The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Page 5

admission into the house or cave, and they began to live very

  sociably; and the head Spaniard, who had seen pretty much of my

  methods, together with Friday's father, managed all their affairs;

  but as for the Englishmen, they did nothing but ramble about the

  island, shoot parrots, and catch tortoises; and when they came home

  at night, the Spaniards provided their suppers for them.

  The Spaniards would have been satisfied with this had the others

  but let them alone, which, however, they could not find in their

  hearts to do long: but, like the dog in the manger, they would not

  eat themselves, neither would they let the others eat. The

  differences, nevertheless, were at first but trivial, and such as

  are not worth relating, but at last it broke out into open war:

  and it began with all the rudeness and insolence that can be

  imagined--without reason, without provocation, 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 a

  defect in my former relation; and this was, I forgot to set down

  among the rest, that just as we were weighing the anchor to set

  sail, there happened a little quarrel on board of our ship, which I

  was once afraid would have turned to a second mutiny; nor was it

  appeased till the captain, rousing up his courage, and taking us

  all to his assistance, parted them by force, and making two of the

  most refractory fellows prisoners, he laid them in irons: and as

  they had been active in the former disorders, and let fall some

  ugly, dangerous words the second time, he threatened to carry them

  in irons to England, and have them hanged there for mutiny and

  running away with the ship. This, it seems, though the captain did

  not intend to do it, frightened some other men in the ship; and

  some of them had put it into the head of the rest that the captain

  only gave them good words for the present, till they should come to

  same English port, and that then they should be all put into gaol,

  and tried for their lives. The mate got intelligence of this, and

  acquainted us with it, upon which it 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 that they might be assured, if they

  behaved well the rest of the voyage, all they had done for the time

  past should be pardoned. So I went, and after passing my honour's

  word to them they appeared easy, and the more so when I caused the

  two men that were in irons to be released and forgiven.

  But this mutiny had brought us to an anchor for that night; the

  wind also falling calm next morning, we found that our two men who

  had been laid in irons had stolen each of them a musket and some

  other weapons (what powder or shot they had we knew not), and had

  taken the ship's pinnace, which was not yet hauled up, and run away

  with her to their companions in roguery on shore. As soon as we

  found this, I ordered the long-boat on shore, with twelve men and

  the mate, and away they went to seek the rogues; but they could

  neither find them nor any of the rest, for they all fled into the

  woods when they saw the boat coming on shore. The mate was once

  resolved, in justice to their roguery, to have destroyed their

  plantations, burned all their household stuff and furniture, and

  left them to shift without it; but having no orders, he let it all

  alone, left everything as he found it, and bringing the pinnace

  way, came on board without them. These two men made their number

  five; but the other three villains were so much more wicked than

  they, that after they had been two or three days together they

  turned the two newcomers out of doors to shift for themselves, and

  would have nothing to do with them; nor could they for a 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 go

  forward: the Spaniards would have persuaded the three English

  brutes to have taken in their countrymen again, that, as they said,

  they might be all one family; but they would not hear of it, so the

  two poor fellows lived by themselves; and finding nothing but

  industry and application would make them live comfortably, they

  pitched their tents on the north shore of the island, but a little

  more to the west, to be out of danger of the savages, who always

  landed on the east parts of the island. Here they built them two

  huts, one to lodge in, and the other to lay up their magazines and

  stores in; and the Spaniards having given them some corn for seed,

  and some of the peas which I had left them, they dug, 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 the ground; and

  though it was but a little bit of land which they had dug up at

  first, having had but a little time, yet it was enough to relieve

  them, and find them with bread and other eatables; and one of the

  fellows being the cook's mate of the ship, was very ready at making

  soup, 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 this little thriving position when the three

  unnatural rogues, their own countrymen too, in mere humour, and to

  insult them, came and bullied them, and told them the island was

  theirs: that the governor, meaning me, had given them the

  possession of it, and nobody else had any right to it; and that

  they should build no houses upon their ground unless they would pay

  rent for them. The two men, thinking they were jesting at first,

  asked them to come in and sit down, and see what fine houses they

  were that they had built, and to tell them what rent they demanded;

  and one of them merrily said if they were the ground-landlords, he

  hoped if they built tenements upon their land, and made

  improvements, they would, according to the custom of landlords,

  grant a long lease: and desired they would get a scrivener to draw

  the writings. One of the three, cursing and raging, told them they

  should see they were not in jest; and going to a little place at a

  distance, 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 set it on fire: indeed, it would have been all

  burned down in a few minutes 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 some difficulty too.

