by Daniel Defoe
"Come, Jack," says one of the men, "will you go with me? I'll go
for one." Jack said he would--and then another--and, in a word,
they all left me but one, whom I persuaded to stay, and a boy left
in the boat. So the supercargo and I, with the third man, went
back to the boat, where we told them we would stay for them, and
take care to take in as many of them as should be left; for I told
them it was a mad thing they were going about, and supposed most of
them would have the fate of Tom Jeffry.
They told me, like seamen, they would warrant it they would come
off again, and they would take care, &c.; so away they went. I
entreated them to consider the ship and the voyage, that their
lives were not their own, and that they were entrusted with the
voyage, in some measure; that if they miscarried, the ship might be
lost for want of their help, and that they could not answer for it
to God or man. But I might as well have talked to the mainmast of
the ship: they were mad upon their journey; only they gave me good
words, and begged I would not be angry; that they did not doubt but
they would be back again in about an hour at furthest; for the
Indian town, they said, was not above half-a mile off, though they
found it above two miles before they got to it.
Well, they all went away, and though the attempt was desperate, and
such as none but madmen would have gone about, yet, to give them
their due, they went about it as warily as boldly; they were
gallantly armed, for they had every man a fusee or musket, a
bayonet, and a pistol; some of them had broad cutlasses, some of
them had hangers, and the boatswain and two more had poleaxes;
besides all which they had among them thirteen hand grenadoes.
Bolder fellows, and better provided, never went about any wicked
work in the world. When they went out their chief design was
plunder, and they were in mighty hopes of finding gold there; but a
circumstance which none of them were aware of set them on fire with
revenge, and made devils of them all.
When they came to the few Indian houses which they thought had been
the town, which was not above half a mile off, they were under
great disappointment, for there were not above twelve or thirteen
houses, and where the town was, or how big, they knew not. They
consulted, therefore, what to do, and were some time before they
could resolve; 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 the night, though the moon was up; and if one escaped, he
would run and raise all the town, so they should have a whole army
upon them; on the other hand, if they went away and left those
untouched, for the people were all asleep, they could not tell
which way to look for the town; however, the last was the best
advice, so they resolved to leave them, and look for the town as
well as they could. They went on a little way, and found a cow
tied to a tree; this, they presently concluded, would be a good
guide to them; for, they said, the cow certainly belonged to the
town before them, or the town behind them, and if they untied her,
they should see which way she went: if she went back, they had
nothing to say to her; but if she went forward, they would follow
her. So they cut the cord, which was made of twisted flags, and
the cow went on before them, directly to the town; which, as they
reported, consisted of above two hundred houses or huts, and in
some of these they found several families living together.
Here they found all in silence, as profoundly secure as sleep could
make them: and first, they called another council, to consider
what they had to do; and presently resolved to divide themselves
into three bodies, and so set three houses on fire in three parts
of the town; and as the men came out, to seize them and bind them
(if any resisted, they need not be asked what to do then), and so
to search the rest of the houses for plunder: but they resolved to
march silently first through the town, and see what dimensions it
was of, and if they might venture upon it or 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 them, who were a little before the rest, called out aloud to
them, and told them that they had found--Tom Jeffry: they all ran
up to the place, where they found the poor fellow hanging up naked
by one arm, and his throat cut. There was an Indian house just by
the tree, where they found sixteen or seventeen of the principal
Indians, who had been concerned in the fray with us before, and two
or three of them wounded with our shot; and our men found they were
awake, and talking one to another in that house, but knew not their
number.
The sight of their poor mangled comrade so enraged them, as before,
that they swore to one another that they would be revenged, and
that not an Indian that came into their hands should have any
quarter; and to work they went immediately, and yet not so madly as
might be expected from the rage and fury they were in. Their first
care was to get something that would soon take fire, but, after a
little search, they found that would be to no purpose; for most of
the houses were low, and thatched with flags and rushes, of which
the country is full; so they presently made some wildfire, as we
call it, by wetting a little powder in the palm of their hands, and
in a quarter of an hour they set the town on fire in four or five
places, and particularly that house where the Indians were not gone
to bed.
As soon as the fire begun to blaze, the poor frightened creatures
began to rush out to save their lives, but met with their fate in
the attempt; and especially at the door, where they drove them
back, the boatswain himself killing one or two with his poleaxe.
