I had, G.o.d knows, more sincerity than knowledge, in all the methods I took for this poor creature"s instruction; and must acknowledge, what I believe all that act upon the same principle will find, that in laying things open to him, I really informed and instructed myself in many things that either I did not know, or had not fully considered before; but which occurred naturally to my mind, upon my searching into them for the information of this poor savage; and I had more affection in my inquiry after things upon this occasion, than ever I felt before; so that whether this poor wild wretch was the better for me or no, I had great reason to be thankful that ever he came to me: my grief sat lighter upon me, my habitation grew comfortable to me beyond measure; and when I reflected, that in this solitary life, which I had been confined to, I had not only been moved myself to look up to Heaven, and to seek to the Hand that brought me thither, but was now to be made an instrument, under Providence, to save the life, and for aught I knew the soul, of a poor savage, and bring him to the true knowledge of religion, and of the Christian doctrine, that he might know Christ Jesus, to know whom is life eternal; I say, when I reflected upon all these things, a secret joy ran through every part of my soul, and I frequently rejoiced that ever I was brought to this place, which I had often thought the most dreadful of all afflictions that could possibly have befallen me.
In this thankful frame I continued all the remainder of my time; and the conversation which employed the hours between Friday and me was such, as made the three years which we lived there together perfectly and completely happy, if any such thing as complete happiness can be found in a sublunary state. The savage was now a good Christian, a much better than I; though I have reason to hope, and bless G.o.d for it, that we were equally penitent, and comforted restored penitents: we had here the Word of G.o.d to read, and no farther off from his Spirit to instruct than if we had been in England.
I always applied myself to reading the Scripture, and to let him know as well as I could the meaning of what I read; and he again, by his serious inquiries and questions, made me, as I said before, a much better scholar in the Scripture knowledge, than I should ever have been by my own private reading. Another thing I cannot refrain from observing here, also from experience, in this retired part of my life; viz. how infinite and inexpressible a blessing it is, that the knowledge of G.o.d, and of the doctrine of salvation by Christ Jesus, is so plainly laid down in the Word of G.o.d, so easy to be received and understood, that as the bare reading the Scripture made me capable of understanding enough of my duty to carry me directly on to the great work of sincere repentance for my sins, and laying hold of a Saviour for life and salvation, to a stated reformation in practice, and obedience to all G.o.d"s commands, and this without any teacher or instructor (I mean, human;) so the plain instruction sufficiently served to the enlightening this savage creature, and bringing him to be such a Christian, as I have known few equal to him in my life.
As to the disputes, wranglings, strife, and contention, which has happened in the world about religion, whether niceties in doctrines, or schemes of church-government, they were all perfectly useless to us, as, for aught I can yet see, they have been to all the rest in the world: we had the sure guide to heaven, viz. the Word of G.o.d; and we had, blessed be G.o.d! comfortable views of the Spirit of G.o.d, teaching and instructing us by his Word, leading us into all truth, and making us both willing and obedient to His instruction of his Word; and I cannot see the least use that the greatest knowledge of the disputed points in religion, which have made such confusions in the world, would have been to us, if we could have obtained it. But I must go on with the historical part of things, and take every part in its order.
After Friday and I became more intimately acquainted, and that he could understand almost all I said to him, and speak fluently, though in broken English, to me, I acquainted him with my own story, or at least so much of it as related to my coming into the place, how I had lived there, and how long: I let him into the mystery (for such it was to him) of gunpowder and bullets, and taught him how to shoot: I gave him a knife, which he was wonderfully delighted with; and I made him a belt with a frog hanging to it, such as in England we wear hangers in; and in the frog, instead of a hanger, I gave him a hatchet, which was not only as good a weapon in some cases, but much more useful upon many occasions.
I described to him the countries of Europe, and particularly England, which I came from; how we lived, how we worshipped G.o.d, how we behaved to one another, and how we traded in ships to all the parts of the world. I gave him an account of the wreck which I had been on board of, and shewed him as near as I could, the place where she lay; but she was all beaten in pieces long before, and quite gone.
