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

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Speaker 1: Chapter six, The French Clergyman's Council, Part one. Having thus
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Speaker 1: given an account of the colony in general, and pretty
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Speaker 1: much of my runagate englishmen, I must say something of
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Speaker 1: the Spaniards, who were the main body of the family,
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Speaker 1: and in whose story there are some incidents also remarkable enough.
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Speaker 1: I had a great many discourses with them about their
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Speaker 1: circumstances when they were among the savages. They told me
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Speaker 1: readily that they had no instances to give of their
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Speaker 1: application or ingenuity in that country, that they were a poor, miserable,
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Speaker 1: dejected handful of people, that even if means had been
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Speaker 1: put into their hands, yet they had so abandoned themselves
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Speaker 1: to despair, and were so sunk under the weight of
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Speaker 1: their misfortune that they thought of nothing but starving. One
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Speaker 1: of them, a grave and sensible man, told me he
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Speaker 1: was convinced they were in the wrong, that it was
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Speaker 1: not the part of wise men to give themselves up
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Speaker 1: to their misery, but always to take hold of the
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Speaker 1: helps which reason offered, as well for present support as
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Speaker 1: for future deliverance. He told me that grief was the
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Speaker 1: most senseless, insignificant passion in the world, for that it
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Speaker 1: regarded only things past, which were generally impossible to be
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Speaker 1: recalled or to be remedied, but had no views of
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Speaker 1: things to come, and had no share in anything that
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Speaker 1: looked like deliverance, but rather added to the affliction than
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Speaker 1: proposed a remedy. And upon this he repeated a Spanish proverb, which,
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Speaker 1: though I cannot repeat it in the same words that
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Speaker 1: he spoke it in, yet I remember I made it
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Speaker 1: into an English proverb of my own. Thus, in trouble,
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Speaker 1: to be troubled is to have your trouble doubled. He
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Speaker 1: then ran on in remarks upon all the little improvements
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Speaker 1: I had made in my solitude, my unwearied application, as
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Speaker 1: he called it, and how I had made a condition which,
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Speaker 1: in its circumstances, was at first much worse than theirs,
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Speaker 1: a thousand times more happy than theirs, was even now
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Speaker 1: when they were all together. He told me, it was
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Speaker 1: remarkable that Englishmen had a greater presence of mind in
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Speaker 1: their distress than any people that ever he met, with
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Speaker 1: that their unhappy nation and the Portuguese were the worst
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Speaker 1: men in the world to struggle with misfortunes, for that
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Speaker 1: their first step in dangers, after the common efforts were over,
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Speaker 1: was to despair, lie down under it, and die without
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Speaker 1: rousing their thoughts up to proper remedies for escape. I
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Speaker 1: told him their case and mine differed exceedingly, that they
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Speaker 1: were cast upon the shore without necessaries, without supply of
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Speaker 1: food or present sustenance, till they could provide for it.
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Speaker 1: That it was true I had this further disadvantage and
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Speaker 1: discomfort that I was alone. But then the supplies I
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Speaker 1: had providentially thrown into my hands by the unexpected driving
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Speaker 1: of the ship on the shore was such a help
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Speaker 1: as would have encouraged any creature in the world to
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Speaker 1: have applied himself as I had done. Signor, says the Spaniard.
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Speaker 1: Had we post backs been in your case, we should
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Speaker 1: never have got half those things out of the ship
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Speaker 1: as you did. Nay, says he, We should never have
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Speaker 1: found means to have got a raft to carry them,
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Speaker 1: or to have got the raft on shore without boat
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Speaker 1: or sail. And how much less should we have done
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Speaker 1: if any of us had been alone. Well, I desired
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Speaker 1: him to abate his compliments and go on with the
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Speaker 1: history of their coming on shore. Where they landed. He
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Speaker 1: told me they unhappily landed at a place where there
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Speaker 1: were people without provisions, whereas had they had the common
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Speaker 1: sense to put off to sea again and gone to
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Speaker 1: another island a little further, they had found provisions, though
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Speaker 1: without people, there being an island that way, as they
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Speaker 1: had been told, where there were provisions though no people.
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Speaker 1: That is to say that the Spaniards of Trinidad had
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Speaker 1: frequently been there, and had filled the island with goats
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Speaker 1: and hogs at several times, where they had bred in
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Speaker 1: such multitudes, and where turtle and sea fowls were in
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Speaker 1: such plenty, that they could have been in no want
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Speaker 1: of flesh, though they had found no bread, whereas here
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Speaker 1: they were only sustained with a few roots and herbs,
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Speaker 1: which they understood not, and which had no substance in them,
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Speaker 1: and which the inhabitants gave them sparingly enough, and they
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Speaker 1: could treat them no better unless they would turn cannibals
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Speaker 1: and eat men's flesh. They gave me an account how
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Speaker 1: many ways they strove to civilize the savages they were with,
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Speaker 1: and to teach them rational customs in the ordinary way
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Speaker 1: of living, but in vain, and how they retorted upon
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Speaker 1: them as unjust that they who came there for assistance
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Speaker 1: and support should attempt to set up for instructors to
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Speaker 1: those who gave them food, intimating it seems that none
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Speaker 1: should set up for the instructors of others, but those
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Speaker 1: who could live without them. They gave me dismal accounts
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Speaker 1: of the extremities they were driven to, how sometimes they
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Speaker 1: were many days without any food at all. The island
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Speaker 1: they were upon being inhabited by a sort of savages
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Speaker 1: that lived more indolent, and for that reason were less
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Speaker 1: supplied with the necessaries of life than they had reason
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Speaker 1: to believe others were in the same part of the world.
