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第3章 狂贼的挑战!

ast refused absolutely to marry them, unless he had first talkedwith the men and the women too; and though at first I was a littlebackward to it, yet at last I agreed to it with a good will,perceiving the sincerity of his design.

　　At the same time I ordered the mate to go into the great cabin, andsee what condition the poor passengers were in; and if they werealive, to comfort them, and give them what refreshment was proper:and the surgeon gave him a large pitcher, with some of the preparedbroth which he had given the mate that was on board, and which hedid not question would restore them gradually. I was not satisfiedwith this; but, as I said above, having a great mind to see thescene of misery which I knew the ship itself would present me with,in a more lively manner than I could have it by report, I took thecaptain of the ship, as we now called him, with me, and wentmyself, a little after, in their boat.

o, a man of good sense, and, as I believe, of greatlearning.

　　"I am persuaded," says he, "had those men lived in the savagecountry whence their wives came, the savages would have taken morepains to have brought them to be idolaters, and to worship thedevil, than any of these men, so far as I can see, have taken withthem to teach the knowledge of the true God. Now, sir," said he,"though I do not acknowledge your religion, or you mine, yet wewould be glad to see the devil's servants and the subjects of hiskingdom taught to know religion; and that they might, at least,hear of God and a Redeemer, and the resurrection, and of a futurestate - things which we all believe; that they might, at least, beso much nearer coming into the bosom of the true Church than theyare now in the public profession of idolatry and devil-worship."

　　If I was surprised before, I was quite dumb now, and stood silent,looking at him, and, indeed, admiring what I saw. The struggle inhis soul was so great that, though the weather was extremely cold,it put him into a most violent heat; so I said a word or two, thatI would leave him to consider of it, and wait on him again, andthen I withdrew to my own apartment.

　　Having thus given a view of the state of things as I found them, Imust relate the heads of what I did for these people, and thecondition in which I left them. It was their opinion, and minetoo, that they would be troubled no more with the savages, or ifthey were, they would be able to cut them off, if they were twiceas many as before; so they had no concern about that. Then Ientered into a serious discourse with the Spaniard, whom I callgovernor, about their stay in the island; for as I was not come tocarry any of them off, so it would not be just to carry off someand leave others, who, perhaps, would be unwilling to stay if theirstrength was diminished. On the other hand, I told them I came toestablish them there, not to remove them; and then I let them knowthat I had brought with me relief of sundry kinds for them; that Ihad been at a great charge to supply them with all thingsnecessary, as well for their convenience as their defence; and thatI had such and such particular persons with me, as well to i

　　This was a hard article upon him, who knew his obligation to me,and did not know how I might take it. So he began to talk smartlyto them; told them that I was a very considerable owner of theship, and that if ever they came to England again it would costthem very dear; that the ship was mine, and that he could not putme out of it; and that he would rather lose the ship, and thevoyage too, than disoblige me so much: so they might do as theypleased. However, he would go on shore and talk with me, andinvited the boatswain to go with him, and perhaps they mightaccommodate the matter with me. But they all rejected theproposal, and said they would have nothing to do with me any more;and if I came on board they would all go on shore. "Well," saidthe captain, "if you are all of this mind, let me go on shore andtalk with him." So away he came to me with this account, a littleafter the message had been brought to me from the coxswain.

　　They most willingly embraced the proposal, and came all verycheerfully along with him: so we allotted them land andplantations, which three or four accepted of, but all the restchose to be employed as servants in the several families we hadsettled. Thus my colony was in a manner settled as follows: TheSpaniards possessed my original habitation, which was the capitalcity, and extended their plantations all along the side of thebrook, which made the creek that I have so often described, as faras my bower; and as they increased their culture, it went alwayseastward. The English lived in the north-east part, where WillAtkins and his comrades began, and came on southward and south-west, towards the back part of the Spaniards; and every plantationhad a great addition of land to take in, if they found occasion, sothat they need not jostle one another for want of room. All theeast end of the island was left uninhabited, that if any of thesavages should come on shore there only for their customarybarbarities, t

　　Though our men were able to fight them upon all occasions, yet theywere in no condition to pursue them, or hunt them up and down; foras they were too nimble of foot for our people when they found themsingle, so our men durst not go abroad single, for fear of beingsurrounded with their numbers. The best was they had no weapons;for though they had bows, they had no arrows left, nor anymaterials to make any; nor had they any edge-tool among them. Theextremity and distress they were reduced to was great, and indeeddeplorable; but, at the same time, our men were also brought tovery bad circumstances by them, for though their retreats werepreserved, yet their provision was destroyed, and their harvestspoiled, and what to do, or which way to turn themselves, they knewnot. The only refuge they had now was the stock of cattle they hadin the valley by the cave, and some little corn which grew there,and the plantation of the three Englishmen. Will Atkins and hiscomrades were now reduced to two; one of them being k