Untitled - Libr@rsi

1 651 - 52] RELA TION OF 1631 -52 223
"baptized, wished to pray to God in my fear,—
having
learned from the Christians that it was good to do
so, and that any one could speak to him. I uttered
these words: " Ah, this is bad that we should die
here, swallowed up by the waters ! Thou who rulest
Heaven and earth, the sea and the lakes, wilt thou
"
not save us from this shipwreck? A Christian took
me up immediately and said to me :
* '
Thy speech
Ah, this is
wilt thou not save us from
[65] is not right; thou must not say, '
bad that we should die ;
the
'
? danger Thy tongue has gone astray ; thou
shouldst have said :
'
My God, we will die when thou
wishest; do thou order our lives on the water as well
as on the land. Thou art the master : if it be thy
intention that we should escape this danger, we shall
escape it ;
if it be thy will for us to die here, we will
not cease to love thee.' There thou hast a very
pious little prayer." '
This good woman farther
added that, before her baptism, she had always
trembled when on the water; but that, since the
holy waters had touched her head, she no longer
feared being drowned.
" On the twenty-third, we came to the place where
the main body of the Savages were. As soon as
they caught sight of us, they all came out of their
cabins, and received me with a joy and affection less
capable of description in words than of appreciation
by the heart. The Captain set every one at work
building me a Church and a house. The young men
went to cut beams and rafters,— that is to say, long
poles; [66] the women brought boards,— that is to
say, bark to cover this Palace; the girls went in
quest of tapestry to adorn our Alcove. This is made
of very beautiful fir-branches, with which they deck