The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

slothful hard and beggarly; and so, I believe, generally speaking,

  it is all over the world.

  But I now come to a scene different from all that had happened

  before, either to them or to me; and the origin of the story was

  this: Early one morning there came on shore five or six canoes of

  Indians or savages, call them which you please, and there is no

  room to doubt they came upon the old errand of feeding upon their

  slaves; but that part was now so familiar to the Spaniards, and to

  our men too, that they did not concern themselves about it, as I

  did: but having been made sensible, by their experience, that

  their only business was to lie concealed, and that if they were not

  seen by any of the savages they would go off again quietly, when

  their business was done, having as yet not the least notion of

  there being any inhabitants in the island; I say, having been made

  sensible of this, they had nothing to do but to give notice to all

  the three plantations to keep within doors, and not show

  themselves, only placing a scout in a proper place, to give notice

  when the boats went to sea again.

  This was, without doubt, very right; but a disaster spoiled all

  these measures, and made it known among the savages that there were

  inhabitants there; which was, in the end, the desolation of almost

  the whole colony. After the canoes with the savages were gone off,

  the Spaniards peeped abroad again; and some of them had the

  curiosity to go to the place where they had been, to see what they

  had been doing. Here, to their great surprise, they found three

  savages left behind, and lying fast asleep upon the ground. It was

  supposed they had either been so gorged with their inhuman feast,

  that, like beasts, they were fallen asleep, and would not stir when

  the others went, or they had wandered into the woods, and did not

  come back in time to be taken in.

  The Spaniards were greatly surprised at this sight and perfectly at

  a loss what to do. The Spaniard governor, as it happened, was with

  them, and his advice was asked, but he professed he knew not what

  to do. As for slaves, they had enough already; and as to killing

  them, there were none of them inclined to do that: the Spaniard

  governor told me they could not think of shedding innocent blood;

  for as to them, the poor creatures had done them no wrong, invaded

  none of their property, and they thought they had no just quarrel

  against them, to take away their lives. And here I must, in

  justice to these Spaniards, observe that, let the accounts of

  Spanish cruelty in Mexico and Peru be what they will, I never met

  with seventeen men of any nation whatsoever, in any foreign

  country, who were so universally modest, temperate, virtuous, so

  very good-humoured, and so courteous, as these Spaniards: and as

  to cruelty, they had nothing of it in their very nature; no

  inhumanity, no barbarity, no outrageous passions; and yet all of

  them men of great courage and spirit. Their temper and calmness

  had appeared in their bearing the insufferable usage of the three

  Englishmen; and their justice and humanity appeared now in the case

  of the savages above. After some consultation they resolved upon

  this; that they would lie still a while longer, till, if possible,

  these three men might be gone. But then the governor recollected

  that the three savages had no boat; and if they were left to rove

  about the island, they would certainly discover that there were

  inhabitants in it; and so they should be undone that way. Upon

  this, they went back again, and there lay the fellows fast asleep

  still, and so they resolved to awaken them, and take them

  prisoners; and they did so. The poor fellows were strangely

  frightened when they were seized upon and bound; and afraid, like

  the women, that they should be murdered and eaten: for it seems

  those people think all the world does as they do, in eating men's

  flesh; but they were soon made easy as to that, and away they

  carried them.

  It was very happy for them that they did not carry them home to the

  castle, I mean to my palace under the hill; but they carried them

  first to the bower, where was the chief of their country work, such

  as the keeping the goats, the planting the corn, &c.; and afterward

  they carried them to the habitation of the two Englishmen. Here

  they were set to work, though it was not much they had for them to

  do; and whether it was by negligence in guarding them, or that they

  thought the fellows could not mend themselves, I know not, but one

  of them ran away, and, taking to the woods, they could never hear

  of him any more. They had good reason to believe he got home again

  soon after in some other boats or canoes of savages who came on

  shore three or four weeks afterwards, and who, carrying on their

  revels as usual, went off in two days' time. This thought

  terrified them exceedingly; for they concluded, and that not

  without good cause indeed, that if this fellow came home safe among

  his comrades, he would certainly give them an account that there

  were people in the island, and also how few and weak they were; for

  this savage, as observed before, had never been told, and it was

  very happy he had not, how many there were or where they lived; nor

  had he ever seen or heard the fire of any of their guns, much less

  had they shown him any of their other retired places; such as the

  cave in the valley, or the new retreat which the two Englishmen had

  made, and the like.

