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_ It was in the latitude of 27 degrees 5 minutes N., on the 19th day
of March 1694-95, when we spied a sail, our course SE. and by S.
We soon perceived it was a large vessel, and that she bore up to
us, but could not at first know what to make of her, till, after
coming a little nearer, we found she had lost her main-topmast,
fore-mast, and bowsprit; and presently she fired a gun as a signal
of distress. The weather was pretty good, wind at NNW. a fresh
gale, and we soon came to speak with her. We found her a ship of
Bristol, bound home from Barbadoes, but had been blown out of the
road at Barbadoes a few days before she was ready to sail, by a
terrible hurricane, while the captain and chief mate were both gone
on shore; so that, besides the terror of the storm, they were in an
indifferent case for good mariners to bring the ship home. They
had been already nine weeks at sea, and had met with another
terrible storm, after the hurricane was over, which had blown them
quite out of their knowledge to the westward, and in which they
lost their masts. They told us they expected to have seen the
Bahama Islands, but were then driven away again to the south-east,
by a strong gale of wind at NNW., the same that blew now: and
having no sails to work the ship with but a main course, and a kind
of square sail upon a jury fore-mast, which they had set up, they
could not lie near the wind, but were endeavouring to stand away
for the Canaries.
But that which was worst of all was, that they were almost starved
for want of provisions, besides the fatigues they had undergone;
their bread and flesh were quite gone--they had not one ounce left
in the ship, and had had none for eleven days. The only relief
they had was, their water was not all spent, and they had about
half a barrel of flour left; they had sugar enough; some succades,
or sweetmeats, they had at first, but these were all devoured; and
they had seven casks of rum. There was a youth and his mother and
a maid-servant on board, who were passengers, and thinking the ship
was ready to sail, unhappily came on board the evening before the
hurricane began; and having no provisions of their own left, they
were in a more deplorable condition than the rest: for the seamen
being reduced to such an extreme necessity themselves, had no
compassion, we may be sure, for the poor passengers; and they were,
indeed, in such a condition that their misery is very hard to
describe.
I had perhaps not known this part, if my curiosity had not led me,
the weather being fair and the wind abated, to go on board the
ship. The second mate, who upon this occasion commanded the ship,
had been on board our ship, and he told me they had three
passengers in the great cabin that were in a deplorable condition.
"Nay," says he, "I believe they are dead, for I have heard nothing
of them for above two days; and I was afraid to inquire after
them," said he, "for I had nothing to relieve them with." We
immediately applied ourselves to give them what relief we could
spare; and indeed I had so far overruled things with my nephew,
that I would have victualled them though we had gone away to
Virginia, or any other part of the coast of America, to have
supplied ourselves; but there was no necessity for that.
But now they were in a new danger; for they were afraid of eating
too much, even of that little we gave them. The mate, or
commander, brought six men with him in his boat; but these poor
wretches looked like skeletons, and were so weak that they could
hardly sit to their oars. The mate himself was very ill, and half
starved; for he declared he had reserved nothing from the men, and
went share and share alike with them in every bit they ate. I
cautioned him to eat sparingly, and set meat before him
immediately, but he had not eaten three mouthfuls before he began
to be sick and out of order; so he stopped a while, and our surgeon
mixed him up something with some broth, which he said would be to
him both food and physic; and after he had taken it he grew better.
In the meantime I forgot not the men. I ordered victuals to be
given them, and the poor creatures rather devoured than ate it:
they were so exceedingly hungry that they were in a manner
ravenous, and had no command of themselves; and two of them ate
with so much greediness that they were in danger of their lives the
next morning. The sight of these people's distress was very moving
to me, and brought to mind what I had a terrible prospect of at my
first coming on shore in my island, where I had not the least
mouthful of food, or any prospect of procuring any; besides the
hourly apprehensions I had of being made the food of other
creatures. But all the while the mate was thus relating to me the
miserable condition of the ship's company, I could not put out of
my thought the story he had told me of the three poor creatures in
the great cabin, viz. the mother, her son, and the maid-servant,
whom he had heard nothing of for two or three days, and whom, he
seemed to confess, they had wholly neglected, their own extremities
being so great; by which I understood that they had really given
them no food at all, and that therefore they must be perished, and
be all lying dead, perhaps, on the floor or deck of the cabin.
