Accidents > Life and most surprising adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, mariner, who lived eight and twenty years in an uninhabited island on the coast of America, near the mouth of the great river Oroonoque

So ROBINSON CRUSOE.
Divine Being, who alone has the vindiflive power in
liishands,tofliower down vengeance upon them: And
perhaps he does fo, in making them become one an¬
other’s executioners. Or if not, if God thinks thefe
doings juft, according to the knowledge which they
conceive, what authority have I to pretend to alter the
decrees of Providence, which has permitted thefe ac¬
tions for fo many ages, perhaps from almoft the be¬
ginning of the creation ? They never offended me,
what right have I then to concern myfelf in their
fhedding one another’s blood ? And, as I have fince
known, they value no more to kill and devour a cap¬
tive taken in war, than we do to kill an ox, or eat
mutton. From hence it followed, that thele people
were no more murderers than Chriftians, who many
times put whole troops to the fword, after throwing
down their arms. Again I confidered, that if I fell
upon them, I fhould be as much in the wrong as the
Spatiiards, who had committed thegreateft barbarities
upon thefe people, who had never offended them in
their whole lives; as if the kingdom of Spain was emi¬
nent for a race of men without common compaflion
to the miferable, which is reckoned to be a principal
fign of the moft generous temper. In a word, I'con-
cluded never to attack them, whofe numbers might
overpower me; or that fome efcaping, might bring
thoufands to my certain deftru&ion; nor fo much as
to fhew myfelf, which might oblige me even to a
neeeflary duty of defence. And indeed religion took
their part fo much as to convince me how contrary
it was to my duty to be guilty of fhedding human
blood, innocent as to my particular, whatever they
are to one another; and that I had nothing to do
with it but leave it to the God of all power and domi¬
nion, as I faid before, to do therein what feemed con¬
venient to his heavenly wifdom. And therefore on
my knees, I thanked the Almighty for delivering me
from blood-guiltinefs, and begged his protection that
I might never fall into their hands.
Thus,