<h2>CHAPTER XX—FIGHT BETWEEN FRIDAY AND A BEAR</h2>
<p>But never was a fight managed so hardily, and in such a
surprising manner as that which followed between Friday and the
bear, which gave us all, though at first we were surprised and
afraid for him, the greatest diversion imaginable. As the
bear is a heavy, clumsy creature, and does not gallop as the wolf
does, who is swift and light, so he has two particular qualities,
which generally are the rule of his actions; first, as to men,
who are not his proper prey (he does not usually attempt them,
except they first attack him, unless he be excessively hungry,
which it is probable might now be the case, the ground being
covered with snow), if you do not meddle with him, he will not
meddle with you; but then you must take care to be very civil to
him, and give him the road, for he is a very nice gentleman; he
will not go a step out of his way for a prince; nay, if you are
really afraid, your best way is to look another way and keep
going on; for sometimes if you stop, and stand still, and look
steadfastly at him, he takes it for an affront; but if you throw
or toss anything at him, though it were but a bit of stick as big
as your finger, he thinks himself abused, and sets all other
business aside to pursue his revenge, and will have satisfaction
in point of honour—that is his first quality: the next is,
if he be once affronted, he will never leave you, night or day,
till he has his revenge, but follows at a good round rate till he
overtakes you.</p>
<p>My man Friday had delivered our guide, and when we came up to
him he was helping him off his horse, for the man was both hurt
and frightened, when on a sudden we espied the bear come out of
the wood; and a monstrous one it was, the biggest by far that
ever I saw. We were all a little surprised when we saw him;
but when Friday saw him, it was easy to see joy and courage in
the fellow’s countenance. “O! O! O!” says
Friday, three times, pointing to him; “O master, you give
me te leave, me shakee te hand with him; me makee you good
laugh.”</p>
<p>I was surprised to see the fellow so well pleased.
“You fool,” says I, “he will eat you
up.”—“Eatee me up! eatee me up!” says
Friday, twice over again; “me eatee him up; me makee you
good laugh; you all stay here, me show you good
laugh.” So down he sits, and gets off his boots in a
moment, and puts on a pair of pumps (as we call the flat shoes
they wear, and which he had in his pocket), gives my other
servant his horse, and with his gun away he flew, swift like the
wind.</p>
<p>The bear was walking softly on, and offered to meddle with
nobody, till Friday coming pretty near, calls to him, as if the
bear could understand him. “Hark ye, hark ye,”
says Friday, “me speakee with you.” We followed
at a distance, for now being down on the Gascony side of the
mountains, we were entered a vast forest, where the country was
plain and pretty open, though it had many trees in it scattered
here and there. Friday, who had, as we say, the heels of
the bear, came up with him quickly, and took up a great stone,
and threw it at him, and hit him just on the head, but did him no
more harm than if he had thrown it against a wall; but it
answered Friday’s end, for the rogue was so void of fear
that he did it purely to make the bear follow him, and show us
some laugh as he called it. As soon as the bear felt the
blow, and saw him, he turns about and comes after him, taking
very long strides, and shuffling on at a strange rate, so as
would have put a horse to a middling gallop; away reins Friday,
and takes his course as if he ran towards us for help; so we all
resolved to fire at once upon the bear, and deliver my man;
though I was angry at him for bringing the bear back upon us,
when he was going about his own business another way; and
especially I was angry that he had turned the bear upon us, and
then ran away; and I called out, “You dog! is this your
making us laugh? Come away, and take your horse, that we
may shoot the creature.” He heard me, and cried out,
“No shoot, no shoot; stand still, and you get much
laugh:” and as the nimble creature ran two feet for the
bear’s one, he turned on a sudden on one side of us, and
seeing a great oak-tree fit for his purpose, he beckoned to us to
follow; and doubling his pace, he got nimbly up the tree, laying
his gun down upon the ground, at about five or six yards from the
bottom of the tree. The bear soon came to the tree, and we
followed at a distance: the first thing he did he stopped at the
gun, smelt at it, but let it lie, and up he scrambles into the
tree, climbing like a cat, though so monstrous heavy. I was
amazed at the folly, as I thought it, of my man, and could not
for my life see anything to laugh at, till seeing the bear get up
the tree, we all rode near to him.</p>
<p>When we came to the tree, there was Friday got out to the
small end of a large branch, and the bear got about half-way to
him. As soon as the bear got out to that part where the
limb of the tree was weaker, “Ha!” says he to us,
“now you see me teachee the bear dance:” so he began
jumping and shaking the bough, at which the bear began to totter,
but stood still, and began to look behind him, to see how he
should get back; then, indeed, we did laugh heartily. But
Friday had not done with him by a great deal; when seeing him
stand still, he called out to him again, as if he had supposed
the bear could speak English, “What, you come no farther?