As I therefore kept the mate, whom we then called captain, on board
with his men, to refresh them, so I also forgot not the starving
crew that were left on board, but ordered my own boat to go on
board the ship, and, with my mate and twelve men, to carry them a
sack of bread, and four or five pieces of beef to boil. Our
surgeon charged the men to cause the meat to be boiled while they
stayed, and to keep guard in the cook-room, to prevent the men
taking it to eat raw, or taking it out of the pot before it was
well boiled, and then to give every man but a very little at a
time: and by this caution he preserved the men, who would
otherwise have killed themselves with that very food that was given
them on purpose to save their lives.
At the same time I ordered the mate to go into the great cabin, and
see what condition the poor passengers were in; and if they were
alive, to comfort them, and give them what refreshment was proper:
and the surgeon gave him a large pitcher, with some of the prepared
broth which he had given the mate that was on board, and which he
did not question would restore them gradually. I was not satisfied
with this; but, as I said above, having a great mind to see the
scene of misery which I knew the ship itself would present me with,
in a more lively manner than I could have it by report, I took the
captain of the ship, as we now called him, with me, and went
myself, a little after, in their boat.
I found the poor men on board almost in a tumult to get the
victuals out of the boiler before it was ready; but my mate
observed his orders, and kept a good guard at the cook-room door,
and the man he placed there, after using all possible persuasion to
have patience, kept them off by force; however, he caused some
biscuit-cakes to be dipped in the pot, and softened with the liquor
of the meat, which they called brewis, and gave them every one some
to stay their stomachs, and told them it was for their own safety
that he was obliged to give them but little at a time. But it was
all in vain; and had I not come on board, and their own commander
and officers with me, and with good words, and some threats also of
giving them no more, I believe they would have broken into the
cook-room by force, and torn the meat out of the furnace--for words
are indeed of very small force to a hungry belly; however, we
pacified them, and fed them gradually and cautiously at first, and
the next time gave them more, and at last filled their bellies, and
the men did well enough.
But the misery of the poor passengers in the cabin was of another
nature, and far beyond the rest; for as, first, the ship's company
had so little for themselves, it was but too true that they had at
first kept them very low, and at last totally neglected them: so
that for six or seven days it might be said they had really no food
at all, and for several days before very little. The poor mother,
who, as the men reported, was a woman of sense and good breeding,
had spared all she could so affectionately for her son, that at
last she entirely sank under it; and when the mate of our ship went
in, she sat upon the floor on deck, with her back up against the
sides, between two chairs, which were lashed fast, and her head
sunk between her shoulders like a corpse, though not quite dead.
My mate said all he could to revive and encourage her, and with a
spoon put some broth into her mouth. She opened her lips, and
lifted up one hand, but could not speak: yet she understood what
he said, and made signs to him, intimating, that it was too late
for her, but pointed to her child, as if she would have said they
should take care of him. However, the mate, who was exceedingly
moved at the sight, endeavoured to get some of the broth into her
mouth, and, as he said, got two or three spoonfuls down--though I
question whether he could be sure of it or not; but it was too
late, and she died the same night.
The youth, who was preserved at the price of his most affectionate
mother's life, was not so far gone; yet he lay in a cabin bed, as
one stretched out, with hardly any life left in him. He had a
piece of an old glove in his mouth, having eaten up the rest of it;
however, being young, and having more strength than his mother, the
mate got something down his throat, and he began sensibly to
revive; though by giving him, some time after, but two or three
spoonfuls extraordinary, he was very sick, and brought it up again.
But the next care was the poor maid: she lay all along upon the
deck, hard by her mistress, and just like one that had fallen down
in a fit of apoplexy, and struggled for life. Her limbs were
distorted; one of her hands was clasped round the frame of the
chair, and she gripped it so hard that we could not easily make her
let it go; her other arm lay over her head, and her feet lay both
together, set fast against the frame of the cabin table: in short,
she lay just like one in the agonies of death, and yet she was
alive too. The poor creature was not only starved with hunger, and
terrified with the thoughts of death, but, as the men told us
afterwards, was broken-hearted for her mistress, whom she saw dying
for two or three days before, and whom she loved most tenderly. We
knew not what to do with this poor girl; for when our surgeon, who
was a man of very great knowledge and experience, had, with great
application, recovered her as to life, he had her upon his hands
still; for she was little less than distracted for a considerable
time after.
