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... The Life of Friedrich Schiller 1 v.
S. T. GOLERIDGE: The Poems 1 v.
Continuation on the last pages of the cover. ... e.
~ *-*…*.*…** - ... -- : " - *:::$º..… ww.s.º.º.º. º. .*.*.*.*.*.*.*** * * > ...; º sº-ixº~~ 5.2%.
THE LAST OF THE CAVALIERS 2 v. d
The Gain of a Loss 2 v. §
WILKIE COLLINS: After Dark 1 v. Hide #
and Seek 2 v. A Plot in Private Life 1 v. The ſº
Dead Secret 2v.The Woman in White 2v. Basilº
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CoMETH UF As A FLOWER 1 v. Nºt
wisely, but too well 2 v. Red as a Rose is She 2;
FENIMORE COOPER: The Spy (w.portiº)
iv. The Two Admirals 1 v. Jack O'Lantern ſº,
THE TWO COSMOS 1 v. *:::::
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fred's Wooing and other Tales 1 v. Mildred tº
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tin Chuzzlewit 2 v. A Christmas Carol; the
Chimes; the Cricket 1 v. Master Humphrey't
Clock3 v. Pictures from Italy 1 v. The Battlé
of Life; the Haunted Man. 1 v. Dombey an
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A Child's History of England (2 v. 8" 27 Ngr.).
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Somebody's Luggage; Mrs. Lirriper's Lodg-
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New America 2 v. Spiritual Wives 2 v. Her
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MISS A. B. EDWARDS: Barbara's History
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ELIOT: Scenes of Clerical Life 2 v. Adam
Bede 2 v. The Mill on the Floss 2 v. Silas
Marner 1 v. Romola 2 v. Felix Holt 2 v. ºš
THE STORY OF ELIZABETH 1 v.
ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 1 v.
FRANK FAIRLEGH 2 v. . . .
PAUL FERROLL 1 v. Year after Year 1 v.- :
Why Paul Ferroll killed his Wife 1 v.
FIELDING : Tom Jones 2 v. º
FIVE CENTURIES of the English Lan- ;
guage and Literature 1 v. * *- - a .
FOUND DEAD 1 v. Gwendoline's Harvest ly.
LADY FULLERTON: Ellen Middleton iv.;
Grantley Manor 2v. Lady-Bird?y:Too Strange
not to be true 2 v. Constance. Sherwoºd?y
Astormy Life 2 v. Mrs. Gerald's Niecº º
MRs.` AskELL; Mary Barton iv. Ruth?y
North and south iv. Lizzie Leighiv-Gharlotte
Brontëºv. Lois the Witch 1 v. Sylvia's Lovers
gº. Apark Night's work1 v. Wives and Daugh:
ters ºv. Cranford 1 v. Cousin Phillis iv.








































00I.LECTION
OF
B R IT IS II AUTH () R.S.
WOL, LXXIV,
ROBINSON CRUSOE BY DANIEI, DE FOE.
IN ONE VOLUME,
- * aq. Voy º
*R
§ 4-0 3
• NY
/
\2. A £ ºr
THE
T.IFE AND ADVENTURES
R O B INS O N C R U S O E.
gº-ºº
I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family,
though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen,
who settled first at Hull: he got a good estate by merchandise, and
leaving off his trade, lived afterwards at York; from whence he had
married my mother, whose relations were named Robinson, a very
good family in that country, and from whom I was called Robinson
Kreutznaer; but, by the usual corruption of words in England, we
are now called, nay we call ourselves, and write our name Crusoe;
and so my companions always called me.
I had two elder brothers, one of which was lieutenant-colonel to
an English regiment of foot in Flanders, formerly commanded by the
famous Colonel Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk
against the Spaniards. What became of my second brother I never
knew, any more than Iny father or mother did know what was be-
come of me.
Being the third son of the family, and not bred to any trade, my
head began to be filled very early with rambling thoughts: my father,
who was very ancient, had given me a competent share of learning,
as far as house-education and a country free-school generally go, and
designed me for the law; but I would be satisfied with nothing but
going to sea; and my inclination to this led me so strongly against
the will, nay, the commands of my father, and against all the en-
treaties and persuasions of my mother and other friends, that there
seemed to be something fatal in that propension of nature, tending
directly to the life of misery which was to befall me.
Robinson Crusoe, 1
2
My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent
counsel against what he foresaw was my design. He called me one
morning into his chamber, where he was confined by the gout, and
expostulated very warmly with me upon this subject: he asked me
what reasons more than a mere wandering inclination I had for leaving
my father's house and my native country, where I might be well in-
troduced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune by application
and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure. He told me it was
men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring, superior for-
tunes on the other, and who went abroad upon adventures, to rise by
enterprise, and make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature
out of the common road; that these things were all either too far
above ine, or too far below me; that mine was the middle state, or
what might be called the upper station of low life, which he had found,
by long experience, was the best state in the world, the most suited
to human happiness, not exposed to the miseries and hardships, the
labour and sufferings of the mechanic part of mankind, and not
embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambition, and envy of the upper
part of mankind. He told me, I might judge of the happiness of this
state by this one thing, viz. that this was the state of life which all
other people envied; that kings have frequently lamented the misera-
ble consequences of being born to great things, and wished they had
been placed in the middle of the two extremes, between the mean and
the great; that the wise man gave his testimony to this, as the just
standard of true felicity, when he prayed to have neither poverty nor
riches.
He hade me observe it, and I should always find, that the cala-
mities of life were shared among the upper and lower part of mankind;
but that the middle station had the fewest disasters, and was not ex-
posed to so many vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of mankind;
nay, they were not subjected to so many distempers and uneasiness,
either of body or mind, as those were, who, by vicious living, luxury,
and extravagances, on one hand, or by hard labour, want of neces-
saries, and mean or insufficient diet, on the other hand, bring distem-
pers upon themselves by the natural consequences of their way of
living; that the middle station of life was calculated for all kind of
virtues and all kind of enjoyments; that peace and plenty were the
handmaids of a middle fortune; that temperance, moderation, quiet-
3
mess, health, Society, all agreeable diversions, and all desirable
pleasures, were the blessings attending the middle station of life;
that this way men went silently and smoothly through the world, and
comfortably out of it, not embarrassed with the labours of the hands
or of the head, not sold to a life of slavery for daily bread, or harassed
with perplexed circumstances, which rob the soul of peace, and the
body of rest; nor enraged with the passion of envy, or the Secret
burning lust of ambition for great things; but, in easy circumstan-
ces, sliding gently through the world, and sensibly tasting the Sweets
of living, without the bitter; feeling that they are happy, and learning
by every day's experience to know it more sensibly.
After this, he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate
manner, not to play the young man, nor to precipitate myself into
miseries which nature, and the station of life I was born in, seemed
to have provided against; that I was under no necessity of seeking
my bread; that he would do well for me, and endeavour to enter me
fairly into the station of life which he had been just recommending to
me; and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must
be my mere ſate or fault that must hinder it; and that he should have
nothing to answer for, having thus discharged his duty in warning
me against measures which he knew would be to my hurt: in a word,
that as he would do very kind things for me if I would stay and settle
at home as he directed, so he would not have so much hand in my mis-
fortunes, as to give me any encouragement to go away: and to close
all, he told me I had my elder brother for an example, to whom he
had used the same earnest persuasions to keep him from going into
the Low Country wars, but could not prevail, his young desires
prompting him to run into the army, where he was killed; and
though he said he would not cease to pray for me, yet he would
venture to say to me, that if I did take this foolish step, God would
not bless me, and I would have leisure hereafter to reſlect upon
having neglected his counsel, when there might be none to assist in
my recovery.
I observed in this last part of his discourse, which was truly pro-
phetic, though I suppose my father did not know it to be so himself;
I say, I observed the tears run down his face very plentifully, espe-
cially when he spoke of my brother who was killed; and that when he
spoke of my having leisure to repent, and none to assist me, he was
ſ *
4
so moved, that he broke off the discourse, and told me, his heart
was so full he could say no more to me.
I was sincerly affected with this discourse, as indeed who could
be otherwise? and I resolved not to think of going abroad any more,
but to settle at home according to my father's desire. But, alas! a
few days wore it all off; and, in short, to prevent any of my father's
further importunities, in a few weeks after I resolved to run quite
away from him. However, I did not act so hastily neither as the first
heat of my resolution prompted, but I took my mother, at a time
when I thought her a little pleasanter than ordinary, and told her,
that my thoughts were so entirely bent upon seeing the world, that l
should never settle to any thing with resolution enough to go through
with it, and my father had better give me his consent than force me
to go without it; that I was now cighteen years old, which was too
late to go apprentice to a trade, or clerk to an attorney; that I was
sure, if I did, I should never serve out my time, but I should cer-
tainly run away from my master before my time was out, and go to
sea; and if she would speak to my father to let me go one voyage
abroad, if I came home again, and did not like it, I would go no
more, and I would promise, by a double diligence, to recover the
time that I had lost.
This put my mother into a great passion: she told me, she knew
it would be to no purpose to speak to my father upon any such sub-
ject; that he knew too well what was my interest to give his consent
to any thing so much for my hurt; and that she wondered how I could
think of any such thing after the discourse I had had with my father,
and such kind and tender expressions as she knew my father had used
to me; and that, in short, if I would ruin myself, there was no help
for me; but I might depend I should never have their consent to it:
that for her part, she would not have so much hand in my destruc-
tion; and I should never have it to say, that my mother was willing
when my father was not. -
Though my mother refused to move it to my father, yet, I heard
afterwards, that she reported all the discourse to him, and that my
father, after showing a great concern at it, said to her with a sigh,
“That boy might be happy if he would stay at home; but if he goes
abroad, he will be the most miserable wretch that ever was born; I
can give no consent to it,”
5
It was not till almost a year after this that I broke loose, though,
in the mean time, I continued obstinately deaf to all proposals of
settling to business, and frequently expostulating with my father
and mother about their being so positively determined against what
they knew my inclinations prompted me to. But being one day at
Hull, whither I went casually, and without any purpose of making
an elopement that time; but, I say, being there, and one of my
companions being going by sea to London, in his father's ship, and
prompting me to go with them, with the common allurement of a
sea-faring man; that it should cost me nothing for my passage, I
consulted neither father or mother any more, nor so much as sent
them word of it; but leaving them to hear of it as they might, without
asking God's blessing, or my father's, without any consideration of
circumstances or consequences, and in an ill hour, God knows, on
the first of September, 1651, I went on board a ship bound for
London. . Never any young adventurer's misfortunes, I believe,
began sooner, or continued longer than mine. The ship was no
sooner got out of the Humber, but the wind began to blow, and the
sea to rise in a most frightful manner; and, as I had never been at
sea before, I was most inexpressibly sick in body, and terrified in
mind. I began now seriously to reflect upon what I had done, and
how justly I was overtaken by the judgment of Heaven for my wicked
leaving my father's house, and abandoning my duty. All the good
counsel of my parents, my father's tears and my mother's entreaties,
came now fresh into my mind; and my conscience, which was not
yet come to the pitch of hardness to which it has been since, re-
proached me with the contempt of advice, and the breach of my duty
to God and my father. -
All this while the storm increased, and the sea went very high,
though nothing like what I have seen many times since; no, nor
what I saw a few days after: but it was enough to affect me then, who
was but a young sailor, and had never known any thing of the matter.
I expected every wave would have swallowed us up, and that every
time the ship fell down, as I thought it did, in the trough or hollow
of the sea, we should never rise more: in this agony of mind I made
many vows and resolutions, that if it would please God to spare my
life in this one voyage, if ever I got once my foot upon dry land again,
I would go directiy home to my father, and never set it into a ship
6
again while I lived; that I would take his advice, and never run myself
into such miseries as these any more. Now I saw plainly the goodness
of his observations about the middle station of life, how easy, how
comfortably he had lived all his days, and never had been exposed to
tempests at sea, or troubles on shore; and, in short, I resolved that
I would, like a true repenting prodigal, go home to my father.
These wise and sober thoughts continued all the while the storm
continued, and indeed some time after; but the next day, the wind
was abated, and the sea calmer, and I began to be a little inured to
it: however, I was very grave for all that day, being also a little sea-
sick still; but towards night the weather cleared up, the wind was
quite over, and a charming fine evening followed; the sun went down
perfectly clear, and rose so the next morning; and having little or
no wind, and a smooth sea, the sun shining upon it, the sight was,
as I thought, the most delightful that ever I saw.
I had slept well in the night, and was now no more sea-sick, but
very cheerful, looking with wonder upon the sea that was so rough
and terrible the day before, and could be so calm and so pleasant in
so little a time after. And now, lest my good resolutions should
continue, my companion who had indeed enticed me away, comes
to me, “Well, Bob,” says he, clapping me upon the shoulder,
“how do you do after it? I warrant you were frighted, wer'n't you,
last night, when it blew but a cap-full of wind?” – “A cap-full
d'you call it?” said I; “’t was a terrible storm.” – “A storm, you
fool you,” replies he, “do you call that a storm? why it was nothing
at all; give us but a good ship and sea-room, and we think nothing
of such a squall of wind as that; but you're but a fresh-water sailor,
Bob. Come let us make a bowl of punch, and we'll forget all that;
d'ye see what charming weather’t is now?”. To make short this sad
part of my story, we went the way of all sailors; the punch was made,
and I was made half drunk with it; and in that one night's wicked-
ness I drowned all my repentance, all my reflections upon my past
conduct, all my resolutions for the future. In a word, as the sea
was returned to its smoothness of surface and settled calmness by the
abatement of that storm, so the hurry of my thoughts being over, my
fears and apprehensions of being swallowed up by the sea being for-
gotten, and the current of my former desires returned, I entirely
forgot the vows and promises that I made in my distress. I found,
7
**--------- ~~w_****
indeed, some intervals of reflection; and the serious thoughts did,
as it were, endeavour to return again sometimes; but I shook them
off, and roused myself from them as it were from a distemper, and
applying myself to drinking and company, soon mastered the
return of those ſits, for so I called them; and I had in ſive or
six days got as complete a victory over my conscience, as any
young fellow that resolved not to be troubled with it, could desire:
but I was to have another trial ſor it still; and Providence, as in such
cases generally it does, resolved to leave me entirely without excuse:
for if I would not take this for a deliverance, the next was to be such
an one, as the worst and most hardened wretch among us would con-
foss both the danger and the mercy.
The sixth day of our being at sea we came into Yarmouth Roads;
the wind having been contrary, and the weather calm, we had made
but little way since the storm. Here we were obliged to come to an
anchor, and here we lay, the wind continuing contrary, viz. at
South-west, for seven or eight days, during which time a great many
ships from Newcastle came into the same roads, as the common har-
bour where the ships might wait for a wind for the River.
We had not, however, rid here so long, but we should have
tided it up the river, but that the wind blew too fresh; and, after we
had lain four or five days, blew very hard. However, the roads being
reckoned as good as an harbour, the anchorage good, and our ground
tackle very strong, our men were unconcerned, and not in the least
apprehensive of danger, but spent the time in rest and mirth, after
the manner of the sea; but the eighth day in the morning the wind
increased, and we had all hands at work to strike our top-masts, and
make every thing snug and close, that the ship might ride as easy as
possible. By noon the sea went very high indeed, and our ship rid
forecastle in, shipped several seas, and we thought once or twice our
anchor had come home; upon which our master brdered out the sheet
anchor; so that we rode with two anchors a-head, and the cables
Weered out to the better cnd.
By this time it blew a terrible storm indeed; and now I began to
see terror and amazement in the faces even of the seamen them-
selves. The master, though vigilant in the business of preserving
the ship, yet as he went in and out of his cabin by me, I could hear
him softly to himself say several times, “Lord, be merciful to us!
8
sº
we shall be all lost; we shall be all undone!” and the like. During
these first hurries I was stupid, lying still in my cabin, which was in
the steerage, and cannot describe my temper: I could ill resume the
first penitence which I had so apparently trampled upon, and
hardened myself against: I thought the bitterness of death had been
past; and that this would be nothing too like the first: but when the
master himself came by me, as I said just now, and said we should
be all lost, I was dreadfully frighted: I got up out of my cabin, and
looked out; but such a dismal sight I never saw; the sca went
mountains high, and broke upon us every three or four minutes: .
when I could look about, I could see nothing but distress round us:
two ships that rid near us, we found, had cut their masts by the
board, being deep laden; and our men cried out, that a ship which
rid about a mile a-head of us was foundered. Two more ships being
driven from their anchors, were run out of the roads to sea, at all
adventures, and that not with a mast standing. The light ships
fared the best, as not so much labouring in the sea; but two or three
of them drove, and came close by us, running away with only their
spritsail out before the wind. #
Towards evening the mate and boatswain begged the master of
our ship to let them cut away the foremast, which he was very un-
willing to do; but the boatswain protesting to him, that if he did
not, the ship would founder, he consented; and when they had cut
away the fore-mast, the main-mast stood so loose, and shook the
ship so much, they were obliged to cut her away also, and make a
clear deck.
Any one must judge what a condition I must be in at all this, who
was but a young sailor, and who had been in such a fright before at
but a little. But if I can express at this distance the thoughts I had
about me at that time, I was in tenfold more horror of mind upon
account of my former convictions, and the having returned from
them to the resolutions I had wickedly taken at first, than I was at
death itself; and these, added to the terror of the storm, put me
into such a condition, that I can by no words describe it. But the
worst was not come yet; the storm continued with such fury, that the
seamen themselves acknowledged they had never seen a worse. We
had a good ship, but she was deep laden, and wallowed in the sea,
that the seamen every now and then cried out, she would ſounder,
9
gºssºsºs
It was my advantage in one respect, that I did not know what they
meant by founder, till I inquired. However, the storm was so
violent, that I saw what is not often seen, the master, the boat-swain,
and some others more sensible than the rest, at their prayers, and
cxpecting every moment when the ship would go to the bottom. In
the middle of the night, and under all the rest of our distresses, one
of the men that had been down on purpose to see, cried out, we had
sprung a leak; another said, there was four feet water in the hold.
Then all hands were called to the pump. At that very word my
heart, as I thought, died within me, and I fell backwards upon the
side of my bed where I sat, into the cabin. However, the men
roused me, and told me, that I, that was able to do nothing before,
was as well able to pump as another; at which I stirred up, and went
to the pump and worked very heartily. While this was doing, the
master seeing some light colliers, who, not able to ride out the
storm, were obliged to slip and run away to the sca, and would come
near us, ordered to fire a gun as a signal of distress. I, who knew
nothing what they meant, was so surprised, that I thought the ship
had broke, or some dreadful thing happened. In a word, I was so
surprised, that I fell down in a swoon. As this was a time when
every body had his own life to think of, nobody minded me, or what
was become of me; but another man stept up to the pump, and
thrusting me aside with his foot, let me lie, thinking I had been
dead; and it was a great while before I came to myself.
We worked on; but the water increasing in the hold, it was
apparent that the ship would founder; and though the storm began
to abate a little, yet as it was not possible she could swim till we
might run into any port, so the master continued firing guns for
help; and a light ship, who had rid it out just a-head of us, ventured
a boat out to help us. It was with the utmost hazard the boat came
near us, but it was impossible for us to get on board, or for the boat
to lie near the ship's side, till at last the men rowing very heartily,
and venturing their lives to save ours, our men cast them a rope over
the stern with a buoy to it, and then veered it out a great length,
which they, after much labour and hazard, took hold of, and we
hauled them close under our stern, and got all into their boat. tº It
was to no purpose for them or us, after we were in the boat, to think
of reaching to their own ship; so all agreed to let her drive, and only
10
****
to pull her in towards shore as much as we could; and our master
promised them, that if the boat was staved upon shore he would make
it good to their master: so partly rowing and partly driving, our boat
went away to the northward, sloping towards the shore almost as far
as Winterton Ness.
We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of our ship
but we saw her sink, and then I understood for the first time what
was meant by a ship foundering in the sea. I must acknowledge I
had hardly eyes to look up when the seamen told me she was sinking;
for from that moment they rather put me into the boat, than that I
might be said to go in; my heart was, as it were, dead within me,
partly with fright, partly with horror of mind, and the thoughts of
what was yet before me.
While we were in this condition, the men yet labouring at the oar
to bring the boat near the shore, we could see (when, our boat
mounting the waves, we were able to see the shore) a great many
people running along the strand to assist us when we should come
near; but we made but slow way towards the shore; nor were we
able to reach the shore, till, being past the light-house at Winterton,
the shore falls off to the westward, towards Cromer, and so the land
broke off a little the violence of the wind. Here we got in, and,
though not without much difficulty, got all safe on shore, and walked
afterwards on foot to Yarmouth, where, as unfortunate men, we
were used with great humanity, as well by the magistrates of the
town, who assigned us good quarters, as by particular merchants
and owners of ships, and had money given us sufficient to carry us
either to London or back to Hull, as we thought fit.
Had I now had the sense to have gone back to Hull, and have gone
home, I had been happy, and my father, an emblem of our blessed
Saviour's parable, had even killed the fatted calf for me; for hearing
the ship I went away in was cast away in Yarmouth Roads, it was a
great while before he had any assurances that I was not drowned.
But my ill fate pushed me on now with an obstinacy that nothing
tould resist; and though I had several times loud calls from my
reason, and my more composed judgment, to go home, yet I had no
power to do it. I know not what to call this, nor will I urge that it is
a secret overruling decree that hurries us on to be the instruments of
our own destruction, even though it be before us, and that we rush
| 1
wºmºsºmº-
upon it with our eyes open. Certainly, nothing but some such de-
creed unavoidable misery attending, and which it was impossible for
me to escape, could have pushed me forward against the calm rea-
sonings and persuasions of my most retired thoughts, and against
two such visible instructions as I had met with in my first attempt.
My comrade, who had helped to harden me before, and who
was the master's son, was now less forward than I. The first
time he spoke to me after we were at Yarmouth, which was not
till two or three days, for we were separated in the town to several
quarters; I say, the first time he saw me, it appeared his tone
was altered, and, looking very melancholy, and shaking his
head, asked me how I did, and telling his father who I was,
and how I had come this voyage only for a trial, in order to go
farther abroad: his father turning to me with a very grave and con-
cerned tone, “Young man,” says he, “you ought never to go to sea
any more; you ought to take this for a plain and visible token that
you are not to be a seafaring man.” – “Why, Sir,” said I, “will you
go to sea no more?” “That is another case,” said he; “it is my
calling, and therefore my duty; but as you made this voyage for a
trial, you see what a taste Heaven has given you of what you are to
expect if you persist. Perhaps this has all befallen us on your
account, like Jonah in the ship of Tarshish. Pray,” continues he,
“what are you; and on what account did you go to sea?” Upon that
I told him some of my story; at the end of which he burst out with a
strange kind of passion; “What had I done,” says he, “that such
an unhappy wretch should come into my ship? I would not set my
foot in the same ship with thee again for a thousand pounds.” This
indeed was, as I said, an excursion of his spirits, which were yet
agitated by the sense of his loss, and was farther than he could have
authority to go. However, he afterwards talked very gravely to me,
exhorting me to go back to my father, and not tempt Providence to my
ruin; told me I might see a visible hand of Heaven against me. “And
young man,” said he, “depend upon it, if you do not go back,
wherever you go, you will meet with nothing but disasters and disap-
pointments, till your father's words are fulfilled upon you.”
We parted soon after; for I made him little answer, and I saw
him no more; which way he went, I know not. As for me, having
some money in my pocket, I travelled to London by land; and there,
*
i.
*
as well as on the road, had many struggles with myself, what course
of life I should take, and whether I should go home, or go to sea.
As to going home, shame opposed the best motions that offered
to my thoughts; and it immediately occurred to me how I should be
laughed at among the neighbours, and should be ashamed to sce,
not my father and mother only, but even every body clse; from
whence I have since often observed, how incongruous and irrational
the common temper of mankind is, especially of youth, to that reason
which ought to guide them in such cases, viz. that they are not
ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent; not ashamed of the
action for which they ought justly to be esteemed fools, but are ashamed
of the returning, which only can make them be esteemed wise men.
In this state of life, however, I remained some time, uncertain
what measures to take, and what course of life to lead. An irresist-
ible reluctance continued to going home; and as I stayed a while,
the remembrance of the distress I had been in wore off; and as that
abated, the little motion I had in my desires to a return wore off with
it, till at last I quite laid aside the thoughts of it, and looked out for
a Voyage.
That evil influence which carried me first away from my father's
house, which hurried me into the wild and indigested notion of
raising my fortune; and that impressed those conceits so forcibly
upon me, as to make me deaf to all good advice, and to the entreaties
and even the commands of my father: I say, the same influence,
whatever it was, presented the most unfortunate of all enterprises to
my view; and I went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa;
or, as our sailors vulgarly call it, a voyage to Guinea.
It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I did not
ship myself as a sailor; whereby, though I might indeed have worked
a little harder than ordinary, yet at the same time I had learnt the
duty and office of a foremast-man; and in time might have qualified
myself for a mate or lieutenant, if not for a master. But as it was
always my fate to choose for the worse, so I did here; for having
money in my pocket, and good clothes upon my back, I would always
go on board in the habit of a gentleman; and so I neither had any
business in the ship, nor learnt to do any. &
It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company in Lon-
don, which does not always happen to such loose and unguided
13
young fellows as I then was; the devil generally not omitting to lay
some snare for them very early : but it was not so with me. I first
fell acquainted with the master of a ship who had been on the coast of
Guinea; and who, having had very good success there, was resolved
to go again; this captain taking a fancy to my conversation, which
was not at all disagreeable at that time, hearing me say I had a mind
to see the world, told me if I would go the voyage with him I should
be at no expense; I should be his messmate and his companion; and
if I could carry any thing with me, I should have all the advantage of
it that the trade would admit; and perhaps I might meet with some
encouragement.
I embraced the offer; and entering into a strict friendship with
this captain, who was an honest, plain-dealing man, I went the
voyage with him, and carried a small adventure with me, which, by
the disinterested honesty of my friend the captain, I increased very
considerably; for I carried about £40 in such toys and triſles as the
captain directed me to buy. This £40 I had mustered together by
the assistance of some of my relations whom I corresponded with,
and who, I believe, got my father, or at least my mother, to con-
tribute so much as that to my first adventure.
This was the only voyage which I may say was successful in all
my adventures, and which I owe to the integrity and honesty of my
friend the captain; under whom also I got a competent knowledge of
the mathematics and the rules of navigation, learned how to keep an
account of the ship's course, take an observation, and, in short, to
understand some things that were needful to be understood by a
sailor: for, as he took delight to introduce me, I took delight to learn;
and, in a word, this voyage made me both a sailor and a merchant:
for I brought home five pounds nine ounces of gold-dust for my ad-
venture, which yielded me in London at my return almost £300, and
this filled me with those aspiring thoughts which have since so com—
pleted my ruin.
Yet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes too; particularly,
that I was continually sick, being thrown into a violent calenture by
the excessive heat of the climate; our principal trading being upon
the coast, from the latitude of 15 degrees north even to the line
itself.
I was now set up for a Guinea trader; and my friend, to my great
14
*****-* *
misfortune, dying soon after his arrival, I resolved to go the same
voyage again, and I embarked in the same vessel with one who was
his mate in the former voyage, and had now got the command of the
ship. This was the unhappiest voyage that ever man made; for
though I did not carry quite £100 of my new-gained wealth, so that
I had £200 left, and which I lodged with my friend's widow, who
was very just to me, yet I fell into terrible misfortunes in this voyage;
and the first was this, viz. our ship making her course towards the
Canary Islands, or rather between those islands and the African
shore, was surprised in the grey of the morning by a Turkish rover
of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all the sail she could make. We
crowded also as much canvass as our yards would spread, or our
masts carry, to have got clear; but finding the pirate gained upon
us, and would certainly come up with us in a few hours, we prepared
to fight; our ship having twelve guns and the rogue eighteen. About
three in the aſternoon he came up with us, and bringing to, by
mistake, just athwart our quarter, instead of athwart our stern, as
he intended, we brought eight of our guns to bear on that side, and
poured in a broadside upon him, which made him sheer off again,
after returning our fire, and pouring in also his small-shot from near
200 men which he had on board. However, we had not a man
touched, all our men keeping close. He prepared to attack us again,
and we to defend ourselves; but laying us on board the next time
upon our other quarter, he entered sixty men upon our decks, who
immediately fell to cutting and hacking the sails and rigging. We
plicil them with small-shot, half-pikes, powder-chests, and such
like, and cleared our deck of them twice. However, to cut short
this melancholy part of our story, our ship being disabled, and three
of our men killed and eight wounded, we were obliged to yield, and
were carried all prisoners into Sallee, a port belonging to the Moors.
The usage I had there was not so dreadful as at first I apprehended;
nor was I carried up the country to the emperor's court, as the rest
of our men were, but was kept by the captain of the rover as his
proper prize, and made his slave, being young and nimble, and fit
for his business. At this surprising change of my circumstances,
from a merchant to a miserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed;
and now I looked back upon my father's prophetic discourse to me,
that I should be miserable, and have none to relieve me, which I
15
thought was now so effectually brought to pass, that I could not be
worse; that now the hand of Heaven had overtaken ine, and I was
undone without redemption: but, alas! this was but a taste of the
misery I was to go through, as will appear in the sequel of this story.
As my new patron, or master, had taken me home to his house,
so I was in hopes that he would take me with him when he went to
sea again, believing that it would sometime or other be his fate to be
taken by a Spanish or Portugal man of war; and that then I should
be set at liberty. But this hope of mine was soon taken away; for
when he went to sea, he left me on shore to look after his little gar-
den, and do the common drudgery of slaves about his house; and
when he came home again from his cruise, he ordered me to lic in
the cabin to look after the ship.
Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what method I
might take to effect it, but found no way that had the least probability
in it: nothing presented to make the supposition of it rational; for I
had nobody to communicate it to that would embark with me, no
fellow slave, no Englishman, Irishman, or Scotsman there but
myself; so that for two years, though I often pleased myselſ with the
imagination, yet I never had the least encouraging prospect of put-
ting it in practice.
After about two years an odd circumstance presented itself, which
put the old thought of making some attempt for my liberty again in
my head. My patron lying at home longer than usual without fitting
out his ship, which, as I heard, was for want of money, he used
constantly, once or twice a-week, sometimes oftener, if the weather
was fair, to take the ship's pinnace, and go out into the road a
fishing; and as he always took me and a young Marcsco with him to
row the boat, we made him very merry, and I proved very dexterous
in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes he would send me with a
Moor, one of his kinsmen, and the youth the Maresco, as they
called him, to catch a dish of fish for him.
It happened one time, that going a fishing in a stark calm morn-
ing, a fog rose so thick, that though we were not half a league from
the shore we lost sight of it; and rowing we knew not whither or
which way, we laboured all day, and all the next night, and when
the morning came we found we had pulled off to sea instead of pulling
in for the shore; and that we were at least two leagues from the shore;
&
ſ 6
however, we got well in again, though with a great deal of labour and
some danger; for the wind began to blow pretty fresh in the morning;
but particularly we were all very hungry.
But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to take more
care of himself for the future; and having lying by him the long-boat
of our English ship he had taken, he resolved he would not go a
fishing any more without a compass and some provision; so he or—
dered the carpenter of his ship, who also was an English slave, to
build a little state-room, or cabin, in the middle of the long-boat,
like that of a barge, with a place to stand behind it to steer and haul
home the main-sheet; and room before for a hand or two to stand
and work the sails: she sailed with what we call a shoulder of mutton
sail; and the boom gibed over the top of the cabin; which lay very
snug and low, and had in it room for him to lie, with a slave or two,
and a table to eat on, with some small lockers to put in some bottles
of such liquor as he thought ſit to drink; and particularly his bread,
rice, and coffee.
We went frequently out with this boat a fishing, and as I was
most dexterous to catch ſish for him, he never went without me. It
happened that he had appointed to go out in this boat, either for
pleasure or for fish, with two or three Moors of some distinction in
that place, and for whom he had provided extraordinarily, and had
therefore sent on board the boat over-night a larger store of pro-
visions than ordinary; and had ordered me to get ready three fuzees
with powder and shot, which were on board his ship; for that they
designed some sport of fowling as well as fishing.
I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the next
morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient and pendants out,
and every thing to accommodate his guests; when by and by my
patron came on board alone, and told me his guests had put off going,
upon some business that fell out, and ordered me with the man and
boy, as usual, to go out with the boat and catch them some fish, for
that his friends were to sup at his house; and commanded that as
soon as I got some fish I should bring it home to his house; all which
I prepared to do.
This moment my former notions of deliverance darted into my
thoughts, for now I ſound I was like to have a little ship at my com-
mand; and my master being gone, I prepared to furnish myself,
17
not for ſishing business, but for a voyage; though I knew not, neither
did I so much as consider, whither I should steer; for any where, to
get out of that place, was my way.
My first contrivance was to make a pretence to speak to this Moor,
to get something for our subsistence on board; for I told him we must
not presume to eat of our patron's bread; he said, that was true: so
he brought a large basket of rusk or biscuit of their kind, and three
jars with fresh water, into the boat. I knew where my patron's case
of bottles stood, which it was evident, by the make, were taken out
of some English prize, and I conveyed them into the boat while the
Moor was on shore, as if they had been there before for our master:
I conveyed also a great lump of bees-wax into the boat, which weighed
above half a hundred weight, with a parcel of twine or thread, a
hatchet, a saw, and a hammer, all of which were of great use to us
afterwards, especially the wax to make candles. Another trick I
tried upon him, which he innocently came into also; his name was
Ismael, whom they call Muley, or Moely; so I called to him,
“Mocly,” said I, “our patron's guns are on board the boat; can
you not get a little powder and shot? it may be we may kill some
alcamies (a fowl like our curlews) for ourselves, for I know he keeps
the gunner's stores in the ship.” – “Yes,” says he, “I’ll bring
some; ” and accordingly he brought a great leather pouch which held
about a pound and a half of powder, or rather more; and another
with shot, that had five or six pounds, with some bullets, and put all
into the boat: at the same time I had found some powder of my mas-
ter's in the great cabin, with which I filled one of the large bottles in
the case, which was almost empty, pouring what was in it into ano-
ther; and thus furnished with every thing needful, we sailed out of
the port to fish. The castle, which is at the entrance of the port,
knew who we were, and took no notice of us: and we were not above
a mile out of the port before we hauled in our sail, and set us down
to fish. The wind blew from the N. N. E. which was contrary to my
desire; for had it blown southerly, I had been sure to have made the
coast of Spain, and at least reached to the bay of Cadiz; but my reso-
lutions were, blow which way it would, I would be gone from that
horrid place where I was, and leave the rest to fate.
After we had fished some time and catched nothing, for when I
had fish on my hook I would not pull them up, that he might not see
Robinson Crusoe. 2
| 8
*
them, I said to the Moor, “This will not do; our master will not be
thus served; we must stand farther off.” He, thinking no harm,
agreed, and being in the head of the boat set the sails; and as I had
the helm I run the boat out near a league farther, and then brought
her to as if I would fish; when giving the boy the helm, I stepped
forward to where the Moor was, and making as if I stooped for some-
thing behind him, I took him by surprise with my arm under his
twist, and tossed him clear overboard into the sea. He rose imme-
diately, for he swam like a cork, and called to me, begged to be
taken in, told me he would go all over the world with me. He swam
so strong after the boat, that he would have reached me very quickly,
there being but little wind; upon which I stepped into the cabin, and
fetching one of the fowling-pieces, I presented it at him, and told
him I had done him no hurt, and if he would be quiet I would do him
none: “But,” said I, “you swim well enough to reach to the shore,
and the sea is calm; make the best of your way to shore, and I will
do you no harm; but if you come near the boat I’ll shoot you through
the head, for I am resolved to have my liberty: ” so he turned himself
about, and swam for the shore, and I make no doubt but he reached
it with ease, for he was an excellent swimmer.
I could have been content to have taken this Moor with me, and
have drowned the boy, but there was no venturing to trust him.
When he was gone I turned to the boy, whom they called Xury, and
said to him, “Xury, if you will be faithful to me I'll make you a
great man; but if you will not stroke your face to be true to me,”
that is, swear by Mahomet and his father's beard, “I must throw
you into the sea too.” The boy smiled in my face, and spoke so
innocently, that I could not mistrust him, and swore to be faithful
to me, and go all over the world with me.
anºt sº lº. º * that was swimming, I stood out
might think me gone tº . to windward, that they
that had been in their wits º: h º mouth; (as indeed any one
tould have supposed we w il ave been supposed to do) for who
jº...wºlº ºnly
round us with their Canoes, and . O Nºgºs WCre. Sure to Sur-
Once go on shore but we should be . us; where we could never
* * devoured by savage beasts, or
more merciless savages of human kind?
19
But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed my course,
and steered directly south and by east, bending my course a little
towards the east, that I might keep in with the shore: and having a
fair, fresh gale of wind, and a smooth, quiet sea, I made such sail
that I believe by the next day at three o'clock in the afternoon, when
I first made the land, I could not be less than 150 miles south of
Sallee; quite beyond the Emperor of Morocco's dominions, or indeed
of any other king thereabouts, for we saw no people.
Yet such was the fright I had taken at the Moors, and the dread-
ful apprehensions I had of falling into their hands, that I would not
stop, or go on shore, or come to an anchor; the wind continuing
fair till I had sailed in that manner five days; and then the wind shift-
ing to the southward, I concluded also that if any of our vessels were
in chase of me, they also would now give over; so I ventured to make
to the coast, and came to an anchor in the mouth of a little river, I
knew not what, or where; neither what latitude, what country, what
nation, or what river: I neither saw, or desired to see any people;
the principal thing I wanted was fresh water. We came into this
creek in the evening, resolving to swim on shore as soon as it was
dark, and discover the country; but, as soon as it was quite dark,
we heard such dreadful noises of the barking, roaring, and howling
of wild creatures, of we knew not what kinds, that the poor boy was
ready to die with fear, and begged of me not to go on shore till day.
“Well, Xury,” said I, “then I won't; but it may be we may see
men by day, who will be as bad to us as those lions.” – “Then we
give them the shoot gun,” says Xury, laughing, “make them run
wey.” Such English Xury spoke by conversing among us slaves.
However I was glad to see the boy so cheerful, and I gave him a dram
(out of our patron's case of bottles) to cheer him up. After all,
Xury's advice was good, and I took it; we dropped our little anchor,
and lay still all night; I say still, for we slept none; for in two or
three hours we saw vast great creatures (we knew not what to call
them) of many sorts, come down to the sea-shore and run into the
water, wallowing and washing themselves for the pleasure of cooling
themselves; and they made such hideous howlings and yellings, that
I never indeed heard the like.
Xury was dreadfully frighted, and indeed so was I too; but we
were both more frighted when we heard one of these mighty Creature5,
- - 2*
g-
20
come swimming towards our boat; we could not see him, but we
might hear him by his blowing to be a monstrous huge and furious
beast; xury said it was a lion, and it might be so for aught I know;
but poor Xury cried to me to weigh the anchor and row away: “No,”
says i, “Xury; we can slip our cable with the buoy to it, and go off
to sea; they cannot follow us far." I had no sooner said so, but I
perceived the creature (whatever it was) within two oars' length,
which something surprized me; however, I immediately stepped to
the cabin-door, and taking up my gun, fired at him; upon which he
immediately turned about, and swam towards the shore again.
But it is impossible to describe the horrid noises, and hideous
cries and howlings, that were raised, as well upon the edge of the
shore as higher within the country, upon the noise or report of the
gun, a thing I have some reason to believe those creatures had never
heard before: this convinced me that there was no going on shore for
us in the night upon that coast, and how to venture on shore in the
day was another question too; for to have fallen into the hands of any
of the Savages, had been as bad as to have fallen into the hands of
º and tigers; at lcast we were equally apprehensive of the danger
Of it.
Be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore somewhere
or other for water, for we had not a pint left in the boat; when or
where to get it, was the point: Xury said, if I would let him go on
shore with one of the jars, he would find if there was any water, and
bring some to me. I asked him why he would go? why I should not
go, and he stay in the boat? The boy answered with so much affec-
tion, that made me love him ever after. Says he, “If wild mans
come, they eat me, you go wey.” – “Well, Xury,” said I, “we
will both go, and if the wild mans come, we will kill them, they
shall eat neither of us.” So I gave Xury a picce of rusk bread to eat,
and a dram out of our patron's case of bottles which I mentioned be-
fore; and we hauled the boat in as near the shore as we thought was
proper, and so waded on shore; carrying nothing but our arms, and
two jars for water. O }
I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the coming of
canoes with Savages down the river: but the boy seeing a low place
about a mile up the country, rambled to it; and by and by I saw him
come ruuning towards me, I thought he was pursued by some
*
21
savage, or frighted with some wild beast, and I ran forward towards
him to help him, but when I came nearer to him, I saw something
hanging over his shoulders, which was a creature that he had shot,
like a hare, but different in colour, and longer legs; however, we
were very glad of it, and it was very good meat; but the great joy
that poor Xury came with, was to tell me he had found good water,
and scen no wild mans.
But we found afterwards that we need not take such pains for
water, for a little higher up the creek where we were, we found the
water fresh when the tide was out, which ſlowed but a little way up;
so we filled our jars, and feasted on the hare we had killed, and pre-
pared to go on our way, having secn no ſootsteps of any human
creature in that part of the country.
As I had been one voyage to this coast before, I knew very well
that the islands of the Canaries, and the Cape de Verd islands also,
lay not far off from the coast. But as I had no instruments to take
an observation to know what latitude we were in, and not exactly
knowing, or at least remembering what latitude they were in, and
knew not where to look for them, or when to stand off to sea towards
them; otherwise I might now easily have found some of these islands.
But my hope was, that if I stood along this coast till I came to that
part where the English traded, I should find some of their vessels
upon their usual design of trade, that would relieve and take us in.
By the best of my calculation, that place where I now was, must
be that country, which, lying between the Emperor of Morocco's
dominions and the Negroes, lies waste, and uninhabited, except by
wild beasts; the Negroes having abandoned it, and gone farther
south for fear of the Moors; and the Moors not thinking it worth in-
habiting, by reason of its barrenness; and indeed both forsaking it
because of the prodigious numbers of tigers, lions, leopards, and
other furious creatures which harbour there; so that the Moors use
it for their hunting only, where they go like an army, two or three
thousand men at a time; and indeed for near an hundred miles toge-
ther upon this coast, we saw nothing but a waste, uninhabited
country by day, and heard nothing but howlings and roaring of wild
beasts by night.
Once or twice in the day-time I thought I saw the Pico of Teneriſſe,
being the high top of the Mountain Teneriſſe in the Canaries; and had
22
a great mind to venture out, in hopes of reaching thither; but having
tried twice, I was forced in again by contrary winds, the sea also
going too high for my little vessel; so I resolved to pursue my first
design, and keep along the shore.
Several times I was obliged to land for fresh water, after we had
left this place; and once in particular, being early in the morning,
we came to an anchor under a little point of land which was pretty
high; and the tide beginning to flow, we lay still to go farther in.
Xury, whose eyes were more about him than it seems mine were,
calls softly to me, and tells me that we had best go farther off the
shore; “for,” says he, “look yonder lies a dreadful monster on the
side of that hillock fast asleep.” I looked where he pointed, and saw
a dreadful monster indeed, for it was a terrible great lion that lay on
the side of the shore, under the shade of a piece of the hill that hung
as it were a little over him. “Xury,” says I, “you shall go on shore
and kill him.” Xury looked frighted, and said, “Me kill! he eat
me at one mouth; ” one mouthful he meant: however, I said no more
to the boy, but bad him lie still, and I took our biggest gun, which
was almost musket-bore, and loaded it with a good charge of powder,
and with two slugs, and laid it down; then I loaded another gun with
two bullets; and the third (for we had three pieces) I loaded with five
smaller bullets. I took the best aim I could with the first piece to
have shot him in the head, but he lay so with his leg raised a little
above his nose, that the slugs hit his leg about the knee, and broke
the bone. He started up, growling at first, but finding his leg broke,
ſell down again, and then got up upon three legs, and gave the most
hideous roar that ever I heard. I was a little surprised that I had not
hit him on the head; however, I took up the second piece imme-
diately, and, though he began to move off, fired again, and shot him
In the head, and had the pleasure to see him drop, and make but
little noise, but lie struggling for life. Then xury took heart, and
would have me let him go on shore; “Well, go,” said I; so the boy
jumped into the water, and taking a little gun in one hand, swam to
shore with the other hand, and coming close to the creature , put the
muzzle of the piece to his car, and shot him in the head again, which
dispatched him quite. 2
This was game indeed to us, but this was no food; and I was very
sorry to lose three charges of powder and shot upon a creature that
23
was good for nothing to us. However, Xury said he would have some
of him; so he comes on board, and asked me to give him the hatchet.
“For what, Xury?” said I, “Me cut off his head,” said he. However,
Xury could not cut off his head, but he cut off a foot, and brought it
with him, and it was a monstrous great one.
I bethought myself however, that perhaps the skin of him might
one way or other be of some value to us; and I resolved to take off his
skin if I could. So Xury and I went to work with him; but Xury was
much the better workman at it, for I knew very ill how to do it.
Indeed it took us both up the whole day, but at last we got off the hide
of him, and spreading it on the top of our cabin, the sun eſſectually
dried it in two days' time, and it afterwards served me to lie upon.
After this stop, we made on to the southward continually for ten
or twelve days, living very sparing on our provisions, which began
to abate very much, and going no oftener into the shore than we were
obliged to for fresh water: my design in this was, to make the river
Gambia or Senegal, that is to say, any where about the Cape de Verd,
where I was in hopes to meet with some European ship; and if I did
not, I knew not what course I had to take, but to seek for the islands,
or perish there among the Negroes. I knew that all the ships from
Europe, which sailed either to the coast of Guinea or to Brasil, or to
the East Indies, made this Cape, or those islands; and in a word, I
put the whole of my fortune upon this single point, either that I must
meet with some ship, or must perish.
When I had pursued this resolution about ten days longer, as I
have said, I began to see that the land was inhabited; and in two or
three places, as we sailed by, we saw people stand upon the shore
to look at us; we could also perceive they were quite black, and
Stark naked. I was once inclined to have gone on shore to them;
but Xury was my better counsellor, and said to me, “No go, no
go.” However, I hauled in nearer the shore that I might talk to
them, and I found they ran along the shore by me a good way: I
observed they had no weapons in their hands, except one, who had a
long slender stick, which Xury said was a lance, and that they would
throw them a great way with good aim; so I kept at a distance, but
talked with them by signs as well as I could; and particularly made
signs for something to eat; they beckoned to me to stop my boat,
and they would fetch me some meat. Upon this I lowered the top of
24
- **
my sail, and lay by, and two of them ran up into the country, and
in less than half an hour came back, and brought with them two
pieces of dry ſlesh and some corn, such as is the produce of their
country; but we neither knew what the one or the other was: how-
ever, we were willing to accept it, but how to come at it was our next
dispute, for I was not for venturing on shore to them, and they were
as much afraid of us: but they took a safe way for us all, for they
brought it to the shore and laid it down, and went and stood a great
way off till we fetched it on board, and then came close to us again.
We made signs of thanks to them, for we had nothing to make
them amends; but an opportunity offered that very instant to oblige
them wonderfully: for while we were lying by the shore came two
mighty creatures, one pursuing the other (as we took it) with great
fury from the mountains towards the sea; whether it was the male
pursuing the female, or whether they were in sport or in rage, we
could not tell, any more than we could tell whether it was usual or
strange, but I believe it was the latter; because, in the first place,
those ravenous creatures seldom appear but in the night; and in the
second place, we found the people terribly frighted, especially the
women. The man that had the lance or dart did not fly from them,
but the rest did; however, as the two creatures ran directly into the
water, they did not seem to offer to fall upon any of the Negroes, but
plunged themselves into the sea, and swam about, as if they had
come for their diversion: at last, one of them began to come nearer
our boat than at first I expected; but I lay ready foy him, for I had
loaded my gun with all possible expedition, and bade Xury load both
the others. As soon as he came fairly within my reach, I ſired, and
shot him directly in the head: immediately he sunk down into the
water, but rose instantly, and plunged up and down, as if he was
struggling for life, and so indeed he was: he immediately made to
the shore; but between the wound, which was his mortal hurt, and
the strangling of the water, he died just before he reached the shore.
It is impossible to express the astonishment of these poor crea-
tures, at the noise and fire of my gun; some of them were even ready
to die for ſcar, and fell down as dead with the very terror; but when
they saw the creature dead, and sunk in the water, and that I made
signs to them to come to the shore, they took heart and came to the
shore, and began to search for the creature. I ſound him by his
25
blood staining the water; and by the help of a rope, which Islung
round him, and gave the Negroes to haul, they dragged him on shore,
and found that it was a most curious leopard, spotted, and fine to an
admirable degree; and the Negroes held up their hands with admira-
tion, to think what it was I had killed him with.
The other creature, frighted with the ſlash of ſire and the noise of
the gun, swam on shore, and ran up directly to the mountains from
whence they came; nor could I, at that distance, know what it was.
I found quickly the Negroes were for eating the flesh of this creature,
So I was willing to have them take it as a favour from me; which,
When I made signs to them that they might take him, they were very
thankful for. Immediately they fell to work with him; and though
they had no knife, yet, with a sharpened piece of wood, they took
off his skin as readily, and much more readily, than we could have
done with a knife. They offered me some of the ſlesh, which I
declined, making as if I would give it them, but made signs for the
skin, which they gave me very freely, and brought me a great deal
more of their provisions, which, though I did not understand, yet I
accepted. I then made signs to them for some water, and held out
one of my jars to them, turning it bottom upward, to show that it
was empty, and that I wanted to have it filled. They called imme-
diately to some of their friends, and there came two women, and
brought a great vessel made of earth, and burnt, as I suppose in the
Sun; this they set down to me, as before, and I sent Xury on shore
With my jars, and ſilled them all three. The women were as stark
naked as the men.
I was now furnished with roots and corn, such as it was, and
Water; and leaving my friendly Negroes, I made forward for about
eleven days more, without offering to go near the shore, till I saw
the land run out a great length into the sea, at about the distance of
four or five leagues before me; and the sea being very calm, I kept
a large offing, to make this point. At length, doubling the point,
at about two leagues from the land, I saw plainly land on the other
side, to seaward: then I concluded, as it was most certain indeed,
that this was the Cape de Verd, and those the islands, called, from
thence, Cape de Verd Islands. However, they were at a great
distance, and I could not well tell what I had best to do; for if I
26
sºsºsº.º. º.º.º.º.
should be taken with a fresh of wind, I might neither reach one or
other.
In this dilemma, as I was very pensive, I stepped into the cabin,
and sat me down, Xury having the helm; when, on a sudden, the
boy cried out, “Master, master, a ship with a sail!” and the foolish
boy was frighted out of his wits, thinking it must needs be some of
his master's ships sent to pursue us, when I knew we were gotten far
enough out of their reach. I jumped out of the cabin, and imme-
diately saw, not only the ship, but what she was, viz. that it was a
Portuguese ship, and, as I thought, was bound to the coast of
Guinea, for Negroes. But, when I observed the course she steered,
I was soon convinced they were bound some other way, and did not
design to come any nearer to the shore: upon which, I stretched out
to sca as much as I could, resolving to speak with them, if possible.
With all the sail I could make, I found I should not be able to
come in their way, but that they would be gone by before I could
make any signal to them: but after I had crowded to the utmost,
and began to despair, they, it secms, saw me, by the help of their
perspective glasses, and that it was some European boat, which,
they supposed, must belong to some ship that was lost; so they
shortened sail, to let me come up. I was encouraged with this, and
as I had my patron's ancient on board, I made a waft of it to them,
for a signal of distress, and fired a gun, both which they saw; for
they told me they saw the smoke, though they did not hear the gun.
Upon these signals, they very kindly brought to, and lay by for me;
and in about three hours' time I came up with them.
They asked me what I was, in Portuguese, and in Spanish, and
in French, but I understood none of them; but, at last, a Scots
sailor, who was on board, called to me, and I answered him, and
told him I was an Englishman, that I had made my escape out of
slavery from the Moors, at Sallec: they then bade me come on board,
and very kindly took me in, and all my goods.
It was an inexpressible joy to me, which any one will believe,
that I was thus delivered, as I esteemed it, from such a miserable,
and almost hopeless, condition as I was in; and I immediately offered
all I had to the captain of the ship, as a return for my deliverance;
but he generously told me, he would take nothing from me, but that
all I had should be delivered safe to me, when I came to the Brasils.
*
27
“For,” says he, “I have saved your life on no other terms than I
would be glad to be saved myself; and it may, one time or other, be
my lot to be taken up in the same condition. Besides,” said he,
“when I carry you to the Brasils, so great a way from your own
country, if I should take from you what you have, you will be starved
there, and then I only take away that life I have given. No, no,”
says he; “Seignor Inglese,” (Mr. Englishman,) “I will carry you
thither in charity, and those things will help to buy your subsistence
there, and your passage home again.”
As he was charitable in this proposal, so he was just in the per-
formance to a tittle; for he ordered the seamen, that none should
offer to touch any thing I had: then he took every thing into his own
possession, and gave me back an exact inventory of them, that I
might have them, even so much as my three earthen jars.
As to my boat, it was a very good one; and that he saw, and told
me he would buy it of me for the ship's use; and asked me what
I would have for it? I told him, he had been so generous to me in
every thing, that I could not offer to make any price of the boat, but
left it entirely to him: upon which, he told me he would give me a
note of hand to pay me eighty pieces of eight for it at Brasil; and when
it came there, if any one offered to give more, he would make it up.
He offered me also sixty pieces of eight more for my boy Xury, which
I was loth to take; not that I was not willing to let the captain have
him, but I was very loth to sell the poor boy's liberty, who had as-
sisted me so faithfully in procuring my own. However, when I let
him know my reason, he owned it to be just, and offered me this
medium, that he would give the boy an obligation to set him free in
ten years, if he turned Christian: upon this, and Xury saying he
was willing to go to him, I let the captain have him.
We had a very good voyage to the Brasils, and arrived in the Bay
de Todos los Santos, or All Saint's Bay, in about twenty-two days
after. And now I was once more delivered from the most miserable
of all conditions of life; and what to do next with myself, I was now
to consider.
The generous treatment the captain gave me, I can never enough
remember: he would take nothing of me for my passage, gave me
twenty ducats for the leopard's skin, and forty for the lion's skin,
which I had in my boat, and caused every thing I had in the ship to
28
be punctually delivered to me; and what I was willing to sell, he
bought of me; such as the case of bottles, two of my guns, and a
piece of the lump of bees-wax, — for I had made candles of the rest:
in a word, I made about two hundred and twenty pieces of eight of all
my cargo; and with this stock, I went on shore in the Brasils.
I had not been long here, before I was recommended to the house
of a good honest man, like himself, who had an ingenio as they call
it, (that is, a plantation and a sugar house.) I lived with him some
time, and acquainted myself, by that means, with the manner of
planting and making of sugar; and secing how well the planters lived,
and how they got rich suddenly, I resolved, if I could get a licence
to settle there, I would turn planter among them: resolving, in the
mean time, to find out some way to get my money, which I had left
in London, remitted to me. To this purpose, getting a kind of a
letter of naturalization, I purchased as much land that was uncured
as my money would reach, and formed a plan for my plantation and
sctilement; such a one as might be suitable to the stock which I pro-
posed to myself to receive from England.
I had a neighbour, a Portuguese of Lisbon, but born of English
parents, whose name was Wells, and in much such circumstances
as I was. I call him my neighbour, because his plantation lay next
to mine, and we went on very sociably together. My stock was but
low, as well as his; and we rather planted for food than any thing
else, for about two years. However, we began to encrease, and
our land began to come into order; so that the third year we planted
some tobacco, and made each of us a large piece of ground ready for
planting cancs in the year to come: but we both wanted help; and
now I found, more than before, I had done wrong in parting with
my boy Xury.
But, alas! for me to do wrong that never did right, was no great
wonder. I had no remedy but to go on: I had got into an employment
quite remote to my genius, and directly contrary to the life Idelighted
in, and for which I forsook my father's house, and broke through all his
good advice; nay, I was coming into the very middle Station, or upper
degree of low life, which my father advised me to before; and which, if
I resolved to go on with, I might as well have staid at home, and never
have fatigued myself in the world, as I had done; and I used often to
say to myself, I could have done this as well in England, among my
29
friends, as have gone five thousand miles oſſ to do it among strangers
and Savages, in a Wilderness, and at such a distance as never to hear
from any part of the world that had the least knowledge of me.
In this manner, I used to look upon my condition with the utmost
regret. I had nobody to converse with, but now and then this neigh-
bour; no work to be done, but by the labour of my hands: and I
used to say, I lived just like a man cast away upon some desolate
island, that had nobody there but himself. But how just has it been
and how should all men reflect, that when they compare their present
conditions with others that are worse, Heaven may oblige them to
make the exchange, and be convinced of their former felicity by their
experience: I say, how just has it been, that the truly solitary life I
reflected on, in an island of mere desolation, should be my lot, who
had so often unjustly compared it with the life which I then led, in
which, had I continued, I had, in all probability, been exceeding
prosperous and rich.
I was, in some degree, settled in my measures for carrying on the
plantation, before my kind friend, the captain of the ship that took
me up at sea, went back; for the ship remained there, in providing
his lading, and preparing for his voyage, near three months; when,
telling him what little stock I had left behind me in London, he gave
me this friendly and sincere advice: “Seignor Inglese,” says he,
for so he always called me, “if you will give me letters, and a pro-
curation here in form to me, with orders to the person who has your
money in London, to send your effects to Lisbon, to such persons
as I shall direct, and in such goods as are proper for this country, I
will bring you the produce of them, God willing, at my return; but,
since human affairs are all subject to changes and disasters, I would
have you give orders but for one hundred pounds sterling, which, you
Say, is half your stock, and let the hazard be run for the first, so that
if it come safe, you may order the rest the same way; and, if it
miscarry, you may have the other half to have recourse to for your
supply.”
This was so wholesome advice, and looked so friendly, that I
could not but be convinced it was the best course I could take; so I
accordingly prepared letters to the gentlewoman with whom I had lºſ'
my money, and a procuration to the Portuguese captain, as ho
desired, -
30
I wrote the English captain's widow a full account of all my ad-
ventures; my slavery, escape, and how I had met with the Portugal
captain at sea, the humanity of his behaviour, and what condition I
was now in, with all other necessary directions for my supply; and
when this honest captain came to Lisbon, he found means, by some
of the English merchants there, to send over, not the order only,
but a full account of my story to a merchant at London, who repre-
sented it effectually to her: whereupon she not only delivered the
money, but, out of her own pocket, sent the Portugal captain a very
handsome present for his humanity and charity to me.
The merchant in London, vesting this hundred pounds in English
goods, such as the captain had writ for, sent them directly to him at
Lisbon, and he brought them all safe to me to the Brasils: among
which, without my direction, (for I was too young in my business
to think of them,) he had taken care to have all sorts of tools, iron
work, and utensils, necessary for my plantation, and which were of
great use to me.
When this cargo arrived, I thought my fortunes made, for I was
surprised with the joy of it; and my good steward, the captain, had
laid out the five pounds, which my friend had sent him for a present
for himself, to purchase and bring me over a servant, under bond for
six years' service, and would not accept of any consideration, except
a little tobacco, which I would have him accept, being of my own
produce.
Neither was this all; but my goods being all English manufac-
tures, such as cloths, stuffs, baize, and things particularly valuable
and desirable in the country, I found means to sell them to a very
great advantage; so that I might say, I had more than four times the
value of my first cargo, and was now infinitely beyond my poor neigh-
bour, I mean in the advancement of my plantation: for the first thing
I did, I bought me a Negro slave, and an European servant also; I
mean another besides that which the captain brought me from Lisbon.
But as abused prosperity is oftentimes made the very means of our
greatest adversity, so was it with me. I went on the next year with
great success in my plantation; I raised fifty great rolls of tobacco on
my own ground, more than I had disposed of for necessaries among
my neighbours; and these fifty rolls, being each of above a hundred
Weight, were Well cured, and laid by against the return of the fleet
31
from Lisbon: and now increasing in business and in wealth, my
head began to be full of projects and undertakings beyond my reach;
such as are, indeed, often the ruin of the best heads in business.
Had I continued in the station I was now in, I had room for all the
happy things to have yet befallen me, for which my father so carnestly
recommended a quiet, retired life, and of which he had so sensibly
described the middle station of life to be full of: but other things
attended me, and I was still to be the wilful agent of all my own
miseries; and, particularly, to encrease my fault, and double the
reflections upon myself, which in my future sorrows I should have
leisure to make, all these miscarriages were procured by my apparent
obstinate adhering to my foolish inclination of wandering abroad,
and pursuing that inclination, in contradiction to the clearest views
of doing myself good in a fair and plain pursuit of those prospects,
and those measures of life, which nature and providence concurred
to present me with, and to make my duty.
As I had once done thus in my breaking away from my parents,
so I could not be content now, but I must go and leave the happy
view I had of being a rich and thriving man in my new plantation,
only to pursue a rash and immoderate desire of rising faster than the
nature of the thing admitted; and thus I cast myself down again into
the deepest gulph of human misery that ever man fell into, or perhaps
could be consistent with life, and a state of health in the world.
To come, then, by the just degrees, to the particulars of this
part of my story: — You may suppose, that having now lived almost
four years in the Brasils, and beginning to thrive and prosper very
well upon my plantation, I had not only learned the language, but
had contracted acquaintance and friendship among my fellow-plan-
ters, as well as among the merchants at St. Salvador, which was
our port; and that, in my discourses among them, I had frequently
given them an account of my two voyages to the coast of Guinea, the
manner of trading with the Negroes there, and how easy it was to
purchase upon the coast for trifles — such as beads, toys, knives,
Scissars, hatchets, bits of glass, and the like — not only gold dust,
Guinea grains, elephants' teeth, &c. but Negroes, for the service of
the Brasils, in great numbers.
They listened always very attentively to my discourses on these
heads, but especially to that part which related to the buying Negroes;
32
which was a trade, at that time, not only not far entered into, but,
as far as it was, had been carried on by the assientos, or permission
of the kings of Spain and Portugal, and engrossed in the public
stock; so that few Negroes were brought, and those excessive dear.
It happened, being in company with some merchants and planters
of my acquaintance, and talking of those things very earnestly, three
of them came to me the next morning, and told me they had been
musing very much upon what I had discoursed with them of, the last
night, and they came to make a secret proposal to me: and, after
enjoining me secrecy, they told me that they had a mind to fit out a
ship to go to Guinea; that they had all plantations as well as I, and
were straitened for nothing so much as servants; that as it was a trade
that could not be carried on, because they could not publicly sell the
Negroes when they came home, so they desired to make but one
voyage, to bring the Negroes on shore privately, and divide them
among their own plantations: and, in a word, the question was,
whether I would go their supercargo in the ship, to manage the trading
part upon the coast of Guinea; and they offered me that I should have
my equal share of the Negroes, without providing any part of the stock.
This was a fair proposal, it must be confessed, had it been made
to any one that had not had a settlement and plantation of his own to
look after, which was in a fair way of coming to be very considerable,
and with a good stock upon it. But for me, that was thus entered
and established, and had nothing to do but go on as I had begun, for
three or four years more, and to have sent for the other hundred
pounds from England; and who, in that time, and with that little
addition, could scarce have failed of being worth three or four
thousand pounds sterling, and that encreasing too; for me to think
of such a voyage, was the most prepostcrous thing that ever man, in
such circumstances, could be guilty of.
But I, that was born to be my own destroyer, could no more
resist the offer, than I could restrain my first rambling designs, when
my father's good counsel was lost upon me. In a word, I told them
I would go with all my heart, if they would undertake to look after
my plantation in my absence, and would dispose of it to such as I
should direct, if I miscarried. This they all engaged to do, and
entered into writings or covenants to do so; and I made a formal will,
disposing of my plantation and effects, in case of my death; making
33
the captain of the ship that had saved my life as before, my universal
heir; but obliging him to dispose of my effects as I had directed in
my will; one half of the produce being to himself, and the other to
be shipped to England.
In short, I took all possible caution to preserve my effects, and
to keep up my plantation: had I used half as much prudence to have
looked into my own interest, and have made a judgment of what I
ought to have done and not to have done, I had certainly never gone
away from so prosperous an undertaking, leaving all the probable
views of a thriving circumstance, and gone upon a voyage to sea,
attended with all its common hazards, to say nothing of the reasons I
had to expect particular misfortunes to myself.
But I was hurried on, and obeyed blindly the dictates of my fancy,
rather than my reason: and accordingly, the ship being ſitted out,
and the cargo furnished, and all things done as by agreement, by
my partners in the voyage, I went on board in an evil hour, the 1st of
September, 1659, being the same day eight year that I went from
my father and mother at Hull, in order to act the rebel to their autho-
rity, and the fool to my own interest.
Our ship was about one hundred and twenty ton burden, carried
six guns, and fourteen men, besides the master, his boy, and
myself; we had on board no large cargo of goods, except of such toys
as were fit for our trade with the Negroes, such as beads, bits of
glass, shells, and odd trifles, especially little looking-glasses,
knives, scissars, hatchets, and the like.
The same day I went on board we set sail, standing away to the
northward upon our own coast, with design to stretch over for the
African coast, when they came about ten or twelve degrees of northern
latitude, which, it seems, was the manner of their course in those
days. We had very good weather, only excessive hot, all the way
upon our own coast, till we came to the height of Cape St. Augustino;
from whence, keeping farther off at sea, we lost sight of land, and
steered as if we were bound for the isle Fernando de Noronha, hold-
ing our course N. E. by N. and leaving those isles on the east. In
this course we passed the line in about twelve days' time, and were,
by our last observation, in 7 degrees 22 minutes northern latitude,
when a violent tornado, or hurricane, took us quite out of our
knowledge; it began from the south-east, came about to the north-
Robinson Crusoe, 3
a-…----------------------
west, and then settled in the north-east; from whence it blew in
such a terrible manner, that for twelve days together we could do
nothing but drive, and, scudding away before it, let it carry us
whither ever fate and the fury of the winds directed; and, during
these twelve days, I need not say that I expected every day to be
swallowed up; nor, indeed, did any in the ship expect to save their
lives.
In this distress, we had, besides the terror of the storm, one of
our men died of the calenture, and one man and the boy washed over-
board. About the twelfth day, the weather abating a little, the
master made an observation as well as he could, and found that he
was in about 11 degrees north latitude, but that he was 22 degrees of
longitude difference west from Cape St. Augustino; so that he found
he was gotten upon the coast of Guiana, or the north part of Brasil,
beyond the river Amazons, toward that of the river Oroonogue, com-
monly called the Great River; and began to consult with me what
course he should take, for the ship was leaky and very much disabled,
and he was going directly back to the coast of Brasil.
I was positively against that; and looking over the charts of the
Sea-coast of America with him, we concluded there was no inhabited
country for us to have recourse to, till we came within the circle of
the Caribbee islands, and therefore resolved to stand away for Barba-
does; which by keeping off at sea, to avoid the in-draft of the bay or
gulf of Mexico, we might easily perform, as we hoped, in about
fifteen days' sail; whereas we could not possibly make our voyage to
the coast of Africa without some assistance, both to our ship and to
ourselves.
With this design, we changed our course, and steered away
N. W. by W. in order to reach some of our English islands, where I
hoped for relief; but our voyage was otherwise determined; for being
in the latitude of 12 degrees 18 minutes, a second storm came upon
us, which carried us away with the same impetuosity westward, and
drove us so out of the very way of all human commerce, that had all
our lives been saved, as to the sea, we were ratherindanger of being
devoured by savages than ever returning to our own county.
In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard, one of our men
early in the morning cried out, Land! and we had no sooner run out
of the cabin to look out, in hopes of seeing whereabouts in the world
\
we were, but the ship struck upon a sand, and in a moment, her
motion being so stopped, the sea broke over her in such a manner,
that we expected we should all have perished immediately; and we
were immediately driven into our close quarters, to shelter us from
the very foam and spray of the sea.
It is not easy for any one, who has not been in the like condition,
to describe or conceive the consternation of men in such circum-
stances; we knew nothing where we were, or upon what land it was
we were driven, whether an island or the main, whether inhabited
or not inhabited; and as the rage of the wind was still great, though
rather less than at first, we could not so much as hope to have the
ship hold many minutes, without breaking in pieces, unless the
winds, by a kind of miracle, should turn immediately about. In a
word, we sat looking upon one another, and expecting death every
moment, and every man acting accordingly, as preparing for another
world; for there was little or nothing more for us to do in this: that
which was our present comfort, and all the comfort we had, was,
that, contrary to our expectation, the ship did not break yet, and
that the master said the wind began to abate.
Now, though we thought that the wind did a little abate, yet the
ship having thus struck upon the sand, and sticking too fast for us to
expect her getting off, we were in a dreadful condition indeed, and
had nothing to do but to think of saving our lives as well as we could.
We had a boat at our stern just before the storm, but she was first
staved by dashing against the ship's rudder, and, in the next place,
she broke away, and either sunk, or was driven off to sea: so there
was no hope from her: we had another boat on board, but how to get
her off into the sea was a doubtful thing; however, there was no room
to debate, for we fancied the ship would break in pieces every minute,
and some told us she was actually broken already.
In this distress, the mate of our vessel lays hold of the boat, and
with the help of the rest of the men, they got her slung over the ship's
side; and getting all into her, let go, and committed ourselves,
being eleven in number, to God's mercy, and the wild sea: for
-though the storm was abated considerably, yet the sea went dreadful
high upon the shore, and might be well called den wild zeo, as the
Dutch call the sea in a storm.
And now our case was very dismal indeed; for we all saw plainly,
3 *
36
that the sea went so high, that the boat could not live, and that we
should be incvitably drowned. As to making sail, we had none;
nor, if we had, could we have done any thing with it; so we worked
at the oar towards the land, though with heavy hearts, like men going
to execution; for we all knew that when the boat came nearer the
shore, she would be dashed in a thousand pieces by the breach of the
sea. However, we committed our souls to God in the most earnest
manner; and the wind driving us towards the shore, we hastened our
destruction with our own hands, pulling as well as we could towards
land.
What the snore was, whether rock or sand, whether steep or
shoal, we knew not; the only hope that could rationally give us the
least shadow of expectation, was, if we might happen into some bay
or gulf, or the mouth of some river, where by great chance we might
have run our boat in, or got under the lee of the land, and perhaps
made smooth water. But there was nothing of this appeared; but as
we made nearer and nearer the shore, the land looked more frightful
than the sca.
After we had rowed, or rather driven, about a league and a half,
as we reckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-like, came rolling
astern of us, and plainly bade us expect the coup de grace. In a
word, it took us with such a fury, that it overset the boat at once;
and separating us, as well from the boat as from one another, gave
us not time hardly to say, “O God!” for we were all swallowed up
in a moment.
Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I felt, when
I sunk into the water; for though I swam very well, yet I could not
deliver myself from the waves so as to draw breath, till that wave
having driven me, or rather carried me, a vast way on towards the
shore, and having spent itself, went back, and left me upon the
land almost dry, but half dead with the water I took in. I had so
much presence of mind, as well as breath left, that seeing myself
nearer the main land than I expected, I got upon my feet, and endea-
voured to make on towards the land as ſast as I could, before another
wave should return and take me up again; but I soon found it was
impossible to avoid it; for I saw the sea come after me as high as a
great hill, and as furious as an enemy, which I had no means or
strength to contend with: my business was to hold my breath, and
37
raise myself upon the water, if I could; and so, by swimming, to
preserve my breathing, and pilot myself towards the shore, if pos-
sible; my greatest concern now being, that the sea, as it would
carry me a great way towards the shore when it came on, might not
carry me back again with it when it gave back towards the sea.
The wave that came upon me again, buried me at once twenty or
thirty feet deep in its own body, and I could feel myself carried with
a mighty force and swiftness towards the shore a very great way; but
I held my breath, and assisted myself to swim still forward with all
my might. I was ready to burst with holding my breath, when, as I
felt myself rising up, so, to my immediate relief, I found my head
and hands shoot out above the surface of the water; and though it was
not two seconds of time that I could keep myself so, yet it relieved
me greatly, gave me breath, and new courage. I was covered again
with water a good while, but not so long but I held it out; and find-
ing the water had spent itself, and began to return, I struck forward
against the return of the waves, and felt ground again with my feet.
I stood still a few moments, to recover breath, and till the waters
went from me, and then took to my heels, and ran, with what
strength I had, farther towards the shore. But neither would this
deliver me from the fury of the sea, which came pouring in after me
again; and twice more I was lifted up by the waves and carried for-
wards as before, the shore being very ſlat.
The last time of these two had well nigh been fatal to me; for the
sca having hurried me along, as before, landed me, or rather dashed
me, against a piece of a rock, and that with such force, as it left me
senseless, and indeed helpless, as to my own deliverance; for the
blow taking my side and breast, beat the breath, as it were, quite
out of my body; and had it returned again immediately, I must have
been strangled in the water: but I recovered a little before the return
of the waves, and seeing I should be covered again with the water, I
resolved to hold fast by a piece of the rock, and so to hold my breath,
if possible, till the wave went back. Now as the waves were not so
high as at first, being nearer land, I held my hold till the wave
abated, and then fetched another run, which brought me so near
the shore, that the next wave, though it went over me, yet did not
so swallow me up as to carry me away; and the next run I took, I got
to the main land; where, to my great comfort, I clambered up the
38
cliffs of the shore, and sat me down upon the grass, free from danger,
and quite out of the reach of the water.
I was now landed, and safe on shore, and began to look up and
thank God that my life was saved, in a case wherein there was, some
minutes before, scarce any room to hope. I believe it is impossible
to express, to the life, what the ecstacies and transports of the Soul
are, when it is so saved, as I may say, out of the very grave: and I
do not wonder now at the custom, viz. that when a malefactor, who
has the halter about his neck, is tied up, and just going to be turned
off, and has a reprieve brought to him; I say, I do not wonder that
they bring a surgeon with it, to let him blood that very moment they
tell him of it, that the surprise may not drive the animal spirits from
the heart, and overwhelm him.
For sudden joys, like griefs, confound at first.
I walked about on the shore, lifting up my hands, and my whole
being, as I may say, wrapt up in the contemplation of my deliver-
ance; making a thousand gestures and motions, which I cannot
describe; reflecting upon all my comrades that were drowned, and
that there should not be one soul saved but myself; for, as for them,
I never saw them afterwards, or any sign of them, except three of
their hats, one cap, and two shoes that were not fellows.
I cast my eyes to the stranded vessel, when the breach and froth
of the sea being so big I could hardly see it, it lay so far off, and con-
sidered, Lord! how was it possible I could get on shore?
After I had solaced my mind with the comfortable part of my
condition, I began to look round me, to see what kind of place I was
in, and what was next to be done; and I soon found my comforts
abate, and that, in a word, I had a drcadful deliverance: for I was
wet, had no clothes to shift me, nor any thing either to eat or drink,
to comfort me; neither did I see any prospect before me, but that
of perishing with hunger, or being devoured by wild beasts: and
that which was particularly afflicting to me was, that I had no weapon,
either to hunt and kill any creature for my sustenance, or to defend
myself against any other creature that might desire to kill me for
theirs. In a word, I had nothing about me but a knife, a tobacco-
pipe, and a little tobacco in a box. This was all my provision; and
this threw me into terrible agonies of mind, that, for a while, I ran
about like a madman. Night coming upon me, I began, with a
grºssºva” -“”“”
39 t
heavy heart, to consider what would be my lot if there were any
ravenous beasts in that country, seeing at night they always come
abroad for their prey.
All the remedy that offered to my thoughts, at that time, was, to
get up into a thick bushy tree, like a fir, but thorny, which grew
near me, and where I resolved to sit all night, and consider the next
day what death I should die, for as yet I saw no prospect of life. I
walked about a furlong from the shore, to see if I could find any fresh
water to drink, which I did, to my great joy; and having drank, and
put a little tobacco in my mouth to prevent hunger, I went to the tree,
and getting up into it, endeavoured to place myself so, as that if I
should sleep, I might not fall; and having cut me a short stick, like
a truncheon, for my defence, I took up my lodging; and having
been excessively fatigued, I fell fast asleep, and slept as comfortably
as, I believe, few could have done in my condition; and found
myself the most refreshed with it that I think I ever was on such an
occasion.
When I waked it was broad day, the weather clear, and the storm
abated, so that the sea did not rage and swell as before; but that
which surprised me most was, that the ship was lifted off in the night
from the sand where she lay, by the swelling of the tide, and was
driven up almost as far as the rock which I at first mentioned, where
I had been so bruised by the wave dashing me against it. This being
within about a mile from the shore where I was, and the ship seem-
ing to stand upright still, I wished myself on board, that at least I
might save some necessary things for my use.
When I came down from my apartment in the tree, I looked
about me again, and the first thing I found was the boat; which lay,
as the wind and the sea had tossed her up, upon the land, about two
miles on my right hand. I walked as far as I could upon the shore to
have got to her; but found a neck, or inlet, of water between me and
the boat, which was about half a mile broad; so I came back for the
present, being more intent upon getting at the ship, where I hoped
to find something for my present subsistence.
A little after noon, I found the sea very calm, and the tide chbed
so far out, that I could come within a quarter of a mile of the ship:
and here I found a fresh renewing of my grief; for I saw evidently,
that if we had kept on board, we had been all safe; that is to say,
} 40
we had all got safe on shore, and I had not been so miserable as to
be left entirely destitute of all comfort and company, as I now was.
This forced tears from my eyes again; but as there was little relief in
that, I resolved, if possible, to get to the ship; so I pulled off my
clothes, for the weather was hot to extremity, and took the Water;
but when I came to the ship, my diſliculty was still greater to know
how to get on board; for as she lay aground, and high out of the
water, there was nothing within my reach to lay hold of. I swam
round her twice, and the second time I spied a small piece of a rope,
which I wondered I did not see at first, hang down by the fore-chains
so low, as that with great difficulty, I got hold of it, and by the help
of that rope got up into the forecastle of the ship. Here I found that
the ship was bulged, and had a great deal of water in her hold; but
that she lay so on the side of a bank of hard sand, or rather earth,
that her stern lay lifted up upon the bank, and her head low, almost
to the water. By this means all her quarter was free, and all that
was in that part was dry; for you may be sure my first work was to
search and to see what was spoiled and what was free; and, first, I
found that all the ship's provisions were dry and untouched by the
water; and, being very well disposed to eat, I went to the bread-
room, and filled my pockets with biscuit, and eat it as I went about
other things, for I had no time to lose. I also found some rum in
the great cabin, of which I took a large dram, and which I had indeed
need enough of to spirit me for what was before me. Now I wanted
nothing but a boat, to furnish myself with many things which I fore-
saw would be very necessary to me.
It was in vain to sit still and wish for what was not to be had; and
this extremity roused my application: we had several spare yards,
and two or three large spars of wood, and a spare top-mast or two in
the ship; I resolved to fall to work with these, and I flung as many
of them overboard as I could manage for their weight, tying every
one with a rope, that they might not drive away. When this was
done, I went down the ship's side, and pulling them to me, I tied
four of them fast together at both ends, as well as I could, in the
form of a raft, and laying two or three short pieces of plank upon
them, cross-ways, I found I could walk upon it very well, but that it
was not able to bear any great weight, the pieces being too light: so
I went to work, and with the carpenter's saw I cut a spare top-mast
41
gº.
into three lengths, and added them to my raft, with a great deal of
labour and pains. But the hope of furnishing myself with neces—
Saries, encouraged me to go beyond what I should have been able to
have done upon another occasion.
My raft was now strong enough to bear any reasonable weight.
My next care was what to load it with, and how to preserve what I
laid upon it from the surf of the sea; but I was not long considering
this. I first laid all the plank or boards upon it that I could get, and
having considered well what I most wanted, I first got three of the
seamen's chests, which I had broken open and emptied, and lowered
them down upon my raft; the first of these I filled with provisions,
wiz. bread, rice, three Dutch cheeses, five pieces of dried goats’
flesh, (which we lived much upon,) and a little remainder of Euro-
pean corn, which had been laid by for some fowls which we brought
to Sea with us, but the fowls were killed. There had been some
barley and wheat together, but, to my great disappointment, I found
afterwards that the rats had eaten or spoiled it all. As for liquors,
I found several cases of bottles belonging to our skipper, in which
were some cordial waters; and, in all, about five or six gallons of
rack. These I stowed by themselves, there being no need to put
them into the chest, nor no room for them. While I was doing this,
I found the tide began to flow, though very calm; and I had the mor-
tification to see my coat, shirt, and waistcoat, which I had left on
shore, upon the sand, swim away; as for my breeches, which were
only linen, and open-knee'd, I swam on board in them, and my
stockings. However, this put me upon rummaging for clothes, of
which I found enough, but took no more than I wanted for present
use, for I had other things which my eye was more upon; as, first,
tools to work with on shore: and it was after long searching that I
found out the carpenter's chest, which was indeed a very useful prize
to me, and much more valuable than a ship-lading of gold would
have been at that time. I got it down to my raft, even whole as it
was, without losing time to look into it, for I knew in general what it
Contained.
My next care was for some ammunition and arms. There were
two very good fowling-pieces in the great cabin, and two pistols;
these I secured first, with some powder-horns and a small bag of shot,
and two old rusty swords. I knew there were three barrels of powder
42
in the ship, but knew not where our gunner had stowed them; but
with much search I found them, two of them dry and good, the third
had taken water. Those two I got to my raft, with the arms. And
now I thought myself pretty well freighted, and began to think how I
should get to shore with them, having neither sail, oar, or rudder;
and the least cap-full of wind would have overset all my navigation.
I had three encouragements: 1st, A smooth, calm sea: 2dly,
The tide rising, and setting in to the shore: 3dly, What little wind
there was blew me towards the land. And thus, having found two or
three broken oars belonging to the boat, and besides the tools which
were in the chest, I found two saws, an axe, and a hammer; and
with this cargo I put to sea. For a mile, or thereabouts, my raſt
went very well, only that I found it drive a little distant from the place
where I had landed before; by which I perceived that there was some
indraft of the water, and consequently I hoped to find some creek or
river there, which I might make use of as a port to get to land with
my cargo.
As I imagined, so it was: there appeared before me a little
opening of the land, and I found a strong current of the tide set into
it; so I guided my raft, as well as I could, to keep in the middle of
the stream.
But here I had like to have suffered a second shipwreck, which,
if I had, I think verily would have broke my heart; for knowing no-
thing of the coast, my raft ran aground at one end of it upon a shoal,
and not being aground at the other end, it wanted but a little that all
my cargo had slipped off towards that end that was afloat, and so
fallen into the water. I did my utmost, by setting my back against
the chests, to keep them in their places, but could not thrust off the
raſt with all my strength; neither durst I stir from the posture I was
in, but holding up the chests with all my might, I stood in that
manner near half an hour, in which time the rising of the water
brought me a little more upon a level; and a little after, the water
still rising, my raft floated again, and I thrust her off with the oar I
had into the channel, and then driving up higher, I at length found
myself in the mouth of a little river, with land on both sides, and a
strong current or tide running up. I looked on both sides for a
proper place to get to shore, for I was not willing to be driven too
º
º , , º,
43
high up the river; hoping, in time, to see some ship at sea, and
therefore resolved to place myself as near the coast as I could.
At length I spied a little cove on the right shore of the creek, to
which, with great pain and difficulty, I guided my raft, and at last
got so near, as that reaching ground with my oar, I could thrust her
directly in; but here I had like to have dipped all my cargo into the
sea again; for that shore lying pretty steep, that is to say, sloping,
there was no place to land, but where one end of my float, if it ran
on shore, would lic so high, and the other sink lower, as before, that
it would endanger my cargo again. All that I could do, was to wait
till the tide was at the highest, keeping the raſt with my oar like an
anchor, to hold the side of it fast to the shore, near a flat piece of
ground, which I expected the water would ſlow over; and so it did.
As soon as I found water enough, for my raft drew about a foot of
water, I thrust her on upon that flat piece of ground, and there
fastened or moored her, by sticking my two broken oars into the
ground; one on one side, near one end, and one on the other side,
near the other end: and thus I lay till the water cbbed away, and left
my raft and all my cargo safe on shore.
My next work was to view the country, and seck a proper place
for my habitation, and where to stow my goods, to secure them from
whatever might happen. Where I was, I yet knew not; whether on
the continent, or an island; whether inhabited, or not inhabited;
whether in danger of wild beasts, or not. There was a hill, not
above a mile from me, which rose up very steep and high, and which
seemed to overtop some other hills, which lay as in a ridge from it,
northward. I took out one of the fowling-pieces, and one of the
pistols, and a horn of powder; and thus armed, I travelled for dis-
covery up to the top of that hill; where, after I had, with great labour
and difficulty, got to the top, I saw my fate, to my great affliction,
viz. that I was in an island, environed every way with the sea, no land
to be seen, except some rocks, which lay a great way off, and two
small islands, less than this, which lay about three leagues to
the west.
I found also that the island I was in was barren, and, as I saw
good reason to believe, uninhabited, except by wild beasts, of whom,
however, I saw none; yet I saw abundance of fowls, but knew not
their kinds; neither, when I killed them, could I tell what was ſit
44
for food, and what not. At my coming back, I shot at a great bird,
which I saw sitting upon a tree, on the side of a great wood. I be-
lieve it was the first gun that had been fired there since the creation
of the world: I had no sooner fired, but from all the parts of the
wood, there arose an innumerable number of fowls, of many sorts,
making a confused screaming, and crying, every one according to
his usual note; but not one of them of any kind that I knew. As for
the creature I killed, I took it to be a kind of a hawk, its colour and
beak resembling it, but it had no talons or claws more than common.
Its flesh was carrion, and ſit for nothing.
Contented with this discovery, I came back to my raft, and fell
to work to bring my cargo on shore, which took me up the rest of that
day: what to do with myself at night I knew not, nor indeed where
to rest: for I was afraid to lie down on the ground, not knowing but
some wild beast might devour me; though, as I afterwards found,
there was really no need for those fears.
However, as well as I could, I barricadoed myself round with the
chests and boards that I had brought on shore, and made a kind of a
hut for that night's lodging. As for food, I yet saw not which way
to supply myself, except that I had seen two or three creatures, like
hares, run out of the wood where I shot the fowl.
I now began to consider, that I might yet get a great many things
out of the ship, which would be useful to me, and particularly some
of the rigging and sails, and such other things as might come to land;
and I resolved to make another voyage on board the vessel, if possible.
And as I knew that the first storm that blew must necessarily break
her all in pieces, I resolved to set all other things apart, till I got
every thing out of the ship that I could get. Then I called a council,
that is to say, in my thoughts, whether I should take back the raft;
but this appeared impracticable: so I resolved to go as before, when
the tide was down; and I did so, only that I stripped before I went
from my hut; having nothing on but a chequered shirt, a pair of
linen drawers, and a pair of pumps on my feet.
I got on board the ship as before, and prepared a second raft; and
having had experience of the first I neither made this so unwieldly,
nor loaded it so hard, but yet I brought away several things very
useful to me: as, first, in the carpenter's stores, I found two or
three bags full of nails and spikes, a great screw-jack, a dozen or two
45
of hatchets; and, above all, that most useſul thing called a grind-
stone. All these I secured together, with several things belonging
to the gunner; particularly two or three iron crows, and two barrels
of musquet bullets, seven musquets, and another fowling-piece,
with some small quantity of powder more; a large bag—full of small
shot, and a great roll of sheet-lead; but this last was so heavy 1 could
not hoist it up to get it over the ship's side.
Besides these things, I took all the men's clothes that I could find,
and a spare fore-top sail, a hammock, and some bedding; and with
this I loaded my second raft, and brought them all safe on shore, to
my very great comfort.
I was under some apprehensions, during my absence from the
band, that at least my provisions might be devoured on shore: but
when I came back, I found no sign of any visitor; only there sat a
creature like a wild cat, upon one of the chests, which, when I came
towards it, ran away a little distance, and then stood still. She sat
very composed and unconcerned, and looked full in my face, as if
she had a mind to be acquainted with me. I presented my gun to
her, but, as she did not understand it, she was perfectly uncon-
cerned at it, nor did she offer to stir away; upon which I tossed her
a bit of biscuit, though, by the way, I was not very free of it, for
my store was not great: however, I spared her a bit, I say, and she
went to it, smelled of it, and ate it, and looked (as pleased) for
more; but I thanked her, and could spare no more: so she
marched off.
Having got my second cargo on shore, though I was fain to open
the barrels of powder, and bring them by parcels, for they were too
heavy, being large casks, I went to work to make me a little tent,
with the sail, and some poles, which I cut for that purpose; and
into this tent I brought every thing that I knew would spoil either
with rain or sun; and I piled all the empty chests and casks up in a
circle round the tent, to fortify it from any sudden attempt either
from man or beast.
When I had done this, I blocked up the door of the tent with some
boards within, and an empty chest set up an end without; and
spreading one of the beds upon the ground, laying my two pistols
just at my head, and my gun at length by me, I went to bed for the
first time, and slept very quietly all night, for I was very weary and
46
*...*.*.-- - ------- ~~~~~-->
heavy; for the night before I had slept little, and had laboured very
hard all day, as well to fetch all those things from the ship, as to get
them on shore.
I had the biggest magazine of all kinds now that ever was laid up,
I believe, for one man; but I was not satisfied still: for while the
ship sat upright in that posture, I thought I ought to get every thing
out of her that I could : so every day, at low water, I went on board,
and brought away something or other; but particularly the third time
I went, I brought away as much of the rigging as I could, as also all
the small ropes and rope-twine I could get, with a piece of spare
canvass, which was to mend the sails upon occasion, and the barrel
of wet gunpowder. In a word, I brought away all the sails first and
last; only that I was ſain to cut them in pieces, and bring as much
at a time as I could; for they were no more useful to be sails, but as
merc canvass only.
But that which comforted me more still, was, that at last of all,
after I had made five or six such voyages as these, and thought I had
nothing more to expect from the ship that was worth my meddling
with; I say, after all this, I found a great hogshead of bread, and
three large runlets of rum or spirits, and a box of sugar, and a barrel
of fine ſlour; this was surprising to me, because I had given over ex-
pecting any more provisions, except what was spoiled by the water.
I soon emptied the hogshead of that bread, and wrapped it up, parcel
by parcel, in pieces of the sails, which I cut out; and, in a word,
I got all this safe on shore also.
The next day I made another voyage, and now having plundered
the ship of what was portable and fit to hand out, I began with the
cables, and cutting the great cable into pieces, such as I could move,
I got two cables and a hawser on shore, with all the iron-work I could
get; and having cut down the spritsail-yard, and the mizen-yard,
and every thing I could, to make a large raft, I loaded it with all
those heavy goods; and came away; but my good luck began now to
leave me; for this raft was so unwieldy, and so overladen, that aſter
I was entered the little cove, where I had landed the rest of my goods,
not being able to guide it so handily as I did the other, it overset, and
threw me and all my cargo into the water; as for myself, it was no
great harm, for I was near the shore; but as to my cargo, it was a
great part of it lost, especially the iron, which I expected would have
47
been of great use to me: however, when the tide was out, I got most
of the pieces of cable ashore, and some of the iron, though with in-
finite labour; for I was fain to dip for it into the water, a work which
fatigued me very much. After this I went every day on board, and
brought away what I could get.
I had been now thirteen days on shore, and had been eleven times
on board the ship; in which time I had brought away all that one pair
of hands could well be supposed capable to bring; though I believe
verily, had the calm weather held, I should have brought away the
whole ship, piece by piece; but preparing the twelfth time to go on
board, I found the wind began to rise: however, at low water, I
went on board; and though I thought I had rummaged the cabin so
effectually, as that nothing more could be found, yet I discovered a
locker with drawers in it, in one of which I found two or three razors,
and one pair of large scissars, with some ten or a dozen of good knives
and forks: in another I found about thirty-six pounds value in mo-
ney, some European coin, some Brasil, some pieces of eight, some
gold, some silver.
I smiled to myself at the sight of this money: “O drug l’” said I
aloud, “what art thou good for 2 Thou art not worth to me, no,
not the taking off of the ground; one of those knives is worth all
this heap: I have no manner of use for thee; e'en remain where thou
art, and go to the bottom, as a creature whose life is not worth
saving.” However, upon second thoughts, I took it away; and
wrapping all this in a piece of canvass, I began to think of making
another raft; but while I was preparing this, I found the sky, over-
cast, and the wind began to rise, and in a quarter of an hour it blew
a fresh gale from the shore. It presently occurred to me, that it was
in vain to pretend to make a raſt with the wind off shore; and that it
was my business to be gone before the tide of flood began, otherwise
I might not be able to reach the shore at all. Accordingly I let
myself down into the water, and swam across the channel which lay
between the ship and the sands, and even that with difficulty enough,
partly with the weight of the things I had about me, and partly the
roughness of the water; for the wind rose very hastily, and before it
was quite high water it blew a storm.
But I was gotten home to my little tent, where I lay, with all my
wealth about me very secure. it blew very hard all that night, and
48
& -
in the morning, when I looked out, behold, no more ship was to be
seen l I was a little surprised, but recovered myself with this satis-
factory reflection, viz. that I had lost no time, nor abated no dili-
gence, to get every thing out of her that could be useful to me, and
that, indeed, there was little left in her that I was able to bring away,
if I had had more time.
I now gave over any more thoughts of the ship, or of any thing out
of her, except what might drive on shore, from her wreck; as, in-
deed, divers pieces of her afterwards did; but those things were of
small use to me.
My thoughts were now wholly employed about securing myself
against either savages, if any should appear, or wild beasts, if any
were in the island; and I had many thoughts of the method how to do
this, and what kind of dwelling to make, whether I should make me
a cave in the earth, or a tent upon the earth: and in short, I resolved
upon both; the manner and description of which, it may not be im–
proper to give an account of.
I soon found the place I was in was not for my settlement, parti-
cularly because it was upon a low, moorish ground, near the sea,
and I believed it would not be wholesome; and more particularly be—
cause there was no fresh water near it: so I resolved to find a more
healthy and more convenient spot of ground.
I consulted several things in my situation, which I found would
be proper for me: 1st, Health and fresh water, I just now mentioned:
2dly, Shelter from the heat of the sun: 3dly, Security from ravenous
creatfires, whether men or beasts: 4thly, A view to the sea, that if
God sent any ship in sight, I might not lose any advantage for my
deliverance, of which I was not willing to banish all my expecta-
tion yet.
In search of a place proper for this, I found a little plain on the
side of a rising hill, whose front towards this little plain was steep as
a house-side, so that nothing could come down upon me from the
top. On the side of this rock there was a hollow place, worn a little
way in, like the entrance or door of a cave; but there was not really
any cave, or way into the rock, at all. r
On the flat of the green, just before this hollow place, I resolved
to pitch my tent. This plain was not above a hundred yards broad,
and about twice as long, and lay like a green before my door; and
A9
at the end of it, descended irregularly every way down into the low
ground by the sea side. It was on the N. N. W. side of the hill; so
that it was sheltered from the heat every day, till it came to a W. and
by S. sun, or thereabouts, which, in those countries, is near the
setting.
Before I set up my tent, I drew a half-circle before the hollow
place, which took in about ten yards in its semi-diameter from the
rock, and twenty yards in its diameter, from its beginning and
ending.
In this half-circle I pitched two rows of strong stakes, driving
them into the ground till they stood very firm like piles, the biggest
end being out of the ground about five feet and a half and sharpened
on the top. The two rows did not stand above six inches from one
another.
Then I took the pieces of cable which I had cut in the ship, and
laid them in rows, one upon another, within the circle, between
these two rows of stakes, up to the top, placing other stakes in the
inside, leaning against them, about two feet and a half high, like a
spur to a post; and this fence was so strong, that neither man nor
beast could get into it or over it. This cost me a great deal of time
and labour, especially to cut the piles in the woods, bring them to
the place, and drive them into the earth.
The entrance into this place I made to be not by a door, but by a
short ladder to go over the top; which ladder, when I was in, I
liſted over after me; and so I was completely fenced in and fortified,
as I thought, from all the world, and consequently slept secure in
the night, which otherwise I could not have done; though, as it
appeared afterwards, there was no need of all this caution from the
enemies that I apprehended danger from.
Into this fence, or fortress, with infinite labour, I carried all my
riches, all my provisions, ammunition, and stores, of which you
have the account above; and I made me a large tent, which, to pre-
serve me from the rains, that in one part of the year are very violent
there, I made double, viz. one smaller tent within, and one larger
tent above it, and covered the uppermost with a large tarpaulin, which
I had saved among the sails.
And now I lay no more for a while in the bed which I had brought
Robinson Crusoe, - - 4
--~~~~-----------"--
on shore, but in a hammock, which was indeed a very good one,
and belonged to the mate of the ship.
Into this tent I brought all my provisions, and every thing that
would spoil by the wet; and having thus enclosed all my goods, I
made up the entrance which till now I had left open, and so passed
and repassed, as I said, by a short ladder.
When I had done this, I began to work my way into the rock, and
bringing all the earth and stones that I dug down out through my tent,
I laid them up within my fence in the nature of a terrace, so that it
raised the ground within about a foot and an half; and thus I made
me a cave, just behind my tent, which served me like a cellar to
my house.
It cost me much labour and many days, before all these things
were brought to perfection; and therefore I must go back to some
other things which took up some of my thoughts. At the same time
it happened, after I had laid my scheme for the setting up my tent,
and making the cave, that a storm of rain falling from a thick, dark
cloud, a sudden ſlash of lightning happened, and after that, a great
clap of thunder, as is naturally the eſſect of it; I was not so much
surprised with the lightning, as I was with a thought, which darted
into my mind as swift as the lightning itself: O my powder! My very
heart sunk within me when I thought, that at one blast, all my
powder might be destroyed; on which, not my defence only, but the
providing me food, as I thought, entirely depended. I was nothing
near so anxious about my own danger, though, had the powder took
fire, I had never known who had hurt me.
Such impression did this make upon me, that after the storm was
over, I laid aside all my works, my building and ſortifying, and
applied myself to make bags and boxes, to separate the powder, and
to keep it a little and a little in a parcel, in hope that whatever might
come, it might not all take ſire at once; and to keep it so apart, that it
should not be possible to make one part fire another. I finished this
work in about a fortnight; and I think my powder, which in all was
about 240lb. weight, was divided in not less than a hundred parcels.
As to the barrel that had been wet, I did not apprehend any danger
from that; so I placed it in my new cave, which, in my fancy, I
called my kitchen, and the rest I hid up and down in holes among
51
the rocks, so that no wet might come to it, marking very carefully
where I laid it.
In the interval of time while this was doing, I went out once at
least every day with my gun, as well to divert Inyself, as to see if I
could kill any thing fit for food; and, as near as I could, to acquaint
myself with what the island produced. The first time I went out, I
presently discovered that there were goats in the island, which was a
great satisfaction to me; but then it was attended with this misfor-
tune to me, viz. that they were so shy, so subtle, and so swift of
foot, that it was the difficultest thing in the world to come at them:
but I was not discouraged at this, not doubting but I might now and
then shoot one, as it soon happened; for after I had found their
haunts a little, I laid wait in this manner for them: I observed, if
they saw me in the valleys, though they were upon the rocks, they
would run away as in a terrible fright; but if they were feeding in
the valleys, and I was upon the rocks, they took no notice of me;
from whence I concluded, that by the position of their optics, their
sight was so directed downward, that they did not readily see objects
that were above them: so, afterwards, I took this method, I always
climbed the rocks first, to get above them, and then had frequently
a fair mark.
The first shot I made among these creatures, I killed a she-goat,
which had a little kid by her, which she gave suck to, which grieved
me hearlily; but when the old one fell, the kid stood stock still by
her, till I came and took her up; and not only so, but when I carried
the old one with me, upon my shoulders, the kid followed me quite
to my enclosure; upon which, I laid down the dam, and took the
kid in my arms, and carried it over my pale, in hopes to have bred it
up tame; but it would not eat; so I was forced to kill it, and eat it
Imyself. These two supplied me with ſlesh a great while, for I ate
sparingly, and saved my provisions, my bread especially, as much
as possibly I could.
Having now fixed my habitation, I found it absolutely necessary
to provide a place to make a fire in, and fuel to burn; and what I did
for that, as also how I enlarged my cave, and what conveniences I
made, I shall give a full account of in its place; but I must first give
some little account of myself, and of my thoughts about living, which,
it may well be supposed, were not a few.
4°
52
tº-º-º-º-º:
I had a dismal prospect of my condition, for as I was not cast
away upon that island without being driven, as is said, by a violent
storm, quite out of the course of our intended voyage, and a great
way, viz. some hundreds of leagues, out of the ordinary course of the
trade of mankind, I had great reason to consider it as a determina-
tion of Heaven, that in this desolate place, and in this desolate
manner, I should end my life. The tears would run plentifully
down my face when I made these reſlections; and sometimes I would
expostulate with myself why Providence should thus completely ruin
its creatures, and render them so absolutely miserable; so without
help abandoned, so entirely depressed, that it could hardly be ra–
tional to be thankful for such a life.
But something always returned swift upon me to check these
thoughts, and to reprove me: and particularly, one day, walking
with my gun in my hand, by the sea side, I was very pensive upon
the subject of my present condition, when reason, as it were, ex-
postulated with me the other way, thus ! “Well, you are in a deso-
late condition, it is true; but, pray remember, where are the rest
of you? Did not you come eleven of you into the boat? Where are
the ten? Why were not they saved, and you lost? Why were you
singled out? Is it better to be here or there?” And then I pointed
to the sea. All evils are to be considered with the good that is in
them, and with what worse attends them.
Then it occurred to me again, how well I was furnished for my
subsistence, and what would have been my case if it had not hap-
pened (which was a hundred thousand to one) that the ship floated
from the place where she first struck, and was driven so near to the
shore, that I had time to get all these things out of her: what would
have been my case, if I had been to have lived in the condition in
which I at first came on shore, without necessaries of life, or neces-
saries to supply and procure them? “Particularly,” said I aloud
(though to myself) “what should I have done without a gun, without
ammunition, without any tools to make any thing, or to work with,
without clothes, bedding, a tent, or any manner of covering?” and
that now I had all these to a sufficient quantity, and was in a fair way
to provide myself in such a manner as to live without my gun, when
my ammunition was spent: so that I had a tolerable view of subsist-
ing, without any want, as long as I lived; for I considered, from
53
the beginning, how I would provide for the accidents that might
happen, and for the time that was to come, even not only after my
ammunition should be spent, but even after my health and strength
should decay.
I confess, I had not entertained any notion of my ammunition
being destroyed at one blast, I mean my powder being blown up by
lightning; and this made the thoughts of it so surprising to me, when
it lightened and thundered, as I observed just now.
And now being to enter into a melancholy relation of a scene of
silent life, such, perhaps, as was never heard of in the world before,
I shall take it from its beginning, and continue it in its order. It
was, by my account, the 30th of September, when, in the manner
as above said, I first set foot upon this horrid island; when the sun
being to us in its autumnal equinox, was almost just over my head:
for I reckoned myself, by observation, to be in the latitude of 9 de-
grees 22 minutes north of the Line.
After I had been there about ten or twelve days, it came into my
thoughts, that I should lose my reckoning of time for want of books,
and pen and ink, and should even forget the sabbath days from the
working days: but to prevent this, I cut it with my knife upon a
large post, in capital letters; and making it into a great cross, I set
it up on the shore where I first landed, viz. “I came on shore here
on the 30th of September, 1659.”
Upon the sides of this square post I cut every day a notch with my
knife, and every seventh notch was as long again as the rest, and
every first day of the month as long again as that long one; and thus
I kept my calendar, or weekly, monthly, and yearly reckoning of
time.
In the next place we are to observe that among the many things
which I brought out of the ship, in the several voyages which, as
above mentioned, I made to it, I got several things of less value, but
not all less useful to me, which I omitted setting down before; as, in
particular, pens, ink, and paper; several parcels in the captain's,
mate's, gunner's, and carpenter's keeping; three or four compasses,
Some mathematical instruments, dials, perspectives, charts, and
books of navigation; all which I huddled together, whether I might
want them or no; also I found three very good bibles, which came to
me in my cargo from England, and which I had packed up among my
4.
54
g
things; some Portuguese books also, and, among them, two or
three popish prayer books, and several other books, all which I
carefully secured. And I must not forget, that we had in the ship a
dog, and two cats, of whose eminent history I may have occasion to
say something, in its place: for I carried both the cats with me; and
as for the dog, he jumped out of the ship of himself, and swam on
shore to me the day after I went on shore with my first cargo, and was
a trusty servant to me many years: I wanted nothing that he could
fetch me, nor any company that he could make up to me; I only
wanted to have him talk to me, but that would not do. As I observed
before, I found pens, ink, and paper, and I husbanded them to the
utmost; and I shall show that while my ink lasted, I kept things very
exact, but after that was gone I could not; for I could not make any
ink, by any means that I could devise. *
And this put me in mind that I wanted many things, notwith-
standing all that I had amassed together; and of these, this of ink
was one; as also a spade, pick-axe, and shovel, to dig or remove
the earth; needles, pins, and thread: as for linen, I soon learned
to want that without much difficulty.
This want of tools made every work I did go on heavily; and it
was near a whole year before I had entirely finished my little pale, or
surrounded my habitation. The piles or stakes, which were as
heavy as I could well liſt, were a long time in cutting and preparing
in the woods, and more, by far, in bringing home; so that I spent
sometimes two days in cutting and bringing home one of those posts,
and a third day in driving it into the ground; for which purpose, I got
a heavy piece of wood at first, but at last bethought myself of one of
the iron crows; which, however, though I found it, yet it made
driving those posts or piles very laborious and tedious work. But what
need I have been concerned at the tediousness of any thing I had to do,
seeing I had time enough to do it in? nor had I any other employment,
if that had been over, at least that I could foresee, except the ranging
the island to seek for food, which I did, more or less, every day.
I now began to consider scriously my condition, and the circum-
stance I was reduced to; and I drew up the state of my affairs in
writing, not so much to leave them to any that were to come aſter me,
for I was like to have but few heirs, as to deliver my thoughts from
daily poring upon them, and aſilicting my mind: and as my reason
55
began now to master my despondency, I began to comfort myself as
well as I could, and to set the good against the evil, that I might have
something to distinguish my case from worse; and I stated it very
impartially, like debtor and creditor, the comforts I enjoyed against
the miseries I suffered, thus: —
Evi L.
I am cast upon a horrible, desolate
island, void of all hope of recovery.
I am singled out and separated, as
it were, from all the world, to be
miserable.
I am divided from mankind, a so-
litaire; one banished from human
society.
I have not clothes to cover me.
I am without any defence, or
means to resist any violence of man
or beast.
I have no soul to speak to, or re-
lieve me.
Upon the whole, here was an
Good.
But I am alive; and not drowned,
as all my ship's company were.
But I am singled out too ſrom all
the ship's crew, to be spared from
death; and he that miraculously
saved me from death, can deliver
me from this condition.
But I am not starvèd, and perish-
ing on a barren place, affording no
SuStenance.
But I am in a hot climate, where,
if I had clothes, I could hardly wear
them.
IBut I am cast on an island where I
see no wild beasts to hurt me, as I
saw on the coast of Africa: and what
if I had been shipwrecked there?
But God wonderfully sent the ship
in near enough to the shore, that I
have gotten out so many necessary
things as will either supply my wants,
or enable me to supply myselſ, even
as long as I live.
undoubted testimony, that there
was scarce any condition in the world so miserable, but there was
something negative, or something positive, to be thankful for in it; and
let this stand as a direction, from the experience of the most miserable
of all conditions in this world, that we may always find in it something
to comfort ourselves from, and to set, in the description of good and
evil, on the credit side of the account.
Having now brought my mind a little to relish my condition, and
given over looking out to sea, to see if I could spy a ship; I say,
giving over these things, I began to apply myself to accommodate my
way of living, and to make things as easy to me as I could.
I have already described my habitation, which was a tent under
the side of a rock, surrounded with a strong pale of posts and cables;,
56
but I might now rather call it a wall, for I raised a kind of wall up
against it of turfs, about two feet thick on the outside: and after some
time (I think it was a year and a half) I raised rafters from it, leaning
to the rock, and thatched or covered it with boughs of trees, and such
things as I could get, to keep out the rain; which I found, at some
times of the year, very violent.
I have already observed how I brought all my goods into this pale,
and into the cave which I had made behind me. But I must observe
too, that at first this was a confused heap of goods, which, as they
lay in no order, so they took up all my place; I had no room to turn
myself: so I set myself to enlarge my cave, and work farther into the
earth; for it was a loose, sandy rock, which yielded easily to the
labour I bestowed on it; and so when I found I was pretty safe as to
beasts of prey, I worked sideways, to the right hand, into the rock,
and then turning to the right again, worked quite out, and made me
a door to come out on the outside of my pale or fortification.
This gave me not only egress and regress, as it was a back-way to
my tent and to my storehouse, but gave me room to stow my goods.
And now I began to apply myself to make such necessary things
as I found I most wanted, as particularly a chair and a table; for
without these I was not able to enjoy the few comforts I had in the
world; I could not write, or eat, or do several things with so much
pleasure, without a table: so I went to work. And here I must
needs observe, that as reason is the substance and original of the
mathematics, so by stating and squaring every thing by reason, and
by making the most rational judgment of things, every man may be,
in time, master of every mechanic art. I had never handled a tool in
my life; and yet, in time, by labour, application, and contrivance,
I found, at last, that I wanted nothing but I could have made it,
especially if I had had tools. However, I made abundance of things,
even without tools; and some with no more tools than an adze and a
hatchet, which perhaps were never made that way before, and that
with infinite labour. For example, if I wanted a board, I had no
other way but to cut down a tree, set it on an edge before me, and
hew it flat on either side with my axe, till I had brought it to be thin
as a plank, and then dub it smooth with my adze. It is true, by this
method I could make but one board out of a whole tree; but this I
had no remedy for but patience, any more than I had for the pro-
57
digious deal of time and labour which it took me up to make a plank
or board: but my time or labour was little worth, and so it was as
well employed one way as another.
However, I made me a table and a chair, as I observed above, in
the first place; and this I did out of the short pieces of boards that I
brought on my raft from the ship. But when I had wrought out some
boards, as above. I made large shelves, of the breadth of a foot and
a half, one over another all along one side of my cave, to lay all my
tools, nails, and iron-work on; and, in a word, to separate every
thing at large in their places, that I might come easily at them. I
knocked pieces into the wall of the rock to hang my guns and all
things that would hang up: so that had my cave been to be seen, it
looked like a general magazine of all necessary things; and I had
every thing so ready at my hand, that it was a great pleasure to me to
see all my goods in such order, and especially to find my stock of all
necessaries so great.
And now it was when I began to keep a journal of every days'
employment; fur, indeed, at first, I was in too much hurry, and
not only hurry as to labour, but in too much discomposure of mind;
and my journal would have been full of many dull things: for ex-
ample, I must have said thus, “Sept. the 30th. After I got to shore,
and had escaped drowning, instead of being thankful to God for my
deliverance, having first vomited with the great quantity of salt water
which was gotten into my stomach, and recovering myself a little, I
ran about the shore, wringing my hands, and beating my head and
face; exclaiming at my misery, and crying out, “I was undone,
undone!’ till, tired and ſaint, I was forced to lie down on the ground
to repose; but durst not sleep, for fear of being devoured.”
Some days after this, and after I had been on board the ship, and
got all that I could out of her, yet I could not forbear getting up to
the top of a little mountain, and looking out to sea, in hopes of seeing
a ship; then fancy at a vast distance, I spied a sail, please myself
with the hopes of it, and, then after looking steadily, till I was
almost blind, lose it quite and sit down and weep like a child, and
thus encrease my misery by my folly. *
But, having gotten over these things in some measure, and having
settled my household-stuff and habitation, made me a table and a
chair, and all as handsome about me as I could, I began to keep my
58
journal; of which I shall here give you the copy (though in it will be
told all these particulars over again) as long as it lasted; for, having
no more ink, I was forced to leave it off.
THE JOURNAL.
September 30th, 1659. I, poor miserable Robinson Crusoe,
being shipwrecked, during a dreadful storm, in the offing, came on
shore on this dismal unfortunate island, which I called the Island of
DESPAIR ; all the rest of the ship's company being drowned, and
myself almost dead.
All the rest of that day I spent in aſſlicting myself at the dismal
circumstances I was brought to, viz. I had neither food, house,
clothes, weapon, nor place to fly to: and, in despair of any relief,
saw nothing but death before me; either that I should be devoured
by wild beasts, murdered by savages, or starved to death for want of
food. At the approach of night I slept in a tree, for fear of wild
creatures; but slept soundly, though it rained all night.
0ctober 1. . In the morning I saw, to my great surprise, the ship
had floated with the high tide, and was driven on shore again much
nearer the island; which, as it was some comfort on one hand, for
seeing her sit upright, and not broken to pieces, I hoped, if the wind
abated, I might get on board, and get some food and necessaries out
of her for my relief, so, on the other hand, it renewed my grief at the
loss of my comrades, who, I imagined, if we had all staid on board,
might have saved the ship, or, at least, that they would not have been
all drowned, as they were; and that, had the men been saved, we
might perhaps have built us a boat, out of the ruins of the ship, to
have carried us to some other part of the world. I spent great part
of this day in perplexing myself on these things; hut, at length,
seeing the ship almost dry, I went upon the sand as near as I could,
and then swam on board. This day also it continued raining, though
with no wind at all.
From the 1st of October to the 24th. All these days entirely spent
in many several voyages to get all I could out of the ship, which I
brought on shore, every tide of flood, upon raſts. Much rain also
in these days, though with some intervals of fair weather: but, it
seems, this was the rainy season.
Oct. 20. I overset my raſt, and all the goods I had got upon it;
59
but being in shoal water, and the things being chiefly heavy, I re-
covered many of them when the tide was out.
Oct. 25. It rained all night and all day, with some gusts of wind;
during which time the ship broke in pieces, the wind blowing a little
harder than before, and was no more to be seen, except the wreck of
her, and that only at low water. I spent this day in covering and
securing the goods which I had saved, that the rain might not spoil
them.
Oct. 26. I walked about the shore almost all day, to find out a
place to ſix my habitation, greatly concerned to secure myself from
any attack in the night, either from wild beasts or men. Towards
night I fixed upon a proper place, under a rock, and marked out a
spini-circle for my encampment; which I resolved to strengthen with
a work, wall, or fortification, made of double piles, lined within
with cables, and without with turf.
From the 26th to the 30th, I worked very hard in carrying all my
goods to my new habitation, though some part of the time it rained
exceeding hard.
The 31st, in the morning, I went out into the island with my gun,
to see for some food, and discover the country; when I killed a she-
goat, and her kid followed me home, which I afterwards killed also,
hecause it would not feed.
November 1. I set up my tent under a rock, and lay there for the
first night; making it as large as I could, with stakes driven in to
swing my hammock upon.
Nov. 2. I set up all my chests and boards, and the pieces of
timber which made my rafts, and with them formed a fence round me,
a little within the place I had marked out for my fortification.
Nov. 3. I went out with my gun, and killed two fowls like ducks,
which were very good food. In the afternoon went to work to make
me a table.
Nov. 4. This morning I began to order my times of work, of
going out with my gun, time of sleep, and time of diversion; viz.
ºvery morning I walked out with my gun for two or three hours, if it
did not rain; then employed myself to work till about eleven o'clock;
then eat what I had to live on; and from twelve to two I lay down to
sleep, the weather being excessive hot; and then, in the evening to
work again. The working part of this day and of the next were wholly
60
employed in making my table, for I was yet but a very sorry work-
man, though time and necessity made me a complete natural
mechanic soon after, as as I believe they would do any one else.
IVov. 5. This day went abroad with my gun and my dog, and
killed a wild cat; her skin pretty soft, but her flesh good for nothing:
every creature that I killed I took off the skins, and preserved them.
Coming back by the sea-shore, I saw many sorts of sea-fowls which
I did not understand; but was surprised, and almost frighted, with
two or three seals, which, while I was gazing at, not well knowing
what they were, got into the sea, and escaped me for that time.
Nov. 6. After my morning walk, I went to work with my table
again, and finished it, though not to my liking; nor was it long
before I learned to mend it.
Nov. 7. Now it began to be settled fair weather. The 7th, 8th,
9th, 10th, and part of the 12th (for the 11th was Sunday) I took wholly
up to make me a chair, and with much ado, brought it to a tolerable
shape, but never to please me; and, even in the making, I pulled
it in pieces several times.
Mote. I soon neglected my keeping Sundays; for, omitting my
mark for them on my post, I forgot which was which.
Mov. 13. This day it rained; which refreshed me exceedingly,
and cooled the earth: but it was accompanied with terrible thunder
and lightening, which frighted me dreadfully, for fear of my powder.
As soon as it was over, I resolved to separate my stock of powder
into as many little parcels as possible, that it might not be in
danger.
Nov. 14, 15, 16. These three days I spent in making little
square chests or boxes, which might hold about a pound, or two
pound at most, of powder; and so, putting the powder in, I stowed
it in places as secure and remote from one another as possible. On
one of these three days I killed a large bird that was good to eat, but
I knew not what to call it.
Nov. 17. This day I began to dig behind my tent, into the rock,
to make room for my farther conveniency.
Note. Three things I wanted exceedingly for this work, viz. a
pick-axe, a shovel, and a wheel-barrow, or basket; so I desisted from
my work, and began to consider how to supply that want, and make
me some tools. As for a pick-axe, I made use of the iron crows, which
*** **-**-*-**
were proper enough, though heavy; but the next thing was a shovel
or spade; this was so absolutely necessary, that, indeed, I could
do nothing effectually without it; but what kind of one to make I
knew not.
Nov. 18. The next day, in searching the woods, I found a tree
of that wood, or like it, which, in the Brasils, they call the iron
tree, for its exceeding hardness; of this, with great labour, and
almost spoiling my axe, I cut a piece, and brought it home, too,
with difficulty enough, for it was exceeding heavy. The excessive
hardness of the wood, and my having no other way, made me a long
while upon this machine, for I worked it effectually, by little and
little, into the form of a shovel or spade; the handle exactly shaped
like ours in England, only that the broad part having no iron shod
upon it at bottom, it would not last me so long; however, it served
well enough for the uses which I had occasion to put it to; but never
was a shovel, I believe, made after that fashion, or so long a-making.
I was still deficient, for I wanted a basket, or a wheel-barrow.
