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　　The Englishmen inquired when they had had a feast of that kind; andthey told them about two moons ago, pointing to the moon and to twofingers; and that their great king had two hundred prisoners now,which he had taken in his war, and they were feeding them to makethem fat for the next feast. The Englishmen seemed mighty desirousof seeing those prisoners; but the others mistaking them, thoughtthey were desirous to have some of them to carry away for their owneating. So they beckoned to them, pointing to the setting of thesun, and then to the rising; which was to signify that the nextmorning at sunrising they would bring some for them; andaccordingly the next morning they brought down five women andeleven men, and gave them to the Englishmen to carry with them ontheir voyage, just as we would bring so many cows and oxen down toa seaport town to victual a ship.

　　I carried on shore with me the young man whose mother was starvedto death, and the maid also; she was a sober, well-educated,religious young woman, and behaved so inoffensively that every onegave her a good word; she had, indeed, an unhappy life with us,there being no woman in the ship but herself, but she bore it withpatience. After a while, seeing things so well ordered, and in sofine a way of thriving upon my island, and considering that theyhad neither business nor acquaintance in the East Indies, or reasonfor taking so long a voyage, both of them came to me and desired Iwould give them leave to remain on the island, and be entered amongmy family, as they called it. I agreed to this readily; and theyhad a little plot of ground allotted to them, where they had threetents or houses set up, surrounded with a basket-work, palisadoedlike Atkins's, adjoining to his plantation. Their tents werecontrived so that they had each of them a room apart to lodge in,and a middle tent like a great storehouse to lay t

　　They gave me an account how many ways they strove to civilise thesavages they were with, and to teach them rational customs in theordinary way of living, but in vain; and how they retorted uponthem as unjust that they who came there for assistance and supportshould attempt to set up for instructors to those that gave themfood; intimating, it seems, that none should set up for theinstructors of others but those who could live without them. Theygave me dismal accounts of the extremities they were driven to; howsometimes they were many days without any food at all, the islandthey were upon being inhabited by a sort of savages that lived moreindolent, and for that reason were less supplied with thenecessaries of life, than they had reason to believe others were inthe same part of the world; and yet they found that these savageswere less ravenous and voracious than those who had better suppliesof food. Also, they added, they could not but see with whatdemonstrations of wisdom and goodness the governing provide

　　Upon this they were all trooping away, with every man a gun, apistol, and a sword, and muttered some insolent things amongthemselves of what they would do to the Spaniards, too, whenopportunity offered; but the Spaniards, it seems, did not soperfectly understand them as to know all the particulars, only thatin general they threatened them hard for taking the twoEnglishmen's part. Whither they went, or how they bestowed theirtime that evening, the Spaniards said they did not know; but itseems they wandered about the country part of the night, and themlying down in the place which I used to call my bower, they wereweary and overslept themselves. The case was this: they hadresolved to stay till midnight, and so take the two poor men whenthey were asleep, and as they acknowledged afterwards, intended toset fire to their huts while they were in them, and either burnthem there or murder them as they came out. As malice seldomsleeps very sound, it was very strange they should not have beenkept awake. However,

gh to relievethem, and find them with bread and other eatables; and one of thefellows being the cook's mate of the ship, was very ready at makingsoup, puddings, and such other preparations as the rice and themilk, and such little flesh as they got, furnished him to do.

　　He then told us that he went to Batavia, where two of the seamenbelonging to the ship arrived, having deserted the rest in theirtravels, and gave an account that the fellow who had run away withthe ship, sold her at Bengal to a set of pirates, who were gone a-cruising in her, and that they had already taken an English shipand two Dutch ships very richly laden. This latter part we foundto concern us directly, though we knew it to be false; yet, as mypartner said, very justly, if we had fallen into their hands, andthey had had such a prepossession against us beforehand, it hadbeen in vain for us to have defended ourselves, or to hope for anygood quarter at their hands; especially considering that ouraccusers had been our judges, and that we could have expectednothing from them but what rage would have dictated, and anungoverned passion have executed. Therefore it was his opinion weshould go directly back to Bengal, from whence we came, withoutputting in at any port whatever - because where we could give ago

　　They most willingly embraced the proposal, and came all verycheerfully along with him: so we allotted them land andplantations, which three or four accepted of, but all the restchose to be employed as servants in the several families we hadsettled. Thus my colony was in a manner settled as follows: TheSpaniards possessed my original habitation, which was the capitalcity, and extended their plantations all along the side of thebrook, which made the creek that I have so often described, as faras my bower; and as they increased their culture, it went alwayseastward. The English lived in the north-east part, where WillAtkins and his comrades began, and came on southward and south-west, towards the back part of the Spaniards; and every plantationhad a great addition of land to take in, if they found occasion, sothat they need not jostle one another for want of room. All theeast end of the island was left uninhabited, that if any of thesavages should come on shore there only for their customarybarbarities, t

　　He looked earnestly at me, seeing my confusion. "Sir," says he, "Ishall be very sorry if what I have said gives you any offence." -"No, no," said I, "I am offended with nobody but myself; but I amperfectly confounded, not only to think that I should never takeany notice of this before, but with reflecting what notice I amable to take of it now. You know, sir," said I, "whatcircumstances I am in; I am bound to the East Indies in a shipfreighted by merchants, and to whom it would be an insufferablepiece of injustice to detain their ship here, the men lying allthis while at victuals and wages on the owners' account. It istrue, I agreed to be allowed twelve days here, and if I stay more,I must pay three pounds sterling PER DIEM demurrage; nor can I stayupon demurrage above eight days more, and I have been here thirteenalready; so that I am perfectly unable to engage in this workunless I would suffer myself to be left behind here again; in whichcase, if this single ship should miscarry in any part of hervoya

crime, were the objects of divine vengeance, and bore theweight of that punishment."