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第9章 意外之外的竞争对手

　　I was then curious, indeed, to see it; and when I came to it, itwas nothing but this: it was a timber house, or a house built, aswe call it in England, with lath and plaster, but all thisplastering was really China ware - that is to say, it was plasteredwith the earth that makes China ware. The outside, which the sunshone hot upon, was glazed, and looked very well, perfectly white,and painted with blue figures, as the large China ware in Englandis painted, and hard as if it had been burnt. As to the inside,all the walls, instead of wainscot, were lined with hardened andpainted tiles, like the little square tiles we call galley-tiles inEngland, all made of the finest china, and the figures exceedingfine indeed, with extraordinary variety of colours, mixed withgold, many tiles making but one figure, but joined so artificially,the mortar being made of the same earth, that it was very hard tosee where the tiles met. The floors of the rooms were of the samecomposition, and as hard as the earthen floors we ha

d themvery well. I then made the Englishman gunner in the ship, thegunner being now made second mate and purser; the Dutchman I madeboatswain; so they were both very well pleased, and proved veryserviceable, being both able seamen, and very stout fellows.

　　I was sensibly touched at his requesting Friday, because I couldnot think of parting with him, and that for many reasons: he hadbeen the companion of my travels; he was not only faithful to me,but sincerely affectionate to the last degree; and I had resolvedto do something considerable for him if he out-lived me, as it wasprobable he would. Then I knew that, as I had bred Friday up to bea Protestant, it would quite confound him to bring him to embraceanother religion; and he would never, while his eyes were open,believe that his old master was a heretic, and would be damned; andthis might in the end ruin the poor fellow's principles, and soturn him back again to his first idolatry. However, a suddenthought relieved me in this strait, and it was this: I told him Icould not say that I was willing to part with Friday on any accountwhatever, though a work that to him was of more value than his lifeought to be of much more value than the keeping or parting with aservant. On the other hand, I was persuaded t

　　I now pressed him for the third article in which we were to blame."Why, really," says he, "it is of the same nature. It is aboutyour poor savages, who are, as I may say, your conquered subjects.It is a maxim, sir, that is or ought to be received among allChristians, of what church or pretended church soever, that theChristian knowledge ought to be propagated by all possible meansand on all possible occasions. It is on this principle that ourChurch sends missionaries into Persia, India, and China; and thatour clergy, even of the superior sort, willingly engage in the mosthazardous voyages, and the most dangerous residence amongstmurderers and barbarians, to teach them the knowledge of the trueGod, and to bring them over to embrace the Christian faith. Now,sir, you have such an opportunity here to have six or seven andthirty poor savages brought over from a state of idolatry to theknowledge of God, their Maker and Redeemer, that I wonder how youcan pass such an occasion of doing good, which is really worth

　　I was no more able to stay behind now than I was to persuade themnot to go; so the captain ordered two men to row back the pinnace,and fetch twelve men more, leaving the long-boat at an anchor; andthat, when they came back, six men should keep the two boats, andsix more come after us; so that he left only sixteen men in theship: for the whole ship's company consisted of sixty-five men,whereof two were lost in the late quarrel which brought thismischief on.

dog, "and so youshall, too, before we have done with you;" mixing two or threeoaths in the proper intervals of his speech. The Spaniard onlysmiled at that, and made him no answer. However, this littlediscourse had heated them; and starting up, one says to the other.(I think it was he they called Will Atkins), "Come, Jack, let's goand have t'other brush with them; we'll demolish their castle, I'llwarrant you; they shall plant no colony in our dominions."

　　When the Spanish governor heard this, he calls to Will Atkins,"How, Seignior Atkins, would you murder us all? What have you tosay to that?" The hardened villain was so far from denying it,that he said it was true, and swore they would do it still beforethey had done with them. "Well, but Seignior Atkins," says theSpaniard, "what have we done to you that you will kill us? Whatwould you get by killing us? And what must we do to prevent youkilling us? Must we kill you, or you kill us? Why will you put usto the necessity of this, Seignior Atkins?" says the Spaniard verycalmly, and smiling. Seignior Atkins was in such a rage at theSpaniard's making a jest of it, that, had he not been held by threemen, and withal had no weapon near him, it was thought he wouldhave attempted to kill the Spaniard in the middle of all thecompany. This hare-brained carriage obliged them to considerseriously what was to be done. The two Englishmen and the Spaniardwho saved the poor savage were of the opinion that they should

　　After half-an-hour's consultation they were called in, and a longdebate ensued, their two countrymen charging them with the ruin ofall their labour, and a design to murder them; all which they ownedbefore, and therefore could not deny now. Upon the whole, theSpaniards acted the moderators between them; and as they hadobliged the two Englishmen not to hurt the three while they werenaked and unarmed, so they now obliged the three to go and rebuildtheir fellows' two huts, one to be of the same and the other oflarger dimensions than they were before; to fence their groundagain, plant trees in the room of those pulled up, dig up the landagain for planting corn, and, in a word, to restore everything tothe same state as they found it, that is, as near as they could.

　　The first thing, however, which I inquired into, that I might beginwhere I left off, was of their own part; and I desired the Spaniardwould give me a particular account of his voyage back to hiscountrymen with the boat, when I sent him to fetch them over. Hetold me there was little variety in that part, for nothingremarkable happened to them on the way, having had very calmweather and a smooth sea. As for his countrymen, it could not bedoubted, he said, but that they were overjoyed to see him (it seemshe was the principal man among them, the captain of the vessel theyhad been shipwrecked in having been dead some time): they were, hesaid, the more surprised to see him, because they knew that he wasfallen into the hands of the savages, who, they were satisfied,would devour him as they did all the rest of their prisoners; thatwhen he told them the story of his deliverance, and in what mannerhe was furnished for carrying them away, it was like a dream tothem, and their astonishment, he said, was somewhat lik