Part 27 (1/2)
However, there was no need to give any order in this case; for their own savages, ere their servants, dispatched those poor creatures with their hatchets
At length they came in view of the place where the es' army lay, where there appeared about one hundred still: their posture was generally sitting upon the ground, with their knees up towards theirdown upon the knees
When our overnor ordered two muskets to be fired without ball, to alarht knohat to expect, viz
whether they were still in heart to fight, or were so heartily beaten, as to be dispirited and discouraged, and so he eun, and saw the flash of the second, they started up upon their feet in the greatest consternation iinable; and as ourand yawling aith a kind of an howling noise, which our men did not understand, and had never heard before; and thus they ran up the hills into the country
At first our men had one away to sea; but they did not then consider, that this ain in such multitudes as not to be resisted; or, at least, to come so many and so often, as would quite desolate the island and starve the his wound, kept alith them, proved the best counsellor in this case His advice was, to take the advantage that offered, and clap in between them and their boats, and so deprive theue the island
They consulted long about this, and so the wretches fly into the woods, and live there desperate; and so they should have them to hunt like wild beasts, be afraid to stir about their business, and have their plantation continually rifled, all their taoats destroyed, and, in short, be reduced to a life of continual distress
Will Atkins told them they had better have to do with one hundred men than with one hundred nations; that as they must destroy their boats, so they must destroy the men, or be all of them destroyed themselves In a word, he shewed them the necessity of it so plainly, that they all came into it; so they went to work iether from a dead tree, they tried to set some of them on fire; but they were so wet that they would scarce burn However, the fire so burned the upper part, that it soonin the sea as boats When the Indians sahat they were about, so as near as they could to our men, kneeled down and cried, _Oa, Oa, Warae, which none of the others understood any thing of; but as they e noises, it was easy to understand they begged to have their boats spared, and that they would be gone, and never return thither again
But our men were now satisfied, that they had no way to preserve themselves or to save their colony, but effectually to prevent any of these people fro upon this, that if ever so ot back into their country to tell the story, the colony was undone; so that letting them know that they should not have any mercy, they fell to ith their canoes, and destroyed them, every one that the stores raised a hideous cry in the woods, which our people heard plain enough; after which they ran about the island like distracted men; so that, in a word, our men did not really know at first what to do with them
Nor did the Spaniards, with all their prudence, consider that while they ood guard at the sah it is true they had driven away their cattle, and the Indians did not find their main retreat, I mean my old castle at the hill, nor the cave in the valley; yet they found out my plantation at the bower, and pulled it all to pieces, and all the fences and planting about it; trod all the corn under foot; tore up the vines and grapes, being just then alh to theh our ht them upon all occasions, yet they were in no condition to pursue them, or hunt them up and down; for as they were too nile, so oursurrounded with their nuh they had bows they had no arrows left, nor any ed tool or weapon a thereat, and indeed deplorable, but at the saht to very hard circuh their retreats were preserved, yet their provision was destroyed, and their harvest spoiled; and what to do or which way to turn thee they had noas the stock of cattle they had in the valley by the cave, and solishmen, William Atkins and his co killed by an arrohich struck him on the side of his head, just under the temples, so that he never spoke more; and it was very remarkable, that this was the sae slave with his hatchet, and who afterwards intended to have murdered the Spaniards
I look upon their case to have been worse at this tirains of barley and rice, and got into themy corn, and my tame cattle; for now they had, as I may say, an hundred wolves upon the island, which would devour every thing they could come at, yet could be very hardly co they concluded when they sahat their circumstances were, was, that they would, if possible, drive them up to the farther part of the island, south-east, that if any ht not find one another; then that they would daily hunt and harass them, and kill as many of them as they could come at, till they had reduced the nu theive them corn, and teach them how to plant, and live upon their daily Labour
