ROBINSON CRUSOE. 291
light as of fire, a very little way off from them, and hearing the
voices of men— not of one or two, but of a great number.

In all the discoveries I had made of the savages landing on
the island, it was my constant care to prevent them making the
least discovery of there being any inhabitant upon the place ;
and when by any occasion they came to know it, they felt it so
effectually that they that got away were scarce able to give any
account of it ; for we disappeared as soon as possible ; nor did
ever any that had seen me, escape to tell any one else, except
it was the three savages in our last encounter, who jumped into
the boat ; of whom, I mentioned, I was afraid they should go
home and bring more help. Whether it was the consequence
of the escape of those men that so great a number came now
together, or whether they came ignorantly, and by accident, on
their usual bloody errand, the Spaniards could not, it seems,
understand ; but, whatever it was, it had been their business
cither to have concealed themselves, or not to have seen them
at all, much less to have let the savages have seen that there
were any inhabitants in the place ; or to have fallen upon them
so effectually as that not a man of them should have escaped,
which could only have been by getting in between them and
their boats ; but this presence of mind was wanting to them,
which was the ruin of their tranquillity for a great while.

We need not doubt but that the governor and the man with
him, surprised with this sight, ran back immediately, and raised
their fellows, giving them an account of the imminent danger
they were all in, and they again as readily took the alarm ; but
it was impossible to persuade them “o stay close within where
they were, but they must all run ov’ to see how things stood.

While it was dark, indeed, they were well enough, and they
had opportunity enough, for some hours, to view them by the
light of three fires they had made at a distance from one
another ; what they were doing they knew not, and what to do
themselves they knew not. For, first, the enemy were too
many ; and, secondly, they did not keep together, but were
divided into several parties, and were on shore in several
nlaces.

; ‘The Spaniards were in no small consternation at this sight ;
and, as they found that the fellows ran straggling all over the
shore, they made no doubt but, first or last, some of them
would chop in upon their habitation, or upon some other place
where they would see the token of inhabitants ; and they were
in great perplexity also for fear of their flock of goats, which
would have been little less than starving them, if they should