FORGOTTEN IN THE LUST OF FIGHTING, 667

fallen into the hands of.the savages, who were men-eaters, and
who, I was sure, would feast upon me when they had taken me,
than by those, who would perhaps glut their rage upon me by
inhuman tortures and barbarities: that in the case of the savages, I
always resolved to die fighting to the last gasp ; and why should I
not do so now, seeing it was much more dreadful to me, at least, to
think of falling into these men’s hands, than ever it was to think of
being eaten by men; for the savages, give them their due, would
not eat a man till he was dead, and killed him first, as we do a
bullock ; but that these men had many arts beyond the cruelty of
death. Whenever these thoughts prevailed I was sure to put my-
self in a kind of fever with the agitations of a supposed fight;
my blood would boil and my eyes sparkle as if 1 was engaged;
and I always resolved that I would take no quarter at their- hands,
but even at last, if I could resist no longer, I would blow up the
ship, and all that was in her, and leave them but little booty to
boast of.

By how much the greater weight the anxieties and perplexities
of these things were to our thoughts while we were at sea, by so
much the greater was our satisfaction when we saw ourselves on
shore; and my partner told me he dreamed that he had a very
heavy load upon his back, which he was to carry up a hill, and
found that he was not able to stand long under it; but that the
Portuguese pilot came and took it off his back, and the hill dis-
appeared, the ground before him showing all smooth and plain; and
truly it was so, we were all like men who had a load taken off
their backs.

For my part, I had a weight taken off from my heart that I
was not able any longer to bear; and, as I said above, we resolved
to go no more to sea in that ship. When we came on shore,
the old pilot, who was now our friend, got us a lodging and a
warehouse for our goods; which, by the way, was much the same.
Tt was a little house or hut, with a large house joining to it, all
built with canes, and palisadoed round with large canes to keep
out pilfering thieves, of which, it seems, there were not a few in
that country. However, the magistrates allowed us also a little
guard, and we had a sentinel with a kind of halberd, or half-pike,