I shewed him the ruins of our boat, which we lost when we escaped, and which I could not stir with my whole strength then, but was now fallen almost all to pieces. Upon seeing this boat, Friday stood musing a great while, and said nothing; I asked him what it was he studied upon? At last, says he, "Me see such boat like come to place at my nation."
I did not understand him a good while; but at last, when I had examined further into it, I understood by him, that a boat, such as that had been, came on sh.o.r.e upon the country where he lived; that is, as he explained it, was driven thither by stress of weather. I presently imagined, that some European ship must have been cast away upon their coast, and the boat might get loose, and drive ash.o.r.e; but was so dull, that I never once thought of men making escape from a wreck thither, much less whence they might come; so I only inquired after a description of the boat.
Friday described the boat to me well enough; but brought me better to understand him, when he added, with some warmth, "We save the white mans from drown." Then I presently asked him, if there, were white mans, as he called them, in the boat? "Yes," he said, "the boat full of while mans." I asked him, how many! he told upon his fingers seventeen. I asked him then, what became of them? he told me, "They live, they dwell at my nation."
This put new thoughts into my head again; for I presently imagined, that these might be the men belonging to the ship that was cast away in sight of my island, as I now call it; and who, after the ship was struck on the rock, and they saw her inevitably lost, had saved themselves in their boat, and were landed upon that wild sh.o.r.e among the savages.
Upon this I inquired of him more critically, what was become of them? He a.s.sured me they lived still there, that they had been there about four years, that the savages let them alone, and gave them victuals to live.
I asked him, how it came to pa.s.s they did not kill them, and eat them?
He said, "No, they make brother with them:" that is, as I understood him, a truce: and then he added, "They eat no mans but when make the war fight:" that is to say, they never eat any men, but such as come to fight with them, and are taken in battle.
It was after this, some considerable time, that being on the top of the hill, at the east side of the island, from whence, as I have said, I had in a clear day discovered the main or continent of America; Friday, the weather being very serene, looks very earnestly towards the main land, and in a kind of surprise falls a-jumping and dancing, and calls out to me, for I was at some distance from him: I asked him what was the matter? "O joy!" says he, "O glad! there see my country, there my nation!"
I observed an extraordinary sense of pleasure appeared in his face, and his eyes sparkled, and his countenance discovered a strange eagerness, as if he had a mind to be in his own country again; and this observation of mine put a great many thoughts into me; which made me at first not so easy about my new man Friday as I was before; and I made no doubt, but that if Friday could get back to his own nation again, he would not only forget all his religion, but all his obligations to me; and would be forward enough to give his countrymen an account of me, and come back, perhaps, with an hundred or two of them, and make a feast upon me, at which he might be as merry as he used to be with those of his enemies, when they were taken in war.
But I wronged the poor honest creature very much, for which I was very sorry afterwards: however, as my jealousy increased, and held me some weeks, I was a little more circ.u.mspect, and not so familiar and kind to him as before; in which I was certainly in the wrong too, the honest grateful creature having no thought about it, but what consisted of the best principles, both as a religious Christian and as a grateful friend, as appeared afterwards to my full satisfaction.
Whilst my jealousy of him lasted, you may be sure I was every day pumping him, to see if he would discover any of the new thoughts which I suspected were in him; but I found every thing he said was so honest and so innocent, that I could find nothing to nourish my suspicion; and, in spite of all my uneasiness, he made me at last entirely his own again; nor did he in the least perceive that I was uneasy; and therefore I could not suspect him of deceit.
One day, walking up the same hill, but the weather being hazy at sea, so that we could not see the continent, I called to him, and said, "Friday, do not you wish yourself in your own country, your own nation"--"Yes,"
he said, "I be much O glad to be at my own nation."--"What would you do there?" said I: "would you turn wild again, eat men"s flesh again, and be a savage as you were before?" He looked full of concern, and shaking his head, said, "No, no, Friday tell them to live good; tell them to pray G.o.d; tell them to eat corn-bread, cattle-flesh, milk, no eat man again."--"Why, then," said I to him, "they will kill you." He looked grave at that, and then said, "No, they no kill me, they willing love learn:" he meant by this, they would be willing to learn. He added, they learnt much of the bearded mans that came in the boat. Then I asked him, if he would go back to them? He smiled at that, and told me he could not swim so far. I told him I would make a canoe for him. He told me he would go, if I would so with him. "I go!" said I, "why, they will eat me if I come there."--"No, no," says he, "me make them no eat you, me make they much love you:" he meant he would tell them how I had killed his enemies and saved his life, and so he would make them love me. Then he told me, as well as he could, how kind they were to seventeen white men, or bearded men, as he called them, who came on sh.o.r.e in distress.
