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EN ae Sew en Tne SNe Ca

ROBINSON CRUSOE 207

or of finding their way out of the woods if they could have
delivered themselves. Here they left them bound, but gave
them provisions ; and promised them, if they continued there
quietly, to give them their liberty in a day or two; but that if
they attempted their escape they should be put to death without
mercy. They promised faithfully to bear their confinement
with patience, and were very thankful that they had such good
usage as to have provisions and light left them ; for Friday gave
them candles (such as we made ourselves) for their comfort ;
and they did not know but that he stood sentinel over them at
the entrance.

The other prisoners had better usage; two of them were
kept pinioned, indeed, because the captain was not able to trust
them ; but the other two were taken into my service, upon the
captain’s recommendation, and upon their solemnly engaging to
live and die with us; so with them and the three honest men
we were seven men, well armed; and I made no doubt we
should be able to deal well enough with the ten that were
coming, considering that the captain had said there were three
or four honest men among them also. As soon as they got to
the place where their other boat lay, they ran their boat into
the beach and came all on shore, hauling the boat up after
them, which I was glad to see, for I was afraid they would
rather have left the boat at an anchor some distance from the
shore, with some hands in her to guard her, and so we should
not be able to seize the boat. Being on shore, the first thing
they did, they ran all to their other boat; and it was easy to
see they were under a great surprise to find her stripped, as
above, of all that was in her, and a great hole in her bottom.
After they had mused a while upon this, they set up two or
three great shouts, hallooing with all their might, to try if they
could make their companions hear; but all was to no purpose.
Then they came all close in a ring, and fired a volley of their
small arms, which indeed we heard, and the echoes made the
woods ring. But it was all one; those in the cave, we were
sure, could not hear; and those in our keeping, though they
heard it well enough, yet durst give no answer to them. They
were so astonished at the surprise of this, that, as they told us
afterwards, they resolved to go all on board again to their ship,
and let them know that the men were all murdered, and the
long-boat staved ; accordingly, they immediately launched their
boat again, and got all of them on board.

‘The captain was terribly amazed, and even confounded, at
this, believing they would go on board the ship again and set

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