Chapter II. Intervening History of Colony

by Daniel Defoe

　　It was in the latitude of 27 degrees 5 minutes N., on the 19th dayof March 1694-95, when we spied a sail, our course SE. and by S.We soon perceived it was a large vessel, and that she bore up tous, but could not at first know what to make of her, till, aftercoming a little nearer, we found she had lost her main-topmast,fore-mast, and bowsprit; and presently she fired a gun as a signalof distress. The weather was pretty good, wind at NNW. a freshgale, and we soon came to speak with her. We found her a ship ofBristol, bound home from Barbadoes, but had been blown out of theroad at Barbadoes a few days before she was ready to sail, by aterrible hurricane, while the captain and chief mate were both goneon shore; so that, besides the terror of the storm, they were in anindifferent case for good mariners to bring the ship home. Theyhad been already nine weeks at sea, and had met with anotherterrible storm, after the hurricane was over, which had blown themquite out of their knowledge to the westward, and in which theylost their masts. They told us they expected to have seen theBahama Islands, but were then driven away again to the south-east,by a strong gale of wind at NNW., the same that blew now: andhaving no sails to work the ship with but a main course, and a kindof square sail upon a jury fore-mast, which they had set up, theycould not lie near the wind, but were endeavouring to stand awayfor the Canaries.But that which was worst of all was, that they were almost starvedfor want of provisions, besides the fatigues they had undergone;their bread and flesh were quite gone - they had not one ounce leftin the ship, and had had none for eleven days. The only reliefthey had was, their water was not all spent, and they had abouthalf a barrel of flour left; they had sugar enough; some succades,or sweetmeats, they had at first, but these were all devoured; andthey had seven casks of rum. There was a youth and his mother anda maid-servant on board, who were passengers, and thinking the shipwas ready to sail, unhappily came on board the evening before thehurricane began; and having no provisions of their own left, theywere in a more deplorable condition than the rest: for the seamenbeing reduced to such an extreme necessity themselves, had nocompassion, we may be sure, for the poor passengers; and they were,indeed, in such a condition that their misery is very hard todescribe.I had perhaps not known this part, if my curiosity had not led me,the weather being fair and the wind abated, to go on board theship. The second mate, who upon this occasion commanded the ship,had been on board our ship, and he told me they had threepassengers in the great cabin that were in a deplorable condition."Nay," says he, "I believe they are dead, for I have heard nothingof them for above two days; and I was afraid to inquire afterthem," said he, "for I had nothing to relieve them with." Weimmediately applied ourselves to give them what relief we couldspare; and indeed I had so far overruled things with my nephew,that I would have victualled them though we had gone away toVirginia, or any other part of the coast of America, to havesupplied ourselves; but there was no necessity for that.But now they were in a new danger; for they were afraid of eatingtoo much, even of that little we gave them. The mate, orcommander, brought six men with him in his boat; but these poorwretches looked like skeletons, and were so weak that they couldhardly sit to their oars. The mate himself was very ill, and halfstarved; for he declared he had reserved nothing from the men, andwent share and share alike with them in every bit they ate. Icautioned him to eat sparingly, and set meat before himimmediately, but he had not eaten three mouthfuls before he beganto be sick and out of order; so he stopped a while, and our surgeonmixed him up something with some broth, which he said would be tohim both food and physic; and after he had taken it he grew better.In the meantime I forgot not the men. I ordered victuals to begiven them, and the poor creatures rather devoured than ate it:they were so exceedingly hungry that they were in a mannerravenous, and had no command of themselves; and two of them atewith so much greediness that they were in danger of their lives thenext morning. The sight of these people's distress was very movingto me, and brought to mind what I had a terrible prospect of at myfirst coming on shore in my island, where I had not the leastmouthful of food, or any prospect of procuring any; besides thehourly apprehensions I had of being made the food of othercreatures. But all the while the mate was thus relating to me themiserable condition of the ship's company, I could not put out ofmy thought the story he had told me of the three poor creatures inthe great cabin, viz. the mother, her son, and the maid-servant,whom he had heard nothing of for two or three days, and whom, heseemed to confess, they had wholly neglected, their own extremitiesbeing so great; by which I understood that they had really giventhem no food at all, and that therefore they must be perished, andbe all lying dead, perhaps, on the floor or deck of the cabin.As I therefore kept