'In the year 1694, being the first of my vicariate, there lived in
this Parish as hind to the farmer of Vellancoose a young man
exceeding comely and tall of stature, of whom (when I came to ask)
the people could tell me only that his name was Luke, and that as a
child he had been cast ashore from a foreign ship; they said, a
Portugal ship. [But the Portugals have swart complexions and are
less than ordinary tall, whereas this youth was light-coloured and
only brown by sunburn.] Nor could he tell me anything when I
questioned him concerning his haveage; which I did upon report that
he was courting my housemaiden Grace Pascoe, an honest good girl,
whom I was loth to see waste herself upon an unworthy husband.
Upon inquiry I could not discover this Luke to be any way unworthy,
saving that he was a nameless man and a foreigner and a backward
church-goer. He told me with much simplicity that he could not
remember to have had any parents; that Farmer Lowry had brought him
up from the time he was shipwrecked and ever treated him kindly; and
that, as for church-going, he had thought little about it, but would
amend in this matter if it would give me pleasure.
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