Part 8 (1/2)

I took one of the Bibles in my pocket, and when I ca woion together--for Will Atkins told it ether now, and he said, ”Yes”; so I went into the house, and he with ether very earnest in discourse ”Oh, sir,” says Will Atkins, ”when God has sinners to reconcile to Hier; ot a new instructor: I kneas unworthy, as I was incapable of that work; that young woh to convert a whole island of savages” The young woo 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 that they had any book ah I did not ask; but I put my hand into my pocket, and pulled out ht you an assistant that perhaps you had not before” The man was so confounded that he was not able to speak for so hi to his wife, ”Here, h He lives above, could hear e have said? Here's 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 so, the man fell into such passionate transports, 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 ht be taken so in a consequent sense; but I believe it would have been no difficult matter at that time to have persuaded the poor woer ca 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 inorant 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 ht to pass as we petitioned for; but we did not expect returns from heaven in a miraculous and particular manner, and it is awoman did afterwards effectually, so that there was 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 effect upon Will Atkins is really not to be expressed; and there, we may be sure, was no delusion Sure noof its kind than he was for the Bible, nor, I believe, never any h he had been a , furious, and desperately wicked, yet thischildren, viz that parents should never give over to teach and instruct, nor ever despair of the success of their endeavours, let the children be ever so refractory, or to appearance insensible to instruction; for if ever God in His providence touches the conscience of such, the force of their education turns upon theh it may have been many years laid asleep, but some time or other they may find the benefit of it Thus it ith this poor ion and Christian knowledge, he found he had sonorant than hiood father that now ca the rest, it occurred to him, he said, how his father used to insist so e and blessing of it to nations, families, and persons; but he never entertained the least notion of the worth of it till nohen, being to talk to heathens, savages, and barbarians, he wanted the help of the written oracle for his assistance The young woh she had one, and so had the youth, on board our shi+p aht on shore

And now, having said soone storyin it very instructive and remarkable

I have related to what extre woman was reduced; how her mistress was starved to death, and died on board that unhappy shi+p we met at sea, and how the whole shi+p's coentlewoman, 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 extre with her on the extremities they suffered, I asked her if she could describe, by what she had felt, what it was to starve, and how it appeared? She said she believed she could, and told her tale very distinctly thus:--

”First, we had for soer; but at last holly without food of any kind except sugar, and a little wine and water The first day after I had received no food at all, I found , ehtand sleep I lay down on the couch in the great cabin to sleep, and slept about three hours, and awaked a little refreshed, having taken a glass of hen I lay down; after being about three hours awake, it being about five o'clock in the , I found ain, 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 voain without any foodasleep, I dreahtily stocked with provisions; that I bought soht my stoood dinner; but when I awaked I was exceedingly sunk in my spirits to find lass of e had I drank, and put sugar in it, because of its having so no substance in the sto office to work upon, I found the only effect of the as to raise disagreeable fumes from the stomach into the head; and I lay, as they told me, stupid and senseless, as one drunk, for soht of strange, confused, and inconsistent drea, I awaked ravenous and furious with hunger; and I question, had notreturned and conquered it, whether if I had been a mother, and had had a little child with me, its life would have been safe or not This lasted about three hours, during which timaster told me, and as he can now inform you

”In one of these fits of lunacy or distraction I fell down and struck ainst the corner of a pallet-bed, in which ushed out ofreat deal; and as the blood came from me I came to myself, and the violence of the flame or fever I was in abated, and so did the ravenous part of the hunger Then I grew sick, and retched to vo up After I had bled some time I swooned, and they all believed I was dead; but I came to myself soon after, and then had a most dreadful pain in nawing, eager pain for food; and towards night it went off with a kind of earnest wishi+ng or longing for food I took another draught of water with sugar in it; but ain; then I took a draught of water without sugar, and that stayed withmost heartily that it would please God to take, thought ht with vapours from an empty stomach I recommended my soul then to God, and then earnestly wished that somebody would throw me into the into the sea

”All this while , but she bore it with ave the last bit of bread she had left to her child, ed him to eat it; and I believe it saved his life

