reft were fo frighted with the light, which the night, for now it was very near dark, made more terrible, that they drew back a little.

Upon which I ordered our last piftols to be fired off in one volley, and after that we gave a fhout; upon this, the wolves turned tail, and we fallied immediately upon near twenty lame ones, which we found ftruggling on the ground, and fell a cutting them with our fwords, which answered our expectation; for the crying and howling they made were better understood by their fellows; fo that they fled, and left us.

:

We had, firft and laft, killed about threefcore of them; and had it been day-light, we had killed many more: the field of battle being thus cleared, we made forward again; for we had still near a league to go we heard the ravenous creatures howl and yell in the woods as we went, several times; and fömetimes we fancied we faw fome of them, but the fnow dazzling our eyes, we were not certain; fo in about an hour more, we came to the town, where we were to lodge, which we found in a terrible fright, and all in arms; for it feems, that, the night before, the wolves and fome bears had broken into that village, and put them in a terrible fright; and they were obliged to keep guard night and day, but efpecially in the night to preserve their cattle, and indeed their people.

The next morning our guide was fo ill, and his limbs fo fwelled with the rankling of his two wounds, that he could go no farther; fo we were obliged to take a new guide there, and go to Tholoufe, where we found a warm climate, a fruitful peasant country, and no fnow, no wolves, or any thing like them; but when we told our story at Tholouse, they told us it was nothing but what was ordinary in the great foreft at the foot of the mountains, especially when the fnow lay on the ground: but they enquired much what kind of a guide we had gotten, that would venture to bring us that way in fuch a fevere feafon; and told us, it was very much we were not all devoured: when we told them how we placed ourselves, and the horfes in the middle, they blamed us exceedingly, and told us, it was fifty to one but we had been all destroyed; for it was the fight of

the

the horses that made the wolves fo furious, feeing their prey; and that at other times they are really afraid of a gun; but they being exceffive hungry, and raging on that account, the eagerness to come at the horfes had made them fenfelefs of danger; and that if we had not by the continued fire, and at laft by the ftratagem of the train of powder, mafiered them, it had been great odds but that we had been torn to pieces; whereas, had we been content to have fat ftill on horfeback, and fired as horfemen, they would not have taken the horfes fo much for their own, when men were on their backs, as otherwife; and withal they told us, that at laft, if we had stood altogether, and left our horses, they would have been fo eager to have devoured them, that we might have come off fafe, efpecially having our fire-arms. in our hands, and being fo many in number.

For my part, I was never fo fenfible of danger in my life; for feeing above three hundred devils come roaring and open-mouthed to devour us, and having nothing to shelter us, or retreat to, I give myfelf over for loft; and as it was, I believe, I fhall never care to cross thofe mountains again; I think I would much rather go a thoufand leagues, by fea, though I were fure to meet with a ftorm once a week.

I have nothing uncommon to take notice of, in my paffage through France; nothing but what other travellers have given an account of, with much more advantage than I can: I travelled from Thouloufe to Paris, and without any confiderable ftay came to Calais, and landed fafe at Dover, the fourteenth of January, after having had a fevere cold feafon to travel in.

I was now come to the centre of my travels, and had in a little time all my new difcovered eftate fafe about me, the bills of exchange, which I brought with me, having been very currently paid.

My principal guide, and privy counsellor, was my good antient widow, who, in gratitude for the money I had fent her, thought no pains too much, or care too great, to employ for me; and I trufted her fo entirely with every thing, that I was perfectly eafy as to the fecurity of my effects; and indeed I was very happy from

my

my beginning, and now to the end, in the unfpotted integrity of this good gentlewoman.

And now I began to think of leaving my effects with this woman, and fetting out for Lifbon, and fo to the Brafils but now another fcruple came in the way, and that was religion; for as I had entertained fome doubts about the Roman religion, even while I was abroad, efpecially in my state of folitude; fo I knew there was no going to the Brafils for me, much lefs going to fettle there, unless I refolved to embrace the Roman Catholic religion, without any referve; except on the other hand I refolved to be a facrifice to my principles, be a martyr for religion, and die in the inquifition; fo I refolved to stay at home, and, if I could find means for it, to dispose of my plantation.

