Chapter 20: Fight Between Friday and a Bear

by Daniel Defoe

　　But never was a fight managed so hardily, and in such a surprisingmanner as that which followed between Friday and the bear, whichgave us all, though at first we were surprised and afraid for him,the greatest diversion imaginable. As the bear is a heavy, clumsycreature, and does not gallop as the wolf does, who is swift andlight, so he has two particular qualities, which generally are therule of his actions; first, as to men, who are not his proper prey(he does not usually attempt them, except they first attack him,unless he be excessively hungry, which it is probable might now bethe case, the ground being covered with snow), if you do not meddlewith him, he will not meddle with you; but then you must take careto be very civil to him, and give him the road, for he is a verynice gentleman; he will not go a step out of his way for a prince;nay, if you are really afraid, your best way is to look another wayand keep going on; for sometimes if you stop, and stand still, andlook steadfastly at him, he takes it for an affront; but if youthrow or toss anything at him, though it were but a bit of stick asbig as your finger, he thinks himself abused, and sets all otherbusiness aside to pursue his revenge, and will have satisfaction inpoint of honour - that is his first quality: the next is, if he beonce affronted, he will never leave you, night or day, till he hashis revenge, but follows at a good round rate till he overtakesyou.My man Friday had delivered our guide, and when we came up to himhe was helping him off his horse, for the man was both hurt andfrightened, when on a sudden we espied the bear come out of thewood; and a monstrous one it was, the biggest by far that ever Isaw. We were all a little surprised when we saw him; but whenFriday saw him, it was easy to see joy and courage in the fellow'scountenance. "O! O! O!" says Friday, three times, pointing to him;"O master, you give me te leave, me shakee te hand with him; memakee you good laugh."I was surprised to see the fellow so well pleased. "You fool,"says I, "he will eat you up." - "Eatee me up! eatee me up!" saysFriday, twice over again; "me eatee him up; me makee you goodlaugh; you all stay here, me show you good laugh." So down hesits, and gets off his boots in a moment, and puts on a pair ofpumps (as we call the flat shoes they wear, and which he had in hispocket), gives my other servant his horse, and with his gun away heflew, swift like the wind.The bear was walking softly on, and offered to meddle with nobody,till Friday coming pretty near, calls to him, as if the bear couldunderstand him. "Hark ye, hark ye," says Friday, "me speakee withyou." We followed at a distance, for now being down on the Gasconyside of the mountains, we were entered a vast forest, where thecountry was plain and pretty open, though it had many trees in itscattered here and there. Friday, who had, as we say, the heels ofthe bear, came up with him quickly, and took up a great stone, andthrew it at him, and hit him just on the head, but did him no moreharm than if he had thrown it against a wall; but it answeredFriday's end, for the rogue was so void of fear that he did itpurely to make the bear follow him, and show us some laugh as hecalled it. As soon as the bear felt the blow, and saw him, heturns about and comes after him, taking very long strides, andshuffling on at a strange rate, so as would have put a horse to amiddling gallop; away reins Friday, and takes his course as if heran towards us for help; so we all resolved to fire at once uponthe bear, and deliver my man; though I was angry at him forbringing the bear back upon us, when he was going about his ownbusiness another way; and especially I was angry that he had turnedthe bear upon us, and then ran away; and I called out, "You dog! isthis your making us laugh? Come away, and take your horse, that wemay shoot the creature." He heard me, and cried out, "No shoot, noshoot; stand still, and you get much laugh:" and as the nimblecreature ran two feet for the bear's one, he turned on a sudden onone side of us, and seeing a great oak-tree fit for his purpose, hebeckoned to us to follow; and doubling his pace, he got nimbly upthe tree, laying his gun down upon the ground, at about five or sixyards from the bottom of the tree. The bear soon came to the tree,and we followed at a distance: the first thing he did he stopped atthe gun, smelt at it, but let it lie, and up he scrambles into thetree, climbing like a cat, though so monstrous heavy. I was amazedat the folly, as I thought it, of my man, and could not for my lifesee anything to laugh at, till seeing the bear get up the tree, weall rode near to him.When we came to the tree, there was Friday got out to the small endof a large branch, and the bear got about half-way to him. As soonas the bear got out to that part where the limb of the tree wasweaker, "Ha!" says he to us, "now you see me teachee the beardance:" so he began jumping and shaking the bough, at which thebear began to totter, but stood still, and began to look behindhim, to see how he should get back; then, indeed, we