bed out, and their two men gone: we could hear them call to one
another in a most lamentable manner, telling one another they were
gotten into an enchanted island; that either there were inhabitants in
it, and they should all be murdered; or else there were devils or
spirits in it, and they should be all carried away and devoured.

They hallooed again, and called their two comrades by their names a
great many times, but no answer: after some time, we could see them, by
the little light there was, run about wringing their hands, like men in
despair; and that sometimes they would go and sit down in the boat to
rest themselves, then come ashore, and walk about again, and so the same
thing over again.

My men would fain have had me given them leave to fall upon them at once
in the dark; but I was willing to take them at some advantage, so to
spare them, and kill as few of them as I could; and especially I was
unwilling to hazard the killing any of our men, knowing the other men
were very well armed: I resolved to wait to see if they did not
separate; and therefore, to make sure of them, I drew my ambuscade
nearer; and ordered Friday and the captain to creep upon their hands and
feet as close to the ground as they could, that they might not be
discovered, and get as near them as they could possibly, before they
offered to fire.

They had not been long in that posture, till the boatswain, who was the
principal ringleader of the mutiny, and had now shewn himself the most
dejected and dispirited of all the rest, came walking towards them with
two more of the crew; the captain was so eager, at having the principal
rogue so much in his power, that he could hardly have patience to let
him come so near as to be sure of him; for they only heard his tongue
before: but when they came nearer, the captain and Friday, starting up
on their feet, let fly at them.

The boatswain was killed upon the spot; the next man was shot in the
body, and fell just by him, though he did not die till an hour or two
after; and the third ran for it.

At the noise of the fire, I immediately advanced with my whole army,
which was now eight men; viz. myself generalissimo; Friday my
lieutenant-general; the captain and his two men, and the three prisoners
of war, whom he had trusted with arms.

We came upon them indeed in the dark, so that they could not see our
number; and I made the man they had left in the boat, who was now one of
us, to call them by