Whoever shall read these memorandums must be desired to consider
that visits at sea are not like a journey into the country, where
sometimes people stay a week or a fortnight at a place. Our
business was to relieve this distressed ship's crew, but not lie by
for them; and though they were willing to steer the same course
with us for some days, yet we could carry no sail to keep pace with
a ship that had no masts. However, as their captain begged of us
to help him to set up a main-topmast, and a kind of a topmast to
his jury fore-mast, we did, as it were, lie by him for three or
four days; and then, having given him five barrels of beef, a
barrel of pork, two hogsheads of biscuit, and a proportion of peas,
flour, and what other things we could spare; and taking three casks
of sugar, some rum, and some pieces of eight from them for
satisfaction, we left them, taking on board with us, at their own
earnest request, the youth and the maid, and all their goods.
The young lad was about seventeen years of age, a pretty, well-
bred, modest, and sensible youth, greatly dejected with the loss of
his mother, and also at having lost his father but a few months
before, at Barbadoes. He begged of the surgeon to speak to me to
take him out of the ship; for he said the cruel fellows had
murdered his mother: and indeed so they had, that is to say,
passively; for they might have spared a small sustenance to the
poor helpless widow, though it had been but just enough to keep her
alive; but hunger knows no friend, no relation, no justice, no
right, and therefore is remorseless, and capable of no compassion.
The surgeon told him how far we were going, and that it would carry
him away from all his friends, and put him, perhaps, in as bad
circumstances almost as those we found him in, that is to say,
starving in the world. He said it mattered not whither he went, if
he was but delivered from the terrible crew that he was among; that
the captain (by which he meant me, for he could know nothing of my
nephew) had saved his life, and he was sure would not hurt him; and
as for the maid, he was sure, if she came to herself, she would be
very thankful for it, let us carry them where we would. The
surgeon represented the case so affectionately to me that I
yielded, and we took them both on board, with all their goods,
except eleven hogsheads of sugar, which could not be removed or
come at; and as the youth had a bill of lading for them, I made his
commander sign a writing, obliging himself to go, as soon as he
came to Bristol, to one Mr. Rogers, a merchant there, to whom the
youth said he was related, and to deliver a letter which I wrote to
him, and all the goods he had belonging to the deceased widow;
which, I suppose, was not done, for I could never learn that the
ship came to Bristol, but was, as is most probable, lost at sea,
being in so disabled a condition, and so far from any land, that I
am of opinion the first storm she met with afterwards she might
founder, for she was leaky, and had damage in her hold when we met
with her.
I was now in the latitude of 19 degrees 32 minutes, and had
hitherto a tolerable voyage as to weather, though at first the
winds had been contrary. I shall trouble nobody with the little
incidents of wind, weather, currents, &c., on the rest of our
voyage; but to shorten my story, shall observe that I came to my
old habitation, the island, on the 10th of April 1695. It was with
no small difficulty that I found the place; for as I came to it and
went to it before on the south and east side of the island, coming
from the Brazils, so now, coming in between the main and the
island, and having no chart for the coast, nor any landmark, I did
not know it when I saw it, or, know whether I saw it or not. We
beat about a great while, and went on shore on several islands in
the mouth of the great river Orinoco, but none for my purpose; only
this I learned by my coasting the shore, that I was under one great
mistake before, viz. that the continent which I thought I saw from
the island I lived in was really no continent, but a long island,
or rather a ridge of islands, reaching from one to the other side
of the extended mouth of that great river; and that the savages who
came to my island were not properly those which we call Caribbees,
but islanders, and other barbarians of the same kind, who inhabited
nearer to our side than the rest.
In short, I visited several of these islands to no purpose; some I
found were inhabited, and some were not; on one of them I found
some Spaniards, and thought they had lived there; but speaking with
them, found they had a sloop lying in a small creek hard by, and
came thither to make salt, and to catch some pearl-mussels if they
could; but that they belonged to the Isle de Trinidad, which lay
farther north, in the latitude of 10 and 11 degrees.