From this time, I confess, I had a mind to venture over, and see if I could possibly join with these bearded men, who, I made no doubt, were Spaniards or Portuguese; not doubting but, if I could, we might find some method to escape from thence, being upon the continent, and a good company together, better than I could from an island forty miles off the sh.o.r.e, and alone without help. So, after some days, I took Friday to work again, by way of discourse; and told him, I would give him a boat to go back to his own nation; and accordingly I carried him to my frigate, which lay on the other side of the island; and having cleared it of water (for I always kept it sunk in the water), I brought it out, shewed it him, and we both went into it.
I found he was a most dexterous fellow at managing it, would make it go almost as swift and fast again as I could; so when he was in, I said to him, "Well, now, Friday, shall we go to your nation?" He looked very dull at my saying so, which, it seems, was because he thought the boat too small to go so far. I told him then I had a bigger; so the next day I went to the place where the first boat lay which I had made, but which I could not get into the water; he said that was big enough; but then, as I had taken no care of it, and it had lain two or three and twenty years there, the sun had split and dried it, that it was in a manner rotten. Friday told me, such a boat would do very well, and would carry "much enough vittle, drink, bread:" that was his way of talking.
Upon the whole, I was by this time so fixed upon my design of going over with him to the continent, that I told him we would go and make one as big as that, and he should go home in it. He answered not one word, but looked very, grave and sad. I asked him, what was the matter with him?
He asked me again thus, "Why you angry mad with Friday? what me done?" I asked him, what he meant? I told him I was not angry with him at all: "No angry! no angry!" says he, repeating the words several times, "why send Friday home away to my nation?"--"Why," said I, "Friday, did you not say you wished you were there?"--"Yes, yes," says he, "wish be both there; no wish Friday there, no master there." In a word, he would not think of going there without me. "I go there, Friday!" said I; "what should I do there?" He turned very quick upon me at this; "You do great deal much good," says he; "you teach wild mans be good, sober, tame mans; you tell them know G.o.d, pray G.o.d, and live new life."--"Alas, Friday," said I, "thou knowest not what thou sayest; I am but an ignorant man myself."--"Yes, yes," says he, "you teechee me good, you teechee them good."--"No, no, Friday," said I, "you shall go without me; leave me here to live by myself, as I did before." He looked confused again at that word, and running to one of the hatchets which he used to wear, he takes it up hastily, and gives it me. "What must I do with this?" said I to him. "You take kill Friday," says he. "What must I kill you for?" said I again, He returns very quick, "What you send Friday away for? Take kill Friday, no send Friday away." This he spoke so earnestly, that I saw tears stand in his eyes. In a word, I so plainly discovered the utmost affection in him to me, and a firm resolution in him, that I told him then, and often after, that I would never send him away from me, if he was willing to stay with me.
Upon the whole, as I found by all his discourse a settled affection to me, and that nothing should part him from me, so I found all the foundation of his desire to go to his own country was laid in his ardent affection to the people, and his hopes of my doing them good; a thing, which as I had no notion of myself, so I had not the least thought, or intention, or desire of undertaking it. But still I found a strong inclination to my attempting an escape, as above, founded on the supposition gathered from the former discourse; viz. that there were seventeen bearded men there; and therefore, without any delay, I went to work with Friday, to find out a great tree proper to fell, and make a large periagua or canoe, to under take the voyage: there were trees enough in the island to have built a little fleet, not of periaguas and canoes only, but even of good large vessels: but the main thing I looked at, was to get one so near the water, that we might launch it when it was made, to avoid the mistake I committed at first.
