he Spaniards having given them some corn
for seed, and especially some of the peas which I had left them, they
dug and 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 or 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 a little thriving posture, 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 possession of it, and
nobody else had any right to it; and, damn them, they should build no
houses upon their ground, unless they would pay them rent for them.

The two men thought they had jested at first, and asked them to come and
sit down, and see what fine houses they were that they had built, and
tell them what rent they demanded: and one of them merrily told them, if
they were ground-landlords, he hoped if they built tenements upon the
land and made improvements, they would, according to the custom of all
landlords, grant them a long lease; and bid them go fetch a scrivener to
draw the writings. One of the three, damning 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 very
fairly set it on fire; and it would have been all burnt 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 turned upon him with a pole he had in his hand; and had not the
man avoided the blow very nimbly, and run into the hut, he had ended his
days at once. His comrade, seeing the danger they were both in, ran in
after him, and immediately they came both out with their muskets; and
the man that was first struck at with the pole knocked the fellow down
who began the quarrel with the sto