Thus coasting from one island to another, sometimes with the ship,
sometimes with the Frenchman's shallop, which we had found a
convenient boat, and therefore kept her with their very good will,
at length I came fair on the south side of my island, and presently
knew the very countenance of the place: so I brought the ship safe
to an anchor, broadside with the little creek where my old
habitation was. As soon as I saw the place I called for Friday,
and asked him if he knew where he was? He looked about a little,
and presently clapping his hands, cried, "Oh yes, Oh there, Oh yes,
Oh there!" pointing to our old habitation, and fell dancing and
capering like a mad fellow; and I had much ado to keep him from
jumping into the sea to swim ashore to the place.
"Well, Friday," says I, "do you think we shall find anybody here or
no? and do you think we shall see your father?" The fellow stood
mute as a stock a good while; but when I named his father, the poor
affectionate creature looked dejected, and I could see the tears
run down his face very plentifully. "What is the matter, Friday?
are you troubled because you may see your father?" "No, no," says
he, shaking his head, "no see him more: no, never more see him
again." "Why so, Friday? how do you know that?" "Oh no, Oh no,"
says Friday, "he long ago die, long ago; he much old man." "Well,
well, Friday, you don't know; but shall we see any one else, then?"
The fellow, it seems, had better eyes than I, and he points to the
hill just above my old house; and though we lay half a league off,
he cries out, "We see! we see! yes, we see much man there, and
there, and there." I looked, but I saw nobody, no, not with a
perspective glass, which was, I suppose, because I could not hit
the place: for the fellow was right, as I found upon inquiry the
next day; and there were five or six men all together, who stood to
look at the ship, not knowing what to think of us.
As soon as Friday told me he saw people, I caused the English
ancient to be spread, and fired three guns, to give them notice we
were friends; and in about a quarter of an hour after we perceived
a smoke arise from the side of the creek; so I immediately ordered
the boat out, taking Friday with me, and hanging out a white flag,
I went directly on shore, taking with me the young friar I
mentioned, to whom I had told the story of my living there, and the
manner of it, and every particular both of myself and those I left
there, and who was on that account extremely desirous to go with
me. We had, besides, about sixteen men well armed, if we had found
any new guests there which we did not know of; but we had no need
of weapons.
As we went on shore upon the tide of flood, near high water, we
rowed directly into the creek; and the first man I fixed my eye
upon was the Spaniard whose life I had saved, and whom I knew by
his face perfectly well: as to his habit, I shall describe it
afterwards. I ordered nobody to go on shore at first but myself;
but there was no keeping Friday in the boat, for the affectionate
creature had spied his father at a distance, a good way off the
Spaniards, where, indeed, I saw nothing of him; and if they had not
let him go ashore, he would have jumped into the sea. He was no
sooner on shore, but he flew away to his father like an arrow out
of a bow. It would have made any man shed tears, in spite of the
firmest resolution, to have seen the first transports of this poor
fellow's joy when he came to his father: how he embraced him,
kissed him, stroked his face, took him up in his arms, set him down
upon a tree, and lay down by him; then stood and looked at him, as
any one would look at a strange picture, for a quarter of an hour
together; then lay down on the ground, and stroked his legs, and
kissed them, and then got up again and stared at him; one would
have thought the fellow bewitched. But it would have made a dog
laugh the next day to see how his passion ran out another way: in
the morning he walked along the shore with his father several
hours, always leading him by the hand, as if he had been a lady;
and every now and then he would come to the boat to fetch something
or other for him, either a lump of sugar, a dram, a biscuit, or
something or other that was good. In the afternoon his frolics ran
another way; for then he would set the old man down upon the
ground, and dance about him, and make a thousand antic gestures;
and all the while he did this he would be talking to him, and
telling him one story or another of his travels, and of what had
happened to him abroad to divert him. In short, if the same filial
affection was to be found in Christians to their parents in our
part of the world, one would be tempted to say there would hardly
have been any need of the fifth commandment.