A basket I could not make by any means, having no such things as
twigs that would bend to make wicker-ware, at least, none yet found
out; and as to a wheel-barrow, I fancied I could make all but the
wheel, but that I had no notion of; neither did I know how to go
about it; besides, I had no possible way to make the iron gudgeons
for the spindle or axis of the wheel to run in, so I gave it over, and,
so for carrying away the earth which I dug out of the cave, I made me
a thing like a hod, which the labourers carry mortar in, when they
serve the bricklayers. This was not so difficult to me as the making
the shovel; and yet this and the shovel, and the attempt which I
made in vain to make a wheel-barrow, took me up no less than four
days, I mean, always excepting my morning walk with my gun, which
I seldom failed, and very seldom failed also bringing home something
ſit to eat. --
Nov. 23. My other work having now stood still, because of my
making these tools, when they were finished I went on, and working
every day, as my strength and time allowed, I spent eighteen days
entirely in widening and deepening my cave, that it might hold my
goods commodiously.
Note. During all this time, I worked to make this room, or cave.
spacious enough to accommodate me as a warehouse or magazine, a
62
*~ *-** *º
kitchen, a dining-room, and a cellar. As for my lodging, I kept to
the tent; except that sometimes, in the wet season of the year, it
rained so hard that I could not keep myself dry, which caused me
afterwards to cover all my place within my pale with long poles, in
the form of raſters, leaning against the rock, and load them with flags
and large leaves of trees, like a thatch.
December 10. I began now to think my cave or vault ſinished;
when on a sudden (it seems I had made it too large) a great quantity
of earth fell down from the top and one side, so much, that, in short,
it frighted me, and not without reason too; for if I had been under
it, I had never wanted a grave-digger. Upon this disaster, I had a
great deal of work to do over again, for I had the loose earth to carry
out; and, which was of more importance, I had the ceiling to prop
up, so that I might be sure no more would come down.
Dec. 11. This day I went to work with it accordingly, and got
two shores or posts pitched upright to the top, with two pieces of
boards across over each post; this I finished the next day; and
setting more posts up with boards, in about a week more I had the
roof secured; and the posts, standing in rows, served me for par-
titions to part off my house.
Dec. 17. From this day to the 20th, I placed shelves, and knocked
up nails on the posts, to hang every thing up that could be hung up ;
and now I began to be in some order within doors.
Dec. 20. Now I carried every thing into the cave, and began to
furnish my house, and set up some pieces of boards, like a dresser,
to order my victuals upon; but boards began to be very scarce with
me: also I made me another table.
Dec. 24. Much rain all night and all day: no stirring out.
Dec. 25. Rain all day. 4.
Dec. 26. No rain, and the earth much cooler than before, and
pleasanter.
Dec. 27. Killed a young goat, and lamed another, so as that I
catched it, and led it home in a string; when I had it home, I bound
and splintered up its leg, which was broke.
IV. B. I took such care of it that it lived; and the leg grew well,
and as strong as ever; but, by my nursing it so long, it grew tame,
and fed upon the little green at my door, and would not go away.
This was the first time that I entertained a thought of breeding up
63
*** **~ *
some tame creatures, that I might have food when my powder and
shot was all spent.
Dec. 28, 29, 30, 31. Great heats, and no breeze; so that there
was no stirring abroad, except in the evening, for food: this time I
spent in putting all my things in order within doors.
January 1. Very hot still, but I went abroad early and late with
my gun, and lay still in the middle of the day. This evening, going
farther into the vallies which lay towards the centre of the island, I
found there was plenty of goats, though exceeding shy, and hard to
come at; however, I resolved to try if I could not bring my dog to
hunt them down.
Jan. 2. Accordingly, the next day, I went out with my dog, and
set him upon the goats; but I was mistaken, for they all faced about
upon the dog, and he knew his danger too well, for he would not
come near them.
Jan. 3. I began my fence or wall; which, being still jealous of
my being attacked by somebody, I resolved to make very thick and
strong.
M. B. This wall being described before, I purposely omit what
was said in the journal; it is sufficient to observe, that I was no less
time than from the 3d of January to the 14th of April, working, finish-
ing, and perfecting this wall; though it was no more than about
24 yards in length, being a half-circle, from one place in the rock to
another place, about eight yards from it, the door of the cave being
in the centre, behind it.
All this time I worked very hard; the rains hindering me many
days, nay, sometimes weeks together: but I thought I should never
be perfectly secure till this wall was finished; and it is scarce credible
what inexpressible labour every thing was done with, especially the
bringing piles out of the woods, and driving them into the ground;
for I made them much bigger than I needed to have done.
When this wall was finished, and the outside double-ſenced, with
a turſ-wall raised up close to it, I persuaded myself that if any people
were to come on shore there they would not perceive any thing like a
habitation; and it was very well I did so, as may be observed here-
after, upon a very remarkable occasion.
During this time, I made my rounds in the woods for game every
day, when the rain permitted me, and made frequent discoveries, in
04 -**
these walks, of something or other to my advantage; particularly I
found a kind of wild pigeons, who build, not as wood-pigeons, in a
tree, but rather as house-pigeons, in the holes of the rocks; and,
taking some young ones, I endeavoured to breed them up tame, and
did so; but when they grew older, they flew all away, which, per-
haps, was at first for want of feeding them, for I had nothing to give
them; however, I frequently found their nests, and got their young
ones, which were very good meat. And now, in the managing my
household affairs, I found myself wanting in many things, which I
thought at first it was impossible for me to make; as indeed, as to
some of them, it was: for instance, I could never make a cask to be
hooped. I had a small runlet or two, as I observed before, but I
could never arrive to the capacity of making one by them, though I
spent many weeks about it; I could neither put in the heads, or join
the staves so true to one another as to make them hold water; so I
gave that also over. In the next place, I was at a great loss for can-
dles; so that as soon as ever it was dark, which was generally by seven
o'clock, I was obliged to go to bed. I remembered the lump of bees-
wax with which I made candles in my African adventure; but I had
none of that now; the only remedy I had was, that when I had killed
a goat, I saved the tallow, and with a little dish made of clay, which
I baked in the Sun, to which I added a wick of some oakum, I made
me a lamp; and this gave me light, though not a clear steady light
like a candle. In the middle of all my labours it happened, that
rummaging my things, I found a little bag; which, as I hinted be-
fore, had been filled with corn, for the feeding of poultry, not for
this voyage, but before, as I suppose, when the ship came from
Lisbon. What little remainder of corn had been in the bag was all
devoured with the rats, and I saw nothing in the bag but husks and
dust; and being willing to have the bag for some other use (I think,
it was to put powder in, when I divided it for fear of the lightning, or
some such use) I shook the husks of corn out of it, on one side of my
fortification, under the rock. -
It was a little before the great rains just now mentioned, that I
threw this stuff away, taking no notice of any thing, and not so much
as remembering that I had thrown any thing there; when about a
month after, or thereabouts, I saw some few stalks of something
green, shooting out of the ground, which I ſancied might be some
65
plant I had not seen; but I was surprised, and perfectly astonished,
when, aſter a little longer time, I saw about ten or twelve ears come
out, which were perfect green barley of the same kind as our Euro-
pean, nay, as our English barley.
It is impossible to express the astonishment and confusion of my
thoughts on this occasion: I had hitherto acted upon no religious
foundation at all; indeed, I had very few notions of religion in my
head, nor had entertained any sense of any thing that had befallen
me, otherwise than as chance, or, as we lightly say, what pleases
God; without so much as inquiring into the end of Providence in
these things, or his order in governing events in the world. But after
I saw barley grow there, in a climate which I knew was not proper for
corn, and especially that I knew not how it came there, it startled me
strangely, and I began to suggest, that God had miraculously caused
this grain to grow without any help of seed sown, and that it was so
directed purely for my sustenance, on that wild miserable place.
This touched my heart a little, and brought tears out of my eyes,
and Ibegan to bless myself that such a prodigy of nature should happen
upon my account; and this was the more strange to me, because I saw
near it still, all along by the side of the rock, some other straggling
stalks, which proved to be stalks of rice, and which I knew, because
I had seen it grow in Africa, when I was ashore there.
I not only thought these the pure productions of Providence for
my support, but, not doubting but that there was more in the place,
I went all over that part of the island where I had been before, peer-
ing in every corner, and under every rock, to see for more of it, but
I could not find any. At last it occurred to my thoughts, that I had
shook a bag of chicken's meat out in that place, and then the wonder
began to cease; and I must confess, my religious thankfulness to
God's providence began to abate too, upon the discovering that all
this was nothing but what was common; though I ought to have been
as thankful for so strange and unforeseen providence, as if it had
been miraculous; for it was really the work of Providence as to me,
that should order or appoint that ten or twelve grains of corn should
remain unspoiled, when the rats had destroyed all the rest, as if it
had been dropt from heaven; as also, that I should throw it out in
that particular place, where, it being in the shade of a high rock, it
Robinson Crusoe, 5 .
66
sprang up immediately; whereas, if I had thrown it any where else,
at that time, it had been burnt up and destroyed.
I carefully saved the ears of this corn, you may be sure, in their
season, which was about the end of June; and, laying up every corn,
I resolved to sow them all again, hoping, in time, to have some
quantity suſficient to supply me with bread. But it was not till the
fourth year that I could allow myself the least grain of this corn to eat,
and even then but sparingly, as I shall say afterwards, in its order;
for I lost all that I sowed the first season, by not observing the proper
time; for I sowed it just before the dry season, so that it never came
up at all, at least not as it would have done: of which in its place.
Besides this barley, there were, as above, twenty or thirty stalks
of rice, which I preserved with the same care, and whose use was of
the same kind, or to the same purpose, viz. to make me bread, or
rather food; for I found ways to cook it up without baking, though
I did that also after some time. — But to return to my Journal.
I worked excessive hard these three or four months, to get my
wall done; and the 14th of April, I closed it up, contriving to go into
it, not by a door, but over the wall, by a ladder, that there might
be no sign on the outside of my habitation.
April 16. I finished the ladder; so I went up with the ladder
to the top, and then pulled it up after me, and let it down in the
inside: this was a complete enclosure to me; for within I had
room enough, and nothing could come at me from without, unless
it could first mount my wall.
The very next day after this wall was finished, I had almost had
all my labour overthrown at once, and myself killed; the case was
thus: — As I was busy in the inside of it, behind my tent, just at
the entrance into my cave, I was terribly frighted with a most dread-
ful surprising thing indeed; for, all on a sudden, I found the earth
come crumbling down from the roof of my cave, and from the edge
of the hill over my head, and two of the posts I had set up in the cave
cracked in a frightful manner. I was heartily scared; but thought
nothing of what was really the cause, only thinking that the top of my
cave was falling in, as some of it had done before; and for fear I
should be buried in it, I ran forward to my ladder, and not thinking
myself safe there neither, I got over my wall for fear of the pieces of
the hill which I expected might roll down upon me. I was no sooner
67
stepped down upon the firm ground, but I plainly saw it was a ter—
rible earthquake: for the ground I stood on shook three times at
about eight minutes distance, with three such shocks as would have
overturned the strongest building that could be supposed to have
stood on the earth; and a great piece of the top of a rock, which
stood about half a mile from me, next the sea, fell down, with such
a terrible noise as I never heard in all my life. I perceived also the
very sea was put into violent motion by it; and I believe the shocks
were stronger under the water than on the island.
I was so much amazed with the thing itself, having never felt the
like, nor discoursed with any one that had, that I was like one dead
or stupified; and the motion of the earth made my stomach sick, like
one that was tossed at sea; but the noise of the falling of the rock
awaked me, as it were, and rousing me from the stupified condition
I was in, filled me with horror, and I thought of nothing then but the
hill falling upon my tent and all my household goods, and burying
all at once; and this sunk my very soul within me a second time.
After the third shock was over, and I felt no more for some time,
I began to take courage; and yet I had not heart enough to go over my
wall again, for fear of being buried alive, but sat still upon the ground
greatly cast down, and disconsolate, not knowing what to do. All
this while, I had not the least serious religious thought; nothing but
the common Lord have mercy upon me! and when it was over, that
went away too.
While I sat thus, I found the air overcast, and grow cloudy, as
if it would rain; soon after that the wind rose by little and little, so
that in less than half an hour it blew a most dreadful hurricane; the
sea was, all on a sudden, covered over with foam and froth; the
shore was covered with the breach of the watcr; the trees were torn
up by the roots; and a terrible storm it was. This held about three
hours, and then began to abate; and in two hours more it was stark
calm, and began to rain very hard. All this while I sat upon the
ground, very much terrified and dejected; when on a sudden it came
into my thoughts, that these winds and rain being the consequences
of the earthquake, the earthquake itself was spent and over, and 1
might venture into my cave again. With this thought my spirits
began to revive; and the rain also helping to persuade me, I went in,
and sat down in my tent; but the rain was so violent, * my tent
5
68
was ready to be beaten down with it; and I was forced to go into my
cave, though very much afraid and uneasy, for fear it should fall on
my head. This violent rain forced me to a new work, viz. to cut a
hole through my new fortification, like a sink, to let the water go
out, which would else have drowned my cave. After I had been in
my cave for some time, and found still no more shocks of the earth-
quake follow, I began to be more composed. And now to support
my spirits, which indeed wanted it very much, I went to my little
store, and took a small sup of rum; which, however, I did then,
and always, very sparingly, knowing I could have no more when
that was gone. It continued raining all that night, and great part of
the next day, so that I could not stir abroad: but my mind being
more composed, I began to think of what I had best do; concluding,
that if the island was subject to these earthquakes, there would be no
living for me in a cave, but I must consider of building me some
little hut in an open place, which I might surround with a wall, as
I had done here, and so make myself secure from wild beasts or men;
but concluded if I staid where I was, I should certainly, one time or
other, be buried alive.
With these thoughts, I resolved to remove my tent from the place
where it now stood, which was just under the hanging precipice of
the hill, and which, if it should be shaken again, would certainly
fall upon my tent: and I spent the two next days, being the 19th and
20th of April, in contriving where and how to remove my habitation.
The fear of being swallowed up alive, made me, that I never slept in
quiet; and yet the apprehension of lying abroad, without any fence,
was almost equal to it: but still, when I looked about, and saw how
every thing was put in order, how pleasantly concealed I was, and
how safe from danger, it made me very loth to remove. In the mean
time, it occurred to me that it would require a vast deal of time for
me to do this, and that I must be contented to run the venture where
I was, till I had formed a camp for myself, and had secured it so as
to remove to it. So with this resolution I composed myself for a time;
and resolved that I would go to work with all speed to build me a wall
with piles and cables, &c. in a circle as before, and set my tent up
in it when it was finished; but that I would venture to stay where I
Was till it was finished, and fit to remove to. This was the 21st.
April 22. The next morning I began to consider of means to put
69
this resolve into execution; but I was at a great loss about my tools.
I had three large axes, and abundance of hatchets (for we carried the
hatchets for traffic with the Indians) but with much chopping and
cutting knotty hard wood, they were all full of notches, and dull,
and though I had a grindstone, I could not turn it and grind my tools
too. This cost me as much thought as a statesman would have
bestowed upon a grand point of politics, or a judge upon the life and
death of a man. At length I contrived a wheel with a string, to turn
it with my foot, that I might have both my hands at liberty.
Mote. I had never seen any such thing in England, or at least not
to take notice how it was done, though since I have observed it is very
common there: besides that, my grindstone was very large and heavy.
This machine cost me a full week's work to bring it to perfection.
April 28, 29. These two whole days I took up in grinding my
tools, my machine for turning my grindstone performing very well.
April 30. Having perceived my bread had been low a great while,
now I took a survey of it, and reduced myself to one biscuit-cake a
day, which made my heart very heavy.
May 1. In the morning, looking toward the sea-side, the tide
being low, I saw something lie on the shore bigger than ordinary, and
it looked like a cask; when I came to it, I found a small barrel, and
two or three pieces of the wreck of the ship, which were driven on
shore by the late hurricane; and looking towards the wreck itself, I
thought it seemed to lie higher out of the water than it used to do. I
examined the barrel which was driven on shore, and soon found it
was a barrel of gunpowder, but it had taken water, and the powder
was caked as hard as a stone; however, I rolled it farther on shore for
the present, and went on upon the sands, as near as I could to the
wreck of the ship, to look for more.
When I came down to the ship, I found it strangely removed.
The forecastle, which lay before buried in sand, was heaved up at
least six feet, and the stern, which was broke to pieces, and parted
from the rest, by the force of the sea, soon after I had left rummaging
her, was tossed, as it were,"up, and cast on one side, and the sand
was thrown so high on that side next her stern, that whereas there
was a great place of water before, so that I could not come within a
quarter of a mile of the wreck without swimming, I could now walk
quite up to her when the tide was out. I was surprised with this at
70
first, but soon concluded it must be done by the earthquake; and as
by this violence the ship was more broke open than formerly, so many
things came daily on shore, which the sea had loosened, and which
the winds and water rolled by degrees to the land.
This wholly diverted my thoughts from the design of removing my
habitation, and I busied myself mightily, that day especially, in
searching whether I could make any way into the ship; but I found
nothing was to be expected of that kind, for all the inside of the ship
was choked up with sand. However, as I had learned not to despair
of any thing, I resolved to pull every thing to pieces that I could of
the ship, concluding that every thing I could get from her would be
of some use or other to me. r
May 3. I began with my saw, and cut a piece of a beam through,
which I thought held some of the upper part or quarter deck together,
and when I had cut it through, I cleared away the sand as well as I
could from the side which lay highest; but the tide coming in, I was
obliged to give over for that time.
May 4. I went a-fishing, but caught not one fish that I durst eat
of, till I was weary of my sport; when, just going to leave off, I
caught a young dolphin. I had made me a long line of some rope—
yarn, but I had no hooks; yet I frequently caught fish enough, as
much as I cared to eat; all which I dried in the sun, and eat them dry.
May 5. Worked on the wreck; cut another beam asunder, and
brought three great fir-planks off from the decks, which I tied toge—
ther, and made swim on shore when the tide of flood came on.
May 6. Worked on the wreck; got several iron bolts out of her,
and other pieces of iron-work; worked very hard, and came home
very much tired, and had thoughts of giving it over.
May 7. Went to the wreck again, but not with an intent to work,
but found the weight of the wreck had broke itself down, the beams
being cut; that several pieces of the ship seemed to lie loose, and the
inside of the hold lay so open that I could see into it, but almost full
of water and sand.
May 8. Went to the wreck, and carried an iron crow to wrench
up the deck, which lay now quite clear of the water or sand. I
wrenched open two planks, and brought them on shore also with the
tide. I left the iron crow in the wreck for next day.
May 9. Went to the wreck, and with the crow made way into the
71
body of the wreck, and felt several casks, and loosened them with
the crow, but could not break them up. I felt also a roll of English
lead, and could stir it, but it was too heavy to remove.
May 10–14. Went every day to the wreck; and got a great deal
of pieces of timber, and boards, or plank, and two or three hundred
weight of iron.
May 15. I carried two hatchets, to try if I could not cut a piece
off of the roll of lead, by placing the edge of one hatchet, and driving
it with the other; but as it lay about a foot and a half in the water, I
could not make any blow to drive the hatchet.
May 16. It had blown hard in the night, and the wreck appeared
more broken by the force of the water; but I staid so long in the
woods, to get pigeons for food, that the tide prevented my going to
the wreck that day.
May 17. I saw some pieces of the wreck blown on shore, at a
great distance, near two miles off me, but resolved to see what they
were, and found it was a piece of the head, but too heavy for me to
bring away.
May 24. Every day, to this day, I worked on the wreck; and
with hard labour I loosened some things so much with the crow, that
the first blowing tide several casks floated out, and two of the sea-
men's chests; but the wind blowing from the shore, nothing came
to land that day but pieces of timber, and a hogshead, which had
some Brasil pork in it, but the salt-water and the sand had spoiled it.
I continued this work every day to the 15th of June, except the time
necessary to get food, which I always appointed, during this part of
my employment, to be when the tide was up, that I might be ready
when it was ebbed out; and by this time I had gotten timber, and
plank, and iron-work, enough to have built a good boat, if I had
known how; and also I got, at several times, and in several pieces,
near one hundred weight of the sheet-lead.
June 16. Going down to the sea-side, I found a large tortoise,
or turtle. This was the first I had seen, which, it seems, was only
my misfortune, not any defect of the place, or scarcity; for had I
happened to be on the other side of the island, I might have had
hundreds of them every day, as I found afterwards; but perhaps had
paid dear enough for them.
June 17. I spent in cooking the turtle. I found in her threescore
72
eggs; and her flesh was to me, at that time, the most savoury and
pleasant that ever I tasted in my life, having had no flesh, but of
goats and fowls, since I landed in this horrid place.
June 18. Itained all day, and I staid within. I thought, at this
time, the rain felt cold, and I was something chilly; which I knew
was not usual in that latitude.
June 19. Very ill, and shivering, as if the weather had been cold.
June 20. No rest all night; violent pains in my head, and feverish.
June 21. Very ill; frighted almost to death with the apprehen-
sions of my sad condition, to be sick, and no help : prayed to God,
for the first time since the storm off of Hull, but scarce knew what I
said, or why; my thoughts being all confused.
June 22. A little better; but under dreadful apprehensions of
sickness.
June 23. Very bad again; cold and shivering, and then a vio-
lent head-achc.
June 24. Much better,
June 25. An ague very violent: the ſit held me seven hours;
cold fit, and hot, with faint sweats after it.
June 26. Better; and having no victuals to eat, took my gun,
but found myself very weak: however, I killed a she-goat, and with
much difficulty got it home, and broiled some of it, and eat. I would
fain have stewed it, and made some broth, but had no pot.
June 27. The ague again so violent that I lay a-bed all day, and
neither eat nor drank. I was ready to perish for thirst; but so weak,
I had not strength to stand up, or to get myself any water to drink.
Prayed to God again, but was light-headed, and when I was not, I
was so ignorant that I knew not what to say; only I lay and cried,
“Lord, look upon me! Lord, pity me! Lord, have mercy upon me!”
I suppose I did nothing else for two or three hours; till the fit wearing
off, I fell asleep, and did not wake till far in the night. When I
awoke, I found myself much refreshed, but weak, and exceeding
thirsty: however, as I had no water in my whole habitation, I was
forced to lie till morning, and went to sleep again. In this second
sleep I had this terrible dream: I thought that I was sitting on the
ground, on the outside of my wall, where I sat when the storm blew
after the earthquake, and that I saw a man descend from a great
black cloud, in a bright flame of fire, and light upon the ground: he
73
was all over as bright as a ſlame, so that I could but just bear to look
towards him: his countenance was most inexpressibly dreadful, im-
possible for words to describe; when he stepped upon the ground
with his feet, I thought the earth trembled, just as it had done before
in the earthquake, and all the air looked, to my apprehension, as if
it had been filled with ſlashes of fire. He was no sooner landed upon
the earth, but he moved forward towards me, with a long spear or
weapon in his hand, to kill me; and when he came to a rising
ground, at some distance, he spoke to me, or I heard a voice so ter—
rible that it is impossible to express the terror of it; all that I can say
I understood, was this; “Seeing all these things have not brought
thee to repentance, now thou shalt die;” at which words I thought
he liſted up the spear that was in his hand, to kill me.
No one that shall ever read this account, will expect that I should
be able to describe the horrors of my soul at this terrible vision; I
mean, that even while it was a dream, I even drcamcd of those hor-
rors; nor is it any more possible to describe the impression that re-
mained upon my mind when I awaked, and found it was but a
dream.
I had, alas! no divine knowledge; what I had received by the
good instruction of my father was then worn out, by an uninterrupted
Series, for eight years, of seafaring wickedness, and a constant con-
versation with none but such as were, like myself, wicked and pro-
fane to the last degree. I do not remember that I had, in all that
time, one thought that so much as tended either to looking upwards
towards God, or inwards towards a reſlection upon my own ways;
but a certain stupidity of soul, without desire of good, or conscience
of evil, had entirely overwhelmed me; and I was all that the most
hardened, unthinking, wicked creature among our common sailors,
can be supposed to be; not having the least sense, either of the fear
of God, in danger, or of thankfulness to God, in deliverance.
In the relating what is already past of my story, this will be the
more easily believed, when I shall add, that through all the variety
of miseries that had to this day befallen me, I never had so much as
one thought of it being the hand of God, or that it was a just punish-
ment for my sin; my rebellious behaviour against my father, or my
present sins, which were great, or so much as a punishment for
the general course of my wicked life. When I was on the desperate
eº
74
expedition on the desert shores of Africa, I never had so much as one
thought of what would become of me, or one wish to God to direct
me whither I should go, or to keep me from the danger which appa-
rently surrounded me, as well from voracious creatures as cruel sa-
wages; but I was merely thoughtless of a God or a Providence, acted
like a mere brute, from the principles of nature, and by the dictates of
common sense only, and indeed hardly that. When I was delivered
and taken up at sea by the Portugal captain, well used, and dealtjustly
and honourably with, as well as charitably, I had not the least thank-
fulness in my thoughts. When, again, I was shipwrecked, ruined,
and in danger of drowning, on this island, I was as far from remorse,
or looking on it as a judgment; I only said to myself often, that I was
an unfortunate dog, and born to be always miserable.
It is true, when I got on shore first here, and found all my ship's
crew drowned, and myself spared, I was surprised with a kind of
ecstacy, and some transports of soul, which, had the grace of God
assisted, might have come up to true thankfulness; but it ended
where it began, in a mere common ſlight of joy, or, as I may say,
being glad I was alive, without the least reflection upon the distin-
guished goodness of the hand which had preserved me, and had singled
me out to be preserved when all the rest were destroyed; or an in-
quiry why Providence had been thus merciful to me; even just the
same common sort of joy which seamen generally have, after they
are got safe ashore from a shipwreck, which they drown all in the
next bowl of punch, and forget almost as soon as it is over; and all
the rest of my life was like it. Even when I was, afterwards, on due
consideration, made sensible of my condition, how I was cast on this
dreadful place, out of the reach of human kind, out of all hope of
relief, or prospect of redemption, as soon as I saw but a prospect of
living, and that I should not starve and perish for hunger, all the
sense of my aſſliction wore off, and I began to be very easy, applied
myself to the works proper for my preservation and supply, and was
far enough from being afflicted at my condition, as a judgment from
Heaven, or as the hand of God against me; these were thoughts
which very seldom entered into my head.
The growing up of the corn, as is hinted in my Journal, had, at
first, some little influence upon me, and began to affect me with
seriousness, as long as I thought it had something miraculous in it;
!
75
but as soon as ever that part of the thought was removed, all the im-
pression that was raised from it wore off also, as I have noted already.
Even the earthquake, though nothing could be more terrible in its
nature, or more immediately directing to the invisible Power which
alone directs such things, yet no sooner was the first fright over, but
the impression it had made went off also. I had no more sense of
God, or his judgments, much less of the present affliction of my
circumstances being from his hand, than if I had been in the most
prosperous condition of life. But now, when I began to be sick, and
a leisurely view of the miseries of death came to place itself before
me; when my spirits began to sink under the burden of a strong
distemper, and nature was exhausted with the violence of the fever;
conscience, that had slept so long, began to awake, and I began to
reproach myself with my past life, in which I had so evidently, by
uncommon wickedness, provoked the justice of God to lay me under
uncommon strokes, and to deal with me in so windictive a manner.
These reflections oppressed me for the second or third day of my dis-
temper; and in the violence, as well of the fever as of the dreadful
reproaches of my conscience, extorted some words from me like
praying to God, though I cannot say they were either a prayer attended
with desires or with hopes; it was rather the voice of mere fright and
distress. My thoughts were confused, the convictions great upon
my mind, and the horror of dying in such a miserable condition,
raised vapours into my head with the mere apprehension; and, in
these hurries of my soul, I knew not what my tongue might express:
but it was rather exclamation, such as, “Lord, what a miserable
creature am I? Iſ I should be sick, I shall certainly die for want of
help; and what will become of me?” Then the tears burst out of my
eyes, and I could say no more for a good while. In this interval, the
good advice of my father came to my mind, and presently his predic-
tion, which I mentioned at the beginning of this story, viz. that if I
did take this foolish step, God would not bless me, and I would have
leisure hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his counsel, when
there might be none to assist in my recovery. “Now,” said I, aloud,
“my dear father's words are come to pass, God's justice has overtaken
me, and I have none to help or hear me. I rejected the voice of Pro-
vidence, which had mercifully put me in a posture or station of life
wherein I might have been happy and easy; but I would neither see
76
*
it myself, or learn to know the blessing of it from my parents. I left
them to mourn over my folly, and now I am left to mourn under the
conscquences of it: I refused their help and assistance, who would
have lifted me in the world, and would have made every thing easy
to me, and now I have difficulties to struggle with, too great for
even nature itself to support, and no assistance, no help, no comfort,
no advice.” Then I cried out, “Lord, be my help, for I am in great
distress.” This was the first prayer, if I may call it so, that I had
made for many years. But I return to my Journal.
June 28. Having been somewhat refreshed with the sleep I had
had, and the ſit being entirely off, I got up; and though the fright
and terror of my dream was very great, yet I considered that the fit of
the ague would return again the next day, and now was my time to
get something to refresh and support myself when I should be ill; and
the first thing I did I filled a large square case-bottle with water, and
set it upon my table, in reach of my bed; and to take off the chill or
aguish disposition of the water, I put about a quarter of a pint of
rum into it, and mixed them together. Then I got me a piece of the
goat's flesh, and broiled it on the coals, but could eat very little.
I walked about; but was very weak, and withal very sad and heavy-
hearted under a sense of my miserable condition, dreading the return
of my distemper the next day. At night, I made my supper of three
of the turtle's eggs; which I roasted in the ashes, and eat, as we call
it in the shell, and this was the first bit of meat I had ever asked God's
hlessing to, even as I could remember, in my whole life. After I
had eaten, I tried to walk, but found myself so weak, that I could
hardly carry the gun, for I never went out without that, so I went but
a little way, and sat down upon the ground, looking out upon the sea,
which was just before me, and very calm and smooth. As I sat here,
some such thoughts as these occurred to me; What is this earth and
sea, of which I have seen so much? Whence is it produced? And
what am I, and all the other creatures, wild and tame, human and
brutal? Whence are we? Sure we are all made by some secret power,
who formed the earth and sea, the air and sky. And who is that?
Then it followed most naturally, It is God that has made all. Well,
but then, it came on strangely, if God has made all these things, he
guides and governs them all, and all things that concern them, for
the power that could make all things, must certainly have power to
77
guide and direct them; if so, nothing can happen in the great circuit
of his works, either without his knowledge or appointment.
And if nothing happens without his knowledge, he knows that I
am here, and am in this dreadful condition, and if nothing happens
without his appointment, he has appointed all this to befall me.
Nothing occurred to my thought, to contradict any of these conclu-
sions, and therefore it rested upon me with the greater force, that it
must needs be that God had appointed all this to befall me; that I
was brought into this miserable circumstance by his direction, he
having the sole power, not of me only, but of every thing that hap-
pened in the world. Immediately it followed, Why has God done
this to me? What have I done to be thus used? My conscience pre-
sently checked me in that inquiry, as if I had blasphemed, and me—
thought it spoke to me like a voice, “Wretch! dost thou ask what
thou hast done? Look back upon a dreadful misspent life, and ask
thyself, what thou hast not done? Ask, why is it that thou wert not
long ago destroyed? Why wert thou not drowned in Yarmouth Roads;
killed in the fight when the ship was taken by the Sallee man of war;
devoured by the wild beasts on the coast of Africa, or drowned here,
when all the crew perished but thyself? Dost thou ask, what have I
done?” I was struck dumb with these reflections, as one astonished,
and had not a word to say, no, not to answer to myself, but rose up
pensive and sad, Walked back to my retreat, and went up over my
Wall, as if I had been going to bed; but my thoughts were sadly dis-
turbed, and I had no inclination to sleep; so I sat down in my chair,
and lighted my lamp, for it began to be dark. Now, as the ap-
prehension of the return of my distemper terrified me very much, it
occurred to my thought, that the Brazilians take no physic but their
tobacco for almost all distempers, and I had a piece of a roll of
tobacco in one of the chests, which was quite cured, and some also
that was green, and not quite cured.
I Went, directed by Heaven no doubt, for in this chest I found a
cure both for soul and body. I opened the chest, and found what I
looked for, viz. the tobacco; and as the few books I had saved lay
there too, I took out one of the Bibles which I mentioned before, and
Which to this time I had not found leisure, or so much as inclination,
to look into. I say, I took it out, and brought both that and the
tobacco with me to the table. What use to make of the tobacco I
78
knew not, as to my distemper, or whether it was good for it or no;
but I tried several experiments with it, as if I was resolved it should
hit one way or other. I first took a piece of a leaf, and chewed it in
my mouth, which, indeed, at first, almost stupified my brain, the
tobacco being green and strong, and that I had not been much used
to. Then I took some and steeped it an hour or two in some rum,
and resolved to take a dose of it when I lay down; and, lastly, I
burnt some upon a pan of coals, and held my nose close over the
smoke of it as long as I could bear it, as well for the heat, as almost
for suffocation. In the interval of this operation, I took up the Bible,
and began to read, but my head was too much disturbed with the
tobacco to bear reading, at least at that time; only, having opened
the book casually, the first words that occurred to me were these,
“Call on me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou
shalt glorify me.” These words were very apt to my case, and made
some impression upon my thoughts at the time of reading them,
though not so much as they did afterwards, for, as for being de-
livered, the word had no sound, as I may say, to me, the thing was
so remote, so impossible in my apprehension of things, that, I began
to say as the children of Israel did when they were promised flesh to
eat, “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?” so I began to say,
Can God himself deliver me from this place? And as it was not for
many years that any hopes appeared, this prevailed very often upon
my thoughts; but, however, the words made a great impression
upon me, and I mused upon them very often. It grew now late, and
the tobacco had, as I said, dozed my head so much that I inclined to
sleep; so I left my lamp burning in the cave, lest I should want any
thing in the night, and went to bed. But before I lay down, I did
what I never had done in all my life; I kneeled down, and prayed to
God to fulfil the promise to me, that if I called upon him in the day of
trouble, he would deliver me. After my broken and imperfect prayer
was over, I drank the rum in which I had steeped the tobacco; which
was so strong and rank of the tobacco, that indeed I could scarce get
it down; immediately upon this I went to bed. I found presently it
ſlew up into my head violently; but I fell into a sound sleep, and
waked no more till, by the Sun, it must necessarily be near three
o'clock in the afternoon the next day; nay, to this hour I am partly of
opinion, that Islept all the next day and night, and till almost three
79
**
the day after; for otherwise, I know not how I should lose a day out
of my reckoning in the days of the week, as it appeared some years
aſter I had done; for if I had lost it by crossing and recrossing the
Line, I should have lost more than one day; but certainly I lost a day
in my account, and never knew which way. Be that, however, one
way or the other, when I awaked I ſound myself exceedingly re-
freshed, and my spirits lively and cheerful; when I got up, I was
stronger than I was the day before, and my stomach better, for I was
hungry; and, in short, I had no ſit the next day, but continued much
altered for the better. This was the 29th.
The 30th was my well day, of course, and I went abroad with my
gun, but did not cqre to travel too far. I killed a sea-fowl or two,
something like a brand goose, and brought them home; but was not
very forward to eat them; so I eat some more of the turle's eggs,
which were very good. This evening I renewed the medicine, which
I had supposed did me good the day before, viz. the tobacco steeped
in rum; only I did not take so much as before, nor did I chew any of
the leaf, or hold my head over the smoke; however, I was not so well
the next day, which was the 1st of July, as I hoped I should have
been; for I had a little spice of the cold fit, but it was not much.
July 2. I renewed the medicine all the three ways: and dosed
myself with it as at first, and doubled the quantity which I drank.
July 3. I missed the fit for good and all, though I did not recover
my full strength for some weeks after. While I was thus gathering
strength, my thoughts ran exceedingly upon this scripture, “I will
deliver thee;” and the impossibility of my deliverance lay much upon
my mind, in bar of my ever expecting it: but as I was discouraging
myself with such thoughts, it occurred to my mind that I pored so much
upon my deliverance from the main affliction, that I disregarded the
deliverance I had received; and I was, as it were, made to ask my-
self such questions as these, viz. Have I not been delivered and
wonderfully too, from sickness? from the most distressed condition
that could be, and that was so frightful to me? and what notice had
I taken of it? Had I done my part? God had delivered me, but I had
not glorified him; that is to say, I had not owned and been thankſul
for that as a deliverance: and how could I expect greater deli-
verance? This touched my heart very much; and immediately I
80
knelt down, and gave God thanks aloud for my recovery from my
sickness. *
July 4. In the morning I took the Bible; and beginning at the
New Testament, I began seriously to read it, and imposed upon myself
to read awhile every morning and every night; not tying myself to the
number of chapters, but as long as my thoughts should engage me.
It was not long after I set seriously to this work, but I found my heart
more deeply and sincercly affected with the wickedness of my past life.
The impression of my dream revived; and the words, “All these
things have not brought thee to repentance,” ran seriously in my
thoughts. I was enarnestly begging of God to give me repentance,
when it happened providentially, the very day, that, reading the
scripture, I came to these words, “He is exalted a Prince and a Sa-
viour; to give repentance, and to give remission.” I threw down the
book; and with my heart as well as my hands lifted up to heaven, in
a kind of ecstasy of joy, I cried out aloud, “Jesus, thou son of David'
Jesus, thou cxalted Prince and Saviour! give me repentance!” This
was the first time I could say, in the true sense of the words, that I
prayed in all my life; for now I prayed with a sense of my condition,
and with a true scripture view of hope, founded on the encourage-
ment of the word of God; and from this time, I may say, I began to
have hope that God would hear me.
Now I began to construe the words mentioned above, “Call on
me, and I will deliver thee,” in a different sense from what I had ever
done before; for then I had no notion of any thing being called deli-
verance, but my being delivered from the captivity I was in: for
though I was indeed at large in the place, yet the island was certainly
a prison to me, and that in the worst sense in the world. But now I
learned to take it in another sense: now I looked back upon my past
life with such horror, and my sins appeared so dreadful, that my soul
sought nothing of God but deliverance from the load of guilt that bore
down all my comfort. As for my solitary life, it was nothing; I did
not so much as pray to be delivered from it, or think of it; it was all
of no consideration, in comparison to this. And I add this part here,
to hint to whoever shall read it, that whenever they come to a true
sense of things, they will find deliverance from sin a much greater
blessing than deliverance from affliction. But, leaving this part, ſ
return to my Journal.
*
*
81
My condition began now to be, though not less miserable as to my
way of living, yet much easier to my mind: and my thoughts being
directed, by a constant reading the Scripture and praying to God, to
things of a higher nature; I had a great deal of comfort within, which,
till now, I knew nothing of; also, as my health and strength returned,
I bestirred myself to furnish myself with every thing that I wanted,
and make my way of living as regular as I could.
From the 4th of July to the 14th, I was chiefly employed in walk-
ing about with my gun in my hand, a little and a little at a time, as
a man that was gathering up his strength after a fit of sickness: for it
is hardly to be imagined how low I was, and to what weakness I was
reduced. The application which I made use of was perſectly new, and
perhaps what had never cured an ague before; neither can I recom-
mend it to any one to practise, by this experiment: and though it did
carry off the fit, yet it rather contributed to weakening me; for I
had frequent convulsions in my nerves and limbs for some time; I
learned from it also this, in particular, that being abroad in the rainy
Season was the most pernicious thing to my health that could be,
especially in those rains which came attended with storms and hurri-
canes of wind; for as the rain which came in the dry season was al-
most always accompanied with such storms, so I found that rain was
much more dangerous than the rain which fell in September and
October.
I had been now in this unhappy island above ten months: all
possibility of deliverance from this condition seemed to be entirely
taken from me; and I firmly believed that no human shape had ever
set foot upon that place. Having now secured my habitation, as I
thought, fully to my mind, I had a great desire to make a more per-
ſect discovery of the island, and to see what other productions I might
find, which Iyet knew nothing of.
It was on the 15th of July that I began to take a more particular
survey of the island itself. I went up the creek first, where, as I
hinted, I brought my rafts on shore. I found, after I came about two
miles up, that the tide did not ſlow any higher; and that it was no
more than a little brook of running water, and very fresh and good:
but this being the dry season, there was hardly any water in some
parts of it; at least, not enough to run in any stream, so as it could be
perceived. On the banks of this brook I found many pleasant savan-
lèobinson Crusoe, 6
82
nahs or meadows, plain, smooth, and covered with grass; and on the
rising parts of them, next to the higher grounds, where the water as it
might be supposed, never overflowed, I found a great deal of tobacco,
green, and growing to a great and very strong stalk: there were divers
other plants, which I had no notion of, or understanding about, and
might, perhaps, have virtues of their own, which I could not find out.
I searched for the cassava root, which the Indians, in all that climate,
make their bread of, but I could find none. I saw large plants of
aloes, but did not understand them. I saw several sugar-canes, but
wild, and, for want of cultivation, imperfect. I contented myself with
these discoveries for this time, and came back, musing with myself
what course I might take to know the virtue and goodness of any of
the fruits or plants which I should discover; but could bring it to no
conclusion; for, in short, I had made so little observation while I was
in the Brasils, that I knew little of the plants in the field; at least, very
little that might serve me to any purpose now in my distress.
The next day, the 16th, I went up the same way again; and after
going something farther than I had gone the day before, I found the
brook and the savannahs began to cease, and the country became
more woody than before. In this part I found different fruits, and
particularly I found melons upon the ground, in great abundance, and
grapes upon the trees; the vines, had spread indeed, over the trees,
and the clusters of grapes were just now in their prime, very ripe and
rich. This was a surprising discovery, and I was exceeding glad of
them; but I was warned by my experience to eat sparingly of them,
remembering that when I was ashore in Barbary, the eating of grapes
killed several of our Englishmen, who were slaves there, by throwing
them into fluxes and fevers. But I found an excellent use for these
grapes; and that was, to cure or dry them in the sun, and keep them
as dried grapes or raisins are kept, which I thought would be, as in-
deed they were, as wholesome as agreeable to eat, when no grapes
might be to be had.
I spent all that evening there, and went not back to my habitation;
which, by the way, was the first night, as I might say, I had lain from
home. In the night, I took my first contrivance, and got up into a
tree, where I slept well; and the next morning proceeded upon my
discovery, travelling near four miles, as I might judge by the length
of the valley, keeping still due north, with a ridge of hills on the
83
south and north side of me. At the end of this march I came to an
opening, where the country seemed to descend to the west; and a little
spring of fresh water, which issued out of the side of the hill by me,
ran the other way, that is, due east; and the country appeared so fresh,
so green, so flourishing, every thing being in a constant verdure, or
ſlourish of spring, that it looked like a planted garden. I descended a
little on the side of that delicious vale, surveying it with a secret kind
of pleasure, though mixed with my other afflicting thoughts, to think
that this was all my own; that I was king and lord of all this country
indefeasibly, and had a right of possession; and, if I could convey it,
I might have it in inheritance as completely as any lord of a manor in
England. I saw here abundance of cocoa trees, orange, and lemon,
and citron trees; but all wild, and very few bearing any fruit, at least
not then. However, the green limes that I gathered were not only
pleasant to eat, but very wholesome; and I mixed their juice after-
wards with water, which made it very wholesome, and very cool and
refreshing. I found now I had business enough to gather and carry
home; and I resolved to lay up a store, as well of grapes as limes and
lemons to furnish myself for the wet season, which I knew was ap-
proaching. In order to this, I gathered a great heap of grapes in one
place, a lesser heap in another place, and a great parcel of limes and
lemons in another place; and, taking a few of each with me, I travelled
homeward; and resolved to come again, and bring a bag or sack,
or what I could make to carry the rest home. Accordingly, having
spent three days in this journey, I came home (so I must now call my
tent and my cave :) but before I got thither, the grapes were spoiled;
the richness of the fruit, and the weight of the juice, having broken
them and bruised them, they were good for little or nothing: as to
the limes, they were good, but I could bring but a few.
The next day, being the 19th, I went back, having made me
two small bags to bring home my harvest; but I was surprised, when,
coming to my heap of grapes, which were so rich and fine when Iga-
thered them, I found them all spread about, trod to pieces, and
dragged about, some here, some there, and abundance eaten and
devoured. By this I concluded there were some wild creatures there-
abouts which had done this; but what they were I knew not. How-
ever, as I found there was no laying them up on heaps, and no
carrying them away in a sack, but that one way they would be de-
G *
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stroyed, and the other way they would be crushed with their own
weight, I took another course; for I gathered a large quantity of the
grapes, and hung them upon the out-branches of the trees, that they
might cure and dry in the sun; and as for the limes and lemons, I
carried as many back as I could well stand under.
When I came home from this journey, I contemplated with great
pleasure the fruitfulness of that valley, and the pleasantness of the si-
tuation; the security from storms on that side the water and the
wood: and concluded that I had pitched upon a place to ſix my abode,
which was by far the worst part of the country. Upon the whole, I
began to consider of removing my habitation; and to look out for a
place equally safe as where now I was situate, if possible, in that
pleasant fruitful part of the island.
This thought ran long in my head, and I was exceeding fond of it
for some time, the pleasantness of the place tempting me; but when
I came to a nearer view of it, I considered that I was now by the sea-
side, where it was at least possible that something might happen to
my advantage, and, by the same ill fate that brought me hither,
might bring some other unhappy wretches to the same place; and
though it was scarce probable that any such thing should ever happen,
yet to enclose myself among the hills and woods in the centre of the
island, was to anticipate my bondage, and to render such an affair
not only improbable, but impossible; and that therefore I ought not
by any means to remove. However, I was so enamoured of this place,
that I spent much of my time there for the whole remaining part of
the month of July; and though, upon second thoughts, I resolved, as
above not to remove, yet I built me a little kind of a bower, and sur-
rounded it at a distance with a strong fence, being a double hedge, as
high as I could reach, well staked, and filled between with brush-
wood; and here I lay very secure, sometimes two or three nights
together; always going over it with a ladder, as before; so that I
fancied now I had my country house and my sea-coast house; and
this work took me up to the beginning of August.
I had but newly finished my fence, and began to enjoy my labour,
but the rains came on, and made me stick close to my first habita-
tion; for though I had made me a tent like the other, with a piece of
a sail, and spread it very well, yet I had not the shelter of a hill to
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keep me from storms, nor a cave behind me to retreat into when the
rains were extraordinary.
About the beginning of August, as I said, I had finished my
bower, and began to enjoy myself. The 3d of August, I found the
grapes I had hung up were perfectly dried, and indeed were excellent
good raisins of the sun; so I began to take them down from the trees,
and it was very happy that I did so, for the rains which followed would
have spoiled them, and I had lost the best part of my winter food;
for I had above two hundred large bunches of them. No sooner had
I taken them all down, and carried most of them home to my cave,
but it began to rain; and from hence, which was the 14th of August,
it rained, more or less, every day till the middle of October; and
sometimes so violently, that I could not stir out of my cave for
several days.
In this season, I was much surprised with the increase of my fa-
mily; I had been concerned for the loss of one of my cats, who ran
away from me, or, as I thought, had been dead, and I heard no
more tale or tidings of her, till, to my astonishment, she came home
about the end of August with three kittens. This was the more strange
to me, because, though I had killed a wild cat, as I called it, with
my gun, yet I thought it was a quite differing kind from our European
cats; yet the young cats were the same kind of house-breed like the
old one; and both my cats being females, I thought it very strange.
But from these three cats, I afterwards came to be so pestered with
cats, that I was forced to kill them like vermin, or wild beasts, and
to drive them from my house as much as possible.
From the 14th of August to the 26th, incessant rain, so that I
could not stir, and was now very careful not to be much wet. In this
confinement, I began to be straitened for food; but venturing out
twice, I one day killed a goat, and the last day, which was the 26th,
found a very large tortoise, which was a treat to me, and my food
was regulated thus; I eat a bunch of raisins for my breakfast, a piece
of the goat's flesh, or of the turtle, for my dinner, broiled; for, to
my great misfortune, I had no vessel to boil or stew any thing; and
two or three of the turtle's eggs for my supper.
During this confinement in my cover by the rain, I worked daily
two or three hours at enlarging my cave, and by degrees worked it on
towards one side, till I came to the outside of the hill, and made a
86
door, or way out, which came beyond my fence or wall; and so I
came in and out this way. But I was not perfectly easy at lying so
open; for as I had managed myself before, I was in a perfect enclo
sure; whereas now, I thought I lay exposed, and open for any thing
to come in upon me; and yet I could not perceive that there was any
living thing to fear, the biggest creature that I had yet seen upon the
island being a goat.
Sept. 30. I was now come to the unhappy anniversary of my
landing. I cast up the notches on my post, and found I had been on
shore three hundred and sixty-five days. I kept this day as a solemn
fast, setting it apart to religious exercise, prostrating myself on the
ground with the most serious humiliation, confessing my sins to
God, acknowledging his righteous judgments upon me, and praying
to him to have mercy on me through Jesus Christ; and not having
tasted the least refreshment for twelve hours, even till the going down
of the sun, I then eat a biscuit-cake and a bunch of grapes, and went
to bed, finishing the day as I began it. I had all this time observed
no sabbath-day, for as at first I had no sense of religion upon my
mind, I had, after some time, omitted to distinguish the weeks, by
making a longer notch than ordinary for the sabbath-day, and so did
not really know what any of the days were; but now having cast up
the days, as above, I found I had been there a year, so I divided it
into weeks, and set apart every seventh day for a sabbath; though I
found at the end of my account, I had lost a day or two in my reckon-
ing. A little after this, my ink began to ſail me, and so I contented
myself to use it more sparingly, and to write down only the most re-
markable events of my life, without continuing a daily memorandum
of other things.
The rainy season and the dry season began now to appear regular
to me, and I learned to divide them so as to provide for them accord-
ingly; but I bought all my experience before I had it, and this I am
going to relate was one of the most discouraging experiments that I
had made at all.
I have mentioned that I had saved the few ears of barley and rice,
which I had so surprisingly found spring up, as I thought, of them-
selves, and I believe there were about thirty stalks of rice, and about
twenty of barley; and now I thought it a proper time to sow it after
the rains, the sun being in its southern position, going from me.
87
Accordingly I dug up a piece of ground as well as I could with my
wooden spade, and dividing it into two parts, I sowed my grain; but
as I was sowing, it casually occurred to my thoughts that I would not
sow it all at first, because I did not know when was the proper time
for it, so I sowed about two-thirds of the seed, leaving about a hand-
ful of each. It was a great comfort to me afterwards that I did so,
for not one grain of what I sowed this time came to any thing, for the
dry months following, the earth having had no rain after the seed was
sown, it had no moisture to assist its growth, and never came up at
all till the wet season had come again, and then it grew as if it had
been but newly sown. Finding my first seed did not grow, which I
easily imagined was by the drought, I sought for a moister piece of
ground to make another trial in, and I dug up a piece of ground near
my new bower, and sowed the rest of my seed in February, a little
before the vernal equinox; and this having the rainy months of March
and April to water it, sprung up very pleasantly, and yielded a very
good crop; but having part of the seed left only, and not daring to
sow all that I had, I had but a small quantity at last, my whole crop
not amounting to above half a peck of each kind. But by this experi-
ment I was made master of my business, and knew exactly when the
proper season was to sow, and that I might expect two seed-times,
and two harvests every year.
While this corn was growing, I made a little discovery, which
was of use to me afterwards. As soon as the rains were over, and
the weather began to settle, which was about the month of November,
I made a visit up the country to my bower, where, though I had not
been some months, yet I found all things just as I left them. The
circle or double hedge that I had made was not only firm and entire,
but the stakes which I had cut out of some trees that grew thereabouts,
were all shot out, and grown with long branches, as much as a willow-
tree usually shoots the first year after lopping its head. I could not
tell what tree to call it that these stakes were cut from. I was sur-
prised, and yet very well pleased to see the young trees grow, and I
pruned them, and led them up to grow as much alike as I could; and
it is scarce credible how beautiful a figure they grew into in three
years; so that though the edge made a circle of about twenty-five
yards in diameter, yet the trees, for such I might now call them,
soon covered it, and it was a complete shade, sufficient to lodge
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under all the dry season. This made me resolve to cut some more
stakes, and make me a hedge like this, in a semi-circle round my
wall, (I mean that of my first dwelling) which I did; and placing the
trees or stakes in a double row, at about eight yards distance from
my first fence, they grew presently, and were at first a fine cover to
my habitation, and afterwards served for a defence also, as I shall
observe in its order.
I found now that the seasons of the year might generally be divi-
ded, not into summer and winter, as in Europe, but into the rainy
seasons and the dry seasons; which were generally thus:
Half February,
#} rainy, the sun being then on, or near the equinox.
IIalſ April,
IIalſ April,
May,
June,) dry, the sun being then to the north of the line.
July,
IIalf August,
Half August,
; rainy, the sun being then come back.
Half October,
Half º:
November,
December,) dry, the sun being then to the south of the line.
January,
Half #|
The rainy season sometimes held longer or shorter as the winds
happened to blow, but this was the general observation I made.
After I had found by experience the ill consequences of being abroad
in the rain, I took care to furnish myself with provisions beforehand,
that I might not be obliged to go out; and I sat within doors as much
as possible during the wet months. This time I found much employ-
ment, and very suitable also to the time, for I found great occasion
formany things which I had no way to furnish myself with but by hard
labour and constant application; particularly, I tried many ways to
make myself a basket, but all the twigs I could get for the purpose
proved so brittle, that they would do nothing. It proved of excellent
advantage to me now, that when I was a boy, I used to take great
delight in standing at a basket-maker's in the town where my father
Mted, to see them make their wicker-ware; and being, as boys
usually are, very officious to help, and a great observer of the manner
89
how they worked those things, and sometimes lending a hand, I had
by these means full knowledge of the methods of it, that I wanted
nothing but the materials; when it came into my mind that the twigs
of that tree from whence I cut my stakes that grew, might possibly be
as tough as the Sallows, willows, and osiers in England, and I re-
solved to try. Accordingly, the next day, I went to my country house,
as I called it, and cutting some of the smaller twigs, I found them
to my purpose as much as I could desire; whereupon I came the next
time prepared with a hatchet to cut down a quantity, which I soon
found, for there was great plenty of them. These I set up to dry
within my circle or hedge, and when they were ſit for use, I carried
them to my cave; and here, during the next season, I employed my-
self in making, as well as I could, a great many baskets, both to
carry earth, or to carry or lay up any thing, as I had occasion; and
though I did not finish them very handsomely, yet I made them suffi-
ciently serviceable for my purpose; and thus, afterwards, I took
care never to he without them; and as my wickel-ware decayed, I
made more, especially strong deep baskets to place my corn in, in-
stead of sacks, when I should come to have any quantity of it.
Having mastered this diſliculty, and employed a world of time
about it, I bestirred myself to see, if possible, how to supply two
wants. I had no vessel to hold any thing that was liquid, except two
runlets, which were almost full of rum, and some glass bottles, some
of the common size, ond others which were case-bottles—square, for
the holding of waters, spirits, &c. I had not so much as a pot to
boil any thing, except a great kettle, which I saved out of the ship,
and which was too big for such use as I desired it, viz. to make broth,
and stew a bit of meat by itself. The second thing I ſain would have
had, was a tobacco-pipe; but it was impossible to me to make one,
however, I found a contrivance for that too at last. I employed my-
self in planting my second rows of stakes or piles and in this wicker-
working all the summer or dry season, when another business took
me up more time than it could be imagined I could spare.
I mentioned before that I had a great mind to see the whole island,
and that I had travelled up the brook, and so on to where I built my
bower, and where I had an opening quite to the sea, on the other
side of the island. I now resolved to travel quite across to the sea-
shore on that side; so taking my gun, a hatchet, and my dog, and
90
a larger quantity of powder and shot than usual, with two biscuit-
cakes, and a great bunch of raisins in my pouch for my store, I be-
gan my journey. When I had passed the vale where my bower stood,
as above, I came within view of the sea to the west, and it being a
very clear day, I fairly descried land, whether an island or a continent
could not tell; but it lay very high, extending from the W. to the W.
S. W. at a very great distance; by my guess, it could not be less than
fifteen or twenty leagues off.
I could not tell what part of the world this might be, otherwise
than that I knew it must be part of America, and, as I concluded, by
all my observations, must be near the Spanish dominions, and per-
haps was all inhabited by savages, where, if I should have landed,
I had been in a worse condition than I was now; and therefore I ac-
quiesced in the dispositions of Providence, which I began now to own
and to believe ordered every thing for the best; I say I quieted my
mind with this, and left aſilicting myself with fruitless wishes of
being there.
Besides, after some pause upon this affair, I considered that if
this land was the Spanish coast, I should certainly, one time or
other, see some vessel pass or repass one way or other; but if not,
then it was the savage coast between the Spanish country and Brasils,
which are indeed the worst of savages; for they are cannibals, or
men-eaters, and fail not to murder and devour all the human bodies
that fall into their hands.
With these considerations I walked very leisurely forward; I found
that side of the island, where I now was, much pleasanter than mine,
the open or savannah fields sweet, adorned with ſlowers and grass,
and full of very fine woods. I saw abundance of parrots, and fain
I would have caught one, if possible, to have kept it to be tame, and
taught it to speak to me. I did, after some pains—taking, catch a
young parrot, for I knocked it down with a stick, and having reco-
wered it, I brought it home; but it was some years before I could
make him speak: however, at last I taught him to call me by my
name very familiarly. But the accident that followed, though it be
a trifle, will be very diverting in its place.
I was exceedingly diverted with this journey. I found in the low
grounds hares, as I thought them to be, and foxes; but they differed
greatly from all the other kinds I had met with, nor could I satisfy
91
myself to eat them, though I killed several. But I had no need to
be venturous, for I had no want of food, and of that which was very
good too; especially these three sorts, viz. goats, pigeons, and
turtle, or tortoise; which, added to my grapes, Leadenhall-Market
could not have furnished a table better than I, in proportion to the
company; and though my case was deplorable enough, yet I had
great cause for thankfulness, that I was not driven to any extremities
for food, but had rather plenty, even to dainties.
I never travelled in this journey above two miles outright in a day, "
or thereabouts; but I took so many turns and returns, to see what
discoveries I could make, that I came weary enough to the place
where I resolved to sit down for all night; and then I either reposed
myself in a tree, or surrounded myself with a row of stakes, set
upright in the ground, either from one tree to another, or so as no
wild creature could come at me without waking me.
As soon as I came to the sea-shore, I was surprised to see that
I had taken up my lot on the worst side of the island, for here indeed
the shore was covered with innumerable turtles; whereas, on the
other side, I had found but three in a year and a half. Here was also
an infinite number of fowls of many kinds, some which I had seen,
and some which I had not seen of before, and many of them Very
good meat, but such as I knew not the names of, except those called
Penguins.
I could have shot as many as I pleased, but was very sparing of
my powder and shot, and therefore had more mind to kill a she-goat,
if I could, which I could better feed on; and though there were many
goats here, more than on my side the island, yet it was with much
more difficulty that I could come near them, the country being flat
and even, and they saw me much sooner than when I was on the hill.
I confess this side of the country was much pleasanter than mine;
but yet I had not the least inclination to remove, for as I was fixed in
my habitation, it became natural to me, and I seemed all the while
I was here to be as it were upon a journey, and from home. How-
ever, I travelled along the shore of the sea towards the east, I sup-
pose about twelve miles, and then setting up a great pole upon the
shore for a mark, I concluded I would go home again; and that the
next journey I took should be on the other side of the island, east
92
from my dwelling, and so round till I came to my post again; of
which in its place.
I took another way to come back than that I went, thinking I could
easily keep all the island so much in my view, that I could not miss
finding my first dwelling by viewing the country; but I found myself
mistaken; for being come about two or three miles, I found myself
descended into a very large valley; but so surrounded with hills,
and those hills covered with wood, that I could not see which was my
way by any direction but that of the sun, nor even then, unless I
knew very well the position of the sun at that time of the day. It hap-
pened to my farther misfortune, that the weather proved hazy for
three or four days while I was in this valley, and not being able to see
the sun, I wandered about very uncomfortably, and at last was
obliged to find out the sea-side, look for my post, and come back the
same way I went; and then by easy journics I turned homeward, the
weather being exceeding hot, and my gun, ammunition, hatchet,
and other things very heavy.
In this journey my dog surprised a young kid, and seized upon
it, and I running in to take hold of it, caught it, and saved it alive
from the dog. I had a great mind to bring it home if I could, for I
had often been musing whether it might not be possible to get a kid
or two, and so raise a breed of tame goats, which might supply me
when my powder and shot should be all spent. I made a collar to this
little creature, and with a string which I made of some rope-yarn,
which I always carried about me, I led him along, though with some
difficulty, till I came to my bower, and there I enclosed him and left
him, for I was very impatient to be at home, from whence I had been
absent above a month.
I cannot express what a satisfaction it was to me to come into my
old hutch, and lie down in my hammock-bed. This little wandering
journey, without settled place of abode, had been so unpleasant to
me, that my own house, as I called it to myself, was a perfect set-
tlement to me, compared to that; and it rendered every thing about
me so comfortable, that I resolved I would never go a great way from
it again, while it should be my lot to stay on the island.
I reposed myself here a week, to rest and regale myself after my
long journey; during which, most of the time was taken up in the
weighty aſſair of making a cage for my Pol, who began now to be a
93
mere domestic, and to be mighty well acquainted with me. Then I
began to think of the poor kid which I had penned in within my little
circle, and resolved to go and fetch it home, or give it some food;
accordingly I went, and found it where I left it, for indeed it could
not get out, but was almost starved for want of food. I went and cut
boughs of trees, and branches of such shrubs as I could ſind, and
threw it over, and having fed it, I tied it as I did before, to lead it
away; but it was so tame with being hungry, that I had no need to
have tied it, for it followed me like a dog; and as I continually fed
it, the creature became so loving, so gentle, and so fond, that it
became from that time one of my domestics also, and would never
leave me afterwards.
The rainy season of the autumnal equinox was now come, and I
kept the 30th of September in the same solemn manner as before,
being the anniversary of my landing on the island, having now been
there two years, and no more prospect of being delivered than the
first day I came there. I spent the whole day in humble and thankful
acknowledgments of the many wonderſul mercies which my solitary
condition was attended with, and without which it might have been
inſinitely more miserable. I gave humble and hearty thanks that God
had been pleased to discover to me, even that it was possible I might
be more happy in this solitary condition, than I should have been in
a liberty of society, and in all the pleasures of the world: that he
could fully make up to me the deficiencies of my solitary state, and
the want of human society, by his presence, and the communications
of his grace to my soul, supporting, comforting, and encouraging
me to depend upon his providence here, and hope for his eternal
presence hereafter. -
It was now that I began sensibly to feel how much more happy
this life I now led was, with all its miserable circumstances, than
the wicked, cursed, abominable life I led all the past part of my
days; and now I changed both my sorrows and my joys; my very
desires altered, my affections changed their gusts, and my delights
were perfectly new from what they were at my first coming, or indeed
for the two years past. ©
Before, as I walked about, either on my hunting, or for viewing
the country, the anguish of my soul at my condition would break out
upon me on a sudden, and my very heart would die within mo, to
94
think of the woods, the mountains, the deserts I was in, and how
I was a prisoner, locked up with the eternal bars and bolts of the
ocean, in an uninhabited wilderness, without redemption. In the
midst of the greatest composures of my mind, this would break out
upon me like a storm, and make me wring my hands, and weep like
a child: sometimes it would take me in the middle of my work, and
I would immediately sit down and sigh, and look upon the ground
for an hour or two together; and this was still worse to me, for if I
could burst out into tears, or vent myself by words, it would go off,
and the grief having exhausted itself, would abate.
But now I began to exercise myself with new thoughts; I daily
read the word of God, and applied all the comforts of it to my present
state. One morning, being very sad, I opened the Bible upon these
words, “I will never, never leave thee, nor forsake thee;” imme-
diately it occurred that these words were to me; why else should they
be directed in such a manner, just at the moment when I was mourn—
ing over my condition, as one forsaken of God and man? “Well
then,” said I, “if God does not forsake me, of what ill consequence
can it be, or what matters it, though the world should all forsake
me, seeing on the other hand, if I had all the world, and should
lose the favour and blessing of God, there would be no comparison
in the loss?”
From this moment I began to conclude in my mind, that it was
possible for me to be more happy in this forsaken solitary condition,
than it was probable I should ever have been in any other particular
state in the world, and with this thought I was going to give thanks
to God for bringing me to this place. I know not what it was, but
something shocked my mind at that thought, and I durst not speak
the words. “How canst thou be such a hypocrite,” said I, even
audibly, “to pretend to be thankful for a condition, which, however
thou may est endeavour to be contented with, thou wouldest rather
pray heartily to be delivered from?" So I stopped there, but though
I could not say I thanked God for being there, yet I sincerely gave
thanks to God for opening my eyes, by whatever aſſlicting providen-
ces, to see the former condition of my life, and to mourn for my
wickedness, and repent. I never opened the Bible, or shut it, but
my very soul within me blessed God for directing my friend in
England, without any order of mine, to pack it up among my goods,
95
and for assisting me afterwards to save it out of the wreck of the
ship.
Thus, and in this disposition of mind, I began my third year,
and though I have not given the reader, the trouble of so particular
an account of my works this year as the ſirst; yet in general it may be
observed, that I was very seldom idle, but having regularly divided
my time, according to the several daily employments that were before
me, such as, first, My duty to God, and the reading the Scriptures,
which I constantly set apart some time for, thrice every day; secondly,
The going abroad with my gun for food, which generally took me up
three hours in every morning, when it did not rain; thirdly, The
ordering, curing, preserving, and cooking what I had killed or
catched for my supply; these took up great part of the day; also it is to
be considered, that in the middle of the day, when the sun was in
the zenith, the violence of the heat was too great to stir out; so that
about four hours in the evening was all the time I could be supposed
to work in, with this exception, that sometimes I changed my hours
of hunting and working, and went to work in the morning, and abroad
with my gun in the afternoon.
To this short time allowed for labour, I desire may be added the
exceeding laboriousness of my work; the many hours which for want
of tools, want of help, and want of skill, every thing I did took up
out of my time: for example, I was full two and forty days making
me a board for a long shelf, which I wanted in my cave, whereas,
two sawyers, with their tools and a saw-pit, would have cut six of
them out of the same tree in half a day.
My case was this, it was to be a large tree which was to be cut
down, because my board was to be a broad one. This tree I was three
days a cutting down, and two more cutting off the boughs, and redu-
cing it to a log, or piece of timber. With inexpressible hacking and
hewing, I reduced both the sides of it into chips till it began to be
light enough to move, then I turned it, and made one side of it
smooth and flat as a board from end to end; then turning that side
downward, cut the other side, till I brought the plank to be about
three inches thick, and smooth on both sides. Any one may judge
the labour of my hands in such a piece of work, but labour and patience
carried me through that, and many other things: I only obsery" this
in particular, to show the reason why so much of my time went away
96
with so little work, viz. that what might be a little to be done with
help and tools, was a vast labour, and required a prodigious time to
do alone, and by hand. But notwithstanding this, with patience
and labour I went through many things, and, indeed, every thing
that my circumstances made necessary to me to do, as will appear
by what follows. -
I was now in the months of November and December, expecting
my crop of barley and rice. The ground I had manured or dug up for
them was not great, for as I obscrved, my seed of each was not above
the quantity of half a peck, for I had lost one whole crop by sowing
in the dry season; but now my crop promised very well, when, on
a sudden, I found I was in danger of losing it all again by enemies of
several sorts, which it was scarce possible to keep from it; as, first
the goats, and wild creatures which I called hares, who, tasting the
sweetness of the blade, lay in it night and day, as soon as it came
up, and eat it so close, that it could get no time to shoot up into stalk.
This I saw no remedy for, but by making an enclosure about it
with a hedge, which I did with a great deal of toil, and the more,
because it required speed. However, as my arable land was but
small, suited to my crop, I got it totally well fenced, in about three
weeks' time, and shooting some of the creatures in the day-time, I
set my dog to guard it in the night, tying him up to a stake at the gate,
where he would stand and bark all night long; so in a little time the
enemies forsook the place, and the corn grew very strong and well,
and began to ripen apace.
But as the beasts ruined me before, while my corn was in the
blade, so the birds were as likely to ruin me now, when it was in the
ear; for going along by the place to see how it throve, I saw my little
crop surrounded with fowls, of I know not how many sorts, who
stood, as it were, watching till I should be gone. I immediately let
fly among them, for I always had my gun with me, I had no sooner
shot, but there rose up a little cloud of fowls, which I had not seen
at all, from among the corn itself.
This touched me sensibly, for I foresaw that in a few days they
would devour all my hopes, that I should be starved, and never be
able to raise a crop at all, and what to do I could not tell; however,
I resolved not to lose my corn, if possible though I should watch it
night and day. In the first place, I went among it, to see what da-
07
mage was already done, and found they had spoiled a good deal of it,
but that as it was yet too green for them, the loss was not so great,
but that the remainder was like to be a good crop, if it could be saved.
I staid by it to load my gun, and then coming away, I could easily
see the thieves sitting upon all the trees about me, as if they only
waited till I was gone away, and the event proved it to be so; for as
I walked off, as if I was gone, I was no sooner out of their sight, than
they dropt down, one by one, into the corn again. I was so pro-
voked, that I could not have patience to stay till more came on, know-
ing that every grain that they eat now was, as it might be said, a peck-
loaf to me in the consequence; but coming up to the hedge, I fired
again, and killed three of them. This was what I wished for; so I
took them up, and served them as we serve notorious thieves in Eng-
land, viz. hanged them in chains, for a terror to others. It is im-
possible to imagine almost that this should have such an effect as it
had, for the fowls would not only not come at the corn, but, in short,
they forsook all that part of the island, and I could never see a bird
near the place as long as my scare-crows hung there. This I was very
glad of, you may be sure, and about the latter end of December,
which was our second harvest of the year, I reaped my corn.
I was sadly put to it for a scythe or sickle to cut it down, and all
I could do was to make one as well as I could, out of one of the broad
swords, or cutlasses, which I saved among the arms out of the ship.
However, as my first crop was but small, I had no great difficulty to
cut it down; in short, I reaped it my way, for I cut nothing off but
the ears, and carried it away in a great basket which I had made, and
so rubbed it out with my hands, and at the end of all my harvesting,
I found that out of my halfpeck of seed I had near two bushels of rice,
and above two bushels and a half of barley, that is to say, by my
guess, for I had no measure at that time.
However, this was a great encouragement to me, and I foresaw
that, in time, it would please God to supply me with bread: and yet
here I was perplexed again, for I neither knew how to grind, or make
meal of my corn, or indeed how to clean it and part it; nor iſ made
into meal, how to make bread of it, and if how to make it, yet I
knew not how to bake it; these things being added to my desire of
having a good quantity for store, and to secure a constant supply, I
resolved not to taste any of this crop, but to preserve it all for seed
Robinson Crusoe, 7
98
against the next season, and, in the mean time, to employ all my
study and hours of working to accomplish this great work of providing
inyself with corn and bread.
It might be truly said, that now I worked for my bread. 'T is a
little wonderful, and what I believe few people have thought much
upon, viz. the strange multitude of little things necessary in the pro-
viding, producing, curing, dressing, making, and finishing this one
article of bread.
I, that was reduced to a mere state of nature, found this to my
daily discouragement, and was made more sensible of it every hour,
even after I had got the first handful of seed-corn, which, as I have
said, came up unexpectedly, and indeed to a surprise.
I’irst, I had no plough to turn up the earth, no spade or shovel to
dig it. Well, this I conquered by making a wooden spade, as I ob-
served before, but this did my work but in a wooden manner, and
though it cost me a great many days to make it, yet, for want of iron,
it not only wore out the sooner, but made my work the harder, and
made it be performed much worse. However, this I bore with, and
was content to work it out with patience, and bear with the badness
of the performance. When the corn was sown, I had no harrow, but
was forced to go over it myself, and drag a great heavy bough of a tree
over it, to scratch it, as it may be called, rather than rake or harrow
it. When it was growing and grown, I have observed already how
many things I wanted to fence it, secure it, mow or reap it, cure and
carry it home, thrash, part it from the chaff, and save it. Then I
wanted a mill to grind it, sieves to dress it, yeast and salt to make it
into bread, and an oven to bake it, and yet all these things I did
without, as shall be observed; and yet the corn was an inestimable
comfort and advantage to me too. All this, as I said, made every
thing laborius and tedious to me, but that there was no help for;
neither was my time so much loss to me, because, as I had divided
it, a certain part of it was every day appointed to these works, and as
I resolved to use none of the corn for bread till I had a greater quan-
tity by me, I had the next six months to apply myself wholly, by labour
and invention, to furnish myself with utensils proper for the per-
forming all the operations necessary for making the corn, when I ha
it, fit for my use. º * x
99
But first I was to prepare more land, for I had now sced enough
to sow above an acre of ground. Before I did this, I had a week's
work at least to make me a spade, which, when it was done, was but
a sorry one indeed, and very heavy, and required double labour to
work with it; however, I went through that, and sowed my seed in
two large flat pieces of ground, as near my house as I could find them
to my mind, and fenced them in with a good hedge, the stakes of
which were all cut of that wood which I had set before, and knew it
would grow; so that in one year's time, I knew I should have a quick
or living hedge, that would want but little repair. This work was not
so little as to take me up less than three months, because a great part
of that time was of the wet season, when I could not go abroad.
Within doors, that is, when it rained, and I could not go out, I
found employment on the following occasions; always observing, that
all the while I was at work, I diverted myself with talking to my
parrot, and teaching him to speak, and I quickly learned him to
know his own name, and at last to speak it out pretty loud, Pol, which
was the first word I ever heard spoken in the island by any mouth but
my own. This, therefore, was not my work, but an assistant to my
work, for now, as I said, I had a great employment upon my hands
as follows; viz. I had long studied, by some means or other, to make
myself some earthen vessels, which indeed I wanted sorely, but knew
not where to come at them: however, considering the heat of the cli-
mate, I did not doubt but if I could find out any such clay, I might
botch up some such pot as might, being dried in the sun, be hard
enough and strong enough to bear handling, and to hold any thing
that was dry, and required to be kept so; and as this was necessary
in the preparing corn, meal, &c. which was the thing I was upon,
I resolved to make some as large as I could, and fit only to stand like
jars, to hold what should be put into them.
It would make the reader pity me, or rather laugh at me, to tell
how many awkward ways I took to raise this paste; what odd, mis-
shapen, ugly things I made; how many of them fell in, and how many
fell out, the clay not being stiff enough to bear its own weight; how
many cracked by the over violent heat of the sun, being set out too
hastily; and how many fell in pieces with only removing, as well be-
fore as after they were dried; and, in a word, how, after having la-
boured hard to find the clay, to dig it, to temper it, to bring it home,
7
100
and work it, I could not make above two large earthen ugly things (I
cannot call them jars) in about two months' labour.
However, as the sun baked these two very dry and hard, I lifted
them very gently up, and set them down again in two great wicker
baskets, which I had made on purpose for them, that they might not
break; and as between the pot and the basket there was a little room
to spare, I stuffed it full of the rice and barley-straw, and these two
pots being to stand always dry, I thought would hold my dry corn,
and perhaps the meal, when the corn was bruised.
Though I miscarried so much in my design for large pots, yet I
made several smaller things with better success; such as little round
pots, flat dishes, pitchers, and pipkins, and any things my hand
turned to; and the heat of the sun baked them strangely hard.
But all this would not answer my end, which was to get an earthen
pot to hold what was liquid, and bear the fire, which none of these
could do. It happened after some time, making a pretty large fire
for cooking my meat, when I went to put it out after I had done with
it, I found a broken piece of one of my earthen-ware vessels in the
fire, burnt as hard as a stone, and red as a tile. I was agreeably
surprised to see it, and said to myself, that certainly they might be
made to burn whole, if they would burn broken.
This set me to study how to order my fire, so as to make it burn
Some pots. I had no notion of a kiln, such as the potters burn in,
or of glazing them with lead, though I had some lead to do it with:
but I placed three large pipkins, and two or three pots in a pile, one
upon another, and placed my fire-wood all round it, with a great heap
of embers under them. I plied the fire with fresh fuel round the
outside, and upon the top, till I saw the pots in the inside red-hot
quite through, and observed that they did not crack at all; when 1
saw them clear red, I let them stand in that heat about five or six
hours, till I found one of them, though it did not crack, did melt or
run, for the sand which was mixed with the clay melted by the vio-
lence of the heat, and would have run into glass, if I had gone on,
so I slacked my fire gradually till the pots began to abate of the red
colour; and watching them all night, that I might not let the fire abate
too fast, in the morning I had three very good, I will not say hand-
some, pipkins, and two other earthen pots, as hard burnt as could
101
be desired, and one of them perfectly glazed with the running of the
sand.
After this experiment, I need not say that I wanted no sort of
earthen-ware for my use; but I must needs say, as to the shapes of
them, they were very indifferent, as any one may suppose, when I
had no way of making them, but as the children make dirt pies, or as
a woman would make pies that never learned to raise paste.
No joy at a thing of so mean a nature was ever equal to mine, when
I found I had made an earthen pot that would bear the fire; and I had
hardly patience to stay till they were cold, before I set one on the fire
again, with some water in it, to boil me some meat, which it did ad-
mirably well; and with a piece of a kid I made some very good broth,
though I wanted oatmeal, and several other ingredients requisite to
make it so good as I would have had it been.
My next concern was to get me a stone mortar to stamp or beat
some corn in; for as to the mill, there was no thought of arriving to
that perfection of art with one pair of hands. To supply this want I
was at a great loss; for, of all the trades in the world, I was as per-
fectly unqualified for a stone-cutter, as for any whatever; neither had
I any tools to go about it with. I spent many a day to find out a great
stone big enough to cut hollow, and make ſit for a mortar, and could
find none at all, except what was in the solid rock, and which I had
no way to dig or cut out; nor indeed were the rocks in the island of
hardness sufficient, but were all of a sandy crumbling stone, which
neither would bear the weight of a heavy pestle, or would break the
corn without filling it with sand; so, after a great deal of time lost in
searching for a stone, Igave it over, and resolved to look out for a
great block of hard wood, which I found indeed much easier; and
getting one as big as I had strength to stir, I rounded it, and formed
it on the outside with my axe and hatchet, and then, with the help
of fire, and infinite labour made a hollow place in it, as the Indians
in Brasil make their canoes. After this, I made a great heavy pestle,
or beater, of the wood called the iron-wood; and this I prepared and
laid by against I had my next crop of corn, when I proposed to myself
to grind, or rather pound mycorn into meal, to make my bread.
My next difficulty was to make a sieve, or searce, to dress my
meal, and to part it from the bran and the husk, without which I did
not see it possible I could have any bread. This was a most diſticult
102
thing, so much as but to think on, for to be sure I had nothing like
the necessary thing to make it; I mean fine thin canvass or stuff, to
scarce the meal through. And here I was at a full stop for many
months; nor did I really know what to do; linen I had none left, but
what was mere rags; I had goats'—hair, but neither knew how to weave
it or spin it; and had I known how, here were no tools to work it with:
all the remedy that I found for this was, that at last I did remember
I had, among the seamen's clothes which were saved out of the ship,
some neckcloths of calico or muslin; and with some pieces of these I
made three small sieves, proper enough for the work; and thus I
made shift for some years; how I did afterwards, I shall show in its
place.
The baking part was the next thing to be considered, and how I
should make bread when I came to have corn; for, first, I had no
yeast; as to that part there was no supplying the want, so I did not
concern myself much about it; but for an oven I was indeed in great
pain. At length I ſound out an experiment for that also, which was
this; I made some earthen vessels very broad, but not deep, thas is to
say, about two feet diameter, and not above nine inches deep; these I
burned in the fire, as I had done the other, and laid them by; and
when I wanted to bake, I made a great fire upon my hearth, which I
had paved with some square tiles, of my own making and burning
also; but I should not call them square. +.
When the fire-wood was burned pretty much into embers, or live
coals, I drew them forward upon this earth, so is to cover it all over,
and there I let them lie till the hearth was very hot; then sweeping
away all the embers, I set down my loaf, or loaves, and whelming
down the earthen pot upon them, drew the embers all round the out-
side of the pot, to keep in and add to the heat; and thus, as well as in
the best oven in the world, I baked my barley-loaves, and became, in
little time, a mere pastry-cook into the bargain; for I made myself
several cakes of the rice, and puddings; indeed I made no pies, neither
had I anything to put into them, supposing I had, except the flesh
either of fowls or goats. f -
It need not be wondered at, if all these things took me up most part
of the third year of my abode here; for, it is to be observed, that in
the intervals of these things, I had my new harvest and husbandry to
manage; for I reaped my corn in its season, and carried it home as
103.
*
well as I tould, and laid it up in the car, in my large baskets, till I
had time lo rub it out, for I had no floor to thrash it on, or instrument
to thrash t with.
And now, indeed, my stock of corn increasing, I really wanted to
build mylarns bigger; I wanted a place to lay it up in, for the increase
of the cor, now yielded me so much, that I had of the barley about
twenty bubels, and of the rice as much, or more, insomuch that now
I resolved begin to use it freely; for my bread had been quite gone
a great whit; also I resolved to see what quantity would be sufficient
for me a whle year, and to sow but once a-year.
Upon th whole, I found that the forty bushels of barley and rice
were much lore than I could consume in a year; so I resolved to sow
just the sam quantity every year that I sowed the last, in hopes that
such a quanty would fully provide me with bread, &c.
All the wile these things were doing, you may be sure my thoughts
ran many tims upon the prospect of land which I had seen from the
other side ofbe island, and I was not without secret wishes that I
were on shorehere, fancying the seeing the main land, and in an in-
habited count, I might find some way or other to convey myself far-
ther, and perhs at last find some means of escape.
But all thiwhile I made no allowance for the dangers of such a
condition, and w I might fall into the hands of savages, and perhaps
such as I mightave reason to think far worse than the lions and tigers
of Africa; that I once came in their power, I should run a hazard
more than a thoand to one of being killed, and perhaps of being
eaten; for I had eard that the people of the Caribbean coast were
cannibals, or maraters, and I knew by the latitude, that I could not
be far off from i. That suppose they were not cannibals, yet
that they might kine, as many Europeans who had fallen into their
hands had been sed, even when they had been ten or twenty toge-
ther, much more * was but one, and could make little or no de-
fence; all these thi, I say, which I ought to have considered well
of, and did cast up by thoughts afterwards, yet took up none of my
apprehensions at firiand my head ran mightily upon the thought of
getting over to the Sh.
Now I wished for boy Xury, and the longboat with the shoul-
der-of-mutton sail, h which I sailed above a thousand miles on
the coast of Africa; bhis was in vain; then I thought I would go
.*
104
and look at our ship's boat, which, as I have said, was blown up upon
the shore a great way, in the storm, when we were first Cast away.
She lay almost where she did at first, but not quite; and was turned,
by the force of the waves and the winds, almost bottom upward, against
a high ridge of beachy rough sand, but no water about her, as before.
If I had had hands to have refitted her, and to have launchtd her into
the water, the boat would have done well enough, and I might have
gone back into the Brasils with her easily enough; but I night have
foreseen that I could no more turn her and set her upright upon her
bottom, than I could remove the island; however, I went tº the woods,
and cut levers and rollers, and brought them to the boat, resolving to
try what I could do; suggesting to myself, that if I could but turn her
down, I might repair the damage she had received, and the would be
a very good boat, and I might go to sea in her very easily.
Ispared no pains, indeed, in this piece of fruitless toil, and spent,
I think, three or four weeks about it; at last, finding it impossible to
heave it up with my little strength, I fell to digging away the sand, to
undermine it, and so to make it fall down, setting pietes of wood to
thrust and guide it right in the fall.
But when I had done this, I was unable to stir it up again, or to
get under it, much less to move it forward towards the water; so I
was forced to give it over; and yet, though I gave over the hopes of
the boat, my desire to venture over for the main increased, rather than
decreased, as the means for it seemed impossible.
This at length put me upon thinking, whether it was not possible
to make myself a canoe, or periagua, such as the natives of those cli-
mates make, even without tools, or, as I might say, without hands, of
the trunk of a great tree. This I not only thought possible, but easy,
and pleased myself extremely with the thoughts of making it, and with
my having much more convenience for it than any of the Negroes or
Indians, but not at all considering the particular inconveniences which
I lay under more than the Indians did, viz. want of hands to move it,
when it was made, into the water, a difficulty much harder for me to
surmount than all the consequences of want of tools could be to them;
for what was it to me, if that when I had chosen a vast tree in the
woods, I might with much trouble cut it down, if after I might be
able with my tools to hew and dub the outside into the proper shape
of a boat, and burn or cut out the inside to make it hollow, so to make
105
tº sºmeºmºsºm-º:
a boat of it; if, after all this, I must leave it just there where I found
it, and was not able to launch it into the water?
One would have thought I could not have had the least reflection
upon my mind of my circumstance while I was making this boat, but
I should have immediately thought how I should get it into the sea;
but my thoughts were so intent upon my voyage over the sea in it,
that I never once considered how I should get it off of the land; and it
was really, in its own nature, more easy for me to guide it over forty-
five miles of sea, than about forty-five fathom of land, where it lay, to
set it afloat in the water.
I went to work upon this boat the most like a fool that ever man
did, who had any of his senses awake. I pleased myself with the de-
sign, without determining whether I was ever able to undertake it;
not but that the difficulty of launching my boat came often into my
head; but I put a stop to my own inquiries into it, by this foolish
answer, which I gave myself: Let's first make it, I'll warrant I'll find
some way or other to get it along when it is done.
This was a most preposterous method; but the eagerness of my
fancy prevailed, and to work I went. I felled a cedar tree, and I
question much whether Solomon ever had such a one for the building
of the Temple at Jerusalem; it was five feet ten inches diameter at
the lower part next the stump, and four feet eleven inches diameter
at the end of twenty-two feet, after which it lessened for awhile, and
then parted into branches. It was not without infinite labour that I
felled this tree; I was twenty days hacking and hewing at it at the
bottom; I was fourteen more getting the branches and limbs, and
the vast spreading head of it, cut off, which I hacked and hewed
through with axe and hatchet, and inexpressible labour: after this,
it cost me a month to shape it and dub it to a proportion, and to some-
thing like the bottom of a boat, that it might swim upright as it ought
to do. It cost me near three months more to clear the inside, and
work it out so as to make an exact boat of it: this I did, indeed,
without fire, by mere mallet and chisel, and by the dint of hard la-
bour, till I had brought it to be a very handsome periagua, and big
enough to have carried six and twenty men, and consequently big
enough to have carried me and all my cargo.
When I had gone through this work, I was extremely delighted
with it. The boat was really much bigger than I ever saw a canoe or
106
periagua, that was made of one tree, in my life. Many a weary
stroke it had cost, you may be sure; and had I gotten it into the
water, I make no question but I should have begun the maddest
voyage, and the most unlikely to be performed, that ever was under-
taken.
But all my devices to get it into the water failed me; though they
cost me infinite labour too. It lay about one hundred yards from the
water, and not more; but the first inconvenience was, it was up hill
towards the creek. Well, to take away this discouragement, I resolved
to dig into the surface of the earth, and so make a declivity: this
I begun, and it cost me a prodigious deal of pains; but who grudge
pains that have their deliverance in view? but when this was worked
through, and this difficulty managed, it was still much at one, for
I could no more stir the canoe than I could the other boat. Then I
measured the distance of ground, and resolved to cut a dock or canal,
to bring the water up to the canoe, seeing I could not bring the canoe
down to the water. Well, I began this work; and when I began to
enter upon it, and calculate how deep it was to be dug, how broad,
how the stuff to be thrown out, I found that by the number of hands
I had, being none but my own, that it must have been ten or twelve
years before I could have gone through with it; for the shore lay high,
so that at the upper end it must have been at least twenty feet deep;
so at length, though with great reluctancy, I gave this attempt over
also.
This grieved me heartily; and now I saw, though too late, the
folly of beginning a work before we count the cost, and before we
judge rightly of our own strength to go through with it.
In the middle of this work, I finished my fourth year in this place,
and kept my anniversary with the same devotion, and with as much
comfort as ever before; for, by a constant study and serious appli-
cation to the word of God, and by the assistance of his grace, I gained
a different knowledge from what I had before. I entertained different
notions of things. I looked now upon the world as a thing remote,
which I had nothing to do with, no expectation from, and, indeed,
no desires about: in a word, I had nothing indeed to do with it, nor
was ever likely to have; so I thought it looked, as we may perhaps
look upon it hereafter, viz. as a place I had lived in, but was come
107.
out of it; and well might I say, as father Abraham to Dives, “Be-
tween me and thee is a great gulf ſixed.”
In the first place, I was removed from all the wickedness of the
world here; I had neither the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, or
the pride of life. I had nothing to covet, for I had all that I was now
capable of enjoying: I was lord of the whole manor; or, if I pleased,
I might call myself king or emperor over the whole country which I
had possession of; there were no rivals; I had no competitor, none
to dispute sovereignty or command with me: I might have raised
ship-loadings of corn, but I had no use for it; so I let as little grow
as I thought enough for my occasion. I had tortoise or turtles enough,
but now and then one was as much as I could put to any use: I had
timber enough to have built a fleet of ships; and I had grapes enough
to have made wine, or to have cured into raisins, to have loaded that
fleet when they had becn built.
But all I could make use of was all that was valuable: I had enough
to eat and supply my wants, and what was all the rest to me? If I
killed more flesh than I could eat, the dog must eat it, or vermin;
if I sowed more corn than I could eat, it must be spoiled; the trees
that I cut down were lying to rot on the ground; I could make no
more use of them than for fuel, and that I had no occasion for but to
dress my food.
In a word, the nature and experience of things dictated to me,
upon just reflection, that all the good things of this world are no
farther good to us than they are for our use; and that whatever we
may heap up indeed to give others, we enjoy just as much as we can
use and no more. The most covetous griping miser in the world
would have been cured of the vice of covetousness, if he had been in
my case; for I possessed infinitely more than I knew what to do with.
I had no room for desire, except it was of things which I had not, and
they were but trifles, though indeed of great use to me. I had, as
I hinted before, a parcel of money, as well gold as silver, about
thirty-six pounds sterling. Alas! there the nasty, sorry, useless
stuff lay; I had no manner of business for it; and I often thought
with myself, that I would have given a handful of it for a gross of
tobacco-pipes, or for a hand-mill to grind my corn; nay, ! would
have given it all for sixpenny-worth of turnip and carrot seed out of
England, or for a handful of peas and beans, and a bottle of ink.
108
As it was, I had not the least advantage by it, or benefit from it; but
there it lay in a drawer, and grew mouldy with the damp of the cave
in the wet seasons; and if I had had the drawer full of diamonds, it
had been the same case, they had been of no manner of value to me
because of no use.
I had now brought my state of life to be much easier in itself than
it was at first, and much easier to my mind, as well as to my body.
I frequently sat down to meat with thankfulness, and admired the
hand of God's providence, which had thus spread my table in the
wilderness; I learned to look more upon the bright side of my con–
dition, and less upon the dark side, and to consider what I enjoyed,
rather than what I wanted; and this gave me sometimes such secret
comforts, that I cannot express them; and which I take notice of
here, to put those discontented people in mind of it, who cannot
enjoy comfortably what God has given them, because they see and
covet something that he has not given them. All our discontents
about what we want, appeared to me to spring from the want of thank-
fulness for what we have.
Another reflection was of great use to me, and doubtless would
be so to any one that should fall into such distress as mine was; and
this was, to compare my present condition with what I at first ex-
pected it should be; nay, with what it would certainly have been, if the
good providence of God had not wonderfully ordered the ship to be
cast up nearer to the shore, where I not only could come at her, but
could bring what I got out of her to the shore, for my relief and com-
fort; without which, I had wanted for tools to work, weapons for
defence, or gunpowder and shot for getting my food.
I spent whole hours, I may say whole days, in representing to
myself, in the most lively colours, how I must have acted if I had got
nothing out of the ship. How I could not have so much as got any
food, except fish and turtles; and that, as it was long before I found
any of them, I must have perished first: that I should have lived, if
I had not perished, like a mere savage; that if I had killed a goat or a
fowl, by any contrivance, I had no way to ſlay or open it, or part the
flesh from the skin and the bowels, or to cut it up; but must gnaw it
with my teeth, and pull it with my claws, like a beast.
These reflections made me very sensible of the goodness of Pro-
widence to me, and very thankful for my present condition, with all
109
its hardships and misfortunes: and this part also I cannot but re-
commend to the reflection of those who are apt, in their misery, to
say, Is any affliction like mine? Let them consider how much worse
the cases of some people are, and their case might have been, if
Providence had thought fit.
I had another reflection, which assisted me also to comfort my
mind with hopes; and this was comparing my present situation with
what I had deserved, and had therefore reason to expect from the
hand of Providence. I had lived a dreadful life, perfectly destitute of
the knowledge and fear of God. I had been well instructed by father
and mother; neither had they been wanting to me, in their early
endeavours to infuse a religious awe of God into my mind, a sense of
my duty, and what the nature and end of my being required of me.
But, alas! falling early into the seafaring life, which, of all lives,
is the most destitute of the fear of God, though his terrors are always
before them; I say, falling early into the seafaring life, and into
seafaring company, all that little sense of religion which I had enter-
tained was laughed out of me by my messmates; by a hardened de-
spising of dangers, and the views of death, which grew habitual to
me; by my long absence from all manner of opportunities to con-
verse with any thing but what was like myself, or to hear any thing
that was good, or tended towards it.
So void was I of every thing that was good, or of the least sense of
what I was, or was to be, that in the greatest deliverances I enjoyed,
such as my escape from Sallee; my being taken up by the Portuguese
master of the ship; my being planted so well in the Brasils; my re-
ceiving the cargo from England, and the like; I never had once the
words, Thank God, so much as on my mind, or in my mouth; nor
in the greatest distress had I so much as a thought to pray to him, or
so much as to say, Lord, have mercy upon me! no, nor to mention
the name of God, unless it was to swear by, and blaspheme it.
I had terrible reflections upon my mind for many months, as I
have already observed, on account of my wicked and hardened life
past; and when I looked about me, and considered what particular
providences had attended me since my coming into this place, and
how God had dealt bountifully with me; had not only punished me
less than my iniquity had deserved, but had so plentifully provided
110
for me; this gave me great hopes that my repentance was accepted,
and that God had yet mercy in store for me.
With these reflections, I worked my mind up, not only to a re-
signation to the will of God in the present disposition of my circum-
stances, but even to a sincere thankfulness for my condition; and
that I, who was yet a living man, ought not to complain, seeing I
had not the due punishment of my sins; that I enjoyed so many
mercies which I had no reason to have expected in that place; that I
ought never more to repine at my condition, but to rejoice, and to
give daily thanks for that daily bread, which nothing but a crowd of
wonders could have brought; that I ought to consider I had been fed
even by a miracle, even as great as that of feeding Elijah by ravens;
nay, by a long series of miracles: and that I could hardly have named
a place in the uninhabitable part of the world where I could have been
cast more to my advantage; a place where, as I had no society,
which was my affliction on one hand, so I found no ravenous beasts,
no furious wolves or tigers, to threaten my life; no venomous crea-
tures or poisonous, which I might feed on to my hurt; no savages to
murder and devour me. In a word, as my life was a life of sorrow
one way, so it was a liſe of mercy another; and I wanted nothing to
make it a life of comfort, but to be able to make my sense of God's
goodness to me, and care over me in this condition, be my daily
consolation; and after I did make a just improvement of these things,
I went away, and was no more sad.
I had now been here so long, that many things which I brought
on shore for my help were either quite gone, or very much wasted,
and near spent.
My ink, as I observed, had been gone some time, all but a very
little, which I eked out with water, a little and a little, till it was so
pale, it scarce left any appearance of black upon the paper. As long
as it lasted, I made use of it to minute down the days of the month on
which any remarkable thing happened to me; and, first, by casting
up times past, I remember that there was a strange concurrence of
days in the various providences which befel me, and which, if I had
been superstitiously inclined to observe days as fatal or fortunate, I
might have had reason to have looked upon with a great deal of
curiosity.
First, I had observed, that the same day that Ibroke away from
1 11
my father and my friends, and ran away to Hull, in order to go to
sea, the same day afterwards I was taken by the Sallee man of war,
and made a slave; the same day of the year that I escaped out of the
wreck of that ship in Yarmouth Roads, that same day-year afterwards
I made my escape from Sallee in the boat; the same day of the year I
was born on, viz. the 30th of September, that same day I had my life
so miraculously saved twenty-six years after, when I was cast on
shore in this island; so that my wicked life and my solitary life began
both on a day.
The next thing to my ink being wasted, was that of my bread, I
mean the biscuit which I brought out of the ship; this I had hus-
banded to the last degree, allowing myself but one cake of bread a
day for above a year; and yet I was quite without bread for near a year
before I got any corn of my own; and great reason I had to be thank-
ful that I had any at all, the getting it being, as has been already ob-
served, next to miraculous.
My clothes too began to decay mightily; as to linen, I had had
none a good while, except some chequered shirts which I found in
the chests of the other seamen, and which I carefully preserved,
because many times I could bear no other clothes on but a shirt; and
it was a very great help to me that I had, among all the men's clothes
of the ship, almost three dozen of shirts. There were also, several
thick watch-coats of the seamen's which were leſt indeed, but they
were too hot to wear: and though it is true that the weather was so
violent hot that there was no need of clothes, yet I could not go quite
naked, no, though I had been inclined to it, which I was not, nor
could I abide the thought of it, though I was all alone. The reason
why I could not go quite naked was, I could not bear the heat of the
sun so well when quite naked as with some clothes on; nay, the very
heat frequently blistered my skin; whereas, with a shirt on, the air
itself made some motion, and whistling under that shirt, was two-
fold cooler than without it. No more could I ever bring myself to go
out in the heat of the sun without a cap or a hat; the heat of the sun
beating with such violence as it does in that place, would give me the
head-ach presently, by darting so directly on my head, without a cap
or hat on, so that I could not bear it; whereas, if I put on my hat,
it would presently go away.
Upon those views, I began to consider about putting the few rags
112
I had, which I called clothes, into some order; I had worn out all
the waistcoats I had, and my business was now to try if I could not
make jackets out of the great watch-coats which I had by me, and
with such other materials as I had; so I set to work a tailoring, or
rather, indeed, a botching, for I made most piteous work of it.
However, I made shift to make two or three new waistcoats, which I
hoped would serve me a great while; as for breeches or drawers, I
made but a very sorry shift indeed till afterward.
I have mentioned, that I saved the skins of all the creatures that
I killed, I mean four-footed ones, and I had hung them up stretched
out with sticks in the sun, by which means some of them were so dry
and hard that they were fit for little, but others it seems were very
useful. The first thing I made of these was a great cap for my head,
with the hair on the outside, to shoot off the rain; and this I per-
formed so well, that after this I made me a suit of clothes wholly of
these skins, that is to say, a waistcoat, and breeches open at the
knees, and both loose, for they were rather wanting to keep me cool
than to keep me warm. I must not omit to acknowledge that they
were wretchedly made; for if I was a bad carpenter, I was a worse
tailor. However, they were such as I made very good shift with,
and when I was abroad, if it happened to rain, the hair of my waist-
coat and cap being outermost, I was kept very dry.
After this I spent a great deal of time and pains to make me an
umbrella; I was indeed in great want of one, and had a great mind to
make one; I had seen them made in the Brasils, where they are very
useful in the great heats which are there, and I felt the heats every jot
as great here, and greater too, being nearer the equinox; besides, as
I was obliged to be much abroad, it was a most useful thing to me, as
well for the rains as the heats. I took a world of pains at it, and was
a great while before I could make anything likely to hold; nay, after
I thought I had hit the way, I spoiled two or three before I made one
to my mind, but at last I made one that answered indifferently well;
the main diſficulty I found was to make it to let down. I could make
it to spread, but if it did not let down too, and draw in, it was not
portable for me any way but just over my head, which would not do.
However, at last, as I said, I made one to answer, and covered it with
skins, the hair upwards, so that it cast off the rain like a pent-house,
and keptoſſ the sun so cſſectually, that I could walk out in the hottest
113.
of the weather with greater advantage than I could before in the cool-
est, and when I had no need of it, could close it, and carry it under
my arm.
Thus Ilived mighty comfortably, my mind being entirely composed
by resigning to the will of God, and throwing myself wholly upon
the disposal of his providence. This made my life better than sociable,
for when I began to regret the want of conversation, I would ask my-
self, whether thus conversing mutually with my own thoughts, and,
as I hope I may say, with even God himself, by ejaculations, was not
better than the utmost enjoyment of human society in the world?
I cannot say that after this, for five years, any extraordinary thing
happened to me, but I lived on in the same course, in the same pos-
ture and place, just as before; the chief things I was employed in,
besides my yearly labour of planting my barley and rice, and curing
my raisins, of both which I always kept up just enough to have sufficient
stock of one year's provisions beforehand, I say, besides this yearly
labour, and my daily labour of going out with my gun, I had one
labour, to make me a canoe, which at last I finished; so that by dig-
ging a canal to it of six feet wide, and four feet deep, I brought it into
the creek, almost half a mile. As for the first, which was so vastly big,
as I made it without considering beforehand, as I ought to do, how I
should be able to launch it; so, never being able to bring it to the
water, or bring the water to it, I was obliged to let it lie where it was,
as a memorandum to teach me to be wiser next time; indeed, the next
time, though I could not get a tree proper for it, and in a place where
I could not get the water to it at any less distance than, as I have said,
near half a mile; yet as I saw it was practicable at last, I never gave
it over; and though I was near two years about it, yet I never grudged
my labour, in hopes of having a boat to go off to sea at last.
However, though my little periagua was finished, yet the size of it
was not at all answerable to the design which I had in view when I
made the first; I mean, of venturing over to the terra firma, where
it was above forty miles broad; accordingly, the smallness of my boat
assisted to put an end to that design, and now I thought no more of it.
But as I had a boat, my next design was to make a tour round the
island; for as I had been on the other side in one place, crossing, as
I have already described it, over the land; so the discoveries I made
in that little journey made me very eager to see other parts of the
Robinson Crusoe, 8
1 14
coast; and now I had a boat, I thought of nothing but Sailing round
the island.
For this purpose, that I might do every thing with discretion and
consideration, I fitted up a little mast to my boat, and made a sail to
it out of some of the pieces of the ship's sails, which lay in store; and
of which I had a great stock by me. Having fitted my mast and sail,
and tried the boat, I found she would sail very well; then I made little
lockers, or boxes, at either end of my boat, to put provisions, neces-
saries, ammunition, &c. into, to be kept dry, either from rain or the
spray of the sea; and a little long hollow place I cut in the inside of
the boat, where I could lay my gun, making a flap to hang down over
it, to keep it dry.
I fixed my umbrella also in a step at the stern, like a mast, to stand
over my head, and keep the heat of the sun off me, like an awning;
and thus I every now and then took a little voyage upon the sea, but
never went far out, nor far from the little creek; but a last, being
eager to view the circumference of my little kingdom, I resolved upon
my tour, and accordingly I victualled my ship for the voyage, putting
in two dozen of my loaves, cakes I should rather call them, of barley
bread, an earthen pot full of parched rice, a food I eat a great deal of,
a little bottle of rum, half a goat, and powder and shot for killing
more, and two large watch-coats, of those which, as I mentioned
before, I had saved out of the seamen's chests; these I took, one to lie
upon, and the other to cover me in the night.
It was the 6th of November, in the sixth year of my reign, or my
captivity, which you please, that I set out on this voyage, and I found
it much longer than I expected; for though the island itself was not
very large, yet when I came to the east side of it, I found a great ledge
of rocks lie out above two leagues into the sea, some above water,
some under it, and beyond that a shoal of sand, lying dry half a league
more; so that I was obliged to go a great way out to sea to double the
point.
When first I discovered them, I was going to give over my enter-
prise, and come back again, not knowing how far it might oblige me
to go out to sea, and, above all, doubting how Ishould get back again,
so I came to an anchor; for I had made me a kind of an anchor with a
piece of a broken grappling which I got out of the ship.
Having secured my boat, I took mygun and went on shore, climb-
115
fe e «» º
ing up upon a hill, which seemed to overlook that point, where I saw
the full extent of it, and resolved to venture.
In my viewing the sea from that hill, where I stood, I perceived a
strong, and indeed a most furious current, which ran to the east, and
even came close to the point; and I took the more notice of it, because
I saw there might be some danger, that when I came into it, I might
be carried out to sca by the strength of it, and not be able to make the
island again; and, indeed, had I not gotten first up upon this hill, I
believe it would have been so; for there was the same current on the
other side the island, only that it set off at a farther distance; and I
saw there was a strong eddy under the shore; so I had nothing to do
but to get in out of the first current, and I should presently be in an
eddy.
I lay here, however, two days; because the wind blowing pretty
fresh at E. S. E. and that being just contrary to the said current, made
a great breach of the sea upon the point; so that it was not safe for me
to keep too close to the shore for the breach, nor to go too far off bc-
cause of the stream.
The third day, in the morning, the wind having abated over-night,
the sea was calm and I ventured; but I am a warning-piece again to
all rash and ignorant pilots; for no sooner was I come to the point,
when even I was not my boat's length from the shore, but I found
myself in a great depth of water, and a current like the sluice of a mill:
it carried my boat along with it with such violence, that all I could do
could not keep her so much as on the edge of it, but I found it hurried
me farther and farther out from the eddy, which was on my left hand.
There was no wind stirring to help me, and all I could do with my
paddles signified nothing; and now I began to give myself over for
lost; for as the current was on both sides the island, I knew in a few
leagues distance they must join again, and then I was irrecoverably
gone; nor did I see any possibility of avoiding it; so that I had no
prospect before me but of perishing; not by the sea, for that was calm
enough, but of starving for hunger. I had indeed found a tortoise on
the shore, as big almost as I could liſt, and had tossed it into the boat;
and I had a great jar of fresh water, that is to say, one of my earthen
pots; but what was all this to being driven into the vast ocean, where,
to be sure, there was no shore, no mainland or island, for a thousand
leagues at least.
8 *
116
*
And flow I saw how easy it was for the providence of God to make
the most miserable condition mankind could be in, worse. Now I
looked back upon my desolate solitary island, as the most pleasant
place in the world, and all the happiness my heart could wish for was
to be but there again. I stretched out my hands to it, with eager
wishes; “O happy desert!” said I, “I shall never see thee more.
O miserable creature,” said I “whither am I going?” Then I re-
proached myself with my unthankſul temper, and how I had repined at
my solitary condition; and now what would I give to be on shore there
again. Thus we never see the true state of our condition till it is illus-
trated to us by its contraries, nor know how to value what we enjoy,
but by the want of it. It is scarce possible to imagine the consterna-
tion I was now in, being driven from my beloved island (for so it ap-
peared to me now to be) into the wide ocean, almost two leagues,
and in the utmost despair of ever recovering it again. However, I
worked hard, till indeed my strength was almost exhausted, and kept
my boat as much to the northward, that is, towards the side of the
current which the eddy lay on, as possibly I could; when about noon,
as the sun passed the meridian, I thought I felt a little breeze of wind
in my face, springing up from the S. S. E. This checred my heart
a little, and especially when, in about half an hour more, it blew
a pretty small gentle gale. By this time I was gotten at a frightful
distance from the island, and had the least cloud or hazy weather
intervened, I had been undone another way too; for I had no com-
pass on board, and should never have known how to have steered
towards the island, if I had but once lost sight of it; but the weather
continuing clear, I applied myself to get up my mast again, and
spread my sail, standing away to the north as Inuch as possible, to
get out of the current.
Just as I had set my mast and sail, and the boat began to stretch
away, I saw even by the clearness of the water some alteration of the
current was near; for where the current was so strong, the water
was foul; but perceiving the water clear, I found the current abate;
and presently I found to the east, at about half a mile, a breach of
the sea upon some rocks; these rocks I found caused the current to
part again, and as the main stress of it ran away more southerly, lea-
ving the rocks to the north-east; so the other returned by the repulse
i
117
of the rocks, and made a strong eddy, which ran back again to the
north-west, with a very sharp stream.
They who know what it is to have a reprieve brought to them upon
the ladder, or to be rescued from thieves just a going to murder them,
or who have been in such-like extremitics, may guess what my present
surprise of joy was, and how gladly I put my boat into the stream of
this eddy; and the wind also freshening, how gladly I spread my sail
to it, running cheerfully before the wind, and with a strong tide or
eddy under foot.
This eddy carried me about a league in my way back again, di-
rectly towards the island, but about two leagues more to the north-
ward than the current which carried me away at first; so that when
I came near the island, I found myself open to the northern shore of
it, that is to say, the other end of the island, opposite to that which
I went out from.
When I had made something more than a league of way by the
help of this current or eddy, I found it was spent, and served me no
farther. However, I found that being between the two great currents,
viz. that on the south side, which had hurried me away, and that on
the north, which lay about a league on the other side; I say, between
these two, in the wake of the island, I found the water at least still,
and running no way, and having still a breeze of wind fair for me, I
kept on steering directly for the island, though not making such fresh
way as I did before.
About four o'clock in the evening, being then within about a
league of the island, I found the point of the rocks which occasioned
this disaster stretching out, as is described before, to the southward,
and casting off the current more southerly, had, of course, made
another eddy to the north, and this I found very strong, but not di-
rectly setting the way my course lay, which was due west, but almost
full north. However, having a fresh gale, I stretched across this
eddy, slanting north-west; and, in about an hour, came within
about a mile of the shore, where, it being smooth water, I soon got
to land.
When I was on shore, I fell on my knees, and gave God thanks
for my deliverance, resolving to lay aside all thoughts of my deliver-
ance by my boat, and refreshing myself with such things as I had:
I brought my boat close to the shore, in a little cove that I had spied
118
under some trees, and laid me down to sleep, being quite spent with
the labour and fatigue of the voyage.
I was now at a great loss which way to get home with my boat; I
had run so much hazard, and knew too much of the case, to think
of attempting it by the way I went out; and what might be at the other
side (I mean the west side) I knew not, nor had I any mind to run any
more ventures; so I only resolved in the morning to make my way
westward along the shore, and to see if there was no creek where I
might lay up my frigate in safety, so as to have her again, if I wanted
her. In about three miles, or thereabouts, coasting the shore, I
came to a very good inlet or bay, about a mile over, which narrowed
till it came to a very little rivulet or brook, where I found a very con-
venient harbour for my boat, and where she lay as if she had been in
a little dock made on purpose for her. Here I put in, and having
stowed my boat very safe, I went on shore, to look about me, and
see where I was.
I soon found I had but a little passed by the place where I had
been before, when I travelled on foot to that shore; so taking nothing
out of my boat but my gun and my umbrella, for it was exceeding hot,
I began my march. The way was comfortable enough after such a
voyage as I had been upon, and I reached my old bower in the even-
ing, where I found every thing standing as I left it; for I always kept
it in good order, being, as I said before, my country house.
I got over the fence, and laid me down in the shade, to rest my
limbs, for I was very weary, and fell asleep; but judge you, if you
can, that read my story, what a surprise I must be in , when I was
waked out of my sleep by a voice, calling me by my name several
times, “Robin, Robin, Robin Crusoe, poor Robin Crusoel Where
are you, Robin Crusoe? Where are you? Where have you been?”
I was so dead asleep at first, being fatigued with rowing, or
paddling, as it is called, the first part of the day, and with walking
the latter part, that I did not wake thoroughly; but dozing between
sleeping and waking, thought I dreamed that somebody spoke to me;
but as the voice continued to repeat Robin Crusoe, Robin Crusoe,
at last I began to wake more perfectly, and was at first dreadfully
frighted, and started up in the utmost consternation; but no sooner
were my eyes open, but I saw my Pol sitting on the top of the hedge;
and immediately knew that it was he that spoke to me; for just in such
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bemoaning language I had used to talk to him, and teach him; and
he had learned it so perfectly, that he would sit upon my ſinger, and
lay his bill close to my face, and cry, “Poor Robin Crusoe! Where
are you? Where have you becn? How come you here?” and such
things as I had taught him.
However, even though I knew it was the parrot, and that indeed
it could be nobody else, it was a good while before I could compose
myself: first, I was amazed how the creature got thither, and then,
how he should just keep about the place, and no where else: but as
I was well satisfied, it could be nobody but honest Pol, I got it over;
and holding out my hand, and calling him by his name, Pol, the
sociable creature came to me, and sat upou my thumb, as he used
to do, and continued talking to me, “Poor Robin Crusoe' and how
did I come here? and where had I been?” just as if he had been over-
joyed to see me again; and so I carried him home along with me.
I had now had enough of rambling to sea for some time, and had
enough to do for many days, to sit still, and reflect upon the danger
I had been in. I would have been very glad to have had my boat again
on my side of the island; but I knew not how it was practicable to get
it about. As to the east side of the island, which I had gone round,
I knew well enough there was no venturing that way; my very heart
would shrink, and my very blood run chill, but to think of it: and
as to the other side of the island, I did not know how it might be
there; but supposing the current ran with the same force against the
shore at the east as it passed by it on the other, I might run the same
risk of being driven down the stream, and carried by the island, as
I had been before of being carried away from it; so, with these
thoughts, I contented myself to be without any boat, though it had
been the product of so many months' labour to make it, and of so
many more to get it into the sea.
In this government of my temper I remained near a year, lived a
very sedate, retired life, as you may well suppose; and my thoughts
being very much composed, as to my condition, and fully comforted
in resigning myself to the dispositions of Providence, I thought I lived
really very happily in all things, except that of society.
I improved myself in this time in all the mechanic exercises,
which my necessities put me upon applying myself to, and 1 believe
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could, upon occasion, make a very good carpenter, especially con-
sidering how few tools I had.
Besides this, I arrived at an unexpected perfection in my earthen-
ware, and contrived well enough to make them with a wheel, which
I found infinitely easier and better; because I made things round and
shapable, which before were filthy things indeed to look on. But I
think I was never more vain of my own performance, or more joyful
for any thing I found out, than for my being able to make a tobacco-
pipe. And though it was a very ugly clumsy thing when it was done,
and only burnt red, like other carthen-ware, yet as it was hard and
firm, and would draw the smoke, I was exceedingly comforted with
it; for I had been always used to smoke, and there were pipes in the
ship, but I forgot them at first, not knowing that there was tobacco
in the island; and afterwards, when I searched the ship again, I
could not come at any pipes at all. *
In my wicker-ware also I improved much, and made abundance
of necessary baskets, as well as my invention showed me, though
not very handsome, yet they were such as were very handy and conve-
nient for my laying things up in, or fetching things home in. For
example, if I killed a goat abroad, I could hang it up in a tree, ſlay
it, dress it, and cut it in pieces, and bring it home in a basket, and
the like by a turtle, I could cut it up, take out the eggs, and a piece
or two of the flesh, which was enough for me, and bring them home
in a basket, and leave the rest behind me. Also large deep baskets
were my receivers for my corn, which I always rubbed out as soon as
it was dry, and cured, and kept it in great baskets.
I began now to perceive my powder abated considerably, and this
was a want which it was impossible for me to supply, and I began
seriously to consider what I must do when I should have no more
powder; that is to say, how I should do to kill any goats. I had, as
is observed, in the third year of my being here, kept a young kid,
and bred her up tame, and I was in hopes of getting a he-goat, but
I could not by any means bring it to pass, till my kid grew an old
goat; and I could never find in my heart to kill her, till she died at
last of mere age.
But being now in the eleventh year of my residence, and, as I
have said, my ammunition growing low, I set myself to study some
art to trap and snare the goats, to see whether I could not catch some
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of them alive; and particularly, I wanted a she-goat great with young.
To this purpose, I made snares to hamper them, and I do believe
they were more than once taken in them; but my tackle was not good,
for I had no wire, and I always found them broken, and my bait
devoured. At length I resolved to try a pitfall; so I dug several large
pits in the earth, in places where I had observed the goats used to
feed, and over these pits I placed hurdles, of my own making too,
with a great weight upon them; and several times I put cars of barley
and dry rice, without setting the trap, and I could easily perceive
that the goats had gone in and eaten up the corn, for I could see the
mark of their feet. At length I set three traps in one night, and going
the next morning, I found them all standing, and yet the bait eaten
and gone; this was very discouraging. However, I altered my traps;
and, not to trouble you with particulars, going one morning to see
my traps, I found in one of them a large old he-goat, and in one of
the others three kids, a male and two females.
As to the old one, I knew not what to do with him, he was so
fierce I durst not go into the pit to him; that is to say, to go about to
bring him away alive, which was what I wanted. I could have killed
him, but that was not my business, nor would it answer my end; so
I e'en let him out, and he ran away, as if he had been frighted out of
his wits. But I did not then know what I learned afterwards, that
hunger will tame a lion. If I had let him stay there three or four days
without food, and then have carried him some water to drink, and
then a little corn, he would have been as tame as one of the kids, for
they are mighty sagacious, tractable creatures, where they are well
used.
However, for the present I let him go, knowing no better at that
time; then I went to the three kids, and taking them one by one, I
tied them with strings together, and with some difficulty brought them
all home.
It was a good while before they would feed, but throwing them
some sweet corn, it tempted them, and they began to be tame. And
now I found that if I expected to supply myself with goat-ſlesh when I
had no powder or shot left, breeding some up tame was my only way,
when perhaps I might have them about my house like a flock of sheep.
But then it presently occurred to me, that I must keep the tame from
the wild, or else they would always run wild when they grew up; and
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the only way for this was, to have some enclosed piece of ground, well
fenced, either with hedge or pale, to keep them in so effectually, that
those within might not break out, or those without break in.
This was a great undertaking for one pair of hands; yet as I saw
there was an absolute necessity of doing it, my first piece of work
was to find out a proper picce of ground, viz. where there was likely
to be herbage for them to eat, water for them to drink, and cover to
keep them from the sun.
Those who understand such enclosures will think I had very little
contrivance, when I pitched upon a place very proper for all these,
being a plain open piece of meadow land, or savannah (as our people
call it in the western colonies,) which had two or three little drills of
fresh water in it, and at one end was very woody; I say, they will
smile at my forecast, when I shall tell them, I began my enclosing of
this piece of ground in such a manner, that my hedge or pale must
have been at least two miles about. Nor was the madness of it so great
as to the compass, for if it was ten miles about I was like to have time
enough to do it in; but I did not consider that my goats would be as
wild in so much compass as if they had had the whole island, and I
should have so much room to chase them in, that I should never catch
them.
My hedge was begun and carried on, I believe about ſiſty yards,
when this thought occurred to me, so I presently stopped short, and,
for the first beginning, I resolved to enclose a piece of about 150 yards
in length, and 100 yards in breadth; which, as it would maintain as
many as I should have in any reasonable time, so, as my flock in-
creased, I could add more ground to my enclosure.
