Part 7 (2/2)
_WA_--Alas! my poor creature, I have not this book; but I hope I shall one tiet it for you, and help you to read it
[Here he erief that he had not a Bible]
_Wife_--But how you makee me know that God teachee them to write that book?
_WA_--By the same rule that we know Him to be God
_Wife_--What rule? What way you know Hi but what is good, righteous, and holy, and tends to ood, 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 consequence
_Wife_--That ood thing, He , He hear ood if I wish to be good; He spare ood: all this you say He do, yet He be great God; reat God; me say O to Him with you, er, but raised her up, made her kneel by him, and he prayed to God aloud to instruct her in the knowledge of Hiood providence, if possible, she ht read the word of God, and be taught by it to know Him This was the time thathim lift her up by the hand, and saw him kneel down by her, as above
They had several other discourses, it seems, after this; and particularly she made him promise that, since he confessed his own life had been a wicked, aboainst God, that he would reforry any more, lest He should make him dead, as she called it, and then she would be left alone, and never be taught to know this God better; and lest he should be miserable, as he had told her wicked e account, and very affecting to us both, but particularly to the young clergyman; he was, indeed, wonderfully surprised with it, but under the greatest affliction iinable that he could not talk to her, that he could not speak English to lish, he could not understand her; however, he turned himself to me, and told me that he believed that there must be more to do with this woman than to marry her
I did not understand hith he explained hireed with him in that part readily, and wished it to be done presently ”No, no; hold, sir,” says he; ”though I would have her be baptized, by all means, for I ht her, in a wonderful iven her just ideas of the being of a God; of His power, justice, andto her of Jesus Christ, and of the salvation of sinners; of the nature of faith in Him, and redemption by Hiain, and asked him; but the poor fellow fell i 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 tree of his, and ion than receive it; but he was assured, he said, that her mind was so disposed to receive due is, and that if I would but discourse with her, she would make it appear to my satisfaction that ly I called her in, and placing ious priest and the woin with her; but sure such a seres of the world; and as I told hie, all the sincerity of a Christian, without the error of a Royman as the Roman bishops were before the Church of Ronty over the consciences of ht the poor woe of Christ, and of redemption by Him, not onder 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 iined, 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 perforht not perceive he was of the Roman Church, if possible, because of other ill consequences which ion which ere instructing the other in He told s 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 myself, 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 dishful of water upon the wo in French, very loud, ”Mary” (which was the naive 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 anything by it what religion he was of He gave the benediction afterwards in Latin, but either Will Atkins did not know but it was French, or else did not take notice of it at that time
As soon as this was over we e was over, he turned to Will Atkins, and in a very affectionate ood 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 cri the instrue 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 hie converted, and the instrus to theave thelish; and thus ended the cerereeable day to y continually upon the conversion of the thirty-seven savages, and fain be would have stayed upon the island to have undertaken it; but I convinced hi was impracticable in itself; and, secondly, that perhaps I would put it into a way of being done in his absence to his satisfaction
Having thus brought the affairs of the island to a narrow coo on board the shi+p, when the young man I had taken out of the famished shi+p's coylishes; that he had a ht be finished before I went, between two Christians, which he hoped would not be disagreeable towoman as his mother's servant, for there was no other Christian woan to persuade hi of that kind rashly, or because be found himself in this solitary circumstance I represented to hiood friends, as I understood by himself, and the maid also; that the maid was not only poor, and a servant, but was unequal to hi six or seven and twenty years old, and he not above seventeen or eighteen; that he ht very probably, with my assistance, make a reain; and that then it would be a thousand to one but he would repent his choice, and the dislike of that circu to say reat deal ofof that kind in his thoughts; and he was very glad to hear that I had an intent of putting the should have oing 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 hiive him a servant or two, and some few necessaries, and he would live here like a planter, waiting the good tiland, I would redeem hiland: that he would give me soood I had been to him, and in 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 reeable to me, because he told ave him all possible assurances that if I lived to coland, I would deliver his letters, and do his business effectually; and that he et the circumstances I had left him in But still I was impatient to knoas the person to be married; upon which he told me it was reeably surprised when he naht it very suitable The character of that iven already; and as for the ious young woh in her person, spoke very handsoood manners, and was neither too backward to speak when requisite, nor impertinently forhen it was not her business; very handy and housewifely, and an excellent overness to the whole island; and she knew very well how to behave in every respect
Theproposed in this manner, we married theave her away, so I gave her a portion; for I appointed her and her husband a handsoround for their plantation; and indeed this ive hi it out aht not quarrel afterwards about their situation
This sharing out the land to therave, ly pious and religious; and, as far as I may be allowed to speak positively in such a case, I verily believe he was a true penitent He divided things so justly, and so eneral writing under ned and sealed, setting out the bounds and situation of every ave theht to the whole possession and inheritance of the respective plantations or farms, with their i 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 fro an attested copy of the sa the theive theood neighbourhood with one another; and so I prepared to leave the now settled in a kind of co much business in hand, it was odd to have seven-and-thirty Indians live in a nook of the island, independent, and, indeed, une theh to do soe 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 be taken into their several families as servants to beabsolute slaves; for I would not permit them to make them slaves by force, by any iven them by capitulation, as it were articles of surrender, which they ought not to break
They ly e 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 Thus my colony was in a inal habitation, which was the capital city, and extended their plantations 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 coan, 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 east end of the island was left uninhabited, that if any of the savages should come on shore there only for their custoo; 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 or disturbed any more
CHAPTER VIII--SAILS FROM THE ISLAND FOR THE BRAZILS
It now cayht perhaps be set on foot in his absence to his satisfaction, and I told hiht that it was put in a fair way; for the savages, being thus divided a the Christians, if they would but every one of them do their part with those which caood effect
He agreed presently in that, if they did their part ”But how,” says he, ”shall we obtain that of theether, and leave it in charge with theht best; so we divided it--he to speak to the Spaniards, ere all Papists, and I to speak to the English, ere 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 thee 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 ca woman I have mentioned above, and Will Atkins's wife, were beco woh 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 in all my observation or conversation in the world It ca before I went to thes I had to leave with them I had not left the for theood friend the as for o of a hundred pounds from Lisbon, where she packed up three Bibles and a Prayer-book
However, the good woined, for they were reserved for the comfort and instruction of those that made much better use of them than I had done