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

ROBINSON CRUSOE. 2C9
yet my nephew, like the .reft, declared, that he
would rather lofe the fhip, his voyage, his life and
all, than his men fhould be loft for want of help:
And fo away he went. For my part, feeing him re-
folved to go, I had not power to ftay behind. He
ordered the pinnace back again for twelve men more,
and then we marched diredtly as the flame guided
us. But furely never was fuch a fcene of horror be¬
held, or more difmal cries heard, except when O-
liver Cromwell took Drogheda in Ireland, where he
neither fpared man, woman, nor child.
The firft objedt, I think, we met with, was the
I ruins of one of their habitations, before which lay
four men and three women killed,and two more burnt
to death among the fire, which was now decaying.
Nothing could appear more barbarous than this re¬
venge ; none more cruel than the authors of it. As
we went on, the fire increafed, and the cry proceed¬
ed in proportion. We had not gone much farther,
when we beheld three naked women, followed bv
fixteen or feventeen men, flying with the greateft
fwiftnefs from our men, who fhot one of them in
our fight. When they perceived us whom they fup-
pofed alfb their murderers, they fet up a moft dread¬
ful fhriek, and both of them fwooned awav in the
fright. This was a fight which might have foftened
the hardeft heart; and in pity we took fome ways
to let them know we would not hurt them, while
the poor creatures, with bended knees and lift-up
hands, made piteous lamentations to fave their lives,
I ordered our men not to hurt any of the poor crea¬
tures whatfoever but being willing to underftand
the occafion of all this, I went among thefe unhap¬
py wretches, who neither underftood me nor the
good I meant them. However, being refolved to
put an end to this barbarity, I ordered the men to
follow me. We had not gone fifty'yards before we
came up with the boatfwain, with four of our men
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