CHAPTER XX--FIGHT BETWEEN FRIDAY AND A BEAR
But never was a fight managed so hardily, and in such a surprising manneras that which followed between Friday and the bear, which gave us all,though at first we were surprised and afraid for him, the greatestdiversion imaginable. As the bear is a heavy, clumsy creature, and doesnot gallop as the wolf does, who is swift and light, so he has twoparticular qualities, which generally are the rule 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 itis probable might now be the case, the ground being covered with snow),if you do not meddle with him, he will not meddle with you; but then youmust take care to be very civil to him, and give him the road, for he isa very nice 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 way andkeep going on; for sometimes if you stop, and stand still, and looksteadfastly at him, he takes it for an affront; but if you throw or tossanything at him, though it were but a bit of stick as big as your finger,he thinks himself abused, and sets all other business aside to pursue hisrevenge, and will have satisfaction in point of honour--that is his firstquality: the next is, if he be once affronted, he will never leave you,night or day, till he has his revenge, but follows at a good round ratetill he overtakes you.
My man Friday had delivered our guide, and when we came up to him he washelping him off his horse, for the man was both hurt and frightened, whenon a sudden we espied the bear come out of the wood; and a monstrous oneit was, the biggest by far that ever I saw. We were all a littlesurprised when we saw him; but when Friday saw him, it was easy to seejoy and courage in the fellow's countenance. "O! O! O!" says Friday,three times, pointing to him; "O master, you give me te leave, me shakeete hand with him; me makee 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!" says Friday, twiceover again; "me eatee him up; me makee you good laugh; you all stay here,me show you good laugh." So down he sits, and gets off his boots in amoment, and puts on a pair of pumps (as we call the flat shoes they wear,and which he had in his pocket), gives my other servant his horse, andwith his gun away he flew, swift like the wind.
The bear was walking softly on, and offered to meddle with nobody, tillFriday coming pretty near, calls to him, as if the bear could understandhim. "Hark ye, hark ye," says Friday, "me speakee with you." Wefollowed at a distance, for now being down on the Gascony side of themountains, we were entered a vast forest, where the country was plain andpretty open, though it had many trees in it scattered here and there.Friday, who had, as we say, the heels of the bear, came up with himquickly, and took up a great stone, and threw it at him, and hit him juston the head, but did him no more harm than if he had thrown it against awall; but it answered Friday's end, for the rogue was so void of fearthat he did it purely to make the bear follow him, and show us some laughas he called it. As soon as the bear felt the blow, and saw him, heturns about and comes after him, taking very long strides, and shufflingon at a strange rate, so as would have put a horse to a middling gallop;away reins Friday, and takes his course as if he ran towards us for help;so we all resolved to fire at once upon the bear, and deliver my man;though I was angry at him for bringing the bear back upon us, when he wasgoing about his own business another way; and especially I was angry thathe had turned the bear upon us, and then ran away; and I called out, "Youdog! is this your making us laugh? Come away, and take your horse, thatwe may shoot the creature." He heard me, and cried out, "No shoot, noshoot; stand still, and you get much laugh:" and as the nimble creatureran two feet for the bear's one, he turned on a sudden on one side of us,and seeing a great oak-tree fit for his purpose, he beckoned to us tofollow; and doubling his pace, he got nimbly up the tree, laying his gundown upon the ground, at about five or six yards from the bottom of thetree. The bear soon came to the tree, and we followed at a distance: thefirst thing he did he stopped at the gun, smelt at it, but let it lie,and up he scrambles into the tree, climbing like a cat, though somonstrous heavy. I was amazed at the folly, as I thought it, of my man,and could not for my life see anything to laugh at, till seeing the bearget up the tree, we all rode near to him.
