But it occurred to my
thoughts, what call, what occasion, much less what necessity I was in,
to go and dip my hands in blood, to attack people who had neither done
or intended me any wrong? Who, as to me, were innocent, and whose
barbarous customs were their own disaster; being, in them, a token
indeed of God's having left them, with the other nations of that part of
the world, to such stupidity, and to such inhuman courses; but did not
call me to take upon me to be a judge of their actions, much less an
executioner of his justice; that, whenever he thought fit, he would take
the cause into his own hands, and, by national vengeance, punish them,
as a people, for national crimes; but that, in the mean time, it was
none of my business; that, it was true, Friday might justify it, because
he was a declared enemy, and in a state of war with those very
particular people, and it was lawful for him to attack them; but I could
not say the same with respect to myself. These things were so warmly
pressed upon my thoughts all the way as I went, that I resolved I would
only go and place myself near them, that I might observe their barbarous
feast, and that I would act then as God should direct; but that, unless
something offered that was more a call to me than yet I knew of, I would
not meddle with them.

With this resolution I entered the wood; and, with all possible
weariness and silence, Friday following close at my heels, I marched
till I came to the skirt of the wood, on the side which was next to
them, only that one corner of the wood lay between me and them. Here I
called softly to Friday, and showing him a great tree, which was just at
the corner of the wood, I bade him go to the tree, and bring me word if
he could see there plainly what they were doing. He did so; and came
immediately back to me, and told me they might be plainly viewed there;
that they were all about their fire, eating the flesh of one of their
prisoners, and that another lay bound upon the sand, a little from them,
which, he said, they would kill next, and which fired the very soul
within me. He told me it was not one of their nation, but one of the
bearded men he had told me of, that came to their country in the boat. I
was filled with horror at the very naming the white-bearded man; and,
going to the tree, I saw plainly, by my glass, a white man, who lay upon
the beach of the sea, with his hands and his feet tied with flags, or
things like rushes, and