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06 - The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe · Classic Adventure Books Collection

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Chapter six, The French Clergyman's Council, Part one. Having thus given an
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account of the colony in general, and pretty much of my runagate englishmen,
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I must say something of the Spaniards, who were the main body of the
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family, and in whose story there are some incidents also remarkable enough. I
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had a great many discourses with them about their circumstances when they were among the
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savages. They told me readily that they had no instances to give of their
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application or ingenuity in that country, that they were a poor, miserable,
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dejected handful of people, that even if means had been put into their hands,
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yet they had so abandoned themselves to despair, and were so sunk under
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the weight of their misfortune that they thought of nothing but starving. One of
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them, a grave and sensible man, told me he was convinced they were
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in the wrong, that it was not the part of wise men to give
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themselves up to their misery, but always to take hold of the helps which
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reason offered, as well for present support as for future deliverance. He told
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me that grief was the most senseless, insignificant passion in the world, for
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that it regarded only things past, which were generally impossible to be recalled or
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to be remedied, but had no views of things to come, and had
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no share in anything that looked like deliverance, but rather added to the affliction
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than proposed a remedy. And upon this he repeated a Spanish proverb, which,
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though I cannot repeat it in the same words that he spoke it in,
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yet I remember I made it into an English proverb of my own.
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Thus, in trouble, to be troubled is to have your trouble doubled.
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He then ran on in remarks upon all the little improvements I had made in
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my solitude, my unwearied application, as he called it, and how I
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had made a condition which, in its circumstances, was at first much worse
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than theirs, a thousand times more happy than theirs, was even now when
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they were all together. He told me, it was remarkable that Englishmen had
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a greater presence of mind in their distress than any people that ever he met,
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with that their unhappy nation and the Portuguese were the worst men in the
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world to struggle with misfortunes, for that their first step in dangers, after
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the common efforts were over, was to despair, lie down under it,
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and die without rousing their thoughts up to proper remedies for escape. I told
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him their case and mine differed exceedingly, that they were cast upon the shore
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without necessaries, without supply of food or present sustenance, till they could provide
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for it. That it was true I had this further disadvantage and discomfort that
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I was alone. But then the supplies I had providentially thrown into my hands
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by the unexpected driving of the ship on the shore was such a help as
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would have encouraged any creature in the world to have applied himself as I had
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done. Signor, says the Spaniard. Had we post backs been in your
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case, we should never have got half those things out of the ship as
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you did. Nay, says he, We should never have found means to
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have got a raft to carry them, or to have got the raft on
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shore without boat or sail. And how much less should we have done if
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any of us had been alone. Well, I desired him to abate his
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compliments and go on with the history of their coming on shore. Where they
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landed. He told me they unhappily landed at a place where there were people
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without provisions, whereas had they had the common sense to put off to sea
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again and gone to another island a little further, they had found provisions,
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though without people, there being an island that way, as they had been
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told, where there were provisions though no people. That is to say that
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the Spaniards of Trinidad had frequently been there, and had filled the island with
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goats and hogs at several times, where they had bred in such multitudes,
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and where turtle and sea fowls were in such plenty, that they could have
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been in no want of flesh, though they had found no bread, whereas
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here they were only sustained with a few roots and herbs, which they understood
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not, and which had no substance in them, and which the inhabitants gave
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them sparingly enough, and they could treat them no better unless they would turn
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cannibals and eat men's flesh. They gave me an account how many ways they
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strove to civilize the savages they were with, and to teach them rational customs
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in the ordinary way of living, but in vain, and how they retorted
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upon them as unjust that they who came there for assistance and support should attempt
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to set up for instructors to those who gave them food, intimating it seems
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that none should set up for the instructors of others, but those who could
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live without them. They gave me dismal accounts of the extremities they were driven
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to, how sometimes they were many days without any food at all. The
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island they were upon being inhabited by a sort of savages that lived more indolent,
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and for that reason were less supplied with the necessaries of life than they
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had reason to believe others were in the same part of the world. And
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yet they found that these savages were less ravenous and voracious than those who had
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better supplies of food. Also, they added, they could not but see
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what demonstrations of wisdom and goodness the governing providence of God directs the events of
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things in this world, which they said appeared in their circumstances. For if
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pressed by the hardships they were under and the barrenness of the country where they
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were, they had searched after a better to live in. They had then
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been out of the way of the relief that happened to them by my means.
