othing to do but to give
notice to all the three plantations to keep within doors, and not to
shew themselves; only placing a scout in a proper place, to give notice
when the boats went off to sea again.

This was, without doubt, very right; but a disaster spoiled all these
measures, and made it known among the savages that there were
inhabitants there, which was, in the end, the desolation of almost the
whole colony. After the canoes with the savages were gone off, the
Spaniards peeped abroad again, and some of them had the curiosity to go
to the place where they had been, to see what they had been doing. Here,
to their great surprise, they found three savages left behind, and lying
fast asleep upon the ground; it was supposed they had either been so
gorged with their inhuman feast, that, like beasts, they were asleep,
and would not stir when the others went, or they were wandered into the
woods, and did not come back in time to be taken in.

The Spaniards were greatly surprised at this sight, and perfectly at a
loss what to do; the Spaniard governor, as it happened, was with them,
and his advice was asked; but he professed he knew not what to do; as
for slaves, they had enough already; and as to killing them, they were
none of them inclined to that. The Spaniard governor told me they could
not think of shedding innocent blood; for as to them, the poor creatures
had done no wrong, invaded none of their property; and they thought they
had no just quarrel against them to take away their lives.

And here I must, in justice to these Spaniards, observe, that let all
the accounts of Spanish cruelty in Mexico and Peru be what they will, I
never met with seventeen men, of any nation whatsoever, in any foreign
country, who were so universally modest, temperate, virtuous, so very
good-humoured, and so courteous as these Spaniards; and, as to cruelty,
they had nothing of it in their very nature; no inhumanity, no
barbarity, no outrageous passions, and yet all of them men of great
courage and spirit.

Their temper and calmness had appeared in their bearing the insufferable
usage of the three Englishmen; and their justice and humanity appeared
now in the case of the savages as above. After some consultation they
resolved upon this, that they would lie still a while longer, till, if
possible, these three men might be gone; but then the governor Spaniard
recollected that the three savages had no boat; and that if they were
left t