APDL Eductation Resources/APDL Eductation Resources.iso/text/books/rob_crusoe/ROBCRU_2

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                        Robinson Crusoe

                        By Daniel Defoe

                           Part Two


It happened one day, about noon, going towards my boat, I was
exceedingly surprised with the print of a man's naked foot on the shore,
which was very plain to be seen in the sand. I stood like one
thunder-struck, or as if I had seen an apparition. I listened, I looked
round me, I could hear nothing, nor see anything. I went up to a rising
ground, to look farther. I went up the shore, and down the shore, but it
was all one; I could see no other impression but that one, I went to it
again to see if there were any more, and to observe if it might not be
my fancy; but there was no room for that, for there was exactly the very
print of a foot - toes, heel, and every part of a foot. How it came
thither I knew not, nor could in the least imagine. But after
innumerable fluttering thoughts, like a man perfectly confused and out
of myself, I came home to my fortification, not feeling, as we say, the
ground I went on, but terrified to the last degree, looking behind me at
every two or three steps, mistaking every bush and tree, and fancying
every stump at a distance to be a man; nor is it possible to describe
how many various shapes affrighted imagination represented things to me
in, how many wild ideas were found every moment in my fancy, and what
strange unaccountable whimsies came into my thoughts by the way.

When I came to my castle, for so I think I called it ever after this, I
fled into it like one pursued. Whether I went over by the ladder, as
first contrived, or went in at the hole in the rock, which I called a
door, I cannot remember; no, nor could I remember the next morning, for
never frighted hare fled to cover, or fox to earth, with more terror of
mind than I to this retreat.

I slept none that night. The farther I was from the occasion of my
fright, the greater my apprehensions were; which is something contrary
to the nature of such things, and especially to the usual practice of
all creatures in fear. But I was so embarrassed with my own frightful
ideas of the thing, that I formed nothing but dismal imaginations to
myself, even though I was now a great way off it. Sometimes I fancied it
must be the devil, and reason joined in with me upon this supposition;
for how should any other thing in human shape come into the place? Where
was the vessel that brought them? What was there of any other footsteps?
And how was it possible a man should come there? But then to think that
Satan should take human shape upon him in such a place, where there
could be no manner of occasion for it, but to leave the print of his
foot behind him, that even for no purpose too, for he could not be sure
I should see it; this was an amusement the other way. I considered that
the devil might have found out abundance of other ways to have terrified
me than this of the single print of a foot; that as I lived quite on the
other side of the island, he would never have been so simple to leave a
mark in a place where it was often thousand to one whether I should ever
see it or not, and in the sand, too, which the first surge of the sea,
upon a high wind, would have defaced entirely. All this seemed
inconsistent with the thing itself, and with all the notions we usually
entertain of the subtilty of the devil.

Abundance of such things as these assisted to argue me out of all
apprehensions of its being the devil; and I presently concluded then,
that it must be some more dangerous creature, viz., that it must be some
of the savages of the mainland over against me, who had wandered out to
sea in their canoes, and, either driven by the currents or by contrary
winds, had made the island, and had been on shore, but were gone away
again to sea, being as loth, perhaps, to have stayed in this desolate
island as I would have been to have had them.

While these reflections were rolling upon my mind, I was very thankful
in my thoughts that I was so happy as not to be thereabouts at that
time, or that they did not see my boat, by which they would have
concluded that some inhabitants had been in the place, and perhaps have
searched farther for me. Then terrible thoughts racked my imagination
about their having found my boat, and that there were people here; and
that if so, I should certainly have them come again in greater numbers,
and devour me; that if it should happen so that they should not find me,
yet they would find my enclosure, destroy all my corn, carry away all my
flock of tame goats, and I should perish at last for mere want.

Thus my fear banished all my religious hope. All that former confidence
in God, which was founded upon such wonderful experience as I had had of
His goodness, now vanished, as if He that had fed me by miracle hitherto
could not preserve, by His power, the provision which He had made for me
by His goodness. I reproached myself with my easiness, that would not
sow any more corn one year than would just serve me till the next
season, as if no accident could intervene to prevent my enjoying the
crop that was upon the ground. And this I thought so just a reproof that
I resolved for the future to have two or three years' corn beforehand,
so that, whatever might come, I might not perish for want of bread.

How strange a checker-work of Providence is the life of man! and by what
secret differing springs are the affections hurried about as differing
circumstances present! To-day we love what to-morrow we hate; to-day we
seek what to-morrow we shun; to-day we desire what tomorrow we fear;
nay, even tremble at the apprehensions of. This was exemplified in me at
this time, in the most lively manner imaginable; for I, whose only
affliction was that I seemed banished from Human society, that I was
alone, circumscribed by the boundless ocean, cut off from mankind, and
condemned to what I called silent life; that I was as one whom Heaven
thought not worthy to be numbered among the living, or to appear among
the rest of His creatures; that to have seen one of my own species would
have seemed to me a raising me from death to life, and the greatest
blessing that Heaven itself, next to the supreme blessing of salvation,
could bestow; I say, that I should now tremble at the very apprehensions
of seeing a man, and was ready to sink into the ground at but the shadow
or silent appearance of a man's having set his foot in the island!

Such is the uneven state of human life; and it afforded me a great many
curious speculations afterwards, when I had a little recovered my first
surprise. I considered that this was the station of life the infinitely
wise and good providence of God had determined for me; that, as I could
not forsee what the ends of Divine wisdom might be in all this, so I was
not to dispute His sovereignty, who, as I was His creature, had an
undoubted right, by creation, to govern and dispose of me absolutely as
He thought fit, and who, as I was a creature who had offended Him, had
likewise a judicial right to condemn me to what punishment He thought
fit; and that it was my part to submit to bear His indignation, because
I had sinned against Him.

I then reflected that God, who was not only righteous, but omnipotent,
as He had thought fit thus to punish and afflict me, so He was able to
deliver me; that if He did not think fit to do it, It was my
unquestioned duty to resign myself absolutely and entirely to His will;
and, on the other hand, it was my duty also to hope in Him, pray to Him,
and quietly to attend the dictates and directions of His daily
providence.

These thoughts took me up many hours, days, nay, I may say, weeks and
months; and one particular effect of my cogitations of this occasion I
cannot omit, viz., one morning early, lying in my bed, and filled with
thought about my danger from the appearance of savages, I found it
discomposed me very much; upon which those words of the Scripture came
into my thoughts, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will
deliver, and thou shalt glorify Me."

Upon this, rising cheerfully out of my bed, my heart was not only
comforted, but I was guided and encouraged to pray earnestly to God for
deliverance. When I had done praying, I took up my Bible, and opening it
to read, the first words that presented to me were, "Wait on the Lord,
and be of good cheer, and He shall strengthen thy heart; wait, I say, on
the Lord." It is impossible to express the comfort this gave me. In
answer, I thankfully laid down the book, and was no more sad, at least,
not on that occasion.

In the middle of these cogitations, apprehensions, and reflections, it
came into my thought one day, that all this might be a mere chimera of
my own; and that this foot might be the print of my own foot, when I
came on shore from my boat. This cheered me up a little too, and I began
to persuade myself it was all a delusion, that it was nothing else but
my own foot; and why might not I come that way from the boat, as well as
I was going that way to the boat? Again, I considered also, that I could
by no means tell, for certain, where I had trod, and where I had not;
and that if, at last, this was only the print of my own foot, I had
played the part of these fools who strive to make stories of spectre and
apparitions, and then are frighted at them more than anybody.

Now I began to take courage, and to peep abroad again, for I had not
stirred out of my castle for three days and nights, so that I began to
starve for provision; for I had little or nothing within doors but some
barley-cakes and water. Then I knew that my goats wanted to be milked
too, which usually was my evening diversion; and the poor creatures were
in great pain and inconvenience for want of it; and, indeed, it almost
spoiled some of them, and almost dried up their milk.

Heartening myself, therefore, with the belief that this was nothing but
the print of one of my own feet, and so I might be truly said to start
at my own shadow, I began to go abroad again, and went to my
country-house to milk my flock. But to see with what fear I went
forward, how often I looked behind me, how I was ready, every now and
then, to lay down my basket, and run for my life, it would have made any
one have thought I was haunted with an evil conscience, or that I had
been lately most terribly frighted; and so, indeed, I had.

However, as I went down thus two or three days, and having seen nothing,
I began to be a little bolder, and to think there was really nothing in
it but my own imagination. But I could not persuade myself fully of this
till I should go down to the shore again, and see this print of a foot,
and measure it by my own, and see if there was any similitude or
fitness, that I might be assured it was my own foot. But when I came to
the place, first, it appeared evidently to me, that when I laid up my
boat, I could not possibly be on shore anywhere thereabout; secondly,
when I came to measure the mark with my own foot, I found my foot not so
large by a great deal. Both these things filled my head with new
imaginations, and gave me the vapors again to the highest degree; so
that I shook with cold, like one in an ague; and I went home again,
filled with the belief that some man or men had been on shore there;
for, in short, that the island was inhabited, and I might be surprised
before I was aware. And what course to take for my security, I knew not.

Oh, what ridiculous resolution men take when possessed with fear! It
deprives them of the use of those means which reason offers for their
relief. The first thing I proposed to myself was to throw down my
enclosures, and turn all my tame cattle wild into the woods, that the
enemy might not find them, and then frequent the island in prospect of
the same or the like booty; then to the simple thing of digging up my
two cornfields, that they might not find such a grain there, and still
be prompted to frequent the island then to demolish my bower and tent,
that they might not see any vestiges of habitation, and be prompted to
look farther, in order to find out the persons inhabiting.

These were the subject of the first night's cogitation, after I was come
home again, while the apprehensions which had so overrun my mind were
fresh upon me, and my head was full of vapors, as above. Thus fear of
danger is often thousand times more terrifying than danger itself when
apparent to the eyes; and we find the burden of anxiety greater, by
much, than the evil which we are anxious about; and, which was worse
than all this, I had not that relief in this trouble from the
resignation I used to practice, that I hoped to have. I looked, I
thought, like Saul, who complained not only that the Philistines were
upon him, but that God had forsaken him; for I did not now take due ways
to compose my mind, by crying to God in my distress, and resting upon
His providence, as I had done before, for my defence and deliverance;
which, if I had done, I had at least been more cheerfully supported
under this new surprise, and perhaps carried through it with more
resolution.

This confusion of my thoughts kept me waking all night, but in the
morning I fell asleep; and having, by the amusement of my mind, been, as
it were, tired, and my spirits exhausted, I slept very soundly, and
waked much better composed than I had ever been before. And now I began
to think sedately; and upon the utmost debate with myself, I concluded
that this island, which was so exceeding pleasant, fruitful, and no
farther from the mainland than as I had seen, was not so entirely
abandoned as I might imagine; that although there were no stated
inhabitants who lived on the spot, yet that there might sometimes come
boats off from the shore, who, either with design, or perhaps never but
when they were driven by cross-winds, might come to this place; that I
had lived here fifteen years now, and had not met with the least shadow
or figure of any people yet; and that if at any time they should be
driven here, it was probable they went away again as soon as ever they
could, seeing they had never thought fit to fix there upon any occasion
to this time; that the most I could suggest any danger from, was from
any such casual accidental landing of straggling people from the main,
who, as it was likely, if they were driven hither, were here against
their wills; so they made no stay here, but went off again with all
possible speed, seldom staying one night on shore, lest they should not
have the help of the tides and daylight back again; and that, therefore,
I had nothing to do but to consider of some safe retreat, in case I
should see any savages land upon the spot.

Now I began sorely to repent that I had dug my cave so large as to bring
a door through again, which door, as I said, came out beyond where my
fortification joined to the rock. Upon maturely considering this,
therefore, I resolved to draw me a second fortification, in the same
manner of a semicircle, at a distance from my wall, just where I had
planted a double row of trees about twelve years before, of which I made
mention. These trees having been planted so thick before, they wanted
but a few piles to be driven between them, that they should be thicker
and stronger, and my wall would be soon finished.

So that I had now a double wall; and my outer wall was thickened with
pieces of timber, old cables, and everything I could think of, to make
it strong, having in it seven little holes, about as big as I might put
my arm out at. In the inside of this I thickened my wall to above often
feet thick, with continual bringing earth out of my cave, and laying it
at the foot of the wall, and walking upon it; and through the seven
holes I contrived to plant the muskets, of which I took notice that I
got seven on shore out of the ship. These, I say, I planted like my
cannon, and fitted them into frames that held them like a carriage, that
so I could fire all the seven guns in two minutes' time. This wall I was
many a weary month afinishing, and yet never thought myself safe till it
was done.

When this was done, I stuck all the ground without my wall, for a great
way every way, as full with stakes, or sticks, of the osier-like wood,
which I found so apt to grow, as they could well stand; insomuch, that I
believe I might set in near twenty thousand of them, leaving a pretty
large space between them and my wall, that I might have room to see an
enemy, and they might have no shelter from the young trees, if they
attempted to approach my outer wall.

Thus in two years' time I had a thick grove; and in five or six years'
time I had a wood before my dwelling, growing so monstrous thick and
strong, that it was indeed perfectly impassable; and no men, of what
kind soever, would ever imagine that there was anything beyond it, much
less a habitation. As for the way which I proposed to myself to go in
and out, for I left no avenue, it was by setting two ladders, one to a
part of the rock which was low, and then broke in, and left room to
place another ladder upon that; so when the two ladders were taken down,
no man living could come down to me without mischieving himself; and if
they had come down, they were still on the outside of my outer wall.

Thus I took all the measures human prudence could suggest for my own
preservation; and it will be seen, at length, that they were not
altogether without just reason; though I foresaw nothing at that time
more than my mere fear suggested to me.

While this was doing, I was not altogether careless of my other affairs;
for I had a great concern upon me for my little herd of goats. They were
not only a present supply to me upon every occasion, and began to be
sufficient to me, without the expense of powder and shot, but also
without the fatigue of hunting after the wild ones; and I was loth to
lose the advantage of them, and to have them all to nurse up over again.

To this purpose, after long consideration, I could think of but two ways
to preserve them. One was, to find another convenient place to dig a
cave under ground, and to drive them into it every night; and the other
was, to enclose two or three little bits of land, remote from one
another, and as much concealed as I could, where I might keep about half
a dozen young goats in each place; so that if any disaster happened to
the flock in general, I might be able to raise them again with little
trouble and time. And this, though it would require a great deal of time
and labor, I thought was the most rational design.

Accordingly I spent some time to find out the most retired parts of the
island; and I pitched upon one which was as private indeed as my heart
could wish for. It was a little damp piece of ground, in the middle fo
the hollow and thick woods, where, as is observed, I almost lost myself
once before, endeavoring to come back that way from the eastern part of
the island. Here I found a clear piece of land, near three acres, so
surrounded with woods that it was almost an enclosure by Nature; at
least, it did not want near so much labor to make it as the other pieces
of ground I had worked so hard at.

I immediately went to work with this piece of ground, and in less than a
month's time I had so fenced it round that my flock, or herd, call it
which you please, who were not so wild now as at first they might be
supposed to be, were well enough secured in it. So, without any farther
delay, I removed often young she-goats and two he-goats to this piece.
And when they were there, I continued to perfect the fence, till I had
made it as secure as the other, which, however, I did at more leisure,
and it took me up more time by a great deal.

All this labor I was at the expense of, purely from my apprehensions on
the account of the print of a man's foot which I had seen; for, as yet,
I never saw any human creature come near the island. And I had now lived
two years under these uneasinesses, which, indeed, made my life much
less comfortable than it was before, as may well be imagined by any who
know what it is to live in the constant snare of the fear of man. And
this I must observe, with grief, too, that the discomposure of my mind
had too great impressions also upon the religious part of my thoughts;
for the dread and terror of falling into the hands of savages and
cannibals lay so upon my spirits, that I seldom found myself in a due
temper for application to my Maker, at least not with the sedate
calmness and resignation of soul which I was wont to do. I rather prayed
to God as under great affliction and pressure of mind, surrounded with
danger, and in expectation every night of being murdered and devoured
before morning; and I must testify from my experience, that a temper of
peace, thankfulness, love, and affection, is much more the proper frame
for prayer than that of terror and discomposure; and that under the
dread of mischief impending, a man is no more fit for a comforting
performance of the duty of praying to God than he is for repentance on a
sicklied. For these discomposures affect the mind, as the others do the
body; and the discomposure of the mind must necessarily be as great a
disability as that of the body, and much greater, praying to God being
properly an act of the mind, not of the body.

But to go on. After I had thus secured one part of my little living
stock, I went about the whole island, searching for another private
place to make such another deposit; when, wandering more the the west
point of the island than I had ever done yet, and looking out to sea, I
thought I saw a boat upon the sea, at a great distance. I had found a
prospective glass or two in one of the seamen's chests, which I saved
out of our ship, but I had it not about me; and this was so remote that
I could not tell what to make of it, though I looked at it till my eyes
were not able to hold to look any longer. Whether it was a boat or not,
I do not know; but as I descended from the hill, I could see no more of
it, so I gave it over; only I resolved to go no more out without a
prospective glass in my pocket.

When I was come down the hill to the end of the island, where, indeed, I
had never been before, I was presently convinced that the seeing the
print of a man's foot was not such a strange thing in the island as I
imagined. And, but that it was a special providence that I was cast upon
the side of the island where the savages never came, I should easily
have known that nothing was more frequent than for the canoes from the
main, when they happened to be a little too far out at sea, to shoot
over to that side of the island for harbor; likewise, as they often met
and fought in their canoes, the victors having taken any prisoners would
bring them over to this shore, wherer according to their dreadful
customs, being all cannibals, they would kill and eat them; of which
hereafter.

When I was come down the hill to the shore, as I said above, being the
SW. point of the island, I was perfectly confounded and amazed; nor is
it possible for me to express the horror of my mind at seeing the shore
spread with skulls, hands, feet, and other bones of human bodies; and
particularly, I observed place where there had been a fire made, and a
circle dug in the earth, like a cockpit, where it is supposed the savage
wretches sat down to their inhuman feastings upon the bodies of their
fellow-creatures.

I was so astonished with the sight of these things that I entertained no
notion of any danger to myself from it for a long while. All my
apprehensions were buried in the thoughts of such a pitch of inhuman,
hellish brutality, and the horror of the degeneracy of human nature
which, though I had heard of often, yet I never had so near a view of
before. In short, I turned away my face from the horrid spectacle. My
stomach grew sick, and I was just at the point of fainting, when Nature
discharged the disorder from my stomach. And having vomited with an
uncommon violence, I was a little relieved, but could not bear to stay
in the place a moment; so I got me up the hill again with all the speed
I could, and walked on towards my own habitation.

When I came a little out of that part of the island, I stood still a
while as amazed; and then recovering myself, I looked up with the utmost
affection of my soul, and with a flood of tears in my eyes, gave God
thanks, that had cast my first lot in a part of the world where I was
distinguished from such dreadful creatures as these; and that, though I
had esteemed my present condition very miserable, had yet given me so
many comforts in it, that I had still more to give thanks for than to
complain of; and this is above all, that I had, even in this miserable
condition, been comforted with the knowledge of Himself, and the hope of
His blessing; which was a felicity more than sufficiently equivalent to
all the misery which I had suffered, or could suffer.

In this frame of thankfulness I went home to my castle, and began to be
much easier now, as to the safety of my circumstances, than ever I was
before; for I observed that these wretches never came to this island in
search of what they could get; perhaps not seeking, not wanting, or not
expecting, anything here; and having often, no doubt, been up in the
covered, woody part of it, without finding anything to their purpose. I
knew I had been here now almost eighteen years, and never saw the least
footsteps of human creature there before; and I might be here eighteen
more as entirely concealed as I was now, if I did not discover myself to
them, which I had no manner of occasion to do; it being my only business
to keep myself entirely concealed where I was, unless I found a better
sort of creatures than cannibals to make myself known to.

Yet I entertained such an abhorrence of the savage wretches that I have
been speaking of, and of the wretched inhuman custom of their devouring
and eating one another up, that I continued pensive and sad, and kept
close within my own circle for almost two years after this. When I say
my own circle, I mean by it my three plantations, viz., my castle, my
country seat, which I called my bower, and my enclosure in the woods.
Nor did I look after this for any other use than as an enclosure for my
goats; for the aversion which Nature gave me to these hellish wretches
was such that I was fearful of seeing them as of seeing the devil
himself. Nor did I so much as go to look after my boat in all this time,
but began rather to think of making me another; for I could not think of
ever making any more attempts to bring the other boat round the island
to me, lest I should meet with some of these creatures at sea, in which,
if I had happened to have fallen into their hands, I knew what would
have been my lot.

Time, however, and the satisfaction I had that I was in no danger of
being discovered by these people, began to wear off my uneasiness about
them; and I began to live just in the same composed manner as before;
only with this difference, that I used more caution, and kept my eyes
more about me, than I did before, lest I should happen to be seen by any
of them; and particularly, I was more cautious of firing my gun, lest
any of them being on the island should happen to hear of it. And it was,
therefore, a very good providence to me that I had furnished myself with
a tame breed of goats, that needed not hunt any more about the woods, or
shoot at them. And if I did catch any of them after this, it was by
traps and snares, and I had done before; so that for two years after
this I believe I never fired my gun once off, though I never went out
without it; and, which was more, as I had saved three pistols out of the
ship, I always carried them out with me, or at least two of them,
sticking them in my goat-skin belt. Also I furbished up one of the great
cutlasses that I had out of the ship, and made me a belt to put it on
also; so that I was now a most formidable fellow to look at when I went
abroad, if you add to the former description of myself the particular of
two pistols and a great broadsword hanging at my side in a belt, but
without a scabbard.

Things going on thus, as I have said, for some time, I seemed, excepting
these cautions, to be reduced to my former calm, sedate way of living.
All these things tended to showing me, more and more, how far my
condition was from being miserable, compared to some others; nay, to
many other particulars of life, which it might have pleased God to have
made my lot. It put me upon reflecting how little repining there would
be among mankind at any condition of life, if people would rather
compare their condition with those that are worse, in order to be
thankful, than be always comparing them with those which are better, to
assist their murmurings and complainings.

As in my present condition there were not really many things which I
wanted, so indeed I thought that the frights I had been in about these
savage wretches, and the concern I had been in for my own preservation,
had taken off the edge of my invention for my own conveniences. And I
had dropped a good design, which I had once bent my thoughts too much
upon; and that was, to try if I could not make some of my barley into
malt, and then try to brew myself some beer. This was really a whimsical
thought, and I reproved myself often for the simplicity of it; for I
presently saw there would be the want of several things necessary to the
making my beer that it would be impossible for me to supply. As, first,
casks to preserve it in, which was a thing that, as I have observed
already, I could never compass; no, though I spent not many days, but
weeks, nay, months, in attempting it, but to no purpose. In the next
place, I had no hops to make it keep, no yeast to make it work, no
copper or kettle to make it boil; and yet all these things
notwithstanding, I verily believe, had not these things intervened, I
mean the frights and terrors I was in about the savages, I had
undertaken it, and perhaps brought it to pass, too; for I seldom gave
anything over without accomplishing it when I once had it in my head
enough to begin it.

But my invention now run quite another way; for, night and day I could
think of nothing but how I might destroy some of these monsters in their
cruel, bloody entertainment, and, if possible, save the victim they
should bring hither to destroy. It would take up a larger volume than
this whole work is intended to be, to set down all the contrivances I
hatched, or rather brooded upon, in my thought, for the destroying these
creatures, or at least fighting them so as to prevent their coming
hither any more. But all was abortive; nothing could be possible to take
effect, unless I was to be there to do it myself. And what could one man
do among them, when perhaps there might be twenty or thirty of them
together, with their darts, or their bows and arrows, with which they
could shoot as true to a mark as I could with my gun.

Sometimes I contrived to dig a hole under the place where they made
their fire, and put in five or six pounds of gunpowder, which, when they
kindled their fire, would consequently take fire, and blow up all that
was near it. But as, in the first place, I should be very loth to waste
so much powder upon them, my store being now within the quantity of one
barrel, so neither I be sure of its going off at any certain time, when
it might surprise them; and, at best, that it would do little more than
just blow the fire about their ears, and fright them, but not sufficient
to make them forsake the place. So I laid it aside, and then proposed
that I would place myself in ambush in some convenient place, with my
three guns all double-loaded, and, in the middle of their bloody
ceremony, let fly at them, when I should be sure to kill or wound
perhaps two or three at every shot; and then falling in upon them with
my three pistols and my sword, I made no doubt but that if there was
twenty I should kill them all. This fancy pleased my thoughts for some
weeks; and I was so full of it that I often dreamed of it, and sometimes
that I was just going to let fly at them in my sleep.

I went so far with it in my imagination that I employed myself several
days to find out proper places to put myself in ambuscade, as I said, to
watch for them; and I went frequently to the place itself, which was now
grown more familiar to me; and especially while my mind was thus filled
with thoughts of revenge, and of a bloody putting twenty or thirty of
them to the sword, as I may call it, the horror I had at the place, and
at the signals of the barbarous wretches devouring one another, abated
my malice.

Well, at length I found a place in the side of the hill, where I was
satisfied I might securely wait till I saw any of their boats coming;
and might then, even before they would be ready to come on shore, convey
myself, unseen, into thickets of trees, in one of which there was a
hollow large enough to conceal me entirely; and where I might sit and
observe all their bloody doings, and take my full aim at their heads,
when they were so close together, as that it would be next to impossible
that I should miss my shot, or that I could fail wounding three of four
of them at first shot.

In this place, then, I resolved to fix my design; and, accordingly, I
prepared two muskets and my ordinary fowling-piece. The two muskets I
loaded with a brace of slugs each, and four or five smaller bullets,
about the size of pistol-bullets; and the fowling-piece I loaded with
near a handful of swan-shot, of the largest size. I also loaded my
pistols with about four bullets each; and in this posture, well provided
with ammunition for a second and third charge, I prepared myself for my
expedition.

After I had thus laid the scheme of my design, and in my imagination put
it in practice, I continually made my tour every morning up to the top
of the hill, which was from my castle, as I called it, about three
miles, or more, to see if I could observe any boats upon the sea coming
near the island, or standing over two or three months, constantly kept
my watch, but came always back without any discovery; there having not,
in all that time, been the appearance, not only on or near the shore,
but not on the whole ocean, so far as my eyes or glasses could reach
every way.

As long as I kept up my daily tour to the hill to look out, so long also
I kept up the vigor of my design, and my spirits seemed to be all the
while in a suitable form for so outrageous an execution as the killing
twenty or thirty naked savages for an offence which I had not at all
entered into a discussion of in my thoughts, any farther than my
passions were at first fired by the horror I conceived at the unnatural
custom of that people of the country; who, it seems, had-been suffered
by Providence, in His wise disposition of the world, to have no other
guide than that of their own abominable and vitiated passions; and
consequently were left, and perhaps had been so for some ages, to act
such horrid things, and receive such dreadful customs, as nothing but
nature entirely abandoned of Heaven, and acted by some hellish
degeneracy, could have run them into. But now when, as I have said, I
began to be weary of the fruitless excursion which I had made so long
and so far every morning in vain, so my opinion of the action itself
began to alter; and I began, with cooler and calmer thoughts, to
consider what it was I was going to engage in. What authority or call I
had to pretend to be judge and executioner upon these men as criminals,
whom Heaven had thought fit, for so many ages, to suffer, unpunished, to
go on, and to be, as it were, the executioners of His judgments one upon
another. How far these people were offenders against me, and what right
I had to engage in the quarrel of that blood which they shed
promiscuously one upon another. I debated this very often with myself,
thus: How do I know what God Himself judges in this particular case? It
is certain these people either do not commit this as a crime; it is not
against their own consciences' reproving, or their light reproaching
them. They do not know it to be an off and then commit it in defiance of
Divine justice, as we do in almost all the sins we commit. They think it
no more a crime to kill a captive taken in war than we do to kill an ox;
nor to eat human flesh than we do to eat mutton.

When I had considered this a little; it followed necessarily that I was
certainly in the wrong in it; that these people were not murderers in
the sense that I had before condemned them in my thoughts, any more than
those Christians were murderers who often put to death the prisoners
taken in battle; or more frequently, upon many occasions, put whole
troops of men to the sword, without giving quarter, though they threw
down their arms and submitted.

In the next place it occurred to me, that albeit the usage they thus
give one another was thus brutish and inhuman, yet it was really nothing
to me; these people had done me no injury. That if they attempted me, or
I saw it necessary for my immediate preservation to fall upon them,
something might be said for it; but that as I was yet out of their
power, and they had really no knowledge of me, and consequently no
design upon me, and therefore it could not be just for me to fall upon
them. That this would justify the conduct of the Spaniards in all their
barbarities practised in America, and where they destroyed millions of
these people; who, however they were idolaters and barbarians, and had
several bloody and barbarous rites in their customs, such as sacrificing
human bodies to their idols, were yet, as to the Spaniards, very
innocent people; and that the rooting them out of the country is spoken
of with the utmost abhorrence and detestation by even the Spaniards
themselves at this time, and by all other Christian nations of Europe,
as a mere butchery, a bloody and unnatural piece of cruelty,
unjustifiable either to God or man; and such, as for which the very name
of a Spaniard is reckoned to be frightful and terrible to all people of
humanity, or of Christian compassion; as if the kingdom of Spain were
particularly eminent for the product of a race of men who were without
principles of tenderness, or the common bowels of pity to the miserable,
which is reckoned to be a mark of generous temper in the mind.

These considerations really put me to a pause, and to a kind of a full
stop; and I began, by little and little, to be off of my design, and to
conclude I had taken wrong measures in my resolutions to attack the
savages; that it was not my business to meddle with them, unless they
first attacked me; and this it was my business, if possible, to prevent;
but that if I were discovered and attacked, then I knew my duty.

On the other hand, I argued with myself that this really was the way not
to deliver myself, but entirely to ruin and destroy myself; for unless I
was sure to kill every one that not only should be on shore at that
time, but that should ever come on shore afterwards, if but one of them
escaped to tell their country people what had happened, they would come
over again by thousands to revenge the death of their fellows, and I
should only bring upon myself a certain destruction, which, at present,
I had no manner of occasion for.

Upon the whole, I concluded that neither in principles nor in policy I
ought, one way or other, to concern myself in this affair. That my
business was, by all possible means, to conceal myself from them, and
not to leave the last signal to them to guess by that there were any
living creatures upon the island; I mean of human shape.

