United Public Domain Gold 2/United Public Domain Gold 2.iso/literature/lit021.dms/lit021.adf/Part2

Text File | 1993-12-18 | 305KB | 4,671 lines

  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 second fortification, in
the same manner of a semicircle, 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
before, 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 everything 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 often 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 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, that so I could fire all the seven guns in two
minutes' time. This wall I was many a weary month afinishing, 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 anything beyond
it, much less a habitation. As for the way which I proposed to
myself to go in and out, for I left no avenue, it was by setting two
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
ladders were taken down, no man living could come down to me without
mischieving 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 present 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 loth to lose the advantage of them, and to have
them all to nurse up over again.
  To this purpose, after 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 if 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 labor, 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 fo the hollow and thick woods, where, as is observed, I
almost lost myself once before, endeavoring 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 labor to
make it 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, without
any farther delay, I removed often 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 labor 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 imagined
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
seldom 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 affliction and
pressure 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 fit for a comforting
performance of the duty of praying to God than he is for repentance on
a sicklied. For these discomposures affect the mind, as the others
do the body; and the discomposure 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 the
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 prospective 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 see no more of it, so I gave it over; only I resolved to go no
more out without a prospective 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 harbor; likewise, as
they often met and fought in their canoes, the victors having taken
any prisoners would bring them over to this shore, wherer 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 SW. 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 place where there had been a fire
made, and a circle dug in the earth, like a cockpit, where it is
supposed the savage wretches sat down to their inhuman feastings
upon the bodies of their fellow-creatures.
  I was so astonished with the sight of these things that I
entertained no notion of any danger to myself from it for a long
while. All my apprehensions were buried in the thoughts of such a
pitch of inhuman, 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 fainting, 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 a
while 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
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 is above all, that I had,
even in this miserable 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 easier 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, anything here; and having often, no
doubt, been up in the covered, woody part of it, without finding
anything 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
creatures 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 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
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 of it. And it was, therefore, a very good providence to me that I
had furnished myself with a tame breed of goats, that 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, and 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 broadsword 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 complainings.
  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 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 all these things notwithstanding, I verily believe,
had not these things intervened, I mean the frights and terrors I
was in about the savages, I had undertaken it, and perhaps brought
it to pass, too; for I seldom gave anything over without accomplishing
it when I once had it in my head enough to begin it.
  But my invention now run 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 thought,
for the destroying these creatures, or at least fighting 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 loth to waste so much powder upon them, my store being now within
the quantity of one barrel, so neither 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 was twenty I should kill them all. 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 myself in ambuscade,
as I said, to watch for them; and I went frequently 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 of four of them at 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 imagination
put it in practice, I continually made my tour every morning 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 two or three months,
constantly kept my watch, but came always back without any
discovery; there having not, in all that time, been the 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 up my daily tour to the hill to look out, so
long also I kept up the vigor of my design, and my spirits seemed to
be all the while in a suitable form for so outrageous an execution
as the killing 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 that people of the country; who, it
seems, had-been suffered 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 acted
by some hellish degeneracy, could have run them into. But now when, 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 it was 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 suffer, 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 either 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 off 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 eat 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
murderers 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
give one another was thus brutish and inhuman, yet it was really
nothing 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
consequently 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 barbarities practised in America, and where
they destroyed millions of these people; who, however they were
idolaters and barbarians, 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 unnatural 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 compassion; as if the kingdom of Spain
were particularly eminent for the product of a race of men who were
without principles of tenderness, 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 of my
design, and to conclude I had taken wrong measures in my resolutions
to attack the savages; 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 principles nor in policy
I ought, one way or other, to concern myself in this affair. That my
business was, by all possible means, to conceal myself from them,
and not to leave the last 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 of 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 willful murder, if I had committed it. And 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
far 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 provided, 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 carried 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 everything 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
grappling; however, it was the best I could make of its kind. All
these I removed, that there might not be the least shadow of any
discovery, or any appearance of any boat, 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 anything here, and consequently never wandered off
from the coast; and I doubt not but they might have been several times
on shore after my apprehensions of them had made me cautious, as
well as before; and 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 everywhere, peeping and peeping 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 foot, I had, instead of that, seen
fifteen or twenty savages, and found them pursuing me, and by the
swiftness 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 not only should 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 melancholy, and
sometimes it would last a great while; but I resolved it, at last, all
into thankfulness to that Providence which had delivered me from so
many unseen dangers, and had kept me from those mischiefs which I
could no way have been the agent in delivering myself from, because
I had not the least notion of any such thing depending, or the least
supposition of it 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
way, or that way, a secret hint shall direct us this way, when we
intended to go that way; nay, when sense, our own inclination, and
perhaps business, has called to go the other way, yet a strange
impression upon the mind, from we know not what springs, and by we
know not what power, shall overrule 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 reflections I afterwards
made it a certain rule with me, that whenever I found those secret
hints or pressings of my mind to doing, or not doing, anything that
presented, or to 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 that I saw with now.
But It is never too late to be wise; and I cannot but advise all
considering men, whose lives are attended with such extraordinary
incidents as mine, or even though not so extraordinary, not to
slight such secret intimations of Providence, let them come from
what invisible 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 the 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 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 conveniences. 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 should make should be heard; much
less would I fire a gun, for the same reason; and, above all, I was
intolerably uneasy at making any fire, lest the smoke, which is
visible at a great distance in the day, should betray me; and for this
reason I removed that part of my business which required fire, such as
burning of pots and pipes, etc., into my new apartment in the woods;
where, after I had been some time, I found, to my unspeakable
consolation, a more 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,
mere accident I would say (ifI 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, etc. So I contrived to burn some wood here, as I
had seen done in England under turf, till it became chark, or dry
cool; and then putting the fire out, I preserved the coal to carry
home, and perform the other services which fire was wanting for at
home, without danger of smoke.
  But this is by-the-bye. 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 difficulty 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 myself. Upon this, plucking up my courage, I
took up a great firebrand, and in I rushed again, with the stick
flaming 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 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 lifted it off. But still plucking up
my spirits as well as I could, and encouraging myself a little with
considering that the power and presence of God was everywhere, 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 monstrous, 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 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, either round
or square, no hands having every 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
required 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 tinderbox, 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, for 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 often 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
walls reflected a 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 could be expected, though perfectly dark. The floor 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; particularly, I resolved to bring hither my magazine of
powder, and my spare arms, viz., two fowling-pieces, for I had three
in all, and three muskets, for 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 took occasion 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 penetrated about three of
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 fancied 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, whom I found expiring, died in the mouth of the cave
the next day after I made this discovery; and I found 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 to the manner of living, that
could I have but enjoyed the certainty 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
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 Poll, 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 Brazils that they live a hundred years.