  The fellow was in such a rage at the honest man's thrusting him

  away, that he returned upon him, with a pole he had in his hand,

  and had not the man avoided the blow very nimbly, and run into the

  hut, he had ended his days at once. His comrade, seeing the danger

  they were b
oth in, ran after him, and immediately they came both

  out with their muskets, and the man that was first struck at with

  the pole knocked the fellow down that began the quarrel with the

  stock of his musket, and that before the other 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 to them,

  bade them stand off.

  The others had firearms with them too; but one of the two honest

  men, bolder than his comrade, and made desperate by his danger,

  told them if they offered to move hand or foot they were dead men,

  and boldly commanded them to lay down their arms. They did not,

  indeed, lay down their arms, but seeing him so resolute, it brought

  them to a parley, and they 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, that they did not disarm them

  effectually, as they might have done, and have gone immediately to

  the Spaniards, and given them an account how the rogues had treated

  them; for the three villains studied nothing but revenge, and every

  day gave them some intimation that they did so.

  CHAPTER III--FIGHT WITH CANNIBALS

  But not to crowd this part with an account of the lesser part of

  the rogueries with which they plagued them continually, night and

  day, it forced the two men to such a desperation that they resolved

  to fight them all three, the first time they had a fair

  opportunity. In order to do this they resolved to go to the castle

  (as they called my old dwelling), where the three rogues and the

  Spaniards all lived together at that time, intending to have a fair

  battle, and the Spaniards should stand by to see fair play: so

  they got up in the morning before day, and came to the place, and

  called the Englishmen by their names telling a Spaniard that

  answered that they wanted to speak with them.

  It happened that the day before two of the Spaniards, having been

  in the woods, had seen one of the two Englishmen, whom, for

  distinction, I called the honest men, and he had made a sad

  complaint to the Spaniards of the barbarous usage they had met with

  from their three countrymen, and how they had ruined their

  plantation, and destroyed their corn, that they had laboured so

  hard to bring forward, and killed the milch-goat and their three

  kids, which was all they had provided for their sustenance, and

  that if he and his friends, meaning the Spaniards, did not assist

  them again, they should be starved. When the Spaniards came home

  at night, and they were all at supper, one of them took the freedom

  to reprove the three Englishmen, though in very gentle and mannerly

  terms, and asked them how they could be so cruel, they being

  harmless, inoffensive fellows: that they were putting themselves

  in a way to subsist by their labour, and that it had cost them a

  great deal of pains to bring things to such perfection as they were

  then in.

  One of the Englishmen returned very briskly, "What had they to do

  there? that they came on shore without leave; and that they should

  not plant or build upon the island; it was none of their ground."

  "Why," says the Spaniard, very calmly, "Seignior Inglese, they must

  not starve." The Englishman replied, like a rough tarpaulin, "They

  might starve; they should not plant nor build in that place." "But

  what must they do then, seignior?" said the Spaniard. Another of

  the brutes returned, "Do? they should be servants, and work for

  them." "But how can you expect that of them?" says the Spaniard;

  "they are not bought with your money; you have no right to make

  them servants." The Englishman answered, "The island was theirs;

  the governor had given it to them, and no man had anything to do

  there but themselves;" and with that he swore that he would go and

  burn all their new huts; they should build none upon their land.

  "Why, seignior," says the Spaniard, "by the same rule, we must be

  your servants, too." "Ay," returned the bold dog, "and so you

  shall, too, before we have done with you;" mixing two or three

  oaths in the proper intervals of his speech. The Spaniard only

  smiled at that, and made him no answer. However, this little

  discourse had heated them; and starting up, one says to the other.

  (I think it was he they called Will Atkins), "Come, Jack, let's go

  and have t'other brush with them; we'll demolish their castle, I'll

  warrant you; they shall plant no colony in our dominions."

  Upon this they were all trooping away, with every man a gun, a

  pistol, and a sword, and muttered some insolent things among

  themselves of what they would do to the Spaniards, too, when

  opportunity offered; but the Spaniards, it seems, did not so

  perfectly understand them as to know all the particulars, only that

  in general they threatened them hard for taking the two

  Englishmen's part. Whither they went, or how they bestowed their

  time that evening, the Spaniards said they did not know; but it

  seems they wandered about the country part of the night, and them

  lying down in the place which I used to call my bower, they were

  weary and overslept themselves. The case was this: they had

  resolved to stay till midnight, and so take the two poor men when

  they were asleep, and as they acknowledged afterwards, intended to

  set fire to their huts while they were in them, and either burn

  them there or murder them as they came out. As malice seldom

  sleeps very sound, it was very strange they should not have been

  kept awake. However, as the two men had also a design upon them,

  as I have said, though a much fairer one than that of burning and

  murdering, it happened, and very luckily for them all, that they

  were up and gone abroad before the bloody-minded rogues came to

  their huts.