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Speaker 1: And yet they found that these savages were less ravenous
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Speaker 1: and voracious than those who had better supplies of food. Also,
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Speaker 1: they added, they could not but see what demonstrations of
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Speaker 1: wisdom and goodness the governing providence of God directs the
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Speaker 1: events of things in this world, which they said appeared
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Speaker 1: in their circumstances. For if pressed by the hardships they
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Speaker 1: were under and the barrenness of the country where they were,
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Speaker 1: they had searched after a better to live in. They
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Speaker 1: had then been out of the way of the relief
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Speaker 1: that happened to them by my means. They then gave
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Speaker 1: me an account how the savages whom they lived amongst
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Speaker 1: expected them to go out with them into their wars.
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Speaker 1: And it was true that as they had firearms with them,
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Speaker 1: had they not had the disaster to lose their ammunition,
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Speaker 1: they could have been serviceable not only to their friends,
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Speaker 1: but have made made themselves terrible both to friends and enemies.
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Speaker 1: But being without powder and shot, and yet in a
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Speaker 1: condition that they could not in reason, declined to go
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Speaker 1: out with their landlords to their wars. So when they
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Speaker 1: came into the field of battle, they were in a
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Speaker 1: worse condition than the savages themselves, for they had neither
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Speaker 1: bows nor arrows, nor could they use those the savages
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Speaker 1: gave them. So they could do nothing but stand still
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Speaker 1: and be wounded with arrows till they came up to
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Speaker 1: the teeth of the enemy. And then indeed the three
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Speaker 1: halbirds they had were of use to them, and they
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Speaker 1: would often drive a whole little army before them with
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Speaker 1: those halberds and sharpened sticks put into the muzzles of
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Speaker 1: their muskets. But for all this they were sometimes surrounded
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Speaker 1: with multitudes and in great danger from their arrows, till
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Speaker 1: at last they found the way to make themselves large
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Speaker 1: targets of wood, which they covered with skins of wild
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Speaker 1: beasts whose names they knew not, and these covered them
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Speaker 1: from the arrows of the savages. That notwithstanding these they
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Speaker 1: were sometimes in great danger, and five of them were
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Speaker 1: once knocked down together with the clubs of the savages.
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Speaker 1: Which was the time when one of them was taken prisoner,
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Speaker 1: that is to say, the Spaniard, whom I relieved. At
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Speaker 1: first they thought he had been killed, But when they
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Speaker 1: afterwards heard he was taken prisoner, they were under the
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Speaker 1: greatest grief imaginable, and would willingly have all ventured their
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Speaker 1: lives to have rescued him. They told me that when
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Speaker 1: they were so knocked down, the rest of their company
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Speaker 1: rescued them and stood over them, fighting till they were
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Speaker 1: come to themselves, all but him, whom they thought had
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Speaker 1: been dead. And then they made their way with their
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Speaker 1: halberds and pieces, standing close together in a line, through
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Speaker 1: a body of above a thousand savages, beating down all
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Speaker 1: that came in their way. Got the victory over their enemies,
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Speaker 1: but to their great sorrow, because it was with the
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Speaker 1: loss of their friend, whom the other party, finding alive,
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Speaker 1: carried off with some others. As I gave an account before,
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Speaker 1: They described most affectionately, how they were surprised with joy
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Speaker 1: at the return of their friend and companion in misery,
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Speaker 1: who they thought had been devoured by wild beasts of
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Speaker 1: the worst kind wild men. And yet how more and
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Speaker 1: more they were surprised with the account he gave them
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Speaker 1: of his errand, and that there was a Christian in
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Speaker 1: any place near, much more, one that was able and
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Speaker 1: had humanity enough to contribute to their deliverance. They described
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Speaker 1: how they were astonished at the sight of the relief
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Speaker 1: I sent them, and at the appearance of loaves of bread,
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Speaker 1: things they had not seen since their coming to that
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Speaker 1: miserable place. How often they crossed it and blessed it
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Speaker 1: as bread sent from heaven. And what a reviving cordial
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Speaker 1: it was to their spirits to taste it, as also
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Speaker 1: the other things I had sent for their supply. And
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Speaker 1: after all, they would have told me something of the
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Speaker 1: joy they were in at the sight of a boat
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Speaker 1: and pilots to carry them away to the person and
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Speaker 1: place from whence all these new comforts came. But it
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Speaker 1: was impossible to express it by words, for their excessive
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Speaker 1: joy naturally driving them to unbecoming extravagances. They had no
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Speaker 1: way to describe them, but by telling me they bordered
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Speaker 1: upon lunacy, having no way to give vent to their
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Speaker 1: passions suitable to the sense that was upon them, that
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Speaker 1: in some it worked one way and in some another,
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Speaker 1: and that some of them, through a surprise of joy,
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Speaker 1: would burst into tears, others be stark mad, and others
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Speaker 1: immediately faint. This discourse extremely affected me, and called to
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Speaker 1: my mind Friday's ecstasy when he met his father, and
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Speaker 1: the poor people's ecstasy when I took them up at
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Speaker 1: sea after their ship was on fire, the joy of
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Speaker 1: the mate of the ship when he found himself delivered
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Speaker 1: in the place where he expected to perish. And my
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Speaker 1: own joy when, after twenty eight years captivity I found
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Speaker 1: a good ship ready to carry me to my own country.
