Part 9 (1/2)

Well, they all went away, and though the atteone about, yet, to give them their due, they went about it as warily as boldly; they were gallantly armed, for they had every man a fusee or musket, a bayonet, and a pistol; soers, and the boatswain and twotherenadoes Bolder fellows, and better provided, never went about any wicked work in the world When they went out their chief design was plunder, and they were in old there; but a circumstance which none of thee, and made devils of them all

When they caht had been the tohich was not above half a reat disappointment, for there were not above twelve or thirteen houses, and where the toas, or how big, they knew not They consulted, therefore, what to do, and were some time before they could resolve; for if they fell upon these, they must cut all their throats; and it was ten to one but soh the moon was up; and if one escaped, he would run and raise all the town, so they should have a whole army upon them; on the other hand, if they went away and left those untouched, for the people were all asleep, they could not tell which way to look for the town; however, the last was the best advice, so they resolved to leave them, and look for the town as well as they could They went on a little way, and found a cow tied to a tree; this, they presently concluded, would be a good guide to theed to the town before them, or the town behind them, and if they untied her, they should see which way she went: if she went back, they had nothing to say to her; but if she went forward, they would follow her So they cut the cord, which was s, and the coent on before them, directly to the tohich, as they reported, consisted of above two hundred houses or huts, and in soether

Here they found all in silence, as profoundly secure as sleep could make them: and first, they called another council, to consider what they had to do; and presently resolved to divide themselves into three bodies, and so set three houses on fire in three parts of the town; and as the men came out, to seize them and bind them (if any resisted, they need not be asked what to do then), and so to search the rest of the houses for plunder: but they resolved to h the town, and see what diht venture upon it or no

They did so, and desperately resolved that they would venture upon the one another to the work, three of them, ere a little before the rest, called out aloud to them, and told them that they had found--Tom Jeffry: they all ran up to the place, where they found the poor fellow hanging up naked by one arm, and his throat cut

There was an Indian house just by the tree, where they found sixteen or seventeen of the principal Indians, who had been concerned in the fray with us before, and two or three of them wounded with our shot; and ourone to another in that house, but knew not their nued them, as before, that they swore to one another that they would be revenged, and that not an Indian that came into their hands should have any quarter; and to work they went iht be expected froet so that would soon take fire, but, after a little search, they found that would be to no purpose; for s and rushes, of which the country is full; so they presentlya little powder in the palm of their hands, and in a quarter of an hour they set the town on fire in four or five places, and particularly that house where the Indians were not gone to bed

As soon as the fire begun to blaze, the poor frightened creatures began to rush out to save their lives, but met with their fate in the attempt; and especially at the door, where they drove the one or tith his poleaxe The house being large, and renado, and threw it ahtened the them that they cried out in a hideous manner In short, most of the Indians ere in the open part of the house were killed or hurt with the grenado, except two or three more who pressed to the door, which the boatswain and two more kept, with their bayonets on the muzzles of their pieces, and despatched all that came in their way; but there was another apart, or whatever he was, and several others were; and these were kept in till the house, which was by this tiht flaether

All this while they fired not a gun, because they would not waken the people faster than they could h, and our felloere glad to keep a little together in bodies; for the fire grew so raging, all the houses being ht combustible stuff, that they could hardly bear the street between them

Their business was to follow the fire, for the surer execution: as fast as the fire either forced the people out of those houses which were burning, or frightened them out of others, our people were ready at their doors to knock the one to another to re, I must confess I was very uneasy, and especially when I saw the flaht, seemed to be close bysuch a fire, was very uneasy, not knohat the uns too, for by this tihts oppressed his o, ould becoh he could ill spare any ht be in, he took another boat, and with thirteen men and himself came ashore to o in the boat with no lad that ell, yet he was in the sa; for the noise continued, and the flame increased; in short, it was next to an impossibility for any men in the world to restrain their curiosity to knohat had happened, or their concern for the safety of the o and help his ued with him, as I did before with the e, the interests of the owners and o, and only see if we could at a distance learn as likely to be the event, and come back and tell him It was in vain to talk to o, he said; and he only wished he had left but tenhis men lost for want of help: he had rather lose the shi+p, the voyage, and his life, and all; and away he went

I was no more able to stay behind now than I was to persuade theo; so the captain ordered two men to row back the pinnace, and fetch twelve -boat at an anchor; and that, when they came back, six men should keep the two boats, and six more come after us; so that he left only sixteen men in the shi+p: for the whole shi+p's company consisted of sixty-five ht thisnow on the uided by the fire, we kept no path, but went directly to the place of the fla to us before, the cries of the poor people were now quite of another nature, and filled us with horror Ia city, or at the taking a town by storheda, in Ireland, and killingthe city of Magdeburg and cutting the throats of twenty-two thousand of all sexes; but I never had an idea of the thing itself before, nor is it possible to describe it, or the horror that was upon our th ca the streets of it for the fire The first object we met as the ruins of a hut or house, or rather the ashes of it, for the house was consuht of the fire, lay four ht, one or twothe fire; in short, there were such instances of rage, altogether barbarous, and of a fury soht it iuilty of it; or, if they were the authors of it, we thought they ought to be every one of them put to the worst of deaths But this was not all:the fire increase forward, and the cry went on just as the fire went on; so that ere in the utmost confusion We advanced a little way farther, and behold, to our astonish in a s, and after them sixteen or seventeen men, natives, in the salish butchers in the rear, hen they could not overtake the theht When the rest saw us, believing us to be their enemies, and that ould murder them as well as those that pursued them, they set up a most dreadful shriek, especially the women; and two of theht