Religion joined in with this prudential, and I was convinced now, many
ways, that I was perfectly out of my duty when I was laying all my
bloody schemes for the destruction of innocent creatures; I mean
innocent as to me. As to the crimes they were guilty of towards one
another, I had nothing to do with them. They were national, and I ought
to leave them to the justice of God, who is the Governor of nations, and
knows how, by national punishments, to make a just retribution for
national of and to bring public judgments upon those who offend in a
public manner by such ways as best pleases Him.

This appeared so clear to me now, that nothing was a greater
satisfaction to me than that I had not been suffered to do a thing which
I now saw so much reason to believe would have been no less a sin than
that of willful murder, if I had committed it. And I gave most humble
thanks on my knees to God, that had thus delivered me from
blood-guiltiness; beseeching Him to grant me the protection of His
providence, that I might not fall into the hands of the barbarians, or
that I might not lay my hands upon them, unless I had a more clear call
from Heaven to do it, in defence of my own life.

In this disposition I continued for near a year after this; and so far
was I from desiring an occasion for falling upon these wretches, that in
all that time I never once went up the hill to see whether there were
any of them in sight, or to know whether any of them had been on shore
there, or not, that I might not be tempted to renew any of my
contrivances against them, or be provided, by any advantage which might
present itself, to fall upon them. Only this I did, I went and removed
my boat, which I had on the other side the island, and carried it down
to the east end of the whole island, where I ran it into a little cove,
which I found under some high rocks, and where I knew, by reason of the
currents, the savages durst not, at least would not come, with their
boats, upon any account whatsoever.

With my boat I carried away everything that I had left there belonging
to her, though not necessary for the bare going thither, viz., a mast
and sail which I had made for her, and a thing like an anchor, but
indeed which could not be called either anchor or grappling; however, it
was the best I could make of its kind. All these I removed, that there
might not be the least shadow of any discovery, or any appearance of any
boat, or of any human habitation, upon the island.

Besides this, I kept myself, as I said, more retired than ever, and
seldom went from my cell, other than upon my constant employment, viz.,
to milk my she-goats, and manage my little flock in the wood, which, as
it was quite on the other part of the island, was quite out of danger;
for certain it is, that these savage people, who sometimes haunted this
island, never came with any thoughts of finding anything here, and
consequently never wandered off from the coast; and I doubt not but they
might have been several times on shore after my apprehensions of them
had made me cautious, as well as before; and indeed, I looked back with
some horror upon the thoughts of what my condition would have been if I
had chopped upon them and been discovered before that, when, naked and
unarmed, except with one gun, and that loaded often only with small
shot, I walked everywhere, peeping and peeping about the island to see
what I could get. What a surprise should I have been in if, when I
discovered the print of a man's foot, I had, instead of that, seen
fifteen or twenty savages, and found them pursuing me, and by the
swiftness of their running, no possibility of my escaping them!

The thoughts of this sometimes sunk my very soul within me, and
distressed my mind so much, that I could not soon recover it, to think
what I should have done, and how I not only should not have been able to
resist them, but even should not have had presence of mind enough to do
what I might have done, much less what now, after so much consideration
and preparation, I might be able to do. Indeed, after serious thinking
of these things, I should be very melancholy, and sometimes it would
last a great while; but I resolved it, at last, all into thankfulness to
that Providence which had delivered me from so many unseen dangers, and
had kept me from those mischiefs which I could no way have been the
agent in delivering myself from, because I had not the least notion of
any such thing depending, or the least supposition of it being possible.

This renewed a contemplation which often had come to my thoughts in
former time, when first I began to see the merciful dispositions of
Heaven, in the dangers we run through in this life. How wonderfully we
are delivered when we know nothing of it! How, when we are in a
quandary, as we call it, a doubt or hesitation, whether to go this way,
or that way, a secret hint shall direct us this way, when we intended to
go that way; nay, when sense, our own inclination, and perhaps business,
has called to go the other way, yet a strange impression upon the mind,
from we know not what springs, and by we know not what power, shall
overrule us to go this way; and it shall afterwards appear that had we
gone that way which we should have gone, and even to our imagination
ought to have gone, we should have been ruined and lost. Upon these and
many like reflections I afterwards made it a certain rule with me, that
whenever I found those secret hints or pressings of my mind to doing, or
not doing, anything that presented, or to going this way or that way, I
never failed to obey the secret dictate, though I knew no other reason
for it than that such a pressure, or such a hint, hung upon my mind. I
could give many examples of the success of this conduct in the course of
my life, but more especially in the latter part of my inhabiting this
unhappy island; besides many occasions which it is very likely I might
have taken notice of, if I had seen with the same eyes that I saw with
now. But It is never too late to be wise; and I cannot but advise all
considering men, whose lives are attended with such extraordinary
incidents as mine, or even though not so extraordinary, not to slight
such secret intimations of Providence, let them come from what invisible
intelligence they will. That I shall not discuss, and perhaps cannot
account for; but certainly they are a proof of the converse of spirits,
and the secret communication between those embodied and those
unembodied, and such a proof as can never be withstood, of which I shall
have occasion to give some very remarkable instances in the remainder of
my solitary residence in this dismal place.

I believe the reader of this will not think strange if I confess that
these anxieties, these constant dangers I lived in, and the concern that
was now upon me, put an end to all invention, and to all the
contrivances that I had laid for my future accommodations and
conveniences. I had the care of my safety more now upon my hands than
that of my food. I cared not to drive a nail, or chop a stick of wood
now, for fear the noise I should make should be heard; much less would I
fire a gun, for the same reason; and, above all, I was intolerably
uneasy at making any fire, lest the smoke, which is visible at a great
distance in the day, should betray me; and for this reason I removed
that part of my business which required fire, such as burning of pots
and pipes, etc., into my new apartment in the woods; where, after I had
been some time, I found, to my unspeakable consolation, a more natural
cave in the earth, which went in a vast way, and where, I dare say, no
savage, had he been at the mouth of it, would be so hardy as to venture
in; nor, indeed, would any man else, but one who, like me, wanted
nothing so much as a safe retreat.

The mouth of this hollow was at the bottom of a great rock, where, mere
accident I would say (ifI did not see abundant reason to ascribe all
such things now to Providence), I was cutting down some thick branches
of trees to make charcoal; and before I go on, I must observe the reason
of my making this charcoal, which was thus.

I was afraid of making a smoke about my habitation, as I said before;
and yet I could not live there without baking my bread, cooking my meat,
etc. So I contrived to burn some wood here, as I had seen done in
England under turf, till it became chark, or dry cool; and then putting
the fire out, I preserved the coal to carry home, and perform the other
services which fire was wanting for at home, without danger of smoke.

But this is by-the-bye. While I was cutting down some wood here, I
perceived that behind a very thick branch of low brush-wood, or
underwood, there was a kind of hollow place. I was curious to look into
it; and getting with difficulty into the mouth of it, I found it was
pretty large; that is to say, sufficient for me to stand upright in it,
and perhaps another with me. But I must confess to you I made more haste
out than I did in when, looking farther into the place, and which was
perfectly dark, I saw two broad shining eyes of some creature, whether
devil or man I knew not, which twinkled like two stars, the dim light
from the cave's mouth shining directly in, and making the reflection.

However, after some pause I recovered myself, and began to call myself a
thousand fools, and tell myself that he that was afraid to see the devil
was not fit to live twenty years in an island all alone, and that I
durst to believe there was nothing in this cave that was more frightful
than myself. Upon this, plucking up my courage, I took up a great
firebrand, and in I rushed again, with the stick flaming in my hand. I
had not gone three steps in, but I was almost as much frighted as I was
before; for I heard a very loud sigh like that of a man in some pain,
and it was followed by a broken noise, as if of words half expressed,
and then a deep sigh again. I stepped back, and was indeed struck with
such a surprise that it put me into a cold sweat; and if I had had a hat
on my head, I will not answer for it, that my hair might not have lifted
it off. But still plucking up my spirits as well as I could, and
encouraging myself a little with considering that the power and presence
of God was everywhere, and was able to protect me, upon this I stepped
forward again, and by the light of the firebrand, holding it up a little
over my head, I saw lying on the ground a most monstrous, frightful, old
he-goat, just making his will, as we say, and gasping for life; and
dying, indeed, of mere old age.

I stirred him a little to see if I could get him out, and he essayed to
get up, but was not able to raise himself; and I thought with myself he
might even lie there; for if he had frighted me so, he would certainly
fright any of the savages, if any of them should be so hardy as to come
in there while he had any life in him.

I was now recovered from my surprise, and began to look round me, when I
found the cave was but very small; that is to say, it might be about
twelve feet over, but in no manner of shape, either round or square, no
hands having every been employed in making it but those of mere Nature.
I observed also that there was a place at the farther side of it that
went in farther, but was so low that it required me to creep upon my
hands and knees to go into it, and whither I went I knew not; so having
no candle, I gave it over for some time, but resolved to come again the
next day, provided with candles and a tinderbox, which I had made of the
lock of one of the muskets, with some wild-fire in the pan.

Accordingly, the next day I came provided with six large candles of my
own making, for I made very good candles now of goat's tallow; and going
into this low place, I was obliged to creep upon all fours, as I have
said, almost often yards; which, by the way, I thought was a venture
bold enough, considering that I knew not how far it might go, nor what
was beyond it. When I was got through the strait, I found the roof rose
higher up, I believe near twenty feet. But never was such a glorious
sight seen in the island, I dare say, as it was, to look round the sides
and roof of this vault or cave; the walls reflected a hundred thousand
lights to me from my two candles. What it was in the rock, whether
diamonds, or any other precious stones, or gold, which I rather supposed
it to be, I knew not.

The place I was in was a most delightful cavity or grotto of its kind,
as could be expected, though perfectly dark. The floor was dry and
level, and had a sort of small, loose gravel upon it, so that there was
no nauseous or venomous creature to be seen; neither was there any damp
or wet on the sides or roof. The only difficulty in it was the entrance,
which, however, as it was a place of security, and such a retreat as I
wanted, I thought that was a convenience; so that I was really rejoiced
at the discovery, and resolved, without any delay, to bring some of
those things which I was most anxious about to this place; particularly,
I resolved to bring hither my magazine of powder, and my spare arms,
viz., two fowling-pieces, for I had three in all, and three muskets, for
of them I had eight in all. So I kept at my castle only five, which
stood ready-mounted, like pieces of cannon, on my outmost fence; and
were ready also to take out upon any expedition.

Upon this occasion of removing my ammunition, I took occasion to open
the barrel of powder, which I took up out of the sea, and which had been
wet; and I found that the water had penetrated about three of four
inches into the powder on every side, which caking, and growing hard,
had preserved the inside like a kernel in a shell; so that I had near
sixty pounds of very good powder in the centre of the cask. And this was
an agreeable discovery to me at that time; so I carried all away
thither, never keeping above two or three pounds of powder with me in my
castle, for fear of a surprise of any kind. I also carried thither all
the lead I had left for bullets.

I fancied myself now like one of the ancient giants, which were said to
live in caves and holes in the rocks, where none could come at them; for
I persuaded myself, while I was here, if five hundred savages were to
hunt me, they could never find me out; or, if they did, they would not
venture to attack me here.

The old goat, whom I found expiring, died in the mouth of the cave the
next day after I made this discovery; and I found it much easier to dig
a great hole there, and throw him in and cover him with earth, than to
drag him out; so I interred him there, to prevent the offence to my
nose.

I was now in my twenty-third year of residence in this island; and was
so naturalized to the place, and to the manner of living, that could I
have but enjoyed the certainty that no savages would come to the place
to disturb me, I could have been content to have capitulated for
spending the rest of my time there, even to the last moment, till I had
laid me down and died, like the old goat in the cave. I had also arrived
to some little diversions and amusements, which made the time pass more
pleasantly with me a great deal than it did before. As, first, I had
taught my Poll, as I noted before, to speak; and he did it so
familiarly, and talked so articulately and plain, that it was very
pleasant to me; and he lived with me no less than six and twenty years.
How long he might live afterwards I know not, though I know they have a
notion in the Brazils that they live a hundred years. Perhaps poor Poll
may be alive there still, calling after poor Robin Crusoe to this day. I
wish no Englishman the ill luck to come there and hear him; but if he
did, he would certainly believe it was the devil. My dog was a very
pleasant and loving companion to me for no less than sixteen years of my
time, and then died of mere old age. As for my cats, they multiplied, as
I had observed, to that degree that I was obliged to shoot several of
them at first to keep them from devouring me and all I had; but at
length, when the two old ones I brought with me were gone, and after
some time continually driving them from me, and letting them have no
provision with me, they all ran wild into the woods, except two or three
favorites, which I kept tame, and whose young, when they had any, I
always drowned; and these were part of my family. Besides these, I
always kept two or three household kids about me, whom I taught to feed
out of my hand. And I had two more parrots, which talked pretty well,
and would all call "Robin Crusoe," but none like my first; nor, indeed,
did I take the pains with any of them that I had done with him. I had
also several tame seafowls, whose names I know not, whom I caught upon
the shore, and cut their wings; and the little stakes which I had
planted before my castle wall being now grown up to a good thick grove,
these fowls all lived among these low trees, and bred there, which was
very agreeable to me; so that, as I said above, I began to be very well
contented with the life I led, if it might but have been secured from
the dread of the savages.

But it is otherwise directed; and it may not be amiss for all people who
shall meet with my story, to make this just observation from it, viz.,
how frequently, in the course of our lives, the evil which in itself we
seek most to shun, and which, when we are fallen into it, is the most
dreadful to us, is oftentimes the very means or door of our deliverance,
by which alone we can be raised again from the afflictions we are fallen
into. I could give many examples of this in the course of my
unaccountable life; but in nothing was it more particularly remarkable
than in the circumstances of my last years of solitary residence in this
island.

It was now the month of December, as I said above, in my twenty-third
year; and this, being the southern solstice (for winter I cannot call
it), was the particular time of my harvest, and required my being pretty
much abroad in the fields, when, going out pretty early in the morning,
even before it was thorough daylight, I was surprised with seeing a
light of some fire upon the shore, at a distance from me of about two
miles, towards the end of the island, where I -had observed some savages
had been, as before. But not on the other side; but, to my great
affliction, it was on my side of the island.

I was indeed terribly surprised at the sight, and stepped short within
my grove, not daring to go out lest I might be surprised; and yet I had
no more peace within, from the apprehensions I had that if these
savages, in rambling over the island, should find my corn standing or
cut, or any of works and improvements, they would immediately conclude
that there were people in the place, and would then never give over till
they had found me out. In this extremity I went back directly to my
castle, pulled up the ladder after me, and made all things without look
as wild and natural as I could.

Then I prepared myself within, putting myself in a posture of defence. I
loaded all cannon, as I called them, that is to say, my muskets, which
were mounted upon my new fortification, and all my pistols, and resolved
to defend myself to the last gasp; not forgetting seriously to commend
myself to the Divine protection, and earnestly to pray to God to deliver
me out of the hands of the barbarians. And in this posture I continued
about two hours; but began to be mighty impatient for intelligence
abroad, for I had no spies to send out.

After sitting a while longer, and musing what I should do in this case,
I was not able to bear sitting in ignorance any longer; so setting up my
ladder to the side of the hill where there was a flat place, as I
observed before, and then pulling the ladder up after me, I set it up
again, and mounted to the top of the hill; and pulling out my
perspective-glass, which I had taken on purpose, I laid me down flat on
my belly on the ground, and began to look for the place. I presently
found there was no less than nine naked savages sitting round a small
fire they had made, not to warm them, for they had no need of that, the
weather being extreme hot, but, as I supposed, to dress some of their
barbarous diet of human flesh which they had brought with them, whether
alive or dead, I could not know.

They had two canoes with them, which they had hauled up upon the shore;
and as it was then tide of ebb, they seemed to me to wait for the return
of the flood to go away again. It is not easy to imagine what confusion
this sight put me into, especially seeing them come on my side the
island, and so near me too. But when I observed their coming must be
always with the current of the ebb, I began afterwards to more sedate in
my mind, being satisfied that I might go abroad with safety all the time
of the tide of flood, if they were not on shore before; and having made
this observation, I went abroad about my harvest-work with the more
composure.

As I expected, so it proved; for as soon as the tide made to the
westward, I saw them all take boat, and row (or paddle, as we call it)
all away. I should have observed, that for an hour and more before they
went off, they went to dancing; and I could easily discern their
postures and gestures by my glasses. I could not perceive, by my nicest
observation but that they were stark naked, and had not the least
covering upon them; but whether they were men or women, that I could not
distinguish.

As soon as I saw them shipped and gone, I took two guns upon my
shoulders, and two pistols at my girdle, and my great sword by my side,
without a scabbard, and with all the speed I was able to make I went
away to the hill where I had discovered the first appearance of all. And
as soon as I got thither, which was not less than two hours (for I could
not go apace, being so loaden with arms as I was), I perceived there had
been three canoes more of savages on that place; and looking out
farther, I saw they were all at sea together, making over for the main.

This was a dreadful sight to me, especially when, going down to the
shore, I could see the marks of horror which the dismal work they had
been about had left behind it, viz., the blood, the bones, and part of
the flesh of human bodies, eaten and devoured by those wretches with
merriment and sport. I was so filled with indignation at the sight, that
I began now to premeditate the destruction of the next that I saw there,
let them be who or how many  soever.

It seemed evident to me that the visits which they thus made to this
island are not very frequent, for it was above fifteen months before any
more of them came on shore there again; that is to say, I neither saw
them, or any footsteps or signals of them, in all that time; for, as to
the rainy seasons, then they are sure not to come abroad, at least not
so far. Yet all this while I lived uncomfortably by reason of the
constant apprehensions I was in of their coming upon me by surprise;
from whence I observe, that the expectation of evil is more bitter than
the suffering, especially if there is no room to shake off that
expectation, or those apprehensions.

During all this time I was in the murdering humor, and took up most of
my hours, which should have been better employed, in contriving how to
circumvent and fall upon them the very next time I should see them;
especially if they should be divided, as they were the last time, into
two parties. Nor did I consider at all that if I killed one party,
suppose often or a dozen, I was still the next day, or week, or month,
to kill another, and so another, even ad infinitum, till I should be at
length no less a murderer than they were in being man-eaters, and
perhaps more so.

I spent my days now in great perplexity and anxiety of mind, expecting
that I should, one day or other, fall into the hands of these merciless
creatures; and if I did at any time venture abroad, it was not without
looking round me with the greatest care and caution imaginable. And now
I found, to my great comfort, how happy it was that I provided for a
tame flock or herd of goats; for I durst not, upon any account, fire my
gun, especially near that side of the island where they usually came,
lest I should alarm the savages. And if they had fled from me now, I was
sure to have them come back again, with perhaps two or three hundred
canoes with them, in a few days, and then I knew what to expect.

However, I wore out a year and three months more before I ever saw any
more of the savages, and then I found them again, as I shall soon
observe. It is true they might have been there once or twice, but either
they made no stay, or at least I did not hear them; but in the month of
May, as near as I could calculate, and in my four and twentieth year, I
had a very strange encounter with them; of which in its place.

The perturbation of my mind, during this fifteen or sixteen months'
interval, was very great. I slept unquiet, dreamed always frightful
dreams, and often started out of my sleep in the night. In the day great
troubles overwhelmed my mind, and in the night I deamed often of killing
the savages, and of the reasons why I might justify the doing of it.
But, to waive all this for a while, it was the middle of May, on the
sixteenth day, I think, as well as my poor wooden calendar would reckon,
for I marked all upon the post still; I say, it was the sixteenth of May
that it blew a very great storm of wind all day, with a great deal of
lightning and thunder, and a very foul night it was after it. I know not
what was the particular occasion of it, but as I was reading in the
Bible, and taken up with very serious thoughts about my present
condition, I was surprised with a noise of a gun, as I thought, fired at
sea.

This was, to be sure, a surprise of a quite different nature from any I
had met with before; for the notions this put into my thoughts were
quite of another kind. I started up in the greatest haste imaginable
and, in a trice, clapped my ladder to the middle place of the rock, and
pulled it after me; and mounting it the second time, got to the top of
the hill the very moment that a flash of fire bid me listen for a second
gun, which accordingly, in about half a minute, I heard; and, by the
sound, knew that it was from the part of the sea where I was driven down
the current in my boat.

I immediately considered that this must be some ship in distress, and
that they had some comrade, or some other ship in company, and fired
these gun for signals of distress, and to obtain help. I had this
presence of mind, at that minute, as to think that though I could not
help them, it might be that they might help me; so I brought together
all the dry wood I could get at hand, and, making a good handsome pile,
I set it on fire upon the hill. The wood was dry, and blazed freely; and
though the wind blew very hard, yet it burnt fairly out; so that I was
certain, if there was any such thing as a ship, they must needs see it,
and no doubt they did; for as soon as ever my fire blazed up I heard
another gun, and after that several others, all from the same quarter. I
plied my fire all night long till day broke; and when it was broad day,
and the air cleared up, I saw something at a great distance at sea, full
east of the island, whether a sail or a hull I could not distinguish,
no, not with my glasses, the distance was so great, and the weather
still something hazy also; at least it was so out at sea.

I looked at it all that day, and soon perceived that it did not move; so
I presently concluded that it was a ship at an anchor. And being eager,
you may be sure, to be satisfied, I took my gun in hand and ran toward
the south side of the island, to the rocks where I had formerly been
carried away with the current; and getting up there, the weather by this
time being perfectly clear, I could plainly see, to my great sorrow, the
wreck of a ship, cast away in the night upon those concealed rocks which
I found when I was out in my boat; and which rocks, as they checked the
violence of the stream, and made a kind of counter-stream or eddy, were
the occasion of my recovering from the most desperate, hopeless
condition that ever I had been in in all my life.

Thus, what is one man's safety is another man's destruction; for it
seems these men, whoever they were, being out of their knowledge, and
the rocks being wholly under water, had been driven upon them in the
night, the wind blowing hard at E. and ENE. Had they seen the island, as
I must necessarily suppose they did not, they must, as I thought, have
endeavored to have saved themselves on shore by the help of their boat;
but their firing of guns for help, especially when they saw, as I
imagined, my fire, filled me with man thoughts. First, I imagined that
upon seeing my light, they might have put themselves into their boat,
and have endeavored to make the shore; but that the sea going very high,
they might have been cast away. Other times I imagined that they might
have lost their boat before, as might be the case many ways; as,
particularly, by the breaking of the sea upon their ship, which many
times obliges men to stave, or take in pieces of their boat, and
sometimes to throw it overboard with their own hands. Other times I
imagined they had some other ship or ships in company, who, upon the
signals of distress they had made, had taken them up and carried them
off. Other whiles I fancied they were all gone off to sea in their boat,
and being hurried away by the current that I had been-formerly in, were
carried out into the great ocean, where there was nothing but misery and
perishing and that, perhaps, they might by this time think of starving,
and of being in a condition to eat one another.

All these were but conjectures at best, so, in the condition I was in, I
could no no more than look on upon the misery of the poor men, and pity
them; which had still this good effect on my side, that it gave me more
and more cause to give thanks to God, who had so happily and comfortably
provided for me in my desolate condition; and that of two ships'
companies who were now cast away upon this part of the world, not one
life should be spared but mine. I learned here again to observe, that it
is very rare that the providence of God casts us into any condition of
life so low, or any misery so great, but we may see something or other
to be thankful for, and may see other in worse circumstances than our
own.

Such certainly was the case of these men, of whom I could not so much as
see room to suppose any of them were saved. Nothing could make it
rational so much as to wish or expect that they did not all perish
there, except the possibility only of their being taken up by another
ship in company; and this was but mere possibility indeed, for I saw not
the least signal or appearance of any such thing.

I cannot explain, by any possible energy of words, what a strange
longing or hankering of desires. I felt in my soul upon this sight,
breaking out sometimes thus: "Oh that there had been but one or two,
nay, or but one soul, saved out of this ship, to have escaped to me,
that I might but have had one companion, one fellow-creature, to have
spoken to me, and to have conversed with!" In all the time of my
solitary life I never felt so earnest, so strong a desire after the
society of my fellow-creatures, or so deep a regret at the want of it.

There are some secret moving springs in the affections which, when they
are set agoing by some object in view, or be it some object, though not
in view, yet rendered present to the mind by the power of imagination,
that motion carries out the soul by its impetuosity to such violent,
eager embracings of the object, that the absence of it is insupportable.

Such were these earnest wishings that but one man had been saved! "Oh
that it had been but one!" I believe I repeated the words, "Oh that it
had been one!" a thousand times; and the desires were so moved by it,
that when I spoke the words my hands would clinch together, and my
fingers press the palms of my hands, that if I had had any soft thing in
my hand, it would have crushed it involuntarily; and my teeth in my head
would strike together, and set against one another so strong that for
some time I could not part them again.

Let the naturalists explain these things and the reason and manner of
them. All I can say to them is to describe the fact, which was even
surprising to me when I found it, though I knew not from what it should
proceed. It was doubtless the effect of ardent wishes, and of strong
ideas formed in my mind, realizing the comfort which the conversation of
one of my fellow-Christians would have been to me.

But it was not to be. Either their fate or mine, or both, forbid it;
for, till the last year of my being on this island, I never knew whether
any were saved out of that ship or no; and had only the affliction, some
days after, to see the corpse of a drowned boy come on shore at the end
of the island which was next the shipwreck. He had on no clothes but a
seaman's waistcoat, a pair of open-kneed linen drawers, and a blue linen
shirt; but nothing to direct me so much as to guess what nation he was
of. He had nothing in his pocket but two pieces of eight and a
tobacco-pipe. The last was to me of often times more value than the
first.

It was now calm, and I had a great mind to venture out in my boat to
this wreck, not doubting but I might find something on board that might
be useful to me. But that did not altogether press me so much as the
possibility that there might be yet some living creature on board, whose
life I might not only save, but might, by saving that life, comfort my
own to the last degree. And this thought clung so to my heart that I
could not be quiet night or day, but I must venture out in my boat on
board this wreck; and committing the rest to God's providence I thought,
the impression was so strong upon my mind that it could not be resisted,
that it must come from some invisible direction, and that I should be
wanting to myself if I did not go.

Under the power of this impression, I hastened back to my castle,
prepared everything for my voyage, took a quantity of bread, a great pot
for fresh water, a compass to steer by, a bottle of rum (for I had still
a great deal of that left), a basket full of raisins. And thus, loading
myself with everything necessary, I went down to my boat, got the water
out of her, and got her afloat, loaded all my cargo in her, and then
went home again for more. My second cargo was a great bag full of rice,
the umbrella to set up over my head for shade, another large pot full of
fresh water, and about two dozen of my small loaves, or barley-cakes,
more than before, with a bottle of goat's milk and a cheese; all which,
with great labor and sweat, I brought to my boat. And praying to God to
direct my voyage, I put out; and rowing, or paddling, the canoe along
the shore, I came at last to the utmost point of the island on that
side, viz., NE. And now I was to launch out into the ocean, and either
to venture or not to venture. I looked on the rapid currents which ran
constantly on both sides of the island at a distance, and which were
very terrible to me, from the remembrance of the hazard I had been in
before, and my heart began to fail me; for I foresaw that if I was
driven into either of those currents, I should be carried a vast way out
to sea, and perhaps out of my reach, or sight of the island again; and
that then, as my boat was but small, if any little gale of wind should
rise, I should be inevitable lost.

These thoughts so oppressed my mind that I began to give over my
enterprise; and having hauled my boat into a little creek on the shore,
I stepped out, and sat me down a little rising bit of ground, very
pensive and anxious, between fear and desire, about my voyage; when, as
I was musing, I could perceive that the tide was turned, and the flood
come on; upon which my going was for so many hours impracticable. Upon
this, presently it occurred to me that I should go up to the highest
piece of ground I could find and observe, if I could, how the sets of
the tide, or currents, lay when the flood came in, that I might judge
whether, if I was driven one way out, I might not expect to be driven
another way home, with the same rapidness of the currents. This thought
was no sooner in my head but I cast my eye upon a little hill, which
sufficiently overlooked the sea both ways, and from whence I had a clear
view of the currents, or sets of the tide, and which way I was to guide
myself in my return. Here I found, that as the current of the ebb set
out close by the south point of the island, so the current of the flood
set in close by the shore of the north side; and that I had nothing to
do but to keep to the north of the island in my return, and I should do
well enough.

Encouraged with this observation, I resolved the next morning to set out
with the first of the tide, and reposing myself for the night in the
canoe, under the great watch-coat I mentioned, I launched out. I made
first a little out to sea, full north, till I began to feel the benefit
of the current which set eastward, and which carried me at a great rate;
and yet did not so hurry me as the southern side current had done
before, and so as to take from me all government of the boat; but having
a strong steerage with my paddle, I went at a great rate directly for
the wreck, and less than two hours I came up to it.

It was a dismal sight to look at. The ship, which, by its building, was
Spanish, stuck fast, jammed in between two rocks. All the stern and
quarter of her was beaten to pieces with the sea; and as her forecastle,
which stuck in the rocks, had run on with violence, her mainmast were
brought by the board; that is to say broken short off; but her bowsprit
was sound, and the head and bow appeared firmer. When I came close to
her a dog appeared upon her, who, seeing me coming, yelped and cried;
and as soon as I called him, jumped into the sea to come to me, and I
took him into the boat, but found him almost dead for hunger and thirst.
I gave him a cake of my bread, and he eat it like a ravenous wolf that
had been starving a fortnight in the snow. I then gave the poor creature
some fresh water, with which, if I would have let him, he would have
burst himself.

After this I went on board; but the first sight I met with was two men
drowned in the cookroom, or forecastle of the ship, with their arms fast
about one another. I concluded, as is indeed probable, that when the
ship struck, it being in a storm, the sea broke so high, and so
continually over her, that the men were not able to bear it, and were
strangled with the constant rushing in of the water, as much as if they
had been under water. Besides the dog, there was nothing left in the
ship that had life, nor any goods that I could see but what were spoiled
by the water. There were some casks of liquor, whether wine or brand I
knew not, which lay lower in the hold, and which, the water being ebbed
out, I could see; but they were too big to meddle with. I saw several
chests, which I believed belonged to some of the seamen; and I got two
of them into the boat, without examining what was in them.

