they thought, not be seen by them; but the savages did see them, as we
shall find hereafter.
The battle was very fierce, and, if I might believe the Englishmen, one
of them said he could perceive that some of them were men of great
bravery, of invincible spirit, and of great policy in guiding the fight.
The battle, they said, held two hours before they could guess which party
would be beaten; but then that party which was nearest our people's
habitation began to appear weakest, and after some time more some of them
began to fly; and this put our men again into a great consternation, lest
any one of those that fled should run into the grove before their
dwelling for shelter, and thereby involuntarily discover the place; and
that, by consequence, the pursuers would also do the like in search of
them. Upon this, they resolved that they would stand armed within the
wall, and whoever came into the grove, they resolved to sally out over
the wall and kill them, so that, if possible, not one should return to
give an account of it; they ordered also that it should be done with
their swords, or by knocking them down with the stocks of their muskets,
but not by shooting them, for fear of raising an alarm by the noise.
As they expected it fell out; three of the routed army fled for life, and
crossing the creek, ran directly into the place, not in the least knowing
whither they went, but running as into a thick wood for shelter. The
scout they kept to look abroad gave notice of this within, with this
comforting addition, that the conquerors had not pursued them, or seen
which way they were gone; upon this the Spanish governor, a man of
humanity, would not suffer them to kill the three fugitives, but sending
three men out by the top of the hill, ordered them to go round, come in
behind them, and surprise and take them prisoners, which was done. The
residue of the conquered people fled to their canoes, and got off to sea;
the victors retired, made no pursuit, or very little, but drawing
themselves into a body together, gave two great screaming shouts, most
likely by way of triumph, and so the fight ended; the same day, about
three o'clock in the afternoon, they also marched to their canoes. And
thus the Spaniards had the island again free to themselves, their fright
was over, and they saw no savages for several years after.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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