by Daniel Defoe
among them came principallyfrom this; viz. that they were killed by the gods with thunder andlightning, and could see nobody that hurt them: but William Atkinsstaying to load again, discovered the cheat; some of the savages whowere at a distance, spying them, came upon them behind; and thoughAtkins and his men fired at them also, two or three times, and killedabove twenty, retiring as fast as they could, yet they wounded Atkinshimself, and killed one of his fellow Englishmen with their arrows, asthey did afterwards one Spaniard, and one of the Indian slaves who camewith the women. This slave was a most gallant fellow, and fought mostdesperately, killing five of them with his own hand, having no weaponbut one of the armed staves and a hatchet.
Our men being thus hard laid at, Atkins wounded, and two other menkilled, retreated to a rising ground in the wood; and the Spaniards,after firing three vollies upon them, retreated also; for their numberwas so great, and they were so desperate, that though above fifty ofthem were killed, and more than so many wounded, yet they came on in theteeth of our men, fearless of danger, and shot their arrows like acloud; and it was observed, that their wounded men, who were not quitedisabled, were made outrageous by their wounds, and fought like madmen.
When our men retreated, they left the Spaniard and the Englishman thatwere killed behind them; and the savages, when they came up to them,killed them over again in a wretched manner, breaking their arms, legs,and heads, with their clubs and wooden swords, like true savages. Butfinding our men were gone, they did not seem inclined to pursue them,but drew themselves up in a kind of ring, which is, it seems, theircustom, and shouted twice in token of their victory; after which, theyhad the mortification to see several of their wounded men fall, dyingwith the mere loss of blood.
The Spaniard governor having drawn his little body up together upon arising ground, Atkins, though he was wounded, would have had him march,and charge them again all together at once: but the Spaniard replied,"Seignior Atkins, you see how their wounded men fight; let them alonetill morning; all these wounded men will be stiff and sore with theirwounds, and faint with the loss of blood, and so we shall have the fewerto engage."
The advice was good; but Will Atkins replied merrily, "That's true,Seignior, and so shall I too; and that's the reason I would go on whileI am warm."--"Well, Seignior Atkins," says the Spaniard, "you havebehaved gallantly, and done your part; we will fight for you, if youcannot come on; but I think it best to stay till morning:" sothey waited.
But as it was a clear moonlight night, and they found the savages ingreat disorder about their dead and wounded men, and a great hurry andnoise among them where they lay, they afterwards resolved to fall uponthem in the night, especially if they could come to give them but onevolley before they were discovered. This they had a fair opportunity todo; for one of the two Englishmen, in whose quarter it was where thefight began, led them round between the woods and the sea-side,westward, and turning short south, they came so near where the thickestof them lay, that before they were seen or heard, eight of them fired inamong them, and did dreadful execution upon them; in half a minute moreeight others fired after them, pouring in their small shot in such aquantity, that abundance were killed and wounded; and all this whilethey were not able to see who hurt them, or which way to fly.
The Spaniards charged again with the utmost expedition, and thendivided themselves into three bodies, and resolved to fall in among themall together. They had in each body eight persons; that is to say,twenty-four, whereof were twenty-two men, and the two women, who, by theway, fought desperately.
They divided the fire-arms equally in each party, and so of the halbertsand staves. They would have had the women keep back; but they said theywere resolved to die with their husbands. Having thus formed theirlittle army, they marched out from among the trees, and came up to theteeth of the enemy, shouting and hallooing as loud as they could. Thesavages stood all together, but were in the utmost confusion, hearingthe noise of our men shouting from three quarters together; they wouldhave fought if they had seen us; and as soon as we came near enough tobe seen, some arrows were shot, and poor old Friday was wounded, thoughnot dangerously. But our men gave them no time, but running up to them,fired among them three ways, and then fell in with the butt ends oftheir muskets, their swords, armed staves, and hatchets; and laid aboutthem so well, that in a word they set up a dismal screaming and howling,flying to save their lives which way soever they could.