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They then gave me an account how the savages whom they lived amongst expected
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them to go out with them into their wars. And it was true that
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as they had firearms with them, had they not had the disaster to lose
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their ammunition, they could have been serviceable not only to their friends, but
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have made made themselves terrible both to friends and enemies. But being without powder
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and shot, and yet in a condition that they could not in reason,
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declined to go out with their landlords to their wars. So when they came
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into the field of battle, they were in a worse condition than the savages
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themselves, for they had neither bows nor arrows, nor could they use those
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the savages gave them. So they could do nothing but stand still and be
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wounded with arrows till they came up to the teeth of the enemy. And
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then indeed the three halbirds they had were of use to them, and they
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would often drive a whole little army before them with those halberds and sharpened sticks
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put into the muzzles of their muskets. But for all this they were sometimes
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surrounded with multitudes and in great danger from their arrows, till at last they
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found the way to make themselves large targets of wood, which they covered with
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skins of wild beasts whose names they knew not, and these covered them from
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the arrows of the savages. That notwithstanding these they were sometimes in great danger,
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and five of them were once knocked down together with the clubs of the
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savages. Which was the time when one of them was taken prisoner, that
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is to say, the Spaniard, whom I relieved. At first they thought
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he had been killed, But when they afterwards heard he was taken prisoner,
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they were under the greatest grief imaginable, and would willingly have all ventured their
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lives to have rescued him. They told me that when they were so knocked
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down, the rest of their company rescued them and stood over them, fighting
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till they were come to themselves, all but him, whom they thought had
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been dead. And then they made their way with their halberds and pieces,
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standing close together in a line, through a body of above a thousand savages,
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beating down all that came in their way. Got the victory over their
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enemies, but to their great sorrow, because it was with the loss of
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their friend, whom the other party, finding alive, carried off with some
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others. As I gave an account before, They described most affectionately, how
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they were surprised with joy at the return of their friend and companion in misery,
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who they thought had been devoured by wild beasts of the worst kind wild
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men. And yet how more and more they were surprised with the account he
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gave them of his errand, and that there was a Christian in any place
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near, much more, one that was able and had humanity enough to contribute
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to their deliverance. They described how they were astonished at the sight of the
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relief I sent them, and at the appearance of loaves of bread, things
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they had not seen since their coming to that miserable place. How often they
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crossed it and blessed it as bread sent from heaven. And what a reviving
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cordial it was to their spirits to taste it, as also the other things
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I had sent for their supply. And after all, they would have told
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me something of the joy they were in at the sight of a boat and
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pilots to carry them away to the person and place from whence all these new
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comforts came. But it was impossible to express it by words, for their
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excessive joy naturally driving them to unbecoming extravagances. They had no way to describe
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them, but by telling me they bordered upon lunacy, having no way to
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give vent to their passions suitable to the sense that was upon them, that
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in some it worked one way and in some another, and that some of
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them, through a surprise of joy, would burst into tears, others be
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stark mad, and others immediately faint. This discourse extremely affected me, and
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called to my mind Friday's ecstasy when he met his father, and the poor
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people's ecstasy when I took them up at sea after their ship was on fire,
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the joy of the mate of the ship when he found himself delivered in
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the place where he expected to perish. And my own joy when, after
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twenty eight years captivity I found a good ship ready to carry me to my
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own country. All these things made me more sensible of the relation of these
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poor men, and more affected with it. Having thus given a view of
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the state of things as I found them, I must relate the heads of
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what I did for these people and the condition in which I left them.
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It was their opinion and mine too, that they would be troubled no more
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with the savages, or if they were, they would be able to cut
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them off if they were twice as many as before, so they had no
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concern about that. Then I entered into a serious discourse with the Spaniard,
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whom I call Governor, about their stay in the island, For as I
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was not come to carry any of them off, so it would not be
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just to carry off some and leave others who perhaps would be unwilling to stay
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if their strength was diminished. On the other hand, I told them I
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came to establish them there, not to remove them. And then I let
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them know that I had brought with me relief of sundry kinds for them,
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that I had been at a great charge to supply them with all things necessary,
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as well for their convenience as their defense, and that I had such
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and such particular persons with me as well to increase and recruit their number,
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as by the particular necessary employments which they were bred to, being artificers,
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to assist them in those things in which at present they were in want.