At last Friday pitched upon a tree; for I found he knew much better than I what kind of wood was fittest for it; nor can I tell to this day what wood to call the tree we cut down, except that it was very like the tree we call tustick, or between that and the Nicaragua wood, for it was much of the same colour and smell. Friday was for burning the hollow or cavity of this tree out, to make it into a boat: but I shewed him how rather to cut it out with tools, which after I shewed him how to use, he did very handily; and in about a month"s hard labour we finished it, and made it very handsome, especially, when, with our axes, which I shewed him how to handle, we cut and hewed the outside into the true shape of a boat; after this, however, it cost us near a fortnight"s time to get her along, as it were inch by inch, upon great rollers, into the water: but when she was in, she would have carried twenty men with great ease.
When she was in the water, and though she was so big, it amazed me to see with what dexterity and how swift my man Friday could manage her, turn her, and paddle her along; so I asked him if he would, and if we might venture over in her? "Yes," he said, "he venture over in her very well, though great blow wind." However, I had a farther design that he knew nothing of, and that was, to make a mast and sail, and to fit her with an anchor and cable. As to a mast, that was easy enough to get; so I pitched upon a straight young cedar-tree, which I found near the place, and which there was a great plenty of in the island; and I set Friday to work to cut it down, and gave him directions how to shape and order it: but as to the sail, that was my particular care; I knew I had old sails, or rather pieces of old sails enough; but as I had had them now twenty-six years by me, and had not been very careful to preserve them, not imagining that I should ever have this kind of use for them, I did not doubt but they were all rotten; and indeed most of them were so; however, I found two pieces which appeared pretty good, and with these I went to work, and with a great deal of pains, and awkward tedious st.i.tching (you may be sure) for want of needles, I at length made a three-cornered ugly thing, like what we call in England a shoulder-of-mutton sail, to go with a boom at bottom, and a little short sprit at the top, such as usually our ships" long-boats sail with, and such as I best knew how to manage; because it was such a one as I used in the boat in which I made my escape from Barbary, as related in the first part of my story.
I was near two months performing this last work, viz. rigging and fitting my mast and sails; for I finished them very complete, making a small stay, and a sail or foresail to it, to a.s.sist, if we should turn to windward; and, which was more than all, I fixed a rudder to the stern of her, to steer with; and though I was but a bungling shipwright, yet as I knew the usefulness, and even necessity of such a thing, I applied myself with so much pains to do it, that at last I brought it to pa.s.s, though, considering the many dull contrivances I had for it that failed, I think it cost me almost as much labour as making the boat.
After all this was done, I had my man Friday to teach as to what belonged to the navigation of my boat; for though he knew very well how to paddle the canoe, he knew nothing what belonged to a sail and a rudder, and was the more amazed when he saw me work the boat to and again in the sea by the rudder, and how the sail gibed, and filled this way or that way, as the course we sailed changed; I say, when he saw this, he stood like one astonished and amazed: however, with a little use, I made all these things familiar to him, and he became an expert sailor, except that as to the compa.s.s I could make him understand very little of that: on the other hand, as there was very little cloudy weather, and seldom or never any fogs in those parts, there was the less occasion for a compa.s.s, seeing the stars were always to be seen by night, and the sh.o.r.e by day, except in the rainy seasons; and then n.o.body cared to stir abroad, either by land or sea.
I was now entered on the seven-and-twentieth year of my captivity in this place; though the three last years that I had this creature with me, ought rather to be left out of the account, my habitation being quite of another kind than in all the rest of my time. I kept the anniversary of my landing here with the same thankfulness to G.o.d for his mercies as at first; and if I had such cause of acknowledgment at first, I had much more so now, having such additional testimonies of the care of Providence over me, and the great hopes I had of being effectually and speedily delivered; for I had an invincible impression upon my thoughts, that my deliverance was at hand, and that I should not be another year in this place. However, I went on with my husbandry, digging, planting, and fencing, as usual; I gathered and cured my grapes, and did every necessary thing, as before.
