We March Out Against the Cannibals
WHEN the settled season began to come in, as the
thought of my design returned with the fair weather, I was
preparing daily for the voyage; and the first thing I did was to
lay by a certain quantity of provisions, being the stores for our
voyage; and intended, in a week or a fortnight’s time, to open the
dock and launch out our boat. I was busy one morning upon something
of this kind, when I called to Friday, and bade him go to the
seashore and see if he could find a turtle, or tortoise, a thing
which we generally got once a week, for the sake of the eggs as
well as the flesh. Friday had not been long gone when he came
running back and flew over my outer wall, or fence, like one that
felt not the ground, or the steps he set his feet on; and before I
had time to speak to him, he cries out to me, "O Master! O Master!
O sorrow! O bad!’’ ‘‘What’s the matter, Friday?’’ says I. "O
yonder, there,’’ says he, ‘‘one, two, three canoe! one, two,
three!’’ By his way of speaking, I concluded there were six; but on
inquiry I found it was but three. ‘‘Well, Friday,’’ says I, ‘‘do
not be frighted’’; so I heartened him up as well as I could.
However, I saw the poor fellow was most terribly scared; for
nothing ran in his head but that they were come to look for him,
and would cut him in pieces and eat him; and the poor fellow
trembled so, that I scarce knew what to do with him. I comforted
him as well as I could, and told him I was in as much danger as he,
and that they would eat me as well as him; ‘‘But,’’ says I,
‘‘Friday, we must resolve to fight them; can you fight, Friday?’’
‘‘Me shoot,’’ says he, ‘‘but there come many great number.’’ ‘‘No
matter for that,’’ said I again, ‘‘our guns will fright them that
we do not kill’’; so I asked him, whether if I resolved to defend
him, he would defend me, and stand by me, and do just as I bade
him. He said, ‘‘Me die when you bid die, Master’’; so I went and
fetched a good dram of rum, and gave him; for I had been so good a
husband of my rum, that I had a great deal left. When he had drunk
it, I made him take the two fowling pieces, which we always
carried, and load them with large swan-shot, as big as small pistol
bullets; then I took four muskets, and loaded them with two slugs
and five small bullets each; and my two pistols I loaded with a
brace of bullets each. I hung my great sword, as usual, naked by my
side, and gave Friday his hatchet.
When I had thus prepared myself, I took my
perspective -glass and went up to the side of the hill, to see what
I could discover; and I found quickly, by my glass, that there were
one-and-twenty savages, three prisoners, and three canoes; and that
their whole business seemed to be the triumphant banquet upon these
three human bodies (a barbarous feast indeed), but nothing else
more than, as I had observed, was usual with them.
I observed also that they were landed, not where
they had done when Friday made his escape, but nearer to my creek,
where the shore was low, and where a thick wood came close almost
down to the sea. This, with the abhorrence of the inhuman errand
these wretches came about, filled me with such indignation that I
came down again to Friday and told him I was resolved to go down to
them, and kill them all; and asked him if he would stand by me. He
was now gotten over his fright, and his spirits being a little
raised with the dram I had given him, he was very cheerful, and
told me, as before, he would die when I bade die.
In this fit of fury, I took first and divided the
arms which I had charged, as before, between us; I gave Friday one
pistol to stick in his girdle, and three guns upon his shoulder;
and I took one pistol, and the other three myself; and in this
posture we marched out. I took a small bottle of rum in my pocket
and gave Friday a large bag with more powder and bullet; and as to
orders, I charged him to keep close behind me, and not to stir, or
shoot, or do anything, till I bade him; and in the meantime not to
speak a word. In this posture I fetched a compass to my right hand
of near a mile, as well to get over the creek, as to get into the
wood; so that I might come within shot of them before I should be
discovered, which I had seen by my glass it was easy to do.
While I was making this march, my former thoughts
returning, I began to abate my resolution; I do not mean that I
entertained any fear of their number; for as they were naked,
unarmed wretches, ’tis certain I was superior to them; nay, though
I had been alone; but it occurred to my thoughts what call, what
occasion, much less what necessity, I was in to go and dip my hands
in blood, to attack people who had neither done or intended me any
wrong; who, as to me, were innocent and whose barbarous customs
were their own disaster, being in them a token indeed of God’s
having left them, with the other nations of that part of the world,
to such stupidity and to such inhuman courses; but did not call me
to take upon me to be a judge of their actions, much less an
executioneer of His Justice; that whenever He thought fit, He would
take the cause into His own hands, and by national vengeance punish
them as a people for national crimes; but that, in the meantime, it
was none of my business; that it was true, Friday might justify it,
because he was a declared enemy, and in a state of war with those
very particular people; and it was lawful for him to attack them;
but I could not say the same with respect to me. These things were
so warmly pressed upon my thoughts all the way as I went that I
resolved I would only go and place myself near them, that I might
observe their barbarous feast and that I would act then as God
should direct; but that unless something offered that was more a
call to me than yet I knew of, I would not meddle with them.
