as the two men had also a design upon them,as I have said, though…
as the two men had also a design upon them,as I have said, though a much fairer one than that of burning andmurdering, it happened, and very luckily for them all, that theywere up and gone abroad before the bloody-minded rogues came totheir huts.
When they came there, and found the men gone, Atkins, who it seemswas the forwardest man, called out to his comrade, "Ha, Jack,here's the nest, but the birds are flown." They mused a while, tothink what should be the occasion of their being gone abroad sosoon, and suggested presently that the Spaniards had given themnotice of it; and with that they shook hands, and swore to oneanother that they would be revenged of the Spaniards. As soon asthey had made this bloody bargain they fell to work with the poormen's habitation; they did not set fire, indeed, to anything, butthey pulled down both thei
rn; and,in a word, sacked and plundered everything as completely as a hordeof Tartars would have done.
The two men were at this juncture gone to find them out, and hadresolved to fight them wherever they had been, though they were buttwo to three; so that, had they met, there certainly would havebeen blood shed among them, for they were all very stout, resolutefellows, to give them their due.
But Providence took more care to keep them asunder than theythemselves could do to meet; for, as if they had dogged oneanother, when the three were gone thither, the two were here; andafterwards, when the two went back to find them, the three werecome to the old habitation again: we shall see their differentconduct presently. When the three came back like furiouscreatures, flushed with the rage which the work they had been abouthad put them into, they came up to the Spaniards, and told themwhat they had done, by way of scoff and bravado; and one of themstepping up to one of the Spaniards, as i
hand, stepped gravely up to him, and, with one blow of hisfist, knocked him down, as an ox is felled with a pole-axe; atwhich one of the rogues, as insolent as the first, fired his pistolat the Spaniard immediately; he missed his body, indeed, for thebullets went through his hair, but one of them touched the tip ofhis ear, and he bled pretty much. The blood made the Spaniardbelieve he was more hurt than he really was, and that put him intosome heat, for before he acted all in a perfect calm; but nowresolving to go through with his work, he stooped, and taking thefellow's musket whom he had kno