Our men were tired with the execution; and killed, or mortally wounded,in the two fights, about one hundred and eighty of them: the rest, beingfrighted out of their wits, scoured through the woods and over thehills, with all the speed that fear and nimble feet could help them todo; and as we did not trouble ourselves much to pursue them, they gotall together to the sea-side, where they landed, and where their canoeslay. But their disaster was not at an end yet, for it blew a terriblestorm of wind that evening from the seaward, so that it was impossiblefor them to put off; nay, the storm continuing all night, when the tidecame up their canoes were most of them driven by the surge of the sea sohigh upon the shore, that it required infinite toil to get them off; andsome of them were even dashed to pieces against the beach, or againstone another.
Our men, though glad of their victory, yet got little rest that night;but having refreshed themselves as well as they could, they resolved tomarch to that part of the island where the savages were fled, and seewhat posture they were in. This necessarily led them over the placewhere the fight had been, and where they found several of the poorcreatures not quite dead, and yet past recovering life; a sightdisagreeable enough to generous minds; for a truly great man, thoughobliged by the law of battle to destroy his enemy, takes no delight inhis misery.
However, there was no need to give any order in this case; for their ownsavages, who were their servants, dispatched those poor creatures withtheir hatchets.
At length they came in view of the place where the more miserableremains of the savages' army lay, where there appeared about one hundredstill: their posture was generally sitting upon the ground, with theirknees up towards their mouth, and the head put between the hands,leaning down upon the knees.
When our men came within two musket-shot of them, the Spaniard governorordered two muskets to be fired without ball, to alarm them; this hedid, that by their countenance he might know what to expect, viz.whether they were still in heart to fight, or were so heartily beaten,as to be dispirited and discouraged, and so he might manage accordingly.
This stratagem took; for as soon as the savages heard the first gun, andsaw the flash of the second, they started up upon their feet in thegreatest consternation imaginable; and as our men advanced swiftlytowards them, they all ran screaming and yawling away, with a kind of anhowling noise, which our men did not understand, and had never heardbefore; and thus they ran up the hills into the country.
At first our men had much rather the weather had been calm, and theyhad all gone away to sea; but they did not then consider, that thismight probably have been the occasion of their coming again in suchmultitudes as not to be resisted; or, at least, to come so many and sooften, as would quite desolate the island and starve them. Will Atkinstherefore, who, notwithstanding his wound, kept always with them, provedthe best counsellor in this case. His advice was, to take the advantagethat offered, and clap in between them and their boats, and so deprivethem of the capacity of ever returning any more to plague the island.
They consulted long about this, and some were against it, for fear ofmaking the wretches fly into the woods, and live there desperate; and sothey should have them to hunt like wild beasts, be afraid to stir abouttheir business, and have their plantation continually rifled, all theirtame goats destroyed, and, in short, be reduced to a life ofcontinual distress.
Will Atkins told them they had better have to do with one hundred menthan with one hundred nations; that as they must destroy their boats, sothey must destroy the men, or be all of them destroyed themselves. In aword, he shewed them the necessity of it so plainly, that
they all cameinto it; so they went to work immediately with the boats, and gettingsome dry wood together from a dead tree, they tried to set some of themon fire; but they were so wet that they would scarce burn. However, thefire so burned the upper part, that it soon made them unfit for swimmingin the sea as boats. When the Indians saw what they were about, some ofthem came running out of the woods, and coming as near as they could toour men, kneeled down and cried, _Oa, Oa, Waramokoa_, and some otherwords of their language, which none of the others understood any thingof; but as they made pitiful gestures and strange noises, it was easy tounderstand they begged to have their boats spared, and that they wouldbe gone, and never return thither again.
But our men were now satisfied, that they had no way to preservethemselves or to save their colony, but effectually to prevent any ofthese people from ever going home again; depending upon this, that ifever so much as one of them got back into their country to tell
