had revealed himself to us by his word; and what his word
was; but at last he told it her thus:]
_W.A._ God has spoken to some good men in former days, even from heaven,
by plain words; and God has inspired good men by his Spirit; and they
have written all his laws down in a book.
_Wife._ Me no understand that: where is book?
_W.A._. Alas! my poor creature, I have not this book; but I hope I
shall, one time or other, get it for you to read it.
[Here he embraced her with great affection; but with
inexpressible grief, that he had not a Bible.]
_Wife._ But how you makee me know that God teachee them to write that
book?
_W.A._ By the same rule that we know him to be God.
_Wife._ What rule? what way you know?
_W.A._ Because he teaches and commands nothing but what is good,
righteous, and holy, and tends to make us perfectly good, as well as
perfectly happy; and because he forbids, and commands us to avoid, all
that is wicked, that is evil in itself, or evil in its consequences.
_Wife._ That me would understand, that me fain see; if he reward all
good thing, punish all wicked thing, he teachee all good thing, forbid
all wicked thing, he makee all thing, he give all thing; he hear me when
I say O to him, as you go to do just now; he makee me good if I wish be
good; he spare me, no makee kill me when I no be good; all this you say
he do: yes, he be great God; me take, think, believe him be great God;
me say O to him too with you, my dear.
Here the poor man said he could forbear no longer; but, raising her up,
made her kneel by him; and he prayed to God aloud to instruct her in the
knowledge of himself by his Spirit; and that by some good providence, if
possible, she might some time or other come to have a Bible, that she
might read the word of God, and be taught by him to know him.
[This was the time that we saw him lift her up by the hand,
and saw him kneel down by her, as above.]
They had several other discourses, it seems, after this, too long to
set down here; and particularly she made him promise, that, since he
confessed his own life had been a wicked, abominable course of
provocation against God, he would reform it, and not make God angry any
more, lest he should make him dead, as she called it, and then she
should be left alone, and never be taught to know this God better; and
lest he should be miserable, as he told her wicked men should be
after death.
This was a strange account, and very affecting to us both, but
particularly the young clergyman; he was indeed wonderfully surprised
with it; but under the greatest affliction imaginable that he could not
talk to her; that he could not speak English to make her understand him;
and as she spoke but very broken English he could not understand her.
However, he turned himself to me, and told me, that he believed there
must be more to do with this woman than to marry her. I did not
understand him at first, but at length he explained himself, viz. that
she ought to be baptized.
I agreed with him in that part readily, and was for going about it
presently: “No, no; hold, Sir,” said he; “though I would have her
baptized by all means, yet I must observe, that Will Atkins, her
husband, has indeed brought her, in a wonderful manner, to be willing to
embrace a religious life; and has given her just ideas of the being of a
God, of his power, justice, and mercy; yet I desire to know of him, if
he has said any thing to her of Jesus Christ, and of the salvation of
sinners; of the nature of faith in him, and the redemption by him; of
the Holy Spirit, the Resurrection, the last judgment, and a
future state.”
I called Will Atkins again, and asked him; but the poor fellow fell
immediately into tears, and told us he had said something to her of all
those things, but that he was himself so wicked a creature, and his own
conscience so reproached him with his horrid, ungodly life, that he
trembled at the apprehensions, that her knowledge of him should lessen
the attention she should give to those things, and make her rather
contemn religion than receive it: but he was assured, he said, that her
mind was so disposed to receive due impressions of all those things,
that, if I would but discourse with her, she would make it appear to my
satisfaction that my labour would not be lost upon her.
Accordingly I called her in, and placing myself as interpreter between
my religious priest and the woman, I entreated him to begin with her.
But sure such a sermon was never preached by a popish priest in these
latter ages of the world: and, as I told him, I thought he had all the
zeal, all the knowledge, all the sincerity of a Christian, without the
errors of a Roman Catholic; and that I took him to be such a clergyman
as the Roman bishops were before the church of Rome assumed spiritual
sovereignty over the consciences of men.
In a word, he brought the poor woman to embrace the knowledge of Christ,
and of redemption by him, not with wonder and astonishment only, as she
did the first notions of a God, but with joy and faith, with an
affection, and a surprising degree of understanding, scarce to be
imagined, much less to be expressed; and at her own request she
was baptized.
When he was preparing to baptize her, I entreated him that he would
perform that office with some caution, that the man might not perceive
he was of the Roman church, if possible; because of other ill
consequences which might attend a difference among us in that very
religion which we were instructing the other in. He told me, that as he
had no consecrated chapel, nor proper things for the office, I should
see he would do it in a manner that I should not know by it that he was
a Roman Catholic himself if I had not known it before, and so he did;
for saying only some words over to himself in Latin, which I could not
understand, he poured a whole dishfull of water upon the woman’s head,
pronouncing in French very loud _Mary_ (which was the name her husband
desired me to give her, for I was her godfather,) _I baptize thee in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost_; so that
none could know any thing by it what religion he was of: he gave the
benediction afterwards in Latin; but either Will Atkins did not know but
it was in French, or else did not take notice of it at that time.
