Part 32 (2/2)
”Towards the ain, and first when I awaked I fell into a violent passion of crying, and after that had a second fit of violent hunger, so that I got up ravenous, and in a most dreadful condition Had my mistress been dead, so much as I loved her, I am certain I should have eaten a piece of her flesh with as much relish and as unconcerned as ever I did the flesh of any creature appointed for food; and once or twice I was going to bite my own arm At last I saw the basin in which was the blood had bled at my nose the day before; I ran to it, and sed it with such haste, and such a greedy appetite, as if I had wondered nobody had taken it before, and afraid it should be taken frohts of it filled er, and I drank a draught of fair water, and was composed and refreshed for some hours, after it This was the fourth day; and thus I held it till towards night, when, within the compass of three hours, I had all these several circuerly hungry, pain in the stoain, then lunatic, then crying, then ravenous again, and so every quarter of an hour; and ht I laidno co
”All this night I had no sleep, but the hunger was now turned into a disease, and I had a terrible colic and griping, wind instead of food having found its way into , when I was surprised a little with the cries and la master, who called out to me that his mother was dead I lifted th to rise, but found she was not dead, though she was able to give very little signs of life
”I had then such convulsions in my stomach for want of some sustenance, that I cannot describe thes of appetite that nothing but the tortures of death can imitate; and this condition I was in when I heard the seamen above cry out 'A sail! a sail!' and halloo and jump about as if they were distracted
”I was not able to get off from the bed, and ht he had been expiring; so we could not open the cabin-door, or get any account what it was that occasioned such a combustion; nor had we any conversation with the shi+p's co told us they had not ato eat in the shi+p; and they told us afterwards they thought we had been dead
”It was this dreadful condition ere in when you were sent to save our lives; and how you found us, Sir, you knoell as I, and better too”
This was her own relation, and is such a distinct account of starving to death as I confess I neverto me: I am the rather apt to believe it to be a true account, because the youth gave h I ly as his maid, and the rather because it seems his mother fed hih her constitution being stronger than that of her ht struggle harder with it; I say, the poorsooner than herlonger than she parted with any to relieve the maid No question, as the case is here related, if our shi+p, or some other, had not so providentially met them, a few days more would have ended all their lives, unless they had prevented it by eating one another; and even that, as their case stood, would have served theues from any land, or any possibility of relief, other than in the miraculous manner it happened--But this is by the way; I return tothe people
And first, it is to be observed here, that forof the sloop I had fra the, such seeds of division a them, that I saw it plainly, had I set up the sloop, and left it aust, have separated, and gone away from one another; or perhaps have turned pirates, and so made the island a den of thieves, instead of a plantation of sober and religious people, as I intended it to be; nor did I leave the two pieces of brass cannon that I had on board, or the two quarter-deck guns, that ht they had enough to qualify theainst any that should invade them; but I was not to set theo abroad to attack others, which, in the end, would only bring ruin and destruction upon thes: I reserved the sloop, therefore, and the guns, for their service another way, as I shall observe in its place
I have now done with the island: I left the condition, and went on boardbeen five and twenty days a them; and, as they were all resolved to stay upon the island till I came to remove them, I promised to send some further relief from the Brasils, if I could possibly find an opportunity; and particularly I pros, and cows; for as to the ts and calves which I brought froe, to kill theiving the, we set sail, and arrived at the bay of All Saints, in the Brasils, in about twenty-two days; e but this, that about three days after we sailed, being becal, as it were, into a bay or gulf on the land side, ere driven so out of our course; and once or twice our men cried Land, to the ard; but whether it was the continent, or islands, we could not tell by any , the sea smooth and the weather calm,the sea, as it were, covered towards the land, with so able to discover what it was; but, after so up theat them with a perspective, cried out, it was an arine what hethe fellow a fool, or sory, for it is an army, and a fleet too; for I believe there are a thousand canoes, and youtowards us too apace, and full of men”
I was a little surprised then, indeed, and so was my nephew the captain; for he had heard such terrible stories of the never been in those seas before, that he could not tell what to think of it, but said two or three ti ere becal towards, the shore, I liked it the worse; however, I bade hi the shi+p to an anchor, as soon as we cae them
The weather continued calave orders to coes, I told the to fear froet their boats out, and fasten them, one close by the head, and the other by the stern, and man them both well, and wait the issue in that posture: this I did, that the ht be ready, with sheet and buckets, to put out any fire these savages ht endeavour to fix upon the outside of the shi+p
