This gave us leisure to charge our pieces again, and that we might lose no time, we kept doing; but we had but little more than loaded our fusils, and put ourselves into a readiness, when we heard a terrible noise in the same wood on our left; only that it was farther onward the same way we were to go.
The night was coming on, and the night began to be dusky, which made it the worse on our side; but, the noise increasing, we could easily perceive that it was the howling and yelling of those hellish creatures; and, on a sudden, we perceived two or three troops of wolves on our left, one behind us, and one on our front, so that we seemed to be surrounded with them; however, as they did not fall upon us, we kept our way forward, as fast as we could make our horses go, which, the way being very rough, was only a good large trot; and in this manner we only came in view of the entrance of the wood through which we were to pass, at the farther side of the plain; but we were greatly surprised, when, coming near the lane, or pass, we saw a confused number of wolves standing just at the entrance.
On a sudden, at another opening of the wood, we heard the noise of a gun; and, looking that way, out rushed a horse, with a saddle and a bridle on him, flying like the wind, and sixteen or seventeen wolves after him full speed: indeed the horse had the heels of them; but as we supposed that he could not hold it at that rate, we doubted not but they would get up with him at last; and no question but they did.
Here we had a most horrible sight; for, riding up to the entrance where the horse came out, we found the carcass of another horse, and of two men devoured by these ravenous creatures, and of one the man was no doubt the same whom we heard fire a gun, for there lay a gun just by him fired off; but as to the man, his head, and the upper part of his body, were eaten up.
This filled us with horror, and we knew not what course to take; but the creatures resolved us soon, for they gathered about us presently, in hopes of prey; and I verily believe there were three hundred of them. It happened very much to our advantage, that at the entrance into the wood, but a little way from it, there by some large timber trees, which had been cut down the summer before, and I suppose lay there for carriage: I drew my little troop in among these trees, and placing ourselves in a line behind one long tree, I advised them all to alight, and keeping that tree before us for a breastwork, to stand in a triangle, or three fronts, enclosing our horses in the centre.
We did so, and it was well we did; for never was a more furious charge than the creatures made upon us in this place; they came on us with a growling kind of a noise, and mounted the piece of timber (which, as I said, was our breastwork,) as if they were only rushing upon their prey; and this fury of theirs, it seems, was principally occasioned by their seeing our horses behind us, which was the prey they aimed at. I ordered our men to fire as before, every man; and they took their aim so sure, that indeed they killed several of the wolves at the first volley; but there was a necessity to keep a continual firing, for they came on like devils, those behind pushing on those before.
When we had fired our second volley of fusils, we thought they stopped a little, and I hoped they would have gone off, but it was but a moment, for others came forward again; so we fired our vollies of pistols; and I believe in these four firings we killed seventeen or eighteen of them, and lamed twice as many; yet they came on again.
I was loath to spend our last shot too hastily; so I called my servant, not my man Friday, for he was better employed; for, with the greatest dexterity imaginable, he charged my fusil and his own, while we were engaged; but, as I said, I called my other man; and giving him a horn of powder, I bade him lay a train all along the piece of timber, and let it be a large train; he did so, and had but time to get away, when the wolves came up to it, and some were got up upon it; when I, snapping an uncharged pistol close to the powder, set it on fire; and those that were upon the timber were scorched with it, and six or seven of them fell, or rather jumped in among us, with the force and fright of the fire; we dispatched these in an instant, and the rest were so frighted with the light, which the night, for now it was very near dark, made more terrible, that they drew back a little.
Upon which I ordered our last pistols to be fired off in one volley, and after that we gave a shout; upon this the wolves turned tail, and we sallied immediately upon near twenty lame ones, which we found struggling on the ground, and fell a-cutting them with our swords, which answered our expectation; for the crying and howling they made were better understood by their fellows; so that they fled and left us.
We had, first and last, killed about three score of them; and had it been daylight, we had killed many more. The field of battle being thus cleared, we made forward again; for we had still near a league to go. We heard the ravenous creatures howl and yell in the woods as we went, several times; and sometimes we fancied we saw some of them, but the snow dazzling our eyes, we were not certain; so in about an hour more we came to the town, where we were to lodge, which we found in a terrible fright, and all in arms; for it seems, that, the night before, the wolves and some bears had broken into that village, and put them in a terrible fright; and they were obliged to keep guard night and day, but especially in the night, to preserve their cattle, and indeed their people.