did laughheartily. But Friday had not done with him by a great deal; whenseeing him stand still, he called out to him again, as if he hadsupposed the bear could speak English, "What, you come no farther?pray you come farther;" so he left jumping and shaking the tree;and the bear, just as if he understood what he said, did come alittle farther; then he began jumping again, and the bear stoppedagain. We thought now was a good time to knock him in the head,and called to Friday to stand still and we should shoot the bear:but he cried out earnestly, "Oh, pray! Oh, pray! no shoot, meshoot by and then:" he would have said by-and-by. However, toshorten the story, Friday danced so much, and the bear stood soticklish, that we had laughing enough, but still could not imaginewhat the fellow would do: for first we thought he depended uponshaking the bear off; and we found the bear was too cunning forthat too; for he would not go out far enough to be thrown down, butclung fast with his great broad claws and feet, so that we couldnot imagine what would be the end of it, and what the jest would beat last. But Friday put us out of doubt quickly: for seeing thebear cling fast to the bough, and that he would not be persuaded tocome any farther, "Well, well," says Friday, "you no come farther,me go; you no come to me, me come to you;" and upon this he wentout to the smaller end, where it would bend with his weight, andgently let himself down by it, sliding down the bough till he camenear enough to jump down on his feet, and away he ran to his gun,took it up, and stood still. "Well," said I to him, "Friday, whatwill you do now? Why don't you shoot him?" "No shoot," saysFriday, "no yet; me shoot now, me no kill; me stay, give you onemore laugh:" and, indeed, so he did; for when the bear saw hisenemy gone, he came back from the bough, where he stood, but did itvery cautiously, looking behind him every step, and coming backwardtill he got into the body of the tree, then, with the same hinderend foremost, he came down the tree, grasping it with his claws,and moving one foot at a time, very leisurely. At this juncture,and just before he could set his hind foot on the ground, Fridaystepped up close to him, clapped the muzzle of his piece into hisear, and shot him dead. Then the rogue turned about to see if wedid not laugh; and when he saw we were pleased by our looks, hebegan to laugh very loud. "So we kill bear in my country," saysFriday. "So you kill them?" says I; "why, you have no guns." -"No," says he, "no gun, but shoot great much long arrow." This wasa good diversion to us; but we were still in a wild place, and ourguide very much hurt, and what to do we hardly knew; the howling ofwolves ran much in my head; and, indeed, except the noise I onceheard on the shore of Africa, of which I have said somethingalready, I never heard anything that filled me with so much horror.These things, and the approach of night, called us off, or else, asFriday would have had us, we should certainly have taken the skinof this monstrous creature off, which was worth saving; but we hadnear three leagues to go, and our guide hastened us; so we lefthim, and went forward on our journey.The ground was still covered with snow, though not so deep anddangerous as on the mountains; and the ravenous creatures, as weheard afterwards, were come down into the forest and plain country,pressed by hunger, to seek for food, and had done a great deal ofmischief in the villages, where they surprised the country people,killed a great many of their sheep and horses, and some people too.We had one dangerous place to pass, and our guide told us if therewere more wolves in the country we should find them there; and thiswas a small plain, surrounded with woods on every side, and a long,narrow defile, or lane, which we were to pass to get through thewood, and then we should come to the village where we were tolodge. It was within half-an-hour of sunset when we entered thewood, and a little after sunset when we came into the plain: we metwith nothing in the first wood, except that in a little plainwithin the wood, which was not above two furlongs over, we saw fivegreat wolves cross the road, full speed, one after another, as ifthey had been in chase of some prey, and had it in view; they tookno notice of us, and were gone out of sight in a few moments. Uponthis, our guide, who, by the way, was but a fainthearted fellow,bid us keep in a ready posture, for he believed there were morewolves a-coming. We kept our arms ready, and our eyes about us;but we saw no more wolves till we came through that wood, which wasnear half a league, and entered the plain. As soon as we came intothe plain, we had occasion enough to look about us. The firstobject we met with was a dead horse; that is to say, a poor horsewhich the wolves had killed, and at least a dozen of them at work,we could not say eating him, but picking his bones rather; for theyhad eaten up all the flesh before. We did not think fit to disturbthem at their feast, neither did they take much notice of us.Friday would have let fly at them, but I would not suffer him byany means; for I found we were