With this resolution I entered the wood, and, with
all possible wariness and silence (Friday following close at my
heels) I marched till I came to the skirt of the wood, on the side
which was next to them; only that one corner of the wood lay
between me and them; here I called softly to Friday, and showing
him a great tree, which was just at the corner of the wood, I bade
him go to the tree, and bring me word if he could see there plainly
what they were doing; he did so, and came immediately back to me
and told me they might be plainly viewed there; that they were all
about their fire, eating the flesh of one of their prisoners; and
that another lay bound upon the sand, a little from them, which he
said they would kill next; and which fired all the very soul within
me. He told me it was not one of their nation, but one of the
bearded men, whom he had told me of, that came to their country in
the boat. I was filled with horror at the very naming the white
bearded man, and, going to the tree, I saw plainly by my glass a
white man who lay upon the beach of the sea, with his hands and his
feet tied with flags, or things like rushes, and that he was a
European and had clothes on.
There was another tree, and a little thicket beyond
it, about fifty yards nearer to them than the place where I was,
which, by going a little way about, I saw I might come at
undiscovered, and that then I should be within half shot of them;
so I withheld my passion, though I was indeed enraged to the
highest degree, and going back about twenty paces, I got behind
some bushes, which held all the way, till I came to the other tree;
and then I came to the little rising ground, which gave me a full
view of them, at the distance of about eighty yards.
I had now not a moment to lose; for nineteen of the
dreadful wretches sat upon the ground, all close huddled together,
and had just sent the other two to butcher the poor Christian and
bring him, perhaps limb by limb, to their fire, and they were
stooped down to untie the bands at his feet. I turned to Friday.
‘‘Now, Friday,’’ said I, ‘‘do as I bid thee.’’ Friday said he
would. ‘‘Then, Friday, ’’ says I, ‘‘do exactly as you see me do;
fail in nothing. ’’ So I set down one of the muskets and the
fowling piece upon the ground, and Friday did the like by his; and
with the other musket I took my aim at the savages, bidding him do
the like; then asking him if he was ready, he said, ‘‘Yes.’’ ‘‘Then
fire at them,’’ said I; and the same moment I fired also.
Friday took his aim so much better than I that on
the side that he shot he killed two of them and wounded three more;
and on my side, I killed one and wounded two. They were, you may be
sure, in a dreadful consternation; and all of them who were not
hurt jumped up upon their feet, but did not immediately know which
way to run or which way to look; for they knew not from whence
their destruction came. Friday kept his eyes close upon me, that,
as I had bade him, he might observe what I did; so, as soon as the
first shot was made, I threw down the piece, and took up the
fowling piece, and Friday did the like; he sees me cock and
present; he did the same again. ‘‘Are you ready, Friday?’’ said I.
‘‘Yes,’’ says he. ‘‘Let fly, then,’’ says I, ‘‘in the name of
God!’’ and with that I fired again among the amazed wretches, and
so did Friday; and as our pieces were now loaden with what I called
swan-shot, or small pistol bullets, we found only two drop; but so
many were wounded that they ran about yelling and screaming like
mad creatures, all bloody, and miserably wounded most of them;
whereof three more fell quickly after, though not quite dead.
‘‘Now, Friday,’’ says I, laying down the discharged
pieces and taking up the musket, which was yet loaden, ‘‘follow
me,’’ says I, which he did, with a great deal of courage; upon
which I rushed out of the wood and showed myself, 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 as fast as I
could, which, by the way, was not very fast, being loaden with arms
as I was, I made directly towards the poor victim, who was, as I
said, lying upon the beach, or shore, between the place where they
sat and the sea; the two butchers, who were just going to work with
him, had left him at the surprise of our first fire and fled in a
terrible fright to the seaside and had jumped into a canoe, and
three more of the rest made the same way; I turned to Friday and
bade him step forwards and fire at them. He understood me
immediately, and running about forty yards to be near them, he shot
at them, and I thought he had killed them all, for I saw them all
fall of a heap into the boat; though I saw two of them up again
quickly. However, he killed two of them and wounded the third, so
that he lay down in the bottom of the boat, as if he had been
dead.
