men had so far out-gone the three, that there was no comparison.
They had, indeed, both of them as much ground laid out for corn as
they wanted, and the reason was, because, according to my rule,
nature dictated that it was to no purpose to sow more corn than
they wanted; but the difference of the cultivation, of the
planting, of the fences, and indeed, of everything else, was easy
to be seen at first view.
The two men had innumerable young trees planted about their huts,
so that, when you came to the place, nothing was to be seen but a
wood; and though they had twice had their plantation demolished,
once by their own countrymen, and once by the enemy, as shall be
shown in its place, yet they had restored all again, and everything
was thriving and flourishing about them; they had grapes planted in
order, and managed like a vineyard, though they had themselves
never seen anything of that kind; and by their good ordering their
vines, their grapes were as good again as any of the others. They
had also found themselves out a retreat in the thickest part of the
woods, where, though there was not a natural cave, as I had found,
yet they made one with incessant labour of their hands, and where,
when the mischief which followed happened, they secured their wives
and children so as they could never be found; they having, by
sticking innumerable stakes and poles of the wood which, as I said,
grew so readily, made the grove impassable, except in some places,
when they climbed up to get over the outside part, and then went on
by ways of their own leaving.
As to the three reprobates, as I justly call them, though they were
much civilised by their settlement compared to what they were
before, and were not so quarrelsome, having not the same
opportunity; yet one of the certain companions of a profligate mind
never left them, and that was their idleness. It is true, they
planted corn and made fences; but Solomon’s words were never better
verified than in them, “I went by the vineyard of the slothful, and
it was all overgrown with thorns”: for when the Spaniards came to
view their crop they could not see it in some places for weeds, the
hedge had several gaps in it, where the wild goats had got in and
eaten up the corn; perhaps here and there a dead bush was crammed
in, to stop them out for the present, but it was only shutting the
stable-door after the steed was stolen. Whereas, when they looked
on the colony of the other two, there was the very face of industry
and success upon all they did; there was not a weed to be seen in
all their corn, or a gap in any of their hedges; and they, on the
other hand, verified Solomon’s words in another place, “that the
diligent hand maketh rich”; for everything grew and thrived, and
they had plenty within and without; they had more tame cattle than
the others, more utensils and necessaries within doors, and yet
more pleasure and diversion too.
It is true, the wives of the three were very handy and cleanly
within doors; and having learned the English ways of dressing, and
cooking from one of the other Englishmen, who, as I said, was a
cook’s mate on board the ship, they dressed their husbands’
victuals very nicely and well; whereas the others could not be
brought to understand it; but then the husband, who, as I say, had
been cook’s mate, did it himself. But as for the husbands of the
three wives, they loitered about, fetched turtles’ eggs, and caught
fish and birds: in a word, anything but labour; and they fared
accordingly. The diligent lived well and comfortably, and the
slothful hard and beggarly; and so, I believe, generally speaking,
it is all over the world.
But I now come to a scene different from all that had happened
before, either to them or to me; and the origin of the story was
this: Early one morning there came on shore five or six canoes of