The house being large, and many in it, he did not care to go in,
but called for a hand grenado, and threw it among them, which at
first frightened them, but, when it burst, made such havoc among
them that they cried out in a hideous manner. In short, most of
the Indians who were in the open part of the house were killed or
hurt with the grenado, except two or three more who pressed to the
door, which the boatswain and two more kept, with their bayonets on
the muzzles of their pieces, and despatched all that came in their
way; but there was another apartment in the house, where the prince
or king, or whatever he was, and several others were; and these
were kept in till the house, which was by this time all in a light
flame, fell in upon them, and they were smothered together.
All this while they fired not a gun, because they would not waken
the people faster than they could master them; but the fire began
to waken them fast enough, and our fellows were glad to keep a
little together in bodies; for the fire grew so raging, all the
houses being made of light combustible stuff, that they could
the fire, for the surer execution: as fast as the fire either
forced the people out of those houses which were burning, or
frightened them out of others, our people were ready at their doors
to knock them on the head, still calling and hallooing one to
another to remember Tom Jeffry.
While this was doing, I must confess I was very uneasy, and
especially when I saw the flames of the town, which, it being
night, seemed to be close by me. My nephew, the captain, who was
roused by his men seeing such a fire, was very uneasy, not knowing
what the matter was, or what danger I was in, especially hearing
the guns too, for by this time they began to use their firearms; a
thousand thoughts oppressed his mind concerning me and the
supercargo, what would become of us; and at last, though he could
ill spare any more men, yet not knowing what exigence we might be
in, he took another boat, and with thirteen men and himself came
ashore to me.
He was surprised to see me and the supercargo in the boat with no
more than two men; and though he was glad that we were well, yet he
was in the same impatience with us to know what was doing; for the
noise continued, and the flame increased; in short, it was next to
an impossibility for any men in the world to restrain their
curiosity to know what had happened, or their concern for the
safety of the men: in a word, the captain told me he would go and
help his men, let what would come. I argued with him, as I did
before with the men, the safety of the ship, the danger of the
voyage, the interests of the owners and merchants, &c., and told
him I and the two men would go, and only see if we could at a
distance learn what was likely to be the event, and come back and
tell him. It was in vain to talk to my nephew, as it was to talk
to the rest before; he would go, he said; and he only wished he had
left but ten men in the ship, for he could not think of having his
men lost for want of help: he had rather lose the ship, the
voyage, and his life, and all; and away he went.
I was no more able to stay behind now than I was to persuade them
not to go; so the captain ordered two men to row back the pinnace,
and fetch twelve men more, leaving the long-boat at an anchor; and
that, when they came back, six men should keep the two boats, and
six more come after us; so that he left only sixteen men in the
ship: for the whole ship's company consisted of sixty-five men,
whereof two were lost in the late quarrel which brought this
mischief on.
Being now on the march, we felt little of the ground we trod on;
and being guided by the fire, we kept no path, but went directly to
the place of the flame. If the noise of the guns was surprising to
us before, the cries of the poor people were now quite of another
nature, and filled us with horror. I must confess I was never at
the sacking a city, or at the taking a town by storm. I had heard
of Oliver Cromwell taking Drogheda, in Ireland, and killing man,
woman, and child; and I had read of Count Tilly sacking the city of
Magdeburg and cutting the throats of twenty-two thousand of all
sexes; but I never had an idea of the thing itself before, nor is
it possible to describe it, or the horror that was upon our minds
at hearing it. However, we went on, and at length came to the
town, though there was no entering the streets of it for the fire.
The first object we met with was the ruins of a hut or house, or
rather the ashes of it, for the house was consumed; and just before
it, plainly now to be seen by the light of the fire, lay four men
and three women, killed, and, as we thought, one or two more lay in
the heap among the fire; in short, there were such instances of
rage, altogether barbarous, and of a fury something beyond what was
human, that we thought it impossible our men could be guilty of it;
or, if they were the authors of it, we thought they ought to be
every one of them put to the worst of deaths. But this was not
all: we saw the fire increase forward, and the cry went on just as
the fire went on; so that we were in the utmost confusion. We
advanced a little way farther, and behold, to our astonishment,
three naked women, and crying in a most dreadful manner, came
flying as if they had wings, and after them sixteen or seventeen
men, natives, in the same terror and consternation, with three of
our English butchers in the rear, who, when they could not overtake
them, fired in among them, and one that was killed by their shot
fell down in our sight. When the rest saw us, believing us to be
their enemies, and that we would murder them as well as those that
pursued 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,
when I saw this; and, I believe, had the three English sailors that
pursued them come on, I had made our men kill them all; however, we
took some means 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 hands lifted up, made piteous lamentation to us to
save them, which we let them know we would: whereupon they crept
all together in a huddle close behind us, as for protection. I
left my men drawn up together, and, charging them to hurt nobody,
but, if possible, to get at some of our people, and see what devil
it was possessed them, and what they intended to do, and to command
them off; assuring them that if they stayed till daylight they
would have a hundred thousand men about their ears: I say I left
them, and went among those flying people, taking only two of our
men with me; and there was, indeed, a piteous spectacle among them.
