by Daniel Defoe
for my escape, as I mentioned in myother part, and to get off from the island; leaving three of the mostimpudent, hardened, ungoverned, disagreeable villains behind me that anyman could desire to meet with, to the poor Spaniards' great grief anddisappointment you may be sure.
The only just thing the rogues did, was, that when the Spaniards came onshore, they gave my letter to them, and gave them provisions and otherrelief, as I had ordered them to do; also they gave them the long paperof directions, which I had left with them, containing the particularmethods which I took for managing every part of my life there; the wayhow I baked my bread, bred up my tame goats, and planted my corn; how Icured my grapes, made my pots, and, in a word, every thing I did; allthis being written down, they gave to the Spaniards, two of whomunderstood English well enough; nor did they refuse to accommodate theSpaniards with any thing else, for they agreed very well for some time;they gave them an equal admission into the house, or cave, and theybegan to live very sociably; and the head Spaniard, who had seen prettymuch of my method, and Friday's father together, managed all theiraffairs; for as for the Englishmen, they did nothing but ramble aboutthe island, shoot parrots, and catch tortoises, and when they came homeat night, the Spaniards provided their suppers for them.
The Spaniards would have been satisfied with this would the other buthave left them alone; which however, they could not find in their heartsto do long; but, like the dog in the manger, they would not eatthemselves, and would not let others eat neither: the differences,nevertheless, were at first but trivial and such as are not worthrelating: but at last it broke out into open war, and it began with allthe rudeness and insolence that can be imagined, without reason, withoutprovocation, contrary to nature, and indeed to common sense; and though,it is true, the first relation of it came from the Spaniards themselves,whom I may call the accusers, yet when I came to examine the fellows,they could not deny a word of it.
But before I come to the particulars of this part, I must supply adefect in my former relation; and this was, that I forgot to set downamong the rest, that just as we were weighing the anchor to set sail,there happened a little quarrel on board our ship, which I was afraidonce would turn to a second mutiny; nor was it appeased till thecaptain, rousing up his courage, and taking us all to his assistance,parted them by force, and making two of the most refractory fellowsprisoners, he laid them in irons; and as they had been active in theformer disorders, and let fall some ugly dangerous words the secondtime, he threatened to carry them in irons to England, and have themhanged there for mutiny, and running away with the ship.
This, it seems, though the captain did not intend to do it, frightedsome other men in the ship; and some of them had put it in the heads ofthe rest, that the captain only gave them good words for the presenttill they should come to some English port, and that then they shouldbe all put into a gaol, and tried for their lives.
The mate got intelligence of this, and acquainted us with it; upon whichit was desired that I, who still passed for a great man among them,should go down with the mate and satisfy the men, and tell them, thatthey might be assured, if they behaved well the rest of the voyage, allthey had done for the time past should be pardoned. So I went, and afterpassing my honour's word to them they appeared easy, and the more so,when I caused the two men who were in irons to be released and forgiven.
But this mutiny had brought us to an anchor for that night, the windalso falling calm. Next morning we found that our two men who had beenlaid in irons, had stole each of them a musket and some other weapons;what powder or shot they had we knew not; and had taken the ship'spinnace, which was not yet haled up, and run away with her to theircompanions in roguery on shore.
As soon as we found this, I ordered the long-boat on shore, with twelvemen and the mate, and away they went to seek the rogues; but they couldneither find them, nor any of the rest; for they all fled into the woodswhen they saw the boat coming on shore. The mate was once resolved, injustice to their roguery, to have destroyed their plantations, burnt alltheir household stuff and furniture, and left them to shift without it;but having no order, he let all alone, left every thing as they foundit, and bringing the pinnace away, came on board without them.
These two men made their number five: but the other three villains wereso much wickeder than these, that after they had been two or three daystogether, they turned their two new-comers out of doors to shift forthemselves, and would have nothing to do with them; nor could they, fora good while, be persuaded to give them any food: as for the Spaniards,they were not yet come.
When the Spaniards came first on shore, the business began to goforward; the Spaniards would have persuaded the three English brutes tohave taken in their two countrymen again, that, as they said, they mightbe all one family; but they would not hear of it: so the two poorfellows lived by themselves, and finding nothing but industry andapplication would make them live comfortable, they pitched their tentson the north shore of the island, but a little more to the west, to beout of the danger of the savages, who always landed on the east parts ofthe island.
Here they built two huts, one to lodge in, and the other to lay up theirmagazines and stores in; and the Spaniards having given them some cornfor seed, and especially some of the peas which I had left them, theydug and planted, and enclosed, after the pattern I had set for them all,and began to live pretty well; their first crop of corn was on theground, and though it was but a little bit of land which they had dug upat first, having had but a little time, yet it was enough to relievethem, and find them with bread or other eatables; and one of thefellows, being the cook's mate of the ship, was very ready at makingsoup, puddings, and such other preparations, as the rice and the milk,and such little flesh as they got, furnished him to do.
They were going on in a little thriving posture, when the threeunnatural rogues, their own countrymen too, in mere humour, and toinsult them, came and bullied them, and told them the island was theirs;that the governor, meaning me, had given them possession of it, andnobody else had any right to it; and, damn them, they should build nohouses upon their ground, unless they would pay them rent for them.
The two men thought they had jested at first, and asked them to come andsit down, and see what fine houses they were that they had built, andtell them what rent they demanded: and one of them merrily told them, ifthey were ground-landlords, he hoped if they built tenements upon theland and made improvements, they would, according to the custom of alllandlords, grant them a long lease; and bid them go fetch a scrivener todraw the writings. One of the three, damning and raging, told them theyshould see they were not in jest; and going to a little place at adistance, where the honest men had made a fire to dress their victuals,he takes a firebrand and claps it to the outside of their hut, and veryfairly set it on fire; and it would have been all burnt down in a fewminutes, if one of the two had not run to the fellow, thrust him away,and trod the fire out with his feet, and that not without somedifficulty too.
The fellow was in such a rage at the honest man's thrusting him away,that he turned upon him with a pole he had in his hand; and had not theman avoided the blow very nimbly, and run into the hut, he had ended hisdays at once. His comrade, seeing the danger they were both in, ran inafter him, and immediately they came both out with their muskets; andthe man that was first struck at with the pole knocked the fellow downwho began the quarrel with the stock of his musket, and that before theother two could come to help him; and then seeing the rest come at them,they stood together, and presenting the other ends of their pieces tothem, bade them stand off.
The others had fire-arms with them too; but one of the two honest men,bolder than his comrade, and made desperate by his danger, told them ifthey offered to move hand or foot they were all dead men, and boldlycommanded them to lay down their arms. They did not indeed lay downtheir arms; but seeing him resolute, it brought them to a parley, andthey consented to take their wounded man with them, and be gone; and,indeed, it seems the fellow was wounded sufficiently with the blow:
however, they were much in the wrong, since they had the advantage, thatthey did not disarm them effectually, as they might have done, and havegone immediately to the Spaniards, and given them an account how therogues treated them; for the three villains studied nothing butrevenge, and every day gave them some intimation that they did so.
But not to crowd this part with an account of the lesser part of theirrogueries, such as treading down their corn, shooting three young kidsand a she-goat, which the poor men had got to breed up tame for theirstore; and in a word, plaguing them night and day in this manner, itforced the two men to such a desperation, that they resolved to fightthem all three the first time they had a fair opportunity. In order tothis they resolved to go to the castle, as they called it, that was myold dwelling, where the three rogues and the Spaniards all livedtogether at that time, intending to have a fair battle, and theSpaniards should stand by to see fair play. So they got up in themorning before day,