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They were all together when I talked thus to them, and before I delivered
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to them the stores I had brought, I asked them one by one if
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they had entirely forgot and buried the first animosities that had been among them,
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and would shake hands with one another and engage in a strict friendship and union
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of interest, that so there might be no more misunderstandings and jealousies. Will
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Atkins, with abundance of frankness and good humor, said they had met with
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affliction enough to make them all sober, and enemies enough to make them all
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friends, that for his part he would live and die with them, and
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was so far from designing anything against the Spaniards that he owned they had done
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nothing to him but what his own mad humor made necessary, and what he
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would have done, and perhaps worse in their case, And that he would
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ask them pardon if I desired it, for the foolish and brutish things he
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had done to them, and was very willing and desirous of living in terms
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of entire friendship and union with them, and would do anything that lay in
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his power to convince them of it. And as for going to England,
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he cared not if he did not go thither these twenty years. The Spaniards
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said they had indeed at first disarmed and excluded will Atkins, and his two
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countrymen for their ill conduct, as they had let me know, and they
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appealed to me for the necessity they were under to do so, But that
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will Atkins had behaved himself so bravely in the great fight they had with the
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savages, and on several occasions since, and had showed himself so faithful to
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and concerned for the general interest of them all, that they had forgotten all
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that was past, and thought he merited as much to be trusted with arms
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and supplied with necessaries as any of them. That they had testified their satisfaction
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in him by committing the command to him, next to the governor himself,
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And as they had entire confidence in him and all his countrymen, so they
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acknowledged they had merited that confidence by all the methods that honest men could merit
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to be valued and trusted. And they most heartily embraced the occasion of giving
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me this assurance, that they would never have any interest separate from one another.
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Upon these frank and open declarations of friendship, we appointed the next day
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to dine altogether, and indeed we made a splendid feast. I caused the
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ship's cook and his mate to come on shore and dress our dinner, and
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the old cook's mate we had on shore assisted. We brought on shore six
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pieces of good beef and four pieces of pork out of the ship's provisions,
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with our punch bowl and materials to fill it. And in particular I gave
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them ten bottles of French clare and ten bottles of English beer, things that
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neither the Spaniards nor the English had tasted for many years, and which it
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may be supposed they were very glad of. The Spaniards added to our feast
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five hole kids, which the cooks roasted, and three of them were sent
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covered up close on board the ship to the seamen, that they might feast
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on fresh meat from on shore, as we did with their salt meat from
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on board. After this feast, at which we were very innocently merry,
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I brought my cargo of goods, wherein that there might be no dispute about
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dividing. I showed them that there was a sufficiency for them all, desiring
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that they might take an equal quantity when made up of the goods that were
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forewearing. At first, I distributed linen sufficient to make every one of them
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four shirts and at the Spaniard's request, afterwards made them up six These were
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exceeding comfortable to them, having been what they had long since forgot the use
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of or what it was to wear them. I allotted the thin English stuffs
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which I mentioned before, to make every one a light coat like a frock,
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which I judged fittest for the heat of the season, cool and loose,
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and ordered that whenever they decayed they should make more as they thought fit,
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the like for pumps, shoes, stockings, hats, et cetera.
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I cannot express what pleasure sat upon the countenances of all these poor men when
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they saw the care I had taken of them, and how well I had
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furnished them. They told me I was a father to them, and that
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having such a correspondent as I was, in so remote a part of the
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world, it would make them forget that they were left in a desolate place,
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and they all voluntarily engaged to me not to leave the place without my
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consent. Then I presented to them the people I had brought with me,
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particularly the tailor, the smith, and the two carpenters, all of them
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most necessary people, but above all my general artificer than whom they could not
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name, anything that was more useful to them. And the tailor, to
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show his concern for them, went to work immediately, and with my leave,
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made them every one a shirt the first thing he did. And what
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was still more, he taught the women not only how to sew and stitch
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and use the needle, but made them assist to make the shirts for their
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husbands and for all the rest. As to the carpenters, I scarce need
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mention how useful they were, for they took to pieces all my clumsy,
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unhandy things, and made clever, convenient tables, stools, bedsteads, cupboards,
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lockers, shelves, and everything they wanted of that kind. But to
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let them see how nature made artificers, at first I carried the carpenters to
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see will Atkins basket House, as I called it, and they both owned
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they never saw an instance of such natural ingenuity before, nor anything so regular
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and so handily built, at least of its kind. And one of them,
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when he saw, after musing a good while turning about to me,
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I am sure, says he that man has no need of us. You
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need do nothing but give him tools. Then I brought them out all my
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store of tools, and gave every man a digging spade, a shovel,
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and a rake, for we had no barrows or plows, and to every
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separate place a pickaxe, a crow, a broad axe, and a saw,
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always appointing that as often as any were broken or worn out, they
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should be supplied without grudging. Out of the general stores that I left behind
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nails, staples, hinges, hammers, chisels, knives, scissors, and
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all sorts of iron work they had, without reserve as they required, for
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no man would take more than he wanted, and he must be a fool
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that would waste or spoil them on any account whatever. And for the use
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of the smith, I left two tons of unwrought iron for a supply.
