Part 5 (2/2)
3. That who should force or ravish any Maid or Woman should be burnt to death, the party so ravished putting fire to the wood that should burn him.
4. Whosoever shall commit adultery, for the first crime the Male shall lose his Privities, and the Woman have her right eye bored out, if after that she was again taken in the act, she should die without mercy.
5. That who so injured his Neighbour, by laming of his {{19 }} Limbs, or taking any thing away which he possesseth, shall suffer in the same kind himself by loss of Limb; and for defrauding [74]his Neighbour, to become servant to him, whilst he had made him double satisfaction.
6. That, who should defame or speak evil of the Governour, or refuse to come before him upon Summons, should receive a punishment by whipping with Rods, and afterwards be exploded from the society of the rest of the inhabitants.
Having set forth these Laws, he chose four several persons under him to see them put in Execution, whereof one was of the Englishes, the Off-spring of Sarah English; another of his own Tribe, the Sparks; a third of the Trevors, and the fourth of the Phills, appointing them every year at a certain time to appear before him, and give an account of what they had done in the prosecution of those Laws.
The Countrey being thus settled, my father lived quiet and peaceable till he attained to the age of ninety and four years, when dying, I succeeded in his place, in which I have continued peaceably and quietly till this very present time.
He having ended his Speech, we gave him very heartily thanks for our information, a.s.suring him we should not be wanting to him in any thing which lay in our powers, wherewith we could pleasure him in what he should desire, and thereupon preferred to depart, but before our going away, he would needs engage us to see him, the next day, when was to be their great a.s.sembly or monethly meeting for the celebration of their Religious Exercises.
Accordingly the next day we came thither again, and were courteously entertained as before, In a short s.p.a.ce there was gathered such a mult.i.tude of people together as made us to {{20 }} admire; [75]and first there were several Weddings celebrated, the manner whereof was thus. The Bridegroom and Bride appeared before him who was their Priest or Reader of the Bible, together with the Parents of each party, or if any of their Parents were dead, then the next relation unto them, without whose consent as well as the parties to be married, the Priest will not joyn them together; but being satissied in those particulars, after some short Oraizons, and joyning of hands together, he p.r.o.nounces them to be man and wife: and with exhortations to them to live lovingly towards each other, and quietly towards their neighbors, he concludes with some prayers, and so dismisses them.
The Weddings being finished, all the people took their places to hear the Word read, the new married persons having the honour to be next unto the Priest that day, after he had read three or four Chapters he fell to expounding the most difficult places therein, the people being very attentive all that while, this exercise continued for two or three hours, which being done, with some few prayers he concluded, but all the rest of that day was by the people kept very strictly, abstaining from all manner of playing or pastimes, with which on other dayes they use to pa.s.s their time away, as having need of nothing but victuals, and that they have in such plenty as almost provided to their hands.
Their exercises of Religion being over, we returned again to our s.h.i.+p, and the next day, taking with us two or three Fowling-pieces leaving half our Company to guard the s.h.i.+p, the rest of us resolved to go up higher into the Country for a further discovery: All the way as we pa.s.sed the first morning, we saw abundance of little Cabbins or Huts of these inhabitants, made under [76]Trees, and fas.h.i.+oned up with boughs, gra.s.s, {{21 }} and such like stuffe to defend them from the Sun and Rain; and as we went along, they came out of them much wondering at our Attire, and standing aloof off from us as if they were afraid, but our companion that spake English, calling to them in their own Tongue, and giving them good words, they drew nigher, some of them freely proffering to go along with us, which we willingly accepted; but having pa.s.sed some few miles, one of our company espying a Beast like unto a Goat come gazing on him, he discharged his Peece, sending a brace of Bullets into his belly, which brought him dead upon the ground; these poor naked unarmed people hearing the noise of the Peece, and seeing the Beast lie tumbling in his gore, without speaking any words betook them to their heels, running back again as fast as they could drive, nor could the perswasions of our Company, a.s.suring them they should have no hurt, prevail anything at all with them, so that we were forced to pa.s.s along without their company: all the way that we went we heard the delightful harmony of singing Birds, the ground very fertile in Trees, Gra.s.s, and such flowers, as grow by the production of Nature, without the help of Art; many and several sorts of Beads we saw, who were not so much wild as in other Countries; whether it were as having enough to satiate themselves without ravening upon others, or that they never before saw the sight of man, nor heard the report of murdering Guns, I leave it to others to determine. Some Trees bearing wild Fruits we also saw, and of those some whereof we tailed, which were neither unwholsome nor distasteful to the Pallate, and no question had but Nature here the benefit of Art added unto [77]it, it would equal, if not exceed many of our European Countries; the Vallyes were every where intermixt with running streams, and no question but the earth {{22 }} hath in it rich veins of Minerals, enough to satisfie the desires of the most covetous.
It was very strange to us, to see that in such a fertile Countrey which was as yet never inhabited, there should be notwithstanding such a free and clear pa.s.sage to us, without the hinderance of Bushes, Thorns, and such like fluff, wherewith most Islands of the like nature are pestered: the length of the Gra.s.s (which yet was very much intermixt with flowers) being the only impediment that we found.
Six dayes together did we thus travel, setting several marks in our way as we went for our better return, not knowing whether we should have the benefit of the Stars for our guidance in our going back, which we made use of in our pa.s.sage: at last we came to the vast Ocean on the other side of the Island, and by our coasting it, conceive it to be of an oval form, only here and there shooting forth with some Promontories.
I conceive it hath but few good Harbours belonging to it, the Rocks in most places making it inaccessible. The length of it may be about two hundred, and the breadth one hundred miles, the whole in circ.u.mference about five hundred miles.
