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hunting as theycall it; and what was this but a hunting of sheep! - however, itmay be called hunting too, for these creatures are the wildest andswiftest of foot that ever I saw of their kind! only they will notrun a great way, and you are sure of sport when you begin thechase, for they appear generally thirty or forty in a flock, and,like true sheep, always keep together when they fly.

crime, were the objects of divine vengeance, and bore theweight of that punishment."

　　My nephew knew nothing how far my distemper of wandering wasreturned upon me, and I knew nothing of what he had in his thoughtto say, when that very morning, before he came to me, I had, in agreat deal of confusion of thought, and revolving every part of mycircumstances in my mind, come to this resolution, that I would goto Lisbon, and consult with my old sea-captain; and if it wasrational and practicable, I would go and see the island again, andwhat was become of my people there. I had pleased myself with thethoughts of peopling the place, and carrying inhabitants fromhence, getting a patent for the possession and I know not what;when, in the middle of all this, in comes my nephew, as I havesaid, with his project of carrying me thither in his way to theEast Indies.

　　When the Spaniards came, the two Englishmen were so encouraged,that they could not satisfy themselves to stay any longer there;but taking five of the Spaniards, and themselves, with four musketsand a pistol among them, and two stout quarter-staves, away theywent in quest of the savages. And first they came to the treewhere the men lay that had been killed; but it was easy to see thatsome more of the savages had been there, for they had attempted tocarry their dead men away, and had dragged two of them a good way,but had given it over. From thence they advanced to the firstrising ground, where they had stood and seen their camp destroyed,and where they had the mortification still to see some of thesmoke; but neither could they here see any of the savages. Theythen resolved, though with all possible caution, to go forwardtowards their ruined plantation; but, a little before they camethither, coming in sight of the sea-shore, they saw plainly thesavages all embarked again in their canoes, in order to be gon

　　The utmost of all the improvement which I can say the wives hadmade from them was, that they had taught them to speak Englishpretty well; and most of their children, who were near twenty inall, were taught to speak English too, from their first learning tospeak, though they at first spoke it in a very broken manner, liketheir mothers. None of these children were above six years oldwhen I came thither, for it was not much above seven years sincethey had fetched these five savage ladies over; they had allchildren, more or less: the mothers were all a good sort of well-governed, quiet, laborious women, modest and decent, helpful to oneanother, mighty observant, and subject to their masters (I cannotcall them husbands), and lacked nothing but to be well instructedin the Christian religion, and to be legally married; both of whichwere happily brought about afterwards by my means, or at least inconsequence of my coming among them.

　　The fair or mart usually kept at this place had been over sometime; however, we found that there were three or four junks in theriver, and two ships from Japan, with goods which they had boughtin China, and were not gone away, having some Japanese merchants onshore.

　　The utmost of all the improvement which I can say the wives hadmade from them was, that they had taught them to speak Englishpretty well; and most of their children, who were near twenty inall, were taught to speak English too, from their first learning tospeak, though they at first spoke it in a very broken manner, liketheir mothers. None of these children were above six years oldwhen I came thither, for it was not much above seven years sincethey had fetched these five savage ladies over; they had allchildren, more or less: the mothers were all a good sort of well-governed, quiet, laborious women, modest and decent, helpful to oneanother, mighty observant, and subject to their masters (I cannotcall them husbands), and lacked nothing but to be well instructedin the Christian religion, and to be legally married; both of whichwere happily brought about afterwards by my means, or at least inconsequence of my coming among them.

　　I now pressed him for the third article in which we were to blame."Why, really," says he, "it is of the same nature. It is aboutyour poor savages, who are, as I may say, your conquered subjects.It is a maxim, sir, that is or ought to be received among allChristians, of what church or pretended church soever, that theChristian knowledge ought to be propagated by all possible meansand on all possible occasions. It is on this principle that ourChurch sends missionaries into Persia, India, and China; and thatour clergy, even of the superior sort, willingly engage in the mosthazardous voyages, and the most dangerous residence amongstmurderers and barbarians, to teach them the knowledge of the trueGod, and to bring them over to embrace the Christian faith. Now,sir, you have such an opportunity here to have six or seven andthirty poor savages brought over from a state of idolatry to theknowledge of God, their Maker and Redeemer, that I wonder how youcan pass such an occasion of doing good, which is really worth

　　The match being proposed in this manner, we married them the sameday; and as I was father at the altar, and gave her away, so I gaveher a portion; for I appointed her and her husband a handsome largespace of ground for their plantation; and indeed this match, andthe proposal the young gentleman made to give him a small propertyin the island, put me upon parcelling it out amongst them, thatthey might not quarrel afterwards about their situation.