the world, and good friends, as I understood by him, felf, and by his maid alfo; that the maid was not only poor, and a fervant, but was unequal to him, she being twenty-fix or twenty-feven years old, and he not above seventeen or eighteen; that he might very probably, with my affiftance, make a remove from this wilderness, and come into his own country again; and that then it would be a thousand to one but he would repent his choice; and the diflike of that circumstance might be disadvantageous to both. I was going to fay more, but he interrupted me, fmiling; and told me, with a great deal of modefty, that I miftook in my gueffes; that he had nothing of that kind in his thoughts, his prefent circumftances being melancholy and disconfolate enough; and he was very glad to hear, that I had fome thoughts of putting them in a way to fee their own country again; and that nothing fhould have fet him upon staying there, but that the voyage I was going was fo exceeding long and hazardous, and would carry him quite out of the reach of all his friends; that he had nothing to defire of me, but that I would fettle him in fome little property in the island where he was; give him a fervant or two, and fome few neceffaries, and he would fettle himself here like a planter, waiting the good time when, if ever I returned to England, I would redeem him, and hoped I would not be unmindful of him when I came to England; that he would give me fome letters to his friends in London, to let them know how good I had been to him, and what part of the world, and what circumstances I had left him in; and he promised me, that whenever I redeemed him, the plan

tation,

tation, and all the improvements he had made upon it, let the value be what it would, fhould be wholly mine.

His difcourfe was very prettily delivered, confiIdering his youth; and was the more agreeable to me, because he told me pofitively the match was not for himself. I gave him all poffible affurances, that if I lived to come fafe to England, I would deliver his letters, and do his bufinefs effectually; and that he might depend I would never forget the circumftances I left him in; but ftill I was impatient to know who was the perfon to be married: Upon which he told me it was my fack of all Trades, and his maid Sufan.

I was most agreeably furprised when he named the match; for indeed I had thought it very fuitable. The character of that man I have given already; and as for the maid, fhe was a very honcft, modeft, fober, and religious young woman; had a very good share of fenfe; was agreeable enough in her perfon; spoke very handfomely, and to the purpofe; always with decency and good manners, and not backward to speak when any thing required it, or impertinently forward to speak when it was not her business; very handy and housewifely in any thing that was before her; an excellent manager, and fit indeed to have been governefs to the whole ifland; fhe knew very well how to behave herself to all kind of folks fhe had about her, and to better, if fhe had found any there.

The match being propofed in this manner, we married them the fame day; and, as I was father at the altar, as I may fay, and gave her away, fo I

gave her a portion; for I appointed her and her hufband a handfome large fpace of ground for their plantation; and, indeed, this match, and the propofal the young gentleman made to me, to give him a fmall property in the island, put me upon parcelling it out among them, that they might not quarrel afterwards about their fituation.

This fharing out the land to them I left to Will Atkins, who, indeed, was now grown a most sober, grave, managing fellow; perfectly reformed, exceeding pious and religious; and, as far as I may be allowed to speak positively in fuch a cafe, I verily believe, was a true fincere penitent.

He divided things fo juftly, and fo much to every one's fatisfaction, that they only defired one general writing under my hand for the whole; which I caufed to be drawn up, and figned and fealed to them, setting out the bounds and fituation of every man's plantation, and testifying, that I gave them thereby, severally, a right to the whole poffeffion and inheritance of the refpective plantations or farms, with their improvements, to them and their heirs; reserving all the reft of the island as my own property, and a certain rent for every particular plantation, after eleven years, if I, or any one from me, or in my name, came to demand it, producing an attested copy of the fame writing.

As to the government and laws among them, I told them, I was not capable of giving them better rules than they were able to give themselves; only made them promise me, to live in love and good neighbourhood with one another: And fo I prepared to leave them.

One

One thing I must not omit; and that is, that being now settled in a kind of commonwealth among themselves, and having much business in hand, it was but odd to have feven-and-thirty Indians live in a nook of the island, independent, and, indeed, unemployed; for, excepting the providing themfelves food, which they had difficulty enough in doing fometimes, they had no manner of business or property to manage: I propofed therefore to the governor Spaniard, that he should go to them with Friday's father, and propofe to them to remove, and either plant for themselves, or take them into their feveral families as fervants, to be maintained for their labour, but without being abfolute flaves; for I would `not admit them to make them flaves by force, by any means, because they had their liberty given by capitulation, and, as it were, articles of furrender, which they ought not to break.

They moft willingly embraced the propofal, and came all very chearfully along with him; fo we allotted them land and plantations, which three or four accepted of, but all the reft chofe to be employed as fervants in the several families we had fettled; and thus my colony was in a manner fettled, as follows: The Spaniards poffeffed my original habitation, which was the capital city, and extended their plantation all along the fide of the brook, which made the creek that I have so often described, as far as my bower; and as they increased their culture, it went always eastward; the English lived in the north-east part, where Will Atkins and his comrades began, and came on fouthward and fouthweft, towards the back part of the Spaniards; and

every plantation had a great addition of land to take in, if they found occafion; so that they need not jostle one another for want of room.

All the weft end of the island was left uninhabited, that if any of the favages fhould come on fhore there, only for their ufual cuftomary barbarities, they might come and go; if they disturbed nobody, nobody would difturb them; and no doubt but they were often afhore, and went away again; for I never heard that the planters were ever attacked and disturbed any

more.

It now came into my thoughts, that I had hinted to my friend the clergyman, that the work of converting the favages might, perhaps, be fet on foot in his abfence, to his fatisfaction; and I told him, that now I thought it was put in a fair way; for the favages being thus divided among the Chriftians, if they would but every one of them do their part with those which came under their hands, I hoped it might have a very good effect.

He agreed presently in that: If, faid he, they will do their part; but how, fays he, fhall we obtain that of them? I told him, we would call them all together, and leave it in charge with them, or go to them one by one, which he thought beft; fo we divided it; he to speak to the Spaniards, who were all Papists; and I to the English, who were all Proteftants; and we recommended it earneftly to them, and made them promife, that they would never make any dif tinction of Papift or Proteftant, in their exhorting the favages to turn Christians; but teach them the general knowledge of the true God, and of their Sa