the mate, whom we then called captain, on boardwith his men, to refresh them, so I also forgot not the starvingcrew that were left on board, but ordered my own boat to go onboard the ship, and, with my mate and twelve men, to carry them asack of bread, and four or five pieces of beef to boil. Oursurgeon charged the men to cause the meat to be boiled while theystayed, and to keep guard in the cook-room, to prevent the mentaking it to eat raw, or taking it out of the pot before it waswell boiled, and then to give every man but a very little at atime: and by this caution he preserved the men, who wouldotherwise have killed themselves with that very food that was giventhem on purpose to save their lives.At the same time I ordered the mate to go into the great cabin, andsee what condition the poor passengers were in; and if they werealive, to comfort them, and give them what refreshment was proper:and the surgeon gave him a large pitcher, with some of the preparedbroth which he had given the mate that was on board, and which hedid not question would restore them gradually. I was not satisfiedwith this; but, as I said above, having a great mind to see thescene of misery which I knew the ship itself would present me with,in a more lively manner than I could have it by report, I took thecaptain of the ship, as we now called him, with me, and wentmyself, a little after, in their boat.I found the poor men on board almost in a tumult to get thevictuals out of the boiler before it was ready; but my mateobserved his orders, and kept a good guard at the cook-room door,and the man he placed there, after using all possible persuasion tohave patience, kept them off by force; however, he caused somebiscuit-cakes to be dipped in the pot, and softened with the liquorof the meat, which they called brewis, and gave them every one someto stay their stomachs, and told them it was for their own safetythat he was obliged to give them but little at a time. But it wasall in vain; and had I not come on board, and their own commanderand officers with me, and with good words, and some threats also ofgiving them no more, I believe they would have broken into thecook-room by force, and torn the meat out of the furnace - forwords are indeed of very small force to a hungry belly; however, wepacified them, and fed them gradually and cautiously at first, andthe next time gave them more, and at last filled their bellies, andthe men did well enough.But the misery of the poor passengers in the cabin was of anothernature, and far beyond the rest; for as, first, the ship's companyhad so little for themselves, it was but too true that they had atfirst kept them very low, and at last totally neglected them: sothat for six or seven days it might be said they had really no foodat all, and for several days before very little. The poor mother,who, as the men reported, was a woman of sense and good breeding,had spared all she could so affectionately for her son, that atlast she entirely sank under it; and when the mate of our ship wentin, she sat upon the floor on deck, with her back up against thesides, between two chairs, which were lashed fast, and her headsunk between her shoulders like a corpse, though not quite dead.My mate said all he could to revive and encourage her, and with aspoon put some broth into her mouth. She opened her lips, andlifted up one hand, but could not speak: yet she understood whathe said, and made signs to him, intimating, that it was too latefor her, but pointed to her child, as if she would have said theyshould take care of him. However, the mate, who was exceedinglymoved at the sight, endeavoured to get some of the broth into hermouth, and, as he said, got two or three spoonfuls down - though Iquestion whether he could be sure of it or not; but it was toolate, and she died the same night.The youth, who was preserved at the price of his most affectionatemother's life, was not so far gone; yet he lay in a cabin bed, asone stretched out, with hardly any life left in him. He had apiece of an old glove in his mouth, having eaten up the rest of it;however, being young, and having more strength than his mother, themate got something down his throat, and he began sensibly torevive; though by giving him, some time after, but two or threespoonfuls extraordinary, he was very sick, and brought it up again.But the next care was the poor maid: she lay all along upon thedeck, hard by her mistress, and just like one that had fallen downin a fit of apoplexy, and struggled for life. Her limbs weredistorted; one of her hands was clasped round the frame of thechair, and she gripped it so hard that we could not easily make herlet it go; her other arm lay over her head, and her feet lay bothtogether, set fast against the frame of the cabin table: in short,she lay just like one in the agonies of death, and yet she wasalive too. The poor creature was not only starved with hunger, andterrified with the thoughts of death, but, as the men told usafterwards, was broken-hearted for her mistress, whom she saw dyingfor two or three days before, and whom she loved most tenderly. Weknew not what to do with this poor girl; for when our surgeon, whowas a man of very great knowledge and experience, had, with