And here it is very well worth observing, that as it often happens in the world, (what the wise ends of God’s providences are in such a disposition of things I cannot say) the two honest fellows had the two worst wives; and the three reprobates, that were scarce worth hanging, that were fit for nothing, and neither seemed born to do themselves good, or any one else, had three clever, diligent, careful, and ingenious wives, not that the two first were ill wives as to their temper or humour; for all the five were most willing, quiet, passive, and subjected creatures, rather like slaves than wives; but my meaning is, they were not alike, capable, ingenious, or industrious, or alike cleanly and neat.
Another observation I must make, to the honour of a diligent application on the one hand, and to the disgrace of a slothful, negligent, idle temper on the other, that when I came to the place, and viewed the several improvements, planting, and management of the several little colonies, the two men had so far out-gone the three, that there was no comparison; they had indeed both of them as much ground laid out for corn as they wanted; and the reason was, because according to my rule, nature dictated, that it was to no purpose to sow more corn than they wanted; but the difference of the cultivation, of the planting, of the fences, and indeed every thing else, was easy to be seen at first view.
The two men had innumerable young trees planted about their huts, that when you came to the place nothing was to be seen but a wood; and though they had their plantation twice demolished, once by their own countrymen, and once by the enemy, as shall be shewn in its place; yet they had restored all again, and every thing was flourishing and thriving about them: they had grapes planted in order, and managed like a vineyard, though they had themselves never seen any thing of that kind; and by their good ordering their vines their grapes were as good again as any of the others. They had also formed themselves a retreat in the thickest part of the woods, where, though there was not a natural cave, as I had found, yet they made one with incessant labour of their hands, and where, when the mischief which followed happened, they secured their wives and children so as they could never be found; they having, by sticking innumerable stakes and poles of the wood, which, as I said, grow so easily, made a grove impassable except in one place, where they climbed up to get over the outside part, and then went in by ways of their own leaving.
As to the three reprobates, as I justly call them, though they were much civilized by their new settlement compared to what they were before, and were not so quarrelsome, having not the same opportunity, yet one of the certain companions of a profligate mind never left them, and that was their idleness. It is true, they planted corn and made fences; but Solomon’s words were never better verified than in them: “I went by the vineyard of the slothful, and it was overgrown with thorns;” for when the Spaniards came to view their crop, they could not see it in some places for weeds; the hedge had several gaps in it, where the wild goats had gotten in and eaten up the corn; perhaps here and there a dead bush was crammed in to stop them out for the present, but it was only shutting the stable door after the steed was stolen; whereas, when they looked on the colony of the other two, here was the very face of industry and success upon all they did; there was not a weed to be seen in all their corn, or a gap in any of their hedges; and they, on the other hand, verified Solomon’s words in another place: “The diligent hand maketh rich;” for every thing grew and thrived, and they had plenty within and without; they had more tame cattle than the others, more utensils and necessaries within doors, and yet more pleasure and diversion too.
It is true, the wives of the three were very handy and cleanly within doors; and having learnt the English ways of dressing and cooking from one of the other Englishmen, who, as I said, was a cook’s mate on board the ship, they dressed their husbands’ victuals very nicely; whereas the other could not be brought to understand it; but then the husband, who as I said, had been cook’s mate, did it himself; but as for the husbands of the three wives, they loitered about, fetched turtles’ eggs, and caught fish and birds; in a word, any thing but labour, and they fared accordingly. The diligent lived well and comfortably and the slothful lived hard and beggarly; and so I believe, generally speaking, it is all over the world.
But now I come to a scene different from all that had happened before, either to them or me; and the origin of the story was this:
Early one morning there came on shore five or six canoes of Indians, or savages, call them which you please; and there is no room to doubt that they came upon the old errand of feeding upon their slaves; but that part was now so familiar to the Spaniards, and to our men too, that they did not concern themselves about it as I did; but having been made sensible by their experience, that their only business was to lie concealed, and that, if they were not seen by any of the savages, they would go off again quietly when the business was done, having as yet not the least notion of there being any inhabitants in the island; I say having been made sensible of this, they had nothing to do but to give notice to all the three plantations to keep within doors, and not to shew themselves; only placing a scout in a proper place, to give notice when the boats went off to sea again.
This was, without doubt, very right; but a disaster spoiled all these measures, and made it known among the savages that there were inhabitants there, which was, in the end, the desolation of almost the whole colony. After the canoes with the savages were gone off, the Spaniards peeped abroad again, and some of them had the curiosity to go to the place where they had been, to see what they had been doing. Here, to their great surprise, they found three savages left behind, and lying fast asleep upon the ground; it was supposed they had either been so gorged with their inhuman feast, that, like beasts, they were asleep, and would not stir when the others went, or they were wandered into the woods, and did not come back in time to be taken in.
The Spaniards were greatly surprised at this sight, and perfectly at a loss what to do; the Spaniard governor, as it happened, was with them, and his advice was asked; but he professed he knew not what to do; as for slaves, they had enough already; and as to killing them, they were none of them inclined to that. The Spaniard governor told me they could not think of shedding innocent blood; for as to them, the poor creatures had done no wrong, invaded none of their property; and they thought they had no just quarrel against them to take away their lives.
And here I must, in justice to these Spaniards, observe, that let all the accounts of Spanish cruelty in Mexico and Peru be what they will, I never met with seventeen men, of any nation whatsoever, in any foreign country, who were so universally modest, temperate, virtuous, so very good-humoured, and so courteous as these Spaniards; and, as to cruelty, they had nothing of it in their very nature; no inhumanity, no barbarity, no outrageous passions, and yet all of them men of great courage and spirit.