the
vineyard of the slothful, and it was overgrown with thorns;" for when
the Spaniards came to view their crop, they could not see it in some
places for weeds; the hedge had several gaps in it, where the wild goats
had gotten in and eaten up the corn; perhaps here and there a dead bush
was crammed in to stop them out for the present, but it was only
shutting the stable door after the steed was stolen; whereas, when they
looked on the colony of the other two, here was the very face of
industry and success upon all they did; there was not a weed to be seen
in all their corn, or a gap in any of their hedges; and they, on the
other hand, verified Solomon's words in another place: "The diligent
hand maketh rich;" for every thing grew and thrived, and they had plenty
within and without; they had more tame cattle than the others, more
utensils and necessaries within doors, and yet more pleasure and
diversion too.

It is true, the wives of the three were very handy and cleanly within
doors; and having learnt the English ways of dressing and cooking from
one of the other Englishmen, who, as I said, was a cook's mate on board
the ship, they dressed their husbands' victuals very nicely; whereas the
other could not be brought to understand it; but then the husband, who
as I said, had been cook's mate, did it himself; but as for the husbands
of the three wives, they loitered about, fetched turtles' eggs, and
caught fish and birds; in a word, any thing but labour, and they fared
accordingly. The diligent lived well and comfortably and the slothful
lived hard and beggarly; and so I believe, generally speaking, it is all
over the world.

But now I come to a scene different from all that had happened before,
either to them or me; and the origin of the story was this:

Early one morning there came on shore five or six canoes of Indians, or
savages, call them which you please; and there is no room to doubt that
they came upon the old errand of feeding upon their slaves; but that
part was now so familiar to the Spaniards, and to our men too, that they
did not concern themselves about it as I did; but having been made
sensible by their experience, that their only business was to lie
concealed, and that, if they were not seen by any of the savages, they
would go off again quietly when the business was done, having as yet not
the least notion of there being any inhabitants in the island; I say
having been made sensible of this, they had n