But this is a digression: I return to my landing. It would be
needless to take notice of all the ceremonies and civilities that
the Spaniards received me with. The first Spaniard, whom, as I
said, I knew very well, was he whose life I had saved. He came
towards the boat, attended by one more, carrying a flag of truce
also; and he not only did not know me at first, but he had no
thoughts, no notion of its being me that was come, till I spoke to
him. "Seignior," said I, in Portuguese, "do you not know me?" At
which he spoke not a word, but giving his musket to the man that
was with him, threw his arms abroad, saying something in Spanish
that I did not perfectly hear, came forward and embraced me,
telling me he was inexcusable not to know that face again that he
had once seen, as of an angel from heaven sent to save his life; he
said abundance of very handsome things, as a well-bred Spaniard
always knows how, and then, beckoning to the person that attended
him, bade him go and call out his comrades. He then asked me if I
would walk to my old habitation, where he would give me possession
of my own house again, and where I should see they had made but
mean improvements. I walked along with him, but, alas! I could no
more find the place than if I had never been there; for they had
planted so many trees, and placed them in such a position, so thick
and close to one another, and in ten years' time they were grown so
big, that the place was inaccessible, except by such windings and
blind ways as they themselves only, who made them, could find.
I asked them what put them upon all these fortifications; he told
me I would say there was need enough of it when they had given me
an account how they had passed their time since their arriving in
the island, especially after they had the misfortune to find that I
was gone. He told me he could not but have some pleasure in my
good fortune, when he heard that I was gone in a good ship, and to
my satisfaction; and that he had oftentimes a strong persuasion
that one time or other he should see me again, but nothing that
ever befell him in his life, he said, was so surprising and
afflicting to him at first as the disappointment he was under when
he came back to the island and found I was not there.
As to the three barbarians (so he called them) that were left
behind, and of whom, he said, he had a long story to tell me, the
Spaniards all thought themselves much better among the savages,
only that their number was so small: "And," says he, "had they
been strong enough, we had been all long ago in purgatory;" and
with that he crossed himself on the breast. "But, sir," says he,
"I hope you will not be displeased when I shall tell you how,
forced by necessity, we were obliged for our own preservation to
disarm them, and make them our subjects, as they would not be
content with being moderately our masters, but would be our
murderers." I answered I was afraid of it when I left them there,
and nothing troubled me at my parting from the island but that they
were not come back, that I might have put them in possession of
everything first, and left the others in a state of subjection, as
they deserved; but if they had reduced them to it I was very glad,
and should be very far from finding any fault with it; for I knew
they were a parcel of refractory, ungoverned villains, and were fit
for any manner of mischief.
While I was saying this, the man came whom he had sent back, and
with him eleven more. In the dress they were in it was impossible
to guess what nation they were of; but he made all clear, both to
them and to me. First, he turned to me, and pointing to them,
said, "These, sir, are some of the gentlemen who owe their lives to
you;" and then turning to them, and pointing to me, he let them
know who I was; upon which they all came up, one by one, not as if
they had been sailors, and ordinary fellows, and the like, but
really as if they had been ambassadors or noblemen, and I a monarch
or great conqueror: their behaviour was, to the last degree,
obliging and courteous, and yet mixed with a manly, majestic
gravity, which very well became them; and, in short, they had so
much more manners than I, that I scarce knew how to receive their
civilities, much less how to return them in kind.
The history of their coming to, and conduct in, the island after my
going away is so very remarkable, and has so many incidents which
the former part of my relation will help to understand, and which
will in most of the particulars, refer to the account I have
already given, that I cannot but commit them, with great delight,
to the reading of those that come after me.
In order to do this as intelligibly as I can, I must go back to the
circumstances in which I left the island, and the persons on it, of
whom I am to speak. And first, it is necessary to repeat that I
had sent away Friday's father and the Spaniard (the two whose lives
I had rescued from the savages) in a large canoe to the main, as I
then thought it, to fetch over the Spaniard's companions that he
left behind him, in order to save them from the like calamity that
he had been in, and in order to succour them for the present; and
that, if possible, we might together find some way for our
deliverance afterwards. When I sent them away I had no visible
appearance of, or the least room to hope for, my own deliverance,
any more than I had twenty years before--much less had I any
foreknowledge of what afterwards happened, I mean, of an English
ship coming on shore there to fetch me off; and it could not be but
a very great surprise to them, when they came back, not only to
find that I was gone, but to find three strangers left on the spot,
possessed of all that I had left behind me, which would otherwise
have been their own.