like to have more business upon ourhands than we were aware of. We had not gone half over the plainwhen we began to hear the wolves howl in the wood on our left in afrightful manner, and presently after we saw about a hundred comingon directly towards us, all in a body, and most of them in a line,as regularly as an army drawn up by experienced officers. I scarceknew in what manner to receive them, but found to draw ourselves ina close line was the only way; so we formed in a moment; but thatwe might not have too much interval, I ordered that only everyother man should fire, and that the others, who had not fired,should stand ready to give them a second volley immediately, ifthey continued to advance upon us; and then that those that hadfired at first should not pretend to load their fusees again, butstand ready, every one with a pistol, for we were all armed with afusee and a pair of pistols each man; so we were, by this method,able to fire six volleys, half of us at a time; however, at presentwe had no necessity; for upon firing the first volley, the enemymade a full stop, being terrified as well with the noise as withthe fire. Four of them being shot in the head, dropped; severalothers were wounded, and went bleeding off, as we could see by thesnow. I found they stopped, but did not immediately retreat;whereupon, remembering that I had been told that the fiercestcreatures were terrified at the voice of a man, I caused all thecompany to halloo as loud as they could; and I found the notion notaltogether mistaken; for upon our shout they began to retire andturn about. I then ordered a second volley to be fired in theirrear, which put them to the gallop, and away they went to thewoods. This gave us leisure to charge our pieces again; and thatwe might lose no time, we kept going; but we had but little morethan loaded our fusees, and put ourselves in readiness, when weheard a terrible noise in the same wood on our left, only that itwas farther onward, the same way we were to go.The night was coming on, and the light began to be dusky, whichmade it worse on our side; but the noise increasing, we couldeasily perceive that it was the howling and yelling of thosehellish creatures; and on a sudden we perceived three troops ofwolves, one on our left, one behind us, and one in our front, sothat we seemed to be surrounded with them: however, as they did notfall upon us, we kept our way forward, as fast as we could make ourhorses go, which, the way being very rough, was only a good hardtrot. In this manner, we came in view of the entrance of a wood,through which we were to pass, at the farther side of the plain;but we were greatly surprised, when coming nearer the lane or pass,we saw a confused number of wolves standing just at the entrance.On a sudden, at another opening of the wood, we heard the noise ofa gun, and looking that way, out rushed a horse, with a saddle anda bridle on him, flying like the wind, and sixteen or seventeenwolves after him, full speed: the horse had the advantage of them;but as we supposed that he could not hold it at that rate, wedoubted not but they would get up with him at last: no question butthey did.But here we had a most horrible sight; for riding up to theentrance where the horse came out, we found the carcasses ofanother horse and of two men, devoured by the ravenous creatures;and one of the men was no doubt the same whom we heard fire thegun, for there lay a gun just by him fired off; but as to the man,his head and the upper part of his body was eaten up. This filledus with horror, and we knew not what course to take; but thecreatures resolved us soon, for they gathered about us presently,in hopes of prey; and I verily believe there were three hundred ofthem. It happened, very much to our advantage, that at theentrance into the wood, but a little way from it, there lay somelarge timber-trees, which had been cut down the summer before, andI suppose lay there for carriage. I drew my little troop in amongthose trees, and placing ourselves in a line behind one long tree,I advised them all to alight, and keeping that tree before us for abreastwork, to stand in a triangle, or three fronts, enclosing ourhorses in the centre. We did so, and it was well we did; for neverwas a more furious charge than the creatures made upon us in thisplace. They came on with a growling kind of noise, and mounted thepiece of timber, which, as I said, was our breastwork, as if theywere only rushing upon their prey; and this fury of theirs, itseems, was principally occasioned by their seeing our horses behindus. I ordered our men to fire as before, every other man; and theytook their aim so sure that they killed several of the wolves atthe first volley; but there was a necessity to keep a continualfiring, for they came on like devils, those behind pushing on thosebefore.When we had fired a second volley of our fusees, we thought theystopped a little, and I hoped they would have gone off, but it wasbut a moment, for others came forward again; so we fired twovolleys of our pistols; and I believe in these four firings we hadkilled seventeen or eighteen of them, and lamed twice as many, yetthey