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the stocks oftheir muskets, but not by shooting them, for fear of raising analarm by the noise.

　　The first hour that I began to converse with him after he hadagreed to go with me to the East Indies, I found reason to delightexceedingly in his conversation; and he first began with me aboutreligion in the most obliging manner imaginable. "Sir," says he,"you have not only under God" (and at that he crossed his breast)"saved my life, but you have admitted me to go this voyage in yourship, and by your obliging civility have taken me into your family,giving me an opportunity of free conversation. Now, sir, you seeby my habit what my profession is, and I guess by your nation whatyours is; I may think it is my duty, and doubtless it is so, to usemy utmost endeavours, on all occasions, to bring all the souls Ican to the knowledge of the truth, and to embrace the Catholicdoctrine; but as I am here under your permission, and in yourfamily, I am bound, in justice to your kindness as well as indecency and good manners, to be under your government; andtherefore I shall not, without your leave, enter into any debat

ked thanthey, that after they had been two or three days together theyturned the two newcomers out of doors to shift for themselves, andwould have nothing to do with them; nor could they for a good whilebe persuaded to give them any food: as for the Spaniards, theywere not yet come.

ked thanthey, that after they had been two or three days together theyturned the two newcomers out of doors to shift for themselves, andwould have nothing to do with them; nor could they for a good whilebe persuaded to give them any food: as for the Spaniards, theywere not yet come.

　　My magazine of powder and arms which I brought them was such, evento profusion, that they could not but rejoice at them; for now theycould march as I used to do, with a musket upon each shoulder, ifthere was occasion; and were able to fight a thousand savages, ifthey had but some little advantages of situation, which also theycould not miss, if they had occasion.

erSon, in a tongue which they understood not, and to crossthemselves, and the like; yet it must be confessed that thereligionists, whom we call missionaries, have a firm belief thatthese people will be saved, and that they are the instruments ofit; and on this account they undergo not only the fatigue of thevoyage, and the hazards of living in such places, but oftentimesdeath itself, and the most violent tortures, for the sake of thiswork.

　　Nothing had so much troubled me a good while as that I should missthe opportunity of going with them; for such a ramble, I thought,and in such company as would both have guarded and diverted me,would have suited mightily with my great design; and I should haveboth seen the world and gone homeward too. But I was much bettersatisfied a few days after, when I came to know what sort offellows they were; for, in short, their history was, that this manthey called captain was the gunner only, not the commander; thatthey had been a trading voyage, in which they had been attacked onshore by some of the Malays, who had killed the captain and threeof his men; and that after the captain was killed, these men,eleven in number, having resolved to run away with the ship,brought her to Bengal, leaving the mate and five men more on shore.

　　We were obliged to stay here some time after we had furnishedourselves with provisions; and I, who was always too curious tolook into every nook of the world wherever I came, went on shore asoften as I could. It was on the east side of the island that wewent on shore one evening: and the people, who, by the way, arevery numerous, came thronging about us, and stood gazing at us at adistance. As we had traded freely with them, and had been kindlyused, we thought ourselves in no danger; but when we saw thepeople, we cut three boughs out of a tree, and stuck them up at adistance from us; which, it seems, is a mark in that country notonly of a truce and friendship, but when it is accepted the otherside set up three poles or boughs, which is a signal that theyaccept the truce too; but then this is a known condition of thetruce, that you are not to pass beyond their three poles towardsthem, nor they to come past your three poles or boughs towards you;so that you are perfectly secure within the three poles, and

　　The first thing they did was to cause the old Indian, Friday'sfather, to go in, and see first if he knew any of them, and then ifhe understood any of their speech. As soon as the old man came in,he looked seriously at them, but knew none of them; neither couldany of them understand a word he said, or a sign he could make,except one of the women. However, this was enough to answer theend, which was to satisfy them that the men into whose hands theywere fallen were Christians; that they abhorred eating men orwomen; and that they might be sure they would not be killed. Assoon as they were assured of this, they discovered such a joy, andby such awkward gestures, several ways, as is hard to describe; forit seems they were of several nations. The woman who was theirinterpreter was bid, in the next place, to ask them if they werewilling to be servants, and to work for the men who had broughtthem away, to save their lives; at which they all fell a-dancing;and presently one fell to taking up this, and another th