When we came to the tree, there was Friday got out to the small end of alarge branch, and the bear got about half-way to him. As soon as thebear got out to that part where the limb of the tree was weaker, "Ha!"says he to us, "now you see me teachee the bear dance:" so he beganjumping and shaking the bough, at which the bear began to totter, butstood still, and began to look behind him, to see how he should get back;then, indeed, we did laugh heartily. But Friday had not done with him bya great deal; when seeing him stand still, he called out to him again, asif he had supposed the bear could speak English, "What, you come nofarther? 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 a littlefarther; then he began jumping again, and the bear stopped again. Wethought now was a good time to knock him in the head, and called toFriday to stand still and we should shoot the bear: but he cried outearnestly, "Oh, pray! Oh, pray! no shoot, me shoot by and then:" hewould have said by-and-by. However, to shorten the story, Friday dancedso much, and the bear stood so ticklish, that we had laughing enough, butstill could not imagine what the fellow would do: for first we thought hedepended upon shaking the bear off; and we found the bear was too cunningfor that 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 could notimagine what would be the end of it, and what the jest would be at last.But Friday put us out of doubt quickly: for seeing the bear cling fast tothe bough, and that he would not be persuaded to come any farther, "Well,well," says Friday, "you no come farther, me go; you no come to me, mecome to you;" and upon this he went out to the smaller end, where itwould bend with his weight, and gently let himself down by it, slidingdown the bough till he came near enough to jump down on his feet, andaway he ran to his gun, took it up, and stood still. "Well," said I tohim, "Friday, what will you do now? Why don't you shoot him?" "Noshoot," says Friday, "no yet; me shoot now, me no kill; me stay, give youone more laugh:" and, indeed, so he did; for when the bear saw his enemygone, he came back from the bough, where he stood, but did it verycautiously, looking behind him every step, and coming backward till hegot into the body of the tree, then, with the same hinder end foremost,he came down the tree, grasping it with his claws, and moving one foot ata time, very leisurely. At this juncture, and just before he could sethis hind foot on the ground, Friday stepped up close to him, clapped themuzzle of his piece into his ear, and shot him dead. Then the rogueturned about to see if we did not laugh; and when he saw we were pleasedby our looks, he began to laugh very loud. "So we kill bear in mycountry," says Friday. "So you kill them?" says I; "why, you have noguns."--"No," says he, "no gun, but shoot great much long arrow." Thiswas a 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 once heard onthe shore of Africa, of which I have said something already, I neverheard 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 skin of thismonstrous creature off, which was worth saving; but we had near threeleagues to go, and our guide hastened us; so we left him, and wentforward on our journey.
The ground was still covered with snow, though not so deep and dangerousas on the mountains; and the ravenous creatures, as we heard afterwards,were come down into the forest and plain country, pressed by hunger, toseek for food, and had done a great deal of mischief in the villages,where they surprised the country people, killed a great many of theirsheep and horses, and some people too.
We had one dangerous place to pass, and our
guide told us if there weremore wolves in the country we should find them there; and this was asmall plain, surrounded with woods on every side, and a long, narrowdefile, or lane, which we were to pass to get through the wood, and thenwe should come to the village where we were to lodge.