Some of them had their feet terribly burned with trampling and
running through the fire; others their hands burned; one of the
women had fallen down in the fire, and was very much burned before
she could get out again; and two or three of the men had cuts in
their backs and thighs, from our men pursuing; and another was shot
through the body and died while I was there.
I would fain have learned what the occasion of all this was; but I
could not understand one word they said; though, by signs, I
perceived some of them knew not what was the occasion themselves.
I was so terrified in my thoughts at this outrageous attempt that I
could not stay there, but went back to my own men, and resolved to
go into the middle of the town, through the fire, or whatever might
be in the way, and put an end to it, cost what it would;
accordingly, as I came back to my men, I told them my resolution,
and commanded them to follow me, when, at the very moment, came
four of our men, with the boatswain at their head, roving over
heaps of bodies they had killed, all covered with blood and dust,
as if they wanted more peo
ple to 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 we were, and came up to us.
As soon as the boatswain saw us, he set up a halloo like a shout of
triumph, for having, as he thought, more help come; and without
waiting to hear me, "Captain," says he, "noble captain! I am glad
you are come; we have not half done yet. Villainous hell-hound
dogs! I'll kill as many of them as poor Tom has hairs upon his
head: we have sworn to spare none of them; we'll root out the very
nation of them from the earth;" and thus he ran on, out of breath,
too, with action, and would not give us leave to speak a word. At
last, raising my voice that I might silence him a little,
"Barbarous dog!" said I, "what are you doing! I won't have one
creature touched more, 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 that he showed me the poor fellow
hanging, with his throat cut.
I confess I was urged then myself, and at another time would have
been forward enough; but I thought they had carried their rage too
far, and remembered Jacob's words to his sons Simeon and Levi:
"Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it
was cruel." But I had now a new task upon my hands; for when the
men I had carried with me saw the sight, as I had done, I had as
much to do to restrain them as I should have had with the others;
nay, my nephew himself fell in with them, and told me, in their
hearing, that he was only concerned for fear of the men being
overpowered; and as to the people, he thought not one of them ought
to live; for they had all glutted themselves with the murder of the
poor man, and that they ought to be used like murderers. Upon
these words, away ran eight of my men, with the boatswain and his
crew, to complete their bloody work; and I, seeing it quite out of
my power to restrain them, came away pensive and sad; for I could
not bear the sight, much less the horrible noise and cries of the
poor wretches that fell into their hands.
I got nobody to come back with me but the supercargo and two men,
and with these walked back to the boat. It was a very great piece
of folly in me, I confess, to venture back, as it were, alone; for
as it began now to be almost day, and the alarm had run over the
country, there stood about forty men armed with lances and boughs
at the little place where the twelve or thirteen houses stood,
mentioned before: but by accident I missed the place, and came
directly to the seaside, and by the time I got to the seaside it
was broad day: immediately I took the pinnace and went on board,
and sent her back to assist the men in what might happen. I
observed, about the time that I came to the boat-side, that the
fire was pretty well out, and the noise abated; but in about half-
an-hour after I got on board, I heard a volley of our men's
firearms, and saw a great smoke. This, as I understood afterwards,
was our men falling upon the men, who, as I said, stood at the few
houses on the way, of whom they killed sixteen or seventeen, and
set all the houses on fire, but did not meddle with the women or
children.
By the time the men got to the shore again with the pinnace our men
began to appear; they came dropping in, not in two bodies as they
went, but straggling here and there in such a manner, that a small
force of resolute men might have cut them all off. But the dread
of them was upon the whole country; and the men were surprised, and
so frightened, that I believe a hundred of them would have fled at
the sight of but five of our men. Nor in all this terrible action
was there a man that made any considerable defence: they were so
surprised between the terror of the fire and the sudden attack of