by Daniel Defoe
for we couldnot hear what became of him a great while. We lay upon the shore twodays after, though the wind presented, and made signals for him; madeour boat sail up shore and down shore several leagues, but in vain; sowe were obliged to give him over; and if he alone had suffered for it,the loss had been the less.
I could not satisfy myself, however, without venturing on shore oncemore, to try if I could learn any thing of him or them. It was the thirdnight after the action that I had a great mind to learn, if I could byany means, what mischief he had done, and how the game stood on theIndian side. I was careful to do it in the dark, lest we should beattacked again; but I ought indeed to have been sure that the men I wentwith had been under my command before I engaged in a thing so hazardousand mischievous, as I was brought into it without my knowledgeor desire.
We took twenty stout fellows with us as any in the ship, besides thesupercargo and myself; and we landed two hours before midnight, at thesame place where the Indians stood drawn up the evening before. I landedhere, because my design, as I have said, was chiefly to see if they hadquitted the field, and if they had left any marks behind them, or of themischief we had done them; and I thought if we could surprise one or twoof them, perhaps we might get our man again by way of exchange.
We landed without any noise, and divided our men into two companies,whereof the boatswain commanded one, and I the other. We neither couldhear nor see any body stir when we landed; so we marched up, one body ata distance from the other, to the field of battle. At first we could seenothing, it being very dark; but by and by our boatswain, that led thefirst party, stumbled and fell over a dead body. This made them haltthere awhile; for knowing by the circumstances that they were at theplace where the Indians had stood, they waited for my coming up. Herewe concluded to halt till the moon began to rise, which we knew would bein less than an hour, and then we could easily discern the havoc we hadmade among them. We told two-and-thirty bodies upon the ground, whereoftwo were not quite dead. Some had an arm, and some a leg, shot off, andone his head; those that were wounded we supposed they had carried away.
When we had made, as I thought, a full discovery of all we could come atthe knowledge of, I was for going on board again; but the boatswain andhis party often sent me word, that they were resolved to make a visit tothe Indian town, where these dogs, as they called them, dwelt, anddesired me to go along with them, and if they could find them, as theystill fancied they should, they did not doubt, they said, getting a goodbooty, and it might be they might find Thomas Jeffrys there, that wasthe man's name we had lost.
Had they sent to ask my leave to go, I knew well enough what answer tohave given them; for I would have commanded them instantly on board,knowing it was not a hazard fit for us to run who had a ship and aship's loading in our charge, and a voyage to make, which depended verymuch upon the lives of the men; but as they sent me word they wereresolved to go, and only asked me and my company to go along with them,I positively refused it, and rose up (for I was sitting on the ground)in order to go to the boat. One or two of the men began to importune meto go, and when I still refused positively, began to grumble, and saythey were not under my command, and they would go. "Come, Jack," saysone of the men, "will you go with me? I will go for one." Jack said hewould; and another followed, and then another; and, in a word, they allleft me but one, whom, with much difficulty too, I persuaded to stay; sothe supercargo and I, with one man, went back to the boat, where, Itold them, we would stay for them, and take care to take in as many ofthem as should be left; for I told them it was a mad thing they weregoing about, and supposed most of them would run the fate ofThomas Jeffrys.
They told me, like seamen, they would warrant it they would come offagain, and they would take care, &c. So away they went. I entreated themto consider the ship and the voyage; that their lives were not theirown; and that they were entrusted with the voyage in some measure; thatif they miscarried, the ship might be lost for want of their help; andthat they could not answer it to God and man. I said a great deal moreto them on that head, but I might as well have talked to the main-mastof the ship; they were mad upon their journey; only they gave me goodwords, and begged I would not be angry; said they would be verycautious, and they did not doubt but they would be back again in aboutan hour at farthest; for the Indian town, they said, was not above halfa mile off; though they found it above two miles before they got to it.
Well, they all went away as above; and though the attempt was desperate,and such as none but madmen would have gone about, yet, to give themtheir due, they went about it warily as well as boldly. They weregallantly armed, that is true; for they had every man a fusil or musket,a bayonet, and every man a pistol; some of them had broad cutlasses,some of them hangers, and the boatswain and two more had pole-axes;besides all which they had among them thirteen hand-grenadoes. Bolderfellows, and better provided, never went about any wicked work inthe world.
When they went out their chief design was plunder, and they were inmighty hopes of finding gold there; but a circumstance, which none ofthem were aware of, set them on fire with revenge, and made devils ofthem all. When they came to the few Indian houses, which they thoughthad been the town, which were not above half a mile off, they were undera great disappointment; for there were not above twelve or thirteenhouses; and where the town was, or how big, they knew not. Theyconsulted therefore what to do, and were some time before they couldresolve; for if they fell upon these they must cut all their throats,and it was ten to one but some of them might escape, it being in thenight, though the moon was up; and if one escaped he would run away, andraise all the town, so they should have a whole army upon them. Again,on the other hand, if they went away, and left those untouched (for thepeople were all asleep), they could not tell which way to look forthe town.
However, the last was the best advice; so they resolved to leave thosehouses, and look for the town as well as they could. They went on alittle way, and found a cow tied to a tree: this they presentlyconcluded would be a good guide to them; for they said the cow certainlybelonged to the town before them or the town behind them, and if theyuntied her they should see which way she went: if she went back they hadnothing to say to her, but if she went forward they had nothing to dobut to follow her; so they cut the cord, which was made of twistedflags, and the cow went on before them. In a word, the cow led themdirectly to the town, which, as they reported, consisted of above twohundred houses or huts; and in some of these they found several familiesliving together.
Here they found all silent; as profoundly secure as sleep and a countrythat had never seen an enemy of that kind could make them. Upon thisthey called another council to consider what they had to do, and in aword they resolved to divide themselves into three bodies, and to setthree houses on fire in three parts of the town; and as the men cameout, to seize them and bind them; if any resisted, they need not beasked what to do then, and so to search the rest of the houses forplunder; but resolved to march silently first through the town, and seewhat dimensions it was of, and consider if they might venture upon itor no.
They did so, and desperately resolved that they would venture upon them;but while they were animating one another to the work, three of themthat were a little before the rest called out aloud, and told them theyhad found Thomas Jeffrys; they all ran up to the place; and so it wasindeed, for there they found the poor fellow, hanged up naked by onearm, and his throat cut. There was an Indian house just by the tree,where they found sixteen or seventeen of the principal Indians who hadbeen concerned in the fray with us before, and two or three of themwounded with our shot; and our men found they were awake, and talkingone to another in that house, but knew not their number.
The sight of their poor mangled comrade so enraged them, as before, thatthey swore to one another they would be revenged, and that not an Indianwho came into their hands should have quarter; and to work they wentimmediately, and yet not so madly as by the rage and fury they were inmight be expected. Their first care was to get something that would
soontake fire; but after a little search they found that would be to nopurpose, for most of the houses were low, and thatched with flags orrushes, of which the country is full: so they presently made somewildfire, as we call it, by wetting a little powder in the palms oftheir hands; and in a quarter of an hour they set the town on fire infour or five places, and particularly that house where the Indians werenot gone to bed. As soon as the fire began to blaze, the poor frightedcreatures began to rush out to save their lives, but met with their fatein the attempt, and especially at the door, where they drove them back,the boatswain himself killing one or two with his pole-axe; the housebeing large, and many in it, he did not care to go in, but called for anhand-grenado, and threw it among them, which at first frighted them; butwhen it burst made such havoc among them, that they cried out in ahideous manner.
In short, most of the Indians who were in the open part of the house,were killed or hurt with the grenado,