While my man Friday fired at them, I pulled out my
knife and cut the flags that bound the poor victim; and, loosing
his hands and feet, I lifted him up and asked him in the Portuguese
tongue what he was. He answered in Latin, ‘‘Christianus’’; but was
so weak and faint that he could scarce stand or speak; I took my
bottle out of my pocket and gave it him, making signs that he
should drink, which he did; and I gave him a piece of bread, which
he ate; then I asked him what countryman he was. And he said
‘‘Espagniole’’; and being a little recovered, let me know by all
the signs he could possibly make how much he was in my debt for his
deliverance. ‘‘Seignior,’’ said I, with as much Spanish as I could
make up, ‘‘we will talk afterwards, but we must fight now; if you
have 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 his hands, but as if they had put new vigour into him, he flew
upon his murderers 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 poor creatures were so much frighted with the noise of
our pieces that they fell down for mere amazement and fear and had
no more power to attempt their own escape than their flesh had to
resist our shot; and that was the case of those five that Friday
shot at in the boat; for as three of them fell with the hurt they
received, so the other two fell with the fright.
I kept my piece in my hand still, without firing,
being willing to keep my 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 we first fired, and fetch the arms
which lay there that had been discharged, which he did with great
swiftness; and then giving him my musket, I sat down myself to load
all the rest again, and bade them come to me when they wanted.
While I was loading these pieces, there happened a fierce
engagement between the Spaniard and one of the savages, who made at
him with one of their great wooden swords, the same weapon that was
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, had
fought this Indian a good while, and had cut him two great wounds
on his head; 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 his hand, when the Spaniard, though undermost, wisely
quitting the sword, drew the pistol from his girdle, shot the
savage through the body, and killed him upon the spot, before I,
who was running to help him, could come near him.
Friday, being now left to his liberty, pursued the
flying wretches with no weapon in his hand but his hatchet; and
with that he dispatched those three, who, as I said before, were
wounded at first and fallen, and all the 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 the savages, and
wounded them both; but as he was not able to run, they both got
from him into the wood, where Friday pursued them and killed one of
them; but the other was too nimble for him and though he was
wounded, yet had plunged himself into the sea, and swam with all
his might off to those two who 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 hands of one-and-twenty. The account
of the rest is as follows:
Those that were in the canoe worked hard to get out
of gunshot; and though Friday made two or three shot at them, I did
not find that he hit any of them. Friday would fain have had me
take one of their canoes and pursue 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 mere multitude; so I consented to
pursue them by sea, and running to one of their canoes, I jumped in
and bade Friday follow me; but when I was in the canoe, I was
surprised to find another poor creature lie there alive, bound hand
and foot, as the Spaniard was, for the slaughter, and almost dead
with fear, not knowing what the matter was; for he had not been
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 but
little life in him.
I immediately cut the twisted flags, or rushes,
which they had bound him with, and would have helped him up; but he
could not stand or speak, but groaned most piteously, believing, it
seems, still that he was only unbound in order to be killed.
When Friday came to him, I bade him speak to him
and tell him of his deliverance, and pulling out my bottle, made
him give the poor wretch a dram, which, with the news of his being
delivered, revived him, and he sat up in the boat; but when Friday
came to hear him speak, and looked in his face, it would have moved
anyone to tears, to have seen how Friday kissed him, embraced him,
hugged him, cried, laughed, holloed, jumped about, danced, sang,
then cried again, wrung his hands, beat his own face and head, and
then sang and jumped about again, like a distracted creature. It
was a good while before I could make him speak to me, or tell me
what was the matter; but when he came a little to himself he told
me that it was his father.
It is not easy for me to express how it moved me to
see what ecstasy and filial affection had worked in this poor
savage, at the sight of his father and of his being delivered from
death; nor indeed can I describe half the extravagances of his
affection after this; for he went into the boat and out of the boat
a great many times. When he went in to him, he would sit down by
him, open his breast, and hold his father’s head close to his
bosom, half an hour together, to nourish it; then he took his arms
and ankles, which were numbed and stiff with the binding, and
chafed and rubbed them with his hands; and I, perceiving what the
case was, gave him some rum out of my bottle to rub them with,
which did them a great deal of good. with the other savages, who
were now gotten almost out of sight; and it was happy for us that
we did not; for it blew so hard within two hours after, and before
they could be gotten a quarter of their way, and continued blowing
so hard all night, and that from the northwest, which was against
them, that I could not suppose their boat could live, or that they
ever reached to their own coast.