This was acting with some prudence, and I went to work with
courage. I was about three months hedging in the first piece, and,
till I had done it, I tethered the three kids in the best part of it, and
used them to feed as near me as possible, to make them familiar;
and very often I would go and carry them some ears of barley, or a
handful of rice, and feed them out of my hand: so that aſter my enclo-
sure was finished, and I let them loose, they would follow me up and
down, bleating after me for a handful of corn.
This answered my end, and in about a year and a half I had a flock
of about twelve goats, kids and all; and in two years more, I had
three and forty, besides several that I took and killed for my food.
123
And after that I enclosed five several pieces of ground to feed them in,
with little pens to drive them into, to take them as I wanted, and gates
out of one piece of ground into another.
But this was not all, for now I not only had goat's flesh to ſeed on
when I pleased, but milk too, a thing which, indeed, in my begin-
ning, I did not so much as think of, and which, when it came into
my thoughts, was really an agreeable surprise. For now I set up my
dairy, and had sometimes a gallon or two of milk in a day, and as
nature, who gives supplies of food to every creature, dictates even
naturally how to make use of it, so I, that had never milked a cow,
much less a goat, or seen butter or cheese made, very readily and
handily, though after a great many essays and miscarriages, made
me both butter and cheese at last, and never wanted it afterwards.
How merciſully can our Creator treat his creatures, even in those
conditions in which they seemed to be overwhelmed in destruction!
How can he sweeten the bitterest providences, and give us cause to
praise him for dungeons and prisons ! What a table was here spread
for me in a wilderness, where I saw nothing, at first, but to perish
for hunger!
It would have made a stoic smile, to have seen me and my little
family sit down to dinner; there was my majesty, the prince and
lord of the whole island: I had the lives of all my subjects at my ab-
solute command. I could hang, draw, give liberty, and take it
away; and no rebels among all my subjects. Then to see how like a
king I dined too, all alone, attended by my servants, Pol, as if
he had been my favourite, was the only person permitted to talk
to me. My dog, who was now grown very old and crazy, and had
ſound no species to multiply his kind upon, sat always at my right
hand, and two cats, one on one side of the table, and one on the
other, expecting now and then a bit from my hand, as a mark of
special favour.
But these were not the two cats which I brought on shore at first,
for they were both of them dead, and had been interred near my habi-
tation by my own hand; but one of them having multiplied by I know
not what kind of creature, these were two which I had preserved tame,
whereas the rest run wild in the woods, and became indeed trouble-
some to me at last; for they would often come into my house, and
plunder me too, till at last I was obliged to shoot them, and did kill
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a great many; at length they left me. With this attendance, and in
this plentiful manner, I lived; neither could I be said to want any
thing but society: and of that in some time after this, I was like to
have too much.
I was something impatient, as I have observed, to have the use
of my boat; though very loath to run any more hazards; and therefore
sometimes I sat contriving ways to get her about the island, and at
other times I sat myself down contented enough without her. But I
had a strange uneasiness in my mind to go down to the point of the
island, where, as I have said, in my last ramble, I went up the hill
to see how the shore lay, and how the current set, that I might see
what I had to do: this inclination increased upon me every day, and
at length I resolved to travel thither by land, and following the edge
of the shore, I did so; but had any one in England been to meet such
a man as I was, it must either have frighted them, or raised a great
deal of laughter; and as I frequently stood still to look at myself, I
could not but smile at the notion of my travelling through Yorkshire,
with such an equipage, and in such a dress: be pleased to take a
sketch of my ſigure, as follows:
I had a great high shapeless cap, made of a goat's skin, with a
ſlap hanging down behind, as well to keep the sun from me as to shoot
the rain off from running into my neck; nothing being so hurtful in
these climates as the rain upon the flesh, under the clothes.
I had a short jacket of goat's skin, the skirts coming down to
about the middle of my thighs; and a pair of open-kneed breeches of
the same; the breeches were made of the skin of an old he-goat,
whose hair hung down such a length on either side, that, like pan-
taloons, it reached to the middle of my legs; stockings and shoes I
had none, but had made me a pair of somethings, I scarce know
what to call them, like buskins, to ſlap over my legs, and lace on
either side like spatterdashes; but of a most barbarous shape, as in-
deed were all the rest of my clothes.
I had on a broad belt of goat's skin dried, which I drew together
with two thongs of the same, instead of buckles; and in a kind of a
frog on either side of this, instead of a sword and dagger, hung a
little saw and a hatchet, one on one side, and one on the other.
I had another belt, not so broad, and fastencd in the same manner,
which hung over my shoulder; and at the end of it, under my left
125
arm, hung two pouches, both made of goat's skin too; in one of
which hung my powder, in the other my shot; at my back I carried
my basket, and on my shoulder my gun, and over my head a great
clumsy ugly goat's-skin umbrella, but which, after all, was the most
necessary thing I had about me, next to my gun; as for my face, the
colour of it was really not so mulatto-like as one might expect from a
man not at all careful of it, and living within nine or ten degrees of
the equinox. My beard I had once suffered to grow till it was about
a quarter of a yard long; but as I had both scissors and razors suſli-
cient, I had cut it pretty short, except what grew on my upper lip,
which I had trimmed into a large pair of Mahometan whiskers, such
as I had seen worn by some Turks whom I saw at Sallee; for the
Moors did not wear such, though the Turks did; of these mustachios
or whiskers, I will not say they were long enough to hang my hat
upon them, but they were of a length and shape monstrous enough,
and such as, in England, would have passed for frightful.
But all this is by the bye; for, as to my figure, I had so few to
observe me that it was of no manner of consequence; so I say no
more to that part. In this kind of figure I went my new journey, and
was out five or six days. I travelled first along the sea-shore, directly
to the place where I first brought my boat to an anchor, to get upon
the rocks; and having no boat now to take care of, I went over the
land, a nearer way, to the same height that I was upon before; when
looking forward to the point of the rocks which lay out, and which I
was obliged to double with my boat, as is said above, I was surprised
to see the sea all Smooth and quiet, no rippling, no motion, no cur-
rent, any more there than in any other places. I was at a strange
loss to understand this, and resolved to spend some time in the ob-
Serving it, to see if nothing from the sets of the tide had occasioned
it; but I was presently convinced how it was, viz. that the tide of ebb
Setting from the west, and joining with the current of waters from
Some great river on the shore, must be the occasion of this current;
and that according as the wind blew more forcibly from the west, or
from the north, this current came nearer, or went farther from the
shore; for waiting thereabouts till evening, I went up to the rock
again, and then the tide of ebb being made, I plainly saw the current
again as before, only that it ran farther off, being near half a league
from the shore; whereas in my case, it set close upon the shore, and
126
hurricq me and my canoe along with it, which, at another time, it
would not have done.
This observation convinced me, that I had nothing to do but to
observe the ebbing and the ſlowing of the tide, and I might very
easily bring my boat about the island again; hut when I began to
think of putting it in practice, I had such a terror upon my spirits at
the remembrance of the danger I had been in, that I could not think
of it again with any patience; but, on the contrary, I took up another
resolution, which was more safe, though more laborious; and this
was, that I would build, or rather make me another periagua or
canoe; and so have one for one side of the island, and one for the
other.
You are to understand, that now I had, as I may call it, two
plantations in the island; one, my little fortification or tent, with
the wall about it, under the rock, with the cave behind me, which,
by this time, I had enlarged into several apartments or caves, one
within another. One of these, which was the driest and largest, and
had a door out beyond my wall or fortification, that is to say, beyond
where my wall joined to the rock, was all filled up with the large
earthen pots, of which I have given an account, and with fourteen
or fifteen great baskets, which would hold five or six bushels each,
where I laid up my stores of provision, especially my corn, some in
the ear, cut offshort from the straw, and the other rubbed out with
my hand.
As for my wall, made, as before, with long stakes or piles,
those piles grew all like trees, and were by this time grown so big,
and spread so very much, that there was not the least appearance, to
any one's view, of any habitation behind them.
Near this dwelling of mine, but a little farther within the land,
and upon lower ground, lay my two pieces of corn ground, which I
kept duly cultivated and sowed, and which duly yielded me their
harvest in its season; and whenever I had occasion for more corn, I
had more land adjoining as ſit as that.
Besides this, I had my country scat, and I had now a tolerable
plantation there also; for, first, I had my little bower, as I called it,
which I kept in repair; that is to say, I kept the hedge which circled
it in, constantly fitted up to its usual height, the ladder standing
127
always in the inside; I kept the trees, which at first were no more
than my stakes, but were now grown very firm and tall; I kept them
always so cut, that they might spread and grow thick and wild, and
make the more agreeable shade, which they did effectually to my
mind. In the middle of this I had my tent always standing, being a
piece of a sail spread over poles, set up for that purpose, and which
never wanted any repair or renewing; and under this I had made me
a squab or couch, with the skins of the creatures I had killed, and
with other soft things, and a blanket laid on them, such as belonged
to our sea-bedding, which I had saved, and a great watch-coat to
cover me; and here, whenever I had occasion to be absent from my
chief seat, I took up my country habitation.
Adjoining to this I had my enclosures for my cattle, that is to say,
my goats; and as I had taken an inconceivable deal of pains to fence
and enclose this ground, so I was so uneasy to see it kept entire,
lest the goats should break through, that I never leſt off, till, with
infinite labour, I had stuck the outside of the hedge so full of small
stakes, and so near to one another, that it was rather a pale than a
hedge, and there was scarce room to put a hand through between
them; which afterwards, when those stakes grew, as they all did in
the next rainy season, made the enclosure strong like a wall, indeed,
stronger than any wall.
This will testify for me that I was not idle, and that I spared no
pains to bring to pass whatever appeared necessary for my comfortable
support; for I considered the keeping up a breed of tame creatures
thus at my hand would be a living magazine of flesh, milk, butter,
and cheese for me as long as I lived in the place, if it were to be forty
years; and that keeping them in my reach depended entirely upon
my perfecting my enclosures to such a degree, that I might be
sure of keeping them together; which, by this method, indeed, I
So effectually secured, that when these little stakes began to grow,
I had planted them so very thick, I was forced to pull some of them
up again.
In this place also I had my grapes growing, which I principally
depended on for my winter store of raisins, and which I never failed
to preserve very carefully, as the best and most agreeable dainty of
my whole diet; and indeed they were not agreeable only, but phy-
sical, wholesome, nourishing, and refreshing to the last degree.
128
As this was also about half-way between my other habitation and
the place where I had laid up my boat, I generally stayed and lay here
in my way thither; for I used frequently to visit my boat, and I kept
all things about, or belonging to her, in very good order; sometimes
I went out in her to divert myself, but no more hazardous voyages
would I go, nor scarce ever above a stone's cast or two from the shore,
I was so apprehensive of being hurried out of my knowledge again by
the currents or winds, or any other accident. But now I come to a
new scene of my life.
It happened one day, about noon, going towards my boat, I was
exceedingly surprised with the print of a man's naked foot on the
shore, which was very plain to be seen in the sand. I stood like one
thunderstruck, or as if I had seen an apparition; I listened, I looked
round me, but I could hear nothing, nor see any thing; I went up to
a rising ground, to look farther; I went up the shore, and down the
shore, but it was all one; I could see no other impression but that
one. I went to it again to see if there were any more, and to observe
If it might not be my fancy; but there was no room for that, for there
Was exactly the very print of a foot, toes, heel, and every part of a
foot; how it came thither I knew not, nor could in the least imagine.
But after innumerable ſluttering thoughts, like a man perfectly con-
fused and out of myself, I came home to my fortification, not feeling,
as we say, the ground I went on, but terrified to the last degree,
looking behind me at every two or three steps, mistaking every bush
and tree, and fancying every stump at a distance to be a man; nor is
it possible to describe how many various shapes my affrighted imagi-
nation represented things to me in, how many wild ideas were found
every moment in my fancy, and what strange unaccountable whimsies
came into my thoughts by the way.
When I came to my castle, for so I think I called it ever after this,
I ſled into it like one pursued; whether I went over by the ladder, as
first contrived, or went in at the hole in the rock, which I called a
door, I cannot remember; no, nor could I remember the next
morning, for never frighted hare fled to cover, or fox to earth, with
more terror of mind than I to this retreat.
Islept none that night; the farther I was from the occasion of my
fright, the greater my apprehensions were; which is something con-
trary to the nature of such things, and especially to the usual practice
120
of all creatures in fear; but I was so embarrassed with my own
frightful ideas of the thing, that I formed nothing but dismal ima-
ginations to myself, even though I was now a great way off of it.
Sometimes I fancied it must be the Devil, and reason joined in with
me upon this supposition; for how should any other thing in human
shape come into the place? Where was the vessel that brought them?
What marks were there of any other footsteps? And how was it
possible a man should come there? But then to think that Satan
should take human shape upon him in such a place, where there
could be no manner of occasion for it, but to leave the print of his
foot behind him, and that even for no purpose too, for he could not
be sure I should see it; this was an amusement the other way; I
considered that the Devil might have found out abundance of other
ways to have terrified me than this of the single print of a foot. That
as I lived quite on the other side of the island, he would never have
been so simple to leave a mark in a place where it was ten thousand to
one whether I should ever see it or not, and in the sand too, which
the first surge of the sea, upon a high wind, would have defaced
entirely: all this seemed inconsistent with the thing itself, and with
all the notions we usually entertain of the subtilty of the Devil.
Abundance of such things as these assisted to argue me out of all
apprehensions of its being the Devil; and I presently concluded then,
that it must be some more dangerous creature, viz. that it must be
some of the Savages of the main land over against me, who had wan-
dered out to sea in their canoes, and either driven by the currents or
by contrary winds, had made the island, and had been on shore, but
were gone away again to sea, being as loath, perhaps, to have stayed
in this desolate island as I would have been to have had them.
While these reflections were rolling upon my mind, I was very
thankful in my thoughts that I was so happy as not to be thereabouts
at that time, or that they did not see my boat, by which they would
have concluded that some inhabitants had been in the place, and
perhaps have searched farther for me; then terrible thoughts racked
my imagination about their having found my boat, and that there were
people here; and that if so, I should certainly have them come again
in greater numbers, and devour me; that if it should happen so that
they should not find me, yet they would find my enclosure, destroy all
Wºobinson Crusoe. 9
130
-*.
my corn, and carry away all my ſlock of tame goats, and I should
perish at last for mere want.
Thus my fear banished all my religious hope; all that former con-
fidence in God, which was founded upon such wonderful experience
as I had had of his goodness, now vanished, as if he that had fed me by
miracle hitherto could not preserve, by his power, the provision which
he had made for me by his goodness. I reproached myself with my
easiness, that would not sow any more corn one year than would just
'serve me till the next season, as if no accident could intervene to
prevent my enjoying the crop that was upon the ground; and this I
thought so just a reproof, that I resolved for the future to have two
or three years' corn beforehand, so that whatever might come, I
might not perish for want of bread.
How strange a chequer-work of Providence is the life of man!
and by what secret differing springs are the affections hurried about
as differing circumstances present! To-day we love what to-morrow
we hate; to-day we seek what to-morrow we shun; do-day we desire
what to-morrow we fear, nay, even tremble at the apprehensions
of; this was exemplified in me, at this time, in the most lively
manner imaginable; for I, whose only aſſliction was that I seemed
banished from human society, that I was alone circumscribed by the
boundless ocean, cut off from mankind, and condemned to what I
called silent life; that I was as one who Heaven thought not worthy
to be numbered among the living, or to appear among the rest of his
creatures; that to have seen one of my own species would have seemed
to me a raising me from death to life, and the greatest blessing that
Heaven itself, next to the Supreme blessing of salvation, could be—
stow; I say, that I should now tremble at the very apprehensions of
seeing a man, and was ready to sink into the ground at but the
shadow or silent appearance of a man's having set his foot in the
island.
Such is the uneven state of human life; and it afforded me a great
many curious speculations afterwards, when I had a little recovered
my first surprise. I considered that this was the station of life the
infinitely wise and good providence of God had determined for me;
that as I could not foresee what the ends of divine wisdom might be
in all this, so I was not to dispute his sovereignty, who, as I was
his creature, had an undoubted right, by creation, to govern and
13t.
dispose of me absolutely as he thought ſit, and who, as I was a
creature who had offended him, had likewise a judicial right to
condemn me to what punishment he thought fit; and that it was my
part to submit to bear his indignation, because I had sinned against
him. I then reflected, that God, who was not only righteous, but
omnipotent, as he had thought ſit thus to punish and afflict me, so he
was able to deliver me; that if he did not think ſit to do so, it was
my unquestioned duty to resign myself absolutely and entirely to his
will; and, on the other hand, it was my duty also to hope in him,
pray to him, and quietly to attend the dictates and directions of his
daily providence.
These thoughts took me up many hours, days, nay, I may say,
weeks and months; and one particular eſſect of my cogitations on
this occasion I cannot omit, viz. One morning early, lying in my
bed, and filled with thoughts about my danger from the appearance
of savages, I found it discomposed me very much; upon which those
words of the Scripture came into my thoughts, “Call upon me in the
day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.”
Upon this, rising cheerfully out of my bed, my heart was not only
comforted, but I was guided and encouraged to pray earnestly to
God for deliverance: when I had done praying, I took up my Bible,
and opening it to read, the first words that presented to me were,
“Wait on the Lord, and be of good cheer, and he shall strengthen
thy heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.” It is impossible to express
the comfort this gave me. In answer, I thankfully laid down the
book, and was no more sad, at least, not on that occasion.
In the middle of these cogitations, apprehensions, and reflections,
it came into my thoughts one day, that all this might be a mere
chimera of my own; and that this foot might be the print of my own
foot, when I came on shore from my boat; this cheered me up a little
too, and I began to persuade myself it was all a delusion; that it was
nothing else but my own foot; and why might not I come that way
from the boat, as well as I was going that way to the boat? Again,
I considered also, that I could by no means tell, for certain, where
I had trod, and where I had not; and that if, at last, this was only
the print of my own foot, I had played the part of those fools who
strive to make stories of spectres and apparitions, and then are
frighted at them more than apy body. 9 #
*
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Now I began to take courage, and to peep abroad again, for I
had not stirred out of my castle for three days and nights, so that I
began to starve for provision; for I had little or nothing within doors
but some barley-cakes and water; then I knew that my goats wanted
to be milked too, which usually was my evening diversion; and the
poor creatures were in great pain and inconvenience for want of it;
and, indeed, it almost spoiled some of them, and almost dried up
their milk. Heartening myself, therefore, with the belief that this
was nothing but the print of one of my own feet, and so I might be
truly said to start at my own shadow, I began to go abroad again,
and went to my country-house to milk my flock; but to see with what
fear I went forward, how often I looked behind me, how I was ready,
every now and then, to lay down my basket, and run for my life, it
would have made any one have thought I was haunted with an evil
conscience, or that I had been lately most terribly frighted, and so,
indeed, I had. However, as I went down thus two or three days,
and having seen nothing, I began to be a little bolder, and to think
there was really nothing in it but my own imagination; but I could
not persuade myself fully of this till I should go down to the shore
again, and see this print of a foot, and measure it by my own, and
see if there was any similitude or fitness that I might be assured it
was my own foot: but when I came to the place, first, it appeared
evidently to me, that when I laid up my boat, I could not possibly
be on shore any where thereabouts: secondly, when I came to mea-
sure the mark with my own foot, I found my foot not so large by a
great deal. Both these things filled my head with new imaginations,
and gave me the vapours again to the highest degree; so that I shook
with cold like one in an ague: and I went home again, filled with the
belief that some man or men had been on shore there; or, in short,
that the island was inhabited, and I might be surprised before I was
aware; and what course to take for my security I knew not.
O what ridiculous resolutions men take when possessed with fear !
It deprives them of the use of those means which reason offers for
their relief. The first thing I proposed to myself was to throw down
my enclosures, and turn all my tame cattle wild into the woods, that
the enemy might not find them, and then frequent the island in pro-
spect of the same or the like booty; then to the simple thing of
digging up my two corn fields, that they might not find such a grain
133
there, and still be prompted to frequent the island; then to demolish my
bower and tent, that they might not see any vestiges of habitation, and
be prompted to look farther, in order to find out the persons inhabiting.
These were the subject of the first night's cogitation, after I was
come home again, while the apprehensions which had so over-run
my mind were fresh upon me, and my head was full of vapours, as
above. Thus fear of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying
than danger itself, when apparent to the eyes; and we find the
burthen of anxiety greater, by much, than the evil which we are
anxious about; and, which was worse than all this, I had not that
relief in this trouble from the resignation I used to practise, that I
hoped to have. I looked, I thought, like Saul, who complained not
only that the Philistines were upon him, but that God had forsaken
him; for I did not now take due ways to compose my mind, by crying
to God in my distress, and resting upon his providence, as I had
done before, for my defence and deliverance; which, if I had done,
I had at least been more cheerfully supported under this new surprise,
and perhaps carried through it with more resolution.
This confusion of my thoughts kept me awake all night but in the
morning I fell asleep, and having, by the amusement of my mind,
been, as it were, tired, and my spirits exhausted, I slept very
soundly, and waked much better composed than I had ever been be-
fore. And now I began to think sedately; and, upon the utmost de-
bate with myself, I concluded, that this island, which was so ex-
ceeding pleasant, fruitful, and no farther from the main land than
as I had seen, was not so entirely abandoned as I might imagine; that
although there were no stated inhabitants who lived on the spot, yet
that there might sometimes come boats off from the shore, who, either
with design, or perhaps never but when they were driven by cross
winds, might come to this place; that I had lived here fifteen years
now, and had not met with the least shadow or figure of any people
yet; and that if at any time they should be driven here, it was proba-
ble they went away again as soon as ever they could, seeing they had
never thought fit to fix there upon any occasion to this time; that the
most I could suggest any danger from, was from any casual accidental
landing of straggling people from the main, who, as it was likely, If
they were driven hither, were here against their wills; so they made
no stay here, but went off again with all possible speed, seldom
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staying one night on shore, lest they should not have the help of the
tides and daylight back again; and that, therefore, I had nothing to
do but to consider of some safe retreat, in case I should see any sava-
ges land upon the spot.
Now I began sorely to repent that I had dug my cave so large as to
bring a door through again, which door, as I said, came out beyond
where my fortification joined to the rock; upon maturely considering
this, therefore, I resolved to draw me a sceond fortification, in the
same manner of a semi-circle, at a distance from my wall, just where
I had planted a double row of trees about twelve years before, of
which I made mention: these trees having been planted so thick be-
fore, they wanted but a few piles to be driven between them, that
they should be thicker and stronger, and my wall would be soon
finished. So that I had now a double wall; and my outer wall was
thickened with pieces of timber, old cables, and every thing I could
think of, to make it strong; having in it seven little holes, about as
big as I might put my arm out at: in the inside of this, I thickened
my wall to above ten feet thick, with continual bringing earth out of
my cave, and laying it at the foot of the wall, and walking upon it;
and through the seven holes I contrived to plant the muskets, of
which I took notice that I had got seven on shore out of the ship; these
I say, I planted like my cannon, and fitted them into frames, that
held them like a carriage, so that I could ſire all the seven guns in two
minutes' time; this wall I was many a weary month a finishing, and
yet never thought myself safe till it was done.
When this was done, I stuck all the ground without my wall, for
a great way every way, as full with stakes, or sticks, of the osier-
like wood, which I found so apt to grow, as they could well stand;
insomuch, that I believe I might set in near twenty thousand of them,
leaving a pretty large space between them and my wall, that I might
have room to see an enemy, and they might have no shelter from the
young trees, if they attempted to approach my outer wall.
Thus, in two years' time, I had a thick grove; and in five or six
years' time I had a wood before my dwelling, growing so monstrous
thick and strong, that it was indeed perfectly impassable; and no men,
of what kind soever, would ever imagine that there was any thing
beyond it, much less a habitation. As for the way which I proposed
to myself to go in and out, for Ileſt no avenue, it was by setting two
*
135
ladders, one to a part of the rock which was low, and then broke in,
and left room to place another ladder upon that; so when the two lad-
ders were taken down, no man living could come down to me without
mischieſing himself; and if they had come down, they were still on
the outside of my outer wall.
Thus I took all the measures human prudence could suggest for
my own preservation; and it will be seen, at length, that they were
not altogether without just reason; though I foresaw nothing at that
time more than my mere fear suggested to me.
While this was doing, I was not altogether careless of my other
affairs; for I had a great concern upon me for my little herd of goats;
they were not only a ready supply to me upon every occasion, and
began to be sufficient to me, without the expense of powder and shot,
but also without the fatigue of hunting after the wild ones; and I was
loath to lose the advantage of them, and to have them all to nurse up
over again.
To this purpose, aſter long consideration, I could think of but
two ways to preserve them; one was, to find another convenient place
to dig a cave under ground, and to drive them into it every night; and
the other was, to enclose two or three little bits of land, remote from
one another, and as much concealed as I could, where I might keep
about half a dozen young goats in each place; so that iſ any disaster
happened to the flock in general, I might be able to raise them again
with little trouble and time: and this, though it would require a great
deal of time and labour, I thought was the most rational design.
Accordingly, I spent some time to find out the most retired parts
of the island; and I pitched upon one, which was as private, indeed,
as my heart could wish for: it was a little damp piece of ground, in
the middle of the hollow and thick woods, where, as is observed, I
almost lost myself once before, endeavouring to come back that way
from the eastern part of the island. Here I found a clear piece of land,
near three acres, so surrounded with woods, that it was almost an
enclosure by nature; at least, it did not want near so much labour
to make it so as the other pieces of ground I had worked so hard at-
I immediately went to work with this piece of ground, and in less
than a month's time I had so fenced it round, that my flock, or herd,
call it which you please, who were not so wild now as at first they
might be supposed to be, were well enough secured in it. So, with-
136
out any farther delay, I removed ten young she-goats and two he-
goats to this piece; and when they were there, I continued to perfect
the fence, till I had made it as secure as the other, which, however,
I did at more leisure, and it took me up more time by a great deal.
All this labour I was at the expense of, purely from my apprehensions
on the account of the print of a man's foot which I had seen; for, as
yet, I never saw any human creature come near the island; and I had
now lived two years under these uneasinesses, which, indeed, made
my life much less comfortable than it was before, as may well be ima-
gined by any who know what it is to live in the constant snare of the
fear of man. And this, I must observe, with grief too, that the
discomposure of my mind had too great impressions also upon the
religious part of my thoughts; for the dread and terror of falling into
the hands of savages and cannibals lay so upon my spirits, that I sel-
dom found myself in a due temper for application to my Maker, at
least not with the sedate calmness and resignation of soul which I was
wont to do; I rather prayed to God as under great aſſliction and pres–
sure of mind, surrounded with danger, and in expectation every night
of being murdered and devoured before morning; and I must testify
from my experience, that a temper of peace, thankfulness, love, and
affection, is much more the proper frame for prayer than that of terror
and discomposure; and that under the dread of mischief impending,
a man is no more ſit for a comforting performance of the duty of pray-
ing to God, than he is for repentance on a sick bed; for these discom-
posures affect the mind, as the others do the body; and the discom-
posure of the mind must necessarily be as great a disability as that of
the body, and much greater, praying to God being properly an act
of the mind, not of the body.
But to go on; after I had thus secured one part of my little living
stock, I went about the whole island, searching for another private
place to make such another deposit; when, wandering more to the
west point of the island than I had ever done yet, and looking out to
sea, I thought I saw a boat upon the sea, at a great distance. I had
found a perspective-glass or two in one of the seamen's chests, which
I saved out of our ship, but I had it not about me; and this was so
remote, that I could not tell what to make of it, though I looked at it
till my eyes were not able to hold to look any longer: whether it was
a boat or not, I do not know, but as I descended from the hill I could
137
see no more of it, so I gave it over; only I resolved to go no more out
without a perspective-glass in my pocket. When I was come down
the hill to the end of the island, where, indeed, I had never been
before, I was presently convinced that the seeing the print of a man's
foot was not such a strange thing in the island as I imagined: and, but
that it was a special providence that I was cast upon the side of the
island where the savages never came, I should easily have known that
nothing was more frequent than for the canoes from the main, when
they happened to be a little too far out at sea, to shoot over to that side
of the island for harbour: likewise, as they often met and fought in
their canoes, the victors having taken any prisoners would bring them
over to this shore, where, according to their dreadful customs, being
all cannibals, they would kill and eat them; of which hereafter.
When I was come down the hill to the shore, as I said above,
being the S. W. point of the island, I was perfectly confounded and
amazed; nor is it possible for me to express the horror of my mind,
at seeing the shore spread with skulls, hands, feet, and other bones
of human bodies; and particularly, I observed a place where there
had been a fire made, and a circle dug in the earth, like a cock-pit,
where it is supposed the savage wretches had sat down to their in-
human feastings upon the bodies of their fellow creatures.
I was so astonished with the sight of these things, that I enter-
tained no notions of any danger to myself from it for a long while : all
my apprehensions were buried in the thoughts of such a pitch of in-
human, hellish brutality, and the horror of the degeneracy of human
nature, which, though I had heard of often, yet I never had so near
a view of before : in short, I turned away my face from the horrid
spectacle; my stomach grew sick, and I was just at the point of ſaint-
ing, when nature discharged the disorder from my stomach; and
having vomited with an uncommon violence, I was a little relieved,
but could not bear to stay in the place a moment; so I got me up the
hill again with all the speed I could, and walked on towards my own
habitation.
When I came a little out of that part of the island, I stood still
awhile, as amazed, and then recovering myself, I looked up with
the utmost affection of my soul, and, with a flood of tears in my
eyes, gave God thanks, that had cast my first lot in a part of the world
where I was distinguished from such dreadful creatures as these; and
138
that, though I had esteemed my present condition very miserable, had
yet given me so many comforts in it, that I had still more to give
thanks for than to complain of; and this, above all, that I had, even
in this miscrable condition, been comforted with the knowledge of
Himself, and the hope of His blessing; which was a felicity more
than sufficiently equivalent to all the misery which I had suffered, or
could suffer.
In this frame of thankfulness, I went home to my castle, and
began to be much casier now, as to the safety of my circumstances,
than ever I was before; for I observed that these wretches never came
to this island in search of what they could get; perhaps not seeking,
not wanting, or not expecting, any thing here; and having often, no
doubt, been up in the covered, woody part of it, without finding
any thing to their purpose. I knew I had been here now almost
eighteen years, and never saw the least footsteps of human creature
there before; and I might be here eighteen more as entirely concealed
as I was now, if I did not discover myself to them, which I had no
manner of occasion to do; it being my only business to keep myself
entirely concealed where I was, unless I found a better sort of crea-
tures than cannibals to make myself known to. Yet I entertained
such an abhorrence of the savage wretches that I have been speaking
of, and of the wretched inhuman custom of their devouring and
eating one another up, that I continued pensive and sad, and kept
close within my own circle, for almost two years after this; when I
say my own circle, I mean by it my three plantations, viz. my castle,
my country-seat, which I called my bower, and my enclosure in the
woods: nor did I look after this for any other use than as an enclosure
for my goats; for the aversion which nature gave me to these hellish
wretches was such, that I was as fearful of seeing them as of seeing
the Devil himself; nor did I so much as go to look after my boat in all
this time, but began rather to think of making me another; for I
could not think of ever making any more attempts to bring the other
boat round the island to me, lest I should meet with some of these
creatures at sea, in which if I had happened to have fallen into their
hands, I knew what would have been my lot.
Time, however, and the satisfaction I had that I was in no danger
of being discovered by these people, began to wear off my uneasiness
about them; and I began to live just in the same composed manner as
139
before; only with this difference, that I used more caution, and kept
my eyes more about me, than I did before, lest I should happen to
be seen by any of them; and particularly, I was more cautious of
firing my gun, lest any of them being on the island should happen to
hear it; and it was therefore a very good providence to me that I had
furnished myself with a tame breed of goats, that I needed not hunt
any more about the woods; or shoot at them; and if I did catch any
of them after this, it was by traps and snares, as I had done before:
so that for two years after this, I believe I never fired my gun once
off, though I never went out without it; and, which was more, as I
had saved three pistols out of the ship, I always carried them out with
me, or at least two of them, sticking them in my goat-skin belt.
Also I furbished up one of the great cutlasses that I had out of the
ship, and made me a belt to put it on also; so that I was now a most
formidable fellow to look at when I went abroad, if you add to the
former description of myself, the particular of two pistols, and a
great broad-sword hanging at my side in a belt, but without a
scabbard.
Things going on thus, as I have said, for some time, I seemed,
excepting these cautions, to be reduced to my former calm sedate
way of living. All these things tended to showing me, more and
more, how far my condition was from being miserable, compared to
some others; nay, to many other particulars of life, which it might
have pleased God to have made my lot. It put me upon reflecting how
little repining there would be among mankind at any condition of
life, if people would rather compare their condition with those that
are worse, in order to be thankful, than be always comparing them
with those which are better, to assist their murmurings and com-
plainings.
As in my present condition there were not really many things
which I wanted, so, indeed, I thought that the frights I had been in
about these savage wretches, and the concern I had been in for my
own preservation, had taken off the edge of my invention for my own
conveniences; and I had dropped a good design, which I had once
bent my thoughts too much upon; and that was, to try if I could not
make some of my barley into malt, and then try to brew myself some
beer. This was really a whimsical thought, and I reproved myself
often for the simplicity of it; for I presently saw there would be the
140
want of several things necessary to the making my beer, that it would
be impossible for me to supply; as, first, casks to preserve it in,
which was a thing that, as I have observed already, I could never
compass; no, though I spent not many days, but weeks, nay,
months, in attempting it, but to no purpose. In the next place, I
had no hops to make it keep, no yeast to make it work, no copper or
kettle to make it boil; and yet had not all these things intervened, I
mean the frights and terrors I was in about the savages, I had under-
taken it, and perhaps brought it to pass too; for I seldom gave any
thing over without accomplishing it, when I once had it in my head
cnough to begin it. But my invention now ran quite another way;
for, night and day, I could think of nothing but how I might destroy
some of these monsters in their cruel, bloody entertainment, and,
if possible, save the victim they should bring hither to destroy. It
would take up a larger volume than this whole work is intended to be,
to set down all the contrivances I hatched, or rather brooded upon,
in my thoughts, for the destroying these creatures, or at least
frightening them so as to prevent their coming hither any more; but
all was abortive; nothing could be possible to take effect, unless I
was to be there to do it myself; and what could one man do among
them, when perhaps there might be twenty or thirty of them together,
with their darts, or their bows and arrows, with which they could
shoot as true to a mark as I could with my gun?
Sometimes I contrived to dig a hole under the place where they
made their fire, and put in five or six pounds of gunpowder, which,
when they kindled their fire, would consequently take fire, and blow
up all that was near it; but as, in the first place, I should be very
loath to waste so much powder upon them, my store being now within
the quantity of one barrel, so neither could I be sure of its going off
at any certain time, when it might surprise them; and, at best, that
it would do little more than just blow the fire about their ears, and
fright them, but not sufficient to make them forsake the place; so I
laid it aside, and then proposed that I would place myself in ambush
in some convenient place, with my three guns all double-loaded, and,
in the middle of their bloody ceremony, let fly at them, when I
should be sure to kill or wound perhaps two or three at every shot;
and then falling in upon them with my three pistols, and my sword,
I made no doubt but that if there were twenty I should kill them all,
141
This fancy pleased my thoughts for some weeks; and I was so full of
it, that I often dreamed of it, and sometimes that I was just going to
let fly at them in my sleep. I went so far with it in my imagination,
that I employed myself several days to find out proper places to put
myselſ in ambuscade, as I said, to watch for them; and I went fre-
quently to the place itself, which was now grown more familiar to
me; and especially while my mind was thus filled with thoughts of
revenge, and of a bloody putting twenty or thirty of them to the sword,
as I may call it, the horror I had at the place, and at the signals of
the barbarous wretches devouring one another, abated my malice.
Well, at length, I found a place in the side of the hill, where I was
satisfied I might securely wait till I saw any of their boats coming;
and might then, even before they would be ready to come on shore,
convey myself, unseen, into thickets of trees, in one of which there
was a hollow large enough to conceal me entirely; and where I might
sit and observe all their bloody doings, and take my full aim at their
heads, when they were so close together as that it would be next to
impossible that I should miss my shot, or that I could fail wounding
three or ſour of them at the first shot. In this place, then, I resolved
to fix my design; and, accordingly, I prepared two muskets and my
ordinary fowling-piece. The two muskets I loaded with a brace of
slugs each, and four or five smaller bullets, about the size of pistol-
bullets; and the fowling-piece I loaded with near a handful of swan-
shot, of the largest size: I also loaded my pistols with about four
bullets each; and in this posture, well provided with ammunition
for a second and third charge, I prepared myself for my expedition.
After I had thus laid the scheme of my design, and, in my ima-
gination, put it in practice, I continually made my tour every morn-
ing up to the top of the hill, which was from my castle, as I called it,
about three miles, or more, to see if I could observe any boats upon
the sea, coming near the island, or standing over towards it; but I
began to tire of this hard duty, after I had, for two or three months,
constantly kept my watch, but came always back without any dis-,
covery; there having not, in all that time, been the least appearance,
not only on or near the shore, but not on the whole ocean, so far as
my eyes or glasses could reach every way.
As long as I kept my daily tour to the hill to look out, so long also
I kept up the vigour of my design, and my spirits seemed to be all
1A2
the while in a suitable form for so outrageous an execution as the kill-
ing twenty or thirty naked savages, for an offence which I had not at
all entered into a discussion of in my thoughts, any farther than my
passions were at first fired by the horror I conceived at the unnatural
custom of the people of that country; who, it seems, had been suf-
fered by Providence, in his wise disposition of the world, to have no
other guide than that of their own abominable and vitiated passions;
and, consequently, were left, and perhaps had been so for some
ages, to act such horrid things, and receive such dreadful customs,
as nothing but nature, entirely abandoned of Heaven, and actuated
by some hellish degeneracy, could have run them into. But now,
as I have said, I began to be weary of the fruitless excursion which
I had made so long and so far every morning in vain, so my opinion
of the action itself began to alter; and I began, with cooler and
calmer thoughts, to consider what I was going to engage in; what
authority or call I had to pretend to be judge and executioner upon
these men as criminals, whom Heaven had thought fit, for so many
ages, to Suſſer, unpunished, to go on, and to be, as it were, the
executioners of his judgments one upon another. How far these
people were offenders against me, and what right I had to engage in
the quarrel of that blood which they shed promiscuously one upon
another, I debated this very often with myself, thus; How do I
know what God himself judges in this particular case? It is certain
these people do not commit this as a crime; it is not against their
own consciences reproving, or their light reproaching them. They
do not know it to be an offence, and then commit it in defiance of
divine justice, as we do in almost all the sins we commit. They
think it no more a crime to kill a captive taken in war, than we do to
kill an ox; nor to eat human flesh, than we do to cat mutton.
When I had considered this a little, it followed necessarily that
I was certainly in the wrong in it; that these people were not mur-
derers in the sense that I had before condemned them in my thoughts,
any more than those Christians were murderers who often put to
death the prisoners taken in battle; or more frequently, upon many
occasions, put whole troops of men to the sword, without giving
quarter, though they threw down their arms and submitted. In the
next place, it occurred to me, that albeit the usage they thus gave
one another was thus brutish and inhuman, yet it was really nothing
1 43
to me; these people had done me no injury; that if they attempted
me, or I saw it necessary, for my immediate preservation, to fall
upon them, something might be said for it; but that as I was yet out
of their power, and they had really no knowledge of me, and conse-
quently no design upon me; and therefore it could not be just for me
to fall upon them; that this would justify the conduct of the Spaniards
in all their barbaritics practised in America, where they destroyed
millions of these people; who, however they were idolaters and bar-
barians, and had several bloody and barbarous rites in their customs,
such as sacrificing human bodies to their idols, were yet, as to the
Spaniards, very innocent people; and that the rooting them out of
the country is spoken of with the utmost abhorrence and detestation
by even the Spaniards themselves at this time, and by all other
Christian nations of Europe, as a mere butchery, a bloody and un-
natural piece of cruelty, unjustifiable either to God or man; and
such, as for which the very name of a Spaniard is reckoned to be
frightful and terrible to all people of humanity, or of Christian com-
passion; as if the kingdom of Spain were particularly eminent for
the product of a race of men who were without principles of tender-
ness, or the common bowels of pity to the miserable, which is
reckoned to be a mark of generous temper in the mind.
These considerations really put me to a pause, and to a kind of
a full stop; and I began, by little and little, to be off my design,
and to conclude I had taken wrong measures in my resolutions to
attack the savages; and that it was not my business to meddle with
them, unless they first attacked me; and this it was my business, if
possible, to prevent; but that if I were discovered and attacked, then
I knew my duty. On the other hand, I argued with myself, that
this really was the way not to deliver myself, but entirely to ruin and
destroy myself; for unless I was sure to kill every one that not only
should be on shore at that time, but that should ever come on shore
afterwards, if but one of them escaped to tell their country-people
what had happened, they would come over again by thousands to
revenge the death of their fellows, and I should only bring upon
myself a certain destruction, which, at present, I had no manner
of occasion for. Upon the whole, I concluded, that neither in
principle or in policy, I ought, one way or other, to concern myself
in this affair; that my business was, by all possible means, to coll-
144
ceal myself from them, and not to leave the least signal to them to
guess by that there were any living creatures upon the island, I mean
of human shape. Religion joined in with this prudential, and I was
convinced now, many ways, that I was perfectly out of my duty when
I was laying all my bloody schemes for the destruction of innocent
creatures; I mean innocent as to me. As to the crimes they were
guilty of towards one another, I had nothing to do with them; they
were national, and I ought to leave them to the justice of God, who
is the governor of nations, and knows how, by national punishments,
to make a just retribution for national offences, and to bring public
judgments upon those who offend in a public manner, by such ways
as best pleases him. This appeared so clear to me now, that nothing
was a greater satisfaction to me than that I had not been suffered to
do a thing which I now saw so much reason to believe would have
been no less a sin than that of wilful murder, if I had committed it;
aud I gave most humble thanks on my knees to God, that had thus
delivered me from blood-guiltiness; beseeching him to grant me the
protection of his providence, that I might not fall into the hands of
the barbarians, or that I might not lay my hands upon them, unless
I had a more clear call from Heaven to do it, in defence of my own
life.
In this disposition I continued for near a year after this; and so
ſar was I from desiring an occasion for falling upon these wretches,
that in all that time I never once went up the hill to see whether there
were any of them in sight, or to know whether any of them had been
on shore there or not, that I might not be tempted to renew any of my
contrivances against them, or be provoked, by any advantage which
might present itself, to fall upon them; only this I did, I went and
removed my boat, which I had on the other side the island, and car-
ried it down to the east end of the whole island, where I ran it into a
little cove, which I found under some high rocks, and where I knew,
by reason of the currents, the savages durst not, at least would not
come, with their boats, upon any account whatsoever. With my boat
I carried away every thing that I had left there belonging to her, though
not necessary for the bare going thither, viz. a mast and sail which
I had made for her, and a thing like an anchor, but indeed, which,
could not be called either anchor or grapling; however, it was the
best I could make of its kind; all these I removed, that there might
145.
not be the least shadow of any discovery, or any appearance of any
hoat, or of any human habitation, upon the island. Besides this,
I kept myself, as I said, more retired than ever, and seldom went
from my cell, other than upon my constant employment, viz. to
milk my she-goats, and manage my little flock in the wood, which,
as it was quite on the other part of the island, was quite out of
danger; for certain it is, that these savage people, who sometimes
haunted this island, never came with any thoughts of finding any
thing here, and consequently never wandered oſſ from the coast; and
I doubt not but they might have been several times on shore aſter my
apprehensions of them had made me cautious, as well as before.
Indeed, I looked back with some horror upon the thoughts of what
my condition would have been if I had chopped upon them and been
discovered before that, when, naked and unarmed, except with one
gun, and that loaded often only with small shot, I walked every
where, peeping and peering about the island to see what I could get;
what a surprise should I have been in, if, when I discovered the
print of a man's ſoot, I had, instead of that, seen ſiſteen or twenty
savages, and ſound them pursuing me, and by the swiſtness of their
running, no possibility of my escaping them: The thoughts of
this sometimes sunk my very soul within me, and distressed my
mind so much, that I could not soon recover it, to think what I
should have done, and how I should not only not have been
able to resist them, but even should not have had presence of
mind enough to do what I might have done; much less what now,
after so much consideration and preparation, I might be able to do.
Indeed, after serious thinking of these things, I should be very me-
lancholy, and sometimes it would last a great while; but I resolved
it, at last, all into thankfulness to that Providence which had de-
livered me from so many unseen dangers, and had kept me from
those mischiefs which I could no way have been the agent in deliver-
ing myself from, because I had not the least notion of any such thing
depending, or the least supposition of its being possible. This
renewed a contemplation which often had come to my thoughts in
former time, when first I began to see the merciful dispositions of
Heaven, in the dangers we run through in this life; how wonderfully
we are delivered when we know nothing of it; how, when we are in a
quandary, (as we call it) a doubt or hesitation, whether to go this
Jºobinson Crusne. 10
y
146
way, or that way, a secret hint shall direct us this way, when we in-
tended to go that way; nay, when sense, our own inclination, and
perhaps business, has called to go the other way, yet a strange im-
pression upon the mind, from we know not what springs, and by we
know not what power, shall over-rule us to go this way; and it shall
afterwards appear, that had we gone that way which we should have
gone, and even to our imagination ought to have gone, we should
have been ruined and lost. Upon these, and many like reſlections, I
afterwards made it a certain rule with me, that whenever I found those
secret hints or pressings of mind, to doing or not doing any thing that
presented, or going this way or that way, I never failed to obey the
secret dictate; though I knew no other reason for it than that such a
pressure, or such a hint, hung upon my mind. I could give many
examples of the success of this conduct in the course of my life, but
more especially in the latter part of my inhabiting this unhappy island;
besides many occasions which it is very likely I might have taken
notice of, if I had seen with the same eyes then that I saw with now.
But it is never too late to be wise; and I cannot but advise all con-
sidering men, whose lives are attended with such extraordinary in-
cidents as mine, or even though not so extraordinary, not to slight
such secret intimations of Providence, let them come from what in-
visible intelligence they will; that I shall not discuss, and perhaps
cannot account for; but certainly they are a proof of the converse of
spirits, and a secret communication between those embodied and
those unembodied, and such a proof as can never be withstood; of
which I shall have occasion to give some very remarkable instances in
the remainder of my solitary residence in this dismal place.
I believe the reader of this will not think it strange if I confess that
these anxieties, these constant dangers I lived in, and the concern
that was now upon me, put an end to all invention, and to all the
contrivances that I had laid for my future accommodations and con-
veniences. I had the care of my safety more now upon my hands than
that of my food. I cared not to drive a nail, or chop a stick of wood
now, for fear the noise I might make should be heard: much less
would I fire a gun, for the same reason; and, above all, I was in-
tolerably uneasy at making any fire, lest the smoke, which is visible
at a great distance in the day should betray me. For this reason I
removed that part of my business which required fire, such as burn-
147
*
ing of pots and pipes, &c. into my new apartment in the woods;
where, after I had been some time, I found, to my unspeakable
consolation, a mere natural cave in the earth, which went in a vast
way, and where, I dare say, no savage had he been at the mouth of
it, would be so hardy as to venture in: nor, indeed, would any man
else, but one who, like me, wanted nothing so much as a safe retreat.
The mouth of this hollow was at the bottom of a great rock, where
by mere accident (I would say, if I did not see abundant reason to
ascribe all such things now to Providence) I was cutting down some
thick branches of trees to make charcoal; and before I go on, I must
observe the reason of my making this charcoal, which was thus; I
was afraid of making a smoke about my habitation, as I said before;
and yet I could not live there without baking my bread, cooking my
meat, &c.; so I contrived to burn some wood here, as I had scen
done in England under turf, till it became chark, or dry coal; and
then putting the fire out, I preserved the coal to carry home, and
perform the other services which ſire was wanting for at home, without
danger of smoke. But this is by the by; — While I was cutting down
some wood here, I perceived that behind a very thick branch of low
brush-wood, or underwood, there was a kind of hollow place; I was
curious to look into it, and getting with diſficulty into the mouth of it,
I found it was pretty large: that is to say, sufficient for me to stand
upright in it, and perhaps another with me; but I must confess to
you I made more haste out than I did in, when, looking farther into
the place, and which was perfectly dark, I saw two broad shining
eyes of some creature, whether devil or man I knew not, which
twinkled like two stars; the dim light from the cave's mouth shining
directly in, and making the reflection. However, after some pause, I
recovered myself, and began to call myself a thousand fools, and tell
myself that he that was afraid to see the devil was not fit to live twenty
years in an island all alone; and that I durst to believe there was
nothing in this cave that was more frightful than myselſ. Upon this,
plucking up my courage, I took up a great firebrand, and in I rushed
again, with the stick ſlaming in my hand; I had not gone three steps
in, but I was almost as much frighted as I was before; for I heard a
very loud sigh, like that of a man in some pain, and it was followed
by a broken noise, as if of words half-expressed, and then a deep
sigh again. I stepped back, and was indeed struck with such a
10 *
148
surprise, that it put me into a cold sweat; and if I had had a hat on
my head, I will not answer for it, that my hair might not have liſted
it off. But still plucking up my spirits as well as I could, and
encouraging myself a little with considering that the power and pre-
sence of God was every where, and was able to protect me; upon
this I stepped forward again, and by the light of the firebrand, holding
it up a little over my head, I saw lying on the ground a most mon-
strous, frightful, old he-goat, just making his will, as we say, and
gasping for life; and dying, indeed, of mere old age. I stirred him
a little to see if I could get him out, and he essayed to get up, but was
not able to raise himself; and I thought with myself he might even lie
there; for if he had frighted me so, he would certainly fright any
of the Savages, if any one of them should be so hardy as to come in
there while he had any life in him.
I was now recovered from my surprise, and began to look round
me, when I found the cave was but very small, that is to say, it
might be about twelve feet over, but in no manner of shape, cither
round or square, no hands having ever been employed in making it
but those of mere Nature. I observed also that there was a place at
the farther side of it that went in farther, but was so low that it re-
quired me to creep upon my hands and knees to go into it, and
whither I went I knew not: so having no candle, I gave it over for
some time; but resolved to come again the next day, provided with
candles and a tinder-box, which I had made of the lock of one of
the muskets, with some wild fire in the pan.
Accordingly, the next day I came provided with six large candles
of my own making (ſor I made very good candles now of goat's tallow)
and going into this low place, I was obliged to creep upon all fours,
as I have said, almost ten yards; which, by the way, I thought
was a venture bold enough, considering that I knew not how far it
might go, nor what was beyond it. When I was got through the
strait, I found the roof rose higher up, I believe near twenty feet;
but never was such a glorious sight seen in the island, I dare say, as
it was, to look round the sides and roof of this vault or cave; the
wall reflected an hundred thousand lights to me from my two candles.
What it was in the rock, whether diamonds, or any other precious
stones, or gold, which I rather supposed it to be, I knew not. The
place I was in was a most delightful cavity or grotto of its kind, as
149
could be expected, though perfectly dark; the ſloor was dry and level,
and had a sort of small loose gravel upon it, so that there was no
nauseous or venomous creature to be seen, neither was there any
damp or wet on the sides or roof, the only difficulty in it was the .
entrance; which however, as it was a place of security, and such a
retreat as I wanted, I thought that was a convenience; so that I was
really rejoiced at the discovery, and resolved, without any delay, to
bring some of those things which I was most anxious about to this
place; particulary, I resolved to bring hither my magazine of powder,
and all my spare arms, viz. two fowling-pieces, for I had three in
all, and three muskets, ſor of them I had eight in all: so I kept at
my castle only five, which stood ready-mounted, like pieces of
cannon, on my outmost fence; and were ready also to take out upon
any expedition. Upon this occasion of removing my ammunition, I
happened to open the barrel of powder, which I took up out of the
sea, and which had been wet; and I found that the water had pene-
trated about three or four inches into the powder on every side,
which, caking, and growing hard, had preserved the inside like a
kernel in a shell; so that I had near sixty pounds of very good powder
in the centre of the cask, and this was an agreeable discovery to me
at that time; so I carried all away thither, never keeping above two
or three pounds of powder with me in my castle, for fear of a surprise
of any kind; I also carried thither all the lead I had left for bullets.
I ſancied myself now like one of the ancient giants, which were
said to live in caves and holes in the rocks, where none could come
at them; for I persuaded myself, while I was here, if five hundred
savages were to hunt me, they could never find me out; or, if they
did, they would not venture to attack me here. The old goat, who
I found expiring, died in the mouth of the cave the next day after I
made this discovery; and I ſound it much easier to dig a great hole
there, and throw him in and cover him with earth, than to drag him
out; so I interred him there, to prevent the offence to my nose.
I was now in my twenty-third year of residence in this island;
and was so naturalized to the place, and the manner of living, that
could I have but enjoyed the certainly that no savages would come to
the place to disturb me, I could have been content to have capitulated
for spending the rest of my time there, even to the last moment, till
I had laid me down and died, like the old goat in the cave. I had
150
also arrived to some little diversions and amusements, which made
the time pass more pleasantly with me a great deal than it did before:
as, first, I had taught my Pol, as I noted before, to speak; and he
did it so familiarly, and talked so articulately and plain, that it was
very pleasant to me; and he lived with me no less than six and twenty
years; how long he might live afterwards I know not, though I know
they have a notion in the Brasils that they live a hundred years: per-
haps poor Pol may be alive there still, calling after poor Robinson
Crusoe to this day, I wish no Englishman the ill luck to come there
and hear him; but if he did, he would certainly believe it was the
devil. My dog was a very pleasant and loving companion to me for no
less than sixteen years of my time, and then died of mere old age.
As for my cats, they multiplied, as I have observed, to that degree,
that I was obliged to shoot several of them at first, to keep them from
devouring me and all I had; but, at length, when the two old ones
I brought with me were gone, and after some time continually driving
them from me, and letting them have no provision with me, they all
ran wild into the woods, except two or three favourites, which I kept
tame, and whose young, when they had any, I always drowned;
and these were part of my family. Besides these, I always kept two
or three household kids about me, whom I taught to feed out of my
hand; and I had two more parrots, which talked pretty well, and
would all call Robinson Crusoe, but none like my first; nor, indeed,
did I take the pains with any of them that I had done with him. I had
also several tame sea-fowls, whose names I know not, who I caught
upon the shore, and cut their wings; and the little stakes which I
had planted before my castle wall being now grown up to a good thick
grove, these fowls all lived among these low trees, and bred there,
which was very agreeable to me; so that, as I said above, I began to
be very well contented with the life I led, if it might but have been
secured from the dread of the savages. But it was otherwise directed;
and it may not be amiss for all people who shall meet with my story,
to make this just observation from it, viz. How frequently, in the
course of our lives, the evil which in itself we seek most to shun,
and which, when we are fallen into it, is the most dreadful to us, is
oftentimes the very means or door of our deliverance, by which alone
we can be raised again from the aſſliction we are fallen into. I could
give many examples of this in the course of my unaccountable life;
151
but in nothing was it more particularly remarkable than in the circum-
stances of my last years of solitary residence in this island.
It was now the month of December, as I said above, in my twenty-
third year; and this, being the southern solstice, (for winter I
cannot call it) was the particular time of my harvest, and required
my being pretty much abroad in the fields: when going out pretty
early in the morning, even before it was thorough daylight, I was
surprised with seeing a light of some fire upon the shore, at a distance
from me of about two miles, towards the end of the island where I
had observed some savages had been, as before, but not on the other
side; but, to my great affliction, it was on my side of the island.
I was indeed terribly surprised at the sight, and stopped short
within my grove, not daring to go out, lest I might be surprised,
and yet I had no more peace within, from the apprehensions I had
that if these savages, in rambling over the island, should find my
corn standing or cut, or any of my works and improvements, they
would immediately conclude that there were people in the place, and
would then never give over till they had found me out. In this extre-
mity, I went back directly to my castle, pulled up the ladder aſter
me, and made all things without look as wild and natural as I could.
Then I prepared myself within, putting myself in a posture of
defence: I loaded all my cannon, as I called them, that is to say,
my muskets, which were mounted upon my new fortification, and
all my pistols, and resolved to defend myself to the last gasp; not
forgetting seriously to commend myself to the divine protection, and
earnestly to pray to God to deliver me out of the hands of the barbarians.
And in this posture I continued about two hours; but began to be
mighty impatient for intelligence abroad for I had no spies to send
out. After sitting awhile longer, and musing what I should do in
this case, I was not able to bear sitting in ignorance any longer; SO
setting up my ladder to the side of the hill, where there was a ſlat
place, as I observed before, and then pulling the ladder up after me,
I set it up again, and mounted to the top of the hill; and pulling out
my perspective-glass, which I had taken on purpose, I laid me down
flat on my belly on the ground, and began to look for the place. I
presently found there were no less than nine naked savages, sitting
round a small fire they had made, not to warm them, for they had
no need of that, the weather being extreme hot, but, as I supposed,
152
to dress some of their barbarous diet of human ſlesh, which they had
brought with them, whether alive or dead, I could not know.
They had two canoes with them, which they had hauled up upon
the shore; and as it was then tide of ebb, they seemed to me to wait
for the return of the flood to go away again. It is not easy to imagine
what confusion this sight put me into, especially seeing them come
on my side the island, and so near me too; but when I observed their
coming must be always with the current of the ebb, I began, aſter-
wards, to be more sedate in my mind, being satisfied that I might
go abroad with safety all the time of the tide of flood, iſ they were not
on shore before: and having made this observation, I went abroad
about my harvest-work with the more composure.
As I expected, so it proved; for as soon as the tide made to the
westward, I saw them all take boat, and row (or paddle, as we call
it,) all away. I should have observed, that for an hour and more be-
fore they went off, they went to dancing; and I could easily discern
their postures and gestures by my glasses. I could not perceive, by
my nicest observation, but that they were stark naked, and had not
the least covering upon them; but whether they were men or women,
I could not distinguish.
As soon as I saw them shipped and gone, I took two guns upon
my shoulders, and two pistols at my girdle, and my great sword by
my side, without a scabbard, and with all the speed I was able to
make, I went away to the hill where I had discovered the first appear-
ance of all; and as soon as I got thiter, which was not less than two
hours (for I could not go apace, being so loaden with arms as I was,)
I perceived there had been three canoes more of savages on that place;
and looking out farther, I saw they were all at sea together, making
over for the main. This was a dreadful sight to me, especially when
going down to the shore, I could see the marks of horror, which the
, dismal work they had been about had left behind it, viz. the blood,
the bones, and part of the flesh, of human bodies, eaten and devoured
by those wretches with merriment and sport. I was so filled with
indignation at the sight, that I now began to premeditate the destruc-
tion of the next that I saw there, let them be who or how many soever.
It seemed evident to me that the visits which they thus make to this
island are not very frequent, for it was above fifteen months before
any more of them came on shore there again; that is to say, I neither
153
saw them, or any footsteps or signals of them, in all that time; for,
as to the rainy seasons, then they are sure not to come abroad; at
least not so far; yet all this while I lived uncomfortably, by reason
of the constant apprehensions I was in of their coming upon me by
surprise; from whence I observe, that the expectation of evil is more
bitter than the suffering, especially if there is no room to shake off
that expectation, or those apprehensions.
During all this time I was in the murdering humour, and took up
most of my hours, which should have been better employed, in con-
triving how to circumvent and fall upon them, the very next time I
should see them; especially if they should be divided, as they were
the last time, into two parties; nor did I consider at all, that if I
killed one party, suppose ten or a dozen, I was still the next day, or
week, or month, to kill another, and so another, even ad infinitum,
till I should be at length no less a murderer than they were in being
man-eaters, and perhaps much more so. I spent my days now in
great perplexity and anxiety of mind, expecting that I should, one day
or other, fall into the hands of these merciless creatures; and if I
did at any time venture abroad, it was not without looking round me
with the greatest care and caution imaginable. And now I found, to
my great comfort, how happy it was that I provided for a tame flock
or herd of goats; for I durst not, upon any account, ſire my gun,
especially near that side of the island where they usually came, lest
I should alarm the savages; and if they had ſled from me now, I was
sure to have them come again, with perhaps two or three hundred
canoes with them, in a few days, and then I knew what to expect.
However, I wore out a year and three months more before I ever saw
any more of the savages, and then I found them again, as I shall soon
observe. It is true, they might have been there once or twice, but
either they made no stay, or at least I did not hear them, but in the
month of May, as near as I could calculate, and in my four and
twentieth year, I had a very strange encounter with them; of which
in its place.
The perturbation of my mind, during this fifteen or sixteen
months' interval, was very great; I slept unquiet, dreamed always
frightful dreams, and often started out of my sleep in the night: in
the day great troubles overwhelmed my mind, and in the night, I
dreamed often of killing the savages, and of the reasons why I might
154
*
łº the doing of it. But, to wave all this for a while. – It was in
he middle of May, on the sixteenth day, I think, as well as my poor
wooden calendar would reckon, for I marked all upon the post still;
I say, it was the sixteenth of May that it blew a very great storm of
wind all day, with a great deal of lightning and thunder, and a very
foul night it was after it. I knew not what was the particular occasion
of it, but as I was reading in the Bible, and taken up with very se-
rious thoughts about my present condition, I was surprised with the
noise of a gun, as I thought, ſired at sea. This was, to be sure, a
surprise of a quite different nature from any I had met with before;
for the notions this put into my thoughts were quite of another kind.
I started up in the greatest haste imaginable, and, in a trice, clapped
my ladder to the middle place of the rock, and pulled it after me;
and mounting it the second time, got to the top of the hill the very
moment that a ſlash of ſire bid me listen for a second gun, which ac-
cordingly, in about half a minute, I heard; and, by the sound, knew
that it was from that part of the sea where I was driven down the cur-
rent in my boat. I immediately considered that this must be some
ship in distress, and that they had some comrade, or some other ship
in company, and fired these guns for signals of distress, and to obtain
help. I had the presence of mind, at that minute, as to think, that
though I could not help them, it may be they might help me; so I
brought together all the dry wood I could get at hand, and making a
good handsome pile, I set it on fire upon the hill. The wood was dry,
and blazed freely; and though the wind blew very hard, yet it burnt
fairly out; that I was certain, if there was any such thing as a ship,
they must needs see it, and no doubt they did; for as ever my fire
blazed up I heard another gun, and after that several others, all from
the same quarter. I plied my ſire all night long, till daybreak; and
when it was broad day, and the air cleared up, I saw something at a
great distance at sea, full east of the island, whether a sail or a hull
I could not distinguish, no, not with my glasses, the distance was
so great, and the weather still something hazy also; at least it was so
out at Sea.
I looked frequently at it all that day, and soon perceived that it
did not move; so I presently concluded that it was a ship at anchor;
and being cager, you may be sure, to be satisfied, I took my gun in
my hand, and ran towards the south side of the island, to the rocks
155
where I had formerly been carried away by the current; and getting
up there, the weather by this time being perfectly clear, I could
plainly see, to my great sorrow, the wreck of a ship, cast away in
the night upon those concealed rocks which I found when I was out in
my boat; and which rocks, as they checked the violence of the stream,
and made a kind of counter-stream, or eddy, were the occasion of
my recovering from the most desperate, hopeless condition that ever
I had been in, in all my life. Thus, what is one man's safety is ano-
ther man's destruction; for it seems these men, whoever they were,
being out of their knowledge, and the rocks being wholly under water,
had been driven upon them in the night, the wind blowing hard at E.
and E. N. E. Had they seen the island, as I must necessarily sup-
pose they did not, they must, as I thought, have endeavoured to have
saved themselves on shore by the help of their boat; but their firing
of guns for help, especially when they saw, as I imagined, my fire,
filled me with many thoughts; first, I imagined that upon seeing my
light, they might have put themselves into their boat, and have en-
deavoured to make the shore; but that the sca going very high, they
might have been cast away; other times I imagined that they might
have lost their boat before, as might be the case many ways; as, par-
ticularly, by the breaking of the sea upon their ship, which many
times obliges men to stave, or take in pieces, their boat, and some-
times to throw it overboard with their own hands; other times I ima-
gined they had some other ship or ships in company, who, upon the
signals of distress they had made, had taken them up and carried
them off; other whiles I fancied they were all gone off to sea in their
boat, and being hurried away by the current that I had been formerly
in, were carried out into the great ocean, where there was nothing
but misery and perishing; and that, perhaps, they might by this time
think of starving, and of being in a condition to eat one another.
As all these were but conjectures at best, so, in the condition I
was in, I could do no more than look on upon the misery of the poor
men, and pity them; which had still this good effect on my side, that
it gave me more and more cause to give thanks to God, who had so
happily and comfortably provided for me in my desolate condition; :
and that of two ships' companies who were now cast away upon this
part of the world, not one life should be spared but mine. I learned
here again to observe, that it is very rare that the providence of God
156
casts us into any condition of life so low, or any misery so great, but
we may see something or other to be thankful for; and may see others
in worse circumstances than our own. Such certainly was the case
of these men, of whom I could not so much, as sec room to suppose
any of them were saved; nothing could make it rational so much as to
wish or expect that they did not all perish there, except the possibility
only of their being taken up by another ship in company; and this
was but mere possibility indeed, for I saw not the least signal or ap-
pearance of any such thing. I cannot explain, by any possible energy
of words, what a strange longing or hankering of desires I felt in my
soul upon this sight, breaking out sometimes thus; “O that there
had been but one or two, nay, or but one soul, saved out of this ship,
to have escaped to me, that I might but have had one companion,
one fellow-creature to have spoken to me, and to have conversed
with !" In all the time of my solitary life, I never felt so earnest, so
strong a desire after the society of my fellow-creatures, or so deep a
regret at the want of it.
There are some sccret moving springs in the affections, which,
when they are set a going by some object in view, or be it some ob-
ject, though not in view, yet rendered present to the mind by the
power of imagination, that motion carries out the soul by its impe-
tuosity, to such violent, eager embracings of the object, that the ab-
sence of it is insupportable. Such were these earnest wishings that
but one man had been saved “O that it had been but one !” I be-
lieve I repeated the words, “O that it had been but one !” a thou-
sand times; and the desires were so moved by it, that when I spoke
the words my hands would clinch together, and my ſingers press the
palms of my hands, that if I had had any soft thing in my hand, it
would have crushed it involuntarily; and the teeth in my head would
strike together, and set against one another so strong, that for some
time I could not part them again. Let the naturalists explain these
things, and the reason and manner of them; all I can say to them is,
to describe the fact, which was even surprising to me, when I found
it, though I knew not from what it should proceed; it was doubtless
the eſſect of ardent wishes, and of strong ideas formed in my mind,
realizing the comfort which the conversation of one of my fellow-
christians would have been to me. But it was not to be; either their
fate or mine, or both, forbade it; for, till the last year of my being
157
nn this island, I never knew whether any were saved out of list ship
or no; and had only the affliction, some days after, to see the corpse
of a drowned boy come on shore at the end of the island which was
next the shipwreck. He had on no clothes but a seaman's waistcoat,
a pair of open-kneed linen drawers, and a blue linen shirt; but no-
thing to direct me so much as to guess what nation he was of; he had
nothing in his pockets but two pieces-of-eight and a tobacco-pipe;
the last was to me of ten times more value than the first.
It was now calm, and I had a great mind to venture out in my boat
to this wreck, not doubting but I might find something on board that
might be useful to me; but that did not altogether press me so much
as the possibility that there might be yet some living creature on
board, whose life I might not only save, but might, by saving that
life, comfort my own to the last degree; and this thought clung so to
my heart, that I could not be quiet night or day, but I must venture
out in my boat on board this wreck; and committing the rest to God's
providence, I thought, the impression was so strong upon my mind
that it could not be resisted, that it must come from some invisible
direction, and that I should be wanting to myself if I did not go.
Under the power of this impression, I hastened back to my
castle, prepared every thing for my voyage, took a quantity of bread,
a great pot for fresh water, a compass to steer by, a bottle of rum (for
I had still a great deal of that left) and a basket full of raisins: and
thus, loading myself with every thing necessary, I went down to my
boat, got the water out of her, put her afloat, loaded all my cargo
in her, and then went home again for more. My second cargo was
a great bag full of rice, the umbrella to set up over my head for a
shade, another large pot full of fresh water, and about two dozen of
my Small loaves, or barley-cakes, more than before, with a bottle of
goat's milk and a cheese: all which, with great labour and sweat, I
brought to my boat; and praying to God to direct my voyage, I put
out; and rowing, or paddling, the canoe along the shore, came at
last to the utmost point of the island on that side; viz. the N. E. And
now I was to launch out into the ocean, and either to venture or not
to venture. I looked on the rapid currents which ran constantly on
both sides of the island at a distance, and which were very terrible to
me, from the remembrance of the hazard I had been in before, and
my heart began to fail me; for I foresaw that if I was driven into
158
cillicrof those currents, I should be carried a vast way out to sea,
and perhaps out of my reach, or sight of the island again; and that
then, as my boat was but sinall, if any little gale of wind should rise,
I should be inevitably lost.
These thoughts so oppressed my inind, that I began to give over
my enterprise; and having hauled my boat into a little creek on the
shore, I stepped out, and sat me down upon a little rising bit of
ground, very pensive and anxious, between fear and desire, about
my voyage; when, as I was musing, I could perceive that the tide
was turned, and the flood come on; upon which my going was im-
practicable for so many hours. Upon this, presently it occurred to
me, that I should go up to the highest piece of ground I could find,
and observe, if I could, how the sets of the tide, or currents, lay
when the flood came in, that I might judge whether, if I was driven
one way out, I might not expect to be driven another way home, with
the same rapidness of the currents. This thought was no sooner in
my head than I cast my eye upon a little hill, which sufficiently over-
looked the sea both ways, and from whence I had a clear view of the
currents, or sets of the tide, and which way I was to guide myself in
my return. Here I found, that as the current of the ebb set out close
by the south point of the island, so the current of the flood set in
close by the shore of the north side; and that I had nothing to do but
to keep to the north side of the island in my return, and I should do
well enough.
Encouraged with this observation, I resolved, the next morning,
to set out with the first of the tide, and reposing myself for the night
in the canoe, under the great watch-coat I mentioned, I launched
out. I made first a little out to sea, full north, till I began to feel
the benefit of the current which set eastward, and which carried me
at a great rate; and yet did not so hurry me as the southern-side cur-
rent had done before, so as to take from me all government of the
boat; but having a strong steerage with my paddle, I went at a great
rate directly for the wreck, and in less than two hours I came up to
it. It was a dismal sight to look at; the ship, which, by its build-
ing, was Spanish, stuck fast jammed in between two rocks; all the
stern and quarter of her was beaten to pieces with the sea; and as her
forecastle, which stuck in the rocks, had run on with great violence,
her mainmast and foremast were brought by the board; that is to
159
say, broken short off; but her bowsprit was sound, and the head
and bow appeared firm. When I came close to her, a dog appeared
upon her, who, seeing me coming, yelped and cried; and as soon
as I called him, jumped into the sea to come to me, and I took him
into the boat, but found him almost dead far hunger and thirst. I
gave him a cake of my bread, and he eat it like a ravenous wolf that
had been starving a fortnight in the snow: I then gave the poor crea-
ture some fresh water, with which, if I would have let him, he would
have burst himself. After this I went on board; but the first sight I
met with was two men drowned in the cook-room, or forecastle of
the ship, with their arms fast about one another. I concluded, as is
indeed probable, that when the ship struck, it being in a storm, the
sea broke so high, and so continually over her, that the men were
not able to bear it, and were strangled with the constant rushing in
of the water, as much as if they had been under water. Besides the
dog, there was nothing left in the ship that had life; nor any goods,
that I could see; but what were spoiled by the water. There were
some casks of liquor, whether wine or brandy I knew not, which lay
lower in the hold, and which, the water being ebbed out, I could
see; but they were too big to meddle with. I saw several chests,
which I believed belonged to some of the seamen; and I got two of
them into the boat, without examining what was in them. Had the
stern of the ship been fixed, and the forepart broken off, I am per-
suaded I might have made a good voyage; for, by what I found in
these two chests I had room to suppose the ship had a great deal of
wealth on board; and, if I may guess by the course she steered, she
must have been bound from Buenos Ayres, or the Rio de la Plata, in
the south part of America, beyond the Brasils, to the Havanna, in
the Gulf of Mexico, and so perhaps to Spain. She had, no doubt, a
great treasure in her, but of no use, at that time, to any body; and
what became of the rest of her people I then knew not.
I found, besides these chests, a little cask full of liquor, of about
twenty gallons, which I got into my boat with much diſficulty. There
were several muskets in a cabin, and a great powder-horn, with
about four pounds of powder in it; as for the muskets, I had no
occasion for them, so I left them, but took the powder-horn. I took
a fire-shovel and tongs, which I wanted extremely; as also two little
brass kettles, a copper pot to make chocolate, and a grid-iron; and
160
with this cargo, and the dog, I came away, the tide beginning to
make home again; and the same cvening, about an hour within night,
I reached the island again, weary and fatigued to the last degree. I
reposed that night in the boat; and in the morning I resolved to
harbour what I had got in my new cave, and not carry it home to my
castle. Aſter refreshing myself, I got all my cargo on shore, and
began to examine the particulars. The cask of liquor I found to be a
kind of rum, but not such as we had at the Brasils, and, in a word,
not at all good; but when I came to open the chests, I found several
things of great use to me: for example, I ſound in one a fine case of
bottles, of an extraordinary kind, and ſilled with cordial waters,
fine and very good; the bottles held about three pints each, and were
tipped with silver. I found two pots of very good succades, or
sweetmeats, so fastencil also on the top, that the salt water had not
hurt them; and two more of the same, which the water had spoiled.
I found some very good shirts, which were very welcome to me; and
about a dozen and a half of white linen handkerchiefs and coloured
neckcloths; the former were also very welcome, being exceeding
refreshing to wipe my face in a hot day. Besides this, when I came
to the till in the chest, I found there three great bags of pieces-of-
cight, which held about eleven hundred pieces in all; and in one of
them, wrapped up in a paper, six doubloons of gold, and some
small bars or wedges of gold; I suppose they might all weigh near a
pound. The other chest I found had some clothes in it, but of little
value; but, by the circumstances, it must have belonged to the
gunner's mate; though there was no powder in it, but about two
pounds of fine glazed powder, in three small ſlasks, kept, I suppose,
for charging their fowling-pieces on occasion. Upon the whole, I
got very little by this voyage that was of any use to me; for, as to the
money, I had no manner of occasion for it; it was to me as the dirt
under my feet; and I would have given it all for three or four pair of
English shoes and stockings, which were things I greatly wanted,
but had not had on my feet now for many years. I had indeed gotten
two pair of shoes now, which I took off of the feet of the two drowned
men whom I saw in the wreck, and I found two pair more in one of
the chests, which were very welcome to me; but they were not like
our English shoes, either for ease or service, being rather what we
call pumps than shoes. I found in this seaman's chest about fifty
16i
pleces-of-eight in rials, but no gold: I suppose this belonged to a
poorer man than the other, which seemed to belong to some officer.
Well, however, I lugged this money home to my cave, and laid it
up, as I had done that before which I brought from our own ship,
but it was a great pity, as I said, that the other part of this ship had
not come to my share; for I am satisfied I might have loaded my
canoe several times over with money, which if I had ever escaped to
England, would have lain here safe enough till I might have come
again and ſetched it.
Having now brought all my things on shore, and secured them,
I went back to my boat, and rowed or paddled her along the shore to
her old harbour, where I laid her up, and made the best of my way
to my old habitation, where I found every thing safe and quiet; so I
began now to repose myself, live after my old fashion, and take care
of my family affairs; and, for a while, I lived easy enough, only
that I was more vigilant than I used to be, looked out oftener, and
did not go abroad so much; and iſ at any time I did stir with any
freedom, it was always to the east part of the island, where I was
pretty well satisfied the savages never came, and where I could go
without so many precautions, and such a load of arms and ammu-
nition as I always carried with me if I went the other way. I lived in
this conditon near two years more; but my unlucky head, that was
always to let me know it was born to make my body miserable, was
all these two years filled with projects and designs, how, iſ it were
possible, I might get away from this island: for, sometimes I was
for making another voyage to the wreck, though my reason told me
that there was nothing left there worth the hazard of my voyage;
sometimes for a ramble one way, sometimes another; and I believe
verily, if I had had the boat that I went from Sallee in, I should have
ventured to sea, bound any where, I knew not whither. I have
been, in all my circumstances, a memento to those who are touched
with the general plague of mankind, whence, for aught I know, one
half of their miseries ſlow; I mean that of not being satisfied with the
station wherein God and nature has placed them: for, not to look
back upon my primitive condition, and the excellent advice of my
father, the opposition to which was, as I may call it, my original
sin, my subsequent mistakes of the same kind had been the means of
my coming into this miserable condition; for had that Providence,
Robinson Crusoe, 11
162
which so happily had scated me at the Brasils as a planter, blessed
me with confined desires, and I could have been contented to have
gone on gradually, I might have been, by this time, I mean in the
time of my being in this island, one of the most considerable planters
in the Brasils; nay, I am persuaded, that by the improvements I
had made in that little time I lived there, and the increase I should
probably have made if I had stayed, I might have been worth an
hundred thousand moidores; and what business had I to leave a
settled fortune, a well-stocked plantation, improving and increasing,
to turn Supercargo to Guinea to fetch negroes, when patience and
time would have so increased our stock at home, that we could have
bought them at our own door from those whose business it was to
fetch them; and though it had cost us something more, yet the diſſer-
ence of that price was by no means worth saving at so great a hazard.
But as this is ordinarily the ſate of young heads, so reflection upon
the folly of it is as ordinarily the exercise of more years, or of the
dear-bought experience of time; and so it was with me now; and yet
so deep had the mistake taken root in my temper, that I could not
Satisfy myself in my station, but was continually poring upon the
means and possibility of my escape from this place; and that I may,
with the greater pleasure to the reader, bring on the remaining part
of my story, it may not be improper to give some account of my first
conceptions on the subject of this foolish scheme for my escape, and
how, and upon what foundation I acted.
I am now to be supposed retired into my castle, after my late
voyage to the wreck, my frigate laid up and secured under water, as
usual, and my condition restored to what it was before; I had more
wealth, indeed, than I had before, but was not at all the richer; for
I had no more use for it than the Indians of Peru had before the
Spaniards came there.
It was one of the nights in the rainy season in March, the four
and twentieth year of my first setting foot in this island of solitariness,
I was lying in my bed, or hammock, awake; very well in health, had
no pain, no distemper, no uneasiness of body, no, nor any uneasi-
ness of mind, more than ordinary, but could by no means close my
eyes, that is, so as to sleep; no, not a wink all night long, other-
wise than as follows; — It is as impossible, as needless, to set down
the innumerable crowd of thoughts that whirled through that great
163
thoroughſare of the brain, the memory, in this night's time; I ran
over the whole history of my life in miniature, or by abridgment, as
I may call it, to my coming to this island, and also of the part of my
life since I came to this island. In my reſlections upon the state of
my case since I came on shore on this island, I was comparing the
happy posture of my aſſairs in the first years of my habitation here,
compared to the life of anxiety, fear, and care, which I had lived,
ever since I had seen the print of a foot in the sand; not that I did not
believe the savages had frequented the island even all the while, and
might have been several hundreds of them at times on shore there;
but I had never known it, and was incapable of any apprehensions
about it; my satisfaction was perfect, though my danger was the
same, and I was as happy in not knowing my danger as if I had never
really been exposed to it. This furnished my thoughts with many very
profitable reflections, and particularly this one; How infinitely good
that Providence is, which has provided, in its government of man-
kind, such narrow bounds to his sight and knowledge of things; and
though he walks in the midst of so many thousand dangers, the sight
of which, if discovered to him, would distract his mind and sink his
spirits, he is kept serene and calm, by having the events of things
hid from his eyes, and knowing nothing of the dangers which sur-
round him. .
After these thoughts had for some time entertained me, I came to
reflect seriously upon the real danger I had been in for so many years
in this very island, and how I had walked about in the greatest sc-
curity, and with all possible tranquillity, even when perhaps no-
thing but a brow of a hill, a great tree, or the casual approach of
night, had been between me and the worst kind of destruction, viz.
that of falling into the hands of cannibals and savages, who would
have seized on me with the same view as I did of a goat or a turtle,
and have thought it no more a crime to kill and devour me, than I did
of a pigeon or curlew. I would unjustly slander myself, if I should
Say I was not sincerely thankful to my great Preserver, to whose
singular protection I acknowledged, with great humility, that all
these unknown deliverances were due, and without which I must in-
evitably have fallen into their merciless hands.
When these thoughts were over, my head was for some time taken
up in considering the nature of these wretched creatures, I mean the
11 *
164
Savages, and how it came to pass in the world, that the wise Governor
of all things should give up any of his creatures to such inhumanity;
nay, to something so much below even brutality itself, as to devour
its own kind; but as this ended in some (at that time) fruitless spe-
culations, it occurred to me to inquire, what part of the world these
wretches lived in? how far off the coast was, from whence they came?
what they ventured over so far from home for? what kind of boats
they had? and why I might not order myself and my business so, that
I might be as able to go over thither as they were to come to me?
I never so much as troubled myself to consider what I should do
with myself when I came thither; what would become of me, if I fell
into the hands of the savages; or how I should escape from them, if
they attempted me; no, nor so much as how it was possible for me to
reach the coast, and not be attempted by some or other of them,
without any possibility of delivering myself; and if I should not fall
into their hands, what I should do for provision, or whither I should
bend my course: none of these thoughts, I say, so much as came in
my way; but my mind was wholly bent upon the notion of my passing
over in my boat to the main land. I looked back upon my present
condition as the most miserable that could possibly be; that I was not
able to throw myself into any thing, but death, that could be called
worse; that if I reached the shore of the main, I might perhaps meet
with relief, or I might coast along, as I did on the shore of Africa,
till I came to some inhabited country, and where I might ſind some
relief; and after all, perhaps, I might fall in with some Christian
ship that might take me in; and if the worst came to the worst, I could
but die, which would put an end to all these miseries at once. Pray
note, all this was the fruit of a disturbed mind, an impatient temper,
made as it were, desperate, by the long continuance of my troubles,
and the disappointments I had met in the wreck I had been on board
of, and where I had been so near the obtaining what I so earnestly
longed for, viz. somebody to speak to, and to learn some knowledge
from of the place where I was, and of the probable means of my de-
liverance. I say, I was agitated wholly by these thoughts; all my
calm of mind, in my resignation to Providence, and waiting the
issue of the dispositions of Heaven, seemed to be suspended; and I
had, as it were, no power to turn my thoughts to any thing but
to the project of a voyage to the main, which came upon me with
165
such force, and such an impetuosity of desire, that it was not to be
resisted.
When this had agitated my thoughts for two hours or more, with
such violence that it set my very blood into a ferment, and my pulse
beat as high as if I had been in a ſever, merely with the extraordinary
ſervour of my mind about it; nature, as if I had been fatigued and
exhausted with the very thought of it, threw me into a sound sleep.
One would have thought I should have dreamed of it, but I did not,
nor of any thing relating to it; but I dreamed that as I was going out
in the morning, as usual, from my castle, I saw upon the shore two
canoes and eleven savages coming to land, and that they brought with
them another savage, whom they were going to kill, in order to eat
him; when, on a sudden, the savage that they were going to kill
jumped away, and ran for his life; and I thought, in my sleep, that
he came running into my little thick grove before my ſortification, to
hide himself; and that I, seeing him alone and not perceiving that
the others sought him that way, showed myself to him, and smiling
upon him, encouraged him: that he kneeled down to me, seeming
to pray to me to assist him; upon which I showed him my ladder,
made him go up, and carried him into my cave, and he became my
servant; and that as soon as I had gotten this man, I said to myselſ,
“Now I may certainly venture to the main land; for this fellow will
serve me as a pilot, and will tell me what to do, and whither to go for
provisions, and whither not to go for fear of being devoured; what
places to venture into, and what to escape.” I waked with this
thought, and was under such inexpressible impressions of joy at the
prospect of my escape in my dream, that the disappointments which
I felt upon coming to myself, and finding that it was no more than a
dream, were equally extravagant the other way, and threw me into a
very great dejection of spirit.
Upon this, however, I made this conclusion; that my only way
to go about an attempt for an escape was, if possible, to get a savage
into my possession; and, if possible, it should be one of their pri-
soners whom they had condemned to be eaten, and should bring
thither to kill. But these thoughts still were attended with this diſſi-
culty, that it was impossible to effect this without attacking a whole
caravan of them, and killing them all; and this was not only a very
desperate attempt, and might miscarry, but, on the other hand, I had
- 166
greatly scrupled the lawfulness of it to me; and my heart trembled at
the thoughts of shedding so much blood, though it was for my de-
liverance. I need not repeat the arguments which occurred to me
against this, they being the same mentioned before; but though I had
other reasons to offer now, viz. that those men were enemies to my
life, and would devour me if they could; that it was self-preservation,
in the highest degree, to deliver myself from this death of a life, and
was acting in my own defence as much as if they were actually as-
saulting me, and the like; I say, though these things argued for it,
yet the thoughts of shedding human blood for my deliverance were
very terrible to me, and such as I could by no means reconcile myself
to a great while. However, at last, aſter many secret disputes with
myself, and after great perplexities about it, for all these arguments,
one way and another, struggled in my head a long time, the eager
prevailing desire of deliverance at length mastered all the rest; and I
resolved, if possible, to get one of those savages into my hands, cost
what it would. My next thing then was to contrive how to do it, and
this indeed was very diſficult to resolve on; but as I could pitch upon
no probable means for it, so I resolved to put myself upon the watch,
to see them when they came on shore, and leave the rest to the event;
taking such measures as the opportunity should present, let be what
would be.
With these resolutions in my thoughts, I set myself upon the
scout as often as possible, and indeed so often, till I was heartily
tired of it; for it was above a year and a half that I waited; and for
great part of that time went out to the west end, and to the south-
west corner of the island, almost every day, to see for canoes, but
none appeared. This was very discouraging, and began to trouble
me much; though I cannot say that it did in this case, as it had done
some time before, namely, wear off the edge of my desire to the
thing; but the longer it seemed to be delayed, the more eager I was
for it; in a word, I was not at first so careful to shun the sight of
these savages, and avoid being seen by them, as I was now eager to
be upon them. Besides, I ſancied myself able to manage one, nay,
two or three savages, if I had them, so as to make them entirely
slaves to me, to do whatever I should direct them, and to prevent
their being able at any time to do me any hurt. It was a great while
that I pleased myself with this affair; but nothing still presented; all
167
my fancies and schemes came to nothing, for no savages came near
me for a great while.
About a year and a half aſter I had entertained these notions, and
by long musing had, as it were, resolved them all into nothing, for
want of an occasion to put them in execution, I was surprised, one
morning early, with seeing no less than five canoes all on shore to-
gether on my side the island, and the people who belonged to them
all landed, and out of my sight. The number of them broke all my
measures; for seeing so many, and knowing that they always came
four, or six, or sometimes more, in a boat, I could not tell what to
think of it, or how to take my measures, to attack twenty or thirty
men single-handed; so I lay still in my castle, perplexed and dis-
comforted: however, I put myself into all the same postures for an
attack that I had formerly provided, and was just ready ſor action, if
any thing had presented. Having waited a good while, listening to
hear if they made any noise, at length, being very impatient, I set
my guns at the foot of my ladder, and clambered up to the top of the
hill, by my two stages, as usual; standing so, however, that my
head did not appear above the hill, so that they could not perceive me
by any means. Here I observed, by the help of my perspective-
glass, that they were no less than thirty in number, that they had a
ſire kindled, and that they had had meat dressed. How they had
cooked it that I knew not, or what it was; but they were all dancing,
in I know not how many barbarous gestures and figures, their own
way, round the fire.
While I was thus looking on them, I perceived, by my perspec-
tive, two miserable wretches dragged from the boats, where, it
seems, they were laid by, and were now brought out for the slaughter.
I perceived one of them immediately fell, being knocked down, I
suppose, with a club or wooden sword, for that was their way, and
two or three others were at work immediately, cutting him open for
their cookery, while the other victim was left standing by himself,
till they should be ready for him. In that very moment, this poor
wretch seeing himself a little at liberty, nature inspired him with
hopes of life, and he started away from them, and ran with incredible
swiftness along the sands, directly towards me, I mean towards that
part of the coast where my habitation was. I was dreadfully frighted,
that I must acknowledge, when I perceived him to run my way, and
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especially when, as I thought, I saw him pursued by the whole body;
and now I expected that part of my dream was coming to pass, and
that he would certainly take shelter in my grove; but I could not de-
pend, by any means, upon my dream for the rest of it, viz. that the
other savages would not pursue him thither, and find him there.
However, I kept my station, and my spirits began to recover, when
I found that there was not above three men that followed him; and
still more was I encouraged when I found that he outstripped them
exceedingly in running, and gained ground of them; so that if he
could but hold it for half an hour, I saw easily he would fairly get
away from them all.
There was between them and my castle the creek, which I men-
tioned often at the first part of my story, when I landed my cargoes
out of the ship; and this I saw plainly he must necessarily swim
over, or the poor wretch would be taken there: but when the savage
escaping came thither, he made nothing of it, though the tide was
then up; but plunging in, swam through in about thirty strokes, or
thereabouts, landed, and ran on with exceeding strength and swiſt-
ness. When the three persons came to the creek, I found that two
of them could swim, but the third could not, and that, standing on
the other side, he looked at the others, but went no farther, and
soon after went softly back again; which, as it happened, was very
well for him in the main. I observed, that the two who swam were
yet more than twice as long swimming over the creek as the fellow
was that ſled from them. It came now very warmly upon my thoughts,
and indeed irresistibly, that now was my time to get me a servant,
and perhaps a companion or assistant; and that I was called plainly
by Providence to save this poor creature's life. I immediately got
down the ladders with all possible expedition, fetched my two guns,
for they were both but at the foot of the ladders, as I observed above,
and getting up again, with the same haste, to the top of the hill, I
crossed towards the sea, and haviug a very short cut, and all down
hill, clapped myself in the way between the pursuers and the pursued,
hallooing aloud to him that ſled, who, looking back, was at first,
perhaps, as much frighted at me as at them; but I beckoned with my
hand to him to come back; and, in the mean time, I slowly advanced
towards the two that followed; then rushing at once upon the ſore-
most, I knocked him down with the stock of my piece. I was loath to
169
*y-
fire, because I would not have the rest hear; though, at thal distance,
it would not have been easily heard, and being out of sight of the
smoke too, they would not have easily known what to make of it.
Having knocked this fellow down, the other who pursued with him
stopped, as if he had been frighted, and I advanced apace towards
him; but as I came nearer, l perceived presently he had a bow and
arrow, and was ſitting it to shoot at me; so I was then necessitated to
shoot at him first, which I did, and killed him at the first shot. The
poor savage who ſled, but had stopped, though he saw both his
enemies fallen and killed, as he thought, yet was so frighted with the
fire and noise of my piece, that he stood stock-still, and neither came
forward or went backward, though he seemed rather inclined to ſly
still, than to come on. I hallooed again to him, and made signs to
come forward, which he easily understood, and came a little way;
then stopped again, and then a little farther, and stopped again; and
I could then perceive that he stood trembling, as if he had been taken
prisoner, and had just been to be killed, as his two enemics were.
I beckoned to him again to come to me, and gave him all the signs of
encouragement that I could think of; and he came nearer und
nearer, kneeling down every ten or twelve steps, in token of acknow-
ledgment for my saving his life. I smiled at him, and looked plea-
santly, and beckoned to him to come still nearer; at length he came
close to me, and then he kneeled down again, kissed the ground,
and laid his head upon the ground, and taking me by the foot, set
my foot upon his head; this, it seems, was in token of swearing to
be my slave for ever. I took him up, and made much of him, and
encouraged him all I could. But there was more work to do yet; for
I perceived the savage whom I knocked down was not killed, but
stunned with the blow, and began to come to himself; so I pointed
to him, and showing him the savage, that he was not dead; upon
this he spoke some words to me, and though 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
170
now, made a motion to me to lend him my sword, which hung naked
in a belt by my side; so I did. He no sooner had it, but he runs to
his enemy, and, at one blow, cut off his head as cleverly, no exe-
cutioner 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 I learned afterwards, they make their wooden swords so
sharp, so heavy, and the wood is so hard, that they will cut off heads
even with them, aye, 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 had killed the other Indian so far off: so pointing
to him, he made signs to me to let him go to him; so I bade him go,
as well as I could. When he came to him, he stood like one amazed,
looking at him, turned 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.
He took up his bow and arrows, and came back; so I turned to go
away, and beckoned to him to follow me, making signs to him that
more might come after them. Upon this he signed to me that he
should bury them with sand, that they might not be seen by the rest,
if they followed; and so I made signs again to him to do so. He fell
to work, and, in an instant, he had scraped a hole in the sand with
his hands, big enough to bury the first in, and then dragged him into
it, and covered him; and did so also by the other: I believe he had
buried them both in a quarter of an hour. Then calling him away,
I carried him, not to my castle, but quite away to my cave, on the
farther part of the island; so I did not let my dream come to pass in
that part, viz. that he came into my grove for shelter. Here I gave
him bread and a bunch of raisins to eat, and a draught of water,
which I found he was indeed in great distress for, by his running;
and having refreshed him, I made signs for him to go lie down
and sleep, and pointing to a place where I had laid a great parcel
of rice-straw, and a blanket upon it, which I used to sleep upon
myself sometimes; so the poor creature laid down, and went to sleep.
171
He was a comely handsome fellow, perfectly well made, with
straight strong limbs, not too large, tall, and well shaped; and, as
I reckon, about twenty-six years of age. He had a very good coun-
tenance, not a fierce and surly aspect, but seemed to have something
very manly in his face; and yet he had all the sweetness and softness
of an European in his countenance too, especially when he smiled.
His hair was long and black, not curled like wool; his forehead very
high and large; and a great vivacity and sparkling sharpness in his
eyes. The colour of his skin was not quite black, but very tawny;
and yet not of an ugly, yellow, nauseous tawny, as the Brasilians
and Virginians, and other natives of America are, but of a bright
kind of a dun olive colour, that had in it something very agreeable,
though not very easy to describe. His face was round and plump; his
nose small, not ſlat like the Negroes; a very good mouth, thin lips,
and his ſine teeth well set, and white as ivory.
After he had slumbered, rather than slept, about half an hour,
he waked again, and comes out of the cave to me, for I had been
milking my goats, which I had in the enclosure just by: when he
espied me, he came running to me, laying himself down again upon
the ground, with all possible signs of an humble thankſul disposition,
making a many antic gestures to show it. At last, he lays his head
ſlat upon the ground, close to my ſoot, and sets my other foot upon
his head, as he had done before; and aſter this, made all the signs
to me of subjection, servitude, and submission imaginable, to let
me know how he would serve me as long as he lived. I understood
him in many things, and let him know I was very well pleased with
him. In a little time I began to speak to him, and teach him to speak
to me; and, first, I made him know his name should be FRIDAY,
which was the day I saved his life: I called him so for the memory of
the time. I likewise taught him to say Master; and then let him know
that was to be my name: I likewise taught him to say Yes and No,
and to know the meaning of them. I gave him some milk in an earthen
pot, and let him see me drink it before him, and sop my bread in it;
and I gave him a cake of bread to do the like, which he quickly com-
plied with, and made signs that it was very good for him. I kept
there with him all that night; but as soon as it was day, Ibeckoned
to him to come with me, and let him know I would give him some
clothes; at which he seemed very glad, for he was stark naked. As
172
we went by the place where he had buried the two men, he pointed
exactly to the place, and showed me the marks that he had made to
find them again, making signs to me that we should dig them up again,
and eat them. At this I appeared very angry, expressed my abhor-
rence of it, made as if I would vomit at the thoughts of it, and beckon-
ed with my hand to him to come away; which he did immediately,
with great submission. I then led him up to the top of the hill, to
see if his enemies were gone; and pulling out my glass, I looked,
and saw plainly the place where they had been, but no appearance of
them or their canoes; so that it was plain they were gone, and had
left their two comrades behind them, without any search after them.
But I was not content with this discovery; but having now more
courage, and consequently more curiosity, I took my man Friday
with me, giving him the sword in his hand, with the bow and arrows
at his back, which I found he could use very dexterously, making
him carry one gun for me, and I two for myself; and away we
marched to the place where these creatures had been; for I had a mind
now to get some fuller intelligence of them. When I came to the place,
my very blood ran chill in my veins, and my heart sunk within me,
at the horror of the spectacle; indeed, it was a dreadful sight, at least
it was so to me, though Friday made nothing of it. The place was
covered with human bones, the ground dyed with their blood, great
pieces of flesh left here and there, half-eaten, mangled, and scorch-
ed; and, in short, all the tokens of the triumphant feast they had
been making there, after a victory over their enemies. I saw three
skulls, five hands, and the bones of three or four legs and feet, and
abundance of other parts of the bodies; and Friday, by his signs,
made me understand that they brought over four prisoners to feast
upon; that three of them were eaten up; and that he, pointing to
himself, was the fourth; that there had been a great battle between
them and their next king, whose subjects it seems he had been one
of, and that they had taken a great number of prisoners; all which
were carried to several places by those who had taken them in the
fight, in order to feast upon them, as was done here by these wretches
upon those they brought hither.
I caused Friday to gather all the skulls, bones, flesh, and what-
ever remained, and lay them together on a heap, and make a great
fire upon it, and burn them all to ashes. I ſound Friday had still a
173
hankering stomach after some of the flesh, and was still a cannibal
in his nature; but I discovered so much abhorrence at the very
thoughts of it, and at the least appearance of it, that he durst not
discover it; for I had, by some means, let him know, that I would
kill him iſ he offered it.
When we had done this, we came back to our castle; and there
I fell to work for my man Friday; and, first of all, I gave him a pair
of linen drawers, which I had out of the poor gunner's chest I men-
tioned, and which I ſound in the wreck; and which, with a little
alteration, fitted him very well; then I made him a jerkin of goat's-
skin, as well as my skill would allow, and I was now grown a tole-
rable good tailor; and I gave him a cap, which I made of a hare-skin,
very convenient and ſashionable enough; and thus he was clothed for
the present, tolerably well, and was mighty well pleased to see him-
self almost as well clothed as his master. It is true, he went awk-
wardly in these things at first; wearing the drawers was very awkward
to him, and the sleeves of the waistcoat galled his shoulders, and the
inside of his arms; but a little easing them where he complained they
hurt him, and using himself to them, at length he took to them
very well.
The next day after I came home to my hutch with him, I began
to consider where I should lodge him; and that I might do well for
him, and yet be perſectly easy myselſ, I made a little tent for him in
the vacant place between my two ſortifications, in the inside of the
last and in the outside of the first; and as there was a door or entrance
there into my cave, I made a formal framed door-case, and a door
to it of boards, and set it up in the passage, a little within the en-
trance; and causing the door to open on the inside, I barred it up in
the night, taking in my ladders too; so that Friday could no way come
at me in the inside of my innermost wall, without making so much
noise in getting over that it must needs waken me; for my first wall
had now a complete roof over it of long poles, covering all my tent,
and leaning up to the side of the hill, which was again laid cross with
smaller sticks, instead of laths, and then thatched over a great thick-
ness with the rice-straw, which was strong, like reeds; and at the
hole or place which was left to go in or out by the ladder, I had placed
a kind of trap-door, which, if it had been attempted on the outside,
would not have opened at all, but would have fallen down, and madó
174
a great noise; and as to weapons, I took them all in to my side every
night. But I needed none of all this precaution; for never man had
a more faithful, loving, sincere servant, than Friday was to me;
without passions, sullenness, or designs, perfectly obliged and en-
gaged; his very affections were tied to me, like those of a child to a
father; and I dare say, he would have sacrificed his life for the saving
mine, upon any occasion whatsoever: the many testimonies he gave
me of this put it out of doubt, and soon convinced me that I needed to
use no precautions, as to my safety on his account.
This frequently gave me occasion to observe, and that with
wonder, that however it had pleased God, in his providence, and in
the government of the works of his hands, to take from so great a
part of the world of his creatures the best uses to which their faculties
and the powers of their souls are adapted, yet that he has bestowed
upon them the same powers, the same reason, the same aſſections,
the same sentiments of kindness and obligation, the same passions
and resentments of wrongs, the same sense of gratitude, sincerity,
fidelity, and all the capacities of doing good, and receiving good, that
he has given to us; and that when he pleases to offer to them occa-
sions of exerting these, they are as ready, nay, more ready, to
apply them to the right uses for which they were bestowed, than we
are. And this made me very melancholy sometimes, in reflecting,
as the several occasions presented, how mean a use we make of all
these, even though we have these powers enlightened by the great
lamp of instruction, the Spirit of God, and by the knowledge of his
word added to our understanding; and why it has pleased God to
hide the like saving knowledge from so many millions of souls, who,
if I might judge by this poor savage, would make a much better use
of it than we did. From hence, I sometimes was led too far to invade
the sovereignty of Providence, and as it were arraign the justice of so
arbitrary a disposition of things, that should hide that light from
some, and reveal it to others, and yet expect a like duty from both;
but I shut it up, and checked my thoughts with this conclusion: first,
That we did not know by what light and law these should be con-
demned; but that as God was necessarily, and, by the nature of his
being, infinitely holy and just, so it could not be, but that if these
creatures were all sentenced to absence from himself, it was on ac-
count of sinning against that light, which, as the Scripture says, was
175.
a law to themselves, and by such rules as their consciences would
acknowledge to be just, though the foundation was not discovered to
us; and, secondly, That still, as we all are the clay in the hand of
the potter, no vessel could say to him, “Why hast thou formed me
thus !”
But to return to my new companion; I was greatly delighted with
him, and made it my business to teach him every thing that was
proper to make him useful, handy, and helpful; but especially to
make him speak, and understand me when I spoke; and he was the
aptest scholar that ever was; and particularly was so merry, so con-
stantly diligent, and so pleased when he could but understand me,
or make me understand him, that it was very pleasant to me to talk
to him; and now my life began to be so easy, that I began to say to
myself, that could I but have been safe from more savages, I cared
not if I was never to remove from the place while I lived.
After I had been two or three days returned to my castle, I
thought that, in order to bring Friday off from his horrid way of
feeding, and from the relish of a cannibal's stomach, I ought to let
him taste other ſlesh; so I took him out with me one morning to the
woods. I went, indeed, intending to kill a kid out of my own ſlock,
and bring it home and dress it; but as I was going, I saw a she-goat
lying down in the shade, and two young kids sitting by her. I catched
hold of Friday; Hold, said I, stand still; and made signs to him not
to stir; immediately I presented my piece, shot, and killed one of the
kids. The poor creature, who had, at a distance, indeed, seen me
kill the savage, his enemy, but did not know, or could imagine, how
it was done, was sensibly surprised, trembled and shook, and looked
so amazed, that I thought he would have sunk down. He did not see
the kid I shot at, or perceive I had killed it, but ripped up his waist-
coat, to feel if he was not wounded; and, as I ſound presently,
thought I was resolved to kill him; for he came and kneeled down to
me, and embracing my knees, said a great many things I did not
understand; but I could easily see that the meaning was, to pray me
not to kill him.
I soon found a way to convince him that I would do him no harm;
and taking him up by the hand, laughed at him, and pointed to the
kid which I had killed, beckoned to him to run and fetch it, which
he did; and while he was wondering, and looking to see how the
176
creature was killed, I loaded my gun again. By and by, I saw a great
fowl, like a hawk, sit upon a tree, within shot; so, to let Friday
understand a little what I would do, I called him to me again, pointed
at the fowl, which was indeed a parrot, though I thought it had been
a hawk; I say, pointing to the parrot, and to my gun, and to the
ground under the parrot, to let him see I would make it fall, I made
him understand that I would shoot and kill that bird; accordingly, I
ſired, and bade him look, and immediately he saw the parrot fall.
He stood like one frighted again, notwithstanding all I had said to
him; and I found he was the more amazed, because he did not see
me put any thing into the gun, but thought that there must be some
wonderful fund of death and destruction in that thing, able to kill
man, beast, bird, or any thing near or far off; and the astonishment
this created in him was such, as could not wear off for a long time;
and, I believe, if I would have let him, he would have worshipped
me and my gun. As for the gun itself, he would not so much as touch
it for several days after; but he would speak to it, and talk to it, as
if it had answered him, when he was by himself; which, as I after-
wards learned of him, was to desire it not to kill him. Well, after
his astonishment was a little over at this, I pointed to him to run and
fetch the bird I had shot, which he did, but staid some time; for the
parrot, not being quite dead, was fluttered away a good way off from
the place where she fell; however, he found her, took her up, and
brought her to me; and as I had perceived his ignorance about the
gun before, I took this advantage to charge the gun again, and not to
let him see me do it, that I might be ready for any other mark that
might present; but nothing more offered at that time: so I brought
home the kid, and the same evening I took the skin off, and cut it
out as well as I could; and having a pot fit for that purpose, I boiled
or stewed some of the flesh, and made some very good-broth. After
I had begun to eat some, I gave some to my man, who seemed very
glad of it, and liked it very well; but that which was strangest to him,
was to see me eat salt with it. He made a sign to me that the salt was
not good to eat; and putting a little into his own mouth, he seemed to
nauseate it, and would spit and sputter at it, washing his mouth with
fresh water after it; on the other hand, I took some meat into my
mouth without salt, and I pretended to spit and sputter for want of
salt, as fast as he had done at the salt; but it would not do; he would
*
177.
never care for salt with his meat or in his broth; at least, not for a
great while, and then but a very little.
Having thus fed him with boiled meat and broth, I was resolved
to feast him the next day with roasting a piece of the kid; this I did,
by hanging it before the ſire in a string, as I had seen many people do
in England, setting two poles up, one on each side the fire, and one
cross on the top, and tying the string to the cross stick, letting the
meat turn continually. This Friday admired very much; but when
he came to taste the flesh, he took so many ways to tell me how well
he liked it, that I could not but understand him; and at last he told
me, he would never eat man's flesh any more, which I was very glad
to hear.
The next day, I set him to work to beating some corn out, and
siſting it in the manner I used to do, as I observed before; and he
soon understood how to do it as well as I, especially after he had seen
what the meaning of it was, and that it was to make bread of; for
after that I let him see me make my bread, and bake it too; and in a
little time Friday was able to do all the work for me, as well as I could
do it myself.
I began now to consider, that having two mouths to feed instead
of one, I must provide more ground for my harvest, and plant a larger
quantity of corn than I used to do; so I marked out a larger piece of
land, and began the fence in the same manner as before, in which
Friday not only worked very willingly and very hard, but did it very
cheerfully; and I told him what it was for; that it was for corn to
make more bread, because he was now with me, and that I might
have enough for him and myself too. He appeared very sensible of
that part, and let me know that he thought I had much more labour
upon me on his account, than I had for myself; and that he would
work the harder for me, if I would tell him what to do.
This was the pleasantest year of all the life I led in this place;
Friday began to talk pretty well, and understand the names of almost
every thing I had occasion to call for, and of every place I had to send
him to, and talked a great deal to me; so that, in short, I began now
to have some use for my tongue, again, which, indeed, I had very
little occasion for before, that is to say, about speech. Iłesides tho
pleasure of talking to him, I had a singular satisfaction in the fellow
himself; his simple unfeigned honesty appeared to me more and
Robinson Crusoe, 12
178
more every day, and I began really to love the creature; and, on his
side, I believe he loved me more than it was possible for him ever to
love any thing before.
I had a mind once to try if he had any hankering inclination to his
own country again; and having taught him English so well that he
could answer me almost any questions, I asked him whether the na-
tion that he belonged to never conquered in battle? At which he
smiled, and said, “Yes, yes, we always fight the better:” that is,
he meant, always get the better in fight; and so we began the fol-
lowing discourse: “You always ſight the better;” said I, “how
came you to be taken prisoner then, Friday?”
Friday. My nation beat much for all that.
Master. How beat? If your nation beat them, how came you
to be taken?
Friday. They more many than my nation in the place where me
was; they take one, two, three, and me: my nation over-beat them
in the yonder place, where me no was; there my nation take one,
two, great thousand.
Master. But why did not your side recover you from the hands
of your enemies then?
Friday. They run one, two, three, and me, and make go in
the canoe; my nation have no canoe that time.
Master. Well, Friday, and what does your nation do with the
men they take? Do they carry them away and eat them, as these
did?
Friday. Yes, my nation eat mans too; eat all up.
Master. Where do they carry them?
Friday. Go to other place, where they think.
Master. Do they come hither?
Friday. Yes, yes, they come hither; come other else place.
Master. Have you been here with them?
Friday. Yes, I been here. (Points to the N. JP. side of the
island, which, it seems, was their side.)
By this I understood that my man Friday had formerly been among
the savages who used to come on shore on the farther part of the
island, on the same man-eating occasions that he was now brought
for; and, some time after, when I took the courage to carry him to ,
that side, being the same I formerly mentioned, he presently knew
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the place, and told me he was there once when they eat up twenty
men, two women, and one child; he could not tell twenty in Eng-
lish, but he numbered them, by laying so many stones on a row,
and pointing to me to tell them over.
I have told this passage, because it introduces what follows; that
after I had had this discourse with him, I asked him how far it was
from our island to the shore, and whether the canoes were not often
lost. He told me there was no danger, no canoes ever lost; but
that, after a little way out to sea, there was a current and wind,
always one way in the morning, the other in the aſternoon. This I
understood to be no more than the sets of the tide, as going out or
coming in; but I afterwards understood it was occasioned by the great
draft and reſlux of the mighty river Oroonoko, in the mouth or gulf
of which river, as I found afterwards, our island lay; and this land
which I perceived to the W. and N. W. was the great island Trinidad,
on the north point of the mouth of the river. I asked Friday a thou-
sand questions about the country, the inhabitants, the sea, the coast,
and what nations were near: he told me all he knew, with the great-
cst openness imaginable. I asked him the names of the several na-
tions of his sort of people, but could get no other name than Caribs;
ſrom whence I easily understood, that these were the Caribbees,
which our maps place on the part of America which reaches from the
mouth of the river Oroonoko to Guiana, and onwards to St. Martha.
He told me that up a great way beyond the moon, that was, beyond
the setting of the moon, which must be west from their country, there
dwelt white bearded men, like me, and pointed to my great whiskers,
which I mentioned before; and that they had killed much mans, that
was his word; by all which I understood, he meant the Spaniards,
whose cruelties in America had been spread over the whole countries,
and were remembered by all the nations, from father to son.
I inquired if he could tell me how I might go from this island and
get among those white men; he told me, Yes, yes, I might go in
two canoe. I could not understand what he meant, or make him
describe to me what he meant by two canoe; till, at last, with great
difficulty, I found he meant it must be in a large boat, as big as two
canoes. This part of Friday's discourse began to relish with me very
well; and from this time I entertained some hopes that, one time or
12 *
180
other, I might find an opportunity to make my escape from this place,
and that this poor savage might be a means to help me to do it.
During the long time that Friday had now been with me, and that
he began to speak to me, and understand me, I was not wanting to
lay a foundation of religious knowledge in his mind; particularly I
asked him one time, Who made him? The poor creature did not
understand me at all, but thought I had asked him who was his
father; but I took it up by another handle, and asked him who made
the sea, the ground we walked on, and the hills and woods? He
told me, it was one old Benamuckee, that lived beyond all; he could
describe nothing of this great person, but that he was very old, much
older, he said, than the sea or the land, than the moon or the stars.
I asked him then, if this old person had made all things, why did not
all things worship him? He looked very grave, and with a perfect
look of innocence said, All things do say 0 to him. I asked him if
the people who die in his country went away any where? He said,
Yes; they all went to Benamuckee; then I asked him whether these
they eat up went thither too! He said, Yes.
From these things I began to instruct him in the knowledge of the
true God; I told him that the great Maker of all things lived up there,
pointing up towards heaven; that he governs the world by the same
power and providence by which he had made it; that he was omni-
potent, could do every thing for us, give every thing to us, take
every thing from us; and thus, by degrees, I opened his eyes. He
listened with great attention, and received with pleasure the notion
of Jesus Christ being sent to redeem us, and of the manner of making
our prayers to God, and his being able to hear us, even into heaven.
He told me one day, that if our God could hear us up beyond the sun,
he must needs be a greater God than their Benamuckee, who lived
but a little way off, and yet could not hear till they went up to the
great mountains where he dwelt to speak to him. I asked him if ever
he went thither to speak to him? He said, No; they never went that
were young men; none went thither but the old men, whom he called
their Oowokakee; that is, as I made him explain it to me, their
religious, or clergy; and that they went to say O (so he called saying
prayers,) and then came back, and told them what Benamuckee said.
isy this I observed, that there is priestcraft even among the most
blinded, ignorant pagans in the world; and the policy of making a
18i
secret of religion, in order to preserve the veneration of the people
to the clergy, is not only to be found in the Roman, but perhaps
among all religions in the world, even among the most brutish and
barbarous savages.
I endeavoured to clear up this fraud to my man Friday; and told
him, that the pretence of their old men going up to the mountains to
say 0 to their god Benamuckee was a cheat; and their bringing word
from thence what he said was much more so; that if they met with
any answer, or spake with any one there, it must be with an evil
spirit; and then I entered into a long discourse with him about the
devil, the original of him, his rebellion against God, his enmity to
man, the reason of it, his setting himself up in the dark parts of the
world to be worshipped instead of God, and as God, and the many
stratagems he made use of to delude mankind to his ruin; how he
had a secret access to our passions and to our aſſections, to adapt his
snares so to our inclinations, as to cause us even to be our own
tempters, and run upon our destruction by our own choice.
I found it was not so easy to imprint right notions in his mind
about the devil, as it was about the being of a God; nature assisted
all my arguments to evidence to him even the necessity of a great First
Cause, and over-ruling, governing Power, a secret, directing Pro-
vidence, and of the equity and justice of paying homage to him that
made us, and the like; but there appeared nothing of all this in the
notion of an evil spirit; of his original, his being, his nature, and,
above all, of his inclination to do evil, and to draw us in to do so too;
and the poor creature puzzled me once in such a manner, by a
question merely natural and innocent, that I scarce knew what to say
to him. I had been talking a great deal to him of the power of God,
his omnipotence, his dreadſul aversion to sin, his being a consuming
fire to the workers of iniquity; how, as he had made us all, he could
destroy us and all the world in a moment; and he listened with great
seriousness to me all the while. After this, I had been telling him
how the devil was God's enemy in the hearts of men, and used all his
malice and skill to defeat the good designs of Providence, and to ruin
the kingdom of Christ in the world, and the like. “Well,” says
Friday, “but you say God is so strong, so great; is he not much
strong, much might as the devil?” “Yes, yes,” says I, “Friday,
God is stronger than the devil, God is above the devil, and therefore
182
we pray to God to tread him down under our feet, and enable us to
resist his temptations, and quench his fiery darts.” “But,” says he
again, “if God much strong, much might as the devil, why God no
kill the devil, so make him no more do wicked?” I was strangely
surprised at this question; and, after all, though I was now an old
man, yet I was but a young doctor, and ill enough qualified for a
casuist, or a solver of difficulties; and, at first, I could not tell what
to say; so I pretended not to hear him, and asked him what he said;
but he was too earnest for an answer, to forget his question, so that
he repeated it in the very same broken words as above. By this time
I had recovered myself a little, and I said, “God will at last punish
him severely; he is reserved for the judgment, and is to be cast into
the bottomless pit, to dwell with everlasting fire.” This did not
satisfy Friday; but he returns upon me repeating my words, “Iteserve
at last! me no understand; but why not kill the devil now; not kill
great ago?” – “You may as well ask me,” said I, “why God does
not kill you and me, when we do wicked things here that offend him;
we are preserved to repent and be pardoned.” He muses awhile at
this; “Well, well,” says he, mighty affectionately, “that well;
so you, I, devil, all wicked, all preserve, repent, God pardon all."
Here I was run down again by him to the last degree, and it was a
testimony to me, how the mere notions of nature, though they will
guide reasonable creatures to the knowledge of a God, and of a
worship or homage due to the supreme being of God, as the conse-
quence of our nature; yet nothing but divine revelation can form the
knowledge of Jesus Christ, and of redemption purchased for us, of
a Mediator of the new covenant, and of an Intercessor at the footstool
of God's throne; I say, nothing but a revelation from Heaven can
form these in the soul, and that, therefore, the gospel of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ, I mean the Word of God, and the Spirit
of God, promised for the guide and sanctifier of his people, are the
absolutely necessary instructors of the souls of men in the saving
knowledge of God, and the means of salvation.
I therefore diverted the present discourse between me and my
man, rising up hastily, as upon some sudden occasion of going out;
then sending him for something a good way off, I seriously prayed to
God that he would enable me to instruct savingly this poor savage,
assisting, by his Spirit, the heart of the poor ignorant creature to
183.
receive the light of the knowledge of God in Christ, reconciling him
to himself, and would guide me to speak so to him from the word of
God, as his conscience might be convinced, his eyes opened, and
nis soul saved. When he came again to me, I entered into a long
discourse with him upon the subject of the redemption of man by the
Saviour of the world, and of the doctrine of the gospel preached from
heaven, viz. of repentance towards God, and faith in our blessed
Lord Jesus. I then explained to him as well as I could, why our
blessed Redeemer took not on him the nature of angels, but the seed
of Abraham; and how, for that reason, the fallen angels had no
share in the redemption; that he came only to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel, and the like.
I had, God knows, more sincerity than knowledge in all the
methods I took for this poor creature's instruction, and must acknow-
ledge, what I believe all that act upon the same principle will find,
that in laying things open to him, I really informed and instructed
myself in many things that either I did not know, or had not fully
considered before; but which occurred naturally to my mind upon
searching into them, for the information of this poor savage; and I
had more aſſection in my inquiry after things upon this occasion than
ever I felt before; so that, whether this poor wild wretch was the
better for me or no, I had great reason to be thankful that ever he
came to me; my grief sat lighter upon me, my habitation grew com-
fortable to me beyond measure; and when I reflected, that in this
solitary life which I had been confined to, I had not only been moved
myself to look up to heaven, and to seek to the hand that had brought
me here, but was now to be made an instrument, under Providence,
to save the life, and, for aught I knew, the soul of a poor savage,
and bring him to the true knowledge of religion, and of the Christian
doctrine, that he might know Christ Jesus, to know whom is liſe
eternal. I say, when I reſlected upon all these things, a secret joy
ran through every part of my soul, and I frequently rejoiced that ever
I was brought to this place, which I had so often thought the most
dreadful of all aſſlictions that could possibly have befallen me.
In this thankful frame I continued all the remainder of my time,
and the conversation which employed the hours between Friday and I
was such, as made the three years which we lived there together per-
ſectly and completely happy, if any such thing as complete happiness
184
can be formed in a sublunary state. The savage was now a good
Christian, a much better than I; though I have reason to hope, and
bless God for it, that we were equally penitent, and comforted,
restored penitents. We had here the word of God to read, and no
farther off from his Spirit to instruct, than if we had been in England.
