"By the brightness of the moon that night, we perceived the savages in great disorder about their dead and wounded men. This made us change our resolution, and resolve to fall upon them in the night, if we could give them one volley undiscovered. This we had a fair opportunity to do, by one of the two Englishmen leading us round, between the woods and the sea-side westward, and turning short south, came privately to a place where the thickest of them were. Unheard and unperceived, eight of us fired among them, and did dreadful execution; and in half a minute after, eight more of us let fly, killing and wounding abundance of them; and then dividing ourselves into three bodies, eight persons in each body we marched from among the trees, to the very teeth of the enemy, sending forth the greatest shouts and acclamations. The savages hearing a different noise from three quarters at once, stood in the utmost confusion; but coming in sight of us, let fly a volley of arrows, which wounded poor old Friday, yet happily it did not prove mortal. We did not, however, give them a second opportunity; but rushing in among them, we fired three several ways, and then fell to work with our swords, staves, hatchets, and the butt-end of our muskets, with a fury not to be resisted; so that with the most dismal screaming and howling they had recourse to their feet, to save their lives by a speedy flight. Nor must we forget the valour of the two women; for they exposed themselves to the greatest dangers, killed many with their arrows, and valiantly destroyed several more with their hatchets.
"In fighting these two battles, we were so much tired, that we did not then trouble ourselves to pursue them to their canoes, in which we thought they would presently put to the ocean; but their happening a dreadful storm at sea, which continuing all that night, it not only prevented their voyage, but dashed several of their boats to pieces against the beach, and drove the rest so high upon the shore, that it required infinite labour to get them off. After our men had taken some refreshment and a little repose, they resolved early in the morning to go towards the place of their landing, and see whether they were gone off, or in what posture they remained. This necessarily led them to the place of battle, where several of the savages were expiring, a sight no way pleasing to generous minds, to delight in misery, though obliged to conquer them by the law of arms; but our own Indian slaves put them out of their pain, by dispatching them with their hatchets. At length, coming in view of the remainder of the army, we found them leaning upon their knees, which were bended towards their mouth, and the head between the two hands. Hereupon, coming within musket shot of them, I ordered two pieces to be fired without ball, in order to alarm them, that we might plainly know, whether they had the courage to venture another battle, or were utterly dispirited from such an attempt, that so we might accordingly manage them. And indeed, the prospect took very well; for, no sooner did the savages hear the first gun, and perceive the flash of the second, but they suddenly started upon their feet in the greatest consternation; and when we approached towards them, they ran howling and screaming away up the hill into the country.
"We could rather, at first, have wished, that the weather had permitted them to have gone off to the sea; but when we considered, that their escape might occasion the approach of multitudes, to our utter ruin and dissolution; we were very well pleased the contrary happened; and Will Atkins (who, tho' wounded, would not part from us all this while) advised us not to let slip this advantage, but clapping between them and their boats, deprive them of the capacity of ever returning to plague the island: I know, said he, there is but on objection you can make, which is, that these creatures, living like beasts in the wood, may make excursions, rifle the plantations, and destroy the tame goats; but then, consider, we had better to do with an hundred men whom we can kill, or make slaves of at leisure, than with an hundred nations, whom it is impossible we should save ourselves from, much less subdue. This advice, and these arguments being approved of, we set fire to their boats; and though they were so wet that we could not burn them entirely, yet we made them incapable for swimming in the seas. As soon as the Indians perceived what we were doing, many of them ran out of the woods, in fight of us, and kneeling down, piteously cried out, Oa, Oa! Waramakoa. Intimating, I suppose, that, if we would but spare their canoes, they would never trouble us again.
"But all their complaints, submissions, and entreaties, were in vain; for self-preservation obliging us to the contrary, we destroyed every one of them that had escaped the fury of the ocean. When the Indians perceived this, they raised a lamentable cry, and ran into the woods, where they continued ranging about; making the woods ring with their lamentation. Here we should have considered, that making these creatures, thus desperate, we ought, at the same time to have set a sufficient guard upon the plantations: for the savages, in their ranging about, found out the bower, destroyed the fences, trod the corn down under their feet, and tore up the vines and grapes. It is true, we were always able to fight these creatures; but, as they were too swift for us, and very numerous, we durst not go out single, for fear of them; though that too was needless, they having no weapons, nor any materials to make them; and, indeed, their extremity appeared in a little time after.
"Though the savages, as already mentioned, had destroyed our bower, and all our corns, grapes, &c. yet we had still left our flock of cattle in the valley, by the cave, with some little corn that grew there, and the plantation of Will Atkins and
his companions, one of whom being killed by an arrow, they were now reduced to two: it is remarkable that this was the fellow who cut the poor Indian with his hatchet, and had design to murder me and my countrymen the Spaniards. As our condition was low, we came to the resolution to drive the savages up to the farther part of the island, where no Indians landed, to kill as many of them as we could, till we had reduced their number; and then to give the remainder some corn to plant, and to teach them how to live by their daily labour, accordingly we pursued them with our guns, at the hearing of which they were so terrified, that they would fall to the ground. Every day we killed and wounded some of them, and many were found starved to death, so that our hearts began to relent at the sight of such miserable objects. At last, with great difficulty, taking one of them alive, and using him with kindness, & tenderness, we brought him to Old Friday, who talked to him, & told him how good we would be to them all, giving them corn and land to plant and live in, and present nourishment, provided they should keep within such bounds as should be allotted them, and not do prejudice to others: Go then, said he, and inform your countrymen of this; which, if they will not agree to, every one of them shall be slain.