by Daniel Defoe
Englishmen to carry withthem on their voyage, just as we would bring so many cows and oxen downto a sea-port town to victual a ship.
As brutish and barbarous as these fellows were at home, their stomachsturned at this sight, and they did not know what to do; to refuse theprisoners would have been the highest affront to the savage gentry thatoffered them; and what to do with them they knew not; however, upon somedebate, they resolved to accept of them; and in return they gave thesavages that brought them one of their hatchets, an old key, a knife,and six or seven of their bullets, which, though they did notunderstand, they seemed extremely pleased with; and then tying the poorcreatures' hands behind them, they (the people) dragged the prisonersinto the boat for our men.
The Englishmen were obliged to come away as soon as they had them, orelse they that gave them his noble present would certainly have expectedthat they should have gone to work with them, have killed two or threeof them the next morning, and perhaps have invited the donors to dinner.
But having taken their leave with all the respect and thanks that couldwell pass between people, where, on either side, they understood not oneword they could say, they put off with their boat, and came back towardsthe first island, where when they arrived, they set eight of theirprisoners at liberty, there being too many of them for their occasion.
In their voyage they endeavoured to have some communication with theirprisoners, but it was impossible to make them understand any thing;nothing they could say to them, or give them, or do for them, but waslooked upon as going about to murder them: they first of all unboundthem, but the poor creatures screamed at that, especially the women, asif they had just felt the knife at their throats; for they immediatelyconcluded they were unbound on purpose to be killed.
If they gave them any thing to eat, it was the same thing; then theyconcluded it was for fear they should sink in flesh, and so not be fatenough to kill; if they looked at one of them more particularly, theparty presently concluded it was to see whether he or she was fattestand fittest to kill first; nay, after they had brought them quite over,and began to use them kindly and treat them well, still they expectedevery day to make a dinner or supper for their new masters.
When the three wanderers had given this unaccountable history or journalof their voyage, the Spaniard asked them where their new family was? Andbeing told that they had brought them on shore, and put them into one oftheir huts, and were come to beg some victuals for them; they (theSpaniards) and the other two Englishmen, that is to say, the wholecolony, 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 hadbrought them on shore they bound their hands, that they might not takethe boat and make their escape; there, I say, they sat all of them starknaked. First, there were three men, lusty, comely fellows, well shaped,straight and fair limbs, about thirty or thirty-five years of age, andfive women; whereof two might be from thirty to forty, two more notabove twenty-four or twenty-five, and the fifth, a tall, comely maiden,about sixteen or seventeen. The women were well-favoured, agreeablepersons, both in shape and features, only tawny; and two of them, hadthey been perfect white, would have passed for handsome women, even inLondon itself, having very pleasant, agreeable countenances, and of avery modest behaviour, especially when they came afterwards to beclothed, and dressed, as they called it, though that dress was veryindifferent it must be confessed, of which hereafter.
The sight, you may be sure, was something uncouth to our Spaniards, whowere (to give them a just character) men of the best behaviour, of themost calm, sedate tempers, and perfect good humour that ever I met with;and, in particular, of the most modesty, as will presently appear: I saythe sight was very uncouth, to see three naked men and five naked women,all together bound, and in the most miserable circumstances that humannature could be supposed to be, viz. to be expecting every moment to bedragged out, and have their brains knocked out, and then to be eaten uplike 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 understoodany of their speech. As soon as the old man came in, he looked seriouslyat them, but knew none of them; neither could any of them understand aword 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; thatthey abhorred eating of men or women, and that they might be sure theywould not be killed. As soon as they were assured of this, theydiscovered such a joy, and by such awkward and several ways as is hardto describe, for it seems they were of several nations.
The woman who was their interpreter was bid, in the next place, to askthem if they were willing to be servants, and to work for the men whohad brought them away to save their lives? At which they all fell adancing; and presently one fell to taking up this, and another that, anything that lay next, to carry on their shoulders, to intimate that theywere willing to work.
The governor, who found that the having women among them would presentlybe attended with some inconveniency, and might occasion some strife, andperhaps blood, asked the three men what they intended to do with thesewomen, and how they intended to use them, whether as servants or aswomen? One of the Englishmen answered very boldly and readily, that theywould use them as both. To which the governor said, "I am not going torestrain you from it; you are your own masters as to that: but this Ithink is but just, for avoiding disorders and quarrels among you, and Idesire 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 shalltake 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 thatwhile you stay here, the woman any of you takes should be maintained bythe man that takes her, and should be his wife; I mean," says he, "whilehe continues here; and that none else should have any thing to do withher." All this appeared so just, that every one agreed to it without anydifficulty.
Then the Englishmen asked the Spaniards if they designed to take any ofthem? But every one answered, "No;" some of them said they had wives inSpain; and the others did not like women that were not Christians; andall together declared, that they would not touch one of them; which wasan instance of such virtue as I have not met with in all my travels. Onthe other hand, to be short, the five Englishmen took them every one awife; that is to say, a temporary wife; and so they set up a new form ofliving; for the Spaniards and Friday's father lived in my oldhabitation, which they had enlarged exceedingly within; the threeservants, which they had taken in the late battle of the savages, livedwith them; and these carried on the main part of the colony, supplyingall 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-matchedfellows should agree about these women, and that two of them should notpitch upon the same woman, especially seeing two or three of them were,without comparison, more agreeable than the others: but they took a goodway enough to prevent quarrelling among themselves; for they set thefive women by themselves in one of their huts, and they went all intothe 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 thepoor naked creatures were, and fetched out her he chose; and it wasworth observing that he that chose first took her that was reckoned thehomeliest and the oldest of the five, which made mirth enough among therest; and even the Spaniards laughed at it; but the fellow consideredbetter than any of them, that it was application and business that theywere to expect assistance in as much as any thing else, and she provedthe best wife in the parcel.
When the poor women saw themselves in a row thus, and fetched out one byone, the terrors of their condition returned upon them again, and theyfirmly believed that they were now going to be devou
red: accordingly,when the English sailor came in and fetched out one of them, the restset up a most lamentable cry, and hung about her, and took their leaveof her with such agonies and such affection as would have grieved thehardest heart in the world; nor was it possible for the Englishmen tosatisfy them that they were not to be immediately murdered, till theyfetched the old man, Friday's father, who instantly let them know, thatthe five men who had fetched them out one by one, had chosen them fortheir wives.
When they had done this, and the fright the women were in was a littleover, the men went to work, and the Spaniards came and helped them; andin a few hours they had built them every one a new hut or tent for theirlodging apart; for those they had already were crowded with their tools,household stuff, and provisions. The three wicked ones had pitchedfarthest off, and the two honest ones nearer, but both on the northshore of the island, so that they continued separate as before: and thusmy island was peopled