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Speaker 1: All these things made me more sensible of the relation
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Speaker 1: of these poor men, and more affected with it. Having
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Speaker 1: thus given a view of the state of things as
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Speaker 1: I found them, I must relate the heads of what
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Speaker 1: I did for these people and the condition in which
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Speaker 1: I left them. It was their opinion and mine too,
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Speaker 1: that they would be troubled no more with the savages,
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Speaker 1: or if they were, they would be able to cut
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Speaker 1: them off if they were twice as many as before,
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Speaker 1: so they had no concern about that. Then I entered
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Speaker 1: into a serious discourse with the Spaniard, whom I call Governor,
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Speaker 1: about their stay in the island, For as I was
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Speaker 1: not come to carry any of them off, so it
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Speaker 1: would not be just to carry off some and leave
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Speaker 1: others who perhaps would be unwilling to stay if their
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Speaker 1: strength was diminished. On the other hand, I told them
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Speaker 1: I came to establish them there, not to remove them.
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Speaker 1: And then I let them know that I had brought
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Speaker 1: with me relief of sundry kinds for them, that I
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Speaker 1: had been at a great charge to supply them with
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Speaker 1: all things necessary, as well for their convenience as their defense,
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Speaker 1: and that I had such and such particular persons with
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Speaker 1: me as well to increase and recruit their number, as
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Speaker 1: by the particular necessary employments which they were bred to,
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Speaker 1: being artificers, to assist them in those things in which
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Speaker 1: at present they were in want. They were all together
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Speaker 1: when I talked thus to them, and before I delivered
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Speaker 1: to them the stores I had brought, I asked them
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Speaker 1: one by one if they had entirely forgot and buried
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Speaker 1: the first animosities that had been among them, and would
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Speaker 1: shake hands with one another and engage in a strict
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Speaker 1: friendship and union of interest, that so there might be
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Speaker 1: no more misunderstandings and jealousies. Will Atkins, with abundance of
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Speaker 1: frankness and good humor, said they had met with affliction
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Speaker 1: enough to make them all sober, and enemies enough to
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Speaker 1: make them all friends, that for his part he would
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Speaker 1: live and die with them, and was so far from
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Speaker 1: designing anything against the Spaniards that he owned they had
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Speaker 1: done nothing to him but what his own mad humor
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Speaker 1: made necessary, and what he would have done, and perhaps
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Speaker 1: worse in their case, And that he would ask them
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Speaker 1: pardon if I desired it, for the foolish and brutish
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Speaker 1: things he had done to them, and was very willing
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Speaker 1: and desirous of living in terms of entire friendship and
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Speaker 1: union with them, and would do anything that lay in
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Speaker 1: his power to convince them of it. And as for
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Speaker 1: going to England, he cared not if he did not
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Speaker 1: go thither these twenty years. The Spaniards said they had
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Speaker 1: indeed at first disarmed and excluded will Atkins, and his
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Speaker 1: two countrymen for their ill conduct, as they had let
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Speaker 1: me know, and they appealed to me for the necessity
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Speaker 1: they were under to do so, But that will Atkins
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Speaker 1: had behaved himself so bravely in the great fight they
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Speaker 1: had with the savages, and on several occasions since, and
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Speaker 1: had showed himself so faithful to and concerned for the
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Speaker 1: general interest of them all, that they had forgotten all
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Speaker 1: that was past, and thought he merited as much to
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Speaker 1: be trusted with arms and supplied with necessaries as any
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Speaker 1: of them. That they had testified their satisfaction in him
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Speaker 1: by committing the command to him, next to the governor himself,
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Speaker 1: And as they had entire confidence in him and all
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Speaker 1: his countrymen, so they acknowledged they had merited that confidence
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Speaker 1: by all the methods that honest men could merit to
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Speaker 1: be valued and trusted. And they most heartily embraced the
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Speaker 1: occasion of giving me this assurance, that they would never
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Speaker 1: have any interest separate from one another. Upon these frank
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Speaker 1: and open declarations of friendship, we appointed the next day
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Speaker 1: to dine altogether, and indeed we made a splendid feast.
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Speaker 1: I caused the ship's cook and his mate to come
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Speaker 1: on shore and dress our dinner, and the old cook's
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Speaker 1: mate we had on shore assisted. We brought on shore
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Speaker 1: six pieces of good beef and four pieces of pork
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Speaker 1: out of the ship's provisions, with our punch bowl and
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Speaker 1: materials to fill it. And in particular I gave them
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Speaker 1: ten bottles of French clare and ten bottles of English beer,
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Speaker 1: things that neither the Spaniards nor the English had tasted
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Speaker 1: for many years, and which it may be supposed they
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Speaker 1: were very glad of. The Spaniards added to our feast
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Speaker 1: five hole kids, which the cooks roasted, and three of
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Speaker 1: them were sent covered up close on board the ship
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Speaker 1: to the seamen, that they might feast on fresh meat
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Speaker 1: from on shore, as we did with their salt meat
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Speaker 1: from on board. After this feast, at which we were
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Speaker 1: very innocently merry, I brought my cargo of goods, wherein
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Speaker 1: that there might be no dispute about dividing. I showed
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Speaker 1: them that there was a sufficiency for them all, desiring
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Speaker 1: that they might take an equal quantity when made up
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Speaker 1: of the goods that were forewearing. At first, I distributed
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Speaker 1: linen sufficient to make every one of them four shirts
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Speaker 1: and at the Spaniard's request, afterwards made them up six
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Speaker 1: These were exceeding comfortable to them, having been what they
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Speaker 1: had long since forgot the use of or what it
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Speaker 1: was to wear them. I allotted the thin English stuffs
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Speaker 1: which I mentioned before, to make every one a light
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Speaker 1: coat like a frock, which I judged fittest for the
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Speaker 1: heat of the season, cool and loose, and ordered that
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Speaker 1: whenever they decayed they should make more as they thought fit,
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Speaker 1: the like for pumps, shoes, stockings, hats, et cetera. I
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Speaker 1: cannot express what pleasure sat upon the countenances of all
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Speaker 1: these poor men when they saw the care I had
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Speaker 1: taken of them, and how well I had furnished them.