It was within half-an-hour of sunset when we entered the wood, and alittle after sunset when we came into the plain: we met with nothing inthe first wood, except that in a little plain within the wood, which wasnot above two furlongs over, we saw five great wolves cross the road,full speed, one after another, as if they had been in chase of someprey, and had it in view; they took no notice of us, and were gone outof sight in a few moments. Upon this, our guide, who, by the way, wasbut a fainthearted fellow, bid us keep in a ready posture, for hebelieved there were more wolves a-coming. We kept our arms ready, andour eyes about us; but we saw no more wolves till we came through thatwood, which was near half a league, and entered the plain. As soon aswe came into the plain, we had occasion enough to look about us. Thefirst object 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, wecould not say eating him, but picking his bones rather; for they hadeaten up all the flesh before. We did not think fit to disturb them attheir feast, neither did they take much notice of us. Friday would havelet fly at them, but I would not suffer him by any means; for I found wewere like to have more business upon our hands than we were aware of.We had not gone half over the plain when we began to hear the wolveshowl in the wood on our left in a frightful manner, and presently afterwe saw about a hundred coming on directly towards us, all in a body, andmost of them in a line, as regularly as an army drawn up by experiencedofficers. I scarce knew in what manner to receive them, but found todraw ourselves in a close line was the only way; so we formed in amoment; but that we might not have too much interval, I ordered thatonly every other man should fire, and that the others, who had notfired, should stand ready to give them a second volley immediately, ifthey continued to advance upon us; and then that those that had fired atfirst should not pretend to load their fusees again, but stand ready,every one with a pistol, for we were all armed with a fusee and a pairof pistols each man; so we were, by this method, able to fire sixvolleys, half of us at a time; however, at present we had no necessity;for upon firing the first volley, the enemy made a full stop, beingterrified as well with the noise as with the fire. Four of them beingshot in the head, dropped; several others were wounded, and wentbleeding off, as we could see by the snow. I found they stopped, butdid not immediately retreat; whereupon, remembering that I had been toldthat the fiercest creatures were terrified at the voice of a man, Icaused all the company to halloo as loud as they could; and I found thenotion not altogether mistaken; for upon our shout they began to retireand turn about. I then ordered a second volley to be fired in theirrear, which put them to the gallop, and away they went to the woods.This gave us leisure to charge our pieces again; and that we might loseno time, we kept going; but we had but little more than loaded ourfusees, and put ourselves in readiness, when we heard a terrible noisein the same wood on our left, only that it was farther onward, the sameway we were to go.
The night was coming on, and the light began to be dusky, which made itworse on our side; but the noise increasing, we could easily perceivethat it was the howling and yelling of those hellish creatures; and on asudden we perceived three troops of wolves, one on our left, one behindus, and one in our front, so that we seemed to be surrounded with them:however, as they did not fall upon us, we kept our way forward, as fastas we could make our horses go, which, the way being very rough, wasonly a good hard trot. In this manner, we came in view of the entranceof a wood, through which we were to pass, at the farther side of theplain; but we were greatly surprised, when coming nearer the lane orpass, 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 of agun, and looking that way, out rushed a horse, with a saddle and abridle on him, flying like the wind, and sixteen or seventeen wolvesafter him, full speed: the horse had the advantage of them; but as wesupposed that he could not hold it at that rate, we doubted not but theywould get up with him at last: no question but they did.
But here we had a most horrible sight; for riding up to the entrancewhere the horse came out, we found the carcasses of another horse and oftwo men, devoured by the ravenous creatures; and one of the men was nodoubt the same whom we heard fire the gun, for there lay a gun just byhim fired off; but as to the man, his head and the upper part of his bodywas eaten up. This filled us with horror, and we knew not what course totake; but the creatures resolved us soon, for they gathered about uspresently, in hopes of prey; and I verily believe there were threehundred of them. It happened, very much to our advantage, that at theentrance into the wood, but a little way from it, there lay some largetimber-trees, which had been cut down the summer before, and I supposelay there for carriage. I drew my little troop in among those trees, andplacing ourselves in a line behind one long tree, I advised them all toalight, and keeping that tree before us for a breastwork, to stand in atriangle, or three fronts, enclosing our horses in the centre. We didso, and it was well we did; for never was a more furious charge than thecreatures made upon us in this place. They came on with a growling kindof noise, and mounted the piece of timber, which, as I said, was ourbreastwork, as if they were only rushing upon their prey; and this furyof theirs, it seems, was principally occasioned by their seeing ourhorses behind us. I ordered our men to fire as before, every other man;and they took their aim so sure that they killed several of the wolves atthe first volley; but there was a necessity to keep a continual firing,for they came on like devils, those behind pushing on those before.
