a different persuasion, if upon that very account, we did not differ in points of faith, not decent in a part of the country where the poor Indians ought to be instructed in the knowledge of the true God, and his Son Jesus Christ.  To this he replied, that conversation might easily be separated from disputes; that he would discourse with me rather as a gentleman than a religious:  but that, if we did enter upon religious argument, upon my desiring the same, I would give him liberty to defend his own principles.  He farther added, that he would do all that became him in his office, as a priest as well as a Christian, to procure the happiness of all that were in the ship:  that though he could not pray with, he would pray for us on all occasions; and then he told me several extraordinary events of his life, within a few years past; but particularly in this last, which was the most remarkable:  that, in this voyage, he had the misfortune to be five times shipped and unshipped:  his first design was to have gone to Martinico; for which, taking ship at St. Malos, he was forced into Lisbon by bad weather, the vessel running aground in the mouth of the Tagus; that from thence he went on board a Portuguese ship, bound to the Madeiras, whose master being but an indifferent mariner, and out of his reckoning, they were drove to Fial, where selling their commodity, which was corn, they resolved to take in their loading at the Isle of May, and to sail to Newfoundland; at the banks of which, meeting a French ship bound to Quebec, in the river of Canada, and from thence to Martinico, in this ship he embarked; the master of which dying at Quebec, that voyage was suspended; and lastly, shipping himself for France, this last ship was destroyed by fire, as before has been related.

At this time we talked no further; but another morning he comes to me, just as I was going to visit the Englishman’s colony, and tells me, that as he knew; the prosperity of the island, was my principal desire, he had something to communicate agreeable to my design, by which perhaps be might put it, more than he yet thought it was, in the way of the benediction of heaven. How, Sir, said I, in a surprise, are we not yet in the way of God’s blessings, after all these signal providences and deliverances, of which you have had such an ample relation? He replied, Nope, Sir, you are in the way, and that your good design will prosper:  but still there are some among you that are not equally right in their actions; and remember, I beseech you, Sir, that Achan, by his crime, removed God’s blessing from the camp of the children of Israel; that though six and thirty where entirely innocent, yet they became the object of divine vengeance, and bore the weight of his punishment accordingly.

So sensibly was I touched with this discourse, and so satisfied with that ardent piety that inflamed his soul, that I desired him to accompany me to the Englishman’s plantations, which he was very glad of, by reason they were the subject of what he designed to discourse with me about:  and while we walked on together, he began in the following manner: