The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Of York, Mariner, Vol. 1
by
Daniel Defoe
Part 5 out of 6
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-like 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 dispatched 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, that we knew not whether he died or no, were
all that escaped our hands of one and twenty; the account of the whole
is as follows: three killed at our first shot from the tree; two killed
at the next shot; two killed by Friday in the boat; two killed by Friday
of those at first wounded; one killed by Friday in the wood; three
killed by the Spaniard; four killed, being found dropped here and there,
of their wounds, or killed by Friday in his chase of them; four escaped
in the boat, whereof one wounded, if not dead.--Twenty-one in all.
Those that were in the canoe worked hard to get out of gun-shot, 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 the canoes, and devour us by
mere multitude; so I consented to pursue them by sea, and running to one
of their canoes, I jumped in, and bade Friday follow me; but when I was
in the canoe, I was surprised to find another poor creature lie there,
bound hand and foot, as the Spaniard was, for the slaughter, and almost
dead with fear, not knowing what was the matter; for he had not been
able to look up over the side of the boat, he was tied so hard neck and
heels, and had been tied so long, that he had really but little life
in him.
I immediately cut the twisted flags or rushes, which they had bound him
with, and would have helped him up; but he could not stand or speak, but
groaned most piteously, believing, it seems, still, that he was only
unbound in order to be killed. When Friday came to him, I bade him speak
to him, and tell him of his deliverance; and, pulling out my bottle,
made him give the poor wretch a dram; which, with the news of his being
delivered, revived him, and he sat up in the boat. But when Friday came
to hear him speak, and look in his face, it would have moved any one to
tears to have seen how Friday kissed him, embraced him, hugged him,
cried, laughed, hallooed, jumped about, danced, sung; then cried again,
wrung his hands, beat his own face and head; and then sung and jumped
about again, like a distracted creature. It was a good while before I
could make him speak to me, or tell me what was the matter; but when he
came a little to himself, he told me that it was his father.
It is not easy for me to express how it moved me to see what ecstasy and
filial affection had worked in this poor savage at the sight of his
father, and of his being delivered from death; nor, indeed, can I
describe half the extravagances 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 for many minutes together, to nourish it; then
he took his arms and ancles, 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 affair put an end to our pursuit of the canoe with the other
savages, who were now got 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 got 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 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," I then 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 two
or three bunches of 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
at such a rate; for he was the swiftest fellow on his feet that ever I
saw: I say, he ran at such a rate, that he was out of sight, as it were,
in an instant; and though I called, and hallooed out too, after him, it
was all one, away he went; and in a quarter of an hour I saw him come
back again, though not so fast as he went; and as he came nearer, I
found his pace 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 two more
cakes or loaves of bread; the bread he gave me, but the water he carried
to his father; however, as I was very thirsty too, I took, a little sup
of it. The water revived his father more than all the rum or spirits I
had given him, for he was just fainting with thirst.
When his father had drank, I called to him to know, if there was any
water left: he said, "Yes;" and I bade him give it to the poor Spaniard,
who was in as much want of it as his father; and I sent one of the
cakes, that Friday brought, to the Spaniard too, who was indeed very
weak, and was reposing himself upon a green place under the shade of a
tree; and whose limbs were also very stiff and very much swelled with
the rude bandage he had been tied with. When I saw that, upon Friday's
coming to him with the water, he sat up and 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 ancles were so swelled and so painful to him; so I bade him sit
still, and caused Friday to rub his ancles, and bathe them with rum, as
he had done his father's.
I observed the poor affectionate creature, every two minutes, or perhaps
less, all the while he was here, turn his head about, to see if his
father was in the same place and posture as he left him sitting; and at
last he found he was not to be seen; at which he started up, and,
without speaking a word, flew with that swiftness to him, that one could
scarce perceive his feet to touch the ground as he went: but when he
came, he only found he had laid himself down to ease his limbs, so
Friday came back to me presently; and then I spoke to the Spaniard to
let Friday help him up, if he could, and lead him to the boat, and then
he should carry him to our dwelling, where I would take care of him: but
Friday, a lusty strong fellow, took the Spaniard quite up upon his back,
and carried him away to the boat, and set him down softly upon the side
or gunnel of the canoe, with his feet in the inside of it; and then
lifting him quite in, he 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,
ran 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 wafted 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
a hand-barrow to lay them on, and Friday and I carried them both up
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 absolutely lord and lawgiver; they all owed
their lives to me, and were ready to lay down their lives, if there had
been occasion for it, for me. It was remarkable, too, I 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 eat my
dinner also with them, and, as well as I could, cheered them, and
encouraged them. Friday was 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, which lay
open to the sun, and would presently be offensive. 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 effaced 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 the people they were all killed by thunder
and lightning, not by the hand of man; and that the two which appeared,
viz. Friday and I, were two heavenly spirits, or furies, come down to
destroy them, and not men with weapons. This, he said, he knew; because
he heard them all cry out so, in their language, one to another; for it
was impossible for 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,
with all my army: for, as there were now four of us, I would have
ventured upon a hundred of them, fairly in the open field, at any time.
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 Havanna, being directed to leave their loading there,
which was chiefly hides and silver, and to bring back what European
goods they could meet with there; that they had five Portuguese seamen
on board, whom they took out of another wreck; that five of their own
men were drowned, when first the ship was lost, and that these escaped,
through infinite dangers and hazards, and arrived, almost starved, on
the cannibal coast, where they expected to have been devoured every
moment. He told me they had some arms with them, but they were perfectly
useless, for that they had neither powder 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 any design of making their escape. He said they had many
consultations about it; but that having neither vessel, nor tools to
build one, nor 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 candour and ingenuousness, that their
condition was so miserable, and that they were so sensible of it, that,
he believed, they would abhor the thought of using any man unkindly that
should contribute to their deliverance; and that if I pleased, he would
go to them with the old man, and discourse with them about it and return
again, and bring me their answer; that he would make conditions with
them upon their solemn oath, that they should be absolutely under my
leading, as their commander and captain; and that they should swear upon
the holy sacraments and gospel, to be true to me, and go to such
Christian country as that I should agree to, and no other, and to be
directed wholly and absolutely by my orders, till they were landed
safely in such country as I intended; and that he would bring a contract
from them, under their hands, for that purpose. Then he told me he would
first swear to me himself, that he would never stir from me as long as
he lived, till I gave him orders; and that he would take my side to the
last drop of his blood, if there should happen the least breach of faith
among his countrymen. He told me they were all of them very civil,
honest men, and they were under the greatest distress imaginable, having
neither weapons or clothes, nor any food, but 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 got all things in 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, though it was more than sufficient for myself, yet it was not
sufficient, without good husbandry, for my family, now it was increased
to four; but much less would it be sufficient if his countrymen, who
were, as he said, sixteen, still alive, should come over; and, least of
all, would it be sufficient to victual our vessel, if we should build
one, for a voyage to any of the Christian colonies of America; so he
told me he thought it would be more adviseable to let him and the other
two dig and cultivate some more land, as much as I could spare seed to
sow, and that we should wait another harvest, that we might have a
supply of corn for his countrymen, when they should come; for want might
be a temptation to them to disagree, or not to think themselves
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 seasonable, and his advice so good, that I could not
but be very well pleased with his proposal, as well as I was satisfied
with his fidelity: so we fell to digging all four of us, as well as the
wooden tools we were furnished with permitted; and in about a month's
time, by the end of which it was seed-time, we had got as much land
cured and trimmed up as we sowed two and twenty bushels of barley on,
and sixteen jars of rice; which was, in short, all the seed we had to
spare: nor, indeed, did we leave ourselves barley sufficient for our own
food, for the six months that we had to expect our crop; that is to say,
reckoning from the time we set our seed aside for sowing; for it is not
to be supposed it is six months in the ground in that country.
Having now society enough, and our number being sufficient to put us out
of fear of the savages, if they had come, unless their number had been
very great, we went freely all over the island, whenever 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. For this purpose, I marked out several trees which I
thought fit for our work, and I set Friday and his father to cutting
them down; and then I caused the Spaniard, to whom I imparted my
thoughts on that affair, to oversee and direct their work. I showed them
with what indefatigable pains I had hewed a large tree into single
planks, and I caused them to do the like, till they had made about a
dozen large planks of good oak, near two feet broad, thirty-five feet
long, and from two inches to four inches thick: what prodigious labour
it took up, any one may imagine.
At the same time, I contrived to increase my little flock of tame goats
as much as I could; and, for this purpose, I made Friday and the
Spaniard go out one day, and myself with Friday the next day (for we
took our turns,) and by this means we got about 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 was very good
living too, I assure you, for it is exceeding nourishing.
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 twenty-two bushels of barley we brought in
and threshed out above two hundred and twenty bushels, and the like in
proportion of the rice; which was store enough for our food to the next
harvest, though all the sixteen Spaniards had been on shore with me; or
if we had been ready for a voyage, it would very plentifully have
victualled our ship to have carried us to any part of the world, that is
to say, any part of America. When we had thus housed and secured our
magazine of corn, we fell to work to make more wicker-ware, viz. great
baskets, in which we kept it; and the Spaniard was very handy and
dexterous at this part, and often blamed me that I did not make some
things for defence of this kind of work; but I saw no need of it.
And now having a full supply of food for all the guests I expected, I
gave the Spaniard leave to go over to the main, to see what he could do
with those he had left behind them there. I gave him a strict charge not
to bring any man with him who would not first swear, in the presence of
himself and the old savage, that he would no way injure, fight with, or
attack the person he should find in the island, who was so kind as to
send for them in order to their deliverance; but that they would stand
by him, and defend him against all such attempts, and wherever they
went, would be entirely under and subjected to his command; and that
this should be put in writing, and signed with their hands. How they
were to have done this, when I knew they had neither pen nor ink, 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 occasions.
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 the Spaniards for about eight days'
time; and wishing them a good voyage, I saw them go; agreeing with them
about a signal they should hang out at their return, by which I should
know them again, when they came back, at a distance, before they came on
shore. They went away with a fair gale, on the day that the moon was at
full, by my account in the month of October; but as for an exact
reckoning of days, after I had once lost it, I could never recover it
again; nor had I kept even the number of years so punctually as to be
sure 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 a half 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
bade him lie close, for these were not the people we looked for, and
that we might not know yet whether they were friends or enemies. In the
next place, I went in to fetch my perspective-glass, to see what I could
make of them; and having taken the ladder out, I climbed up to the top
of the hill, as I used to do when I was apprehensive of any thing, and
to take my view the plainer, without being discovered. I had scarce set
my foot upon the hill, when my eye plainly discovered a ship lying at an
anchor, at about two leagues and a half distance from me, S.S.E. but not
above a league and a half from the shore. By my observation, it appeared
plainly to be an English ship, and the boat appeared to be an English
long-boat.
I cannot express the confusion I was in; though the joy of seeing a
ship, and one that 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; and I knew there had been
no storms to drive them in there, as in distress; and that if they were
really English, it was most probable that they were here upon no good
design; and that I had better continue as I was, than fall into the
hands of thieves and murderers.
Let no man despise the secret hints and notices of danger, which
sometimes are given him when he may think there is no possibility of its
being real. That such hints and notices are given us, I believe few that
have made any observations of things can deny; that they are certain
discoveries of an invisible world, and a converse of spirits, we cannot
doubt; and if the tendency of them seems to be to warn us of danger, why
should we not suppose they are from some friendly agent (whether
supreme, or inferior and subordinate, is not the question,) and that
they are given for our good?
The present question abundantly confirms me in the justice of this
reasoning; for had I not been made cautious by this secret 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 at my door,
as I may say, 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 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, Friday," says I, "do you think they are going to eat them
then?"--"Yes," says Friday, "they will eat them."--"No, no," says I,
"Friday; I am afraid they will murder them, indeed, but you may be sure
they will not eat them."
