nothing could persuade him but he would stay and endeavour
to convert them; but Providence gave another very happy turn to all this.
I come back now to the first part of his objections. When we came to the
Englishmen, I sent for them all together, and after some account given
them of what I had done for them, viz. what necessary things I had
provided for them, and how they were distributed, which they were very
sensible of, and very thankful for, I began to talk to them of the
scandalous life they led, and gave them a full account of the notice the
clergyman had taken of it; and arguing how unchristian and irreligious a
life it was, I first asked them if they were married men or bachelors?
They soon explained their condition to me, and showed that two of them
were widowers, and the other three were single men, or bachelors. I
asked them with what conscience they could take these women, and call
them their wives, and have so many children by them, and not be lawfully
married to them? They all gave me the answer I expected, viz. that there
was nobody to marry them; that they agreed before the governor to keep
them as their wives, and to maintain them and own them as their wives;
and they thought, as things stood with them, they were as legally married
as if they had been married by a parson and with all the formalities in
the world.
I told them that no doubt they were married in the sight of God, and were
bound in conscience to keep them as their wives; but that the laws of men
being otherwise, they might desert the poor women and children hereafter;
and that their wives, being poor desolate women, friendless and
moneyless, would have no way to help themselves. I therefore told them
that unless I was assured of their honest intent, I could do nothing for
them, but would take care that what I did should be for the women and
children without them; and that, unless they would give me some
assurances that they would marry the women, I could not think it was
convenient they should continue together as man and wife; for that it was
both scandalous to men and offensive to God, who they could not think
would bless them if they went on thus.
All this went on as I expected; and they told me, especially Will Atkins,
who now seemed to speak for the rest, that they loved their wives as well
as if they had been born in their own native country, and would not leave
them on any account whatever; and they did verily believe that their
wives were as virtuous and as modest, and did, to the utmost of their
skill, as much for them and for their children, as any woman could
possibly do: and they would not part with them on any account. Will
Atkins, for his own particular, added that if any man would take him
away, and offer to carry him home to England, and make him captain of the
best man-of-war in the navy, he would not go with him if he might not
carry his wife and children with him; and if there was a clergyman in the
ship, he would be married to her now with all his heart.
This was just as I would have it. The priest was not with me at that
moment, but he was not far off; so to try him further, I told him I had a
clergyman with me, and, if he was sincere, I would have him married next
morning, and bade him consider of it, and talk with the rest. He said,
as for himself, he need not consider of it at all, for he was very ready
to do it, and was glad I had a minister with me, and he believed they
would be all willing also. I then told him that my friend, the minister,
was a Frenchman, and could not speak English, but I would act the clerk
between them. He never so much as asked me whether he was a Papist or
Protestant, which was, indeed, what I was afraid of. We then parted, and
I went back to my clergyman, and Will Atkins went in to talk with his
companions. I desired the French gentleman not to say anything to them
till the business was thoroughly ripe; and I told him what answer the men
had given me.
Before I went from their quarter they all came to me and told me they had
been considering what I had said; that they were glad to hear I had a
clergyman in my company, and they were very willing to give me the
satisfaction I desired, and to be formally married as soon as I pleased;
for they were far from desiring to part with their wives, and that they
meant nothing but what was very honest when they chose them. So I
appointed them to meet me the next morning; and, in the meantime, they
should let their wives know the meaning of the marriage law; and that it
was not only to prevent any scandal, but also to oblige them that they
should not forsake them, whatever might happen.
The women were easily made sensible of the meaning of the thing, and were
very well satisfied with it, as, indeed, they had reason to be: so they
failed not to attend all together at my apartment next morning, where I
brought out my clergyman; and though he had not on a minister's gown,
after the manner of England, or the habit of a priest, after the manner
of France, yet having a black vest something like a cassock, with a sash
round it, he did not look very unlike a minister; and as for his
language, I was his interpreter. But the seriousness of his behaviour to
them, and the scruples he made of marrying the women, because they were
not baptized and professed Christians, gave them an exceeding reverence
for his person; and there was no need, after that, to inquire whether he
was a clergyman or not. Indeed, I was afraid his scruples would have
been carried so far as that he would not have married them at all; nay,
notwithstanding all I was able to say to him, he resisted me, though
modestly, yet very steadily, and at last refused absolutely to marry
them, unless he had first talked with the men and the women too; and
though at first I was a little backward to it, yet at last I agreed to it
with a good will, perceiving the sincerity of his design.
