as you were in at the Door of the outer Circle, you had a fhort Paffage ftrait before you to the Door of the inner House, but on either Side was a wicker Partition, and a Door in it, by which you went, firft, into a large Room or Store-house, 20 Foot wide, and about 30 Foot long, and thro' that into another not quite fo long; fo that in the outer Circle was ten handfome Rooms, fix of which, were only to be come at thro' the Appartments of the inner Tent, and ferv'd as Clofets or retiring Rooms to the respective Chambers of the inner Circle, and four large Warehouses or Barns, or what you please to call them, which went in thro' one another, two on either Hand of the Paffage, that led thro' the outer Door to the inner Tent. Such a Piece of Basket-work, I believe, was never feen in the World, nor a Houfe or Tent, fo neatly contriv'd, much lefs, fo built. In this great Bee-hive liv'd the three Families, that is to fay, W. Atkins and his Companion, the third was kill'd, but his Wife remain'd with three Children, for the was it feems big with Child when he dy'd, and the other two were not at all backward to give the Widow her full Share of every thing, I mean as to their Corn, Milk, Grapes, &c. and when they kill'd a Kid, or found a Turtle on the Shore; fo that they all liv'd well enough, tho' it was true, they were not fo Industrious as the other two, as has been obferv'd already. One Thing however cannot be omitted (viz.) that as for Religion, I don't know that there was any thing of that kind among them; they pretty pretty often indeed put one another in Mind that there was a God, by the very common Method of Seamen, (viz.) Swearing by his Name; nor were their poor ignorant Savage-Wives much the better for having been married to Chriftians, as we must call them; for as they knew very little of God themselves, fo they were utterly uncapable of entring into any Difcourfe with their Wives about a God, or to talk any thing to them concerning Religion. The utmost of all the Improvement, which I can fay the Wives had made from them, was, that they had taught them to speak English pretty well, and all the Children' they had, which was near 20 in all, were taught to speak English too, from their firft learning to fpeak, tho' they at first, spoke it in a very broken manner, like their Mothers. There were none of thefe Children above fix Year old when I came thither, for it was not much above feven Year that they had fetch'd these five Savage Ladies over, but they had all been pretty fruitful, for they had all Children, more or lefs,; I think the Cook's-mate's Wife, was big of her fixth Child; and the Mothers were all a good fort of well-govern'd quiet laborious Women, modeft and decent, helpful to one another; mighty obfervant and fubject to their Masters, I cannot call them Husbands'; and wanted nothing but to be well inftructed in the Christian Religion, and to be legally married; both which, were happily brought about afterwards by my Means, or at least, in Confequence of my coming among them. Having thus given an Account of the Colony in general, and pretty much of my five runagate English English Men, I muft fay fomething of the Spaniards; who were the main Body of the Family; and in whose Story there are fome Incidents alfo remarkable enough. 1 had a great many Difcourfes with them about their Circumstances when they were among the Savages: They told me readily, that they had no Inftances to give of their Application or Ingenuity in that Country; that they were a poor miferable dejected Handful of People, that if Means had been put into their Hands, had yet fo abandon'd themfelves to Defpair, and fo funk under the Weight of their Misfortunes, that they thought of nothing but ftarving: One of them, a grave and very fenfible Man, told me, he was convinc'd, they were in the Wrong; that it was not the Part of wife Men to give up themselves to their Mifery, but always to take hold of the Helps which Reason offer'd, as well for prefent Support, as for future Deliverance. He told me that Grief was the moft fenfelefs infignificant Paffion in the World; for that it regarded only Things paft, which were generally impoffible to be recall'd, or to remedy'd, but had no View to Things to come, and had no Share in any Thing that look'd like Deliverance, but rather added to the Affliction, than proposed a Remedy: And upon this he repeated a Spanish Proverb; which tho' I cannot repeat in juft the fame Words that he spoke it in, yet I remember I made it into an English Proverb of my own, thus: In Trouble to be troubl'd, Is to have your Trouble doubl'd. He He run on then in Remarks upon all the little Improvements I had made in my Solitude; my unwearied Application, as he call'd it, and how I had made a Condition, which in its Circumftances was at firft much worse than their's a thoufand Times, more happy than their's was, even now when they were all together. He told me, it was remarkable, that English Men had a greater Presence of Mind, in their Diftrefs, than any People that ever he met with, that their unhappy Nation, and the Portuguese, were the worft Men in the World to ftruggle with Misfortunes; for that their firft Step in Dangers, after the common Efforts were over, was always to despair, lie down under it, and die, without roufing their Thoughts up to proper Remedies for Escape. I told him, their Cafe and mine differ'd exceedingly, that they were caft upon the Shore without Neceffaries, without Supply of Food, or of prefent Suftenance, 'till they could provide: That it is true, I had this Difadvantage and Discomfort, that I was alone; but then the Supplies I had providentially thrown into my Hands, by the unexpected driving of the Ship on Shore, was fuch a Help as would have encourag'd any Creature in the World to have apply'd himself as I had done. Seignior, fays the Spaniard, had we poor Spaniards been in your Cafe, we fhould never have gotten half thofe Things out of the Ship, as you did: Nay, fays he, we thould never have found Means to have gotten a Raft to carry them, or to have gotten the Raft on Shore without Boat or Sail; and how much less fhould we have done, faid he, if any of us had been alone? Well, I defir'd him to abate his Compliment, and go on with the History of their coming on Shore, where they lan ded, ། ded, He told me, they unhappily landed at a Place where there were People without Provifions; whereas had they had the common Senfe to have put off to Sea again, and gone to another Island a little farther, they had found Provifions, tho without People; there being an Island that Way, as they had been told, where there was Provifions, tho' no People; that is to fay, That the Spaniards of Trinidad had frequently been there, and had fill'd the Island with Goats and Hogs at feveral Times; where they have bred in fuch Multitudes, and where Turtle and Sea Fowls were in fuch Plenty, that they could ha' been in no Want of Flesh, tho' they had found no Bread; whereas here, they were only fuftain'd with a few Roots and Herbs, which they understood not, and which had no Substance in them, and which the Inhabitants gave them fparingly enough, and who could treat them no better, unless they would turn Cannibals, and eat Mens Flesh, which was the great Dainty of their Country. They gave me an Account, how many Ways they ftrove to civilize the Savages they were with, and to teach them rational Cuftoms in the ordinary Way of living, but in vain; and how they retorted it upon them, as unjuft, that they who came there for Affiftance and Support, should attempt to fet up for Inftructors of those that gave them Bread; intimating, it seems, that none should fet up for the Inftructors of others, but those who could live without them. They gave me difmal Accounts of the Extremities they were driven to; how fometimes they were many Days without any Food at all; the Inland they were upon being inhabited by a Sort of |