I always applied myself, in reading the Scripture, to let him know,
as well as I could, the meaning of what I read; and he again, by his
serious inquiries and questionings, made me, as I said before, a
much better scholar in the Scripture-knowledge than I should ever
have been by my own private mere reading. Another thing I cannot
refrain from observing here also, from experience in this retired part
of my life, viz. how infinite and inexpressible a blessing it is that the
knowledge of God, and of the doctrine of salvation by Christ Jesus,
is so plainly laid down in the word of God; so easy to be received and
understood: that as the bare reading the Scripture made me capable
of understanding enough of my duty to carry me directly on to the
great work of sincere repentance for my sins, and laying hold of a
Saviour for life and salvation, to a stated reformation in practice,
and obedience to all God's commands, and this without any teacher
or instructor; I mean human; so the same plain instruction suffi-
ciently served to the enlightening this savage creature, and bringing
him to be such a Christian, as I have known few equal to him in
my life.
As to all the disputes, wrangling, strife, and contention which
have happened in the world about religion, whether niceties in
doctrines, or schemes of church-government, they were all perfectly
useless to us; as, for aught I can yet see, they have been to all the
rest of the world. We had the sure guide to heaven, viz. the word
of God; and we had, blessed be God, comfortable views of the Spirit
of God teaching and instructing us by his word, leading us into all
truth, and making us both willing and obedient to the instruction of
his word; and I cannot see the least use that the greatest knowledge
of the disputed points in religion, which have made such confusions
in the world, would have been to us, if we could have obtained it:
but I must go on with the historical part of things, and take every
part in its order. tº
After Friday and I became more intimately acquainted, and that
he could understand almost all I said to him, and speak fluently,
185
though in broken English, to me, I acquainted him with my own
story, or at least so much of it as related to my coming into the place;
how I had lived here, and how long; I let him into the mystery, ſor
such it was to him, of gunpowder and bullet, and taught him how to
shoot. I gave him a knife, which he was wonderſully delighted with,
and I made him a belt, with a frog hanging to it, such as in England
we wear hangers in: and in the frog, instead of a hanger, I gave
him a hatchet, which was not only as good a weapon, in some cases,
but much more useful upon other occasions.
I described to him the country of Europe, particularly England,
which I came from; how we lived, how we worshipped God, how wo
behaved to one another; and how we traded in ships to all parts of
the world. I gave him an account of the wreck which I had been on
board of, and showed him, as near as I could, the place where she
lay; but she was all beaten in pieces before and gone. I showed him
the ruins of our boat, which we lost when we escaped, and which I
could not stir with my whole strength then, but was now fallen almost
all to pieces. Upon seeing this boat, Friday stood musing a great
while, and said nothing. I asked him what it was he studied upon,
at last, says he, “Me see such boat like come to place at my nation.”
I did not understand him a good while; but, at last, when I had ex-
amined farther into it, I understood by him, that a boat, such as
that had been, came on shore upon the country where he lived; that
is, as he explained it, was driven thither by stress of weather. I pre-
sently imagined that some European ship must have been cast away
upon their coast, and the boat might get loose, and drive ashore; but
was so dull, that I never once thought of men making escape from a
wreck thither, much less whence they might come; so I only in-
quired after a description of the boat.
Friday described the boat to me well enough; but brought me
better to understand him when he added with some warmth, “We
save the white mans from drown.” Then I presently asked him, if
there were any white mans, as he called them, in the boat; “yes,"
he said, “the boat full white mans.” I asked him how many; he
told upon his fingers seventeen. I asked him then what became of
them; he told me, “They live, they dwell at my nation."
This put new thoughts into my head; for I presently imagined that
these might be the men belonging to the ship that was cast away in
186
sight of my island, as I now called it; and who, after the ship was
struck on the rock, and they saw her inevitably lost, had saved them-
selves in their boat, and were landed upon that wild shore among the
savages. Upon this, I inquired of him more critically what was be-
come of them; he assured me they lived still there; that they had
becn there about four years; that the savages let them alone, and gave
them victuals to live on. I asked him how it came to pass they did
not kill them, and eat them; he said, “No, they make brother with
them; ” that is, as I understood him, a truce: and then he added,
“They no eat mans but when make the war ſight;" that is to say, they
never eat any men but such as come to fight with them and are taken
in battle.
It was after this some considerable time, that being upon the top
of the hill, at the east side of the island, from whence, as I have
said, I had, in a clear day, discovered the main or continent of
America; Friday, the weather being very serene, looks very earnestly
towards the main land, and, in a kind of surprise, falls a jumping
and dancing, and calls out to me, for I was at some distance from
him: I asked him what was the matter; “O joy " says he, “O
glad! there see my country, there my nation' " I observed an extra-
ordinary sense of pleasure appeared in his face, and his eyes sparkled,
and his countenance discovered a strange eagerness, as if he had a
mind to be in his own country again; and this observation of mine
put a great many thoughts into me, which made me at first not so
easy about my new man Friday as I was before; and I made no doubt
but that if Friday could get back to his own nation again, he would
not only forget all his religion, but all his obligation to me; and
would be forward enough to give his countrymen an account of me,
and come back perhaps with a hundred or two of them, and make a
feast upon me, at which he might be as merry as he used to be with
those of his enemies, when they were taken in war. But I wronged
the poor honest creature very much, for which I was very sorry after-
wards. However, as my jealousy increased, and held me some
weeks, I was a little more circumspect, and not so familiar and kind
to him as before; in which I was certainly in the wrong too, the
honest, grateful creature, having no thought about it, but what con-
sisted with the best principles, both as a religious Christian, and as
a grateful friend, as appeared afterwards, to my full satisfaction.
187
While my jealousy of him lasted, you may be sure I was every day
pumping him, to see if he would discover any of the new thoughts
which I suspected were in him; but I found every thing he said was
so honest and so innocent, that I could ſind nothing to nourish my
suspicion; and, in spite of all my uneasiness, he made me at last
entirely his own again, nor did he, in the least, perceive that I was
uncasy, and therefore I could not suspect him of deceit.
One day, walking up the same hill, but the weather being hazy
at sea, so that we could not see the continent, I called to him, and
said, “Friday, do not you wish yourselſ in your own country, your
own nation?” “Yes,” he said, “he be much 0 glad to be at his own
nation.” “What would you do there?” said I, “would you turn
wild again, eat men's ſlesh again, and be a savage as you were be-
fore?” He looked full of concern, and shaking his head, said,
“No, no, Friday, tell them to live good; tell them to pray God; tell
them to eat corn-bread, cattle-ſlesh, milk, no eat man again.”
“Why then,” said I to him, “they will kill you.” IIe looked grave
at that, and then said, “No, they no kill me, they willing love
learn.” He meant by this, they would be willing to learn. He added,
they learned much of the bearded mans that came in the boat. Then I
asked him if he would go back to them. He smiled at that, and told
me that he could not swim so far. I told him, I would make a canoe
for him. He told me he would go, if I would go with him. “I go!”
says I, “why, they will eat me if I come there.” “No, no,” says
he, “me make they no cat you; me make they much love you.” He
meant, he would tell them how I had killed his enemies, and saved
his life, and so he would make them love me. Then he told me, as
well as he could, how kind they were to seventeen white men, or
bearded men, as he called them, who came on shore there in distress.
From this time, I confess I had a mind to venture over, and see
if I could possibly join with these bearded men, who, I made no
doubt, were Spaniards or Portuguese; not doubting but if I could,
we might find some method to escape from thence, being upon the
continent, and a good company together, better than I could ſrom
an island forty miles off the shore, and alone, without help. So,
after some days, I took Friday to work again, by way of discourse,
and told him I would give him a boat to go back to his own nation;
and accordingly I carried him to my frigate, which lay on the other
188
side of the island, and having cleared it of water, for I always kept it
sunk in the water, I brought it out, showed it him, and we both
went into it. I found he was a most dexterous fellow at managing it,
would make it go almost as swift and fast again as I could. So when
he was in, I said to him, “Well, now, Friday, shall we go to your
nation?” He looked very dull at my saying so, which, it seems,
was because he thought the boat too small to go so far: I then told
him I had a bigger; so the next day I went to the place where the first
boat lay which I had made, but which I could not get into water. He
said that was big enough; but then, as I had taken no care of it, and
it had lain two or three and twenty years there, the sun had split and
dried it, that it was in a manner rotten. Friday told me such a boat
would do very well, and would carry “much enough vittle, drink,
bread;” that was his way of talking.
Upon the whole, I was by this time so fixed upon my design of
going over with him to the continent, that I told him we would go and
make one as big as that, and he should go home in it. He answered
not one word, but looked very grave and sad. I asked him what was
the matter with him? He asked me again thus; “Why you angry mad
with Friday? what me done?” I asked him what he meant; I told him
I was not angry with him at all. “No angry! no angry!” says he,
repeating the words several times, “why send Friday home away to
my nation?” “Why,” says I, “Friday, did not you say you wished
you were there?” “Yes, yes,” says he, wish be both there; no
wish Friday there, no master there.” In a word, he would not think
of going there without me. “I go there, Friday!" says I, “What
shall I do there?” He turned very quick upon me at this: “You do
great deal much good,” says he; “you teach wild mans be good,
sober, tame mans; you tell them know God, pray God, and live
new life.” “Alas! Friday,” says I, “thou knowest not what thou
sayest, I am but an ignorant man myself.” “Yes, yes," says he,
“you teachee me good, you teachee them good.” “No, no, Fri-
day,” says I, “you shall go without me; leave me here to live by
myself, as I did before.” He looked confused again at that word,
and running to one of the hatchets which he used to wear, he takes
it up hastily, comes and gives it me. “What must I do with this?”
says I to him. “You take kill Friday,” says he. “What must I
kill you for?” said I again. He returns very quick, “What you
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send Friday away for? Take kill Friday, no send Friday away.” This
he spoke so earnestly, that I saw tears stand in his eyes: in a word,
I so plainly discovered the utmost aſſection in him to me, and a firm
resolution in him, that I told him then, and often aſter, that I would
never send him away from me, if he was willing to stay with me.
Upon the whole, as I found, by all his discourse, a settled aſſection
to me, and that nothing should part him from me, so I found all the
foundation of his desire to go to his own country was laid in his ardent
aſſection to the people, and his hopes of my doing them good; a thing
which, as I had no notion of myself, so I had not the least thought,
or intention, or desire of undertaking it. But still I found a strong
inclination to my attempting an escape, as above, founded on the
supposition gathered from the discourse, viz. that there were seventeen
bearded men there; and, therefore, without any more delay, I went
to work with Friday, to find out a great tree proper to ſell, and
make a large periagua, or canoe, to undertake the voyage. There
were trees enough in the island to have built a little ſleet, not of peria-
guas, or canoes, but even of good large vessels. But the main
thing I looked at was, to get one so near the water that we might
launch it when it was made, to avoid the mistake I committed at first.
At last, Friday pitched upon a tree, for 1 ſound he knew much better
than I what kind of wood was ſittest for it; nor can I tell, to this day,
what wood to call the tree we cut down, except that it was very like
the tree we call ſustic, or between that and the Nicaragua wood, for
it was much of the same colour and smell. Friday was for burning
the hollow or cavity of this tree out, to make it for a boat, but I
showed him how rather to cut it out with tools; which, after I had
showed him how to use, he did very handily; and in about a month's
hard labour we finished it, and made it very handsome; especially
when, with our axes, which I showed him how to handle, we cut
and hewed the outside into the true shape of a boat. After this, however,
it cost us near a fortnight's time to get her along, as it were inch by
inch, upon great rollers into the water; but when she was in, she
would have carried twenty men with great case.
When she was in the water, and though she was so big, 'It
amazed me to see with what dexterity, and how swift my man Friday
would manage her, turn her, and paddle her along. So I asked him
if he would, and if we might venture over in her, “Yes," he said,
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“he venture over in her very well, though great blow wind.” However,
I had a farther design that he knew nothing of, and that was to make
a mast and a sail, and to fit her with an anchor and cable. As to a mast,
that was easy enough to get; so I pitched upon a straight young cedar
tree, which I found near the place, and which there was great plenty
of in the island; and I set Friday to work to cut it down, and gave
him directions how to shape and order it. But as to the sail, that
was my particular care. I knew I had old sails, or rather pieces of
old sails enough; but as I had had them now six and twenty years by
me, and had not been very careful to preserve them, not imagining
that I should ever have this kind of use for them, I did not doubt but
they were all rotten, and, indeed, most of them were so. However,
I found two pieces, which appeared pretty good, and with these I
went to work, and with a great deal of pains, and awkward tedious
stitching, you may be sure, for want of needles, I, at length, made
a three-cornered ugly thing, like what we call in England a shoulder
of mutton sail, to go with a boom at bottom, and a little short sprit
at the top, such as usually our ships' long-boats sail with, and such
as I best knew how to manage; because it was such a one as I had to
the boat in which I made my escape from Barbary, as related in the
first part of my story.
I was near two months performing this last work, viz, rigging and
fitting my mast and sails; for I finished them very complete. making
a small stay, and a sail, or fore-sail, to it, to assist, if we should
turn to windward; and, which was more than all, I fixed a rudder to the
stern of her to steer with; and though I was but a bunglingshipwright,
yet, as I knew the usefulness, and even necessity of such a thing,
I applied myself with so much pains to do it, that at last I brought it
to pass; though, considering the many dull contrivances I had for it
that failed, I think it cost me almost as much labour as making
the boat.
After all this was done too, I had my man Friday to teach as to
what belonged to the navigation of my boat; for, though he knew
very well how to paddle a canoe, he knew nothing what belonged to
a sail and a rudder; and was the most amazed when he saw me work
the boat to and again in the sea by the rudder, and how the sail gibed,
and filled this way, or that way, as the course we sailed changed;
I say, when he saw this, he stood like one astonished and amazed.
19?
However, with a little use, I made all these things ſunniliar to him,
and he became an expert sailor, except that as to the compass, I could
make him understand very little of that. On the other hand, as there
was very little cloudy weather, and seldom or never any ſogs in those
parts, there was the less occasion for a compass, seeing the stars
were always to be seen by night, and the shore by day, except in the
rainy seasons, and then nobody cared to stir abroad, either by land
Of Sea,
I was now entered on the seven and twentieth year of my captivity
in this place; though the three last years that I had this creature with
me ought rather to be left out of the account, my habitation being
quite of another kind than in all the rest of the time. I kept the
anniversary of my landing here with the same thankfulness to God for
his mercies as at first; and if I had such cause of acknowledgment at
ſirst, I had much more so now, having such additional testimonics
of the care of Providence over me, and the great hopes I had of being
effectually and speedily delivered; for I had an invincible impression
upon my thoughts that my deliverance was at hand, and that I should
not be another year in this place: however, I went on, with my
husbandry; digging, planting, fencing, as usual; I gathered and
cured my grapes, and did every necessary thing as before.
The rainy season was, in the mean time, upon me, when I kept
more within doors than at other times; so I had slowed our new vessel
as secure as we could, bringing her up into the creek, where, as I
said in the beginning, I landed my raſts from the ship; and hauling
her up to the shore, at highwater mark, I made my man Friday dig
a little dock, just big enough to hold her, and just deep enough to
give her water enough to float in; and then, when the tide was out, we
made a strong dam across the end of it, to keep the water out; and
so she lay dry, as to the tide, from the sea; and to keep the rain oſſ,
we laid a great many boughs of trees, so thick, that she was as well
thatched as a house; and thus we waited for the months of November
and December, in which I designed to make my adventure.
When the settled season began to come in, as the thought of my
design returned with the fair weather, I was preparing daily for the
voyage; and the first thing I did was to lay by a certain quantity of
provisions, being the stores for our voyage; and intended, in a week
or a fortnight's time, to open the dock, and launch out our boat. I
192
was busy one morning upon something of this kind, when I called to
Friday, and bid him go to the sea-shore, and see if he could find a
turtle, or tortoise, a thing which we generally got once a week, for
the sake of the eggs as well as the flesh. Friday had not been long
gone, when he came running back, and flew over my outer-wall, or
fence, like one that felt not the ground, or the steps he set his feet
on; and before I had time to speak to him, he cries out to me, “0
master! O master! O sorrow! 0 bad!” “What's the matter, Friday?”
says I. “O yonder, there,” says he, “one, two, three canoe; one,
two, threel” By this way of speaking, I concluded there were six: but,
on inquiry, I found it was but three. “Well, Friday,” says I, “do
not be frighted.” So I heartened him up as well as I could; however,
I saw the poor fellow was most terribly scared; for nothing ran in his
head but that they were come to look for him, and would cut him in
pieces, and eat him; and the poor fellow trembled so, that I scarce
knew what to do with him. I comforted him as well as I could, and
told him I was in as much danger as he, and that they would eat me
as well as him. “But,” says I, “Friday, we must resolve to fight
them. Can you fight, Friday?”—“Me shoot,” says he; “but there
come many great number.” — “No matter for that,” said I, again;
“our guns will fright them that we do not kill.” So I asked him
whether, if I resolved to defend him, he would defend me, and
stand by me, and do just as I bid him. He said, “Me die, when you
bid die, master.” So I went and fetched him a good dram of rum
and gave him; for I had been so good a husband of my rum, that I
had a great deal left. When he had drank it, I made him take the
two fowling-pieces, which we always carried, aud load them with
large swan-shot, as big as small pistol-bullets; then I took four
muskets, and loaded them with two slugs and five small bullets each;
and my two pistols I loaded with a brace of bullets each; I hung my
great sword, as usual, naked by my side, and gave Friday his hatchet.
When I had thus prepared myself, I took my perspective-glass, and
went up to the side of the hill, to see what I could discover; and I
found quickly, by my glass, that there were one and twenty savages,
three prisoners, and three canoes; aud that their whole business
seemed to be the triumphant banquet upon these three human bodies;
a barbarous feast indeed, but nothing more than, as I had observed,
was usual with them. I observed also, that they were landed, no;
193
where they had done when Friday made his escape; but nearer to my
creek, where the shore was low, and where a thick wood came close
almost down to the sea. This, with the abhorrence of the inhuman
errand these wretches came about, filled me with such indignation,
that I came down again to Friday, and told him I was resolved to go
down to them, and kill them all; and asked him if he would stand hy
me. He was now gotten over his fright, and his spirits being a little
raised with the dram I had given him, he was very cheerful, and told
ine, as before, he would die when I bid die.
In this ſit of fury, I took first and divided the arms which I had
charged, as before, between us; I gave Friday one pistol to stick in
his girdle, and three guns upon his shoulder; and I took one pistol,
and the other three myself; and in this posture we marched out. I
took a small bottle of rum in my pocket, and gave Friday a large bag
with more powder and bullet; and, as to orders, I charged him to
keep close behind me, and not to stir, or shoot, or do any thing,
till I bid him; and, in the mean time, not to speak a word. In this
posture, I fetched a compass to my right hand of near a mile, as well
to get over the creek as to get into the wood, so that I might come
within shot of them before I should be discovered, which I had seen,
by my glass, it was easy to do.
While I was making this march, my former thoughts returning,
I began to abate my resolution; I dot not mean that I entertained any
fear of their number; for, as they were naked, unarmed wretches,
it is certain I was superior to them; nay, though I had been alone.
But it occurred to my thoughts, what call? what occasion? much
less what necessity I was in, to go and dip my hands in blood, to
attack people who had neither done me or intended me any wrong?
Who, as to me, were innocent, and whose barbarous customs were
their own disaster; being in them, a token indeed of God's having
left them, with the other nations of that part of the world, to such
stupidity, and to such inhuman courses; but did not call me to take
upon me to be a judge of their actions, much less an executioner of
his justice; that, whenever he thought fit, he would take the causo
into his own hands, and, by national vengeance, punish them, as
a people, for national crimes: but that, in the mean time, it was
none of my business; that, it was true, Friday might justify it, be-
cause he was a declared enemy, and in a state of war with those very
Robinson Crusoe, 13
194
particular people; and it was lawful for him to attack them; but I
could not say the same with respect to me. These things were so
warmly pressed upon my thoughts all the way as I went, that I re-
solved I would only go and place myself near them, that I might observe
their barbarous feast, and that I would act then as God should direct;
but that, unless something offered that was more a call to me than yet
I knew of, I would not meddle with them.
With this resolution I entered the wood, and, with all possible
waryness and silence, Friday following close at my heels, I marched
till I came to the skirt of the wood, on the side which was next to
them; only that one corner of the wood lay between me and them.
Here I called softly to Friday, and showing him a great tree, which
was just at the corner of the wood, I bade him go to the tree, and
bring me word if he could see there plainly what they were doing.
He did so, and came immediately back to me, and told me they might
be plainly viewed there; that they were all about their fire, eating
the flesh of one of their prisoners, and that another lay bound upon
the sand, a little from them, which, he said, they would kill next,
and which fired all the very soul within me. He told me it was not
one of their nation, but one of the bearded men, whom he had told
me of, that came to their country in the boat. I was filled with horror
at the very naming the white, bearded man; and, going to the tree,
I saw plainly, by my glass, a white man, who lay upon the beach of
the sea, with his hands and his feet tied with flags, or things like
rushes, and that he was an European, and had clothes on.
There was another tree, and a little thicket beyond it, about fifty
yards nearer to them than the place where I was, which, by going a
little way about, I saw I might come at undiscovered, and that then
Ishould be within half shot of them; so I withheld my passion, though
I was indeed enraged to the highest degree; and going back about
twenty paces, I got behind some bushes, which held all the way till
I came to the other tree; and then I came to a little rising ground,
which gave me a full view of them, at the distance of about eighty
ards.
y I had now not a moment to lose, for nineteen of the dreadful
wretches sat upon the ground, all close huddled together, and had
just sent the other two to butcher the poor Christian, and bring him,
perhaps, limb by limb, to their fire; and they were stoopped down
išj;
to untie the bands at his feet. I turned to Friday — “Now, Friday,”
said I, “do as I bid thee,” Friday said he would. “Then, Friday,”
says I, “do exactly as you see me do; fail in nothing.” So I set
down one of the muskets and the ſowling-piece upon the ground, and
Friday did the like by his; and with the other musket I took my aim
at the savages, bidding him to do the like; then asking him if he was
ready, he said, “Yes.” “Then ſire at them,” said I; and the same
moment I ſired also.
Friday took his aim so much better than I, that on the side that
he shot, he killed two of them, and wounded three more; and on
my side, I killed one, and wounded two. They were, you may be
sure, in a dreadful consternation; and all of them who were not hurt
jumped up upon their feet, but did not immediately know which way
to run, or which way to look, for they knew not from whence their
destruction came. Friday kept his eyes close upon me, that, as I
had bid him, he might observe what I did; so, as soon as the ſirst
shot was made, I threw down the piece, and took up the fowling-
piece; and Friday did the like; he saw me cock and present; he did
the same again. “Are you ready, Friday?” said I. — “Yes,” says
he. “Let ſly, then,” says I, “in the name of God!” and with that,
I ſired again among the amazed wretches, and so did Friday; and as
our pieces were now loaden with what I called swan-shot, or small
pistol-bullets, we found only two drop, but so many were wounded,
that they ran about yelling and screaming like mad creatures, all
bloody, and miserably wounded most of them; whereof three more
of them fell quickly after, not quite dead.
“Now, Friday,” says I, laying down the discharged pieces, and
taking up the musket which was yet loaden, “follow me,” says I,
which he did with a great deal of courage; upon which I rushed out
of the wood, and showed myself, and Friday close at my foot. As
soon as I perceived they saw me, I shouted as loud as I could, and
bade Friday do so too; and running as fast as I could, which, by the
way, was not very fast, being loaded with arms as I was, I made
directly towards the poor victim, who was, as I said, lying upon the
beach, or shore, between the place where they sat and the sea. The
two butchers, who were just going to work with him, had left him at
the surprise of our first fire, and ſled in a terrible fright to the sea-
side, and had jumped into a canoe, and three more of the rest made
13 *
196
the same way. I turned to Friday, and bade him step forwards, and
fire at them; he understood me immediately, and running about forty
yards, to be near them, he shot at them, and I thought he had killed
them all, for I saw them all fall of a heap into the boat; though I saw
two of them up again quickly; however, he killed two of them, and
wounded the third so, that he lay down in the bottom of the boat as
if he had been dead.
While my man Friday ſired at them, I pulled out my knife and
cut the flags that bound the poor victim; and losing his hands and
feet, I lifted him up, and asked him in the Portuguese tongue, what
he was. He answered in Latin, Christianus; but was so week and
faint that he could scarce stand or speak. I took my bottle out of my
pocket, and gave it him, making signs that he should drink, which
he did; and I gave him a piece of bread, which he eat. Then I asked
him what countryman he was; and he said, Espagnole; and being
a little recovered, let me know, by all the signs he could possibly
make, how much he was in my debt for his deliverance. “Seignior,”
said I, with as much Spanish as I could make up, “we will talk
afterwards, but we must ſight now; if you have any strength left,
take this pistol and sword, and lay about you.” He took them very
thankfully, and no sooner had he the arms in his hands, but, as if
they had put new vigour into him, he ſlew upon his murderers like a
fury, and had cut two of them in pieces in an instant; for the truth
is, as the whole was a surprise to them, so the poor creatures were
so much frighted with the noise of our pieces, that they fell down for
mere amazement and fear; and had no more power to attempt their
own escape, than their flesh had to resist our shot; and that was the
case of those five that Friday shot at in the boat; for as three of them
fell with the hurt they received, so the other two fell with the fright.
I kept my piece in my hand still without firing, being willing to
keep my charge ready, because I had given the Spatriard my pistol
and sword: so I called to Friday, and bade him run up to the tree
from whence we first fired, and fetch the arms which lay there that
had been discharged, which he did with great swiftness; and then
giving him my musket, I sat down myself to load all the rest again,
and bade them come to me when they wanted. While I was loading
these pieces, there happened a fierce engagement between the Spa-
niard and one of the savages, who made at him with one of their great
197
wooden swords, the same weapon that was to have killed him before,
iſ I had not prevented it. The Spaniard, who was as bold and as brave
as could be imagined, though weak, had fought this Indian a good
while, and had cut him two great wounds on his head; but the savage
being a stout, lusty fellow, closing in with him, had thrown him
down, being ſaint, and was wringing my sword out of his hand;
when the Spaniard, though undermost, wisely quitting the sword,
drew the pistol from his girdle, shot the savage through the body, and
killed him upon the spot, before I, who was running to help him,
could come near him.
Friday being now left to his liberty, pursued the ſlying wretches
with no weapon in his hand but his hatchet; and with that he dis
patched those three, who, as I said before, were wounded at first,
and fallen, and all the rest he could come up with, and the Spaniard
coming to me for a gun, I gave him one of the fowling-pieces, with
which he pursued two of the savages, and wounded them both; but,
as he was not able to run, they both got from him into the wood,
where Friday pursued them, and killed one of them, but the other
was too nimble for him; and though he was wounded, yet had plunged
himself into the sea, and swam, with all his might, off to those two
who were left in the canoe, which three in the canoe, with one
wounded, who we know not whether he died or no, were all that
escaped our hands of one and twenty; the account of the rest is as
follows:
3 killed at our first shot from the tree.
2 killed at the next shot.
2 killed by Friday in the boat.
2 killed by Ditto, of those at first wounded.
1 killed by Ditto in the wood.
3 killed by the Spaniard.
4 killed, being found dropped here and there, of their wounds,
or killed by Friday in his chase of them.
4 escaped in the boat, whereof one wounded, if not dead.
21 in all.
Those that were in the canoe worked hard to get out of gun-shot,
and though Friday made two or three shot at them, I did not find that
he hit any of them. Friday would ſain have had me take one of their
198
canoes, and pursue them; and, indeed, I was very anxious about
their escape, lest carrying the news home to their people, they should
come back perhaps with two or three hundred of their canoes, and
devour us by mere multitude; so I consented to pursue them by sea,
and running to one of their canoes I jumped in, and bade Friday
follow me; but when I was in the canoe, I was surprised to find
another poor creature lie there alive, bound hand and foot, as the
Spaniard was, for the slaughter, and almost dead with fear, not
knowing what the matter was; for he had not been able to look up
over the side of the boat, he was tied so hard neck and heels, and had
been tied so long, that he had really but little life in him.
I immediately cut the twisted flags or rushes, which they had
bound him with, and would have helped him up; but he could not
stand or speak, but groaned most piteously, believing, it seems, still,
that he was only unbound in order to be killed. When Friday came
to him, I bade him speak to him, and tell him of his deliverance;
and, pulling out my bottle, made him give the poor wretch a dram;
which, with the news of his being delivered, revived him, and he
sat up in the boat. But when Friday came to hear him speak, and
look in his face, it would have moved any one to tears to have seen
how Friday kissed him, embraced him, hugged him, cried, laughed,
hallooed, jumped about, danced, sung; then cried again, Wrung
his hands, beat his own face and head; and then sung and jumped
about again, like a distracted creature. It was a good while before I
could make him speak to me, or tell me what was the matter; but
when he came a little to himself, he told me that it was his father.
It is not easy for me to express how it moved me to see what
ecstasy and filial affection had worked in this poor savage at the sight
of his father, and of his being delivered from death; nor, indeed,
can I describe half the extravagancies of his affection after this; for he
went into the boat, and out of the boat, a great many times: when
he went in to him, he would sit down by him, open his breast, and
hold his father's head close to his bosom, half an hour together, to
nourish it; then he took his arms and ancles, which were numbed
and stiff with the binding, and chaſed and rubbed them with his
hands; and I, perceiving what the case was, gave him some rum out
of my bottle to rub them with, which did them a great deal of good.
This action put an end to our pursuit of the canoe with the other
109.
savages, who were now gotten almost out of sight; and it was happy
for us that we did not, for it blew so hard within two hours aſter, and
before they could be gotten a quarter of their way, and continued
blowing so hard all night, and that from the north-west, which was
against them, that I could not suppose their boat could live, or that
they ever reached to their own coast.
But, to return to Friday; he was so busy about his father, that I
could not find in my heart to take him off for some time: but after I
thought he could leave him a little, I called him to me, and he came
jumping and laughing, and pleased to the highest extreme; then I
asked him if he had given his father any bread. He shook his head,
and said, “None; ugly dog eat all up self.” So I gave him a cake
of bread, out of a little pouch I carried on purpose; I also gave him
a dram for himself, but he would not taste it, but carried it to his
father. I had in my pocket also two or three bunches of my raisins,
so I gave him a handful of them ſor his father. He had no sooner
given his father these raisins, but I saw him come out of the boat,
and run away, as if he had been bewitched, he ran at such a rate; for
he was the swiſtest ſellow of his ſoot that ever I saw : I say, he ran at
such a rate, that he was out of sight, as it were, in an instant; and
though I called, and hallooed out too, after him, it was all one, away
he went; and in a quarter of an hour I saw him come back again,
though not so fast as he went; and as he came nearer I found his pace
was slacker, because he had something in his hand. When he came
up to me, I found he had been quite home for an earthen jug, or pot,
to bring his father some fresh water, and that he had got two more
cakes or loaves of bread; the bread he gave me, but the water he
carried to his father; however, as I was very thirsty too, I took a
little sup of it. This water revived his father more than all the rum
or spirits I had given him, for he was just fainting with thirst.
When his father had drank, I called to him to know if there was
any water left: he said, “Yes;” and I bade him give it to the poor
Spaniard, who was in as much want of it as his father; and I sent
one of the cakes, that Friday brought, to the Spaniard too, who was
indeed very weak, and was reposing himself upon a green place under
the shade of a tree; and whose limbs were also very stiff, and very
much swelled with the rude bandage he had been tied with. When I
saw that upon Friday's coming to him with the water, he sat up and
200
drank, and took the bread, and began to eat, I went to him and
gave him a handful of raisins: he looked up in my face with all the
tokens of gratitude and thankfulness that could appear in any counte-
mance; but was so weak, notwithstanding he had so exerted himself
in the fight, that he could not stand up upon his feet; he tried to do
it two or three times, but was really not able, his ancles were so
swelled and so painful to him; so I bade him sit still, and caused
Friday to rub his ancles, and bathe them with rum, as he had done
his father's.
I observed the poor affectionate creature, every two minutes, or
perhaps less, all the while he was here, turn his head about, to see
if his father was in the same place and posture as he left him sitting;
and at last he found he was not to be seen; at which he started up,
and, without speaking a word, flew with that swiftness to him, that
one could scarce perceive his feet to touch the ground as he went: but
when he came, he only found he had laid himself down to ease his
limbs, so Friday came back to me presently; and then I spoke to the
Spaniard to let Friday help him up, if he could, and lead him to the
boat, and then he should carry him to our dwelling, where I would
take care of him; but Friday, a lusty strong fellow, took the Spaniard
quite up upon his back, and carried him away to the boat, and set
him down softly upon the side or gunnel of the canoe, with his feet in
the inside of it; and then lifted him quite in, and set him close to his
father; and presently stepping out again, launched the boat off, and
paddled it along the shore faster than I could walk, though the wind
blew pretty hard too; so he brought them both safe into our creek,
and leaving them in the boat, runs away to fetch the other canoe. As
he passed me, I spoke to him, and asked him whither he went. He
told me, “Go fetch more boat:” so away he went like the wind, for
sure never man or horse ran like him; and he had the other canoein
the creek almost as soon as I got to it by land; so he waſted me over,
and then went to help our new guests out of the boat, which he did;
but they were neither of them able to walk, so that poor Friday knew
not what to do.
To remedy this, I went to work in my thought, and calling tº
Friday to bid them sit down on the bank while he came to me, I S000
made a kind of a hand-barrow to lay them on, and Friday and I car"
ried them up both together upon it, between us.
201
Bát when we got them to the outside of our wall, or ſortification,
we were at a worse loss than before, for it was impossible to get them
over, and I was resolved not to break it down: so I set to work again;
and Friday and I, in about two hours' time, made a very handsome
tent, covered with old sails, and above that with boughs of trees,
being in the space without our outward fence, and between that and
the grove of young wood which I had planted: and here we made them
two beds of such things as I had, viz. of good rice-straw, with blankets
laid upon it, to lie on, and another to cover them, on each bed.
My island was now peopled, and I thought myself very rich in
subjects; and it was a merry reflection, which I frequently made,
how like a king I looked. First of all, the whole country was my own
mere property, so that I had an undoubted right of dominion. Se-
condly, my people were perfectly subjected; I was absolutely lord
and law-giver; they all owed their lives to me, and were ready to lay
down their lives, if there had been occasion of it, for me. It was
remarkable, too, I had but three subjects, and they were of three
diſſerent religions: my man Friday was a Protestant, his father was
a Pagan and a cannibal, and the Spaniard was a Papist: however, I
allowed liberty of conscience throughout my dominions; but this is
by the way. +
As soon as I had secured my two weak rescued prisoners, and
given them shelter, and a place to rest them upon, I began to think
of making some provision for them; and the first thing I did, I or—
dered Friday to take a yearling goat, betwixt a kid and a goat, out of
my particular flock, to be killed, when I cut off the hinder-quarter,
and chopping it into small pieces, I set Friday to work to boiling and
Stewing, and made them a very good dish, I assure you, offlesh and
broth, having put some barley and rice also into the broth; and as I
cooked it without doors, for I made no fire within my inner wall, so
I carried it all into the new tent, and having set a table there for them,
I sat down, and eat my own dinner also with them, and, as well as
I could, cheered them, and encouraged them; Friday being my
interpreter, especially to his father, and, indeed, to the Spaniard
too; for the Spaniard spoke the language of the savages pretty well.
After we had dined, or rather supped, I ordered Friday to take
one of the canoes, and go and fetch our muskets and other fire-arms,
which, for want of time, we had left upon the place of battle; and,
202
the next day, I ordered him to go and bury the dead bodies of the
savages, which lay open to the sun, and would presently be offensive;
and I also ordered him to bury the horrid remains of their barbarous
feast, which I knew were pretty much, and which I could not think
of doing myself; nay, I could not bear to see them, if I went that
way; all which he punctually performed, and defaced the very appear-
ance of the savages being there; so that when I went again, I could
scarce know where it was, otherwise than by the corner of the wood
pointing to the place.
I then began to enter into a little conversation with my two new
subjects; and, first, I set Friday to inquire of his father what he
thought of the escape of the savages in that canoe, and whether we
might expect a return of them, with a power too great for us to resist.
His first opinion was, that the savages in the boat never could live
out the storm which blew that night they went off, but must, of ne–
cessity, be drowned, or driven south to those other shores, where
they were as sure to be devoured as they were to be drowned, if they
were cast away; but, as to what they would do, if they came safe on
shore, he said he knew not; but it was his opinion, that they were
so dreadfully frighted with the manner of their being attacked, the
noise, and the fire, that he believed they would tell their people they
were all killed by thunder and lightning, not by the hand of man;
and that the two which appeared, viz. Friday and I, Were two
heavenly spirits, or furies, come down to destroy them, and not
men with weapons. This, he said, he knew; because he heard
them all cry out so, in their language to one another; for it was im-
possible to them to conceive that a man could dart fire, and speak
thunder, and kill at a distance, without lifting up the hand, as was
done now; and this old savage was in the right; for, as I understood
since, by other hands, the savages never attempted to go over to the
island afterwards; they were so terrified with the accounts given by
those four men (for, it seems, they did escape the sea,) that they
believed whoever went to that enchanted island would be destroyed
with fire from the gods. This, however, I knew not, and therefore
was under continual apprehensions for a good while, and kept always
upon my guard, I and all my army; for, as there were now four of
us, I would have ventured upon a hundred of them, fairly in the
open field, at any time.
203
In a little time, however, no more canoes appearing, the fear of
their coming wore off; and I began to take my former thoughts of a
voyage to the main into consideration; being likewise assured, by
Friday's father, that I might depend upon good usage from their
nation, on his account, if I would go. But my thoughts were a little
suspended when I had a seriours discourse with the Spaniard, and
when I understood that there were sixteen more of his countrymen
and Portuguese, who, having been cast away, and made their escape
to that side, lived there at peace, indeed, with the savages, but
were very sore put to it for necessaries, and indeed for life. I asked
him all the particulars of their voyage, and found they were a Spanish
ship, bound from the Rio de la Plata to the Havanna, being directed
to leave their loading there, which was chiefly hides and silver, and
to bring back what European goods they could meet with there; that
they had five Portuguese seamen on board, whom they took out of
another wreck; that five of their own men were drowned, when first
the ship was lost, and that these escaped, through infinite dangers
and hazards, and arrived, almost starved, on the cannibal coast,
where they expected to have been devoured every moment. He told
me they had some arms with them, but they were perfectly useless,
for that they had neither powder or ball, the washing of the sea having
spoiled all their powder but a little, which they used, at their first
landing, to provide themselves some food.
I asked him what he thought would become of them there, and if
they had formed no design of making any escape. He said they had
many consultations about it; but that having neither vessel, or tools
to build one, or provisions of any kind, their councils always ended
in tears and despair. I asked him how he thought they would receive
a proposal from me, which might tend towards an escape; and
whether, if they were all here, it might not be done. I told him
with freedom, I feared mostly their treachery and ill usage of me, if
I put my life in their hands; for that gratitude was no inherent virtue
in the nature of man, nor did men always square their dealings by
the obligations they had received, so much as they did by the advan-
tages they expected. I told him it would be very hard that I should
be the instrument of their deliverance, and that they should after-
wards make me their prisoner in New Spain, where an Englishman
was certain to be made a sacrifice, what necessity, or what accident
204
soever brought him thither; and that I had rather be delivered up to
the savages, and be devoured alive, than fall into the merciless claws
of the priests, and be carried into the Inquisition. I added, that
otherwise I was persuaded, if they were all here, we might, with so
many hands, build a bark large enough to carry us all away, cither
to the Brasils, southward, or to the islands, or Spanish coast,
northward; but that if, in requital, they should, when I had put
weapons into their hands, carry me by force among their own people,
I might be ill used for my kindness to them, and make my case worse
than it was before.
He answered, with a great deal of candour and ingenuity, that
their condition was so miserable, and that they were so sensible of
it, that, he believed, they would abhor the thought of using any
man unkindly that should contribute to their deliverance; and that,
if I pleased, he would go to them with the old man, and discourse
with them about it, and return again, and bring me their answer;
that he would make conditions with them upon their solemn oath,
that they should be absolutely under my leading, as their commander
and captain; and that they should swear upon the holy sacraments
and the gospel, to be true to me, and to go to such Christian country
as that I should agree to, and no other, and to be directed wholly
and absolutely by my orders, till they were landed safely in such
country as I intended; and that he would bring a contract from them,
under their hands, for that purpose. Then he told me he would first
swear to me himself, that he would never stir from me as long as he
lived, till I gave him orders; and that he would take my side to the
last drop of his blood, if there should happen the least breach of faith
among his countrymen. He told me they were all of them very civil,
honest men, and they were under the greatest distress imaginable,
having neither weapons or clothes, nor any food, but a the mercy
and discretion of the savages; out of all hopes of ever returning to
their own country; and that he was sure, if I would undertake their
relief, they would live and die by me.
Upon these assurances, I resolved to venture to relieve them, if
possible, and to send the old savage and this Spaniard over to them
to treat. But when we had gotten all things in a readiness to go, the
spaniard himself started an objection, which had so much prudence
in it, on one hand, and so much sincerity on the other hand, that I
205
*
could not but be very well satisfied in it; and, by his advice, put off
the deliverance of his comrades for at least half a year. The case was
thus: he had been with us now about a month; during which time I
had let him see in what manner I had provided, with the assistance
of Providence, for my support; and he saw evidently what stock of
corn and rice I had laid up; which, as it was more than sufficient
for myself, so it was not sufficient, at least without good husbandry,
for my family, now it was increased to number four; but much less
would it be sufficient if his countrymen, who were, as he said,
fourteen, still alive, should come over; and, least of all, would it
be sufficient to victual our vessel, if we should build one, for a
voyage to any of the Christian colonies of America; so he told me he
thought it would be more adviseable to let him and the other two dig
and cultivate some more land, as much as I could spare seed to sow;
and that we should wait another harvest, that we might have a supply
of corn for his countrymen, when they should come; for want might
be a temptation to them to disagree, or not to think themselves de-
livered, otherwise than out of one difficulty into another. “You
know,” says he, “the children of Israel, though they rejoiced at
first for their being delivered out of Egypt, yet rebelled even against
God himself, that delivered them, when they came to want bread in
the wilderness.”
His caution was so seasonable, and his advice so good, that I
could not but be very well pleased with his proposal, as well as I was
satisfied with his fidelity: so we fell to digging all four of us, as well
as the wooden tools we were furnished with permitted; and in about
a month's time, by the end of which it was seed-time, we had gotten
as much land cured and trimmed up as we sowed two and twenty
bushels of barley on, and sixteen jars of rice; which was, in short,
all the seed we had to spare; nor, indeed, did we leave ourselves
barley sufficient for our own food, for the six months that we had to
expect our crop; that is to say, reckoning from the time we set our
seed aside for sowing; for it is not to be supposed it is six months in
the ground in that country. -
Having now society enough, and our number being sufficient to
put us out of fear of the savages, if they had come, unless their
number had been very great, we went freely all over the island,
wherever we found occasion; and as here we had our escape or de-
206
liverance upon our thoughts, it was impossible, at least for me, to
have the means of it out of mine. To this purpose, I marked out
several trees which I thought fit for our work, and I set Friday and
his father to cutting them down; and then I caused the Spaniard, to
whom I imparted my thoughts on that affair, to oversee and direct
their work. I showed them with what indefatigable pains I had hewed
a large tree into single planks, and I caused them to do the like, till
they had made about a dozen large planks of good oak, near two feet
broad, thirty-five feet long, and from two inches to four inches thick:
what prodigious labour it took up, any one may imagine.
At the same time, I contrived to increase my little ſlock of tame
goats as much as I could; and, for this purpose, I made Friday and
the Spaniard go out one day, and myself with Friday the next day;
for we took our turns: and by this means we got above twenty young
kids to breed up with the rest; for whenever we shot the dam, we
saved the kids, and added them to our flock. But, above all, the
season for curing the grapes coming on, I caused such a prodigious
quantity to be hung up in the sun, that, I believe, had we been at
Alicant, where the raisins of the sun are cured, we could have filled
sixty or eighty barrels; and these, with our bread, was a great part
of our food, and very good living too, I assure you; for it is an ex-
ceeding nourishing food.
It was now harvest, and our crop in good order; it was not the
most plentiful increase I had seen in the island, but, however, it
was enough to answer our end; for from our twenty-two bushels of
barley we brought in and threshed out above two hundred and twenty
bushels, and the like in proportion of the rice; which was store
enough for our food to the next harvest, though all the sixteen
Spaniards had been on shore with me; or if we had been ready for a
voyage, it would very plentifully have victualled our ship to have
carried us to any part of the world, that is to say, of America. When
we had thus housed and secured our magazine of corn, we fell to
work to make more wicker-work, viz. great baskets, in which we
kept it; and the Spaniard was very handy and dexterous at this part,
and often blamed me that I did not make some things for defence of
this kind of work; but I saw no need of it. -
And now having a full supply of food for all the guests I expected,
I gave the Spaniard leave to go over to the main, to see what he could
207
do with those he had left behind him there. I gave him a strict charge
in writing, not to bring any man with him who would not first SWear,
in the presence of himself and of the old savage, that he would no
way injure, fight with, or attack the person he should find in the
island, who was so kind as send for them in order to their deliverance;
but that they would stand by him, and defend him against all such
attempts, and wherever they went, would be entirely under and
subjected to his commands; and that this should be put in writing,
and signed with their hands. How we were to have done this, when
I knew they had neither pen or ink, that indeed was a question which
we never asked. Under these instructions, the Spaniard and the
old savage, the father of Friday, went away in one of the canoes
which they might be said to come in, or rather were brought in, when
they came as prisoners to be devoured by the savages. I gave each
of them a musket, with a fire-lock on it, and about eight charges of
powder and ball, charging them to be very good husbands of both,
and not to use either of them but upon urgent occasion.
This was a cheerful work, beeing the first measures used by me,
in view of my deliverance, for now twenty-seven years and some
days; I gave them provisions of bread, and of dried grapes, sufficient
for themselves for many days, and sufficient for all the Spaniards for
about eight days' time; and wishing them a good voyage, I saw them
go; agreeing with them about a signal they should hang out at their
return, by which I should know them again, when they came back,
at a distance, before they came on shore. They went away with a
fair gale, on the day that the moon was at full, by my account in the
month of October; but as for an exact reckoning of days, after I had
once lost it, I could never recover it again; nor had I kept even the
number of years so punctually as to be sure that I was right, though,
as it proved, when I afterwards examined my account, I found I had
kept a true reckoning of years.
It was no less than eight days I had waited for them, when a
Strange and unforeseen accident intervened, of which the like has not
perhaps been heard of in history. I was fast asleep in my hutch one
morning, when my man Friday came running in to me, and called
aloud, “Master, master, they are come, they are come!” I jumped
up, and, regardless of danger, I went out as soon as I could get my
clothes on, through my little grove, which, by the way, was by this
208
time grown to be a very thick wood; I say, regardless of danger, I
went without my arms, which was not my custom to do; but I was
surprised, when turning my eyes to the sea, I presently saw a boat
at about a league and half's distance, standing in for the shore, with
a shoulder of mutton sail, as they call it, and the wind blowing pretty
fair to bring them in: also I observed presently, that they did not
come from that side which the shore lay on, but from the southern-
most end of the island. Upon this, I called Friday in, and bade him
lie close, for these were not the people we looked for, and that we
might not know yet whether they were friends or enemies. In the
next place, I went in to fetch my perspective-glass, to see what I
could make of them; and having taken the ladder out, I climbed up
to the top of the hill, as I used to do when I was apprehensive of any
thing, and to take my view the plainer, without being discovered.
I had scarce set my foot on the hill, when my eye plainly discovered
a ship lying at an anchor, at about two leagues and a half distance
from me, S. S. E. but not above a league and a half from the shore.
By my observation, it appeared plainly to be an English ship, and
the boat appeared to be an English long-boat.
I cannot express the confusion I was in; though the joy of seeing
a ship, and one whom I had reason to believe was manned by my
own countrymen, and consequently friends, was such as I cannot
describe; but yet I had some secret doubts hung about me, I cannot
tell from whence they came, bidding me keep upon my guard. In
the first place, it occurred to me to consider what business an Eng-
lish ship could have in that part of the world, since it was not the way
to or from any part of the world where the English had any traffic;
and I knew there had been no storms to drive them in there, as in
distress; and that if they were English really, it was most probable
that they were here upon no good design; and that I had better
continue as I was, than fall into the hands of thieves and murderers.
Let no man despise the secret hints and notices of danger, which
sometimes are given him when he may think there is no possibility of
its being real. That such hints and notices are given us, I believe
few that have made any observations of things can deny; that they
are certain discoveries of an invisible world, and a converse of spirits,
we cannot doubt; and if the tendency of them seems to be to warn us
of danger, why should we not suppose they are from some friendly
\
209
agent, whether supreme, or inferior and subordinate, is not the
question, and that they are given for our good?
The present question abundantly confirms me in the justice of this
reasoning; for had I not been made cautious by this secret admoni-
tion, come it from whence it will, I had been undone inevitably,
and in a far worse condition than before, as you will see presently.
I had not kept myself long in this posture, but I saw the boat draw
near the shore, as if they looked for a creek to thrust in at, for the
convenience of landing; however, as they did not come quite far
enough, they did not see the little inlet where I formerly landed my
rafts; but run their boat on shore upon the beach, at about half a
mile from me, which was very happy for me; for otherwise they
would have landed just as I may say at my door, and would soon
have beaten me out of my castle, and perhaps have plundered me of
all I had. When they were on shore, I was fully satisfied that they
were Englishmen; at least most of them; one or two I thought were
Dutch; but it did not prove so; there were in all eleven men, where-
of three of them I found were unarmed, and, as I thought, bound;
and when the first four or five of them were jumped on shore, they
took those three out of the boat, as prisoners: one of the three I
could perceive using the most passionate gestures of entreaty,
aſiliction, and despair, even to a kind of extravagance; the other
two, I could perceive, lifted up their hands sometimes, and ap-
pcared concerned indeed, but not to such a degree as the first.
I was perfectly confounded at the sight, and knew not what the mean-
ing of it should be. Friday called out to me in English, as well as
he could, “O master! you see English mans eat prisoner as well as
savage mans.” “Why,” says I, “Friday do you think they are
going to eat them then?” “Yes,” says Friday, “they will eat
them.” “No, no,” says I, “Friday; I am afraid they will murder
them indeed, but you may be sure they will not eat them.”
All this while I had no thought of what the matter really was, but
stood trembling with the horror of the sight, expecting every moment
when the three prisoners should be killed; nay, once I saw one of
the villains lift up his arm with a great cutlass, as the seamen call it,
or sword, to strike one of the poor men; and I expected to see him
fall every moment; at which all the blood in my body seemed to run
chill in my veins. I wished heartily now for my Spaniard, and the
Bobinson Crusoe, 4. w 14
210
savage that was gone with him; or that I had any way to have come
undiscovered within shot of them, that I might have rescued the
three men, for I saw no fire-arms they had among them; but it fell
out to my mind another way. After I had observed the outrageous
usage of the three men by the insolent seamen, I observed the fellows
run scattering about the land, as if they wanted to see the country,
I observed that the three other men had liberty to go also where they
pleased; but they sat down all three upon the ground, very pensive,
and looked like men in despair. This put me in mind of the first time
when I came on shore, and began to look about me; how I gave
myself over for lost; how wildly I looked round me; what dreadful
apprehensions I had; and how I lodged in the tree all night, for fear
of being devoured by wild beasts. As I knew nothing, that night,
of the supply I was to receive by the providential driving of the ship
nearer the land by the storms and tide, by which I have since been so
long nourished and supported; so these three poor desolate men
knew nothing how certain of deliverance and supply they were, how
near it was to them, and how effectually and really they were in a
condition of safety, at the same time that they thought themselves
lost, and their case desperate. So little do we see before us in the
world, and so much reason have we to depend cheerfully upon the
great Maker of the world, that he does not leave his creatures so ab-
solutely destitute, but that, in the worst circumstances, they have
always something to be thankful for, and sometimes are nearer their
deliverance than they imagine; nay, are even brought to their de-
liverance by the means by which they seem to be brought to their
destruction.
It was just at the top of high water when these people came on
shore; and while partly they stood parleying with the prisoners they
brought, and partly while they rambled about to see what kind of a
place they were in, they had carelessly staid till the tide was spent,
and the water was ebbed considerably away, leaving their boat
aground. They had left two men in the boat, who, as I found after-
wards, having drank a little too much brandy, fell asleep; however,
one of them waking sooner than the other, and finding the boat too
fast aground for him to stir it, hallooed for the rest, who were
straggling about, upon which they all soon came to the boat; but it
was past all their strength to launch her, the boat being very heavy,
211 .
and the shore on that side being a soft oozy sand, almost like a quick-
sand. In this condition, like true seamen, who are perhaps the
least of all mankind given to forethought, they gave it over, and away
they strolled about the country again; and I heard one of them say
aloud to another, calling then off from the boat, “Why let her
alone, Jack, can't you? she'll ſloat next tide: ” by which I was fully
confirmed in the main inquiry of what countrymen they were. All
this while I kept myself very close, not once daring to stir out of my
castle, any farther than to my place of observation, near the top of
the hill; and very glad I was to think how well it was ſortified. I knew
it was no less than ten hours before the boat could be on ſloat again,
and by that time it would be dark, and I might be at more liberty to
see their motions, and to hear their discourse, if they had any. In
the mean time, I fitted myself up for a battle, as before, though with
more caution, knowing I had to do with another kind of enemy than
I had at first. I ordered Friday also, whom I had made an excellent
marksman with his gun, to load himself with arms. I took myself
two ſowling-pieces, and I gave him three muskets. My figure, in-
deed, was very fierce; I had my formidable goat skin coat on, with
the great cap I have mentioned, a naked sword by my side, two
pistols in my belt, and a gun upon each shoulder.
It was my design, as I said above, not to have made any attempt
till it was dark; but about two o'clock, being the heat of the day,
I found that, in short, they were all gone straggling into the woods,
and, as I thought, were laid down to sleep. The three poor dis-
tressed men, too anxious for their condition to get any sleep, were,
however, sat down under the shelter of a great tree, at about a
quarter of a mile from me, and, as I thought, out of sight of any of
the rest. Upon this I resolved to discover myself to them, and learn
something of their condition; immediately I marched in the figure as
above, my man Friday at a good distance behind me, as formidable
for his arms as I, but not making quite so staring a spectre-like
figure as I did. I came as near them undiscovered as I could, and
then, before any of them saw me, I called aloud to them in Spanish,
“What are ye, gentlemen?” They started up at the noise; but
were ten times more confounded when they saw me, and the uncouth
figure that I made. They made no answer at all, but I thought I
perceived them just going to fly from me, when I spoke to them in
14*
212
English; “Gentlemen,” said I, “do not be surprised at me; per-
haps you may have a friend near you, when you did not expect it.”
“He must be sent directly from Heaven then,” said one of them very
gravely to me, and pulling off his hat at the same time to me, “for
our condition is past the help of man.” “All help is from Heaven,
Sir,” said I: “But can you put a stranger in the way how to help you,
for you seem to be in some great distress? I saw you when you
landed, and when you seemed to make applications to the brutes
that came with you, I saw one of them liſt up his sword to kill you.”
The poor man, with tears running down his face, and trembling,
looking like one astonished, returned, “Am I talking to God or
man? Is it a real man or an angel?” “Be in no fear about that,
Sir,” said I, “if God had sent an angel to relieve you, he would have
come better clothed, and armcd after another manner than you sce
me in : pray lay aside your fears; I am a man, an Englishman, and
disposed to assist you; you see I have one servant only; we have
arms and ammunition; tell us freely can we serve you? What is your
case?” “Our case,” said he, “Sir, is too long to tell you, while
our murderers are so near; but, in short, Sir, I was commander
of that ship, my men have mutinied against me; they have been
hardly prevailed on not to murder me; and at last have set me on
shore in this desolate place, with these two men with me, one my
mate, the other a passenger, where we expected to perish, belie-
ving the place to be uninhabited, and know not yet what to think of
it.”— “Where are those brutes, your enemies?" said I; “Do you
know where they are gone?" – “There they lie, Sir," said he,
pointing to a thicket of trees; “my heart trembles for fear they have
seen us, and heard you speak; if they have, they will certainly
murder us all.” “Have they any fire-arms?" said I. He answered,
“they had only two pieces, and one which they left in the boat.”
“Well then,” said I, “leave the rest to me; I see they are all asleep,
it is an easy thing to kill them all; but shall we rather take them pri-
soners?” He told me there were two desperate villains among them,
that it was scarce safe to show any mercy to; but if they were secured,
he believed all the rest would return to their duty. I asked him which
they were? He told me he could not at that distance describe them;
but he would obey my orders in anything I would direct. “Well,”
says 1, “letus retreat out of their view or hearing, lest they awaket
*
213
and we will resolve further.” So they willingly went back with me,
till the woods covered us from them.
“Look you, Sir," said I, “if I venture upon your deliverance,
are you willing to make two conditions with me?” He anticipated my
proposals, by telling me, that both he and the ship, iſ recovered,
should be wholly directed and commanded by me in every thing;
and, if the ship was not recovered, he would live and die with me in
what part of the world soever I would send him; and the two other
men said the same. “Well,” says I, “my conditions are but two:
ſirst, That while you stay in this island with me, you will not pretend
to any authority here; and if I put arms in your hands, you will, upon
all occasions, give them up to me, and do no prejudice to me or mino
upon this island; and, in the mean time, be governed by my orders;
secondly, That if the ship is, or may be recovered, you will carry me
and my man to England, passage free.”
He gave me all the assurances that the invention and faith of man
could devise, that he would comply with these most reasonable de-
mands; and, besides, would owe his life to me, and acknowledge
it upon all occasions, as long as he lived. “Well then,” said I,
“here are three muskets for you, with powder and ball; tell me next
what you think is proper to be done.” He showed all the testimony
of his gratitude that he was able, but offered to be wholly guided by
me. I told him I thought it was hard venturing any thing; but the
best method I could think of was to fire upon them at once, as they
lay; and if any were not killed at the first volley, and offered to sub-
mit, we might save them, and so put it wholly upon God's providence
to direct the shot. He said very modestly, that he was loath to kill
them, if he could help it; but that those two were incorrigible vil-
lains, and had been the authors of all the mutiny in the ship, and iſ
they escaped, we should be undone still; for they would go on board
and bring the whole ship's company, and destroy us all. “Well
then,” says I, “necessity legitimates my advice, for it is the only
way to save our lives.” However, seeing him still cautious of shed-
ding blood, I told him they should go themselves, and manage as
they found convenient.
In the middle of this discourse we heard some of them awake, and
soon after we saw two of them on their feet. I asked him if either of
them were of the men who he had said were the heads of the mutiny?
21."
He said, No. “Well then,” said I, “you may let them escape;
and Providence seems to have awakened them on purpose to save
themselves. – Now,” says I, “if the rest escape you, it is your
fault.” Animated with this, he took the musket I had given him in
his hand, and a pistol in his belt, and his two comrades with him,
with each man a piece in his hand; the two men who were with him
going first, made some noise, at which one of the seamen who was
awake turned about, and seeing them coming, cried out to the rest;
but it was too late then, for the moment he cried out they fired; I
mean the two men, the captain wisely reserving his own piece. They
had so well aimed their shot at the men they knew, that one of them
was killed on the spot, and the other very much wounded; but not
being dead, he started up on his feet, and called eagerly for help to
the other; but the captain stepping to him, told him it was too late
to cry for help, he should call upon God to forgive his villany; and
with that word knocked him down with the stock of his musket, so
that he never spoke more; there were three more in the company,
and one of them was also slightly wounded. By this time I was come;
and when they saw their danger, and that it was in vain to resist, they
begged for mercy. The captain told them he would spare their lives,
if they would give him any assurance of their abhorrence of the trea-
chery they had been guilty of, and would swear to be faithful to him
in recovering the ship, and afterwards in carrying her back to Ja-
maica, from whence they came. They gave him all the protestations
of their sincerity that could be desired, and he was willing to believe
them, and spare their lives, which I was not against, only that I
obliged him to keep them bound hand and foot while they were upon
the island.
While this was doing, I sent Friday with the captain's mate to
the boat, with orders to secure her, and bring away the oars and
sail, which they did; and by and by three straggling men, that were
(happily for them) parted from the rest, came back upon hearing the
guns fired; and seeing their captain, who before was their prisoner,
now their conqueror, they submitted to be bound also; and so our
victory was complete.
It now remained that the captain and I should inquire into one
another's circumstances; I began first, and told him my whole his-
tory, which he heard with an attention even to amazement; and par-
215
ticularly at the wonderful manner of my being furnished with provl-
sions and ammunition; and, indeed, as my story is a whole col-
lection of wonders, it affected him deeply. But when he reſlected
from thence upon himself, and how I seemed to have been preserved
there on purpose to save his life, the tears ran down his face, and he
could not speak a word more. After this communication was at an
end, I carried him and his two men into my apartment, leading them
in just where I came out, viz. at the top of the house, where I re-
freshed them with such provisions as I had, and showed them all the
contrivances I had made, during my long, long inhabiting that place.
All I showed them, all I said to them, was perſectly amazing;
but, above all, the captain admired my fortification, and how per-
ſectly I had concealed my retreat with a grove of trees, which, having
been now planted near twenty years, and the trees growing much
faster than in England, was become a little wood, and so thick, that
it was unpassable in any part of it, but at that one side where I had
reserved my little winding passage into it. I told him this was my
castle and my residence, but that I had a seat in the country, as most
princes have, whither I could retreat upon occasion, and I would
show him that too another time; but at present our business was to
consider how to recover the ship. He agreed with me as to that; but
told me, he was perſectly at a loss what measures to take, for that
there were still six and twenty hands on board, who having entered
into a cursed conspiracy, by which they had all forfeited their lives
to the law, would be hardened in it now by desperation; and would
carry it on, knowing that, if they were reduced, they should be
brought to the gallows as soon as they came to England, or to any of
the English colonies; and that, therefore, there would be n0 at-
tacking them with so small a number as we were.
I mused for some time upon what he had said, and found it was
a very rational conclusion; and that, therefore, something was to
be resolved on very speedily, as well to draw the men on board into
some snare for their surprise, as to prevent their landing upon us,
and destroying us. Upon this, it presently occurred to me, that in
a little while the ship's crew, wondering what was become of their
comrades, and of the boat, would certainly come on shore in their
other boat, to see for them; and that then, perhaps, they might
come armed, and be too strong for us; this he allowed to be rational.
216
Upon this, I told him the first thing we had to do was to stave the boat
which lay upon the beach, so that they might not carry her off; and
taking every thing out of her, leave her so far useless as not to be ſit
to swim; accordingly we went on board, took the arms which were
left on board out of her, and whatever else we found there, which
was a bottle of brandy, and another of rum, a few biscuit-cakes, a
horn of powder, and a great lump of sugar in a piece of canvass, the
sugar was five or six pounds; all which was very welcome to me, espe-
cially the brandy and sugar, of which I had had none left for many
years.
When we had carried all these things on shore, the oars, mast,
sail, and rudder of the boat were carried away before, as above, we
knocked a great hole in her bottom, that if they had come strong
cnough to master us, yet they could not carry off the boat, Indeed,
it was not much in my thoughts that we could be able to recover the
ship; but my view was, that if they went away without the boat, I
did not much question to make her ſit again to carry us away to the
Leeward Islands, and call upon our friends the Spaniards in my way;
for I had them still in my thoughts.
While we were thus preparing our designs, and had first, by
main strength, heaved the boat up upon the beach so high, that the
tide would not float her off at high water mark; and besides, had
broke a hole in her bottom too big to be quickly stopped, and were
sat down musing what we should do, we heard the ship fire a gun,
and saw her make a waft with her ensign as a signal for the boat to
come on board: but no boat stirred; and they fired several times,
making other signals for the boat. At last, when all their signals
and firing proved fruitless, and they found the boat did not stir, we
saw them, by the help of my glasses, hoist another boat out, and
row towards the shore; and we found, as they approached, that there
was no less than ten men in her, and that they had fire-arms with
them.
As the ship lay almost two leagues from the shore, we had a full
view of them as they came, and a plain sight of the men even of their
faces; because the tide having set them a little to the east of the other
boat, they rowed up under shore, to come to the same place where
the other had landed, and where the boat lay; by this means, I say,
we had a full view of them, and the captain knew the persons and
217
characters of all the men in the boat, of whom, he said, there were
three very honest fellows, who, he was sure, were led into this con-
spiracy by the rest, being overpowered and frighted; but that as for
the boatswain, who, it seems, was the chief officer among them,
and all the rest, they were as outrageous as any of the ship's crew,
and were no doubt made desperate in their new enterprise; and ter-
ribly apprehensive he was that they would be too powerful for us. I
smiled at him, and told him that men in our circumstances were past
the operation of fear; that seeing almost every condition that could
be was better than that which we were supposed to be in, we ought to
expect that the consequence, whether death or life, would be sure
to be a deliverance. I asked him what he thought of the circumstances
of my life, and whether a deliverance were not worth venturing for?
“And where, Sir,” said I, “is your belief of my being preserved
here on purpose to save your life, which elevated you a little while
ago? For my part,” said I, “there seems to me but one thing amiss
in all the prospect of it.”—“What is that?” says he. “Why,” said
I, “it is, that as you say there are three or four honest fellows among
them, which should be spared, had they been all of the wicked part
of the crew I should have thought God's providence had singled them
out to deliver them into your hands; for depend upon it, every man
that comes ashore are our own, and shall die or live as they behave
to us.” As I spoke this with a raised voice and cheerful countenance,
I found it greatly encouraged him; so we set vigorously to our
business. -
We had, upon the first appearance of the boat's coming from the
ship, considered of separating our prisoners; and had, indeed, se–
cured them effectually. Two of them, of whom the captain was less
assured than ordinary, I sent with Friday, and one of the three deli–
wered men, to my cave, where they were remote enough, and out
of danger of being heard or discovered, or of finding their way out of
the woods if they could have delivered themselves; here they left them
bound, but gave them provisions; and promised them, if they con-
tinued there quietly, to give them their liberty in a day or two; but
that if they attempted their escape, they should be put to death
without mercy. They promised faithfully to bear their confinement
with patience, and were very thankful that they had such good usage
as to have provisions and light left them; for Friday gave them candles
218
(such as we made ourselves) for their comfort; and they did not know
but that he stood centinel over them at the entrance.
The other prisoners had better usage; two of them were kept pin-
ioned, indeed, because the captain was not free to trust them; but
the other two were taken into my service, upon their captain's recom-
mendation, and upon their solemnly engaging to live and die with us;
so with them and the three honest men we were seven men well armed;
and I made no doubt we should be able to deal well enough with the
ten that were a coming, considering that the captain had said there
were three or four honest men among them also. As soon as they got
to the place where their other boat lay, they ran their boat into the
beach, and came all on shore, hauling the boat up after them, which
I was glad to see; for I was afraid they would rather have left the boat
at an anchor, some distance from the shore, with some hands in her,
to guard her, and so we should not be able to seize the boat. Being
on shore, the first thing they did, they ran all to their other boat;
and it was easy to see that they were under a great surprise to find her
stripped, as above, of all that was in her, and a great hole in her
bottom. After they had mused a while upon this, they set up two or
three great shouts, hallooing with all their might, to try if they could
make their companions hear; but all was to no purpose; then they
came all close in a ring, and fired a volley of their small arms, which,
indeed, we heard, and the echoes made the woods ring; but it was
all one; those in the cave we were sure could not hear, and those in
our keeping, though they heard it well enough, yet durst give no
answer to them. They were so astonished at the surprise of this, that,
as they told us afterwards, they resolved to go all on board again, to
their ship, and let them know that the men were all murdered, and
the long-boat staved; accordingly, they immediately launched their
boat again, and got all of them on board.
The captain was terribly amazed, and even confounded at this,
believing they would go on board the ship again, and set sail, giving
their comrades for lost, and so he should still lose the ship, which
he was in hopes we should have recovered; but he was quickly as
much frighted the other way.
They had not been long put off with the boat, but we perceived
them all coming on shore again; but with this new measure in their
conduct, which it seems they consulted together upon, viz. to leave
210
three men in the boat, and the rest to go on shore, and go up into
the country to look for their fellows. This was a great disappointment
to us; for now we were at a loss what to do; for our seizing those
seven men on shore would be no advantage to us if we let the boat
escape; because they would then row away to the ship, and then the
rest of them would be sure to weigh and set sail, and so our recover-
ing the ship would be lost. However, we had no remedy but to wait
and see what the issue of things might present. The seven men came
on shore, and the three who remained in the boat put her off to a good
distance from the shore, and came to an anchor to wait for them; so
that it was impossible for us to come at them in the boat. Those that
came on shore kept close together, marching towards the top of the
little hill under which my habitation lay : and we could see them
plainly, though they could not perceive us. We could have been
very glad they would have come nearer to us, so that we might have
ſired at them, or that they would have gone farther off, that we might
have come abroad. But when they were come to the brow of the hill,
where they could see a great way into the valleys and woods, which
lay towards the north-east part, and where the island lay lowest, they
shouted and hallooed till they were weary; and not caring, it seems,
to venture far from the shore, nor far from one another, they sat
down together under a tree, to consider of it. Had they thought fit
to have gone to sleep there, as the other party of them had done, they
had done the job for us; but they were too full of apprehensions of
danger to venture to go to sleep, though they could not tell what the
danger was they had to fear neither.
The captain made a very just proposal to me upon this consultation
of theirs, viz. that perhaps they would all fire a volley again, to endea-
Your to make their fellows hear, and that we should all sally upon
them, just at the juncture when their pieces were all discharged, and
they would certainly yield, and we should have them without blood-
shed. I liked the proposal, provided it was done while we were near
enough to come up to them before they could load their pieces again.
But this event did not happen; and we lay still a long time, very irre-
solute what course to take. At length I told them there would be
nothing to be done, in my opinion, till night; and then, if they did
not return to the boat, perhaps we might ſlnd a way to get between
them and the shore, and so might use some stratagem with them in
220
the boat to get them on shore. We waited a great while, though very
impatient for their removing; and were very uneasy, when, after
long consultations, we saw them start all up, and march down towards
the sea; it seems they had such dreadful apprehensions upon them
of the danger of the place, that they resolved to go on board the ship
again, give their companions over for lost, and so go on with their
intended voyage with the ship.
As soon as I perceived them go towards the shore, I imagined it
to be, as it really was, that they had given over their search, and
were for going back again; and the captain, as soon as I told him my
thoughts, was ready to sink at the apprehensions of it; but I presently
thought of a stratagem to fetch them back again, and which answered
my end to a tittle. I ordered Friday and the captain's mate to go over
the little creek westward, towards the place where the savages came
on shore when Friday was rescued, and as soon as they came to a
little rising ground, at about half a mile distance, Ibade them halloo,
as loud as they could, and wait till they found the seamen heard them;
that as soon as ever they heard the seamen answer them, they should
return it again; and then keeping out of sight, take a round, always
answering when the others hallooed, to draw them as far into the
island, and among the woods, as possible, and then wheel about
again to me, by such ways as I directed them.
They were just going into the boat when Friday and themate hallooed;
and they presently heard them, and answering, run along the shore
westward, towards the voice they heard, when they were presently
stopped by the creek, where the water being up, they could not get
over, and called for the boat to come up and set them over, as, indeed,
I expected. When they had set themselves over, I observed that the
boat being gone up a good way into the creek, and, as it were, in a
harbour within the land, they took one of the three men out of her, to
go along with them, and left only two in the boat, having fastened
her to the stump of a little tree on the shore. This was what I wished
for; and immediately leaving Friday and the captain's mate to their
business, I took the rest with me, and crossing the creek out of their
sight, we surprised the two men before they were aware; one of them
lying on the shore, and the other being in the boat. The fellow on
shore was between sleeping and waking, and going to start up; the
captain, who was foremost, ran in upon him, and knocked him
221
down; and then called out to him in the boat to yield, or he was a
dead man. There needed very few arguments to persuade a single
man to yield, when he saw five men upon him, and his comrade
knocked down; besides, this was, it seems, one of the three who were
not so hearty in the mutiny as the rest of the crew, and therefore WaS
easily persuaded not only to yield, but afterwards to join very sincerely
with us. In the mean time, Friday and the captain's mate so well
managed their business with the rest, that they drew them, by hal-
looing and answering, from one hill to another, and from one wood
to another, till they not only heartily tired them, but left them where
they were very sure they could not reach back to the boat before it was
dark; and, indeed, they were heartily tired themselves also, by the
time they came back to us.
We had nothing now to do but to watch for them in the dark, and
to fall upon them, so as to make sure work with them. It was several
hours after Friday came back to me before they came back to their
boat; and we could hear the foremost of them, long before they came
quite up, calling to those behind to come along, and could also hear
them answer, and complain how lame and tired they were, and not
able to come any faster; which was very welcome news to us. At
length they came up to the boat: but it is impossible to express their
confusion when they found the boat fast aground in the creek, the
tide ebbed out, and their two men gone. We could hear them call
one to another in a most lamentable manner, telling one another they
were gotten into an enchanted island; that either there were inhabitants
in it, and they should all be murdered, or else there were devils and
spirits in it, and they should be all carried away and devoured. They
hallooed again, and called their two comrades by their names a great
many times; but no answer. After some time, we could see them, by
the little light there was, run about, wringing their hands like men
in despair; and that sometimes they would go and sit down in the
boat, to rest themselves; then come ashore again, and walk about
again, and so the same thing over again. My men would fain have
had me given them leave to fall upon them at once in the dark; but I
was willing to take them at some advantage, so to spare them, and
kill as few of them as I could; and especially I was unwilling to hazard
the killing any of our men, knowing the others were very well armed.
| resolved to wait, to see if they did not separate; and, therefore, to
222
make sure of them, I drew my ambuscade nearer, and ordered Friday
and the captain to creep upon their hands and feet, as close to the
ground as they could, that they might not be discovered, and get as
near them as they could possibly, before they offered to fire.
'They had not been long in that posture, but that the boatswain,
who was the principal ringleader of the mutiny, and had now shown
himself the most dejected and dispirited of all the rest, came walking
towards them, with two more of their crew; the captain was so eager
at having this principal rogue so much in his power, that he could
hardly have patience to let him come so near as to be sure of him, for
they only heard his tongue before; but when they came nearer, the
captain and Friday, starting up on their fect, let fly at them. The
boatswain was killed upon the spot; the next man was shot in the body
and fell just by him, though he did not die till an hour or two after;
and the third run for it. At the noise of the fire, I immediately advanced
with my whole army, which was now eight men, viz. myself, gene-
ralissimo; Friday, my lieutenant-general; the captain and his two
men, and the three prisoners of war, whom we had trusted with arms.
We came upon them, indeed, in the dark, so that they could not
see our number; and I made the man they had left in the boat, who
was now one of us, to call them by name, to try if I could bring them
to a parley, and so might perhaps reduce them to terms; which fell
out just as we desired; for indeed it was easy to think, as their con-
dition then was, they would be very willing to capitulate. So he calls
out as loud as he could, to one of them, “Tom Smith! Tom Smith!"
Tom Smith answered immediately, “Who's that, Robinson?” For
it seems he knew the voice. The other answered, “Aye aye; for
God’s sake, Tom Smith, throw down your arms and yield, or you
are all dead men this moment.” “Who must we yield to? Where are
they?” says Smith again. “Here they are,” says he; “here's our
captain and fifty men with him, have been hunting youthese two hours;
the boatswain is killed, Will Fry is wounded, and I am a prisoner;
and if you do not yield, you are all lost.” “Will they give us quarter
then?” says Tom Smith, “and we will yield.”—“I’ll go and ask,
if you promise to yield,” says Robinson; so he asked the captain, and
the captain himself then calls out, “You, Smith, you know myyoice,
if you lay down your arms immediately, and submit, you shall have
your lives, all but Will Atkins.”
223
Upon this Will Atkins cried out, “For God's sake, captain, give
ne quarter; what have I done? They have all been as bad as I;” which,
by the way, was not true neither; for, it seems, this Will Atkins
was the first man that laid hold of the captain, when they first mutinied,
and used him barbarously, in tying his hands, and giving him injurious
language. However, the captain told him he must lay down his arms
at discretion, and trust to the governor's mercy; by which he meant
me, for they all called me governor. In a word, they all laid down
their arms, and begged their lives; and I sent the man that had par-
leyed with them, and two more who bound them all; and then my
great army of ſiſty men, which, particularly with those three, were
all but eight, came up and seized upon them all, and upon their boat;
only that I kept myself and one more out of sight for reasons of state.
Our next work was to repair the boat, and thinkofseizing the ship;
and as for the captain, now he had leisure to parley with them; he
expostulated with them upon the villany of their practices with him,
and at length upon the further wickedness of their design, and how
certainly it must bring them to misery and distress in the end, and
perhaps to the gallows. They all appeared very penitent, and begged
hard for their lives. As for that, he told them they were none of his
prisoners, but the commander's of the island; that they thought they
had set him on shore in a barren, uninhabited island; but it had
pleased God so to direct them, that it was inhabited, and that the
governor was an Englishman; that he might hang them all there, if
he pleased; but as he had given them all quarter, he supposed he
would send them to England, to be dealt with there as justice re-
quired, except Atkins, whom he was commanded by the governor to
advise to prepare for death, for that he would be hanged in the
morning.
Though this was all a fiction of his own, yet it had its desired effect:
Atkins ſell upon his knees, to beg the captain to intercede with the
governor for his life; and all the rest begged of him, for God's sake,
that they might not be sent to England. i
It now occurred to me, that the time of our deliverance was Come,
and that it would be a most easy thing to bring these fellows in to be
hearly in getting possession of the ship; so I retired in the dark from
them, that they might not see what kind of a governor they had, and
called the captain to me; when I called, as at a good distance, one
224
of the men was ordered to speak again, and say to the captain,
“Captain, the commander calls for you;” and presently the captain
replied, “Tell his excellency I am just a coming.” This more per-
ſectly amused them, and they all believed that the commander was
just by with his fifty men. Upon the captain's coming to me, I told
him my project for seizing the ship, which he liked of wonderfully
well, and resolved to put it in execution the next morning. But, in
order to execute it with more art, and to be secure of success, I told
him we must divide the prisoners, and that he should go and take
Atkins, and two more of the worst of them, and send them pinioned
to the cave where the others lay. This was committed to Friday, and
the two men who came on shore with the captain. They conveyed
them to the cave, as to a prison: and it was, indeed, a dismal place,
especially to men in their condition. The others I ordered to my
bower, as I called it, of which I have given a full description; and as
it was fenced in, and they pinioned, the place was secure enough
considering they were upon their behaviour.
To these in the morning I sent the captain, who was to enter into
a parley with them; in a word, to try them, and tell me whether he
thought they might be trusted or no to go on board and surprise the
ship. He talked to them of the injury done him, of the condition they
were brought to; and that though the governor had given them quarter
for their lives as to the present action, yet that if they were sent to
England, they would all be hanged in chains, to be sure; but that if
they would join in so just an attempt as to recover the ship, he would
have the governor's engagement for their pardon.
Any one may guess how readily such a proposal would be accepted
hymen in their condition; they fell down on their knees to the captain,
and promised, with the deepest imprecations, that they would be
faithful to him to the last drop, and that they should owe their lives
to him, and would go with him all over the world; that they would
own him for a father to them as long as they lived. “Well,” says
the captain, “I must go and tell the governor what you say, and see
what i can do to bring him to consent to it." So he brought me an
account of the temper he found them in, and that he verily believed
they would be faithful. . However, that we might be very secure, I
told him he should go back again and choose out five of them, and
tell them, that they might see he did not want men, that he would
225
take out those ſive to be his assistants, and that the governor would
keep the other two, and the three that were sent prisoners to the
castle, my cave, as hostages for the fidelity of those five; and that if
they proved unfaithful in the execution, the five hostages should be
hanged in chains alive on the shore. This looked severe, and con-
vinced them that the governor was in earnest: however, they had no
way left them but to accept it; and it was now the business of the
prisoners, as much as of the captain, to persuade the other five to do
their duty.
Our strength was now thus ordered for the expedition: first, The
captain, his mate, and passenger: second, Then the two prisoners
of the first gang, to whom, having their character from the captain,
I had given their liberty, and trusted them with arms: third, The
other two who I had kept till now in my bower pinioned, but, on the
captain's motion, had now released: fourth, The single man taken
in the boat: fifth, These five released at last; so that they were
thirteen in all, besides five we kept prisoners in the cave, and the
two hostages.
I asked the captain if he was willing to venture with these hands
on board the ship; for as for me and my man Friday, I did not think
it was proper for us to stir, having seven men left behind; and it was
employment enough for us to keep them asunder and supply them
with victuals. As to the five in the cave, I resolved to keep them fast,
but Friday went in twice a-day to them, to supply them with neces-
Saries; and I made the other two carry provisions to a certain distance,
where Friday was to take it.
When I showed myself to the two hostages, it was with the
captain, who told them I was the person the governor had ordered to
look after them; and that it was the governor's pleasure they should
not stir any where but by my direction; that if they did, they should
be fetched into the castle, and be laid in irons; so that as we never
suffered them to see me as governor, so I now appeared as another
person, and spoke of the governor, the garrison, the castle, and
the like, upon all occasions.
The captain now had no difficulty before him, but to furnish his
"wo boats, stop the breach of one, and man them. He made his
Passenger Captain of one, with four other men; and himself, and
his mate, and five more, went in the other; and they contrived their
Robinson Crusoe, 15
226
business very well, for they came up to the ship about midnight. As
soon as they came within call of the ship, he made Robinson hail
them, and tell them they had brought off the men and the boat, but
that it was a long time before they had found them, and the like,
holding them in a chat till they came to the ship's side; when the
captain and the mate entering first, with their arms, immediately
knocked down the second mate and carpenter with the but-end of
their muskets, being very faithfully seconded by their men; they
secured all the rest that were upon the main and quarter-decks, and
began to fasten the hatches, to keep them down who were below;
when the other boat and their men entering at the fore-chains, se-
cured the forecastle of the ship, and the scuttle which went down into
the cook-room, making three men they found there prisoners. When
this was done, and all safe upon deck, the captain ordered the mate,
with three men, to break into the round-house, where the new rebel
captain lay, and having taken alarm, was gotten up, and with two
men and a boy had gotten fire-arms in their hands; and when the
mate, with a crow, split open the door, the new captain and his
men fired boldly among them, and wounded the mate with a musket
ball, which broke his arm, and wounded two more of the men, but
killed nobody. The mate calling for help, rushed, however, into
the round-house, wounded as he was, and with his pistol shot the
new captain through the head, the bullet entering at his mouth, and
came out again behind one of his cars, so that he never spoke a word;
upon which the rest yielded, and the ship was taken eſſectually,
without any more lives lost.
As soon as the ship was thus secured, the captain ordered seven
guns to be fired, which was the signal agreed upon with me to give
me notice of his success, which you may be sure I was very glad to
hcar, having sat watching upon the shore for it till near two o'clock
in the morning. Having thus heard the signal plainly, I laid me
down; and it having been a day of great fatigue to me, I slept very
sound, till I was something surprised with the noise of a gun; and
presently starting up, I heard a man call me by the name of Governor,
Governor, and presently I knew the captain's voice; when climbing
up to the top of the hill, there he stood, and pointing to the ship, he
embraced me in his arms. “My dear friend and deliverer,” says he,
“there's your ship, for she is all your's, and so are We, and all that
227
belong to her.” I cast iny eyes to the ship, and there she rode within
little more than half a mile of the shore; for they had weighed her
anchor as soon as they were masters of her, and the weather being
ſair, had brought her to an anchor just against the mouth of the little
creek; and the tide being up, the captain had brought the pinnace
in near the place where I at ſirst lauded my raſts, and so landed just
at my door. I was at first ready to sink down with surprise; for 1
saw my deliverance, indeed, visibly put into my hands, all things
easy, and a large ship just ready to carry me away whither I pleased
to go. At first, for some time, I was not able to answer him one
word; but as he had taken me in his arms, I held fast by him, or I
should have fallen to the ground. He perceived the surprise, and
immediately pulls a bottle out of his pocket, and gave me a dram of
cordial, which he had brought on purpose for me. Aſter I had drank
it, I sat down upon the ground; and though it brought me to myselſ,
yet it was a good while before I could speak a word to him. All this
while the poor man was in as great an ecstasy as I, only not under
any surprise, as I was; and he said a thousand kind tender things to
ine, to compose me and bring me to myself: but such was the ſlood
of joy in my breast, that it put all my spirits into confusion; at last
it broke out into tears; and in a little while aſter I recovered my
speech. Then I took my turn, and embraced him as my deliverer,
and we rejoiced together. I told him I looked upon him as a man
sent from Heaven to deliver me, and that the whole transaction
secmed to be a chain of wonders; that such things as these were the
testimonies we had of a secret hand of Providence governing the world,
and an evidence that the eyes of an infinite power could search into
the remotest corner of the world, and scnd help to the miserable
whenever he pleased. I forgot not to liſt up my heart in thankſulness
to Heaven; and what heart could forbear to bless him, who had not
only in a miraculous manner provided for one in such a wilderness,
and in such a desolate condition, but from whom every deliverance
must always be acknowledged to proceed?
When we had talked a while, the captain told me he had brought
me some little refreshment, such as the ship aſſorded, and such as
the wretches that had been so long his masters had not plundered him
of. Upon this he called aloud to the boat, and bade his men bring
the things ashore that were for the governor; and, indeed, it was a
15°
228
present as if I had been one, not that was to be carried away along
with them, but as if I had been to dwell upon the island still, and
they were to go without me. First, he had brought me a case of bot-
tles full of excellent cordial waters, six large bottles of Madeira wine,
(the bottles held two quarts a-piece, two pounds of excellent good
tobacco, twelve good pieces of the ship's beef, and six pieces of pork,
with a bag of peas, and about an hundred weight of biscuit; he brought
me also a box of sugar, a box of flour, a bag full of lemons, and two bot-
tles of lime juice, and abundance of other things. But, besides these,
and what was a thousand times more useful to me, he brought me six
clean new shirts, six very good neckcloths, two pair of gloves, one
pair of shoes, a hat, and one pair of stockings, and a very good suit
of clothes of his own, which had been worn but very little; in a word,
he clothed me from head to foot. It was a very kind and agreeable
present, as any one may imagine, to one in my circumstances; but
never was any thing in the world of that kind so unpleasant, awkward,
and uneasy, as it was to me to wear such clothes at their first put-
ting on.
After these ceremonies passed, and after all his good things were
brought into my little apartment, we began to consult what was to be
done with the prisoners we had; for it was worth considering whether
we might venture to take them away with us or no, especially two of
them, whom he knew to be incorrigible and refractory to the last
degree; and the captain said he knew they were such rogues, that
there was no obliging them; and if he did carry them away, it must
be in irons, as malefactors, to be delivered over to justice at the first
English colony he could come at; and I found that the captain him-
self was very anxious about it. Upon this I told him, that iſ he de-
sired it, I would undertake to bring the two men he spoke of to make
it their own request that he should leave them upon the island. “I
should be very glad of that,” says the captain, “with all my heart.”-
“Well,” says 1, “I will send for them up, and talk with them for
you.” So I caused Friday and the two hostages, for they were now
discharged, their comrades having performed their promise; I say:
I caused them to go to the cave, and bring up the five men, pinioned
as they were, to the bower, and keep them there till I came. After
some time, I came thither dressed in my new habit; and now I was
called governor again. Being all met, and the captain with me, I
229
caused the men to be brought before me, and I told them I had had
a full account of their villanous behaviour to the captain, and how
they had run away with the ship, and were preparing to commit far-
ther robberies, but that Providence had ensnared thcm in their own
ways, and that they were fallen into the pit which they had digged for
others. I let them know that by my direction the ship had been
seized; that she lay now in the road; and they might see, by and by,
that their new captain had received the reward of his villany, for that
they might see him hanging at the yard-arm : that as to them, I
wanted to know what they had to say, why I should not execute them
as pirates, taken in the fact, as by my commission they could not
doubt I had authority to do.
One of them answered in the name of the rest, that they had
nothing to say but this, that when they were taken, the captain pro-
mised them their lives, and they humbly implored my mercy. But
I told them I knew not what mercy to show them; for as for myself,
I had resolved to quit the island with all my men, and had taken pas—
sage with the captain to go for England; and as for the captain, he
could not carry them to England other than as prisoners, in irons, to
be tried for mutiny, and running away with the ship; the consequence
of which, they must needs know, would be the gallows; so that I
could not tell which was best for them, unless they had a mind to take
their fate in the island; if they desired that, I did not care, as I had
liberty to leave it, I had some inclination to give them their lives, if
they thought they could shift on shore. They seemed very thankful
for it, said they would much rather venture to stay there than be car-
ried to England to be hanged; so I left it on that issue.
However, the captain seemed to make some difficulty of it, as if
he durst not leave them there. Upon this I seemed a little angry with
the captain, and told him that they were my prisoners, not his; and
that seeing I had offered them so much favour, I would be as good as
my word; and that if he did not think ſit to consent to it I would set
them at liberty, as I found them; and if he did not like it, he might
take them again if he could catch them. Upon this they appeared very
thankful, and I accordingly set them at liberty, and bade them retire
into the woods to the place whence they came, and I would leave
them some fire-arms, some ammunition, and some directions how
they should live very well, if they thought fit. Upon this I prepared
230
to go on board the ship; but told the captain that I would stay that
night to prepare my things, and desired him to go on board, in the
mcan time, and keep all right in the ship, and send the boat on shore
the next day for me; ordering him, in the mean time, to cause the
new captain, who was killed, to be hanged at the yard-arm, that
these men might see him.
When the captain was gone, I sent for the men up to me to my
apartment, and entered seriously into discourse with them of their
circumstances. I told them I thought they had made a right choice;
that if the captain carried them away, they would certainly be hanged.
I showed them the new captain hanging at the yard-arm of the ship,
and told them they had nothing less to expect.
When they had all declared their willingness to stay, I then told
them I would let them into the story of my living there, and put them
into the way of making it easy to them; accordingly, I gave them the
whole history of the place, and of my coming to it; showed them my
fortifications, the way I made my bread, planted my corn, cured my
grapes; and, in a word, all that was necessary to make them easy.
I told them the story also of the sixteen Spaniards that were to be
expected, for whom I left a letter, and made them promise to treat
them in common with themselves.
I left them my fire-arms, viz. five muskets, three fowling-pieces,
and three swords. I had above a barrel and a half of powder left; for
after the first year or two I used but little, and wasted none. I gave
them a description of the way I managed the goats, and directions to
milk and fatten them, and to make both butter and cheese: in a
word, I gave them every part of my own story; and told them I would
prevail with the captain to leave them two barrels of gunpowder more,
and some garden seeds, which I told them I would have been very
glad of: also I gave them the bag of peas which the captain had
brought me to eat, and bade them be sure to sow and increase them.
Having done all this, I left them the next day, and went on board
the ship. We prepared immediately to sail, but did not weigh that
night. The next morning early, two of the five men came swimming
to the ship's side, and making a most lamentable complaint of the
other three, begged to be taken into the ship, for God's sake, for
they should be murdered, and begged the captain to take them on
board, though he hanged them immediately. Upon this, the captain
* ,
231
pretended to have no power without me; but after some diſticulty,
and after their solemn promises of amendment, they were taken on
board, and were some time aſter soundly whipped and pickled: aſter
which they proved very honest and quiet fellows.
Some time after this, the boat was ordered on shore, the tide being
up, with the things promised to the men; to which the captain, at
my intercession, caused their chests and clothes to be added, which
they took, and were very thankful for. I also encouraged them, by
telling them that if it lay in my power to send any vessel to take them
in, I would not forget them.
When I took leave of this island, I carried on board, for reliques,
the great goat-skin cap I had made, my umbrella, and one of my
parrots; also I forgot not to take the money I formerly mentioned,
which had lain by me so long useless, that it was grown rusty or
tarnished, and could hardly pass for silver, till it had been a little
rubbed and handled; as also the money I found in the wreck of the
Spanish ship. And thus I left the island, the 19th of December, as
I found by the ship's account, in the year 1686, after I had been upon
it eight and twenty years, two months, and nineteen days; being
delivered from this second captivity the same day of the month that I
first made my escape in the long-boat, from among the Moors of
Sallee. In this vessel, after a long voyage, I arrived in England the
11th of June, in the year 1687, having been thirty and five years
absent.
When I came to England, I was as perfect a stranger to all the
world as if I had never been known there. My benefactor and faithful
steward, who I had left in trust with my money, was alive, but had
had great misfortunes in the world; was become a widow the second
time, and very low in the world. I made her easy as to what she owed
me, assuring her I would give her no trouble; but on the contrary,
in gratitude to her former care and faithfulness to me, I relieved her
as my little stock would afford; which, at that time, would indeed
allow me to do but little for her; but I assured her I would never
forget her former kindness to me; nor did I forget her when I had
sufficient to help her, as shall be observed in its place. I went down
afterwards into Yorkshire; but my father was dead, and my mother
and all the family extinct, except that I found two sisters, and two of
the children of one of my brothers; and as I had been long "g" given
232
over for dead, there had been no provision made for me: So that, in
a word, I found nothing to relieve or assist me; and that little money
I had would not do much for me as to settling in the world.
I met with one piece of gratitude, indeed, which I did not expect;
and this was, that the master of the ship who I had so happily deli-
vered, and by the same means saved the ship and cargo, having given
a very handsome account to the owners of the manner how I had saved
the lives of the men, and the ship, they invited me to meet them, and
some other merchants concerned, and all together made me a very
handsome compliment upon the subject, and a present of almost
200l. Sterling.
But after making several reſlections upon the circumstances of my
life, and how little way this would go towards settling me in the
world, I resolved to go to Lisbon, and see if I might not come by
some information of the state of my plantation in the Brasils, and of
what was become of my partner, who, I had reason to suppose, had
some years now given me over for dead. With this view I took
shipping for Lisbon, where I arrived in April following; my man
Triday accompanying me very honestly in all these ramblings, and
proving a most faithful servant upon all occasions. When I came to
Lisbon, I found out, by inquiry, and to my particular satisfaction,
my old friend the captain of the ship who first took me up at sea off
the shore of Africa. He was now grown old, and had left off the sea,
having put his son, who was far from a young man, into his ship,
and who still used the Brasil trade. The old man did not know me;
and, indeed, I hardly knew him; but I soon brought him to my re-
membrance, and as soon brought myself to his remembrance, when
I told him who l was.
After some passionate expressions of our old acquaintance, I in-
quired, you may be sure, after my plantation and my partner. The
old man told me he had not been in the Brasils for about nine years;
but that he could assure me, that when he came away my partner was
living; but the trustees, whom I had joined with him to take
cognizance of my part, were both dead: that, however, he believed
I would have a very good account of the improvement of the planta-
tion; for that upon the general belief of my being cast away and
drowned, my trustees had given in the account of the produce of my
part of the plantation to the procurator-fiscal, who had appropriated
233
it, in case I never came to claim it, one-third to the king, and two-
thirds to the monastery of St. Augustine, to be expended for the
benefit of the poor, and for the conversion of the Indians to the Cn-
tholic faith; but that if I appeared, or any one for me, to claim the
inheritance, it would be restored; only that the improvement or
annual production, being distributed to charitable uses, could not
be restored; but he assured me that the steward of the king's revenue
from lands, and the provedore, or steward of the monastery, had
taken great care all along that the incumbent, that is to say, my
partner, gave every year a faithful account of the produce, of which
they received duly my moiety. I asked him if he knew to what height
of improvement he had brought the plantation, and whether he
thought it might be worth looking aſter; or whether, on my going
thither, I should meet with no obstruction to my possessing my just
right in the moiety. He told me he could not tell exactly to what
degree the plantation was improved; but this he knew, that my
partner was grown exceeding rich upon the enjoying but one half of
it; and that, to the best of his remembrance, he had heard that the
king's third of my part, which was, it seems, granted away to some
other monastery or religious house, amounted to above two hundred
moidores a-year: that as to my being restored to a quiet possession of
it, there was no question to be made of that, my partner being alive
to witness my title, and my name being also enrolled in the register
of the country; also he told me, that the survivors of my two trustecs
were very fair honest people, and very wealthy; and he believed I
would not only have their assistance for putting me in possession, but
would find a very considerable sum of money in their hands for my
account, being the produce of the farm while their fathers held the
trust, and before it was given up, as above; which, as he remem-
bered, was for about twelve years.
I showed myself a little concerned and uneasy at this account, and
inquired of the old captain how it came to pass that the trustees
should thus dispose of my effects, when he knew that I had made my
will, and had made him, the Portuguese captain, my universal
heir, &c.
He told me, that was true; but that as there was no proof of my
being dead, he could not act as executor, until some certain account
should come of my death; and, that besides, he was not willing to
23/
intermeddle with a thing so remote; that it was true he had registered
my will, and put in his claim; and could he have given any account
of my being dead or alive, he would have acted by procuration, and
taken possession of the ingenio, so they called the sugar-house, and
had given his son, who was now at the Brasils, order to do it.
“But,” says the old man, “I have one piece of news to tell you, which
perhaps may not be so acceptable to you as the rest; and that is, be-
lieving you were lost, and all the world believing so also, your partner
and trustees did offer to account to me, in your name, for six or cight
of the first years' profits, which I received; but there being at that
time,” says he, “great disbursements for increasing the works,
building an ingenio, and buying slaves, it did not amount to near so
much as afterwards it produced; however,” says the old man, “I
shall give you a true account of what I have received in all, and how
I have disposed of it.”
After a few days’ farther conference with this ancient friend, he
brought me an account of the six first years' income of my plantation,
signed by my partner and the merchant—trustees, being always de-
livered in goods, viz. tobacco in roll, and sugar in chests, besides
rum, molasses, &c. which is the consequence of a sugar-work; and
I found, by this account, that every year the income considerably in-
creased; but, as above, the disbursements being large, the sum at
first was small; however, the old man let me see that he was debtor
to me four hundred and seventy moidores of gold, besides sixty
chests of sugar, and fifteen double rolls of tobacco, which were lost
in his ship; he having been shipwrecked coming home to Lisbon,
about eleven years after my leaving the place. The good man then
began to complain of his misfortunes, and how he had been obliged
to make use of my money to recover his losses, and buy him a share
in a new ship. “However, my old friend,” says he, “you shall not
want a supply in your necessity; and as soon as my son returns, you
shall be fully satisfied.” Upon this, he pulls out an old pouch, and
gives me one hundred and sixty Portugal moidores in gold; and
giving me the writings of his title to the ship, which his son was gone
to the Brasils in, of which he was a quarter-part owner, and his son
another, he puts them both into my hands for security of the rest.
I was too much moved with the honesty and kindness of the poor
man to be able to bear this; and remembering what he had done for
235
me, how he had taken me up at sea, and how generously he had
used me on all occasions, and particularly how sincere a friend he
was now to me, I could hardly refrain weeping at what he had said to
me; therefore first I asked him if his circumstances admitted him to
spare so much money at that time, and iſ it would not straiten him?
He told me he could not say but it might straiten him a little; but,
however, it was my money, and I might want it more than he.
2very thing the good man said was full of aſſection, and I could
hardly refrain from tears while he spoke; in short, I took one
hundred of the moidores, and called for a pen and ink to give him a
receipt for them: then I returned him the rest, and told him if ever
I had possession of the plantation, I would return the other to him
also, as, indeed, I aſterwards did; and that as to the bill of sale of
his part in his son's ship, I would not take it by any means; but that
if I wanted the money, I found he was honest enough to pay me; and
if I did not, but came to receive what he gave me reason to expect,
I would never have a penny more from him.
When this was passed, the old man began to ask me if he should
put me into a method to make my claim to my plantation? I told him
I thought to go over to it myself. He said I might do so if I pleased;
but that if I did not, there were ways enough to secure my right, and
immediately to appropriate the profits to my use; and as there were
ships in the river of Lisbon just ready to go away to Brasil, he made
me enter my name in a public register, with his affidavit, aſſirming,
upon oath, that I was alive, and that I was the same person who took
up the land for the planting the said plantation at first. This being
regularly attested by a notary, and a procuration affixed, he directed
me to send it, with a letter of his writing, to a merchant of his
acquaintance at the place; and then proposed my staying with him
till an account came of the return.
Never any thing was more honourable than the proceedings upon
this procuration; for in less than seven months I received a large
packet from the survivors of my trustees, the merchants, for whose
account I went to sea, in which were the following particular letters
and papers enclosed.
First, There was the account-current of the produce of my farm
or plantation, from the year when their fathers had balanced with my
old Portugal captain, being for six years; the balance appeared to
236
be one thousand one hundred and seventy-four moidores in my
favour.
Secondly, There was the account of four years more, while they
kept the effects in their hands, before the government claimed the
administration, as being the effects of a person not to be found, which
they called civil death; and the balance of this, the value of the plan-
tation increasing, amounted to
crusadoes, which made three thousand two hundred and forty-one
moidores. -
Thirdly, There was the prior of the Augustines account, who had
received the profits for above fourteen years; but uot being to ac-
count for what was disposed to the hospital, very honestly declared
he had eight hundred and seventy-two moidores not distributed,
which he acknowledged to my account; as to the king's part, that
refunded nothing.
There was a letter of my partner's, congratulating me very affec-
tionately upon my being alive, giving me an account how the estate
was improved, and what it produced a-year; with a particular of the
number of squares or acres that it contained; how planted, how
many slaves there were upon it, and making two and twenty crosses
for blessings, told me he had said so many Ave Marias to thank the
blessed Virgin that I was alive; inviting me very passionately to come
over and take possession of my own; and, in the mean time, to give
him orders to whom he should deliver my effects, if I did not come
myself; concluding with a hearty tender of his friendship, and that
of his family; and sent me, as a present, seven fine leopards' skins,
which he had, it seems, received from Africa, by some other ship
which he had sent thither, and who, it seems, had made a better
voyage than I. He sent me also five chests of excellent sweetmeats,
and a hundred pieces of gold uncoined, not quite so large as moi-
dores. By the same fleet, my two merchant trustees shipped me one
thousand two hundred chests of sugar, eight hundred rolls of to-
bacco, and the rest of the whole account in gold.
I might well say now, indeed, that the latter end of Job was better
than the beginning. It is impossible to express the flutterings of my
very heart, when I looked over these letters, and especially when Iſound
all my wealth about me; for as the Brasil ships come all in ſleets, the
same ships which brought my letters brought my goods; and the effects
237
were safe in the river before the letters came to my hand. In a word,
I turned pale, and grew sick; and had not the old man run and
fetched me a cordial, I believe the sudden surprise of joy had overset
nature, and I had died upon the spot; nay, after that, I continued
very ill, and was so some hours, till a physician being sent for, and
something of the real cause of my illness being known, he ordered
me to be let blood; after which I had relief, and grew well; but I
verily believe, if it had not been eased by a vent given in that manner
to the spirits, I should have died.
I was now master, all on a sudden, of above five thousand pounds
sterling in money, and had an estate, as I might well call it, in the
Brasils, of above a thousand pounds a-year, as sure as an estate of
lands in England; and, in a word, I was in a condition which I
scarce knew how to understand, or how to compose myself for the
enjoyment of it. The first thing I did was to recompense my original
benefactor, my good old captain, who had been first charitable to
me in my distress, kind to me in the beginning, and honest to me at
the end. I showed him all that was sent to me; I told him, that next
to the providence of Heaven, which disposes all things, it was owing
to him; and that it now lay on me to reward him, which I would do a
hundred fold; so I first returned to him the hundred moidores I had
received of him; then I sent for a notary, and caused him to draw up
a general release or discharge for the four hundred and seventy moi—
dores, which he had acknowledged he owed me, in the fullest and
firmest manner possible. After which I caused a procuration to be
drawn, empowering him to be my receiver of the annual profits of my
plantation, and appointing my partner to account to him, and make
the returns by the usual fleets to him in my name; and a clause in the
end, being a grant of one hundred moidores a-year to him during his
life, out of the effects, and fifty moidores a-year to his son after him,
for his life; and thus I requited my old man.
I was now to consider which way to steer my course next, and
what to do with the estate that Providence had thus put into my
hands; and, indeed, I had more care upon my head now than I had
in my silent state of life in the island, where I wanted nothing but
what I had, and had nothing but what I wanted; whereas I had now
a great charge upon me, and my business was how to secure it. I
had never a cave now to hide my money in, or a place where it might
238
lie without lock or key, till it grew mouldy and tarnished before any
body would meddle with it: on the contrary, I knew not where to put
it, or whom to trust with it. My old patron, the captain, indeed,
was honest, and that was the only refuge I had. In the next place,
my interest in the Brasils seemed to summon me thither; but now I
could not tell how to think of going thither till I had settled my affairs,
and left my effects in some safe hands behind me. At first I thought
of my old friend the widow, who I knew was honest, and would be
just to me; but then she was in years, and but poor, and, for aught
I knew, might be in debt; so that, in a word, I had no way but to
go back to England myself, and take my clfects with me.
It was some months, however, before I resolved upon this; and
therefore, as I had rewarded the old captain fully, and to his satis-
faction, who had been my former benefactor, so I began to think of
my poor widow, whose husband had been my first benefactor, and
she, while it was in her power, my faithful steward and instructor.
So the first thing I did, I got a merchant in Lisbon to write to his
correspondent in London, not only to pay a bill, but to go find her
out, and carry her in money an hundred pounds from me, and to
talk with her, and comfort her in her poverty, by telling her she
should, if I lived, have a further supply: at the same time I sent my
two sisters in the country each of them an hundred pounds, they being,
though not in want, yet not in very good circumstances; one having
been married and left a widow; and the other having a husband not
so kind to her as he should be. But among all my relations or acquaint-
ances, 1 could not yet pitch upon one to whom I durst commit the
gross of my stock, that I might go away to the Brasils, and leave
things safe behind me; and this greatly perplexed mc.
I had once a mind to have gone to the Brasils, and have settled
myself there, for I was, as it were, naturalized to the place: but I
had some little scruple in my mind about religion, which insensibly
drew me back, of which I shall say more presently. However, it was
not religion that kept me from going there for the present; and as I
had made no scruple of being openly of the religion of the country all
the while I was among them, so neither did I yet; only that, now
and then, having of late thought more of it than formerly, when I
began to think of living and dying among them, I began to regret my
w.º.º.º-vs-ºve-...~…wºw wºw, wrº-ººrºfºr "* * * * ... v.--~~ *-r-, * * *-*.
239
having professed myself a papist, and thought it might not be the best
religion to die with.
But, as I have said, this was not the main thing that kept me
from going to the Brasils, but that really I did not know with whom
to leave my effects behind me; so I resolved, at last, to go to Eng-
land with it, where, if I arrived, I concluded I should make some
acquaintance, or find some relations that would be faithful to me;
and, accordingly, I prepared to go for England with all my wealth.
In order to prepare things for my going home, I first, the Brasil
ſleet being just going away, resolved to give answers suitable to the
just and faithful account of things I had from thence: and, first, to
the prior of St. Augustine I wrote a letter ſull of thanks for his just
dealings, and the offer of the eight hundred and seventy-two moidores
which were undisposed of, which I desired might be given, five
hundred to the monastery, and three hundred and seventy-two to the
poor, as the prior should direct; desiring the good padre's prayers
for me, and the like. I wrote next a letter of thanks to my two trustees,
with all the acknowledgment that so much justice and honesty called
ſor; as for sending them any present, they were far above having any
occasion for it. Lastly, I wrote to my partner, acknowledging his
industry in the improving the plantation, and his integrity in increa-
sing the stock of the works; giving him instructions for his future
government of my part, according to the powers I had left with my
old patron, to whom I desired him to send whatever became due to
ine, till he should hear from me more particularly; assuring him that
it was my intention not only to come to him, but to settle myself there
for the remainder of my life. To this I added a very handsome present
of some Italian silks for his wife and two daughters, for such the cap-
tain's son informed me he had; with two pieces of fine English broad-
cloth, the best I could get in Lisbon, five pieces of black baize, and
some Flanders lace of a good value.
Having thus settled my affairs, sold my cargo, and turned all my
effects into good bills of exchange, my next diſliculty was, which way
to go to England; I had been accustomed cnough to the Sea, and yet
I had a strange aversion to going to England by sea at that time; and
though I could give no reason for it, yet the difficulty increased upon
me so much, that though I had once shipped my baggage in order to
go, yet I altered my mind, and that not once, but two or three times.
240
It is true, I had been very unfortunate by sea, and this might be
some of the reasons; but let no man slight the strong impulses of his
own thoughts in cases of such moment: two of the ships which I had
singled out to go in, I mean more particularly singled out than any
other, that is to say, so as in one of them to put my things on board,
and in the other to have agreed with the captain; I say, two of these
ships miscarried viz. one was taken by the Algerines, and the other
was cast away on the Start, near Torbay, and all the people drowned,
except three; so that in either of those vessels I had been made mise-
rable; and in which most, it was hard to say.
Having been thus harassed in my thoughts, my old pilot, to whom
I communicated every thing, pressed me earnestly not to go by sea,
but either to go by land to the Groyne, and cross over the Bay of
Biscay to Rochelle, from whence it was but an easy and safe journey
by land to Paris, and so to Calais and Dover; or to go up to Madrid,
and so all the way by land through France. In a word, I was so
prepossessed against my going by sea at all, except from Calais to
Dover, that I resolved to travel all the way by land; which, as I was not
in haste, and did not value the charge, was by much the pleasanter
way: and to make it more so, my old captain brought an English
gentleman, the son of a merchant in Lisbon, who was willing to
travel with me; after which we picked up two more English merchants
also, and two young Portuguese gentlemen, the last going to Paris
only; so that we were in all six of us, and five servants; the two
merchants and the two Portuguese contenting themselves with one
servant between two, to save the charge; and as for me, I got an
English sailor to travel with me as a servant, besides my man Friday,
who was too much a stranger to be capable of supplying the place of a
servant on the road.
In this manner I set out from Lisbon; and our company being
very well mounted and armed, we made a little troop, whereof they
did me the honour to call me captain, as well because I was the oldest
man, as because I had two servants, and, indeed, was the original
of the whole journey.
As I have troubled you with none of my sea journals, so I shall
trouble you now with none of my land journal; but Some adventures
that happened to us in this tedious and difficult journey I must not
Qmit.
241
When we came to Madrid, we heing all of us strangers to Spain,
were willing to stay some time to see the court of Spain, and to see
what was worth observing; but it being the latter part of the summer,
we hastencq away, and set out from Madrid about the middle of
October; but when we came to the edge of Navarre, we were alarmed
at several towns on the way, with an account that so much snow was
fallen on the French side of the mountains, that several travellers
were obliged to come back to Pampeluna, after having attempted, at
an extreme hazard, to pass on.
When we came to Pampeluna itself, we ſound it so indeed; and
to me, that had been always used to a hot climate, and indeed to
countries where we could scarce bear any clothes on, the cold was
insufferable: nor indeed, was it more painful than it was surprising,
to come but ten days before out of old Castile, where the weather was
not only warm, but very hot, and immediately to feel a wind from
the Pyrenean mountains so very keen, so severely cold, as to be
intolerable, and to endanger benumbing and perishing of our ſingers
and toes.
Poor Friday was really frighted when he saw the mountains all
covered with snow, and ſelt cold weather, which he had never seen
or felt before in his life. To mend the matter, when we came to
Pampeluna, it continued snowing with so much violence, and so
long, that the people said winter was come before its time; and the
roads, which were diſficult before, were now quite impassable; for,
in a word, the snow lay in some places too thick for us to travel and
being not hard ſrozen, as is the case in the northern countries, there
was no going without being in danger of being buried alive every step.
We stayed no less than twenty days at Pampeluna; when seeing the
winter coming on, and no likelihood of its being better, for it was
the severest winter all over Europe that had been known in the
memory of man, I proposed that we should all go away to Fontarabia,
and there take shipping for Bourdeaux, which was a very little voyage.
But while we were considering this, there came in four French
gentlemen, who having been stopped on the French side of the passes,
as we were on the Spanish, had found out a guide, who, traversing
the country near the head of Languedoc, had brought them over the
mountains by such ways, that they were not much incommoded with
the snow; and where they met with snow in any quantity, they said
Robinson Crusoe, 16
242
it was frozen hard enough to bear them and their horses. We sent for
this guide, who told us he would undertake to carry us the same way
with no hazard from the snow, provided we were armed sufficiently
to protect ourselves from wild beasts; for he said, upon these great
snows it was frequent for some wolves to show themselves at the foot
of the mountains, being made ravenous for want of food, the ground
being covered with snow. We told him we were well enough prepared
for such creatures as they were, if he would ensure us from a kind
of two-legged wolves, which, we were told, we were in most danger
from, especially on the French side of the mountains. He satisfied
us there was no danger of that kind in the way that we were to go; so
we readily agreed to follow him, as did also twelve other gentlemen,
with their servants, some French, some Spanish, who, as I said, had
attempted to go, and were obliged to come back again.
Accordingly, we all set out from Pampeluna, with our guide, on
the 15th of November; and, indeed, I was surprised, when, in-
stead of going forward, he came directly back with us on the same
road that we came from Madrid, about twenty miles; when having
passed two rivers, and come into the plain country, we found our-
selves in a warm climate again, where the country was pleasant, and
no snow to be seen; but on a sudden, turning to his left, he ap-
proached the mountains another way; and though it is true the hills
and precipices looked dreadful, yet he made so many tours, such
meanders, and led us by such winding ways, that we were insensibly
passed the height of the mountains without being much encumbered
with the snow; and, all on a sudden, he showed us the pleasant
fruitful provinces of Languedoc and Gascoigne, all green and flourish-
ing, though, indeed, they were at a great distance, and we had
some rough way to pass yet.
We were a little uneasy, however, when we found it snowed one
whole day and a night so fast, that we could not travel; but he bid us
be easy; we should soon be past it all; we found, indeed, that we
began to descend every day, and to come more north than before;
and so depending upon our guide, we went on.
It was about two hours before night, when our guide being some-
thing before us, and not just in sight, out rushed three monstrous
wolves, and after them a bear, out of a hollow way adjoining to a
thick wood; two of the wolves ſlew upon the guide, and had he been
243
*
half a mile before us, he had been devoured indeed before we could
have helped him; one of them fastened upon his horse, and the other
attacked the man with that violence, that he had not time, or not
presence of mind enough, to draw his pistol, but hallooed and cricd
out to us most lustily. My man Friday being next me, I bade him
ride up, and see what was the matter. As soon as Friday came in
sight of the man, he hallooed out as loud as the other, “O master!
O master!” but, like a bold fellow, rode directly up to the poor man,
and with his pistol shot the wolf that attacked him in the head.
It was happy for the poor man that it was my man Friday; for he
having been used to that kind of creature in his country, had no fear
upon him, but went close up to him and shot him, as above; whereas
any of us would have ſired at a farther distance, and have perhaps
either missed the wolf, or endangered shooting the man.
But it was enough to have terrified a bolder man than I; and, in-
deed, it alarmed all our company, when, with the noise of Friday's
pistol, we heard on both sides the dismallest howling of wolves; and
the noise, redoubled by the echo of the mountains, that it was to us
as if there had been a prodigious multitude of them; and perhaps
there was not such a few as that we had no cause of apprehensions;
however, as Friday had killed this wolf, the other that had fastencil
upon the horse left him immediately, and ſled, having happily fastened
upon his head, where the bosses of the bridle had stuck in his teeth,
so that he had not done him much hurt. The man indeed was most
hurt; for the raging creature had bit him twice, once in the arm, and
the other time a little above his knee; and he was just as it were
tumbling down by the disorder of his horse, when Friday came up
and shot the wolf.
It is casy to suppose that at the noise of Friday's pistol we all
mended our pace, and rode up as fast as the way, which was very
diſficult, would give us leave, to sce what was the matter. As soon
as we came clear of the trees, which blinded us before, we saw
clearly what had been the case, and how Friday had disengaged the
poor guide, though we did not presently discern what kind of crea-
ture it was he had killed.
But never was a fight managed so hardily, and in such a surprising
manner, as that which followed between Friday and the bear, which
gave us all, though at first we were surprised and afraid for him, the
16 +
244
greatest diversion imaginable. As the bear is a heavy, clumsy crea-
ture, and does not gallop as the wolf does, who is swift and light, so
he has two particular qualities, which generally are the rule of his
actions: first, as to men, who are not his proper prey, I say, not
his proper prey, because, though I cannot say what excessive hunger
might do, which was now their case, the ground being all covered
with snow; but as to men, he does not usually attempt them, unless
they first attack him; on the contrary, if you meet him in the woods,
if you do not meddle with him, he will not meddle with you; but then
you must take care to be very civil to him, and give him the road, for
he is a very nice gentleman; he will not go a step out of his way for a
prince; nay, if you are really afraid, your best way is to look another
way, and keep going on; for sometimes if you stop, and stand still,
and look steadfastly at him, he takes it for an affront; but if you
throw or toss any thing at him, and it hits him, though it were but a
bit of stick as big as your ſinger, he takes it for an affront; and sets
all other business aside to pursue his revenge; for he will have satis-
faction in point of honour; this is his first quality: the next is, that
if he be once affronted, he will never leave you, night or day, till he
has his revenge, but follows, at a good round rate, till he over-
takes you.
My man Friday had delivered our guide, and when we came up
to him, he was helping him off from his horse; for the man was both
hurt and frighted, and indeed, the last more than the first; when,
on a sudden, we espied the bear come out of the wood, and a vast
monstrous one it was, the biggest by far that ever I saw. We were
all a little surprised when we saw him; but when Friday saw him, it
was easy to see joy and courage in the fellow's countenance; “O! O!
O!” says Friday, three times, pointing to him: “O master! you
give me te leave, me shakee te hand with him; me makee you good
laugh.”
I was surprised to see the fellow so pleased; “You fool,” says I,
“he will eat you up.” “Eatee me up ! eatee me up!” says Friday,
twice over again; “me eatee him up; me makee you good laugh;
you all stay here, me show you good laugh.” So down he sits, and
gets his boots off in a moment, and put on a pair of pumps, as we
call the ſlat shoes they wear, and which he had in his pocket, gives
245
my other servant his horse, and with his gun away he ſlew, swift like
the wind.
