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第2章 变相的车轮战

a most generous offer: "You know it has been an unluckyship," said he, "and we both resolve not to go to sea in it again;if your steward" (so he called my man) "will venture the voyage, Iwill leave my share of the vessel to him, and let him make the bestof it; and if we live to meet in England, and he meets with successabroad, he shall account for one half of the profits of the ship'sfreight to us; the other shall be his own."

　　I could not but feel great satisfaction that I was arrived in acountry governed by Christians; for though the Muscovites do, in myopinion, but just deserve the name of Christians, yet such theypretend to be, and are very devout in their way. It wouldcertainly occur to any reflecting man who travels the world as Ihave done, what a blessing it is to be brought into the world wherethe name of God and a Redeemer is known, adored, and worshipped;and not where the people, given up to strong delusions, worship thedevil, and prostrate themselves to monsters, elements, horrid-shaped animals, and monstrous images. Not a town or city we passedthrough but had their pagodas, their idols, and their temples, andignorant people worshipping even the works of their own hands. Nowwe came where, at least, a face of the Christian worship appeared;where the knee was bowed to Jesus: and whether ignorantly or not,yet the Christian religion was owned, and the name of the true Godwas called upon and adored; and it made my soul r

　　The first man they laid hold of was an English seaman, a stout,strong fellow, who having a musket in his hand, never offered tofire it, but laid it down in the boat, like a fool, as I thought;but he understood his business better than I could teach him, forhe grappled the Pagan, and dragged him by main force out of theirboat into ours, where, taking him by the ears, he beat his head soagainst the boat's gunnel that the fellow died in his hands. Inthe meantime, a Dutchman, who stood next, took up the musket, andwith the butt-end of it so laid about him, that he knocked downfive of them who attempted to enter the boat. But this was doinglittle towards resisting thirty or forty men, who, fearless becauseignorant of their danger, began to throw themselves into thelongboat, where we had but five men in all to defend it; but thefollowing accident, which deserved our laughter, gave our men acomplete victory.

　　I confess I was more moved at their stupidity and brutish worshipof a hobgoblin than ever I was at anything in my life, and,overcome with rage, I rode up to the hideous idol, and with mysword made a stroke at the bonnet that was on its head, and cut itin two; and one of our men that was with me, taking hold of thesheepskin that covered it, pulled at it, when, behold, a mosthideous outcry ran through the village, and two or three hundredpeople came about my ears, so that I was glad to scour for it, forsome had bows and arrows; but I resolved from that moment to visitthem again. Our caravan rested three nights at the town, which wasabout four miles off, in order to provide some horses which theywanted, several of the horses having been lamed and jaded with thelong march over the last desert; so we had some leisure here to putmy design in execution. I communicated it to the Scots merchant,of whose courage I had sufficient testimony; I told him what I hadseen, and with what indignation I had since thought tha

　　Before I went from their quarter they all came to me and told methey had been considering what I had said; that they were glad tohear I had a clergyman in my company, and they were very willing togive me the satisfaction I desired, and to be formally married assoon as I pleased; for they were far from desiring to part withtheir wives, and that they meant nothing but what was very honestwhen they chose them. So I appointed them to meet me the nextmorning; and, in the meantime, they should let their wives know themeaning of the marriage law; and that it was not only to preventany scandal, but also to oblige them that they should not forsakethem, whatever might happen.

　　From hence we directed our course for the West Indies, steeringaway S. and S. by E. for about twenty days together, sometimeslittle or no wind at all; when we met with another subject for ourhumanity to work upon, almost as deplorable as that before.

　　WIFE. - What say you O to Him for?

　　N.B. - This dialogue between Will Atkins and his wife, which I tookdown in writing just after he told it me, was as follows:-

　　He heard me very attentively, and looked earnestly on me all thewhile I spoke; nay, I could see in his very face that what I saidput his spirits into an exceeding ferment; his colour frequentlychanged, his eyes looked red, and his heart fluttered, till itmight be even perceived in his countenance; nor could heimmediately answer me when I had done, and, as it were, hesitatedwhat he would say to it; but after he had paused a little, heembraced me, and said, "How unhappy are we, unguarded creatures aswe are, that even our greatest acts of friendship are made snaresunto us, and we are made tempters of one another!" He thenheartily thanked me for my offers of service, but withstoodresolutely the arguments I used to urge him to set himself free.He declared, in earnest terms, that he was fully bent on remainingwhere he was rather than seek to return to his former miserablegreatness, as he called it: where the seeds of pride, ambition,avarice, and luxury might revive, take root, and again overwhelmhim. "Let me r