greatapplication, recovered her as to life, he had her upon his handsstill; for she was little less than distracted for a considerabletime after.Whoever shall read these memorandums must be desired to considerthat visits at sea are not like a journey into the country, wheresometimes people stay a week or a fortnight at a place. Ourbusiness was to relieve this distressed ship's crew, but not lie byfor them; and though they were willing to steer the same coursewith us for some days, yet we could carry no sail to keep pace witha ship that had no masts. However, as their captain begged of usto help him to set up a main-topmast, and a kind of a topmast tohis jury fore-mast, we did, as it were, lie by him for three orfour days; and then, having given him five barrels of beef, abarrel of pork, two hogsheads of biscuit, and a proportion of peas,flour, and what other things we could spare; and taking three casksof sugar, some rum, and some pieces of eight from them forsatisfaction, we left them, taking on board with us, at their ownearnest request, the youth and the maid, and all their goods.The young lad was about seventeen years of age, a pretty, well-bred, modest, and sensible youth, greatly dejected with the loss ofhis mother, and also at having lost his father but a few monthsbefore, at Barbadoes. He begged of the surgeon to speak to me totake him out of the ship; for he said the cruel fellows hadmurdered his mother: and indeed so they had, that is to say,passively; for they might have spared a small sustenance to thepoor helpless widow, though it had been but just enough to keep heralive; but hunger knows no friend, no relation, no justice, noright, and therefore is remorseless, and capable of no compassion.The surgeon told him how far we were going, and that it would carryhim away from all his friends, and put him, perhaps, in as badcircumstances almost as those we found him in, that is to say,starving in the world. He said it mattered not whither he went, ifhe was but delivered from the terrible crew that he was among; thatthe captain (by which he meant me, for he could know nothing of mynephew) had saved his life, and he was sure would not hurt him; andas for the maid, he was sure, if she came to herself, she would bevery thankful for it, let us carry them where we would. Thesurgeon represented the case so affectionately to me that Iyielded, and we took them both on board, with all their goods,except eleven hogsheads of sugar, which could not be removed orcome at; and as the youth had a bill of lading for them, I made hiscommander sign a writing, obliging himself to go, as soon as hecame to Bristol, to one Mr. Rogers, a merchant there, to whom theyouth said he was related, and to deliver a letter which I wrote tohim, and all the goods he had belonging to the deceased widow;which, I suppose, was not done, for I could never learn that theship came to Bristol, but was, as is most probable, lost at sea,being in so disabled a condition, and so far from any land, that Iam of opinion the first storm she met with afterwards she mightfounder, for she was leaky, and had damage in her hold when we metwith her.I was now in the latitude of 19 degrees 32 minutes, and hadhitherto a tolerable voyage as to weather, though at first thewinds had been contrary. I shall trouble nobody with the littleincidents of wind, weather, currents, &c., on the rest of ourvoyage; but to shorten my story, shall observe that I came to myold habitation, the island, on the 10th of April 1695. It was withno small difficulty that I found the place; for as I came to it andwent to it before on the south and east side of the island, comingfrom the Brazils, so now, coming in between the main and theisland, and having no chart for the coast, nor any landmark, I didnot know it when I saw it, or, know whether I saw it or not. Webeat about a great while, and went on shore on several islands inthe mouth of the great river Orinoco, but none for my purpose; onlythis I learned by my coasting the shore, that I was under one greatmistake before, viz. that the continent which I thought I saw fromthe island I lived in was really no continent, but a long island,or rather a ridge of islands, reaching from one to the other sideof the extended mouth of that great river; and that the savages whocame to my island were not properly those which we call Caribbees,but islanders, and other barbarians of the same kind, who inhabitednearer to our side than the rest.In short, I visited several of these islands to no purpose; some Ifound were inhabited, and some were not; on one of them I foundsome Spaniards, and thought they had lived there; but speaking withthem, found they had a sloop lying in a small creek hard by, andcame thither to make salt, and to catch some pearl-mussels if theycould; but that they belonged to the Isle de Trinidad, which layfarther north, in the latitude of 10 and 11 degrees.Thus coasting from one island to another, sometimes with the ship,sometimes with the Frenchman's shallop, which we had found aconvenient boat, and therefore kept her with their very good will,at length I came fair on the south side of my island, and presentlyknew the very countenance of the place: so I brought the ship safeto an anchor, broadside