came on again. I was loth to spend our shot too hastily; so Icalled my servant, not my man Friday, for he was better employed,for, with the greatest dexterity imaginable, he had charged myfusee and his own while we were engaged - but, as I said, I calledmy other man, and giving him a horn of powder, I had him lay atrain all along the piece of timber, and let it be a large train.He did so, and had but just time to get away, when the wolves cameup to it, and some got upon it, when I, snapping an unchangedpistol close to the powder, set it on fire; those that were uponthe timber were scorched with it, and six or seven of them fell; orrather jumped in among us with the force and fright of the fire; wedespatched these in an instant, and the rest were so frightenedwith the light, which the night - for it was now very near dark -made more terrible that they drew back a little; upon which Iordered our last pistols to be fired off in one volley, and afterthat we gave a shout; upon this the wolves turned tail, and wesallied immediately upon near twenty lame ones that we foundstruggling on the ground, and fell to cutting them with our swords,which answered our expectation, for the crying and howling theymade was better understood by their fellows; so that they all fledand left us.We had, first and last, killed about threescore of them, and had itbeen daylight we had killed many more. The field of battle beingthus cleared, we made forward again, for we had still near a leagueto go. We heard the ravenous creatures howl and yell in the woodsas we went several times, and sometimes we fancied we saw some ofthem; but the snow dazzling our eyes, we were not certain. Inabout an hour more we came to the town where we were to lodge,which we found in a terrible fright and all in arms; for, it seems,the night before the wolves and some bears had broken into thevillage, and put them in such terror that they were obliged to keepguard night and day, but especially in the night, to preserve theircattle, and indeed their people.The next morning our guide was so ill, and his limbs swelled somuch with the rankling of his two wounds, that he could go nofarther; so we were obliged to take a new guide here, and go toToulouse, where we found a warm climate, a fruitful, pleasantcountry, and no snow, no wolves, nor anything like them; but whenwe told our story at Toulouse, they told us it was nothing but whatwas ordinary in the great forest at the foot of the mountains,especially when the snow lay on the ground; but they inquired muchwhat kind of guide we had got who would venture to bring us thatway in such a severe season, and told us it was surprising we werenot all devoured. When we told them how we placed ourselves andthe horses in the middle, they blamed us exceedingly, and told usit was fifty to one but we had been all destroyed, for it was thesight of the horses which made the wolves so furious, seeing theirprey, and that at other times they are really afraid of a gun; butbeing excessively hungry, and raging on that account, the eagernessto come at the horses had made them senseless of danger, and thatif we had not by the continual fire, and at last by the stratagemof the train of powder, mastered them, it had been great odds butthat we had been torn to pieces; whereas, had we been content tohave sat still on horseback, and fired as horsemen, they would nothave taken the horses so much for their own, when men were on theirbacks, as otherwise; and withal, they told us that at last, if wehad stood altogether, and left our horses, they would have been soeager to have devoured them, that we might have come off safe,especially having our firearms in our hands, being so many innumber. For my part, I was never so sensible of danger in mylife; for, seeing above three hundred devils come roaring and open-mouthed to devour us, and having nothing to shelter us or retreatto, I gave myself over for lost; and, as it was, I believe I shallnever care to cross those mountains again: I think I would muchrather go a thousand leagues by sea, though I was sure to meet witha storm once a-week.I have nothing uncommon to take notice of in my passage throughFrance - nothing but what other travellers have given an account ofwith much more advantage than I can. I travelled from Toulouse toParis, and without any considerable stay came to Calais, and landedsafe at Dover the 14th of January, after having had a severe coldseason to travel in.I was now come to the centre of my travels, and had in a littletime all my new-discovered estate safe about me, the bills ofexchange which I brought with me having been currently paid.My principal guide and privy-counsellor was my good ancient widow,who, in gratitude for the money I had sent her, thought no painstoo much nor care too great to employ for me; and I trusted her soentirely that I was perfectly easy as to the security of myeffects; and, indeed, I was very happy from the beginning, and nowto the end, in the unspotted integrity of this good gentlewoman.And now, having resolved to dispose of my plantation in theBrazils, I wrote to my old friend at Lisbon, who, having offered itto the