pray you come farther;” so he left jumping and shaking the
tree; and the bear, just as if he understood what he said, did
come a little farther; then he began jumping again, and the bear
stopped again. We thought now was a good time to knock him
in the head, and called to Friday to stand still and we should
shoot the bear: but he cried out earnestly, “Oh,
pray! Oh, pray! no shoot, me shoot by and then:” he
would have said by-and-by. However, to shorten the story,
Friday danced so much, and the bear stood so ticklish, that we
had laughing enough, but still could not imagine what the fellow
would do: for first we thought he depended upon shaking the bear
off; and we found the bear was too cunning for that too; for he
would not go out far enough to be thrown down, but clung fast
with his great broad claws and feet, so that we could not imagine
what would be the end of it, and what the jest would be at
last. But Friday put us out of doubt quickly: for seeing
the bear cling fast to the bough, and that he would not be
persuaded to come any farther, “Well, well,” says
Friday, “you no come farther, me go; you no come to me, me
come to you;” and upon this he went out to the smaller end,
where it would bend with his weight, and gently let himself down
by it, sliding down the bough till he came near enough to jump
down on his feet, and away he ran to his gun, took it up, and
stood still. “Well,” said I to him,
“Friday, what will you do now? Why don’t you
shoot him?” “No shoot,” says Friday,
“no yet; me shoot now, me no kill; me stay, give you one
more laugh:” and, indeed, so he did; for when the bear saw
his enemy gone, he came back from the bough, where he stood, but
did it very cautiously, looking behind him every step, and coming
backward till he got into the body of the tree, then, with the
same hinder end foremost, he came down the tree, grasping it with
his claws, and moving one foot at a time, very leisurely.
At this juncture, and just before he could set his hind foot on
the ground, Friday stepped up close to him, clapped the muzzle of
his piece into his ear, and shot him dead. Then the rogue
turned about to see if we did not laugh; and when he saw we were
pleased by our looks, he began to laugh very loud.
“So we kill bear in my country,” says Friday.
“So you kill them?” says I; “why, you have no
guns.”—“No,” says he, “no gun, but
shoot great much long arrow.” This was a good
diversion to us; but we were still in a wild place, and our guide
very much hurt, and what to do we hardly knew; the howling of
wolves ran much in my head; and, indeed, except the noise I once
heard on the shore of Africa, of which I have said something
already, I never heard anything that filled me with so much
horror.</p>
<p>These things, and the approach of night, called us off, or
else, as Friday would have had us, we should certainly have taken
the skin of this monstrous creature off, which was worth saving;
but we had near three leagues to go, and our guide hastened us;
so we left him, and went forward on our journey.</p>
<p>The ground was still covered with snow, though not so deep and
dangerous as on the mountains; and the ravenous creatures, as we
heard afterwards, were come down into the forest and plain
country, pressed by hunger, to seek for food, and had done a
great deal of mischief in the villages, where they surprised the
country people, killed a great many of their sheep and horses,
and some people too. We had one dangerous place to pass,
and our guide told us if there were more wolves in the country we
should find them there; and this was a small plain, surrounded
with woods on every side, and a long, narrow defile, or lane,
which we were to pass to get through the wood, and then we should
come to the village where we were to lodge. It was within
half-an-hour of sunset when we entered the wood, and a little
after sunset when we came into the plain: we met with nothing in
the first wood, except that in a little plain within the wood,
which was not above two furlongs over, we saw five great wolves
cross the road, full speed, one after another, as if they had
been in chase of some prey, and had it in view; they took no
notice of us, and were gone out of sight in a few moments.
Upon this, our guide, who, by the way, was but a fainthearted
fellow, bid us keep in a ready posture, for he believed there
were more wolves a-coming. We kept our arms ready, and our
eyes about us; but we saw no more wolves till we came through
that wood, which was near half a league, and entered the
plain. As soon as we came into the plain, we had occasion
enough to look about us. The first object we met with was a
dead horse; that is to say, a poor horse which the wolves had
killed, and at least a dozen of them at work, we could not say
eating him, but picking his bones rather; for they had eaten up
all the flesh before. We did not think fit to disturb them
at their feast, neither did they take much notice of us.