with the little creek where my oldhabitation was. As soon as I saw the place I called for Friday,and asked him if he knew where he was? He looked about a little,and presently clapping his hands, cried, "Oh yes, Oh there, Oh yes,Oh there!" pointing to our old habitation, and fell dancing andcapering like a mad fellow; and I had much ado to keep him fromjumping into the sea to swim ashore to the place."Well, Friday," says I, "do you think we shall find anybody here orno? and do you think we shall see your father?" The fellow stoodmute as a stock a good while; but when I named his father, the pooraffectionate creature looked dejected, and I could see the tearsrun down his face very plentifully. "What is the matter, Friday?are you troubled because you may see your father?" "No, no," sayshe, shaking his head, "no see him more: no, never more see himagain." "Why so, Friday? how do you know that?" "Oh no, Oh no,"says Friday, "he long ago die, long ago; he much old man." "Well,well, Friday, you don't know; but shall we see any one else, then?"The fellow, it seems, had better eyes than I, and he points to thehill just above my old house; and though we lay half a league off,he cries out, "We see! we see! yes, we see much man there, andthere, and there." I looked, but I saw nobody, no, not with aperspective glass, which was, I suppose, because I could not hitthe place: for the fellow was right, as I found upon inquiry thenext day; and there were five or six men all together, who stood tolook at the ship, not knowing what to think of us.As soon as Friday told me he saw people, I caused the Englishancient to be spread, and fired three guns, to give them notice wewere friends; and in about a quarter of an hour after we perceiveda smoke arise from the side of the creek; so I immediately orderedthe boat out, taking Friday with me, and hanging out a white flag,I went directly on shore, taking with me the young friar Imentioned, to whom I had told the story of my living there, and themanner of it, and every particular both of myself and those I leftthere, and who was on that account extremely desirous to go withme. We had, besides, about sixteen men well armed, if we had foundany new guests there which we did not know of; but we had no needof weapons.As we went on shore upon the tide of flood, near high water, werowed directly into the creek; and the first man I fixed my eyeupon was the Spaniard whose life I had saved, and whom I knew byhis face perfectly well: as to his habit, I shall describe itafterwards. I ordered nobody to go on shore at first but myself;but there was no keeping Friday in the boat, for the affectionatecreature had spied his father at a distance, a good way off theSpaniards, where, indeed, I saw nothing of him; and if they had notlet him go ashore, he would have jumped into the sea. He was nosooner on shore, but he flew away to his father like an arrow outof a bow. It would have made any man shed tears, in spite of thefirmest resolution, to have seen the first transports of this poorfellow's joy when he came to his father: how he embraced him,kissed him, stroked his face, took him up in his arms, set him downupon a tree, and lay down by him; then stood and looked at him, asany one would look at a strange picture, for a quarter of an hourtogether; then lay down on the ground, and stroked his legs, andkissed them, and then got up again and stared at him; one wouldhave thought the fellow bewitched. But it would have made a doglaugh the next day to see how his passion ran out another way: inthe morning he walked along the shore with his father severalhours, always leading him by the hand, as if he had been a lady;and every now and then he would come to the boat to fetch somethingor other for him, either a lump of sugar, a dram, a biscuit, orsomething or other that was good. In the afternoon his frolics rananother way; for then he would set the old man down upon theground, and dance about him, and make a thousand antic gestures;and all the while he did this he would be talking to him, andtelling him one story or another of his travels, and of what hadhappened to him abroad to divert him. In short, if the same filialaffection was to be found in Christians to their parents in ourpart of the world, one would be tempted to say there would hardlyhave been any need of the fifth commandment.But this is a digression: I return to my landing. It would beneedless to take notice of all the ceremonies and civilities thatthe Spaniards received me with. The first Spaniard, whom, as Isaid, I knew very well, was he whose life I had saved. He cametowards the boat, attended by one more, carrying a flag of trucealso; and he not only did not know me at first, but he had nothoughts, no notion of its being me that was come, till I spoke tohim. "Seignior," said I, in Portuguese, "do you not know me?" Atwhich he spoke not a word, but giving his musket to the man thatwas with him, threw his arms abroad, saying something in Spanishthat I did not perfectly hear, came forward and embraced me,telling me he was inexcusable not to know that face again that hehad once seen, as of an angel from heaven sent to save his life; hesaid abundance of very handsome things, as a well-bred Spaniardalways knows