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第6章 坑爹

　　I was so annoyed at the loss of my old trusty servant andcompanion, that I immediately ordered five guns to be loaded withsmall shot, and four with great, and gave them such a broadside asthey had never heard in their lives before. They were not abovehalf a cable's length off when we fired; and our gunners took theiraim so well, that three or four of their canoes were overset, as wehad reason to believe, by one shot only. The ill manners ofturning up their bare backs to us gave us no great offence; neitherdid I know for certain whether that which would pass for thegreatest contempt among us might be understood so by them or not;therefore, in return, I had only resolved to have fired four orfive guns at them with powder only, which I knew would frightenthem sufficiently: but when they shot at us directly with all thefury they were capable of, and especially as they had killed mypoor Friday, whom I so entirely loved and valued, and who, indeed,so well deserved it, I thought myself not only justifiable befo

　　I confess I was more moved at their stupidity and brutish worshipof a hobgoblin than ever I was at anything in my life, and,overcome with rage, I rode up to the hideous idol, and with mysword made a stroke at the bonnet that was on its head, and cut itin two; and one of our men that was with me, taking hold of thesheepskin that covered it, pulled at it, when, behold, a mosthideous outcry ran through the village, and two or three hundredpeople came about my ears, so that I was glad to scour for it, forsome had bows and arrows; but I resolved from that moment to visitthem again. Our caravan rested three nights at the town, which wasabout four miles off, in order to provide some horses which theywanted, several of the horses having been lamed and jaded with thelong march over the last desert; so we had some leisure here to putmy design in execution. I communicated it to the Scots merchant,of whose courage I had sufficient testimony; I told him what I hadseen, and with what indignation I had since thought tha

　　Thus, I think, I have given a full account of all that happened tothem till my return, at least that was worth notice. The Indianswere wonderfully civilised by them, and they frequently went amongthem; but they forbid, on pain of death, any one of the Indianscoming to them, because they would not have their settlementbetrayed again. One thing was very remarkable, viz. that theytaught the savages to make wicker-work, or baskets, but they soonoutdid their masters: for they made abundance of ingenious thingsin wicker-work, particularly baskets, sieves, bird-cages,cupboards, &c.; as also chairs, stools, beds, couches, being veryingenious at such work when they were once put in the way of it.

　　We had now been almost seven months on our journey, and winterbegan to come on apace; whereupon my partner and I called a councilabout our particular affairs, in which we found it proper, as wewere bound for England, to consider how to dispose of ourselves.They told us of sledges and reindeer to carry us over the snow inthe winter time, by which means, indeed, the Russians travel morein winter than they can in summer, as in these sledges they areable to run night and day: the snow, being frozen, is oneuniversal covering to nature, by which the hills, vales, rivers,and lakes are all smooth and hard is a stone, and they run upon thesurface, without any regard to what is underneath.

　　They were far from being satisfied with this for an answer: and agreat crowd of them came running down in the morning, by break ofday, to our camp; but seeing us so well posted, they durst come nofarther than the brook in our front, where they stood in suchnumber as to terrify us very much; indeed, some spoke of tenthousand. Here they stood and looked at us a while, and then,setting up a great howl, let fly a crowd of arrows among us; but wewere well enough sheltered under our baggage, and I do not rememberthat one of us was hurt.

esailed, the greater the light appeared; though, the weather beinghazy, we could not perceive anything but the light for a while. Inabout half-an-hour's sailing, the wind being fair for us, thoughnot much of it, and the weather clearing up a little, we couldplainly discern that it was a great ship on fire in the middle ofthe sea.

-suffering forbears to punishthose that offend; waiting to be gracious, and willing not thedeath of a sinner, but rather that he should return and live; andeven reserves damnation to the general day of retribution; that itis a clear evidence of God and of a future state that righteous menreceive not their reward, or wicked men their punishment, till theycome into another world; and this will lead him to teach his wifethe doctrine of the resurrection and of the last judgment. Let himbut repent himself, he will be an excellent preacher of repentanceto his wife."

　　I liked this proposal very well; and the more so because it seemedto be expressed with so much goodwill. In my loose, unhingedcircumstances, I was the fitter to embrace a proposal for trade, orindeed anything else. I might perhaps say with some truth, that iftrade was not my element, rambling was; and no proposal for seeingany part of the world which I had never seen before could possiblycome amiss to me. It was, however, some time before we could get aship to our minds, and when we had got a vessel, it was not easy toget English sailors - that is to say, so many as were necessary togovern the voyage and manage the sailors which we should pick upthere. After some time we got a mate, a boatswain, and a gunner,English; a Dutch carpenter, and three foremast men. With these wefound we could do well enough, having Indian seamen, such as theywere, to make up.

　　The old man found me a little confused, and under some concern whenhe named a Dutch ship, and said to me, "Sir, you need be under noapprehensions of the Dutch; I suppose they are not now at war withyour nation?" - "No," said I, "that's true; but I know not whatliberties men may take when they are out of the reach of the lawsof their own country." - "Why," says he, "you are no pirates; whatneed you fear? They will not meddle with peaceable merchants,sure." These words put me into the greatest disorder and confusionimaginable; nor was it possible for me to conceal it so, but theold man easily perceived it.