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第0章 飘渺仙域

ed with trampling andrunning through the fire; others their hands burned; one of thewomen had fallen down in the fire, and was very much burned beforeshe could get out again; and two or three of the men had cuts intheir backs and thighs, from our men pursuing; and another was shotthrough the body and died while I was there.

　　He looked earnestly at me, seeing my confusion. "Sir," says he, "Ishall be very sorry if what I have said gives you any offence." -"No, no," said I, "I am offended with nobody but myself; but I amperfectly confounded, not only to think that I should never takeany notice of this before, but with reflecting what notice I amable to take of it now. You know, sir," said I, "whatcircumstances I am in; I am bound to the East Indies in a shipfreighted by merchants, and to whom it would be an insufferablepiece of injustice to detain their ship here, the men lying allthis while at victuals and wages on the owners' account. It istrue, I agreed to be allowed twelve days here, and if I stay more,I must pay three pounds sterling PER DIEM demurrage; nor can I stayupon demurrage above eight days more, and I have been here thirteenalready; so that I am perfectly unable to engage in this workunless I would suffer myself to be left behind here again; in whichcase, if this single ship should miscarry in any part of hervoya

　　I was sensibly touched with this discourse, and told him hisinference was so just, and the whole design seemed so sincere, andwas really so religious in its own nature, that I was very sorry Ihad interrupted him, and begged him to go on; and, in the meantime,because it seemed that what we had both to say might take up sometime, I told him I was going to the Englishmen's plantations, andasked him to go with me, and we might discourse of it by the way.He told me he would the more willingly wait on me thither, becausethere partly the thing was acted which he desired to speak to meabout; so we walked on, and I pressed him to be free and plain withme in what he had to say.

heirvictuals, he takes a firebrand, and claps it to the outside oftheir hut, and set it on fire: indeed, it would have been allburned down in a few minutes if one of the two had not run to thefellow, thrust him away, and trod the fire out with his feet, andthat not without some difficulty too.

e fire, lay four menand three women, killed, and, as we thought, one or two more lay inthe heap among the fire; in short, there were such instances ofrage, altogether barbarous, and of a fury something beyond what washuman, that we thought it impossible our men could be guilty of it;or, if they were the authors of it, we thought they ought to beevery one of them put to the worst of deaths. But this was notall: we saw the fire increase forward, and the cry went on just asthe fire went on; so that we were in the utmost confusion. Weadvanced a little way farther, and behold, to our astonishment,three naked women, and crying in a most dreadful manner, cameflying as if they had wings, and after them sixteen or seventeenmen, natives, in the same terror and consternation, with three ofour English butchers in the rear, who, when they could not overtakethem, fired in among them, and one that was killed by their shotfell down in our sight. When the rest saw us, believing us to betheir enemies, and that we would mur

llowsas we indeed are? Why, sir; 'tis enough to give them a surfeit ofreligion at first hearing; folks must have some religion themselvesbefore they begin to teach other people." - "Will Atkins," said Ito him, "though I am afraid that what you say has too much truth init, yet can you not tell your wife she is in the wrong; that thereis a God and a religion better than her own; that her gods areidols; that they can neither hear nor speak; that there is a greatBeing that made all things, and that can destroy all that He hasmade; that He rewards the good and punishes the bad; and that weare to be judged by Him at last for all we do here? You are not soignorant but even nature itself will teach you that all this istrue; and I am satisfied you know it all to be true, and believe ityourself." - "That is true, sir," said Atkins; "but with what facecan I say anything to my wife of all this, when she will tell meimmediately it cannot be true?" - "Not true!" said I; "what do youmean by that?" - "Why, sir," said he, "

　　We talked a little, and I did not perceive that they had any bookamong them, though I did not ask; but I put my hand into my pocket,and pulled out my Bible. "Here," said I to Atkins, "I have broughtyou an assistant that perhaps you had not before." The man was soconfounded that he was not able to speak for some time; but,recovering himself, he takes it with both his hands, and turning tohis wife, "Here, my dear," says he, "did not I tell you our God,though He lives above, could hear what we have said? Here's thebook I prayed for when you and I kneeled down under the bush; nowGod has heard us and sent it." When he had said so, the man fellinto such passionate transports, that between the joy of having it,and giving God thanks for it, the tears ran down his face like achild that was crying.

　　But the next care was the poor maid: she lay all along upon thedeck, hard by her mistress, and just like one that had fallen downin a fit of apoplexy, and struggled for life. Her limbs weredistorted; one of her hands was clasped round the frame of thechair, and she gripped it so hard that we could not easily make herlet it go; her other arm lay over her head, and her feet lay bothtogether, set fast against the frame of the cabin table: in short,she lay just like one in the agonies of death, and yet she wasalive too. The poor creature was not only starved with hunger, andterrified with the thoughts of death, but, as the men told usafterwards, was broken-hearted for her mistress, whom she saw dyingfor two or three days before, and whom she loved most tenderly. Weknew not what to do with this poor girl; for when our surgeon, whowas a man of very great knowledge and experience, had, with greatapplication, recovered her as to life, he had her upon his handsstill; for she was little less than distracted for

urs they were entirely outof our sight, and we never heard any more of them, nor whether theywent to Sibeilka or no. So we passed away safely on to Jarawena,where there was a Russian garrison, and there we rested five days.