The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808)

by Daniel Defoe

except two or three more, whopressed to the door, which the boatswain and two more kept with thebayonets in the muzzles of their pieces, and dispatched all who camethat way. But there was another apartment in the house, where theprince, or king, or whatsoever he was, and several others, were; andthey kept in till the house, which was by this time all of a lightflame, fell in upon them, and they were smothered or burnt together.

  All this while they fired not a gun, because they would not waken thepeople faster than they could master them; but the fire began to wakenthem fast enough, and our fellows were glad to keep a little together inbodies; for the fire grew so raging, all the houses being made of lightcombustible stuff, that they could hardly bear the street between them,and their business was to follow the fire for the surer execution. Asfast as the fire either forced the people out of those houses which wereburning, or frighted them out of others, our people were ready at theirdoors to knock them on the head, still calling and hallooing to oneanother to remember Thomas Jeffrys.

  While this was doing I must confess I was very uneasy, and especiallywhen I saw the flames of the town, which, it being night, seemed to bejust by me.

  My nephew the captain, who was roused by his men too, seeing such afire, was very uneasy, not knowing what the matter was, or what danger Iwas in; especially hearing the guns too, for by this time they began touse their fire-arms. A thousand thoughts oppressed his mind concerningme and the supercargo, what should become of us; and at last, though hecould ill spare any more men, yet, not knowing what exigence we might bein, he takes another boat, and with thirteen men and himself comes onshore to me.

  He was surprised to see me and the supercargo in the boat with no morethan two men, for one had been left to keep the boat; and though he wasglad that we were well, yet he was in the same impatience with us toknow what was doing, for the noise continued and the flame increased. Iconfess it was next to an impossibility for any men in the world torestrain their curiosity of knowing what had happened, or their concernfor the safety of the men. In a word, the captain told me he would goand help his men, let what would come. I argued with him, as I didbefore with the men, the safety of the ship, and the danger of thevoyage, the interest of the owners and merchants, &c. and told him Iwould go, and the two men, and only see if we could, at a distance,learn what was like to be the event, and come back and tell him.

  It was all one to talk to my nephew, as it was to talk to the restbefore; he would go, he said, and he only wished he had left but ten menin the ship, for he could not think of having his men lost for want ofhelp; he had rather, he said, lose the ship, the voyage, and his life,and all: and so away went he.

  Nor was I any more able to stay behind now than I was to persuade themnot to go before; so, in short, the captain ordered two men to row backthe pinnace, and fetch twelve men more from the ship, leaving thelong-boat at an anchor; and that when they came back six men should keepthe two boats, and six more come after us, so that he left only sixteenmen in the ship; for the whole ship's company consisted of sixty-fivemen, whereof two were lost in the first quarrel which brought thismischief on.

  Being now on the march, you may be sure we felt little of the ground wetrod on, and being guided by the fire we kept no path, but went directlyto the place of the flame. If the noise of the guns were surprising tous before, the cries of the poor people were now quite of anothernature, and filled us with horror. I must confess I never was at thesacking of a city, or at the taking of a town by storm; I have heard ofOliver Cromwell taking Drogheda in Ireland, and killing man, woman, andchild; and I had read of Count Tilly sacking the city of Magdebourg, andcutting the throats of 22,000 of both sexes; but I never had an idea ofthe thing itself before, nor is it possible to describe it, or thehorror which was upon our minds at hearing it.