  The first testimony they had that this fellow had given

  intelligence of them was, that about two mouths after this six

  canoes of savages, with about seven, eight, or ten men in a canoe,

  came rowing along the north side of the island, where they never

  used to come before, and landed, about an hour after sunrise, at a

  convenient place, about a mile from the habitation of the two

  Englishmen, where this escaped man had been kept. As the chief

  Spaniard said, had they been all there the damage would not have

  been so much, for not a man of them would have escaped; but the

  case differed now very much, for two men to fifty was too much

  odds. The two men had the happiness to discover them about a

  league off, so that it was above an hour before they landed; and as

  they landed a mile from their huts, it was some time before they

  could come at them. Now, having great reason to believe that they

  were betrayed, the first thing they did was to bind the two slaves

  which were left, and cause two of the three men whom they brought

  with the women (who, it seems, proved very faithful to them) to

  lead them, with their two wives, and whatever they could carry away

  with them, to their retired places in the woods, which I have

  spoken of above, and there to bind the two fellows hand and foot,

  till they heard farther. In the next place, seeing the savages

  were all come on shore, and that they had bent their course

  directly that way, they opened the fences where the milch cows were

  kept, and drove them a
ll out; leaving their goats to straggle in

  the woods, whither they pleased, that the savages might think they

  were all bred wild; but the rogue who came with them was too

  cunning for that, and gave them an account of it all, for they went

  directly to the place.

  When the two poor frightened men had secured their wives and goods,

  they sent the other slave they had of the three who came with the

  women, and who was at their place by accident, away to the

  Spaniards with all speed, to give them the alarm, and desire speedy

  help, and, in the meantime, they took their arms and what

  ammunition they had, and retreated towards the place in the wood

  where their wives were sent; keeping at a distance, yet so that

  they might see, if possible, which way the savages took. They had

  not gone far but that from a rising ground they could see the

  little army of their enemies come on directly to their habitation,

  and, in a moment more, could see all their huts and household stuff

  flaming up together, to their great grief and mortification; for

  this was a great loss to them, irretrievable, indeed, for some

  time. They kept their station for a while, till they found the

  savages, like wild beasts, spread themselves all over the place,

  rummaging every way, and every place they could think of, in search

  of prey; and in particular for the people, of whom now it plainly

  appeared they had intelligence.

  The two Englishmen seeing this, thinking themselves not secure

  where they stood, because it was likely some of the wild people

  might come that way, and they might come too many together, thought

  it proper to make another retreat about half a mile farther;

  believing, as it afterwards happened, that the further they

  strolled, the fewer would be together. Their next halt was at the

  entrance into a very thick-grown part of the woods, and where an

  old trunk of a tree stood, which was hollow and very large; and in

  this tree they both took their standing, resolving to see there

  what might offer. They had not stood there long before two of the

  savages appeared running directly that way, as if they had already

  had notice where they stood, and were coming up to attack them; and

  a little way farther they espied three more coming after them, and

  five more beyond them, all coming the same way; besides which, they

  saw seven or eight more at a distance, running another way; for in

  a word, they ran every way, like sportsmen beating for their game.

  The poor men were now in great perplexity whether they should stand

  and keep their posture or fly; but after a very short debate with

  themselves, they considered that if the savages ranged the country

  thus before help came, they might perhaps find their retreat in the

  woods, and then all would be lost; so they resolved to stand them

  there, and if they were too many to deal with, then they would get

  up to the top of the tree, from whence they doubted not to defend

  themselves, fire excepted, as long as their ammunition lasted,

  though all the savages that were landed, which was near fifty, were

  to attack them.

  Having resolved upon this, they next considered whether they should

  fire at the first two, or wait for the three, and so take the

  middle party, by which the two and the five that followed would be

  separated; at length they resolved to let the first two pass by,

  unless they should spy them the tree, and come to attack them. The

  first two savages confirmed them also in this resolution, by

  turning a little from them towards another part of the wood; but

  the three, and the five after them, came forward directly to the

  tree, as if they had known the Englishmen were there. Seeing them

  come so straight towards them, they resolved to take them in a line

  as they came: and as they resolved to fire but one at a time,

  perhaps the first shot might hit them all three; for which purpose

  the man who was to fire put three or four small bullets into his

  piece; and having a fair loophole, as it were, from a broken hole

  in the tree, he took a sure aim, without being seen, waiting till

  they were within about thirty yards of the tree, so that he could

  not miss.

  While they were thus waiting, and the savages came on, they plainly

  saw that one of the three was the runaway savage that had escaped

  from them; and they both knew him distinctly, and resolved that, if

  possible, he should not escape, though they should both fire; so

  the other stood ready with his piece, that if he did not drop at

  the first shot, he should be sure to have a second. But the first

  was too good a marksman to miss his aim; for as the savages kept

  near one another, a little behind in a line, he fired, and hit two

  of them directly; the foremost was killed outright, being shot in

  the head; the second, which was the runaway Indian, was shot

  through the body, and fell, but was not quite dead; and the third

  had a little scratch in the shoulder, perhaps by the same ball that

  went through the body of the second; and being dreadfully

  frightened, though not so much hurt, sat down upon the ground,

  screaming and yelling in a hideous manner.

