The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume III (of X) - Great Britain and Ireland I
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The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume III (of X) - Great Britain and Ireland I
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But there was more work to do yet; for I perceived the savage whom I
had knocked down was not killed, but stunned with the blow, and began
to come to himself. So I pointed to him, and showed him the savage,
that he was not dead; upon this he spoke some words to me, and tho I
could not understand them, yet I thought they were pleasant to hear;
for they were the first sound of a man's voice that I had heard, my
own excepted, for above twenty-five years. But there was no time for
such reflections now; the savage who was knocked down recovered
himself so far as to sit up upon the ground, and I perceived that my
savage began to be afraid; but when I saw that, I presented my other
piece at the man, as if I would shoot him; upon this my savage, for so
I call him now, made a motion to me to lend him my sword, which hung
naked in a belt by my side, which I did. He no sooner had it, but he
runs to his enemy, and at one blow cut off his head as cleverly, no
executioner in Germany could have done it sooner or better; which I
thought very strange for one who, I had reason to believe, never saw a
sword in his life before, except their own wooden swords: however, it
seems, as learned afterwards, they make their wooden swords so sharp,
so heavy, and the wood is so hard, that they will even cut off heads
with them, ay, and arms, and that at one blow too. When he had done
this, he comes laughing to me in sign of triumph, and brought me the
sword again, and with abundance of gestures which I did not
understand, laid it down, with the head of the savage that he had
killed just before me. But that which astonished him most, was to know
how I killed the other Indian so far off; so pointing to him, he made
signs to me to let him go to him; and I bade him go, as well as I
could. When he came to him, he stood like one amazed, looking at him,
turning him first on one side, then on the other; looked at the wound
the bullet had made, which it seems was just in his breast; where it
had made a hole, and no great quantity of blood had followed; but he
had bled inwardly, for he was quite dead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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