The first thing, however, which I inquired into, that I might begin
where I left off, was of their own part; and I desired the Spaniard
would give me a particular account of his voyage back to his
countrymen with the boat, when I sent him to fetch them over. He
told me there was little variety in that part, for nothing
remarkable happened to them on the way, having had very calm
weather and a smooth sea. As for his countrymen, it could not be
doubted, he said, but that they were overjoyed to see him (it seems
he was the principal man among them, the captain of the vessel they
had been shipwrecked in having been dead some time): they were, he
said, the more surprised to see him, because they knew that he was
fallen into the hands of the savages, who, they were satisfied,
would devour him as they did all the rest of their prisoners; that
when he told them the story of his deliverance, and in what manner
he was furnished for carrying them away, it was like a dream to
them, and their astonishment, he said, was somewhat like that of
Joseph's brethren when he told them who he was, and the story of
his exaltation in Pharaoh's court; but when he showed them the
arms, the powder, the ball, the provisions that he brought them for
their journey or voyage, they were restored to themselves, took a
just share of the joy of their deliverance, and immediately
prepared to come away with him.
Their first business was to get canoes; and in this they were
obliged not to stick so much upon the honesty of it, but to
trespass upon their friendly savages, and to borrow two large
canoes, or periaguas, on pretence of going out a-fishing, or for
pleasure. In these they came away the next morning. It seems they
wanted no time to get themselves ready; for they had neither
clothes nor provisions, nor anything in the world but what they had
on them, and a few roots to eat, of which they used to make their
bread. They were in all three weeks absent; and in that time,
unluckily for them, I had the occasion offered for my escape, as I
mentioned in the other part, and to get off from the island,
leaving three of the most impudent, hardened, ungoverned,
disagreeable villains behind me that any man could desire to meet
with--to the poor Spaniards' great grief and disappointment.
The only just thing the rogues did was, that when the Spaniards
came ashore, they gave my letter to them, and gave them provisions,
and other relief, as I had ordered them to do; also they gave them
the long paper of directions which I had left with them, containing
the particular methods which I took for managing every part of my
life there; the way I baked my bread, bred up tame goats, and
planted my corn; how I cured my grapes, made my pots, and, in a
word, everything I did. All this being written down, they gave to
the Spaniards (two of them understood English well enough): nor
did they refuse to accommodate the Spaniards with anything else,
for they agreed very well for some time. They gave them an equal
admission into the house or cave, and they began to live very
sociably; and the head Spaniard, who had seen pretty much of my
methods, together with Friday's father, managed all their affairs;
but as for the Englishmen, they did nothing but ramble about the
island, shoot parrots, and catch tortoises; and when they came home
at night, the Spaniards provided their suppers for them.
The Spaniards would have been satisfied with this had the others
but let them alone, which, however, they could not find in their
hearts to do long: but, like the dog in the manger, they would not
eat themselves, neither would they let the others eat. The
differences, nevertheless, were at first but trivial, and such as
are not worth relating, but at last it broke out into open war:
and it began with all the rudeness and insolence that can be
imagined--without reason, without provocation, contrary to nature,
and indeed to common sense; and though, it is true, the first
relation of it came from the Spaniards themselves, whom I may call
the accusers, yet when I came to examine the fellows they could not
deny a word of it.
But before I come to the particulars of this part, I must supply a
defect in my former relation; and this was, I forgot to set down
among the rest, that just as we were weighing the anchor to set
sail, there happened a little quarrel on board of our ship, which I
was once afraid would have turned to a second mutiny; nor was it
appeased till the captain, rousing up his courage, and taking us
all to his assistance, parted them by force, and making two of the
most refractory fellows prisoners, he laid them in irons: and as
they had been active in the former disorders, and let fall some
ugly, dangerous words the second time, he threatened to carry them
in irons to England, and have them hanged there for mutiny and
running away with the ship. This, it seems, though the captain did
not intend to do it, frightened some other men in the ship; and
some of them had put it into the head of the rest that the captain
only gave them good words for the present, till they should come to
same English port, and that then they should be all put into gaol,
and tried for their lives. The mate got intelligence of this, and
acquainted us with it, upon which it was desired that I, who still
passed for a great man among them, should go down with the mate and
satisfy the men, and tell them that they might be assured, if they
behaved well the rest of the voyage, all they had done for the time
past should be pardoned. So I went, and after passing my honour's
word to them they appeared easy, and the more so when I caused the
two men that were in irons to be released and forgiven.
