NARRATIVE OF THE SPANIARDS, 457

and what a reviving cordial it was to their spirits to taste it; as
also of the other things I had sent for their supply. And, after
all, they would have told me something of the joy they were in at
the sight of a boat and pilots to carry them away to the person
and place from whence all these new comforts came; but they told
me it was impossible to express it by words, for their excessive
joy naturally driving them to unbecoming extravagances, they
had no way to describe them but by telling me that they bordered
upon lunacy, having no way to give vent to their passion suitable
to the sense that was upon them: that in some it worked one way,
and in some another; and that some of them, through a surprise
of joy, would burst out into tears, others be stark mad, and others
immediately faint. This discourse extremely affected me, and
called to my mind Friday’s ecstasy when he met his father; and
the poor people’s ecstasy when I took them up at sea, after their
ship was on fire; the mate of the ship’s joy when he found himself
delivered in the place where he expected to perish; and my own
joy when, after twenty-eight years’ captivity, [ found a good ship
ready to carry me to my own country. All these things made me
nore sensible of the relation of those poor men, and more affected
with it.

Having thus given a view of the state of things as I found them,
I must relate the heads of what I did for these people, and the
condition in which I left them. It was their opinion, and mine
too, that they would be troubled no more with the savages; or
that if they were, they would be able to cut them off, if they were
twice as many as before; so they had no concern about that
Then I entered into a serious discourse with the Spaniard, whom
I call governor, about their stay in the island; for as I was not
come to carry any of them off, so it would not be just to carry off
some and leave others, who perhaps would be unwilling to stay if
their strength was diminished.

On the other hand, I told them I came to establish them there,
not to remove them; and then I let them know that I had
brought with me relief of sundry kinds for them; that I had been
at a great charge to supply them with all things necessary, as well
for their convenience as their defence; and that I lad such and