All this while I had no thought of what the matter really was, but stood
trembling with the horror of the sight, expecting every moment when the
three prisoners should be killed; nay, once I saw one of the villains
lift up his arm with a great cutlass, as the seamen call it, or sword,
to strike one of the poor men; and I expected to see him fall every
moment; at which all the blood in my body seemed to run chill in my
veins. I wished heartily now for my Spaniard, and the 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 island,
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
destitue, 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 partly while they rambled about to see what kind of a place they
were in, they had carelessly staid till the tide was spent, and the
water was ebbed considerably away, leaving their boat aground. They had
left two men in the boat, who, as I found afterwards, having drank a
little too much brandy, fell asleep; however, one of them waking a
little sooner than the other, and finding the boat too fast aground for
him to stir it, hallooed out 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 you? she'll 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 ten hours before the
boat could 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 mean time, I fitted myself up for a battle, as
before, though with more caution, knowing I had to do with another kind
of enemy than I had at first. I ordered Friday also, whom I had made an
excellent marksman with his gun, to load himself with arms. I took
myself two 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, laid down to sleep. The three poor distressed men, too anxious
for their condition to get any sleep, were, however, sat down under the
shelter of a great tree, at about a quarter of a mile from me, and, as I
thought, out of sight of any of the rest. Upon this I resolved to
discover myself to them, and learn something of their condition;
immediately I marched in the figure as above, my man Friday at a good
distance behind me, as formidable for his arms as I, but not making
quite so staring a spectre-like figure as I did. I came as near them
undiscovered as I could, and then, before any of them saw me, I called
aloud to them in Spanish, "What are ye, gentlemen?" They started up at
the noise; but were ten times more confounded when they saw me, and the
uncouth figure that I made. They made no answer at all, but I thought I
perceived them just going to fly from me, when I spoke to them in
English: "Gentlemen," said I, "do not be surprised at me: perhaps you
may have a friend near, when you did not expect it."--"He must be sent
directly from Heaven then," said one of them very gravely to me, and
pulling off his hat at the same time to me; "for our condition is past
the help of man."--"All help is from Heaven, Sir," said I: "But can you
put a stranger in the way how to help you? for you seem to be in some
great distress. I saw you when you landed; and when you seemed to make
application 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: 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 us; 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 these
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, one of 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 distinguish them, but he would obey my orders in any thing 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 every thing; and, if the ship was not
recovered, he would live and die with me in what part of the world
soever I would send him; and the two other men said the same. "Well,"
says I, "my conditions are but two: first, That while you stay in this
island with me, you will not pretend to any authority here; and if I put
arms in your hands, you will, upon all occasions, give them up to me,
and do no prejudice to me or mine upon this island; and, in the mean
time, be governed by my orders: secondly, That if the ship is, or may be
recovered, you will carry me and my man to England, passage free."
He gave me all the assurances that the invention or 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 he lived. "Well then," said I, "here are three
muskets for you, with powder and ball: tell me next what you think is
proper to be done." He showed all the testimonies of his gratitude that
he was able, but offered to be wholly guided by me. I told him I thought
it was hard venturing any thing; but the best method I could think of
was to fire upon them at once, as they lay, and if any were not killed
at the first volley, and offered to 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 loath 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 the heads of the mutiny? He said, No. "Well then," said I, "you may
let them escape; and Providence seems to have awakened them on purpose
to save themselves.--Now," says I, "if the rest escape you, it is your
fault." Animated with this, he took the musket I had given him in his
hand, and a pistol in his belt, and his two comrades with him, with each
a piece in his hand; the two men who were with him going first, made
some noise, at which one of the seamen who was awake turned about, and
seeing them coming, cried out to the rest; but it was too late then, for
the moment he cried out they fired; I mean the two men, the captain
wisely reserving his own piece. They had so well aimed their shot at the
men they knew, that one of them was killed on the spot, and the other
very much wounded; but not being dead, he started up on his feet, and
called eagerly for help to the other; but the captain stepping to him,
told him it was too late to cry for help, he should call upon God to
forgive his villany; and with that word knocked him down with the stock
of his musket, so that he never spoke more: there were three more in the
company, and one of them was also slightly wounded. By this time I was
come; and when they saw their danger, and that it was in vain to resist,
they begged for mercy. The captain told them he would spare their lives,
if they would give him any assurance of their abhorrence of the
treachery they had been guilty of, and would swear to be faithful to 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 that I obliged him to
keep them bound hand and foot while they were on 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 sails, 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
the 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 impassable
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 subdued,
they would 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 had said, and found it was a very
rational conclusion, and that, therefore, something was to be resolved
on speedily, as well to draw the men on board into some snare for their
surprise, as to prevent their landing upon us, and destroying us. Upon
this, it presently occurred to me, that in a little while the ship's
crew, wondering what was become of their comrades, and of the boat,
would certainly come on shore in their other boat, to look for them;
and that then, perhaps, they might come armed, and be too strong for us:
this he allowed to be 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 every thing 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
canvass (the sugar was five or six pounds;) all which was very welcome
to me, especially the brandy and sugar, of which I 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 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 upon the beach so high, that the tide would
not float her off at high water mark, and besides, had broke a hole in
her bottom too big to be quickly stopped, and were set down musing what
we should do, we heard the ship fire a gun, and saw her make a waft with
her ensign as a signal for the boat to come on board: but no boat
stirred; and they fired several times, making other signals for the
boat. At last, when all their signals and firing proved fruitless, and
they found the boat did not stir, we saw them, by the help of my
glasses, hoist another boat out, and row towards the shore; and we
found, as they approached, that there were no less than ten men in her;
and that they had fire-arms with them.
As the ship lay almost two leagues from the shore, we had a full view of
them as they came, and a plain sight 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, there were three very honest fellows, who,
he was sure, were led into this conspiracy by the rest, being
overpowered and frightened; but that as for the boatswain, who, it
seems, was the chief officer among them, and all the rest, they were as
outrageous as any of the ship's crew, and were no doubt made desperate
in their new enterprise; and 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 me but one thing
amiss in all the prospect of it."--"What is that?" says he. "Why," said
I, "it is, that as you say there are three or four honest fellows among
them, which should be spared, had they been all of the wicked part of
the crew I should have thought God's providence had singled them out to
deliver them into your hands; for depend upon it, every man that comes
ashore are our own, and shall die or live as they behave to us." As I
spoke this with a raised voice and cheerful countenance, I found it
greatly encouraged him; so we set vigorously to our business.
We had, upon the first appearance of the boat's coming from the ship,
considered of separating our prisoners; and we 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 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 centinel 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 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 they were under
a great surprise to find her stripped, as above, of all that was in her,
and a great hole in her bottom. After they had mused a while upon this,
they set up two or three great shouts, hallooing with all their might,
to try if they could make their companions hear; but all was to no
purpose: then they came all close in a ring, and fired a volley of their
small arms, which, indeed, we heard, and the echoes made the woods
ring; but it was all one; those in the cave we were sure could not hear,
and those in our keeping, though they heard it well enough, yet durst
give no answer to them. They were so astonished at the surprise of this,
that, as they told us afterwards, they resolved to go all on board
again, to their ship, and let them know that the men were all murdered,
and the long-boat staved; accordingly, they immediately launched their
boat again, and got all of them on board.
The captain was terribly amazed, and even confounded at this, believing
they would go on board the ship again, and set sail, giving their
comrades over 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
frightened 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; as 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 north-east part, and where the island lay lowest, they shouted and
hallooed till they were weary; and not caring, it seems, to venture far
from the shore, nor far from one another, they sat down together under a
tree, to consider of it. Had they thought fit to have gone to sleep
there, as the other part 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
endeavour 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 this 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 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 all start 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 to 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 out, as loud
as they could, and wait till they found the seamen heard them; that as
soon as ever they heard the seamen answer them, they should return it
again; and then keeping out of sight, take a round, always answering
when the others hallooed, to draw them as far into the island, and among
the woods, as possible, and then wheel about again to me, by such ways
as I directed them.
They were just going into the boat when Friday and 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 had set themselves over, I observed that the boat
being gone a good way into the creek, and, as it were, in a harbour
within the land, they took one of the three men out of her, to go along
with them, and left only two in the boat, having fastened her to the
stump of a little tree on the shore. This was what I wished for; and
immediately leaving Friday and the captain's mate to their business, I
took the rest with me, and crossing the creek out of their sight, we
surprised the two men before they were aware; one of them lying on the
shore, and the other being in the boat. The fellow on shore was between
sleeping and waking, and going to start up; the captain, who was
foremost, ran in upon him, and knocked him down; and then called out to
him in the boat to yield, or he was a dead man. There needed very few
arguments to persuade a single man to yield, when he saw five men upon
him, and his comrade knocked down; besides, this was, it seems, one of
the three who were not so hearty in the mutiny as the rest of the crew,
and therefore was easily persuaded not only to yield, but afterwards to
join very sincerely with us. In the mean time, Friday and the captain's
mate so well managed their business with the rest, that they drew them,
by 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 news to us. At length they came up to the boat:
but it is impossible to express their confusion when they found the boat
fast aground in the creek, the tide ebbed out, and their two men gone.
We could hear them call to one another in a most lamentable manner,
telling one another they were got into an enchanted island; that either
there were inhabitants in it, and they should all be murdered, or else
there were devils and spirits in it, and they should be all carried away
and devoured. They hallooed again, and called their two comrades by
their names a great many times; but no answer. After some time, we could
see them, by the little light there was, run about, wringing their
hands like men in despair; and that sometimes they would go and sit down
in the boat, to rest themselves: then come ashore again, and walk about
again, and so the same thing over again. My men would fain have had me
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 men, knowing the others 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, when 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 the crew: the captain was so eager at having this principal
rogue so much in his power, that he could hardly have patience to let
him come so near as to be sure of him, for they only heard his tongue
before: but when they came nearer, the captain and Friday, starting up
on their feet, let fly at them. The boatswain was killed upon the spot;
the next man was shot in the body, and fell just by him, though he did
not die till an hour or two after; and the third run for it. At the
noise of the fire, I immediately advanced with my whole army,
which was now eight men, viz. myself, 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 they had
left in the boat, who was now one of us, to call them by name, to try if
I could bring them to a parley, and so might perhaps reduce them to
terms; which fell out just as we desired: for indeed it was easy to
think, as their 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 immediately, "Is that Robinson?"
For it seems he knew the voice. The other answered, "Aye aye; for God's
sake, Tom Smith, throw down your arms and yield, or you are all dead men
this moment."--"Who must we yield to? Where are they?" says Smith again.
"Here they are," says he; "here's our captain and fifty men with him;
have been hunting you these two hours: the boatswain is killed, Will Fry
is wounded, and I am a prisoner; and if you do not yield, you are all
lost."--"Will they give us quarter then?" says Tom Smith, "and we will
yield."--"I'll go and ask, if you promise to yield," says Robinson: so
he asked the captain; and the captain himself then calls out, "You,
Smith, you know 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 all been as bad as I:" which, by
the way, was not true neither; for, it seems, this Will Atkins was the
first man that laid hold of the captain, when they first mutinied, and
used him barbarously, in tying his hands, and giving him injurious
language. However, the captain told him he must lay down his arms at
discretion, and trust to the governor's mercy: by which he meant, me,
for they all called me governor. In a word, they all laid down their
arms, and begged their lives; and I sent the man that had parleyed with
them, and two more, who bound them all; and then my great army of fifty
men, which, particularly with those three, were in all but eight, came
up and seized upon them, 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 villany of their practices with him, and
at length upon the further wickedness of their design, and how certainly
it must bring them to misery and, distress in the end, and perhaps to
the gallows. They all appeared very penitent, and begged hard for their
lives. As for that, he told them they were none of his prisoners, but
the commander's of the island; that they thought they had set him on
shore in a barren, uninhabited island; but it had pleased God so to
direct them, that it was inhabited, and that the governor was an
Englishman; that he might hang them all there, if he pleased; but as he
had given them all quarter, he supposed he would send them to England,
to be dealt with there as justice 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 but 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 wonderfully well, and resolved to put it in
execution the next morning. But, in order to execute it with more art,
and to be secure of success, I told him we must divide the prisoners,
and that he should go and take Atkins, and two more of the worst of
them, and send them pinioned to the cave where the others lay. This was
committed to Friday, and the two men who came on shore with the captain.
They conveyed them to the cave, as to a prison: and it was, indeed, a
dismal place, especially to men in their condition. The others I
ordered to my bower, as I called it, of which I have given a full
description; and as it was fenced in, and they pinioned, the place was
secure enough, considering they were upon their behaviour.