The rainy season was in the mean time upon me, when I kept more within doors than at other times; so I had stowed our now vessel as secure as we could, bringing her up into the creek, where, as I said in the beginning, I landed my rafts from the ship; and haling her up to the sh.o.r.e, at high water mark, I made my man Friday dig a little dock, just big enough for her to float in; and then, when the tide was out, we made a strong dam cross the end of it, to keep the water out; and so she lay dry, as to the tide, from the sea; and to keep the rain off, we laid a great many boughs of trees so thick, that she was as well thatched as a house; and thus we waited for the months of November and December, in which I designed to make my adventure.
When the settled season began to come in, as the thought of my design returned with the fair weather, I was preparing daily for the voyage; and the first thing I did was to lay up a certain quant.i.ty of provision, being the store for the voyage; and intended, in a week or a fortnight"s time, to open the dock, and launch out our boat. I was busy one morning upon something of this kind, when I called to Friday, and bid him go to the sea-sh.o.r.e, and see if he could find a turtle or tortoise, a thing which we generally got once a week, for the sake of the eggs, as well as the flesh. Friday had not been long gone, when he came running back, and flew over my outward wall, or fence, like one that felt not the ground, or the steps he set his feet on; and before I had time to speak to him, he cried out to me, "O master! O master! O sorrow! O bad!"--"What"s the matter, Friday?" said I. "O yonder there," says he, "one, two, three, canoe! one, two, three!" By this way of speaking I concluded there were six; but on inquiry I found there were but three. "Well, Friday," said I, "do not be frighted;" so I heartened him up as well as I could.
However, I saw the poor fellow most terribly scared; for nothing ran in his head, but that they were come to look for him, and would cut him in pieces, and eat him; the poor fellow trembled so, that I scarce knew what to do with him; I comforted him as well as I could, and told him I was in as much danger as he, and that they would eat me as well as him.
"But," said I, "Friday, we must resolve to fight them: can you fight, Friday?" "Me shoot," says he, "but there come many great number." "No matter for that," said I again; "our guns will fright them that we do not kill." So I asked him, whether, if I resolved to defend him, he would defend me, and stand by me, and do just as I bade him? He said, "Me die, when you bid die, master;" so I went and fetched a good dram of rum, and gave him; for I had been so good a husband of my rum, that I had a great deal left. When he had drank it, I made him take the two fowling-pieces which we always carried, and load them with large swan-shot as big as small pistol bullets; then I took four muskets, and loaded them with two slugs and five small bullets each; and my two pistols I loaded with a brace of bullets each: I hung my great sword, as usual, naked by my side, and gave Friday his hatchet.
When I had thus prepared myself, I took my perspective-gla.s.s, and went up to the side of the hill, to see what I could discover; and I found quickly, by my gla.s.s, that there were one and twenty savages, three prisoners, and three canoes; and that their whole business seemed to be the triumphant banquet upon these three human bodies; a barbarous feast indeed, but nothing more than as I had observed was usual with them.
I observed also, that they were landed, not where they had done when Friday made his escape, but nearer to my creek, where the sh.o.r.e was low, and where a thick wood came close almost down to the sea: this, with the abhorrence of the inhuman errand these wretches came about, so filled me with indignation, that I came down again to Friday, and told him, I was resolved to go down to them, and kill them all; and asked him if he would stand by me. He was now gotten over his fright, and his spirits being a little raised with the dram I had given him, he was very cheerful; and told me, as before, he would die when I bid die.
In this fit of fury, I took first and divided the arms which I had charged, as before, between us: I gave Friday one pistol to stick in his girdle, and three guns upon his shoulder; and I took one pistol, and the other three, myself; and in this posture we marched out. I took a small bottle of rum in my pocket, and gave Friday a large bag with more powder and bullet; and as to orders, I charged him to keep close behind me, and not to stir, shoot, or do any thing till I bid him; and in the mean time, not to speak a word. In this posture I fetched a compa.s.s to my right hand of near a mile, as well to get over the creek as to get into the wood; so that I might come within shot of them before I could be discovered, which I had seen by my gla.s.s it was easy to do.
