tion would make
them live comfortably, they pitched their tents on the north shore of the
island, but a little more to the west, to be out of danger of the
savages, who always landed on the east parts of the island. Here they
built them two huts, one to lodge in, and the other to lay up their
magazines and stores in; and the Spaniards having given them some corn
for seed, and some of the peas which I had left them, they dug, planted,
and enclosed, after the pattern I had set for them all, and began to live
pretty well. Their first crop of corn was on the ground; and though it
was but a little bit of land which they had dug up at first, having had
but a little time, yet it was enough to relieve them, and find them with
bread and other eatables; and one of the fellows being the cook's mate of
the ship, was very ready at making soup, puddings, and such other
preparations as the rice and the milk, and such little flesh as they got,
furnished him to do.

They were going on in this little thriving position when the three
unnatural rogues, their own countrymen too, in mere humour, and to insult
them, came and bullied them, and told them the island was theirs: that
the governor, meaning me, had given them the possession of it, and nobody
else had any right to it; and that they should build no houses upon their
ground unless they would pay rent for them. The two men, thinking they
were jesting at first, asked them to come in and sit down, and see what
fine houses they were that they had built, and to tell them what rent
they demanded; and one of them merrily said if they were the
ground-landlords, he hoped if they built tenements upon their land, and
made improvements, they would, according to the custom of landlords,
grant a long lease: and desired they would get a scrivener to draw the
writings. One of the three, cursing and raging, told them they should
see they were not in jest; and going to a little place at a distance,
where the honest men had made a fire to dress their victuals, he takes a
firebrand, and claps it to the outside of their hut, and set it on fire:
indeed, it would have been all burned down in a few minutes if one of the
two had not run to the fellow, thrust him away, and trod the fire out
with his feet, and that not without some difficulty too.

The fellow was in such a rage at the honest man's thrusting him away,
that he returned upon him, with a pole he had in his hand, and had not
the man avoided the