which he desired might be finished before I went, between two
Christians, which he hoped would not be disagreeable to me.
I knew this must be the young woman who was his mother’s servant,
for there was no other Christian woman on the island: so I began
to persuade him not to do anything of that kind rashly, or because
be found himself in this solitary circumstance. I represented to
him that he had some considerable substance in the world, and good
friends, as I understood by himself, and the maid also; that the
maid was not only poor, and a servant, but was unequal to him, she
being six or seven and twenty years old, and he not above seventeen
or eighteen; that he might very probably, with my assistance, make
a remove from this wilderness, and come into his own country again;
and that then it would be a thousand to one but he would repent his
choice, and the dislike of that circumstance might be
disadvantageous to both. I was going to say more, but he
interrupted me, smiling, and told me, with a great deal of modesty,
that I mistook in my guesses – that he had nothing of that kind in
his thoughts; and he was very glad to hear that I had an intent of
putting them in a way to see their own country again; and nothing
should have made him think of staying there, but that the voyage I
was going was so exceeding long and hazardous, and would carry him
quite out of the reach of all his friends; that he had nothing to
desire of me but that I would settle him in some little property in
the island where he was, give him a servant or two, and some few
necessaries, and he would live here like a planter, waiting the
good time when, if ever I returned to England, I would redeem him.
He hoped I would not be unmindful of him when I came to England:
that he would give me some letters to his friends in London, to let
them know how good I had been to him, and in what part of the world
and what circumstances I had left him in: and he promised me that
whenever I redeemed him, the plantation, and all the improvements
he had made upon it, let the value be what it would, should be
wholly mine.
His discourse was very prettily delivered, considering his youth,
and was the more agreeable to me, because he told me positively the
match was not for himself. I gave him all possible assurances that
if I lived to come safe to England, I would deliver his letters,
and do his business effectually; and that he might depend I should
never forget the circumstances I had left him in. But still I was
impatient to know who was the person to be married; upon which he
told me it was my Jack-of-all-trades and his maid Susan. I was
most agreeably surprised when he named the match; for, indeed, I
thought it very suitable. The character of that man I have given
already; and as for the maid, she was a very honest, modest, sober,
and religious young woman: had a very good share of sense, was
agreeable enough in her person, spoke very handsomely and to the
purpose, always with decency and good manners, and was neither too
backward to speak when requisite, nor impertinently forward when it
was not her business; very handy and housewifely, and an excellent
manager; fit, indeed, to have been governess to the whole island;
and she knew very well how to behave in every respect.
The match being proposed in this manner, we married them the same
day; and as I was father at the altar, and gave her away, so I gave
her a portion; for I appointed her and her husband a handsome large
space of ground for their plantation; and indeed this match, and
the proposal the young gentleman made to give him a small property
in the island, put me upon parcelling it out amongst them, that
they might not quarrel afterwards about their situation.