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第8章 真是宝剑

-suffering forbears to punishthose that offend; waiting to be gracious, and willing not thedeath of a sinner, but rather that he should return and live; andeven reserves damnation to the general day of retribution; that itis a clear evidence of God and of a future state that righteous menreceive not their reward, or wicked men their punishment, till theycome into another world; and this will lead him to teach his wifethe doctrine of the resurrection and of the last judgment. Let himbut repent himself, he will be an excellent preacher of repentanceto his wife."

　　Some time after this we saw them move a little to our right, andexpected them on the rear: when a cunning fellow, a Cossack ofJarawena, calling to the leader of the caravan, said to him, "Iwill send all these people away to Sibeilka." This was a city fouror five days' journey at least to the right, and rather behind us.So he takes his bow and arrows, and getting on horseback, he ridesaway from our rear directly, as it were back to Nertsinskay; afterthis he takes a great circuit about, and comes directly on the armyof the Tartars as if he had been sent express to tell them a longstory that the people who had burned the Cham Chi-Thaungu were goneto Sibeilka, with a caravan of miscreants, as he called them - thatis to say, Christians; and that they had resolved to burn the godScal-Isar, belonging to the Tonguses. As this fellow was himself aTartar, and perfectly spoke their language, he counterfeited sowell that they all believed him, and away they drove in a violenthurry to Sibeilka. In less than three ho

　　We stayed by it a quarter of an hour or thereabouts, till thepowder in the eyes and mouth and ears of the idol blew up, and, aswe could perceive, had split altogether; and in a word, till we sawit burned so that it would soon be quite consumed. We then beganto think of going away; but the Scotsman said, "No, we must not go,for these poor deluded wretches will all throw themselves into thefire, and burn themselves with the idol." So we resolved to staytill the forage has burned down too, and then came away and leftthem. After the feat was performed, we appeared in the morningamong our fellow-travellers, exceedingly busy in getting ready forour journey; nor could any man suppose that we had been anywherebut in our beds.

ese stakesalso being of a wood very forward to grow, they took care to havethem generally much larger and taller than those which I hadplanted. As they grew apace, they planted them so very thick andclose together, that when they had been three or four years grownthere was no piercing with the eye any considerable way into theplantation. As for that part which I had planted, the trees weregrown as thick as a man's thigh, and among them they had placed somany other short ones, and so thick, that it stood like a palisadoa quarter of a mile thick, and it was next to impossible topenetrate it, for a little dog could hardly get between the trees,they stood so close.

　　Away runs the Englishman, frightened and amazed, as if he wasbewitched, to the governor Spaniard, and tells him they were allundone, for there were strangers upon the island, but he could nottell who they were. The Spaniard, pausing a while, says to him,"How do you mean - you cannot tell who? They are the savages, tobe sure." "No, no," says the Englishman, "they are men in clothes,with arms." "Nay, then," says the Spaniard, "why are you soconcerned! If they are not savages they must be friends; for thereis no Christian nation upon earth but will do us good rather thanharm." While they were debating thus, came up the threeEnglishmen, and standing without the wood, which was new planted,hallooed to them. They presently knew their voices, and so all thewonder ceased. But now the admiration was turned upon anotherquestion - What could be the matter, and what made them come backagain?

o we all prepared for our journey.However, as it was with us, so it was with the other merchants:they had many things to do, and instead of being ready in fiveweeks, it was four months and some days before all things were gottogether.

　　W.A. - I believe, sir, you are misinformed, and my wife assures meof the contrary, and that they abhor it; perhaps, for any furtherrelations, they may not be so exact as we are; but she tells menever in the near relationship you speak of.

　　We set out on the 5th of February from Ireland, and had a very fairgale of wind for some days. As I remember, it might be about the20th of February in the evening late, when the mate, having thewatch, came into the round-house and told us he saw a flash offire, and heard a gun fired; and while he was telling us of it, aboy came in and told us the boatswain heard another. This made usall run out upon the quarter-deck, where for a while we heardnothing; but in a few minutes we saw a very great light, and foundthat there was some very terrible fire at a distance; immediatelywe had recourse to our reckonings, in which we all agreed thatthere could be no land that way in which the fire showed itself,no, not for five hundred leagues, for it appeared at WNW. Uponthis, we concluded it must be some ship on fire at sea; and as, byour hearing the noise of guns just before, we concluded that itcould not be far off, we stood directly towards it, and werepresently satisfied we should discover it, because the further w

　　The Spaniard governor having drawn his little body up together upona rising ground, Atkins, though he was wounded, would have had themmarch and charge again all together at once: but the Spaniardreplied, "Seignior Atkins, you see how their wounded men fight; letthem alone till morning; all the wounded men will be stiff and sorewith their wounds, and faint with the loss of blood; and so weshall have the fewer to engage." This advice was good: but WillAtkins replied merrily, "That is true, seignior, and so shall Itoo; and that is the reason I would go on while I am warm." "Well,Seignior Atkins," says the Spaniard, "you have behaved gallantly,and done your part; we will fight for you if you cannot come on;but I think it best to stay till morning:" so they waited.