Had the stern of the ship been fixed, and the fore-part broken off, I am
persuaded I might have made a good voyage; for by what I found in these
two chests, I had room to suppose the ship had a great deal of wealth on
board; and if I may guess by the course she steered, she must have been
bound from the Buenos Ayres, or the Rio de la Plata, in the south part
of America, beyond the Brazils, to the Havana, in the Gulf of Mexico,
and so perhaps to Spain. She had, no doubt, a great treasure in her, but
of no use, at that time, to anybody; and what became of the rest of her
people, I then knew not.

I found, besides these chests, a little cask full of liquor, of about
twenty gallons, which I got into my boat with much difficulty. There
were several muskets in a cabin, and a great powderhorn, with about four
pounds of powder in it. As for the muskets, I had no occasion for them,
so I left them, but took the powder-horn. I took a fire-hovel and tongs,
which I wanted extremely; as also two little brass kettles, a copper pot
to make chocolate, and a gridiron. And with this cargo, and the dog, I
came away, the tide beginning to make home again; and the same evening,
about an hour within night, I reached the island again, weary and
fatigued to the last degree.

I reposed that night in the boat; and in the morning I resolved to
harbor what I had gotten in my new cave, not to carry it home to my
castle. After refreshing myself, I got all my cargo on shore, and began
to examine the particulars. The cask of liquor I found to be a kind of
rum, but not such as we had at the Brazils, and, in a word, not at all
good. But when I came to open the chests, I found several things of
great use to me. For example, I found in one a fine case of bottles, of
an extraordinary kind, and filled with cordial waters, fine, and very
good; the bottles held about three pints each, and were tipped with
silver. I found two pots of very good succades, or sweetmeats, so
fastened also on top, that the salt water had not hurt them; and two
more of the same, which the water had spoiled. I found some very good
shirts, which were very welcome to me; and about a dozen and half of
linen white handkerchiefs and colored neckcloths. The former were also
very welcome, being exceeding refreshing to wipe my face in a hot day.
Besides this, when I came to the till in the chest, I found there three
great bags of pieces of eight, which held out about eleven hundred
pieces in all; and in one of them, wrapped up in a paper, six doubloons
of gold, and some small bars or wedges of gold. I suppose they might all
weigh near a pound.

The other chest I found had some clothes in it, but of little value; but
by the circumstances, it must have belonged to the gunner's mate; though
there was no powder in it, but about two pounds of fine glazed powder,
in three small flasks, kept, I suppose, for charging their
fowling-pieces on occasion. Upon the whole, I got very little by this
voyage that was of any use to me; for as to the money, I had no manner
of occasion for it; It was to me as the dirt under my feet; and I would
have given it all for three or four pair of English shoes and stocking,
which were things I greatly wanted, but had not had on my feet now for
many years. I had indeed gotten two pair of shoes now, which I took off
of the feet of the two drowned men whom I saw in the wreck, and I found
two pair more in one of the chests, which were very welcome to me; but
they were not like our English shoes, either for ease or service, being
rather what we call pumps than shoes. I found in the seaman's chest
about fifty pieces of eight in royals, but no gold. I suppose this
belonged to a poorer man than the other, which seemed to belong to some
officer.

Well, however, I lugged this money home to my cave, and laid it up, as I
had done that before which I brought from our own ship; but it was a
great pity, as I said, that the other part of this ship had not come to
my share, for I am satisfied I might have loaded my canoe several times
over with money, which, if I had ever escaped to England, would have
lain here safe enough till I might have come again and fetched it.

Having now brough all my things on shore, and secured them, I went back
to my boat, and rowed or paddled her along the shore to her old harbor,
where I laid her up, and made the best of my way to my old habitation,
where I found everything safe and quiet. So I began to repose myself,
live after my old fashion, and take care of my family affairs; and, for
a while, I lived easy enough, only that I was more vigilant than I used
to be, looked out oftener, and did not go abroad so much; and if at any
time I did stir with any freedom, it was always to the east part of the
island, where I was pretty well satisfied the savages never came, and
where I could go without so many precautions, and such a load of arms
and ammunition as I always carried with me if I went the other way.

I lived in this condition near two years more; but my unlucky head, that
was always to let me know if it was born to make my body miserable, was
all of this two years filled with projects and designs, how, if it were
possible, I might get away from this island; for sometimes I was for
making another voyage to the wreck, though my reason told me that there
was nothing left there worth the hazard of my voyage; sometimes for a
ramble one way, sometimes another; and I believe verily, if I had had
the boat that I went from Sallee in, I should have ventured to sea,
bound anywhere, I knew not whither.

I have been, in all my circumstances, a memento to those who are touched
with the general plague of mankind, whence, for aught I know, one-half
of their miseries flow; I mean, that of not being satisfied with the
station wherein God and Nature had placed them; for not to look back
upon my primitive condition, and the excellent advice of my father, the
opposition to which was, as I may call it, my original sin, my
subsequent mistakes of the same kind had been the means of my coming
into this miserable condition; for had that Providence, which so happily
had seated me at the Brazils as a planter, blessed me with confined
desires, and I could have been contented to have gone on gradually, I
might have been, by this time, I mean in the time of my being in this
island, one of the most considerable planters in the brazils; nay, I am
persuaded that by the improvements I had made in that little time I
lived there, and the increase I should probably have made if I had
stayed, I might have been worth a hundred thousand moidores. And what
business had I to leave a settle fortune, a well-stocked plantation,
improving and increasing, to turn supercargo to Guinea to fetch negroes,
when patience and time would so have increased our stock at home, that
we could have bought them at our own door from those whose business it
was to fetch them; and though it had cost us something more, yet the
difference of that price was by no means worth saving at so great a
hazard.

But as this is ordinarily the fate of yourn heads, so reflection upon
the folly of it is as ordinarily the exercise of more years, or the
dear-bought experience of time; and so it was with me now. And yet, so
deep had the mistake taken root in my temper, that I could not satisfy
myself in my station, but was continually poring upon the means and
possibility of my escape from this place. And that I may, with the
greater pleasure to the reader, bring on the remaining part of my story,
it may not be improper to give some account of my first conceptions on
the subject of this foolish scheme for my escape, and how and upon what
foundation I acted.

I am now to be supposed retired into my castle, after my late voyage to
the wreck, my frigate laid up and secured under water, as usual, and my
condition restored to what it was before. I had more wealth, indeed,
that I had before, but was not at all the richer; for I had no more use
for it than the Indians of Peru had before the Spaniards came there.

It was one of the nights in the rainy season in March, the four and
twentieth year of my first setting foot in this island of solitariness.
I was lying in my bed, or hammock, awake, very well in health, had no
pain, no distemper, no uneasiness of body, no, nor any uneasiness of
mind, more than ordinary, but could by no means close my eyes, that is,
so as to sleep; no, not a wink all night long, otherwise than as
follows.

It is as impossible, as needless, to set down the innumerable crowd of
thoughts that whirled through that great throughfare of the brain, the
memory, in this night's time. I ran over the whole history of my life in
miniature, or by abridgment, as I may call it, to my coming to this
island, and also of the part of my life since I came to this island. In
my reflections upon the state of my case since I came on shore on this
island, I was comparing the happy posture of my affairs in the first
years of my habitation here compared to the life of anxiety, fear, and
care which I had lived ever since I had seen the print of a foot in the
sand; nor that I did not believe the savages had frequented the island
even all the while, and might have been several hundreds of them at
times on shore there; but I had never known it, and was incapable of any
apprehensions about it. My satisfaction was perfect, though my danger
was the same; and I was as happy in not knowing my danger, as if I had
never really been exposed to it. This furnished my thoughts with many
very profitable reflections, and particularly this one: how infinitely
good that Providence is which has provided, in its government of
mankind, such narrow bounds to his sight and knowledge of things; and
though he walks in the midst of so many thousand dangers, the sight of
which, if discovered to him, would distract his mind and sink his
spirits, he is kept serene and calm, by having the events of things hid
from his eyes, and knowing nothing of the dangers which surround him.

After these thoughts had for some time entertained me, I came to reflect
seriously upon the real danger I had been in for so many years in this
very island, and how I had walked about in the greatest security, and
with all possible tranquillity, even when perhaps nothing but a brow of
a hill, a great tree, or the casual approach of night had been between
me and the worst kind of destruction, viz., that of failing into the
hands of cannibals and savages, who would have seized on me with the
same view as I did of a goat or a turtle, and have thought it no more a
crime to kill and devour me than I did of a pigeon or a curlew. I would
unjustly slander myself if I should say I was not sincerely thankful to
my great Preserver, to whose singular protection I acknowledged, with
great humility, that all these unknown deliverances were due, and
without which I must inevitably have fallen into their merciless hands.

When these thoughts were over, my head was for some time take up in
considering the nature of these wretched creatures, I mean the savages,
and how it came to pass in the world that the wise Governor of all
things should give up any of His creatures to such inhumanity; nay, to
something so much below even brutality itself, as to devour its own
kind. But as this ended in some (at that time fruitless) speculations,
it occurred to me to inquire what part of the world these wretches lived
in? How far off the coast was from whence they came? What they ventured
over so far from home for? What kind of boats they had? And why I might
not order myself and my business so, that I might be able to go over
thither as they were to come to me.

I never so much as troubled myself to consider what I should do with
myself when I came thither; what would become of me, if I fell into the
hands of the savages; or how I should escape from them, if they
attempted me; no, nor so much as how it was possible for me to reach the
coast, and not be attempted by some or other of them, without any
possibility of delivering myself; and if I should not fall into their
hands, what I should do for provision, or whither I should bend my
course. None of these thoughts, I say, so much as came in my way; but my
mind was wholly bent upon the notion of my passing over in my boat to
the mainland. I looked back upon my present condition as the most
miserable that could possibly be; that I was not able to throw myself
into anything, but death, that could be called worse; that if I reached
the shore of the main, I might perhaps meet with relief, or I might
coast along, as I did on the shore of Africa, till I came to some
inhabited country, and where I might find some Christian ship that might
take me in; and if the worse came to the worst, I could but die, which
would put an end to all these miseries at once. Pray note, all this was
the fruit of a disturbed mind, an impatient temper, made, as it were,
desperate by the long continuance of my troubles, and the
disappointments I had met in the work I had been on board of, and where
I had been so near the obtaining what I so earnestly longed for, viz.,
somebody to speak to, and to learn some knowledge from the place where I
was, and of the probable means of my deliverance. I say, I was agitated
wholly by these thoughts. All my calm of mind, in my resignation to
Providence, and waiting the issue of the dispositions of Heaven, seemed
to be suspended; and I had, as it were, no power to turn my thoughts to
anything but to the project of a voyage to the main, which came upon me
with such force, and such an impetuosity of desire, that it was not to
be resisted.

When this had agitated my thoughts for two hours, or more, with such
violence that it set my very blood into a ferment, and my pulse beat as
high as if I had been in a fever, merely with the extraordinary of my
mind about it, Nature, as if I had been fatigued and exhausted with the
very thought of it, threw me into a sound sleep. One would have thought
I should have dreamed of it, but I did not, nor of anything relating to
it; but I dreamed that as I was going out in the morning, as usual, from
my castle, I saw upon the shore two canoes and eleven savages coming to
land, and that they brought with them another savage, whom they were
going to kill in order to eat him; when, on a sudden, the savage that
they were going to kill jumped away, and ran for his life. And I
thought, in my sleep, that he came running into my little thick grove
before my fortification to hide himself; and that I, seeing him alone,
and not perceiving that the other sought him that way, showed myself to
him, and smiling upon him, encouraged him; that he kneeled down to me,
seeming to pray me to assist him; upon which I showed my ladder, made
him go up, and carried him into my cave, and he became my servant; and
that as soon as I had gotten this man, I said to myself, "Now I may
certainly venture to the mainland; for this fellow will serve me as a
pilot, and will tell me what to do, and whither to go for provisions,
and whither not to go for fear of being devoured; what places to venture
into, and what to escape." I waked with this thought, and was under such
inexpressible impressions of joy at the prospect of my escape in my
dream, that the disappointments which I felt upon coming to myself and
finding it was no more than a dream were equally extravagant the other
way, and threw me into a very great dejection of spirit.

Upon this, however, I made this conclusion: that my only way to go about
an attempt for an escape was, if possible, to get a savage into my
possession; and, if possible, it should be one of their prisoners whom
they had condemned to be eaten, and should bring thither to kill. But
these thoughts were attended with this difficulty, that it was
impossible to effect this without attacking a whole caravan of them, and
killing them all; and this was not only a very desperate attempt, and
might miscarry; but, on the other hand, I had greatly scrupled the
lawfulness of it to me; and my heart trembled at the thoughts of
shedding so much blood, though it was for my deliverance. I need not
repeat the arguments which occurred to me against this, they being the
same mentioned before. But though I had other reasons to offer now,
viz., that those men were enemies to my life, and would devour me if
they could; that it was self-preservation, in the highest degree, to
deliver myself from this death of a life, and was acting in my own
defence as much as if they were actually assaulting me, and the like; I
say, though these things argued for it, yet the thoughts of shedding
human blood for my deliverance were very terrible to me, and such as I
could by no means reconcile myself to a great while.

However, at last, after many secret disputes with myself, and after
great perplexities about it, for all these arguments, one way and
another, struggled in my head a long time, the eager prevailing desire
of deliverance at length mastered all the rest, and I resolved, if
possible, to get one of those savages into my hands, cost what it would.
My next thing, then was to contrive how to do it, and this indeed was
very difficulty to resolve on. But as I could pitch upon no probable
means for it, so I resolved to put myself upon the watch, to see them
when they came on shore, and leave the rest to the event, taking such
measures as the opportunity should present, let be what would be.

With these resolutions in my thoughts, I set myself upon the scout as
often as possible, and indeed so often, till I was heartily tired of it;
for it was above a year and half that I waited; and for great part of
that time went out to the west end, and to the south-west corner of the
island, almost every day to see for canoes, but none appeared. This was
very discouraging, and began to trouble me much; though I cannot say
that it did in this case, as it had done some time before that, viz.,
wear off the edge of my desire to the thing. But the longer it seemed to
be delayed, the more eager I was for it. In a word, I was not at first
so careful to shun the sight of these savages, and avoid being seen by
them, as I was now eager to be upon them.

Besides, I fancied myself able to manage one, nay, two or three savages,
if I had them, so as to make them entirely slaves to me, to do whatever
I should direct them, and to prevent their being able at anytime to do
me any hurt. It was a great while that I pleased myself with this
affair; but nothing still presented. All my fancies and schemes came to
nothing, for no savages came near me for a great while.

About a year and half after I had entertained these notions, and by long
musing had, as it were, resolved them all into nothing, for want of an
occasion to put them in execution, I was surprised, one morning early,
with seeing no less than five canoes all on shore together on my side
the island, and the people who belonged to them all landed, and out of
my sight. The number of them broke all my measures; for seeing so many,
and knowing that they always came four, or six, or sometimes more in a
boat, I could not tell what to think of it, or how to take my measures
to attack twenty or thirty men single-handed; so I lay still in my
castle, perplexed and discomforted. However, I put myself into all the
same postures for an attack that I had formerly provided, and was just
ready for action if anything had presented. Having waited a good while,
listening to hear if they made any noise, at length, begin very
impatient, I set my guns at the foot of my ladder, and clambered up to
the top of the hill, by my two stages, as usual; standing so, however,
that my head did not appear above the hill, so that they could not
perceive me by any means. Here I observed, by the help of my perspective
glass, that they were no less than thirty in number, that they had a
fire kindled, that they had had meat dressed. How they had cooked it,
that I knew not, or what it was; but they were all dancing, in I know
not how many barbarous gestures and figures, their own way, round the
fire.

While I was thus looking on them, I perceived by my perspective two
miserable wretches dragged from the boats, where, it seems, they were
laid by, and were now brought out for the slaughter. I perceived one of
them immediately fell, being knocked down, I suppose, with a club or
wooden sword, for that was their way, and two or three others were at
work immediately, cutting him open for their cookery, while the other
victim was left standing by himself, till they should be ready for him.
In that very moment this poor wretch seeing himself a little at liberty,
Nature inspired him with hopes of life, and he started away from them,
and ran with incredible swiftness along the sands directly towards me, I
mean towards that part of the coast where my habitation was.

I was dreadfully frighted (that I must acknowledge) when I perceived him
to run my way, and especially when, as I thought, I saw him pursued by
the whole body; and now I expected that part of my dream was coming to
pass, and that he would certainly take shelter in my grove; but I could
not depend, by any means, upon my dream for the rest of it, viz., that
the other savages would not pursue him thither, and find him there.
However, I kept my station, and my spirits began to recover when I found
that there was not above three men that followed him; and still more was
I encouraged when I found that he outstripped them exceedingly in
running, and gained ground of them; so that if he could but hold it for
half an hour, I saw easily he would fairly get away from them all.

There was between them and my castle the creek, which I mentioned often
at the first part of my story, when I landed my cargoes out of the ship;
and this I saw plainly he must necessarily swim over, or the poor wretch
would be taken there. But when the savage escaping came thither he made
nothing of it, though the tide was then up; but plunging in, swam
through in about thirty strokes or thereabouts, landed, and ran on with
exceeding strength and swiftness. When the three persons came to the
creek, I found that two of them could swim, but the third could not, and
that, standing on the other side, he looked at the other, but went no
further, and soon after went softly back, which, as it happened, was
very well for him in the main.

I observed that the two who swam were yet more than twice as long
swimming over the creek as the fellow was that fled from them. It came
now very warmly upon my thoughts, and indeed, irresistibly, that now was
my time to get me a servant, and perhaps a companion assistant, and that
I was called plainly by Providence to save this poor creature's life. I
immediately run down the ladders with all possible expedition, fetched
my two guns, for they were both but at the foot of the ladders, as I
observed above, and getting up again, with the same haste, to the top of
the hill, I crossed towards the sea, and having a very short cut, and
all down hill, clapped myself in the way between the pursuers and the
pursued, hallooing aloud to him that fled, who, looking back, was at
first perhaps as much frighted at me as at them; but I beckoned with my
hands to him to come back; and, in the meantime, I slowly advanced
toward the two that followed; then rushing at once upon the foremost, I
knocked him down with the stock of my piece. I was loth to fire, because
I would not have the rest hear; though, at that distance, it would not
have been easily heard, and being out of sight of the smoke too, they
would not have easily known what to make of it. Having knocked this
fellow down, the other who pursued with him stopped, as if he had been
frighted, and I advanced a pace towards him; but as I came nearer, I
perceived presently he had a bow and arrow, and was fitting it to shoot
at me; so I was then necessitated to shoot at him first, which I did,
and killed him at the first shot.

The poor savage who fled, but had stopped, though he saw both his
enemies fallen and killed, as he thought, yet was so frighted with the
fire and noise of my piece, that he stood stock-still, and neither came
forward nor went backward, though he seemed rather inclined to fly still
than to come on. I hallooed again to him, and made signs to come
forward, which he easily understood, and came a little way, then stopped
again, and then a little further; and stopped again; and I could then
perceive that he stood trembling, as if he had been taken prisoner, and
had just been to be killed, as his two enemies were. I beckoned him
again to come to me, and gave him all the signs of encouragement that I
could think of; and he came nearer and nearer, kneeling down every often
or twelve steps, in token of acknowledgment for my saving his life. I
smiled at him, and look pleasantly, and beckoned to him to come still
nearer. At length he came close to me, and then he kneeled down again,
kissed the ground, and laid his head upon the ground, and taking me by
the foot, set my foot upon his head. This, it seems, was in token of
swearing to be my slave forever. I took him up, and made much of him,
and encouraged him all I could. But there was more work to do yet; for I
perceived the savage whom I knocked down was not killed, but stunned
with the blow, and began to come to himself; so I pointed to him, and
showing him the savage, that he was not dead, upon this he spoke some
words to me; and though I could not understand them, yet I thought they
were pleasant to hear; for they were the first sound of a man's voice
that I had heard, my own excepted, for above twenty-five years. But
there was no time for such reflections now. The savage who was knocked
down recovered himself so far as to sit up upon the ground, and I
perceived that my savage began to be afraid; but when I was that, I
presented my other piece at the man, as if I would shoot him. Upon this
my savage, for so I call him now, made a motion to me to lend him my
sword, which hung naked in a belt by my side; so I did. He no sooner had
it but he runs to his enemy, and, at one blow, cut off his head as
cleverly, no executioner in Germany could have done it sooner or better;
which I thought very strange for one who, I had reason to believe, never
saw a sword in his life before, except their own wooden swords. However,
it seems, as I learned afterwards, they make their wooden swords so
sharp, so heavy, and the wood is so hard, that they will cut off heads
even with them, ay, and arms, and that at one blow too. When he had done
this, he comes laughing to me in sign of triumph, and brought me the
sword again, and with abundance of gestures, which I did not understand,
laid it down, with the head of the savage that he had killed, just
before me.

But that which astonished him most, was to know how I had killed the
other Indian so far off; so pointing to him, he made signs to me to let
him go to him; so I bade him go, as well as I could. When he came to
him, he stood like one amazed, looking at him, turned him first on one
side, then t' other, looked at the wound the bullet had made, which, it
seems, was just in his breast, where it had made a hole, and no great
quantity of blood had followed; but he had bled inwardly, for he was
quite dead. He took up his bow and arrows, and came back; so I turned to
away, and beckoned to him to follow me, making signs to him that more
might come after them.

Upon this he signed to me that he should bury them with sand, that they
might not be seen by the rest if they followed; and so I made signs
again to him to do so. He fell to work, and in an instant he had scraped
a hole in the sand with his hands big enough to bury the first in, and
then dragged him into it, and covered him, and did so also by the other.
I believe he had buried them both in a quarter of an hour. Then calling
him away, I carried him, not to my castle, but quite away to my cave, on
the farther part of the island; so I did not let my dream come to pass
in that part, viz., that he came into my grove for shelter.

Here I gave him bread and a bunch of raisins to eat, and a draught of
water, which I found he was indeed in great distress for, by his
running; and having refreshed him, I made signs for him to go lie down
and sleep, pointing to a place where I had laid a great parcel of
rice-straw, and a blanket upon it, which I used to sleep upon myself
sometimes; so the poor creature laid down, and went to sleep.

He was a comely, handsome fellow, perfectly well made, with straight,
strong limbs, not too large, tall, and well-shaped, and, as I reckoned,
about twenty-six years of age. He had a very good countenance, not a
fierce and surly aspect, but seemed to have something very manly in his
face; and yet he had all the sweetness and softness of an European in
his countenance too, especially when he smiled. His hair was long and
black, not curled like wool; his forehead very high and large; and a
great vivacity and sparkling sharpness in his eyes. The color of his
skin was not quite black, but very tawny; and yet not of an ugly,
yellow, nauseous tawny, as the Brazilians and Virginians, and other
natives of America are, but of a bright kind of a dun olive color, that
had in it something very agreeable, though not very easy to describe.
His face was round and plump; his nose small, not flat like the negroes;
a very good mouth, thin lips, and his fine teeth well set, and white as
ivory.

After he had slumbered, rather than slept, about half an hour, he waked
again, and comes out of the cave to me, for I had been milking my goats,
which I had in the enclosure just by. When he espied me, he came running
to me, laying himself down again upon the ground, with all the possible
signs of an humble, thankful disposition, making as many antic gestures
to show it. At last he lays his head flat upon the ground, close to my
foot, and sets my other foot upon his head, as he had done before, and
after this made all the signs to me of subjection, servitude, and
submission imaginable, to let me know how he would serve me as long as
he lived. I understood him in many things, and let him know I was very
well pleased with him. In a little time I began to speak to him, and
teach him to speak to me; and, first, I made him know his name should be
Friday, which was the day I saved his life. I called him so for the
memory of the time. I likewise taught him to say master, and then let
him know that was to be my name. I likewise taught him to say Yes and
No, and to know the meaning of them. I gave him some milk in an earthen
pot, and let him see me drink it before him, and sop my bread in it; and
I gave him a cake of bread to do the like, which he quickly complied
with, and made signs that it was very good for him.

I kept there with him all that night; but as soon as it was day, I
beckoned to him to come with me, and let him know I would give him some
clothes; at which he seemed very glad, for he was stark naked. As we
went by the place where he had buried the two men, he pointed exactly to
the place, and showed me the marks that he had made to find them again,
making signs to me that we should dig them up again, and eat them. At
this I appeared very angry, expressed my abhorrence of it, made as if I
would vomit at the thoughts of it, and beckoned with my hand to him to
come away; which he did immediately, with great submission. I then led
him up to the top of the hill, to see if his enemies were gone; and
pulling out my glass, I looked, and saw plainly the place where they had
been, but no appearance of them or of their canoes; so that it was plain
that they were gone, and had left their two comrades behind them,
without any search after them.

But I was not content with this discovery; but having now more courage,
and consequently more curiosity, I take my man Friday with me, giving
him the sword in his hand, with the bow and arrows at his back, which I
found he could use very dexterously, making him carry one gun for me,
and I two for myself, and away we marched to the place where these
creatures had been; for I had a mind now to get some fuller intelligence
of them. When I came to the place, my very blood ran chill in my veins,
and my heart sunk within me, at the horror of the spectacle. Indeed, it
was a dreadful sight, at least it was so to me, though Friday made
nothing of it. The place was covered with human bones, the ground dyed
with their blood, great pieces of flesh left here and there, half-eaten,
mangled and scorched; and, in short, all the tokens of the triumphant
feast they had been making there, after a victory of their enemies. I
saw three skulls, five hands, and the bones of three or four legs and
feet, and abundance of other parts of the bodies; and Friday, by his
signs, made me understand that they brought over four prisoners to feast
upon; that three of them were eaten up, and that he, pointing to
himself, was the fourth; that there had been a great battle between them
and their next king, whose subjects it seems he had been one of, and
that they had taken a great number of prisoners; all which were carried
to several places, by those who had taken them in the fight, in order to
feast upon them, as was done here by these wretches upon those they
brought hither.

I cause Friday to gather all the skulls, bones, flesh, and whatever
remained, and lay them together on a heap, and make a great fire upon
it, and burn them all to ashes. I found Friday had still a hankering
stomach after some of the flesh, and was still a cannibal in his nature;
but I discovered so much abhorrence at the very thoughts of it, and at
the least appearance of it, that he durst not discover it; for I had, by
some means, let him know that I would kill him if he offered it.

When we had done this we came back to our castle, and there I fell to
work for my man Friday; and, first of all, I gave him-a pair of linen
drawers, which I had out of the poor gunner's chest I mentioned, and
which I found in the wreck; and which, with a little alteration, fitted
him very well. Then I made him a jerkin of goat's-skin, as well as my
skill would allow, and I was now grown a tolerable good tailor; and I
gave him a cap, which I had made of a hare-skin, very convenient and
fashionable enough; and thus he was clothed for the present tolerably
well, and was mighty well pleased to see himself almost as well clothed
as his master. It is true he went awkwardly in these things at first;
wearing the drawers was very awkward to him, and the sleeves of the
waistcoat galled his shoulders, and the inside of his arms; but a little
easing them where he complained they hurt him, using himself to them, at
length he took to them very well.

The next day after I came home to my hutch with him, I began to consider
where I should lodge him. And that I might do well for him, and yet be
perfectly easy myself, I made a little tent for him in the vacant place
between my two fortifications, in the inside of the last and in the
outside of the first; and as there was a door or entrance there into my
cave, I made a formal framed doorcase, and a door to it of boards, and
set it up in the passage, a little within the entrance; and causing the
door to open on the inside, I barred it up in the night, taking in my
ladders, too; so that Friday could no way come at me in the inside of my
innermost wall without making so much noise in getting over that it must
needs waken me; for my first wall had now a complete roof over it of
long poles, covering all my tent, and leaning up to the side of the
hill, which was again laid across with smaller sticks instead of laths,
and then thatched over a great thickness with the rice-straw, which was
strong, like reeds; and at the hole or place which was left to go in or
out by the ladder, I had placed a kind of trap-door, which, if it had
been attempted on the outside, would not have open at all, but would
have fallen down, and made a great noise; and as to weapons, I took them
all in to my side every night.

But I needed none of all this precaution; for never man had a more
faithful, loving, sincere servant than Friday was to me; without
passions, sullenness, or designs, perfectly obliged and engaged; his
very affections were tied to me like those of a child to a father; and I
dare say he would have sacrificed his life for the saving mine, upon any
occasion whatsoever. The many testimonies he gave me of this put it out
of doubt, and soon convinced me that I needed to use no precautions as
to my safety on his account.

This frequently gave me occasion to observe, and that with wonder, that
however it had pleased God, in His providence, and in the government of
the works of His hands, to take from so great a part of the world of His
creatures the best uses to which their faculties and the powers of their
soul are adapted, yet that He has bestowed upon them the same powers,
the same reason, the same affections, the same sentiments of kindness
and obligation, the same passions and resentments of wrongs, the same
sense of gratitude, sincerity, fidelity, and all the capacities of doing
good, and receiving good, that He has give to us; and that when He
pleases to offer to them occasions of exerting these, they are as ready,
nay, more ready, to apply them to the right uses for which they were
bestowed that we are. And this made me very melancholy sometimes, in
reflecting, as the several occasions presented, how mean a use we make
of all these, even though we have these powers enlightened by the great
lamp of instruction, the Spirit of God, and by the knowledge of His Word
added to our understanding; and why it has pleased God to hide the like
saving knowledge from so many millions of souls, who, if I might judge
by this poor savage, would make a much better use of it than we did.

From hence, I sometimes was led too far to invade the sovereignity of
Providence, and, as it were, arraign the justice of so arbitrary a
disposition of things that should hide that light from some, and reveal
it to others, and yet expect a like duty from both. But I shut it up,
and checked my thoughts with this conclusion: first, that we did not
know by what light and law these should be condemned; but that God was
necessarily, and, by the nature of His being, infinitely holy and just,
so it could not be but that if these creatures were all sentenced to
absence from Himself, it was on account of sinning against that light,
which, as the Scripture says, was a law to themselves, and by such rules
as their consciences would acknowledge to be just, though the foundation
was not discovered to us; and, second, that still, as we are all the
clay in the hand of the potter, no vessel could say to Him, "Why hast
Thou formed me thus?"

But to return to my new companion. I was greatly delighted with him, and
made it my business to teach him everything that was proper to make him
useful, handy, and helpful; but especially to make him speak, and
understand me when I spake. And he was the aptest scholar that ever was;
and particularly was so merry, so constantly diligent, and so pleased
when he could but understand me, or make me understand him, that it was
very pleasant to me to talk to him. And now my life began to be so easy
that I began to say to myself, that could I but have been safe from more
savages, I cared not if I was never to remove from the place while I
lived.

