Then the Englishmen asked the Spaniards if they designed to take any of them?  But every one answered, “No;” some of them said they had wives in Spain; and the others did not like women that were not Christians; and all together declared, that they would not touch one of them; which was an instance of such virtue as I have not met with in all my travels.  On the other hand, to be short, the five Englishmen took them every one a wife; that is to say, a temporary wife; and so they set up a new form of living; for the Spaniards and Friday’s father lived in my old habitation, which they had enlarged exceedingly within; the three servants, which they had taken in the late battle of the savages, lived with them; and these carried on the main part of the colony, supplying all the rest with food, and assisting them in any thing as they could, or as they found necessity required.

But the wonder of this story was, how five such refractory, ill-matched fellows should agree about these women, and that two of them should not pitch upon the same woman, especially seeing two or three of them were, without comparison, more agreeable than the others:  but they took a good way enough to prevent quarrelling among themselves; for they set the five women by themselves in one of their huts, and they went all into the other hut, and drew lots among them who should choose first.

He that drew to choose first, went away by himself to the hut where the poor naked creatures were, and fetched out her he chose; and it was worth observing that he that chose first took her that was reckoned the homeliest and the oldest of the five, which made mirth enough among the rest; and even the Spaniards laughed at it; but the fellow considered better than any of them, that it was application and business that they were to expect assistance in as much as any thing else, and she proved the best wife in the parcel.

When the poor women saw themselves in a row thus, and fetched out one by one, the terrors of their condition returned upon them again, and they firmly believed that they were now going to be devoured:  accordingly, when the English sailor came in and fetched out one of them, the rest set up a most lamentable cry, and hung about her, and took their leave of her with such agonies and such affection as would have grieved the hardest heart in the world; nor was it possible for the Englishmen to satisfy them that they were not to be immediately murdered, till they fetched the old man, Friday’s father, who instantly let them know, that the five men who had fetched them out one by one, had chosen them for their wives.

When they had done this, and the fright the women were in was a little over, the men went to work, and the Spaniards came and helped them; and in a few hours they had built them every one a new hut or tent for their lodging apart; for those they had already were crowded with their tools, household stuff, and provisions.  The three wicked ones had pitched farthest off, and the two honest ones nearer, but both on the north shore of the island, so that they continued separate as before:  and thus my island was peopled in three places, and, as I might say, three towns were begun to be planted.