Towards the ain, and when I awoke I fell into a violent passion of crying, and after that had a second fit of violent hunger I got up ravenous, and in ato bite my own arm At last I saw the basin in which was the blood I had bled at my nose the day before: I ran to it, and sed it with such haste, and such a greedy appetite, as if I wondered nobody had taken it before, and afraid it should be taken frohts of it filled er, and I took another draught of water, and was composed and refreshed for some hours after This was the fourth day; and this I kept up till towards night, when, within the compass of three hours, I had all the several circuerly hungry, pain in the stoain, then sick, then lunatic, then crying, then ravenous again, and so every quarter of an hour, andno co

”All this night I had no sleep; but the hunger was now turned into a disease; and I had a terrible colic and griping, by wind instead of food having found its way into the bowels; and in this condition I lay till , when I was surprised by the cries and la master, who called out to me that his mother was dead I lifted th to rise, but found she was not dead, though she was able to give very little signs of life I had then such convulsions in my stomach, for want of some sustenance, as I cannot describe; with such frequent throes and pangs of appetite as nothing but the tortures of death can imitate; and in this condition I hen I heard the seamen above cry out, 'A sail! a sail!' and halloo and juet off fro ; so we could not open the cabin door, or get any account what it was that occasioned such confusion; nor had we had any conversation with the shi+p's co told us that they had not ato eat in the shi+p; and this they told us afterwards--they thought we had been dead It was this dreadful condition ere in when you were sent to save our lives; and how you found us, sir, you knoell as I, and better too”

This was her own relation, and is such a distinct account of starving to death, as, I confess, I neverinstructive to me I am the rather apt to believe it to be a true account, because the youth gave h Ias the maid; and the rather, because it seems his mother fed him at the price of her own life: but the poor er than that of her ht struggle harder with it; nevertheless shesooner than herlonger than she parted with any to relieve her maid No question, as the case is here related, if our shi+p or some other had not so providentially met them, but a few days more would have ended all their lives I now return tothe people And, first, it is to be observed here, that forof the sloop I had fra the, such seeds of division a them, that I saw plainly, had I set up the sloop, and left it aust, have separated, and gone away from one another; or perhaps have turned pirates, and so made the island a den of thieves, instead of a plantation of sober and religious people, as I intended it; nor did I leave the two pieces of brass cannon that I had on board, or the extra two quarter-deck guns that ht it was enough to qualify theainst any that should invade theo abroad to attack others; which, in the end, would only bring ruin and destruction upon theuns, for their service another way, as I shall observe in its place

Having now done with the island, I left the condition, and went on boardbeen about twenty-five days a them: and as they were all resolved to stay upon the island till I came to remove them, I promised to send them further relief from the Brazils, if I could possibly find an opportunity I particularly pros, and cows: as to the ts and calves which I brought froe, to kill theiving the, we set sail, and arrived at the bay of All Saints in the Brazils in about twenty-two days, e but this: that about three days after we had sailed, being becal, as it were, into a bay or gulf on the land side, ere driven so out of our course, and once or twice our men cried out, ”Land to the eastward!” but whether it was the continent or islands we could not tell by any , the sea smooth, and the weather calm,the sea as it were covered towards the land with so able to discover what it was till after so up theat them with a perspective, cried out it was an arine what he meant by an army, and thwarted hiry, for 'tis an army, and a fleet too: for I believe there are a thousand canoes, and youtowards us apace”

I was a little surprised then, indeed, and so was my nephew the captain; for he had heard such terrible stories of the never been in those seas before, that he could not tell what to think of it, but said, two or three ti ere becal towards the shore, I liked it the worse; however, I bade the the shi+p to an anchor as soon as we cae them The weather continued calave orders to coes, I told the to fear but fire, and therefore they should get their boats out, and fasten them, one close by the head and the other by the stern, and man them both well, and wait the issue in that posture: this I did, that the ht he ready with sheets and buckets to put out any fire these savages ht endeavour to fix to the outside of the shi+p

In this posture we lay by for them, and in a little while they caht seen by Christians; though my mate was much mistaken in his calculation of their number, yet when they came up we reckoned about a hundred and twenty-six canoes; some of them had sixteen or seventeen men in them, and some more, and the least six or seven When they came nearer to us, they seeht which doubtless they had never seen before; nor could they at first, as we afterwards understood, knohat to make of us; they cao about to row round us; but we called to our men in the boats not to let thee it; for five or six of the large canoes ca-boat, that our men beckoned with their hands to keep them back, which they understood very well, and went back: but at their retreat about fifty arrows came on board us fro-boat was very much wounded However, I called to them not to fire by any means; but we handed down some deal boards into the boat, and the carpenter presently set up a kind of fence, like waste boards, to cover theain

About half-an-hour afterwards they all came up in a body astern of us, and so near that we could easily discern what they were, though we could not tell their design; and I easily found they were soes that I had been used to engage with In a short time more they rowed a little farther out to sea, till they caht upon us, till they came so near that they could hear us speak; upon this, I ordered all my men to keep close, lest they should shoot anyso near as to be within hearing, I o out upon the deck, and call out aloud to thee, to knohat they meant Whether they understood him or not, that I knew not; but as soon as he had called to thehest boat to us, turned their canoes fro down, showed us their naked backs; whether this was a defiance or challenge we knew not, or whether it was done in nal to the rest; but i to shoot, and, unhappily for him, poor fellow, they let fly about three hundred of their arrows, and toin their sight The poor felloas shot with no less than three arrows, and about three more fell very near him; such unlucky marksmen they were!

I was so annoyed at the loss of my old trusty servant and couns to be loaded with save them such a broadside as they had never heard in their lives before They were not above half a cable's length off e fired; and our gunners took their aim so well, that three or four of their canoes were overset, as we had reason to believe, by one shot only

The ill reat offence; neither did I know for certain whether that which would pass for the greatest conteht be understood so by them or not; therefore, in return, I had only resolved to have fired four or five guns at thehten them sufficiently: but when they shot at us directly with all the fury they were capable of, and especially as they had killed my poor Friday, whom I so entirely loved and valued, and who, indeed, so well deserved it, I thought myself not only justifiable before God and lad if I could have overset every canoe there, and drowned every one of them

I can neither tell how many we killed nor how ht and hurry never were seen a such a multitude; there were thirteen or fourteen of their canoes split and overset in all, and the htened out of their wits, scoured away as fast as they could, taking but little care to save those whose boats were split or spoiled with our shot; so I suppose that many of the for his life, above an hour after they were all gone The sreat many; but, in short, we never kneent with them, for they fled so fast, that in three hours or thereabouts we could not see above three or four straggling canoes, nor did we ever see the rest any , eighed and set sail for the Brazils

We had a prisoner, indeed, but the creature was so sullen that he would neither cat nor speak, and we all fancied he would starve himself to death But I took a way to cure hi-boat, and ain, and so leave him where they found him, if he would not speak; nor would that do, but they really did throw him into the sea, and came away from him Then he followed theue, though they knew not one word of what he said; however at last they took hian to be n they should drown hiain, but I was the most disconsolate creature alive for want of one back to the island, to have taken one of the rest from thence for my occasion, but it could not be: so ent on We had one prisoner, as I have said, and it was a long ti; but in tian to be a little tractable Afterwards, we inquired what country he ca of what he said; for his speech was so odd, all gutturals, and he spoke in the throat in such a hollow, odd manner, that we could never forht speak that language as well if they were gagged as otherwise; nor could we perceive that they had any occasion either for teeth, tongue, lips, or palate, but for-horn forms a tune with an open throat He told us, however, solish, that they were going with their kings to fight a great battle When he said kings, we asked his? He said they were five nation (we could not make hiainst two nation We asked hireat wonder look” Here it is to be observed that all those natives, as also those of Africa when they learn English, always add two e's at the end of the words where we use one; and they place the accent upon them, as makee, takee, and the like; nay, I could hardly h at last he did

And now I name the poor fellow once more, I must take my last leave of him Poor honest Friday! We buried hi hi hiuns for hirateful, faithful, honest, and most affectionate servant that ever man had