While I was making this march, my former thoughts returning, I began to abate my resolution; I do not mean, that I entertained any fear of their number; for as they were naked, unarmed wretches, it is certain I was superior to them; nay, though I had been alone: but it occurred to my thoughts, what call, what occasion, much less what necessity, I was in to go and dip my hands in blood, to attack people who had neither done or intended me any wrong, who, as to me, were innocent, and whose barbarous customs were their own disaster, being in them a token indeed of G.o.d"s having left them, with the other nations of that part of the world, to such stupidity and to such inhuman courses; but did not call me to take upon me to be a judge of their actions, much less an executioner of his justice; that whenever he thought fit, he would take the cause into his own hands, and by national vengeance punish them for national crimes; but that in the mean time, it was none of my business; that it was true, Friday might justify it, because he was a declared enemy, and in a state of war with those very particular people, and it was lawful for him to attack them; but I could not say the same with respect to me. These things were so warmly pressed upon my thoughts all the way as I went, that I resolved I would only go place myself near them, that I might observe their barbarous feast, and that I would act then as G.o.d should direct; but that unless something offered that was more a call to me than yet I knew of, I would not meddle with them.
With this resolution I entered the wood, and with all possible wariness and silence (Friday following close at my heels) I marched till I came to the skirt of the wood, on the side which was next to them; only that one corner of the wood lay between me and them: here I called softly to Friday, and shewing him a great tree, which was just at the corner of the wood, I bade him go to the tree, and bring me word if he could see there plainly what they were doing: he did so, and came immediately back to me, and told me they might be plainly viewed there; that they were all about the fire, eating the flesh of one of their prisoners; and that another lay bound upon the sand, a little from them, whom he said they would kill next, and which fired the very soul within me. He told me, it was not one of their nation, but one of the bearded men whom he had told me of, who came to their country in the boat. I was filled with horror at the very naming the white-bearded man, and, going to the tree, I saw plainly, by my gla.s.s, a white man, who lay upon the beach of the sea, with his hands and his feet tied with flags, or things like rushes; and that he was an European, and had clothes on.
There was another tree, and a little thicket beyond it, about fifty yards nearer to them than the place where I was, which, by going a little way about, I saw I might come at undiscovered, and that then I should be within half-shot of them; so I withheld my pa.s.sion, though I was indeed enraged to the highest degree; and going back about twenty paces, I got behind some bushes, which held all the way till I came to the other tree, and then I came to a little rising ground, which gave me a full view of them, at the distance of about eighty yards.
I had now not a moment to lose; for nineteen of the dreadful wretches sat upon the ground all close huddled together, and had just sent the other two to butcher the poor Christian, and bring him, perhaps limb by limb, to their fire; and they were stooped down to untie the bands at his feet. I turned to Friday; "Now, Friday," said I, "do as I bid thee."
Friday said, he would. "Then, Friday," said I, "do exactly as you see me do; fail in nothing." So I set down one of the muskets and the fowling-piece upon the ground, and Friday did the like by his; and with the other musket I took my aim at the savages, bidding him do the like.
Then asking him if he was ready, he said, "Yes." "Then fire at them,"
said I; and the same moment I fired also.
Friday took his aim so much better than I, that on the side that he shot, he killed two of them, and wounded three more; and on my side, I killed one, and wounded two. They were, you may be sure, in a dreadful consternation; and all of them, who were not hurt, jumped up upon their feet immediately, but did not know which way to run, or which way to look; for they knew not from whence their destruction came. Friday kept his eyes close upon me, that, as I had bid him, he might observe what I did; so as soon as the first shot was made, I threw down the piece, and took up the fowling-piece, and Friday did the like; he sees me c.o.c.k, and present; he did the same again. "Are you ready, Friday?" said I. "Yes,"
says he. "Let fly then," said I, "in the name of G.o.d;" and with that I fired again among the amazed wretches, and so did Friday; and as our pieces were now loaden with what I call swan shot, or small pistol-bullets, we found only two drop; but so many were wounded, that they ran about yelling and screaming like mad creatures, all b.l.o.o.d.y, and miserably wounded most of them; whereof three more fell quickly after, though not quite dead.