how, and then, beckoning to the person that attendedhim, bade him go and call out his comrades. He then asked me if Iwould walk to my old habitation, where he would give me possessionof my own house again, and where I should see they had made butmean improvements. I walked along with him, but, alas! I could nomore find the place than if I had never been there; for they hadplanted so many trees, and placed them in such a position, so thickand close to one another, and in ten years' time they were grown sobig, that the place was inaccessible, except by such windings andblind ways as they themselves only, who made them, could find.I asked them what put them upon all these fortifications; he toldme I would say there was need enough of it when they had given mean account how they had passed their time since their arriving inthe island, especially after they had the misfortune to find that Iwas gone. He told me he could not but have some pleasure in mygood fortune, when he heard that I was gone in a good ship, and tomy satisfaction; and that he had oftentimes a strong persuasionthat one time or other he should see me again, but nothing thatever befell him in his life, he said, was so surprising andafflicting to him at first as the disappointment he was under whenhe came back to the island and found I was not there.As to the three barbarians (so he called them) that were leftbehind, and of whom, he said, he had a long story to tell me, theSpaniards all thought themselves much better among the savages,only that their number was so small: "And," says he, "had theybeen strong enough, we had been all long ago in purgatory;" andwith that he crossed himself on the breast. "But, sir," says he,"I hope you will not be displeased when I shall tell you how,forced by necessity, we were obliged for our own preservation todisarm them, and make them our subjects, as they would not becontent with being moderately our masters, but would be ourmurderers." I answered I was afraid of it when I left them there,and nothing troubled me at my parting from the island but that theywere not come back, that I might have put them in possession ofeverything first, and left the others in a state of subjection, asthey deserved; but if they had reduced them to it I was very glad,and should be very far from finding any fault with it; for I knewthey were a parcel of refractory, ungoverned villains, and were fitfor any manner of mischief.While I was saying this, the man came whom he had sent back, andwith him eleven more. In the dress they were in it was impossibleto guess what nation they were of; but he made all clear, both tothem and to me. First, he turned to me, and pointing to them,said, "These, sir, are some of the gentlemen who owe their lives toyou;" and then turning to them, and pointing to me, he let themknow who I was; upon which they all came up, one by one, not as ifthey had been sailors, and ordinary fellows, and the like, butreally as if they had been ambassadors or noblemen, and I a monarchor great conqueror: their behaviour was, to the last degree,obliging and courteous, and yet mixed with a manly, majesticgravity, which very well became them; and, in short, they had somuch more manners than I, that I scarce knew how to receive theircivilities, much less how to return them in kind.The history of their coming to, and conduct in, the island after mygoing away is so very remarkable, and has so many incidents whichthe former part of my relation will help to understand, and whichwill in most of the particulars, refer to the account I havealready given, that I cannot but commit them, with great delight,to the reading of those that come after me.In order to do this as intelligibly as I can, I must go back to thecircumstances in which I left the island, and the persons on it, ofwhom I am to speak. And first, it is necessary to repeat that Ihad sent away Friday's father and the Spaniard (the two whose livesI had rescued from the savages) in a large canoe to the main, as Ithen thought it, to fetch over the Spaniard's companions that heleft behind him, in order to save them from the like calamity thathe had been in, and in order to succour them for the present; andthat, if possible, we might together find some way for ourdeliverance afterwards. When I sent them away I had no visibleappearance of, or the least room to hope for, my own deliverance,any more than I had twenty years before - much less had I anyforeknowledge of what afterwards happened, I mean, of an Englishship coming on shore there to fetch me off; and it could not be buta very great surprise to them, when they came back, not only tofind that I was gone, but to find three strangers left on the spot,possessed of all that I had left behind me, which would otherwisehave been their own.The first thing, however, which I inquired into, that I might beginwhere I left off, was of their own part; and I desired the Spaniardwould give me a particular account of his voyage back to hiscountrymen with the boat, when I sent him to fetch them over. Hetold me there was little variety in that part, for nothingremarkable happened to them on the way, having had very calmweather and a smooth sea. As for his countrymen, it could not bedoubted, he said, but