brought them on shore they bound their hands, that they might not take
the boat and make their escape; there, I say, they sat all of them stark
naked. First, there were three men, lusty, comely fellows, well shaped,
straight and fair limbs, about thirty or thirty-five years of age, and
five women; whereof two might be from thirty to forty, two more not
above twenty-four or twenty-five, and the fifth, a tall, comely maiden,
about sixteen or seventeen. The women were well-favoured, agreeable
persons, both in shape and features, only tawny; and two of them, had
they been perfect white, would have passed for handsome women, even in
London itself, having very pleasant, agreeable countenances, and of a
very modest behaviour, especially when they came afterwards to be
clothed, and dressed, as they called it, though that dress was very
indifferent it must be confessed, of which hereafter.
The sight, you may be sure, was something uncouth to our Spaniards, who
were (to give them a just character) men of the best behaviour, of the
most calm, sedate tempers, and perfect good humour that ever I met with;
and, in particular, of the most modesty, as will presently appear: I say
the sight was very uncouth, to see three naked men and five naked women,
all together bound, and in the most miserable circumstances that human
nature could be supposed to be, viz. to be expecting every moment to be
dragged out, and have their brains knocked out, and then to be eaten up
like a calf that is killed for a dainty.
The first thing they did was to cause the old Indian, Friday’s father,
to go in and see first if he knew any of them, and then if he understood
any of their speech. As soon as the old man came in, he looked seriously
at them, but knew none of them; neither could any of them understand a
word he said, or a sign he could make, except one of the women.
However, this was enough to answer the end, which was to satisfy them,
that the men into whose hands they were fallen were Christians; that
they abhorred eating of men or women, and that they might be sure they
would not be killed. As soon as they were assured of this, they
discovered such a joy, and by such awkward and several ways as is hard
to describe, for it seems they were of several nations.
The woman who was their interpreter was bid, in the next place, to ask
them if they were willing to be servants, and to work for the men who
had brought them away to save their lives? At which they all fell a
dancing; and presently one fell to taking up this, and another that, any
thing that lay next, to carry on their shoulders, to intimate that they
were willing to work.
The governor, who found that the having women among them would presently
be attended with some inconveniency, and might occasion some strife, and
perhaps blood, asked the three men what they intended to do with these
women, and how they intended to use them, whether as servants or as
women? One of the Englishmen answered very boldly and readily, that they
would use them as both. To which the governor said, “I am not going to
restrain you from it; you are your own masters as to that: but this I
think is but just, for avoiding disorders and quarrels among you, and I
desire it of you for that reason only, viz. that you will all engage,
that if any of you take any of these women as a woman, or wife, he shall
take but one; and that, having taken one, none else should touch her;
for though we cannot marry any of you, yet it is but reasonable that
while you stay here, the woman any of you takes should be maintained by
the man that takes her, and should be his wife; I mean,” says he, “while
he continues here; and that none else should have any thing to do with
her.” All this appeared so just, that every one agreed to it without any
difficulty.
Then the Englishmen asked the Spaniards if they designed to take any of
them? But every one answered, “No;” some of them said they had wives in
Spain; and the others did not like women that were not Christians; and
all together declared, that they would not touch one of them; which was
an instance of such virtue as I have not met with in all my travels. On
the other hand, to be short, the five Englishmen took them every one a
wife; that is to say, a temporary wife; and so they set up a new form of
living; for the Spaniards and Friday’s father lived in my old
habitation, which they had enlarged exceedingly within; the three
servants, which they had taken in the late battle of the savages, lived
with them; and these carried on the main part of the colony, supplying
all the rest with food, and assisting them in any thing as they could,
or as they found necessity required.
But the wonder of this story was, how five such refractory, ill-matched
fellows should agree about these women, and that two of them should not
pitch upon the same woman, especially seeing two or three of them were,
without comparison, more agreeable than the others: but they took a good
way enough to prevent quarrelling among themselves; for they set the
five women by themselves in one of their huts, and they went all into
the other hut, and drew lots among them who should choose first.
He that drew to choose first, went away by himself to the hut where the
poor naked creatures were, and fetched out her he chose; and it was
worth observing that he that chose first took her that was reckoned the
homeliest and the oldest of the five, which made mirth enough among the
rest; and even the Spaniards laughed at it; but the fellow considered
better than any of them, that it was application and business that they
were to expect assistance in as much as any thing else, and she proved
the best wife in the parcel.
