After these kind declarations of friendship, we appointed all of us to dine together the next day; upon this I caused the ship's cook and his mate to come on shore for that purpose, to assist in dressing our dinner. We brought from the ship six pieces of beef, and four of pork, together with our punch bowl, and materials to fill it; and in particular I gave them ten bottles of French claret, and ten of English beer, which was very acceptable to them. The Spaniards added to our feast, five. whose kids, which being roasted, three of them were sent as fresh meat to the sailors on board, and the other two we ate ourselves. After our merry and innocent feast was over, I began to distribute my cargo among them. First, I gave them linen sufficient to make every one four shirts, and at the Spaniard's request made them up six. The thin English stuffs I allotted to make every one a light coat like a frock, agreeable to the climate, and left them such a quantity as to make more upon their decay; as also pumps, shoes, hats, and stockings. It is not to be expressed the pleasing satisfaction which sat upon the countenances of these poor men, when they perceived what care I took of them, as if I had been a common father to them all; and they all engaged never to leave the island, till I gave my consent for their departure. I then presented to them the people I brought, viz. the tailor, smith, and the two carpenters; but my Jack-of-all-trades was the most acceptable present I could make them. My tailor fell immediately to work, and made every one of them a shirt; after which, he learned the women how to sew and stitch, thereby to become the more helpful to their husbands. Neither were the carpenters less useful, taking in pieces their clumsy things; instead of which they made convenient and handsome tables, stools, bedsteads, cupboards, lockers, and shelves. But when I carried them to see Will Atkins's basket-house, they owned they never saw such a piece of natural ingenuity before: I am sure, said one of the carpenters, the man that built this has no need of us; you need, Sir, do nothing but give him tools.
I divided the tools among them in this manner: to every man I gave a digging spade, a shovel, and a rake, as having no harrows or ploughs; and to every separate place a pickax, a crow, a broad ax, and a saw, with a store for a general supply, should any be broken or worn out. I left them also nails, staples, hinges, hammers, chisels, knives, scissors, and all sorts of tools and iron work; & for the use of the smith, gave them three tons of unwrought iron, for a supply; and as to arms and ammunition, I stored them even to profusion; or at least to equip a sufficient little army against all opposers whatsoever.
The young man (whose mother was unfortunately starved to death) together with the maid, a pious and well educated young woman, seeing things so well ordered on shore (for I made them accompany me) and considering they had no occasion to go so far a voyage as to the East Indies, they both desired of me, that I would leave them there, and enter them among my subjects. This I readily agreed to, ordering them a plat of ground, on which were three little houses erected, environed with basket-work, pallisadoed like Atkins's and adjoining to his plantation. So contrived were their tents that each of them had a room apart to lodge in, while the middle tent was not only their store-house, but their place for eating and drinking. At this time the two Englishmen removed their habitation to their former place; in that now the island was divided into three colonies: first, Those I have just now mentioned; secondly That of Will Atkins, where there were four families of Englishmen, with their wives and children, the widow and her children; the young man and the maid, who, by the way, we made a wife of before our departure; three savages, who were slaves; the tailor, smith, (who served also as a gunsmith) and my other celebrated person called Jack-of-all-trades. Thirdly, my chief colony, which consisted of the Spaniards, with Old Friday, who still remained at my old habitation, which was my capital city, and surely never was there such a metropolis, it now being hid in so obscure a grove, that a thousand men might have ranged the island a month, and looked purposely for it, without being able to find it, though the Spaniards had enlarged its boundaries, both without and within, in a most surprising manner.
But now I think it high time to speak of the young French priest of the order of St. Benedict, whose judicious and pious discourses, upon sundry occasions, merit an extraordinary observation; nor can his being a French Papist priest, I presume, give offence to any of my readers, when they have this assurance from me, that he was a person of the most courteous disposition, extensive charity, and exalted piety. His arguments were always agreeable to reason, and his conversation the most acceptable of any person that I had ever yet met with in my life.
Sir, said he, to me, one day, since, under God, at the same time crossing his breast, you have not only saved my life; but, by permitting me to go this voyage, have granted me the happiness of free conversation, I think is my duty as my profession obliges me, to save what souls I can, by bringing them to the knowledge of some Catholic doctrine, necessary to salvation; and since these people are under your immediate government, in gratitude, justice, and decency, for what you have done for me, I shall offer no farther points in religion, that what shall merit your approbation. Being a-pleased with the modesty of his carriage, I told him he should not be worse used for being of a different persuasion, if upon that very account, we did not differ in points of faith, not decent in a part of the country where the poor Indians ought to be instructed in the knowledge of the true God, and his Son Jesus Christ. To this he replied, that conversation might easily be separated from disputes; that he would discourse with me rather as a gentleman than a religious: but that, if we did enter upon religious argument, upon my desiring the same, I would give him liberty to defend his own principles. He farther added, that he would do all that became him in his office, as a priest as well as a Christian, to procure the happiness of all that were in the ship: that though he could not pray with, he would pray for us on all occasions; and then he told me several extraordinary events of his life, within a few years past; but particularly in this last, which was the most remarkable: that, in this voyage, he had the misfortune to be five times shipped and unshipped: his first design was to have gone to Martinico; for which, taking ship at St. Malos, he was forced into Lisbon by bad weather, the vessel running aground in the mouth of the Tagus; that from thence he went on board a Portuguese ship, bound to the Madeiras, whose master being but an indifferent mariner, and out of his reckoning, they were drove to Fial, where selling their commodity, which was corn, they resolved to take in their loading at the Isle of May, and to sail to Newfoundland; at the banks of which, meeting a French ship bound to Quebec, in the river of Canada, and from thence to Martinico, in this ship he embarked; the master of which dying at Quebec, that voyage was suspended; and lastly, shipping himself for France, this last ship was destroyed by fire, as before has been related.
At this time we talked no further; but another morning he comes to me, just as I was going to visit the Englishman's colony, and tells me, that as he knew; the prosperity of the island, was my principal desire, he had something to communicate agreeable to my design, by which perhaps he might put it, more than he yet thought it was, in the way of the benediction of heaven. How, Sir, said I, in a surprise, are we not yet in the way of God's blessings, after all these signal providences and deliverances, of which you have had such an ample relation? He replied, Nope, Sir, you are in the way, and that your good design will prosper: but still there are some among you that are not equally right in their actions; and remember, I beseech you, Sir, that Achan, by his crime, removed God's blessing from the camp of the children of Israel; that though six and thirty were entirely innocent, yet they became the object of divine vengeance, and bore the weight of his punishment accordingly.
So sensibly was I touched with this discourse, and so satisfied with that ardent piety that inflamed his soul, that I desired him to accompany me to the Englishman's plantations, which he was very glad of, by reason they were the subject of what he designed to discourse with me about: and while we walked on together, he began in the following manner:
"Sir, said he, I must confess it as a great unhappiness that we disagree in several doctrinal articles of religion; but surely both of us acknowledge this, that there is a God, who having given us some stated rules for our service and obedience, we ought not willingly and knowingly to offend him; either by neglecting what he has commanded, or by doing what he has forbidden. This truth every Christian owns, that when any one presumptuously sins against God's command, the Almighty then withdraws his blessing from him; every good man therefore ought certainly to prevent such neglect of, or sin against, God and his commands." I thanked the young priest for expressing so great a concern for us, and desired him to explain the particulars of what he had observed, that according to the parable of Achan, I might remove the accursed thing from among us "Why then, Sir, said he, in the first place, you have four Englishmen, who have taken savage women to their wives, by whom they have several children, though none of them are legally married, as the law of God and man requires; they, I say, Sir, are no less than adulterers, and as they still live in adultery, are liable to the curse of God. I know, Sir, you may object the want of a priest or clergyman of any kind; as also, pen, ink and paper, to write down a contract of marriage, and have it signed between them. But neither this, nor what the Spanish governor has told you of their choosing by consent, can be reckoned a marriage, nor any more than an agreement to keep them from quarrelling among themselves; for, Sir, the essence or sacrament of matrimony (so he called it) not only consists in mutual consent, but in the legal obligation, which compels them to own and acknowledge one another, to abstain from other persons, the men to provide for their wives and children, and the woman to the same and like conditions, nutatis mutandis, on their side: whereas, Sir, these men, upon their own pleasure, on any occasion, may forsake those women and marry others, and by disowning their children, suffer them utterly to perish. Now, Sir, 'added he, 'can God be honoured in such an unlawful liberty as this; how can a blessing succeed to the best endeavours, if men are allowed to live in so licentious a way?" I was indeed struck with the thing myself, and thought that they were much to blame, that no formal contract had been made, though it had been but breaking a stick between them, to engage them to live as man and wife, never to separate, but love, cherish, and comfort one another all their lives; yet Sir, said I, when they took these wommen, I was not here, and if it is adultery, it is past my remedy, and I cannot help it. "True, Sir,' answered the young priest. you cannot be charged with that part of the crime which was done in your absence: but I beseech you, don't flatter yourself, that you are under no obligation now to put a period to it: which if you neglect to do, the guilt will be entirely on you alone, since it is certainly in nobody's power but yours, to alter their condition." I must confess, I was so dull, that I thought he meant, I should part them, and knowing that this would put the whole island in confusion, I told him, I could not consent to it upon any account whatsoever. "Sir,' said he, in a great surprise, 'I do not mean that you should separate, but marry them, by a written contract, signed by both man and woman, and by all the witnesses present, which all the European laws decree to be of sufficient efficacy." Amazed with such true piety and sincerity, and considering the validity of a written contract, I acknowledged all that he said to be very just and kind, and that I would discourse with the man about it; neither could I see what reason they could have not to let him marry them, whose authority in that affair is owned to be as authentic as if they were married by any of our clergymen in England.
The next complaint he had to make to me was this, that though these English subjects of mine have lived with these women seven years, and though they were of good understanding, and capable of instruction, having learned not only to speak, but to read English, yet all this while they had never taught them any thing of the Christian religion, or the knowledge of God, much less in what manner he ought to be served. "And is not this an unaccountable neglect:' said he warmly. 'Depend upon it, God Almighty will call them to account for such contempt. And though I am not of your religion, yet I should be glad to see these people released from the devil's power, and be saved by the principles of the Christian religion, the knowledge of God, of a Redeemer, the resurrection, and of a future state. But as it is not too late, if you please to give me leave to instruct them, I doubt not but I shall supply this great defect, by bringing them into the great circle of Christianity, even while you continue in the island."