The bear was walking soſtly on, and offered to meddle with no-
body, till Friday coming pretty near, calls to him, as if the bear
could understand him; “Hark ye, hark ye,” says Friday, “me
speakee wit you.” We followed at a distance; for now being come
down on the Gascoigne side of the mountains, we were entered a vast
great forest, where the country was plain and pretty open, though it
had many trees in it scattered here and there. Friday, who had, as
we say, the hecls of the bear, came up with him quickly, and takes
up a great stone and throws it at him, and hit him just on the head,
but did him no more harm than if he had thrown it against a wall; but
it answered Friday's end, for the rogue was so void of fear that he did
it purely to make the bear follow him, and show us some laugh, as
he called it. As soon as the bear felt the blow, and saw him, he
turns about, and comes aſter him, taking devilish long strides, and
shuffling along at a strange rate, so as would have put a horse to a
middling gallop; away runs Friday, and takes his course as if he run
towards us for help; so we all resolved to fire at once upon the bear,
and deliver my man; though I was angry at him heartily for bring-
ing the bear back upon us, when he was going about his own business
another way: and especially I was angry that he had turned the bear
upon us, and then run away; and I called out, “You dog,” said I,
“is this your making us laugh? Come away, and take your horse,
that we may shoot the creature.” He hears me, and cries out, “No
shoot, no shoot; stand still, you get much laugh: " and as the nimble
creature ran two ſcet for the beast's one, he turned on a sudden, on
one side of us, and seeing a great oak tree ſit for his purpose, he
beckoned to us to follow; and doubling his pace, he gets nimbly up
the tree, laying his gun down upon the ground, at about five or six
yards from the bottom of the tree. The bear soon came to the tree,
and we followed at a distance: the ſirst thing he did, he stopped at the
gun, smelt to it, but let it lie, and up he scrambles into the tree,
climbing like a cat, though so monstrously heavy. I was amazed at
the folly, as I thought it, of my man, and could not for my life see
any thing to laugh at yet, till seeing the bear get up the tree, we all
rode nearer to him.
When we came to the tree, there was Friday got out to the small
246
end of a large limb of the tree, and the bear got about halfway to him.
As soon as the bear got out to that part where the limb of the tree was
weaker, — “Hal” says he to us, “now you see me teachee the bear
dance:” so he falls a jumping and shaking the bough, at which the
bear began to totter, but stood still, and began to look behind him,
to see how he should get back; then, indeed, we did laugh heartily.
But Friday had not done with him by a great deal; when he sees him
stand still, he calls out to him again, as if he had supposed the bear
could speak English, “What, you no come farther? pray you come
farther;" So he left jumping and shaking the tree; and the bear, just
as if he had understood what he said, did come a little farther; then
he fell a jumping again, and the bear stopped again. We thought
now was a good time to knock him on the head, and called to Friday
to stand still, and we would shoot the bear; but he cried out earnestly,
“O pray! O pray! no shoot, me shoot by and then; ” he would have
said by and by. However, to shorten the story, Friday danced so
much, and the bear stood so ticklish, that we had laughing enough
indeed, but still could not imagine what the fellow would do; for first
we thought he depended upon shaking the bear off; and we found the
bear was too cunning for that too; for he would not go out far enough
to be thrown down, but clings fast with his great broad claws and feet,
so that we could not imagine what would be the end of it, and where
the jest would be at last. But Friday put us out of doubt quickly;
for seeing the bear cling fast to the bough, and that he would not be
persuaded to come any farther, “Well, well,” says Friday, “you
no come farther, me go, me go; you no come to me, me go come
to you;” and upon this he goes out to the smallest end of the bough,
where it would bend with his weight, and gently lets himself down
by it, sliding down the bough, till he came near enough to jump
down on his feet, and away he run to his gun, takes it up, and stands
still. “Well,” said I to him, “Friday, what will you do now?
Why don't you shoot him?”—“No shoot,” says Friday, “no yet;
me shoot now, me no kill; me stay, give you one more laugh; ” and,
indeed, so he did, as you will see presently; for when the bear saw
his enemy gone, he comes back from the bough where he stood, but
did it mighty leisurely, looking behind him every step, and coming
backward till he got into the body of the tree; then with the same
hinder end foremost, he came down the tree, grasping it with his
247
claws, and moving one foot at a time, very leisurely. At this junc-
ture, and just before he could set his hind ſect upon the ground,
Friday stepped up close to him, clapped the muzzle of his piece into
his ear, and shot him dead as a stone. Then the rogue turned about
to see if we did not laugh; and when he saw we were pleased, by our
looks, he falls a laughing himself very loud. “So we kill bear in my
country,” says Friday. “So you kill them?” says I; “why, you
have no guns.”—“No," says he, “no gun, but shoot great much
long arrow.” This was a good diversion to us; but we were still in
a wild place, and our guide very much hurt, and what to do we hardly
knew; the howling of wolves ran much in my head; and, indecd,
except the noise I once heard on the shore of Africa, of which I have
said something already, I never heard any thing that filled me with so
much horror.
These things, and the approach of night, called us off, or else,
as Friday would have had us, we should certainly have taken the skin
of this monstrous creature oſſ, which was worth saving; but we had
near three leagues to go, and our guide hastened us; so we left him,
and went forward on our journey.
The ground was still covered with snow, though not so deep and
dangerous as on the mountains; and the ravenous creatures, as we
heard afterwards, were come down into the forest and plain country,
pressed by hunger, to seek for food, and had done a great deal of
mischief in the villages, where they surprised the country people,
killed a great many of their sheep and horses, and some people too.
We had one dangerous place to pass, which our guide told us, iſ
there were any more wolves in the country we should find them there;
and this was a small plain, surrounded with woods on every side, and
a long narrow defile, or lane, which we were to pass to get through
the wood, and then we should come to the village where we were to
lodge. It was within half an hour of sunset when we entered the first
wood; and a little after sunset when we came into the plain. We met
with nothing in the first wood, except that, in a little plain within
the wood, which was not above two furlongs over, we saw five great
wolves cross the road, full speed, one after another, as if they had
been in chase of some prey, and had it in view: they took no notice
of us, and were gone out of sight in a few moments. Upon this our
guide, who, by the way, was a wretched faint-hearted fellow, bid us
248
keep in a ready posture, for he believed there were more wolves a
coming. We kept our arms ready, and our eyes about us; but we
saw no more wolves till we came through that wood, which was near
half a league, and entered the plain. As soon as we came into the
plain, we had occasion cnough to look about us; the first object we
met with was a dead horse, that is to say, a poor horse which the
wolves had killed, and at least a dozen of them at work; we could not
say eating of him, but picking of his bones rather; for they had eaten
up all the flesh before. We did not think ſit to disturb them at their
feast, neither did they take much notice of us. Friday would have
let fly at them, but I would not suffer him by any means; for I found
we were like to have more business upon our hands than we were aware
of. We were not gone half over the plain, but we began to hear the
wolves howl in the wood on our left in a frightful manner, and pre-
sently after we saw about a hundred coming on directly towards us,
all in a body, and most of them in a line, as regularly as an army
drawn up by experienced officers. I scarce knew in what manner to
receive them, but found to draw ourselves in a close line was the only
way; so we formed in a moment; but that we might not have too much
interval, I ordered that only every other man should ſire, and that
the others who had not fired should stand ready to give them a second
volley immediately, if they continued to advance upon us; and that
then those who had ſired at first should not pretend to load their fusces
again, but stand ready with every one a pistol, for we were all armed
with a fusee and a pair of pistols each man; so we were, by this me-
thod, able to fire six volleys, half of us at a time; however, at pre-
sent we had no necessity; for upong firing the first volley, the enemy
made a full stop, being terrified as well with the noise as with the
fire; four of them being shot in the head, dropped; several others
were wounded, and went bleeding off, as we could see by the snow.
I found they stopped, but did not immediately retreat; whereupon,
remembering that I had been told that the fiercest creatures were terri-
fied at the voice of a man, I caused all our company to halloo as loud
as we could; and I found the notion not altogether mistaken; for upon
our shout they began to retire, and turn about. Then I ordered a
second volley to be fired in their rear, which put them to the gallop,
and away they went to the woods. This gave us leisure to charge our
pieces again; and that we might lose no time, we kept going: but
249
we had but little more than loaded our ſusces, 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 light began to be dusky, which
made it 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, one
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. In
this manner we came in view of the entrance of a wood, through which
we were to pass, at the farther side of the plain; but we were greatly
surprised, when coming nearer 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 look-
ing 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.
But here we had a most horrible sight; for riding up to the entrance
where the horse came out, we found the carcase of another horse and
of two men, devoured by the ravenous creatures; and one of the men
was no doubt the same whom we heard ſire the gun, for there lay a
gun just by him ſired off; but as to the man, his head and the upper
part of his body were eaten up. This filled us with horror, and wo
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 be—
lieve 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 lay 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 those trees, and placing ourselves in a line be-
hind 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
250
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 other 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 ſired our second volley of our fusees, 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 two
volleys of our pistols; and I believe in these four firings we had killed
Seventeen or eighteen of them, and lamed twice as many, yet they
came on again. I was loath to spend our shot too hastily; so I called
my servant, not my man Friday, for he was better employed; for,
with the greatest dexterity imaginable, he had charged my fusee 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 just time to get away, when the wolves came up to it, and
Some were got upon it, when I, snapping an uncharged pistol close
to the powder, set it on fire: 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 it was now very near dark, made more terrible, that they
drew back a little; upon which I ordered our last pistols to be fired oſſ
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,
who we found struggling on the ground, and fell a cutting them with
our swords, which answered our expectation; for the crying and howl-
ing they made was better understood by their fellows; so that they
all ſled and left us.
We had, first and last, killed about threescore 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
251
as we went, several times, and sometimes we ſancied 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 broke into the
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.
The next morning our guide was so ill, and his limbs so swelled
with the rankling of his two wounds, that he could go no farther; so
we were obliged to take a new guide there, and go to Thoulouse,
where we found a warm climate, a fruitful pleasant country, and no
snow, no wolves, or any thing like them: but when we told our story
at Thoulouse, they told us it was nothing but what was ordinary in
the great forest at the foot of the mountains, especially when the
snow lay on the ground; but they inquired much what kind of a guide
we had gotten, that would venture to bring us that way in such a sc-
were season; and told us it was very much we were not all devoured.
When we told them how we placed ourselves, and the horses in the
middle, they blamed us exceedingly, and told us it was ſiſty to one
but we had been all destroyed; for it was the sight of the horses which
made the wolves so furious, seeing their prey; and that, at other
times, they are really afraid of a gun; but the being excessive hungry,
and raging on that account, the cagerness to come at the horses had
made them senseless of danger; and that if we had not, by the con-
tinued fire, and at last by the stratagem of the train of powder, mas-
tered them, it had been great odds but that we had been torn to
pieces: whereas, had we been content to have sat still on horseback,
and fired as horsemen, they would not have taken the horses so much
for their own, when men were on their backs, as otherwise; and
withal they told us, that at last, if we had stood all together, and left
our horses, they would have been so eager to have devoured them,
that we might have come off safe, especially having our fire-arms in
our hands, and being so many in number. For my part, I was never
so sensible of danger in my life; for seeing above three hundred de-
vils come roaring and open-mouthed to devour us, and having nothing
to shelter us, or retreat to, I gave myself over for lost; and, as it
was, I believe I shall never care to cross those mountains again; I
252
think I would much rather go a thousand leagues by sea, though I
Was Sure to meet with a storm once a-week.
I have nothing uncommon to take notice of in my passage through
France; nothing but what other travellers have given an account of,
With much more advantage than I can. I travelled from Thoulouse to
Paris, and without any considerable stay came to Calais, and landed
Safe at Dover, the 14th of Jan. after having had a severely cold season
to travel in.
I was now come to the centre of my travels, and had in a little
time all my new-discovered estate safe about me; the bills of ex-
change which I brought with me having been very currently paid.
My principal guide and privy counsellor was my good ancient
Widow; who, in gratitude for the money I had sent her, thought no
pains too much, or care too great, to employ for me; and I trusted
her so entirely with every thing, that I was perfectly easy as to the
security of my effects: and, indeed, I was very happy from the be-
ginning, and now to the end, in the unspotted integrity of this good
gentlewoman.
And now I began to think of leaving my effects with this woman,
and setting out for Lisbon, and so to the Brasils; but now another
scruple came in my way, and that was religion; for as I had enter-
tained some doubts about the Roman religion, even while I was
abroad, especially in my state of solitude; so I knew there was no
going to the Brasils for me, much less going to settle there, unless I
resolved to embrace the Roman catholic religion, without any reserve;
except on the other hand I resolved to be a sacrifice to my principles,
be a martyr for religion, and die in the Inquisition; so I resolved to
stay at home, and, if I could find means for it, to dispose of my
plantation.
To this purpose I wrote to my old friend at Lisbon, who in return
gave me notice, that he could easily dispose of it there: but that if I
thought ſit to give him leave to offer it in my name to the two mer-
chants, the survivors of my trustees who lived in the Brasils, who
must fully understand the value of it, who lived just upon the spot,
and whom I knew were very rich; so that he believed they would be
fond of buying it; he did not doubt, but I should make four or five
thousand pieces of eight the more of it.
Accordingly I agreed, gave him order to offer it to them, and he
253
did so; and in about eight months more, the ship being then re-
turned, he sent me an account, that they had accepted the offer, and
had remitted thirty three thousand pieces-of-eight, to a correspondent
of theirs at Lisbon to pay for it.
In return, I signed the instrument of sale in the form which they
sent from Lisbon, and sent it to my old man, who sent me bills of
exchange for 32,800 pieces-of-eight for the estate; reserving the pay-
ment of 100 moidores a-year to him, the old man, during his life,
and 50 moidores afterwards to his son for his life, which I had pro-
mised them, which the plantation was to make good as a rent-charge.
And thus I have given the first part of a life of fortune and adventure,
a life of Providence's chequer-work, and of a variety which the world
will seldom be able to show the like of: beginning foolishly, but clo-
sing much more happily than any part of it ever gave me leave so
much as to hope for.
Any one would think, that in this state of complicated good
fortune, I was past running any more hazards, and so indeed I had
been, if other circumstances had concurred: but I was inured to a
wandering life, had no family, not many relations, nor, however
rich, had I contracted much acquaintance; and though I had sold
my estate in the Brasils, yet I could not keep the country out of my
head, and had a great mind to be upon the wing again; especially I
could not resist the strong inclination I had to see my island, and to
know if the poor Spaniards were in being there, and how the rogues
I left there had used them. My true friend, the widow, earnestly
dissuaded me from it, and so far prevailed with me, that, for almost
seven years, she prevented my running abroad; during which time
I took my two nephews, the children of one of my brothers, into my
care: the eldest having something of his own, I bred up as a gentle-
man, and gave him a settlement of some addition to his estate aſter
my decease. The other I put out to a captain of a ship, and after
five years, finding him a sensible, bold, enterprising young fellow,
I put him into a good ship, and sent him to sea; and this young fellow
afterwards drew me in, as old as I was, to farther adventures myself.
In the mean time, I in part settled myself here; for, first of all,
I married, and that not either to my disadvantage or dissatisfaction,
and had three children, two sons and one daughter; but my wiſe
dying, and my nephew coming home with good success from a voyage
254
to Spain, my inclination to go abroad, and his importunity, pre-
vailed, and engaged me to go in his ship as a private trader to the
East Indies: this was in the year 1694.
In this voyage I visited my new colony in the island, saw my suc-
cessors the Spaniards, had the whole story of their lives, and of the
villains I left there; how at first they insulted the poor Spaniards, how
they afterwards agreed, disagreed, united, separated, and how at
last the Spaniards were obliged to use violence with them; how they
were subjected to the Spaniards; how honestly the Spaniards used
them; an history, if it were entered into, as full of variety and
wonderful accidents as my own part: particularly also as to their
battles with the Caribbeans, who landed several times upon the island,
and as to the improvement they had made upon the island itself; and
how five of them made an attempt upon the main land, and brought
away cleven men and five women prisoners; by which, at my coming,
I found about twenty young children on the island.
Here I stayed about twenty days; left them supplies of all neces-
sary things, and particularly of arms, powder, shot, clothes, tools,
and two workmen, which I brought from England with me; viz. a
carpenter and a smith.
Besides this, I shared the lands into parts with them, reserved
to myself the property of the whole, but gave them such parts re-
spectively, as they agreed on; and, having settled all things with
them, and engaged them not to leave the place, I left them there.
From thence I touched at the Brasils, from whence I sent a bark,
which I bought there, with more people, to the island; and in it,
besides other supplies, I sent seven women, being such as I found
proper for service, or for wives to such as would take them. As to
the Englishmen, I promised them to send them some women from
England, with a good cargo of necessaries, if they would apply
themselves to planting; which I afterwards could not perform: the
fellows proved very honest and diligent, after they were mastered,
and had their properties set apart for them. I sent them also from
the Brasils five cows, three of them being big with calf, some sheep,
and some hogs, which, when I came again, were considerably in-
creased.
But all these things, with an account how three hundred Caribbees
came and invaded them, and ruined their plantations, and how thcy
255
fought with that whole number twice, and were at first defeated and
one of them killed; but at last a storm destroying their enemies'
canoes, they famished or destroyed almost all the rest, and renewed
and recovered the possession of their plantation, and still lived upon
the island.
All these things, with some very surprising incidents in some
new adventures of my own, for ten years more, I may perhaps give
a farther account of hereafter.
That homely proverb used on so many occasions in England, viz.
“That what is bred in the bone will not go out of the flesh,” was
never more verified than in the story of my Life. Any one would
think, that after thirty-five years aſſliction, and a variety of unhappy
circumstances, which few men, if any, ever went through before,
and after near seven years of peace and enjoyment in the fulness of all
things; grown old, and when, if ever, it might be allowed me to
have had experience of every state of middle life, and to know which
was most adapted to make a man completely happy; I say, after all
this, any one would have thought that the native propensity to
rambling, which I gave an account of in my first setting out into the
world to have been so predominant in my thoughts, should be worn
out, the volatile part be fully evacuated, or at least condensed, and
I might at sixty-one years of age have been a little inclined to stay at
home, and have done venturing life and fortune any more.
Nay farther, the common motive of foreign adventures was taken
away in me; for I had no fortune to make, I had nothing to seek; if
I had gained ten thousand pounds, I had been no richer; for I had
already sufficient for me, and for those I had to leave it to, and that
I had was visibly increasing; for having no great family, I could not
spend the income of what I had, unless I would set up for an expen-
sive way of living, such as a great family, servants, equipage, gaiety,
and the like, which were things I had no notion of, or inclination to;
so that I had nothing indeed to do, but to sit still, and fully enjoy
what I had got, and see it increase daily upon my hands.
Yet all these things had no effect upon me, or at least not enough
to resist the strong inclination I had to go abroad again, which hung
about me like a chronical distemper; particularly the desire of seeing
my new plantation in the island, and the colony I left there, run in
my head continually. I dreamed of it all night, and my imagination
0.
256
ran upon it all day; it was uppermost in all my thoughts, and my
fancy worked so steadily and strongly upon it, that I talked of it in
my sleep; in short, nothing could remove it out of my mind; it even
broke so violently into all my discourses, that it made my conversation
tiresome; for I could talk of nothing else, all my discourse run into
it, even to impertinence, and I saw it myself.
I have often heard persons of good judgment say, that all the stir
people make in the world about ghosts and apparitions, is owing to
the strength of imagination, and the powerful operation of fancy in
their minds; that there is no such thing as a spirit appearing, or a
ghost walking, and the like; that people's poring affectionately upon
the past conversation of their deceased friends so realizes it to them,
that they are capable of fancying upon some extraordinary circum-
stances that they see them, talk to them, and are answered by them,
when, in truth, there is nothing but shadow and vapour in the thing;
and they really know nothing of the matter.
For my part, I know not to this hour whether there are any such
things as real apparitions, spectres, or walking of people after they
are dead, or whether there is any thing in the stories they tell us of
that kind, more than the product of vapours, sick minds, and
wandering fancies. Ibut this I know, that my imagination worked up
to such a height, and brought me into such excess of vapours, or
what else I may call it, that I actually supposed myself oftentimes
upon the spot, at my old castle behind the trees, saw my old
Spaniard, Friday's father, and the reprobate sailors I left upon the
the island; nay, I fancied I talked with them, and looked at them so
steadily, though I was broad awake, as at persons just before me; and
this I did till I often frighted myself with the images my fancy repre-
sented to me; one time in my sleep I had the villany of the three pirate
sailors so lively related to me, by the first Spaniard and Friday's
father, that it was surprising; they told me how they barbarously
attempted to murder all the Spaniards, and that they set fire to the
provisions they had laid up, on purpose to distress and starve them;
things that I had never heard of, and that indeed were never all of
them true in fact; but it was so warm in my imagination, and so
realized to me, that to the hour I saw them, I could not be persuaded
but that it was or would be truc; also how I resented it when the
Spaniards complained to me, and how I brought them to justice,
%,
*
257
tried them before me, and ordered them all three to be hanged.
What there was really in this, shall be seen in its place; for however
I came to form such things in my dream, tind what secret converse of
spirits injected it, yet there was, very much of it true, I say. I own,
that this dream had nothing in it literally and specifically true; but
the general part was so true, the base villanous behaviour of these
three hardened rogues was such, and had been so much worse than
all I can describe, that the dream had too much similitude of the ſact;
and as I would afterwards have punished them severely, so if I had
hanged them all, I had been much in the right, and should have been
justifiable both by the laws of God and man.
But to return to my story; in this kind of temper I had lived some
years, I had no enjoyment of my life, no pleasant hours, no agreeable
diversion but what had something or other of this in it; so that my
wife, who saw my mind so wholly bent upon it, told me very seriously
one night, that she believed there was some secret powerful impulse
of Providence upon me, which had determined me to go thither
again; and that she found nothing hindered my going, but my being
cngaged to a wiſe and children. She told me, that it was true she
could not think of parting with me; but as she was assured, that if
she was dead it would be the ſirst thing I would do; so, as it scemcd
to her that the thing was determined above, she would not be the
only obstruction; for if I thought ſit, and resolved to go — here she
found me very intent upon her words, and that I looked very carnestly
at her; so that it a little disordered her, and she stopped. I asked
her why she did not go on, and say out what she was going to say.
But I perceived her heart was too full, and some tears stood in her
eyes: “Speak out, my dear,” said I; “are you willing I should
go?” “No,” says she, very aſſectionately, “I am far from willing:
but if you are resolved to go,” says she, “rather than I will be the
only hindrance, I will go with you; for though I think it a most
preposterous thing for one of your years, and in your condition, yet
if it must be,” said she again, weeping, “I won't leave you; for if
it be of Heaven, you must do it; there is no resisting it; and iſ
Heaven makes it your duty to go, he will also make it mine to go
with you, or otherwise dispose of me, that I may not obstruct it.”
This aſſectionate behaviour of my wife's brought me a little out of
the vapours, and I began to consider what I was a doing; I corrected
Robinson Crusoe. 17
258
my wandering fancy, and began to argue with myself sedately, what
business I had, after threescore years, and after such a life of tedious
sufferings and disasters, and closed in so happy and easy a manner,
I say, what business had I to rush into new hazards, and put myself
upon adventures, ſit only for youth and poverty to run into?
With those thoughts, I considered my new engagement; that I
had a wife, one child born, and my wife then great with child of
another; that I had all the world could give me, and had no need to
seek hazards for gain; that I was declining in years and ought to
think rather of leaving what I had gained, than of seeking to increase
it; that as to what my wife had said, of its being an impulse from
Heaven, and that it should be my duty to go, I had no notion of that;
so after many of these cogitations, I struggled with the power of my
imagination, reasoned myself out of it, as I believe people may
always do in like cases, iſ they will; and, in a word, I conquered
it; composed myself with such arguments as occurred to my thoughts,
and which my present condition furnished me plentifully with; and
particularly, as the most eſſectual method, I resolved to divert myself
with other things, and to engage in some business that might effec-
tually tie me up from any more excursions of this kind; for I found
the thing return upon me chiefly when I was idle, had nothing to do,
or any thing of moment immediately before me.
To this purpose I bought a little farm in the county of Bedford,
and resolved to remove myself thither. I had a little convenient
house upon it, and the land about it I found was capable of great im-
provement, and that it was many ways suited to my inclination,
which delighted in cultivating, managing, planting, and improving
of land; and particularly, being an inland county, I was removed
from conversing among ships, sailors, and things relating to the
remote parts of the world.
In a word, I went down to my farm, settled my family, bought
me ploughs, harrows, a cart, waggon, horses, cows, sheep; and
setting seriously to work, became in one half year a mere country
gentleman; my thoughts were entirely taken up in managing my
servants, cultivating the ground, enclosing, planting, &c.; and I
lived, as I thought, the most agrecable life that nature was capable
of directing, or that a man always bred to misfortunes was capable
of being retreated to,
259
I farmed upon my own land, I had no rent to pay, was limited
by no articles; I could pull up or cut down as I pleased; what I
planted was for myself, and what I improved, was for my family;
and having thus leſt off the thoughts of wandering, I had not the least
discomfort in any part of life, as to this world. Now I thought
indeed, that I enjoyed that middle state of life which my father so
earnestly recommended to me, a kind of heavenly life, something
like what is described by the poet upon the subject of a country life:
Free from vices, ſree from care,
Age has no pain, and youth no snare.
But in the middle of all this felicity, one blow from unforescen
Providence unhinged me at once; and not only made a breach upon
ine, inevitable and incurable, but drove me, by its consequences,
into a deep relapse into the wandering disposition; which, as I may
say, being born in my very blood, soon recovered its hold of me,
and, like the returns of a violent distemper, came on with an irre-
sistible force upon me; so that nothing could make any more im-
pression upon me. This blow was the loss of my wiſe.
It is not my business here to write an elegy upon my wiſe, to give
a character of her particular virtues, and make my court to the sex
by the flattery of a funeral sermon. She was, in a few words, the
stay of all my affairs, the centre of all my enterprises, the crgine
that by her prudence reduced me to that happy compass I was in,
from the most extravagant and ruinous project that ſluttered in my
head, as above, and did more to guide my rambling genius, than a
rmother's tears, a father's instructions, a friend's counsel, or all my
own reasoning powers could do. I was happy in listening to her
tears, and in being moved by her entreaties, and to the last degree
desolate and dislocated in the world by the loss of her.
When she was gone the world looked awkwardly round me, I was
as much a stranger in it, in my thoughts, as I was in the Brasils
when I went first on shore there; and as much alone, except as to
the assistance of servants, as I was in my island. I knew neither
what to do, or what not to do; I saw the world busy round me, one
part labouring for bread, and the other squandering in vile excesses
or empty pleasures, equally miserable, because the end they pro-
posed still ſled from them; for the men of pleasure every day Surfeited
17+
260
of their vice, and heaped up work for sorrow and repentance, and
the men of labour spent their strength in daily strugglings for bread
to maintain the vital strength they laboured with; so living in a daily
circulation of sorrow, living but to work, and working but to live,
as if daily bread were the only end of wearisome life, and a wearisome
life the only occasion of daily bread.
This put me in mind of the life I lived in my kingdom, the island,
where I suffered no more corn to grow, because I did not want it;
and bred no more goats, because I had no more use for them; where
the money lay in the drawer till it grew mildewed, and had scarce the
favour to be looked upon in twenty years.
All these things, had I improved them as I ought to have done,
and as reason and religion had dictated to me, would have taught me
to search farther than human enjoyments for a full felicity, and that
there was something which certainly was the reason and end of life,
superior to all these things, and which was either to be possessed,
or at least hoped for, on this side the grave.
But my sage counsellor was gone, I was like a ship without a
pilot, that could only run before the wind; my thoughts run all away
again into the old affair, my head was quite turned with the whimsies
of foreign adventures; and all the pleasing innocent amusements of
my farm and my garden, my cattle and my family, which before
cntirely possessed me, were nothing to me, had no relish, and were
like music to one that has no ear, or food to one that has no taste; in
a word, I resolved to leave off housekeeping, let my farm, and return
to London: and in a few months after I did so.
When I came to London I was still as uneasy as I was before; I
had no relish to the place, no employment in it, nothing to do but
to saunter about like an idle person, of whom it may be said, he is
perſectly useless in God's creation, and it is not one farthing matter
to the rest of his kind whether he be dead or alive. This also was the
thing which of all circumstances of life was the most my aversion,
who had been all my days used to an active life; and I would often
say to myself, “a state of idleness is the very dregs of life;” and
indeed I thought I was much more suitably employed when I was
twenty-six days a making me a deal board.
It was now the beginning of the year 1693, when my nephew,
whom, as I have observed before, I had brought up to the sea, and
261
had made him commander of a ship, was come home from a short
voyage to Bilboa, being the first he had made; he came to me, and
told me, that some merchants of his acquaintance had been proposing
to him to go a voyage for them to the East Indies and to China, as
private traders; “And, now, uncle,” says he, “if you will go to sea
with me, I 'll engage to land you upon your old habitation in the
island, for we are to touch at the Brasils.”
Nothing can be a greater demonstration of a future state, and of
the existence of an invisible world, than the concurrence of second
causes with the ideas of things which we form in our minds, perfectly
reserved, and not communicated to any in the world.
My nephew knew nothing how far my distemper of wandering was
returned upon me, and I knew nothing of what he had in his thoughts
to say, when that very morning, before he came to me, I had, in a
great deal of confusion of thought, and revolving every part of my cir-
cumstances in my mind, come to this resolution, viz. that I would go
to Lisbon, and consult with my old sea-captain; and so, if it was
rational and practicable, I would go and see the island again, and
see what was become of my people there. I had pleased myselſ also
with the thoughts of peopling the place, and carrying inhabitants
from hence, getting a patent for the possession, and I know not
what; when in the middle of all this, in comes my nephew, as I have
said, with his project of carrying me thither, in his way to the East
Indies.
I paused awhile at his words, and looking steadily at him, “What
devil,” said I, “sent you of this unlucky errand?” My nephew
stared, as if he had been frighted at first; but perceiving I was not
much displeased with the proposal, he recovered himself. “I hope
it may not be an unlucky proposal, Sir,” says he; “I dare say you
would be pleased to see your new colony there, where you once
reigned with more felicity than most of your brother monarchs in the
world.”
In a word, the scheme hit so exactly with my temper, that is to
say, with the prepossession I was under, and of which I have said so
much, that I told him, in a few words, if he agreed with the mer-
chants I would go with him; but I told him I would not promise to go
any farther than my own island. “Why, Sir,” says he, “you don't
want to be left there again, I hope?” “Why," said I, “can you not
262
take me up again in your return;” He told me, it would not be pos-
sible to do so; that the merchants would never allow him to come
that way with a loaden ship of such value, it being a month's sail out
of his way, and might be three or four: “Besides, Sir, if I should
miscarry,” said he, “and not return at all, then you would be just
reduced to the condition you were in before.”
This was very rational; but we both found out a remedy for it,
which was to carry a framed sloop on board the ship, which, being
taken in pieces and shipped on board the ship, might, by the help of
some carpenters, whom we agreed to carry with us, be set up again
in the island, and finished, fit to go to sea in a few days.
I was not long resolving; for indeed the importunities of my
nephew joined in so effectually with my inclination, that nothing
could oppose me: on the other hand, my wife being dead, I had
nobody that concerned themselves so much for me, as to persuade
me one way or other, except my ancient good friend the widow, who
earnestly struggled with me to consider my years, my easy circum-
stances, and the needless hazards of a long voyage; and, above all,
my young children: but it was all to no purpose; I had an irresistible
desire to the voyage; and I told her I thought there was something so
uncommon in the impressions I had upon my mind for the voyage,
that it would be a kind of resisting Providence, if I should attempt to
stay at home; after which she ceased her expostulations, and joined
with me, not only in making provision for my voyage, but also in
settling my family affairs for my absence, and providing for the
education of my children.
In order to this I made my will, and settled the estate I had in
such a manner for my children, and placed it in such hands, that I
was perfectly easy and satisfied they would have justice done them,
whatever might befal me; and for their education, I left it wholly to
my widow, and with a sufficient maintenance to herself for her care:
all which she richly deserved; for no mother could have taken more
care in their education or understood it better; and as she lived till I
came home, I also lived to thank her for it.
My nephew was ready to sail about the beginning of January,
I694-5, and I with my man Friday went on board in the Downs the
8th, having, besides that sloop which I mentioned above, a very
263
*sº
considerable cargo of all kinds of necessary things for my colony,
which if I did not find in good condition, I resolved to leave so.
First, I carried with me some servants, whom I proposed to place
there as inhabitants, or at least to set on work there upon my own
account while I stayed, and either to leave them there, or carry them
forward, as they should appear willing; particularly, I carried two
carpenters, a smith, and a very handy, ingenious fellow, who was
a cooper by trade, but was also a general mechanic; for he was
dexterous at making wheels, and hand-mills to grind corn, was a
good turner, and a good pot-maker; he also made any thing that was
proper to make of earth, or of wood; in a word, we called him our
Jack of all trades.
With these I carried a tailor, who had offered himself to go
passenger to the East Indies with my nephew, but afterwards con-
sented to stay on our new plantation, and proved a most necessary
handy fellow as could be desired, in many other businesses besides
that of his trade; for, as I observed formerly, necessity arms us for
all employments.
My cargo, as near as I can recollect, for I have not kept an
account of the particulars, consisted of a suſlicient quantity of linen,
and some thin English stuſ's for clothing the Spaniards, that I
expected to find there, and enough of them as by my calculation might
comfortably supply them for seven years: if I remember right, the
materials which I carried for clothing them, with gloves, hats, shoes,
stockings, and all such things as they could want for wearing,
amounted to above two hundred pounds, including some beds,
bedding, and household stuff, particularly kitchen utensils, with
pots, kettles, pewter, brass, &c. besides near a hundred pounds
more in iron-work, nails, tools of every kind, staples, hooks, hinges,
and every necessary thing I could think of.
I carried also a hundred spare arms, muskets, and fusees, be-
sides some pistols, a considerable quantity of shot of all sizes, three
or four tons of lead, and two pieces of brass cannon; and because I
knew not what time and what extremitics I was providing for, I carried
an hundred barrels of powder, besides swords, cutlasses, and the
iron part of some pikes and halberts; so that, in short, we had a
large magazine of all sorts of stores; and I made my nephew carry
two small quarter-deck guns more than he wanted for his ship, to
264
leave behind if there was occasion; that when we camo there we
might build a ſort, and man it against all sorts of enemies: and in-
deed I at first thought there would be need enough for it all, and
much more, if we hoped to maintain our possession of the island, as
shall be seen in the course of that story.
I had not such bad luck in this voyage as I had been used to meet
with; and therefore shall have the less occasion to interrupt the
reader, who perhaps may be impatient to hear how matters went with
my colony; yet some odd accidents, cross winds, and bad weather
happened on this first setting out, which made the voyage longer
than I expected it at first; and I, who had never made but one
voyage, viz. my first voyage to Guinea, in which I might be said to
come back again as the voyage was at first designed, began to think
the same ill fate still attended me; and that I was born to be never
contented with being on shore, and yet to be always unfortunate
at SCà.
Contrary winds first put us to the northward, and we were obliged
to put in at Galway, in Ireland, where we lay wind bound two-and-
thirty days; but we had this satisfaction with the disaster, that pro-
visions were here exceeding cheap, and in the utmost plenty; so that
while we lay here we never touched the ship's stores, but rather added
to them: here also I took several hogs, and two cows with their
calves, which I resolved, if I had a good passage, to put ashore in
my island; but we found occasion to dispose otherwise of them.
We set out the 5th of February from Ireland, and had a very fair
gale of wind for some days; as I remember, it might be about the
20th of February in the evening late, when the mate, having the
watch, came into the round-house, and told us he saw a flash of ſire,
and heard a gun fired; and while he was telling us of it, a boy came
in, and told us the boatswain heard another. This made us all run
out upon the quarter-deck, where for a while we heard nothing, but
in a few minutes we saw a very great light, and found that there was
some very terrible fire at a distance. Immediately we had recourse to
our reckonings, in which we all agreed that there could be no land
that way in which the fire showed itself, no, not for five hundred
leagues, for it appeared at W. N. W. Upon this we concluded it
must be some ship on fire at sea; and as by our hearing the noise of
guns just before, we concluded it could not be far off, we stood
265
directly towards it, and were presently satisfied we should discover it,
because the farther we sailed the greater the light appeared, though
the weather being hazy we could not perceive any thing but the light
for a while; in about half an hour's sailing, the wind being fair for
us, though not much of it, and the weather clearing up a little, we
could plainly discern that it was a great ship on fire in the middle of
the sca.
I was most sensibly touched with this disaster, though not at all
acquainted with the persons engaged in it; I presently recollected my
former circumstances, and in what condition I was in when taken up
by the Portugal captain; and how much more deplorable the circum-
stances of the poor creatures belonging to this ship must be if they
had no other ship in company with them: upon this I immediately or—
dered that five guns should be fired, one soon after another, that, if
possible, we might give notice to them that there was help for them
at hand, and that they might endeavour to save themselves in their
boat; for though we could see the ſlame of the ship, yet they, it being
night, could see nothing of us.
We lay by some time upon this, only driving as the burning ship
drove, waiting for daylight; when, on a sudden, to our great terror,
though we had reason to expect it, the ship blew up in the air, and
immediately, that is to say, in a few minutes, all the fire was out,
that is to say, the rest of the ship sunk. This was terrible, and in-
deed an aſſlicting sight, for the sake of the poor men, who, I con-
cluded, must be either all destroyed in the ship, or be in the utmost
distress in their boats in the middle of the ocean, which, at present,
by reason it was dark, I could not see; however, to direct them as
well as I could, I caused lights to be hung out in all the parts of the
ship where we could, and which we had lanterns for, and kept firing
guns all the night long; letting them know by this, that there was a
ship not far off.
About eight o'clock in the morning we discovered the ship's boats,
by the help of our perspective-glasses; and found there were two of
them, both thronged with people, and deep in the water; we per-
ceived they rowed, the wind being against them; that they saw our
ship, and did the utmost to make us sec them.
We immediately spread our ancient, to let them know we saw
them; and hung a waft out, as a signal for them to come on board;
266
and then made more sail, standing directly to them. In little more
than half an hour we came up with them, and in a word took them
all in, being no less than sixty-four men, women, and children; for
there were a great many passengers.
Upon the whole, we ſound it was a French merchant ship of three
hundred tons, homeward-bound from Quebec, in the river of Ca-
nada. The master gave us a long account of the distress of his ship,
how the fire began in the steerage by the negligence of the steersman:
but, on his crying out for help, was, as every body thought, entirely
put out: but they soon found that some sparks of the first fire had
gotten into some part of the ship, so difficult to come at, that they
could not effectually quench it; and afterwards getting in between the
timbers, and within the ceiling of the ship, it proceeded into the
hold, and mastered all the skill and all the application they were able
to exert.
They had no more to do then but to get into their boats, which,
to their great comfort, were pretty large: being their long-boat, and
a great shallop, besides a small skiff, which was of no great service
to them, other than to get some fresh water and provisions into her,
after they had secured themselves from the fire. They had indeed
small hope of their lives, by getting into these boats at that distance
from any land; only, as they said well, that they were escaped from
the fire, and had a possibility, that some ship might happen to be at
sea, and might take them in. They had sails, oars, and a compass;
and were preparing to make the best of their way to Newfoundland,
the wind blowing pretty fair; for it blew an easy gale at S. E. by E.
They had as much provisions and water, as, with sparing it so as to
be next door to starving, might support them about twelve days; in
which, if they had no bad weather, and no contrary winds, the cap-
tain said, he hoped he might get to the banks of Newfoundland, and
might perhaps take some fish to sustain them till they might go on
shore. But there were so many chances against them in all these
cases; such as storms to overset and founder them; rains and cold to
benumb and perish their limbs; contrary winds to keep them out
and starve them; that it must have been next to miraculous if they had
escaped.
In the midst of their consultations, every one being hopeless, and
ready to despair, the captain with tears in his eyes told me, they
267
were on a sudden surprised with the joy of hearing a gun fire, and
after that four more; these were the five guns which I caused to be
fired at first seeing the light: this revived their hearts, and gave them
the notice which, as above, I designed it should, viz. that there was
a ship at hand for their help.
It was upon the hearing these guns, that they took down their
masts and sails; and the sound coming from the windward, they re-
solved to lie by till morning. Some time after this, hearing no more
guns, they ſired three muskets, one a considerable while after an-
other; but these, the wind being contrary, we never heard.
Some time after that again, they were still more agreeably sur-
prised with seeing our lights, and hearing the guns, which, as I
have said, I caused to be fired all the rest of the night; this set them
to work with their oars to keep their boats ahead, at least that we
might the sooner come up with them; and at last, to their inexpres—
sible joy, they found we saw them.
It is impossible for me to express the several gestures, the strange
ecstasies, the variety of postures, which these poor delivered people
run into, to express the joy of their souls at so unexpected a deliver-
ance; grief and fear are easily described; sighs, tears, groans, and
a very few motions of the head and hands, make up the sum of its
variety; but an excess of joy, a surprise of joy, has a thousand ex-
travagances in it; there were some in tears, some raging and tearing
themselves, as if they had been in the greatest agonies of sorrow;
some stark raving and downright lunatic; some ran about the ship
stamping with their feet, others wringing their hands; some were
dancing, some singing, some laughing, more crying; many quite
dumb, not able to speak a word; others sick and vomiting, several
swooning, and ready to faint; and a few were crossing themselves
and giving God thanks.
I would not wrong them neither; there might be many that were
thankful afterward; but the passion was too strong for them at first,
and they were not able to master it; they were thrown into ecstasies
and a kind of frenzy, and it was but a very few who were composed
and serious in their joy.
Perhaps also the case may have some addition to it, from the par-
ticular circumstance of the nation they belonged to; I mean the
French whose temper is allowed to be more volatile, more passio-
268
nate, and more sprightly, and their spirits more ſluid, than of other
nations. I am not philosopher enough to determine the cause, but
nothing I had ever seen before came up to it; the ecstasies poor
Friday, my trusty savage, was in, when he found his father in the
boat, came the nearest to it; and the surprise of the master, and his
two companions, whom I delivered from the villains that set them on
shore in the island, came a little way towards it; but nothing was to
compare to this, either that I saw in Friday, or any where else in
my life.
It is farther observable, that these extravagancies did not show
themselves in that different manner I have mentioned, in different
persons only; but all the variety would appear in a short succession
of moments in one and the same person. A man that we saw this
minute dumb, and, as it were, stupid and confounded, should the
next minute he dancing and hallooing like an antic; and the next mo-
ment be tearing his hair, or pulling his clothes to picces, and stamp-
ing them under his ſect like a madman; a few moments after that, we
should have him all in tears, then sick, then swooning; and had not
immediate help been had, would, in a few moments more, have been
dead; and thus it was, not with one or two, or ten or twenty, but
with the greatest part of them; and, if I remember right, our surgeon
was obliged to let above thirty of them blood.
There were two priests among them, one an old man, and the
other a young man; and that which was strangest was, that the oldest
man was the worst.
As soon as he set his foot on board our ship, and saw himself safe,
he dropped down stone dead, to all appearance; not the least sign of
life could be perceived in him; our surgeon immediately applied
proper remedies to recover him; and was the only man in the ship
that believed he was not dead; and at length he opened a vein in his
arm, having first chaſed and rubbed the part, so as to warm it as
much as possible; upon this the blood which only dropped at first,
ſlowed something freely; in three minutes after the man opened his
eyes; and about a quarter of an hour after that he spoke, grew better,
and, in a little time, quite well; after the blood was stopped he
walked about, told us he was perfectly well, took a dram of cordial
which the surgeon gave him, and was, what we called come to him-
selſ; about a quarter of an hour after this they came running into the
260
cabin to the surgeon, who was bleeding a French woman that had
ſainted, and told him the priest was gone stark mad. It seems he had
begun to revolve the change of his circumstances in his mind, and
this again put him into an ecstasy of joy; his spirits whirled about
faster than the vessels could convey them; the blood grew hot and
ſeverish; and the man was as ſit for Bedlam as any creature that ever
was in it; the surgeon would not bleed him again in that condition,
but gave him something to doze and put him to sleep, which, after
some time, operated upon him, and he waked next morning per-
ſectly composed and well.
The younger priest behaved himself with great command of his
passions, and was really an example of a serious, well-governed
mind; at his first coming on board the ship, he threw himself flat on
his face, prostrating himself in thankfulness for his deliverance; in
which I unhappily and unseasonably disturbed him, really thinking
he had been in a swoon: but he spake calmly; thanked me; told me
he was giving God thanks for his deliverance; begged me to leave him
a few moments, and that next to his Maker he would give me thanks
also.
I was heartily sorry that I disturbed him, and not only left him,
but kept others from interrupting him also; he continued in that
posture about three minutes, or a little more, aſter I leſt him, then
came to me, as he had said he would, and with a great deal of sc-
riousness and affection, but with tears in his eyes, thanked me that
had, under God, given him and so many miserable creatures their
lives; I told him, I had no room to move him to thank God for it
rather than me; for I had seen that he had done it already; but I
added, that it was nothing but what reason and humanity dictated to
all men, and that we had as much reason as he to give thanks to God,
who had blessed us so far as to make us the instruments of his mercy
to so many of his creatures.
After this the young priest applied himself to his country-folks;
laboured to compose them; persuaded, entreated, argued, reasoned
with them, and did his utmost to keep them within the exercise of
their reason; and with some he had success, though others were, for
a time, out of all government of themselves.
I cannot help committing this to writing, as perhaps it may be
useful to those into whose hands it may fall, in the guiding themselves
270
in all the extravagancies of their passions; for if an excess of joy can
carry men out to such a length beyond the reach of their reason, what
will not the extravagancies of anger, rage, and a provoked mind,
carry us to? And, indecd, here I saw reason for keeping an exceed-
ing watch over our passions of every kind, as well those of joy and sa-
tisfaction, as those of sorrow and anger.
We were something disordered by these extravagancies among
our new guests for the first day; but when they had been retired,
lodgings provided for them as well as our ship would allow, and they
had slept heartily, as most of them did, they were quite another sort
of people the next day.
Nothing of good manners, or civil acknowledgments for the kind-
mess shown them, was wanting; the French, it is known, are na-
turally apt enough to exceed that way. The captain and one of the
priests came to me the next day; and, desiring to speak with me and
my nephew, the commander began to consult with us what should be
done with them; and first, they told us, that as we had saved their
lives, so all they had was little enough for a return to us for the kind-
ness received. The captain said, they had saved some money, and
some things of value in their boats, catched hastily out of the flames:
and if we would accept it, they were ordered to make an offer of it all
to us; they only desired to be set on shore somewhere in our way,
where, if possible, they might get passage to France.
My nephew was for accepting their money at first word, and to
consider what to do with them afterwards; but I overruled him in
that part; for I knew what it was to be set on shore in a strange
country; and if the Portugal captain that took me up at sea had served
me so, and took all I had for my deliverance, I must have starved, or
have been as much a slave at the Brasils as I had been in Barbary, the
being sold to a Mahometan only excepted; and perhaps a Portuguese
is not a much better master than a Turk, if not, in some cases, a
much worse.
I therefore told the French captain that we had taken them up in
their distress, it was true; but that it was our duty to do so, as we
were fellow-creatures, and as we would desire to be so delivered, if
we were in the like or any other extremity; that we had done nothing
for them, but what we believed they would have done for us, if we
had been in their case and they in ours; but that we took them up to
271
serve them, not to plunder them; and that it would be a most bar-
barous thing, to take that little from them which they had saved out
of the fire, and then set them on shore and leave them; that this would
be ſirst to save them from death and then kill them ourselves; save
them from drowning and abandon them to starving: and therefore I
would not let the least thing be taken from them: as to setting them
on shore, I told them indeed that was an exceeding difficulty to us, for
that the ship was bound to the East Indies; and though we were
driven out of our course to the westward a very great way, which per-
haps was directed by Heaven on purpose for their deliverance, yet it
was impossible for us wilfully to change our voyage on this particular
account; nor could my nephew, the captain, answer it to the freighters,
with whom he was under charter-party to pursue his voyage by the
way of Brasil; and all I knew he could do for them was, to put our-
selves in the way of meeting with other ships homeward-bound from
the West Indies, and get them passage, if possible, to England or
FrancC.
The first part of the proposal was so generous and kind, they
could not but be very thankful for it; but they were in a very great
consternation, especially the passengers, at the notion of being car-
ried away to the East Indies: they then entreated me, that seeing
I was driven so far to the westward before I met with them, I would
at least keep on the same course to the banks of Newfoundland,
where it was probable I might meet with some ship or sloop that
they might hire to carry them back to Canada, from whence they
Cà III C,
I thought this was but areasonable request on their part, and there-
fore I inclincd to agree to it; for indeed I considered, that to carry
this whole company to the East Indies would not only be an intolerable
severity to the poor people, but would be ruining our whole voyage
by devouring all our provisions; so I thought it no breach of charter-
party, but what an unforeseen accident made absolutely necessary to
us; and in which no one could say we were to blame; for the laws of
God and nature would have forbid, that we should reſuse to take up
two boats full of people in such a distressed condition; and the nature
of the thing, as well respecting ourselves as the poor people, obliged
us to set them on shore somewhere or other, for their deliverance;
So I consented that we would carry them to Newfoundland, if wind.
272
and weather would permit; and, if not, that I would carry them to
Martinico in the West Indies.
The wind continued fresh easterly, but the weather pretty r od;
and as it had blowed continually in the points between N. E. and 3' E.
a long time, we missed several opportunities of sending the 1.1 to
France; for we met several ships bound to Europe, whereof twº were
French, from St. Christopher's; but they had been so long beating
up against the wind, that they durst take in no passengers for fear
of wanting provisions for the voyage, as well for themselves as for
those they should take in; so we were obliged to go on. It was about
a week after this, that we made the banks of Newfoundland, where,
to shorten my story, we put all our French people on board a bark,
which they hired at sea there, to put them on shore, and afterwards
to carry them to France, if they could get provisions to victual them-
selves with: when, I say, all the French went on shore, I should
remember that the young priest I spoke of, hearing we were bound to
the East Indies, desired to go the voyage with us, and to be slº on"
shore on the coast of Coromandel: I readily agreed to that, for I won-
derfully liked the man, and had very good reason, as will appear
afterwards; also four of the seamen entered themselves in our ship,
and proved very useful fellows. *
From hence we directed our course for the West Indies, steering
away S. and S. by E. for about twenty days together, sometimes little
or no wind at all, when we met with another subject for our humauity
to work upon, almost as deplorable as that before. *
It was in the latitude of 27 degrees 5 minutes N. and the 19th day
of March, 1694–5, when we espica a sail, our course S. E. and by
S. We Soon perceived it was a large vessel, and that she bore up to
us; but could not at first know what to make of her, till, after coming
a little nearer, we found she had lost her main-topmast, foremast,
and howsprit; and presently she fires a gun as a signal of distress.
The weather was pretty good, wind at N. N. W. a fresh gale, and we
soon came to speak with her.
We found her a ship of Bristol bound home from Barbadoes, but
had been blown out of the road at Barbadoes, a few days before she
was ready to sail, by a terrible hurricane, while the captain and chief
mate were both gone on shore; so that beside the terror of the storm',
they were but in an indifferent case for good artists to bring the ship
273
home; they had been already nine weeks at sea, and had met with
another terrible storm after the hurricane was over, which had blown
ther Tuite out of their knowledge to the westward, and in which they
1 st J ir masts, as above; they told us, they expected to have seen
tle lºhama Islands, but were then driven away again to the south-
east , , a strong gale of wind at N. N. W. the same that blew now, and
having no sails to work the ship with, but a main-course, and a kind
of square sail upon a jury-foremast, which they had set up, they
rould not lie near the wind, but were endeavouring to stand away for
the Canaries. ;
But that which was worst of all, was, that they were almost starved
for want of provisions, besides the fatigues they had undergone;
their bread and flesh was quite gone, they had not an ounce leſt in
the ship, ºnd had had none for eleven days; the only relief they had,
was, iheir/water was not all spent, and they had about half a barrel
of ſlour left; they had sugar enough; some succades or sweetmeats
they lºad at first, but they were devoured; and they had seven casks
of rum.
There was a youth and his mother, and a maid-servant, on board,
who were going passengers, and thinking the ship was ready to sail,
unhappily came on board the evening before the hurricane began; and,
having no provisions of their own left, they were in a more deplorable
condition than the rest; for the seamen, being reduced to such an
extrême necessity themselves, had no compassion, we may be sure,
for the poor passengers; and they were indeed in a condition that their
misery is very hard to describe.
I had perhaps not known this part, if my curiosity had not led me,
the weather being fair, and the wind abated, to go on board the ship:
the second mate, who upon this occasion commanded the ship, had
been on board our ship; and he told me indeed, that they had three
passengers in the great cabin, that they were in a deplorable condi-
tion; “Nay,” says he, “I believe they are dead, for I have heard
nothing of them for above two days; and I was afraid to inquire after
them,” said he, “for I had nothing to relieve them with.”
We immediately applied ourselves to give them what relief we
couldspare; and indeed I had so far overruled things with my nephew,
that I would have victualled them, though we had gone away to Vir-
Jtobinson Crusoe, 18
274
jº.
ginia, or any part of the coast of America, to have supplied ourselves;
but there was no necessity for that.
But now they were in a new danger, for they were afraid of eating
too much, even of that little we gave them. The mate or commander
brought six men with him in his boat, but these poor wretches looked
like skeletons, and were so weak they could hardly sit to their oars;
the mate himself was very ill, and half-starved, for he declared he
had rescrved nothing from the men, and went share : nd share alike
with them in every bit they ate. *
I cautioned him to eat sparingly, but set meat before him imme-
diately, and he had not eaten three mouthfuls before he began to be
sick, and out of order; so he stopped awhile, and our surgeon mixed
him up something with some broth, which he said would be to him
both food and physic; and after he had taken it, he grew better; in
the meantime I forgot not the men; I ordered victuals to be given
them, and the poor creatures rather devoured than ate it;, they were
so exceeding hungry, that they were in a manner ravenous, and had
no command of themselves; and two of them ate with so much greedi-
ness, that they were in danger of their lives the next morning. .
The sight of these people's distress was very moving to me, and
brought to mind what I had a terrible prospect of at my first coming
on shore in my island, where I had not the least mouthful of food,
or any hopes of procuring it; besides the hourly apprehension I had
of being made the food of other creatures. But all the while the mate
was thus relating to me the miserable condition of the ship's company,
I could not put out of my thought the story he had told me of the three
poor creatures in the great cabin; viz. the mother, her son, and the
maid-servant, whom he had heard nothing of for two or three days;
and whom he seemed to confess they had wholly neglected, their own
extremities being so great; by which I understood, that they had
really given them no food at all; and that therefore they must be pe—
rished, and be all lying dead perhaps on the floor or deck of the cabin.
As I therefore kept the mate, whom we then called captain, on
board with his men to refresh them, so I also forgot not the starving
crew that were left on board, but ordered my own boat to go on board
the ship, and with my mate and twelve men to carry them a sack of
bread, and four or five pieces of beef to boil. Our surgeon charged
the men to cause the meat to be boiled while they staid, and to keep
275
guard in the cook-room, to prevent the men taking it to eat raw, or
taking it out of the pot before it was well boiled, and then to give
every man but a very little at a time; and by this caution he preserved
the men, who would otherwise have killed themselves with that very
food that was given them on purpose to save their lives.
At the same time I ordered the mate to go into the great cabin,
and see what condition the poor passengers were in, and, if they were
alive, to comfort them, and give them what refreshment was proper;
and the surgeon gave him a large pitcher with some of the prepared
broth which he had given the mate that was on board, and which he
did not question would restore them gradually.
I was not satisfied with this: but, as I said above, having a great
mind to see the scene of misery, which I knew the ship itself would
present me with, in a more lively manner than I could have it by
report, I took the captain of the ship, as we now called him, with
me, and went myself a little after in their boat.
I found the poor men on board almost in a tumult to get the victuals
out of the boiler before it was ready; but my mate observed his order,
and kept a good guard at the cook-room door; and the man he placed
there, after using all possible persuasion to have patience, kept them
off by force: however, he caused some biscuit cakes to be dipped in
the pot, and softened them with the liquor of the meat, which they
call brewis, and gave every one one, to stay their stomachs, and
told them it was for their own safety that he was obliged to give them
but little at a time. But it was all in vain, and had I not come on
board, and their own commander and officers with me, and with
good words, and some threats also of giving them no more, I believe
they would have broke into the cook-room by force, and tore the
meat out of the furnace; for words are indeed of very small force to
an hungry belly: however we pacified them, and fed them gradually
and cautiously for the first time, and the next time gave them more,
and at last filled their bellies, and the men did well enough.
But the misery of the poor passengers in the cabin was of another
nature, and far beyond the rest; for as, first, the ship's company
had so little for themselves, it was but too true, that they had at first
kept them very low, and at last totally neglected them; so that for six
or seven days, it might be said, they had really had no food at all,
and for several days before, very little,
- 18+
276
The poor mother, who, as the first mate reported, was a woman
of good sense and good breeding, had spared all she could get So
affectionately for her son, that at last she entirely sunk under it; and
when the mate of our ship went in, she sat upon the floor or deck,
with her back up against the sides, between two chairs, which were
lashed fast, and her head sunk in between her shoulders, like a corpse,
though not quite dead. My mate said all he could to revive and en-
courage her, and with a spoon put some broth into her mouth; she
opened her lips, and liſted up one hand, but could not speak: yet
she understood what he said, and made signs to him, intimating,
that it was too late for her; but pointed to her child, as if she would
have said, they should take care of him.
However the mate, who was exceedingly moved with the sight,
endeavoured to get some of the broth into her mouth; and, as he
said, got two or three spoonfuls down, though I question whether
he could be sure of it or not; but it was too late, and she died the
same night.
The youth, who was preserved at the price of his most affectionate
mother's life, was not so far gone; yet he lay in a cabin-bed as one
stretched out, with hardly any life left in him; he had a piece of an
old glove in his mouth, having eaten up the rest of it; however,
being young, and having more strength than his mother, the mate
got something down his throat, and he began sensibly to revive,
though, by giving him some time after but two or three spoonfuls
extraordinary, he was very sick, and brought it up again.
But the next care was the poor maid; she lay all along upon the
deck hard by her mistress, and just like one that had fallen down with
an apoplexy, and struggled for life; her limbs were distorted, one
of her hands was clasped round the frame of a chair, and she griped
it so hard, that we could not easily make her let it go; her other arm
Jay over her head, and her feet lay both together, set fast against the
frame of the cabin-table; in short, she lay just like one in the last
agonies of death; and yet she was alive too.
The poor creature was not only starved with hunger, and terrified
with the thoughts of death, but, as the men told us afterwards, was
broken-hearted for her mistress, whom she saw dying for two or
three days before, and whom she loved most tenderly.
We knew not what to do with this poor girl; for when our surgeon,
277
****
who was a man of very great knowledge and experience, and with
great application recovered her as to life, he had her upon his hands
as to her senses, for she was little less than distracted for a consider-
able time after; as shall appear presently.
Whoever shall read these memorandums, must be desired to
consider, that visits at sea are not like a journey into the country,
where sometimes people stay a week or a fortnight at a place. Our
business was to relieve this distressed ship's crew, but not to lie by
for them; and though they were willing to steer the same course with
us for some days, yet we could carry no sail to keep pace with a ship
that had no masts: however, as their captain begged of us to help
him to set up a main-topmast, and a kind of a topmast to his jury-
foremast, we did, as it were, lie by him for three or four days, and
then having given him five barrels of beef, a barrel of pork, two
hogsheads of biscuit, and a proportion of peas, flour, and what
other things we could spare; and taking three casks of sugar, some
rum, and some pieces of eight of them for satisfaction, we left them,
taking on board with us, at their own earnest request, the youth and
the maid, and all their goods.
The young lad was about seventeen years of age, a pretty, well-
bred, modest, and sensible youth; greatly dejected with the loss of
his mother, and, as it seems, had lost his father but a few months
before at Barbadoes. He begged of the surgeon to speak to me to
take him out of the ship: for he said, the cruel fellows had murdered
his mother; and indeed so they had, that is to say, passively; for
they might have spared a small sustenance to the poor helpless widow,
that might have preserved her life, though it had been but just to
keep her alive. But hunger knows no friend, no relation, no justice,
no right; and therefore is remorseless, and capable of no compassion.
The surgeon told him how far we were going, and how it would
carry him away from all his friends, and put him perhaps in as bad
circumstances, almost, as those we found them in; that is to say,
starving in the world. He said he mattered not whither he went, if
he was but delivered from the terrible crew that he was among: that
the captain (by which he meant me, for he could know nothing of my
nephew) had saved his life, and he was sure would not hurt him; and
as for the maid, he was sure, if she came to herself, she would be
very thankful for it, let us carry them where we would. The surgeon
278
represented the case so aſſectionately to me, that I yielded, and we
took them both on board with all their goods, except cleven hogsheads
of sugar, which could not be removed, or come at; and as the youth
had a bill of lading for them, I made his commander sign a writing,
obliging himself to go, as soon as he came to Bristol, to one Mr.
IRogers, a merchant there, to whom the youth said he was related,
and to deliver a letter which I wrote to him, and all the goods he had
belonging to the deceased widow; which I suppose was not done;
for I could never learn that the ship came to Bristol; but was, as is
most probable, lost at sea, being in so disabled a condition, and so
far from any land, that I am of opinion, the first storm she met with
afterwards she might founder in the sca; for she was leaky, and had
damage in her hold when we met with her.
I was now in the latitude of 19 deg. 32 min. and had hitherto had
a tolerable voyage as to weather, though at first the winds had been
contrary. I shall trouble nobody with the little incidents of wind,
weather, currents, &c. on the rest of our voyage; but, shortening
my story for the sake of what is to follow, shall observe, that I came
to my old habitation, the island, on the 10th of April, 1695. It was
with no small difficulty that I found the place; for as I came to it, and
went from it before, on the south and east side of the island, as
coming from the Brasils; so now coming in between the main and the
island, and having no chart for the coast, nor any land-mark, I did
not know it when I saw it, or know whether I saw it or no.
We beat about a great while, and went on shore on several islands
in the mouth of the great river Oroonoque, but none for my purpose:
only this I learnt by my coasting the shore, that I was under one great
mistake before, viz. that the continent which I thought I saw from
the island I lived in, was really no continent, but a long island, or
rather a ridge of islands reaching from one to the other side of the
extended mouth of that great river; and that the savages who came to
my island, were not properly those which we call Caribbees, but
islanders, and other barbarians of the same kind, who inhabited
something nearer to our side than the rest.
In short, I visited several of the islands to no purpose; some I
found were inhabited, and some were not. On one of them I found
some Spaniards, and thought they had lived there; but speaking with
them, found they had a sloop lay in a small creek hard by, and that
!.
27ſ
They came thither to make salt, and catch some pearl-muscles, if
they could; but they belonged to the Isle de Trinidad, which lay
firther north, in the latitude of 10 and 11 degrees.
But at last coasting from one island to another, sometimes with
the ship, sometimes with the Frenchman's shallop, which we had
four, a convenient boat, and therefore kept her with their very good
will; at length I came fair on the south side of my island, and I
preserly knew the very countenance of the place; so I brought the
ship Sile to an anchor broadside with the little creck where was my
old habhtion.
As son as I saw the place, I called for Friday, and asked him,
if he knewhere he was? He looked about a little, and presently
clapping ls hands, cried, “O yes, O there, O yes, 0 there!”
pointing to ur old habitation, and fell a-dancing and capering like
a mad ſellow and I had much ado to keep him from jumping into the
sea, to swimshore to the place.
“Well, "day,” said I, “do you think we shall find any body
here, or no? at what do you think, shall we see your father?” The
fellow stood mº as a stock a good while; but when I named his
father, the P99"ſectionate creature looked dejected, and I could
see the tears run din his face very plentifully. “What is the matter,
Friday?” says I. are you troubled because you may see your
father?" - “Nº” v,” says he, shaking his head, “no see him
more, no ever mºree again.” – “Why so,” said I, “Friday?
how do you know thº-º-o no, o no,” says Friday, “he long
ago die; long ago; *uch old man.” – “Well, well,” says I,
“Friday, you don't knº but shall we see any one else then?” The
fellow, it seems: " ºr eyes than 1, and he points just to the
hill above my old house; º though we lay half a league off, he cries
out, “Me sº *, *.x, yes, me see much man there, and
there, and there. 1100" but I could see nobody, no, not
with a perspective-glass; Wh was, I suppose, because I could
not hit the place; for the felloyas right, as I found upon inquiry
the next day, and there were firsi, men all together stood to look
at the ship, not knowing what “ink of us.
As soon as Friday had told mº saw people, I caused the Eng-
lish ancient to be spread, "ºrce guns, to give them notice
we were friends; and in about hä quarter of an hour after, we
280
perceived a smoke rise from the side of the creek; so I immediately
ordered a boat out, taking Friday with me; and hanging out a white
flag, or ſlag of truce, I went directly on shore, taking with me the
young friar I mentioned, to whom I had told the whole story of my
living there, and the manner of it, and every particular both of
myself and those that I left there, and who was on that account ex-
tremely desirous to go with me. We had besides about sixteen men
very well armed, if we had found any new guest there which we did
not know of; but we had no need of weapons.
As we went on shore upon the tide of flood near high water, we
rowed directly into the creek; and the first man I fixed my eye upon
was the Spaniard whose life I had saved, and whom I knew by his
face perfectly well; as to his habit, I shall describe it afterwards. I
ordered nobody to go on shore at first but myself; but there was no
keeping Friday in the boat; for the affectionate creature had spied his
father at a distance, a good way off of the Spaniards, where indeed I
saw nothing of him; and if they had not let him go on shore he would
have jumped into the sea. He was no sooner on shore, but he flew
away to his father like an arrow out of a bow. It would have made
any man shed tears in spite of the firmest resolution, to have seen the
first transports of this poor fellow's joy, when he came to his father;
how he embraced him, kissed him, stroked his face, took him up
in his arms, set him down upon a tree, and lied down by him; then
stood and looked at him as any one would look at a strange picture,
for a quarter of an hour together; then lied down upon the ground,
and stroked his legs, and kissed them, and then got up again, and
stared at him; one would have thought the fellow bewitched: but it
would have made a dog laugh to see how the next day his passion run
out another way: in the morning he walked along the shore, to and
again, with his father, several hours, always leading him by the
hand as if he had been a lady; and every now and then he would come
to fetch something or other for him to the boat, either a lump of sugar,
or a dram, a biscuit, or something or other that was good. In the
afternoon his frolics ran another way; for then he would set the old
man down upon the ground, and dance about him, and make a
thousand antic postures and gestures; and all the while he did this
he would be talking to him, and telling him one story or another of
his travels, and of what had happened to him abroad, to divert him.
281
In short, if the same filial affection was to be found in Christians to
their parents in our parts of the world, one would be tempted to say
there would hardly have been any need of the fifth commandment.
But this is a digression; I return to my landing. It would be
endless to take notice of all the ceremonies and civilities that the
Spaniards received me with. The first Spaniard whom, as I said, I
knew very well, was he whose life I had saved: he came towards the
boat attended by one more, carrying a flag of truce also ; and he did
not only not know me at first, but he had no thoughts, no notion, of
its being me that was come till I spoke to him. “Seignior,” said I,
in Portuguese, “do you not know me?” At which he spoke not a
word; but giving his musket to the man that was with him, threw
his arms abroad, and saying something in Spanish that I did not
perfectly hear, came forward, and embraced me, telling me, he
was inexcusable not to know that face again that he had once seen, as
of an angel from Heaven sent to save his life: he said abundance of
very handsome things, as a well-bred Spaniard always knows how;
and then beckoning to the person that attended him, bade him go
and call out his comrades. He them asked me if I would walk to my
old habitation, where he would give me possession of my own house
again, and where Ishould see they had made but mean improvements;
so I walked along with him; but, alas! I could no more find the
place again than if I had never been there; for they had planted so
many trees, and placed them in such a posture, so thick and close to
one another, and in ten years time they were grown so big, that, in
short, the place was inaccessible, except by such windings and blind
ways as they themselves only who made them could find.
I asked them, what put them upon all these fortifications? He
told me, I would say there was need enough of it, when they had
given me an account how they had passed their time since their ar-
riving in the island, especially after they had the misfortune to find
that I was gone: he told me he could not but have some satisfaction
in my good fortune, when he heard that I was gone away in a good
ship, and to my satisfaction; and that he had oftentimes a strong
persuasion that one time or other he should see me again: but nothing
that ever befel him in his life, he said, was so surprising and aſilict-
ing to him at first, as the disappointment he was under when he
came back to the island, and found I was not there.
282.
As to the three barbarians (so he called them) that were left be-
hind, and of whom he said he had a long story to tell me; the
Spaniards all thought themselves much better among the savages,
only that their number was so small. “And,” says he, “had they
been strong enough, we had been all long ago in purgatory;” and
with that he crossed himself on the breast. “But, Sir,” says he,
“I hope you will not be displeased, when I shall tell you how, forced
by necessity, we were obliged, for our own preservation, to disarm
them, and make them our subjects, who would not be content with
being moderately our masters, but would be our murderers.” I an-
swered, I was heartily afraid of it when I left them there; and nothing
troubled me at my parting from the island, but that they were not
come back, that I might have put them in possession of every thing
ſirst, and left the others in a state of subjection, as they deserved:
but if they had reduced them to it, I was very glad, and should be
very far from finding any fault with it; for I knew they were a parcel
of refractory, ungovernable villains, and were ſit for any manner of
mischief.
While I was saying this, came the man whom he had sent back,
and with him eleven men more: in the dress they were in, it was
impossible to guess what nation they were of; but he made all clear
both to them and to me. First he turned to me, and pointing to
them, said, “These, Sir, are some of the gentlemen who owe their
lives to you;” and then turning to them, and pointing to me, he let
them know who I was; upon which they all came up one by one, not
as if they had been sailors, and ordinary fellows, and I the like, but
really as if they had been ambassadors or noblemen, and I a monarch
or a great conqueror: their behaviour was to the last degree obliging
and courteous, and yet mixed with a manly majestic gravity, which
very well became them; and, in short, they had so much more man-
ners than I, that I scarce knew how to receive their civilities, much
less how to return them in kind.
The history of their coming to, and conduct in the island after
my going away, is so very remarkable, and has so many incidents,
which the former part of my relation will help to understand, and
which will, in most of the particulars, refer to that account I have
already given, that I cannot but commit them with great delight to
the reading of those that come after me.
283
I shall no longer trouble the story with a relation in the first person,
which will put me to the expense of ten thousand said I's, and said
he's, and he told me’s, and I told him's, and the like; but I shall
collect the facts historically as near as I can gather them out of my
memory from what they related to me, and from what I met with in
my conversing with them, and with the place.
In order to do this succinctly, and as intelligibly as I can, I must
go back to the circumstance in which I left the island, and in which
the persons were of whom I am to speak. And first it is necessary to
repeat, that I had sent away Friday's father and the Spaniard, the
two whose lives I had rescued from the savages; I say, I had sent
them away in a large canoe to the main, as I then thought it, to fetch
over the Spaniard's companions whom he had left behind him, in
order to save them from the like calamity that he had been in, and in
order to succour them for the present, and that, if possible, we
might together find some way for our deliverance afterward.
When I sent them away, I had no visible appearance of, or the
least room to hope for, my own deliverance, any more than I had
twenty years before; much less had I any foreknowledge of what
afterward happened, I mean of an English ship coming on shore there
to fetch me off; and it could not but be a very great surprise to them
when they came back, not only to find that I was gone, but to find
three strangers left on the spot, possessed of all that I had left behind
me, which would otherwise have been their own.
The first thing, however, which I inquired into, that I might
begin where I left off, was of their own part; and I desired he would
give me a particular account of his voyage back to his countrymen
with the boat, when I sent him to fetch them over. He told me there
was little variety in that part; for nothing remarkable happened to
them on the way, they having very calm weather and a smooth sea;
for his countrymen it could not be doubted, he said, but that they
were overjoyed to see him (it seems he was the principal man among
them, the captain of the vessel they had been shipwrecked in having
been dead some time); they were, he said, the more surprised to see
him, because they knew that he was fallen into the hands of the
Savages, who, they were satisfied, would devour him, as they did
all the rest of their prisoners; that when he told them the story of his
deliverance, and in what manner he was furnished for carrying them
*
284
away, it was like a dream to them; and their astonishment, they
said, was somewhat like that of Joseph's brethren, when he told
them who he was, and told them the story of his exaltation in
Pharoah's court; but when he showed them the arms, the powder,
the ball, and the provisions that he brought them for their journey or
voyage, they were restored to themselves, took a just share of the
joy of their deliverance, and immediately prepared to come away
with him.
Their first business was to get canoes; and in this they were
obliged not to stick so much upon the honest part of it, but to trespass
upon their friendly savages, and to borrow two large canoes or
periaguas, on pretence of going out a-fishing, or for pleasure.
In these they came away the next morning; it seems they wanted
no time to get themselves ready, for they had no baggage, neither
clothes, or provisions, or any thing in the world, but what they had
on them, and a few roots to eat, of which they used to make their
bread.
They were in all three weeks absent, and in that time, unluckily
for them, I had the occasion offered for my escape, as I mentioned
in my other part, and to get off from the island; leaving three of the
most impudent, hardened, ungoverned, disagreeable villains behind
me that any man could desire to meet with, to the poor Spaniards
great grief and disappointment you may be sure.
The only just thing the rogues did, was, that when the Spaniards
came on shore, they gave my letter to them, and gave them pro-
visions and other relief, as I had ordered them to do; also they gave
them the long paper of directions, which I had left with them,
containing the particular methods which I took for managing every
part of my life there; the way how I baked my bread, bred up my
tame goats, and planted my corn; how I cured my grapes, made
my pots, and, in a word, every thing I did; all this being written
down, they gave to the Spaniards, two of whom understood English
well enough; nor did they refuse to accommodate the Spaniards with
every thing else, for they agreed very well for some time; they gave
them an equal admission into the house, or cave, and they began to
live very sociably; and the head Spaniard, who had seen pretty much
of my method, and Friday's father together, managed all their affairs;
for as for the Englishmen, they did nothing but ramble about the
285
island, shoot parrots, and catch tortoises, and when they came
home at night, the Spaniards provided their suppers for them.
The Spaniards would have been satisfied with this, would the
other but have let them alone; which, however, they could not find
in their hearts to do long; but like the dog in the manger, they would
not eat themselves, and would not let others eat neither; the dif-
ferences, nevertheless, were at first but trivial, and such as are not
worth relating: but at last it broke out into open war, and it began
with all the rudeness and insolence that can be imagined, without
reason, without provocation, contrary to nature, and indeed to
common sense; and though, it is true, the first relation of it came
from the Spaniards themselves, whom I may call the accusers, yet
when I came to examine the fellows, they could not deny a word of it.
But before I come to the particulars of this part, I must supply a
defect in my former relation; and this was, that I forgot to set down
among the rest, that just as we were weighing anchor to set sail, there
happened a little quarrel on board our ship, which I was afraid once
would have turned to a second mutiny; nor was it appeased till the
captain, rousing up his courage, and taking us all to his assistance,
parted them by force, and making two of the most refractory fellows
prisoners, he laid them in irons; and as they had been active in the
former disorders, and let fall some ugly dangerous words the second
time, he threatened to carry them in irons to England, and have them
hanged there for mutiny, and running away with the ship.
This, it seems, though the captain did not intend to do it, frighted
some other men in the ship; and some of them had put it into the
heads of the rest, that the captain only gave them good words for the
present till they should come to some English port, and that then they
should be all put into gaol, and tried for their lives.
The mate got intelligence of this, and acquainted us with it; upon
which it was desired that I, who still passed for a great man among
them, should go down with the mate and satisfy the men, and tell
them, that they might be assured, if they behaved well the rest of
the voyage, all they had done for the time past should be pardoned.
So I went, and after passing my honour's word to them they appeared
easy, and the more so, when I caused the two men who were in irons
to be released and forgiven. t
But this mutiny had brought us to an anchor for that night, the
286
wind also falling calm. Next morning we found that our two men who
had been laid in irons, had stole each of them a musket and some
other weapons; what powder or shot they had we knew not; and had
taken the ship's pinnace, which was not yet haled up, and run away
with her to their companions in roguery on shore.
As soon as we found this, I ordered the long-boat on shore, with
twelve men and the mate, and away they went to seek the rogues; but
they could neither find them or any of the rest; for they all ſled into
the woods when they saw the boat coming on shore. The mate was
once resolved, in justice to their roguery, to have destroyed their
plantations, burnt all their household stuff and furniture, and left
them to shift without it; but having no order, he let it all alone, left
every thing as they found it, and bringing the pinnace away, came on
board without them.
These two men made their number five: but the other three vil-
lains were so much wickeder than these, that after they had been two
or three days together, they turned their two new-comers out of doors
to shift for themselves, and would have nothing to do with them; nor
could they, for a good while, be persuaded to give them any food: as
for the Spaniards, they were not yet come.
When the Spaniards came first on shore, the business began to go
forward; the Spaniards would have persuaded the three English brutes
to have taken in their two countrymen again, that, as they said, they
might be all one family; but they would not hear of it: so the two
poor fellows lived by themselves, and finding nothing but industry
and application would make them live comfortably, they pitched their
tents on the north shore of the island, but a little more to the west,
to be out of the danger of the savages, who always landed on the east
parts of the island.
Here they built them two huts, one to lodge in; and the other to
lay up their magazines and stores in; and the Spaniards having given
them some corn for seed, and especially some of the peas which I had
left them, they dug and planted, and enclosed, after the pattern I
had set for them all, and began to live pretty well; their first crop of
corn was on the ground, and though it was but a little bit of land
which they had dug up at first, having had but little time, yet it was
enough to relieve them, and find them with bread and other eatables;
and one of the fellows being the cook's mate of the ship, was very
287
ready at making soup, puddings, and such other preparations, as
the rice and the milk, and such little flesh as they got, furnished him
to do.
They were going on in this little thriving posture, when the three
unnatural rogues, their own countrymen too, in mere humour, and
to insult them, came and bullied them, and told them the island was
theirs; that the governor, meaning me, had given them possession
of it and nobody else had any right to it; and, damn 'em, they should
build no houses upon their ground, unless they would pay them rent
for them.
The two men thought they had jested at first, and asked them to
come in and sit down, and see what fine houses they were that they
had built, and tell them what rent they demanded: and one of them
merrily told them, if they were ground-landlords, he hoped if they
built tenements upon their land and made improvements, they would,
according to the custom of landlords, grant them a long lease; and
bid them go fetch a scrivener to draw the writings. One of the three,
damning and raging, told them they should see they were not in jest;
and going to a little place at a distance, where the honest men had
made a fire to dress their victuals, he takes a firebrand and claps it to
the outside of their hut, and very fairly set it on fire; and it would
have been all burnt down in a few minutes, if one of the two had not
run to the fellow, thrust him away, and trod the fire out with his feet,
and that not without some difficulty too.
The fellow was in such a rage at the honest man's thrusting him
away, that he turned upon him with a pole he had in his hand; and
had not the man avoided the blow very nimbly, and run into the hut,
he had ended his days at once. His comrade, seeing the danger they
were both in, ran in after him, and immediately they came both out
with their muskets; and the man that was first struck at with the pole,
knocked the fellow down that had begun the quarrel with the stock of
his musket, and that before the other two could come to help him;
and then seeing the rest come at them, they stood together, and
presenting the other ends of their pieces to them, bade them stand off.
The other had fire-arms with them too; but one of the two honest
men, bolder than his comrade, and made desperate by his danger,
told them if they offered to move hand or foot they were all dead men,
and boldly commanded them to lay down their arms. They did not
288
indeed lay down their arms; but seeing him so resolute, it brought
, them to a parley, and they consented to take their wounded man with
them, and be gone; and, indeed, it seems the fellow was wounded
sufficiently with the blow: however, they were much in the wrong,
since they had the advantage, that they did not disarm them effectu-
ally, as they might have done, and have gone immediately to the
Spaniards, and given them an account how the rogues had treated
them; for the three villains studied nothing but revenge, and every
day gave them some intimation that they did so. -
But not to crowd this part with an account of the lesser part of
their rogueries, such as, treading down their corn, shooting three
young kids and a she-goat, which the poor men had got to breed up
tame for their store; and in a word, plaguing them night and day in
this manner, it forced the two men to such a desperation, that they
resolved to fight them all three the first time they had a fair opportu-
nity. In order to this they resolved to go to the castle, as they called
it, that was my old dwelling, where the three rogues and the Spaniards
all lived together at that time, intending to have a fair battle, and the
Spaniards should stand by to see fair play. So they got up in the
morning before day, and came to the place, and called the Englishmen
by their names, telling a Spaniard that answered, that they wanted
to speak with them.
It happened that the day before two of the Spaniards having been
in the woods, had seen one of the two Englishmen, whom for
distinction, I call the honest men; and he had made a sad complaint
to the Spaniards, of the barbarous usage they had met with from their
three countrymen, and how they had ruined their plantation, and
destroyed their corn, thad they had laboured so hard to bring forward,
and killed the milch-goat, and their three kids, which was all they had
provided for their sustenance; and that if he and his friends, meaning
the Spaniards, did not assist them again, they should be starved.
When the Spaniards came home at night, and they were all at supper,
he took the freedom to reprove the three Englishmen, though in
gentle and mannerly terms, and asked them, how they could be so
cruel, they being harmless inoffensive fellows, and that they were
only putting themselves in a way to subsist by their labour, and that it
had cost them a great deal of pains to bring things to such perfection
as they had,
289
One of the Englishmen returned very briskly, “What had they
to do there? That they came on shore without leave, and they should
not plant.or build upon the island; it was none of their ground.”
“Why,” says the Spaniard, very calmly, “Seignior Inglese, they
must not starve.” The Englishman replied, like a true rough-hewn
tarpaulin, “they might starve and be damn'd, they should not plant
nor build in that place.” “But what must they do then, Seignior?”
says the Spaniard. Another of the brutes returned, “Do! d-n
them, they should be servants, and work for them.” “But how can
you expect that of them?” says the Spaniard, “they are not bought
with your money; you have no right to make them servants.” The
JEnglishman answered, “The island was theirs, the governor had
given it to them, and no man had any thing to do there but them-
selves;” and with that swore by his Maker, that they would go and
burn all their new huts; they should build none upon their land.
“Why, Seignior,” says the Spaniard, “by the same rule, we
must be your servants too.” “Ay,” says the bold dog, “ and so you
shall too, before we have done with you;” mixing two or three G–d
d—mme's in the proper intervals of his speech. The Spaniard only
smiled at that, and made him no answer. However, this little dis—
course had heated them; and starting up, one says to the other, I
think it was he they called Will Atkins, “Come, Jack, let us go
and have tº other brush with them : we will demolish their castle, I'll
warrant you; they shall plant no colony in our dominions.”
Upon this they were all trooping away, with every man a gun, a
pistol, and a sword, and muttered some insolent things among them—
selves, of what they would do to the Spaniards too, when opportu-
nity offered; but the Spaniards, it seems, did not so perfectly under-
stand them as to know all the particulars; only that, in general, they
threatened them hard for taking the two Englishmen's part.
Whither they went, or how they bestowed their time that evening,
the Spaniards said they did not know; but it seems they wandered
about the country part of the night; and then lying down in the place
which I used to call my bower, they were weary, and overslept them-
selves. The case was this: they had resolved to stay till midnight,
and so to take the two poor men when they were asleep; and as they
acknowledged afterwards, intended to set fire to their huts while they
were in them, and either burn them in them, or murder them as
Robinson Crusoe, f 10
290
they came out: and, as malice seldom sleeps very sound, it was
very strange they should not have been kept waking.
However, as the two men had also a design upon them, as I have
said, though a much fairer one than that of burning and murdering,
it happened, and very luckily for them all, that they were up, and
gone abroad, before the bloody minded rogues came to their huts.
When they came there, and found the men gone, Atkins, who
it scems was the forwardest man, called out to his comrades, “Ha!
Jack, here's the nest; but d-n them, the birds have flown.” They
mused awhile to think what should be the occasion of their being
gone abroad so soon, and suggested presently, that the Spaniards
had given them notice of it; and with that they shook hands, and
swore to one another, that they would be revenged of the Spaniards.
As soon as they had made this bloody bargain, they fell to work with
the poor men's habitation; they did not set fire indeed to any thing,
but they pulled down both their houses, and pulled them so limb from
limb, that they left not the least stick standing, or scarce any sign on
the ground where they stood; they tore all their little household-stuff
in pieces, and threw every thing about in such a manner, that the
poor men afterwards found, some of their things a mile off of their
habitation.
When they had done this, they pulled up all the young trees the
poor men had planted; pulled up an enclosure they had made to se–
cure their cattle and their corn; and, in a word, sacked and plun-
dered every thing, as completely as a hord of Tartars would have
done.
The two men were at this juncture gone to find them out, and had
resolved to fight them wherever they had been, though they were but
two to three; so that, had they met, there certainly would have been
bloodshed among them; for they were all very stout, resolute fellows,
to give them their due.
But Providence took more care to keep them asunder, than they
themselves could do to meet: for, as they had dogged one another,
when the three were gone thither, the two were here; and afterwards,
when the two went back to find them, the three were come to the old
habitation again; we shall see their differing conduct presently.
When the three came back, like furious creatures, ſlushed with the
rage which the work they had been about had put them into, they
291
came up to the Spaniards, and told them what they had done, by way
of scoffand bravado; and one of them stepping up to one of the Spa-
niards, as if they had been a couple of boys at play, takes hold of his
hat, as it was upon his head, and giving it a twirl about, fleering in
his face, says he to him, “And you, Seignior Jack Spaniard, shall
have the same sauce, if you do not mend your manners.” The Spa-
niard, who, though a quiet civil man, was as brave as a man could
be desired to be, and withal a strong well-made man, looked stea-
dily at him for a good while; and then, having no weapon in his
hand, stepped gravely up to him, and with one blow of his fist
knocked him down, as an ox is felled with a pole-axe; at which one
of the rogues, insolent as the first, fired his pistol at the Spaniard
immediately; he missed his body indeed, for the bullets went
through his hair, but one of them touched the tip of his ear, and he
bled pretty much. The blood made the Spaniard believe he was more
hurt than he really was, and that put him into some heat, for before
he acted all in a perfect calm; but now resolving to go through with
his work, he stooped and took the fellow's musket whom he had
knocked down, and was just going to shoot the man who had fired at
him; when the rest of the Spaniards, being in the cave, came out,
and calling to him not to shoot, they stepped in, secured the other
two, and took their arms from them.
When they were thus disarmed, and found they had made all the
Spaniards their enemies, as well as their own countrymen, they be-
gan to cool; and giving the Spaniards better words, would have had
their arms again; but the Spaniards, considering the feud that was
between them and the other two Englishmen, and that it would be
the best method they could take to keep them from killing one ano-
ther, told them they would do them no harm; and if they would live
peaceably they would be very willing to assist and associate with
them, as they did before; but that they could not think of giving
them their arms again, while they appeared so resolved to do mis-
chief with them to their own countrymen, and had even threatened
them all to make them their servants.
The rogues were now more capable to hear reason than to act rea-
son; and being refused their arms, they went raving away, and
raging like madmen, threatening what they would do, though they
had no fire-arms: but the Spaniards, despising their threatening,
19 •
292
told them they should take care how they offered any injury to their
plantation or cattle; for if they did, they would shoot them, as they
would do ravenous beasts, wherever they found them; and if they
fell into their hands alive, they would certainly be hanged. How-
ever, this was far from cooling them; but away they went, raging
and swearing like furies of hell. As soon as they were gone, came
back the two men in passion and rage enough also, though of another
kind; for, having been at their plantation, and finding it all de-
molished and destroyed, as above, it will easily be supposed they
had provocation enough; they could scarce have room to tell their
tale, the Spaniards were so eager to tell them theirs; and it was
strange enough to find, that three men should thus bully nineteen,
and receive no punishment at all.
The Spaniards indeed despised them, and especially having thus
disarmed them, made light of all their threatenings; but the two
Englishmen resolved to have their remedy against them, what pains
soever it cost to find them out.
But the Spaniards interposed here too, and told them that as they
had disarmed them, they could not consent that they (the two) should
pursue them with fire-arms, and perhaps kill them: “But,” said
the grave Spaniard, who was their governor, “we will endeavour to
make them do you justice, if you will leave it to us; for, as there is
no doubt but they will come to us again when their passion is over,
being not able to subsist without our assistance, we promise you to
make no peace with them, without having a full satisfaction for you;
upon this condition we hope you will promise to use no violence with
them, other than in your defence.”
The two Englishmen yielded to this very awkwardly, and with
great reluctance; but the Spaniards protested, they did it only to keep
them from bloodshed, and to make all easy at last; “For,” said they,
“we are not so many of us; here is room enough for us all, and it is
great pity we should not be all good friends.” At length they did
consent, and waited for the issue of the thing, living for some days
with the Spaniards; for their own habitation was destroyed.
In about five days’ time the three vagrants, tired with wandering,
and almost starved with hunger, having chiefly lived on turtles' eggs
all that while, came back to the grove; and finding my Spaniard,
who, as I have said, was the governor, and two more with him,
293
walking by the side of the creek; they came up in a very submissive
humble manner and begged to be received again into the family. The
Spaniards used them civilly, but told them, they had acted so unna-
turally by their countrymen, and so very grossly by them, (the Spa-
niards) that they could not come to any conclusion without consulting
the two Englishmen, and the rest; but however they would go to
them, and discourse about it, and they should know in half an hour.
It may be guessed that they were very hard put to it; for it seems,
as they were to wait this half-hour for an answer, they begged he
would send them out some bread in the meantime; which he did,
and sent them at the same time a large piece of goat's flesh, and a
broiled parrot, which they ate very heartily, for they were hungry
enough.
After half an hour's consultation they were called in, and a long
debate had among them, their two countrymen charging them with
the ruin of all their labour, and a design to murder them; all which
they owned before, and therefore could not deny now; upon the
whole, the Spaniards acted the moderators between them; and as
they had obliged the two Englishmen not to hurt the three, while they
were naked and unarmed, so they now obliged the three to go and
build their fellows two huts, one of the same, and the other of larger
dimensions than they were before; to fence their ground again,
where they had pulled up the fences, plant trees in the room of those
pulled up, dig up the land again for planting corn, where they had
spoiled it; and, in a word, to restore every thing in the same state
as they found it, as near as they could; for entirely it could not be,
the season for the corn, and the growth of the trees and hedges, not
being possible to be recovered.
Well, they submitted to all this, and as they had plenty of pro-
visions given them all the while, they grew very orderly, and the
whole Society began to live pleasantly and agreeably together again;
only that these three fellows could never be persuaded to work, I
mean for themselves, except now and then a little, just as they
pleased; however, the Spaniards told them plainly, that if they
would but live sociably and friendly together, and study in the whole
the good of the plantation, they would be content to work for them,
and let them walk about and be as idle as they pleased; and thus
having lived pretty well together for a month or two, the Spaniards
t
294
gave them their arms again, and gave them liberty to go abroad with
them as before.
It was not above a week after they had these arms, and went
abroad, but the ungrateful creatures began to be as insolent and
troublesome as before; but however, an accident happened presently
upon this, which endangered the safety of them all; they were
obliged to lay by all private resentments, and look to the preservation
of their lives.
It happened one night, that the Spaniard governor, as I call him,
that is to say, the Spaniard whose life I had saved, who was now the
captain, or leader, or governor of the rest, found himself very
uneasy in the night, and could by no means get any sleep: he was
perſectly well in body, as he told me the story, only found his
thoughts tumultuous; his mind ran upon men fighting, and killing
one another, but was broad awake, and could not by any means get
any sleep; in short, he ſay a great while; but growing more and
more uneasy, he resolved to rise: as they lay, being so many of
them, upon goat-skins, laid thick upon such couches and pads as
they made for themselves, not in hammocks and ship-beds, as I did,
who was but one, so they had little to do; when they were willing to
rise, but to get up upon their feet, and perhaps put on a coat, such
as it was, and their pumps, and they were ready for going any way
that their thoughts guided them.
Being thus gotten up, he looked out; but, being dark, he could
see little or nothing; and besides, the trees which I had planted, as
in my former account is described, and which were now grown tall,
intercepted his sight, so that he could only look up, and see, that it
was a clear star-light night; and, hearing no noise, he returned and
laid him down again; but it was all one, he could not sleep, nor could
he compose himself to any thing like rest, but his thoughts were to
the last degree uneasy, and yet he knew not for what.
Having made some noise with rising and walking about, going out
and coming in, another of them waked, and, calling, asked who it
was that was up? The governor told him how it had been with him.
“Say you so !” says the other Spaniard, “such things are not to be
slighted, I assure you; there is certainly some mischief working,”
says he, “near us;” and presently he asked him, “Where are the
Englishmen?” – “They are all in their huts,” says he, “safe
205
enough.” It seems, the Spaniards had kept possession of the main
apartment, and had made a place, where the three Englishmen, since
their last mutiny, always quartered by themselves, and could not
come at the rest. “Well,” says the Spaniard, “there is something
in it, I am persuaded from my own experience; I am satisfied our
spirits embodied have converse with, and receive intelligence from,
the spirits unembodied, and inhabiting the invisible world; and this
friendly notice is given for our advantage, if we know how to make
use of it. “Come,” says he, “let us go out and look abroad; and if
we find nothing at all in it to justify the trouble, I'll tell you a story
to the purpose, that shall convince you of the justice of my propo-
sing it.”
In a word, they went out to go to the top of the hill, where I used
to go; but they, being strong, and in good company, not alone, as
I was, used none of my cautions to go up by the ladder, and then
pulling it up after them, to go up a second stage to the top, but Were
going round through the grove unconcerned and unwary, when they
were surprised with seeing a light as of ſire, a very little way off from
thcm, and hearing the voices of men, not of one or two, but of a
great number.
In all the discoveries I had made of the savages landing on the
island, it was my constant care to prevent them making the least
discovery of there being any inhabitant upon the place; and when by
any necessity they came to know it, they felt it so effectually, that they
that got away, were scarce able to give any account of it, for we
disappeared as soon as possible, nor did ever any that had seen me,
escape to tell any one else, except it was the three savages in our last
‘encounter, who jumped into the boat, of whom I mentioned that I
was afraid they should go home, and bring more help.
Whether it was the consequence of the escape of those men, that
so great a number came now together; or whether they came igno-
rantly, and by accident, on their usual bloody errand, the Spaniards
could not, it seems, understand: but whatever it was, it had been
their business, either to have concealed themselves, as not to have
Seen them at all; much less to have let the savages have seen that
there were any inhabitants in the place; or to have fallen upon them
So effectually, as that not a man of them should have escaped, which
could only have been by getting in between them and their boats; but
296
this presence of mind was wanting to them; which was the ruin of
their tranquillity for a great while.
We need not doubt but that the governor, and the man with him,
surprised with this sight, ran back immediately, and raised their
fellows, giving them an account of the imminent danger they were all
in; and they again as readily took the alarm, but it was impossible
to persuade them to stay close within where they were, but that they
must all run out to see how things stood.
While it was dark indeed, they were well enough, and they had
opportunity enough, for some hours, to view them by the light of the
three fires they had made at a distance from one another; what they
were doing they knew not, and what to do themselves they knew not;
for, first, the enemy were too many; and, secondly, they did not
keep together, but were divided into several parties, and were on
shore in several places.
The Spaniards were in no small consternation at this sight; and
as they found that the fellows ran straggling all over the shore, they
made no doubt, but, first or last, some of them would chop in upon
their habitation, or upon some other place, where they would see
the tokens of inhabitants; and they were in great perplexity also for
fear of their flock of goats, which would have been little less than
starving them, if they should have been destroyed; so the first thing
they resolved upon, was to dispatch three men away before it was
light, viz. two Spaniards and one Englishman, to drive all the goats
away to the great valley where the cave was, and if need were, to
drive them into the very cave itself.
Could they have seen the savages all together in one body, and at
any distance from their canoes, they resolved, if there had been an
hundred of them, to have attacked them; but that could not be ob-
tained, for there were some of them two miles off from the other, and,
as it appeared afterwards, were of two different nations.
After having mused a great while on the course they should take,
and beaten their brains in considering their present circumstances,
they resolved at last, while it was still dark, to send the old savage,
Friday's father out as a spy, to learn if possible something concerning
them, what they came for, and what they intended to do. The old
man readily undertook it, and stripping himself quite naked, as
most of the Savages were, away he went. After he had been gone an
297
tº-
hour or two, he brings word that he had been among them undisco-
vered, that he found they were two parties, and of two several na-
tions, who had war with one another, and had had a great battle in
their own country, and that both sides having had several prisoners
taken in the ſight, they were by mere chance landed in the same island
for the devouring their prisoners, and making merry; but their
coming so by chance to the same place had spoiled all their mirth :
that they were in a great rage at one another, and were so near, that
he believed they would ſight again as soon as daylight began to
appear; but he did not perceive that they had any notion of any
body's being on the island but themselves. He had hardly made
an end of telling the story, when they could perceive, by the un-
usual noise they made, that the two little armies were engaged in a
bloody fight.
Friday's father used all the arguments he could to persuade our
people to lie close, and not be seen; he told them their safety con–
sisted in it, and that they had nothing to do but lie still, and the
savages would kill one another to their hands, and then the rest
would go away; and it was so to a tittle. But it was impossible to
prevail, especially upon the Englishmen, their curiosity was so im-
portunate upon their prudentials, that they must run out and see the
battle; however, they used some caution, viz. they did not go openly
just by their own dwelling, but went farther into the woods, and
placed themselves to advantage, where they might securely see them
manage the fight, and, as they thought, not to be seen by them;
but it seems 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 spirits, 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 ſly; and this put our men
again into a great consternation, lest any of those that ſled should run
into the grove before their dwelling for shelter, and thereby invo-
luntarily discover the place, and that by consequence the pursuers
should do the like in search for them. Upon this they resolved, that
they would stand armed within the wall, and whoever came into the
298
grove they should 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 stock of the musket, 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 ſled 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 addition to our men's great satisfaction, viz. that the con-
querors had not pursued them, or seen which way they were gone.
Upon this the Spaniard 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 and come in behind
them, surprise and take them prisoners; which was done: the re-
sidue 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,
which they supposed were by way of triumph, and so the fight ended;
and the same day, about three o'clock in the afternoon, they also
marched to their canoes. And thus the Spaniards had their island
again free to themselves, their fright was over, and they saw no
Savages in several years after.
After they were all gone, the Spaniards came out of their den,
and viewing the field of battle, they found about two-and-thirty dead
men upon the spot; some were killed with great long arrows, some
of which were found sticking in their bodies, but most of them were
killed with their great wooden swords, sixteen or seventeen of which
they found in the field of battle, and as many bows, with a great
many arrows. These swords were strange great unwieldy things, and
they must be very strong men that used them; most of those men that
were killed with them had their heads mashed to pieces, as we may
say, or, as we call it in English, their brains knocked out, and
several their arms and legs broken; so that it is evident they fight
with inexpressible rage and fury. They found not one wounded man
that was not stone dead; for either they stay by their enemy till they
have quite killed them, or they carry all the wounded men, that are
not quite dead, away with them.
299
This deliverance tamed our Englishmen for a great while; the
sight had filled them with horror, and the consequence appeared
terrible to the last degree, even to them, if ever they should fall into
the hands of those creatures, who would not only kill them as ene-
mies, but kill them for food as we kill our cattle. And they professed
to me, that the thoughts of being eaten up like beef or mutton, though
it was supposed it was not to be till they were dead, had something
in it so horrible that it nauscated their very stomachs, made them
sick when they thought of it, and filled their minds with such unusual
terror, that they were not themselves for some weeks after.
This, as I said, tamed even the three English brutes I have been
speaking of, and for a great while after they were very tractable, and
went about the common business of the whole society well enough;
planted, sowed, reaped, and began to be all naturalized to the
country; but some time after this they fell all into such measures,
which brought them into a great deal of trouble.
They had taken three prisoners, as I had observed; and these
three being lusty stout young fellows, they made them servants, and
taught them to work for them; and as slaves they did well enough;
but they did not take their measures with them as I did by my man
Friday, viz. to begin with them upon the principle of having saved
their lives, and then instruct them in the rational principles of life,
much less of religion, civilizing and reducing them by kind usage and
aſſectionate arguings; but as they gave them their food every day, so
they gave them their work too, and kept them fully employed in
drudgery enough; but they failed in this by it, that they never had
them to assist them and fight for them as I had my man Friday, who
was as true to me as the very flesh upon my bones.
But to come to the family part: being all now good friends, for
common danger, as I said above, had effectually reconciled them,
they began to consider their general circumstances; and the first thing
that came under their consideration was, whether, seeing the savages
particularly haunted that side of the island, and that there were more
remote and retired parts of it equally adapted to their way of living,
and manifestly to their advantage, they should not rather remove their
habitation, and plant in some more proper place for their safety, and
especially for the security of their cattle and corn.
Upon this, after long debate, it was concluded that they would
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not remove their habitation, because that some time or other they
thought they might hear from their governor again, meaning me;
and if I should send any one to seek them, I should be sure to direct
them to that side, where iſ they should ſind the place demolished they
would conclude the Savages had killed us all, and we were gone, and
so our supply would go away too.
But as to their corn and cattle, they agreed to remove them into
the valley where my cave was, where the land was as proper for both,
and where indecd there was land enough; however, upon second
thoughts they altered one part of that resolution too, and resolved
only to remove part of their cattle thither, and plant part of their corn
there; and so, if one part was destroyed, the other might be saved;
and one piece of prudence they used, which it was very well they did;
viz. that they never trusted those three savages, which they had pri-
soners, with knowing any thing of the plantation they had made in
that valley, or of any cattle they had there; much less of the cave
there, which they kept in case of necessity as a safe retreat; and
whither they carried also the two barrels of powder which I had sent
them at my coming away.
But however they resolved not to change their habitation; yet they
agreed, that as I had carefully covered it first with a wall, or fortiſi-
cation, and then with a grove of trees; so seeing their safety consisted
entirely in their being concealed, of which they were now fully con-
vinced, they set to work to cover and conceal the place yet more effec-
tually than before: to this purpose, as I had planted trees, or rather
thrust in stakes which in time grew up to be trees, for some good
distance before the entrance into my apartment, they went on in the
same manner, and filled up the rest of that whole space of ground,
from the trees I had set quite down to the side of the creek, where,
as I said, I landed my floats, and even into the very ouze where the
tide ſlowed, not so much as leaving any place to land, or any sign
that there had been any landing thereabout. These stakes also being
of a wood very forward to grow, as I have noted formerly, they took
care to have generally very much larger and taller than those which I
had planted, and as they grew apace, so they planted them so very
thick and close together, that when they had been three or four years
grown there was no piercing with the eye any considerable way into
the plantation, And as for that part which I had planted, the trees
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were grown as thick as a man's thigh; and among them they placed
so many other short ones, and so thick, that, in a word, it stood
like a palisado a quarter of a mile thick, and it was next to impossible
to penetrate it but with a little army to cut it all down; for a little dog
could hardly get between the trees, they stood so close.
But this was not all; for they did the same by all the ground to the
right hand, and to the left, and round even to the top of the hill,
leaving no way, not so much as for themselves to come out, but by
the ladder placed up to the side of the hill, and then lifted up and
placed again from the first stage up to the top; which ladder, when it
was taken down, nothing but what had wings or witchcraft to assist
it, could come at them.
This was excellently well contrived, nor was it less than what they
afterwards found occasion for; which served to convince me, that as
human prudence has the authority of Providence to justify it, so it has,
doubtless, the direction of Providence to set it to work, and, would
we listen carefully to the voice of it, I am fully persuaded we might
prevent many of the disasters which our lives are now by our own
negligence subjected to; but this by the way.
I return to the story: They lived two years after this in perfect re-
tirement, and had no more visits from the savages; they had indeed
an alarm given them one morning, which put them into a great con-
sternation: for some of the Spaniards being out early one morning
on the west side, or rather the end of the island, which, by the way,
was that end where I never went, for fear of being discovered, they
were surprised with seeing above twenty canoes of Indians just coming
on shore.
They made the best of their way home in hurry enough, and,
giving the alarm to their comrades, they kept close all that day and
the next, going out only at night to make observation; but they had
the good luck to be mistaken, for wherever the savages went, they
did not land that time on the island, but pursued some other design.
And now they had another broil with the three Englishmen, one
of which, a most turbulent fellow, being in a rage at one of the three
slaves which I mentioned they had taken, because the fellow had not
done something right which he bid him do, and seemed a little un-
tractable in his showing him, drew a hatchet out of a frog-belt, in
which he wore it by his side, and fell upon the poor savage, not to
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correct him but to kill him. One of the Spaniards who was by, seeing
him give the fellow a barbarous cut with the hatchet, which he aimed
at his head, but struck into his shoulder, so that he thought he had
cut the poor creature's arm off, ran to him, and entreating him not
to murder the poor man, clapt in between him and the savage to pre-
Went the mischief.
The fellow being enraged the more at this, struck at the Spaniard
with his hatchet, and swore he would serve him as he intended to serve
the savage; which the Spaniard perceiving, avoided the blow, and
with a shovel which he had in his hand, for they were all working in
the field about their corn-land, knocked the brute down; another of
the Englishmen running at the same time to help his comrade, knocked
the Spaniard down, and then two Spaniards more came to help their
man, and a third Englishman fell upon them. They had none of them
any fire-arms, or any other weapons but hatchets and other tools,
except this third Englishman; he had one of my old rusty cutlasses,
with which he made at the two last Spaniards, and wounded them
both. This fray set the whole family in an uproar, and more help
coming in, they took the three Englishmen prisoners. The next
question was, what should be done with them? they had been so
often mutinous, and were so furious, so desperate, and so idle withal,
that they knew not what course to take with them, for they were mis-
chievous to the highest degree, and valued not what hurt they did to
any man; so that, in short, it was not safe to live with them.
The Spaniard who was governor, told them in so many words,
that if they had been of his own country he would have hanged them;
for all laws and all governors were to preserve society, and those who
were dangerous to the society ought to be expelled out of it; but as
they were Englishmen, and that it was to the generous kindness of
an Englishman that they all owed their preservation and deliverance,
he would use them with all possible lenity, and would leave them to
the judgment of the other two Englishmen, who were their countrymen.
One of the two honest Englishmen stood up, and said they desired
it might not be left to them; “For,” says he, “I am sure we ought
to sentence them to the gallows;” and with that he gives an account
how Will Atkins, one of the three, had proposed to have all the five
Englishmen join together, and murder all the Spaniards when they
were in their sleep.
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When the Spanish governor heard this, he calls to Will Atkins:
“How, Seignior Atkins,” says he, “would you murder us all?
What have you to say to that?” That hardened villain was so far from
denying it, that he said it was true, and G—d d-mn him they would
do it still before they had done with them. “Well, but Seignior
Atkins,” said the Spaniard, “what have we done to you that you will
kill us? And what would you get by killing us? And what must we
do to prevent your killing us? Must we kill you, or will you kill us?
why will you put us to the necessity of this, Seignior Atkins?” says
the Spaniard very calmly and smiling.
Seignior Atkins was in such a rage at the Spaniard's making a jest
of it, that had he not been held by three men, and withal had no
weapons with him, it was thought he would have attempted to have
killed the Spaniard in the middle of all the company.
This harebrained carriage obliged them to consider seriously what
was to be done. The two Englishmen and the Spaniard who saved
the poor savage, were of the opinion that they should hang one of the
three for an example to the rest; and that particularly it should be he
that twice attempted to commit murder with his hatchet; and indeed
there was some reason to believe he had done it, for the poor savage
was in such a miserable condition with the wound he had received,
that it was thought he could not live.
But the governor Spaniard still said, no, it was an Englishman
that had saved all their lives, and he would never consent to put an
Englishman to death though he had murdered half of them; nay, he
said if he had been killed himself by an Englishman, and had time
left to speak, it should be that they should pardon him.
This was so positively insisted on by the governor Spaniard, that
there was no gainsaying it; and as merciful counsels are most apt to
prevail, where they are so earnestly pressed, so they all came into it;
but then it was to be considered what should be done to keep them
from doing the mischief they designed; for all agreed, governor and
all, that means were to he used for preserving the society from
danger. After a long debate it was agreed, first, that they should
be disarmed, and not permitted to have either gun, or powder, or
shot, or sword, or any weapon, and should be turned out of the
Society, and left to live where they would, and how they could by
themselves; but that none of the rest, either Spaniards or English,
304
should converse with them, speak with them, or have any thing to
do with them; that they should be forbid to come within a certain
distance of the place where the rest dwelt: and that if they offered to
commit any disorder, so as to spoil, burn, kill, or destroy any of
the corn, plantings, buildings, fences, or cattle belonging to the
society, they should die without mercy, and they would shoot them
wherever they could find them.
The governor, a man of great humanity, musing upon the sen-
tence, considered a little upon it, and turning to the two honest
Englishmen, said, “Hold, you must reſlect, that it will be long ere
they can raise corn and cattle of their own, and they must not starve;
we must therefore allow them provisions.” So he caused to be added,
that they should have a proportion of corn given them to last them
eight months, and for seed to sow, by which time they might be
supposed to raise some of their own; that they should have six milch-
goats, four he-goats, and six kids given them, as well for present
subsistence as for a store; and that they should have tools given them
for their work in the fields; such as six hatchets, an axe, a saw, and
the like: but they should have none of these tools or provisions unless
they would swear solemnly that they would not hurt or injure any of
the Spaniards with them, or of their fellow Englishmen.
Thus they dismissed them the society, and turned them out to
shift for themselves. They went away sullen and refractory, as neither
contented to go away or to stay; but as there was no remedy they
went, pretending to go and choose a place where they would settle
themselves, to plant and live by themselves; and some provisions
were given them, but no weapons.
About four or five days after they came again for some victuals,
and gave the governor an account where they had pitched their tents,
and marked themselves out an habitation and plantation: it was a
very convenient place indeed, on the remotest part of the island,
N. E. much about the place where I landed in my first voyage when I
was driven out to sea, the Lord knows whither, in my attempt to sur-
round the island.
Here they built themselves two handsome huts, and contrived
them in a manner like my first habitation, being close under the side
of a hill, having some trees growing already on three sides of it; so
that by planting others it would be very easily covered from the sight,
305
unless narrowly searched for. They desired some dry goat-skins for
beds and covering, which were given them; and upon their giving
their words that they would not disturb the rest, or injure any of their
plantations, they gave them hatchets, and what other tools they could
spare; some peas, barley, and rice, for sowing, and, in a word,
any thing they wanted but arms and ammunition.
They lived in this separate condition about six months, and had
gotten in their first harvest, though the quantity was but small, the
parcel of land they had planted being but little; for indeed having all
their plantation to form, they had a great deal of work upon their
hands; and when they came to make boards, and pots, and such
things, they were quite out of their clement, and could make nothing
of it; and when the rainy season came on, for want of a cave in the
earth, they could not keep their grain dry, and it was in great danger
of spoiling; and this humbled them much; so they came and begged
the Spaniards to help them, which they very readily did; and in four
days worked a great hole in the side of the hill for them, big enough
to secure their corn and other things from the rain: but it was but a
poor place at best compared to mine; and especially as mine was
then; for the Spaniards had greatly enlarged it, and made several
new apartments in it. -
About three quarters of a year after this separation a new frolic
took these rogues, which, together with the former villany they had
committed, brought mischief enough upon them, and had very near
been the ruin of the whole colony. The three new associates began,
it seems, to be weary of the laborious life they led, and that without
hope of bettering their circumstances; and a whim took them that
they would make a voyage to the continent from whence the savages
came, and would try if they could not seize upon some prisoners
among the natives there, and bring them home, so as to make them
do the laborious part of their work for them.
The project was not so preposterous if they had gone no farther;
but they did nothing and proposed nothing but had either mischief in
the design or mischief in the event; and if I may give my opinion,
they seemed to be under a blast from Heaven; for if we will not allow
a visible curse to pursue visible crimes, how shall we reconcile the
events of things with the divine justice? It was certainly an apparent
vengeance on their crime of mutiny and piracy that brought them to
Robinson Crusoe, 20
306
the state they were in; and as they showed not the least remorse for
the crime, but added new villanies to it, such as particularly the
piece of monstrous cruelty of wounding a poor slave because he did
not, or perhaps could not understand to do what he was directed,
and to wound him in such a manner as, no question, made him a
cripple all his life, and in a place where no surgeon or medicine could
be had for his cure; and what was still worse, the murderous intent,
or, to do justice to the crime, the intentional murder, for such to
be sure it was, as was afterwards the formed design they all laid to
murder the Spaniards in cold blood, and in their sleep. "
But I leave observing, and return to the story: The three fellows
came down to the Spaniards one morning, and in very humble terms
desired to be admitted to speak with them; the Spaniards very readily
heard what they had to say, which was this, that they were tired
of living in the manner they did, that they were not handy enough to
make the necessaries they wanted; and that, having no help, they
found they should be starved; but if the Spaniards would give them
leave to take one of the canoes which they came over in, and give
them arms and ammunition proportioned for their defence, they
would go over to the main, and seek their fortune, and so deliver
them from the trouble of supplying them with any other provisions.
The Spaniards were glad enough to be rid of them; but yet very
honestly represented to them the certain destruction they were run-
ning into; told them they had suffered such hardships upon that very
spot, that they could, without any spirit of prophecy, tell them that
they would be starved or be murdered; and bade them consider of it.
The men replied audaciously, they should be starved if they stayed
here, for they could not work, and would not work; and they could
not but be starved abroad; and if they were murdered, there was an
end of them, they had no wives or children to cry after them; and,
in short, insisted importunately upon their demand, declaring that
they would go, whether they would give them any arms or no.
The Spaniards told them with great kindness, that if they were
resolved to go, they should not go like naked men, and be in no
condition to defend themselves, and that though they could ill spare
their fire-arms, having not enough for themselves, yet they would
let them have two muskets, a pistol, and a cutlass, and each man
a hatchet, which they thought was sufficient for them. -
307
-º-º-º-º-º-º-º-º-º-º-º-º:
In a word, they acccepted the offer, and having baked them bread
enough to serve them a month, and given them as much goat's flesh
as they could eat while it was sweet, and a great basket full of dried
grapes, a pot full of fresh water, and a young kid alive to kill, they
boldly set out in a canoe for a voyage over the sea, where it was at
lcast forty miles broad.
The boat was indeed a large one, and would have very well carried
fifteen or twenty men, and therefore was rather too big for them to
manage; but as they had a fair breeze and the flood tide with them,
they did well enough; they had made a mast of a long pole, and a
sail of four large goat's-skins dried, which they had sewed or laced
together; and away they went merrily enough; the Spaniards called
after them, “Buén viáge;” and no man ever thought of seeing them
any more.
The Spaniards were often saying to one another, and to the two
honest Englishmen who remained behind, how quictly and comfort-
ably they lived now those three turbulent fellows were gone; as for
their ever coming again, that was the remotest thing from their
thoughts, that could be imagined; when, behold, after twenty-two
days absence, one of the Englishmen being abroad upon his planting
work, sees three strange men coming towards him at a distance, two
of them with guns upon their shoulders.
Away runs the Englishman, as if he was bewitched, comes
frighted and amazed, to the governor Spaniard, and tells him they
were all undone, for there were strangers landed upon the island, he
could not tell who. The Spaniard pausing a while, says to him,
“How do you mean, you cannot tell who? They are savages to be
sure.”—“No, no,” says the Englishman, “they are men in clothes,
with arms.”—“Nay then,” says the Spaniard, “why are you con-
cerned? If they are not savages, they must be friends; for there is
no Christian nation upon earth but will do us good rather than harm.”
While they were debating thus, came the three Englishmen, and
standing without the wood which was new-planted, hallooed to them;
they presently knew their voices, and so all the wonder of that kind
ceased. But now the admiration was turned upon another question,
viz. What could be the matter, and what made them come back
again?
It was not long before they brought the men in; and inquiring
20 +
308
where they had been, and what they had been doing, they gave them
a full account of their voyage in a few words, viz. that they reached
the land in two days, or somethingless, but finding the people alarmed
at their coming, and preparing with bows and arrows to fight them,
they durst not go on shore, but sailed on to the northward six or seven
hours, till they came to a great opening, by which they perceived
that the land they saw from our island was not the main, but an
island: that entering that opening of the sea, they saw another island
on the right hand north, and several more west; and being resolved
to land somewhere, they put over to one of the islands which lay west,
and went boldly on shore; that they found the people very courteous
and friendly to them, and that they gave them several roots, and
some dried fish, and appeared very sociable: and the women, as
well as the men, were very forward to supply them with any thing
they could get for them to cat, and brought it to them a great way
upon their heads.
They continued here four days, and inquired, as well as they
could of them by signs, what nations were this way, and that way;
and were told of several ſierce and terrible people, that lived almost
cvery way; who, as they made known by signs to them, used to eat
men: but as for themselves, they said, that they never ate men or
women, except only such as they took in the wars; and then they
owned that they made a great feast, and atc their prisoners.
The Englishmen inquired when they had a feast of that kind, and
they told them about two moons ago, pointing to the moon, and then
to two ſingers; and that their great king had two hundred prisoners
now, which he had taken in his war, and they were feeding them to
make them ſat for the next feast. The Englishmen seemed mighty
desirous to see those prisoners, but the others mistaking them,
thought they were desirous to have some of them to carry away for
their own eating. So they beckoned to them, pointing to the setting
of the sun, and then to the rising; which was to signify, that the
next morning at sun-rising they would bring some for them; and
accordingly the next morning they brought down five women and
eleven men; and gave them to the Englishmen to carry with them on
their voyage, just as we would bring so many cows and oxen down to
a sea-port town to victual a ship.
As brutish and barbarous as these fellows were at home, their
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stomachs turned at this sight, and they did not know what to do; to
refuse the prisoners would have been the highest affront to the Savage
gentry that offered them; and what to do with them they knew not;
however, upon some debate, they resolved to accept of them; and in
return they gave the savages that brought them one of their hatchets,
an old key, a knife, and six or seven of their bullets, which, though
they did not understand, they seemed extremely pleased with ; and
then tying the poor creature's hands behind them, they (the people)
dragged the prisoners into the boat for our men.
The Englishmen were obliged to come away as soon as they had
them, or else they that gave them this noble present would certainly
have expected that they should have gone to work with them, have
killed two or three of them the next morning, and perhaps have
invited the donors to dinner.
But having taken their leave with all the respects and thanks that
could well pass between people, where, on either side, they under-
stood not one word they could say, they put off with their boat, and
came back towards the first island, where when they arrived, they set
eight of their prisoners at liberty, there being too many of them for
their occasion.
In their voyage they endeavoured to have some communication
with their prisoners, but it was impossible to make them understand
any thing; nothing they could say to them, or give them, or do for
them, but was looked upon as going about to murder them: they first
of all unbound them, but the poor creatures screamed at that,
especially the women, as if they had just felt the knife at their throats;
for they immediately concluded they were unbound on purpose to be
killed.