To these in the morning I sent the captain, who was to enter into a
parley with them; in a word, to try them, and tell me whether he thought
they might be trusted or no to go on board and surprise the ship. He
talked to them of the injury done him, of the condition they were
brought to, and that though the governor had given them quarter for
their lives as to the present action, yet that if they were sent to
England, they would all be hanged in chains, to be sure; but that if
they would join in so just an attempt as to recover the ship, he would
have the governor's engagement for their pardon.
Any one may guess how readily such a proposal would be accepted 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 as a
father 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
those five, and tell them, that they might see 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 on 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: first, The
captain, his mate, and passenger: second, Then the two prisoners of the
first gang, to whom, having their character from the captain, I had
given their liberty, and trusted them with arms: third, The other two
that I had kept till now in my bower pinioned, but, on the captain's
motion, had now released: fourth, 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: but 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 any where
but by my direction; that if they did, they would be fetched into the
castle, and be laid in irons: so that as we never suffered them to see
me as a governor, 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 of the men; and himself, 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 but end of their muskets, being very faithfully seconded by their
men; they secured all the rest that were upon the mainland quarterdecks,
and began to fasten the hatches, to keep them down that 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, who
having taken the alarm, had got up, and with two men and a boy had got
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
more: 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 o'clock in the morning.
Having thus heard the signal plainly, I laid me down; and it having been
a day of great fatigue to me, I slept very sound, till I was something
surprised with the noise of a gun; and presently starting up, I heard a
man call me by the name of Governor, Governor, and presently I knew the
captain's voice; when climbing up to the top of the hill, there he
stood, and pointing to the ship, he embraced me in his arms. "My dear
friend and deliverer," says he, "there's your ship, for she is all
your's, and so are we, and all that 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 time 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 and tender things to
me, to compose 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. I
then 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
eye 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 manner provided
for me 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 bade his men bring the things ashore that
were for the governor; and, indeed, it was a present as if I had been
one that was not to be carried away with them, but as if I had been to
dwell upon the island still. 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 each,) two pounds of excellent good
tobacco, twelve good pieces of the ship's beef, and six pieces of pork,
with a bag of peas, and about an hundred weight of biscuit: he also
brought me 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 new clean shirts, six very good neckcloths, two pair of gloves, one
pair of shoes, a hat, and one pair of stockings, with a very good suit
of clothes of his own, which had been worn but very little; in a word,
he clothed me from head to foot. It was a very kind and agreeable
present, as any one may imagine, to one in my circumstances; but never
was any thing in the world of that kind so unpleasant, awkward, and
uneasy, as it was to me to wear such clothes at first.
After these ceremonies were past, and after all his good things were
brought into my little apartment, we began to consult what was to be
done with the prisoners we had; for it was worth considering whether we
might venture to take them away with us or no, especially two of them,
whom he knew to be incorrigible and refractory to the last degree; and
the captain said he knew they were such rogues, that there was no
obliging them; and if he did carry them away, it must be in irons, as
malefactors, to be delivered over to justice at the first English colony
he could come at; and I found that the captain himself was very anxious
about it. Upon this I told him, that if he desired it, I would undertake
to bring the two men he spoke of to make it their own request that he
should leave them upon the island. "I should be very glad of that," says
the captain, "with all my heart."--"Well," says I, "I will send for
them up, and talk with them for you," So I caused Friday and the two
hostages, for they were now discharged, their comrades having performed
their promise; I say, I caused them to go to the cave, and bring up the
five men, pinioned as they were, to the bower, and keep them there till
I came. After some time, I came thither dressed in my new habit; and now
I was called governor again. Being all met, and the captain with me, I
caused the men to be brought before me, and I told them I had got a full
account of their villanous behaviour 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 dug for others. I let them know
that by my direction the ship had been seized; that she lay now in the
road; and they might see, by and by, that their new captain had received
the reward of his villany, and that they would see him hanging at the
yard-arm: that as to them, I wanted to know what they had to say why I
should not execute them as pirates, taken in the fact, as by my
commission they could not doubt but I had authority so 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 not
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 what was best for them,
unless they had a mind to take their fate in the island; if they desired
that, as I had liberty to leave the island, I had some inclination to
give them their lives, if they thought they could shift on shore. They
seemed very thankful for it, and said they would much rather venture to
stay there than 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 favour, 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 well, if
they thought fit. Upon this I prepared to go on board the ship; but told
the captain I would stay that night to prepare my things, and desired
him to go on board, in the mean time, and keep all right in the ship,
and send the boat on shore next day for me; ordering him, at all events,
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 on their circumstances. I
told them I thought they had made a right choice; that if the captain
had 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 seventeen Spaniards that were to be expected,
for whom I left a letter, and made them promise to treat them in common
with themselves. Here it may be noted, that the captain had ink on
board, who was greatly surprised that I never hit upon a way of making
ink of charcoal and water, or of something else, as I had done things
much more difficult.
I left them my fire-arms, viz. five-muskets, three fowling-pieces; and
three swords. I had above a barrel and a half of powder left; for after
the first year or two I used but little, and wasted none. I gave them a
description of the way I managed the goats, and directions to milk and
fatten them, and to make both butter and cheese: in a word, I gave them
every part of my own story; and told them I should 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 power to send any vessel to take them in, I
would not forget them.
When I took leave of this island, I carried on board, for reliques, the
great goat-skin cap I had made, my umbrella, and one of my parrots; also
I forgot not to take the money I formerly mentioned, which had lain by
me so long useless, that it was grown rusty or tarnished, and could
hardly pass for silver, till it had been a little rubbed and handled; as
also the money I found in the wreck of the Spanish ship. And thus I left
the island, the 19th of December, as I found by the ship's account, in
the year 1686, after I had been upon it eight and twenty years, two
months, and nineteen days; being delivered from this second captivity
the same day of the month that I first made my escape in the long-boat,
from among the Moors of Sallee. In this vessel, after a long voyage, I
arrived in England the 11th of June, in the year 1687, having been
thirty-five years absent.