Perhaps poor Poll may be alive there still, calling after poor Robin
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 had 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 favorites, 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 "Robin
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
seafowls, whose names I know not, whom 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 is 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
afflictions we are fallen into. I could give many examples of this
in the course of my unaccountable life; but in nothing was it more
particularly remarkable than in the circumstances 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 stepped 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 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 extremity I
went back directly to my castle, pulled up the ladder after 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 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 a while 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 flat
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 was 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, to
dress some of their barbarous diet of human flesh 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
afterwards to more sedate in my mind, being satisfied that I might
go abroad with safety all the time of the tide of flood, if 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 before
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, that 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 appearance of
all. And as soon as I got thither, 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 began now to premeditate the destruction 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 made 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 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 humor, and took up
most of my hours, which should have been better employed, in
contriving 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 often 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 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, fire my gun, especially near that side of the island
where they usually came, lest I should alarm the savages. And if
they had fled from me now, I was sure to have them come back 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
deamed often of killing the savages, and of the reasons why I might
justify the doing of it. But, to waive all this for a while, it was
the 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 know not what was the particular
occasion of it, but as I was reading in the Bible, and taken up with
very serious thoughts about my present condition, I was surprised with
a noise of a gun, as I thought, fired 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 flash of fire bid me
listen for a second gun, which accordingly, in about half a minute,
I heard; and, by the sound, knew that it was from the part of the
sea where I was driven down the current 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 gun for signals of distress, and to obtain help. I had
this presence of mind, at that minute, as to think that though I could
not help them, it might be that 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; so 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 soon as ever
my fire blazed up I heard another gun, and after that several
others, all from the same quarter. I plied my fire all night long till
day broke; 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 at it all that day, and soon perceived that it did not
move; so I presently concluded that it was a ship at an anchor. And
being eager, you may be sure, to be satisfied, I took my gun in hand
and ran toward the south side of the island, to the rocks where I
had formerly been carried away with 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 another 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 ENE. Had they seen the
island, as I must necessarily suppose they did not, they must, as I
thought, have endeavored 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 man thoughts. First, I
imagined that upon seeing my light, they might have put themselves
into their boat, and have endeavored to make the shore; but that the
sea 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, particularly, by the breaking of the sea
upon their ship, which many times obliges men to stave, or take in
pieces of their boat, and sometimes to throw it overboard with their
own hands. Other times I imagined 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.
  All these were but conjectures at best, so, in the condition I was
in, I could no 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
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
other in worse circumstances than our own.
  Such certainly was the case of these men, of whom I could not so
much as see 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 appearance 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: "Oh 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 secret moving springs in the affections which, when
they are set agoing by some object in view, or be it some object,
though not in view, yet rendered present to the mind by the power of
imagination, that motion carries out the soul by its impetuosity to
such violent, eager embracings of the object, that the absence of it
is insupportable.
  Such were these earnest wishings that but one man had been saved!
"Oh that it had been but one!" I believe I repeated the words, "Oh
that it had been one!" a thousand times; and the desires were so moved
by it, that when I spoke the words my hands would clinch together, and
my fingers press the palms of my hands, that if I had had any soft
thing in my hand, it would have crushed it involuntarily; and my 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 effect 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, forbid it;
for, till the last year of my being on this island, I never knew
whether any were saved out of that 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 nothing to direct me so much as
to guess what nation he was of. He had nothing in his pocket but two
pieces of eight and a tobacco-pipe. The last was to me of often
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 everything 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), a basket full of raisins. And
thus, loading myself with everything necessary, I went down to my
boat, got the water out of her, and got 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 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 labor 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, I came at last to
the utmost point of the island on that side, viz., NE. 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 either of 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 small, if any little gale of wind should rise, I should be
inevitable lost.
  These thoughts so oppressed my mind 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 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 for so many hours
impracticable. 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 but I
cast my eye upon a little hill, which sufficiently overlooked 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 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 current
had done before, and 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 less than two hours I came up to it.
  It was a dismal sight to look at. The ship, which, by its
building, 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 violence,
her mainmast were brought by the board; that is to say broken short
off; but her bowsprit was sound, and the head and bow appeared firmer.
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 for 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 creature 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 cookroom, 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 brand 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 fore-part broken
off, I am persuaded 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 the Buenos Ayres, or the Rio de
la Plata, in the south part of America, beyond the Brazils, to the
Havana, 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
anybody; 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 difficulty.
There were several muskets in a cabin, and a great powderhorn, 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-hovel and tongs, which I wanted extremely; as also two little
brass kettles, a copper pot to make chocolate, and a gridiron. And
with this cargo, and the dog, I came away, the tide beginning to
make home again; and the same evening, 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
harbor what I had gotten in my new cave, not to carry it home to my
castle. After 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 Brazils, 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 found in one a fine case
of bottles, of an extraordinary kind, and filled 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 fastened also on 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 half of linen white handkerchiefs and colored
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 eight, which held out 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 flasks, 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 stocking, 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 the seaman's chest about fifty pieces of eight in
royals, 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 fetched it.
  Having now brough 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
harbor, where I laid her up, and made the best of my way to my old
habitation, where I found everything safe and quiet. So I began 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 if 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 ammunition as I always
carried with me if I went the other way.
  I lived in this condition near two years more; but my unlucky
head, that was always to let me know if it was born to make my body
miserable, was all of this two years filled with projects and designs,
how, if 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 anywhere, 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 flow; I mean, that of not being
satisfied with the station wherein God and Nature had 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, which so happily had seated me at the Brazils 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 brazils; 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 a hundred thousand moidores. And what business had I to
leave a settle fortune, a well-stocked plantation, improving and
increasing, to turn supercargo to Guinea to fetch negroes, when
patience and time would so have 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
difference of that price was by no means worth saving at so great a
hazard.
  But as this is ordinarily the fate of yourn heads, so reflection
upon the folly of it is as ordinarily the exercise of more years, or
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, that 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 uneasiness 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,
otherwise than as follows.
  It is as impossible, as needless, to set down the innumerable
crowd of thoughts that whirled through that great throughfare 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 reflections upon the state of my case since
I came on shore on this island, I was comparing the happy posture of
my affairs 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; nor 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 mankind, 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 surround 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
security, and with all possible tranquillity, even when perhaps
nothing 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 failing 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 a 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
inevitably have fallen into their merciless hands.