that they were overjoyed to see him (it seemshe was the principal man among them, the captain of the vessel theyhad been shipwrecked in having been dead some time): they were, hesaid, the more surprised to see him, because they knew that he wasfallen into the hands of the savages, who, they were satisfied,would devour him as they did all the rest of their prisoners; thatwhen he told them the story of his deliverance, and in what mannerhe was furnished for carrying them away, it was like a dream tothem, and their astonishment, he said, was somewhat like that ofJoseph's brethren when he told them who he was, and the story ofhis exaltation in Pharaoh's court; but when he showed them thearms, the powder, the ball, the provisions that he brought them fortheir journey or voyage, they were restored to themselves, took ajust share of the joy of their deliverance, and immediatelyprepared to come away with him.Their first business was to get canoes; and in this they wereobliged not to stick so much upon the honesty of it, but totrespass upon their friendly savages, and to borrow two largecanoes, or periaguas, on pretence of going out a-fishing, or forpleasure. In these they came away the next morning. It seems theywanted no time to get themselves ready; for they had neitherclothes nor provisions, nor anything in the world but what they hadon them, and a few roots to eat, of which they used to make theirbread. They were in all three weeks absent; and in that time,unluckily for them, I had the occasion offered for my escape, as Imentioned in the other part, and to get off from the island,leaving three of the most impudent, hardened, ungoverned,disagreeable villains behind me that any man could desire to meetwith - to the poor Spaniards' great grief and disappointment.The only just thing the rogues did was, that when the Spaniardscame ashore, they gave my letter to them, and gave them provisions,and other relief, as I had ordered them to do; also they gave themthe long paper of directions which I had left with them, containingthe particular methods which I took for managing every part of mylife there; the way I baked my bread, bred up tame goats, andplanted my corn; how I cured my grapes, made my pots, and, in aword, everything I did. All this being written down, they gave tothe Spaniards (two of them understood English well enough): nordid they refuse to accommodate the Spaniards with anything else,for they agreed very well for some time. They gave them an equaladmission into the house or cave, and they began to live verysociably; and the head Spaniard, who had seen pretty much of mymethods, together with Friday's father, managed all their affairs;but as for the Englishmen, they did nothing but ramble about theisland, shoot parrots, and catch tortoises; and when they came homeat night, the Spaniards provided their suppers for them.The Spaniards would have been satisfied with this had the othersbut let them alone, which, however, they could not find in theirhearts to do long: but, like the dog in the manger, they would noteat themselves, neither would they let the others eat. Thedifferences, nevertheless, were at first but trivial, and such asare not worth relating, but at last it broke out into open war:and it began with all the rudeness and insolence that can beimagined - without reason, without provocation, contrary to nature,and indeed to common sense; and though, it is true, the firstrelation of it came from the Spaniards themselves, whom I may callthe accusers, yet when I came to examine the fellows they could notdeny a word of it.But before I come to the particulars of this part, I must supply adefect in my former relation; and this was, I forgot to set downamong the rest, that just as we were weighing the anchor to setsail, there happened a little quarrel on board of our ship, which Iwas once afraid would have turned to a second mutiny; nor was itappeased till the captain, rousing up his courage, and taking usall to his assistance, parted them by force, and making two of themost refractory fellows prisoners, he laid them in irons: and asthey had been active in the former disorders, and let fall someugly, dangerous words the second time, he threatened to carry themin irons to England, and have them hanged there for mutiny andrunning away with the ship. This, it seems, though the captain didnot intend to do it, frightened some other men in the ship; andsome of them had put it into the head of the rest that the captainonly gave them good words for the present, till they should come tosame English port, and that then they should be all put into gaol,and tried for their lives. The mate got intelligence of this, andacquainted us with it, upon which it was desired that I, who stillpassed for a great man among them, should go down with the mate andsatisfy the men, and tell them that they might be assured, if theybehaved well the rest of the voyage, all they had done for the timepast should be pardoned. So I went, and after passing my honour'sword to them they appeared easy, and the more so when I caused thetwo men that were in irons to be released and forgiven.But this mutiny had brought us to an anchor for that night; thewind also falling calm next morning, we found that our two