Summary
A first-person narrator explains that he and his crew sailed for Peru, China, and Japan through the South Sea. After months of good sailing conditions, the crew experiences stagnant winds that eventually take them North. By that time, they are running out of provisions.
One day, they spy land, and begin to move closer to it. As they approach, a boat full of eight people meets them and delivers a note saying they are not to land on the island but that provisions and help for their sick men can be brought to them. The letter is sealed with the sign of the cross.
The crew writes back explaining their predicament, and the people of the island deliberate for three hours.
When they return, they ask the crew if they are Christians, to which the crew answers yes. The people of the island tell the crew that they are permitted to land.
On the island, the crew is brought to the House of Strangers, an elaborate dwelling with many provisions and help for the sick men. They are told not to leave the dwelling for three days, but only because they must rest. They are given medicine and a particular fruit that helps move their recoveries along.
The crew decides to be grateful to the islanders for taking them in, and to thank God for the grace they have received.
Soon, the crew is met by the Governor of the House of Strangers, who explains that the island is called Bensalem and that they rarely see people from other parts of the world. He permits the crew to ask him any questions, and they proceed to inquire how the inhabitants of the island were converted to Christianity.
Analysis
The first section of the narrative helps establish the catalyst for this utopian exploration – European sailors are essentially lost at sea, and they happen upon an unfamiliar island. Beginning the narrative this way helps create a sense of mystery about the island, as the sailors are not sure whether the inhabitants will be friendly or malicious. Indeed, even when the inhabitants meet them at sea, their intentions remain unclear: they offer to bring provisions to the sailors but do not permit them to land.
This initial encounter with the people of the island foreshadows the importance of secrecy for the people and their leaders; nothing is known about the inhabitants or the island itself, and the reader is, like the narrator, encouraged to question whether this unfamiliar world is open to European sensibilities. In this way, the narrative establishes the narrator and his crew as the "strangers," portraying them as an unexpected disruption to the otherwise harmonious life on the island.
But one revelation renders these sailors less "strange" to the island's inhabitants, and indeed ushers in their stay in House of the Strangers: they inform the people of the island that they are Christians, and are thus permitted to land. This is a significant note on which to begin the narrative, as it centralizes Christianity as a governing principle for both strangers and natives.
The fact that they can understand one another through religion and worship is what ultimately opens up their discussion of the island and allows the sailors deeper insight into this utopia. As such, Christianity becomes a vessel through which knowledge is gained and exchanged, as Christian morals dictate how people – even those of separate civilizations – treat one another.
At the very beginning of the narrative, therefore, Bacon hails Christianity (and the spread of Christianity to other nations) as a means of communication and cultural expansion.