  When these thoughts were over, my head was for some time take up
in considering the nature of these wretched creatures, I mean the
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) speculations, 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 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 mainland. I looked back upon my present condition as
the most miserable that could possibly be; that I was not able to
throw myself into anything, 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 find some
Christian ship that might take me in; and if the worse 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
work 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 the place where I was, and of the
probable means of my deliverance. 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 anything but to the project of a voyage to the main, which
came upon me with 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 fever, merely with the extraordinary
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
anything 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 fortification to hide
himself; and that I, seeing him alone, and not perceiving that the
other sought him that way, showed myself to him, and smiling upon him,
encouraged him; that he kneeled down to me, seeming to pray me to
assist him; upon which I showed 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 myself, "Now I may certainly venture to
the mainland; 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 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
prisoners whom they had condemned to be eaten, and should bring
thither to kill. But these thoughts were attended with this
difficulty, 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 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 deliverance. 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 assaulting 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, after 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 difficulty 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 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 that, viz., 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 fancied 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
anytime to do me any hurt. It was a great while that I pleased
myself with this affair; but nothing still presented. All my fancies
and schemes came to nothing, for no savages came near me for a great
while.
  About a year and half after 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
together 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
discomforted. However, I put myself into all the same postures for
an attack that I had formerly provided, and was just ready for
action if anything had presented. Having waited a good while,
listening to hear if they made any noise, at length, begin 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 fire kindled, 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 perspective
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 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 depend, 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 mentioned
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 swiftness. 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 other, but went no further, and soon after went
softly back, 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 fled 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 assistant,
and that I was called plainly by Providence to save this poor
creature's life. I immediately run 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 having a very short cut, and all down hill, clapped myself in
the way between the pursuers and the pursued, hallooing aloud to him
that fled, who, looking back, was at first perhaps as much frighted at
me as at them; but I beckoned with my hands to him to come back;
and, in the meantime, I slowly advanced toward the two that
followed; then rushing at once upon the foremost, I knocked him down
with the stock of my piece. I was loth to fire, because I would not
have the rest hear; though, at that 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 a pace towards him; but as I came nearer, I
perceived presently he had a bow and arrow, and was fitting 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 fled, 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 nor went backward, though he seemed rather inclined to
fly 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 further; 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 enemies
were. I beckoned him again to come to me, and gave him all the signs
of encouragement that I could think of; and he came nearer and nearer,
kneeling down every often or twelve steps, in token of
acknowledgment for my saving his life. I smiled at him, and look
pleasantly, 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 forever. 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 was that, I presented my other piece at the man, as if I would shoot
him. Upon this my savage, for so I call him 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 executioner 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, ay, 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 t' 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 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, 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.
  He was a comely, handsome fellow, perfectly well made, with
straight, strong limbs, not too large, tall, and well-shaped, and,
as I reckoned, about twenty-six years of age. He had a very good
countenance, 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 color of his skin was not quite black,
but very tawny; and yet not of an ugly, yellow, nauseous tawny, as the
Brazilians and Virginians, and other natives of America are, but of
a bright kind of a dun olive color, that had in it something very
agreeable, though not very easy to describe. His face was round and
plump; his nose small, not flat like the negroes; a very good mouth,
thin lips, and his fine 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 the possible signs of an humble, thankful disposition, making as
many antic gestures to show it. At last he lays his head flat upon the
ground, close to my foot, and sets my other foot upon his head, as
he had done before, and after 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 complied 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, I
beckoned 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
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 abhorrence of
it, made as if I would vomit at the thoughts of it, and beckoned
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 of their
canoes; so that it was plain that 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 take 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 scorched; and, in
short, all the tokens of the triumphant feast they had been making
there, after a victory of 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 cause Friday to gather all the skulls, bones, flesh, and
whatever remained, and lay them together on a heap, and make a great
fire upon it, and burn them all to ashes. I found Friday had still a
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 if 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 mentioned,
and which I found 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 tolerable good
tailor; and I gave him a cap, which I had made of a hare-skin, very
convenient and fashionable enough; and thus he was clothed for the
present tolerably well, and was mighty well pleased to see himself
almost as well clothed as his master. It is true he went awkwardly
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, 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 perfectly easy myself, I made a little tent for him in
the vacant place between my two fortifications, 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 doorcase, and a
door to it of boards, and set it up in the passage, a little within
the entrance; 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
across with smaller sticks instead of laths, and then thatched over
a great thickness 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 open at all, but would have fallen down,
and made 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 engaged; 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 soul are adapted, yet that He has bestowed
upon them the same powers, the same reason, the same affections, 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 give to us; and that when He pleases to offer to them
occasions of exerting these, they are as ready, nay, more ready, to
apply them to the right uses for which they were bestowed that 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 sovereignity
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
condemned; but that 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 account of sinning against that light, which, as the Scripture
says, was 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, second, that still, as we are all 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 everything that was proper to
make him useful, handy, and helpful; but especially to make him speak,
and understand me when I spake. And he was the aptest scholar that
ever was; and particularly was so merry, so constantly 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 flesh; so I took him out with me one morning to the
woods. I went, indeed, intending to kill a kid out of my own flock,
and bring him 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," says 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 had shot at, or perceive I had killed it, but
ripped up his waistcoat to feel if he was not wounded; and, as I found
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 pointing 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 creature was
killed, I loaded my gun again; and 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,
pointing 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 fired, 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
anything 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 anything 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 would speak to it, and talk to it, as if it
had answered him, when he was by himself; which, as I afterwards
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 stayed
some time; for the parrot, not being quite dead, was fluttered a
good way off from 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 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 for that purpose, I
boiled or stewed some of the flesh, and made some very good broth; and
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 in 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 never care for salt with his meat or in his
broth; at least, not a great while, and then but 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 fire in a string, as I had seen many people do
in England, setting two poles up, one on each side of the fire, and
one across 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 sifting
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 to fence in the same manner 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 labor 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
everything I had occasion to call for, and of every place I had to
send him to, and talk 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. Besides
the pleasure of talking to him, I had a singular satisfaction in the
fellow himself. His simple, unfeigned honesty appeared to me more
and 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 anything before.
  I had a mind once to try if he had any hankering inclination to
his own country again; and having learned him English so well that
he could answer me almost any questions, I asked him whether the
nation 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
following discourse: "You always fight 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 overbeat 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 NW. 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
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 English,
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 the sea, there was a current and a wind,
always one way in the morning, the other in the  afternoon.
