outh to our Spaniards, who
were, to give them a just character, men of the most calm, sedate
tempers, and perfect good humour, that ever I met with: and, in
particular, of the utmost modesty: I say, the sight was very uncouth, to
see three naked men and five naked women, all together bound, and in the
most miserable circumstances that human nature could be supposed to be,
viz. to be expecting every moment to be dragged out and have their brains
knocked out, and then to be eaten up like a calf that is killed for a
dainty.

The first thing they did was to cause the old Indian, Friday's father, to
go in, and see first if he knew any of them, and then if he understood
any of their speech. As soon as the old man came in, he looked seriously
at them, but knew none of them; neither could any of them understand a
word he said, or a sign he could make, except one of the women. However,
this was enough to answer the end, which was to satisfy them that the men
into whose hands they were fallen were Christians; that they abhorred
eating men or women; and that they might be sure they would not be
killed. As soon as they were assured of this, they discovered such a
joy, and by such awkward gestures, several ways, as is hard to describe;
for it seems they were of several nations. The woman who was their
interpreter was bid, in the next place, to ask them if they were willing
to be servants, and to work for the men who had brought them away, to
save their lives; at which they all fell a-dancing; and presently one
fell to taking up this, and another that, anything that lay next, to
carry on their shoulders, to intimate they were willing to work.

The governor, who found that the having women among them would presently
be attended with some inconvenience, and might occasion some strife, and
perhaps blood, asked the three men what they intended to do with these
women, and how they intended to use them, whether as servants or as
wives? One of the Englishmen answered, very boldly and readily, that
they would use them as both; to which the governor said: "I am not going
to restrain you from it--you are your own masters as to that; but this I
think is but just, for avoiding disorders and quarrels among you, and I
desire it of you for that reason only, viz. that you will all engage,
that if any of you take any of these women as a wife, he shall take but
one; and that having taken one, none else shall touch her; for though we
cannot marry