"Now, Friday," said I, laying down the discharged pieces, and taking up the musket, which was yet loaden, "follow me," said I; which he did, with a deal of courage; upon which I rushed, out of the wood, and shewed myself, and Friday close at my foot: as soon as I perceived they saw me, I shouted as loud as I could, and bade Friday do so too; and running as fast as I could, which by the way was not very fast, being loaded with arms as I was, I made directly towards the poor victim, who was, as I said, lying upon the beach, or sh.o.r.e, between the place where they sat and the sea; the two butchers, who were just going to work with him, had left him, at the surprise of our first fire, and fled in a terrible fright to the sea-side, and had jumped into a canoe, and three more of the rest made the same way: I turned to Friday, and bade him step forwards, and fire at them; he understood me immediately, and running about forty yards to be near them, he shot at them, and I thought he had killed them all; for I saw them all fall on an heap into the boat; though I saw two of them up again quickly: however, he killed two of them, and wounded the third, so that he lay down in the bottom of the boat, as if he had been dead.
While my man Friday fired at them, I pulled out my knife, and cut the flags that bound the poor victim; and loosing his hands and feet I lifted him up, and asked him in the Portuguese tongue, what he was? He answered in Latin, _Christia.n.u.s;_ but was so weak and faint, that he could scarce stand, or speak; I took my bottle out of my pocket, and gave it him, making signs that he should drink, which he did; and I gave him a piece of bread, which he ate; then I asked him, what countryman he was? and he said, _Espagnole_; and, being a little recovered, let me know, by all the signs he could possibly make, how much he was in my debt for his deliverance. "Seignior," said I, with as much Spanish as I could make up, "we will talk afterwards, but we must fight now: if you have any strength left, take this pistol and sword, and lay about you."
He took them very thankfully, and no sooner had he the arms in his hands, but as if they had put new vigour into him, he flew upon his murderers like a fury, and had cut two of them in pieces in an instant; for the truth is, as the whole was a surprise to them, so the poor creatures were so much frighted with the noise of our pieces, that they fell down for mere amazement and fear, and had no more power to attempt their own escape, than their flesh had to resist our shot; and that was the case of those five that Friday shot in the boat; for as three of them fell with the hurt they received, so the other two fell with the fright.
I kept my piece in my hand still, without firing, being willing to keep my charge ready, because I had given the Spaniard my pistol and sword; so I called to Friday, and bade him run up to the tree from whence we first fired, and fetch the arms which lay there, that had been discharged, which he did with great swiftness; and then giving him my musket, I sat down myself to load all the rest again, and bade them come to me when they wanted. While I was loading these pieces, there happened a fierce engagement between the Spaniard and one of the savages, who made at him with one of their great wooden swords, the same weapon that was to have killed him before, if I had not prevented it: the Spaniard, who was as bold and as brave as could be imagined, though weak, had fought this Indian a good while, and had cut him two great wounds on his head; but the savage, being a stout l.u.s.ty fellow, closing in with him, had thrown him down, (being faint) and was wringing my sword out of his hand, when the Spaniard, though undermost, wisely quitting his sword, drew the pistol from his girdle, shot the savage through the body, and killed him upon the spot, before I, who was running to help, could come near him.
Friday, being now left at his liberty, pursued the flying wretches with no weapon in his hand but his hatchet; and with that he dispatched those three, who, as I said before, were wounded at first, and fallen, and all the rest he could come up with; and the Spaniard coming to me for a gun, I gave him one of the fowling-pieces, with which he pursued two of the savages, and wounded them both; but as he was not able to run, they both got from him into the wood, where Friday pursued them, and killed one of them; but the other was too nimble for him; and though he was wounded, yet he plunged into the sea, and swam with all his might off to those who were left in the canoe; which three in the canoe, with one wounded, who we know not whether he died or no, were all that escaped our hands of one-and-twenty. The account of the rest is as follows:
3 Killed at our shot from the tree.
2 Killed at the next shot.
2 Killed by Friday in the boat.
2 Killed by ditto, of those at first wounded.
1 Killed by ditto, in the wood.
3 Killed by the Spaniard.
4 Killed, being found dropt here and there of their wounds, or killed by Friday in his chase of them.
4 Escaped in the boat, whereof one wounded, if not dead.