As soon as this was over, he married them; and after the marriage was
over, he turned himself to Will Atkins, and in a very affectionate
manner exhorted him not only to persevere in that good disposition he
was in, but to support the convictions that were upon him by a
resolution to reform his life; told him it was in vain to say he
repented if he did not forsake his crimes; represented to him, how God
had honoured him with being the instrument of bringing his wife to the
knowledge of the Christian religion; and that he should be careful he
did not dishonour the grace of God; and that if he did, he would see the
heathen a better Christian than himself; the savage converted, and the
instrument cast away!
He said a great many good things to them both, and then recommended
them, in a few words, to God’s goodness; gave them the benediction
again, I repeating every thing to them in English: and thus ended the
ceremony. I think it was the most pleasant, agreeable day to me that
ever I passed in my whole life.
But my clergyman had not done yet; his thoughts hung continually upon
the conversion of the thirty-seven savages, and fain he would have staid
upon the island to have undertaken it; but I convinced him, first, that
his undertaking was impracticable in itself; and secondly, that,
perhaps, I could put it into a way of being done, in his absence, to his
satisfaction; of which by and by.
Having thus brought the affair of the island to a narrow compass, I was
preparing to go on board the ship when the young man, whom I had taken
out of the famished ship’s company, came to me, and told me, he
understood I had a clergyman with me, and that I had caused the
Englishmen to be married to the savages whom they called wives; that he
had a match too, which he desired might be finished before I went,
between two Christians, which he hoped would not be disagreeable to me.
I knew this must be the young woman who was his mother’s servant, for
there was no other Christian woman on the island. So I began to persuade
him not to do any thing of that kind rashly, or because he found himself
in this solitary circumstance. I represented that he had some
considerable substance in the world, and good friends, as I understood
by himself, and by his maid also; that the maid was not only poor, and a
servant, but was unequal to him, she being twenty-six or twenty-seven
years old, and he not above seventeen or eighteen; that he might very
probably, with my assistance, make a remove from this wilderness, and
come into his own country again, and that then it would be a thousand to
one but he would repent his choice, and the dislike of that circumstance
might be disadvantageous to both. I was going to say more, but he
interrupted me, smiling; and told me, with a great deal of modesty, that
I mistook in my guesses; that he had nothing of that kind in his
thoughts, his present circumstances being melancholy and disconsolate
enough; and he was very glad to hear that I had some thoughts of putting
them in a way to see their own country again; and that nothing should
have set him upon staying there, but that the voyage I was going was so
exceeding long and hazardous, and would carry him quite out of the reach
of all his friends; that he had nothing to desire of me, but that I
would settle him in some little property of the island where he was;
give him a servant or two, and some few necessaries, and he would settle
himself here like a planter, waiting the good time when, if ever I
returned to England, I would redeem him, and hoped I would not be
unmindful of him when I came to England; that he would give me some
letters to his friends in London, to let them know how good I had been
to him, and what part of the world, and what circumstances I had left
him in; and he promised me, that whenever I redeemed him, the
plantation, and all the improvements he had made upon it, let the value
be what it would, should be wholly mine.
His discourse was very prettily delivered, considering his youth, and
was the more agreeable to me, because he told me positively the match
was not for himself. I gave him all possible assurances, that, if I
lived to come safe to England, I would deliver his letters, and do his
business effectually, and that he might depend I would never forget the
circumstances I left him in. But still I was impatient to know who was
the person to be married; upon which he told me it was my Jack of all
Trades and his maid Susan.
I was most agreeably surprised when he named the match; for indeed I had
thought it very suitable. The character of that man I have given
already; and as for the maid, she was a very honest, modest, sober, and
religious young woman; had a very good share of sense; was agreeable
enough in her person; spoke very handsomely, and to the purpose; always
with decency and good manners, and not backward to speak when any thing
required it, or impertinently forward to speak when it was not her
business; very handy and housewifely in any thing that was before her;
an excellent manager, and fit indeed to have been governess to the whole
island; she knew very well how to behave herself to all kind of folks
she had about her, and to better if she had found any there.
The match being proposed in this manner, we married them the same day:
and as I was father at the altar, as I may say, and gave her away, so I
gave her a portion, for I appointed her and her husband a handsome large
space of ground for their plantation; and indeed this match, and the
proposal the young gentleman made to me, to give him a small property in
the island, put me upon parcelling it out among them, that they might
not quarrel afterwards about their situation.