Friday would have let fly at them, but I would not suffer him by
any means; for I found we were like to have more business upon
our hands than we were aware of. We had not gone half over
the plain when we began to hear the wolves howl in the wood on
our left in a frightful manner, and presently after we saw about
a hundred coming on directly towards us, all in a body, and most
of them in a line, as regularly as an army drawn up by
experienced officers. I scarce knew in what manner to
receive them, but found to draw ourselves in a close line was the
only way; so we formed in a moment; but that we might not have
too much interval, I ordered that only every other man should
fire, and that the others, who had not fired, should stand ready
to give them a second volley immediately, if they continued to
advance upon us; and then that those that had fired at first
should not pretend to load their fusees again, but stand ready,
every one with a pistol, for we were all armed with a fusee and a
pair of pistols each man; so we were, by this method, able to
fire six volleys, half of us at a time; however, at present we
had no necessity; for upon firing the first volley, the enemy
made a full stop, being terrified as well with the noise as with
the fire. Four of them being shot in the head, dropped;
several others were wounded, and went bleeding off, as we could
see by the snow. I found they stopped, but did not
immediately retreat; whereupon, remembering that I had been told
that the fiercest creatures were terrified at the voice of a man,
I caused all the company to halloo as loud as they could; and I
found the notion not altogether mistaken; for upon our shout they
began to retire and turn about. I then ordered a second
volley to be fired in their rear, which put them to the gallop,
and away they went to the woods. This gave us leisure to
charge our pieces again; and that we might lose no time, we kept
going; but we had but little more than loaded our fusees, and put
ourselves in readiness, when we heard a terrible noise in the
same wood on our left, only that it was farther onward, the same
way we were to go.</p>
<p>The night was coming on, and the light began to be dusky,
which made it worse on our side; but the noise increasing, we
could easily perceive that it was the howling and yelling of
those hellish creatures; and on a sudden we perceived three
troops of wolves, one on our left, one behind us, and one in our
front, so that we seemed to be surrounded with them: however, as
they did not fall upon us, we kept our way forward, as fast as we
could make our horses go, which, the way being very rough, was
only a good hard trot. In this manner, we came in view of
the entrance of a wood, through which we were to pass, at the
farther side of the plain; but we were greatly surprised, when
coming nearer the lane or pass, we saw a confused number of
wolves standing just at the entrance. On a sudden, at
another opening of the wood, we heard the noise of a gun, and
looking that way, out rushed a horse, with a saddle and a bridle
on him, flying like the wind, and sixteen or seventeen wolves
after him, full speed: the horse had the advantage of them; but
as we supposed that he could not hold it at that rate, we doubted
not but they would get up with him at last: no question but they
did.</p>
<p>But here we had a most horrible sight; for riding up to the
entrance where the horse came out, we found the carcasses of
another horse and of two men, devoured by the ravenous creatures;
and one of the men was no doubt the same whom we heard fire the
gun, for there lay a gun just by him fired off; but as to the
man, his head and the upper part of his body was eaten up.
