by Daniel Defoe
demonstrationsof wisdom and goodness the governing providence of God directs the eventof things in the world, which they said appeared in their circumstances;for if, pressed by the hardships they were under, and the barrenness ofthe country where they were, they had searched after a better place tolive in, they had then been out of the way of the relief that happenedto them by my means.
Then they gave me an account how the savages whom they lived amongexpected them to go out with them into their wars; and it was true, thatas they had fire-arms with them, had they not had the disaster to losetheir ammunition, they should not have been serviceable only to theirfriends, but have made themselves terrible both to friends and enemies;but being without powder and shot, and in a condition that they couldnot in reason deny to go out with their landlords to their wars; whenthey came in the field of battle they were in a worse condition than thesavages themselves, for they neither had bows nor arrows, nor could theyuse those the savages gave them, so that they could do nothing but standstill and be wounded with arrows, till they came up to the teeth oftheir enemy; and then indeed the three halberts they had were of use tothem, and they would often drive a whole little army before them withthose halberts and sharpened sticks put into the muzzles of theirmuskets: but that for all this, they were sometimes surrounded withmultitudes, and in great danger from their arrows; till at last theyfound the way to make themselves large targets of wood, which theycovered with skins of wild beasts, whose names they knew not, and thesecovered them from the arrows of the savages; that notwithstanding these,they were sometimes in great danger, and were once five of them knockeddown together with the clubs of the savages, which was the time when oneof them was taken prisoner, that is to say, the Spaniard whom I hadrelieved; that at first they thought he had been killed, but whenafterwards they heard he was taken prisoner, they were under thegreatest grief imaginable, and would willingly have all ventured theirlives to have rescued him.
They told me, that when they were so knocked down, the rest of theircompany rescued them, and stood over them fighting till they were cometo themselves, all but he who they thought had been dead; and then theymade their way with their halberts and pieces, standing close togetherin a line, through a body of above a thousand savages, beating down allthat came in their way, got the victory over their enemies, but to theirgreat sorrow, because it was with the loss of their friend; whom theother party, finding him alive, carried off with some others, as I gavean account in my former.
They described, most affectionately, how they were surprised with joy atthe return of their friend and companion in misery, who they thought hadbeen devoured by wild beasts of the worst kind, viz. by wild men; andyet how more and more they were surprised with the account he gave themof his errand, and that there was a Christian in a place near, much moreone that was able, and had humanity enough to contribute to theirdeliverance.
They described how they were astonished at the sight of the relief Isent them, and at the appearance of loaves of bread, things they had notseen since their coming to that miserable place; how often they crossedit, and blessed it as bread sent from heaven; and what a revivingcordial it was to their spirits to taste it, as also of the other thingsI had sent for their supply. And, after all, they would have told mesomething of the joy they were in at the sight of a boat and pilots tocarry them away to the person and place from whence all these newcomforts came; but they told me it was impossible to express it bywords, for their excessive joy driving them to unbecomingextravagancies, they had no way to describe them but by telling me thatthey bordered upon lunacy, having no way to give vent to their passionsuitable to the sense that was upon them; that in some it worked oneway, and in some another; and that some of them, through a surprise ofjoy, would burst out into tears; others be half mad, and othersimmediately faint. This discourse extremely affected me, and called tomy mind Friday's ecstasy when he met his father, and the poor people'secstasy when I took them up at sea, after their ship was on fire; themate of the ship's joy, when he found himself delivered in the placewhere he expected to perish; and my own joy, when after twenty-eightyears captivity I found a good ship ready to carry me to my own country.All these things made me more sensible of the relation of these poormen, and more affected with it.
Having thus given a view of the state of things as I found them, I mustrelate the heads of what I did for these people, and the condition inwhich I left them. It was their opinion, and mine too, that they wouldbe troubled no more with the savages; or that, if they were, they wouldbe able to cut them off, if they were twice as many as before; so thatthey had no concern about that. Then I entered into a serious discoursewith the Spaniard whom I called governor, about their stay in theisland; for as I was not come to carry any of them off, so it would notbe just to carry off some and leave others, who perhaps would beunwilling to stay if their strength was diminished.
On the other hand I told them, I came to establish them there, not toremove them; and then I let them know that I had brought with me reliefof sundry kinds for them; that I had been at a great charge to supplythem with all things necessary, as well for their convenience as theirdefence; and that I had such particular persons with me, as well toincrease and recruit their number, as by the particular necessaryemployments which they were bred to, being artificers, to assist them inthose things in which at present they were to seek.
They were all together when I talked thus to them; and before Idelivered to them the stores I had brought, I asked them, one by one, ifthey had entirely forgot and buried the first animosities that had beenamong them, and could shake hands with one another, and engage in astrict friendship and union of interest, so that there might be no moremisunderstandings or jealousies.
William Atkins, with abundance of frankness and good humour, said, theyhad met with afflictions enough to make them all sober, and enemiesenough to make them all friends: that for his part he would live and diewith them; and was so far from designing any thing against theSpaniards, that he owned they had done nothing to him but what his ownbad humour made necessary, and what he would have done, and perhaps muchworse, in their case; and that he would ask them pardon, if I desiredit, for the foolish and brutish things he had done to them; and was verywilling and desirous of living on terms of entire friendship and unionwith them; and would do any thing that lay in his power, to convincethem of it: and as for going to England, he cared not if he did not gothither these twenty years.
The Spaniards said, they had indeed at first disarmed and excludedWilliam Atkins and his two countrymen, for their ill conduct, as theyhad let me know; and they appealed to me for the necessity they wereunder to do so; but that William Atkins had behaved himself so bravelyin the great fight they had with the savages, and on several occasionssince, and had shewed himself so faithful to, and concerned for thegeneral interest of them all, that they had forgotten all that was past,and thought he merited as much to be trusted with arms, and suppliedwith necessaries, as any of them; and that they had testified theirsatisfaction in him, by committing the command to him, next to thegovernor himself; and as they had an entire confidence in him and allhis countrymen, so they acknowledged they had merited that confidence byall the methods that honest men could merit to be valued and trusted;and they most heartily embraced the occasion of giving me thisassurance, that they would never have any interest separate fromone another.
Upon these frank and open declarations of friendship, we appointed thenext day to dine all together, and indeed we made a splendid feast. Icaused the ship's cook and his mate to come on shore and dress ourdinner, and the old cook's mate we had on shore assisted. We brought onshore six pieces of good beef, and four pieces of pork, out of theship's provision, with our punch-bowl, and materials to fill it; and, inparticular, I gave them ten bottles of French claret, and ten bottles ofEnglish beer, things that neither the Spaniards nor the Englishmen hadtasted for many years; and which it may be supposed they wereexceeding glad of.
The Spaniards added to our feast five whole kids,
which the cooksroasted; and three of them were sent, covered up close, on board ourship to the seamen, that they might feast on fresh meat from on shore,as we did with their salt meal from on board.
After this feast, at which we were very innocently merry, I brought outmy cargo of goods, wherein, that there might be no dispute aboutdividing, I shewed them that there was sufficient for them all; anddesired that they might all take an equal quantity of the goods thatwere for wearing; that is to say, equal when made up. As first, Idistributed linen sufficient to make every one of them four shirts; and,at the Spaniards' request, afterwards made them up six; these wereexceeding comfortable to them, having been what, as I may say, they hadlong since forgot the use of, or what it was to wear them.
I allotted the thin English stuffs, which I mentioned before, to makeevery one a light coat like a frock, which I judged fittest for the heatof the season, cool and loose; and ordered, that whenever
