However, there was no Need to give any Orders in this Cafe; for their own Savages, who were their Servants, difpatch'd thofe poor Creatures with their Hatchets.

At length, they came in view of the Place, where the more miferable Remains of the Savages Army lay, where there appear'd about an hundred ftill; their Pofture was generally fitting upon the Ground, with their Knees up towards their Mouth, and the Head put between the two Hands, leaning down upon the Knees.

When our Men came within two Musket-fhot of them, the Spaniard Governour order'd two Muskets to be fir'd without Ball, to alarm them; this he did, that by their Countenance he might know what to expect, (viz.) whether they were till in Heart to fight, or were fo heartily beaten, as to be difpirited and difcourag'd, and fo he might manage accordingly.

This Stratagem took; for as foon as the Savages heard the firft Gun, and faw the Flash of the fecond, they started up upon their Feet, in the greatest Confternation imaginable; and as our Men advanced fwiftly towards them, they all run skreaming and yawling away, with a kind of a howling Noife, which our Men did not underftand, and had never heard before; and thus they run up the Hills into the Country.

At first, our Men had much rather the Weather had been calm, and they had all gone away to Sea: But they did not then confider, that this might probably have been the Occafion of their

coming again in fuch Multitudes, as not to be relifted, or at least, to come fo many, and fo often as would quite defolate the Ifland, and ftarve them: Will. Atkins, therefore, who, notwithftanding his Wound, kept always with them, prov'd the best Counsellour in this Cafe: His Advice was to take the Advantage that offer'd, and clap in between them and their Boats, and fo deprive them of the Capacity of ever returning any more to plague the Illand.

They confulted long about this, and fome were against it, for fear of making the Wretches fly to the Woods, and live there defperate, and fo they fhould have them to hunt like wild Beafts, be afraid to ftir out about their Bufinefs, and have their Plantations continuall rifled, all their tame Goats destroy'd, and in fhort, be redue'd to a Life of continual Distress.

Will. Atkins told them, They had better have to do with a hundred Men, than with a hundred Nations; that as they must destroy their Boats, fo they muft deftroy the Men, or be all of them deftroy'd themselves: In a word, he fhew'd them the Neceffity of it, fo plainly, that they all came in to it; fo they went to Work immediately with the Boats; and getting fome dry Wood together, from a dead Tree, they try'd to fet fome of them on Fire; but they were fo wet, that they would not burn; however, the Fire fo burn'd the upper Part, that it foon made them unfit for fwiming in the Sea as Boats. When the Indians faw what they were about, fome of them came running out of the Woods, and coming as near as they could to our Men, kneel'd down, and cry'd, Qa, Oa, Waramokoa, and fome other Words of their

their Language, which none of the others underftood any thing of; but as they made pitiful Geftures, and ftrange Noifes, it was easy to understand, they begg'd to have their Boats fpar'd, and that they would be gone, and never come their again.

But our Men were now fatisfied, that they had no Way to preferve themselves, or to fave their Colony, but effectually to prevent any of thefe People from ever going Home again; depending upon this, that if ever so much as one of them got back into their Country to tell the Story, the Colony was undone; fo that letting them know, that they fhould not have any Mercy, they fell to work with their Canoes, and destroy'd them every one, that the Storm had not deftroy'd before; at the Sight of which, the Savages rais'd a hideous Cry in the Woods, which our People heard plain enough; after which, they ran about the Ifland like diftracted Men, fo that in a word, our Men did not really know at firft what to do with them.

Nor did the Spaniards, with all their Prudence, confider, that while they made those People thus Defperate, they ought to have kept good Guard at the fame time upon their Plantations; for tho' it is true, they had driven away their Cattle, and the Indians did not find out their main Retreat, I mean my old Caftle at the Hill, nor the Cave in the Valley, yet they found out my Plantation at the Bower, and pull'd it all to pieces, and all the Fences and Planting about it; trod all the Corn underfoot; tore up the Vines and Grapes, being juft then almoft ripe, and did to our Men an ine

ftimable

ftimable Damage, tho' to themselves not one Farthing-worth of Service.

Tho' our Men were able to fight them upon all Occafions, yet they were in no Condition to pursue them, or hunt them up and down; for as they were too nimble of Foot for our Men, when they found them fingle, fo our Men durft not go about fingle, for fear of being furrounded with their Numbers. The best was, they had no Weapons, for tho' they had Bows they had no Arrows left, nor any Materials to make any, nor had they any edg'd Tool or Weapon among them.

The Extremety and Diftrefs they were reduc'd to was great, and indeed deplorable; but at the fame time, our Men were also brought to very bad Circumftances by them; for tho' their Retreats were preferv'd, yet their Provifion was deftroy'd, and their Harvest fpoil'd, and what to do, or which way to turn themfelves, they knew not: The only Refuge they had now, was the Stock of Cattle they had in the Valley by the Cave, and fome little Corn which grew there; and the Plantation of of the three English Men, Will. Atkins and his Comrades, who were now reduced to two, one of them being kill'd by an Arrow which ftruck him on the side of his Head, just under the Temples, fo that he never fpoke more; and it was very remarkable, that this was the fame barbarous Fellow who cut the poor Savage Slave with his Hatchet, and who afterwards intended to have murther'd all the Spaniards.

I look'd upon their Cafe to have been worfe at this time, than mine was at any time, after 1 firft difcovered the Grains of Barley and Rice, and got into the manner of planting and railing my Corn, and my tame Cattle; for now they had, as I may fay, a hundred Wolves upon the Ifland, which would devour every Thing they could come at, yet could very hardly be come at themselves.

The first Thing they concluded, when they faw what their Circumftances were, was, that they would, if poffible, drive them up to the farther Part of the lfland, South-Weft, that if any more Savages came on Shore, they might not find one another. Then, that they would daily hunt and barrafs them, and kill as many of them as they could come at, till they had reduced their Number; and if they could at laft tame them, and bring them to any thing, they would give them Corn, and teach them how to plant and live upon their daily Labour.

In order to this, they fo followed them, and to terrified them with their Guns, that in a few Days, if any of them fir'd a Gun at an Indian, if he did not hit him, yet he would fall down for Fear; and fo dreadfully frighted they were, that they kept out of fight farther and farther, till at last our Men following them, and every Day almost killing or wounding fome of them, they kept up in the Woods and hollow Places fo much, that it reduced them to the utmost Mifery for want of Food, and many were afterwards found dead in the Woods, without any hurt, but meerly ftarv'd to Death.

When

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