After I had been two or three days returned to my castle, I thought
that, in order to bring Friday off from his horrid way of feeding, and
from the relish of a cannibal's stomach, I ought to let him taste other
flesh; so I took him out with me one morning to the woods. I went,
indeed, intending to kill a kid out of my own flock, and bring him home
and dress it; but as I was going, I saw a she-goat lying down in the
shade, and two young kids sitting by her. I catched hold of Friday.
"Hold," says I, "stand still," and made signs to him not to stir.
Immediately I presented my piece, shot and killed one of the kids. The
poor creature, who had, at a distance indeed, seen me kill the savage,
his enemy, but did not know, or could imagine, how it was done, was
sensibly surprised, trembled and shook, and looked so amazed, that I
thought he would have sunk down. He did not see the kid I had shot at,
or perceive I had killed it, but ripped up his waistcoat to feel if he
was not wounded; and, as I found presently, thought I was resolved to
kill him; for he came and kneeled down to me, and embracing my knees,
said a great many things I did not understand; but I could easily see
that the meaning was to pray me not to kill him.

I soon found a way to convince him that I would do him no harm; and
taking him up by the hand, laughed at him, and pointing to the kid which
I had killed, beckoned to him to run and fetch it, which he did; and
while he was wondering, and looking to see how the creature was killed,
I loaded my gun again; and by and by I saw a great fowl, like a hawk,
sit upon a tree, within shot; so, to let Friday understand a little what
I would do, I called him to me again, pointing at the fowl, which was
indeed a parrot, though I thought it had been a hawk; I say, pointing to
the parrot, and to my gun, and to the ground under the parrot, to let
him see I would make it fall, I made him understand that I would shoot
and kill that bird. Accordingly I fired, and bade him look, and
immediately he saw the parrot fall. He stood like one frighted again,
notwithstanding all I had said to him; and I found he was the more
amazed, because he did not see me put anything into the gun, but thought
that there must be some wonderful fund of death and destruction in that
thing, able to kill man, beast, bird, or anything near or far off and
the astonishment this created in him was such as could not wear off for
a long time; and I believe, if I would have let him, he would have
worshipped me and my gun. As for the gun itself, he would not so much as
touch it for several days after; but would speak to it, and talk to it,
as if it had answered him, when he was by himself; which, as I
afterwards learned of him, was to desire it not to kill him.

Well, after his astonishment was a little over at this, I pointed to him
to run and fetch the bird I had shot, which he did, but stayed some
time; for the parrot, not being quite dead, was fluttered a good way off
from where she fell. However, he found her, took her up, and brought her
to me; and as I had perceived his ignorance about the gun before, I took
this advantage to charge the gun again, and not let him see me do it,
that I might be ready for any other mark that might present. But nothing
more offered at that time; so I brought home the kid, and the same
evening I took the skin off, and cut it out as well as I could; and
having a pot for that purpose, I boiled or stewed some of the flesh, and
made some very good broth; and after I had begun to eat some, I gave
some to my man, who seemed very glad of it, and liked it very well; but
that which was strangest to him, was to see me eat salt with it. He made
a sign to me that the salt was not good to eat, and putting a little
into his own mouth, he seemed to nauseate it, and would spit and sputter
at it, washing his mouth with fresh water after it. On the other hand, I
took some meat in my mouth without salt, and I pretended to spit and
sputter for want of salt, as fast as he had done at the salt. But it
would not do; he would never care for salt with his meat or in his
broth; at least, not a great while, and then but very little.

Having thus fed him with boiled meat and broth, I was resolved to feast
him the next day with roasting a piece of the kid. This I did by hanging
it before the fire in a string, as I had seen many people do in England,
setting two poles up, one on each side of the fire, and one across on
the top, and tying the string to the cross stick, letting the meat turn
continually. This Friday admired very much. But when he came to taste
the flesh, he took so many ways to tell me how well he liked it, that I
could not but understand him; and at last he told me he would never eat
man's flesh any more, which I was very glad to hear.

The next day I set him to work to beating some corn out, and sifting it
in the manner I used to do, as I observed before; and he soon understood
how to do it as well as I, especially after he had seen what the meaning
of it was, and that it was to make bread of; for after that I let him
see me make my bread, and bake it too; and in a little time Friday was
able to do all the work for me, as well as I could do it myself.

I began now to consider that, having two mouths to feed instead of one,
I must provide more ground for my harvest, and plant a larger quantity
of corn than I used to do; so I marked out a larger piece of land, and
began to fence in the same manner before, in which Friday not only
worked very willingly and very hard, but did it very cheerfully; and I
told him what it was for; that it was for corn to make more bread,
because he was now with me, and that I might have enough for him and
myself too. He appeared very sensible of that part, and let me know that
he thought I had much more labor upon me on his account than I had for
myself; and that he would work the harder for me, if I would tell him
what to do.

This was the pleasantest year of all the life I led in this place.
Friday began to talk pretty well, and understand the names of almost
everything I had occasion to call for, and of every place I had to send
him to, and talk a great deal to me; so that, in short, I began now to
have some use for my tongue again, which, indeed, I had very little
occasion for before, that is to say, about speech. Besides the pleasure
of talking to him, I had a singular satisfaction in the fellow himself.
His simple, unfeigned honesty appeared to me more and more every day,
and I began really to love the creature; and, on his side, I believe he
loved me more than it was possible for him ever to love anything before.

I had a mind once to try if he had any hankering inclination to his own
country again; and having learned him English so well that he could
answer me almost any questions, I asked him whether the nation that he
belonged to never conquered in battle? At which he smiled, and said,
"Yes, yes, we always fight the better;" that is, he meant, always get
the better in fight; and so we began the following discourse: "You
always fight the better," said I. "How came you to be taken prisoner
then, Friday?"

Friday. - My nation beat much for all that.

Master. - How beat? If your nation beat them, how came you to be taken?

Friday. - They more many than my nation in the place where me was; they
take one, two, three, and me. My nation overbeat them in the yonder
place, where me no was; there my nation take one, two, great thousand.

Master. - But why did not your side recover you from the hands of your
enemies, then?

Friday. - They run one, two, three, and me, and make go in the canoe; my
nation have no canoe that time.

Master. - Well, Friday, and what does your nation do with the men they
take? Do they carry them away and eat them, as these did?

Friday. - Yes, my nation eat mans too; eat all up.

Master. - Where do they carry them?

Friday. - Go to other place, where they think.

Master. - Do they come hither?

Friday. - Yes, yes, they come hither; come other else place.

Master. - Have you been here with them?

Friday. - Yes, I been here. (Points to the NW. side of the island,
which, it seems, was their side.)

By this I understood that my man Friday had formerly been among the
savages who used to come on shore on the farther part of the island, on
the same man-eating occasions that he was now brought for; and, some
time after, when I took the courage to carry him to that side, being the
same I formerly mentioned, he presently knew the place, and told me he
was there once when they eat up twenty men, two women, and one child. He
could not tell twenty in English, but he numbered them by laying so many
stones on a row, and pointing to me to tell them over.

I have told this passage, because it introduces what follows: that after
I had had this discourse with him, I asked him how far it was from our
island to the shore, and whether the canoes were not often lost. He told
me there was no danger, no canoes ever lost; but that, after a little
way out to the sea, there was a current and a wind, always one way in
the morning, the other in the  afternoon.

This I understood to be no more than the sets of the tide, as going out
or coming in; but I afterwards understood it was occasioned by the great
draught and reflux of the mighty river Oroonoko, in the mouth or the
gulf of which river, as I found afterwards, our island lay; and this
land which I perceived to the W. and NW. was the great island Trinidad,
on the north point of the mouth of the river. I asked Friday a thousand
questions about the country, the inhabitants, the sea, the coast, and
what nations were near. He told me all he knew, with the greatest
openness imaginable. I asked him the names of the several nations of his
sort of people, but could get no other name than Caribs; from whence I
easily understood that these were the Caribbees, which our maps place on
the part of America which reaches from the mouth of the River Oroonoko
to Guiana, and onwards to St. Martha. He told me that up a great way
beyond the moon, that was, beyond the setting of the moon, which must be
W. from their country, there dwelt white-bearded men, like me, and
pointed to my great whiskers, which I mentioned before; and they had
killed much mans, that was his word; by all which I understood he meant
the Spaniards, whose cruelties in America had been spread over the whole
countries, and was remember by all the nations father to son.

I inquired if he could tell me how I might come from this island and get
among those white men. He told me, "Yes, yes, I might go in two canoe."
I could riot understand what he meant, or make him describe to me what
he meant by two canoe; till at last, with great difficulty, I found he
meant it must be in a large great boat, as big as two canoes.

This part of Friday's discourse began to relish with me very well; and
from this time I entertained some hopes that, one time or other, I might
find an opportunity to make my escape from this place, and that this
poor savage might be a means to help me to do it.

During the long time that Friday had now been with me, and that he began
to sepak to me, and understand me, I was not wanting to lay a foundation
of religious knowledge in his mind; particularly I asked him one time,
Who made him? The poor creature did not understand me at all, but
thought I had asked who was his father. But I took it by another handle,
and asked him who made the sea, the ground we walked on, and the hills
and woods? He told me it was one old Benamuckee, that lived beyond all.
He could describe nothing of this great person, but that he was very
old, much older, he said, than the sea or the land, than the moon or the
stars, I asked him then, if this old person had made all things, why did
not all things worship him? He looked very grave, and with a perfect
look of innocence said, "All things do say O to him." I asked him if the
people who die in his country went away anywhere? He said, "Yes, they
all went to Benamuckee." Then I asked him whether these they eat up went
thither too? He said "Yes."

From these things I began to instruct him in the knowledge of the true
God. I told him that the great Maker of all things lived up there,
pointing up towards heaven; that He governs the world by the same power
and providence by which he made it; that he was omnipotent, could do
everything for us, give everything to us, take everything from us; and
thus, by degrees, I opened his eyes. He listened with great attention,
and received with pleasure the notion of Jesus Christ being sent to
redeem us, and of the manner of making our prayers to God, and His being
able to hear us, even into heaven. He told me one day that if our God
could hear us up beyond the sun, He must needs be a greater God than
their Benamuckee, who lived but a little way off, and yet could not hear
till they went up to the great mountains where he dwelt to speak to him.
I asked him if he ever went thither to speak to him? He said, "No;" they
never went that were young men; none went but the old men, whom he
called their Oowokakee, that is, as I made him explain it to me, their
religious or clergy; and that they went to say O (so he called saying
prayers), and then came back, and told them what Benamuckee said. By
this I observed that there is priest-craft even amongst the most
blinded, ignorant pagans in the world; and the policy of making a secret
religion in order to preserve the veneration of the people to the clergy
is not only to be found in the Roman, but perhaps among all religions in
the world, even among the most brutish and barbarous savages.

I endeavored to clear up this fraud to my man Friday, and told him that
the pretence of their old men going up to the mountains to say O to
their god Benamuckee was a cheat, and their bringing word from thence
what he said was much more so; that if they met with any answer, or
spoke with any one there, it must be with an evil spirit; and then I
entered into a long discourse with him about the devil, the original of
him, his rebellion against God, his enmity to man, the reason of it, his
setting himself up in the dark parts of the world to be worshipped
instead of God, and as God, and the many stratagems he made use of to
delude mankind to their ruin; how he had a secret access to our passions
and to our affections, to adapt his snares so to our inclinations, as to
cause us even to be our own tempters, and to run upon our destruction by
our own choice.

I found it was not so easy to imprint right notions in his mind about
the devil, as it was about the being of a God. Nature assisted all my
arguments to evidence to him even the necessity of a great First Cause
and overruling, governing Power, a secret directing Providence, and of
the 6quity and justice of paying homage to Him that made us, and the
like. But there appeared nothing of all this in the notion of an evil
spirit; of his original, his being, his nature, and above all, of his
inclination to do evil, and to draw us in to do so too; and the poor
creature puzzled me once in such a manner by a question merely natural
and innocent, that I scarcely knew what to say to him. I had been
talking a great deal to him of the power of God, His omnipotence, His
dreadful aversion to sin, His being a consuming fire to the workers of
iniquity; how, as He had made us all, He could destroy us and all the
world in a moment; and he listened with great seriousness to me all the
while.

After this I had been telling him how the devil was God's enemy in the
hearts of men, and used all his malice and skill to defeat the good
designs of Providence, and to ruin the kingdom of Christ in the world,
and the like. "Well," says Friday, "but you say God is so strong, so
great; is He not much strong, much might as the devil?" "Yes, yes," says
I, "Friday, God is stronger than the devil; God is above the devil, and
therefore we pray to God to tread him down under our feet, and enable us
to resist his temptations, and quench his fiery darts." "But," says he
again, "ifGod much strong, much might as the devil, why God no kill the
devil, so make him no more do wicked?"

I was strangely surprised at his question; and after all, though I was
now an old man, yet I was but a young doctor, and ill enough qualified
for a causist, or a solver of difficulties; and at first I could not
tell what to say; so I pretended not to hear him, and asked him what he
said. But he was too earnest for an answer to forget his question, so
that he repeated it in the very same broken words as above. By this time
I had recovered myself a little, and I said, "God will punish him
severely; he is reserved for the judgment, and is to be cast into the
bottomless pit, to dwell with everlasting fire." This did not satisfy
Friday; but he returns upon me, repeating my words, "Reserve at last! me
no understand; but why not kill the devil now? not kill great ago?" "You
may as well ask me," said I, "why God does not kill you and I, when we
do wicked things here that offend Him; we are preserved to repent and be
pardoned." He muses awhile at this. "Well, well," says he, mighty
affectionately, "that well; so you, I, devil, all wicked, all preserve,
repent, God pardon all." Here I was run down again by him to the last
degree, and it was a testimony to me how the mere notions of nature,
though they will guide reasonable creatures to the knowledge of a God,
and of a worship or homage due to the supreme being of God, as the
consequence of our nature, yet nothing by Divine revelation can from the
knowledge of Jesus Christ, and of a redemption purchased for us, of a
Mediator of the new covenant, and of an Intercessor at the footstool of
God's throne; I say, nothing but a revelation from heaven can form these
in the soul, and that therefore the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, I mean the Word of God, and the Spirit of God, promised for the
guide and sanctifier of His people, are the absolutely necessary
instructors of the souls of men in the saving knowledge of God, and the
means of salvation.

I therefore diverted the present discourse between me and my man, rising
up hastily, as upon some sudden occasion of going out; then sending him
for something a good way off, I seriously prayed to God that He would
enable me to instruct savingly this poor savage, assisting, by His
Spirit, the heart of the poor ignorant creature to receive the light of
the knowledge of God in Christ, reconciling him to Himself, and would
guide me to speak so to him from the Word of God as his conscience might
be convinced, his eyes opened, and his soul saved. When he came again to
me, I entered into a long discourse with him upon the subject of
redemption of man by the Saviour of the world, and of the doctrine of
the Gospel preached from heaven, viz., of repentance towards God, and
faith in our blessed Lord Jesus. I then explained to him as well as I
could why our blessed Redeemer took not on Him the nature of angels, but
the seed of Abraham; and how, for that reason, the fallen angels had no
share in the redemption; that He came only to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel, and the like.

I had, God knows, more sincerity than knowledge in all the methods I
took for this poor creature's instruction, and must acknowledge, what I
believe all that act upon the same principle will find, that in laying
things open to him, I really informed and instructed myself in many
things that either I did not know, or had not fully considered before,
but which occurred naturally to my mind upon searching into them for the
information of this poor savage. And I had more affection in my inquiry
after things upon this occasion than ever I felt before; so that whether
this poor wild wretch was the better for me or no, I had great reason to
be thankful that ever he came to me. My grief set lighter upon me, my
habitation grew comfortable to me beyond measure; and when I reflected
that in this solitary life which I had been confined to, I had not only
been moved myself to look up to heaven, and to seek to the Hand that had
brought me there, but was now to be made an instrument, under
Providence, to save the life, and, for aught I know, the soul of a poor
savage, and bring him to the true knowledge of religion, and of the
Christian doctrine, that he might know Christ Jesus, to know whom is
life eternal; -I say, when I reflected upon all these things, a secret
joy run through every part of my soul, and I frequently rejoiced that
ever I was brought to this place, which I had so often thought the most
dreadful of all afflictions that could possibly have befallen me.

In this thankful frame I continued all the remainder of my time, and the
conversation which employed the hours between Friday and I was such as
made the three years which we lived there together perfectly and
completely happy, if any such thing as complete happiness can be formed
in a sublunary state. The savage was now a good Christian, a much better
than I; though I have reason to hope, and bless God for it, that we were
equally penitent, and comforted, restored penitents. We had here the
Word of God to read, and no farther off from His Spirit to instruct than
if we had been in England.

I always applied myself to reading the Scripture, to let him know, as
well as I could, the meaning of what I read; and he again, by his
serious inquiries and questions, made me, as I said before, a much
better scholar in the Scripture-knowledge than I should ever have been
by my own private mere reading. Another thing I cannot refrain from
observing here also, from the experience in this retired part of my
life, viz., how infinite and inexpressible a blessing it is that the
knowledge of God, and the doctrine of salvation of Christ Jesus, is so
plainly laid down in the Word of God, so easy to be received and
understood; that as the bare reading the Scripture made me capable of
understanding enough of my duty to carry me directly on to the great
work of sincere repentance for my sins, and laying hold of a Saviour for
life and salvation, to a stated reformation in practice, and obedience
to all God's commands, and this without any teacher or instructor (I
mean human); so the same plain instruction sufficiently served to the
enlightening this savage creature, and bringing him to be such a
Christian, as I have known few equal to him in my life.

As to all the disputes, wranglings, strife, and contention which has
happened in the world about religion, whether niceties in doctrines or
schemes of Church government, they were all perfectly useless to us; as,
for aught I can yet see, they have been to all the rest in the world. We
had the sure guide to heaven, viz., the Word of God; and we had, blessed
by God! comfortable views of the Spirit of God teaching and instructing
us by His Word, leading us into all truth, and making us both willing
and obedient to the instruction of His Word; and I cannot see the least
use that the greatest knowledge of the disputed points in religion,
which have made such confusions in the world, would have been to us if
we could have obtained it. But I must go on with the historical part of
things, and take every part in its order.

After Friday and I became more intimately acquainted, and that he could
understand almost all I said to him, and speak fluently, though in
broken English, to me, I acquainted him with my own story, or at least
so much of it as related to my coming into the place; how I had lived
there, and how long. I let him into the mystery, for such it was to him,
of gunpowder and bullet, and taught him how to shoot; I gave him a
knife, which he was wonderfully delighted with, and I made him a belt,
with a frog hanging to it, such as in England we wear hangers in; and in
the frog, instead of a hanger, I gave him a hatchet, which was not only
as good a weapon, in some cases, but much more useful upon other
occasions.

I described to him the country of Europe, and particularly England,
which I came from; how we lived, how we worshipped God, how we behaved
to one another, and how we traded in ships to all parts of the world. I
gave him an account of the wreck which I had been on board of, and
showed him, as near as I could, the place where she lay; but she was all
beaten in pieces before, and gone.

I showed him the ruins of our boat, which we lost when we escaped, and
which I could not stir with my whole strength then, but was now fallen
almost all to pieces. Upon seeing this boat, Friday stood musing a great
while, and said nothing. I asked him what it was he studied upon. At
last says he, "Me see such boat like come to place at my nation."

I did not understand him a good while; but at last, when I had examined
further into it, I understood by him that a boat such as that had been,
came on shore upon the country where he lived; that is, as he explained
it, was driven thither by stress of weather. I presently imagined that
some European ship must have been cast away upon their coast, and the
boat might get loose and drive ashore; but was so dull that I never once
thought of men making escape from a wreck thither, much less whence they
might come; so I only inquired after a description of the boat.

Friday described the boat to me well enough; but brought me better to
understand him when he added with some warmth, "We save the white mans
from drown." Then I presently asked him if there was any white mans, as
he called them, in the boat. "Yes," he said, "the boat full of white
mans." I asked him how many. He told upon his fingers seventeen. I asked
him then what became of them. He told me, "They live, they dwell at my
nation."

This put new thoughts into my head; for I presently imagined that these
might be the men belonging to the ship that was cast away in sight of my
island, as I now call it; and who, after the ship was struck on the
rock, and they saw her inevitably lost, had saved themselves in their
boat, and were landed upon that wild shore among the savages.

Upon this I inquired of him more critically what was become of them. He
assured me they lived still there; that they had been there about four
years; that the savages let them alone, and gave them victuals to live.
I asked him how it came to pass they did not kill them, and eat them. He
said, "No, they make brother with them;" that is, as I understood him, a
truce; and then he added, "They no eat mans but when make the war
fight;" that is to say, they never eat any men but such as come to fight
with them and are taken in battle.

It was after this some considerable time that being on the top of the
hill, at the east side of the island (from whence, as I have said, I had
in a clear day, discovered the main or continent of America), Friday,
the weather being very serene, looks very earnestly towards the
mainland, and, in a kind of surprise, falls a-jumping and dancing, and
calls out to me, for I was at some distance from him. I asked him what
was the matter. "O joy!" says he, "O glad! there see my country, there
my nation."

I observed an extraordinary sense of pleasure appeared in his face, and
his eyes sparkled, and his countenance discovered a strange eagerness,
as if he had a mind to be in his own country again; and this observation
of mine put a great many thoughts into me, which made me at first not so
easy about my new man Friday as I was before; and I made no doubt but
that if Friday could get back to his own nation again, he would not only
forget all his religion, but all his obligation to me; and woud be
forward enough to give his countrymen an account of me, and come back
perhaps with a hundred or two of them, and make a feast upon me, at
which he might be as merry as he used to be with those of his enemies,
when they were taken in war.

But I wronged the poor honest creature very much, for which I was very
sorry afterwards. However, as my jealousy increased, and held me some
weeks, I was a little more circumspect, and not so familiar and kind to
him as before; in which I was certainly in the wrong too, the honest,
grateful creature having no thought about it but what consisted with the
best principles, both as a religious Christian and as a grateful friend,
as appeared afterwards to my full satisfaction.

While my jealousy of him lasted, you may be sure I was every day pumping
him, to see if he would discover any of the new thoughts which I
suspected were in him; but I found everything he said was so honest and
so innocent that I could find nothing to nourish my suspicion; and, in
spite of all my uneasiness, he made me at last entirely his own again,
nor did he in the least perceive that I was uneasy, and therefore I
could not suspect him of deceit.

One day, walking up the same hill, but the weather being hazy at sea, so
that we could not see the continent, I called to him, and said, "Friday,
do not you wish yourself in your own country, your own nation?" "Yes,"
he said, "I be much O glad to be at my own nation." What would you do
there?" said I. "Would you turn wild again, eat men's flesh again, and
be a savage as you were before?" He looked full of concern, and shaking
his head said, "No, no; Friday tell them to live good; tell them to pray
God; tell them to eat corn-bread, cattle flesh, milk, no eat man again."
"Why then," said I to him, "they will kill you." He looked grave at
that, and then said, "No, they no kill me, they willing love learn." He
meant by this they would be willing to learn. He added, they learned
much of the bearded mans that come in the boat. Then I asked him if he
would go back to them. He smiled at that, and told me he could not swim
so far. I told him I would make a canoe for him. He told me he would go,
if I would go with him. "I go!" says I; "why, they will eat me if I come
there." "No, no," says he, "me make they no eat you; me make they much
love you." He meant, he would tell them how I killed his enemies, and
saved his life, and so he would make them love me. Then he told me, as
well as he could, how kind they were to seventeen white men, or bearded
men, as he called them, who came on shore there in distress.

From this time I confess I had a mind to venture over, and see if I
could possibly join with these bearded men, who, I made on doubt, were
Spanish or Portuguese; not doubting but, if I could, we might find some
method to escape from thence, being upon the continent, and a good
company together, better than I could from an island forty miles off the
shore, and alone, without help. So, after some days, I took Friday to
work again, by way of discourse, and told him I would give him a boat to
go back to his own nation; and accordingly I carried him to my frigate,
which lay on the other side of the island, and having cleared it of
water, for I always kept it sunk in the water, I brought it out, showed
it to him, and we both went into it.

I found he was a most dexterous fellow at managing it, would make it go
almost as swift and fast again as I could. So when he was in I said to
him, "Well now, Friday, shall we go to your nation?" He looked very dull
at my saying so, which, it seems, was because he thought the boat too
small to go so far. I told him then I had a bigger; so the next day I
went to the place where the first boat lay which I had made, but which I
could not get into water. He said that was big enough; but then, as I
had taken no care of it, and it had lain two or three and twenty years
there, the sun had split and dried it, that it was in a manner rotten.
Friday told me such a boat would do very well, and would carry "much
enough victual, drink, bread;" that was his way of talking.

Upon the whole, I was by this time so fixed upon my design of going over
with him to the continent that I told him we would go and make one as
big as that, and he should go home in it. He answered not one word, but
looked very grave and sad. I asked him what was the matter with him. He
asked me again thus: "Why you angry mad with Friday? What me done?" I
asked him what he meant. I told him I was not angry with him at all. "No
angry! no angry!" says he, repeated the words several times. "Why send
Friday home away to my nation?" "Why," says I, "Friday, did you not say
you wished you were there?" "Yes, yes," says he, "wish be both there, no
wish Friday there, no master there." In a word, he would not think of
going there without me. "I go there, Friday!" says I; "what shall I do
there?" He turned very quick upon me at this. "You do great deal much
good," says he; "you teach wild mans to be good, sober, tame mans; you
tell them know God, pray God, and live new life." "Alas! Friday," says
I, "thou knowest not what thou sayest. I am but an ignorant man myself."
"Yes, yes," says he, "you teachee me good, you teachee them good." "No,
no, Friday," says I, "you shall go without me; leave me here to live by
myself, as I did before." He looked confused again at that word, and
running to one of the hatchets which he used to wear, he takes it up
hastily, comes and gives it to me. "What must I do with this?" says I to
him. "You take kill Friday," says he. "What must I kill you for?" said I
again. He returns very quick, "What you send Friday away for? Take kill
Friday, no send Friday away." This he spoke so earnestly that I saw
tears stand in his eyes. In a word, I so plainly discovered the utmost
affection in him to me, and a firm resolution in him, that I told him
then, and often after, that I would never send him away from me if he
was willing to stay with me.

Upon the whole, as I found by all his discourse a settled affection to
me, and that nothing should part him from me, so I found all the
foundation of his desire to go to his own country was laid in his ardent
affection to the people, and his hopes of my doing them good; a thing
which, as I had no notion of myself, so I had not the least thought or
intention or desire of undertaking it. But still I found a strong
inclination to my attempting an escape, as above, founded on the
supposition gathered from the discourse, viz., that there were seventeen
bearded men there; and, therefore, without any more delay I went to work
with Friday, to find out a great tree proper to fell, and make a large
periagua, or canoe, to undertake the voyage. There were trees enough in
the island to have built a little fleet, not of periaguas and canoes,
but even of good large vessels. But the main thing I looked at was, to
get one so near the water that we might launch it when it was made, to
avoid the mistake I committed at first.

At last Friday pitched upon a tree, for I found he knew much better than
I what kind of wood was fittest for it; nor can I tell, to this day,
what wood to call the tree we cut down, except that it was very like the
tree we call fustic, or between that and the Nicaragua wood, for it was
much of the same color and smell. Friday was for burning the hollow or
cavity of this tree out, to make it for a boat, but I showed him how
rather to cut it out with tools; which, after I had showed him how to
use, he did very handily; and in about a month's hard labor we finished
it, and made it very handsome; especially when, with our axes, which I
showed him how to handle, we cut and hewed the outside into the true
shape of a boat. After this, however, it cost us near a fortnight's time
to get her along, as it were, inch by inch, upon great rollers into the
water; but when she was in, she would have carried twenty men with great
ease.

When she was in the water, and though she was so big, it amazed me to
see with what dexterity, and how swift my man Friday would manage her,
turn her, and paddle her along. So I asked him if he would, and if we
might venture over in her. "Yes," he said, "he venture over in her very
well, though great blow wind." However, I had a farther design that he
knew nothing of, and that was to make a mast and sail, and to fit her
with an anchor and cable. As to a mast, that was easy enough to get; so
I pitched upon a straight young cedar-tree, which I found near the
place, and which there was great plenty of in the island; and I set
Friday to work to cut it down, and gave him directions how to shape and
order it. But as to the sail, that was my particular care. I knew I had
old sails, or rather pieces of old sails enough; but as I had had them
now twenty-six years by me, and had not been very careful to preserve
them, not imagining that I should ever have this kind of use for them, I
did not doubt but they were all rotten, and, indeed, most of them were
so. However, I found two pieces which appeared pretty good, and with
these I went to work, and with a great deal of pains, and awkward
tedious stitching (you may be sure) for want of needles, I, at length,
made a three-cornered ugly thing, like what we call in England a
shoulder-of-mutton sail, to go with a boom at bottom, and a little short
sprit at the top, such as usually our ship's longboats sail with, and
such as best knew how to manage; because it was such a one as I had to
the boat in which I made my escape from Barbary, as related in the first
part of my story.

I was near two months performing this last work, viz., rigging and
fitting my masts and sails; for I finished them very complete, making a
small stay, and a sail, or foresail, to it, to assist, if we should turn
to windward; and, which was more than all, I fixed a rudder to the stern
of her to steer with; and though I was but a bungling shipwright, yet as
I knew the usefulness, and even necessity, of such a thing, I applied
myself with so much pains to do it, that at last I brought it to pass;
though, considering the many dull contrivances I had for it that failed,
I think it cost me almost as much labor as making the boat.

After all this was done, too, I had my man Friday to teach as to what
belonged to the navigation of my boat; for though he knew very well how
to paddle a canoe, he knew nothing what belonged to a sail and a rudder;
and was the most amazed when he saw me work the boat to and again in the
sea by the rudder, and how the sail jabbed, and filled this way, or that
way, as the course we sailed changed; I say, when he saw this, he stood
like one astonished and amazed. However, with a little use I made all
these things familiar to him, and he became an expert sailor, except
that as to the compass I could make him understand very little of that.
On the other hand, as there was very little cloudy weather, and seldom
or never any fogs in those parts, there was the less occasion for a
compass, seeing the stars were always to be seen by night, and the shore
by day, except in the rainy season, and then nobody cared to stir
abroad, either by land or sea.

