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第7章 操心的师父……

　　I repeated all this to Atkins, who looked very serious all thewhile, and, as we could easily perceive, was more than ordinarilyaffected with it; when being eager, and hardly suffering me to makean end, "I know all this, master," says he, "and a great deal more;but I have not the impudence to talk thus to my wife, when God andmy conscience know, and my wife will be an undeniable evidenceagainst me, that I have lived as if I had never heard of a God orfuture state, or anything about it; and to talk of my repenting,alas!" (and with that he fetched a deep sigh, and I could see thatthe tears stood in his eyes) "'tis past all that with me." - "Pastit, Atkins?" said I: "what dost thou mean by that?" - "I know wellenough what I mean," says he; "I mean 'tis too late, and that istoo true."

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

　　The gunner had in the meantime orders to bring two guns, to bearfore and aft, out of the steerage, to clear the deck, and load themwith musket-bullets, and small pieces of old iron, and what camenext to hand. Thus we made ready for fight; but all this while wekept out to sea, with wind enough, and could see the boats at adistance, being five large longboats, following us with all thesail they could make.

　　It happened that the day before two of the Spaniards, having beenin the woods, had seen one of the two Englishmen, whom, fordistinction, I called the honest men, and he had made a sadcomplaint to the Spaniards of the barbarous usage they had met withfrom their three countrymen, and how they had ruined theirplantation, and destroyed their corn, that they had laboured sohard to bring forward, and killed the milch-goat and their threekids, which was all they had provided for their sustenance, andthat if he and his friends, meaning the Spaniards, did not assistthem again, they should be starved. When the Spaniards came homeat night, and they were all at supper, one of them took the freedomto reprove the three Englishmen, though in very gentle and mannerlyterms, and asked them how they could be so cruel, they beingharmless, inoffensive fellows: that they were putting themselvesin a way to subsist by their labour, and that it had cost them agreat deal of pains to bring things to such perfection as they werethen

bblingcreature, and two slaves followed him on foot to drive the poorcreature along; he had a whip in his hand, and he belaboured thebeast as fast about the head as his slaves did about the tail; andthus he rode by us, with about ten or twelve servants, going fromthe city to his country seat, about half a league before us. Wetravelled on gently, but this figure of a gentleman rode awaybefore us; and as we stopped at a village about an hour to refreshus, when we came by the country seat of this great man, we saw himin a little place before his door, eating a repast. It was a kindof garden, but he was easy to be seen; and we were given tounderstand that the more we looked at him the better he would bepleased. He sat under a tree, something like the palmetto, whicheffectually shaded him over the head, and on the south side; butunder the tree was placed a large umbrella, which made that partlook well enough. He sat lolling back in a great elbow-chair,being a heavy corpulent man, and had his meat brought him b

; and they, on theother hand, verified Solomon's words in another place, "that thediligent hand maketh rich"; for everything grew and thrived, andthey had plenty within and without; they had more tame cattle thanthe others, more utensils and necessaries within doors, and yetmore pleasure and diversion too.

　　It was all one; they crowded after us, and endeavoured to comeunder our stern, so as to board us on our quarter; upon which,seeing they were resolute for mischief, and depended upon thestrength that followed them, I ordered to bring the ship to, sothat they lay upon our broadside; when immediately we fired fiveguns at them, one of which had been levelled so true as to carryaway the stern of the hindermost boat, and we then forced them totake down their sail, and to run all to the head of the boat, tokeep her from sinking; so she lay by, and had enough of it; butseeing the foremost boat crowd on after us, we made ready to fireat her in particular. While this was doing one of the three boatsthat followed made up to the boat which we had disabled, to relieveher, and we could see her take out the men. We then called againto the foremost boat, and offered a truce, to parley again, and toknow what her business was with us; but had no answer, only shecrowded close under our stern. Upon this, our gunner who was

　　When the Spaniards came first on shore, the business began to goforward: the Spaniards would have persuaded the three Englishbrutes to have taken in their countrymen again, that, as they said,they might be all one family; but they would not hear of it, so thetwo poor fellows lived by themselves; and finding nothing butindustry and application would make them live comfortably, theypitched their tents on the north shore of the island, but a littlemore to the west, to be out of danger of the savages, who alwayslanded on the east parts of the island. Here they built them twohuts, one to lodge in, and the other to lay up their magazines andstores in; and the Spaniards having given them some corn for seed,and some of the peas which I had left them, they dug, planted, andenclosed, after the pattern I had set for them all, and began tolive pretty well. Their first crop of corn was on the ground; andthough it was but a little bit of land which they had dug up atfirst, having had but a little time, yet it was enou

ng their canoesat the east end of the island, came ranging along the shore,directly towards the place, to the number of two hundred and fifty,as near as our men could judge. Our army was but small indeed;but, that which was worse, they had not arms for all their number.The whole account, it seems, stood thus: first, as to men,seventeen Spaniards, five Englishmen, old Friday, the three slavestaken with the women, who proved very faithful, and three otherslaves, who lived with the Spaniards. To arm these, they hadeleven muskets, five pistols, three fowling-pieces, five muskets orfowling-pieces which were taken by me from the mutinous seamen whomI reduced, two swords, and three old halberds.