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第6章 泡上！

　　I called Will Atkins again, and asked him; but the poor fellow fellimmediately into tears, and told us he had said something to her ofall those things, but that he was himself so wicked a creature, andhis own conscience so reproached him with his horrid, ungodly life,that he trembled at the apprehensions that her knowledge of himshould lessen the attention she should give to those things, andmake her rather contemn religion than receive it; but he wasassured, he said, that her mind was so disposed to receive dueimpressions of all those things, and that if I would but discoursewith her, she would make it appear to my satisfaction that mylabour would not be lost upon her.

　　As brutish and barbarous as these fellows were at home, theirstomachs turned at this sight, and they did not know what to do.To refuse the prisoners would have been the highest affront to thesavage gentry that could be offered them, and what to do with themthey knew not. However, after some debate, they resolved to acceptof them: and, in return, they gave the savages that brought themone of their hatchets, an old key, a knife, and six or seven oftheir bullets; which, though they did not understand their use,they seemed particularly pleased with; and then tying the poorcreatures' hands behind them, they dragged the prisoners into theboat for our men.

　　My nephew was ready to sail about the beginning of January 1694-5;and I, with my man Friday, went on board, in the Downs, the 8th;having, besides that sloop which I mentioned above, a veryconsiderable cargo of all kinds of necessary things for my colony,which, if I did not find in good condition, I resolved to leave so.

　　The clergyman shook his head, with great concern in his face, whenI told him all this; but turning quick to me upon it, says, "Ifthat be his case, we may assure him it is not too late; Christ willgive him repentance. But pray," says he, "explain this to him:that as no man is saved but by Christ, and the merit of His passionprocuring divine mercy for him, how can it be too late for any manto receive mercy? Does he think he is able to sin beyond the poweror reach of divine mercy? Pray tell him there may be a time whenprovoked mercy will no longer strive, and when God may refuse tohear, but that it is never too late for men to ask mercy; and we,that are Christ's servants, are commanded to preach mercy at alltimes, in the name of Jesus Christ, to all those that sincerelyrepent: so that it is never too late to repent."

　　One of our men was killed with a lance thrown at him just at thebeginning of the attack, as he sallied out of the tent they hadmade; the rest came off free, all but the fellow who was theoccasion of all the mischief, who paid dear enough for hisbrutality, for we could not hear what became of him for a greatwhile. We lay upon the shore two days after, though the windpresented, and made signals for him, and made our boat sail upshore and down shore several leagues, but in vain; so we wereobliged to give him over; and if he alone had suffered for it, theloss had been less. I could not satisfy myself, however, withoutventuring on shore once more, to try if I could learn anything ofhim or them; it was the third night after the action that I had agreat mind to learn, if I could by any means, what mischief we haddone, and how the game stood on the Indians' side. I was carefulto do it in the dark, lest we should be attacked again: but Iought indeed to have been sure that the men I went with had beenunder my com

　　When they were thus disarmed, and found they had made all theSpaniards their enemies, as well as their own countrymen, theybegan to cool, and giving the Spaniards better words, would havetheir arms again; but the Spaniards, considering the feud that wasbetween them and the other two Englishmen, and that it would be thebest method they could take to keep them from killing one another,told them they would do them no harm, and if they would livepeaceably, they would be very willing to assist and associate withthem as they did before; but that they could not think of givingthem their arms again, while they appeared so resolved to domischief with them to their own countrymen, and had even threatenedthem all to make them their servants.

　　If I was surprised before, I was quite dumb now, and stood silent,looking at him, and, indeed, admiring what I saw. The struggle inhis soul was so great that, though the weather was extremely cold,it put him into a most violent heat; so I said a word or two, thatI would leave him to consider of it, and wait on him again, andthen I withdrew to my own apartment.

　　This was very bad news to travellers: however, it was carefullydone of the governor, and we were very glad to hear we should havea guard. Accordingly, two days after, we had two hundred soldierssent us from a garrison of the Chinese on our left, and threehundred more from the city of Naum, and with these we advancedboldly. The three hundred soldiers from Naum marched in our front,the two hundred in our rear, and our men on each side of ourcamels, with our baggage and the whole caravan in the centre; inthis order, and well prepared for battle, we thought ourselves amatch for the whole ten thousand Mogul Tartars, if they hadappeared; but the next day, when they did appear, it was quiteanother thing.

　　And first, as soon as it began to be dark, we kindled a fire in ourlittle camp, which we kept burning, and prepared so as to make itburn all night, that the Tartars might conclude we were stillthere; but as soon as it was dark, and we could see the stars (forour guide would not stir before), having all our horses and camelsready loaded, we followed our new guide, who I soon found steeredhimself by the north star, the country being level for a long way.