The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe - 38

These two men made their number five: but the other three villains were so much wickeder than these, that after they had been two or three days together, they turned their two new-comers out of doors to shift for themselves, and would have nothing to do with them; nor could they, for a good while, be persuaded to give them any food: as for the Spaniards, they were not yet come.

When the Spaniards came first on shore, the business began to go forward; the Spaniards would have persuaded the three English brutes to have taken in their two countrymen again, that, as they said, they might be all one family; but they would not hear of it: so the two poor fellows lived by themselves, and finding nothing but industry and application would make them live comfortable, they pitched their tents on the north shore of the island, but a little more to the west, to be out of the danger of the savages, who always landed on the east parts of the island.

Here they built two huts, one to lodge in, and the other to lay up their magazines and stores in; and the Spaniards having given them some corn for seed, and especially some of the peas which I had left them, they dug and planted, and enclosed, after the pattern I had set for them all, and began to live pretty well; their first crop of corn was on the ground, and though it was but a little bit of land which they had dug up at first, having had but a little time, yet it was enough to relieve them, and find them with bread or other eatables; and one of the fellows, being the cook's mate of the ship, was very ready at making soup, puddings, and such other preparations, as the rice and the milk, and such little flesh as they got, furnished him to do.

They were going on in a little thriving posture, when the three unnatural rogues, their own countrymen too, in mere humour, and to insult them, came and bullied them, and told them the island was theirs; that the governor, meaning me, had given them possession of it, and nobody else had any right to it; and, damn them, they should build no houses upon their ground, unless they would pay them rent for them.

The two men thought they had jested at first, and asked them to come and sit down, and see what fine houses they were that they had built, and tell them what rent they demanded: and one of them merrily told them, if they were ground-landlords, he hoped if they built tenements upon the land and made improvements, they would, according to the custom of all landlords, grant them a long lease; and bid them go fetch a scrivener to draw the writings. One of the three, damning and raging, told them they should see they were not in jest; and going to a little place at a distance, where the honest men had made a fire to dress their victuals, he takes a firebrand and claps it to the outside of their hut, and very fairly set it on fire; and it would have been all burnt down in a few minutes, if one of the two had not run to the fellow, thrust him away, and trod the fire out with his feet, and that not without some difficulty too.

The fellow was in such a rage at the honest man's thrusting him away, that he turned upon him with a pole he had in his hand; and had not the man avoided the blow very nimbly, and run into the hut, he had ended his days at once. His comrade, seeing the danger they were both in, ran in after him, and immediately they came both out with their muskets; and the man that was first struck at with the pole knocked the fellow down who began the quarrel with the stock of his musket, and that before the other two could come to help him; and then seeing the rest come at them, they stood together, and presenting the other ends of their pieces to them, bade them stand off.

The others had fire-arms with them too; but one of the two honest men, bolder than his comrade, and made desperate by his danger, told them if they offered to move hand or foot they were all dead men, and boldly commanded them to lay down their arms. They did not indeed lay down their arms; but seeing him resolute, it brought them to a parley, and they consented to take their wounded man with them, and be gone; and, indeed, it seems the fellow was wounded sufficiently with the blow: however, they were much in the wrong, since they had the advantage, that they did not disarm them effectually, as they might have done, and have gone immediately to the Spaniards, and given them an account how the rogues treated them; for the three villains studied nothing but revenge, and every day gave them some intimation that they did so.

But not to crowd this part with an account of the lesser part of their rogueries, such as treading down their corn, shooting three young kids and a she-goat, which the poor men had got to breed up tame for their store; and in a word, plaguing them night and day in this manner, it forced the two men to such a desperation, that they resolved to fight them all three the first time they had a fair opportunity. In order to this they resolved to go to the castle, as they called it, that was my old dwelling, where the three rogues and the Spaniards all lived together at that time, intending to have a fair battle, and the Spaniards should stand by to see fair play. So they got up in the morning before day, and came to the place, and called the Englishmen by their names, telling a Spaniard that answered, that they wanted to speak with them.

It happened that the day before two of the Spaniards, having been in the woods, had seen one of the two Englishmen, whom, for distinction, I call the honest men; and he had made a sad complaint to the Spaniards, of the barbarous usage they had met with from their three countrymen, and how they had ruined their plantation, and destroyed their corn, that they had laboured so hard to bring forward, and killed the milch-goat, and their three kids, which was all they had provided for their sustenance; and that if he and his friends, meaning the Spaniards, did not assist them again, they should be starved. When the Spaniards came home at night, and they were all at supper, he took the freedom to reprove the three Englishmen, though in gentle and mannerly terms, and asked them, how they could be so cruel, they being harmless inoffensive fellows, and that they were putting themselves in a way to subsist by their labour, and that it had cost them a great deal of pains to bring things to such perfection as they had?