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Speaker 1: They told me I was a father to them, and
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Speaker 1: that having such a correspondent as I was, in so
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Speaker 1: remote a part of the world, it would make them
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Speaker 1: forget that they were left in a desolate place, and
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Speaker 1: they all voluntarily engaged to me not to leave the
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Speaker 1: place without my consent. Then I presented to them the
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Speaker 1: people I had brought with me, particularly the tailor, the smith,
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Speaker 1: and the two carpenters, all of them most necessary people,
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Speaker 1: but above all my general artificer than whom they could
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Speaker 1: not name, anything that was more useful to them. And
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Speaker 1: the tailor, to show his concern for them, went to
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Speaker 1: work immediately, and with my leave, made them every one
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Speaker 1: a shirt the first thing he did. And what was
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Speaker 1: still more, he taught the women not only how to
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Speaker 1: sew and stitch and use the needle, but made them
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Speaker 1: assist to make the shirts for their husbands and for
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Speaker 1: all the rest. As to the carpenters, I scarce need
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Speaker 1: mention how useful they were, for they took to pieces
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Speaker 1: all my clumsy, unhandy things, and made clever, convenient tables, stools, bedsteads, cupboards, lockers, shelves,
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Speaker 1: and everything they wanted of that kind. But to let
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Speaker 1: them see how nature made artificers, at first I carried
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Speaker 1: the carpenters to see will Atkins basket House, as I
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Speaker 1: called it, and they both owned they never saw an
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Speaker 1: instance of such natural ingenuity before, nor anything so regular
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Speaker 1: and so handily built, at least of its kind. And
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Speaker 1: one of them, when he saw, after musing a good
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Speaker 1: while turning about to me, I am sure, says he
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Speaker 1: that man has no need of us. You need do
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Speaker 1: nothing but give him tools. Then I brought them out
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Speaker 1: all my store of tools, and gave every man a
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Speaker 1: digging spade, a shovel, and a rake, for we had
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Speaker 1: no barrows or plows, and to every separate place a pickaxe,
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Speaker 1: a crow, a broad axe, and a saw, always appointing
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Speaker 1: that as often as any were broken or worn out,
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Speaker 1: they should be supplied without grudging. Out of the general
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Speaker 1: stores that I left behind nails, staples, hinges, hammers, chisels, knives, scissors,
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Speaker 1: and all sorts of iron work they had, without reserve
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Speaker 1: as they required, for no man would take more than
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Speaker 1: he wanted, and he must be a fool that would
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Speaker 1: waste or spoil them on any account whatever. And for
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Speaker 1: the use of the smith, I left two tons of
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Speaker 1: unwrought iron for a supply. My magazine of powder and arms,
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Speaker 1: which I brought them was such even to profusion, that
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Speaker 1: they could not but rejoice at them. For now they
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Speaker 1: could march as I used to, with a musket upon
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Speaker 1: each shoulder if there was occasion, and were able to
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Speaker 1: fight a thousand savages if they had but some little
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Speaker 1: advantages of situation, which also they could not miss if
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Speaker 1: they had occasion. I carried on shore with me the
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Speaker 1: young man whose mother was starved to death, and the
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Speaker 1: maid also. She was a sober, well educated, religious young woman,
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Speaker 1: and behaved so inoffensively that everyone gave her a good word.
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Speaker 1: She had indeed an unhappy life with us, there being
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Speaker 1: no woman in the ship but herself, but she bore
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Speaker 1: it with patience. After a while, seeing things so well
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Speaker 1: ordered and in so fine a way of thriving upon
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Speaker 1: my island, and considering that they had neither business nor
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Speaker 1: acquaintance in the East Indies, or reason for taking so
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Speaker 1: long a voyage, both of them came to me and
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Speaker 1: desired I would give them leave to remain on the
18:57
Speaker 1: island and be entered among my family, as they called it.
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Speaker 1: I agreed to this readily, and they had a little
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Speaker 1: plot of ground allotted to them, where they had three
19:07
Speaker 1: tents or houses set up, surrounded with a basket work
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Speaker 1: palasadoed like Atkins's adjoining to his plantation. Their tents were
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Speaker 1: contrived so that they had each of them a room
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Speaker 1: apart to lodge in, and a middle tent like a
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Speaker 1: great storehouse, to lay their goods in and to eat
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Speaker 1: and to drink in. And now the other two Englishmen
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Speaker 1: removed their habitation to the same place and so the
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Speaker 1: island was divided into three colonies, and no more viz.
