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.