When we had fired a second volley of our fusees, we thought they stoppeda little, and I hoped they would have gone off, but it was but a moment,for others came forward again; so we fired two volleys of our pistols;and I believe in these four firings we had killed seventeen or eighteenof them, and lamed twice as many, yet they came on again. I was loth tospend our shot too hastily; so I called my servant, not my man Friday,for he was better employed, for, with the greatest dexterity imaginable,he had charged my fusee and his own while we were engaged--but, as Isaid, I called my other man, and giving him a horn of powder, I had himlay a train 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 came up toit, and some got upon it, when I, snapping an unchanged pistol close tothe powder, set it on fire; those that were upon the timber were scorchedwith it, and six or seven of them fell; or rather jumped in among us withthe force and fright of the fire; we despatched these in an instant, andthe rest were so frightened with the light, which the night--for it wasnow very near dark--made more terrible that they drew back a little; uponwhich I ordered our last pistols to be fired off in one volley, and afterthat we gave a shout; upon this the wolves turned tail, and we salliedimmediately upon near twenty lame ones that we found struggling on theground, and fell to cutting them with our swords, which answered ourexpectation, for the crying and howling they made was better understoodby their fellows; so that they all fled and left us.
We had, first and last, killed about threescore of them, and had it beendaylight we had killed many more. The field of battle being thuscleared, we made forward again, for we had still near a league to go. Weheard the ravenous creatures howl and yell in the woods as we wentseveral times, and sometimes we fancied we saw some of them; but the snowdazzling our eyes, we were not certain. In about an hour more we came tothe town where we were to lodge, which we found in a terrible fright andall in arms; for, it seems, the night before the wolves and some bearshad broken into the village, and put them in such terror that they wereobliged to keep guard night and day, but especially in the night, topreserve their cattle, and indeed their people.
The next morning our guide was so ill, and his limbs swelled so much withthe rankling of his
two wounds, that he could go no farther; so we wereobliged to take a new guide here, and go to Toulouse, where we found awarm climate, a fruitful, pleasant country, and no snow, no wolves, noranything like them; but when we told our story at Toulouse, they told usit was nothing but what was ordinary in the great forest at the foot ofthe mountains, especially when the snow lay on the ground; but theyinquired much what kind of guide we had got who would venture to bring usthat way in such a severe season, and told us it was surprising we werenot all devoured. When we told them how we placed ourselves and thehorses in the middle, they blamed us exceedingly, and told us it wasfifty to one but we had been all destroyed, for it was the sight of thehorses which made the wolves so furious, seeing their prey, and that atother times they are really afraid of a gun; but being excessivelyhungry, and raging on that account, the eagerness to come at the horseshad made them senseless of danger, and that if we had not by thecontinual fire, and at last by the stratagem of the train of powder,mastered them, it had been great odds but that we had been torn topieces; whereas, had we been content to have sat still on horseback, andfired as horsemen, they would not have taken the horses so much for theirown, when men were on their backs, as otherwise; and withal, they told usthat at last, if we had stood altogether, and left our horses, they wouldhave been so eager to have devoured them, that we might have come offsafe, especially having our firearms in our hands, being so many innumber. For my part, I was never so sensible of danger in my life; for,seeing above three hundred devils come roaring and open-mouthed to devourus, and having nothing to shelter us or retreat to, I gave myself overfor lost; and, as it was, I believe I shall never care to cross thosemountains again: I think I would much rather go a thousand leagues bysea, though I was sure to meet with a 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 of withmuch more advantage than I can. I travelled from Toulouse to Paris, andwithout any considerable stay came to Calais, and landed safe at Doverthe 14th of January, after having had a severe cold season to travel in.
I was now come to the centre of my travels, and had in a little time allmy new-discovered estate safe about me, the bills of exchange which Ibrought 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 pains too much norcare too great to employ for me; and I trusted her so entirely that I wasperfectly easy as to the security of my effects; and, indeed, I was veryhappy from the beginning, and now to the end, in the unspotted integrityof this good gentlewoman.
And now, having resolved to dispose of my plantation in the Brazils, Iwrote to my old friend at Lisbon, who, having offered it to the twomerchants, the survivors of my trustees, who lived in the Brazils, theyaccepted the offer, and remitted thirty-three thousand pieces of eight toa correspondent of theirs at Lisbon to pay for it.