My very soul shrunk within me, and my blood ran chill in lish sailors that pursued them come on, I had made our men kill the creatures know that ould not hurt the doith their hands lifted up, made piteous lamentation to us to save them, which we let theether in a huddle close behind us, as for protection I lefttheet at some of our people, and see what devil it was possessed them, and what they intended to do, and to co theht they would have a hundred thousandthose flying people, taking only two of ourthe and running through the fire; others their hands burned; one of the women had fallen down in the fire, and was very ain; and two or three of the ; and another was shot through the body and died while I was there

I would fain have learned what the occasion of all this was; but I could not understand one word they said; though, by signs, I perceived some of them knew not as the occasion theeous attempt that I could not stay there, but went back to o into the ht be in the way, and put an end to it, cost what it would; accordingly, as I came back to my men, I told them my resolution, and commanded them to follow me, when, at the very moment, ca over heaps of bodies they had killed, all covered with blood and dust, as if they wanted more people to massacre, when our men hallooed to them as loud as they could halloo; and with much ado one of them made them hear, so that they knee were, and came up to us

As soon as the boatswain saw us, he set up a halloo like a shout of triuht,to hear lad you are cos! I'll kill as many of them as poor Tom has hairs upon his head: we have sworn to spare none of them; we'll root out the very nation of them from the earth;” and thus he ran on, out of breath, too, with action, and would not give us leave to speak a word At last, raising !” said I, ”what are you doing! I won't have one creature touched e you, upon your life, to stop your hands, and stand still here, or you are a dead man this minute”--”Why, sir,” says he, ”do you knohat you do, or what they have done? If you want a reason for e have done, co, with his throat cut

I confess I was urged then h; but I thought they had carried their rage too far, and remembered Jacob's words to his sons Sier, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel” But I had now a new task upon ht, as I had done, I had as much to do to restrain them as I should have had with the others; nay, my nephew hi, that he was only concerned for fear of the ht not one of thelutted theht to be used like ht of my men, with the boatswain and his crew, to co it quite out of my power to restrain theht, much less the horrible noise and cries of the poor wretches that fell into their hands

I got nobody to coo and two reat piece of folly in me, I confess, to venture back, as it were, alone; for as it began now to be almost day, and the alarm had run over the country, there stood about forty hs at the little place where the twelve or thirteen houses stood, mentioned before: but by accident I missed the place, and caot to the seaside it was broad day: immediately I took the pinnace and went on board, and sent her back to assist the ht happen I observed, about the time that I came to the boat-side, that the fire was pretty well out, and the noise abated; but in about half-an-hour after I got on board, I heard a volley of our reat s upon the men, who, as I said, stood at the few houses on the way, of whom they killed sixteen or seventeen, and set all the houses on fire, but did not ot to the shore again with the pinnace ourin, not in two bodies as they went, but straggling here and there in such a ht have cut them all off But the dread of them was upon the whole country; and the htened, that I believe a hundred of theht of but five of our men Nor in all this terrible action was there a man that made any considerable defence: they were so surprised between the terror of the fire and the sudden attack of our men in the dark, that they knew not which way to turn themselves; for if they fled one way they were ain by another, so that they were everywhere knocked down; nor did any of our men receive the least hurt, except one that sprained his foot, and another that had one of his hands burned

CHAPTER X--HE IS LEFT ON Shore

I was very angry with my nephew, the captain, and indeed with all theso out of his duty as a coe upon hie of his blind men in so bloody and cruel an enterprise My nepheered me very respectfully, but told me that when he saw the body of the poor seaman whom they had murdered in so cruel and barbarous a overn his passion; he owned he should not have done so, as he was commander of the shi+p; but as he was a man, and nature moved him, he could not bear it As for the rest of the men, they were not subject to h; so they took no notice of my dislike The next day we set sail, so we never heard any more of it Our men differed in the account of the nu to the best of their accounts, put all together, they killed or destroyed about one hundred and fifty people,in the town As for the poor fellow Tom Jeffry, as he was quite dead (for his throat was so cut that his head was half off), it would do hi him away; so they only took hi by one hand

However just our ainst them in it, and I always, after that tie; for I looked upon all the blood they shed that night to be h it is true that they had killed Toressor, had broken the truce, and had ill-used a young woman of theirs, who came down to them innocently, and on the faith of the public capitulation