  However, we went on, and at length came to the town, though there was noentering the streets of it for the fire. The first object we met withwas the ruins of a hut or house, or rather the ashes of it, for thehouse was consumed; and just before it, plain now to be seen by thelight of the fire, lay four men and three women killed; and, as wethought, one or two more lay in the heap among the fire. In short, thesewere such instances of a rage altogether barbarous, and of a furysomething beyond what was human, that we thought it impossible our mencould be guilty of it; or if they were the authors of it, we thoughtthat every one of them ought to be put to the worst of deaths: but thiswas not all; we saw the fire increased forward, and the cry went on justas the fire went on, so that we were in the utmost confusion. Weadvanced a little way farther, and beheld to our astonishment threewomen naked, crying in a most dreadful manner, and flying as if they hadindeed had wings, and after them sixteen or seventeen men, natives, inthe same terror and consternation, with three of our English butchers(for I can call them no better) in the rear, who, when they could notovertake them, fired in among them, and one that was killed by theirshot fell down in our sight: when the rest saw us, believing us to betheir enemies; and that we would murder them as well as those thatpursued them, they set up a most dreadful shriek, especially the women,and two of them fell down as if already dead with the fright.

  My very soul shrunk within me, and my blood ran chill in my veins, whenI saw this; and I believe had the three English sailors that pursuedthem come on, I had made our men kill them all. However, we took someways to let the poor flying creatures know that we would not hurt them,and immediately they came up to us, and kneeling down, with their handslifted up, made piteous lamentations to us to save them, which we letthem know we would do; where upon they kept all together in a huddleclose behind us for protection. I left my men drawn up together, andcharged them to hurt nobody, but if possible to get at some of ourpeople, and see what devil it was possessed them, and what they intendedto do; and in a word to command them off, assuring them that if theystaid till daylight they would have a hundred thousand men about theirears: I say, I left them and went among those flying people, taking onlytwo of our men with me; and there was indeed a piteous spectacle amongthem: some of them had their feet terribly burnt with trampling andrunning through the fire, others their hands burnt; one of the women hadfallen down in the fire, and was almost burnt to death before she couldget out again; two or three of the men had cuts in their backs andthighs, from our men pursuing, and another was shot through the body,and died while I was there.

  I would fain have learnt what the occasion of all this was, but I couldnot understand one word they said, though by signs I perceived that someof them knew not what was the occasion themselves. I was so terrified inmy thoughts at this outrageous attempt, that I could not stay there, butwent back to my own men: I told them my resolution, and commanded themto follow me, when in the very moment came four of our men, with theboatswain at their head, running over the heaps of bodies they hadkilled, all covered with blood and dust, as if they wanted more peopleto massacre, when our men hallooed to them as loud as they could halloo,and with much ado one of them made them hear, so that they knew who wewere, and came up to us.

  As soon as the boatswain saw us he set up a halloo, like a shout oftriumph, for having, as he thought, more help come; and without bearingto hear me, "Captain," says he, "noble captain, I am glad you are come;we have not half done yet: villains! hell-hound dogs! I will kill asmany of them as poor Tom has hairs upon his head. We have sworn to sparenone of them; we will root out the very name of them from the earth."And thus he ran on, out of breath too with action, and would not give usleave to speak a word.

  At last, raising my voice, that I might silence him a little, "Barbarousdog!" said I, "what are you doing? I won't have one creature touchedmore upon pain of death. I charge you upon your life to stop your hands,and stand still here, or you are a dead man this minute."

  "Why, Sir," says he, "do you know what you do, or what they have done?If you want a reason for what we have done, come hither;" and with thathe shewed me the poor fellow hanging upon a tree, with his throat cut.

  I confess I was urged then myself,
and at another time should have beenforward enough; but I thought they had carried their rage too far, andthought of Jacob's words to his sons Simeon and Levi, "Cursed be theiranger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel." But I hadnow a new task upon my hands; for when the men I carried with me saw thesight as I had done, I had as much to do to restrain them, as I shouldhave had with the others; nay, my nephew himself fell in with them, andtold me in their hearing, that he was only concerned for fear of the menbeing overpowered; for, as to the people, he thought not one of themought to live; for they had all glutted themselves with the murder ofthe poor man, and that they ought to be used like murderers. Upon thesewords away ran eight of my men with the boatswain and his crew tocomplete their bloody work; and I, seeing it quite out of my power torestrain them, came away pensive and sad, for I could not bear thesight, much less the horrible noise and cries of the poor