Chapter III. Fight with Cannibals

by Daniel Defoe

　　But not to crowd this part with an account of the lesser part ofthe rogueries with which they plagued them continually, night andday, it forced the two men to such a desperation that they resolvedto fight them all three, the first time they had a fairopportunity. In order to do this they resolved to go to the castle(as they called my old dwelling), where the three rogues and theSpaniards all lived together at that time, intending to have a fairbattle, and the Spaniards should stand by to see fair play: sothey got up in the morning before day, and came to the place, andcalled the Englishmen by their names telling a Spaniard thatanswered that they wanted to speak with them.It happened that the day before two of the Spaniards, having beenin the woods, had seen one of the two Englishmen, whom, fordistinction, I called the honest men, and he had made a sadcomplaint to the Spaniards of the barbarous usage they had met withfrom their three countrymen, and how they had ruined theirplantation, and destroyed their corn, that they had laboured sohard to bring forward, and killed the milch-goat and their threekids, which was all they had provided for their sustenance, andthat if he and his friends, meaning the Spaniards, did not assistthem again, they should be starved. When the Spaniards came homeat night, and they were all at supper, one of them took the freedomto reprove the three Englishmen, though in very gentle and mannerlyterms, and asked them how they could be so cruel, they beingharmless, inoffensive fellows: that they were putting themselvesin a way to subsist by their labour, and that it had cost them agreat deal of pains to bring things to such perfection as they werethen in.One of the Englishmen returned very briskly, "What had they to dothere? that they came on shore without leave; and that they shouldnot plant or build upon the island; it was none of their ground.""Why," says the Spaniard, very calmly, "Seignior Inglese, they mustnot starve." The Englishman replied, like a rough tarpaulin, "Theymight starve; they should not plant nor build in that place." "Butwhat must they do then, seignior?" said the Spaniard. Another ofthe brutes returned, "Do? they should be servants, and work forthem." "But how can you expect that of them?" says the Spaniard;"they are not bought with your money; you have no right to makethem servants." The Englishman answered, "The island was theirs;the governor had given it to them, and no man had anything to dothere but themselves;" and with that he swore that he would go andburn all their new huts; they should build none upon their land."Why, seignior," says the Spaniard, "by the same rule, we must beyour servants, too." "Ay," returned the bold dog, "and so youshall, too, before we have done with you;" mixing two or threeoaths in the proper intervals of his speech. The Spaniard onlysmiled at that, and made him no answer. However, this littlediscourse had heated them; and starting up, one says to the other.(I think it was he they called Will Atkins), "Come, Jack, let's goand have t'other brush with them; we'll demolish their castle, I'llwarrant you; they shall plant no colony in our dominions."Upon this they were all trooping away, with every man a gun, apistol, and a sword, and muttered some insolent things amongthemselves of what they would do to the Spaniards, too, whenopportunity offered; but the Spaniards, it seems, did not soperfectly understand them as to know all the particulars, only thatin general they threatened them hard for taking the twoEnglishmen's part. Whither they went, or how they bestowed theirtime that evening, the Spaniards said they did not know; but itseems they wandered about the country part of the night, and themlying down in the place which I used to call my bower, they wereweary and overslept themselves. The case was this: they hadresolved to stay till midnight, and so take the two poor men whenthey were asleep, and as they acknowledged afterwards, intended toset fire to their huts while they were in them, and either burnthem there or murder them as they came out. As malice seldomsleeps very sound, it was very strange they should not have beenkept awake. However, as the two men had also a design upon them,as I have said, though a much fairer one than that of burning andmurdering, it happened, and very luckily for them all, that theywere up and gone abroad before the bloody-minded rogues came totheir huts.When they came there, and found the men gone, Atkins, who it seemswas the forwardest man, called out to his comrade, "Ha, Jack,here's the nest, but the birds are flown." They mused a while, tothink what should be the occasion of their being gone abroad sosoon, and suggested presently that the Spaniards had given themnotice of it; and with that they shook hands, and swore to oneanother that they would be revenged of the Spaniards. As soon asthey had made this bloody bargain they fell to work with the poormen's habitation; they did not set fire, indeed, to anything, butthey pulled down both their houses, and left not the least stickstanding, or scarce any sign on the ground where they stood; theytore all their household stuff in pieces, and