by Daniel Defoe
two men, but it was at agreat distance; however, they had the satisfaction to see them crossover a valley towards the sea, the quite contrary way from that whichled to their retreat, which they were afraid of; and being satisfiedwith that, they went back to the tree where they left their prisoner,who as they supposed was delivered by his comrades; for he was gone, andthe two pieces of rope-yarn with which they had bound him, lay just atthe foot of the tree.
They were now in as great a concern as before, not knowing what courseto take, or how near the enemy might be, or in what numbers; so theyresolved to go away to the place where their wives were, to see if allwas well there, and to make them easy, who were in fright enough to besure; for though the savages were their own country-folks, yet they weremost terribly afraid of them, and perhaps the more, for the knowledgethey had of them.
When they came thither, they found the savages had been in the wood, andvery near the place, but had not found it; for indeed it wasinaccessible, by the trees standing so thick, as before, unless thepersons seeking it had been directed by those that knew it, which thesewere not; they found, therefore, every thing very safe, only the womenin a terrible fright. While they were here they had the comfort of sevenof the Spaniards coming to their assistance: the other ten with theirservants, and old Friday, I mean Friday's father, were gone in a body todefend their bower, and the corn and cattle that were kept there, incase the savages should have roved over to that side of the country; butthey did not spread so far. With the seven Spaniards came one of thesavages, who, as I said, were their prisoners formerly, and with themalso came the savage whom the Englishmen had left bound hand and foot atthe tree; for it seems they came that way, saw the slaughter of theseven men, and unbound the eighth, and brought him along with them,where, however, they were obliged to bind him again, as they had donethe two others, who were left when the third run away.
The prisoners began now to be a burden to them; and they were so afraidof their escaping, that they thought they were under an absolutenecessity to kill them for their own preservation: however, the Spaniardgovernor would not consent to it; but ordered, that they should be sentout of the way to my old cave in the valley, and be kept there, with twoSpaniards to guard them and give them food; which was done; and theywere bound there hand and foot for that night.
When the Spaniards came, the two Englishmen were so encouraged, thatthey could not satisfy themselves to stay any longer there; but takingfive of the Spaniards, and themselves, with four muskets and a pistolamong them, and two stout quarter-staves, away they went in quest of thesavages. And first, they came to the tree where the men lay that hadbeen killed; but it was easy to see that some more of the savages hadbeen there; for they attempted to carry their dead men away, and haddragged two of them a good way, but had given it over; from thence theyadvanced to the first rising ground, where they had stood and seen theircamp destroyed, and where they had the mortification still to see someof the smoke; but neither could they here see any of the savages: theythen resolved, though with all possible caution, to go forward towardstheir ruined plantation; but a little before they came thither, comingin sight of the sea-shore, they saw plainly the savages all embarkingagain in their canoes, in order to be gone.
They seemed sorry at first that there was no way to come at them to givethem a parting blow; but upon the whole were very well satisfied to berid of them.
The poor Englishmen being now twice ruined, and all their improvementsdestroyed, the rest all agreed to come and help them to rebuild, and toassist them with needful supplies. Their three countrymen, who were notyet noted for having the least inclination to do any thing good, yet, assoon as they heard of it (for they, living remote, knew nothing till allwas over), came and offered their help and assistance, and did veryfriendly work for several days to restore their habitations and makenecessaries for them; and thus in a little time they were set upon theirlegs again.
About two days after this they had the farther satisfaction of seeingthree of the savages' canoes come driving onshore, and at some distancefrom them, with two drowned men; by which they had reason to believethat they had met with a storm at sea, which had overset some of them,for it blew very hard the night after they went off.
However, as some might miscarry, so on the other hand enough of themescaped to inform the rest, as well of what they had done, as of whathappened to them; and to whet them on to another enterprise of the samenature, which they, it seems, resolved to attempt, with sufficient forceto carry all before them; for except what the first man told them ofinhabitants, they could say little to it of their own knowledge; forthey never saw one man, and the fellow being killed that had affirmedit, they had no other witness to confirm it to them.
