most unexpected manner.
I laid all this before the young clergyman, who was greatly
affected with it, and said to me, “Did I not say, sir, that when
this man was converted he would preach to us all? I tell you, sir,
if this one man be made a true penitent, there will be no need of
me; he will make Christians of all in the island.” – But having a
little composed myself, I renewed my discourse with Will Atkins.
“But, Will,” said I, “how comes the sense of this matter to touch
you just now?”
W.A. – Sir, you have set me about a work that has struck a dart
though my very soul; I have been talking about God and religion to
my wife, in order, as you directed me, to make a Christian of her,
and she has preached such a sermon to me as I shall never forget
while I live.
R.C. – No, no, it is not your wife has preached to you; but when
you were moving religious arguments to her, conscience has flung
them back upon you.
W.A. – Ay, sir, with such force as is not to be resisted.
R.C. – Pray, Will, let us know what passed between you and your
wife; for I know something of it already.
W.A. – Sir, it is impossible to give you a full account of it; I am
too full to hold it, and yet have no tongue to express it; but let
her have said what she will, though I cannot give you an account of
it, this I can tell you, that I have resolved to amend and reform
my life.
R.C. – But tell us some of it: how did you begin, Will? For this
has been an extraordinary case, that is certain. She has preached
a sermon, indeed, if she has wrought this upon you.
W.A. – Why, I first told her the nature of our laws about marriage,
and what the reasons were that men and women were obliged to enter
into such compacts as it was neither in the power of one nor other
to break; that otherwise, order and justice could not be
maintained, and men would run from their wives, and abandon their
children, mix confusedly with one another, and neither families be
kept entire, nor inheritances be settled by legal descent.
R.C. – You talk like a civilian, Will. Could you make her
understand what you meant by inheritance and families? They know
no such things among the savages, but marry anyhow, without regard
to relation, consanguinity, or family; brother and sister, nay, as
I have been told, even the father and the daughter, and the son and
the mother.
W.A. – I believe, sir, you are misinformed, and my wife assures me
of the contrary, and that they abhor it; perhaps, for any further
relations, they may not be so exact as we are; but she tells me
never in the near relationship you speak of.
R.C. – Well, what did she say to what you told her?
W.A. – She said she liked it very well, as it was much better than
in her country.
R.C. – But did you tell her what marriage was?
W.A. – Ay, ay, there began our dialogue. I asked her if she would
be married to me our way. She asked me what way that was; I told
her marriage was appointed by God; and here we had a strange talk
together, indeed, as ever man and wife had, I believe.
N.B. – This dialogue between Will Atkins and his wife, which I took
down in writing just after he told it me, was as follows:-
WIFE. – Appointed by your God! – Why, have you a God in your
country?
W.A. – Yes, my dear, God is in every country.
WIFE. – No your God in my country; my country have the great old
Benamuckee God.
W.A. – Child, I am very unfit to show you who God is; God is in
heaven and made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and all that in
them is.
WIFE. – No makee de earth; no you God makee all earth; no makee my