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My magazine of powder and arms, which I brought them was such even to
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profusion, that they could not but rejoice at them. For now they could
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march as I used to, with a musket upon each shoulder if there was
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occasion, and were able to fight a thousand savages if they had but some
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little advantages of situation, which also they could not miss if they had occasion.
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I carried on shore with me the young man whose mother was starved to
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death, and the maid also. She was a sober, well educated,
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religious young woman, and behaved so inoffensively that everyone gave her a good word.
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She had indeed an unhappy life with us, there being no woman in
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the ship but herself, but she bore it with patience. After a while,
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seeing things so well ordered and in so fine a way of thriving upon
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my island, and considering that they had neither business nor acquaintance in the East
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Indies, or reason for taking so long a voyage, both of them came
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to me and desired I would give them leave to remain on the island and
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be entered among my family, as they called it. I agreed to this
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readily, and they had a little plot of ground allotted to them, where
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they had three tents or houses set up, surrounded with a basket work palasadoed
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like Atkins's adjoining to his plantation. Their tents were contrived so that they had
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each of them a room apart to lodge in, and a middle tent like
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a great storehouse, to lay their goods in and to eat and to drink
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in. And now the other two Englishmen removed their habitation to the same place
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and so the island was divided into three colonies, and no more viz.
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The Spaniards with Old Friday and the first servants at my habitation under the hill,
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which was in a word the capital city, and where they had so
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enlarged and extended their works, as well under as on the outside of the
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hill that they lived, though perfectly concealed yet full at large. Never was
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there such a little city in a wood, and so hid in any part
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of the world. For I've verily believed that a thousand men might have ranged
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the island a month. And if they had not known there was such a
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thing, and looked on purpose for it, they would not have found it.
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Indeed, the trees stood so thick and so close, and grew so
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fast woven one into another, that nothing but cutting them down first could discover
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the place, except the only two narrow entrances where they went in and out
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could be found, which was not very easy. One of them was close
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down at the water's edge, on the side of the creek, and it
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was afterwards above two hundred yards to the place, and the other was up
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a ladder at twice as I have already described it. And they had also
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a large wood thickly planted on the top of the hill, containing above an
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acre, which grew apace and concealed the place from all discovery. There with
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only one narrow place between the two trees, not easily to be discovered to
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enter on that side. The other colony was that of will Atkins, where
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there were four families of Englishmen, I mean those I had left there with
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their wives and children, three savages that were slaves, the widow and children
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of the Englishman that was killed, the young man, and the maid,
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and by the way, we made a wife of her before we went away.
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There were besides the two carpenters and the tailor, whom I brought with
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me for them, also the smith, who was a very necessary man to
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them, especially as a gunsmith, to take care of their arms. And
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my other man, whom I called Jack of all trades, who was in
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himself as good almost as twenty men, for he was not only a very
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ingenious fellow, but a very merry fellow. And before I went away we
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married him to the honest maid that came with the youth in the ship I
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mentioned before. And now I speak of marrying it brings me naturally to say
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something of the French ecclesiastic that I had brought with me out of the ship's
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crew, whom I took up at sea. It is true this man was
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a Roman, and perhaps it may give offense to some hereafter if I leave
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anything extraordinary upon record of a man whom, before I begin, I must
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to set him out in just colors, represent in terms very much to his
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disadvantage in the account of Protestants, as first that he was a papist,
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secondly a Popish priest, and thirdly a French Popish priest. But justice demands
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of me to give him a due character, and I must say he was
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a grave, sober, pious and most religious person, exact in his life,
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extensive in his charity, and exemplary in almost everything he did. What
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then, can anyone say against being very sensible of the value of such a
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man, notwithstanding his profession. Though it may be my opinion, perhaps as
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well as the opinion of others who shall read this, that he was mistaken.