threw everythingabout in such a manner, that the poor men afterwards found some oftheir things a mile off. When they had done this, they pulled upall the young trees which the poor men had planted; broke down anenclosure they had made to secure their cattle and their corn; and,in a word, sacked and plundered everything as completely as a hordeof Tartars would have done.The two men were at this juncture gone to find them out, and hadresolved to fight them wherever they had been, though they were buttwo to three; so that, had they met, there certainly would havebeen blood shed among them, for they were all very stout, resolutefellows, to give them their due.But Providence took more care to keep them asunder than theythemselves could do to meet; for, as if they had dogged oneanother, when the three were gone thither, the two were here; andafterwards, when the two went back to find them, the three werecome to the old habitation again: we shall see their differentconduct presently. When the three came back like furiouscreatures, flushed with the rage which the work they had been abouthad put them into, they came up to the Spaniards, and told themwhat they had done, by way of scoff and bravado; and one of themstepping up to one of the Spaniards, as if they had been a coupleof boys at play, takes hold of his hat as it was upon his head, andgiving it a twirl about, fleering in his face, says to him, "Andyou, Seignior Jack Spaniard, shall have the same sauce if you donot mend your manners." The Spaniard, who, though a quiet civilman, was as brave a man as could be, and withal a strong, well-mademan, looked at him for a good while, and then, having no weapon inhis hand, stepped gravely up to him, and, with one blow of hisfist, knocked him down, as an ox is felled with a pole-axe; atwhich one of the rogues, as insolent as the first, fired his pistolat the Spaniard immediately; he missed his body, indeed, for thebullets went through his hair, but one of them touched the tip ofhis ear, and he bled pretty much. The blood made the Spaniardbelieve he was more hurt than he really was, and that put him intosome heat, for before he acted all in a perfect calm; but nowresolving to go through with his work, he stooped, and taking thefellow's musket whom he had knocked down, was just going to shootthe man who had fired at him, when the rest of the Spaniards, beingin the cave, came out, and calling to him not to shoot, theystepped in, secured the other two, and took their arms from them.When they were thus disarmed, and found they had made all theSpaniards their enemies, as well as their own countrymen, theybegan to cool, and giving the Spaniards better words, would havetheir arms again; but the Spaniards, considering the feud that wasbetween them and the other two Englishmen, and that it would be thebest method they could take to keep them from killing one another,told them they would do them no harm, and if they would livepeaceably, they would be very willing to assist and associate withthem as they did before; but that they could not think of givingthem their arms again, while they appeared so resolved to domischief with them to their own countrymen, and had even threatenedthem all to make them their servants.The rogues were now quite deaf to all reason, and being refusedtheir arms, they raved away like madmen, threatening what theywould do, though they had no firearms. But the Spaniards,despising their threatening, told them they should take care howthey offered any injury to their plantation or cattle; for if theydid they would shoot them as they would ravenous beasts, whereverthey found them; and if they fell into their hands alive, theyshould certainly be hanged. However, this was far from coolingthem, but away they went, raging and swearing like furies. As soonas they were gone, the two men came back, in passion and rageenough also, though of another kind; for having been at theirplantation, and finding it all demolished and destroyed, as abovementioned, it will easily be supposed they had provocation enough.They could scarce have room to tell their tale, the Spaniards wereso eager to tell them theirs: and it was strange enough to findthat three men should thus bully nineteen, and receive nopunishment at all.The Spaniards, indeed, despised them, and especially, having thusdisarmed them, made light of their threatenings; but the twoEnglishmen resolved to have their remedy against them, what painssoever it cost to find them out. But the Spaniards interposed heretoo, and told them that as they had disarmed them, they could notconsent that they (the two) should pursue them with firearms, andperhaps kill them. "But," said the grave Spaniard, who was theirgovernor, "we will endeavour to make them do you justice, if youwill leave it to us: for there is no doubt but they will come tous again, when their passion is over, being not able to subsistwithout our assistance. We promise you to make no peace with themwithout having full satisfaction for you; and upon this conditionwe hope you will promise to use no violence with them, other thanin your own defence." The two Englishmen yielded to this veryawkwardly, and with great reluctance; but the Spaniards protestedthat they did