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第2章 万古长青之路！！

　　CHAPTER VII - CONVERSATION BETWIXT WILL ATKINS AND HIS WIFE

　　W.A. - I prayed to Him to open your eyes and your understanding,that you may know Him, and be accepted by Him.

　　At length they came in view of the place where the more miserableremains of the savages' army lay, where there appeared about ahundred still; their posture was generally sitting upon the ground,with their knees up towards their mouth, and the head put betweenthe two hands, leaning down upon the knees. When our men camewithin two musket-shots of them, the Spaniard governor ordered twomuskets to be fired without ball, to alarm them; this he did, thatby their countenance he might know what to expect, whether theywere still in heart to fight, or were so heartily beaten as to bediscouraged, and so he might manage accordingly. This stratagemtook: for as soon as the savages heard the first gun, and saw theflash of the second, they started up upon their feet in thegreatest consternation imaginable; and as our men advanced swiftlytowards them, they all ran screaming and yelling away, with a kindof howling noise, which our men did not understand, and had neverheard before; and thus they ran up the hills into the c

　　As to the three reprobates, as I justly call them, though they weremuch civilised by their settlement compared to what they werebefore, and were not so quarrelsome, having not the sameopportunity; yet one of the certain companions of a profligate mindnever left them, and that was their idleness. It is true, theyplanted corn and made fences; but Solomon's words were never betterverified than in them, "I went by the vineyard of the slothful, andit was all overgrown with thorns": for when the Spaniards came toview their crop they could not see it in some places for weeds, thehedge had several gaps in it, where the wild goats had got in andeaten up the corn; perhaps here and there a dead bush was crammedin, to stop them out for the present, but it was only shutting thestable-door after the steed was stolen. Whereas, when they lookedon the colony of the other two, there was the very face of industryand success upon all they did; there was not a weed to be seen inall their corn, or a gap in any of their hedges

　　From this city we had a frightful desert, which held us twenty-three days' march. We furnished ourselves with some tents here,for the better accommodating ourselves in the night; and the leaderof the caravan procured sixteen waggons of the country, forcarrying our water or provisions, and these carriages were ourdefence every night round our little camp; so that had the Tartarsappeared, unless they had been very numerous indeed, they would nothave been able to hurt us. We may well be supposed to have wantedrest again after this long journey; for in this desert we neithersaw house nor tree, and scarce a bush; though we saw abundance ofthe sable-hunters, who are all Tartars of Mogul Tartary; of whichthis country is a part; and they frequently attack small caravans,but we saw no numbers of them together.

　　This was her own relation, and is such a distinct account ofstarving to death, as, I confess, I never met with, and wasexceeding instructive to me. I am the rather apt to believe it tobe a true account, because the youth gave me an account of a goodpart of it; though I must own, not so distinct and so feeling asthe maid; and the rather, because it seems his mother fed him atthe price of her own life: but the poor maid, whose constitutionwas stronger than that of her mistress, who was in years, and aweakly woman too, might struggle harder with it; nevertheless shemight be supposed to feel the extremity something sooner than hermistress, who might be allowed to keep the last bit somethinglonger than she parted with any to relieve her maid. No question,as the case is here related, if our ship or some other had not soprovidentially met them, but a few days more would have ended alltheir lives. I now return to my disposition of things among thepeople. And, first, it is to be observed here, that for manyreas

ge, I should be just in the same condition that I was left inhere at first, and from which I have been so wonderfullydelivered." He owned the case was very hard upon me as to myvoyage; but laid it home upon my conscience whether the blessing ofsaving thirty-seven souls was not worth venturing all I had in theworld for. I was not so sensible of that as he was. I replied tohim thus: "Why, sir, it is a valuable thing, indeed, to be aninstrument in God's hand to convert thirty-seven heathens to theknowledge of Christ: but as you are an ecclesiastic, and are givenover to the work, so it seems so naturally to fall in the way ofyour profession; how is it, then, that you do not rather offeryourself to undertake it than to press me to do it?"

　　W. A. - No, indeed, I have not thanked God for His mercy, any morethan I have feared God from His power.

　　About an hour after they again made a motion to attack us, and roderound our little wood to see where they might break in; but findingus always ready to face them, they went off again; and we resolvednot to stir for that night.