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Well, as Will Atkins and his wife were gone, our business there was over: fo we went back our own way; and when we came back, we found them waiting to be called in. Obferving this, I asked my clergyman if we fhould discover to him that we had seen him under the bush, or no; and it was his opinion we should not; but that we fhould talk to him first, and hear what he would fay to us: fo we called him in alone, nobody being in the place but ourselves; and I began with him thus:

Will Atkins, faid I, prithee what education had you? What was your father?

my

W. A. A better man than ever I fhall be. Sir, father was a clergyman.

R. C. What education did he give you?

W. A. He would have taught me well, Sir; but I defpifed all education, inftruction, or correction, like a beast as I was.

R. C. It is true, Solomon fays " he that defpifeth "reproof is brutish."

W. A. Ay, Sir, I was brutish indeed ; I murdered my father: for God's fake, Sir, talk no more about that, Sir; I murdered my poor father.

Prieft. Ha? a murderer!

[Here the priest started (for I interpreted every word as he spoke it) and looked pale: It seems he believed that Will had really killed his own father.]

R. C. No, no, Sir, I do not understand him fo. Will Atkins, explain yourself: you did not kill your father, did you, with your own hands?

W. A. No, Sir; I did not cut his throat; but I cut the thread of all his comforts, and fhortened

his days; I broke his heart by the most ungrateful, unnatural return, for the most tender, affectionate treatment that ever father gave, or child could receive.

R. C. Well, I did not afk you about your father, to extort this confeffion; I pray God give you repentance for it, and forgive you that, and all your other fins but I asked you, because I fee that though you have not much learning, yet you are not fo ignorant as fome are, in things that are good; that you have known more of religion a great deal than you have practised.

W. A. Though you, Sir, did not extort the confeffion that I make about my father, confcience does; and whenever we come to look back upon our lives, the fins against our indulgent parents are certainly the first that touch us; the wounds they make lie deepest; and the weight they leave will lie heaviest upon the mind of all the fins we can commit.

R. C. You talk too feelingly and fenfible for me, Atkins; I cannot bear it.

W. A. You bear it, mafter! I dare fay you know nothing of it.

R. C. Yes, Atkins; every fhore, every hill, nay, I may fay, every tree in this ifland, is witnefs to the anguish of my foul, for my ingratitude, and base ufage of a good tender father; a father much like your's, by your defcription; and I murdered my father as well as you, Will Atkins; but think, for all that, my repentance is short of your's too, by a great deal.

[I would have faid more, if I could have restrained my paffions; but I thought this poor man's repentance

was

was fo much fincerer than mine; that I was going to leave off the difcourfe, and retire, for I was furprised with what he faid; and thought that instead of my going about to teach and instruct him, the man was made a teacher and inftructor to me, in a most surprising and unexpected manner.]

I laid all this before the young clergyman, who was greatly affected with it, and faid to me, Did I not fay, Sir, that when this man was converted, he would preach to us all? I tell you, Sir, if this one man be made a true penitent, here will be no need of me; he will make Chriftians of all in the island. But having a little compofed myself, I renewed my difcourfe with Will Atkins.

But, Will, faid I, how comes the fense of this matter to touch you just now?

W. A. Sir, you have fet me about a work that has ftruck a dart through my very foul; I have been talking about GoD and religion to my wife, in order, as you directed me, to make a Chriftian of her; and she has preached fuch a fermon to me as I fhall never forget while I live.

R. C. No, no; it is not your wife has preached to you but when you were moving religious arguments to her, confcience has flung them back upon you.

W. A. Ay, Sir, with fuch a force as is not to be refifted.

R. C. Pray, Will, let us know what paffed between you and your wife; for I know fomething of

it already.

W. A. Sir, it is impoffible to give you a full account of it: I am too full to hold it, and yet have

no

no tongue to exprefs it: but let her have faid what fhe will, and though I cannot give you an account. of it, this I can tell you of it, that I refolve to amend and reform my life.

R. C. But tell us fome of it. How did you begin, Will? For this has been an extraordinary case, that is certain; fhe has preached a fermon, indeed, if she has wrought this upon you.

W. A. Why, I firft told her the nature of our laws about marriage, and what the reafons were that men and women were obliged to enter into fuch compacts, as it was neither in the power of one or other to break; that otherwife, order and juftice could not be maintained, and men would run from their wives, and abandon their children, mix confusedly with one another, and neither families be kept entire, or inheritances be fettled by a legal defcent.

R. C. You talk like a civilian, Will. Could you make her understand what you meant by inheritance and families? They know no fuch thing among the favages, but marry any how, without any regard to relation, confanguinity, or family; brother and fifter, nay, as I have been told, even the father and daughter, and the fon and the mother.

W. A. I believe, Sir, you are misinformed ;my wife affures me of the contrary, and that they abhor it. Perhaps, for any further relations, they may not be fo exact as we are; but fhe tells me they never touch one another in the near relations you fpeak of.

R. C. Well,

R. C. Well, what did fhe fay to what you told her?

W. A. She said she liked it very well; and it was much better than in her country.

R. C. But did you tell her what marriage was?

W. A. Ay, ay, there began all our dialogue. I afked her, If fhe would be married to me our way ? She asked me, What way that was? I told her marriage was appointed of GOD; and here we had a ftrange talk together indeed, as ever man and wife had, I believe.

[N. B. This dialogue between W. Atkins and his wife, as I took it down in writing, juft after he told it me, was as follows:

Wife. Appointed by your GOD! Why, have you a God in your country?

W. A. Yes, my dear, God is in every country? Wife. No your God in my country; my country have the great old Benamuckee God.

W. A. Child, I am very unfit to fhew you who Godis; God is in heaven, and made the heaven and the earth, the fea, and all that in them is.

Wife. No makee de earth; no you God makee de earth; no make my country.

[W. A. laughed a little at her expreffion of Gop not making her country.]

Wife. No laugh: Why laugh me? This no ting to laugh.

[He was justly reproved by his wife; for fhe was more ferious than he at firft.]

W. A. That's

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