If they gave them any thing to eat, it was the same thing; then
they concluded it was for fear they should sink in flesh, and so not be
fat enough to kill; if they looked at one of them more particularly,
the party presently concluded it was to see whether he or she was
fattest and fittest to kill; nay, after they had brought them quite over,
and began to use them kindly and treat them well, till they expected
every day to make a dinner or a supper for their new masters.
When the three wanderers had given this unaccountable history
or journal of their voyage, the Spaniard asked them where their new
family was? And being told that they had brought them on shore, and
310
put them into one of their huts, and were come up to beg some
victuals for them; they, the Spaniards, and the other two Englishmen,
that is to say, the whole colony, resolved to go all down to the place
and see them, and did so, and Friday's father with them.
When they came into the hut, there they sat all bound; for when
they had brought them on shore they bound their hands, that they
might not take the boat and make their escape; there, I say, thcy
sat, all of them stark naked. First, there were three men, lusty,
comely fellows, well shaped, straight and fair limbs, about thirty
to thirty-five years of age, and five women; whereof two might be
from thirty to forty, two more not above four or ſive and twenty, and
the fifth, a tall, comely maiden, about sixteen or seventeen. The
women were well favoured, agreeable persons, both in shape and
features, only tawny; and two of them, had they been perfect white,
would have passed for handsome women, even in London itself,
having pleasant, agreeable countenances, and of a very modest
behaviour, especially when they came afterwards to be clothed, and
dressed, as they called it, though the dress was very indifferent it
must be confessed, of which hereafter.
The sight, you may be sure, was something uncouth to our
Spaniards, who were, to give them a just character, men of the best
behaviour, of the most calm, sedate tempers, and perfect good
humour that ever I met with; and, in particular, of the most mo–
desty, as will presently appear: I say the sight was very uncouth, to
See three naked men and five naked women, all together bound, and
in the most miserable circumstances that human nature could be sup-
posed to be, viz. to be expecting every moment to be dragged out,
and have their brains knocked out, and then to be caten up like a calf
that is killed for a dainty.
The first thing they did was to cause the old Indian, Friday's
father, to go in and see first if he knew any of them, and then if he
understood any of their speech. As soon as the old man came in, he
looked seriously at them, but knew none of them; neither could any
of them understand a word he said, or a sign he could make, except
one of the women.
However, this was enough to answer the end, which was to satisfy
them, that the men into whose hands they were fallen were Christians;
that they abhorred cating of men or women, and that they might be
31 M
sure they would not be killed. As soon as they were assured of this,
they discovered such a joy, and by such awkward and several ways
as is hard to describe, for it seems they were of several nations.
The woman who was their interpreter was bid, in the next place,
to ask them if they were willing to be servants, and to work for the
men who had brought them away to save their lives? At which they
all fell a dancing; and presently one fell to taking up this, and
another that, any thing that lay next, to carry on their shoulders, to
intimate that they were willing to work.
The governor, who found that the having women among them
would presently be attended with some inconveniency, and might
occasion some strife, and perhaps blood, asked the three men what
they intended to do with these women, and how they intended to use
them, whether as servants or as women? One of the Englishmen
answered very boldly and readily, that they would use them as both.
To which the governor said, “I am not going to restrain you from it;
you are your own masters as to that: but this I think is but just, for
avoiding disorders and quarrels among you, and I desire it of you for
that reason only, viz. that you will all engage, that if any of you take
any of these women as a woman, or wife, he shall take but one; and
that, having taken one, none else shall touch her; for though we
cannot marry any of you, yet it is but reasonable that while you stay
here, the woman any of you takes should be maintained by the man
that takes her, and should be his wife; I mean,” says he, “while
he continues here; and that none else shall have any thing to do with
her.” All this appeared so just, that every one agreed to it without
any difficulty.
Then the Englishmen asked the Spaniards if they designed to take
any of them? But every one of them answered, “No:” some of
them said they had wives in Spain; and the others did not like women
that were not Christians; and all together declared, that they would
not touch one of them; which was an instance of such virtue as I have
not met with in all my travels. On the other hand, to be short, the
five Englishmen took them every one a wife; that is to say, a tem-
porary wife; and so they set up a new form of living; for the Spani-
ards and Friday's father lived in my old habitation, which they had
enlarged exceedingly within; the three servants, which were taken
in the late battle of the savages, lived with them; and these carried
312
on the main part of the colony, supplying all the rest with food, and
assisting them in any thing as they could, or as they found necessity
required.
But the wonder of this story was, how five such refractory, ill-
matched fellows should agree about these women, and that two of
them should not pitch upon the same woman, especially seeing two
or three of them were, without comparison, more agreeable than the
others: but they took a good way enough to prevent quarrelling
among themselves; for they set the five women by themselves in one
of their huts, and they went all into the other hut, and drew lots
among them who should choose first.
He that drew to choose first, went away by himself to the hut
where the poor naked creatures were, and fetched out her he chose;
and it was worth observing, that he that chose first took her that was
reckoned the homeliest and the oldest of the five, which made mirth
cnough among the rest; and even the Spaniards laughed at it: but
the fellow considered better than any of them, that it was application
and business that they were to expect assistance in as much as any
thing else, and she proved the best wife of the parcel.
When the poor women saw themselves set in a row thus, and
fetched out one by one, the terrors of their condition returned upon
them again, and they firmly believed that they were now a going to
be devoured: accordingly, when the English sailor came in and
fetched out one of them, the rest set up a most lamentable cry, and
hung about her, and took their leave of her with such agonies and
such affection as would have grieved the hardest heart in the world;
nor was it possible for the Englishmen to satisfy them that they were
not to be immediately murdered, till they fetched the old man,
Friday's father, who instantly let them know, that the five men who
had fetched them out one by one, had chosen them for their wives.
When they had done this, and the fright the women were in was
a little over, the men went to work, and the Spaniards came and
helped them; and in a few hours they had built them every one a new
hut or tent for their lodging apart; for those they had already were
crowded with their tools, household stuff, and provisions. The
three wicked ones had pitched farthest off, and the two honest ones
nearer, but both on the north shore of the island, so that they con-
tinued separate as before; and thus my island was peopled in three
313
places, and, as I might say, three towns were begun to be
planted.
And here it is very well worth observing, that as it often happens
in the world, (what the wise ends of God's providences are in such a
disposition of things I cannot say) the two honest fellows had the two
worst wives; and the three reprobates, that were scarce worth hang-
ing, that were ſit for nothing, and neither seemed born to do them-
selves good, or any one else, had three clever, diligent, careful,
and ingenious wives; not that the two first were ill wives as to their
temper or humour; for all the five were most willing, quiet, passive,
and subjected creatures, rather like slaves than wives; but my
meaning is, they were not alike capable, ingenious, or industrious,
or alike cleanly and neat.
Another observation I must make, to the honour of a diligent
application on the one hand, and to the disgrace of a slothful, negli-
gent, idle temper on the other, that when I came to the place, and
viewed the several improvements, plantings, and management of the
several little colonics, the two men had so far out-gone the three,
that there was no comparison; they had indeed both of them as much
ground laid out for corn as they wanted; and the reason was, because,
according to my rule, nature dictated, that it was to no purpose to
sow more corn than they wanted; but the diſſerence of the cultivation,
of the planting, of the fences, and indeed of every thing else, was
easy to be seen at first view.
The two men had innumerable young trees planted about their
huts, that when you came to the place nothing was to be seen but a
wood; and though they had twice had their plantation demolished,
once by their own countrymen, and once by the enemy, as shall be
shown in its place, yet they had restored all again, and every thing
was thriving and flourishing about them: they had grapes planted in
order, and managed like a vineyard, though they had themselves
never seen any thing of that kind; and by their good ordering their
wines their grapes were as good again as any of the others. They had
also found themselves out a retreat in the thickest part of the woods,
where, though there was not a natural cave, as I had found, yet they
made one with incessant labour of their hands, and where, when
the mischief which followed happened, they secured their wives and
children so as they could never be found; they having, by sticking
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innumerable stakes and poles of the wood, which, as I said, grew
so easily, made the wood impassable except in one place, where they
climbed up to get over the outside part, and then went in by ways of
their own leaving.
As to the three reprobates, as I justly call them, though they
were much civilized by their new settlement compared to what they
were before, and were not so quarrelsome, having not the same op-
portunity, yet one of the certain companions of a profligate mind
never left them, and that was their idleness. It is true, they planted
corn and made fences; but Solomon's words were never better ve-
rified than in them: “I went by the vineyard of the slowful, and it
was all overgrown with thorns;” for when the Spaniards came to view
their crop, they could not see it in some places for weeds; the hedge
had several gaps in it, where the wild goats had gotten in and eaten
up the corn; perhaps here and there a dead bush was crammed in to
stop them out for the present, but it was only shutting the stable door
after the stced was stolen; whereas, when they looked on the colony
of the other two, there was the very face of industry and success upon
all they did; there was not a weed to be seen in all their corn, or a
gap in any of their hedges; and they, on the other hand, verified
Solomon's words in another place: “That the diligent hand makes
rich;” for every thing grew and thrived, and they had plenty within
and without; they had more tame cattle than the others, more
utensils and necessaries within doors, and yet more pleasure and
diversion too.
It is true, the wives of the three were very handy and cleanly
within doors; and having learnt the English ways of dressing and
cooking from one of the other Englishmen, who, as I said, was a
cook's mate on board the ship, they dressed their husband's victuals
very nicely and well; whereas the other could not be brought to un-
derstand it: but then the husband, who, as I said, had been cook's
mate, did it himself; but as for the husbands of the three wives, they
loitered about, fetched turtles' eggs, and caught fish and birds; in
a word, any thing but labour, and they fared accordingly. The di-
ligent lived well and comfortably; and the slothſul lived hard and
beggarly; and so I believe, generally speaking, it is all over the
world.
But now I come to a scene different from all that had happened
315
before, either to them or to me; and the original of the story was
this:
Early one morning there came on shore five or six canoes of In-
dians, or savages, call them which you please; and there is no room
to doubt that they came upon the old errand of feeding upon their
slaves; but that part was now so familiar to the Spaniards, and to our
men too, that they did not concern themselves about it as I did; but
having been made sensible by their experience, that their only
business was to lie concealed, and that, if they were not seen by any
of the savages they would go off again quietly when their business was
done, having as yet not the least notion of there being any inhabitants
in the island; I say, having been made sensible of this, they had
nothing to do but to give notice to all the three plantations to keep
within doors, and not to show themselves; only placing a scout in a
proper place, to give notice when the boats went off to sea again.
This was, without doubt, very right; but a disaster spoiled all
these measures, and made it known among the savages that there
were inhabitants there, which was, in the end, the desolation of
almost the whole colony. After the canoes with the savages were gone
off, the Spaniards peeped abroad again, and some of them had the
curiosity to go to the place where they had been, to see what they had
been doing. Here, to their great surprise, they found three savages
left behind, and lying fast asleep upon the ground; it was supposed
they had either been so gorged with their inhuman feast, that, like
beasts, they were asleep, and would not stir when the others went,
or they were wandered into the woods, and did not come back in time
to be taken in.
The Spaniards were greatly surprised at this sight, and perfectly
at a loss what to do; the Spaniard governor, as it happened, was
with them, and his advice was asked; but he professed he knew not
what to do; as for slaves, they had enough already; and as to killing
them, they were none of them inclined to that. The Spaniard go-
vernor told me they could not think of shedding innocent blood: for
as to them, the poor creatures had done them no wrong, invaded
none of their property; and they thought they had no just quarrel
against them to take away their lives.
And here I must, in justice to these Spaniards, observe, that let
the accounts of Spanish cruelty in Mexico and Peru be what they will,
316
I never met with seventeen men, of any nation whatsoever, in any
foreign country, who were so universally modest, temperate, vir-
tuous, so very good humoured, and so courteous as these Spaniards;
and, as to cruelty, they had nothing of it in their very nature; no in-
humanity, no barbarity, no outrageous passions, and yet all of them
men of great courage and spirit.
Their temper and calmness had appeared in their bearing the in-
sufferable usage of the three Englishmen; and their justice and hu-
manity appeared now in the case of the savages as above. After some
consultation they resolved upon this, that they would lie still a while
longer, till, if possible, these three men might be gone: but then
the governor Spaniard recollected that the three savages had no boat;
and that if they were left to rove about the island, they would certainly
discover that there were inhabitants in it, and so they should be
undone that way.
Upon this they went back again, and there lay the fellows fast
asleep still; so they resolved to awaken them, and take them pri-
soners; and they did so. The poor fellows were strangely frighted
when they were seized upon and bound, and afraid, like the women,
that they should be murdered and eaten; for it seems those people
think all the world do as they do, eating men's flesh; but they were
soon made easy as to that: and away they carried them.
It was very happy for them that they did not carry them home to
their castle; I mean to my palace under the hill; but they carried
them first to the bower, where was the chief of their country work;
such as the keeping the goats, the planting the corn, &c.; and after-
wards they carried them to the habitation of the two Englishmen.
Here they were set to work, though it was not much they had for
them to do; and whether it was by negligence in guarding them, or
that they thought the fellows could not mend themselves, I know not,
but one of them ran away, and taking into the woods, they could
never hear of him more.
They had good reason to believe he got home again soon after, in
some other boats or canoes of savages, who came on shore three or
four weeks afterwards, and who, carrying on their revels as usual,
went off again in two days time. This thought terrified them exceed-
ingly; for they concluded, and that not without good cause indeed,
that if this fellow got safe home among his comrades, he would cer."
317
tainly give them an account that there were people in the island, as
also how few and weak they were; for this savage, as I observed be-
fore, had never been told, and it was very happy he had not, how
many they were, or where they lived, nor had he ever seen or heard
the fire of any of their guns, much less had they shown him any other
of their retired places, such as the cave in the valley, or the new
retreat which the two Englishmen had made, and the like.
The first testimony they had that this fellow had given intelligence
of them was, that about two months after this, six canoes of Savages,
with about seven or eight, or ten men in a canoe, came rowing along
the north side of the island, where they never used to come before,
and landed about an hour after sunrise, at a convenient place, about
a mile from the habitation of the two Englishmen, where this escaped
man had been kept. As the Spaniard governor said, had they been
all there the damage would not have been so much, for not a man of
them would have escaped; but the case differed now very much; for
two men to fifty were too much odds. The two men had the happiness
to discover them a league off, so that it was above an hour before they
landed, and as they landed about a mile from their huts, it was some
time before they could come at them. Now having great reason to be-
lieve that they were betrayed, the first thing they did was to bind the
two slaves which were left, and cause two of the three men whom they
brought with the women, who, it seems, proved very faithful to
them, to lead them with their two wives, and whatever they could
carry away with them, to their retired place in the woods, which I
have spoken of above, and there to bind the two fellows hand and foot
till they heard farther.
In the next place, seeing the savages were all come on shore, and
that they bent their course directly that way, they opened the fences
where their milch-goats were kept, and drove them all out, leaving
their goats to straggle into the wood, whither they pleased; that the
Savages might think they were all bred wild; but the rogue who came
with them was too cunning for that, and gave them an account of it
all, for they went directly to the place.
When the poor frighted men had secured their wives and goods, they
sent the other slave they had of the three, who came with the women,
and who was at their place by accident, away to the Spaniards with
all speed, to give them the alarm, and desire speedy help; and in
3.18
the mean time they took their arms, and what ammunition they had,
and retreated towards the place in the wood where their wives were
sent, keeping at a distance: yet so that they might see, if possible,
which way the savages took.
They had not gone far but that, from a rising ground, they could
see the little army of their enemies come on directly to their habitation,
and in a moment more could see all their huts and household stuff
ſlaming up together, to their great grief and mortification; for they
had a very great loss, to them irretrievable, at least for some time.
They kept their station for a while, till they found the savages, like
wild beasts, spread themselves all over the place, rummaging every
way, and every place they could think of, in search for prey, and in
particular for the people, of whom it now plainly appeared they had
had intelligence.
The two Englishmen, seeing this, thinking themselves not secure
where they stood, as it was likely some of the wild people might come
that way, so they might come too many together, thought it proper
to make another retreat about half a mile farther, believing, as it
afterwards happened, that the farther they strolled, the fewer would
be together.
The next halt was at the entrance into a very thick grown part of
the woods, and where an old trunk of a tree stood, which was
hollow, and vastly large; and in this tree they both took their stand-
ing, resolving to see there what might offer.
They had not stood there long, but two of the savages appeared
running directly that way, as if they had already had notice where
they stood, and were coming up to attack them; and a little way far-
ther they espied three more coming after them, and five more beyond
them, all coming the same way; besides which, they saw seven or
eight more at a distance, running another way; for, in a word, they
ran every way, like sportsmen beating for their game.
The poor men were now in great perplexity, whether they should
stand and keep their posture, or ſly; but after a very short debate
with themselves, they considered that if the savages ranged the coun-
try thus before help came, they might, perhaps, find out their re-
treat in the woods, then all would be lost; so they resolved to stand
them there; and if there were too many to deal with, then they would
get up to the top of the tree, from whence they doubted not to defend
319
themselves, ſire excepted, as long as their ammunition lasted, though
all the savages that were landed, which were near fifty, were to attack
them.
Having resolved upon this, they next considered whether they
should fire at the first two, or wait for the three, and so take the
middle party, by which the two and the five that followed would be
separated: and they resolved to let the two first pass by, unless they
should spy them in the tree, and come to attack them. The two first
savages also confirmed them in this resolution, by turning a little
from them towards another part of the wood; but the three, and the
five after them, came forwards directly to the tree, as if they had
known the Englishmen were there.
Seeing them come so straight towards them, they resolved to take
them in a line as they came; and as they resolved to fire but one at a
time, perhaps the first shot might hit them all three; to which pur-
pose, the man who was to ſire put three or four small bullets into his
piece, and having a fair loophole, as it were, from a broken hole in
the tree, he took a sure aim, without being seen, waiting till they
were within about thirty yards of the tree, so that he could not miss.
While they were thus waiting, and the savages came on, they
plainly saw, that one of the three was the runaway savage that had
escaped from them, and they both knew him distinctly, and resolved
that, if possible, he should not escape, though they should both
fire; so the other stood ready with his piece, that if he did not drop
at the first shot, he should be sure to have a second.
But the first was too good a marksman to miss his aim; for as the
savages kept near one another, a little behind in a line, in a word he
fired, and hit two of them directly; the foremost was killed outright,
being shot in the head; the second, which was the runaway Indian,
was shot through the body and fell, but was not quite dead; and the
third had a little scratch in the shoulder, perhaps by the same ball
that went through the body of the second; and being dreadfully frighted,
though not much hurt, sat down upon the ground, screaming and
yelling in a hideous manner.
The five that were behind, more frighted with the noise than sen-
sible of the danger, stood still at first; for the woods made the sound
a thousand times bigger than it really was; the echoes rattling from
one side to another, and the fowls rising from all parts, screaming
320
and making, every sort, a several kind of noise, according to their
kind; just as it was when I fired the first gun that, perhaps, was ever
shot off in that place since it was an island.
However, all being silent again, and they not knowing what the
matter was, came on unconcerned, till they came to the place where
their companions lay, in a condition miserable enough; and here the
poor ignorant creatures, not sensible that they were within reach of
the same mischief, stood all of a huddle over the wounded man,
talking, and, as may be supposed, inquiring of him how he came
to be hurt; and who, it is very rational to believe, told them that a
flash of fire first, and immediately after that, thunder from their
gods, had killed those two, and wounded him. This, I say, is
rational; for nothing is more certain than that, as they saw no man
near them, so they had never heard a gun in all their lives, or so
much as heard of a gun; neither knew they any thing of killing or
wounding at a distance with fire and bullets; if they had, one might
reasonably believe they would not have stood so unconcerned in view-
ing the fate of their fellows without some apprehension of their own.
Our two men, though, as they confessed to me, it grieved them
to be obliged to kill so many poor creatures, who at the same time
had no notion of their danger; yet, having them all thus in their
power, and the first having loaded his piece again, resolved to let fly
both together among them, and singling out by agreement which to
aim at, they shot together, and killed, or very much wounded four
of them; the fifth, frighted even to death, though not hurt, fell with
the rest; so that our men, seeing them all fall together, thought they
had killed them all.
The belief that the savages were all killed made our two men come
boldly out from the tree before they had charged their guns again,
which was a wrong step, and they were under some surprise when
they came to the place, and found no less than four of the men alive,
and of them two very little hurt, and one not at all: this obliged them
to fall upon them with the stocks of their muskets; and first they
made sure of the runaway savage that had been the cause of all the
mischief, and of another that was hurt in his knce, and put them out
of their pain. Then the man that was not hurt at all came and knceled
down to them with his two hands held up, and made piteous moans
321
to them by gestures and signs for his life, but could not say one word
to them that they could understand.
However they signed to him to sitdown at the foot of a tree thereby;
and one of the Englishmen, with a piece of rope-twine which he had
by great chance in his pocket, tied his ſect fast together, and his
hands behind him, and there they left him; and with what speed they
could made after the other two which were gone before, fearing they,
or any more of them, should find the way to their covered place in
the woods, where their wives, and the few goods they had left, lay.
They came once in sight of the two men, but it was at a great dis-
tance; however, they had the satisfaction to see them cross over a
valley towards the sea, the quite contrary way from that which led to
their retreat, which they were afraid of; and being satisfied with that,
they went back to the tree where they had left their prisoner, who as
they supposed was delivered by his comrades; for he was gone, and
the two pieces of rope-yarn with which they had bound him, lay just
at the foot of the tree.
They were now in as great a concern as before, not knowing what
course to take or how near the enemy might be, or in what numbers;
so they resolved to go away to the place where their wives were, to see
if all was well there, and to make them easy, who were in fright
cnough to be sure; for though the savages were their own country-
folks, yet they were most terribly afraid of them, and perhaps the
more, for the knowledge they had of them.
When they came there, they found the savages had been in the
wood, and very near the place, but had not found it; for indced it
was inaccessible, by the trees standing so thick, as before, unless
the persons seeking it had been directed by those that knew it, which
these were not; they found, therefore, every thing very safe, only
the women in a terrible fright. While they were here they had the
comfort to have seven of the Spaniards come to their assistance: the
other ten with their servants, and old Friday, I mean Friday's father,
were gone in a body to defend their bower, and the corn and cattle
that were kept there, in case the savages should have roved over to
that side of the country; but they did not spread so far. With the
seven Spaniards came one of the three savages, who, as I said, were
their prisoners formerly, and with them also came the savage whom
the Englishmen had left bound hand and foot at the tree; for it seems
Robinson Crusoe. 21
322
they came that way, saw the slaughter of the seven men, and un-
bound the eighth, and brought him along with them, where, however
they were obliged to bind him again, as they had done the two others,
who were left when the third run away.
The prisoners began now to be a burthen to them: and they were
so afraid of their escaping, that they were once resolving to kill them
all, believing they were under an absolute necessity to do so for their
own preservation: however, the Spaniard governor would not con-
sent to it; but ordered that they should be sent out of the way to my
old cave in the valley, and be kept thcre, with two Spaniards to guard
them and give them food for their sustenance; which was done; and
they were bound there hand and foot for that night.
When the Spaniards came, the two Englishmen were so en-
couraged, that they could not satisfy themselves to stay any longer
there; but taking five of the Spaniards, and themselves, with four
muskets and a pistol among them, and two stout quarter-staves, away
they went in quest of the savages. And first, they came to the tree
where the men lay that had been killed; but it was easy to see that
some more of the Savages had been there; for they had attempted to
carry their dead men away, and had dragged two of them a good way,
but had given it over; from thence they advanced to the first rising
ground, where they had stood and seen their camp destroyed, and
where they had the mortification still to see some of the smoke; but
neither could they here see any of the savages; they then resolved,
though with all possible caution, to go forward towards their ruined
plantation; but a little before they came thither, coming in sight of
the sea-shore, they saw plainly the Savages all embarking again in
their canoes, in order to be gone.
They seemed sorry at first that there was no way to come at them
to give them a parting blow; but upon the whole were very well satis-
fied to be rid of them.
The poor Englishmen being now twice ruined, and all their im–
provements destroyed, the rest all agreed to come and help them to
rebuild, and to assist them with needful supplies. Their three
countrymen, who were not yet noted for having the least inclination
to do any good, yet, as soon as they heard of it, for they, living re-
mote eastward, knew nothing of the matter till all was over, came
and offered their help and assistance, and did very friendly work for
323
several days to restore their habitations and make necessaries for
them, and thus in a little time they were set upon their legs again.
About two days after this they had the farther satisfaction of
sceing three of the savages' canoes come driving on shore, and at
some distance from them, two drowned men; by which they had
reason to believe that they had met with a storm at Sea, which had
overset some of them, for it blew very hard the night after they
went off.
However, as some might miscarry, so on the other hand enough
of them escaped to inform the rest, as well of what they had done, as
of what had happened to them; and to whet them on to another enter-
prise of the same nature, which they, it seems, resolved to attempt,
with sufficient force to carry all before them; for except what the first
man had told them of inhabitants, they could say little to it of their
own knowledge; for they never saw one man, and the fellow being
killed that had affirmed it, they had no other witness to confirm it to
them.
It was five or six months after this before they heard any more of
the savages, in which time our men were in hopes they had not forgot
their former bad luck, or had given over the hopes of better; when
on a sudden they were invaded with a most formidable fleet of no less
than twenty-eight canoes, full of savages, armed with bows and
arrows, great clubs, wooden swords, and such like engines of war;
and they brought such numbers with them, that in short it put all
our people into the utmost consternation.
As they came on shore in the evening, and at the easternmost side
of the island, our men had that night to consult and consider what to
do; and in the first place, knowing that their being entirely concealed
was their only safety before, and would much more be so now, while
the number of their enemies was so great, they therefore resolved,
first of all, to take down the huts which were built for the two Eng-
lishmen, and drive away their goats to the old cave; because they
supposed the Savages would go directly thither as soon as it was day,
to play the old game over again, though they did not now land within
two leagues of it.
In the next place, they drove away all the flock of goats they had
at the old bower, as I called it, which belonged to the Spaniards;
and, in short, left as little appearance of inhabitants any where as
21*
324
possible; and the next morning early they posted themselves with all
their force at the plantation of the two men, waiting for their coming.
As they guessed, so it happened: these new invaders, leaving their
canoes, at the east end of the island, came ranging along the shore,
directly towards the place, to the number of two hundred and fifty, as
near as our men could judge. Our army was but small indeed; but
that which was worse, they had not arms for all their number neither;
the whole account, it seems, stood thus: — first, as to men:
17 Spaniards.
5 Englishmen.
1 Old Friday, or Friday's father.
3 Slaves, taken with the women, who proved faithful.
3 Other slaves who lived with the Spaniards.
To arm these they had :
11 Muskets.
5 Pistols.
3 Fowling-pieces.
5 Muskets, or fowling-pieces, which were taken by me from
the mutinous seamen whom I reduced.
2 Swords.
3 Old halberts.
To their slaves they did not give either musket or fusee, but they
had every one an halbert, or a long staff, like a quarter-staff, with a
great spike of iron fastened into each end of it, and by his side a
hatchet; also every one of our men had hatchets. Two of the women
could not be prevailed upon but they would come into the fight, and
they had bows and arrows, which the Spaniards had taken from the
savages when the first action happened, which I have spoken of,
where the Indians fought with one another; and the women had
hatchets too.
The Spaniard governor, whom I have described so often, com-
manded the whole; and William Atkins, who, though a dreadful
fellow for wickedness, was a most daring, bold fellow, commanded
under him. The savages came forward like lions, and our men,
which was the worst of their fate, had no advantage in their situation;
only that Will Atkins, who now proved a most useful fellow, with six
men, was planted just behind a small thicket of bushes, as an ad-
325
vanced guard, with orders to let the first of them pass by, and then
ſire into the middle of them; and as soon as he had ſired to make his
retreat, as nimbly as he could, round a part of the wood, and so
come in behind the Spaniards where they stood, having a thicket of
trees also before them.
When the savages came on, they ran straggling about every way
in heaps, out of all manner of order, and Will Atkins let about fifty
of them pass by him; then seeing the rest come in a verythick throng,
he orders three of his men to fire, having loaded their muskets with
six or seven bullets a-piece, about as big as large pistol-bullets. How
many they killed or wounded they knew not; but the consternation
and surprise was inexpressible among the Savages; they were frighted
to the last degree, to hear such a dreadful noise, and see their men
killed, and others hurt, but see nobody that did it. When in the
middle of their fright, William Atkins and his other three let fly again
among the thickest of them; and in less than a minute the first three,
being loaded again, gave them a third volley.
Had William Atkins and his men retired immediately, as soon as
they had fired, as they were ordered to do; or had the rest of the
body been at hand to have poured in their shot continually, the sa-
vages had been effectually routed; for the terror that was among them
came principally from this; viz. that they were killed by the gods with
thunder and lightning, and could see nobody that hurt them: but
William Atkins staying to load again, discovered the cheat; some
of the savages who were at a distance, spying them, came upon them
behind; and though Atkins and his men fired at them also, two or
three times, and killed above twenty, retiring as fast as they could,
yet they wounded Atkins himself, and killed one of his fellow Eng-
lishmen with their arrows, as they did afterwards one Spaniard, and
one of the Indian slaves who came with the women. This slave was
a most gallant fellow, and fought most desperately, killing five of
them with his own hand, having no weapon but one of the armed
staves and a hatchet.
Our men being thus hard laid at, Atkins wounded, and two other
men killed, retreated to a rising ground in the wood; and the Spa-
niards, after firing three vollies upon them, retreated also; for their
number was so great, and they were so desperate, that though above
fifty of them were killed, and more than so many wounded, yet they
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came on in the teeth of our men, fearless of danger, and shot their
arrows like a cloud; and it was observed, that their wounded men,
who were not quite disabled, were made outrageous by their wounds,
and fought like madmen.
When our men retreated, they left the Spaniard and the English-
man that were killed behind them; and the savages, when they came
up to them, killed them over again in a wretched manner, breaking
their arms, legs, and heads, with their clubs and wooden swords,
like true savages. But finding our men were gone, they did not seem
to pursue them, but drew themselves up in a kind of a ring, which
is, it seems, their custom, and shouted twice in token of their vic-
tory; after which, they had the mortification to see several of their
wounded men fall, dying with the mere loss of blood.
The Spaniard governor having drawn his little body up together
upon a rising ground, Atkins, though he was wounded, would have
had him march, and charge them again all together at once: but the
Spaniard replied, “Seignior Atkins, you see how their wounded men
fight; let them alone till morning; all these wounded men will be
stiff and sore with their wounds, and faint with the loss of blood,
and so we shall have the fewer to engage.”
The advice was good; but Will Atkins replied merrily, “That's
true, Seignior, and so shall I too; and that’s the reason I would go
on while I am warm.” – “Well, Seignior Atkins,” says the Spa-
niard, “you have behaved gallantly, and done your part; we will
ſight for you, if you cannot come on; but I think it best to stay till
morning: ” so they waited.
But as it was a clear moonlight night, and they found the Savages
in great disorder about their dead and wounded men, and a great
hurry and noise among them where they lay, they afterwards resolved
to fall upon them in the night, especially if they could come to give
them but one volley before they were discovered. This they had a fair
opportunity to do; for one of the two Englishmen, in whose quarter
it was where the fight began, led them round between the woods and
the sea side, westward, and then turning short south, they came so
near where the thickest of them lay, that before they were seen or
heard, eight of them fired in among them, and did dreadful execution
upon them; in half a minute more eight others fired after them, pour-
ing in their small shot in such a quantity, that abundance were killed
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and wounded; and all this while they were not able to see who hurt
them, or which way to fly.
The Spaniards charged again with the utmost expedition, and then
divided themselves into three bodies, and resolved to fall in among
them all together. They had in each body eight persons; that is to
say, twenty-four, whereof were twenty-two men, and the two women,
who, by the way, fought desperately.
They divided the ſire-arms equally in each party, and so of the
halberts and staves. They would have had the women keep back;
but they said they were resolved to die with their husbands. Having
thus formed their little army, they marched out from among the trees,
and came up to the teeth of the enemy, shouting and hallooing as loud
as they could. The savages stood all together, but were in the utmost
confusion, hearing the noise of our men shouting from three quarters
together; they would have fought if they had seen us; and as soon as
we came near enough to be seen, some arrows were shot, and poor
old Friday was wounded, though not dangerously. But our men gave
them no time, but running up to them, fired among them three ways,
and then fell in with the butt ends of their muskets, their swords,
armed staves, and hatchets; and laid about them so well, that in a
word they set up a dismal screaming and howling, flying to save their
lives which way soever they could.
Our men were tired with the execution; and killed, or mortally
wounded, in the two fights, about one hundred and eighty of them:
the rest, being frighted out of their wits, scoured through the woods
and over the hills, with all the speed that fear and nimble fect could
help them to do; and as we did not trouble ourselves much to pursue
them, they got all together to the sea-side, where they landed, and
where their canoes lay. But their disaster was not at an end yet, for
it blew a terrible storm of wind that evening from the sea-ward, so
that it was impossible for them to put off; nay, the storm continuing
all night, when the tide came up their canoes were most of them driven
by the surge of the sea so high upon the shore, that it required in-
finite toil to get them off; and some of them were even dashed to pieces
against the beach, or against one another.
Our men, though glad of their victory, yet got little rest that night;
but having refreshed themselves as well as they could, they resolved
to march to that part of the island where the savages were fled, and
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see what posture they were in. This necessarily led them over the
place where the ſight had been, and where they found several of the
poor creatures not quite dead, and yet past recovering life; a sight
disagrecable enough to generous minds; for a truly great man, though
obliged by the law of battle to destroy his enemy, takes no delight in
his misery.
However, there was no need to give any order in this case; for
their own savages, who were their servants, dispatched those poor
creatures with their hatchets.
At length they came in view of the place where the more miserable
remains of the savages' army lay, where there appeared about an hun-
dred still: their posture was generally sitting upon the ground, with
their knees up towards their mouth, and the head put between the
two hands, leaning down upon the knees.
When our men came within two musket-shot of them, the
Spaniard governor ordered two muskets to be fired without ball, to
alarm them; this he did, that by their countenance he might know
what to expect, viz. whether they were still in heart to fight, or were
so heartily beaten, as to be dispirited and discouraged, and so he
might manage accordingly.
This stratagem took; for as soon as the savages heard the first gun,
and saw the flash of the second, they started up upon their feet in the
greatest consternation imaginable; and as our men advanced swiftly
towards them, they all ran screaming and yawling away, with a kind
of an howling noise, which our men did not understand, and had
never heard before; and thus they ran up the hills into the country.
At first our men had much rather the weather had been calm, and
they had all gone away to sea; but they did not then consider, that
this might probably have been the occasion of their coming again in
such multitudes as not to be resisted; or, at least, to come so many
and so often, as would quite desolate the island and starve them.
Will Atkins therefore, who, notwithstanding his wound, kept always
with them, proved the best counsellor in this case. His advice was,
to take the advantage that offered, and clap in between them and
their boats, and so deprive them of the capacity of ever returning any
more to plague the island.
They consulted long about this, and some were against it, for
fear of making the wretches ſly to the woods, and live there desperate;
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and so they should have them to hunt like wild beasts, be afraid to
stir about their business, and have their plantations continually
rifled, all their tame goats destroyed, and, in short, be reduced to
a life of continual distress.
Will Atkins told them they had better have to do with an hundred
men than with an hundred nations; that as they must destroy their
boats, so they must destroy the men, or be all of them destroyed
themselves. In a word, he showed them the necessity of it so plainly,
that they all came into it; so they went to work immediately with the
boats, and getting some dry wood together from a dead tree, they
tried to set some of them on fire; but they were so wet that they would
not burn. However, the fire so burned the upper part, that it soon
made them unfit for swimming in the sea as boats. When the Indians
saw what they were about, some of them came running out of the
woods, and coming as near as they could to our men, kneeled down
and cried, 0a, Oa, J/aramokoa, and some other words of their
language, which none of the others understood any thing of; but as
they made pitiful gestures and strange noises, it was easy to under-
stand they begged to have their boats spared, and that they would be
gone, and never come there again.
But our men were now satisfied, that they had no way to preserve
themselves or to save their colony, but effectually to prevent any of
these people from ever going home again; depending upon this, that
if ever so much as one of them got back into their country to tell the
story, the colony was undone; so that letting them know that they
should not have any mercy, they fell to work with their canoes, and
destroyed them, every one that the storm had not destroyed before;
at the sight of which the savages raised a hideous cry in the woods,
which our people heard plain enough; after which they ran about the
island like distracted men; so that, in a word, our men did not
really know at first what to do with them.
Nor did the Spaniards, with all their prudence, consider that
while they made those people thus desperate, they ought to have
kept good guard at the same time upon their plantations; for though
it is true they had driven away their cattle, and the Indians did not
find out their main retreat, I mean my old castle at the hill, nor the
cave in the valley; yet they found out my plantation at the bower, and
pulled it all to pieces, and all the fences and planting about it; trod
330
all the corn under foot; tore up the vines and grapes, being just then
almost ripe, and did to our men an inestimable damage, though to
themselves not one farthing's worth of service.
Though our men were able to fight them upon all occasions, yet
they were in no condition to pursue them, or hunt them up and down;
for as they were too nimble of foot for our men when they found
them single, so our men durst not go about single for fear of being
surrounded with their numbers: the best was, they had no weapons;
for though they had bows they had no arrows left, nor any materials
to make any, nor had they any edged tools or weapon among them.
The extremity and distress they were reduced to was great, and
indeed deplorable, but at the same time our men were also brought
to very hard circumstances by them; for though their retreats were
preserved, yet their provision was destroyed, and their harvest
spoiled; and what to do, or which way to turn themselves, they knew
not; the only refuge they had now was the stock of cattle they had in
the valley by the cave, and some little corn which grew there; and
the plantation of the three Englishmen, William Atkins and his
comrades, who were now reduced to two, one of them being killed
by an arrow, which struck him on the side of his head, just under
the temples, so that he never spoke more; and it was very remarkable,
that this was the same barbarous fellow who cut the poor savage slave
with his hatchet, and who afterwards intended to have murdered all
the Spaniards.
I looked upon their case to have been worse at this time than mine
was at any time after I first discovered the grains of barley and rice,
and got into the method of planting and raising my corn, and my
tame cattle; for now they had, as I may say, an hundred wolves
upon the island, which would devour every thing they could come at,
yet could very hardly be come at themselves.
The first thing they concluded when they saw what their circum-
stances were, was, that they would iſ possible, drive them up to the
farther part of the island, south-east, that if any more savages came
on shore, they might not find one another; then that they would daily
hunt and harass them, and kill as many of them as they could come
at, till they had reduced their number; and if they could at last tame
them, and bring them to any thing, they would give them corn, and
teach them how to plant, and live upon their daily labour.
331
In order to this they so followed them, and so terrified them with
their guns, that in a few days, if any of them fired a gun at an Indian,
if he did not hit him, yet he would fall down for fear; and so dread-
fully frighted they were, that they kept out of sight farther and farther,
till at last our men following them, and every day almost killing or
wounding some of them, they kept up in the Woods and hollow places
so much, that it reduced them to the utmost misery for want of food;
and many were afterwards found dead in the woods, without any
hurt, but merely starved to death.
When our men found this, it made their hearts relent, and pity
moved them; especially the Spaniard governor, who was a most
gentlemanly generous minded man as ever I met with in my life; and
he proposed, if possible, to take one of them alive, and bring him
to understand what they meant, so far as to be able to act as inter-
preter, and to go among them, and see if they might be brought to
some conditions that might be depended upon, to save their lives,
and do us no spoil.
It was some while before any of them could be taken; but being
weak, and half-starved, one of them was at last surprised, and
made a prisoner: he was sullen at first, and would neither eat or
drink; but finding himself kindly used, and victuals given him, and
no violence offered him, he at last grew tractable, and came to
himself.
They brought old Friday to him, who talked often with him, and
told him how kind the others would be to them all: that they would
not only save their lives, but would give them a part of the island to
live in, provided they would give satisfaction that they would keep in
their own bounds, and not come beyond them, to injure or prejudice
others; and that they should have corn given them, to plant and
make it grow for their bread, and some bread given them for their
present subsistence; and old Friday bade the fellow go and talk with
the rest of his countrymen, and see what they said to it, assuring
them that if they did not agree immediately they should be all
destroyed.
The poor wretches, thoroughly humbled, and reduced in number
to about thirty-seven, closed with the proposal at the first offer, and
begged to have some food given them; upon which twelve Spaniards
and two Englishmen, well armed, with three Indian slaves, and old
332
Friday, marched to the place where they were; the three Indian
slaves carried them a large quantity of bread, some rice boiled up to
cakes, and dried in the sun, and three live goats; and they were
ordered to go to the side of a hill, where they sat down, ate the pro-
visions very thankfully, and were the most faithful fellows to their
words that could be thought of; for except when they came to beg
victuals and directions they never came out of their bounds; and
there they lived when I came to the island, and I went to see them.
They had taught them both to plant corn, make bread, breed
tame goats, and milk them; they wanted nothing but wives, and
they soon would have been a nation: they were confined to a neck of
land surrounded with high rocks behind them, and lying plain to—
wards the sea before them, on the south-east corner of the island;
they had land enough, and it was very good and fruitful; they had a
piece of land about a mile and a half broad, three or four miles in
length.
Our men taught them to make wooden spades, such as I made for
myself; and gave among them twelve hatchets, and three or four
knives; and there they lived, the most subjected innocent creatures
that ever were heard of.
After this the colony enjoyed a perfect tranquillity with respect to
the Savages, till I came to revisit them, which was above two years.
Not but that now and then some canoes of Savages came on shore for
their triumphal, unnatural feasts; but as they were of several nations,
and, perhaps, had never heard of those that came before, or the
reason of it, they did not make any search or inquiry after their
countrymen; and if they had, it would have been very hard to have
found them out.
Thus, I think, I have given a full account of all that happened to
them to my return, at least that was worth notice. The Indians, or
savages, were wonderfully civilized by them, and they frequently
went among them; but forbid, on pain of death, any one of the
Indians coming to them, because they would not have their settle-
ment betrayed again.
One thing was very remarkable, viz. that they taught the Savages
to make wicker-work, or baskets; but they soon outdid their masters;
for they made abundance of most ingenious things in wicker-work;
particularly all sorts of baskets, sieves, bird-cages, cupboards, &c.
333
as also chairs to sit on, stools, beds, couches, and abundance of
other things, being very ingenious at such work when they were once
put in the way of it.
My coming was a particular relief to these people, because we
furnished them with knives, scissors, spades, shovels, pickaxes,
and all things of that kind which they could want.
With the help of these tools they were so very handy, that they
came at last to build up their huts, or houses, very handsomely;
raddling, or working it up like basket-work all the way round, which
was a very extraordinary piece of ingenuity, and looked very odd;
but was an exceeding good fence, as well against heat, as against all
sorts of vermin; and our men were so taken with it, that they got
the wild savages to come and do the like for them; so that when I
came to see the two Englishmen's colonies, they looked, at a distance,
as if they lived all like bees in a hive: and as for Will Atkins, who
was now become a very industrious, necessary, and sober fellow,
he had made himself such a tent of basket-work as I believe was never
seen. It was one hundred and twenty paces round on the outside, as
I measured by my steps; the walls were as close worked as a basket,
in pannels or squares of thirty-two in number, and very strong,
standing about seven feet high: in the middle was another not above
twenty-two paces round, but built stronger, being eight-square in
its form, and in the eight corners stood eight very strong posts,
round the top of which he laid strong pieces, pinned together with
wooden pins, from which he raised a pyramid for the roof of eight
rafters, very handsome I assure you, and joined together very well,
though he had no nails, and only a few iron spikes, which he made
himself too, out of the old iron that I had left there; and indeed this
fellow showed abundance of ingenuity in several things which he had
no knowledge of; he made himself a forge, with a pair of wooden
bellows to blow the fire; he made himself charcoal for his work, and
he formed out of one of the iron crows a middling good anvil to ham-
mer upon; in this manner he made many things, but especially
hooks, staples and spikes, bolts and hinges. But to return to the
house: after he had pitched the roof of his innermost tent, he worked
it up between the raſters with basket-work, so firm, and thatched
that over again so ingeniously with rice-straw, and over that a large
leaf of a tree, which covered the top, that his house was as dry as if
334
it had been tiled or slated. Indeed he owned that the savages made
the basket-work for him.
The outer circuit was covered, as a lean—to , all round this inner
apartment, and long rafters lay from the thirty-two angles to the top
posts of the inner house, being about twenty feet distant; so that
there was a space like a walk within the outer wicker wall, and without
the inner, near twenty feet wide.
The inner place he partitioned off with the same wicker-work, but
much fairer, and divided it into six apartments, so that he had six
rooms on a floor, and out of every one of these there was a door:
first, into the entry, or coming into the main tent; and another door
into the space or walk that was round it; so, that walk was also
divided into six equal parts, which served not only for retreat, but to
store up any necessaries which the family had occasion for. These
six spaces not taking up the whole circumference, what other apart-
ments the outer circle had, were thus ordered: as soon as you were
in at the door of the outer circle, you had a short passage straight
before you to the door of the inner house; but on either side was a
wicker partition, and a door in it, by which you went first into a
large room or store-house, twenty feet wide, and about thirty feet
long, and through that into another not quite so long; so that in the
outer circle were ten handsome rooms, six of which were only to be
come at through the apartments of the inner tent, and served as clo-.
sets or retiring rooms to the respective chambers of the inner circle;
and four large ware-houses or barns, or what you please to call them,
which went in through one another, two on either hand of the passago
that led through the outer door to the inner tent.
Such a piece of basket-work, I believe, was never seen in the
world; nor an house or tent so neatly contrived, much less so built.
In this great bee-hive lived the three families; that is to say, Will
Atkins and his companion; the third was killed, but his wife re-
mained with three children; for she was, it seems, big with child
when he died, and the other two were not at all backward to give the
widow her full share of every thing, I mean as to their corn, milk,
grapes, &c. and when they killed a kid, or found a turtle on the
shore; so that they all lived well enough, though it was true, they
were not so industrious as the other two, as has been observed
already.
335
One thing, however, cannot be omitted, viz. that, as for reli-
gion, I don't know that there was any thing of that kind among them;
they pretty often indeed put one another in mind that there was a God,
by the very common method of seamen, viz. Swearing by his name;
nor were their poor, ignorant, savage wives much the better for
having been married to Christians, as we must call them; for as they
knew very little of God themselves, so they were utterly incapable of
entering into any discourse with their wives about a God, or to talk
any thing to them concerning religion.
The utmost of all the improvement which I can say the wives had
made from them, was, that they had taught them to speak English
pretty well; and all the children they had, which were near twenty
in all, were taught to speak English too, from their first learning to
speak, though they at first spoke it in a very broken manner, like
their mothers. There were none of these children above six years old
when I came thither; for it was not much above seven years that they
had fetched these five savage ladies over, but they had all been pretty
fruitſul, for they had all children, more or less: I think the cook's
mate's wife was big of her sixth child; and the mothers were all a
good sort of well-governed, quiet, laborious women, modest and
decent, helpful to one another, mighty observant and subject to their
masters, I cannot call them husbands; and wanted nothing but to be
well instructed in the Christian religion, and to be legally married;
both which were happily brought about afterwards by my means, or
at least in the consequence of my coming among them.
Having thus given an account of the colony in general, and pretty
much of my five runagate Englishmen, I must say something of the
Spaniards, who were the main body of the family, and in whose
story there are some incidents also remarkable enough.
I had a great many discourses with them about their circumstances
when they were among the savages; they told me readily, that they
had no instances to give of their application or ingenuity in that coun-
try; that they were a poor, miserable, dejected handful of people;
that if means had been put into their hands, had yet so abandoned
themselves to despair, and so sunk under the weight of their misfor-
tunes, that they thought of nothing but starving. One of them, a
grave and very sensible man, told me he was convinced they were in
the wrong; that it was not the part of wise men to give up themselves
336
to their misery, but always to take hold of the helps which reason
offered, as well for present support, as for future deliverance; he
told me that grief was the most senseless insignificant passion in the
world, for that it regarded only things past, which were generally
impossible to be recalled or to be remedied, but had no view to things
to come, and had no share in any thing that looked like deliverance,
but rather added to the affliction than proposed a remedy; and upon
this he repeated a Spanish proverb, which though I cannot repeat in
just the same words that he spoke it in, yet I remember I made it into
an English proverb of my own, thus:
In trouble to be troubled,
Is to have your trouble doubled.
He ran then on in remarks upon all the little improvements I had
made in my solitude; my unwearied application, as he called it, and
how I had made a condition, which in its circumstances, was at first
much worse than theirs, a thousand times more happy than theirs
was, even now when they were all together. He told me it was re-
markable that Englishmen had a greater presence of mind in their
distress than any people that ever he met with; that their unhappy
nation, and the Portuguese, were the worst men in the world to
struggle with misfortunes; for that their first step in dangers, after
the common eſſorts were over, was always to despair, lie down under
it ant die, without rousing their thoughts up to proper remedies for
CScape.
I told him their case and mine differed exceedingly; that they were
cast upon the shore without necessaries, without supply of food, or
of present sustenance, till they could provide it; that it is true, I
had this disadvantage and discomfort, that I was alone; but then the
supplies I had providentially thrown into my hands, by the unexpected
driving of the ship on shore, was such a help as would have encou-
raged any creature in the world to have applied himself as I had done.
“Seignior,” says the Spaniard, “had we poor Spaniards been in
your case we should never have gotten half those things out of the
ship as you did. Nay,” says he, “we should never have found
means to have gotten a raft to carry them, or to have gotten the raft
on shore without boat or sail; and how much less should we have
done,” said he, “if any of us had been alone!” Well, I desired
him to abate his compliment, and go on with the history of their
337
coming on shore, where they landed. He told me they unhappily
landed at a place where there were people without provisions; whereas,
had they had the common sense to have put off to sea again, and
gone to another island a little farther, they had found provisions
though without people; that is to say, that the Spaniards of Trinidad
had frequently been there, and had filled the island with goats and
hogs at several times, where they have bred in such multitudes, and
where turtle and sea-fowls were in such plenty, that they could have
been in no want of flesh though they had found no bread; whereas
here they were only sustained with a few roots and herbs, which they
understood not, and which had no substance in them, and which the
inhabitants gave them sparingly enough, and who could treat them
no better unless they would turn cannibals, and eat man's flesh,
which was the great dainty of the country.
They gave me an account how many ways they strove to civilize
the savages they were with, and to teach them rational customs in
the ordinary way of living, but in vain; and how they retorted it upon
them as unjust, that they, who came there for assistance and sup-
port, should attempt to set up for instructors of those that gave them
bread; intimating, it seems, that none should set up for the in-
structors of others but those who could live without them.
They gave me dismal accounts of the extremities they were driven
to; how sometimes they were many days without any food at all, the
island they were upon being inhabited by a sort of savages that lived
more indolent, and for that reason was less supplied with the neces—
saries of life than they had reason to believe others were in the same
part of the world; and yet they found that these savages were less
ravenous and voracious than those who had better supplies of food.
Also they added, that they could not but see with what demon-
strations of wisdom and goodness the governing providence of God
directs the events of things in the world, which they said appeared in
their circumstances; for if, pressed by the hardships they were
under, and the barrenness of the country where they were, they had
searched after a better place to live in, they had then been out of the
way of the relief that happened to them by my means.
Then they gave me an account how the savages whom they lived
among expected them to go out with them into their wars; and it was
true, that as they had fire-arms with them, had they not had the
Robinson Crasoe, 22
. . . . . . 338
- wºme
disaster to lose their ammunition, they should not have been ser-
viceable only to their friends, but have made themselves terrible both
to friends and enemies; but being without powder and shot, and yet
in a condition that they could not in reason deny to go out with their
landlords to their wars; so when they came into the field of battle
they were in a worse condition than the savages themselves, for they
neither had bows or arrows, nor could they use those the savages
gave them, so that they could do nothing but stand still and be
wounded with arrows, till they came up to the teeth of their enemy;
and then indeed the three halberts they had were of use to them, and
they would often drive a whole little army before them with those
halberts and sharpened sticks put into the muzzles of their muskets:
but that for all this, they were sometimes surrounded with multitudes,
and in great danger from their arrows; till at last they found the way
to make themselves large targets of wood, which they covered with
skins of wild beasts, whose names they knew not, and these covered
them from the arrows of the savages; that notwithstanding these,
they were sometimes in great danger, and were once five of them
knocked down together with the clubs of the savages, which was the
time when one of them was taken prisoner, that is to say, the Spa-
niard whom I had relieved; that at first they thought he had been
killed, but when afterwards they heard he was taken prisoner, they
were under the greatest grief imaginable, and would willingly have
all ventured their lives to have rescued him.
They told me, that when they were so knocked down, the rest of
their company rescued them, and stood over them fighting till they
were come to themselves, all but him who they thought had been
dead; and then they made their way with their halberts and pieces,
standing close together in a line, through a body of above a thousand
savages, beating down all that came in their Way, got the victory
over their enemies, but to their great sorrow, because it was with
the loss of their friend; whom the other party, finding him alive,
carried off with Some others, as I gave an account in my former.
They described, most affectionately, how they were surprised
with joy at the return of their friend and companion in misery, who
they thought had been devoured by wild beasts of the worst kind, viz.
by wild men; and yet how more and more they were surprised with
the account he gave them of his errand, and that there was a Christian
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in any place near, much more one that was able, and had humanity
enough to contribute to their deliverance. .
They described how they were astonished at the sight of the relief
I sent them, and at the appearance of loaves of bread, things they
had not seen since their coming to that miserable place; how often
they crossed it, and blessed it as bread sent from heaven; and what
a reviving cordial it was to their spirits to taste it, as also of the other
things I had sent for their supply. And, after all, they would have
told me something of the joy they were in, at the sight of a boat and
pilots to carry them away to the person and place from whence all
these new comforts came; but they told me it was impossible to ex-
press it by words, for their excessive joy naturally driving them to
unbecoming extravagancies, they had no way to describe them but
by telling me that they bordered upon lunacy, having no way to give
vent to their passion suitable to the sense that was upon them; that
in some it worked one way, and in some another; and that some of
them, through a surprise of joy, would burst out into tears; others
be half mad, and others immediately faint. This discourse extremely
affected me, and called to my mind Friday's ecstasy when he met
his father, and the poor people's ecstasy when I took them up at
sea, after their ship was on fire; the joy of the ship's mate, when he
found himself delivered in the place where he expected to perish; and
my own joy, when after twenty-eight years captivity I found a good
ship ready to carry me to my own country. All these things made
me more sensible of the relation of these poor men, and more affected
with it.
Having thus given a view of the state of things as I found them, I
must relate the heads of what I did for these people, and the condi-
tion in which I left them. It was their opinion, and mine too, that
they would be troubled no more with the savages; or that, if they
were, they would be able to cut them off, if they were twice as many
as before; so they had no concern about that. Then I entered into
a serious discourse with the Spaniard whom I called governor, about
their stay in the island; for as I was not come to carry any of them off,
so it would not be just to carry off some and leave others, who per-
haps would be unwilling to stay if their strength was diminished.
On the other hand I told them, I came to establish them there,
not to remove them; and then I let them know that I had brought with
22%
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me relief of sundry kinds for them; that I had been at a great charge
to supply them with all things necessary, as well for their convenience
as for their defence; and that I had such and such particular persons
with me, as well to increase and recruit their number, as by the par-
ticular necessary employments which they were bred to, being arti-
ficers, to assist them in those things in which at present they were
to seek.
They were all together when I talked thus to them; and before I
delivered to them the stores I had brought, I asked them, one by one,
if they had entirely forgot and buried the first animosities that had
been among them, and would shake hands with one another, and
engage in a strict friendship and union of interest, so that there might
be no more misunderstandings or jealousies.
Will Atkins, with abundance of frankness and good humour, said,
they had met with afflictions enough to make them all sober, and enc-
mies enough to make them all friends; that for his part he would live
and die with them; and was so far from designing any thing against
the Spaniards, that he owned they had done nothing to him but what
his own mad humour made necessary, and what he would have done,
and perhaps much worse, in their case; and that he would ask them
pardon, if I desired it, for the foolish and brutish things he had done
to them; and was very willing and desirous of living on terms of entire
friendship and union with them; and would do any thing that lay in
his power, to convince them of it: and as for going to England, he
cared not if he did not go thither these twenty years.
The Spaniards said, they had indeed at first disarmed and exclu-
ded Will Atkins and his two countrymen, for their ill conduct, as
they had let me know; and they appealed to me for the necessity they
were under to do so; but that Will Atkins had behaved himself so
bravely in the great fight they had with the savages, and on several occa-
sions since, and had showed himself so faithful to, and concerned
for the general interest of them all, that they had forgotten all that
was past, and thought he merited as much to be trusted with arms,
and supplied with necessaries, as any of them; and that they had
testified their satisfaction in him, by committing the command to him,
next to the governor himself; and as they had an entire conſidence in
him and all his countrymen, so they acknowledged they had merited
that confidence by all the methods that honest men could merit to be
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valued and trusted; and they most heartily embraced the occasion of
giving me this assurance, that they would never have any interest se-
parate from one another.
Upon these frank and open declarations of friendship, we appoint-
ed the next day to dine all together, and indeed we made a splendid
feast. I caused the ship's cook and his mate to come on shore and
dress our dinner, and the old cook's mate we had on shore assisted.
We brought on shore six pieces of good beef, and four pieces of pork,
out of the ship's provision, with our punch-bowl, and materials to
fill it; and, in particular, I gave them ten bottles of French claret,
and ten bottles of English beer, things that neither the Spaniards or
the Englishmen had tasted for many years; and which it may be sup-
posed they were exceeding glad of.
The Spaniards added to our feast five whole kids, which the cooks
roasted; and three of them were sent, covered up close, on board
our ship to the seamen, that they might feast on fresh meat from on
shore, as we did with their salt meat from on board.
After this feast, at which we were very innocently merry, I brought
out my cargo of goods, wherein, that there might be no dispute about
dividing, I showed them that there was sufficient for them all; and
desired that they might all take an equal quantity of the goods that
were for wearing; that is to say, equal when made up. As first, I
distributedlinen sufficient to make every one of them four shirts; and,
at the Spaniards' request, afterwards made them up six; these were
exceeding comfortable to them, having been what, as I may say, they
had long since forgot the use of, or what it was to wear them.
I allotted the thin English stuffs, which I mentioned before, to
make every one a light coat like a frock, which I judged fittest for the
heat of the season, cool and loose; and ordered, that whenever they
decayed, they should make more, as they thought fit. The like for
pumps, shoes, stockings, and hats, &c.
I cannot express what pleasure, what satisfaction, sat upon the
countenances of all these poor men when they saw the care I had taken
of them, and how well I had furnished them; they told me I was a
father to them; and that having such a correspondent as I was, in so
remote a part of the world, it would make them forget that they were
left in a desolate place; and they all voluntarily engaged to me not to
leave the place without my consent.
3A2
Then I presented to them the people I had brought with me, par-
ticularly the tailor, the smith, and the two carpenters, all of them
most necessary people; but above all my general artificer, than whom
they could not name any thing that was more useful to them; and the
tailor, to show his concern for them, went to work immediately, and,
with my leave, made them every one a shirt the first thing he did;
and, which was still more, he taught the women not only how to sew
and stitch, and use the needle, but made them assist to make the
shirts for their husbands and for all the rest.
As to the carpenters, I scarce need mention how useful they were,
for they took in pieces all my clumsy unhandy things, and made them
clever convenient tables, stools, bedsteads, cupboards, lockers,
shelves, and every thing they wanted of that kind.
But to let them see how nature made artificers at first, I carried
the carpenters to see Will Atkins's basket house, as I called it, and
they both owned they never saw an instance of such natural ingenuity
before, nor any thing so regular and so handily built, at least of its
kind; and one of them, when he saw it, after musing a good while,
turning about to me, “I am sure,” says he, “that man has no need
of us; you need do nothing but give him tools.”
Then I brought them out all my store of tools, and gave every man
a digging spade, a shovel, and a rake, for we had no harrows or
ploughs; and to every separate place a pickaxe, a crow, a broad axe,
and a saw; always appointing, that as often as any were broken, or
worn out, they should be supplied, without grudging, out of the
general stores that I left behind.
Nails, staples, hinges, hammers, chisels, knives, scissors,
and all sorts of tools and iron-work, they had without tale as they
required; for no man would care to take more than he wanted, and
he must be a fool that would waste or spoil them on any account what-
ever. And for the use of the Smith I left two tons of unwrought iron
for a supply.
My magazine of powder and arms which I brought them, was such,
even to profusion, that they could not but rejoice at them; for now
they could march, as I used to do, with a musket upon each shoulder,
if there was occasion; and were able to fight a thousand savages, if
they had but some little advantages of situation, which also they could
not miss of if they had occasion.
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I carried on shore with me the young man whose mother was
starved to death, and the maid also: she was a sober, well-educated,
religious young woman, and behaved so inoffensively, that every one
gave her a good word. She had, indeed, an unhappy life with us,
there being no woman in the ship but herself: but she bore it with
patience. After a while, seeing things so well ordered, and in
so fine a way of thriving upon my island, and considering that
they had neither business nor acquaintance in the East Indies, or
reason for taking so long a voyage; I say, considering all this,
both of them came to me, and desired I would give them leave to
remain on the island, and be entered among my family, as they
called it.
I agreed to it readily, and they had a little plot of ground allotted
to them, where they had three tents or houses set up, surrounded
with a basket-work, palisadoed like Atkins's, adjoining to his plan-
tation. Their tents were contrived so, that they had each of them a
room apart to lodge in, and a middle tent, like a great store-house,
to lay all their goods in, and to eat and drink in. And now the other
two Englishmen removed their habitation to the same place, and so
the island was divided into three colonies, and no more; viz. the
Spaniards, with old Friday, and the first servants, at my old habi—
tation under the hill, which was, in a word, the capital city, and
where they had so enlarged and extended their works, as well under
as on the outside of the hill, that they lived, though perfectly con-
cealed, yet full at large. Never was there such a little city in a wood,
and so hid, I believe, in any part of the world; for I verily believe
a thousand men might have ranged the island a month, and if they
had not known there was such a thing, and looked on purpose for it,
they would not have found it; for the trees stood so thick and so close,
and grew so fast matted into one another, that nothing but cutting
them down first, could discover the place, except the only two nar-
row entrances where they went in and out, could be found, which
was not very easy. One of them was just down at the water's edge,
on the side of the creek; and it was afterwards above two hundred
yards to the place; and the other was up the ladder at twice, as I have
already formerly described it; and they had a large wood, thick plant-
ed, also on the top of the hill, which contained above an acre, which
grew apace, and covered the place from all discovery there, with only
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one narrow place between two trees, not easy to be discovered, to
enter on that side.
The other colony was that of Will Atkins, where there were four
families of Englishmen, I mean those I had left there, with their wives
and children; three savages that were slaves; the widow and children
of the Englishman that was killed; the young man and the maid; and
by the way, we made a wife of her also before we went away. There
were also the two carpenters and tailor, whom I brought with me for
them; also the Smith, who was a very necessary man to them,
especially, as a gunsmith to take care of their arms; and my other
man, whom I called Jack of all Trades, who was in himself as good
almost as twenty men, for he was not only a very ingenious fellow,
but a very merry fellow; and before I went away we married him to
the honest maid that came with the youth in the ship, I mentioned
before.
And now I speak of marrying, it brings me naturally to say
something of the French ecclesiastic that I had brought with me out
of the ship's crew whom I took up at sea. It is true, this man was
a Roman, and perhaps it may give offence to some hereafter, if I
leave any thing extraordinary upon record of a man, whom before I
begin, I must, to set him out in just colours, represent in terms
very much to his disadvantage in the account of Protestants; as, first,
that he was a Papist; secondly, a Popish priest; and thirdly, a French
Popish priest.
But justice demands of me to give him a due character; and I
must say, he was a grave, sober, pious, and most religious person;
exact in his life, extensive in his charity, and exemplary in almost
every thing he did. What then can any one say against my being
very sensible of the value of such a man, notwithstanding his profes—
sion? though it may be my opinion, perhaps as well as the opinion
of others who shall read this, that he was mistaken.
The first hour that I began to converse with him, after he had
agreed to go with me to the East Indies, I found reason to delight
exceedingly in his conversation; and he first began with me about
religion, in the most obliging manner imaginable.
“Sir,” says he, “you have not only, under God,” and at that
he crossed his breast, “saved my life, but you have admitted me to
go this voyage in your ship, and by your obliging civility have taken
345
me into your family, giving me an opportunity of free conversation.
Now, Sir,” says he, “you see by my habit what my profession is,
and I guess by your nation what yours is. I may think it is my duty,
and doubtless it is so, to use my utmost endeavours on all occasions
to bring all the souls I can to the knowledge of the truth, and to
embrace the Catholic doctrine; but as I am here under your permis-
sion, and in your family, I am bound in justice to your kindness, as
well as in decency and good manners, to be under your government;
and therefore I shall not, without your leave, enter into any debates
on the points of religion, in which we may not agree, farther than
you shall give me leave.”
I told him his carriage was so modest that I could not but acknow-
ledge it; that it was true, we were such people as they call heretics,
but that he was not the first Catholic that I had conversed with without
falling into any inconveniencies, or carrying the questions to any
height in debate; that he should not find himself the worse used for
being of a different opinion from us; and if we did not converse with-
out any dislike on either side, upon that score, it should be his
fault, not ours.
He replied, that he thought all our conversation might be easily
separated from disputes; that it was not his business to cap principles
with every man he discoursed with ; and that he rather desired me to
converse with him as a gentleman than as a religieuw; that if I would
give him leave at any time to discourse upon religious subjects, he
would readily comply with it; and that then he did not doubt but I
would allow him also to defend his own opinions as well as he could;
but that without my leave he would not break in upon me with any
such thing. -
He told me farther, that he would not cease to do all that became
him in his office as a priest, as well as a private Christian, to procure
the good of the ship, and the safety of all that was in her; and though
perhaps we would not join with him, and he could not pray with us,
he hoped he might pray for us, which he would do upon all occasions.
In this manner we conversed; and as he was of a most obliging gen-
tleman-like behaviour, so he was, if I may be allowed to say S0, a
man of good sense, and, as I believe, of great learning.
He gave me a most diverting account of his life, and of the many
extraordinary events of it; of many adventures which had befallen
346
him in the few years that he had been abroad in the world, and par-
ticularly this was very remarkable; viz. that during the voyage he
was now engaged in he had had the misfortune to be five times shipped
and unshipped, and never to go to the place whither any of the ships
he was in were at first designed: that his first intent was to have gone
to Martinico, and that he went on board a ship bound thither at St.
Maloes; but being forced into Lisbon by bad weather, the ship
received some damage by running aground in the mouth of the river
Tagus, and was obliged to unload her cargo there: that finding a
Portuguese ship there, bound to the Madeiras, and ready to sail,
and supposing he should easily meet with a vessel there bound to
Martinico, he went on board in order to sail to the Madeiras; but
the master of the Portuguese ship being but an indifferent mariner,
had been out in his reckoning, and they drove to Fyal; where, how-
cver, he happened to find a very good market for his cargo which was
corn, and therefore resolved not to go to the Madeiras, but to load
salt at the isle of May, to go away to Newfoundland. He had no
remedy in this exigence but to go with the ship, and had a pretty
good voyage as far as the Banks, so they call the place where they
catch the fish, where meeting with a French ship bound from France
to Quebec, in the river of Canada, and from thence to Martinico, to
carry provisions, he thought he should have an opportunity to com—
plete his first design. But when he came to Quebec, the master of
the ship died, and the ship proceeded no farther. So the next voyage
he shipped himself for France, in the ship that was burnt, when we
took them up at sea, and then shipped with us for the East Indies,
as I have already said. Thus he had been disappointed in five
voyages, all, as I may call it, in one voyage, besides what I shall
have occasion to mention farther of the same person.
But I shall not make digressions into other men's stories which
have no relation to my own. I return to what concerns our affair in
the island. He came to me one morning, for he lodged among us
all the while we were upon the island, and it happened to be just
when I was going to visit the Englishmen's colony at the farthest part
of the island; I say, he came to me, and told me with a very grave
countenance, that he had for two or three days desired an opportunity
of some discourse with me, which he hoped would not be displeasing
to me, because he thought it might in some measure correspond with
347
my general design, which was the prosperity of my new colony, and
perhaps might put it at least more than he yet thought it was in the
way of God's blessing.
I looked a little surprised at the last part of his discourse, and
turning a little short, “How, Sir,” said I, “can it be said, that
we are not in the way of God's blessing, after such visible assistances
and wonderful deliverances as we have seen here, and of which I have
given you a large account.”
“If you had pleased, Sir,” said he, with a world of modesty,
and yet with great readiness, “to have heard me, you would have
found no room to have been displeased, much less to think so hard
of me, that I should suggest, that you have not had wonderful
assistances and deliverances; and I hope, on your behalf, that you
are in the way of God's blessing, and your design is exceeding good,
and will prosper: But, Sir, though it were more so than is even
possible to you, yet there may be some among you that are not equally
right in their actions; and you know that in the story of the children
of Israel, one Achan, in the camp, removed God's blessing from
them, and turned his hand so against them, that thirty-six of them,
though not concerned in the crime, were the objects of divine
vengeance, and bore the weight of that punishment.”
I was sensibly touched with his discourse, and told him his in-
ference was so just, and the whole design seemed so sincere, and was
really so religious in its own nature, that I was very sorry I had inter-
rupted him, and begged him to go on; and in the meantime, because
it seemed that what we had-both to say might take up some time, I
told him I was going to the Englishmen's plantation, and asked him
to go with me, and we might discourse of it by the way. He told me
he would more willingly wait on me thither, because there, partly,
the thing was acted which he desired to speak to me about. So we
walked on, and I pressed him to be free and plain with me in what he
had to say.
“Why then, Sir,” says he, “be pleased to give me leave to lay
down a few propositions as the foundation of what I have to say, that
we may not differ in the general principles, though we may be of
some differing opinions in the practice of particulars. First, Sir,
though we differ in some of the doctrinal articles of religion, and it is
Very unhappy that it is so, especially in the case before us, as I shall
348
show afterwards, yet there are some general principles in which we
both agree; viz. first, that there is a God, and that this God, having
given us some stated general rules for our service and obedience, we
ought not willingly and knowingly to offend him, either by neglecting
to do what he has commanded, or by doing what he has expressly for-
bidden; and let our different religions be what they will, this general
principle is readily owned by us all, that the blessing of God does not
ordinarily follow a presumptuous sinning against his command; and
every good Christian will be affectionately concerned to prevent any
that are under his care, living in a total neglect of God and his com-
mands. It is not your men being Protestants, whatever my opinion
may be of such, that discharges me from being concerned for their
souls, and from endeavouring, if it lies before me, that they should
live in as little distance from and enmity with their Maker as possible;
especially if you give me leave to meddle so far in your circuit.”
I could not yet imagine what he aimed at, and told him I granted
all he had said; and thanked him that he would so far concern himself
for us; and begged he would explain the particulars of what he had
observed, that, like Joshua, to take his own parable, I might put
away the accursed thing from us.
“Why then, Sir,” says he, “I will take the liberty you give me;
and there are three things which, if I am right, must stand in the
way of God's blessing upon your endeavours here, and which I should
rejoice, for your sake, and their own, to see removed. And, Sir,"
says he, “I promise myself that you will fully agree with me in them
all as soon as I name them; especially because I shall convince you
that every one of them may with great ease, and very much to your
satisfaction, be remedied.”
He gave me no leave to put in any more civilities, but went on :
“First, Sir,” says he, “you have here four Englishmen, who have
fetched women from among the savages, and have taken them as their
wives, and have had many children by them all, and yet are not
married to them after any stated legal manner, as the laws of God
and man require; and therefore are yet, in the sense of both, no less
than adulterers, and living in adultery. To this, Sir,” says he, “I
know you will object, that there was no clergyman or priest of any
kind, or of any profession, to perform the ceremony; nor any pen
and ink, or paper, to write down a contract of marriage, and have
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it signed between them. And I know also, Sir, what the Spaniard
governor has told you; I mean of the agreement that he obliged them
to make when they took these women, viz. that they should choose
them out by consent, and keep separately to them; which, by the
way, is nothing of a marriage, no agreement with the women as
wives, but only an agreement among themselves, to keep them from
quarrelling.
“But, Sir, the essence of the sacrament of matrimony (so he
called it, being a Roman) consists not only in the mutual consent of
the parties to take one another as man and wife, but in the formal and
legal obligation that there is in the contract to compel the man and
woman at all times to own and acknowledge each other; obliging the
man to abstain from all other women, to engage in no other contract
while these subsist; and on all occasions, as ability allows, to provide
honestly for them and their children; and to oblige the women to the
Same, or like conditions, mutatis mutandis, on their side.
“Now, Sir,” says he, “these men may, when they please, or
when occasion presents, abandon these women, disown their chil—
dren, leave them to perish, and take other women and marry them
while these are living.” And here he added, with some warmth,
“How, Sir, is God honoured in this unlawful liberty? And how
shall a blessing succeed your endeavours in this place, however good
in themselves, and however sincere in your design, while these men,
who at present are your subjects, under your absolute government
and dominion, are allowed by you to live in open adultery?”
I confess I was struck at the thing itself, but much more with the
convincing arguments he supported it with. For it was certainly true,
that though they had no clergyman on the spot, yet a formal contract
on both sides, made before witnesses, and confirmed by any token
which they had all agreed to be bound by, though it had been but
breaking a stick between them, engaging the men to own these
Women for their wives upon all occasions, and never to abandon them
or their children, and the women to the same with their husbands,
had been an effectual lawſul marriage in the sight of God, and it was
a great neglect that it was not done.
o But I thought to have gotten off with my young priest by telling
him, that all that part was done when I was not here; and they had
350
lived so many years with them now, that if it was adultery it was past
remedy, they could do nothing in it now.
“Sir,” says he, “asking your pardon for such freedom, you are
right in this; that it being done in your absence, you could not be
charged with that part of the crime. But I beseech you, flatter not
yourself that you are not therefore under an obligation to do your
utmost now to put an end to it. How can you think, but that, let the
time past lie on whom it will, all the guilt for the future will lie en-
tirely upon you? Because it is certainly in your power now to put an
end to it, and in nobody's power but yours.”
I was so dull still, that I did not take him right, but I imagined
that by putting an end to it he meant that I should part them, and not
suffer them to live together any longer; and I said to him I could not
do that by any means, for that it would put the whole island in con-
fusion. He seemed surprised that I should so far mistake him. “No,
Sir,” says he, “I do not mean that you should separate them, but
legally and effectually marry them now. And, as Sir, my way of
marrying them may not be so easy to reconcile them to, though it will
be as effectual even by your own laws; so your way may be as well
before God, and as valid among men; I mean by a written contract
signed by both man and woman, and by all the witnesses present;
which all the laws of Europe would decree to be valid.”
I was amazed to see so much true piety, and so much sincerity of
zeal, besides the unusual impartiality in his discourse, as to his own
party or church, and such true warmth for the preserving people that
he had no knowledge of or relation to; I say, for preserving them
from transgressing the laws of God; the like of which I had indeed
not met with any where. But recollecting what he had said of marrying
them by a written contract, which I knew would stand too, I returned
it back upon him, and told him I granted all that he had said to be
just, and on his part very kind; that I would discourse with the men
upon the point now when I came to them. And I knew no reason
why they should scruple to let him marry them all; which I knew well
enough would be granted to be as authentic and valid in England as if
they were married by one of our own clergymen. What was after-
wards done in this matter I shall speak of by itselſ.
I then pressed him to tell me what was the second complaint
which he had to make, acknowledging that I was very much his
351
debtor for the first, and thanked him heartily for it. He told me he
would use the same freedom and plainness in the second, and hoped
I would take it as well; and this was, that notwithstanding these
English subjects of mine, as he called them, had lived with these
women for almost seven years, had taught them to speak English,
and even to read it, and that they were, as he perceived, women of
tolerable understanding and capable of instruction; yet they had not
to this hour taught them any thing of the Christian religion; no not
so much as to know that there was a God, or a worship, or in what
manner God was to be served; or that their own idolatry, and wor-
shipping they knew not who, was false and absurd.
This, he said, was an unaccountable neglect, and what God
would certainly call them to account for; and perhaps at last take the
work out of their hands. He spoke this very affectionately and warmly
“I am persuaded,” says he, “had those men lived in the savage
country whence their wives came, the Savages would have taken more
pains to have brought them to be idolaters, and to worship the devil,
than any of these men, so far as I can see, have taken with them to
teach them the knowledge of the true God. Now, Sir,” said he,
“though I do not acknowledge your religion, or you mine, yet we
should be glad to see the devil's servants, and the subjects of his
kingdom, taught to know the general principles of the Christian
religion; that they might at least hear of God, and of a Redeemer,
and of the resurrection, and of a future state, things which we all
believe; they had at least been so much nearer coming into the bosom
of the true church, than they are now in the public profession of
idolatry and devil worship.”
I could hold no longer; I took him in my arms, and embraced
him with an excess of passion. “How far,” said I to him, “have
I been from understanding the most essential part of a Christian, viz.
to love the interest of the Christian church, and the good of other
men's souls! I scarce have known what belongs to being a Christian.”
— “0, Sir, do not say so,” replied he; “this thing is not your
fault.”—“No,” said I; “but why did I never lay it to heart as
well as you?”—“It is not too late yet,” said he; “be not too
forward to condemn yourself.” – “But what can be done now?” said
I; “you see I am going away.” – “Will you give me leave,” said
lic, “to talk with these poor men about it?” – “Yes, with all my
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heart,” said I, “and I will oblige them to give hecd to what you say
too.” – “As to that,” said he, “we must leave them to the mercy
of Christ; but it is our business to assist them, encourage them, and
instruct them; and if you will give me leave, and God his blessing,
I do not doubt but the poor ignorant souls shall be brought home
into the great circle of Christianity, if not into the particular faith
that we all embrace; and that even while you stay here.” Upon this
I said, “I shall not only give you leave, but give you a thousand
thanks for it.” What followed on this account I shall mention also
again in its place.
I now pressed him for the third article in which we were to blame.
“Why really,” says he, “it is of the same nature, and I will proceed,
asking your leave, with the same plainness as before; it is about
your poor savages yonder, who are, as I may say, your conquered
subjects. It is a maxim, Sir, that is, or ought to be received among
all Christians, of what church, or pretended church soever, viz. the
Christian knowledge ought to be propagated by all possible means,
and on all possible occasions. It is on this principle that our church
sends missionaries into Persia, India, and China; and that our
clergy, even of the superior sort, willingly engage in the most
hazardous voyages, and the most dangerous residence among mur-
derers and barbarians, to teach them the knowledge of the true God,
and to bring them over to embrace the Christian faith. Now, Sir,
you have such an opportunity here to have six or seven and thirty poor
savages brought over from idolatry to the knowledge of God, their
Maker and Redeemer, that I wonder how you can pass such an occa-
sion of doing good, which is really worth the expense of a man's
whole life.”
I was now struck dumb indeed, and had not one word to say; I
had here a spirit of true Christian zeal for God and religion before
me, let his particular principles be of what kind socver. As for me,
I had not so much as entertained a thought of this in my heart before,
and I believe should not have thought of it; for I looked upon these
savages as slaves, and people whom, had we any work for them to
do, we would have used as such, or would have been glad to have
transported them to any other part of the world; for our business was
to get rid of them, and we would all have been satisfied if they had
been sent to any country, so they had never seen their own. But to
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the case: I say I was confounded at his discourse, and knew not what
answer to make him. He looked earnestly at me, Seeing me in Some
disorder; “Sir,” said he, “I shall be very sorry, if what I have
said gives you any offence.”—“No, no,” said I, “I am offended
with nobody but myself; but I am perfectly confounded, not only to
think that I should never take any notice of this before, but with
reſlecting what notice I am able to take of it now. You know, Sir,”
said I, “what circumstances I am in; I am bound to the East Indies,
in a ship freighted by merchants, and to whom it would be an insuffer-
able piece of injustice to detain their ship here, the men lying all this
while at victuals and wages upon the owners' account. It is true, I
agreed to be allowed twelve days here, and if I stay more I must pay
3l. Sterling per diem demurrage; nor can I stay upon demurrage
above eight days more, and I have been here thirteen days already;
so that I am perfectly unable to engage in this work, unless I would
suffer myself to be left behind here again; in which case, if this
single ship should miscarry in any part of her voyage, I should be
just in the same condition that I was left in here at first, and from
which I have been so wonderfully delivered.”
He owned the case was very hard upon me as to my voyage, but
laid it home upon my conscience, whether the blessing of saving
seven-and-thirty souls was not worth my venturing all I had in the
world for? I was not so sensible of that as he was; I returned upon
him thus, “Why, Sir, it is a valuable thing indeed to be an in-
strument in God's hand to convert seven-and-thirty heathens to the
knowledge of Christ; but as you are an ecclesiastic, and are given
over to the work, so that it seems so naturally to fall into the way of
your profession, how is it that you do not rather offer yourself to
undertake it, than press me to it?”
Upon this he faced about, just before me, as we walked along,
and putting me to a full stop, made me a very low bow: “I most
heartily thank God, and you, Sir,” says he, “for giving me so
evident a call to so blessed a work; and if you think yourself dis-
charged from it, and desire me to undertake it, I will most readily
do it, and think it a happy reward for all the hazards and difficulties
of such a broken disappointed voyage as I have met with, that I have
dropped at last into so glorious a work.”
I discovered a kind of rapture in his face while he spoke this to
Robinson Crusoe, 23
354
me; his eyes sparkled like fire, his face glowed, and his colour came
and went as if he had been falling into fits; in a word, he was fired
with the joy of being embarked in such a work. I paused a consider-
able while before I could tell what to say to him, for I was really
surprised to find a man of such sincerity and zeal, and carried out in
his zeal beyond the ordinary rate of men, not of his profession only,
but even of any profession whatsoever. But after I had considered it
a while, I asked him seriously if he was in earnest, and that he would
venture on the single consideration of an attempt on those poor
people, to be locked up in an unplanted island for perhaps his life,
and at last might not know whether he should be able to do them any
good or not?
He turned short upon me, and asked me what I called a venture?
“Pray, Sir," said he, “what do you think I consented to go in your
ship to the East Indies for?”—“Nay,” said I, “that I know not,
unless it was to preach to the Indians.” – “Doubtless it was,” said
he; “and do you think if I can convert these seven-and-thirty men to
the faith of Christ, it is not worth my time, though I should never
be fetched off the island again? Nay, is it not infinitely of more worth
to save so many souls than my life is, or the life of twenty more of the
same profession? Yes, Sir,” says he, “I would give Christ and the
Blessed Virgin thanks all my days, if I could be made the least happy
instrument of saving the souls of these poor men, though I was
never to set my foot off this island, or see my native country any more.
But since you will honour me,” says he, “with putting me into this
work, for which I will pray for you all the days of my life, I have one
humble petition to you,” said he, “besides.” – “What is that?”
said I. “Why,” says he, “it is, that you will leave your man
Friday with me, to be my interpreter to them, and to assist me; for
without some help I cannot speak to them, or they to me.”
I was sensibly troubled at his requesting Friday, because I could
not think of parting with him, and that for many reasons. He had
been the companion of my travels; he was not only faithful to me,
but sincerely affectionate to the last degree; and I had resolved to do
something considerable for him if he outlived me, as it was probable
he would. Then I knew that as I had bred Friday up to be a Pro-
testant, it would quite confound him to bring him to embrace another
profession; and he would never, while his eyes were open, believe
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that his old master was a heretic, and would be damned; and this
might in the end ruin the poor fellow's principles, and so turn him
to his first idolatry.
However, a sudden thought relieved me in this strait, and it was
this: I told him I could not say that I was willing to part with Friday
on any account whatever; though a work that to him was of more
value than his life, ought to be to me of much more value than the
keeping or parting with a servant. But on the other hand, I was
persuaded, that Friday would by no means consent to part with me;
and then to force him to it without his consent would be manifest
injustice, because I had promised I would never put him away, and
he had promised and engaged to me that he would never leave me
unless I put him away.
He seemed very much concerned at it; for he had no rational
access to these poor people, seeing he did not understand one word
of their language, nor they one word of his. To remove this diffi-
culty, I told him Friday's father had learnt Spanish, which I found
he also understood, and he should serve him for an interpreter; so
he was much better satisfied, and nothing could persuade him but he
would stay to endeavour to convert them; but Providence gave ano-
ther and very happy turn to all this.
I come back now to the first part of his objections. When we
came to the Englishmen I sent for them all together; and after some
account given them of what I had done for them, viz. what necessary
things I had provided for them, and how they were distributed,
which they were very sensible of, and very thankful for; I began to
talk to them of the scandalous life they led, and gave them a full
account of the notice the clergyman had already taken of it; and
arguing how unchristian and irreligious a life it was, I first asked
them if they were married or bachelors? They soon explained their
condition to me, and showed me that two of them were widowers,
and the other three were single men or bachelors. I asked them with
what conscience they could take these women, and lie with them as
they had done, call them their wives, and have so many children by
them, and not be married lawfully to them?
They all gave me the answer that I expected, viz. that there was
nobody to marry them; that they agreed before the governor to keep
them as their wives; and to keep them and own them as their wives;
23 *
356
and they thought, as things stood with them, they were as legally
married as if they had been married by a parson, and with all the
formalitics in the world. -
I told them that no doubt they were married in the sight of God,
and were bound in conscience to keep them as their wives; but that
the laws of men being otherwise, they might pretend they were not
married, and so desert the poor women and children hereafter; and
that their wives, being poor, desolate women, friendless and mo-
neyless, would have no way to help themselves: I therefore told
them, that unless I was assured of their honest intent, I could do
nothing for them; but would take care that what I did should be for
the women and their children without them; and that unless they
would give some assurances that they would marry the women, I
could not think it was convenient they should continue together as
man and wife; for that it was both scandalous to men and offensive
to God, who they could not think would bless them if they went on
thus. *
All this went on as I expected; and they told me, especially Will
Atkins, who seemed now to speak for the rest, that they loved their
wives as well as if they had been born in their own native country,
and would not leave them upon any account whatever; and they did
verily believe their wives were as virtuous and as modest, and did
to the utmost of their skill as much for them and for their children as
any women could possibly do, and they would not part with them on
any account: and Will Atkins for his own particular added, if any
man would take him away, and offer to carry him home to England,
and make him captain of the best man-of-war in the navy, he would
not go with him if he might not carry his wife and children with him;
and if there was a clergyman in the ship, he would be married to her
now with all his heart.
This was just as I would have it. The priest was not with me at
that moment, but was not far off. So to try him farther, I told him
I had a clergyman with me, and if he was sincere I would have him
married the next morning, and bade him consider of it, and talk with
the rest. He said, as for himself, he necd not consider of it at all,
for he was very ready to do it, and was glad I had a minister with me;
and he believed they would be all willing also. I then told him that
my friend the minister was a Frenchman, and could not speak
357
English, but that I would act the clerk between them. He never so
much as asked me whether he was a Papist or Protestant, which was
indecd what I was afraid of. But I say they never inquired about it.
So we parted; I went back to my clergyman, and Will Atkins went
in to talk with his companions. I desired the French gentleman not
to say any thing to them till the business was thorough ripe, and I
told him what answer the men had given me.
Before I went from their quarter they all came to me, and told
me, they had been considering what I had said; that they were very
glad to hear I had a clergyman in my company; and they were very
willing to give me the satisfaction I desired, and to be formally
married as soon as I pleased; for they were far from desiring to part
from their wives; and that they meant nothing but what was very
honest when they chose them. So I appointed them to meet me the
next morning, and that in the mean time they should let their wives
know the meaning of the marriage law; and that it was not only to
prevent any scandal, but also to oblige them that they should not
forsake them, whatever might happen.
The women were easily made sensible of the meaning of the thing,
and were very well satisfied with it, as indeed they had reason to be;
so they failed not to attend all together at my apartment the next
morning, where I brought out my clergyman; and though he had
not on a minister's gown, after the manner of England, or the habit
of a priest, after the manner of France; yet having a black west,
something like a cassock, with a sash round it, he did not look very
unlike a minister; and as for his language I was his interpreter.
But the seriousness of his behaviour to them, and the scruple he
made of marrying the women because they were not baptized, and
professed Christians, gave them an exceeding reverence for his per-
son; and there was no need after that to inquire whether he was a
clergyman or no.
Indeed I was afraid his scruple would have been carried so far as
that he would not have married them at all: nay, notwithstanding all
I was able to say to him, he resisted me, though modestly, yet very
steadily; and at last refused absolutely to marry them, unless he had
first talked with the men and the women too; and though at first I
was a little backward to it, yet at last I agreed to it with a good will,
perceiving the sincerity of his design.
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When he came to them, he let them know that I had acquainted
him with their circumstances, and with the present design; that he
was very willing to perform that part of his function, and marry them
as I had desired; but that before he could do it, he must take the
liberty to talk with them. He told them that in the sight of all in-
different men, and in the sense of the laws of society, they had lived
all this while in an open adultery; and that it was true that nothing
but the consenting to marry, or effectually separating them from one
another now, could put an end to it; but there was a difficulty in it
too, with respect to the laws of Christian matrimony, which he was
not fully satisfied about, viz. that of marrying one that is a professed
Christian to a savage, an idolater, and a heathen, one that is not
baptized; and yet that he did not see that there was time left for it to
endeavour to persuade the women to be baptized, or to profess the
name of Christ, whom they had, he doubted, heard nothing of,
and without which they could not be baptized.
He told me he doubted they were but indifferent Christians them-
selves; that they had but little knowledge of God or of his ways, and
therefore he could not expect that they had said much to their wives
on that head yet; but that unless they would promise him to use their
endeavours with their wives to persuade them to become Christians,
and would as well as they could instruct them in the knowledge and
belief of God that made them, and to worship Jesus Christ that
redeemed them, he could not marry them; for he would have no hand
in joining Christians with savages; nor was it consistent with the
principles of the Christian religion, and was indeed expressly for-
bidden in God's law.
They heard all this very attentively, and I delivered it very faith-
fully to them from his mouth, as near his own words as I could, only
sometimes adding something of my own, to convince them how just
it was, and how I was of his mind: and I always very faithfully
distinguished between what I said from myself and what were the
clergyman's words. They told me it was very true what the gentleman
had said, that they were but very indifferent Christians themselves,
and that they had never talked to their wives about religion. —
“Lord, Sir,” says Will Atkins, “how should we teach them reli-
gion? Why, we know nothing ourselves; and besides, Sir,” said
he, “should we go to talk to them of God, and Jesus Christ, and
359
heaven and hell, 't would be to make them laugh at us, and ask us
what we believe ourselves? and if we should tell them we believe all
the things that we speak of to them, such as of good people going to
heaven, and wicked people to the devil, they would ask us, where
we intended to go ourselves who believe all this, and are such wicked
fellows, as we indeed are: why, Sir, "t is enough to give them a
surfeit of religion, at first hearing: folks must have some religion
themselves before they pretend to teach other people.” – “Will
Atkins,” said I to him, “though I am afraid what you say has too
much truth in it, yet can you not tell your wife that she is in the
wrong; that there is a God, and a religion better than her own; that
her gods are idols; that they can neither hear or speak; that there is
a great Being that made all things, and that can destroy all that he
has made; that he rewards the good, and punishes the bad; that we
are to be judged by him, at last, for all we do here? You are not so
ignorant but even nature itself will teach you that all this is true; and
I am satisfied you know it all to be true, and believe it yourself.”
“That's true, Sir,” said Atkins; “but with what face can I say
any thing to my wife of all this, when she will tell me immediately it
cannot be true?” -
“Not true !” said I; “what do you mean by that?’” — “Why,
Sir,” said he, “she will tell me it cannot be true: that this God, I
shall tell her of, can be just, or can punish or reward, since I am
not punished and sent to the devil, that have been such a wicked
creature as she knows I have been, even to her, and to every body
else; and that I should be suffered to live, that have been always
acting so contrary to what I must tell her is good, and to what I ought
to have done.”
“Why truly, Atkins,” said I, “I am afraid thou speakest too
much truth;" and with that I let the clergyman know what Atkins
had said, for he was impatient to know. “O!” said the priest, “tell
him there is one thing will make him the best minister in the world to
his wife, and that is repentance; for none teach repentance like true
penitents. He wants nothing but to repent, and then he will be so
much the better qualified to instruct his wife; he will then be able to
tell her, that there is not only a God, and that he is the just rewarder
of good and evil; but that he is a merciful Being, and, with infinite
goodness and long-suffering, forbears to punish those that offend;
360
****
****
waiting to be gracious, and willing not the death of a sinner, but
rather that he should return and live; that he often suffers wicked
men to go on a long time, and even reserves damnation to the general
day of retribution: that it is a clear evidence of God, and of a future
state, that righteous men receive not their reward, or wicked men
their punishment, till they come into another world; and this will
lead him to teach his wife the doctrine of the resurrection, and of the
last judgment: let him but repent for himself, he will be an excellent
preacher of repentance to his wife.”
I repeated all this to Atkins, who looked very serious all the
while, and who, we could easily perceive, was more than ordinarily
aſſected with it: when being eager, and hardly suffering me to make
an end — “I know all this, master,” says he, “and a great deal
more; but I han't the impudence to talk thus to my wife, when God
and my own conscience knows, and my wife will be an undeniable
evidence against me, that I have lived as if I had never heard of God,
or a future state, or any thing about it; and to talk of my repenting,
alas!” and with that he fetched a deep sigh; and I could see that tears
stood in his eyes, “’t is past all that with me.” – “Past it, Atkins!”
said I; “what dost thou mean by that?” – “I know well enough
what I mean, Sir,” says he; “I mean't is too late; and that is too
true.”
I told my clergyman word for word what he said. The poor zealous
priest, I must call him so; for, be his opinion what it will, he had
certainly a most singular affection for the good of other men's souls;
and it would be hard to think he had not the like for his own, – I say,
this zealous, affectionate man could not refrain tears also; but re-
covering himself, he said to me, “Ask him but one question: Is
he easy that it is too late, or is he troubled, and wishes it were not
so?” I put the question fairly to Atkins; and he answered with a
great deal of passion, “How could any man be easy in a condition
that certainly must end in eternal destruction? That he was far from
being easy; but that, on the contrary, he believed it would one time
or other ruin him.”
“What do you mean by that?” said I. — “Why,” he said, “he
believed he should, one time or other, cut his own throat to put an
end to the terror of it.”
The clergyman shook his head, with a great concern in his face,
361
when I told him all this; but turning quick to me upon it, said, “If
that be his case, you may assure him it is not too late; Christ will
give him repentance. But pray,” says he, “explain this to him,
that as no man is saved but by Christ, and the merit of his passion,
procuring divine mercy for him, how can it be too late for any man to
receive mercy? Does he think he is able to sin beyond the power or
reach of divine mercy? Pray tell him, there may be a time when
provoked mercy will no longer strive, and when God may refuse to
hear; but that "t is never too late for men to ask mercy; and we that
are Christ's servants are commanded to preach mercy at all times, in
the name of Jesus Christ, to all those that sincerely repent: S0 that
’t is never too late to repent.”
I told Atkins all this, and he heard me with great earnestness;
but it seemed as if he turned off the discourse to the rest; for he said
to me he would go and have some talk with his wife: so he went out
awhile, and we talked to the rest. I perceived they were all stupidly
ignorant as to matters of religion; much as I was when I went
rambling away from my father; and yet there were none of them
backward to hear what had been said; and all of them seriously pro-
mised that they would talk with their wives about it, and do their
endeavour to persuade them to turn Christians.
The clergyman smiled upon me when I reported what answer they
gave, but said nothing a good while; but at last shaking his head,
“We that are Christ's servants,” says he, “can go no farther than to
exhort and instruct; and when men comply, submit to the reproof,
and promise what we ask, 'tis all we can do; we are bound to accept
their good words; but believe me, Sir,” said he, “whatever you
may have known of the liſe of that man you call William Atkins, I be-
lieve he is the only sincere convert among them; I take that man to
be a true penitent; I won't despair of the rest; but that man is appa-
rently struck with the sense of his past life; and I doubt not but when
he comes to talk of religion to his wife, he will talk himself effectually
into it; for attempting to teach others is sometimes the best way of
teaching ourselves. I knew a man,” added he, “who having nothing
but a summary notion of religion himself, and being wicked and
profligate to the last degree in his life, made a thorough reformation
in himself by labouring to convert a Jew; if that poor Atkins begins
but once to talk seriously of Jesus Christ to his wife, my life for it he
362
talks himself into a thorough convert, makes himself a penitent; and
who knows what may follow.”
Upon this discourse, however, and their promising as above to
endeavour to persuade their wives to embrace Christianity, he mar-
ried the other three couple; but Will Atkins and his wife were not
yet come in. After this, my clergyman waiting awhile, was curious
to know where Atkins was gone; and turning to me, says he, “I
entreat you, Sir, let us walk out of your labyrinth here and look;
I dare say we shall find this poor man somewhere or other, talking
serieusly to his wife, and teaching her already something of religion.”
I began to be of the same mind: so we went out together, and I car-
ricq him a way which none knew but myself, and where the trees
were so thick set, as that it was not easy to see through the thicket of
leaves, and far harder to see in than to see out; when coming to the
edge of the wood I saw Atkins, and his tawny savage wife, sitting
under the shade of a bush, very eager in discourse. I stopped short
till my clergyman came up to me, and then having showed him where
they were, we stood and looked very steadily at them a good while.
We observed him very earnest with her, pointing up to the sun,
and to every quarter of the heavens; then down to the earth, then
out to the sea, then to himself, then to her, to the woods, to the
trees. “Now,” says my clergyman, “you see my words are made
good; the man preaches to her; mark him; now he is telling her
that our God has made him, and her, and the heavens, the earth,
the sea, the woods, the trees, &c.” – “I believe he is,” said I.
Immediately we perceived Will Atkins start up upon his feet, fall
down on his knees, and lift up both his hands; we supposed he said
something, but we could not hear him; it was too far for that: he
did not continue kneeling half a minute, but comes and sits down
again by his wife, and talks to her again. We perceived then the
woman very attentive, but whether she said any thing or no we could
not tell. While the poor fellow was upon his knees, I could see the
tears run plentifully down my clergyman's cheeks; and I could hardly
forbear myself; but it was a great aſiliction to us both, that we were
not near enough to hear any thing that passed between them.
Well, however, we could come no nearer for fear of disturbing
them; so we resolved to see an end of this piece of still conversation,
and it spoke loud enough to us without the help of voice. He sat
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down again, as I have said, close by her, and talked again earnestly
to her, and two or three times we could see him embrace her most
passionately; another time we saw him take out his handkerchief and
wipe her eyes, and then kiss her again, with a kind of transport very
unusual; and after several of these things, we saw him on a sudden
jump up again and lend her his hand to help her up, when immediate-
ly leading her by the hand a step or two, they both kneeled down
together, and continued so about two minutes.
My friend could bear it no longer, but cries out aloud, “St. Paul,
St. Paul, behold he prayeth !” -— I was afraid Atkins would hear
him; therefore I entreated him to withhold himself awhile, that we
might see an end of the scene, which to me, I must confess, was
the most affecting, and yet the most agreeable that ever I saw in my
life. Well, he strove with himself, and contained himself for
awhile, but was in such raptures of joy to think that the poor heathen
woman was become a Christian, that he was not able to contain him-
self; he wept several times: then throwing up his hands, and cross-
ing his breast, said over several things ejaculatory, and by way of
giving God thanks for so miraculous a testimony of the success of our
endeavours: some he spoke softly, and I could not well hear; others
audibly; some in Latin, some in French; then two or three times
the tears of joy would interrupt him, that he could not speak at all.
But I begged that he would compose himself, and let us more nar-
rowly and fully observe what was before us, which he did for a time,
and the scene was not ended there yet; for after the poor man and his
wife were risen again from their knees, we observed he stood talking
still eagerly to her; and we observed by her motion that she was
greatly affected with what he said, by her frequent lifting up her
hands, laying her hand to her breast, and such other postures as
usually express the greatest seriousness and attention. This conti-
nued about half a quarter of an hour, and then they walked away too:
so that we could see no more of them in that situation.
I took this interval to talk with my clergyman; and first I told
him, I was glad to see the particulars we had both been witnesses to;
that though I was hard enough of belief in such cases, yet that I
began to think it was all very sincere here, both in the man and his
wife, however ignorant they might both be; and I hoped such a be-
ginning would have yet a more happy end: “And who knows,” said
364
I, “but these two may in time, by instruction and example, work
upon some of the others?” – “Some of them l’” said he, turning
quick upon me, “ay, upon all of them: depend upon it, if those
two savages, for he has been but little better as you relate it, should
embrace Jesus Christ, they will never leave till they work upon all
the rest: for true religion is naturally communicative, and he that
is once made a Christian will never leave a Pagan behind him if he
can help it.” I owned it was a most Christian principle to think so,
and a testimony of a true zeal, as well as a generous heart in him.
“But, my friend,” said I, “will you give me leave to start one
difficulty here? I cannot tell how to object the least thing against
that affectionate concern which you show for the turning the poor
people from their Paganism to the Christian religion; but how does
this comfort you, while these people are, in your account, out of
the pale of the Catholic church, without which, you believe, there
is no Salvation; so that you esteem these but heretics; and, for other
reasons, as effectually lost as the Pagans themselves?”
To this he answered with abundance of candour and Christian
charity, thus: “Sir, I am a Catholic of the Roman church, and a
priest of the order of St. Benedict, and I embrace all the principles
of the Roman faith. But yet, if you will believe me, and that I do
not speak in compliment to you, or in respect to my circumstances
and your civilities; I say, nevertheless, I do not look upon you, who
call yourselves reformed, without some charity; I dare not say,
though I know it is our opinion in general; I say, I dare not say, that
you cannot be saved; I will by no means limit the mercy of Christ,
so far as to think that he cannot receive you into the bosom of his
church, in a manner to us unperceivable, and which it is impossible
for us to know; and I hope you have the same charity for us. I pray
daily for your being all restored to Christ's church, by whatsoever
methods he, who is all-wise, is pleased to direct. In the mean
time, sure you will allow it to consist with me, as a Roman, to
distinguish far between a Protestant and a Pagan; between one that
calls on Jesus Christ, though in a way which I do not think is accord-
ing to the true faith; and a savage, a barbarian, that knows no God,
no Christ, no Redeemer; and if you are not within the pale of the
Catholic church, we hope you are nearer being restored to it than
those that know nothing of God or his church. I rejoice, therefore,
365
when I see this poor man, who, you say, has been a profligate, and
almost a murderer, kneel down and pray to Jesus Christ, as we
suppose he did, though not fully enlightened; believing that God,
from whom every such work proceeds, will sensibly touch his heart,
and bring him to the further knowledge of the truth in his own time;
and if God shall influence this poor man to convert and instruct the
ignorant savage his wife, I can never believe that he shall be cast
away himself; and have I not reason then to rejoice the nearer any
are brought to the knowledge of Christ, though they may not be
brought quite home into the bosom of the Catholic church, just at
the time when I may desire it; leaving it to the goodness of Christ to
perfect his work in his own time, and in his own way? Certainly I
would rejoice if all the savages in America were brought, like this
poor woman, to pray to God, though they were to be all Protestants
at first, rather than they should continue pagans and heathens; firmly
believing, that He who had bestowed that first light upon them, would
further illuminate them with a beam of his heavenly grace, and bring
them into the pale of his church, when he should see good.”
I was astonished at the sincerity and temper of this truly pious
Papist, as much as I was oppressed by the power of his reasoning;
and it presently occurred to my thoughts, that if such a temper was
universal, we might be all Catholic Christians, whatever church or
particular profession we joined to, or joined in; that a spirit of
charity would soon work us all up into right principles; and, in a
word, as he thought that the like charity would make us all Catholics,
so I told him, I believed had all the members of his church the like
moderation they would soon be all Protestants; and there we left that
part, for we never disputed at all.
However, I talked to him another way; and taking him by the
hand, “My friend,” said I, “I wish all the clergy of the Roman
church were blessed with such moderation, and an equal share of
your charity. I am entirely of your opinion; but I must tell you,
that if you should preach such doctrine in Spain or Italy, they would
put you into the Inquisition.”
“It may be so,” said he; “I know not what they might do in
Spain and Italy; but I will not say they would be the better Chris-
tians for that severity; for I am sure there is no heresy in too much
charity.”
366
Well, as Will Atkins and his wife were gone, our business there
was over; so we went back our own way; and when we came back
we found them waiting to be called in. Observing this, I asked my
clergyman, if we should discover to him that we had seen him under
the bush, or no; and it was his opinion we should not; but that we
should talk to him first, and hear what he would say to us: so we
called him in alone, nobody being in the place but ourselves; and I
began with him thus:
“Will Atkins,” said I, “pr’ythee what education had you? What
was your father?”
W. A. A better man than ever I shall be. Sir, my father was a
clergyman.
R. C. What education did he give you?
J/. A. He would have taught me well, Sir; but I despised all
education, instruction, or correction, like a beast as I was.
R. C. It is true, Solomon says, “He that despiseth reproof is
brutish.”
J/. A. Ay, Sir, I was brutish indeed; I murdered my father;
for God's sake, Sir, talk no more about that, Sir; I murdered my
poor father.
Pr. Ha! a murderer?
(Here the priest started, for I interpreted every word as he
spoke it, and looked pale: it seems he believed that Will
had really killed his own father.)
R. C. No, no, Sir, I do not understand him so. Will Atkins,
explain yourself: you did not kill your father, did you, with your own
hands?
JW. A. No, Sir; I did not cut his throat; but I cut the thread of
all his comforts, and shortened his days; I broke his heart by the
most ungrateful, unnatural return for the most tender, affectionate
treatment that ever father gave, or child could receive.
R. C. Well, I did not ask you about your father to extort this
confession; I pray God give you repentance for it, and forgive you
that and all your other sins; but I asked you, because I see that,
though you have not much learning, yet you are not so ignorant as
some are in things that are good; that you have known more of reli-
gion a great deal than you have practised.
JW. A. Though you, Sir, did not extort the confession that I
367
make about my father, conscience does; and whenever we come to
look back upon our lives, the sins against our indulgent parents are
certainly the first that touch us; the wounds they make lie deepest;
and the weight they leave will lie heaviest upon the mind of all the sins
we can commit.
R. C. You talk too feelingly and sensible for me, Atkins; I
cannot bear it.
IP. A. You bear it, master! I dare say you know nothing of it.
R. C. Yes, Atkins, every shore, every hill, nay, I may say
cvery tree in this island, is witness to the anguish of my soul for my
ingratitude and base usage of a good tender father; a father much
like yours by your description; and I murdered my father as well as
you, Will Atkins; but think for all that, my repentance is short of
yours too, by a great deal.
(I would have said more, if I could have restrained my pas-
sions; but I thought this poor man's repentance was so
much sincerer than mine, that I was going to leave off the
discourse and retire, for I was surprised with what he said,
and thought, that, instead of my going about to teach and
instruct him, the man was made a teacher and instructor to
me, in a most surprising and unexpected manner.)
I laid all this before the young clergyman, who was greatly affected
with it, and said to me, “Did I not say, Sir, that when this man
was converted he would preach to us all? I tell you, Sir, if this one
man be made a true penitent, here will be no need of me, he will
make Christians of all in the island.” But having a little composed
myself I renewed my discourse with Will Atkins.
“But, Will,” said I, “how comes the sense of this matter to
touch you just now?”
h’. A. Sir, you have set me about a work that has struck a dart
through my very soul; I have been talking about God and religion to
my Wife, in order, as you directed me, to make a Christian of her;
and she has preached such a sermon to me as I shall never forget
while I live.
R. C. No, no; it is not your wife has preached to you; but
when you were moving religious arguments to her, conscience has
ſlung them back upon you.
//. A. Ay Sir, with such a force as is not to be resisted.
368
R. C. Pray, Will, let us know what passed between you and
your wiſe; for I know something of it already.
W. A. Sir, it is impossible to give you a full account of it: I am
too full to hold it, and yet have no tongue to express it: but let her
have said what she will, and though I cannot give you an account of
it, this I can tell you of it, that I resolve to amend and reform
my life.
R. C. But tell us some of it. How did you begin, Will? for
this has been an extraordinary case, that is certain; she has preached
a sermon indeed, if she has wrought this upon you.
M. A. Why, I first told her the nature of our laws about mar-
riage, and what the reasons were that men and women were obliged
to enter into such compacts as it was neither in the power of one or
other to break; that otherwise, order and justice could not be main-
tained, and men would run from their wives and abandon their
children, mix confusedly with one another, and neither families be
kept entire, or inheritances be settled by legal descent.
R. C. You talk like a civilian, Will. Could you make her
understand what you meant by inheritance and families? They know
no such thing among the savages but marry any how, without regard
to relation, consanguinity, or family; brother and sister, nay, as
I have been told, even the father and daughter, and the son and the
mother.
JP. A. I believe, Sir, you are misinformed; — my wife assures
me of the contrary, and that they abhor it. Perhaps for any further
relations they may not be so exact as we are; but she tells me they
never touch one another in the near relations you speak of.
R. C. Well, what did she say to what you told her?
W. A. She said she liked it very well; and it was much better
than in her country.
It. C. But did you tell her what marriage was?
IP. A. Ay, ay; there began all our dialogue. I asked her, if
she would be married to me our way? She asked me, what way that
was? I told her marriage was appointed of God; and here we had a
strange talk together indeed, as ever man and wife had, I believe.
(N. B. This dialogue between W. Atkins and his wife, as I
took it down in writing, just after he told it me, was as
follows:)
369
IPīſh. Appointed by your God! Why, have you a God in your
country'
IP. A. Yes, my dear; God is in every country.
JPiſe. No your God in my country; my country have the great
old Benamuckee God.
IP. A. Child, I am very unſit to show you who God is; God is
in heaven, and made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and all that
in them is.
JP'ife. No makee de earth; no you God makec de earth; no
makee my country.
(W. A. laugked a little at her expression of God not making
her country.)
JWife. No laugh: why laugh me? This noting to laugh.
(He was justly reproved by his wife, for she was more serious
than he at first.)
JW. A. That's true, indeed; I will not laugh any more, my dear.
Jºſe. Why you say, you God make all?
J.P. A. Yes, child, our God made the whole world, and you,
and me, and all things; for he is the only true God, there is no God
but he ; he lives for ever in heaven.
//iſe. Why you no tell me long ago?
J.P. A. That's true, indeed; but I have been a wicked wretch,
and have not only forgotten to acquaint thee with any thing before,
but have lived without God in the world myself.
I/iſe. What have you de great God in your country, you no know
him? No say 0 to him? No do good ting for him? That no possible !
J.P. A. It is too true though, for all that: we live as if there was
no God in heaven, or that he had no power on earth.
JWiſe. But why God let you do so? Why he no makee you good
live?
J/. A. It is all our own fault.
JP'ife. But you say me he is great, much great, have much great
power; can makee kill when he will: why he no makee kill when you
no serve him? no say 0 to him? no be good mans.
JP. A. That is true; he might strike me dead, and I ought to
expect it; for I have been a wicked wretch, that is true: but God is
merciful, and does not deal with us as we deserve.
//iſe. But then do not you tell God tankee for that too?
180binson Crusoe, t 24
370
IP. A. No, indeed; I have not thanked God for his mercy, any
more than I have feared God for his power.
J/ife. Then you God no God; me no tink, believe he be such
one, great much power, strong; no makee kill you, though you
makee him much angry?
JP. A. What! will my wicked life hinder you from believing in
God! What a dreadful creature am Il And what a sad truth is it, that
the horrid lives of Christians hinder the conversion of heathens!
JWife. How me tink you have great much God up there, (she
points up to heaven) and yet no do well, no do good ting? Can he
tell? Sure he no tell what you do.
J.P. A. Yes, yes, he knows and sees all things; he hears us
speak, sees what we do, knows what we think, though we do not
speak.
Jºſe. What! he no hear you swear, curse, speak the great
damn?
J.P. A. Yes, yes, he hears it all.
JP'ife. Where be then the muchee great power strong?
JW. A. He is merciful; that is all we can say for it; and this
proves him to be the true God: he is God, and not man; and there-
forc we are not consumed.
(Here Will Atkins told us he was struck with horror to think
how he could tell his wife so clearly that God sees, and hears,
and knows the secret thoughts of the heart, and all that we
do; and yet that he had dared to do all the vile things he had
done.)
JPiſo. Merciful! what you call dat?
JP. A. He is our father and maker; and he pities and spares us.
Jºſe. So then he never makee kill, never angry when you do
wicked; then he no good himself, or no great able.
JP. A. Yes, yes, my dear; he is infinitely good, and infinitely
great, and able to punish too; and sometimes, to show his justice
and vengeance, he lets fly his anger to destroy sinners and make
examples; many are cut off in their sins.
Jºſe. But no makee kill you yet; then he tell you, may be, that
he no makee you kill, so you makee de bargain with him, you do bad
ting, he no be angry at you, when he be angry at other mans?
JP. A. No, indeed, my sins are all presumptions upon his good-
371
mess; and he would be infinitely just if he destroyed me as he has done
other men.
JP'ſſe. Well, and yet no kill, no makee you dead! What you
say to him for that? You no tell him tankee for all that too!
J/. A. I am an unthankful, ungrateful dog, that is true.
JP'ſſe. Why he no makee you much good better? You say he
makee you.
J}^. A. He made me as he made all the world; ’t is I have de-
formed myself, and abused his goodness, and have made myself an
abominable wretch. -
Jºſe. I wish you makee God know me; I no makee him angry;
I no do bad wicked ting. -
(Here Will Atkins said his heart sunk within him, to hear a
poor, untaught creature desire to be taught to know God,
and he such a wicked wretch that he could not say one word
to her about God, but what the reproach of his own carriage
would make most irrational to her to believe; nay, that
already she had told him, that she could not believe in God,
because he that was so wicked was not destroyed.)
JP. A. My dear, you mean you wish I could teach you to know
God, not God to know you for he knows you already, and every
thought in your heart.
Jºſe. Why then he know what I say to you now; he know me
wish to know him; how shall me know who makee me?
JP. A. Poor creature, he must teach thee, I cannot teach thee;
I'll pray to him to teach thee to know him; and to forgive me that I
am unworthy to teach thee.
(The poor fellow was in such agony at her desiring him to make
her know God, and her wishing to know him, that he said
he fell down on his knees before her, and prayed to God to,
cnlighten her mind with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ,
and to pardon his sins, and accept of his being the unworthy
instrument of instructing her in the principles of religion;
after which he sat down by her again, and their dialogue
Went On.
N. B. This was the time when we saw him kneel down and lift.
up his hands.)
24 *
372
JPiſa. What you put down the knee for? What you hold up the
hand for? What you say? Who you speak to? What is all that?
JP. A. My dear, I bow my knees in token of my submission to
Him that made me: I said O to him, as you call it, and as you say
your old men do to their idol Benamuckee; that is, I prayed to him.
JPiſe. What you say 0 to him for?
JP. A. I prayed to him to open your eyes and your understand-
ing, that you may know him, and be accepted by him,
JWife. Can he do that too?
JP. A. Yes, he can; he can do all things.
JPiſe. But now he hear what you say?
JW. A. Yes, he has bid us pray to him; and promised to hear us.
JPiſe. Bidyou pray? When he bid you? How he bid you? What
you hear him speak?
JP. A. No, we do not hear him speak; but he has revealed him-
self many ways to us.
(Here he was at a great loss to make her understand that God
has revealed himself to us by his word; and what his word
was; but at last he told it her thus:)
JP. A. God has spoken to some good men in former days, even
from heaven, by plain words; and God has inspired good men by his
Spirit; and they have written all his laws down in a book.
Jºſe. Me no understand that: where is book?
JP. A. Alas! my poor creature, I have not this book; but I hope
I shall, one time or other, get it for you and help you to read it.
(Here he embraced her with great affection; but with inex-
pressible gricf, that he had not a Bible.)
Jºſe. But how you makce me know that God teachee them to
write that book?
J/. A. By the same rule that we know him to be God.
JJ’iſe. What rule? what way you know?
J.P. A. Because he teaches and commands nothing but what is
good, righteous, and holy, and tends to make us perfectly good, as
well as perfectly happy; and because he forbids, and commands us
to avoid, all that is wicked, that is evil in itself, or evil in its con-
sequences.
JP'ife. That me would understand, that me fain see; if he re-
ward all good thing, punish all wicked thing, he teachee all good
373
thing, forbid all wicked thing, he makee all thing, he give all thing;
he hear me when I say 0 to him, as you go do just now; he makee
me good if I wish be good; he spare me, no makee kill me when I
no be good; all this you say he do: yes, he be great God; me take,
think, believe him be great God; me say 0 to him too with you, my
dear.
Here the poor man said he could forbear no longer; but, raising
her up, made her kneel by him; and he prayed to God aloud to
instruct her in the knowledge of himself by his Spirit, and that by
some good providence, if possible, she might some time or other
come to have a Bible, that she might read the word of God, and be
taught by it to know him.
(This was the time that we saw him lift her up by the hand,
and saw him kneel down by her, as above.)
They had several other discourses, it seems, after this, too long
to set down here; and particularly she made him promise, that,
since he confessed his own life had been a wicked, abominable course
of provocations against God, that he would reform it, and not make
God angry any more, lest he should make him dead as she called it,
and then she should be left alone, and never be taught to know this
God better; and lest he should be miserable, as he had told her
wicked men should be after death.
This was a strange account, and very affecting to us both, but
particularly to the young clergyman; he was indeed wonderfully
surprised with it; but under the greatest affliction imaginable that he
could not talk to her; that he could not speak English to make her
understand him; and as she spoke but very broken English he could
not understand her. However, he turned himself to me, and told
me, that he believed there must be more to do with this woman than
to marry her. I did not understand him at first, but at length he
explained himself, viz. that she ought to be baptized.
I agreed with him in that part readily, and was for going about it
presently: “No, no; hold, Sir,” said he; “though I would have
her be baptized by all means, yet I must observe, that Will Atkins,
her husband, has indeed brought her, in a wonderful manner, to
be willing to embrace a religious life; and has given her just ideas of
the being of a God, of his power, justice, and mercy; yet I desire
to know of him, if he has said any thing to her of Jesus Christ, and
374
of the salvation of sinners; of the nature of faith in him, and redemp-
tion by him; of the Holy Spirit, the resurrection, the last judgment,
and a future state.”