  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 draught and reflux of the mighty river
Oroonoko, in the mouth or the gulf of which river, as I found
afterwards, our island lay; and this land which I perceived to the
W. and NW. was the great island Trinidad, on the north point of the
mouth of the river. I asked Friday a thousand questions about the
country, the inhabitants, the sea, the coast, and what nations were
near. He told me all he knew, with the greatest openness imaginable. I
asked him the names of the several nations of his sort of people,
but could get no other name than Caribs; from 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 W. from their country, there dwelt white-bearded men, like me,
and pointed to my great whiskers, which I mentioned before; and 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 was remember by all the nations father
to son.
  I inquired if he could tell me how I might come from this island and
get among those white men. He told me, "Yes, yes, I might go in two
canoe." I could riot 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 great 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 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 sepak 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 who was his father. But I took it 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 O to him." I asked him if the people who die in his country
went away anywhere? 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 made it; that he was omnipotent,
could do everything for us, give everything to us, take everything
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 he ever went thither to
speak to him? He said, "No;" they never went that were young men; none
went 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. By this I observed that there is
priest-craft even amongst the most blinded, ignorant pagans in the
world; and the policy of making a secret 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 endeavored 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
O 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 spoke 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 their ruin; how he had a secret
access to our passions and to our affections, to adapt his snares so
to our inclinations, as to cause us even to be our own tempters, and
to 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 overruling, governing Power, a secret directing
Providence, and of the 6quity 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 scarcely knew what to say
to him. I had been talking a great deal to him of the power of God,
His omnipotence, His dreadful 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 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, "ifGod 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 his question; and after all, though I
was now an old man, yet I was but a young doctor, and ill enough
qualified for a causist, 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 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, "Reserve 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 I, 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 consequence of our
nature, yet nothing by Divine revelation can from the knowledge of
Jesus Christ, and of a 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
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 his soul
saved. When he came again to me, I entered into a long discourse
with him upon the subject of 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 acknowledge,
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 affection
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
set lighter upon me, my habitation grew comfortable 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 there, but was now
to be made an instrument, under Providence, to save the life, and, for
aught I know, 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 life eternal; -I say, when I
reflected upon all these things, a secret joy run 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
afflictions 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 perfectly
and completely happy, if any such thing as complete happiness 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 to 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 questions, 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 the experience in this retired part of my
life, viz., how infinite and inexpressible a blessing it is that the
knowledge of God, and the doctrine of salvation of 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
sufficiently 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, wranglings, strife, and contention which has
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 in the
world. We had the sure guide to heaven, viz., the Word of God; and
we had, blessed by 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.
  After Friday and I became more intimately acquainted, and that he
could understand almost all I said to him, and speak fluently,
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 there, and how long. I let him into the mystery, for
such it was to him, of gunpowder and bullet, and taught him how to
shoot; I gave him a knife, which he was wonderfully 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, and particularly
England, which I came from; how we lived, how we worshipped God, how
we 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
examined further 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
presently 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 inquired
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 was any white
mans, as he called them, in the boat. "Yes," he said, "the boat full
of 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
sight of my island, as I now call it; and who, after the ship was
struck on the rock, and they saw her inevitably lost, had saved
themselves in their boat, and were landed upon that wild shore among
the savages.
  Upon this I inquired of him more critically what was become of them.
He assured me they lived still there; that they had been there about
four years; that the savages let them alone, and gave them victuals to
live. 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 fight;" 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 on 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 mainland, 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 extraordinary 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 woud 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 afterwards. 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
consisted with the best principles, both as a religious Christian
and as a grateful friend, as appeared afterwards to my full
satisfaction.
  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 everything he said was so
honest and so innocent that I could find 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
uneasy, 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 yourself in your own country, your
own nation?" "Yes," he said, "I be much O glad to be at my own
nation." What would you do there?" said I. "Would you turn wild again,
eat men's flesh again, and be a savage as you were before?" 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 flesh, milk, no eat man again." "Why then," said
I to him, "they will kill you." He 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 come in the boat. Then I asked him if he would go
back to them. He smiled at that, and told me 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 eat you; me make they
much love you." He meant, he would tell them how I 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 on doubt,
were Spanish 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 from 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 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 to 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 told him then 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 victual, 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, repeated the
words several times. "Why send Friday home away to my nation?"
"Why," says I, "Friday, did you not 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 to 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, Friday," 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 to 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
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 affection in him to me, and a firm
resolution in him, that I told him then, and often after, 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
affection 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 affection 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 fell, and make a large periagua, or canoe, to undertake
the voyage. There were trees enough in the island to have built a
little fleet, not of periaguas and 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 I found he knew much
better than I what kind of wood was fittest 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 fustic, or between that and the Nicaragua
wood, for it was much of the same color 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 labor 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 ease.
  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, "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
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 twenty-six 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 ship's longboats sail
with, and such as 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 masts and sails; for I finished them very complete,
making a small stay, and a sail, or foresail, 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
bungling shipwright, 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 labor 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 jabbed, 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.
However, with a little use I made all these things familiar 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 fogs
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 season, and then nobody cared to stir abroad,
either by land or 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 first, I had much more so now, having such additional testimonies
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 meantime, upon me, when I kept more
within doors than at any other times; so I had stowed our new vessel
as secure as we could, bringing her up into the creek, where, as I
said in the beginning, I landed my rafts from the ship; and hauling
her up to the shore at high-water 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 off, we
laid a great many boughs of trees, so thick, that she was well
thatched as a house; and thus we waited for the month 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
designed 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 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, "O
master! O master! O sorrow! O bad!" "What's the matter, Friday?"
says I. "O yonder, there," says he, "one, two, three canoe! one,
two, three!" By his 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," say 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 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,
and 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, and 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, not 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 by 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 me, as before, he
would die when I bid die.
  In this fit of fury, I took first and divided the arms which I had
charge, 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 anything, till I bid
him, and in the meantime not to speak a word. In this posture I
fetched a compass to my right hand of near a mile, as well to got 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 do 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 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 cause into His own
hands, and by national vengeance, punish them, as a people, for
national crimes; but that, in the meantime, it was none of my
business; that, it was true, Friday might justify it, because he was a
declared enemy, and in a state of war with those very 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 resolved 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
wariness and silence, Friday following close at my heels, I marched
till I came to the skirt 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 feet tied with flags, or things like rushes,
and that he was a European, and had clothes on.