it only to keep them from bloodshed, and to make themall easy at last. "For," said they, "we are not so many of us;here is room enough for us all, and it is a great pity that weshould not be all good friends." At length they did consent, andwaited for the issue of the thing, living for some days with theSpaniards; for their own habitation was destroyed.In about five days' time the vagrants, tired with wandering, andalmost starved with hunger, having chiefly lived on turtles' eggsall that while, came back to the grove; and finding my Spaniard,who, as I have said, was the governor, and two more with him,walking by the side of the creek, they came up in a verysubmissive, humble manner, and begged to be received again into thesociety. The Spaniards used them civilly, but told them they hadacted so unnaturally to their countrymen, and so very grossly tothemselves, that they could not come to any conclusion withoutconsulting the two Englishmen and the rest; but, however, theywould go to them and discourse about it, and they should know inhalf-an-hour. It may be guessed that they were very hard put toit; for, as they were to wait this half-hour for an answer, theybegged they would send them out some bread in the meantime, whichthey did, sending at the same time a large piece of goat's fleshand a boiled parrot, which they ate very eagerly.After half-an-hour's consultation they were called in, and a longdebate ensued, their two countrymen charging them with the ruin ofall their labour, and a design to murder them; all which they ownedbefore, and therefore could not deny now. Upon the whole, theSpaniards acted the moderators between them; and as they hadobliged the two Englishmen not to hurt the three while they werenaked and unarmed, so they now obliged the three to go and rebuildtheir fellows' two huts, one to be of the same and the other oflarger dimensions than they were before; to fence their groundagain, plant trees in the room of those pulled up, dig up the landagain for planting corn, and, in a word, to restore everything tothe same state as they found it, that is, as near as they could.Well, they submitted to all this; and as they had plenty ofprovisions given them all the while, they grew very orderly, andthe whole society began to live pleasantly and agreeably togetheragain; only that these three fellows could never be persuaded towork - I mean for themselves - except now and then a little, justas they pleased. However, the Spaniards told them plainly that ifthey would but live sociably and friendly together, and study thegood of the whole plantation, they would be content to work forthem, and let them walk about and be as idle as they pleased; andthus, having lived pretty well together for a month or two, theSpaniards let them have arms again, and gave them liberty to goabroad with them as before.It was not above a week after they had these arms, and went abroad,before the ungrateful creatures began to be as insolent andtroublesome as ever. However, an accident happened presently uponthis, which endangered the safety of them all, and they wereobliged to lay by all private resentments, and look to thepreservation of their lives.It happened one night that the governor, the Spaniard whose life Ihad saved, who was now the governor of the rest, found himself veryuneasy in the night, and could by no means get any sleep: he wasperfectly well in body, only found his thoughts tumultuous; hismind ran upon men fighting and killing one another; but he wasbroad awake, and could not by any means get any sleep; in short, helay a great while, but growing more and more uneasy, he resolved torise. As they lay, being so many of them, on goat-skins laid thickupon such couches and pads as they made for themselves, so they hadlittle to do, when they were willing to rise, but to get upon theirfeet, and perhaps put on a coat, such as it was, and their pumps,and they were ready for going any way that their thoughts guidedthem. Being thus got up, he looked out; but being dark, he couldsee little or nothing, and besides, the trees which I had planted,and which were now grown tall, intercepted his sight, so that hecould only look up, and see that it was a starlight night, andhearing no noise, he returned and lay down again; but to nopurpose; he could not compose himself to anything like rest; buthis thoughts were to the last degree uneasy, and he knew not forwhat. Having made some noise with rising and walking about, goingout and coming in, another of them waked, and asked who it was thatwas up. The governor told him how it had been with him. "Say youso?" says the other Spaniard; "such things are not to be slighted,I assure you; there is certainly some mischief working near us;"and presently he asked him, "Where are the Englishmen?" "They areall in their huts," says he, "safe enough." It seems the Spaniardshad kept possession of the main apartment, and had made a place forthe three Englishmen, who, since their last mutiny, were alwaysquartered by themselves, and could not come at the rest. "Well,"says the Spaniard, "there is something in it, I am persuaded, frommy own experience. I am satisfied that our spirits embodied have aconverse with and receive intelligence from the