During His Stay, He Had Seen Several Ships
Pass By, But Only Two Came To Anchor At The Island, Which He Found To Be
Spaniards, And Therefore Retired From Them, On Which They Fired At Him,
But He Escaped Into The Woods.
Had they been French, he would have
surrendered to them; but chose rather to run the risk of dying
Alone on
the island than fall into the hands of the Spaniards, as he suspected
they would either put him to death, or make him a slave in their mines.
The Spaniards had landed before he knew what they were, and came so near
him that he had much ado to escape; for they not only shot at him, but
pursued him into the woods, where he climbed up a tree, at the foot of
which some of them made water, and killed several goats just by, yet
went away without discovering him.
He told us that he was born in Largo, in the county of Fife in Scotland,
and was bred a sailor from his youth. The reason of his being left here
was a difference with Captain Stradling; which, together with the ship
being leaky, made him at first rather willing to stay here than to
continue in the ship; and when at last he was inclined to have gone, the
captain would not receive him. He had been at the island before to wood
and water, when two of the men were left upon it for six months, the
ship being chased away by two French South-Sea ships; but the
Cinque-ports returned and took them off, at which time he was left. He
had with him his clothes and bedding, with a firelock and some powder
and bullets, some tobacco, a knife, a kettle, a bible, with some other
books, and his mathematical instruments. He diverted himself and
provided for his sustenance as well as he could; but had much ado to
bear up against melancholy for the first eight months, and was sore
distressed at being left alone in such a desolate place. He built
himself two huts of pimento trees, thatched with long grass, and lined
with goat-skins, killing goats as he needed them with his gun, so long
as his powder lasted, which was only about a pound at first. When that
was all spent, he procured fire by rubbing two sticks of pimento wood
together. He slept in his larger hut, and cooked his victuals in the
smaller, which was at some distance, and employed himself in reading,
praying, and singing psalms, so that he said he was a better Christian
during his solitude than he had ever been before, or than, as he was
afraid, he should ever be again.
At first he never ate but when constrained by hunger, partly from grief;
and partly for want of bread and salt. Neither did he then go to bed
till he could watch no longer, the pimento wood serving him both for
fire and candle, as it burned very clear, and refreshed him by its
fragrant smell. He might have had fish enough, but would not eat them
for want of salt, as they occasioned a looseness; except cray-fish,
which are as large as our lobsters, and are very good. These he
sometimes boiled, and at other times broiled, as he did his goat's
flesh, of which he made good broth, for they are not so rank as our
goats. Having kept an account, he said he had killed 500 goats while on
the island, besides having caught as many more, which he marked on the
ear and let them go. When his powder failed, he run down the goats by
speed of foot; for his mode of living, with continual exercise of
walking and running, cleared him of all gross humours, so that he could
run with wonderful swiftness through the woods, and up the hills and
rocks, as we experienced in catching goats for us. We had a bull-dog,
which we sent along with several of our nimblest runners to help him in
catching goats, but he outstript our dog and men, caught the goats, and
brought them to us on his back. On one occasion, his agility in pursuing
a goat had nearly cost him his life: as, while pursuing it with great
eagerness, he caught hold of it on the brink of a precipice, of which,
he was not aware, being concealed by bushes, so that he fell with the
goat down the precipice to a great depth, and was so bruised and stunned
by the fall, that he lay senseless, as he supposed, for twenty-four
hours, and when he recovered his senses found the goat dead under him.
He was then scarcely able to crawl to his hut, about a mile distant, and
could not stir out again for ten days.
He came at length to relish his meat well enough without bread and salt.
In the proper season he had plenty of good turnips, which had been sowed
there by Captain Dampier's men, and had now spread over several acres of
ground. He had also abundance of cabbage, from the cabbage-palms, and
seasoned his food with the fruit of the pimento, which is the same with
Jamaica pepper, and has a fine flavour. He found also a species of black
pepper, called malageta, which was good for expelling wind and curing
gripes. He soon wore out all his shoes and other clothes, by running in
the woods; and, being forced to shift without, his feet became so hard
that he ran about every where without inconvenience, and it was some
time after he came to us before he could wear shoes, as his feet swelled
when he first began again to wear them. After he had got the better of
his melancholy, he sometimes amused himself with carving his name on the
trees, together with the date of his being left there, and the time of
his solitary residence.
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