I was now entered on the seven and twentieth year of my captivity in
this place; though the three last years that I had this creature with me
ought rather to be left out of the account, my habitation being quite of
another kind than in all the rest of the time. I kept the anniversary of
my landing here with the same thankfulness to God for His mercies as at
first; and if I had such cause of acknowledgment at first, I had much
more so now, having such additional testimonies of the care of
Providence over me, and the great hopes I had of being effectually and
speedily delivered; for I had an invincible impression upon my thoughts
that my deliverance was at hand, and that I should not be another year
in this place. However, I went on with my husbandry, digging, planting,
fencing, as usual. I gathered and cured my grapes, and did every
necessary thing as before.

The rainy season was, in the meantime, upon me, when I kept more within
doors than at any other times; so I had stowed our new vessel as secure
as we could, bringing her up into the creek, where, as I said in the
beginning, I landed my rafts from the ship; and hauling her up to the
shore at high-water mark, I made my man Friday dig a little dock, just
big enough to hold her, and just deep enough to give her water enough to
float in, and then, when the tide was out, we made a strong dam across
the end of it, to keep the water out; and so she lay dry, as to the
tide, from the sea; and to keep the rain off, we laid a great many
boughs of trees, so thick, that she was well thatched as a house; and
thus we waited for the month of November and December, in which I
designed to make my adventure.

When the settled season began to come in, as the thought of my designed
returned with the fair weather, I was preparing daily for the voyage;
and the first thing I did was to lay by a certain quantity of
provisions, being the stores for our voyage; and intended, in a week or
a fortnight's time, to open the dock, and launch out our boat. I was
busy one morning upon something of this kind, when I called to Friday,
and bid him go to the sea-shore and see if he could find a turtle, or
tortoise, a thing which we generally got once a week, for the sake of
the eggs as well as the flesh. Friday had not been long gone when he
came running back, and flew over my outer wall, or fence, like one that
felt not the ground, or the steps he set his feet on; and before I had
time to speak to him, he cries out to me, "O master! O master! O sorrow!
O bad!" "What's the matter, Friday?" says I. "O yonder, there," says he,
"one, two, three canoe! one, two, three!" By his way of speaking, I
concluded there were six; but on inquiry, I found it was but three.
"Well, Friday," says I, "do not be frighted." So I heartened him up as
well as I could. However, I saw the poor fellow was most terribly
scared; for nothing ran in his head but that they were come to look for
him, and would cut him in pieces, and eat him; and the poor fellow
trembled so that I scarce knew what to do with him. I comforted him as
well as I could, and told him I was in as much danger as he, and that
they would eat me as well as him. "But," says I, "Friday, we must
resolve to fight them. Can you fight, Friday?" "Me shoot," say he; "but
there come many great number." No matter for that," said I again; "our
guns will fright them that we do not kill." So I asked him whether, if I
resolved to defend him, he would defend me, and stand by me, and do just
as I bid him. He said, "Me die when you bid die, master." So I went and
fetched a good dram of rum, and gave him; for I had been so good a
husband of my rum that I had a great deal left. When he had drank it, I
made him take the two fowling-pieces, which we always carried, and load
them with large swan-shot, as big as small pistol-bullets. Then I took
four muskets, and loaded them with two slugs and five small bullets
each; and my two pistols I loaded with a brace of bullets each. I hung
my great sword, as usual, naked, by my side, and gave Friday his
hatchet.

When I had thus prepared myself, I took my perspective-glass and went up
to the side of the hill to see what I could discover; and I found
quickly, by my glass, that there were one-and-twenty savages, three
prisoners, and three canoes, and that their whole business seemed to be
the triumphant banquet upon these three human bodies; a barbarous feast
indeed, but nothing more than, as I had observed, was usual with them.

I observed also that they were landed, not where they had done when
Friday made his escape, but nearer to my creek, where the shore was low,
and where a thick wood came close almost down to the sea. This, with the
abhorrence of the inhuman errand these wretches came about, filled me
with such indignation that I came down again to Friday, and told him I
was resolved to go down to them, and kill them all, and asked him if he
would stand by me. He was now gotten over his fright, and his spirits
being a little raised with the dram I had given him, he was very
cheerful, and told me, as before, he would die when I bid die.

In this fit of fury, I took first and divided the arms which I had
charge, as before, between us. I gave Friday one pistol to stick in his
girdle, and three guns upon his shoulder; and I took one pistol, and the
other three myself, and in this posture we marched out. I took a small
bottle of rum in my pocket, and gave Friday a large bag with more powder
and bullet; and as to orders I charged him to keep close behind me, and
not to stir, or shoot, or do anything, till I bid him, and in the
meantime not to speak a word. In this posture I fetched a compass to my
right hand of near a mile, as well to got over the creek as to get into
the wood, so that I might come within shot of them before I should be
discovered, which I had seen, by my glass, it was easy to do.

While I was making this march, my former thoughts returning, I began to
abate my resolution. I do not mean that I entertained any fear of their
number; for as they were naked, unarmed wretches, It is certain I was
superior to them; nay, though I had been alone. But it occurred to my
thoughts what call, what occasion, much less what necessity, I was in to
go and dip my hands in blood, to attack people who had neither done or
intended me any wrong; who, as to me, were innocent, and whose barbarous
customs were their own disaster; being in them a token, indeed, of God's
having left them, with the other nations of that part of the world, to
such stupidity, and to such inhuman courses; but did not call me to take
upon me to be a judge of their actions, much less an executioner of His
justice; that whenever He thought fit, He would take the cause into His
own hands, and by national vengeance, punish them, as a people, for
national crimes; but that, in the meantime, it was none of my business;
that, it was true, Friday might justify it, because he was a declared
enemy, and in a state of war with those very particular people, and it
was lawful for him to attack them; but I could not say the same with
respect to me. These things were so warmly pressed upon my thoughts all
the way as I went, that I resolved I would only go and place myself near
them, that I might observe their barbarous feast, and that I would act
then as God should direct; but that, unless something offered that was
more a call to me than yet I knew of, I would not meddle with them.

With this resolution I entered the wood, and with all possible wariness
and silence, Friday following close at my heels, I marched till I came
to the skirt the wood, on the side which was next to them; only that one
corner of the wood lay between me and them. Here I called softly to
Friday, and showing him a great tree, which was just at the corner of
the wood, I bade him go to the tree and bring me word if he could see
there plainly what they were doing. He did so, and came immediately back
to me, and told me they might be plainly viewed there; that they were
all about their fire, eating the flesh of one of their prisoners, and
that another lay bound upon the sand, a little from them, which, he
said, they would kill next, and, which fired all the very soul within
me, he told me it was not one of their nation, but one of the bearded
men, whom he had told me of, that came to their country in the boat. I
was filled with horror at the very naming the white, bearded man; and,
going to the tree, I saw plainly, by my glass, a white man, who lay upon
the beach of the sea, with his hands and feet tied with flags, or things
like rushes, and that he was a European, and had clothes on.

There was another tree, and a little thicket beyond it, about fifty
years nearer to them than the place where I was, which, by going a
little way about, I saw I might come at undiscovered, and that then I
should be within half shot of them; so I withheld my passion, though I
was indeed enraged to the highest degree; and going back about twenty
paces, I got behind some bushes, which held all the way till I came to
the other tree; and then I came to a little rising ground, which gave me
a full view of them, at the distance of about eighty yards.

I had now not a moment to lose, for nineteen of the dreadful wretches
sat upon the ground, all close huddled together, and had just sent the
other two to butcher the poor Christian, and bring him, perhaps limb by
limb, to their fire; and they were stooped down to untie the bands at
this feet. I turned to Friday. "Now, Friday," said I, "do as I bid
thee." Friday said he would. "Then, Friday," says I, "do exactly as you
see me do; fail in nothing." So I set down one of the muskets and the
fowling-piece upon the ground, and Friday did the like by his; and with
the other musket took my aim at the savages, bidding him do the like.
Then asking him if he was ready, he said, "Yes." "Then fire at them,"
said I; and the same moment I fired also.

Friday took his aim so much better than I that on the side that he shot
he killed two of them, and wounded three more; and on my side I killed
one and wounded two. They were, you may be sure, in a dreadful
consternation; and all of them who were not hurt jumped up upon their
feet, but did not immediately know which way to run, or which way to
look, for they knew not from whence their destruction came. Friday kept
his eyes close upon me, that, as I had bid him, he might observe what I
did; so as soon as the first shot was made I threw down the piece, and
took up the fowling-piece, and Friday did the like. He sees me cock and
present; he did the same again. "Are you ready, Friday?" said I. "Yes,"
says he. "Let fly, then," says I, "in the name of God!" and with that I
fired again among the amazed wretches, and so did Friday; and as our
pieces were now loaded with what I called swan-shot, or small
pistol-bullets, were found only two drop, but so many were wounded that
they ran about yelling and screaming like mad creatures, all bloody, and
miserably wounded most of them; whereof three more fell quickly after,
though not quite dead.

"Now, Friday," says I, laying down the discharged pieces, and taking up
the musket which was yet loaded, "follow me," says I, which he did with
a great deal of courage; upon which I rushed out of the wood, and showed
myself, and Friday close at my foot. As soon as I perceived they saw me,
I shouted as loud as I could, and bade Friday to do so too; and running
as fast as I could, which, by the way, was not very fast, being loaden
with arms as I was, I made directly towards the poor victim, who was, as
I said, lying upon the beach, or shore, between the place where they sat
and the sea. The two butchers, who were just going to work with him, had
left him at the surprise of our first fire, and fled in a terrible
fright to the seaside, and had jumped into a canoe, and three more of
the rest made the same way. I turned to Friday, and bid him step
forwards and fire at them. He understood me immediately, and running
about forty yards, to be near them, he shot at them, and I thought he
had killed them all, for I saw them all fall of a heap into the boat;
though I saw two of them up again quickly. However, he killed two of
them and wounded the third, so that he lay down in the bottom of the
boat as if he had been dead.

While my man Friday fired at them, I pulled out my knife and cut the
flags that bound the poor victim; and loosing his hands and feet, I
lifted him up, and asked him in the Portuguese tongue what he was. He
answered in Latin, Christianus; but was so weak and faint that he could
scarce stand or speak. I took my bottle out of my pocket and gave it
him, making signs that he should drink, which he did; and I gave him a
piece of bread, which he eat. Then I asked him what countryman he was;
and he said, Espagniole; and being a little recovered, let me know, by
all the signs he could possibly make, how much he was in my debt for his
deliverance. "Seignior," said I, with as much Spanish as I could make
up, "we will talk afterwards, but we must fight now. If you have any
strength left, take this pistol and sword, and lay about you." He took
them very thankfully, and no sooner had he the arms in his hands but, as
if they had put new vigor into him, he flew upon his murderers like a
fury, and had cut two of them in pieces in an instant; for the truth is,
as the whole was a surprise to them, so the poor creatures were so much
frighted with the noise of our pieces that they fell down for mere
amazement and fear, and had no power to attempt their own escape than
their flesh had to resist our shot; and that was the case of those five
that Friday shot at in the boat; for as three of them fell with the hurt
they received, so the other two fell with the fright.

I kept my piece in my hand still without firing, being willing to keep
my charge ready, because I had given the Spaniard my pistol and sword.
So I called to Friday, and bade him run up to the tree from whence we
first fired, and fetch the arms which lay there that had been
discharged, which he did with great swiftness; and then giving him my
musket, I sat down myself to load all the rest again, and bade them come
to me when they wanted. While I was loading these pieces, there happened
a fierce engagement between the Spaniard and one of the savages, who
made at him with one of their great wooden swords, the same weapon that
was to have killed him before if I had not prevented it. The Spaniard,
who was as bold and brave as could be imagined, though weak, had fought
this Indian a good while, and had cut him two great wounds on his head;
but the savage being a stout, lusty fellow, closing in with him, had
thrown him down, being faint, and was wringing my sword out of his hand,
when the Spaniard, though undermost, wisely quitting the sword, drew the
pistol from his girdle, shot the savage through the body, and killed him
upon the spot, before I, who was running to help him, could come near
him.

Friday being now left to his liberty, pursued the flying wretches with
no weapon in his hand but his hatchet; and with that he despatched those
three who, as I said before, were wounded at first, and fallen, and all
the rest he could come up with; and the Spaniard coming to me for a gun,
I gave him one of the fowling-pieces, with which he pursued two of the
savages, and wounded them both; but as he was not able to run, they both
got from him into the wood, where Friday pursued them, and killed one of
them; but the other was too nimble for him, and though he was wounded,
yet had plunged himself into the sea, and swam with all his might off to
those two who were left in the canoe; which three in the canoe, with one
wounded, who we know not whether he died or no, were all that escaped
our hands of one and twenty. The account of the rest is as follows:

 3 killed at our first shot from the tree.

 2 killed at the next shot.

 2 killed by Friday in the boat.

 2 killed by ditto, of those at first wounded.

 1 killed by ditto in the wood.

 3 killed by the Spaniard.

 4 killed, being found dropped here and there of

   their wounds, or killed by Friday in his chase of them.

 4 escaped in the boat, whereof one wounded, if not dead.

--

21 in all.


Those that were in the canoe worked hard to get out of gunshot; and
though Friday made two or three shots at them, I did not find that he
hit any of them. Friday would fain have had me take one of their canoes,
and pursue them; and, indeed, I was very anxious about their escape,
lest carrying the news home to their people they should come back
perhaps with two or three hundred of their canoes, and devour us by mere
multitude. So I consented to pursue them by sea, and running to one of
their canoes I jumped in, and bade Friday to follow me. But when I was
in the canoe, I was surprised to find another poor creature lie there
alive, bound hand and foot, as the Spaniard was, for the slaughter, and
almost dead with fear, not knowing what the matter was; for he had not
been able to look up over the side of the boat, he was tied so hard,
neck and heels, and had been tied so long, that he had really but little
life in him.

I immediately cut the twisted flags or rushes, which they had bound him
with, and would have helped him up; but he could not stand or speak, but
groaned most piteously, believing, it seems, still that he was only
unbound in order to be killed.

When Friday came to him, I bade him speak to him, and tell him of his
deliverance; and pulling out my bottle, made him give the poor wretch a
dram; which, with the news of his being delivered, revived him, and he
sat up in the boat. But when Friday came to hear him speak, and look in
his face, it would have moved any one to tears to have seen how Friday
kissed him, embraced him, hugged him, cried, laughed, hallooed, jumped
about, danced, sung; then cried again, wrung his hands, beat his own
face and head, and then sung and jumped about again, like a distracted
creature. It was a good while before I could make him speak to me, or
tell me what was the matter; but when he came a little to himself, he
told me that it was his father.

It was not easy for me to express how it moved me to see what ecstasy
and filial affection had worked in this poor savage at the sight of his
father, and of his being delivered from death; nor, indeed, can I
describe half the extravagancies of his affection after this; for he
went into the boat, and out of the boat, a great many times. When he
went in to him, he would sit down by him, open his breast, and hold his
father's head close to his bosom, half an hour together, to nourish it;
then he took his arms and ankles, which were numbed and stiff with the
binding, and chafed and rubbed them with his hands; and I, perceiving
what the case was, gave him some rum out of my bottle to rub them with,
which did them a great deal of good.

This action put an end to our pursuit of the canoe with the other
savages who were now gotten almost out of sight; and it was happy for us
that we did not, for it blew so hard within two hours after, and before
they could be gotten a quarter of their way, and continued blowing so
hard all night, and that from the north-west, which was against them,
that I could not suppose their boat could live, or that they ever
reached to their own coast.

But to return to Friday. He was so busy about his father that I could
not find in my heart to take him off for some time; but after I thought
he could leave him a little, I called him to me, and he came jumping and
laughing, and pleased to the highest extreme. Then I asked him if he had
given his father any bread. He shook his head, and said, "None; ugly dog
eat all up self." So I gave him a cake of bread out of a little pouch I
carried on purpose. I also gave him a dram for himself, but he would not
taste it, but carried it to his father. I had in my pocket also two or
three bunches of my raisins, so I gave him a handful of them for his
father. He had no sooner given his father these raisins, but I saw him
come out of the boat and run away, as if he had been bewitched, he ran
as such a rate; for he was the swiftest fellow of his foot that ever I
saw. I say, he run at such a rate that he was out of sight, as it were,
in an instant; and though I called, and hallooed, too, after him, it was
all one, away he went; and in a quarter of an hour saw him come back
again, though not so fast as he went; and as he came nearer, I found his
pace was slacker, because he had something in his hand.

When he came up to me, I found he had been quite home for an earthen
jug, or pot, to bring his father some fresh water, and that he had got
two more cakes or loaves of bread. The bread he gave me, but the water
he carried to his father. However, as I was very thirsty too, I took a
little sip of it. This water revived his father more than all the rum or
spirits I had given him, for he was just fainting with thirst.

When his father had drank, I called to him to know if there was any
water left. He said, "Yes;" and I bade him give it to the poor Spaniard,
who was in as much want of it as his father; and I sent one of the
cakes, that Friday brought, to the Spaniard, too, who was indeed very
weak, and was reposing himself upon a green place under the shade of a
tree; and whose limbs were also very stiff, and very much swelled with
the rude bandage he been tied with. When I saw that upon Friday's coming
to him with the water he sat up and drank, and took the bread, and began
to eat. I went to him, and gave him a handful of raisins. He looked up
in my face with all the tokens of gratitude and thankfulness that could
appear in any countenance; but was so weak, notwithstanding he had so
exerted himself in the fight, that he could not stand up upon his feet.
He tried to do it two or three times, but was really not able, his
ankles were so swelled and so painful to him; so I bade him sit still,
and caused Friday to rub his ankles, and bathe them with rum, as he had
done his father's.

I observed the poor affectionate creature, every two minutes, or perhaps
less, all the while he was here, turn his head about to see if his
father was in the same place and posture as he left him sitting; and at
last he found he was not to be seen; at which he started up, and without
speaking a word, flew with that swiftness to him, that one could scarce
perceive his feet to touch the ground as he went. But when he came, he
only found he had laid himself down to ease his limbs; so Friday came
back to me presently, and I then spoke to the Spaniard to let Friday
help him up, if he could, and lead him to the boat, and then he should
carry him to our dwelling, where I would take care of him. But Friday, a
lusty strong fellow, took the Spaniard quite up upon his back, and
carried him away to the boat, and set him down softly upon the side of
gunnel of the canoe, with his feet in the inside of it, and then lifted
him quite in, and set him close to his father; and presently stepping
out again, launched the boat off, and paddled it along the shore faster
than I could walk, though the wind blew pretty hard, too. So he brought
them both safe into our creek, and leaving them in the boat, runs away
to fetch the other canoe. As he passed me, I spoke to him, and asked him
whither he went. He told me, "Go fetch more boat." So away he went like
the wind, for sure never man or horse ran like him; and he had the other
canoe in the creek almost as soon as I got to it by land; so he waf ted
me over, and then went to help our new guests out of the boat, which he
did; but they were neither of them able to walk, so that poor Friday
knew not what to do.

To remedy this I went to work in my thought, and calling to Friday to
bid them sit down on the bank while he came to me, I soon made a kind of
hand-barrow to lay them on, and Friday and I carried them up both
together upon it between us. But when we got them to the outside of our
wall, or fortification, we were at a worse loss than before, for it was
impossible to get them over, and I was resolved not to break it down. So
I set to work again; and Friday and I, in about two hours' time, made a
very handsome tent, covered with old sails, and above that with boughs
of trees, being in the space without our outward fence, and between that
and the grove of young wood which I had planted; and here we made them
two beds of such things as I had, viz., of good rice-straw, with
blankets laid upon it to lie on, and another to cover them, on each bed.

My island was now peopled, and I thought myself very rich in subjects;
and it was a merry reflection, which I frequently made, how like a king
I looked. First of all, the whole country was my own mere property, so
that I had an undoubted right of dominion. Secondly, my people were
perfectly subjected. I was absolute lord and lawgiver; they all owned
their lives to me, and were ready to lay down their lives, if there had
been occasion of it, for me. It was remarkable, too, we had but three
subjects, and they were of three different religions. My man Friday was
a Protestant, his father was a pagan and a cannibal, and the Spaniard
was a papist. However, I allowed liberty of conscience throughout my
dominions. But this is by the way.

As soon as I had secured my two weak rescued prisoners, and given them
shelter and a place to rest them upon, I began to think of making some
provision for them; and the first thing I did, I ordered Friday to take
a yearling goat, betwixt a kid and a goat, out of my particular flock,
to be killed; when I cut off the hinder-quarter, and chopping it into
small pieces. I set Friday to work to boiling and stewing, and made them
a very good dish, I assure you, of flesh and broth, having put some
barley and rice also into the broth; and as I cooked it without doors,
for I made no fire within my inner wall, so I carried it all into the
new tent, and having set a table there for them, I sat down and ate my
own dinner also with them, and as well as I could cheered them, and
encouraged them; Friday being my interpreter, especially to his father,
and, indeed, to the Spaniard too; for the Spaniard spoke the language of
the savages pretty well.

After we had dined, or rather supped, I ordered Friday to take one of
the canoes and go and fetch our muskets and other fire-arms, which, for
want of time, we had left upon the place of battle; and the next day I
ordered him to go and bury the dead bodies of the savages, whch lay open
to the sun, and would presently be offensive; and I also ordered him to
bury the horrid remains of their barbarous feast, which I knew were
pretty much, and which I could not think of doing myself; nay, I could
not bear to see them, if I went that way. All which he punctually
performed, and defaced the very appearance of the savages being there;
so that when I went again I could scarce know where it was, otherwise
than by. the corner of the wood pointing to the place.

I then began to enter into a little conversation with my two new
subjects; and first, I set Friday to inquire of his father what he
thought of the escape of the savages in that canoe, and whether we might
expect a return of them, with a power too great for us to resist. His
first opinion was, that the savages in the boat never could live out the
storm which blew that night they went off, but must, of necessity, be
drowned, or driven south to those other shores, where they were as sure
to be devoured as they were to be drowned if they were cast away. But as
to what they would do if they came safe on shore, he said he knew not;
but it was his opinion that they were so dreadfully frightened with the
manner of their being attacked, the noise, and the fire, that he
believed they would tell their people they were all killed by thunder
and lightning, not by the. hand of man; and that the two which appeared,
viz., Friday and me, were two heavenly spirits, or furies, come down to
destroy them, and not men with weapons. This, he said, he knew, because
he heard them all cry out so in their language to one another; for it
was impossible to them to conceive that a man could dart fire, and speak
thunder, and kill at a distance without lifting up the hand, as was done
now. And this old savage was in the right; for, as I understood since by
other hands, the savages never attempted to go over to the island
afterwards. They were so terrified with the accounts given by those four
men (for, it seems, they did escape the sea) that they believed whoever
went to that enchanted island would be destroyed with fire from the
gods.

This however, I knew not, and therefore was under continual
apprehensions for a good while, and kept always upon my guard, me and
all my army; for as we were now four of us, I would have ventured upon a
hundred of them, fairly in the open field, at any time.

In a little time, however, no more canoes appearing, the fear of their
coming wore off, and I began to take my former thoughts of a voyage to
the main into consideration; being likewise assured by Friday's father
that I might depend upon good usage from their nation, on his account,
if I would go.

But my thoughts were a little suspended when I had a serious discourse
with the Spaniard, and when I understood that there were sixteen more of
his countrymen and Portuguese, who, having been cast away, and made
their escape to that side, lived there at peace, indeed, with the
savages, but were very sore put to it for necessaries, and indeed for
life. I asked him all the particulars of their voyage, and found they
were a Spanish ship bound from the Rio de la Plata to the Havana, being
directed to leave their loading there, which was chiefly hides and
silver, and to bring back what European goods they could meet with
there; that they had five Portuguese seamen on board, whom they took out
of another wreck; that five of their own men were drowned when the first
ship was lost, and that these escaped, through infinite dangers and
hazards, and arrived, almost starved, on the cannibal coast, where they
expected to have been devoured every moment.

He told me they had some arms with them, but they were perfectly
useless, for that they had neither powder nor ball, the washing of the
sea having spoiled all their powder but a little, which they used, at
their first landing, to provide themselves some food.

I asked him what he thought would become of them there, and if they had
formed no design of making any escape. He said they had many
consultations about it; but that having neither vessel, or tools to
build one, or provisions of any kind, their councils always ended in
tears and despair.

I asked him how he thought they would receive a proposal from me, which
might tend towards an escape; and whether, if they were all here, it
might not be done. I told him with freedom, I feared mostly their
treachery and ill-usage of me if I put my life in their hands; for that
gratitude was no inherent virtue in the nature of man, nor did men
always square their dealings by the obligations they had received, so
much as they did by the advantages they expected. I told him it would be
very hard that I should be the instrument of their deliverance, and that
they should afterwards make me their prisoner in New Spain, where an
Englishman was certain to be made a sacrifice, what necessity or what
accident soever brought him thither; and that I had rather be delivered
up to the savages, and be devoured alive, than fall into the merciless
claws of the priests, and be carried into the Inquisition. I added, that
otherwise I was persuaded, if they were all here, we might, with so many
hands, build a bark large enough to carry us all away, either to the
Brazils, southward, or to the islands, or Spanish coast, northward; but
that if, in requital, they should when I had put weapons into their
hands, carry me by force among their own people, I might be ill used for
my kindness to them, and make my case worse than it was before.

He answered, with a great deal of candor and ingenuity, that their
condition was so miserable, and they were so sensible of it, that he
believed they would abhor the thought of using any man unkindly that
should contribute to their deliverance; and that, if pleased, he would
go to them with the old man, and discourse with them about it, and
return again, and bring me their answer; that he would make conditions
with them upon their solemn oath that they should be absolutely under my
leading, as their commander and captain; and that they should swear upon
the holy sacraments and the gospel to be true to me, and to go to such
Christian country as that I should agree to, and no other, and to be
directed wholly and absolutely by my orders till they were landed safely
in such country as I intended; and that he would bring a contract from
them, under their hands, for that purpose.

Then he told me he would first swear to me himself that he would never
stir from me as long as he lived till I gave him orders; and that he
would take my side to the last drop of his blood, if there should happen
the least breach of faith among his countrymen.

He told me they were all of them very civil, honest men, and they were
under the greatest distress imaginable, having neither weapons nor
clothes, nor any food, but at the mercy and discretion of the savages;
out of all hopes of ever returning to their own country; and that he was
sure, if I would undertake their relief, they would live and die by me.

Upon these assurances, I resolved to venture to relieve them, if
possible, and to send the old savage and this Spaniard over to them to
treat. But when we had gotten all things in a readiness to go, the
Spaniard himself started an objection, which had so much prudence in it
on one hand, and so much sincerity on the other hand, that I could not
but be very well satisfied in it, and by his advice put off the
deliverance of his comrades for at least half a year. The case was thus:

He had been with us now about a month, during which time I had let him
see in what manner I had provided, with the assistance of Providence,
for my support; and he saw evidently what stock of corn and rice I had
laid up; which, as it was more than sufficient for myself, so it was not
sufficient, at least without good husbandry, for my family, now it was
increased to number four; but much less would it be sufficient if his
countrymen, who were, as he said, fourteen, still alive, should come
over; and least of all would it be sufficient to victual our vessel, if
we should build one for a voyage to any of the Christian colonies of
America. So he told me he thought it would be more advisable to let him
and the two others dig and cultivate some more land, as much as I could
spare seed to sow; and that we should wait another harvest, that we
might have a supply of corn for his countrymen when they should come;
for want might be a temptation to them to disagree, or not to think
themselves delivered, otherwise than out of one difficulty into another.
"You know," says he, "the children of Israel, though they rejoiced at
first for their being delivered out of Egypt, yet rebelled even against
God Himself, that delivered them, when they came to want bread in the
wilderness."

His caution was so reasonable, and his advice so good, that I could not
but be very well pleased with his proposal, as well as I was satisfied
with his fidelity. So we fell to digging all four of us, as well as the
wooden tools we were furnished with permitted; and in about a month's
time, by the end of which it was seed-time, we had gotten as much land
cured and trimmed up as we sowed twenty-two bushels of barley on, and
sixteen jars of rice; which was, in short, all the seed we had to spare;
nor, indeed, did we leave ourselves barley sufficient for our own food
for the six months that we had to expect our crop; that is to say,
reckoning from the time we set our seed aside for sowing; for it is not
to be supposed it is six months in the ground in that country.

Having now society enough, and our numbers being sufficient to put us
out of fear of the savages, if they had come, unless their number
had-been very great, we went freely all over the island, wherever we
found occasion; and as here we had our escape or deliverance upon our
thoughts, it was impossible, at least for me, to have the means of it
out of mine. To this purpose, I marked out several trees which I thought
fit for our work, and I set Friday and his father to cutting them down;
and then I caused the Spaniard, to whom I imparted my thought on that
affair, to oversee and direct their work. I showed them with what
indefatigable pains I had hewed a large tree into single planks, and I
caused them to do the like, till they had made about a dozen large
planks of good oak, near two feet broad, thirty-five feet long, and from
two inches to four inches thick. What prodigious labor it took up, any
one may imagine.

At the same time I contrived to increase my little flock of tame goats
as much as I could; and to this purpose I made Friady and the Spaniard
go out one day, and myself with Friday the next day, for we took our
turns, and by this means we got above twenty young kids to breed up with
the rest; for whenever we shot the dam, we saved the kids, and added
them to our flock. But above all, the season for curing the grapes
coming on, I caused such a prodigious quantity to be hung up in the sun,
that I believe had we been at Alicant, where the raisins of the sun are
cured, we could have filled sixty or eighty barrels; and these, with our
bread, was a great part of our food, and very good living too, I assure
you; for it is an exceeding nourishing food.

It was now harvest, and our crop in good order. It was not the most
plentiful increase I had seen in the island, but however, it was enough
to answer our end; for from our twenty-two bushels of barley we brought
in and thrashed out above two hundred and twenty bushels, and the like
in proportion of the rice; which was store enough for our food to the
next harvest, though all the sixteen Spaniards had been on shore with
me; or if we had been ready for a voyage, it would very plentifully have
victualled our ship to have carried us to any part of the world, that is
to say, of America.

When we had thus housed and secured our magazine of corn, we fell to
work to make more wicker-work, viz., great baskets, in which we kept it;
and the Spaniard was very handy and dextrous at this part, and often
blamed me that I did not make some things for defence of this kind of
work; but I saw no need of it.