spirits unembodied,and inhabiting the invisible world; and this friendly notice isgiven for our advantage, if we knew how to make use of it. Come,let us go and look abroad; and if we find nothing at all in it tojustify the trouble, I'll tell you a story to the purpose, thatshall convince you of the justice of my proposing it."They went out presently to go up to the top of the hill, where Iused to go; but they being strong, and a good company, nor alone,as I was, used none of my cautions to go up by the ladder, andpulling it up after them, to go up a second stage to the top, butwere going round through the grove unwarily, when they weresurprised with seeing a light as of fire, a very little way fromthem, and hearing the voices of men, not of one or two, but of agreat number.Among the precautions I used to take on the savages landing on theisland, it was my constant care to prevent them making the leastdiscovery of there being any inhabitant upon the place: and whenby any occasion they came to know it, they felt it so effectuallythat they that got away were scarce able to give any account of it;for we disappeared as soon as possible, nor did ever any that hadseen me escape to tell any one else, except it was the threesavages in our last encounter who jumped into the boat; of whom, Imentioned, I was afraid they should go home and bring more help.Whether it was the consequence of the escape of those men that sogreat a number came now together, or whether they came ignorantly,and by accident, on their usual bloody errand, the Spaniards couldnot understand; but whatever it was, it was their business eitherto have concealed themselves or not to have seen them at all, muchless to have let the savages have seen there were any inhabitantsin the place; or to have fallen upon them so effectually as not aman of them should have escaped, which could only have been bygetting in between them and their boats; but this presence of mindwas wanting to them, which was the ruin of their tranquillity for agreat while.We need not doubt but that the governor and the man with him,surprised with this sight, ran back immediately and raised theirfellows, giving them an account of the imminent danger they wereall in, and they again as readily took the alarm; but it wasimpossible to persuade them to stay close within where they were,but they must all run out to see how things stood. While it wasdark, indeed, they were safe, and they had opportunity enough forsome hours to view the savages by the light of three fires they hadmade at a distance from one another; what they were doing they knewnot, neither did they know what to do themselves. For, first, theenemy were too many; and secondly, they did not keep together, butwere divided into several parties, and were on shore in severalplaces.The Spaniards were in no small consternation at this sight; and, asthey found that the fellows went straggling all over the shore,they made no doubt but, first or last, some of them would chop inupon their habitation, or upon some other place where they wouldsee the token of inhabitants; and they were in great perplexityalso for fear of their flock of goats, which, if they should bedestroyed, would have been little less than starving them. So thefirst thing they resolved upon was to despatch three men awaybefore it was light, two Spaniards and one Englishman, to driveaway all the goats to the great valley where the cave was, and, ifneed were, to drive them into the very cave itself. Could theyhave seen the savages all together in one body, and at a distancefrom their canoes, they were resolved, if there had been a hundredof them, to attack them; but that could not be done, for they weresome of them two miles off from the other, and, as it appearedafterwards, were of two different nations.After having mused a great while on the course they should take,they resolved at last, while it was still dark, to send the oldsavage, Friday's father, out as a spy, to learn, if possible,something concerning them, as what they came for, what theyintended to do, and the like. The old man readily undertook it;and stripping himself quite naked, as most of the savages were,away he went. After he had been gone an hour or two, he bringsword that he had been among them undiscovered, that he found theywere two parties, and of two several nations, who had war with oneanother, and had a great battle in their own country; and that bothsides having had several prisoners taken in the fight, they were,by mere chance, landed all on the same island, for the devouringtheir prisoners and making merry; but their coming so by chance tothe same place had spoiled all their mirth - that they were in agreat rage at one another, and were so near that he believed theywould fight again as soon as daylight began to appear; but he didnot perceive that they had any notion of anybody being on theisland but themselves. He had hardly made an end of telling hisstory, when they could perceive, by the unusual noise they made,that the two little armies were engaged in a bloody fight.Friday's father used all the arguments he could to persuade ourpeople to lie close, and not be seen; he told them their safetyconsisted in it, and that they had nothing