When they were on shore, I was fully satisfied they were Englishmen, at least most of them; one or two I thought were Dutch, but it did not prove so. There were in all eleven men, whereof three of them I found were unarmed, and (as I thought) bound; and when the first four or five of them were jumped on shore, they took those three out of the boat as prisoners. One of the three I could perceive using the most passionate gestures of entreaty, affliction, and despair, even to a kind of extravagance; the other two, I could perceive, lifted up their hands sometimes, and appeared concerned indeed, but not to such a degree as the first.
I was perfectly confounded at the sight, and knew not what the meaning of it should be; Friday called out to me in English, as well as he could, “Oh, master! you see English mans eat prisoners as well as savage mans!” “Why,” said I, “Friday, do you think they are going to eat them then?” “Yes,” says Friday, “they will eat them.” “No, no,” said I, “Friday; I am afraid they will murder them indeed: but you may be sure they will not eat them.”
All this while I had no thought of what the matter really was, but stood trembling with the horror of the sight, expecting every moment when the three prisoners should be killed; nay, once I saw one of the villains lift up his arm with a great cutlass (as the seamen call it) or sword, to strike one of the poor men; and I expected to see him fall every moment, at which all the blood in my body seemed to run chill in my veins.
I wished heartily now for our Spaniard, and the savage that was gone with him; or that I had any way to have come undiscovered within shot of them, that I might have rescued the three men; for I saw no firearms they had among them: but it fell out to my mind another way.
After I had observed the outrageous usage of the three men by the insolent seamen, I observed the fellows run scattering about the land, as if they wanted to see the country. I observed also, that the three other men had liberty to go where they pleased; but they sat down all three upon the ground very pensive, and looked like men in despair.
This put me in mind of the first time when I came on shore, and began to look about me; how I gave myself over for lost, how wildly I looked round me, what dreadful apprehensions I had, and how I lodged in the tree all night, for fear of being devoured by wild beasts.
As I knew nothing that night of the supply I was to receive by the providential driving of the ship nearer the land by the storms and tides, by which I have since been so long nourished and supported; so these three poor desolate men knew nothing how certain of deliverance and supply they were, how near it was to them, and how effectually and really they were in a condition of safety; at the same time they thought themselves lost, and their case desperate.
So little do we see before us in the world, and so much reason have we to depend cheerfully upon the great Maker of the world, that he does not leave his creatures so absolutely destitute, but that in the worst circumstances they have always something to be thankful for, and sometimes are nearer their deliverance than they imagine—nay, are even brought to their deliverance by the means by which they seem to be brought to their destruction.
It was just at the top of high water when these people came on shore, and while partly they stood parleying with the prisoners they brought, and partly while they rambled about to see what kind of place they were in, they had carelessly staid till the tide was spent, and the water was ebbed considerably away, leaving their boat aground.
They had left two men in the boat, who, as I found afterwards, having drunk a little too much brandy, fell asleep; however, one of them waking sooner than the other, and finding the boat too fast aground for him to stir it, hallooed for the rest who were straggling about, upon which they all soon came to the boat; but it was past all their strength to launch her, the boat being very heavy, and the shore on that side being a soft, oozy sand, almost like a quicksand.