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Speaker 1: The Spaniards with Old Friday and the first servants at
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Speaker 1: my habitation under the hill, which was in a word
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Speaker 1: the capital city, and where they had so enlarged and
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Speaker 1: extended their works, as well under as on the outside
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Speaker 1: of the hill that they lived, though perfectly concealed yet
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Speaker 1: full at large. Never was there such a little city
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Speaker 1: in a wood, and so hid in any part of
19:58
Speaker 1: the world. For I've verily believed that a thousand men
20:02
Speaker 1: might have ranged the island a month. And if they
20:05
Speaker 1: had not known there was such a thing, and looked
20:07
Speaker 1: on purpose for it, they would not have found it. Indeed,
20:11
Speaker 1: the trees stood so thick and so close, and grew
20:14
Speaker 1: so fast woven one into another, that nothing but cutting
20:18
Speaker 1: them down first could discover the place, except the only
20:21
Speaker 1: two narrow entrances where they went in and out could
20:25
Speaker 1: be found, which was not very easy. One of them
20:27
Speaker 1: was close down at the water's edge, on the side
20:30
Speaker 1: of the creek, and it was afterwards above two hundred
20:33
Speaker 1: yards to the place, and the other was up a
20:36
Speaker 1: ladder at twice as I have already described it. And
20:39
Speaker 1: they had also a large wood thickly planted on the
20:42
Speaker 1: top of the hill, containing above an acre, which grew
20:46
Speaker 1: apace and concealed the place from all discovery. There with
20:49
Speaker 1: only one narrow place between the two trees, not easily
20:53
Speaker 1: to be discovered to enter on that side. The other
20:58
Speaker 1: colony was that of will Atkins, where there were four
21:01
Speaker 1: families of Englishmen, I mean those I had left there
21:04
Speaker 1: with their wives and children, three savages that were slaves,
21:08
Speaker 1: the widow and children of the Englishman that was killed,
21:11
Speaker 1: the young man, and the maid, and by the way,
21:14
Speaker 1: we made a wife of her before we went away.
21:17
Speaker 1: There were besides the two carpenters and the tailor, whom
21:20
Speaker 1: I brought with me for them, also the smith, who
21:23
Speaker 1: was a very necessary man to them, especially as a gunsmith,
21:26
Speaker 1: to take care of their arms. And my other man,
21:29
Speaker 1: whom I called Jack of all trades, who was in
21:32
Speaker 1: himself as good almost as twenty men, for he was
21:36
Speaker 1: not only a very ingenious fellow, but a very merry fellow.
21:39
Speaker 1: And before I went away we married him to the
21:42
Speaker 1: honest maid that came with the youth in the ship
21:44
Speaker 1: I mentioned before. And now I speak of marrying it
21:48
Speaker 1: brings me naturally to say something of the French ecclesiastic
21:52
Speaker 1: that I had brought with me out of the ship's crew,
21:54
Speaker 1: whom I took up at sea. It is true this
21:57
Speaker 1: man was a Roman, and perhaps it may give offense
22:00
Speaker 1: to some hereafter if I leave anything extraordinary upon record
22:04
Speaker 1: of a man whom, before I begin, I must to
22:07
Speaker 1: set him out in just colors, represent in terms very
22:10
Speaker 1: much to his disadvantage in the account of Protestants, as
22:14
Speaker 1: first that he was a papist, secondly a Popish priest,
22:18
Speaker 1: and thirdly a French Popish priest. But justice demands of
22:22
Speaker 1: me to give him a due character, and I must
22:25
Speaker 1: say he was a grave, sober, pious and most religious person,
22:30
Speaker 1: exact in his life, extensive in his charity, and exemplary
22:34
Speaker 1: in almost everything he did. What then, can anyone say
22:38
Speaker 1: against being very sensible of the value of such a man,
22:41
Speaker 1: notwithstanding his profession. Though it may be my opinion, perhaps
22:46
Speaker 1: as well as the opinion of others who shall read this,
22:49
Speaker 1: that he was mistaken. The first hour that I began
22:53
Speaker 1: to converse with him, after he had agreed to go
22:55
Speaker 1: with me to the East Indies, I found reason to
22:58
Speaker 1: delight exceedingly in his conversation, and he first began with
23:02
Speaker 1: me about religion in the most obliging manner imaginable, Sir,
23:06
Speaker 1: says he. You have not only under God, and at
23:09
Speaker 1: that he crossed his breast saved my life. But you
23:12
Speaker 1: have admitted me to go this voyage in your ship,
23:15
Speaker 1: and by your obliging civility, have taken me into your family,
23:20
Speaker 1: giving me an opportunity of free conversation. Now, Sir, you
23:24
Speaker 1: see by my habit what my profession is, and I
23:27
Speaker 1: guess by your nation what yours is. I may think
23:30
Speaker 1: it is my duty, and doubtless it is so to
23:33
Speaker 1: use my utmost endeavors on all occasions, to bring all
23:37
Speaker 1: the souls I can to the knowledge of the truth,
23:40
Speaker 1: and to embrace the Catholic doctrine. But as I am
23:43
Speaker 1: here under your permission and in your family, I am
23:47
Speaker 1: bound in justice to your kindness, as well as in
23:50
Speaker 1: decency and good manners, to be under your government. And
23:54
Speaker 1: therefore I shall not, without your leave, enter into any
23:58
Speaker 1: debate on the points of religion in which we may
24:00
Speaker 1: not agree further than you shall give me leave. I
24:05
Speaker 1: told him his carriage was so modest that I could
24:07
Speaker 1: not but acknowledge it, that it was true we were
24:10
Speaker 1: such people as they call heretics, but that he was
24:14
Speaker 1: not the first Catholic I had conversed with without falling
24:17
Speaker 1: into inconveniences or carrying the questions to any height in debate.