But this mutiny had brought us to an anchor for that night; the
wind also falling calm next morning, we found that our two men who
had been laid in irons had stolen each of them a musket and some
other weapons (what powder or shot they had we knew not), and had
taken the ship's pinnace, which was not yet hauled up, and run away
with her to their companions in roguery on shore. As soon as we
found this, I ordered the long-boat on shore, with twelve men and
the mate, and away they went to seek the rogues; but they could
neither find them nor any of the rest, for they all fled into the
woods when they saw the boat coming on shore. The mate was once
resolved, in justice to their roguery, to have destroyed their
plantations, burned all their household stuff and furniture, and
left them to shift without it; but having no orders, he let it all
alone, left everything as he found it, and bringing the pinnace
way, came on board without them. These two men made their number
five; but the other three villains were so much more wicked than
they, that after they had been two or three days together they
turned the two newcomers out of doors to shift for themselves, and
would have nothing to do with them; nor could they for a good while
be persuaded to give them any food: as for the Spaniards, they
were not yet come.
When the Spaniards came first on shore, the business began to go
forward: the Spaniards would have persuaded the three English
brutes to have taken in their countrymen again, that, as they said,
they might be all one family; but they would not hear of it, so the
two poor fellows lived by themselves; and finding nothing but
industry and application would make them live comfortably, they
pitched their tents on the north shore of the island, but a little
more to the west, to be out of danger of the savages, who always
landed on the east parts of the island. Here they built them two
huts, one to lodge in, and the other to lay up their magazines and
stores in; and the Spaniards having given them some corn for seed,
and some of the peas which I had left them, they dug, planted, and
enclosed, after the pattern I had set for them all, and began to
live pretty well. Their first crop of corn was on the ground; and
though it was but a little bit of land which they had dug up at
first, having had but a little time, yet it was enough to relieve
them, and find them with bread and other eatables; and one of the
fellows being the cook's mate of the ship, was very ready at making
soup, puddings, and such other preparations as the rice and the
milk, and such little flesh as they got, furnished him to do.
They were going on in this little thriving position when the three
unnatural rogues, their own countrymen too, in mere humour, and to
insult them, came and bullied them, and told them the island was
theirs: that the governor, meaning me, had given them the
possession of it, and nobody else had any right to it; and that
they should build no houses upon their ground unless they would pay
rent for them. The two men, thinking they were jesting at first,
asked them to come in and sit down, and see what fine houses they
were that they had built, and to tell them what rent they demanded;
and one of them merrily said if they were the ground-landlords, he
hoped if they built tenements upon their land, and made
improvements, they would, according to the custom of landlords,
grant a long lease: and desired they would get a scrivener to draw
the writings. One of the three, cursing and raging, told them they
should see they were not in jest; and going to a little place at a
distance, where the honest men had made a fire to dress their
victuals, he takes a firebrand, and claps it to the outside of
their hut, and set it on fire: indeed, it would have been all
burned down in a few minutes if one of the two had not run to the
fellow, thrust him away, and trod the fire out with his feet, and
that not without some difficulty too.
The fellow was in such a rage at the honest man's thrusting him
away, that he returned upon him, with a pole he had in his hand,
and had not the man avoided the blow very nimbly, and run into the
hut, he had ended his days at once. His comrade, seeing the danger
they were both in, ran after him, and immediately they came both
out with their muskets, and the man that was first struck at with
the pole knocked the fellow down that began the quarrel with the
stock of his musket, and that before the other two could come to
help him; and then, seeing the rest come at them, they stood
together, and presenting the other ends of their pieces to them,
bade them stand off.
The others had firearms with them too; but one of the two honest
men, bolder than his comrade, and made desperate by his danger,
told them if they offered to move hand or foot they were dead men,
and boldly commanded them to lay down their arms. They did not,
indeed, lay down their arms, but seeing him so resolute, it brought
them to a parley, and they consented to take their wounded man with
them and be gone: and, indeed, it seems the fellow was wounded
sufficiently with the blow. However, they were much in the wrong,
since they had the advantage, that they did not disarm them
effectually, as they might have done, and have gone immediately to
the Spaniards, and given them an account how the rogues had treated
them; for the three villains studied nothing but revenge, and every
day gave them some intimation that they did so. _
Read next: CHAPTER III - FIGHT WITH CANNIBALS
Read previous: CHAPTER I -REVISITS ISLAND
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