In return, I signed the instrument of sale in the form which they sentfrom Lisbon, and sent it to my old man, who sent me the bills of exchangefor thirty-two thousand eight hundred pieces of eight for the estate,reserving the payment of one hundred moidores a year to him (the old man)during his life, and fifty moidores afterwards to his son for his life,which I had promised them, and which the plantation was to make good as arent-charge. And thus I have given the first part of a life of fortuneand adventure--a life of Providence's chequer-work, and of a varietywhich the world will seldom be able to show the like of; beginningfoolishly, but closing much more happily than any part of it ever gave meleave so much as to hope for.
Any one would think that in this state of complicated good fortune I waspast running any more hazards--and so, indeed, I had been, if othercircumstances had concurred; but I was inured to a wandering life, had nofamily, nor many relations; nor, however rich, had I contracted freshacquaintance; and though I had sold my estate in the Brazils, yet I couldnot keep that country out of my head, and had a great mind to be upon thewing again; especially I could not resist the strong inclination I had tosee my island, and to know if the poor Spaniards were in being there. Mytrue friend, the widow, earnestly dissuaded me from it, and so farprevailed with me, that for almost seven years she prevented my runningabroad, during which time I took my two nephews, the children of one ofmy brothers, into my care; the eldest, having something of his own, Ibred up as a gentleman, and gave him a settlement of some addition to hisestate after my decease. The other I placed with the captain of a ship;and after five years, finding him a sensible, bold, enterprising youngfellow, I put him into a good ship, and sent him to sea; and this youngfellow afterwards drew me in, as old as I was, to further adventuresmyself.
In the meantime, I in part settled myself here; for, first of all, Imarried, and that not either to my disadvantage or dissatisfaction, andhad three children, two sons and one daughter; but my wife dying, and mynephew coming home with good success from a voyage to Spain, myinclination to go abroad, and his importunity, prevailed, and engaged meto go in his ship as a private trader to the East Indies; this was in theyear 1694.
In this voyage I visited my new colony in the island, saw my successorsthe Spaniards, had the old story of their lives and of the villains Ileft there; how at first they insulted the poor Spaniards, how theyafterwards agreed, disagreed, united, separated, and how at last theSpaniards were obliged to use violence with them; how they were subjectedto the Spaniards, how honestly the Spaniards used them--a history, if itwere entered into, as full of variety and wonderful accidents as my ownpart--particularly, also, as to their battles with the Caribbeans, wholanded several times upon the island, and as to the improvement they madeupon the island itself, and how five of them made an attempt upon themainland, and brought away eleven men and five women prisoners, by which,at my coming, I found about twenty young children on the island.
Here I stayed about twenty days, left them supplies of all necessarythings, and particularly of arms, powder, shot, clothes, tools, and twoworkmen, which I had brought from England with me, viz. a carpenter and asmith.
Besides this, I shared the lands into parts with them, reserved to myselfthe property of the whole, but gave them such parts respectively as theyagreed on; and having settled all things with them, and engaged them notto leave the place, I left them there.
From thence I touched at the Brazils, from whence I sent a bark, which Ibought there, with more people to the island; and in it, besides othersupplies, I sent seven women, being such as I found proper for service,or for wives to such as would take them. As to the Englishmen, Ipromised to send them some women from England, with a good cargo ofnecessaries, if they would apply themselves to planting--which Iafterwards could not perform. The fellows proved very honest anddiligent after they were mastered and had their properties set apart forthem. I sent them, also, from the Brazils, five cows, three of thembeing big with calf, some sheep, and some hogs, which when I came againwere considerably increased.
But all these things, with an account how three hundred Caribbees cameand invaded them, and ruined their plantations, and how they fought withthat whole number twice, and were at first defeated, and one of themkilled; but at last, a storm destroying their enemies' canoes, theyfamished or destroyed almost all the rest, and renewed and recovered thepossession of their plantation, and still 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 farther accountof in the Second Part of my Story.
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