ROBINSON CRUSOR, 297

do, and seemed a little untractable in his showing him, drew a
hatchet out of a frog-belt, in which he wore it by his side, and
fell upon the poor savage, not to correct him, but to kill him.
One of the Spaniards, who was by, seeing him give the fellow
a barbarous cut with the hatchet, which he aimed at his head, but
struck into his shoulder, so that he thought he had cut the poor
creature’s arm off, ran to him and entreating him not to mur-
der the poor man, placed himself between him and the savage,
to prevent the mischief. The fellow, being enraged the more
at this, struck at the Spaniard with his hatchet, and swore he
would serve him as he intended to serve the savage ; which the
Spaniard perceiving, avoided the blow, and with a shovel which
he had in his hand (for they were all working in the field about
their corn land) knocked the brute down. Another of the
Englishmen, running at the same time to help his comrade,
knocked the Spaniard down ; and then two Spaniards more
came in to help their man, and a third Englishman fell in upon
them. They had none of them any. fire-arms, or any other
weapons but hatchets and other tools, except this third English-
man ; he had one of my rusty cutlasses, with which he made at
the two last Spaniards, and wounded them both. This fray
set the whole family in an uproar, and more help coming in,
they took the three Englishmen prisoners. The next question
was, what should be done with them? ‘They had been so often
mutinous, and hey were so very furious, so desperate, and so
idle withal, they knew not what course to take with them, for
they were mischievous to the highest degree, and cared not what
hurt they did to any man ; so that, in short, it was not safe to
zive with them.

The Spaniard who was governor told them, in so many
words, that if they had been of his own country, he would
have hanged them; for all laws and all governors were to
preserve society, and those who were dangerous to the so-
ciety ought to be expelled out of it; but as they were English-
men, and that it was to the generous kindness of an Englishman
that they all owed their preservation and deliverance, he would
use them with all possible lenity, and would leave them to the
judgment of the other two Englishmen, who were their country-
men.

One of the two honest Englishmen stood up, and said they
desired it might not be left tothem. “ For,” says he, “I am sure
we ought to sentence them to the gallows ;” and with that he
gives an account how Will Atkins, one of the three, had pro-
posed to have all the five Englishmen join together, and mur-
der all the Spaniards when they were in their sleep.