The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808) eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 806 pages of information about The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808).

The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808) eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 806 pages of information about The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808).

Two of us then waited at the door, expecting that another would come out to see what the matter was; but we waited so long till the third man came back to us; and then nobody coming out, we knocked again gently, and immediately out came two more, and we served them just in the same manner, but were obliged to go all with them, and lay them down by the idol some distance from one another; when going back we found two more were come out to the door, and a third stood behind them within the door.  We seized the two, and immediately tied them, when the third stepping back, and crying out, my Scots merchant went in after him, and taking out a composition we had made, that would only smoke and stink, he set fire to it, and threw it in among them:  by that time the other Scotsman and my man taking charge of the two men already bound, and tied together also by the arm, led them away to the idol, and left them there, to see if their idol would relieve them, making haste back to us.

When the furze we had thrown in had filled the hut with so much smoke that they were almost suffocated, we then threw in a small leather bag of another kind, which flamed like a candle, and following it in, we found there were but four people left, who, it seems, were two men and two women, and, as we supposed, had been about some of their diabolic sacrifices.  They appeared, in short, frighted to death, at least so as to sit trembling and stupid, and not able to speak neither, for the smoke.

In a word, we took them, bound them as we had the other, and all without any noise, I should have said, we brought them out of the house, or hut, first; for, indeed, we were not able to bear the smoke any; more than they were.  When we had done this, we carried them all together to the idol:  when we came there we fell to work with him; and first we daubed him all over, and his robes also, with tar, and such other stuff as we had, which was tallow mixed with brimstone; then we stopped his eyes, and ears, and, mouth full of gunpowder; then we wrapped up a great piece of wildfire in his bonnet; and then sticking all the combustibles we had brought with us upon; him, we looked about to see if we could find any thing else to help to burn him; when my Scotsman remembered that by the tent, or hut, where the men were, there lay a heap of dry forage, whether straw or rushes I do not remember:  away he and the other Scotsman ran, and fetched their arms full of that.  When we had done this, we took all our prisoners, and brought them, having untied their feet and ungagged their mouths, and made them stand up, and set them all before their monstrous idol, and then set fire to the whole.

We stayed by it a quarter of an hour, or thereabouts, til the powder in the eyes, and mouth, and ears of the idol blew up, and, as we could perceive, had split and deformed the shape of it; and, in a word, till we saw it burnt into a mere block or log of wood; and then igniting the dry forage to it, we found it would be soon quite consumed; so we began to think of going away; but the Scotsman said, “No, we must not go, for these poor deluded wretches will all throw themselves into the fire, and burn themselves with the idol.”  So we resolved to stay till the forage was burnt down too, and then we came away and left them.

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The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808) from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.