Part 21 (1/2)

This filled us with horror, and we knew not what course to take; but the creatures resolved us soon, for they gathered about us presently, in hopes of prey; and I verily believe there were three hundred of thee, that at the entrance into the wood, but a little way froe timber trees, which had been cut down the sue: I drewourselves in a line behind one long tree, I advised the that tree before us for a breastwork, to stand in a triangle, or three fronts, enclosing our horses in the centre

We did so, and it e did; for never was a e than the creatureskind of a noise, and mounted the piece of timber (which, as I said, was our breastwork,) as if they were only rushi+ng upon their prey; and this fury of theirs, it see our horses behind us, which was the prey they aimed at I ordered our men to fire as before, every man; and they took their aim so sure, that indeed they killed several of the wolves at the first volley; but there was a necessity to keep a continual firing, for they ca on those before

When we had fired our second volley of fusils, we thought they stopped a little, and I hoped they would have gone off, but it was but a ain; so we fired our vollies of pistols; and I believe in these four firings we killed seventeen or eighteen of theain

I was loath to spend our last shot too hastily; so I called my servant, not reatest dexterity iaged; but, as I said, I calledhi the piece of tie train; he did so, and had but tiot up upon it; when I, snapping an uncharged pistol close to the powder, set it on fire; and those that were upon the timber were scorched with it, and six or seven of theht of the fire; we dispatched these in an instant, and the rest were so frighted with the light, which the night, for noas very near dark, made more terrible, that they drew back a little

Upon which I ordered our last pistols to be fired off in one volley, and after that we gave a shout; upon this the wolves turned tail, and we sallied iling on the ground, and fell a-cutting them with our swords, which answered our expectation; for the crying and howling they made were better understood by their fellows; so that they fled and left us

We had, first and last, killed about three score of theht, we had killedthus cleared, we o We heard the ravenous creatures howl and yell in the woods as ent, several times; and so our eyes, ere not certain; so in about an hour e, which we found in a terrible fright, and all in arht before, the wolves and soe, and put theuard night and day, but especially in the night, to preserve their cattle, and indeed their people

The next uide was so ill, and his li of his tounds, that he could go no farther; so ere obliged to take a new guide there, and go to Tholouse, where we found a warm climate, a fruitful pleasant country, and no snow, no wolves, or any thing like them; but e told our story at Tholouse, they told us it was nothing but as ordinary in the great forest at the foot of the round; but they inquired otten, that would venture to bring us that way in such a severe season; and told us, it was very much ere not all devoured When we told them hoe placed ourselves, and the horses in the ly, and told us it was fifty to one but we had been all destroyed; for it was the sight of the horses thattheir prey; and that at other ti excessive hungry, and raging on that account, the eagerness to coer; and that if we had not by the continued fire, and at last by the stratagereat odds but that we had been torn to pieces; whereas, had we been content to have sat still on horseback, and fired as horsemen, they would not have taken the horses so much for their ohen men were on their backs, as otherwise; and withal they told us, that at last, if we had stood all together, and left our horses, they would have been so eager to have devoured the our fire-ar so many in nuer inand open- to shelter us, or retreat to, I gave myself over for lost; and as it was, I believe, I shall never care to cross those o a thousand leagues by sea, though I were sure tounco but what other travellers have given an account of, with e than I can I travelled from Tholouse to Paris, and without any considerable stay came to Calais, and landed safe at Dover, the fourteenth of January, after having had a severe cold season to travel in

I was now come to the centre of my travels, and had in a little time all e, which I brought with uide and privy-counsellor was ratitude for the reat, to e, that I was perfectly easy as to the security of , and now to the end, in the unspotted integrity of this good gentlewoout for Lisbon, and so to the Brasils But now another scruple caion; for as I had entertained soion, even while I was abroad, especially into the Brasils forto settle there, unless I resolved to eion, without any reserve; except on the other hand I resolved to be a sacrifice to ion, and die in the Inquisition: so I resolved to stay at home, and, if I could find means for it, to dispose of my plantation

To this purpose I wrote to ave me notice, that he could easily dispose of it there: but that if I thought fit to give him leave to offer it in my name to the two merchants, the survivors of my trustees, who lived in the Brasils, who must fully understand the value of it, who lived just upon the spot, and who I knew to be very rich, so that he believed they would be fond of buying it; he did not doubt, but I should ly I agreed, gave hihtthen returned, he sent me an account, that they had accepted the offer, and had reht to a correspondent of theirs at Lisbon, to pay for it

In return, I signed the instrument of sale in the form which they sent from Lisbon, and sent it to e for 32,800 pieces of eight for the estate; reserving the pay his life, and 50 moidores afterwards to his son for his life, which I had proood as a rent charge And thus I have given the first part of a life of fortune and adventure, a life of Providence's chequer-work, and of a variety which the world will seldo foolishly, but closing ave me leave to much as to hope for

Any one would think, that in this state of co any more hazards, and so indeed I had been, if other circu life, had no family, nor many relations; nor, however rich, had I contracted h I had sold my estate in the Brasils, yet I could not keep that country out of ain; especially I could not resist the strong inclination I had to seethere; and how the rogues I left there had used them

My true friend theearnestly dissuaded me from it, and so far prevailed withabroad; during which time I took my two nephews, the children of one ofof his own, I bred up as a gentleave him a settlement of some addition to his estate, after my decease; the other I put out to a captain of a shi+p; and after five years, finding hi fellow, I put hi fellow afterwards drew me in, as old as I was, to farther adventures myself

In the meantime, I in part settled myself here; for, first of all, I e or dissatisfaction; and had three children, two sons and one daughter: but ood success froo abroad, and his io in his shi+p as a private trader to the East Indies This in the year 1694

In this voyage I visited my new colony in the island, saw my successors the Spaniards, had the whole story of their lives, and of the villains I left there; how at first they insulted the poor Spaniards, how they afterwards agreed, disagreed, united, separated, and how at last the Spaniards were obliged to use violence with them; how they were subjected to the Spaniards; how honestly the Spaniards used them; an history, if it were entered into, as full of variety and wonderful accidents as my own part: particularly also as to their battles with the Caribbeans, who landed several times upon the island, and as to the improvement they made upon the island itself; and how five of theht away eleven , I found about twenty young children on the island

Here I stayed about twenty days; left thes, and particularly of arms, powder, shot, clothes, tools, and torkland with me; viz a carpenter and a smith

Besides this, I shared the lands into parts with theave the settled all things with theed them not to leave the place, I left them there

From thence I touched at the Brasils, froht there, with more people to the island; and in it, besides other supplies, I sent seven wo such as I found proper for service, or for wives to such as would take thelishland, with a good cargo of necessaries, if they would apply the; which I afterwards could not perforent, after they were mastered, and had their properties set apart for them, I sent the with calf, soain, were considerably increased

But all these things, with an account how three hundred Caribbees came and invaded theht with that whole number twice, and were at first defeated and so their enemies' canoes, they famished or destroyed almost all the rest, and renewed and recovered the possession of their plantation, and still lived upon the island:--

All these things, with so incidents in some new adventures of ive a further account of hereafter