ee canoes; and that their whole business seemed to be
the triumphant banquet upon these three human bodies; a barbarous feast
indeed, but nothing more than as I had observed was usual with them.

I observed also, that they were landed, not where they had done when
Friday made his escape, but nearer to my creek, where the shore was low,
and where a thick wood came close almost down to the sea: this, with the
abhorrence of the inhuman errand these wretches came about, so filled me
with indignation, that I came down again to Friday, and told him, I was
resolved to go down to them, and kill them all; and asked him if he
would stand by me. He was now gotten over his fright, and his spirits
being a little raised with the dram I had given him, he was very
cheerful; and told me, as before, he would die when I bid die.

In this fit of fury, I took first and divided the arms which I had
charged, as before, between us: I gave Friday one pistol to stick in his
girdle, and three guns upon his shoulder; and I took one pistol, and the
other three, myself; and in this posture we marched out. I took a small
bottle of rum in my pocket, and gave Friday a large bag with more powder
and bullet; and as to orders, I charged him to keep close behind me, and
not to stir, shoot, or do any thing till I bid him; and in the mean
time, not to speak a word. In this posture I fetched a compass to my
right hand of near a mile, as well to get over the creek as to get into
the wood; so that I might come within shot of them before I could be
discovered, which I had seen by my glass it was easy to do.

While I was making this march, my former thoughts returning, I began to
abate my resolution; I do not mean, that I entertained any fear of their
number; for as they were naked, unarmed wretches, it is certain I was
superior to them; nay, though I had been alone: but it occurred to my
thoughts, what call, what occasion, much less what necessity, I was in
to go and dip my hands in blood, to attack people who had neither done
or intended me any wrong, who, as to me, were innocent, and whose
barbarous customs were their own disaster, being in them a token indeed
of God's having left them, with the other nations of that part of the
world, to such stupidity and to such inhuman courses; but did not call
me to take upon me to be a judge of their actions, much less an
executioner of his justice; that whenever he thought fit, he would take
the cause into his own hand