to do but lie still, andthe savages would kill one another to their hands, and then therest would go away; and it was so to a tittle. But it wasimpossible to prevail, especially upon the Englishmen; theircuriosity was so importunate that they must run out and see thebattle. However, they used some caution too: they did not goopenly, just by their own dwelling, but went farther into thewoods, and placed themselves to advantage, where they mightsecurely see them manage the fight, and, as they thought, not beseen by them; but the savages did see them, as we shall findhereafter.The battle was very fierce, and, if I might believe the Englishmen,one of them said he could perceive that some of them were men ofgreat bravery, of invincible spirit, and of great policy in guidingthe fight. The battle, they said, held two hours before they couldguess which party would be beaten; but then that party which wasnearest our people's habitation began to appear weakest, and aftersome time more some of them began to fly; and this put our menagain into a great consternation, lest any one of those that fledshould run into the grove before their dwelling for shelter, andthereby involuntarily discover the place; and that, by consequence,the pursuers would also do the like in search of them. Upon this,they resolved that they would stand armed within the wall, andwhoever came into the grove, they resolved to sally out over thewall and kill them, so that, if possible, not one should return togive an account of it; they ordered also that it should be donewith their swords, or by knocking them down with the stocks oftheir muskets, but not by shooting them, for fear of raising analarm by the noise.As they expected it fell out; three of the routed army fled forlife, and crossing the creek, ran directly into the place, not inthe least knowing whither they went, but running as into a thickwood for shelter. The scout they kept to look abroad gave noticeof this within, with this comforting addition, that the conquerorshad not pursued them, or seen which way they were gone; upon thisthe Spanish governor, a man of humanity, would not suffer them tokill the three fugitives, but sending three men out by the top ofthe hill, ordered them to go round, come in behind them, andsurprise and take them prisoners, which was done. The residue ofthe conquered people fled to their canoes, and got off to sea; thevictors retired, made no pursuit, or very little, but drawingthemselves into a body together, gave two great screaming shouts,most likely by way of triumph, and so the fight ended; the sameday, about three o'clock in the afternoon, they also marched totheir canoes. And thus the Spaniards had the island again free tothemselves, their fright was over, and they saw no savages forseveral years after.After they were all gone, the Spaniards came out of their den, andviewing the field of battle, they found about two-and-thirty mendead on the spot; some were killed with long arrows, which werefound sticking in their bodies; but most of them were killed withgreat wooden swords, sixteen or seventeen of which they found inthe field of battle, and as many bows, with a great many arrows.These swords were strange, unwieldy things, and they must be verystrong men that used them; most of those that were killed with themhad their heads smashed to pieces, as we may say, or, as we call itin English, their brains knocked out, and several their arms andlegs broken; so that it is evident they fight with inexpressiblerage and fury. We found not one man that was not stone dead; foreither they stay by their enemy till they have killed him, or theycarry all the wounded men that are not quite dead away with them.This deliverance tamed our ill-disposed Englishmen for a greatwhile; the sight had filled them with horror, and the consequencesappeared terrible to the last degree, especially upon supposingthat some time or other they should fall into the hands of thosecreatures, who would not only kill them as enemies, but for food,as we kill our cattle; and they professed to me that the thoughtsof being eaten up like beef and mutton, though it was supposed itwas not to be till they were dead, had something in it so horriblethat it nauseated their very stomachs, made them sick when theythought of it, and filled their minds with such unusual terror,that they were not themselves for some weeks after. This, as Isaid, tamed even the three English brutes I have been speaking of;and for a great while after they were tractable, and went about thecommon business of the whole society well enough - planted, sowed,reaped, and began to be all naturalised to the country. But sometime after this they fell into such simple measures again asbrought them into a great deal of trouble.They had taken three prisoners, as I observed; and these threebeing stout young fellows, they made them servants, and taught themto work for them, and as slaves they did well enough; but they didnot take their measures as I did by my man Friday, viz. to beginwith them upon the principle of having saved their lives, and theninstruct them in the rational principles of life; much less didthey think of teaching them religion, or attempt civilising andreducing them