When the poor women saw themselves in a row thus, and fetched out one by
one, the terrors of their condition returned upon them again, and they
firmly believed that they were now going to be devoured: accordingly,
when the English sailor came in and fetched out one of them, the rest
set up a most lamentable cry, and hung about her, and took their leave
of her with such agonies and such affection as would have grieved the
hardest heart in the world; nor was it possible for the Englishmen to
satisfy them that they were not to be immediately murdered, till they
fetched the old man, Friday’s father, who instantly let them know, that
the five men who had fetched them out one by one, had chosen them for
their wives.
When they had done this, and the fright the women were in was a little
over, the men went to work, and the Spaniards came and helped them; and
in a few hours they had built them every one a new hut or tent for their
lodging apart; for those they had already were crowded with their tools,
household stuff, and provisions. The three wicked ones had pitched
farthest off, and the two honest ones nearer, but both on the north
shore of the island, so that they continued separate as before: and thus
my island was peopled in three places, and, as I might say, three towns
were begun to be planted.
And here it is very well worth observing, that as it often happens in
the world, (what the wise ends of God’s providences are in such a
disposition of things I cannot say) the two honest fellows had the two
worst wives; and the three reprobates, that were scarce worth hanging,
that were fit for nothing, and neither seemed born to do themselves
good, or any one else, had three clever, diligent, careful, and
ingenious wives, not that the two first were ill wives as to their
temper or humour; for all the five were most willing, quiet, passive,
and subjected creatures, rather like slaves than wives; but my meaning
is, they were not alike, capable, ingenious, or industrious, or alike
cleanly and neat.
Another observation I must make, to the honour of a diligent application
on the one hand, and to the disgrace of a slothful, negligent, idle
temper on the other, that when I came to the place, and viewed the
several improvements, planting, and management of the several little
colonies, the two men had so far out-gone the three, that there was no
comparison; they had indeed both of them as much ground laid out for
corn as they wanted; and the reason was, because according to my rule,
nature dictated, that it was to no purpose to sow more corn than they
wanted; but the difference of the cultivation, of the planting, of the
fences, and indeed every thing else, was easy to be seen at first view.
The two men had innumerable young trees planted about their huts, that
when you came to the place nothing was to be seen but a wood; and
though they had their plantation twice demolished, once by their own
countrymen, and once by the enemy, as shall be shewn in its place; yet
they had restored all again, and every thing was flourishing and
thriving about them: they had grapes planted in order, and managed like
a vineyard, though they had themselves never seen any thing of that
kind; and by their good ordering their vines their grapes were as good
again as any of the others. They had also formed themselves a retreat in
the thickest part of the woods, where, though there was not a natural
cave, as I had found, yet they made one with incessant labour of their
hands, and where, when the mischief which followed happened, they
secured their wives and children so as they could never be found; they
having, by sticking innumerable stakes and poles of the wood, which, as
I said, grow so easily, made a grove impassable except in one place,
where they climbed up to get over the outside part, and then went in by
ways of their own leaving.
As to the three reprobates, as I justly call them, though they were much
civilized by their new settlement compared to what they were before, and
were not so quarrelsome, having not the same opportunity, yet one of the
certain companions of a profligate mind never left them, and that was
their idleness. It is true, they planted corn and made fences; but
Solomon’s words were never better verified than in them: “I went by the
vineyard of the slothful, and it was overgrown with thorns;” for when
the Spaniards came to view their crop, they could not see it in some
places for weeds; the hedge had several gaps in it, where the wild goats
had gotten in and eaten up the corn; perhaps here and there a dead bush
was crammed in to stop them out for the present, but it was only
shutting the stable door after the steed was stolen; whereas, when they
looked on the colony of the other two, here was the very face of
industry and success upon all they did; there was not a weed to be seen
in all their corn, or a gap in any of their hedges; and they, on the
other hand, verified Solomon’s words in another place: “The diligent
hand maketh rich;” for every thing grew and thrived, and they had plenty
within and without; they had more tame cattle than the others, more
utensils and necessaries within doors, and yet more pleasure and
diversion too.
It is true, the wives of the three were very handy and cleanly within
doors; and having learnt the English ways of dressing and cooking from
one of the other Englishmen, who, as I said, was a cook’s mate on board
the ship, they dressed their husbands’ victuals very nicely; whereas the
other could not be brought to understand it; but then the husband, who
as I said, had been cook’s mate, did it himself; but as for the husbands
of the three wives, they loitered about, fetched turtles’ eggs, and
caught fish and birds; in a word, any thing but labour, and they fared
accordingly. The diligent lived well and comfortably and the slothful
lived hard and beggarly; and so I believe, generally speaking, it is all
over the world.