  There was another tree, and a little thicket beyond it, about
fifty years 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 I should 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 yards.
  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 stooped down to
untie the bands at this 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 fowling-piece upon the ground, and Friday did
the like by his; and with the other musket took my aim at the savages,
bidding him do the like. Then asking him if he was ready, he said,
"Yes." "Then fire at them," said I; and the same moment I fired 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 first shot was made I
threw down the piece, and took up the fowling-piece, and Friday did
the like. He sees me cock and present; he did the same again. "Are you
ready, Friday?" said I. "Yes," says he. "Let fly, then," says I, "in
the name of God!" and with that I fired again among the amazed
wretches, and so did Friday; and as our pieces were now loaded with
what I called swan-shot, or small pistol-bullets, were 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 fell quickly after, though not quite dead.
  "Now, Friday," says I, laying down the discharged pieces, and taking
up the musket which was yet loaded, "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 to do so
too; and running as fast as I could, which, by the way, was not very
fast, being loaden 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 fled in a terrible fright to the seaside, and
had jumped into a canoe, and three more of the rest made the same way.
I turned to Friday, and bid 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 fired at them, I pulled out my knife and cut the
flags that bound the poor victim; and loosing 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 weak 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, Espagniole; 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 fight 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 vigor into
him, he flew 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
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 Spaniard 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 Spaniard and
one of the savages, who made at him with one of their great wooden
swords, the same weapon that was to have killed him before if I had
not prevented it. The Spaniard, who was as bold and 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 faint,
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 flying wretches
with no weapon in his hand but his hatchet; and with that he
despatched 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 gunshot;
and though Friday made two or three shots at them, I did not find that
he hit any of them. Friday would fain have had me take one of their
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 to
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 was 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 ankles, which
were numbed and stiff with the binding, and chafed 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
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 after,
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 for 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 as such a rate; for he was the
swiftest fellow of his foot that ever I saw. I say, he run at such a
rate that he was out of sight, as it were, in an instant; and though I
called, and hallooed, too, after him, it was all one, away he went;
and in a quarter of an hour 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 sip 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 been tied with. When I saw
that upon Friday's coming to him with the water he sat up and 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 countenance; 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 ankles were so swelled and
so painful to him; so I bade him sit still, and caused Friday to rub
his ankles, 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 I then 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 of 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 canoe in
the creek almost as soon as I got to it by land; so he waf ted 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 soon made a
kind of hand-barrow to lay them on, and Friday and I carried them up
both together upon it between us. But when we got them to the
outside of our wall, or fortification, 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. Secondly,
my people were perfectly subjected. I was absolute lord and
lawgiver; they all owned 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, we had but three subjects, and they were of three
different 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 ordered 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, of flesh 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 ate 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 the next
day I ordered him to go and bury the dead bodies of the savages,
whch 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 appearance 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 necessity, 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 frightened 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 me, 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 impossible 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, me
and all my army; for as we were now four of us, I would have
ventured upon a hundred of them, fairly in the open field, at any
time.
  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 serious
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 Havana, 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 the first 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 nor 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 advantages they expected. I
told him it would be very hard that I should be the instrument of
their deliverance, and that they should afterwards make me their
prisoner in New Spain, where an Englishman was certain to be made a
sacrifice, what necessity or what accident 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, either to the Brazils,
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 candor and ingenuity, that their
condition was so miserable, and 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 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
nor clothes, nor any food, but at 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
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 advisable to let him and the two others 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 delivered, 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 reasonable, 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 twenty-two
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 numbers 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 deliverance 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
thought 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 labor it took up, any one may imagine.
  At the same time I contrived to increase my little flock of tame
goats as much as I could; and to this purpose I made Friady 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 exceeding
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 thrashed 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 dextrous 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 do with those he had left behind him there. I gave him
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 to send for them in order to their
deliverance; but that they would stand by and defend him against all
such attempts, and 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 this done, when I knew they
had neither pen nor 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 firelock 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, being 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 their countrymen
for about eight days' time; and wishing them a good voyage, I see 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 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 southernmost end of the island. Upon this I called Friday in,
and bid 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 anything, 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's distance
from me, south-southeast, 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 longboat.
  I cannot express confusion I was in; though the joy of seeing a
ship, and one who 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 English 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; 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 he 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 warn
us of danger, why should we not suppose they are from some friendly
agent, whether surperme, 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 admonition,
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, whereof 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, affliction, and despair,
even to a kind of extravagance; the other two, I could perceive,
lifted up their hands sometimes, and appeared concerned indeed, but
not to such a degree as the first.
  I was perfectly confounded at the sight, and knew not what the
meaning 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 agoing
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 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 absolutely 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 deliverance 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 stayed 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 afterwards,
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, and the
shore on that side being a soft oozy sand, almost like a quicksand.
  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 them off from the boat, "Why, let her alone, Jack,
can't ye? she will float 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 fortified. I
knew it was no less than often hours before the boat could be on float
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 meantime, 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 an
excellent marksman with his gun, to load himself with arms. I took
myself two fowling-pieces, and I gave him three muskets. My figure,
indeed, 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 distressed
men, too anxious for their condition to get any sleep, were,
however, set 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 often 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 English. "Gentlemen," said I, "do not be
surprised at me; perhaps 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 me 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 lift 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 armed after another manner than you see 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, believing 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 prisoners?" 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 order in anything I would direct. "Well," says I,
"let us retreat out of their view or hearing, lest they awake, 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, if recovered,
should be wholly directed and commanded by me in everything; 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. 1. That while you stay
on this island with me, you will not pretend to any authority here;
and if I put arms into your hands, you will, upon all occasions,
give them up to me, and do no prejudice to me or mine upon this
island; and in the meantime be governed by my orders. 2. 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
demands; and, besides, would owe his life to me, and acknowledge it
upon all occasions, as long as 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
anything; but the best method I could think of was to fire upon them
at once, as they lay; and if any was not killed at the first volley,
and offered to submit, we might save them, and so put it wholly upon
God's providence to direct the shot.
  He said very modestly that he was loth to kill them if he could help
it, but that those two were incorrigible villains, and had been the
authors of all the mutiny in the ship, and if 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 shedding 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. He said, "No." "Well then," said I, "you may let them
escape; and Providence seems to have wakened 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 upon 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 villainy; 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 treachery they
had been guilty of, and would swear to be faithful him in recovering
the ship, and afterwards in carrying her back to Jamaica, 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 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 history,
which he heard with an attention even to amazement; and particularly
at the wonderful manner of my being furnished with provisions and
ammunition; and, indeed, as my story is a whole collection of wonders,
it affected him deeply. But when he reflected 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 refreshed 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 perfectly amazing; but
above all, the captain admired my fortification, and how perfectly 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
perfectly 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 no attacking them with
so small a number as we were.