two merchants, the survivors of my trustees, who lived inthe Brazils, they accepted the offer, and remitted thirty-threethousand pieces of eight to a correspondent of theirs at Lisbon topay for it.In return, I signed the instrument of sale in the form which theysent from Lisbon, and sent it to my old man, who sent me the billsof exchange for thirty-two thousand eight hundred pieces of eightfor the estate, reserving the payment of one hundred moidores ayear to him (the old man) during his life, and fifty moidoresafterwards to his son for his life, which I had promised them, andwhich the plantation was to make good as a rent-charge. And thus Ihave given the first part of a life of fortune and adventure - alife of Providence's chequer-work, and of a variety which the worldwill seldom be able to show the like of; beginning foolishly, butclosing much more happily than any part of it ever gave me leave somuch as to hope for.Any one would think that in this state of complicated good fortuneI was past running any more hazards - and so, indeed, I had been,if other circumstances had concurred; but I was inured to awandering life, had no family, nor many relations; nor, howeverrich, had I contracted fresh acquaintance; and though I had sold myestate in the Brazils, yet I could not keep that country out of myhead, and had a great mind to be upon the wing again; especially Icould not resist the strong inclination I had to see my island, andto know if the poor Spaniards were in being there. My true friend,the widow, earnestly dissuaded me from it, and so far prevailedwith me, that for almost seven years she prevented my runningabroad, during which time I took my two nephews, the children ofone of my brothers, into my care; the eldest, having something ofhis own, I bred up as a gentleman, and gave him a settlement ofsome addition to his estate after my decease. The other I placedwith the captain of a ship; and after five years, finding him asensible, bold, enterprising young fellow, I put him into a goodship, and sent him to sea; and this young fellow afterwards drew mein, as old as I was, to further adventures myself.In the meantime, I in part settled myself here; for, first of all,I married, and that not either to my disadvantage ordissatisfaction, and had three children, two sons and one daughter;but my wife dying, and my nephew coming home with good success froma voyage to Spain, my inclination to go abroad, and hisimportunity, prevailed, and engaged me to go in his ship as aprivate trader to the East Indies; this was in the year 1694.In this voyage I visited my new colony in the island, saw mysuccessors the Spaniards, had the old story of their lives and ofthe villains I left there; how at first they insulted the poorSpaniards, how they afterwards agreed, disagreed, united,separated, and how at last the Spaniards were obliged to useviolence with them; how they were subjected to the Spaniards, howhonestly the Spaniards used them - a history, if it were enteredinto, as full of variety and wonderful accidents as my own part -particularly, also, as to their battles with the Caribbeans, wholanded several times upon the island, and as to the improvementthey made upon the island itself, and how five of them made anattempt upon the mainland, and brought away eleven men and fivewomen prisoners, by which, at my coming, I found about twenty youngchildren on the island.Here I stayed about twenty days, left them supplies of allnecessary things, and particularly of arms, powder, shot, clothes,tools, and two workmen, which I had brought from England with me,viz. a carpenter and a smith.Besides this, I shared the lands into parts with them, reserved tomyself the property of the whole, but gave them such partsrespectively as they agreed on; and having settled all things withthem, and engaged them not to leave the place, I left them there.From thence I touched at the Brazils, from whence I sent a bark,which I bought there, with more people to the island; and in it,besides other supplies, I sent seven women, being such as I foundproper for service, or for wives to such as would take them. As tothe Englishmen, I promised to send them some women from England,with a good cargo of necessaries, if they would apply themselves toplanting - which I afterwards could not perform. The fellowsproved very honest and diligent after they were mastered and hadtheir properties set apart for them. I sent them, also, from theBrazils, five cows, three of them being big with calf, some sheep,and some hogs, which when I came again were considerably increased.But all these things, with an account how three hundred Caribbeescame and invaded them, and ruined their plantations, and how theyfought with that whole number twice, and were at first defeated,and one of them killed; but at last, a storm destroying theirenemies' canoes, they famished or destroyed almost all the rest,and renewed and recovered the possession of their plantation, andstill lived upon the island.All these things, with some very surprising incidents in some newadventures of my own, for ten years more, I shall give a fartheraccount of in the Second Part of my Story.