One of the Englishmen returned very briskly, "What had they to do there? That they came on shore without leave, and that they should not plant or build upon the island; it was none of their ground."--"Why," says the Spaniard, very calmly, "Seignior Inglese, they must not starve." The Englishman replied, like a true rough-hewn tarpaulin, "they might starve and be d--ed, they should not plant nor build in that place."--"But what must they do then, Seignior?" says the Spaniard. Another of the brutes returned, "Do! d--n them, they should be servants, and work for them."--"But how can you expect that of them? They are not bought with your money; you have no right to make them servants." The Englishman answered, "The island was theirs, the governor had given it to them, and no man had any thing to do there but themselves;" and with that swore by his Maker, that he would go and burn all their new huts; they should build none upon their land.

"Why, Seignior," says the Spaniard, "by the same rule, we must be your servants too."--"Ay," says the bold dog, "and so you shall too, before we have done with you;" mixing two or three G--d d--mme's in the proper intervals of his speech. The Spaniard only smiled at that, and made him no answer. However, this little discourse had heated them; and starting up, one says to the other, I think it was he they called Will Atkins, "Come, Jack, let us go and have the other brush with them; we will demolish their castle, I will warrant you; they shall plant no colony in our dominions."

Upon this they were all trooping away, with every man a gun, a pistol, and a sword, and muttered some insolent things among themselves, of what they would do to the Spaniards too, when opportunity offered; but the Spaniards, it seems, did not so perfectly understand them as to know all the particulars; only that, in general, they threatened them hard for taking the two Englishmen's part.

Whither they went, or how they bestowed their time that evening, the Spaniards said they did not know; but it seems they wandered about the country part of the night; and then lying down in the place which I used to call my bower, they were weary, and overslept themselves. The case was this: they had resolved to stay till midnight, and so to take the poor men when they were asleep; and they acknowledged it afterwards, intending to set fire to their huts while they were in them, and either burn them in them, or murder them as they came out: and, as malice seldom sleeps very sound, it was very strange they should not have been kept waking.

However, as the two men had also a design upon them, as I have said, though a much fairer one than that of burning and murdering, it happened, and very luckily for them all, that they were up, and gone abroad, before the bloody-minded rogues came to their huts.

When they came thither, and found the men gone, Atkins, who it seems was the forwardest man, called out to his comrades, "Ha! Jack, here's the nest; but d--n them, the birds are flown." They mused awhile to think what should be the occasion of their being gone abroad so soon, and suggested presently, that the Spaniards had given them notice of it; and with that they shook hands, and swore to one another, that they would be revenged of the Spaniards. As soon as they had made this bloody bargain, they fell to work with the poor men's habitation; they did not set fire indeed to any thing, but they pulled down both their houses, and pulled them so limb from limb, that they left not the least stick standing, or scarce any sign on the ground where they stood; they tore all their little collected household-stuff in pieces, and threw every thing about in such a manner, that the poor men found, afterwards, some of their things a mile off from their habitation.

When they had done this, they pulled up all the young trees which the poor men had planted; pulled up the enclosure they had made to secure their cattle and their corn; and, in a word, sacked and plundered every thing, as completely as a herd of Tartars would have done.

The two men were at this juncture gone to find them out, and had resolved to fight them wherever they had been, though they were but two to three; so that, had they met, there certainly would have been bloodshed among them; for they were all very stout, resolute fellows, to give them their due.

But Providence took more care to keep them asunder, than they themselves could do to meet; for, as they had dogged one another, when the three were gone thither, the two were here; and afterwards, when the two went back to find them, the three were come to the old habitation again: we shall see their differing conduct presently. When the three came back, like furious creatures, flushed with the rage which the work they had been about put them into, they came up to the Spaniards, and told them what they had done, by way of scoff and bravado; and one of them stepping up to one of the Spaniards, as if they had been a couple of boys at play, takes hold of his hat, as it was upon his head, and giving it a twirl about, jeering in his face, says he to him, "And you, Seignior Jack Spaniard, shall have the same sauce, if you do not mend your manners." The Spaniard, who, though quite a civil man, was as brave as a man could desire to be, and withal a strong well-made man, looked steadily at him for a good while; and then, having no weapon in his hand, stepped gravely up to him, and with one blow of his fist knocked him down, as an ox is felled with a pole-axe; at which one of the rogues, insolent as the first, fixed his pistol at the Spaniard immediately; he missed his body indeed, for the bullets went through his hair, but one of them touched the tip of his ear, and he bled pretty much. The blood made the Spaniard believe he was more hurt than he really was, and that put him into some heat, for before he acted all in a perfect calm; but now resolving to go through with his work, he stooped and took the fellow's musket whom he had knocked down, and was just going to shoot the man who had fired at him; when the rest of the Spaniards, being in the cave, came out, and calling to him not to shoot, they stepped in, secured the other two, and took their arms from them.