In this posture we lay by for them, and in a little while they caht seen by Christians; my mate was much mistaken in his calculation of their number, I mean of a thousand canoes; theabout 126; and a great many of them too; for some of them had sixteen or seventeen men in them, some more, and the least six or seven
When they came nearer to us, they seeht which they had, doubtless, never seen before; nor could they, at first, as we afterwards understood, knohat to make of us They cao about to row round us; but we called to our men in the boats not to let thee it; for five or six of the large canoes ca-boat, that our men beckoned with their hands to keep them back, which they understood very well, and went back: but at their retreat about fifty arrows came on board us fro-boat was very much wounded
However, I called to them not to fire by any means; but we handed down some deal boards into the boat, and the carpenter presently set up a kind of fence, like waste boards, to cover theain
About half-an-hour afterwards they all came up in a body astern of us, and so near that we could easily discern what they were, though we could not tell their design; and I easily found they were soes that I had been used to engage with
In a short time more they rowed a little farther out to sea, till they caht upon us, till they came so near that they could hear us speak; upon this, I ordered all my men to keep close, lest they should shoot anyso near as to be within hearing, I o out upon the deck, and call out aloud to thee, to knohat they meant Whether they understood him or not, that I knew not; but as soon as he had called to them, six of them, ere in the foremost or nearest boat to us, turned their canoes fro down, showed us their naked backs; whether this was a defiance or challenge we knew not, or whether it was done in nal to the rest; but i to shoot, and, unhappily for him, poor fellow, they let fly about three hundred of their arrows, and toin their sight The poor felloas shot with no less than three arrows, and about three more fell very near him; such unlucky marksmen they were!
I was so annoyed at the loss of my old trusty servant and couns to be loaded with save them such a broadside as they had never heard in their lives before They were not above half a cable's length off e fired; and our gunners took their aim so well, that three or four of their canoes were overset, as we had reason to believe, by one shot only The ill reat offence; neither did I know for certain whether that which would pass for the greatest conteht be understood so by them or not; therefore, in return, I had only resolved to have fired four or five guns at thehten them sufficiently: but when they shot at us directly with all the fury they were capable of, and especially as they had killed my poor Friday, whom I so entirely loved and valued, and who, indeed, so well deserved it, I thought myself not only justifiable before God and lad if I could have overset every canoe there, and drowned every one of them
I can neither tell how many we killed nor how ht and hurry never were seen a such a multitude; there were thirteen or fourteen of their canoes split and overset in all, and the htened out of their wits, scoured away as fast as they could, taking but little care to save those whose boats were split or spoiled with our shot; so I suppose that many of the for his life; above an hour after they were all gone
Our sreathoith them; for they fled so fast that, in three hours, or thereabouts, we could not see above three or four straggling canoes; nor did we ever see the rest any , eighed and set sail for the Brasils
We had a prisoner indeed, but the creature was so sullen, that he would neither eat nor speak; and we all fancied he would starve himself to death; but I took a way to cure hi-boat, and ain, and so leave him where they found him, if he would not speak: nor would that do, but they really did throw him into the sea, and came away from him; and then he followed theue, though they knew not one word of what he said However, at last, they took hian to be n they should drown hiain; but I was the most disconsolate creature alive, for want of one back to the island, to have taken one of the rest from thence for my occasion, but it could not be; so ent on We had one prisoner, as I have said; and it was a long while before we could ht hian to be a little tractable: afterwards we inquired what country he ca of what he said; for his speech was so odd, all gutturals, and spoken in the throat, in such a hollow and odd manner, that we could never forht speak that language as well if they were gagged, as otherwise; nor could we perceive that they had any occasion either for teeth, tongue, lips, or palate; but for-horn forms a tune, with an open throat: he told us, however, solish, that they were going, with their kings, to fight a great battle When he said kings, we asked his? He said, there were five nation (we could not make hio against two nation We asked hireat wonder look”--Where it is to be observed, that all those natives, as also those of Africa, when they learn English, they always add two _e_'s at the end of the words where we use one, and place the accent upon the last of them; as _makee, takee_, and the like; and we could not break theh at last he did