24:22
Speaker 1: That he should not find himself the worse used for
24:24
Speaker 1: being of a different opinion from us, and if we
24:27
Speaker 1: did not converse without any dislike on either side, it
24:30
Speaker 1: should be his fault, not ours. He replied that he
24:34
Speaker 1: thought all our conversation might be easily separated from disputes,
24:38
Speaker 1: That it was not his business to cap principles with
24:41
Speaker 1: every man he conversed with, and that he rather desired
24:44
Speaker 1: me to converse with him as a gentleman than as
24:47
Speaker 1: a religionist, And that if I would give him leave
24:50
Speaker 1: at any time to discourse upon religious subjects, he would
24:54
Speaker 1: readily comply with it, And that he did not doubt
24:57
Speaker 1: but I would allow him also to defend his own
25:00
Speaker 1: opinions as well as he could, but that without my
25:03
Speaker 1: leave he would not break in upon me with any
25:05
Speaker 1: such thing. He told me further that he would not
25:08
Speaker 1: cease to do all that became him in his office
25:11
Speaker 1: as a priest, as well as a private Christian to
25:14
Speaker 1: procure the good of the ship and the safety of
25:17
Speaker 1: all that was in her. And though perhaps we would
25:20
Speaker 1: not join with him, and he could not pray with us,
25:23
Speaker 1: he hoped he might pray for us, which he would
25:26
Speaker 1: do upon all occasions. In this manner we conversed. And
25:30
Speaker 1: as he was of the most obliging gentlemanlike behavior, so
25:34
Speaker 1: he was, if I may be allowed to say so,
25:37
Speaker 1: a man of good sense, and as I believe, of
25:40
Speaker 1: great learning. He gave me a most diverting account of
25:44
Speaker 1: his life and of the many extraordinary events of it,
25:48
Speaker 1: of many adventures which had befallen him in the few
25:51
Speaker 1: years that he had been abroad in the world, and
25:53
Speaker 1: particularly it was very remarkable that in the voyage he
25:57
Speaker 1: was now engaged in, he had had the misfortune to
26:00
Speaker 1: be five times shipped and unshipped, and never to go
26:03
Speaker 1: to the place whither any of the ships he was
26:05
Speaker 1: in were at first designed. That his first intent was
26:09
Speaker 1: to have gone to Martiniko, and that he went on
26:12
Speaker 1: board a ship bound thither at Saint Malo, but being
26:15
Speaker 1: forced into Lisbon by bad weather, the ship received some
26:19
Speaker 1: damage by running aground in the mouth of the river
26:22
Speaker 1: Tagus and was obliged to unload her cargo there. But
26:25
Speaker 1: finding a Portuguese ship there bound for the Maderras and
26:29
Speaker 1: ready to sail, and supposing he should meet with a
26:32
Speaker 1: ship there bound to Martiniko, he went on board in
26:36
Speaker 1: order to sail to the Madera's. But the master of
26:39
Speaker 1: the Portuguese ship, being an indifferent mariner, had been out
26:43
Speaker 1: of his reckoning, and they drove to Fayal, where, however,
26:46
Speaker 1: he happened to find a very good market for his cargo,
26:49
Speaker 1: which was corn, and therefore resolved not to go to
26:53
Speaker 1: the Maderras, but to load salt at the Isle of
26:56
Speaker 1: May and to go away to Newfoundland. He had no
26:59
Speaker 1: remedy the end this exigence but to go with the ship,
27:02
Speaker 1: and had a pretty good voyage as far as the banks,
27:05
Speaker 1: so they called the place where they catched the fish. Where,
27:08
Speaker 1: meeting with a French ship bound from France to Quebec
27:12
Speaker 1: and from thence to Martinico to carry provisions, he thought
27:15
Speaker 1: he should have an opportunity to complete his first design.
27:19
Speaker 1: But when he came to Quebec, the master of the
27:21
Speaker 1: ship died and the vessel proceeded no further. So the
27:25
Speaker 1: next voyage. He shipped himself for France in the ship
27:28
Speaker 1: that was burned when we took them up at sea,
27:31
Speaker 1: and then shipped with us for the East Indies. As
27:34
Speaker 1: I have already said, thus he had been disappointed in
27:37
Speaker 1: five voyages, all as I may call it, in one voyage.
