They continued here four days, and inquired, as well as they could of them by signs, what nations were this way, and that way; and were told of several fierce and terrible people, that lived almost every way; who, as they made known by signs to them, used to eat men; but as for themselves, they said, that they never ate men or women, except only such as they took in the wars; and then they owned that they made a great feast, and ate their prisoners.
The Englishmen inquired when they had a feast of that kind, and they told them two moons ago, pointing to the moon, and then to two-fingers; and that their great king had two hundred prisoners now which he had taken in his war, and they were feeding them to make them fat for the next feast. The Englishmen seemed mighty desirous to see those prisoners, but the others mistaking them, thought they were desirous to have some of them to carry away for their own eating. So they beckoned to them, pointing to the setting of the sun, and then to the rising; which was to signify, that the next morning at sun-rising they would bring some for them; and accordingly the next morning they brought down five women and eleven men, and gave them to the Englishmen to carry with them on their voyage, just as we would bring so many cows and oxen down to a sea-port town to victual a ship.
As brutish and barbarous as these fellows were at home, their stomachs turned at this sight, and they did not know what to do; to refuse the prisoners would have been the highest affront to the savage gentry that offered them; and what to do with them they knew not; however, upon some debate, they resolved to accept of them; and in return they gave the savages that brought them one of their hatchets, an old key, a knife, and six or seven of their bullets, which, though they did not understand, they seemed extremely pleased with; and then tying the poor creatures' hands behind them, they (the people) dragged the prisoners into the boat for our men.
The Englishmen were obliged to come away as soon as they had them, or else they that gave them his noble present would certainly have expected that they should have gone to work with them, have killed two or three of them the next morning, and perhaps have invited the donors to dinner.
But having taken their leave with all the respect and thanks that could well pass between people, where, on either side, they understood not one word they could say, they put off with their boat, and came back towards the first island, where when they arrived, they set eight of their prisoners at liberty, there being too many of them for their occasion.
In their voyage they endeavoured to have some communication with their prisoners, but it was impossible to make them understand any thing; nothing they could say to them, or give them, or do for them, but was looked upon as going about to murder them: they first of all unbound them, but the poor creatures screamed at that, especially the women, as if they had just felt the knife at their throats; for they immediately concluded they were unbound on purpose to be killed.
If they gave them any thing to eat, it was the same thing; then they concluded it was for fear they should sink in flesh, and so not be fat enough to kill; if they looked at one of them more particularly, the party presently concluded it was to see whether he or she was fattest and fittest to kill first; nay, after they had brought them quite over, and began to use them kindly and treat them well, still they expected every day to make a dinner or supper for their new masters.
When the three wanderers had given this unaccountable history or journal of their voyage, the Spaniard asked them where their new family was? And being told that they had brought them on shore, and put them into one of their huts, and were come to beg some victuals for them; they (the Spaniards) and the other two Englishmen, that is to say, the whole colony, resolved to go all down to the place and see them, and did so, and Friday's father with them.
When they came into the hut, there they sat all bound; for when they had brought them on shore they bound their hands, that they might not take the boat and make their escape; there, I say, they sat all of them stark naked. First, there were three men, lusty, comely fellows, well shaped, straight and fair limbs, about thirty or thirty-five years of age, and five women; whereof two might be from thirty to forty, two more not above twenty-four or twenty-five, and the fifth, a tall, comely maiden, about sixteen or seventeen. The women were well-favoured, agreeable persons, both in shape and features, only tawny; and two of them, had they been perfect white, would have passed for handsome women, even in London itself, having very pleasant, agreeable countenances, and of a very modest behaviour, especially when they came afterwards to be clothed, and dressed, as they called it, though that dress was very indifferent it must be confessed, of which hereafter.
The sight, you may be sure, was something uncouth to our Spaniards, who were (to give them a just character) men of the best behaviour, of the most calm, sedate tempers, and perfect good humour that ever I met with; and, in particular, of the most modesty, as will presently appear: I say the sight was very uncouth, to see three naked men and five naked women, all together bound, and in the most miserable circumstances that human nature could be supposed to be, viz. to be expecting every moment to be dragged out, and have their brains knocked out, and then to be eaten up like a calf that is killed for a dainty.
The first thing they did was to cause the old Indian, Friday's father, to go in and see first if he knew any of them, and then if he understood any of their speech. As soon as the old man came in, he looked seriously at them, but knew none of them; neither could any of them understand a word he said, or a sign he could make, except one of the women.
However, this was enough to answer the end, which was to satisfy them, that the men into whose hands they were fallen were Christians; that they abhorred eating of men or women, and that they might be sure they would not be killed. As soon as they were assured of this, they discovered such a joy, and by such awkward and several ways as is hard to describe, for it seems they were of several nations.