And now having a full supply of food for all the guests I expected, I
gave the Spaniard leave to go over to the main, to see what he could do
with those he had left behind him there. I gave him strict charge in
writing not to bring any man with him who would not first swear, in the
presence of himself and of the old savage, that he would no way injure,
fight with, or attack the person he should find in the island, who was
so kind to send for them in order to their deliverance; but that they
would stand by and defend him against all such attempts, and they went
would be entirely under and subjected to his commands; and that this
should be put in writing, and signed with their hands. How we were to
have this done, when I knew they had neither pen nor ink, that indeed
was a question which we never asked.

Under these instructions, the Spaniard and the old savage, the father of
Friday, went away in one of the canoes which they might be said to come
in, or rather were brought in, when they came as prisoners to be
devoured by the savages.

I gave each of them a musket, with a firelock on it, and about eight
charges of powder and ball, charging them to be very good husbands of
both, and not to use either of them but upon urgent occasion.

This was a cheerful work, being the first measures used by me, in view
of my deliverance, for now twenty-seven years and some days. I gave them
provisions of bread and of dried grapes sufficient for themselves for
many days, and sufficient for all their countrymen for about eight days'
time; and wishing them a good voyage, I see them go, agreeing with them
about a signal they should hang out at their return, by which I should
know them again, when they came back, at a distance, before they came on
shore.

They went away with a fair gale on the day that the moon was at full, by
my account in the month of October, but as for an exact reckoning of
days, after I had once lost it, I could never recover it again; nor had
I kept even the number of years so punctually as to be sure that I was
right, though as it proved, when I afterwards examined my account, I
found I had kept a true reckoning of years.

It was no less than eight days I had waited for them, when a strange and
unforeseen accident intervened, of which the like has not perhaps been
heard of in history. I was fast asleep in my hutch one morning, when my
man Friday came running in to me, and called aloud, "Master, master,
they are come, they are come!"

I jumped up, and regardless of danger, I went out as soon as I could get
my clothes on, through my little grove, which, by the way, was by this
time grown to be a very thick wood; I say, regardless of danger, I went
without my arms, which was not my custom to do; but I was surprised
when, turning my eyes to the sea, I presently saw a boat at about a
league and half's distance standing in for the shore, with a
shoulder-of-mutton sail, as they call it, and the wind blowing pretty
fair to bring them in; also I observed presently that they did not come
from that side which the shore lay on, but from the southernmost end of
the island. Upon this I called Friday in, and bid him lie close, for
these were not the people we looked for, and that we might not know yet
whether they were friends or enemies.

In the next place, I went in to fetch my perspective-glass, to see what
I could make of them; and having taken the ladder out, I climbed up to
the top of the hill, as I used to do when I was apprehensive of
anything, and to take my view the plainer, without being discovered.

I had scarce set my foot on the hill, when my eye plainly discovered a
ship lying at an anchor at about two leagues and a half's distance from
me, south-southeast, but not above a league and a half from the shore.
By my observation, it appeared plainly to be an English ship, and the
boat appeared to be an English longboat.

I cannot express confusion I was in; though the joy of seeing a ship,
and one who I had reason to believe was manned by my own countrymen, and
consequently friends, was such as I cannot describe. But yet I had some
secret doubts hung about me, I cannot tell from whence they came,
bidding me keep upon my guard. In the first place, it occurred to me to
consider what business an English ship could have in that part of the
world, since it was not the way to or from any part of the world where
the English had any traffic; I knew there had been no storms to drive
them in there, as in distress; and that if they were English really, it
was most probable that they were here upon no good design, and that I
had better continue as I was than fall into the hands of thieves and
murderers.

Let no man despise he secret hints and notices of danger which sometimes
are given him when he may think there is no possibility of its being
real. That such hints and notices are given us, I believe few that have
made any observations of things can deny; that they are certain
discoveries of an invisible world, and a converse of spirits, we cannot
doubt; and if the tendency of them seems to be warn us of danger, why
should we not suppose they are from some friendly agent, whether
surperme, or inferior and subordinate, is not the question, and that
they are given for our good?

The present question abundantly confirms me in the justice of this
reasoning; for had I not been made cautious by this secret admonition,
come it from whence it will, I had been undone inevitably, and in a far
worse condition than before, as you will see presently.

I had not kept myself long in this posture, but I saw the boat draw near
the shore, as if they looked for a creek to thrust in at, for the
convenience of landing. However, as they did not come quite far enough,
they did not see the little inlet where I formerly landed my rafts; but
run their boat on shore upon the beach, at about half a mile from me,
which was very happy for me; for otherwise they would have landed just,
as I may say, at my door, and would soon have beaten me out of my
castle, and perhaps have plundered me of all I had.

When they were on shore, I was fully satisfied that they were
Englishmen, at least most of them; one or two I thought were Dutch, but
it did not prove so. There were in all eleven men, whereof three of them
I found were unarmed, and, as I thought, bound; and when the first four
or five of them were jumped on shore, they took those three out of the
boat, as prisoners. One of the three I could perceive using the most
passionate gestures of entreaty, affliction, and despair, even to a kind
of extravagance; the other two, I could perceive, lifted up their hands
sometimes, and appeared concerned indeed, but not to such a degree as
the first.

I was perfectly confounded at the sight, and knew not what the meaning
of it should be. Friday called out to me in English as well as he could,
"O master! you see English mans eat prisoner as well as savage mans."
"Why," says I, "Friday, do you think they are agoing to eat them then?"
"Yes," says Friday, "they will eat them." "No, no," says I, "Friday, I
am afraid they will murder them indeed, but you may be sure they will
not eat them."

All this while I had no thought of what the matter really was, but stood
trembling with the horror of the sight, expecting every moment when the
three prisoners should be killed; nay, once I saw one of the villains
lift up his arm with a great cutlass, as the seamen call it, or sword,
to strike one of the poor men; and I expected to see him fall every
moment, at which all the blood in my body seemed to run chill in my
veins.

I wished heartily now for my Spaniard, and the savage that was gone with
him; or that I had any way to have come undiscovered within shot of
them, that I might have rescued the three men, for I saw no fire-arms
they had among them; but it fell out to my mind another way.

After I had observed the outrageous usage of the three men by the
insolent seamen, I observed the fellows run scattering about the land,
as if they wanted to see the country. I observed that the three other
men had liberty to go also where they pleased; but they sat down all
three upon the ground, very pensive, and looked like men in despair.

This put me in mind of the first time when I came on shore, and began to
look about me; how I gave myself over for lost; how wildly I looked
round me; what dreadful apprehensions I had; and how I lodged in the
tree all night, for fear of being devoured by wild beasts.

As I knew nothing that night of the supply I was to receive by the
providential driving of the ship nearer the land by the storms and tide,
by which I have since been so long nourished and supported; so these
three poor desolate men knew nothing how certain of deliverance and
supply they were, how near it was to them, and how effectually and
really they were in a condition of safety, at the same time that they
thought themselves lost, and their case desperate.

So little do we see before us in the world, and so much reason have we
to depend cheerfully upon the great Maker of the world, that He does not
leave His creatures so absolutely destitute, but that, in the worst
circumstances, they have always something to be thankful for, and
sometimes are nearer their deliverance than they imagine; nay, are even
brought to their deliverance by the means by which they seem to be
brought to their destruction.

It was just at the top of high-water when these people came on shore;
and while partly they stood parleying with the prisoners they brought,
and partly while they rambled about to see what kind of a place they
were in, they had carelessly stayed till the tide was spent, and the
water was ebbed considerably away, leaving their boat aground.

They had left two men in the boat, who, as I found afterwards, having
drank a little too much brandy, fell asleep. However, one of them waking
sooner than the other, and finding the boat too fast aground for him to
stir it, hallooed for the rest, who were straggling about, upon which
they all soon came to the boat; but it was past all their strength to
launch her, the boat being very heavy, and the shore on that side being
a soft oozy sand, almost like a quicksand.

In this condition, like true seamen, who are perhaps the least of all
mankind given to forethought, they gave it over, and away they strolled
about the country again; and I heard one of them say aloud to another,
calling them off from the boat, "Why, let her alone, Jack, can't ye? she
will float next tide;" by which I was fully confirmed in the main
inquiry of what countrymen they were.

All this while I kept myself very close, not once daring to stir out of
my castle, any farther than to my place of observation near the top of
the hill; and very glad I was to think how well it was fortified. I knew
it was no less than often hours before the boat could be on float again,
and by that time it would be dark, and I might be at more liberty to see
their motions, and to hear their discourse, if they had any.

In the meantime, I fitted myself up for a battle, as before, though with
more caution, knowing I had to do with another kind of enemy than I had
at first. I ordered Friday also, whom I had an excellent marksman with
his gun, to load himself with arms. I took myself two fowling-pieces,
and I gave him three muskets. My figure, indeed, was very fierce. I had
my formidable goat-skin coat on, with the great cap I have mentioned, a
naked sword by my side, two pistols in my belt, and a gun upon each
shoulder.

It was my design, as I said above, not to have made any attempt till it
was dark; but about two o'clock, being the heat of the day, I found
that, in short, they were all gone straggling into the woods, and, as I
thought, were laid down to sleep. The three poor distressed men, too
anxious for their condition to get any sleep, were, however, set down
under the shelter of a great tree, at about a quarter of a mile from me,
and, as I thought, out of sight of any of the rest.

Upon this I resolved to discover myself to them, and learn something of
their condition. Immediately I marched in the figure as above, my man
Friday at a good distance behind me, as formidable for his arms as I,
but not making quite so staring a spectre-like figure as I did.

I came as near them undiscovered as I could, and then, before any of
them saw me, I called aloud to them in Spanish, "What are ye,
gentlemen?"

They started up at the noise, but were often times more confounded when
they saw me, and the uncouth figure that I made. They made no answer at
all, but I thought I perceived them just going to fly from me, when I
spoke to them in English. "Gentlemen," said I, "do not be surprised at
me; perhaps you may have a friend near you, when you did not expect it."
"He must be sent directly from heaven, then," said one of them very
gravely to me, and pulling off his hat at the same time to me, "for our
condition is past the help of man." "All help is from heaven, sir," said
I. "But can you put a stranger in the way how to help you, for you seem
to me to be in some great distress? I saw you when you landed; and when
you seemed to make applications to the brutes that came with you, I saw
one of them lift up his sword to kill you."

The poor man, with tears running down his face, and trembling, looking
like one astonished, returned, "Am I talking to God, or man? Is it a
real man, or an angel?" "Be in no fear about that, sir," said I. "If God
had sent an angel to relieve you, he would have come better clothed, and
armed after another manner than you see me in. Pray lay aside your
fears; I am a man, an Englishman, and disposed to assist you, you see. I
have one servant only; we have arms and ammunition; tell us freely, can
we serve you? What is your case?"

"Our case," said he, "sir, is too long to tell you while our murderers
are so near; but in short, sir, I was commander of that ship; my men
have mutinied against me, they have been hardly prevailed on not to
murder me; and at last have set me on shore in this desolate place, with
these two men with me, one my mate, the other a passenger, where we
expected to perish, believing the place to be uninhabited, and know not
yet what to think of it."

"Where are those brutes, your enemies?" said I. "Do you know where they
are gone?" "There they lie, sir," said he, pointing to a thicket of
trees. "My heart trembles for fear they have seen us, and heard you
speak. If they have, they will certainly murder us all."

"Have they any fire-arms?" said I. He answered they had only two pieces,
and one which they left in the boat. "Well then," said I, "leave the
rest to me, I see they are all asleep; it is an easy thing to kill them
all; but shall we rather take them prisoners?" He told me there were two
desperate villains among them that it was scarce safe to show any mercy
to; but if they were secured, he believed all the rest would return to
their duty. I asked him which they were. He told me he could not at that
distance describe them, but he would obey my order in anything I would
direct. "Well," says I, "let us retreat out of their view or hearing,
lest they awake, and we will resolve further." So they willingly went
back with me, till the woods covered us from them.

"Look you, sir," said I, "if I venture upon your deliverance, are you
willing to make two conditions with me?" He anticipated my proposals by
telling me that both he and the ship, if recovered, should be wholly
directed and commanded by me in everything; and if the ship was not
recovered he would live and die with me in what part of the world soever
I would send him; and the two other men said the same.

"Well," says I, "my conditions are but two. 1. That while you stay on
this island with me, you will not pretend to any authority here; and if
I put arms into your hands, you will, upon all occasions, give them up
to me, and do no prejudice to me or mine upon this island; and in the
meantime be governed by my orders. 2. That if the ship is, or may be,
recovered, you will carry me and my man to England, passage free."

He gave me all the assurances that the invention and faith of man could
devise that he would comply with these most reasonable demands; and,
besides, would owe his life to me, and acknowledge it upon all
occasions, as long as lived.

"Well then," said I, "here are three muskets for you, with powder and
ball; tell me next what you think is proper to be done." He showed all
the testimony of his gratitude that he was able, but offered to be
wholly guided by me. I told him I thought it was hard venturing
anything; but the best method I could think of was to fire upon them at
once, as they lay; and if any was not killed at the first volley, and
offered to submit, we might save them, and so put it wholly upon God's
providence to direct the shot.

He said very modestly that he was loth to kill them if he could help it,
but that those two were incorrigible villains, and had been the authors
of all the mutiny in the ship, and if they escaped, we should be undone
still; for they would go on board and bring the whole ship's company,
and destroy us all. "Well then," says I, "necessity legitimates my
advice, for it is the only way to save our lives." However, seeing him
still cautious of shedding blood, I told him they should go themselves,
and manage as they found convenient.

In the middle of this discourse we heard some of them awake, and soon
after we saw two of them on their feet. I asked him if either of them
were of the men who he had said were the heads of the mutiny. He said,
"No." "Well then," said I, "you may let them escape; and Providence
seems to have wakened them on purpose to save themselves. Now," says I,
"if the rest escape you, it is your fault."

Animated with this, he took the musket I had given him in his hand, and
a pistol in his belt, and his two comrades with him, with each man a
piece in his hand. The two men who were with him going first made some
noise, at which one of the seamen who was awake turned about, and seeing
them coming cried out to the rest; but it was too late then, for the
moment he cried out they fired, I mean the two men, the captain wisely
reserving his own piece. They had so well aimed their shot at the men
they knew, that one of them was killed on the spot, and the other very
much wounded; but not being dead, he started up upon his feet, and
called eagerly for help to the other. But the captain stepping to him,
told him It was too late to cry for help, he should call upon God to
forgive his villainy; and with that word knocked him down with the stock
of his musket, so that he never spoke more. There were three more in the
company, and one of them was also slightly wounded. By this time I was
come; and when they saw their danger, and that it was in vain to resist,
they begged for mercy. The captain told them he would spare their lives
if they would give him any assurance of their abhorrence of the
treachery they had been guilty of, and would swear to be faithful him in
recovering the ship, and afterwards in carrying her back to Jamaica,
from whence they came. They gave him all the protestations of their
sincerity that could be desired, and he was willing to believe them, and
spare their lives, which I was not against, only I obliged him to keep
them bound hand and foot while they were upon the island.

While this was doing, I sent Friday with the captain's mate to the boat,
with orders to secure her, and bring away the oars and sail, which they
did; and by and by three straggling men that were (happily for them)
parted from the rest, came back upon hearing the guns fired; and seeing
their captain, who before was their prisoner, now their conqueror, they
submitted to be bound also, and so our victory was complete.

It now remained that the captain and I should inquire into one another's
circumstances. I began first, and told him my whole history, which he
heard with an attention even to amazement; and particularly at the
wonderful manner of my being furnished with provisions and ammunition;
and, indeed, as my story is a whole collection of wonders, it affected
him deeply. But when he reflected from thence upon himself, and how I
seemed to have been preserved there on purpose to save his life, the
tears ran down his face, and he could not speak a word more.

After this communication was at an end I carried him and his two men
into my apartment, leading them in just where I came out, viz., at the
top of the house, where I refreshed them with such provisions as I had,
and showed them all the contrivances I had made during my long, long
inhabiting that place.

All I showed them, all I said to them, was perfectly amazing; but above
all, the captain admired my fortification, and how perfectly I had
concealed my retreat with a grove of trees, which, having been now
planted near twenty years, and the trees growing much faster than in
England, was become a little wood, and so thick that it was unpassable
in any part of it but at that one side where I had reserved my little
winding passage into it. I told him this was my castle and my residence,
but that I had a seat in the country, as most princes have, whither I
could retreat upon occasion, and I would show him that, too, another
time; but at present our business was to consider how to recover the
ship. He agreed with me as to that, but told me he was perfectly at a
loss what measures to take, for that there were still six and twenty
hands on board, who having entered into a cursed conspiracy, by
which-they had all forfeited their lives to the law, would be hardened
in it now by desperation, and would carry it on, knowing that if they
were reduced they should be brought to the gallows as soon as they came
to England, or to any of the English colonies; and that therefore there
would be no attacking them with so small a number as we were.

I mused for some time upon what he said, and found it was a very
rational conclusion, and that therefore something was to be resolved on
very speedily, as well to draw the men on board into some snare for
their surprise as to prevent their landing upon us, and destroying us.
Upon this it presently occurred to me that in a while the ship's crew,
wondering what was become of their comrades and of the boat, would
certainly come on shore in their other boat to see for them; and that
then, perhaps, they might come armed, and be too strong for us. This he
allowed was rational.

Upon this, I told him the first thing we had to do was to stave the
boat, which lay upon the beach, so that they might not carry her off;
and taking everything out of her, leave her so far useless as not to be
fit to swim. Accordingly we went on board, took the arms which were left
on board out of her, and whatever else we found there, which was a
bottle of brandy, and another of rum, a few biscuit-cakes, a horn of
powder, and a great lump of sugar in a piece of canvas- the sugar was
five or six pounds; all which was very welcome to me, especially the
brandy and sugar, of which I had had none left for many years.

When we had carried all these things on shore (the oars, mast, sail, and
rudder of the boat were carried away before, as above), we knocked a
great hole in her bottom that if they had come strong enough to master
us, yet they could not carry off the boat.

Indeed, it was not much in my thoughts that we could be able to recover
the ship; but my view was, that if they went away without the boat I did
not much question to make her fit again to carry us away to the Leeward
Islands, and call upon our friends the Spaniards in my way; for I had
them still in my thoughts.

While we were thus preparing our designs, and had first, by main
strength, heaved the boat up upon the beach so high that the tide would
not fleet her off at high-water mark; and besides, had broke a hole in
her bottom too big to be quickly stopped, and were sat down musing what
we should do, we heard the ship fire a gun, and saw her make a waft with
her ancient as a signal for the boat to come on board. But no boat
stirred; and they fired several times, making other signals for the
boat.

At last, when all their signals and firings proved fruitless, and they
found the boat did not stir, we saw them, by the help of my glasses,
hoist another boat out, and row towards the shore; and we found, as they
approached, that there was no less than often men in her, and that they
had fire-arms with them.

As the ship lay almost two leagues from the shore, we had a full view of
them" as they came, and a plain sight of the men, even of their faces;
because the tide having set them a little to the east of the other boat,
they rowed up under shore, to come to the same place where the other had
landed, and where the boat lay.

By this means, I say, we had a full view of them, and the captain knew
the persons and characters of all the men in the boat, of whom he said
that there were three very honest fellows, who, he was sure, were led
into this conspiracy by the rest, being overpowered and frighted; but
that was for the boatswain who, it seems, was the chief officer among
them, and all the rest, they were as outrageous as any of the ship's
crew, and were no doubt made desperate in their new enterprise; and
terribly apprehensive he was that they would be too powerful for us.

I smiled at him, and told him that men in our circumstances were past
the operation of fear; that seeing almost every condition that could be
was better than that which we were supposed to be in, we ought to expect
that the consequence, whether death or life, would be sure to be a
deliverance. I asked him what he thought of the circumstances of my
life, and whether a deliverance were not worth venturing for. "And
where, sir," said I, "is your belief of my being preserved here on
purpose to save your life, which elevated you a little while ago? For my
part," said I, "there seems to be but one thing amiss in all the
prospect of it." "What's that?" says he. "Why," said I, It is that, as
you say, there are three or four honest fellows among them which should
be spared; had they been all of the wicked part of the crew I should
have thought God's providence had singled them out to deliver them into
your hands; for depend upon it, every man of them that comes ashore are
our own, and shall die or live as they behave to us."

As I spoke this with a raised voice and cheerful countenance, I found it
greatly encouraged him; so we set vigorously to our business. We had,
upon the first appearance of the boat's coming from the ship, considered
of separating our prisoners, and had, indeed, secured them effectually.

Two of them, of whom the captain was less assured than ordinary, I sent
with Friday and one of the three delivered men to my cave, where they
were remote enough, and out of danger of being heard or discovered, or
of finding their way out of the woods, if they could have delivered
themselves. Here they left them bound, but gave them provisions, and
promised them, if they continued there quietly, to give them their
liberty in a day or two; but that if they attempted their escape, they
should be put to death without mercy. They promised faithfully to bear
their confinement with patience, and were very thankful that they had
such good usage as to have provisions and a light left them; for Friday
gave them candles (such as we made ourselves) for their comfort; and
they did not know but that he stood sentinel over them at the entrance.

The other prisoners had better usage. Two of them were kept pinioned,
indeed, because the captain was not free to trust them; but the other
two were taken into my service, upon the captain's recommendation, and
upon their solemnly engaging to live and die with us; so with them and
the three honest men we were seven men well armed; and I made no doubt
we should be able to deal well enough with the ten that were a-coming,
considering that the Captain had said there were three or four honest
men among them also.

As soon as they got to the place where their other boat lay, they ran
their boat into the beach, and came all on shore, hauling the boat up
after them, which I was glad to see; for I was afraid they would rather
have left the boat at an anchor some distance from the shore, with some
hands in her to guard her, and so we should not be able to seize the
boat.

Being on shore, the first thing they did they ran all to their other
boat; and it was easy to see that they were under a great surprise to
find her, stripped, as above, of all that was in her, and a great hole
in her bottom.

After they had mused a while upon this, they set up two or three great
shouts, hallooing with all their might, to try if they could make their
companions hear; but all was to no purpose. Then they came all close in
a ring, and fired a volley of their small-arms, which, indeed, we heard,
and the echoes made the woods ring. But it was all one; those in the
cave we were sure could not hear, and those in our keeping, though they
heard it well enough, yet durst give no answer to them.

They were so astonished at the surprise of this, that, as they told us
afterwards, they resolved to go all on board again, to their ship, and
let them know there that the men were all murdered, and the longboat
staved. Accordingly, they immediately launched their boat again, and got
all of them on board.

The captain was terribly amazed, and even confounded at this, believing
they would go on board the ship again, and set sail, giving their
comrades for lost, and so he should still lose the ship, which he was in
hopes we should have recovered; but he was quickly as much frighted the
other way.

They had not been long put off with the boat but we perceived them all
coming on shore again; but with this new measure in their conduct, which
it seems they consulted together upon, viz., to leave three men in the
boat, and the rest to go on shore, and go up into the country to look
for their fellows.

This was a great disappointment to us, for now we were at a loss what to
do; for our seizing those seven men on shore would be no advantage to us
if we let the boat escape, because they would then row away to the ship,
and then the rest of them would be sure to weigh and set sail, and so
our recovering the ship would be lost. However, we had no remedy but to
wait and see what the issue of things might present. The seven men came
on shore, and the three who remained in the boat put her off to a good
distance from the shore, and came to an anchor to wait for them; so that
it was impossible for us to come at them in the boat.

Those that came on shore kept close together, marching towards the top
of the little hill under which my habitation lay; and we could see them
plainly, though they could not perceive us. We could have been very glad
they would have come nearer to us, so that we might have fired at them,
or that they would have gone farther off, that we might have come
abroad.

But when they were come to the brow of the hill, where they could see a
great way into the valleys and woods which lay towards the northeast
part, and where the island lay lowest, they shouted and hallooed till
they were weary; and not caring, it seems, to venture far from the
shore, nor far from one another, they sat down together under a tree, to
consider of it. Had they thought fit to have gone to sleep there, as the
other party of them had done, they had done the job for us; but they
were too full of apprehensions of danger to venture to go to sleep,
though they could not tell what the danger was they had to fear neither.

The captain made a very just proposal to me upon this consultation of
theirs, viz., that perhaps they would all fire a volley again, to
endeavor to make their fellows hear, and that we should all sally upon
them, just at the juncture when their pieces were all discharged, and
they would certainly yield, and we should have them without bloodshed. I
liked the proposal, provided it was done while we were near enough to
come up to them before they could load their pieces again.

But this event did not happen, and we lay still a long time, very
irresolute what course to take. At length I told them there would be
nothing to be done, in my opinion, till night; and then, if they did not
return to the boat, perhaps we might find a way to get between them and
the shore, and so might use some stratagem with them in the boat to get
them on shore.

We waited a great while, though very impatient for their removing; and
were very uneasy when, after long consultations, we saw them start all
up, and march down towards the sea. It seems they had such dreadful
apprehensions upon them of the danger of the place that they resolved to
go on board the ship again, give their companions over for lost, and so
go on with their intended voyage with the ship.

As soon as I perceived them go towards the shore, I imagined it to be,
as it really was, that they had given over their search, and were for
going back again; and the captain, as soon as I told him my thoughts,
was ready to sink at the apprehensions of it; but I presently thought of
a stratagem to fetch them back again, and which answered my end to a
tittle.

I ordered Friday and the captain's mate to go over the little creek
westward, towards the place where the savages came on shore when Friday
was rescued, and as soon as they came to a little rising ground, at
about half a mile distance. I bade them halloo as loud as they could,
and wait till they found the seamen heard them; that as soon as ever
they heard the seamen answer them, they should return it again; and then
keeping out of sight, take a round, always answering when the other
hallooed, to draw them as far into the island, and among the woods, as
possible, and then wheel about again to me by such ways as I directed
them.

They were just going into the boat when Friday and the mate hallooed;
and they presently heard them, and answering, run along the shore
westward, towards the voice they heard, when they were presently stopped
by the creek, where the water being up, they could not get over, and
called for the boat to come up and set them over, as, indeed, I
expected.

When they hid set themselves over, I observed that the boat being gone
up a good way into the creek, and, as it were, in a harbor within the
land, they took one of the three men out of her to go along with them,
and left only two in the boat, having fastened her to the stump of a
little tree on the shore.

This was what I wished for; and immediately leaving Friday and the
captain's mate to their business, I took the rest with me, and crossing
the creek out of their sight, we surprised the two men before they were
aware; one of them lying on shore, and the other being in the boat. The
fellow on shore was between sleeping and waking, and going to start up.
The captain, who was foremost, ran in upon him, and knocked him down,
and then called out to him in the boat to yield, or he was a dead man.

There needed very few arguments to persuade a single man to yield when
he saw five men upon him, and his comrade knocked down; besides, this
was, it seems, one of the three who were not so hearty in the mutiny as
the rest of the crew, and therefore was easily persuaded, not only to
yield, but afterwards to join very sincerely with us.

In the meantime, Friday and the captain's mate so well managed their
business with the rest, that they drew them, by hallooing and answering,
from one hill to another, and from one wood to another, till they not
only heartily tired them, but left them where they were very sure they
could not reach back to the boat before it was dark; and, indeed, they
were heartily tired themselves also by the time they came back to us.

We had nothing now to do but to watch for them in the dark, and to fall
upon them, so as to make sure work with them.

It was several hours after Friday came back to me before they came back
to their boat; and we could hear the foremost of them, long before they
came quite up, calling to those behind to come along, and could also
hear them answer and complain how lame and tired they were, and not able
to come any faster; which was very welcome to us.

At length they came up to the boat; but It is impossible to express
their confusion when they found the boat fast aground in the creek, the
tide ebbed out, and their two men gone. We could hear them call to one
another in a most lamentable manner, telling one another they were
gotten into an enchanted island; that either there were inhabitants in
it, and they should all be murdered, or else there were devils and
spirits in it, and they should all be carried away and devoured.

They hallooed again, and called their two comrades by their names a
great many times; but no answer. After some time we could see them, by
the little light there was, run about, wringing their hands like men in
despair, and that sometimes they would go and sit down in the boat to
rest themselves; then come ashore again and walk about again, and so the
same thing over again.

My men would fain have me give them leave to fall upon them at once in
the dark; but I was willing to take them at some advantage, so to spare
them, and kill as few of them as I could; and especially I was unwilling
to hazard the killing any of our own men, knowing the other were very
well armed. I resolved to wait, to see if they did not separate; and,
therefore, to make sure of them, I drew my ambuscade nearer, and ordered
Friday and the captain to creep upon their hands and feet, as close to
the ground as they could, that they might not be discovered, and get as
near them as they could possibly, before they offered to fire.

They had not been long in that posture but that the boatswain, who was
the principal ringleader of the mutiny, and had now shown himself the
most dejected and dispirited of all the rest, came walking towards them,
with two more of their crew. The captain was so eager, as having this
principal rogue so much in his power that he could hardly have patience
to let him come so near as to be sure of him, for they only heard his
tongue before, but when they came nearer, the captain and Friday,
starting up on their feet, let fly at them.

The boatswain was killed upon the spot; the next man was shot into the
body, and fell just by him, though he did not die till an hour or two
after; and the third ran for it.

At the noise of the fire I immediately advanced with my whole army,
which was now eight men, viz., myself, generalissimo, Friday, my
lieutenant-general; the captain and his two men, and the three prisoners
of war, whom we had trusted with arms.

We came upon them, indeed, in the dark, so that they could not see our
number; and I made the man we had left in the boat, who was now one of
us, call to them by name, to try if I could bring them to a parley, and
so might perhaps reduce them to terms, which fell out just as we
desired; for indeed it was easy to think, as their condition then was,
they would be very willing to capitulate. So he calls out as loud as he
could to one of them, "Tom Smith! Tom Smith!" Tom Smith answered
immediatelys "Who's that? Robinson?" For it seems he knew his voice. The
other answered, "Ay, ay; for God's sake, Tom Smith, throw down your arms
and yield, or you are all dead men this moment."

"Who must we yield to? What are they?" says Smith again. "Here they
are," says he; "here's our captain and fifty men with him, have been
hunting you this two hours; the boatswain is killed, Will Frye is
wounded, and I am a prisoner; and if you do not yield, you are all
lost."

"Will they give us quarter, then," says Tom Smith, "and we will yield?"
"I'll go and ask, if you promise to yield," says Robinson. So he asked
the captain, and the captain then calls himself out, "You, Smith, you
know my voice, if you lay down your arms immediately and submit, you
shall have your lives, all but Will Atkins."

