by Daniel Defoe
pieces, and taking upthe musket, which was yet loaden, "follow me," said I; which he did,with a deal of courage; upon which I rushed, out of the wood, and shewedmyself, and Friday close at my foot: as soon as I perceived they saw me,I shouted as loud as I could, and bade Friday do so too; and running asfast as I could, which by the way was not very fast, being loaded witharms as I was, I made directly towards the poor victim, who was, as Isaid, lying upon the beach, or shore, between the place where they satand the sea; the two butchers, who were just going to work with him, hadleft him, at the surprise of our first fire, and fled in a terriblefright to the sea-side, and had jumped into a canoe, and three more ofthe rest made the same way: I turned to Friday, and bade him stepforwards, and fire at them; he understood me immediately, and runningabout forty yards to be near them, he shot at them, and I thought he hadkilled them all; for I saw them all fall on an heap into the boat;though I saw two of them up again quickly: however, he killed two ofthem, and wounded the third, so that he lay down in the bottom of theboat, as if he had been dead.
While my man Friday fired at them, I pulled out my knife, and cut theflags that bound the poor victim; and loosing his hands and feet Ilifted him up, and asked him in the Portuguese tongue, what he was? Heanswered in Latin, _Christianus;_ but was so weak and faint, that hecould scarce stand, or speak; I took my bottle out of my pocket, andgave it him, making signs that he should drink, which he did; and I gavehim a piece of bread, which he ate; then I asked him, what countryman hewas? and he said, _Espagnole_; and, being a little recovered, let meknow, by all the signs he could possibly make, how much he was in mydebt for his deliverance. "Seignior," said I, with as much Spanish as Icould make up, "we will talk afterwards, but we must fight now: if youhave any strength left, take this pistol and sword, and lay about you."He took them very thankfully, and no sooner had he the arms in hishands, but as if they had put new vigour into him, he flew upon hismurderers like a fury, and had cut two of them in pieces in an instant;for the truth is, as the whole was a surprise to them, so the poorcreatures were so much frighted with the noise of our pieces, that theyfell down for mere amazement and fear, and had no more power to attempttheir own escape, than their flesh had to resist our shot; and that wasthe case of those five that Friday shot in the boat; for as three ofthem fell with the hurt they received, so the other two fell withthe fright.
I kept my piece in my hand still, without firing, being willing to keepmy charge ready, because I had given the Spaniard my pistol and sword;so I called to Friday, and bade him run up to the tree from whence wefirst fired, and fetch the arms which lay there, that had beendischarged, which he did with great swiftness; and then giving him mymusket, I sat down myself to load all the rest again, and bade them cometo me when they wanted. While I was loading these pieces, there happeneda fierce engagement between the Spaniard and one of the savages, whomade at him with one of their great wooden swords, the same weapon thatwas to have killed him before, if I had not prevented it: the Spaniard,who was as bold and as brave as could be imagined, though weak, hadfought this Indian a good while, and had cut him two great wounds on hishead; but the savage, being a stout lusty fellow, closing in with him,had thrown him down, (being faint) and was wringing my sword out of hishand, when the Spaniard, though undermost, wisely quitting his sword,drew the pistol from his girdle, shot the savage through the body, andkilled him upon the spot, before I, who was running to help, couldcome near him.
Friday, being now left at his liberty, pursued the flying wretches withno weapon in his hand but his hatchet; and with that he dispatched thosethree, who, as I said before, were wounded at first, and fallen, and allthe rest he could come up with; and the Spaniard coming to me for a gun,I gave him one of the fowling-pieces, with which he pursued two of thesavages, and wounded them both; but as he was not able to run, they bothgot from him into the wood, where Friday pursued them, and killed one ofthem; but the other was too nimble for him; and though he was wounded,yet he plunged into the sea, and swam with all his might off to thosewho were left in the canoe; which three in the canoe, with one wounded,who we know not whether he died or no, were all that escaped our handsof one-and-twenty. The account of the rest is as follows:
3 Killed at our shot from the tree. 2 Killed at the next shot. 2 Killed by Friday in the boat. 2 Killed by ditto, of those at first wounded. 1 Killed by ditto, in the wood. 3 Killed by the Spaniard. 4 Killed, being found dropt here and there of their wounds, or killed by Friday in his chase of them. 4 Escaped in the boat, whereof one wounded, if not dead.