This sharing out the land to them I left to Will Atkins, who indeed was
now grown a most sober, grave, managing fellow, perfectly reformed,
exceeding pious and religious, and as far as I may be allowed to speak
positively in such a case, I verily believe was a true sincere penitent.
He divided things so justly, and so much to every one’s satisfaction,
that they only desired one general writing under my hand for the whole,
which I caused to be drawn up, and signed and sealed to them, setting
out the bounds and situation of every man’s plantation, and testifying
that I gave them thereby, severally, a right to the whole possession and
inheritance of the respective plantations or farms, with their
improvements, to them and their heirs; reserving all the rest of the
island as my own property, and a certain rent for every particular
plantation after eleven years, if I or any one from me, or in my name,
came to demand it, producing an attested copy of the same writing.
As to the government and laws among them, I told them, I was not capable
of giving them better rules than they were able to give themselves; only
made them promise me to live in love and good neighbourhood with one
another: and so I prepared to leave them.
One thing I must not omit, and that is, that being now settled in a kind
of commonwealth among themselves, and having much business in hand, it
was but odd to have seven-and-thirty Indians live in a nook of the
island, independent, and indeed unemployed; for excepting the providing
themselves food, which they had difficulty enough in doing sometimes,
they had no manner of business or property to manage: I proposed
therefore to the governor Spaniard, that he should go to them with
Friday’s father, and propose to them to remove, and either plant for
themselves, or take them into their several families as servants, to be
maintained for their labour, but without being absolute slaves, for I
would not admit them to make them slaves by force by any means, because
they had their liberty given by capitulation, and as it were articles
of surrender, which they ought not to break.
They most willingly embraced the proposal, and came all very cheerfully
along with him; so we allotted them land and plantations, which three or
four accepted of, but all the rest chose to be employed as servants in
the several families we had settled; and thus my colony was in a manner
settled as follows: The Spaniards possessed my original habitation,
which was the capital city, and extended their plantation all along the
side of the brook which made the creek that I have so often described,
as far as my bower; and as they increased their culture, it went always
eastward. The English lived in the north-east part, where Will Atkins
and his comrades began, and came on southward and south-west, towards
the back part of the Spaniards; and every plantation had a great
addition of land to take in, if they found occasion, so that they need
not jostle one another for want of room.
All the west end of the island was left uninhabited, that, if any of the
savages should come on shore there, only for their usual customary
barbarities, they might come and go; if they disturbed nobody, nobody
would disturb them; and no doubt but they were often ashore, and went
away again, for I never heard that the planters were ever attacked and
disturbed any more.
It now came into my thoughts that I had hinted to my friend the
clergyman that the work of converting the savages might perhaps be set
on foot in his absence to his satisfaction; and I told him, that now I
thought it was put in a fair way, for the savages being thus divided
among the Christians, if they would but every one of them do their part
with those which came under their hands, I hoped it might have a very
good effect.
He agreed presently in that; “if,” said he, “they will do their part;
but how,” says he, “shall we obtain that of them?” I told him we would
call them all together, and leave it in charge with them, or go to them
one by one, which he thought best; so we divided it—he to speak to the
Spaniards, who were all Papists, and I to the English, who were all
Protestants; and we recommended it earnestly to them, and made them
promise that they would never make any distinction of Papist or
Protestant in their exhorting the savages to turn Christians, but teach
them the general knowledge of the true God, and of their Saviour Jesus
Christ; and they likewise promised us that they would never have any
differences or disputes one with another about religion.
When I came to Will Atkins’s house, (I may call it so, for such a house,
or such a piece of basket-work, I believe was not standing in the world
again!) I say, when I came thither I found the young woman I have
mentioned above, and William Atkins’s wife, were become intimates; and
this prudent and religious young woman had perfected the work Will
Atkins had begun; and though it was not above four days after what I
have related, yet the new-baptized savage woman was made such a
Christian as I have seldom heard of any like her, in all my observation
or conversation in the world.
It came next into my mind in the morning, before I went to them, that
among all the needful things I had to leave with them, I had not left a
Bible; in which I shewed myself less considering for them than my good
friend the widow was for me, when she sent me the cargo of 100_l_. from
Lisbon, where she packed up three Bibles and a Prayer-book. However, the
good woman’s charity had a greater extent than ever she imagined, for
they were reserved for the comfort and instruction of those that made
much better use of them than I had done.
I took one of the Bibles in my pocket; and when I came to William
Atkins’s tent, or house, I found the young woman and Atkins’s baptized
wife had been discoursing of religion together (for William Atkins told
it me with a great deal of joy.) I asked if they were together now? And
he said yes; so I went into the house, and he with me, and we found
them together, very earnest in discourse: “O Sir,” says William Atkins,
“when God has sinners to reconcile to himself, and aliens to bring home,
he never wants a messenger: my wife has got a new instructor—I knew I
was unworthy, as I was incapable of that work—that young woman has been
sent hither from Heaven—she is enough to convert a whole island of
savages.” The young woman blushed, and rose up to go away, but I desired
her to sit still; I told her she had a good work upon her hands, and I
hoped God would bless her in it.
