league, andentered the plain: as soon as we came into the plain, we had occasionenough to look about us. The first object we met with was a dead horse,that is to say, a poor horse which the wolves had killed, and at least adozen of them at work; we could not say eating of him, but picking ofhis bones rather; for they had eaten up all the flesh before.
We did not think fit to disturb them at their feast, neither did theytake much notice of us: Friday would have let fly at them, but I wouldnot suffer him by any means; for I found we were like to have morebusiness upon our hands than we were aware of. We were not half goneover the plain, but we began to hear the wolves howl in the woods, onour left, in a frightful manner; and presently after we saw about ahundred coming on directly towards us, all in a body, and most of themin a line, as regularly as an army drawn up by experienced officers. Iscarce knew in what manner to receive them; but found to draw ourselvesin a close line was the only way; so we formed in a moment; but, that wemight not have too much interval, I ordered, that only every other manshould fire; and that the others, who had not fired, should stand readyto give them a second volley immediately, if they continued to advanceupon us; and that then those who had fired at first, should not pretendto load their fusils again, but stand ready, with every one a pistol,for we were all armed with a fusil and a pair of pistols each man; so wewere, by this method, able to fire six vollies, half of us at a time;however, at present we had no necessity; for, upon firing the firstvolley, the enemy made a full stop, being terrified, as well with thenoise as with the fire; four of them being shot in the head, dropped;several others were wounded, and went bleeding off, as we could see bythe snow. I found they stopped, but did not immediately retreat;whereupon, remembering that I had been told, that the fiercest creatureswere terrified at the voice of a man, I caused all our company to hallooas loud as we could, and I found the notion not altogether mistaken; forupon our shout, they began to retire, and turn about; then I ordered asecond volley to be fired in their rear, 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 doing; but we had but little more than loaded ourfusils, and put ourselves into a readiness, when we heard a terriblenoise in the same wood on our left; only that it was farther onward thesame way we were to go.
The night was coming on, and the night began to be dusky, which made itthe worse on our side; but, the noise increasing, we could easilyperceive that it was the howling and yelling of those hellish creatures;and, on a sudden, we perceived two or three troops of wolves on ourleft, one behind us, and one on our front, so that we seemed to besurrounded with them; however, as they did not fall upon us, we kept ourway forward, as fast as we could make our horses go, which, the waybeing very rough, was only a good large trot; and in this manner we onlycame in view of the entrance of the wood through which we were to pass,at the farther side of the plain; but we were greatly surprised, when,coming near the lane, or pass, we saw a confused number of wolvesstanding 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: indeed the horse had the heels 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; and no question but they did.
Here we had a most horrible sight; for, riding up to the entrance wherethe horse came out, we found the carcass of another horse, and of twomen devoured by these ravenous creatures, and of one the man was nodoubt the same whom we heard fire a gun, for there lay a gun just by himfired off; but as to the man, his head, and the upper part of his body,were eaten up.
This filled us with horror, and we knew not what course to take; but thecreatures resolved us soon, for they gathered about us presently, inhopes of prey; and I verily believe there were three hundred of them. Ithappened very much to our advantage, that at the entrance into the wood,but a little way from it, there by some large timber trees, which hadbeen cut down the summer before, and I suppose lay there for carriage: Idrew my little troop in among these trees, and placing ourselves in aline behind one long tree, I advised them all to alight, and keepingthat tree before us for a breastwork, to stand in a triangle, or threefronts, enclosing our horses in the centre.
We did so, and it was well we did; for never was a more furious chargethan the creatures made upon us in this place; they came on us with agrowling kind of a noise, and mounted the piece of timber (which, as Isaid, was our breastwork,) as if they were only rushing upon their prey;and this fury of theirs, it seems, was principally occasioned by theirseeing our horses behind us, which was the prey they aimed at. I orderedour men to fire as before, every man; and they took their aim so sure,that indeed they killed several of the wolves at the first volley; butthere was a necessity to keep a continual firing, for they came on likedevils, those behind pushing on those before.
When we had fired our second volley of fusils, we thought they stopped alittle, and I hoped they would have gone off, but it was but a moment,for others came forward again; so we fired our vollies of pistols; and Ibelieve in these four firings we killed seventeen or eighteen of them,and lamed twice as many; yet they came on again.
I was loath to spend our last shot too hastily; so I called my servant,not my man Friday, for he was better employed; for, with the greatestdexterity imaginable, he charged my fusil and his own, while we wereengaged; but, as I said, I called my other man; and giving him a horn ofpowder, I bade him lay a train all along the piece of timber, and let itbe a large train; he did so, and had but time to get away, when thewolves came up to it, and some were got up upon it; when I, snapping anuncharged pistol close to the powder, set it on fire; and those thatwere upon the timber were scorched with it, and six or seven of themfell, or rather jumped in among us, with the force and fright of thefire; we dispatched these in an instant, and the rest were so frightedwith the light, which the night, for now it was very near dark, mademore terrible, that they drew back a little.
Upon which I ordered our last pistols to be fired off in one volley, andafter that we gave a shout; upon this the wolves turned tail, and wesallied immediately upon near twenty lame ones, which we foundstruggling on the ground, and fell a-cutting them with our swords, whichanswered our expectation; for the crying and howling they made werebetter understood by their fellows; so that they fled and left us.
We had, first and last, killed about three score of them; and had itbeen daylight, 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 went,several times; and sometimes we fancied we saw some of them, but thesnow dazzling our eyes, we were not certain; so in about an hour more wecame to the town, where we were to lodge, which we found in a terriblefright, and all in arms; for it seems, that, the night before, thewolves and some bears had broken into that village, and put them in aterrible fright; and they were obliged to keep guard night and day, butespecially in the night, to preserve their cattle, and indeedtheir people.
The next morning our guide was so ill, and his limbs so swelled with therankling of his two wounds, that he could go no farther; so we wereobliged to take a new guide there, and go to Tholouse, where we found awarm climate, a fruitful pleasant country, and no snow, no wolves, orany thing like them; but when we told our story at Tholouse, they toldus it was nothing but what was ordinary in the great forest at the footof the mountains, especially when the snow lay on the ground; but theyinquired much what kind of a guide we had gotten, that would venture tobring us that way in such a severe season; and told us, it was very muchwe were not all devoured. When we told them how we placed ourselves, andthe horses 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 that made the wolves so furious, seeing their pr
ey; and that atother times they are really afraid of a gun; but they being excessivehungry, and raging on that account, the eagerness to come at the horseshad made them senseless of danger; and that if we had not by thecontinued 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 fortheir own, when men were on their backs, as otherwise; and withal theytold us, that at last, if we had stood all together, and left ourhorses, they would have been so eager to have devoured them, that wemight have come off safe, especially having our fire-arms in our hands,and being so many in number.
For my part, I was never so sensible of danger in my life; for seeingabove three hundred devils come roaring and open-mouthed to devour us,and having nothing to shelter us, or retreat to, I gave myself over forlost; and as it was, I believe, I shall never care to