When he came to them he let them know that I had acquainted him with
their circumstances, and with the present design; that he was very
willing to perform that part of his function, and marry them, as I had
desired; but that before he could do it, he must take the liberty to talk
with them. He told them that in the sight of all indifferent men, and in
the sense of the laws of society, they had lived all this while in a
state of sin; and that it was true that nothing but the consenting to
marry, or effectually separating them from one another, could now put an
end to it; but there was a difficulty in it, too, with respect to the
laws of Christian matrimony, which he was not fully satisfied about, that
of marrying one that is a professed Christian to a savage, an idolater,
and a heathen--one that is not baptized; and yet that he did not see that
there was time left to endeavour to persuade the women to be baptized, or
to profess the name of Christ, whom they had, he doubted, heard nothing
of, and without which they could not be baptized. He told them he
doubted they were but indifferent Christians themselves; that they had
but little knowledge of God or of His ways, and, therefore, he could not
expect that they had said much to their wives on that head yet; but that
unless they would promise him to use their endeavours with their wives to
persuade them to become Christians, and would, as well as they could,
instruct them in the knowledge and belief of God that made them, and to
worship Jesus Christ that redeemed them, he could not marry them; for he
would have no hand in joining Christians with savages, nor was it
consistent with the principles of the Christian religion, and was,
indeed, expressly forbidden in God's law.
They heard all this very attentively, and I delivered it very faithfully
to them from his mouth, as near his own words as I could; only sometimes
adding something of my own, to convince them how just it was, and that I
was of his mind; and I always very carefully distinguished between what I
said from myself and what were the clergyman's words. They told me it
was very true what the gentleman said, that they were very indifferent
Christians themselves, and that they had never talked to their wives
about religion. "Lord, sir," says Will Atkins, "how should we teach them
religion? Why, we know nothing ourselves; and besides, sir," said he,
"should we talk to them of God and Jesus Christ, and heaven and hell, it
would make them laugh at us, and ask us what we believe ourselves. And
if we should tell them that we believe all the things we speak of to
them, such as of good people going to heaven, and wicked people to the
devil, they would ask us where we intend to go ourselves, that believe
all this, and are such wicked fellows as we indeed are? Why, sir; 'tis
enough to give them a surfeit of religion at first hearing; folks must
have some religion themselves before they begin to teach other
people."--"Will Atkins," said I to him, "though I am afraid that what you
say has too much truth in it, yet can you not tell your wife she is in
the wrong; that there is a God and a religion better than her own; that
her gods are idols; that they can neither hear nor speak; that there is a
great Being that made all things, and that can destroy all that He has
made; that He rewards the good and punishes the bad; and that we are to
be judged by Him at last for all we do here? You are not so ignorant but
even nature itself will teach you that all this is true; and I am
satisfied you know it all to be true, and believe it yourself."--"That is
true, sir," said Atkins; "but with what face can I say anything to my
wife of all this, when she will tell me immediately it cannot be
true?"--"Not true!" said I; "what do you mean by that?"--"Why, sir," said
he, "she will tell me it cannot be true that this God I shall tell her of
can be just, or can punish or reward, since I am not punished and sent to
the devil, that have been such a wicked creature as she knows I have
been, even to her, and to everybody else; and that I should be suffered
to live, that have been always acting so contrary to what I must tell her
is good, and to what I ought to have done."--"Why, truly, Atkins," said
I, "I am afraid thou speakest too much truth;" and with that I informed
the clergyman of what Atkins had said, for he was impatient to know.
"Oh," said the priest, "tell him there is one thing will make him the
best minister in the world to his wife, and that is repentance; for none
teach repentance like true penitents. He wants nothing but to repent,
and then he will be so much the better qualified to instruct his wife; he
will then be able to tell her that there is not only a God, and that He
is the just rewarder of good and evil, but that He is a merciful Being,
and with infinite goodness and long-suffering forbears to punish those
that offend; waiting to be gracious, and willing not the death of a
sinner, but rather that he should return and live; and even reserves
damnation to the general day of retribution; that it is a clear evidence
of God and of a future state that righteous men receive not their reward,
or wicked men their punishment, till they come into another world; and
this will lead him to teach his wife the doctrine of the resurrection and
of the last judgment. Let him but repent himself, he will be an
excellent preacher of repentance to his wife."
I repeated all this to Atkins, who looked very serious all the while,
and, as we could easily perceive, was more than ordinarily affected with
it; when being eager, and hardly suffering me to make an end, "I know all
this, master," says he, "and a great deal more; but I have not the
impudence to talk thus to my wife, when God and my conscience know, and
my wife will be an undeniable evidence against me, that I have lived as
if I had never heard of a God or future state, or anything about it; and
to talk of my repenting, alas!" (and with that he fetched a deep sigh,
and I could see that the tears stood in his eyes) "'tis past all that
with me."--"Past it, Atkins?" said I: "what dost thou mean by that?"--"I
know well enough what I mean," says he; "I mean 'tis too late, and that
is too true."
