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第1章 嫌命长

　　However just our men thought this action, I was against them in it,and I always, after that time, told them God would blast thevoyage; for I looked upon all the blood they shed that night to bemurder in them. For though it is true that they had killed TomJeffry, yet Jeffry was the aggressor, had broken the truce, and hadill-used a young woman of theirs, who came down to them innocently,and on the faith of the public capitulation.

　　But in the middle of all this felicity, one blow from unseenProvidence unhinged me at once; and not only made a breach upon meinevitable and incurable, but drove me, by its consequences, into adeep relapse of the wandering disposition, which, as I may say,being born in my very blood, soon recovered its hold of me; and,like the returns of a violent distemper, came on with anirresistible force upon me. This blow was the loss of my wife. Itis not my business here to write an elegy upon my wife, give acharacter of her particular virtues, and make my court to the sexby the flattery of a funeral sermon. She was, in a few words, thestay of all my affairs; the centre of all my enterprises; theengine that, by her prudence, reduced me to that happy compass Iwas in, from the most extravagant and ruinous project that filledmy head, and did more to guide my rambling genius than a mother'stears, a father's instructions, a friend's counsel, or all my ownreasoning powers could do. I was happy in listening to her, and i

of Christianity, ifnot into the particular faith we all embrace, and that even whileyou stay here." Upon this I said, "I shall not only give youleave, but give you a thousand thanks for it."

　　WIFE. - What! He no hear you curse, swear, speak de great damn?

　　I would fain have learned what the occasion of all this was; but Icould not understand one word they said; though, by signs, Iperceived some of them knew not what was the occasion themselves.I was so terrified in my thoughts at this outrageous attempt that Icould not stay there, but went back to my own men, and resolved togo into the middle of the town, through the fire, or whatever mightbe 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, camefour of our men, with the boatswain at their head, roving overheaps of bodies they had killed, all covered with blood and dust,as if they wanted more people to massacre, when our men hallooed tothem as loud as they could halloo; and with much ado one of themmade them hear, so that they knew who we were, and came up to us.

　　CHAPTER XII - THE CARPENTER'S WHIMSICAL CONTRIVANCE

　　Among the precautions I used to take on the savages landing on theisland, it was my constant care to prevent them making the leastdiscovery of there being any inhabitant upon the place: and whenby any occasion they came to know it, they felt it so effectuallythat they that got away were scarce able to give any account of it;for we disappeared as soon as possible, nor did ever any that hadseen me escape to tell any one else, except it was the threesavages in our last encounter who jumped into the boat; of whom, Imentioned, I was afraid they should go home and bring more help.Whether it was the consequence of the escape of those men that sogreat a number came now together, or whether they came ignorantly,and by accident, on their usual bloody errand, the Spaniards couldnot understand; but whatever it was, it was their business eitherto have concealed themselves or not to have seen them at all, muchless to have let the savages have seen there were any inhabitantsin the place; or to have fallen upon them so ef

d themvery well. I then made the Englishman gunner in the ship, thegunner being now made second mate and purser; the Dutchman I madeboatswain; so they were both very well pleased, and proved veryserviceable, being both able seamen, and very stout fellows.

　　He then ran on in remarks upon all the little improvements I hadmade in my solitude: my unwearied application, as he called it;and how I had made a condition, which in its circumstances was atfirst much worse than theirs, a thousand times more happy thantheirs was, even now when they were all together. He told me itwas remarkable that Englishmen had a greater presence of mind intheir distress than any people that ever he met with; that theirunhappy nation and the Portuguese were the worst men in the worldto struggle with misfortunes; for that their first step in dangers,after the common efforts were over, was to despair, lie down underit, and die, without rousing their thoughts up to proper remediesfor escape.