there was a clergyman in the ship,
they would be married to them with all their hearts.' I told you before,
said I, that I have a minister with me, who shall marry you to-morrow
morning, if you are willing; so I would have you consult to-night with
the rest about it. I told him the clergyman was a Frenchman, and knew
not a word of English, but that I would act as clerk between them. And
indeed this business met with such speedy success, that they all told
me, in a few minutes after, 'that they were ready to be formally married
as soon as I pleased;' with which informing the priest, he was
exceedingly rejoiced.

Nothing now remained, but that the women should be made sensible of the
meaning of the thing; with which being well satisfied, they with their
husbands attended at my apartment the next morning; there was my priest,
habited in a black vest, something like a cassock, with a sash round it;
much resembling a minister, and I was his interpreter. But the
seriousness of his behaviour, and the scruples he made of marrying the
women, who were not baptized, gave them, an exceeding reverence for his
person: nor indeed would he marry them at all, till he obtained my
liberty to discourse both with the men and women, and then he told them,
'That in the sight of all indifferent men, and in the sense of the laws
of society, they had lived in open adultery, which nothing new, but
their consent to marry, or final separation, could put an end to; and
even here was a difficulty with respect to the laws of Christian
matrimony, in marrying a professed Christian to a heathen idolater,
unbaptized; but yet there was time enough to make them profess the name
of Christ, without which nothing could be done; that, besides, he
believed themselves very indifferent Christians; and consequently had
not discoursed with their wives upon that subject; and that unless they
promised him to do so, he could not marry them, as being expressly
forbidden by the laws of God.'

All this they heard attentively, and owned readily.

_But, Lord, Sir,_ said Will Atkins to me _how could we teach them
religion, who know nothing of it ourselves? How can we talk to our wives
of God, Jesus Christ, heaven, and hell? Why they would only laugh at us,
who never yet have practiced religion, but on the contrary all manner of
wickedness. Will Atkins,_ said I, _cannot you tell your wife she is in
the wrong, and that her gods are idols, which can neither speak nor
unders