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第9章 毫发无伤

tark mad. It seemshe had begun to revolve the change of his circumstances in hismind, and again this put him into an ecstasy of joy. His spiritswhirled about faster than the vessels could convey them, the bloodgrew hot and feverish, and the man was as fit for Bedlam as anycreature that ever was in it. The surgeon would not bleed himagain in that condition, but gave him something to doze and put himto sleep; which, after some time, operated upon him, and he awokenext morning perfectly composed and well. The younger priestbehaved with great command of his passions, and was really anexample of a serious, well-governed mind. At his first coming onboard the ship he threw himself flat on his face, prostratinghimself in thankfulness for his deliverance, in which I unhappilyand unseasonably disturbed him, really thinking he had been in aswoon; but he spoke calmly, thanked me, told me he was giving Godthanks for his deliverance, begged me to leave him a few moments,and that, next to his Maker, he would give me th

　　However, all being silent again, and they not knowing what thematter was, came on unconcerned, till they came to the place wheretheir companions lay in a condition miserable enough. Here thepoor ignorant creatures, not sensible that they were within reachof the same mischief, stood all together over the wounded man,talking, and, as may be supposed, inquiring of him how he came tobe hurt; and who, it is very rational to believe, told them that aflash of fire first, and immediately after that thunder from theirgods, had killed those two and wounded him. This, I say, isrational; for nothing is more certain than that, as they saw no mannear them, so they had never heard a gun in all their lives, nor somuch as heard of a gun; neither knew they anything of killing andwounding at a distance with fire and bullets: if they had, onemight reasonably believe they would not have stood so unconcernedto view the fate of their fellows, without some apprehensions oftheir own.

　　He seemed very much concerned at it, for he had no rational accessto these poor people, seeing he did not understand one word oftheir language, nor they one of his. To remove this difficulty, Itold him Friday's father had learned Spanish, which I found he alsounderstood, and he should serve him as an interpreter. So he wasmuch better satisfied, and nothing could persuade him but he wouldstay and endeavour to convert them; but Providence gave anothervery happy turn to all this.

stulations, and joined with me, not only in making provisionfor my voyage, but also in settling my family affairs for myabsence, and providing for the education of my children. In orderto do this, I made my will, and settled the estate I had in such amanner for my children, and placed in such hands, that I wasperfectly easy and satisfied they would have justice done them,whatever might befall me; and for their education, I left it whollyto the widow, with a sufficient maintenance to herself for hercare: all which she richly deserved; for no mother could havetaken more care in their education, or understood it better; and asshe lived till I came home, I also lived to thank her for it.

　　W.A. - Why, I first told her the nature of our laws about marriage,and what the reasons were that men and women were obliged to enterinto such compacts as it was neither in the power of one nor otherto break; that otherwise, order and justice could not bemaintained, and men would run from their wives, and abandon theirchildren, mix confusedly with one another, and neither families bekept entire, nor inheritances be settled by legal descent.

　　In this condition we lay, and could not tell how to weigh ouranchor, or set up our sail, because we must needs stand up in theboat, and they were as sure to hit us as we were to hit a bird in atree with small shot. We made signals of distress to the ship, andthough she rode a league off, yet my nephew, the captain, hearingour firing, and by glasses perceiving the posture we lay in, andthat we fired towards the shore, pretty well understood us; andweighing anchor with all speed, he stood as near the shore as hedurst with the ship, and then sent another boat with ten hands inher, to assist us. We called to them not to come too near, tellingthem what condition we were in; however, they stood in near to us,and one of the men taking the end of a tow-line in his hand, andkeeping our boat between him and the enemy, so that they could notperfectly see him, swam on board us, and made fast the line to theboat: upon which we slipped out a little cable, and leaving ouranchor behind, they towed us out of reach of the

had sewed orlaced together; and away they went merrily together. The Spaniardscalled after them "BON VOYAJO;" and no man ever thought of seeingthem any more.

　　The Spaniards, indeed, despised them, and especially, having thusdisarmed them, made light of their threatenings; but the twoEnglishmen resolved to have their remedy against them, what painssoever it cost to find them out. But the Spaniards interposed heretoo, and told them that as they had disarmed them, they could notconsent that they (the two) should pursue them with firearms, andperhaps kill them. "But," said the grave Spaniard, who was theirgovernor, "we will endeavour to make them do you justice, if youwill leave it to us: for there is no doubt but they will come tous again, when their passion is over, being not able to subsistwithout our assistance. We promise you to make no peace with themwithout having full satisfaction for you; and upon this conditionwe hope you will promise to use no violence with them, other thanin your own defence." The two Englishmen yielded to this veryawkwardly, and with great reluctance; but the Spaniards protestedthat they did it only to keep them from bloodshed, and

　　As it happened, we had twine or packthread enough about us, whichwe used to tie our firelocks together with; so we resolved toattack these people first, and with as little noise as we could.The first thing we did, we knocked at the door, when one of thepriests coming to it, we immediately seized upon him, stopped hismouth, and tied his hands behind him, and led him to the idol,where we gagged him that he might not make a noise, tied his feetalso together, and left him on the ground.