27:41
Speaker 1: Besides what, I shall have occasion to mention further of him,
27:46
Speaker 1: but I shall not make digression into other men's stories
27:49
Speaker 1: which have no relation to my own. So I returned
27:52
Speaker 1: to what concerns our affair in the island. He came
27:55
Speaker 1: to me one morning, for he lodged among us all
27:57
Speaker 1: the while we were upon the island, and it happened
28:00
Speaker 1: to me just when I was going to visit the
28:02
Speaker 1: Englishman's colony at the furthest part of the island. I say,
28:06
Speaker 1: he came to me and told me, with a very
28:09
Speaker 1: grave countenance that he had for two or three days
28:12
Speaker 1: desired an opportunity of some discourse with me, which he
28:15
Speaker 1: hoped would not be displeasing to me, because he thought
28:18
Speaker 1: it might in some measure correspond with my general design,
28:22
Speaker 1: which was the prosperity of my new colony, and perhaps
28:25
Speaker 1: might put it at least more than he yet thought
28:28
Speaker 1: it was in the way of God's blessing. I looked
28:31
Speaker 1: a little surprised at the last of his discourse, and
28:34
Speaker 1: turning a little short, how sir said, I can it
28:37
Speaker 1: be said that we are not in the way of
28:39
Speaker 1: God's blessing after such visible assistances and deliverances as we
28:44
Speaker 1: have seen here, and of which I have given you
28:46
Speaker 1: a large account. If you had pleased, sir, said he,
28:50
Speaker 1: with a world of modesty and yet great readiness to
28:53
Speaker 1: have heard me, you would have found no room to
28:56
Speaker 1: have been displeased, much less to think so hard of
28:59
Speaker 1: me that I should suggest that you have not had
29:02
Speaker 1: wonderful assistances and deliverances. And I hope on your behalf
29:06
Speaker 1: that you are in the way of God's blessing, and
29:09
Speaker 1: your design is exceeding good and will prosper. But Sir,
29:13
Speaker 1: though it were more so than is even possible to you,
29:16
Speaker 1: yet there may be some among you that are not
29:18
Speaker 1: equally right in their actions. And you know that in
29:21
Speaker 1: the story of the children of Israel, one Achan in
29:24
Speaker 1: the camp removed God's blessing from them and turned his
29:28
Speaker 1: hand so against them that six and thirty of them,
29:31
Speaker 1: though not concerned in the crime were the objects of
29:34
Speaker 1: divine vengeance, and bore the weight of that punishment. I
29:39
Speaker 1: was sensibly touched with this discourse, and told him his
29:42
Speaker 1: inference was so just, and the whole design seemed so sincere,
29:46
Speaker 1: and was really so religious in its own nature, that
29:49
Speaker 1: I was very sorry I had interrupted him, and begged
29:53
Speaker 1: him to go on, and in the meantime, because it
29:56
Speaker 1: seemed that what we had both to say might take
29:58
Speaker 1: up some time, I told him I was going to
30:00
Speaker 1: the Englishman's plantations, and asked him to go with me,
30:04
Speaker 1: and we might discourse of it. By the way. He
30:07
Speaker 1: told me he would the more willingly wait on me thither,
30:10
Speaker 1: because there partly the thing was acted which he desired
30:13
Speaker 1: to speak to me about. So we walked on, and
30:16
Speaker 1: I pressed him to be free and plain with me
30:18
Speaker 1: in what he had to say. Why, then, Sir, said,
30:21
Speaker 1: he be pleased to give me leave to lay down
30:24
Speaker 1: a few propositions as the foundation of what I have
30:27
Speaker 1: to say. That we may not differ in the general principles,
30:31
Speaker 1: though we may be of some differing opinions in the
30:33
Speaker 1: practice of particulars. First, Sir, though we differ in some
30:37
Speaker 1: of the doctrinal articles of religion, and it is very unhappy.
30:41
Speaker 1: It is so, especially in the case before us, as
30:45
Speaker 1: I shall show afterwards. Yet, there are some general principles
30:48
Speaker 1: in which we both agree that there is a God,
30:51
Speaker 1: and that this God, having given us some stated general
30:54
Speaker 1: rules for our service and obedience, we ought not willingly
30:58
Speaker 1: and knowingly to offend him, either by neglecting to do
31:02
Speaker 1: what he has commanded, or by doing what he has
31:04
Speaker 1: expressly forbidden. And let our different religions be what they will.
31:09
Speaker 1: This general principle is readily owned by us all that
31:13
Speaker 1: the blessing of God does not ordinarily follow presumptious sinning
31:16
Speaker 1: against his command, and every good Christian will be affectionately
31:21
Speaker 1: concerned to prevent any that are under His care living
31:24
Speaker 1: in a total neglect of God and his commands. It
31:27
Speaker 1: is not your men, being Protestants, whatever my opinion may
31:31
Speaker 1: be of such that discharges me from being concerned for
31:34
Speaker 1: their souls and from endeavoring, if it lies before me,
31:38
Speaker 1: that they should live in as little distance from enmity
31:41
Speaker 1: with their Maker as possible, especially if you give me
31:45
Speaker 1: leave to meddle so far in your circuit. I could
31:48
Speaker 1: not yet imagine what he aimed at, and told him
31:51
Speaker 1: I granted all he had said, and thanked him that
31:54
Speaker 1: he would so far concern himself for us, and begged
31:57
Speaker 1: he would explain the particulars of what he had observed, that,
32:01
Speaker 1: like Joshua to take his own parable, I might put
32:04
Speaker 1: away the accursed thing from us. Why, then, sir, says he,
32:08
Speaker 1: I will take the liberty you give me. And there
32:11
Speaker 1: are three things which, if I am right, must stand
32:14
Speaker 1: in the way of God's blessing upon your endeavors here,
32:17
Speaker 1: and which I should rejoice for your sake and their
32:20
Speaker 1: own to see removed. And Sir, I promise myself that
32:24
Speaker 1: you will fully agree with me in them all as
32:27
Speaker 1: soon as I name them, especially because I shall convince
32:30
Speaker 1: you that every one of them may, with great ease,
32:33
Speaker 1: and very much to your satisfaction, be remedied. First, Sir
32:38
Speaker 1: says he, you have herefore, englishmen who have fetched women
32:41
Speaker 1: from among the savage as, and have taken them as
32:44
Speaker 1: their wives, and have had many children by them all,
32:48
Speaker 1: and yet are not married to them after any stated
32:51
Speaker 1: legal manner, as the laws of God and man require.
32:55
Speaker 1: To this, Sir, I know you will object that there
32:58
Speaker 1: was no clergyman or priest of any kind to perform
33:01
Speaker 1: the ceremony, nor any pen and ink or paper to
33:04
Speaker 1: write down a contract of marriage and have it signed
33:07
Speaker 1: between them. And I know also, sir, what the Spaniard
33:11
Speaker 1: governor has told you, I mean of the agreement that
33:14
Speaker 1: he obliged them to make when they took these women, viz.
