356 THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES

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and to assist them with needful supplies. Their three countrymen,
who were not yet noted for having the least inclination to do any thing
good, yet, as soon as they heard of it (for they, living remote, knew
nothing till all was over), came and offered their help and assistance,
and did very friendly work for several days to restore their habita-
tions, and make necessaries for them; and thus in a little time they
were set upon their legs again.

About two days after this, they had the further satisfaction of seeing
three of the savages’ canoes come driving on shore, and at some dis-
tance from them, with two drowned men; by which they had reason to
believe that they had met with a storm at sea, which had overset some
of them, for it blew very hard the night after they went off.

However, as some might miscarry, so on the other hand enough of
them escaped to inform the rest, as well of what they had done, as of
what happened to them; and to whet them on to another enterprise
of the same nature, which they, it seems, resolved to attempt, with
sufficient force to carry all before them; for except what the first man
had told them of inhabitants, they could say little to it of their own
knowledge; for they never saw one man, and the fellow being killed
that had affirmed it, they had no other witnesses to confirm it to them.

 

CHAPTER V.

‘The Island is invaded by a formidable Fleet of Savages—A terrible Engagement, in
which the Cannibals are utterly routed—Thirty-seven Wretches, the survivors, are
saved, and employed by my People as Servants— Description of Will Atkins’
ingenious Contrivances for his Accommodation.

Ir was five or six months after this before they heard any more of
the savages, in which time our men were in hopes they had not forgot
their former bad luck, or had given over the hopes of better ; when on
a sudden they were invaded with a most formidable fleet of no less than
twenty-eight canoes, full of savages, armed with bows and arrows, great
clubs, wooden swords, and such like engines of war; and they brought
such numbers with them, that, in short, it put all our people into the
utmost consternation.

As they came on shore in the evening, and at the eastermost side
of the island, our men had that night to consult and consider what to
do; and in the first place, knowing that their being entirely concealed