remote eastward, knew nothing of the matter till all was over),
came and offered their help and assistance, and did, very friendly,
work for several days to restore their habitation and make
necessaries for them. And thus in a little time they were set upon
their legs again.
About two days after this they had the farther satisfaction of
seeing three of the savages’ canoes come driving on shore, and, at
some distance from them, two drowned men, by which they had reason
to believe that they had met with a storm at sea, which had overset
some of them; for it had blown very hard the night after they went
off. However, as some might miscarry, so, on the other hand,
enough of them escaped to inform the rest, as well of what they had
done as of what had happened to them; and to whet them on to
another enterprise of the same nature, which they, it seems,
resolved to attempt, with sufficient force to carry all before
them; for except what the first man had told them of inhabitants,
they could say little of it of their own knowledge, for they never
saw one man; and the fellow being killed that had affirmed it, they
had no other witness to confirm it to, them.
CHAPTER V – A GREAT VICTORY
IT was five or six months after this before they heard any more of
the savages, in which time our men were in hopes they had either
forgot their former bad luck, or given over hopes of better; when,
on a sudden, they were invaded with a most formidable fleet of no
less than eight-and-twenty canoes, full of savages, armed with bows
and arrows, great clubs, wooden swords, and such like engines of
war; and they brought such numbers with them, that, in short, it
put all our people into the utmost consternation.
As they came on shore in the evening, and at the easternmost side
of the island, our men had that night to consult and consider what
to do. In the first place, knowing that their being entirely
concealed was their only safety before and would be much more so
now, while the number of their enemies would be so great, they
resolved, first of all, to take down the huts which were built for
the two Englishmen, and drive away their goats to the old cave;
because they supposed the savages would go directly thither, as
soon as it was day, to play the old game over again, though they
did not now land within two leagues of it. In the next place, they
drove away all the flocks of goats they had at the old bower, as I
called it, which belonged to the Spaniards; and, in short, left as
little appearance of inhabitants anywhere as was possible; and the
next morning early they posted themselves, with all their force, at
the plantation of the two men, to wait for their coming. As they
guessed, so it happened: these new invaders, leaving their canoes
at the east end of the island, came ranging along the shore,
directly towards the place, to the number of two hundred and fifty,
as near as our men could judge. Our army was but small indeed;
but, that which was worse, they had not arms for all their number.
The whole account, it seems, stood thus: first, as to men,
seventeen Spaniards, five Englishmen, old Friday, the three slaves
taken with the women, who proved very faithful, and three other
slaves, who lived with the Spaniards. To arm these, they had
eleven muskets, five pistols, three fowling-pieces, five muskets or
fowling-pieces which were taken by me from the mutinous seamen whom
I reduced, two swords, and three old halberds.
To their slaves they did not give either musket or fusee; but they
had each a halberd, or a long staff, like a quarter-staff, with a
great spike of iron fastened into each end of it, and by his side a
hatchet; also every one of our men had a hatchet. Two of the women
could not be prevailed upon but they would come into the fight, and
they had bows and arrows, which the Spaniards had taken from the