This filled us with horror, and we knew not what course to take;
but the creatures resolved us soon, for they gathered about us
presently, in hopes of prey; and I verily believe there were
three hundred of them. It happened, very much to our
advantage, that at the entrance into the wood, but a little way
from it, there lay some large timber-trees, which had been cut
down the summer before, and I suppose lay there for
carriage. I drew my little troop in among those trees, and
placing ourselves in a line behind one long tree, I advised them
all to alight, and keeping that tree before us for a breastwork,
to stand in a triangle, or three fronts, enclosing our horses in
the centre. We did so, and it was well we did; for never
was a more furious charge than the creatures made upon us in this
place. They came on with a growling kind of noise, and
mounted the piece of timber, which, as I said, was our
breastwork, as if they were only rushing upon their prey; and
this fury of theirs, it seems, was principally occasioned by
their seeing our horses behind us. I ordered our men to
fire as before, every other man; and they took their aim so sure
that they killed several of the wolves at the first volley; but
there was a necessity to keep a continual firing, for they came
on like devils, those behind pushing on those before.</p>
<p>When we had fired a second volley of our fusees, we thought
they stopped a little, and I hoped they would have gone off, but
it was but a moment, for others came forward again; so we fired
two volleys of our pistols; and I believe in these four firings
we had killed seventeen or eighteen of them, and lamed twice as
many, yet they came on again. I was loth to spend our shot
too hastily; so I called my servant, not my man Friday, for he
was better employed, for, with the greatest dexterity imaginable,
he had charged my fusee and his own while we were
engaged—but, as I said, I called my other man, and giving
him a horn of powder, I had him lay a train all along the piece
of timber, and let it be a large train. He did so, and had
but just time to get away, when the wolves came up to it, and
some got upon it, when I, snapping an unchanged pistol close to
the powder, set it on fire; those that were upon the timber were
scorched with it, and six or seven of them fell; or rather jumped
in among us with the force and fright of the fire; we despatched
these in an instant, and the rest were so frightened with the
light, which the night—for it was now very near
dark—made more terrible that they drew back a little; upon
which I ordered our last pistols to be fired off in one volley,
and after that we gave a shout; upon this the wolves turned tail,
and we sallied immediately upon near twenty lame ones that we
found struggling on the ground, and fell to cutting them with our
swords, which answered our expectation, for the crying and
howling they made was better understood by their fellows; so that
they all fled and left us.</p>
<p>We had, first and last, killed about threescore of them, and
had it been daylight we had killed many more. The field of
battle being thus cleared, we made forward again, for we had
still near a league to go. We heard the ravenous creatures
howl and yell in the woods as we went several times, and
sometimes we fancied we saw some of them; but the snow dazzling
our eyes, we were not certain. In about an hour more we
came to the town where we were to lodge, which we found in a
terrible fright and all in arms; for, it seems, the night before
the wolves and some bears had broken into the village, and put
them in such terror that they were obliged to keep guard night
and day, but especially in the night, to preserve their cattle,
and indeed their people.</p>
<p>The next morning our guide was so ill, and his limbs swelled
so much with the rankling of his two wounds, that he could go no
farther; so we were obliged to take a new guide here, and go to
Toulouse, where we found a warm climate, a fruitful, pleasant
country, and no snow, no wolves, nor anything like them; but when
we told our story at Toulouse, they told us it was nothing but
what was ordinary in the great forest at the foot of the
mountains, especially when the snow lay on the ground; but they
inquired much what kind of guide we had got who would venture to
bring us that way in such a severe season, and told us it was
surprising we were not all devoured. When we told them how
we placed ourselves and the horses in the middle, they blamed us
exceedingly, and told us it was fifty to one but we had been all
destroyed, for it was the sight of the horses which made the
wolves so furious, seeing their prey, and that at other times
they are really afraid of a gun; but being excessively hungry,
and raging on that account, the eagerness to come at the horses
had made them senseless of danger, and that if we had not by the
continual fire, and at last by the stratagem of the train of
powder, mastered them, it had been great odds but that we had
been torn to pieces; whereas, had we been content to have sat
still on horseback, and fired as horsemen, they would not have
taken the horses so much for their own, when men were on their
backs, as otherwise; and withal, they told us that at last, if we
had stood altogether, and left our horses, they would have been
so eager to have devoured them, that we might have come off safe,
especially having our firearms in our hands, being so many in
number. For my part, I was never so sensible of danger in
my life; for, seeing above three hundred devils come roaring and
open-mouthed to devour us, and having nothing to shelter us or
retreat to, I gave myself over for lost; and, as it was, I
believe I shall never care to cross those mountains again: I
think I would much rather go a thousand leagues by sea, though I
was sure to meet with a storm once a-week.</p>
<p>I have nothing uncommon to take notice of in my passage
through France—nothing but what other travellers have given
an account of with much more advantage than I can. I
travelled from Toulouse to Paris, and without any considerable
stay came to Calais, and landed safe at Dover the 14th of
