Let them starve and
be damn'd, they should neither plant nor build, and damn them, they
should be their servants, and work for them, for the island was their's,
and they would burn all the huts they should find in the island. By this
rule_, said my Spaniard, smiling, _We shall be your servants too. Aye,
by God, and so you shall_ replied the impudent rascal. Upon which,
starting up, Will Atkins cries, _Come Jack, let's have t'other brush
with them; who dare to build in our dominions?_--Thus leaving us
something heated with just passion, away they trooped, every man having
a gun, pistol, and sword, muttering some threatening words, that we
could then but imperfectly understand. That night they designed to
murder their two companions, and slept till midnight in the bower,
thinking to fall upon them in their sleep: not were the honest men less
thoughtful concerning them; for at this juncture they were coming to
find them out, but in a much fairer way. As soon as the villains came to
the huts, and found nobody there, they concluded that I and my Spaniard
had given them notice, and therefore swore to be revenged on us. Then
they demolished the poor men's habitations; not by fire, as they
attempted before, but pulled down their houses, limb from limb, not
leaving stick nor stone on the ground where they stood, broke their
household stuff in pieces, tore up their trees, spoiled their
inclosures, and, in short, quite ruined them of every thing they had.
Had these people met together, no doubt but there would have been a
bloody battle; but Providence ordered it for the better; for just as the
three were got together the two were at our castle; and when they left
us, the three came back again, but in great rage, scoffingly telling us
what they had done; when one taking hold of a Spaniard's hat, twirls it
round, saying, _And you Seignor Jack Spaniard, shall have the same
sauce, if you don't mind your manners_. My Spaniard, a grave but
courageous man, knocked him down with one blow of his fist; at which
another villain fired his pistol, and narrowly missed his body, but
wounded him a little in the ear. Hereat enraged, the Spaniard takes up
the fellow's musket who he had knocked down, and would have shot him, if
I and the rest had not come out, and taken their arms from every one
of them.

"These Englishmen perceiving they had made all of us their enemies,
began to cool; but not withstanding their better words the Spaniards
would no