THE FRENCH PRIEST. 46a

man and the maid; and, by the way, we made a wife of her also
before we went away. ‘There were also the two carpentera and
the tailor, whom I had brought with me for them; also the smith,
who was a very necessary man to them, especially as a gunsmith,
to take care of: their arms; and my other man, whom I called
Jack of all trades, who was in himself as good almost as twenty
men, for he was not only a very ingenious fellow, but a very merry
fellow; and before I went away we married him to the honest
maid that came with the youth in the ship I mentioned before.

And nowI speak of marrying, it brings me naturally to say
something of the French ecclesiastic that I had brought with me
out of the ship’s crew whom I took up at sea. It is true this man
was a Roman, and perhaps it may give offence to some hereafter
if I leave anything extraordinary upon record of a man whom,
before I begin, I must (to set him out in just colours) represent in
terms very much to his disadvantage in the account of Protestants ;
as, first, that he was a Papist; secondly, a Popish priest; and,
thirdly, a French Popish priest.

But justice demands of me to give him a due character; and I
must say he was a grave, sober, pious, and most religious person ;
exact in his life, extensive in his charity, and exemplary in almost
everything he did. What, then, can any one say against my being
very sensible of the value of such a man notwithstanding his pro-
fession?—though it may be my opinion, perhaps, as well as the
opinion of others who shall read this, that he was mistaken.

The first hour that I began to converse with him after he had
agreed to go with me to the East Indies, I found reason to delight
exceedingly in his conversation. And he first began with me about
religion in the most obliging manner imaginable.

“ Sir,” says he, “ you have not only, under God (and at that he
crossed his breast), saved my life, but you have admitted me to go
this voyage in your ship, and by your obliging civility have taken
me into your family, giving me an opportunity of free conversation.
Now, sir,” says he, “ you see by my habit what my profession is,
and I guess by your nation what yours is. I may think it is my
duty, and doubtless it is so, to use my utmost endeavours on all
occasions to bring all the souls I can to the knowledge of the truth,

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