It was five or six months after this before they heard any more of thesavages, in which time our men were in hopes they had not forgot theirformer bad luck, or had given over the hopes of better; when on a suddenthey were invaded with a most formidable fleet of no less thantwenty-eight canoes, full of savages, armed with bows and arrows, greatclubs, wooden swords, and such-like engines of war; and they broughtsuch numbers with them, that in short it put all our people into theutmost consternation.
As they came on shore in the evening, and at the easternmost side of theisland, our men had that night to consult and consider what to do; andin the first place, knowing that their being entirely concealed wastheir only safety before, and would much more be so now, while thenumber of their enemies was so great, they therefore resolved, first ofall, to take down the huts which were built for the two Englishmen, anddrive away their goats to the old cave; because they supposed thesavages would go directly thither as soon as it was day, to play the oldgame over again, though they did not now land within two leagues of it.
In the next place, they drove away all the flock of goats they had atthe old bower, as I called it, which belonged to the Spaniards; and, inshort, left as little appearance of inhabitants any where as possible;and the next morning early they posted themselves with all their forceat the plantation of the two men, waiting for their coming. As theyguessed, so it happened: these new invaders, leaving their canoes at theeast end of the island, came ranging along the shore, directly towardsthe place, to the number of two hundred and fifty, as near as our mencould judge. Our army was but small indeed; but that which was worse,they had not arms for all their number neither: the whole account, itseems, stood thus:--first, as to men:
17 Spaniards. 5 Englishmen. 1 Old Friday, or Friday's father. 3 Slaves, taken with the women, who proved very faithful. 3 Other slaves who lived with the Spaniards. -- 29 To arm these they had: 11 Muskets. 5 Pistols. 3 Fowling-pieces. 5 Muskets, or fowling-pieces, which were taken by me from the mutinous seamen whom I reduced. 2 Swords. 3 Old halberts. -- 29
To their slaves they did not give either musket or fusil, but they hadevery one an halbert, or a long staff, like a quarter-staff, with agreat spike of iron fastened into each end of it, and by his side ahatchet; also every one of our men had hatchets. Two of the women couldnot be prevailed upon but they would come into the fight, and they hadbows and arrows, which the Spaniards had taken from the savages when thefirst action happened, which I have spoken of, where the Indians foughtwith one another; and the women had hatchets too.
The Spaniard governor, whom I have described so often, commanded thewhole; and William Atkins, who, though a dreadful fellow for wickedness,was a most daring, bold fellow, commanded under him. The savages cameforward like lions, and our men, which was the worst of their fate, hadno advantage in their situation; only that Will Atkins, who now proved amost useful fellow, with six men, was planted just behind a smallthicket of bushes, as an advanced guard, with orders to let the first ofthem pass by, and then fire into the middle of them; and as soon as hehad fired to make his retreat, as nimbly as he could, round a part ofthe wood, and so come in behind the Spaniards where they stood, having athicket of trees all before th
em.
When the savages came on, they ran straggling about every way in heaps,out of all manner of order, and Will Atkins let about fifty of them passby him; then seeing the rest come in a very thick throng, he ordersthree of his men to fire, having loaded their muskets with six or sevenbullets apiece, about as big as large pistol-bullets. How many theykilled or wounded they knew not; but the consternation and surprise wasinexpressible among the savages, who were frighted to the last degree,to hear such a dreadful noise, and see their men killed, and othershurt, but see nobody that did it. When in the middle of their fright,William Atkins and his other three let fly again among the thickest ofthem and in less than a minute the first three, being loaded again, gavethem a third volley.
Had William Atkins and his men retired immediately, as soon as they hadfired, as they were ordered to do; or had the rest of the body been athand to have poured in their shot continually, the savages had beeneffectually routed; for the terror that was