:

To this purpose I wrote to my old friend at Lisbon, who in return gave me notice, that he could easily dif pofe of it there but that if I thought fit to give him leave to offer it in my name to the two merchants, the furvivors of my trustees who lived in the Brafils, who muft fully understand the value of it, who lived juft upon the fpot, and who I knew to be very rich, fo that he believed they would be fond of buying it; he did not doubt, but I should make 4 or 50co pieces of eight the more of it.

Accordingly I agreed, gave him orders to offer it to them, and he did fo; and, in about eight mouths more, the fhip being then returned, he fent me an account, that they had accepted the offer, and had remitted 33,000 pieces of eight to a correspondent of theirs at Lisbon, to pay for it.

In return, I figned the inftrument of fale in the form which they fent from Lifbon, and fent it to my old man, who fent me the bills of exchange for 32,800 pieces of eight for the eftate; referving the payment of ICO moidores a year, to him, the old mar, during his life, and 50 moidores afterwards to his fon for his life, which I had promifed them; and which the plantation was to make good as a rent-charge. And thus I have given the first part of a life of fortune and adventure, a life of providence's chequer-work, and of a variety

which

which the world will feldom be able to fhew the like off: beginning foolishly, but clofing much more happily than any part of it ever gave me leave so much as to hope

for.

Any one would think, that in this state of complicated good fortune, I was paft running any more hazards; and fo indeed I had been, if other circumstances had concurred; but I was enured to a wandering life, had no family, nor many relations; nor, however rich, had I contracted much acquaintance; and though I had fold my eftate in the Brafils, yet I could not keep that country out of my head, and had a great mind to be upon the wing again; efpecially I could not refift the ftrong inclination I had to fee my island, and to know if the poor Spaniards were in being there; and how the rogues I left there had ufed them.

My true friend the widow earnestly diffuaded me from it, and fo far prevailed with me, that almost for feven years the prevented my running abroad; during which time I took my two nephews, the children of one of my brothers, into my care: the eldest, having fomething of his own, I bred up as a gentleman, and gave him a fettlement of fome addition to his eftate, after my decease; the other I put out to a captain of a fhip; and after five years, finding him a fenfible, bold, enterprifing young fellow, I put him into a good fhip, and fent him to fea, and this young fellow afterwards drew me in, as old as I was, to farther adventures my. felf.

In the mean time, I in part fettled myself here: for, first of all I married; and that not either to my difadvantage or diffatisfaction; and had three children, two fons and one daughter: but my wife dying, and my nephew coming home with good fuccefs from a voyage to Spain, my inclination to go abroad, and his importunity, prevailed and engaged me to go in his fhip as a private trader to the Eaft-Indies: this was in the year 1694.

In this voyage I vifited my new colony in the island, faw my fucceffors the Spaniards, had the whole ftory of their lives, and of the villains I left there; how at first

they

they infulted the poor Spaniards, how they afterwards agreed, difagreed, united, separated, and how at last the Spaniards were obliged to ufe violence with them; how they were fubjected to the Spaniards; how honeftly the Spaniards ufed them; an history, if it were entered into, as full of variety and wonderful accidents, as my own part; particularly also as to their battles with the Caribbeans, who landed several times upon the island, and as to the improvement they made upon the island itself; and how five of them made an attempt upon the main land, and brought away eleven men and five women prifoners; by which, at my coming, I found about twenty young children on the island.

Here I ftayed about twenty days; left them fupplies of all neceffary things, and particularly of arms, powder, fhot, clothes, tools, and two workmen, which I brought from England with me; viz. a carpenter, and a fmith.

Befides this, I fhared the land into parts with them, referved to myself the property of the whole, but gave them fuch parts, refpectively, as they agreed on; and, having fettled all things with them, and engaged them not to leave the place, I left them there.

From thence I touched at the Brafils, from whence I fent a bark, which I bought there, with more people, to the island; and in it, befides other fupplies, I fent feven women, being fuch as I found proper for fervice, or for wives to fuch as would take them: as to the Englishmen, I promised them to fend them fome women from England, with a good cargo of neceffaries, if they would apply themselves to planting which I afterwards could not perform: the fellows proved very honeft and diligent, after they were mastered, and had their properties fet apart for them. I fent them alfo from the Brafils five cows, three of them being big with calf, fome fheep, and fome hogs, which, when I came again, were confiderably increased.

But all these things, with an account how 300 Caribbees came and invaded them, and ruined their plantations, and, how they fought with that whole number twice, and were at firft defeated, and one of them killed; but

at