We talked a little, and I did not perceive they had any book among them,
though I did not ask, but I put my hand in my pocket, and pulled out my
Bible. “Here,” said I to Atkins, “I have brought you an assistant, that
perhaps you had not before.” The man was so confounded, that he was not
able to speak for some time; but recovering himself, he takes it with
both hands, and turning to his wife, “Here, my dear,” says he, “did not
I tell you our God, though he lives above, could hear what we said? Here
is the book I prayed for when you and I kneeled down under the bush; now
God has heard us, and sent it.” When he had said thus, the man fell in
such transports of a passionate joy, that between the joy of having it,
and giving God thanks for it, the tears ran down his face like a child
that was crying.
The woman was surprised, and was like to have run into a mistake that
none of us were aware of; for she firmly believed God had sent the book
upon her husband’s petition: it is true that providentially it was so,
and might be taken so in a consequent sense; but I believed it would
have been no difficult matter at that time to have persuaded the poor
woman to have believed that an express messenger came from Heaven on
purpose to bring that individual book; but it was too serious a matter
to suffer any delusion to take place: so I turned to the young woman,
and told her we did not desire to impose upon the convert in her first
and more ignorant understanding of things, and begged her to explain to
her that God may be very properly said to answer our petitions, when in
the course of his providence such things are in a particular manner
brought to pass as we petitioned for; but we do not expect returns from
Heaven in a miraculous and particular manner; and that it is our mercy
it is not so.
This the young woman did afterwards effectually; so that there was, I
assure you, no priestcraft used here; and I should have thought it one
of the most unjustifiable frauds in the world to have had it so: but the
surprise of joy upon Will Atkins is really not to be expressed; and
there we may be sure was no delusion. Sure no man was ever more thankful
in the world for any thing of its kind than he was for this Bible; and I
believe never any man was glad of a Bible from a better principle; and
though he had been a most profligate creature, desperate, headstrong,
outrageous, furious, and wicked to a great degree, yet this man is a
standing rule to us all for the well instructing children, viz. that
parents should never give over to teach and instruct, or ever despair of
the success of their endeavours, let the children be ever so obstinate,
refractory, or to appearance insensible of instruction; for if ever God
in his providence touches the consciences of such, the force of their
education returns upon them, and the early instruction of parents is not
lost, though it may have been many years laid asleep, but some time or
other they may find the benefit of it.
Thus it was with this poor man. However ignorant he was, or divested of
religion and Christian knowledge, he found he had some to do with now
more ignorant than himself; and that the least part of the instruction
of his good father that could now come to his mind was of use to him.
Among the rest it occurred to him, he said, how his father used to
insist much upon the inexpressible value of the Bible, the privilege
and blessing of it to nations, families, and persons; but he never
entertained the least notion of the worth of it till now, when being to
talk to heathens, savages, and barbarians, he wanted the help of the
written oracle for his assistance.
The young woman was very glad of it also for the present occasion,
though she had one, and so had the youth, on board our ship among the
goods which were not yet brought on shore. And now, having said so many
things of this young woman, I cannot omit telling one story more of her
and myself, which has something in it very informing and remarkable.
I have related to what extremity the poor young woman was reduced; how
her mistress was starved to death, and did die on board that unhappy
ship we met at sea; and how the whole ship’s company being reduced to
the last extremity, the gentlewoman and her son, and this maid, were
first hardly used as to provisions, and at last totally neglected and
starved; that is to say, brought to the last extremity of hunger.
One day being discoursing with her upon the extremities they suffered, I
asked her if she could describe by what she felt what it was to starve,
and how it appeared? She told me she believed she could, and she told
her tale very distinctly thus:
“First, Sir,” said she, “we had for some days fared exceeding hard, and
suffered very great hunger, but now at last we were wholly without food
of any kind except sugar, and a little wine, and a little water. The
first day after I had received no food at all, I found myself, towards
evening, first empty and sickish at my stomach, and nearer night
mightily inclined to yawning, and sleepy; I lay down on a couch in the
great cabin to sleep, and slept about three hours, and awaked a little
refreshed, having taken a glass of wine when I lay down. After being
about three hours awake, it being about five o’clock in the morning, I
found myself empty, and my stomach sickish again, and lay down again,
but could not sleep at all, being very faint and ill; and thus I
continued all the second day with a strange variety—first hungry, then
sick again, with retchings to vomit. The second night, being obliged to
go to bed again without any food more than a draught of fair water, and
being asleep, I dreamed I was at Barbadoes, and that the market was
mightily stocked with provisions, that I bought some for my mistress,
and went and dined very heartily.