says he, “shall we obtain that of them?” I told him we would call
them all together, and leave it in charge with them, or go to them,
one by one, which he thought best; so we divided it – he to speak
to the Spaniards, who were all Papists, and I to speak to the
English, who were all Protestants; and we recommended it earnestly
to them, and made them promise that they would never make any
distinction of Papist or Protestant in their exhorting the savages
to turn Christians, but teach them the general knowledge of the
true God, and of their Saviour Jesus Christ; and they likewise
promised us that they would never have any differences or disputes
one with another about religion.
When I came to Will Atkins’s house, I found that the young woman I
have mentioned above, and Will Atkins’s wife, were become
intimates; and this prudent, religious young woman had perfected
the work Will Atkins had begun; and though it was not above four
days after what I have related, yet the new-baptized savage woman
was made such a Christian as I have seldom heard of in all my
observation or conversation in the world. It came next into my
mind, in the morning before I went to them, that amongst all the
needful things I had to leave with them I had not left them a
Bible, in which I showed myself less considering for them than my
good friend the widow was for me when she sent me the cargo of a
hundred pounds from Lisbon, where she packed up three Bibles and a
Prayer-book. However, the good woman’s charity had a greater
extent than ever she imagined, for they were reserved for the
comfort and instruction of those that made much better use of them
than I had done.
I took one of the Bibles in my pocket, and when I came to Will
Atkins’s tent, or house, and found the young woman and Atkins’s
baptized wife had been discoursing of religion together – for Will
Atkins told it me with a great deal of joy – I asked if they were
together now, and he said, “Yes”; so I went into the house, and he
with me, and we found them together very earnest in discourse.
“Oh, sir,” says Will Atkins, “when God has sinners to reconcile to
Himself, and aliens to bring home, He never wants a messenger; my
wife has got a new instructor: I knew I was unworthy, as I was
incapable of that work; that young woman has been sent hither from
heaven – she is enough to convert a whole island of savages.” The
young woman blushed, and rose up to go away, but I desired her to
sit-still; I told her she had a good work upon her hands, and I
hoped God would bless her in it.
We talked a little, and I did not perceive that they had any book
among them, though I did not ask; but I put my hand into my pocket,
and pulled out my Bible. “Here,” said I to Atkins, “I have brought
you an assistant that perhaps you had not before.” The man was so
confounded that he was not able to speak for some time; but,
recovering himself, he takes it with both his hands, and turning to
his wife, “Here, my dear,” says he, “did not I tell you our God,
though He lives above, could hear what we have said? Here’s the
book I prayed for when you and I kneeled down under the bush; now
God has heard us and sent it.” When he had said so, the man fell
into such passionate transports, that between the joy of having it,
and giving God thanks for it, the tears ran down his face like a
child that was crying.
The woman was surprised, and was like to have run into a mistake
that none of us were aware of; for she firmly believed God had sent
the book upon her husband’s petition. It is true that
providentially it was so, and might be taken so in a consequent
sense; but I believe it would have been no difficult matter at that