n
rushing at once upon the foremost, I knocked him down with the stock
of my piece.

I was loath to fire, because I would not have the rest hear; tho at
that distance it would not have been easily heard, and being out of
sight of the smoke, too, they would not have known what to make of it.
Having knocked this fellow down, the other who pursued him stopt, as
if he had been frightened, and I advanced toward him; but as I came
nearer, I perceived presently he had a bow and arrow, and was fitting
it to shoot at me; so I was then obliged to shoot at him first, which
I did, and killed him at the first shot. The poor savage who fled,
but had stopt, tho he saw both his enemies fallen and killed, as he
thought, yet was so frightened with the fire and noise of my piece
that he stood stock still, and neither came forward nor went backward,
tho he seemed rather inclined still to fly than to come on. I hallooed
again to him, and made signs to come forward, which he easily
understood, and came a little way; then stopt again, and then a little
farther, and stopt again; and I could then perceive that he stood
trembling, as if he had been taken prisoner, and had just been to be
killed, as his two enemies were. I beckoned to him again to come to
me, and gave him all the signs of encouragement that I could think of;
and he came nearer and nearer, kneeling down every ten or twelve
steps, in token of acknowledgment for saving his life. I smiled at
him, and looked pleasantly, and beckoned to him to come still nearer;
at length, he came close to me; and then he kneeled down again, kissed
the ground, and laid his head upon the ground, and, taking me by the
foot, set my foot upon his head; this, it seems, was in token of
swearing to be my slave forever. I took him up, and made much of him,
and encouraged him all I could.

But there was more work to do yet; for I perceived the savage whom I
had knocked down was not killed, but stunned with the blow, and began
to come to himself. So I pointed to him, and showed him the savage,
that he was not dead; upon this he spoke some words to me, and tho I
could not understand them, yet I thought they were pleasant to hear;
for they were the first sound of a man's voice that I had heard, my
own excepted, for above twenty-five years. But there was no time for
such reflections now; the savage who was knocked down recovered
himself so far as to sit up upon the ground, and I perceived that my
savage began to