I told the clergyman, word for word, what he said, and this affectionate
man could not refrain from tears; but, recovering himself, said to me,
"Ask him but one question. Is he easy that it is too late; or is he
troubled, and wishes it were not so?" I put the question fairly to
Atkins; and he answered with a great deal of passion, "How could any man
be easy in a condition that must certainly end in eternal destruction?
that he was far from being easy; but that, on the contrary, he believed
it would one time or other ruin him."--"What do you mean by that?" said
I.--"Why," he said, "he believed he should one time or other cut his
throat, to put an end to the terror of it."
The clergyman shook his head, with great concern in his face, when I told
him all this; but turning quick to me upon it, says, "If that be his
case, we may assure him it is not too late; Christ will give him
repentance. But pray," says he, "explain this to him: that as no man is
saved but by Christ, and the merit of His passion procuring divine mercy
for him, how can it be too late for any man to receive mercy? Does he
think he is able to sin beyond the power or reach of divine mercy? Pray
tell him there may be a time when provoked mercy will no longer strive,
and when God may refuse to hear, but that it is never too late for men to
ask mercy; and we, that are Christ's servants, are commanded to preach
mercy at all times, in the name of Jesus Christ, to all those that
sincerely repent: so that it is never too late to repent."
I told Atkins all this, and he heard me with great earnestness; but it
seemed as if he turned off the discourse to the rest, for he said to me
he would go and have some talk with his wife; so he went out a while, and
we talked to the rest. I perceived they were all stupidly ignorant as to
matters of religion, as much as I was when I went rambling away from my
father; yet there were none of them backward to hear what had been said;
and all of them seriously promised that they would talk with their wives
about it, and do their endeavours to persuade them to turn Christians.
The clergyman smiled upon me when I reported what answer they gave, but
said nothing a good while; but at last, shaking his head, "We that are
Christ's servants," says he, "can go no further than to exhort and
instruct: and when men comply, submit to the reproof, and promise what we
ask, 'tis all we can do; we are bound to accept their good words; but
believe me, sir," said he, "whatever you may have known of the life of
that man you call Will Atkin's, I believe he is the only sincere convert
among them: I will not despair of the rest; but that man is apparently
struck with the sense of his past life, and I doubt not, when he comes to
talk of religion to his wife, he will talk himself effectually into it:
for attempting to teach others is sometimes the best way of teaching
ourselves. If that poor Atkins begins but once to talk seriously of
Jesus Christ to his wife, he will assuredly talk himself into a thorough
convert, make himself a penitent, and who knows what may follow."
Upon this discourse, however, and their promising, as above, to endeavour
to persuade their wives to embrace Christianity, he married the two other
couple; but Will Atkins and his wife were not yet come in. After this,
my clergyman, waiting a while, was curious to know where Atkins was gone,
and turning to me, said, "I entreat you, sir, let us walk out of your
labyrinth here and look; I daresay we shall find this poor man somewhere
or other talking seriously to his wife, and teaching her already
something of religion." I began to be of the same mind; so we went out
together, and I carried him a way which none knew but myself, and where
the trees were so very thick that it was not easy to see through the
thicket of leaves, and far harder to see in than to see out: when, coming
to the edge of the wood, I saw Atkins and his tawny wife sitting under
the shade of a bush, very eager in discourse: I stopped short till my
clergyman came up to me, and then having showed him where they were, we
stood and looked very steadily at them a good while. We observed him
very earnest with her, pointing up to the sun, and to every quarter of
the heavens, and then down to the earth, then out to the sea, then to
himself, then to her, to the woods, to the trees. "Now," says the
clergyman, "you see my words are made good, the man preaches to her; mark
him now, he is telling her that our God has made him, her, and the
heavens, the earth, the sea, the woods, the trees, &c."--"I believe he
is," said I. Immediately we perceived Will Atkins start upon his feet,
fall down on his knees, and lift up both his hands. We supposed he said
something, but we could not hear him; it was too far for that. He did
not continue kneeling half a minute, but comes and sits down again by his
wife, and talks to her again; we perceived then the woman very attentive,
but whether she said anything to him we could not tell. While the poor
fellow was upon his knees I could see the tears run plentifully down my
clergyman's cheeks, and I could hardly forbear myself; but it was a great
affliction to us both that we were not near enough to hear anything that
passed between them. Well, however, we could come no nearer for fear of
disturbing them: so we resolved to see an end of this piece of still
conversation, and it spoke loud enough to us without the help of voice.