The woman who was their interpreter was bid, in the next place, to ask them if they were willing to be servants, and to work for the men who had brought them away to save their lives? At which they all fell a dancing; and presently one fell to taking up this, and another that, any thing that lay next, to carry on their shoulders, to intimate that they were willing to work.
The governor, who found that the having women among them would presently be attended with some inconveniency, and might occasion some strife, and perhaps blood, asked the three men what they intended to do with these women, and how they intended to use them, whether as servants or as women? One of the Englishmen answered very boldly and readily, that they would use them as both. To which the governor said, "I am not going to restrain you from it; you are your own masters as to that: but this I think is but just, for avoiding disorders and quarrels among you, and I desire it of you for that reason only, viz. that you will all engage, that if any of you take any of these women as a woman, or wife, he shall take but one; and that, having taken one, none else should touch her; for though we cannot marry any of you, yet it is but reasonable that while you stay here, the woman any of you takes should be maintained by the man that takes her, and should be his wife; I mean," says he, "while he continues here; and that none else should have any thing to do with her." All this appeared so just, that every one agreed to it without any difficulty.
Then the Englishmen asked the Spaniards if they designed to take any of them? But every one answered, "No;" some of them said they had wives in Spain; and the others did not like women that were not Christians; and all together declared, that they would not touch one of them; which was an instance of such virtue as I have not met with in all my travels. On the other hand, to be short, the five Englishmen took them every one a wife; that is to say, a temporary wife; and so they set up a new form of living; for the Spaniards and Friday's father lived in my old habitation, which they had enlarged exceedingly within; the three servants, which they had taken in the late battle of the savages, lived with them; and these carried on the main part of the colony, supplying all the rest with food, and assisting them in any thing as they could, or as they found necessity required.
But the wonder of this story was, how five such refractory, ill-matched fellows should agree about these women, and that two of them should not pitch upon the same woman, especially seeing two or three of them were, without comparison, more agreeable than the others: but they took a good way enough to prevent quarrelling among themselves; for they set the five women by themselves in one of their huts, and they went all into the other hut, and drew lots among them who should choose first.
He that drew to choose first, went away by himself to the hut where the poor naked creatures were, and fetched out her he chose; and it was worth observing that he that chose first took her that was reckoned the homeliest and the oldest of the five, which made mirth enough among the rest; and even the Spaniards laughed at it; but the fellow considered better than any of them, that it was application and business that they were to expect assistance in as much as any thing else, and she proved the best wife in the parcel.
When the poor women saw themselves in a row thus, and fetched out one by one, the terrors of their condition returned upon them again, and they firmly believed that they were now going to be devoured: accordingly, when the English sailor came in and fetched out one of them, the rest set up a most lamentable cry, and hung about her, and took their leave of her with such agonies and such affection as would have grieved the hardest heart in the world; nor was it possible for the Englishmen to satisfy them that they were not to be immediately murdered, till they fetched the old man, Friday's father, who instantly let them know, that the five men who had fetched them out one by one, had chosen them for their wives.
When they had done this, and the fright the women were in was a little over, the men went to work, and the Spaniards came and helped them; and in a few hours they had built them every one a new hut or tent for their lodging apart; for those they had already were crowded with their tools, household stuff, and provisions. The three wicked ones had pitched farthest off, and the two honest ones nearer, but both on the north shore of the island, so that they continued separate as before: and thus my island was peopled in three places, and, as I might say, three towns were begun to be planted.
And here it is very well worth observing, that as it often happens in the world, (what the wise ends of God's providences are in such a disposition of things I cannot say) the two honest fellows had the two worst wives; and the three reprobates, that were scarce worth hanging, that were fit for nothing, and neither seemed born to do themselves good, or any one else, had three clever, diligent, careful, and ingenious wives, not that the two first were ill wives as to their temper or humour; for all the five were most willing, quiet, passive, and subjected creatures, rather like slaves than wives; but my meaning is, they were not alike, capable, ingenious, or industrious, or alike cleanly and neat.
Another observation I must make, to the honour of a diligent application on the one hand, and to the disgrace of a slothful, negligent, idle temper on the other, that when I came to the place, and viewed the several improvements, planting, and management of the several little colonies, the two men had so far out-gone the three, that there was no comparison; they had indeed both of them as much ground laid out for corn as they wanted; and the reason was, because according to my rule, nature dictated, that it was to no purpose to sow more corn than they wanted; but the difference of the cultivation, of the planting, of the fences, and indeed every thing else, was easy to be seen at first view.