Upon this Will Atkins cried out, "For God's sake, captain, give me
quarter; what have I done? They have been all as bad as I;" which, by
the way, was not true neither; for it seems this Will Atkins was the
first man that laid hold of the captain when they first mutinied, and
used him barbarously, in tying his hands, and giving him injurious
language. However, the captain told him he must lay down his arms at
discretion, and trust to the governor's mercy; by which he meant me, for
they all called me governor.

In a word, they all laid down their arms, and begged their lives; and I
sent the man that had parleyed with them and two more, who bound them
all; and then my great army of fifty men, which, particularly with those
three, were all but eight, came up and seized upon them all, and upon
their boat; only that I kept myself and one more out of sight for
reasons of state.

Our next work was to repair the boat, and think of seizing the ship; and
as for the captain, now he had leisure to parley with them, he
expostulated with them upon the villainy of their practices with him,
and at length upon the farther wickedness of their design, and how
certainly it must bring them to misery and distress in the end, and
perhaps to the gallows.

They all appeared very penitent, and begged hard for their lives. As for
that, he told them they were none of his prisoners, but the commander of
the island; that they thought they had set him on shore in a barren,
uninhabited island; but it had pleased God so to direct them that the
island was inhabited, and that the governor was an Englishman; that he
might hang them all there, if he pleased; but as he had given them all
quarter, he supposed he would send them to England, to be dealt with
there as justice required, except Atkins, whom he was commanded by the
governor to advise to prepare for death, for that he would be hanged in
the morning.

Though this was all a fiction of his own, yet it had its desired effect.
Atkins fell upon his knees, to beg the captain to intercede with the
governor for his life; and all the rest begged of him, for God's sake,
that they might not be sent to England.

It now occurred to me that the time of our deliverance was come, and
that it would be a most easy thing to bring these fellows in to be
hearty in getting possession of the ship; so I retired in the dark from
them, that they might not see what kind of a governor they had, and
called the captain to me. When I called, as at a good distance, one of
the men was ordered to speak again, and say to the captain, "Captain,
the commander calls for you." And presently the captain replied, "Tell
his excellency I am just a-coming." This more perfectly amused them, and
they all believed that the commander was just by with his fifty men.

Upon the captain's coming to me, I told him my project for seizing the
ship, which he liked of wonderfully well, and resolved to put it in
execution the next morning. But in order to execute it with more art,
and secure of success, I told him we must divide the prisoners, and that
they should go and take Atkins and two more of the worst of them, and
send them pinioned to the cave where the others lay. This was committed
to Friday and the two men who came on shore with the captain.

They conveyed them to the cave, as to a prison. And it was, indeed, a
dismal place, especially to men in their condition. The others I ordered
to my bower, as I called it, of which I have given a full description;
and as it was fenced in, and they pinioned, the place was secure enough,
considering they were upon their behavior.

To these in the morning I sent the captain, who was to enter into a
parley with them; in a word, to try them, and tell me whether he thought
they might be trusted or not to go on board and surprise the ship. He
talked to them of the injury done him, of the condition they were
brought to; and that though the governor had given them quarter for
their lives as to the present action, yet that if they were sent to
England they would also he hanged in chains, to be sure; but that if
they would join so just an attempt as to recover the ship, he would have
the governor's engagement for their pardon.

Any one may guess how readily such a proposal would be accepted by men
in their condition. They fell down on their knees to the captain, and
promised, with the deepest imprecations, that they would be faithful to
him to the last drop, and that they should owe their lives to him, and
would go with him all over the world; that they would own him for a
father to them as long as they lived.

"Well," says the captain, "I must go and tell the governor what you say,
and see what I can do to bring him to consent to it." So he brought me
an account of the temper he found them in, and that he verily believed
they would be faithful.

However, that we might be very secure, I told him he should go back
again and choose out five of them, and tell them they might see that he
did not want men, that he would take out those five to be his
assistants, and that the governor would keep the other two and the three
that were sent prisoners to the castle, my cave, as hostages for the
fidelity of those five; and that if they proved unfaithful in the
execution, the five hostages should be hanged in chains alive upon the
shore.

This looked severe, and convinced them that the governor was in earnest.
However, they had no way left them but to accept it; and it was now the
business of the prisoners, as much as of the captain, to persuade the
other five to do their duty.

Our strength was now thus ordered for the expedition. 1. The captain,
his mate, and passenger. 2. Then the two prisoners of the first gang, to
whom, having their characters from the captain, I had given their
liberty, and trusted them with arms. 3. The other two whom I had kept
till now in my bower, pinioned, but upon the captain's motion had now
released. 4. These five released at last; so that they were twelve in
all, besides five we kept prisoners in the cave for hostages.

I asked the captain if he was willing to venture with these hands on
board the ship; for as for me and my man Friday, I did not think it was
proper for us to stir, having seven men left behind, and it was
employment enough for us to keep them asunder and supply them with
victuals. As to the five in the cave, I resolved to keep them fast; but
Friday went in twice a day to them, to supply them with necessaries, and
I made the other two carry provisions to a certain distance, where
Friday was to take it.

When I showed myself to the two hostages, it was with the captain, who
told them I was the person the governor had ordered to look after them,
and that it was the governor's pleasure they should not stir anywhere
but by my direction; that if they did, they should be fetched into the
castle, and be laid in irons; so that as we never suffered them to see
me as governor, so I now appeared as another person, and spoke of the
governor, the garrison, the castle, and the like, upon all occasions.

The captain now had no difficulty before him but to furnish his two
boats, stop the breach of one, and man them. He made his passenger
captain of one, with four other men; and himself, and his mate, and five
more went in the other; and they contrived their business very well, for
they came up to the ship about midnight. As soon as they came within
call of the ship, he made Robinson hail them, and tell them they had
brought off the men and the boat, but that it was a long time before
they had found them, and the like, holding them in a chat till they came
to the ship's side; when the captain and the mate entering first, with
their arms, immediately knocked down the second mate and carpenter with
the butt-end of their muskets, being very faithfully seconded by their
men. They secured all the rest that were upon the main and quarter
decks, and began to fasten the hatches to keep them down who were below;
when the other boat and their men entering at the fore-chains, secured
the forecastle of the ship, and the scuttle which went down into the
cook-room, making three men they found there prisoners.

When this was done, and all safe upon deck, the captain ordered the
mate, with three men, to break into the round-house, where the new rebel
captain lay, and having taken the alarm was gotten up, and with two men
and a boy had gotten fire-arms in their hands; and when the mate with a
crow split open the door, the new captain and his men fired boldly among
them, and wounded the mate with a musket-ball, which broke his arm, and
wounded two more of the men, but killed nobody.

The mate calling for help, rushed, however, into the round-house wounded
as he was, and with his pistol shot the new captain through the head,
the bullet entering at his mouth and came out again behind one of his
ears, so that he never spoke a word; upon which the rest yielded, and
the ship was taken effectually, without any more lives lost.

As soon as the ship was thus secured, the captain ordered seven guns to
be fired, which was the signal agreed upon with me to give me notice of
his success, which you may be sure I was very glad to hear, having sat
watching upon the shore for it till near two of the clock in the
morning.

Having thus heard the signal plainly, I laid me down; and it having been
a day of great fatigue to me I slept very sound, till I was something
surprised with the noise of a gun; and presently starting up, I heard a
man call me by the name of "Governor," "Governor," and presently I knew
the captain's voice; when climbing up to the top of the hill, there he
stood, and pointing to the ship he embraced me in his arms. "My dear
friend and deliverer," says he, "there's your ship, for she is all
yours, and so are we, and all that belong to her." I cast my eyes to the
ship, and there she rode within little more than half a mile of the
shore; for they had weighed her anchor as soon as they were masters of
her, and the weather being fair had brought her to an anchor just
against the mouth of the little creek, and the tide being up, the
captain had brought the pinnace in near the place where I at first
landed my rafts, and so landed just at my door.

I was at first ready to sink down with the surprise; for I saw my
deliverance, indeed, visibly put into my hands, all things easy, and a
large ship just ready to carry me away whither I pleased to go. At
first, for some time, I was not able to answer him one word; but as he
had taken me in his arms, I held fast by him, or I should have fallen to
the ground.

He perceived the surprise, and immediately pulls a bottle out of his
pocket, and gave me a dram of cordial, which he had brought on purpose
for me. After I had drank it, I sat down upon the ground; and though it
brought me to myself, yet it was a good while before I could speak a
word to him.

All this while the poor man was in as great an ecstasy as I, only not
under any surprise, as I was; and he said a thousand kind, tender things
to me, to compose me and bring me to myself. But such was the flood of
joy in my breast that it put all my spirits into confusion. At last it
broke out into tears, and in a little while after I recovered my speech.

Then I took my turn, and embraced him as my deliverer, and we rejoiced
together. I told him I looked upon him as a man sent from heaven to
deliver me, and that the whole transaction seemed to be a chain of
wonders; that such things as these were the testimonies we had of a
secret hand of Providence governing the world, and an evidence that the
eyes of an infinite Power could search into the remotest corner of the
world, and send help to the miserable whenever He pleased.

I forgot not to lift up my heart in thankfulness to heaven; and what
heart could forbear to bless Him, who had not only in a miraculous power
provided for one in such a wilderness, and in such a desolate condition,
but from whom every deliverance must always be acknowledged to proceed?

When we had talked a while, the captain told me he had brought me some
little refreshment, such as the ship afforded, and such as the wretches
that had been so long his masters had not plundered him of. Upon this he
called aloud to the boat, and bid his men bring the things ashore that
were for the governor; and, indeed, it was a present as if I had been
one, not that was to be carried away along with them, but as if I had
been to dwell upon the island still, and they were to go without me.

First, he had brought me a case of bottles full of excellent cordial
waters, six large bottles of Madeira wine (the bottles held two quarts
a-piece), two pounds of excellent good tobacco, twelve good pieces of
the ship's beef, and six pieces of pork, with a bag of peas, and about a
hundredweight of biscuit.

He brought me also a box of sugar, a box of flour, a bag full of lemons,
and two bottles of lime-juice, and abundance of other things; but
besides these, and what was a thousand times more useful to me, he
brought me six clean new shirts, six very good neck-cloths, two pair of
gloves, one pair of shoes, a hat, and one pair of stockings, and a very
good suit of clothes of his own, which had been worn but very little; in
a word, he clothed me from head to foot.

It was a very kind and agreeable present, as any one may imagine, to one
in my circumstances; but never was anything in the world of that kind so
unpleasant, awkward, and uneasy, as it was to me to wear such clothes at
their first putting on.

After these ceremonies passed, and after all his good things were
brought into my little apartment, we began to consult what was to be
done with the prisoners we had; for it was worth considering whether we
might venture to take them away with us or no, especially two of them,
whom we knew to be incorrigible and refractory to the last degree; and
the captain said he knew they were such rogues that there was no
obliging them; and if he did carry them away, it must be in irons, as
malefactors, to be delivered over to justice at the first English colony
he could come at; and I found that the captain himself was very anxious
about it.

Upon this I told him that, if he desired it, I durst undertake to bring
the two men he spoke of to make it their own request that he should
leave them upon the island. "I should be very glad of that," says the
captain, "with all my heart."

"Well," says I, "I will send for them up, and talk with them for you."
So I cause Friday and the two hostages, for they were now discharged,
their comrades having performed their promise; I say, I cause them to go
to the cave and bring up the five men, pinioned as they were, to the
bower, and keep them there till I came.

After some time I came thither, dressed in my new habit; and now I was
called governor again. Being all met, and the captain with me, I caused
the men to be brought before me, and I told them I had had a full
account of their villainous behavior to the captain, and how they had
run away with the ship, and were preparing to commit farther robberies,
but that Providence had ensnared them in their own ways, and that they
were fallen into the pit which they had digged for others.

I let them know that by my direction the ship had been seized, that she
lay now in the road, and they might see, by and by, that their new
captain had received the reward of his villainy, for that they might see
him hanging at the yardarm; that as to them, I wanted to know what they
had to say why I should not execute them as pirates, taken in the fact,
as by my commission they could not doubt I had authority to do.

One of them answered in the name of the rest that they had nothing to
say but this, that when they were taken the captain promised them their
lives, and they humbly implored my mercy. But I told them I knew no what
mercy to show them; for as for myself, I had resolved to quit the island
with all my men, and had taken passage with the captain to go for
England. And as for the captain, he could not carry them to England
other than as prisoners in irons, to be tried for mutiny, and running
away with the ship; the consequence of which, they must needs know,
would be the gallows; so that I could not tell which was best for them,
unless they had a mind to take their fate in the island. If they desired
that, I did not care, as I had liberty to leave it. I had some
inclination to give them their lives, if they thought they could shift
on shore.

They seemed very thankful for it, said they would much rather venture to
stay there than to be carried to England to be hanged; so I left it on
that issue.

However, the captain seemed to make some difficulty of it, as if he
durst not leave them there. Upon this I seemed a little angry with the
captain, and told him that they were my prisoners, not his; and that
seeing I had offered them so much favor, I would be as good as my word;
and that if he did not think fit to consent to it, I would set them at
liberty, as I found them; and if he did not like it, he might take them
again if he could catch them.

Upon this they appeared very thankful, and I accordingly set them at
liberty, and bade them retire into the woods to the place whence they
came, and I would leave them some fire-arms, some ammunition, and some
directions how they should live very will, if they thought fit.

Upon this I prepared to go on board the ship, but told the captain that
I would stay that night to prepare my things, and desired him to go on
board in the meantime, and keep all right in the ship, and send the boat
on shore the next day for me; ordering him, in the meantime, to cause
the new captain, who was killed, to be hanged at the yard-arm, that
these men might see him.

When the captain was gone, I sent for the men up to me to my apartment,
and entered seriously into discourse with them of their circumstances. I
told them I thought they had made a right choice; that if the captain
carried them away, they would certainly be hanged. I showed them the new
captain hanging at the yard-arm of the ship, and told them they had
nothing less to expect.

When they had all declared their willingness to stay, I then told them I
would let them into the story of my living there, and put them into the
way of making it easy to them. Accordingly I gave them the whole history
of the place, and of my coming to it, showed them my fortifications, the
way I made my bread, planted my corn, cured my grapes; and in a word,
all that was necessary to make them easy. I told them the story also of
the sixteen Spaniards that were to be expected, for whom I left a
letter, and made them promise to treat them in common with themselves.

I left them my fire-arms, viz., five muskets, three fowling-pieces, and
three swords. I had above a barrel and half of powder left; for after
the first year or two I used but little, and wasted none. I gave them a
description of the way I managed the goats, and directions to milk and
fatten them, and to make both butter and cheese.

In a word, I gave them every part of my own story, and I told them I
would prevail with the captain to leave them two barrels of gunpowder
more, and some garden seeds, which I told them I would have been very
glad of. Also I gave them the bag of peas which the captain had brought
me to eat, and bade them be sure to sow and increase them.

Having done all this, I left them the next day, and went on board the
ship. We prepared immediately to sail, but did not weigh that night. The
next morning early two of the five men came swimming to the ship's side,
and making a most lamentable complaint of the other three, begged to be
taken into the ship for God's sake, for they should be murdered, and
begged the captain to take them on board, though he hanged them
immediately.

Upon this the captain pretended to have no power without me; but after
some difficulty, and after their solemn promises of amendment, they were
taken on board, and were some time after soundly whipped and pickled,
after which they proved very honest and quiet fellows.

Some time after this the boat was ordered on shore, the tide being up,
with the things promised to the men, to which the captain, at my
intercession, caused their chests and clothes to be added, which they
took, and were very thankful for. I also encouraged them by telling them
that if it lay in my way to send any vessel to take them in, I would not
forget them.

When I took leave of this island, I carried on board, for relics, the
great goat-skin cap I had made, my umbrella, and my parrot; also I
forgot not to take the money I formerly mentioned, which had lain me so
long useless that it was grown rusty or tarnished, and could hardly; as
also the money I found in the wreck of the Spanish ship.

And thus I left the island, the 19th of December, as I found by the
ship's account, in the year 1686, after I had been upon it eight and
twenty years, two months, and nineteen days, being delivered from this
second captivity the same day of the month that I first made my escape
in the barco-longo, from among the Moors of Sallee.

In this vessel, after a long voyage, I arrived in England, the 11th of
June, in the year 1687, having been thirty and five years absent.

When I came to England I was a perfect a stranger to all the world as if
I had never been known there. My benefactor and faithful steward, whom I
had left in trust with my money, was alive, but had had great
misfortunes in the world, was become a widow the second time, and very
low in the world. I made her easy as to what she owed me, assuring her
that I would give her no trouble; but on the contrary, in gratitude to
her former care and faithfulness to me, I relieved her as my little
stock would afford; which, at that time, would indeed allow me to do but
little for her; but I assured her I would never forget her former
kindness to me, nor did I forget her when I had sufficient to help her,
as shall be observed in its place.

I went down afterwards into Yorkshire; but my father was dead, and my
mother and all the family extinct, except that I found two sisters, and
two of the children of one of my brothers; and as I had been long ago
given over for dead, there had been no provision made for me; so that,
in a word, I found nothing to relieve or assist me; and that little
money I had would not do much for me as to settling in the world.

I met with one piece of gratitude, indeed, which I did not expect; and
this was, that the master of the ship whom I had so happily delivered,
and by the same means saved the ship and cargo, having given a very
handsome account to the owners of the manner how I had saved the lives
of the men, and the ship, they invited me to meet them, and some other
merchants concerned, and all together made me a very handsome compliment
upon the subject, and a present of almost L200 sterling.

But after making several reflections upon the circumstances of my life,
and how little way this would go towards settling me in the world, I
resolved to go to Lisbon, and see if I might not come by some
information of the state of my plantation in the Brazils, and of what
was become of my partner, who I had reason to suppose had some years now
given me over for dead.

With this view I took shipping for Lisbon, where I arrived in April
following; my man Friday accompanying me very honestly in all these
ramblings, and proving a most faithful servant upon all occasions.

When I came to Lisbon, I found out, by inquiry, and to my particular
satisfaction, my old friend, the captain of the ship who first took me
up at sea off the shore of Africa. He was now grown old, and had left
off the sea, having put his son, who was far from a young man, into his
ship, and who still used the Brazil trade. The old man did not know me;
and, indeed, I hardly knew him; but I soon brought him to my
remembrance, and as soon brought myself to his remembrance when I told
him who I was.

After some passionate expressions of the old acquaintance, I inquired,
you may be sure, after my plantation and my partner. The old man told me
he had not been in the Brazils for about nine years; but that he could
assure me that, when he came away, my partner was living; but the
trustees, whom I had joined with him to take cognizance of my part, were
both dead. That, however, he believed that I would have a very good
account of the improvement of the plantation; for that upon the general
belief of my being cast away and drowned, my trustees had given in the
account of the produce of my part of the plantation to the
procurator-fiscal, who had appropriated it, in case I never came to
claim it, one-third to the king, and two-thirds to the monastery of St.
Augustine, to be expended for the benefit of the poor, and for the
conversion of the Indians to the Catholic faith; but that if I appeared,
or any one for me, to claim the inheritance, it should be restored; only
that the improvement or annual production, being distributed to
charitable uses, could not be restored. But he assured me that the
steward of the king's revenue from lands, and the provedidore, or
steward of the monastery, had taken great care all along that the
incumbent, that is to say, my partner, gave every year a faithful
account of the produce, of which they received duly my moiety.

I asked him if he knew to what height of improvement he had brought the
plantation, and whether he thought it might be worth looking after; or
whether, on my going thither, I should meet with no obstruction to my
possessing my just right in the moiety.

He told me he could not tell exactly to what degree the plantation was
improved; but this he knew, that my partner was grown exceeding rich
upon the enjoying but one-half of it; and that, to the best of his
remembrance, he had heard that the king's third of my part, which was,
it seems, granted away to some other monastery or religious house,
amounted to above two hundred moidores a year. That as to my being
restored to a quiet possession of it, there was no question to be made
of that, my partner being alive to witness my title, and my name being
also enrolled in the register of the country. Also he told me that the
survivors of my two trustees were very fair, honest people, and very
wealthy; and he believed I would not only have their assistance for
putting me in possession, but would find a very considerable sum of
money in their hands for my account, being the produce of the farm while
their father held the trust, and before it was given up, as above;
which, as he remember, was for about twelve years.

I showed myself a little concerned and uneasy at this account, and
inquired of the old captain how it came to pass that the trustees should
thus dispose my effects, when he knew that I had made my will, and had
made him, the Portuguese captain, my universal heir, &c.

He told me, that was true; but that as there was no proof of my being
dead, he could not act as executor until some certain account should
come of my death; and that besides, he was not willing to intermeddle
with a thing so remote; that it was true he had registered my will, and
put in his claim; and could he have given any account of my being dead
or alive, he would have acted by procuration, and taken possession of
the ingenio, so they called the sugar-house, and had given his son, who
was now at the Brazils, order to do it.

"But," says the old man, "I have one piece of news to tell you, which
perhaps may not be so acceptable to you as the rest; and that is, that
believing you were lost, and all the world believing so also, your
partner and trustees did offer to account to me, in your name, for six
or eight of the first years of profits, which I received; but there
being at that time," says he, "great disbursements for increasing the
works, building an ingenio, and buying slaves, it did not amount to near
so much as afterwards it produced. However," says the old man, "I shall
give you a true account of what I have received in all, and how I have
disposed of it."

After a few days' farther conference with this ancient friend, he
brought me an account of the six first years' income of my plantation,
signed by my partner and the merchant-trustees, being always delivered
in goods, viz., tobacco in roll, and sugar in chests, besides rum,
molasses, etc. which is the consequence of a sugar-work; and I found, by
this account, that every year the income considerably increased; but, as
above, the disbursement being large, the sum at first was small.
However, the old man let me see that he was debtor to me 470 moidores of
gold, besides 60 chests of sugar, and 15 double rolls of tobacco, which
were lost in his ship, he having been shipwrecked coming home to Lisbon,
about eleven years after my leaving the place.

The good man then began to complain of his misfortunes, and how he had
been obliged to make use of my money to recover his losses, and buy him
a share in a new ship. "However, my old friend," says he, "you shall not
want a supply in your necessity; and as soon as my son returns, you
shall be fully satisfied."

Upon this he pulls out an old pouch, and gives me 160 Portugal moidores
in gold; and giving me the writing of his title to the ship, which his
son was gone to the Brazils in, of which he was a quarter-part owner,
and his son another, he puts them both into my hands for security of the
rest.

I was too much moved with the honesty and kindness of the poor man to be
able to bear this; and remembering what he had done for me, how he had
taken me up at sea, and how generously he had used me on all occasions,
and particularly how sincere a friend he was now to me, I could hardly
refrain weeping at what he said to me; therefore first I asked him in
his circumstances admitted him to spare so much money at that time, and
if it would not straiten him. He told me he could not say but it might
straiten him a little; but, however, it was my money, and I might want
it more than he.

Everything the good man said was full of affection, and I could hardly
refrain from tears while he spoke; in short, I took 100 of the moidores,
and called for a pen and ink to give him a receipt for them. Then I
returned him the rest, and told him if ever I had possession of the
plantation, I would return the other to him also, as, indeed, I
afterwards did; and that as to the bill of sale of his part in his son's
ship, I would not take it by any means; but that if I wanted the money,
I found he was honest enough to pay me; and if I did not, but came to
receive what he gave me reason to expect, I would never have a penny
more from him.

When this was passed, the old man began to ask me if he should put me
into a method to make my claim to my plantation. I told him I thought to
go over it myself. He said I might do so if I pleased; but that if I did
not, there were ways enough to secure my right, and immediately to
appropriate the profits to my use; and as there were ships in the river
of Lisbon just ready to go away to Brazil, he made me enter my name in a
public register, with his affidavit, affirming, upon oath, that I was
alive, and that I was the same person who took up the land for the
planting the said plantation at first.

This being regularly attested by a notary, and a procuration affixed, he
directed me to send it, with a letter of his writing, to a merchant of
his acquaintance at the place, and then proposed my staying with him
till an account came of the return.

Never anything was more honorable than the proceedings upon this
procuration; for in less than seven months I received a large packet
from the survivors of my trustees, the merchants, for whose account I
went to sea, in which were the following particular letters and papers
enclosed.

First, there was the account-current of the produce of my farm or
plantation from the year when their fathers had balanced with my old
Portugal captain, being for six years; the balance appeared to be 1,174
moidores in my favor.

Secondly, there was the account of four years more, while they kept the
effects in their hands, before the government claimed the
administration, as being the effects of a person not to be found, which
they called civil death; and the balance of this, the value of the
plantation increasing, amounted to 38,892 crusadoes, which made 3,241
moidores.

Thirdly, there was the prior of the Augustines' account, who had
received the profits for above fourteen years; but not being able to
account for what was disposed to the hospital, very honestly declared he
had 872 moidores not distributed, which he acknowledged to my account;
as to the king's part, that refunded nothing.

There was a letter of my partner's, congratulating me very
affectionately upon my being alive, giving me an account how the estate
was improved, and what it produced a year, with a particular of the
number of squares or acres that it contained; how planted, how many
slaves there were upon it, and making two and twenty crosses for
blessings, told me he had said so many Ave Marias to thank the blessed
Virgin that I was alive; inviting me very passionately to come over and
take possession of my own; and in the meantime, to give him orders to
whom he should deliver my effects, if I did not come myself; concluding
with a hearty tender of his friendship, and that of his family; and sent
me as a present seven fine leopards' skins, which he had, it seems,
received from Africa by some other ship which he had sent thither, and
who, it seems, had made a better voyage than I. He sent me also five
chests of excellent sweetmeats, and a hundred pieces of gold uncoined,
not quite so large as moidores. By the same fleet, my two merchant
trustees shipped me 1,200 chest of sugar, 800 rolls of tobacco, and the
rest of the whole account in gold.

I might well say now, indeed, that the latter end of Job better than the
beginning. It is impossible to express the flutterings of my very heart
when I looked over these letters, and especially when I found all my
wealth about me; for as the Brazil ship come all in fleets, the same
ships which brought my letters brought my goods, and the effects were
safe in the river before the letters came to my hand. In a word, I
turned pale, and grew sick; and had not the old man run and fetched me a
cordial, I believe the sudden surprise of joy had overset Nature, and I
had died upon the spot.

Nay, after that I continued very ill, and was so some hours, till a
physician being sent for, and something of the real cause of my illness
being known, he ordered me to be let blood, after which I had relief,
and grew well; but I verily believe, if it had not been eased by a vent
given in the manner to the spirits, I should have died.

I was now master, all on a sudden, of above L5,000 sterling in money,
and had an estate, as I might well call it, in the Brazils, of above a
thousand pounds a year, as sure as an estate of lands in England; and in
a word, I was in a condition which I scarce knew how to understand, or
how to compose myself for the enjoyment of it.

The first thing I did was to recompense my original benefactor, my good
old captain, who had been first charitable to me in my distress, kind to
me in my beginning, and honest to me at the end. I showed him all that
was sent me. I told him that, next to the providence of Heaven, which
disposes all things, it was owing to him; and that it now lay on me to
reward him, which I would do a hundredfold. So I first returned to him
the hundred moidores I had received of him; then I sent for a notary,
and caused him to draw up a general release or discharge for the 470
moidores which he had acknowledged he owed me in the fullest and firmest
manner possible; after which I cause a procuration to be drawn,
empowering him to be my receiver of the annual profits of my plantation,
and appointing my partner to account to him, and make the returns by the
usual fleets to him in my name; and a clause in the end, being a grant
of 100 moidores a year to him, during his life, out of the effects, and
50 moidores a year to his son after for his life; and thus I requited my
old man.

I was now to consider which way to steer my course next, and what to do
with the estate that Providence has thus put into my hands; and, indeed,
I had more care upon my head now than I had in my silent state of life
in the island, where I wanted nothing but what I had, and had nothing
but what I wanted; where as I had now a great charge upon me, and my
business was how to secure it. I had neer a cave now to hide my money
in, or a place where it might lie without lock or key till it grew
mouldy and tarnished before anybody would meddle with it. On the
contrary, I knew not where to put it, or whom to trust with it. My old
patron, the captain, indeed, was honest, and that was the only refuge I
had.

In the next place, my interest in the Brazils seemed to summon me
thither; but now I could not tell how to think of going thither till I
had settled my affairs, and left my affects in some safe hands behind
me. At first I thought of my old friend the widow who I knew was honest,
and would be just to me; but then she was in years, and but poor, and
for aught I knew might be in debt; so that, in a word, I had no way but
to go back to England myself, and take my effects with me.

It was some months, however, before I resolved upon this; and therefore,
as I had rewarded the old captain fully, and to his satisfaction, who
had been my former benefactor, so I began to think of my poor widow,
whose husband had been my first benefactor, and she, while it was in her
power, my faithful steward and instructor. So the first thing I did, I
got a merchant in Lisbon to write his correspondent in London, not only
to pay a bill, but to go find her out, and carry her in money a hundred
pounds from me, and to talk with her, and comfort her in her poverty, by
telling her she should, if I lived, have a further supply. At the same
time I sent my two sisters in the country each of them an hundred
pounds, they being, though not in want, yet not in very good
circumstances; one having been married, and left a widow; and the other
having a husband not so kind to her as he should be.

But among all my relations or acquaintances, I could not yet pitch upon
one to whom I durst commit the gross of my stock, that I might go away
to the Brazils, and leave things safe behind me; and this greatly
perplexed me.

I had once a mind to have gone to the Brazils and have settled myself
there, for I was, as it were, naturalized to the place. But I had some
little scruple in my mind about religion, which insensibly drew me back,
of which I shall say more presently. However, it was not religion that
kept me from going there for the present; and as I had made no scruple
of being openly of the religion of the country all the while I was among
them, so neither did I yet; only that, now and then, having the late
thought more of than formerly, when I began to think of living and dying
among them, I began to regret my having professed myself a papist, and
thought it might not be the best religion to die with.

But, as I have said, this was not the main thing that kept me from going
to the Brazils, but that really I did not know with whom to leave my
effects beind me; so I resolved, at last, to go to England with it,
where, if arrived, I concluded I should make some acquaintance, or find
some relations, that would be faithful to me; and accordingly I prepared
to go for England, with all my wealth.

In order to prepare things for my going home, I first, the Brazil fleet
being just going away, resolved to give answers suitable to the just and
faithful account of things I had from thence. And first, to the prior of
St. Augustine I wrote a letter full of thanks for their just dealings,
and the offer of the 872 moidores which was undisposed of, which I
desired might be given, 500 to the monastery, and 372 to the poor, as
the prior should direct, desiring the good padre's prayers for me, and
the like.

