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第3章 三刀要你命

　　My cargo, as near as I can recollect, for I have not kept accountof the particulars, consisted of a sufficient quantity of linen,and some English thin stuffs, for clothing the Spaniards that Iexpected to find there; and enough of them, as by my calculationmight comfortably supply them for seven years; if I remember right,the materials I carried for clothing them, with gloves, hats,shoes, stockings, and all such things as they could want forwearing, amounted to about two hundred pounds, including some beds,bedding, and household stuff, particularly kitchen utensils, withpots, kettles, pewter, brass, &c.; and near a hundred pounds morein ironwork, nails, tools of every kind, staples, hooks, hinges,and every necessary thing I could think of.

; and they, on theother hand, verified Solomon's words in another place, "that thediligent hand maketh rich"; for everything grew and thrived, andthey had plenty within and without; they had more tame cattle thanthe others, more utensils and necessaries within doors, and yetmore pleasure and diversion too.

　　They were going on in this little thriving position when the threeunnatural rogues, their own countrymen too, in mere humour, and toinsult them, came and bullied them, and told them the island wastheirs: that the governor, meaning me, had given them thepossession of it, and nobody else had any right to it; and thatthey should build no houses upon their ground unless they would payrent for them. The two men, thinking they were jesting at first,asked them to come in and sit down, and see what fine houses theywere that they had built, and to tell them what rent they demanded;and one of them merrily said if they were the ground-landlords, hehoped if they built tenements upon their land, and madeimprovements, they would, according to the custom of landlords,grant a long lease: and desired they would get a scrivener to drawthe writings. One of the three, cursing and raging, told them theyshould see they were not in jest; and going to a little place at adistance, where the honest men had made a fire to dress t

　　We slept little, but spent the most part of the night instrengthening our situation, and barricading the entrances into thewood, and keeping a strict watch. We waited for daylight, and whenit came, it gave us a very unwelcome discovery indeed; for theenemy, who we thought were discouraged with the reception they metwith, were now greatly increased, and had set up eleven or twelvehuts or tents, as if they were resolved to besiege us; and thislittle camp they had pitched upon the open plain, about three-quarters of a mile from us. I confess I now gave myself over forlost, and all that I had; the loss of my effects did not lie sonear me, though very considerable, as the thoughts of falling intothe hands of such barbarians at the latter end of my journey, afterso many difficulties and hazards as I had gone through, and even insight of our port, where we expected safety and deliverance. As tomy partner, he was raging, and declared that to lose his goodswould be his ruin, and that he would rather die than be s

　　WIFE. - But how you makee me know that God teachee them to writethat book?

e down at the water'sedge, on the side of the creek, and it was afterwards above twohundred yards to the place; and the other was up a ladder at twice,as I have already described it; and they had also a large wood,thickly planted, on the top of the hill, containing above an acre,which grew apace, and concealed the place from all discovery there,with only one narrow place between two trees, not easily to bediscovered, to enter on that side.

　　"All this night I had no sleep; but the hunger was now turned intoa disease; and I had a terrible colic and griping, by wind insteadof food having found its way into the bowels; and in this conditionI lay till morning, when I was surprised by the cries andlamentations of my young master, who called out to me that hismother was dead. I lifted myself up a little, for I had notstrength to rise, but found she was not dead, though she was ableto give very little signs of life. I had then such convulsions inmy stomach, for want of some sustenance, as I cannot describe; withsuch frequent throes and pangs of appetite as nothing but thetortures of death can imitate; and in this condition I was when Iheard the seamen above cry out, 'A sail! a sail!' and halloo andjump about as if they were distracted. I was not able to get offfrom the bed, and my mistress much less; and my young master was sosick that I thought he had been expiring; so we could not open thecabin door, or get any account what it was that occasioned

ons I did not think fit to let them know anything of the sloopI had framed, and which I thought of setting up among them; for Ifound, at least at my first coming, such seeds of division amongthem, that I saw plainly, had I set up the sloop, and left it amongthem, they would, upon every light disgust, have separated, andgone away from one another; or perhaps have turned pirates, and somade the island a den of thieves, instead of a plantation of soberand religious people, as I intended it; nor did I leave the twopieces of brass cannon that I had on board, or the extra twoquarter-deck guns that my nephew had provided, for the same reason.I thought it was enough to qualify them for a defensive war againstany that should invade them, but not to set them up for anoffensive war, or to go abroad to attack others; which, in the end,would only bring ruin and destruction upon them. I reserved thesloop, therefore, and the guns, for their service another way, as Ishall observe in its place.

　　All this while they fired not a gun, because they would not wakenthe people faster than they could master them; but the fire beganto waken them fast enough, and our fellows were glad to keep alittle together in bodies; for the fire grew so raging, all thehouses being made of light combustible stuff, that they couldhardly bear the street between them. Their business was to followthe fire, for the surer execution: as fast as the fire eitherforced the people out of those houses which were burning, orfrightened them out of others, our people were ready at their doorsto knock them on the head, still calling and hallooing one toanother to remember Tom Jeffry.