But now I come to a scene different from all that had happened before,
either to them or me; and the origin of the story was this:
Early one morning there came on shore five or six canoes of Indians, or
savages, call them which you please; and there is no room to doubt that
they came upon the old errand of feeding upon their slaves; but that
part was now so familiar to the Spaniards, and to our men too, that they
did not concern themselves about it as I did; but having been made
sensible by their experience, that their only business was to lie
concealed, and that, if they were not seen by any of the savages, they
would go off again quietly when the business was done, having as yet not
the least notion of there being any inhabitants in the island; I say
having been made sensible of this, they had nothing to do but to give
notice to all the three plantations to keep within doors, and not to
shew themselves; only placing a scout in a proper place, to give notice
when the boats went off to sea again.
This was, without doubt, very right; but a disaster spoiled all these
measures, and made it known among the savages that there were
inhabitants there, which was, in the end, the desolation of almost the
whole colony. After the canoes with the savages were gone off, the
Spaniards peeped abroad again, and some of them had the curiosity to go
to the place where they had been, to see what they had been doing. Here,
to their great surprise, they found three savages left behind, and lying
fast asleep upon the ground; it was supposed they had either been so
gorged with their inhuman feast, that, like beasts, they were asleep,
and would not stir when the others went, or they were wandered into the
woods, and did not come back in time to be taken in.
The Spaniards were greatly surprised at this sight, and perfectly at a
loss what to do; the Spaniard governor, as it happened, was with them,
and his advice was asked; but he professed he knew not what to do; as
for slaves, they had enough already; and as to killing them, they were
none of them inclined to that. The Spaniard governor told me they could
not think of shedding innocent blood; for as to them, the poor creatures
had done no wrong, invaded none of their property; and they thought they
had no just quarrel against them to take away their lives.
And here I must, in justice to these Spaniards, observe, that let all
the accounts of Spanish cruelty in Mexico and Peru be what they will, I
never met with seventeen men, of any nation whatsoever, in any foreign
country, who were so universally modest, temperate, virtuous, so very
good-humoured, and so courteous as these Spaniards; and, as to cruelty,
they had nothing of it in their very nature; no inhumanity, no
barbarity, no outrageous passions, and yet all of them men of great
courage and spirit.
Their temper and calmness had appeared in their bearing the insufferable
usage of the three Englishmen; and their justice and humanity appeared
now in the case of the savages as above. After some consultation they
resolved upon this, that they would lie still a while longer, till, if
possible, these three men might be gone; but then the governor Spaniard
recollected that the three savages had no boat; and that if they were
left to rove about the island, they would certainly discover that there
were inhabitants in it, and so they should be undone that way.
Upon this they went back again, and there lay the fellows fast asleep
still; so they resolved to awaken them, and take them prisoners; and
they did so. The poor fellows were strangely frighted when they were
seized upon and bound, and afraid, like the women, that they should be
murdered and eaten; for it seems those people think all the world do as
they do, eating mens’ flesh; but they were soon made easy as to that:
and away they carried them.
It was very happy for them that they did not carry them home to their
castle; I mean to my palace under the hill; but they carried them first
to the bower, where was the chief of their country work; such as the
keeping the goats, the planting the corn, &c.; and afterwards they
carried them to the habitation of the two Englishmen.
Here they were set to work, though it was not much, they had for them to
do; and whether it was by negligence in guarding them, or that they
thought the fellows could not mend themselves, I know not, but one of
them ran away, and taking into the woods, they could never hear of
him more.
They had good reason to believe he got home again soon after in some
other boats or canoes of savages, who came on shore three or four weeks
afterwards, and who, carrying on their revels as usual, went off again
in two days time. This thought terrified them exceedingly; for they
concluded, and that not without good cause indeed, that if this fellow
got safe home among his comrades, he would certainly give them an
account that there were people in the island, as also how weak and few
they were; for this savage, as I observed before, had never been told,
as it was very happy he had not, how many they were, or where they
lived, nor had he ever seen or heard the fire of any of their guns, much
less had they shewn him any other of their retired places, such as the
cave in the valley, or the new retreat which the two Englishmen had
made, and the like.
The first testimony they had that this fellow had given intelligence of
them was, that about two months after this, six canoes of savages, with
about seven or eight, or ten men in a canoe, came rowing along the north
side of the island, where they never used to come before, and landed
about an hour after sunrise, at a convenient place, about a mile from
the habitation of the two Englishmen, where this escaped man had been
kept. As the Spaniard governor said, had they been all there the damage
would not have been so much, for not a man of them would have escaped:
but the case differed now very much; for two men to fifty were too much
odds. The two men had the happiness to discover them about a league off,
so that it was about an hour before they landed, and as they landed
about a mile from their huts, it was some time before they could come at
them. Now having great reason to believe that they were betrayed, the
first thing they did was to bind the slaves which were left, and cause
two of the three men whom they brought with the women, who, it seems,
proved very faithful to them, to lead them with their two wives, and
whatever they could carry away with them, to their retired place in the
woods, which I have spoken of above, and there to bind the two fellows
hand and foot till they heard farther.