When I came to England, I was as perfect a stranger to all the world as
if I had never been known there. My benefactor and faithful steward,
whom I had left my money in trust with, 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 very easy as to what she owed me, assuring
her I would give her no trouble; but on the contrary, in gratitude for
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 proper 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 the 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
past 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 going to 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 between us, 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 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 would be restored; only
that the improvement or annual production, being distributed to
charitable uses, could not be restored: but he assured me that the
steward of the king's revenue from lands, and the provedore, or steward
of the monastery, had taken great care all along that the incumbent,
that is to say, my partner, gave every year a faithful account of the
produce, of which they had duly received 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 any 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 his part 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 hot only have their assistance
for putting me in possession, but would find a very considerable sum of
money in their hands for my account, being the produce of the farm while
their fathers held the trust, and before it was given up, as above;
which, as he remembered, was for about twelve years.
I showed myself a little concerned and uneasy at this account, and
inquired of the old captain how it came to pass that the trustees should
thus dispose of my effects, when he knew that I had made my will, and
had made him, the Portuguese captain, my universal heir, &c.
He told me that was true; but that as there was no proof of my being
dead, he could not act as executor, until some certain account should
come of my death; and, 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
ingeino, (so they called the sugar-house) and have given his son, who
was now at the Brazils, orders 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, believing you were lost, and
all the world believing so also, your partner and trustees did offer to
account with me, in your name, for six or eight of the first years'
profits, which I received. There being at that time great disbursements
for increasing the works, building an ingeino, 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 first six 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, &c. 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 disbursements being large, the sum at first was small:
however, the old man let me see that he was debtor to me four hundred
and seventy moidores of gold, besides sixty chests of sugar, and fifteen
double rolls of tobacco, which were lost in his ship; he having been
shipwrecked coming home to Lisbon, about eleven years after my leaving
the place. The good man then began to complain of his misfortunes, and
how he had been obliged to make use of my money to recover his losses,
and buy him a share in a new ship. "However, my old friend," says he,
"you shall not want a supply in your necessity; and as soon as my son
returns, you shall be fully satisfied." Upon this, he pulls out an old
pouch, and gives me one hundred and sixty Portugal moidores in gold; and
giving the writings 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 had said to me; therefore I asked him if 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.
Every thing the good man said was full of affection, and I could hardly
refrain from tears while he spoke; in short, I took one hundred of the
moidores, and called for a pen and ink to give him a receipt for them:
then I returned him the rest, and told him if ever I had possession of
the plantation, I would return the other to him also, (as, indeed, I
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 past, the old man asked me if he should put me into a
method to make my claim to my plantation? I told him I thought to go
over to it myself. He said I might do so if I pleased; but that if I did
not, there were ways enough to secure my right, and immediately to
appropriate the profits to my use: and as there were ships in the river
of Lisbon just ready to go away to 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 was any thing more honourable than the proceedings upon this
procuration; for in less than seven months I received a large packet
from the survivors of my trustees, the merchants, for whose account I
went to sea, in which were the following particular letters and
papers enclosed.
First, There was the account-current of the produce of my farm or
plantation, from the year when their fathers had balanced with my old
Portugal captain, being for six years; the balance appeared to be one
thousand one hundred and seventy-four moidores in my favour.
Secondly, There was the account of four years more, while they kept the
effects in their hands, before the government claimed the
administration, as being the effects of a person not to be found, which
they called civil death; and the balance of this, the value of the
plantation increasing, amounted to nineteen thousand four hundred and
forty-six crusadoes, being about three thousand two hundred and
forty moidores.
Thirdly, There was the prior of Augustine's account, who had received
the profits for above fourteen years; but not being to account for what
was disposed of by the hospital, very honestly declared he had eight
hundred and seventy-two moidores not distributed, which he acknowledged
to my account: as to the king's part, that refunded nothing.
There was a letter of my partner's, congratulating me very
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 mean time, to give him orders to
whom he should deliver my effects, if I did not come myself; concluding
with a hearty tender of his friendship, and that of his family; and sent
me, as a present, seven fine leopards' skins, which he had, it seems,
received from Africa, by some other ship that 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 one thousand two hundred chests of sugar,
eight hundred rolls of tobacco, and the rest of the whole account
in gold.
I might well say now, indeed, that the latter end of Job was better than
the beginning. It is impossible to express the flutterings of my very
heart when I found all my wealth about me; for as the Brazil ships 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 I had not been eased by a vent given in that manner
to the spirits, I should have died.
I was now master, all on a sudden, of above five thousand pounds
sterling in money, and had an estate, as I might well call it, in the
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 to me; I told him, that next to the providence of
Heaven, which disposed 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
from the four hundred and seventy moidores, which he had acknowledged he
owed me, in the fullest and firmest manner possible. After which I
caused a procuration to be drawn, empowering him to be my receiver of
the annual profits of my plantation, and appointing my partner to
account with him, and make the returns by the usual fleets to him in my
name; and a clause in the end, being a grant of one hundred moidores a
year to him during his life, out of the effects, and fifty moidores a
year to his son after him, for his life: and thus I requited my old man.
I was now to consider which way to steer my course next, and what to do
with the estate that Providence had thus put into my hands; and, indeed,
I had more care upon my head now than I had in my silent state of life
in the island, where I wanted nothing but what I had, and had nothing
but what I wanted; whereas I had now a great charge upon me, and my
business was how to secure it. I had never a cave now to hide my money
in, or a place where it might lie without lock or key, till it grew
mouldy and tarnished before any body would meddle with it: on the
contrary, I knew not where to put it, or whom to trust with it. My old
patron, the captain, indeed, was honest, and that was the only refuge I
had. In the next place, my interest in the 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 effects in some safe hands behind
me. At first I thought of my old friend the widow, who I knew was
honest, and would be just to me; but then she was in years, and but
poor, and, for aught. I knew, might be in debt; so that, in a word, I
had no way but to go back to England myself, and take my 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 to 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 a hundred pounds,
each, 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.
However, it was not religion that kept me from going there for the
present; and as I had made no scruple of being openly of the religion of
the country all the while I was among them, so neither did I yet; only
that, now and then, having of late thought more of it than formerly,
when I began to think of living and dying among them, I began to regret
my 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 behind me; so I resolved, at last, to go to England with it,
where, if I arrived, I concluded I should make some acquaintance, or
find some relations that would be faithful to me; and, accordingly, I
prepared to go to England with all my wealth.
