to ask him whether I had converted him to Christianity,
laughed, and made their jest at him, for which I rebuked
them as much as I could; but this treatment caused
the prince to halt between two opinions. Some
of the true sons of Belial, who did not believe that
there was any hereafter, told him never to fear the
devil, for there was none existing; and if ever he
came to the prince, they desired he might be sent
to them. Thus they teazed the poor innocent youth,
so that he would not learn his book any more!
He would not drink nor carouse with these ungodly
actors, nor would he be with me, even at prayers.
This grieved me very much. I endeavoured to persuade
him as well as I could, but he would not come; and
entreated him very much to tell me his reasons for
acting thus. At last he asked me, ’How
comes it that all the white men on board who can read
and write, and observe the sun, and know all things,
yet swear, lie, and get drunk, only excepting yourself?’
I answered him, the reason was, that they did not
fear God; and that if any one of them died so they
could not go to, or be happy with God. He replied,
that if these persons went to hell he would go to
hell too. I was sorry to hear this; and, as he
sometimes had the toothach, and also some other persons
in the ship at the same time, I asked him if their
toothach made his easy: he said, No. Then
I told him if he and these people went to hell together,
their pains would not make his any lighter. This
answer had great weight with him: it depressed
his spirits much; and he became ever after, during
the passage, fond of being alone. When we were
in the latitude of Martinico, and near making the land,
one morning we had a brisk gale of wind, and, carrying
too much sail, the main-mast went over the side.
Many people were then all about the deck, and the
yards, masts, and rigging, came tumbling all about
us, yet there was not one of us in the least hurt,
although some were within a hair’s breadth of
being killed: and, particularly, I saw two men
then, by the providential hand of God, most miraculously
preserved from being smashed to pieces. On the
fifth of January we made Antigua and Montserrat, and
ran along the rest of the islands: and on the
fourteenth we arrived at Jamaica. One Sunday while
we were there I took the Musquito Prince George to
church, where he saw the sacrament administered.
When we came out we saw all kinds of people, almost
from the church door for the space of half a mile
down to the waterside, buying and selling all kinds
of commodities: and these acts afforded me great
matter of exhortation to this youth, who was much astonished.
Our vessel being ready to sail for the Musquito shore,
I went with the Doctor on board a Guinea-man, to purchase
some slaves to carry with us, and cultivate a plantation;
and I chose them all my own countrymen. On the
twelfth of February we sailed from Jamaica, and on
the eighteenth arrived at the Musquito shore, at a
place called Dupeupy. All our Indian guests now,