men whohad been laid in irons had stolen each of them a musket and someother weapons (what powder or shot they had we knew not), and hadtaken the ship's pinnace, which was not yet hauled up, and run awaywith her to their companions in roguery on shore. As soon as wefound this, I ordered the long-boat on shore, with twelve men andthe mate, and away they went to seek the rogues; but they couldneither find them nor any of the rest, for they all fled into thewoods when they saw the boat coming on shore. The mate was onceresolved, in justice to their roguery, to have destroyed theirplantations, burned all their household stuff and furniture, andleft them to shift without it; but having no orders, he let it allalone, left everything as he found it, and bringing the pinnaceway, came on board without them. These two men made their numberfive; but the other three villains were so much more wicked thanthey, that after they had been two or three days together theyturned the two newcomers out of doors to shift for themselves, andwould have nothing to do with them; nor could they for a good whilebe persuaded to give them any food: as for the Spaniards, theywere not yet come.When the Spaniards came first on shore, the business began to goforward: the Spaniards would have persuaded the three Englishbrutes to have taken in their countrymen again, that, as they said,they might be all one family; but they would not hear of it, so thetwo poor fellows lived by themselves; and finding nothing butindustry and application would make them live comfortably, theypitched their tents on the north shore of the island, but a littlemore to the west, to be out of danger of the savages, who alwayslanded on the east parts of the island. Here they built them twohuts, one to lodge in, and the other to lay up their magazines andstores in; and the Spaniards having given them some corn for seed,and some of the peas which I had left them, they dug, planted, andenclosed, after the pattern I had set for them all, and began tolive pretty well. Their first crop of corn was on the ground; andthough it was but a little bit of land which they had dug up atfirst, having had but a little time, yet it was enough to relievethem, and find them with bread and other eatables; and one of thefellows being the cook's mate of the ship, was very ready at makingsoup, puddings, and such other preparations as the rice and themilk, and such little flesh as they got, furnished him to do.They were going on in this little thriving position when the threeunnatural rogues, their own countrymen too, in mere humour, and toinsult them, came and bullied them, and told them the island wastheirs: that the governor, meaning me, had given them thepossession of it, and nobody else had any right to it; and thatthey should build no houses upon their ground unless they would payrent for them. The two men, thinking they were jesting at first,asked them to come in and sit down, and see what fine houses theywere that they had built, and to tell them what rent they demanded;and one of them merrily said if they were the ground-landlords, hehoped if they built tenements upon their land, and madeimprovements, they would, according to the custom of landlords,grant a long lease: and desired they would get a scrivener to drawthe writings. One of the three, cursing and raging, told them theyshould see they were not in jest; and going to a little place at adistance, where the honest men had made a fire to dress theirvictuals, he takes a firebrand, and claps it to the outside oftheir hut, and set it on fire: indeed, it would have been allburned down in a few minutes if one of the two had not run to thefellow, thrust him away, and trod the fire out with his feet, andthat not without some difficulty too.The fellow was in such a rage at the honest man's thrusting himaway, that he returned upon him, with a pole he had in his hand,and had not the man avoided the blow very nimbly, and run into thehut, he had ended his days at once. His comrade, seeing the dangerthey were both in, ran after him, and immediately they came bothout with their muskets, and the man that was first struck at withthe pole knocked the fellow down that began the quarrel with thestock of his musket, and that before the other two could come tohelp him; and then, seeing the rest come at them, they stoodtogether, and presenting the other ends of their pieces to them,bade them stand off.The others had firearms with them too; but one of the two honestmen, bolder than his comrade, and made desperate by his danger,told them if they offered to move hand or foot they were dead men,and boldly commanded them to lay down their arms. They did not,indeed, lay down their arms, but seeing him so resolute, it broughtthem to a parley, and they consented to take their wounded man withthem and be gone: and, indeed, it seems the fellow was woundedsufficiently with the blow. However, they were much in the wrong,since they had the advantage, that they did not disarm themeffectually, as they might have done, and have gone immediately tothe Spaniards, and given them an account how the rogues had treatedthem; for the three villains studied nothing but revenge, and everyday gave them some intimation that they did so.