  I mused for some time upon what he 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 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 was rational.
  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 everything out of her, leave her so far useless as not
to be fit 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 canvas- the
sugar was five or six pounds; all which was very welcome to me,
especially 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 enough 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 fit 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 fleet 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 ancient 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 firings 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 often 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 characters of all the men in the boat, of whom he
said that there were three very honest fellows, who, he was sure, were
led into this conspiracy by the rest, being overpowered and
frighted; but that was 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 terribly 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 be but one
thing amiss in all the prospect of it." "What's 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 of them 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, secured
them effectually.
  Two of them, of whom the captain was less assured than ordinary, I
sent with Friday and one of the three delivered 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 continued 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 a
light left them; for Friday gave them candles (such as we made
ourselves) for their comfort; and they did not know but that he
stood sentinel over them at the entrance.
  The other prisoners had better usage. Two of them were kept
pinioned, indeed, because the captain was not free to trust them;
but the other two were taken into my service, upon the captain's
recommendation, 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 there that the men were all murdered, and
the longboat 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 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 recovering 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
fired 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
northeast 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
endeavor 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
bloodshed. 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
irresolute 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 find a way to get between
them and the shore, and so might use some stratagem with them in 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. I bade 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 other 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 the mate
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 hid set themselves over, I observed that the boat being
gone up a good way into the creek, and, as it were, in a harbor 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 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 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 meantime, Friday and the captain's mate so well managed their
business with the rest, that they drew them, by hallooing 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 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 to one 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 all be 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 me give 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 own men, knowing the
other were very well armed. I resolved to wait, to see if they did not
separate; and, therefore, to 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,
as 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 feet, let fly at them.
  The boatswain was killed upon the spot; the next man was shot into
the body, and fell just by him, though he did not die till an hour
or two after; and the third ran for it.
  At the noise of the fire I immediately advanced with my whole
army, which was now eight men, viz., myself, generalissimo, 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 we had left in the boat, who was now
one of us, call to 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 condition
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 immediatelys "Who's that? Robinson?" For it seems he knew his
voice. The other answered, "Ay, ay; 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? What are they?" says Smith again. "Here
they are," says he; "here's our captain and fifty men with him, have
been hunting you this two hours; the boatswain is killed, Will Frye 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 then calls himself out, "You,
Smith, you know my voice, if you lay down your arms immediately and
submit, you shall have your lives, all but Will Atkins."
  Upon this Will Atkins cried out, "For God's sake, captain, give me
quarter; what have I done? They have been all 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 parleyed with them and two more, who bound
them all; and then my great army of fifty 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 think of seizing the ship;
and as for the captain, now he had leisure to parley with them, he
expostulated with them upon the villainy of their practices with
him, and at length upon the farther 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 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 the island 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 required, 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 fell 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.
  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
hearty 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 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 perfectly
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 secure of success, I told him we must divide the prisoners,
and that they 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 behavior.
  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 not 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 also he hanged in chains, to be
sure; but that if they would join 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 by
men 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 they might see
that he did not want men, that he would take out those five 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 upon
the shore.
  This looked severe, and convinced 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. 1. The
captain, his mate, and passenger. 2. Then the two prisoners of the
first gang, to whom, having their characters from the captain, I had
given their liberty, and trusted them with arms. 3. The other two whom
I had kept till now in my bower, pinioned, but upon the captain's
motion had now released. 4. These five released at last; so that
they were twelve in all, besides five we kept prisoners in the cave
for 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
necessaries, 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 anywhere 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
two 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 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 butt-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, secured 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 the 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 ears, so that he never spoke a word; upon which the rest
yielded, and the ship was taken effectually, 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
hear, having sat watching upon the shore for it till near two of the
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 yours, and so are we, and all
that belong to her." I cast my 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 fair 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 first landed my rafts, and so
landed just at my door.
  I was at first ready to sink down with the surprise; for I 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. After I had drank it, I sat down upon the ground; and though
it brought me to myself, 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 me, to compose me and bring me to myself. But such
was the flood 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
after 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 seemed 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 send help to the miserable
whenever He pleased.
  I forgot not to lift up my heart in thankfulness to heaven; and what
heart could forbear to bless Him, who had not only in a miraculous
power 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 afforded, 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 bid his men bring the
things ashore that were for the governor; and, indeed, it was a
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 bottles 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 a hundredweight of biscuit.
  He brought me also a box of sugar, a box of flour, a bag full of
lemons, and two bottles 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
neck-cloths, 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 anything in the world of that
kind so unpleasant, awkward, and uneasy, as it was to me to wear
such clothes at their first putting 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 we 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
himself was very anxious about it.
  Upon this I told him that, if he desired it, I durst 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 I, "I will send for them up, and talk with them for
you." So I cause Friday and the two hostages, for they were now
discharged, their comrades having performed their promise; I say, I
cause 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
caused the men to be brought before me, and I told them I had had a
full account of their villainous behavior to the captain, and how they
had run away with the ship, and were preparing to commit farther
robberies, but that Providence had ensnared them 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 villainy, for that
they might see him hanging at the yardarm; 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 promised them
their lives, and they humbly implored my mercy. But I told them I knew
no what mercy to show them; for as for myself, I had resolved to
quit the island with all my men, and had taken passage 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 to be carried 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 favor, I would be as good
as my word; and that if he did not think fit 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 will, if they thought fit.
  Upon this I prepared 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 meantime, and keep all right in the ship, and
send the boat on shore the next day for me; ordering him, in the
meantime, 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 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 I 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 pretended to have no power without me; but
after some difficulty, and after their solemn promises of amendment,
they were taken on board, and were some time after soundly whipped and
pickled, after 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 way 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 relics,
the great goat-skin cap I had made, my umbrella, and my parrot; also I
forgot not to take the money I formerly mentioned, which had lain me
so long useless that it was grown rusty or tarnished, and could
hardly; 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 barco-longo, 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 a perfect a stranger to all the world
as if I had never been known there. My benefactor and faithful
steward, whom 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 that 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 ago given 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 whom I had so happily
delivered, 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
L200 sterling.