I called Will Atkins again, and asked him; but the poor fellow
ſell immediately into tears, and told us he had said something to her
of all those things, but that he was himself so wicked a creature, and
his own conscience so reproached him with his horrid, ungodly life,
that he trembled at the apprehensions, that her knowledge of him
should lessen the attention she should give to those things, and make
her rather contemn religion than receive it: but he was assured, he
said, that her mind was so disposed to receive due impressions of all
those things, that, if I would but discourse with her, she would
make it appear to my satisfaction that my labour would not be
lost upon her.
Accordingly I called her in , and placing myself as interpreter
between my religious priest and the woman, I entreated him to begin
with her. But sure such a sermon was never preached by a popish
priest in these latter ages of the world; and, as I told him, I thought
he had all the zeal, all the knowledge, all the sincerity of a Christian,
without the errors of a Roman Catholic ; and that I took him to be
such a clergyman as the Roman bishops were before the church of
Rome assumed spiritual sovereignty over the consciences of men.
In a word, he brought the poor woman to embrace the knowledge of
Christ, and of redemption by him, not with wonder and astonishment
only, as she did the first notions of a God, but with joy and faith,
with an affection, and a surprising degree of understanding, scarce
to be imagined, much less to be expressed; and at her own request
she was baptized.
When he was preparing to baptize her, I entreated him, that he
would perform that office with some caution, that the man might not
perceive he was of the Roman church, if possible; because of other
ill consequences which might attend a difference among us in that
very religion which we were instructing the other in. He told me,
that as he had no consecrated chapel, no proper things for the office,
I should see he would do it in a manner that I should not know by it
that he was a Roman Catholic myself if I had not known it before, and
so he did; for saying only some words over to himself in Latin, which
I could not understand, he poured a whole dishfull of water upon the
375
woman's head, pronouncing in French very loud, Mary, which was
the name her husband desired me to give her, for I was her god-
father, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the IHoly Ghost; so that none could know any thing by it what
religion he was of: he have the benediction afterwards in Latin; but
either Will Atkins did not know but it was in French, or else did not
take notice of it at that time.
As soon as this was over, he married them; and after the marriage
was over, he turned himself to Will Atkins, and in a very affectionate
manner exhorted him not only to persevere in that good disposition he
was in, but to support the convictions that were upon him by a
resolution to reform his life; told him it was in vain to say he repented
if he did not forsake his crimes; represented to him, how God had
honoured him with being the instrument of bringing his wife to the
knowledge of the Christian religion; and that he should be careful he
did not dishonour the grace of God; and that if he did, he would see
the heathen a better Christian than himself; the savage converted,
and the instrument cast away.
He said a great many good things to them both, and then recom-
mending them, in a few words, to God's goodness; gave them the
benediction again, I repeating every thing to them in English: and
thus ended the ceremony. I think it was the most pleasant, agreeable
day to me that ever I passed in my whole life.
But my clergyman had not done yet; his thoughts hung continu-
ally upon the conversion of the thirthy-seven savages, and fain he
would have staid upon the island to have undertaken it; but I
convinced him, first, that his undertaking was impracticable in
itself; and secondly, that, perhaps, I would put it into a way of
being done, in his absence, to his satisfaction; of which by and by.
Having thus brought the affair of the island to a narrow compass,
I was preparing to go on board the ship, when the young man, whom
I had taken out of the famished ship's company, came to me, and
told me, he understood I had a clergyman with me, and that I had
caused the Englishmen to be married to the savages whom they called
wives; that he had a match too, which he desired might be finished
before I went, between two Christians, which he hoped would not be
disagreeable to me.
376
I knew this must be the young woman who was his mother's
servant, for there was no other Christian woman on the island. So
I began to persuade him not to do any thing of that kind rashly, or
because he found himself in this solitary circumstance. I represented
to him that he had some considerable substance in the world, and
good friends, as I understood by himself, and by his maid also; that
the maid was not only poor, and a servant, but was unequal to him,
she being twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, and he not above
seventeen or eighteen; that he might very probably, with my as-
sistance, make a remove from this wilderness, and come into his
own country again, and that then it would be a thousand to one but
he would repent his choice, and the dislike of that circumstance
might be disadvantageous to both. I was going to say more, but he
interrupted me, smiling; and told me, with a great deal of modesty,
that I mistook in my guesses; that he had nothing of that kind in his
thoughts, his present circumstances being melancholy and discon-
solate enough; and he was very glad to hear that I had thoughts of
putting them in a way to see their own country again; and that nothing
should have put him upon staying there, but that the voyage I was
going was so exceeding long and hazardous, and would carry him quite
out of the reach of all his friends; that he had nothing to desire of
me, but that I would settle him in some little property in the island
where he was; give him a servant or two, and some few necessaries,
and he would settle himself here like a planter, waiting the good time
when, if ever I returned to England, I would redeem him, and
hoped I would not be unmindful of him when I came to England; that
he would give me some letters to his friends in London, to let them
know how good I had been to him, and what part of the world, and
what circumstances I had left him in; and he promised me, that
whenever I redeemed him, the plantation, and all the improvements
he had made upon it, let the value be what it would, should be
wholly mine.
His discourse was very prettily delivered, considering his youth,
and was the more agreeable to me, because he told me positively the
match was not for himself. I gave him all possible assurances, that,
if I lived to come safe to England, I would deliver his letters, and
do his business effectually, and that he might depend I would never
forget the circumstances I had left him in. But still I was impatient
377
to know who was the person to be married; upon which he told me
it was my Jack of all Trades and his maid Susan.
I was most agreeably surprised when he named the match, for in-
deed I thought it very suitable. The character of that man I have given
already; and as for the maid, she was a very honest, modest, sober,
and religious young woman; had a very good share of sense; was
agreeable enough in her person; spoke very handsomely, and to the
purpose; always with decency and good manners, and not backwards
to speak when anything required it, or impertinently forward to
speak when it was not her business; very handy and housewifely in
any thing that was before her; an excellent manager, and ſit indeed
to have been governess to the whole island; she knew very well how
to behave herself to all kind of ſolks she had about her, and to better
if she had found any there.
The match being proposed in this manner, we married them the
same day: and as I was father at the altar, as I may say, and gave
her away, so I gave her a portion, for I appointed her and her
husband a handsome large space of ground for their plantation; and
indeed this match, and the proposal the young gentleman made, to
give him a small property in the island, put me upon parcelling it out
among them, that they might not quarrel afterwards about their
situation.
This sharing out the land to them I left to Will Atkins, who in-
deed was now grown a most sober, grave, managing fellow, per-
ſectly reformed, exceeding pious and religious, and as far as I may
be allowed to speak positively in such a case, I verily believe was a
true sincere penitent.
He divided things so justly and so much to everyone's satisfaction,
that they only desired one general writing under my hand for the
whole, which I caused to be drawn up, and signed and sealed to
them, setting out the bounds and situation of every man's plantation,
and testifying that I gave them thereby, severally, a right to the
whole possession and inheritance of the respective plantations or
farms, with their improvements, to them and their heirs; reserving
all the rest of the island as my own property, and a certain rent for
every particular plantation after eleven years, if I or any one from
me, or in my name, came to demand it, producing an attested copy
of the same writing.
378
As to the government and laws among them, I told them, I was
not capable of giving them better rules than they were able to give
themselves; only made them promise me to live in love and good
neighbourhood with one another: and so I prepared to leave them.
One thing I must not omit, and this is, that being now settled in
a kind of commonwealth among themselves, and having much busi-
ness in hand, it was but odd to have seven-and-thirty Indians live in
a nook of the island, independent, and indeed unemployed, for
excepting the providing themselves food, which they had difficulty
enough in too, sometimes, they had no manner of business or pro-
perty to manage: I proposed therefore to the governor Spaniard, that
he should go to them with Friday's father, and propose to them to
remove, and either plant for themselves, or take them into their
several families as servants, to be maintained for their labour, but
without being absolute slaves, for I would not admit them to make
them slaves by force by any means, because they had their liberty
given them by capitulation, and as it were articles of surrender,
which they ought not to break.
They most willingly embraced the proposal, and came all very
cheerfully along with him; so we allotted them land and plantations,
which three or four accepted of, but all the rest chose to be employed
as servants in the several families we had settled; and thus my colony
was in a manner settled as follows: The Spaniards possessed my
original habitation, which was the capital city, and extended their
plantations all along the side of the brook which made the creek that
I have so often described, as far as my bower; and as they increased
their culture, it went always eastward. The English lived in the
north-east part, where Will Atkins and his comrades began, and
came on southward and south-west, towards the back part of the
Spaniards; and every plantation had a great addition of land to take
in, if they found occasion, so that they need not jostle one another
for want of room.
All the west end of the island was left uninhabited, that if any of
the savages should come on shore there, only for their usual customary
barbarities, they might come and go; if they disturbed nobody,
nobody would disturb them; and no doubt but they were often ashore,
and went away again, for I never heard that the planters were ever
attacked or disturbed any more. *
379
It now came into my thoughts that I had hinted to my friend the
clergyman that the work of converting the savages might perhaps be
set on foot in his absence to his satisfaction; and I told him, that
now I thought it was put in a fair way, for the savages being thus
divided among the Christians, if they would but every one of them
do their part with those which came under their hands, I hoped it
might have a very good effect.
He agreed presently in that; “if,” said he, “they will do their
part; but how,” says he, “shall we obtain that of them?” I told
him we would call them all together, and leave it in charge with them,
or go to them one by one, which he thought best; so we divided
it—he to speak to the Spaniards, who were all Papists, and I to the
English, who were all Protestants; and we recommended it earnestly
to them, and made them promise that they would never make any
distinction of Papist or Protestant in their exhorting the savages to
turn Christians, but teach them the general knowledge of the true
God, and of their Saviour Jesus Christ; and they likewise promised
us that they would never have any differences or disputes one with
another about religion.
When I came to Will Atkins's house, I may call it so, for such a
house, or such a piece of basket-work, I believe was not standing in
the world again! I say, when I came there I found the young woman
I have mentioned above, and William Atkins's wife, were become
intimates; and this prudent, religious young woman had perfected
the work Will Atkins had begun; and though it was not above four
days after what I have related, yet the new-baptized savage woman
was made such a Christian as I have seldom heard of any like her, in
all my observation or conversation in the world.
It came next into my mind in the morning, before I went to them,
that among all the needful things I had to leave with them, I had not
left them a Bible; in which I showed myself less considering for them
than my good friend the widow was for me, when she sent me the
cargo of 100l. from Lisbon, where she packed up three Bibles and
a Prayer—book. However, the good woman's charity had a greater
extent than ever she imagined, for they were reserved for the comfort
and instruction of those that made much better use of them than I
had done.
I took one of the Bibles in my pocket; and when I came to William
380
Atkins's tent, or house, and found the young woman and Atkins's
baptized wife had been discoursing of religion together, for William
Atkins told it me with a great deal of joy, I asked if they were toge—
ther now? And he said yes; so I went into the house, and he with
me, and we found them together, very earnest in discourse: “O
Sir,” says William Atkins, “when God has sinners to reconcile to
himself, and aliens to bring home, he never wants a messenger: my
wife has got a new instructor—I knew I was unworthy, as I was
incapable of that work—that young woman has been sent hither from
Heaven—she is enough to convert a whole island of savages.” The
young woman blushed, and rose up to go away, but I desired her to
sit still; I told her she had a good work upon her hands, and I hoped
God would bless her in it.
We talked a little, and I did not perceive they had any book
among them, though I did not ask, but I put my hand in my pocket,
and pulled out my Bible. “Here,” said I to Atkins, “I have
brought you an assistant, that perhaps you had not before.” The
man was so confounded, that he was not able to speak for some time;
but recovering himself he takes it with both hands, and turning to his
wife, “Here my dear,” says he, “did not I tell you our God,
though he lives above, could hear what we said? Here is the book
I prayed for when you and I kneeled down under the bush; now God
has heard us, and sent it.” When he had said thus, the man fell
in such transports of a passionate joy, that between the joy of having
it, and giving God thanks for it, the tears ran down his face like a
child that was crying.
The woman was surprised, and was like to have run into a mistake
that none of us were aware of; for she firmly believed God had sent
the book upon her husband's petition: it is true that providentially it
was so, and might be taken so in a consequent sense; but I believe
it would have been no difficult matter at that time to have persuaded
the poor woman to have believed that an express incssenger came from
Heaven on purpose to bring that individual book; but it was too se—
rious a matter to suffer any delusion to take place: so I turned to the
young woman, and told her we did not desire to impose upon the new
convert in her first and more ignorant understanding of things, and
begged her to explain to her that God may be very properly said to
answer our petitions, when in the course of his providence such things
381
are in a particular manner brought to pass as we petitioned for; but
we do not expect returns from Heaven in a miraculous and particular
manner; and that it is our mercy that it is not so. -
This the young woman did afterwards effectually; so that there
was, I assure you, no priestcraft used here; and Ishould have thought
it one of the most unjustifiable frauds in the world to have had it so:
but the surprise of joy upon Will Atkins is really not to be expressed;
and there we may be sure there was no delusion. Sure no man was
ever more thankful in the world for any thing of its kind than he was
for this Bible; and I believe never any man was glad of a Bible from
a better principle; and though he had been a most proſligate creature,
desperate, headstrong, outrageous, furious, and wicked to a great
degree, yet this man is a standing rule to us all for the well instruct-
ing children, viz. that parents should never give over to teach and
instruct, or ever despair of the success of their endeavours, let the
children be ever so obstinate, refractory, or to appearance insensible
of instruction; for if ever God in his providence touches the con-
sciences of such, the force of their education returns upon them, and
the early instruction of parents is not lost, though it may have been
many years laid asleep, but some time or other they may find the
benefit of it.
Thus it was with this poor man. However ignorant he was, or
divested of religion and Christian knowledge, he found he had some
to do with now more ignorant than himself; and that the least part of
the instruction of his good father that could now come to his mind was
of use to him.
Among the rest it occurred to him, he said, how his father used
to insist much upon the inexpressible value of the Bible, the privilege
and blessing of it to nations, families, and persons; but he never
entertained the least notion of the worth of it till now, when being to
talk to heathens, savages, and barbarians, he wanted the help of the
Written oracle for his assistance.
The young woman was very glad of it also for the present occasion,
though she had one, and so had the youth, on board our ship among
their goods which were not yet brought on shore. And now, having
said so many things of this young woman, I cannot omit telling one
story more of her and myself, which has something in it very inform-
ing and remarkable,
382
*
I have related to what extremity the poor young woman was re-
duced; how her mistress was starved to death, and did die on board
that unhappy ship we met at sea; and how the whole ship's company
being reduced to the last extremity, the gentlewoman and her son,
and this maid, were first hardly used as to provisions, and at last
totally neglected and starved; that is to say, brought to the last extre-
mity of hunger.
One day being discoursing with her upon the extremities they suf-
fered, I asked her if she could describe by what she had felt what it
was to starve, and how it appeared? She told me she believed she
could, and she told her tale very distinctly thus:
“First, Sir,” said she, “we had for some days fared exceeding
hard, and suffered very great hunger, but now at last we were wholly
without food of any kind except sugar, and a little wine, and a little
water. The first day after I had received no food at all, I found my—
self, towards evening, first empty and sickish at my stomach, and
nearer night mightily inclined to yawning and sleepy; I laid down on
a couch in the great cabin to sleep, and slept about three hours, and
awaked a little refreshed, having taken a glass of wine when I lay down.
After being about three hours awake, it being about five o’clock in
the morning, I found myself empty, and my stomach sickish, and
laid down again, but could not sleep at all, being very faint and ill;
and thus I continued all the second day with a strange variety — first
hungry, then sick again, with retchings to vomit. The second night,
being obliged to go to bed again without any food more than a draught
of fair water, and being asleep, I dreamed I was at Barbadoes, and
that the market was mightily stocked with provisions, that I bought
some for my mistress, and went and dined very heartily.
“I thought my stomach was as full after this as any would have
been after, or at, a good dinner; but when I waked, I was exceed-
ingly sunk in my spirits to find myself in the extremity of famine; the
last glass of wine we had I drank, and put sugar in it, because of its
having some spirit to supply nourishment; but there being no sub-
stance in the stomach for the digesting office to work upon, I found
the only effect of the wine was to raise disagreeable ſumes from the
stomach into the head; and I lay, as they told me, stupid and sense-
less as one drunk for some time. +.
“The third day in the morning, after a night of strange and con-
383
fused inconsistent dreams, and rather dozing than sleeping, I awaked
ravenous and furious with hunger; and I question, had not my under-
standing returned and conquered it, I say, I question whether, if I
had been a mother, and had had a little child with me, its life would
have been safe or not.
“This lasted about three hours, during which time I was twice
raging mad as any creature in Bedlam, as my young master told me,
and as he can now inform you. -
“In one of these fits of lunacy or distraction, whether by the mo–
tion of the ship or some slip of my foot I know not, I fell down, and
struck my face against the corner of a pallet bed, in which my mistress
lay, and with the blow the blood gushed out of my nose, and the cabin-
boy bringing me a little basin, I sat down and bled into it a great deal,
and as the blood ran from me I came to myself, and the violence of
the flame, or fever, I was in abated, and so did the ravenous part
of the hunger.
“Then I grew sick, and retched to vomit, but could not, for I
had nothing in my stomach to bring up. After I had bled some time
I swooned, and they all believed I was dead; but I came to myself
soon after, and then had a most dreadful pain in my stomach, not to
be described, not like the colick, but a gnawing eager pain for food,
and towards night it went off with a kind of earnest wishing or longing
for food, something like, as I suppose, the longing of a woman with
child. I took another draught of water with sugar in it, but my sto-
mach loathed the sugar, and brought it all up again; then I took a
draught of water without sugar, and that stayed with me, and I laid
me down upon the bed, praying most heartily that it would please
(rod to take me away; and composing my mind in hopes of it, I slum-
bered awhile; and then waking, thought myself dying, being light
with vapours from an empty stomach: I recommended my soul then
to God, and earnestly wished somebody would throw me into the sea.
“All this while my mistress lay by me just, as I thought, expi-
ring, but bore it with much more patience than I, and gave the last
bit of bread she had left to her child, my young master, who would
not have taken it, but she obliged him to eat it, and I believe it saved
his life.
“Towards the morning I slept again, and first when I awaked I
fell into a violent passion of crying, and after that had a second fit of
384
violent hunger; I got up ravenous, and in a most dreadful condition.
Had my mistress been dead, so much as I loved her, I am certain I
should have eaten a piece of her flesh with as much relish and as un-
concerned as ever I did the flesh of any creature appointed for food;
and once or twice I was going to bite my own arm. At last I saw the
basin in which was the blood I had bled at my nose the day before; I
ran to it, and swallowed it with such haste, and such a greedy appe-
tite, as if I had wondered nobody had taken it before, and afraid it
should be taken from me now.
“Though after it was down the thoughts of it filled me with hor-
ror, yet it checked the ſit of hunger, and I drank a draught of fair
water, and was composed and refreshed for some hours after it. This
was the fourth day; and thus I held it till towards night, when, within
the compass of three hours, I had all these several circumstances over
again, one after another, viz. sick, sleepy, eagerly hungry, pain in
the stomach, then ravenous again, then sick again, then lunatic,
then crying, then ravenous again, and so every quarter of an hour;
and my strength wasted exceedingly. At night I laid me down, ha-
ving no comfort but in the hope that I should die before morning.
“All this night I had no sleep, but the hunger was now turned
into a disease, and I had a terrible colick and griping, by wind instead
of food having found its way into the bowels; and in this condition I
lay till morning, when I was surprised a little with the cries and lamen-
tations of my young master, who called out to me that his mother was
dead. I liſted myself up a little, for I had not strength to rise, but
found she was not dead, though she was able to give very little signs
of life.
“I had then such convulsions in my stomach for want of some
sustenance, that I cannot describe them, with such frequent throes
and pangs of appetite that nothing but the tortures of death can imi-
tate; and this condition I was in when I heard the seamen above cry
out “A sail! a sail!’ and halloo and jump about as if they were dis-
tracted.
“I was not able to get off from the bed, and my mistress much
less, and my young master was so sick that I thought he had been ex-
piring; so we could not open the cabin-door, or get any account what
it was that occasioned such a combustion; nor had we had any con-
yersation with the ship's company for two days, they having told us
385
that they had not a mouthful of any thing to eat in the ship; and they
told us afterwards they thought we had been dead.
“It was this dreadful condition we were in when you were sent to
save our lives; and how you found us, Sir, you know as well as I,
and better too.”
This was her own relation, and is such a distinct account of
starving to death as I confess I never met with, and was exceeding
entertaining to me: I am the rather apt to believe it to be a true
account, because the youth gave me an account of a good part of it:
though I must own not so distinct and so feelingly as his maid, and
the rather because it seems his mother fed him at the price of her own
life; but the poor maid, though her constitution being stronger than
that of her mistress, who was in years, and a weakly woman too, she
might struggle harder with it; I say, the poor maid might be supposed
to feel the extremity something sooner than her mistress, who might
be allowed to keep the last bits something longer than she parted with
any to relieve the maid. No question, as the case is here related, if
our ship, or some other, had not so providentially met them, a few
days more would have ended all their lives, unless they had prevented
it by eating one another; and even that, as their case stood, would
have served them but a little while, they being five hundred leagues
from any land, or any possibility of relief, other than in the mira–
culous manner it happened. But this is by the way; I return to my
disposition of things among the people.
And first, it is to be observed here, that for many reasons I did
not think ſit to let them know any thing of the sloop I had framed, and
which I thought of setting up among them; for I found, at least at
my first coming, such seeds of division among them, that I saw it
plainly, had I set up the sloop, and left it among them, they would,
upon very light disgust, have separated, and gone away from one
another; or perhaps have turned pirates, and so made the island a
den of thieves, instead of a plantation of sober and religious people,
so as I intended it; nor did I leave the two picces of brass cannon that
I had on board, or the two quarter-deck guns, that my nephew took
extraordinarily, for the same reason: I thought they had enough to
qualify them for a defensive war, against any that should invade them;
but not to set them up for an offensive war, or to encourage them to
go abroad to attack others, which, in the end, would only bring ruin
Robinson Crusoe, 25
386
and destruction upon themselves and all their undertakings: I re-
served the sloop, therefore, and the guns, for their service another
way, as I shall observe in its place.
I have now done with the island: I left them all in good circum-
stances, and in a flourishing condition, and went on board my ship
again the fifth day of May, having been five-and-twenty days among
them; and, as they were all resolved to stay upon the island till I
came to remove them, I promised to send some further relief from
the Brasils, if I could possibly find an opportunity; and particularly
I promised to send them some cattle; such as sheep, hogs, and
cows; for as to the two cows and calves which I brought from Eng-
land, we had been obliged, by the length of our voyage, to kill them
at sea, for want of hay to feed them.
The next day, giving them a salute of ſive guns at parting, we set
sail, and arrived at the bay of All Saints, in the Brasils, in about
twenty-two days; meeting nothing remarkable in our passage but
this, that about three days after we sailed, being becalmed, and the
current setting strong to the E. N. E. running as it were, into a bay
or gulf on the land side, we were driven something out of our course;
and once or twice our men cried Land, to the westward; but whether
it was the continent, or islands, we could not tell by any means.
But the third day, towards evening, the sea smooth and the
weather calm, we saw the sea, as it were, covered towards the land,
with something very black, not being able to discover what it was;
till, after some time, our chief mate going up the main shrouds a
little way, and looking at them with a perspective, cried out, it was
an army. I could not imagine what he meant by an army, and spoke
a little hastily, calling the fellow a fool, or some such word: “Nay
Sir,” says he, “don’t be angry, for it is an army, and a ſleet too;
for I believe there are a thousand canoes, and you may see them
paddle along, and they are coming towards us too apace, and full of
II].6 Ils
I was a little surprised then, indeed, and so was my nephew the
captain; for he had heard such terrible stories of them in the island,
and having never been in those seas before, that he could not tell
what to think of it, but said two or three times, we should all be
devoured. I must confess considering we were becalmed, and the
current set strong towards the shore, I liked it the worse; however,
* *;
387
I bade him not be afraid, but bring the ship to an anchor, as soon
as we came so near as to know that we must engage them.
The weather continued calm, and they came on apace towards us;
so I gave orders to come to an anchor, and furl all our sails. As for
the savages, I told them they had nothing to fear from them but fire;
and therefore they should get their boats out, and fasten them, one
close by the head, and the other by the stern, and man them both
well, and wait the issue in that posture: this I did, that the men in
the boats might be ready, with skeets and buckets, to put out any
fire these savages might endeavour to ſix to the outside of the ship.
In this posture we lay by for them, and in a little while they came
up with us; but never was such a horrid sight seen by Christians:
my mate was much mistaken in his calculation of their number, I
mean of a thousand canoes; the most we could make of them when
they came up, being about 126; and a great many of them too; for
some of them had sixteen or seventeen men in them, some more, and
the least six or seven.
When they came nearer to us, they seemed to be struck with
wonder and astonishment, as at a sight which they had, doubtless,
never seen before; nor could they, at first, as we afterwards under-
stood, know what to make of us. They came boldly up however,
very near to us, and seemed to go about to row round us; but we
called to our men in the boats, not to let them come too near them.
This very order brought us to an engagement with them, without
our designing it; for five or six of their large canoes came so near our
long-boat, that our men beckoned with their hands to them to keep
back; which they understood very well, and went back; but at their
retreat about five hundred arrows came on board us from those boats;
and one of our men in the long-boat was very much wounded.
However, I called to them not to fire by any means: but we
handed down some deal boards into the boat, and the carpenter pre-
sently set up a kind of a fence, like waist boards, to cover them from
the arrows of the savages, if they should shoot again.
About half an hour afterwards they came all up in a body astern of
us, and pretty near, so near that we could easily discern what they
were, though we could not tell their design. I easily found they were
some of my old friends, the same sort of savages that I had been used
to engage with; and in a little time more they rowed somewhat farther
25 +
388
out to sea, till they came directly broadside with us, and then rowed
down straight upon us, till they came so near, that they could hear
us speak. Upon this, I ordered all my men to keep close, lest they
should shoot any more arrows, and make all our guns ready; but
being so near as to be within hearing, I made Friday go out upon the
deck, and call out aloud to them in his language, to know what they
meant; which accordingly he did: whether they understood him or
not, that I know not; but, as soon as he had called to them, six of
them, who were in the foremost, or nighest boat to us, turned their
canoes from us; and, stooping down, showed us their naked back-
sides; jnst, as if, in English, saving your presence, they had bid
us kiss —. Whether this was a defiance or challenge, we knew not;
or whether it was done in mere contempt, or as a signal to the rest;
but immediately Friday cried out, they were going to shoot; and
unhappily for him, poor fellow ! they let ſly about three hundred of
their arrows; and, to my inexpressible grief, killed poor Friday, no
other man being in their sight. The poor fellow was shot with no less
than three arrows, and about three more fell very near him; such
unlucky marksmen they were.
I was so enraged with the loss of my old servant, the companion
of all my sorrows and solitudes, that I immediately ordered five guns
to be loaded with small shot, and four with great; and gave them such
a broadside as they never had in their lives before, to be sure.
They were not above half a cable's length off when we fired; and
our gunners took their aim so well, that three or four of their canoes
were overset, as we had reason to believe, by one shot only.
The ill manners of turning up their bare backsides to us, gave us
no great offence; neither did I know for certain whether that, which
would pass for the greatest contempt among us, might be understood
so by them or not; therefore in return, I had only resolved to have
ſired four or five guns at them with powder only, which I knew would
fright them sufficiently: but when they shot at us directly with all the
fury they were capable of, and especially as they had killed my poor
Friday, whom I so entirely loved and valued, and who, indeed, so
well deserved it; I not only had been justified before God and man,
but would have been very glad, if I could, to have overset every
canoe there, and drowned every one of them,
389
I can neither tell how many we killed, or how many we wounded,
at this broadside; but sure such a fright and hurry never was seen
among such a multitude: there were thirteen or fourteen of their
canoes split, and overset, in all; and the men all set a-swimming;
the rest, frighted out of their wits, scoured away as fast as they
could, taking but little care to save those whose boats were split or
spoiled with our shot: so I suppose that they were many of them lost;
and our men took up one poor fellow swimming for his life, above an
hour after they were all gone.
Our small shot from our cannon must needs kill and wound a
great many; but, in short, we never knew any thing how it went
with thcm; for they fled so fast, that in three hours, or thereabouts,
we could not see above three or four straggling canoes; nor did we
ever see the rest any more; for a breeze of wind springing up the
same evening, we weighed and set sail for the Brasils.
We had a prisoner indeed, but the creature was so sullen, that
he would neither eat or speak; and we all fancied he would starve
himself to death; but I took a way to cure him; for I made them take
him, and turn him into the long-boat, and make him believe they
would toss him into the Sea again, and so leave him where they found
him, if he would not speak: nor would that do, but they really did
throw him into the sea, and come away from him; and then he fol-
lowed them, for he swam like a cork, and called to them in his
tongue, though they knew not one word of what he said. However,
at last, they took him in again, and then he began to be more tractable;
nor did I ever design they should drown him.
We were now under sail again; but I was the most disconsolate
creature alive, for want of my man Friday, and would have been very
glad to have gone back to the island, to have taken one of the rest
from thence for my occasion, but it could not be; so we went on.
We had one prisoner, as I have said; and it was a long while before
we could make him understand any thing; but in time, our men
taught him some English, and he began to be a little tractable: after—
wards we inquired what country he came from, but could make
nothing of what he said; for his speech was so odd, all gutturals, and
spoken in the throat, in such a hollow and odd manner, that we
could never form a word from him; and we were all of opinion that
they might speak that language as well if they were gagged, as other-
390
wise; nor could we perceive that they had any occasion cither for
teeth, tongue, lips, or palate; but formed their words just as a
hunting-horn forms a tune, with an open throat: he told us, however,
some time after, when we had taught him to speak a little English,
that they were going, with their kings, to ſight a great battle. When
he said kings, we asked him, how many kings? He said, there
were five nation we could not make him understand the plurals, and
that they all joined to go against two nation. We asked him, What
made them come up to us? He said, “To makee te great wonder
look.” — Where it is to be observed, that all those natives, as also
those of Africa, when they learn English, they always add two e's
at the end of the words where we use one, and place the accent upon
the last of them; as makee, takee, and the like; and we could not
break then of it; nay, I could hardly make Friday leave it off, though
at last he did.
And now I name the poor fellow once more, I must take my last
leave of him; poor honest Friday! We buried him with all the de-
cency and solemnity possible, by putting him into a coffin, and
throwing him into the sea; and I caused them to fire eleven guns for
him: and so ended the life of the most grateful, faithful, honest,
and most affectionate servant that ever man had.
We now went away with a fair wind for Brasil, and, in about
twelve days time, we made land in the latitude of five degrees south
of the line, being the north-easternmost land of all that part of
America. We kept on S. by E. in sight of the shore four days, when
we made Cape St. Augustine, and in three days came to an anchor off
of the bay of All Saints, the old place of my deliverance, from whence
came both my good and evil fate.
Never ship came to this part that had less business than I had;
and yet it was with great difficulty that we were admitted to hold the
least correspondence on shore. Not my partner himself, who was
alive, and made a great figure among them, not my two merchant
trustees, nor the ſame of my wonderful preservation in the island,
could obtain me that favour: but my partner remembering that I had
given five hundred moidores to the prior of the monastery of the Au-
gustines, and three hundred and seventy-two to the poor, went to
the monastery, and obliged the prior that then was, to go to the go-
vernor, and get leave for me personally, with the captain, and one
391
more, besides eight seamen, to come on shore, and no more; and
this upon condition absolutely capitulated for, that we should not
offer to land any goods out of the ship, or to carry any person away
without licence.
They were so strict with us, as to landing any goods, that it was
with extreme diſliculty that I got on shore three bales of English
goods, such as fine broad—cloths, stuffs, and some linen, which I
had brought for a present to my partner.
He was a very generous, broad-hearted man, though, like me,
he came from little at first; and though he knew not that I had the
least design of giving him any thing, he sent me on board a present
of fresh provisions, wine, and sweetmeats, worth above thirty moi-
dores, including some tobacco, and three or four fine medals in
gold. But I was even with him in my present, which, as I have said,
consisted of fine broad—cloth, English stuffs, lace, and ſinc Hol-
lands. Also, I delivered him about the value of 100l. sterling, in
the same goods, for other uses: and I obliged him to set up the sloop
which I had brought with me from England, as I have said, for the
use of my colony, in order to send the refreshments I intended to my
plantation.
Accordingly he got hands, and finished the sloop in a very few
days, for she was already framed; and I gave the master of her such
instruction as he could not miss the place; nor did he miss it, as I
had an account from my partner afterwards. I got him soon loaded
with the small cargo I Sent them; and one of our seamen, that had
been on shore with me there, offered to go with the sloop, and settle
there, upon my letter to the governor Spaniard, to allot him a
sufficient quantity of land for a plantation; and giving him some
clothes, and tools for his planting work, which he said he understood,
having been an old planter in Maryland, and a buccaneer into the
bargain.
I encouraged the fellow by granting all he desired; and, as an
addition, I gave him the Savage which we had taken prisoner of war,
to be his slave, and ordered the governor Spaniard to give him his
share of every thing he wanted, with the rest.
When we came to fit this man out, my old partner told me, there
was a certain very honest fellow, a Brasil planter of his acquaintance
who had fallen into the displeasure of the church - “I know not what
392
9
the matter is with him,” says he, “but, on my conscience, I think
he is a heretic in his heart; and he has been obliged to conceal himself
for fear of the Inquisition; ” that he would be very glad of such an
opportunity to make his escape, with his wife and two daughters;
and if I would let them go to my island, and allot them a plantation,
he would give them a small stock to begin with; for the officers of the
Inquisition had seized all his eſſects and estate, and he had nothing
left but a little household stuff, and two slaves; “And,” adds he,
“though I hate his principles, yet I would not have him fall into their
hands, for he would assuredly be burnt alive if he does.”
I granted this presently, and joined my Englishman with them;
and we concealed the man, and his wife and daughters, on board our
ship, till the sloop put out to go to sea: and then, having put all
their goods on board the sloop some time before, we put them on
board the sloop, after she was got out of the bay.
Our seaman was mightily pleased with this new partner; and their
stock, indeed, was much alike, rich in tools, in preparations, and
a farm; but nothing to begin with , but as above. However, they
carried over with them, which was worth all the rest, some materials
for planting sugar-canes, with some plants of canes; which he, I
mean the Portugal man, understood very well.
Among the rest of the supplies sent my tenants in the island, I
sent them, by this sloop, three milch-cows and five calves, about
twenty-two hogs, among them, three sows big with pig, two mares,
and a Stone-horse.
For my Spaniards, according to my promise, I engaged three
Portugal women to go; and recommended it to them to marry them,
and use them kindly. I could have procured more women, but l
remembered that the poor persecuted man had two daughters, and
there were but five of the Spaniards that wanted; the rest had wives
of their own, though in another country.
All this cargo arrived safe, and, as you may easily suppose, very
welcome to my old inhabitants, who were now, with this addition,
between sixty and seventy people, besides little children, of which
there were a great many: I found letters at London from them all, by
the way of Lisbon, when I came back to England, being sent back
to the Brasils by this sloop; of which I shall take some notice in its
place.
393
I have now done with my island, and all manner of discourse
about it; and whoever reads the rest of my memorandums, would do
well to turn his thoughts entirely from it, and expect to read only of
the follies of an old man, not warned by his own harms, much less
py those of other men, to beware of the like; not cooled by almost
forty years misery and disappointments; not satisfied with prosperity
beyond expectation; not made cautious by affliction and distress
beyond imitation.
, I had no more business to go to the East Indies, than a man at
full liberty, and having committed no crime, has to go to the turnkey
at Newgate, and desire him to lock him up among the prisoners there,
and starve him. Had I taken a small vessel from England, and gone
directly to the island; had I loaded her, as I did the other vessel,
with all the necessaries for the plantation, and for my people; took
a patent from the government here, to have secured my property, in
subjection only to that of England; had I carried over cannon and
ammunition, servants and people to plant, and taking possession of
the place, fortified and strengthened it in the name of England, and
increased it with people, as I might easily have done; had I then
settled myself there, and sent the ship back, loaded with good rice,
as I might also have done in six months time, and ordered my friends
to have fitted her out again for our supply; had I done this, and staid
there myself, I had, at least, acted like a man of common sense;
but I was possessed with a wandering spirit, scorned all advantages,
pleased myself with being the patron of these people I had placed there,
and doing for them in a kind of haughty majestic way, like an old
patriarchal monarch; providing for them, as if I had been father of
the whole family, as well as of the plantation: but I never so much
as pretended to plant in the name of any government or nation, or to
acknowledge any prince, or to call my people subjects to any one
nation more than another; nay, I never so much as gave the place a
name; but left it as I found it, belonging to nobody; and the people
under no discipline or government but my own; who, though I had
influence over them as a father and benefactor, had no authority or
power to act or command one way or other, farther than voluntary
consent moved them to comply: yet even this, had I staid there,
would have done well enough; but as I rambled from them, and came
there no more, the last letters I had from any of them, were by my
39A
partner's means, who afterwards sent another sloop to the place;
and who sent me word, though I had not the letter till five years after
it was written, that they went on but poorly, were malcontent with
their long stay there; that Will Atkins was dead; that five of the
Spaniards were come away; and that though they had not been much
molested by the savages, yet they had had some skirmishes with
them; that they begged of him to write to me to think of the promise
I had made to fetch them away, that they might see their own country
again before they died.
But I was gone a wild-goose chase indeed, and they who will
have any more of me, must be content to follow me through a new
variety of follies, hardships and wild adventures; wherein the justice
of Providence may be duly observed, and we may see how easily
Heaven can gorge us with our own desires, make the strongest of our
wishes be our aſſliction and punish us most severely with those very
things which we think it would be our utmost happiness to be
allowed in.
I say this with respect to the impetuous desire I had from a youth
to wander into the world, and how evident it now was that this prin-
ciple was preserved in me for my punishment. How it came on, the
manner, the circumstance, and the conclusion of it, it is easy to
give you historically, and with its utmost variety of particulars. But
the secret ends of Divine Power, in thus permitting us to be hurried
down the stream of our own desires, are only to be understood by
those who can listen to the voice of Providence, and draw religious
consequences from God's justice and their own mistakes.
Be it, I had business, or no business, away I went. It is no
time now to enlarge any farther upon the reason or absurdity of my
own conduct; but to come to the history — I was embarked for the
voyage, and the voyage I went.
I shall only add here, that my honest and truly pious clergyman
left me here; a ship being ready to go to Lisbon, he asked me leave
to go thither; being still, as he observed, bound never to finish any
voyage he began. How happy had it been for me if I had gone with
him
But it was too late now; all things Heaven appoints are best. Had
I gone with him, I had never had so many things to be thankful for,
and you had never heard of the Second Part of the Travels and Adven-
395
tures of Robinson Crusoe; so I must leave here the fruitless
exclaiming at myself, and go on with my voyage.
From the Brasils we made directly away over the Atlantic Sea to
the Cape de Bonne Esperance, or, as we call it, the Cape of Good
Hope; and had a tolerable good voyage, our course generally south-
east; now and then a storm, and some contrary winds. But my
disasters at sea were at an end; my future rubs and cross events were
to befall me on shore; that it might appear the land was as well
prepared to be our scourge as the sea, when Heaven, who directs
the circumstances of things, pleases to appoint it to be so.
Our ship was on a trading voyage, and had a supercargo on board,
who was to direct all her motions after she arrived at the Cape; only
being limited to a certain number of days for stay, by charter-party,
at the several ports she was to go to. This was none of my business,
neither did I meddle with it at all; my nephew the captain, and
the supercargo, adjusting all those things between them as they
thought fit.
We made no stay at the Cape longer than was needful to take in
fresh water, but made the best of our way for the coast of Coromandel;
we were indeed informed that a French man-of-war of fifty guns and
two large merchant-ships were gone for the Indies; and as I knew we
were at war with France, I had some apprehensions of them; but
they went their own way, and we heard no more of them.
I shall not pester my account, or the reader, with descriptions
of places, journals of our voyages, variations of the compass, lati-
tudes, meridian distances, trade-winds, situation of ports, and the
like; such as almost all the histories of long navigation are full of,
and which make the reading tiresome enough, and are perfectly un-
profitable to all that read, except only to those who are to go to those
places themselves.
It is enough to name the ports and places which we touched at,
and what occurred to us upon our passing from one to another. We
touched first at the island of Madagascar, where, though the people
are fierce and treacherous, and, in particular, very well armed with
lances and bows, which they use with inconceivable dexterity, yet
we fared very well with them awhile; they treated us very civilly;
and, for some trifles which we gave them, such as knives, Scissors,
&c. they brought us eleven good fat bullocks, middling in size, but
396
very good in flesh, which we took in, partly for fresh provisions for
our present spending, and the rest to salt for the ship's use.
We were obliged to stay here for some time after we had furnished
ourselves with provisions; and I that was always too curious to look
into every nook of the world wherever I came, was for going on shore
as often as I could. It was on the east side of the island that we went
on shore one evening, and the people, who by the way are very
numerous, came thronging about us, and stood gazing at us at a
distance; as we had traded freely with them, and had been kindly
used, we thought ourselves in no danger; but, when we saw the
people, we cut three boughs out of a tree, and stuck them up at a
distance from us, which, it seems, is a mark in the country not
only of truce and friendship, but when it is accepted, the other side
set up three poles or boughs also, which is a signal that they accept
the truce too; but then this is a known condition of the truce, that
you are not to pass beyond their three poles towards them, nor they
to come past your three poles or boughs towards you; so that you are
perfectly secure within the three poles, and all the space between your
poles and theirs is allowed like a market for free converse, traffic,
and commerce. When you go there you must not carry your weapons
with you; and if they come into that space they stick up their javelins
and lances all at the first poles, and come on unarmed; but if any
violence is offered them, and the truce thereby broken, away they
run to the poles and lay hold of their weapons, and then the truce is
at an end.
It happened one evening when we went on shore, that a greater
number of their people came down than usual, but all was very
friendly and civil, and they brought in several kinds of provisions,
for which we satisfied them with such toys as we had; their women
also brought us milk and roots, and several things very acceptable to
us, and all was quiet; and we made us a little tent or hut, of some
boughs of trees, and lay on shore all night.
I know not what was the occasion, but I was not so well satisfied
to lie on shore as the rest; and the boat riding at an anchor about a
stone's cast from the land, with two men in her to take care of her,
I made one of them come on shore, and getting some boughs of trees
to cover us also in the boat, I spread the sail on the bottom of the
397
boat, and lay on board, under the cover of the branches of trees, all
night.
About two o'clock in the morning we heard one of our men make
a terrible noise on the shore, calling out for God's sake to bring the
boat in, and come and help them, for they were all like to be mur-
dered; at the same time I heard the fire of five muskets, which was
the number of the guns they had, and that three times over; for, it
seems, the natives here were not so easily frighted with guns as the
savages were in America, where I had to do with them.
All this while I knew not what was the matter; but rousing im-
mediately from sleep with the noise, I caused the boat to be thrust
in, and resolved, with three fusils we had on board, to land and
assist our men.
We got the boat soon to the shore; but our men were in too much
haste; for being come to the shore, they plunged into the water to
get to the boat with all the expedition they could, being pursued by
between three and four hundred men. Our men were but nine in all,
and only five of them had fusils with them; the rest, had indeed,
pistols and swords, but they were of small use to them.
We took up seven of our men, and with difficulty enough too,
three of them being very ill wounded; and that which was still worse
was, that while we stood in the boat to take our men in, we were in
as much danger as they were in on shore; for they poured their arrows
in upon us so thick, that we were fain to barricade the side of the
boat up with the benches and two or three loose boards, which to
our great satisfaction we had by mere accident, or providence rather,
in the boat.
And yet had it been daylight, they are, it seems, such exact
marksmen, that if they could have seen but the least part of any of
us, they would have been sure of us. We had, by the light of the
moon a little sight of them as they stood pelting us from the shore
with darts and arrows, and having got ready our fire-arms, we gave
them a volley, and we could hear by the cries of some of them, that
we had wounded several; however, they stood thus in battle array on
the shore till break of day, which we suppose was that they might see
the better to take their aim at us.
In this condition we lay, and could not tell how to weigh our
anchor, or set up our sail, because we must needs stand up in the
398
*w- “…--> ---------------wºº,
boat, and they were as sure to hit us as we were to hit a bird in a tree
with small shot. We made signals of distress to the ship, which
though she rode a league off, yet my nephew, the captain, hearing
our firing, and by glasses perceiving the posture we lay in, and that
we fired towards the shore, pretty well understood us; and weighing
anchor with all speed, he stood as near the shore as he durst with
the ship, and then sent another boat with ten hands in her to assist
us; but we called to them not to come too near, telling them what
condition we were in; however, they stood in nearer to us; and one
of the men taking the end of a tow-line in his hand, and keeping our
boat between him and the enemy, so that they could not perfectly see
him, swam on board us, and made fast the line to the boat, upon
which we slipt our little cable, and leaving our anchor behind, they
towed us out of the reach of the arrows, we all the while lying close
behind the barricado we had made.
As soon as we were got from between the ship and the shore, that
she could lay her side to the shore, we ran along just by them, and
poured in a broadside among them, loaded with pieces of iron and
lead, small bullets, and such stuff, besides the great shot, which
made a terrible havoc among them.
When we were got on board and out of danger, we had time to
examine into the occasion of this fray; and indeed our surpercargo,
who had been often in those parts, put me upon it, for he said he
was sure the inhabitants would not have touched us after we had made
a truce, if we had not done something to provoke them to it. At
length it came out, viz. that an old woman, who had come to sell us
some milk, had brought it within our poles, with a young woman
with her, who also brought some roots or herbs; and while the old
woman, whether she was mother to the young woman or no they
could not tell, was selling us the milk, one of our men offered some
rudeness to the Wench that was with her, at which the old woman
made a great noise. However, the seaman would not quit his prize,
but carried her out of the old woman's sight, among the trees, it
being almost dark. The old woman went away without her, and, as
we suppose, made an outcry among the people she came from; who,
upon notice, raised this great army upon us in three or four hours;
and it was great odds but we had been all destroyed. *
One of our men was killed with a lance thrown at him, just at the
309
beginning of the attack, as he sallied out of the tent we had made;
the rest came off free, all but the fellow who was the occasion of all
the mischief, who paid dear enough for his black mistress, for we
could not hear what became of him a great while. We lay upon the
shore two days after, though the wind presented, and made signals
for him; made our boat sail up shore and down shore several leagues,
but in vain; so we were obliged to give him over; and if he alone had
suffered for it, the loss had been the less.
I could not satisfy myself, however, without venturing on shore
once more, to try if I could learn any thing of him or them. It was
the third night after the action that I had a great mind to learn, if I
could by any means, what mischief we had done, and how the game
stood on the Indian side. I was careful to do it in the dark, lest we
should be attacked again; but I ought indeed to have been sure that
the men I went with had been under my command before I engaged
in a thing so hazardous and mischievous, as I was brought into it
without my knowledge or desire.
We took twenty stout fellows with us as any in the ship, besides
the supercargo and myself; and we landed two hours before midnight,
at the same place where the Indians stood drawn up the evening be—
fore. I landed here, because my design, as I have said, was chiefly
to see if they had quitted the field, and if they had left any marks
behind them of the mischief we had done them; and I thought if we
could surprise one or two of them, perhaps we might get our man
again by way of exchange.
We landed without any noise, and divided our men into two
companies, whereof the boastwain commanded one, and I the other.
We neither could hear nor see any body stir when we landed; so we
marched up, one body at a distance from the other, to the field of
battle. At first we could see nothing, it being very dark; but by and
by our boatswain, that led the first party, stumbled and fell over a
dead body. This made them halt awhile; for knowing by the circum-
stances that they were at the place where the Indians had stood, they
waited for my coming up. Here we concluded to halt till the moon
began to rise, which we knew would be in less than an hour, and
then we could easily discern the havoc we had made among them.
We told two-and-thirty bodies upon the ground, whereof two were
not quite dead. Some had an arm, and some a leg, shot off, and
º
400
one his head; those that were wounded we supposed they had carried
away.
When we had made, as I thought, a full discovery of all we could
come at the knowledge of, I was resolved for going on board; but
the boatswain and his party sent me word, that they were resolved to
make a visit to the Indian town, where these dogs, as they called
them, dwelt, and asked me to go along with them, and if they could
find them, as they still fancicq they should, they did not doubt getting
a good booty, and it might be they might find Thomas Jeffrys there,
that was the man's name we had lost.
Had they sent to ask my leave to go, I knew well enough what
answer to have given them, for I should have commanded them in-
stantly on board, knowing it was not a hazard fit for us to run who
had a ship and ship-loading in our charge, and a voyage to make,
which depended very much upon the lives of the men; but as they
sent me word they were resolved to go, and only asked me and my
company to go along with them, I positively refused it, and rose up,
for I was sitting on the ground, in order to go to the boat. One or
two of the men began to importune me to go, and when I refused
positively, began to grumble, and say they were not under my
command, and they would go. “Come, Jack,” says one of the
men, “will you go with me? I will go for one.” Jack said he would;
and another followed, and then another; and, in a word, they all
left me but one, whom I persuaded to stay; so the supercargo and I,
with the third man, went back to the boat, where, we told them,
we would stay for them, and take care to take in as many of them as
should be left; for I told them it was a mad thing they were going
about, and supposed most of them would run the fate of Thomas
Jeffrys.
They told me, like seamen, they would warrant it they would
come off again, and they would take care, &c. So away they went.
I entreated them to consider the ship and the voyage; that their lives
were not their own; and that they were enstrusted with the voyage in
some measure; that if they miscarried, the ship might be lost for
want of their help; and that they could not answer it to God or man.
I said a great deal more to them on that head, but I might as well
have talked to the mainmast of the ship; they were mad upon their
journey; only they gave me good words, and begged I would not be
A01
angry; that they would be very cautious, and they did not doubt but
they would be back again in about an hour at farthest; for the Indian
town, they said, was not above half a mile off, though they found it
above two miles before they got to it.
Well, they all went away as above; and though the attempt was
desperate, and such as none but madmen would have gone about,
yet, to give them their due, they went about it as warily as boldly.
They were gallantly armed, that is true; for they had every man a
fusil or musket, a bayonet, and every man a pistol; some of them
had broad cutlasses, some of them hangers, and the boatswain and
two more had pole-axes; besides all which they had among them:
thirteen hand-grenadoes. Bolder fellows, and better provided, never
went about any wicked work in the world.
When they went out their chief design was plunder, and they
were in mighty hopes of finding gold there; but a circumstance,
which none of them were aware of, set them on fire with revenge,
and made devils of them all. When they came to the few Indian
houses, which they thought had been the town, which were not
above half a mile off, they were under a great disappointment; for
there were not above twelve or thirteen houses; and where the town
was, or how big, they knew not. They consulted therefore what to
do, and were some time before they could resolve; for if they fell
upon these they must cut all their throats, and it was ten to one but
some of them might escape, it being in the night, though the moon
was up; and if one escaped he would run away, and raise all the
town, so they should have a whole army upon them. Again, on the
other hand, if they went away, and left those untouched, for the
people were all asleep, they could not tell which way to look for the
to Wn.
However, the last was the best advice; so they resolved to leave
them, and look for the town as well as they could. They went on a
little way, and found a cow tied to a tree: this they presently con-
cluded would be a good guide to them; for they said the cow certainly
belonged to the town before them or the town behind them, and if
they untied her they should see which way she went: if she went back
they had nothing to say to her, but if she went forward they had
nothing to do but to follow her; so they cut the cord, which was
made of twisted ſlags, and the cow went on before them. In a word,
Robinson Crusoe, 26
402
the cow led them directly to the town, which, as they reported,
consisted of above two hundred houses or huts; and in some of these
they found several families living together.
Here they found all in silence; as profoundly secure as sleep and
a country that had never seen an enemy of that kind could make them.
Upon this they called another council to consider what they had to do,
and in a word they resolved to divide themselves into three bodies,
and to set three houses on ſire in three parts of the town; and as the
men came out, to seize them and bind them; if any resisted, they
need not be asked what to do then, and so to search the rest of the
houses for plunder; but they resolved to march silently first through
the town, and see what dimensions it was of, and if they might
venture upon it or no.
They did so, and desperately resolved that they would venture
upon them; but while they were animating one another to the work,
three of them that were a little before the rest, called out aloud, and
told them they had found Thomas Jeffrys; they all ran up to the place;
and so it was indeed, for there they found the poor fellow, hanged
up naked by one arm, and his throat cut. There was an Indian
house just by the tree, where they found sixteen or seventeen of the
principal Indians who had been concerned in the fray with us before,
and two or three of them wounded with our shot; and our men found
they were awake, and talking one to another in that house, but knew
not their number.
The sight of their poor mangled comrade so enraged them, as
before, that they swore to one another they would be revenged, and
that not an Indian who came into their hands should have quarter;
and to work they went immediately, and yet not so madly as by the
rage and fury they were in might be expected. Their first care was
to get something that would soon take fire; but after a little scarch
thcy found that would be to no purpose, for most of the houses were
low, and thatched with flags or rushes, of which the country is full:
so they presently made some wild-fire, as we call it, by wetting a
ſittle powder in the palms of their hands; and in a quarter of an hour
they set the town on fire in four or five places, and particularly that
house where the Indians were not gone to bed. As soon as the fire
began to blaze, the poor frighted creatures began to rush out to save
their lives, but met with their fate in the attempt, and especially at
A03
~~~~eº
the door, where they drove them back, the boatswain himself killing
one or two with his pole-axe; the house being large, and many in it,
he did not care to go in, but called for an hand-grenado, and threw
it among them, which at first frighted them; but when it burst made
such havoc among them, that they cried out in a hideous manner.
In short, most of the Indians who were in the open part of the
house, were killed or hurt with the grenado, except two or three
more, who pressed to the door, which the boatswain and two more
kept with their bayonets in the muzzles of their pieces, and dispatched
all that came that way. But there was another apartment in the house,
where the prince, or king, or whatever he was, and several others,
were; and these they kept in till the house, which was by this time
all of a light flame, fell in upon them, and they were smothered or
burnt together.
All this while they fired not a gun, because they would not waken
the people faster than they could master them; but the fire began to
waken them fast enough, and our fellows were glad to keep a little
together in bodies; for the fire grew so raging, all the houses being
made of light combustible stuff, that they could hardly bear the street
between them, and their business was to follow the fire for the surer
execution. As fast as the fire either forced the people out of those
houses which were burning, or frighted them out of others, our
people were ready at their doors to knock them on the head, still
calling and hallooing to one another to remember Thomas Jeffrys.
While this was doing I must confess I was very uneasy, and
especially when I saw the flames of the town, which, it being night,
scemed to be just by me.
My nephew the captain, who was roused by his men too, seeing
such a fire, was very uneasy, not knowing what the matter was, or
what danger I was in; especially hearing the guns too, for by this
time they began to use their fire-arms. A thousand thoughts
oppressed his mind concerning me and the Supercargo, what should
become of us; and at last, though he could ill spare any more men,
yet, not knowing what exigence we might be in, he takes another
boat, and with thirteen men and himself comes on shore to me.
He was surprised to see me and the supercargo in the boat with no
more than two men, for one had been left to keep the boat; and
though he was glad that we were well, yet he was in the same im–
26*
404
# , , , , , , ºx-º, sº .
patience with us to know what was doing, for the noise continued and
the flame increased. In short it was next to an impossibility for any
men in the world, to restrain their curiosity to know what had
happened, or their concern for the safety of the men. In a word, the
captain told me he would go and help his men, let what would come.
I argued with him, as I did before with the men, the safety of the
ship, and the danger of the voyage, the interest of the owners and
merchants, &c. and told him I would go, and the two men, and only
see if we could, at a distance, learn what was like to be the event,
and come back and tell him.
It was all one to talk to my nephew, as it was to talk to the rest
before; he would go, he said, and he only wished he had left but ten
men in the ship, for he could not think of having his men lost for
want of help; he had rather lose the ship, the voyage, and his life,
and all; and away went he.
In a word, I was no more able to stay behind now than I was to
persuade them not to go before; so, in short, the captain ordered
two men to row back the pinnace, and fetch twelve men more, leaving
the long-boat at an anchor; and that when they came back six men
should keep the two boats, and six more come after us, so that he leſt
only sixteen men in the ship; for the whole ship's company consisted
of sixty-five men, whereof two were lost in the late quarrel which
brought this mischief on.
Being now on the march, you may be sure we felt little of the
ground we trod on, and being guided by the fire we kept no path, but
went directly to the place of the flame. If the noise of the guns were
surprising to us before, the cries of the poor people were now quite
of another nature, and ſilled us with horror. I must confess I never
was at the sacking a city, or at the taking a town by storm; I had
heard of Oliver Cromwell taking Drogheda in Ireland, and killing
man, woman, and child; and I had read of Count Tilly sacking the
city of Magdebourg, and cutting the throats of 22,000 of both sexes;
but I never had an idea of the thing itself before, nor is it possible to
describe it, or the horror which was upon our minds at hearing it.
However, we went on, and at length came to the town, though
there was no entering the streets of it for the fire. The first object we
met with was the ruins of a hut or house, or rather the ashes of it, for
the house was consumed; and just before it, plain now to be seen by
** ****
405
the light of the fire, lay four men and three women killed; and, as
we thought, one or two more lay in the heap among the fire. In
short, there were such instances of a rage altogether barbarous, and
of a fury something beyond what was human, that we thought it im-
possible our men could be guilty of it; or if they were the authors of
it, we thought that they ought to be every one of them put to the worst
of deaths: but this was not all; we saw the fire increased forward,
and the cry went on just as the fire went on, so that we were in the
utmost confusion. We advanced a little way farther, and beheld to
our astonishment three women naked, and crying in a most dreadful
manner, come flying as if they had indeed had wings, and after them
sixteen or seventeen men, natives, in the same terror and conster-
nation, with three of our English butchers, for I can call them no
better, in their rear, who, when they could not overtake them, fired
in among them, and one that was killed by their shot fell down in our
sight; when the rest saw us believing us to be their enemies, and
that we would murder them as well as those that pursued them, they
set up a most dreadful shriek, especially the women, and two of then:
fell down as if already dead with the fright.
My very soul shrunk within me, and my blood ran chill in my
veins, when I saw this; and I believe had the three English sailors
that pursued them come on, I had made our men kill them all. How—
ever, we took some ways to let the poor flying creatures know that we
would not hurt them, and immediately they came up to us, and
kneeling down, with their hands lifted up, made piteous lamentations
to us to save them, which we let them know we would; whereupon
they crept all together in a huddle close behind us for protection. I
left my men drawn up together, and charged them to hurt nobody,
but if possible to get at some of our people, and see what devil it was
possessed them, and what they intended to do; and in a word to
command them off, assuring them that if they staid till daylight they
would have a hundred thousand men about their ears; I say, I left
them and went among those flying people, taking only two of our men
with me; and there was indeed a piteous spectacle among them:
some of them had their feet terribly burnt with trampling and running
through the fire, others their hands burnt; one of the women had
fallen down in the fire, and was very much burnt before she could
get out again; two or three of the men had cuts in their backs and
A06
thighs, from our men pursuing, and another was shot through the
body, and died while I was there.
I would fain have learnt what the occasion of all this was, but I
could not understand one word they said, though by signs I perceived
that some of them knew not what was the occasion themselves. I was
so terrified in my thoughts at this outrageous attempt, that I could
not stay there, but went back to my own men, and resolved to go into
the middle of the town through the fire, or whatever might be in the
way, and put an end to it, cost what it would : accordingly, as soon
as I came back to my men, I told them my resolution, and commanded
them to follow me, when in the very moment came four of our men,
with the boatswain at their head, roving over the heaps of bodies they
had killed, all covered with blood and dust, as if they wanted more
people to massacre, when our men hallooed to them as loud as they
could halloo, and with much ado one of them made them hear, so
that they knew who we were, and came up to us.
As soon as the boatswain saw us he set up a halloo, like a shout
of triumph, for having, as he thought, more help come; and without
bearing to hear me, “Captain,” says he, “noble captain, I am
glad you are come! we have not half done yet: villanous hell-hound
dogs! I will kill as many of them as poor Tom has hairs upon his
head. Whe have sworn to spare none of them; we will root out the
very nation of them from the earth.” And thus he ran on, out of
breath too with action, and would not give us leave to speak a word.
At last, raising my voice, that I might silence him a little. “Bar-
barous dog!” said I, “what are you doing? I won't have one creature
touched more upon pain of death. I charge you upon your life to stop
your hands, and stand still here, or you are a dead man this minute.”
“Why, Sir," says he, “do you know what you do, or what
they have done? If you want a reason for what we have done, come
hither;” and with that he showed me the poor fellow hanging with his
throat cut.
I confess I was urged then myself, and at another time should have
been forward enough; but I thought they had carried their rage too
far, and thought of Jacob's words to his sons Simeon and Levi,
“Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it
was cruel.” But I had now a new task upon my hands; for when the
men I carried with me saw the sight as I had done, I had as much to
407
do to restrain them, as I should have had with the others; nay, my
nephew himself fell in with them, and told me in their hearing, that
he was only concerned for fear of the men being overpowered; for, as
to the people, he thought not one of them ought to live; for they had
all glutted themselves with the murder of the poor man, and that they
ought to be used like murderers. Upon these words away ran eight of
my men with the boatswain and his crew to complete their bloody
work; and I, seeing it quite out of my power to restrain them, came
away pensive and sad, for I could not bear the sight, much less the
horrible noise and cries of the poor wretches that fell into their hands.
I got nobody to come back with me but the supercargo and two
men, and with these I walked back to the boats. It was a very great
piece of folly in me, I confess, to venture back as it were alone; for
as it began now to be almost day, and the alarm had run over the
country, there stood about forty men armed with lances and bows at
the little place where the twelve or thirteen houses stood mentioned
before, but by accident I missed the place, and came directly to the
sea-side: and by the time I got to the sea-side it was broad day:
immediately I took the pinnace and went aboard, and sent berback to
assist the men in what might happen.
I observed that about the time I came to the boatside the fire was
pretty well out, and the noise abated; but in about half an hour after
I got on board I heard a volley of our men's fire-arms, and saw a
great Smoke; this, as I understood afterwards, was our men falling
upon the forty men, who, as I said, stood at the few houses on the
way; of whom they killed sixteen or seventeen, and set all those
houses on fire, but did not meddle with the women or children.
By the time the men got to the shore again with the pinnace our
men began to appear; they came dropping in some and some , not in
two bodies, and in form, as they went but all in heaps, straggling
here and there in such a manner that a small force of resolute men
might have cut them all off.
But the dread of them was upon the whole country. The people
were amazed and surprised, and so frighted that I believe a hundred
of them would have fled at the sight of but five of our men. Nor in
all this terrible action was there a man who made any considerable
defence; they were so surprised between the terror of the fire, and
the sudden attack of our men in the dark, that they knew not which
408
way to turn themselves; for if they fled one way they were met by one
party, if back again by another; so that they were every where
knocked down. Nor did any of our men receive the least hurt, except
one who strained his foot, and another had one of his hands very
much burnt.
I was very angry with my nephew the captain, and indeed with
all the men, in my mind, but with him in particular, as well for his
acting so out of his duty, as commander of the ship, and having the
charge of the voyage upon him, as in his prompting rather than cool-
ing the rage of his men in so bloody and cruel an enterprise : my
nephew answered me very respectfully, but told me that when he saw
the body of the poor seaman whom they had murdered in such a cruel
and barbarous manner, he was not master of himself, neither could
he govern his passion; he owned he should not have done so, as he
was commander of the ship, but as he was a man, and nature moved
him, he could not bear it. As for the rest of the men, they were not
subject to me at all, and they knew it well enough, so they took no
notice of my dislike.
The next day we set sail, so we never heard any more of it. Our
men differed in the account of the number they killed; some said one
thing, some another; but according to the best of their accounts, put
all together, they killed or destroyed about a hundred and fifty people,
men, women, and children, and left not a house standing in the
to Wn. -.
As for the poor fellow, Thomas Jeffrys, as he was quite dead, for
his throat was so cut that his head was half off, it would do him no
service to bring him away; so they left him where they found him,
only took him down from the tree where he was hanged by one hand.
However just our men thought this action to be, I was against
them in it, and I always after that time told them God would blast the
voyage; for I looked upon the blood they shed that night to be murder
in them: for though it is true that they had killed Thomas Jeffrys,
yet it was as true that Jeffrys was the aggressor, had broken the truce,
and had violated or debauched a young woman of theirs, who came
to our camp innocently, and on the faith of their capitulation.
The boatswain defended this quarrel when we were afterwards on
board. He said, it was true that we seemed to break the truce, but
really had not, and that the war was begun the night before by the
409
natives themselves, who had shot at us, and killed one of our men
without any just provocation; so that as we were in a capacity to
fight them, we might also be in a capacity to do ourselves justice upon
them in an extraordinary manner; that though the poorman had taken
a liberty with a wench, he ought not to have been murdered, and that
in such a villainous manner; and that they did nothing but what was
just, and what the laws of God allowed to be done to murderers.
One would think this should have been enough to have warned us
against going on shore among heathens and barbarians; but it is
impossible to make mankind wise but at their own experience; and
their experience seems to be always of most use to them when it is
dearest bought.
We were now bound to the Gulf of Persia, and from thence to
the Coast of Coromandel, only to touch at Surat; but the chief of the
supercargo's design lay at the Bay of Bengal, where if he missed of
his business outward-bound he was to go up to China, and return to
the coast as he came home.
The first disaster that befel us was in the Gulf of Persia, where five
of our men venturing on shore on the Arabian side of the Gulf Were
surrounded by the Arabs, and either all killed or carried away into
slavery; the rest of the boat's crew were not able to rescue them, and
had but just time to get off their boat. I began to upbraid them with
the just retribution of Heaven in this case; but the boatswain very
warmly told me, he thought I went farther in my censures than I
could show any warrant for in Scripture, and referred to the thirteenth
of St. Luke, wer. 4, where our Saviour intimates that those men on
whom the tower of Siloam fell, were not sinners above all the Galile-
ans; but that which indeed put me to silence in this case was, that
none of these five men who were now lost were of the number of those
who went on shore to the massacre of Madagascar (so I always called
it, though our men could not bear the word massacre with any
patience:) and indeed this last circumstance, as I have said, put
me to silence for the present.
But my frequent preaching to them on this subject had worse con-
sequences than I expected; and the boatswain, who had been the
head of the attempt, came up boldly to me one time, and told me he
found that I continually brought that affair upon the stage, that Imade
unjust reflections upon it, and had used the men very ill on that ac-
410
count, and himself in particular; that as I was but a passenger, and
had no command in the ship, or concern in the voyage, they were
not obliged to bear it; that they did not know but I might have some
ill design in my head, and perhaps to call them to an account for it
when they came to England; and that therefore, unless I would resolve
to have done with it, and also not to concern myself farther with him,
or any of his affairs, he would leave the ship; for he did not think it
was safe to sail with me among them.
I heard him patiently enough till he had done, and then told him
that I did confess I had all along opposed the massacre of Madagascar,
for such I would always call it; and that I had on all occasions spoken
my mind freely about it, though not more upon him than any of the
rest; that as to my having no command in the ship, that was true,
nor did I exercise any authority, only took the liberty of speaking my
mind in things which publicly concerned us all: as to what concern
I had in the voyage, that was none of his business; I was a consider-
able owner of the ship, and in that claim I conceived I had a right to
speak, even farther than I had yet done, and would not be account-
able to him or any one else; and began to be a little warm with him:
he made but little reply to me at that time, and I thought that affair
had been over. We were at this time in the road at Bengal; and being
willing to see the place, I went on shore with the supercargo, in the
ship's boat, to divert myself; and towards evening was preparing to
go on board, when one of the men came to me, and told me he would
not have me trouble myself to come down to the boat, for they had
orders not to carry me on board. Any one may guess what a surprise
I was in at so insolent a message; and I asked the man who bade him
deliver that errand to me? He told me, the coxswain. I said no more
to the fellow, but bid him let them know he had delivered his message,
and that I had given him no answer to it.
I immediately went and found out the supercargo, and told him
the story, adding, what I presently foresaw, viz. that there would
certainly be a mutiny in the ship; and entreated him to go immediately
on board the ship in an Indian boat, and acquaint the captain of
it: but I might have spared this intelligence, for before I had spoken
to him on shore the matter was effected on board: the boatswain, the
gunner, the carpenter, and, in a word, all the inferior officers, as
soon as I was gone off in the boat, came up to the quarter-deck, and
* ,
411
desired to speak with the captain; and there the boatswain making a
long harangue, for the fellow talked very well, and repeating all he
had said to me, told the captain in a few words, that as I was now
gone peaceably on shore, they were loath to use any violence with me;
which if I had not gone on shore, they would otherwise have done,
to oblige me to have gone. They therefore thought fit to tell him, that
as they shipped themselves to serve in the ship under his command,
they would perform it faithfully: but if I would not quit the ship, or
the captain oblige me to quit it, they would all leave the ship, and
sail no farther with him; and at that word All, he turned his face
about towards the main-mast, which was, it seems, the signal agreed
on between them, at which all the seamen being got together, they
cried out, “One and All, One and All !”
My nephew, the captain, was a man of spirit, and of great pre-
sence of mind; and though he was surprised, you may be sure, at
the thing, yet he told them calmly he would consider of the matter,
but that he could do nothing in it till he had spoken to me about it:
he used some arguments with them, to show them the unreasonable-
ness and injustice of the thing, but it was all in vain; they swore, and
shook hands round, before his face, that they would go all on shore
unless he would engage to them not to suffer me to come on board
the ship.
This was a hard article upon him, who knew his obligation to me,
and did not know how I might take it; so he began to talk cavalierly
to them; told them that I was a very considerable owner of the ship,
and that in justice he could not put me out of my own house; that this
was next door to serving me as the famous pirate Kid had done, who
made the mutiny in a ship, set the captain on shore in an uninhabited
island, and ran away with the ship; that let them go into what ship
they would, if ever they came to England again it would cost them
dear; that the ship was mine, and that he could not put me out of it;
and that he would rather lose the ship, and the voyage too, than dis-
oblige me so much; so they might do as they pleased. However, he
would go on shore, and talk with me there, and invited the boatswain
to go with him, and perhaps they might accommodate the matter
with me.
But they all rejected the proposal; and said, they would have no-
thing to do with me any more, neither on board nor on shore; and if
412
I came on board, they would go on shore. “Well,” said the cap-
tain, “if you are all of this mind, let me go on shore, and talk with
him:” so away he came to me with this account, a little after the
message had been brought to me from the coxswain.
I was very glad to see my nephew I must confess, for I was not
without apprehensions that they would confine him by violence, set
sail, and run away with the ship; and then I had been stripped naked,
in a remote country, and nothing to help myself: in short, I had been
in a worse case than when I was all alone in the island.
But they had not come to that length, it seems, to my great satis-
faction; and when my nephew told me what they had said to him, and
how they had sworn, and shook hands, that they would one and all
leave the ship, if I was suffered to come on board, I told him he should
not be concerned at it at all, for I would stay on shore; I only desired
he would take care and send me all my necessary things on shore, and
leave me a sufficient sum of money, and I would find my way to Eng-
land as well as I could.
This was a heavy piece of news to my nephew; but there was no
way to help it, but to comply with it. So, in short, he went on board
the ship again, and satisfied the men that his uncle had yielded to
their importunity, and had sent for his goods from on board the ship.
So the matter was over in a very few hours; the men returned to their
duty, and I begun to consider what course I should steer.
I was now alone in the remotest part of the world, as I think I may
call it, for I was near three thousand leagues, by sea, farther off from
England than I was at my island; only, it is true, I might travel here
by land, over the Great Mogul's country to Surat, might go from
thence to Bassora by sea, up the Gulf of Persia, and from thence
might take the way of the caravans over the desert of Arabia, to Aleppo
and Scandcroon, and from thence by sea again to Italy, and so over-
land into France; and this, put together, might be, at least, a full
diameter of the globe; but, if it were to be measured, I suppose it
would appear to be a great deal more.
I had another way before me, which was to wait for some English
ships, which were coming to Bengal, from Achin, on the island of
Sumatra, and get passage on board them for England: but as I came
hither without any concern with the English East India Company, so
it would be difficult to go from hence without their licence, unless
A 13
with great favour of the captains of the ships, or of the Company's
factors; and to both I was an utter stranger.
Here I had the particular pleasure, speaking by contrarieties, to
see the ship set sail without me; a treatment, I think, a man in my
circumstances scarce ever met with, except from pirates running away
with a ship, and setting those that would not agree with their villainy
on shore: indeed this was the next door to it both ways. However,
my nephew left me two servants, or rather, one companion and one
servant: the first was clerk to the purser, whom he engaged to go with
me; and the other was his own servant. I took me also a good lod-
ging in the house of n English woman, where several merchants lodged,
some French, two Italians, or rather Jews, and one Englishman.
Here I was handsomely enough entertained; and that I might not be
said to run rashly upon any thing, I stayed here above nine months,
considering what course to take, and how to manage myself. I had
some English goods with me of value, and a considerable sum of
money; my nephew furnishing me with a thousand pieces of cight,
and a letter of credit for more, if I had occasion, that I might not be
straitened, whatever might happen.
I quickly disposed of my goods, and to advantage too; and, as I
originally intended, I bought here some very good diamonds, which,
of all other things, was the most proper for me, in my present cir-
cumstances, because I might always carry my whole estate about me.
After a long stay here, and many proposals made for my return
to England, but none falling to my mind, the English merchant,
who lodged with me, and with whom I had contracted an intimate
acquaintance, came to me one morning: “Countryman,” says he,
“I have a project to communicate to you, which, as it suits with my
thoughts, may, for aught I know, suit with yours also, when you
shall have thoroughly considered it.
“Here we are posted,” says he, “you by accident, and I by my own
choice, in a part of the world very remote from our own country; but it
is in a country where, by us who understand trade and business, a great
deal of money is to be got: if you will put a thousand pounds, to my
thousand pounds, we will hire a ship here, the first we can get to our
minds; you shall be captain, I'll be merchant, and we will go a
trading voyage to China; for what should we stand still for? The
Whole World is in motion, rolling round and round; all the creatures
414
of God, heavenly bodies and earthly, are busy and diligent: why should
we be idle? There are no drones in the world but men: why should
We be of that number?”
I liked his proposal very well; and the more because it seemed to
be expressed with so much good will, and in so friendly a manner.
I will not say, but that I might, by my loose and unhinged circum-
stances, be the fitter to embrace a proposal for trade, or indeed for
anything else; whereas otherwise, trade was none of my element;
however, I might, perhaps, say with some truth, that if trade was
not my element, rambling was; and no proposal for seeing any part
of the world, which I had never seen before, could possibly come
amiss to me.
It was, however, some time before we could get a ship to our
mind; and when we got a vessel, it was not easy to get English
sailors; that is to say, so many as were necessary to govern the
voyage, and manage the sailors which we should pick up there.
After some time we got a mate, a boatswain, and a gunner, English;
a Dutch carpenter, and three Portuguese foremast-men: with these
we found we could do well enough, having Indian seamen, such as
they are, to make up.
There are so many travellers who have written the history of their
voyages and travels this way, that it would be but very little diver-
sion to any body, to give a long account of the places we went to, and
the people who inhabit there: those things I leave to others, and
refer the reader to those journals and travels of Englishmen, many of
which, I find are published, and more promised every day. It is
enough for me to tell you that we made this voyage to Achin, in the
island of Sumatra, first; and from thence to Siam, where we ex-
changed some of our wares for opium, and some arrack; the first a
commodity which bears a great price among the Chinese, and which,
at that time, was very much wanted there: in a word, we went up to
Susham; made a very great voyage; were eight months out: and re-
turned to Bengal: and I was very well satisfied with my adventure.
- I observe, that our people in England often admire how the
officers, which the Company send into India, and the merchants
which generally stay there, get such very great estates as they do, and
sometimes come home worth sixty to seventy, and a hundred thousand
pounds at a time. But it is no wonder, or at least, we shall see so
415
much farther into it, when we consider the innumerable ports and
places where they have a free commerce; that it will then be no
wonder; and much less will it be so, when we consider, that at all
those places and ports where the English ships come, there is so
much, and such constant demand for the growth of all other coun-
tries, that there is a certain went for the returns, as well as a market
abroad for the goods carried out.
In short, we made a very good voyage, and I got so much money
by the first adventure, and such an insight into the method of getting
more, that, had I been twenty years younger, I should have been
tempted to have staid here, and sought no farther for making my
fortune; but what was all this to a man on the wrong side of threescore,
that was rich enough, and came abroad more in obedience to a rest—
less desire of seeing the world, than a covetous desire of getting in it?
And indeed I think it is with great justice that I now call it a restless
desire, for it was so: when I was at home, I was restless to go
abroad; and now I was abroad, I was restless to be at home. I say,
what was this gain to me? I was rich enough, nor had I any uneasy
desires about getting more money; and therefore the profits of the
voyage to me were things of no great force for the prompting me for-
ward to farther undertakings: hence I thought, that by this voyage
I had made no progress at all; because I was come back, as I might
call it, to the place from whence I came, as to a home; whereas my
eye, which, like that which Solomon speaks of, was never satisfied
with seeing, was still more desirous of wandering and seeing. I was
come into a part of the world which I never was in before; and that
part in particular which I had heard much of; and was resolved to see
as much of it as I could; and then I thought I might say I had seen all
the world that was worth seeing.
But my fellow-traveller and I had different notions; I do not name
this to insist upon my own, for I acknowledge his were the most just,
and the most suited to the end of a merchant's life; who, when he is
abroad upon adventures, it is his wisdom to stick to that, as the best
thing for him, which he is like to get the most money by. My new
friend kept himself to the nature of the thing, and would have been
content to have gone, like a carrier's horse, always to the same inn,
backward and forward, provided he could, as he called it, find his
account in it: on the other hand, mine, as old as I was, was the
416
motion of a mad rambling boy, that never cares to see a thing twice
OWCI’.
But this was not all: I had a kind of impatience upon me to be
nearer home, and yet the most unsettled resolution imaginable,
which way to go. In the interval of these consultations, my friend,
who was always upon the search for business, proposed another voyage
to me, viz. among the Spice Islands; and to bring home a loading of
cloves from the Manillas, or thereabouts; places where, indeed, the
Dutch do trade, but the islands belong partly to the Spaniards;
though we went not so far, but to some other, where they have not
the whole power as they have at Batavia, Ceylon &c. We were not
long in preparing for this voyage; the chief diſficulty was in bringing
me to come into it; however, at last, nothing else offering, and
finding that really stirring about and trading, the profit being so great,
and, as I may say, certain, had more pleasure in it, and more Sa-
tisfaction to the mind, than sitting still; which, to me especially,
was the unhappiest part of life, I resolved on this voyage too: which
we made very successfully, touching at Borneo, and several islands,
whose names I do not remember, and came home in about five
months. We sold our spice, which was chiefly cloves, and some
nutmegs, to the Persian merchants, who carried them away for the
Gulf; and, making near five of one, we really got a great deal of
money.
My friend, when we made up this account, smiled at me: “Well
now,” said he, with a sort of an agreeable insulting my indolent
temper, “is not this better than walking about here, like a man of
nothing to do, and spending our time in staring at the nonsense and
ignorance of the Pagans?” – “Why truly,” said I, “my friend, I
think it is; and I begin to be a convert to the principles of merchandi-
sing. But I must tell you,” said I, “by the way, you do not know
what I am doing; for if once I conquer my backwardness, and embark
heartily, as old as I am, I shall harass you up and down the world till
I tire you; for I shall pursue it so eagerly, I shall never let you lie
Still.”
But to be short with my speculations: a little while after this
there came in a Dutch ship from Batavia; she was a coaster, not an
European trader, and of about two hundred tons burden: the men,
as they pretended, having been so sickly, that the captain had not
A 17
men enough to go to sea with, he lay by at Bengal; and, as if having
got money enough or being willing, for other reasons, to go for
Europe, he gave public notice, that he would sell his ship; this
came to my ears before my new partner heard of it; and I had a great
mind to buy it. So I went home to him, and told him of it: he con-
sidered awhile, for he was no rash man neither; but musing some
time, he replied, “She is a little too big; but, however, we will
have her.” Accordingly we bought the ship; and, agreeing with
the master, we paid for her, and took possession; when we had done
so, we resolved to entertain the men, if we could, to join them with
those we had, for the pursuing our business; but on a sudden, they
having received not their wages, but their share of the money, as we
afterwards learnt, not one of them was to be found. We inquired
much about them, and at length were told, that they were all gone
together, by land, to Agra, the great city of the Mogul's residence;
and from thence were to travel to Surat, and so by sea to the Gulf of
Persia.
Nothing had so heartily troubled me a good while, as that I missed
the opportunity of going with them; for such a ramble, I thought,
and in such company as would both have guarded me and diverted
me, would have suited mightily with my great design; and I should
both have seen the world, and gone homewards too; but I was much
better satisfied a few days after, when I came to know what sort of
fellows they were; for, in short, their history was, that this man
they called captain was the gunner only, not the commander; that
they had been a trading voyage, in which they were attacked on shore
by some of the Malayans, who had killed the captain and three of his
men; and that after the captain was killed, these men, eleven in
number, had resolved to run away with the ship, which they did;
and had brought her in at the Bay of Bengal, leaving the mate and
five men more on shore; of whom we shall hear farther.
Well, let them come by the ship how they would, we came
honestly by her, as we thought; though we did not, I confess,
examine into things so exactly as we ought; for we never inquired
any thing of the seamen, who, if we had examined, would certainly
have faltered in their accounts, contradicted one another, and per-
haps have contradicted themselves; or, one how or other, we should
have seen reason to have suspected them; but the man showed us a
Robinson Crusoe, 27
4.18
-->
bill of sale for the ship, to one Emanuel Clostershoven, or some
such name, for I suppose it was all a forgery, and called himself by
that name; and we could not contradict him; and being withal a little
too unwary, or at least having no suspicion of the thing, We Went
through with our bargain.
We picked up some English seamen here after this, and some
Dutch; and now we resolved for a second voyage to the south-east,
for cloves, &c. that is to say, among the Philippine and Molucca
isles; and, in short, not to fill this part of my story with trifles,
when what is yet to come is so remarkable, I spent, from first to last,
six years in this country, trading from port to port, backward and
forward, and with very good success; and was now the last year with
my partner, going in the ship abovementioned, on a voyage to China;
but designing first to Siam, to buy rice.
In this voyage, being by contrary winds obliged to beat up and
down a great while in the straits of Malacca, and among the islands,
we were no sooner got clear of those difficult seas, but we found our
ship had sprung a leak, and we were not able, by all our industry to
find out where it was. This forced us to make for some port; and
my partner, who knew the country better than I did, directed the
captain to put into the river of Cambodia; for I had made the English
mate, one Mr. Thompson, captain, not being willing to take the
charge of the ship upon myself. This river lies on the north side of
the great bay or gulf which goes up to.Siam.
While we were here, and going often on shore for refreshment,
there comes to me one day an Englishman, and he was, it seems, a
gunner's mate on board an English East India ship, which rode in
the same river, up at or near the city of Cambodia: what brought
him hither we knew not; but he comes up to me, and, speaking
English, “Sir,” says he, “you are a stranger to me, and I to you;
but I have something to tell you, that very nearly concerns you.”
I looked steadily at him a good while, and thought at first I had
known him, but I did not. “If it very nearly concerns me,” said I,
“and not yourself, what moves you to tell it me?”—“I am moved,”
says he, “by the imminent danger you are in; and, for aught I see,
you have no knowledge of it.” – “I know no danger I am in,” said
I, “but that my ship is leaky, and I cannot find it out; but I purpose
to lay her aground to-morrow, to see if I can find it.”—“But, Sir,"
A 19
says he, “leaky or not leaky, find it or not find it, you will be wiser
than to lay your ship on shore to-morrow, when you hear what I have
to say to you. Do you know, Sir,” said he, “the town of Cambodia
lies about fifteen leagues up this river? And there are two large
English ships about five leagues on this side, and three Dutch.” —
“Well,” said I, “and what is that to me?”—“Why, Sir,” says
he, “is it for a man that is upon such adventures as you are upon,
to come into a port, and not examine first what ships there are there,
and whether he is able to deal with them? I suppose you don't think
you are a match for them?” I was amused very much at his dis-
course, but not amazed at it; for I could not conceive what he meant;
and I turned short upon him, and said, “Sir, I wish you would
explain yourself; I cannot imagine what reason I have to be afraid of
any of the Company's ships, or Dutch ships; I am no interloper;
what can they have to say to me?”
He looked like a man half angry, half pleased; and pausing
awhile, but smiling, “Well, Sir,” says he, “if you think yourself
secure, you must take your chance; I am sorry your fate should blind
you against good advice; but assure yourself if you do not put to sea
immediately, you will the very next tide be attacked by five long-boats
full of men; and perhaps, if you are taken, you will be hanged for a
pirate, and the particulars be examined into afterwards. I thought,
Sir,” added he, “I should have met with a better reception than
this, for doing you a piece of service of such importance.” – “I can
never be ungrateful,” said I, “for any service, or to any man that
offers me any kindness; but it is past my comprehension,” said I,
“what they should have such a design upon me for; however, since
you say there is no time to be lost, and that there is some villainous
design in hand against me, I will go on board this minute, and put
to sea immediately, if my men can stop the leak, or if we can swim
without stopping it: but, Sir,” said I, “shall I go away ignorant
of the reason of all this? Can you give me no farther light into it?”
“I can tell you but part of the story, Sir,” says he; “but I have
a Dutch seaman here with me, and, I believe, I could persuade him
to tell you the rest; but there is scarce time for it: but the short of
the story is this, the first part of which, I suppose you know well
enough, viz. that you were with this ship at Sumatra; that there your
captain was murdered by the Malayans, with three of his men; and
27 *
420
that you, or some of those that were on board with you, ran away
with the ship, and are since turned pirates. This is the sum of the
story, and you will all be seized as pirates, I can assure you, and
executed with very little ceremony; for you know merchant-ships
show but little law to pirates, if they get them into their power.”
“Now you speak plain English,” said I, “and I thank you; and
though I know nothing that we have done, like what you talk of, but
am sure we came honestly and fairly by the ship; yet seeing such
work is a-doing, as you say, and that you seem to mean honestly,
I will be upon my guard.” – “Nay, Sir,” says he, “do not talk of
being upon your guard; the best defence is to be out of the danger:
if you have any regard to your life, and the lives of all your men, put
out to sea without fail at high-water; and as you have a whole tide
before you, you will be gone too far out before they can come down;
for they will come away at high-water; and as they have twenty miles
to come, you get near two hours of them by the difference of the tide,
not reckoning the length of the way: besides, as they are only boats,
and not ships, they will not venture to follow you far out to sea,
especially if it blows.”
“Well,” said I, “you have been very kind in this: what shall I
do for you to make you amends?” “Sir,” says he, “you may not
be so willing to make me amends, because you may not be convinced
of the truth of it: I will make an offer to you; I have nineteen months
pay due to me on board the ship which I came out of England in; and
the Dutchman, that is with me, has seven months pay due to him;
if you will make good our pay to us, we will go along with you: if
you find nothing more in it, we will desire no more; but if we do
convince you, that we have saved your life, and the ship, and the
lives of all the men in her, we will leave the rest to you.”
I consented to this readily; and went immediately on board and the
two men with me. As soon as I came to the ship's side, my partner,
who was on board, came on the quarter-deck, and called to me with a
great deal of joy. “O ho! O ho! we have stopped the leak! we have
stopped the leak l’”—“Say you so?” said I; “thank God; but weigh
the anchor then immediately.”—“Weigh!” says he: “what do you
mean by that? What is the matter?” says he. “Ask no questions,”
said I, “but all hands to work, and weigh without losing a minute.”
He was surprised: but however, he called the captain, and be imme-
f
*
421
$ºsºsº
diately ordered the anchor to be got up; and though the tide was not
quite done, yet a little land-breeze blowing, we stood out to sea; then
I called him into the cabin, and told him the story at large; and we
called in the men, and they told us the rest of it: but as it took us up
a great deal of time, so before we had done, a seaman comes to the
cabin-door, and calls out to us, that the captain bade him tell us, we
were chased. “Chased l’” said I, “by whom, and by what?” “By
five sloops, or boats,” said the fellow, “full of men.” “Very
well,” said I; “then it is apparent there is something in it.” In the
next place, I ordered all our men to be called up; and told them,
that there was a design to seize the ship, and to take us for pirates;
and asked them, if they would stand by us, and by one another?
The men answered, cheerfully, one and all, that they would live
and die with us. Then I asked the captain, what way he thought
best for us to manage a fight with them; for resist them I was resolved
we would, and that to the last drop. He said, readily, that the way
was to keep them off with our great shot, as long as we could, and
then to fire at them with our small arms, to keep them from boarding
us; but when neither of these would do any longer, we should retire
to our close quarters; perhaps they had not materials to break open
our bulk-heads, or get in upon us.
The gunner had, in the mean time, orders to bring two guns to
bear fore and aft, out of the steerage, to clear the deck, and load
them with musket-bullets and small pieces of old iron, and what
next came to hand; and thus we made ready for fight; but all this
while we kept out to sea, with wind enough, and could see the boats
at a distance, being five large long-boats following us, with all the
sail they could make.
Two of these boats, which, by our glasses, we could see were
English, had outsailed the rest, were near two leagues a-head of
them, and gained upon us considerably; so that we found they would
come up with us: upon which we fired a gun without ball, to intimate
that they should bring to; and we put out a flag of truce, as a signal
for parley; but they kept crowding after us till they came within
shot; upon this we took in our white flag, they having made no
answer to it; hung out the red flag, and fired at them with shot:
notwithstanding this, they came on till they were near enough to call
ū
A22
to them with a speaking—trumpet, which we had on board; so we
called to them, and bade them keep off at their peril.
1t was all one, they crowded after us, and endeavoured to come
under our stern, so to board us on our quarter: upon which, seeing
they were resolute for mischief, and depended upon the strength that
followed them, I ordered to bring the ship to, so they lay upon our
broadside, when immediately we fired five guns at them; one of
which had been levelled so true, as to carry away the stern of the
hindermost boat, and bring them to the necessity of taking down
their sail, and running all to the head of the boat to keep her from
sinking; so she lay by and had enough of it; but seeing the foremost
boat still crowd on after us, we made ready to fire at her in particular.
While this was doing, one of the three boats that was behind,
being forwarder than the other two, made up to the boat which we
had disabled, to relieve her, and we could afterwards see her take
out the men: we called again to the foremost boat, and offered a
truce to parley again, and to know what was her business with us;
but had no answer: only she crowded close under our stern. Upon
this our gunner, who was a very dexterous fellow, run out his two
chase-guns, and fired at her; but the shot missing, the men in the
boat shouted, waved their caps, and came on; but the gunner,
getting quickly ready again, fired among them the second time; one
shot of which, though it missed the boat itself, yet fell in among the
men, and we could easily see had done a great deal of mischief among
them; but we, taking no notice of that, weared the ship again, and
brought our quarter to bear upon them; and, firing three guns
more, we found the boat was almost split to pieces; in particular,
her rudder, and a piece of her stern, were shot quite away; so they
handed their sail immediately, and were in great disorder: but, to
complete their misfortune, our gunner let fly two guns at them again;
where he hit them we could not tell, but we found the boat was
sinking, and some of the men already in the water. Upon this I
immediately manned out our pinnace, which we had kept close by
our side, with orders to pick up some of the men, if they could, and
save them from drowning, and immediately to come on board with
them; because we saw the rest of the boats began to come up. Our
men in the pinnace followed their orders, and took up three men;
one of which was just drowning and it was a good while before we
423
could recover him. As soon as they were on board, we crowded all
the sail we could make, and stood farther out to sea; and we found,
that when the other three boats came up to the first two, they gave
over their chase.
Being thus delivered from a danger, which though I knew not the
reason of it, yet seemed to be much greater than I apprehended, I
took care that we would change our course, and not let any one ima-
gine whither we were going; so we stood out to sea eastward, quite
out of the course of all European ships, whether they were bound to
China, or any where else within the commerce of the European
nations.
When we were now at sea, we began to consult with the two sea-
men, and inquire first, what the meaning of all this should be?
The Dutchman let us into the secret of it at once; telling us, that the
fellow that sold us the ship, as we said, was no more than a thief
that had run away with her. Then he told us how the captain, whose
name too he mentioned, though I do not remember it now, was
treacherously murdered by the natives on the coast of Malacca, with
three of his men; and that he, this Dutchman, and four more, got
into the woods, where they wandered about a great while; till at
length he, in particular, in a miraculous manner, made his escape,
and swam off to a Dutch ship, which sailing near the shore, in its
way from China, had sent their boat on shore for fresh water; that
he durst not come to that part of the shore where the boat was, but
made shift in the night to take the water farther off, and swimming a
great while, at last the ship's boat took him up.
He then told us, that he went to Batavia, where two of the sea-
men belonging to the ship had arrived, having deserted the rest in
their travels; and gave an account, that the fellow who had run away
with the ship, sold her at Bengal to a set of pirates, which were gone
a-cruising in her; and that they had already taken an English ship,
and two Dutch ships, very richly laden.
This latter part we found to concern us directly; and though we
knew it to be false, yet, as my partner said very well, if we had fallen
into their hands, and they had had such a prepossession against us
beforehand, it had been in vain for us to have defended ourselves, or
to hope for any good quarter at their hands; especially considering
that our accusers had been our judges, and that we could have ex-
424
pected nothing from them but what rage would have dictated, and an
ungoverned passion have executed; and therefore it was his opinion,
we should go directly back to Bengal, from whence we came, with-
out putting in at any port whatever, because there we could give a
good account of ourselves, and could prove where we were when the
ship put in, whom we bought her of, and the like; and, which was
more than all the rest, if we were put to the necessity of bringing it
before the proper judges, we should be sure to have some justice;
and not be hanged first, and judged afterwards. :
I was some time of my partner's opinion; but after a little more
serious thinking, I told him, I thought it was a very great hazard for
us to attempt returning to Bengal, for that we were on the wrong side
of the Straits of Malacca; and that if the alarm was given, we should
be sure to be waylaid on every side, as well by the Dutch of Batavia,
as the English elsewhere; that if we should be taken, as it were,
running away, we should even condemn ourselves, and there would
want no more evidence to destroy us. I also asked the English sailor's
opinion, who said, he was of my mind, and that we should certainly
be taken.
This danger a little startled my partner, and all the ship's com—
pany; and we immediately resolved to go away to the coast of
Tonquin, and so on to China; and from thence pursuing the first
design, as to trade, find some way or other to dispose of the ship,
and come back in some of the vessels of the country, such as we could
get. This was approved of as the best method for our security; and
accordingly we steered away N. N. E. keeping above fifty leagues off
from the usual course to the eastward.
This, however, put us to some inconveniences; for first the
winds when we came to that distance from the shore, seemed to be
more steadily against us, blowing almost trade as we call it, from
the E. and E. N. E.; so that we were a long while upon our voyage,
and we were but ill provided with victuals for so long a run; and,
which was still worse there was some danger that those English and
Dutch ships, whose boats pursued us, whereof some were bound
that way, might be got in before us; and if not, some other ship
bound to Cina might have information of us from them, and pursue
us with the same vigour.
I must confess I was now very uneasy, and thought myself, in-
425
cluding the late escape from the long-boats, to have been in the most
dangerous condition that ever I was in through all my past life; for
whatever ill circumstances I had been in, I was never pursued for a
thief before; nor had I ever done any thing that merited the name of
dishonest or fraudulent, much less thievish. I had chiefly been mine
own enemy; or, as I may rightly say, I had been nobody's enemy
but my own. But now I was embarrassed in the worst condition
imaginable; for though I was perfectly innocent, I was in no condition
to make that innocence appear: and iſ I had been taken, it had been
under a supposed guilt of the worst kind; at least a crime esteemed
so among the people I had to do with.
This made me very anxious to make an escape, though which way
to do it I knew not; or what port or place we should go to. My
partner, seing me thus dejected, though he was the most concerned
at first, began to encourage me; and describing to me the several
ports of that coast, told me, he would put in on the coast of Cochin-
china, or the bay of Tonquin; intending to go afterwards to Macao,
a town once in the possession of the Portuguese, and where still a
great many European families resided, and particularly the missionary
priests usually went thither, in order to their going forward to China.
Hither then we resolved to go; and accordingly, though after a
tedious and irregular course, and very much straitened for provisions,
we came within sight of the coast very early in the morning; and upon
reflection upon the past circumstances we were in, and the danger, if
we had not escaped, we resolved to put into a small river, which,
however, had depth enough of water for us, and to see if we could,
either over land or by the ship's pinnace, come to know what ships
were in any ports thereabouts. This happy step was, indeed, our
deliverance; for though we did not immediately see any European
ships in the bay of Tonquin, yet the next morning there came into
the bay two Dutch ships; and a third without any colours spread out,
but which we believed to be a Dutchman, passed by at about two
leagues distance, steering for the coast of China; and in the afternoon
went by two English ships, steering the same course; and thus we
thought we saw ourselves beset with enemies, both one way and the
other. The place we were in was wild and barbarous, the people
thieves, even by occupation or profession; and though, it is true,
we had not much to seek of them, and except getting a few provisions,
426
cared not how little we had to do with them; yet it was with much
difficulty that we kept ourselves from being insulted by them several
ways.
We were in a small river of this country, within a few leagues of
its utmost limits northward, and by our boat we coasted north-east
to the point of land which opens to the great bay of Tonquin ; and it
was in this beating up along the shore that we discovered as above,
that, in a word we were surrounded with enemies. The people we
were among were the most barbarous of all the inhabitants of the
coast; having no correspondence with any other nation, and dealing
only in fish and oil, and such gross commodities; and it may be
particularly seen that they are, as I said, the most barbarous of any
of the inhabitants, viz. that among other customs they have this one,
that if any vessel have the misfortune to be shipwrecked upon their
coast, they presently make the men all prisoners; that is to say slaves;
and it was not long before we found a spice of their kindness this way,
on the occasion following.
I have observed above that our ship sprung a leak at sea, and that
we could not find it out: and however it happened, that, as I have
said, it was stopped unexpectedly, in the happy minute of our being
to be seized by the Dutch and English ships, in the bay of Siam; yet,
as we did not find the ship so perfectly tight and sound as we desired,
we resolved, while we were in this place, to lay her on shore, take
out what heavy things we had on board, which were not many, and
to wash and clean her bottom, and if possible to find out where the
leaks were.
Accordingly, having lightened the ship, and brought all our guns,
and other moveable things, to one side, we tried to bring her down,
that we might come at her bottom; for, on second thoughts, we did
not care to lay her dry aground, neither could we find out a proper
place for it. &
The inhabitants, who had never been acquainted with such a
sight, came wondering down to the shore to look at us; and seeing
the ship lie down on one side in such a manner, and heeling towards
the shore, and not seeing our men, who were at work on her bottom
with stages, and with their boats, on the off side, they presently
concluded that the ship was cast away, and lay so fast on the ground.
On this supposition they came all about us in two or three hours
A27
time, with ten or twelve large boats, having some of them eight,
some ten men in a boat, intending, no doubt, to have come on board
and plunder the ship; and if they had found us there, to have carried
us away for slaves to their king, or whatever they call him, for we
knew nothing who was their governor.
When they came up to the ship, and began to row round her, they
discovered us all hard at work, on the outside of the ship's bottom
and side, Washing, and graving, and stopping, as every seafaring
man knows how.
They stood for awhile gazing at us, and we, who were a little
Surprised, could not imagine what their design was; but being willing
to be sure, we took this opportunity to get some of us into the ship,
and others to hand down arms and ammunition to those that were at
work to defend themselves with, if there should be occasion; and it
was no more than need; for in less than a quarter of an hour's con-
sultation, they agreed, it seems, that the ship was really a wreck;
that we were all at work endeavouring to save her, or to save our
lives by the help of our boats; and when we handed our arms into the
boats, they concluded by that motion that we were endeavouring to
save some of our goods. Upon this they took it for granted we all
belonged to them, and away they came down upon our men, as if it
had been in a line of battle.
Our men seeing so many of them began to be frighted, for we lay
but in an ill posture to fight, and cried out to us to know what they
should do? I immediately called to the men who worked upon the
stages, to slip them down and get up the side into the ship, and bade
those in the boat to row round and come on board; and those few of
us who were on board worked with all the strength and hands we had
to bring the ship to rights; but, however, neither the men upon the
stages, nor those in the boats, could do as they were ordered, before
the Cochinchineses were upon them, and two of their boats boarded
our long-boat, and began to lay hold of the men as their prisoners.
The first man they laid hold of was an English seaman, a stout,
strong fellow, who having a musket in his hand, never offered to fire
it, but laid it down in the boat, like a fool as I thought. But he
understood his business better than I could teach him; for he grappled
the Pagan, and dragged him by main force out of their own boat into
ours; where taking him by the two ears, he beat his head so against
428
the boat's gunnel, that the fellow died instantly in his hands; and in
the mean time a Dutchman, who stood next, took up the musket,
and with the butt-end of it so laid about him, that he knocked down
five of them who attempted to enter the boat. But this was doing
little towards resisting thirty or forty men, who fearless, because
ignorant of their danger, began to throw themselves into the long-
boat, where we had but five men to defend it. But one accident gave
our men a complete victory, which deserved our laughter rather than
any thing else, and that was this: —
Our carpenter being preparing to grave the outside of the ship,
as well as to pay the seams where he had caulked her to stop the leaks,
had got two kettles just let down into the boat; one filled with boiling
pitch, and the other with rasin, tallow, and oil, and such stuff as
the shipwrights use for that work; and the man that tended the car-
penter had a great iron ladle in his hand, with which he supplied the
men that were at work with that hot stuff: two of the enemy's men
entered the boat just where this fellow stood, being in the fore-
sheets; he immediately saluted them with a ladlefull of the stuff,
boiling hot, which so burnt and scalded them, being half naked,
that they roared out like two bulls, and, enraged with the fire,
leaped both into the sea. The carpenter saw it, and cried out,
“Well done, Jack, give them some more of it;” when stepping
forward himself, he takes one of their mops, and dipping it in the
pitch pot, he and his man threw it among them so plentifully, that,
in short, of all the men in three boats, there was not one that was
not scalded and burnt with it in a most frightful, pitiful manner, and
made such a howling and crying, that I never heard a worse noise,
and, indeed, nothing like it; for it was worth observing, that though
pain naturally makes all people cry out, yet every nation have a par-
ticular way of exclamation, and make noises as different from one
another as their speech. I cannot give the noise these creatures made
a better name than howling, nor a name more proper to the tone of
it; for I never heard any thing more like the noise of the wolves,
which, as I have said, I heard howl in the forest on the frontiers of
Languedoc.
I was never pleased with a victory better in my life; not only as it
was a perfect surprise to me, and that our danger was imminent be-
fore; but as we got this victory without any bloodshed, except of
429
that man the ſellow killed with his naked hands, and which I was
very much concerned at; for I was sick of killing such poor savage
wretches, even though it was in my own defence, knowing they
came on errands which they thought just, and knew no better;
and that though it may be a just thing, because necessary, for
there is no necessary wickedness in nature; yet I thought it was
a sad life, when we must be always obliged to be killing our fellow-
creatures to preserve ourselves; and, indeed, I think so still;
and I would, even now, suffer a great deal, rather than I would
take away the life even of the worst person injuring me. I be-
lieve also, all considering people, who know the value of life, would
be of my opinion, if they entered seriously into the consideration
of it.
But to return to my story. All the while this was doing, my
partner and I, who managed the rest of the men on board, had, with
great dexterity, brought the ship almost to rights; and, having gotten
the guns into their places again, the gunner called to me to bid our
boat get out of the way, for he would let ſly among them. I called
back again to him, and bid him not offer to fire, for the carpenter
would do the work without him; but bade him heat another pitch-
kettle, which our cook, who was on board, took care of. But the
enemy was so terrified with what they met with in their first attack,
that they would not come on again; and some of them that were
farthest off, seeing the ship swim, as it were, upright, began, as
we supposed, to see their mistake, and gave over the enterprise,
finding it was not as they expected. Thus we got clear of this merry
fight; and having gotten some rice, and some roots and bread, with
about sixteen good big hogs on board two days before, we resolved to
stay here no longer, but go forward, whatever came of it; for we
made no doubt but we should be surrounded the next day with rogues
enough, perhaps more than our pitch-kettle would dispose of for us.
We therefore got all our things on board the same evening, and
the next morning were ready to sail. In the meantime, lying at an
anchor at some distance from the shore, we were not so much con-
cerned, being now in a fighting posture, as well as in a sailing
posture, if any enemy had presented. The next day, having finished
our work within board, and finding our ship was perfectly healed of
all her leaks, we set sail. We would have gone into the bay of Ton-
A30
º
tuin, for we wanted to inform ourselves of what was to be known
concerning the Dutch ships that had been there; but we durst not
stand in there, because we had seen several ships go in, as we sup-
posed, but a little before; so we kept on N. E. towards the isle of
Formosa, as much afraid of being seen by a Dutch or English mer-
chant-ship, as a Dutch or English merchant-ship in the Mediterra-
nean is of an Algerine man-of-war.
When we were thus got to sea, we kept on N. E. as if we would
go to the Manillas or the Philippine islands, and this we did, that we
might not fall into the way of any of our European ships: and then we
steered north again, till we came to the latitude of 22 degrees 20 mi-
nutes, by which means we made the island Formosa directly, where
we came to an anchor, in order to get water and fresh provisions,
which the people there, who are very courteous and civil in their
manners, supplied us with willingly, and dealt very fairly and punc-
tually with us in all their agreements and bargains, which is what we
did not find among other people, and may be owing to the remains of
Christianity, which was once planted here by a Dutch mission of
Protestants, and is a testimony of what I have often observed, viz.
that the Christian religion always civilizes the people and reforms
their manners, where it is received, whether it works saving effects
upon them or no.
From hence we sailed still north, keeping the coast of China at an
equal distance, till we knew we were beyond all the ports of China
where our European ships usually come; being resolved, if possible,
not to fall into any of their hands, especially in this country, where,
as our circumstances were, we could not fail of being entirely ruined;
nay, so great was my fear in particular, as to my being taken by
them, that I believe firmly I would much rather have chosen to fall
into the hands of the Spanish Inquisition.
Being now come to the latitude of 30 degrees, we resolved to put
into the first trading port we should come at, and standing in for the
shore, a boat came off two leagues to us, with an old Portuguese
pilot on board, who, knowing us to be an European ship, came to
offer his service, which indeed we were very glad of, and took him
on board; upon which, without asking us whither we would go, he
dismissed the boat he came in, and sent it back.
I thought it was now so much in our choice to make the old man
*
A31
carry us whither we would, that I began to talk with him about car-
rying us to the gulf of Nanquin, which is the most northern part of
the coast of China. The old man said he knew the gulf of Nanquin
very well; but smiling, asked us what we would do there?
I told him we would sell our cargo, and purchase China wares,
calicoes, raw silks, tea, wrought silks, &c. and so would return
by the same course we came. He told us our best port had been to
have put in at Macao, where we could not fail of a market for our
opium to our satisfaction, and, might, for our money, have pur-
chased all sorts of China goods as cheap as we could at Nanquin.
Not being able to put the old man out of his talk, of which he was
very opinionated, or conceited, I told him we were gentlemen as well
as merchants, and that we had a mind to go and see the great city of
Pekin, and the famous court of the monarch of China. “Why then,”
says the old man, “you should go to Ningpo, where, by the river
which runs into the sea there, you may go up within five leagues of
the great canal. This canal is a navigable made stream, which goes
through the heart of all that vast empire of China, crosses all the rivers,
passes some considerable hills by the help of sluices and gates, and
goes up to the city of Pekin, being in length near two hundred and
seventy leagues.”
“Well,” said I, “Seignior Portuguese, but that is not our bu-
siness now; the great question is if you can carry us up to the city of
Nanquin, from whence we can travel to Pekin afterwards?” Yes, he
said, he could do so very well, and there was a great Dutch ship gone
up that way just before. This gave me a little shock; a Dutch ship
was now our terror, and we had much rather have met the devil, at
least if he had not come in too frightful a ſigure; we depended upon
it that a Dutch ship would be our destruction, for we were in no con-
dition to fight them; all the ships they trade with into those parts being
of great burden, and of much greater force than we were.
The old man found me a little confused, and under some concern,
when he named a Dutch ship; and said to me, “Sir, you need be
under no apprehensions of the Dutch; I suppose they are not now at
war with your nation.” – “No,” said I, “that's true; but I know
not what liberties men may take when they are out of the reach of the
law.” “Why,” said he, “you are no pirates, what necd you fear?
They will not meddle with peaceable merchants, sure.”
º 432
If I had any blood in my body that did not fly up into my face at
that word, it was hindered by some stop in the vessels appointed by
nature to prevent it; for it put me into the greatest disorder and con-
fusion imaginable; nor was it possible for me to conceal it so, but
that the old man easily perceived it.
“Sir,” said he, “I find you are in some disorder in your thoughts
at my talk; pray be pleased to go which way you think fit, and depend
upon it I'll do you all the service I can.” – “Why, Seignior,” said
I, “it is true, I am a little unsettled in my resolution at this time,
whither to go in particular; and I am something more so for what you
said about pirates. I hope there are no pirates in these seas; we are
but in an ill condition to meet with them; for you see we have but a
small force, and but very weakly manned.”
“O Sir,” said he, “do not be concerned; I do not know that
there have been any pirates in these seas these fifteen years, except
one, which was seen, as I hear, in the bay of Siam, about a month
since; but you may be assured she is gone to the southward; nor was
she a ship of any great force, or fit for the work; she was not built for
a privateer, but was run away with by a reprobate crew that were on
board, after the captain and some of his men had been murdered by
the Malayans, at or near the island of Sumatra.”
“What!” said I, seeming to know nothing of the matter, “did
they murder the Captain?”—“No,” said he, “I do not understand
that they murdered him; but as they afterwards ran away with the
ship, it is generally believed they betrayed him into the hands of the
Malayans, who did murder him; and, perhaps, they procured them
to do it.”— ,, Why then,” said I “they derserve death, as much as
if they had done it themselves.” – “Nay,” said the old man, “they
do deserve it, and they will certainly have it if they light upon any
English or Dutch ship; for they have all agreed together that if they
meet that rogue they will give him no quarter.”
“But,” said I to him, “you say the pirate is gone out of these seas;
how can they meet with him then?”—“Why, that is true,” said
he, “they do say so; but he was, as I tell you, in the bay of Siam,
in the river Cambodia, and was discovered there by some Dutchmen
who belonged to the ship, and who were left on shore when they ran
away with her; and some English and Dutch traders being in the river,
they were within a little of taking him. Nay,” said he, “if the fore-
433
most boats had been well seconded by the rest, they had certainly
taken him; but he finding only two boats within reach of him, tacked
about, and fired at these two, and disabled them before the others
came up; and then standing off to sea, the others were not able to
follow him, and so he got away. But they have all so exact a descrip-
tion of the ship, that they will be sure to know him; and wherever
they find him, they have vowed to give no quarter to either the captain
or the seamen, but to hang them all up at the yard-arm.”
“What!” said I, “will they execute them, right or wrong; hang
them first, and judge them afterwards?” — “O Sir!” said the old
pilot, “there is no need to make a formal business of it with such
rogues as those; let them tie them back to back, and set them a-diving;
it is no more than they richly deserve.”
I knew I had my old man fast aboard, and that he could do me no
harm; so that I turned short upon him. “Well, Seignior,” said I,
“and this is the very reason why I would have you carry us to Nan-
quin, and not to put back to Macao, or to any other part of the country
where the English or Dutch ships come; for be it known to you, Seig-
nior, those captains of the English and Dutch ships are a parcel of
rash, proud, insolent fellows, that neither know what belongs to
justice, or how to behave themselves as the laws of God and nature
direct; but being proud of their offices, and not understanding their
power, they would act the murderers to punish robbers; would take
upon them to insult men falsely accused, and determine them guilty
without due inquiry; and perhaps I may live to call some of them to
an account for it, where they may be taught how justice is to be exe-
cuted; that no man ought to be treated as a criminal till some evidence
may be had of the crime, and that he is the man.”
With this I told him, that this was the very ship they had attacked;
and gave him a full account of the skirmish we had with their boats,
and how foolishly and coward–like they behaved. I told him all the
story of our buying the ship, and how the Dutchmen served us. I
told him the reasons I had to believe that this story of killing the mas-
ter by the Malayans, was true as also the running away with the
ship; but that it was all a fiction of their own, to suggest that the
men were turned pirates; and they ought to have been sure it was so,
before they had ventured to attack us by surprise, and oblige us to
Robinson Crusoe, 28
434
resist them; adding, that they would have the blood of those men who
were killed there, in our just defence, to answer for.
The old man was amazed at this relation; and told us, we were
very much in the right to go away to the north; and that if he might
advise us, it should be to sell the ship in China, which we might very
well do, and buy or build another in the country; “And,” said he,
“though you will not get so good a ship, yet you may get one able
enough to carry you and all your goods back again to Bengal, or any
where else.”
I told him I would take his advice when I came to any port where
I could find a ship for my turn, or get any customer to buy this. He
replied, I should meet with customers enough for the ship at Nan-
quin, and that a Chinese junk would serve me very well to go back
again; and that he would procure me people both to buy one and sell
the other.
“Well, but, Seignior,” says I, “as you say they know the ship
so well, I may, perhaps, if I follow your measures, be instrumental
to bring some honest, innocent men into a terrible broil, and, per-
haps, to be murdered in cold blood; for wherever they find the ship
they will prove the guilt upon the men by proving this was the ship,
and so innocent men may probably be overpowered and murdered.”
– “Why,” said the old man, “I’ll find out a way to prevent that
also; for as I know all those commanders you speak of very well, and
shall see them all as they pass by, I will be sure to set them to rights
in the thing, and let them know that they had been so much in the
wrong; that though the people who were on board at first might run
away with the ship, yet it was not true that they had turned pirates;
and that in particular these were not the men that first went off with
the ship, but innocently bought her for their trade, and I am per-
suaded they will so far believe me, as, at least, to act more cau-
tiously for the time to come.” – “Well,” said I, “and will you de-
liver one message to them from me?”—“Yes, I will,” says he, “if
you will give it under your hand in writing, that I may be able to prove
that it came from you, and not out of my own head.” I answered,
that I would readily give it him under my hand. So I took a pen and
ink, and paper, and wrote at large the story of assaulting me with
the long-boats, &c. the pretended reason of it, and the unjust, cruel
design of it; and concluded to the commanders that they had done
435
what they not only should have been ashamed of, but also, that if
ever they came to England, and I lived to see them there, they should
all pay dearly for it, if the laws of my country were not grown out of
use before I arrived there.
My old pilot read this over and over again, and asked me several
times if I would stand to it. I answered, I would stand to it as long
as I had any thing left in the world; being sensible that I should,
one time or other, find an opportunity to put it home to them. But
we had no occasion ever to let the pilot carry this letter, for he never
went back again. While those things were passing between us, by
way of discourse, we went forward directly for Nanquin, and, in
about thirteen days sail, came to anchor at the South-west point of
the great gulf of Nanquin; where, by the way, I came by accident to
understand, that two Dutch ships were gone that length before me,
and that I should certainly fall into their hands. I consulted my
partner again in this exigency, and he was as much at a loss as I was,
and would very gladly have been safe on shore almost any where.
However, I was not in such perplexity neither, but I asked the old
pilot if there was no creek or harbour, which I might put into, and
pursue my business with the Chinese privately, and be in no danger
of the enemy. He told me if I would sail to the southward about two-
and-forty leagues, there was a little port called Quinchang, where
the fathers of the mission usually landed from Macao, on their pro-
gress to teach the Christian religion to the Chinese, and where no
European ships ever put in ; and, if I thought to put in there, I might
consider what farther course to take when I was on shore. He con-
ſessed, he said, it was not a place for merchants, except that at
some certain times they had a kind of a fair there, when the mer–
chants from Japan came over thither to buy the Chinese merchandises.
We all agreed to go back to this place: the name of the port, as
he called it, I may, perhaps, spell wrong, for I do not particularly
remember it, having lost this, together with the names of many
other places set down in a little pocket-book, which was spoiled by
the water, on an accident which I shall relate in its order; but this I
remember, that the Chinese or Japanese merchants we corresponded
with called it by a different name from that which our Portuguese
pilot gave it, and pronounced it as above, Quinchang.
As we were unanimous in our resolutions to go to this place, we
28%
436
weighed the next day, having only gone twice on shore, where we
were to get fresh water; on both which occasions the people of the
country were very civil to us, and brought us abundance of things to
sell to us; I mean of provisions, plants, roots, tea, rice, and some
fowls; but nothing without money.
We came to the other port (the wind being contrary) not till five
days; but it was very much to our satisfaction, and I was joyful, and
I may say thankful, when I set my foot safe on shore, resolving,
and my partner too, that if it was possible to dispose of ourselves and
effects any other way, though not every way to our satisfaction, we
would never set one foot on board that unhappy vessel more: and
indeed I must acknowledge, that of all the circumstances of life that
ever I had any experience of, nothing makes mankind so completely
miserable as that of being in constant fear. Well does the Scripture
say, “The fear of man brings a snare;” it is a life of death, and the
mind is so entirely suppressed by it, that it is capable of no relief;
the animal spirits sink, and all the vigour of nature, which usually
supports men under other afflictions, and is present to them in the
greatest exigencies, fails them here.
Nor did it fail of its usual operations upon the fancy, by heighten-
ing every danger; representing the English and Dutch captains to be
men incapable of hearing reason, or distinguishing between honest
men and rogues; or between a story calculated for our own turn,
made out of nothing, on purpose to deceive, and a true genuine
account of our whole voyage, progress, and design; for we might
many ways have convinced any reasonable creature that we were not
pirates; the goods we had on board, the course we steered, our
frankly showing ourselves, and entering into such and such ports;
even our very manner, the force we had, the number of men, the
few arms, little ammunition, and short provisions; all these would
have served to convince any men that we were no pirates. The opium,
and other goods we had on board would make it appear the ship had
been at Bengal; the Dutchmen, who, it was said, had the names of
all the men that were in the ship, might easily see that we were a
mixture of English, Portuguese, and Indians, and but two Dutchmen
on board. These, and many other particular circumstances, might
have made it evident to the understanding of any commander, whose
hands we might fall into, that we were no pirates, .