When they were thus disarmed, and found they had made all the Spaniards their enemies, as well as their own countrymen, they began to cool; and giving the Spaniards better words, would have had their arms again; but the Spaniards, considering the feud that was between them and the other two Englishmen, and that it would be the best method they could take to keep them from one another, told them they would do them no harm; and if they would live peaceably they would be very willing to assist and associate with them, as they did before; but that they could not think of giving them their arms again, while they appeared so resolved to do mischief with them to their own countrymen, and had even threatened them all to make them their servants.

The rogues were now more capable to hear reason than to act reason; but being refused their arms, they went raving away, and raging like madmen, threatening what they would do, though they had no fire-arms: but the Spaniards, despising their threatening, told them they should take care how they offered any injury to their plantation or cattle; for if they did, they would shoot them, as they would do ravenous beasts, wherever they found them; and if they fell into their hands alive, they would certainly be hanged. However, this was far from cooling them; but away they went, swearing and raging like furies of hell. As soon as they were gone, came back the two men in passion and rage enough also, though of another kind; for, having been at their plantation, and finding it all demolished and destroyed, as above, it will easily be supposed they had provocation enough; they could scarce have room to tell their tale, the Spaniards were so eager to tell them theirs; and it was strange enough to find, that three men should thus bully nineteen, and receive no punishment at all.

The Spaniards indeed despised them, and especially having thus disarmed them, made light of their threatenings; but the two Englishmen resolved to have their remedy against them, what pains soever it cost to find them out.

But the Spaniards interposed here too, and told them, that they were already disarmed: they could not consent that they (the two) should pursue them with fire-arms, and perhaps kill them: "But," said the grave Spaniard, who was their governor, "we will endeavour to make them do you justice, if you will leave it to us; for, as there is no doubt but they will come to us again when their passion is over, being not able to subsist without our assistance, we promise you to make no peace with them, without having full satisfaction for you; and upon this condition we hope you will promise to use no violence with them, other than in your defence."

The two Englishmen; yielded to this very awkwardly and with great reluctance; but the Spaniards protested, they did it only to keep them from bloodshed, and to make all easy at last; "For," said they, "we are not so many of us; here is room enough for us all, and it is great pity we should not be all good friends." At length they did consent, and waited for the issue of the thing, living for some days with the Spaniards; for their own habitation was destroyed.

In about five days time the three vagrants, tired with wandering, and almost starved with hunger, having chiefly lived on turtles' eggs all that while, came back to the grove: and finding my Spaniard, who, as I have said, was the governor, and two more with him, walking by the side of the creek; they came up in a very submissive humble manner, and begged to be received again into the family. The Spaniards used them civilly, but told them, they had acted so unnaturally by their countrymen, and so very grossly by them, (the Spaniards) that they could not come to any conclusion without consulting the two Englishmen, and the rest; but however they would go to them and discourse about it, and they should know in half-an-hour. It may be guessed that they were very hard put to it; for, as they were to wait this half-hour for an answer, they begged they would send them out some bread in the meantime, which they did, sending at the same time a large piece of goat's flesh and a boiled parrot, which they ate very eagerly.

After half-an-hour's consultation they were called in, and a long debate ensued, their two countrymen charging them with the ruin of all their labour, and a design to murder them; all which they owned before, and therefore could not deny now. Upon the whole, the Spaniards acted the moderators between them; and as they had obliged the two Englishmen not to hurt the three while they were naked and unarmed, so they now obliged the three to go and rebuild their fellows' two huts, one to be of the same and the other of larger dimensions than they were before; to fence their ground again, plant trees in the room of those pulled up, dig up the land again for planting corn, and, in a word, to restore everything to the same state as they found it, that is, as near as they could.

Well, they submitted to all this; and as they had plenty of provisions given them all the while, they grew very orderly, and the whole society began to live pleasantly and agreeably together again; only that these three fellows could never be persuaded to work--I mean for themselves--except now and then a little, just as they pleased. However, the Spaniards told them plainly that if they would but live sociably and friendly together, and study the good of the whole plantation, they would be content to work for them, and let them walk about and be as idle as they pleased; and thus, having lived pretty well together for a month or two, the Spaniards let them have arms again, and gave them liberty to go abroad with them as before.

It was not above a week after they had these arms, and went abroad, before the ungrateful creatures began to be as insolent and troublesome as ever. However, an accident happened presently upon this, which endangered the safety of them all, and they were obliged to lay by all private resentments, and look to the preservation of their lives.