a rising ground, Atkins, though he was wounded, would have had them
march and charge again all together at once: but the Spaniard
replied, “Seignior Atkins, you see how their wounded men fight; let
them alone till morning; all the wounded men will be stiff and sore
with their wounds, and faint with the loss of blood; and so we
shall have the fewer to engage.” This advice was good: but Will
Atkins replied merrily, “That is true, seignior, and so shall I
too; and that is the reason I would go on while I am warm.” “Well,
Seignior Atkins,” says the Spaniard, “you have behaved gallantly,
and done your part; we will fight for you if you cannot come on;
but I think it best to stay till morning:” so they waited.
But as it was a clear moonlight night, and they found the savages
in great disorder about their dead and wounded men, and a great
noise and hurry among them where they lay, they afterwards resolved
to fall upon them in the night, especially if they could come to
give them but one volley before they were discovered, which they
had a fair opportunity to do; for one of the Englishmen in whose
quarter it was where the fight began, led them round between the
woods and the seaside westward, and then turning short south, they
came so near where the thickest of them lay, that before they were
seen or heard eight of them fired in among them, and did dreadful
execution upon them; in half a minute more eight others fired after
them, pouring in their small shot in such a quantity that abundance
were killed and wounded; and all this while they were not able to
see who hurt them, or which way to fly.
The Spaniards charged again with the utmost expedition, and then
divided themselves into three bodies, and resolved to fall in among
them all together. They had in each body eight persons, that is to
say, twenty-two men and the two women, who, by the way, fought
desperately. They divided the firearms equally in each party, as
well as the halberds and staves. They would have had the women
kept back, but they said they were resolved to die with their
husbands. Having thus formed their little army, they marched out
from among the trees, and came up to the teeth of the enemy,
shouting and hallooing as loud as they could; the savages stood all
together, but were in the utmost confusion, hearing the noise of
our men shouting from three quarters together. They would have
fought if they had seen us; for as soon as we came near enough to
be seen, some arrows were shot, and poor old Friday was wounded,
though not 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 of their muskets, their swords, armed staves, and
hatchets, and laid about them 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, being frightened out of their wits, scoured through the woods
and over the hills, with all the speed that fear and nimble feet
could help them to; and as we did not trouble ourselves much to
pursue them, they got all together to the seaside, where they
landed, and where their canoes lay. But their disaster was not at
an end yet; for it blew a terrible storm of wind that evening from
the sea, so that it was impossible for them to go off; nay, the
storm continuing all night, when the tide came up their canoes were
most of them driven by the surge of the sea so high upon the shore
that it required infinite toil to get them off; and some of them
were even dashed to pieces against the beach. Our men, though glad
of their victory, yet got little rest that night; but having