188 THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES

 

 

This was a dreadful sight to me, especially when, going to the shore,
I could see the marks of horror which the dismal work they had been
about had left behind it, namely, the blood, the bones, and part of the
flesh of human bodies, eaten and devoured by those wretches with mer-
riment and sport. I was so filled with indignation at the sight, that I
began now to premeditate the destruction of the next that I saw there,
let them be who or how many soever.

It seemed evident to me, that the visits which they thus made to
this island were not very frequent; for it was above fifteen months
before any more of them came on shore there again; that is to say, I
never saw them, or any footsteps or signals of them, in all that time;
for as to the rainy seasons, then they are sure not to come abroad, at
least not so far; yet all this while I lived uncomfortably, by reason of
the constant apprehensions I was in of their coming upon me by sur-
prise; from whence I observe, that the expectation of evil is more bitter
than the suffering, especially if there is no room to shake off that ex-
pectation, or those apprehensions.

During all this time, I was in the murdering humour ; and took up
most of my hours, which should have been better employed, in con-
triving how to circumvent and fall upon them the very next time I
should see them, especially if they should be divided, as they were the
last time, into two parties; nor, did I consider at all, that if I killed
one party, suppose ten or a dozen, I was still, the next day, or week,
or month, to kill another, and so another, even ad infinitum, till I should
be at length no less a murderer than they were in being men-eaters,
and perhap$ much more so.

I spent my days now in great perplexity and anxiety of mind, ex-

_ pecting that I should’ one day or other fall into the hands of those
merciless creatures; if I did at any time venture abroad, it was not
without looking round me with the greatest care and caution imagin-
able; and now I found, to my great comfort, how happy it was that I
had provided a tame flock or herd of goats; for I durst not, upon any
account, fire my gun, especially near that side of the island where they
usually came, lest I should alarm the savages; and if they had fled
from me now, I was sure to have them come back again, with perhaps
two or three hundred canoes with them in a few days, and then I knew
what to expect.

However, I wore out a year and three months more before I ever
saw any more of the savages, and then I found them again, as I shall
soon observe. It is true, they might have been there once or twice,
hut either they made no stay, or, at least, I did not hear them; but in
the month of May, as near as I could calculate, and in my four-and-