I must confess I was so confounded at this discourse, that I could not tell how to answer him.  “Sir,’ said he, feeling me in disorder, ’I shall be very sorry if I have given you offence.” No Sir, said I, I am rather confounded; and you know my circumstances, that being bound to the East Indies in a merchant ship, I cannot wrong the owners so much, as to detain the ship here, the men lying at victuals and savages on their account.  If I stay aboard several days, I must pay 3l. sterling per diem demurage, nor must the ship stop above eight days more; so that I am unable to engage in this work, unless I would leave the ship, and be reduced to my former condition. The priest, though he owned this was hard upon me, yet laid it to my conscience, whether the blessing of saving seven and thirty souls was not worth venturing all that I had in the world? Sir, said I, it is very true; but as you are an ecclesiastic, it naturally falls into your profession:  why, therefore, don’t you rather offer to undertake it yourself than press me to it? upon this he turned about, making a very low bow, “I most humbly thank God and you, Sir, (said he) for so blessed a call; and most willingly undertake so glorious an office, which will sufficiently compensate all the hazards and difficulties I have gone through in a long and uncomfortable voyage.”

While he was thus speaking, I could discover a rapture in his face, by his colour going and coming; at the same time his eyes sparkled like fire, and all the signs of the most zealous transports.  And when I asked whether he was in earnest? Sir, said he, it was to preach to the Indians I consented to come along with you; these infidels, even in this little island, are infinitely of more worth than my poor life:  if so that I should prove the happy instrument of saving these poor creatures’ souls, I care not if I never see my native country again.  One thing I only beg of you more is, that you would leave Friday with me, to be my interpreter, without whose assistance neither of us will understand each other.

This request very sensibly troubled me; first, upon Friday’s being bred a Protestant; and secondly, for the affection I bore to him for his fidelity:  But, immediately the remembrance of Friday’s father coming into my head, I recommended him to him as having learned Spanish, which the priest also understood; and so was thoroughly satisfied with him.

When we came to the Englishmen, after I had told them what necessary things I had done for them, I talked to them of the scandalous life they led, told them what notice the clergyman had taken of it, and asked them if they were married men or bachelors?  They answered, two of them were widowers, and the other three single men.  But, said I, with what conscience can you call these your wives, by whom you have so many children, and yet are not lawfully married?  They all said that they took them before the governor