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The first hour that I began to converse with him, after he had
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agreed to go with me to the East Indies, I found reason to delight
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exceedingly in his conversation, and he first began with me about religion in the
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most obliging manner imaginable, Sir, says he. You have not only under
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God, and at that he crossed his breast saved my life. But you
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have admitted me to go this voyage in your ship, and by your obliging
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civility, have taken me into your family, giving me an opportunity of free
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conversation. Now, Sir, you see by my habit what my profession is,
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and I guess by your nation what yours is. I may think it
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is my duty, and doubtless it is so to use my utmost endeavors on
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all occasions, to bring all the souls I can to the knowledge of the
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truth, and to embrace the Catholic doctrine. But as I am here under
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your permission and in your family, I am bound in justice to your kindness,
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as well as in decency and good manners, to be under your government.
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And therefore I shall not, without your leave, enter into any debate
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on the points of religion in which we may not agree further than you shall
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give me leave. I told him his carriage was so modest that I could
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not but acknowledge it, that it was true we were such people as they
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call heretics, but that he was not the first Catholic I had conversed with
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without falling into inconveniences or carrying the questions to any height in debate. That
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he should not find himself the worse used for being of a different opinion from
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us, and if we did not converse without any dislike on either side,
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it should be his fault, not ours. He replied that he thought all
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our conversation might be easily separated from disputes, That it was not his business
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to cap principles with every man he conversed with, and that he rather desired
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me to converse with him as a gentleman than as a religionist, And that
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if I would give him leave at any time to discourse upon religious subjects,
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he would readily comply with it, And that he did not doubt but I
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would allow him also to defend his own opinions as well as he could,
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but that without my leave he would not break in upon me with any such
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thing. He told me further that he would not cease to do all that
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became him in his office as a priest, as well as a private Christian
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to procure the good of the ship and the safety of all that was in
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her. And though perhaps we would not join with him, and he could
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not pray with us, he hoped he might pray for us, which he
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would do upon all occasions. In this manner we conversed. And as he
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was of the most obliging gentlemanlike behavior, so he was, if I may
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be allowed to say so, a man of good sense, and as I
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believe, of great learning. He gave me a most diverting account of his
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life and of the many extraordinary events of it, of many adventures which had
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befallen him in the few years that he had been abroad in the world,
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and particularly it was very remarkable that in the voyage he was now engaged in,
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he had had the misfortune to be five times shipped and unshipped, and
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never to go to the place whither any of the ships he was in were
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at first designed. That his first intent was to have gone to Martiniko,
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and that he went on board a ship bound thither at Saint Malo, but
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being forced into Lisbon by bad weather, the ship received some damage by running
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aground in the mouth of the river Tagus and was obliged to unload her cargo
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there. But finding a Portuguese ship there bound for the Maderras and ready to
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sail, and supposing he should meet with a ship there bound to Martiniko,
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he went on board in order to sail to the Madera's. But the master
26:37
of the Portuguese ship, being an indifferent mariner, had been out of his
26:42
reckoning, and they drove to Fayal, where, however, he happened to
26:47
find a very good market for his cargo, which was corn, and therefore
26:52
resolved not to go to the Maderras, but to load salt at the Isle
26:55
of May and to go away to Newfoundland. He had no remedy the end
27:00
this exigence but to go with the ship, and had a pretty good voyage
27:03
as far as the banks, so they called the place where they catched the
27:07
fish. Where, meeting with a French ship bound from France to Quebec and
27:11
from thence to Martinico to carry provisions, he thought he should have an opportunity
27:17
to complete his first design. But when he came to Quebec, the master
27:21
of the ship died and the vessel proceeded no further. So the next voyage.
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He shipped himself for France in the ship that was burned when we took
27:30
them up at sea, and then shipped with us for the East Indies.
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As I have already said, thus he had been disappointed in five voyages,
27:38
all as I may call it, in one voyage. Besides what, I
27:41
shall have occasion to mention further of him, but I shall not make digression
27:47
into other men's stories which have no relation to my own. So I returned
27:52
to what concerns our affair in the island. He came to me one morning,
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for he lodged among us all the while we were upon the island,
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and it happened to me just when I was going to visit the Englishman's colony
28:03
at the furthest part of the island. I say, he came to me
28:07
and told me, with a very grave countenance that he had for two or
28:11
three days desired an opportunity of some discourse with me, which he hoped would
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not be displeasing to me, because he thought it might in some measure correspond
28:19
with my general design, which was the prosperity of my new colony, and
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perhaps might put it at least more than he yet thought it was in the
28:29
way of God's blessing. I looked a little surprised at the last of his
28:33
discourse, and turning a little short, how sir said, I can it
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be said that we are not in the way of God's blessing after such visible
28:41
assistances and deliverances as we have seen here, and of which I have given
28:45
you a large account. If you had pleased, sir, said he,
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with a world of modesty and yet great readiness to have heard me, you
28:53
would have found no room to have been displeased, much less to think so
28:57
hard of me that I should suggest that you have not had wonderful assistances and
29:03
deliverances. And I hope on your behalf that you are in the way of
29:07
God's blessing, and your design is exceeding good and will prosper. But Sir,
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though it were more so than is even possible to you, yet there
29:15
may be some among you that are not equally right in their actions. And
29:21
you know that in the story of the children of Israel, one Achan in
29:23
the camp removed God's blessing from them and turned his hand so against them that
29:29
six and thirty of them, though not concerned in the crime were the objects
29:33
of divine vengeance, and bore the weight of that punishment. I was sensibly
29:38
touched with this discourse, and told him his inference was so just, and
29:44
the whole design seemed so sincere, and was really so religious in its own
29:48
nature, that I was very sorry I had interrupted him, and begged him
29:52
to go on, and in the meantime, because it seemed that what we
29:56
had both to say might take up some time, I told him I was
30:00
going to the Englishman's plantations, and asked him to go with me, and
30:03
we might discourse of it. By the way. He told me he would
30:07
the more willingly wait on me thither, because there partly the thing was acted
30:11
which he desired to speak to me about. So we walked on, and
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I pressed him to be free and plain with me in what he had to
30:18
say. Why, then, Sir, said, he be pleased to give
30:22
me leave to lay down a few propositions as the foundation of what I have
30:26
to say. That we may not differ in the general principles, though we
30:30
may be of some differing opinions in the practice of particulars. First, Sir,
30:36
though we differ in some of the doctrinal articles of religion, and it
30:40
is very unhappy. It is so, especially in the case before us,
30:44
as I shall show afterwards. Yet, there are some general principles in which
30:48
we both agree that there is a God, and that this God, having
30:52
given us some stated general rules for our service and obedience, we ought not
30:57
willingly and knowingly to offend him, either by neglecting to do what he has
31:02
commanded, or by doing what he has expressly forbidden. And let our different
31:07
religions be what they will. This general principle is readily owned by us all
31:11
that the blessing of God does not ordinarily follow presumptious sinning against his command,
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and every good Christian will be affectionately concerned to prevent any that are under His
31:22
care living in a total neglect of God and his commands. It is not
31:27
your men, being Protestants, whatever my opinion may be of such that discharges
31:33
me from being concerned for their souls and from endeavoring, if it lies before
31:37
me, that they should live in as little distance from enmity with their Maker
31:41
as possible, especially if you give me leave to meddle so far in your
31:45
circuit. I could not yet imagine what he aimed at, and told him
31:51
I granted all he had said, and thanked him that he would so far
31:55
concern himself for us, and begged he would explain the particulars of what he
31:59
had observed, that, like Joshua to take his own parable, I might
32:04
put away the accursed thing from us. Why, then, sir, says
32:07
he, I will take the liberty you give me. And there are three
32:12
things which, if I am right, must stand in the way of God's
32:15
blessing upon your endeavors here, and which I should rejoice for your sake and
32:20
their own to see removed. And Sir, I promise myself that you will
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fully agree with me in them all as soon as I name them, especially
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because I shall convince you that every one of them may, with great ease,
32:32
and very much to your satisfaction, be remedied. First, Sir says
32:37
he, you have herefore, englishmen who have fetched women from among the savage
32:43
as, and have taken them as their wives, and have had many children
32:46
by them all, and yet are not married to them after any stated legal
32:51
manner, as the laws of God and man require. To this, Sir,
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I know you will object that there was no clergyman or priest of any
33:00
kind to perform the ceremony, nor any pen and ink or paper to write
33:04
down a contract of marriage and have it signed between them. And I know
33:08
also, sir, what the Spaniard governor has told you, I mean of
33:13
the agreement that he obliged them to make when they took these women, viz.
