ROBINSON CRUSOE. 213

loath to kill them, if he could help it ; but that those two were
incorrigible villains, and had been the authors of all the mutiny
in the ship, and if they escaped, we should be undone still, for
they would go on board and bring the whole ship’s company,
and destroy us all. “Well, then,” says I, “necessity legiti-
mates my advice, for it is the only way to save our lives.”
However, seeing him still cautious of shedding blood, I told
him they should go themselves, and manage as they found con-
venient.

In the middle of this discourse we heard some of them
awake, and soon after we saw two of them on their feet. I
asked him if either of them were the heads of the mutiny. He
said, “No.” “Well, then,” said I, “you may let them escape ;
and Providence seems to have awakened them on purpose to
save themselves. Now,” says I, “if the rest escape you, it is
your fault.” Animated with this, he took the musket I had
given him in his hand, and a pistol in his belt, and his two
comrades with him, with each a piece in his hand; the two
men who were with him, going first, made some noise, at which
one of the seamen, who was awake, turned about, and seeing
them coming, cried out to the rest; but it was too late then,
for the moment he cried out they fired—I mean the two men,
the captain wisely reserving his own piece. They had so well
aimed their shot at the men they knew, that one of them was
killed on the spot, and the other very much wounded ; but not
being dead, he started up on his feet, and called eagerly for
help to the other ; but the captain, stepping to him, told him it
was too late to cry for help ; he should call upon God to for-
give his villany, and with that word knocked him down with
the stock of his musket, so that he never spoke more: there
were three more in the company, and one of them was slightly
wounded, By this time I was come ; and when they saw their
danger, and that it was in vain to resist, they begged for mercy.
The captain told them he would spare their lives if they would.
give him an assurance of their abhorrence of the treachery they
had been guilty of, and would swear to be faithful to him in
recovering the ship, and afterwards in carrying her back to
Jamaica, from whence they came. They gave him all the pro-
testations of their sincerity that could be desired ; and he was
willing to believe them, and spare their lives, which I was not
against, only that I obliged him to keep them bound hand and
foot while they were on the island.

While this was doing, I sent Friday with the captain’s mate
to the boat, with orders to secure ner, and bring away the oars