Accidents > Life and most surprising adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, mariner, who lived eight and twenty years in an uninhabited island on the coast of America, near the mouth of the great river Oroonoque

ROBINSON CRUSOE. 255
baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghoft ; fo that none could
kno'.v of what religion he was. After this he pro¬
nounced the benediction in Latin. Thus the wo¬
man being made a Chriltian, he married her to Will
Atkins ; which being finifhed, he affectionately ex¬
horted him to lead a holy life for the future ; that
flnce the Almighty, by the convictions of his con-
fcience, had honoured him to be the inftrument of
his wife’s convertion, he fhould not difhonour the
grace of God, that while the favage was converted,
the inftrument fhould be caft away. Thus ended a
ceremony, to me the moft pleafant and agreeable I
ever palled in my life.
The affairs of the illand being fettled, I was pre¬
paring to go on board, when the young man (whofe
mother was Itarved) came to me, faying, that as he
underftood I had a clergyman with me, who had
married the Englifhmen with favages, he had a
match to make between two Chriftians, which he
defired might be finifhed before I departed. Think¬
ing that it was he himfelf that had courted his mo¬
ther’s maid, I perfuaded him not to do any thing
ralhly upon the account of his folitary circumftances;
that the maid was an unequal match for him, both
in refpect to fubftance and years; and that it was
very probable he would live to return to his own
country, where he might have a far better choice.
At thefe words, fmiling, he interrupted me, thank¬
ing me for my good advice ; that as he had nothing
to beg of me, but a fmall fettlement, with a fervant
or two, or fome few neceffaries; fo he hoped I would
not be unmindful of him when I returned to Eng¬
land, but give his letters to his friends ; and that
when he was redeemed, the plantation and all its
improvements, however valuable, Ihould be return¬
ed to me again. But as for the marriage he prc-
Y 2 pofed.