by kind usage and affectionate arguments. As theygave them their food every day, so they gave them their work too,and kept them fully employed in drudgery enough; but they failed inthis by it, that they never had them to assist them and fight forthem as I had my man Friday, who was as true to me as the veryflesh upon my bones.But to come to the family part. Being all now good friends - forcommon danger, as I said above, had effectually reconciled them -they began to consider their general circumstances; and the firstthing that came under consideration was whether, seeing the savagesparticularly haunted that side of the island, and that there weremore remote and retired parts of it equally adapted to their way ofliving, and manifestly to their advantage, they should not rathermove their habitation, and plant in some more proper place fortheir safety, and especially for the security of their cattle andcorn.Upon this, after long debate, it was concluded that they would notremove their habitation; because that, some time or other, theythought they might hear from their governor again, meaning me; andif I should send any one to seek them, I should be sure to directthem to that side, where, if they should find the place demolished,they would conclude the savages had killed us all, and we weregone, and so our supply would go too. But as to their corn andcattle, they agreed to remove them into the valley where my cavewas, where the land was as proper for both, and where indeed therewas land enough. However, upon second thoughts they altered onepart of their resolution too, and resolved only to remove part oftheir cattle thither, and part of their corn there; so that if onepart was destroyed the other might be saved. And one part ofprudence they luckily used: they never trusted those three savageswhich they had taken prisoners with knowing anything of theplantation they had made in that valley, or of any cattle they hadthere, much less of the cave at that place, which they kept, incase of necessity, as a safe retreat; and thither they carried alsothe two barrels of powder which I had sent them at my coming away.They resolved, however, not to change their habitation; yet, as Ihad carefully covered it first with a wall or fortification, andthen with a grove of trees, and as they were now fully convincedtheir safety consisted entirely in their being concealed, they setto work to cover and conceal the place yet more effectually thanbefore. For this purpose, as I planted trees, or rather thrust instakes, which in time all grew up to be trees, for some gooddistance before the entrance into my apartments, they went on inthe same manner, and filled up the rest of that whole space ofground from the trees I had set quite down to the side of thecreek, where I landed my floats, and even into the very ooze wherethe tide flowed, not so much as leaving any place to land, or anysign that there had been any landing thereabouts: these stakesalso being of a wood very forward to grow, they took care to havethem generally much larger and taller than those which I hadplanted. As they grew apace, they planted them so very thick andclose together, that when they had been three or four years grownthere was no piercing with the eye any considerable way into theplantation. As for that part which I had planted, the trees weregrown as thick as a man's thigh, and among them they had placed somany other short ones, and so thick, that it stood like a palisadoa quarter of a mile thick, and it was next to impossible topenetrate it, for a little dog could hardly get between the trees,they stood so close.But this was not all; for they did the same by all the ground tothe right hand and to the left, and round even to the side of thehill, leaving no way, not so much as for themselves, to come outbut by the ladder placed up to the side of the hill, and thenlifted up, and placed again from the first stage up to the top: sothat when the ladder was taken down, nothing but what had wings orwitchcraft to assist it could come at them. This was excellentlywell contrived: nor was it less than what they afterwards foundoccasion for, which served to convince me, that as human prudencehas the authority of Providence to justify it, so it has doubtlessthe direction of Providence to set it to work; and if we listenedcarefully to the voice of it, I am persuaded we might prevent manyof the disasters which our lives are now, by our own negligence,subjected to.They lived two years after this in perfect retirement, and had nomore visits from the savages. They had, indeed, an alarm giventhem one morning, which put them into a great consternation; forsome of the Spaniards being out early one morning on the west sideor end of the island (which was that end where I never went, forfear of being discovered), they were surprised with seeing abouttwenty canoes of Indians just coming on shore. They made the bestof their way home in hurry enough; and giving the alarm to theircomrades, they kept close all that day and the next, going out onlyat night to make their observation: but they had the good luck tobe undiscovered, for wherever the savages went, they did not landthat time on the island, but pursued some other design.