In order to prepare tilings 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 eight hundred and seventy-two moidores
which were undisposed of, which I desired might be given, five hundred
to the monastery, and three hundred and seventy-two to the poor, as the
prior should direct; desiring the good padre's prayers for me, and the
like. I wrote next a letter of thanks to my two trustees, with all the
acknowledgment that so much justice and honesty called for; as for
sending them any present, they were far above having any occasion for
it. Lastly, I wrote to my partner, acknowledging his industry in the
improving the plantation, and his integrity in 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 broad-cloth, the best I could get in Lisbon,
five pieces of black baize, and some Flanders lace of a good value.
Having thus settled my affairs, sold my cargo, and turned all my effects
into good bills of exchange, my next difficulty was, which way to go to
England: I had been accustomed enough to the sea, and yet I had a
strange aversion to go 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; I had been very unfortunate by sea, and this might be some
of the reasons; but let no man slight the strong impulses of his own
thoughts in cases of such moment: two of the ships which I had singled
out to go in, I mean more particularly singled out than any other,
having put my things on board one of them, and in the other to have
agreed with the captain; I say, two of these ships miscarried, viz. one
was taken by the Algerines, and the other was cast away on the Start,
near Torbay, and all the people drowned, except three; so that in either
of those vessels I had been made miserable.
Having been thus harassed in my thoughts, my old pilot, to whom I
communicated every thing, pressed me earnestly not to go by sea, but
either to go by land to the Groyne, and cross over the Bay of Biscay to
Rochelle, from whence it was but an easy and safe journey by land to
Paris, and so to Calais and Dover; or to go up to Madrid, and so all the
way by laud through France. In a word, I was so prepossessed against my
going by sea at all, except from Calas to Dover, that I resolved to
travel all the way by land; which, as I was not in haste, and did not
value the charge, was by much the pleasanter way: and to make it more
so, my old captain brought an English gentleman, the son of a merchant
in Lisbon, who was willing to travel with me; after which we picked up
two more English merchants also, and two young Portuguese gentlemen, the
last going to Paris only; so that in all there were six of us, and five
servants; the two merchants and the two Portuguese contenting themselves
with one servant between two, to save the charge; and as for me, I got
an English sailor to travel with me as a servant, besides my man Friday,
who was too much a stranger to be capable of supplying the place of a
servant on the road.
In this manner I set out from Lisbon; and our company being very well
mounted and armed, we made a little troop, whereof they did me the
honour to call me captain, as well because I was the oldest man, as
because I had two servants, and, indeed, was the original of the
whole journey.
As I have troubled you with none of my sea journals, so I shall trouble
you now with none of my land journal; but some adventures that happened
to us in this tedious and difficult journey I must not omit.
When we came to Madrid, we being all of us strangers to Spain, were
willing to stay some time to see the court of Spain, and to see what was
worth observing; but it being the latter part of the summer, we 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 travellers were obliged to come back to
Pampeluna, after having attempted, at an extreme hazard, to pass on.
When we came to Pampeluna itself, we found it so indeed; and to me, that
had been always used to a hot climate, and to countries where I could
scarce bear any clothes on, the cold was insufferable: nor, indeed, was
it more painful than surprising, to come but ten days before out of Old
Castile, where the weather was not only warm, but very hot, and
immediately to feel a wind from the Pyrenean mountains so very keen, so
severely cold, as to be intolerable, and to endanger benumbing and
perishing of our 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
the northern countries, there was no going without being in danger of
being buried alive every step. We stayed no less than twenty days at
Pampeluna; when seeing the winter coming on, and no likelihood of its
being better, for it was the severest winter all over Europe that had
been known in the memory of man, I proposed that we should all go away
to Fontarabia, and there take shipping for Bourdeaux, which was a very
little voyage. But while I was considering this, there came in four
French gentlemen, who having been stopped on the French side of the
passes, as we were on the Spanish, had found out a guide, who,
traversing the country near the head of Languedoc, had brought them over
the mountains by such ways, that they were not much incommoded with the
snow; for where they met with snow in any quantity, they said it was
frozen hard enough to bear them and their horses. We sent, for this
guide, who told us he would undertake to carry us the same way with no
hazard from the snow, provided we were armed sufficiently to protect
ourselves from wild beasts; for, he said, upon these great snows it was
frequent for some wolves to show themselves at the foot of the
mountains, being made ravenous for want of food, the ground being
covered with snow. We told him we were well enough prepared for such
creatures as they were, if he would ensure us from a kind of two-legged
wolves, which, we were told, we were in most danger from, especially on
the French side of the mountains. He satisfied us that 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 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,
about twenty miles; when having 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
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 Gascony, all green and
flourishing, though, indeed, at a great distance, and we had some rough
way to pass still.
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 made at the guide, and had he been far before us, he would
have been devoured 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 presence of mind enough, to draw his pistol, but
hallooed and cried out to us most lustily. My man Friday being next me,
I bade him ride up, and see what was the matter. As soon as Friday came
in sight of the man, he hallooed out as loud as the other, "O master! O
master!" but, like a bold fellow, rode directly up to the poor man, and
with his pistol shot the wolf that attacked him in the head.
