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第3章 变化太快

　　I carried on shore with me the young man whose mother was starvedto death, and the maid also; she was a sober, well-educated,religious young woman, and behaved so inoffensively that every onegave her a good word; she had, indeed, an unhappy life with us,there being no woman in the ship but herself, but she bore it withpatience. After a while, seeing things so well ordered, and in sofine a way of thriving upon my island, and considering that theyhad neither business nor acquaintance in the East Indies, or reasonfor taking so long a voyage, both of them came to me and desired Iwould give them leave to remain on the island, and be entered amongmy family, as they called it. I agreed to this readily; and theyhad a little plot of ground allotted to them, where they had threetents or houses set up, surrounded with a basket-work, palisadoedlike Atkins's, adjoining to his plantation. Their tents werecontrived so that they had each of them a room apart to lodge in,and a middle tent like a great storehouse to lay t

　　After this the colony enjoyed a perfect tranquillity with respectto the savages, till I came to revisit them, which was about twoyears after; not but that, now and then, some canoes of savagescame on shore for their triumphal, unnatural feasts; but as theywere of several nations, and perhaps had never heard of those thatcame before, or the reason of it, they did not make any search orinquiry after their countrymen; and if they had, it would have beenvery hard to have found them out.

　　In order to do this as intelligibly as I can, I must go back to thecircumstances in which I left the island, and the persons on it, ofwhom I am to speak. And first, it is necessary to repeat that Ihad sent away Friday's father and the Spaniard (the two whose livesI had rescued from the savages) in a large canoe to the main, as Ithen thought it, to fetch over the Spaniard's companions that heleft behind him, in order to save them from the like calamity thathe had been in, and in order to succour them for the present; andthat, if possible, we might together find some way for ourdeliverance afterwards. When I sent them away I had no visibleappearance of, or the least room to hope for, my own deliverance,any more than I had twenty years before - much less had I anyforeknowledge of what afterwards happened, I mean, of an Englishship coming on shore there to fetch me off; and it could not be buta very great surprise to them, when they came back, not only tofind that I was gone, but to find three strangers left

　　I therefore told the French captain that we had taken them up intheir distress, it was true, but that it was our duty to do so, aswe were fellow-creatures; and we would desire to be so delivered ifwe were in the like or any other extremity; that we had donenothing for them but what we believed they would have done for usif we had been in their case and they in ours; but that we tookthem up to save them, not to plunder them; and it would be a mostbarbarous thing to take that little from them which they had savedout of the fire, and then set them on shore and leave them; thatthis would be first to save them from death, and then kill themourselves: save them from drowning, and abandon them to starving;and therefore I would not let the least thing be taken from them.As to setting them on shore, I told them indeed that was anexceeding difficulty to us, for that the ship was bound to the EastIndies; and though we were driven out of our course to the westwarda very great way, and perhaps were directed by Heaven o

　　"Why, then, sir," said he, "be pleased to give me leave to lay downa few propositions, as the foundation of what I have to say, thatwe may not differ in the general principles, though we may be ofsome differing opinions in the practice of particulars. First,sir, though we differ in some of the doctrinal articles of religion(and it is very unhappy it is so, especially in the case before us,as I shall show afterwards), yet there are some general principlesin which we both agree - that there is a God; and that this Godhaving given us some stated general rules for our service andobedience, we ought not willingly and knowingly to offend Him,either by neglecting to do what He has commanded, or by doing whatHe has expressly forbidden. And let our different religions bewhat they will, this general principle is readily owned by us all,that the blessing of God does not ordinarily follow presumptuoussinning against His command; and every good Christian will beaffectionately concerned to prevent any that are under hi

e belonging to thesociety, they should die without mercy, and they would shoot themwherever they could find them.

　　It is impossible for me to express the several gestures, thestrange ecstasies, the variety of postures which these poordelivered people ran into, to express the joy of their souls at sounexpected a deliverance. Grief and fear are easily described:sighs, tears, groans, and a very few motions of the head and hands,make up the sum of its variety; but an excess of joy, a surprise ofjoy, has a thousand extravagances in it. There were some in tears;some raging and tearing themselves, as if they had been in thegreatest agonies of sorrow; some stark raving and downrightlunatic; some ran about the ship stamping with their feet, otherswringing their hands; some were dancing, some singing, somelaughing, more crying, many quite dumb, not able to speak a word;others sick and vomiting; several swooning and ready to faint; anda few were crossing themselves and giving God thanks.

backalone; and which way shall I get to my port afterwards, without aship, without a horse, without PECUNE?" so he called money, beinghis broken Latin, of which he had abundance to make us merry with.In short, he told us there was a great caravan of Muscovite andPolish merchants in the city, preparing to set out on their journeyby land to Muscovy, within four or five weeks; and he was sure wewould take the opportunity to go with them, and leave him behind,to go back alone.

　　CHAPTER IV - RENEWED INVASION OF SAVAGES