The two men had innumerable young trees planted about their huts, that when you came to the place nothing was to be seen but a wood; and though they had their plantation twice demolished, once by their own countrymen, and once by the enemy, as shall be shewn in its place; yet they had restored all again, and every thing was flourishing and thriving about them: they had grapes planted in order, and managed like a vineyard, though they had themselves never seen any thing of that kind; and by their good ordering their vines their grapes were as good again as any of the others. They had also formed themselves a retreat in the thickest part of the woods, where, though there was not a natural cave, as I had found, yet they made one with incessant labour of their hands, and where, when the mischief which followed happened, they secured their wives and children so as they could never be found; they having, by sticking innumerable stakes and poles of the wood, which, as I said, grow so easily, made a grove impassable except in one place, where they climbed up to get over the outside part, and then went in by ways of their own leaving.
As to the three reprobates, as I justly call them, though they were much civilized by their new settlement compared to what they were before, and were not so quarrelsome, having not the same opportunity, yet one of the certain companions of a profligate mind never left them, and that was their idleness. It is true, they planted corn and made fences; but Solomon's words were never better verified than in them: "I went by the vineyard of the slothful, and it was overgrown with thorns;" for when the Spaniards came to view their crop, they could not see it in some places for weeds; the hedge had several gaps in it, where the wild goats had gotten in and eaten up the corn; perhaps here and there a dead bush was crammed in to stop them out for the present, but it was only shutting the stable door after the steed was stolen; whereas, when they looked on the colony of the other two, here was the very face of industry and success upon all they did; there was not a weed to be seen in all their corn, or a gap in any of their hedges; and they, on the other hand, verified Solomon's words in another place: "The diligent hand maketh rich;" for every thing grew and thrived, and they had plenty within and without; they had more tame cattle than the others, more utensils and necessaries within doors, and yet more pleasure and diversion too.
It is true, the wives of the three were very handy and cleanly within doors; and having learnt the English ways of dressing and cooking from one of the other Englishmen, who, as I said, was a cook's mate on board the ship, they dressed their husbands' victuals very nicely; whereas the other could not be brought to understand it; but then the husband, who as I said, had been cook's mate, did it himself; but as for the husbands of the three wives, they loitered about, fetched turtles' eggs, and caught fish and birds; in a word, any thing but labour, and they fared accordingly. The diligent lived well and comfortably and the slothful lived hard and beggarly; and so I believe, generally speaking, it is all over the world.
But now I come to a scene different from all that had happened before, either to them or 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 that 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 the 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 to shew themselves; only placing a scout in a proper place, to give notice when the boats went off 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 asleep, and would not stir when the others went, or they were 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, they were none of them inclined to that. The Spaniard governor told me they could not think of shedding innocent blood; for as to them, the poor creatures had done 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 all 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 as 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 Spaniard recollected that the three savages had no boat; and that 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; so they resolved to awaken them, and take them prisoners; and they did so. The poor fellows were strangely frighted 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 do as they do, eating mens' 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 their 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 afterwards 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 into the woods, they could never hear of him 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 again in two days time. This thought terrified them exceedingly; for they concluded, and that not without good cause indeed, that if this fellow got safe home among his comrades, he would certainly give them an account that there were people in the island, as also how weak and few they were; for this savage, as I observed before, had never been told, as it was very happy he had not, how many they were, or where they lived, nor had he ever seen or heard the fire of any of their guns, much less had they shewn him any other of their 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 months after this, six canoes of savages, with about seven or 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 Spaniard governor 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 were too much odds. The two men had the happiness to discover them about a league off, so that it was about an hour before they landed, and as they landed about 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 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 place 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 bent their course directly that way, they opened the fences where their milch-goats were kept, and drove them all out, leaving their goats to straggle into the wood, 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 poor frighted 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 mean time 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 they had a very great loss, and to them irretrievable, at least 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 for prey, and in particular for the people, of whom it plainly appeared they had intelligence.
The two Englishmen, seeing this, thinking themselves not secure where they stood, as it was likely some of the wild people might come that way, so 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 farther they strolled, the fewer would be together.
The 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 vastly large; and in this tree they both took their standing, resolving to see what might offer.
They had not stood there long, but two of the savages appeared running directly that way, as if they had already 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 out their retreat in the woods, and then all would be lost; so they resolved to stand them there; and if there were too many to deal with, then they would get 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 were near fifty, were to attack them.
Having resolved upon this, they next considered whether they should fire at the two first, 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 two first pass by, unless they should spy them in the tree, and come to attack them. The two first savages also confirmed them in this resolution, by turning a little from them towards another part of the wood; but the three, and the five after them, came forwards 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; to which purpose, the man who was to fire put three or four bullets into his piece, and having a fair loop-hole, 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 the 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, the quite 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.