438 AN INTERVAL OF PEACE.

They seemed sorry at first, and there was no way to come at
them to give them a parting blow; but, upon the whole, were very
well satisfied to be rid of them.

The poor Englishmen being now twice ruined, and all their im-
provement destroyed, the rest all agreed to come and help them to
rebuild, and to assist them with needful supplies. Their three
countrymen, who were not yet noted for having the least inclina-
tion to any good, yet as soon as they heard of it (for they
living remote eastward knew nothing of the matter until all was
over) came and offered their help and assistance, and did very
friendly work for several days to restore their habitation 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 distance from them two drowned men; by which they had
reason to believe that they had met with a storm at sea, and had
overset some of them; for it had blown very hard the very 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 had 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
witness to confirm it to them.

It 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
either forgot their former bad luck, or given over the hopes of
better, when on a sudden they were invaded with the most for-
midable fleet, of no less than eight and twenty 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.