It was happy for the poor man that it was my man Friday; for he having
been used to such creatures in his country, he had no fear upon him, but
went close up to him and shot him, as above; whereas any other 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 most dismal howling of wolves; and the noise,
redoubled by the echo of the mountains, appeared to us as if there had
been a prodigious number of them; and perhaps there was not such a few
as that we had no cause of apprehensions: however, as Friday had killed
this wolf, the other that had fastened upon the horse left him
immediately, and fled, without doing him any damage, having happily
fastened upon his head, where the bosses of the bridle had stuck in his
teeth. But the man was most hurt; for the raging creature had bit him
twice, once in the arm, and the other time a little above his knee; and
though he had made some defence, 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 rode up as fast as the way, which was very difficult,
would 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, so he has
two particular qualities, which generally are the rule of his actions:
first, as to men, who are not his proper prey, (he does not usually
attempt them, except they first attack him, unless he be excessive
hungry, which it is probable might now be the case, the ground being
covered with snow,) if you do not meddle with him, he will not meddle
with you; but then you must take care to be very civil to him, and give
him the road, for he is a very nice gentleman; he will not go a step out
of his way for a prince; nay, if you are really afraid, your best way is
to look another way, and keep going on; for sometimes if you stop, and
stand still, and look steadfastly at him, he takes it for an affront;
but if you throw or toss any thing at him, and it hits him, though it
were but a bit of stick as big as your finger, he thinks himself abused,
and sets all other business aside to pursue his revenge, and will have
satisfaction in point of honour;--this is his first quality: the next
is, if he be once affronted, he will never leave yon, night nor day,
till he has his revenge, but follows, at a good round rate, till he
overtakes yon.
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
frightened, when, on a sudden, we espied the bear come out of the wood,
and a vast monstrous one it was, the biggest by far that ever I saw. We
were all a little surprised when we saw him; but when Friday saw him,
it was easy to see joy and courage in the fellow's countenance: "O, O,
O!" says Friday, three times, pointing to him; "O master! you give me
te leave, me shakee te hand with him; me makee you good laugh."
I was surprised to see the fellow so well pleased; "You fool," says I,
"he will eat you up,"--"Eatee me up! eatee me up!" says Friday, twice
over again; "me eatee him up; me' makee you good laugh; you all stay
here, me show you good laugh." So down he sits, and gets off his boots
in a moment, and puts 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 with you." We followed
at a distance; for now being come down on the Gaseony side of the
mountains, we were entered a vast great forest, where the country was
plain and pretty open, though it had many trees in it scattered here and
there. Friday, who had, as we say, the heels of the bear, came up with
him quickly, and takes up a great stone and throws it at him, and hit
him just on the head, but did him no more harm than if he had thrown it
against a wall; but it answered Friday's end, for the rogue was so void
of fear that he did it purely to make the bear follow him, and show us
some laugh, as he called it. As soon as the bear felt the blow, and saw
him, he turns about, and comes after him, taking devilish long strides,
and shuffling on 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, is this your making us laugh? Come
away, and take your horse, that we may shoot the creature." He heard me,
and cried out, "No shoot, no shoot; stand still, and you get much
laugh:" and as the nimble creature ran two feet for the bear'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
gets nimbly up the tree, laying his gun down upon the ground, at about
five or six yards from the bottom of the tree. The bear soon came to the
tree, and we followed at a distance: the 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 monstrous heavy. I was amazed at
the folly, as I thought it, of my man, and could not for my life see any
thing to laugh at yet, till seeing the bear get up the tree, we all rode
near to him.
When we came to the tree, there was Friday got out to the small end of a
large branch, 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 by a great deal; when seeing him stand still, he calls out to him
again, as if he had supposed the bear could speak English, "What, you
come no farther? pray you come farther:" so he left jumping and shaking
the tree; and the bear, just as if he 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 in the head, and
called to Friday to stand still, and we would shoot the bear: but he
cried out earnestly, "O pray! O pray! no shoot, me shoot by and then;"
he would have said by and by. However, to shorten the story, Friday
danced so much, and the bear stood so ticklish, that we had laughing
enough, 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 what 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; you
no come to me, me come to you:" and upon this he goes out to the smaller
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 runs to his gun, takes it up, and
stands still. "Well," said I to him, "Friday, what will you do now? Why
don't you shoot him?"--"No shoot," says Friday, "no yet; me shoot now,
me no kill; me stay, give you one more laugh:" and, indeed, so he did,
as you will see presently; for when the bear saw his enemy gone, he
comes back from the bough where he stood, but did it mighty cautiously,
looking behind him every step, and coming backward till he got into the
body of the tree; then with the same hinder end foremost, he came down
the tree, grasping it with his claws, and moving one foot at a time,
very leisurely. At this juncture, and just before he could set his hind
foot on the ground, Friday stepped up close to him, clapped the muzzle
of his piece into his ear, and shot him dead. Then the rogue turned
about to see if we did not laugh; and when he saw we were pleased, by
our looks, he falls a laughing himself very loud. "So we kill bear in
my country," says Friday. "So you kill them?" says I: "why, you have no
guns."--"No," says he, "no gun, but shoot great much long arrow." This
was a good diversion to us; but we were still in a wild place, and our
guide very much hurt, and what to do we hardly knew: the howling of
wolves ran much in my head; and, indeed, except the noise I once heard
on the shore of Africa, of which I have said something already, I never
heard any thing that filled me with so much horror.
These things, and the approach of night, called us off, or else, as
Friday would have had us, we should certainly have taken the skin of
this monstrous creature off, which was worth saving; but we had near
three leagues to go, and our guide hastened us; so we left him, and went
forward on our journey.
The ground was still covered with snow, though not so deep and dangerous
as on the mountains; and the ravenous creatures, as we heard afterwards,
were come down into the forest and plain country, pressed by hunger, to
seek for food, and had done a great deal of mischief in the villages,
where they surprised the country people, killed a great many of their
sheep and horses, and some people too. We had one dangerous place to
pass, which our guide told us, if there were more wolves in the country
we should find them there; and this was a small plain, surrounded with
woods on every side, and a long narrow defile, or lane, which we were to
pass to get through the wood, and then we should come to the village
where we were to lodge. It was within half an hour of sunset when we
entered the first wood, and a little after sunset when we came into the
plain; we met with nothing in the first wood, except that, in a little
plain within the wood, which was not above two furlongs over, we saw
five great wolves cross the road, full speed, one after another, as if
they had been in chase of some prey, and had it in view; they took no
notice of us, and were gone out of sight in a few moments. Upon this our
guide, who, by the way, was but a 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, when 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 a 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 then that
those who had fired at first should not pretend to load their fusees
again, but stand ready every one with 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 in the head, dropped; several others were wounded,
and went bleeding off, as we could see by the snow. I found they
stopped, but did not immediately retreat; whereupon, remembering that I
had been told that the fiercest creatures were terrified at the voice of
a man, I caused all the 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. I then 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 in 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.
Back to Full Books
|