by Daniel Defoe
spiritualsovereignty over the consciences of men.
In a word, he brought the poor woman to embrace the knowledge of Christ,and of redemption by him, not with wonder and astonishment only, as shedid the first notions of a God, but with joy and faith, with anaffection, and a surprising degree of understanding, scarce to beimagined, much less to be expressed; and at her own request shewas baptized.
When he was preparing to baptize her, I entreated him that he wouldperform that office with some caution, that the man might not perceivehe was of the Roman church, if possible; because of other illconsequences which might attend a difference among us in that veryreligion which we were instructing the other in. He told me, that as hehad no consecrated chapel, nor proper things for the office, I shouldsee he would do it in a manner that I should not know by it that he wasa Roman Catholic himself it I had not known it before, and so he did;for saying only some words over to himself in Latin, which I could notunderstand, he poured a whole dishfull of water upon the woman's head,pronouncing in French very loud _Mary_ (which was the name her husbanddesired me to give her, for I was her godfather,) _I baptize thee inthe name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost_; so thatnone could know any thing by it what religion he was of: he gave thebenediction afterwards in Latin; but either Will Atkins did not know butit was in French, or else did not take notice of it at that time.
As soon as this was over, he married them; and after the marriage wasover, he turned himself to Will Atkins, and in a very affectionatemanner exhorted him not only to persevere in that good disposition hewas in, but to support the convictions that were upon him by aresolution to reform his life; told him it was in vain to say herepented if he did not forsake his crimes; represented to him, how Godhad honoured him with being the instrument of bringing his wife to theknowledge of the Christian religion; and that he should be careful hedid not dishonour the grace of God; and that if he did, he would see theheathen a better Christian than himself; the savage converted, and theinstrument cast away!
He said a great many good things to them both, and then recommendedthem, in a few words, to God's goodness; gave them the benedictionagain, I repeating every thing to them in English: and thus ended theceremony. I think it was the most pleasant, agreeable day to me thatever I passed in my whole life.
But my clergyman had not done yet; his thoughts hung continually uponthe conversion of the thirty-seven savages, and fain he would have staidupon the island to have undertaken it; but I convinced him, first, thathis undertaking was impracticable in itself; and secondly, that,perhaps, I could put it into a way of being done, in his absence, to hissatisfaction; of which by and by.
Having thus brought the affair of the island to a narrow compass, I waspreparing to go on board the ship when the young man, whom I had takenout 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 whom they called wives; that hehad a match too, which he desired might be finished before I went,between two Christians, which he hoped would not be disagreeable to me.
I knew this must be the young woman who was his mother's servant, forthere was no other Christian woman on the island. So I began to persuadehim not to do any thing of that kind rashly, or because he found himselfin this solitary circumstance. I represented that he had someconsiderable substance in the world, and good friends, as I understoodby himself, and by his maid also; that the maid was not only poor, and aservant, but was unequal to him, she being twenty-six or twenty-sevenyears old, and he not above seventeen or eighteen; that he might veryprobably, with my assistance, make a remove from this wilderness, andcome into his own country again, and that then it would be a thousand toone but he would repent his choice, and the dislike of that circumstancemight be disadvantageous to both. I was going to say more, but heinterrupted me, smiling; and told me, with a great deal of modesty, thatI mistook in my guesses; that he had nothing of that kind in histhoughts, his present circumstances being melancholy and disconsolateenough; and he was very glad to hear that I had some thoughts of puttingthem in a way to see their own country again; and that nothing shouldhave set him upon staying there, but that the voyage I was going was soexceeding long and hazardous, and would carry him quite out of the reachof all his friends; that he had nothing to desire of me, but that Iwould settle him in some little property of the island where he was;give him a servant or two, and some few necessaries, and he would settlehimself here like a planter, waiting the good time when, if ever Ireturned to England, I would redeem him, and hoped I would not beunmindful of him when I came to England; that he would give me someletters to his friends in London, to let them know how good I had beento him, and what part of the world, and what circumstances I had lefthim in; and he promised me, that whenever I redeemed him, theplantation, and all the improvements he had made upon it, let the valuebe what it would, should be wholly mine.
His discourse was very prettily delivered, considering his youth, andwas the more agreeable to me, because he told me positively the matchwas not for himself. I gave him all possible assurances, that, if Ilived to come safe to England, I would deliver his letters, and do hisbusiness effectually, and that he might depend I would never forget thecircumstances I left him in. But still I was impatient to know who wasthe person to be married; upon which he told me it was my Jack of allTrades and his maid Susan.
I was most agreeably surprised when he named the match; for indeed I hadthought it very suitable. The character of that man I have givenalready; and as for the maid, she was a very honest, modest, sober, andreligious young woman; had a very good share of sense; was agreeableenough in her person; spoke very handsomely, and to the purpose; alwayswith decency and good manners, and not backward to speak when any thingrequired it, or impertinently forward to speak when it was not herbusiness; very handy and housewifely in any thing that was before her;an excellent manager, and fit indeed to have been governess to the wholeisland; she knew very well how to behave herself to all kind of folksshe had about her, and to better if she had found any there.
The match being proposed in this manner, we married them the same day:and as I was father at the altar, as I may say, and gave her away, so Igave her a portion, for I appointed her and her husband a handsome largespace of ground for their plantation; and indeed this match, and theproposal the young gentleman made to me, to give him a small property inthe island, put me upon parcelling it out among them, that they mightnot quarrel afterwards about their situation.
This sharing out the land to them I left to Will Atkins, who indeed wasnow grown a most sober, grave, managing fellow, perfectly reformed,exceeding pious and religious, and as far as I may be allowed to speakpositively in such a case, I verily believe was a true sincere penitent.
He divided things so justly, and so much to every one's satisfaction,that they only desired one general writing under my hand for the whole,which I caused to be drawn up, and signed and sealed to them, settingout the bounds and situation of every man's plantation, and testifyingthat I gave them thereby, severally, a right to the whole possession andinheritance of the respective plantations or farms, with theirimprovements, to them and their heirs; reserving all the rest of theisland as my own property, and a certain rent for every particularplantation after eleven years, if I or any one from me, or in my name,came to demand it, producing an attested copy of the same writing.
As to the government and laws among them, I told them, I was not capableof giving them better rules than they were able to give themselves; onlymade them promise me to live in love and good neighbourhood with oneanother: and so I prepared to leave them.
One thing I must not omit, and that is, that being now settled in a kindof commonwealth among themselves, and having much business in hand, itwas but odd to have seven-and-thirty Indians live in a nook of theisland, independent, and indeed unemployed; for excepting the providingthemselves food, which they had difficulty enough in doing sometimes,they had no manner of business or
property to manage: I proposedtherefore to the governor Spaniard, that he should go to them withFriday's father, and propose to them to remove, and either plant forthemselves, or take them into their several families as servants, to bemaintained for their labour, but without being absolute slaves, for Iwould not admit them to make them slaves by force by any means, becausethey had their liberty given by capitulation, and as it were articlesof surrender, which they ought not to break.
They most willingly embraced the proposal, and came all very cheerfullyalong with him; so we allotted them land and plantations, which three orfour accepted of, but all the rest chose to be employed as servants inthe several families we had settled; and thus my colony was in a mannersettled as follows: The Spaniards possessed my original habitation,which was the capital city, and extended their plantation all along theside of the brook which made the creek that I have so often described,as far as my bower; and as they increased their