A37
But fear, that blind useless passion, worked another way, and
threw us into the vapours; it bewildered our understandings, and
set the imagination at work, to form a thousand terrible things, that,
perhaps, might never happen. We first supposed, as indeed every
body had related to us, that the seamen on board the English and
Dutch ships, but especially the Dutch, were so enraged at the name
of a pirate, and especially at our beating off their boats, and escaping,
that they would not give themselves leave to inquire whether we were
pirates or no; but would execute us off-hand, as we call it, without
giving us any room for a defence. We reflected that there was really
so much apparent evidence before them, that they would scarce
inquire after any more; as, first, that the ship was certainly the same,
and that some of the seamen among them knew her, and had been on
board her; and, secondly, that when we had intelligence at the river
of Cambodia, that they were coming down to examine us, we fought
their boats, and fled: so that we made no doubt but they were as
fully satisfied of our being pirates as we were satisfied of the contrary:
and I often said, I knew not but I should have been apt to have taken
those circumstances for evidence, if the tables were turned, and my
case was theirs; and have made no scruple of cutting all the crew to
picces, without believing, or perhaps considering, what they might
have to offer in their defence.
But let that be how it will, those were our apprehensions; and
both my partner and I too scarce slept a night without dreaming of
halters and yard-arms; that is to say, gibbets; of fighting, and being
taken; of killing, and being killed; and one night I was in such a
fury in my dream, fancying the Dutchmen had boarded us, and I
was knocking one of their seamen down, that I struck my double fist
against the side of the cabin I lay in, with such a force as wounded
my hand most grievously, broke my knuckles, and cut and bruised
the flesh, so that it not only waked me out of my sleep, but I was
once afraid I should have lost two of my fingers.
Another apprehension I had, was, of the cruel usage we should
meet with from them, if we fell into their hands: then the story of
Amboyna came into my head, and how the Dutch might, perhaps,
torture us, as they did our countrymen there; and make some of our
men, by extremity of torture, confess those crimes they never were
guilty of; own themselves, and all of us, to be pirates; and so they
A38
would put us to death, with a formal appearance of justice; and
that they might be tempted to do this for the gain of our ship and
cargo, which was worth four or five thousand pounds, put all together.
These things tormented me, and my partner too, night and day;
nor did we consider that the captains of ships have no authority to act
thus; and if we had surrendered prisoners to them, they could not
answer the destroying us, or torturing us, but would be accountable
for it when they came into their own country. This, I say, gave me
no satisfaction; for, if they will act thus with us, what advantage
would it be to us that they would be called to an account for it? or,
if we were first to be murdered, what satisfaction would it be to us to
have them punished when they came home?
I cannot refrain taking notice here what reflections I now had
upon the past variety of my particular circumstances; how hard I
thought it was, that I, who had spent forty years in a life of continued
difficultics, and was at last come, as it were, to the port or haven
which all men drive at, viz. to have rest and plenty, should be a
volunteer in new sorrows, by my own unhappy choice; and that I,
who had escaped so many dangers in my youth, should now come to
be hanged in my old age, and in so remote a place, for a crime I was
not in the least inclined to, much less guilty of; and in a place and
circumstance, where innocence was not like to be any protection at
all to me.
After these thoughts, something of religion would come in ; and
I would be considering that this seemed to me to be a disposition of
immediate Providence; and I ought to look upon it, and submit to
it as such: that although I was innocent as to men, I was far from
being innocent as to my Maker; and I ought to look in, and examine
what other crimes in my life were most obvious to me, and for which
Providence might justly inflict this punishment as a retribution; and
that I ought to submit to this, just as I would to a shipwreck, if it
had pleased God to have brought such a disaster upon me.
In its turn, natural courage would sometimes take its place; and
then I would be talking myself up to vigorous resolutions, that I
would not be taken to be barbarously used by a parcel of merciless
wretches in cold blood; that it was much better to have fallen into
the hands of the savages, who were men-eaters, and who, I was sure,
would feast upon me, when they had taken me, than by those who
439
would perhaps glut their rage upon me by inhuman tortures and bar-
barities: that, in the case of the Savages I always resolved to die
fighting to the last gasp; and why should I not do so now, seeing it
was much more dreadful, to me at least, to think of falling into these
men's hands, than ever it was to think of being eaten by men? for
the savages, give them their due, would not eat a man till he was
dead; and killed him first, as we do a bullock; but that these men
had many arts beyond the cruelty of death. Whenever these thoughts
prevailed I was sure to put myself into a kind of fever, with the agi–
tations of a supposed fight; my blood would boil, and my eyes
sparkle, as if I was engaged; and I always resolved that I would take
no quarter at their hands; but even at last, if I could resist no longer,
I would blow up the ship, and all that was in her, and leave them
but little booty to boast of.
But by how much the greater weight the anxieties and perplexities
of those things were to our thoughts while we were at sea, by so much
the greater was our satisfaction when we saw ourselves on shore; and
my partner told me he dreamed that he had a very heavy load upon
his back, which he was to carry up a hill, and found that he was not
able to stand long under it; but that the Portuguese pilot came, and
took it off his back, and the hill disappeared, the ground before him
showing all smooth and plain: and truly it was so; we were all like
men who had a load taken off their backs.
For my part, I had a weight taken off from my heart, that it was
not able any longer to bear; and, as I said above, we resolved to go
no more to sea in that ship. When we came on shore, the old pilot,
who was now our friend, got us a lodging, and a warehouse for our
goods, which, by the way, was much the same: it was a little house,
or hut, with a large house joining to it, all built with canes, and pa–
lisadoed round with large canes, to keep out pilfering thieves, of
which it seems there were not a few in the country. However, the
magistrates allowed us also a little guard, and we had a soldier with
a kind of halbert, or half pike, who stood sentinel at our door, to
whom we allowed a pint of rice, and a little piece of money, about
º value of three-pence, per day: so that our goods were kept very
Saitº,
The fair or mart usually kept in this place had been over some
time; however, we found that there were three or four junks in the
440
river, and two Japanners, I mean ships from Japan, with goods
which they had bought in China, and were not gone away, having
some Japanese merchants on shore.
The first thing our old Portuguese pilot did for us was to bring us
acquainted with three missionary Romish priests, who were in the
town, and who had been there some time, converting the people to
Christianity; but we thought they made but poor work of it, and
made them but sorry Christians when they had done. However, that
was none of our business. One of these was a Frenchman, whom
they called Father Simon; he was a jolly well-conditioned man, very
free in his conversation, not seeming so serious and grave as the other
two did, one of whom was a Portuguese, and the other a Genoese :
but Father Simon was courteous, easy in his manner, and very
agreeable company; the other two were more reserved, seemed rigid
and austere, and applied seriously to the work they came about, viz.
to talk with, and insinuate themselves among the inhabitants where-
ever they had opportunity. We often ate and drank with those men;
and though I must confess, the conversion, as they call it, of the
Chinese to Christianity, is so far from the true conversion required to
bring heathen people to the faith of Christ, that it seems to amount to
little more than letting them know the name of Christ, say some
prayers to the Virgin Mary and her Son, in a tongue which they un-
derstand not, and to cross themselves and the like; yet it must be
confessed that these religious, whom we call missionaries, have a firm
belief that these people shall be saved, and that they are the instru–
ments of it; and, on this account, they undergo not only the fatigue
of the voyage, and hazards of living in such places, but oftentimes
death itself, with the most violent tortures, for the sake of this work:
and it would be a great want of charity in us, whatever opinion we
have of the work itself, and the manner of their doing it, if we should
not have a good opinion of their zeal, who undertake it with so many
hazards, and who have no prospect of the least temporal advantage to
themselves.
But to return to my story: This French priest, Father Simon, was
appointed, it seems, by order of the chief of the mission, to go up
to Pekin, the royal seat of the Chinese emperor; and waited only for
another priest, who was ordered to come to him from Macao, to go
along with him; and we scarce ever met together but he was inviting
441
me to go that journey with him, telling me, how he would show me
all the glorious things of that mighty empire; and among the rest the
greatest city in the world; “A city,” said he, “that your London and
our Paris put together cannot be equal to.” This was the city of
Pekin, which, I confess, is very great, and infinitely full of people;
but as I looked on those things with different eyes from other men, so
I shall give my opinion of them in few words when I come in the
course of my travels to speak more particularly of them.
But first I come to my friar or missionary: dining with him one
day, and being very merry together, I showed some little inclination
to go with him; and he pressed me and my partner very hard, and
with a great many persuasions, to consent. “Why, Father Simon,”
says my partner, “why should you desire our company so much?
You know we are heretics, and you do not love us, nor can keep us
company with any pleasure.”—“O!” says he, “you may, perhaps,
be good Catholics in time; my business here is to convert heathens,
and who knows but I may convert you too?” – “Very well, Father,”
said I, “So you will preach to us all the way.” – “I won't be trou–
blesome to you,” said he; “our religion does not divest us of good
manners; besides,” said he, “we are here like countrymen; and so
we are, compared to the place we are in; and if you are Hugonots,
and I a Catholic, we may be all Christians at last; at least,” said he,
“we are all gentlemen, and we may converse so without being uneasy
to one another.” I liked that part of his discourse very well, and it
began to put me in mind of my priest that I had left in the Brasils;
but this Father Simon did not come up to his character by a great
deal; for though Father Simon had no appearance of a criminal levity
in him neither, yet he had not that fund of Christian zeal, strict piety,
and sincere affection to religion, that my other good ecclesiastic had,
of whom I have said so much.
But to leave him a little, though he never left us, nor soliciting
us to go with him, but we had something else before us at that time;
for we had all this while our ship and our merchandise to dispose of;
and we began to be very doubtful what we should do, for we were
now in a place of very Hittle business; and once I was about to venture
to sail for the river of Kilam, and the city of Nanquin; but Providence
seemed now more visibly, as I thought, than ever, to concern itself
in our aſſairs; and I was encouraged from this very time to think I
442
should, one way or other, get out of this tangled circumstance, and
be brought home to my own country again, though I had not the least
view of the manner; and when I began sometimes to think of it, could
not imagine by what method it was to be done. Providence, I say,
began here to clear up our way a little; and the first thing that offered
was, that our old Portuguese pilot brought a Japan merchant to us,
who began to inquire what goods we had; and, in the first place, he
bought all our opium, and gave us a very good price for it, paying us
in gold by weight, some in small pieces of their own coin, and some
in small wedges, of about ten or eleven ounces each. While we were
dealing with him for our opium, it came into my head that he might,
perhaps, deal with us for the ship too; and I ordered the interpreter
to propose it to him. He shrunk up his shoulders at it, when it was
first proposed to him; but in a few days after he came to me, with
one of the missionary priests for his interpreter, and told me he had
a proposal to make to me, and that was this; he had bought a great
quantity of goods of us when he had no thoughts, or proposals made
to him, of buying the ship, and that, therefore, he had not money
enough to pay for the ship; but if I would let the same men who were
in the ship navigate her, he would hire the ship to go to Japan, and
would send them from thence to the Philippine islands with another
loading, which he would pay the freight of before they went from
Japan; and that, at their return, he would buy the ship. I began to
listen to this proposal; and so eager did my head still run upon
rambling, that I could not but begin to entertain a notion of going
myself with him, and so to sail from the Philippine islands away to
the South Seas; and accordingly I asked the Japanese merchant if he
would not hire us to the Philippine islands, and discharge us there.
He said, no, he could not do that, for then he could not have the
return of his cargo; but he would discharge us in Japan, he said, at
the ship's return. Well, still I was for taking him at that proposal,
and going myself; but my partner, wiser than myself, persuaded me
from it, representing the dangers as well of the seas, as of the Japa-
nese, who are a false, cruel, treacherous people; and then of the
Spaniards at the Philippines, more false, more cruel, and more
treacherous than they.
But, to bring this long turn of our affairs to a conclusion, the
first thing we had to do was to consult with the captain of the ship,
443
and with the men, and know if they were willing to go to Japan; and,
while I was doing this, the young man whom, as I said, my nephew
had left with me as my companion for my travels, came to me and
told me that he thought that voyage promised very fair, and that there
was a great prospect of advantage, and he would be very glad if I
undertook it; but that if I would not, and would give him leave, he
would go as a merchant, or how I pleased to order him; and if ever
he came to England, and I was there, and alive, he would render
me a faithful account of his success, and it should be as much mine
as I pleased.
I was really loath to part with him; but considering the prospect
of advantage, which was really considerable, and that he was a young
fellow likely to do well in it as any I knew, I inclined to let him go;
but first I told him, I would consult my partner, and give him an
answer the next day. My partner and I discoursed about it, and my .
partner made a most generous offer: he told me, “You know it has
been an unlucky ship, and we both resolve not to go to sea in it
again; if your steward (so he called my man) will venture the voyage,
I'll leave my share of the vessel to him, and let him make the best of
it; and if we live to meet in England, and he meets with success
abroad, he shall account for one half of the profits of the ship's freight
to us, the other shall be his own.”
If my partner, who was no way concerned with my young man,
made him such an offer, I could do no less than offer him the same;
and all the ship's company being willing to go with him, we made
over half the ship to him in property, and took a writing from him,
obliging him to account for the other; and away he went to Japan.
The Japan merchant proved a very punctual honest man to him,
protected him at Japan, and got him a licence to come on shore,
which the Europeans in general have not lately obtained, paid him
his freight very punctually, sent him to the Philippines, loaded with
Japan and China wares, and a supercargo of their own, who trafficking
with the Spaniards, brought back European goods again, and a great
quantity of cloves and other spice; and there he was not only paid his
freight very well, and at a very good price, but being not willing to
sell the ship then, the merchant furnished him with goods on his own
account; that for some money and some spices of his own, which
he brought with him, he went back to the Manillas, to the Spaniards,
444
where he sold his cargo very well. Here, having gotten a good
acquaintance at Manilla, he got his ship made a free ship; and the
governor of Manilla hired him to go to Acapulco in America, on the
coast of Mexico; and gave him a licence to land there, and travel to
Mexico; and to pass in any Spanish ship to Europe, with all his men.
He made the voyage to Acapulco very happily, and there he sold
his ship; and having there also obtained allowance to travel by land
to Porto Bello, he found means, some how or other, to get to Ja-
maica with all his treasure; and about eight years after came to Eng-
land, exceeding rich; of which I shall take notice in its place; in the
mean time, I return to our particular affairs.
Being now to part with the ship and ship's company, it came
before us, of course, to consider what recompense we should give
to the two men that gave us such timely notice of the design against
us in the river of Cambodia. The truth was, they had done us a
considerable service, and deserved well at our hands; though, by
the way, they were a couple of rogues too: for, as they believed the
story of our being pirates, and that we had really run away with the
ship, they came down to us, not only to betray the design that was
formed against us, but to go to sea with us as pirates; and one of
them confessed afterwards, that nothing else but the hopes of going
a-roguing brought him to do it. However, the service they did us
was not the less; and therefore, as I had promised to be grateful to
them, I first ordered the money to be paid them, which they said
was due to them on board their respective ships; that is to say, the
Englishman nineteen months pay, and to the Dutchman seven; and,
over and above that, I gave each of them a small sum of money in
gold, which contented them very well: then I made the Englishman
gunner in the ship, the gunner being now made second mate and
purser; the Dutchman I made boatswain: so they were both very
well pleased, and proved very serviceable, being both able seamen,
and very stout fellows.
We were now on shore in China. If I thought myself banished,
and remote from my own country at Bengal, where I had many ways
to get home for my money, what could I think of myself now, when
I was gotten about a thousand leagues farther off from home, and
perfectly destitute of all manner of prospect of return!
All we had for it was this, that in about four months time there
445
was to be another fair at the place where we were, and then we might
be able to purchase all sorts of the manufactures of the country, and
withal might possibly find some Chinese junks or vessels from Nan-
quin, that would be to be sold, and would carry us and our goods
whither we pleased. This I liked very well, and resolved to wait;
besides, as our particular persons were not obnoxious, so if any
English or Dutch ships came thither, perhaps we might have an
opportunity to load our goods, and get passage to some other place
in India nearer home.
Upon these hopes we resolved to continue here; but, to divert
ourselves, we took two or three journies into the country; first, we
went ten days journey to see the city of Nanquin, a city well worth
seeing indeed: they say it has a million of people in it; which, how-
ever, I do not believe: it is regularly built, the streets all exactly
straight, and cross one another in direct lines, which gives the figure
of it great advantage.
But when I came to compare the miserable people of these coun-
tries with ours; their fabrics, their manner of living, their govern-
ment, their religion, their wealth, and their glory, as some call it,
I must confess, I do not so much as think it worth naming, or worth
my while to write of, or any that shall come after me to read.
It is very observable, that we wonder at the grandeur, the riches,
the pomp, the ceremonies, the government, the manufactures, the
commerce, and the conduct of these people; not that it is to be won-
dered at, or, indeed, in the least to be regarded; but because,
having first a notion of the barbarity of those countries, the rudeness
and the ignorance that prevail there, we do not expect to find any such
things so far off.
Otherwise, what are their buildings to the palaces and royal
buildings of Europe? What their trade to the universal commerce
of England, Holland, France and Spain? What their cities to ours,
for wealth, strength, gaiety of apparel, rich furniture, and an in-
finite variety? What are their ports, supplied with a few junks and
barks, to our navigation, our merchants' fleets, our large and
powerful navies? Our city of London has more trade than all their
mighty empire. One English, or Dutch, or French man-of-war of
eighty guns, would ſight with and destroy all the shipping of China.
But the greatness of their wealth, their trade, the power of their
446
government, and strength of their armies is surprising to us, be-
cause, as I have said, considering them as a barbarous nation of
pagans, little better than savages, we did not expect such things
among them; and this, indeed, is the advantage with which all their
greatness and power is represented to us; otherwise, it is in itself
nothing at all; for, as I have said of their ships, so may be said of
their armies and troops: all the forces of their empire, though they
were to bring two millions of men into the field together, would be
able to do nothing but ruin the country and starve themselves. If
they were to besiege a strong town in Flanders, or to fight a disci-
plined army, one line of German cuirassiers, or of French cavalry,
would overthrow all the horse of China; a million of their foot could
not stand before one embattled body of our infantry, posted so as not
to be surrounded, though they were to be not one to twenty in num-
ber; nay, I do not boast if I say, that 30,000 German or English
foot, and 10,000 French horse, would fairly beat all the forces of
China. And so of our fortified towns, and of the art of our engineers,
in assaulting and defending towns; there is not a fortified town in
China could hold out one month against the batteries and attacks of
an European army; and at the same time, all the armies of China
could never take such a town as Dunkirk, provided it was not starved;
no, not in a ten years siege. They have fire-arms, it is true, but
they are awkward, clumsy, and uncertain in going off; they have
powder, but it is of no strength; they have neither discipline in the
ficla, exercise to their arms, skill to attack, nor temper to retreat.
And therefore I must confess it seemed strange to me when I came
home, and heard our people say such fine things of the power, riches,
glory, magnificence, and trade of the Chinese, because I saw and
knew that they were a contemptible herd or crowd of ignorant, sordid
slaves, subjected to a government qualified only to rule such a people;
and, in a word, for I am now launched quite beside my design, I
say, in a word, were not its distance inconceivably great from Mus-
covy, and was not the Muscovite empire almost as rude, impotent,
and ill-governed a crowd of slaves as they, the czar of Muscovy might,
with much ease, drive them all out of their country, and conquer
them in one campaign; and had the czar, who I since hear is a
growing prince, and begins to appear formidable in the world, fallen
this way, instead of attacking the warlike Swedes, in which attempt
447
none of the powers of Europe would have envied or interrupted him;
he might, by this time, have been emperor of China, instead of
being beaten by the king of Sweden at Narva, when the latter was not
one to six in number. As their strength and their grandeur, so their
navigation, commerce, and husbandry, are imperfect and impotent,
compared to the same things in Europe. Also, in their knowledge,
their learning, their skill in the sciences; they have globes and
spheres, and a smatch of the knowledge of the mathematics; but
when you come to inquire into their knowledge, how short-sighted
are the wisest of their students They know nothing of the motion
of the heavenly bodies; and so grossly, absurdly ignorant, that when
the sun is eclipsed, they think it is a great dragon has assaulted and
run away with it; and they fall a-clattering with all the drums and
kettles in the country, to fright the monster away, just as we do to
hive a swarm of bees.
As this is the only excursion of this kind which I have made in all
the account I have given of my travels, so I shall make no more
descriptions of countries and people: it is none of my business, or
any part of my design; but giving an account of my own adventures,
through a life of inimitable wanderings, and a long variety of changes,
which, perhaps, few have heard the like of, I shall say nothing of
the mighty places, desert countries, and numerous people, I have
yet to pass through, more than relates to my own story, and which
my concern among them will make necessary. I was now, as near
as I can compute, in the heart of China, about the latitude of thirty
degrees north of the line, for we were returned from Nanquin; I had'
indeed a mind to see the city of Pekin which I had heard so much of,
and Father Simon importuned me daily to do it. At length his time
of going away being set, and the other missionary, who was to go
with him, being arrived from Macao, it was necessary that we should
resolve either to go, or not to go; so I referred him to my partner,
and left it wholly to his choice; who at length resolved it in the affir-
mative; and we prepared for our journey. We set out with very
good advantage, as to finding the way; for we got leave to travel in
the retinue of one of their mandarins, a kind of viceroy, or principal
magistrate, in the province where they reside, and who take great
State upon them, travelling with great attendance, and with great
homage from the people, who are sometimes greatly impoverished by
448
them, because all the countries they pass through are obliged to
furnish provisions for them, and all their attendants. That which I
particularly observed, as to our travelling with his baggage, was
this; that though we received suſlicient provisions, both for ourselves
and our horses, from the country, as belonging to the mandarin, yet
we were obliged to pay for every thing we had after the market-price
of the country, and the mandarin's steward, or commissary of the
provisions, collected it duly from us; so that our travelling in the
retinue of the mandarin, though it was a very great kindness to us,
was not such a mighty favour in him, but was, indeed, a great ad-
vantage to him, considering there were above thirty other people
travelling in the same manner besides us, under the protection of his
retinue, or, as we may call it, under his convoy. This, I say, was
a great advantage to him; for the country furnished all the provisions
for nothing, and he took all our money for them.
We were five-and-twenty days travelling to Pekin, through a
country infinitely populous, but miserably cultivated; the husbandry,
the economy, and the way of living, all very miserable, though they
boast so much of the industry of the people: I say miserable; and
so it is; if we, who understand how to live, were to endure it, or to
compare it with our own; but not so to these poor wretches, who know
no other. The pride of these people is infinitely great, and exceeded
by nothing but their poverty, which adds to that which I call their
misery. I must needs think the naked savages of America live much
more happy, because, as they have nothing, so they desire nothing;
whereas these are proud and insolent, and, in the main, are mere
beggars and drudges; their ostentation is inexpressible, and is chiefly
showed in their clothes and buildings, and in the keeping multitudes
of servants or slaves, and which is to the last degree ridiculous, their
contempt of all the world but themselves.
I must confess, I travelled more pleasantly afterwards, in the
deserts and vast wildernesses of Grand Tartary, than here; and yet
the roads here are well paved and well kept, and very convenient for
travellers: but nothing was more awkward to me, than to see such
a haughty, imperious, insolent people, in the midst of the grossest
simplicity and ignorance; for all their famed ingenuity is no more.
My friend Father Simon, and I, used to be very merry upon these
occasions, to see the beggarly pride of those people. For example,
449
coming by the house of a country gentleman, as Father Simon called
him, about ten leagues off from the city of Nanquin, we had, first of
all, the honour to ride with the master of the house about two miles;
the state he rode in was a perfect Don Quixotism, being a mixture of
pomp and poverty.
The habit of this greasy Don was very proper for a scaramouch, or
merry-andrew; being a dirty calico, with all the tawdry trappings of
a fool's coat, such as hanging sleeves, taſſety, and cuts and slashes
almost on every side : it covered a rich taffety vest, as greasy as a
butcher, and which testified, that his honour must needs be a most
exquisite sloven.
His horse was a poor, lean, starved, hobbling creature such as
in England might sell for about thirty or forty shillings; and he had
two slaves followed him on foot, to drive the poor creature along; he
had a whip in his hand, and he belaboured the beast as fast about the
head as his slaves did about the tail; and thus he rode by us with
about ten or twelve servants; and we were told he was going from the
city to his country-seat, about half a league before us. We travelled
on gently, but this figure of a gentleman rode away before us; and as
We stopped at a village ahout an hour to refresh us, when we came by
the country-seat of this great man, we saw him in a little place before
his door, eating his repast; it was a kind of a garden, but he was
easy to be seen; and we were given to understand, that the more we
looked on him, the better he would be pleased.
He sat under a tree, something like the palmetto-tree, which
effectually shaded him over the head, and on the south side; but
under the tree also was placed a large umbrella, which made that
part look well enough: he sat lolling bak in a great elbow-chair, being
a heavy corpulent man, and his meat being brought him by two
women-slaves: he had two more, whose office, I think, few gentlemen
in Europe would accept of their service in, viz. one fed the 'squire
with a spoon, and the other held the dish with one hand, and scraped
off what he let fall upon his worship's beard and taſſety vest, with the
other; while the great fat brute thought it below him to employ his
own hands in any of those familiar offices, which kings and monarchs
would rather do than be troubled with the clumsy ſingers of their
SCTWants.
I took this time to think what pain men's pride puts them to, and
Itobinson Crusoe, 29
450
tºº
how troublesome a haughty temper, thus ill-managed, must be to
a man of common sense; and, leaving the poor wretch to please
himself with our looking at him, as if we admired his pomp, whereas
we really pitied and contemned him, we pursued our journey: only
Father Simon had the curiosity to stay to inform himself what dainties
the country justice had to feed on, in all his state; which he said he
had the honour to taste of, and which was, I think, a dose that an
English hound would scarce have eaten, if it had been offered him,
viz. a mess of boiled rice, with a great piece of garlick in it, and a
little bag filled with green pepper, and another plant which they have
there, something like our ginger, but smelling like must and tasting
like mustard: all this was put together, and a small lump or piece of
lean mutton boiled in it; and this was his worship's repast, four or
five servants more standing attending at a distance. If he fed them
meaner than he was fed himself, the spice excepted, they must fare
very coarsely indeed.
As for our mandarin with whom we travelled, he was respected
like a king; surrounded always with his gentlemen, and attended in
all his appearances with such pomp, that I saw little of him but at a
distance; but this I observed, that there was not a horse in his retinue,
but that our carriers' pack-horses in England seem to me to look much
better; but they were so covered with equipage, mantles; trappings,
and such like trumpery, that you cannot see whether they are ſat or
lean. In a word, we could scarce see any thing but their feet and
their heads. -
I was now light-hearted, and all my trouble and perplexity that I
had given an account of being over, I had no anxious thoughts about
me; which made this journey much the pleasanter to me; nor had I
any ill accident attended me, only in the passing or fording a small
river, my horse fell, and made me free of the country, as they call
it; that is to say, threw me in : the place was not deep, but it wetted
me all over: I mention it, because it spoiled my pocket-book, wherein
I had set down the names of several people and places which I had
occasion to remember, and which not taking due care of, the leaves
rotted, and the words were never after to be read, to my great loss,
as to the names of some places which I touched at in this voyage.
At length we arrived at Pekin: I had nobody with me but the
youth, whom my nephew the captain had given me to attend me as a
451
servant, and who proved very trusty and diligent; and my partner
had nobody with him but one servant, who was a kinsman. As for
the Portuguese pilot, he being desirous to see the court, we gave him
his passage, that is to say, bore his charges for his company; and
to use him as an interpreter, for he understood the language of the
country, and spoke good French and a little English; and, indeed,
this old man was a most useful implement to us every where; for We
had not been above a week at Pekin, when he came laughing: “Ah,
Seignior Inglese,” said he, “I have something to tell you, will make
your heart glad.” – “My heart glad,” said I; “what can that be? I
don't know anything in this country can either give me joy or grief, to
any great degree.” “Yes, yes,” said the old man, in broken Eng-
lish, “make you glad, me sorrow; ” sorry, he would have said.
This made me more inquisitive. “Why,” said I, “will it make you
sorry?” “Because,” said he, “you have brought me here twenty-
five days journey, and will leave me to go back alone; and which way
shall I get to my port afterwards, without a ship, without a horse,
without pecune?” so he called money; being his broken Latin, of
which he had abundance to make us merry with.
In short, he told us there was a great caravan of Muscovite and
Polish merchants in the city, and that they were preparing to set out
on their journey, by land, to Muscovy, within four or five weeks,
and he was sure we would take the opportunity to go with them, and
leave him behind to go back alone. I confess I was surprised with his
news: a secret joy spread itself over my whole soul, which I cannot
describe, and never felt before or since; and I had no power, for a
good while, to speak a word to the old man; but at last I turned to
him; “How do you know this?” said I; “are you sure it is true?”
“Yes,” said he, “I met this morning in the street an old acquaint-
ance of mine, an Armenian, or one you call a Grecian, who is
among them; he came last from Astracan, and was designing to go
to Tonquin, where I formerly knew him, but has altered his mind,
and is now resolved to go back with the caravan to Moscow, and so
down the river Wolga to Astracan.” “Well, Seignior,” said I,
“do not be uneasy about being left to go back alone; if this be a me—
thod for my return to England, it shall be your fault if you go back to
Macao at all. We then went to consulting together what was to be
done, and I asked my partner what he thought of the pilot's news,
29 “
A52
and whether it would suit with his aſſairs; he told me he would do
just as I would; for he had settled all his affairs so well at Bengal,
and left his effects in such good hands, that as we had made a good
voyage here, if he could vest it in China silks, wrought and raw, such
as might be worth the carriage, he would be content to go to England,
and then make his voyage back to Bengal by the Company's ships.
Having resolved upon this, we agreed, that, if our Portuguese
pilot would go with us, we would bear his charges to Moscow, or to
England, if he pleased; nor, indeed, were we to be esteemed over-
generous in that part neither, if we had not rewarded him farther;
for the service he had done us was really worth all that, and more; for
he had not only been a pilot to us at sea, but he had been also like a
broker for us on shore; and his procuring for us the Japan merchant
was some hundreds of pounds in our pockets. So we consulted
together about it; and, being willing to gratify him, which was in-
deed, but doing him justice, and very willing also to have him with
us besides, for he was a most necessary man on all occasions, we
agreed to give him a quantity of coined gold, which, as I compute it,
came to about one hundred and seventy-five pounds sterling between
us, and to bear all his charges, both for himself and horse, except
only a horse to carry his goods.
Having settled this among ourselves, we called him to let him
know what we had resolved; I told him, he had complained of our
being like to let him go back alone, and I was now to tell him we were
resolved he should not go back at all; that as we had resolved to go
to Europe with the caravan, we resolved also he should go with us,
and that we called him to know his mind. He shook his head, and
said it was a long journey, and he had no pecune to carry him thither,
nor to subsist himself when he came thither. We told him, we be-
lieved it was so, and therefore we had resolved to do something for
him, that should let him see how sensible we were of the service he
had done us; and also how agreeable he was to us; and then I told
him what we had resolved to give him here, which he might lay out
as we would do our own; and that as for his charges, if he would go
with us, we would set him safe ashore, life and casualties excepted,
either in Muscovy or England, which he would, at our own charge,
except only the carriage of his goods.
He received the proposal like a man transported, and told us, he
453
would go with us over the whole world; and so, in short, we all pre-
pared ourselves for the journey. However as it was with us, so it was
with the other merchants, they had many things to do; and instead
of being ready in five weeks, it was four months and some odd days
before all things were got together. -
It was the beginning of February, our style, when we set out
from Pekin. My partner and the old pilot had gone express back to
the port where we had first put in, to dispose of some goods which he
had left there; and I, with a Chinese merchant, whom I had some
knowledge of at Nanquin, and who came to Pekin on his own affairs,
went to Nanquin, where I bought ninety pieces of fine damasks, with
about two hundred pieces of other very fine silks, of several sorts,
some mixed with gold, and had all these brought to Pekin against my
partner's return: besides this, we bought a very large quantity of raw
silk, and some other goods; our cargo amounting, in these goods
only, to about three thousand five hundrcd pounds sterling, which,
together with tea, and some fine calicoes, and three camel-loads of
nutmegs and cloves, loaded in all eighteen camels for our share, be—
sides those we rode upon; which, with two or three spare horses, and
two horses loaded with provisions, made us, in short, twenty-six
camels and horses in our retinue.
The company was very great, and as near as I can remember,
made between three and four hundred horses and camels, and up-
wards of a hundred and twenty men, very well armed, and provided
for all events. For, as the eastern caravans are subject to be attacked
by the Arabs, so are these by the Tartars; but they are not altogether
so dangerous as the Arabs, nor so barbarous when they prevail.
The company consisted of people of several nations, such as
Muscovites chiefly; for there were about sixty of them who were mer-
chants or inhabitants of Moscow, though of them some were Livo-
nians; and to our particular satisfaction, five of them were Scots,
who appeared also to be men of great experience in business, and very
good substance.
When we had travelled one day's journey, the guides, who were
five in number, called all the gentlemen and merchants, that is to
Say, all the passengers, except the servants, to a great council, as
they termed it. At this great council every one deposited a certain
quantity of money to a common stock, for the necessary expense of
454
buying forage on the way, where it was not otherwise to be had, and
for satisfying the guides, getting horses and the like. And here they
constituted the journey, as they called it, viz. they named captains
and officers to draw us all up, and give the command in case of an
attack; and gave every one their turn of command. Nor was this
forming us into order any more than what we found needful upon the
way, as shall be observed in its place.
The road all on this side of the country is very populous, and is
full of potters and earth-makers; that is to say, people that tempered
the earth for the China ware; and, as I was going along, our Portu-
gal pilot, who had always something or other to say to make us merry,
came sneering to me, and told me, he would show me the greatest
rarity in all the country; and that I should have this to say of China,
after all the ill humoured things I had said of it, that I had seen one
thing which was not to be seen in all the world beside. I was very
importunate to know what it was; at last he told me, it was a gen-
tleman's house, built all with China ware. “Well,” said I, “are
not the materials of their building the product of their own country;
and so it is all China ware, is it not?” – “No, no,” says he, “I
mean, it is a house all made of China ware, such as you call so in
England; or, as it is called in our country, porcelain.” – “Well,”
said I, “such a thing may be: how big is it? can we carry it in a box
upon a camel? If we can, we will buy it.” – “Upon a camel !” said
the old pilot, holding up both his hands; “why, there is a family of
thirty people lives in it.”
I was then curious, indeed, to see it; and when I came to it, it
was nothing but this: it was a timber house, or a house built, as we
call it in England, with lath and plaster, but all the plastering was
really China ware, that is to say, it was plastered with the earth that
makes China ware.
The outside, which the sun shone hot upon, was glazed, and
looked very well, perfectly white, and painted with blue figures, as
the large China ware in England is painted, and hard, as if it had
been burnt. As to the inside, all the walls, instead of wainscot,
were lined up with hardened and painted tiles, like the little square
tiles we call gally tiles in England, all made of the finest china, and
the figures exceeding fine indeed, with extraordinary variety of co-
lours, mixed with gold, many tiles making but one figure, but joined
M55
so artificially, the mortar being made of the same earth, that it was
very hard to see where the tiles met. The ſloors of the rooms were of
the same composition, and as hard as the earthen floors we have in
use in several parts of England, especially Lincolnshire, Notting-
hamshire, Leicestershire, &c. as hard as stone, and smooth, but
not burnt and painted, except some smaller rooms, like closets,
which were all, as it were, paved with the same tile : the ceilings,
and in a word, all the plastering work in the whole house, were of
the same earth; and, after all, the roof was covered with tiles of the
same, but of a deep shining black.
This was a China warehouse indeed, truly and literally to be called
so; and had I not been upon the journey, I could have staid some
days to see and examine the particulars of it. They told me there
were fountains and fish-ponds in the garden, all paved at the bottom
and sides with the same, and fine statues set up in rows on the walks,
entirely formed of the porcelain earth, and burnt whole.
As this is one of the singularities of China, so they may be allowed
to excel in it; but I am very sure they excel in their accounts of it;
for they told me such incredible things of their performance in
crockery-ware, for such it is, that I care not to relate, as knowing it
could not be true. — One told me, in particular, of a workman that
made a ship, with all its tackle, and masts, and sails, in earthen-
ware, big enough to carry fifty men. If he had told me he launched
it, and made a voyage to Japan in it, I might have said something to
it indeed; but as it was, I knew the whole story, which was, in
short, asking pardon for the word, that the fellow lied; so I smiled,
and said nothing to it.
This odd sight kept me two hours behind the caravan, for which
the leader of it for the day ſincid me about the value of three shillings;
and told me, if it had been three days journey without the wall, as it
was three days within, he must have fined me four times as much,
and made me ask pardon the next council-day: so I promised to be
more orderly; for, indeed, I found afterwards the orders made for
keeping all together were absolutely necessary for our common
Safety.
In two days more we passed the great China wall, made for a for-
tification against the Tartars; and a very great work it is, going over
hills and mountains in a needless track, where the rocks are impass-
A56
able, and the precipices such as no enemy could possibly enter, or,
indeed, climb up, or where, if they did, no wall could hinder them.
They tell us, its length is near a thousand English miles, but that
the country is five hundred, in a straight measured line, which the
wall bounds, without measuring the windings and turnings it takes:
’t is about four fathom high, and as many thick in some places.
I stood still an hour, or thereabouts, without trespassing on
our orders, for so long the caravan was in passing the gate; I say, I
stood still an hour to look at it, on every side, near and far off; I
mean, what was within my view; and the guide of our caravan, who
had been extolling it for the wonder of the world, was mighty eager
to hear my opinion of it. I told him it was a most excellent thing to
keep off the Tartars, which he happened not to understand as I meant
it, and so took it for a compliment; but the old pilot laughed: “O,
Seignior Inglese,” said he, “you speak in colours.” – “In co-
lours!” said I; “what do you mean by that?”—“Why, you speak
what looks white this way, and black that way; gay one way, and
dull another way: you tell him it is a good wall to keep out Tartars;
you tell me, by that, it is good for nothing but to keep out Tartars;
or, it will keep out none but Tartars. I understand you, Seignior
Inglese, I understand you,” said he, “but Seignior Chinese under-
stand you his own way.”
“Well,” said I, “Seignior, do you think it would stand out an
army of our country—people, with a good train of artillery; or our
engineers, with two companies of miners? Would they not batter
it down in ten days, that an army might enter in battalia, or blow it
up in the air, foundation and all, that there should be no sign of it
left?”—“Ay, ay,” said he, “I know that.” The Chinese wanted
mightily to know what I said, and I gave him leave to tell him a few
days after, for we were then almost out of their country, and he was
to leave us in a little time afterwards; but when he knew what I had
said, he was dumb all the rest of the way, and we heard no more of
his fine story of the Chinese power and greatness while he staid.
After we had passed this mighty nothing, called a wall, something
like the Picts wall, so famous in Northumberland, and built by the
Romans, we began to find the country thinly inhabited, and the
people rather confined to live in fortified towns and cities, as being
subject to the inroads and depredations of the Tartars, who rob in
457
great armies, and therefore are not to be resisted by the naked inha-
bitants of an open country.
And here I began to find the necessity of keeping together in a
caravan, as we travelled; for we saw several troops of Tartars roving
about; but when I came to see them distinctly, I wondered more that
the Chinese empire could be conquered by such contemptible fellows;
for they are a mere herd or crowd of wild fellows, keeping no order,
and understanding no discipline, or manner of fight.
Their horses are poor, lean, starved creatures, taught nothing,
and fit for nothing; and this we found the first day we saw them,
which was after we entered the wilder part of the country. Our leader
for the day gave leave for about sixteen of us to go a hunting, as they
call it; and what was this but hunting of sheep ! However, it may
be called hunting too; for the creatures are the wildest and swiftest
of foot, that ever I saw of their kind; only they will not run a great
way, and you are sure of sport when you begin the chase; for they
appear generally by thirty or forty in a flock, and, like true sheep,
always keep together when they fly.
In pursuit of this odd sort of game, it was our hap to meet with
about forty Tartars: whether they were hunting mutton as we were,
or whether they looked for another kind of prey, I know not; but as
Soon as they saw us, one of them blew a kind of horn very loud, but
with a barbarous sound that I had never heard before, and, by the
way, never care to hear again. We all supposed this was to call
their friends about them; and so it was; for in less than half a quarter
of an hour, a troop of forty or fifty more appeared at about a mile
distance; but our work was over first, as it happened.
One of the Scots merchants of Moscow happened to be amongst
us; and as soon as he heard the horn, he told us, in short, that we
had nothing to do but to charge them immediately, without loss of
time; and, drawing us up in a line, he asked, if we were resolved?
We told him, we were ready to follow him; so he rode directly up to
them. They stood gazing at us, like a mere crowd, drawn up in no
order; nor showing the face of any order at all; but as soon as they
saw us advance, they let fly their arrows; which, however, missed
us very happily: it seems they mistook not their aim, but their
distance; for their arrows all fell a little short of us, but with so true
*
458
*-
an aim, that had we been about twenty yards nearer, we must have
had several men wounded, if not killed.
Immediately we halted; and though it was at a great distance, we
fired, and scut them leaden bullets for wooden arrows, following our
shot full gallop, resolving to fall in among them sword in hand; for
So our bold Scot that led us, directed. IIe was, indeed, but a mer-
chant, but he behaved with that vigour and brăvery on this occasion,
and yet with such a cool courage too, that I never saw any man in
action fitter for command. As soon as we came up to them, we fired
our pistols in their faces, and then drew; but they ſled in the great-
est confusion imaginable; the only stand any of them made was on
our right, where three of them stood, and, by signs, called the
rest to come back to them, having a kind of scimitar in their hands,
and their bows hanging at their backs. Our brave commander, with-
out asking any body to follow him, galloped up close to them, and
with his fusil knocked one of them off his horse, killed the second
with his pistol, and the third ran away; and thus ended our fight;
but we had this misfortune attending it, viz. that all our mutton that
we had in chase got away. We had not a man killed or hurt; but,
as for the Tartars, there were about five of them killed; how many
were wounded, we knew not; but this we knew, that the other party
was so frighted with the noise of our guns, that they fled, and never
made any attempt upon us.
We were all this while in the Chinese dominions, and therefore
the Tartars were not so bold as afterwards; but in about five days We
entered a vast great wild desert, which held us three days and nights
march; and we were obliged to carry our water with us in great leather
bottles, and to encamp all night, just as I have heard they do in the
deserts of Arabia.
I asked our guides, whose dominion this was in, and they told
me this was a kind of border that might be called No Man's Land;
being a part of the Great Karakathay, or Grand Tartary; but that,
however, it was reckoned to China; that there was no care taken here
to preserve it from the inroads of thieves; and therefore it was reckoned
the worst desert in the whole, though we were to go over some much
larger.
In passing this wilderness, which, I confess, was at the first
view very frightful to me, we saw two or three times little parties of
A59
the Tartars, but they seemed to be upon their own affairs, and to have
no design upon us; and so, like the man who met the devil, if they
had nothing to say to us, we had nothing to say to them; we let
them go.
Once, however, a party of them came so near as to stand and
gaze at us; whether it was to consider what they should do, whether
attack us, or not attack us, that we knew not; but when we were
passed at some distance by them, we made a rear guard of forty men,
and stood ready for them, letting the caravan pass half a mile, or
thereabouts, before us. After a while they marched off, only we
found they assaulted us with five arrows at their parting; one of which
wounded a horse, so that it disabled him; and we left him the next
day, poor creature, in great need of a good farrier. We suppose
they might shoot more arrows, which might fall short of us; but we
saw no more arrows, or Tartars, at that time.
We travelled near a month aſter this, the ways being not so good
as at first, though still in the dominions of the Emperor of China;
but lay, for the most part, in villages, some of which were fortified,
because of the incursions of the Tartars. When we came to one of
these towns, (it was about two days and a half's journey before we
were to come to the city of Naum) I wanted to buy a camel, of which
there are plenty to be sold all the way upon that road, and of horses
also, such as they are, because so many caravans coming that way,
they are often wanted. The person that I spoke to to get me a camel,
would have gone and fetched it for me; but I, like a fool, must be
officious, and go myself along with him. The place was about two
miles out of the village, where, it seems, they kept the camels and
horses feeding under a guard.
I walked it on foot, with my old pilot in eompany, and a Chinese,
being very desirous, forsooth, of a little variety. When we came
to this place, it was a low marshy ground, walled round with a stone
Wall, piled up dry, without mortar or earth among it, like a park,
With a little guard of Chinese soldiers at the doors. Having bought
a camel, and agreed for the price, I came away; and the Chinese
man, that went with me, led the camel, when on a sudden came up
five Tartars on horseback: two of them seized the fellow, and took
the camel from him, while the other three stepped up to me and my
old pilot; seeing us, as it were, unarmed, for I had no weapon
A60
about me but my sword, which could but ill defend me against three
horsemen. The first that came up stopped short upon my drawing
my sword; (for they are arrant cowards) but a second coming upon
my left, gave me a blow on the head, which I never felt till afterwards,
and wondered, when I came to myself, what was the matter with me,
and where I was, for he laid me flat on the ground; but my never-
failing old pilot, the Portuguese (so Providence, unlooked for, di-
rects deliverances from dangers, which to us are unforeseen,) had a
pistol in his pocket, which I knew nothing of, nor the Tartars neither;
if they had, I suppose they would not have attacked us; but cowards
are always boldest when there is no danger.
The old man, seeing me down, with a bold heart stepped up to
the fellow that had struck me, and laying hold of his arm with one
hand, and pulling him down by main force a little towards him with
the other, shot him into the head, and laid him dead upon the spot;
he then immediately stepped up to him who had stopped us, as I said,
and before he could come forward again, for it was all done as it were
in a moment, made a blow at him with a scimitar, which he always
wore, but, missing the man, cut his horse into the side of his head,
cut one of his ears off by the root, and a great slice down the side of
his face. The poor beast, enraged with the wounds, was no more
to be governed by his rider, though the fellow sat well enough too;
but away he ſlew, and carried him quite out of the pilot's reach; and,
at some distance, rising upon his hind legs, threw down the Tartar,
and ſell upon him.
In this interval the poor Chinese came in, who had lost the camel,
but he had no weapon; however, seeing the Tartar down, and his
horse fallen upon him, he runs to him, and seizing upon an ugly ill-
favoured weapon he had by his side, something like a pole-axe, but
not a pole-axe neither, he wrenched it from him, and made shift to
knock his Tartarian brains out with it. But my old man had the third
Tartar to deal with still; and, seeing he did not ſly as he expected,
nor come on to fight him, as he apprehended, but stood stock still,
the old man stood still too, and falls to work with his tackle to charge
his pistol again: but as soon as the Tartar saw the pistol, whether he
supposed it to be the same or another, I know not; but away he
scoured, and left my pilot, my champion I called him afterwards, a
complete victory.
A61
By this time I was a little awake; for I thought, when I first began
to awake, that I had been in a sweet sleep; but as I said above, I
wondered where I was, how I came upon the ground, and what was
the matter: in a word, a few moments after, as senses returned, I
felt pain, though I did not know where; I clapped my hand to my
head, and took it away bloody; then I felt my head ache, and then,
in another moment, memory returned, and every thing was present
to me again.
I jumped up upon my feet instantly, and got hold of my sword,
but no enemies in view. I found a Tartar lie dead, and his horse
standing very quietly by him; and looking farther, I saw my cham-
pion and deliverer, who had been to see what the Chinese had done,
coming back with his hanger in his hand. The old man, seeing me
on my feet, came running to me, and embraced me with a great deal
of joy, being afraid before that I had been killed; and seeing me
bloody, would see how I was hurt; but it was not much, only what
we call a broken head; neither did I afterwards find any great incon-
venience from the blow, other than the place which was hurt, and
which was well again in two or three days.
We made no great gain, however, by this victory; for we lost a
camel, and gained a horse: but that which was remarkable, when we
came back to the village, the man demanded to be paid for the camel;
I disputed it, and it was brought to a hearing before the Chinese
judge of the place; that is to say, in English, we went before a
justice of the peace. Give him his due, he acted with a great deal of
prudence and impartiality; and having heard both sides, he gravely
asked the Chinese man that went with me to buy the camel, “whose
servant he was?” “I am no servant,” said he, “but went with the
stranger.” “At whose request?” said the justice. “At the stranger's
request,” said he. “Why then,” said the justice, “you were the
stranger's servant for the time; and the camel being delivered to his
servant, it was delivered to him, and he must pay for it.”
I confess the thing was so clear, that I had not a word to say; but
admiring to see such just reasoning upon the consequence, and so
accurate stating the case, I paid willingly for the camel, and sent for
another; but you may observe, I sent for it; I did not go to fetch it
myself any more; I had had enough of that.
... The city of Naum is a frontier of the Chinese empire: they call it
A62
fortified, and so it is, as fortifications go there; for this I will venture
to affirm, that all the Tartars in Karakathay, which, I believe, are
Some millions, could not batter down the walls with their bows and
arrows; but to call it strong, if it were attacked with cannon, would
be to make those who understand it laugh at you.
We wanted, as I have said, about two days journey of this city,
when messengers were sent express to every part of the road, to tell
all travellers and caravans to halt, till they had a guard sent to them;
for that an unusual body of Tartars, making ten thousand in all, had
appeared in the way, about thirty miles beyond the city.
This was very bad news to travellers; however, it was carefully
done of the governor, and we were very glad to hear we should have
a guard. Accordingly, two days after, we had two hundred soldiers
sent us from a garrison of the Chinese on our left, and three hundred
more from the city of Naum, and with those we advanced boldly: the
three hundred soldiers from Naum marched in our front, the two
hundred in our rear, and our men on each side of our camels with
our baggage, and the whole caravan in the centre. In this order,
and well prepared for battle, we thought ourselves a match for the
whole ten thousand Mogul Tartars, if they had appeared; but the
next day, when they did appear, it was quite another thing.
It was early in the morning, when marching from a little well-
situated town, called Changu, we had a river to pass, where we
were obliged to ferry; and had the Tartars had any intelligence, then
had been the time to have attacked us, when, the caravan being over,
the rear guard was behind: but they did not appear there.
About three hours after, when we were entered upon a desert of
about fifteen or sixteen miles over, behold, by a cloud of dust they
raised, we saw an enemy was at hand; and they were at hand indeed,
for they came on upon the spur.
The Chineses, our guard on the front, who had talked so big the
day before, began to stagger, and the soldiers frequently looked
behind them; which is a certain sign in a soldier, that he is just
ready to run away. My old pilot was of my mind; and being near me,
he called out: “Seignor Inglese,” said he, “those fellows must be
encouraged, or they will ruin us all; for if the Tartars come on, they
will never stand it.” “I am of your mind,” said I: “but what
course must be done?” “Done?” said he, “let fifty of our men
gº
463
advance, and ſlank them on each wing, and encourage them, and
they will fight like brave fellows in brave company; but without it,
they will every man turn his back.” Immediately I rode up to our
leader, and told him, who was exactly of our mind; and accordingly
fifty of us marched to the right wing, and fifty to the left, and the
rest made a line of reserve; for so we marched, leaving the last two
hundred men to make another body by themselves, and to guard the
camels; only that, if need were, they should send a hundred men to
assist the last fifty.
In a word, the Tartars came on, and an innumerable company
they were; how many, we could not tell, but ten thousand we
thought was the least. A party of them came on first, and viewed
our posture, traversing the ground in the front of our line; and as we
found them within gunshot, our leader ordered the two wings to ad-
vance swiftly, and give them a salvo on each wing with their shot,
which was done; but they went off, and I suppose back to give an
account of the reception they were like to meet with; and indeed that
salute clogged their stomachs; for they immediately halted, stood
awhile to consider of it, and, wheeling off to the left, they gave over
the design, and said no more to us for that time; which was very
agreeable to our circumstances, which were but very indifferent for a
battle with such a number.
Two days after this we came to the city of Naum, or Naunm. We
thanked the governor for his care for us, and collected to the value of
one hundred crowns, or thereabouts, which we gave to the soldiers
sent to guard us; and here we rested one day. This is a garrison
indeed, and there were nine hundred soldiers kept here; but the
reason of it was, that formerly the Muscovite frontiers lay nearer to
them than they do now, the Muscovites having abandoned that part of
the country, which lies from this city west, for about two hundred
miles, as desolate and unfit for use; and more especially, being so
very remote, and so difficult to send troops hither for its defence; for
we had yet above two thousand miles to Muscovy, properly so called.
After this we passed several great rivers, and two dreadful deserts,
one of which we were sixteen days passing over, and which, as I said,
was to be called No Man's Land; and on the 13th of April we came
to the frontiers of the Muscovite dominions. I think the first city, or
town, or fortress, Whatever it might be called, that belonged to the
464
czar of Muscovy, was called Argun, being on the west side of the
river Argun.
I could not but discover an infinite satisfaction, that I was now
arrived in, as I called it, a Christian country; or, at least, in a
country governed by Christians: for though the Muscovites do, in my
opinion, but just deserve the name of Christians, yet such they pre-
tend to be, and are very devout in their way: it would certainly
occur to any man who travels the world as I have done, and who had
any power of reflection; I say, it would occur to him to reflect, what
a blessing it is to be brought into the world where the name of God,
and of a Redeemer, is known, worshipped and adored; and not
where the people, given up by Heaven to strong delusions, worship
the devil, and prostrate themselves to stocks and stones; worship
monsters, elements, horrible shaped animals, and statues, or
images of monsters. Not a town or city we passed through but had
their pagods, their idols, and their temples; and ignorant people
worshipping even the works of their own hands!
Now we came where, at least, a face of the Christian worship
appeared, where the knee was bowed to Jesus; and whether igno-
rantly or not, yet the Christian religion was owned, and the name of
the true God was called upon and adored; and it made the very
recesses of my soul rejoice to see it. I saluted the brave Scotch mer-
chant I mentioned above, with my first acknowledgment of this; and,
taking him by the hand, I said to him, “Blessed be God, we are
once again come among Christians!” He smiled, and answered,
“Do not rejoice too soon, countryman; these Muscovites are but an
odd sort of Christians; and but for the name of it, you may see
very little of the substance for some months farther of our journey.”
“Well,” said I, “but still it is better than paganism, and
worshipping of devils.” “Why, I'll tell you,” said he; “except
the Russian soldiers in garrisons, and a few of the inhabitants of the
cities upon the road, all the rest of this country, for above a thou-
sand miles farther, is inhabited by the worst and most ignorant of
pagans.” And so indeed we found it.
We were now launched into the greatest piece of solid earth, if I
understand any thing of the surface of the globe, that is to be found
in any part of the world; we had at least twelve hundred miles to the
sea, eastward; we had at least two thousand to the bottom of the
A65
Baltic sea, westward; and almost three thousand miles, if we left
that sea, and went on west to the British and French channels; we
had full five thousand miles to the Indian or Persian sca, south; and
about eight hundred miles to the Frozen sea, north; nay, if some
people may be believed, there might be no sea north-east till we came
round the pole, and consequently into the north-west, and so had a
continent of land into America, no mortal knows where; though I
could give some reasons why I believe that to be a mistake too.
As we entered into the Muscovite dominions, a good while before
we came to any considerable towns, we had nothing to observe there
but this; first, that all the rivers, run to the east. As I understood
by the charts which some of our caravan had with them, it was plain
that all those rivers ran into the great river Yamour, or Gammour.
This river, by the natural course of it, must run into the east sea, or
Chinese ocean. The story they tell us, that the mouth of this river
is choked up with bulrushes of a monstrous growth, viz. three feet
about, and twenty or thirty feet high, I must be allowed to say I
believe nothing of; but as its navigation is of no use, because there
is no trade that way, the Tartars to whom it belongs, dealing in
nothing but cattle; so nobody, that ever I heard of, has been curious
enough either to go down to the mouth of it in boats, or to come up
from the mouth of it in ships; but this is certain, that this river run-
ning due east, in the latitude of sixty degrees, carries at vast concourse
of rivers along with it, and finds an ocean to empty itself in that
latitude; so we are sure of sea there.
Some leagues to the north of this river there are several consider-
able rivers, whose streams run as due north as the Yamour runs east;
and these are all found to join their waters with the great river Tar-
tarus, named so from the northernmost nations of the Mogul Tartars,
who, the Chinese say, were the first Tartars in the world; and who,
as our geographers allege, are the Gog and Magog mentioned in
sacred story.
These rivers running all northward, as well as all the other rivers
I am yet to speak of, make it evident that the northern ocean bounds
the land also on that side; so that it does not seem rational in the least
to think that the land can extend itself to join with America on that
side, or that there is not a communication between the northern and
the eastern ocean; but of this I shall say no more; it was my obser-
Robinson Crusoe. 30
466
vation at that time, and therefore I take notice of it in this place. We
now advanced from the river Arguna by easy and moderate journies,
and were very visibly obliged to the care the czar of Muscovy has taken
to have cities and towns built in as many places as are possible to
place them, where his soldiers keep garrison, something like the
stationary soldiers placed by the Romans in the remotest countries of
their empire, some of which I had read were particularly placed in
Britain for the security of commerce, and for the lodging of travellers;
and thus it was here; for wherever we came, though at these towns,
and stations, the garrisons and Governor were Russians and professed
Christians, yet the inhabitants of the country were mere pagans,
sacrificing to idols, and worshipping the Sun, moon, and stars, or
all the host of heaven; and not only so, but were, of all the heathens
and pagans that ever I met with, the most barbarous, except only
that they did not eat man's flesh, as our savages of America did.
Some instances of this we met with in the country between Ar-
guna, where we enter the Muscovite dominions, and a city of Tartars
and Russians together, called Nortzinskoy; in which space is a
continued desert or forest, which cost us twenty days to travel over
it. In a village near the last of those places, I had the curiosity to
go and sce their way of living; which is most brutish and unsuffer—
able: they had, I suppose, a great sacrifice that day; for there stood
out upon an old stump of a tree, an idol made of wood, frightful as
the devil; at least as any thing we can think of to represent the devil
that can be made. It had a head certainly not so much as resembling
any creature that the world eversaw; ears as big as goat's horns, and
as high; eyes as big as a crown-piece; a nose like a crooked ram's
horn, and a mouth cytented four-cornered, like that of a lion, with
horrible teeth, hooked like a parrot's under-bill. It was dressed up
in the filthiest manner that you can suppose; its upper garment was
of sheep-skins, with the wool outward; a great Tartar bonnet on the
head, with two horns growing through it; it was about eight feet high,
yet had no feet or legs, or any other proportion of parts.
This scarecrow was set up at the outside of the village; and when
I came near to it, there were sixteen or seventeen creatures, whether
men or women I could not tell, for they make no distinction by their
habits, either of body or head; these all lay flat on the ground, round
this formidable block of shapeless Wood. I saw no motion among
A67
them any more than if they had been all logs of wood, like their idol;
and at first I really thought they had been so; but when I came a little
nearer, they started up upon their feet, and raised a howling cry, as
if it had been so many deep-mouthed hounds, and walked away as if
they were displeased at our disturbing them. A little way off from
this monster, and at the door of a tent or hut, made åll of sheep-skins
and cow-skins, dried, stood three butchers: I thought they were
such; for when I came nearer to them, I found they had long knives
in their hands, and in the middle of the tent appeared three sheep
killed, and one young bullock, or steer. These, it seems, were
sacrifices to that senseless log of an idol; and these three men priests
belonging to it; and the seventeen prostrated wretches were the people
who brought the offering, and were making their prayers to that
stock.
I confess I was more moved at their stupidity, and this brutish
worship of a hobgoblin, than ever I was at any thing in my life: to
see God's most glorious and best creature, to whom he had granted
so many advantages, even by creation, above the rest of the works
of his hands, vested with a reasonable soul, and that soul adorned
with faculties and capacities adapted both to honour his Maker, and
be honoured by him, sunk and degenerated to a degree so more than
stupid, as to prostrate itself to a frightful nothing, a mere imaginary
object dressed up by themselves, and made terrible to themselves
by their own contrivance, adorned only with clouts and rags; and
that this should be the effect of mere ignorance, wrought up into
hellish devotion by the devil himself; who, envying his Maker the
homage and adoration of his creatures, had deluded them into such
gross, surfeiting, sordid, and brutish things, as one would think
should shock nature itself.
But what signified all the astonishment and reflection of thoughts?
Thus it was, and I saw it before my eyes; and there was no room to
wunder at it, or think it impossible. All my admiration turned to
rage; and I rode up to the image or monster, call it what you will,
and with my sword cut the bonnet that was on its head in two in the
middle, so that it hung down by one of the horns; and one of our
men that was with me, took hold of the sheep-skin that covered it,
and pulled at it, when, behold, a most hideous outcry and howling
ran through the village, and two or three hundred people came about
30 +
468
my ears, so that I was glad to scour for it; for we saw some had bows
and arrows; but I resolved from that moment to visit them again.
Our caravan rested three nights at the town which was about four
miles off, in order to provide some horses, which they wanted, se—
veral of the horses having been lamed and jaded with the badness of
the way, and our long march over the last desert; so we had some
leisure here to put my design in execution. I communicated my
project to the Scots merchant of Moscow, of whose courage I had had
a sufficient testimony, as above. I told him what I had seen, and
with what indignation I had since thought that human nature could be
so degenerate. I told him, I was resolved, if I could get but four or
five men well armed to go with me, to go and destroy that vile, abo-
minable idol; to let them sec, that it had no power to help itself,
and consequently could not be an object of worship, or to be prayed
to, much less help them that offered sacrifices to it.
He laughed at me: said he, “Your zeal may be good; but what
do you propose to yourself by it?” “Propose !” said I; “to win-
dicate the honour of God, which is insulted by this devil-worship.”
“But how will it windicate the honour of God,” said he, “while the
people will not be able to know what you mean by it, unless you could
speak to them too, and tell them so? and then they will fight you and
beat you too I will assure you, for they are desperate fellows, and that
especially in defence of their idolatry.” “Can we not,” said I, “do
it in the night, and then leave them the reasons and causes in writing,
in their own language?” “Writing!” said he; “why there is not a
man in five nations of them that knows any thing of a letter, or how to
read a word in any language, or in their own.” “Wretched igno-
rance!” said I to him; “however, I have a great mind to do it;
perhaps nature may draw inferences from it to them, to let them see
how brutish they are to worship such horrid things.” “Look you,
Sir,” said he: “if your zeal prompts you to it so warmly, you must
do it; but in the next place, I would have you consider these wild na-
tions of people are subjected by force to the Czar of Muscovy's domi-
nions; and if you do this it is ten to one but they will come by thou-
sands to the governor of Nortzinskoy, and complain, and demand
satisfaction; and if he cannot give them satisfaction, it is ten to one
but they revolt; and it will occasion a new war with all the Tartars in
the country.” -
469
This, I confess, put new thoughts into my head for a while; but
I harped upon the same string still; and all that day I was uneasy to
put my project in execution. Towards the evening the Scots mer-
chant met me by accident in our walk about the town, and desired to
speak with me: “I believe,” said he, “I have put you off of your
good design; I have been a little concerned about it since; for I abhor
the idol and idolatry as much as you can do.” “Truly,” said I, “you
have put it off a little, as to the execution of it, but you have not put
it at all out of my thoughts; and, I believe, I shall do it still before
I quit this place, though I were to be delivered up to them for satis-
ſaction.” “No, no,” said he, “God forbid they should deliver you
up to such a crew of monsters! they shall not do that neither; that
would be murdering you indeed.” “Why,” said I, “how would
they use me?” “Use you!” said he: “I’ll tell you how they served
a poor Russian, who affronted them in their worship just as you did,
and whom they took prisoner, after they had lamed him with an arrow,
that he could not run away: they took him and stripped him stark
naked, and set him upon the top of the idol monster, and stood all
round him, and shot as many arrows into him as would stick over
his whole body; and then they burnt him, and all the arrows sticking
in him, as a sacrifice to the idol.” “And was this the same idol 2"
said I. “Yes,” said he, “the very same.” “Well,” said I, “I
will tell you a story.” So I related the story of our men at Madagascar,
and how they burnt and sacked the village there, and killed man,
woman, and child, for their murdering one of our men, just as it
is related before; and when I had done, I added, that I thought we
ought to do so to this village.
He listened very attentively to the story; but when I talked of
doing so to that village, said he, “You mistake very much; it was
not this village, it was almost a hundred miles from this place; but it
was the same idol, for they carry him about in procession all over the
country.” “Well,” said I, “then that idol ought to be punished
for it; and so it shall,” said I, “if I live this night out.” -
In a word, finding me resolute, he liked the design, and told me,
I should not go alone, but he would go with me; but he would go
first, and bring a stout fellow, one of his countrymen, to go also
with us; “and one,” said he, “as famous for his zeal as you can
desire any one to be against such devilish things as these.” In a word,
470
he brought me his comrade, a Scotsman, whom he called Captain
Richardson; and I gave him a full account of what I had seen, and
also what I intended; and he told me readily, he would go with me,
if it cost him his life. So we agreed to go, only we three. I had,
indeed, proposed it to my partner, but he declined it. He said, he
was ready to assist me to the utmost, and upon all occasions, for my
defence; but that this was an adventure quite out of his way: so, I
say we resolved upon our work, only we three, and my man-servant,
and to put it in execution that night about midnight, with all the
secrecy imaginable.
However, upon second thoughts, we were willing to delay it till
the next night, because the caravan being to set forward in the morn-
ing, we supposed the governor could not pretend to give them any
satisfaction upon us when we were out of his power. The Scots mer-
chant, as steady in his resolution for the enterprise as bold in exe-
cuting, brought me a Tartar's robe or gown of sheep-skins, and a
bonnet, with a bow and arrows, and had provided the same for him-
self and his countryman, that the people, if they saw us, should not
be able to determine who we were.
All the first night we spent in mixing up some combustible matter
with aqua-vitae, gunpowder, and such other materials as we could
get; and, having a good quantity of tar in a little pot, about an hour
after night we set out upon our expedition.
We came to the place about eleven o'clock at night, and found that
the people had not the least jealousy of danger attending their idol.
The night was cloudy; yet the moon gave us light enough to see that
the idol stood just in the same posture and place that it did before.
The people seemed to be all at their rest; only, that in the great hut,
or tent as we called it, where we saw the three priests, whom we
mistook for butchers, we saw a light, and going up close to the door,
we heard people talking, as if there were five or six of them; we con-
cluded, therefore, that if we set wildfire to the idol, these men would
come out immediately, and run up to the place to rescue it from the
destruction that we intended for it; and what to do with them we
knew not. Once we thought of carrying it away, and setting fire to
it at a distance, but when we came to handle it we found it too bulky
for our carriage; so we were at a loss again. The second Scotsman
was for setting fire to the tent or hut, and knocking the creatures that
471
were there on the head, when they came out; but I could not join
with that; I was against killing them, if it was possible to be avoided.
“Well then,” said the Scots merchant, “I will tell you what we will
do; we will try to take them prisoners, tie their hands, and make
them stand and see their idol destroyed.” # &
As it happened, we had twine or packthread enough about us,
which we used to tie our fire-works together with; so we resolved to
attack these people first, and with as little noise as we could. The
first thing we did, we knocked at the door, when one of the priests
coming to it, we immediately seized upon him, stopped his mouth,
and tied his hands behind him, and led him to the idol, where we
gagged him that he might not make a noise, tied his feet also together,
and left him on the ground.
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 imme-
diately 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 others, and
all without any noise. I should have said, we brought them out of
472
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 man 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 one of the Scotsmen
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
just before their monstrous idol, and then set fire to the whole.
We stayed by it a quarter of an hour, or thereabouts, till 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 setting the dry forage to it, we found it would be soon quite con-
sumed; 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.
In the morning we appeared among our fellow-travellers, ex-
ceeding busy in getting ready for our journey; nor could any man
suggest that we had been any where but in our beds, as travellers
might be supposed to be, to fit themselves for the fatigues of that
day's journey.
But it did not end so; for the next day came a great multitude of
the country people, not only of this village, but of a hundreed more,
for aught I know, to the town-gates; and in a most outrageous man-
ner demanded satisfaction of the Russian governor, for the insulting
their priests, and burning their great Cham-Chi-Thaungu; such a
hard name they gave the monstrous creature they worshipped. The
people of Nortzinskoy were at first in great consternation; for they
473
said the Tartars were no less than thirty thousand, and that in a few
days more would be one hundred thousand strong.
The Russian governor sent out messengers to appease them, and
gave them all the good words imaginable. He assured them he knew
nothing of it, and that there had not a soul of his garrison been
abroad; that it could not be from any body there; and if they would
let him know who it was, they should be exemplarily punished. They
returned haughtily, that all the country reverenced the great Cham-
Chi-Thaungu, who dwelt in the sun, and no mortal would have dared
tº offer violence to his image, but some Christian miscreant; so they
called them, it seems; and they therefore denounced war against
him, and all the Russians, who, they said, were miscreants and
Christians. -
The governor, still patient, and unwilling to make a breach, or
to have any cause of war alleged to be given by him, the czar having
straitly charged them to treat the conquered country with gentleness
and civility, gave them still all the good words he could; at last he
told them, there was a caravan gone towards Russia that morning,
and perhaps it was some of them who had done them this injury; and
that, if they would be satisfied with that, he would send after them,
to inquire into it. This seemed to appease them a little; and accord-
ingly the governor sent after us, and gave us a particular account how
the thing was, intimating withal, that if any in our caravan had done
it, they should make their escape; but that whether they had done
it or no, we should make all the haste forward that was possible; and
that in the meantime he would keep them in play as long as he could.
This was very friendly in the governor. However, when it came
to the caravan, there was nobody knew any thing of the matter; and,
as for us that were guilty, we were the least of all suspected; none
so much as asked us the question; however, the captain of the
caravan, for the time, took the hint that the governor gave us, and
we marched or travelled two days and two nights without any consi–
derable stop, and then we lay at a village called Plothus; nor did we
make any long stop here, but hastened on towards Jarawena, an-
other of the czar of Muscovy's colonies, and where we expected we
should be safe; but it is to be observed, that here we began for two
or three day's march, to enter upon a vast nameless desert, of which
I shall say more in its place; and which if we had now been upon it,
474
it is more than probable we had been all destroyed. It was the second
day's march from Plothus that by the clouds of dust behind us at a
great distance, some of our people began to be sensible we were
pursued; we had entered the desert, and had passed by a great lake,
called Schanks Oser, when we perceived a very great body of horse
appear on the other side of the lake to the north, we travelling west.
We observed they went away west, as we did; but had supposed we
should have taken that side of the lake, whereas we very happily took
the south side: and in two days more we saw them not, for they,
believing we were still before them, pushed on, till they came to the
river Udda; this is a very great river when it passes farther north,
but where we came to it, we found it narrow and fordable.
The third day they either found their mistake, or had intelligence
of us, and came pouring in upon us towards the dusk of the evening.
We had, to our great satisfaction, just pitched upon a place for our
camp, which was very convenient for the night; for as we were upon
a desert, though but at the beginning of it, that was above five
hundred miles over, we had no towns to lodge at, and, indeed,
expected none but the city of Jarawena, which we had yet two days
march to; the desert, however, had some few woods in it on this
side, and little rivers, which ran all into the great river Udda. It
was in a narrow strait, between two small but very thick woods, that
we pitched our little camp for that night, expecting to be attacked in
the night.
Nobody knew but ourselves what we were pursued for; but as it
was usual for the Mogul Tartars to go about in troops in that desert,
so the caravans always fortify themselves every night against them as
against armies of robbers; and it was therefore no new thing to be
pursued.
But we had this night, of all the nights of our travels, a most
advantageous camp; for we lay between two woods, with a little
rivulet running just before our front; so that we could not be sur-
rounded, or attacked any way, but in our front or rear: we took care
also to make our front as strong as we could, by placing our packs,
with our camels and horses, all in a line on the side of the river, and
we felled some trees in our rear.
In this posture we encamped for the night; but the enemy was
upon us before we had finished our situation: they did not come on
475
us like thieves, as we expected, but sent three messengers to us, to
demand the men to be delivered to them, that had abused their
priests, and burnt their god Cham-Chi-Thaungu, that they might
burn them with fire. Our men looked very blank at this message,
and began to stare at one another, to see who looked with most guilt
in their faces, but nobody was the word, nobody did it. The leader
of the caravan sent word, he was well assured it was not done by any
of our camp; that we were peaceable merchants, travelling on our
business; that we had done no harm to them, or to any one else;
and that therefore they must look farther for their enemies, who had
injured them, for we were not the people; so desired them not to
disturb us; for, if they did, we should defend ourselves.
They were far from being satisfied with this for an answer, and a
great crowd of them came down in the morning, by break of day, to
our camp; but, seeing us in such an advantageous situation, they
durst come no farther than the brook in our front, where they stood,
and showed us such a number, as indeed, terrified us very much;
for those that spoke least of them, spoke of ten thousand. Here they
stood, and looked at us awhile, and then setting up a great howl,
they let fly a cloud of arrows among us; but we were well enough
fortified for that, for we sheltered under our baggage; and I do not
remember that one man of us was hurt. *
Some time after this we saw them move a little to our right, and
expected them on the rear, when a cunning fellow, a Cossack, as
they call them, of Jarawena, in the pay of the Muscovites, calling
to the leader of the caravan, said to him, “I’ll go send all these
people away to Sibeilka.” This was a city four or five days journey
at least to the South, and rather behind us. So he takes his bow and
arrows, and, getting on horseback, he rides away from our rear
directly, as it were back to Nortzinskoy; after this, he takes a great
circuit about, and comes to the army of the Tartars, as if he had
been sent express to tell them a long story, that the people who had
burnt their Cham-Chi-Thaungu were gone to Sibeilka, with a caravan
of miscreants, as he called them; that is to say, Christians; and
that they were resolved to burn the god Schal Isar belonging to the
Tonguses.
As this fellow was a mere Tartar, and perfectly spoke their lan-
guage, he counterfeited so well, that they all took it from him, and
476
away they drove, in a most violent hurry, to Sibeilka, which, it
seems, was five days journey to the south; and in less than three
hours they were entirely out of our sight, and we never heard any
more of them, nor ever knew whether they went to that other place
called Sibeilka or no.
So we passed safely on to the city of Jarawena, where there was a
garrison of Muscovites; and there we rested five days, the caravan
being exceedingly fatigued with the last days march, and with want
of rest in the night.
From this city we had a frightful desert, which held us three-and-
twenty days march. We furnished ourselves with some tents here,
for the better accommodating ourselves in the night; and the leader
of the caravan procured sixteen carriages, or waggons, of the coun-
try, for carrying our water and provisions; and these carriages were
our defence every night round our little camp; so that had the Tartars
appeared, unless they had been very numerous indeed, they would
not have been able to hurt us.
We may well be supposed to want rest again after this long
journey; for in this desert we saw neither house or tree, or scarce a
bush: we saw, indeed, abundance of the sable-hunters, as they
called them. These are all Tartars of the Mogul Tartary, of which
this country is a part; and they frequently attack small caravans;
but we saw no numbers of them together. I was curious to see the
sable skins they catched; but could never speak with any of them;
for they durst not come near us; neither durst we straggle from our
company to go near them.
After we had passed this desert, we came into a country pretty
well inhabited; that is to say, we found towns and castles settled by
the czar of Muscovy, with garrisons of stationary soldiers to protect
the caravans, and defend the country against the Tartars, who would
otherwise make it very dangerous travelling; and his czarish majesty
has given such strict orders for the well guarding the caravans and
merchants, that if there are any Tartars heard of in the country, de-
tachments of the garrison are always sent to see travellers safe from
station to station.
And thus the governor of Adinskoy, whom I had an opportunity to
make a visit to, by means of the Scots merchant, who was acquainted
477
with him, offered us a guard of fifty men, if we thought there was
any danger, to the next station.
I thought long before this, that as we came nearer to Europe we
should find the country better peopled, and the people more civilized;
but I found myself mistaken in both, for we had yet the nation of the
Tonguses to pass through; where we saw the same tokens of pa-
ganism and barbarity, or worse, than before; only as they were con-
quered by the Muscovites, and entirely reduced, they were not so
dangerous; but for rudeness of manners, idolatry, and polytheism,
no people in the world ever went beyond them. They are clothed all
in skins of beasts, and their houses are built of the same. You know
not a man from a woman, neither by the ruggedness of their counte-
nances, or their clothes; and in the winter, when the ground is
covered with snow, they live under ground, in houses like vaults,
which have cavities going from one to another.
If the Tartars had their Cham–Chi-Thaungu for a whole village,
or country, these had idols in every hut and every cave; besides they
worship the stars, the sun, the water, the snow; and in a word,
every thing that they do not understand, and they understand but
very little; so that almost every element, every uncommon thing,
sets them a sacrificing.
But I am no more to describe people than countries, any farther
than my own story comes to be concerned in them. I met with
nothing peculiar to myself in all this country, which I reckon was,
from the desert which I spoke of last, at least four hundred miles,
half of it being another desert, which took us up twelve days severe
travelling, without house, tree or bush; but we were obliged again
to carry our own provisions, as well water as bread. After we were
out of this desert, and had travelled two days, we came to Janezay,
a Muscovite city or station, on the great river Janezay. This river,
they told us, parted Europe from Asia, though our map-makers,
as I am told, do not agree to it; however, it is certainly the eastern
boundary of the ancient Siberia, which now makes a province only
of the vast Muscovite empire, but is itself equal in bigness to the
whole empire of Germany.
And yet here I observed ignorance and paganism still prevailed
except in the Muscovite garrisons. All the country between the river
Qby and the river Janezay is as entirely pagan, and the people as
478
barbarous, as the remotest of the Tartars; nay, as any nation, for
aught I know, in Asia or America. I also found, which I observed
to the Muscovite governors, whom I had opportunity to converse
with, that the pagans are not much the wiser, or the nearer Chris–
tianity, for being under the Muscovite government; which they
acknowledged was true enough, but as they said, was none of their
business; that if the czar expected to convert his Siberian, or Ton-
guese, or Tartar subjects, it should be done by sending clergymen
among them, not soldiers; and they added, with more sincerity
than I expected, that they found it was not so much the concern of
their monarch to make the people Christians, as it was to make them
subjects.
From this river to the great river Oby, we crossed a wild unculti-
wated country; I cannot say "t is a barbarous soil; "t is only barren of
people, and wants good management; otherwise it is in itself a most
pleasant, fruitful and agreeable country. What inhabitants we
found in it are all pagans, except such as are sent among them from
Russia; for this is the country, I mean on both sides the river Oby,
whither the Muscovite criminals, that are not put to death, are
banished, and from whence it is next to impossible they should ever
come away.
I have nothing material to say of my particular affairs, till I came
to Tobolski, the capital city of Siberia, where I continued some
time on the following occasion.
We had been now almost seven months on our journey, and
winter began to come on apace; whereupon my partner and I called
a council about our particular affairs, in which we found it proper,
considering that we were bound for England, and not for Moscow to
consider how to dispose of ourselves. They told us of sledges and
rein-decr to carry us over the snow in the winter-time; and, indeed,
they have such things, that it would be incredible to relate the parti-
culars of, by which means the Russians travel more in the winter
than they can in the summer; because in these sledges they are able
to run night and day: the snow being frozen , is one universal cover-
ing to nature, by which the hills, the vales, the rivers, the lakes,
are all smooth, and as hard as a stone; and they run upon the sur-
face, without any regard to what is underneath.
But I had no occasion to push at a winter's journey of this kind;
479
łºw
I was bound to England, not to Moscow, and my route lay two ways:
either I must go on as the caravan went, till I came to Jaroslaw, and
then go off west for Narva, and the gulf of Finland, and so either by
sea or land to Dantzic, where I might possibly sell my China cargo to
good advantage; or I must leave the caravan at a little town on the
Dwina, from whence I had but six days by water to Archangel, and
from thence might be sure of shipping, either to England, Holland,
or Hamburgh.
Now to go any of these journies in the winter would have been
preposterous; for as to Dantzic, the Baltic would be frozen up, and
I could not get passage; and to go by land in those countries, was
far less safe than among the Mogul Tartars; likewise to go to Arch-
angel, in October all the ships would be gone from thence, and even
the merchants, who dwell there in summer, retire south to Moscow
in the winter, when the ships are gone; so that I should have nothing
but extremity of cold to encounter, with a scarcity of provisions, and
must lie there in an empty town all the winter: so that, upon the
whole, I thought it much my better way to let the caravan go, and to
make provision to winter where I was, viz. at Tobolski, in Siberia,
in the latitude of sixty degrees, where I was sure of three things to
wear out a cold winter with, viz. plenty of provisions, such as the
country afforded, a warm house, with fuel enough, and excellent
company; of all which I shall give a full account in its place.
I was now in a quite different climate from my beloved island,
where I never felt cold, except when I had my ague; on the contrary,
I had much to do to bear any clothes on my back, and never made
any fire but without doors, for my necessity, in dressing my food, &c.
Now I made me three good vests, with large robes or gowns over
them, to hang down to the feet, and button close to the wrists, and
all these lined with furs, to make them sufficiently warm.
As to a warm house, I must confess, I greatly dislike our way in
England, of making fires in every room in the house, in open
chimnies, which, when the fire was out, always kept the air in the
room cold as the climate. But taking an apartment in a good house
in the town, I ordered a chimney to be built like a furnace, in the
centre of six several rooms, like a stove; the funnel to carry the
smoke went up one way, the door to come at the fire went in another,
480
and all the rooms were kept equally warm, but no ſire seen; like as
they heat the bagmios in England.
By this means we had always the same climate in all the rooms,
and an equal heat was preserved; and how cold soever it was without,
it was always warm within; and yet we saw no fire, nor were ever
incommoded with any smoke.
The most wonderful thing of all was, that it should be possible
to meet with good company here, in a country so barbarous as that
of the most northerly parts of Europe, near the Frozen ocean, and
within but a very few degrees of Nova Zembla.
But this being the country where the state criminals of Muscovy,
as I observed before, are all banished; this city was full of noblemen,
princes, gentlemen, colonels, and, in short, all degrees of the
mobility, gentry, soldiery, and courtiers of Muscovy. Here were
the famous prince Galifiken, or Galoffken, and his son; the old
general Robostisky, and several other persons of note, and some
ladies.
By means of my Scots merchant, whom, nevertheless, I parted
with here, I made an acquaintance with several of these gentlemen,
and some of them of the first rank; and from these, in the long winter
nights, in which I staid here, I received several very agreeable visits.
I was talking one night with a certain prince, one of the banished
ministers of state belonging to the czar of Muscovy, that my talk of
my particular case began. He had been telling me abundance of fine
things, of the greatness, the magnificence, and dominions, and
the absolute power of the emperor of the Russians. I interrupted
him, and told him, I was a greater and more powerful prince than
ever the czar of Muscovy was, though my dominions were not so
large, or my people so many. The Russian grandee looked a little
surprised, and fixing his eyes steadily upon me, began to wonder
what I meant.
I told him his wonder would cease when I had explained myself.
First, I told him, I had the absolute disposal of the lives and for-
tunes of all my subjects: that notwithstanding my absolute power,
I had not one person disaffected to my government or to my person in
all my dominions. He shook his head at that, and said, there,
indeed I outdid the czar of Muscovy. I told him, that all the lands.
in my kingdom were my own, and all my subjects were not only my
481
tenants, but tenants at will; that they would all fight for me to the
last drop; and that never tyrant, for such I acknowledged myself to
be, was ever so universally beloved, and yet so horribly feared, by
his subjects. # *
After amusing them with these riddles in government for a while,
I opened the case, and told them the story at large of my living in the
island, and how I managed both myself and the people there that
were under me, just as I have since minuted it down. They were
exceedingly taken with the story, and especially the prince, who told
me with a sigh, that the true greatness of life was to be master of
ourselves; that he would not have exchanged such a state of life as
mine, to have been czar of Muscovy; and that he found more felicity
in the retirement he seemed to be banished to there, than ever he
found in the highest authority he enjoyed in the court of his master
the czar: that the height of human wisdom was to bring our tempers
down to our circumstances, and to make a calm within, under the
weight of the greatest storm without. When he came first hither, he
said, he used to tear the hair from his head, and the clothes from
his back, as others had done before him; but a little time and con-
sideration had made him look into himself, as well as round himself,
to things without: that he ſound the mind of man, if it was but once
brought to reflect upon the state of universal life, and how little this
world was concerned in its true felicity, was perfectly capable of
making a felicity for itself, fully satisfying to itself, and suitable to
its own best ends and desires, with but very little assistance from the
world; that air to breathe in, food to sustain life, clothes for warmth,
and liberty for exercise, in order to health completed in his opinion,
all that the world could do for us: and though the greatness, the
authority, the riches, and the pleasures, which some enjoyed in
the world and which he had enjoyed his share of, had much in them
that was agreeable to us, yet he observed, that all those things
chiefly gratified the coarsest of our affections; such as our ambition,
our particular pride, our avarice, our vanity, and our sensuality;
all which were, indeed, the mere product of the worst part of man,
were in themselves crimes, and had in them the seeds of all manner
of crime: but neither were related to, or concerned with, any of
those virtues that constituted us wise men, or of those graces which
distinguished us as Christians; that being now deprived of all the
Robinson Crusoe, 31
M82
** alº.º.
fancied felicity which he enjoyed in the full exercise of all those vices,
he said, he was at leisure to look upon the dark side of them, where
he found all manner of deformity; and was now convinced, that
virtue only makes a man truly wise, rich, and great, and preserves
him in the way to a superior happiness in a future state; and in this,
he said, they were more happy in their banishment, than all their
enemies were, who had the full possession of all the wealth and power
that they, the banished, had left behind them.
“Nor, Sir,” said he, “do I bring my mind to this politically,
by the necessity of my circumstances, which some call miserable;
but if I know any thing of myself, I would not go back, though the
czar my master, should call me, and offer to reinstate me in all my
former grandeur; I say, I would no more go back to it, than I believe
my soul, when it shall be delivered from this prison of the body, and
has had a taste of the glorious state beyond life, would come back to
the gaol of ſlesh and blood it is now enclosed in, and leave Heaven to
deal in the dirt and grime of human affairs.”
He spake this with so much warmth in his temper, so much earn-
cstness and motion of his spirits, which were apparent in his coun-
tenance, that it was evident it was the true sense of his soul; and
indeed there was no room to doubt his sincerity.
I told him, I once thought myself a kind of a monarch in my old
station, of which I had given him an account, but that I thought he
was not a monarch only, but a great conqueror; for that he that has
got a victory over his own exorbitant desires, and has the absolute
dominion over himself, whose reason entirely governs his will, is
certainly greater than he that conquers a city. “But, my lord,”
said I, “shall I take the liberty to ask you a question?” “With all
my heart,” said he. “If the door of your liberty was opened,” said
I, “would not you take hold of it to deliver yourself from this exile?”
“Hold,” said he, “your question is subtle, and requires some
serious just distinctions to give it a sincere answer; and I'll give it
you from the bottom of my heart. Nothing that I know of in this world
would move me to deliver myself from this state of banishment, except
these two: first, the enjoyment of my relations; and secondly, a
little warmer climate. But I protest to you, that to go back to the
pomp of the court, the glory, the power, the hurry of a minister of
state; the wealth, the gaiety, and the pleasures, that is to say, fol-
483
lies of a courtier; if my master should send me word this moment,
that he restores me to all he banished me from, I protest, if I know
myself at all, I would not leave this wilderness, these deserts, and
these frozen lakes, for the palace of Moscow.”
“But, my lord,” said I, “perhaps you not only are banished
from the pleasures of the court, and from the power, and authority,
and wealth, you enjoyed before, but you may be absent too from
some of the conveniences of life; your estate, perhaps, confiscated,
and your effects plundered; and the supplies left you here may not
be suitable to the ordinary demands of life.”
“Ay,” said he, “that is, as you suppose me to be a lord, or a
prince, &c. So indeed I am; but you are now to consider me only
as a man, a human creature, not at all distinguished from another;
and so I can suffer no want, unless I should be visited with sickness
and distempers. However, to put the question out of dispute; you
see our manner; we are in this place five persons of rank; we live
perfectly retired, as suited to a state of banishment; we have some–
thing rescued from the shipwreck of our fortunes, which keeps us
from the mere necessity of hunting for our food; but the poor soldiers
who are here, without that help, live in as much plenty as we. They
go into the woods, and catch sables and foxes; the labour of a month
will maintain them a year; and as the way of living is not expensive,
so it is not hard to get sufficient to ourselves: so that objection is out
of doors.”
I have no room to give a full account of the most agreeable con-
versation I had with this truly great man; in all which he showed, that
his mind was so inspired with a superior knowledge of things, so sup-
ported by religion, as well as by a vast share of wisdom, that his
contempt of the world was really as much as he had expressed, and
that he was always the same to the last, as will appear in the story I
am going to tell.
I had been here eight months, and a dark dreadful winter I
thought it to be. The cold was so intense, that I could not so much
as look abroad without being wrapt in furs, a mask of fur before my
face, or rather a hood, with only a hole for breath, and two for sight.
The little daylight we had, was as we reckoned, for three months, not
above five hours a-day, or six at most; only that the snow lying on
the ground continually, and the weather clear, it was never quite
31 *
484
dark. Our horses were kept, or rather starved, under ground; and
as for our servants, for we hired servants here to look after our horses
and ourselves we had every now and then their fingers and toes to
thaw, and take care of, lest they should mortify and fall off.
It is true, within doors we were warm, the houses being close,
the walls thick, the lights small, and the glass all double. Our food
was chiefly the flesh of deer, dried and cured in the season; good
bread enough, but baked as biscuits; dried fish of several sorts, and
some flesh of mutton, and of buffaloes, which is pretty good beef.
All the stores of provision for the winter are laid up in the summer,
and well cured. Our drink was water mixed with aquavitae instead of
brandy; and for a treat, mead instead of wine; which, however,
they have excellent good. The hunters, who ventured abroad all
weathers, frequently brought us in fresh venison, very fat and good;
and sometimes bear's flesh, but we did not much care for the last.
We had a good stock of tea, with which we treated our friends as
above; and, in a word, we lived very cheerfully and well all things
considered.
It was now March and the days grown considerably longer, and
the weather at least tolerable; so the other travellers began to prepare
sledges to carry them over the snow, and to get things ready to be
going; but my measures being fixed, as I have said, for Archangel,
and not for Muscovy or the Baltic, I made no motion, knowing very
well, that the ships from the south do not set out for that part of the
world till May or June; and that if I was there by the beginning of
August, it would be as soon as any ships would be ready to go away;
and therefore, I say, I made no haste to be gone, as others did; in
a word, I saw a great many people, nay, all the travellers, go away
before me. It seems, every year they go from thence to Moscow for
trade; viz. to carry furs, and buy necessaries with them, which they
bring back to furnish their shops; also others went on the same errand
to Archangel; but then they also, being to come back again above
eight hundred miles, went all out before me.
In short, about the latter end of May I began to make all ready to
pack up; and as I was doing this, it occurred to me, that seeing all
these people were banished by the czar of Muscovy to Siberia, and
yet, when they came there, were left at liberty to go whither they
would; why did they not then go away to any part of the world where-
485
ever they thought fit? and I began to examine what should hinder
them from making such an attempt.
But my wonder was over, when I entered upon that subject with
the person I have mentioned, who answered me thus: “Consider,
first, Sir,” said he, “the place where we are; and, secondly, the
condition we are in; especially,” said he, “the generality of the
people who are banished hither. We are surrounded,” said he,
“with stronger things than bars and bolts: on the north side is an
unnavigable ocean, where ship never sailed, and boat never swam;
neither, if we had both, could we know whither to go with them.
Every other way,” said he, “we have above a thousand miles to pass
through the czar's own dominions, and by ways utterly impassable,
except by the roads made by the government, and through the towns
garrisoned by its troops; so that we could neither pass undiscovered
by the road, or subsist any other way: so that it is in vain to attempt it.”
I was silenced indeed, at once, and found that they were in a
prison, every jot as secure as if they had been locked up in the castle
at Moscow; however, it came into my thoughts, that I might cer-
tainly be made an instrument to procure the escape of this excellent
person, and that whatever hazard I run, I would certainly try if I
could carry him off. Upon this I took an occasion one evening to tell
him my thoughts: I represented to him, that it was very easy for me
to carry him away, there being no guard over him in the country;
and as I was not going to Moscow, but to Archangel, and that I went
in the nature of a caravan, by which I was not obliged to lie in the
stationary towns in the desert, but could encamp every night where
I would, we might easily pass uninterrupted to Archangel, where I
could immediately secure him on board an English or Dutch ship,
and carry him off safe along with me; and as to his subsistence, and
other particulars, that should be my care, till he could better supply
himself.
He heard me very attentively, and looked earnestly on me all the
while I spoke; nay, I could see in his very face, that what I said put
his spirits into an exceeding ferment; his colour frequently changed,
his eyes looked red, and his heart fluttered, that it might be even
perceived in his countenance; nor could he immediately answer me
when I had done, and, as it were, expected what he would say to it:
but after he had paused a little, he embraced me, and said, “How .
486
unhappy are we! unguided creatures as we are, that even our great-
est acts of friendship are made snares to us, and we are made tempters
of one another; My dear friend,” said he, “your offer is so sincere,
has such kindness in it, is so disinterested in itself, and is so cal-
culated for my advantage, that I must have very little knowledge of
the world, if I did not both wonder at it, and acknowledge the obli-
gation I have upon me to you for it; but did you believe I was sincere
in what I have so often said to you of my contempt of the world? Did
you believe I spoke my very soul to you, and that I had really obtained
that degree of felicity here, that had placed me above all that the world
could give me, or do for me? Did you believe I was sincere, when
I told you I would not go back, if I was recalled even to be all I once
was in the court, and with the favour of the czar my master? Did you
believe me, my friend, to be an honest man, or did you think me to
be a boasting hypocrite?" Here he stopped, as if he would hear what
I would say; but, indeed, I soon after perceived, that he stopped
because his spirits were in motion: his great heart was full of strug-
gles, and he could not go on. I was, I confess, astonished at the
thing, as well as at the man, and I used some arguments with him
to urge him to set himself free; that he ought to look upon this as a
door opened by Heaven for his deliverance, and a summons by pro-
vidence, who has the care and disposition of all events, to do himself
good, and to render himself useful in the world.
He had by this time recovered himself. “IIow do you know, Sir,”
said he, warmly, “that, instead of a summons from Heaven, it
may not be a feint of another instrument, representing, in all the
alluring colours to me, the show of felicity as a deliverance, which
may in itself be my snare, and tend directly to my ruin? Here I am
free from the temptation of returning to my former miserable great-
ness; there I am not sure, but that all the seeds of pride, ambition,
avarice and luxury, which I know remain in my nature, may revive
and take root, and, in a word, again overwhelm me; and then the
happy prisoner, whom you see now master of his soul's liberty, shall
be the miserable slave of his own senses, in the full possession of all
personal liberty. Dear Sir, let me remain in this blessed confinement,
banished from the crimes of life, rather than purchase a show of
freedom at the expense of the liberty of my reason, and at the ex-
pense of the future happiness which now I have in my view, but shall
487
then, I fear quickly lose sight of; for I am but flesh, a man, a mere
man, have passions and affections as likely to possess and overthrow
me as any man: O be not my friend and tempter both together!”
If I was surprised before, I was quite dumb now, and stood silent,
looking at him; and, indeed, admired what I saw. The struggle in
his soul was so great, that though the weather was extremely cold,
it put him into a most violent sweat, and I found he wanted to give
vent to his mind; so I said a word or two, that I would leave him to
consider of it, and wait on him again; and then I withdrew to my
own apartment.
About two hours after, I heard somebody at or near the door of
my room, and I was going to open the door; but he had opened it,
and come in: “My dear friend,” said he, “you had almost overset
me, but I am recovered: do not take it ill that I do not close with
your offer; I assure you, it is not for want of a sense of the kindness
of it in you; and I come to make the most sincere acknowledgment
of it to you; but, I hope, I have got the victory over myself.”
“My lord,” said I, “I hope you are fully satisfied, that you did
not resist the call of Heaven.” – “Sir," said he, “if it had been
from Heaven, the same power would have influenced me to accept it;
but I hope, and am fully satisfied, that it is from Heaven that I
decline it; and I have an infinite satisfaction in the parting, that you
shall leave me an honest man still, though not a free man.”
I had nothing to do but to acquiesce, and make professions to him
of my having no end in it, but a sincere desire to serve him. He
embraced me very passionately, and assured me, he was sensible of
that, and should always acknowledge it; and with that he offered me
a very fine present of sables, too much indeed for me to accept from
a man in his circumstances; and I would have avoided them, but he
would not be refused.
The next morning I sent my servant to his lordship, with a small
present of tea, two pieces of China damask, and four little wedges of
Japan gold which did not all weigh above six ounces, or thereabouts;
but were far short of the value of his sables, which indeed, when I
came to England, I found worth near two hundred pounds. He
accepted the tea, and one piece of the damask, and one of the pieces
of gold, which had a fine stamp upon it, of the Japan coinage, which
A88
I found he took for the rarity of it, but would not take any more; and
sent word by my servant, that he desired to speak with me.
When I came to him, he told me, I knew what had passed be-
tween us, and hoped I would not move him any more in that affair;
but that, since I made such a generous offer to him, he asked me,
if I had kindness enough to offer the same to another person that he
would name to me, in whom he had a great share of concern. I told
him, that I could not say I inclined to do so much for any one but
himself, for whom I had a particular value, and should have been
glad to have been the instrument of his deliverance: however, if he
would please to name the person to me, I would give him my answer,
and hoped he would not be displeased with me, if he was with my
answer. He told me, it was only his son, who, though I had not
seen, yet was in the same condition with himself, and above two
hundred miles from him, on the other side the Oby; but that, if I
consented, he would send for him.
I made no hesitation, but told him I would do it, I made some
ceremony in letting him understand that it was wholly on his account;
and that seeing I could not prevail on him, I would show my respect
to him by my concern for his son: but these things are too tedious to
repeat here. He sent away the next day for his son, and in about
twenty days he came back with the messenger, bringing six or seven
horses loaded with very rich furs, and which, in the whole, amounted
to a very great value.
His servants brought the horses into the town, but left the young
lord at a distance till night, when he came incognito into our apart—
ment, and his father presented him to me; and, in short, we
concerted there the manner of our travelling, and every thing proper
for the journey.
I had bought a considerable quantity of sables, black fox-skins,
fine ermines, and such other furs as are very rich; I say, I had bought
them in that city in exchange for some of the goods I brought from
China; in particular, for the cloves and nutmegs, of which I sold
the greatest part here; and the rest afterwards at Archangel, for a
much better price than I could have done at London; and my partner,
who was sensible of the profit, and whose business, more particularly
than mine, was merchandise, was mightily pleased with our stay,
on account of the traffic we made here.
489
* *-ºs-ºr-a----------~~~~mºsº
It was in the beginning of June when I left this remote place, a
city, I believe, little heard of in the world; and, indeed, it is so
far out of the road of commerce, that I know not how it should be
much talked of. We were now come to a very small caravan, being
only thirty-two horses and camels in all, and all of them passed for
mine, though my new guest was proprietor of eleven of them. It was
most natural also, that I should take more servants with me than I
had before, and the young lord passed for my steward; what great
man I passed for myself I know not, neither did it concern me to
inquire. We had here the worst and the largest desert to pass over
that we met with in all the journey; indeed I call it the worst, because
the way was very deep in some places, and very uneven in others; the
best we had to say for it was, that we thought we had no troops of
Tartars and robbers to fear, and that they never came on this side the
river Oby, or at least but very seldom; but we found it otherwise.
My young lord had with him a faithful Muscovite servant, or
rather a Siberian servant, who was perfectly acquainted with the
country; and who led us by private roads, that we avoided coming
into the principal towns and cities upon the great road, such as
Tumen, Soloy-Kamoskoy, and several others; because the Musco-
vite garrisons, which are kept there, are very curious and strict in
their observation upon travellers, and searching lest any of the
banished persons of note should make their escape that way into
Muscovy; but by this means, as we were kept out of the cities, so
our whole journey was a desert, and we were obliged to encamp and
lie in our tents, when we might have had good accommodation in the
cities on the way; this the young lord was so sensible of, that he
would not allow us to lie abroad, when we came to several cities on
the way; but lay abroad himself, with his servant, in the woods,
and met us always at the appointed places.
We were just entered Europe, having passed the river Kama,
which, in these parts, is the boundary between Europe and Asia;
and the first city on the European side was called Soloy-Kamoskoy,
which is as much as to say, the great city on the river Kama; and
here we thought to have seen some evident alteration in the people,
their manners, their habits, their religion, and their business; but
we were mistaken: for as we had a vast desert to pass, which, by
relation, is near seven hundred miles long in some places, but not
490
above two hundred miles over where we passed it; so, till we came
past that horrible place, we found very little difference between that
country and the Mogul Tartary; the people mostly Pagans, and little
better than the savages of America; their houses and towns full of
idols, and their way of living wholly barbarous, except in the cities
as above, and the villages near them; where they are Christians, as
they call themselves, of the Greek church; but have their religion
mingled with so many relics of superstition, that it is scarce to be
known in some places from mere sorcery and witchcraft.
In passing this forest, I thought indeed we must, after all our
dangers were, in our imagination, escaped, as before, have been
plundered and robbed, and perhaps murdered, by a troop of thieves;
of what country they were whether the roving bands of the Ostiachi,
a kind of Tartars, or wild people on the banks of the Oby, had ranged
thus far; or whether they were the sable-hunters of Siberia, I am
yet at a loss to know; but they were all on horseback, carried bows
and arrows, and were at first above five-and-forty in number. They
came so near to us as within about two musket shot; and, asking no
questions, they surrounded us with their horses, and looked very
earnestly upon us twice.
At length they placed themselves just in our way; upon which we
drew up in a little line before our camels, being not above sixteen
men in all; and being drawn up thus, we halted, and sent out the
Siberian servant who attended his lord, to see who they were: his
master was the more willing to let him go, because he was not a little
apprehensive that they were a Siberian troop sent out after him. The
man came up near them with a flag of truce, and called to them; but
though he spoke several of their languages, or dialects of languages
rather, he could not understand a word they said: however, after
some signs to him not to come nearer to them at his peril, so he said
he understood them to mean, offering to shoot at him if he advanced,
the fellow came back no wiser than he went, only that by their dress,
he said, he believed them to be some Tartars of Kalmuck, or of the
Circassian hordes; and that there must be more of them upon the
great desert, though he never heard that any of them were seen so far
north before.
This was small comfort to us; however, we had no remedy:
there was on our left hand, at about a quarter of a mile's distance, a
491
little grove or clump of trees, which stood close together, and very
near the road; I immediately resolved we should advance to those
trees, and fortify ourselves as well as we could there; for, first, I
considered that the trees would in a great measure cover us from
their arrows; and in the next place, they could not come to charge
us in a body: it was, indeed, my old Portuguese pilot who proposed
it; and who had this excellency attending him, namely, that he was
always readiest and most apt to direct and encourage us in cases of
the most danger. We advanced immediately with what speed we
could, and gained that little wood, the Tartars, or thieves, for we
knew not what to call them, keeping their stand, and not attempting
to hinder us. When we came thither, we found to our great satis-
ſaction, that it was a swampy, springy piece of ground, and, on the
other side, a great spring of water, which, running out in a little
rill or brook, was a little farther joined by another of the like bigness;
and was, in short, the head or source of a considerable river, called
afterwards the Wirtska. The trees which grew about this spring were
not in all above two hundred, but were very large, and stood pretty
thick; so that as soon as we got in, we saw ourselves perfectly safe
from the enemy, unless they alighted and attacked us on foot.
But to make this more difficult, our Portuguese, with indefatigable
application, cut down great arms of the trees, and laid them hanging,
not cut quite off, from one tree to another; so that he made a con-
tinued fence almost round us.
We staid here, waiting the motion of the enemy some hours,
without perceiving they made any offer to stir; when about two hours
before night, they came down directly upon us; and, though we had
not perceived it, we found they had been joined by some more of the
same, so that they were near fourscore horse, whereof, however,
we fancied some were women. They came in till they were within
half a shot of our little wood, when we fired one musket without ball,
and called to them in the Russian tongue, to know what they wanted,
and bid them keep off; but, as if they knew nothing of what we said,
they came on with a double fury directly up to the wood-side, not
imagining we were so barricaded, that they could not break in. Our
old pilot was our captain, as well as he had been our engineer; and
desired of us, not to fire upon them till they came within pistol shot,
that we might be sure to kill; and that, when we did fire, we should
492
be sure to take good aim. We bade him give the word of command;
which he delayed so long, that they were, some of them, within two
pikes length of us when we fired.
We aimed so true, or Providence directed our shot so sure, that
we killed fourteen of them, and wounded several others, as also
several of their horses; for we had all of us loaded our pieces with two
or three bullets a-piece at least.
They were terribly surprised with our ſire, and retreated imme-
diately about one hundred rods from us; in which time we loaded
our pieces again, and seeing them keep that distance, we sallied out,
and caught four or five of their horses, whose riders, we supposed,
were killed; and coming up to the dead we could easily perceive they
were Tartars, but knew not from what country, or how they came to
make an excursion such an unusual length.
About an hour after, they made a motion to attack us again, and
rode round our little wood, to see where else they might break in;
but finding us always ready to face them, they went off again, and we
resolved not to stir from the place for that night.
We slept little, you may be sure; but spent the most part of the
night in strengthening our situation, and barricading the entrances
into the wood; and, keeping a strict watch, we waited for daylight,
and, when it came, it gave us a very unwelcome discovery indeed:
for the enemy, who we thought were discouraged with the reception
they had met with, were now increased to no less than three hundred,
and had set up eleven or twelve huts and tents, as if they were
resolved to besiege us; and this little camp they had pitched, was
upon the open plain, at about three quarters of a mile from us. We
were indeed surprised at this discovery; and now, I confess, I gave
myself over for lost, and all that I had. The loss of my effects did
not lie so near me, though they were very considerable, as the
thoughts of falling into the hands of such barbarians, at the latter end
of my journey, after so many difficulties and hazards as I had gone
through; and even in sight of our port where we expected safety and
deliverance. As for my partner, he was raging: he declared, that
to lose his goods would be his ruin; and he would rather die than be
starved; and he was for fighting to the last drop.
The young lord, as gallant as ever flesh showed itself, was for
fighting to the last also; and my old pilot was of the opinion we were
493
able to resist them all, in the situation we then were in; and thus we
spent the day in debates of what we should do; but towards evening,
we found that the number of our enemies still increased: perhaps, as
they were abroad in several parties for prey, the first had sent out
scouts to call for help, and to acquaint them of the booty; and we did
not know but by the morning they might still be a greater number;
so I began to inquire of those people we had brought from Tobolski,
if there were no other, or more private ways, by which we might
avoid them in the night, and perhaps either retreat to some town, or
get help to guard us over the desert.
The Siberian, who was servant to the young lord, told us if we
designed to avoid them, and not fight, he would engage to carry us
off in the night to a way that went north towards the river Petraz, by
which he made no question but we might get away, and the Tartars
never the wiser; but he said, his lord had told him he would not
retreat, but would rather choose to fight. I told him, he mistook
his lord; for that he was too wise a man to love fighting for the sake
of it; that I knew his lord was brave enough by what he had showed
already; but that his lord knew better than to desire to have seventeen
or eighteen men fight five hundred, unless an unavoidable necessity
forced them to it; and that if he thought it possible for us to escape
in the night, we had nothing else to do but to attempt it. He an–
swered, if his lord gave him such order, he would lose his life if he
did not perform it. We soon brought his lord to give that order,
though privately, and we immediately prepared for the putting it in
practice.
And first, as soon as it began to be dark, we kindled a fire in our
little camp, which we kept burning and prepared so as to make it
burn all night, that the Tartars might conclude we were still there;
but, as soon as it was dark, that is to say, so as we could see the
stars, for our guide would not stir before, having all our horses and
Camels ready loaded, we followed our new guide, who, I soon found,
steered himself by the pole or north star, all the country being level
for a long way.
After we had travelled two hours very hard, it began to be lighter
still; not that it was quite dark all night, but the moon began to rise;
so that, in short, it was rather lighter than we wished it to be; but
by six o'clock the next morning we were gotten near forty miles,
494
though the truth is, we almost spoiled our horses. Here we found a
Russian village, named Kirmazinskoy, where we rested, and heard
nothing of the Kalmuck Tartars that day. About two hours before
night we set out again, and travelled till eight the next morning,
though not quite so hastily as before; and about seven o'clock we
passed a little river, called Kirtza, and came to a good large town
inhabited by Russians, and very populous, called Ozomys. There
we heard, that several troops or hordes of Kalmucks had been abroad
upon the desert, but that we were now completely out of danger of
them, which was to our great satisfaction you may be sure. Here
we were obliged to get some fresh horses, and having need enough
of rest, we staid five days; and my partner and I agreed to give the
honest Siberian, who brought us hither, the value of ten pistoles for
his conducting us.
In five days more we came to Weussima, upon the river Witzogda,
which running into the river Dwina, we were there very happily near
the end of our travels by land, that river being navigable in seven
days passage to Archangel. From hence we came to Lawrenskoy,
where the river joins, the third of July; and provided ourselves with
two luggage boats and a barge, for our own convenience. We
embarked the seventh, and arrived all safe at Archangel the eigh-
teenth, having been a year, five months, and three days on the
journey, including our stay of eight months and odd days at To-
bolski.
We were obliged to stay at this place six weeks for the arrival of
the ships, and must have tarried longer, had not a Hamburgher come
in above a month sooner than any of the English ships; when after
some consideration, that the city of Hamburgh might happen to be as
good a market for our goods as London, we all took freight with him;
and having put our goods on board, it was most natural for me to put
my steward on board to take care of them; by which means my young
lord had a sufficient opportunity to conceal himself, never coming on
shore in all the time we staid there; and this he did, that he might
not be seen in the city, where some of the Moscow merchants would
certainly have seen and discovered him.
We sailed from Archangel the twentieth of August the same year;
and, after no extraordinary bad voyage, arrived in the Elbe the
thirteenth of September. Here my partner and I found a very good
A95
sale for our goods, as well those of China, as the sables, &c. of Si-
beria; and dividing the produce of our effects, my share amounted
to 3475 l. 17 s. 3 d. notwithstanding so many losses we had sustained,
and charges we had been at; only remembering that I included, in
this, about 600 l. worth of diamonds, which I had purchased at
Bengal.
Here the young lord took his leave of us, and went up the Elbe,
in order to go to the court of Vienna, where he resolved to seek pro-
tection and where he could correspond with those of his father's
friends who were left alive. He did not part without all the testimo–
nies he could give me of gratitude for the service I had done him, and
his sense of my kindness to the Prince his father.
To conclude: having staid near four months in Hamburgh, I came
from thence overland to the Hague, where I embarked in the packet,
and arrived in London the tenth of January 1705, having been gone
from England ten years and nine months.
And here resolving to harass myself no more, I am preparing for
a longer journey than all these, having lived seventy-two years a life
of infinite variety, and learnt sufficiently to know the value of retire-
ment, and the blessing of ending our days in peace.
TIIE END,
P R IN TI N G O FF I C E O F T H E PU B L IS H E R .
GOLDSMITH: The Vicar of Wakefield;
ems; Dramas (w. portr.) 1 v.
MRS. GORE: Castles in the Air 1 v. The
an’s Daughter 2 v. Progress and Prejudice
. Mammon 2 v. A Life's Lessons 2 v. The
o Aristocracies 2 v. Heckington 2 v.
“JOHN HALIFAX,” AUTHoR of: John Hali-
ax 2 v. The Head of the Family 2 v. A Life for
Life 2 v. A Woman's Thoughts about Women
v. Agatha's Husband 1 v. Romantic Tales 1 v.
omestic Stories 1 v. Mistress and Maid 1 v.
he Ogilvies 1 v. Lord Erlistoun 1 v. Christian's
Mistake 1 v. Bread upon the Waters 1 v. A Noble
ifelv. Olive2 v. Two Marriages 1 v. Studies from
Life 1 v. Poems 1 v. The Woman's Kingdom 2 v.
The Unkind Word 2 v. A. Brave Lady 2 v.
MRS. HALL : Can Wrong be Right? 1 v.
SIR. H. HAVELOCK, by the Rev. Brock, 1 v.
HAWTHORNE: The Scarlet Letter 1 v.
Transformation 2 v.
HEMANS: The Select Poetical Works 1 v.
HOUSEHOLD WORDS conducted by Ch.
Dickens. 1851-56. 36 v. Now Eils and TALEs re-
printed from Household Words. 1856-59. 11 v.
WASH. IRVING: The Sketch Book (portr.)
1 v. The Life of Mahomet 1 v. Successors of
Mahomet 1 v. Oliver Goldsmith 1 v. Wolfert's
Roost 1 v. The Life of Washington 5 v.
G. P. R.JAMES: Morley Ernstein (w. portr.)
1v. Forest Days 1 v. The False Heir 1 v. Arabella
Stuart 1 v. Rose d'Albret 1 v. Arrah Neil 1 v.
| Agincourt 1 v. The Smuggler 1 v. The Step-
mother 2 v. Beauchamp 1 v. Heidelberg 1 v. The
Gipsy 1 v. Ehrenstein tv. Darnley 1 v. Russell 2 v.
The Convict 2 v. Sir Theodore Broughton 2 v.
JEAFFRES ON : A Book about Doctors 2 v.
MRS. J.ENKIN: Who Breaks – Pays 1 v.
Skirmishing 1 v. Once and Again 2 v. Two
French Marriages 2 v. Within an Ace 1 v.
DOUGLAS JERROL D : Saint Giles and
Saint James 2 v. Men of Character 2 v.
JOHNSON: Lives of the English Poets 2 v.
MISS KAVANAGH: Nathalie 2 v. Daisy
Burns 2 v. Grace Lee 2 v. Rachel Gray 1 v.
Adèle 3v. Two Sicilies 2 v. Seven Years 2 v.
French Women of Letters 1 v. English Women
of Letters 1 v. Queen Mab 2 v. Beatrice 2 v.
Sybil's Second Love 2 v. Dora 2 v. Silvia 2 v.
KIMBALL : St. Leger 1 v. Student Life 1 v.
Undercurrents 1 v. Was he Successful ? 1 v.
To-Day in New York 1 v.
KING LAKE: Eothen 1 v. The Invasion of
the Crimea v. 1–8.
CHARLES KINGS LEY: Yeast 1 v. West-
ward hot 2 v. Two Years ago 2v. Hypatia 2v.
Alton Locke 1 v. Hereward the Wake 2 v.
HENRY KINGSLEY: Ravenshoe 2 v. Austin
Elliot 1 v. Geoffry Hamlyn 2 v. The Hillyars
and the Burtons 2 v. Leighton Court 1 v.
LAMB: The Essays of Elia and Eliana 1 v.
LANGDON: Ida May 1 v.
HOLME LEE: Basil Godfrey's Caprice 2 v.
For Richer, for Poorer 2 v.
LEFANU: Uncle Silas 2 v. Guy Deverell 2 v.
LEMON: Wait for the End 2 v. Loved at
Last 2 v. Falkner Lyle 2 v. Leyton Hall 2 v.
Golden Fetters 2 v.
CHARLES LEVER: The O'Donoghue 1 a.
The Knight of Gwynne 3v. Arthur O'Leary 2v.
Harry Lorreguer 2 v. Charles O'Malley 3v. Tom
Burke 3 v. Jack Hinton 2 v. The Daltons 4 v.
The Dodd Family 3 v. The Martins of Cro'
Martin 3 v. Glencore 2 v. Roland Cashel 3 v.
Davenport Dunn 3 v. Con Cregan 2 v. One of
Them 2 v. Maurice Tiernay 2 v. Sir Jasper
Jarew 2 v. Barrington 2 v. A Day's Ride 2 v.
Luttrell of Arran 2 v. Tony Butler 2 v. Sir Brook
Fossbrooke 2 v. The Bramleighs 2 v. A Rent
in a Cloud 1 v. That Boy of Norcott's 1 v. St
Patrick's Eve : Paul Gosslett's Confessions 1 v.
G. H. LEWES: Ranthorpe 1 v. The Phy-
siology of Common Life 2 v.
GUY LIVINGSTONE 1 v. Sword and Gown
1 v. Barren Honour 1 v. Border and Bastille 1 v.
Maurice Dering 1 v. Sans Merci 2 v. Breaking
a Butterfly 2 v.
LONG FELLOW: Poet. Works (portr.) 3v.
The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri 3 v.
The New-England Tragedies 1 v.
LUT FULLAH, by Eastwick, 1 v.
LORD MACAULAY: History of England
(w. portr.) 10 v. Critical & Historical Essays 5 v.
Lays of ancient Rome 1 v. Speeches 2 v. Bio-
graphical Essays I v. William Pitt; Atterbury 1 v.
MAC DONALD: Alec Forbes of Howglen
2 v. Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood 2 v.
MACLEOD : The Old Lieutenant 1 v.
LORD MAHON: viºle STAN HOPE.
MANSFIELD : The Water Lily 1 v.
CAPT. MARRYAT: Jacob Faithful (portr.)
1 v. Percival Keene 1 v. Peter Simple iv. Japhet
1 v. Monsieur Violet 1 v. The Settlers 1 v. The
Mission 1 v. The Privateer's-Man 1 v. The Chil-
dren of the New-Forest 1 v. Valerie 1 v. Mr.
Midshipman Easy 1 v. The King's Own 1 v.
FLORENCE MARRYAT: Love's Conflict 2 v.
For Ever & Ever 2 v. The Confessions of Gerald
Estcourt 2 v. Nelly Brooke 2 v. Veronique 2 v.
Petronel 2 v.
MRS. MARSH: Ravenscliffe 2 v. Emilia
Wyndham 2 v. Castle Avon 2 v. Aubrey 2 v.
The Heiress of Haughton 2 v. Evelyn Marston
2 v. The Rose of Ashurst 2 v.
MELVILLE: Kate Coventry 1 v. Holmby
House 2 v. Digby Grand 1 v. Good for Nothing
2 v. The Queen's Maries 2 v. The Gladiators 2 v.
The Brookes of Bridlemere 2 v. Cerise 2 v. The
Interpreter 2v. The White Rose 2v. M. or N. 1 v.
MEREDITH (HoN. R. Lytton): Poems 2 v.
MILTON: Poetical Works 1 v.
THOMAS MOORE: Poetical Works 5 v.
LADY MORGAN'S MEMOIRS 3 v.
MADEMOISELLE MORI 2 v. Denise 1 v.
Mad. Fontenoy 1 v. On the Edge of the Storm 1 v.
MORIARTY: Select. from Brit. Authors 1 v.
MRS. NEW BY: Common Sense 2 v.
J. H. NEWMAN: Callista 1 v.
NO CHURCH 2 v. Owen 2 v.
HON. M.R.S. NORTON: Stuart of Dunleath
2 v. Lost and Saved 2 v. Old Sir Douglas 2 v.
MRS. OLIPHANT: M. Maitland 1 v. Mor-
timers 2 v. Agnes 2 v. Madonna Mary 2 v. The
Minister's Wife 2 v. The Rector etc. 1 v. Salem
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