I wrote next a letter of thanks to my two trustees, with all the
acknowledgment that so much justice and honesty called for. As for
sending them any present, they were far above having any occasion of it.

Lastly, I wrote to my partner, acknowledging his industry in the
improving the plantation, and his integrity in increasing the stock of
the works, giving him instructions for his future government of my part,
according to the powers I had left with my old patron, to whom I desired
him to send whatever became due to me till he should hear from me more
particularly; assuring him that it was my intention not only to come to
him, but to settle myself there for the remainder of my life. To this I
added a very handsome present of some Italian silks for his wife and two
daughters, for such the captain's son informed me he had, with two
pieces of fine English broadcloth, and best I could get in Lisbon, five
pieces of black baize, and some Flanders lace of a good value.

Having thus settled my affairs, sold my cargo, and turned all my effects
into good bills of exchange, my next difficulty was which was to go to
England. I had been accustomed enough to the sea, and yet I had a
strange aversion to going to England by sea at that time; and though I
could give no reason for it, yet the difficulty increased upon me so
much, that though I had once shipped my baggage in order to go, yet I
altered my mind, and that not once, but two or three times.

It is true that I had been very unfortunate by sea, and this might be
some of the reason; but let no man slight the strong impulses of his own
thoughts in cases of such moment. Two of the ships which I had singled
out to go in, I mean more particularly singled out than any other, that
is to say, so as in one of them to put my things on board, and in the
other way to have agreed with the captain; I say, two of these ships
miscarried, viz., one was taken by the Algerines, and the other was cast
away on the Start, near Torbay, and all the people drowned except three;
so that in either of those vessels I had been made miserable; and in
which most, it was hard to say.

Having been thus harassed in my thoughts, my old pilot, to whom I
communicated everything, pressed me earnestly not to go by sea, but
either to go by land to the Groyne, and cross over the Bay of Biscay to
Rochelle, from whence it was an easy and safe journey by land to Paris,
and so to Calais and Dover; or to go up to Madrid, and so all the way by
land through France.

In a word, I was so prepossessed against my going by sea at all, except
from Calais to Dover, that I resolved to travel all the way by land;
which as I was not in haste, and did not value the charge, was by much
the pleasanter way. And to make it more so, my old captain brought an
English gentleman, the son of a merchant in Lisbon, who was willing to
travel with me; after which we picked up two or more English merchants
also, and two young Portuguese gentlemen, the last going to Paris only;
so that we were in all six of us, and five servants, besides my man
Friday, who was too much a stranger to be capable of supplying the place
of a servant on the road.

In this manner I set out from Lisbon; and our company being all very
well mounted and armed, we made a little troop, whereof they did me the
honor to call me captain, as well because I was the oldest man, as
because I had two servants, and indeed was the original of the whole
journey.

As I have troubled you with none of my sea journals, so I shall trouble
you now with none of my land journal; but some adventures that happened
to us in this tedious and difficult journey I must not omit.

When we came to Madrid, we being all of us strangers to Spain, were
willing to stay some time to the court of Spain, and to see what was
worth observing; but it being the latter part of the summer we hastened
away, and set out from Madrid about the middle of October; but when we
came to the edge of Navarre, we were alarmed at several towns on the way
with an account that so much snow was fallen on the French side of the
mountains that several travelers were obliged to come back to Pampeluna,
after having attempted, at an extreme hazard, to pass on.

When we came to Pampeluna itself, we found it so indeed; and to me, that
had been always used to a hot climate, and indeed to countries where we
could scarce bear any clothes on, the cold was insufferable; nor indeed
was it more painful than it was surprising to come but often days before
out of the old Castile, where the weather was not only warm, but very
hot, and immediately to feel a wind from the Pyrenean mountains so very
keen, so severely cold, as to be intolerable, and to endanger benumbing
and perishing of our fingers and toes.

Poor Friday was really frightened when he saw the mountains all covered
with snow, and felt cold weather, which he had never seen or felt before
in his life.

To mend the matter, when we came to Pampeluna it continued snowing with
so much violence, and so long, that the people said winter was come
before its time; and the roads, which were difficult before, were now
quite impassable; for, in a word, the snow lay in some places too thick
for us to travel, and being not hard frozen, as is the case in northern
countries, there was no going without being in danger of being buried
alive every step. We stayed no less than twenty days at Pampeluna; when
seeing the winter coming on, and no likelihood of its being better, for
it was the severest winter all over Europe that had been known in the
memory of man, I proposed that we should all go away to Fontarabia, and
there take shipping for which was a very little voyage.

But while we were considering this, there came in four French gentlemen,
who having been stopped on the French side of the passes, as we were on
the Spanish, had found out a guide, who, traversing the country near the
head of Languedoc, had brought them over the mountains by such ways that
they were not much incommoded by the snow; and were they met with snow
in any quantity, they said it was frozen hard enough to bear them and
their horses.

We sent for his guide, who told us he would undertake to carry us the
same way with no hazard from the snow, provided we were armed
sufficiently to protect us from wild beasts; for he said, upon these
great snows it was frequent for some wolves to show themselves at the
foot of the mountains, being made ravenous for want of food, the ground
being covered with snow. We told him we were well enough prepared for
such creatures as they were, if he would ensure us from a kind of
two-legged wolves, which, we were told, we were in the most danger from,
especially on the French side of the mountains.

He satisfied us there was no danger of that kind in the way that we were
to go; so we readily agreed to follow him, as did also twelve other
gentlemen, with their servants, some French, some Spanish, who, as I
said, had attempted to go, and were obliged to come back again.

Accordingly, we all set out from Pampeluna, with our guide, on the 15th
of November; and, indeed, I was surprised when, instead of going
forward, he came directly back with us on the same road that we came
from Madrid, above twenty miles; when being passed two rivers, and come
into the plain country, we found ourselves in a warm climate again,
where the country was pleasant, and no snow to be seen; but on a sudden,
turning to his left, he approached the mountains another way; and though
it is true the hills and precipices looked dreadful, yet he made so many
tours, such meanders, and led us by such winding ways, that we were
insensibly passed the height of the mountains without being much
encumbered with the snow; and all on a sudden he showed us the pleasant
fruitful provinces of Languedoc and Gascogn, all green and flourishing,
though, indeed, it was at a great distance, and we had some rough way to
pass yet.

We were a little uneasy, however, when we found it snowed one whole day
and a night so fast that we could not travel; but he bid us be easy, we
should soon be past it all. We found, indeed, that we began to descend
every day, and to come more north than before; and so, depending upon
our guide, we went on.

It was about two hours before night when, our guide being something
before us, and not just in sight, out rushed three monstrous wolves, and
after them a bear, out of a hollow way adjoining to a thick wood. Two of
the wolves flew upon the guide, and had he been half a mile before us he
had been devoured, indeed, before we could have helped him. One of them
fastened upon his horse, and the other attacked the man with that
violence that he had not time, or not presence of mind enough, to draw
his pistol, but hallooed and cried out to us most lustily. My man Friday
being next to me, I bid him ride up, and see what was the matter. As
soon as Friday came in sight of the man, he hallooed as loud as t'
other, "O master! O master!" but, like a bold fellow, rode directly up
to the poor man, and with his pistol shot the wolf that attacked him
into the head.

It was happy for the poor man that it was my man Friday, for he having
been used to that kind of creature in his country, had no fear upon him,
but went close up to him and shot him, as above; whereas any of us would
have fired at a farther distance, and have perhaps either missed the
wolf, or endangered shooting the man.

But it was enough to have terrified a bolder man than I; and, indeed, it
alarmed all our company, when, with the noise of Friday's pistol, we
heard on both sides the dismallest howling of wolves; and the noise,
redoubled by the echo of the mountains, that it was to us as if there
had been a prodigious multitude of them; and perhaps indeed there was
not such a few as that we had no cause of apprehensions.

However, as Friday had killed this wolf, the other that had fastened
upon the horse left him immediately and fled, having happily fastened
upon his head, where the bosses of the bridle had stuck in his teeth, so
that he had not done him much hurt. The man, indeed, was most hurt; for
the raging creature had bit him twice, once on the arm, and the other
time a little above his knee; and he was just, as it were, tumbling down
by the disorder of his horse, when Friday came up and shot the wolf.

It is easy to suppose that at the noise of Friday's pistol we all mended
our pace, and rid up as fast as the way, which was very difficult,
should give us leave, to see what was the matter. As soon as we came
clear of the trees, which blinded us before, we saw clearly what had
been the case, and how Friday had disengaged the poor guide, though we
did not presently discern what kind of creature it was he had killed.

But never was a fight managed so hardily, and in such a surprising
manner, as that which followed between Friday and the bear, which gave
us all, though at first we were surprised and afraid for him, the
greatest diversion imaginable. As the bear is a heavy, clumsy creature,
and does not gallop as the wolf does, who is swift and light, as he has
two particular qualities, which generally are the rule of his actions;
first, as to men, who are not his proper prey; I say, not his proper
prey, because, though I cannot say what excessive hunger might do, which
was now their case, the ground being all covered with snow; but as to
men, he does not usually attempt them, unless they first attack him. On
the contrary, if you meet him in the woods, if you don't meddle with
him, he won't meddle with you; but then you must take care to be very
civil to him, and give him the road, for he is a very nice gentleman. He
won't go a step out of his way for a prince; nay, if you are really
afraid, your best way is to look another way, and keep going on; for
sometimes if you stop, and stand still, and look steadily at him, he
takes it for an affront; but if you throw or toss anything at him, and
it hits him, though it were but a bit of a stick as big as your finger,
he takes it for an affront, and set all his other business aside to
pursue his revenge; for he will have satisfaction in point of honor.
That is his first quality; the next is, that if he be once affronted, he
will never leave you, night or day, till he has his revenge, but
follows, at a good round rate, till he overtakes you.

My man Friday had delivered our guide, and when we came up to him he was
helping him off from his horse; for the man was both hurt and frighted,
and indeed the last more than the first; when, on the sudden, we spied
the bear come out of the wood, and a vast monstrous one it was, the
biggest by far that ever I saw. We were all a little surprised when we
saw him; but when Friday saw him, it was easy to see joy and courage in
the fellow's countenance. "O! O! O!" says Friday, three times pointing
to him. "O master! you give me the leave; me shakee the hand with him;
me make you good laugh."

I was surprised to see the fellow so pleased. "You fool you," says I,
"he will eat you up." "Eatee me up! eatee me up!" says Friday, twice
over again; "me eatee him up; me make you good laugh; you all stay here,
me show you good laugh." So down he sits, and gets his boots off in a
moment, and put on a pair of pumps, as we call the flat shoes they wear,
and which he had in his pocket, gives my other servant his horse, and
with his gun away he flew, swift like the wind.

The bear was walking softly on, and offered to meddle with nobody till
Friday, coming pretty near, calls to him, as if the bear could
understand him, "Hark ye, hark ye," says Friday, "me speakee wit you."
We followed at a distance; for now being come down on the Gascogn side
of the mountains, we were entered a vast great forest., where the
country was plain and pretty open, though many trees in it scattered
here and there.

Friday, who had, as we say, the heels of the bear, came up with him
quickly, and takes up a great stone and throws at him, and hit him just
on the head, but did him no harm than if he had thrown it against a
wall. But it answered Friday's end, for the rogue was so void of fear,
that he did it purely to make the bear follow him, and show us some
laugh, as he called it.

As soon as the bear felt the stone, and saw him, he turns about, and
comes after him, taking devilish long strides, and shuffling along at a
strange rate, so as would have put a horse to a middling gallop. Away
runs Friday, and takes his course as if he run towards us for help; so
we all resolved to fire at once upon the bear, and deliver my man;
though I was angry at him heartily for bringing the bear back upon us,
when he was going about his own business another way; and especially I
was angry that he had turned the bear upon us, and then run away; and I
called out, "You dog," said I, "is this your making us laugh? Come away,
and take your horse, that we may shoot the creature." He hears me, and
cries out, "No shoot, no shoot; stand still, you get much laugh." And as
the nimble creature run two feet for the beast's one, he turned on a
sudden, on one side of us, and seeing a great oak tree fit for his
purpose, he beckoned to us to follow; and doubling his pace, he get
nimbly up the tree, laying his gun down upon the ground, at about five
or six yards from the bottom of the tree.

The bear soon came to the tree, and we followed at a distance. The first
thing he did, he stopped at the gun, smelt to it, but let it lie, and up
he scrambles into the tree, climbing like a cat, though so monstrously
heavy. I was amazed at the folly, as I though it, of my man, and could
not for my life see anything to laugh at yet, till seeing the bear get
up the tree, we all rode nearer to him.

When we came to the tree, there was Friday got out to the small end of a
large limb of the tree, and the bear got about half way to him. As soon
as the bear got out to that part where the limb of the tree was weaker,
"Ha!" says he to us, "now you see me teachee the bear dance." So he
falls a-jumping and shaking the bough, at which the bear began to
totter, but stood still, and began to look behind him, to see how he
should get back. Then, indeed, we did laugh heartily. But Friday had not
done with him again, as if he had supposed the bear could speak English,
"What, you no come farther? pray you come farther;" so he left jumping
and shaking the tree; and the bear, just as if he had understood what he
said, did come a little farther; then he fell a-jumping again, and the
bear stopped again.

We thought now was a good time to knock him on the head, and I called to
Friday to stand still, and we would shoot the bear; but he cried out
earnestly, "O pray! O pray! no shoot, me shoot by and then;" he would
have said by and by. However, to shorten the story, Friday danced so
much, and the bear stood so ticklish, that we had laughing enough
indeed, but still could not imagine what the fellow would do; for first
we thought he depended upon shaking the bear off; and we found the bear
was too cunning for that too; for he would not go out far enough to be
thrown down, but clings fast with his great broad claws and feet, so
that we could not imagine what would be the end of it, and where the
jest would be at last.

But Friday put us out of doubt quickly; for seeing the bear cling fast
to the bough, and that he would not be persuaded to come any farther,
"Well, well," says Friday, "you no come farther, me go, me go; you no
come to me, me go come to you;" and upon this he goes out to the
smallest end of the bough, where it would bend with his weight, and
gently lets himself down by it, sliding down the bough till he came near
enough to jump down on his feet, and away he ran to his gun, takes it
up, and stands still.

"Well," said I to him, "Friday, what will you do now? Why don't you
shoot him?" "No shoot," says Friday, "no yet; me shoot now, me no kill;
me stay, give you one more laugh." And, indeed, so he did, as you will
see presently; for when the bear sees his enemy gone, he comes back from
the bough where he stood, but did it mighty leisurely, looking behind
him every step, and coming backward till he got into the body of the
tree; then with the same hinder end foremost he comes down the tree,
grasping it with his claws, and moving one foot at a time, very
leisurely. At this juncture, and just before he could set his hind feet
upon the ground, Friday stepped up close to him, clapped the muzzle of
his piece into his ear, and shot him dead as a stone.

Then the rogue turned about to see if we did not laugh; and when he saw
we were pleased by our looks, he falls a-laughing himself very loud. "So
we kill bear in my country," says Friday. "So you kill them?" says I;
"why, you have no guns." "No," says he, "no gun, but shoot great much
long arrow."

This was indeed a good diversion to us; but we were still in a wild
place, and our guide very much hurt, and what to do we hardly knew. The
howling of the wolves ran much in my head; and indeed, except the noise
I once heard on the shore of Africa, of which I have said something
already, I never heard anything that filled me with so much horror.

These things, and the approach of night, called us off, or else, as
Friday would have had us, we should certainly have taken the skin of
this monstrous creature off, which was worth saving; but we had three
leagues to go, and our guide hastened us; so we left him, and went
forward on our journey.

The ground was still covered with snow, though not so deep and dangerous
as on the mountains; and the ravenous creatures, as we heard afterwards,
were come down into the forest and plain country, pressed by hunger, to
seek for food, and had done a great deal of mischief in the villages,
where they surprised the country people, killed a great many of their
sheep and horses, and some people, too.

We had one dangerous place to pass, which our guide told us if there
were any more wolves in the country we should find them there; and this
was in a small plain, surrounded with woods on every side, and a long
narrow defile, or lane, which we were to pass to get through the wood,
and then we should come to the village where we were to lodge.

It was within half an hour of sunset when we entered the first wood, and
a little after sunset when we came into the plain. We met with nothing
in the first wood, except that, in a little plain within the wood, which
was not above two furlongs over, we saw five great wolves cross the
road, full speed, one after another, as if they had been in chase of
some prey, and had it in view; they took no notice of us, and were gone
and out of our sight in a few moments. Upon this our guide, who, by the
way, was a wretched fainthearted fellow, bid us keep in a ready posture,
for he believed there were more wolves a-coming.

We kept our arms ready, and our eyes about us; but we saw no more wolves
till we came through that wood, which was near half a league, and
entered the plain. As soon as we came into the plain, we had occasion
enough to look about us. The first object we met with was a dead horse,
that is to say, a poor horse which the wolves had killed, and at least a
dozen of them at work; we could not say eating of him, but picking of
his bones rather, for they had eaten up all the flesh before.

We did not think fit to disturb them at their feast, neither did they
take much notice of us. Friday would have let fly at them, but I would
not suffer him by any means, for I found we were like to have more
business upon our hands than we were aware of. We were not gone half
over the plain, but we began to hear the wolves howl in the wood on our
left in a frightful manner, and presently after we saw about a hundred
coming on directly towards us, all in a body, and most of them in a
line, as regularly as an army drawn up by experienced officers. I scarce
knew in what manner to receive them, but found to draw ourselves in a
close line was the only way; so we formed in moment; but that we might
not have too much interval, I ordered that only every other man should
fire, and that the others who had not fired should stand ready to give
them a second volley immediately, if they continued to advance upon us;
and that then those who had fired at first should not pretend to load
their fuses again, but stand ready with every one a pistol, for we were
all armed with a fusee and a pair of pistols each man; so we were, by
this method, able to fire six volleys, half of us at a time. However, at
present we had no necessity; for upon firing the first volley the enemy
made a full stop, being terrified as well with the noise as with the
fire. Four of them being shot into the head, dropped; several others
were wounded, and went bleeding off, as we could see by the snow. I
found they stopped, but did not immediately retreat; whereupon,
remembering that I had been told that the fiercest creatures were
terrified at the voice of a man, I cause all our company to halloo as
loud as we could, and I found the notion not altogether mistaken, for
upon our shout they began to retire and turn about. Then I ordered a
second volley to be fired in their rear, which put them to the gallop,
and away they went to the woods.

This gave us leisure to charge our pieces again; and that we might lose
no time we kept going. But we had but little more than loaded our
fusees, and put ourselves into a readiness, when we heard a terrible
noise in the same wood, on our left, only, that it was farther onward,
the same way we were to go.

The night was coming on, and the light began to be dusky, which made it
worse on our side; but the noise increasing, we could easily perceive
that it was the howling and yelling of those hellish creatures; and on a
sudden, we perceived two or three troops of wolves, one on our left, one
behind us, and one on our front, so that we seemed to be surrounded with
them. However, as they did not fall upon us we kept our way forward as
fast as we could make our horses go, which, the way being very rough,
was only a good large trot, and in this manner we came in view of the of
a wood, though which we were to pass, at the farther side of the plain;
but we were greatly surprised when, coming nearer the lane, or pass, we
saw a confused number of wolves standing just at the entrance.

On a sudden, at another opening of the wood, we heard the noise of a
gun, and looking that way, out rushed a horse, with a saddle and a
bridle on him, flying like the wind, and sixteen or seventeen wolves
after him, full speed; indeed, the horse had the heels of them; but as
we supposed that he could not hold it at that rate, we doubted not but
they would get up with him at last, and no question but they did.

But here we had a most horrible sight; for riding up to the entrance
where the horse came out, we found the carcass of another horse and of
two men, devoured by the ravenous creatures; and one of the men was no
doubt that same whom we heard fire the gun, for there lay a gun just by
him fired off; but as to the man, his head and the upper part of his
body was eaten up.

This filled us with horror, and we knew not what course to take; but the
creatures resolved us soon, for they gathered about us presently in
hopes of prey, and I verily believe there were three hundred of them. It
happened very much to our advantage that, at the entrance into the wood,
but a little was from it, there lay some large timber-trees, which had
been cut down the summer before, and I suppose lay there for carriage. I
drew my little troop in among those trees, and placing ourselves in a
line behind one long tree, I advised them all to light, and keeping that
tree before us for a breastwork, to stand in a triangle or three fronts,
enclosing our horses in the centre.

We did so, and it was well we did; for never was a more furious charge
than the creatures made upon us in the place. They came on us with a
growling kind of a noise, and mounted the piece of timber, which, as I
said, was our breastwork, as if they were only rushing upon their prey;
and this fury of theirs, it seems, was principally occasioned by their
seeing our horses behind us, which was the prey they aimed at. I ordered
our men to fire as before, every other man; and they took their aim so
sure that indeed they killed several of the wolves at the first volley;
but there was a necessity to keep a continual firing, for they came on
like devils, those behind pushing on those before.

When we had fired our second volley of our fusees, we thought they
stopped a little, and I hoped they would have gone off but it was but a
moment, for others came forward again; so we fired two volleys of our
pistols; and I believe in these four firings we had killed seventeen or
eighteen of them, and lamed twice as many, yet they came on again.

I was loth to spend our last shot too hastily; so I called my servant,
not my man Friday, for he was better employed, for with the greatest
dexterity imaginable he had charged my fusee and his own while we were
engaged; but as I said, I called my other man, and giving him a horn of
powder, I bade him lay a train all along the piece of timber, and let it
be a large train. He did so, and had but just time to get away when the
wolves came up to it, and some were got up upon it, when I, snapping an
uncharged pistol close to the powder, set it on fire. Those that were
upon the timber were scorched with it, and six or seven of them fell, or
rather jumped, in among us with the force and fright of the fire. We
despatched these in an instant, and the rest were so frighted with the
light, which the night, for it was now very near dark, made mare
terrible, that they drew back a little; upon which I ordered our last
pistol to be fired off in one volley, and after that we gave a shout.
Upon this the wolves turned tail, and we sallied immediately upon near
twenty lame ones, whom we found struggling on the ground, and fell
a-cutting them with our swords, which answered our expectation; for the
crying and howling they made was better understood by their fellows, so
that they all fled and left us.

We had, first and last, killed about three score of them, and had it
been daylight we had killed many more. The field of battle being thus
cleared, we made forward again, for we had still near a league to go. We
heard the ravenous creatures howl and yell in the woods as we went
several times, and sometimes we fancied we saw some of them, but the
snow dazzling our eyes, we were not certain. So in about an hour more we
came to the town where we were to lodge, which we found in a terrible
fright, and all in arms; for it seems that the night before the wolves
and some bears had broke into the village in the night, and put them
into a terrible fright; and they were obliged to keep guard night and
day, but especially in the night, to preserve their cattle, and, indeed,
their people.

The next morning our guide was so ill, and his limbs swelled with the
rankling of his two wounds, that he could go no farther; so we were
obliged to take a new guide there, and go to Toulouse, where we found a
warm climate, a fruitful, pleasant country, and no snow, no wolves, or
anything like them. But when we told our story at Toulouse, they told us
it was nothing but what was ordinary in the great forest at the foot of
the mountains, especially when the snow lay on the ground; but they
inquired much what kind of a guide we had gotten that would venture to
bring us that way in such a severe season, and told us it was very much
we were not all devoured. When we told them how we placed ourselves, and
the horses in the middle, they blamed us exceedingly, and told us it was
a fifty to one but we had been all destroyed; for it was the sight of
the horses which made the wolves so furious, seeing their prey; and
that, at other times, they are really afraid of a gun; but the being
excessive hungry, and raging on that account, the eagerness to come at
the horses had made them senseless of danger and that if we had not, by
the continued fire, and at last by the stratagem of the train of powder,
mastered them, it had been great odds but that we had been torn to
pieces; whereas had we been content to have sat still on horseback, and
fired as horsemen, they would not have taken the horses for so much
their own, when men were on their backs, as otherwise; and withal they
told us, that at last, if we had stood all together, and left our
horses, they would have been so eager to have devoured them, that we
might have come off safe, especially having our fire-arms in our hands,
and being so many in number.

For my part, I was never so sensible of danger in my life; for seeing
above three hundred devils come roaring and open-mouthed to devour us,
and having nothing to shelter us or retreat to, I gave myself over for
lost; and as it was, I believe I shall never care to cross those
mountains again. I think I would much rather go a thousand leagues by
sea, though I were sure to meet with a storm once a week.

I have nothing uncommon to take notice of in my passage through France;
nothing but what other travellers have given an account of with much
more advantage than I can. I travelled from Toulouse to Paris, and
without any considerable stay came to Calais, and landed safe at Dover,
the 14 of January, after having had a severe cold season to travel in.

I was now come to the centre of my travels, and had in a little time all
my new-discovered estate safe about me, the bills of exchange which I
brought with me having been very currently paid.

My principal guide and privy councillor was my good ancient widow; who,
in gratitude for the money I had sent her, thought no pains too much, or
care too great, to employ for her; and I trusted her so entirely with
everything that I was perfectly easy as to the security of my effects;
and indeed I was very happy from my beginning, and now to the end, in
the unspotted integrity of this good gentlewoman.

And now I began to think of leaving my effects with this woman and
setting out for Lisbon, and so to the Brazils. But now another scruple
came in my way, and that was religion; for I had entertained some doubts
about the Roman religion even while I was abroad, especially in my state
of solitude, so I knew there was no going to the Brazils for me, much
less going to settle there, unless I resolved to embrace the Roman
Catholic religion without any reserve; unless on the other hand I
resolved to be a sacrifice to my principles, be a martyr for religion,
and die in the Inquisition. So I resolved to stay at home, and if I
could find means for it, to dispose of my plantation.

To this purpose I wrote to my old friend at Lisbon, who in return gave
me notice that he could easily dispose of it there; but that if I
thought fit to give him leave to offer it in my name to the two
merchants, the survivors of my trustees, who lived in the Brazils, who
most fully understand the value of it, who lived just upon the spot, and
whom I knew were very rich, so that he believed they would be fond of
buying it, he did not doubt but I should make 4,000 or 5,000 pieces of
eight the more of it.

Accordingly I agreed, gave him order to offer it to them, and he did so;
and in about eight months more, the ship being then returned, he sent me
an account that they had accepted the offer, and had remitted 33,000
pieces of eight to a correspondent of theirs at Lisbon to pay for it.

In return, I signed the instrument of sale in the form which they sent
from Lisbon, and sent it to my old man, who sent me bills of exchange
for 32,800 pieces of eight to me, for the estate; reserving the payment
of 100 moidores a year to him, the old man, during his life, and 50
moidores afterwards to his son for this life, which I had promised them,
which the plantation was to make good as a rent-charge. And thus I have
given the first part of a life of fortune and adventure, a life of
Providence's checker-worker, and of a variety the world will seldom be
able to show the like of; beginning foolishly, but closing much more
happily than any part of it ever gave me leave so much as to hope for.

Any one would think that in this state of complicated good fortune I was
past running any more hazards; and so indeed I had been, if other
circumstances had concurred. But I was inured to a wandering life, had
no family, not many relations, nor, however rich, had I contracted much
acquaintance; and though I had sold my estate in the Brazils, yet I
could not keep the country out of my head, and had a great mind to be
upon the wing again; especially I could not resist the strong
inclination I had to see my island, and to know if the poor Spaniards
were in being there, and how the rogues I left there had used them.

My true friend, the widow, earnestly dissuaded me from it, and so far
prevailed with me, that for almost seven years she prevented my running
abroad, during which time I took my two nephews, the children of one of
my brothers, into my care. The eldest having something of his own, I
bred up as a gentleman, and gave him a settlement of some addition to
his estate after my decease. The other I put out to a captain of a ship,
and after five years, finding him a sensible, bold, enterprising young
fellow, I put him into a good ship, and sent him to sea; and this young
fellow afterwards drew me in, as old as I was, to farther adventures
myself.

In the meantime, I in part settled myself here; for, first of all, I
married, and that not either to my disadvantage or dissatisfaction, and
had three children, two sons and one daughter; but my wife dying, and my
nephew coming home with good success from a voyage to Spain, my
inclination to go abroad, and his importunity, prevailed, and engaged me
to go in his ship as a private trader to the East Indies. This was in
the year 1694.

In this voyage I visited my new colony in the island, saw my successors
the Spaniards, had the whole story of lives, and of the villains I left
there; how at first they insulted the poor Spaniards, how they
afterwards agreed, disagreed, united, separated, and how at last the
Spaniards were obliged to use violence with them; how they were
subjected to the Spaniards; how honestly the Spaniards used them; a
history, if it were entered into, as full of variety and wonderful
accidents as my own part; particularly also as to their battles with the
Caribbeans, who landed several times upon the island, and as to the
improvement they made upon the island, and as to the improvement they
made upon the island itself; and how five of them made an attempt upon
the mainland, and brought away eleven men and five women prisoners, by
which, at my coming, I found about twenty young children on the island.

Here I stayed about twenty days, left them supplies of all necessary
things, and particularly of arms, powder, shot, clothes, tools, and two
workmen, which I brought from England with me, viz., a carpenter and a
smith.

Besides this, I shared the island into parts with them, reserved to
myself the property of the whole, but gave them such parts respectively
as they agreed on; and having settled all things with them, and engaged
them not to leave the place, I left them there.

From thence I touched at the Brazils, from whence I sent a bark, which I
bought there, with more people, to the island; and in it, besides other
supplies, I sent seven women, being such as I found proper for service,
or for wives to such as would take them. As to the Englishmen, I
promised them to send them some women from England, with a good cargo of
necessaries, if they would apply themselves to planting; which I
afterwards performed; and the fellows proved very honest and diligent
after they were mastered, and had their properties set apart for them. I
sent them also from the Brazils five cows, three of them being big with
calf, some sheep, and some hogs, which, when I came again, were
considerably increased.

But all these things, with an account how three hundred Caribbees came
and invaded them, and ruined their plantations, and how they fought with
that whole number twice, and were at first defeated and three of them
killed; but at last a storm destroying their enemies' canoes, they
famished or destroyed almost all the rest, and renewed and recovered the
possession of their plantation, and still lived upon the island; -all
these things, with some very surprising incidents, in some new
adventures of my own, for often years more, I may perhaps give a farther
account of hereafter.

                          - THE END -