  When they came there, and found the men gone, Atkins, who it seems

  was the forwardest man, called out to his comrade, "Ha, Jack,

  here's the nest, but the birds are flown." They mused a while, to

  think what should be the occasion of their being gone abroad so

  soon, and suggested presently that the Spaniards had given them

  notice of it; and with that they shook hands, and swore to one

  another that they would be revenged of the Spaniards. As soon as

  they had made this bloody bargain they fell to work with the poor

  men's habitation; they did not set fire, indeed, to anything, but

  they pulled down both their houses, and left not the least stick

  standing, or scarce any sign on the ground where they stood; they

  tore all their household stuff in pieces, and threw everything

  about in such a manner, that the poor men afterwards found some of

  their things a mile off. When they had done this, they pulled up

  all the young trees which the poor men had planted; broke down an

  enclosure they had made to secure their cattle and their corn; and,

  in a word, sacked and plundered everything as completely as a horde

&n
bsp; of Tartars would have done.

  The two men were at this juncture gone to find them out, and had

  resolved to fight them wherever they had been, though they were but

  two to three; so that, had they met, there certainly would have

  been blood shed among them, for they were all very stout, resolute

  fellows, to give them their due.

  But Providence took more care to keep them asunder than they

  themselves could do to meet; for, as if they had dogged one

  another, when the three were gone thither, the two were here; and

  afterwards, when the two went back to find them, the three were

  come to the old habitation again: we shall see their different

  conduct presently. When the three came back like furious

  creatures, flushed with the rage which the work they had been about

  had put them into, they came up to the Spaniards, and told them

  what they had done, by way of scoff and bravado; and one of them

  stepping up to one of the Spaniards, as if they had been a couple

  of boys at play, takes hold of his hat as it was upon his head, and

  giving it a twirl about, fleering in his face, says to him, "And

  you, Seignior Jack Spaniard, shall have the same sauce if you do

  not mend your manners." The Spaniard, who, though a quiet civil

  man, was as brave a man as could be, and withal a strong, well-made

  man, looked at him for a good while, and then, having no weapon in

  his hand, stepped gravely up to him, and, with one blow of his

  fist, knocked him down, as an ox is felled with a pole-axe; at

  which one of the rogues, as insolent as the first, fired his pistol

  at the Spaniard immediately; he missed his body, indeed, for the

  bullets went through his hair, but one of them touched the tip of

  his ear, and he bled pretty much. The blood made the Spaniard

  believe he was more hurt than he really was, and that put him into

  some heat, for before he acted all in a perfect calm; but now

  resolving to go through with his work, he stooped, and taking the

  fellow's musket whom he had knocked down, was just going to shoot

  the man who had fired at him, when the rest of the Spaniards, being

  in the cave, came out, and calling to him not to shoot, they

  stepped in, secured the other two, and took their arms from them.

  When they were thus disarmed, and found they had made all the

  Spaniards their enemies, as well as their own countrymen, they

  began to cool, and giving the Spaniards better words, would have

  their arms again; but the Spaniards, considering the feud that was

  between them and the other two Englishmen, and that it would be the

  best method they could take to keep them from killing one another,

  told them they would do them no harm, and if they would live

  peaceably, they would be very willing to assist and associate with

  them as they did before; but that they could not think of giving

  them their arms again, while they appeared so resolved to do

  mischief with them to their own countrymen, and had even threatened

  them all to make them their servants.

  The rogues were now quite deaf to all reason, and being refused

  their arms, they raved away like madmen, threatening what they

  would do, though they had no firearms. But the Spaniards,

  despising their threatening, told them they should take care how

  they offered any injury to their plantation or cattle; for if they

  did they would shoot them as they would ravenous beasts, wherever

  they found them; and if they fell into their hands alive, they

  should certainly be hanged. However, this was far from cooling

  them, but away they went, raging and swearing like furies. As soon

  as they were gone, the two men came back, in passion and rage

  enough also, though of another kind; for having been at their

  plantation, and finding it all demolished and destroyed, as above

  mentioned, it will easily be supposed they had provocation enough.

  They could scarce have room to tell their tale, the Spaniards were

  so eager to tell them theirs: and it was strange enough to find

  that three men should thus bully nineteen, and receive no