But to return to Friday; he was so busy about his
father that I could not find in my heart to take him off for some
time. But after I thought he could leave him a little, I called him
to me, and he came jumping and laughing, and pleased to the highest
extreme; then I asked him if he had given his father any bread. He
shook his head and said, ‘‘None; ugly dog eat all up self.’’ So I
gave him a cake of bread out of a little pouch I carried on
purpose; I also gave him a dram for himself, but he would not taste
it but carried it to his father. I had in my pocket also two or
three bunches of my raisins, so I gave him a handful of them for
his father. He had no sooner given his father these raisins but I
saw 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 foot that ever I saw; I say, he ran at such a rate that he was
out of sight, as it were, in an instant; and though I called, and
holloed, too, after him, it was all one, away he went, and in a
quarter of an hour I saw him come back again, though not so fast as
he went; and as he came nearer, I found 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 earthen jug or pot to bring his father some fresh
water, and that he had got two more cakes or loaves of bread. The
bread he gave me, but the water he carried to his father. However,
as I was very thirsty too, I took a little sup of it. This water
revived his father more than all the rum or spirits I had given
him, for he was just fainting with thirst.
When his father had drunk, I called to him to know
if there was any water left; he said ‘‘Yes’’; and I bade him give
it to the poor Spaniard, who was in as much want of it as his
father; and I sent one of the cakes that Friday brought to the
Spaniard too, who was indeed very weak, and was reposing himself
upon a green place under the shade of a tree, and whose limbs were
also very stiff, and very much swelled with the rude bandage he had
been tied with. When I saw that, upon Friday’s coming to him with
the water, he sat up and drank, and took the bread and began to
eat, I went to him and gave him a handful of raisins; he looked up
in my face with all the tokens of gratitude and thankfulness that
could appear in any countenance, but was so weak, notwithstanding
he had so exerted himself in the fight that he could not stand up
upon his feet; he tried to do it two or three times, but was really
not able, his ankles were so swelled and so painful to him; so I
bade him sit still, and caused Friday to rub his ankles and bathe
them with rum, as he had done his father’s.
I observed the poor affectionate creature, every
two minutes or perhaps less, all the while he was here, turned his
head about to see if his father was in the same place and posture
as he left him sitting; and at last he found he was not to be seen;
at which he started up, and without speaking a word, flew with that
swiftness to him, that one could scarce perceive his feet to touch
the ground as he went. But when he came, he only found he had laid
himself down to ease his limbs; so Friday came back to me
presently, and I then spoke to the Spaniard to let Friday help him
up if he could and lead him to the boat, and then he should carry
him to our dwelling, where I would take care of him. But Friday, a
lusty strong fellow, took the Spaniard quite up upon his back and
carried him away to the boat and set him down softly upon the side,
or gunnel, of the canoe, with his feet in the inside of it, and
then lifted him quite in and set him close to his father, and
presently stepping out again, launched the boat off, and paddled it
along the shore faster than I could walk, though the wind blew
pretty hard too; so he brought them both safe into our creek; and
leaving them in the boat, runs away to fetch the other canoe. As he
passed me, I spoke to him, and asked him whither he went; he told
me, ‘‘Go fetch more boat’’; so away he went, like the wind; for
sure never man or horse ran like him, and he had the other canoe in
the creek almost as soon as I got to it by land; so he wafted me
over, and then went to help our new guests out of the boat, which
he did; but they were neither of them able to walk; so that poor
Friday knew not what to do.
To remedy this, I went to work in my thought, and
calling to Friday to bid them sit down on the bank while he came to
me, I soon made a kind of hand-barrow to lay them on, and Friday
and I carried them up both together upon it between us. But when we
got them to the outside of our wall, or fortification, we were at a
worse loss than before; for it was impossible to get them over, and
I was resolved not to break it down. So I set to work again; and
Friday and I, in about two hours’ time, made a very handsome tent,
covered with old sails, and above that with boughs of trees, being
in the space without our outward fence, and between that and the
grove of young wood which I had planted. And here we made them two
beds of such things as I had, viz., of good rice straw, with
blankets laid upon it to lie on, and another to cover them, on each
bed.
My island was now peopled, and I thought myself
very rich in subjects; and it was a merry reflection, which I
frequently made, how like a king I looked. First of all, the whole
country was my own mere property, so that I had an undoubted right
of dominion. Secondly, my people were perfectly subjected. I was
absolute lord and lawgiver; they all owed their lives to me, and
were ready to lay down their lives, if there had been occasion of
it, for me. It was remarkable, too, we had but three subjects, and
they were of three different religions. My man Friday was a
Protestant, his father was a pagan and a cannibal, and the Spaniard
was a Papist. However, I allowed liberty of conscience throughout
my dominions. But this is by the way.