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21 in all.
Those that were in the canoe worked hard to get out of gun-shot; andthough Friday made two or three shot at them, I did not find that he hitany of them: Friday would fain have had me take one of their canoes, andpursue them; and indeed I was very anxious about their escape, lest,carrying the news home to their people, they should come back, perhaps,with two or three hundred of their canoes, and devour us by meremultitudes; so I consented to pursue them by sea; and running to one oftheir canoes, I jumped in, and bade Friday follow me; but when I was inthe canoe, I was surprised to find another poor creature lie therealive, bound hand and foot, as the Spaniard was, for the slaughter, andalmost dead with fear, not knowing what the matter was; for he had notbeen able to look up over the side of the boat, he was tied so hard,neck and heels, and had been tied so long, that he had really littlelife in him.
I immediately cut the twisted flags, or rushes, which they had bound himwith, and would have helped him up; but he could not stand, or speak,but groaned most piteously, believing, it seems still, that he was onlyunbound in order to be killed.
When Friday came to him, I bade him speak to him, and tell him of hisdeliverance; and pulling out my bottle, made him give the poor wretch adram, which, with the news of his being delivered, revived him, and hesat up in the boat; but when Friday came to hear him speak, and lookedin his face, it would have moved any one to tears, to have seen howFriday kissed him, embraced him, hugged him, cried, laughed, hallooed,jumped about, danced, sung, then cried again, wrung his hands, beat hisown face and head, and then sung and jumped about again like adistracted creature. It was a good while before I could make him speakto me, or tell me what was the matter; but when he came a little tohimself, he told me that it was his father.
It was not easy for me to express how it moved me, to see what ecstasyand filial affection had worked in this poor savage, at the sight of hisfather, and of his being delivered from death; nor indeed can I describehalf the extravagances of his affection after this; for he went into theboat and out of the boat a great many times: when he went in to him, hewould sit down by him, open his breast, and hold his father's headclose to his bosom, half an hour together, to nourish it: then he tookhis arms and ankles, which were numbed and stiff with the binding, andchafed and rubbed them with his hands; and I, perceiving what the casewas, gave him some rum out of my bottle to rub them with, which did thema great deal of good.
This action put an end to our pursuit of the canoe with the othersavages, who were now gotten almost out of sight; and it was happy forus that we did not; for it blew so hard within two hours after, andbefore they could be gotten a quarter of their way, and continuedblowing so hard all night, and that from the north-west, which wasagainst them, that I could not suppose their boat could live, or thatthey ever reached to their own coast.
But to return to Friday: he was so busy about his father, that I couldnot find in my heart to take him off for some time: but after I thoughthe could leave him a little, I called him to me, and he came jumping andlaughing, and pleased to the highest extreme. Then I asked him, if hehad given his father any bread? He shook his head, and said, "None: uglydog eat all up self." So I gave him a cake of bread out of a littlepouch I carried on purpose; I also gave him a dram for himself, but hewould not taste it, but carried it to his father: I had in my pocketalso two or three bunches of my raisins, so I gave him a hand
ful of themfor his father. He had no sooner given his father these raisins, but Isaw him come out of the boat, and run away as if he had been bewitched.He ran at such a rate (for he was the swiftest fellow of his feet thatever I saw)--I say, he ran at such a rate, that he was out of sight, asit were, in an instant; and though I called and hallooed too after him,it was all one; away he went, and in a quarter of an hour I saw him comeback again, though not so fast as he went; and as he came nearer, Ifound his pace was slacker, because he had something in his hand.
When he came up to me, I found he had been quite home for an earthenjug, or pot, to bring his father some fresh water; and that he had gettwo more cakes or loaves of bread. The bread he gave me, but the waterhe carried to his father: however, as I was very thirsty too, I took alittle sip of it: this water revived his father more than all the rum orspirits I had given him; for he was just fainting with thirst.
When his father had
