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第1章 岌岌可危

m. They toldme I was a father to them; and that having such a correspondent asI was in so remote a part of the world, it would make them forgetthat they were left in a desolate place; and they all voluntarilyengaged to me not to leave the place without my consent.

　　Having thus brought the affairs of the island to a narrow compass,I was preparing to go on board the ship, when the young man I hadtaken out of the famished ship's company came to me, and told me heunderstood I had a clergyman with me, and that I had caused theEnglishmen to be married to the savages; that he had a match too,which he desired might be finished before I went, between twoChristians, which he hoped would not be disagreeable to me.

　　Nay, farther, the common motive of foreign adventures was takenaway in me, for I had no fortune to make; I had nothing to seek:if I had gained ten thousand pounds I had been no richer; for I hadalready sufficient for me, and for those I had to leave it to; andwhat I had was visibly increasing; for, having no great family, Icould not spend the income of what I had unless I would set up foran expensive way of living, such as a great family, servants,equipage, gaiety, and the like, which were things I had no notionof, or inclination to; so that I had nothing, indeed, to do but tosit still, and fully enjoy what I had got, and see it increasedaily upon my hands. Yet all these things had no effect upon me,or at least not enough to resist the strong inclination I had to goabroad again, which hung about me like a chronic distemper. Inparticular, the desire of seeing my new plantation in the island,and the colony I left there, ran in my head continually. I dreamedof it all night, and my imagination ran upon it al

　　I WAS astonished at the sincerity and temper of this pious Papist,as much as I was oppressed by the power of his reasoning; and itpresently occurred to my thoughts, that if such a temper wasuniversal, we might be all Catholic Christians, whatever Church orparticular profession we joined in; that a spirit of charity wouldsoon work us all up into right principles; and as he thought thatthe like charity would make us all Catholics, so I told him Ibelieved, had all the members of his Church the like moderation,they would soon all be Protestants. And there we left that part;for we never disputed at all. However, I talked to him anotherway, and taking him by the hand, "My friend," says I, "I wish allthe clergy of the Romish Church were blessed with such moderation,and had an equal share of your charity. I am entirely of youropinion; but I must tell you that if you should preach suchdoctrine in Spain or Italy, they would put you into theInquisition." - "It may be so," said he; "I know not what theywould do in S

anks also. I washeartily sorry that I disturbed him, and not only left him, butkept others from interrupting him also. He continued in thatposture about three minutes, or little more, after I left him, thencame to me, as he had said he would, and with a great deal ofseriousness and affection, but with tears in his eyes, thanked me,that had, under God, given him and so many miserable creaturestheir lives. I told him I had no need to tell him to thank God forit, rather than me, for I had seen that he had done that already;but I added that it was nothing but what reason and humanitydictated to all men, and that we had as much reason as he to givethanks to God, who had blessed us so far as to make us theinstruments of His mercy to so many of His creatures. After thisthe young priest applied himself to his countrymen, and laboured tocompose them: he persuaded, entreated, argued, reasoned with them,and did his utmost to keep them within the exercise of theirreason; and with some he had success, though others w

　　The Spaniards would have been satisfied with this had the othersbut let them alone, which, however, they could not find in theirhearts to do long: but, like the dog in the manger, they would noteat themselves, neither would they let the others eat. Thedifferences, nevertheless, were at first but trivial, and such asare not worth relating, but at last it broke out into open war:and it began with all the rudeness and insolence that can beimagined - without reason, without provocation, contrary to nature,and indeed to common sense; and though, it is true, the firstrelation of it came from the Spaniards themselves, whom I may callthe accusers, yet when I came to examine the fellows they could notdeny a word of it.

　　But the misery of the poor passengers in the cabin was of anothernature, and far beyond the rest; for as, first, the ship's companyhad so little for themselves, it was but too true that they had atfirst kept them very low, and at last totally neglected them: sothat for six or seven days it might be said they had really no foodat all, and for several days before very little. The poor mother,who, as the men reported, was a woman of sense and good breeding,had spared all she could so affectionately for her son, that atlast she entirely sank under it; and when the mate of our ship wentin, she sat upon the floor on deck, with her back up against thesides, between two chairs, which were lashed fast, and her headsunk between her shoulders like a corpse, though not quite dead.My mate said all he could to revive and encourage her, and with aspoon put some broth into her mouth. She opened her lips, andlifted up one hand, but could not speak: yet she understood whathe said, and made signs to him, intimating, that

　　W.A. - I prayed to Him to open your eyes and your understanding,that you may know Him, and be accepted by Him.

　　Being now on the march, we felt little of the ground we trod on;and being guided by the fire, we kept no path, but went directly tothe place of the flame. If the noise of the guns was surprising tous before, the cries of the poor people were now quite of anothernature, and filled us with horror. I must confess I was never atthe sacking a city, or at the taking a town by storm. I had heardof Oliver Cromwell taking Drogheda, in Ireland, and killing man,woman, and child; and I had read of Count Tilly sacking the city ofMagdeburg and cutting the throats of twenty-two thousand of allsexes; but I never had an idea of the thing itself before, nor isit possible to describe it, or the horror that was upon our mindsat hearing it. However, we went on, and at length came to thetown, though there was no entering the streets of it for the fire.The first object we met with was the ruins of a hut or house, orrather the ashes of it, for the house was consumed; and just beforeit, plainly now to be seen by the light of th