In order to this they followed theuns, that in a few days, if any of theun at an Indian, if he did not hit hihted they were, that they kept out of sight farther and farther, till at last oursome of them, they kept up in the woods and hollow places so much, that it reduced them to the utmost misery for want of food; and many were afterwards found dead in the woods, without any hurt, but merely starved to death
When our men found this, it made their hearts relent, and pity overnor, as the enerous-minded man that ever I met with in my life; and he proposed, if possible, to take one of the him to understand what they o aht to soht be depended upon, to save their lives, and do us no spoil
It was so weak, and half-starved, one of them was at last surprised, and made a prisoner: he was sullen at first, and would neither eat nor drink; but finding hiiven hirew tractable, and caht old Friday to him, who talked often with him, and told him how kind the others would be to theive theive satisfaction; that they should keep in their own bounds, and not come beyond them, to injure or prejudice others; and that they should have corn given theiven them for their present subsistence; and old Friday bade the fellow go and talk with the rest of his country theree immediately they should all be destroyed
The poor wretches, thoroughly humbled, and reduced in number to about thirty-seven, closed with the proposal at the first offer, and begged to have solishmen, well armed, and three Indian slaves, and old Friday, marched to the place where they were; the three Indian slaves carried thee quantity of bread, and some rice boiled up to cakes, and dried in the sun, and three live goats; and they were ordered to go to the side of an hill, where they sat down, ate the provisions very thankfully, and were the ht of; for except when they ca victuals and directions they never came out of their bounds; and there they lived when I caht theoats, andbut wives, and they soon would have been a nation: they were confined to a neck of land surrounded with high rocks behind the plain towards the sea before theh, and it was very good and fruitful; for they had a piece of land about a th
Our ht theave a them twelve hatchets, and three or four knives; and there they lived, the most subjected innocent creatures that were ever heard of
After this the colony enjoyed a perfect tranquillity with respect to the savages, till I came to revisit them, which was in about two years Not but that now and then soes came on shore for their triumphal, unnatural feasts; but as they were of several nations, and, perhaps, had never heard of those that came before, or the reason of it, they did not make any search or inquiry after their countrymen; and if they had, it would have been very hard for theiven a full account of all that happened to them to my return, at least that orth notice The Indians, or savages, onderfully civilized by the the to theain
One thing was very rees to make wicker-work, or baskets; but they soon outdid their s in wicker-work; particularly all sorts of baskets, sieves, bird-cages, cupboards, &c as also chairs to sit on, stools, beds, couches, and abundance of other things, being very ingenious at such hen they were once put in the way of it
My co was a particular relief to these people, because we furnished them with knives, scissars, spades, shovels, pickaxes, and all things of that kind which they could want
With the help of these tools they were so very handy, that they came at last to build up their huts, or houses, very handso it up like basket-work all the way round, which was a very extraordinary piece of ingenuity, and looked very odd; but was an exceeding good fence, as well against heat, as against all sorts of verot the wild savages to come and do the like for thelishmen's colonies, they looked, at a distance, as if they lived all like bees in a hive; and as for Will Atkins, as now become a very industrious, necessary, and sober fellow, he had made himself such a tent of basket work as I believe was never seen It was one hundred and twenty paces round on the outside, as I measured by my steps; the walls were as close worked as a basket, in pannels or squares, thirty-two in nuh: in the middle was another not above twenty-two paces round, but built stronger, being eight-square in its for posts, round the top of which he laid strong pieces, joined together ooden pins, froht rafters, very handsoh he had no nails, and only a few iron spikes, which he had made himself too, out of the old iron that I had left there; and indeed this felloed abundance of ingenuity in several things which he had no knowledge of; he e, with a pair of wooden bellows to blow the fire; he made himself charcoal for his work, and he forood anvil to has, but especially hooks, staples and spikes, bolts and hinges But to return to the house: after he pitched the roof of his innermost tent, he worked it up between the rafters with basket-work, so fireniously with rice-straw, and over that a large leaf of a tree, which covered the top, that his house was as dry as if it had been tiled or slated Indeed he owned that the savages made the basket-work for him