by Daniel Defoe
terrified at the voice ofa man, I caused all the company to halloo as loud as we could; and Ifound the notion not altogether mistaken; for upon our shout they beganto retire, and turn about. I then ordered a second volley to be fired intheir rear, which put them to the gallop, and away they went to thewoods. This gave us leisure to charge our pieces again; and that wemight lose no time, we kept going: but we had but little more thanloaded our fusees, and put ourselves in readiness, when we heard aterrible noise in the same wood, on our left, only that it was fartheronward, the same way 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, ona sudden, we perceived two or three troops of wolves, one on our left,one behind us, and one in our front, so that we seemed to be surroundedwith them: however, as they did not fall upon us, we kept our wayforward, as fast as we could make our horses go, which, the way beingvery rough, was only a good hard trot. In this manner we came in view ofthe entrance of a wood, through which we were to pass, at the fartherside of the plain; but we were greatly surprised, when coming nearer thelane or pass, we saw a confused number of wolves standing just at theentrance. On a sudden, at another opening of the wood, we heard thenoise of a gun, and looking that way, out rushed a horse, with a saddleand a bridle on him, flying like the wind, and sixteen or seventeenwolves after him, full speed; indeed the horse had the heels of them,but as we supposed that he could not hold it at that rate, we doubtednot but they would 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 hisbody were eaten up. This filled us with horror, and we knew not whatcourse to take; but the creatures resolved us soon, for they gatheredabout us presently, in hopes of prey; and I verily believe there werethree hundred of them. It happened very much to our advantage, that atthe entrance into the wood, but a little way from it, there lay somelarge timber-trees, which had been cut down the summer before, and Isuppose lay there for carriage. I drew my little troop in among thosetrees, and placing ourselves in a line behind one long tree, I advisedthem all to alight, and keeping that tree before us for a breastwork, tostand in a triangle, or three fronts, enclosing our horses in thecentre. We did so, and it was well we did; for never was a more furiouscharge than the creatures made upon us in this place. They came on witha growling kind of 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. I ordered our men to fire as before, everyother man; and they took their aim so sure, that they killed several ofthe wolves at the first volley; but there was a necessity to keep acontinual firing, for they came on like devils, those behind pushing onthose 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 loath 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 bade 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 uncharged pistol close tothe powder, set it on fire: those that were upon the timber werescorched with it, and six or seven of them fell, or rather jumped inamong us, with the force and fright of the fire; we dispatched these inan instant, and the rest were so frightened with the light, which thenight, for it was now very near dark, made more terrible, that they drewback a little; upon which I ordered our last pistols to be fired off inone volley, and after that we gave a shout: upon this the wolves turnedtail, and we sallied immediately upon near twenty lame ones, that wefound struggling on the ground, and fell a cutting them with ourswords, which answered our expectation; for the crying and howling theymade was better understood by their fellows; so that they all fledand 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 went,several times, and sometimes we fancied we saw some of them, but thesnow dazzling our eyes, we were not certain: 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, the night before, the wolves andsome bears had broke into the village, and put them in such terror, thatthey were obliged to keep guard night and day, but especially in thenight, to preserve their cattle, and, indeed, their people.
The next morning our guide was so ill, and his limbs swelled so muchwith the rankling of his two wounds, that he could go no farther; so wewere obliged to take a new guide here, and go to Thoulouse, where wefound a warm climate, a fruitful pleasant country, and no snow, nowolves, nor any thing like them: but when we told our story atThoulouse, they told us it was nothing but what was ordinary in thegreat forest at the foot of the mountains, especially when the snow layon the ground; but they inquired much what kind of a guide we had got,who would venture to bring us that way in such a severe season; and toldus it was surprising we were not all devoured. When we told them how weplaced ourselves, and the horses in the middle, they blamed usexceedingly, and told us it was fifty to one but we had been alldestroyed; for it was the sight of the horses which made the wolves sofurious, seeing their prey; and that, at other times, they are reallyafraid of a gun; but being excessive hungry, and raging on that account,the eagerness to come at the horses had made them senseless of danger;and that if we had not, by the continued fire, and at last by thestratagem of the train of powder, mastered them, it had been great oddsbut that we had been torn to pieces: whereas, had we been content tohave sat still on horseback, and fired as horsemen, they would not havetaken the horses so much for their own, when men were on their backs, asotherwise; and withal they told us, that at last, if we had stood alltogether, and left our horses, they would have been so eager to havedevoured them, that we might have come off safe, especially having ourfire-arms in our hands, and being so many in number. For my part, I wasnever so sensible of danger in my life; for seeing above three hundreddevils come roaring and open-mouthed to devour us, and having nothing toshelter us, or retreat to, I gave myself over for lost; and, as it was,I believe I shall never care to cross those mountains again; I think Iwould much rather go a thousand leagues by sea, though I was sure tomeet with a storm once a week.
I have nothing uncommon to take notice of in my passage through France,nothing but what other travellers have given an account of, with muchmore advantage than I can. I travelled from Thoulouse to Paris, andwithout any considerable stay came to Calais, and landed safe at Dover,the 14th of Jan. after having 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 very 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,nor care too great, to employ for me; and I trusted her so entirely withevery thing, that I was perfectly easy as to the security of my effects:and, indeed, I was very happy from the beginning, and now to the end, inthe unspotte
d integrity of 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-eightto a 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 ofexchange for 32,800 pieces-of-eight for the estate; reserving thepayment of 100 moidores a year to him (the old man) during his life, and50 moidores afterwards to his son for his life, which I had promisedthem; and which the plantation was to make good as a rent-charge. Andthus I have given the first part of a life of fortune and adventure, alife of Providence's chequer-work, and of a variety which the world willseldom be able to show the like of: beginning foolishly, but closingmuch more happily than any