  But after making several reflections 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 Brazils, 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 Friday 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 Brazil trade. The old man did
not know me; and, indeed, I hardly knew him; but I soon brought him to
my remembrance, and as soon brought myself to his remembrance when I
told him who I was.
  After some passionate expressions of the old acquaintance, I
inquired, you may be sure, after my plantation and my partner. The old
man told me he had not been in the Brazils 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 that
I would have a very good account of the improvement of the plantation;
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 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 Catholic faith;
but that if I appeared, or any one for me, to claim the inheritance,
it should 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 provedidore, 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 after; 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 trustees 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 father held the trust, and before it
was given up, as above; which, as he remember, 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 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
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 Brazils, 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, that believing 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 eight of the first years of 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 delivered
in goods, viz., tobacco in roll, and sugar in chests, besides rum,
molasses, etc. which is the consequence of a sugar-work; and I
found, by this account, that every year the income considerably
increased; but, as above, the disbursement being large, the sum at
first was small. However, the old man let me see that he was debtor to
me 470 moidores of gold, besides 60 chests of sugar, and 15 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 160 Portugal
moidores in gold; and giving me the writing of his title to the
ship, which his son was gone to the Brazils 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 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 said to me; therefore
first I asked him in his circumstances admitted him to spare so much
money at that time, and if 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.
  Everything the good man said was full of affection, and I could
hardly refrain from tears while he spoke; in short, I took 100 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 afterwards 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 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 Brazil,
he made me enter my name in a public register, with his affidavit,
affirming, 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 anything was more honorable 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 be
1,174 moidores in my favor.
  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 plantation increasing, amounted to 38,892 crusadoes, which made
3,241 moidores.
  Thirdly, there was the prior of the Augustines' account, who had
received the profits for above fourteen years; but not being able to
account for what was disposed to the hospital, very honestly
declared he had 872 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
affectionately 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 meantime, 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 moidores. By the same fleet,
my two merchant trustees shipped me 1,200 chest of sugar, 800 rolls of
tobacco, and the rest of the whole account in gold.
  I might well say now, indeed, that the latter end of Job better than
the beginning. It is impossible to express the flutterings of my
very heart when I looked over these letters, and especially when I
found all my wealth about me; for as the Brazil ship come all in
fleets, the same ships which brought my letters brought my goods,
and the effects 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 the manner to the spirits, I should have
died.
  I was now master, all on a sudden, of above L5,000 sterling in
money, and had an estate, as I might well call it, in the Brazils,
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 my beginning, and honest to me at the end. I
showed him all that was sent 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
hundredfold. 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 470 moidores which he had
acknowledged he owed me in the fullest and firmest manner possible;
after which I cause 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 100 moidores
a year to him, during his life, out of the effects, and 50 moidores
a year to his son after 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 has 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; where as I had now a great charge
upon me, and my business was how to secure it. I had neer a cave now
to hide my money in, or a place where it might lie without lock or key
till it grew mouldy and tarnished before anybody 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 Brazils 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 affects 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 effects
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
satisfaction, 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 his
correspondent in London, not only to pay a bill, but to go find her
out, and carry her in money a 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 acquaintances, I could not yet pitch
upon one to whom I durst commit the gross of my stock, that I might go
away to the Brazils, and leave things safe behind me; and this greatly
perplexed me.
  I had once a mind to have gone to the Brazils 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 the late thought more of than formerly, when I began to think
of living and dying among them, I began to regret my 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 Brazils, but that really I did not know with whom to
leave my effects beind me; so I resolved, at last, to go to England
with it, where, if 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 Brazil
fleet 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 full of thanks
for their just dealings, and the offer of the 872 moidores which was
undisposed of, which I desired might be given, 500 to the monastery,
and 372 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 for. As for
sending them any present, they were far above having any occasion of
it.
  Lastly, I wrote to my partner, acknowledging his industry in the
improving the plantation, and his integrity in increasing 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 me 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 captain's son informed me
he had, with two pieces of fine English broadcloth, and 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 difficulty was which
was to go to England. I had been accustomed enough 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.
  It is true that I had been very unfortunate by sea, and this might
be some of the reason; 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 way 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 miserable; and in which most, it was hard to say.
  Having been thus harassed in my thoughts, my old pilot, to whom I
communicated everything, 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 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 or 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, 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 all very
well mounted and armed, we made a little troop, whereof they did me
the honor 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 omit.
  When we came to Madrid, we being all of us strangers to Spain,
were willing to stay some time to the court of Spain, and to see
what was worth observing; but it being the latter part of the summer
we hastened 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 travelers were obliged to
come back to Pampeluna, after having attempted, at an extreme
hazard, to pass on.
  When we came to Pampeluna itself, we found 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 often days before out of the 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 fingers
and toes.
  Poor Friday was really frightened when he saw the mountains all
covered with snow, and felt 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 difficult 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 frozen, as is the
case in 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 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 by the snow;
and were they met with snow in any quantity, they said it was frozen
hard enough to bear them and their horses.
  We sent for his 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 us 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 the 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, instead of
going forward, he came directly back with us on the same road that
we came from Madrid, above twenty miles; when being passed two rivers,
and come into the plain country, we found ourselves 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 approached 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
Gascogn, all green and flourishing, though, indeed, it was 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
something 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 flew upon the guide, and had he been
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 cried
out to us most lustily. My man Friday being next to me, I bid him ride
up, and see what was the matter. As soon as Friday came in sight of
the man, he hallooed as loud as t' 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 into 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 fired 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,
indeed, 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
indeed 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 fastened
upon the horse left him immediately and fled, 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 on 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 easy to suppose that at the noise of Friday's pistol we all
mended our pace, and rid up as fast as the way, which was very
difficult, should give us leave, to see 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 creature 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
greatest diversion imaginable. As the bear is a heavy, clumsy
creature, and does not gallop as the wolf does, who is swift and
light, as 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 don't meddle with him, he won't 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 won't 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 steadily at him, he takes it for
an affront; but if you throw or toss anything at him, and it hits him,
though it were but a bit of a stick as big as your finger, he takes it
for an affront, and set all his other business aside to pursue his
revenge; for he will have satisfaction in point of honor. That 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 overtakes 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 the
sudden, we spied 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 the leave; me
shakee the hand with him; me make you good laugh."
  I was surprised to see the fellow so pleased. "You fool you," says
I, "he will eat you up." "Eatee me up! eatee me up!" says Friday,
twice over again; "me eatee him up; me make 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 flat
shoes they wear, and which he had in his pocket, gives my other
servant his horse, and with his gun away he flew, swift like the wind.
