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

£3o ROBINSON CRUSOE.
ruing in the Teas. As foon as the Indians perceived
what we were doing, many of them ran out of the
woods, in fight of us, and kneeling down piteoufly
cried out, Oa, Oa, Waramakoa, intimating, I fup-
pofe, that if we would but fpare their canoes, they
would never trouble us again.
But all their complaints, fubmiflions, and in-!-
treaties, were in vain : For felf-prefervation obliging
us to the contrary, we deftroyed every one of them
that had efcaped the fury of the ocean. When the
Indians perceived this, they raifed a lamentable cry,
and ran into the woods, where they continued run¬
ning about, making the woods ring with their la¬
mentation. Here we Ihould have confidered, that
making thefe creatures thus defperate, we ought, at
the fame time, to have fet a fufficient guard upon
the plantations : For the favages, in their ranging
about, found out the bower, deftroyed the fences,
trod the corn down under their feet, and tore up
the vines and grapes. It is true, we were always
able to fight thefe creatures ; but as they were too
fwift for us, and very numerous, we durft not go
cut fingle, for fear of them ; though that too was
needlefs, they having no weapons, nor any materials
to make them ; and indeed their extremity appeared
in a little time after.
Though the favages, as already mentioned, had
deftroyed our bower, and all our corn, grapes, &c.
yet we had ftill left our flock of cattle in the valley
by the cave, with fome little corn that grew there,
and the plantation of Will. Atkins and his compa-
nioae, one of whom being killed by an arrow, they
were now reduced to two : It is remarkable, that
this was the fellow who cut the poor Indian with his
hatchet, and had a defign to murder me and my
countrymen the Spaniards. As our condition was
fo low, we came to the refolution to drive the fa¬
vages up to the farther part of the ifland, where no
Indians