It lyeth about seventy six degrees of Longitude, and twenty of Lat.i.tude, being scituate under the third Climate, the longest day being about thirteen hours and fourty five minutes. The weather, as in all Southern Countries, is far more hot than with us in Europe; but what is by the Sun parched in the day, the night again refreshes with cool pearly dews.
The Air is found to [78]be very healthful by the long lives {{23 }} of the present inhabitants, few dying there till such time as they come to good years of maturity, many of them arriving to the extremity of old age.
And now speaking concerning the length of their Lives, I think it will not be amisse in this place to speak something of their Burials, which they used to do thus.
When the party was dead, they stuck his Carka.s.s all over with flowers, and after carried him to the place appointed for Burial, where setting him down, (the Priest having given some G.o.dly Exhortations concerning the frailty of life) then do they take stones (a heap being provided there for that purpose) and the nearest of the kin begins to lay the first stone upon him, afterwards the rest follows, they never leaving till they have covered the body deep in stones, so that no Beast can possibly come to him, and this first were they forced to make, having no Spades or Shovels wherewith to dig them Graves; which want of theirs we espying, bestowed a Pick-ax and two Shovels upon them.
Here might I add their way of Christening Children, but that being little different from yours in ENGLAND, and taught them by GEORGE PINES at first which they have since continued, I shall therefore forbear to speak thereof.
After our return back from the discovery of the Countrey, the Wind not being fit for our purpose, and our men also willing thereto, we got all our cutting Instruments on Land, and {{24 }} fell to hewing down of Trees, with which, in a little time,(many hands making light work) we built up a Pallace for this William Pines the Lord of that Countrey; which, though much inferiour to the houses of your Gentry in England.
Yet to them which [79]never had seen better, it appeared a very Lordly Place. This deed of ours was beyond expression acceptable unto him, load-ing us with thanks for so great a benefit, of which he said he should never be able to make a requital.
And now acquainting him, that upon the first opportunity we were resolved to leave the Island, as also how that we were near Neighbours to the Countrey of England, from whence his Ancestors came; he seemed upon the news to be much discontented that we would leave him, desiring, if it might stand with our commodity to continue still with him, but seeing he could not prevail, he invited us to dine with him the next day, which we promised to do, against which time he provided, very sumptuously (according to his estate) for us, and now was he attended after a more Royal manner than ever we saw him before, both for number of Servants, and multiplicity of Meat, on which we fed very heartily; but he having no other Beverage for us to drink, then water, we fetched from our s.h.i.+p a Case of Brandy, presenting some of it to him to drink, but when he had tasted of it, he would by no means be perswaded to touch thereof again, preferring (as he said) his own Countrey Water before all such Liquors whatsoever.
After we had Dined, we were invited out into the Fields to behold their Country Dauncing, which they did with great agility of body; and though they had no other then only {{25 }} Vocal Musick (several of them singing all that while) yet did they trip it very neatly, giving sufficient satisfaction to all that beheld them.
The next day we invited the Prince William Pines aboard our [80]s.h.i.+p, where was nothing wanting in what we could to entertain him, he had about a dozen of Servants to attend on him he much admired at the Tacklings of our s.h.i.+p, but when we came to discharge a piece or two of Ordnance, it struck him into a wonder and amazement to behold the strange effects of Powder; he was very sparing in his Diet, neither could he, or any of his followers be induced to drink any thing but Water: We there presented him with several things, as much as we could spare, which we thought would any wayes conduce to their benefit, all which he very gratefully received, a.s.suring us of his real love and good will, whensoever we should come thither again.
And now we intended the next day to take our leaves, the Wind standing fair, blowing with a gentle Gale South and by East, but as we were hoisting of our Sails, and weighing Anchor, we were suddenly Allarm'd with a noise from the sh.o.r.e, the Prince, W. Pines imploring our a.s.sistance in an Insurection which had happened amongst them, of which this was the cause.
Henry Phil, the chief Ruler of the Tribe or Family of the Phils, being the Offspring of George Pines which he had by the Negro-woman; this man had ravished the Wife of one of the princ.i.p.al of the Family of the Trevors, which act being made known, the Trevors a.s.sembled themselves all together to bring the offender unto Justice: But he knowing his crime to be so great, as extended to the loss of life: fought to defend that {{26 }} by force, which he had as unlawfully committed, whereupon the whole Island was in a great hurly burly, they being too great Potent Factions, the bandying of which against each other, threatned a general ruin to the whole State.
[81]The Governour William Pines had interposed in the matter, but found his Authority too weak to repress such Disorders; for where the Hedge of Government is once broken down, the most vile bear the greatest rule, whereupon he desired our a.s.sistance, to which we readily condescended, and arming out twelve of us went on Sh.o.r.e, rather as to a surprize than fight, for what could nakedness do to encounter with Arms. Being conducted by him to the force of our Enemy, we first entered into parley, seeking to gain them rather by fair means then force, but that not prevailing, we were necesitated to use violence, for this Henry Phill being of an undaunted resolution, and having armed his fellows with Clubs and Stones, they sent such a Peal amongst us, as made us at the first to give back, which encouraged them to follow us on with great violence, but we discharging off three or four Guns, when they saw some of themselves wounded, and heard the terrible reports which they gave, they ran away with greater speed then they came. The Band of the Trevors who were joyned with us, hotly pursued them, and having taken their Captain, returned with great triumph to their Governour, who fitting in Judgment upon him, he was adjudged to death, and thrown off a steep Rock into the Sea, the only way they have of punis.h.i.+ng any by death, except burning.
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