33:16
That they should choose them out by consent and keep separately to them,
33:22
which by the way, is nothing of a marriage, no agreement with the
33:24
women as wives, but only an agreement among themselves to keep them from quarreling.
33:30
But, Sir, the essence of the sacrament of matrimony, so he
33:34
called it, being a Roman, consists not only in the mutual consent of
33:38
the parties to take one another as man and wife, but in the formal
33:42
and legal obligation to own and acknowledge each other, obliging the man to abstain
33:47
from all other women, to engage in no other contract while these subsist,
33:52
and on all occasions as ability allows, to provide honestly for them and their
33:58
children, and to oblige the women into the same or like conditions on their
34:01
side. Now, Sir says he, these men may when they please,
34:07
or when occasion presents abandon these women, disown their children, leave them to
34:12
perish, and take other women and marry them while these are living. And
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here, he added, with some warmth, how sir, is God honored
34:21
in this unlawful liberty? And how shall a blessing succeed your endeavors in this
34:25
place, however good in themselves, and however sincere in your design, while
34:30
these men, who at present or your subjects, live under your absolute government
34:36
and domignon, are allowed by you to live in open adultery. I confess
34:42
I was struck with the thing itself, but much more with the convincing arguments
34:45
he supported it with. But I thought to have got off my young priest
34:50
by telling him that all that part was done when I was not there,
34:53
and that they had lived so many years with them now that if it was
34:58
adultery, it was past remedy. Nothing could be done in it now,
35:01
sir, says he asking your pardon for such freedom. You are right in
35:06
this that it being done in your absence, you could not be charged with
35:09
that part of the crime. But I beseech you flatter not yourself, that
35:14
you are not therefore under an obligation to do your utmost now to put an
35:19
end to it, you shall legally and effectually marry them. And as sir,
35:23
my way of marrying may not be easy to reconcile them too, though
35:28
it will be effectual even by your own laws. So your way may be
35:31
as well before God and as valid among men. I mean by a written
35:37
contract signed by both man and woman, and by all the witnesses present,
35:42
which all the laws of Europe were decreed to be valid. I was amazed
35:46
to see so much true piety and so much sincerity of zeal, besides the
35:52
usual impartiality in his discourse as to his own party or church, and such
35:57
true warmth for preserving people that he had no knowledge of or relation to,
36:00
from transgressing the laws of God. But recollecting what he had said, of
36:06
marrying them by a written contract, which I knew he would stand to,
36:09
I returned it back upon him and told him I granted all that he said
36:14
to be just, and on his part very kind, that I would discourse
36:17
with the men upon the point now when I came to them, and I
36:22
knew no reason why they should scruple to let him marry them, All which
36:25
I knew well enough would be granted to be as authentic and valid in England
36:30
as if they were married by one of our own clergymen. I then pressed
36:35
him to tell me what was the second complaint which he had to make.
36:37
Acknowledging that I was very much as debtor for the first, and thanking him
36:42
heartily for it, he told me he would use the same freedom and plainness
36:46
in the second, and hoped I would take it as well. And this
36:50
was that, notwithstanding these English subjects of mine, as he called them,
36:54
had lived with these women almost seven years, had taught them to speak English
37:00
and even to read it, and that they were, as he perceived,
37:02
women of tolerable understanding and capable of instruction. Yet they had not to this
37:08
hour taught them anything of the Christian religion. No, not so much as
37:14
to know there was a God or a worship or in what manner God was
37:17
to be served, or that their own idolatry and worshiping they knew, not
37:22
whom was false and absurd. This, he said, was an unaccountable neglect,
37:27
and what God would certainly call them to account for and perhaps at last
37:30
take the work out of their hands. He spoke this very affectionately and warmly,
37:37
end of Chapter six, Part one,