In the next place, seeing the savages were all come on shore, and that
they bent their course directly that way, they opened the fences where
their milch-goats were kept, and drove them all out, leaving their goats
to straggle into the wood, whither they pleased, that the savages might
think they were all bred wild; but the rogue who came with them was too
cunning for that, and gave them an account of it all, for they went
directly to the place.
When the poor frighted men had secured their wives and goods, they sent
the other slave they had of the three, who came with the women, and who
was at their place by accident, away to the Spaniards with all speed, to
give them the alarm, and desire speedy help; and in the mean time they
took their arms, and what ammunition they had, and retreated towards the
place in the wood where their wives were sent, keeping at a distance;
yet so that they might see, if possible, which way the savages took.
They had not gone far but that, from a rising ground, they could see the
little army of their enemies come on directly to their habitation, and
in a moment more could see all their huts and household-stuff flaming up
together, to their great grief and mortification; for they had a very
great loss, and to them irretrievable, at least for some time. They kept
their station for a while, till they found the savages, like wild
beasts, spread themselves all over the place, rummaging every way, and
every place they could think of, in search for prey, and in particular
for the people, of whom it plainly appeared they had intelligence.
The two Englishmen, seeing this, thinking themselves not secure where
they stood, as it was likely some of the wild people might come that
way, so they might come too many together, thought it proper to make
another retreat about half a mile farther, believing, as it afterwards
happened, that the farther they strolled, the fewer would be together.
The next halt was at the entrance into a very thick grown part of the
woods, and where an old trunk of a tree stood, which was hollow, and
vastly large; and in this tree they both took their standing, resolving
to see what might offer.
They had not stood there long, but two of the savages appeared running
directly that way, as if they had already notice where they stood, and
were coming up to attack them; and a little way farther they espied
three more coming after them, and five more beyond them, all coming the
same way; besides which, they saw seven or eight more at a distance,
running another way; for, in a word, they ran every way, like sportsmen
beating for their game.
The poor men were now in great perplexity, whether they should stand and
keep their posture, or fly; but after a very short debate with
themselves, they considered that if the savages ranged the country thus
before help came, they might, perhaps, find out their retreat in the
woods, and then all would be lost; so they resolved to stand them there;
and if there were too many to deal with, then they would get to the top
of the tree, from whence they doubted not to defend themselves, fire
excepted, as long as their ammunition lasted, though all the savages
that were landed, which were near fifty, were to attack them.
Having resolved upon this, they next considered whether they should fire
at the two first, or wait for the three, and so take the middle party,
by which the two and the five that followed would be separated: at
length they resolved to let the two first pass by, unless they should
spy them in the tree, and come to attack them. The two first savages
also confirmed them in this resolution, by turning a little from them
towards another part of the wood; but the three, and the five after
them, came forwards directly to the tree, as if they had known the
Englishmen were there.
Seeing them come so straight towards them, they resolved to take them in
a line as they came; and as they resolved to fire but one at a time,
perhaps the first shot might hit them all three; to which purpose, the
man who was to fire put three or four bullets into his piece, and having
a fair loop-hole, as it were, from a broken hole in the tree, he took a
sure aim, without being seen, waiting till they were within about thirty
yards of the tree, so that he could not miss.
While they were thus waiting, and the savages came on, they plainly saw,
that one of the three was the runaway savage that had escaped from them;
and they both knew him distinctly, and resolved that, if possible, he
should not escape, though they should both fire; so the other stood
ready with his piece, that if he did not drop at the first shot, he
should be sure to have a second. But the first was too good a marksman
to miss his aim; for as the savages kept near one another, a little
behind in a line, he fired, and hit two of them directly; the foremost
was killed outright, being shot in the head; the second, which was the
runaway Indian, was shot through the body, and fell, but was not quite
dead; and the third had a little scratch in the shoulder, perhaps by the
same ball that went through the body of the second; and being dreadfully
frightened, though not so much hurt, sat down upon the ground, screaming
and yelling in a hideous manner.
The five that were behind, more frightened with the noise than sensible
of the danger, stood still at first; for the woods made the sound a
thousand times bigger than it really was, the echoes rattling from one
side to another, and the fowls rising from all parts, screaming, and
every sort making a different noise, according to their kind; just as it
was when I fired the first gun that perhaps was ever shot off in
the island.