d not to be men, and get their bread shamefully
and rascally by telling sinners who owe a hundred measures to sit down
quickly and take their bill and write fifty: yet for a priest of the
Church of England (whose business is not merely to smuggle sinful souls
up the backstairs into heaven, but to make men good Christians by making
them good men, good gentlemen, and good Englishmen) to show the white
feather in the hour of need, is to unpreach in one minute all that he
had been preaching his life long.

"I tell thee," says Amyas, "if I had not taken thee for another guess
sort of man, I had never let thee have the care of a hundred brave lads'
immortal souls--"

And so on, both of them boarding him at once with their heavy shot,
larboard and starboard, till he fairly clapped his hands to his ears
and ran for it, leaving poor Frank laughing so heartily, that Amyas was
after all glad the thing had happened, for the sake of the smile which
it put into his sad and steadfast countenance.

The next day was Sunday; on which, after divine service (which they
could hardly persuade Jack to read, so shamefaced was he; and as for
preaching after it, he would not hear of such a thing), Amyas read
aloud, according to custom, the articles of their agreement; and then
seeing abreast of them a sloping beach with a shoot of clear water
running into the sea, agreed that they should land there, wash the
clothes, and again water the ship; for they had found water somewhat
scarce at Barbados. On this party Jack Brimblecombe must needs go,
taking with him his sword and a great arquebuse; for he had dreamed last
night (he said) that he was set upon by Spaniards, and was sure that the
dream would come true; and moreover, that he did not very much care if
they did, or if he ever got back alive; "for it was better to die than
be made an ape, and a scarecrow, and laughed at by the men, and badgered
with Ramus his logic, and Plato his dialectical devilries, to confess
himself a Manichee, and, for aught he knew, a turbaned Turk, or Hebrew
Jew," and so flung into the boat like a man desperate.

So they went ashore, after Amyas had given strict commands against
letting off firearms, for fear of alarming the Spaniards. There they
washed their clothes, and stretched their legs with great joy, admiring
the beauty of the place, and then began to shoot the seine which they
had brought on shore with them. "In which," says the chronicler, "we
caught many