  The bear was walking softly on, and offered to meddle with nobody
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 Gascogn side
of the mountains, we were entered a vast great forest., where the
country was plain and pretty open, though many trees in it scattered
here and there.
  Friday, who had, as we say, the heels of the bear, came up with
him quickly, and takes up a great stone and throws at him, and hit him
just on the head, but did him no 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 stone, and saw him, he turns about, and
comes after 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 bringing 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
run two feet for the beast's one, he turned on a sudden, on one side
of us, and seeing a great oak tree fit for his purpose, he beckoned to
us to follow; and doubling his pace, he get 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
first 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 though it, of my
man, and could not for my life see anything 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
end of a large limb of the tree, and the bear got about half way to
him. As soon as the bear got out to that part where the limb of the
tree was weaker, "Ha!" 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 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 I
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 ran 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 sees 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
comes down the tree, grasping it with his claws, and moving one foot
at a time, very leisurely. At this juncture, and just before he
could set his hind feet 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 indeed 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 the wolves ran much in my head; and indeed,
except the noise I once heard on the shore of Africa, of which I
have said something already, I never heard anything 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 off, which was worth saving; but we had
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 if there
were any more wolves in the country we should find them there; and
this was in 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 and out of our sight in a few moments. Upon this our
guide, who, by the way, was a wretched fainthearted fellow, bid us
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 enough 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 fit 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 presently 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
moment; but that we might not have too much interval, I ordered that
only every other man should fire, 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
fired at first should not pretend to load their fuses 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 method, able to
fire six volleys, half of us at a time. However, at present we had
no necessity; for upon 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 into 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 terrified at the
voice of a man, I cause 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 we had but little more than loaded our
fusees, 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, and in this manner we came in view of the of a wood, though
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 looking that way, out rushed a horse, with a saddle and a
bridle on him, flying like the wind, and sixteen or seventeen wolves
after him, full speed; indeed, the horse had the heels of them; but as
we supposed that he could not hold it at that rate, we doubted not but
they would get up with him at last, and no question but they did.
  But here we had a most horrible sight; for riding up to the entrance
where the horse came out, we found the carcass of another horse and of
two men, devoured by the ravenous creatures; and one of the men was no
doubt that same whom we heard fire the gun, for there lay a gun just
by him fired off; but as to the man, his head and the upper part of
his body was eaten up.
  This filled us with horror, and we knew not what course to take; but
the creatures resolved us soon, for they gathered about us presently
in hopes of prey, and I verily believe there were three hundred of
them. It happened very much to our advantage that, at the entrance
into the wood, but a little was 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 behind one long tree, I advised them
all to light, and keeping that tree before us for a breastwork, to
stand in a triangle or three fronts, enclosing our horses in the
centre.
  We did so, and it was well we did; for never was a more furious
charge than the creatures made upon us in the 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 fired 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 loth to spend our last shot too hastily; so I called my
servant, not my man Friday, for he was better employed, for with the
greatest dexterity imaginable he 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
up 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 despatched these
in an instant, and the rest were so frighted with the light, which the
night, for it was now very near dark, made mare terrible, that they
drew back a little; upon which I ordered our last pistol to be fired
off in one volley, and after that we gave a shout. Upon this the
wolves turned tail, and we sallied immediately upon near twenty lame
ones, whom we found struggling on the ground, and fell a-cutting
them with our swords, which answered our expectation; for the crying
and howling they made was better understood by their fellows, so
that they all fled and left us.
  We had, first and last, killed about three score of them, and had it
been daylight we had killed many more. The field of battle being
thus cleared, we made forward again, for we had still near a league to
go. We heard the ravenous creatures howl and yell in the woods as we
went several times, and sometimes we fancied we saw some of them,
but the snow dazzling our eyes, we were not certain. So in about an
hour more we came to the town where we were to lodge, which we found
in a terrible fright, and all in arms; for it seems that the night
before the wolves and some bears had broke into the village in the
night, and put them into 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 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 Toulouse, where we
found a warm climate, a fruitful, pleasant country, and no snow, no
wolves, or anything like them. But when we told our story at Toulouse,
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 severe
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 a fifty 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 eagerness to come at the
horses had made them senseless of danger and that if we had not, by
the continued fire, and at last by the stratagem of the train of
powder, mastered 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
for so much 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 devils 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 think I would much rather go a thousand
leagues by sea, though I were 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 Toulouse to
Paris, and without any considerable stay came to Calais, and landed
safe at Dover, the 14 of January, after having had a severe 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 exchange
which I brought with me having been very currently paid.
  My principal guide and privy councillor 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 her; and I trusted her so
entirely with everything that I was perfectly easy as to the
security of my effects; and indeed I was very happy from my beginning,
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 Brazils. But now another scruple
came in my way, and that was religion; for I had entertained 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 Brazils
for me, much less going to settle there, unless I resolved to
embrace the Roman Catholic religion without any reserve; unless 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 fit to give him leave to offer it in my name to the two
merchants, the survivors of my trustees, who lived in the Brazils, who
most 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 4,000 or 5,000 pieces
of eight the more of it.
  Accordingly I agreed, gave him order to offer it to them, and he did
so; and in about eight months more, the ship being then returned, he
sent me an account that they had accepted the offer, and had
remitted 33,000 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 to me, for the estate; reserving
the payment of 100 moidores a year to him, the old man, during his
life, and 50 moidores afterwards to his son for this life, which I had
promised 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 checker-worker, and of a variety the
world will seldom be able to show the like of; beginning foolishly,
but closing 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 Brazils, 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 gentleman, and gave him a
settlement of some addition to his estate after 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 meantime, 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 wife
dying, and my nephew coming home with good success from a voyage to
Spain, my inclination to go abroad, and his importunity, prevailed,
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
successors the Spaniards, had the whole story of 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; a 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 made upon the island, and
as to the improvement they made upon the island itself; and how five
of them made an attempt upon the mainland, and brought away eleven 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 necessary
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 island into parts with them, reserved
to myself the property of the whole, but gave them such parts
respectively 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 Brazils, 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 performed; and 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 Brazils five cows, three
of them being big with calf, some sheep, and some hogs, which, when
I came again, were considerably increased.
  But all these things, with an account how three hundred Caribbees
came and invaded them, and ruined their plantations, and how they
fought with that whole number twice, and were at first defeated and
three 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 often years more, I may perhaps
give a farther account of hereafter.                          - THE END -