  The five that were behind, more frightened with the noise than

  sensible of the danger, stood still at first; for the woods made

  the sound a thousand times bigger than it really was, the echoes

  rattling from one side to another, and the fowls rising from all

  parts, screaming, and every sort making a different noise,

  according to their kind; just as it was when I fired the first gun

  that perhaps was ever shot off in the island.

  However, all being silent again, and they not knowing what the

  matter was, came on unconcerned, till they came to the place where

  their companions lay in a condition miserable enough. Here the

  poor ignorant creatures, not sensible that they were within reach

  of the same mischief, stood all together over the wounded man,

  talking, and, as may be supposed, inquiring of him how he came to

  be hurt; and who, it is very rational to believe, told them that a

  flash of fire first, and immediately after that thunder from their

  gods, had killed those two and wounded him. This, I say, is

  rational; for nothing is more certain than that, as they saw no man

  near them, so they had never heard a gun in all their lives, nor so

  much as heard of a gun; neither knew they anything of killing and

  wounding at a distance with fire and bullets: if they had, one

  might reasonably believe they would not have stood so unconcerned

  to view the fate of their fellows, without some apprehensions of

  their own.

  Our two men, as they confessed to me, were grieved to be obliged to

  kill so many poor creatures, who had no notion of their danger;

  yet, having them all thus in their power, and the first having

  loaded his piece again, resolved to let fly both together among

  them; and singling out, by agreement, which to aim at, they shot

  together, and killed, or very much wounded, four of them; the

  fifth, frightened even to
death, though not hurt, fell with the

  rest; so that our men, seeing them all fall together, thought they

  had killed them all.

  The belief that the savages were all killed made our two men come

  boldly out from the tree before they had charged their guns, which

  was a wrong step; and they were under some surprise when they came

  to the place, and found no less than four of them alive, and of

  them two very little hurt, and one not at all. This obliged them

  to fall upon them with the stocks of their muskets; and first they

  made sure of the runaway savage, that had been the cause of all the

  mischief, and of another that was hurt in the knee, and put them

  out of their pain; then the man that was not hurt at all came and

  kneeled down to them, with his two hands held up, and made piteous

  moans to them, by gestures and signs, for his life, but could not

  say one word to them that they could understand. However, they

  made signs to him to sit down at the foot of a tree hard by; and

  one of the Englishmen, with a piece of rope-yarn, which he had by

  great chance in his pocket, tied his two hands behind him, and

  there they left him; and with what speed they could made after the

  other two, which were gone before, fearing they, or any more of

  them, should find way to their covered place in the woods, where

  their wives, and the few goods they had left, lay. They came once

  in sight of the two men, but it was at a great distance; however,

  they had the satisfaction to see them cross over a valley towards

  the sea, quite the contrary way from that which led to their

  retreat, which they were afraid of; and being satisfied with that,

  they went back to the tree where they left their prisoner, who, as

  they supposed, was delivered by his comrades, for he was gone, and

  the two pieces of rope-yarn with which they had bound him lay just

  at the foot of the tree.

  They were now in as great concern as before, not knowing what

  course to take, or how near the enemy might be, or in what number;

  so they resolved to go away to the place where their wives were, to

  see if all was well there, and to make them easy. These were in

  fright enough, to be sure; for though the savages were their own

  countrymen, yet they were most terribly afraid of them, and perhaps

  the more for the knowledge they had of them. When they came there,

  they found the savages had been in the wood, and very near that

  place, but had not found it; for it was indeed inaccessible, from

  the trees standing so thick, unless the persons seeking it had been

  directed by those that knew it, which these did not: they found,

  therefore, everything very safe, only the women in a terrible

  fright. While they were here they had the comfort to have seven of

  the Spaniards come to their assistance; the other ten, with their

  servants, and Friday's father, were gone in a body to defend their

  bower, and the corn and cattle that were kept there, in case the

  savages should have roved over to that side of the country, but

  they did not spread so far. With the seven Spaniards came one of

  the three savages, who, as I said, were their prisoners formerly;

  and with them also came the savage whom the Englishmen had left

  bound hand and foot at the tree; for it seems they came that way,

  saw the slaughter of the seven men, and unbound the eighth, and

  brought him along with them; where, however, they were obliged to

  bind again, as they had the two others who were left when the third

  ran away.

  The prisoners now began to be a burden to them; and they were so

  afraid of their escaping, that they were once resolving to kill

  them all, believing they were under an absolute necessity to do so

  for their own preservation. However, the chief of the Spaniards

  would not consent to it, but ordered, for the present, that they

  should be sent out of the way to my old cave in the valley, and be

  kept there, with two Spaniards to guard them, and have food for

  their subsistence, which was done; and they were bound there hand

  and foot for that night.