He sat down again, as I have said, close by her, and talked again
earnestly to her, and two or three times we could see him embrace her
most passionately; another time we saw him take out his handkerchief and
wipe her eyes, and then kiss her again with a kind of transport very
unusual; and after several of these things, we saw him on a sudden jump
up again, and lend her his hand to help her up, when immediately leading
her by the hand a step or two, they both kneeled down together, and
continued so about two minutes.
My friend could bear it no longer, but cries out aloud, "St. Paul! St.
Paul! behold he prayeth." I was afraid Atkins would hear him, therefore
I entreated him to withhold himself a while, that we might see an end of
the scene, which to me, I must confess, was the most affecting that ever
I saw in my life. Well, he strove with himself for a while, but was in
such raptures to think that the poor heathen woman was become a
Christian, that he was not able to contain himself; he wept several
times, then throwing up his hands and crossing his breast, said over
several things ejaculatory, and by the way of giving God thanks for so
miraculous a testimony of the success of our endeavours. Some he spoke
softly, and I could not well hear others; some things he said in Latin,
some in French; then two or three times the tears would interrupt him,
that he could not speak at all; but I begged that he would contain
himself, and let us more narrowly and fully observe what was before us,
which he did for a time, the scene not being near ended yet; for after
the poor man and his wife were risen again from their knees, we observed
he stood talking still eagerly to her, and we observed her motion, that
she was greatly affected with what he said, by her frequently lifting up
her hands, laying her hand to her breast, and such other postures as
express the greatest seriousness and attention; this continued about half
a quarter of an hour, and then they walked away, so we could see no more
of them in that situation.
I took this interval to say to the clergyman, first, that I was glad to
see the particulars we had both been witnesses to; that, though I was
hard enough of belief in such cases, yet that I began to think it was all
very sincere here, both in the man and his wife, however ignorant they
might both be, and I hoped such a beginning would yet have a more happy
end. "But, my friend," added I, "will you give me leave to start one
difficulty here? I cannot tell how to object the least thing against
that affectionate concern which you show for the turning of the poor
people from their paganism to the Christian religion; but how does this
comfort you, while these people are, in your account, out of the pale of
the Catholic Church, without which you believe there is no salvation? so
that you esteem these but heretics, as effectually lost as the pagans
themselves."
To this he answered, with abundance of candour, thus: "Sir, I am a
Catholic of the Roman Church, and a priest of the order of St. Benedict,
and I embrace all the principles of the Roman faith; but yet, if you will
believe me, and that I do not speak in compliment to you, or in respect
to my circumstances and your civilities; I say nevertheless, I do not
look upon you, who call yourselves reformed, without some charity. I
dare not say (though I know it is our opinion in general) that you cannot
be saved; I will by no means limit the mercy of Christ so far as think
that He cannot receive you into the bosom of His Church, in a manner to
us unperceivable; and I hope you have the same charity for us: I pray
daily for you being all restored to Christ's Church, by whatsoever method
He, who is all-wise, is pleased to direct. In the meantime, surely you
will allow it consists with me as a Roman to distinguish far between a
Protestant and a pagan; between one that calls on Jesus Christ, though in
a way which I do not think is according to the true faith, and a savage
or a barbarian, that knows no God, no Christ, no Redeemer; and if you are
not within the pale of the Catholic Church, we hope you are nearer being
restored to it than those who know nothing of God or of His Church: and I
rejoice, therefore, when I see this poor man, who you say has been a
profligate, and almost a murderer kneel down and pray to Jesus Christ, as
we suppose he did, though not fully enlightened; believing that God, from
whom every such work proceeds, will sensibly touch his heart, and bring
him to the further knowledge of that truth in His own time; and if God
shall influence this poor man to convert and instruct the ignorant
savage, his wife, I can never believe that he shall be cast away himself.
And have I not reason, then, to rejoice, the nearer any are brought to
the knowledge of Christ, though they may not be brought quite home into
the bosom of the Catholic Church just at the time when I desire it,
leaving it to the goodness of Christ to perfect His work in His own time,
and in his own way? Certainly, I would rejoice if all the savages in
America were brought, like this poor woman, to pray to God, though they
were all to be Protestants at first, rather than they should continue
pagans or heathens; firmly believing, that He that had bestowed the first
light on them would farther illuminate them with a beam of His heavenly
grace, and bring them into the pale of His Church when He should see
good."