January, after having had a severe cold season to travel in.</p>
<p>I was now come to the centre of my travels, and had in a
little time all my new-discovered estate safe about me, the bills
of exchange which I brought with me having been currently
paid.</p>
<p>My principal guide and privy-counsellor was my good ancient
widow, who, in gratitude for the money I had sent her, thought no
pains too much nor care too great to employ for me; and I trusted
her so entirely that I was perfectly easy as to the security of
my effects; and, indeed, I was very happy from the beginning, and
now to the end, in the unspotted integrity of this good
gentlewoman.</p>
<p>And now, having resolved to dispose of my plantation in the
Brazils, I wrote to my old friend at Lisbon, who, having offered
it to the two merchants, the survivors of my trustees, who lived
in the Brazils, they accepted the offer, and remitted
thirty-three thousand pieces of eight to a correspondent of
theirs at Lisbon to pay for it.</p>
<p>In return, I signed the instrument of sale in the form which
they sent from Lisbon, and sent it to my old man, who sent me the
bills of exchange for thirty-two thousand eight hundred pieces of
eight for the estate, reserving the payment of one hundred
moidores a year to him (the old man) during his life, and fifty
moidores afterwards to his son for his life, which I had promised
them, and which the plantation was to make good as a
rent-charge. And thus I have given the first part of a life
of fortune and adventure—a life of Providence’s
chequer-work, and of a variety which the world will seldom be
able to show the like of; beginning foolishly, but closing much
more happily than any part of it ever gave me leave so much as to
hope for.</p>
<p>Any one would think that in this state of complicated good
fortune I was past running any more hazards—and so, indeed,
I had been, if other circumstances had concurred; but I was
inured to a wandering life, had no family, nor many relations;
nor, however rich, had I contracted fresh acquaintance; and
though I had sold my estate in the Brazils, yet I could not keep
that country out of my head, and had a great mind to be upon the
wing again; especially I could not resist the strong inclination
I had to see my island, and to know if the poor Spaniards were in
being there. My true friend, the widow, earnestly dissuaded
me from it, and so far prevailed with me, that for almost seven
years she prevented my running abroad, during which time I took
my two nephews, the children of one of my brothers, into my care;
the eldest, having something of his own, I bred up as a
gentleman, and gave him a settlement of some addition to his
estate after my decease. The other I placed with the
captain of a ship; and after five years, finding him a sensible,
bold, enterprising young fellow, I put him into a good ship, and
sent him to sea; and this young fellow afterwards drew me in, as
old as I was, to further adventures myself.</p>
<p>In the meantime, I in part settled myself here; for, first of
all, I married, and that not either to my disadvantage or
dissatisfaction, and had three children, two sons and one
daughter; but my wife dying, and my nephew coming home with good
success from a voyage to Spain, my inclination to go abroad, and
his importunity, prevailed, and engaged me to go in his ship as a
private trader to the East Indies; this was in the year 1694.</p>
<p>In this voyage I visited my new colony in the island, saw my
successors the Spaniards, had the old story of their lives and of
the villains I left there; how at first they insulted the poor
Spaniards, how they afterwards agreed, disagreed, united,
separated, and how at last the Spaniards were obliged to use
violence with them; how they were subjected to the Spaniards, how
honestly the Spaniards used them—a history, if it were
entered into, as full of variety and wonderful accidents as my
own part—particularly, also, as to their battles with the
Caribbeans, who landed several times upon the island, and as to
the improvement they made upon the island itself, and how five of
them made an attempt upon the mainland, and brought away eleven
men and five women prisoners, by which, at my coming, I found
about twenty young children on the island.</p>
<p>Here I stayed about twenty days, left them supplies of all
necessary things, and particularly of arms, powder, shot,
clothes, tools, and two workmen, which I had brought from England
with me, viz. a carpenter and a smith.</p>
<p>Besides this, I shared the lands into parts with them,
reserved to myself the property of the whole, but gave them such
parts respectively as they agreed on; and having settled all
things with them, and engaged them not to leave the place, I left
them there.</p>
<p>From thence I touched at the Brazils, from whence I sent a
bark, which I bought there, with more people to the island; and
in it, besides other supplies, I sent seven women, being such as
I found proper for service, or for wives to such as would take
them. As to the Englishmen, I promised to send them some
women from England, with a good cargo of necessaries, if they
would apply themselves to planting—which I afterwards could
not perform. The fellows proved very honest and diligent
after they were mastered and had their properties set apart for
them. I sent them, also, from the Brazils, five cows, three
of them being big with calf, some sheep, and some hogs, which
when I came again were considerably increased.</p>
<p>But all these things, with an account how three hundred
Caribbees came and invaded them, and ruined their plantations,
and how they fought with that whole number twice, and were at
first defeated, and one of them killed; but at last, a storm
destroying their enemies’ canoes, they famished or
destroyed almost all the rest, and renewed and recovered the
possession of their plantation, and still lived upon the
island.</p>
<p>All these things, with some very surprising incidents in some
new adventures of my own, for ten years more, I shall give a
farther account of in the Second Part of my Story.</p>
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