33:17
Speaker 1: That they should choose them out by consent and keep
33:20
Speaker 1: separately to them, which by the way, is nothing of
33:23
Speaker 1: a marriage, no agreement with the women as wives, but
33:27
Speaker 1: only an agreement among themselves to keep them from quarreling. But, Sir,
33:31
Speaker 1: the essence of the sacrament of matrimony, so he called it,
33:35
Speaker 1: being a Roman, consists not only in the mutual consent
33:38
Speaker 1: of the parties to take one another as man and wife,
33:42
Speaker 1: but in the formal and legal obligation to own and
33:45
Speaker 1: acknowledge each other, obliging the man to abstain from all
33:48
Speaker 1: other women, to engage in no other contract while these subsist,
33:53
Speaker 1: and on all occasions as ability allows, to provide honestly
33:57
Speaker 1: for them and their children, and to oblige the women
34:00
Speaker 1: into the same or like conditions on their side. Now,
34:03
Speaker 1: Sir says he, these men may when they please, or
34:07
Speaker 1: when occasion presents abandon these women, disown their children, leave
34:12
Speaker 1: them to perish, and take other women and marry them
34:15
Speaker 1: while these are living. And here, he added, with some warmth,
34:19
Speaker 1: how sir, is God honored in this unlawful liberty? And
34:23
Speaker 1: how shall a blessing succeed your endeavors in this place,
34:26
Speaker 1: however good in themselves, and however sincere in your design,
34:31
Speaker 1: while these men, who at present or your subjects, live
34:34
Speaker 1: under your absolute government and domignon, are allowed by you
34:38
Speaker 1: to live in open adultery. I confess I was struck
34:43
Speaker 1: with the thing itself, but much more with the convincing
34:46
Speaker 1: arguments he supported it with. But I thought to have
34:49
Speaker 1: got off my young priest by telling him that all
34:51
Speaker 1: that part was done when I was not there, and
34:54
Speaker 1: that they had lived so many years with them now
34:57
Speaker 1: that if it was adultery, it was past remedy. Nothing
35:00
Speaker 1: could be done in it now, sir, says he asking
35:04
Speaker 1: your pardon for such freedom. You are right in this
35:07
Speaker 1: that it being done in your absence, you could not
35:10
Speaker 1: be charged with that part of the crime. But I
35:12
Speaker 1: beseech you flatter not yourself, that you are not therefore
35:16
Speaker 1: under an obligation to do your utmost now to put
35:19
Speaker 1: an end to it, you shall legally and effectually marry them.
35:23
Speaker 1: And as sir, my way of marrying may not be
35:26
Speaker 1: easy to reconcile them too, though it will be effectual
35:30
Speaker 1: even by your own laws. So your way may be
35:32
Speaker 1: as well before God and as valid among men. I
35:36
Speaker 1: mean by a written contract signed by both man and woman,
35:40
Speaker 1: and by all the witnesses present, which all the laws
35:43
Speaker 1: of Europe were decreed to be valid. I was amazed
35:47
Speaker 1: to see so much true piety and so much sincerity
35:50
Speaker 1: of zeal, besides the usual impartiality in his discourse as
35:54
Speaker 1: to his own party or church, and such true warmth
35:57
Speaker 1: for preserving people that he had no knowledge of or
36:00
Speaker 1: relation to, from transgressing the laws of God. But recollecting
36:05
Speaker 1: what he had said, of marrying them by a written contract,
36:08
Speaker 1: which I knew he would stand to, I returned it
36:11
Speaker 1: back upon him and told him I granted all that
36:14
Speaker 1: he said to be just, and on his part very kind,
36:17
Speaker 1: that I would discourse with the men upon the point
36:20
Speaker 1: now when I came to them, and I knew no
36:23
Speaker 1: reason why they should scruple to let him marry them,
36:25
Speaker 1: All which I knew well enough would be granted to
36:28
Speaker 1: be as authentic and valid in England as if they
36:31
Speaker 1: were married by one of our own clergymen. I then
36:34
Speaker 1: pressed him to tell me what was the second complaint
36:37
Speaker 1: which he had to make. Acknowledging that I was very
36:40
Speaker 1: much as debtor for the first, and thanking him heartily
36:43
Speaker 1: for it, he told me he would use the same
36:45
Speaker 1: freedom and plainness in the second, and hoped I would
36:48
Speaker 1: take it as well. And this was that, notwithstanding these
36:52
Speaker 1: English subjects of mine, as he called them, had lived
36:55
Speaker 1: with these women almost seven years, had taught them to
36:59
Speaker 1: speak English and even to read it, and that they were,
37:02
Speaker 1: as he perceived, women of tolerable understanding and capable of instruction.
37:07
Speaker 1: Yet they had not to this hour taught them anything
37:11
Speaker 1: of the Christian religion. No, not so much as to
37:14
Speaker 1: know there was a God or a worship or in
37:17
Speaker 1: what manner God was to be served, or that their
37:19
Speaker 1: own idolatry and worshiping they knew, not whom was false
37:23
Speaker 1: and absurd. This, he said, was an unaccountable neglect, and
37:27
Speaker 1: what God would certainly call them to account for and
37:30
Speaker 1: perhaps at last take the work out of their hands.
37:33
Speaker 1: He spoke this very affectionately and warmly, end of Chapter six,
37:38
Speaker 1: Part one,